thebaldgeek

Yeah yeah, I know, long time no blog…….
I would love to have some huge gory story as to why I have not blogged, but the reality is a lot more ….. well….. real…..

There are three trainers here, Alexi, Tom and myself (Kelly is still on maternity leave). We had a little scare late last week. Tom got called for jury duty. He had to report on Monday. Alexi can not come into work on Monday. Gag, that left me!!!!!
I have never taught the Monday class, infact, I have never sat in on one so did not have a clue of what it should sound like……. I took the trainers manual home with me over the weekend to swat up……

Turns out that Tom was not called in, but remained on standby all week.
We all took the hint and so Selam covered the phones and I sat in on each days training. Of course I did my usual all day stint on Thursday.
It was a really good group of guys and one girl (ex marine no less), they kept us all busy, I have a page of homework notes that I have to chase up answers and email them out.
The training still wares me out a fair bit, so each night I would just come home and crash. I need to get a photo of us sitting around our gas fire pit under the gazebo. Its very relaxing.
So, anyway, thats the real reason for non-blogging. I was just too tired.

Right now its Friday morning. I am looking at a bunch of emails that have built up over the week, the homework from the class and all the rest of the usual stuff I do, and I am sure the phone will ring any moment now.

We are off to LA for church tomorrow. Last Sundays Docent training was snowed out, and same again this Sunday, so we are having it more local in one of the other docents houses on Sunday.

Freddy has a head cold, and my stomach is churning from late yesterday (I am blaming the luke warm chicken that was on my lunch on Thursday).
Amy and Terry are fine.
There is some talk about Amy doing advanced history and Terry doing advanced chemistry. Not sure if they are going to sign up, but their respective teachers have said they can do it if they want.

The bike is still got a lot of its clothes missing while I do some mods. They are forecasting rain today, so Freddy drove me in the car, I don’t want the bike to get its electrics wet.

Pretty sure that brings you all up to date.

Freddy has been looking for some storage type thingo for a little while. Im not totally sure what or why, but since it was costing me nothing for her to look, I was happy….. Well, turns out she was looking on Craigslist which is like a free trading post web site….. She found an add about a guy in Temecula that was cleaning out his storage unit and had some stuff to sell.
Gave him a call and went to pick it up the other day.
Yikes, did we ever score big. He was very happy and I was/am VERY happy.
We got roughly the following;
2 folding camp chairs
1 largish folding papson chair
1 mechanics creeper (rolling bed thingo)
1 motorcycle hydraulic lifter (super excited about this!)
1 multi speed drill press (man, have wanted one of these for years!)
1 circular saw.
1 belt sander
1 office chair (Terry has scored this one)
1 vacuum cleaner
1 camel back backpack (Terry has been after one for months)
1 camo carry bag.
1 remote control fan (be great in the garage in summer)
4 axle stands
1 first aid kit (brand new, still shrink wrapped)
1 12v mini air compressor.
1 small bag of assorted tools.
1 battery charger
9 containers of assorted car care products, including Armorall
30 containers of assorted spray cans. Have not looked at them all yet.

The price…..??? Honestly I did not haggle with the guy, he wanted 60 bucks, I took one look at it all sitting on the ground and pressed 60 bucks in his hand….. Turns out he just out of the miliary, he was a ‘recon sniper’. He was going to drive home to Florida and take stock of his life.
We loaded up and wished him the best.

Freddy is still looking for a storage solution…… not sure if I want her to find one……

One thing that I have only just really noticed here, there are no ambulances on the streets.
You don’t hear them, you don’t see them, you don’t pull to the side of the road to let them pass. There are none.

What happens here is that the fire brigade attend all calls. No matter what they call, the big red fire truck shows up. This explains why you see so many trucks with lights flashing and sirens blarning.
Don’t ask me what happens when they get there and decide that the person has to be carted to hospital. I have no idea. Do they put them in the truck and transport them in that? I find it hard to believe, but I simply dont know. I will have to try and find out……..

Here is an article that sums things up for the state of California at the moment.
In a nut shell (to save you reading the whole thing), we are broke.
More people have left the state than any other state this past year. We have the highest taxes and fewer public services than most other states. We are looking at having a $42 billion dollar deficit this year. We are the most populous state in the US and the worlds 8th largest economy and we are broke. So broke that the state is looking to give IOU’s rather than tax refunds this year. Over all, we have a 1.2 trillion dollar budget. Never mind the question of how this happens, or where all that money goes each year…….

Here is where I go out on a limb and propose a way to fix all that…..
After nearly having 3 accidents yesterday, twice on the bike and once in the car, I think we can solve California’s financial wows by simply enforcing one of our new laws. As of July 1st last year, it is illegal to talk on the phone while driving.
All three near misses were because the other driver was on the phone.
It is a 20 dollar fine for the first offense and 50 dollars for subsequent convictions. The other way this would dig us out is by reduced traffic accidents, and the resulting law suites and medical insurance blow out.
Its win, win, win. Within 6-8 months we would raise the required 40 billion dollars and save the other two billion.
Every one would be in control of how much they pay (the rich arrogant paying more than the humble poor) and so the burden would be spread fairly over the population.
Life in the paradise known as California would once again be good.

(Sarcastic rant over….. You can go back to your lives people, nothing more to see here).