Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Stuck in Reading mode

Sorry for the delay on more post lately guys. I have been absorbed in the book I am reading and just keep forgetting to write. The bad thing is that this is the third time I am reading this series and still can't remember everything. The book is called "The Way of Shadows" (click the link to check it out.)

 For anyone that knows me  I almost always read fantasy novels, not counting the occasional detective novel. For some reason I just don't understand why people who read other things read stuff like "Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption" . Don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against these kinds of books but for me it's just not worth it. Think about it. You get up turn on the news and what is the first thing you hear about? "so and so got shot today","the president this and that", bitch, bitch, whine, whine. Who really wants to be a part of the real world when they sit down to read and get away for everything if this is the kind of world we have now. For me when I read its all about escape. Coming home and getting lost in a world were there is dragons and wizards(yes, i love harry potter), and battles where you had to look a guy in the eye to kill him and not just push a damn button to kill thousands like we do today. Anyways I seem to be rambling on and on again back to the main topic. The reason I have been so engrossed in this book is because I am in the back 3rd of it and as anyone who likes to read knows, that is the best part of any book. You start learning all the twist and secrets. i promise I will try harder to keep up with the blog. If anyone reading this like fantasy books and would like to recommend one let me know I will give it a try. Ok guys I think I have talked enough for the night, talk to you later.

Monday, April 25, 2011

Gaffing Training Day 4

Sorry for the delay on day 4 of what ended up being my last day of gaff training. The day itself started out pretty good I finally found a comfortable height for the gaffs on my legs which made it easier to climb. It also made it easier for my right knee to unlock when I was trying to drop my left leg into the pole on the way down. I figured out that the height is what was causing my left leg to miss the pole and that was making me fall out. Anyway the day was going pretty good when right before lunch 2 of the guys in my class decided that they want to go ahead and test out. That's great for them but when there is only 5 people in your class and 2 of them want to go ahead and test and you are still trying not to fall out by using the harness, it kinda makes you look bad, at least to yourself.. Well of course those two did fine then we all went to lunch. After that we thought the rest of us would get to go back up to the hill and practice. Apparently our trainer had other thoughts.(remember this class is supposed to be a 5 day class) after just an hour of being back on the hill our trainer informed us that the rest of us were going to have to test out today to but never gave an explanation of why. This really pissed us off. OK so I go, its my turn and I am freaking out so bad I can feel my heart at the top of my ears. The way up was fine except I did have to stop twice to rest but it was pretty uneventful. The way down however was scary as hell. I was exhausted, freaking out, and had nothing to stop me if I fell. I stopped multiple times to try and catch my breath  but for some reason just could not catch it. About half way down my left foot came out of the pole ( of course it was the left, I think it is out to get me) but luckily I caught my self with my right. THANK GOD. The final product was that I passed. Let me tell you I have never worked so had to get a raise or get ahead in a company than I did last week and I thank god that it is over. Hope you guys enjoyed my life in training guess we will talk to you later.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Gaffing Training Day 3

Today was kind of a mix of better and worse.
The better is that for once I made it all the way up and then back down the pole without falling, YEA ME, also I was not hurting as much while at work. THANK GOD. Now for the bad stuff. I still haven't found the happy medium for my gaffs and how high I want them on my leg. Also I was going to take some video and lots of pictures but found out today that I am not supposed to because of some stupid legal reasons. Lets see..... what else????? Oh yea the one time I did fall out of the pole today I was about 6ft up and when I fell, even though I had a harness on, I hit my face on the pole. But its ok everyone at work said a scar there would be an improvement to my current looks. LOL. After getting off of work Gina and I just kinda sat and watched some reruns of Glee while she was making some more bows and things with the glue gun. Now for the funny part. I decided that because I am hurting everywhere that I was going to take a hot bath and try and soak some of the pain away. While getting settled in the tub I decided to light up a cigarette then lay back to read some of the book I am currently on. Unfortunately for me as I laid back a cut on my arm hit the hot water and made me drop my cigarette. And of course it landed in the worse place possible, the middle of my neck. When I tried to pick it up to keep it from burning a hole in me, I picked it up by the lit end and burned my fingers so of course I dropped the damn thing in the bath tub with me. I look up and my wife was trying so hard not to laugh that she had to turn around. But alas she could not hold it forever and just started busting up laughing, or as you kids would say LOL. and could not stop for a few minutes. Don't you just love it when things go the right way for a change? ( Let me know if it happening to anyone else because right now it is not happening to me.)

