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"My right arm was numb when I woke up." -Me
"Oh so it matches your head." -Kat

Thursday 11-26-20: Happy Thanksgiving you turds.
This is the first morning in what seems like forever, possibly months, that I am not doing any work. I actually slept around 8.5 hours last night, a great night of sleep, and that is also rare these days. (Now I won't sleep tonight what a bunch of crap!) I was all stressed out a couple days ago because I had too much going on, but now I feel just fine and not stressed at all. Today is Thanksgiving Day and a much-needed day off from working on the bar/restaurant. Kat and I had a rough week last week, but things are much better this week and especially so far today.

I actually will do some work today regarding the bar, but just some online shopping at my leisure. We still need an office for the place so I will check out Black Friday deals on things like an office computer, desk, printer, etc. This year there is no real Black Friday where people herd en-mass to stores and bivouac at the front door of these retailers in the wee hours of the morning waiting to flood in and catch some super deals on items. Due to the Coronavirus pandemic Black Friday is more of a shop online type of thing, and even at that there aren't really ridiculous deals. It seems this year stores are spreading out some sales as opposed to cramming them all into one big day. I think Black Friday sucks anyway so I'd rather it be more of an online shop and spread-out type of thing.

I did like Black Friday about 20 years ago when I worked at Circuit City and got commission. One year there on Black Friday I earned over $500 in commission just for the one day, probably a 12-hour shift. Oh Jesus Hell ya! I sold a 47" (maybe 50"?) plasma TV and that sale alone earned me $100 commission. The TV retailed for about $5000 back then. HAHAHAHAHA! Now the same-sized LED TV would sell for what, $400?

I did work several hours at the bar yesterday before I quit for the day to use my bootleg gym and come home, and I installed some more trim and got things looking just a little bit more complete. On Tuesday Kat put up the truss lights above the stage, and they look awesome:

I have the ceiling 100% installed over the stage, Neil hung some lights on the left side, the back-bar area is painted, and as soon as next week we might have the floor done in the main bar/dining part of the space. Maybe? Hopefully! Thankfully there is no really cold weather expected in the next week so we should be able to keep the ambient temperature of that concrete floor at or above 50 degrees. We can't epoxy that floor if it gets too cold or else it will not adhere properly. We do have heat in there, but the floor closer to the front windows and front edge of the building will drop below 50 as we get into winter no matter how much heat we put on in there.

I "lost" a few days lately of work at that bar, but that is okay things are still getting done. Last Friday I was deer hunting down in Warren. I did take 45 minutes to buy some lumber for the bar last Friday before I sat in Jason's pop-up blind in his beautiful back woods. Jason sent me this photo from that late afternoon:

^Dad was hunting in his own backyard blind (bonus doe tag he was not that serious about it), and when I shot that buck he came right over to Jason's to be a part of the action. He was probably more excited to see I shot that buck than I was! It is nice shooting a big deer, but I still don't really feel like I earned it because all I did was go sit where Jason told me to sit. I would have felt more like I earned it if I had picked my own spot in the woods. I don't have regrets about it, though. I have to go back down to Warren early to midweek next week to get my deer meat and to do one more hunt with Dad. I also have a bonus doe tag, but I don't want to use it. I will help Dad if he uses his tag and shoots a doe. Dad and I each actually got TWO bonus doe tags on top of our regular tag. The state gave out a lot of deer tags for zone 25 this season. Wow!

I tried to spend most of Tuesday working at Gavin's installing sheetrock with Jim (aka Hawk no relation to my nephew in the photo above hehe), but as usual that went to shit so I "only" worked 5 hours at Gavin's. I had random other things that came up, par for the course, but I did get this ridiculous laundry closet at least sheetrocked:

^Fuck that little closet up its ass! So many odd angles and tight space in there. Gavin's entire soon-to-be upstairs apartment is a challenge to sheetrock and mud/tape. I'd guess it is now about 60% sheetrocked and 30% mudded and taped. I still think we can get it done before the end of the year, but I said that about our new restaurant/bar and there is no way that is happening. What a bunch of crap! If only there were a couple extra hours in each day. I should sleep less no more 8.5-hour nights of sleep for me!

All joking aside I want to get my ass up tomorrow around 0500 so I can work a full day at the bar. I need to go to Lowe's to buy some supplies, and I want to prep the dining area for the epoxy floor that we might be able to put down either later tomorrow or, more likely, not until Saturday or Sunday.

