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- May 14, 2011
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WARNING: Ed story time. Those with allergies, please avert your eyes...
Sub-Title: Little Things in Life can Royally PISS ME OFF Anymore
I've been looking forward to the first Cruise-In of the season for months now...
Plans have been made and executed with work (and life) in order to pave the way to
attend the first one tonight with that very goal in mind; as with prior years, it's a sort
of ritual with me, symbolic of a lot of things really, personally speaking.
As one does with these old cars, you spend hours in the garage - fixing, polishing,
cussing a little, spending a lot to get the car ready for another year of use.
When you own property, you're also working to get the place ship-shape after winters'
damages and other little surprises.
(We take care of the "have-to's" before we can enjoy the "want-to's", right?)
The magic week arrives. First Cruise-In!
Having done your due diligence, you're almost ready and think you're in good shape...
Then...
Cue the "weather goes to **** for several days" act...
Yep - that prick Stormy McSideways Armagaddon showed up...
A lot.
Over and over again.
More freshly bought driveway gravel disappears (at roughly the price of "a kings' ransom"), only to be rediscovered
in somebody's front yard on the other side of the planet.
Vegetation was struck by lightning, blown down by wind - and probably even drowned in the process, too.
Not distracted from the goal, however!
Repairs were made, chunks of trees removed from yards, roads cleared and repaired - again.
There WILL be a GTX sighting on Friday night!
Well..."the best-laid plans", etc. etc.
This morning as I made my rounds out at one of the county schools, doing my old sprinkler guy routine as always, here IT came again....
this time with me personally catching quite a bit of it on the noggin, being caught away from shelter outdoors as the "40-days" show made a curtain call.
Still....didn't matter.
Plans altered, modified, adjusted.
Fred WILL be downtown by 6pm!
Got home by noon in order to again begin the several-hour repair process of
the washed out road. By God, this is GOING to happen....
Then... "lather, rinse, repeat"... I suppose you know what came next.
Yep.
#frogstranglerfromhell #47 showed up - again.
(Can't just get normal rain showers around here this time of year, seems like; instead,
we get those best described in the Good Book as involving an old dude and a boat full of animals...)
Meanwhile, I'll admit at that point I was beginning to get concerned.
As I literally was left standing there in the carport, tractor idling and ready to go to work....
the heavens opened up, as if to openly defy THE PLAN.
At this point, even a dang fool would give up, right?
Of course, that means I didn't...and it's getting to be later and later in the day at this
point, but noooooo - I'm going to get this done!
(It should be noted here that when our road gets trashed by these
monsoons, no normal vehicle can drive on it, lest it be relieved of its'
suspension in that effort.)
(I'm saying it's steep.)
(REAL steep in places...)
(Did I mention how steep part of our road is?)
My wife was in town with the Charger, so this needed to get done - and Fred the GTX also not being of the off-road variety, he also depended on a smooth road as well.
Plan "F" is formulated.
Recompute, recompute....
So - I go sit down in front of the computer to eat something and I wait it out, determined to still get the job done in time for my wife to come home.
It'll be tight time-wise, but we can at least make a late appearance in town of the GTX...
Alas, what I had failed to take into account in all this plotting and scheming was...
me.
At that point, exhausted from everything that's been going on for months (and naturally, having the medical "challenges" I do these days), things once again took an unexpected - and as it turns out, final - turn for the day.
Yeah - about that whole "sit down" part...
I woke up in the chair a couple hours later, Lisa now home from work and sitting there giving me that "poor ol' fella" knowing smile.
Hey - at least it finally quit effing raining!
Sub-Title: Little Things in Life can Royally PISS ME OFF Anymore
I've been looking forward to the first Cruise-In of the season for months now...
Plans have been made and executed with work (and life) in order to pave the way to
attend the first one tonight with that very goal in mind; as with prior years, it's a sort
of ritual with me, symbolic of a lot of things really, personally speaking.
As one does with these old cars, you spend hours in the garage - fixing, polishing,
cussing a little, spending a lot to get the car ready for another year of use.
When you own property, you're also working to get the place ship-shape after winters'
damages and other little surprises.
(We take care of the "have-to's" before we can enjoy the "want-to's", right?)
The magic week arrives. First Cruise-In!
Having done your due diligence, you're almost ready and think you're in good shape...
Then...
Cue the "weather goes to **** for several days" act...
Yep - that prick Stormy McSideways Armagaddon showed up...
A lot.
Over and over again.
More freshly bought driveway gravel disappears (at roughly the price of "a kings' ransom"), only to be rediscovered
in somebody's front yard on the other side of the planet.
Vegetation was struck by lightning, blown down by wind - and probably even drowned in the process, too.
Not distracted from the goal, however!
Repairs were made, chunks of trees removed from yards, roads cleared and repaired - again.
There WILL be a GTX sighting on Friday night!
Well..."the best-laid plans", etc. etc.
This morning as I made my rounds out at one of the county schools, doing my old sprinkler guy routine as always, here IT came again....
this time with me personally catching quite a bit of it on the noggin, being caught away from shelter outdoors as the "40-days" show made a curtain call.
Still....didn't matter.
Plans altered, modified, adjusted.
Fred WILL be downtown by 6pm!
Got home by noon in order to again begin the several-hour repair process of
the washed out road. By God, this is GOING to happen....
Then... "lather, rinse, repeat"... I suppose you know what came next.
Yep.
#frogstranglerfromhell #47 showed up - again.
(Can't just get normal rain showers around here this time of year, seems like; instead,
we get those best described in the Good Book as involving an old dude and a boat full of animals...)
Meanwhile, I'll admit at that point I was beginning to get concerned.
As I literally was left standing there in the carport, tractor idling and ready to go to work....
the heavens opened up, as if to openly defy THE PLAN.
At this point, even a dang fool would give up, right?
Of course, that means I didn't...and it's getting to be later and later in the day at this
point, but noooooo - I'm going to get this done!
(It should be noted here that when our road gets trashed by these
monsoons, no normal vehicle can drive on it, lest it be relieved of its'
suspension in that effort.)
(I'm saying it's steep.)
(REAL steep in places...)
(Did I mention how steep part of our road is?)
My wife was in town with the Charger, so this needed to get done - and Fred the GTX also not being of the off-road variety, he also depended on a smooth road as well.
Plan "F" is formulated.
Recompute, recompute....
So - I go sit down in front of the computer to eat something and I wait it out, determined to still get the job done in time for my wife to come home.
It'll be tight time-wise, but we can at least make a late appearance in town of the GTX...
Alas, what I had failed to take into account in all this plotting and scheming was...
me.
At that point, exhausted from everything that's been going on for months (and naturally, having the medical "challenges" I do these days), things once again took an unexpected - and as it turns out, final - turn for the day.
Yeah - about that whole "sit down" part...
I woke up in the chair a couple hours later, Lisa now home from work and sitting there giving me that "poor ol' fella" knowing smile.
Hey - at least it finally quit effing raining!
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