(Last updated: 7-05-2025)

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Welcome to my crappy website. It truly is a bootleg bunch of crap, but I don't care. Not at all. I'm not doing it just to entertain you scumbags; I'm doing it because writing is fun but I am too lazy to actually write a real book. Don't laugh because I'm serious.

If you want to know who the hell I am and why I spent my hard-earned $18.17 to register this domain and to share my thoughts with the world then you can click here to find out. I have no update schedule so if you don't like it then you can ggggggggggeeeeeeeeeeetttttttttttt oooooooouuuuuuuuttttttttttttttt!

ANOTHER DISCLAIMER: Why are you still here? Chances are pretty damn good that I WILL insult you in some fashion if you choose to continue beyond this point. The purpose of this site is to entertain me, and I am often entertained at the expense of others. Therefore, prepare to be slandered. A lot. It's still not to late to leave with your feelings intact!

Saturday, 7-05-25: A good, tame party.
We spent our first ever Independence Day at our new place in Eddington. We put in a lot of work in the months, weeks, and even days trying to get the place ready to host our friends and family for our usual July 4th party. Some parties we had in the past were pretty big with over 40 people coming, but yesterday we had maybe 20 including us. Hey, great! I'd rather have a smaller party than a giant shit-show. More people = more stupidity.

None of us were stupid yesterday. We didn't overdo it on the drinking, but we did get boozed up. I drank about the perfect amount because I woke up with no hangover. Even better, the party ended a tad before midnight so that's early for us. Oh Jesus, hell ya! We get get a few rain showers yesterday PM just as people were showing up. What a bunch of crap! They didn't last that long and things were nice and dry by the time we got a fire going. The high temp yesterday was "only" around 73 so that's fantastic. Was a little crisp last night, but not cold and just right for the fire.

Icehouse, Electric Blue, great 80s song plays. If you don't like this song I hate you. I probably hate you anyway, but I'll hate you a little more.

We pulled it off and got the downstairs functional for the party. Oh Jesus, hell ya! I worked on it for a few hours before the party and my awesome wife helped organize and clean down there. We ended up with a nice setup considering how unfinished the space still is. I worked on it some today before I played racquetball and I'll work on it more tomorrow. I was gonna go help Phil and his family load up for a move to Alaska, but they aren't ready for me just yet so I'll go one day during the week. Tomorrow looks to be 90 degrees outside again so it will be a good day to work downstairs.

^Had some help from Dillon and Travis getting this badass sign hung up. Get this, the new owners of our old space wanted it gone so one of our good friends rescued it before that could happen. It was all covered in spraypaint yet he and his girlfriend spend hours, literally hours, cleaning it up and bringing it back to life. They even borrowed a huge trailer and brought it to us! It was about 21 feet long until we cut the Coca Cola part off. Yes, that was the original sign in front of our once-thriving restaurant.

Hard to believe blueberry raking is only about 3 weeks away. Gavin said Cliff said the berries look good, but there is no real way to know how things will end up when you're still 3 weeks from the harvest. It is encouraging to hear Cliff say they look good! I always get excited to go raking because I have mental problems, but this year feels different. I don't get as excited to go as I did 15-20 years ago because my body is aging and it's more arduous to do for my ass than it was back in the day. Plus I have a wife now and I do miss her when I'm gone raking.

Between now and raking I need to pack up my tax office and drop down to a more mobil setup. I had a tax client a couple days ago and I have to go to the tax office again early to midweek next week. I also need to finish some more of that big garage to include what I *hope* will be a decent start on some windows, doors, and siding. I brought some old staging that I dug out from this property down to that garage job today on the way to pick up Gavin for Rball. I plan to set up some scaffholding for at least one area, assuming the old bootleg stuff left here to us from the prior owner isn't too rusted and/or mismatched to be useful.

It's time to rack out. Going to bed before 2200 on a Saturday?! Yes, I am old hehe. We stayed up pretty late last night so crashing out earlier tonight is a win. I felt great today, no hangover at all, so that's another win. Small wins are stacking up these past couple weeks so maybe that means my life won't suck so much ass anyore...

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Wednesday, 7-02-25: Downstairs photos, chickens moving outside.
It was another very busy today, no shock there. However, we did get an earlier-than-usual start when at 0619 a HUGE dump truck rolled in along with our tree contractors. No worries we were already awake, but I did expect them at 0700. They spent about 1.5 hours cleaning up the brush and debris then, just as they left, our Tick Sniper Dan showed up to spray around the property for ticks again. He sprayed maybe 5 weeks ago and the result was fantastic. Before he came we were INFESTED with ticks, but after most of them disappeared.

DISAPPEAR, SCUMBAG TICKS! We probably didn't need him to spray, but better to err on the side of caution with the grandkids here and with my own awesome wife already having lyme and other tick diseases. Before Dan sprayed for ticks I was in the bushes pulling dead brush for the dump truck load and I didn't get one tick on me. Oh Jesus, hell ya!

After tick-Dan was done I had to head into town for a meeting with the lawyer regarding stuff from last year when we had the restaurant. We're not in trouble, we hired the laywer, and I can't write the specifics on this bootleg site that no one ever reads... just in case I write something that blows everything all to hell.

