(Last updated: 10-30-2025)

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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 $21.99 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!

Thursday, 10-30-25: Let's drink on a Thursday! Closed again wtf?!.
This restaurant stuff... OMG it's totally nuts. I've written pieces of it before, but essentially Mack's is failing and we are working on a Mad Kat Restaurant comeback. The landlord told the owner of Mack's to hit the road, and he's also not doing much for business. He took over the space after we closed earlier this year and it's been a HUGE shit-show for him ever since he opened just over 6 months ago.

What could possibly go wrong, right? Busted for drugs after being open 11 days, check. No staff? Yup that's him right now. Poor food and service? Check. Prices too high? Why not since every other failer is on the list already. We've been working with the owner of Mack's for weeks, literally weeks, since he agreed to sell all the stuff back to us and leave. All we need is a simple signed agreement then we can flesh out a contract, but even getting that done is like pulling teeth. Finally we made some concessions and planned to meet with him earlier today at 1800 at their restaurant. We arrived a few minutes early to see the place totally closed, lights off, no one home, and not even a sign on the door as to why they closed. OMG WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP!

That place is pwned worse than any other failing business I've ever seen. Someone should write a book about it that's how bad it is. Last week they were closed Wednesday, they closed Sunday, and on Monday no one was there at 1700 when their posted hours were to be open at 1500 both Monday and Wednesday and 0900 Sunday. EPIC FAIL! The guy just does what he wants and if he doesn't want to open he just doesn't. He doesn't even put a sign on the door anymore when he closes. What a bunch of crap!

So we drove to the restaurant, no one was there, but get this at 1751 he had texted me that something came up and he couldn't meet. OMG REALLY?! All I wanna know is why? Why couldn't he have texted me that earlier in the day? He said he'd sign a contract via email, but both my awesome wife and I knew that probably wasn't gonna happen. Nevertheless I sent it to him and now it's 2200 exactly and my hot wife is racked out after having 6 shots. When we were in the Mack's parking lot Kat went into Paradis while I dealt with the owner of Mack's via a few texts. I asked her what she bought since I didn't see groeries and she had a bottle of Espalon tequila. AHAHAHAHAHA. LET'S FUCKIN GO!

SO we got home and drank. She got more drunk than me, but she's not trashed. Maybe not? Hopefully not! I'm a little drunk, but not too bad because I need to work tomorrow on that garage. I still think we are getting the restaurant back, but the stress of it all is almost off the scale. It's almost as bad as last year when we didn't sell the place. Every day is a roller coaster between dealing with the landlord and the owner of Mack's. I don't hate either of them, but the way they do business = what a bunch of crap!

As far as that huge garage job in Brewer, today my awesome wife came to help for a couple hours. I installed a winch a couple days ago and so far it's been fantastic for bringing 9 of 50 pieces of 4x8x 1/2" sheetrock up. I had two heavier 72x80 sliders delivered last week and those also needed to get top-side, but they weigh a bit over 200 pounds each so those can't be pushed up the ladder. Solution?

We used the hoist and that 2x8x16 as a guide and that shit worked awesome. I'm no engineer, but I acidentally pulled that off like a champ and I couldn't have done it without a competent helper so thankfully my wife is not a nincompoop. She's very smart, but she's a lot to deal with emotionally at times. Notice how I put those bags of insulation underneath? Hehehe. I thought it something failed at least I'd have a chance to not destroy a $600 slider.

Kat also stayed to help me install the slider on the river-facing west side so now I can stop the wind-tunnel effect when the weather sucks. I can close that slider door and even run a little heater, and that will be critical when we start sheetrock. I wanted to start sheetrock this week, but there is still a lot of prep and insulating to do so that will have to wait. My helper was sick the last two days, but I don't feel like I'm behind schedule because I've gotten a bunch done this week and getting those sliders elevated and one installed is a huge win.

I also worked more on the rear deck area once the temp crept above 50:

^I probably should have used a thick rubber roofing material below what will be the deck, but I decided 2 layers of Grace Ice & Water Shield will be fine for two reasons. First, the porch is 100% covered with a roof so moisture will only get in on windy days with precip. Second, below that is only a garage not living space. The sun won't hit that too much either so it won't bake away that ice/water shield. I sloped it so whatever water does blow in there can drain away, too. It's not an exact science, but I'm happy with it. Blue siding will be installed on those plywood walls.

