Hearse's Spot

New Desk

2007-12-12T17:52:00.001-06:00

New Desk, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

Got this custome desk from ebay.

152.50! solid oak. It rocks.

came out of a million dollar house in southlake.

that is all go back to work.

Burning Man

2007-10-10T22:31:00.001-06:00

IMG_2381, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

I was suppose to mail this to my Mom from Burning Man but I forgot. I figured I should post it here.

Dear Mom,

Hope everything at home is going ok. I thought I should write you and tell you about what its like at burning man. You always are asking me about it and I cant ever explain it right so maybe a letter will help.

We arrived on Sunday during a nice dust storm. The 2 ladies that took our tickets were real nice. One from Australia wasn’t wearing any clothes, the other one I think was from England. She was just topless. I guess they make them wear bottoms in England.
After we gave them out tickets and they said we could drive in we gave them presents. At burning man it’s a gifting society. There is no selling of anything. So we gave them tequila and Texas beer. They loved it.

The next stop was greeters. The lady there was topless also. But she was from the states. She asked us if we had been before and Katy said yes it was her 2nd time and my 3rd. She said then she didn’t need to spank us or explain things. We agreed although a spanking during the middle of a dust storm by a topless lady cant be bad can it? We also gave her some gifts, this time some vodka from Russia and Texas beer. She loved it.

We arrived at camp and wouldn’t you know it, but the ones that had already arrived had been setting up all day and were already tired and had started to party. It was hard to get them to help unload but we finally got everything unloaded. Katy and I started building our shelter that we would live in for the next 6 nights. It didn’t take long to understand why everyone was either naked or topless. Its hot out here!

We got our shelter up and then we laid out the stuff for out theme camp. Our theme camp was to decorate peoples bikes. Since you cant drive a car there (unless its an art car) everyone rides bikes. Well since its an arts festival its real cool to have a decorated bike. We were there to help you make your bike into an art piece.

We were tired so we went to bed early. About 11pm I think.

Monday morning I awoke before sunrise and watched it rise. Wow it was really awesome! Katy got up, we ate some breakfast (I had tequila sunrise, that’s tequila and orange juice with a splash of grenadine, need my vitamin C just like you taught me)

We got the rest of the theme camp together and finally opened at noon. Wow we didn’t realize how popular we would be. Very quickly we learned we had to get people in line.
Lucky for us we had a guy that had a bullhorn (it’s a model cmg6666 and its really cool, plays some funny stuff on it) We got to decorating bikes. People would come in and we had cloth they could use or fake flowers or pipe cleaners plus some little LED lights. It was really fun. If the girls were real pretty I would find my friend Wayward (they call him wayward cause he can dress up like a real pretty lady) to come help them as he is single and likes helping pretty girls.

Some of the problems we found out real quick were that more people wanted to decorate there bikes than we had space for. We got one of our campmates to control the line with his Bullhorn. At one point the people camped across the street from us sent there 10 yr old boy over to ask him to stop talking on it as it was messing with his dads tripping. It was at that point I realized that nothing my dad ever did to me was that bad. Can you imagine…”son go tell the neighbor to stop mowing his lawn as I am trying to trip right now”…that would have been funny.

We figured that the neighbor was joking so we asked our campmate to make sure he talked on his bullhorn all day long. I think our neighbors loved it!

Katy and I got real tired working in the camp all day and didn’t have enough energy to drive our bikes out into the “city” so we just set our chairs up in front of camp and watched everyone go by. Just as we were talking about how it would be nice to ride in an art car Naked Jim drives up in one asking if we want a ride. WOW what great timing.

Katy and I rode in the front with Naked Jim and went out into the city. It was dark and kind of hard to see all the people walking around without any lights on. For some reason people get stupid at Burning Man and think that everyone else has night vision or something. It took Naked Jims and my full attention to make sure we didn’t run over anyone. We got to calling people without lights on “darktards”. Not a real politically nice term but after a bit it got frustrating. By the end of the week I was calling them that to there face…

We saw some awesome art! I can’t explain it at all, but there are some imaginative and creative people in this world. WOW (by the way, naked Jim got his name cause he goes around naked all the time)

Tuesday morning about 4am during a total eclipse someone decided to burn the man a little early. So when we got up Tuesday morning the man was all charred. Was really exciting to here all about it and get everyone’s opinion of it. They took him down and started rebuilding him so they could burn him again Saturday night. Made perfect since to us.

Tuesday we did pretty much what we did Monday. We worked in the theme camp all day then just chilled at night. You see a lot of weird or wild things at burning man, but after the first day it really does not seem wild or weird anymore. I didn’t see anyone “tripping out” but I did see a lot of happy people. There are a lot of people that do drugs and a lot of drink, but you don’t have to do either one to have a real good time. Katy and I don’t do drugs at all (well alcohol but in moderation) and we had a blast. Some of our campmates don’t do either one and have a blast. Its hard to explain but there is a lot of live and let live and that fosters a big since of community? Or acceptance? No matter how weird, ugly, pretty, overweight, skinny, you are you are accepted for who you are and welcomed. Our campmates were from one end to the other! Me and katy the conservative married for over 20 yrs couple to the young artistic couple (katy adopted the girl as her burner daughter.) to the guy older than all of us. We had teachers, to waitresses to students in our camp and we all accepted each other. It’s a shame the rest of the world cant get along a tenth as well as we did.

Wednesday we decide we were not going to work in the theme camp that day, and let some of our campmates do it. At noon the World naked bike ride started going by. I asked them were they were going and they were heading to “our lady of schlongs” who were at 4:30 and landfill (the streets have names) so I asked katy if she wanted to join and she said sure. So did Tigger. So we took off after them. We caught them and went on the world naked bike ride. From our lady of schlongs we went to Barbie death camp and wine bistro. Then we headed over to another camp but forget the name. (that wine was stong!)
I got to see a 65 pontiac hearse and remembered you making the red curtains for mine! Was really cool. I got to missing my hearse.

