For all those people who check in frequently to see what I've posted, I appologize for the slight gap in posting. I have alot going on right now, and I'm also having to interview friends and family to jog my memory about some of the entertaining stuff I've done in the past that would make good blogging material.
So stay tuned..... there should be some new posts this week
YOU KNOW YOU ARE LIVING IN 2006......
1. You accidentally enter your password on the microwave
2. You haven't played solitaire with real cards in years.
3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of 3.
4. You e-mail the person who works at the desk next to you.
5. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is that they don't have e-mail addresses.
6. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home to hlep you carry in the groceries.
7. Every commercial on Television has a web site at the bottom of the screen.
8. Leaving the house without your cell phone, which you didn't have the first 20 or 30 (or 60) years of your life, is now a cause for panic and you turn around to go and get it.
10. You get up in the morning and go on line before getting your coffee.
11. You start tilting your head sideways to smile :)
12. You're reading this and nodding and laughing.
13. Even worse, you know exactly to whom you are going to forward this message.
14. You are too busy to notice there was no #9 on this list.
15. You actually scrolled back up to check that there wasn't a #9 on this list.
AND NOW U R LAUGHING at yourself.
I thought I would talk about how my wife and I met and got married. We met on October 11, 2001 and were married on March 8, 2002. For those who worked the math, that was about 148 days or around 5 months. We have been married slightly over 4 years now. I find it funny that we've been married longer than some of the people I know have dated.
At the time of my wife's meeting we were both active members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (aka the Mormons or LDS). We were in what they refer to as a Singles' Ward. The Church is divided into Wards (or branches for smaller populations) and Wards/Branches belong to Stakes.
LDS Families practice on Mondays something called Family Home Evening (FHE) which involves family together time without interruptions from the world where you typically have some kind of Spiritual lesson, some scripture reading or other faith building activities. Since the singles tend to be out of the parents' house they often don't have a family to do FHE with. So the Singles' Ward had their own FHE events planned by the members. By region we were divided into "families".
On Oct 11, 2001, my "family" was in charge of the lesson. I planned on having a Q&A session where question often asked by non-LDS people could be answered by the rest of the group and people of higher authority. I managed to get some of our leadership to be present to help settle questions. Unbeknownst to everyone (until now), I had planned this FHE lesson because I had been on the fence since joining and wanted to see if I could be convinced I was wrong in my doubts.
After the event, our Ward's Bishop's wife (the lay minister leader for the ward) introduced me to Nancy. She was new in the area. She was introducing Nancy to everyone. But she caught my eye. There was something different about her.
It was later, that I found out that she was in my FHE Family and she gave me her phone number so I could call and let her know what was going on. Well, I tend to be a procrastinator and constantly forgot to call her. Nancy and I chatted a lot in the halls of the Church between sessions and she coined the nickname "slacker" for me because I kept forgetting to call.
You have to understand that my dating strategy that I have used up to this point was that I would really get to know the girl before asking her out and unfortunately it never worked. I always got the, "you are like a brother to me." speech. Well, I had Nancy's phone number in my cell phone and I thought I'd teach her a lesson and call her up and ask her out. I was going against precedent and asking out someone I hardly even knew. I called her and got her voice-mail and hung up and lost my nerve. She dared to call me back and I was forced to talk to her. We talked for a really long time and she agreed to go out to eat with me. We both loved Olive Garden so that is where we decided to go. This was November 25th. The following Tuesday we were at FHE and were going to meet some people to eat but we got lost. We ended up talking the whole night while we were driving around looking for this restaurant we swore didn't exist. That ended up being considered our first date even though it occurred before our official date.
The date came and went and really was just a night full of nervousness on both sides. To top off the dates festivities, we both had a nasty bout of IBS that had us taking turns running to the restroom. It is a good thing I had cleaned my bathroom before leaving for our date. You must understand, at this point and time, Nancy had real issues with using restrooms that were not in her house. So the fact that she used my toilet meant she really, really, really, had to go (she suffers from Crohn's Disease). It was the fact that I could relate to her delimma that we were able to laugh the situation off and form a unique bond that others couldn't relate to.
