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My thoughts released; a mind set free |
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These pages contain my thoughts, from meandering ideas and persuasions to deep cerebrations and serious mentations. Why, for what purpose? To release my mind and set creativity free. Somewhere inside the constraints of my mind dwells a writer, a poet, an artist who paints with words. In here I release those constraints and set the artist free. Perhaps, lost somewhere in the depths of thought, is a story or a poem, waiting to be written. 
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| I'm kind of late getting in here tonight. Imagine that, me running late. Oh well, that's just the way it seems to go. Once again I should be in bed sleeping and instead I'm just getting in here. Tomorrow will be another early morning for me, but there's just not much I can do about it except keep on trying. I still have to log into WdC and post this journal entry and update my weekly goals, too. I was up at three this morning, then off to work, since it was just another typical work day for me. Rhonda came in and I got done, but took a little time to look at the van. She had porblems driving in again, and I tried something to see if it would help. It's been doing this since just after we purchased it. I would take it back, but for the price we paid it was one of them "as is" sales. We have had it in a couple of times to try and fix it, and it works fine for a while, then starts acting up again. Well, it was doing pretty good up to today, but when she drove in for work she ended up on the side of the road a couple of times, but did manage to get it into town. I got off work, since she works the shift after me, and looked at it. We knew the EGA valve was the item that the mechanic messed with every time it was in the shop. The first time it was the hose, the second time he cleaned the valve. Each time, it worked great after it came out but it never lasted very long before it would start doing the same thing over. So, not having any tools handy, I couldn't do much. But, I knew what he had worked on, and I knew one time it was messing up what I fiddled with and thought maybe it would work to just unplut these items. I did, but I unplugged both the EGA valve and the mass air sensor, so I do not know which one is the problem. But, I unplugged them, then plugged them back in and started the van. I had started it and it was barely running. Then I shut it down and unplugged these items, plugged them back in and re-started it. It ran bad for about three seconds then it began to pick up RPM's and run fine. I took it for a spin around the parking lot and it was fine. I told Rhonda, and she drove it home, after work. It was fine. It seems just unplugging these had the same effect as when the mechanic worked on them. I'm unsure if he unplugged the mass air sensor or not when he worked on the EGA valve, so I still don't know which item it is, but I know it's one of the two. I also know, since all I did was unplug them, that it isn't the item itself but more likely the connection. So, when Rhonda got home I went out and cleaned the connectors. All this was only suppose to take a few minutes, but the seal plug for the connector on the EGA fell off. It fell down between the engine and the radiator. I looked, and Rhonda looked, but we could not fine it. We put the van in neutral and pushed it back a ways and looked again, but still no sign of it. We spent a great deal of time looking but could not find the damn thing. It would probably be alright for a little while without it in, but since we are likely to get snow and rain tomorrow morning, it would be unlikely that it would work without it in there. I thought on it, and finally figured out a way to get by for the night, I could fill the plug with dielectric grease to seal it. Only, I couldn't find the dielectrid grease. I finally had another idea to use the weather stripping stuff for plug-ins and light switches to make the item we needed. It's not a replacement, but should get us by for a few days. Tomorrow I will stop at the part store and see if they have the seal for the plug on hand. I would think they are standard items sized by color, and something they keep on hand. I hope so, anyway. After, I went back to my task of setting up the alarm clock app I have on my netbook, so I won't over sleep again. Then it was time to eat, and then it was time to get in here and get this done. Inbetween I have been working on setting my laptop back up, since I had to resote that back to factory settings. It was running very slow, had no memory, and I couldn't find anything else wrong. So far, all I've got done is a lot of Window's updates, over three hundred so far. No wonder it won't work right. I can't imagine a program needing over three hundred updates to work. I understand things change and they have to stay a head of everything, but I would think that instead of update piled on update, the previous ones would get removed and replaced by the most current. But, not if you want to bog things down and sell the new opperating system, Windows 8. Well, I'm done here, and it's past my bed time. |
| Guess what? Yep, late again. I need to break this streak of getting in here so damn late. Once again it's after bed time and I just now am starting my journal entry here in 750 words. Today was one of the kind of days we all have but wish we didn't. It started yesterday evening and progressed into today, actually. I had a good day yesterday and took some time to have some fun with my lady. We played some games and enjoyed the day, then in the early evening I got on the computer to get some work done. I didn't have a lot I had to get done, I just needed to make a few corrections to the schedule, which was already made, and then print it. I also needed to fax a copy to the corporate office and I also needed to fax a request for some time off. None of this would take long, and I even intended to send my e-report off. An hour tops, likely even less. Let's guess at a half an hour to get this all done. No problem. Only, there was a problem. My compute was running slower than slow. I know it's been running slow and suffering some memory issues, so instead of making the changes on my computer, I opted to make them online. I use Microsoft Office, and have the 360 and can work online or on the computer. I logged in to Onedrive and opened my document in Excel online. Only the computer was going so slow it took for ever to even open. Then, when I went to make my changes, nothing happened. Sure the little spinny thingy went round and round, but it took forever. I ended up closing out Onedrive and opening Excel on my computer. This is when I discovered that my computer was now slower than slow. Rhonda was online and everything was working fine, so I knew it was not the internet acting up. Then even trying to work offline took forever and everything became unresponsive. I mean, anything I tried to do came up unresponsive and took so damn long to become responsive. And, even then, it worked so slow that it was soon close to midnight by the time I got done. Only, I cannot say done, since I only made two changes to the schedule, filled out my request for a day off, and faxed everything. This was getting to be a very big headache, since I do everything for work on my computer. I even fax from my computer, so with it working this slow, I was faced with a serious situation. I needed to find out why my computer kept running slower and slower. So, I took some time, even though I was already past my bed time and looked for spyware, I checked and ran Tweak Now, and then I started a viral scan and let it run through the night. Not just a quick scan, but a very deep scan of everything. Nothing was found. Of course I did not know this until this afternoon, but nothing was found. I got to bed a little after midnight, needing to be up around three in the morning. Not sleeping, just a couple hour nap more than anything. Rhonda set the coffee up, then set the alarm and we went to bed. I woke once before the coffee had started, and needed to pee. Then I woke a second time and had to pee. I looked, and it was getting close to time for work, but I still had about forty minutes before the alarm. I crawled back into bed and slept very sound. I was dreaming a wonderful dream, and had just put my hand down the front of an unknown person's halter top and was getting a wonderful feel of her breast. I had not seen her face, so I don't know who it was, and before I could even enjoy a full grope of this person's ample breasts, I was awakened by something. I think it was Hannah, but I'm unsure. I kind of had to pee, again. I got up, went to the bathroom, and then looked to see if the coffee was going yet. Nope. I flipped the light on and the clock hands indicated that it was already three thirty, and I needed to get moving. Rhonda got up and couldn't understand why the alarm had not gone off. She was hustling getting my stuff ready, and I was beginning to wake up enough to understand that it was later than three thirty. I looked at the digital clock in the living room and sure enough, it was five thirty; thirty minutes after I should have been at work. I hustled and headed out the door, Rhonda called in to let them know I was on my way. They hadn't even realized I wasn't there yet. I made it in and things were just a bit off kilter through the whole day as a result. I also needed to work on my laptop, so I could get it running faster. Only nothing was working, and it was still acting weird with every attempt I tried to get things working right. It has been getting worse and worse, and the last Window's update left things kind of screwed up. I don't know why, but I knew there may be some kind of bug, or some other major malfunction in the programming. So, I set about making copies of items recording programs I will need to re-install, and then did a factory reset back to the original computer settings. Only, once this was done, I needed to start putting things back on it. The first was couple of updates that were needed, then my antivirus program, and then that indicated I needed to update Windows. A hundred and thirty some updates needed to install. So that's where I'm at right now updating Windows, so tomorrow I can put back the programs I need, and then put documents, pictures, music and all that stuff back. A lot of work, and very time consuming. On the high side, I did manage to get the distributor cap and rotor changed out in the Jimmy and that is running better. I also talked to my brother and am going to stop by after work tomorrow for coffee. Then it's straight home to finish getting my laptop back into shape so I can get caught up on my work. |