I forget what else we did Wed. I think we had a lot of fun.

Thursday was a march for male rights, sorta. The name is not something I want to tell my mom but it was very fun. Our camp was one of the places they stopped and we serverd them Texas beer and water. It was way fun.
Then the real dust storm hit! Wow 40 to 50 mph wind and white outs it was so dusty. We had to do some major tying down of structures and actually had to take some down.

Friday….we went and saw some of our friends at various camps and went and checked out the art. Then we had another dust storm, then some slight rain, a triple rainbow then more wind. For some reason it was fun.

Saturday….the weather was nice and we checked out the art work all over the city. Then that night we watched the man burn again. It was not near as exciting as the last year, maybe because they had already burned him once that week and we figured out that we didn’t need a man to burn to develop a since of community with people?

Sunday morning early Katy rode out with Disco Deb and another lady and they all flew home. I drove back with Button and arrived home Tuesday.

There are many many many stories and details I left out. Sure a lot I would not tell my mom, but nothing I am ashamed of just embarrassed to tell mom. And yes it wasn’t all rose’s…..there were trials and tribulations…but we all got thru them and still had a great time.

If there were not so many naked people or if the dust storms were not so bad or if wasn’t so hot I would try and convince you and dad to rent an RV and come out. Well that and you have to bring in your own water and take out your own trash and you cant leave a trace you were ever there and you have to use porta potties all week, and the music and sounds are real loud all night long…and your 2 hours from the closest hospital, and and and…well guess its not for everyone but if you did go you would be accepted!

Mike aka ESE that is long for SA which is short for swiss army, my burner name given to me cause I am always fixing things, kind of like a swiss army knife, many tools.

trike

2007-07-18T20:32:00.001-06:00

IMG_1858, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

working on the rickshaw trike of death...

Finished

2007-07-10T09:50:00.001-06:00

IMG_1813, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

heres the finished trike!

It will never be truly finished, as I will be adding to it forever!

you can sit on the top!

I spent less than 200 bucks on this one! (not including the new tools I bought!)

its very stable, turns great, holds alot of weight. very nice trike!

Ice Chest!

2007-07-10T09:48:00.001-06:00

IMG_1825, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

this is the most important part!

ice chest holder!

Seat covers and headrest

2007-07-10T09:46:00.001-06:00

IMG_1821, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

Everyone that rode this said it needed headrest!

so we did!

how about those hippy seat covers!

rear brake

2007-07-10T09:45:00.001-06:00

IMG_1823, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

My rear brake.

instead of spending bucks for disc brake I "engineered" this.

works ok. along with front brake it will stop the bike.

steering and front brake

2007-07-10T09:44:00.001-06:00

IMG_1824, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

Thanks to some testing (thanks Circe and Dan) found out my front tie rod was to weak.

added bar to it and its pretty tought now!

front brake works ok.

Chase does brakes...

2007-06-27T18:02:00.001-06:00

IMG_1807, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

Katys truck needed rear breaks, what better person to do that than the 15 yr old that just got his learners permit.

Yes son, its lesson 27 subsection C. You must know how to change out break pads before you can get your license.

We are doing the parent taught drivers ed. So we make up our own lesson plans. Being the smart guy I am I figured that hands on instead of slides would be best.

Next is oil change.

HIllary knows how to put oil in her car. Although she did put 1/3 of a quart of tranny fluid in last time at least she caught it. She also knows how to change wipper blades and change a tire.

Teenagers can be good if you know how to work it!

burnt arms...

2007-06-16T21:25:00.001-06:00

IMG_1800, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

I burned both arms...welding on my new pedal car.

I was working on the top, observation part and had finished welding and went o jump up on top.....didnt mean for my arms to lay on the hot just welded metal...

Sad thing is I wear safety glasses at all times (never did growing up)
and I have about 20 pairs of gloves that I make everyone wear when they come over....including myself...

Just took a little slip and next thing you know I am saying words that would make my mom blush...

well that was lesson number 25,678 for me....

of course 4 hours later I cut my head on a pipe and bled some...and I have had that lesson before heck!

Right arm...

2007-06-16T21:21:00.001-06:00

IMG_1801, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

this is the lesser of the two burns!

Been working on wheel

2007-05-18T20:20:00.001-06:00

IMG_1755, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

This is the hub I made for my new pedal car.

The pedal car is going to be a two seat recumbent with a 2nd deck...

I am making the wheels. I had to manufacture the hubs as in this pic, then take a wheel apart and attach it to this hub. its pretty difficult.

but it worked.

Having a clean garage helps!

To this!

2007-05-18T20:18:00.001-06:00

IMG_1764, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

This is the wheel with 48 spokes attached...and finger tight.

This is gonna work.

Did you call your mom on Mothers Day?

2007-05-16T21:40:00.000-06:00

I did. I had to leave a message. Called later and it just rang. With over 10 brothers and sisters I figured she was talking to one of them.

so called the next day...(or 2 days later I am getting old) and had good chat.

Until I ask if all my brothers and sisters called her...Holly bat poo, four YES four did not call!

You know who you are you slimy piece of cow poo! She would not tell me exactly the ones, I think she is scared I might go George Bush on em and declare war...but I did figure out all but one have kids of there own...

How do you not call your mom on mothers day? I would have to ask but I dont think I ever forgot to call. Even when I was knee deep in the chit in Vietnam hunting Charlie I would stop down and call mom on mothers day!

Not only should you fell like crap, you should have a thousand flees infest your armpits!

Yea maybe good idea not to let me know who did not call...

I am my grandfathers grandson...

