Wood for the winter...sort of

Well it is that time again. The snow is going to be falling in a few months and that means firewood season has begun. This holiday weekend I spent Friday - Sunday making kindling. As you can see in the photos, I have almost the whole bin done. Hopefully tomorrow (Tuesday 8th) I'll have the bin done so I can start on splitting and hauling in the firewood. The kindling hamper is 8 feet long by 2'1" high by 2' wide. As to the wood room, it can hold up to 8 cords if tightly packed and that means most of the wood is between the rafters of the floor above. So that insulation that you see is not visible at all when the wood is there.

It's been some time

since I was last here. So much has been happening with the folks that I had to take a leave of absence and concentrate on them. I'll update this with a separate post since it's a lot of content in itself. However, I have some new entries that I'll be posting here shortly and over the coarse of this week. Unfortunately, many will feel the data is one sided, perhaps even radical, but I assure you that my views are just that, views and nothing more.

The headache of the month

I never figured that a life for a simpleton would be so difficult. After all, isn't the word "simpleton" suppose to mean simple? Yesterday was a nightmare in a half since my elderly parents had a tiny teeny emergency and I was caught in the middle.

Mother went to town for pizza and a medical appointment. Anyways, when she picked up the pizza, her car died. So here was a little old lady of 72 stranded, calling for help via phone. So, I rushed to find my father who is 78 and here he was out in the woods cutting firewood. I told him what was going on and he hobbled, as he cannot run, to the house. Thinking that he was changing and such, I took care of his tools and parked the ATV in the pole shed. Then I ran to the house and guess what I found? My father, on the phone to the insurance company INSTEAD of getting on the road to pick up mother. Egads! He was more worried about the insurance than his own wife. Now before anyone gets all over me about the awws and such, father as he gets older, is not working on all cylinders. He use to be a very "on top of things" type of man, but you know, as you get older, something somewhere ends up going down hill and in his case it's his brain. This is why I stick close to home, taking care of matters as I know he cannot do it all anymore.

By the time he got to mother it was 3 hours. Let me tell you, even at 41 years of age, I don't want to tread on dangerous ground and be on the receiving end when a mother...any mother is P.Oed. That's like messing with Satan himself and just asking for an eternity in you know where.

Anyways, the car was towed to the dealership where it was discovered the battery died. Now this car of mothers is an odd one indeed for its battery is under the backseat and is 2 feet long by 1 foot wide and there is no way one can jump it as you have to remove the backseat cushions, then a panel...can't anything be simple? Gone are the days when the battery, a simple little square blox that could be removed by the owner, could be charged and then placed back in within a matter of minutes.

Needless to say father lived up to his nickname of "son of a bitch" which mother USED to call him when he was younger. I have a nickname too, but I wont mention it here since I live up to it near daily LOL!!!

Today all is well on the home front. I guess the parents are getting along, though I am not quizzing either of them. As to future episodes, I am giving my parents my cell phone so they have some means of communication in the vehicle if something goes amiss again. I have never liked the idea of someone being stranded and having been such a few times in my life, it is not a fun experience.

Quiet on the home front

Normally I have something to do, but having beat off the flu, and watching my father who is ill, has pretty much kept me inside working on my crafts. My father was diagnosed with having a cancerous spot on his kidney and will be treated August 26th, a day before his 72nd birthday. The family has suspected cancer for a good while since dad eats like a horse, but gains little to no weight. Mother even commented that she can see his hip bones when he undresses...yes, he is that skinny. Why does he have to wait so long before treatment? Well, I guess Doctors feel they all need to take summer vacation at the same bloody time and since I dislike doctors, we wont go into this rant any further.

But, with dad being ill, my outlook for life is gloom. However, my sister is 1,000 miles away down in Georgia with her own worries and since I am the strong man (physically) of the family here, I will stay and help and watch what happens.

Other than the above, I have started taking up ceramic craft painting. I did this way back in 1993 and enjoyed it, however, the stores have long disappeared and now I found out that this craft is also disappearing from the net. Not a good thing. So, while I sit inside on gloomy days, I paint and hope to sell my crafts come next year craft shows. At least I'll have some income trickling in.

Now then, the weather just plain sucks. Oh, the temps are ideal (mid 70's) for being outside...July is normally a hot, humid, dry month. But Wisconsin, especially central part is experiencing the worst drought in years. There has been little to no rain for 2 months straight. There was a shower this morning, but it added to nothing and the NOAA radio stated that if it warms up today, storms may come tonight...it's sunny out now so I am hoping we get some nasty weather to drench the area and end this dry stuff.

