Peace and Accounting Tests

Some of that mental acuity has returned! YEEEEEHAW!
I aced the accounting test I took on Tuesday night.
GO FN! GO FN! GO FN!

A Thursday haiku as a celebration?

I effin aced it!
I rocked that accounting test!
You wanna be me?


LOL, ok so my acuity hasn't totally returned...
That's ok.
Peace is somewhere out there.
And, it's waiting just for me.
In the mean time, Peace be with you my friends.
Smile.
It breaks up the monotony of your face....
;)


*****

Quote for the day: (maybe two)

"Character - the willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life - is the source from which self respect springs. " -- Joan Didion, "Slouching Towards Bethlehem"

"Every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving. " -- Albert Einstein

Random Pics Day!

I'm going to start a new feature here on my blog!
YAY!
I'm calling it random pics day.
If you're out and about and you see something funny, interesting, beautiful, (or whatever), snap a photo with your phone or camera, and send it to me with a note telling me where you were at the time.
I may not post all of them, but I will definitely post the most interesting ones I find and/or receive!
So, here's the first installment...



Outside my buddy Mark's house in Washington!

I just LOVE BEDHEAD! I miss my hair sometimes... lol (thanks Ashlynne)

Look! They made a sign just for ME at Walmart! (thanks J!)

OMG! The tree is coming back already. . . .

Steve and I after the funeral service for Pop.

Leyen, Steve, and I.

So, there you have it... Randomness. . . . .

Send me pics!!

*****

Quote for the day:

"It was on my fifth birthday that Papa put his hand on my shoulder and said, 'Remember, my son, if you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm.' " -- Sam Levenson

Moving Right Along

Well, one room down, the rest of the effin house to go! WOOP WOOP!
I cleaned out the library of all non-essentials and now I have room to put the myriad of books hanging around the house. If anyone is interested in Readers Digest condensed books, feel free to get a hold of me. I have tons for sale and/or donation.
The cleaning is slow going as I have to look at each piece of paper and every item to see if they're of value or it needs to go in the circular file after being shredded.
Remember that mental acuity I talked about that I had?
Poof. Gone.
I'm sure it'll come back. I've just been a bit overwhelmed the last few weeks.
I brought the momma cat in today for the first time since pops passing. I'm sure she wanted to see what was up and what was going on. I love cats, but I'm very allergic to them and suffered through it when the folks were alive because they brought so much joy to their lives. But, now the cats are outside cats. Sorry cats!
Anyways, I brought momma in to let her look around. After a couple of minutes, I picked her up and walked her around the house to show her that pop wasn't here and that the house was in the process of change. Yea, I cried. Maybe it was more for me than it was for her. I don't know.
So, what's new you ask?
Weeeeellllll, I've volunteered to help paint the Castle Air Museum buildings! WOOP WOOP!
I thought pop would have liked that, and I just need to help them out. We already have gotten 40 gallons of paint donated from Sherwin Williams. WOOP WOOP again! It should be a fun time. No stress, just peaceful work.
I thank God for the peace he's brought to me over the last couple of years, and especially over the last 166 days. I'll keep counting them for he and I.
School is moving along. I'm taking my last customer service academy class for this semester next saturday. YES! Those sat classes have been getting in the way of beach time. Two sat's from now, look for me at the coast. Maybe I'll get there before then.

I'll leave you with a joke I used on my business law test recently. It was used to illustrate void contracts:

Arty the hit man is hired by Wilbur to murder his wife because he knows she’s having an affair with another man. Arty and Wilbur have been friends for a very long time and Arty tells Wilbur he’ll do the deed for just $1.
The neighbor hears this and calls the police and tells them of the impending murderous contract. Arty gets to the Wilbur Family business, the grocery store, and knocks on the office door. The wife answers and he chokes her to death. Just as she falls to the ground, the lover appears. He doesn’t want to get caught, so he chokes the lover to death as well. Just then, the police arrive, and haul Arty off to jail. The headline in the paper the next day reads “Arty chokes two for a dollar at Wilbur’s Grocery.” (Contracts for unlawful acts are automatically void.)


Hope you have a great week!

*****

Quote for the day:

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary. " -- Steve Jobs

A Day to say Good Bye

The man went to a funeral today.
It was a somber affair that touched his heart like no other.
His parents were gone from this material earth.
As the dirt hit the coffin after leaving his hand, he knew this to be true.