Alright turds, all two of you who read this bootleg bunch of crap, I gotta go do other things now. Happy Thanksgiving!

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Saturdeay, 11-21-20: I am pretty shitfaced. I got a deer!
All I wanna know is why? Why am I wrecked after drinking about 4 coffee brandys and milk and some other booze? Well derrrrr it's becuese I am a pussy! It is pretty early, too. I am almost wasted like Doc-J and 8-Ball from Full Metal Jacket, but I don't have bullet holes in me yet so that is a win. The night is young so maybe I will get shot up later. However, I think not beause there is a 2100 curfew for most "fun" businesses like bars and restaurants so most of the riff-raff will be home and getting ready for bed.

I went down to the ol' homestead yesterday to buy lumber for the bar and to deer hunt. I wasn't very serious about my hunting because I have a restaurant/bar to build, but I still got my arse into the woods. Jason called me earlier in the day to give me his trail-cam update, and he said I should hunt his food-plot because he had a nice buck on the camera hanging out with three does. I was gonna go in off the Mountain Rd, but he enticed my ass and in hindsight I made a good choice.

I am pretty damn drunk. I had a lot to drink so far tonight for reasons I do not care to discuss on this bootleg site that almost no one will ever read. I forgot what I was supposed to day. Oh yeah I got a ddder thanks to Jason. Check this out:

^I got a 176.4-pound 8-point buck Oh Jesus Hell ya! Sadly I don't feel like I deserve it. I just sat in Jason's pop-up ground blind and tried to stay awake. I work all the fucking time lately because my life is pwned so I was tired, but I did have some caffiene before the hunt to keep me semi-alert.

That buck stepped out at 1515, a good 75 minutes before dark, and I almost blew it. I flipped the safety on my 30.06 off too fast so it made a CLICK sound. He heard it immediately and looked directly at the blind. Thankfully I was concealed enough so once he put his head back down I could get him in the scope and make it happen. I am not a great hunter, but I worked that bolt like a fucking boss and could have put another round into him fast if I needed to do so. Thankfully he expired fast and right in the food plot so Jason and Dad could help get him out and tagged.

Man, I am really damn drunk right now. What abunch of crap! I atre a pckage of peanut butter crackers and they were great. If you don't like peanut butter crackers then I hate you. I probably hate you anyway but i will hate you a litte more. The Mnuchies rackers are the best, te ones in teh red box. I don't tink I can write much more becase of the booe I tink I am about done for the night I am a turd that will not flush you mudda fuckas!

it is oddly silent in here tonight. Where are the dogs? Ok I see one racked out on the floor. That will be me soon hehehe. I am a shit show and I do not want to talk about why. I think getting drunk every now and again is a god idea. Not god ther is no god I mean GOOD. Maybe there is a god but if you really think it throgh the concept seems ludicrous. An eye in the sky who sees all?! Might as well say Santa claus is real. I am actually having a bard time wringng anymore becaue of thebooze and the shit. I think I have laundry done because it made a buzz and I should not be doig laudry in a at night becoea I forgot waht to do be be bye bye the end fin.

Oh, Goonies never say die!

I fucking love the Goonies I want to post a photo of Sloth because everything is pwned but the Goonies are pure thank you Richard Donner for your 1985 materpiece.

^BEST MOVIE OF ALL-TIME AND IF YOU DISAGREE THEN I HATE YOU. I probably hate you anywasy but i will hateyou a littlemore I tried to fix my poor rying but I am all done I think I hate you all the end fin.

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Thursday, 11-19-20: Only 6 weeks left in 2020.
I will be happy when 2020 is over, but at the same time I kinda want time to slow down so we can get our friggin' restaurant/bar finished before 2021. I have worked long days at the bar these past two days, and when I haven't been physically there working I have been online doing reseach, budgeting, shopping, planning, etc. It's evening, I just ate supper, and I am actually not done down at the bar yet today. I have to go back to the place. What a bunch of crap! I'd rather just stay home for the evening, but three guys who are hilarious and a little bit like the Three Stooges are cleaning the kitchen hood. They have been on the schedule for today since Kat made the call earlier this month so it is no surprise. It takes a long time to clean a commercial hood so they will be there for at least a few more hours.

