Orlando, FL

I tried to get to work early this morning knowing Fay would be out today. I kinda anticipated a busy day by myself in there.

On the way to the office I stopped at the Millenia Cafe and got a breakfast burrito. When I pulled into my parking space at 7:35 I was the only one there. At 7:55 Debbie drove up in her red Toyota Solara and parked in Fay's parking space.

Debbie did help a little bit by quoting a couple of jobs and catching the phone a few times. That was helpful because I had to supervise Brownie's Water Solutions pumping our grease interceptor and I had to help the technician from TWC fix the Delfield VersaDrawer. Fay sure can pick the days to be out!

The main thing that kept me busy was putting together copies of the Darden Restaurants New Restaurant Support Center quote and spec book for the New Servery Kitchen. I made a nice colorful cover and contents page in MS Word and then used the copier to run off three copies of the 140 page document. I bound them with the Docubind machine. Craig is happy with the way they look and he is taking them over to Bob Chuhak tomorrow.

During lunch I came home and ran the vacuum cleaner and emptied the dishwasher. I wanted to get my chores caught up so that I would be ready to go to Bob's house after work tomorrow. I will pack a bag for me and a bag for Buddy tomorrow.

Debbie took off around 10 am and was gone all through lunch. She returned after 2 pm in her new black Smart FourTwo car. It is a cute little car and she is very excited about it.

When I got home I changed into shorts, started laundry, and used the SpotBot to spot the carpet. With the laundry in the dryer, around 7:30 pm, I went to the garage to work on my projects.

I applied boiled linseed oil to my jewelry box project, rubbed off the excess, and then layed the parts in the big box the computer came in to dry. The parts have to dry for a week before I can put the lacquer on. I closed up the box to keep dust out.

Then I put more sandpaper down and continued to flatten the foot of my block plane. Once all the deepest scratches were gone I continued up through finer and finer grits until the foot shined like a mirror! You can actually see your reflection in it after sanding with 1500 grit. The blade still needs to be honed. The next plane I buy will be ready to go out of the box (of course it will be more expensive too).

Tomorrow is Friday. This was a short week. We have processed $180k in orders so far. I got my paystub this afternoon. Just one stub - no bonus this month. Craig mumbled something about money being so bad as he passed them out. Anyway, hopefully that pay will be deposited tomorrow night at midnight.

I should be getting my government rebate check soon too. Latest it is supposed to be mailed is Friday, June 6. I need that money to pay for the new computer I am using. I need a little extra to get Buddy to the vet and get a Father's Day gift for Dad.

Orlando, FL

At the 7-Eleven this morning the man in front of me wanted to buy a pack of cigarettes, but he wanted to know if Erma, the cashier, could make change for a $50.

I said, "Damn Erma! Make him buy a whole carton! That's what they cost, right?"

The lady at the next register said, "Yeah, I know right! The cigarettes are more expensive that gasoline. I bought a gallon of gas the other day and it was $3.92 and my cigarettes were only $3.73! What we need to do is find a way to make cars go on tobacco!"

Holy Christ! Where do these people come from?

In the mail yesterday I got a flyer from Woodcraft listing the sales and specials for June. They have the engineers square set (pictured above left) for $35 and they have the divider set (pictured below left) for $25.

Work today was very busy. We have processed $160k in new orders already. Today seemed to be a "Darden Day" with all of the hand holding and babysitting issues I had.

After work I walked Buddy, then I went to the garage to work on my project. I masked the just-waxed sections off and then cleaned the outside of the project with paint thinner again to make sure there is no wax on the surfaces I am about to spread boiled linseed oil over. It is drying tonight. Tomorrow night I will apply the oil and then put it into a box to dry for a week before putting spray-on satin polyurethane on it.

With the jewelry box drying I turned my attention to tuning my Stanley block plane. I began by waxing the table on my table saw. Then I cut sheets of 600, 800, and 1500 grit sandpaper in halves. Using spray adhesive I fixed them to the flat table and began flattening the foot of the plane by rubbing against the paper.

I worked for over an hour and eventually turned to coarser grits - 400 at first, then 320, 180, and even 150. The 180 and 150-grit really began to remove the material and the milling machine scratches finally began to go away. It was almost 10 pm when I stopped and the foot still had a few of the deepest scratches still on it. I will finish it tomorrow.

Tomorrow Fay will be out all day long - she is getting her annual mammogram and sonogram. I expect it to be hectic, but none of her quotes are emergencies and the calls can all wait until Friday.

Long Weekend

Memorial Day Weekend was a long and productive weekend!

Bob came over and we had the beef stew that I cooked in the slow cooker. He said that he needed to work on his paper for the Economics class he is taking.

We went to Lowe's on Friday evening to get another paint roller for Bob's dining room. While there I priced the formica countertop material - $40! Too much! I asked one of the workers if they had any damaged sheets that were marked down. I didn't need an entire 4x8 sheet and certainly didn't need to pay $40 for it. The man said, "Oh yeah! All of these are damaged! Here, take this one. Tell the cashier Marc, the Operations Manager, said it would be $20." The struggle was getting that big sheet into Bob's Nissan X-terra that we drove over there. It fit by curving across the back seat and down into the back seat floor. So now I have a 4x8 sheet of formica with a small chip missing in one corner.

I need a sheet of formica to replace the worn paper top on the 24"x48" folding table that Grandma Florence bought for me in 1994 when I lived in Charleston, SC. She bought that table so that I could put the computer on it in my apartment there. It served as a computer table, a heavy sewing table, and (mostly) as a woodworking sawhorse and assembly table.

On Saturday morning after a breakfast of eggs and Canadian bacon we began unpacking my new computer and setting it up. This process took over four hours as we began re-installing all of the programs my old computer had on it. The download speed seemed to be maddeningly slow though!

