Another fabulous Blogzilla update, well maybe not so fabulous.

It's been about a month since I've been here. I do feel guilty about it.  Sometimes life gets in the way recreational time. Believe me I'm looking forward to some recreational time. My next free day. apart a couple of Sundays, is August 20th though I do have a dental appointment. What can I say, I've been busy.  My leg is much better though not 100%. Who knows if it will ever be? These things take time. Apart from all that I'm pretty well. My friend and I have been selling things on eBay. He done much more than I. He's been doing it for 5 or 6 years. I've been looking at all the clutter I've accumulated through the years. Some I will save but, but most of it is going one way or another. It's funny what people will or won't buy. I had four packs of cards or maybe they were stickers of animals, given away by a supermarket around 1962. The key here is that the packs were unopened, stapled to a cardboard backing. $20.00. My twelve snap-shots, not taken by me, of Eric Clapton around 1970 here in Boston. My friend had a better camera than I, but I was there. I had to give up owners ship, well duh? I had to sign a paper transferring ownership. Fine by me. I have copies for my own personal collection. Not the originals but just as good visually. $280.

Things you'd think would carry some interest. Say movie magazines from the 40's and early 50's. Big Hollywood names on the cover,  Clark Gable, Gretta Garbo etc. I'm not looking for a killing. There are quite a few out there for sale with little or no takers. I have about 20 of them.

I have a couple of comics worth "guide price" about $90. bidding is around $20 at the moment. If that's all I get after the bidding ends. I'll take it.

I am heading back to Martha's Vineyard in September. It'll probably the last time for a while. I do love the place but even in the off season it isn't cheap.  This time I am taking my car. While getting around the island isn't a huge problem, One of my reasons was to be able to stand on the western side of the island at sunset at this place.

The Clay Cliffs at Aquinnah.

     
I was there once when it was foggy and misty and on this day, when the weather was about perfect, late September, 2011 . I'm hoping for some late summer good weather. You never know. The whole trip, from just north of Boston' takes about 3 hours or so, including the ferry.
All reservations have been made. I'll just have to sit and wait until mid September.
Work has been a trying experience. Let's just say the inmates run the asylum. I'm trying to stay out of all the soap opera aspects of this situation. Most of the people here are 20 to 40 years younger than me. My immediate boss is 10 years younger than me.

My employer finds new and improved ways to to make a tedious, at times, job...more tedious. Then I get real and think, "I'm still working." Just a few more years...
Speaking of work, we had two incidents last week. Both involved the same young lady. She's the one who fainted on the job about a month ago. Neither involved me, well a little in one. I'm at one end of a rather large department. There are two young ladies at the other end though I wasn't sure what they were doing. I looked again a short time later and I see this particular young lady lay down on her side like she was trying to retrieve something that had fallen under the sink. As she reached further under the sink she would squirm up, moving her body further below. Everything moved but her pants. Soon we had an early moonrise. I didn't say anything but I did nudge the guy I was working with. What we found most amazing was that she seemed completely unaware that her pants were flying at half mast. She wasn't unaware long as Mauricio, my co-worker, Yelled, "Hey! Don't you feel a breeze?!" We both laughed! She shot up straight, pulling her pants up disappearing into the corner. The other young woman was amused by it. A short time passed, maybe two or three minutes, and and Miss "By the light of the silvery moon" came up to me and said something to the effect, "I should think that a person of your age would know enough not to laugh at what is a very embarrassing situation."

I tried to tell her that it's wasn't that big a deal. "Relax." She would have none of it. She wanted an apology and that was that. So I told her I was sorry I laughed, (at your bare ass for what seemed like 20 seconds) I didn't say that last part. We were sworn to secrecy. Thus ends the saga of the mid afternoon moonrise.

Incident #2. I was in the chest adjusting an order. We need more of this and we don't need any of that. I walk out of the chest to check something and I hear and see another woman, who I work with, on the verge of tears saying something as she stormed in my direction, "I work too ******* hard to be talked to, like that by you!" This woman is in her early 40's. Apparently our younger, cheeky lass went and reported the older woman for taking 40 minutes instead of 30 minutes. They both stormed away in opposite directions. For about 10 minutes I had no idea what had happened.

As for this blog "Blogzilla
I'm outta here.

I suppose you're wondering why I called you all here today.

