Axed Again

I haven't done an update on my broken 5th metatarsal in a while. I went to see my doctor towards the end of March, and he took a look and declared me mostly healed and said I didn't need to come back, unless I had a complication. At the previous appointment, he'd said I could go from the boot to a “hard sole shoe”, which isn't really a hard sole shoe, but a low-top version of the boot. He can get me one, for about $35, or I can get one myself for probably around $20-$25, so that's what I did. I've been going around with that for the most part. I asked the doctor about if I should keep using it, and he said it's up to me, some people are just done with it, others wean themselves slowly. I'm still feeling some movement, and a clicking feel, without it, so I've been sticking with it, and probably will for some time still.

Anyway, long story longer, I'm finally able to drive again, so the week before last I go in for my 2 days, and then again this week. I'm not crazy about it, my start time is 6 AM, and with going in I have to get up around 4 to shave, shower, get dressed, and drive in. Makes for a long day.

Yesterday in the morning part of my day, my supervisor (I've had a lot of supervisors in my time there, and I think he's been one of my favorite ones) asks me to join him in his zoom room. He lets me know they are letting me go. They are giving me, what is to me, an amazingly unprecedented severance package.

When I was interviewing with them, after hearing some about the company, I told the interviewer I could see retiring from there, and I would have liked to. Apparently it wasn't in the cards. Oh well, I had a good run there, and as I said after I started there, it's the best company I've ever worked for.

I had made mention previously that axing day had traditionally been on Thursdays, but they had gotten away from that for a while. Coincidentally, it was also a Thursday the last time I had been axed as well. We are parting ways on much better terms than I was with the previous employer!!! Almost made it a full 19 years.

There's a song lyric I know that I've heard, something along the lines of “Wonder what I'm going to do with all this free time”. Haven't been able to figure out what song it's from (if I ever figure it out, I'll post in the comments most likely). I have a bunch of thing swirling in my head that I can do. My wife suggested yesterday that we could go on a cruise. That sounds good. I've been working fairly non stop since 1987. Since they are taking such good care of me, I'm thinking I'll take something of a sabbatical from working for a while!!!

Good times!!!

Follow Up Fashion

I'd posted previously about several of the recent additions to my wardrobe, and shortly after either added more, or remembered others that should have been included, so here they are!!!

First up is a thrift store find. It's a real thinker!!! My dad was from Michigan, and had that Yooper accent. I guess since I learned to speak while I was around him, I've got it too, and my boys both have it as well!!! Anyway, you've heard of the Upper Peninsula, but here's the much lesser known Lower Peninsula!!!

Next is a vacation purchase from Yoshi's on the Pier in Avalon from this year's vacation. Nice old school woody and a pre-worn look, as well as Catalina branding going for it (not real visible in this picture, right under the “Beach Paradise” it has “Catalina Island” in white against a fairly white background), in a color that I don't have much of in my wardrobe. In addition the the at-some-point mentioned Stinky's Fish Tacos shirt I got for surrogate son, I also got a real nice coat of many colors for my wife, and a nice Catalina fleece jacket for the younger son. Yoshi's has gotten a good amount from me.

This is one of those long forgotten ones, I think it was 2 years ago I got this one. I've got several In-N-Out Burger shirts, and they usually have a similar look, full color image on the back with nice muscle cars, and the In-N-Out logo and arrow on the front. One time when we were there, they had this one on display, and it's unique with a largely monochromatic image, with only the sign at the top and the palm trees at the bottom in green, and the exhaust in red, both rendered as if they are neon lights.

The front logo is different from the normal as well, with the “California” beneath added. Bought one for myself and one for the younger.

Here's the couple of the previously mentioned thrift store finds from our most recent anniversary trip. First is the 16-bit Rick and Morty shirt. Once again, photos added a little background flair that looks better than the original picture.

And the Lynyrd Skynyrd shirt. Had this picture taken today, as you may have picked up on if you noticed the crutch!!! I do like me some thrift store finds. When we were on Catalina we looked up the thrift store I'd seen on the map before, but had never been to because they have very limited days and hours, and we set out to be there on a day and an hour they were open. We made it, but it was no where to be seen, and checking with a local guide, they confirmed that they were no longer in business. Ah well.

