Halloween Party

Another road trip to Hillsborough to party with Mel Melton and the Wicked Mojo's at the Blue Bayou's Halloween Party. Had one good time.

Mel and the Mojo's brand of cajun, zydeco, and blues made for one hell of a party night and a good time that was had by all. Looking forward to going back in February for the Mardi Gras-CD release party. Should be a blast.

Awoke this morning and my 1977 GMC 4wd pick up was still in the driveway. Thank God. Nope, hadn't been stolen like the last road trip I went on. Maybe the pit bulls, 12 ft. fence and armed guards guarding my house had something to do with it I don't know.

Yes I Voted

I went and voted yesterday. Took care of my civic duty. Looks like everyone else was doing the same thing as the line was pretty long and I had a 35 min. wait. But that's o.k. It's over and done with now and all that's left is the wait until the count. Or if you're Kerry supporters the recounts you will be calling for if your man comes out on the losing end.
Yea, I voted for Bush. I'm sure some of you will probably want to slam me for it but I just can't see anything positive in Kerry to vote for. All I've heard from him is why I should not vote for Bush. Yea, I've heard him say he's going to do this, and I'm going to do that, but he hasn't said one thing about HOW he is going to do it.

There are a few things that bother me about Kerry and his party:

• Kerry has tried to blame the 17% Medicare premium increase on Bush when it was actually mandated by President Clinton's "balanced budget amendment" voted into law by Kerry and scheduled to come into effect during this administration with Bush having no authority to reverse what had been voted into law
• LBJ and the democratically controlled House and Senate took Social Security from the independent "trust" fund and put it into the General fund so congress could spend it, as has EVERY President since then
• The Democratic party eliminated the income tax deduction for Social Security (FICA) withholding
• The Democrats started taxing Social Security annuities with Al Gore casting the "tie breaking" vote as the Pres. Of the Senate while he was Vice President of the United States.
• Jimmy Carter and the Democrats elected to start giving Social Security payments to immigrants living in this country when they reached age 65 even though they NEVER paid a dime into it.

Social Security is going to have to be fixed. Kerry said he isn't going to touch it. Bush has a plan. It may not be the best, who knows. I kind of like the idea of getting to decide where to invest some of my money. If it don't go fine. But the fact is SOMETHING'S GOT TO BE DONE SOON.

Another thing is this shit about Bush re-instating the draft if he is re-elected. Mr. Kerry better back way up on that remark. There have already been two bills introduced to start the draft back up and they were introduced by-----wait a second-----looking-----here it is. Charles Rangel, D-NY and Fritz Hollings D-SC. So I don't believe it's the Republicans looking to start the draft back up.

Which brings me to my next point. I just can't bring myself to vote for a traitor. Anybody that did what Kerry did in my book is a traitor, and has no right to serve as President of the United States of America.

• He testified under oath before congress about atrocities committed by American troops and admitted to committing some himself
• He worked with Jane Fonda aiding the enemy
• He left Vietnam early (4mos) with 3 scratches leaving his men behind and joins Hanoi Jane
• He traveled to Paris twice to co-ordinate with and give hope to a communist delegation from Hanoi

These activities by Kerry and Fonda used to be called treason. Now you want him to be President??

Now the Iraq war that we are in now. I do agree that it hasn't been handled the best that it could of been, but we are there and we are going to have to see it through.(And yes I have family over there and he will tell you the same thing)

What I think is truly ironic is how Kerry can sit back and bash Bush on how he went over there without a coalition of allies and sent the men in without the proper equipment to fight the war they went in to fight.

I guess as far as the equipment goes it may be because Senator Kerry has voted AGAINST every defense measure and weapons system that has come before him since he has been a Senator.

As far as the allies go, we had 34 allies with us during the first gulf war with Iraq. We have 30 allies with us this time. Who's missing??

France, Germany, Russia, China

And who had sweetheart deals with Hussein and had just been stung by the UN scandal over food-for-oil in Iraq

The UN, France, Germany, Russia

AND THAT'S ALL I HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THAT!!

First They Steal, Then They Rob

Well, what was a great road trip to the Michael Burks concert in Charlotte turned into a big pile of doo on Saturday afternoon when I finally crawled out of bed.
I woke up about 12:30, with one hell of a headache, to the sound of a friend of mine mowing the yard. He's been mowing it for about a month now since someone decided they needed my riding mower more than I did. I figured I'd let him do it the rest of this year and buy me a new one next spring along with a building to put it in instead of the carport.
Anyway I get dressed and go out to talk to him and there it wasn't! I mean it wasn't where I thought I had seen it when we came home last night. My Dodge was in the carport but my 1977 GMC 4wd pick up that me and Jr use in the snow, to haul junk, and for a back up in case the other vehicles break down, was gone. I wasn't too worried then because I knew my ex-wife was moving that Saturday and I figured Jr had come and got it to help her move. Well Jr comes home at 4:00 to get ready for work and I ask him if he got his mom moved. He says "Yeah" and I ask "Where's the truck?" He says "I don't know."