Alright guys I have rambled on enough have a great night and I will talk to you later.
Oh yea one last note that my wife reminded me about was that we forgot to put up a piece of chicken from dinner last night and when we woke up this morning we could not find it anywhere. Of course we started looking at the cat. But I figured that just like all spoiled brats that they would not have eaten it all but damn if they did not . FAT CATS.
LOVE YOU GUYS, GOOD NIGHT

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Gaffing Training Day 2

HOLY CRAP I AM IN PAIN. Today was day two of my gaffing training and let me tell you something, I believe the only thing that doesn't hurt is my belly button but the jury is still out on that. Lets see how did today go. Well to start off with we finished up the book work. Blah. Then we went up to the hill to climb. This is when the fun started. To start with for some reason today I could not seem to quit getting twisted around on the pole which makes things very interesting. The next time you lift your leg to move you twist until you find yourself twisting off the pole. During one of these fun twist I had the pleasure of catching the pole with my arm on the way down.
Now while this doesn't look real bad when you spend the next couple of hours sweating on the cut it hurts like hell. After that the day kinda took on a new kind of hazy of climbing, hurting, falling, hurting, and more climbing. Now closer to the end of the day we got to attempt a 12 ft free hand climb. I did great on the way up except for the fact that my arms tried to give out on me. The way down however is a different story. I kept screwing up which resulted in me doing whats called "gaffing out". Which is the fancy way of saying falling off the pole. Thankfully I was attached to a harness that grabbed me as soon as I fell. THOSES HARNESSESS REALLY HURT THE FAMILY JEWELS. Thankfully I am now at home sitting in my recliner and relaxing . Only problem is I just found a bruise on my leg right below my knee that is really going to hurt tomorrow.



Alright guys guess we will talk tomorrow. Hopefully tomorrow is a lot easier.

Monday, April 18, 2011

Gaffing Training Day 1

Today starts the exausting week of gaffing training. And I have to say it is living up to the exhausting part. Today started out pretty good. We started by studying some book work for the safety part of the training. Which while easy, is still completly snooze worthy. We spent most of the morning on the book then went to lunch. After lunch we got our new gaffs,Yaaaaaaaaaaa(note sarcasm). Let me tell you, when you look at these things you just don't see how this little bit of metal and leather is going to hold your ass off the ground. After a little more of the book work we got to go to what we call the summit. It is the place where we have a bunch of telephone poles set up to practice ladders and gaffing.  Today we only got to work with the gaffs for about and hour and in that hour I was sweating like a pig and my arms feel like jello and I keep trying to fall asleep while typing this post. Here is some pictures of today.

This all the spike they say it takes to carry my weight up a pole


My instructor on the pole with no strap

The first casualty of the week, I kinda fell off the pole and my shirt got caught.



This is full gaff.  I know. SO NOT ENOUGH GEAR




Well that's it for day 1 hope you enjoyed. We'll see you tomorrow.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Can't decide...Celebrate or Pee my pants

Let's start off with one quick note of personal gratafacition then on to the stuff I want to talk about.
I HIT 1000 VIEWS!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok. Now that I got that out of the way time to tell you what i'm thinking about.

Friday at work I found out that I get to go to gaffing class. Or if you prefer pole climbimg. If you don't know this is when you climb a telephone pole with nothing holding you up except two spikes on you boots. I know, it sounds scary as hell right. That is exactly what I am thinking right now. There is this term in the business call gaffing out. This is what they call the act of one of you spike coming out of the pole which can result in you falling down the pole at whatever speed gravity decides is best. To this I say HOLY CRAP ARE YOU SERIOUS. THAT CAN'T BE GOOD. Thankfully I have such great friends at work who have told me all kinds of stories about people doing this in their classes. (Isn't this nice of them). For example there is this one story that has been told about a guy who was practicing in class and missed a step when he was about 10 feet off the ground and instead of falling backwards he fell forwards which resulted in him getting a new prircing in his cheek thanks to the 6in piece of telephone that decided to imbed itself there.