We get some heavy rain tonight, it stays mild, and tomorrow the rain ends mid-morning and we could see 60 degrees so that's a friggin' heat wave compared to where we've been and what's in the pileline for next week. I'll try to button up more of that deck area tomorrow while my helper (who hopefully will come after being sick for two days) does insulating inside. I really need to crush it and get a lot of that done before we do get the keys back to the restaurant and re-open Mad Kat...

Wow, this might be my last bootleg update for the month. Who knows, I might write on here again tomorrow but it's unlikely. We're not doing anything for Halloween, F that, but seeing the grandkids in costume will be great. Damon is only 4 and not 100% into the concept yet and of course baby Dylan isn't even a year old so she really has no idea. I don't think people will come here to trick or treat since we have a 400-foot-long driveway and are in a very rural area. I don't want people coming here gods damn it!

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Tuesday, 10-28-25: Hey cool a winch. It got cold! I shot.
I have the World Series on, but I'll turn it off pretty soon and write on this bootleg site that probably two people will ever see. Ohtani just struck out, and he's also the pitcher. That guy can PLAY. He's 6 for 12 with 3 home runs in the series so the Blue Jays essentially stopped pitching to his ass after last night's 18-inning game when the Dodgers won on a walkoff home run. Ohtani hit 3 home runs and struck out 10 over 7 innings in their final game of the NLCS before advancing to the World Series. It's probably the best performance in a single game in the history of the sport. It should be since Ohtani is getting something like $700 million over ten years. OMG!

It kinda got cold in a hurry, or so it seems. We've had a lot of cool, cloudy, windy/breezy days lately with high temps barely 50. I worked on that garage yesterday with long johns and my knit hat all day. Today no long johns, but definitely yes to the knit hat and thicker jacket. We did hit 54 for a high temp, but that thing is a wind-tunnel now so I really need to install a slider within the week so it's not windy on the inside anymore.

^Two big openings, one on each end for a slider on each end = wind tunnel. What a bunch of crap! (Other opening not shown in the photo as it's behind where I was standing.)

I was hitting a little bit of a wall in terms of figuring out the best way to get 50 pieces of sheetrock up to that 16-foot high second floor. Hammond Lumber could have delivered with a boom truck, but I didn't want all that weight in one spot up there and I'm not 100% sure it would have fit. There is room for it on the deck area, but barely enough. The homeowner also has a 350-lb pool table (still in the box) that needs to get top-side as well as the two sliders and a bunch of other stuff. Homeowner said he's fine with my renting a crane or lift, but I didn't see the value in having a crane when each piece of sheetrock has to go individually. $200 a day for the technology to get stuff top-side?! No thanks! I bought this instead:

Thank you Harbor Freight Tools. A small electric hoist rated for 440 lbs. I lifted one piece of sheetrock with it today and it did great. However, I did ding up that piece of sheetrock so next time I'll do it with a helper and that will be better. Installing the hoist was easy and when I factor in a $10 strap and a $15 angle-iron bar to hold it in place it's a very cheap solution ($150 total) that I have there now until the job is done. I will remove it when it rains, but for the next two days I'll keep it right there.

^Lots to lift in the days and weeks to come!

I was having a pretty good time Friday night until my wife was a beotch to me on the drive home. She was liquored up, thanks Jose Cuervo, but it was still upsetting. I wrote all about it when I got home, but I dunno if I should even post it because I was in a huge funk and talking about getting drunk and passing out in a snowbank. What a bunch of crap! I had planned to work on the house Saturday, but I decided to do nothing at all and it was glorious. I wasn't hungover, I was just feeling beat. It was a good day off, and a rare one at that. Sunday was also a day off, but not really because I went down to the ol' homestead to visit my family and to go to the range with Dad and Jason. For the first time in years I shot my 30.06 and feel sighted in and ready for hunting. It was nice shooting with Dad and Jason, and after that we had a nice lunch with Mom back at the house.

