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 7-16 8-16 9-16 10-16 11-16 12-16 1-17 2-17 3-17 4-17 5-17 6-17 7-17 8-17 9-17 10-17 11-17 12-17 1-18 2-18 3-18 4-18 5-18 6-18 7-18 8-18 9-18 10-18 11-18 12-18 1-19 2-19 3-19 4-19 5-19 6-19 7-19 8-19 9-19 10-19 11-19 12-19 1-20 2-20 3-20 4-20 5-20 6-20 7-20 8-20 9-20 10-20 11-20 12-20 1-21 2-21 3-21 4-21 5-21 6-21 7-21 8-21 9-21 10-21 11-21 12-21 1-22 2-22 3-22 4-22 5-22 6-22 7-22 8-22 9-22 10-22 11-22 12-22 1-23 2-23 3-23 4-23 5-23


"Everything Biden touches turns to crap." - Ted Cruz (senator)

Thursday, 6-29-23: More carpentry.
Bootleg Properties* is back in action for the first time in 2023! I did help Phil last month, and I did a few things for Mom and Dad, but nothing I'm officially invoicing for. Gavin has put my ass back to work, and it's really the perfect job for me that I will invoice him for. He's within eyesight of our bar/restaurant so I can do some work for an hour, two hours, four hours, whatever. I try to give him an honest effort, and for the past three days I've gotten quite a bit done. He has an upstairs apartment that I've off-and-on worked on for the past few years. Now it's the dreaded finish work, and it can be tedious at times and chew up precious... precious time.

^I'm doing the door casing and trim in the photo above. Gavin did half the place, he did the floor, and he got the painting done so what's left isn't too much. However, it doe chew up precious... precious time because I'm trying to do a better job than the former "It's just a rental!" quality that I've done in the past. (What a bunch of crap!) I don't consider myself to be a great finish-carpenter, but I'm passable. Caulk and paint helps a lot. A LOT. I've actually been pretty comfortable working at his place this week because he's a good friend and things have gone well... so far.

There is more to do than what's in that one little photo. I have a closet, the bathroom, the bedroom, and skylights. Plus I plan to help him in the lower levels whenever he's ready. This one will be a while hehehe:

^Gavin's former apartment that is now a staging area for tools and whatnot. Some of those tools are mine from last year hahahaha! It is nice having a lower area where I can use the chop-saw and make a little mess with minimal worries.

Time out. Glass Tiger, Someday, channel 1928 like a boss. GREAT SONG. This is one of the top 10 80s songs of all-time. Seriously. If you disagree with me then I hate you. I probably hate you anyway, but I'll hate you a little more.

I worked at Gavin's for 3.25 hours today, and I cut and painted some trim for three skylights:

^Photo make that look grey, but it's white. Bad lighting I guess. Another cloudy and dreary day, one of what has been most of them this month. What a bunch of crap! One of the worst, if not the worst June weather of all-time. We've had rain roughly 24 of the 29 days of this month. Lots of clouds, too. Epic failer.

EDIT: IS THAT PHOTO FUCKING SIDEWAYS?! I CANNOT FIX IT AND I STOPPED CARING. I AM ONE DRINK AWAY FROM THE FREEZER WHERE IS MORLA THE ANCIENT ONE?!

It will probably take me another 10-15 hours to finish all the trim at Gavin's. The final stuff really can take a while, and I'm trying to do it right. Fill in the brad-nail holes, caulk all seams, etc. It's the right thing to do, and it's what Gavin will appreciate. Funny enough the very day I started working for Gavin one of my former carpentry customers texted me that he needed more work done. I went to look at it this afternoon, and all I have to say about that right now is: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

I can make good money doing this potential job, but I don't think I can do it. I've worked for the guy in the past doing a huge deck three years ago in the middle of the pandemic, but what he wants is totally ridiculous. He rents to tavelling nurses and he wants to put a shower in one of the closets. Yeah, I just wrote that and it's not a typo. OMG WHO PUTS A SHOWER IN A CLOSET?! The idea isn't bad if you can connect it to the nearby half-bathroom, but you can't so if you live there you take a shower then go through the bedroom into the bathroom to use the sink. WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP!

Even worse, three different tenants rent the three rooms in the place, they work nights, and they are all travelling nurses. The place is nice now so I'm sure they don't want it all torn up. Owner does not understand the basics of plumbing either. Shower needs not only a drain but also both hot and cold water plus a vent so it can all drain properly. I said okay, let's look at the basement for plumbing access, but the FUCKING BASEMENT IS ALL FINISHED WITH A DIFFERENT TENANT LIVING DOWN THERE OMG! You cannot get to the plumbing without cutting open a lot of the ceiling. Like, a lot. It will be a total shit-show. He'd pay me good money, but that's going to have to be a hard pass.

Oh, he also wants a laundry room (that doesn't yet exist) and a door to go through a LOAD BEARING WALL. If the place was totally vacant and already under construction I'd condiser it, but how in the fuck am I going to turn this into a shower? Oh, that would also need a ceiling vent so who knows what other mess that would lead to? HARD PASS.

^All I wanna know is why? Why would you think this can be a FUCKING SHOWER?! It can be one by blowing out that back wall that adjoins another closet, but what about the plumbing, exhaust fan for the humid air, and what about CONNECTING TO AN EXISTING BATHROOM WITH A FUNCTIONAL SINK AND HOPPER?!

I wouldn't take on that job even for $100 an hour. No joke. It's too complicated for my loser-ass. I hope he can find someone who does want to take it on, and I'd gladly refer someone, but I don't know anyone who can.

