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.

Recreation and Re Creation

Once again, a lot has gone on, and I've got a lot to share. Last week we ended up doing a 2 night stay over on Catalina. It was pretty good, but a little longer would have been nice. I got a lot of great pictures, but for now you get this!!!

Back 9 years ago, we spent a few days over there, then went down San Diego way. One of the posts for that trip included the younger attacking a quesadilla.

So we decided to re-enact that picture, only with the great big burrito!!!

What I Did This Summer

Or "Stupid Fun"

For our 4th of July hi-jinks today, we came up with this amusement.

One person holds a foam paddle board vertically underwater. They count down, then release it into the air. At that moment, the other person attempts to hit it with a beach ball!!! Seems like sometimes the air from the board would cause the ball to veer off.

Good times!!!

4th of July Hijinks I

Back all the way on 4th of July this year, we did as we often do for that particular holiday (one of our favorites, Summertime, outdoor dining, swimming, and fireworks!!!) and went to my parents' house. We partook in three of the four above listed activities, and then my parents took my sister and my nephew to a local fireworks show. He'd never been, and word is that he enjoyed it. On our way, we stopped by a local fireworks stand and picked up $40 worth of the so-called safe and sane fireworks, so because of that, and the fact that I was working overtime the next day, we stayed there until a little after dark. Just before they headed out, my younger and I helped my dad out by re-hanging one of the side shed doors, which required the use of his ladder. After they left... the mischief ensued!!! The boy and I climbed up, and I jumped off a couple times, and after getting his nerve up, the boy tried a couple times. Yeah, I know, parent of the year!!!

I know at least my mom would have been troubled by this, so hopefully she doesn't come across this!!!

Don't think I've made mention here, but one of my recent pleasures has been morning radio with The Woody Show on Alt 98.7.

One of the segments they do daily is Redneck News, which the boy enjoys the intro for, and does the "Whooo Hooo!!!" along with. Well, for the roof jumping once he got going, he wanted me to come up with intros for, and he'd do the "Whooo Hooo!!!" on the way down. If memory serves, he was wanting me to do 'em earlier in the day as he was jumping from the diving board. Oh yeah, when we were on vacation, at our last hotel in Galveston, he learned to do a flip into the pool, so that's cool and a really useful life skill to have!!!

Of course, later on that evening we lit off the fireworks, and I've got video of the stupidity that ensued on that also, so if I ever get that posted, you'll have part II!!!

And, as always, we drove home through the badlands of the 710 freeway, which is always like driving through a tunnel of fireworks on the 4th of July!!!

Yoshi and The Tire

Down at my parents house swimming today, and my mom had some pool inflatables she'd picked up on clearance. My nephew declared the blue sea monster float to be Yoshi. When one of us had said Yoshi and the tire, we came to the conclusion that, when paired like that, it sounds like a wacky radio duo. The hijinks ensued. We went on for a couple of hours coming up with all kinds of situations for them. There may or may not be more episodes in the future!!!

Wanna Go, Punk?

Haha!!! I happened on this a few days back. Not that funny the first time you watch it, but play it over and over, and it gets funnier and funnier!!!

Gusher

Coming home last night, the road opposite ours going up the canyon we live in was blocked off with cones and a parking enforcement vehicle. "Odd", I thought to myself, "Must be some sort of parking emergency!!!" This means I was forced to drive up our street, which is counter to my normal routine, as usually I drive up that side so to be pointed the proper direction to park on the street or pull into the driveway.

As I ascended, there was a flatbed tow truck idling right opposite my driveway. Hmmmm... I get to the top of the street, turn around and park, and go to investigate. In addition to the tow truck, there's parking enforcement and another flatbed tow truck on the opposite street, and cones set up there, too. A few people are milling around over there. I thought maybe someone had wrecked over on that side, or maybe someone managed to drive into the canyon. From the days when my grandfather lived here I'd heard tales of parked cars rolling down into the canyon, yet I've never seen the likes of it.

