Rain + Dirt = MUD!

Ok, so about 2:00 o'clock this morning, I was awakened by a thunderous clap of thunder. (I suppose that's why it was thunderous... But I digress....) A few moments later, a small sprinklin' of rain was coming down. It was mildly refreshing.

It remained mildly refreshing for about two minutes. It remained mildly refreshing until it started pouring.

We lept up from our beds scrambling around the "camp site" that I call home putting the electronic stuff away, getting my sleeping bag out of the downpour, putting the dogs in the truck, things like that.

After we rescued all we thought needed rescuing, we huddled together in the tiny spot of space still left in the trailer I'm using for storage.

It poured for about 45 minutes or so making a nice mud patch that used to be a dirt patch. Lightening struck the high voltage power lines at least once. Or I think it did.

After the storm passed, we watched the lightening strikes in the valley. It was as pretty as I had hoped it would be.

In fact, the whole thunder storm experience would have been nice and purty if I'd had a house already...

Ah! Homesteading!!!

The Internet, The Library, and Dirt!!!!

HEY!

I found the Internet! It's over here in this library here in town! And all I have to do is sit down and log on! Yippee!!!!

(I know, I sound like I'm easily entertained. And I am.)

Got all moved out of the old house. Living on the patch of dirt where the new house will be going. Not a lot to do up there. I really, really mean it, too.

You know that "Slower pace" that a lot of people seem to want? Well, gosh darn it, I found it! For excitement yesterday, I did the following:

• Watched a clock for about an hour and half
• Watched the temperature drop 10 degrees in about an hour
• Watched vultures fly on and off the high voltage power lines. All day.
• Got really excited when we got water out of the well
• Got even more excited when we got water pressure out of the pressure tank.
• Watched meteors
• Looked at the dirt
• Got a sunburn through my shirt
• Took a nap
• Took a shower with newly pressurized COLD!! water.
• Walked down the drive way and saw the, I guess, heat lightening over the Sierras
• Well, you get the idea....

But, aside from being outside all the damn time, it's purty ok. It'll be more OK once the house gets up there. And then a flurry of activity starts....

Gotta git the skirting (cinder blocks) on. Gotta get some more gravel for the driveway. Gotta get PG & E to get things right.

But, it IS a fantastic thing I've done with buyin' the land.

This is it!

Well, two days to go and I'll be living without electricity, without indoor plumbing, without phone; hell, without a lot of things we currently take for granted. But, it should all go well.

Got most of the water and well stuff hooked up. Septic's all in and covered up. House won't be delivered for another week from today. So, we're gonna be roughin' it.

Got most of my crap moved out of the current house and into the itty bitty trailer. Movin' the pond tomorrow. (Whatta mess that's gonna be!)

All in all, it's been a fairly easy move...

The Space Shuttle....

It's time for a new reusable space craft!

When will NASA realize that the current fleet of shuttles (what, two of them?) are more than 20 years old and that it's time to scrap them and come up with something better? Do the remaining shuttles need to explode before anything gets really done on a new craft? To keep sending up people in nearly antique vehicles is insanity.

Ground the friggin' shuttles and come up with something better! Stop "repairing" them!

I'm basically against wasting money on the space program. Yeah, it's neat and facinating and I'm interested in it and all. We're finding out some neat things. But what real difference have those neat things really made? Haven't we really only learned the same thing we learned by climbing Mt. Everest--that it's cold up there? However, as I said, it is interesting and I'm curious about things, too. But can't that money be better spent on other things?

Regardless, if NASA is going to continue with the space program a better reusable space craft should be found and built; and, frankly, it shouldn't be built by the lowest bidder, either. That's kinda how we got in the mess we're in today...

Steer Toss!!

Hey! That's me!!! (In the green shirt holding a steer by his head.... Silly monkey....)

Here I am at a rodeo somewhere (I think San Jose, CA) inventing a new rodeo event, The Steer Toss.

Ok, ok; it's really chute dogging (i.e., steer wrestling 'cept I didn't have to fall off of a perfectly good horse to do it).

Uh, I thought I might have more to say about it, but I guess I don't. I really do like this picture. And I think shortly after this picture was taken, I nearly got smacked in the head by one of the steer's hooves. The announcer said, "Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!"

Stinking Sand-bagged Pits of Polluted Goo

So, I bought a generator for the property on E-Bay. Got a DAMN good deal, too. (5kw for $272.) Had to pick it up in Los Angeles, though. So, Karl and I drove down yesterday to get it.

We got it shoved into the back seat of his car (if we'd taken the truck, it would have been cheaper to have had it shipped to me) and took off trying to decide something to do in LA while we were there.

We first went to Venice Beach. Got very lucky and found a free parking space only about two blocks away from the beach. We had a nice time stickin' my feet into the stinkin' Pacific Ocean and walking along the Ocean Walk and such. (I did start singing the theme to "Three's Company" and songs from "Xanadu". I got slapped....)

After we were done there, we decided to drive over to the La Brea Tar Pits since neither of us had been there. We should have stayed in Venice...

We get out of the car at the Tar Pits and are immediately assaulted by the oily stench coming from the tar pits. And that was only the beginning of our dissapointment.

I don't know exactly what I expected to see but it certainly wasn't what was there. Rather than some interesting bubbling pits of black tar and the possible occasional fossil, what we first saw was the tacky floating fiberglass mastadon and the tacky terrified fiberglass mastadon family. I kinda expected that crap. What I didn't expect was the large pond of polluted water with the oil slick floating on the top. The methane bubbling out of the bottom of the stinking pond was mildly interesting. And the pond isn't even naturally occuring; it's a water-filled quarry.