I'm trying to run a restaurant that need to do a million dollars in sales just to break even, and here I am taking about odd jobs here and there including blueberry raking. The restaurant might do a million this year, hard to say, but based on the past two months that is NOT happening. What a bunch of crap! Truthfully I enjoy taking on some carpentry and other stuff here and there, but at some point I'll have to decide if I want to work 70-80 hours a week at the restaurant or not. If I put in that kind of work I think the restaurant can make it. Maybe? Hopefully! However, I think it can make it if we stay the course and I "officially" work there less than that. I work there a lot now, and it's best if I'm a float most days including other things like carpentry, bookkeeping, etc.

We did make some changes this month that are less than popular with some, but we have to cut payroll and shave costs if it's going to work. We also filmed a new TV spot, and a radio spot is coming soon. Will it work? Summer can be brutal, and this time of year can be even worse. Tonight is an unmitigaed DISASTER so far. Worst Thursday of all-time right now. What a bunch of crap! Oh well, end of the month and leading into the July 4th week. Better days will be ahead, and if I'm wrong we close and skip town and have a NOL (Net Operating Loss) on our taxes for a long time to come...

Blueberry raking is exactly one month away, and because I have issues I'm looking forward to it. All I wanna know is why? Why do I look forward to going blueberry raking? Cliff plans to pay more than ever per box so all we need is a decent crop. We had some really great pollenating weather, but this month has been total trash. I'm hoping the rain helps things, but I really don't know. I'm the grunt, not the crop-planner! I wouldn't want to do it if not for Gavin. He and I have done it seemingly forever, and we can spit the cost of camping and other supplies. I'm really shocked Cliff still does raking; I thought it would have ended two years ago.

When Gavin and I raked two years ago it was a GREAT crop. Too bad my conditioning was poor, at least by my standards. Now I'm two years older, and I have doubts. My stamina has dropped. A lot. I suck at jogging, but I've been better at yoga and lifting weights. The problem lately seems to be my breathing and allergies so I need to figure that out, but I won't because I don't have a doc and it's not that urgent. Oh well I'm old now and when you get old things just aren't the same. I'm not long for the "You kids get off my lawn!" phase of my life; what a bunch of crap!

*I've actually become a decent carpenter, but the two of you who read this bootleg pile of shit better not tell anyone.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Thursday, 6-22-23: Drag show, booze, schedules, meat.
All I wanna know is why? Why is June PRIDE MONTH? What the actual fuck? Why do gay people get an entire month to celebrate their lifestyles when veterans get one day a year? I don't give a shit at all if you are gay, doesn't bother me at all. I don't even care if you are a man and want to be a chick, or the other way around. I see rainbow flags all over the place, and it gets old. It's not even a "holiday" at all, but we get some new dubass holiday called June-teenth that I guess celebrates the end of slavery? This fucking world is passing me by, and quickly.

What bothers me about all this PRIDE stuff is the affect is might have on future generations, if there are any future generations. (mankind is NOT going to survive much longer in the cosmic sense, and we really don't deserve to because we collectivelt suck, myself included.) Now we have kids at VERY young ages wanting to be different genders, and in some areas that is encouraged. It's like PRIDE is not about being gay anymore as much as it is switching genders. Biologican men wanting to compete against biological women, but it's okay becausse the men are now calling themselves women. OMG WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP! WHO FUCKING CONDONES THIS MONKEY SHIT?!

We have a huge Pride-drag-show down at the bar that drew a good crowd and that will be ending soon. My awesome wife busted her ass getting the event room ready for it, and she totally nailed it. The drag performers do a fantastic job as well. I was wanting to focus on other areas like installing a heat pump out in that event room, but I had to do curtains instead and we all know happy wife = happy life. The weather outside today was perfect so all I wanted was a little precious.... precious time to go outside, and I got at least that. Good enough! I went down to the bar for a while for dinner and the start of the PRIDE show to help, and I had time to come home and slam down some bootleg coffee brandy and milk drinks so now here I am, half in the bag. The show ends soon so I will go back down to either help or to drink more. We'll see....

Kat left some schedules here for me to look over. She does all the schedules, and more often than not I look them over for any mistakes and whatnot. However, my wife doesn't usually make mistakes she does AWESOME writing the schedules. Here is an example of one I didn't read yet but will at some point soon:

Kat is the first one with all the DJ shifts, I'm the second one only officially on Friday and Saturday nights as usual (but I work every day anyway), and then we have other people filling different roles. The MOD/server is new so we'll see how that goes. It means more work for me when it gets busy and they need my help, but if it keeps the doors open I'll do it. MOD = manager on duty. There are also schedules for servers, bartenders, cooks, and maintenance (dishwasher/cleaning.) It's a lot to do and she handles it very well. Better than I could do. By a lot. A LOT.

I have a lot of deer meat in the freezer still, and I ate some yesterday and today. I eat at the restaurant too much so it's good to eat here more for at least some meals. I also cooked the turkey I shot earlier this month, and this was the outcome:

^It was the first time I've used the oven all year. OMG WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP! Maybe I used it another time that I forgot about? I grilled a turkey that I shot in May, but I cooked it a bit too long and it is like shoe leather when you fail. What a bunch of crap! Dad gave me that "Oven Fry" idea earlier, and it was a fantastic suggestion. I ate that turkey for five days, and yes I still also had restaurant food. Probably insluding the cost of the shells, the hunting license, gear, and everything else it cost me $20 a pound, but oh well at least I eat what I kill. Sometimes it takes me 2-3 years (deer meat!), but eventually it goes into my pie-hole.