My wife had just gotten off a bad marriage. I was 30, single and never had a girlfriend before. If my status didn't throw up red flags, blaring sirens and a marching band with banners telling you "Danger, Danger, Warning Will Robinson", I don't know what would. She decided that she would go out with me again. I later found out that she was just thinking I would make a good gym buddy (at that time I did most of my worshipping within the temple of 24 Hour Fitness).
I can't remember us spending a moment apart.....Until December 2, 2001. That was the day Nancy broke up with me. It lasted less than 24 hours. She ended up getting really sick and it turned out to be bronchitis. She had to go home, but since she lived with her dad and he wasn't home, she had no one to take care of her and the only thing she could think of was calling me. I went and picked her up at her house and we watched TV while she slept on my lap.
We spent a lot of time talking in front of her dad's house illuminated by the glow of his outside lights. It was during those talks that souls were bared. We dug up more skeletons than are in all of Arlington Cemetery. I think at times it seemed like we were Rene Russo and Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon 2 comparing battle scars. But I knew at that point that I trusted her because I told her things my best friends and family didn't know
It was within the first week of December that we got engaged. I didn't ask her though. She asked me, "Where do you see yourself in 10 years?" I replied, "I don't know, but you are there." At that point we started planning our marriage.
We got married for under $1000 including the cost of the dress. We didn't go on a honeymoon because her job wouldn't allow her to take time off. We just started into our marriage.
We never really have looked back. So far the keys to our success has been the open and honest dialogue we have. I have found that being honest with my feelings is always the proactive response rather than dealing with the fallout when you keep things to yourself.
In September, we are finally getting to take our honeymoon and it coincides with our 4.5 year anniversary. It has been a long bumpy road, but I've enjoyed the ride. Here is to 50 more years of it
In response to my previous blog Ray's Blog: When did I get old?, my Editor, the one who has final say in what does or does not stay in "print" on my blog (aka Nancy, my wonderful wife) wants it known that she is not old, never has been old and never will be old. That the opinion of my being old is that of the author and doesn't represent the opinions of the family as a whole.
On Saturday, after months of saying I'd do it, I went and bought a treadmill from Sears. It was a pretty nice model and had features that I'd use. The plan was that I could be walking while watching TV instead of sitting while watching TV.
We backed up the truck to the loading area at Sears and two burly men loaded it onto my truck. I suddenly realized that it is going to be an entertaining exercise to get this sucker into the house.
It just so happened that our next door neighbor and 3 of his friends were outside when we were trying to muscle the thing into the house. With their help we got it in without much effort.
I used my handy-dandy box cutter and just sliced the sucker open. Of course, some assembly required. In all honesty, based on the "destructions" it shouldn't have been that difficult. I just had to put the safety rails on and the wheel assembly. But my impressions were really wrong. I don't know how many times I had to go to the garage to get a different screwdriver that fit the head of the screw better. Not only that, if the screw wasn't lined up perfectly with the hole it just didn't want to go in. On several occasions you had to be on your back like you were changing the oil of your car.
One step required the insertion of 4 large bolts. 2 were screwed into threaded holes so no nuts were required. The other two had self locking nuts on the other side. The instructions told me to hand tighten then to tighten down with a adjustable or crescent wrench and the provided Allen wrench. I could barely get the crescent wrench into the tight space occupied by the bolt and all the other major parts of the treadmill. But I got it done with some banged up knuckles.