| Getting in here a little earlier tonight, but then it's still late considering I return to work tomorrow and have to be up around three in the morning. It's now going on eight o'clock here in South Dakota, and my bedtime, or past just past it by an hour. I can do fine with seven hours of sleep, even six once in a while, but seven works good. So eight is prime time for me getting to bed on the eve's of work., we got things worked But, lately I've been sleeping a lot. Of course, since during my work week I tend to run shy on getting enough sleep, I suppose the days off sleeping in creates kind of a balance for sleep. I don't know, does it work that way? Instead of getting, say seven hours of sleep every night, can a person short sheet their sleep some days and over sleep a few others to create the forty nine hours then needed for the week? All that aside, today was a nice day. I slept in and then had kind of a rough start to my day. But, we got things worked out and running smooth enough. Then, it was time for some work, but instead, I followed my goal of setting aside some fun time and played some scrabble with my wife. We worked together to get dinner cooking, and now while I write, she is putting the potatoes on to boil. Then it's more fun and games while dinner finishes cooking. We are in the middle of playing some cards, and since we seldom find time to do things like this, we are both having a lot of fun. I should have worked on vehicles, did my schedule's and e-reports, and such stuff, but that is just how things have become, and by the time I get things done, we are tired, I need to write in my journal, and we just want to relax for a bit before bed. Today I decided to do it the opposite and be a little irresponsible. I put fun first and work second. I will have to finish the schedule; I have to post it tomorrow. But, I also need to get my rep9orts sent and put in for a day off on the next schedule. I have it written up in Excel, I just need to make a few changes, print it and put in for that day off in a couple of weeks, so I should be able to do it after dinner. If not, perhaps I will have to get up a little earlier and do it in the morning. Either way, I'm putting work off for a change and putting fun family time first. I also am putting my journal entry in front of some of the things I should be doing, so I have it done, and don't have to try and push myself to write when I'm so tired I can't think of anything to write. It's both for my journal entry, and for my March challenge in 750 words, both of which I am very determined to stick with. It's important to me to get my entry in my journal because it's writing something during a period when I'm not able to get anything else written. Hopefully that will end soon, but right now I just have a difficult time finding time to write. When I do find time, I have so much on my mind I cannot focus on being creative. A part of it is not taking time to enjoy life I suppose. Also, I set a goal to write everyday for a month, seven hundred and fifty words every day, to be more precise. It's no anything that will provide anything, it's just a goal I set and want to achieve. But, the payoff to my self-esteem is worth more than anything monetary ever could be. It proves to me I can write under stress, and when time is my enemy. It also shows I can and will meet my goals. So, as this entry nears to the required seven hundred and fifty words I need to write today, I will be ending my entry and meeting my daily goal of writing today. I will also have my journal entry for WDC done, and then it's back to finish playing cards with Rhonda. That's part of my weekly goal, to set aside time to enjoy life and have a little fun every day. So, as the week winds down, I have met my goals and am feeling good. I may be tired tomorrow, but I can take a nap. Then, it's up and ready for more fun, meeting my goals, and finishing what I did not get to today. As the saying states so plainly, all work and no play is not the way to spend the day... Maybe that's not how the old saying goes, but it's how my saying goes~ |
| short on time again. I wonder if I will ever break this habit and stop logging in so late. I had good intentions, but that doesn't get me very far. Sometimes there's a good reason why I end up being so late in making my entry, but tonight is one of those nights I really don't know what happened. It's kind of like my typing here, I'm rattling right along at a real nice pace and make a typo. So I hit backspace to correct it, and look up at the monitor and see that the program is running about ten letters behind what I'm typing. Why is my computer running so slow, and I'm having so much difficulty typing and getting any response. Know idea, what so ever. That's the story of my running so late, no idea whatsoever. Now, is that one word or three? My spell check isn't alerting me to any errors, so it must be one word. If you know, please leave a comment and let me know. So, where was I before I looked up and distracted myself? Yes, I was saying that my being tardy in logging in and making my journal entry has no knowledgeable reason behind it. It's as if I have become program for being late and not getting in here with time to do much else except punch out a quick entry for my journal. Sure, I slept in today, since it's was my day off, and I enjoyed it. I was up twice during the night and didn't sleep real well. A big part was this storm that was likely to hit in the wee hours of the morning and if the roads became bad, I would have been called to work. But, the storm did not hit until later this morning, and even though it did get kind of bad, it ended earlier than predicted and was not nearly as bad as they thought it would be. The temperature was high enough that what we did get for snow melted off fast, and even though the roads did become snow covered ice, and were slick, they had time to melt off and should be pretty good by now. Rhonda and I did drive over to the county seat to transfer title and register the van, and it wasn't bad here when we left. By the time we got there, it was very bad, and by the time we left, I had to use four wheel drive to get going. But shortly after, the weather lightened and we were able to go back to rear wheel drive and make it home with no problems. In fact, the roads were already improved from when we drove over, and in very little time. Maybe a half an hour to forty five minutes. After we got home, it was already getting a bit late in the afternoon, since driving was slow do to ice and snow. We enjoyed a cup of coffee and talked a bit, then Rhonda got ready to work on some tasks and start dinner. I was going to log in and do some stuff online, mostly in WdC. But, I wanted to get a Bible study in before it got later, planning on doing my stuff after the study was complete. Only the Bible study had a lot of application and we ended up in a lengthy and in-depth conversation dealing with the application of the doctrine covered in the study. Once we finished our discussion, it was getting late and Rhonda still had some tasks she needed to work on before dinner. So, instead of letting her do all the work, and have to make dinner on top of it, I started working on dinner while she worked on her tasks. Then, once dinner was done, we watched some tv while we ate. Of course, we had to finish watching the show, then feed the dogs. After, I logged in here, or tried to anyway. I opened my browser, but it was going so slow I couldn't get anything to load. Rhonda was on her computer and logged right in to her site, so I asked and she was using Firefox. I was still waiting on Chrome. So, I closed out and opened Firefox, but it was also running slow and I soon discovered my whole system was running slow. Perhaps my anti virus is downloading, but I doubt it. No, I still see signs of high resources being used, and system changes taking place. I believe the system is updating, through a Windows update, of course. It seems to me, Windows updates almost as often as my anti-virus does. Well, enough, I'm going to wrap this up, copy it over to WdC and then go do something else. |
| I need to get this done and entered into my journal real fast tonight or it's not going to register in WdC for today. It got later than I intended, but I should still have enough time to take care of this. It's twenty five minutes past ten o'clock here in South Dakota, and I should be getting ready for bed. Actually, since I was up at three this morning, I should be in bed. But, I took a nap this afternoon, and now I'm able to stay up a little later. It was a very nice day here today, but very windy. It's still thirty seven degrees out, but dropping pretty fast. We are suppose to see rain and snow early Tuesday morning, starting around one o'clock, and lasting until around seven tomorrow night. Up to eight inches of snow is possible, and they are saying winds around twenty to thirty miles per hour, gusting up to forty. Hopefully it does not hit us and we don't see much out of this system. If we do have to get dumped on, if it would hold off and not get real bad until tomorrow, after the morning shift is over. The guard who works tomorrow morning lives out of the area about thirty five miles, and has some bad secondary roads to drive in on. If the weather gets very bad tonight, he won't be able to make it in and I'll get called around three tomorrow morning to drive in and work. I have twenty five miles to go, and the roads here are not cleared that early, so it will be a slow drive in. Also, I'm suppose to be off work tomorrow and Tuesday, kind of my weekend. So, like I said, hopefully the worst of it misses us completely, but if we do have to get dumped on, it can wait until later tomorrow before it turns completely crappy. But, we had a pretty mild day today, and I wanted to enjoy it, since it's going to be a good week for things to get nice again if this storm hits us hard. It will also be a week before I get two days off again, so I picked up some stuff for dinner after work, a couple bottles of wine to wash it down, and then came home. I ate some lunch and got online for a little bit, but I was so tired I couldn't keep my eyes open. After I dozed off twice, I decided I better take a nap so I could stay awake later tonight. See, I had this plan to surprise Rhonda. Being nice out, and the patio finally is almost completely ice free, I thought cooking out on the grill would be nice. Also, I thought it would be fun to sit out on the patio and enjoy a fire. It's been six months since we had a fire out there and enjoyed the patio, and tonight seemed like a good opportunity. I knew I wouldn't make it very late since I had been up so early this morning and was already falling asleep, so I set the alarm on my phone for an hour and a half, then snuggled into bed and fell right to sleep. Hannah jumped up and snuggled up to me, and I'm not sure which of us was sleeping sooner. I did wake up when Hyko jumped up and pushed in to cuddle a little, too, but only enough to know he was up there. I patted his head and was back sleeping sound before I even finished. The phone alarm went off on time, but I did not even hear it. I don't know how many times it cycles, but I slept through all of them. I know it goes for a while, then snoozes for five minutes or so, then goes off. It repeats this cycle a few times, then just shuts off. It was shut off when I work up. I got a cup of coffee and woke up a little, but it was already about time for Rhonda to call. I only drank about half a cup of coffee before she was on the phone and then heading home. I went out and found the charcoal and started getting things set up for cooking out, then she was home and we worked together to get dinner going and a fire for later. We enjoyed a nice dinner, washed it down with a little red wine, then moved outside to the patio, around dusk. We set up the chairs and sipped a cup of coffee then grabbed some blankets, since it was cooling down and the wind was shifting around. We also mixed a Brandy Pepper and snuggled in to enjoy the fire and sip our drinks. It was nice, it was relaxing, and if it hadn't started getting too cool, I would have liked to stay out a little longer. But the wind had picked up a little, the air had cooled quite a bit, and the dogs, Hyko and Hannah, are not used to being out real long. I didn't want them to get too cold, and of course, we didn't want to get too cold, so we moved inside when the fire had burned down a bit more. Now, I have my entry for 750 Words done for the day, and I have my journal entry done for here. I'm hoping I will wake tomorrow morning, kind of late and see a little snow but not much, and get to enjoy two days off with Rhonda. I do have to get some work done from home, but it shouldn't take long. Then it's snuggle in through the storm and enjoy my two days off. |