I guess I should get my loser-ass back to the bar. That PRIDE show ends any minute now and who knows, my help might be needed. Hopefully it's not so I can drink more, but according to our liquor license training owners can drink and work at the same time. OMG! I NEVER drink when I'm officially at work, but tonight I'm not really at work and if I just help put up a few chairs or something stupid like that then no worries. Maybe? Hopefully!

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Tuesday, 6-20-23: The revised work plan took effect today. Oh, people quit. Father's Day pwned.
I've been trying to find ways to save on payroll for our restaurant/bar for a while, and it's tough to do. I asked other managers for their ideas and got nothing at all so I finally had to bounce my own idea off my awesome wife (the boss hehehe.) We've had one server on for a Tuesday, two for Wednesday, two for Thursdays, and more for the busiest Friday night and Saturday nights. Starting today we don't have a server on at all for Tuesday, we're down to one tomorrow, and one Thursday. We also made some other changes for weekend day shifts, but we're keeping it the same for the Friday/Saturday nights.

I tried running Tuesday evening/night a couple weeks ago with no server, and by about 1930 I was pwned. I had more tables than I could handle so thankfully Kat called in the backup and I had some help. It didn't work out so well for my ass, but I did make decent money. I rarely make money working at the restaurant these days so every now and again it's refreshing to take some tables and get some tips. Not too much, though. I don't want to take away from the staff we do have working.

Hey cool, channel 1928 Pet Shop Boys West End Girls. All I wanna know is why? Why do they call themselves that? Did they once own a pet shop? The TV shows a picture of a couple of them (maybe it's only two guys in the band?) and they look hilarious! Bald heads, weird shades, something you might see in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure when they peek into the future...

Odd look, cool songs. If you don't like the song West End Girls then I hate you. I probably hate you anyway, but I'll hate you a little more.

So Tuesday when I tried to run the front of the house with one bartender and only myself (two cooks, one dishwasher out back) I couldn't quite do it. What a bunch of crap! However, we did have our busiest Tuesday of the year. I think at one point I had 8 tables at once. OMG! I didn't get to a couple of them, but Dillon came over and took them before they had time to get frustrated and leave.

Tonight it was Dillon filling the Tuesday MOD/server shoes with no server, and he did great. Sales have been decent, and everything has fallen into place so far as I had hoped. It got a little busy around 1800 so I went down to help, and I was the "float" for about three hours. I helped some in the kitchen, some up front, and I was just there. Talked to some customers, made sure things were running A-Ok. No problems and decent business = Oh Jesus, hell ya! I also had time to set up the event room more for tomorrow's new TV commercial shoot that we plan to do. More ads = more business. Maybe? Hopefully!

The reduced staffing will help on payroll. A lot. Our host also quit last week so we don't have one of those right now for Friday and Saturday nights. What a bunch of crap! We had a BUSY weekend, too. Thankfully Joe ran the front like a boss Saturday night, and I really needed the help. We had a big event wrapping up around 1900, and we had a group of 40-50 people roll in around then. OMG! No advanced reservation, just come on in. Who does that?! Our capacity in the front is about 110 so there goes half our space. Poof, gone! I would have sent them packing, but we actually had room for them when they did arrive. We were really full for a while, but later on it thinned out.

On Friday night we were also crushed, epic busy, when one of our Sat/Sunday servers came in at midnight to get her paycheck. She also said she needed to talk to me, but I was so busy I didn't really have time. However, when she said it couldn't wait I knew what was coming. Sure enough she was quitting. GODS DAMN IT! She was nice enough, but not a very good server. Great with customers, forgetful when it comes to actually sending orders to the kitchen, bussing tables, all that other stuff. I guess her boyfriend gave her the boot so she had a U-Haul all loaded up and was heading south. What a bunch of crap!

Kat also had one of her two DJ-trainees quit a couple days ago. Oh, I have to fire a new dishwasher because he was supposed to be in at 0700 Saturday, but he didn't roll in until 0930. He's pretty new, he's been late too much, and even worse he spends too much time on his phone and not enough time working. He's slow, and he's FIRED.

It will be four people down in about four days. What a bunch of crap! Oh well, three of them were not very good anyway.

Poor Kat and I got demolished over the weekend. I got 4 or so hours of sleep Friday night before I had to go do the morning cleaning first thing Sat, and I had to be back for 10 hours Sat PM/night. Got shit for sleep Sat night and had to be there Sunday by 0900 for opening on Father's Day for brunch. We got CRUSHED for that shift, too. Packed full by 1030, and I had to turn a bunch of people away because we got up to 1.5 hours for wait time. What a bunch of crap!

Last week was our best week of sales for June, ever (3 years being open in June now.) The last two weeks have been great for sales, but holy Jebus it's been a TON of work on the weekends. I do think easier weekends are to come. Maybe? Hopefully! This month has had LOTS of terrible weather so that helps sales. Too bad summer seems distant still. I had to turn the heat up today in the house for a bit, and it poured a few times off and on during the day. What a bunch of crap! Hitting 70 degrees lately has been a struggle.

Since we had to work so much over the weekend I knew going to the midcoast for Father's Day was not going to be an option. the weather sucked a bag of ass anyway. It rained or drizzled most of the weekend including a good soaking Sat PM/night. Thankfully Monday didn't rain, but it was cloudy and only in the 60s. I woke up feeling beat up from the feet up Monday morning, but I did haul my ass down to Warren for a day trip. As an added bonus Nadia and Hawke were also there so I got to see my niece and nephew. Hawke got some cool bubble-thing that entertained his nearly 4-year old ass, and Dad and I were equally as entertained by shooting at air rifle at some of the bubbles hehehe.

