Little details from your day

[Robert G]

I was just trying to put away a step ladder, when I accidentally bumped one of the flourescent lights we have hanging from the ceiling. The fixture swung down and the bulb itself fell out, only to be "caught" by the stacks of flour and two-liters we keep down here. Never been so on edge in quite a while. I knew I couldn't leave it like that though, so I gave myself a crash course on how to install flourescent light bulbs, and hooked the fixture back to where it was.

[Trey]

I am working down in Texas City, Texas. Just outside of Galveston, the place of my birth. There was a hail storm here, and I repair automobiles with hail damage. So, that's why I'm here, dig? I came down to do some work.

My business is largely freelance, and there are many sketchy characters clogging up the veins of my industry, being that it is totally unregulated and under the radar. Meth heads, drunks, white supremacists, Jehovah's Witnesses, etc. The underbelly of America is at large in my life. But there are also some fine and decent human beings involved as well. There's folks on the hail trail that I would trust with my life, some of the best people in the world. Kind and decent and hard working, just like it should be.

But, not at this storm.

I'm stuck with the bottom of the barrel, as this is a small storm, and there have been many large storms in major cities throughout the county. I'm sticking with this one because it's close to home, and in an area where I used to live, and I can fish here every day. I can get the bills paid, it just isn't glamorous.

I'm working for a guy who got to town before me and had the work sewed up in prompt and impressive fashion. He's a decent guy. Loud, boisterous, says he is friends with Gibby from Butthole Surfers, blah blah. I like him. But I'm working directly with his underling. A dude my age (early 40's) who is weathered as the road he tends. He doesn't give a fuck, he makes good money and blows it before he gets it, he drives a Dodge Viper and he comes to work in flip flops. He lights his next cigarette after his last one and he drinks beer while we are working. He makes me slightly uncomfortable, but I've been here before.

Me and this dude are fixing cars on Saturday and we picked up a job for Sunday. Viper dude tells the customer to bring his car in at 8 am on Sunday. I show up around 9 am and no one is there. The shop is closed. The customer already came and went. I call the Viper dude and he doesn't answer his phone. Fucking hell, what's up?

The dude I'm working for has gone home to Austin for the weekend. He and the Viper dude are staying in an RV park and the manager of the RV park has called him to say that the Viper dude has parked his Viper in someone else's space. They need him to move his car, but Viper dude won't answer the door. The guy I'm working for tells me to go over there and wake him up. I go over there and walk into their camper and Viper dude is passed out on the floor with all his clothes on. He is laying on the floor with broken glass around him. I don't know where it came from. I scream and yell but he won't wake up. I find his keys and move his car so they don't get kicked out of the RV park.

Viper dude told me he was sorry this morning for costing me a day's work.

[Dudley]

Viper dude told me he was sorry this morning for costing me a day's work.

I feel for you, but that's a better end than I was expecting. I was all geared up for a "You drove my fucking car, man??!! YOU PUT THE KEY INTO ANOTHER MAN'S IGNITION??"

[jimmy two hands]

I think I am getting truly sick for the first time since I quit smoking. Thought it was allergies at first, but it's turned into something more insidious. I used to get this all the time and just soldier on, but it's wiping me out. I feel like my lungs are full of sandpaper.

[tbone]

I knew that the corner cubicle with windows on two sides and being surrounded by several empty cubes was too good to last. Three people in the finance dept. finally wore down their managers with what I can only imagine was a steady drip of complaints about their work area a year since I started working here as a consultant and now I have to switch places with them....

I knew this would happen. I spent a few days moving my stuff all to my new spot, tossed out a ton of junk left in my old area by previous dimwits that worked there, all while already busy with my actual job duties, and I just overheard one of these people saying that they might as well wait like two weeks to move over to my old area for some dumb reason that was obviously a cover for being lazy. Meanwhile I have to listen to barely audible nashville pop on the other side of this cubicle wall. Hooray!

I guess it's time to start farting and listening to noise rock...

[noise&light]

I knew that the corner cubicle with windows on two sides and being surrounded by several empty cubes was too good to last. Three people in the finance dept. finally wore down their managers with what I can only imagine was a steady drip of complaints about their work area a year since I started working here as a consultant and now I have to switch places with them....

I knew this would happen. I spent a few days moving my stuff all to my new spot, tossed out a ton of junk left in my old area by previous dimwits that worked there, all while already busy with my actual job duties, and I just overheard one of these people saying that they might as well wait like two weeks to move over to my old area for some dumb reason that was obviously a cover for being lazy. Meanwhile I have to listen to barely audible nashville pop on the other side of this cubicle wall. Hooray!

I guess it's time to start farting and listening to noise rock...

Start?

[dontfeartheringo]

You're a good man, Sleepkid.

Here's hoping she's okay.

+1.

Strange how the phrase "That's someone's daughter" has now assumed a new power over me.

