9-04 10-04 11-04 12-04 1-05 2-05 3-05 4-05 5-05 6-05 7-05 8-05 9-05 10-05 11-05 12-05 1-06 2-06 3-06
4-06 5-06 6-06 7-06 8-06 9-06 10-06 11-06 12-06 1-07 2/07 3-07 4-07 5-07 6-07 7-07 8-07 9-07 10-07 11-07 12-07 1-08 2-08 3-08 4-08 5-08 6-08 7-08 8-08 9-08 10-08 11-08 12-08 1-09 2-09 3-09 4-09 5-09 6-09 7-09 8-09 9-09 10-09 11-09 12-09 1-10 2-10 3-10 4-10 5-10 6-10 7-10 8-10 9-10 10-10 11-10 12-10 1-11 2-11 3-11 4-11 5-11 6-11 7-11 8-11 9-11 10-11 11-11 12-11 1-12 2-12 3-12 4-12 5-12 6-12 7-12 8-12 9-12 10-12 11-12 12-12 1-13 2-13 3-13 4-13 5-13 6-13 7-13 8-13 9-13 10-13 11-13 12-13 1-14 2-14 3-14 4-14 5-14 6-14 7-14 8-14 9-14 10-14 11-14 12-14 1-15 2-15 3-15 4-15 5-15 6-15 7-15 8-15 9-15 10-15 11-15 12-15 1-16 2-16 3-16 4-16 5-16 6-16

“She said I had spoiled her on beer. She tried to drink a Miller Light and said it tasted like dirty water compared to what I buy.” –Gavin (taking about his girlfriend.)

Tuesday, 7-26-16: First day of the raking season.
It's 0730, the dogs are eating chow, and I'm almost fully packed up and ready to head down to the midcoast; I will likely leave here in 30-45 minutes to start my 2016 blueberry raking season. Right now there is not a breath of wind and it's already almost 70 degrees enroute to the mid-upper 80s so it will be another hot, sticky day. They said on the news we've already hit 90 in Bangor six times so far this year. Six times what a bunch of crap! 90 is way too hot gods damn it. We've also had several days in the upper 80s, and the extended forecast shows another 90+ for Bangor tomorrow. Thankfully down in Hope and closer to the ocean it will "only" be about 85 today and tomorrow. Still damn hot for all day working in a field, though.

I'll probably work for 5-6 hours today before I head over to Mom and Pop's for tonight. I have my chainsaw loaded so I can cut up some tree debris before we have supper and I bivouac. I plan to bivouac early tonight because I almost never get enough sleep up here anymore with the dogs getting up early and Katherine needing a ride home from babysitting. Ah well, now that I'm older I guess I don't need as much sleep as I once did. I function well enough on 6-7 hours of sleep, but an 8 thrown in every once in a while sure feels nice.

I'll rake tomorrow for a few hours, maybe into the midafternoon if I feel good and the berries are adding up at a decent pace, and then I'll come back home for tomorrow night. On Thursday I head back down with all the camping gear and a load of firewood so Gav and I can set up camp and dive into the season.

^Should be enough for a week of camping out. I hope!

When I was splitting and stacking the wood several days ago I uncovered a mouse nest that contained four brand new baby mice. The mice were still pink with their eyes closed so they were just born probably within a day or two. I tried my best to cover the nest up, and Kat and I put out some food and water. However, I know that nest got really disturbed so I'm hoping the mom didn't just abandon them out of fear. I was terribly afraid the babies would die, but there was no way we could have tried to bring them into the house to save them. Hopefully the mom did come back to the nest; I never looked again because I was too afraid I'd find dead little baby mice. Kat looked several days later and told me the mom moved them because they weren't there anymore, and I hope she's right. I'd feel like a huge piece of shit if I accidentally murdered 4 brand newborn mice.

Alright turds, all two of youz, I gotta get the hell out of here and drive down to Hope. I'd love to make $1500 again this season, but anything over $1000 will work for me. Goonies never say die!

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Saturday, 7-23-16: 8, 12, 7, 10, 300, 1508.
No, the numbers above are not some secret code. However, they do indicate how big of a geek I can be. I tend to keep track of a lot of stuff via Excel spreadsheets including my work on the house, my exercise, blueberry raking, and of course my bootleg rental property business. Keeping track helps me set goals, and I need goals to keep myself truly motivated. I think without my goals I would be more lazy and life would pass me by as I got fat. That would be a bunch of crap!

The first four numbers, the 8, 12, 7, and 10 are the approximate hours that I have put into the home addition over the past 4 weeks. I've kept track of all the hours I've worked on this home addition since I started it last August so I can pay myself a fair wage rate. At $20 an hour I owe myself... $13,275 (663.75 hrs total since last Aug.) Hehehe. Obviously I won't ever be paying myself any labor rate, but I do hope all the work pays off in the end by increasing the home's value by at least the $25k or so I will have into it for materials, contractor labor, permits, etc. Only time will tell on that one. The addition has already paid off bigtime for us in life because now there is plenty of room for all of us here. Plus two dogs and around 8 cats. Hell, I don't even know how many cats live here now, but I see them everywhere. What a bunch of crap! They don't really bother me most of the time so when it comes to the cats you can call me Switzerland because I am neutral. I do love the dogs a lot more, though. DOGS > CATS. However, my wife is a KAT and KAT > EVERYTHING including air, food, and water.