| Day sixteen for the month, past halfway now and going good. I'm doing the March challenge in 750 Words, which requires seven hundred and fifty words be written every day of the month. I have fifteen days left and the challenge is done. I may still write my journal entry in here and then copy it over to WdC after, but I'm not sure. It is nice writing in here, no distractions, just lots of white. Of course, there are no tools either, just lots of white. I redid the dash lights in the Jimmy this afternoon instead of getting in here and getting this done. The weather may turn nasty tomorrow night and I wanted to make sure I had lights to see the dashboard again, just in case. What happened is the lights for the instruments have burned out with age. I purchased new lamps for them, but then discovered that it is a major job to change them out. Not only does it require me to disassemble the dash but it also requires me to unhook and remove the thermostat and fan controls. This could be a problem, since there is barely enough room to get a needle nose pliers in to unhook the connectors and the cable assembly. Then, there is also a vacuum assembly that controls where the air will go, to the defrosters, the heater, or the vents. Since the vehicle is old, I know the components are going to be weakened with age and brittle from time. In the process of unhooking things, there is a great probability of breaking lines, cables and even wires. since there is little room to work. Therefore, I elected not to risk making more work and greater expense for myself by removing these components and ripping the entire dash apart. Instead, I replaced the few lamps I could gain access too without taking any of the dash apart, except for the items I could easily get at. This left me with only one light in the actual instrument cluster, which is not enough to even read the speedometer. to overcome this, I installed a secondary lighting system, that works off of the cigarette lighter. The item has two LED lights that I mounted on each side of the exterior instrument cluster. They give off a bright blue glow when turned on, and they provided enough light to see the cluster pretty good. Only, one of the LED's quit working. It's the one on the right, that lit up the gas gauge, the ammeter, and the thermostat. In addition, it makes reading the speedometer more difficult, too. So, today I direct wired one of the LED's in to the light switch, so it comes on with the lights. It's on the left and shows the oil pressure and lights up the speedometer just enough to read it. I then installed a second set of these same lights on the right side of the display and in the center of the display. These are not direct wired, but on a switch unit that plugs into the cigarette lighter. They are going to provide more than enough light to see all the instruments very well. Of course, if it's hard on the eyes driving with all the lights on, I can also turn these two off and still have enough light from the one that's wired right in. These will do nicely until I get the chance to purchase a better lighting system to install. I want to install a similar setup, but I want all the lights to be directly wired into the light control so that I can brighten or dim them with the same control used for the original instrument lights. But, I will have to look and see what kind of lighting I can find that is small, not too bright, and will provide the illumination I need. After I finished, I spent a little bit of time on the computer, but did not have time enough to write in here. Rhonda called shortly after, and then I started dinner, and she was soon home to assist. We had a nice dinner, watched a little Netflix, then enjoyed some ice cream and watched another show. Now, I'm finishing up in here and then it's off to bed, since I have to be up at three again. Tomorrow is the last day before I get two days off, weather cooperating. Hopefully we don't get a big dumping of snow on top of ice and I get to enjoy two days off again this week. For now, it's a quick check on the weather, then bed. |
| I need to get this entry written so I can get to bed. It's almost ten here in South Dakota and I should already be in bed, but luckily I don't have to be up so early tomorrow. Even though I work on Sunday, I don't have to be there until eight instead of five. That means I get to sleep in until six tomorrow, compared to three on my other days. Monday I'll have to be up before time again, but then I'm off work Tuesday and Wednesday. I had a good day, but didn't get much done. I worked, then it was a bit of shopping before coming home. Once I got here, I put groceries away and started the roast. I put it in the oven in a cast iron Dutch oven and let it slow cook in water, seasoned with a little salt and pepper. After an hour and a half, I drained most of the liquid off and put it back in the oven to finish cooking. After Rhonda called I prepared some potatoes and put in with the roast, added the broth I drained off back in and let them slow cook as well. Once everything else was prepared and Rhonda was home, I drained the juices off the roast again, turned the heat down lower and put the roast and potatoes back in the oven to keep warm. I thickened the broth off the roast and seasoned it lightly, then put that in the oven to keep warm as well. Once Rhonda was out of the bath we started the rest and then went and enjoyed each other a little while the food cooked. Then it was a nice dinner, with a very good movie. Only I don't know the name of the movie. It's crazy, I know. I mean I just watched it and don't even know the name of it. It was in my saved list on Netflix, and it was a very good movie, but I don't think I even looked at the title of it. I could go into details of the plot, I could list the actors and actresses, but then, I would have to look to see who they all were, too. It's just not my thing to know actors and actresses, or who starred in what. My brother knows who played who in what, and always tells me that movie with so and so in it. Sorry, I just don't retain the information. I never know who played who in this or that. Anyway, it was a good movie and we enjoyed it. We had some ice cream a little while ago, then relaxed with some brandy while we finished the movie. We tried something different, at least I never knew of anyone mixing this up. We usually just sip our brandy with water, but sometimes we get 7-Up or Pepsi as a mix. A short time ago we had a bottle of Dr. Pepper in the fridge, and I thought I would try it. So, I mixed up a small drink with some brandy and Dr. Pepper, and guess what? Yeah, it was really good. So that's what we had earlier. Now I am finishing up with a night cap of brandy and water. I did get my email checked, logged into MFP and Facebook, but didn't do much in Facebook and only made a short entry in MFP. Then it was in here, to 750 words to wright my seven hundred and fifty words for the day, to make my entry for the March challenge of writing seven hundred and fifty words a day for the entire month. Once I get this entry finished, I'll copy and paste it in WDC and take a short look around. I don't want to spend too much time in there tonight, since it's getting late. I want to get to bed early and get a good night sleep so I can come home tomorrow after work and proof read three items I'm going to enter in for the Anthology. I have one short poem and two short prose I want to submit and see if maybe, just maybe something gets picked for the book. I know it's a long shot, but it's one way of getting some of my work out there and having someone read it. Also, imagine if one of the items gets picked and printed? Seriously, it would be so awesome to have one of my items in print. I mean, if by chance, one of my items gets chosen for the book, I would be a published author. Think about it, a published author! What a rush it would be... |
| I should have time to get this written before Rhonda gets home from work. I should have gotten it done already, but I was kind of slacking a bit. Not a lot, just a little bit, and I can if I want! I worked today, and was up around three this morning. After I got done and came home, it was a little after noon, then I fixed some lunch and ate. After, I worked on the van and tried to figure out what is causing the problems, but I'm still not sure. I thought I had it figured out, but the module I removed from the air inlet didn't seem to be damaged or dirty. It may be bad and need replacing, but then again, it could be something else, too. Hopefully it's fixed, but if not, I will have to take it in to another shop and see if they can find the problem. I may just take it over to the part store and have them run a diagnostic test on it, just to see what they come up with. I put everything back together and took it for a little spin, and it seemed to run fine. Of course, it ran fine after I got off work and it ran fine all the way home, too. Rhonda said it ran good for her today, until she turned in the parking lot at work. It's kind of crazy, we think it's fixed and it starts doing the same thing all over. It was running bad Thursday when Rhonda got ready to go to work, and I messed a little with the air cleaner and the air flow assembly, and it stopped sputtering and ran fine. That's why I thought it was the module I mentioned. After I put everything back together, I came in and got a cup of coffee. Then, while I sipped my coffee I got online and checked a few things. Now I'm in here, in 750 Words, writing my daily entry for the monthly challenge. When I get this done, I'll copy and paste it over to WdC and have my journal entry done, too. Then it's just relax and take it easy for a while, before heading off to bed. It got late on me last night, and I ended up not getting to bed until after eleven. Then, to top it off, I couldn't get to sleep right away. I did finally fall asleep, but it must have been almost midnight before I was asleep. Of course, I did wake up and have to go to the bathroom once during the night, too. So, I'm about shot today and fighting off the desire to take a nap, as well as trying not to fall asleep in my chair. I did get rested up good over my three days off, and I did pretty good today at work. I wasn't really tired until after I got home and ate lunch. Then, as the afternoon progressed, I just kept getting more and more tired. Now, I'm kind of feeling a little more awake again. My headache is getting better, too. I had a terrible headache earlier this afternoon, probably from not drinking much coffee yesterday or today. I'm cutting back on my consumption and of course the caffeine withdrawals are part of the reason I feel so tired, and also why I'm getting headaches. But, I did good yesterday, only drinking a total of five cups all day. Normally I drink a full put by myself, and probably even more. I have a cup in the morning, then a take a big cup -- it holds two eight ounce cups -- to work. My cups are regular drinking cups, so probably ten to twelve ounces, but I count them as one cup. Anyway, I then take a full thermos to work and may or may not finish it, but after I get home I have another four or five cups, sometimes more before the day ends. I haven't counted how many, but I would take an educated guess at ten to twelve cups a day. Now, I'm down to five. Once I get accustom to drinking just the five cups, I will taper it back a little more. It's getting warmer, so the coffee isn't quite as desired as when it was so frigid cold. As it warms up more, I will be drinking more water, and that will help cut back on the coffee, too. If I can get down to four cups of coffee a day, I will be happy. Then again, I may just hold out at five, where I'm at now, too. I do enjoy my coffee, and if I have a couple of cups in the morning, one with lunch, and one with supper, I'm already at four cups, that leaves one more in the evening while I relax and work online. Yep, four or five cups should be fine. I guess I don't have to cut back more, just get use to what I'm drinking now. |