We had a nice lunch and I had to go cut up a huge fallen oak out back in Dad's food plot. That took a couple hours and was WORK. I got a bunch of the wood so bonus there, but a lot of it was heavy and starting to rot since the tree fell last Nov or Dec. I'm glad it was only in the 60s becuase I was all sweaty and I don't think I could have even finished that shit if it was much warmer. The width of the tree near its base is about the width of my saw blade, 18" and those chunks were HEAVY. I just rolled the biggest pieces away because they were too heavy to lift. Jason could have done it faster with his excavator, but it's all swampy down there and Dad's food plot would have been thrashed on with heavy equipment all over the thing.

The Red Sox won big tonight. 6 wins in a row, and maybe now they're not in last place. Guy looks... Damn still in last place at 39-35. What a bunch of crap! When you're 4 games over .500 and still in last place you're in the wrong division!

^Would be in first place in the AL central wow how weird is that?! Hey, the Sox did sweep the Yankees at Fenway over the weekend. I still don't think the Red Sox are going to the playoffs this year, but there's a lot of time left in the season.

I accidentally cut off the Oakland A's in the west, but they are 19-56 and no one cares. HAHAHAHA EPIC FAIL. They're leaving Oakland next year or the year after, and that's sad because I went to a game or two back in the mid-90s when I was stationed near there in Alameda. Their fans are apathetic now, and their stadium is even worse. What a bunch of crap! They had such an amazing team a few decades ago with McGuire, Canseco, Eckersly, and Rickey Henderson. Never been an A's fan, though. Go Red Sox!

I'll be working a lot more at the restaurant with the new schedule. I came home about an hour ago to unwind a bit before my awesome wife comes home. The place closes in a few minutes, but it will take some time to shut it all down. I expect I'll be needed down there quite often for at least the dinner rush on Tues, Wed, and Thurs. I also need to learn kitchen prep so we can get that area of the business more dialed in over the summer. Eventually we will have real, lasting summer weather and our sales will drop some as people to go camp and all that other warm-weather stuff. I'd love for sales to inrease over the summer, but I believe the winter months will generally be our busiest. They have been this year and last year.

Kat has to work a lot more as well because one of her DJs left for Arizona, one trainee bailed, and Nate is barely available since he's also in the military. Since she'll work more I'm happy to also pick it up, get it where it needs to be, and keep the lights on for the place for a long time to come. We haven't made money yet so if we put in the work for the rest of the year some profits, even small profit, will *hopefully* become a reality.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Wednesday, 6-14-23: The Full Metal Jacket masterpiece
It's actually Tuesday night, but I won't finish this bootleg update that almost no one will ever read until roughly the 14th. I often stat updates and don't finish them, but I've gotten better about it lately. I suck! I just get so damn busy that I can't fit it all in. Am I turning the corner with it all? Maybe? Hopefully! I've updated this bootleg site more than any other month this year so that's a start. I can't write my useless thoughts if I don't have precious... precious time.

I'm channel-surfing instead of going down to the bar. I almost went, but staying home was the right thing to do for me. I found the incrediby powerful 1987 movie Full Metal Jacket on one of our Showtime movie channels, and I'm watching it now. It's later in the movie, only about a half-hour left, and it's just an amazing watch. Most people consider this Stanley Kubrick masterpiece to be amazing because of the first half-hour boot-camp scenes, but the last act of the movie is equally as powerful. It's really two movies packed into one flick, and it's just great.

The jelly donut scene, total classic for the first act of the movie.

This movie pulls no punches, and I always remember my Vietman-veteran father saying how realistic the movie actually is. Gunnery Sgt. Hartman (RIP R. Lee Emery) really makes the first part of the movie amazing, but the scenes from the last part are equally amazing. How do you kill women and children? Easy, you just don't lead 'em as much! OMG! My father was a gunner in a helicopter in Vietman so I will NEVER use that quote around him. I can't even imagine the shit-show he endured in 'nam, and I know some really BAD stuff happened to him when he was overseas.

One of the quotes I use to this day is actually really sad. "Doc-J and 8-Ball are wasted, man!" I use that a lot on this bootleg site that almost no one will ever read. Now is the local hooker, and here is comes. "$15 each. She love you good. Boom boom, long time." Then she wasn't want to pokerize the black guy because his dick is too big OMG! These days in the Rainbow-June era that's a no-fly zone so god bless the 1980s. However, the white guy calls the black guy a pretty offensive racial slur so that's 100% uncool.

Matthew Modine's character arc is perfectly done. A journalist who gets put into awful situations and who needs to handle his business in the final act. It all starts with the boot-camp scenes and builds from there, and that overreaching arc puts the movie together in a phenomenal way. The final act of this movie is almost bone-chilling, and it's totally believeable considering the hell that was Vietman in the late 60s and into the 70s.

A perfect movie, a 10/10. I don't give 10-scores to many movies, either. Obviously some of the best of all-time get a 10 as well. The Goonies, The Neverending Story, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, Spaceballs, etc. Full Metal Jacket is easily in my all-time top ten, and at times I think maybe even my all-time top 5.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Tuesday, 6-13-23: I gotta fix my truck or get a newer one. Oh, is Trump going to prison?
My truck... what a bunch of crap! It's a mess, it's dusty, and it's rusty. The rocker-panels are in really rough shape, and they've been getting worse and worse for a few years. The F150 has been an awesome vehicle for my loser-ass for 12.75 years, and it doesn't even have 100k miles on it. However, this is the driver's side scene as of a few hours ago:

^WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP! "Door open" warning is constantly on, but at least there is a top latch hehehe.