Around 1 pm we went to Bob's house (we took Buddy too). I had to touch up the red paint all the way to the ceiling in his dining room. While the paint was drying we went to the shopping center so that I could return the USB hub that turned out being too big for the new computer cabinet. We got slices of pizza from Anthony's to take back to his house for lunch.

After putting the paint supplies away we went back to my house to continue setting up my new computer. Again, the slow download speed was keeping me from downloading replacement copies of programs.

Bob's side was hurting him so he went and layed down while I took Buddy out for his walk.

It thunderstormed that evening.

On Sunday morning we had boxed cereal with milk for breakfast. Around 11 am we began driving toward Daytona Beach to visit with Bob's parents. We stopped in Casselberry to visit the Woodcraft store where I got some 1/8-inch-thick pieces of yellow heart and walnut (secret project), a 1/4-inch dia dowel, a syringe of epoxy and hardener, and a can of Briwax to finish the drawers on my jewelry box project.

We ate lunch at Bubbalou's Bodacious Barbecue in Altamonte Springs. I had a brisket sandwich and Bob had a pulled chicken sandwich.

Then we continued up to Daytona. We stopped at Walgreens to get supplies for his parents - adult diapers, candy bars, etc. The visit is always "interesting" with mostly old adults in wheelchairs babbling and screaming. Even the comments Bob's parents make to each other are a cut-up.

On the way back we stopped at his parents house to turn the AC on so that a mold problem will not develope. I cleared some poison oak off of the side of the house and the privacy fence and told Bob we need to get some kind of herbicide for that.

Back in Orlando I made chili for dinner and I baked a frying pan of moist cornbread. We drank Budweiser with dinner. Later we took Buddy out for his walk and we saw the fox in the field. It was watching us closely and it let us walk up to within 20 feet of it! I don't think Buddy ever saw it and didn't smell it because it was down-wind from us.

We got the computer running and downloading at a decent speed after turning the modem and router off and then back on. Now it flies!

With the Booksmart Blurb software installed I am going to begin working on a book about my recent trip to Peru.

In the evening I used a clamp to spread the chair open that John and Amy left with me to fix. With the crack in the seat spread open I layed masking tape down both sides of the crack and then squirted 5-minute epoxy into the crack with the syringe I bought at Woodcraft. After the epoxy was in place I released the clamp and then clamped the seat tightly closed and left it like that overnight.

On Monday morning we had more boxed cereal for breakfast with raspberry strudel and coffee. We went over to Bob's house to mask off the red paint and dab white Kilz onto the ceiling to cover up the over-paint. After two coats of that I pulled the masking tape off and I am pretty satisfied with how nice it looks.

Next we went to the shopping center so that Bob could get a haircut. Buddy stayed and napped at Bob's house. While Bob was getting his haircut, I went to Barnes & Noble bookstore to browse. I got a paperback copy of Catch-22 for my summer reading.

We went to Publix to get Bob's groceries - he needed me to act as beast of burden since he can't carry anything heavy while his hernia operation heals. We also picked up a frozen pizza for dinner. I saw packs of steel skewers marked down to a dollar for a pack of four and decided to get a few packs and make shish kabobs on the grill next weekend.

Back at my house we had leftover chili and cornbread with cottage cheese for lunch. Then I went to the garage to clean up the dining chair and begin finishing my jewelry box.

After taking all of the clamps off and putting them away I began peeling the masking tape off of the seat. The tape took most of the epoxy squeeze-out with it. I had to clean the rest of it up with a chisel. Then I waxed the chair really good. John and Amy came back from their weekend out-of-town and were thrilled with how the chair turned out!

I am rubbing wax into the drawers and all inside the box cavity to control moisture absorption and permit the drawers to slide on their runners easily. The wax I am using is a mixture of carnauba wax and beeswax in a solvent. You rub thin coats on and it dries clear, hard, and shiny - sorta like a waxed tile floor! It looks so good I was tempted to cover the entire box with it, but decided that the oil and polyurethane would be more durable for the outside.

Bob finished his economics paper on John Maynard Keynes and printed it out for me to proof. It is hard to distill the lifetime achievements of someone into two pages, but he did a pretty good job.

This morning I took Buddy out for his morning walk. After putting his bag into the dumpster the dog was going crazy trying to pull me back down the parking lot. I peered down the lot and finally saw what he saw -- the fox was slowly following us! It was so small and skinny - like a cat. I think Buddy would have killed it easily.

It kept following us, but as it got too close I started to throw rocks at it. It finally gave up and started back to the field where it lives. I think we are going to begin walking a different route in the mornings now.

Orlando, FL

We saw the fox again this morning when we went out for our walk. We stopped and talked to a new lady who works in the new concrete tilt-up office building and she said that not only is there a fox in that field, but that it has pups too. We will have to be careful because I heard that a rabid fox bit a dog on Hiawassee Road and the dog had to be put down.

I heard that the Mighty Gee Dub had a fire yesterday and that one sailor got first-degree burns and 23 others were treated for heat stress as they battled the blaze for six hours. It is steaming north up the west coast of South America right now on its way to San Diego.

We finished the week with $436k in new orders. I don't know how Hollywood did. I think we should be seeing some nice bonuses in August and September.

Craig called in around 3 pm and asked me how many phone calls I had today (14 at that time) and how many since lunch (5). He said, "Well, I guess it isn't real busy and there isn't much more we can do anyway, why don't you and Fay go ahead and close up." I got out of there around 4 pm.

It rained briefly as I was taking Buddy out for his walk. Then it got really humid and muggy. It is supposed to rain this weekend, but that is okay - atleast I am not out buying $4-a-gallon gas on a long road trip!

