Two years today

I wasn’t even going to do an entry today. I had nothing to write about anything.

I went in to work at 0030 this morning as usual, and waited half an hour to get my papers, as usual. I didn’t really care though. I was in a pissy mood to begin with, and I really couldn’t figure out why. I spent the entire route in the same frame of mind, and never could put my finger on what exactly is bugging me today.

Then I got home, and checked the mail. There was a card from my stepbrother Hart and his wife who both live up north. As soon as I saw the return address on the envelope it hit me. I had been thinking about today all week until today, and now that it actually IS the day itself, I cannot believe it slipped my mind. Now I’m in an even worse mood, because of the day today, and the fact that I momentarily forgot the day.

Two years ago today is when Mom died.

Not a celebratory day by any means, but I figured I should post some kind of notice about it, if for nothing else than to assuage my conscience for letting it slip however briefly.

Shame. Shame on me. I’m going to post this and then go beat myself about the head with a rock.

Fenced in

My friend Mike came over today to help me put up the fence sections that I procured way back in November. How’s it look?

I think it looks good. There are 4 sections total of fence; each piece is light enough, but they’re each just long enough to require two people to carry them about. The speck in the back is Bella sampling life outside without a leash or a chain.

Here’s a closer shot of Bella enjoying the spring weather:

She wasn’t really aware of what was going on once the fence was complete and I took her off the chain, so she didn’t get very excited. I actually had to walk toward the back of the area to get her to follow me and see that she had a little more freedom. She still seemed unimpressed; all she did was flop down in the sun and start eating grass.

The only problem is that I will still have to put her on the chain occasionally. There are times when I go places and she can’t come along, so I put her in her crate. She hates the crate, and when I let her out to do her business, she always knows when she is about to go into it, so she refuses to come back inside. These are the times I’ll have to chain her, so I can just drag her back, and not have to chase her around. She’s a bit faster than me when it comes to running around.

At any rate, it was good to have something to write about to get me back onto the page; at least for this week. Hopefully, some better topics will start showing up soon, and I can get back into this on a more regular basis.

My favorite food

Steak, pork chops, or chicken, particularly chicken, were always what I thought my favorite foods were. Apparently this is not the case. My favorite food in all the world, as it turns out, is a big, thick, steaming shit sandwich. It has to be. Every time I get one, I eat every bite, smile, and ask for seconds. Sometimes thirds.

Case in point. Everything was starting to go well for me. I got a new route at work, which pays double what I was getting on the previous route. The only problem was that the new route is a bit much for Victor to handle, especially on Saturdays. On Saturdays, we deliver the extra-thick Sunday paper, which comes in bundles of ten. I get about 65 such bundles every Saturday. I can only fit about 32-33 in Victor, so I have to go make my initial deliveries, and then come back for the rest of my papers, and continue on. Makes for a long Saturday. Not that the rest of the week goes any quicker; the route is supposed to take only about 4 hours on a weekday, and I’ve been averaging 8 while learning it. But I digress.

Then Fate stepped in with her fickle finger, and granted me a minivan to use on the route. This was perfect. All of my Saturday papers fit inside with room to spare, and I was finally able to give Victor a much needed rest. I was happier than I had been in a long time. The van ran great, and seemed to use a bit less gas per tank than Victor did, so everything was going great. I was even starting to trim some time off of the route. I had a friend come over and we pulled the stereo out of Gerald and put it in the van so I could once again play the iPod whilst driving the route.

This bliss lasted about a week and a half. This past Tuesday morning, I was making great time, and would have finished the entire route in about 4 ½ hours or so. I had about one third of the route finished when Fate gave me her fickle finger, straight up my ass. The transmission on the van gave up. High pitched squealing, slipping out of gear, etc. I managed to limp it back to the convenience store on my route, and I had to call a guy from work to come and get me to bring me home to get Victor so I could finish the route. I ended up finishing the route in just under 11 hours that day, due to the 2 hours I was stranded and waiting for a ride.

Now, two days later, the van is still sitting at the convenience store. I’ve run all the tests, and replacing the transmission will cost about $1400.00. Personally, if I’m going to put that much money into a vehicle, I’d rather put it into the purchase of a different vehicle altogether.

This brings me back to the peculiar title and first paragraph of this entry. My life follows the cliché “If it weren’t for bad luck,” etc. This kind of crap happens to me all the time. Every single time I manage to get a foot or so ahead, I slide back about 3 feet at the same time. I’m a human glacier.

Remember a year ago? I had been unemployed for 13 months, and then I got the paper route. IT suited all my needs at the time. I had Gerald to do the route, and I had Victor for pleasure cruising. I put some money into Gerald, got him a nice sound system, a new muffler, and personalized plates, and then this happened. I had to start using Victor on the route. Victor went from being a beautiful pleasure cruiser into a beat-up chunk of rolling metal in a matter of months.

These are just two examples of how things usually work out for me. I have plenty more, but this entry is already turning out to be too long. I need to go to bed anyway. The new route starts ninety minutes earlier than the previous one did.