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"What's the solution (to me tossing and turning in my sleep and stealing the blankets)?" -Me
"Divorce." - Kat
"I tried that once and you didn't let me." -Me
"Try it again." - Kat

Saturday, 10-28-23: The dead guy, the weather, the Halloween party.
Our normally quiet state has been all over global news since Wednesday evening/night when Robert Card, a derranged firearms instructor for the National Guard, killed 18 people in Lewiston. He shot up a bowling alley on league night when the place was packed, and he shot up a restaurant/bar/pool hall about ten minutes later. After that he disappeared for a couple days leading to the biggest manhunt in the history of Maine. What a bunch of crap!

Thursday was tense because no one knew where the guy was. His car was found near a boat launch at the Androscoggin River. Did he drown? Did he have a boat to escape in? Was it a ruse and he's still planning more murders in Maine? No one really knew, and we had a big drag show at work so I manned the front all night. We talked about closing, but we're 1.5 hours away from Lewiston and the odds of him coming our way were incredibly slim. I was actually more concerned about a copycat killer. Not everyone cares for the drag shows (I don't really even like them, but they are funny in small doses.) so who knows? At any point in time any crazy person could walk into our place and cause immeasurable harm. What would happen if a gunman showed up when we're totally packed and started shooting? People would die for sure, and a trained marksman could do a lot of damage in a hurry as was proven in Lewiston.

The entire world mourns for Lewiston. That community is gutted, and they were on total lockdown for two days. Finally, last evening, news broke that Robert Card was found dead because he shot himself in the head. Our place was really busy, busier than I expected it to be, and karaoke had just started. Kat got on the mic and announced it to the roar of the crowd. Then one of my new dishwasers tapped out so I was helping in the dish pit seeing all the shot glasses come through. We sell lots of shots on the weekend, but last night after that announcement we sold a few more. Good fuckin' riddance. The Celtics wore armbands in support of Lewiston, and the Bruins had this heartfelt jersey on display:

That restaurant/bar and bowling alley. How can they recover? If something that horrible happened at our place we would never reopen, ever. We plan to acuction off some cool swag tonight to hopefully raise a little money to help the restaurant/bar down there. We'd love to help both, but since we're a restaurant/bar helping them first feels right.

There have been 37 mass-shootings in the USA this year alone. What a bunch of crap! Close to one a week, and there is no solution. Some people clamor for guns to be taken away, but I'm a hard NO on that stance. People who want to kill other people will find guns from somewhere. Plus people who don't want to be killed should have guns for defense. I don't mean bring your gun to the bowling alley or bar, but in general.

What would I do if someone came into our bar and started shooting? I told all the employees they are required to IMMEDIATELY head for the back exit, no hesitation, and warn people to do the same as they flee. Me? I'd try to stop the guy (or girl) and probably get shot to death in a hurry, but I'd rather buy other people some time to flee. I don't give a shit if I die, and going out a hero sounds just fine to me. Would I be a hero if I got shot 5 times and didn't make a difference at all? Probably not, but those 5 bullets wouldn't be going into other people.

Let's hope we never have to find out.

In other news, the weather was stupid-warm the past three days. Today we hit 80 OMG! I went for a jog Thursday and yesterday and felt fine, no issues with my strained left calf that set me back for the last half of September and the first half of this month. I was also able to get some yard work done and finish up the carpentry job just up the road. Sadly tonight we crash hard with the temperature and we'll be near 40 by daybreak tomorrow. High temp won't hit 50 tomorrow, and tomorrow night northern Maine gets snow. OMG! Looks really chilly next week with maybe a little snow here Wednesday night. Good deer hunting weather, and if things go as planned I'll finally get out into the woods Wed/Thurs next week to deer hunt.

Our HUGE Halloween party at work is tonight, and in a half hour I'm heading in to start my shift. I'm not dressing up because fuck that I don't want to. I don't really give a crap about Halloween; a lot of the years I'd rather be deer hunting. However, even if I had nothing else to do today and my schedule was 100% free I wouldn't have wanted to go deer hunting. That's not a fun thing to do when it's 75 degrees outside because it's just too warm. If you do kill a deer at these temperatures you have to recover the body ASAP or else you lose the meat to spoilage. No thanks, hard pass.