This weekend I have a long list of things I want to get done. It is a good thing I have a three-day weekend to work on them!

Orlando, FL

We are cruising right along at work with orders - so far we have processed $425k for the week!

Cute picture posted today. Reminds me of my morning walk with Buddy. There is a vacant lot/empty field at the end of the MetroCenter Blvd behind Valencia Community College that a fox inhabits. Buddy usually spots it first and he gets excited trying to run after it. I saw it this morning -- I could see its golden eyes shining over there in the dark.

Last night I got all of the sanding on my project finished. I pulled the blue tape off of the brown wenge and now I am going to use paint thinner and rags to remove all of the dust. Tomorrow I will rub the boiled linseed oil into it. You let it soak in for 10 minutes, then you wipe off the excess and let it dry for a week before you put the clear coat on. I will put it into a paper bag while it dries to keep more dust from settling on it.

Tonight I started a beef stew in the crock pot with carrots, green onions, potatoes, and broth mix. Then I made a salad out of diced green onions, diced cucumbers, and diced red peppers with a dressing of rice vinegar and sweetener. I liked it last week when Bob made it.

Right now I am waiting for the kitchen and bath floors to dry from cleaning. When they are dry I will put the rugs back down and then vacuum the carpet.

Read this interesting article about the first pocket calculator - the Curta. First made in 1948, it was all mechanical and they saw use until the 1970's when electronic calculators made them obsolete. They were used alot in road racing and their users were called "Curta Crankers". They fetch hundreds of dollars today on eBay!

Fibonacci Guage and Golden Ratio

Orlando, FL

Last night I worked in my garage shop masking the brown wenge off so that I can fine sand the white maple. Then I stained my new kitchen cabinet shelf a teak color.

My garage neighbor, John, popped in with a dining room chair whose wooden seat had split. He wanted to know what I would charge him to repair it. I won't charge him. I will drill holes along the crack, and using a syringe, inject epoxy into the crack. Then I will clamp it together until the adhesive sets. It will be better-than-new when I finish with it. I just don't know when I will finish with it!

FER-Orlando is having a very good week for orders so far! We have processed $274k in new orders AND IT'S ONLY TUESDAY!

It rained today. It rained good and hard for awhile. The plants and earth needed a good soaking. Now it is very very humid!

This evening I want to sand the jewelry box project to get it ready for finishing. I think I will be rubbing boiled linseed oil into the project this weekend! I am glad that I am getting close to finishing it.

Weekend

On Friday evening I left the office just after 5 pm. FER-Orlando totalled over $224k for the week. Hollywood brought in over $192k.


I went home and packed up stuff for Buddy - his tail started to wag because he KNEW he was going somewhere. I packed a bag for myself too. We were on our way to Bob's around 6 pm. I stopped to buy gasoline on the way and was surprised to see that 11 gallons cost over $40!


As we drove down the Orange Avenue exit from SR 408, I called Bob to come downstairs so that he could open the parking garage for us. Usually Bob rides up the parking garage in the bed of the truck, but because of his recent operation I had him get into the cab and I put Buddy in the bed (tied to one of the corners, of course!).


After laying Buddy's bed out, filling his water bowl, putting some food out for him, and putting my own bag down, I took him down to the street for his evening walk. Bob stayed upstairs and continued to work on dinner. He was still very sore from his hernia operation. I folded his load of towels from the laundry.


For dinner we had fried boneless chicken breast with a garlic-lemon sauce and steamed broccoli and carrots. I brought the Ray's Station 2003 Merlot that Bob left at my house last week.


After dinner I finished reading my book, Fish, by TJ Parsell. Then we went to CVS Pharmacy to fill Bob's pain killer prescription and get a few other odds and ends.

We returned to the apartment and I got out the painting supplies we have been collecting over the past month. I masked off the woodwork and took the electric cover plates off in Bob's dining room to prepare to paint one of the walls a dark scarlet red - "Red Dahlia" was the name on the can of Valspar.

On Saturday morning I got up around 6:30 am, put coffee on, and took Buddy down to the street for his morning walk. I stopped at Panera Bread and got a loaf of foccacia bread and two pecan cinnamon rolls to go and returned to the Waverly to make breakfast.

We had the sticky rolls with coffee for breakfast.

Around 8:30 am I left to go to my Introduction to Hand Planes class at the Woodcraft store in Cassellberry. There were three of us attending this class which talked about the history of handplanes, construction, uses, how to sharpen, and how to use them. I brought my two Stanley planes, which are comparatively very cheap, and the shop had some very nice top-of-the-line planes for us to use too.

The Lie-Nielson and Veritas planes worked very nicely. They had thicker blades and did not chatter was they worked across the wood. I am going to give my 9-inch Stanley bench plane away, it cannot be adjusted and is not good quality. I will keep my little Stanley block plane, but I am going to look for a higher quality bench plane to use.

The instructior had an interesting power sharpening system for honing chisel and plane blades, but after demonstrating it, he did not have a sharp enough edge to shave hair on his arm. I think that embarassed him.

After the class I purchased some 600, 800, and 1500-grit sandpaper that I will use to flatten the foot of my block plane and I got a quart of polyurethane. I drove to my apartment to change the oil in my truck and rotate the tires. While I was there I also put a coat of polyurethane on my new generator cart.

Around 3 pm I headed back to Bob's house. Bob said the dog kept going up to the door and whimpering like he missed me. I just hoped that the dog did not jump up or play rough with Bob because of his sore abdomen, but Bob said he was really good. I suspect Buddy could smell the wound and knew Bob was not feeling great.

