Halloween

CP had a fun little bit of Halloween. I say a little bit because even with all of the lights in the neighborhood, it seems as though most folks must have taken their little people to organized events somewhere. We thought about taking CP to the gig at the Parent Connection, but she's still really snotty and I wouldn't wish this gurgling coughing mess on anyone.....well, almost anyone.

Auntie M. came over and had a good time with CP except for the little bits of fright that came with that crazy costume that she had on. We gave out two costco bags of candy by loading up the kids that we did get. The LW had a good time in her witch's hat and really enjoyed seeing the cute little ones. There are some new photos from yesterday on the flickr, so check 'em out.

Never Fails....

..that whenever we have an appointment for CP to see the doc, she's in pretty bad shape. It looks like this upcoming appointment will not deviate from that. She started breaking in four canine teeth at once a week or so before my folks showed up and was able to get about a four day break after that. After this "break", she caught a cold from somewhere and had it for a week. Then came another short break where she started eating well again, but last week at both library playgroups, there were kids with snotty noses and coughs. She's got a really snotty cold right now and hasn't been feeling good for the past five days or so. As I look at the calendar, it is rather shocking to see that since the 8th of this month (22 days), she's only felt good and eaten well for about 8 of them.

To top this all off, yesterday we went to Jessie Owens Park and she took a little spill and busted her lip up pretty well. You can see it on the picture on her left side. CP and I will drop the LW off at big blue this week for some sort of seminar, so she and I will on our own. It's really nice not having the security blanket (mama) around and CP seems to focus more of her time on playing and getting into things. I look forward to her not feeling sickly so that I can get back to the Y for some exercise and CP can get back in the playgroups for some interaction with little people.

Flaming Trash Can

I'm running down 22nd street on the way to my office this morning at dark:30 this morning, when I see something dead ahead in the lights. At first I thought that the lights were reflecting off of the plastic sidewalls of the bus stop, but as I got closer, I realized that some moron had set fire to the trash in the can. When the LW and I first arrived in T-town, we really liked the way that the bus stops had purple saguaros made of steel that held the little roofs onto them. I didn't want to see the fire spread to the bus stop and waste a whole lot of our tax money, so I pulled in, pulled stuff out of the back of the packed car, and grabbed my fire extinguisher. As I was doing this, some clown dressed in black comes up and tells me just to let it burn out.

Now, what's a good citizen doing standing in the vacant and dark parking lot of a check cashing place at this time of the morning telling me to let the fire burn out? This guy wasn't a good citizen after all. "Six years in the navy going to expensive flight deck & shipboard firefighting schools and I get to practice on a trashcan that some moron set on fire......" was all that I could manage to tell myself. I put it out as best as I could then started getting back into the car. I didn't even get the door shut before this kid pulls out an old replica German boot brush and tries to sell it to me. "Yo yo man, check this out, it's from the 1930s man.....", was his pitch line. I told him that it wasn't worth a @#it to anyone unless it's authentic and even then probably only to a skinhead whackjob. I called the FD on the way up the street so that they could come by and splash the can with a bit of water and was on my way. I figure that the kid probably was burning some excess things that he'd stolen from an elderly person who might have had a souvenir collection from the war. Either way, it was just pretty sad. On a brighter note, there were only six gunshots loud enough to wake me up last night.

So...

..your kid participates in one of a string of armed home invasions (bullet proof vests included), runs from the police, and gets his arse shot with cocaine and alcohol in his system........and you want to sue for wrongful death? George and Cecilia Diaz...... get a grip. These guys held a 3 year old at gunpoint for cryin' out loud!

This is unbelievable. This gang of miscreants broke into people's homes on several occasions and took things, terrorized the owners, and eventually some of them got blasted by a homeowner. I don't see how anyone can see the police as being at fault when they were up against fully armed people in the dark and they didn't sit around and ask them politely to come have a chat and some tea. If there's any justice around, this case will get dismissed and they'll have to reimburse the county for court costs.

Big Jim

Today I was thinking of a wonderful guy that I know who has cancer. I looked around on the web and found out sadly enough that the cancer had finally gotten the best of him. He was a good egg and you have to look hard to find folks like him today. They're out there somewhere and you just have to hope that you get a chance to meet them. I'm a bit shocked because Jim was larger than life.