Do I get it fixed or do I get a newer truck? I'm not in the market for a brand new truck, but something used and not as old would interest me. A lot. I own a 2010 F150 that I got in Georgia so it's a "Mason Dixon" model hehehe. (not official in any way.) I got that truck early Sept, 2010 and hit the road heading north only a couple hours after. That epic story is in the archives of this bootleg site that almost no one will ever read. Maybe I deleted that archive because I had to delete a lot of the archives. They were just too horrible!

I did some shopping for a newer truck last year and/or the year before, but I gave up because the Covid-19 pandemic really ruined the supply-chain for a while. Trucks got stupid-expensive because there weren't enough available. What a bunch of crap! Hopefully later this year prices get a lot better, but now interest rates are pwned thanks president Joe Biden. I'm not buying one outright, I'd need to finance a lot of it, so I don't need a 15% interest rate.

Even if I don't get a newer truck I can at least clean the one I do own. Look at that mess! I got shopping bags, tools, junk, socks, etc. Yes, socks. HAHAHAHA! I've done a lot of carpentry that required trips out of town over the past few years so I accumulated a lot of miscellaneous junk in that back seat. Need a wrench? Got one. Toilet paper? Under the seat in a Zip-Lock bag hehehe. Extra pair of shitty sneakers? Yup, they're buried in there.

Some people really care about their vehicles. They clean them, they wash them, they cherish them. I'm the opposite. I don't fuckin' care if my truck is clean! I don't want a swarm of fruit-flies in the cab so I'm not nasty about it. I just don't ever go to the car-wash or even take the time to clean out the interior. No wonder I have a lot of rust, eh? I should clean out the interior, though. The dust on the dashboard is so thick I think I could write a note in it to be seen from space. What a bunch of crap!

I called Mom and Pop earlier to see how they are doing, and they were in a hurry to get off the phone because former president Donald Trump was going to give a big speech about his legal issues. My parents are HUGE Trump supporters, and I don't fault them for it but I wish they would take a bit of a step back on it all. Trump was charged with keeping CONFIDENTIAL documents in his mansion in Florida, and he got in legal trouble for it. Today he had to plead NOT GUILTY on 30-something charges. OMG! Biden, that fucking baked potato, did the same damn thing keeping CONFIDENTIAL documents in his friggin' garage in Deleware.

^Current president Biden and former president Trump both epic fail for their piss-poor handling of classified documents. All I wanna know is why? Why would they keep that shit in their private houses? Fucking idiots!

I'm not wanting to vote for either Trump or Biden in the 2024 election. Friggin' ancient white people running this country into the ground. I don't give a crap about their skin color because Obama sucked, too. (At least he wasn't in his 70s, though.) I just want a younger president, maybe someone under the full Social Security retirement age when he or she takes office. Is that too much to ask? Someone who actually served in the military and who has an honorable discharge would be great, too. Democrat or Republican. The Democrats have pissed me off lately so I'm pulling hard for Republicans now. Too bad no one who fits my perfect "mold" appears to have entered the race yet. What a bunch of crap!

I'm not totally opposed to voting for a Democrat, but that prospect seems highly unlikely now.

I only watched a few minutes of Trump run his pie-hole before I changed the channel to the Red Sox-Rockies game at Fenway. The Red Sox suck this year. What a bunch of crap! They are 31-32, or something like that, and I don't even know who most of the people on their team are anymore. No one was excited for this team before the season started, and no one is excited for them now. The Bruins and Celtics had great seasons until they both lost in the playoffs. What a bunch of crap! I never watch hockey, but I have enjoyed watching the NBA more lately. Too bad the top NBA stars are overpaid. A lot. Same can be said for all the major sports, though. In what world should a top athlete make $40-50 million a season?! What a bunch of crap that is!

My awesome wife is the karaoke DJ at the restaurant tonight. It's 2130 and I haven't decided if I'm going yet or not. I've had some drinks, but I'm not thrashed. So far this week is going pretty well. I got some work done, I got some decent exercise (good racquetball games earlier today), and I even had a tax client today for some extra income. I don't get too many tax clients this time of year, but every now and then I have something to deal with. Most of my clients know not to refer anyone to me, but some do anyway. If I have time to meet with a new client I will, and this time of year I can more often than not make time for someone new.

Alright turds, all two of you who read this useless and totally bootleg site of mine, I'm going to go do other things now. Maybe finish the last episode of Gold Rush Whitewater or maybe go down to the bar for a beer. 50/50. Sox just fucked up again, out at home plate, wow bad baserunning and bad defense = what a bunch of crap!

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Sunday, 6-11-23: Hey, good weather. Goonies trivia!
Finally, after 8 consecituve days of total dog-crap weather, we gots ourselves a nice, summer-like day. Temp around 75, partly cloudy, not too humid, it's a win. I haven't had to work today either so bonus for that one. I did go to work for a little while early PM, but nothing was urgent. I already worked 2.5 hours today anyway since I didn't lock up last night until around 0230. What a bunch of crap! We got CRUSHED last night. Amazingly we didn't have to turn any customers away because we were too full, but we had both the event room and the restaurant cranking for a while. Started off slow for the early dinner, but by evening we were all busting ass to keep up. We have a newer guy in dish so that really slowed us down at the end trying to get caught up.

I feel pretty good today overall, and that seems rare these days. I was able to do DDP Yoga, go to work for a little bit, and then go for a 2.25-mile jog. it was my longest jog of the season (kinda sad), but at least I was albe to keep a slower jog-pace for all of it. Oh Jesus, hell ya! I'm far from my peak conditioning of years past, but I can at least work to get closer to where I once was.