Then, I turned the page and I was instructed to fold the treadmill in a certain way so I could assemble the wheels. Wouldn't you know it, the "destructions" on the previous page was only referring to 2 of the 4 bolts. From this new angle, I could've easily gotten to both sides of the other bolts and could've easily tightened them down. Oh well, live and learn, but I was still frustrated
Well, needless to say, I got it put together. Of course I had to try it out. So I fired up the treadmill and put it into the easy jogging preset mode. It apparently takes me on a 30 minute trek where the speeds go between walking and jogging speeds. I was sweating like a pig. The ceiling fan above me was still set in winter mode so it wasn't blowing air down on me. But I successfully completed my first trial on the treadmill
Then came Sunday. Nancy wanted to do her workout videos. So I said I would go on the treadmill. I got her iPod synchronized with my play lists (cause mine doesn't have a case yet to protect it) and climbed aboard. I decided to do a manual mode which lets me decide how fast and what incline I exercise at. I started walking/jogging to the soundtrack from "Pirates of the Caribbean". It is a great music for working out to. By the time it had ended, Nancy's workout videos were still going, so I just switched to my work play list which is composed of a lot of dance and disco songs. Needless to say, when her videos were done, I had been on that thing for over and hour!
I should've known that it was going to be one of those days when I got up this morning. All of the signs were there. When I woke up I was exhausted so Nancy had offered me the opportunity to sleep in because she and several nursing school buddies were carpooling to the Houston Women's Center and I could tag along. I initially took her up on the offer but decided I needed to get into work so I got up 15 minutes later.
So now I was rushing to get back on schedule (I don't like it when my morning "ritual" gets screwed up). As I was getting ready Belle, our 7lb Chihuahua, woke up and felt it was play time. So I had to entertain her a bit and give her half her breakfast so she would go back to bed.
Now I'm running out the door and it was lightly sprinkling. At this point I was just hoping that it would hold off.
I got to the bus stop and sure enough METRO had all the schedules screwed up. The line of people just didn't know where to go because they kept moving busses around. You just saw all of us moving in mass from one bus to be told we need to get on another.
Just as we pull into Downtown, the sky opened up. It was pouring. Fortunately, Houston has an intricate system of tunnels under the city. The problem is getting there without getting wet. So I decided to jump out where I knew a tunnel entrance was near the bus stop. If I didn't and tried to go topside, it was seven blocks of walking in sideways rain with zero chance of shelter. So I pulled the umbrella I had stashed in my backpack and way ready to engage it as soon as I got off the bus and make a dash for it. I jumped off the bus, hit the button and drat. The umbrella was broken. Now I know why the umbrella was in the back of the coat closet. So I ran across the street and dove into the building with the tunnel access. By now I was soaked. My hair was soaked, my glasses were fogged and coated in water, and my shoes were soggy and my pants were a little wet.
Now you have to understand, the Downtown Houston tunnel system is a series of interconnected pathways. It takes you forever to travel somewhere that topside would take you a few moments. I also only used the tunnels in the past to go between two specific locations. I had that path memorized. But to get from where I was to a location that popped up near my office building (it isn't connected to the tunnel system) was going to be a challenge.
The provide 'You are Here' maps periodically along the way but they don't orient them in a way that you can tell where to go. So here I am dripping wet trying to navigate my way to my office building and every time I thought I was there I would pop up and find that I was nowhere close. Eventually I got to the right exit. Now I had to cross two street and a parking lot in a down pour. I found my parka in my backpack, put it on and ran like crazy. By now, the streets were flooded and my shoes are soaked. I get into my office building and find I forgot my badge. It was still sitting on the bathroom counter and I forgot it because of Belle's distraction.
So, I go up to the security desk to get my "badge of shame" and then find out that I cannot continue to my office because there was nobody there to verify I work there. Now you have to understand, I work in a highly secure building. I have to use my badge to get through 4 checkpoint to get to my office. But my name was in the computer system and I produced ID.
Oh well, I am usually the first person to come to work and I had no idea when the next employee was going to show up. So I fired up my laptop and started working. Wet clothes and all.
Finally someone showed up and I got to my office, kicked off the shoes and sat in my chair with my wet socks, pants, shirt and underwear.
One of my co-workers came in later and I related my story to him. I ended it with telling him a little saying I used to spout when it would rain at college football games......
