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


"Plus Mommy gave me three bags of Teddy Grahams, Honey, Chocolate, and 'Mulatto' She didn't even know Cinamon Teddy Grahams existed and that is a bunch of crap, but the fact she gave me THREE BAGS OF THOSE MUTHERS is so fucking-A that I am willing to overlook that deficiency.." -Classic Crap update from November, 2007.

Saturday, 11-25-17: Can I get it all done by mid-December?
I'm starting to slightly doubt that I can finish my latet house project(s) before the JH job starts. I'm pretty sure I'll get it all done, but I'm not certain. JH goes live on Dec. 18th, and before then they want me to teach some sales training and to help set up the store. The week of Dec. 18th the store is open 1200-1900 Mon-Sat, and last I knew they are still hiring so I know they will need me as much as possible that week. Then the week after Xmas we go live in the WalMarts so I know I'll be busy, especially if they stay short-staffed. They will have a few new people in the area this year so I fear I will bear a heavy load.

The IRS probably won't even start accepting tax returns until the end of January so it is amazing how early we are starting. We started early last year and had a good response to the "Refund advance" program, and this year the refund advance is bigger than ever so the response might be even better. There are already appointments on the schedule for both the Hammond St office and my WalMart location for mid-late Dec. OMG! This tax season could be a busy one. I hope it is busy because I want to make a lot of money. However, I do worry that I might burn out if I work too much. Plus Kat won't be 100% recovered from her knee replacement and I don't want her to be stranded at the house all the time with no one to check up on her.

I have a cat climbing my ladder again. Hehehehe. I usually think the cats in this house serve but one purpose: to keep my awesome wife happy. The kids don't seem to give a shit about their cats, but maybe they do care and I just never notice? However, the cats can sometimes even amuse even me and this is one of those times.

^Photo actually from last week. Since then I've gotten a lot more done on the house.

So I essentially have three weeks and four weekends to get my shit done here at the house. I still have to finish the living room ceiling, I have to finish our new entertainment center, I have to redo the bar, and I have to install a new floor in both the living room and kitchen. I think I can have the ceiling and entertainment center/shelves done this coming week with at least the floor started. I hope! Here is the entertainment center now:

I still need to install oak trim, more shelves, and paint. The big opening on the top is for the new TV that we just bought. We ended up getting a 70" Ultra 4K for $999 (on sale from $1499, but that was probably just a gimmicked full price that they haven't charged in half a year. What a bunch of crap!)

If all I did was focus on this house then I'd be done easily enough and with time to spare, but I still have some rental property stuff to take care of including getting this siding back on:

^I need to get that done ASAP before real winter hits us hard. However, first I need the power company to put on a "boot" so I don't get electrocuted. Getting electrocuted by those wires would be a bunch of crap. And all I own is a metal ladder..

I also have other things to do like send Tommy some of his stuff (much more work than you'd think), Christmas shop, exercise, deer hunt, play racquetball, go to Dr. appts with Kat, set up and break down at Jester's each Friday until Kat recovers, etc. I could skip the deer hunting, but F that it is fun and I want to go a few more times before the season ends. Jason and his friend, Steve, came up last night and we bowhunted. I saw two deer and Steve saw one, but nothing got close enough to shoot. The two I saw at last light were only about 40 yards away from me, though. Today I'm going down to the midcoast to rifle hunt with Dad and Jason. Even though they both already got deer and are tagged out as far as rifle hunting goes they can come along and coyote hunt at the prison farm. (I can still rifle hunt because I got my deer using an expanded archery tag last month.) Today is the last day of the rifle season, but there are two more weeks left of expanded archery or even muzzle-loader hunting if I choose that option. I did get a deer with a muzzle-loader back in I believe 2006. Guy looks now...

^Wow how time flies. Early December, 2004. Back then we didn't have cellphones so we used Motorola 2-mile radius walkie-talkies to communicate in the woods.

In conclusion I got busy again. What a bunch of crap! It has happened to me a lot over the past few years, but eventually I'll make time to screw off more. Hopefully. At least this year I have made more time for exercise and deer hunting, two things I enjoy doing very much. I've played a ton of racquetball this year, too. I'm actually on pace to have my best year of exercise, ever. Not bad for someone who turns 42 in three days.

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Tuesday, 11-21-17: Stranger Things and a new TV.
Last week Kat and I watched both season one and season two of a Netflix series called Stranger Things. Kat had already watched season one last fall, but I had never seen the show until last week. Hell, until last week I never knew what the show was even about. Now I am so glad that we watched it because it is incredible.