[dontfeartheringo]

I knew that the corner cubicle with windows on two sides and being surrounded by several empty cubes was too good to last. Three people in the finance dept. finally wore down their managers with what I can only imagine was a steady drip of complaints about their work area a year since I started working here as a consultant and now I have to switch places with them....

I knew this would happen. I spent a few days moving my stuff all to my new spot, tossed out a ton of junk left in my old area by previous dimwits that worked there, all while already busy with my actual job duties, and I just overheard one of these people saying that they might as well wait like two weeks to move over to my old area for some dumb reason that was obviously a cover for being lazy. Meanwhile I have to listen to barely audible nashville pop on the other side of this cubicle wall. Hooray!

I guess it's time to start farting and listening to noise rock...

Start?

You may not realize this, but T-Bone has NEVER FARTED.



Only, more greenish brown.

[tbone]

Well I eventually stop farting for a few minutes a day at least. I just meant to start up another fart right then. I think that one just ended.

[EmpireStateTroopers]

YOU PUT THE KEY INTO ANOTHER MAN'S IGNITION??"

Trey doesn't go that way, to my knowledge.

[Ty Webb]

YOU PUT THE KEY INTO ANOTHER MAN'S IGNITION??"

Trey doesn't go that way, to my knowledge.

Sounds like he knows what to do in a pinch.

[Ty Webb]

Goddammit.

So we have the house on the market and the brokers use a centralized showing service to schedule showings of the house. Well, this service has dropped the ball a couple of times, including just now when a rescheduled showing wasn't actually rescheduled and the prospective buyers showed up with their broker unexpectedly. It was just sheer luck that I had actually done the productive thing for once in my life by cleaning up first thing after getting home instead of waiting until AFTER I'd had a couple of martinis and relieved myself of cumbersome pants.

They were here for all of 15 minutes. Buyers don't like touring someone's home when the owner is present. It obviously rushed them.

[Plastic Eggs]

I had scallops for the first time ever today. They were very good, but a little too salty for my tastes (I have high blood pressure issues.) I will probably end up having a sodium-induced headache later, but it was nice crossing that one off my list finally.

[Ty Webb]

I had scallops for the first time ever today. They were very good, but a little too salty for my tastes (I have high blood pressure issues.) I will probably end up having a sodium-induced headache later, but it was nice crossing that one off my list finally.

Kudos for trying new things! People can get weird about seafood.

Scallops need not be inherently salty. A good wash and a proper cooking should render them no saltier than any other shellfish.

[Plastic Eggs]

I had scallops for the first time ever today. They were very good, but a little too salty for my tastes (I have high blood pressure issues.) I will probably end up having a sodium-induced headache later, but it was nice crossing that one off my list finally.

Kudos for trying new things! People can get weird about seafood.

Scallops need not be inherently salty. A good wash and a proper cooking should render them no saltier than any other shellfish.

Thank you kindly for the tip! I used a little sea salt and some butter, will probably go without the sea salt next time around.

[Ty Webb]

Generally, salt is good. But on scallops, you can be very delicate with the salt. And a good wash is absolutely necessary.

If you eat bacon on anything like a regular basis, start reserving the rendered fat and storing it in the fridge. Then cook the scallops in that. No salt necessary and the flavor is fantastic.

Like any self-respecting Southern cook, I have a Mason jar of bacon fat in my fridge and I use it for sauteing damn near everything.

[Jodi S.]

They were here for all of 15 minutes. Buyers don't like touring someone's home when the owner is present. It obviously rushed them.

When I was looking for a place, I was shown an apartment where the owner was home because she had called in sick.

Her place was a mess, and there were unwashed dishes in the kitchen sink. I felt very uncomfortable and couldn't wait to get out of there.

It could have been the Taj Mahal, and I would have felt like I was invading their privacy.

[circle_ruler]

the thing we're currently doing at the museum is going through thousands of items labelling them for keepies (a tiny minority), possible keepies/give to other interested parties (a few), and disposal due to the item being broken, decayed, woodwormed to fuck, rusty beyond recognition or just irrelevant to the collection. it is a dirty and long-winded job.

yesterday i happened upon a box of booklets published by the Cambrian Archaeological Society including multiple copies of one detailing a dig at the famous Knab Head Mesolithic site. they are for disposal and i get to keep them. very happy indeed with that.

then i found a fishing rod. no idea what it's made of but it's very old and in mint condition. in addition, and this is pretty freaky, it has a small spear head type thing you can screw into the butt. we speculated about the purpose of this deadly rod/weapon combo and have no idea what the makers were thinking. whatever, it's never been used by the look of it and it will also be mine. i must do a little research now to try and fathom out this odd thing.

[Dudley]

I look forward to the first release from Deadly Rod/Weapon Combo

(or should that be The Deadly Rod/Weapon Combo?)

[circle_ruler]

This Deadly Rod/Weapon Combo

anyway, a bit of the old Googling has identified the vicious protruberance as a butt spear. when you got bored with catching fish you jammed it in the ground thus freeing up your hands for fags, sandwiches and bestiality. Izaak Walton told me that and i've seen his tomb! bloody marvellous.