A year ago the house looked like this:

^I started the project around August 12th when I removed that back deck.

Now it looks like this:

Huge difference! Man, what a year it's been since I started the renovation/addition. It's by far the biggest job I've ever done because on the rental properties I at least had a frame with which to work, but on this job I had to rebuild and add on from the foundation all the way up to the roof. I learned a lot, but thankfully I did stay pretty close to my projected budget. I won't have it 100% done until this fall.

I went beast mode in the gym over the past two weeks (twwwwwwwwooooooooo weeeeeeeeeeeeekkkkkkksssssssssssssssssssss!) and the 300 is the roughly 5 hours of exercise that I've gotten this past week. Of course all I can do is estimate on that, but I know if I spend 35 good productive minutes in the gym working out the whole time and if it takes me 25 minutes to jog 3 miles there's an hour's worth of exericse. It's been my best week of exercise since June of 2013, unless blueberry raking is factored it. My best exercise of the year always happens on the blueberry fields each late July and early August, and raking starts for me in only three days. I rake for the money, but I also rake for the exercise. No amount of work in the gym can ever simulate the kind of exercise you get on a blueberry field; it truly is a total body workout if you actually do the raking and don't just sit on your pail all day and eat the profits. Hehehehe.

The 1508 that I posted above is the amount of money that I made two years ago raking for Cliff. I made more raking for John and Suzette down in Franklin after I raked for Cliff in 2014, but this year it seems almost certain that I will only rake for Cliff. I can't compare last year to this year because the fields are on a 2-year crop rotation so I have to look back two years to see what I did and to set goals for this year. I did talk to Cliff yesterday afternoon, and thankfully he does plan to rake Bull Hill so we are doing the exact acerage that we did two years ago. Cliff said the crop looks as good as it did two years ago so I'm hoping to make another $1500 this season. However, I'll be happy with $1200. I won't know until I get there on Tuesday morning what I can expect, but I certainly hope it's all good. This will be my 13th consecutive year raking for Cliff. Wow! I've blueberry raked since I was a kid, I started with Art next door in the late 1980s, but 2004 was when Gavin and I started camping and raking together. Gavin raked for Cliff for much longer, since he was a kid I believe. So funny Gavin is also kinda dating Cliff's daughter. Hehehehe.

I gots the Red Sox game on the tube, but I'll be shutting it off soon to head down to Season's. Kat is working down there tonight at their "Down Under" (NOT AUSTRALIA) club filling in for some other slapnut DJ who calls himself DINGO. When your DJ name is KAT you are a winner (especially when your real name is Kathleen.) However, when your DJ name is DINGO and your real name is Dennis you have probably led a failed life. DINGUS I mean DINGO (no nevermind it's DINGUS from now on) was a 'tard and double-booked himself so thankfully Kat bailed his dumb ass out by agreeing to do the Season's gig. Dingus did help Kat by covering for her at The Roost earlier in the year a couple times, but as a DJ Dingus is epic fail compared to Kat. I know Kat is the love of my life and I am obviously baised, but when Dingus was the substitute DJ at The Roost he did not do so great. He's been a DJ for decades so there's really no excuse for just being mediocre at best.

What's worse and more hyporcitical, being a DJ and calling yourself DINGO or being a slumlord and calling yourself RAMBO?! Hehehehehe. This site is called WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP for a reason you droolbuckets, all two of youz.

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Friday, 7-22-16: Progress on the house, raking, and another puppy photo.
I've only worked between roughly 8-12 hours each week on the house over the past few weeks. What a bunch of crap! The bootleg apartment business has been easy this month so I really don't have an excuse. However, my excuse is I want to spend time with my lovely wife, I want to exercise, and I want to play with the puppies. I didn't exercise at all for the first 10 days of this month because of my Sinusitis (What a bunch of crap that was!), but over the past 11 days I've gotten a LOT of exercise. I'll also get even more exercise of a different variety starting next week when I head down to the midcoast to start my 2016 blueberry raking season.

I'm still not sure exactly when Cliff plans to start raking, but as of last Sunday he said it should be either the 26th or 27th so either next Tuesday or Wednesday seems most likely. I know we'll start in his relatively shit fields as usual, but after that is unknown. Either the season will just end after a mediorce (at best) week only at Cliff's field or we will scoot over to Bull Hill to rake Bob Wright's for another week or so. Bob Wright's always > Cliff's fields so I hope we do that field as well. However, if we don't then oh well no sense sweating the things that I can't control. Two years ago I made $1500 doing both fields over about 12 days so I'd love to match that this year. However, without Bob Wright's field I'll be looking at only about half that amount, maybe $1000 if Cliff has a smaller crew this time around and we spend more time in his field.

Okay I'm back and it's now just after lunch. Kat, Katherine, and I went over to the gym and ripped out some good swell while we listened to the ROCKY 4 soundtrack. Awesome music to get pumped up to! (Kat and I watched Rocky 4 last night.) After that I had to mow some lawns, but then I had to quit because it's gods damned 90 degrees, it was lunchtime, and most importantly we had the repair dude coming. The fridge wasn't getting up to temperature so the food is not cold enough, and that is a bunch of crap. $89 later and we're back in business. The coils in the back needed to be defrosted, etc. I have a cooler and a shitload of ice here just in case the thing isn't really fixed. I don't know how old the fridge is because it came with the house when I bought the place (April, 2014.) However, it doesn't look that old and I assume it has several more useful years left before we have to haul on it. I hope!