"There is Nothing left but to have fun once your undies are wet"
My wife likes to have little traditions and one of those is having family over on the holidays. So, typically, we have my parents over since they live about 5 minutes away from us. For this Easter meal, Nancy let my mom decide on the meal. My mom very enthusiastically requested hamburgers off the grill. I guess she liked them the last time I made them. Who were we to argue with the request. It was an easy meal to prepare, very little cleanup, and I had to do the cooking :)
Well, Nancy decided that we needed corn on the cob and cake to round out the meal. She crafted a cake in the shape of a bunny using two round cake layers. I hope to update this blog entry with a picture once I get it off the camera.
So everything was going smoothly. My dad sat outside and shot the breeze with me as I cooked the burgers and the corn. If you haven't enjoyed corn on the cob off the grill, try it. It is absolutely fabulous. While I was cooking and Nancy was finishing things up inside, my mom went out front to take a quick smoke (we don't allow her to smoke inside).
So, fast forward to us sitting at the table eating.....
There we were eating our meal, when my mom mentions, "Oh, by the way, you have a huge rattlesnake in the bushes out front." I respond with, "How do you know it's a rattlesnake? Did you hear it's rattle?" She answers with, "No, I saw the diamond pattern" and she proceeded to stretch out her arms to indicate that the snake must've been about 5 feet long with a diameter equivalent of a 2 inch pipe. Surely, she must be exaggerating.
My dad was saying that if it wasn't for the multitude of kids and animals in the neighborhood, you would just let it go on it's way, but since we don't have that luxury we have no choice but to kill it. He told me to just take the hedge clippers and cut it in half. I'm thinking to myself, "Where is Jeff Corwin or Steve Irwin when you need them? Because I don't have hedge clippers and I don't know how reliable my aim is with swinging a shovel." If this thing is really as big as my mom is saying it is, I'll never get close enough with any kind of death blow instrument before it takes me out below the knees.
Despite the fact that I hold the mantle of "Killer of all things Creepy" in my household, just like Indiana Jones, I HATE SNAKES! I had a couple close calls in my childhood involving snakes. One such incident involved me, the side of a giant rock, a coiled copperhead and 6 inches between our faces in the North Carolina woods. If it wasn't for the fact that I let go of the rock and fell to the ground, that sucker would've gotten me for sure.
But, I digress. So here I am, eating my meal, followed up by dessert just praying this snake will go on it's merry little way.
Well, after dinner, dad wanted to see this giant snake. Nancy requested that I put something on my feet, so I just slid on my sneakers while my dad just went out with his socks on. We were two fearless hunters tracking down the giant snake. Well, my mom was out there smoking and said, "It's still there." I asked her to point it out, and I looked where she was pointing. So I go around the bushes where I had the closest vantage point and my dad was with me. I point to an object the bushes and asked her, "Is this the snake?" I got an answer in the affirmative. I knew what I was looking at, but I wanted to make sure that I wasn't wrong and looked around carefully and then proceeded to reach out and grab it and asked my mom, "This?" She said yes.
It was a giant metal stake. The stake was the kind landscapers use to keep trees and giant shrubs from toppling over. This particular stake was the one put in after my crepe myrtle blew over the first week after moving into our new home. About a year ago, I pulled it out and tossed it aside. The rust pattern was perceived as a diamond pattern and there was a slight bend in it from my having to pry it out of the ground.
So, from now on, that metal stake is referred to as the "Easter Snake"
On Tuesdays, my wife has a shorter schedule at school and she typically gets out of class before noon. So we've started having lunch together.
I didn't realize how much I started enjoying this time with her. I was able to have conversations with her while I'm still somewhat alert and not exhausted like I am at the end of the day.
It is recently that I've learned that it's the little things that make the biggest different to my spouse. Lunch during the day, buying flowers without being asked to, little notes slipped into her lunches, etc.
