The Suitsy

I found this hilarious!  Even more funny is that I can't think of one good reason why the hell not?!

via

Still muddling through with this old computer but ordered a new one this evening.

House Cleaning Here

I've been doing a little house cleaning, so to speak, around the site and such.  All lists in the right column have updated links if needed and some new additions here and there.  I have also been holding on to some video links for a while now, yet I still haven't posted.  Now is the time.  Just an interesting time lapse video from last year about our city, Madison.


And movie references to Wisconsin.

There.  I'm not saying my 'house' is totally clean, but just one room at a time, and this room is done for now...

The Season's First Flurries

We got the first few flakes of snow this afternoon.  Nothing significant at all, just enough to remind us what snow looks like.  Look hard at the pic and you can see a few streaks of snow.



Our weather seems to have jumped ahead a couple weeks.  Daytime temperatures are a bit above freezing as it is mostly overcast and nighttime temperatures are just below.  I've seen a bit of frost in the mornings but not much.  I haven't had to warm up the car yet or even scrape windows, but that may change any day now.  There are still a few outdoor projects I had hoped to do before it got to this point.  Oh well, hopefully we will have a couple relatively warm days and nights or else they will have to wait for spring.

I have not posted much lately but there hasn't been much to post about.  The kitties are still naughty.  We don't have a date yet for our new windows but it will be soon.  Squirrels are little bastards that won't stop digging in the garden.  Kate is well and I am too.  Ho-hum.  PTFO

Hair Today...

I've mostly had long hair ever since I was old enough to fight with my parents about it.  Recently though, I felt I wanted to clean up a little bit for spring.  This is the result, still longer but healthier and neater.  It's just hair, it will grow back - and so will my goatee, I also shaved clean for the first time in probably almost two years.  Okay, maybe not that interesting but I made my wife take before and after shots (I was sure to wear the same shirt for reference) so she said I better post them!

Not Business.. Busy-ness

Life seems to have been rather busied lately.  I work hard at my job all day because I can and I enjoy it.  I'm still learning and improving some aspects, but that will come with experience.  Now, when I get home it's not like I'm busy working until bedtime, I still take my needed down time, but that time has shrunk much lately.  I need to air some things and organize my thoughts:

• I have no project at the moment.  The compost bin was a good one, and I still have a bunch of lumber in the garage so I have been thinking of things that I could build for us.  I have a few ideas of what I could do pretty easily... if I can find the time these days.
• Football season is here.  Many years ago I used to go out for the games, but as I've gotten older I enjoy sitting in my easy chair, watching my TV and rooting for my favorite teams.  So far it has been 'off' a bit this season.  First, all the weeknight preseason games were a pain.  Football should be played on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, in my opinion.  That is what they have ingrained in us over the years and because of that, that is my ideal watching time.  Also, friends want to come by for the game more often than in the past.  I like my friends, but especially Sunday afternoons, I would kind of rather be alone with my game before I have to go to bed early for Monday morning.  It's just what I like now.
• I finally called the newspaper to stop my daily delivery.  I have read it daily for most of my adult life, but an earlier starting time at work has me leaving before the paper arrives and when I get home, well, I have other things I want or need to do.  I'm not going cold turkey, though, I will still get their Wednesday and Sunday package deal.  It will be different, but there's just not enough hours in the day.
• The cats have been energetic to put it best, little hellions otherwise.  Oh, they could be worse and, thankfully, they aren't as bad as they could be, but they can sure be a handful sometimes.  Still, they are very young (about 5 months) despite their ever-increasing size, and I'm sure they will calm in time - even if it is a few years!  Care for them is ongoing and can't be skipped - they won't allow it.  I give them soft food every morning and when I get home every evening, the litter box is done while they are eating so I can clean it in peace.  Then there's the occasional claw clippings, baths and walks.  The problems really come from trying to modify their behavior.  Keeping them off the table, out of the dishwasher (and oven!) and not destroy our blinds or anything else.  And then they get the crazies....
• My drive home from work has been doubled to about half an hour due to road construction.  It wasn't really that bad until school started back up recently, now there is more traffic and big, slow buses when I am trying to get home.  I want a transporter like they had in Star Trek, is that too much?
• I had a recent post about an odd letter I received.  I did email him and sent him a link to my post.  He did respond after a couple of weeks, now it has been longer since I have responded back.  I will, though, but I would rather be relaxed and thoughtful about it than just hammer out an email to someone I haven't otherwise talked to in almost 35 years.
• Unfortunately, I know what will have to go to make time.  I do not watch TV usually unless there is a game on or I am almost or in bed.  I use the internet as my entertainment.  I have a list of blogs and sites that I check daily, as well as podcasts to listen to if I don't find the time at work to play them.  I love the internet, but I may have to cut back.  I can be on it anywhere from 2 to 4 hours on a weekday, so just trying to be on it less every night would be good, but I'm thinking more of an internet-free couple of nights a week.  I don't know if I could stand it, but it is worth considering.