The property opposite us on that street has some nice river rock retaining walls. I finally notice that the portion by the corner is fallen down into the street, of course followed by much of the dirt behind it. Hmmmmm again!!! I make mention to one of the neighbors out there that it's a shame, I really liked that wall. They agree, and then say something about how there was so much water. ??? It had rained that morning until around noon or so, but nothing serious, only about half an inch at most, I'd guess, and probably less.

Well, you probably guessed from the pictures, I was missing a key element here. Somehow, the fire hydrant over there got sheared off!!! Apparently it was pretty loud and of course went on for a while. My oldest had the presence of mind to take the camera out and get a few shots, as well as a video. Used to be able to post video on here, but I don't see the link for that anymore. The second shot I cropped for effect, you can see the spout is going about three times as high as the basketball hoop!!!

I like the last shot, with the water just cascading off the yard. I still wonder exactly how it happened!!!

Carmogedden??? Not Quite

This was the weekend of the dreaded 405 closure. I almost never go over to that part of town because 1. I have no business over there 2. Every time I go over that way, the traffic really sucks!!! I have a feeling the extra capacity they've added will do nothing to improve the situation!!! The predictions had been dire, and the warnings have been going on for more than a month. Guess everyone got the message, because there were no real problems!!! In honor, I made up a little thing on CoMixed. Feel free to click on the image and vote it up!!!



The "Everything went better than expected" guy is one of my favorites!!! It shall be my theme...

CupDate and a Bit-O-Random

Got the annual notice from the Fire Department. Brush clearance time. Actually, I never got one, but my parents, who are the owners of the adjacent lot, got theirs. Anyway, my parents came up today and my dad and myself and the oldest attempted to make the yard compliant. It certainly is more so than it was, but still a long way to go. We exceeded the yard waste allotment by quite a bit.



This picture was in my camera when I took the shot of toofy boy. I had no idea where it came from, but the oldest just told me that he'd taken it a few weeks back. It was in the yard, and he was impressed by the bug.

Speaking of bugs, tonight on Baby's rear trunk reflector, there was a little moth with a very wide wingspan. If I had my camera with me, I would have gotten a picture.



This cup was from a week ago on Friday. I had been throwing totes, and in that area they have the yellow circle stickers, and the numbered bar codes. I had downloaded Microsoft's Image composite editor to try and stitch the rotational view of the cup together. The documentation on it is very lacking, and it doesn't work, at least in this case. I'll try some other time.

I've never updated on Janices' starter. The day after the starter post, I exchanged it for another of their "lifetime" starters. Spent the afternoon installing it, and it didn't even make the little whirr noise, the only noise it made was the relay on the opposite side of the engine compartment!!! Actually, I think I did put that in comments to that post. Anyway, before I got going on the yard today, I disconnected the starter from everything but the battery and tried to jump it to test my wiring hypotheses. That was a fail. Jacked the car up again (naturally, she's parked on the street, which has about a 10% slope to it, makes for good times and a dicey proposition!!! Also, my sockets will roll away if I'm not careful) and pulled the starter out. I'm actually getting pretty good at that, didn't take me long at all. Doesn't work loose from the transmission, so I tried it first just on cables to the battery, then on Bessie's battery. Dead on arrival!!!


There was a meeting last week by the investment firm that handles our deferred profit sharing account. It was interesting for the first half. The second half, the other guy had a rather droning voice, and that combined with being in a darkened room for the presentation in the afternoon, had a narcoleptic effect on several of us!!!



While working in the yard today, I happened on one of the old brake drums from Bessie. The one that had one of the wheel studs cross threaded, and I had drilled out. There's a nasturtium growing up through the drilled out lug stud hole!!!

Ever hear of Stupid Fun Club??? I had heard of it, and just the name sounds like something where it could be the exception that proves the rule of the Groucho Marx adage "I would never join a club that would have me as a member!!!" Unfortunately, their web site doesn't seem as fun as the name implies. Guess I'll just have to make my own stupid fun!!!

Sammy contacted me a bit ago. Thursday before last I went to see him at his and his new wife's (new wife makes it sound like he had an old one... no, just newly married to her) new place. He'd gotten married, moved to this place, then those scumbags at my old job laid him off. I'm glad I got out of there at the time I did. He made some great chicken tacos and guacamole and salsa. The guacamole was a bit on the sweet side, I've never had guacamole like that before. I don't think it was intended that way, but it was pretty good. I'm actually craving some of that right now.