Lunch was entertaining. Mom was starting to dog on my ass because we are trying to bring Mad Kat back (where's my psychologist?!) and I told her the truth. She tells this story about once a year about the time I went car shopping with Uncle Kevin (her brother) back in probably 1994 when I was in the Navy and stationed in the California Bay Area. I had some stupid calculator watch and I guess I was doing math on that thing like a mad scientist (NERD ALERT HEHE) while the car salesman was trying to talk about monthly payments. All I cared about was the interest rate haha. I don't even remember this at all by the way, but I'm sure it happened. Mom thinks for years I was some financial cheapskate-wizard and she's partly right. I used to be GREAT with my money and now I suck with it. What happened?

I told what I 100% believe to be the truth. I'm almost 50 years old, I'm not having kids, there is no one to leave my stuff to, so why would I want to check out with a million dollars in the bank? Sure it would be great to leave riches to a charity or to Kat's kids, but I'm not really a fan of passing down loads of money because that's how kids become trust-fund lazy-asses. No sense leaving anything to Hawke or Nadia since they are all set thanks to Jason and Holly absolutely crushing it as parents.

So I basically told her oh well if we fail again I'll just work more before I die. I don't really care that much about money like I did 20-30 years ago. I still care, but it's different now and I'm all good just earning the average for this area. Sadly that last sentence is mostly theory since we haven't earned that much in years. What a bunch of crap!

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Friday, 10-24-25: My life fuckin' sucks again.
All I wanna know is why? Why have I gotten older and gotten worse at life? I can't fuckin' keep up with all the bullshit that goes on during the week in my shit-show life, and it's getting old. So what's the solution? I tried to divorce my wife three times over ten years and that failed each time so maybe I should just get really drunk, like epic blackout shit-show drunk, and go outside and freeze. However, it's only going to be 40 tonight and I don't think I can freeze I think it needs to be colder. I could empty out our freezer downstairs, but I don't think I can do that and get drunk enough to pull it off before I passed out on the floor with the door open and there goes all the food as well as $50 in wasted electricity. What a bunch of crap!

My drunk wife was being a beotch to me and I really don't need that shit. She was all pissed off because we didn't stop at Mack's on the way home from Cap's at midnight or so. What possible good could have come from that? We already have a handshake agreement to come back next month with not only the owner of Mack's but also with the landlord and going in there drunk at midnight to verbally shit on his failing business is very unwise. I should have just let her do it since owning a restaurant again might suck. A lot. However, it's end-game and time to figure out if my worthless life is redeemable or not. Right now it's about 50/50 so it it goes bad I'm out. If it goes well I guess I can stick around. Maybe? Hopefully. I obviously hope it goes well, but I might have made too much of my own luck in the past to steer the ship away from the iceberg. I see the iceberg and the ship can only turn slowly so it will be close.

Dominion, Mother Russia. I'm life-hate listening to 80s music so maybe I only want to die a little instead of a lot. 80s music helps me to be alive and functional. However, Boheian Rhapsody can eat the peanuts out of me shit because fuck that song up its ass. In a perfect world I'd be hanging out with my hot wife right now before bed, but I ditched her ass to come write on this bootleg site that almost no one will ever read. My life sucks now and I'm tired of it. I think I've almost used up Penobscot County forever, it's close, and if that fails maybe even Knox County won't work and it's either finding a new plane of existence or ditching Maine forever...

I feel embarassed to write all that and maybe I should rewind it, but one day it might help someone else or even myself if I don't end up dead. I still like doing things with my hot wife, but sometimes she's an asshole and I just want to be alone for like 2 months. I do miss being single, but not because I can pokerize other chicks I don't give a shit about that anymore. No, I just WANT SOME FUCKING PEACE IN MY LIFE AND PEACE IS GONE AND WHO DO I BLAME? THREE PEOPLE:

ME, MYSELF, AND I

I deverve that. What a bunch of crap!

So I was thinking on a scale of 1-10 my current life is a 9 of fail, but I'm listening to Ah Ha Living a Boys Adventure Tale so this 80s song helps and now it's only an 8 hehehe.

These fuckin' dogs. I wish they would leave me alone and rack out. I hate having dogs now. I used to like them, but not anymore. I don't hate them I just don't want to deal with them anymore. They can't run around in the yard because they are bad listeners and they'll get ticks. They eat their own shit and they're obnoxious. I'd give them away if I could, but only as a package deal because emotionally they need each other. Emptionally I'm impotent, or so they say. Half the time I believe it.

