Mailing list

9 February 2009

It seems that I can set it up where you will be emailed automatically when I post  new blog.  If any one is interested in such a thing let me know.

Operation: Kenmore

9 February 2009

This morning while playing on facebook, I decided maybe I should tackle the fridge cleaning project, since it more of a search and destroy undertaking than a scrubbing affair.  The offending smell, mashed potatoes (gluten free) that I made on December 23rd.  I opened up the container and they looked fine once they fell into the trash, I had a VIOLENT dry heeve.  Followed by another, and another until I literally dropped the container and ran to the open window in the bedroom.  After a couple of minutes the heeving stopped, and I considered how to handle this since clearly something needs to be done.  Poor Jazmine was right beside me at the time, and she has locked herself in the corner giving me dirty looks ever since.  You can see the picture of the offending "food" in my slideshow though the picture is terrible, I could not get any closer looking at the photo causes flashbacks.  

The rest of the operation went well, the "salad" had formed its own sort of salad dressing which did not smell very good.  The milk was not as chunky as one would think, and the smell wasn't bad either,  The cleaned fridge safely holds 4 liters of Coke, butter, salad dressing, and fresh milk.  It was now no longer a biohazard.  Luckily there is a lock on my dumpster of else the poor bugger who opened that bag would need an ambulance.  Though the look on their face would be great!

Where's Fido?

8 February 2009

Here is a picture of my apartment see if you can find the dog.  Today is going to be a cleaning day I think...

This is my sink... walking by the smell almost makes me vomit.  I gave up on espresso because the machine is too close to the sink.  I am wondering if I should really be posting this... Later I will have pics as I clean the fridge... stay tuned.

In the Belly of the Beast (Part 3 of 4)

7 February 2009

Transition

Myself and 4 others are called down, and with sheets, and coffee mugs
in hand we wait to be moved. Someone asks where they are being
moved to, with the response medium, I was not liking the notion of 19
hours in a cell. We are brought down a series of hallways, and are
brought to another wing with 3 pods.

Phoenix: (yes seriously) which I do not know a lot about believe its
a drug rehab area much like transition.
Transition: Where I am placed
Medium: 19 hours of lock down a day, jail.

As we near the pods the woman transporting us asks if I want to go to
transition or medium. I ask what transition is, and the basic premiss
is drug/alcohol classes about rehab etc. This seems like a better
option than spending all day in a cell, so I opt for transition.

I am told to go to a cell, I enter turning on the light and am greeted
by my Cellie who yells "What the FUCK! I don't get up before noon". I
begin to think this is going to be wonderful. I drop myself on my
bunk, and head out to the open area where people are milling about
reading, playing cards, watching tv. i am given some headphones from
the guard, and I can now listen to the tv or radio, things are looking
slightly better, after all we are not in lock down.

After 20 minutes or so I am called, and go into a room across the hall
with another inmate in here we are given a questionnaire asking about
usage, etc. This is used to see what classes would benefit you the
most while on the inside. We talk to the woman who asks us our
stories, priors, and other pertinent information. I am assigned to a
couple of classes, AA some other alcohol related classes, I even get
into a creative writing class (I only went once so not much benefit to
my writing). We are given some pencils, notebook, and folder to be
able to do homework and so forth. Afterwards we are led back into the
pod, and I resume staring at the idiot box, which in here has even
more meaning.

The Cellies
I go back into my cell to drop of the notebook, and my cellie (Doug)
is now awake, introduces himself and apologizes for the previous
encounter. He is 24 third time in jail for domestic violence, this
time it was for saying and I quote:

"I should have sliced your throat when I had the chance."

This was in front of two cops who had responded to a call at his
house. Cops came talked to them everything was cool, and Doug busts
out this gem as the cops are leaving. They overhear this at which
point he is tackled and arrested. Like I mentioned before he has been
in before for the same basic charge at age 24 he has spent 3 years in
jail, all for the same charge. The great Albert Einstein defined
insanity as doing the same thing over and over, while expecting
different results.

Doug is serving a year this time, and his father and best friend are
also in the jail, but in different wings. I found his story very
interesting though I only believe a third of it since anytime I
mentioned anything he had done it +1. Example being somehow cycling
came up (there was a spin bike in the common area for us to use) I
mentioned used to race. Doug raced as well, winning a bunch of races
etc. I mentioned riding from Morrison to the top of Mount Evans and
back, yes Doug has done that twice. i found this amazing since I have
talked to a lot of people and I am they ONLY person anyone has heard
of doing this ride. Which is not to say I am the only person, but
most people consider riding the highest paid road in the U.S. a
standalone feat, they usually don't have it as the middle of a century
ride for a nice Sunday on the bike.

Doug was writing poetry as well, which he insists on reading to me,
regardless of my protests. This includes while I am trying to
urinate, now imagine you are locked in a cell, with another guy who is
reading bad poetry to you, and you are trying to pee. Way too much
stimulation to handle while you are trying to do such a thing.
Finally I snap and tell him to shut up for a minute, he reluctantly
stops reading "Love, and Lust". Doug after a few days changes cells
(I think he requested it) but that was a glorious day.

Doug also likes to watch tv at night with the headphone turned all the
way up, and hanging on his neck, while I try to read. He then has to
tell me every minute detail of the Simpsons, regardless of my
protests, this man LOVES to talk! All I want is quiet so I can
read, this leads to a few exchanges in the coming days. Doug also
pouts when people don't want to listen to him, his T.V. show or just
want to be left alone to read.