The hood is supposed to be cleaned every six months, but the last cleaning was January of 2019. What a bunch of crap! The Ansul (fire supression stuff) system doesn't look like it has been serviced in forever so that is also bad. One thing at a time for now, though. That hood is friggin' GROSS with caked-on grease. While the Stooges (I do like the guys) clean I will install some more ceiling tiles in the main bar area. Yesterday Jason and his guys finished their "Phase 1" rough-in so we can put most of the ceiling back up now. I helped Jason and his guys run some wires, but not too many because it is not what I do by trade so I am not that fast.

The kitchen floor looks great with the new epoxy installed. I do have a picture to post of that half-done floor:

I'm really looking forward to having the floors done throughout the place, and if all goes as planned by the end of this month we should have them finished. Maybe? Hopefully! We can't wait too long to do it because winter will be here soon and the temperature of that concrete slab will drop below 50. A cold floor will not accept the new paint properly. Yesterday was around 30 for a high temp this morning was 17, and today was about 35 so we need to be on it. The floor won't get cold that fast, but it will slowly happen as we get into and through December. Fortunately tomorrow and Satuday won't be so cold.

Neil and I got the back of the bar sheetrocked this morning, and it really makes a huge difference in the visual appeal of the bar itself. The photo doesn't quite show the improvement; when you see the sheetrock in person it looks really good.

^There is a section by the pole behind the bar that looks unfinished, but those are actually really nice pine boards for a jut-out section that holds some wires, pipes, a soda line, and the beer line for the draft beer system. I'm actually buying more pine boards tomorrow when I go down to Warren to deer hunt and to visit Mom and Dad. Just a day trip for me tomorrow since we have contractors scheduled to be at the bar both weekend days. It seems lately we have contractors there more often than not, and that is a good thing because it means we are getting closer to finishing the carpentry and prep work.

6 weeks until 2021. How in the hell are we going to get the place done in that time?! It seems we are not. What a bunch of crap! Janet Mills, the Lockdown Queen governess, ordered a statewide curfew today most places have to close at 2100. Does not bode well for us trying to open a new restaurant/bar. Covid-19 cases are rising very rapidly lately both here in Maine and across the nation. The entire USA just surpassed 250,000 deaths from the virus. How accurate is that reporting? No one knows for sure, but we do know the virus has killed a lot of people and that is sad.

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Tuesday, 11-17-20: Thanks, Hawk.
My nephew and only remaining hope for the family surname to continue is named Hawke. All I wanna know is why? Why is it spelled with an E at the end of the name? Why is my 1.5-year old nephew named after a Road Warrior professional wrestler?

^Hawk and Animal all jacked up and ready for a fake fight.

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWhhhhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaattttttttt aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa rrrrrrrrrrrruuuuuuuuusssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Road Warriors (also knows as Legion of Doom) = awesome wrestling tag team. If you disagree then I hate you. I probably hate you anway, but I'll hate you a little more. Pro wrestling used to be so much better than what it is today.

All I wanna know is why? Why am I writing about pro wrestling on my worthless blog that no one will ever read? I am thankful for a friend whose nickname is Hawk so that got me on the subject of the name. Hawk worked at Gavin's on Sunday doing mud/tape/sanding for several hours, and today he and I worked at Gavin's together hanging sheetrock. Hawk put in a full 8-hour day, but I was "only" able to devote 4.5 hours at Gavin's because I had a couple meetings at the soon-to-be bar. First was potential radio advertising and website design/operation (ability for customers to order food online, etc) and second was a meeting to finalize our payroll provider. I didn't do any actual carpentry work down at the bar today, but tomorrow and Thursday I should be down there for full days.

Jason is coming up tomorrow to do more wiring for cameras and wifi, and Thursday we have our kitchen hood cleaning scheduled to take 10 hours. That is NOT going to be cheap, but nothing at that place is cheap. Takes money to make money! Or something like that. Friday I plan to go down to the midcoast to deer hunt and visit and then over the weekend it will be back to the bar again for full days with plumbers and electricians there. I don't have any updated pictures of the place to post so hopefully I can do that next time.

Oh, we got over $3000 worth of floor epoxy and most of it was already delivered. Oh Jesus hell ya! We hope to do at least one more major section of the floor starting next Monday, and maybe we can do the floors entirely next week. The epoxy is recommended to be installed on floors that are 50+ degrees and with winter rapidly approaching soon those floors will drop below that threshold. Even with heat in there the floor temp will drop because it will absorb cold from the ground outside. I dunno when that cutoff will be, but doing the floor sooner rather than later is a good idea just to be on the safe side of things.

