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

“Mom, who is Jimmy Buffet?" (as she pronounced his last name like the the food all-you-can-eat buffet.) –Katherine
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAH!" –Me (shocked she doesn't know who the famous Margaritaaville singer is and she doesn't even know the name.)

Friday, 9-30-16: Exercise like a boss.
I've been busy this month (as usual), but I have made sure I allocate enough time each and every week to get my exercise. There have been times in the past where I have gotten so focused on my work and various projects that I have skipped out on some exercise. For example, last year at this time I wasn't lifting weights in the gym at all because I was working on this bootleg house. I was getting some exercise doing the ground work and carpentry, and I did go for plenty of jogs so I stayed fit enough. However, this year I've stepped it up and the results are keeping me motivated. I'm not chiseled from stone or ready for any bodybuilding competitions (never will be. F that!), but I do feel like I am in the best shape that I have ever been in before. Not bad for a guy who is pushing 41 years old.

Ever since I recovered from my bout of sinusitis in early July I have been very regular with my exercise. Physically I had one of my best blueberry raking seasons ever, if not my best. For sure I had my days where I was sore from all the work, but my body held up very well and I had no lingering effects. I've felt great ever since the sinusitis, and I feel great now as well. I already lifted weights this morning, and I might play racquetball later with Deno and Gavin. I've played a lot of racquetball since blueberry raking, too. I mostly lose, but the exercise is great. I seriously lose about 90% of the time, but we play hard and I make those assholes work for their wins. My accuracy is not as good as theirs so that costs me often. What a bunch of crap!

I worked on this bootleg house for a couple hours this morning, sanding and mudding in the last unfinished bedroom upstairs. I spent an hour working on the place a couple days ago so I am slowly getting back into it. However, the work here is short-lived because this afternoon I have to do four showings at the house across the street from my bootleg office. The tenant there is moving two buildings down the street to the property that I manage, and the tenant in that 3-bedroom apartment plans to be out around the middle of next month. That apartment will need some paint, maybe a new living room rug, and definitely a new entry porch. Look at this bootleg failing piece of shit:

^That porch is in really bad shape and could collapse at any moment. What a bunch of crap!

Since that is the property I manage I do need to get permission from the owners before I do the replacement, but I'm sure they will say hell yeah. The best way to do that porch is during tenant turnover since that is the only entrance to the apartment that doesn't involve ridiculous maneuvering through the cellar or through a window. I still have to price the materials and add $100 for my labor to quote the owners. $100 for my labor isn't very much at all considering it will take me a day. Maybe I'll add $120 so that is $15 per hour at 8 hours. Again, not a great sum but a fair one since I do make money in other ways from the property. The porch is only 4x4 with 4 steps, but I have to pour footings, install balusters, steps, railings, etc. All those things add up to a few hours plus the time to do the decking itself.

Next month was supposed to be a month were I worked on this house and went deer hunting, but now it looks like it will be a month were I work a lot of the bootleg apartments and *hopefully* still go deer hunting. I have been shooting my bow regularly so my confidence is up. (minus the one arrow that missed the target entirely and disappeared forever yesterday.) However, I haven't put up my new tree stand yet or even checked my trail camera that I put out a week ago. Maybe Sunday I can make time for that...

I have tenants moving out of my Chamberlain duplex this weekend so early next week I have to get that place ready for the next approved tenant. If all goes as planned I can do my painting and prep Monday and Tuesday and have the new carpet installed Wednesday AM. Then I can do a few little touch-ups and give her the keys Thursday. Meanwhile I have to find a tenant for the house across the street from my office, and I have to finish this mailroom later next week and the week after:

^Mailboxes were on that wall, but I moved them temporarily to the other side of the small room until I can finish that area.

Oh, I also need to get tenants in my vacant Bangor 3-bedroom if the place doesn't sell. I plan to make that a priority next week as well.Jody has two more showings coming up and then I can make a final decision, but right now it looks like I might end up just keeping the building. Gods damn this apartment business is kicking my ass. What a bunch of crap!

By the time I wrap up everthing I listed above it will be near the middle of October, and I will have to get the 3-bedroom apartment that I manage ready for the next tenant. That will take a few days, give or take, and then I have to get the aforementioned house ready for whomever I find to rent the place. By then I would say October will be mostly over and *maybe* I will get a few free days before Kat and I fly out to Arizona for a vacation. Hopefully after we get back from AZ I can get our own frigging house put back together. Maybe.

The Red Sox got swept in a 3-game series against the Yankees, but Toronto lost as well so by default the Sox won the AL East Wednesday night. Oh Jesus, hell ya! They probably could have done better in NY, but the Yankees are eliminated from playoff contention so the games didn't really matter than much and the Sox phoned it in a bit. Prior to those losses the Red Sox had won 11 games in a row to seal up their playoff hopes. Oh Jesus, hell ya!

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Wednesday, 9-28-16: A big day two years ago. Camera = found.
Two years ago, September 28, 2014, I asked Kat to marry me on the ledges of Parks Pond Bluff in Clifton (Aphordite Mountain to us.) It was a beautiful day, the sun beat down, this ain't no Tom Petty song, and I ain't Runnin' Down a Dream.

9-28-14

It's been a wild ride for both of us in life since we got engaged two years ago. Kat moved to this house here in Brewer with Katherine, we had a winter from hell while Tommy moved to Arizona, we had our wedding, we went on a fantastic honeymoon, and I kept plugging away at this house. First was a shed and then came the nearly 1000 square foot addition that isn't even done yet. Kat expanded her DJ business greatly, we had different pets come and go, and now all the kids including Dillon's girlfriend, Debbie, are all living with us in our newly expanded house on Parkway North.

It hasn't always been easy for Kat and I, but we always find a way to mend our fences when they start to buckle. Kat and I are a lot alike in many ways and that is why we usually click so well, but I feel myself spiraling at times and almost overwhelmed with the amount of work that I have to do. This has been a VERY busy year for the apartment business; by the time the year ends at least half of all my units will have turned over since May. OMG. I was hoping for an easier fall, but that ain't happening. I have projects all over the gods damned place right now, and nothing is complete. What a bunch of crap! My Bangor duplex front vacant apartment needs a bit more work, my cellar/gym needs to be cleaned up with ceiling tiles replaced after Bruce installed new baseboards in my old apartment. My Chamberlain St. duplex has people moving out in a few short days and will need paint and flooring, the property that I manage is turning over next month, and the house across the street from my office will also need new tenants. Oh, this house still isn't done and the mailroom over at my old apartment building needs sheetrock, a floor, and paint. I'm sure I'm forgetting a few things, but just the work listed above would take me weeks to wrap up if I had no other interruptions. Mostly this house is the biggest of the remaining work to be done. It just never ends!

Hopefully my Bangor duplex sells so I have one less thing in life to deal with. Sell, sell, sell! A large part of me wants to lower the list price even more, down from the current asking price of $104,900. However, the sensible part of me wants to keep it listed at that price because I do think it's a fair asking price. Supposedly there are two more showings at the end of the week so we shall see how those go before I make another decision on the building. If neither of those showings pan out then I will most likely try to rent the vacant 3BR front apartment ASAP.

One day I think I'll get back to where I was two years ago when Kat and I got engaged. That was an amazing summer and a fairly easy fall as well (if I recall correctly.) The apartment business was a piece of cake because almost no one was moving, and I had no bigger projects to tackle. My old apartment turned over just before blueberry raking in 2014, but that only took me a couple days to clean and paint. Bob did a foundation at Chamberlain in July that summer, but I didn't need to be around for much of that job. I remember when Kat and I first started dating Bob was doing that job and her and I got major laughs at his expense. Ah, fun times.

