Category: Male

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Some days… Or Weeks I just can’t catch a break

This has been one of those weeks. There will be a few blogs I think over the next days, possibly hours but don’t hold your breath… This week has been a week of interruptions. Mind you any one of these interruptions is a minor event but the frequency and wild differences have added up to it being Wednesday as I started this blog… and in all likelihood the blog wont be posted until Thursday.

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Today I tried to remount a blind in my front window. 

This blind broke on Thursday last week. It was dropped off on Friday morning to be restrung It was picked up Monday and I tried to put it back up today. Well I succeeded in putting the blind back up.

This task was not as simple as you might think.

You’d be perfectly justified in thinking “what’s the problem you just snap it back into the hangers and that’s it.“

Well you don’t live in my world. 

In my world you’d experience a scenario more like the tale of woe below.

I found that there was no way get the blind back in the window. The window has over time become trapezoidal in not one but two dimensions. Then I noticed during the windows transformation from a rectangle to trapezoid, all kinds of cracks have appeared in the drywall.

During these discoveries I wonder what’s going on. So I measure the blind then I measured the framing around the window, then I measured the window itself and found that the blind is about 3/4″ longer than the window. That would work just fine if the window opening wasn’t a trapezoid that was narrower at the top than at the bottom.

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I reconfirmed several times that the blind which had been returned to me was in fact the correct blind. Standing there screwdriver in hand I sigh.

The recognition that this is in fact my lot in life I tromp downstairs for the Dremel  

I spend the next hour & 1/2 carefully reshaping the endcaps shaving off thin bits of the plastic so that I can hopefully shove the thing back in the window. Finally, when the plastic endcaps are thinner than tissue paper and the unit still won’t fit in the window I start thinking of alternative avenues to my goal.

This shouldn’t be this hard, the blind had fit in the window previously and it sure as hell didn’t grow while it was at the manufacturer being repaired.

I’ve noticed that the blind will easily fit in the window opening that is nearest the room, and that it only starts to bind up when you get within 2 inches of the already mounted brackets.

I sigh… slump shouldered admitting defeat. 

I tromp down stairs and bring up the big tool box and the DeWalt.

The new plan is to move the brackets closer to the room side of the window opening. The DeWalt unscrews the first bracket from the window with ease.

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Beneath the bracket is the mess that the original “Installer” created. Pilot holes are a good thing, apparently the installer had never heard about pilot holes…

Tromping back down stairs to get the BIG CAN of spackle.

While I’m waiting for the spackle to dry I’m measuring and marking the new mounting spots. The DeWalt drills a nice clean pilot hole, then dies half way through driving the screw into the header. No problem, I grab the spare battery pack…

It’s dead too!

Sigh… (I’m starting to sound like Kif Kroker from Futurama)

I’m hungry. I look at the clock and … CRAP! It’s afternoon! Fine! Battery pack in the charger, Lunch on the counter. Then while I’m waiting for the DeWalt to be usable again, I’m cleaning and spackling all the cracks in the drywall around the window.

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What the hell? I’ll vacuum and watch an episode of The X Files.

I realize I’ve been screwing around with this whole blind thing for about 4 hours and not getting anything that I needed to do, done. Little things like oh I don’t know… looking for a job perhaps?

Battery pack fully charged, I pop it in the DeWalt and drop the second one in the charger.

First bracket tightened, I move on to the second one. This time the screw will require a drywall anchor. For some reason the pilot hole completely misses wood. I drill a bigger hole and push the anchor into the drywall. 

This anchor is my preferred type because it’s threaded and in general does less damage to the drywall as you’re mounting it and it also stays put very well because it’s not an expansion type anchor.

I begin slowly screwing it into the drywall and then there’s a “crack”, followed by the anchor disintegrating and creating a major hole in the drywall.

Oh! Guess what? I found the header above the window. 

The anchor bound against the header and shattered. Lovely! My only option is to create an even bigger hole to drill the remains of the anchor out of the hole and then I’ll use another type of anchor. Why? You ask. 

Well the problem is obvious after I drill the destroyed anchor out of the window. The position for this mounting bracket has the screws coming up in a seam between two 2x4s that make up the header. Oh hell now why would the builder not use a solid 2×4, its simple… the builder was a fucker interested in ripping me and the insurance company off in as many ways as possible during the rebuild.