Our sign is about 8 weeks out, but the price is right on the sign, FREE. I guess it's not really free since nothing is truly ever free, but since we agreed to have Coke products in our restaurant and bar they are doing our main sign and throwing in a few other "free" things for us. We will sell a lot of soda there so they have incentive to partner with us. The sign would be done faster, but the materials used to make the sign are also used to make PPE and stuff for Covid-19 protection. What a bunch of crap!

With each passing day it seems more and more likely we will open in January, not next month. We still don't have a kitchen set up we don't have a ceiling in most of the main bar area (drop ceiling installs fast but still is a large area) the bathrooms need a lot of work, our officce is just a shell out back, we need to do a lot of trim work and of course the floors. We need to build tables, etc. I could keep going it is a long list! We did get some new booths delivered yesterday though. We have them temporarily staged in the bar and they look great.

We have a lot of money set aside still for the remaining needs of the operation but everything is so expensive that I sometimes wonder if it will be enough. Thankfully the appraisal came back for my Allen Rd properties today and that number was much higher than I expected it to be so that is awesome and the final needed piece for more funds soon-to-come. We will have the money, but licenses and deliveries are questionable thanks to all the Covid-19 concerns. If we go into lockdown again then we might not open until February March, April, or who knows maybe never?

^New windows, new porches, new siding, other upgrades in the past couple years (plus a hot market?)= added $50k to the value above and beyond the 2017-2018 appraised value. AWESOME!

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Sunday, 11-15-20: Halftime and past my bedtime...
The Patriots are playing the Baltimore Ravens tonight, and I am half in the bag on about three total drinks. Oh, it's also past my bedtime. When I was in the Navy the ship did a "taps, taps, lights out all hands maintain silence about the decks" at 2200 announcement, but F that taps for my ass on most nights is before that! I worked a lot of overnight shifts when we were deployed so that taps call was a joke back then. It seemed like a lifetime ago, and it pretty much was.

It is only 2140 right now, 9:40 for the two of you who actually read this bootleg site and who don't want to do the conversion. It seriosuly is past my normal bedtime as-of-late. What a bunch of crap! Friday night I had three coffee brandys and milk after supper and was asleep before now, and last night I didn't drink any booze but I bivouaced early. I was busy today down at the bar coordinating with both plumbers and electricians, and I also had a friend do some sheetrock work at Gavin's. I should be doing that sheetrock work, but I am too busy to devote any appreciable time to it so I deserve to possess my own fail trophy.

^Awarded to my stupid self for always being busy. What a bunch of crap! I should have Gavin's sheetrock over half-done, but it is maybe 1/5 done at best. Gods damn myself for deciding to do a restaurant and bar!

The handicap bathroom at the bar has come a long way since it was Jester's bathrooms. This bootleg sign was above the urinal in the Jester's mens room for a very long time:

^HAHAHAHHA. Wonder why that business failed? Can't really blame Covid19 for it. Now there is no need to jiggle the handle because there is no urinal there yet. Hopefully next week there will be one there once Bruce installs a brand new one, though. Then we can start to remodel the other bathrooms at the place.

It is still halftime at the game, and surprisingly the Patriots have a 13-10 lead. This year sports are all pwned thanks to Covid-19, and the Patriots are only 3-5 on the season. They have not played well, but I still enjoy watching at least some of their games. I used to get pissy when they would play poorly, but now I don't really mind I just enjoy the sport for what it is. There are more important things in life than getting worked up over a sports game. Covid-19 has actually gotten worse lately all across the country so that is all-bad. There are rumors here in Maine we might have to do another shutdown soon and here we are trying to open a new restaurant/bar. What a bunch of crap!

Today is Mom and Dad's 46th anniversary. Mom said Dad drank a glass of wine and fell asleep during the 6 o'clock news ahahahahahaha! Pop is lucky to be alive after having major heart surgery over the summer. That sucked. A lot. He was stuck at Maine Med in Portland and no one could go visit him because of fuckin' Covid. This virus is like a turd that will not flush, and I am sick of it. I don't mind wearing a mask at all around town; I just don't want things to all close again like they did back in the spring.

