The Daily ACK 6/26/2009

ACK!

Farrah Fawcett died yesterday at age 62. After watching her home made film that was shown on NBC on May 15, 2009 (Farrah's Story) I gained a lot of respect for her and her fight against cancer. She wasn't as shallow as I thought she might be. Farrah was a spokeperson for the American Cancer Society in the early 1980's. She died at 9:28 PDT in California.

I was really shocked that the death later in the day of Michael Jackson totally removed the news of Farrah's death from most news outlets. Someone that fought SO hard for 3 years against a cancer that most people don't want to talk about that truly had a compelling story and had taken a stand for patient's rights after her medical records were leaked from UCLA Medical Center was shocking to me that her story didn't get more play in the news.

Don't get me wrong, Michael Jackson was a musical force to be sure but in his later years he had become VERY strange. It is a sad state of affairs that he never knew what a "normal life" was.

Farrah, on the other hand hardly ever made the news for anything that was strange beyond a news story about a former boyfriend that beat her up in 1998 while she was split up from Ryan O'Neal.

Everyone has items in their closet that hold dark or strange things and I'm sure Farrah had her's but she knew she was in the public eye and acted in a manner that reflected that more often than not.

Ok, I'm all ACKed out...

The Daily ACK 6/25/2009

ACK!!!

My health has been a concern of mine for more than 10 years. Some problems are just a nag. I'm tone deaf so badly that I can't tune a guitar by ear any more because of my inability to hear tones. I've been playing guitar since I was 11 years old. My own son can call from the other side of the world and I have to ask "Who is this?" when I get on the phone with him.

Other problems i have are much more of a problem. IBS. That doesn't stand for International Building Supply. It stands for Irritable Bowel Syndrome. I have IBS. When I first noticed that I had a problem was in Summer/Fall of 1998. I would go eat lunch and 20 minutes later I would RUN to the bathroom and if you got in the way I would have almost knocked you down. At that point I was drinking 6 to 7 Classic Cokes a day....(Yes, you read that correctly 6 or 7 a DAY). I have said before that when I stopped drinking Coke it was like a heroin addict getting off of drugs. If i watched someone else drinking a coke...I almost got the shakes like crazy...

In 1999 a lot happened to me. I was having a long distance relationship with Randi and I was also trying to make a decision to leave the military and I was involved with getting a Microsoft Certification for Windows NT4. Talk about ACK!... and then on top of all of that I got deployed to Turkey in the summer of 1999 on short notice. I was on the last aircraft to leave Shaw AFB for Turkey on this deployment.

IBS has been a moving target. I didn't eat red meat for 5 years. Now I can't eat pasta. A low carb diet has really helped and new meds that I received in Aug 2008 have helped greatly. I can have a cup of coffee now and not really have any problems with that. I can even have a coke during lunch without a problem. Yesterday, however, I went way overboard....I had 3 cups of coffee and at least 5 diet cokes because my sinuses were not feeling good at all!.....and I have a weakness for chocolate
I would stop eating chocolate but I'm not a quitter!... I at least had 2.5 chocolate bars yesterday....Yesterday was a bad day for me...I didn't just fall off the wagon, I JUMPED off the wagon and liked it! LOL

Getting out of the military in Feb 2000 was like jumping off a cliff. I really loved being in the military but I felt that I needed to deal with my health MORE than I needed to be in the military. I tried to go in the air national guard but when told I had IBS they said "You would have to get a dr to say that this is a misdiagnoses" I laughed in the Dr. face when he said that.....I have it and it is not going anywhere fast!...I would give IBS back to wherever I got it from in a second.

The only good thing that has come from having IBS is the fact that being more than 20% disabled according to the VA sent me to college for 4.5 years and I did get a degree from Francis Marion on 17 Dec, 2005. IBS has been a two edged sword. If i could get rid of IBS I would gladly repay the $2500 per semester the VA paid for me to go to college in a second.

You really don't realize what you have lost until you have lost it. At one point in time before Aug 2008 I was a slave to where the bathroom was at all times....That 7.5 mile drive to work every morning was just bad....there is NOTHING like feeling you are going to foul yourself and there isn't a thing you can do about it but HOPE it won't happen....it isn't a nice feeling at all.....I don't think having someone hold a gun to my head would scare me as badly!...ACK

Thankfully things are better today than they have been since being told I had IBS in 1999.

