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"You worked there for two days." -Me to Doug about his FedEx "career" back in 2010
"No! It was three days before I quit!" -Doug

Tuesday, 8-31-21: Bye bye (meteorological) summer.
I'm done with this summer, good riddance. If you go by the calendar summer doesn't end for another three weeks, but F that the end of August is the end of summer. Meteorological summer is June through August, or so they say. Today was a great day for the end of summer. 80 degrees, low humidity, lots of sun. I had work to do at the restaurant as usual, but I did take time to mow, jog, and play with the dogs this afternoon. Copper has more energy lately, but we still fear he has severe health problems up to and including cancer. Kat called the vet earlier for an update, but we are still awaiting results.

Irene Cara sings Flashdance, awsome song, thank you channel 1928. Before that was another classic by Quarterflash, Harden my Heart. If my awesome wife was home right now I'd probably be hanging out with her watching some TV, but she went shopping with Debbie so I've been flying solo for the past couple hours. I had time to shovel in some leftover grub, put away some of the laundry, wash the dishes, and vacuum the floor. I "only" worked about an 8-hour day today. Not bad! I plan to do that a lot more often from now on, and who knows I might actually take a day off or two this fall hehe. I don't even know when my last day off was? July 4th I guess. No day off in 8 weeks = what a bunch of crap! Kat doesn't take days off either. We always have things to do for the restaurant.

Today I got more of my soon-to-be tax office wall done, but before that I was putting a wiggle on it to get down to the bar since Lowe's called at 0718 with a washer/dryer on the delivery van and in our parking lot. OMG WHERE WAS MY CALL AHEAD YOU NINCOMPOOPS?! Thankfully we live close so I was there in 5 minutes. I knew they were coming, but I didn't know what time. Normally they call and say they are on the way, but not this time.

So now we have a washer and dryer at the bar. Oh Jesus, hell ya! Why do we need those appliances? We pay Cintas $85.50 a week right now for 200 terry towels and a tiny little mat. They come every Monday and swap our stuff out, and that makes things easier for us. However, $85 a week for fucking towels = what a bunch of crap! We bought 144 of those little terry towels (for cleaning, etc. We do use a lot each week, especially in the kitchen.) for... guy looks for price... guy can't find exact price but guy sees them on Webstaurant.com for aound $6 per dozen. Looks to me like the cost of one week of Cintas = brand new terry towels that we can wash and reuse. We won't get tons of use out of them, some might only last a week, but others will last a lot longer and we will save precious... precious money.

We will also use the washer and dryer for event-room linens. Chair covers and tablecloths. Plus some misc here and there. I thought the sparkies had us all ready to go, but sadly the dryer plug is not tied in at the panel yet. They need a 30-amp breaker. What a bunch of crap! The washer *should* work, but we didn't try it today.

In national news, a massive hurricane his Louisiana again over the weekend so they are pwned. It hit the New Orleans area sort-of like Katrina did 16 years ago. I'm glad we don't get storms that severe up here, ever. We are getting the remnants of the hurricane Thursday, but all it will do is dump a lot of rain. No big winds and *hopefully* no big floods. The coast might get 3-4" of rain so that is a shitload in one storm for us, but areas in the south got 12+ inches of rain on top of storm surge from the ocean so we should not complain at all.

We also pulled our last soldier out of Afghanistan yesterday and officially ended a 20-year war against terrorism in that part of the world. The way we left that place was 100% fucked. Our worthless pile of shit president Biden, pudding-head Biden these days, declared earlier this summer that we would be out of there by August 31st so as soon as we started leaving the Taliban took over fast. They took over the entire country in seemingly no time at all, and we still have Americans there who are stuck and/or dead already. What a bunch of crap!

We fucking lost the war on terror, and we lost 2400 troops over those 20 years. We did get Bin Laden (allegedly), but what does it matter there will always be someone else to take his place. We spent epic money over there, and we even left all kinds of military equipment over there that is now in the hands of our enemies. What a shit-show. What a bunch of crap! Biden and his staff need to go. They won't impeach that pudding-head, but they'll try to impeach Trump because they simply think he is an asshole? Trump is an asshole, but at least he is still cognatively functional. I'd likely vote for Trump in 2024 if he runs for office again because, even though he is a piece of shit person, his economic policies work for me.