I really need to stay on it to get ready for blueberry raking. Gavin and I decided we'll give it one more go since Cliff plans to pay more than ever this year, Cliff needs the help and he's always been good to us, and when I was in the midcoast a couple weeks ago the blooms were looking AWESOME:

Raking is only 7 weeks away OMG! We haven't 100% locked it in, but most likely it'll be a week of camp-rent at Mic Mac and then we stay down there probably 6 out of the 7 days. I like to come home once to break it up some and to see my awesome wife. Plus I need to work Sat, Aug 5th for a huge reunion event we have planned for the banquet room.

Every year I think blueberry raking is over, and somehow (you make your own luck hehe) I get pulled back into it. We could use the money this year. We haven't hit true profit for the restaurant yet. May was not so good, but this month has been damn good (thanks, bad weather!) We're actually on pace for our best June week of sales, ever. This is our third June being in business. Even more impressive is the fact we're doing that on reduced hours of operation as compared to last year June and the year before that. Year-over-year sales have been up every single month but May. Even though we were a tad lower May this year as compared to May last year our sales per hour were actually better because of the reduced hours.

Our mainteannce manager, Jay, hosts a fun Wednesday night trivia at the restaurant starting at 1900. He started hosting the trivia last fall, and since then he's really built it up a lot. We're usually not packed-full, but we draw a pretty damn good crowd. He likes to throw in some fun categories that my awesome wife and I can really appreciate. 80s, music, Star Wars, and most recently THE GOONIES. OH JESUS HELL YA!

^NEED MOAR 80S GIFS

The Goonies category was 10 questions, and we got 9 of them right. Most of the questions were easy (Name of the bad-guys? Fratelli... Derrrrr!) but he found one that stumped us. What was the name of the pirate ship? Multiple choice: The Intrepid, The Inrerno, or the Nautilis? OMG JAY YOU STUMPED US I HAD NO IDEA IT WAS THE INFERNO! I always thought it was simply known as "One-eyed Willie's Ship." One-eyed Willie = AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! BEST MOVIE, EVER!

We tied for first place for trivia that night, but we don't actually play to win a prize. First place are two $20 Mad Kat gift cards (only teams of 2.), second place are always custom mugs that Jay makes. We're lucky to have Jay on the team.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Friday, 6-09-23: Dad's birthday and Father's Day.
Pop turned 74 on Wednesday, and then he had to go up to Togus (the VA) the day after to have a cancerous mole cut off of his face. Skin cancer OMG! I guess he's doing ok today; I checked in and am waiting to hear back. Mom send me updates yesterday, and I also got some great photos from his birthday. Gotta love the cell-phone camera tech these days! Especially since I'm just now getting passable at it, and as an added bonus I figured out how to email cellphone photos to myself so I can post some of them onto this bootleg site that almost no one ever reads.

Dad's health isn't great, but he's hanging in there. I need to get back down to the ol' homestead at some point soon to help around their house more and to just visit. Jason is all excited to get back into the woods to prep for this fall's deer hunting season. Trimming trees, fertilizing, setting up blinds, etc. I'm not as driven for it as he is, and I don't have the precious... precious time to just be driving back and forth all the time since it's 1.5-hours one-way just to get down to Warren. It's not an easy drive either. No highway, lots of wasted time either stuck with tourists on coastal Rt. 1 or through winding roads over Appleton Ridge. It is a nice drive, but it's not time-efficient.

^Happy birthday, Dad! Mom and Dad have had one black lab dog since... forever. Before I was born I believe! (Minus a brief stint here and there between dogs when they have suffered a loss.)

Father's Day is in 9 days, and I won't be there for that day because the restaurant will more than likely be busy. We had our busiest Sunday of all-time last year for Father's Day. Cool, rainy weather certainly helped us along last year. It's too soon to know what Father's Day weather will do this year, but if it's like the month we've had so far it will be an epic failer. What a bunch of crap!

I have a hard time getting gifts for Mom and for Dad so a lot of the time I don't even bother. I suck! This year I do have an idea, though. They've had the same dehumidifier in their cellar for decades, literally decades, and the thing must be nearing the end of its useful life. I'm guessing it's not energy-efficient, and Dad has to empty it every day at certain points of the year. Usually when the firewood goes in the moisture really increases in that basement as the wood dries out so I'd like to get them something that can empty into a floor drain. For years I had that setup over at Allen Rd in my gym, and it was fantastic. Unfortunatly Mom and Dad only have one floor drain, not in a great spot either, so maybe that plan won't work...

I was considering replacing their roof, but I really didn't want to do it because I need a good helper, and I don't have one. Doing their roof all by myself would be a huge challenge, especially cleaning up the debris. They don't want nails all over their yard, and I'd have a hard time avoiding that fate trying to do it all by myself. Plus it would be exhausting. Thankfully they have a guy lined up to do it for them, the same guy who did Jason and Holly's roof last year, so I'm pleased about that. I don't think I want any big carpentry jobs at all this year so I can focus more on the restaurant. Not saying I won't take on a job if the right one comes along, but I'm certainly not looking.

I actually have a lot to do here around the house. The bathroom needs a remodel, the yard is still a mess in a few areas, I have part of the back fence near collapse, and I never finished some of the trim and smaller stuff down in the "new" gym that I started using roughly 13 months ago. I actually plan to go use it shortly, but right now my awesome wife and little grandbaby Damon are napping so I know as soon as I head down the stairs the dogs will find something to bark at, and it will wake them up. NOT ON MY WATCH!

We're going to cut some labor at the restaurant later this month, and there will be some "skeleton crew" shifts where I need to be available as a float, a guy who can pop in on short notice and help out if things get really busy when we don't have full staff on-hand. We just can't afford to keep the place open doing what we're doing now, and with what I expect will (at times) be a slower summer. Having both a manager and a server on when we might only do $1000 in sales = path to fail. Tuesdays are usually terrible, and lately Wednesdays and Thursdays haven't been great. This week so far has been really good, but once better weather arrives I know we'll slow down.