2007-05-14T19:51:00.001-06:00

IMG_1753, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

My moms dad was a huge do it yourself type of man. In his tradition, I needed a tool to take off a sprocket from a bike. They sell a real nice one at the bike shop for 22 bucks...yea right

I took a 26 cent bolt, ground it to the right size and welded it to a wrench...

the wrench cost a buck at any flea market..

now I have a buck 26 tool that is worth 22 bucks!

ha!

New Bench...clean garage

2007-05-10T13:16:00.001-06:00

IMG_1714, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

Cleaned up the garage and built a nice work bench...

Your gonna be my *itch...or April fools

2007-04-19T20:05:00.000-06:00

So Hillary turned 17 today....one year and one day from today and I can kick her out on her own, but until then we shall have some fun.

On april first I was at some friends in Dallas and get this call from Hillary, "Dad, snob snigg, you will have to get my truck towed home.....I had a wreck...sniff..."

ok Hillary what happened?

Well I got in a fight with a girl at work and got fired and mad and pealed out of the parking lot and hit a car and and and...

So yes I fell for it....

Hillary since she was 4 years old has lived for April fools day. and she got me good.

Her and her Grandmother (read MY MOTHER) like tricking me. Mom one time painted a sign and overlaid it on store sign saying "mikes moms crafts"...

well payback is a witch with a B

Yesterday at dinner I realized we had not done her TAXES...ooops
so we did them real quick (she gets a 10 dollar refund) we made mention of how we hoped she didnt get in trouble for doing them late etc...

she then drove over to my buddies house to get some garage sale items. I called my buddie and asked him to give her a story of a friend of his going to jail for not doing his taxes on time.....he did aweseome. gave a great story of "jack" not doing his taxes on time and spending 4 months in federal prison and becoming someones "Witch" with a B....

so Hillary calls me on her way home in a panic..."yea ohh I remmber Jack, yea he went to prison for a bit...yea I forgot about him...dang..well Hillary all we can do is get you a lawyer and maybe we can work something out with them" about this time she starts crying...so I say "hillary....I got you!"

she hung up on me...

ahhh life is good!

Dog House

2007-03-08T11:50:00.001-06:00

IMG_0789, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

Chase is building a dog house for his Aunt. She got the plans and we printed them out and he is doing all the rest.

Good thing his dad has allot of tools!

Its funny, up until a year or so ago I was always calling him to come hold something when I was building something, now the tables are turned. He has been calling me, "will you hold this up so I can attach this to it"

Now I am the gopher and he is the one in charge...

4 wheel car bike

2007-02-14T10:01:00.001-06:00

IMG_0760, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

Chase taking it on a test drive.

many issues. The front left wheel is welded crooked.

the steering does not work right.

its too tall

Its pretty heavy but not too bad. I can improve that.

But I think what I will do is take what I have learned from this and transfer that knowledge into a 2 person 2 story bike. I have parked this in the backyard and started building dirt bikes to sell, so I can have that money to build these weird things!

Tall bike number two

2007-02-11T11:11:00.001-06:00

IMG_0765, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

You take 2 20" bikes. weld one on top of the other. you lengthen the steering post. you redo the chain.

You get a kid to test it for you.

You have a tall bike!

I have 2 now so the kids can joust on them.

There pretty neat. you sit up twice as high so you can see much more.

Tall bike number two

2007-02-11T11:08:00.001-06:00

IMG_0764, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

Tall bike number two

2007-02-11T11:07:00.001-06:00

IMG_0766, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

This is the second tall bike I have built.

new washer and dryer

2007-01-31T16:39:00.001-06:00

IMG_0750, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

After 18 years of using the washer and dryer my father in law gave us for a wedding present (we didnt get it until a few years after we were married since we were living in apartments and moving all the time)
We finally broke down and got new ones.

Front loading, energy effecient stackable ones!

These uses 60% plus less water than the old and half the time to wash and mucho shorter to dry!

I picked them up one at a time on sale from Lowes..one was a return and I got it over half off.

also makes tons more room in the laundry area as you can see they stack and I built a bench to fold etc on.

Wish my mom had these when we were growing up, she would have loved them. You can wash more clothes at once plus they dry as fast as they wash.

It drives (sort of)

2007-01-28T16:23:00.001-06:00

IMG_0755, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

I just finished driving it down the street.
1. front left wheel is not straight. Have to reweld it.

2. Steering wheel as you can see is not straight.

3. Have to reweld the front pedal. Its not attached real well.

overall it pedals and rides better than my pvc one from last year. You sit up mucho higher and thats nice.

This design is gonna work, but will be best with 2 to 4 riders (IE pedalers) its pretty tough for one man.

The idea of being able to take it apart for transporting it is also going to work.

steering on!

2007-01-27T16:31:00.001-06:00

IMG_0754, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

Got some steering going southern engineering style!

took some work and a used "Razor scooter" but steeering looks to be working.

I have to move one crank forward and weld one more on then some chains and might be able to do some test driving.

this is the 4 person pedal car that I am making and should be able to break it down to smaller size for transporting.

we shall see

Pedal car

2007-01-27T16:26:00.001-06:00

IMG_0752, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

Wide shot, got fram together and steering started.

Burning Man 07

2007-01-18T21:31:00.001-06:00

bm07_theme, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

I got me and Katy's tickets to burning man 2007.

http://burningman.com/

Runaway, 9, sneaks on flight to Texas

2007-01-17T19:05:00.000-06:00

This headline makes you believe the story is that a kid snuke onto a flight...but the real story is deeper..