Stranger Things season one takes place in the fall of 1983 so just being set in the 80s is a huge plus. (Season two takes place a year later, fall 1984.) The pop-culture references are fun to see and they all work well. Rotary phones, old video games, movie posters, The Terminator playing at their local theater, etc. The soundtrack for the show is fantastic, too.

Stranger Things brings a nearly perfect mix of scifi, horror, comedy, and drama. The show is well-acted, and it makes you care about every character. The special effects are good, too. I was blown away by the entire presentation, and both seasons really worked for me. However, if I did have to choose I would take season one over season two. I'd give season one a 10 and season two a 9.9 so really the difference is minute. During most of the season one finale I was on the edge of my seat so-to-speak, just rivited to the TV. I think about a show I have seen in my life that is better, and there isn't one that comes to mind at all.

I'd be working on the house right now, but F it I wanted to update this bootleg site that almost no one will ever read. I do plan to work on this for a good part of the day:

Not much to look at now, but it will be out new entertainment center including a 70-inch LCD Ultra 4K TV that we are going to purhase today. Unfortunately, we have to go to Best Buy because that is the only place to get it. I used to hate Best Buy because I worked at Circuit City, but now I do not hate Best Buy. I don't even care... whether or not I care. This was Circuit City earlier in the year:

^After being bankrupt and vacant for many years the old Circuit City building was demolished and now The Nothing sits there where a once-great retail electronics store stood. What a bunch of crap! I worked for CC from late 1999 through early 2003. It was a great job, but I am not sad that it ended for me because I never considered selling computers to be a career path.

Here are some 70" TVs for sale on Best Buy's webpage:

We are pretty sure we are going to get the LG for $999; the Sony might be a little better, but it is $300 more. The new TV will be our Christmas gift to each other. We don't have to get the TV today, but it would suck if the sale ends and the price jumps back up to $1500. I don't think the price would jump that high, especially with BLACK FRIDAY and Christmas coming, but why take the chance? Plus I will have the entertainment center build soon so it would be nice to have a new TV to put on it. (We have to order that TV because it is not in stock locally.)

We watched Stranger Things on the smaller bedroom TV. I bet it would look great on a brand new 70" TV in the living room! Next time we will watch it on the bigger TV. Season three doesn't come out until next fall, 11 months from now. What a bunch of crap! As Tom Petty once sang the waiting is the hardest part...

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Friday, 11-17-17: To go back to the bar or to just stay home?
It is 2326, nearly a half-hour until midnight for you nasty civilians who do not know military time, and I am still awake. I am drinking a coffee brandy and a milk, and I just finished working on the house for the day. Yeah, I was working on the house late-night on a Friday night. Ceiling tile and a light-fixture install, beotches. (All two of youz who actually read this bootleg piece of crap site.)

I was at Jester's earlier tonight to set up all Kat's gear for the karaoke show. DJ PJ is running the show, and thankfully she is a quick study or else I would be pwned. I know the term DJ-PJ seems ridiculous by the way, but her name really is PJ so it is an unintended pun for sure. Hehehe. I did stick around for the first half-hour of PJ's show just in case I was needed, and there was a display issue right at the start so I am glad that I did stay. Last week I stayed for the entire show, but PJ caught on quick so I didn't have to do much but socialize with all the regulars and have a couple beers for the final three hours of the four-hour show.

I could just bivouac and get Kat's gear in the morning, but I am all amped up and I want to make sure I do a good job for my awesome wife. Unfortunately, Kat's knee is still in tremendous pain 8 days after her total left knee replacement. There is a huge bruise on her hamstring above the back of the knee still, but docs checked it out both yesterday and today and told us there are no red flags. That does offer a modicum of comfort, but I still worry that she is hurting, immobile, and confined to the house for weeks to come. I have it in my mind that if I bivouac right now PJ might just call me for a technical issue and then I am going to the bar so that is why I am still up.

Man, running this house solo is hard. When Kat is fully functional I don't really pay too much mind to some of the household chores, but now that she is on the bench I have to do things like laundry and ensuring the cats have food. I don't really give a fuck about any of the nine cats in this house, but they make my family happy so I can take it like a man. Lately the cats have been pissing me off because they get in the way and they think the bed is their throne. However, it is not that big of a deal and we do throw them all out when we do bivouac. Four of the nine cats in this house do belong to the kids, but that is fine we make it work. I wish it wasn't so cold outside so I could let the cats use this thing right now:

^Built in the spring, and useless now because F that it is too gods damned cold. Temps are winter-like. What a bunch of crap! Oh well, at least we have no plowable snow on the ground so that is a small victory.