And there are the other daily chores and duties, dinner with people here, a birthday party there, and more coming up soon that I'm saving for another couple of posts.  How long ago was my vacation?  I think I want another one.

There, I feel better.  Now maybe I can relax for a bit before doing it all over tomorrow.  Thanks for listening.  PTFO

An Unexpected Letter

I received this letter close to a month ago.  I have been unsure how to react so I set it aside and have looked at it now and again and I still don't know what to do.  As soon as I saw the name on the return address I recognized it immediately as an old grade school classmate.  I had probably last talked to him when I was 11, in 1978 or so.  Our class was rather small in that catholic grade school, so my first thought was of a reunion, perhaps.  I was a little taken aback by what I then read.
Red is the letter, Blue is my thoughts and responses, just to be clear.

Hi [Scoakat],
This note is from [childhood chum].  I don't know if you'll remember me, but I was in your class at [grade school] in [city, state] before your family moved away.  I hope you don't mind me contacting you out of the blue like this.

No, really, not at all.

I'm sure it's weird getting a note from me after 35 years!

A bit, but my first thoughts were good ones.

The reason I am writing is to ask your forgiveness for being such a jerk to you in grade school.

Really?  Now I was one that was prone to bullying*.  But I probably would have expected this letter from 1 or 2 others than this classmate.  He was a real dick sometimes, but also a showoff, as all kids are at that age.

I am currently working through some issues in my life and actually going through the Twelve Steps made famous by Alcoholics Anonymous.

A-ha!

When I got to step 8 and started making a list of people I treated badly in my life, I thought of you.  I remember some distinct times where I treated you badly when we were kids and wanted to write and let you know how sorry I am about that.  You certainly didn't deserve it.  I remember some times of being friends and doing fun things together (like watching those old SpiderMan cartoons at your house), while at other times I'm sure I must have seemed much more like an enemy.  At the very least I was a really poor friend.  so I hope you will receive this apology and be able to forgive me.

As I noted earlier, that was a very small class even for those days, I always thought we were pretty tight as a group when it came right down to it.  Well, I thought we all felt that way back then, but I moved away and they had to grow up together!  I had bad moments and good moments with each, to varying degrees, but I never considered myself as bullied too much, unfortunately I just was near the bottom of the pecking order then.  Cripes, we were kids!

You were a nice kid, and I have good memories of you.

Well, thank you.  Really kind of unnecessary, but if it helps, thank you.  The next few sentences are just personal info and chat.

Sincerely, [Childhood Chum]

He did provide his email in case I wished to contact him, and I may. Now that I have written this I may just send him the link as my response and then take it from there. In that case, I do want to say thank you for your thoughts, Childhood Chum, and good luck dealing with whatever brought you to this point.  All my sincere best wishes to you and yours.

Regards, Scoakat


*Edit  8/22 - What I meant by 'prone to bullying' is by other kids.  Sorry if my writing was misleading.
*For perspective, when I was that age I can say that I had no older siblings, no kid relatives (cousins, etc.) in the area and even if I did I was one of the oldest of those, and my dad got home late and left early six days a week.  I could go days without seeing him and when I did it was usually to berate me and/or whip me with the belt.  I'm just saying that I had no one to look up to or out for me back then and I didn't really do a good job of it myself.  But that was as kids, mostly when I could tell you my age on my fingers.  I've turned out as fine as anyone.

Jets

We live just a ways south of the airport, so we don't even really hear the planes anymore.  It's briefly loud enough to pause a conversation for a few seconds when outdoors, but it certainly doesn't rattle the windows at all.  That being said, it seems the somewhat louder Wisconsin Air National Guard has been training again.  We heard some when we were outside just after dusk last night, and now this afternoon several have been taking off, always in pairs.  I wonder if there's a deployment coming up or something.
This is not a complaint, just an observation.  More power to 'em!

*I just looked it up - we're about 3 miles south, for perspective.

First Kiss Poster*

The first Kiss poster ever made, from 1975.