I certainly do hope August is more eventful. Even my friends on-line, are off-line LOL :) Perhaps when kids go to school, I'll see more things to do :)

Happy July 4th or is it?

Another month has passed us by and now we are looking towards July. It's suppose to be the hottest month for us Wisconsinites, but so far it's nice and moderate holding at middle 70's.

I am not one to celebrate holidays as they are over rated, and darn right expensive. Not to mention, holidays are no longer celebrated like that in the old days when people would dive into friendly neighborhood competitions, challenge each other for who has the best fireworks, or have the area kids do races or games. Now a days, it's how much can you spend on watching someone else do the work while you're sitting on your lazy ass and not taking into account why the holiday is important to begin with. The whole meaning of holidays are gone, replaced with high tech crap on performing the best light shows in the area, while also making a fast buck at the same time. Yes, I do not enjoy holidays and they have become just another day.

However, do not let my downing of the holiday spoil any of my viewers spirits. Just please be safe, don't be stupid and enjoy yourself at the same time. I wont like hearing someone has 3rd degree burns or worse, is dead from a good time gone wrong by foolishness.

News Flash....couples no longer can have a food fight

SHELBYVILLE, Tenn. – Authorities said a couple got into a fight using Cheetos. The Bedford County Sheriff's Department said a 40-year-old man and 44-year-old woman became involved in a 'verbal altercation.' Somehow, the orange puffy snacks were used in the assault.

Deputies said they were charged with domestic assault. No one was hurt.

According to the Shelbyville Times-Gazette, both posted bond of $2,500.



I saw this news article on Yahoo News. Frankly I am not surprised as the United States is becoming a police state more and more. A couple months ago an area high school had a food fight and the kids were handcuffed and taken to jail for destruction of property. It's unbelievable how society works these days and these restrictions only will get worse. It's bad enough that nosy neighbors feel they must save the day and feel important, thus call the police, or when school officials must summon a more authoritative figure when a simple punishment of cleaning up a cafeteria would work just fine. Is it no wonder why I cannot stand anyone in society who feels they have to be superior to the people behaving badly? Chances are, these "snitches" are kinky and have more dark secrets than those they are reporting.

It will be interesting to see this world become populated by saints, as it's clearly what society wants...everyone to get along, no arguments, no fun, no games, no laughter, no nothing. Yes, I can see it now..."Welcome to the United States, the most well behaved country in the world"....perhaps someone should then throw in 'boring' too as that is what it will surely become if society keeps up their damn nosy snitching in other peoples business. It's bad enough that children aren't allowed to be children...whats next? Come on, someone from society please tell me. Oh that's right, idiots in society wouldn't lower themselves to read a blog such as this as they would just rather report adults throwing cheetos at each other and of course, that is much more grown up than reading a blog that insults mindless, stupid, stooges from sainthood.

Are peoples lives this boring that they feel they must muzzle into someone else's affairs just to add excitement to their own lives? Apparently, and if that is the case, then they lead a very sad life indeed.

Shed from Hell

Okay, this was a project that my parents needed help with. Come Monday the 15th, I was asked to assist my father in constructing this shed. Well, it turned out that my elderly father, in his so loved way of asking for help, really had no bloody clue how to put it together. This left me wide open and I did the whole thing and the folks were the extra "hold that there", "can you hand me the f****** flashlight?" and so forth.

What made this project hellish, is that it was assembled in where else, China and the ever so smart Chinese FORGOT a whole blipping lot of screws, brackets and of course, not one part measured up correctly. Screw holes were off set, wall panels didn't fit the slots on the floor and talk about a headache. The instructions stated "Simple to build, 2 day construction"...right! It took me 4 days!!! Stupid Chinese and Stupid Americans who employ the Chinese...can you tell I totally am at wits end with the project?

Now I didn't mind the project at all since mom and I, in our way of not getting along, got along pretty well. S she was a trooper while I swore up and down and when parts didn't fit, got the heck out of my way so when I got mad, I MADE parts fit LOL!!! Ah yes, the joys of doing things the Smith way :)

But, as you can tell from the photo (never mind the idiot in blue) the project came together nicely. However, considering it's all plastic, it will take one match to melt an access door for any burglar and one can literally pop the lock off with a screw driver to gain access. But I really cannot complain all too much since the darn thing wont ever rust and there is a wonderful warranty of lifetime involved, but I doubt that will do any good since the company went belly up...but what you gonna do when you're dealing with plastic?