Author: Lee

The China Syndrome

Well………….not literally.

I came home from work today to discover my computer was shut-off.  I like many others, leave my computer on all the time.  Due to power saving features etc. it seems easier that way.

Ever since I built this computer I have only had one problem continuously, my power supply.  For all of you non tech people the power supply is what splits the power to everything located in your computer.

The case to this computer is very cheap, and came with a cheap power supply.  After about 6 months the original died.  This is not an easy item to purchase online, much like a car.

There is only one computer shop on my side of town, so I went there to purchase another one.  I was told they only carried one type of power supply.  So I purchased one and was on my way.  It fried the next day!  So I brought my ‘puter in and was “mad as hell!”  They happily replaced the defective unit and even installed it for me.  Well this one died and I didn’t want to buy another POS model.

So after informing my wife of the issue, we went over to the olde’ east side of town and purchased a good quality 500w power supply.  This should be enough for my 4 hard drives, dual core processor (thanks B!) and numerous cards.

Only time will tell how “good” this one is.

My next purchase will be a new case, as mine has almost bit the bullet.

A New Venture

I have officially decided to try to expand my very small mowing business.  Just to emphasize how small it is, I only have one customer!  And that’s my current employer.

It seems to be more lucrative than video transfers, but my heart will always belong to it.

I am tired of working for someone else.  I think a vast majority of americans agree with me on that point.  I’m taking the first step to be my own boss.

My wife and I created the flyer below, I have printed 100 of them and I’m currently working on sending them out.  I specifically picked a wide variety of businesses, churches and upper middle class to upper class homeowners who might already pay to have someone handle their yard work.

I hope to receive a 25% rate of return on this venture.  If so the possibility of me being self employed is quite possible.

The only problem with a business of this type is the shear number of them in the area, literally hundreds!  I do have one leg up on them though, the same leg I have with my video business, I can undercut anyone due to my lack of expenses.  I have good equipment, and do a good job.  I’m not trying to get rich, I’m just hoping to make the same as I do now.

Wish me luck, please?

Saving My Family’s Past For The Sake of My Family’s Future

Slowly, I have started scanning old pictures that have been taken of my family.  Something just draws me to do this, and I enjoy it.  I found many surprises on my first venture at my grandma Lawmaster’s last Saturday.

Take a look and see what I found!

Here is the only “full” Lawmaster family picture that I know of.  It was taken around 1984.  I’m the one in the blue suit on the left side of the bottom row.

I found this picture hidden underneath my uncle’s senior picture.  At first I didn’t even know who this was.  I had to ask my grandma about this one.  It’s HER senior picture, circa 1938!  I also found her baby picture, a pure treasure.

I hope to make more trips on a regular basis and eventually scan every picture my grandparents have.  Then it’s my fathers’ stuff, if he can find anything.  I do have his super-8 films to transfer as well.

Meet Gil!

 
If you’re in Bloomington, and decide to go to the Fun Frolic.  DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT play the “win a bunny game.”

We did, and are now proud parents to a 7 week old bunny, we decided to name Gillham or Gil for short.  Gillham is the name of the street we live on.

I must admit, he is quite adorable.  What’s even better is how he doesn’t have a care in the world for the cats!  He sniffs and goes on.  It’s quite amazing since the cats are at least 3 times his size.

We are going to take the responsible adult approach and “try” caring for him as a pet.  If it becomes too much to handle we might find a better home for him.  He is in a much better home than he was at the Fun Frolic at this point.  The poor bunnys were being kept outside in the mid 90’s humid heat.

We are mainly keeping him in a cage right now, at least once a day we are letting him out into a controlled environment.  I’ve read that this is best for younger bunnies, to give them their freedom in slow increments.  It is also important for them to feel loved, but not man-handled.

And Justice For All

In my “tween” years, as they are called, I had a very hard time.  So hard in fact, that in a desperate measure, I brought a BB gun to school in an attempt to put an end to lots of frustration.