I believe in the fall of 2014 the only project of any significance that I cooked up was a fence for this back yard. Before Kat could move in we wanted to give Tommy a chance to spread out, and the fence would mean we could let the dogs out and not worry about them running off. The fence took a while to do because I didn't put 8-hour days into the thing. Thankfully I finished it up before the snow started to fly because once the snow hit in very early November winter was here with a vengence.

Nice new fence from two years ago. Now the house off to the right (was the garage) has a second floor and a deck. I turned that all into functional, heated living space. It even has a bathroom!

Kat found my camera on Monday. Score! It was in a box of cleaning supplies and misc. stuff that I brought over from the gym and my office last week. As usual I was in a hurry (I'm always in a frigging hurry) and tossed the camera in there and then forgot all about it. What a bunch of crap! I'm glad she went through that box because it wasn't on my priority list at all.

Kat and I decided to rearrange the living room and deep clean some of this bootleg house so on Monday she got started while I took care of some apartment stuff and rented the Rug Doctor. Her idea, a good one, was to move the TV to the left side (facing from the kitchen) and put the couch in the corner where the TV used to be. I was hesitant when we first bandied about the idea a couple months ago because I wanted to be able to see the TV from the bar, but now that it is done I'm glad we made it happen because I can still see the TV from the bar. Plus it makes the place look bigger; it is a more efficient use of our precious... precious space.

^My hunting tree stand and ladder came in and are in the boxes by the closet. $83 for both, not bad at all! I caught a sale on dickssportinggoods.com, free shipping, easy as a few clicks.

^Tiger-Lily loves laying on the couch now. Just a couple or three weeks ago she really got good at jumping up onto the couch. Probably soon she will be able to jump up onto the bed, too.

Also this week we kissed $400 of our precious... precious dollars goodbye. I hired out the removal of this failing maple tree:

You can see two big branches to the right are missing. One came down in early July 2014 just about a week after Kat and I first started hanging out. That one fell into the street but caused no damage. The other limb came down in the yard last winter, and thankfully that one caused no damage as well. The other remaining limbs hang over the driveway so we knew if one of those came down at least one and maybe all four vehicles would take on some serious damage. $400 is a small price to pay compared to all the insurance deductibles if the cars had been hit by a large falling hardwood limb.

It only took David and his helper a few hours to cut down the tree. Now I have a big pile of hardwood to split up for firewood. Score! I think his price was very reasonable and he worked quickly. I would definitely hire him again. The last tree guy I used a couple years back must have gone out ot business because his number does not work anymore. Oh well, one of my best tax clients ever recommended David and I am glad I gave him a call and we were able to do some business.

^FREE FIREWOOD. Not free because it cost $400 to have the tree cut down and it will take hours to split and cut it all up. D'oh!

It feels weird not having a big maple tree out front, and it also feels weird having the TV on the other side of the room. The couch is now further away from the TV so we need to upgrade to a 60-70 inch screen. GO BIG OR GO HOME. However, a 60+" TV would set us back over $700 so nevermind. We can live with out "puny" 46" for the time being. Having that tree removed and a $350 vet bill for Copper last week means we need to save up a bit before we buy another big-ticket item. Maybe next month we can find a badass larger TV, and most certainly before Christmas.

In a way it seems almost wrong that we have a 46" TV and want a bigger one. Billions of people in this world would probably be in total shock just to have a TV half that size. Here in America we really do have things great, and yet as a collective bunch we still find ways to fail. The national debt is almost unsurmountable, we have two Looney-Tunes for presidential candidates, and much of the world laughs at us and our wasteful/lavish/selfish ways. What a bunch of crap!

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Sunday, 9-25-16: Where the hell is my camera?
I can't find my digital camera. What a bunch of crap! All I wanna know is why? Why did I have to misplace it? Where did it go? Is it in my office? Is it over at my Bangor duplex? This house somewhere? I have no idea. I've done some looking for it over the past few days, but I haven't really looked in a serious way. Hopefully I find it soon so I can take some pictures of the work I've done, the puppies, and more importantly of another apartment that I will need to advertise and try to rent out next month.

Yesterday was a BUSY day for my ass. First, we didn't bivouac until 0330 for the second week in a row. Last week (9 days ago) we had an after-party here at the house after Kat's Jester's gig, and this past Friday night we all decided to go to Denny's after the karaoke show. We had a blast Friday night, and even better was the fact that I got a somewhat liquored up but nowhere near as drunk as I was the previous week. Katherine and her friend came down to the bar to help convince us to go to Denny's, and for once going out to grab some late-night grub was not my idea. Oh Jesus, hell ya! The highlight of the night at Denny's was Eric (IWE, IWE, IWE) turning his nachos and turkey club sandwich into sexual references.

After I got about 4 hours of sleep Friday night I had to get up to head over to my office/gym so I could meet up with Bruce and have him finish hooking up all the new baseboards in my old apartment. He also moved some pipes so I can finish the ceiling in the cardio area, and he hooked up hot water to the washer for my old apartment. When we moved into that bootleg apartment in 1998 the washer (located in the basement) had hot water, but it turned out the hot water was fed from the upstairs apt 4 water heater so Ron, our landlord back then, had to have his guy/plumber/helper disconnect the hot and for almost the entire 14.5-year time that we lived at that apartment our laundry was cold water only. I don't care about doing laundry in cold water, no big deal to me, but I have wanted to get the hot hooked back up just because I know different tenants will come and go and some people probably do give a crap about using warm or hot water when doing laundry. Now, roughly 17-18 years later, the washer has a hot water feed. Finally! Better late than never, right?

Bruce is probably done over there. I hope! I was going to have him replace a couple baseboards in the other first-floor apartment, but F that the ones there now are good enough, and I dropped $1350 just for Bruce's labor and own marerials used on the work already done over there. Plus the cost of the new baseboards that I bought at Home Depot brings me up to close to $2000. That's enough spent for now by far. I also need to keep some money set aside so Bruce can come do some heating upgrades here at this bootleg house.

In addition to keeping Bruce and his helper moving over at my old apartment yesterday morning I had to try to get a dead furnace going, I had rent to collect, I had to get the other furnaces turned on, and I had to meet with David here at the house to get a quote to have a maple tree out front cut down. Oh, I also had to help Kat load her gear, wash up, and get ready to drive over 2 hours south to Raymond to DJ a wedding. The wedding went well, but damn it got COLD after dark. The actual air temperature dropped into the upper 40s, but it felt much worse with low humidity and a breeze. The first few cold air masses always feel worse after summer. Thankfully they did have some propane heaters, and they aimed one at us so that was helpful. Poor Kat was still freezing, though. Outdoor weddings this time of year can be chilly. We also had one outdoor wedding last year in early October that was damn cold.

Including the wedding I worked a LONG DAY yesterday. We got home and unloaded after midnight, and the dogs didn't let me sleep past 0800. 7 hours of sleep sure beats the 4 I got the night before, though! I might take a nap today, but probably not because I want to sleep well tonight. Thankfully I don't have much to do today besides maybe use the gym and put together a new stand for Kat. This afternoon I plan to veg out, watch TV, and do as little as possible. I do have a couple phone calls to make, but even those can probably wait until tomorrow. First, I need to talk to the tenants in the back apartment over at my Bangor duplex. Second, I need to talk to the owners of the property that I manage.