^Nice fridge that I like more when it actually does its damn job... gods damn it! (Photo from the realtor listing just before I bought the house.)

I should go do some work on the house, but it's too hot and I am not that motivated. Working upstairs when it's 91 degrees = not pleasant. The kitchenette area is ready for a ceiling and then flooring, cabinets, trim, etc. Just have a small part left to sand and paint by the window. Here is what it looks like now:

I'll probably work on it some this afternoon. Maybe. I still have one more lawn to mow by my office and some weedwacking to do as well. Plus I have to get rid of a wasp/hornet nest that is almost the size of a soccer ball. I got stung a couple weeks ago while mowing by the thing, and that is a bunch of crap. I sprayed it with wasp killer, but I didn't get them all yet because it's in a tight spot under some steps. I actually didn't realize how big it is until I got a better look this morning.

The puppies are asleep now, but they got some good exercise this morning. A couple days ago we had the sheets off the bed in a pile before Sweet Pea put them in the wash and Tiger-Lily loved how comfy they were:

Puppies!

Copper really looks like an adult Golden Retriever now, and I'd guess he's not far from full size. It's funny how certain things scare him. The repair guy for the fridge = not scared at all. However, the steamer the repair guy used = sent Copper away in fear. We had a huge T-storm here Monday afternoon that terrified Copper, but that's not really unusual. Tiger-Lily wasn't scared, though. Water in a solo cup scared Copper last week, too. He shyed away from it like it could hurt him and then Tiger-Lily helped herself to the water while Copper cowered. Normally Copper is fine, but the things that scare him cannot be easily explained.

I should go do other things now. Maybe I'll watch a little TV with Sweet Pea and then do some work on the house, or maybe I will blow off working on the house for the day. Nothing here is urgent in nature right now so I'll get it done eventually. Goonies never say die!

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Tuesday, 7-19-16: An 18th birthday, WWE, and the puppy swimming pool.
Katherine is officially an adult now; we celebrated her 18th birthday on Sunday afternoon here at the house by having a cookoout and cheesecake. Sweet Pea bought scallops for her to have along with some other great food, and I learned something new. I learned that scallops cost 20 fucking dollars a pound. OMG WTF, OVER?! THAT IS GODS DAMNED RIDICULOUS. WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP!

I have never purchased scallops before, but I've had them a few times in my life. Bacon-wrapped scallops aren't too bad tasting, but they're far from a delicacy and the greasy bacon cancels whatever healthy traits a scallop probably has. I don't even know what the hell a live scallop is. What does it look like? The scallops come in round-ish white chunks so I assume they're not fish. Mollusks? Guy Googles them now...

Okay, I guess they are just shells. Sorta like clams and oysters? However, not really like that because I don't see any frigging pearls and the meat looks like this and not all gross like oyster meat:

^$20 a pound for stuff that looks like fish?! All I wanna know is why? Why do people pay so much for it when you could just get a quality fish for half the price or, even better, get some good meat and/or boneless chicken for "only" a few bucks a pound. A can of tuna for a buck or so? Yeah, that's how I roll.

Scallops taste ok, but there is no flav-gasm when you eat them. Combined with bacon they're better, but everything is better with bacon. Hehehehe. No way the things are worth 20 bucks a pound. F that! However, for Katherine it was a small price to pay because she's a great kid and how often do you get to turn 18? Once ever of course. Now she can buy smokes if she wants. Thankfully she doesn't ever put those nasty cancer-sticks into her gom-hole. Smoking is gross; no one in the family ever smokes. She can also vote now so if she votes for Hillary I'll make her live in a tent in the back yard. It will be cold then, too. Hehehee.

Katherine's main birthday gift was tickets to the WWE "house" show in Bangor on Saturday night. The WWE came to town last fall so I'm surprised they came back so soon. We went to the show last year, and this one was just as fun as the last one. We got ringside seats, third row back, so we were really close to the action. Kat got some great photos, too. Bonus! Good thing she always brings the camera because I never think of it until it's too late.

^Our favorite match of the night was the Dudley Boys (Bubba-Ray and Devon) vs. Enzo and Big Cass. Enzo and Cass are a new and hilarious tag team, and the Dudleys are legends in the industry. Kat and I actually saw the Dudleys when they were in Impact Wrestling nearly two years ago during our road-trip "Goonie Adventure" to Michigan to visit Phil and Danielle. Back then Bubba-Ray was a heel Bully-Ray, and he was great in that role. His heel run in Impact Wrestling was his career apex in my opinion.

We also saw wrestling longstays GoldDust, The Big Show, and Kane. The Bulgarian Brute, Rusev, was in the main event in a fatal 4-way, and one of our acquaintences who conveniently sat nearby kept shouting "MOTHER RUSSIA" at Rusev. Hilarious because Rusev isn't even supposed to be from Russia. HAHAHAHA. Overall the show was great and we all had a blast.

Last Friday Kat found a clearance kiddie pool at WalMart that's perfect for the puppies to play in. We filled it halfway on Saturday afternoon, and it didn't take Tiger-Lily long to get in.

Copper got it as well, but he preferred to get in just to try and entice his younger "sister" to play. He loves those tennis balls and can play fetch with them for hours on end.

