Wow, this week has flown by...
When we last saw our Hero, he was going to bed shortly after 5AM on Monday night/Tuesday morning... ended up beeing around 5:30AM... started wtahcing Dark City on DVD until fell asleep. Got up around 9:30AM. Whoo. Keith got all his stuff around, left some of his stuff here, took some stuff home that I didn't want left here. Gave him 3 pre-stamped and addressed envelopes so he can write to our house, and one to write to my brother. And then, around 10:40AM or so, he took off and went to the High School to see his girlfriend. I spent the rest of the day cleaning my room, and I think mowing the yard as well. Or rather, half of it.
The story of Keith. He had to be driven to his recruiter's in Jackson by 2PM, then drove back up to Lansing by the Navy to MEPS and the hotel they keep people in. Then he flew out Wednesday morning at 4AM I think it was for Chicago, and then a half-hour drive to Navy Basic Training. And so Keith is really in the Navy now. :P While I'm on this side track, my brother is lamost done with basic training. No more mail after this Thursday. He's going into Warrior Week and looking forward to it. He was having problems with a yearly asthma type issue he has, but they medicated him well, and he's back to good now. :)
Most of the nights this week, have been spent getting a new NetBSD box up and running here, and getting pkgsrc on it, and getting software on it. Got my MUD up and running again for people to mess with. And I assume this is what I worked on Tuesday night. That, and watched Adult Swim of course.
Wednesday... I believe I woke up really late this day, goofed off for a bit, finished the lawn, and some other minor things. Had some delicious baked fresh young chicken, mixed vegetables, etc. And then worked on the new NetBSD box, and watched Adult Swim. How exciting!
Thursday I slept in again! I got a call for a job interview with a local school district. This was a surprise, as I applied for it back at the beginning of August. Apparently, they hired a temp guy, and are now getting rid of him for being inept as it was described to me. I may end up working at the same school my sister current student teaches at... that would be cool/weird but possibly also very convenient. I got all cleaned up, shaved, took a shower, and then Dad, Mom, Nicole, and I all went over to the new place to meet up witht he guy that will be building the pole barn next week hopefully. We got an idea of where it's going, and how the doors will be setup, etc. Talked to him for a long time as it's a small world and my parents know a lot of people. Walked around the property with the guy so he could look around as well. Dad: "Would you like to take a walk down to the lake?" Pole Barn Guy: "I sure would!" :D He seems like a nice guy. Saw a hummingbird on the trumpet vines there. Crazy gravity-defying birds! Headed home eventually, and mom made some shrimp stir fry over rice that was really good. And probably finished the night with the same as always. People were talking about cars, so I built on the various company websites... a $32.4K Mazda RX-8... titanium gray exterior, black and red leather interior... ooo. Then I built a loaded Honda Civic EX Coupe... that came to about 20-21 I think... for some reason, they don't total the options and add them to the base MSRP... I don't know why not. Then I built a Chevy Cavalier LS SPort Coupe with everything... $18.8K... and I thought... with everything I added to this (power sunroof, mp3 playback, etc)... it's actually still affordable... and that's *before* my grandpa's GM discount... neat. I actually don't think the newer Cavalier's look bad... not great, but not bad... and they have more horsepower than the Civic... and it would be so excellent to have a car again, let alone to have a stick to drive again rather than my crappy automatic now that can go die more than it has. :P SO hey, if I get this job... that might be an idea. I know I'm missing something else on this day, but for the life of me, I can't remember what, so onwards!
Another little side-track, mom and dad will be leaving to go to San Antonio for Nate's Basic Training graduation next Tuesday I think, and I think they'll be gone for two weeks. Yay, sis and I get the house to ourselves! Boo, we have to take care of the little monster dog! Since we should close on selling our two places up north, and buying the new place both on this Friday I think, as soon as we close, we have permission to start the pole barn on the new lake property, and by the time my parents get back, it should be done, and we'll start really working on the new place. Oof, a lot of hard work in the near future.
Friday... got up a bit earlier than lately. Called back to confirm the interview, which is 10:45AM Monday morning. Yay! It would be so neat if it was at the elementary school where sis works. :) Got cleaned up for the day, borrowed some money from Dad, and went into Charlotte to get my hair cut, and fill up the truck with gas for them to drive it up north. Talked to my barber for a while, he thinks I'll get the job. :D Came back home, packed up, and sis and I drove mom's car up north, and mom and dad drove the truck. Watched TLC shows all evening from like 8-1AM or something crazy. I commented on how sad and possibly pathetic it is to watch shows about other people's houses and lives when we have our own to deal with. :P Did some reading, eventually passed out on one of the beds in the front room.