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070118/ap_on_re_us/airline_runaway_3

What gets me and what I think is the real story is the fact he stole not one car and was caught but it was the THIRD stolen car he had been caught in! 3 stolen cars and caught in a month! Holly cow! and his mom blames it on playstation 3 and the fact he hated where he lived! Wait just a redneck minute mom. Just what in the h e double hockey sticks are you doing as a parent. Your kid steals 3 cars? I say lock the mom up, move the kid to the marines (hes a bad ass and would be good at fighting the Iraq bad guys) and tell southwest to stop worrying about reality TV and get there ticketing correct.

And I bet donuts to bacon that his momma will not pay for the last stolen car because the neighbor had it running with no one in it. Oh its there fault for leaving there car running around my son who is known for car thievery, as a matter of fact I am getting a lawyer and suing them! and southwest and the San Antonio police and the Taliban...woohoo I hit the lottery!

Ok back to your boring lives, that is all.

Insert anything here

2007-01-14T22:34:00.000-06:00

A tourist walks into a curio shop and sees a life-like bronze statue of a rat.
He asks the salesmen, "How much?"
The salesman replied, "12 bucks for the rat and 100 bucks for the story."
The tourist says, "I'll just take the rat, thanks."
As soon as the tourist leaves the shop rats started crawling out of the sewers. There were a hundred rats, then a thousand, and then millions.
The tourist was running as fast as he could. He ran to the end of the pier and threw the bronze rat as far out into the lake as he could. All the other rats jumped after it and drowned.
The tourist walked back to the store.
The salesmen says, "Came back for the story, eh?"
The tourist replies, "No but I was wondering, do you have a statue of a Republican?"

new cutting torch...

2007-01-12T16:41:00.001-06:00

new cutting torch..., originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

I have always wanted a cutting torch but couldnt afford one.
they make a small kit (like the one pictured) for 300 bucks.

Me, I live by the rule of it should be at least half of retail.

So I put this one together from pieces bought at a flea market and a discount tool store for 145 bucks!

It rocks.

The war and history

2007-01-10T20:36:00.000-06:00

I have been thinking alot about the war in Iraq lately. Being a fan of history and realizing that GW didnt take history I always thought he was just clueless due to that fact. But as I myself try to figure it out I come to a fork in the road.

I try to compare it to Vietnam. They are so close. In vietnam you had north and south fighting each other. One was supported by the russians the other by America. In Iraq you have two diffrent religous secs. One supported by alkaida the other by America.

So looking back on history one could say get out, look at nam we lost there after 9 years of bloody fighting. Or, you cant win someone elses civil war.

But then talk to soldiers that were in Nam. "they wouldnt let us fight the way we needed" or "It was a politcians war"

There are thousands of blogs discussing this by people that drink starbucks coffee and listen to NPR so if you want some deep discussions go read them. Me, I just say "we dont know the correct answer, history isnt much help" Either way GW goes (and I am writting this after he commited another 21k troops) he is gonna lose more than likely. If he trys to keep the fight going we will get a new administration in the next election and bail out like a cat at a dog fight. If he bails out now and iraq goes into a total mess (think Iran taking it over? could happen) he will be dished for that.

I dont want to say "support our president" cause personally I think his dumb ass got us in this mess, but now that we are in it we have to work together to figure out a way out.

I got in a fight with an older kid in the 5th grade. The sob was twice my size and was picking on all of us smaller kids. I stood up to him and we went at each other. The teacher broke it up and sent us to the principal. On the way to the prinicipals office we worked together to come up with a good lie to keep both of us from getting spankings. We hated each other 10 minutes before but still worked together to keep our butts from pain. Isnt it a shame that a 5th grader and 6th grader can work something out but those of us that Listen to NPR or Rush Limbaugh and have this great 4 to 8 year college degrees cant come up with some good lie to get our butt from getting spanked?

Ok back to you 8 dollar coffee...me I am gonna make a cheap bourbon and coke

A mans got to have the right tools

2007-01-08T20:31:00.001-06:00

IMG_0741, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

I get tools all the time as gifts...I got this one called a Rotozip about 3 years ago. I used it one time to put a door in about a year and half ago.

But the big use and saved me hours of time was this weekend when chase was replacing the front door handle and lock. when the low rent scum sucking pigs built this house they didnt cut out for the latches etc using the correct tool. The rotozip did it correctly in about 5 minutes!

New hot tub building.

2007-01-05T11:09:00.001-06:00

IMG_0725, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

This is the new building housing my hot tub. Me and the family poured the slab, and I built the rest. Its all cedar with a metal roof. Its not airtight on purpose, if the hot tub is open it puts out tons of humidity so I need the building to breath.

corner bar

2007-01-05T11:01:00.001-06:00

corner bar, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

The bar and radio. The radio came from my grandfather.

Inside

2007-01-05T11:00:00.001-06:00

IMG_0717, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

Inside looking towards the bedroom door.

from bedroom door.

2007-01-05T10:59:00.001-06:00

IMG_0721, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

inside from the bedroom door.

New pump and control unit.

2007-01-03T14:29:00.001-06:00

New pump and control unit., originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

This is the new control unit and pump. Was a big pain to install but after about 10 hours of work its in and working awesome!
Much quieter and uses less electricity.

Old pump and control

2007-01-03T14:08:00.001-06:00

Old pump and control, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

This is the old pump and control unit from my spa. It lasted about 2 years longer than what is normally expected.

Bike Before heading out.

2006-12-31T12:19:00.001-06:00

Bike Before heading out., originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

I built a pedal bike for Burning Man. I knew from the year before that a bike is a must have item. Since Katy was going with me I decided to build a 2 person car type bike. I found plans to this one online. Its made of pvc pipe.

I didnt think it would last to long. It creaked and just didnt fell real stable. I had the kids test drive it in the neighborhood and it broke just about every time they went out in it. I would improve whatever broke but was still nervous.

suprisingly, it not only held together but others in our camp borrowed it and had no issues. I mean if stoned, drunk people can take it out and have a blast on it then its pretty bad A! (me and katy drove it carefully, were I know the ones that borrowed it were not all together sobber nor careful.)

