The Manic Mechanic

As everyone seems to know, a lot of snow fell here recently, and I waited until the next day (Wednesday) to hobble out of the house to the garage, fire up the snowblower and have at it. It wasn't a huge snow, only about 6-7 inches. Anyhow, since my back is in absolutely no shape to even touch a snow shovel, mostly hanging from the handles of the big, self-propelled snowblower is fairly easy, and I have to say, sending a rooster tail of snow high into the air that blots out the sun in my general vicinity is kinda fun. It does, however, fly back at me quite a bit, and after about an hour I pretty much look like the abominable snowman by the time I'm done. I park the thing in the garage, trudge back into the house where I strip myself of my snow-covered outerwear, boots and whatnot and otherwise dry off. While I got most of the snow off of me, I didn't realize there was close to two inches on top of the geeky Mad Bomber hat I use to keep my big flappy ears warm. I set this in the kitchen sink to thaw out, and shook the copious icicles out of my beard. I relax a bit, sore and hurting from the exertion (which I still am as of this writing). I play with the various four-leggers in the house, including the stray cat that makes herself all-too-comfy here. A little while later, I head to the kitchen for a snack, and I notice a furrball on the kitchen counter. The damn cat is always jumping up, looking for anything she can to eat. I yell like I usually do to shoo her off. It was then I realized I was yelling at the hat I put in the sink earlier.

I had a good laugh at my own expense.

Bonus irony points: It was at this time the doorbell rang, it was UPS delivering one of my purchases. A new, black Milwaukee electrically heated jacket. That would've been nice to have on while doing the snow. Well, I know how my irony goes. I was wearing my old red version while slingin' snow. Take that, old irony monster.

Cut, split and stacked about a cord of firewood Saturday, it was great to finally get rid of the huge pile of logs and debris that's been taking up space at the corner of the driveway. Did a lot of garage-type stuff that day as well, and getting stuff in line for the upcoming improvements to the house and garage. Jeff had a sudden online test show up for his school work, and got stuck doing that for a couple hours in the evening. After that we headed off to see Transporter 2. Like the first movie, this one is mindless action entertainment, with a gay subtext so huge you can park an aircraft carrier on it. If you havent seen either movie, go and rent/buy the first one and enjoy one of the most homoerotic fight scenes (trust me, it's hawt) then go and see the new one. While not necessary, it helps put characters and ideas in perspective.

Today found me doing car work of different sorts and more work around the yard trying to get ready for fall/winter. The weather has been great and things are getting accomplished. Accomplishments = happy me.

Speaking of happy, Jeff so far seems much happier at his new job. Being able to take a relatively short run to his 'rents and the rest of his family has made everyone much happier there too. While it puts a bit of a cramp in our style, the overall effect is positive. The distance is not that great between us (about an hour and a half at my driving speeds) that we cant do things on a whim, and our weekends together are high quality (and the sex is great).

This will be a busy week for sure. Painting, yard work, runs between garages and my everyday work at NG. I have some thoughts regarding the latter to be posted soon. This time, it's mostly good. Inspiring even.