^TO JOE BIDEN AND EVERYONE ON HIS STAFF WHO TOOK PART IN THE EPIC FAILER THAT WAS OUR BAILOUT OF AFGHANISTAN. YOU SUCK!

Oh, we lost 13 troops last week because of a suicide bomber outside of the Kabul airport in Afghanistan. What is Biden going to do about that? ISIS-K took credit for that mess so are we going to go after them now? There is no taming Afghanistan. For proof of that all you have to do is watch Rambo III.

(I don't even know if I am spelling Afghanistan right. What a bunch of crap!)

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Saturday, 8-28-21: My tax office looks like this right now.
The framing for the one wall, window, and door for my soon-to-be tax and restaurant office looks like this right now:

It didn't take too long to frame in thanks to a drop ceiling and only needing to do one wall. I did have to give it a slight jog to work around a window on the left, but that was fairly easy. I'll do the bottom in wainsoating and the top sheetrock to match the surrounding walls and to make it blend in.

^When I sit at my desk in that office I should be able to see out into the host/entry area of the restaurant. I'll have blinds I can pull for privacy, just like I did over at North Main for our office. That setup at North Main was awesome so I wanted to reuse some of the best elements of that office area. The tempered glass window for that office is $280. OMG What a bunch of crap! I got double-pane with argon for better soundproofing. I don't know that I'll need the extra sound barrier, but I want to err on the side of caution in case I'm ever in there and the bar/restaurant is loud. The window in 3-4 weeks out holy shit! Fuck you, Covid. I won't even have that until mid-late September. Good thing I don't have much for tax business this time of year.

I can finish the office wall and door and just stuff a piece of scrap wood in the window hole if absolutely needed between now and when it arrives. I still need to buy a door to fit the 38x82 rough opening. I looked at some exterior doors with windows, but I might get a solid-core interior door with a window, or at least something that I can cut a window into. No huge rush on that either since the office won't be ready for a while. Sparkies need to give me a light switch and a couple more outlets. They might get that done today. Maybe? Hopefully! Once that is done I can at least finish the wall.

Copper is eating some wet dog food from a can here at 1000. I tried dry dog food, he didn't even budge for it, so I mixed some wet dog food in with his dry dog food and he at least came over to investigate before he gave up. EAT YOUR FOOD! I just gave him some wet dog food, no "boring" dry dog food mixed in, and thankfully he is eating that. I'll do whatever I need to do to get him to eat. I'll cook him a steak if that is what it takes. He needs to keep eating since he has lost 10 pounds this summer. Yesterday the weather was perfect, low humidity and comfy, so we were able to play with the dogs outside for a while. Copper was not his usual self, but he did want to play fetch several times so we were happy to see that. Still no results from the vet as to whether or not he has cancer...

The restaurant was epic busy last night late, and I ended up being the dishwasher. Our scheduled dishwasher has two other jobs and is working too much and burning out so we pulled him from the schedule (he didn't want to work Friday nights anymore anyway) and found an employee who was wanting more work shifts so he can cover his rent. Seemed like a perfect fit until the employee only lasted a couple hours in the dish-pit before he started feeling like crap and bailed. That made me the dishwasher and manager. What a bunch of crap! On a busy Friday night. I handled that shit like a boss, but at the end I got totally crushed with dishes.

I usually close the kitchen a tad after midnight, and we do last call for alcohol around 1230-1240 and serve our last booze to customers by 0100. Closing the kitchen closer to midnight last night was my plan because the kitchen sends a lot of stuff to the dishwasher at the end. However, food orders were still coming in regularly so I kept the kitchen open longer, and then around last call for alcohol a shitload of food orders came in because Eric brought all the wrestlers over from a local show to eat. Great for revenue thanks, Eric! Not so great for my ass trying to keep up with dishes because I got a mountain of stuff from both the kitchen and the bar at the end, and all at once. Plus tons of glasses and plates. What a bunch of crap!

I chewed though that huge pile of dishes like a boss, but it still took a couple hours so I wasn't out of there until 0230. I would have been stuck until a tad after 0300, but the staff stepped up bigtime and helped me put stuff away, do closing duties, etc. Thankfully Heather was there to tackle some closing managerial tasks like final cashup and cleanup elsewhere. It got mad busy at the bar at the end, and I'm fine with that because the place can always use the precious... precious revenue. This has been a very good week for the place, but we are not close to profits just yet. We still have a long way to go before we dig ourselves out of the initial startup hole, but I do think we'll get there eventually.