Dad shot his deer Wednesday evening, a small one-antlered buck nicknamed "Coat rack" and weighing 113. Great crossbow kill for Dad and the perfect-sized deer for him. I want to go deer hunting, but I have failed at living my own life so I'm not sure I can do much of it this year. If I don't go at least a couple times I probably will just die because missing one year left a hole in me that can never be fully plugged. Dad isn't going to live many more years (I feel terrible about that) so every day I don't spend with him is a day I suck at life. He LOVES hunting and going hunting with him now is like a gift from the gods who do not really exist.

Pet Shop Boys Opportunities. I've got the brains, you've got the looks, let's make lots of money... Too bad in my life my wife got both the brains and the looks hehehe.

I don't give a shit if I shoot a deer. I just want to sit in the woods and... sit. I want the peace and quiet with the occasional bird, squirrel, turkeys, and even deer making an appearance. Hell a couple years ago when I went hunting I saw does and skippes and didn't even care... whether or not I cared... to harvest one. So funny because for many years it was a case of "If it's brown it's down." Meaning I'd deer hunt and shoot any size deer. Now I'm selective and I just enjoy watching them. I actually feel more badly now when I kill one than I did 20 years ago. Where's my psychologist?

I'll still kill a deer and put the meat in the freezer. If I'm eating venison that means a cow lives longer somewhere else, right?

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Friday, 10-17-25: A few more photos and the latest on the house, garage, and restaurant.
Rifle season for deer hunting starts in a couple weeks, and I am not ready. What a bunch of crap! I should be bowhunting this month, but F that everything is like a life-tornado and I can't even cover it all on this bootleg site that only two people will ever read. Maybe three if I say me, myself, and I hehehe. We see tons of deer and this evening when I got home right as night fell there were three deer under the apple trees by the driveway. I was probably only 25 yards away from them, and two ran off. However, one just didn't seem to care... whether or not it cared, and it just stayed there and ate apples. Deer are big into apples right now and they should be because soon they'll all be gone then it's just whatever sprouts and whatnot they can find in winter.

We had some friends over last Saturday night, and that was a total blast. I had a great time! One of our former employees and close friends was getting married Sunday so it was a very informal pre-marriage party. Not a bachelorette party, just some good friends hanging out. I met a really cool guy who also drinks coffee brandy and milk hahahaha! Adam is around our age and lives in Georgia now, but he came up for the wedding since his "adopted" niece was the one getting married.

We stayed up too late and I was a tad hungover Sunday morning. Not horribly-so, but enough to be annoyong. What a bunch of crap! We went to the wedding and that was a very nice ceremony and reception. Even better it was at the event venue just 1.5 miles from the house. 3-minute commute? YES PLEASE. We used to have a 3-minute commute when we lived in Brewer, but I don't miss living there this place is awesome even though it has a lot of flaws and the house isn't even close to done yet.

The studio downstairs is mostly done now, and I haven't posted photos from that room in a long time so here are a couple now:

We got a used pellet stove from Kat's ex-husband. I don't know the guy very well and from what I'm told he was a nincompoop when he was married to my awesome wife, but his loss is my gain. He does that stuff for a living so he treated us very well and I appreciate him for that. He also went all John Rambo and executed 3 roosters for us a few weeks ago so that's a win for us. I could have done it, but I would have felt bad gods damn it.

I say I feel too bad to execute a chicken, but really I just don't know the proper technique without having the thing flop around and claw me. I'd prefer to let them loose then one shot, one kill with my 870. I would feel bad, I feel bad anytime I hunt and kill something, but that's the way of the planet. Things live then things die.

^Gotta have the Snoopy shelves. Kat adores The Peanuts. I think they're kind-of fuckin' lame, but I do respect Schultz RIP and Pig Pen makes me laugh. He just chills out in a cloud. A DIRT-CLOUD HAHAHA. That beotch who always pulls the football away... Lucy? She probably grew up to be a stripper. Also, why did Charlie Brown only have one wisp of hair? Did he have cancer? There was no chemo back then, though. Who is really likeable in that cartoon anyway? Even Pig Pen is a FFI since he can't wash his ass. What a bunch of crap!