Now that I have talked about the scary I want to talk about the advantages. The biggest one is that upon completion of this class I will get a raise, which is always a good thing. The second thing I am loving about this class is that is it driving my wife crazy. She swears that she is not going to look at any of my post next week because she doesn't want to see any of this or have a heart attack because of it. The next thing is even though I am scared to death of falling I am literally freaking out with how cool this is gonna be. I'm mean really, how many people do you know that can say that they can climb a telephone pole with nothing except a couple of spikes on their feet.


So for this week I am going to take lots of pictures and try to post an update everyday just to let people know how it is going and weather or not I feel like I'm am going to die.

Below I am going to put a video of a guy pole climbing, Enjoy

Take it easy guys and I will talk to you tomorrow.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

A Little bit of old school

Okay guys, today I felt a little old school. Now for one who is just 25 I can't go to old, right? Well lets let the mind do the looking and the fingers do the walking. Today while at work today I was talking to my dispatcher and for some reason I found myself turning on a song that I used to "BUMP" to in high school and college. With the song below I used put the 10s I had in my S-10 work. If you have a good system I suggest you turn it up now and just let yourself go.

Now after making my dispatcher laugh and having her tell me that I was crazy, I told her that I would slow it down for her and for some reason my Ipod landed on a song that just always make me feel good and want to dance(remember guys I am a white boy from the country so the dancing should scare you)
Now if this isn't old enough for you I present the grand finally and personally one of my favorite songs. If you are anywhere around your significant other stop reading and go get them and get ready for a slow dance.
Ok I got one more for you it's a surprise so just have enjoy.


HAHAHAHA I got you. Have a good night all. 

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Upward and Onward to 1000!!!

Blogging. What is it? For me it started as a way to share my stories as a cable guy. But it seems to have turned into so much more than that. I have spent nights rambling on about stupid people for taking whats not theirs, getting really drunk and attempting to type, of which I failed completely and had my wife fix my mistakes, ( Thank god for spell check),and sharing some of the most fun parts of my life. Blogging for me has become an outlet for the things that ramble around in my brain just dying to get out and be told "Help, its dark in here and he won't let us out" . And what amazes me the most is that people seem to like to read my blog. I have been posting for 47 days now and at the time of this post have 935 views. To me that seems like a HOLY CRAP BATMAN moment. I may be completely wrong but hey it make me feel good to click on stats and see how many people read about ME in one day, so a pox on all who nay say. Even cooler is that I know for a fact that not all the views are my family, I mean come on who is the first people you told to read yours when you first started, because I have views from at least 16 different countries. Although I think one of those is a friend from high school who is in the navy.(thanks Nick). I can't wait to see that 4 digit number pop up on my stats page.What is blogging? For me its an outlet to let all the crazy thought go and share in my insanity for a little while. For those of you who read this first of all, all the way to the end, I thank you. And for you guys that click on my like all the time, I love you guys. You keep me wanting to do this. I encourage you guys to comment and let me know how I am doing. While this blog is for me. I love making something other people like. Well I guess it time to go. I have gushed enough for one night to you guys. Don't worry, I'm sure it won't be the last time. Sleep time world, here's to 1000 views this time tomorrow. And remember to smile and laugh every day. Even if it is at yourself.

Celebrating a passing grade

I just love going out to eat with friends. This time the trip was to celebrate my recent pass in my work training class. For you to understand me and my friends the number one thing you would need to know that anytime we want to get together for something we always seem to end up at the Mexican restaurant. Now while this is not necessarily a bad thing I always seem to get a Margarita. And let me tell you I LOVE MARGARITAS. So this always make things a little bit interesting. Now on this particular trip we had a newcomer to the bunch. He is the son of my friends girlfriend and he is 10. I will freely admit that while I tried VERY HARD not to say anything in front of him that I shouldn't, the more I drank the harder that got. I seem to rememeber something along the line of telling him that " Kissing would lead to babies". I have no idea where this came from. Now the worst part was that after we got home I started talking about when I started drinking and smoking(which was 18). It took about 5 min. for me to remember that the kid was there. Thank god his mom is cool and just said that he was going to hear it somewhere and she was ok with it being me. She said if she didn't like what I said she could hit me. Well I think I have rambled enough for tonight. I will say goodnight now. One last thing, below you are going to see some pictures of my friend from the restaurant.





