Hell

I rented a room in a place that I will call hell. Only the moron who runs the place made the mistake of bragging about being a mormon. Fool!!

He's a convert, a bible thumping idiot who needs to thump a bible to keep from thinking about how he lives his life, day to day. Well, he doesn't realize that the temple has elders and a system of justice, and that system of justice protects everyone, mormons and the rest of us too. The owner of the property is a mormon too. So he uses a shill, an idiot tough guy convert, to do his dirty work. Both of them will be in mormon court, and perhaps local circuit court, and the health department will be here, as will be the fire department, inspecting. It's casual inspection that the plumbing has been done by a non licensed plumber. They're toast.

By the way, I was orientated by Union Cab today. Until I get fired, I'm a driver. Back in the saddle!!!!!!!

Yellow cabs

For many years, I felt that the company with the yellow cabs was the best place to drive. The only problem was I didn't think I could get in, or I was already driving a red and white one, depending on when it was. I kind of envied our drivers who got fired and ended up driving yellow cabs. So, I went and applied in June, I think.

First they said they couldn't have me because I'd concealed my criminal past. Criminal past? The application specifically said felony's and misdemeanor's, I pointed that out and admitted I was in the data base, but for what's called an ordinance violation. A lesser thing. Ok, so they had to interview me. I kept going back each time expecting them to say, 'Well, we can't have you because..........' Only, that didn't happen. The final time, yesterday, after that interview I was told that I was hired, and they gave me all the caveats, you can be fired for this that and the next thing.

What does it really mean? I'm not sure. I do know this, if March 15th rolls around next year and I'm still driving a yellow cab I'll think real seriously about throwing a big cab drivers party. I haven't been to one since Jack Jensen died, no, check that, we had one for Duane, and we had one for Club, but both of them were somber events, both were about to die. I think the last great cab drivers party, one where everyone was happy, was at Jensen's house, before he was diagnosed with cancer.

I won't give any excuses. I will take any and all abuse from the public, do anything the dispatcher asks of me, and do all the other things. Other things? Yes, check the tire pressure, wear the seat belt, fill out the paperwork correctly and put in the full amount of money. If I can't say something nice to another yellow cab person, say nothing at all. I don't have to attend the meetings though. How's that? Well, I'm not a member of the coop until I've been there 6 months, so I can't participate until I'm a member. Going to meetings is a responsibility of members, and if and when I'm a member I'll go to them, but until I'm a member, I won't take the risk that some member won't like me. Low profile, that's how I'm going to be for the first 6 months.

Wish me luck!!

Small town cops

A small town cop just came on private property to tell me I could get a ticket for my dog being off leash. My dog can be off leash on private property. The way he said South Beloit, made it sound like South Beloit is someplace special. South Beloit is special, in 2o days I've had 2 contacts with the police, they can go to hell. I'll leave here and never come back to this bull shit community again. I normally go YEARS without contacts with police, I'm not a criminal, I don't cause trouble, I'll never spend a cent here again.

I'm sure that asshole missed the ordinance that prohibits working on your car in your driveway. If they don't have such an ordinance then the city fathers have missed a shot, they have such an ordinance in Madison. It is illegal to fix your car in your own driveway in Madison.

Chinese, and brunch at Charlie Browns.

Charlie Brown's isn't there any more. It's called Mary's now. It's a bacon and eggs joint in South Beloit. Years ago, I had this personal named Larry who had me drive him to Charlie Brown's so he could have breakfast here at 1:00 am. They say Larry is still around, I haven't seen him in at least 10 years. The service here is good, and I'm the only customer who isn't a local. I have to love joints like this.

I continue to attract comments in Chinese. I delete them all.

My PC died again last night, sigh..... I guess I'm stuck with replacing it. I'll take it to DO-IT and have it reformatted, AGAIN, but I'll take it to storage after I get it back. It's officially become an emergency spare computer, and I guess I'll have to buy a new one. It's actually pretty amazing how nice a computer you can get for 5-6 hundred bucks. I'm doing this post on my Apple, it's as slow as a 1990 vintage machine, but I guess I'll have to get used to it for a while.

Yesterday I bought a work truck. Today I will print out a few more business cards, the ones I have are buried in storage someplace. Print out copies of this agreement, both as a barn demolition agreement and as a welding agreement. Cover letter, and resume, which (thank god) are saved in an email I sent someone when they asked me to apply for a pipe welding job.

Resume for a welding job? How pretentious, but that's the modern norm. I guess.... I listed 9 previous employers and my own current LLC, and initially thought I'd left 3 off. I was wrong. I left at least 7 off. 16 previous employers? Yes, perhaps I've forgotten even more. Let's see, Wisconsin Steel Erectors, Speedway, Johnson, Victory,S&E....... Who are the other 2? It's bad when you can't even remember who you've worked for. Worse is when you look back on your career and none of them are still in business.

