Not The Best Way to Start Off

Yesterday I was on the way to my sons wedding.

As I headed the family van down the road, from the hood came an explosion of blue feathers.

Hopefully not an omen.

Who Knew? Writing Could Be Hazardous

Would it have been Headline News if he had been caught cheating with his autobiographer?

Overheard At The Zoo

Sunday was the little one's tenth birthday. In leiu of a party, the family and her best friend headed out to the NC Zoo. Left to right, College girl, Best friend, Little One and Oldest.

One of the last exhibits we saw was the lions.

 

Folks were commenting on how momma cat wandered off.

Being ten she has a comment for everything. Very similar to when she was 9 or 8 or 7 even.

She said in a daddy lion voice, "Hurry back down here, I can't hold my leg up like this forever".

Out loud. In a crowd.

She got a few laughs.

They may never let her give Zoo tours.

What Price RNC/DNC?

I woke this morning to the sound of fighter jets over my house.  The invasion has begun.

Charlotte, NC is hosting the DNC this year. I was disappointed to find out we were chosen but we were and now we deal with the influx.

The City leaders have been spouting how downtown will be business as usual.  Ask the many folks who can’t park there now because they have closed most of the parking decks. They have also closed most of the streets downtown and moved the bus station away from uptown.

My daughter went downtown yesterday to the gym and felt intimidated when she was being followed by a SWAT Team. There is a greater police presence in the surrounding area where I live. They passed laws giving the police more power to search folks without cause. They tried to make it a permanent law but in the end it only runs thru the Convention. They also brought in police from all around and gave them jurisdiction.

I don’t stand with the Occupy Wall Street folks or many of the other groups picketing downtown during this Convention but I do respect their right to free speech. Well the DNC didn’t see fit to see it like that. They had groups apply to protest and march and then gave them a limited areas to move in. This is the USA folks we have rights but our City was quick to set many of them aside just to host this party.

Today’s paper suggested that the forecasted economic windfall is going to fall short. Really? Surprised?

Do we need a week to nominate a person that is basically running unopposed in his party? Do we need to spend millions on a big party so lots of folks can get drunk? Do we really need to shut down a city? Are there not bigger issues to address than completely remodeling the football stadium?

Is it really worth the freedoms they took from folks to have a party?

And to top it off, the wife went to the store to get balloons for my oldest’s birthday tonite only to find out there is no helium available in the Charlotte area. Did they have to use it all?

I don’t rant much but dang it, don’t wake me up with fighter jets on Saturday morning.

Overheard In The Preschool

The wife relayed a story from the preschool she works at. She doesnt know that it is going on the Blog so no telling, K?

She overheard one of the assistants at the preschool was telling another teacher that her twins were going away to college this fall. She said she sat them down to have "The Talk".

She said I know you are going to be away from home, and you'll prolly think about experimenting with ........meat.

Meat? The wife said she got so tickled that was all she heard.

Seems this lady is a pretty strict vegetarian.

I wish that was all I was worrying about when the kids are away.

Simply Chill'n

Well Chill'n aint exactly the right word.  We arrived at Surfside Beach about 3:00 Sunday afternoon. The drive down was amazingly smooth considering it was the weekend after the 4th.

When we got here the thermometer on the van said it was 91. Wow that sounds so nice but when we got out of the van we started panting for some AC. Spoiled we are I spose. After unloading the van and toweling off the sweat I whooped out the handy dandy tablet and pulled up the weather. There it was right there 91 degrees just like the van said then it said "feels like 108". Yes it did. Every bit of it.

Regardless, we changed from driving shoes to strolling flip flops and took a small hike. The breeze on the beach really helps. The water is pretty warm. A good bit cooler than the air but not so much it takes your breath for that first moment.

Going to be hot again today. Only spose to feel like 105. Any small change is appreciated. They say it will almost 10 degrees cooler the rest of the week.

We went out to eat last nite and picked up some groceries. The girls are still snoozing at 8:15 this morn. I am ready for some breakfast.