I'm not really happy with myself about how I have let this fall totally pwn my ass. This restaurant/bar is taking up all my precious... precious time. plus it causes a lot of stress in ways I don't want to dive into here on this public little blog of mine. Sometimes it is exciting to see the progress we have made and to know how it will positively impact our community, but at other times it is hard to do and overwhelming. We still have a lot of work do there. A LOT. Sometimes we all don't agree, and who knows it might end up making at least one of us if not all four of us go insane in the end. Oh well I am half crazy anyway but thankfully writing on this bootleg site of mine helps me a little hehehehe.

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Wednesday, 11-11-20: RAMBO LUNCHBOX LIKE A BOSS.
Kat and I "only" worked at the bar today for about 5 hours. I started at 0530, and she arrived not much later. She painted in the soon-to-be handicap/dining area bathroom while I finished prepping the kitchen floor for epoxy:

You can see a machine on the left side that grinds down the floor. It cost us $610 to rent for the week, and it has diamond blades. In order for the floor epoxy to adhere properly the floor needs to be prepped well. Unfortunately there was a lot of old glue all over the floor from when there were tiles. What a bunch of crap! The kitchen was by far the worst in the entire bar-restaurant, but the former Jester's (now dining) side also has a lot of that glue residue still on the floor. Gods damn it!

Removing that glue takes a lot of time. A LOT. It was hours running the stripper in that kitchen and I didn't even get all of the glue removed. However, I got enough of it to accept the paint. Maybe? Hopefully! Neil arrived around 0800 and helped me sweep up the dust, mop, prep, and get half the floor painted. We bought one 3-gallon epoxy kit and used half of it today. The other half of the kit will be a second coat on top of what we did today. That needs to be installed within 24 hours of installing the first coat so it bonds properly.

I was going to work all afternoon because that is how I roll, but my awesome wife suggested we take a little time off to go have lunch together and to do some other things. We stopped by a local antique place to look through their selection of used records (decor for the bar), and I was excited when I saw this lunchbox on display:

^OMG A RAMBO LUNCHBOX AND THERMOS FOR $12.50 OH JESUS HELL YA! I wish I had one of those when I was a kid. I think I had a Fraggle Rock lunchbox when I was in the 5th grade, but I really don't know for sure. I know a RAMBO lunchbox would have been better than whatever I did have. I think other kids made fun of my for my lame lunchbox. What a bunch of crap!

That Rambo lunchbox is so awesome. I don't know where I will put it yet. Maybe my gym or my tax office? If I put it in my gym I better lock it down so no one will steal it. I should pack my lunches and actually use it. I dunno what I will do with it just yet since I've only had it for about 3 hours. I love it!

The floors at that bar are going to be a lot more work, but I think the effort will pay off nicely for us later this month when we have all 3500 or so square feet of kitchen and restaurant finished and looking sharp. I have a little over $2000 worth of additional floor epoxy and omni nonskid in my shopping cart from coloredepoxies.com, but I won't actually purchase the remaining needed supplies until I get that second coat of paint on the floor tomorrow and feel comfortable that it adheres well enough. So far I love how the first coat looks, but we'll see how it cures overnight. Hopefully it doesn't start to epic fail while we are bivouaed later because that would be a bunch of crap!

Doing the concrete floor all in epoxy resin will cost around $3000 total including the $610 diamond-machine rental. That's less than a buck a square foot. Oh Jesus hell ya! I forgot to take a picture of the half-done kitchen floor, but it did look nice earlier. I guess that $3000 cost will really be a little more than that, maybe $3200-$3300 including paying Daniel to run the machine for a few hours this week and some misc supplies. Oh, shipping for all the paint we still need is a couple hundred bucks. Still works out to no more than a buck a square foot. We could have had the floors professionally done for $21,000. Kat got a quote a couple weeks ago from a local company, and even at that price they were booked out two months. OMG NO THANKS.

Even though I forgot to take a picture of the kitchen floor with the new paint rolled out and looking good I did take a couple other photos including the DJ booth in its infancy phase still:

I'm excited to get the floors done throughout the space so we can finish up trim and have things starting to finally look like a usable, customer-friendly place to hang out. There is still an incredible amount of work left to do there, but every day we put in the time and make it happen bit by bit. The floors are so important so I really hope they look great in the end.