The laywer meeting was really quick then it was a stop at Paradis for a few groceries and back home to sand and mud an area downstairs. After that I went outside to work on the nearly-done chicken coop. Man it was HUMID today. My wife was soaked in sweat from also working outside, and she rarely sweats. She also did some weedwacking while I did some mowing and then it was time to clean up and head back into town for a tax meeting with a new client. Busy day!

I took the new 395-Rt 9 extension road to the tax office and that was glorious. Well except for the part where I was stuck behind someone going 50MPH in the 55MPH area. What a bunch of crap! Surprisingly there are no passing lanes on the new 5-mile stretch of road but there is one long straight stretch and there was no incoming traffic so I passed their slow-ass. It is 10.9 miles to the tax office one-was and it's a 13-minute drive now. Before the new road it was about the same distance, but it took closer to 18-20 minutes based on traffic lights and time of day. Wow! I've used the new road a few other times since it opened last Friday. That road is part of the reason I wanted to live here because access just got a lot better. A LOT.

I got home, shovelled in some grub, then Kat and I went downstairs to organize this shit-show that I created during the course of my carpentry:

About an hour later and she had it looking like this:

All I wanna know is why? Why can't I do that?! I try to organize and I take forever and lose my train of thought. I can build an entire friggin' house with no engineered plans because I see it in my head, but I can't organize a room. What a bunch of crap! She did that in one hour and I would have needed an entire day because I would have to stop every 15 minutes and do something else.

Normally Kat would be watching baby Dylan during the week, but this holiday week is unusual. Damon's daycare closed all week so Kat watched both kids Monday and yesterday and Dillon took some extra time off from work today and tomorrow (holiday Friday.) How in the hell can a daycare place just close for a week?! I understand if you dump your kid off at a neighbor's bootleg daycare house and the neighbor is going on vacation, but Damon goes to a place in a strip mall with multiple employees. Fuckin' daycare. I'm glad I never reproduced!

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Tuesday, 7-01-25: Bye trees, bye riding lawn mower, Def Leppard is here.
Looks like we will have contractors here every day this week except for Friday the 4th. Yesterday was the disappearing-tree mission because we've had a row of white pines needing to go away forever and a couple ash (I think?) trees growing stupid-close to the back of the house. They got going on a hot morning:

^At first we used my dump-trailer for the badass chipper to blow everything into, but the guys found a more efficient way.

A few hours later:

^Oh Jesus hell ya! Sadly there is tree debris all over the place so they have to come back Thursday to clean it all up. I help back some of their pay just in case they didn't come back, and that would be a bunch of crap because it would take us hours, literally hours, to deal with the aftermath.

Having those trees gone really opens the place up. There are some anemic-looking apple trees there that should now get unlimited sun and get healthier. I won't hunt under them because they're too close to the houses, but just having them there will be nice. We still see LOTS of deer here including a doe and small "Bambi" with her quite often.

We also had Jake here both yesterday and today doing some electrical work. It's mostly stuff I can handle, but I'm short on precious... precious time and that sucks. A lot. I still feel incredibly overwhelmed with the amount of work this place still needs whereas at the same time it is very rewaring to see things come together. That downstairs has really been a lot of work and it's not even close to done. We still plan to use the downstairs on the 4th in only 3 days for karaoke, but it won't be finished. No floor, no trim, part of the ceiling unfinished, and part of the walls not up. What a bunch of crap! Oh well it doesn't have to be fancy for a bunch of drunks. We're not even having a big party maybe 15 people total will be here including us.

About 10 days ago I let Katherine run the bootleg, used riding lawn mower that I bought for $500 and about a half hour after she mowed the thing started making an awful whining sound when the mower was engaged. Turns out we have a broken blade. Noooooo! I'm not mad at her because I easily could have done the same thing. I never really cared for that mower anyway so today I bought trailer-ramps, I loaded it up, and I brought it back to the guy and got a different one for only $100 more. (He delivered the first one to us.) Plus he serviced all our other stuff including two push-mowers and the awesome weedwacker-thing that Dad loaned to us. The "new" riding lawn mower is still old, but it's more smooth and I like the controls better. If it lasts us the rest of this season I'll call it a win.

Def Leppard is at the Bangor Waterfront right now and I'm here writing on this bootleg site that almost no one will ever read. Why am I not at the concert-venue watching my all-time favorite band? I lost the desire years ago to go to concerts. Not saying I'll never go to one again, but I've already seen Def Leppard live and I'm sure I wrote all about it and about how pissed my girlfriend at the time, Kelly, was at me for getting so drunk. Epic fail me! Beers are something like $15 at the venue and that is just ridiculous. Nope, I'm better off staying home and working on the house both downstairs and the chicken coop as well as mowing with our old-new riding mower.

I did play Def Leppard's Hysteria on YouTube so I'm not totally bailing on my favorite band. Plus 100.3 WKIT did a Def Leppard Rock Block earlier.