So, we walk around the pond of floating goo. And, on the far side of it, see some "artwork". It was five white reinforced concrete square tubes lying on their sides next to each other. I'm sure there was some vast cosmic significance to them, but I'll be dammed if I know what it was.

Continuing on the path around the polluted pond we come across the stinking sand-bagged pit of polluted goo you see here. That's Karl pointing at them. Look! Trash! Polluted stinking goo!! The build up to the whole Tar Pit experience (which, unfortunately, includes the movie 'Volcano") simply didn't live up to the crap we saw.

The most interesting thing was a tiny patch of ground a little bit away from this large pit of goo. Bubbling up out of that tiny patch was little bubbles of goo. And it wasn't polluted yet, either.

We both hoped that the ironic plastic bottles and various Doritos bags had blown into the pit of goo rather than having been thrown there, too.

I'm glad I didn't go to school in LA as a kid; I would have had to suffer through an annual field trip to this stinkin' place. UGH!

Strange Sticky Note

If you've been reading this BS Blog of mine for a while, you'll know that I bought some property and have been having a hell of a time getting it ready for a house. Included with the property was a little travel trailer. In the trailer after I'd taken possession of the property were a bunch of registration papers but no pink slip; no title.

Trying to be the good little land buyer I am, I tried getting a hold of my Realtor so I could have him get the pink slip for me. But, for whatever reason (I don't want to think it's because the deal was done but it's possible), he basically kind of ignored me. Or he was out of the country. Or something. Regardless, I was unsuccessful in getting the pink slip through the realtors.

So, I wrote to the previous owner, the guy I bought the land from, at the address on the registration cards. I said,

As you know, I purchased [some land] from you and that that land included the trailer on the property. Unfortunately, I have been unable to locate the title (Pink Slip) in the trailer (if it was left in there).

I have tried to get the pink slip through our real estate agents but have been unsuccessful. That is why I'm writing to you directly.

As I'm sure you know, in order to properly transfer ownership of the trailer, the pink slip needs to be signed by you to release liability of the trailer. Can you please either let me know where the Pink Slip might have been left in the trailer or conatct me so we can arrange a meeting so I can pick up the pink slip from you. Also , if you no longer have the pink slip, you will need to complete the DMV form I've enclosed to get a duplicate pink slip.

Unforutnately, if [the bank] still holds a loan on the trailer, we will have to contact them to get the pink slip.

Please call ([phone number]) or write back and let me know what the status of the Title is for the trailer. I appreciate it.

Frankly, I thought I was rather polite and business-like. Told him what the problem is and what I had done to try to fix it.

Anyway, he called and told me the pink slip was left on the couch in the trailer. I told him all I found on the couch was the registration cards and could he please fill out the form I'd sent him and send it back to me.

Well, he wrote back and included both the pink slip and the short sticky note here.

This is the strangest little sticky note I've ever seen. It's polite, friendly, and rude. And in equal measures.

It says, "Bryan, Found the pink, this is all I have, hope you enjoy the property, please don't bother me any more or my Family."

I read that and just had to start laughing. It's like saying, "Have a nice day! Fuck you!"

I had no idea that asking for something he should have given me was a "bother". Much less asking for something he mistakenly still had but thought he'd left. And, I was going to write back or call him and say thank you, but, ya know, I just don't want to bother him....

Anyway, I had a good laugh. And now I can get the crappy little trailer in my name and then sell it.

Oh, Joy! Oh, Rapture!

Ya know, I was hoping that my first couple of posts (the One on PG & E and the One on Your Way Fumigation) would get some traffic. I never figured that at least one of them would get to be the first search result in any search engine. But, as it turns out, searching for "Your Way Fumigation" on MSN yeilds that post as the very first result that's returned. Over on Yahoo!, I think it's number 7. Either way, I'm thrilled that my crappy experience with "Your Way Fumigation" has received some note.

Take THAT you horrible company!!! Maybe you'll try better to not piss people off....

People Read This Thing??

Hey! I've gotten my first comments from people I don't know! Thanks, you two, for commenting on my "Fireworks and a Dick" post! (Though, it was me callin' the guy a Fuckin' Prick, not the other way around. He said something as he drove off into the night secure in his masculinity and shit but I don't remember what it was; or if was even cohearant in the first place.)

Gosh. Now that people are reading this thing, I guess I oughta be more, like, responsible 'n' shit...

NAW!!!! :)

My New "AIDS Cure of the Day™" Blog

I've finally gotten something on the Internet I can get behind... I've started another blog. It's the AIDS Cure of the Day™ blog over at http://aidscure.blogspot.com .

I got sick and tired (what else is new!?) of all the fake cures and outright scamming some people are doing in the name of having a "cure for AIDS". There is no known cure for AIDS and some people are trying to make money off of people afflicted with HIV infection and/or AIDS. In at least one case upwards of $7,000,000 a year to one person/clinic.

So far, I've got three entries and I really think I can keep up with at least one "cure" every day. If you happen to run across one in your internet travels, you're more than welcome to send me mail about it. I have a rather nebulous definition of what I think qualifies a "cure" as suitable for ridicule but send something to me anyway and I'll see what I can do... Chances are, I won't reply to your message but I will get it.

I'm trying to keep a backlog of several "cures" so that I (hopefully) won't run out. (Right now, I think there's about 5 in my backlog.)

Give it a look.