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"What's the difference between a condom and a coffin?"
"You come in one and leave in the other, but you need to be stiff to go in both." - Joke I read on the Interweb

Thursday, 9-14-23: A very busy past 7 days.
I was gonna update this bootleg turd-heap that almost no one ever reads on Tuesday evening, but I bivouaced instead after I watched some of the Red Sox losing effort against the Yankees at Fenway. The Sox are playing the Yanks again tonight, but it really doesn't matter. I want the Sox to win, but they are 74-72 and nowhere near playoff contention. The Yankees are actually in last place at 73-73 hahahaha! BOTH TEAMS SUCK! The Sox fired their GM today beause they lost way too much under his watch. What a bunch of crap!

I've been very busy over the past 7 days, and I'll have another busy next few days before things *hopefully* normalize. I thought I'd have some easier days this month since we had a couple weeks with no big events at the restaurant, but I took on another small-ish carpentry job and we've had a dishwasher out with the 'rona so I had to work in dish Sunday evening and last night. What a bunch of crap! Gods damned COVID will never disappear and it's time for people to stop attempting to hide from it. No one cares anymore about it since it seems to have the same symptoms as a flu. A bad flu (for me on the first time) but not a death-sentence for 99% of the populace...

I worked about 12 hours yesterday. The first 5 were doing carpentry just up the road before I worked at the restaurant for a while, mostly doing dishes. Today I "only" did 3.5 hours up the road at that small job site before heading to the restaurant to work several more hours. The "small" job will probably use up 30 hours of my precious... precious time, but that will be spread out over 3 or 4 weeks. I've made great progress there, and now I'm about done until I can get a plumber over there to install the shower the owner wants. Here is the new laundry closet as of midday today:

^The owner plans to do a stackable small apartment-sized washer and dryer that runs off 110 and doesn't need a dryer vent. OMG WHAT?! Seems too good to be true, but who knows I've never researched it. A dryer that doesn't need a vent. Seriosuly? And one that doesn't need a 220? The existing wiring is 12-2 so I thought great, a 20-amp breaker to handle the load. However, when I looked at the breaker box with the owner it's only a 15 AMP so that seems like an epic failer and a bunch of crap all rolled up into one. I don't think 12-2 wire should go with a 15 amp breaker, ever. That circuit feeds some other outlets and lights in the house so I fear it might trip when the washer/dryer is put into use. Ah well, not my circus, not my monkeys as they say. I told the guy I'm not a plumber and I'm not an electrician.

I feel like I'm doing awesome so far, but then towards the end of my day there today I realized I did this for a cut:

^NOOOOOOOOO! MEASURE TWICE, CUT ONCE YA FUCKIN' DINK! WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP! I can fix it by moving that outlet box because the back side is just framed in. Or I can cut a new piece and use that one elsewhere... it's not a horrible mistake, but it's not something I should be doing when I'm charging $35/hr to do the work. I should charge more, but I'm not insured as a carpenter and I'm only doing some local jobs. I told this guy I didn't even want the work, but he convinced me by almost begging hahahaha. It's the same guy whom I did this huge deck for three years ago:

^That was one of the biggest carpentry jobs I ever took on, and I had friends helping me with the install and carpentry work. Sadly one of those friends is not my friend anymore, and that makes me sad. That was during the early days of the pandemic and just before we decided to open a restaurant and bar. We did tons of carpentry that year including the restaurant...

Mom had a knee replacement surgery Monday, and I texted with her some tonight. It was an intense surgery that required her entire leg to be straightened so it will be a long recovery for her. She had a hip done earlier in the year, and she needs the other hip and knee done in 2024. OMG. Dad hasn't been feeling the best either so I need to go visit them again next week. I was considering a Sunday visit, but Saturday the weather takes a giant turd when this happens:

(From weather.com)

^FUCKING HURRICANE LEE. It will "only" be a tropical storm when it hits near us in two days, but it will strike fear into people and that will hurt business. Plus we could lose power and that means no business at all. Right now the center is supposed to hit in New Brunswick and we're expecting wind gusts of 45MPH so that's not horrible. However, the soil is saturated due to lots of rain lately and leaves are still on the trees so that could be a huge problem for our area. Getting it on a Saturday is the worst for business, too. Thankfully we can get our Friday business in because rain/wind doesn't start until very early Saturday morning.