As soon as I got back I took Buddy down for his walk. When we returned Bob ordered a pizza from Pizza Hut on West Colonial and Maguire and then we went to the Target store there to get stuff. We brought the pizza home and had that with re-heated steamed vegetables for dinner. Then I started painting the walls.

I cut in the corners and around the trim first. Then I started to roll all of the edges with the 2-inch felt roller. I knew it would take a couple of coats to get the dark even color we wanted.

While I was painting Bob and Buddy sat around the dining table and watched. Buddy started coughing and puked all over the carpet! He was scared and went and laid down in the living room! We got the carpet cleaner out and got the mess cleaned up.

We think he was sick because he had not eaten dinner. He was afraid of the plastic we had on the floor to guard against paint spills.

On Sunday I got up around 7:00 am and took Buddy downstairs for his walk. As we were walking back toward the condominium building I realized that I forgot the RFID card that unlocks the doors to let us back into the building! Great. Plus I didn't have my phone with me either.

We went to the front door and I hit the buzzer. The security guard unlocked the door and let us in. She recognized Buddy!

For breakfast I microwaved frozen scrambled egg patties, frozen sausage patties, and frozen biscuits. We had coffee with breakfast.

I continued to work on painting the walls. I used the 12-inch roller and rolled it all out, but we had light and dark areas and you could see the roller path in some spots. I reassured Bob that it would be covered up on the second coat.

For lunch we had leftover pizza slices from the night before. Bob prepared a salad with diced cucumbers, diced red peppers, and diced up chives with a rice vinegar and Splenda dressing, and he put it into the fridge to chill. We painted until the wall was all covered and then we went to my house to get my folding ladder, some Kilz, and more brushes. By the time we got back it was time to take Buddy out for his walk.

Before we left for the walk we called Wildside Barbecue and ordered dinner. I ordered a half rack of St Louis style ribs and Bob ordered one-half a barbecued chicken. We stopped at 7-Eleven to get a six pack of Bud Light Lime-flavored Longnecks. Our dinner turned into a feast - we had a lot of meat, Bob's chicken came with an ear of corn, both dinners had coleslaw, and we had Bob's salad, and foccacia bread with dipping oil. We had cold beers with dinner.

After dinner I put another coat of red paint on the walls and cleaned up all of the painting supplies. Then I ran the vacuum cleaner. We spent some time determining which paintings and pictures we would put on on the newly painted wall. I will return next week to touch up the walls near the ceiling and the cover the over-paint on the ceiling will Kilz and ceiling white.

Before we went to bed I put the white plastic light switch and electric receptacle cover plates back on the wall. It looks very nice and is one of the first things you notice when you come in the front door! Bob is ready to start picking out yellow paint for his kitchen now!

Orlando, FL

Buddy went crazy on the leash Thursday morning during our walk. Pushing mightily with his back legs trying to pull me across the street toward something he saw in the high grass. A fox.

We stayed continuously busy all day, but it is shaping up to be a soft week for sales. Craig thinks dealers have cut back on placing their orders because they are getting ready to go to Chicago for National Restaurant Association (NRA) Show.

Around 4 pm I left to run home, change clothes, run the vacuum, water the plants, and after walking Buddy, go to Florida Hospital to pick up Bob from his hernia repair surgery.

At Florida Hospital I drove around and around the hospital trying to phone him, but he was not answering! From 7 pm to 8 pm I tried to reach him. The hospital's main campus is sprawling and there is a lot of construction going on there.

At 8 pm I gave up and went home thinking, "Maybe the schedule got changed? Maybe he took the bus home? Maybe he died on the operating table!?"

I was back home around 8:30 and I undressed and got into bed to read. At 9 pm my phone rang. It was Bob. The operating room had gotten backed up and he his surgery was delayed. He had just woken up from the anesthesia and asked me to come get him.

So, I got up, dressed and drove back down there. I had to call him again on my cellphone for walking directions inside the labyrinthine hallways inside the buildings.

Eventually I found him in a bed, covered in 6 layers of blankets, including his head! With an oxygen bit under his nose and IV's running into his arm and abdomen. He wanted to go to the bathroom, but the nurse never came to help him, so I started uncovering him, turned off the oxygen, basically undid everything except the IV of Ringer's Solution and his morphine bulb. Finally the nurse came and walked him to the bathroom.

When he returned we had to wait some more while she got forms for him to sign and then she had to take more vital signs. Eventually we were able to get him dressed, into a wheel chair, and out. We stopped at the first floor cafeteria to get him something to eat since he had not eaten since 11 am (except for some crackers and water).

It was after midnight when we got him back to his apartment. I showered there and stayed the night. He is going to be tender in the middle for the next couple of days. Bending over, lifting anything, etc is painful, but they told him that he needed to walk. The more he walks the better it will be.

This morning I left at 5:30 to go home and walk Buddy. Then I showered, cut my hair short, dressed, and came to the office to face another day of hand holding and paper shuffling.

Orlando, FL

Since Sunday evening I have had a pain in my chest that hurt dully all the time and sharply when I swallowed. I was afraid there was something wrong with my heart at first! Lastnight I made valerian root tea and noticed that it was making me burp - acid stomach - indigestion. This morning I picked up Tums at the 7-Eleven and ate them like candy. I am feeling better now.

Today was filled with the same sorts of things that most days are full of - lots of dealer hand-holding. I did manage to get all of my Red Lobster and Olive Garden orders, invoices, acknowledgements, etc filed in the afternoon.

Right as I was leaving for lunch the FedEx man showed up with my new computer. I had him lay it in the bed of my truck so I could take it right home. I know that I need a slim profile internal USB hub and a USB Wi-Fi antenna for it too. I will try to get those this weekend.

