Most Liked Lifestyle Blogs (2,470)

When my husband and I were more newly married; one evening... he asked me what I wanted to do the next day. I said don't know. He said, well..aren't there things you want to do. I said yes. But..will get up in morning and see who broke out, what fell down, what broke..and that is what I will do. And if really lucky, might get to do something I want.
Sound asleep yesterday am cause didn't sleep til 3 am. Phone ringing... it is 8am! Answered and it was my tenant. He said huge limb fell and is resting on electric line to barn..what to do.
Said be right down. Got up and dressed and headed below.
He was firing up chainsaw. I said do you have rubber soles, yep..gloves...have pair for cutting. We went up to it. 8 inch diameter at least, elbow resting on ground, base hung on line maybe 6 inches. He trimmed branches which I dragged to brush pile behind barn. I said cut up, not down. He cut some. I said keep cutting, it will bounce off line. It did. Pulled insulator off tree, but line looks OK. Tore a piece of fascia off bodyshop but small and not into roof hardly. Something else to fix.
I said thanks load to dad's memory. Mom told him to cut that tree and he said, oh, can use the shade. Now I have a huge maple that is over shop and barn and lines.
Spent the rest of the day working around. Helped tenant unload two truck loads of wood into my woodshed.
Ask me why I hate waking up!

Last weekend I was carrying a car battery in a plastic case and cracked a fingernail. It was right up to the skin and I didn't want the hangnail to break off... so, I put a tiny amount of super glue on the nail to bond the loose piece back. Naturally, it only lasted a day and I had to trim the nail and redo the super glue treatment... twice.
It's a good thing my nails grow fast and I was able to trim the nail short getting past the part that was repaired.
Normally, I keep my nails less than 1/8" but when I'm busy (read: lazy) they are twice that. I know it's beyond the limits of 'good grooming' but... so be it.

Years ago, I worked with a lady who was from the Caribbean and took cosmetology in school. Part of her training was nails and hair. A few times I was the client (read: victim) so she could practice her skills.

At the time, I was doing drafting work with paper, pencil, erasers and plastic triangles. She trimmed my nails so short I couldn't pick up my tools. It was a few days like this until my nails grew out enough to pick up the triangle and thin metal erasing shield.

My brother used to bite his nails... nervous habit? Probably.
What a creepy feeling it must be not to have nails.
I would equate that to cutting a cats whiskers.
Let's see how far he could get sneaking around the bushes in pursuit of a bird.

Yesterday and today and tomorrow. And forecast is equally unpromising for the next 2 weeks. Can’t go swim, can’t go paddle. Sitting at home, posting stupid comments.

Harbal’s little frogs are all over the paths in the nearest forest. Can’t go there either: don’t want to stomp them to death, do I? Could be someone’s prince.

Supposed to be my vacation :/

A weather system has moved in and giving my province loads of rain as well as winds depending on where you are living that will get up to 180 kph. Where I am is being forecasted up to 120 kph

Good night to get wasted

I thought I might do something out of the ordinary again this weekend; I also thought it last weekend. There is very little chance of my doing anything out of the ordinary, but imagining that I could if I wanted to gives me something to look forward to. I don’t quite know how that works, but it does. Even though I know I won’t be doing anything, and even though I don’t know what I would do if I did do something, I can still, somehow, manage to look forward to it. Amazing.

I was told by a nurse practitioner that it’s considered smoking because of the nicotine.

Okay, so be it.

I’m not quitting because of that. So I’m a smoker. It’s better than being a falling down drunk in my opinion. Which I made a sport of not too long ago.

I still managed to keep a job in the midst of all that.

But today my sister caught me side by side on the road with my pipe in my mouth...

Will she tell my parents?

Who cares. I’ll tell them that I smoke now if they ask. I’ll also point out though that I’m treating people way better because I quit drinking. Also, myself.

I smoke because I have way too much anxiety.

What are you anxious about? My dad would ask.

Yes, what could I be anxious about when I have everything...

Right.