That garage job came along slowly this week. I had some tax clients to finish, we are dealing with this restaurant shit, and the weather turned into ten pounds of crap stuffed into a five-pound bag. Just a couple weeks ago we were in the 70s/80s for 4 consecutive days and now we are pwned. Every year that happens, though. It was in the 40s all day yesterday with a lot of wind and some rain so I stayed home and worked on the house. I built a closet and installed some sheetrock in what will be the gym, and we used the pellet stove for the first time. The stove worked GREAT. It needs a thermostat and I accidentally intalled that correctly the first time, too. Bonus! (There are only two wires red and white low-volt hehe.)

I'm still weeks if not months away from having a functioning gym downstairs. Besides not having enough precious... precious time there is just very limited space with all the stuff in that room. If we get the restaurant back we can put a bunch of stuff there again... lots on that still to come but not in tonight's bootleg update. That North Brewer Shopping Plaza has come back into my life again, bigtime, and I need to figure out if that's good or bad.

Back to that garage job, this week the owner paid me again and that was unexpected as usually he pays once a month early in the month. No complaints from my loser-ass on that one! He actually overpaid me, or paid me ahead to keep me moving, and damnit that shit works. Pay me I work. (Don't pay me I still work where's my psychologist?!) He came up with extra money to help expedite the process, and that is exactly how it works. I told him that when I first started. I told him if he pays $3000/month it's a 3-year job and I'm there 10-15 hrs a week. He wants it done sooner so now that he's paid up he's got it and I'll have another helper next week since Daniel is deployed and married now. Yeah, he and Via tied the knot and we are very happy for them. Great people great friends.

The weather sucked ass today, too. I waited until 1000 to start and it was still only inthe 40s, cloudy, and the biggest problem was a STIFF north wind that battered my ass all day. I had a stocking hat on and a thicker jacket, but it didn't matter that wind was BRUTAL. Temps did get into the upper 50s, but the wind didn't let up. All my work right now is on the N side and on the river that wind has nothing to break it up. Even worse at 16 feet in the air.

^That faces the river. I got the soffit, window, more siding installed, and I removed that staging and prep for when I work there again Sunday.

I wanted to work on the much-warmer east side, but concrete guys are supposed to be coming so I wanted to be out of their way. However, today the homeowner told me no concrete until next week and we have rain coming Mon and Wed so no concrete for at least 6 days. That gave me a chance to set up staging on that east side. I'd work on the NW end until I got cold then I'd go to the east side and set up scafholding to warm up hehehe. Then I played racquetball and I was really tanked-out after that because doing all the scafholding, all those trips up and down the ladder today, that wore me down. I played decent-ish at Rball today, but I 100% know working on that garage had me worn out some and it affected my game. Oh well we just play for fun.

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Friday, 10-10-25: Am I supposed to be the manager? I don't really get it. What a crazy life we live these days.
All I wanna know is why? Why did our former landlord give me a bunch of keys last week? Am I supposed to be his manager? Lots going on and I can't write about it all yet, not until we get more clarity.

The North Brewer Shopping Plaza will always hold a special place in my heart. Is it my hell? I dunno, but I think there is more good than bad there. Maybe? Hopefully! The good: A lot of fun times, great times, at Jester's including meeting my awesome wife. How can I forget IWE with Doug, Tommy, and Gavin all those years ago?

^Wow, 15 years ago from July, 2010. My life was a crazy shit-show back then as well. I had a cruise-ship girlfriend who lived in Marietta, Georgia and in September of that year I moved down there and made it 9 days. What a bunch of crap! Hey, I got my truck there and I still have that same rusting truck all these years later. Check engine light on, low tire warning, oil-change warning (I did the oil that's bullshit), and I can't seem to get a newer vehicle. I once called my F150 badass, but now it's just tired. I'm tired as well, bedtime soon, but not yet.

Paradis grocery store is in that plaza and I've shopped there since 1998. Doug worked there for a minute back in the day, he met his now ex-wife at Paradis, and I met my wife at Jester's in 2014. Wow! Oh, did I mention we opened a restaurant there in 2021 that cost us over a half a million dollars, failed, and almost cost me my life? It almost cost my wife her life as well, and we are considering a comeback at that same location. Yes, we do have a psychologist and we need one hehehe. We have issues!

Mad Kat failed because I didn't want to do it anymore. I was spending too much precious... precious time there so I let it go. I fucked it all up letting it go, but some of that, a lot of that actually, was NOT my fault. Now it might come back, but if it does it will be different. The landlord said we can come back and when I met him Sunday he gave me a wad of keys and that was hilarious. He had in idea what keys did what doors so that's a mystery to me that will be fun to deal with.