I won't work much this week on that garage job. I actually have a lot to do for the rest of this week. A LOT. I have tax clients needing my ass still and this place is endless with the work. I did put in 3 hours this morning at Treats Falls, but I just don't have the time or the weather to do the final 4.5-square section of roof this week. Tomorrow I have a 1000 meeting with our lawyer and then it's home for 3 or so hours to work then back to town this time to the tax office. Thankfully the Rt 9 - 395 connector road opened last Friday so getting to the tax office will be much faster. However, I only have that office for another 4 weeks since I chose not to renew. After that where will I end up for the tax business? Still very unclear. Most likely I'll drop down to a plan where I can use the facility 5 days a week. I won't have a dedicated office, but I can be somewhat portable and bring a smaller printer and my laptop computer. Maybe? Hopefully!

Jason and Holly rented their usual lake house in Jefferson and wanted me to come like I have in many recent years, but I can't because I'm just too busy. It's sad we hauled on the restaurant and I still can't whittle my "to do" list down fast enough. I probably won't get down to the ol' homestead until the very end of this month for Hawke's birthday party and blueberry raking. His birthday is the 25th and raking starts the 28th so I'll have to figure out those logistics soon. I really don't want to make two separate trips, but that might be my only option.

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Friday, 6-27-25: More roof photos. Deer, a new road, and a song by Queen that isn't worthless.
My awesome wife racked out not long ago so it's just me, myself, and I until I bivouac in about an hour. I was watching some of the Red Sox vs. Blue Jays game, but the Sox are just depressing and I had to quit. They had a nice stretch of baseball a couple weeks ago, but this past week has been a total shit-show as is the case with most of their west-coast trips. Lost 2 out of 3 in Seattle and got swept in Anaheim. Tonight down 4-0 late so I'm all set. What a bunch of crap! Even worse they traded their best player, Devers, to San Fransisco last week so now they are truly pwned. They have a lot of rookies in the lineup who just aren't getting the job done.

I put on a few minutes of Gold Rush: WhiteWater. I like that show, but I haven't watched any of it this year and I think the season is already about over. What a bunch of crap! I used to watch Gold Rush as well, but I sorta got sick of it and I don't have time for that shit. Instead I fired up channel 1928 and one of the few good Queen songs came on, Radio Gaga. Great song and if you disagree with me then I hate you. I probably hate you anyway, but I'll hate you a little more. Most of Queen's music sucks ass, especially that bullshit song called Bohemian Rhapsody. FUCK THAT SONG. Incrediby talented band it's jut too bad most of their stuff is not for me. I need more Def Leppard gods damn it!

Def Leppard is coming to Bangor next week Tuesday July 1st and I really don't care... whether or not I care. I think I'm all done going to concerts because, unless you go totally drunk, they are overrated. Too many people and F that paying $17 for a beer. I'd rather just listed to Pyromania, Hysteria, and/or Adrenalize on CD in the truck as I drive around town. I do like other Del Leppard songs, but those three albums are the best.

Speaking of driving around town, today the new Route 9-395 connector road opened up. Oh Jesus, hell ya! We only live a couple miles from it and getting to Wilson Street now and the highway will be a lot faster. A LOT. Funny when I was done working at Treats Falls today and I drove home the construction wasn't yet done around 1415, but by 1530 the road was open so how cool is that? We ran a few errands and got some food from Las Palapas to bring home and the new 5-mile stretch of road was great and got us home quite quickly compared to what we have been used to.

This evening deer were all over our property. We had a doe 30 yards from the east side of the house for a good hour and then another appeared. On the west side we also had a couple deer show up and get really close to the houses. I love it! Here is one of the deer:

^She needs to fuel up on all that delicious grass and all those weeds so she can get bigger and give me more meat for this fall hehe. Finally I had to spook them by putting the dogs out, but even then they really didn't tear ass out of here. One tiny little spotted skipper was with them, and it was so small I didn't even see it until they were leaving. Awesome! We paid a guy to clear some more of the property and to grade out failing, bootleg driveway and since then we've seen more deer. Hopefully come fall I can get out there and have some nice encounters but right now that is far from my focus.

So we officially hit 98 degrees Tuesday and man it was HOT. Set a daily record and tied a monthly all-time record. The past couple days haven't been bad at all, and tomorrow will be rainy and only 58. WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP! Needless to say I didn't work on that garage job Tuesday, but the past three days I got a lot done there including today with my helper, Daniel. We finished a section of roof and got most of the cap shingles on another section on what was a beautiful early-summer day. Mid 70s, not much wind, good for roofing. Maybe a few degrees too hot, but not so hot the shingles melted under-foot so it worked out just fine.

^The new part, the actual garage roof with a ridge vent so the thing can breathe properly. I did finish that roof last week, but today we worked on the ridge vent (easy but chews up some precious... precious time.)

bun

^Each side is about 4.5 square on the part of the roof needing replacement. On Wednesday I got that west side stripped and prepped, I shingled half of it yesterday, and today we got it shingled to the peak. I'll start the last shitty east side the week of the 7th, based on the weather of course, because next week I have a lot of other stuff going on. Not only is it July 4th weekend but it's also the week where we get some trees removed here, I have a couple meetings, and I want to get some more work done at the house before our July 4th party in one week. I wanted the downstairs to be done for that party, but that's not happening. I haven't even worked downstairs since that really hot day Tuesday. What a bunch of crap! Tuesday was so hot it even hit 80 downstairs even with the concrete floor. It was 95 upstairs for a lot of the afternoon so how did I sleep? LIKE SHIT EVEN AFTER I HAD AN EDIBLE GODS DAMN IT. I was pretty tanked-out yesterday and I fell asleep on the couch for a bit mid-afternoon. Today I was good-to-go, though. I think I just needed some more sleep.