"Son...

..you need to get you an 8 to 5 job."

That's what I heard when I called my parents on the phone to tell them about the TV show on PBS called The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard. Little did I know that a phone call to say hi would be seen as a grand opportunity for my dad to tell me basically that taking a few years at home to raise our daughter wasn't good enough for him. I alluded to the fact that the last times I listened to his advice I ended up in the Navy for six years and sold a perfectly good vehicle sending me down a long road to indebtedness.

The LW and I planned on me staying home with CP until she hits preschool and starts freeing up more of my time during the day. Once that happens, I'll be able to open up my available hours at work and get back to regular life....as regular as our life is, that is. I don't know what it is about blue collar thinking that seems to beget blue collar thinking and seems to cloud the view of anything else like dark glasses. I guess when your dad criticizes what you do, you just seem to pass it on. Well, that crap is going to stop with me. I've told the LW that if she ever hears me saying things like, "art/being a mechanic/etc. won't be a good thing for you" to CP that she should immediately smack me with the most solid movable object that she can get her hands around and swing.

I was so mad I almost cursed him (as in: "I've got two words for you and one of them is YOU") and hung up the phone. I called my brother and he was as dumbfounded as I was. He said that he'd love to stay home and spend more time with the girls. A 60-hour a week late-night concrete job helped ruin his first marriage and has kept him away from his kids way too much. He said as soon as his sugar-mama gets all set, he'll quit and be a stay at home dad too.

I guess from now on when I call the parents, I'll just talk to mom. Whaddaya think readers? Anyone else out there had this happen?

Migration

Finished up this morning with moving my website stuff from iPower to BlueHost. It wasn't really any fun, but it's now up and running. The two points that gave me fits were the MySQL database and the email stuff. I think that I screwed up with both of them. The database wasn't really backed up like it should have been and the email stuff was probably just that the mail server and the rest of the site come up at different times after the change. Still...it sure beats dealing with iPower - what a waste of money. I've been with them for 3 years and this last year it appears will have been a wash. That company pretty much has gone down the crapper in the past few years. Google them on the web and you'll probably find that they sucked before that.

The bright spot in the middle of this was Algis over at HitCode. If you need a calendar so that people can make appointments with you, this is the hot ticket. There are plenty of places out there that'll charge you $25/month to let you use their websites, but this solution works on your own website. You buy it...you own it. Algis will customize the template for you and provides wonderful customer service.

Elk & Pizza

CP's grandparents rolled into town this afternoon on the heels of a five day guided elk hunt in Coyote, New Mexico. It's good to see my folks and they look tired from travel, but happy to see our little person. We were regaled with stories of humorous guides and elk who seemed to know how to only show the wrong ends of their bodies from behind trees. Of course, no hunting story is complete without the requisite hard bed story....... CP was a bit shy tonight around them because dad's pretty much deaf and talks really loud around/to her without even realizing it. Tomorrow should be fun. Pumpkins to carve and halloween costumes to pick out.

CP and I got out the other day and went to the Children's Museum downtown with Aunt Carie, Teague, Caden, and Ashley. It was a wonderful trip and the kids were completely pooped by the time we were done. They all came back here for lunch and a bit of chicken chasing. The Children's Museum has some really great things for small people and CP will probably get a membership so we can go there often. Percussion and trains were a big hit.

system32/DRIVERS/pci.sys

For the second time this year, the wife's work laptop has crashed and taken her data with it. The hard drive is shot, but I put it in the freezer to see if anything will help it. I've downloaded PC Inspector, but I can't even get the laptop to get recognized by using a Cat5 cable or by putting it right into the router. Nada. The "new" (next victim) laptop is here, but it's a pain to get all of her remote stuff to come up and run.

Our rescue kitty is settling in and has only peed on me once so far. I scaled the wall at one of our gardens to get at the mewwing little stinker and it's been on the mend since. It must have fallen sometime or been injured somehow. The left hind leg isn't what it should be. The resident cats don't care for it much, so we've kept them separate. We hope to find a happy home for it soon.