Monday, April 11, 2011

I'm "Winning"

So for the last 2 weeks I have been in a training class for work that will in the end allow me to make more money and continue to move up in the cable world. This post is just to show off some pictures of some of the guys I met and got to know and even become friends with.
Jason. One of the trainers. At this time him and I were arguing about who was better. Subway or Five Guys

A group of us studying outside. It makes it easier to smoke this way.

This is Ariel. He thinks he is cooler than he really is. But he is a good guy.

Wayne. One of the most animated guys I know when he really believe in something.

Jim. Just a good guy

The back of Travis's head. You might know his name from the blog with "there is no box ....man"

Craig. My trainer who considering I past the test must have done a great job.
 
Hope you guys enjoy this small look into my life for the day.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Airing out the Cats

So this is just going to be a short post, just something a little random and a question.
I love it when the pets decide to do things that just always seem to make you laugh.
My cats for some reason just insist on making my wife's life harder than I already do.
I'll set the scene for you, every time she does the laundry ,the cats like to do two things; One of those is get under her feet while she is in the laundry room. and trust me I hear it every time. "PEYTON, PAGE, GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE." So they do, just to go into the bedroom and lay on the clothes she has already laid out to be put up.


The best part of this whole situation is the fact that every 30 seconds or so I get to hear my wife get mad at the cats because she will get them off the clothes so she can put some of them up and as soon as she turns around they are right back there. God help me I love these cats. They take the focus off of me sometimes.

Now for the question. If you feel like sharing a story of your own just comment it and I will post it on a later post.
Thanks guys.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Randomness in the form of video

Hey guys, While helping Patrick on Saturday work on getting his garage cleaned up I decided to take some video just for the fun of it.


 

Hope you guys enjoy. This is my first video.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

There is no box

In training the other day me and another guy decided we were going to start acting a little stupid. We got it in our heads that we wanted to play a couple of stoners and start saying a bunch of crazy things. The one dialog we had that stuck with me started out by us telling another guy in class that he "Needs to think out of the box, MAN" . After that it was all over we just couldn't stop our selves. Every time someone would say something stupid or get a question wrong, we would then inform them that they needed to get out of the box. This then morphed, like it does with all stoners, (right). Now we decided to start wondering why there even needed to be a box. I found my self turning into the Cheech and Chong version of the matrix, with "There is no box man!!!"
All I have left to say is GOD HELP ME I really need to get out of training before I go even more crazy.
And I would like to think the special guest Keanu Reeves for the line he provided. hahahaha

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Going through withdrawals and breaking old habits

Anyone else think making good friends is hard enough with out life getting in the way?
Well as some of you know, my friends Patrick and Megan moved out of the apartment complex this weekend. For those of you that don't know this or why, I refer you to two earlier post.
So I will try not to go into to much detail on those specifics. What today is about is just one simple action that I can't seem to get myself to stop doing even though I know better. So Patrick had one of the garages in front of our building. Now on most days I look at that damn door. The reason for this being to see if Patrick is in there working on whatever new project he is working on. I do this because I have been having a great time helping out all the cool stuff he builds. What now suck is that even though I know they have moved out I still find myself looking at the door wondering what he is working on now.

 This last for only a few seconds before I remember that he is not there. ( And I know this sounds a little like a man-crush, and you know what kiss my ass, that is exacaly what it is and I don't care what people say. Our love is pure LOLOLOLOLOL). Now I know They just moved 20 minutes down the road but damn, that is forever compared to the 60 seconds it used to take me to get to his place. So here is what I want you all to do. I want you to pick up your phone, scroll through the contacts, find someone in there that you have not talked to forever because either you or they moved away. Now call them. Find out how things have been, ask about the family, maybe even set up a time to visit or just Skype them. Get some face to face and remember the good times. I have done this before with a great friend of mine, Michael, and trust me it is worth the few minites it takes and the little bit of effort to get back a friend you lost for a stupid reason. Moving away should not be a reason to let a perfectly good relationship go to waste.
If your comfortable doing so comment me and let me know how it went with the reconnect.
I hope you guys have a great day and night and will talk at you soon.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

New Layout, Moving, and Being Followed

Hey guys how is everyone.
As you can see I have done some editing to the site. What I'm am trying to do is get back into web design and wouldn't you know it this blog is a great place to try everything I make out. Let me know what you guys think. I really could use the feedback.

