philoshop

Lunch with my parents, then a clambake in the evening with a couple of gay cops just up the road from me who know how to throw a serious party. I do work on their tractor, and they invite me to their clambake. Lots of beer and fireworks. And if anyone calls the cops because of the fireworks, well, that just doesn't work in this situation. ;-) Be safe and enjoy, everyone.

Happiest of anniversaries to you, Eddie!! 57 years is a good stretch!! I'm heading out soon to an anniversary party myself. Vonnie's Boathouse Bar & Grill has been just up the road for 14 years now. Food and drink specials, 2 bands,, and a bunch of friends on a nice day.

I have a thing for gals who play instruments and make music. And it's not just the young ones. Chrissie Hynde, Joan Jett, and Heart are still up there. ;-)

I lived in Louisiana. We went out with three canoes one day and came back with two canoes full of guys and one canoe full of crawfish. We ate very well that night. Good stuff.

My friend across the road from me is retired and delivers parts a couple of days a week. He builds "tuner cars" for a racing class that escapes me now. They run quite a bit at Watkins Glen, which is close by. He's trying to hook me up.

To each his own. I spent a year climbing trees with a chainsaw strapped to my belt and decided there had to be a better job for me. For some reason I picked roofing & siding.

You're right about the desk job being hazardous. The human body was not made to sit all day long. If I could sit for hours I'd probably be driving a truck for a living. As it is, I sit for an hour or so and then pace around my office/kitchen for an hour or so. I can't do either for any length of time. I'm thinking about a job delivering auto parts to mechanics: Drive the truck for a while, then get out and deliver the parts. I'm serious.

They've taken all references to skilled trade out of today's schools. I don't think they even have home-ec anymore. "Make young people stupid" is the goal, and they're achieving it.

Until you get old(er) and your body fails. That's where I am now. A little consulting work gets me by, along with writing political commentary, but I regret beating my body up so badly when I was young. We didn't have rooftop delivery or roofing nailguns when I was in the business. It was just hard work. And trying to catch hay bales when I was ten years old on the wagon at my grandparent's farm didn't help at all.

Watch or read some of Mike Rowe's pieces. The dirty jobs guy. The insight is amazing. His bottom-line message is that there is dignity in every bit of work done in the country, and even throughout the world. There is no job without dignity. The crustless triangle sandwich and white wine spritzer crowd may look down at you, but when they need their septic tank pumped out they'll write you a check.

I have no reason to doubt any of that. My friend's son has been there for a little over two years, sending back a couple thousand dollars a week. I think he's 25 years old now. He sees the stuff going on and just doesn't participate. He's there for the cash. A lot of people are there out of desperation. The desperate ones get into trouble whether it's ND or Manhattan.

Most of them are not "uneducated", Biz, they just have educations that didn't involve overpriced colleges and universities. They have learned skills and they're highly motivated. I'm absolutely certain that it can get seedy at times, but any construction site is like that at times. One of the best roofers I ever had was a young gal who was smart and sexy. Some of the guys gave her a hard time until I fired a couple of them for stepping over the line with her. When the boss doesn't tolerate it it stops.

There isn't much to do besides work in North Dakota. The primary hobby is just staying alive in the worker encampments. Then again, having some coin in your pocket and a camper allows one to escape for a while during the nice weather.

All of my old pipe welding friends are now retired. The kids I know who are skilled welders are working on the pipelines making about $150k per year. It's a good gig if you're flexible about location and travel.

My friends had a two-stemmed black locust tree uproot in their yard a while back No damage to anything but the lawn. I went with my brother and father to get rid of it for them. He has more fire-wood than he can handle right now and the tree is in my stack for this winter. My parents and I invited them over for Sunday lunch, and we had a blast. Momma's lasagna and sauce with a green salad and some fruit, and a cream pie for desert. Nice people and a very pleasant afternoon. Lots of laughs. Sorry, no pics.

I don't have any info for you, but I wish you all the best, my friend. Thoughts and prayers sent for you and your Mom.

All the best to you guys!!

Excellent!! Certainly makes thing easier.

The ABS light came on because the front wheel bearings needed to be repacked with grease. Then the OVERDRIVE/OFF light started flashing and it wouldn't shift from 1st to 2nd gear. Then the "check engine" light came on, and the speedometer stopped working. This all happened in about 5 minutes on Saturday morning. All is well now, though. Newly repacked wheel bearings and a new speed sensor. Oh, and new front brake pads that were worn down to the core. The truck will be twenty years old in a couple of months, and it hauled ten full loads of black locust firewood last week. I won't freeze to death this winter. It's a tool. Not a luxury.

I worked at Krenzer Marine in Sodus Point while I was in high school. Part of my job was watching the boat ramp, as well as putting boats in the water after winter storage. They had an old army jeep with the hitch on the front. It's a lot easier than backing up. Why don't people do that? You could pull into the parking lot, unhitch the trailer, then drive around and re-hitch the trailer as a pusher.

I really don't want to split that hair, Hock3y24. Besides, like I said before they're just parts in boxes now. I didn't even do the work on the 80% receivers. Two came from a friend in Kentucky, and one from a friend in Montana. I have no intention of selling any of them.

I drive a 2000 Ford Ranger. I don't need anything more because it reliably goes from point A (my house) to point B (usually the beer store or library), and gets me back every time I use it. I did have a malfunction this past weekend that lit up the entire dash panel of warning lights. Turned out to be the "rear wheel speed sensor". It's amazing how much that little electronic bugger controlled or affected.

They regularly do aerial spraying around Lexington, KY horse farms for both ticks and mosquitoes. Then again, they don't have a huge population of leftists to oppose such a thing.

Most of the guys in this band rented the downstairs apartment of my house from me at about the time of the OJ thing. We went for lunch at the aforementioned Jimmy J's one afternoon and they offered me the job of drummer in their band. I was making furniture and enjoying my life, and I didn't much care for their music, so I turned them down. Now they play to huge crowds around the world and fly on their private jet to get to gigs. I sometimes wonder where my life would have gone if I had taken up the offer from 'the kids on the first floor'.

None of mine have serial numbers on the receivers. They're just a few boxes of miscellaneous gun parts in my collection of gun parts, according to law. If I sold one of those guns/receivers I'd be breaking the law. I did not purchase them illegally, and I just hold onto them, as parts of course.