Back In Action

CP has broken free of her teething/cold distress and according to the LW, was able to eat a lot of dinner last night. I had to work last night and when I came home CP came toddling to the door excitedly repeating, "Dadddyyyyyyyyy". It was the best welcome home that I've had in a long time and it really cheered me up. The LW is happily sleeping again, although she did oversleep a bit this morning which led to a last minute conference call scramble.

I picked up the prints and film from the first rolls to go through my "new" old Graflex 22 which looks just like the one in the picture at right. This photo is borrowed from the folks at Graflex.org. I used their site quite a bit when deciding on which large format camera I'd like to get in the future. That's when I found the 22 which makes a 2"x2" negative. It was a relatively inexpensive camera back in its day, but it makes pretty good images. I'll get accustomed to the reverse viewfinder someday. The first test roll was pretty impressive, but I wasn't really testing it with good film. The stuff that I used expired in 2003, but the prints were still good. If business keeps rolling along, I'll be headed toward a Graflex Speed Graphic or Super Graphic 4x5 camera. There are plenty of them on eBay, which is where I found this camera.

101 and Risin'

How high's the readout mama?
99 degrees and risin'

That may not make too much sense to you if you don't like the music of Johnny Cash. It appears that our "flood" of baby heat might be caused by the new teeth that are trying to break through. Last night she was at about 99 and this morning it had moved up to 101. She's sleepy, but still ate breakfast and in contrast to other kids I've seen, doesn't fuss much when she's feeling bad. She just slows way down and prefers that everything else slow down to meet her pace.

Last night we went to the GABA meeting to see pictures from a bike trip that some folks had taken to Prague and the surrounding area. It was a great presentation and we almost made it all the way through it before deciding that it would be best to get the sleeping tot home to bed. We enjoyed getting to see some of the gang there that we knew also. We both realized after getting there that it was just nice to be out of the house.

Sunday

Earlier this afternoon, a car came flying down our little dead-end street. I heard it from out in back of the house where we were busy playing with CP. We're accustomed to this sort of thing, so I cursed as I usually do and we went about playing. A few minutes later the LW heard something in the yard next door at the apartments. There were two people running through the yard and hopping the fence. There was also someone who ran through the alley on the other side of the house.....now, this seemed a bit odd. We ran out front and found a car parked in our neighbor's driveway. The neighbors had evidently come out of the house to see what the people in the car were up to and they just took off. I hopped on my bike and rode down the street to find a guy and a girl walking toward the main street and looking around...a lot. They saw me coming and started quickly walking the other way.

I rode back home and got the car...and my phone...and went back out sightseeing. On my way out of the neighborhood, the LW said that a car drove down the street and then backed it's way out. I found this car at the flower shop. The guy had been hit by the people who parked their car at the neighbor's house and ran. He had chased them across town. I found the runners out by 22nd street and called it in to the folks at Tucson Police Department. In a half hour or so, the TPD showed up and after descriptions were discussed, they went out searching for the runners. It's no surprise that they didn't find anything. They may as well have big neon signs on their cars.

A little while later, the owner of the car that had been used in the hit and run by the runners showed up and told TPD that she had loaned her car to a black guy so that "he could go to the Circle K". Oh, she didn't know his last name. She had come down the street earlier and lied about it not being her car. Just a few minutes ago, they let her have her car back. I found out that the guy has been doing "till picking" around town. (when the register opens, cash is grabbed) Sooooooo...... you loan your car out to someone and they use it for robberies and are involved in a hit and run. I guess that a hit and run is a class 3 misdemeanor roughly equivalent to stealing a pack of chewing gum.

As she drove her car away, I yelled "STAY THE #@$* OUT". She slowed down like she was going to stop, but then probably thought better of it. I was pretty bent. The TPD officer advised me that she'd probably file a complaint against him because I was standing next to his car when I yelled at her. I advised him to have his supervisors give me a call if anything was filed.

Tomorrow I'm off to find shotgun shells....and I'm reconsidering that handgun offer from my father-in-law.