Doing that roofing has my loser-ass in pretty good shape. I hope to work more on our house this weekend, and I need to also finish the chicken coop so we can get them all set up. I still have a shitload to do what a bunch of crap! Hard to believe in 4 days it's July, too. Wow, just wow.

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Monday, 6-23-25: It was a great weekend. Oh, downstairs photos.
We finally had a fantastic weather-day on Saturday, our first really good-weather Saturday all damn year. What a bunch of crap! I'm not even joking about that either. We did have a nice Saturday in March when we got to around 55 degrees, but that doesn't make for a great weather day no working on the tan no fun outside so it doesn't really count. I think we got to around 80 for a high temp Saturday, lots of sun, and NOT HUMID. We made the most of it by working on the house before a really fun impromptu cookout with family and some friends.

Kat and Katherine helped set up the lawn furniture and a fire pit so we had a small fire on a perfect evening before we came inside and most everyone did karaoke. (Not be because I suck!) We still have a small karaoke setup we can do upstairs in the living room, but it is a little tight with more than a few people so when the downstairs is done we can really do it right. Here is the downstairs as of a few hours ago:

I did start the drop-ceiling, but today I was able to focus on moving a couple switches and mudding and taping over by the slider on the far right side. I worked downstairs for a few hours while Mike, a Marine veteran whom we know from owning Mad Kat, bush-hogged and graded the driveway. He was here all day from 0700-1700 including setup and breakdown and he was worth it. Treated us very well and did a fantastic job.

This morning I worked on that garage job before it got too hot. It really didn't get too hot, I could have kept working there, but I knew Mike was here at our house and it was too hot to do the roof. I spent a couple hours finishing the last shingles (other than the caps at the peak) before it got really hot then I framed down below. There was hardly a breath of wind earlier and the river was beautiful:

^That is the view from the back area where he plans to have a deck. Smart plan!

It's really nice having a huge dry area below from which to work now. A rainy day won't stop me Oh Jesus hell ya! However, it will be a while before I start any finish-type stuff on that interior. I still need to sheath some of the walls (back end will be a slider leading to that deck area) and do windows and doors before we can consider the insulation, electric, sheetrock, etc. The homeowner said he plans to pay me more so I work more, but I'll believe it when I see it. Right now his budget for supplies and my labor is limited so I'm giving him 15-20 hours a week. That's perfect for me so I can work more on our house, but I would like to get some more hours at that garage come later summer and early fall when some of the bigger things here at the house wrap up.

So we ended up hitting 87 degrees today with hardly any clouds and loads of humidity so it was HOT. However, it was nothing compared to tomorrow's forecasted 97 degrees WITH A 109 HEAT INDEX OMG WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP! I won't work on that garage tomorrow because it will be too hot, even if I stayed in the shade below. No way any roofing can be done the shingles would melt under-foot even if you tried to tiptoe across. I'll work downstairs here all day tomorrow; maybe I'll work on the chicken coop first thing but not after roughly mid-morning. I do want to finish the coop, but I want the downstairs done more. The chickens still seem to be doing fine indoors in a larger crate-area.

Even though we only had 10-12 people here Saturday (and some left before dark) we had a GREAT time. We really needed it because we work, work, work, and work some more and don't get to enjoy life enough. We stayed up until probably 0230 OMG THAT'S WAY PAST BEDTIME. I woke up with a very slight hangover, but it was gone within an hour or two and I still played racquetball against Gavin and Mike. I only worked on the house for an hour Sunday hahahaha. I definitely had one too many drinks, but I don't regret it because I wasn't really too hungover.

In other news Isreal bombed the crap out of Iran last week, we generally support Isreal, and we also bombed Iran. All I wanna know is why? Why do we have to keep getting involved over there?! War won't ever end in that part of the world, not until all the oil is sucked from the region, and that won't be in my lifetime. I thought Trump was going to be more "America first" this term, but he changed his mind. Will this lead to WWIII? I dunno, I'd guess no, but it could be WWIII if Russia and/or China jump into the fray. What a bunch of crap!

It's only 2106, pretty early, but I think I'm gonna bivouac in a few minutes. It's hot in the bedroom but really pleasant in the kitchen/dining room office area right by the wide-open window. The kitchen area gets a GREAT cross-breeze but the bedroom does not. Thankfully my edible is kicking in so that might let me sleep through the heat. Maybe? Hopefully!

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Friday, 6-20-25: Roof and Father's Day pics.
I had a really nice and memorable visit down to the ol' homestead to visit my family Sunday last weekend. Jason and I went to his newly acquired "Lot 87" property to set up a hunting blind while Dad was out shooting with friends, and then Dad joined us later that morning. Jason asks me every year to help get ready for hunting season and I never do much to help so it felt good being able to contribute. The blind is epic and will lead to many deer burgers and steaks in the years to come. Probably a few turkeys, too. Dad make a great supervisor hehe:

^Couldn't have asked for better weather as well so huge win for us there, especially with how crappy most weekends have been all year. Rain every single weekend = what a bunch of crap!