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The fucker succeeded, he knew he was closing his company and retiring as he was building my home. The only justice is that apparently right after his retirement his health took a turn for the worse. I’ve heard that retirement in some cases isn’t a good thing. Apparently getting up and going to work every day, plus the attendant moving around tends to keep you healthy. This guy went home and sat on his ass, I don’t know whats’ happened to him since I found out that my home warranty was essentially toilet paper.

I pull out a very nice plastic butterfly anchor (These are freakin great but tough to find sometimes and they can be pricy) Insert it in the very large hole, pack some spackle around it then mount the bracket. That anchor is never coming out of the drywall I pray to god I’ll never have to deal with it again. I know that I will at some point in the future be cursing myself for doing what I just did.

Maybe I’ll have sold the house and moved to Costa Rica by then… (Not holding my breath)

The third bracket mounts smoothly. Hey, I’m going to finish this “Simple” home project before sundown yippeee!

I snap the blind into the newly mounted brackets, It’s still a little tight and without the sculpting and shaving I did on the endcaps it still wouldn’t fit But it’s up there and it’s solid. Briefly I think with my luck this bitch will have lost it’s programming but I’ve been assured that will not be the case…

I step back to admire the fill and texture work I did around the window. 

Yeah! It was a pain in the ass but totally worth it. The blind and the window look good and I’m enjoying the feeling of satisfaction at a job done.

I grab the remote for the blinds, select the channel that the blind is assigned to & push the down button.

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… Absolutely nothing happens

ARRRRGGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!

The blind has lost it’s programming…

This means that either the motor has been damaged or the programming was simply flushed. Either way I’m going to have to take the dam thing down again.

I leave it where it is, 

Walk across the room, pour myself a whiskey and move into fukitall mode.

I’ll deal with it tomorrow, I’ve got a meeting to attend and I need a shower… After I finish my drink…

 

 

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Now that my brain has rebooted…

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Nothing like having the pipes cleaned out to make you feel better and spark the creative flow… so to speak.

I always thought Deadly Sperm Buildup was a myth. Apparently it’s a real condition! 

I’d been so tied up with other things / chaos in my life I’d forgotten the most basic of my needs. 

The need to get my rocks off.

Talk about something that harshes your buzz!

So how do you know that you’re experiencing DSB?

The symptoms are as follow:

1 You’re not terribly creative.

2 You’re really pretty cranky

3 Sex starts to not seem all that important

4 Your thought processes and hence your blog posts are completely randomized! (Much more so than normal)

The cure is to grab your dick and tug, a more effective cure is to have someone else grab your dick and … well you get the picture.

Tugging on your own dick, is something I heartily recommend on a regular basis just to remind you that you’re alive.

It’s way too easy to be distracted these days.

Be good to yourself and make time to play.

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Restless…

My eyes open. Something has disturbed my sleep, I listen for any strange sound.

Crickets and wind.

The house is illuminated enough for me to see clearly. Tell tales and indicator lights on every single piece of electronics combine to create a kaleidoscope of light. 

The green indicator on the smoke detector on the ceiling winks red briefly. This potentially signals dust in the unit or time to replace the battery, I’ll have to service the unit tomorrow… today.

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The intense red light on the bedroom TV tells me that the unit is off but has power from the wall. I wonder if I can turn that light off then worry about the TV having wall power if it doesn’t come on when I press the switch.

I’m informed by the bedside clock, that it’s 2am in full color and that the unit had been able to sync to the atomic time beacon. The clocks EL panel flares brightly as it comes back on. During the sync, the panel is turned off so that the clock can “hear” the beacon better.

I get out of bed, I need some water. 

Green light from the hall smoke detector paints a circle on the floor lighting my way to the kitchen.

The kitchen is illuminated by the clocks in the stove and the microwave. Further illumination is provided by the EL panel in the alarm system keypad.

Yet more light spills from the living room, a byproduct of a digital picture frame. I get a glass, as I press the glass against the water dispenser in the door of the fridge, bright white LEDs flare to life blinding me momentarily.