It's a risky plan that could fail; I tried it Tuesday and Dillon had to come bail my ass out around the start of karaoke beause it got busy. Not packed-full like a Friday night busy, but still poppin'. We did have our busiest Tuesday of the entire year, though (I checked because I'm a spreadsheet-data-dork hehe.) and I don't expect that to be the norm. It had rained most of the day so no one could do any fun outdoor activities. The weather so far this month has been BAD.

It started raining again. What a bunch of crap! Oh well, that was expected and right now I am actually happy about it. A wet Friday PM/evening will help business. A lot. I was able to go for a slow, pathetic 1-mile jog earlier and then I mowed the soaking-wet lawn. It really needed the mowing badly, and I didn't want to wait until Sunday when it *might* not rain. Mowing a wet lawn = what a bunch of crap! It really sucks. A lot.

I guess I should hop on over to Lowe's.com to see what they have in stock for dehumidifiers. I also need to shop bath fans with a light. The one we have now is ancient and seems to be near the end of its useful life. We could use a new mirror and vanity as well, but only if something stands out. I do have a financing coupon that will help because I don't want to spend too much precious... precious money.

Oh, I did pay off my Home Depot card in its entirety this week. Oh Jesus, hell ya! I've had a balane on that card for years and years, or so it seems. Same for the Lowe's card. Not a huge, overwhelming amount, and most if not all of it has been special financing terms with no interest. I could pay off the Lowe's card now if I had to, but I'd rather keep the money in case it's needed elsewhere [cough:restaurant:cough]

Alright turds, all two of you who read this bootleg site, I'm out of here to go do other things. Goonies never say die!

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Thursday, 6-08-23: Rain, sick, better.
The weather was great last Thursday. Sun, warm, not too humid. It made for dog-shit business at the restaurant, but at least we got some outdoor-time. Ever since then it's been a total bust. Friday afternoon some storms rolled in, the temp dropped hard, and it's been a wet, cool week since then. Saturday was only 49 degrees for a high temperature. What a bunch of crap! Oh well, I was so sick Saturday it didn't matter what the weather was doing outside.

It's rained every single day since last Friday, and it's been mostly in the 50s this week. We did have a little dry weather for 2-3 hours earlier today so I threw my sneakers on in advance of what I thought might be my first slow-ass jog of the entire month. Then it started raining again, and the radar was all-bad so I just went down into the basement and used my bootleg gym for a half-hour. I wanted to lift weights a little longer, maybe 10 more minutes, but I tanked-out. What a bunch of crap! I gotta work towards more endurance, if I ever can. I guess I'm not truly back to 100% yet despite the fact I felt pretty good for most of the day.

^Awarded to my failed self for... failing. I've gotten more exercise this year than I did last year at this point, but not nearly enough and my cardio conditioning isn't so good anymore. Every time I get close to a good streak something comes up, and allergies/illness cost me a lot of precious... precious exercise time over the past month. What a bunch of crap!

One good thing regarding the horrible weather is sales have been up by a lot over the past week. Nothing fun to do outside when it's 55 and raining so people are more inclined to stay indoors and come to our awesome restaurant/bar. Tuesdays have been slow for most of the year so I decided I could run the shift with just cooks, a dishwasher, and a bartender. No server because that was me! Things were off to an awesome start when we opened at 1600. I had a couple tables, and people trickled in at a steady yet manageable pace. I figured things would slow down so I was going to order some pasta and eat my first full meal in 3 days (more on that later), but as soon as I ordered the pasta more customers came in. Then more came in. Then more came in. Then I was pwned. It was friggin' BUSY! Not packed-full, but for a skeleton crew on a Tuesday it was more than I could handle. Thankfully my awesome wife was arriving and she called Dillon in so he helped me for an hour or so, and he made good money for that brief period. He lives across the street so that helps. A lot.

I felt okay Friday night last week, but I awoke Saturday morning feeling nauseous. I stayed in bed a little extra, but finally it was time to get up to take a piss. I still felt dizzy and off, and not long after that I knew it was coming. Thankfully I had time to get to the toilet and chunder. It was an epic puke, and it sucked. What a bunch of crap! Oh well, the nausea went away so I ddrank some red Gatorate, went back to bed. I woke up a while later, and I had to puke again. NOOOOOOOOO! At that point I knew it. I was 100% sick, and that's all-bad because there was no going to work for my ass. Even worse, the second round of puking looked like I busted out my guts because of the red Gatorade. It was awful!

I haven't been puking-sick since Kat and I have been together. I'd say it's been at least a decade, and maybe even longer, since I was so sick I puked. A stomach flu? No clue, but I had to stay in bed for a total of over 20 hours Saturday and into Sunday morning. Poor Kat got stuck working my shift, and it was full by the start of karaoke. She was down a server, no bouncer (he was also sick), a slow dishwasher, and one of the two servers she did have was literally tweaking from drugs so she had to send his dumb ass home. OMG! The server called the next morning saying sorry he had to go back to rehab. It's the second person this year whom we've hired and lost to drug rehab. WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP! Too bad because I liked the kid well enough.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Thursday, 6-01-23: Got a second Thunder-Chicken.
I went down to the ol' homestead yesterday with the plan to help Mom and Dad with some things around the house, to cut up a falln tree across Dad's food plot in the back woods, and to do a quick turkey hunt with Dad in those same woods. The turkey hunt wasn't quick, though. It took about two hours OMG!