For next year I am making a bunch of bikes, out of metal. stay tuned for more! One is already done, a tall bike scroll down to see it.

later in the week

2006-12-31T12:07:00.001-06:00

car1, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

I think this was friday. after 6 days in the desert. It drove great.

Pedal car in desert

2006-12-31T11:57:00.001-06:00

IMG_0354, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

This is the pedal cal after a day on the desert.

tall bike

2006-12-29T16:19:00.001-06:00

IMG_0738, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

first ride...and it worked.

tall bike number one

2006-12-29T16:11:00.001-06:00

IMG_0740
Originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

My first tall bike. it worked great.

should I

2006-11-26T19:46:00.000-06:00

Should I get this thing going again?

let me know

hearsedrv@yahoo.com

Companies are stupid, its not Wal-Marts fault

2006-05-19T12:14:00.000-06:00

Went to Albertsons grocery store in Crowley Tx. yesterday for there 8 hour sale.

They spent thousands of dollars to bring people into the store. Basically for those that dont know, they have whats called loss leaders, items there selling at a loss in order to suck you into the store were you will have a pleasant experience buy other items and come back and spend money on high profit items.

So lets see...Wal-mart..no customer service, packed stores, they act like they dont give a damn about you...but there dirt cheap.

Albertsons, customer service...friendly checkers, someone to carry your groceries to your car... but higher prices..

You really cant compete head to head with wal-mart prices, you have to offer something better. Its so damn simple but you have guys with MBA'S that cant figure it out.

So I get in line with my on sale crap behind a lady who I would guess was 78 years old. Very frail, took her a bit to unload her cart onto the check out belt (I helped a little with the heavy items). She didnt know why it was so busy, this other older lady explained about the 8 hour sale. Ohh she says, normally its not like this.

so this lady asks for paper sacks and actually wrote a check. That should tell you a little more about her age. The punk ass worthless checker didnt even acknowledge her. that piece of garbage didnt notice a damn thing about her.

So she pays and has a full cart of groceries in paper sacks, did that punk call for a carry out? did any of the 3 or 4 carry out kids offer or ask if she needed help? Nope not a one did.
so she start pushing her cart all the way down past every check out (we were at one end she parked out the other) I watched her go the entire store and NOT ONE TIME DID SOMEONE OFFER TO HELP. Now I know some dont want help and I understand but no one even asked!

So my small purchase is done as she is walking out the store..(give you an idea, took her 5 minutes to push thru all the people at her slow rate) I stop this store manager lady and I ask

"Do yall supplie carry out service?" as the carry out kids are horsing around with the checkers.

she says "Yes sir we do!"

what I said next cant not be written here, but lets say the manager ran full speed to catch up with the lady and loaded her groceries in her car.

Now before someone trys to make me mad, yea I could have offered to help somehow. and would have if I wasnt trying to pay for my groceries. And at other times when I can I will. But thats not the point. The point is Albertsons spent thousands to get you in the store but treat you no better than Wal-Mart!

ALBERTSONS ARE YOU STUPID OR WHAT? YOU HAVE NOTHING TO OFFER OVER WAL-MART EXCEPT CUSTOMER SERVICE AND YESTERDAY NOT EVEN THAT!

I am easing up on wal-mart, hell its not there fault the rest of the world is stupid, there just smarter than you!

Now let me get this straight mrs. Dr. lady

2006-03-05T18:35:00.000-06:00

Brother is going to love this?

so Dr. sis makes a post Here

so, a mom, trying to do what she thinks best for her kids spends the night in a parking lot in order to try and inroll them into what she believes will be the best opportunity for them. and her brother is gonna say something rude or mean?

How in the holy h e double hockey sticks (thats for you mcpan) can someone give someone else a hard time for spending there own time and energy to try and achive this?

Now if you had paid someone to stand in line for you, yea I would say your a worthless piece of garbage. But no you stood out all night and tried to get your kids into what you believe is a better school.

humm, I might not agree about private and public schools (and Im not gonna say either) but I can never fault a parent for sacraficing there time and energy in what they believe will benefit there child. Why the hell else would we have kids if we were not willing to do this?

so yea bro loves it but not the way you think and he was able to turn it into something rude and mean! HA!

oh and "I see your point but still think your stupid!" I love that shirt!

you make it too easy

2006-02-14T20:03:00.000-06:00

So its only Feb but…

Hold that thought.

I have 7 sisters and 6 brothers…you would think that it would be hard to name the dumbest one each year.. (and I include myself in all calculations)

Year before last I won the award, since I started building a pool in a flood year, broke my foot and numerous small things. It happens.

Last year it went to the lawyer chick. She passes the law bar thing and then moves to a city and gets hit with a hurricane. It happens.

But this year, now take in this, its only February but Dr chick has set the bar so low that it would take a vice president shooting to be any dumber. (speaking of which, I now wear body armor and have put a republicans are GOD sticker on my car, I don’t want to get accidentally shot!)

This girl who went to college for what 10 years? And is held in high regard by the general public has done more dumb things in 2 months than most people do in 10 years. (except them stupid democrats who are all about love and peace, they should all be taken bird hunting with the VP! ((that is for GW and the NSA so when they read my blog they know I am a GOD fearing IRAQ killing blood thirsty kill em all and let god sort em out type of guy))

Poor DR. she gets laser surgery and her eyeballs fall out. Then goes on a helo ride and gets sick knowing good and well she will. (and she prescribed something for pop so he didn’t get sick. So she knows there is stuff out there to help just doesn’t take it for herself)

“While in Vegas we played a little black jack and watched a hilarious hypnosis show. Then we went on a helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon. Beautiful! But halfway there I got air sick. Ughhhh. I kept taking deep even breaths and willing myself not to throw up. We landed in the Canyon and had a Champagne toast. I drank Sprite. The nice pilot asked if I was sick.