Tiger-Lily hasn't had an accident in the house in days; she's mostly house trained now. Awesome! She generally goes to the slider when she has to conduct a transaction, but sometimes she goes to the door just because she wants to run around and eat plants. We had an epic thunderstorm yesterday afternoon that sent Copper cowering into the bedroom, but Tiger just wanted to go outside to play in puddles. Oh, she also likes to dig holes in the yard and play in the mud/mulch/plants. What a bunch of crap! This is her on Saturday after her wet body had a roll over by the deck:

^She was more dirty than the photo shows. Also, she really loves trampling and/or ripping out those plants. What a bunch of crap!

Alright turds,all two of youz, I gotta get going. Kat and I plan to go use the gym and play with the puppies before lunch. Goonies never say die!

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Friday, 7-15-16: Pokemon Go... WTF?! Exterior house photos.
All I wanna know is why? Why are 99% of people baaa baaa sheep? Why is everyone getting on their cellphones and wandering around the town, the county, and the entire nation in search of Pokemon? What the hell is Pokemon? I played a video game called Kirby's Adventure when I was younger so I thought Pokemon might be kinda like that, but I never bothered to care. I don't even care... whether or not I care.

This latest craze/illness has affected my own stepdaughter and her friends. They went downtown Wednesday night in search of this mysterious Pokemon fellow so Kat and I were worried that young girls could get themselves into trouble at night if they wandered too far off the beaten path. Thankfully no one was abducted or murdered; tons of people have been glued to their cellphones so it was busy downtown even at night. The Bangor Daily News posted this photo from a couple days ago, taken near downtown Bangor during the day:

^Hey everybody, let's get outside on a beautiful summer day AND GET ON OUR FUCKING CELLPHONES ALL GODS DAMNED DAY. WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP! No wonder the beach at Donnell Pond wasn't too crowded when Kat and I went. Probably no Pokerizeer-Man stops down there.

Some broad got smushed trying to cross the interstate down in southern Maine. She was supposedly on her phone at the time, but the authorities can't recreate what she was doing on her phone when three different vehicles pulverized her worthless ass because her phone also got pulverized. Most speculate she was looking for a Pokemon. Epic fail.

I finally finished the siding on the house, 100%. FINALLY! It took me way longer than it should have to finish, but that is because I only work on this house and few hours here and there these days. The exterior is pretty much done entirely now:

The little bit of exposed green Zip siding by the swing in the corner is by design. Next spring I plan to extend the deck over to that corner so the bottom of the siding should meet up with the decking boards. I'll cover that Zip siding with something when I do the deck, if not sooner if I get the time and the motivation.

I still need to install an outside light and exterior outlet on the right side of the slider on the deck, but otherwise I'm calling that part of the job DONE. It feels great to have it all done on the outside; it will feel even better to have the interior all done but that will have to wait until later this summer or early fall. I did finish the insulating upstairs this morning as I sweat buckets, and I did some more mudding and sanding in the kitchenette. Hopefully I can have that kitchenette area all done before raking starts so the only thing left to finish will be the front corner bedroom.

I can finally say I'm better from my bout with Sinusitis. I've been able to lift weights, jog, and play racquetball this week and physically I feel great. Unfortunately, I still lost to Deno 5 games to 0 last night on the courts. What a bunch of crap! Oh well, he beats me about 98% of the time but I make his ass work for his wins and it's great exercise. The dew point was pushing 70 when we played so the humidity was ridiculous and we both sweat a ton. Even though the sinus infection is seemingly cured I still do have to blow my nose a few times a day, but each day that passes I feel less and less congested. Sucks I've had sinus issues all gods damn summer so far. What a bunch of crap! Damn useless allergies and shit.

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Thursday, 7-14-16: The midsummer heat, raking, and Donnell Pond.
It's too frigging hot. What a bunch of crap! 70 degrees at 0630 = do not want. The dew point will be 70 later, too. Oh well, it happens in the middle of summer and it 100% beats the opposite side of the calendar when it will be below zero in half a year. Tomorrow will be 92 degrees before it "only" drops down to the mid-80s this weekend. Hopefully we get some rain tonight with a passing front because it's been too dry as well. Hot and dry = bad news for the blueberry crop. Raking starts in about two weeks (twooooooooooooooo weeeeeeeeeeeeeeekkkkkkkkkkkkkssssssssssssssssssssssss!) so this pattern needs to change ASAP or else the odds favor a bad season. The last two seasons have been awesome so I guess law of averages dictates we're due a bad one.

^Lots of that this season = $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$. I hope!

This season could very well be a very different one from what Gavin and I have come to expect since we both started camping out together and raking for Cliff in 2004. This year's rotation has traditionally been Cliff's fields on his own land (shit fields!) followed by the better upper Bob Wright's "Bull Hill" field(s), but a few weeks ago Cliff said he wants to have a smaller crew and just do his own field this year. No Bull Hill raking = what a bunch of crap! Cliff is 66 or 67 years old now so I can't blame him for wanting to scale back; he's been running a raking crew for decades and Gavin even raked for him when he was a kid. (I raked for Art next door and not for Cliff. $2 a bucket with Art!) However, doing only Cliff's relatively shit field and nothing else will not be good for the wallet. Two years ago when we did the usual rotation of Cliff's field and Bull Hill I made $1508. This year I'll be lucky to make half that if we only do half the fields.