It's very rare to be under a tropical storm warning in our area yet here we are. What a bunch of crap!

Alright turds, all two of you who read this bootleg site, I'm out of here to do other things before I go down to the bar for a couple beers. I need to keep working on the event room chairs. I've been putting feet on them and repairing the floor in what little precious... precious time I seem to have lately. I might do some more chairs tonight or I might just sit at the bar for a couple drinks before I probably come home to rack out for the night. Revielle is 0800 tomorrow for the delivery truck, event room showing, and pizza oven repair. Never a dull moment!

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Thursday, 9-07-23: NFL kickoff, more carpentry photos.
The first game of the NFL season just began, the Chiefs vs. the Lions. The Patriots (no longer Greatriots, sadly) play Sunday afternoon, and no one expects the 2023 Patroits to do anything meaningful because their new quarterback isn't so good. Will he be good this season? I hope so! It will be Mac Jones third season so if he plays like he did last year I'm guessing he's FIRED.

The Pats have had a few mediocre years since Tom Brady went to Tampa Bay, won a Superbowl down there, and since then has retired. The Red Sox aren't very good this season either; they're in 4th place and have almost no chance of making the playoffs. What a bunch of crap!

My awesome wife and I had an almost-day off yesterday. However, we did work a few hours in the evening so it definitely was not a day off. It's been one of the hottest weeks of the entire year this week, and we've been close to 90 degrees for the past three days, so we went to the beach in Searsport with Damon and the dogs. It was a nice trip, and it was hot even on the ocean. It wasn't too busy down there now that official summer is over and it's back to school so we could let the dogs off their leashes for a while. We packed a lunch, and it was perfect beach weather. We didn't swim, but the dogs sure did. We got home with plenty of time for a nice walk and ice cream at Jimmy's. Might be the last time we get ice cream there, and we only stop there a couple times a year anyway even though it's 2/10 of a mile from the house.

It was back to the grind today, another probably 12 hour day of work including the restaurant and the carpentry I had to work just up the road. I spent my first hour at the restaraunt doing some admin before I worked on this job for most of the day:

^I got a bi-fold door installed, trim paint done, framing, an access hole for plumbing, etc. I won't work on it again for 5 or so days because I'm limited on precious... precious time. Plumber can't come until later this month anyway so at some point soon there won't be anything I can work on at all until that part is done.

Today was another stupid-hot day with a high temp close to 90 and a HEAT ADVISORY posted. Heat index with humidity was close to 100 this afternoon. OMG WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP! All I wanna know is why? Why is it so hot for this time of year? The house I'm working on has a nice heat pump for A/C so that's a huge win for me! I told the owner I didn't need it on, but he has tenants there so he had it on for them. One of the tenants was away on a trip and the other one was at work. He rents to travelling nurses, or something like that. I don't give a shit as long as he lets me in so I can do my work. I've put about 10.5 hours into the entire job this week over two days (Tuesday and Today) and I'm happy with the progress I've made. I told the homeowner I'm not an electrician, but I think I can handle that part of it. Maybe? Hopefully!

The extra money will definitely help us pay our bills because the restaurant isn't paying us yet. I did make $22 there this evening, though. Two tables, tips, and about 2.75 hours more of work there for the dinner rush. It was a good dinner rush for us, and Thursdays lately have been decent. I think soon we will add another server for Thursdays depending on how our two new hires do. So far so good with them both, but they've each only worked two shifts...

So far this week my ass has been BUSY. I've done carpentry Sunday, Tuesday, and today, and I'm also trying to work as much as possible at the restaurant. I plan to go back to the restaurant soon to work on the event room some, but who knows maybe I'll just have a couple beers and hang out. Or I'll work if it gets busy. There is a PANTERA concert tonight at the Waterfront so maybe we'll get busy after that. Somtimes after the concerts we get a nice pop for the final hour or two on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday nights depending on who is playing at the Waterfront. We got really busy after Nickleback a couple weeks ago...

