I don't do hair

Nothing new to those who know me in real life. I've always gotten my hair cut in styles that allowed me to run a comb through it once in the morning and leave it alone. I get lost when it comes to my girls though. I'll admit it, when they spend time with just me, they don't enjoy the benefits of high fashion. We do have plenty of fun though. Today we had some time for dress up.


And, since we're doing adorable pictures;

Archives?

What? Not only have I had a blog for several months without losing interest, but I've actually been posting. I actually have archives! I'm amazed at my own tenacity, or lack of outdoor hobbies. Not only am I amazed at myself, I'm amazed with you. You're obviously just as bored as me!! Some people have actually linked to me.

I haven't felt this special since I helped organize our 10 year reunion and never got any credit for it (not that I'm bitter at all....f ing cheerleaders.). Seriously, I ran an alumni website for several years, tracked people down, and set up an online registration and payment form for the ASB class prez, and when she stood to make a speech at the reunion, thanked about 8 other people (Okay, maybe a little bitter).

Which reminds me, I need to set that website back up. I used to host several sites, and they all got wiped by my web hosting provider about a year and a half ago, but that's a much longer story. The point is, I really need to set that site back up because it was fun seeing all of the students reconnect and hear their stories. But I won't leave you. I could never turn my back on all 3 faithful readers....

Meet....Me!

I realized that my profile picture isn't the easiest to decipher, and many of you don't know me in "real life." My photo gallery is having issues, so here's a crappy webcam picture to help!

Fluorescent lamps do wonders at almost 11 PM.




And here's that profile picture in all its two-dogs-and-a-turtle-napping glory:



















And quite literally the only picture I have of myself from when I was in the Army - and my best friend Ken had his head down because we were laughing so hard.

Burned on eBay

Okay, its no secret that I love tools. I'm an electrician, which means I have to have tools for electrical, electronics, carpentry, plumbing, drywall, metalworking and general mechanics. Add a love of cars, trucks, and motorcycles, and, well the friendly folks at Sears and Home Depot send me Christmas cards. So it was no big surprise even to my wife when I decided it was time to upgrade some of my power tools. I have nearly the complete line of 18 volt DeWalt (the professional arm of Black and Decker) tools, and some of the batteries were starting to fade after years of hard work. DeWalt has a new line of Lithium Ion tools and batteries out that are also backwards compatible. The choice was easy, I could replace and upgrade at the same time!!

My drill takes the largest beating at work, and the new batteries fit a little different, so I went ahead and bought a new drill with a battery and charger, as well as a double charger and three additional batteries (Yes, the batteries are expensive, but by having several of them, they get rotated slower and have time to cool off between charging and draining, which makes them last much longer. I typically work with 4-6 batteries between 2-5 tools during a day.). So this drill looked like a winner, and The seller had a decent rating, so I snagged it....

In large print it states, "This is a brand new item and is not a refurbished or used." Cool. Poor English, but at least it's new and not a pawn item.

Clue #1 So that was May 11. Today (the 27th) it finally arrived - Priority Mail. WTF?! The auction didn't mention the shipping type, just that it was via USPS. I had assumed that it was sent "slow boat," which is common here in Hawaii. We don't exactly have a "ground" route to the islands, so anything cheaper than 2nd day shipping takes about 2 weeks to arrive. Priority mail always makes it in 2 days from the time it is shipped.

Clue #2 I examine the box. The drill, charger, and battery are crammed into a flat rate Priority Mail box. This can't be a good start.

Clue #3 Individually bagged within the box. Not exactly what you'd classically call "padding."

Clue #4 Everything looking good so far....what the?










Okay, maybe they just had dirty hands when they were packing. I mean, the auction said it was absolutely new after all.










Clue #5 Funny, that trigger looks a little worn.



Clue #5 Cracked case and broken seal




All of this I could still take in stride, until I pulled the trigger; nothing. All right, I'll try another battery; nothing. Not only had this thing been worked on, it had been done poorly. the case halves don't even close at the trigger, and the forward/reverse switch is so loose it rattles. It appears as if this drill were scavenged for parts, because everything is immaculate except for the trigger, which is well worn and doesn't work.

Clue #6 Hey, what is that paper? Spam? Great. As if I don't get enough of th....WTF?! Why in the hell is it dated the 19th if I purchased on the 11th and got a ship notice from USPS on the 14th!?