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Sunday, 11-08-20: Major progress on the bar and a sweet warmup before winter. Oh, a new president of the USA.
I took a little time off from working on our soon-to-be bar last week to deer hunt, but I didn't take a full day off and I haven't taken a full day off in what seems like forever. What a bunch of crap! I almost took a day off Thursday when I was down in Warren for most of the day deer hunting, but in between my morning and evening hunts I bought a pile of lumber for tables and trim at the bar. Getting all the wood, cutting most of it into 4-foot sections, loading it for the drive home, and unloading it here in Brewer took around 2.5-3 total hours of my precious... precious time. However, it was worth it because I spent $324 and got a lot of red oak 5/4 boards that should make for really nice table tops, enough for 10 tables plus enough pine for a lot of our trim work.

I didn't see any deer when I was down in Warren hunting. What a bunch of crap! Oh well, I don't mind maybe I can get a deer next time. Both Dad and Jason got their deer already. Dad shot a nice 8-pointer from his blind out back Tuesday morning, and Jason shot a really nice "swamp" buck Friday morning upstream. He has a great system that requires a lot of work but that has paid off for him on more than one occasion:

^Ex-Marine badass hunter canoes to a spot no other hunter could possibly access without a mile hike through arduous woods, hops into climbing tree stand overlooking a swamp, shoots really big deer, has to load really big deer and canoe back to civilization, winning.

I'm not driven to shoot a big buck. Hell, I'm not even driven to shoot a deer at all this year! I gots a bar to build, damnit. Shooting a deer takes away precious... precious time that I could be spending working on the bar, but I do enjoy deer hunting so I will get back into the woods again hopefully in about a week or so. Right now I don't want to hunt because it's too warm. How often have I said that in November? Probably not very often, but we hit the weather-jackpot for a few days and I won't complain at all about it:

^OMG 71 yesterday and will be 70 again Tuesday Oh Jesus hell ya! Average high temp = 48 and it's 50 outside right now at 0330. Yeah, I got up at 0245 because I was all done sleeping. I have a lot to do so I just woke up knowing it was time for revielle. I bivouaced at 0945 so 5 solid hours of sleep is good enough. Maybe? Hopefully! I still feel wide awake right now and the quiet here in the house is nice.

It was getting really damn cold in the bar a few days ago, especially Wednesday when we dropped down to 22 degrees outside the night prior and spent a couple days not getting out of the 30s. It was warmer than 22 inside the bar, maybe it was 50 inside? We didn't have heat, but at least we did have a propane heater that helped some. It didn't heat the entire space, not even close, but it did give us a modicum of relief. Thankfully two good things have happened since that cold snap. First, we had a heating contractor do the natural gas conversion and the furnace now works. Awesome! Second, the weather got abnormally warm so without even having a furnace running it is comfortable in that bar. Not needing to heat the place for a few days will save a bit of precious... precious money.

In addition to getting the heat working we also have had several important meetings over the past week and are ready to finalize some major decisions. We have a quote for new kitchen equipment, we explored some POS (point-of-sale not piece of shit hehehe) options, we got our business bank account opened, we know who will be doing our payroll, we paid for the new beer tap system that is coming soon, we met with a food-service rep, we did more painting and construction, and we got 100 chairs and stools. Nothing in the bar looks 100% done yet, but things in many areas are getting closer and closer.

The quote for new kitchen equipment came in at $53,000. OMG WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP! That includes tons of items, many of which we don't need, so we won't even buy half the stuff on the quote. A glass-chiller would be nice to have for the bar, but not for thousands of dollars. A lot of prices in that quote are actually not too shabby compared to what is available for purchase online at webstaurant.com so I give RM Flagg credit where credit is due. We are trying, as much as possible, to do business locally but some things we have to source from afar. There is no local POS option, and things like booths, chairs, and stools are a much better purchase from webstaurant.com than from anywhere around here.

I was going to rent the concrete floor-stripper yesterday and start prepping the floors for epoxy, but Kennebec Rental is closed Saturday and the other rental place that was open doesn't have one of those machines at all. What a bunch of crap! My bad thinking I could get one yesterday. Not a huge problem, though. It actually worked out better we didn't start the floor because Neil and Ang could paint/stain parts of the bar itself, my awesome wife could paint black trim, and we had the heating guy install quick-connect gas fittings for the 7 kitchen cooking appliances that we expect to have. I'll get the floor grinder Monday morning. Maybe? Hopefully!