Hope you all had a nice 4th. I am looking forward to a restful week here.

SS

Fathers Day Was A Blast

On Saturday before Fathers Day, my wife’s sister’s husband’s sister’s husband invited us and other branch kin to a barbecue and skeet shoot.

Yep, we did it again.

If aliens attack in little red flying saucers we are prepared.

Last time we just hand threw the clays. This time we had a bench mounted thrower. The lady shooting is my old Sunday School teacher from when I was a tot. I didn't remember her from there but I used to work with her at my last job. Turns out she is my wife’s sister’s husband’s sister’s husband's sister. Got That?

The little one tried shooting. She shot the .410 single shot several times. She finally winged one clay. It doesn't kick much and she never complained.  She loved shooting the pistol as well.

This is my sons head. If you look close you can see the clay exploding. He shoots amazingly well. He didn't learn it from me. I did end up winning the group shoot off. If you remember he won the last time.

Here are some of the young ladies shooting. They shoot pretty good as well.

After a while we broke out the pistols. They had set up a pistol target and this time I remembered my Colt. It shoots as good as it ever has. This is not me and my Colt.

We could not have asked for better weather or better food. We had wild boar and deer.

And hot dogs. They cooked the corn on the grill still in the husk. It was delicious.

Here is the back of the house. Its about 200 feet from the field.

At the end of the day everyone had a good time and no one left hungry.

It was a great Fathers Day. Hope yours was.

Overheard in the Break Room

Every morning at work starts in the break room. Folks getting their coffee and breakfast before retiring to their offices.

We chat and have a good time. That morning I mentioned seeing a coyote on the way in.

They are new to our area and have been causing issues that we typically didn't have prior. One of the other folks mentioned having three fighting in his front yard the other day. Another guy spoke saying he saw an uh, uh ,what do you call it? a "land beaver" in his yard. What?? We quizzed him a bit till we finally figured it out that he had seen a groundhog.

Silly Guy, This is a groundhog.

This is a land beaver.

Get Off My Property!!

I am proud of my garden. I take a stroll out there every evening when I get home to water and check on it. So far it has really flourished and is putting on well.

Us country folk are typically a friendly breed. We love to share our bounty. That said, we much prefer to offer something to you before you decide to help yourselves.

I thought we made that perfectly clear.

So imagine how surprised I was to find that some one was doing just that.

I needed another sign.

He is a cutie tho ain't he?

Kinda Alien like.

But he was eating my tomatoes.

So he was put in jail.

If things go well he is spose to turn into a Carolina Sphinx Moth.

You would think he would be cuter.

How disappointing.

But he will never eat on my Tomatoes again.

Overheard in the Restaurant

My wife and oldest took me to the Bonefish grill for Fathers Day last night. You know, beat the crowd thing.

As we were waiting on our food, the booth beside us was talking about their upcoming trip to Seattle and maybe taking a day trip to Vancouver. One of the girls was asking what sites were famous there. You know like the Space Needle in Seattle. The other girl asked, "don't they have the Vancouver Dam?". The boyfriend asked if she meant the Hoover Dam. She said "oh yea, We should go there!".

                                                   Vancouver Hoover Dam

Dear Lord, Thank You For Your Blessings

200 feet is all it is from the garden to the kitchen.  I walk out there every nite when I get home from work to survey my little crop. Last nite we picked our first two squash . The wife sliced them, battered them and fried them up for a fantastic meal. We have been anticipating this day for a month since we planted the garden. Is amazing how good fresh squash tasted. Paired with oven baked chicken and garlic mashed taters it was a great meal. We are looking forward to our tomatoes turning red in a week or so. The zucchini squash aint far behind. We planted 2 hills but then had 3 volunteer plants come up. We will be loaded with zucchini come summer. The cukes were planted a tad late so we will have to wait a while on them.

The larger squash in the middle was named Billy Bob Joe Jr. by the little one. ???? Don't ask! He was bigger last nite and the first picked. Lots more little ones on the way it appears.