When I got home I took Buddy out for his walk. He is laying on the floor panting now. It is still pretty warm outside. Even the panting tires him out. I am going to work in the garage soon and I bet he goes to sleep while I am out there.

Orlando, FL

Lastnight I spent a productive two and a half hours in the garage workshop. I assembled my generator cart and I really like it! It rolls around so easily and soooo smoothly!

After setting the generator on the cart and putting its cover over it, I parked it in the corner and then sat down on my short step ladder at the table to sharpen chisels. I did that until 9:20 pm.

I brought the red tub that I soak the wetstone in back to the house with me and cleaned out all of the swarf while I was in the shower. After my shower I laid down and read until Bob called at 10:00 pm.

This morning it was much cooler outside. We had a nice walk at 5:00 am. Buddy seems to be recovering from whatever he had - his poop is becomming more solid.

When I left for work I was running a little bit late and for some reason Johnny did not have the back gate open when I pulled out. I had to go all the way around to the front to get out on the road. Funny thing though - when I am running late I still beat Fay to work.

Our sales picked up a little today. This is a good thing.

Craig was on the road all day today. First he had to go to Sebring, FL for some business, then up to New Smyrna Beach, FL for a demo. He was in his car on his way back to Orlando when I talked to him on his cellphone.

I wanted to start finish sanding my wood "therapy" project, but it is warm outside and I just don't feel like it this evening. I got Buddy walked, ate some pepperjack cheese, washed out my crockpot, updated an address in my phonebook, wrote this blog, made some valerian root tea, and I think I am just going to read before bed.

Weekend

On Friday evening Bob came over and we walked Buddy. After that we had a roast pork tenderloin and sauerkraut from the slow cooker for dinner.

Bob brought green bell peppers and a large casserole dish so that we could make stuffed peppers to take to his parents for Mother's Day.

I got up around 6:30 am on Saturday morning and took Buddy out for his walk. When I came back I started a pot of coffee and made egg patties and Canadian bacon for breakfast with cups of yogurt.

With breakfast out of the way we started on the stuffed peppers. I chopped and measured ingredients, but I made Bob mix them with his hands so that we could tell his parents that he made them. We had six peppers and four of them fit in to the casserole dish. One of the peppers was rotten and we discarded it. We made a meat loaf with the remaining meat mixture.

Those baked for an hour at 350F. Then we let the casserole dish cool off before putting it into the refrigerator until Sunday.

We split one of the peppers and some of the meat loaf for lunch. Then we went to Pep Boy's and Lowe's.

I got a pack of hose clamps and 5 quarts of 10W30 in a jug at Pep Boys.

At Lowe's I got a small pot of Mexican heather for my balcony planter, a 24 x 48 sheet of plywood for my generator cart (and another shelf in my kitchen closet with the scrap), Bob got a plastic paint tarp and one gallon of Valspar "Red Dahlia" that we are going to use on his dining room walls next weekend.

When we got home I started a pot roast for our Sunday dinner and then we took Buddy out for his walk.

Around 9 pm we went out to Savoy for one drink only. Savoy is a nightclub on Orange Avenue for 30 and 40-year-olds, but it seemed ridiculous that they had skinny 19 and 20-year-old go-go dancer boys in there on tables and on the bar. We left after 20 minutes and were back home and in bed by 11 pm.

On Sunday morning I took the dog out first thing, then potted the heather in a large terracotta pot on the balcony. Next I headed out to the garage to remove the metal pieces from my wood project and start work on my generator cart.

I made alot of progress on these things in the garage. I had the box hinges back out in 10 minutes. Then I began setting up the tablesaw and the compound mitre saw for the cuts needed to make the cart.

At 11 am I came in to put the peppers in the oven, but Bob had already done that! After another 30 minutes in the garage I came in to shower and get ready for our trip to Daytona. We took salads in little Tupperware bowls, the stuffed peppers in the big casserole with glass lid (set on an old towel in case it leaked), salad dressing, blue cheese, bacon bits, and decided to stop to get cheesecake, soft drinks, and a gift for his mom.

On the way up to Daytona we listened to one of the Trends magazine CD's that Craig gave me to listen to.

The AC in Bob's Nissan X-Terra didn't want to work at first, but once we were on the highway it started to blow cold air. A trip to Daytona in the summer, with no AC, in Florida, is a very very long trip!

We arrived at Oaktree Nursing Home around 12:30 pm. Tom would not walk. He made us push him in the wheelchair. All Louise cared about was her cigarettes. She couldn't even finish her meal before she had to go outside for a smoke! Most of the food was wasted. I knew they would not eat very much.

On the way back to Orlando we listened to the other CD.

Back in Orlando we took Buddy out for a walk. His bowel movement was very noisy, stinky, and wet. I think the leftover pork loin I gave him made him sick.

I continued to work out in the garage until it was time to eat dinner. The roast and carrots turned out awesome! The roast was falling apart! It broke into three big pieces as I tried to lift it out of the pot! Yum!

When I got up this morning at 6 am to take Buddy outside I found a big wet brown puddle on the ceramic tile at the front door. "BUDDY!!" He was head-down and tail-down, but I did not punish him. I just got the Pine Sol, a bucket or hot water, and the Lysol and got it cleaned up. Then we went out for our walk.

Work today was hectic. I think I only processed 4 new orders today.

Craig was back in town from his trip to Parris Island. He was really impressed with everything he saw up there and described the island as beautiful. I told him, "Well, that may be so, but anyone I've ever talked to can't wait to get away from that island and they never want to go back!" He agreed that his son feels that way about it.

This evening I am going to continue work on my generator cart. It is a simple cart with casters for rolling the 80-pound generator in and out on hard surfaces. The plywood base is painted black and the strips of wood around the sides are natural wood all covered in polyurethane. I will post a picture of the finished cart.

