Doc’s Blog

My 57th Birthday came and went without much fanfare last Saturday. SWMBO did take me out to dinner last Friday evening at "El Sombrero’s" (my favoritist and closest to real Mexican Food place in the great northwest). And other than that just plain not much going on.

Last Saturday (aside from being my birthday) we went to COSTCO to get a lot of that flooring we saw for $1.43 a square foot; but they were sold out of it. So we got a butt-ton of flooring at Home Depot. $1100 worth! Thirty-six boxes! Had the guy load the pallet of 30 boxes in the back of my truck and you should have seen the back tires flatten out! And the front tires raise up. Cool! We loaded the last 6 boxes of flooring in SWMBO’s KIA. I’m not sure if my truck would have handled them. Took the back roads all the way back to our place cause (just in case) I didn’t want to have a blow out (flat tire) on the freeway. Made it home okay though and got it all unloaded into the ’other’ dining room. (I’m still not sure what to call that room cause I’m not sure what SWMBO is going to do with it. It is a "formal" dining room but we won’t be using it as such.)

Sunday I went to the first hour of church as SWMBO gave a talk. Came home and did some stuff around the house until she got home. Cooked dinner for her then went out to the property for awhile to just bask in the sun. Cooked dinner a bit early cause I didn’t want to have to rush back and get it done before she had to leave for her choir practice about 1830.

Of course, the big news is Michael Jackson died at age 50. Since he never really directly impacted my life I have ambivalent feelings about it. He did make some good music. He did fuck up severely in his personal (and physical) life. Can’t really say I’ll miss him. Nor the hype!

And Farrah Fawcett died also. Man, she was every young guys fantasy for the guys of my generation. Better even than Lana Turner was for my Dad’s. She was still pretty good looking for a 62 year old. Can’t say her "acting" ever floated my boat though. And way too big a deal was made of her flashing her boobs in "Saturn 3", but she was pretty. Ah well. I think my Ex- once harangued me for just looking at Farrah…

Just not much else going on around here. Well, that’s true and not-true at the same time. SWMBO has torn up all the flooring in her room getting ready to put down the new stuff when she’s through painting. I continue to do things around the house to make it ours or just to get things done. I cook. I clean. I do dishes (nice having the dishwasher though!). I rip and convert our movies and our tv show dvd’s. I bought a cassette tape deck and am converting my old family/personal tapes to digital format. Still putting my "Man Cave" together in the basement. Still trying to get my computer working right and not randomly rebooting.

So it’s not like I sit around a lot or anything…

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About 1230 I heard some thunder from outside so I set up my video camera hoping to catch some of it on video. The thunder kept getting closer and closer and was really sounding good! About 1500 it started raining, then it started raining harder. Then harder still. Then some light hail. Then some more not so light hail. Then a veritable downpour of nickel to quarter sized hail so hard it was literally waterfalling off the roof! Then we got some lightning right over head. Lasted about 20 minutes and, according to the rain gauge I have set up, we got .21 inches of rain in that 20 minutes. It was the best cloud burst I’ve ever seen here! It was so cool!

But, when I went over to my camera it had an error message on it. Something about the "Media Controller File" being corrupt. What!?! Yep. It was toast. Every time I started the camera up it would ask me if I wanted to fix the error; but wouldn’t get it fixed. Then the camera would not record or playback anything. Finally wound up reformatting the hard drive. Damn! Double Damn! Triple Damn! But it works now.

So the only video I have is a small bit I took with my phone. And that video sucks! (Not bad for a phone; but not quite up to the quality of my camera.) And 30 minutes after the storm ended it was nice and sunny and getting warmer outside.

I like living here. Two thunderstorms in the two weeks we’ve lived here! Cool!

Saw a doe walk across our property today. Was nice. Too bad all I have is a BB Gun…

Not much else going on. SWMBO and I went on our usual Friday date. Breakfast at FPH in Port Orchard. Then we went to a few "Junk Stores" (like St. Anthony’s or whatever that store in Port Orchard is named) looking at dressers and end tables for the bedroom. Made out usual deposit into Albertson’s financial account in trade for too few goods.

Saturday evening I surprised SWMBO by taking her out for ice cream. I like still being able to do that.

Got off my lazy old ass today and put the base coat of paint on the part of the wall we weren’t able to get when I did all that painting. Finally got most of the junk out of the living room. All that plastic we spread over everything fit in one garbage bag. Cool! Note to self: Gotta make a dump run this week. And get that can of crushed soda cans to the recycler. (Don’t forget, King!)

Anywho, that’s it from our local. Y’all have a nice one!