Got up this morning at a decent hour, and packed up everything else we had left up there. Mom and dad's double bed, the good TV, DISH Network receiver, fridge and freezer stuff, the pontoon boat, some wood from the barn up there, adirondack chairs, wicker rockers, steel shelves, fishing equipment, and some other things. Was quite the haul back. After driving the two hours back here again, unloaded all the stuff, and then more work! The pipe that went out to our septic tank had been pusheddown, so that the rubber coupling was stretched, and only like an inch of the 3-4 inch PVC pipe was actually able to let bleh flow through it. Dad had discovered this Friday actually. So then we went to work digging a 2 foot deep trench in hard dry clay along the pipe so we could get something under it to put it back where it should go. I think the trench ended up 10 feet long or so. Then we used small rocks and sand under it to put it back up where it should be, then backfilled the trench partway, and filled with water so it can settle and we can fill it in tomorrow. Meanwhile, we also dug a one foot deep, three foot in diameter hole in the yard to pull the lid off the septic tank itself so we can have septic people come out and pump it since it hasn't been done in a long time. After that, we got stuff around, and drove the truck and pontoon over to the new lake, while sis and Beth picked up pizzas and met us there. Dad I put the pontoon in, Mom, Dad, Nicole, Beth, and Matt all hopped on, and we ate pizza for dinner while cruising the lake.
When we went to leave, some stereotypical redneck lady and her two intellectually challenged sons were trying to get their boat out of the water. She couldn't back up a truck with a trailer on it though, she kept going back and forth and the boys kept physically moving the trailer back straight themselves. This led us to question how they backed it up to boat the boat in the lake int he first place. Eventually, she got the truck backed intot he water (and actually scrapped against the dock too), and the boys went to work. One unhooked the winch and yanked, only to whack himself int he leg with the handle when it spun around. Meanwhile, the mom continued to back into the lake and almost run over her other son. Eventually she stopped, luckily before she filld the backend withw ater and got stuck. The truck also had a bad power steering belt that made an awful screeching when she was repeatedly hauling the wheel back and forth while trying to manuever the trailer. The boys hooked it up finally, cranked it up, and they drove forward. By this time, we'd been waiting probably 20 minutes.... their boat is like a tiny *maybe* 12 foot two-person boat... trailer was tiny... nothing overly complicated. So we pull up to the dock, everyone but me gets off, I back off the landing and wait. Dad gets the truck and trailer, pulls over to the landing, manuevers by the intellectually challnged family who ar eint he way still because they didn't pull far enough forward, and starts backing in. Nicole jumps on the ladder near the hitch, and gets the winch and hook ready. Dad backs in the water, I gun it up on there, Nicole flicks the hook on and cranks it once, I raise the motor, dad pulls forward, and we're out in seriously 30 seconds flat. :P Some older lady there said, "Wow, you guys are pros at that!" and Dad turns to her and says, "Yeah, this is second time we've taken it out of the water." :D Which it was! The first time was earlier today taking it out at the old place which went just as smoothly... first time we used the brand new trailer even at all. And this was the second time. :P Maybe we just have a bit more experience in general or something. But then the intellectually challenged people were still blocking the driveway, with their truck door open while they fiddled with something, so the older lady who was just standing there, closed their door so Nicole, Beth, and I could get by the car. Mom and Dad had to wait since the truck, trailer, and pontoon especially are much larger. They ended up getting home about 10 minutes after us, and it's only 10 minutes away to begin with. So that's the dinner/boating story for tonight. :P
After we got home, Dad I fiddled with hooking up the new TV downstairs, and trying to get both receivers to work with only one dish so I can use the second one from up north here in my room instead. Gave up though, and will do it tomorrow. I brought the 27" that was down there previously up here for my own use, and to replace my little 13"... oh so much nicer watching DVD's on this. Had to move my entertainment center a few more inches away from the wall just to get it on it since it's like 20" deep. Had to move my stereo, DVD players, and VCR to put the TV in the proper place int he entertainment center, and then hook all of it back up again. That took a bit. Then cleaned up my room a bit more, moved my NetBSD boxes, re-centered my Lay-Z-Boy on the TV ( I miss my couch. :| ), watched Akira on DVD, and used the THX Optimizer to adjust the TV settings, and now here I am basically!
I need to update more frequently so I have less to write per entry. :P
