Month: January 2020

People who fly into a rage always make a bad landing

That’s a quote from Will Rogers, celebrated son of the state of Oklahoma.

My youngest daughter last spring break, at the state line.

Right now, my mind is on nothing else. With all of the stresses life has thrown at me, it’s time I get out of dodge and escape for a while.

It’s a trip I’ve made since before I can remember. My first memories of Oklahoma involve my first time flying. We boarded a TWA flight out of the old Indianapolis International Airport, with a connecting flight where we then boarded an Eastern Airlines flight. I don’t know where the connector was, but to this day there is no direct flight to Tulsa from Indianapolis. So I drive.

Depending on factors of children or others along on the trip, it typically takes between 8 and 12 hours. I know the route by heart, the road frees my spirit. It’s a big reason why I often considered being a truck driver when I was younger.

Don’t let the contrast fool you, this woman is a bodybuilder! I know her as my aunt.

I miss my aunts and uncles. They have a southern twang in their voice and hospitality in their hearts. My oldest cousin is having a birthday, he always looked up to my dad. I try my best to keep the traditions alive.

This is my American Gothic, and I cherish it tremendously.

One of my uncles will be receiving a gift of sorts too, the driver’s seat out of the Camaro. It is in need of repair, and he’s the man for all things upholstery in the area, and the only person I trust with such items. I’ll drive back sometime later to pick it up. I’ve done the drive in 48 hours before, I can do it again.

I think a week with these folks will do my heart and my mind well. The trappings of life have really gotten to me lately. Maybe this is why dad and I made so many trips when I was younger and he was my age?

This Horn’s for You

A few weeks ago, the paltry horn quit working on my Jeep. Many complain about the horn these have installed from the factory. From the moment I bought it, just a little over a year ago it barely functioned.

Over time, I got the crud out of it and it started working for a good period of time, but alas – it died again.

After much research, I decided on replacing the single horn with a set of dual horns, made by PIAA. I enjoyed the tone. They market them as Sport Horns.

The installation process was pretty straight forward, and I think that’s the reason why many with Jeeps go this route, the horns came with a set of cables to connect the second horn. All I needed was an “add a wire” connector. I tried to bolt the horns to the mounting bracket, but my big fingers got in the way and I lost the bolt that I had just driven to the hardware store to purchase. In the end, I used a trusty zip tie.

I’m about to take a cross country trip to free my mind from the ongoing and piling worries that have filled my life as of late. I needed a horn. I’m happy to have it now.

Political Revolutionary?

The United States of America was founded on some core principals. These principals are inherent to what it is to be an American. Due to the ways in which some state laws were created, and the way my county implemented them, there is now an unbalance that a group of politicians want to exploit.

While I may spew meaningless banter on social media on political issues, I have never been one to hold much weight on political issues. To me it’s always been used to divide the people, so powers can go unchecked. I’ve tried to live my life as far away as I can from governmental intervention. I pay my taxes, I do my civic duty. Just leave me alone.

At the beginning of January, the mayor of the city closest to me proposed an increase in the county wide income taxes by 1/2% for efforts to stop climate change.

WUT? Full stop.

A municipality does not have the jurisdiction to change policy for an entire county when spoken at a general level. In this situation, they do however. Why? Numbers. The weight of the vote is determined by the citizenship behind the municipality.

The imbalance is so high that the combined voting capacities of the entire county and 2 other municipal areas within the county do not have the capability to stop the proposal.

That is not democracy.

So I spoke up, with the encouragement of a township trustee I then made a facebook page to focus my views and thoughts on the subject at hand. I can only assume that my words were noticed, as a reporter for the local newspaper wants to interview me on the subject.

Unfortunately this puts me in an awkward situation with a friend. As he is currently the president of the city council. The exact board at which I’m currently at odds with. He and I have often butted heads regarding issues the city council is considering. I value his friendship, and have let him know as such. My feelings on this subject are purely political.

I guess I will see where this road takes me. I just hope that road doesn’t mean the loss of a friend.

What’s a Cubit?

My dearly departed father grew up listening to Bill Cosby albums. It was the basis of his lifelong passion for comedy. When I grew up, I discovered his comedy. I only knew him for Jello commercials and The Cosby Show.

In the thirteen years I’ve lived in this home, I have dealt with all sorts of water issues. The first one being from the water line coming into my house. The second being my almost yearly sewage backups. I would occasionally get small amounts of water in my basement. It was enough to clean up, but not enough to cause serious concern.

I’m concerned now.

We received a lot of rain this weekend. Over 1.5 inches in the last 24 hours alone. Many roads were flooded. I’ve seen flooding like this in the area, but never as wide spread before.

Water was literally coming through my fireplace, exiting and draining into my basement. Thankfully the slab is leveled to force water to flow out of my garage. But I’ve never seen it act like this before. Something must have changed with the concrete blocks that form my basement walls, or something has broken on my chimney allowing the water to flow.

The key difference is the amount of dirt and silt that flowed in with the water. I repeat, I have never seen this happen before. I’ve also never seen water flow out of my garage when the door is opened. Never.

So, I did what I always do. Swept the water out as best as I could. Got my dehumidifier going, but it was of no help. I put towels up to help mitigate the flow. I also covered my chimney with 6mil plastic, but that did not change the flow. The issue has to be below grade.

A guy I moderate a group with offered some assistance. It was nice to finally meet him in real life. He purchased a pump for me to borrow, which pumped a majority of the water out. The water quit coming out of my fireplace soon afterwards. He looked at my property and gave me some ideas of what can be done to mitigate this happening in the future.

Tomorrow my day will consist of contacting every professional in the area that I can to get estimates on fixing this. I will also be contacting the Chimney/Fireplace company a classmate operates with her husband. They said they could get me an appointment for Tuesday. This is going to be costly.

And the lord said, “How long can you tread water?“