I've got gas

Since the economy has slowed down, it seems like the jobs that we do have gotten more and more tedious.

Every day it seems that I have to end up digging around either high power electric lines, high pressure water lines, or my absolute worst hated, gas mains.

The small yellow pipe in the picture is a four inch gas main which, in this case, has about one hundred lbs of pressure on it.

The two pictures below show my guys tapping into a city water main directly in the vicinity of the gas lines.



The scary part about working around utilities is that if you do not know what you are doing, then this can happen.............

Sucks to be me sometimes!!!!!



(Images from Google Images)

Liza

Liza stood helplessly on the dock while her sister, Jennifer, tried to keep her head above the water. Liza was frozen with fear as her sister’s head began spending greater lengths of time under the water’s surface. Jennifer was drowning, and Liza was just standing there and watching her die. She made no attempts to even reach her hand out or find something for Jennifer to grab onto.

Liza woke from her dream in a panic. She did not know why, but for some reason, she had been having visions of her sister drowning. She always woke up before Jennifer was dead, but there was still some sort of eerie feel about these nightmares. She felt that they were premonitions of some sort. Maybe they were warnings for her to alert her sister to an impending tragedy.

It was two a.m., but Liza did not care. She dialed Jennifer’s number and the phone began to ring. Jennifer picked up, answering in that groggy tone that one answers with when a sound sleep is interrupted.

“Hello,” she said, almost sounding drunk.

“Jennifer, I just needed to hear your voice. I had another dream about you drowning. Please stay away from the water. I know it sounds crazy, but please, for me!”

“Liza, this is getting to be an every night thing!” Jennifer’s drunken tone was now switching to an alert and slightly annoyed one. “ I freakin live in Arizona for Christ’s sake. I am not going boogie boarding any time soon! Besides, Paul has to get up at 5:30 to go to work and you are waking him up every night, too.”

“I am sorry, Sis, but these dreams are scaring the shit out of me. As long as you are okay, I will let you go. I love you!”

“Love you too, Liza, but not so much at two in the morning! Miss you , Sis, I hope that we can get together soon. Bye!”

“Bye!”

Liza sat in bed and tried not to go back to sleep. She felt guilty for waking Jennifer up, and especially for disturbing Paul. It had been so long since the two sisters had been together that Liza had never even met Paul. At the time that Jen had gotten married, Liza was too far away to make the trip, and still had not gotten out there in the years since. She wondered if the lack of contact had something to do with her nightmares.

The following night brought more of the same for Liza, but this time the dream was far scarier. Jennifer was in a bath tub with her head beneath the water. Liza was holding her under as her terrified sister’s arms and legs flailed about. This time the dream played out. Liza did not wake up in time. Jennifer’s face turned blue and her arms and legs became limp. Air bubbles escaped the drowned girl's mouth as her lifeless eyes stared blankly at the bathroom ceiling. Liza just stood and stared at her dead sister’s body for what seemed like hours.

When Liza woke up, she was in tears. She knew that if she called Jennifer she would be angry, but she HAD to make the call.

Jennifer sat up in bed and let out a scream, waking Paul from his sleep.

“Jesus, Jen, do we have to go through this every night?” Paul asked. “You need to see a therapist or something. I know that Liza died when you were kids, but it was not your fault. She slipped in the bath tub and drowned and there was no way that you could have helped her. You told me that yourself. Now you dream every night that she is calling you and it is turning you into a nut case. You have nothing to feel guilty about. It is not like you drowned her! Please, Jen, get some help. It is killing you, and in turn it is killing me.”

“You’re right, honey,” Jennifer said with a tear rolling down her cheek. “It is not like I held her under or something.”

Jennifer began to cry, and Paul gave her a hug.

“I know that you would have saved her if you could have,” he said and gave her a comforting kiss.

Liza had slept in the same location for 25 years and wondered why her sister had never come to visit her. Maybe it was a good thing that Jennifer never came to the coast and visited the seaside cemetery. Liza hated the thought of her sister being near the ocean. There was just something that scared her about Jennifer and the water. Until she could figure it all out, Liza was pretty sure that the crazy dreams would never allow her to rest in peace.