Sales today have been pitiful as expected. Yesterday during the day sales were a bunch of crap as well before we had a busy night and exceeded my goal for the day. Will the same thing happen today? Maybe? Hopefully! The weather is just too nice. It's not all doom and gloom, though. Sales this month are already ahead of sales for the entire month of October last year, and tonight we'll do a LOT of business. We expect tomorrow to be good as well, we're closed Monday, and we have a big Halloween private party in the event room Tuesday that should pop sales into a really respectable level for the month. It's been a really busy fall for the place, and at times it's hard to keep up. My list doesn't dwindle, and I'll never get it all done before the end of the year. What a bunch of crap!

Oh well, at least my carpentry side jobs are over. Gavin needed a little sheetrock patch so I finished that a few hours ago, and now I should be able to focus on the restaurant and things needing attention around our house. The bathroom needs a remodel, the basement is a mess, and I didn't finish the yard work yet. Those stupid friggin' maple leaves take a long time to rake up. What a bunch of crap! Oh well, it gave the dogs and I some quality time in the back yard over the past few days an hour here, hour there, etc.

I will miss the warm weather, but the colder weather to come will help our restaurant sales even more. Restaurant around town with outdoor seating will be shutting all of that down when it's a cold rain or wet snow next week. We don't have any outdoor seating, but we have great food, an awesome vibe, and the best karaoke anywhere. We get really busy on Saturday nights lately, and tonight will be epic with the Halloween party. It's usually one of the three busiest nights of the year for us (New Year's eve and St. Patrick's Day are the other two.)

I really hope no one calls out because we need all hands on deck for this one to go well. I gotta get ready to scoot off to work in a few minutes.

Goonies never say die!

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Wednesday, 10-25-23: OMG THIS IS HORRIBLE AND HEARTBREAKING.
I said goodnight to my "Sweet Pea" awesome wife around 2200, just after the Celtics won their season opener in a very close game that came down to the final minute, and I switched over to the Science Channel to watch 20-30 minutes of a show called "Engineering Catastrophies" before I went to sleep. Sometimes she bivouacs before me, all depends on the day. I like the show Engineering Catastrophies because each segment is about 10-15 minutes long before it moves on to something else so I don't have to get too invested. Watching a riveting show just before bed = no thank you.

I watched the opening part about shitty roads in Louisiana, and it went to commercial at 2210. At 2211 some bulletin appeared on the screen, and at first I was wondering if there was severe weather. It said something about Androscoggin County, and it urged everyone there to shelter in place. I flipped to WLBZ, and the usual morning guy was on talking about an active shooter in Lewiston, and OMG this is horrible, 22 people dead with dozens more injured.

I watched that news for a few minutes, and I figured it would gain national attention so I flipped to Fox News where it was their ongoing feature story, too. Our entire state is currently all over every news outlet, and for all the wrong reasons. It's really sad, and even worse was learning some of the details. I had to wake Kat up, and we watched over an hour of coverage together before she went back to sleep. I can't fuckin sleep right now. What a bunch of crap!

Some guy went into a bowling center and then into a restaurant/bar/pool hall in Lewiston and shot both places all to hell. It's unbelieveable and horrible. Even worse, as of around midnight now the guy is still at large. He's a military guy, firearms trained, and wtf?! I was concerned when I saw he shot up a restaurant/bar because that shit hits way too close to home. Lewiston is 1.5 hours south of here, but who knows what the guy did when he took off? What direction was he heading? Thankfully our restaurant/bar was almost closed so I had Kat call her son and my stepson, Dillon (manager on duty) and told him to expedite the close and get everyone out of there as quickly as possible, and no one was to leave alone.

I feel so badly for the entire Lewiston community. Those two businesses are ruined, and so are the lives of hundreds of family members of the deceased and those injured in the rampage. All I wanna know is why? Why are there so many mass-shooters these days? It seems several huge ones happen each year, and never in our state has there been anything of this magnitude. I don't want Maine in the headlines for anything as horrible as this.