He would remember them always, and cherish every moment and every breath he drew with them the last years of their lives. He felt blessed to be able to share that with them.

He would remember good times and bad, lessons taught and received, holidays and the usual days.

He would remember their service to our country, and the comraderie that was the benefit of it.

But, most of all, he would remember them as the pillars of his strength and character and generosity that he had come to know and love and cherish. He would strive to complete their legacy, and earn the fruitful life he had been so blessed to be born into.

Yes, the man will miss his pop as he already misses his ma.

He will fill the void with the expanding memories of both his old life and his new.

Mom, Pop, thanks for everything you've ever done for our family, but most of all, thanks for the memories.

*****

Quote for the day:

"You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one." -- James A. Froude

Thank you all

I wanted to express my heartfelt appreciation and humble thanks to all who have shared their kind words, prayers, and thoughts regarding the passing of my Pop (on here and elsewhere). It has really meant a lot to me. I have the most awesome friends and family imaginable!
I hope I can be there for all of them in times of need as all of you have been here for me.
I'm doing ok. Still dealing with things as you can imagine.
I celebrated 150 days of sobriety over the weekend, and am still continuing despite the recent events. Everyone else got to take a shot for me this weekend. (wink)

The viewing and funeral services are in Atwater at Ivers & Alcorn on Winton Way. Thursday, the viewing will be from 4 pm - 8 pm. The funeral service will be on Friday at 10 am.

Thanks again for all the support. You guys rock.


*****

Quote for the day:

"Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." Revelations 3:20

What now?

Gerald Robert Brown Sr.

Born - May 1st, 1938

Passed - April 9th, 2009

Sorry Pop, I wish had done more...

Spring Showers.

NO, it's not time for my annual shower....

WOOHOO! It's SPRINNNNNG BREEEEEAAAAAKKKK!
I have no class for two weeks!
Ok, I didn't have much class anyhoot, but now its ALL gone for a spring break.
What to do?
I certainly am not going to Mexico...
Oh Oh, I know!
I'll go to DELHI!
No, not India. Del-hi, California.
There's a camp ground there next to the river. I have completely forgotten the name though.
Ok, Eff that. I'm goin to the coast somewhere. Preferably Half Moon Bay or some such area.
Sea Cliff Beach is a normal spot to go. Clean, gorgeous, scenic.
Yep. The Coast.
I'll have to pass by Casa De Fruta on the way, unless I go to Half Moon Bay via the route to San Francisco.
BEACH HERE I COME!
I'll take a pic and share of course.

Let's see....what else is happening...
Oh, we're waiting to finish the AAA building. It's been called on account of the rain. Have you ever painted something, and then it rained, and then you come back to see what you've painted, and the rain has washed it away? It's very vexing. So, we painters try to avoid that. Costs too much. We're pretty much done with the entire bottom portion of the building (meaning anything not on the roof). So, go check er out. Give us a thumbs up as you drive by. Say to yourself (or whoever's in the car with you), "Hey! 1 FN HandyMan Painted that building!"
You know you wanna. Just do it. You'll feel better.
OH....MY....GOSH!
Must...
Have...
NECTAR!
(GASP)
(cough-ity cough cough)
Wait here. I'm gettin some nectar..
...
...
...
...
REJOICE! I HAVE RETURNED!
Ahhhhh...NECTAR!
With blackcherry somethin or another creamer.

I had a dream last night.
Yea, go figure, ME having a dream! Hmmpfff.
Anyhoot, it reminded me of when I was painting the RiteAid in Merced. It was my first commercial painting job, and quite the experience. (No, I didn't use sexperience when a buncha guys were in involved lol)
This one guy layin the floor down was a total grouch, and kinda scary. Just his humbug attitude. You know the type. Well, Mike and I were rolling out plastic and then covering the gandola's so we could paint the ceiling and not get paint all over everything. Well, our method was one of us would roll the large roll of plastic over to the other about 25 feet away and then that person would cut it and so on. Well, Mike being a hefty hefty hefty kinda guy, sends me over the plastic roll when I'm not looking. It rolls PAST me, under the temporary wall we had put up, and onto the floor where Mr Grouchy had just finished putting glue down. It didn't just go a couple feet into the glue. It went allll the way into the CENTER of the effin glue, about another 25 feet.
(Yea Mike had really flung that effin roll...)
well, I come out from under the plastic wall and see what had happened, and I had to laugh.
Then Mr grouchy stands up with a look of disgust on his face. So, I of course, stopped laughin.
He gingerly walks out to the roll of plastic and begins pulling it up off of the glue (and through some miracle, it all came up without tearing!). He winds it up in his hands, walks over to me, and hands it to me. I still had a smirk on my face and had to blurt out a giggle. "Sorry bout that." I said. He says,"Yea." and giggles back cause I was just burstin at the seems to crack up and I know he could tell. So, I go back to the other side of the clear plastic wall we had erected and Mike and I burst out in laughter like the wall is ten feet thick and no one could hear us in our little enclave. It was so effin funny at the time!!
So, here's to Mr Grouchy and the effin glue floor!
CHEERS Mr Grouchy, where ever you are!


