Gettin' my white trash on.....

This was supposed to be posted yesterday, but I was so tired when I got home, that I just didn't have it in me to post.

Yes, you heard that right, I actually went out and did something on my days off, rather than just chill and play vids.

Of course, I chose the most white-trash, hillbilly thing I could think of.

I went to the roller derby in Reno.

Yes, you heard me right, roller derby.

Apparently, there's like this whole league that I knew nothing about. My sis called about a week ago, and asked me if I wanted to go with her, her s.o., and my niece. It was only 10 bux, so I figgered what the hell.

As you might imagine, this was not a black tie affair. I have to say though, that I felt pretty comfortable at the event, even if I did feel a bit under inked.

I was surprised when, just after paying and entering, I heard someone behind me say 'check out that guy's sweet Hitchhiker's Guide tattoo.' As far as I know, that's the first time someone's recognized it for what it is. We had a little chat about it, and that was cool.

Anyway, on to the derby. Imagine us, sitting on the ground, watching these girls romp and roll around with nothing between us but air. As you can see from this picture, and of course this one, these girls play rough. That second girl? Yeah, she fell square on her ass, and I know it had to fuckin' hurt.

A fair number of the girls were the burly type, as you might imagine, given the nature of the sport, but there were a few that didn't quite fit the mold. See that girl on the left? The one with the white 'skate warmers?' Yeah, she was my favorite.

Oh, yeah, and since I made such a big deal about it, here are a couple more pix of the smoke. Just so you know, you should be able to see mountains in both those pix. Just so you have a comparison, this is what our sky is supposed to look like. Or perhaps this.

Buenos con queso,

T.

Where there's smoke, there's....well, smoke.....

I'm sure you've heard about the wildfires in Northern California, but if you haven't, there's like 800 of them or something.

I guess I don't need to tell you that those fires are making a lot of smoke. What makes this fun for Carson City is that due to a quirk of geology, and or weather patterns, roughly 80% of the smoke from these fires has filled the Great Basin.

I mean, it's fucking bad. I was going to post pix, but I left my card at work (like the dumbass i am) so I went and took this picture, which doesn't even begin to show how bad it's been. In the other pix, you can't see the mountains...

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So, in the comments on the last post, PSP asked me my feelings about the phrase 'I could care less.'

Craizer than I have words to tell...

Well, at least tonight, because that's a whole post unto itself.

Ok, think it's time for some eq.....

Buenos con queso,

T.

You can't have your cake and eat it too.....

Uhm, yeah, you can.

In fact, you kinda have to have your cake in order to eat it, don't you?

I mean really, how can you eat it if you don't have it?

Now, a good trick would be to eat your cake and have it too.

Once you've eaten it, you don't really have it anymore. It's inside you, sure, but that's a pretty intangible thing.

You can't pick it up.

You can't see it.

Thus, you don't have it.

That phrase has always pissed me off, and I just thought I'd finally get that off my chest. The next time you hear someone say 'you can't have your cake and eat it too,' please show them the error of their phrase.

Buenos con queso,

T.

I know, I've been a crappy blogger lately.....

I'm sorry for that.

I'm sure that the what, 4 or 5 of you that actually read this drivel have been absolutely devastated to come here and find the same post.

I'm not going to try and lay any blame this time, cause it's all my fault.

You see, I've been in an EQ phase again, and I've been doing research in the am's and playing in the pm's.

I know, pathetic, right?

In my own defense, not much is really going on, so even if I was blogging it would be boring crap.

I'm sure you heard it somewhere else first, but in case you haven't, George Carlin died overnight. CNN reports that it was heart disease that robbed us of him. He was 71. I also found out that he was the original host of Saturday Night Live when it debuted back in 1975.

He was one of the funniest stand up comics I ever watched. I even watched his short-lived tv show some years back.

Ok, I think that's how I'm going to leave it.

Buenos con queso,

T.

Dumbass email of the day.....

Some fuckers just don't get it.

I mean really just don't get it.

In addition to using ebay as a selling tool, we use craigslist. Mostly the things we list there are things we don't put on ebay.

Like cars, you know, big heavy things that I'm not going to ship anywhere.

So, yesterday I got the following email, which I presume is from a craigslist user:

I am interested in the ford expedition you have for sale, do you have in-house financing?

Thanks so much

That's it, no salutation, no name, no phone number nada.

Zip.

Zilch.

So, I showed the email to John, our general manager and lead car salesman. He tells me (as i knew he would) to give the guy (im guessing) our number and have him call, because the details of our in-house financing are too lengthy to go into in an email.

So, I sent him the following response:

Yes, we do offer in-house financing. For details, please call John, the General Manager. Our number is 775-882-8882, or 888-775-4949.

Thanks,

T.

Problem solved, right?

Only not so much.....