The landlord lives 3 hours away so he's rarely there, and he had some chick who owned a hair salon "managing" the place until she had health issues and had to quit. Now the hair place is vacant so he wants my ass to rent it for him. I think he might be angling for me to be the new property manager there, but with him it changes like the wind and I'm not really sure I want to do that. He can be tough to contact, he's cheap, and he's kind-of a slumlord. However, he was always decent to us except for the time he wanted $20K for "CAM" fees and I wouldn't pay it hahaha! Oh wait that actually happened twice what a bunch of crap!

So I have to post "For rent" signs and schedule showings. We still owe the landlord money so that's fine with me. It might lead to more, who knows? It would need to be fair for me and him and it would have to also incorporate the return of some new version of Mad Kat. The place there now might be leaving soon so we are trying to finalize a deal, but nothing is firm just yet. We thought we had it locked down after a meeting yesterday evening, but today I'm just not feeling it.

Speaking of today, I worked on that garage in Brewer for the afternoon before I played racquetball against Gavin and Mike later PM. For the last two days I haven't even started working on that garage until just before midday due to the two consecutive cold mornings. 29 this morning, 39 yesterday morning. 39 with no wind is tolerable, but yesterday the wind was BRUTAL. I'm working here on the job, 100% exposed to the river and NW winds with no buffer at all, ZERO. When it's windy I'm pwned. I had a knit hat on yesterday and after 3.5 hours working up there I was cold. What a bunch of crap!

^That will be a west-facing deck. That back side has taken a lot of precious... precious time as I expected it would with a weird angle, connecting to the existing house, heat pumps in the way, etc. The white trim is PVC so it shouldn't need painting, but it's a pain to work with because I need to not fuck it up. A 1x10x8 is $50 OMG. That shit is expensive, but I made an executive decision for the homeowner since I know wood painted white flakes over time and eventually will start to rot. That deck area will be a showpiece for the entire addition so I want it to be really nice and the homeowner does as well. Funny I'll be doing a deck in October that seems dumb when it will be too cold to really use for half a year. However, I can't really do that deck after I finish the interior because it's 16 feet in the air so it needs to be done before I finish off rooms and he moves everything in.

What's funny is Monday and Tuesday we flirted with 80 degrees. I didn't work there at all Wednesday due to rain and working on that plaza bullshit and tax client stuff. I have a few clients who need to finish by the 15th next week, and next Wednesday I'll be in the office for at least half the day taking care of all of that. Maybe? Hopefully!

I'm rapidly running out of decent weather to work outside. I don't want to work outside when it's 30. I can, but it sucks. A lot. I probably only weigh 140 so I'm scrappy and it doesn't take much to get me cold. Today was great at 58 or so, light wind. Next weeks looks to be colder as well with a lot of days in the 50s. By this time next month I'll be begging the gods who do not exist for 50s, but not in early/mid-October, and not after 3 days ago we were feeling like summer still. I am getting close to finishing the exterior stuff, though. I think by next month I can mostly work on insulation and sheetrock inside. However, I might also be helping with a restaurant startup...

That North Brewer Shopping Plaza might be my actual Hotel California because once I checked in it seems I could never leave. Is that good or bad? Only time will tell.

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Sunday, 10-05-25: Restaurant and garage.
It's 2153 and bedtime soon, but I'm watching the Patriots vs. Bills in Buffalo and it's halftime now, 6-3 Pats in what has been a shit-show game. I'm only half-watching anyway and bedtime is sure to come before the game ends. Maybe? Hopefully! The Bills are a better team than the Pats so I expect the 4-0 Bills to beat the 2-2 Patriots. Of course I'm hoping the Pats can pull off the upset. The Red Sox are eliminated after losing 2 of 3 to the Yankees last week. What a bunch of crap!

I had a very frustrating day Friday working on this huge garage in Brewer, but I didn't let it turn me sour and I kept my spirits up (mostly) for the day so that's a win. It was a perfect 71 degrees so that helped. I've known for months the day was going to come when I had to deal with this:

Two friggin heat pumps there that needed to get out of the way so I could install the blue siding. The homeowner paid some other handyman to put white siding on there, but it was not going to work since it should have been Bayou Blue. Plus there was no way to tie it into the slider or the inside corner so it all had to be removed. I also had to crawl under part of that bottom heat pump to use my multitool to cut out some worthless OSB. I spent HOURS there just to get maybe 35 square feet of siding installed. What a bunch of crap!