Bob starts a new class tonight after work. This course is Economics. He started reading the text book this weekend and answering some of the homework questions. The class runs until 10pm. He said would call me after class.

Mid-Century Modern

Orlando, FL

It smelled smokey when I took Buddy out for his morning walk. There are brush fires burning somewhere southwest of us.

Today I would have to get the quote for the new Darden Restaurant Support Center Servery ready to send to Bob Chuhak. I got factory quotes from F.W.E., Jackson MSC, and Delfield fabrication. I needed to check these for accuracy and completeness as well as double-check Fay's quote.

BrightHouse Networks showed up early and went ahead with installing our cable modem and cable internet. When he was done I had to go to the router settings page in the browser and change the DNS servers automatic and change the DHCP to automatic, and boom! chakkalakka! It worked!

FER-Orlando finished the week with $405k in new equipment orders. I cannot understand why the partners keep saying that money is so tight. Hell, I am expecting a nice-sized bonus in August or September!

This weekend I have too many things to do... and I am afraid I won't have enough time for them all.

I want to start fine sanding my wood project, go to Lowe's and get plywood for my generator cart, get a fern to pot at Lowe's, read my book, teach Bob to make stuffed peppers, go to Daytona to take a meal to Bob's parents on Mother's Day, listen to the two (2) Trends magazine CD's that Craig left for me, and maybe wash and wax my truck if I run out of stuff to do. Sigh.

Orlando, FL

This morning the big blockbuster news was that ITW (Illinois Tool Works) outbid Manitowoc to buy Enodis for $2.3B. If this deal goes through it will be a little more risky for FER because ITW is the parent company of some of our toughest competitors (like Vulcan-Hart, Hobart, etc).

Fay came in without her grandson and I kept the phones under control while she worked on the Darden Restaurants New Restaurant Support Center employee cafeteria quotation. We sent quote requests to Jackson MSC, F.W.E., and Delfield. We quoted the rest as prime specs or alternates to the items specified on the drawings. The bid is due tomorrow before close-of-business.

It was a hot day, I think it got up to 89 F this afternoon. The time when we have afternoon thunderstorms every afternoon is soon coming.

God bless Bob for letting me borrow his desktop computer. Otherwise I would not be able to maintain this blog, keep up with the news, conduct website banking and bill paying, or many other things I use a computer for.

Yesterday I was thumbing through the Dell Small Business catalog that came in the mail to our office. I saw an ad for a desktop computer just like the one I have at my desk in the office (except I have a 22" monitor at work) on sale 5-1 to 5-14. I wanted to spend my Economic Stimulus check on a new computer anyway, but I did not want to let this sale end before the IRS gets around to sending my money, so I charged this to my Bank Of America Visa and I will pay down the Visa when the rebate comes.

The total came to $531.45 including tax and I got free shipping. It will be delivered to the office next Tuesday or Wednesday. Basically, because of the sale, I got a combined $350 in savings on the computer and Microsoft XP Home Edition. On Wednesday, 5-15, the price goes back up to $849 - about what FER paid for my new computer at work.

With a new computer I am going to download the Blurb software and begin working on my book about my trip to Peru.

The package I got Mom for Mother's Day was delivered by FedEx today. I called her to make sure she got it because FedEx likes to just leave it at the front door and bag ass out of there.
This evening when I got home I took Buddy out for his walk first thing. Even though it was 20 til 7 it was still very warm and his tail was hanging down and his tongue was hanging out as we walked back home! Ha! It isn't even summer yet - I hope he makes it through the summer!
After the walk I started laundry, put a pork roast into the slow cooker with sauerkraut, cleaned the kitchen and bath floors, watered my plants, and ran the vacuum cleaner.

This weekend I am going to take all of the metal back off of my project and start finish sanding it. I want to go to Lowe's and get a fern for the top pot on my plant stand. I want to wash the truck off and put some wax on the hood and roof panels, I need to dust my furniture and the top of my refrigerator and maybe just relax and read in the nice air conditioned house.

We are making stuffed peppers to take to Bob's mom for Mother's Day. Nothing really exciting planned for this weekend - I have already spent too much money!

Orlando, FL

Did not sleep soundly lastnight and when I woke up this morning I did not want to go out to walk the dog or go to work. But I did.

On the way to work I stopped at Wal*Mart to look for a disposable camera that would take panoramic photos to give to Craig so that he can take pictures of his son's pass-in-review at Parris Island. But Wal*Mart did not have any of these and later I want to Super Target and they did not have it either.

Mom took panoramic pics of my PIR with a disposable, but that was before digital cameras (1993), and I guess demand for something like that has fallen off.

Work today was continuously busy with only a couple of short breaks. I looks like our office will have to quote the new Darden Servery Kitchen for the new headquarters. Fay said that I will have to hold her calls tomorrow while she marks up the drawings. Then we will decide how to split up the job so that can both quote parts of it.

AT&T sent their technician to our office today to troubleshoot problems with our DSL line. He came in with no tools or instruments, he said that there was an outage in our office park only and that he had been going to all of the DSL subscribers' offices to check service, he said engineering knew about the problem with the equipment in Bldg 4401 but they are unwilling to devote resources to fixing the problem, and he left 7 minutes later.

Martha went ahead and told BrightHouse to come to our office on Friday to install their cable Internet equipment.

Fay's grandson was very loud with crying all afternoon. It makes it very hard for her to get her work done when the baby wants to be held all the time. I guess she is going to ask his father to watch him tomorrow morning so that we can work on the Darden kitchen quote, and then Daddy will drop him off in the afternoon before he goes to work.