And another recent addition, I have probably 30 or more black T-shirts, but almost none fit anymore. A shame, I like a lot of the designs. A replacement for one here, I like the design and sentiment!!!

And another from way back (happened on a picture of it from our '22 Catalina trip), my wife had given me this one, and once again, I like the design and sentiment!!! Bonus, it also has a nice feel to the fabric.

Rando Blast

As always, there's a lot that happens, and I haven't been doing great at keeping up here. I'll catch a little up today.

A couple weeks ago I put in a new ceiling fan in the front room. The old one was one of the early home improvements I had done, and it was a bit more involved, as there was nothing there before!!! I added a junction box and a cross joist, and ran wiring inside a flexible conduit. The wiring was left as installed when the clowns re wired the place. Anyway, the old fan, in addition to looking a bit old, was getting noisy, and after I installed the one in the bedroom, I missed having a remote. I'm pleased with the results.

A month or so ago Menace from The Woody Show was doing an opening at a new Raising Cane's, so I took off work a couple hour early, and we headed down. The older boy was a fan of Cane's, but I'd never had it fresh, and it loses something when it's re heated. They were doing giveaways, and I got a sticker and key chain, and the younger got a new Woody Show T-shirt, which he accidentally grabbed two of them, so we both got one!!!

Bort was there, too, along with Heavy T, the King of Whittier. Speaking of shirts, Bort (real name Brett, but he got some critical email years ago where they called him Bort, and it's pretty much his name now!!!) liked my “Large Marge Sent Me” shirt I'd picked up at the Cabazon Dinosaurs gift shop.

Last week we were coming out to the car on a rainy afternoon, and my wife missed the last step and landed on her head. She also scraped her nose, and it was bleeding, and it looked like a gallon in the rain.

Got her back upstairs (after getting her up) and out of the rain, and she had the most huge cartoon lump you ever saw on her head!!! Nope, we're going to the emergency room to get that checked out!!! On the way, I pulled up my camera and told her to smile, and she totally did!!!

They X-rayed her and gave her a CAT scan, but (ha ha) they found nothing. One of the nurses had a bunch of tattoos on his arms, one of which was an asthma inhaler with a smiley sticker on it. The doctor told her to ice the lump, and she'd probably have a black eye, maybe two, the next day. He called it!!!

The younger had his birthday. Last year he never got to have the get-together with his friends that he wanted, but it worked out this year. One of his friends gave him the Baja Blast can-looking drink bottle, it's actually a double wall unit, really nice, but doesn't hold much. We got wings and one of those giant pizzas (it's been a long time since we've gotten on of those, I think a bunch of Caeser's would have been a better way to go, but oh well). The giant pizza place was always a pain to park at, but they just recently opened a Wing Stop just a little ways up, so I was able to park there and walk over. They played Binding of Isaac: 4 Souls. Several had to leave early, but four of them played until one had 9 souls!!!

I had repainted under the kitchen sink last year one time the drain had backed up. It was in bad shape under there. I added a couple motion detector LED light strips. Just recently I added some sub floor, and tiled under there. Looks better, but I question my tiling ability and am re thinking if I want to tile the bathroom myself. I had some large tiles, and was almost able to do it with just 4, but of course my OCD had me add the little strips on either side and center everything!!!

I've been kind of hoarding stardust in Pokemon GO, just recently got to over 10 million!!!

Fun fact, the gift shop for the Cabazon Dinosaurs is in the belly of a dinosaur!!!

About a month ago, we were in the neighborhood of this place, Charley's Philly Steaks. I'd never heard of the place, but I generally like Philly cheese steaks, except for I can't do bell peppers. Some places, they're part of the mix and you can't get it without them, but you're able to get it your way here!!!

The younger had a teriyaki chicken sandwich, and the wife and I had cheese steaks. They have wings, but we had enough stuff. They were quite good sandwiches, but the prices were a bit on the high side.

For Christmas both last year and the year before, I bought a multi pack of Chicago deep dish pizzas. This year was Nancy's, where it's a stuffed pizza. Pretty good, but could have been bigger.

The year before I bought Lou Malnati's, which were bigger. Spent the same amount, roughly, but got only 4 instead of 6, but they were bigger. Photos thought they were cake!!!

