This morning I let oldest daughter sleep in a little bit before having her follow me over to the tire store. Despite getting there an hour after they opened on a Saturday morning, the wait wasn't too awful.

Talking to the guy at the counter, I told him I wanted the cheapest steel-belted radial possible in that size. I'm planning on trading in the truck this spring, and can't see spending lots on a new tire right now. Besides, there's good tires already on the beast.

The guy tried to talk me out of buying a tire. The only one they had in stock is a really crappy tire (from a good name). Lots of problems with it, blowouts and sidewall failures, and they won't sell them anymore once the current inventory is gone. Wasn't a very good price either.

But it was convenient and I didn't feel like making this an all-day event to save a few bucks, so I told him to check the flat. If it could be repaired, then do that, otherwise I'd take the new tire. We told them we'd be back in a half hour to see what was up and walked next door to the grocery store.

I bought another brisket. On the way back, oldest daughter asked why she was carrying this gigantic slab of meat, so I started in with the double-entendre jokes about my enormous meat. My meat is so big it needs it's own seat in the car, and other juvenile comments. I also called my wife at work and sang Leo Sayer's "You Make Me Feel Like Dancing" to her - loudly - in the parking lot. Oldest daughter finally tired of the public humiliation and drove back home, with instructions that my enormous meat was so valuable that she was to immediately put it in the freezer.

The tire guys showed me where I'd picked up a screw that caused the slow leak. Easy repair, for about 1/8th the cost of the new tire.

So if I'm singing the blues, it's 'cause I wanna.

Posted by: Ted at 07:58 PM | category: Square Pegs
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Mookie has been expressing an interest in classical music, so when mom and I saw a multiple CD collection arranged by composer, we had to get it. Brahms, Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and Chopin (I explained that it was pronounced "show-pan", Vivaldi, a couple of the Russians (that I won't bother misspelling here), and even one of Gershwin.

She's been working her way through the set, and I had to smile when she said her biggest problem was knowing where she left off, because right now it all sounds pretty much the same to her. She'll figure it out, and she seems to be giving it a real chance, which makes me happy.

In related news, I became so disgusted with our local "classic rock" station that I took them off the main buttons in the truck and replaced them with classical. It's been a nice change.

What did the classic rockers do? Besides the most annoying collection of DJ's I've ever had to spend time with, they've decided that the Beatles and Rolling Stones are responsible for 30% of all classic rock worth listening to. That gets old fast.

Adios Ringo and Mick. Hellooooo Wolfgang.

Posted by: Ted at 04:35 PM | category: Square Pegs
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Apparently my "medical announcement" brought some unexpected responses. Oldest daughter has a web site that I didn't know about (and I've been asked not to search for, since it's a rant and vent place), and she linked to that particular post. Later, she got a phone call from her roommate from last year - different college, different state - that was directly about my announcement. I'm sure much "ewww"ing was involved. *smirk*

All I can say to the roomie is, young lady, that the one time I met you, you were drunk, passed out and about half-dressed. *bigger smirk*

Posted by: Ted at 07:43 AM | category: Square Pegs
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1 heehee... **covers mouth and turns away**

Posted by: Tuning Spork at March 05, 2005 06:24 PM (JrbKW)

2 Hmmm...I bet finding Robyn's webpage would be pretty easy. Just google I can't believe my father did this today! and it'll probably pop right up. Your only reason for living is to embarass your kids, isn't it?

Posted by: Victor and his seventeen pet rats at March 07, 2005 08:00 AM (L3qPK)

3 Of course not, Victor. That's just one of the perks.

Posted by: Ted at March 07, 2005 09:09 AM (blNMI)

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I work early hours so as to avoid traffic. I'm in the office before 6am and scoot out at 3 in the afternoon. Usually it works pretty well. Today though, as I walked up to my truck, I saw the right front tire was mostly flat.

I've had this truck for almost 5 years now, and never have I had any problems with it. Not even a flat tire. But what the heck, that's a simple thing to take care of, so I took off my tie (yep, all dressed up), and got ready to get it done.

Everything went fine until I'd gotten the flat tire off and went to put the spare on. Problem was, the jack was fully extended and it wasn't up high enough for the wheel to fit back over the lugs. Couldn't fit the flat back on there either, because it wasn't a complete flat so it had regained it's shape without the weight of the truck on it. I think the jack is broken and won't extend as far as it should.

As I was standing there laughing (my car insurance coverage includes this kind of situation, but on a Friday afternoon it'd take forever. I was resigned to it now.), a coworker walked by and suggested one of the guys in the office who drives in (most everyone - except me - takes mass transit to work). There ya go, I borrow his jack, get the tire on, and I'm outta dodge.

Done, done and done. With very little additional complication, I pulled out of there an hour late and right into the teeth of weekend getaway traffic. My normal 35 minutes drive took an hour forty-five, thanks to a couple of accidents way south of where my exit was.

And I'm still in a good mood. We had dinner, and then Liz and I went to the grocery store together to get the hell away for a little while. We haven't done shopping together in ages, so that was nice.