The presidential race between Donald Trump and Joe Biden turned into a shit-show, and that was not unexpected. The election was Tuesday, but we didn't officially have a new president until yesterday after enough votes in key states like NV, GA PA, NC,and AZ all came in. Trump lost, Biden won, and Trump will probably challenge in a few states due to the incredible amount of mail-in ballots that all seemed to go democrat and give Biden the win. Was Biden's win shady? A little bit perhaps, but Trump made his own luck when he verbally took a shit on John McCain a few years ago:

^That dumbass comment probably cost him a win in AZ, home state of the McCain family. They all hate Trump, and I also think he is a piece of shit. When even members of his own political party hate him you know he has issues. I lean hard to Republican and I can't stand the guy myself. He did great things for our country while he was our president, but he just can't shut the fuck up and he is an arrogant, pompous asshole. However, democrat Biden is a worse choice as our president than Trump so we are all pwned. What a bunch of crap!

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Wednesday, 11-04-20: Who is the president of the USA? Deer hunting time!
I'm leaving in about 45 minutes to go deer hunting down at the ol' homestead. First I gotta take a shower to wash off dust; I spent some time this morning down at the bar reinstalling drop-ceiling tiles and insulation before Bangor Savings Bank came by to talk to us about payroll and credit-card processing options. We've had a lot of meetings with reps lately, and we have a lot more to come.

I'm planning to deer hunt down in Warren with Jason this evening, and I'll stay down there and deer hunt tomorrow for a morning and an evening hunt. In between the two hunts I'll have some free time during the day to go buy a bunch of wood for the bar. A guy located only a couple miles from Mom and Dad's house has a lumber mill and a lot of nice-looking boards for sale starting at 85 cents per board foot for some 16x12x1 actual-dimension wood. Plus he told me he might have other lumber that we'd want, stuff that might be good for table tops, so I'm hoping that all works out well tomorrow.

I just shovelled in chow and I am about to head out the door. I'm looking forward to being in the woods; I did go on my first hunt of the year yesterday PM in what was a last-minute decision. The line at the polls wasn't long so I was able to vote, get my gear together in time, and get into the woods with my bow. It was a COLD hunt with a stiff breeze and wind chill down into the mid 20s. What a bunch of crap! We got about 2-3" of snow yesterday morning so it was nice being in the woods with the snow so I could see deer tracks. I did have a neat deer encounter about 15 minutes before sunset when two does and two skippers showed up nearby. I wasn't hugely excited to shoot one of them (especially did NOT want to shoot the two smaller deer), but I never got the chance because they spooked out of there after a few minutes of munching on apples.

I thought the deer might have fled because they caught some of my scent, maybe they did smell a little of me and were already nervous, but I think what really sacred them off was either a fox, bobcat, or coyote. I couldn't tell which of the three it was, but I saw a deer look over before it blew and ran off and then I looked over and saw the little predator sneaking off. DO NOT SCARE OFF THE DEER I AM TRYING TO HUNT GODS DAMN IT!

^I think these are two of the deer I saw. The time was 1423 because of the recent time change on Halloween night. At 1423 I was actually just starting to walk into those woods. It's a half-mile walk back to that spot from where I park so I narrowly avoided scaring them off when I first arrived. Too bad they scared off a couple hours later. What a bunch of crap!

Our Halloween party was fun Saturday night. Kat looked great in her costume:

I was the Chesire cat or something like that. Red and white stripes in a pajama-thing that was surprisingly easy to wear and fairly comfortable. I should be that every Halloween! Sometimes I get costumes that suck because they are impossible to open up for taking a piss (Ninja Turtle...) or too hot, too uncomfortable, etc. I didn't get so wrecked that I was useless Sunday, but I did have a slight hangover while I worked on the bar and got another used pizza oven from the former maintenance guy, Charlie. We now have two pizza ovens Oh Jesus Hell ya!

We still don't know who the next president of the USA will be. As of this morning Biden and Trump were neck-and-neck with several key states still too close to call. Hopefully Biden doesn't win! I didn't vote for either of those Giblet-Heads yesterday because they both suck. Trump sucks less than Biden, but that's not saying much. I like Trump's economic plan, but as a person he is a shit-show. I'd write more about that whole situation and about who I did vote for (Rocky was on the ballot but alas there was no Rambo as a choice) but I gotta get rolling. Goonies never say die!