I may be an old dog, but apparently, I can learn new tricks
I was thinking about the previous post I had written with this title and I was starting to think to myself. In regards to the MySpace controversy, who is really the stupid person to be blamed? I remember when I was in Junior High and High School. I did all kinds of stupid things to try and be popular or maintain what position I had within the "inner circle". MySpace has added a cyber component to what I had to deal with as a youth. Granted, I was still acting stupid, but I had adults (like my parents) telling me I was being stupid. In the case of MySpace, who is really telling these kids what they are doing could have long standing harm? You don't want to be 40, running for office and someone publishes pictures that used to be on your MySpace account of you sucking on a beer bong or smoking a big ole "fatty". Nothing is permanently gone when it's on the internet. Companies make a fortune extracting bits of data that the user thought they had "deleted". As far as I know, most of the warnings are coming from school administrators and advisors. It might as well be an adult from Charlie Brown talking because very few kids hear a word coming out of their mouth.
I've found podcasting awhile back and listing to a bunch of technology based one:
This Week in Tech (TWiT)
What's New Now
Diggnation
The Daily Source Code
KFI Tech Guy (Leo Laporte's Radio Show)
All of these can easily be found with iTunes. They have a lot of stuff that may go over people's heads but they also talk about the things that are quickly becoming trends either good or bad. Maybe the parents who are unaware of the dangers are the ones that need more education. I work in the IT Industry and know how hard it is to stay on top of things but I think the computer and internet was viewed by many adults as being as innocuous as the Television Set. But I view it to be far more dangerous. You wouldn't just hand your kid a gun and tell them to "have at it" without some serious instruction about the safe handling of a firearm and even then you may not let them handle the firearm without supervision.
My wife and I had my parents over for a traditional Easter dinner consisting of grilled hamburgers and a homemade cake. While I was out mastering fire on the back patio my wife was reminded of our BBQ experience over Thanksgiving last year.
Every year since we've been married, my wife and I have made an exodus to the
In 2005, we decided to take a trip over Thanksgiving. It included our annual trip to
So while her husband was creaming me at Halo 2, they were out cooking on the grill. Her mother likes to put aluminum foil down to make the cleanup easy. Before putting the foil down she did the obligatory burn off period. Afterward she put the foil down and then the steaks. Moms and Daughters being as they are proceeded to laugh and talk, laugh and talk and laugh some more. The whole time the lid of the grill was down and our steaks were cooking.....or were they
Well, her mom decided to check on the steaks and lifted the lid. The entire grill was on fire. Apparently, she had forgotten to turn the heat down from the "burn off" and it goes so hot in there that the aluminum foil melted to the steaks.
I being the every grateful house guest ate my steak with the utmost care but without a complaint. I have crowns and when aluminum hits it, I might as well have been hit by lightening. I tell you a lot of scraping went into getting my gilded steak back to just meat.
Her poor mom was mortified and she said it took forever to get the aluminum off the grill grates.
I have a wife who is an excellent cook, so now no matter how bad a meal turns out, I'm sure it wouldn't match that meal.
On a positive note, I was able to learn how to grill corn on the cob on the grill (I didn't know you could do that). We now only prepare corn that way.
My brother's wife and I were talking via IM tonight and we were talking about MySpace. Specifically about how just finds it humorous how much personal information people put on their MySpace profiles and then wonder why their identity has been stolen or they end up getting stalked. There are also people who are complaining because employers are now scouring MySpace looking to see if a potential candidate has a profile and how they are presenting themselves in said profile. After all, once hired, they are going to be representative of the company and they don't want to hire some guy who posts pictures of himself passed out drunk with wet pants and empty beer cans all around himself.
My sister-in-law had heard that there are people who want to pass legislation that protects these people from themselves. As she so aptly pointed out, legislation can never stop people from being stupid. They can only punish those who take advantage of the stupid.
It just seems like people want more and more laws to protect people from the liability of making bad decisions.
One thing that can not be said about me is that I'm spontaneous. I have never been. I have also not been known for having a sense of humor or desire to play pranks on people. Some would call me pretty gullible in my younger years. Granted, some people at work feel I let a good joke out every now and again, but when I was younger, it was a rarity.
So let me setup the story. I guess I was around 10 or 11 years old and we were living in Durham, NC at the time. Every now and again we'd travel up to NJ to visit my Dad's father. My mom didn't particularly care for him and I think the feeling was reciprocated. So, the trip often was just my dad, my brother Mike and me.