*****

Quote for the day:

"I was so naive as a kid I used to sneak behind the barn and do nothing. " -- Johnny Carson

and another...

"Laughter is by definition healthy. " -- Doris Lessing

Market Thoughts

The man pushed the shopping cart through the market, silently listening to the squeek of the bad tire. He contemplated the peace in his life, the wonder at feeling new again. His friends and family still intact.
A sale on pasta caught his eye. One pound for ninety-nine cents. He tossed a few boxes into his cart, next to the block of cheese he had just chosen.
He paid no attention to the other people in the store, other than how close they were to his proximity. He could tell which were at peace and which were not. The stress on their face, the wrinkles etched so deep, and the tension in their body as they walked by him, could all be felt. He almost didn't even have to look at them as they passed by to feel their turmoil.
He wondered what was going on in their lives. He wondered whether things would work out for them.
His mind wandered.
He wondered what she was doing at that very moment.
Was she burning some lunch?
He chuckled at the thought.
He almost runs into a stack of ice chests. Looks around to see if anyone noticed. Good. No one did. What would they have done if they had seen? He really didn't care.
He felt that empty spot just then. The one that has been there so long, it is a part of him as if something were actually there.
An acquaintance passes by and says, "Hello.", but doesn't stop. The man "howdys" back. He doesn't stop either. He's not in the mood for company. Alone suits him at the moment.
He opens the refrigerator door and retrieves some creamer for his coffee in the morning. He places it next to the cheese in the basket.
The rest of the visit to the market becomes a blur, as his mind wanders backward and forward through time. He revisits places with her. He attends plays. He visits Stonehenge.
He pays almost silently for his goods.
His minds shifts back to the present as he saunters through the large sliding doors, back into the sun and the peacefulness that fills him with its warmth.
It's a good day.

*****

Quote for the day:

"I have you and even if we never meet or ever see each other, we have left our thumbprints in the thick, moist clay of each other's lives. " -- Hugh Elliott, Standing Room Only weblog, May 6, 2003

A Friday Haiku and other Ramblings

A Friday Business Law take home test Haiku:



I must do this test,
Doing it with a chest cold,
Phlegm on my paper.

So yea, I got this nasty chest cold.


I think since I stopped pickling myself I'm more susceptible to getting sick. This past winter I was sick more than any other in a long long time.

This one has got to be from all the spraying we did on that AAA building and all that rubber in the air. Yea, we're spraying what's basically a rubber paint onto the building called Elastomeric. It's designed to cover the building like a skin and if a crack appears in the stucco, it just stretches so that you can't see it. Weird concept, but it makes buildings look pretty for $40 a gallon. YIKES! (as one Marsupial would say...)

I was over at J's the other day (had to have been more than a week ago) sitting in her kitchen and she walked over and turned me into an Easter Bunny.

I was SO amused. (no, really, I was)

EASTER BUNNIES UNITE!

Anyone else pissed off about how things are going down with our government. We need to vote everysingle one of those suckers out of office. All the finger pointing and blame and no one is taking any of the blame themselves for signing all this mess into law in the last 30 years.

The 912 project. Go check it out.

I want to go to Greece! (yes, I'm chatting with Dimi Mou as I'm writing this lol)

I seriously need to get a passport or whatever they call the FN thing.

Scuse me whilst I blow my runny effin nose. (HONNNNK)

Ok. I'm better now.

Where was I?

Oh yea. Bananas! I love them things. I think I like them cold right out of the frig. That's weird isn't it. I also love to freeze a can of pineapple chunks, then let them thaw just a teensy bit so when I eat them they're all nice and slushy. SO good. A perfectly SEXCELLENT spring or summer treat.

You know you wanna try it.

*****

Quote for the day:

"I was the kid next door's imaginary friend. " -- Emo Phillips