I also have chronic hip pain in my left hip from a fall I took during the first gulf war and that is just a nag but my gut problems trump every other problem I have.

At times I have had people that didn't understand why I wouldn't eat their food because eating it would have caused me to be in the bathroom in the very near future....Next time someone refuses to eat some of your food they might have a good reason not to eat what is being served.

Thankfully I wake up every morning and I'm greatly thankful that I have the life I have no matter how it might flux from one moment to the next or how my health might affect me.

Ok...I'm off to start the day and fix a few broken computers.

Have a great day

The Daily ACK 6/24/2009

ACK!

Music....seems all of us like music of some sort. My wife Randi like music from musicals, Donna Berry, who I went to High School with likes country. Tina, who I work with, is a fan of 80's rock. I'm a classic rock fan.

I'm a fan of the rock group RUSH. One song touches home with me and has for along time. A song called "Working Man"

**********************************
Working Man by Rush (from their very first album in the late 70's)
Words and music by geddy lee and alex lifeson

I get up at seven, yes
And I go to work at nine
I got no time for livin, yes
I'm workin all the time

It seems to me
I could live my life
A lot better than I think I am
I guess thats why they call me
They call me the workin man

They call me the workin man
I guess thats what I am

I get home at five oclock
And I take myself out a nice, cold beer
Always seem to be wondrin
Why theres nothin goin down here

It seems to me
I could live my life
A lot better than I think I am
I guess thats why they call me
They call me the workin man

They call me the workin man
I guess thats what I am

Well they call me the workin man
I guess thats what I am

*********************************
I like any music that talks the human condition and real life feelings.

Another thing I like is musical comedy. Weird Al type of comedy. I like Pinkard and Bowden. A comedy singing duo that are no longer playing together but I have a few of their songs around here. Song like:
"Blue hair's driving in my lane" (Blue eyes crying in the rain)[Willie Nelson]
"She thinks I steal cars" (She thinks I still care) [a very old country song by George Jones]

I also like Rodney Carrington. He is a bit dirty and not something the kids can listen to but he is funny as hell. He has one song "If you play your cards wrong you can take me home tonight"

****************************
if you play your cards wrong
you can take me home tonight
you've got all the makings
of my future ex-wife
i've got 3 bucks
my credit sucks
and my future don't look to bright
if you play your cards wrong
you can take me home tonight

***************************************

I can't put any more of the words to that one up...I might offend someone.....

I also like blues like Stevie Ray Vaughn or George Thurogood.

I also like live CD's much better than studio one's. Just something about live music that I like....

I sometimes l think life should come with background music...

Ok...I'm all ACKed out.....

The Daily ACK 6/23/2009

ACK!....

I'm sitting watching the news about the D.C. Metro crash. I've been there and have been on the Red Line. I thought the Metro was amazing and would be a credit to any city it might be in. I'm very sorry for the people who lost loved ones in this crash.

Susan. I DO have a new photo of my Kawasaki ZL600 (Thanks Randi for taking the photos!) without the old busted mower in it! Speaking of my old busted riding lawn mower, I got it running last night and mowed a good bit of the back yard with it after Randi used the new mower to mow the front yard. It don't look any better but it still mows like crazy! Methinks we need to get a photo of the new and improved mower.....
I'm very happy with how the Kawasaki turned out. it isn't perfect and most likely never will be but I have felt more satisfaction from getting that 23 year old motorcycle running than most of the things I have done. It is important to no one but me. To do most of the work on a 23 year old barn find and now 2 years later I'm riding it down the street is a good thing for me. I didn't rebuild the carbs myself. It wasn't due to a lack of trying but due to the fact that me and carbs have NEVER gotten along if there was more than one carb to deal with! The money I spent on getting the carbs fixed was well worth it. Thanks for rebuilding the carbs go to Ian and the fine staff at Cycle City in Sumter SC. They do very good work!

We also have new photos of the Princess being, well, a Princess...(no, Tina, it isn't photos of you! LOL)

No matter what kind of day you are having, your dog doesn't care and I like that about dogs.....They just like it that you are talking to them and paying attention.....

**********************************
Tao #13

Success is as dangerous as failure.
Hope is as hollow as fear.

What does it mean that success is a dangerous as failure?
Whether you go up the ladder or down it,
you position is shaky.
When you stand with your two feet on the ground,
you will always keep your balance.