So because all the staff rallied to help me I was only there about 15-30 minutes longer than usual. On a normal night I'm out of there between 0200-0215, I eat a snack (including a small piece of an edible that helps me fall asleep) at home and surf the web for a bit before I bivouac around 0300. Last night I went to bed around 0315, and I was up by 0900. Not a great sleep, but good enough. I'll go play rball in a bit and then put my ass back to bed for a nap before working again tonight. Being MOD (manager on duty) on Friday and Saturday nights is no joke. Sometimes it can be easy, but usually it is the toughest two shifts of the week and I am totally fine with taking them since it is my bar and I feel like I can handle it well. When it's busy the shift flies by, too. Working a busy shift > working a slow shift.

Even though I'm only on the schedule a couple days a week I'm still at the place a lot. We have capital improvements in the works. Not only the tax office in the photo above (that my tax business is paying for, not the bar), but also an employee bathroom, finishing up some plumbing and electrical in the event room, getting washer/dryer hookups installed, a second badass ice machine, a new walk-in freezer to finalize ($11,400 ouch!), etc. Plus I do the payroll, pay the bills, write up epic failer employees (DO NOT COME TO WORK DRUNK GODS DAMN IT!), etc. It's not overwhelming anymore like it was in the beginning, but it is a lot of little things to do. Kat does even more at the bar than I do with her hosting as DJ, doing inventory, writing schedules, dealing with most employee gripes, and a thousand other things.

Alright turds, all two of you, I gotta do DDP yoga then go lose to Deno at racquetball. Hopefully Gavin wants to play today because cutthroat rball is not a hard as 1v1. I did have a pretty good exercise week this week. Not the best ever, but the best in a long time.

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Friday, 8-27-21: Poor Copper...
Our oldest of the three dogs, Chester Copperpot (Goonies never say die!), has not been feeling well lately. Over the past couple weeks he has been ignoring his food more and more often, and for him that is a serious red flag. At first we thought he was off his routine because when I was gone blueberry raking for the first week of this month no one was home much to play fetch with him. He loves to play fetch and would do it all day every day if someone would keep throwing the ball. Unfortunately he doesn't even want to play fetch right now because he is sick. What a bunch of crap!

^Tiger Lily (left) and Copper (right) from March, 2018.

Copper used to be the first of the three dogs who wanted to eat, but not anymore. We've even tried doctoring up his food with goodies, and that doesn't seem to work. It has been incredibly hot lately so we thought maybe that was part of the problem, but the other dogs still eat so we knew there was more going on with him. Two days ago he had his first of two visits to the vet, and the results are scary. He is only 5 3/4 years old, but there is a chance he has cancer already. OMG WTF?! We don't know for sure yet, it could be a massive infection, but we fear the worst and are awaiting biopsy results. Last night he was not doing well at all, and we knew something is seriously wrong. It was 90 friggin' degrees with epic humidity, but he was panting even more than the other dogs. By a lot. Plus he whined some, and that was the worst part of it all because we couldn't do anything to make him more comfortable.

Thankfully this morning the humidity has dropped and it won't be as hot anymore. 80 today, not 90, but low humidity and then by the weekend we drop down to low 70s. Oh Jesus hell ya! I'm over this fuckin' heat, and I am ready for fall. The dogs have probably had enough of it as well. I wanted to play with them more in the yard yesterday, but it was too damn hot. It was too hot to jog, too. I'll hopefully be able to do that today. Maybe? Hopefully...

So we are VERY worried about Copper. Losing him to cancer before he even turns 6 would be a disaster. We got the potentially (and likely) bad news Wednesday afternoon and both Kat and I were not taking it well so we went down to the bar that night and got drunk. Doug hung out with us as well, and we all ended up having fun. I almost threw some guy out after he kept bitching about the $6.99 beer price. I tried telling him he was holding a huge 26.5-oz beer so that is a fair price, but after the third time he questioned it I told him he could get the fuck out of my bar if he didn't like it. I got a little heated, Kat had to come shut me up, what a bunch of crap! She gave him a free beer while I threatened to take his beer away!