I was forced out of the only home I knew, only to be thrown into a one bedroom apartment with my mother (who just got back from Texas) on the other side of town.  It was 1992, so cell phones and the internet were not as dominant as they are now.

My mother didn’t live in a “good” area, but it could have been worse.  The key problem for me was leaving everyone and thing I knew.  Even though I was in the same town, I felt as if I was in a whole other state.

I was also alone most of this time as my mother just started working for General Electric, 2nd shift.  She still works for them today.

So what does an 11 year old boy do in a strange neighboorhood, knowing nobody around?  I went out and tried to make friends with other people around my age.  This quest as it seemed to be, was one of the hardest things I ever tried to do.  At the time I thought I only made enemies.

By the time school started (6th grade) all of the boys in my class literally hated me.  They would plan events with the main focus being “how to hurt Lee.”  They only backed off after I shot one of them with the previously mentioned BB gun, and pushed another into the path of an oncoming truck.

During this dark and trying time of my life, I only had one friend I could count on, Justice.  He was very small for his age, a trait that I could relate with, as I was big for my age.  We shared many interests and had great times.

Justice didn’t have a good “home life.”  His mother was unable to work and had to support him and his older brother (Scott).  At the time, I didn’t understand why they didn’t have a car or other things I just took for granted.

Around 1994 Justice was taken away from his mom for reasons unknown to me.  He called me in 1995 and let me know that he had been placed in a foster home, and was in southern Indiana.

That was the last time I spoke with him, until Wednesday night.

I couldn’t believe the assortment of feelings that were rushing through me.  It blew me away.  He told me that he has been looking for me off and on for about 4 years.

From what he said, his life has been a non stop rollercoaster since I last spoke with him 12 years ago.  I hope to see him up in Muncie next weekend.

Who said Myspace is bad, is wrong.  I have done nothing but find friends I haven’t spoken to in years via it.

Heres to you Justice!

Disconnected

It’s been a long time since I last posted.  Part of me feels bad for leaving it abandoned for so long, I wouldn’t even have this if it weren’t for the kindness of Editor B.

Since starting my new job, I have felt “disconnected.”  My life has been connected to computers and technology since I was a teenager and I haven’t had the time to enjoy my computer much lately.  I cannot access computers while at work

Many things have happened since then, so I will update.  Hang on, cause there is much to say.

My daughter has officially graduated 1st grade, and left the state.  She took my heart with her.  With the help of my wife (thanks Rach) we made her a goodbye present.  A DVD filled with a slideshow with pictures of her and everyone who loves her.  It also included video of many of her loved ones saying goodbye and giving some life lessons.

I’ll miss you sweetheart!

My video business has suddenly picked up.  I am now more busy than not with projects people are wanting me to do for them.  I am going to advertise for the first time as well.  It also helps out high schoolers so I say why not?  I have also added a new service:  Cassette tape to CD or MP3 transfers! 

Work has been crazy.  I have been pushed to a point where I no longer think of it as a possible career anymore, just a job.  I am treated like scum, which is also what I clean.  With the heat and humidity, I can barely stand it.  Just like a few of my co-workers.

My little sister has moved in with us for a couple of weeks.  Her lease was up, and she has a new place lined up.  It’s just a matter of timing until she gets in.

We have picked up the pace on house projects.  Over the last few weekends we have removed the hideous wallpaper around our home.

Interestingly enough, underneath all of this were drawings.  These drawings were made by the children who lived here at the time.  We only have the kitchen and Taylor’s room to go.  Currently I am prepping the walls for paint.  We need them to be as perfect as possible for the deep, rich tones we have decided on for paint.

I also installed a new light fixture in our dining room.  We found a beautiful set for the dining room and foyer areas.  The one for the foyer has 2 tiers and is much larger.  Installation will be a different story though, as the ceiling is 1 1/2 stories high.

I cut down the dead tree in our backyard, that was fun!  I haven’t done that in over 10 years!  I have cleaned up much of it, but there is a lot more to go.  I am saving as much as possible for firewood, as I would like to use my fireplace sometime.