What does it mean that hope is as hollow as fear?
Hope and fear are both phantoms
that arise from thinking of the self.
When we don't see the self as self,
what do we have to fear?

See the world as your self.
Have faith in the way things are.
Love the world as your self;
then you can care for all things.

********************************************
I'm all ACKed out.

Make today count, the moment we are living in is the only one we really have control of. Don't let those important moments slip away without notice.

The Daily ACK 6/22/2009

ACK!

I'm trying to get myself out the door and to work, but before I go to work I have to go pay $600 on my transmission bill from getting the 2002 Focus transmission rebuilt.. ACK!

I'll ack more as time permits!

Have a great day. Remember, today is the first day of the rest of your life!

The Daily ACK 6/21/2009

ACK!

Just another day at the nut house. The dogs have been fed and watered and are now taking a nap at Randi's feet. We got a picture of all of us made at the local Walgreens that the money from the photos went to the local animal shelter and we saw the cutest Doxie pup that was only 16 weeks old. He was what is called a piebald type of Doxie. He was cute but going back through that puppy stage would be a bad thing. I wouldn't trade our little knuckleheads for anything in the world. They both are well behaved most of the time. (unless Dylan decides that he needs to bark at SOMETHING outside, then all bets are off!)

I poured coke in my bestest keyboard yesterday. ACK! Now that it has been taken apart and taken a spin in the dishwasher, I'm just waiting for it to dry and then I can put it back together and it should work and be cleaner too! ...(it needed to be cleaner in a big way!)

Randi is in the bedroom watching "Stripes". A good movie but a little too much like my real life for me at this moment. I have often said that I loved being in the military but I am SO glad I'm out! A million times over I'm glad I'm out. Having no control over where you live or what you do and all the little rules that govern you while you are in are a real pain in the ass and you don't realize it while you are in the service but once I got out....I noticed that the rules you make concerning you are your own. The structure of the military gave me something to latch on to and it has helped me later in life but the military is a young person's game and I'm not so young any more. I have an 18 year old mind attached to a 46 year old body.....when did I suddenly get SO damn old! .....but what a trip it has been! My hair started turning gray when I was about 26 years old. I got one gray hair coming out of the left side of my head....I didn't pull it out I just lived with it. One day, my first wife and I were at my parents house, in Knoxville Tn, and she was sitting on my lap and she was talking "Ok...I'll tell him" I ask her "Who are you talking to?" Her answer was "Your one gray hair, I told it to grow a bunch more gray hairs so it wouldn't be lonely"....I dumped her off my lap into my Mom's living room floor while saying "WHAT!..you want me to have more gray hair??!!??" We had a good laugh about it all at the time. Ah, the stupid things you remember that happened SO long ago...

I was reading a friend's facebook notes (Tina Talk) yesterday and she had a note about her first job at her local IGA. Reading that made me think about my first job in a grocery store.
In Knoxville TN they had a local chain of stores called "White Store" White Store is no longer in business. I just happened to get hired at a store in uptown Knoxville that was right next door to a J.C. Penny's on Gay St. If you have never had a job in an uptown area of a major city, you haven't lived. The nuts came out of the woodwork and when it got dark, you got your ass home in a big hurry. I worked there for 8 months. One day the manager, Gerald, told me to go across the street and wait for a blue Ford LTD car that had a package for him. I did as I was told. I went across the street and the car came and I got the package and back across the street I went and into the store. When I walked in, one of the cashier's said "Honey, you will go broke standing on that street corner"...I darn near died!....
I worked at my first job with my Aunt (by marriage) but I had known her and I was friends with her kids and I had a good time working with Margie. it was 1981 and scanner registers were brand new and we had them. My manager, Gerald, told me I was the only bag boy he had ever seen that could keep up with 3 check out lines going full tilt during a lunch rush. I thought that was pretty high praise at the time. The night I gave my two week notice I found out that Gerald had started out as a bag boy and in 10 years time he had been given his own store. He loved that grocery stuff. He ask me to stay and said that I would have a bright future if I stayed on with the White Store. I told him that I knew after the first week that the grocery store wasn't the place for me. I didn't like it much. Gerald was a very honest guy when I was around him but a few years later I was told he got fired because he was stealing money from the store. You could have blown me over with a feather when I heard that. I worked in the deli in the back of the store and one day the girl I was working with, Donna, said "Will you wait on that woman that is walking up, I don't like her" and away she went! I waited on the woman and she wanted a BBQ chicken sandwich and away she went. It might have taken a full 5 minutes to wait on this woman. I ask Donna what the problem with that woman was. She said "Sometimes "she" has a 5 o'clock shadow"....OH! ok...from that point on I started noticing this woman more and sure enough, "she" could grow a better beard than I could at the time! (I was only 18) ACK! We also had a customer who used to come in the store and "bless" all of us. When I say bless i mean bless! "Oh bless you and God Bless you and ....etc" you get the picture. One day at the deli counter she got to blessing me SO much I thought the rapture was coming right then and there!.... Another time I was bagging grocery's for my Aunt Margie and she was going VERY fast scanning the items and I said to her. "Hey, slow down a bit"...she just kept pushing items my way for me to put them in the bag. The person we were helping paid his bill and away he went. I ask Margie what the problem was. She said "You couldn't smell the B.O. coming off that guy?" well...No I couldn't but once she said something I noticed it. She couldn't get to the can of air fresher at her station fast enough to suite her after that guy left.....*laughing*....