I really hope the cops get the guy tonight. They posted his name and face:

^YOU ARE EVIL.

It's a shit-show. Schools and businesses are closed for at least tomorrow down there. What will our business do tomorrow? Too soon to know. This only happened a few hours ago so not all of the details are known. Was there more than one shooter? Were other locations targeted? Are any other locations going to be a target in the days and weeks to come? We have a responsibility as restaurant/bar owners to try and keep everyone safe, but how do you stop something like this from happening?

How does one person kill so many people and evade capture?

This is terrible. I'm wide awake so I had to eat part of an edible to *hopefully* put me back to sleep soon.

Thoughts and well-wishes to those affected horribly by tonight.

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Thursday, 10-19-23: Heading down to the bar soon. Oh, carpentry photos of the mostly-done work.
I'm drinking some coffee brandy and milk, not too much yet, and I'll beat-feet it down to the bar soon to set up the event room for tomorrow's twice-a-month Friday night dance event as I drink more. I probably won't get wrecked; I haven't really been shitfaced since probably our July 4th party 3.5 months ago. I've gotten pretty damn good at my drinking, and I'm proud of that. No more getting so wasted that I can't even make it to bed ahahha. Even on the 4th I made it to bed. (I think?)

I still like to drink, but about once a week is good enough and only enough to get a little drunk and wake up the next morning ready to roll. I like my drinking on Thursday nights, but lately the Friday truck comes by 0800 or so for our bi-weekly food delivery so I'm always up for that one. If I drink 4-6 then pass out I'm good-to-go (usually.) I also don't wanna be hungover because it messes up my gym routine. I've still been pretty regular with that lately. However, I still do have a mild left calf strain that affect my jogging. What a bunch of crap! I've only jogged 2.5 total miles all month because of this stupid little nagging injury. Oh well at least I can still play racquetball, do yoga, and lift weights without it bothering me too much. 3 out of 4 ain't that bad, right?

I mostly finally finished the carpentry job up the road. Oh Jesus, hell ya! I still need to do some more caulking and touch-up paint, and next week I'll take some trash to the dump for the guy. Easy finish stuff, and then I can focus on the restaurant and fire some more tax clients. I fired one yesterday hahha. I was very polite about it, but the reality is they have outgrown my skill-set. At this point I need to be doing easier taxes. I don't have time for people who have LLC, corporations, and multiple rental properties. Those are the bigger-money tax clients, but they also chew up a lot more precious... precious time. I'll try to stick to the easier ones, and if the restaurant keeps on at its current pace I won't even need the tax business more than a couple more years. I'm sure I'll always have my core friends, family, co-workers, etc. However, the business itself can dissolve and I can just do the restaurant. Same for the carpentry "Bootleg Properties" side of things. I'm sick of having three jobs gods damn it.

This is what I finished up the road earlier this week:

^Laundry closet. I was struggling to get the GFCI outlet working, but I spent a few minutes focused on only that and got it squared away easily enough. Fitting those fuckin' GFCI outlets into the boxes can suck. A lot. Especially when there are wire nuts and multiple wires leading to other areas.

^A nice new shower where there was once a closet. The ceiling isn't done, but the owner plans to stucco that so it's off my radar. I had to swap out a light for an exhaust fan, and the insulation above was loose-fill so it rained all over my ass. What a bunch of crap! The switch, the cover-plate, and the GFCI outlet off to the right side are all new. It was a pain in the arse, but it's functional and safe. Maybe? Hopefully! Wiring is actually easy when it's not at the breaker-box. I'm not messing with the panel, F that, and I told the guy that.

Putting in showers = what a bunch of crap! They suck to do. I never want to do another one so of course that means I will...

I miss my once-badass F150 that I've owned for 13+ years. It's been in repair-land for a week now OMG! I thought it would take 3 days, but I've added on more body work. I don't even have the money to pay for it. What a bunch of crap! I will have it when the bill is due, though. I sold some stocks, and I'll be forking over a few grand. New rocker panels, rust repairs throughout including holes, literal holes, in the bed. That truck was in BAD shape as far as rust. Should I have taken better care of it? OF COURSE! How do you stop all the rust in this climate, though? It's been a work truck since it was new so that doesn't help. Tons of trash hauled to the dump, tons of construction supplies, etc.