The tenants over at my Bangor duplex are good so I want to make sure the showings haven't been pissing them off too much. I'm thinking $50 off next month's rent should help ease any potential tensions. I hope! There have been 6 showings, and so far no one has been very interested in buying the place. Two of the showings were EPIC FAILS where the people looked for only a minute and then bailed. I was there for the first two showings, but the last four I've not been there. Showings ain't my job anyway; that is what Jody get paid to do once the house does sell. (If it sells!)

Jody emailed me this feedback about the place a couple days ago:

"My showing did not go well at all. We went inside for about 2 minutes and he didn't like the floors, steep stairs and uneven door casings , ceilings etc. He was very fussy. I explained to him all the work that has been done w foundation and everything else but he had enough. I tried!! Have a good night!"

EPIC FAIL AND WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP ALL ROLLED UP INTO ONE. Oh well, if my turd doesn't sell soon I guess I'll just keep it. Sucks I probably can't even sell it for what I bought it for, but oh well at least each mortgage payment puts $500 in equity into my pocket each month. Worst-case scenario is I keep it, build $6000 in equity over the next year, and maybe also make a little profit if I keep both units rented with good tenants. The mortgage for that building was a 15-year 4.875% note that I signed in April of 2009 so that mortage is almost exactly halfway to its payoff in terms of time. 7.5 years down, 7.5 to go.

Jody did help me get my Chamberlain 2BR rented. That story is pretty cool. First, I stuck a FOR RENT sign in the lawn around 1100 Wednesday. Second, I got a phone call from a lady later that afternoon about the place. She drove by, saw the sign, and called on behalf of her daughter. She said she would give my business website address and my contact info to her daughter and I didn't think much more of it. Later that night just as we were done setting up at The Roost for karaoke Jody came in with his wife and some family friends. Jody and I were talking, he asked if I had any apartments coming open, and I said I had a 2BR on Chamberlain. He said that's funny his friend's mom just called about a place on Chamberlain a few hours prior, and it turned out that was my place and his friend was right there in the bar with them. Cool! So I got a chance to meet her, she said she had been to the website and liked what she saw, and we agreed to do a showing in person for the next day. She saw the apartment with her Mom, she said hellz yeah, and now all she has to do is pay a $300 deposit and it's all hers. Not bad!

^HAD VACANCY, BUT NOW NO VACANCY! AWESOME.

I also have to talk to the owners of the property that I manage about the upcoming vacancy. The place could use some paint and new flooring, but I'm not about to pay for that shit. Hopefully the owners do agree to replace at least the living room floor because that carpet is well-worn. Also, they have it set up where the tenants pay for their own heat, and this is NOT a good time of year to have a vacancy where tenants have to pay for heat since winter is knocking on the door. I run a tight ship and can probably get it rented, but there is a chance it stays vacant for a month or two...

I need to hop off this bootleg thing and be a vegetable for a while. This coming week will be busy again, but I think I'll actually be able to work on our own house a bit so that will be nice. I have had so much apartment-business work to do lately that I haven't had time to work on our own house. Well, I could make time but screw working a 10 or 12-hour day (except yesterday!) I'd rather work 2-3 hours in the morning, 2-3 hours in the afternoon, and call it good enough.

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Friday, 9-23-16: Go Sox and Patriots! Hunting? Another upcoming vacancy.
It's Friday night, and the Red Sox just beat the Tampa Bay Rays for their 9th straight win. Oh Jesus, hell ya! Ortiz hit a 2-run home run in the 1st inning and that was the difference. The Sox now only have 8 games left in the regular season and have a big lead in the division so it seems they will definitely make the playoffs. They have been awesome this month.

^PATRIOTS LAST NIGHT! Backup to the backup QB in his first ever NFL start scoring a sweet rushing touchdown.

Last night the Greatriots beat the Texans to improve to 3-0 on the season. Even more impressive is the fact that they won 27-0 with their third-string backup quarterback who has never started a game in the NFL before. Awesome! Brady comes back in just a couple weeks, too. It's a great time of year to be a sports fan, and even better when both the Sox and the Pats are crushing it. Kat and I didn't stay up to watch the game because we were tired from the previous Wednesday night karaoke gig up in Orono. We don't go to bed until around 0200 late Wednesday night/early Thursday AM because we work up there until last call, and revielle Thursday morning always feels too damn early so Thursday night we are pretty tired. I was planning to take a nap so I could stay up and watch the game, but F that I had other things to do like work, shoot my bow, take the puppies to the park, take a 2.5-hour lunch break with Sweet Pea, etc. It was the last calendar day of summer and a pure beauty with sun and upper 70s, low humidity.

Yesterday Kat and I went to lunch at a place just down the road called HIGH TIDE. They have a back deck that overlooks the Penobscot, and the food was great. We also walked along the newer city-walk trail after lunch, and it was very nice. my Sweet Pea and I weren't on the same page earlier in the week because I got really drunk last Friday and didn't apologize for it, but I really am sorry that I got that drunk. I think it's okay to have some drinks, but boozing to excess is just dumb. Thankfully I didn't pass out on the deck, but I still went too far with the booze. What a bunch of crap! Sometimes I am a bad husband who deserves to get into trouble with the missus, but thankfully I don't try to beat her up or try to pick up other wommens, ever, so I'm only a partial-fail as a spouse.

^A nice place to eat, and now there is a paved walkway along the water that the city built a few years ago.

I got off the phone with Mom and Pop just about 20 minutes ago, and Dad and I had a nice chat about this upcoming hunting season. I need to get my ass down there to do some hunting with him because he is getting old, and one day in the not-too-distant future he won't be able to go hunting. Hopefully he lives to be 100 and can crush it for a few more decades, but he is 67 now with lead poisoning and after-effects from both a hellish war in Vietman (got blown up, agent orange sprayed, etc.) plus lingering effects of lymes disease from fucko ticks. He seems far from ready to check out, and thank the gods who do not exist for that, but the reality is one of these years he won't be able to go hunting with us and that will tear me up a lot because all I've known my whole life is in the fall it's time for Dad to HUNT. He's the reason I even go hunting; he taught me how to do it. He was a good teacher and if I tried harder I would be a good hunter. However, over the past few years I haven't been so good and I've done stupid shit like fall asleep in my ground blind and miss a few different deer. What a bunch of crap!

I got my ass into the woods today for the first time. My goal was to put the trail camera out at "Supertree", but I ended up pwned when I got there and saw some other guy's tree stand IN THE EXACT SAME TREE WHERE I PLANNED TO PUT MY OWN STAND. OMG WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP! NO SUPERTREE FOR ME. So I went into the woods a little more and found a suitable other spot for my camera. I brought the dogs with me into the woods, and they LOVED being out there with me. Tiger-Lily has been wasted like Doc-J and 8-Ball from Full Metal Jacket for most of this afternoon because she ran around in the woods so much.

I'm wearing jeans tonight for the first night in about three or four months. The temperature here in the living room is a comfy 71 still (furnace is off), but tonight will be 40 and tomorrow is looking a very fall-like 60. I'll have to turn the furnaces on tomorrow at the bootleg rental properties for sure as tomorrow night we dip down into the 30s. Even better, tomorrow evening Kat and I have an outdoor wedding to DJ. In the late afternoon when it's 60 that isn't so bad, but by nightfall it will get downright COLD. It was sunny and 79 yesterday, and they said on the news earlier today we are 5 degrees above average for the month so it will really feel cold tomorrow given how warm it has been. Gods damn it! Thankfully natural gas is still not too costly. Gas actually dropped to just over $2 a gallon, down from about $2.15. Not bad at all!