When I went to install the ceiling fan, I turned the light on the old one off and went out and switched the breaker I thought went to it. Came back in, and the light was still on, so I had they younger come out and observe while I went through the other breakers. None of them shut it off, either, but when I did the first one again, he said the light flickered. Forgot, years ago I picked up a set of LED light bulbs with a self-contained battery back up!!!

The younger watched a few cooking videos, and wanted to try his hand making Monte Cristo sandwiches, and fried cheese curds. The cheese curds had a beer batter, and as always when cooking with beer, I wanted something with flavor. We headed off to BevMo! for the first time in a while. After locating a suitable base, we checked out the other stuff, as we do. I liked the Rat Bastard, but we didn't get any. They had Baja Blast in cans there, and since it's been hard to find, we picked up a 12. A couple weeks later, I was ordering some stuff to pick up from WalMart, and they had it there, too, for a much better price.

While we were doing the curds, we had plenty of batter, so cut up some onions for rings. Check 'em out cooking, it looks like The Riddler's cooking corner!!!

While I was on the ragtop quest, one of the candidates on my list was the PT Cruiser. As I've said, we've always been on the plus side of the polarizing styling. Now that I have the Sky, I haven't been really looking, but there's this one that I drive by pretty often. Well, a few weeks ago, a for sale sign shows up in it's window!!! Naturally, there's no price on the sign, just the number. I took this picture that shows the bulk of the damage below the taillight and the number. Eventually remembered and called the number, and the guy speaks nothing but Spanish. Had a friend call for me and get some of the details. It has 140,000 miles, current smog, and he's only asking $1,800!!! Like I need a hole in my head, but I'm considering it...

Baja Blast from the fountain at Taco Bell just hits different.

We all got our new glasses recently. The younger has had his for 4 or 5 years, and he thinks his new ones are like everything is in HD now!!! In the same center as the glasses place (I didn't have my exam with my favorite, Dr. Hu) there's a Jamba Juice, and we got some. In a scenario reminiscent of the Big Mac, after we were out enjoying our juicy treats, one of the workers came out and said they'd made an extra of one if we wanted it!!!

The Road Less Traveled

Now the bonds are broken, but they can be re-tied

One more journey to the woods, the holes where spirits hide

~Bob Dylan

I've been trying to lead a less sedentary life. The transition to a desk job at my advanced age has caused me to pack on a few extra pounds. I've managed to get out and go on a walk several days the last couple of weeks. The constant rains ha been making it hard to do so.

At the beginning of the week, I went out to go on a walk. The first portion nearly always starts out the same, with a climb to the top of my street. It gets your heart rate up to start with. There's a little wall up there, and I'll usually take a little rest and catch my breath when I get there. That's how I started off. Just as I'm getting ready to head on, here comes another guy, heading the same way I'd been planning on going. I head on just a little behind, and when he gets to the end, he makes a left, the same way I'd been planning on going again!!! I don't like feeling like I'm trailing after someone, so I decided to go the other direction.

Going that way, you can do a loop on the streets behind our house, but at the end, there's a little short-cut trail to the next street down, and you can head down and across to the next major street over from there, after taking a little stairway down. I've gone that way before, but it feels like it's been a while. It climbs from there, sometimes gradually, sometimes steeply, until it dead ends into a park in a canyon, that I often get to going the other way, but on the downhill end. It has a dirt path through it, with a very steep climb at the end.

The foliage has really liked all the rain!!! The park is fairly overgrown, as are several areas around here. The path had been badly eroded, with a deep groove nearly a foot deep in several areas.

Just before the part where it starts climbing steeply, I came upon this wood nymph!!! Or whatever she was. She had a girl there taking the pictures, and a guy manning the light.

She was up on probably a six foot step ladder, and it was getting to be the part of the evening when it starts getting cool out. All that overgrowth no doubt makes for a great backdrop!!!

Birthday Delay

It's been more than a month since the younger's birthday. He was planning on inviting a bunch of friends over, and hanging out, mostly on the back patio. However, it has been one of the wettest winters in recent memory.

Coming up to the date he'd scheduled, it was going to be non stop buckets of rain that weekend. He let everyone know it was scrubbed, to be rescheduled on a future date. Furthermore, my wife had another surgery coming up, just a few days after the actual date.