We needed Wed night as a distraction from not only Copper but also from everything else that has been going on. Poor Kat lost one of her older brothers a couple days ago as well, and he was only in his mid-50s. Plus Katherine moved in with her new fiance earlier this week (officially) and then she hauled on him Wednesday night after he pissed her off. Always something lately! Doug lives upstairs in the new addition, and Katherine is still here living in the finished rooms downstairs. We are glad to have Katherine back because her living situation before was not the best. Hopefully she stays a while and finds a better boyfriend.

Katherine was only dating this guy for two months before they got engaged. OMG WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP! Kat and I only dated for three months before we got engaged, though. Hehehe. However, Kat and I were in our upper 30s. Katherine is 23. We knew the engagement was a really bad idea, but some things people have to learn for themselves. I'm glad they didn't set a wedding date yet. The guy still works for us at the bar so I'm sure it will be awkward for her. Maybe he will just quit, who knows? Or we will fire him if we find out she hauled on him for anything severely wrong that he did...

All I wanna know is why? Why is our lives so crazy? Even though my "to do" list is shorter than it was a month ago it is still very long. I need to finish my tax office and there are a lot of things left to take care of at the bar. We did buy a second ice machine earlier this week, and it is already delivered. RM Flagg, a local company, took good care of us on the ice machine. We have a washer/dryer coming soon so sparkies need to finish wiring for that. I took a load of trash to my Allen Rd rolloff dumpster yesterday, a full truckload of misc scrap and junk wood and scraps. I have that 30-yard rolloff dumpster at Allen Rd until Monday so I need to fill it up. It's 80% full now so today, tomorrow, and Sunday I hope to take some more trash over to it and finish the yard cleanup at Allen Rd.

Alright turds, all two of you who read this bootleg blog of mine, I gotta go do work now. Hopefully Copper does better today. He did eat some this morning, and he *seems* a little more comfortable. I hope he wants to play some fetch later today before I have to work at the bar tonight...

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Sunday, 8-22-21: A "normal" week upcoming?
I might not have to work 70, 80, 90 hours this upcoming week. Maybe? Hopefully! I have a lot of smaller things to take care of, and I have to start rebuilding my tax office over where the Jester's bar used to be. There is no hard deadline to finish the office, but I want it usable ASAP in case I need it. So far after 5 days of moving it out of North Main I haven't had any calls, texts, or emails from clients. Of course this isn't even close to tax season, but people occasionally need me anytime throughout the year.

^The best tax office I've ever had in my 11 years of doing taxes. It would make me sad to move the office if I used it more, but I only had about 130 clients earlier this year, the most I've ever had there, so over the course of a year it didn't get used very often. No sense paying for all that space that isn't being used much. My office over in the old Jester's area will be smaller, but that's okay because I finalized some decisions regarding my tax business that won't require me to have as much space.

My new tax office probably isn't even going to have a sign. No office phone, either. I'm gonna let my clients know to just call/text me on my cellphone or email me. If I had 300 clients I wouldn't want them all having my cell number, but I'm only keeping the clients I have (the ones who want to stay with me anyway) and maybe a select group of new clients who are referred or who come to the restaurant often and know I'm a tax guy. I'll be by appointment only and probably do no more than the amount I did earlier this year.

I had considered putting signs up for the tax business, but the landlord wants me to pay too much rent for that so I'll just keep it smaller-scale and not even advertise at all. Most likely there will not be a sign for it anywhere, not unless the landlord works with me more on it.

I don't think I even need a sign. Between the restaurant and taking care of the 6 apartments, two buildings at Allen Rd that keeps me working full-time at minimum. Even when I'm only on the restaurant schedule two days a week I am there way more than that. There is always lots to do there, and I still have a lot to learn about the kitchen and bar. I can pour a beer and probably make a decent rum and Coke, but that's about it. I can only cook a couple things in the kitchen now, too. If I intend to keep owning a restaurant and bar I need to know how to do everything, and right now I'm not even close to having that knowledge.

I own a restaurant, we've been open for 5 months, and I can't make half the food on the menu or create any custom beverage. What a bunch of crap! I can wait on tables (not great, but passable) and I feel pretty comfortable now with payroll and other accounting details. That's gotta count for something, right? Hehe. I need to make time this fall to learn a lot more about our business since I'm second in command at that place.