We ended the day with over $250k in orders - and it's only Wednesday!

We both left the computers running Disk Defragmenter, and we left the office around 6 pm.

After walking Buddy I went to the garage to work on my project some more. I cut off the shim stock to the length of the hinges, then I drilled out 1/8" holes for the screws, next I drilled 5/64" pilot holes for the hinge screws, and then cut threads in them with steel #4 screws. After that I assembled the hinges to the box body and the lid.

When I shut the lid the lid hung open about 1/8" because the steel screw heads are bigger than the heads on the brass screws. When I do the final assembly with brass screws the lid will sit all the way down.

On Friday I will take all of the metal off of the project and spend the weekend fine sanding all parts of the project to prepare for applying the finish next week.

Orlando, FL

Today was an extremely busy and hectic day. Not because there were so many orders, but because so many unplanned things popped up.

There were four new orders from Darden on the fax machine, plus two orders left over from yesterday for me to process. That did not take long and I even had my order confirmations completed by 8:30 pm.

I started a Newsweek column written by Fareed Zakariah, but it took me until the end of the day to finish it. I did not see anything else on the Internet outside of what was needed for work.

Around 10 am the Internet service went away. I called up Bellsouth Fast Access DSL technical support and was told that there was an outage in our area. Estimated repair time was 7:50 pm!! I said, "What? !!!! What do you mean it's going to take NINE HOURS to repair?!!!! This is a business and if you guys are going to take the network down you need to give us some notice! Now here comes my boss up the sidewalk, what do I tell him? This is going to piss him off!" Just incredible. The technician was no help at all... less than zero because he made me mad!

Well, it turns out the Internet service was restored 40 minutes later, but not before Craig returned and wanted to send email. He called Martha in Hollywood and told her to cancel our DSL - he's had enough, and then he called BrightHouse Networks to schedule cable Internet installation. BrightHouse agreed to send someone over tomorrow between 10 am and 12 pm to install their equipment.

Next surprise: Gabe and Tom from Hollywood showed up at my door. Neither Fay nor I knew about this. They planned a meeting with Craig and Debbie to talk with an advertising firm who designed our website to plan new advertising. If we had known this was going to happen we would have run the vacuum cleaner and cleared off the table.

In the afternoon Martha called up with the Bellsouth representative on the phone. She said they had signed a new contract for us recently and that AT&T would not let us back out - they were going to charge us $1000 for early cancellation. I was extremely indignant about this and let that lady know how upset we were about the entire situation.

To compound the situation with Martha and AT&T was the fact that Fay was on Line 1 on a call and the phone continued to ring. I to keep putting Martha On Hold while I put the new incoming calls on hold. All four incoming lines were lit up. Finally, I told both of them, "Look, I have calls holding, I have to go!" I had Craig call Martha up to let her know how upset he was about the Internet service.

Robert Chuhak sent drawings for the kitchens in the new Darden Restaurants Headquarters building and he is requesting quotes for ALL of the equipment in the kitchen - a totally Enodis kitchen, back to him by Friday! There is no way our office can quote all of that ourselves. Craig told me to forward that request to Chuck Freer of Enodis and let him worry about prying the quotes out of the factories.

Craig wrote back to Bob to wish him a happy 40th birthday.

It was 6:30 pm when I finally got out of there.

I made a grilled ham and cheese for dinner and then I took Buddy for his evening walk. When we returned we took a bucket of water out to the garage and I spent some time honing the blades on the mini-planes I got at Cheap Chinese Tools this past weekend. My fingers still smell like the swarf.

This week I will cut the brass shim stock and drill out holes in them to shim up the hinges on my wood project. Then I will drill pilot holes and cut initial threads in the pilot holes with steel screws.

Work week is too long and the weekends are too short.

Weekend

FER-Orlando ended up with over $320k in new orders and the company brought in over $1m for the week! Not so bad for a recession economic slowdown!

It was almost 5:30 pm when I finally pulled myself free from the office and started toward home. During lunch I had packed my clothes, Buddy's food and toys, and other stuff I thought I would need during the weekend. At home I changed clothes, gathered my bags, and got Buddy into the truck. We drove downtown to Bob's for the weekend.

Once we put our stuff in Bob's house we took Buddy out for a walk in the neighborhood. When we returned we had dinner.

Bob made a low-carb meatloaf with beef, eggplant, parmasan cheese, and other secret ingredients. We had a nice cool cleansing salad with the meat.

We went down to the pool after dinner and sat in the jacuzzi for awhile. I got into the still-frigid pool and swam back and forth a few times.

On Saturday morning I got up and took Buddy down to the street. When we returned I got Bob up and we went to The Breakfast Club for what else? Breakfast of course. Then we drove to BJ's Warehouse to get bottled water, birthday cards, a case of canned green beans, canned diced tomatoes, a case of tomato paste, and some trash bags.

Our next stop was Super Target where I got the balance of my groceries. We spent more than a little bit of time searching for a sugar bowl for Bob - he wants to put his loose Splenda into a bowl to be spooned out. We did not find the bowl at Target.

We returned to my apartment and put the groceries away. Then we went back out. We went to Harbor Freight Tools to search for brass shim stock and casters. Well, they had steel shims, but no brass. I got two swivel casters and two fixed casters. I will fix those to a plywood base to make a cart for my electric generator. Also, I found a magnetic digital angle guide (useful for aligning tablesaw blade), some very small brass and wood finger-sized wood planes, and a braided brass wire brush for my bench grinder. Bob got a pair of 4x binoculars there.

After the Cheap Chinese Tools Store we went to Contractor's Best to look at over-the-range microwave ovens for Bob and then we went next door to CompUSA to see complete computer systems - I am pricing them because my Economic Stimulus Check will help me purchase a new system.