Toys

We dropped by Tiggy-Winkles last night to see about picking up something for my wonderful niece who turns 8 this weekend. Yes, I know that my gifts are always late..... So I'm walking through the isles and see some funky little backpacks. The girl in the store comes over and starts telling me all of the neat things about them, which was nice, but then we saw the price tag. The one that I happened to be looking at was in the $130 price range. The girl goes on to tell me about the company and how it's a small US company and how well designed the products are. At this point, I'm figuring that the bags must be made in the US and that the high price of the bags is because they are made by US workers...right?.........ERRRRRRRRRRRRR. There's nothing on the tags at all that mentions where the bags are made, but down inside the bag is a small white tag: Made in China. WTH?! I showed it to the store girl and she went on to tell me the percentage of toys in the store that were made in China...blahblahblah. $130 for a bag that's made by folks that get a living wage and benefits here in the US is one thing, $130 for a bag that's made for $10 in material and $0.13 in labor....well, they can kiss my a$$.

Shorty Stubbs

Just got home from work and walked in to find this on the computer. Evidently the LW had been reading it. I just can't believe it. Shorty was the kind of radio personality that you dream of having in your town and now he's gone.

Shortly after the LW and I got to this town, we noticed the dearth of radio stations other than unclear channel and jbg. The shining spot on the radio was and has been KXCI. The LW has her favorite programs and so do I, but sometimes they overlap. Shorty's "Country Fringe" program on Twangin' Tuesday is one of those programs. You just never know what you're going to hear, but it's guaranteed to be good. The music he played sometimes reminded me of the old stuff my grandparents used to listen to when I was a kid....real twangy stuff that wouldn't pass for jack s#*@ in corporate Nashville these days.

A few years of listening to Shorty on Tuesday nights just wasn't enough. Knowing that he's gone is enough to knock the wind out of your sails.

Mahna Mahna

It's a little clip on youtube from Sesame Street and it has a catchy little song. So catchy that CP can't get enough of it. She seems to think that the sole purpose of our computers is to show her this little video. It makes things interesting sometimes. I'm just about tired of hearing it.

The LW and Auntie M. did really well on the EuroFresh ride this past weekend. The LW teamed up with a gal from Willcox that really helped her with paceline tips and she really enjoyed it. On the way back they dealt with a headwind....for 22 miles. Auntie M. was pretty well beaten, but still had a great time. It was an accomplishment for them both and I was impressed. CP seemed to really enjoy being out and about for the day.

It's getting tougher these days to keep CP inside. I just turned around and she was up on top of the dining room table. She's a climber. She's also begun to mimic things that people say, which in my case, could cause problems. She'll even start the ABC song, but she trails off into mumbles and smiles. I had planned to finish this post, then head to the Y, but CP got really whiney about not being allowed to scramble everything on the desk and then fell asleep in my arms. We'll go later, I hope.

I got word from my brother yesterday that his first trip to CO, one that I've wanted to be a part of for years, was ruined by poor trail selection and bad decisions. What a nightmare. I've tried to get him out to CO since we lived there about four years ago or so and there was always some excuse for him not to go. Now, he has another excuse...this trip not only cost him time and money to get there, it cost him bike parts as well - busted graphics (brand new) and a bent/broken chain guide that'll probably need a little TIG work. I can't for the life of me, understand why a local would take people out on front range trails (other than the easy stuff at Rampart) that are of the hike-a-bike variety or are illegal when you don't have street plates. Why not just head to Canyon City for a warm up on the Tanner Peak Trail, then on to Salida or Sargents for some fun trail running in the wide open spaces? It'll just be twice as hard now to get him to come to AZ to ride.

in other news: Who needs a manufactured distraction to keep the heat off of the new Gonzales than a little bit of O.J. Simpson craziness? Links aren't really needed for this one, now are they?

Tubes and Tomatoes

The LW has been a bit under the weather for a few days. We both think that it's a bit too much regular coffee, but we don't really know for sure. She's gone rounds with these symptoms before and the last time our doc had to give her some belladonna to calm her gut. She's in the back sleeping right now.

This weekend Auntie M. and the LW are doing the EuroFresh Ride. They'll do 22 miles out to the EuroFresh facility for a tour and then 22 miles back to where they started. I'll be running a personal sag stop with CP. We'll take the chariot so they can hitch her up and let her ride too, but the superjetta will be the backup. I just finished putting super-thick tubes from Pima Street Bikes in both of her tires.