Prior to the surgery, the hospital, in keeping up with the covid theater, required my wife to get tested, then isolate, along with the rest of the family until she went in. Not wanting the milestone to go unacknowledged, my wife got a cake mix and made up a cake. It's been a while, but I dusted off my decorating skills. He wanted his alter ego, Catnip, on the cake.

I added the medallion around his neck, because it was yellow cake, get it??? I put his new age in his favorite color, and had a lot of orange left, so I added radiation waves. I know, they are traditionally green, but who's to say they're not orange???

We gave him his gifts. I think it was last year we got him the game, 'Binding of Isaac: Four Souls”, and he's already gotten a couple of expansion packs, and we got him another one. Got him the funny cat shirt, also in his favorite color.

He also wanted this nine tailed fox necktie, and my wife found this other cool shirt.

Since there's been a fairly lengthy recovery going on, the reschedule hasn't occurred yet. More birthday to come!!!

Dean Domino Update

I made mention of meeting this fine looking fellow a while ago. He kind of stuck in my head.

About a month back, I headed back to see if the King of Swing was still hanging around the muffler shop. We pulled around back where I'd seen him, and got out and looked around some. Saw another cat, but Dean Domino was nowhere to be seen.

I was getting ready to head off, when my son said since we were already there, I might as well inquire with the guy from the muffler shop, so I headed in. The guy says, “Oh yeah, the lady at the shop on the end has been taking care of him!!!” and he escorted me over there. He tells the lady why we're there, and she, indeed has been taking care of him!!! She had him behind the counter, and he was curled up on a blanket, snoozing away his best life!!!

She already has several cats at home, and this little dog (I'm not sure if he was a 'shop dog' or if he goes back and forth with her) so Dean stays at the shop. She wasn't keen on taking him home, too, and said she may find someone who will give him an actual home.

Who knows... that someone may be me!!!

The Fuzz Cometh

It was getting late, and I was thinking of heading off to bed.

I hear a siren approaching, it sounds like a police siren. Moments later, I hear a louder engine climbing the hill, and not long after I see the red and blue light splashes on the windows.

That's unusual around here, but not unheard of. Silence ensues for a while, then here comes the police helicopter, flying low and doing circles.

Not long after, another police car shows up, and pulls into the neighborhood across the canyon.

Of course, by this time it's got my attention. A little after, four more police cars show up. There's now two on the far side of the hillside behind the neighborhood across the street, and two that had headed to the top of the hill come back down. The first one goes past the street across the way, and then is backing up, and the other one comes down and turns into that street. As I figured, the one backing up turns down that street, too.

There's a wild area behind the houses across the canyon, and I imagine that whoever they were after is hiding out over there.

It's been more than an hour. That helicopter is going to have to refuel soon!!! I know how these things go, I'll probably never hear what happened. (I'll post an update in the comments if I actually do)

Anyway, here's some blurry pics for you!!!

Farewell, My Friend

“Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.” Job 5:7

In this life there will be trouble, but you will overcome. I'm glad for the times when there isn't much trouble, or what I have is minor, and count myself fortunate.

Over the weekend, it seemed like our grandkitten was having problems. I had taken Monday off, and after calling around and finding one that was open and could see him, packed the boy up to go to a veterinarian to get him checked out.

It turns out he was having kidney issues, not a lot different than what Leo had, but instead of his urethra being blocked, the ureters from the kidneys to the bladder seemed to be having trouble. These are very fine, and if that is the case, the surgical fix is to replace them with shunts with a port to clean them out as necessary. Not surprisingly, this is an expensive procedure.

The other option is to hydrate and treat the infection, and perhaps it will clear once the inflammation is reduced, and he could recover.

We decided to give that a chance. He was eating OK, and with the pain medicine he seemed to be doing OK. We visited him at the veterinarian's office a couple times. On Wednesday, his numbers hadn't gone up, but hadn't gone down either. Thursday his numbers were even higher. We had to let him go. We visited him again, taking a little bag of the Temptations dairy treats, the only kind he'll eat, and treated him to a last meal and said our good byes.

We have a lot of good memories of the boy. I remember when he was a kitten, he would eat anything!!! He was always trying to get into your food, and one time after we'd had Tommy Burgers, he got the paper tray that the chili fries came in, and ate about ¼ of it!!!