Impulsively I switch off the digital picture frame… it’s ever changing images are annoying out of the corner of my eye.

The darkness advances a little bit but is beaten back by the clock in the cable box, the backlight of the thermostat, and light from the appliances in the kitchen.

I move through the living room drinking my water. From the slider I can see the towns on the desert floor their lights twinkling in the distance.

I grouchily consider replacing the LEDs throughout the house with simple diodes. If something doesn’t work then I’ll investigate why.

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Why are we so afraid of the dark? Why can’t we turn off the lights on our ever so helpful equipment?

Maybe it’s just me… I’ve always had great night vision, maybe all these indicators and tell tales aren’t annoying to most other folks.

Then, I notice the moonlight. The cloud cover has broken, moonlight is bright in the yard. I step onto the deck. No one can see me, looking to the East over the roof I can see the moon is almost full.

It somehow feels right to be in the moonlight. I can see clearly and while I’m a little chilly It’s nice to have a moment of freedom.

Still don’t know what woke me up. 

I finish my water, look around for a little while longer, then head back inside.

My head hits the pillow, and I sleep soundly till sunrise.

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Oh for the love of …

Really? The article linked below really pisses me off. Less than 24 hours after California began allowing Same Sex Marriage again, some fuckers in another STATE are filing to halt  them.

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This is all these people have to do with their time and money?

How about feeding the poor that they go on about all the time. How about providing alternatives to abortion by giving young unwed mothers a place to stay, and paying for the delivery of their babies in a hospital.

But NO, these people choose instead to spend millions of dollars to fight a battle that more and more normal people have no interest in fighting.

Gay people do the following just like everyone else;

Pay Taxes

Work their asses off

Buy homes

Raise children (Through adoption, or quite often children from previous marriages)

Contribute to the economy

Serve in the military

Become police

Fall in love

Are protected by the Constitution

Deserve equal rights

Deserve equal taxation

Deserve equal protection under the law

Shouldn’t be forced to live as third or fourth class citizens

Deserve the right to inheritance.

Are entitled to their deceased spouses social security and insurance

Are entitled to their joint savings and deceased spouses retirement accounts.

These things and something like 1000 other rights & privileges are conferred instantly by a Certificate of Marriage.

These are things that straight people take for granted. Don’t even get me started on what marriage… The holy union… that blessed by God, or gods, event really was. (Spoiler… POLITICS! Dynasties! Power! Control! Dare I say it Sexual Slavery! )

Gay people using the system of “the Same but different” AKA civil unions still have to spend 10s of thousands of dollars to secure the same rights.

Even then, THE STATE or Nasty Family members can still walk in and simply take a lifetime of work and planning away.

That can’t happen with a marriage.

Here’s a shocker.

All the conservatives out there who are screaming about same sex marriage should consider this.

While conservatives talk about the Government being too involved in the lives of average people, those same conservatives will tie up in court, (You know the Government) a simple proposition of equality.

Think about this;

Gay people in this country have fewer rights than islamic terrorists or  Illegal aliens when it comes to marriage, inheritance, and building lives together.

Most gay people are citizens. They’re sons, daughters, nieces and nephews, neighbor kids that mowed your lawn. They’re Eagle Scouts, and Girl Scouts, Doctors, Nurses, Surgeons, and friends. Gay people are woven throughout the fabric of our society and yet somehow they’re always Less than…

Where are the rights of Gay people?

Given, taken away, Given, taken away.

How would the Über conservatives like having their freedom of speech or religion taken away, then given back, then taken away then given back?

African Americans are not innocent in this either. Gay people stood for equal rights in Selma, and Memphis. They marched with Dr King, they believed that equality should be equality for all.

Yet here in California, African American voters swayed by religious fervor from the pulpit managed to narrowly pass proposition 8. It’s been suggested, that had the black voters not showed up at the polls in record numbers, proposition 8 would have failed.

How can it be that equal rights really means equal rights for only some?

Does anyone remember anti-miscegenation laws?

Yeah, there was another time in our history when two people who loved each other couldn’t marry. 

The funny thing is that many of the arguments used to justify that contemptible law are in use today to justify laws against same sex marriage.

Gay people can’t be expected to behave in any way except than with an “agenda”.

