Miscellaneous

Friends

Posted by Cappy on September 19, 2008
Posted in: Miscellaneous, Work.

Friends by Michael W. Smith

This goes out to all of those people that come into our lives and find a special place. Whether it be the coworker, the spouse, the neighbor or that special someone, these folks brighten our lives and make us stronger by just being near.

Keep these friends close to your heart. Guard them with your love because they don’t always stay at our side. They are sometimes called upon to move on in their lives and leave us behind. We can rest assured, however, that they have become a part of the fabric of our lives. Even though they may now be somewhere else, they have helped form us to the be the person we are today.

We can not number the ways in which our friends touch our lives from day to day. We CAN cherrish them while they are here and remember the experiences they have shared even when they are far away and out of touch.

To Ron, Dave, Vince, Jess, Deb, Chell, Gert and the many many others who have touched my life along the way, I say “Thank You for helping me be the man I am today.”.

-Cheers

Didjaever Weekends…..

Posted by Cappy on August 11, 2008
Posted in: Miscellaneous.

Didjaever…have one of those weekends where you feel like you would have been better off staying at work all weekend?

Didjaever…start a project. Plan it all out to the “T”. Calculate, measure it all up, check it three times and you still end up missing parts or it doesn’t go right?

Didjaever…change your plans twice in the same weekend because more than one thing didn’t go as planned?

If you answered “yes” to any of the above, then you too have had that grand phenomenon called a Didjaever Weekend.

My Didjaever Weekend started like most Didjaever Weekends do. It started Friday with a fairly concerned call from my mom. They took the camper out to Tionesta camping for the week, but she forgot one important bag containing things they really needed. This started things off on a bad foot because last call I got from her when they were camping, was when my dad collapse while setting up the camper. He spent several days in the hospital. He has been having knee problems lately, so I thought “Oh boy! I’m going to be running up to the hospital again. Fortunately, this time I only had to track down a couple friends who were going up to visit on Saturday.

I had plans to fix a couple cracks that were allowing water into my basement on Saturday Morning, then racetrack on Saturday Night.

Problem one: My outside spigot for water has been broken since last winter and I never fixed it. Oh well, its just a connector. No biggie, I’ll fix it before doing the crack patch. I had to hunt all over creation to find someone who had the size connector I needed. Problem one: Resolved.

Problem 2: The crack is not just down along the stairs and across below the down spout. No! It extends 5 feet beyond the downspout and is 3/4 inches wide. Good thing I bought the big bucket of crack patch mix! Again, no real biggie. Same process I had planned on using just a lot longer to complete. Problem 2: Resolved about 6:30 pm. Could still make the races, but now I’m tired and it looks like its going to storm.

On a bright note, I came inside and began a new character in Anarchy Online. I got most of the way off Noob Island myself, but forgot a couple key components that you need to get during your time there. No problem. Vince reminded me where to find them. Thanks again for your patience while I learn and sometimes relearn. We twinked (added things) on my character for a couple minutes after I got through, but then decided to bring my normal character back in so that we could actually play and gain some points etc. I think we ended somewhere around midnight or 12:30.

I got up this morning found water in my basement. No… not water from the cracks outside. That area seemed quite dry even though it rained fairly hard most of the night. I took a shower and proceded with my morning. Later, I noticed the water was worse and it seemed to be coming from my shower drain or spigot. I narrowed it down to the spigot. I found the plastic pipe cracked that runs from the valve out. Greaaaat! (Not really).

I guess I should throw a little side note in here. The guy that owned the house before me rented it out. He let the tenant do alot of the work. You see some really interesting things when you start working on this house.

The plumbing appears to have been made up of whatever scrap the tenant found in someone else junk pile. There is a mix of copper, steel, brass and plastic. Its hard to tell sometimes what they used to hold it together. In the case of today’s leak, it was a copper adapter held by glue into a plastic fitting. I don’t think you’ll find that in any “Time-Life Quick Home Repair Plumbing” Book. I don;t even think they put that kind of slop in “Plumbing Repairs for DUMBIES”. I’m not a professional plumber, but my connections don’t leak and I know what should and shouldn’t be put together.

Anyway, to get back on track here. I sat down and planned out how many elbows, what length of pipe, what connectors and such I would need to replace the broken piece and to change the shower back to copper and put a new shower head on. Got my list… off to Lowe’s I go!