If all goes well maybe I get it back tomorrow. If not I walk to and from work in the rain over the weekend because this coming weekend looks like another washout. We've had nice, dry stretches of weather lately and then we've had storms come through that have dumped 2-3 inches of rain in seemingly no time at all. Saturday night 13 days ago we got 3" of rain in only about 7 hours. OMG! Shockingly the roof at work barely leaked so that was a huge win because a year or two ago we had HUGE problems with the roof and almost just gave up and closed. I'm not even joking about that either. It was all-bad.

The restaurant is really growing lately. We have big events coming up, and sales are up a lot as compared to this time last year. I need to be there more, and I will. Next week Thursday through Sunday we have some big events, and the biggest of them all will be our Saturday night Halloween party. That's gonna be HUGE. Last year it was busy, and last year we were not really good at what we do like we are now. Not saying that to be cocky, but we have a much more experienced staff including myself. Saturday nights lately have been totally packed, too. Our food rep was telling me today that word on the street is we have Halloween on lock-down in the local area. Our beer guy was also telling us he keep hearing about how good we are and how awesome the vibe is. Doesn't mean we're actually a long-term viable business, but I'm thinkking we're at a 75% chance to make it now as compared to the 50% I was giving us over the first couple years and even as recently as this summer. We're breaking even now, and last year we were losing about $10,000 a month. OMG!

I'm gonna beat-feet it down to the bar now to have a couple more drinks and to set up the event room for tommorrow's big evening dance. Oh hey, one of the cats just blew chunks all over the floor. All I wanna know is why? Why do cats puke so much? I FUCKING HATE CATS WHY DID I ALLOW 6-8 OF THEM TO LIVE IN THIS HOUSE?! Yeah, I don't even know how many cats actually live here. What a bunch of crap!

Oh well, we have dogs to clean up a lot of the puke. Groot and Tiger Lily just went and ate it hahahaha! It wasn't very much.

Two of the cats can eat the peanuts out of my ssssssssssssssshhhhhhheeeeeeeiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitttttttttttttttttttttt: "Eleven" and "Schroeder" Wasn't Schroeder the Peanuts guy who played the piano? If my awesome wife wanted to re-home either or both of those cats I would pay her a reward for doing so. Seriously.

All joking aside these two cats only make me hate my life about 10% of the time. I guess that's not too bad? Usually they leave me alone.

I made a lot of poor life decisons. As dad would say "You make your own luck" and 90% of the time it's true. Hell, maybe 99% of the time it's true!

^Oh well, no matter how shitty things get I always have this to cheer me up! I don't hate my life as much as I did a couple months ago so that's a win. Maybe? Hopefully!

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Saturday, 10-14-23: I miss my truck.
I know a guy who works on vehicles so he has my truck. I gave it to him Thursday, and it's not done yet. I need new rocker panels as well as some other body work because there is a lot of rust. A LOT. I took a picture of my epic failer rocker panels earlier this year. Guy looks for that photo now...

^Looks like I named the file "Truck 2013a" so I was off by a decade. What a bunch of crap!

Getting the truck fixed ain't gonna be cheap. I don't even know how much I'll end up spending, but I need to have it done and buying a new truck isn't an option anytime soon. I don't even know if new trucks will be available for a while because a lot of the auto industry has been on strike. Same for movies and TV. What a bunch of crap! Fuckin' unions...

The timing of me coughing up the truck for repairs isn't great, but when it is? I still have carpentry to finish up the road, and I was hoping to go visit Mom and Pop tomorrow but now there is no chance. Oh well, I have a lot to do up here anyway. That Treats Falls job is almost done so that's a win for me. I think I'm 100% done with the trim and carpentry side of things so now it's just some caulking and misc finish work. I have a GFCI outlet to install correctly. I had it in, but it doesn't work. Gods damn it! Doing a GFCI outlet is a pain in the arse because they use up a lot of precious... precious space in the outlet box. Pretty sure one of my connections just popped loose.