I could have had that siding on in an hour if not for those gods damned heat pumps. I had to dismount them and support them and I almost told the homeowner he needed an HVAC person to come remove them, but I know that would be very expensive so I took on the challenge and made it work. I hated wasting 4 man-hours billed to the owner for dealing with it (took tons of extra time) but it was the best option financially so I'm glad I did it.

^That bootleg wooden support was just temporary and it's been removed since I re-mounted that heat pump.

I really need to get this garage done because it seems we might get the restaurant back. That is far from a guarantee, but after today I'm 80-90% confident it's going to happen. Mack's, the place that was there since April, will be leaving so it's just a matter of negotiating a fair deal for all parties. I met the landlord today and he sort-of dropped a bombshell on my ass. He basically wants me to look after his plaza for him so he gave me some keys. If I can get a vacant unit rented there is a commission, and I want it. I'm not his property manager, but I have a feeling it could lead to that. He lives up in Caribou so he's not around much and I know he wants someone local to help. He had someone, but she left.

I feel like I really don't have a choice. If I tell him no then he won't give us the space back for Mad Kat (he didn't say that, but it's what I expect) but if I work with him we probably get the space back. Why do I want it back? We have the right people in place this time and it will be different. Plus I can put my tax business back there and it's likely to be a win for everyone. More to come as the months rolls on...

On Friday after I dealt with those friggin' heat pumps I had time to start stripping down this porch roof on the back of our house:

OMG WHAT A BOOTLEG BUNCH OF CRAP! Shingles had become almost totally worthless so the thing leaked badly, but it's just a porch roof so who cares right? Well the roof was blocking access to this area that needed to be sealed up because bugs, wasps, and rodents had easy access. All I wanna know is why? Why was a scrap piece of OSB thrown on there? It made no sense and it was chewed up and rotting with gaping holes into the attic space. What a bunch of crap!

Thankfully there were no wasps; when we got the place there was an empty wasp nest the size of a soccer ball up there. I think I have a photo, but I dunno where. Sadly we have hundreds, literally hundreds, of beetles living up there now and many of them have come down into our living area. What a bunch of crap! They look like ladybugs, but they are like the bootleg version and they are really everywhere. Gods damn it!

Weather for the next two days looks great, like summer 84 tomorrow 79 Tues, and then it gets to be fall for real with 50s and 60s after that. I really need to wrap up a lot of this exterior work because it SUCKS being out there when it's freezing cold. Thursday was actually cold for most of the morning. We did hit 62 in the PM with sun, but it was crisp and frosty in the morning and I was working in the shade by those two heat pumps so I had my hood up. Wind was ripping off the river there and it sucked. Not mid-winter suck, not even close, but compared to all the warm and sunny days we've had it was a bit of a shock to the system.

I know I won't finish this garage this year, it's essentially impossible with all that's left and the budget we are working with, but I want to get a room or two done inside so next year I don't have too much left before it's done. In a perfect world I might give up the carpentry and just do the tax business and help with the restaurant after I finish this garage. Of course that's too soon to say for sure.

It's 10-6 Barfalo so the Pats need to really level up if they can win this one, especially playing IN Buffalo. I'm just not going to make it to the end of the game because we were up late last night with friends so I'm getting tired. Bedtime soon!

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Wednesday, 10-01-25: Lots to be revealed this month. I think?
At this time a year ago I was thinking we were only a month away from having our restaurant sold for a respectable sum, and we were finalizing plans to move to Eddington. Little did I know then how much of a shit-show everything would become by the end of the year. The restaurant sale fell through the day before the closing (we have a lawyer kinda working on it now) and we didn't move to Eddington until early January after the restaurant had gone out of business. We had delay after delay on the closing of our house in Brewer. What a bunch of crap! That shit-show end to 2024 almost put me into an early grave because I didn't even want to be alive anymore. I was also doing this roof for Dillon and Debbie at 19 Gilmore, a building I once owned for around a decade and used it as a rental property:

Funny from my Oct 2, 2024 bootleg update I wrote about listening to The Pet Shop Boys Opportunities and I just heard that same song a few minutes ago hahahaha!