After we finished the blind (Jason owns a mini excavator and a little skid-steer so that made the job quite easy) we went to the house where we grew up, the same home Mom and Dad have called home since 1982, and we had a good visit with Mom and Dad. Holly showed up with the kids so we were all able to visit over a very late lunch. Jason helped me get Dad's new shooting bench set up, and Dad really liked it or at least he fooled me into thinking he liked it hehehe. Jason went to pick up an end of Dad's old bench and it fell off HAHAHAHAHA. His old benches are all rotting away so the new one will last him a decade and, no offense, that means it's gonna last him the rest of his life.

It felt nice giving Dad a gift I KNOW he will use a lot. I struggle with what to buy for my parents because they really don't need anything these days. A lot of years, most years, I just blow off the gift stuff and maybe do a card, a call, or both. My parents don't expect gifts from us kids but they still give us gifts so I like to reciprocate when I can find an idea that doesn't suck. Sadly I've only ever found an idea that doesn't suck a few times ever what a bunch of crap!

I put in close to 20 hours on the garage job this week. Seems like I'm only a part-timer but I still work a lot. A LOT. I skipped Tuesday due to other stuff going on and turd weather, but I was there close to 5 hours a day the rest of the work-week days. I had Daniel help me for three days this week so his 12 hours got us to a point where not only is the roof sheathed now but it is also mostly shingled. Oh Jesus hell ya!

^I put his ass on the gun so I could screw off. Just kidding I was also working the whole time prepping, cutting shingles, doing underlayment, bringing shingles up, etc. I didn't think I had it in me anymore to hump a full bundle of shingles up the ladder, but I've done a bunch and my body has seemed to acclimate to it once again.

I never put Daniel on the edge of the roof. I do the edges and keep him mostly in the middle. He has done some carpentry in the past, but not that much. He learns fast and doesn't need to be babysat, and he did a great job installing most of the shingles in the center of that side. We did the other side Wednesday and yesterday, and I worked on the other side today before a rain shower kicked me down below to do more framing. Thankfully with the roof 90% covered now it stays pretty dry below so I can leave more tools there and do more work on wet days. Here is the one roof area as of Monday when we wrapped up:

^Roughly 52x9, 468 square feet (4.67 square) shinlged. Got a nice tan and am getting into pretty good shape. How can you beat that?

When I wasn't working on that garage I had a couple tax clients and I worked on the downstairs here at our house. My awesome wife and I painted some yesterday since she had the day off from babysitting (Juneteenth holiday not really meant for white people... I guess?) and today I started the ceiling! I have a huge area ready for the ceiling, but it will take some time because I need to install recessed lights along the way as I go. No worries I've done a few other ones in the past so I should get a good rythm. Maybe? Hopefully!

Tomorrow looks to be a fantastic weather day. High around 80 but not humid. The humidity yesterday and early today was brutal, but then we got the rain showers, wind, and now the air is crisp. Too bad early next week it gets really hot and sticky with Tuesday's forecast at 97. OMG 97 FUCKIN' DEGREES?! What a bunch of crap! Needless to say I won't be doing any roofing that day. I don't think I could even if I wanted to because the shingles would be half-melted to the touch. Nope, Tuesday next week will be a great day to work downstairs on the soon-to-be hangout room/Kat's studio.

Since the weather will be so nice tomorrow I'll be outside some doing the chicken coop. I also have a dump-run to make and we are having some friends over for a small cookout and to drink. We're still close with some of our former Mad Kat staff so it's nice seeing them. A lot of people want us to fire the Mad Kat back up for version 2.0, but F that we have a no-compete and I can't be tied to a restaurant again and come out of it alive. I could help as a fringe-player of sorts, but I'd never survive as a full-time-plus on call owner/manager. If we ever did anything again my shares would be up for sale. Can't sell them now because they are worthless what a bunch of crap!

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Saturday, 6-14-25: Sox-Yanks again, ducks, shooting bench, today sucked.
I have the Sox-Yankees game on again, second consecutive night watching some baseball and updating this bootleg site that almost no one will ever read. Is this a trend? NOPE! I'm too busy and I'm not a big enough fan to watch all 162 Red Sox regular-season games. Checking in on occasion, especially in games against the Yankees, is just the right thing to do. Judge comes up to bat in the 8th with the score 4-2 Red Sox. It's awesome the Sox are winning, but the lead does NOT feel safe. Thankfully no one is on base so if Judge cranks one out of the yard like he did last night the Sox would still have the lead.

I had some drinks this evening because today sucked. Why did it suck? It was one of those days where one extra drop of water breaks the dam, so-to-speak. I just have too much going on all the time and I'm getting sick of it. I felt guilty doing 25 minutes of yoga this morning before I got to work around the house, and that feeling = what a bunch of crap! I should not feel guilty doing some yoga on a Saturday morning, but I did and that makes me sad.

I finally realized today that getting the ducks was fuckin' stupid. I've known that since Kat went and got them even though I said it was a bad idea, but today it just fell into place. I spent precious... precious hours building their outdoor coop and we finally got the out there this afternoon:

They really love the water, but they aren't very good on their feet so we needed to build them a ramp of sorts. I do like the ducks, but I hate all the valubale time we've spent on them since they arrived about 6 weeks ago. I needed that time for other more important stuff gods damn it.