This year Gavin and I are also camping at a different spot. We've always camped at Camden Hills State Park 10-15 miles away, but we're going to try out Mic Mac this year. Mic Mac is only about 3 miles from Cliff's field and maybe 7 from Bob Wright's, but we haven't used Mic Mac in prior years for two reasons. First, Camden Hills was always a lot cheaper ($17 a night, $8.50 each vs. twice that cost per night at Mic Mac) and second, Mic Mac used to get fully booked when the Mexican crews did more raking up here. Now machines do a lot of the fields so there are fewer manual rakers. Hand-raking is fast becoming a dying art so one day there will be no more raking for this boy (sad face.) I know I will be too old and broken down to rake forever, but I want to go out on my terms and not because the machines took over gods damn it. Once Cliff is done then I suppose I will be done, too...

This year Mic Mac had openings and Camden Hills did a major price hike. The same site we paid $17 a night for last year is now $27 a night. What a bunch of crap! Mic Mac is about $33 a night so it is a tad more, but it is closer and we think well worth trying out. Gavin camped there when he was a kid and said it was decent back then. I know exactly where the place is because we both grew up not far away. I went to Junior High School just down the road from the place off Rt. 17 in Union.

Part of me will mis Camden Hills because we could watch clueless out-of state city slickers who had no clue how to build a fire. That photo above was from 2011 when some chumps from a southern state thought they could keep a fire going with a few twigs and that giant, wet limb. Needless to say their fire died really fast. HAHAHAHAHAA!

The news that Cliff wasn't wanting to do Bull Hill this year bummed me out, but then Gavin said a few days ago that Cliff is "90% sure" he's doing that field this year. Awesome! Maybe? Gavin is dating Cliff's oldest daughter so he has the inside scoop. However, she recently hauled on him so maybe he doesn't have the inside scoop. However, she seemingly loves him again these days so if they had a FAILBOOK page, which thankfully they don't because fuck that website, their relationship status would be IT'S COMPLICATED. Hehehehe.

So in the span of a month Cliff went from being "75% sure" he was not going to rake Bull Hill to "90% sure" that he is going to rake it. What does that mean for Gav and I? It means we will just have to wait and see. I'd love to make at least $1000 this season, but I can't control all aspects of the game so I will just do my best and see where things fall. Thankfully I did cash in some magic FedEx retirement account that I never knew I had so on August 1 I should be getting a check for $8000, give or take. Oh Jesus, hell ya! That really puts the raking money into BONUS LEVELS this season.

Yesterday Kat and I took a day trip down to Donnell Pond with the dogs. Donnell is a beautiful place; we camped there twice last year and went hiking there the year before. You have to hike a half-mile to get to the beach so that deters a lot of simps; when we got to the beach around 1000 yesterday we pretty much had it to ourselves. Awesome! More people did show up later, but it never got so crowded that we were uncomfortable.

Tiger-Lily is only 9.5 weeks old, but she took to the water like she was born for it. Copper on the other hand, he's nearly 8 months old and he's a hot mess in the water. Within moments they both went to the water's edge. Copper waded in to almost his chest, but Tiger went all the way in and was even swimming some. then I went in and she swam with me a bunch. She picked it up like a boss:

Unfortunately, Copper just doesn't quite know what to do when he gets in over his head. This is his attempt at swimming:

^EPIC FAIL. The water was only about a foot deep there, too. Hahahahha!

Poor Copperpot, he just can't seem to figure it out. He can wade around and isn't afraid to go chest-deep, but after that it turns into a disaster. For the few times he did get in a little deeper he would flail about and act like he was about to drown. I tried to help him learn, but I gave that up after 2 seconds because it was a lost cause. How do you teach a dog how to swim? I thought they just automatically knew, especially the retriever class of dogs. A Golden not knowing how to swim = what a bunch of crap!

We just had Copper "swimming" a couple weeks back at Sebec Lake, but that water was not so deep so he could mostly wade the whole way out to the tennis ball. At Donnell he would refuse to go after the ball even if it was only a foot away from his face and he determined the water was just too deep. At times it was comical to watch, but it's also a little sad so we hope he can figure it out ASAP. Maybe he can learn from his little "sister" since she seems to be a pro.

Tiger-Lily is doing great; we almost made it two full days with no accidents in the house before she started to piss on the bedroom floor last night just before we bivouaced. What a bunch of crap! She's still so little and young that we can't hold it against her when she does fail, but we still scold her so she knows not to do it again. I was hoping that all the swimming and an evening walk to the park would wear her out for real last night, but she was still up just before 0600. That's actually not bad compared to how early she's wanted to get up the past couple days, though. I got about 7-7.5 hrs of sleep last night. 8 would have been great, but I'll take 7+ as a gift from the gods who do not exist.

I need to get some serious work done on this house today and over the next twwwwwwwwwwwwoooooooooooooooo wwwwwwwweeeeeeeeeeekkkkkkkkkkkkkkkksssssssssssssssssssss before raking starts. I am so close to finishing the exterior that I should have that done by lunchtime. However, nevermind that thought because I still have two exterior outlets and lights to install and I don't know how to do the outlets. The wires are already there poking out of the siding so all I need to do it attach the exterior outlet, right? It can't be that hard and if I do get zapped it's only 110 so I'll probably live. We shall see...

I'm outside now with the dogs on the deck. Soon I'll get off this bootleg thing and go use the gym before I start working on the house. It is a beautiful morning even though the air is sticky. The breeze helps a lot, and it should be breezy all day so that might be the only thing that saves me from losing a pound in sweat. I'm out of here for now chumps, all two of youz. Drop and give me 25!