Doug is replaced by a portly spanish gentleman, who I forget his
name. He was great, quiet, we talked a bit. He got busted 10 years
ago for DUI ran while on probation has been living in Arizona has a
family, been on the straight and narrow. He turned himself in because
he lost his job and figured it was a good time to get the outstanding
warrant off his back. He is sentenced to 90 days. He ends up serving
a week since the judge looked at the fact he didn't even have a
speeding ticket in 10 years.

These were my two cellmates, there were a number of characters I end
up meeting guys in for 3 years for meth charges etc. i met one guy
who got hit with a 4th DUI and while out on bond he is pulled over
for.... drinking and driving. He was facing both charges, his son was
out on bond for his first DUI at 22. I find all of this amazingly
interesting, everyones stories how we all got to where we are is
extremely fascinating to me, I should have been a shrink. `

Lunch is weird its sort of like high school where everyone has a seat,
not assigned but everyone has a seat, which you do not take. I end up
sitting with Doug, and eat while getting the lowdown on what this pod
is all about.

The interesting thing is how many of the jail jokes are true. There
is a commissary where you can order pencils, coffee, soup everything,
and these commodities are worth their weight. Food in general was
traded all the time, I would give my breakfast to a guy for cheetos at
lunch, oh hot sauce was always sought after as well. I was only in
the pod for a week so I never really got into it, I gave my breakfast
away simply because I might as well take the food.

I am sure more stories will arise, I have been working on this blog
for a month, and just want to get it out of my face.

My gated community

9 February 2009

Last week I came home from work to find a key taped to my door, it was for the new lock put on the dumpster.  Apparently the bums taking my empty PBR does not go over very well.  The following day there is another key, and as I pull up my neighbor comes out.  He starts asking if I know who padlocked the gate to the fence.  I am dumbfounded, having no clue he is talking about and then notice there is a gate now on the alley side of the property.  No, to take out the trash I need two keys, what a pain.  On the street side of the property they have been VERY slowly doing something.  As in since I moved in they managed to out in 3/4 of a deck, which I have no clue  why they would bother.  Clearly it will not be long until there will be a gate in the front, and my rent will go up.  I then will be unable to ride my bike right to my front door, and I will have to carry another key with me all the time :(

Don't hate the playa, hate the game

6 February 2009

I had my 6th of 30+ classes I have to attend last night, and what I
would find as an interesting thing happened.

The Overview
Class is held in a smallish conference room with a rectangular table
with 15 chairs positioned. everyone shows up signs in, and takes any
seat, and we basically play on our phones, ipods, or idle chit chat
for 20 minutes until the class is then released.

The "story"
I entered the room and there was one other person in the room so I sit
about 5 seat from him, and we end up chatting a bit. He takes a seat
on the opposite side of the table. Now there is a cute blonde in the
class, and she comes in and with say 10 open seats picks the one right
beside me which I found odd since who sits right next to someone when
given the possibility to have a chair between you right?

I compute this all on the fly and come to the conclusion this is my
chance to chat her up right? I was in a crappy mood so I chickened
out and did not say a word to her at all. My question is am I reading
too much into it? What aggravates me is more the fact we have stuff
in common at the very least we both got busted... What are peoples
thoughts?

New work hazards

5 February 2009

I have worked in cabinet shops on and off for about 5 years now. This
is not including the years i sent in school, or the hours spent in my
shop at home. It is an intrinsically dangerous job, the machines are
designed to cut wood apart, your fingers are even less resistance from
time to time. Looking around the shop I work at nearly everyone is
missing a piece of a finger or thumb.

I remember in school it was nearly the last day before summer break
and someone ran their fingers across the jointer. A jointer has three
blades spinning very fast which are parallel to a machined surface.
There is a table leading to the blades, and a table after the blades.
The premise is you set the infeed table lower than the outfeed table
so as you push a warped, or rough board over the blades it will take
off the amount from high areas so it flattens the board. The danger
is there is a guard in place but it is a string mudflap, basically
keeps your hands from falling in when there is not a board holding the
guard open.

As he is jointing a small piece of would he is holding down the board,
and has two fingers trailing behind the board, and yep lost the tips
of two fingers, and it happens in an instant. The blades are spinning
at something like 10,000 rpms (I could be wrong) so its quick. He
ended up being fine, meaning alive and well, but two fingers are a
little shorter.

While I was running a shop in Norwood, MA we had a small gas powered
go kart in the shop. It would get a little pep going and we would
race it around the shop. When you are sitting in the kart, all the
edges of all the machinery is right at eye level, which is a hazard in
itself. With this there is a light layer of sawdust all over the
floor which when you are cruising in the kart, and turn, you get a
killer slide going through turns. No one was ever hurt but it was a
ton of fun after a long day to blast through the shop and do quick
few laps to let off some carbon monoxide in a closed building.

I then took this to a new level this past week... in my current shop
on a nice day we have a large garage door which I will ride from my
bench, and out into the free world. There is constantly a layer of
dust all over the floor, and on my way out I will do a few skids since
you slide really well on the surface. Again there are machines,
carts, and screws everywhere. I have not gone down yet, but I really
want to get a good start from outside and skid through the entire shop
but it would require some great maneuvering I just do not possess in a
skid yet. I will keep you posted...