No roofing to do this October, hopefully none for the rest of the year (the rest of my life hahaha) but I still have a lot to do on our house and at that huge garage job in Brewer. Plus there are serious brewings regarding the restaurant that has at least a small chance to make a comeback. I think this month we will get some clarity on that situation. Basically the landlord plans to kick Mack's out due to a HUGE list of problems so we might have to take back over. I shouldn't say we might have to take back over, but Kat wants to do it and we have the right people in place for it as well as a possible investor. I'm all for it as well, but if it happens it will be different from the first time. It's far from a guarantee at this point as the current owner of Mack's will want compenstion for all the equipment we sold to him (that he hasn't fully paid for yet) so coming together on a fair number for all parties might be the sticking-point.

Mack's has gotten some BRUTAL Google reviews. Like, all-time bad. This one came in from Sunday:

We walked into this place thinking that our Sunday breakfast couldn't be worse than the last place we had it. We were unpleasantly surprised. We had a waitress that looked like she had just gotten out of bed and had no interest in serving anybody, and I was surprised to hear somebody slurring at 10:30 on a Sunday morning, especially somebody who was taking our order. We ordered an omelette and a burrito. It took us about 40 minutes to get our food, the burrito was supposed to have salsa and sour cream, it didn't. The home fries were cut up french fries that were deep fried in oil. I understand home cooked food, but I feel like the chef maybe had never made more than a couple omelets before.

We didn't get charged for the half flat Coke or the weak tepid coffee that my breakfast partner had (no refills were offered for either, as the waitress was too busy outside smoking right on the other side of where we were sitting), however, I was shocked to see we were charged $2 extra for cheese in the breakfast burrito that was supposed to have cheese in it. Mind you, I didn't say anything to the waitress about the sour cream or the salsa, she was already checked out when we got there and at that point, we just wanted to pay our check and to leave. If this was the last place to go out and eat, I would just cook at home. Kid-friendliness:
Considering our waitress had more of her breasts out than she had covered, I would say don't bring your kids here.

OMG WHAT A TERRIBLE BUNCH OF CRAP! That's not their only bad review either. Man, what a mess. Lots more going on behind the scenes there that we know about so we shall see what happens this month. I'm hoping we can make a deal, get the keys back, and get to work to reopen for a killer New Year's Eve party, but that's nothing more than a hope at this point for us both.

I'd be happy to have the restaurant back for two reasons. First, it would make my wife happy. Second, I can put my tax office back there and it's set up to be a win for everyone. The stipulation I made clear, multiple times, is my unwillingness to be put back on the work schedule as that would end me again like it did last year. I will gladly fill in and help on occasion, but only on my own terms so I can focus more on the tax business. I'd deal with contractors, do the books and payroll, do repairs, etc. I did a lot of that before, but we did hire out payroll so this time I would be the one doing it. Maybe? Hopefully!

It's far from a guarantee to happen, but over the past few days a lot has happened to make me think it's very possible. The money is the biggest unknown right now. How much would we need to do a remodel and how much will it take to essentially buy out the existing Mack's owner. All will be revealed this month... I think?

Man, it was almost cold today. What a bunch of crap! We did hit 60 degrees, but only briefly and it was very crisp and windy. I didn't even want to go for a jog because I'm so spoiled from the fantastic September weather we had. I did go 32 miles last month, the most I've done in years. Oh Jesus, hell ya! I just looked and I went 32.75 miles in June of 2020, Covid-year. Wow! It wasn't always pretty last month, but I did put in the work and I'm pleased with the end result. This month I won't jog as much as it will cool off more, I'll get busy, and I want to play racquetball again. I took most of last month off from playing because my breathing was a big problem for a lot of August and earlier last month. Thankfully it's been better lately.

Big warmup coming Friday through Tuesday with temps of 70+ so that's awesome. Last stretch of warm weather for the year? Almost certainly yes and that's okay as long as I can start wrapping up all my exterior work. Today I did some of this siding before I worked more on the inside where the wind wasn't beating the crap out of my ass:

Alright turds, all two of you who read this bootleg site, I'm out of here. I need to figure out how to hook up our pellet stove so we can use it for bonus heat. I don't even know what brand pellets to get so I should research that as well. Too much to do and not enough time for it all as usual what a bunch of crap!

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