Also, being young kids with small bladders we had to stop a lot along the way at rest stops. These handy little conveniences may be a foreign concept to many people. I know on the trip from Houston to OKC, we only saw one. But these rest stops were pretty nice until you got north of Virginia.
So here we were on our way north to NJ and we stopped to stretch our legs and take a "bio-break". I being the fast walker that I am was way ahead of the pack to get to the bathroom. I round the corner to the bathroom and had an idea pop into my head......
I'm going to jump out and scare the crap out of my dad and brother because they would never see it coming.
There was a little wall that shielded the entrance to the men's bathroom and I was hiding just behind it waiting for my dad and brother to spring my trap. I couldn't see through the wall and all I had was the shadows as my guide to tell me when to jump.
My dad and brother weren't far behind me so I didn't think I'd have to wait long. Then I saw the shadow. It was approaching fast but I didn't want to jump out too soon, but if I waited too long I'd just be some idiot hiding behind a wall.
I saw my moment of opportunity and sprung around the corning letting out a loud roar.
But.......
It wasn't my dad or my brother. It was some poor business man. All I remember is him screaming like a woman and throwing his briefcase up in the air. I don't remember much beyond the fact that my dad and brother were rolling in laughter. I, on the other hand was embarrassed.
As we were driving out of the Rest Area, my dad turned to me and said, "We will never look at a Rest Area the same and unfortunately, neither will that poor guy."
Anyone that knows me, knows that I hate to drive in traffic. Also, anyone that knows Houston, knows that traffic and Houston go hand-in-hand. Heck, if I wanted to drive to work, I'd have to be on the road by 5AM to have traffic suitable to my taste.
So my solution since 2000 has been to ride Houston's METRO park & ride bus line. It saves my sanity but I sure find it an annoyance at the same time.
Take for example the morning commute in. If you try to catch a bus before 6:00AM, you end up having to wait in long lines because they only have one bus in the queue. It leaves and you have to wait around 15-20 minutes for the next one. If you come after 6:00AM, they have them stacked 3 deep. Just pick a bus and get on it. Now granted, you are in a line. So you could end up being their for 30 minutes or more before the bus you boarded reaches it's scheduled departure time. But it is heated in the winter time and air-conditioned in the summer. Also, you can sleep while you wait your turn to leave.
Coming home is less or a burden because the busses run pretty frequently. The hassle is getting seat. So I've devised a strategy where I find it much more comfortable for me in the long run if I walk to the first stop on the line and catch it there. Then I get the pick of seats and I just recline and relax.
But every now and again, you get a bus driver that won't stop unless you jump out in front of him and then when you chase them down they inform you that you made no clear indication that you wanted to board. My understanding from METRO is that they are to stop at all stops, unless there is noone standing there....arg
This is just going to be one of those necessary evils I'm going to have to live with until I either get over my bizarre fear of driving in traffic or I get a job closer to where I live
Well, every Monday and Tuesday Nancy and I commute into Downtown Houston together. I have a parking spot in the building I work at and it makes it convenient for the both of us.
To back up a bit, I acquired a parking place in the private garage at my place of employment after my wife's car got the front-end smashed in as a result of another car getting stolen. Apparently, they backed into our car during their hasty getaway. This was the 3rd (or 4th) major accident for the poor 4Runner but it keeps on ticking.
Well, back to the story....
Nancy and I get up around 5AM and hit the road by 6AM and we live 45 minutes from Downtown. We hit traffic like you wouldn't believe. At 6AM it could take you over an hour to get to Downtown. Fortunately, we are eligible to take the HOV lane. What really chaps my hide is the way people drive. You'd think they were tearing off of "pit row" when they come off the entrance ramps.
Thank goodness my wife is the one driving. I get such anxiety and panic attacks in this traffic
Well, as my previous post stated, I sliced cleanly through the coaxial cable for our TV and RoadRunner internet with my new gas-powered lawn edger.