If things go the way I hope they will go I'll have time this fall to learn a lot more. It's very important I learn these things in case one day we have one cook on duty and he or she calls out. Same for the bar. I don't want to bartend or cook on a regular basis, but I'd rather be the one to fill in than to have to close the entire place due to lack of staff. Lots of other restaurants and bars in the area have had to close or reduce hours due to staff issues so I hope that doesn't happen to us.

We've had to hire a lot of new people since we opened, and especially lately. Finding good servers is especially tough right now. We've interviewed some bad candidates, but we won't take them on. No one is better than a bad someone. I did have to fire a server last week because she thought it would be a good idea to go smoke weed with customers. Right in front of the entrance. While in uniform and on-duty. In plain sight of other customers and staff. Then she came in and lied, said she didn't smoke she just passed it across. Sadly for her she did it RIGHT BY THE CAMERA so the video evidence showed otherwise. What a bunch of crap! I don't care about weed-smoking, but doing it while on the clock, right at the entrance, then lying about it =

YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU'RRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE FFFFFFFFFFFFFFIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD!

^Evil Vince McMahon = best heel, ever.

I would have just written the employee up and not fired her, but she was causing other issues with our business so she had to go. Kat and I did consider taking her back on under the pretense that one more fuckup, no matter how minor, would lead to her having to take the train. However, after we asked opinions of our more valued and trusted employees and managers we decided not many wanted her back so she is going to be all done, end of story.

I don't enjoy hauling on an employee, but I will do whatever I need to do to protect the business. Thankfully Kat feels the same way about it. Same thing for nincompoop customers who come in and try to fight. On Friday night a fight almost broke out in the smoking area outside, one of our servers tried to break it up, she got accidentally pushed into a car, and the two idiot guys who were trying to fight got the boot immediately. I told them both to GGGGGGGGGGGGGGEEEEEEEEEEEETTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT! DO NOT FIGHT IN MY FUCKING BAR OR OUTSIDE THE BAR IN OUR DESIGNATED AREA.

I need Doug to be a bouncer since he is jacked. I actually don't want to hire a bouncer just yet because it's rare any fights break out.

Alright turds, all two of you who read this pathetic excuse for a website, I need to go to Lowe's soon to buy a few things for tomorrow and then I'll stop into Las Palapas and get us to-go supper. Jody gave us a gift card to the place at Tuesday's North Main closing so that was really awesome of him to do. If you don't like Las Palapas then I hate you. I probably hate you anyway, but I'll hate you a little more. Mexican food is awesome! The end.

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Friday, 8-20-21: The best and worst raking season of my life. Raking retirement?
In hindsight I should not have gone blueberry raking this season. I was mostly gone from July 30th through August 7th; I came home Sunday morning the 8th and it was almost immediately time to start working that same day. No down time. Gavin and I camped out at Mic Mac, but I did come home for a couple overnights during that stretch. I even took an entire day off from raking to help up here with the event room, and I never do that during the season with Cliff. It was a rainy day and my body was beat so I'm glad I opted to not rake and to come home, though.

The crop was awesome this year. Like, off the scale amazing. Cliff's field usually sucks because he has a lot of bad areas, but this time around everything was at least decent, and some of it was amazing. Cliff raked 100 boxes in one day, and he is 71 years old OMG. The most I've ever raked in a day in my life is 84. However, I don't put in 12 hours so getting to 100 boxes in 6 or 7 hours of actual work is nearly impossible at that work rate.

^Cliff's field on my first day of raking, Friday PM July 30th. I only worked for 3 hours since I arrived early afternoon as planned. We had a quick heavy shower roll through; you can see that arriving off on the horizon. I took the picture from the truck just before it hit.

Since the crop was awesome I earned my highest hourly rate of pay ever for raking. $4 per box, the more you work the more you make. 400 boxes, $1600, avg hourly pay in the range of $36. I used to be the alpha raker on the crew for many years, but I actually didn't even care if I could outrake everyone else. I just went at a fast pace because I could. I was in shape enough to do it, and it was a challenge. Unfortunately this year was different. Cliff's own out-of-shape daughter raked more than me what a bunch of crap! She worked hard and put in a lot of hours to do it so good for her. She was raking at dark long after Gavin and I were back at camp having a drink by the fire.