My wife took the oldest to the recycling center ($23.00, way to go!!!) this morning when I was starting in the yard, so I had her exchange Janices' starter. They tested it for her, and declared that it had a faulty solenoid. I asked her if she made them test the replacement. She hadn't. This evening, after cleaning up, I took the jumper cables out and tried it out. It doesn't seem to work at all, either!!! The solenoid kicks the gear into place, but it doesn't spin!!! It will be tested before I bring home another.

They called Sammy about coming back to work some. I have mixed feelings about that. Kind of how you feel when a lady friend tells you she's getting back together with an abusive, or even just scummy or loser ex boyfriend. I think those guys qualify as all of the above, but it ain't easy out there these days.

Apparently, according to the statement they mailed me, my deferred profit sharing account lost almost $4,000. Pretty impressive, actually!!! As I often say, if you don't sell when it's down, you don't lose a thing!!!

One of the Stupidest Things I've Seen

Oh, SO many things have happened!!! I've got four more cup pictures that I may or may not post, I've gassed up Baby again (who direly needs a bath, but small amounts of intermittent random rain have made that seem like a bad idea) and a lot more pictures I need to get off my cameras (video and still), but I'm going to share this one.

Weekend before last, my wife and I decided to see if we could possibly hit the Wicked lottery again, TWICE, and take both the boys. If not, we'd go on (just a ways up the tracks) to Universal Studios. We got there, and all put our names in. My wife told me later that when she saw our younger putting the first letter of his name on the slip, she knew he was going to get drawn. He did, and we bought two tickets on his draw, and waited to see if another name would come up. Another of the entrants had only wanted a single ticket, so at the end they were drawing for a solo seat. I think it was my wife's name that came up for that, and I was thinking of sending the other boy, but since the seats were split up, we decided not to. Besides, the older boy had already expressed interest in going to Universal instead. Momma and the younger stayed for the show, and we headed on. One of my friends from work also showed up with her girlfriend for the drawing.

Up the tracks we headed, and spent a fair amount of time at Universal. Being it was the first of November, a lot of the scary decorations were still up. Of course, I was prepared for the theatre, and didn't have my camera. It rained on us, we rode the Jurassic Park ride several times (in honor of Michael Criteon's impending death???) and the Mummy coaster more than a few, too. At the end of the day, we lined up for the Simpsons ride, which always has the largest line. Getting on, we were in the front of the car, and there was some commotion and confusion with the loading of the back seats. I thought nothing of it.

Very shortly after the attendant left the room, there's more commotion from the back seats. I look around, and one of the girls back there is all twisted with her leg wedged funny under the safety bar. The other girls back there are calling out for the attendant. We all start calling out, but no one is coming. I'd thought she'd gotten pinned under it wrong when it closed, but she was trying to get out from under the bar, and she did before the ride got underway!!!



We all told her just to hold on and stay down. She laid down across the back seats, and was that way throughout the ride. I have no idea what her deal was, if she was claustrophobic, foreign and didn't understand what was going on, or whacked out on goofballs, but it was about the stupidest thing I've ever seen. Probably made more so by the fact that it seems there is no monitoring of the ride while it is in progress.

Afterward, we viewed the on-ride photo previews (first time we've ever even looked at them, the kiosks are usually too crowded to bother with), and the girl who's lap she had her legs on joined us. I'd thought the whole back seat was together, but that was not the case. She said she was holding her hand and telling her "you're all right!!!" for the whole ride. Said her heart was going like crazy, and she didn't know if she was having a heart attack, but she was screaming and laughing the whole ride. Nice shot of the backs of our heads, huh??? The picture is at the very end of the ride, when it's pretty much stopped. They had an option to E-mail the picture for $5, and I figured since I'd spent $50 for a play already that day, and not a lot else (besides train fare) all day, I'd go for it.

I had to schedule my last vacation day, so I had chosen the following Monday, since the boys were off school that day, and we went back again. That's what most of the photos I've yet to take off my camera are of, but that will be at another time, if there's anything worth posting!!!