My wife's favorite was at Christmas a couple years ago. My sister and nephew were over, and they don't have an indoor voice, and kept trying to get him to play. My younger warned them, he said he could see his eyes getting huge, but they kept on, and he attacked them both on their heads!!! I tell people the story and say it was the best Christmas ever!!!

He's gotten a lot mellower as he's aged, and he was very friendly to me, giving me head butt snuggles and curling up on me. Recently, he had started doing the same thing with my younger, and even a few times with my wife.

We will miss you, sweet boy.

September Random - 13 Shots

As I said, I have a lot I could have made posts on, so I'm going to go a little random to do a recap here!!!

Back at the end of March we had another range day. The night before it was raining, and was precdicted to continue. I thought it was going to get scrubbed, but others weren't to be deterred by a little rain!!!

It had the cool effect that you could see where your bullet was hitting!!!

It started clearing up later on in the day, and turned into a really beautiful day!!! There was a big puddle on the road in and out, and a bunch of rocks had become disloged from the sides on the way out.

Came upon a patch of the rocks strewn across the road, and was unable to avoid one of them as I was rolling through. Predictably, one of them popped one of the tires. Got to see if the spare and the tools in the Matrix (wasn't going to take Scruffy off road!) were up to the task, which gladly they were. We stopped at the strangest Del Taco for some lunch on the way back, and then ducked into the place I usually buy tires these days, and got a replacement put on.

At the beginning of April the boy and I went to an Angels game. It wasn't a particularly wet winter, but a little drizzle started towards the end, so we left early.

At the end of April we went up to Running Springs again for a couple nights.

It was a pretty good low-key vacation.

The boy and I went on a night walk, and we went to Lake Arrowhead and a thrift store in Blue Jay. Of course, we had breakfast both days in the best coffee shop in Running Springs!!!

Just for fun, here's a picture I took of the front of Scruffy reflected pretty nicely in the back of a truck, reminiscent of a shot I took years ago!!!

I noticed that post I've linked has the keyword "potato" for some reason. Guess I'll have to have it in this post, too!!!

Went to the beach for my birthday. Dug holes and made a sand sculpture and splashed around in the water, then went to In-N-Out Burger for a late lunch!!!

Early June my wife went in for back surgery again. They connected everything from the neck to the pelvis!!!

Since it was the second time going in, the surgeon enlisted a plastic surgeon to work on the closing. If that's the result you get from plastic surgery, I don't think it's worth it!!! Told her if she ever wants another tattoo, she could get a zipper pull drawn on the end!!! She was in for both her birthday and the 4th of July. The surgeon wanted her up and moving as soon as possible, and the plastic surgeon wanted bed rest for as long as possible!!! I think she was up and around the quickest I can remember from this surgery!!!

At some point during the summer, my work announced that since things have been economically rough these days since we have clowns running the country, they were going to have a cash profit sharing mid-year this year!!! As always, the man took his chunk, but I still had a good amount of gravy left over!!! I was thinking that since (1) I don't really have a spare car these days, I could pick something up, and (2) since I've never owned a true convertible, I could get one!!! Since they aren't making them anymore and I've always liked the look (not to mention, it would keep with a theme I've had going for a while now) I was thinking of getting a Saturn Sky. The budget range I was thinking I'd like to stay in was around $5,000. You can find 'em around that, but naturally not pristine. Of course, there's the ugly duckling sibling, the Pontiac Solstice. Found this one that was in the range.

My wife made mention that it's not a super-practical car (kinda the point!!!) and kind of a vanity type thing. I considered it, and yeah, kind of. I considered what else there was, the Toyota Solara and it's Lexus twin have that Toyota reliability, if you believe the hype, but if you thought the Solstice was ugly... Then I remembered, they had made a convertible version of the PT Cruiser!!! I know, they have a polarizing style, but my wife and I have always been on the positive end of that polarization, and we liked the rental we had when we went to the Gilroy Garlic Festival. I've always thought the classic was better looking, but I could deal with the convertable!!! A little more practical, and still a drop-top!!! The convertible isn't super common, but almost all of them are below the price threshold I'd set. Found this one that's being offered by a dealer for $3,999 with under 92k miles, and as far as the engine goes, it's the one you'd want!!! Kind of love the color, too!!! Not so much that I've actually called about it, or looked into actually going to see it...