[**** This is a post-only message. Please do not respond. ****
Dear RANDALL BENNETT,

This ship notification is being sent to you by the U.S. Postal Service at the request of XXX XXXXX. If the "Shipped To" address information is not correct, please contact the Shipper.

A package with a Click-N-Ship label created on usps.com containing the following information is scheduled to be shipped on 05/14/2008.

From:	Shipped to:
XXX XXXXX xxx Xxxxxxxxxxxxx XXXXXX XXXX xxxxx-xxxx	RANDALL BENNETT xxxxxxxxxxxxxx KAILUA HI 96734-xxxx

Type of Service: Delivery Confirmation™
Label Number: 0103 8555 7494 xxxx xxxx
To check on the delivery status of your package, please go to Track and Confirm at www.usps.com.

Thank you,
United States Postal Service

**Please do not respond to this email. Any reply will not be received by the USPS or the shipper. This email was sent to you at the shipper's request to notify you that the information above has been electronically sent to the USPS.]

This seemed beyond carelessness. It was bad enough being strung along for a couple weeks, but to get a broken tool that's been tampered with in insufficient packaging is too far. Now I understand all the defiant statements on their auction about how to (and not to) contact them, the time limits on returns based on when the shipping labels are printed, etc.

**Update** To their credit, they were very easy to deal with once I contacted them. They immediately shipped me a replacement drill along with prepaid return postage for the damaged one. I was also sent numerous apologies. I don't know whether the drill was drop-shipped, or they just do too much volume to individually inspect all of their items, and I guess I can't really blame them in either case. I did feel that it was poorly packaged and that something, be it USPS or not, severely delayed the shipment. Out of good faith I have removed all references to them in the post and comments though since their follow-up service was outstanding. I'd rather give an ambiguous review than name names since I cannot guarantee any facts in the matter. I'm sure all four of my readers were not heavily swayed in their shopping preferences.

Home redemption

We just signed the sale contract yesterday to buy the home we've been renting for the last year. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!!!!!!!!!!! More important than no longer throwing money down the drain as rent, I'm no longer throwing money down the drain as improvements. I like to fix things, and tinker. That's no great secret. My wife, my credit card, and Home Depot know that all too well. I've invested quite a bit into this house over the last year in improvements that I never claimed to the owners. Mainly, because they weren't required. They were gracious enough to allow me to tinker as much as I liked on this old house as long as it was an improvement. I added and replaced several lights, added GFCI protected receptacles in the garage, front and back yards, and in the eves for Christmas lighting. I networked the home with RG6 and CAT5e for TV and internet, and set up a network center in the utility room. My wife and I have both done quite a bit of yard work, too.

Suddenly all of that time and money is no longer wasted, and that felt good. We celebrated by ripping up a bunch of the old concrete burms that made up the property lines 50 years ago and hauling them away. Imagine concrete about the size and shape of those parking lot tire stops. These things were poured-in-place and ran the entire length from the street to the back fence - about 120 feet. I wish I had taken a picture of it, but my poor little truck scraped the mud flaps as I drove off to the dump with about 1500 pounds of old concrete in the bed. I had to air up all four tires before I left, and then let air back out before I left the dump. Although the rear springs strained, my happy V6 thoroughly enjoyed the challenge and pulled it all with no complaints.

One more happy Danger Ranger memory, and one more reason to be sad if we have another kid. Unfortunately, you can't (properly) fit 2 car seats into a Ranger, and while everyone else sees fit to make midsize crew cab 4 door pickups, Ford makes that bastard bobbed-tail Explorer called the Sport Trac. Other countries like Australia, South Africa, and South America get one, though. I don't want a modified sport utility, I want a truck!

But I regress. Now that all of our work will pay off in some fashon or another, there is suddenly a metric buttload more work to be done.....

Just say no to turtle soup!!

This is how tankers take care of turtle-haters...



-Gunner, HEAT, Chef!
-Identified!
-UP!
-Fire!
-On the waaay!!!
-Target! target! Cease fire.

Ahhh, I miss my Abrams. Love to Muppet fans and all my brothers in Armor...

I'd like to thank you all...

for my newest addiction. Some would call them hobbies, but I'm sometimes too passionate to just call them that. I've had many. Trucks & off-roading, motorcycles, drafting, CB & Ham radio, music, mountain biking, building computers, building websites, electronics, genealogy, and electrical (yeah, I'm an electrician, but I am constantly researching and tinkering with the latest and greatest in the industry, usually on my own time, and I love it).