We returned my tool purchase to my apartment and retrieved bags of salmon, biscuits, egg patties, and sausage patties for Bob's freezer. We briefly stopped at the Post Office on Kirkman Road trying to mail the photo CD to Silvia in Peru, but the counter closes at 2 pm and it was already 3 pm. The lobby has a postal computer machine, but it cannot accept international shipments.

Our next stop was Octopus car wash to clean the truck. After that we went back to Bob's house. We made Buddy wait until after 6 pm because it was so warm outside. We began making dinner in the meantime. We had a beef and vegetable stir-fry with steamed broccoli and cauliflower.

While Bob worked on dinner I took Buddy down to the street for his evening walk.

For the rest of the evening we just had a quiet time. Bob watched something on Discovery Channel and I read my paperback book.

On Sunday morning I got up around 7:30 am. I put the coffee on and harnessed the dog up for his morning walk. When I returned we had coffee and I had cold cereal for breakfast. Bob had hot oatmeal.

Around 10 am we went out. We drove to Pier 1 imports and Old Tyme Pottery to look for a sugar bowl for Bob... no luck. We stopped at Woodcraft in Casselberry so that I could sign up for the Introduction to Hand Planes class on Saturday, May 17, from 9 am to 12 pm.

We had lunch at Jason's Deli in Altamonte and we looked in a gourmet store for a sugar bowl. After that we drove up I-4 to Daytona Beach. We listened to the December 2007 issue of Trends magazine on CD as we drove.

We drove down to Ponce Inlet and spent the afternoon exploring the lighthouse there. The lighthouse is over 120 years old and has recently been restored.

After touring the lighthouse we went to Oakwood Nursing Home to visit Bob's parents. One old lady said that Bob is the only son who comes to visit there! I believe it too - we never see anyone else in there visiting.

Around 6 pm we returned to Orlando. Buddy had to get his walk first thing. Then we made whole wheat rigatoni with tomato basil sauce with black olives, onions and ground Italian sausage for dinner. We had more of the salad from Friday evening too.

I ran the vacuum cleaner while Bob cleaned up the kitchen. I always have to vacuum because Buddy drops hairs and leaves dog food crumbs on the carpet.

The alarm went off at 5:30 am and we had to come back home. I carried all of my stuff into the house and then took Buddy for his walk.

We did not see Craig all day today - he had to go to Tallahassee for the day.

Fay said that her husband was flying back to Orlando from Connecticutt today and that she would have to leave to pick him up. She let me go to lunch first so that someone would be in the office to catch the phones.

I went to the Post Office and mailed the CD to Silvia. It cost $3.60 to mail it and a small customs form had to be filled out for it. Then I came home and had a small lunch, took Buddy outside, and then returned to the office.

When I got back to the office Fay had already left! I guess she couldn't wait for me. She came back to the office after 1:30 pm. She said Mr. Lewis would have to come back to pick her up. I asked her why Francella, her daughter, couldn't take her home, and she said that it was a good idea. Then she announced that I could not go home until she went home since her office key was on her car keys and Mr. Lewis had the car keys.

I promptly replied that we always have a spare office key in the supply closet! She admitted that she could use the spare key to lock up.

It was a fairly busy day today. We brought in over $100k in new orders today.

This evening I had to fold laundry, walk Buddy, balance my checkbook, and get ready for another busy day.

Boeing 777 Assembly

Orlando, FL

After Buddy's 5:30 am walk I showered, shaved, brushed teeth, put on a t-shirt, undershorts, socks, white dress shirt, black slacks, black leather shoes, and a red tie. Then went to the office.

Fay had a doctor appointment and then she stopped at Fairway to help the Tangs enter new Garland prices into their computer system. Debbie arrive around 10 am.

I left with Craig at 10:30 with a stack of business cards in my pocket, my Scotsman Ice price materials, shades and a smile on my face.

We met Bob Chuhak in the lobby of the six-story headquarters building and we went back out, got in Bob's white Audi and drove over to meet the Facilities Restaurant Supply Team. Monica Marcotte and Maria Hoover are the only ones remaining from the last time I visited in 2005, so there were many new faces there.

Next we went back to the hq building and went to the fourth floor to meet the Capital Equipment Purchasing Team. There were a few new faces here as well. Then we went downstairs to Craig's car and went to Red Lobster for lunch.

I had the Sailor Platter with slaw and broccoli and an unsweetened iced tea. Craig had his favorite fish salad in a bag, and Bob had something with linguine in a white sauce.

When we returned to Bob's office we spent over an hour entering new SKU numbers for the ice machines, accessories, and installation for LongHorn Steakhouse and Capital Grille. I think Bob really just wanted to have me over to see everyone and also to see what an arduous process he has for entering new SKU's or editing them. I think that time was very productive.

Before we left Bob took us around and let me meet Steve Otto, David Brammer, Jason Waddingham, and Pat Hines. Pat just returned from Peru and we made a short conversation about touring in Peru.

Around 3 pm I returned to the office. There were two phone messages for me and a couple of new orders. Nothing that I could not easily handle.

Overall it was a good day. When I got home I changed into shorts and t-shirt, started a load of laundry, and took Buddy down to Pet Supermarket to get a large bag of food, treats, a new toy, and some Frontline flea and tick control. The total spent at Pet Supermarket was $110! We need to see the vet this month for shots and heartworm medicine. I bet we spend that much with the vet if not more!

When we returned I walked Buddy, put clothes into dryer, ran the vacuum cleaner, watered plants, and let Buddy play with his new toy - a hard rubber ball that "laughs" when it is shaken.

I am glad tomorrow is Friday.

I

Collapse Of The Middle Class