Anyway on to the latest news. Yesterday My friend started moving and I have found myself with mixed emotions. If you have read this before you will know that my neigobers car got broken twice into at our complex and he decided to move. What sucks is that while I am very happy for him and his wife, It really sucks that they are not just going to be in the next breeze way. The move its self was fun. For instance, while we were trying to load the uhaul I got to get his wheelchair out and have a little fun in the truck.
The only parts that actually sucked for me was that for some reason Patrick decided he wanted to hit me any chance he got. No not with his fist but with his furniture. He hit me in my family jewels with a table, my head with a couch, and my shin with a bookshelf. After a few loads we got to relax for a few. Then the cable guy called and let Pat know he was on his way. Now being the cable guy in this group of friends I told them I would hang out and make sure the guy did things right. What I didn't expect was for this guy to funny as hell. And according to all the girls that were helping out "completely sexy". Him and I got along great. And watching him try to hang a new drop to from the street with a huge tree in the way just cracked me up.

After we got done moving our local "Mexican" showed up. He hates it when we call him that.
He is on the left. All the guys sat out in the new garage and just had a good time talking about fishing and hooking something to the wheelchair and seeing how fast we could go. As Gina and I were getting ready to head home Pat started freaking out because he could not find one of his cats. Him and I spent the next few minutes looking all around the house for him and eventually found him in the actic. The only problem was that he did not want to be caught so last I heard he was still hanging out in there.

Now that it was coming up on 10pm Gina and I left and headed home. Less than halfway there I notice this car following us. So I tried to kinda speed up through the turns and see if I could lose them and the fact that they sped up with me is the only reason I got freaked out. When we finally pulled into the complex they followed us to the same building we live at. I looked over and saw 4 big mean looking guys just sitting in their car so I got out of the car and hauled ass down to the apartment and then got my gun out and loaded it. I got the pleasure of being paranoid for the next couple of hours and sat in the living room with the gun more or less pointed at the door. Now nothing ever came of this but what I have talked to the wife about and decided to do is only sign a six month lease on our re-up and at the end of that we are going to move out of this damn city and somewhere safe.

Well on that good note I will talk to you guys later.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Smoking and Strength

Stress Sucks
Tonight is going to be a little bit of a serious.

Lately I have been coughing a lot more. I know the cause. I smoke. Now for the life of me (pun intended) I can't seem to get myself to quit. I just don't know if I can do it.

I have quit before. Or I guess the correct way to say that would be, I stopped smoking for a time. A few years ago I tried to quit smoking. If I remember correctly I was 20 years old and for some reason decided it would be a good idea to quit smoking around thanksgiving. Now I am not known for my will power. And I like to blame it mostly on my ADHD. So the way I see it I don't lack will power I just don't have enough concentration to keep up the.......what was I saying. Hang on I will have to read back what i wrote.........Oh yea. Anyways, as I remember it, Thanksgiving went pretty good even with one of the best parts of smoking. You know having one after a good meal.
The next month seemed to go pretty good. But leave it up to Christmas to throw a wrench in things. Not that it bad but I mean come on, everybody has something that drives them crazy at Christmas time. For me its just that having almost EVERYONE in the family in the same living room. While not a bad thing directly, its just that with everyone talking at the same time it can wear on the nerves a little bit. Well needless to say I found myself going outside to get away for a few minutes and found myself among the smokers in the family and for some reason just decided to grab a smoke and start back up.

Now while I still enjoy smoking to this day, I am starting to wonder what it is doing to me. And no not the general medical things that happen but what it is doing to me. I have noticed that very few of my friends smoke and I always seem to find myself outside alone.

Well now that I got that randomness out I hope everyone has a great day.