There were turkeys (aka THUNDER CHICKENS) all over the place, and sometimes that's not a good thing when you basically have to shoo them off to get to the hunting blind. They wandered into the neighboring overgrown field, and we gave it a go anyway. It was a beautiful late morning with a temperature around 70 so it was almost too hot, but there was no humidity at all so that's a huge win. We used a couple of decoys and Dad's "Foxpro" call, and immediately we had turkeys calling back to us from what sounded like a few different locations. We kept at it, turkeys kept answering, but sadly none of them came any closer. What a bunch of crap! Oh well, I didn't even care that much about shooting one for me it's all about the experience these days. I won't be able to hunt with Dad for too many more years so every single hunt is important to me now.

We were getting close to calling it quits when I heard the most ear-piercing howls, ever. I thought Dad pushed the wrong call button on his Foxpro, but he forgot to put his cellphone on quiet-mode and his ringtone is set to Coyote howls. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! That shit was LOUD, too. HAHAHAHAHA. He felt badly, but I didn't give a crap. We were in the blind anyway so in theory the sound shouldn't have carried too far. However, the windows in the blind were open...

At the end of the hunt, or so I thought, Dad suggested I sneak back up the path some to see if they were behind us. I didn't see jack shit, and I decided to take a piss. As I was taking a leak Dad hit the call again, and I heard a turkey gobble from not that far off. HAHAHAHA. I got my arse back to the blind, we tried some more, we got some turkey in close, but no close enough. After about 15 more minutes in the blind we decided for one final try. I hit the road, off to the right, towards the once infamous "Art's Junkpile."

When we were kids Art's junkpile was fucking-A. I mean, it was better than sex for a 10-year old. It was literally a giant pile of junk, including all kinds of lumber that we used to build tree-forts all over the damn place. That junkpile was the epitomy of unsafe, too. Old ceramics, metals, nails sticking out, all kinds of stuff that we should not have been walking over and poring through. It was a BIG pile of junk, too. One might say it was a bunch of crap! (Pun intended hehe.) We grew up in a perfect location. Woods, fields, a pond, rural, and NO FUCKING TICKS. Man, I miss the 80s.

Oh, I was wearing one of my many THE GOONIES tee shirts today and some old lady in the bank parking lot asked me where I got the shirt. She wanted to buy one for her grandkid, and she said "Goonies never say die!" OMG THAT WAS FUCKING AWESOME I HATE MOST OLD PEOPLE WHO TRY TO DRIVE BECAUSE THEY TOTALLY SUCK AT IT BUT THAT LADY CAN HAVE HER DRIVER'S LICENSE UNTIL SHE CAN'T SEE AND RUNS OVER A BUNCH OF KIDS. EVEN THEN SHE CAN KEEP THE LICENSE IF SHE IS HONKING THE HORN AND YELLING GOONIES NEVER SAY DIE AS SHE COMMITS HER DEMENTIA-CRIMES.

I'm seriously going off the tracks here with my side-stories. What a bunch of crap! Art's Junkpile, and Art himself, were a couple of the many amazing things from my childhood in rural Warren, Maine in the 1980s. We grew up fairly poor, but the junkpile was a treasure-trove for three ambitious brothers with lots of woods. (The junkpile is off in the woods a ways.) I really miss Art. His bear-trap once ate Jason's soul, but that is a story for another bootleg update that almost no one will ever read...

So I left the blind and tried to sneak over by the junkpile where we were hearing hen clucks and the occasional gobble. I was loud because the woods were dry and leaves crunched beneath my feet, but I tried anyway. I went maybe 50-60 yards from the blind when I saw a turkey scooting along the edge of the field. Then I saw another one. I was off-hand, I switched the safety off, and I had a good bead on one bird. However, it was probably a 40-yard shot, pretty far, and it just didn't feel right so I wanted to get closer. Plus I didn't see a beard on that first bird and you have to shoot either a Jake or a Tom in the spring. (adult male.) Don't ask me why, but the males have a feather-thing that sticks out and is called a beard even though it's just a friggin' feather. Turkeys are weird animals, man.

I snuck a little closer, one stuck its head up, and I was probably 35 yards away. I did see a beard, and I took my time and made what I'd call one of the best shots of my life. I told myself if the turkey scooted off oh well, no big deal, but it kept its head up long enough for me to get my shit dialed in. Steady, squeeze the trigger, tight shooting lane between trees but still a do-able shot. BOOM, turkeys running and flying. I thought I missed and the one I shot at was flying away, but I was cautious. Then all hell broke loose with other turkeys scrambling and hooting and hollering. One was in a tree making all kinds of noise so I went over to where I shot and sure enough, that turkey was down for the count. Sadly it was not yet 100% dead so I finished it off as humanely as possible, and here are the results:

^I look stoned HAHAHAHAA! Dad was fucking around with his phone forever trying to get it to take a picture so maybe I was falling asleep hehehe.

Overall the hunt took a couple hours so that limited the time I had to do other things for Mom and Dad, but we still had a nice lunch with Mom, and I replaed a light fixture, some light bulbs in their attic, and I helped Dad get deck furniture out for the summer. I'm glad to help them with things around the house because it's not so easy for them anymore. They are old so any little thing I do means a lot to them, and I'm happy to do it.

Mom and Dad have lived in that house in Warren for almost 40 years. OMG! They closed on the sale mid-June of 1983, and they said we actually moved in at some point in July, 1983. It makes me sad knowing their run there is coming to and end because they're both senior citizens now. Thankfully Jason only lives 4 miles away so he can help them when I'm not available. Jason has his own house and family so I gotta pull my own weight, though.