This is our scarecrow. Looks real huh? The tomato plants are taller than she is now. We have had to add baskets to some of the shoots that got out of the main baskets. Hopefully they bear as good as they have grown.

The neighbors garden is right across the fence. They always do well. They make a lot of spaghetti sauce. He borrows my tiller each year (so does my next door neighbor and my dad and anyone else that needs it. Tools aint no good just sitting there.) so this year he brought me a 1/2 load of mushroom mulch. What a great deal that was.

That's it for the tour.

Have a great day.

Gifts To Go, Part 2

This spring my current boss announced he was taking another job across the country. Sooo, it was time to make another going away gift. His work scope was broader than that of my old boss so it was a bit tougher to nail down what to make as a gift. However, one thing we always joked about was his penchant for modifying the probes we had made. In the shop we would manufacture the probes to exact tolerances and he would take them and adjust them for his purpose on a belt sander.

We decided to make a miniature belt sander. This is something most folks are familiar with. It started out as a nonfunctioning unit but one of the other guys suggested we make it actually work so I added a motor and a battery pack.

The company had a going away party before we had it completed so one of the other guys threw together a piece of rusty pipe and a probe. He also spelled his name wrong on the plaque. He didn't look real thrilled with it but he smiled anyway.
 
We gave him our real gift at our department going away party.



Here is the design I came up with.

Here is the exploded view.

Here is the animated assembly view.

Here is the actual working model.

Here is a short video of it running but idiot boy/me shot it sideways so it looks kinda weird.

While I enjoy designing and building these things I wish it weren’t for folks I like to work for. Of course if I didn’t like working for them they would be getting the standard adios plaque.

BTW, He was speechless.

If you were to retire/change jobs what kind of gift would best suit you?

Gifts To Go

Being in the machine shop we are often asked to make unique things. One of those things is going away gifts. Over the years I have made a scaled reactor vessel and a small steam generator for departing folks. I have no pics of those.

Last year one of the senior staff here at work decided to retire.

The company has a standard three figure plaque design they give to retiring management. Problem is I have worked for him in some capacity for over 28 yrs. He and his wife are wonderful folk. His daughter baby sat my kids when they were little. Knowing his family is being part of his family.

For him I wanted to make something a bit more unique. His main field is turbines and turbine generators.

This is not the first time he has left a company where I worked for him. For his first departure I machined a small steam turbine as his going away gift. I turned it from solid brass.  That was about 17 years ago.

This time I wanted to create something more complex. I designed this as a miniature turbine generator. It’s the thing that is turned by the turbine and generates electricity at the power plant. The actual components vary but a common unit is approximately 42 inches in diameter and up to 40 ft long. A bit large for setting on your desk.

This is the concept drawing.

This is the final product.

It is about 10 inches long and has a brass body with 64 hand formed copper windings. I had the body turned by our machinist and the stainless steel end rings turned outside. I made the slot wedges and formed the copper windings. My fingers were sore for days. There are a total of 83 pieces in the completed model.

He seemed to like it.



Exceeding The Expiration Date Or Now For The Good News

Thanks for suffering thru these posts. I realize they were long and prolly as riveting as a vacuum cleaner operating manual. However, I have been blogging for 2 years now and since most all you guys have opened up personally at one time or the other I thought I would let you know a little something about the guy you are dealing with here.

Now don’t get me wrong. I aint no where near falling over anytime soon. Since those days, thru the miracle of chemistry, my EF has improved to 30-35%. The doc is pleased with my progress and has relaxed my restrictions. Early on was a bit of a struggle finding my boundaries. The wife drives me nuts. You can’t do this, you can’t do that. She aint quite as bad as she was but she still gets on me. But then again I do tend to push it a bit. I’ve always done physical types of work and it’s hard to ask someone to lift something when you look perfectly healthy. I have gotten the “you lazy SOB” look a few times and I don’t like to use it as a crutch.