I returned home and began my fairly simple task. I won’t even need to shut off the water because both connection I want to work on are past the shower/tub valves and shouldn’t be hard to get apart. Yep! You guessed it!! The bozos have them glued. Brass fittings adapted to copper adapters GLUED to plastic pipe. In the process of applying my selvet mass to the stubborn connector, the plastic pipe explodes off the shower head. No problem, its getting replaced. Almost simultaneously, as I’m looking up, the plastic hot water line explodes into pieces.

Two things immediately go through my mind: 1) &$@!!!!! That’s HOT! (Hot water tank is less than 8 linear feet of pipe from the valve where I’m working) and 2) Get to the basement and shut off the hotwater to the line before the bathroom floods. (I did install valves to shut off water to the tub without shutting down the whole house.) I am now trying to get the hot shirt off. Not only did I get sprayed when the line broke. A water fall of hot water was tumbling down over the valve just below when I got there to shut it off. I guess adjusting my water pressure to safe levels from the 140 psi it was and lowering the temperature to recommended guidelines saved me some skin today, literally.

I mop up the water and change shirts. Back to Lowe’s I go to get parts to repair the line that blew. Frazzled, but still taking time to list my needed components, I leave Lowe’s sound in the feeling that I will not have any plastic pipe left in the line when I’m finished tonight. Yeah… Riiiiiiiiiiiiight! I forgot to pick up two of the adapters I needed. Fortunately, I did have one that worked that was left over from another project. The hot water line is now completely copper. The cold water line has an 18 inch piece of plastic that will hold until I get back up to get another connector.

Finally, about 11:30 pm, I finished cleaning the shower and installing the new shower head. It has a massage feature and can run both the hand held wand and the shower head at the same time. I mounted the wand bracket just at the right height so that the massage will hit the troublesome part of my back. I packed up my tools, rehung the shower curtain and decided that I ached so bad that it was time to try out my craftsmanship. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh.

I sit here now writing this while I wait for the meds to kick in so that I can sleep. My back is telling me that I should have paid a professional brick layer and a plumber to do these tasks. I spent about $300 bucks to buy the stuff. Pros would have cost me alot more than that, plus their labor, especially on a weekend.

I’ll let you know if I can move in the morning.

Storms Brewing…

Posted by Cappy on August 8, 2008
Posted in: Miscellaneous.

 

I’ve always enjoyed watching storms. Its not unusual for me to stand around watching the lightning and clouds. 

Last night, I was at KMart picking up some meds from the pharmacy.  I decided to walk across the plaza to Big Lots just to see what kind of wacky stuff they had this round.  Thunder was rumbling in the distance and a storm warning had been issued just before I went into the store.

I happened to turn around and see the above cloud formation moving fairly quickly above the plaza.  Within a few minutes, rain was pounding down and lightning was striking close by. 

I wish I would have had my camera.  The cell phone camera just doesn’t do the anger of this cloud justice.

What A Blast! (Literally!)

Posted by Cappy on July 5, 2008
Posted in: Miscellaneous.

Another Fourth of July has come and gone.

Once again, I helped with the fireworks and a few other things for “The Party on the White House Lawn”. Rick and his family put their all into this gig every year. Their last name is White aka the name of the party. They spend a lot of time… and money getting ready for the party. They deal with the mess during and after, year after year. The party seems to get better each go ’round. This year was the thirteenth year.

There was a crowd from the start this year. I’m not sure I recall a year when the turn out has been this good. Part of the bargain is that you bring a covered dish or dessert and Rick provides the hot dogs, burgers and suds (beer). I think we had food coming out our ears this year. At one point early one, I tried to count the number of guests. I was well over 80 and that didn’t include those that were at the front of the food line that I couldn’t see.

It seems the last few years, we have fought rain at some point during the day. There would be a quick shower mid afternoon. Just enough to crank up the humidity. This year the weather guessers smiled on us. Forecasts called for a twenty percent chance of rain which bumped up to thirty percent between three and six o’clock. Weather radar showed rain showers and heavy storms to our south, but we remained rain-free all day. About six-thirty(ish), the temperature was in the mid-seventies, with a nice breeze. Perfect for the launch festivities at dark.