| I almost forgot to log in and make my journal entry. It's already past my bedtime and just as I get ready to get up and get ready for bed, I remember I need to write in my journal yet today. Even more important than just making the journal entry is writing at least 750 words for the day in, you guessed it, 750 Words. I did take the March challenge, after all. So, I almost forgot and that would have cost my my goal of writing 750 words a day for the entire month. Why? Just got busy and forgot, nothing else. It's not that I had a bad day, I didn't. In fact, I had a great day. I had today off, my third day in a row for this week. Rhonda had to work, however, so we got up a little earlier than we have been the last two days. I had coffee with her, then she got ready for work and I walked her out to the van. We had just gotten it out of the shop, for the same problem it was in for before. Once again, it ran like crap. The same thing as it's been doing, and still not fixed. Of course, the mechanic did not charge us for this last visit, since he really didn't find a lot wrong. He cleaned the EGR valve, but wasn't sure if that was the problem. He let it sit overnight and tried to get it to run bad the next day, but it was running like a charm. So we brought it home, and it was fine. We didn't drive it anyplace, just parked it and let it sit until today. Then this morning when Rhonda started it, we were right back at square one. So, I had her open the hood, and I just kind of nosed around looking to see if I could find anything that may be causing the problem. It seemed unlikely, but as I unhooked the air filter container, it corrected the problem and it ran fine. I'm not sure what the problem was, but I know it's something in the duct work for the air cleaner. There are a couple of things hooked to it, but I don't know for sure what they are, and what's causing the problem. I unplugged the one thing, and it died just like that, so I suspect it is the source of our problem. Tomorrow, I will pull it apart and see if there is something that needs cleaning or if there is something lose in there. I may also talk to the mechanic about it and see if he has any ideas. So, even though it started out kind of bad, we found the area the problem is in, and now it's just a matter of time before we have it fixed. Maybe I can do it myself, and if not, at least I can tell the mechanic what I did to make it run right. It's likely he had been messing with this while working on the EGR valve, and without knowing it, he had jarred it enough to run right. Then, after Rhonda left for work, I made myself some lunch and set down to get some things done online. I remembered I had not sent my e-report off, so I did that and received a nice email back from my boss. Then it was a little time to check a few things out, log into my MFP and Facebook pages, then into WdC. I got things done, made a comment on the three word Thursday, then set out to find a few items that may work for the WdC Anthology. I found three I like, and edited two of them. The third was already edited and ready to go. After, I checked word counts and then read through them again. It took a few reads to work out everything, but soon enough I had both items edited and done. I will look through them again, probably tomorrow, and make sure the mechanics are good. Then, it's time to enter them into the Anthology to see if any get selected. It would be so awesome to have one of my items chosen to go into the Anthology, and of course I would have to purchase a copy. It requires 10k of gift points donated with each entry submitted, so I will have to provide 30k gift points. That means I'll have to get busy and start earning them back. I know, it will take a while to earn 30,000 gift points. It's not so much for the gift points, as it is motivation to do some activities in here, like contests, reading and reviewing, and just making the time to enjoy the site. After I finished, Rhonda sat down and listened as I read the selected items to her, and she thought they were all three very good. Two items are short prose, the other is a short poem. I also like all three, and that's why I'm submitting all three of them. After I read them, Rhonda took me into the bedroom and took advantage of me. I wish I could say my items moved her this deeply, but she had already been threatening me with this action before she went to work. After, we enjoyed a nice dinner I had prepared before she arrived at home from work, then relaxed in front of the television for some Netflix and ice cream. Now, it's time for bed; past time for bed and that's where I'm headed. |
| ere I am, and here we go. Day twelve of the month, and getting close to half way through the March challenge. So far, I've done good and made every entry on time in here, in 750 words. However, I did make one of them late enough that by the time I copied it over to Writing dot Com, it registered on the following day. Of course, it is an hour later at Writing dot Com than it is in South Dakota. So, on time for me, but after midnight on site. Not that it makes a bug difference in Writing dot Com, but I do like to see the full month covered without missing a day. In here, in 750 Words, it does make a difference, as it restarts the count for days of writing without missing, and with the Monthly challenge, it means winning or losing the challenge. Today is one more day down and my second day off this week. I get three this week and I'm glad because they are going by way too fast. I didn't get a lot done over the past two days, but I did get a little bit taken care of. We took the van in for repairs and have that back again. I also fixed up a new seat for my fishing, especially ice fishing. I don't think I will get much use out of it this season anymore, but next year. We still have ample ice, but it is melting fast in the nice weather we are having. Not that I'm complaining, I have had enough of the cold for one season. Hopefully things work out so I can get out and try out the seat I rigged up, but who knows what is in store. I know I would enjoy another restful day tomorrow at home with the dogs instead of getting out on the ice. I would enjoy it even more if Rhonda was home, but the third day off each week is only a result of one of us working and the other staying home. So, one week I work Thursday and Rhonda gets it off, then the following week she works and I get to stay home. By this summer, if all works out right, we will both have three days off each week. Of course, I'm sure there will be some weeks we fill in for someone, but most of the double coverage season should be with three days off each week. Of course, the days we work will be long ones, especially for me, since I will be doing one twelve hour day, one eleven hour day, one eight hour day, and one six hour day. That's a full week for our job; I know, it adds up to thirty seven hours, but with over lapping shifts, it will be closer to thirty eight hours with two to prevent going into overtime if someone is late. Rhonda will also pick up six more hours and still get an extra day off every second week, or three days off a week. She will only have one long day of twelve hours, but that's enough. I have it figured out for her to have the long day the last day before her three days off, which will make it easier for getting rested up again after working that long. Of course half of the twelve hour day will be with another person to assist, so it shouldn't be to exhausting. Mine would be terrible except I also have someone assisting the busy afternoons, and my last day is a short six hour day after working a twelve on Friday, my first day back, then eleven on Saturday, and eight on Sunday. Yep, after that, a six hour day will be great, then three days off. Of course, that only works if we continue to have a full crew and they pull their shifts without a lot of missing work. I think we are setting pretty good with the crew we have, but I never know. About the time it seems everyone is content and things are doing fine, I find someone who is looking for other work, needs time off for something, or just up and quits. It's been that way for a year and a half so far, and I'm ready for a break from that. Hopefully this year is that break and things will be different. I would really enjoy seeing things work according to the schedule and according to plan for the whole summer and even longer. |
| It's later than I intended tonight; I was planning on getting this entry written up this afternoon, but ended up spending most of the day messing with my new netbook. It's not my first netbook, but it's my new one and I had a lot of setting up to do. See, this is how it all took place. I received an early Christmas present from Rhonda back in November, a netbook. The first one was purchased at Walmart on lay-a-way, and when we picked it up in November I was pretty excited and eager to try it out. I brought it home, unpacked it and followed the directions, and when it powered on, nothing. It started, it loaded, but there was no image. I called support and they tried to walk me through a few things, but nothing would work. It was clear that Windows had loaded, but the image did not show. In the end, they determined it was the graphics card. They being the companies technical support. They informed me that I could send it in for repairs, covered under the warranty. Only, it was brand new, not even a day old. So, we decided to return it to Walmart. We called and they said that we could bring it back in for an exchange. We did, but they did not have anymore in stock and it would be a week or two before they got more in. I asked if they would contact us when they came in, but I already knew they would not, and if the new shipment sold out before I got there, I would have to wait even longer. Mark one up for past experience. We were unsure, but decided to check with Target to see if they had anything similar, and they did. We rushed over, since it was getting to be closing time, and went right back to electronics and picked out the same netbook. Only they had one a little more fancy on display right next to it, for just a little more money. Same brand, same everything, only a little bigger hard drive and it had a touch screen. We ended up with the fancier one, and again we headed for home. This one required charging before I could use it, so it was set up, plugged in, and charging that night. I had to work the next morning, so we went to bed and left it for later. I worked the shift and then came home to try it out. It had the new windows 8 on it, and I had to set up everything as well as learn how to use it. It took a while but soon enough I was enjoying my early gift. But, I noticed some things just did not work right. For one thing, the screen would not dim. Also, a program I had installed would not work, even though it seemed to be working. It seemed like something in the display was not operating right. Then, I seen I could do an upgrade to Windows 8.1 for free, and the Windows store recommended it, so I did. It worked fine, and I liked the changes in the Windows. Also, my brightness started to work. Only, there still seemed to be a little glitch from time to time. Then, I downloaded Google Chrome and logged in to my Google account. In the process, some toolbar thing from Zynga got on my new netbook. It was on my laptop, I