Gavin and I don't compete when we blueberry rake, we never have, so we ended up with the exact same pay at the end. We only had a crew of a few people, and almost everyone raked more than Gavin and I did. They definitely put in more hours, but I was not the fastest this time around and I felt more sore from raking than I ever have before in my life. There were a couple days of work when I didn't want to be there at all so Gavin and I took long lunch breaks and extra breaks throughout the day. Both he and I felt out of shape, and our hearts just weren't really in it. The weather was all over the map. One day was so cold I had to work all morning in my sweatshirt. OMG! Then we had the usual hot and humid days, and sweat was flowing more than ever. I got burned because I wasn't tan enough to start, it was not good for me at all physically.

I don't feel like I am out of shape, but I've lost a lot since I had fucking Covid. Plus I haven't had as much precious... precious free time to exercise. I haven't used my gym at all this month, no racquetball, no jogging, no yoga. What a bunch of crap! Doing that apartment flooring took a lot out of me as well. I think I'll do yoga this morning and start lifting again next week. Maybe? Hopefully!

Cliff won't rake his field again until 2023, he'll be 73 years old, and who knows he might sell the land, retire from it, or even check out. The last part seems cruel, but everyone checks out eventually. Hell I might check out before 2023! Gavin and I talked about it, and we feel pretty confident we are retired as rakers for Cliff, at least in the sense of doing most of a season and camping out for 9 nights. If we do go again in 2023 we'd likely only go for 2-3 days, maybe a weekend trip or something like that. Just do it to catch up with old friends on the field and to help Cliff. Not really for the money anymore. Hell I was damn near broke last month and I didn't care about the money as much anymore. The money helped us a lot until we closed on North Main, though.

The worst part of the raking season for me was knowing my poor wife had to work a bazillion hours [slight exaggeration] to keep the restaurant running while I was away. We had our first ever big party in the event room, and I was gone for it. What a bunch of crap! The timing of it all sucked and was epic failer. She had to do interviews for potential new staff, open, close, DJ, everything. I won't let that happen again so at this point the restaurant > blueberry raking. Basically the restaurant > every other work I have anymore. That place needs both Kat and I. A lot. She can't do it by herself, and I can't do it without her. Sometimes I'm not even sure I want to do it at all, but it has plenty of rewarding moments and it's a great thing for the local area. Plus it's employment for our friends and family. Sure they could go work somewhere else, but it wouldn't be the same for them. Most of them left other crappier jobs to come work with us, and for the most part they have all earned more pay since joining our team. Kat and I don't earn shit for money from the place yet, but servers and bartenders can do very well on busy nights.

Basically blueberry raking kicked my ass physically. What a bunch of crap! I came home all sore and somewhat sunburned. I didn't have a severe burn, but on my arms and legs the skin peeled a little. Blisters on my hands worse than ever, not good. I think having Covid in early May caused some of my weakness, but not all. I just have too much going on all the damn time and it sucks. Thankfully I see the workload dropping off substantially as far as obligations outside the restaurant. I'm only officially on the schedule at the place 2 days a week next week, but I'll be there a lot more because the event room needs some more work and I have to start building my new tax office. More on that next time...

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Wednesday, 8-18-21: Hey we have money again awesome!
Wow, three weeks since my last bootleg site update that almost no one will ever read? 22 days since I opened this shit-show thing. What a bunch of crap! I don't really even know where to begin because everything has been crazy. Busy, busy, busy, and more busy. It is all-bad and a waste of our short summer. Thankfully we got North Main sold yesterday, we have precious... precious money, and now I *should* have more free time to do fun things like hang out with my awesome wife, play racquetball, shoot my bow, etc. I will still work at least 40 hours a week (probably more, epic fail) but after working 80-100 hours it won't seem so bad to "only" work 40-50 for a while. Who knows, eventually maybe Kat and I can just be part-time. Maybe? Hopefully!