Blogging is fun, and I'm starting to understand why everyone has such friggin long reading lists. I now go through withdrawals when you people don't post for a couple days. I'm still feeling this whole thing out, and have yet to come up with a unifying theme or purpose to make this truly interesting. So far, the only consistent thing is that I start writing to blow off steam, which lands almost every post with a "gripes" tag and makes me look more and more like a whiny bitch. I'm a Virgo, and they're supposed to like order. You'd never know it from looking at my house, my shop, or my truck. They're all a mess right now.

So thank you Gina for getting me into this. I love you like a sister. How long have we known each other for now? 16 years? Holy crap!!! No, not you Gina. One of the dogs just bombed me with a broccoli fart.....

Sometimes I question their breeding... Anyways, Thank you all for reading. All 3 of you. I've finally decided that the experimental phase of this is over and I will put a proper link to my blog on the rest of my site - for the other 2 visitors.

Aloha

Instant weight loss

Good child care is wonderful. My mom stayed home with me until I entered Kindergarten because she and dad believed that the benefits were worth the loss in potential income of two working parents. I tend to agree. Unfortunately, Wife and I already have well-established good-paying careers and it's just not very appealing to think of both of us renting a house and driving today's equivalent of the lime green and lemon yellow Ford Pintos that my parents did as they struggled *shudder*. The alternative is high quality and very expensive child care. Not a live in nanny or anything. We call it "school," because for all intents and purposes this is as close as a 1 year old can come to school. They play indoors and out, sing, read books, paint and do arts and crafts, and eat off of plates and drink out of cups (pacifiers and bottles are strictly prohibited!). Younger daughter gets great socialization skills and probably more mental stimulation that if I were to stay home with her. And then here comes the big, glaring, flaming negative: Colds.

I don't know what it is about herds of little kids, but they just seem to be sick magnets. Constantly acquiring and sharing new breeds of viruses until it blends into one giant snotfest. The latest gift my daughter has brought home (just in time for Mother's Day!) was a wonderful stomach flu. I've lost 6 pounds, or roughly 3/4 of a gallon, of fluids in the last two days from a netherregion where only solids should emerge.

The good news is I'm down to 170 lbs, which is where I'd prefer to be. The bad news is that I'll regain that weight as soon as I fix my leaking sieve. Perhaps I should try less than 6 sodas a day (I have been drinking only water and Gatorade while sick, but the Coke in the fridge still calls to me...) and a little more exercise, but that would be both tortuous and, well, work. I get enough work at work. Truth be told, I'd probably weigh closer to 190 if I didn't spend all day sweating, climbing ladders, crawling around houses and buildings, and making 50 trips to the utility truck with 20 lbs of tools strapped around my waist. I haven't liked voluntary exercise since High School. But I do love my job and the fact that it keeps me up and moving every day. Somehow, It's a lot easier when you're getting paid and there's tools involved. Uh!Uh!Uh! I'm suddenly feeling very Tim Allen. I think I'll grab my Sears Tool catalog and head to the bathroom. I'd better grab some extra paper, too...

Rain, rain

It hasn't rained much lately. That's a comparative statement, of course. It has probably rained more in the last month than it usually did all year in San Diego, but the plants are wilting a little. I hate to sound cheap, but I really don't want to water them too much because water is expensive here. I know I'm a hypocrite. I'll run BOINC on the computer 24/7 to benefit science but I'm stingy with water for the plants - and utilities are included in the rent.

Truth is I like the rain. I miss the seasons, too. Not San Diego's version of hot summer and cold summer ( here we have hot summer and warm summer). I miss the Midwest kind of seasons with a real spring, summer, fall and winter with SNOW. Besides, the rain is mostly unobtrusive here, blowing in for 5 or 10 minutes and then going away. It breaks up the monotony and keeps everything green.

Getting old

Granted, I was young when I had her, but my Older Daughter is now 10. I talked to her on the phone today, and it was quite something. It's usually hit-or-miss with her, and today was a hit. Basically, I listened for about 40 minutes as she jabbered away all the latest gossip of a 10 year old in Kentucky. It really was quite hilarious. I miss her so much, but she'll be here for the summer soon. It will be a big blur and then she'll go back home. 3 short weekends and 4 weeks of afternoons & evenings are all I will have to spend with her. It gets harder and harder to try to make up for lost time as she gets older. She's incredibly smart, and has lived through some very tough times. Did I mention she's 10? I can remember when I was 10. It was 1986, and it doesn't seem like that long ago....