I had another tenant give his 30-day notice today. What a bunch of crap! This one I did see coming, though. He mentioned to me this summer that he was looking to move to a cheaper place since his chick hauled on him and he has to pay for it all himself now. It's the property that I manage, and he has been there since I took over three-plus years ago. I think the place will need some paint and some new carpet, but if the owners don't want to pay for new carpet then fine I'll just do my best to get it rented as-is. I take a percentage of the rents collected so it is in my best interest to avoid vacancies, but at least if there is a vacancy it doesn't hurt me personally quite as much as when there is a vacancy at one of my own bootleg buildings.

Alright turds, all two of youz who ever look at this worthless pile of shit site, I suppose I should mosy on down to Jester's to check out the last couple hours of Kat's karaoke show. I might sing some Def Leppard as I wear the Def Leppard Hysteria tee shirt that Kat bought for me a few weeks ago, but I probably won't because I am a horrible singer and society should collectively cringe when my dumb no-talent-ass gets on the mic. Thankfully I almost never sing karaoke. Hehehehe. Goonies never say die, chumps!

^MY TEE SHIRT WITH THIS WINNING LOGO. THE END. FIN.

PS: The "kids' (ages 23-18) are discussing going to the gas station to buy ice cream, and Katherine was wearing a giraffe pajama one-piece suit. They don't even need booze to have that much fun either. Yeah, I'm old now.

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Tuesday, 9-20-16: A little stiff, a little tired, but overall not bad. Poor Copper.
I'm feeling a tad stiff this morning, and I don't think I've gotten quite enough sleep for the past two nights. What a bunch of crap! Poor Copperpot, he has been puking and has had diahrea since Sunday night. Both of the last two nights he has woken up a few times in the night to chunder. He didn't eat any food at all yesterday, and this morning he doesn't care... whether or not he cares about his food either. I put his food down, and he looked at it and walked away. Epic fail. He didn't even eat his dog-treat last night before bed. If he doesn't start to bounce back today then we will take him to the vet, just in case it is something serious. We think he just got his insides twisted a bit because he swallowed too many pieces of a chew toy, sticks, or something else he shouldn't have eaten.

Getting woken up by a sick dog in the night is no big deal; thankfully I don't have some ugly-ass human baby who would cry, whine, puke, shit, and piss all during the night. I'v e never owned a baby or had to help someone who has had one, but from what I have heard and read they make your ass work 24/7. I'm A-okay with working hard, I do it often, but raising a baby = my version of slow torture.

^The only baby, ever, who does not totally suck is my one and only niece who is now in kindergarten and 5 years old. I don't know exactly when she was born, but I know it is December before Christmas. Maybe 12-11-10? I fail as an uncle. What a bunch of crap! She probably actually did suck to raise so thankfully my brother and his chick had to do all the hard work. They had to teach her not to shit herself. All set with that. If I were her Dad I'd teach her how to shoot a bow and how to low-crawl across enemy lines. Hehehehe.

This morning I plan to head over to my office to do some cleaning and to work on the mailroom at that property. I need to find my camera so I can snap a couple photos of things over there. I spent yesterday cleaning and painting in the gym so it is starting to look good. However, there is still plenty of work left to do before I get it 100% done. It will actually never be 100% done so hopefully I get it to the point where it is good enough ASAP. I'd like to start working on this house again soon.

I posted an ad on Craigslist yesterday for a 2BR apartment that will be available soon, but so far after 24 hours I have not received one call or email. What a bunch of crap! This is the worst time of year to have an upcoming vacancy, and the spring/early summer is the best time to have one. I'll stick my FOR RENT sign in the lawn this morning and hope I get some responses from people who are not total Giblet-Heads. The tenants who live there now expect to close on a house around October 1 and be done by mid-October. Once they move out I need to do some painting and replace the carpets. The carpets were all new as of the spring of 2008, but after 8.5 years and a few different tenants they are at the end of their useful life and need to go. I'd cancel the carpets entirely if it weren't a second floor apartment.

^NICE 2BR APT FOR RENT AROUND MID-MONTH NEXT MONTH.

The Red Sox beat the Orioles last night and are now 4 games ahead in the standings with only 12 regular-season games left to play. Oh Jesus, hell ya! Their odds of making the playoffs are 99.8% on ESPN. The Patriots did beat Miami Sunday, but only narrowly. They took a big 24-0 lead early in the game, but QB Garappolo got hurt so the third-string QB had to take over and then the Dolphins started making a comeback. Brady isn't back for two more weeks (twooooooooooo weeeeeeeeeeeekkkkkkkkkkkksssssssssssssss) so the team could be in trouble until then. Hopefully Garappolo isn't hurt too badly because he was doing a great job of filling in for God Brady.

After the game Sunday I found a movie on TV called Wreck-It-Ralph. I missed the first 20 minutes of the movie (saw the beginning this AM after breakfast, news, weather, and sports highlights), and I gotta say that movie is fan-friggin-tastic. I dunno if the same company who made that movie also made other greats like Shrek and Cars (Pixar or Dreamworks?), but it fits that mold. Computer-animated, good graphics, fun imaginary worlds, etc. It's about a video-game bad guy (Wreck-It Ralph) and his quest to be a good guy and to win a medal. I wouldn't put the movie on my all-time top movie list, but I would give it 8 or 9 out of 10 stars. If you haven't seen the movie you should check it out. If you do watch it and do not like it then I hate you. I probably hate you anyway, but I'll hate you a little more.

^Great movie from 2012. Watch it. The end. Fin.

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Sunday, 9-18-16: Almost game time; I probably had one too many Friday night.
The Greatriots play a home game against the Dolphins in 35 minutes, and I plan to plant my arse on the couch and watch a majority of the battle with my awsome wife/best friend. After that we'll probably watch a movie. The Pats are 1-0 after a narrow win in AZ last week. The Red Sox have beaten the Yankees three consecutive games at Fenway and tonight can complete the 4-game sweep if they win again. The Sox are in first place by 3 games over both the Blue Jays and Orioles with only 14 games left in the regular season. Oh Jesus, hell ya!

As usual I didn't accomplish everything last week that was on my "to do" list. I still haven't even gotten my pathetic arse into the woods to put up my trail camera and to prep for this bowseason. I wanted to do that last week, but as usual I blew it and did other things instead. What a bunch of crap! I would have done it today, but the weather is a turd and I had other things that took precedence. I used the gym and did some work over there for a couple hours right before I shovelled in my lunch. Bruce was supposed to come at 1100 to install some more baseboards, but he pushed it back to Wednesday and I am A-ok with that because I didn't want to be there anymore anyway.

Phil came up to visit Friday evening; we went for a 3-mile jog before supper, and I had my best run in two years. Oh Jesus, hell ya! He is a faster runner than me so I had to push myself a little harder, and it paid off. He has some smart-watch-thing that tells him the exact distance and pace so that was an awesome bonus. The 3-mile loop that I have been doing here since April of 2014 was just my best guess via a Google Map layover online, and apparently that loop is actually a little over 3 miles. Maybe 3.05? I'd rather run over 3 than under 3, but it is nice to know where the exact 3-mile point really is so I can more accurately compare my times to back when I was in my best ever cardio shape a few years back. Running a little extra probably added 15 more seconds onto my total time. I'm actually almost in the best shape that I have ever been in before. Not bad for a guy who will be 41 years old in two months!

Friday night we fired up the grill to cook some food, we put the Sox-Yankees game on, and after chow both Walter and Gavin came over as Kat was getting ready to go down to Jester's for her karaoke show. It was a beautiful evening, not too hot and not too cold, perfect for a fire. We hung out by the fire for a few hours and had some drinks and then Phil, Gavin, and I headed down to Jester's. Gav was gonna just go home, but he made a last-minute decision to pop into the bar with us. We somehow ran up a $40 bar tab in only 1.5 hours there. What a bunch of crap! I drank a little too much, but I was having fun.