suppose from playing Farmville. I had to install an anti-spyware program to get it off, and again things seemed fine with my laptop. But I didn't have the program on my netbook to remove the spyware. I didn't have a lot on it at all, so I decided to just re-install everything to factory specs and start over. I did, and I thought everything was fine, only now I was not getting the link to upgrade back to Windows 8.1. I looked on the Windows site and found it, upgraded, and found some of the old glitches had returned. Then, I didn't use it for a few days, and when I did turn it on, it took forever to load Windows. There was nothing, just a gray screen. I shut down and restarted and this time it loaded fine. After, I shut it down, and the other day turned it on to find it would not load Windows at all. I tried everything to get into Safe Mode, to get into my BIOS, but nothing would work. It just showed a gray screen. So, I was going to box it up and send it in under the warranty, but in the process of boxing it up, I dropped the thing. Yep, the impact busted the touch screen. Luckily we had purchased extended protection on it, and it covered damage and spills. Even better, now I did not have to send it in, I could return it to Target. I had Rhonda run it over there while I worked last night and she exchanged it for a brand new netbook. It's the same thing, just new, and this one does not have any of the glitches. It's nice to see everything is working the way it's suppose to, right out of the box. Only, I had to put my programs back on, load my apps, and set everything up again. I also had to disable my old machine from some of the applications like OneDrive, and MS Office 365. I also had to set up my security program and my password program, download programs, and get things all set up, again. I also took some time to play and try out some of the applications that I have, that I didn't get a chance to try out with my old machine. Those glitches I mentioned seemed to inhibit some of the applications from working right, too. So, all in all, I had a great day, I enjoyed myself, and I have my new netbook set up and ready to use. In fact, I have it set up better than the old one, things work right, and I'm looking forward to using it for a lot of items I didn't use the old one for. |
| Monday afternoon, well, two minutes after noon. Getting in here this early is pretty good. Not that I have much choice, I either need to get in here early today or I'm going to have to hustle when I get home tonight. Normally I work mornings, but I switched with another guard and work his closing shift tonight. That means I won't get done work until about ten thirty and home around eleven or a little after. Nope, that's just too late, and since I'm use to getting to bed by nine at the latest, I'm going to be shot by then, too. It's been a pretty good day so far. We brought the van back in to the shop, it's still doing the same thing, only even worse now. It's odd, we just had it in, and he found a collapsed vacuum line. He replaced it, run it a little and everything was doing great. Rhonda drove it a little after she picked it up, and no problems. She drove it to work and again, it worked fine, then the next trip it started to act up a little. Now, it will barely run at first. After it's warmed up, it seems to run better, but try and keep it running long enough to warm up. And, it's doing the exact same thing it did before. Hopefully it's something little, the line came undone, or the actuator the line operates needs a good cleaning. The Jimmy isn't running the best, either. It was barely starting, but after I changed the spark plugs it was better. It's still starting kind of hard, but not as bad as it was. Well, not yet. It seems to be getting worse, too. I stopped to pick up a new distributor cap and rotor, hoping that will fix it, but they had to order it. It should be in tomorrow morning, and maybe we can make a trip in to get it. We both have the next few days off, so it would be a good time to change the cap and rotor out. It would also be a nice opportunity to try the van out if he has it fixed in time. Again, I'll be hopeful that it's something little, a quick and inexpensive fix. I'm also going to be hopeful that the cap and rotor will fix the Jimmy and we will have them both running nice again. It's another nice day here, currently fifty degrees and the snow is melting fast. Of course, that creates another problem, mud. The fast melt is making everything muddy, and it won't take long for our driveway to turn into a soupy mess at this rate. Most of it is pretty good, but there is one area that always gets muddy. Hopefully it will thaw fast, drain fast and be solid again soon. But, they are saying it's likely we will get rain tonight, turning over to snow by morning. Some forecasts say up to three inches of new snow, others say an inch. I'm not sure if that's with the rain, and we will see very little snow, or if that's how much snow after the rain ends. I will check it again later and see if they have any updates, but hopefully that will miss us, too. Although, the rain would be alright, it would melt off the rest of the snow, clean things up nice, and drive the frost out of the ground so the mud can dry up. But, if we have to take snow and ice with it, I'll pass and just wait for the sun to melt and dry things up. I don't want to drive home in freezing rain, on icy roads, and sticky, sloppy snow. Besides, if it's bad, I may have to go in and work tomorrow as well, and I would just as soon have the day off, like I should. So, the weather can miss us, or just stay warm enough to rain tonight and tomorrow. No ice, no snow, just a soft gentle rain to clean things up and get rid of the snow and thaw out the ground. Now, as I near my quota of 750 words, I'm going to take a few minutes to find something to eat, then hopefully get some reading and reviewing done in Writing Dot Com after I copy and past this entry. So far, I'm doing great in here, 750 Words, and am now one third of the way through the March challenge. I did miss one day in Writing Dot Com, but only because their time is an hour later than mine. All in all, doing good with the journal and doing great with the March challenge. Just twenty one days left to go. |
| I made it in here a little earlier tonight. Once again, however, I had planned on logging in and making this entry in the afternoon, after work. I ended up taking a nap instead. I don't understand why I have been so tired and run down these last few weeks, but I just can't seem to keep my eyes open by the time I get home from work. Hopefully this week will get me rested up and back to my old self again. With the week starting on Sunday, as is the same for our work week, it should be a pretty restful week for me. Even with the time change this morning it wasn't difficult to get up, but I did have the typical jet-lag syndrome I usually go through. Sundays are my sleep in day of work, not having to be there until eight. This means I don't get up until six o'clock compared to three. Of course, I was getting up at five or five-thirty for a while, until I started having trouble with being so run down and tired again. So, with the time change, it was still a nice sleep in from my regular morning routine of being up at three. I had gotten to bed relatively early, and had received about as much sleep as I usually do, but by the time I got to work, I felt kind of out of sorts. I had started out fine this morning, but it just felt like I was going in too early. This is typical for me, and it takes a while to adjust to the time difference. I managed all right, though and by noon I was getting ready to come home. I got out of work by twelve-thirty and went to County Fair to pick up a few groceries, then came home and put things away. I had also picked up some Oriental food and heated that up for my lunch, and logged into a few social sites while I ate. After, I cleaned up my mess and got settled in to do some stuff in here, but I was soon nodding off at the computer. This is how it's been for the last few weeks, I get home and I am tired, but it seems like after I eat, I'm exhausted. I shook it off, sat up a bit and started reading again, only to find myself waking up a few minutes later. I thought about going to the kitchen table and trying to sit there, knowing it would be more difficult to fall asleep there, but then changed my mind. My thinking was, "If I'm so tired I'm falling asleep in my chair, I must need more rest." So, I put my things up, went to the bathroom, and then snuggled into bed for an afternoon nap. I no more than got settled into the sheets and snuggled into my pillow, and I was out. I thought I was smelling something very wonderful cooking, but I don't know if it was actually the smell of food cooking or if I just dreamed it. I woke to the phone. Rhonda calls me after she is done work, and before she drives home. It was her calling and when I got up, I no longer smelled the delightful aroma I had smelled in my sleep. After I talked to her for a few minutes, I got myself a cup of coffee to try and get woke up more and loosen the cobwebs from my brain. I also started getting things ready for dinner. Soon I was cooking and finishing my coffee. I had it just about ready to go into the oven when Rhonda pulled into the driveway. She assisted with the rest of the items for dinner, and soon enough we were enjoying a wonderful meal and watching a little Netflix. After, I washed up and got into my robe for the evening while Rhonda took the dogs out, then I logged in here to get this written and my entry done for today. I'm writing it again, in 750 Words, and will copy and paste it into my journal. I took the march challenge to write everyday, so I wanted to get this done while I was still mostly awake, and before I spaced it out and forgot it completely, or something. Once again, I didn't get much else done, but I did get a bit more sleep, and tomorrow, I get to sleep in again. Normally I would be up at three in the morning on Monday for work, but I switched out with another guard so he could get done work early in the day. He will work my morning shift and I will work his closing shift tomorrow night. Then Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday I am off. Of course, if the weather turns nasty I may have to work, but hopefully it will be nice all week and I can get the next four days to sleep in, and three of them off of work completely. I'm looking forward to resting, having some fun, and getting more time in Writing dot Com to read, review, and hopefully get something written. |