I did go for a decent 2-mile jog this afternoon, best one I've had all year. I did walk a little, but I was just under 17 minutes so I'll take the 8:29 per mile pace. How the fuck do people run a mile in half that time?! Even doing a sub-8 mile seems about impossible for my aging, bootleg body. What a bunch of crap!

I also finsihed this shooting bench for Dad's Father's Day gift tomorrow:

I tried to match it up exactly to what he already has, but my measurements and photos are from September last year so maybe I'm off a bit? My life failed so horribly that I couldn't even build my father a new shooting bench last fall. It took maybe 3 total hours and under $100 so there is no excuse for that. I suck at life. What a bunch of crap!

I am going down to Warren tomorrow to hang out with Jason and then Mom and Dad. It will probably be my first visit on Father's Day in at least a couple years because Father's Day was always a very busy Sunday for our Mad Kat restaurant. Mom had ankle surgery a couple weeks ago so she's in a leg-cast still, but she kept telling me over and over don't bring food. HEY MOM ENJOY RETIREMENT AND LET ME BRING SOME HANNAFORD PREMADE CHICKEN SALAD AND/OR SEAFOOD SALAD. Mom is fully retired now after getting done at her part-time job a few months ago. Good for her she deserves it for putting up with her three idiot sons for close to 5 decades now hehe.

Jason and I will get in the woods tomorrow morning and set up a stump-blind. It's the perfect spot for Dad to hunt because it's easy access for him, and he's 76 with health issues so easy access is important. Dad would join us, but he's going shooting and great for him we will see him at lunch and into the PM. Weather looks great with high temps near 70 and no humidity. Weather was great today as well, and it appears we are in for a several-day stretch of great weather. Oh Jesus, hell ya!

It bums me out that I had a shitty mental-day today because it was a nice weather day and we did get a lot done. I was talking to Kat about it earlier and I told her the way we live is a bunch of crap. We never have days off because there is too much to do. I could take more days off, but then I would not enjoy them because I know things need to be done. I did take 3 "days off" this spring to go visit my family, tomorrow will be the 4th, but I told her those aren't really days off because it's 3 total hours of driving plus cramming a visit in with my mother, father, brother, sister-in-law, and my niece and nephew. Sometimes I go months without even seeing them. What a bunch of crap!

I can't remember the last time we took a real day off and did nothing. I need a day where I just do nothing but watch TV, read, eat, sleep. Will I ever have one of those again in my shitty life? Maybe? Hopefully!

It's now 4-3 Red Sox with 2 outs in the top of the 9th. Deep fly ball to center and just before the Green Monster wall the catch is made and the Sox win! That puts them at a pathetic 36-36 on the season, but it's better than it was a few days ago and that's now two consecutive wins against the dreaded Yankees.

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Friday, 6-13-25: Sox-Yanks.
For the first time in weeks I'm watching more than 5 minutes of the Red Sox. Tonight it's Sox-Yankees at Fenway. The Sox had a 1-0 lead in the 9th until Aaron Judge came to the plate and smashed a big-league home run way over the "Green Monster." Now it's still tied 1-1 going in the 10th inning. What a bunch of crap! Aaron Judge is a machine, part-cyborg, not really but man can he hit. A couple years ago he hit 62 home runs and that's a non-steriod record. Bonds, Sosa, and McGwire have higher seaon totals, but they are all heavily connected to the steroid era from 2.5 decades ago, give or take.

I'm not a huge baseball fan anymore, but how can you root for the Yankees in any game? I am still a Red Sox fan and holy JESUS THE RED SOX JUST WALKED IT OFF IN THE BOTTOM OF THE 10TH WITH A SHOT OFF THAT GREEN MONSTER THAT IS BADASS! Thank you, Carlos Navarrez. (Not even sure I spelled his name right what a bunch of crap!)

I'll watch a bit of the Pacers-Thunder game 4 NBA finals before I bivouac. The Thunder had the best record in th NBA and are the #1 seed and favored to win it all, but the Pacers are killing it in these playoffs and have a 2 games to 1 series lead. I might not make it to the end of the game because I'll rack out soon. Too bad the Celtics washed out of the playoffs like a turd washes down a toilet. Gods damn it!

I worked on this for the morning today with my helper Daniel. I had to buy ten bags of concrete at Lowe's and that's not even enough. I knew it wouldn't be, but it at least got me a start. It was nice having a helper to bear some of the work-load. I can mix up a bag of cement easily enough, but doing ten of them gets tiring. Plus we had to move some plywood and shingles top-side so we're set up for Monday morning. The shingles in the photo are just to keep the form from failing. Can't have the concrete blowing out because it does get heavy in a hurry.

That is going to be a roughly 15 cubic foot 4x4 station for the homeowner's pool pump and related accessories. I did "cheat" and put a few cubic feet of our driveway gravel mix in the back bottom because it doesn't need to be 11 solid inches of concrete. The homeowner was going to have a floor for the garage poured this year, but it's not in the budget and right now it's not mission-critical. Plus finding a good contractor who does good concrete work is not easy. I still haven't even gotten a quote for a slab I want here for a garage. What a bunch of crap!