"Yes," I said.

"Does this happen often to you?" He asked.

"All the time. I get sick on boats, planes, back seats of cars and now helicopters. . . "

"Did you take anything before we left?"

"No." I replied as I rubbed my arms to keep warm. I was freezing in the Canyon and only brought a short sleeved shirt.

"Oh, brilliant." He smirked. "And what is it you do?"

"Uhhh. I'm a doctor. . . "

Yeah. My brother is going to go off again on that one. I may as well own a cat and vote Democrat now. That would complete the Moron of the Year Award in his mind.

I had to change a word cause she made a mistake…don’t want anyone to get confused on were I stand on this great country of ours! (ok I don’t want to get shot. Hello I won the dumb guy award once already don’t need it again!)

So DR. yes your at the top of the list, lets hope you win it because for one of your bros or sisters to top it would take a screw up of ungodly imagination!

But keep this in you mind. You didn’t accidentally shoot someone while hunting illegally in Texas and then try and cover it up like no one would notice! You are way out classed in the stupid acts category. You don’t even rate compared to what happened Saturday.

So keep your chin up!

I’m not cruel I just act that way

2006-02-09T21:21:00.000-06:00

Some people would and do spend good money to save a cat.

Let’s look at them stupid animals.

1. They don’t have enough meat to make a good size hamburger.
2. They sit around all day
3. They run around all night (mom told me nothing good happens after midnight)
4. They don’t bring you the paper nor will they fetch anything.
5. They leave hair everywhere.

You get the idea. Cats are worthless except if you get one that catches mice and just because its a cat does not mean it will.

so my evil sister in law brought over this stray cat because she felt sorry for it, but she couldn’t take it as she already had 2 cats and for some stupid reason she thought we would want it.
well after about a year we kicked it out of the house because it pissed all over the carpets.
I should have put it down right then but no, we let it stay outside and it just hangs around the front yard and the side yard. I even tried to get my neighbor to put it down.

This stupid cat got itself hit by a car. The dumb cat can’t even get killed properly, it has to dislocate its hip or something.

So the wife calls and finds out its going to be at the very least 250 bucks. Probably alot more to fix this thing. My wife is a practical women. She didn’t even question the cost, she knew that was stupid!

The cat does not seem to be in pain, just crippled. We are debating now on whether to take it to the city animal shelter and for free they will "take care" of it. If it acted like it was in pain we would have done that already but it seems to not be. We will watch it and if that cat so much as acts like a uhhh acts like a wimp and starts whining like its in pain we will take it in.

This chick nearly lost a job over her cats tooth. A tooth? but then again she wants to be a lawyer and anyone that does that is probably a few tacos short of a Mexican Plate.

My mom got me addicted to a bad drug

2006-01-30T20:23:00.000-06:00

Its her fault. yeap. bottom line all her fault.

so Mom buys and sells a small country worth of stuff on ebay every month and she got me addicted.

Kids want new shoes? Oh look on ebay.

Need a 1965 chevy truck re-ring kit? ebay right here.

Vacume cleaner part for wifes vacume. Did it last week.

Pitcure of Jesus on some cooked toast, no problem.

Looks like I can get everything we need for chases truck on ebay except someone to put it all together.
Good thing him and his sister know how to fix things. A few months ago working together they took the seat out and took the gas tank apart. I will just get the parts on ebay and let them put it all together!

Just about anything you want or dont want or need or dont need can be found on ebay, except the 12 step program for getting yourself clean of that addictive drug!

Not all girls are stupid

2006-01-27T16:29:00.000-06:00

My sister (not the DR but the PHD one) can fix a toilet in Honduras. Heck she called me once after she had taken her fan apart to fix it. (and was a good call too, I was clueless on the fix)
So I have always known that not all girls cant fix things.

Well my daughter has me and my grandfather on my mothers side's ability to fix things just by taking them apart. Her and my sister (The PHD one) could probably fix the space shuttle while in orbit without knowing a thing about it. Some people are just born smart. (Others become lawyers)

So I should not have been suprised when I was searching the internet for the possible problem on my ford focus when I came across this website

Lucky I am not one of them male pigs that think women are only good for making babies (I will admit they are damn good at that but I dont believe that is there sole purpose in life, and by saying that I think the Southern Babtist just kicked me out for life from there devil worshiping church, oh well) so I did read the whole article even though I knew right away it was written by a girl. And low and behold I found my problem and fixed it all because of her!

So power to the girly girl and thanks for blogging the fix to your car!

Ok what are the odds...

2006-01-26T17:08:00.000-06:00

First concerning my last post. My wife slapped me into next week. she gave me all sorts of grief over it. Evidently my sister saved my daughters life and I should be grateful and not such a butthead. ok ok damit. (I do know she fixed up chase's finger when he nearly sliced it off at x-mass a few years ago but didnt realize how much she helped with the daughter) so no more giving the stupid DR. a bad time. But it was so much fun!

but back to laser eyeball surgery. I went for my last post lasering check up today. good news sir, you have followed all of our stupid DR. instructions and you have 20/20 vision. come see us in November! Sweet!

I am sitting in the waiting area at 2pm on a work day in the middle of Dallas Tx. I dont live in Dallas I live 70 miles away. In walks this lady that looks familiar. she gets to the counter says some stuff and the lady said " ok Cindy we will call you when Mary is ready" and Cindy turns around and its Cindy Cantrell, my friends mom from boy scouts and high school who I have not seen in 15 years or more! The odds of that can not be computed by me but I am buying a dozen lottery tickets for this weekends drawing!