At the end of the night my drunk ass decided an after-party would be great. Kat said hell yeah to that, but she said she thought an after-party would be just people hanging out at the bar while she broke down her gear. Nope! It meant bringing half the bar back to the house to party on for a couple more hours! We got the fire going again, Gav actually came back as well, and we had a lot of fun. Kat went BEAST MODE on the screen door (not the new one thankfully) and broke it like a boss. Hehehehe. She had a little to drink as well, but she was not happy with me yesterday because I promised her I wouldn't get shit-show drunk again yet I came pretty close Friday night. I was probably only one drink away from shit-show, but thankfully it was time to bivouac by then. Amazingly I didn't even wake up Saturday morning with a hangover! Oh Jesus, hell ya.

This coming week I need to paint this:

I also need to do some trim work, some more cleaning, and the front mailroom needs a lot of love. I also hope to get some apartment showings lined up. It will be another busy week with much on my agenda, but I don't feel overwhelmed. I'll get it done. Lawns are all mowed and should be okay until next week or the week after if we don't get much rain. Lawns don't grow so much this time of year so another couple mowings should get me through until next spring. I dread the cold weather that is coming, but at least it shuts my lawns down so I get a half-year break from having to mow!

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Wednesday, 9-14-16: I need to buy a door.
Well my latest project turned into much more than I thought it would. Again. Yesterday I decided to see about fixing the little collapsing porch roof at the front of the building by my office and my old apartment. First I had to remove some 1970s-looking paneling, and I was greeted by this on the other side of that paneling:

^BLACK MOLD. WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP! Thankfully it was easy to remove the moldy sheetrock. Unfortunately, it was not so easy to deal with what was behind the sheetrock.

OMG IT ALL ROTTED AWAY. WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP! The Nothing took away all my sturdy boards there like it once took away the beautiful lake from the Rock Biters in the North. Moisture got in there and, bused solely on my gut, it took a couple or three decades of water infiltration to cause all that rot and eventual epic failure. The wood was rotten to the point where it could not take the pressa of the support post for that little roof so the post punched right through. The end of that 2x4 support was all rotten so I had to replace that, too. Not cool. The entire design of that support piece was flawed to begin with. All I wanna know is why? Why would someone just rest that on a pine 1" board instead of adding a rugged brace? A scrap 2x4 less than 24" would have done the job.

The rot spread like a gods damned disease all the way down to the sill so I had to mine out chunks of punky wood for a while. Finally I did find some solid wood so I don't think I have to replace the sill. I hope! I'm not done yet; today I need to work on it some more. Thankfully it's just the entrance to the mail room so it is not time-critical. It would be a different situation entirely if that entry led directly into someone's apartment and I left it all torn apart.

^DOOR = CANCELLED.

Edit: One of my good tenants texted this to me later in the day:
"Hey, just wondering when the door was going back on. I don't know if you realize it but there's a lot of drugs floating around our road these days. The house across from Sam's bedroom. The cops have been out there like crazy. Found heroine on one of them with a needle. Etc, etc."

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP! Gavin was telling me about that house, too. For many years a wonderful older couple lived there, but he passed away a few years back and she died last fall so someone else bought the place earlier this year. Gavin thinks some broad with money to burn bought it and lets her younger daughter live there. Unfortunately, her daughter must be some kind of hooker or at the very least a huge slut because different guys come and go and it is all bad. Apparently there have been fights in the street, too. Gods damn it!

I need to buy a new 36x80 door for that entry ASAP. The old door was getting to the point that it was ugly, warped, and rusting. I can get a new one for $208 at Lowe's, but I plan to check Marden's and a couple other places first to see if I can get a cheaper, more basic door. I don't need decorative grills in the window or a deadbolt since the door will never lock. I'm putting a basic, non-locking knob on the door again so I don't need anything super-fancy. I also need to replace or repair the floor in the little mail entry room so between that, the baseboards in my old apartment, and the work I'm doing in the gym I'll be busy for the next week. Oh, I also have another 2-bedroom apartment that will need to be rented out next month after the tenants buy their house, and I'll also need to get a tenant in the front 3-bedroom apartment of my Bangor duplex if that place doesn't sell within the next week or two. Finally and hopefully after all that I can do some work again here on our hown house and still make time to go deer hunting. I hope!

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Monday, 9-12-16: It's fall, but not really.
Yesterday a strong cold front came through while I took a little early afternoon power-nap, and the NFL kicked off its first Sunday with a slew of afternoon and evening games. The Jets, Bills, and Dolphins all lost their season openers so before the Patriots even had their kickoff they were in first place in the division with a 0-0 record. Hehehehe. I thought I would stay up and watch the game last night (2030 kickoff), but my ass went to sleep at halftime so I had to catch the highlights this morning. The Pats were 8-point underdogs with no Brady or Gronk and playing a road game against what was a very good Arizona team last year, but they managed to eke out a late win when AZ shanked a field goal. Oh Jesus, hell ya! I'm glad I didn't stay up to watch all of the game because I wouldn't have been to sleep before midnight. Sleep was definitely more important to me, especially when Tiger-Lily wakes up a few minutes before 0600 seemingly every morning without fail.

So now that the NFL season is underway (and it was 43 degrees this morning) it feels like fall. However, it will be 77 degrees today and back into the low 80s for the next couple days so it's not really fall. When is the first meteorological day of fall? I think September 21st? I had a busy weekend this past weekend. Bruce was replacing baseboards in my old apartment, and that is no small job. Just drilling holes for some of the new, longer baseboards was a bitch because he had to punch through 8" beams and old spikes that ate up his bits. What a bunch of crap! I gotta clean my office after drilling from above rained shavings all over the place, too.

My office needs a real solid, thorough cleaning. I have papers all over the place and possessions that I haven't touched in many years. Yesterday morning while Bruce was doing some more baseboards I found a couple old DVDs of Doug's wedding from back in 2003. That marriage ended in EPIF FAIL so I guess those DVDs can go straight to the gibbage. However, I would feel badly if he ever got back together with Cassie so maybe I will just save one of them. However, it will snow in hell before he ever gets back together with Cas and there is no hell so I should probably just toss them all.

^I need to clean my entire office, especially after Bruce did some drilling above for new baseboards. What a bunch of crap!

I spent most of Saturday morning working with Bruce, and then I went with Kat to a wedding in Waterville so Saturday was a very long day for my ass. We didn't even get home and into bed until close to 0100 early Sunday morning. What a bunch of crap! It wasn't the best timing for me having Bruce do the work this past weekend, but I gotta make it work based on his availability and this needs to get done before I flip the furnaces on for good. I figure the entire job will cost close to $2000 so it's a fairly big one. (We're also replacing two baseboards in the other first-floor apt at that building.) The labor alone has already cost me $540 at about the halfway point. Materials will be a grand, give or take. Part of me thinks I should have just given the tenants a rent discount and had them use an electric space heater if we had another really cold winter. However, the other, more responsible part of me knows replacing and upgrading the baseboards in that apartment is the right call for the long-run. Sucks having to spend so much to do the replacements, but having an apartment that will barely heat to 62 degrees when we have a brutal cold snap in winter = what a bunch of crap! I should have had the baseboards done years ago when I lived there. Hindsight is always 20/20, right?

I have to fix this front walkway by my office, too:

^Bye bye walkway. Oh, the little dormer above the door is a turd, too. Epic snow and ice back in the winter of 2014-2015 caused that dormer to bend. What a bunch of crap!