After the diagnosis the doc asked me if I had been tired a lot. I thought no, not really. He said he has known folks with a 40% EF that couldn’t function at all and I was functioning fine at the 10-15 %. He said my body must have compensated somehow for it. The wife said she had noticed me dragging a bit but I was working 2 jobs at the time. They can’t tell me how I got it. The main known causes at the time were heavy drinking, drug use or viral. I know it definitely wernt the first two. He said it really didn’t matter as the treatment is the same.

I have physical limits that really don’t impair me too much unless it comes to lifting things. My biggest issue tends to be the side effects caused by my meds. Standing quickly after stooping makes me dizzy. I’ve only passed out from it once and that was 2 months after the discovery and I had been crawling around under the house getting it ready to sell. The main thing is that I do not strain.

Working on the road is a big challenge as we tend to do 12-14 hour days. There is a lot of walking and climbing. At the end of the day I am a bit tired but the doc said tired is not a bad thing.

I was looking at my chart a couple years back and found a line on it that says, “Research Patient”. I asked the doc about it and he seemed a bit puzzled. He said he would ask about that but I’ve never gotten an answer. I aint really worried about it as whatever they’ve done seems to work well and I’ve not grown a second head yet.

I was truly blessed by having the accident. God is good. But I must admit, I have never called the girl and thanked her in person.

And thank you all for not saying, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”. I absolutely abhor that phrase cause it didnt. I also don’t care for the song by Tim McGraw, “Live like you were dying”. I live each day like any other day. I don’t let this thing define me. Too much.

That’s all I got to say bout that.

Y’all take care now.

Best If Used By 2012

Continued....

I had a dentist appointment that morning. I always get an 8:00 appointment so it doesn’t break up the day. It was a good visit and I had no cavities.

 I walked into the shop at work around 9:30 and my shop mate asked if I had talked to my doctor. He said they had called the office, my parents, and my sister. Not sure why they didn’t call the house but seems everyone was now calling the office. This was back before I had a cell phone. I returned their call. I was prepared to be on hold but as soon as I gave my name I was transferred to my doctor’s nurse. “ I don’t want to alarm you but we need you to come to the office immediately” she says.

Major fail on the not alarming me part.

 It was a good 45 minute drive from the shop to the Doctors office so I had lots of time to wonder what was up. I really didn’t have a clue what was going on but when I got there I received some of the best service I had ever gotten in that office. I saw my doctor within 5 minutes. Things calmed down from there. He said that they had determined I had a fractured sternum and because of the force required to break it they wanted to check the heart and aorta for any type of damage. He mentioned something about Princess Diana’s death and something else suposedly relevent that I didn’t hear because I was thinking, that’s the only time she and I will ever been included in the same conversation. He said they had me scheduled for a CAT scan and an ECG over at the hospital.

 At the hospital they had me lay on the CT table and gave me a shot of contrast dye. Wow, that was some warm stuff, and made me want to pull up some covers and take a nap. After that I went to the ECG guy. I laid on my side and thought wow his Ultragel was cold. He hooked me up and started the scan. I watched the screen and all the colors indicating blood flow. Is that good or bad?? He left the room and came back with a doctor. After the test the doc came to the room and told me they had found something not related to the wreck and sent me back to my doc. Oh.. the suspense.

I went back to see my doc. He gave me some drugs and said don’t lift more than 20 lbs and made me an appointment with a cardiologist. More suspense. Will somebody tell me something?

The first thing the cardiologist did was their own ECG.

More flashing colors and funny heart pumping sounds. During the exam the ECG tech looked me square in the eye and said I was very lucky that girl hit me. OK, that didn’t sound good. The cardiologist explained I have Dilated Cardiomyopathy(enlarged heart). It’s the thing ball players walk off the field and fall over with. My EF(ejection fraction) was 10-15% where normal would be 50-60%. That is a measure of how efficient your heart is pumping. He gave me more pills and reiterated not to lift more than twenty pounds. Twenty pounds?? At the time I was working out regularly and was easily lifting 250 plus pounds. He also offered to put me on permanent disability. What?? I feel fine. Well, I did till they filled me with drugs. That has slowed me down a bit.