| Not quite so late tonight, but late none the less. It's actually about nine o'clock in the evening here in South Dakota, on the east side of the state, but my clocks all read about ten, since we have to make the time switch to daylight savings time tonight. I don't really understand why we continue to do this, since it doesn't save any time at all. We still get the same twenty four hours in each day, and we still only get the same number of hours of sunshine. All that we do is change the time we have to enjoy the sunshine. How that's suppose to save us an hour of daylight, I don't know. I guess I never actually investigated the whole thing, but I know it was originally set up for an agricultural society. Of course, the guy who came up with this hair-brained idea wasn't a farmer anyway, so he wouldn't have a clue how things work. Here in our area, we have a lot of farms, some small, some not so small. Many of the farms are dairy farms, and they milk the cows twice a day, just like back in Ben's day. And having worked in a dairy, on the milk receiving end, I know how important it is for the trucks to make their runs on time. They have to get the milk tanks on the farms empty in time for the morning milking and the evening milking. If they don't, the farmer cannot milk his cows on time, and it causes a lot of problems. See, The farmer milks at the same time every day. Let's say he milks at five in the morning and five at night. As long as he holds to this schedule, the cows are happy, production is up, and everything goes great. But if he messes with the schedule, the cows are not happy and will make milking difficult, production drops, quality and milk fat drop, and the cows can actually get infections and have health problems from it. So, here's our farmer milking the cows at five in the morning and five in the afternoon. He does this day in and day out, like -- well like clock work. He get's up every morning at three-thirty, and turns in at eight every night. Now, here comes Ben with his daylight savings time. He figures he can give the farmer another hour of daylight to get all his work done by simply turning the clock one hour ahead. So, now the farmer gets up at four-thirty and milks his cows at six in the morning and at six at night. He has to readjust everything for the time difference, because the cows don't adjust to daylight savings time. Only, when he milked at five, he would be done by six, and able to be back in the house by seven to get kids ready for school. Now, he is not back in by seven, because the kids, school, everything is set to daylight savings time but the cows are still on standard time and changing the milking schedule will only cost him in the end, and come fall, he would only have to do it all over again. Of course, he goes to bed at nine now, since he gets up at four-thirty, and of course his body clock is already in tune with these times, because they are the same times he was getting up and going to bed before the change. Well, technically they are the same time, just the clock reads different. Only the rest of his family is adjusting to the reading on the clock, and now the entire household is out of sync. So, how did this help him out? What did he gain? for that matter, what do any of us gain? From a business view, it is a costly adjustment to go through every year. From a personal view, it is difficult to adjust to the change and causes fatigue and difficulty for a lot of people. For professionals, it can create problems. All around, it serves no purpose except negative ones. We are creatures of habit and routine, and do well with a nice schedule. But daylight savings time only alters our schedule and upsets our routine. As for the daylight, I lose an hours worth of it every morning and gain an hour at night. Since I work very early, it means I have more of my day in the dark and less of it in the light. Yes, it will cost me daylight. How you ask. Simple mathematics; see I get up at three in the morning and am at work by five. Right now, it's getting light around six or a little after, and soon it would be dawn shortly after five in the morning. So, with the time change, I will have an hour more dark in the morning now. Also, since I get up so early, I try and go to bed around eight. Right now, it's dark already by then, but soon enough it will be light for another hour. Only with the time change, it will be two more hours of light after I am in bed sleeping. So, I get another hour of dark in the morning and don't get to enjoy the two hours of light at the end of the day. No savings there, unless I switch over to about five or six hours of sleep a night. So, what's the purpose? Why do we go through this every spring and every fall? It's like cutting a board off an inch too short for the job, so you cut an inch off the top to add to the bottom thinking it will make the board longer. Nope, just went through a whole lot of effort to end up with the exact same thing. |
| Late again. I have to get a handle on these late nights and start getting this written sooner. I had good intention of writing this entry early this afternoon, but I was so tired I couldn't keep my eyes open. I ended up falling asleep in my chair and taking an hour and a half nap. When I did wake up, I warmed up some leftover beef soup and had a bite to eat, then took myself a nice hot bath. After a nice soak in the tub, I felt a whole lot better. I decided to get supper going and then get online. So, I set about making a nice big pot of chili, and once that was done, I settled down in my chair once again with my laptop and checked Facebook and MFP. After a quick look through them, I opened my e-mail and looked through everything in there. I had a message from Rhonda and one from my brother. I read what he had to say, wrote a reply, and then opened the letter from Rhonda. After reading her message, I wrote out a reply for her, too. I was still writing it when she came home from work. The afternoon was gone. I talked to her for a few minutes and gave her a nice kiss and held her close. We started kissing and things progressed right into the bedroom. I did manage to get the potatoes started before we got lost in each other, and Rhonda set the timer so we would not burn them. Then it was off to the bedroom and just as things started to come to a peak, the timer went off. Of course, this far into the passionate interlude, we did not pay much attention to the timer and continued on. Soon we were lost into each other as the passion reached it's peak and exploded around us. Now, as we lay together, lost in the loving afterglow, things began to settle back into perspective. We needed to get up and tend to dinner. Also, to emphasize this point, we could smell something burning. We got up and I went to the kitchen to investigate, sure the potatoes would be scorched black. But they weren't. They were looking just fine, and ready to be turned over. I stirred the chili, being careful of the bottom, but this was also just fine. The chili and potatoes were not burnt at all. Something in the oven must have spilled and was now burning off, that's all. Supper turned out great, and we enjoyed a nice meal, then fed the dogs and took them out for the last time tonight. We settled back in to our chairs and put a show on Netflix and watched about half, then had some ice cream and finished watching tv. I was ready to go jump into bed and get to sleep, being very tired, and that's when I remembered that I had not written in my journal yet. Not only would I have missed the day, but I would have also failed at my monthly challenge in 750 Words. Luckily I had remembered, and now here I am, writing this entry once again in 750 Words and I will copy and paste it into Writing dot Com when I'm done. It's not the easiest entry to write since I am so terribly tired. I find my eyes just do not want to stay open, and I think I could fall asleep typing if I let myself. I don't know why I'm so tired, it wasn't a bead day at all. Yesterday I was going on about two hour of sleep, and I understood being tired, but last night I got about seven hours of sleep, about what's normal for me, so I should not be this tired. It's been like this for the last few weeks, too. I thought at first I was coming down with something, but now I'm feeling better, just tired. I don't understand it, but it's likely the weather and just a long, cold winter. I suppose that's a big part of it, and once we get a bit of sunshine, I'll feel just fine again. At least I hope so. I don't like being so tired I can't function, it messes up my afternoon, and that the only time I have to do anything. Well when I have to work early, anyway. I should have a good week and get some good rest, too. Well, not actually this week, it will be next week, but by my schedule, I will finish my week of work on Monday and have Tuesday through Thursday off. I also get to sleep in on Monday, since I switched with another guard and will work closing instead of opening. For now, though, I have my 750 words done so I'm off to bed. |
| Time just goes by too fast. It's not real late but late enough considering I should be in bed in another hour and a half. Of course, taking a two hour nap today kind of took a big chunk of time right out of the middle of my day. I try not to nap most days I work, but since I only had two hours of sleep last night I thought it would alright to take one today. Now, I'm still tired and should be able to sleep tonight without any problems, but I didn't get much of anything done today after work. I did, but I didn't, if that makes any sense. I got home and enjoyed a nice lunch with Rhonda, the we both sat back and enjoyed a cup of coffee and talked a little while. After, I got online and checked a few things, but was too tired to do much. I went in and lay down, knowing Rhonda would soon notice I wan't in my chair. She did, and even as she did she asked if I was going to take a nap. She come around the corner and there I am, in bed, ready for sleep. I guess that's a yes. She was tired as well, so she snuggled up to me and we soon were both sound a sleep. Then, after our nap, we had a cup of coffee and Rhonda called the garage to see what the story was with the van. He had not had a chance to look at it yet, but was just getting started on it when she called. We enjoyed our coffee, discussed a few things and then the phone rang. The van was ready to go, just a little problem with a vacuum line collapsing and less then ten bucks to fix. We got ready and I gave Rhonda a ride over to pick up the van, then came home and cleaned out my parking area of snow. She was soon home and took the dogs up to pay the water bill and pick up the mail. By the time she returned, I had finished cleaning up the snow from the area I park and had the Jimmy moved. She pulled in and let the dogs out, brought the mail in, and then we exercised the dogs for a while. It was nice out today, in the lower forties, but windy. Very windy. The roads were terrible this morning as a result of blowing and drifting, and it did not get any better all day. It wasn't until late this evening that the wind let up and the blowing stopped. Now, it's suppose to stay pretty nice most of the night, then tomorrow the temperature will begin to drop and bottom out below zero, again. We may also see some light rain this evening, turning to light snow after midnight. That means the roads will be wicked to drive on by morning. As it is, they are going to be terrible from the blowing snow. There's slush in areas, other's are wet, and when the temperature drops later tonight, it's all going to turn to ice. We don't need any freezing rain and snow on top of it. At least it's not suppose to stay very cold, and we should be back up into the twenties tomorrow afternoon. But, holding to the normal pattern for this winter, the wind will blow hard again, so the wind chill will be down there. It seems like this cold is just never going to end. I know it will, but it sure is putting up a fight. I suppose when it finally ends, we will get just the opposite. Well maybe we will. We could get a cold and windy spring too, I reckon. But then again, it could turn into one of those very hot and dry springs. That to me would be the most likely, to go from a relatively dry winter to a very dry spring and summer. Also, since we had very little for warm south winds over the winter, and then when we did, they warmed us up for a day or two before the cold arctic air would move back in from another low pressure system, it's likely we will see just the opposite this spring and summer. We will get a mass of cold air come down and give us a nice day or two, but very windy, then the south wind will blow hot, dry air back into the area. Of course, there is no way to know. Even the weather man can't get it right for more than a half a day it seems. We could get the weather I mentioned, or any other combination of weather. After all, this is South Dakota, and the only thing consistent with the weather is not knowing what it's going to do. I don't think there is a normal weather for this state, and if there is, it could only be termed, inconsistent. That's our normal weather -- inconsistent. |