It feels like this house is always under construction. When will it end?! I dunno, but it is a blessing a a curse. I love working on the house and making improvements, but the materials alone are costly so I can only do so much each year. Plus I get busy doing other things and I don't always want to be working. Work to live, not live to work. Right? Something like that. Soon enough I will be working plenty of hours when the JH job gets rolling, but F it I might as well work more in the winter since there is nothing enjoyable to do outdoors for those cold few months.

Tommy just wrote back to me; he and I have texted back and forth a few times today. He has some friends who want to play old-school NES with him, and I wish I could do the same. He also said he loves Stranger Things. Awesome! I knew he'd love it, the only question was whether or not he actually had seen it. What a great show that is, and hopefully I can write more about it next time. For now I am out of here. Goonies never say die!

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Thursday, 11-16-17: A little snow and a little renovation work.
We got our first sonwfall of the season last night, but it barely counts. Just a dusting on the deck, lawn, and vehicles. Nothing at all on the roads, and not even close to needing the plows. Thankfully temps are supposed to move up into the low 40s later so we will get some rain and not snow. No snow for us yet in the 7-day forecast, but plenty of continued cold. After a record warm October and a mild first few days of this month we have been trending well below average lately. What a bunch of crap! Oh well, no snow is a win because I would rather pay 60 cents per therm for heat than $150 each time a plowable snow falls.

I actually hired a new plow guy for the rental properties last month. Hopefully he does a good job; my last guy did okay, but he was a bit too pricey and a few times he arrived too late. Oh, one time he also did this after the massive blizzard in February:

^Deserves Fail Trophy.

Then he wanted to charge my ass $200 to bring in a tractor to move it all away from the dumpster. What a bunch of crap! Thankfully he never brought the tractor so I just picked away at it with my shovel and some of it melted away before Evergreen needed to come empty that dumpster. Gods damn winter...

I thought about going deer hunting this morning, but F it I slept in until 0630 instead. I would have had to get up around 0500 to pull it off, no problem, but it would have woken up my wife and she needs to sleep whenever she can. Poor Kat, she is still in a lot of pain after her knee replacement surgery from exactly one week ago. She can only sleep on her back, and that makes it tough for her. Just getting out of bed is difficult, and there is constant pain that medications can barely keep in check. It will be a long road to full recovery, and reading other people's knee replacement stories on the Interweb is not encouraging at all. It seems many people who have a knee replacement have chronic pain that lingers a very long time. What a bunch of crap!

While Kat convalesces I have started some renovations at the house. Again. I'm almost always working on something, and I guess I'd get bored if I didn't have some project to tackle. Right? Maybe?

^There was a closet to the right and some recessed lights above the window before I made that all disappear a couple days ago.

^First coat of mud is almost dry already.

I canceled a useless window in the living room, and that was a bit more of a pain that I had hoped. There was a little rot around the window on the exterior side. What a bunch of crap! Plus no housewrap or flashing. All I wanna know is why? Why would they not use at least tarpaper to cover that 1/2" plywood sheathing? Moisture got in behind the vinyl siding over the course of many years, and I had to rebuild some of it. For sure I will at minimum be using zip tape if not housewrap so I can keep that plywood covered and protected from future rot.

I did get sheetrock installed on the entire inside living room wall yesterday as pictured above along with a first coat of mud, and I even had time to go for a cold 38-degree jog and go to Jackson Hewitt to talk to the boss about this coming season (I'm going BEAST MODE and making it happen in a big way this coming winter!) After that it was time for supper and episodes 3-6 of Stranger Things Season 2. That show is AWESOME. I'll write more about Stranger Things once we finish season two; we watched all 8 season one episodes earlier this week.

Katherine wants to go shopping for Thanksgiving supplies today since it is her day off from work. I do not want to go Thanksgiving shopping at all because I don't even know what to do with the stuff. Green bean casserole = way above my pay-grade. Real mashed potatos = not possible given my current kitchen acumen. Stuffing = can not make. Cooking an entire turkey = I do not know how, but I think with Google, Kat, and Katherine's guidance we can pull that one off. Throw it in the oven, right? Oh, I do know what I can make all by myself!

^Open can, dump out, shovel into face. Win at food.

If I were in charge of the Thanksgiving meal all by myself I would have canned cranberry sauce pictured above, deer steak, and frozen veggies. I guess I could also do those instant mashed potatoes. Maybe..

I dreamed I was in the Navy on a ship that sank. Again. Every once in a while I have a dream regarding a sinking ship. All I wanna know is why? Why does that happen? I've been a civilian for damn near 20 years so I guess I would need a psychologist to sort it all out. However, I am fine with being weird so I already don't even care... whether or not I care. The end.