All my tools are up there so I'll need the truck back to finish it all 100%. I should have some time tomorrow and early week to work on it, and it will be a HUGE win finally finishing it up. Too bad all the money I make from it and then some is going right into the truck for the body work. What a bunch of crap!

I jsust lifted some weights in my bootleg gym, and over the past couple weeks I've gotten more exercise from lifting weights than I have since the pandemic first began in March, 2020. OMG! I've felt good in the gym lately, but my jogging has been a total epic failer. I had a strained left calf for a while, and I tried to jog a couple times at the end of September and beginning of this month and aggrivated it some so I stopped for a while. Oddly enough it doesn't bother me at all in the gym when I do leg exercises. It did affect my racquetball play some, but not by too much. It feels better now so I think it healed. Maybe? Hopefully! I considered going for a jog this afternoon, but it's raw and windy outside so I'm glad I just lifted weights.

I expect the restaurant/bar to get really busy later. We have a big Comic-Con after-party in the event room later, and Saturday nights always pop lately. Fridays are decent, but Saturdays are our best for the night-life. Oddly enough a long time ago Friday was better than Saturday. Friday dinner/happy hour is better than Saturday, though. We finally have all the staff we need in the right places, but man is it fleeting. Last night was one of my easiest Friday nights as a manager because no one called out and things went smoothly. Too bad we're losing a dishwasher next week and today I'm calling a server to tell her:

YYYYYYYYYYOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEE FFFFFFFFFFFFIIIIIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD!

Pretty sure she already quit because she no-called, no-showed Wednesday, but I don't want her ass showing up tomorrow for a 0830 shift that isn't hers anymore. We already hired her replacement, a former employee from a couple years ago who is getting a second chance. Sometimes we haul on people then hire them back. I can think of three we've rehired after termination, and there may be more I'm just not thinking of right now.

Everyone deserves a seccond chance, right?

^DENIED. NOT EVERYONE DESERVES A SECOND CHANCE. If you're a murderer or a rapist no way, but if you come to work too late too often and get fired for it and then grow as a person I see no reason to not give it a second try. Maybe? Hopefully!

I'm used to Friday and Saturday nights being chaotic at times, and I'm sure tonight it will get hectic at times. Then, it a couple weeks, we have our huge Halloween party so I know that one will be BIG. After that it's rifle hunting season for deer so I need to get down to the ol' homestead to go out in the woods. I don't think I'll bowhunt at all since I haven't even shot the thing, but who knows maybe I'll drag it out and go on a hunt. Seems VERY unlikely I will, though. I'm not even close to ready for hunting. What a bunch of crap!

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Thursday, 10-12-23: I gotta finish this friggin' job gods damn it.
I'm sick of doing these extra carpentry jobs when I have to devote so much precious... precious time to our restaurant. Sales are up a lot year-over-year so it's time to put in the work to get the place where it needs to be. We're close, damn close.

I was hoping to have this thorn-in-my-side Treats Falls job done by now, but I can't finish it. What a bunch of crap! I forgot how long it takes to install a shower, especially when the sub-floor was mostly gone for plumbing upgrades. We're installing a shower in what once was a closet. I looked at the job back in July and said NO. However, here it is mid-October and I'm doing the fucking thing. I suck. A lot. Actually we had $91 in our checking accont a few days ago so we need the money.

You might think installing a shower base and side-walls wouldn't take that long, and it doesn't if you have 8-10 hours a day to devote to it. So far I have 37.25 hours into the job so I guess that's not so bad. However, I have taxes to do and a restaurant to run so that's quite a bit. It's not just the shower either. The place needed a laundry room that wasn't there before so I had to frame it all up and whatnot. I did get the shower walls in today, finally. Here is the last OSB backing piece with my adhesive in place:

^That fuckin' shower... what a bunch of crap! Notice I put my personal touch on the heavy duty construction adhesive in the center for that last panel? Hehehe. I didn't even read the instructions for the shower until I was almost at the end. What a bunch of crap! Turns out the thing needed OSB bakers in spots, but thankfully that wasn't too hard to do it just used up more of the clock. Right now my most precious resource is time. I need 30 hours in a day, not 24 hours, for a few weeks gods damn it!