Ed & Marty Fusco & I at the beach in Jax, Fla. 1975 or so.

But there just ain’t much going on! I continue to move stuff around trying to find a place for everything and put everything in it’s place. I’m still tired! Just loaded the truck up with stuff in the garage and unloaded it downstairs. Pretty bad when it’s easier to load it into the truck, drive around the house to downstairs and unload it. Not that I’m lazy or anything…

New house is working out grand! I’m sleeping like a baby; it’s so much quieter and darker here than the last place we lived. And it is really nice not hearing that Post Office truck smashing things around @ 0530 everymorning. Nor do I miss those buttheads and their boom-box vehicles stopping by the Post Office at all hours of the night. Cool!

It’s been really nice weatherwise the past week. Got out to the property a couple of times just to mess around. I feel almost lost out there cause I haven’t really anything to do but sit around and read or whatever. No dirt I have to move. No rocks I have to dig out. Just chill. Kind of hard to get used to after 3 years of doing all that.

Went to church last Sunday for the whole session. That’s the first time I’ve been to Sunday School or Elders Quorum in about 10 years. Not sure if I’m going back for them again. Oh, the meetings were okay; but I think I’ve changed. We’ll see.

Went over and picked up our friend Philip last Monday and took him to COSTCO. He bought only 1 thing but spent about half an hour hitting the free samples. And I even managed to spend $50 on things we needed. Got me one of those office chair mats so I don’t ruck up the new carpet too much.

Spend my evenings re-ripping our cd’s and finding a place for stuff in boxes. No, not really. I am re-ripping our cd collection so they’ll all be mp3’s instead of mix of wma’s & mp3’s. What I’m not doing is finding a place for things in boxes. I’m trying to get everything OUT of boxes; so I guess I’m trying to find a place for everything in the house.

OTT, just not much going on.

Switch to digital broadcasting didn’t affect us much here as we’re already using the converter box for our tv (what little we watch). I’m not picking up any more channels than before the switch. Thinking about buying a bigger antenna for the roof but still not sure that would bring in any more channels. Hell, I only watch the news and weather now anyway. But, when it’s time for the new season of Smallville & Supernatural & Fringe I’d like to watch them. Probably will to check it out anyway.

Anywho, that’s about all there is from us here outside Belfair, Washington.

We’ve been in the new house for over a week now. I’m tired! I spend most of the day moving things in or around. Spent a couple of days putting in shelves in the little room behind the garage for our food storage. Shelves look good and should stand up to everything but a MAJOR earthquake. Bought some heavy duty boards to put across the stairwell going down to the basement for me to stand on and get that last area painted. Now I have to figure out when I want to do that. SWMBO needs to mow.

Pat from (West Sound Carpet?) came in last Tuesday and installed the carpet in the "Family" room. (Which is the tv and my computer room.) That was fun. He did a pretty good job but I can still see one of the seams; but he says it’ll wear out in time and be unnoticeable. Hope so. And soon!

Man, I like living out here! Quiet. Dark.

Turns out our property (the new property) backs up against a national forest (or state forest. I’m not sure.) so we don’t have to worry about anyone building back there. Now I gotta make up my mind if I mind the dirt bikers using my dirt road/trail to go to and from. First off the top of my head is: Block It Off. But I think that’s the old guy in me talking.

Started work on my "Man Cave" downstairs in the basement. Got a workbench set up for me to work on computers and a couple of cabinets to store thing. Got the NAS units set up and serving us our movies/tv/music wirelessly. Router seems to be working great. Now if only my new computer would fall into line! Damn thing keeps randomly rebooting. No rhyme or reason. Seems to happen more often if I’m doing 2 things at once. Damn! I’ve taken this thing completely apart and reassembled it twice. Today I even replaced the power supply "just in case." Didn’t help. (I’m even saving this post after every sentence "just in case.")

Just not much else going on around here. Pretty quiet except for whoever it was shooting their gun in the forest earlier today. Friends came over for lunch and we had a BBQ out on the deck. Ate some of the burger I ground up this morning. Was good!

Anywho, the cell phones are working out pretty good. I got mine set up to retrieve all my e-mail accounts and I can delete them from the mail server from the phone if I want. Saves a lot of time for when I later download the messages. I don’t get many calls; except from SWMBO but it has worked really well. Welcome to the 21st Century, Doc!

That’s about it from here. Think I’ll go lay down and read awhile as it is getting late. Re-reading some of my "Destroyer" books. Of the several I’ve re-read I know I’ve read them before, I just can’t remember anything of the story. Think I ought to get checked for memory problems…