The city ripped half of the walkway up when they repaved the street this summer. I don't know what their plan for fixing it was supposed to be, but I am sick of looking at the mess. This is what it looked like when I built it several years ago. I can't remember what year I did it so I have to do some digging... guy looks...

^From 2011. That was only five years ago?! It seems like it was much longer. The walk looks beautiful in the photo, but over the years weeds grew up all through it and even before the city screwed the bottom end of it up it didn't look so great anymore. This time I'll try to do better including using landscape fabric underneath and more mortar as a base to prevent grass and weeds from poking on through.

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Friday, 9-09-16: My little side-project, first place, doe tag drawing, no sale yet.
I saw on the NBC local news this morning that today is the day of the "doe tag" lottery. A lot more any-deer permits are expected to be given out this year as compared to last year because the mild winter helped the whitetail population. Oh Jesus, hell ya! Also, the little news-blurb noted that tomorrow is opening day for the expanded archery hunting zones. I'm not going to hunt tomorrow, next week, or likely even at all this month (maybe the very tail end of the month if we get a cold snap), but I have been shooting my bow again. I dragged out the bow a few days ago and I plan to shoot at least a few times a week. Last year I didn't practice enough and when shit got real in the woods I missed twice and then wounded a deer that I never recovered. What a bunch of crap! My gut told me the wounded deer lived because it wasn't a total bloodbath, but it still sucks and I need to do better gods damn it.

Hopefully I get a doe tag today. I might not need one if I tag out with the bow, but it sure would be nice to have in November if I do spend some time in the woods with my 30.06. In a perfect scenario I'll shoot a doe with my bow "expanded" antlerless extra tag and a nice buck with either my bow or my rifle, but my perfect scenario is always a pipe dream that never, ever comes to fruition. What a bunch of crap! Normally I get desperate and end up just happy to get a skipper or a doe. Hell, last year I would have settled for anything at all instead of the nothing that I got. Gods damn it!

EDIT: I'm back at lunchtime here; the results of the doe-tag lottery are posted:

OMG WHERE AM I ON THAT LIST!? WHERE IS DAD?! WE LOSE. WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP! For the second consective year I have to actually be a good hunter with my rifle. Jason will probably shoot a buck because he is a better and more committed hunter than me. Hopefully I shoot a buck, too.

I'm about to take the dogs over to the gym with me and then sheetrock this little half-wall. It's a side-project of sorts that has been on my "to do" list since probably April of 2014 when I bought this house. Back then I had just finished expanding the gym and I had intentions of finishing off that entire corner with new walls and a nice ceiling to make a cardio area of the gym. I did get the walls done, but life happened, I got married, I built a 1000-square foot wing onto this house, I had many different tenants come and go, etc. etc.

I plan to sheetrock that wall this morning after I lift weights and put on the first coat of mud either before lunch or later this afternoon. However, I will probably fail at time management somehow and now get it all mudded. Oh well if I don't, it's not a time-sensitive project, but I do want to get it done as soon as possible so I can get back to working on this house again.

EDIT: I did get the first coat of mud and the rest of the sheetrock installed this morning. Plus I was able to get my swell on in the gym. Score!

Once the wall is done I need to have Bruce move some of the pipes and drains so I can finish off the ceiling. Then I can put a door on and call it done. Tomorrow Bruce comes over to start replacing baseboards in my old apartment (you can see I have the new ones already bought and stowed there) so the plumbing can be a nice little bonus side-project for him while he is there. He can do all that in an hour whereas it would take me half a day and then I'd still find a way to screw something up. What a bunch of crap!

^There was no sheetrock before I began this morning. I took that photo after because I forgot to do it beforehand. What a bunch of crap!

Tonight the Red Sox start a 3-game series up in Toronto against the Blue Jays. The Jays lost a couple games in a row, the Sox won a couple in a row, and now the Sox are back in first place for the time being. Oh Jesus, hell ya! If the Blue Jays win the series then bye bye first place so hopefully the Red Sox can take 2 of 3. The Patriots start their NFL season this Sunday night in Arizona agianst the Cardinals. I think AZ had a great team last year so it will be a tough game for the Pats, especially without Tom Brady. Brady is out for the first four games this year thanks to a bullcrap suspension for a crime he maybe didn't commit (DEFLATE-GATE.) What a bunch of crap! The NFL commissioner, Roger Goodell, is a turd.

There have been a couple more showings at my Bangor duplex that is for sale, but no offers yet. I was there for the Tuesday afternoon showing, but I skipped the one last night because I wanted to have a nice supper and watch a movie with my Sweet Pea (Now You See Me 2.) Hopefully some sucker decides to make me a fair offer, and if not I know it was my bad buying the property in the first place and I will be stuck with the place a while longer. Once I build more equity then I would probably be fine with selling it for a lot less, but for now it doesn't make sense to have a fire-sale of sorts. The place can keep making me money if I hang onto it so there is no worst-case scenario in play here. Either I sell it and free up more of my precious... precious time (plus put about $30k in our pockets after income taxes and selling costs) or I keep it, make a profit, and continue to build equity to the tune of roughly $500 a month.

I do hope the building sells this month, though. I'd say I'm 55% hoping for a sale and 45% okay with just keeping the place so it is a close battle of sorts in my head as far as a final decision goes if I do get an offer at all.

Alright turds, all two of you, I need to hop off this bootleg thing and go figure out which bike I own. There are a few out back by the shed and I know I own one of them. I probably need to throw some air in the tires and squirt some WD40 on the chain, too. Katherine is taking the F150 to work today and I plan to bike over to my office and ride with Gavin over to racquetball later this afternoon. I could keep the truck and just drive her to and from work, but F that I get more free time for me if I let her just take the truck. I trust her with it completely, and it's nice knowing if some turd in a "SmartCar" does something stupid on the road then Katherine will most likely be safe in the bigger vehicle. If I can't get the bike going then thankfully I can walk to my office in five minutes.

It's 87 degrees outside today. Gods damn that is hot! All I wanna know is why? Why has every one of my racquetball days been way hot and humid ever since before blueberry raking? It has been an above average summer, but the days we play racquetball have been the hottest and/or most humid. What a bunch of crap! Oh well, at least I burn extra calories when I sweat so much.

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Wednesday, 9-07-16: One road test, one passing score.
Katherine got her driver's license just over an hour ago. Oh Jesus, hell ya! My days of being a chauffeur are about over, at least for the time being. We practiced parallel parking earlier this week, and that paid off because she aced that part of the test at the DMV today. She is a pretty good driver for someone her age. Hell, she's a pretty good driver for someone any age based upon the friggin' Giblet-Heads we see out there on a daily basis. People who don't signal and who change lanes and cut you off = what a bunch of crap!

I'm very happy for Katherine, and I know it means a lot to her. Tomorrow we need to call for insurance rates, and that will suck. A lot. Good thing she has a job and can pay for it because I'm sure our rates will double. 18-year old brand new driver = PAY PAY PAY. I expect we will let her use our vehicles (depending on our own schedules) to get herself to and from work and to run her errands, hang out with friends, etc. Hopefully she can save up to get her own wheels, but for now I don't mind letting her use the truck or the Mountaineer. Both vehicles are relatively safe and there shouldn't be any icy roads for a couple or three more months... I hope!

EDIT: It's only $600 more a year to add her onto our existing policies for our two vehicles. Not too bad. She'll pay that difference along with her own cellphone bill, and eventually we'll charge her some "rent" to live here at the house depending upon when exactly she intends to start going to college. When she gets her own car then her rate will go up by quite a bit.