Okay, no special reason. I am back to work full time though it is still bothersome after 4 hours but you have do what you have to do. In other news I had a tire blowout. Right rear to be specific. I was traveling on a local street. There was no great drama as I was only going 15 or 20 mph. I heard a loud pop and on the little screen on top of the odometer it read "Low preasure!" with an image of a tire. Of course it didn't tell me which tire. The steering was fine and the direction of sound told me it was the right rear tire. Since I was only a minute away from my friends house I continued and pulled into his driveway. I put on the skinny doughnut spare and continued on with my evening. I had never heard of the brand of tire that was on my car, Nexen. It is always recomended that you have the same brand tire all the way around. Long story short it was very difficult  to find. So I did something I don't like to do. I went back to the dealership where I bought the car. I have never had a good experience with dealerships when it comes to repairs. More expense and lousy service. But I figured, though the car I bought was used, the tires were standard equipment on this car when it was new. Well anyway they didn't have those tires in stock. What a surprise, but they could order one for me and have it by Monday,my day off. The flat happened on Thursday so I would have to drive on that skinny doughnut for three days. Not a reassuring thought. 
I get a message on my phone from the dealership. All it said was it was concerning my car. I had told the lady at the dealership that I would be home by 5:30 and she said she would be there until 6. I called her at 5:30 but she wasn't there. I call her back on Saturday morning as I had a late shift that day. She said that the tire would be there on Monday and would I like to make an appointment? Well Yeah! So I make the appointment which I wanted to be as early as possible. She offers 8:15 in the morning to which I say fine. I get home from work on Saturday to another message. What's the message? She says it's concerning my car car. Well pardon the expression,  NO SHIT SHERLOCK! I didn't think you were calling to find out how my celebrity toenail collection was coming along! Since the dealership was closed when I got home I would have to wait until Monday to find out the latest wrinkle in my odyssey to find one Nexen tire. I didn't have a good feeling about this. Aside from driving to work I didn't want to use my car with that skinny little tire. Flash forward to Monday morning. I'm in the bathroom getting ready to go to my appointment when the phone rings. Guess who? The lady from the dealership. She tells me there is a problem. The truck delivering the tire caught fire. Yeah sure and the dog ate my homework. I told her to just forget it. My biggest complaint I told her, was that her messages told me nothing just that her call said it was concerning my car. She left me hanging all weekend. 
My next plan of action was to go to a local warehouse store who I had been to previously but they didn't carry that tire. I decided to buy two tires, Michelin's, so at least I would have matching tires on the front and on the back. I had to spend much more then I had planned to, but again you have to do what you have to do. Guess what? They sold out on my tire size over the weekend. But their store in a nearby town, about 10 miles away, had them. I get the directions and go there. They had the tires but it would be a 90 minute wait. After 4 days, what's 90 minutes? I buy the tires and settle in with a book. I told them I wanted the new tires on the front as they do the majority of the work, such as steering, braking and they bearing the weight of the engine. 90 minutes turned into 4 hours. I was seething but I never said anything. Finally the car is done. They told me I should come back in 24 hours or after 25 miles to have the lug nuts re-torqued. That was a new one on me me and besides they had already torqued my nuts, if you know what I mean, by having me sit there for 4 hours. I drive home. I pull into the driveway and realise that I had to put a circular plastic disc back on the wheel. It covers the lug nuts. I had the thrown it in the trunk when I changed the tire on Thursday night. As I bent down to the rear drivers side tire what do I see? The brand new tire on the back instead of the front. I know I should have checked before I left the facility but at that point I just wanted to go home.  Besides I didn't think the instructions to put the two new tires on the front of the car was all that hard to comprehend. Apparently I was wrong. Now I have to go back next Monday to switch the tires. Instead of spending $95.00 on one new tire, plus all the little extra charges they weasel you with, I ended up spending $474.00. Hey eating isn't all that it's cracked up to be. Well this post has worn me out recounting my sordid tale. Time for supper...oh yeah I'll do that next month. 
I'm outta here.                                                                                                                                   

Beautiful Sunday for a limp around the grounds.

Yes the leg is getting better. I am on my second and final week of limited duty at work. It's back to full time next week and a full paycheck as well. Short term disability helps but it's only 60% of my pay so monetarily it's been a bit tight this month. Sunday was a beautiful day though warm. Not like the heat wave that has plagued most of the country though. It topped out at 89 with low humidity. I just had to get out. One day about a week ago I was surfing the web looking for some place to go for a day trip. I found this place called the Heritage Museum and Gardens in Sandwich Ma. on Cape Cod. I never knew the place existed. Apart from working a restricted work schedule (4 hours a day) for the last two weeks I have been pretty much house bound. I needed to get out. Sure I went to a ball game last week and being at Fenway Park is neat (Did I say neat again? It must be the insidious creeping threat of middle class bozo-ism.) getting there, getting a drink, and getting home again are not that neat. Being crammed in a subway car with some guys nether regions practically in face is not my idea of a good time. And though the park is only about six miles away driving there is an aggravation all it 's own. On top of it the walk from the station to the park and back did put a strain on my leg. Too much too soon.

Still it was time to get out. From the website this place, The Heritage Museum, looked beautiful. It was. Meticulously maintained grounds, an auto museum and a Norman Rockwell exhibit, which unfortunately didn't allow picture taking. The downside to all this, it was a Sunday. It was a beautiful day and lots of other people will go to the Cape. Driving down wasn't bad. It's about an hour away. The museum was only two exits after the bridge. Cape Cod is essentially an island because there is a canal that cuts through the entire upper Cape. There are two bridges spanning the canal. Cape Cod is a beautiful place but it's very crowded during the summer and the roads down there are not built to handle all those cars. Upon leaving we took 40 minutes to go a half mile to get to the bridge. The rest of the drive to go 5 miles north of Boston took 60 minutes. Then of course, on the beaches, because of the seal population, there are the sharks. This happened on Saturday. This is not my photo.

   The museum garden encompass 100 acres. Just gorgeous. The auto museum, a bonus for me because I do like cars, was surprisingly large and the Norman Rockwell exhibit was fascinating. I didn't know that a good deal if not all of his painting were taken from photographs. He would take pictures of models he hired in all kinds of poses and places the paint a picture using different models in different locations. Sort of piecing together scenes from all these pictures. He didn't do this all the time. They had many of his paintings that were used for the covers of the Saturday Evening Post. Great stuff! A fascinating thing I observed in the parking lot was a car from Alaska. And I am whining about my drive home to Boston.

The sun was quite bright so there is a bit of a washout effect on some of the pictures. The auto museum was a a bit dark. I don't particularly like using a flash as there is a moment of hesitation when the flash happens and the actual image is exposed making for some blurry pictures. I had to lighten most of those pictures up Someday I will upgrade my camera. If you care to see them you can find them here <iframe src="https://skydrive.live.com/embed?cid=657692B4E34B334B&resid=657692B4E34B334B%21322&authkey=AMgN4rV6v6KtgRY" 

I hope this link works. Anyway I've, as always, have gone on long enough. Thanks to the folks who visit here. There aren't many of you but I want you to know it is appreciated.

I'm outta here.