Tomorrow morning I'll take the tire to the service station and see if it can be fixed. If not, I'll get a new tire. Ho hum. Not a problem. No sweat. No biggie.

It's not gonna spoil my weekend either.

Posted by: Ted at 09:25 PM | category: Square Pegs
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I have no problem getting an erection.

Hey, it's important to me.

Posted by: Ted at 04:53 AM | category: Square Pegs
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Last night I told my wife that I was thinking about taking down the big maple in the backyard. She surprised me with a hearty "go for it", then she mentioned that it was going to be expensive.

Heck, we are men with chainsaws. What is this "expensive" nonsense?

I took a closer look at the job, and it's not an unreasonable do-it-yourselfer, but it will take some care and planning. And my neighbor has to help. I'm pretty sure he will, because it involves chainsaws, and he's that kind of guy.

I'll talk to him, and might get started with the pole saw and rope saw on lower branches. Taking out the stump and roots is going to be a back-breaking couple of weeks of evenings, but it's cost free if I do it myself, and that's what the backyard is all about. It's my garden/landscaping playground where I test ideas and learn new skills like masonry and rock wall construction and now, maybe, tree removal.

Liz is already thinking small Japanese maple or dogwood to replace the monstrosity.

Posted by: Ted at 05:17 AM | category: Square Pegs
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Another "snowstorm", another bust for the local weathermen. I'll give them this, with all the major rivers, the coast to the east and mountains to the west, this area is a real Meteorological crapshoot to predict. Still, just claiming "sunny" every day would result in about the same accuracy rating in the winter.

But this morning the roads are an icy mess in our corner of the world, so I called in and took the day off. My job is cyclical, so this week I could do that, next or last week I wouldn't have had the option. My wife works for a medical facility, so she doesn't have that choice either. I made sure the sidewalks were de-iced and scraped the snow and ice from her car and walked the neighborhood a little bit to check the roads. She made it ok, but it was icy dicey until she got to the main drag.

Mookie is on day six of her weather-enforced pre-Spring break. She spent yesterday online looking at college information and found a place similar to Monster for theatrical jobs and internships.

For every star on Broadway, there's a thousand hardworking people behind the scenes who make them look good.

I looked outside a bit ago and it was snowing again. Huge fluffy, slow-falling flakes. Absolutely beautiful, but it was spoiled a bit by the cars parked everywhere you look. There's a reason Currier and Ives always pictured the Vermont countryside instead of Virginia townhouse suburbs.

But I'm tired of winter. I have a new gardening book, yet another "small space gardening" reference, and a renewed desire to turn my backyard into a peaceful green retreat instead of the dirt covered expanse of dense shade that it is. I did almost nothing last year out back, needing to take a break from my continual attempts to make it something beyond a handy place for the dogs to take a dump.

Part of me says that this is the year to finally take down the maple tree that dominates the back half of the yard. It won't completely open up the space to sunlight, because the neighbors on both sides have huge trees in their yards as well. But my maple drops those accursed monkey balls year round, and much of it's root system is at ground level, meaning I had to build a makeshift retaining wall around it's perimeter in order to hold enough soil for a few scraggly hostas and succulents. I'm tired of the tree and it's awkward location, and the entire space would be open to infinite change if it were gone.

Something to consider, I'll have to talk to my wife about it.

So that's my day in a nutshell. Pondering garden projects and happily sweating under the April sun. Planning and anticipating the renewal of spring.

And laundry.

Posted by: Ted at 08:52 AM | category: Square Pegs
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1 Ted I have to admit that our snow predictions here on the mountain at almost 2000 feet are a bit easier.We actually got our predict of about 7-8 inches.If it's even calling for a chance of snow we usually get some.Back in I believe `93 we had three big storms that all dumped over three feet on us.The one dropped over six feet.I used to have tons of pics of it all but when I left the job I was working at at the time I left them in my locker.
I am lucky in that we have a relatively undeveloped area here especially since the park is right behind us.I've got 6 million acres in my back yard.It makes for quite the winter wonderland.However,it's not the place to be at all in a severe ice storm.Out through the woods beside my house,about 3-400 feet away,there's a path that cuts through the woods.If you actually could run through those woods in an ice storm I would bet $500 that ya can't make it from my house to the path and back alive.
One thing that you can count on(I'm sure you'll agree)is the humidity during the summer.Just about the only thing bad about it.being the kind of person who just loves rainy nasty weather I really think i'm gonna move to Bergen,Norway.The City of Rain.Rains there an average of 9 of every ten days year round.That's why Nordic kayakers are so good.Lot's of whitewater there.Plus,all of the gals are blonde haired and blue eyes and everyone speaks english.I'm there,dude!Someone give me a ticket.
Well thanks for letting me rant.

Posted by: Russ at March 01, 2005 03:01 PM (kh5am)

2 That's what the comments are for, Russ. Feel free any time.

Posted by: Ted at March 01, 2005 07:45 PM (ZjSa7)

3 *LOL* Sounds like you have the Aaron Gene, Ted! ;-)

--TwoDragons

Posted by: Denita TwoDragons at March 02, 2005 11:59 AM (2qdm2)

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