I've had a busy day today because I went down to Waterville to look at some different rental properties with Phil, and I got home with just enough time to get the dogs to the park and Katherine to her road test. Phil wants to invest in apartment buildings, and he has his shit together so I think he will do well. The market in that area from a buyer's perspective looks fantastic. There are many very reasonably priced properties. However, there are a lot of turds as well. Getting a duplex for $69k is great until you realize the foundation is pwned, there is mold, etc. Thankfully nothing we saw today was terrible from a structural or mechanical perspective, but there were flaws in all the buildings.

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Monday, 9-05-16: A couple more puppy photos.
Kat had a sweet-16 birthday party to DJ last Saturday, and I had a 60th birthday party to attend myself. I went down to the midcoast with Tiger-Lily to visit with the family and to celebrate Mom's birthday (her actual birthday was the 1st, but Saturday was better for all of us for a gathering.)

In a perfect world I would have brought both Copper and Tiger-Lily with me, but that would have been too much since Mom and Dad have a 1-year old and very excitable black lab "puppy" themselves. Even though their dog, Amos, is pretty much an adult-sized 80-pounds he still has a lot of puppy energy in him so I knew three young dogs would be overkill and would distract us too much from our visit. Copper and Amos would have been nuclear together.

^Tiger-Lily and Amos together out back at the ol' homestead. They played well together desipte the fact that Amos tried to hump her several times. (He is neutered.) Tiger-Lily got herself filthy from pond-muck so I had to hose her down, but other than that she was great.

The weather has been perfect over the past few days and Saturday was probably the best day. Mid 70s, low humidity, and light breezes. We had a nice afternoon meal and of course cake. I got Mom some stupid little gifts and brought some frozen blueberries that I had raked last month for her and for Holly. Jason and Nadia weren't even there because they went to Holly's family camp up north so it was only Mom, Dad, Holly, me, and the dogs. It's funny Jason wasn't even there because he was the one who called me and tried to pin me down on about five different dates for the party last month. What a bunch of crap!

Speaking of Jason and Holly, I don't think I've mentioned previously that they are getting married next year on Saturday, August 5th. How dare they get married during blueberry raking season gods damn it! Hehehehe. They will have been together for 10 years so it's long past-due. They booked some place down in Warren so I'll probably already be down there for the raking season assuming Cliff hasn't retired by then of course. Kat was hoping to DJ their wedding but get this, they hired some other DJ from a wedding expo in southern Maine. OMG WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP! Holly said they wanted Kat to just be able to relax and have fun so that is why they didn't hire her. Epic fail. All families fail from time to time, but some of the fails from my own family are epic.

Thankfully Mom was nice during our visit and her birthday party. She hasn't been a beotch to me in months. I wonder if there is a correlation between her getting all done at the video store and starting her new part-time job at the toy store? She was running the video store and working more than 40 hours a week there for many years, but now she "only" works 3 or 4 days a week at a place right in downtown Camden that seems tailor-made for the tourists. They sell toys, trinkets, tee shirts, souveniers, etc. I don't get the vibe that she loves the job, but it gives her something to do and some extra money since she's not quite ready to retire. It is too bad that her video store went out of business, but that store did hang on a lot longer than any of us could have expected. Video stores are all dying off because people just use Netflix, On Demand, etc. to get their movies and shows.

Tiger-Lily did this for half of the drive down; she loves riding in the truck!

Copper did that when he was smaller, but now he doesn't stick his head out anymore. He still loves riding, though. I love it when the dogs do that, but I have to keep the windows halfway up and make sure the child-locks are engaged or else we could have a disaster. When I was away raking Kat had both the dogs in the Mountaineer while driving to pick up Katherine, one of the dogs accidentally hit the window-down button, and Tiger-Lily hung herself out the passenger side so far that she almost fell out into the street. Kat said she had to grab her by her tail and haul her ass back into the vehicle. Scary!

I installed a screen door on the new addition yesterday; that took about 45 minutes. It was the first real work I've done on this house since July 23. OMG WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP. I still have two unfinished rooms upstairs (kitchenette and spare bedroom), but thankfully there is enough space for everyone as-is so not having them done isn't a huge issue. My Bangor duplex is almost done so I can shift my focus this coming week, but my next project is over at the building by my office installing some new baseboards and a little half-wall in the gym area so this house will have to wait until later this month.

^I did that exterior light a couple weeks ago, that took 15 minutes, so I did technically work on this house in August. I still need to install the exterior outlet where that wire pokes out below the light off to the left of the door.

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Friday, 9-02-16: Come on puppies, play more.
It's Friday night at 2120, and the puppies are playing with each other here in the kitchen/living room area of the house. I need them to play hard so they will bivouac hard tonight. Sleep seems so precious around here (my precious... precious) that I gotta take what I can get when I can get it. I got 4 hours of sleep Wednesday night and about 6 hours last night. What a bunch of crap! Thankfully I took a 2-hour nap later this afternoon after I got my work done and lawns mowed. If not for that nap I would be in bed right now.

Katherine came in wearing a giraffe pajama one-piece not long ago and that got the dogs all excited, especially Copper. He must have thought she was another animal to play with? He was panting and jumping on her, and I think he wanted to start humping her leg. AAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Why an 18-year old would wear that remains a mystery to me. She went to Wal-mart with it on so maybe she can make it onto the peopleofwalmart website that I once saw. Does that site still exist? Guy looks now... well the page is not loading so nevermind. Maybe WalMart sued their asses so they had to take it down.

Okay, the page finally loaded but it has a lot of ads and shit on it so nevermind. What a bunch of crap!

I took the puppies over to the gym with me this morning, and they love to ride over with me. There are a couple stick-chunks in the gym that they chew on, and the place is a mess because I don't have a bag in the vacuum cleaner so fuck it. I had a vacuum cleaner there, but it broke because I paid $40 for it at Marden's a couple years ago. Sometimes you really do get what you pay for. What a bunch of crap!

^Taken just this morning.

If I ever finish my frigging Bangor duplex my next project is some work over at that building including making a half-wall here:

Right where the concrete seam sits on the floor is where I intend to put the wall. That will separate the cardio area (treadmill will hopefully go to the left with the elliptical) from the weightlifting area. Plus it will look nice... I hope!

I rearranged the gym last week when the back row came in:

I moved the leg-sled into the corner, slid the benchpress down, and now it looks better and feels more open.

The back-row cost $285, and my initial thought is blueberry raking money well-spent. I have used it twice since I put it together; it has been two years since I had a back row machine down there. I still can do cable rows, but the back row is totally awesome and a welcome addition to the gym.

^My old back-row was confiscated by the cops along with a lot of other Hammer Strength gear because it was hot when I bought it. Stories of that fiasco are in the archives of this bootleg turd site, but needless to say it was a bunch of crap! The Hammer Strength back row was probably a little nicer than the one I have now, but it was an ugly yellow and blue whereas the one now looks nice. Six in one, half dozen in the other I suppose. Either way I have everything I need in that gym to get a GREAT workout in.

We're going old-school here with Motley Crue's Red Hot on the Pandora Interweb radio station. Now comes some Def Leppard. Oh jesus, hell ya! I used to listen to Pandora and update this bootleg site from my office over by the gym, but now I just do it from home because the house > my office. My office computer can't even get online anymore. What a bunch of crap! Ever since I got suckered into doing the "free" Winders 10 upgrade bye bye Interweb. Thankfully I don't really need it over there, but it would be nice on occasion to do online banking, etc. Oh well I might get it online one day. Maybe. This laptop PC still has Winders 7 and thankfully it can still mostly get online.