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Monday, 11-13-17: Why am I still awake?
It is 0038, or 38 minutes after midnight for anyone who does not do military time. Sunday recently ended, it is now Monday, and I am still awake. All I wanna know is why? Why am I still awake? This sucks. It is a bunch of crap! I should have bivouaced a few hours ago, but I got greedy and wanted to watch the Patriots beat Denver. However, I did not even watch the entire game. I tried to go to sleep at 2300 once the Greatriots had a 41-16 lead in the 4th quarter, but I tossed and turned and could not fall asleep. If anything I became more awake. Gods damn it!

Final outcome of the game: Brady 24/35, 3TD 0INT, 266 YDS. Greatriots 41, Broncos 16. Oh Jesus, hell ya! Brady is still a god at the “ancient” age of 40. He is two years younger than my loser ass, but for an NFL player it just about equals a dinosaur.

Poor Kat, she had her knee replacement surgery Thursday and is now sleeping while I write this bootleg update that almost no one will ever read. The surgery took a little longer than expected; Thursday was a long day. We had to report to EMMC at 0530 so revielle for us both was 0430. The surgery was at 0730 so I hung out in the waiting area, I dozed off some, and I hoped like hell for a good outcome. I leafed through some of a Reader's Digest magazine and read a few pages of Stephen King's Cell, but it was hard to concentrate on any substantive reading. For most of the morning I could not see my awesome wife, but then finally I got to see her in the recovery area and I taked to the surgeon who is a great friggin’ doctor by the way. She was doing okay, thankfully.

The doc had to saw her all up, and there was extensive arthritis and other damage, so it did take a while. We spent Thursday night in the hospital before coming home Friday, and poor Kat had a rough night Friday night. Lots of swelling and pain. I had to go down to Jester’s for the entire night to help PJ run the show, but thankfully PJ caught on quick and did most of the work. It was still a late night, though.

Both Kat and I are so far off our “normal” schedules that it is not even funny. I guess that is why I am awake at 0046 instead of dreaming about green eggs and ham. That last statement made no sense at all, but all dreams are weird so nevermind. Thursday night was a fitful night of sleep on the bootleg hospital cot in Kat’s room, Friday night was a late night of fitful sleep, and last night was fitful as well although I did have weird dreams regarding blueberry raking and evil overlords. I still can’t piece those ones all together, and I am not so sure I want to. Where’s my psychologist? What a bunch of crap!

^Everything is weird right now including a reference to a book I don't think I have ever read. Dr. Seuss must have done a lot of drugs...

Kat has a lot of swelling and pain in her left leg after the replaement surgery. We have some ice-thingie to keep it cold, but that seems like pissing on a wildfire. She has to keep it elevated so she can only sleep on her back, and that sucks. A lot. Both her and I prefer to sleep on our sides, and I would assume most people prefer to do just that but we all know that when you assume you make an ass out of both you and me, or so it has been said.

I guess I will play a round or two of Majohng Tiles and then try to sleep again. I did take a “sleep aide”, a coffee brandy and milk. I did not drink it because I am living it up or to honor a George Thorogood song, I drank it in the hopes it will help me bivouac. Sometimes a small/moderate amount of alcohol does help me when I can’t sleep. Hopefully tonight it works great and I can fall asleep fast when I go hit the rack in a few.

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Wednesday, 11-08-17: Last day before Kat's left knee replacement.
Kat and I have to report to the hospital tomorrow at 0530 so we can get her checked in and officially on the docket for a left knee replacement surgery. This will be her 8th knee surgery, but it will be her first replacement. It is not often doctors recommend a knee replacement to someone who is a "young" 42 years old, but at this point there is no other option. Docs actually told her years ago to get her knee replaced, but she waited as long as possible before actually agreeing to do it because she is like Dalton from Road House. Pain Don't Hurt.

I have taken care of most of the things I wanted to take care of in advance of this surgery. I got the side yard looking much better, and I finished splitting all the wood on Sunday. I took a couple photos of the work I had been doing, but now I need to find them. Guy looks...

^From a couple weeks ago. Thankfully we have a lot of already-dry wood because we needed a fire for a good part of the 3-day power outage last week. What a bunch of crap that was! Most of the wood there still needs to dry because it came from this tree about a month ago:

^That was a bunch of crap! I still don't even know what kind of tree that is. Ash? It should be called ASS because any tree that dares to fall down onto one of my bootleg properties is an ASSHOLE.

The side yard looks like this now:

^Off to the right is some siding and a few other things that I need to haul on, but overall I like how it looks now.