I wrecked my truck:(

The damage isn’t bad, just the bumper and a side piece to it.  I was returning from mowing at work, and while backing up jack-knifed my trailer.  It’s easy to do with a trailer that’s so small you can’t see it behind you.  And it just happens that my neighbors grandson just wrecked his truck which is essientially the same as mine.  It’s totalled, but the bumper is good!  I spoke with him today and I might get a new bumper on the cheap!

Hopefully once a few things settle down, I can start posting more often.

It’s Just a Little Work

I thought I would give the maybe 10 people who look at my blog an update about my job.  I had a rough start, but I think things are starting to come together.  I am starting to really know my fellow co-workers, I am starting to understand the hierarchy of Sternberg’s and I am starting to really learn what is expected of me.

Some interesting things have happened in the last few days.  I will start with my new title, Independent contractor.  It may sound weird, but I am now also a contractor for the same place of my primary employment.  It all started with the grass (not marijuana) the real stuff.  They expect me to mow a small portion of grass along Dillman road, no problem.  The other section of grass is along highway 37, and they wanted to hire this job out, as the terrain is somewhat rough.  The problem is they didn’t want to pay the minimum someone would come out for, $100.  When I heard of this situation, I immediately jumped to action!

I told my boss, Ron, that I had the capabilities to do it, but no way to transport my mower to the location.  I also stated that I would do it for what they were willing to pay, if the company would work with me on finding a suitable trailer.  I guess Ron had an old trailer lying around and he asked me if I would buy it on the cheap, and on payments.  His only request is that when the company pays me for my services, I pay him some of it until his price is paid.

I have wanted a trailer since I purchased my mower for this house.  It is almost impossible, and very impractical to move my mower places with my truck.  But the “boss” says no.  She couldn’t refuse this one though.  We are picking it up tomorrow.  I am expecting something that is usable, but needing work.  The only thing that matters at this point is that it is usable.  I will work on it as time and money allow.

In other “work” news, cleaning the floor is one of my biggest duties.  Currently I use a floor scrubbing machine to handle most of this task.  The only major problem is that this machine is on it’s last leg.  It doesn’t scrub that well, and it doesn’t wet the floor (I fill a 5 gallon bucket with a soap solution and pour it onto the area to be cleaned).  The last estimate to return it to total working condition was $1500.  Because of this, my boss and his boss had a company come over and demo some new floor scrubbers for us.  I happily got to use one of these models.  The one that was the “fan favorite” was a newer generation of what we have with 2 differences.  It is a little smaller (which is a good thing) and it uses a different brush system which sweeps instead of scrubs.  Working in a truck shop, this is critical as dirt, dust, grease, oil and many other objects get compacted into the pavement.

I have made a big difference in the appearance of the shop thus far.  I have all of the small things done, now it’s bigger things, such as painting that need to be done. 

Work Work Work, When Do I Rest?

I finished installing the new door we have had for months now.  It didn’t turn out like I had wanted to, but the door is installed “correctly.”

The major problem is, 1.  I had never installed a pre-hung door before and 2.  I discovered our walls are not level, as they should be.

This created an “interesting” situation.  The new door jamb is flush with both sides of the wall at the ceiling, but stick out a little bit (1/2″ or so) at the base.

I haven’t installed trim yet, so I hope that it will hide this defect somewhat.  If not I might need to call in an expert.

On another note, I did some maintenance on my chainsaw and lawn mower.  Now I can finally cut up the broken limbs that fell from our pine tree.

Then I can start mowing again.  Many people have told me being a homeowner means constant repair and work to maintain.  It’s starting to kick in.  It’s not that I don’t enjoy these things, it’s just the amount that is bothering me.

After these items are done, I am hopefully going to start on my tedious garage/basement remodel.  I only have a year left (the wife told me so). 🙂

Thanks to Freecycle, we have been unloading gravel and sand by the truckload lately.  Almost all of our gravel is gone, and some of the sand has been taken.  If you live in B-town, and need sand, CONTACT ME!