The inside of my car is a disgrace. The dashboard is thick in dust and the floor is covered in grit; I can hardy see out of the windscreen when the sun is shining directly onto it. I’ve tried to make myself clean it but my pleas keep falling on deaf ears; I simply can’t be persuaded. I know I could have the car valeted but I refuse to pay somebody to do a job that I’m perfectly capable of doing myself. I’m at my wit’s end; what can I do to make myself clean my car?

and checking it thrice. Taxes are done, no last minute rush to the post office. Client meeting today. the contractor is 4 weeks behind schedule and holding us up from completion. Car is making clicking sounds when I back-in and the mechanic in Delray said stop by Saturday so he can have a look. The rear brakes were replaced a few weeks ago. I suspect that's the problem, but I need to be in Miami Saturday for other reasons...

Two different places on the same morning... Singer Phil Collins did something like that. Performed a concert one morning in Europe, boarded a Concord and performed another morning concert in America.

A few weeks ago my neighbor asked to borrow my lawnmower. He's cut my grass when I'm busy so I didn't mind returning a favor. The big question was "Do you need gas?" He replied " No."
That was a mistake as 2 minutes into job and the mower stopped.
I asked to see the gas can and the top was cracked. I suspected dirt or water was in the can and now the carburetor was clogged.
So, I dropped the mower off at a local repair shop and they did maintenance (draining the oil, sharpen the blade, replacing the air filter) including pulling the carburetor apart and cleaning all the parts.
They called this morning to tell me the mower was ready for pick up.
I'll only cut a little today as I need to get back to my office and finish a quotation I wanted to send out yesterday.
Time to get out the SPF 70 sun block.

Alcoholics. My adult life has been involved in woodworking and cabinet manufacturing. The first few years it was in wood shops cutting parts, assembling cabinets, installing hardware and assisting installation crews. After, I used experience from college and learned to design, draft and engineer cabinets and furniture, moving out of the factory and into the office.

Some of the larger companies had journeymen carpenters who completed industrial arts courses and registered as skilled union workers. Those were the early days. As I got older, I found many of the large companies had gone bankrupt and closed their doors. Smaller shops with lower overhead became the norm.

This was years after soldiers came back from the Vietnam war and guys with talent looking for steady jobs took some woodworking classes and ended up in the cabinet business. That was the good part. The bad part was many of them had drug and alcohol addictions. All of them smoked and a few were still suffering nightmares as young men fighting for America came back with little support to get them 100%.

One of those guys was Murray. Skinny, tattoos everywhere, missing a few teeth and needed a few beers during the course of the day. Murray didn't drive. He lost his license on a DUI and came to work on a bicycle. He had a small ice chest strapped to the back of his bike and no one was allowed near it as he parked in the back of the shop near the bushes. We knew Murray went back there on lunch and cigarette breaks to chug a few beers. The owner knew Murray was a liability, but you can give him a shop drawing and he would give you a material list, cut all the parts and assemble some of the finest wall units you could hope for.

Murray didn't often miss work. It had to be something serious as he couldn't afford to be without pay. Maybe it was a run-in with the law for missing child support, but he was there first thing the next day eager to work.

I hired 'the Rock' a guy down from New York looking to make a clean start. We didn't ask and he didn't tell. Fantastic cabinetmaker. He didn't show up for work one Monday. We later found out he was in line at the check cashing store when someone popped a beer next to him. The entire weekend was a drinking binge and lucky for him the Veterans had him on the rehab program, cleaned him up and put him back on the street. He was good for a few months. The next time he went off the edge, involved cocaine and he wound up in jail. A jail fight knocked him out, put him in the hospital where he died.

The custom shop I worked at 8 years ago had 2 guys on house arrest wearing ankle bracelets and often they were visited by counselors/agents with breath analyzers, just to be sure they were clean. Hard life.

I'm in a different environment now. No longer directly connected to manufacture. I'm away from that crowd. Although I miss being directly connected to the manufacture of high-end custom furniture, I don't miss the problems surrounding it.

Thanks for reading my blog!