A Little Bit of Random

I guess I am still suffering from the after effects of too much Tryptophan; my thoughts have been completely uncoordinated for the last few days.

Like the other day when Hostess and the Baker's union failed to come to an agreement in a bankruptcy ordered mediation. Who is in charge of that union?!?!? The company says 8% pay cut or we close the doors; the company closes the doors and puts you out of a job. Then the court orders the two parties back to the table, as a last ditch effort to save the company, and.... YOU STILL DON"T ACCEPT THE DEAL!?!?!?!?

I'm lost. Did the union not believe the company the first time, and STILL think they are bluffing about closing down? Or do they not want jobs in the first place? I might be interested once the book comes out. And this will be a classic case study in the ignorance of unions.

Speaking of unions, right after one votes themselves and 18,000 of their co-workers out of jobs is not the best time to try and organize a new place, like, say, Wal-mart? According to the news story I read this morning, apparently a whole 50 employees boycotted work at Wal-mart on Black Friday in support of the union. Yeah; that worked out well for them, didn't it?

And speaking of Wal-mart, the wife was there three times during Black Friday; once at 8:00 on Thanksgiving night; again about noon on Black Friday and again about 8:00 on Friday night. The early Black Friday shopping was busy, but the other two trips were normal weekend sized crowds. I guess everybody was already shopped out?

Personally, I have to be desperate for something to actually step into a store between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I hate crowds and I hate shopping. So I stock up on things I'll need early in November and stay away until January. Oh; I build my Christmas presents.

Which will start later today. I have a train or two to build, and a toy box. and a device to be named later. I'll probably spend at least a part of every day for the next month covered in sawdust.

Yes; that's a good thing!

Hot Enough Fer Ya?

I mowed my lawn today.

Well, I ran my mower around the yard anyway. About all I really did was knock down some tall weeds, clip the heads off of a bunch of white clover  and vacuumed up the leaves.

Yeah, all of the boxwood trees are starting to drop leaves already. About the only way I knew where I had traveled with the mower was the track of missing leaves.

I has been hot. This is I think our 8th day in a row of over 90 degrees. And July just started. This is August weather, not June weather.

I said all winter that we would pay for the mild winter we had; I just wasn't sure how we would pay for it.

I think I know how now.

We are planning on having a little family get together here on the Fourth, and the last few days of getting things ready has been pure Hell. I am getting about half of what I wanted to get done accomplished, because I am spending half my time recuperating from heat stroke.

But we will be party ready, come party time.

At noon tomorrow the preparation stops and the party begins, I won't have everything done, but I'll be the only person that knows that.

Unless I tell the Young'un.

Then EVERYBODY will know what didn't get done.

Hi Folks, Remember Me?

It has been a while since I have had time to post. Work has been crazy, and Christmas prep has been worse.

See that toybox? I figured I could get it done in about 10-15 hours. It took over 50.

It took awhile because it is built out of a sheet of oak veneer plywood and solid oak. Oak takes a while to work because it is so hard. But I had to use oak; this box is for my grandson. It had to be able to take abuse; after all, I raised his daddy, I know how rough he will be on his things.

But it had to be done for Christmas. And it was.

Almost.

I still need to put another coat of polyurethane on the lid and sign and poly the bottom.

Then it will be done.

And I can start in the OTHER Christmas projects I have to finish.

I'm The Reason the Economy is So Bad

I don't hire anybody to do anything.

Take this project.

About 8 years ago my brother bought a pool table. It was a retired coin operated one that had had the change box removed. And it came wih a new felt.

As his location was somewhat less than ideal, to say the least, he never replaced the felt.

When he moved he had no room for the table and when my son bought his house 2 years ago, this pool table was just about the first thing he moved in.

To his garage.

By then it had been disassembled. The felt was completely shot and the bunpers and slate (yes, slate, not slates; this slate is 47" by 90" by an inch thick) had been removed.

After almost 2 years in the garage last weekend we moved it into the basement, and over the last few evenings I installed the 8 year old felt on the table and recovered all of the bumpers.

I don't think it turned out to bad for my first one.



It seems to play well. I won the game I played on it, and promptly retired undefeated!

A Fast Weekend

This weekend was a fast one. I relly have no idea where it all went, but I do have some clues.

I bought 2 6 packs of Hofbraus Haus beer on Friday; both of them are gone.

The piece of trim that fell of the right rear door of my car is back on, and the rust spots that had developed over the last year are gone too.

All of the flower beds are weeded, and, although I can see them, I know there are some new seeds planted that I was permitted to help the Young'Un plant. Basically that means I was the one who cleaned up the tools and got in trouble for her being muddy.

There is a new pull rope on the weedeater, so it runs now. All the sidewalk cracks have been sprayed with roundup and the concete swept.

And the balky lock on the tool shed is fixed.

I also found a new ceiling fan in the living room this morning.

And apparently at some point I got my haircut.

No wonder I felt like hell this morning!

Some of my Projects I

I built this a few years ago as a Christmas Gift for a brother-in-law. In case you can't tell. it a fishing pole rack, that has a spot at the top for two special poles he has that belonged to his Dad and Granddad; the picture is the three of them fishing, and Dad and Grandad are using their poles.

Don't mind the photo editing; I had to hide a few pictures of the kids.