Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Here we go again...

another broken down car day! The story goes like this...

Once about a time, in a land far, far away, (Buffalo, WY) a young Chubacha needed some mode of transportation. He thought of a Starfighter, or maybe a Photon Blazer, but his budget could only afford a Aerostar, and a used one at that. He had looked high and low, then finally a friend, who happened to be a 39th degree Jedi Knight mentioned that he might be selling his Aerostar! Chubacha was elated, as he had never owned an Aerostar, and heard that they were a reliable galactic transport. But his friend, Budd Lightyear kept hedging and hoaring about whether to sell the Aerostar.

But finally Budd caved in, and for a mere 1000 pecosheckles, Chubacha had his Aerostar. It was everything he had dreamed about, and for years it was a low maintinance transport.

Then strange things started to happen. First the starter for the pulsar drive went bongers, and that cost his 400 pecosheckles, and things were fine for over a year, or lightyear if you chose.

Then, a mere 4 days ago, the cooling exchanger for the pulsar drive was leaking radioactive fluid, leaving a trail of green, glowing fluid where ever he went. He went to Valley Star Honda Motors (Yes, they have Honda Galactic Transports in the future.) and spoke with Joe, from the star system Polanosar, who has many years of experience repairing galactic transports. He said he had to order a cooling exchanger, and to bring it in Wednesday, and they will repair Cubacha's Aerostar (Joe is not a big fan of the Aerostar for various reasons, namely because they break down a lot. Actually he should be happy because he should look at it as job security.) and get that Aerostar ready for Chubacha's journey to Center City, where he can board one of those new and improved CRJ, a commercial galactic transport flown by Northwest Star GT, a regional (This region of Chubachas' universe.) galactic transport company.

But, as things would have it, Joe called Chubacha after he dropped off his Aerostar and told him that the yahoos at the supply company sent the wrong cooling exchanger, although it was in the right box? Go figure. Those parts guys are not the sharpest pencils in the draw. And he said it would be 2-3 days before they could get one in. Wow, Chubacha's mind was racing like a spinning top out of control. What do I do, what do I do was said over and over again in his furry mind. He told Joe he needed the Aerostar so he can head to Center City on Friday to catch his flight, as it is way too far to walk. He was pulling his hair out, and he has a lot of hair, and soon his pet, a gray and black striped feliano, was covered in his hair. He was a walking and talking little hairball, scurrying around the floor. After calming down and explaining the situation to Joe, Joe said he'll make some calls, and see what he could do. A mere 20 minutes later, Joe called back and said he would have a new cooling exchanger in tomorrow morning. Ah, a sigh of relief could be heard throughout the kingdom, all the way down to Center City. Chubacha told Joe to cross his fingers and let's hope this comes through! We'll find out tomorrow.

And the adventure continues...

Friday, December 12, 2008

I commit to...

Supporting the holiday of Festiva! Sure I am a little nuts, but what the heck, I have a lot of time on my hand. I am going to stores here very shortly, because we have a big storm coming in here tonight and tomorrow, with temperatures dropping into the -10 to -30 range. Brrrrr! That's cold. see you in a few!

I am back, stocking up before the storm. My little Weatherbug alert system was chirping his little head off when I got home. I checked it out, and ouch, this is January/February weather we are getting, with snow, wind gusting to 40 mph, and windchill in the -30 to -40 range! Ouch, ouch, O-U-C-H!

I finished most of my Christmas shopping, as I will be heading out in a week or so. leaving on the 19th, and already have a room booked, or reserved in Casper at the infamous Shilo Inn. It was the cheapest I could find, but I should have gone to priceline and negotiated. Oops, another learning piece. My flight is out of Natrona International Airport on Sat, Dec. 20th @ 9am. Bet you didn't know that Casper had an International Airport did you? I thought so.

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone this Christmas, as it has been awhile for some of them. My folks still don't know I will be there, so it should be a surprise. But, yes there is always a but when it comes to family activities, as we don't have one of those cute little houses with the white picket fences, and everything is fine and perfect. Life don't work that way, at least for a majority of us, and this part scares me. For years I was the black sheep, because of my alcohol and substance abuse issues. I have been clean and sober now for 5 1/2 years, my longest period of sobriety in my adult life. I should write a book like, "A Billion Pieces of Shattered Glass" and I would not have to lie to make it interesting. I am wandering off course again.

What I wanted to say was that back in August 2005, my dad and my brother Rich (He is a year younger then me, and is a Detective Sergeant for Internal affairs for the Nassau County Police Department on long Island.) had an argument about money. Go figure.