We hung out at the pool as long as we could before having to go prep the launch site. The water was cool when you first got in. That’s not such a bad thing though, when you’re one of the folks on the launch crew for the fireworks show. Only one cell phone got damaged this year… that we know of. People tend to get thrown in the pool. The throw ers.. don’t always take time to find out if the throw ees have any valuables in their pockets before the throw ing takes place.

The fireworks went off without a hitch this year. I mentioned the breeze earlier because a gentle breeze blows the smoke out of the area. We had one party a few years ago where the air was moist and stagnant. The smoke hung low across the launch site. Shots from the ground displays or low aerial shells got lost in the hazy. All you could see was a colored flash. We had a nice sized crew this year. We didn’t have to have one or two people racing around to launch mortors. I usually end up being one of the ones racing, but I don’t mind. Its fun. We always have the attention of the local police, but usually its because they come to watch. All of us that help with the party try to make things as safe as possible for the guests. The police see this and don’t give us any trouble.

Even though I didn’t get home about three this morning and I didn’t sleep well thanks to my sore back, I chalk this year up as a great party. Rick, Delores (AKA Mrs White or Rick’s Mom), Tam and the gang deserve a round of applause for hosting a great party. A party that now seems to keep the whole town entertained.

Great Job! Keep up the good work! It was a blast! (Literally!)

 

Memorial Day

Posted by Cappy on May 26, 2008
Posted in: Miscellaneous. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , .

I changed my MySpace Profile, www.myspace.com/captcurt31, in honor of Memorial Day. Memorial Day is a day that we are to reflect deeply on what our military forces have given for each one of us.

My father and all of my uncles served in various branches of the service. I listened to my Uncle Don tell stories from his service in Korea. I watched his eyes tear up any time any patriotic song was played. He’s gone now, but he was one of the most patriotic people I knew.

There’s something special about those who have served in the military. They develop a bond that few others experience throughout their lives. I see men (and women), well into their years, some with disabilities brought home from far off lands when they were just young men. They come out to share their experience whenever the oppurtunity arises. They wear their pride in their service as a medal of honor. Well they should, for many of them were not asked to serve, they were told they had to go. They did what had to be done.

I salute the men and women of today’s armed forces. They choose to enlist and make the sacrifices required of them. Many of them joined during times of peace, when the military was a way to get hands-on training and an education. Many, who could have ended their service when their hitch was up, reenlisted and have been back to conflict areas two or three times. Many have gone to fight and made the ultimate sacrifice.

If you are a family member of a serviceman or woman, I salute you as well. You know the risks your husband, wife, brother, sister, son or daughter face. I would guess many a night are spent awake after hearing some story on the news about an incident involving U.S. troops. You endure many long days and nights waiting for them to return home.

To all who serve, those who’s loved ones serve currently or who’s loved ones gave their final breath in service, whether in war or peace…

Thank you for all that you do/have done.

Movies and Such

Posted by Cappy on May 24, 2008
Posted in: Miscellaneous. Tagged: , , , .

Indian JonesIronman

The summer movie season has now officially kicked off.  I did my part to make the box office numbers and went to see both Ironman and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.  I thought both movies were well above the quality of much of the other offerings that have been out in the last few months.  Here’s a little bit of what I thought.  I’ll try not to dump any spoilers if you haven’t see the films yet.

Ironman

Ironman was based on the Marvel Action Comics hero of the same name.  This movie was heavy on the Computer Generated Imagary (CGI) but that was ok.  Even as little as 10 years ago, this movie would have flopped seriously without the help CGI was able to give it.  The programming to make the suit and its many moving parts showed detail that in years past would have had to be blurred to keep it from looking hokey.

Ironman was a great combination of acting, use of FX and humor.  I heard many reviewers say the movie got slow at the end, but I would tend to disagree.  The movie did change pace quite drastically, but it had more to do with the mental changes Tony Stark was going through based on his ordeal early in the movie.  This wasn’t a lack of plot, on the contrary, it was what probably would have happened to someone in his position who went through the same trials.

The lead role was well chosen.  Robert Downey Jr takes on the role of Tony Stark, billionaire playboy. His company, Stark Industries, is the top of the line weapons manufacturer.  His money, prestige and influence allow him to freely romp around in style with the girls and he is often aloof and care-free in times of pressure.  He feels his weapons are keeping the balance of peace and could never fall into the hands of the enemy.  As the movie flows, that attitude is brought into question and he begins to pursue changing his life and his company.  His assistant, Pepper Pots, is a witty, beautiful and talent woman who has been at Tony’s side through his rise to power.  She is pivotal in keeping Tony on track.  A romance begins between the two but neither seems completely comfortable with it. 