Still not 100% cleaned and organized, but good enough. I have a spot for some of our wood to stay dry and a spot for the snowblower. I should lock that snowblower down so it does not get stolen by some pinko mooching thief. God I hate people who steal. EARN YOUR OWN STUFF THIEVES.

My outdoor projects for this year are about done. I do have a siding repair to make from last week's storm and a few potholes to fill, but nothing huge. Good thing because it will be a "record challenging cold snap" of 32 for a HIGH TEMP Friday, and it will be very much like winter around here over the weekend. No snow forecast (squall with a front Thurs night?) but plenty of cold. What a bunch of crap! Oh well, we had it coming after a record warm October. Law of averages and all that.

I'll be focused for the next few days at least on helping Kat recover from her knee replacement. It could take three months for her to heal, but hopefully she starts recovering quickly. While she convalesces here at the house I will be ripping out a closet, removing a window, and building shelves along this entire wall in our living room:

^This will be our new entertainment center wall with the TV, speakers, Blu-Ray thing, all the DVDs, etc. Our TV is currently on the other side of the living room, the fireplace side (behind me in that photo.) I still have not 100% decided how I want to build everything, but as usual I will draw up some terrible-looking plans on a scrap piece of paper and just figure it out along the way. I've never been one for elaborate blueprints for remodels.

^The "official" very bootleg plans for a huge 24x8 deck that I built back in 2009. That was the first real deck I ever built, and so far is has not collapsed yet.

Doing all the shelves in that corner will take a while because first I need to do sheetrock work, mud, tape, etc. The wall is nearly 12 feet so there will be a lot of shelves. However, Kat owns a load of DVDs and Blue-Rays so all of the shelves that I do build will be put to good use. I don't want it to be bootleg, I want it to all look nice, so I'll take my time and hopefully get it right.

After I do that entertainment wall I can replace the living room & kitchen floor. After that is remodeling the bar, and hopefully I can pull it all off before the JH job starts. I have about 1.5 months before I will be out of time for big projects because I will be working full-time hours doing taxes all winter.

I sure hope Kat has a speedy recovery from her knee surgery. I hope the doctors and staff take great care of her at the hospital, and I hope she does not have a tremendous amount of pain. I'll need to stay close to her for the next few days not only at the hospital but also here at our house so I probably won't update this piece of shit site that no one ever reads for a while. Right now I need to go work with my Sweet Pea in her studio, our former detached garage, so I can help run her Friday night karaoke while she heals. I do NOT want to do her karaoke, but I love her and if I don't help her then no one else will. Hopefully her fill-in friend will do a great job so I don't get stuck down at Jester's essentially running the entire show myself. I don't even really like karaoke. What a bunch of crap!

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Sunday, 11-05-17: Our Interweb and TV work again!
Gavin and I teamed up to take a huge load of junk to the dump yesterday, and after that I mooched his Interweb for a few minutes to check my email and weather.com. I had 35 emails in the inbox, and tons more in the junk folder that I never bother to open. I didn't even read all my emails while I sat in my truck next to his house. F that. I really just needed to send a business email with three photos of a bootleg railing that I had to install in order to pass an annual inspection for one of my rent-assisted tenants.

^The cellar steps are narrow and steep, but the building is old and there is no way to get them any wider or less steep without doing extensive renovations that are not cost-effective. Thankfully I had spare parts in my shed so putting on both of those railings shown in the photo was simple. Having a shed full of scraps, pieces, parts, etc. is a huge plus and saves me multiple trips to the hardware store each year. I'm no hoarder, I throw tons of crap away each year, but I save just enough to put to use for odds and ends here and there.

After I sat cramped and awkwardly in the truck for 15 minutes to do the bare essentials online I came home, ate some lunch, and then our own TV and Interweb started working again. FINALLY. We went over five days with no TV or Interweb and nearly three with no power after Monday's epic wind-storm. Bangor had a peak wind gust of 66MPH Monday morning; bouys off the coast hit the 80s and 90s for peak winds. Mt. Washington, 135MPH. OMG!

I went hunting with Bill, my brother in law, last night. Lots of trees are down in the woods as well, but there are no trees down anywhere that mess up my Supertree and tree stand setup just up the road. I put Bill in my treestand, and I sat in my ground blind nearby at Supertree. It was great weather for a hunt so I thought one of us would see a deer, but an hour before quitting time Bill got down from the stand and came to get me. Other guys were walking through the area so they compromised our hunt. What a bunch of crap! Hate it when that happens...

Fortunately we had enough time to fall back to the field between the parking area and where we wanted to be. I don't hunt that field too often because other hunters can mess it up, but I figured why not better than just leaving and sometimes there are deer there before dark. I dropped Bill off on one side, and I went to hunt the apple tree on the other side. I hunted the same tree where I shot my very first deer ever in those woods many years ago.

