For the Birds

MOVED!

Troubles in Blogland

Well, I moved to my beautiful new blog with its own domain name and everything was wonderful for a while. Now unfortunately my host has apparently had some troubles and my pretty new site is gone, along with all of my readers and everyone. It is pretty maddening. I have not been able to view or log into my new site since Friday and am experiencing blog withdrawal in the worst way. I know no one will read this as all of my great loyal readers have moved on to my new site and have probably deserted it by now as it has been down so long, but if any of you should stop by here, looking for me, I have not left the blogosphere, I am just waiting and trying to figure out what to do, and how to retrieve my posts from the blog hell they disappeared to.

Moving Time!

It is time now for me to move. This blog, that is. The new template is in place and the posts are migrated to the new address, but there is still a little tweaking to do. Do not be alarmed that some things don't look quite right or some pictures don't display, we are working on it, and everything will be fixed soon. There are still some older posts that I need to change the color of the font because the color is too close to the background and hard to read. My profile and blogroll will be added soon as well. I have decided to let everyone know of the move now, so that your comments will be on the new blog. All of the old comments were imported, but any left now will not make it to the new blog, so be sure to leave your comments there. I am going to lave this site up for a while, so that you can find me, but please change your bookmarks, links, and blogrolls to reflect the new address: www.for-the-birds.net

Skank Update

I wish I had more exciting news about the criminals in the house across the street. Actually that is a lie. It has been quiet over there, and I am glad there has been no drama lately. In the midst of everything going on over there, all of a sudden it was still, and no one was there at the house for about two weeks. It was peaceful. About a week and a half ago, the owner, Scott and his beer can throwing buddy were there, allegedly cleaning up the place. My next door neighbor, Jerry, who is trying to sell his house, talked to Scott, and was told that he was living at his parent's house and that they were fixing up the house to sell it. Scott promised Jerry that they were going to sod the lawn next week (this week) and do all kinds of other things to fix up the house. I should have bet Jerry- he wanted to bet me fifty bucks that the lawn would be sodded this week. I would have taken his money, because they haven't done crap all week, but hang out at the house. The only good thing is that at least there haven't been many visitors, like when they were selling drugs. I did take one parting shot of a lovely skank in her nearly non-existent top. Enjoy.

Burning Ears part two

Okay, I guess I was a little vague yesterday, so I will explain a little better since everyone seems to want to know. The two bozos are a bit lazy and while they will do what they are asked eventually, their first responses are always to shoot down what ever it is they are supposed to do. Our boss was in the shop prodding them along on their latest task and one of them said "What about the dog tags? Mark (one of our co-workers) is the only one who knows how to use the dog tag machine."

NOTE: We use imprinted dog tags to identify a lot of ground support items and also to show that an item has been inspected that year. A dog tag might read "Visual inspection due 8/2006" to show that an item has been inspected for this year, or it might have the part number or serial number of the item. These are not used on things that go into space but on the equipment used on the ground for testing and validation of systems. We go through a ton of dog tags.

Back to the story. So, not realizing that they were just trying to shoot the job down and thinking that they actually wanted help with the dog tag machine, I said "I can help you with the dog tag machine; it is pretty easy." Shortly after that someone came in and asked me a question and I was sidetracked and left the room.

So, later in the day when I was sitting at my desk really quietly, the thing I overheard was this: "What are you some kind of dumbass or something? Saying that about the dog tags? You knew what SHE was going to do." They were talking about the fact that I piped up and made them look stupid, and I really had no intention of doing so, I was just trying to help. Before they could get any farther, I made some shuffling noises and I heard one of them say, quietly "Is she back there?" Then they started talking more loudly about an unrelated subject to try to cover their mistake.

So, what did I do? I didn't exactly tell them off, but I think you'll like it.

Burning ears

During the day at work when I am not out working on space shuttle parts, I have a desk in the electrical shop. There are two other electricians that have desks in there, but I can't see them and they can't see me due to a bunch of cabinets and stuff in the way. The two of them are a little bit off. They are grown married men, but they dress alike, every day, and hang out only with each other. Everyone refers to them as "The Wonder Twins," "The Nerds," "Laverne and Shirley," and my favorite which is Andy's creation, "The Less brothers, Worth and Use." People say that they are each only half an electrician, and so it seems because they always work together, neither of them ever doing any work on their own. I work on my own all of the time, and this causes them much irritation and they occasionally talk shit about me. The part that bothers me is, I seem to catch them at it quite a bit.

Since they can't see me from their desks, and I am often quiet as a mouse, they will think I am not in the room and start saying things. I caught them just today- and it irritates me a little. I would rather that I didn't hear what they were saying. Today they started saying something, and I made some noise so they would realize I was back there, and they quickly tried to cover it, like always. Then shortly after, they started talking to me, I guess to see if I responded in a pissed off manner, meaning I had heard them. I played it cool. I am going to shock the crap out of them here pretty soon, but the time is not right. They deserve every bit of it!

Automobiles

Lately, everyone at work is getting new vehicles. I guess the prices are pretty good right now if you are loking to buy a new car or truck. Maybe I am crazy, but I really don't want a new car. I am driving a 2000 Jeep Wrangler Sahara and it still feels like a new car to me despite the fact that I have had it longer than any other vehicle I have ever owned. I had reason to celebrate earlier this year when it finally was mine. I made the last payment and I completely own it now. Andy's truck is ours too. It is so nice not to have any car payments, and both of us want to keep what we are driving for a while. One of the less nice things about keeping a car past the time when it is paid for is that it requires expensive maintenance. Yuck. I hate going to have anything done on my Jeep because it is pain in the ass and I find it hard to trust anyone. This morning we dropped off Jimmie (my Jeep) and got it aligned, rotated, new shocks and new brakes. The cost was quite painful and I had to remind Andy that at least it was only a little more than one car payment on a new car would be. Tomorrow he is getting new tires and a bunch of other stuff done on his truck. Oh the joys of having paid off vehicles!