I thought I'd finish today, but I'm not there yet. I need to go again tomorrow. All I wanna know is why? Why do I gotta always work so much on Fridays during the day when I also have to work Friday nights? The Friday and Saturday night shifts can be really tough, too. Most weeks we do over 50% of our entire business for the week of Friday and Saturday nights. I'm working every Tuesday night now as well, and that's a super-easy shift as compared to the Friday and Saturday night shifts. Looks like I'll be working Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights for the forseeable future and maybe even more than that if we can't get help in the dish area. Finding a good Friday/Saturday night dishwasher is easier said than done. What a bunch of crap!

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Friday, 10-06-23: More quiet time today before work.
I worked a few hours already today, but the "main event" of my schedule will be this evening and tonight when I go to work in just over an hour, 1700 start time, expecting a busy dinner and night tonight. The food truck arrived sort-of early today so reville was 0645. That only took about an hour so I did have time to nap after, and then it was up to Treats Falls for 3 hours of carpentry. That job is close to done, but I won't finish it until next week at best. I'm still waiting for Bruce to do a bit more plumbing, and I have some more trim and misc to do before that happens. I wanted to be done this week, but the restaurant takes up too much of my precious... precious time. Oh well, the deadline I had set of Oct 7 (tomorrow, when a tenant was supposed to be moving into the house) is now Oct 14. Seems the owner had a week or so delay in getting a tenant in there so that's a huge win for me. I can work there with a tenant, but it sucks. A lot.

^Doing showers chews up a lot of precious... precious time.

I had time to lift weights, go for a jog, or do yoga, but I did none of the above. I did yoga and played racquetball yesterday, and I've gotten a lot of exercise already this week, so my body needs a break. I'll walk around in the restaurant tonight for a couple miles so I already have built-in exercise. I would love to jog, but my left calf is still bothering me some. It almost heals and then I do something stupid like attempting a jog or playing racquetball so it gets a little worse. Not a huge deal, but an annoyance. A bunch of crap!

I'm a dork so I keep track of pretty much everything on spreadsheets, and I can look at my exercise this year as compared to last year. So far this year has been MUCH better. It's not where I was many years ago when I was in my "prime" but I'll take what I can get at this point in my borderline old-ass life. Last year was a shit-show, and I was sick a few different times. What a bunch of crap! Started off with the 'rona, had apartment remodeling to do, and it was too much. This year has been better, but there are still flaws. Hopefully I can write more about that next time because I gotta get my loser-ass to work.

Goonies never say die!

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Thursday, 10-05-23: No music, no TV, silence.
I was down at the bar for a bit earlier with my awesome wife, but I wasn't feeling the vibe and wanted to come home to unwind for a bit. As usual karaoke is ripping, but the place is really slow tonight so that kinda sucks. Oh well, it happens from time to time it's impossible to be fully packed every day. I'm sure at this time tomorrow night we will be jammed up and cranking. I'm enjoying some peace and quiet here at the house for a bit before I head back down and pick up Kat so we can rack out. I feel kinda tired, but it's not time to bivouac just yet. I am pulling a Depeche Mode and enjoying the silence. It's "King Lawn Chair" from the amazing 1989 video and song, Enjoy the Silence. One of the best songs of all-time, and back then my favorite songs lasted for about a year apiece. In 1988 it was Def Leppard's Pour Some Sugar on Me, and in 1989 it was Enjoy the Silence. Yeah, I had problems. It was a simpler time with less new stuff available, though.

We did only get to watch MTV for a handful of times a year back then. Grammy and Papa had it at their house so when we visited we were all-in. One day in the late 80s they did a Tom Petty marathon and it was fucking awesome. If you disagree with me then I hate you. I probably hate you anyway, but I'll hate you a little more.