This morning, in my inbox, I found the following:

was interested in the 2004 expedition, you are asking 19.995.00 and KBB only has the vehicle as being worth around $15,000.00. Thank you for responding to my e-mail.
Thanks

Shaking my head in disbelief, I basically copied and pasted my previous response and sent it back off.

What part of call us is so fucking unclear?

I even gave him the toll free number for fuck's sake. People like this make my teeth itch.

Buenos con queso,

T.

Her morning lasts like 15 minutes.....

There's a lady I work with whose time sense is, shall we say, tenuous, at best.

The first time on any given day that she answers the phone it's 'Good Morning...blah blah blah.'

The second, and all subsequent calls are 'Good Afternoon...blah blah blah'

I find it kinda funny.

I'm a real stickler about a lot of things, and that's one of them. If I answer the phone at 11:59, it's good morning. After that, even one minute after, it's good afternoon.

Ok....what else.....Michael got home safe and sound, Tiger's kicking major ass at the U.S. Open golf tournament, and I got my epic weapon in EQ.

Not that that means much to any of you, but trust me, it's an accomplishment.

Well, I guess that's all I have today. It's pretty lame, I know, but then so am I on occasion.....

Buenos con queso,

T.

OMGWTF

Just to show you exactly how bored I really am...

I have decided to spread my boredom onto T's lovely site.

Heh.

Take THAT.

*bkg*

This one is for you Princess.....

Ok, so while I was on vacation (yes the pix are coming) PSP dropped a meme on me.

Wow, that's a lot of 'me's.

Ok, so it goes like this:

The concept:


1. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr search.


2. Using only the first page of results, pick one image.


3. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into Big Huge Lab's Mosaic Makerto create a mosaic of the picture answers.



The questions:


1. What is your first name?


2. What is your favorite food right now?


3. What high school did you go to?


4. What is your favorite color?


5. Who is your celebrity crush?


6. What is your favourite drink?


7. What is your dream vacation?


8. What is your favourite dessert?


9. What do you want to be when you grow up?


10. What do you love most in life?


11. What is one word that describes you?


12. What is your flickr name?


Ok, so mine looks like this:




I'm not officially tagging anyone, but if you wanna give it a shot, go ahead. If you do, drop me a line in the comments to let me know you played....

Buenos con queso,

T.

Is it too late to start dinner?

It's 9pm local as I type this, so I'm just wonderin' what you think.

I just started the coals, so I'll prolly be cooking in like 20 mins or so.....

It's steaks on the barbie tonight, in case you're interested.

Even if you're not, actually.

Either way, it's steak for dinner.

Speaking of which, I have to go man the grill, so I'm outtie.....

Pix prolly on Friday or so.

Buenos con queso,

T.

I'm pretty sure she hates me.....

but I can't tell for sure.

I'm not going to name her, and Heaven forbid I should, but.....

---

Pictures?

Really!?!

You honestly think I'd have pictures already?

Silly rabbit.

Buenos con queso,

T.

Y*A**W*NNN***

Ok, so we're home.

We got here safe and sound.

I even mostly remembered to call everyone and let them know.

This is yours update.

Buenos con queso,

T.

This town has a lot to recommend it.....

I already told you about the guy that re-opened his store for me, and that seems to be fairly universal.

The niceness I mean.

There's also a river just down the road for fishing, plenty of shopping, and a nice climate. We even saw a deer today on our jaunt.

I'm not putting much down today, just so you know.

This is mostly just a nod to the blogging gods to keep myself in their good graces.

I will say this tho: The party was pretty rockin', and a good time was had by all.

Again, I have pix, but you still have to wait for them.....

See, see how lame I am?

Buenos con queso,

T.

Only in a small town.....

So, most of you reading this should know that I'm in Oregon at the moment visiting my sister and her family. We've had a pretty good time so far, and there's more to come.

Today sees the barbeque-post-grad party for my sis's stepson and what I gather may very well be the rest of the town.

Yesterday Pops, Michael and I went and did a little shopping for some essentials and did a bit of wandering around town as well.

Yes, I have pix, and no, you're not going to see them.

I told you that you have to wait until I get home.

Geez, try and keep up.

After we got home and started the post ceremony dinner, Pops realized that we were missing a couple things. No biggie, but I'd had a few beers and there was no way I was going to drive even the half-mile or so to the little store down the road, so Michael and I decided to just walk.

Now, those of you that know me know that I'm an optimistic pessimist. For those of you that are unfamiliar with that term, it means that I hope for the best, but I expect the worst. In that vein, as we were walking along (and finding that the walk was much longer than we expected I pointed out that the really funny part would be when we got to the store and found it closed.

I won't bore you with all the details of the walk, but suffice it to say that we rounded a corner and there was the store.

Just when we were beginning to worry that we'd never get back in time.

As we got closer, it was easy to see the big sign in the window that said 'Sorry, we're Closed.' We went ahead and walked up to the store, and there was a guy walking back from the trashcans outside, and I said 'You're really closed, huh?'