This morning Jody put my bootleg Bangor duplex on the MLS so it is officially FOR SALE. Here is the verbiage of the listing:

"Very impressive and smart investment or owner occupied. Centrally located 3BR 1.5 BA owners unit w fresh paint, new kitchen cabinetry, newer windows, w/ 2BR 1 BA behind. All modern/new kitchens, flooring, new bathrooms, fresh paint, new rear deck & privacy fence. Front porch. 2 Heat systems on nat gas. Ample parking & convenient to everything. Call now!"

OH JESUS HELL YA! That sounds great to me! There are 23 photos as well, and the photos look good. Unfortunately, the property is kind-of a turd so I am not sure it will sell for a reasonable price. I've put all kinds of money into the building since I bought it over 12 years ago, but it could use more work before it is great. Hell, I guess bulldozing it is the only way to truly make it "great." Hehehehe. Jody has had three calls about the place so far, and I actually met up with a broker and two potential buyers over there today at 1400. I'm pretty sure meeting potential buyers is Jody's job, but oh well he doesn't even have the keys on his official realtor lock-box over there yet so I just did it.

Unfortunately, the potential buyers thought the place sucked. They didn't tell me that, but it was obvious. What a bunch of crap! I don't blame them because if I was an investor I would look elsewhere because I think the place sucks, too. However, as a potential owner-occupied there is a chance for a sale. Live in the front, rent the back, bingo. The place does make money, too. There is a showing planned for Tuesday at 1700 for just that type of client so I might scoot over for that. Even though I am paying Jody a good commission to sell the joint no one knows that building like I know it so if I can be there then maybe I can help make a sale.

If no one wants it then oh well, I will just rent the front 3BR apt (should rent easy with a new kitchen, fresh paint, etc.) and keep making money. However, at this point in my life my time > money, to a point of course because I am far from independently wealthy. I feel so gods damned busy ever since I bought this house here on parkway North, and that needs to stop. I don't have enough time to drink beer and play video games. Hunting season is almost here, too. I need more free time gods damn it!

I'm heading down to Jester's as soon as these dogs settle down. The Sox play Oakland tonight on the west coast so if the bar sucks at least I can watch some of the game and have a couple beers. I am finishing off a STEEL RESERVE now, $1.99 plus tax and can deposit. Spend wisely, live longly. That last part made no sense, did it? I feel a little buzz and ACDC sings Thunderstruck. One of their best songs along with Mistress for Christmas and Sink the Pink.

Tonight is the first night in a few weeks where I plan to have some booze on a Friday night. The last couple weeks I've had to go to bed and then get up to help Kat break down at the end of her Jester's gig. All I wanna know is why? Why am I always so busy? What the hell happened?

Speaking of what the hell happened, what the hell happened to my Pandora radio? I was ripping out 80s hair rock and then Party Rockers in the USA came on. What a bunch of crap! Thankfully I fixed it and am now back in 1986 with The Outfield and Your Love. They love baseball, I love the 80s, it's a win. The dogs are running laps in the house and trying to eat my toes, and I'm pretty sure my socks are gone thanks to Tiger Lily. Ahhhhhhh. the joys of puppies.

Goonies never say die!

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Thursday, 9-01-16: Bye bye summer break for the kiddos. Bye bye summer?
Today is the first day of September and the first day back to school for the kiddos in both Bangor and here in Brewer. Sucks to be them! Thankfully Katherine is graduated from high school or else her and I would be getting ready to leave right now at 0720. I certainly don't miss taking her to school every day, and I know she doesn't miss going. Even though we live in Brewer Kat and I let her finish out the last 1.5 years of her high school years at Bangor High School so she didn't have to switch over to Brewer High School once we all started living together here at this house. That meant a lot of extra driving for us, but she got to stay with her friends over in the 04401 zip code so we thought it was the right thing to do for her. Her dad still lives in Bangor so we were able to keep her over there legally due to that family connection. If not for that I suppose she would have had to switch to Bewer.

Even though Katherine does not have to go to school she still needs rides to and from Hannaford a few times a week. She does have today off, but tomorrow it's revielle at 0335 for my ass so I can get her there for a 0400 start time. Thankfully the drive to her work at that hour is a piece of cake because most of the 9 traffic lights on the 2.5-mile stretch to west Bangor are blinking yellow and traffic is very light. Hopefully at this time in one week Katherine will have her driver's license so she can start driving herself to work. She has her road test next Wednesday at 1630. We still have to do some parallel parking practice, but overall she's a pretty good driver as compared to the seemingly millions of turd drivers out there. Every day we drive we see epic fails from other drivers. What a bunch of crap! People switch lanes with no signal, they go too fast or too slow, they run red lights, etc. It's sad to see, really. I weep for society.

College is back in full swing up at UMaine, too. Last night's karaoke show at The Roost in Orono was very busy. By 2300 Kat had a long list of singers and soon after that it seemed the bar was full to capacity. We had to stop taking song requests arund midnight because so many of the "kids" wanted to sing. Most of them don't actually even sing. They just herd together and drunkenly scream into the microphone, and for the most popular songs most of the audience sings along and the bar becomes one deafening roar. Sweet Caroline is one of their favorites, and I gotta admit it does make for a great closing act at last call.

I actually left The Roost for a couple hours last night after I helped Kat set up. I went over to my bootleg Bangor duplex to start putting the kitchen back together and to paint this bedroom floor:

^That room used to have a painted blue floor, but years ago tenants had a carpet installed for $300. I ripped out the carpet because it was getting nasty (carpets don't last too long in a rental. What a bunch of crap!) and it's back to a nice floor paint. No carpets at all in that entire building now. Notice the nice new window also in the photo. I replaced that window and the other one in that room so hopefully that entices a potential buyer.

I've worked on that duplex as early as 0400 and as late as 2300 over the last few days. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Thankfully I am getting very close to the finish line and should have the building listed on the MLS later today as long as Jody has free time to finish the posting. I do still need to do some work over there, mostly cellar/yard cleanup and trim painting, but I feel okay with showings happening at this point because the new kitchen looks very nice now in that front 3BR apartment.

^Nice new kitchen cabinets and lots of "lipstick" on the rest of the place! Now it's afternoon and I just added those photos. I worked over there most of the morning (running on 4 hours sleep. What a bunch of crap!) doing trim painting. A little trim still needs to be installed in that kitchen, but I feel confortable at least letting it be shown to prospective buyers now. I think. I hope!

Oh, as a sort-of FU from that property yesterday morning I was working in the apartment pictured above when I heard what sounded like water dripping. Right in the middle of the remodeled kitchen water was flowing out of the brand new ceiling from the upstairs bathroom. OMG WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP! It wasn't shit-water, and the shower was running, so I dunno if I have a plumbing epic fail or if the tenants let water get out of the shower and pour all over the place. I am happy it wasn't a shitter overflow, but the water did stain the ceiling. Epic fail. I knocked on their door, but no one answered because I think the only person who was home was actually in the shower. After a minute the water stopped flowing but I could still hear the shower running so I have no answer. It better not happen again gods damn it!

So summer is pretty much over, but thankfully no real cool weather is looming. Today a front comes through and cleans out some of this humidity. so the dew point should drop. Tomorrow and Saturday look to be in the low-mid 70s before a slow warm-up brings us back to the 80s next week so it's not really bye bye summer just yet. Sweet! Last September was very warm so I hope this September is the same. Unfortunately, it can't last forever and before we know it there will be cold, frost, ice, and then snow.

I need to scoot out of here so I can go meet Bruce over by my bootleg office to plan out some baseboard replacements as well as some other small plumbing details. I feel so gods damned busy all the time, and I am getting sick of it. This has been a busy summer for the apartment business, that's for sure. What a bunch of crap!