When I got home I made the mistake of looking it up on line. I found some support forums that were kinda depressing and one website that said the mortality rate was 50% in 5 yrs and 75% in 10 yrs.

This year my warranty may have expired but I’m still working and feeling fine.

A Mixed Bag of Anniversaries.

2012 is like any year. Every day is a celebration for someone. We all have some type of “anniversaries of….” that occur at various dates.

I have been at my current job for six years on Jan, 23rd. Time does fly. This January was the 32nd anniversary of the first date with the wife. It is also the 32nd anniversary of my last speeding ticket and traffic court appointment the day before that date. I told her I would pick her up for our first date if I still had a license. I was caught doing 70 in a 35 zone and already had 12 driving points on my license. What can I say? I like to get there fast. Anyways,I kept my license, we went to the Statler Brothers Concert, and the rest is history. October will be our 30th wedding anniversary.

However this is also the tenth anniversary of the year that tried to do me in.

Ten years ago, January 2002 when our youngest was 9, we found out (Much to our surprise) we were expecting our 4th child. She was born later that year in the new house we had just moved into in June 2002. We had to move because we were living in a rather small house with no room for a new one.

March 20th of 2002 I was T-boned while heading home from work. The accident sent me to the hospital. I was sent home, sore and bruised but none the worse for wear but my beloved Blumina(Blue Lumina) didn’t fare so well. Later the next week while loading my trailer with firewood my chest started aching. I went in for a check up and saw the PA. She ordered x-rays and said they would contact me with the results. It turned out I had fractured my sternum in the accident. How they contacted me is my next post.

Simply Walking On The Wild Side

I am hoping all y'all had a wonderful Easter Holiday. It was good here. Everyone headed over to my parents house for lunch. Lots of food, lots of chatting and lots of family pics. We came home and headed over to the wifes moms. It was an OK visit as she has pretty much forgotten anything that has happened in the last month. I need to update you guys on the bro in law. I'll try to get that done soon.

I took vacation time Friday and Monday. Vacation? Well, lets see. Friday I cleaned out the Garage and today I put the awning up over the deck and dug up a stump. I am a really fun guy. Heading in to work today to get some rest.

Saturday however I did something I have never done. I took the little one to the nail salon to have her toenails done and while there I got a Pedi as well. Dont tell nobody but I think I am hooked. The little one loved it and tried to get bunnies painted on my toes but I had to hang on to my dignity. I did agree to clear polish.

I will defintiely be doing that again.

Y'all have a great week.

Overheard At The Restaurant

We went out for lunch Sunday. As we were in line the woman in front of us was picking her toppings.

"I want green cheese" she said.

The girl behind the counter looked puzzled. "Do you mean sour cream or shredded cheese"?

No, That green cheese y'all have.

I'm sorry but we don't have green cheese, just the shredded cheese.

"There it is", as she pointed thru the glass, "That green cheese"

"OH, OK, ma'am we call that guacamole".

This Weekend Was Shot To Pieces

SIL 2 called to say they were having family over Sunday for lunch and Skeet shooting. For lunch they were serving some gator and wild pig.

I’ve never had gator before and I hadn’t shot in several years so I grabbed my shotgun and we headed out to the sticks.

We arrived a bit late and there was already a crowd back in the field shooting. We had about 20 shooters total. The hubby of SIL 2 was tossing the clays while everyone else was shooting. My son won the first competition by hitting several in a row.

They would shoot a round and everyone would go into the field and retrieve the missed clays and we would start over again.



We went thru over 300 clays and several boxes of shells. We had 12, 20 and .410 gauge shotguns for folks of every size. The kids had a ball and did amazingly well.

Surprisingly enough I did pretty good as well considering how long it had been.

When the kids were done and back at the house the adults broke out the pistols. I had not brought mine so I shot my nephews Glock. I need to take mine next time. It fits my hand better than his did.

Over all we had a ball. I can’t wait to go back soon. I can do without the gator. It was tough to chew. The wild pig tenderloin on the other hand was delicious.

My shoulder is a bit tender but this was a welcome retreat from all the recent goings on.