I've been a Kiss fan almost as long as I can remember.  It was way back in the late 70's when I somehow acquired a secondhand Kiss poster that I have hung on to and taken with me everywhere all these years.  In the early 90's  I had the fortune of attending a Kiss Convention in Chicago.  It was there I saw the same poster, advertised as the very first Kiss poster, on sale for $50.00.  It was in better shape than mine, but it gave me my first idea of what I actually had.  When we moved into this house, it is the only poster my wife would let me put up, in the back room, and behind the door.  Well, this poster still meant a lot to me so recently I had it put into a frame.  It didn't come cheap, it cost almost a hundred bucks to have it done, but I am very happy with the results.  The matting covers the yellowed, taped and pin holed border and the frame and non-glare glass flatten it nicely for display.  The lower left corner dates it:  1975 Boutwell Enterprises/Rock Steady Management, All Rights Reserved.  The lower right corner says:  Exclusively Distributed by One Stop Posters, Los Angeles Ca, 90006.  And going up along the side from the lower right corner it states:  Lithographed in USA Eureka Lithograph Co.

I include the details just in case someone else searching on the web may come across this and be able to tell me about what it may be worth these days.  I have searched numerous times online and can find no mention of ANY Kiss poster before 1976.  No pictures, no copies, no nothing.  It doesn't really matter, I certainly don't want to sell it.  I am curious, however, and even more now that I cannot find anything on it.  It is located to my left as I sit at our computer and I must shut the door to see it (see pic below), but it still makes me very happy knowing it is there and now looking better than ever.

*Update:  Since posting this earlier it has been on my mind again so I spent the last half hour trying different search terms in google yet again - and I finally found it online!!  The site is not english, but it does price it at $150.00, about what I expected.  The link I found is here.

Nothing Lately*

It's been quite a while since I've posted.  There just hasn't been anything going on with me or anything I've come across that I felt like passing along here.  Mostly I have been doing nothing.  Just trying to take care of myself while my back recovers from surgery.  It's not easy to do nothing.  I can't exercise other than walking, and I haven't done enough of that, so I have felt my strength and stamina slip away.  My overall eating has decreased significantly, and I've also noticed that my body does not tolerate fast food at all anymore, it really puts me in a bad place.  I have two weeks before I return to work to try and get myself together a bit more.

My Mom came up for lunch yesterday.  It was a nice visit but would have been nicer if I was feeling a bit better.  When she left I slept for a couple hours then my wife and I went to a 'happy hour' get together at our friends Bridget and Zubin's new house.  It was nice, they have a very nice house, but again I was feeling weak and tired so I wasn't a whole lot of fun to hang with.

It has been a week and a half since I've posted and this is all I have to say.  Sorry, that's it.


*Edit:  I have also gotten some comments from people about my last post about work.  I want to make it clear that I don't resent any of my co-workers, most are very -and some very very- nice.  It's not a perfect world, it is pretty much every man for himself and take care of your own these days and I understand that.  Work is work, play is play, business is business and that's about it. 

Hung Over

They say you shouldn't blog when drunk.  I did that early this morning and, well, I don't think it turned out too bad.  I was just enjoying one of my favorite bands.  We went out for dinner and drinks with friends last night.  I can't remember when I last had more than 3 drinks, but I may have tripled that last night.  I am one hurting son of a gun today.  Thanks, Jack.

Biding Time 'Til Surgery

It has been a week since I posted.  It is still a week until I have surgery.  I have been off work, biding my time as comfortably as I can manage.  I can still get around the house with my cane, but I only do short trips and try to plan them well.  Our electric bill will be larger with me home all day with the air conditioning and computer on.  The cat has not taken to my company all day every day and spends much of the day under the bed, though I did almost walk in on her at her food dish in the kitchen this morning.  I quickly turned and left as not to disturb one of her few ventures out.  She is getting quite old now, old enough for my wife to be concerned about her, um, input and output.  I seem to have less pain and more numbness and tingling now which allowed me to stop taking percocet.  I had been on it every day since sometime in March, which couldn't be good, and I felt like hell for several days after stopping.  I had no appetite whatsoever, no energy, and found myself in quite a funk.  I feel better now, I still take 2 oxycontin each day, but I've only had those for about 2 weeks now.  When I was taking both I had more pain but it only helped so much so I stopped taking everything one day.  One thing I was disappointed with was that after 3 days of barely any food and I still weigh the same.  I almost look forward to getting back on the exercise bike.  I have been smoking clove cigars for a few weeks now.  I have felt stressed yet I do not want to become addicted to nicotine again so I found a 'cheat' that I must make sure is temporary.  I use it as an excuse to get outside and stare at our yard.  It breaks up the day.  Well, this is it for now.  No real 'proper' type of post, just ramblings and thoughts.  I'm bored, and facing yet another surgery really sucks.  That about sums it up.