On the water

(That is not me on the knee board! Not my cup of tea!!!!)
Tubing is more my speed!

When you can occasionally afford to buy gas, life can be good!

A lone man and his minivan

This is my driveway. No one is at my house to visit, I live alone. Kinda crazy, isn't it!

I am sure that you will notice the minivan in my little collection....

Why did I buy a minivan, you ask? Well, at the time, it was my best financial move to buy something with enough towing capacity to pull the boat....I don't drive the van very often, but when I do I will sometimes get interesting comments.

At a starbucks, I drove up to the drive through with Soundgarden playing on the radio. The girl at the window, who may have been about 20, said...

"Wow, you listen to my Dad's music! I would never have expected to hear that coming from your van!"

Yes, I felt old and out of touch.

Then the other day, once again getting coffee, another girl wished me a happy Father's Day. Umm, I think you need a kid before you can get that honor. LOL

I guess people really stereotype a middle aged guy driving a minivan!

Maybe I should buy a New car!Or not.........

Be all that you can be

Axel Johnson looked at his pack of cigarettes. There were only two remaining. He smoked more these days than he ever had in the past. As a matter of fact, he never had a cigarette before they had sent him over there.

He looked at the bottle of Jack Daniels that sat on the table next to him. It was half full. It seemed to him that he had just opened the new bottle. He never drank much before they sent him over there, either.

Axel sat on his musty couch and began to flip through the TV channels. He made all the stops, CNN, NBC, FOX News. It was always the same shit, a bunch of people debating over whether we should or should not be over there. Theories were always presented about how one democracy in that part of the world would cause the other countries to topple like dominoes and create a giant democratic utopia. It was all bullshit as far as he was concerned.

Axel and three of his buddies had been on patrol when an explosive device ripped through the vehicle in which they had been riding. Jerry, Sam, and Pablo had all been killed instantly. Axel was severely disfigured. When help arrived, they had to actually remove the body parts of his fellow soldiers in order to extract him from the vehicle. Luckily for Axel, he could not remember most of the gory details.

He endured many surgeries. Some were successful, while others were not. The once handsome young man with movie star looks was now a scarred and depressed leper. He lived in a little one bedroom apartment, drinking and smoking his life away. As far as he was concerned, the explosion had already dashed his hopes for a productive future. How could he function in society when he could not even endure the agony of looking into a mirror?

It was a huge price to pay for actions which, in the end, he felt would have no positive result. Even if democracy was established, it would not be long term. It puzzled Axel as to why so many people could not see that not everyone wants to live the same way that we do. People have their own beliefs and their own customs. He often thought about how it would have sent the perfect message if we had just hunted down Bin Laden and made an example of him. It would have been a great big “Don’t fuck with us” to the rest of the world, instead of the wishy washy way that we ended up.

Axel had been called a hero and a patriot, and he honestly knew that he deserved the title. He fought for a cause and his country even though he felt that the policy was flawed. Axel knew that there was nothing more heroic than giving your life for your country even if it was for a ridiculous reason.

He spent most of his time replaying these thoughts through his head, but every once in a while Axel could just turn off the steady stream of misery. He had reached the point in the day where he didn’t want to think about the middle east for a few hours. He was through feeling sorry for himself for the moment. A trip to the liquor store was necessary because a half bottle of JD was not going to get him through the rest of the weekend and his Marlboros were in need of replenishing.

Axel put on a ball cap, and a pair of sunglasses. It hid some of the damage, at least to the point that he would feel comfortable enough to appear in public. He grabbed his prosthetic leg and strapped it on to the stub that used to be his muscular thigh. Over the years he had gotten pretty efficient at putting the artificial leg on with the use of only one hand.

Axel pushed himself up off of the couch using his remaining leg and one good hand for balance. He grabbed his cane, and after fumbling through getting dressed, limped to the door. Looking back at his crappy little smoke filled apartment, Axel muttered out loud… “Be all you can be, my ass!”

Happy Father's Day

You may be a sarcastic, Pompous Jersey Guy, but you're still pretty cool! haha

Just a few words from yours truly.........




PS........Blueviolet is giving away a 50 dollar gift card from family dollar. You should go HERE and enter!