Seeds and Change

Tried to do the click-n-ship thing with the complete order that I'm sending back to gurney's - get this - when you punch their return address into the USPS site, it tells you that the address isn't good and won't let you print a label. So, I'll be off to Choates this coming week to send their junk back. Thanks to Chile for this article.

Made DVDs for the family today. Auntie M. rode out to the mountain with the LW this morning and has spent the day with us. It's just amazing what another set of hands can do when there's a 16 month old little person running around getting into everything. Anyway, the slack created by having Auntie M. here allowed me to put together videos for most of the spring and summer movies, so they should be shipping out soon. It's pretty funny to see how much CP has changed in just a few months.

I came across this blog today (mmmmm...technorati) linked to a garden blog that I help run. It looks like an interesting read and it's interesting to see how gardening hooks people and reels them in.

Season 2

We picked up the first Muppets Season II DVD the other day at Casa Video. We're on the episode with George Burns right now. CP seems to like them, but they don't hold her attention for too long. The LW and I however are really enjoying them.

Our swampy has been working better now that the humidity dropped below 30% and the promise of a cooler fall season is right around the corner. The LW even had to turn the thing off this morning because it was only 75 degrees outside. That's a nice change.

Auntie M. came over this long weekend and played with CP a bit. We took quite a few pictures and I'll post them up on the flickr site soon. Last night was a trip to Lakeside Park. CP really liked the idea of a lake with ducks and she conquered the slide in no time.

I'm still waiting on my order from Gurney's (ordered seeds and strawberries Aug 18th) and I sent them a note to let them know that I didn't appreciate them second-guessing my order dates. Hopefully the "customer service" person will write back with the president's name and address soon so that I can let him know about what I think of his delayed shipping scheme.

Read Listen Sweat Repeat

Read a funny Violet Blue article today. It discusses burning man and the gifts that sometimes keep on giving. The LW was laughing out loud.

Also, while listening to KXCI this morning, we heard a song by Jason Isbell called Dress Blues. Pretty sad stuff. The song didn't really hit me until I heard the part about "bombs in the sand". It made me think of all of the faces that only Jim Lehrer has the stones to show at the end of his broadcast.

CP continues to exert her will lately. She's climbing everything, nodding yes when she wants something, and becoming quite clingy when we drop her off at the childwatch room at the Y. We went last night and she fell asleep while we were upstairs on the weight machines. She's keeping us busy just trying to keep up with her.

Green Light

At the 22nd & Kolb stop light this morning after dropping the LW off at big blue, a blue toyota truck pulls up behind me. Well, we're both in the turn lane to go left, and around here the green arrow trails the green. Freaky, but it seems to work ....sometimes. The light turned green and there was about a 1/2 mile of traffic coming toward us in the other lane. Some people like to creep into the intersection, but I've found that sitting at the line until the light is just about to give me the green arrow allows me to stay out of the intersection (emergency vehicles anyone?). I still end up beating the other guys through the intersection, so it's usually a wash. This time, the guy in the pickup starts honking at me and moves right up on me so that all I can see out the back window of the wagon is grille. He honks some more. Can you see this now? There's no way to turn, but this asshole just wants me to move up. What do I do? Sit there. When he honked about the third time, I put it in reverse and backed up toward him. He stopped honking. We cruise down the road and I get to my turn off and, using sign language, tell him that he's #1 in my book. I hope that this guy visits downtown LA for some hot lead & manners therapy some time soon.

Went out to the mall with CP for a new SAHD playgroup that's starting after we got back home from dropping the LW at work. CP and I ran into the mom that does the Cinema La Placita event while we were at the mall playspot and had a nice visit too.

I hope that the dad group takes off. The Tucson Moms group has a huge following and does all kinds of cool stuff. I'm glad that it is out there as a support system, but I'd rather not be around any talk of scrapbooking or get the stinkeye from a group of women who think that the friendly neighborhood atheist is just there to eat their children. Sitting in any spot where alot of moms congregate, you can just feel the looks of "hmmm, no job for daddy?" and, since I don't wear my wedding ring (work & it's small since my fingers are stronger now) the, "oh, a single dad out to pick up women with his cute little prop". Sheesh.