No, What Are YOU Doing?

I just looked up and it was Thursday.  It has been a pretty normal week, which is nice.  I tried to post the new U.D.O. videos earlier this week but blogger wouldn't let me embed them for some reason.  Maybe I'll try again later.  So, sorry, no real updates this week yet except for over at my garden blog.  That will be all for now.

I have an idea!  Why don't you tell me how your going to spend this upcoming long holiday weekend?  Taking the kids anywhere?  Kev, Kel?   Maybe a road trip to Madison?   Anyone else?  Tell us all how you plan on spending Memorial Day weekend in the comments!

Hmm, asking for outside input on my site.  Someone please respond?

Late Night Back Yard

I hate to disappoint anybody, but even though I officially quit smoking in late January 2010, I have been having about 1 or so a week for a month or two now.  What can I say?  I've been under much stress, my wife still smokes (not a lot, but still), and because I don't normally smoke I can catch a helluva buzz.  Anyway, tonight I stepped out on our new back steps for one and turned on the outside lights and really enjoyed the view so I wanted to share. --This is our back yard and we love it.

Monday Notes

Hello everyone, happy Monday.  I don't really have time or feel like writing, I just wanted to post a quick note today since I haven't written much lately.  There will be a short post at the garden blog tonight as well.

The work started today on the back door project.  I have been taking pictures but I think I will wait until later to post them, either when the project is done so I can show the before and after or maybe this weekend when I have time.  They got a good start on it today but there may be more off days than on for the next week or more due to rainy weather.  It was even snowing when I left for work early this morning!  It may be tomorrow morning, too.  I think that 80 degree day last week was just a hallucination...

That's about it.  After staying well all winter I've been slightly under the weather the last few days, I hope I can shake it before I actually come down with something.  Now, off to do the garden blog!

My Comfy New Chair

Last weekend I finally bought (with my wife's permission) a new chair for in front of the computer and I love it!  The old chair was getting pretty creaky and would make my butt sore if I sat in it too long.  The new chair has a nice cushy leather seat, great lumbar support and a taller back to support my taller back.  The old chair will be relegated to downstairs for projects like putting together another shelf kit.  Since I can't really crawl around on my knees anymore the plan is to wheel around it in my chair to put it together.  I hope it works!

I just wanted to mention this before I forgot and it got lost in the shuffle of all my medical stuff.  Plus, I needed one more post posted.  Why?  Well, you'll see me waving my geek flag early tomorrow.

A Brand New Car!

Well, brand new to me, anyway.  I traded in the truck this evening and bought a smaller used car, an SUV, actually, which is still technically a car, legally.  Got it?  I don't.  (Not the car pictured.  No real details will be posted here, I'm still keeping some semblance of anonymity.)  Way back when I bought my old truck (a bigger SUV) I really wanted this small SUV but just couldn't afford it.  I just liked the way it looked and the reputation of the company.  I've never really wanted a certain make/model when car shopping before.  Money was the number one factor in my mind most times.  I'm really not a car person, usually.  Anyway, Mrs. Scoakat has driven another model of this make for several years and we have had no major trouble, only maintenance.  Now, several years later I can afford a nice used one so I finally got what I originally wanted!  Yea Me!  And thanks to Mrs. S, without whom none of this would be possible!

Driving, 4 Months Later

I'm driving again!  When we got home tonight I hobbled around my truck cleaning off two snowfall's worth of snow.  I just drove around the block, pausing to reset my radio stations, then back home.  But I was comfortable driving.  I could probably have driven a week or two ago but I wasn't comfortable yet, meaning I didn't trust my leg to react.  On the right is some random pic off the internet.  I picked it because, except for the main thoroughfares, the good roads here look like that.  The side roads, while plowed, are still very much snow covered, or packed.  That includes our street.  The snow on the side of the road, though, is about 2 feet less than what we have here.  I think we had 15.7" so far this month, not including last night's blanket of snow.  Which reminds me to thank my wife for shoveling the whole driveway and sidewalks again all by herself.  Thanks, hon! 

Anyway, after 4 months of not driving I get to drive in this.  I'll do just fine, it just stinks is all.