It's Your Attitude Dude

Here is a little update on the BIL situation.

SIL went with BIL and MIL to the doctors on Tuesday.

She said the Doctor went off on BIL the second he walked in the door. She said he started with “You have an attitude problem”. He told him he had only one institution left he could go to for surgery. I can name another institution he could go to.

The doc told the BIL he had 3 things he had to work on. Number one is his attitude. The SIL said the doc beat that point home over and over. Number two was his diabetes. He has to eat better and take the meds he prescribed. Number three was he had to stop smoking. When the doc left the room to get some sample meds the BIL told MIL he would be glad to get out of here. When the doc got back he told BIL to work on those three things and come back in six weeks and he would reassess the situation.

MIL broke in to ask about his triple bypass surgery. Doc got a bit ticked and told her his attitude would kill him before his heart. He said work on his Attitude and smoking and come back in 3 weeks. SIL said the doc was pretty perturbed the whole time. I was just shocked he saw the BIL again.

SIL said it was embarrassing to sit in the room with them.

The BIL and MIL have since determined they are not going back to this doctor because he is mean. I’m sure he will be heartbroken.

Just a note: BIL is smoking. He is also driving against Dr. orders. Sounds like that attitude adjustment part of the equation is already out the window.

In The Movie I Wanna Be Played By George Clooney

I want to thank all you guys for your kind words of support and wisdom.

So here’s a little update.

Before bed last nite I unplugged the house phone. We had a quiet nite.

I spose I am lucky as I got to go to work 33 miles away.

I called at lunch to see if all was clear on the home front. My oldest answered that things wernt too good and that the wife and SIL had gone over to try to calm things down.

Seem that SIL #2’s hubby came over to finish her tile floor and said “I am going to try to finish this before you throw me out like you did everyone else”. Brilliant move.

Little note here: SIL #2 is a sweet lady but is kinda clueless. Her hubby is kinduva nice guy but kinduva jerk at times as well. You can guess which side showed up this morn.




Well MIL goes into hysterics , she don’t wanna live. She’s never going to eat again because everyone hates her. BIL comes out of his room throwing up his hands saying I don’t know what to do with her. The girls show up and she is inconsolable and starts to claim chest pain. It is one of her fave tools of late to garner some attention. She wanted to call EMS and the girls tried to just calm her down but she finally called the EMT’s. When they arrived they were filled in on the situation. They did a full checkup and everything was good. They were able to get her to take her meds and in a bit she had calmed down. She went to her room while the girls cleaned up down stairs. They finally came back to the house.

I took them out to dinner. We came home and they went back to check on her and to watch “The Bachelor” with her. They were instantly dismissed so they came home.

Oops theres the phone. It’s her. She wants to know why SIL aint staying there. Duh.

Amazingly enuff the BIL has an appointment tomorrow with the surgeon that did his artery. I would love to be there to hear that. SIL has agreed to go with them.

That’s all for the evening.

Y’all have a good evening.

And thanks again for the support.

Alright Jerry Springer, Where are you???

Forgive me because as most of you know I don’t get real personal on here. I usually try to stay pretty light but this is going to be one of those therapeutic blogs where I just have to unload. Please forgive my writing style as I wrote this kinda quick.

Things have been tough on the in-law home front as of late.

In the past:

Mom in law: We have always gotten along. She constantly tells folks I am the best son in law ever. She had her quirks but things were pretty good.

Bro in law: I have known him longer than my wife. We used to bowl and drink and hunt and fish together . He still lives at home with mom.
Now:

MIL has kinda gone off the deep end. She has had medical issues. And is spose to be on meds. Instead she lies about taking her meds and calls us constantly about issues that would not be had she taken her meds. A man called a few months past saying he had found her uptown lost and crying. When we got there she threatened to run over me and bumped my leg with her bumper a couple times to prove the point. I kinda put that back in my mind as she was stressed. A couple weeks back she asked me to get her car inspected. When I didn’t get it home fast enough she threatened to call the cops. Since then I have had little contact with her which is difficult as she lives just around the corner. Recently she has had surgery and she does not respond well to pain meds nor Ambein as she goes into a weird psychosis. She has also started not to take no for an answer which has caused problems with my family.

