I got a call from the motorcycle dealer around 3:00 on Friday to tell me my gaskets were in for my exhaust.

I left work early, rode over, and found out that they were a big bunch of liars. Only 1 had come in (and it was the same “1” that was there the day before). meh.

Not that it really mattered…. I didn’t get a chance to ride over the long weekend anyway.

The weekend was productive. What started out with “hey honey, lets replace the gutters on the front with some that don’t leak” and ended with “hey honey… we need to replace all that fascia board, paint the trim, plant some flowers, buy some more rock (and place it), and paint the front door”.

w00t!

It was hot… I’m sunburned, and the gutters still aren’t hung (but pretty much everything else got done).

Note: standing on a ladder for several hours is one sure fire way to build up your calf muscles (and cause large amounts of pain and cramping later). My god… I am SO out of shape!

Today’s tasks: call the concrete contractor to get a bid on replacing my front steps and the slab in front of them, make dinner (company is coming), and try to get to bed before 8:00pm (I have to work graveyard tonight).

As I’ve posted earlier, I purchased new pipes for my bike a couple weeks ago. I’m still waiting on gaskets so I can install them.

The dealer had two in stock but I needed 4, so they ordered 4 more. One came in yesterday but apparently it was crushed during shipping. One that they had in stock was also damaged. Hopefully the other 3 that come in will be in good shape so I can do this tonight. I’ll be pissed if I have to wait another week.

The weekend: It’s supposed to be unbelievably beautiful for the Memorial Day weekend. Highs in the 80’s and clear skies are what they’re calling for. I’ve got a ton of yard work to do but I plan on putting a mile or two on the bike.

It’s 3:40ish in the friggin’ morning and I’m bored.

I already did everything I need to get done for the night (besides following the daily checklist) and am now stuck with entertaining myself for the next few hours.

So… I made a South Park character that’s supposed to be me (I guess):

Sure… I don’t have red hair any more (I haven’t dyed my hair in two years), but I made it to be an avatar on the Big Read Head Forum (which I created when my hair was thusly colored).

Make your own here!

Oh yeah… one more thing… aaaaaaaaaaaaahaha!!!!!!!

In September of ’03, our manager told us that we would have to start working the graveyard shift to monitor the systems and network connectivity in our NOC. This was supposed to be for 6 months… tops.

I worked the first 4 weeks, documenting the processes for the 2am – 10am shift… what to do if there was an issue, what to watch for, who to call if it all blew up in a green ball of fire, etc.. Then, we switched to every other member of my team taking on an assigned night of the week and I would rotate. The idea is I work Monday this week, Tuesday the next, to give them each the night off once every 5 weeks (it’s a bitch being the new guy… and I’ve been here 5 years!). The part of it that really sucks is: You work your normal shift durring the day (8 to 5), then go home and come back at 2am. It’s hard to get any real sleep before your shift starts again.

Now, a year and a half later, the shift will probably never go away.

Unfortunately, I’ve become the “give to” guy whenever someone can’t work their night shift. Did you make plans for the day you have to work the night shift full well knowing you were scheduled for it? Well, no problem! Just give it to Tone. He’ll be happy to work his shift AND your shift!

I had a glimmer of hope about 2 months ago. We finally got approval to hire someone who’s sole responsibility was the night shift. Unfortunately, our HR department didn’t mention in the job posting that the position is a temporary one (it’s a budgeting thing), has no benefits, and is graveyard. Pretty much everyone who applied said “um… fuck that” when HR called them back.

Of the remaining people who were still interested in the position… well… no one has bothered to call them for an interview yet (as far as I know), so I’ll believe it when I see it.

I guess I shouldn’t bitch too much. There’s a line of people who would kill to have my job in this town (great pay, killer benefits, and plenty of perks), but bejezus… I seriously hate this shift.

We’ve been working on the yard for a while.

Back in ’02, we had a pretty plain yard that sloped down from the street to the house. It was a pretty good slope and I hated mowing it, so we decided to install a retaining wall and terrace it.

Oh man… did I have bad timing.

Right after we started the project, my back gave out. I spent the next 3 years having surgeries and the yard just sat there… a giant mud pit covered with weeds.

This year though, I’m feeling better and we’ve started up on it again. Here’s a photo show of what we’ve done so far (click the thumbnail to open the images in a popup window… click them again to make the popup go away).

Mouse over the thumbnails to read a description.

2002 – 2003

We don’t have any pictures of the next step, putting in the foundation for the retaining wall and the isntalation of the retaining wall itself, which happend tward the end of 2003. If I did have pictures, they would simply show the yard covered in black plastic… for two years. Yeah… my neighbors loved me.

I do, however, have a few pics for your viewing pleasure of where we’re currently at in 2005. We purchased some Iron Mountain pavers and 3 tons of brick to create a path (along the drive way) and a patio (in the lower part of the yard). Hopefully it looks good when it’s done.

The brick came on the 3 pallets shown on top of the pile in the garage. My wife and I decided on Saturday to get them in the garage before the neighborhood hoodlums decided to grab a few of them and insert them into the neighborhood cars via the windshields. We took 2 bricks from each pallet and started making a stack (to mix the various pallets and therefore keep the color consistent).

I helped for about an hour until my back got angry at me. My wife kept going for the next two hours. Then I came back out and we finished it. Good times!

Of couse, there’s still a ton left to do. We need to dig about 5 inches down where we plan on placing the brick (a path along side the driveway and the whole lower yard will be a patio). Then we fill it with 4 inches of gravel (compacted) and 1 inch of sand. Then we can finally palce the brick.

We hope to be done with this little project sometime before July of 2042.