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Tuesday, 7-12-16: The All-Star break and my stupid sinusitis.
The baseball All-Star game is tonight, and the Red Sox have 6 players going to the show. Not bad! David Ortiz, Dustin Pedroia, Mookie Betts, Jackie Bradley JR, Xander Boegarts, and pitcher Steven Wright. Ortiz is retiring after this season, and he has had a fantastic final first half. The Red Sox were in first place for a bit in May, but June was rough for them and so they're a bit behind Baltimore at this point.

^Sox won 4 in a row before the break. Nice! Pitching has been their achillies this season; the offense has been great.

We've had Tiger-Lily just over two weeks now (Two weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeekkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkksssssssssssssssssssssssssssss!) and so far she is doing great. She's starting to give us tells when she has to go pee, but she's not quite house trained yet. Yesterday was I believe her first day with us with no accidents in the house. She can run much faster now when we all go to the park, but she's still very tiny so she has a ways to go before she gets fully up to speed. She does know the SIT command, and she knows what the sound of us shaking the treats container means. She seems to kinda know her name, too. Right now the two dogs are in the living room playing with the same toy. Often they play very well together, but Copper can be rough at times so we have to watch him closely when he gets really excited.

My sinusitis is clearing up fast, and I think the infection has been gone for a few days. I had a 10-day supply of amoxopillans and I took my last one yesterday. For the first time in 15 days I was able to use the gym and go for a jog yesterday, too. No exercise for half a month = what a bunch of crap! I'm still not 100% good-to-go because I have to blow my nose several times a day. Hopefully the snottiness clear up fast because having sinus issues for about a month or maybe even 5 weeks now = WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP! This is the longest-duration ailment I can ever recall having in my life.

I haven't worked on the house in a few days because I had lawns to mow, an apartment to rent, and weddings to attend. Kat booked gigs for both Saturday and Sunday last weekend so we were both busy. It was not a good weekend for me as I didn't feel great and we had to do a lot of travelling. Plus the weather was terrible. What a bunch of crap! Thankfully the weekend from hell is over and Kat doesn't have another big gig to do until later next month. I don't have an overwhelming amount of work to do from now until blueberry raking so hopefully I can get the house a little more finished. I might be able to 100% finish the exterior today.

I got all the apartment lawns mowed yesterday so the only thing on the list for the rest of the week for the apartments is filling in a few potholes and a little landscape work at the driveway by my bootleg office. Speaking of bootleg, the city has the road over there all torn up in preparation for paving:

They had to dig down a couple feet to grade the road and to build a good base for the new pavement. This has been an ongoing project for a few weeks because first they had to replace a water line, and it will take a couple more weeks before they finish it. What a bunch of crap! At times it has been a burden for the tenants and I, but in the end the road will have brand new pavement with curbing and it should look really nice. It better look really nice considering the property taxes my ass forks over to the city each year!

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Thursday, 7-07-16: Goddamn expensive shit.
The news headlines are on this morning, and for the past several minutes they talked about more police shootings. White cops shoot black "suspects" and people get pissed off. They showed a video one guy's chick took with her cellphone, and it does look like the (Minnesota) cop was way out of line. The dude was reaching for his wallet and insurance when the cop pumped him full of lead. What a bunch of crap!

Now they're talking about Hillary Clinton vs. Trump. Clinton is a HUGE piece of shit, but Trump is majorly flawed as well. However, Trump > Clinton. Hillary got totally busted for letting top classified information get sent through her personal emails when she was Secretary of State and for probably subjecting it to hackers who know have some or all of that information. If that wasn't bad enough she also lied about it and said she never used her personal email to send and receive classified info. What a bunch of crap!

Okay, I'm back and it's now 1430. I couldn't finish my bootleg update this morning because Tiger-Lily pissed on the floor then I gave my sexy wife hugs and kisses and had to go work on an apartment for a while. I have new people planning to move into a 4BR apt tomorrow, and thankfully the old tenants left the place in great shape overall so I only had to spend a little time over there. Few touchups with the paint, replace a back fan that died, a railing in the stairs, no problems only solutions thank you very much.

Kat and I were just talking about that cop in Minnesota who shot that black guy. It's a pretty big news story, but the Clinton story takes the top spot on Fox News right now:

I weep for society when I see that useless socialist president Failbama on my TV screen, but I will weep even more if Hillary becomes the next president. America used to be great once upon a time, but now we're mediocre at best. What a bunch of crap!

If the election was today I would write in my choice for president, Sylvester Stallone. If things don't change between now and November I'll do the same thing. Better to have Rocky/Rambo in charge than these nincompoops. Fuck Hillary and fuck Trump, too. However, part of me does like Trump some even though he is a pompous ass.

I still have sinus issues despite being on amoxopillans for 5 days. What a bunch of crap! I do feel better than I did earlier in the week, but I am far from 100% yet. I got the bill for the doc visit on Saturday and it's a staggering $313.26. OMG! That's after they gave me 10% off for paying within 15 days, too. OMG

HEY FUCKING COMMIE PINKO THIEVING MOTHER FUCKERS I SAW THE OLD LADY DOC WHO WASN'T EVEN THAT NICE TO ME FOR 10 FUCKING MINUTES AND SOME OTHER LADY TOOK MY BLOOD PRESSURE AND HEART RATE. THE OLD LADY DOC WASN'T EVEN A "REAL" DOC SHE WAS A NURSE PRACTITIONER. HOW IN THE FUCK ARE YOU GOING TO CHARGE MY ASS OVER $300 FOR THAT?! OH, I HAD TO WAIT AN HOUR JUST TO SEE SOMEONE, TOO. REASON #765,879 WHY WE NEED AN ASTEROID TO GIVE US ALL A SOCIETY REBOOT.

WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP!

Next time I will just die because going to the doc costs too much. Frigging amoxopillans cost even more money, too. FUCKERS.

This is total bullshit. If I ever get seriously hurt with no insurance I am pwned. I mean, seriously time to consider death at that point. Maybe I should buy some kind of health insurance, but screw that because there would be a deductible and I would have to pay anyway. Oh wait, not having heath insurance is going to cost me more money on my taxes thank you very not Mr. President Failbama.

Trump sand he would repeal Obamacare so I should vote for him just for that reason alone. Unfortunately, Trump also said he wants a wall all the damn way across the Mexican border so nevermind. We're fucked either way. What a bnuch of crap!

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Monday, 7-04-16: Exhausted and can't sleep.
I'm very tired right now; I can feel it in my heavy eyes and my stuffed-up body. Unfortunately, I got so pissed off at my fucking useless body that I lost the ability to sleep. What a bunch of crap! It's approaching midnight on the 4th of July, and I might as well be in hell. We bivouaced over an hour ago and I did fall asleep for a little bit. Unfortunately, I woke up not long after with a plugged-up nose. I can sleep when my nose is plugged, but it is hard to do. Plus no matter what side I sleep on I can't get comfortable. I usually fall asleep facing the wall, but that position got used up fast so I tried my back. That almost worked for a few minutes then nope, DENIED. I also tried sleeping facing Kat, but that didn't work either. What a bunch of crap!

^MY BODY IS DOING THIS TO ME WHEN I TRY TO SLEEP GODS DAMN IT.

I'm a fucking mess. I mean, bad. This sinusitis or whatever the hell I have needs to clear up soon because it is ruining my summer. I thought I was getting better, but today was a step backwards for sure. I had a very persistent cough that is like a turd that will not flush. Too bad because other than that it was a great holiday. The weather was fantastic; we had a cookout and a little karaoke party right here at the house for most of the afternoon. It wasn't a huge bash, but the 12-15 people who did come were good company. Kat took some great pictures of the puppy, too:

^Tiger is exactly 8 weeks old now. She was fascinated with her water bowl and kept splashing the water around.

^Best DJ, ever. The party was not really planned in advance, but at the last minute it sorta happened. She did most of the work and made the magic. I just hung out and cooked some meat on the grill. Good company, good food, good time.

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Sunday, 7-03-16: Sinusitis. WTF?!
I had to go to the doctor yesterday. What a bunch of crap! However, I guess it wasn't really a doctor because I don't have a doctor. I've never had a "primary care provider" ever since my childhood, and I have no plans to go get one. F that! I don't even remember who my childhood doctor was, but I probably had one. Maybe? I don't think Mom and Pop would have skipped out on that. I know I had a dentist, but I can't remember who that person was either.

I haven't needed medical attention in many years so it would be a waste of precious... precious time and money to go find a "primary physician." Thankfully there are places around town for walk-in care, and the one here in Brewer ain't too shabby. I did NOT want to go to any bootleg sawbones office, but I realized yesterday I would be stupid not to go get looked at. I've had a cough ever since the middle of last month, maybe 3 weeks or 3.5 weeks now, and it is like a turd that won't flush. My sinuses have also been aggrivated, and this past week things have gotten worse. Tuesday and Wednesday were both bad days for me, but then I got a little better Thursday and Friday despite still having the cough. However, yesterday things got worse again and I knew I needed some good medicine.

^FAIL TROPHY AWARDED TO MY BOOTLEG BODY FOR FAILING TO BE AWESOME.

The cough was really taking it to me, and I had a feeling I had an infection in my chest/lungs/throat so that is why I went to the walk-in care place. Kat's theory, one that I believe because it makes perfect sense, is the allergies I've developed caused me to have some sinus issues and a cough. However, some of the garbage lingered in my system and turned into an infection so now I have to take amoxopillans for the next 10 days because I have SINUSITIS. I didn't even know what that was until yesterday. What a bunch of crap! I also had to get some stuff called Mucinex D. It's more powerful than the regular Mucinex and more costly, too. Bye bye probably $200 for the doc visit and for the drugs. Gods damn it!

I fucking hate spending my precious... precious money for health care. Oh well, it happens. Even if I did have health insurance (which I don't) I would probably have had to pay some kind of deductible. Hopefully these amoxopillan pills do their damn job. I had to take amoxopillans many years ago when I had an abcessed tooth and that stuff fixed me real good. Back then I knew nothing about the world of professional medicine so I only took the pills for a few days and then, once I felt better, I stopped taking them. I had about half the prescription left so my grand plan was to save them in my desk drawer for future use if I got sick again. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. They were way past their expiration when this chick I was seeing found them years later and got all mad at me and threw them away. She was a medical student so I think she gave me a lecture, but I didn't even care... whether or not I cared. I hauled on her anyway because she did not pack the gear to serve in my beloved corps.

^That bitch threw away my precious... precious expired amoxopillans 10 or so years ago. What a bunch of crap!