At first I was really pissed at myself. But then I remembered that this was something my dad has done before so I called my parents. Sure enough, I was right. My dad has done this before, except he did it with a axe while trying to remove roots near their house's foundation. Through a tip from Chris who runs ToadGames.com, my dad was told there was a kit you could buy a Radio Shack which quickly resolves the situation.
Currently, it was 8:00PM and we were pretty sure they were open until 9:00PM. So while I was driving to Radio Shack my mom was looking up the phone number for Time Warner Cable so that Nancy could call and get a service ticket issued to get it repair more permanently. Just as luck would have it, our Radio Shack closed at 8:00PM. I came home a bit upset, but at the same time a bit relieved that I wouldn't be out in the dark repairing the cable with a flashlight clenched between my teeth.
Nancy was meeting me at the door with the news that Time Warner had an installer in our neighborhood the next day and would just send them by after they were done but that could be anytime between 8AM and 8PM. So we spent the night watching programming on our DVR.
The next day came and Nancy called the service line for Time Warner to see if they locked a better time range for us, but alas that wasn't the case. So back to Radio Shack I went.
Sure enough, Radio Shack had the kit and plenty of them. Apparently, I'm not the only one severing coax this time of year. While I was there, I picked up some speaker wire and some banana clip adaptors for my home stereo.
So as to not completely was a trip out, I went to Wal-Mart to pick up some groceries and pick up a copy of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe which came out earlier in the week. While I was as it I picked up the soundtrack also. Nancy is finding soundtracks to be good studying music.
So I get back home and start to work on the cable and quickly find out I don't have the right tools to strip coax or to crimp the connector. I call my parents to see if I could borrow theirs. They should have them since they've encountered this problem themselves. Alas, no dice. Apparently those tools have gone the way of the odd sock in the dryer.
So, now I was going back to Radio Shack again. So I had to pick up a coax stripper, coax cutter and crimpers.
This time I was set. I got back home, changed into some clothes that I could get dirty (my well worn denim jeans with the hole in the crotch......long pants with air conditioning). Within 15 minutes I had the line patched and the TV and internet was working!
After accomplishing that task, Nancy was in the mood for hamburgers on the grill. So as luck would have it, while I was cooking on the grill, the Time Warner service technician shows up to repair our line. Oh well, my patch was good for at least an hour :)
Well.....
For about 4 years now, I have been unwinding, untangling and dragging a 100' electrical cable around my yard so that I can edge my lawn and trim back the grass that likes to grow next to the house. It actually took me longer to "weed eat" and edge than it did to mow the lawn.
For just about the same amount of time, I've been talking about ditching the electric tools for gas powered ones. Well, this weekend I took the plunge.
First, I bought a Weed Eater brand 2-stroke edger. When I got it home, I found out that I needed to have a gas oil mixture. Crap! I didn't have a separate gas can.
Well, I still needed to go get an electric line trimmer since my goal was to get rid of the electric Black & Decker Grasshog line trimmer. So I did some searching on Lowe's and Home Depot and found one I liked at Lowe's. Nancy and I swung by there and picked up the Line Trimmer, Gas can and I got some much needed gloves.
Finally, I have everything I need and I'm putting the tools together while Nancy mowed the law (her choice of exercise for the day). It took awhile to figure out how to start up the edger, but once I did, it just tore through the grass. I had grass, dirt and mud flying all over the place. But once I got the hang of it, I had a nice, crisp edge that a professional landscaper would be proud of.
So the front yard was done, so now to do the flower beds in the backyard. I made quick work of that. So now to try out the line trimmer. It definitily was longer and heavier than the electric one. I'm still trying to get the hang of it, but at least it isn't a bump model. It has one long, thick wound strand that fits in the head. It only take a few moments to replace.
Well, after hosing off all the equipment, I was ready to plop down on the couch and cool off in front of the TV. I fire everything up and..........black!
I check everything again, but still no change. It couldn't be that I cut the cable. The cable was buried at least a foot below grade. But just to be sure, I went out and had a look. Sure enough, I tore right through the sucker.
Nancy suspects that when we had the sprinklers installed, they installers moved the line and didn't put it very far below surface.
Well, next installment will be about me patching the cable