They are being persecuted and deprived of their right to equal protection under the law, Of course they’ll behave like a civil rights group. Of course they’ll continue to fight, to protest, to stridently demand fairness.

Before you seek to deny equal rights to someone think about how you would feel if the roles were reversed.

Gay people aren’t out to destroy society, they’re only demanding full and equal participation.

Shouldn’t citizens of this country be afforded equal rights ahead of Illegal immigrants? (You know folks who broke the law crossing our sovereign borders without permission?)

Think about it. Then tell me again why gay people shouldn’t be pissed off.

Update 6/30/2013

As you can see I’m pretty passionate about some things. (Like you didn’t know that)

I generally identify more closely with conservative values than with liberal values. I suppose in this instance I’m squarely in the liberal camp. I don’t like being in the liberal camp, I feel dirty.

My overarching beliefs are in Liberty, Equality, and Justice. I was taught to ask the question, “Where do my rights end and another persons rights begin?”

I believe that individuals know what’s best for them in their lives, and that anyone who seeks to deny any individual any of their rights is to be viewed with great suspicion.

I truly have a problem with the conservatives who in my opinion are hypocrites. These are people who want my help in protecting the constitution and the bill of rights. Then, because of their personal hang-ups or philosophical disagreement  would arbitrarily “cherry pick” groups who enjoy those protections.

My philosophy is that you can’t pick & choose which rights will be accorded your fellow citizens. We all must be equal and we must all defend each others rights. 

(This belief does not preclude assigning a subset of basic rights to non-citizens who are legally visiting our country. However the subset of rights should be those that are internationally agreed to and accepted. You know, the same as visitors are treated in other foreign countries.)

So I was fired up that an out of state group would even think they had a dog in this fight.

They don’t.

I’d respect them if they’d take all that money they’re going to spend on beating the dead horse known as proposition 8 and instead fund improvements to orphanages, or mental health facilities.

I know they’re not going to do anything that reasonable or altruistic, but I’d love to be surprised.

Update 2 6/30/2013

HAHAHAHAHAHA 

The Gay Marriage opponents FAILED to obstruct gay marriages continuing in California. The article is linked. So you can read it for yourself.

It looks like Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy gave them a smack down by denying their petition without comment.

I guess now these fuckers will spend their money somewhere else to deny rights to someone.

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Good News Everybody!

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The Supreme Court of the United States today gutted DOMA and effectively said that Proposition 8 here in California was unconstitutional, by allowing the 9th circuit courts ruling to stand.

This is a good day.

At the same time we know that the well funded, fundamentalists will begin their campaigns to take away the rights and privileges that have been restored to the GLBT community.

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Today is a sad for me personally.

Today marks the Fifth anniversary of a friends death.

John would have been leading a band of happy folks over the SCOTUS ruling. I have this weird image of him playing his trumpet or his sax like the pied piper. Wait, he also played the flute yeah that’s what he’d be playing.

I found out that he played the flute one Summer afternoon when he was on leave from the Marines. He was sitting on my back patio in a pair of olive shorts just noodling with some classical piece of music. He looked up as I came in from work and morphed the classical piece into the riff from Jethro Tull’s Aqualung. Then he moved on to a medley from Songs from the Wood.

He did it so seamlessly that I never noticed the transition. He gave me a gift that day. He perked up my mood and put a smile on my face even though it had been a really BAD day at work.

I still smile when I hear music form those albums because I see John sitting on the patio relaxed and happy, playing his flute for an audience of one.

Five years on, and I still miss him. Every once in a while I’ll hear someone whose voice sounds like his. Now though I smile instead of feeling blue.

John wouldn’t want me to be sad, especially not with the news today. The image of him leading a group of smiling people his flute sparkling in the sunshine does put a smile on my face. There are times when I wonder if he somehow puts funny images in my head to cheer me up on his birthday and on this date.

Yeah, I get misty-eyed thinking about him, but I can’t stay blue. An endless line of memories and laughs we had flits through my head and I end up smiling & feeling happy in spite of myself.

So John, in honor of you…

I’m going to smile, be happy and drink a toast to the good news. Then I’ll toast to you, our friendship and loving each other like brothers.

Your light and joy aren’t forgotten and you have a place in my heart forever.