If things aren't too crazy at work tonight I'll work in chair feet for the event room chairs. I bought a few different styles of feet that arrived last week, and if I can find on that works it will be a huge win. We have nice chair feet for the restaurant chairs, but the event room chairs need to be stacked so the feet have to be different. The first ones I bought fall off when you stack the chairs, and the ones we originally tried are even worse. They're the stick-on ones, and they fall off over time. Even worse, when they fall off the glue residue leaves marks on the floor epoxy. What a bunch of crap! We learned the hard way not to use those ones anymore.

We have our beautiful event room booked up hard for many various events into 2024 already. Wow! However, this weekend there aren't any big events so that frees up some precious... precious time. It can be quite a process setting up for a big, formal event where linens and food will be provided. I'm happy to do it because those bigger events really push sales forward, though. We do have a smaller evening event tomorrow and our usual Sunday jam this week, but nothing at all for Saturday. We have lots of Saturday bookings in the weeks to come, and I'm booking more of them every week.

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Tuesday, 9-05-23: More carpentry work that I sort-of enjoy but don't really want to do.
I went to look at a potential carpentry job a couple months ago, and I turned it down because I didn't want to open up walls and put a shower in a closet in a nearby rental home for a guy whom I've done work for in the past. He is a nice guy who is willing to pay me a fair wage, but I have a friggin' restaurant to run and I'm not opening up walls in a home I don't even own. Especially a wall that appeared to be load-bearing in a house I don't own!

Fast-forward to now, and this guy had another carpenter come in for a couple days and rip open walls to get ready for the shower and whatnot. However, his other carpenter only had two days before he had to go build a house, or something like that. No worries on my end because the place is opened up and I'm good-to-go now. Maybe? Hopefully! I went over last week to look at it, and I worked in it for just over 4 hours today on what was a hot, 90-degree day. Lucky for me the house has a tenant (who was at work) and air conditioning so I didn't have to roast. Oh Jesus hell ya!

I had this area to work on, and my goal was a bi-fold door, framing, etc. I didn't even get there until noon because I was at the restaurant this morning helping to receive the usual Tuesday delivery and catching up on admin. I had a few days worth of bills and accounting plus booking events, the usual office stuff. I also wanted to use my bootleg gym for a half hour, and this carpentry job is something I can't do full-time because I have other obligations.

I don't feel compelled to work on it quickly because the plumber can't come for a couple weeks, and I'm damn sure not doing plumbing for the new shower. Who puts a shower in a closet anyway?! I'm just gonna leave that one alone because I think it's a bunch of crap! It's not a closet anymore, but it used to be one until now. That room doesn't have a closet anymore, and there is a small commute from the shower to the nearby half-bath with a toilet and a sink. I question the function of the whole setup, but I do think it can work. Hell, I've seen worse and I used to own worse. One of my former rental properties had a weird toilet in some little nook with no sink, no nothing, pretty much two feet of clearance. What a bunch of crap! Guy looks for a photo of that shit-show if guy has one...

^It looks clean and presentable, but it's A FUCKING TOILET IN A FUCKING WEIRD HALL-CLOSET-NOOK-THINK. WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP! I removated that once I developed more skills, and I turned it into a nice half-bathroom with a sink and actual room to maneuver.

Thankfully for this job I'm working on now I don't have to do any sheetrock work. The owner wants to do paneling on the walls so that's a huge win. The little room in the area behind what will be the shower is going to be a laundry room. I had questions about the dryer venting, the washer water lines, the drain, the drain venting (plumbing drains have to breathe), the wiring, etc. However, I'm not the damn mechanical contractor I'm just the carpenter so I can let him deal with all of that bullshit. Bruce is a wizard when it comes to retrofitting stuff in like what this homeowner wants so I do have him on the schedule. I made no promises, but I do have a 16-year working relationship with the same plumber so there is some equity there. I just don't want to get pulled into it too much because I have to run the restaurant first and foremost.

Speaking of the restaurant, it's been busy lately. We're way above my projections, and we've had to hire more help to keep up with it all. The last month has been fantastic so I hope that continues. I'm sure things will slow down some because it's the day after Labor Day and back to school. We were incredibly busy last weekend, and that's not at all what I thought would happen. I really expected things to be slow with the weather being so nice and with how we did the last couple years over Labor Day weekend. I'm glad we were busy, but it was a lot of work. A LOT.

