Fun Day

Still on the quest to use my medical insurance while I still have coverage so I did a stupid thing. Had a dental appointment and a dermatologist check up on the same day. Started the day with a hour drive through snow and sleet to Deer Park where I use to work. Had a crown put on and a couple of fillings done. Two and a half hours of hell. They hate working on me because as they told me ten times, I have a small mouth, a strong tounge (really) and overactive saliva glands. thanks guys, makes me feel like a freak. Anyway, I felt like I had been smacked and pummeled in the head but finally it was over. Drove home and had an hour until I went to the skin doc. Went in and got a bunch of spots burned off and then they took three biopsies. Three more shots on top of the five or six I got at the dentist office. Glad that is over, maybe tomorrow I can schedule a colonoscopy and a bikini wax, see if I can top it.
Spring weather is crazy here, yesterday it snowed, rained, hailed and the sun came out all in about a two hour period. Makes it hard to have a picnic. Hope it clears up, Nick will be here Saturday for a week of fishing. I don't mind fishing in the rain, but I don't have the desire to fish in the rain for a week.

TV Land

Got the big screen tv fixed. It gave out last fall just right after I finished paying for the damn thing. It wouldn't turn on, or it would for a second and go off. I took the back off of it and vacuumed it out, after that it worked for awhile. Then about last November it quit for good. I was working in California all winter so fixing it wasn't quite the priority it would have been had I needed it for my own viewing pleasure. When I was home on weekends I tried to find somebody to fix it, but no one was really interested. The "factory authorized dealer" in Spokane told me on the phone 500 bucks minimum to fix it, so did another repair shop and I had to bring it in, which is no small task. I was about to give up and buy another one as the repair cost was so much, but I tried one more number and got hold of a guy who said he would come out and yes he could fix it. So the dude shows up and he is late fifties, quiet type has a brief case full of tools and gets busy. Tries a few things, still doesn't work. So he yanks the guts out of it and takes it with him. Next day he calls says it is fixed, comes out puts it together and hallelujah mama we are back in business. He said he found a spot where it would arc across a diode and overload the power supply and trigger a protective shutdown. At least that is the short version of what I think he said. It was detailed analysis filled with some big words that frankly went over my head and I kind of glazed over and sat there nodding my head thinking about watching Baywatch on a 50 inch screen. Charged me a hundred bucks, a great old nerd that can fix anything and reasonable. A rare find indeed.

Me and Johnny Bo 

Gettin Old

Went to get fitted for spectacles today. Had my eyes checked for the first time in my life. I knew I needed some glasses because I have been using reading glasses off and on for about a year. I can read without them it just is harder. So Lisa and I both went to take advantage of the medical insurance while I still have it. Little tip for you, when the do the "puff" test be prepared for a startlingly irritating blast of air right in your eyeball, pissed me off but I took it without too much fuss. Then they dilated my pupils which really screwed up my vision for hours. I was getting ready for them to stick a hot needle in my eye to finish the torture session but that was about it. So the verdict was - surprise - I need glasses for reading and also mild stigmatism so I got a fancy pair coming. Still cost me 300 bucks, so much for my great insurance. The price of getting old I guess, luckily I can still move like a cat and bench my weight if I have to. I may be a grandpa but damnit I can still contribute to society, I just don't want to right now.

Farley The Damn Dog

Spent the morning in a battle of wits with a Golden retriever. He is actually a mutt, looks like a Golden Lab, we have the papers stating he is a AKC Golden retriever but it didn't happen. The lady we bought him from has agreed to give us another pup. Another story altogether. Anyway the dog is escaping from a kennel we have at our new house. He is used to the backyard at our old place where he lived an idyllic life in a great fenced yard with lush landscaping. He wreaked total havoc on the place causing an estimated 5,000 dollars in damage. His list of feats includes destroying a jacuzzi cover, tearing out and eating about 200 feet of drip system, digging a hole a night for a year straight, eating the handles and seats of 4 bicycles, the list goes on and on. I really don't feel like reliving it, too damn depressing. So at the new place we don't have a fence or landscaping for that matter. So we had a cement pad poured for a kennel. I bought one and me and Boo put it up a couple weeks ago. He tore a hole in the freakin chain link and escaped once, I patched it up but now he has learned to scoot the damn thing off the cement. Takes all of about 2 minutes and he is out. So I got a bunch of logs and stumps from pine trees from the pile nearby and have him temporarily barricaded in place. For now I have won, it looks like crap and it will not last but I will enjoy my petty victory.

Lets get it on

Hi, Coming at ya from Hayden, Idaho. Unemployed (kinda) and living in a state of semi-retirement, but I have a long list of things to do around this new home and our old one that is for sale. I also have plans to get my real estate license and help Lisa. Or I might do some landscaping with all the new construction around here there is a big demand for all kinds of sub-contractors. One thing I will do is fish. Nick is coming here the first of April and we will head across the border into Montana and fish for a week. The Stoneflies are coming off and we will be throwing some big hairy flies out of drift boats on the Clark Fork River or the Bitteroot or the Kootenai. Nirvana for the fly fisherman. This is my first blog, prepare yourself for some of my ramblings. Some might not be suitable for children born in the covenant, I can be really juvenile sometimes; bless my heart.

Hey

This is a test of the blog.