I'm hoping this medicine fixes me up so I can start exercising again. I haven't been able to jog or use the gym at all over the past week. What a bunch of crap! I have been able to work around the house, play with the puppies, and mow some lawns so thankfully I'm not totally incapacitated. I've been doing the siding on the back sides of the house now, but yesterday's trip to the doc cost me most of the afternoon so I didn't get much done at all. What a bunch of crap! Hopefully I get more done today. I've been moving slower than normal because I feel shitty. Gods damn it! I need to get this frigging house mostly done this month, but if my body doesn't do it's fucking job then I'll never get it done.

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Friday, 7-01-16: So far she's wizzed outside this morning.
Tiger-Lily, our 7.5-week old Golden Retriever puppy, is far from house trained. A couple mornings ago I let her piss on the floor about 5 times just in the short span of morning between when the dogs and I got up and when Kat got up. Plus she took one dump on the floor that morning. What a bunch of crap! My bad letting her drink so much water, eh? Now we don't let her have free access to the water dish because it doesn't take long after she drinks water to need to pee. I'm not a good puppy monitor. This morning we have her in a makeshift "fenced in" area of the living room, but she has escaped twice so far in the 50 minutes that we've been up. What a bunch of crap! Here she was a few minutes ago looking longingly at the "free zone" on the other side of that box. Copper is big enough where he can easily hop back and forth, but she can't jump at all yet.

So far this morning I've had them outside three times and each time she has gone pee out there instead of in here. No accidents at all in the house. Score! She's doing great considering we've only had her for 3.5 days. Kat taught her how to go up the porch steps on day one, but she still can't go down the steps on her own. Last night we hit the sack around 2230 after I picked Katherine up from babysitting, and Tiger-Lily slept until 0430. Oh Jesus, hell ya! That's the longest she had gone in the night without waking up to cry so far. We got up at 0600 this morning; I only slept a little more after we went back to bed. My nose is stuffed up so I have to breathe through my mouth, and that is a bunch of crap. Dries out the throat and totally sucks. I am feeling a little better, but yesterday I did one weak set in the gym before I had to quit. I have felt shitty most of the week. What a bunch of crap!

I have tenants moving out of the 4 bedroom apartment in the building complex by my gym/office this weekend, but when I was in the place doing showings it looked ok so I don't expect to have to do any major repairs and remodeling. It will need some paint for sure along with a few other things, but hopefully nothing major. I plan to start working on that place this coming Tuesday and have it ready to go by next Friday. I only did three showings total at the place before I found qualified new tenants; I just received their $300 deposit yesterday. Once I get that place ready I'm hoping to be able to mostly focus on this house for the rest of July until blueberry raking starts around the end of this month.

After blueberry raking it's back to work on the bootleg apartments for my ass. For the 4th month in a row I got a 30-day notice from tenants, this time from the front 3BR apartment at my Bangor duplex. However, this notice was not unexpected as they had previously mentioned they were likely going to move in the summer. They're heading all the way to Oregon! That apartment needs a new kitchen along with some other upgrades so August will be a busy month for me taking care of that. I actually am planning to sell the building, but those plans could very well change if the market is not favorable. I don't want to sell the place for any less than what I paid for it (about $105K including closing costs on May 26, 2004.) Unfortunately, the place does need work so I will have to hope it's more of a seller's market than it was in the fall of 2013 when I had the place listed for sale last time.

^Photo from 3 years ago. The cupboards look ok in the photo, but they are looking worse these days and they aren't so great when you see them in person now.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

OMG SHE JUST WIZZED ON THE FLOOR. WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP! I was all proud of myself for being the puppy-regulator, but then Katherine came down and I was talking to her and I got distracted and Tiger-Lily went and squatted right in the middle of the floor and started to let it go. Fortunately I did stop her before she could finish, but bye bye a few more paper towels and squirts of GP cleaner. Epic fail. Man, puppies are adorable but they sure do require a lot of supervision. I'm not wired at all for this shit. Thankfully puppies become self-aware pretty fast unlike human babies. Human babies take years to train. If I ever had to train a human kiddo I'd probably go insane, at least if it's anything like training a puppy. PUPPIES > INFANTS. Puppies are more cute, too. Human babies are fucking ugly. If you see a baby and say "Awwwwwwww.. how cute." then either you are just a sheep or else deep down inside you don't really mean it you are just saying it because that is how society dictates you act.

The Red Sox had a shitty June, losing badly in many games thanks to epic fail pitching. What a bunch of crap! They still are doing ok for the season with a record of 42-36, though. I didn't have a great June myself thanks to this nagging cough and feeling shitty the past few days, but it was far from horrible. Once again I didn't meet my exercise goal. What a bunch of crap! I would have met the goal but the last few days cost me bigtime. Oh well, it happens. Great Britan exited the EU in what's being called the BREXIT last week and that sent stock prices tumbling. Then they rebounded back this week. Silver is up to $19 an ounce after being around $15 for months (BREXIT!), and gas is still a very reasonable $2.25 a gallon, give or take.

It's the July 4th long weekend this coming weekend, and I plan to work around the house and not do too much. We can spend some fun, quality time with the dogs and I can do some work on the house. Today I hope to do some more siding out back; I've picked away at it some so far and it looks like this now:

I'll be happy to get it done up to at least the deck today, but I am on puppy-patrol for a good part of the morning while Kat does some errands and whatnot so that will slow me down a lot. Oh well, it's worth it because our dogs are great!