BIL has a bad heart and diabetes. He smokes heavily also has the worst diet of anyone I know. Dr Pepper and Burger King, every meal. Only one male in his family has survived the first heart attack. He should be thankful. Sunday before last he was at work and had some chest pain. He drove himself to the hospital where they checked him out. When they checked his blood sugar it was 469. Yea 469. After stabilizing him they transported him the main hospital downtown to get a heart cath. They determined he needed a triple bypass. Tuesday morn at 1:30 AM my phone rings. “COME GET ME OUT OF HERE”. The wife tells him to calm down and get some rest. 5:30 comes around and the phone rings. Come get me. He had caused such a stink they escorted him out. So I went to get him.

Sis in law: everyone should have a sis in law like her. Exceedingly kind generous and smart. She was to fly into town for his surgery. She called to say if he weren’t having the surgery she wasn’t coming to town.

Thursday BIL has chest pains and MIL called to say she was taking him to the ER. He is admitted at the other Hospital. He is checked, admitted and they start prepping him for surgery on Monday. Sunday night they did a scan and determined his carotid arteries were too clogged to do the bypass so the scheduled him for the carotid surgery.

SIL flies in and stays with MIL. The war begins. MIL starts trashing everyone that hasn’t visited BIL prior to surgery telling them if they don’t come prior don’t bother coming at all. BIL has his surgery Thursday. There were some complications stitching his arteries due to his smoking so he is in ICU till Saturday.

In the meantime they tried to get her to come home to rest. She sees it as abandoning him and refuses to leave till she is exhausted. She finally comes home. She is home 1 hr when he starts calling demanding everyone go back to the hospital. They eventually go back and she stayed at home to rest. SIL is driving MIL car since she doesn’t have one. MIL wants I back, NOW. She threatens to call the cops on her. They come home and things escalate and she throws SIL out. SIL is staying with us.

Sunday BIL calls wanting clothes. He is leaving. Since he and MIL have alienated everyone else I go up to talk to him. Within a few minutes MIL shows up and he starts his I’m leaving thing again and gets out of bed and when she blocks the door he threatens to deck her. He later walks out the door and something happened out of eyesight with a hospital employee. Charges may stem from that yet. He was brought back to his room by security. Much talking was done to keep him there. I refused to take him home. The hospital was going to put him in a cab. His mom said he could not come home to her house. She said maybe he could come to my house since I take in strays. Finally he had pushed it too far. To save the hospital anymore headaches I finally agreed to take him home and she said she would let him in. He talked on the way home like nothing had happened. I aint lost my mind yet and will not forget this.

His complaint was no one was being reasonable.

The other SIL called and said MIL is claiming she brought him home and they stopped on the way home for dinner. HUH??

MIL called a bit ago and was wondering why SIL is not staying at her house. She does not recall throwing her out yesterday and claims she would never do that.

His and MIL actions have been tearing my household apart for the past 2 weeks. In our frustration we have been talking about it aloud and the little one broke down in tears. We gotta watch what we say around her.

Time has come to end this crap.

I left a lot of stuff out but this is the gist of it. It is crazy.

Thanks for listening.

Simply Cutting Up

My side business got really busy early last year so last spring I went shopping and added a new machine to my personal shop. I said new, odds are it is older than some of my readers but these machines typically last 30 -50 yrs.

If the Lilliputians had ratchet straps back in the day, Gulliver would still be tied to the beach.



I got a decent price but had to do a few repairs to get her up and running. I replaced the old 2 axis digital readout with a brand nicky new 3 axis readout. I also had to rewire the X-axis power feed. Since I fixed her up I have done a good bit of machining. Notice how she is holding her head up tall and proud.



Hopefully I will get a few good years of making chips.



Yes the chips are hot. And yea! It hurts like the dickens when the chips go down your shirt or land on your face or arms