Ironman was an action packed, humor filled romp through the mind of a genius that is suddenly turned to realize that his own reality has become the world’s nightmare.  I recommend catching this one for a good laugh and a good storyline.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

I’ve been watching backstory and production updates on this movie for a long time.  There was considerable banter between Lucas, Spielberg and Harrison Ford about the script and production values that are tied to the Indy franchise.  A long series of rewrites and negotiations later, and we arrive at 1957, just outside Area 51.

The movie progresses through the typical fan-loved Indiana Jones expectations.  The fedora is the first thing we see that tells us Indy is about to arrive.  The whip and other comical Indy gags appear soon after.  Indy’s sharp wit and dry humor are still there but a little less avantguard, possibly tempered with age. This movie was an all around good movie.  I would say its probably not the best of the Indy series, but it is a good show and worth the price of the ticket.

One of the things I had read as production of the movie progressed, was that Harrison Ford wanted to keep the characters consistant with the time that has actually passed between movies, 19 years.  The late 1950’s era timeline is part of what detracts a bit from the earlier Indy stories.  Just like the old time serial movies and tv shows of early television, Indy has become ‘out of date’ in the late 1950’s.

I would have to say the display of prejudice against the communist regime is probably the most boldly played of any prejudices in the Indy Series.  In past movies, the Nazies and the Thuggiess were the prominent bad guys.  Other than being portrayed as evil, they were simply the antagonist.  Crystal Skull brings American society’s distaste with Communism right out in the open. Indy himself is even accused of being a ‘Red’ early on in the movie.  This ever present predujice is there throughout the movie.  I think it probably wasn’t necessary to deal with the predujice aspect quite as much as they did, but it WAS how the populace of the United States was thinking during that era.

Indy and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull takes us on a worthwhile romp.  Indy shows his age in the movie, keeping to the 19 years that have passed since “The Last Crusade”.  While they do make light of age, Harrison Ford still is able to put on a pretty decent showing in most of the action sequences.  I was pleased with the plot of the movie and the outcome.  It didn’t seem to be too far of a stretch based on things that were going on in 1957.  The modern look and feel of the film did make it seem just a little out of place from past Indy movies.  The CGI didn’t stick out like a sore thumb, but it did seem just a hair foreign to the Indy Series.

Don’t miss this one.  Keep in mind going in, that 19 years have passed and attitudes in Indy’s world have changed since we last saw the leather jacket, whip and fedora.  Keep the era in mind and you will have a great Indy experience.

Ok.. The scoop on the Can Can

Posted by Cappy on April 27, 2008
Posted in: Miscellaneous. Tagged: , .




 

In case you didn’t notice in the previous blog, the gals, and i use that word lightly, are a little masculine looking.  The musical isn’t put on by the Church of Crossdressers, although we’ve begun to wonder with the number of gags these guys come up with that involve wearing women’s clothing.

The dinner theater has finished for another year.  Things went pretty well, save for the power failure during the Finale Saturday night.  It took the fire out of the ending.  Nothing we could do about it though.  We were fortunate that nothing was damaged during the spike and we were able to complete the weekend without problem.

The Can Can and other silliness…

Posted by Cappy on April 21, 2008
Posted in: Miscellaneous. Tagged: , , , , , .

The Can Can

I thought I’d sit down and jot a couple of lines about the events of the weekend and today.

Thursday night was the first night of the Dinner Theater Production “Just One Planet”. I am assisting with sound and technical consultation. The Dinner Theater is put on every spring by the local Presbyterian Church. It is all done with local talent. The musical numbers are usually broken by some narrative or skit. This year, the basic theme is that a family has won a trip around the world. The family appears on and off throughout the show to deliver little quips about the trip thus far. Lets just say they didn’t use a very good travel agent and their vacation has run amok… just a little.

The beginning of the show starts with the Mother and Daughter on stage discussing general things. The Father comes bolting in from the audience shouting “I won! I won! …” and we’re off on a whirlwind tour. Thursday and Friday night, all went well. Father traversed the five steps up to the stage with grace and elegance. Saturday night… well… He got to the third step and proceeded to fall up to the stage. Being the consummate professional actor he is, he rolled straight through the fall and stood up and continued right on with his lines adding that not only had he won a trip… but he just came from one as well. He held composer but Mother and Daughter burst out laughing. The audience howled with laughter at the scene.