Ok..I'm all ACKed out!

Have a good day!

The Daily ACK 6/20/2009

ACK! Double ACK!!

Formula One Racing, of which I am a great fan, is on the brink of killing the goose that laid the golden egg. 8 of the 10 teams are considering a rival race series next year because of a 40 million pounds (42 million euros) spending limit imposed by the FIA which sanctions Formula One Racing. I am not in favor of a spending limit for the teams. If F1 is the premier racing series there shouldn't be a spending limit at all. I understand why 8 of the teams feel that they need to take a stand against such a spending limit. I also understand that the two team that didn't breakaway with the other 8 teams feel they have a legal contract to race with the FIA and would be sued if they did try to breakaway. The two teams that are staying in F1 next year are smaller teams and they would benefit from a spending limit because such a spending limit would even up the playing field among the teams.

13 years ago in the USA almost the same thing happened with US open wheel racing between CART and the new (at the time) IRL. While looking up information about the CART/IRL split I found this information on the IRL Wiki:

"The split between the IRL and the CART governing body was extremely acrimonious, and both series greatly suffered because of it, as the fan base also split. The 'war' between competing groups of fans was most active on the Internet, especially on motorsports message boards, and tended to affect any attempts at impartial views of either racing series.

The most bitter point of conflict between Champ Car and the IRL was the Indianapolis 500, long considered the crown jewel of North American motorsports. After the beginning of the IRL in 1996, Tony George restricted entry of the starting 33 cars to 25 IRL cars from full-time IRL teams, with only eight other cars being permitted to start. In retaliation, CART scheduled what was supposed to become its new showcase event, the U.S. 500, at Michigan International Speedway on the same day, but it drew far less fan interest and was discontinued after its 1999 running. Although modified in 1999, the initial Indy 500 policy toward CART was held up as proof of George and the IRL's ill-intent towards CART.

In 1997, Tony George specified new technical rules for less expensive cars and "production based" engines that outlawed the CART-spec cars that had been the mainstay of the race since the late 1970s. For the next few years almost all of the CART teams and drivers did not compete in the race. While this situation allowed many American drivers to participate in an event they might otherwise have been unable to afford, the turbulent political situation and the absence of the many of the top IndyCar drivers, big-name sponsors and faster CART-spec cars cast something of a shadow over the race; it was certainly arguable that to the average fan the replacement of at least fairly-well-known foreign drivers by almost-unknown American ones was not perceived as a real gain.

The split ended with a unification in 2008"

I see the big losers in this fight are the fans. Monaco has said it will NOT run an F1 race next year unless Ferrari runs in that race. Ferrari has been in F1 for the whole 59 year history of the modern era of F1 since 1950 and is in the group of breakaway teams that has thumbed their noises at the FIA.

Monaco has been the crown jewel of F1 racing since 1950 and to lose that race would cause great problems for the FIA more than any other race they could lose that now fill the 18 race calendar. The Monaco Race holds the same standing in this fight that the Indy 500 did i the CART/IRL split. The FIA needs to read some history of racing series splits to see that they could cause great harm to open wheel racing on the world stage.

*crossing my fingers*....