'Yeah. What did you need?'

'Just a half gallon of milk and some chicken broth,' I answered.

At which point he unlocked the door, shut off the alarm, turned on the lights and register, and sold us the stuff we needed.

I was so shocked I nearly soiled myself.

Buenos con queso,

T.

I wish I had another finger.....

So, we arrived safely, and we've been having a good time already.

My sis's house fucking rocks!!

They have 2 big screen t.v.'s and a pool table.

Needless to say, the pool table has seen much more use than the t.v.'s.

Oh, and she has what may very well be the cutest dog in the world.

His name is Taz, and he will chase and retrieve a wiffle ball for as long as you want to throw it.

Literally.

I'm not posting pix while I'm here, cause that's more work that I want on my vacay.

Soon now, Pops, Michael and I are going to start dinner (for 10 rumor has it) while the others go to the ceremony.

Tomorrow is the barbeque, and Saturday is a day of blissful nothing.

Ok, I just wanted to keep you all 'posted.'

Buenos con queso,

T.

Rollin', rollin', rollin', get them doggies rollin'.....

That's my way of telling you that we're outta here.

Pops, Michael, and I are headed to Grants Pass today. Now, don't look at me like that, I told you I was taking time off for this.

I'm not sure how long it will actually take to get there, but it's about 400 miles.

I'm sure I'll find time to post from sis's house.

Ok, off to my 3 hr work shift.

Buenos con queso,

T.

You just never know.....

I was over at Sue's this morning, and she's got a post over there called 'When your time is up' that brings us once again to the realization that this thing we call 'life,' be you happy with it, or not so much, is nothing if not fragile and fleeting.

If you want to read her version of it, head on over there. Mine follows.

Some years ago there was a charter flight out of Reno. It was a smaller plane, a Lockheed L-188 Electra. The Reno airport, given it's proximity to the mountains, is unique in that planes have to circle the city once to gain altitude so that they can get over the mountains.

Well, our ill-fated Lockheed must have been in the process when something bad happened. If you can't tell from the tone of this post, there was an accident. A terrible, senseless accident. I was suprised to find a Wikipedia entry on it, but the most telling sentence for me is this: The lone survivor was then 17-year old George Lamson Jr., who was thrown clear of the aircraft and landed upright, still in his seat, on South Virginia Street.

Can you imagine that?

Your plane just crashed, there's (i imagine) debris, fire, and death all around you, and you're just sitting there, still buckled into your seat.

That's the kind of thing that gives you religion.

(edit)

I had planned to leave it at that, but a google search of the survivors name brought this result, and another, even more poignant quote: "Friends," he urged, "Life is fragile. Enjoy each other while you can.".


Now, this next bit of evidence is allegorical, and I have no personal knowledge of it's truth, but it was a story that my Sociology teacher told in class one day. A friend of his (may have been his best friend i dont remember) was playing basketball in college. He went up for a layup, came down behind the backboard and out of bounds, bashing his shin on a bleacher bench in the process.

Somehow, the blow to his shin either created or dislodged a blood clot that headed straight for his heart.

He died 20 minutes later.

Two vastly different situations with one common thread: When it's your time to go, it's your time to go, and when it's not, it's not.

---

Ok, let's lighten things up a bit. I know that was a bit heavy, but I didn't start it. So, have I told you that I'm going to Oregon?

Like tomorrow?

Yeah, my older sis's boy (think its her stepson) is graduating this weekend, and we're (pops michael and i) are heading up for the event. There is also going to be a barbeque, and I imagine some drinking of beer.

Well, there will be drinking for me at least.

I guess that's all for now.

Buenos con queso,

T

I think I'm moving to Mercury.....

I know, it's been days.

I know, I suck.

I don't blame myself, though. No, I blame the planet Earth. See, what I think happened was this: A couple billion years ago, Mercury and Earth were competing for 'Habitable Planet of the Solar System,' and with guile and trickery, Earth snuck in as the winner with it's paltry 24 hr day.

Mercury, by comparision has a day that lasts 1407.5 hours, or approximately 58 earth days. Now, if I had that many hours in a day, I might actually get some shit done. I mean, for real, right?

Of course, Mercury's year is shorter, a mere 88 of our days long, but with all that time per day, I'm pretty sure I could handle the shorter year. Not to mention the gravity differential. It's got, like a third the gravity of Earth. A hundred pound on Earth is roughly 38 lbs on Mars.

The roughly 800 degree surface temperatures might present a problem, but I figure I'll just get a couple of the top of the line
Trane systems, and I'll be sitting in air conditioned bliss, weighing much less than I'm used to, and finally having enough hours in my day.

Any of y'all that want to come are invited, just remember to bring sunblock and your own self contained living environment.

Buenos con queso,

T.

ps all mercury data shamelessly stolen from here