| Wednesday night -- already!! Wow, it got real late on me tonight. Not that it matters here so much but it does in WDC. in here, in 750 Words, it's only going on ten o'clock, but in WDC it's already tomorrow. Of course, here in South Dakota, it's almost tomorrow, too. Almost but not quite. That means I made it in today, and that is the main thing. Not that it would be a crime to miss a day of my journal but it would be a disappointment for me. I may not write much, or anything of interest, but I write every day and that makes me feel good. I feel pretty damn good today, too. Tomorrow will be hell, but today is a feel good day. It was my second day off this week, and my last day off. I slept in some, but not anything that granted me an excess of sleep, since I was up until one in the morning. After getting up, it was some coffee and then we, Rhonda and I, got busy. We had purchased quite a bit of meat that was on sale on Monday night, and we needed to get it put away. We had put it in the fridge, but had not separated and packaged any of it. We had picked up a big pork loin and a bulk package of ground beef. So, this morning after coffee, we set about dividing things up and putting them in the freezer. The ground beef wasn't any trouble, just weigh it out for proper size and package it, then in the freezer it went. The pork loin was a bit more work, however. I cut a nice size loin roast off, then sliced some nice loin chops. I also cut the ends off for grinding. When I finished with the chops, I was near the end and it was kind of flat and odd shaped, so I cut a couple of chunks off for what ever we decide we want. Possibly it will be something oriental but who knows. The ends got trimmed and then cut into chunks for grinding, then an equal amount of ground beef was set aside. I mixed up some seasonings and ground the meat up, then mixed in the seasoning and we made some breakfast sausage and some Italian sausage. I also combined the left over spices and made a pound of hot and spicy pizza sausage. Rhonda assisted and we enjoyed the task, then we cleaned up and set out to eat a little brunch. Only now it was getting past lunch time, so brunch maybe isn't the best term. After we ate, we went out to shovel snow, having gotten about six to eight inches yesterday and last night. It was nice out, 44 degrees and mild winds. Rhonda worked on the end of the drive while I cleaned out around vehicles. Then, after I had it cleaned up pretty good, I cleaned off the vehicles and then cleaned up around them a second time. I was just finishing up when a guy pulled into the drive with a little loader and asked if we wanted some help cleaning up the snow. He was talking to Rhonda, but I went over as well. he wanted to know what all we needed to shovel out yet, so I told him I wanted to widen the drive a little and we needed to get to the front door. He also finished the drive, and widened it to the east, too. It was nice to have him help out, he saved us a lot of time and even more work. The snow in front of the house was deeper, and the stuff on the side of the drive was packed and hard. He made a big job a little task with the loader, and soon he had us all cleaned out. I offered to pay him but he would have none of it. He even offered to clean it out again, when we get more snow. He cleans out a woman's drive to the east of us, that he is related to, and said to just wave him in if we want some snow cleaned out of our drive. He was very nice, did a great job, and like I said, saved us a lot of hard work. After he left, we backed the van up to the front door, since he had cleared a nice area for us, loaded up the garbage and drove to the dump. The van hesitated and died on us a couple of times, but restarted right off. I'm not sure what the problem is, but know it needs attention. So when we returned form the dump, Rhonda drove it over to the shop and I picked her up. The mechanic thinks it may just be some valve that needs cleaning and is going to check things out tomorrow for us. After we got back home it was time for dinner, so Rhonda worked on that while I downloaded some songs, then we chatted and listened to music all night. Well, late into the night. We danced a few times, but the last song was an even hotter dance. Nothing fancy, just a slow dance, but Rhonda was feeling a little frisky and the kissing and snuggling she was doing while we danced soon had me feeling pretty frisky, too. So we took some time and enjoyed a little passionate interlude before getting in here. Now, I'm almost done and then need to get to get to bed. It's after midnight and I have to be up by three tomorrow morning. The wind picked up and it's blowing snow out, so I will have a slippery and snowy drive to work, then lots of snow to clean up, I'm sure, when I get there. It's also suppose to be blustery winds tomorrow and it's going to make for a cold and tiring day. Of course, once I get back home, I will take a nap, and Rhonda, who has the day off, will make sure I don't sleep too long. So, for now, this is it. Wednesday's entry, even though it says Thursdays. I also have my day in for my March challenge for 750 Words, and still doing great. |
| I better get this done or it's not going on today's date. It's getting late so I need to hustle up and get this done. There's no particular reason it got so late, just enjoying a day off. Hopefully it's the first of two this week, but the weather may force me to work tomorrow morning. Maybe, but I won't know until morning. Of course, I am hoping that I won't, and my hopes are based on the fact that I haven't been called yet. Usually if he can't make it in, he calls the night before, so I'm thinking he is planning on working, but like I said, I won't know for sure until tomorrow morning. It's not a bad snow, just a typical March snowfall. No strong winds blowing and drifting the snow around, it's not warm enough to make the snow pack and turn to ice on the roads, and it's not real cold out, either. Just right to get a lot of light, fluffy snow on the ground, and that's just what we have, is a good four or five inches of fluffy snow. The weather report said one to three inches, but it's high enough the door pushes it when I go out, so at least four, more likely five and still snowing. I don't mind, as long as I don't have to drive in tomorrow because the other guard can't. But, enough about the snow, it's March and we tend to get most of our snow this month. As for my day off, it has been a good one, even though I didn't get much of anything done. I did get the van repaired, or at least rigged up enough to hold things together until it gets nicer out and I can do a better job. Yes, the van we just purchased. I had to go in to work last night to talk to the closing guard and go over a few things with him. After, we picked up a few groceries and then headed for home. Just as we were leaving town, the van sputtered and died. I tried to restart it, but it wouldn't restart. This has happened before, but it usually only sputters a little then runs fine again. I was planning on taking it in for a diagnostic to see why it's doing this, but now it died completely. Then when it did restart, it only run a couple of minutes and did the same thing. I was able to get off the highway and try and restart it again, and it did restart, but it sputtered and chugged, barely running. I couldn't smell gas, so I didn't think it was flooding, and since it was running, although very poorly, I didn't think it was anything with the ignition. That only leaves the option of not enough gas, and that seemed likely. Eventually it did restart and run fine, so we set out again, and in a few minutes, it died again. We did get it to restart again, and took the back way home, just in case it did die again we would not be on the main highway. But it seemed to run fine the rest of the way home. Only, I did not know it was going to, so I was trying to keep the RPM's up a bit to prevent it from stalling again. This meant we had the speed up pretty good and of course, a critter just had to run out in front of us. Now, I said the speed was up there pretty good, but not excessive, mind you. We were not speeding, and in fact were just under the speed limit. I kept the RPM's up, while keeping the speed about sixty miles per hour. We were cruising right along and here comes this raccoon out on the road, crosses and just as he gets to the opposite shoulder of the road, he turns at the last minute and runs right back in front of us. There was no time to do anything, just drive over him. So, I did. I don't like to run over any animals, not even the gophers that sit out on the road and play chicken. But sometimes there just isn't anything a person can do. This was one of them times, and it would not have made any difference if the van had been running good or not, the raccoon played chicken and lost simply because there was no time to stop and no place to go. He ran right out in front of us and hit the bumper, then went under the driver's side front tire, then the driver's side back tire. At least I know he did not suffer, the impact would have killed him instantly, and if by some chance it had not, the tires going over him would have finished the task. Of course, with the van not running right, I couldn't slow down or stop to do anything. So we continued on, only we could hear something rubbing. It wasn't bad, but it was something against the tire. No, it wasn't Rodney Raccoon, although I at first thought this same thing. But, I felt both tires go over the carcass, so I knew it could not be. That meant it had to be part of the vehicle, although I didn't have any idea what part it might be. We made it home with no further problems with the vehicle or the animals, and once I was parked in the driveway, I looked to see what was rubbing. The cowling under the bumper had busted loose and was pushed back into the tire by the wind created by driving. At slow speeds and sitting still, it just hung down, but when the vehicle was in motion at moderate to higher speeds the wind would pull the cowling back enough to rub against the tire. It had rubbed a small hole into the the inside fender of the cowling, but not bad. It looked terrible but it was all superficial damage. Even so, I imagine that cowling would cost a couple hundred dollars and then ti would need painting which would bring it up even higher. Instead, the options were to rip it the rest of the way off, which wouldn't cause any problems, but would like like hell, or to find a way to reattach it. I did figure out a way to put some stiff, heavy plastic behind the broken area of the cowling and then use screws to secure it in place. This in turn also secured the cowling and it doesn't look very bad. It will need to be redone when the weather is nicer, and I may even be able to use a cement or epoxy to secure things, so the screws will not be there. If not, they can be painted to match the cowling's color and look pretty good. Now, I just need to install some kind of cow catcher on the front to protect it from anything else. |