I helped my awesome wife move the ducks and chickens downstairs earlier. It's really nice NOT having them in our kitchen/dining room anymore. I don't hate them, but they should not live in a kitchen. It was fine when they were barely the size of an egg, but as they grew it became more and more difficult to manage them. Soon they'll be going outside in their respective coops.

Speaking of the downstairs, I didn't get any work done down there today because I got fed up and started organizing my stuff. For the first time in well over a year, maybe two years, I cleaned out the back of my truck. I waste far too much precious... precious time looking for my stuff and after not knowing where either of my two jig-saws were I just couldn't take it anymore. Oh, I also can't find my two favorite Dewalt drills but I know they are here because they were in the truck at noon. What a bunch of crap!

There was not a jig-saw in the back of the truck. Too bad because I thought I had one there hehe. I did find an old one left here from the prior owner, but it doesn't work with my blades. I need to find one tomorrow so I can finish Dad's shooting bench for Father's Day Sunday.

I've put a tremendous amount of work in on the soon-to-be downstairs hangout area. Here it is as of a couple days ago:

^Still looks incredibly incomplete, but a huge wall section is ready for paint and soon I'll have that entire half of the space ready for a drop-ceiling. I can do those suspended (or drop) ceilings quickly. We've also had new stairs for a few weeks and I thought most of my electrical was done until I had to burn precious... precious time today trying to figure out why the lights down there stopped working. Not the bulbs, definitely electrical. Probably a loose connection somewhere, but I couldn't find it so I quit.

Speaking of quitting, I am going to call it a day here shortly and rack out with my crack out. I'll work on the house all day tomorrow and go down to the ol' homestead Sunday for Father's Day. I might play racquetball tomorrow, but probably not because I haven't even texted the guys and no one texted me. I'd actually be totally fine with just staying here, doing some yoga, working on the house, and taking a short PM break for a jog. Weather looks good upper 60s to around 70 both days, not humid, and no rain. If we get no rain it will be the first precip-free weekend since winter. What a bunch of crap!

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Thursday, 6-12-25: Coops, sheetrock, roof, riots.
People have been rioting in parts of LA in response to Trump's agressive push to kick illegal immigrants out of the counrty. I can't imaging ever living there or in any big city, but especially LA. How many riots have happened in that overpopulated part of the world in my lifetime? At least a few. The one I remember most was Rodney King, a black man beaten (to death?) by cops many, many years ago. People sometimes just take to the street and cause mayhem out there. What a bunch of crap!

I stayed here at the house today to work on a few things. Bruce and Kevin came this morning to hook up Dillon and Debbie's water softner, and we also had a hose spigot installed on the other side of the house near what will soon be the chicken and ducks coop areas. I started working indoors for about 1.5 hours on sheetrock sanding downstairs before I headed outside to work on this:

^The area for the ducks is mostly done now, but the chicken area is probably a little less than 50% done. I put in 3-4 total hours on that coop area before it was time for a mid-afternoon jog and then working for about an hour on a new shooting bench for dad. I think the bench is at least half-done, but I'm not certain. I probably could have fiished it today, but F that I need a break before supper.

The ducks will live on the left side, the chickens will live in the middle, and there will be room leftover for an outdoor cat area on the right side. I enjoy working on the pet areas, but I wish I didn't have 50 other things going on at the same time. I still have the occasional tax client who needs me, we have endless yard work left to do, and this garage uses up precious... precious time each week:

I busted out a big roof section both Monday and yesterday there for a total of only 9 hours. On Monday I needed to install trip and drip-edge before I rolled out some ice and water shield, and I started a few of the shingles Monday. Yesterday I did about 2-3 hours of shingles before I fiished down below in the shade shoring up some supports and cross-bracing. The thing is plenty strong now, but adding some extra can't hurt and should help with code for when they come look again.

I have a great tan now. Oh Jesus, hell ya! I think I'm already about blueberry-raking tan and that is rare for me. Lots of outdoor work and lots more to come before most of the work is indoors come early and late fall. I have 15-16 more square of roofing to do before more trim, windows, doors, siding, etc. Plus I still want to build a garage here at some point before it gets too cold, but that is looking less likely to happen since I'm just too busy elsewhere all the time. What a bunch of crap!

Next time I update this bootleg site that only two of you will ever read I'll have to post updated photos of the downstairs. That's been a lot of sheetrock work. A lot. However, I have a big section of it ready for paint now so that might happen this weekend...

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Saturday, 6-07-25: Birthdays, ducks, garage, etc.
Today is my father's 76th birthday and Thursday was my awesome wife's 50th birthday. I'll call Dad later today, and I'll go visit on Father's Day next Sunday. Kat and I spent most of Thursday together celebrating her milestone birthday; I took the day off from working and it was a nice day. Got very hot here close to 90 with later PM thunderstorms so it was a perfect day to not work on that huge garage. We went down closer to the coast where it was ten degrees cooler so the heat wasn't opressive. We first went to 1A Relics, a cool antique store on the outskirts of Ellsworth. From there was a jaunt down Route 1 to Searsport for a nice lunch, back through Bucksport to walk the waterfront, then back to home before we went out later to Mack's for some bootleg karaoke.