65 Degrees

It would be nice if it was 65 degrees outside but it may be an anomaly if we see that again this year.

No, 65 degrees is how far my knee was able to bend at physical therapy earlier today.  That's 17 degrees more than 2 weeks ago.  The strength in lifting my leg in different ways has improved as well.  I wish the progress was faster but progress is progress after all.  Hopefully I'll learn more how I'm doing, well or slow, tomorrow; I have an appointment to see the orthopaedist for a checkup on my progress.  No matter how well or slow I am, I do know that I have 5 mores weekly therapy sessions scheduled and I'm pretty sure there will be more.

The first thing the therapist said when he came in was that he noticed I contacted the neurosurgeons office about my neck again.  They don't want do jump into another cortisone shot because the last one worked so poorly for me, so they started me on another round of a stronger oral steroid.  I started yesterday and the good news is that it seems to be helping.  Anyway, the therapist moved us to a different room with a traction machine to stretch out my neck.  so I let it pull on my head while he was working over my knee trying to stretch my quad and patellar tendons.  Those are the ones that are tight and not letting me bend my knee.  But enough.

I find myself having to rearrange my evenings now that I'm back to full time at work.  I don't get as much internet time so again, some things must be sacrificed.  Also why I'm planning the big computer switchover between 2:30 pm Saturday and Noon on Sunday (between the football games).  Mainly some of the inane sites that I visit for mindless entertainment will be put aside for slow times.... including that damn Bubble Shooter Game! 

I do apologize if you are sick of hearing about my injury, but that's what I do here: Write about me!
Out!

P.S. Don't spend too much time on that damn game!

Everything Updated

This past week I left a 'where are you/I hope all is well' comment on an esteemed fellow blogger's site since he hadn't posted in a while. Meanwhile, I let a whole week go by, a long time for me, without posting anything here.  It turns out work has kept him away lately, but I have no excuse.  So let's catch up, shall we?
Briefly...

• I had another physical therapy appointment yesterday.  There was not much improvement in bending my knee, but I have improved in strength and can put about half my weight on my leg when walking with crutches now.
• The new computer has not arrived yet. If it arrives during the week next week I think I will still wait until the weekend to set it all up. I want to drag an old computer out of the closet and grab the files off of it that I want first, then when we're all set up with the new computer I will have 2 old ones to recycle.
• I had an appointment next week to go over and schedule my neck surgery but I just cancelled that for now. Although the cortisone shot only partially gave me relief I am approved for two more if I need them so I may have that done again if it starts to get worse. The goal is to not have surgery until after the new year and before the end of March (so I don't have to use up all my vacation time for the year on recovery).
• My internet connection ticks me off sometimes by dropping out briefly several times a day. This happened before and when I called to complain the tech basically called me a liar. So I got even more mad and cursed him out, but mysteriously it didn't happen again for several weeks. Now it has been happening again for quite some time now and I have just been dealing with it until today. This time I got a much nicer guy on the phone and someone will be out tomorrow to look things over. No charge.
• On Wednesday I went from 4 hour workdays to 6 hour workdays. Next Wednesday I am back to full time. I am glad the orthopaedist is easing me back into work. Going back on a Monday straight to 8 hour days would have been a bit of a shock to my system, I think.

That's about it for me.  How are you - yes you!  See where it says 'comments' below?  Feel free to give it a click!

Pic Dump 21

I hope everybody had a nice weekend.  Nothing special happened here except for football, of course.  Both the Badgers and the Packers won, but this isn't a sports blog so you can read about that elsewhere.  For the most part I am just biding my time while my leg heals.  Not too exciting.  I have nothing to do all day but eat, sleep, read, watch TV(ugh) and surf the internet to pass the time.  Mostly I surf the internet.  I find that preferable to mindlessly looking at the idiot box.  I'd like to get drunk.  I have had a few drinks lately, mostly during football games, but not enough to say I was drunk.  The last thing I need right now is to topple over in my walker and hurt myself some more, so anything more than a couple is out of the question right now.  Besides, I don't know if it's because my taste buds are coming back since I quit smoking or the painkillers I'm taking, but whiskey just doesn't taste as good as it used to before the accident. 

Anyway, with all my web surfing I have already collected more than enough pics for another Pic Dump.   So like it or not, here's the third one in just over a week.  (I'll try to be more discriminating in the future.)  As always, discretion is advised after the break, click on the pic to see the original size.   Enjoy!

Speaking of drinking, here's a funny map.  There's a good chart related to drinking near the end, too.