I spent tens of thousands of dollars a few hours ago, and then I went down to the bar to help with a drag show we decided to have. Three guys dressed as women, professional performers, and their price seems fair to me based on what we got. I have never seen a drag show so I didn't know what to expect, and I gotta say in all honesty they did a great job and we will be having them back. Crowd seemed to love it, we had lots of customers, and it was well worth it. The bar is actually still open for another hour (It's 2300 now) but I came home since I wasn't really needed there and I worked there all day already. It will be nice to unwind for a bit before Kat get home and we can bivouac. She is still hosting music and karaoke there until closing since it is also ladies' night.

So before I headed down to the bar I paid off a few bills. Most pressing was the IRS debt of $3529. I am a tax preparer and I could not pay the tax bills. What a bunch of crap! Bye bye $29,000 to pay off the home equity loan we did a couple years ago for North Main paving and other bills. $8000 to the Lowe's card, $3500 to the Lowe's PRO card, $1867 to the Mastercard. I still need to pay $10k to the Home Depot card, but that can wait until tomorrow since it's not even due yet. Also still to pay tomorrow will be about $7000 to the city for Allen Rd property taxes. A lot of that is back-taxes. I suck! That restaurant put us in debt, bigtime. Thankfully business is picking up so the place can finally hold its own financially. We are NOT making a profit yet, but we are on the right track. Maybe? Hopefully!

Selling North Main was an incredible challenge, mostly because of the deadline I had to meet. The buyers wanted to close on the place two days ago on the 16th, but that was impossible for me and the pressure was on. They wanted us to pay for their hotel stay that night since we couldn't close until yesterday, but I said "What a bunch of crap!" to that and hoped like hell they didn't walk away from the deal. Thankfully they stuck it out and now they own the building. I had to work my ass off to make it all happen, and it sucked. A lot. I was helping my contractor cut out old oil tanks yesterday a bit after 1400, and their final walkthrough was at 1445. OMG! I smelled like oil since one of the tanks still had oil in it and had to be drained. Plus there was sludge in the bottom of the tank. Nice of me to go to the closing smelling like fuel, but at least I got the shit done.

Everything really got fucked away when the tenant over at Allen Rd took so long to move out. She finally moved out during blueberry raking, and in hindsight I should not have even gone raking. It was a great season for the berries and for the pay, but I had too much else going on. When I got back from raking I had one week to turn this:

Into this:

^Living room floor came out looking fantastic. I have a lot of experience with that Allure vinyl flooring so I moved quickly and efficiently. Doing that much flooring did aggrivate my left knee, though. Getting old sucks!

^Could use a new range; I'll wait for a sweet sale and pick one up asap.

It was a lot of work. A LOT. I busted it out quickly, and Doug helped with all the trim painting. I had to rip out old carpets and install 3/8 plywood subfloor in the living room pictured above plus in two smaller bedrooms. I wanted to use 15/32 plywood, but fuck that it cost close to $50 a sheet and I needed to cover 600 square feet. The 3/8 was "only" about 27 bucks a sheet. Still epic expensive, but not as bad as it was a month or two ago. Back in June 15/32 ply was selling for close to $70 a sheet. What a bunch of crap! Oh, to make matters worse we had a heat wave with near record dew points so on a couple of the days it was in the 90s and incredibly humid up there in that second-floor apt. What a bunch of crap!

I had the same tenant in that apartment pictured above since I bought the building way back in February, 2005. Wow! A 16-year tenant = me want. She got a great deal on rent because she was there for so long, but the tradeoff was her apartment was dated and needed a facelift. We had an understanding over the years that her rent would stay cheap and I would not put lots of money into the place for cosmetic upgrades. I did give her a new kitchen about 8 years ago so that helped with this remodel. A lot. If I had to do a new kitchen now that would have set me back another few days, and that was precious... precious time I simply did not have.

That apartment in the picture above is still not 100% done, but it is close enough. I have a couple more trim boards to install and a few other little things to do. Hopefully I can tackle all of that tomorrow. Today I was needed at the restaurant, and in a way I was glad to be there to pay bills and catch up on paperwork. However, poor Kat had to drive to Portland all by herself for an important medical appointment so I am sad I didn't get to go with her for that.

Alright turds, all two of you who actually still come here, I am done for the night. Next time I will try to write more about blueberry raking and everything else we've had going on. Maybe I can update this turd-heap again before September? I still have a lot to do, but nothing now that has a looming deadline so that is a great feeling.