If it's steel and it's broken, I can probably fix it.

A brief explanation of steel welding repairs:

Most modern steel is cold rolled and has tinsel strength of 35 kips. In English this means it takes 35,000 pounds pull to snap a 1 square inch cross section of steel. The first 2 numbers of a welding rod description are the tinsel strength of the welding rod, so an E7018 welding rod is depositing steel that is twice as strong as the piece being repaired. The second 2 numbers describe the coating. The 18 in 7018 tells you the rod is low hydrogen, the coating and slag absorb hydrogen. When hydrogen from the air is incorporated in steel it makes the steel more brittle which is undesirable. Most repairs should be done with 7018.

Why do repairs break at the weld? Properly done repairs don't. Poorly done repairs often have a groove between the weld and the base metal, this is called undercut. It has the same effect as cutting a grove in a chain link, that's where it's going to break, and it accumulates stress. The other primary cause of welds breaking is inclusions. Failure to clean the weld between multiple pass's leads to inclusions, which look a lot like cavities in a dentist's X-ray. When welds are X-rayed, it is to discover these flaws. I've never had an X-rayed weld rejected, but I have repaired a large number of them. Most of the ones I repaired live in the Point Beach nuclear power plant.

The key to a high quality repair is to begin with the best fit possible. This is the first step. Achieving the best fit possible sometimes takes a little longer, but it is always time well spent. The best fit retains the original dimensions the manufacturer used, which means it will work like it did when it was new. Changing the dimensions can cause further breakage in other places, it should never be acceptable.

On site fabrication is also available. Need a gate, fuel tank, or custom trailer? I can make these things for you and give you exactly what you want instead of the closest thing available at the store. It may even be cheaper than the store, depending on what it is, and who buys the materials, you or me.

I hereby release, waive, discharge and covenant not to sue and hold harmless from any and all liability, claims, costs and expenses whatsoever arising out of or related to any loss, damage, or injury, that may be sustained in the dismantling process of the barn or removal of that barn located on the property of ______________________________________,

at or near _______________________________________.

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date

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I agree to pay the hourly fee for welding and repairs done by Randall Portable Welding on this and subsequent dates.

I further hereby release, waive, discharge and covenant not to sue and hold harmless from any and all liability, claims, costs and expenses whatsoever arising out of or related to any loss, damage, or injury, that may be sustained in the process of doing this work. The welding contractor mutually agrees to hold the customer harmless.

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date

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date

Buying a new vehicle

The first one I called back for a second look, the guy said he sold yesterday. So, I guess it was priced right. That one created a slight problem anyhow, I like my little S10, ratty as it is. As Jerry at the cab garage said, I know what I've got. It's on it's last legs, the mechanical part of it is ok, but the body was shot 3 years ago. I shouldn't say that, it needs a brake pad at the moment.

Disk brakes have a little metal scraper that makes a squeaking sound when the pad gets worn down. It's telling you something. Ignore that squeaking sound, and you will be getting towed and replacing that disk. Since that guy sold that nice little Sonoma, I can get Dave to put brake pads on it. The mechanic sees it as throwing money out the window, but I don't know how long I'm keeping it at this point. So, it's not throwing money out the window, I might still have it on Christmas.

Shopping for a new pickup truck.

I forgot how big a pain in the ass it is to shop for a vehicle. It takes at least 90 minutes per vehicle by the time you call the people and drive there. Then you get there and find out that the picture on Craigs List was taken 10 years ago. But I did see one I will look at tomorrow that was just sitting out on the street in Janesville.

I did see something that was exceptional while I was driving around though. A pair of turkeys, with 8 baby turkeys. The baby's were about 1/2 as tall as the adults, they might have weighed a pound each. It was cool.

I got a ticket today

The local cops like writing harmless tickets, eg. not wearing your seatbelt. So, I got such a ticket. In some ways a very good thing to happen. The cop told me I'd surrendered my CDL. OMG!!!!!! I never did such a thing, how did that get into the computer? Turns out that I surrendered my hazmat. What's a hazmat? Hazardous materials endorsement. I never used it anyhow, and in this modern age of homeland security who wants to comply with all the BS to keep this endorsement? Not me, so I dropped it. So I can't haul loads of paint thinner, big deal. But I need to know a cop sees this on the computer. So if another cop in timbuctoo says I don't have a license to drive the truck I'm driving I know what she sees and what to say, look closer and you'll see I'm ok. Only cost me $55.00. A decent investment I guess.