Anyhow, back in the early 1980's, my brother Rich and his wife Lynn borrowed $50,000.00 to use as a down payment on a house. the deal was that when they sold the house, my dad would be repaid, plus some amount to act like interest, but it really wasn't interest. So my dad asked Rich when he might get paid back, because both my dad and mom are getting up there in years, and would like to spend some of their money. My dad also figured that if my brother had enough money to buy a condo in Naples, Florida, then they could pay back this debt. My dad had hoped that over the last few years my brother would step forward and maybe make payments, or something of that nature. My dad even asked me a few years back if I had talked about this debt with my brother. I said no, and didn't want to get involved. And besides, I really didn't know about it to begin with, so why should I say anything. So, anyhow, my dad brought this up with my brother while he was visiting him in Naples, and that is when this back and forth e-mail/snail mail exchange began. And it got kind of mean, on both sides. My dad said he was disowning my brother, and my brother saying he'll never speak to my dad again. Communication skills were lacking on both sides, and I was stuck in the middle. My brother eventually paid my dad somewhere in the area of $75,000.00 buy getting a second mortgage on his house in NY. my brother also insisted that it was a gift, not a loan, and they hadn't sold their house yet, which was true. And my dad said he wanted the money before he dies so he and my mom could spend it, or whatever.

They haven't spoken since then, but my dad, about 2 months ago offered a fig leaf, and asked my brother if they can sit down and chat. I know this problem bothers my mom, as she hasn't seen one of her grandchildren in over 3 years, or even spoken to him, and he is now 14 1/2 now. It is really sad, and immature if you ask me. Some really deep seated resentments came out during this argument, stuff my brother has stuffed for many years. I think it is crazy, because it is is a cancer that eats, and eat, and eats at you, destroying any type of spirituality one might have. Sure, I too have had resentments and have disliked folks, even now, because I'm not perfect, but after a careful and personal inventory, I've decide that it isn't worth it, giving power to this other person over me. Sometimes it takes longer then others, but in the end, I can sleep in peace every night. This doesn't mean I love everyone either, all kissy, huggy and all that other happy horseshit. And I know that I can't allowed this negative stuff to occupy my brain and thoughts either. There are even people I dislike, or even dislike a lot, like Bush and Cheney to name a few.
So they are meeting on Dec. 20th, the day I am flying in. My dad seems open to it, but my brother, as per my conversations with him is being stubborn, a least that is what I can surmise. He, my brother said to me, "I am not going to apologize or anything!" And I have told him numerous times that it sucks to be thrust in the middle of this happy horseshit! Come on folks, grow up NOW!

OK, I got that off my chest, and I hope their meeting goes OK, because if it doesn't, I know my parents will be hurt, and that would suck, especially with me coming back to visit them all. We'll see how it goes, and I am going to do a lot of praying.

K2TV News at 5, out of Casper, Wyoming is on right now, and they are talking about snow fences. WOW, that is on hot topic! Doug McGee from the WyDOT told us all about snow fences, but didn't discuss living snow fences. Nope, didn't say a word about them. K2 is one of those beginner stations, where kids just out of college get there feet wet in broadcasting. There is a very high turnover, with most of them leaving for bigger market stations. I think we are right near the bottom of the market ratings, because all the newbies experiences are usually with the college stations, or interning at a local station, but never reporting or anchoring there. Some have been good, some, well not so good. I usually e-mail the newbies, welcoming them to Wyoming. Sometimes I get a reply, sometimes not! I also e-mail them when they make a mistake. Not to be mean, but to be helpful. This one new anchor, who has anchored now for about 4-5 months always uses absolutes in her stories, like everyone in Wyoming feels this way, or thinks this way, or does something this way, and I write her to tell her we are not all robots or clones, and she never replies. I don't understand why! Ha! Ha! The news director, the only one that has been there many years, a guy named Nick Birge hires all these hotties to co-anchor with him at the 5 o'clock news hour. And these young women are constantly complaining about the weather, especially now. I write them and tell them to get over it, they are in Wyoming in the winter and fall. But, there they go, everyday, complaining about the weather.

So much for my critique about Wyoming's News Leader, K2TV. Time to eat dinner, and then edit some photos.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Scattered brain is...

The best way to describe me at times. I said to myself today, "Self, I will edit some of the thousands of photos I have in my files, mainly to clean them up, and my photo editing software also decreases the file size, to less then 1 MB, because most are over that size." I talk in run on sentences to myself. And, "Self, I will make up some DVDs to bring with me to New York for Christmas to share with my family who I haven't seen in 4 years, well at least most of them." So, what did I really do, I putzed around on Facebook, sent e-mails from Snopes to friends and family who have this habit of sending me these alerts about a virus here or there, and Snopes'es URL is on top of the page (All of them are usually, or mostly wrong!) and I better watch out. I bet they hate me for showing them up, but I am tired of misinformation fermenting itself on the internet by people who don't bother to do their research. Pet peeve, you know!
I was watching CNN and this right-winged neocon dirtbag Tucker Echew (Why are all these republican dirtbags called Tucker? Is it a blue-blood name, or just some parents who were doing drugs when they named there kids? hell if I know.) was on, so I found out where he works and was going to send him an e-mail, but decided against it, because these brain-dead neanderthals (Sorry to the real Neanderthals for insulting them like this!) are lacking any significant gray matter between their ears anyhow. I hung up some Christmas cards, went shopping, did some web surfing, and didn't accomplish a damn thing that I set out to do today. In a few minutes Survivor is on, and then CSI and 11th Hour, so I am set for the day,
It is amazing how much time passes in between enteries, because I say to myself that I will do this on a regular basis. The best laid plans of mice and men...

LEAP