Eveditenly all of her kids and her and her husband now live north of Dallas. Small world I tell you.

so now my Laser eyeballs not only is making my hair grow back, my gut shrink, and getting me a raise at work it reuniting me with people I have not seen in many years!

(and a side note, my wonderful wife pointed out every one of my spelling mistakes on my last post and will do the same for this one so no need to tell me)

DR's are not the sharpest tool in the shed.

2006-01-24T20:12:00.000-06:00

From my sisters blog

“I haven't blogged in a while because nothing interesting has happened to me. Now, finally something has.

My brother got LASIK surgery on his eyes and declared it a piece of cake. Please understand my brother is a wimp. First class baby. He wimpers at a stubbed toe (claims it is broken) and then cries foul at all doctors' knowledge, saying they're all "dumb."

Lets go over this together shall we.

“My brother got LASIK surgery on his eyes and declared it a piece of cake”

Yes I did get LASIK eye surgery and yes it was a very easy. In my opinion only someone mentally retarded or a DR. would have problems. I could see hours after the surgery and was better than 20/20 the next day and took no pain meds at all. But I did listen to the nurses at the DR's office and obeyed what they said.

Next she says
“Please understand my brother is a wimp. First class baby. He wimpers at a stubbed toe (claims it is broken)”

Yes I broke my big toe, then 2 weeks later broke it again. Did not miss a day of work and didn’t bother going to the stupid DR. I did learn to be more careful.
But lets look at other things.

25 years ago I cut my thumb down in Big Bend Park, I could see the bone after I cut it. Hour and half drive to nearest hospital and a drunk DR. refused to sew it up until he had our insurance numbers. So I call mom and get them and then that SOB sews it up. No after care pain medicine nothing. Hell the buddies grandfather that drove me to the hospital passed out from drinking while I was getting fixed and I had to drive back to camp.

In the Marines I broke my collar bone and dislocated my shoulder in the first quarter of a football game and played the whole game and didn’t go to the DR, until the next day when I couldn’t move the dang thing anymore

Another time, I got my leg slammed a car door. Got home grabbed the crown and slammed a shot, my wife looks at the cut and says “Dear, I can see your chin bone you need to get that stitched up” Well I cant sew for crap so drive to stupid DR. and get it sewn up. Again no after car pain medicine.

Then kidney stones. Go talk to any man that has had them and they will tell it’s the worse pain in the world. I got them at about midnight but didn’t go to the DR, until 8:30 when they opened because the stupid DR. book we read said they couldn’t do anything for them. Well some compare them to a woman having a baby. I would not insult someone that had a kid by natural birth by saying that, but they do hurt. Oh and did DR sister have her kids without an epidural? I don’t fricken think so. Our mom had 6 kids that way and my wife had one! (the second kid was by C-section because of the stupid DR. and I tried to get them to do it without pain meds to save money but for some reason my lovely wife said a really bad word about doing that, guess she was in a bad mood)

Then just this weekend, I did my first stupid thing in a few years and sent a nail all the way thru my little pinky to the back of my fingernail using a nail gun. I DIDN’T EVEN STOP WORKING UNTIL I HAD ALL THE BOARDS NAILED UP. I HAD A COMMITMENT TO FINISH THE JOB. And I sure as heck didn’t take pain medicine for it or goto the DR. I knew what I did and how to take care of it.

And a year and a half ago I built a pool with a broken foot.

Chicky poo you don’t know what pain is.

So if I say LASIK surgery was a pice of cake, keep in mind I can handle getting my shoulder broken, bones broke, kidney stones, nails thru the finger. A little laser in the eye aint anything.

But lets move on to the bigger issue.

“then he cries foul at all doctors' knowledge, saying they're all "dumb."

ok Missy Dr. did you ask the eye surgeon about care after the surgery? I bet he or she spelled it out in detail that rubbing your eyes will make your pp fall off or words to that effect. DON’T RUB YOUR EYES FOR TWO WEEKS. Everyone that has the surgery learns this and listens to the DR. Unless you’re a DR yourself then you figured “Ohh he just means the little wimpy people not us other DR’s who are so smart!”

I am at a loss on why you didn’t tape your goggles on. You rubbed your eyes in your sleep and moved the corneas…DUHHH

And then this line

“I then drove one block and realized I was too blind to drive. No wonder they told me not to drive the day after the surgery”

you didn’t listen to a thing the Surgeon said. Damn girl are you stuipid or just a DR?

I shouldn’t be shocked but for some perverted reason I am.

But then you read her blog and she mentions Nannys about a dozen damn times. What in the holly hell. Nannys? Don’t you mean baby siters? If having a Nanny makes you act like her, I will go without thank you very much. Fricken nannys jeez. When our kids were young we were lucky to get a baby sister. And we called them just that “baby siters”
My wife was the mom I was the dad and the baby siter kept our kids from killing themselves while we went out once every 3 months for 4 hours.

I should have put a disclaimer on my blog about LASIK. It’s a piece of cake unless you’re a wimpy, stupid, nanny using DR. then you will get addicted to valium, have bad eyes forever and your PP will fall off.

LASIK surgery was great for me. I have 20/15 in one eye and 20/20 in the other, and I do believe my hair is growing in fuller now, I have more energy, my gut is getting smaller and I think I am getting a big pay raise from work, all because of my laser eye surgery.

banana

2006-01-23T18:34:00.000-06:00

banana, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

Ok Elaine who lives with her parents says she does not like bananas. Well I am calling BS. when she was how ever old she was in this photo (and I have another one) she was eating the heck out of em. she loved them. I think she needs an exorcist to rid herself of them demons.

You can go here I hate bananas

and try to read about it/her problem with bananas.

