me? no. I just told them not a chance I was coming down this week or next.

Yeah, I was a total PIA to my parents until about 20 when I realized they actually did know a few things.

I ironed his clothes so they are ready to go.


He got presents last weekend when family was here but I bought him some Matchbox cars today. 10for $10 at the grocery store. He's only getting 9 , though. I found a 911 RSR in the crate and that's going into MY collection. Pretty sure that's the "Dad" rule. :D

Good luck with the new adventure Mike. Stop back and chat when you get settled.

Talking about PIA. I'll tell you about a PIA.

Let brother Bob stay at my house over Thanksgiving weekend. There is 13 years between me and the next oldest sibling. Bob is 20 years older than I am. He is my oldest sibling.

He tells me I need to clean house. Told him I agreed but am under doctors orders to NOT do anything for the last 2 months because the activity would raise my blood pressure and cause my eye to bleed. I'm supposed to just sit around an take it easy. There is 2 months worth of trash scattered in the living room that Pepper pulls out of the trash can and shreds. Picking it up and vacuuming does make my eye bleed which kind of scares me and makes me stop.

So Bob tells me I need to hire a maid. Tell him I would love to and had a maid helping out every other week when Mom was alive, but right now all my cash is tied up in swapping cars and paying travel expenses and groceries for my older brother to visit for the week of Thanksgiving.

He went to the store and bought particle masks to wear, "Because he can't handle the dust and dog hair." He complains about the cigarette smoke and dog hair every time he stays here. He also keeps turning my thermostat from 72°F to 76°F and the TV way too loud despite having a hearing aide I bought him that he won't use around the house but notice he uses when he goes somewhere. It looks like like one of those Bluetooth phone ear/microphone things.

Anyway the evening of his 2nd day here it tells me he wants the living room cleaned up before I go to bed, like a parent would. I told him the vacuum is in the hall closet if he wants it any cleaner and that cleaning the living room is not worth me loosing the eyesight in one eye.

So Bob goes off in a tirade about how I've always had it easy and how Dad always let me get away with stuff. Told me Dad said it wasn't worth making me do stuff when I was not doing what I was supposed to when Bob came to live with us.

After I got out of college I moved in with Mom and Dad to help Mom take care of Dad, he was having major health issues. I did almost everything around the house and took care of the cars, lawn, and fruit trees and house sat when they went out of town while Dad was able to travel. 3 years after I had been home from college helping with Dad Bob moves in. He has no money, no Job, and sold my first car we had given him a few years before. During his stay he is using Mom's car and getting $5 a day from Dad.

If anyone asked Dad if we wanted anything else, like a waitress at a restaurant, he always said a bushel basket of $5 bills. For his birthday, just before Bob moved in, I had given him a bushel basket of $5 bills. It was $500 in bills wadded up and put in a bushel basket. Dad cried when I gave it to him.

Anyway, After Bob moved in and Dad was giving him one of the $5 bills every day. Dad told me to stop mowing the lawn and several other things I did because Bob was getting money and they were Bob's job now because he needed to earn his keep. So, Bob telling me that Dad was taking it easy on me and not making me do stuff was his own made up BS. I went on a tirade right back at him.

Told Bob that was interesting, that instead of telling me he didn't want to hassle with punishing me that Dad had specifically told me he let me do things because I did what he asked me to when he asked me to and how he asked me to so he could trust me. Then told Bob that when he came to stay I was specifically told not to do the stuff I had been doing to help because HE, Bob wasn't earning his keep and that Dad was giving him a $5 bill every day and Bob need to do something to earn it. That the $5 bills Dad was giving him I had given Dad for his Birthday. And told Bob about he time he got mad and yelled at me loud enough the whole neighborhood could hear. Yelled that I was just leaching off Mom and Dad, AND right after that Mom and Dad were leaving town and Dad gave me $300 to buy food for Bob, but if Bob didn't apologize for calling me a leach to spend it on myself, to not buy any food for him, and not leave any food the house.

Told Bob that in fact, since he didn't do anything to help around the house Dad kicked him out and quit giving him the $5 a day. And the only reason they let him keep Mom's car was that he had wrecked it and Mom no longer wanted it despite the fact it had been her Mom's.

Bob is a PIA.

That stinks Richard.

Sometimes nothing you say or do will prompt a person to change.





Jake survived the concert and dressing up. The saxophone didn't, though. A rod thingy broke off at some point after he played. I tried to solder the part back on but couldn't get it to stay.

What? Never had anything on either of my saxophones break! Or on the schools Baritone sax I used for a second horn in the stage band my senior year. There was a instrument repair shop within 2 miles of my house though.

Need to take my guitar in and have them straighten the neck. The fretboard is too far away at the bottom. I know there is an adjustment thing in the neck, but don't know how it really works, don't want to break it.

I know.

He wasn't wearing the lanyard to hold it around the neck because he didn't like it. I saw him carrying it onstage like a baseball bat. I doubt he will stick with band for next semester.

