8/7/13

As you may have noticed, there were no rants last week.  Of course as I'm typing this, it is still “last week” to you as it is Wednesday the 7^th for me.  I held out as long as I could but there is only so much solitaire one can play in a week.  Oh, I guess I otter ‘splain why there weren’t any rants last week: John just moved and wouldn’t have intergooglewebs until this week… or at least that was what he told me.  Anyhoo, my options were don’t rant all week and take it up again next week, or archive the rants so he could post them when he does get back on-web.  As I said, I tried to hold off but finally got too bored.  So here’s what we did Saturday.  First off, the previous week was my week to feed the cats in the Marketing shrubs.  I got an e-mail Friday saying that the lady who lives in the area and feeds the cats on the weekends wouldn’t be available Saturday the 3^rd.  I said I was going to be in the neighborhood, as I would be helping John move, and would drop by to feed them Saturday.  Also on Saturday they were re-installing the train cars that had been in Kansas for the last year being renovated.  I'd been told they weren’t coming back until 0900 h but when I got there to feed the cats, the first car was already in place.  I fed Elvis and The Colonel and then drove up to the upper deck of the parking garage to watch them lift the second car into place… the crane people, not the cats.  Cats are cool, but they aren’t “lifting train cars” cool.  Anyhoo, I watched them hook up one crane to the front end of the car and lift it up off of the eighteen-wheeler which had driven it over from Saginaw yard.  When the truck pulled out, I realized a second crane was lifting the rear of the car… duh, but I hadn’t seen it being hooked up and stuff because of a tree.  The car swung from the cranes as they moved the front end over the rail truck already in place on the tracks.  Once that end was done, they hooked a fork lift to the truck and drug the car forward to its final location… sort of.  It was still askew on the tracks as the second crane was on the road next to them and the second set of trucks was not on the tracks yet.  “How the fuck,” I asked myself, “are they going to get that second set of trucks in place?”  I watched.  They took the first crane, the one which had lifted the front of the car onto the front trucks, and lifted the second set of trucks up and over to set them on the tracks.  Oh, it was far scarier than I can possibly describe it.  I took pictures of that operation but even they don’t convey just how friggin’ high they lifted the thing over the top of the train car, trees, the second crane, and everything.  They had those cranes all entangled and stuff… it was scary.  They set the trucks on the track and then the rear of the car on the trucks.  By now it was time for me to be at John's house so I left.  We loaded most of the Roper’s belongings onto a U-Haul and into the back of Fifi then headed to the new house.  We unloaded the U-Haul then Fifi then began talking lunch and more move plans.  Samantha and John Ullom took the kids to lunch while John and… oh, I've forgotten his name now… John's “Pat” took the U-Haul back and went to the old house.  I took Fifi to the old shop and picked up the trailer so we could move the 610 while we were all still able to do that much work.  Eventually I got the trailer to the old house and we loaded the 610 and a bunch of boxes on/in the Fifi/trailer rig.  We then went to Whataburger for lunch at 1530 h and finally to the new house.  We dropped the 610 and boxes off then discussed what to do next.  It was decided that John would return the trailer and be done moving for the day.  The rest of us were dismissed and thanked for the help.  As I followed Fifi and the trailer onto the freeway, it occurred to me that driving all the way across town to the old shop was dumb.  I called John and asked if he’d rather drop it at the new shop.  He would and we did.  Now I'm wondering if he had been planning to drop it there the whole time without telling me.  Meh, I don’t care.  We stuck our noses into the building to see if the desks and stuff had finally been removed and they had so we rejoiced.  We locked up and left.  Now usually I would stop here and save Sunday’s tale for tomorrow but since you won't get this until next week I might as well go on.  Sunday I waited for mom to get home from church and we went to lunch.  It was my turn to decide so she made a few suggestions.  I chose Genghis Grill.  They have changed their setup once again… and not for the better.  The food was still good, but… well, I don’t know.  I'm not happy with the place any more.  After lunch I decided to go shoot to get ready for the CHL renewal class in two weeks.  I took the 1911, Monty, and the 9mm, Smitty, along with 100 rounds of .45 ACP and 100 rounds of 9mm ammo to the range in Whiskey Flats.  I shot a couple mags of 9mm… and sucked.  I decided to change to the .45… and kept sucking.  I shot all 100 rounds of .45 ACP and wiped down the gun.  I was on the silhouette with all but one bullet so I'm not totally worthless as a shooter… but I was not happy with my accuracy.  I finished off the 100 rounds of 9mm and was slightly better with that gun, which surprised me.  The 1911 has a single-action trigger which just requires a slight pressure to set the thing off.  Smitty has a double-action trigger which requires a really long pull as it has to cock the firing pin before letting go and firing.  I fingered the SA gun would be the more accurate but I was wrong.  Of course the fact that I can't see the friggin’ sights worth a shit may have had something to do with it.  So, I have decided that I'm going to take the class with the gun I carry all the time and not Monty after all.  Monday and Tuesday at work were pretty uneventful.  I sent in the registration form for the BNSF Family Day car show indicating that I would show The Seven once again.  Then I realized John had never given me an opinion on whether he thought it might be possible to get Lil' Wiggly done in time.  I sent him a text asking for an honest appraisal.  He called to discuss it.  It was decided that we would postpone the majority of the move until October so it wouldn’t be… well, August in Texas when we moved.  Then we will try to finish up Lil' Wiggly in the five weekends we have before the event.  This Saturday, last Saturday for y'all, we will move his car and everything we have for the Lil' Wiggly project to the new shop and get back to work on Lil' Wiggly on the 24^th after I take a Saturday off for the CHL class.  Once we’d made that decision, I sent in another entry form for the BNSFFDCS for Lil' Wiggly… just in case we make it.  Well, they are serving Chicken Tikka Masala in the cafeteria today so I'm going to go ride around with Larry for half an hour then eat.  Smell ya later.