I've been really busy this week despite the fact I haven't worked at the restaurant too much. Sunday was a lot of work at Gavin's, yesterday was a really nice visit to the mid-coast both to Mom and Dad's and then to Jason and Holly's, and today was that carpentry. I guess yesterday was mostly a day off for me, but it didn't feel like it because I stacked a bunch of firewood for Mom and Dad plus the 3-hours of driving round-trip. I'm glad I went, but it uses up an entire day every time I do go. I'll go again mid-month after Mom has a knee replacement surgery. There's still a lot of wood needing to be stacked, and Dad shouldn't be doing it anymore because he's old and not really feeling so well more often than not. It makes me really sad to write that, but it's true.

Alright turds, all two of you who read this bootleg site of mine, I'm gonna go down to the bar for a while before they close. Tonight my awesome wife is celebrating 10 years as a DJ in that very building. OMG AWESOME! She started her very first gig at what was once Jester's on September 5, 2013, a Friday night. Back then I was with Kelly and I didn't go to Jester's hardly at all, if ever for that entire fall. It seems like a lifetime ago now when Jester's was even there, but it's only been just over three years. I do miss Jester's, but I like to think we've made something even better in the space where Jester's once was. We did save the Jester's bar as our host station.

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Friday, 9-01-23: Heading back to work soon. Oh, I fired that old asshole from our restaurant.
It's 1630, and I have a few spare minutes before I need to roll out for my 1700-close shift at the restaurant. Tonight we have a new hire starting, we have a big dance in the event room, and one customer in particular won't be there because I fired his ancient, loser-ass. The guy kept poking at code saying our rear exit was too unsafe so I put all kinds of work into that thing, and I called him earlier this afternoon to give him the good news. (Good news for us and for the coordinator of the group he's in who rents that event room.) He's FIRED! I yelled at him and told him I never want to see him again, and he is not welcome. He tried to explain himself, but it was not a negotiation so I bid him a fairly stern farewell after I told him that he should take no pleasure in trying to get us shut down and costing 25 people their jobs plus his group a venue to meet for their dances.

I don't think he took it so well. In closing the relatively quick phone call I told him he was not welcome to come, we didn't want him there, and he said "The feeling is mutual." A stern goodbye as I hung up ended what I hope will be the last interaction I ever have with that fuckin' DINK. Telling code to shut us down over some lighting and railings = what a bunch of crap!

Business has been shockingly good this week, and the last two days we really got hit hard. "Frankenstein" trivia Wednesday just about packed the place, and last night we were ripping hard on what was a regular Thursday, beautiful late-summer weather, and the last two years the end of August hasn't been so great for us. I planned to go help Katherine for an hour or so around 1800, but people kept coming. And coming. And coming. All night right up until last call 6.5 hours later. We were pwned hard, and I had to take several tables. I was happy to do it because that's how we stay in business, but wow it was way busier than we expected. My one hour of planned helping turned into a full 8.5-hr shift, all 100% go-time as well.

We got so crushed that we didn't even get out of there until 0230. OMG WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP! I don't mind, though. It saved me from drinking and feeling *possibly* hungover today so I was able to put some finishing touches on our rear emergency exit on what was another stellar weather day. I think I got the light working. Maybe? Hopefully! I thought I needed the Sparkies to wire it, but I figured out a way to do it myself so oh Jesus hell ya to that!

^Photo taken before I did the new light. New railings, more fill at the bottom of the steps, and a bunch of precious... precious time spent working back there.

I also had time to go for another 2.5-mile jog today before I mowed the lawn. I went 2.5 miles yesterday, but I have had to walk a little of it each time. Nevertheless it's a huge win considering back in May and June I often struggled to make it a mere one mile. What a bunch of crap! I'm not fast, I average 8:30 a mile, and I'm very pleased with that and will take that all day any day.

Alright turds, all two of you who read this bootleg blog of mine, I'm gonna get my arse down to work for what I think will be another buy Friday night. We had a fantastic August so I hope we can carry that over into this month. This is our third September in business and the last two haven't been so good so I've tempered my expectations. We'll see...

Goonies never say die!