^KING LAWN CHAIR! Dude dressed up as a king (or some kind of royalty, but our young asses didn't know the difference so he was a KING) and randomly sat in various locations ranging from the desert to the tundra as the song Enjoy the Silence played. I miss the 1980s my life was better back then gods damn it. I hate my life 50% of the time now, and I don't think I hated it at all back then. What a bunch of crap!

Now MTV isn't even for music. They play this show called RIDICULOUSNESS that is actually kinda funny in small doses, but this annoying scrappy chick is also on there and she laughs like a dolphin and after a little bit of that I'm checked out. Actually that chick quit to go be a mom or a musician or something so now various other chicks are there. Sometimes it's entertaining, but man I miss the awesome music videos from back in the day. Some of those videos were so cool and groundbreaking. Loved Enjoy the Silence, Runnin' Down a Dream (Tom Petty), Don't Come Around Here No More (Tom Petty), Sledgehammer (Peter Gabriel), Take on Me (Aha), Land of Confusion (Genesis), and many others.

One of our dishwashers at work, one of our core guys who was working 5 days a week, gave his notice Tuesday. Sometimes people get done, it happens, but I didn't see this one coming. He works every Friday and Saturday night so in a couple weeks I guess we're pwned. I like the guy a lot and get along great with him so losing him hurts. Our weekends get so damn busy lately that not having a dishwasher is going to mean I'm back there a lot. We did hire a new chick who started today, but she only worked a 4-hour training shift and she's only 16 years old. OMG. She turns 17 next week, but she can't do Friday and Saturday nights all by herself. We really need two, and we'll barely have one. What a bunch of crap! Washing dishes is easy, but finding someone to do it on Friday and Saturday nights is not so easy. Eventually we'll find the right fit, but until then it sucks to be me. Oh well, I was planning to work there more through the rest of the fall anyway.

My working there more starts with taking over Tuesday nights. My friend and current bouncer for Friday and Saturday nights is also going to bartend Tuesdays so I think we can really build it up over time, expecially with my awesome wife taking Tuesdays for the karaoke. Normally Tuesday is our slowest day of the week, as expected, so I'm hoping we can level it up. Tuesdays have grown a lot from where they were a year ago so that's encouraging. The entire place has grown a lot, but we're not quite there yet. Close but no cigar, as they say.

Our two biggest areas of growth have been our event room rentals and our food sales over the first three quarters, 9 months, of this year (as compared to the same time in 2022.) Those are up 62.5% and 18.2% respectively. The event room has given us a HUGE boost in sales this year, and overall we're up 8.7%. Oddly enough our alcohol/beverage sales are only up .0034% so that's essentially a flat-line, YTD. However, we are open 9 fewer hours than we were a year ago so really we're up a lot more on a sales per-hour basis. I'm not doing the math on all of that because I don't want to use the precious... precious time.

If sales keep up at their current pace we'll stay in business for a long time. If not we're done. March, 2024 will be our 3-year mark so they we can really see some trends. If we don't continue to increase business in 2024 then there won't be a point in keeping it open because simply breaking even (which we've done over the past couple months) isn't good enough. If we broke even and Kat and I got decent management salaries that would be okay, but right now we only break even with her and I not taking a paycheck at all. I'd write "What a bunch of crap!" to that, but at this time a year ago we were losing close to $10k a month so our improvements have been HUGE.

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Tuesday, 10-03-23: Has it really been that long since I updated this turd-heap? Lots going on...
I can't friggin' believe I haven't updated this bootleg site that almost no one ever reads in 19 days. What a bunch of crap! Where the hell do I even start? Lots has been going on including another round of the 'rona, carpentry, long hours at the restaurant, etc. I don't feel overwhelmed with work, but the days are just flying by.