^Okay I will have to do my homework on this one. According to my quick look that deer was from 2010... guy looks it up now.

"That deer was the first deer that I've ever shot outside the town of Warren. It's pretty much the first deer in my life that I did all on my own." Yup, November 26, 2010 update. I shot that small deer on the 24th at this tree, the same tree I watched last night for the final hour:

^The tree still is laden with fruit, even after that huge storm, so it is not a bad spot to watch at all.

I didn't see any deer there last night, but Bill had two deer come out only five minutes after I dropped him off. Oh Jesus, hell ya! He took a shot at the first one, a spike, but he said he shot under him for a clean miss. Oh well, I know the feeling I have done it before. There are lots of fresh scrapes in there and great deer sign so hopefully Bill has a chance to get back in there and get his deer this year. If things fall into place maybe I'll even get another deer in there this season.

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Friday, 11-03-17: Last Jester's karaoke with Sweet Pea for a while.
This is my second bootleg update of the day that no one will read for a while. Seriously. There still is no Interweb in this hacienda on Parkway North in Brewer because we are pwned. What a bunch of crap! Oh well, the money we will be saving on our cable bill can go towards our bar tab tonight. Spectrum said they won't charge us for the days we don't have service so we're getting near a week now. All I wanna know is why? Why have they not fixed it yet? Getting on the web at least briefly would be nice so I can see a good weather forecast and check the email. Maybe tomorrow I will go to Dunkin' Donuts or Tim Horton's, some place that gives away free wifi. Since I'm not a moocher I will of course buy food and a drink for that privlidge. I do not know how to spell that last word, and there is no Google to look it up either. What a bunch of crap! Priviledge? Privlige? Eh fuck it I don't even care... whether or not I care.

^Awesome Neverending Story references I use all the time. "We don't even care... whether or not we care." Wolfgang Peterson created a masterpiece when he made that movie. Too bad the sequals are a bunch of crap!

If my cellphone cost $60 a month or some shit then I would have "data" and Interweb, but F that I am fine with $34 a month no Interweb on the phone. Half the damn time my phone is an inconvenience, but I need to have it for my precious... precious business. I can do plenty on my computer with no Interweb, too. At least for now. I have been working on organizing my old photos in preparation to transfer everything from this laptop PC to a newer one that I got from Katherine several months ago.

I am heading down to Jester's shortly for what should be our last show until Kat's new bionic knee is installed and heals. This coming Thursday at 0530 we have to report to the hospital so she can have a full left knee replacement. Gods damn lupus degenerated her joints in her legs a lot. The doctors recommended she get a knee replacement years ago, but she waited as long as possible because she is still relatively young. A lot of people in their 60s and 70s get knee replacements, not so many at age 42. Later this month I will be 42 myself. Yeah, my wife is older than my loser ass by about a half a year. She's a cougar! hehehehe.

I guess I will miss Jester's some, but not that much. Hell, at the rate things are going my dumb ass will be stuck running the karaoke show and that would be all bad. Her replacement does not seem so motivated to learn the shit so worst case it falls back to me. I DO NOT want to be a karaoke DJ, ever. I am fine with the slumlording and tax prep. Blueberry raking, no prob. being Kat's DJ assistant is fine, too. However, being the actual DJ = thanks but no thanks and not really even thanks. The beauty of our society is something called the division of labor. Different people do different things that they are good at (ok in theory because half the people suck at their jobs) and that is what is supposed to make America great, not some red ballcap from some half-baked president who would rather post stupid shit on is fire-breathing twitter machine than actually do a good job as America's leader... I digress, but the point is I am no good at karaoke and I am not the right person to run Kat's show while she convalesces. <(Another word I don't know how to spell. What a bunch of crap!)

^Good slogan, good idea, but terrible execution so far Mr. Trump.

So for at least a while my Friday night routine will be all different. Is that good? Only time will tell. Sounds like an Asia song but is the reality of the situation. I like getting half in the bag for a couple hours before I head back to the bar. Tonight I used the gym and organized my office computer. No interweb at the office either. Oh well, there hasn't been Interweb in my bootleg office for over a year and I am fine without it. See Neverending Story Morla photo above. I guess I won't drink as much until Kat gets better, and that it probably a good thing. I shudder to think how much money I spend at that bar over the course of a year. I think it is a lot. A lot. Last Friday there was the annual halloween party, and that was kinda fun but honestly not as fun as some others have been. We were all Ninja Turtles, but I hauled on my costume after a couple hours because there was no front zipper so you basically had to take the whole thing off just to take a piss. What a bunch of crap! I ended the night in jeans and a tee shirt and in a huge argument with the beotch bartender who works there on occasion.

