February 27 Slacker Girls

The temperature dropped all day as the wind picked up. I worked 12 hours in that crap, my truck broke down in my driveway and this is what I came home to. Chrissy sitting on the couch eating bon bons with Fluffy. So what's on TV, fucking American Idol. This is another example of why America is declining. No "welcome home sweetie", no dog bringing me my slippers but wait...Chrissy did make calzones for dinner. OK things are looking up. How about dessert? Chrissy made cookies earlier in the week, they are in the cookie jar. How 1950's, Ozzie & Harriet-like. How about a little after dinner action? Whoa, I must be dreaming, was that a possible gleam in her eyes. NOPE. She has to watch the results show for American Idol. She DVR'd the shows from earlier this week. OK no sex again. But at least she's thinking by recording American Idol, because if there ever was a show that should be fast forwarded through the crap, it's American Idol.

February 26 Today's Forecast...Foggy

Sure this is a picture of a foggy road. And yes it was extremely foggy this morning. But I'm not referring to the weather here. It was foggy in my head. After winning our hockey game last night, about half the team decided to celebrate at Jimmys Restaurant. This is a strange name for a place without a food menu. You can only imagine how shocked we were to find out it is a strip club. We were so shocked we stayed until 3am. So now you know why the fog in my head today was thicker than the fog in this picture.

February 25 Our Walk Downtown

Today was one of those days that gives you hope that winter is coming to an end. The temperature rose all day long. By late afternoon the sun came out and the temperature felt like 60 degrees. We decided to take the dogs for a walk and support our local downtown merchants. We got carry out dinners at the new Mexican place. While waiting for the food, I ran to the liquor store to pick up beer for my hockey game. It was my turn to fill the Stanley Bucket with some post game drinks. Oslo spotted a dog in one of the parked cars. It was a huge bull mastiff with a head twice the size of Oslo's giant melon. He was just sitting in the back seat of the car as mellow as could be. His owner told me he weighs 140 lbs, which is about 35 more than Oslo. For those sports fans out there, we won our game 8-1 and finished the season in third place.

February 24 The Fat Man Salad

OK, the picture gives it away. Here's the story. Years ago, I was on the phone with my friend, Rick Voss. He says, "Hold on a minute, I gotta order a fat man salad." Then I hear him at the Dairy Queen drive up window ordering an Oreo Cookie Blizzard. When he gets back on the phone, I'm still laughing my ass off about the Fat Man Salad. So let's give Rick credit for renaming the blizzard. Since it is Fat Tuesday, I decided to put my "Commitment To Excellence" on hold for a day and have a Heath Bar Fat Man Salad. Damn, a thousand calories never tasted so good.

February 23 Easy Money

6 lbs of aluminum cans
18 lbs of sheet aluminum
58 lbs of copper wire
8 lbs of cast aluminum
29 lbs of brass
320 lbs of iron scrap
That is what I recycled today at Metro Recyclers. I got enough money to pay for a dinner for two at Café Borgia. Every bit of that would have been thrown in the garbage. For the past few years, I have taken anything recyclable from my house or my job and filled up several cans with this garbage. When the cans get full I take them to the scrap yard and make a few spare dollars. It doesn't take much time or space and I can feel like I'm doing something productive. Try it yourself and I'll meet you at Café Borgia which just happens to be across the street from a former garbage dump.

February 22 My Dog Day

It has been too long since I took my dogs out for a walk in the woods. So early this morning, they realized I wasn't going to work. The each took turns trying to wake me up. I eventually gave up trying to get some sleep and bundled up for a day with my dogs. It is a beautiful sunny day so I brought my camera for the walk. We hiked through Brownell Woods. (Note to Cook County Forest Preserve, why are all the parking lots blocked off in Thornton?) Oslo found fresh deer tracks in the snow and was frantic to follow them. Fluffy did her usual slow pace about 20 feet behind us. There was a sign that spring is coming, I heard birds chirping today. During the winter, I only hear the occasional woodpecker at work. I did see a woodpecker going at a tree last year on a bitterly cold day. I don't know enough about birds to know if they usually migrate or not. The only other sounds I hear are the twigs snapping when the deer run or the train whistle from nearby tracks. Today we walking along the tracks then through a field back to the car. The picture is of the backside of the Thornton Quarry. I think it is the biggest limestone quarry in the world. After we got home, both dogs passed out in the living room, so I took a nap on the couch. I'm going to spend my day just like my dogs. So goodbye for now, I gotta go pee in the yard. Happy Birthday to my German Grandfather, he would have been 92 today.

February 21 My Blustery Day

Old man winter decided to visit again. The local weathermen hyped it as a big winter storm. Overnight we got about 2" of snow but that was it for the whole day. The wind did pick up to about 30 mph which made it feel much colder than 20 degrees. It also caused the snow to blow around all day. I had to run an emergency call with a pipe fitter, Rich. We had to find a leak in the pipe to a diesel pump and replace it. This job wouldn't have been too bad except it was in Bumfuck, IL and the wind blew across the open fields surrounding the station at what seemed like gale force winds. We saw small farm animals flying by in the wind. I kept looking for that asshole from the Weather Channel to do a live shot standing in the road. So to passed the time, I sang this song from Winnie The Pooh's "Blustery Day".
Hum dum dum ditty dum
Hum dum dum

Oh the wind is lashing lustily
And the trees are thrashing thrustily
And the leaves are rustling gustily
So it's rather safe to say
That it seems that it may turn out to be
It feels that it will undoubtedly
It looks like a rather blustery day, today
It sounds that it may turn out to be
Feels that it will undoubtedly
Looks like a rather blustery day today

When I got home, I sat on the couch and ate a pot of honey.