I did work an hour on Kat's birthday, but it was only downstairs doing some mudding and sanding. I really want to get that downstairs done this month, but it's a lot more work and I have to also balance that garage job as well as finishing the coop for the ducks and starting the coop for the chickens. I also want to build Dad a new shooting bench for his birthday/Father's Day, but I can't remember where I put the measurements for the rotting-out bench he has now. Maybe I'll find it or maybe there are numbers online for what would be a standard size...

My plan was to build Dad two new shooting benches last fall, but once the restaurant sale fell apart it was game over for our asses and back to work 80 hours a week. What a bunch of crap! I definitenty don't miss that crazy-ass schedule. It's only 0644 and I've been up 45 minutes and ready to go. My awesome wife just got up so I need to scoot off this bootleg site that almost no one will ever read to help her clean the ducks and chickens' cages. It's a whole routine that takes close to an hour. What a bunch of crap! The ducks should be moving outside tomorrow so that will be a win. They are so big now they are nasty to have in the kitchen. Not their fault of course, but we don't need that in our friggin' kitchen. Plus the dogs like to eat whatever duck-turds they can reach from the edge of the cage. Nooooooooo! The ducks will sometimes drop a deuce that lands within reach for the dogs, but the chickens keep their shit in their cage... for now.

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Tuesday, 6-03-25: Things don't suck this week as much as they did last week.
We had another dumpster-fire weather pattern this past weekend with rain, drizzle, and cooler temps. (I think there wouldn't have actually been a dumpster fire with all the rain of course.) It was the tenth weekend in a row with rain around here, or so they say on the news. It really feels like all damn year what a bunch of crap!

The rain Saturday didn't really bother me, though. I worked indoors all day on the downstairs finishing sheetrock install and mudding/taping. I've spent some time over the past few days doing more mud and tape, but yesterday and today I worked outside more than I worked inside. The garage-job was yesterday and I have a couple photos from Friday:

^I had a helper for the first time all year there Friday. My helpers from last year also worked for us at the restaurant, but I heard they moved out of state and I don't want them back anyway. I enjoyed working with them, a father and son, but they quit on the restaurant one week before we were scheduled to close anyway for good and that really hurt us. A lot.

On Friday we got part of that roof actually sheathed. Oh Jesus, hell ya! Tomorrow we'll get most of the remaining rafters in place and a few more pieces of plywood top-side. Shingling probably won't be until mid-late month because after we sheath the entire roof I need to install some trim and do a little more other prep. Shingles should go quickly on that 12-3 basic roof. Maybe? Hopefully!

^You can see my helper up there. He's a friend, a really good guy, and his chick worked for us at the restaurant and was one of our best employees. We still hang out with them from time to time including last Saturday night when we went to the new Mack's Restaurant and Tavern that opened in our failed spot. That place... I had to sign legal stuff so I guess I can't really say, but F that only two people ever come here because this site is a bootleg piece of shit. Their 1-star Google reviews are very telling. I actually felt badly for them on Saturday because we did have a good time, but there were maybe 10 customers there all night INCLUDING US OMG WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP! On our bad Saturdays there with Mad Kat we'd still get 4 or 5 times that many.

The problem with the new restaurant is they have no real brand. They don't know who they are or what they are as a business. Simply opening as a RESTAURANT isn't enough here. What's the theme? There's no decor and it's drab inside. We had posters and other decor related to our music theme. That ended up being a popular place with a huge following. Can they do the same? Right now it's not looking good for many more reasons than what I already wrote.

The ducks are HUGE now so thankfully we almost have their coop-area ready. If all goes as planned we will move them outside Saturday. Chickens will stay in with us for a bit more; they are also growing very quickly. Revielle every morning for my awesome wife is 0500 so she can start cleaning their cages and the entire kitchen. I usually get up a tad after her and help. I don't want to get up at 0500, F that! However, sometimes I do get up that early when I rack out early. Light comes in before 0500 this time of year even with dark curtains and I actually like it because it tells me to gear up for a productive day. Then half the time I fall back to sleep what a bunch of crap! It's rare I sleep past 0600 on weekdays, though.

^We do have 6 chickens, but the other three were out of the frame. The ducks and chickens were about the same size when we first got them and wow the ducks just grow so quickly. I took that picture Friday and I think the ducks doubled in size since then as well!

The weather today was a 10. I went for a 2-mile jog before lunch, but I walked some as usual. I've had a right calf strain for over a week, but these past couple days it's improved a lot. It really didn't bother me too much during the jog what bothered me more is how much of a pussy I am. I get so out of breath now my cardio is embarassing. What a bunch of crap! Hey, I did jog over 1.5 miles of the 2-miles so that's better than nothing. I am a little less sore than I was last week so maybe my bootleg body is making the needed adjustments (I could just say I'm getting in better shape.) It's a small step forward, but I do notice and appreciate it.

I need to take some pictures of the downstairs area. I actually have a big area almost ready for paint, but it's only about 1/4 of the entire space. I'm certainly over 25% done with the remodel in that spacious room, but I'm under 50%. I don't think I can finish it before the end of this month like I want to do. 27 days left in the month, who knows, but the odds of my not finishing it are above the last two percentages I just posted COMBINED. What a bunch of crap!

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