Poor Kat, my awesome best-friend wife (sometimes enemy, but that's how you roll when you're me and married and have problems.) has been so sick that she's barely been able to work for much of the past couple weeks. She is getting ready to work tonight, and I'll go in with her soon for at least some if not all of the Tuesday night karaoke. At first we didn't know what was wrong with her medically, but she exhibited a lot of the same symptoms that she did over 2 years ago when she had a stroke. Forgetful, tired, weak, etc. Trips to the ER only seemed to make it worse and reveal no answers. Then, last week, one of our most reliable managers (Jess) tested positive for the 'rona so Kat took her own test the following morning at 0430. What a way to wake up, wife feeling like ten pounds of shit stuffed into a five pound bag, and holding a POSITIVE Covid test.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

It's the third time she's officially had it, at least by my math. I'm at two, but I think the real number is 3-4 and maybe even 5 because I had a little something off with me the last few days. Just a touch of a sore throat and some coughing, but oddly enough nothing that seemed to make me much weaker. I still did fine in the gym, doing yoga, and playing racquetball. Sadly the jogging has been an epic failer since my last bootleg update all those days ago because I have a mild left calf strain that really stops me from jogging. What a bunch of crap! It did feel better over the weekend so I went for a 1.5-mile slow jog yesterday in perfect 72-degree weather, but I felt it and was hobbled some for the last half-mile or so. Gods damn it!

It sucks I haven't been able to jog much because this is prime-time with perfect weather for a lot of the last couple weeks. It's still somewhat tender today so I'm hoping it's better tomorrow and I can try another jog. I have been getting good exercice, but between that and work it seems there is little time for much else.

I did finish my work at Gavin's place so that's a huge win, and it's been a long time coming. I finished this siding last Thursday, and I hauled the last of the trash from the floor remodel to the dump Saturday and finished the invoice Sunday. I wasn't worried at all about getting paid because Gavin is a great guy, but that precious... precious money will help a lot this month since I still don't take a paycheck at the restaurant.

^Siding came out looking great, and Gavin will finish the trim around the skylight. I think he can move into the place this month. Maybe? Hopefully! He's been living in one of the unfinished downstairs apartments in that same building for years while he picks away at that upstairs 1BR apartment. It will be a NICE place for him, and I'm happy he's almost ready to move in.

I finished Gavin's just in time to go BEAST MODE at work from Thursday through Sunday. Once Jess got the 'rona I had to work a lot of her, but that's okay it seemed like it fit my schedule well enough. I felt badly leaving my ill wife at home so much, but she did have the dogs and cats in the room with her. Tiger Lily loves getting on the bed, but I kick her ass off more often than not. I gave her a pass last week and took a few pictures:

^Hard to say NO to that adorable face. She is very gentle and easy-going unlike Groot who is at times obnoxious yet still lovable. Tiger Lily is only about 7.5 years old yet it seems she has a lot of grey in her face. She better not die young gods damn it. Losing Copper before he could even turn 6 really took its toll, and it still hurts to this day. I think that hurt Tiger Lily a lot as well, but thankfully her and Groot seem to play well together and co-exist well.

Deer hunting season has arrived, and my loser-ass is not even close to going yet. Haven't even shot the bow once and probably won't at all this fall. What a bunch of crap! I'll just wait 4 more weeks and go rifle-hunting down in Warren. Jason shot a big buck on his own land out behind his house on opening day Saturday, and I think this is one of my favorite photos in recent memory:

^My 4-year old nephew seems in awe of how big this buck is (190 lbs field-dressed.) Every single year for the past decade or so Jason has become an expert on shooting a BIG deer. He's a fantastic hunter. I'd like to go hunting more with both him and Dad, but they live 1.5 hours away one-way so it's an excursion just going down there for a visit or for a hunt.

I do need to get down to the ol' homestead again soon. I'm hoping to scoot down in about 1.5 weeks, maybe on Sunday the 15th, but we'll see how it goes. I was down there on a Thursday maybe 12 days ago, and I did get the last of their firewood stacked and had a nice lunch over a quick visit. Mom had a knee replacement so she's out of work for 2.5 or 3 more months, and who knows maybe she won't go back at all. She's old enough and has worked enough for Social Security now, but I don't see her just sitting around the house all day for the rest of her life so I think she will go back to work part-time like she was doing before.

Dad has been retired for years now, but he has writing, hunting, and fishing so he seems to never be bored. Being bored and old seems like a death sentence to me...