This time of year I'd rather just have a quiet night, wake up early, and go deer hunting. That is what I did last night and this morning, but unfortunately I did not see any deer. What a bunch of crap Oh well, maybe tomorrow...

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Friday, 11-03-17: NO TV NO INTERWEB TIME TO HUNT.
All I wanna know is why? Why do we not have TV or Interweb working in this house yet? All the tenants who have Spectrum Cable have theirs working. The neighbors across the street have a working TV, and we don't see a satellite dish on their roof or in their yard so that kinda narrows it down, especially when game 7 of the World Series was on their big TV Wednesday night. I'd go ask them, but F it I don't even care... whether or not I care. Same for the outcome of the World Series; I still don't know who won that game. Also, I think the Greatriots traded their backup QB for a high draft pick. The Pats are 6-2 at the halfway point of the season, are in first place, and have a bye week this coming weekend.

I am out of the loop on a lot of things because there is no TV or Interweb. Maybe today I'll buy a newspaper. I did call Spectrum, and we are one of the remaining 231 outages they have. They definitely know we are shit on toast, but there are two things we can do about it: nothing and like it. There is no ETA for return service at this point. What a bunch of crap! Oh well, at least we get our bill prorated; they won't charge us for the days we have no service. At this point that will be several days at least of a bill credit.

My Bangor duplex got power back yesterday evening. Oh Jesus, hell ya! Now all the bootleg rentals have power. Deno texted me that Gold's Gym also has power back as of yesterday evening so score one there. We wanted to play Monday, but there was no power. We also wanted to play yesterday but again, no power. Oh well instead of Rball I went for a jog. I did have a pulled right calf muscle that prevented me from doing much jogging last month, but each of the last two days I have gone my normal 3-mile loop and had no ill effects. I am thankful to the gods who do not exist for that because it took a long time to heal up. Once last month I thought it was healed but then I aggrivated it again during a jog. What a bunch of crap! I feel good right now. Wide awake and ready to drag a 200-pound buck a half-mile out of the woods.

^I still would love to have him walk by when I am hunting again. However, I really don't think I could drag him out solo. Just dragging that much smaller 4-pointer last Saturday was like a full trip to the gym. I was sweating despite the fact is was not hot at all outside.

I am going bowhunting this morning. I've been up since 0410, and right now it is 0551. Sunrise is late so I can't even start hunting until 0645; I'll leave here in about 30 minutes and poke my way into the woods towards Supertree. I need to allow extra time because I have not been in the woods here since we had mega-tropical-bomb-storm Monday. I'm sure trees will be down along the way. Hopefully my tree stand is okay and hopefully Supertree survived the onslaught. Maybe after my hunt I can find the arrow that passed through the deer I shot last Saturday. I'm still thankful we got to use Jason's generator to save all that venison and other meat we have frozen.

I am not sure why I woke the hell up at 0410. I was actually awake off and on before then. I wanted to go deer hunting this morning, but I did not set the alarm for it. I figured I'd wake up in time to go, but I did not expect to wake up so early. Ah well I'll just take a nap later.

I suppose I have time to go through a few more photos before I gear up to go hunting. I spent about an hour this morning going through all my digital photos, organizing, deleting duplicates, etc. Even though there is no Interweb there is plenty I can be doing offline on this bootleg computer that randomly shuts itself off if I am on too long (fan issue overheating?) Once I get all my stuff organized on this laptop PC I plan to transfer it to another one that I have, same model as this one, thank you Katherine.

Hopefully I see some deer this morning. I don't care if I get another one or not, but if I do get one then bonus. Tonight is Kat's last night at Jester's before her knee replacement in six days so if time permits I'll come back and write a little more after I help her set up tonight. Goonies never say die!

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Thursday, 11-02-17: The aftermath of a brutal storm still affecting us all.
Monday morning's storm was bad. It was forecast to be bad, but it hit us even harder than most expected. Statewide we shattered a record for amont of power outages ever; we blew the "Ice Storm 1998" numbers right the hell off the books. I was not here for that ice storm because I was aboard the USS Carl Vinson west coast, USN. I got out of the Navy and came home that summer, but by then the ice storm aftermath had long since been squared away.