Being a drummer I only had to carry my sticks.

Speaking of drummers, there was one young fella in the HS band that looked just like Jeff Spicoli from Fast Times at Ridgmont High. I chuckled to myself when I saw him.

Good morning all.

I had only one brother that was 2.5 years older than me. He lives 900 miles away so we don't see much of each other.

Loved being drum major my senior year. Only had to carry that drum major baton to the football games and the few parades we did.

http://www.drillcomp.com/mm5/graphic...aton_41_lg.jpg

At least at the basketball games we got to wear jeans and a golf shirt and I got to use a regular baton. The director never went to any of the basketball games, it was beneath him or something. He didn't go to any of the gigs my senior year because the director from the year before set all the gigs up. The Jazz band played for both the Miss teenage pagent for the city and then the state. Director from year before had us all join the Musicians Union so we could get paid too. The jazz band and the ensembles that played gigs had to get the music together and practice themselves because the new director wouldn't have anything to do with it. He was a major jerk that didn't care about the students at all. Stupid band parents association deserved what they got when they refused to accept the most excellently qualified but black directer the school system was going to bring in to replace the director that was leaving.

Just going to leave this here, it was on the radio this morning. Be back later.

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Bought a Benchmade Mini Infidel yesterday. I foresee a trip to the ER...

Do those have enough umph to hold up against a gut, extend and retract and leave a hole?

Those look like a cool toy but I suspect the local police forces will not really approve of carrying that around. When my dad went through survival training in the Air Force they issued a switchblade that had a parachute cord cutter hook on the other end. It had a bright orange handle. My mom used it in the back yard to harvest vegetables from their garden. It was always weird to see a lady that looked like a stereotype grandma (which she was) carrying a switchblade. She tossed it in her purse on more than a few occasions without thinking. Fortunately the cops never saw it. It was illegal to carry in this state. I am not 100% sure it was even legal to own. My brother has it now.

It is a cool toy, but my plans are to never be in a situation where I will be in a knife fight.

I'm not sure why, but aren't you supposed to take gum to a knife fight?

Most modern out the front automatics, the blade will stop after about half an inch if there's resistance while extending. It's a surprisingly stout blade, but that's part of why I went with the Benchmade over a microtech. A small amount of blade play, to be expected in an off and a heavy, smooth switch.

Really no restrictions around here.

morning all. of to go do CAD for another 8 hours. Its job. LOL

There are worse jobs out there today. Like the guy picking up roadkill when it is -4* and -30* wind chill. It is almost Pete weather.

Hey Joe, haw's the Merc?

Richard, my wife has a relative Bob. Sounds the same, I wonder if it is something in the name. Though one of my best friends is Robert, but we call him Bobby or Babah'. We call his dad Big Bob.

Hi guys. I hope the weather isn't too cold for you guys in the northern states. On the bright side, this time next week, the days will start getting longer once again. SmileWavy

Picking up frozen roadkill has to be better than on a 100 degree day. Just dress really warm and no stink to worry about. Rotten roadkill had to be horrible. Especially with server dead deer in the back of the truck.

I watch a lot of the "How it's made" shows. It is always fascinating to me to see the production of everyday or even unusual things. Often I see someone doing a job that has to be horrible to do for 8 or more hours a day. Like many jobs it is interesting to watch someone else do it far a few minutes but no way do I want that job.

Brother's given name is Robert Eugene Davis. He goes by Bob, Bobby, Robert, Gene, and Bobby Gene. I know because he has mail sent here all the time because he doesn't want people to know his real address. And when I had a land line got phone calls for him. I assume because of the extraterrestrial thing, or hiding from the guys in Black Suits (Men in Black). We, his family has always called him Bob. When my Dad passed he wanted his name listed as Robert Eugene in the obituary. We teased him that nobody would know who that was.

One of my other brothers is Thomas Austin Hill. He listed his name as Tom. Everybody except his wife calls him Tom, She calls him Tommy. His Dad's name was Thomas Austin Hill (he died 3 weeks before he was born). His oldest son is Thomas Austin Hill III, he went by Trey until HS now everyone calls him Thomas. Thomas's oldest son is also Thomas Austin Hill, he goes by Austin.

Mom's wasn't real big on names. Her and my Dad, George Alva Davis named their first kid together George Alva Davis. Understand my sisters came up with my name.

My two half sisters didn't have middle names so they could use their birth surname when they got married. My brother Tom married a girl that had no middle name so she could use her birth surname. They also did the same for their daughter. Their 2nd son's middle name is his mothers maiden surname.

My mother's name was Lois Jean, but she was always called Lois Jean and never just Lois or Jean. Her two sisters only had first names as did my grandmother on my Mom's side. Grandmother on my Dad's side was named Daisy Mae, and they always called her Daisy Mae.

I don't hate my job I just hate the fact that others are so slow in getting their part done that I then have to rush and stress.

Road kill would be no fun at all I'll keep doing CAD.