Despite all my rage, I am still just a rat in a cage

In case you haven't figured out yet, I don't like coming up with titles. What should I put, blog post 148? blech. something descriptive but doesn't sound too stupid will take me longer than writing the whole  post. So, it's almost 5AM and I can't sleep. I think it has something to do with the monster drink I had last evening. Don't gett me wrong, I did sleep some. I just woke up about an hour ago and decided to get up for a bit until I felt sleepier.

This week has been crazy. I accepted a new job. I'm finally leaving the WG. I've been there longer than I've been married. pretty wild huh? Roughly a 35% pay increase which more than offsets the gas for the commute. I was just ground down to a nubbin at the WG. What's a nubbin you ask? Oh, it's a little bump about the size of a baby's nipple. Since I have a commute now, I decided I should get my miata out. It's been garaged for years because I didn't want to wear it out any more. This commute won't preserve it, but it's not doing me much good sitting in the garage either. It's was a (mildly) emotional moment getting it out. Of course, all the screaming and fighting by the kids pretty much shot the mood. But that car was a huge shot  in the arm at a rough time in my life. I bought it right after I broke up with my first girlfriend. Ok, it was a little less than mutual. But that car was a dream. I used to say goodnight to it before I went inside the house (in Indiana) from the garage. Oh yeah? you think that's stupid, well you're stupid! Now that I've put you in your place, be quiet and let me talk/type. Anyway, after I installed the special $125 about the size of a lawn mower battery, I got it to start on the first crank. Pretty amazing huh?

We also got a new roof put on this week. And guess, what? It's metal!!!! yay! out of pocket cost should be around $300 because most of it was covered by insurance. Liberty Mutual. Seems like a good company from our experience. I grew to hate shingles because the previous homeowner had the roof replaced (just new shingles over old) right before we moved in and I was always up on the roof trying to keep them from blowing away or fixing them afterwards. I finally realized that this was stupid, dangerous, and I had insurance. The last windstorm did a ton of damage around the area and it broke loose huge patches of shingles. Thankfully, even though I was busy Rebekah did pretty much all the work. She was up there putting tin on and everything! Ok, maybe not that much work, but she called the Insurance Company, the insurance adjuster, the roofing guy, etc. The only fly in the ointment was that they quoted us a shingle roof and put a tin roof on. So, we don't have anything documenting the agreement. But the bill is the same, so it shouldn't be a big deal. I talked to the guy who owns the company and he seemed to be a "my word is my bond" person. That's awesome, but when he has a heart attack and dies and his son-in-law takes over and starts ripping off all the old people in the area it's not going to help me. Whatever. God is in control. I've got a new roof for minimal money.

BTW, typing this blog has been painful. I spilled hot glue on my finger last night trying to rebuild an 18v battery pack for my Ryobi tools. I hope after all the pain and cost it's worth it. Man, do I hope it works.

Complete lack of competence

Or possibly incompetence. Sometimes I am amazed at how bad a father I am. I mean, there is normal mediocrity due to incompetence and then there's the stunned silence due to shock and horror caused by raging incompetence mediocrity. Yep, that's the one that gets you down. Doesn't get me down. So, on this April Fools day in 2012 i acknowledge my incompetence. Sadly, I'm still vastly superior to most other fathers out there. With the possible exception of Bruce Willis. He's probably a bad father too, but he's cool. And that makes up for a lot. Plus he shaves his head. I shaved mine last week. Rebekah was mad at me. Probably still is. I'm not really sure since I haven't talked to her in awhile.

So, just saw a commercial telling kids to play. Pretty wild huh? Never saw that commercial coming. I heard a commercial on an old radio program telling people how bad things were and encouraging the listeners to get involved in their local church or synagogue. Sounded suspiciously like the government advocating religion.

Well, I'm 3 years into my bathrooms/shower project and I only (mostly) have one bathroom done. This lack of progress has inspired me to start working on the other bathroom. So, last week Rebekah and I built a wall and then I closed off the wall to keep the kids out. Then I got a sledge hammer out and broke down the dividing wall between the two bedrooms. The kids loved that. The floor is tongue and groove and over the years the foundation (or something) settled so that part of the floor was/is sloping really bad. So, I had to remove the floor and put sister-joists in. I am still in the process of doing that. Thankfully, I kind of know what I'm doing since I did it once before already. So, instead of prying up and splitting the boards, I used my oscillating tool and my sawz-all to cut the nails. Hopefully, over the next week I can get the floor  put back in. I am going to flip the boards over because the normal side has gooey gunk from the linoleum. We'll see how it goes. Any day now I am going to have to shift modes and start working on stuff outside so I'm trying to get as much done as quickly as possible.

Well, that's all folks.