Throughout the show the family discusses their trip. They lose their luggage, end up taking a cruise on a river/swamp in Bulgaria, get side tracked to Canada and then head off to Paris where they get to see the towers and “a rather old version of the Can Can Show” (Photos Above). Let’s just say that the Dinner Theater has its serious moments, but it also has its satirical side as well. I will try to replace the poor quality phone pictures with better quality ones this weekend. I think you’ll get a kick (get it Can Can.. Kick) out of what you see. Anyway, the show is a lot of fun and the people are great to work with.

I thought I would include one other bit of silliness that happened this morning. I went down to the break room about 10ish to get a snack. When I walked into the room, there was a guy standing there staring at the snack machines in deep thought as to what to get. I walked in and went to pass behind him to get some cheese and crackers. I knew right away that he had not noticed me coming into the room.

He started to turn as I got near him. To avoid a collision, I said something. I really don’t remember what I said because I was too busy trying not to laugh as the grown man in front of me lept 2 feet into the air, startled by the sudden realization I was there. He held his chest as he walked out of the room, mumbling something about “sorry.. I didn’t hear you come in…” Now, those of you that know me, know that I am a person who is not easy to miss. He hadn’t heard my boots on the terrazzo floor, nor had he seen my reflection in the glass of the vending machine. I was almost expecting to see a puddle forming on the floor as he caught his breath.

I got my cheese and crackers and walked back to my desk chuckling the whole way. Monday’s usually aren’t that great, but that one little incident gave me something to brighten my whole day. It probably shortened his life by a few years. I guess he stuck to using the machines located on his floor after that. I didn’t see him the rest of the day. Maybe he went home. HAHA!

Well that’s the whole of the silliness for my weekend. Maybe I’ll have more as the week progresses. We’ll just have to wait and see.

What’s In A Name…

Posted by Cappy on March 15, 2008
Posted in: Miscellaneous. Tagged: , , , , , .

…apparently a lot.

Before I get started on this little story, let me mention that there is no disrespect for those who have been affected by this incident.

Saturday in Manhattan, a construction crane collapsed.  It damaged at least 2 or 3 buildings as it fell, killing several people and injuring multiple others.  One building suffered the worst damage in that it was completely destroyed by the rigging of the crane landing on it.  In that building was a bar, that fortunately was not occupied at the time of the accident.  It is this bar, however, that brings us to the title of this post.

Long ago, I learned that naming your business can be key to the success you have.  A well chosen name that is recognizable can do as much for your business as hiring a high-class marketing firm.  Companies spend fortunes on promoting their name.  Sometimes a company will stumble across a name that instantly is recognizable for what they do and word of mouth gains makes them a household name. Other times, the name of the business can be difficult to relate to what a business does.  This actually kills business because people can’t easily find you.

There is one other class of business names that causes me to cringe.  These are the names that you know someone was on drugs or drunk when they chose it.  It is this kind of business name that usually draws media attention, either due to its off-the-wall innuendo or because the name attracts a type of client that the local area doesn’t really appreciate. 

So far, I haven’t seen or heard anyone make the connection to the construction crane accident and the name of the bar that was crushed.  The name of the bar was FUBAR.  Yes, FUBAR!  How ironic is it that the FUBAR BAR was totally destroyed by the crane coming through the roof.  For those who haven’t heard the expression, FUBAR is an acronym for F$%&’d Up Beyond All Recognition.  A name quite fitting to the current state of the liquor establishment that now has a crane sitting in its basement.

While I wish the family and friends of all those affected by this disaster, a quick recovery and express my condolences to the families of those who were lost, I can not help but wonder how much of a role fate played in the naming of that bar and the location where the crane came to rest.  Just a thought.

Whether you like it or not…

Posted by Cappy on March 10, 2008
Posted in: Miscellaneous.

Chunk of Ice under the snow

…we’ve had some strange weather this winter.This weekend, the weather presented another fun time of ice and snow.  This time in combination.  We had about 2 or 3 inches of snow on the ground then got globber with a freezing rain/snow mix and then more snow on top.  The result was a bullet proof layer of ice in the middle of the snow that resists plowing shovelling and even walking.