We lost power at the house at 0752 Monday morning, and the power stayed out until last night at around 2115. Three full days with no power and two full nights. What a bunch of crap! We lost some food and a lot of condiments, but thankfully Jason let me use his small 1000-watt generator so I was able to hook up the chest freezer and save all the deer meat and some other frozen foods. It was a close call with the meats and I wasn't sure I could make the save because all that stuff went 1.5 days before I could get the freezer going. Monday night when we realized we might not have power for a while to come I made an emergency plan of action. First I took all the frozen food from the fridge upstairs (which had condensation on it and, even though it was still frozen, seemed ready to start thawing) and packed it tightly into one giant mass with the frozen meat in the chest freezer downstairs. Second, I planned to go to the midcoast early Tuesday morning to get that generator.

Monday night was a rough night for sleeping. No fan, dead quiet, but thankfully not cold. We both slept horribly; I got maybe two total hours of sleep and Kat got even less. What a bunch of crap! I left here at 0400 to go to the midcoast, and I met up with Jason at Mom and Dad's so we could go deer hunting at first light in the oak off the Mt. Road. My original plan was to go deer hunting Monday evening, all day Tuesday, and Wednesday AM before heading back home. Unfortunately, the storm screwed me so all I could muster was a Tuesday morning hunt before I had to get the generator and head back home for a freezer rescue mission. Plus I didn't want to stay away long knowing we had no power. The man of the house needs to be around in an emergency gods damn it.

During our hunt Tuesday morning Jason watched over the swamp from his climbing tree stand, and I stayed higher up in the oak. Around 0900 he texted me that a 6-pointer was heading my way. Oh Jesus, hell ya! Before then I hadn't been too into the hunt. I had been texting some with friends and family up here, and Walt was kind enough to offer us the use of his generator as well since he got his power back on. Amazingly enough Jason and Holly in Rockland didn't lose power at all. Wow! However, Mom and Dad are still pwned with no juice. Hopefully they get theirs back on today. They have a badass generator so they're ok without power.

No sooner had I read the text when I saw him. He was moving right along through the lower end of the oak, and I was able to come to the ready with the safety off. Just prior to that I did grunt and bleat quickly in the hopes of luring him right to me, but I saw he did not respond to the calls at all. there was quite a bit of underbrush so I picked a spot where I might get a shot, but unfortunately he passed by so fast that there was no chance. Gods damn it! I waited a few minutes before trying more grunts and bleats, and then after 10 minutes I even tried rattling, but he was long gone. What a bunch of crap! We think he was on a mission to go find some does because I know he didn't see, hear, or wind me. He just slipped by. Oh well, it happens.

Phil shot a 7-pointer yesterday morning in Oakland on his own property, and he said that buck was chasing does around so this is about prime-time just before the rut really gets going. I do want to rifle hunt some more and maybe even bowhunt again up here once or twice before Kat has her knee replaced in one week, but it is not as important to me since I got that 4-pointer up here Saturday night. Now my focus is still on getting us all back to normal not only here at our own house but also at all the rentals. Once that is done then I can go try to get another deer!

We still do not have Interweb or TV, and we think that is because Bangor west side near Spectrum/formerly Time Warner has no power yet. Gold's Gym right by Spectrum is still without power at last check so no racquetball either. What a bunch of crap! All the Brewer rentals got their power back on when we did last night, but my bootleg Bangor duplex still has no power at all. Epic fail. That property is only 1/4 mile away from downtown so that is really shocking. Downtown Bangor has had power the whole time, and so has the mall area.

Many places will still be days before power is restored. Mom and Dad are hoping they get back onto the grid today. Beechwood St down there was closed Tuesday still because a huge pine tree fell across the road and also wrapped up into powerlines. The Keating Rd was barely passable with some trees and lines down. Huge trees toppled, and here on North Main St the next street up at least one power pole snapped right off and closed the entire road for a while. When Rt. 9 is entirely closed due to downed lines that is all bad.

Overall we fared comparatively well. I had some limbs down, but those are already cleaned up. The siding that blew off the building at my gym/office will suck to repair, but I can handle that. Just gotta get the power company to put up a "boot" because the powerline is a threat to my ladder right there. I don't even plan to call to ask for that boot until power is restored everywhere so perhaps next week I'll tackle that one.

We are lucky to have our fireplace so we had some heat. I also accidentally did it right regarding the new addition to the house. I had a 40-gallon gas water heater installed that does not require electricity to run so we had hot water. Oh Jesus, hell ya! We had plenty of firewood, and we still do have plenty of firewood that I need to finish splitting. I actually have been working on that wood in between deer hunting.

I haven't really missed not having TV or internet yet, but having the Interweb today would be nice so I can get a good weather forecast, see who won the World Series (game 7 last night Dodgers vs. Astros), and check email. Plus reading a few news headlines would be nice. Oh well.