Time to get worried!

I called the Guilford County Sheriff's Dept. to file a stolen vehicle report and was informed that mine was not the only vehicle stolen in my area that night. There was one stolen about 3/4 mile from where I live but was abandoned after a chase and the car was run into a ditch. I was also informed that they felt like they knew who had my truck so it should not be too hard to find. Seems like they used my truck as the getaway vehicle to get away from the sheriff's dept.
I get two messages on my answering machine from the sheriff's dept. on Monday wanting me to call them. I work from 5:30 am to 5:30 pm and they have my work number, why the hell can't they call me there. I get home at 6:00 and try to call the number they left, guess what-----our hours are from 8 to 5 blah, blah, blah. I take the number to work on Tuesday and call four times. The officer I need to talk to is ALWAYS out of the offic so I leave a message. I Finally hear from him at 7:45 on Tuesday night. They have found my truck and he explains how I go about getting it back. Go by sheriff's dept. uptown, pick up release form, go by towing co. etc., etc., etc.
So now I have to take a couple of hours off of work on Wednesday to pick up the truck. I go to sheriff's dept. to get release form from them and while I am there I get a copy of the police report. I figure I am going to have to pay some money in this thing and I want a police report to file with my auto or homeowner's insurance to try to recoup some of the money. I get my release forms and head home to pick up Jr so he can drive the truck home. Get him and head to the towing service that the Guilford County Sheriff's Dept. so graciously called in service on my behalf, walked in and found out I owed them $240.00. I said WHAT!!! They said $240.00 CASH. No checks. No credit cards.

Brokedown like this:

• $115.00 towing 13 miles (cost me $65.00 to have Dakota towed 9 miles about 2 months ago)
• $50.00 dolly (didn't need a dolly on the Dakota, why on the GMC)
• $75.00 storage (2 nights on the lot--sounds like Motel6 rates during the furniture market)

Didn't have that much cash so we head out to find an ATM. While driving Jr is looking at the police report and lo and behold there is a suspects name listed on the report and he reads it to me. Doesn't register. He reads it again. Doesn't register. He says first name about 4 times in a row. DAMN!! That SOB used to date my stepdaughter about 5 years ago. Been at my house several times. Mother lives about TWO MILES from where they found my truck. And he hasn't been arrested. So much for justice and helping the little man.

Well took the cash back to my friendly towing service and got my truck and it's home now. Sounds like something fishy going on between them and the sheriff's dept.

I'd almost bet my house that the SOB that stole my truck is also the SOB that stole my lawnmower too. What you think??

Road Trip

Drove down to the Double Door Inn in Charlotte last night with some friends to see Michael Burks play. One fantastic blues guitarist and you should go see him if you ever get the chance.

Rough Day At Work

Man what a day at work. Back to the grind after the usual seven days off and all hell breaks loose. People everywhere losing there jobs and total mayhem. What the f#%k is going on!
A Little Background:

About six years ago upper management came up with this wise move to get more production out of us by going to a 12 hour rotating shift. There would be 4 crews, 2 AM and 2 PM, alternating weeks. We would work 3 days on 1 day off, 3 days on 7 days off. Work days would be Thurs, Fri, Sat, off Sun, Mon, Tues, Wed, off 7 . Pissed everybody off because they cut our pay 10% off the bat because we worked 36 hrs and got paid for 36 so that was 4 hrs less than what we were used to getting paid for.
Anyway everybody kinda buckled down, went to work, quit their bitchin and got to liking these hours and the 7 days off. Hell you could go on a vacation every other week if you wanted to (and you had the cash).
(Well known national "corporation" buys out family owned business in 2003 but does not offically take over under it's name until January 2004).
Now fast forward to September 2003. Plant busy as hell. Memo goes up--mandatory overtime until further notice. Now we're working 7 on 7 off.
October 2004. New owners decide we are going back to an 8 hr, 3 shift, 5 day work week after working 24 hrs a day 7 days a week for over a year. The new hours start January 1st. That meant they had a whole crew of people that were going to lose their jobs and that came today. What a bitch. But I guess it was better than waiting until Christmas.
I'm going to miss those seven days off.

At least I still have a job.

Jump Right In

Well here we go. Something I have been thinking about for a while now. After surfing around and reading all the other blogs, thinking about starting one of my own, here it is. The "kahunas" have finally gotten big enough to try this .
Probably wont be a lot of posting right off until I get used to working with this thing and figure out what I am doing. Hope it will get easier as time goes by.
Usually a pretty mild mannered and quiet tempered guy but I do have my days, so I will warn you now that I probably will have some posts that may have a few, shall we say, "off color" words used in them and I hope I don't offend anyone. If I do don't read 'em anymore.