| I made it in a little earlier today. I should have already had this written, but things didn't play out according to the plan. I had intended to write this out earlier this afternoon, right after work. But, by the time I finished making some vegetable beef soup from scratch I was beat. I did sit down and log online, but didn't get much done at all. I read my e-mail, and the next thing I knew I was waking up from a brief nap here in my chair. I had fallen asleep while looking at an image and slept for about ten minutes. I woke up with a stiff neck and decided I would take a short nap, since I wasn't going to get anything done by nodding off in my chair. Well, except for the possibility of dropping my laptop or getting even more of a kink in my neck. So, I put my stuff up, crawled into bed and got all snuggled in, only to remember I had the soup simmering on the stove. So, I had to get back up and move it to the oven, with the heat at 200 degrees. Then, I crawled back under the sheet and soon fell into a deep, sound sleep. I woke about forty minutes later from an interesting dream because I had to go to the bathroom. I was still very tired, so I went back to bed after I finished, and soon was right back a sleep. I had drank too much coffee to sleep for very long, and after about forty minutes more I was again awake, having to relieve my bladder again. This time I stayed up and tried a bowl of my soup, then logged into MyFitnessPal and after that, into Facebook. After a quick rundown of the newest feeds I logged out and started this. I had intended to write down my dream, but after going back to sleep, most of it has vanished into a fog with only bits and pieces left to memory. I wish I had stayed up the first time and written down what I could remember, but nothing I can do about it now. What I do remember is the central theme of the dream, but not any of the details. I was camping, in the Black Hills I think. It was hilly and there was a lake I was camping by. I had a nice secluded area to set my tent up in, sheltered by pines, and right by the lake. I don't think it was a campground and I was alone. In what I can remember of the dream, I was taking some pictures of the lake and the scenic area around me. I had walked a short distance from my campsite, after checking the fire and moving the coffee back away from the heat. I think it was early morning, since there was coffee. I was just coming back to my camp when I noticed a very nice looking woman kneeling by my fire, which should have burned down by now. Only, she was putting more wood on it so it was burning quite nice. She had moved the coffee back over the flames, too. I stopped and watched, not knowing who this was, or why she was messing around by the fire. She soon had the coffee hot, and took my cup and poured it full of steaming coffee. She sipped at the coffee and looked around a bit, then returned to the fire. She stayed close to the flames for a while, sipping coffee, then dumped the remainder of the cup out in the grass, stirred the fire around a little, and moved the coffee pot back away from the flames. She just sat there, then, and watched the flames. She was very pretty, but looked kind of ragged and run down. She was dressed in a t-shirt and shorts, and with the light of the fire, it was plain she was not wearing anything under the t-shirt. She stretched and yawned, and as I started to step out from the shelter of the trees she stood up and went to the tent. I watched as she unzipped it, then vanished inside. I figured she would be rummaging through my stuff but was surprised to see the zipper close again, from inside. I had stepped into the open by this time, but she had not noticed me. Now, I came up to the camp and stood outside my tent, wondering who this was, and what she was doing in there. I went to the fire, and poured some coffee in the cup she had just used, and sipped at it while I waited for her to come out. I figured it would be a nice surprise when she exited the tent and seen me sitting there, with a bunch of questions ready. Only, she didn't come out. I finished the cup of coffee and poured another while I waited. Soon this one was empty, too. Still no one had emerged from the tent. I stood and walked over to the zipper, and quietly listened at the tent. I couldn't hear anything from inside, so I carefully unzipped the flap and peered in. It was dark inside, but enough light filtered in to see that the woman was snuggled into my sleeping bag, and sound asleep. I entered the tent, and reached down, shook her gently and said, "Excuse me." She jumped at the sound and sat up. Looking in horror at me, she threw the top of the sleeping bag aside and bolted past me for the open zipper. I watched as this nude woman jumped from my bed and brushed past me out the flap of the tent. I turned and followed, but did not see her outside the tent. As I stood in the opening of the tent I heard her voice from the direction I had earlier watched her from. "Please let me get y cloths form the tent." I told her to go ahead, and stepped off to the side. I seen movement from the shelter of some thick branches ahead of me. I backed up further and she half ran past me to the tent. She had broken a limb free to hold in front of her, and the thought of the scratchy pine needles made me itch as I watched her rush by. Soon she was back in the tent, but this time she did not zip the flap shut. I could see her move about inside then she came up, dressed again. She stopped by the fire and looked at me, while I looked back. I don't remember a lot more than this, I know she had been out hiking and gotten lost the night before. She had not slept and was cold, hungry, and tired when she seen the flames of my fire. since no one was around, she helped herself to the coffee, and when she started falling asleep by the fire, decided to take a short nap in the tent, while she waited for someone to return. She was scared, but didn't have much choice, since she was lost. I do know it got pretty hot and steamy, there was some skinny dipping and making love by the lake. A fine dream, but I don't know who the woman is. I don't know if she had a name in the dream, she must have, but I don't remember. In life, I don't have a clue who she is or why she was in my dream. I remember the beginning of the dream, or at least, I assume it's the beginning. But, once we talked to each other, I don't remember much else. I know she had gotten lost, I vaguely remember us going swimming together, nude. And, I do remember we started to make out in the lake and came up to the shore and made love in the soft grass. In the dream there was a lot more, but it faded and this is all that's left. Well, that's about all for this entry. It's getting to be time for Rhonda to get off work and come home, then we will relax a bit before I have to run back in and do a little training with the evening guard closing up. Then, it's back home and two days off. It's suppose to warm up some, and snow. If it does, I may end up having to work one or both days, but hopefully not. |
| Day two and going strong. Of course, it's only day two, so I damn well better be going strong yet. I mean on this monthly writing challenge of course; 750 words a day for the entire month. If I'm already going anyway less than strong this soon into the month, there's got to be something wrong. As far as the month is going, I can't say it's going well. Nothing serious, and nothing I have any control over. I'm talking about the weather for March. We started out with sub zero temperatures and snow, and have not improved yet. At least it was not a lot of snow, only about a quarter inch for us here. But, we did get the wind, and we did get the cold. It was one of the coldest days yet this winter. Not the coldest, but it didn't miss by much. I'd say we had maybe two or three days that were colder, maybe. One for sure, the rest it's a toss up. I would have to look at the past temperatures and see how close we were. It's not suppose to warm up until Tuesday, and then it's still not looking like it's going to be as warm as normal. I haven't looked yet today to see, but as of yesterday, it's only suppose to get into the twenties by Tuesday. Likely the wind will be blowing, it usually is, and that will diminish the warmth a lot. I'll take a look after I get this written, copied, and posted in WdC. Work was interesting this morning, but not very pleasant. It started out fine, just a typical Sunday, only colder and windy. We have had plenty of them days, so nothing new. Then, I went down to the flag station to check the supplies and that's when things changed. The flag station is a little booth that holds red flags for loads that extend past the rear of the vehicle. There are also two staplers, and a couple of spools of twine for tying down loads. It's just baler twine, run out through a small hole in the side of the booth. There are two of them, side by side. This morning, both had a lot of line out, and it was running down the street. I walked down and investigated all the way to the corner, about a quarter of a block away. The two lines of twine went around the corner and their end was not visible. I began looping the twine up as I walked the rest of the way back up to the guardhouse, about a block from the corner. Once I was there, I still could not see the end of the twine. It ran all the way down the street and around the corner, still. I pulled arm over arm for twenty minutes before the end finally showed up. I just guess at the amount out, about six hundred yards. That's for each line, so double that. And, I should add, that's just an estimate, it's likely even more. I suspect some knucklehead pulled both lines of twine over to secure his load, instead of just one. Then, he just drove off, letting the twine pull out behind his vehicle. Sure, it could have been accidental, but it's hard to believe anyone could pull that much line out without noticing it in the mirror. Also, I suspect it's on purpose by the fact that it was both lines, instead of just one. Normally a person would only use one line of string to secure the load, not both. Also, there is someone who frequently uses the twine and leaves a huge amount pulled off and out into the street. Not just ten or twenty feet, but more like ten to twenty yards. Since the booth is right at the curb, there is no reason this much line should be pulled out, even if the person cut it off at the point of know they tied the load down with. No, someone likes to pull a shit load of string out and let it blow in the wind, just because they are an asshole. It's likely the same butt-worm that likes to drive through out pile of snow. Seriously, we shovel the slab off and clean up our work area of snow with a hand shovel. We push the snow into a pile so the snow plow can take it away when they clean the yard. Only, some butt-worm likes to drive right through the pile and knock it all down so we have to clean it up again. Only, after they drive through it, it's packed and even more work to get cleaned up. It's hard to believe there are assholes like that out and about, but there are. I don't care to know who it is, and I don't plan on seeking any revenge for their meanness. Nope, it's not my problem, I just do my job and if they make more work for me, then so be it. I get paid by the hour, it doesn't cost me anything except a little hard work and time. But, I do believe the words in the Bible, "Vengeance is Mine, says the Lord." I don't think I would want to be the person on the receiving end of that. Nope, I'll do the extra work, and give up some time, I don't want to get in between the Lord and the person he is going to scourge. Besides, it works both ways; my rewards and promotions also come through the Lord. I know, not everyone is Christian and even of those who are, some may not believe this. What ever your beliefs, it's all the same. Call it karma or what ever you like; what you sow, you will also reap. What goes around comes around and they will get their just rewards. Well, that's enough for tonight, time to sit back and relax a little before bed. |
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