Updated truck blog

2006-01-21T11:52:00.000-06:00

chase and I updated (small one) the truck blog. We have been working on his truck.

wedding

2006-01-10T21:39:00.000-06:00

wedding, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

January 11th, 1986

20 years ago Katy and I were married at her moms house in Arlington.

Katy looks just a beautiful today as she did that cool January day 20 years ago.

Me I have lost the hair and gained a few pounds.

We have lived in Lubbock, Plainview, Midland, Arlington, Fort Worth and now Burleson/Joshua.

We moved from apartments to dorms to rent houses to a trailer (6 months is all she put up with that!) to a nice house with our own pool.

We went to New Orleans for our honeymoon in her 1974 vw bug. My hearse wouldn’t make that long of a drive!
We had planned on going back for our 20th, been planning that for a few years. We could still go but decided to pass instead we are taking a honeymoon to Austin. We are getting tattoos to celebrate!

I don’t regret a single thing. Its been a great 20yrs and every year just gets better.

I don’t know how I would react to my kids getting married as young as we did, but we did it and it turned out great.

Is it normal to bleed from your ears?

2006-01-04T17:45:00.000-06:00

I was complaining to dad yesterday that I was still sick and didn’t have a clue to why.

He said “well if you we not such a butt head to your DR. sister you could have called her and asked, I guess you fell pretty stupid!”

So again my big mouth (I guess this time it was my writing) has got me behind the 8 ball.

I would call her and ask if its normal for blood to ooze out of your ears but she would just give me hell for talking smack about Dr’s so I will just use more cotton to stop the bleeding, or at least keep it off my nice shirts she gave me.

hummm

2005-12-30T21:23:00.000-06:00

Untitled-Scanned-36, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

That be 3 of my younger sisters circa 1980?

The one in the middle was the youngest but she was the only one that knew how to read so she was reading them a christmass story.

Sad to say the other two went on to both be Dr.'s one a medical and the other a PhD.

And as far as I can tell they still dont know how to read.

The other went on to greater things, she is a Nurse saving peoples lifes and making them much better!

although the Medical Dr. did send me some Viagra one time!

Texas Tech

2005-12-30T21:09:00.000-06:00

Picture 010, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

Chase on X-mass morning with the wallets his Aunt Pam gave us.

The adult egg nog

2005-12-24T21:15:00.000-06:00

Picture 129, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

I guess he got into the "good" egg nog

Picture 073

2005-12-24T21:11:00.000-06:00

Picture 073, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

well ok then

Untitled-Scanned-04

2005-12-22T21:49:00.000-06:00

Untitled-Scanned-04, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

Ok the picture above is of my Grandparents about 25 years ago. They both passed away a few years ago. This picture was taken by Dad in about 1981 or so. That model T is one of the many vehicles he restored. Another is sitting in my moms garage that is hers. (it was her dad and mom)

So the other day I had laser eye surgery. It was the first time I have ever had the drug valium so I blame this on that.

The night after my surgery I had a pretty wild dream. Now normally I wouldn’t talk about my dreams in any forum were my mom might read it. There are just some things you don’t talk to your mom about duhhh.

I guess since I have been blogging about Burning Man and I was on valium it makes since.

I am at burning man and who is there with me? My grandparents. What I can remember is Granddad going over to talk to some people about there art car. Perfectly normal! Me and Nanny (that’s what we called her) went around the corner to the pink pancake theme camp to get some breakfast but the topless girl that was cleaning up said we missed them. So we found granddad talking to some folks (he was talking to some people just like the time him and I in real life had gone to some salvage yards hunting some old parts for cars) and informed him and we decided that since they had not brought food or water that they should go on into reno and stay there. Then I woke up.

This whole thing was real freaky on several levels.

One just my grandparents going to burning man. Enough said I think there.

Then, Nanny not worred about the topless girl. She was worried about the food. Now she should have been worried about the food but I know in real life the topless chick at the pink pancake would have uhhh well lets say I don’t think it would have been a calm affair! (and there was not a pink pancake theme camp that I knew of but there were camps that gave away food some mornings)

And then having a dream with my grandparents in it. They are the only close people that have passed away and it’s the second time I have dreamed about them (the other time it was a George Bush inauguration ceremony, and that is weirder than Burning Man!)

To tell the truth though it was real nice to see my grandparents and talk to them. Yea yea it was a dream but it was real pleasant. Not that I am gonna take valium to get the dream again (Actually I think the valium had worn off, I was just tired)

Oh and notice how much I look like my grandfather. I have been told I look like his dad even more. Also his wife and my wife have the same name. welcome to the twilight zone!

DFT 20 minutes after parking.

2005-12-21T19:05:00.000-06:00

dftday1, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

What a day, what a day.

This photo is right after we parked and right before the Vaseline incident, facing the back of the DFT theme camp, with my back to the Rainforest Refugees (which are not there yet) That is pharaoh on top of the trailer, he was one of the leads for the DFT camp. The girl in the shirt is Paullina not 20 minutes after arriving! The brown thing is the community shower. The camp is not even half way set up at this point. No music, no bar, no front signs, no pilloasis, there was a lot of work to do.

So we threw off some bikes then walked over to meet the guys and gals working hard at setting up the DFT camp. I ended up helping them build there camp all day long! I ran lights, Built the bar, got the DJ booth all plugged in.

First started just as the gopher. If I saw someone doing a task and I understood what they were doing I jumped up and did it so they could go onto something else. It does not take a genius to run lights, but it takes a creative person to know were to run them. Hey you point it out and I will do it!

Setting up a camp in the middle of the dessert with limited resources can be a challenge and everyone pitched in. Some more than others but everyone pretty much gave it there all.

I had to get everyone’s name about 20 times before I could remember it and some I still cant remember. At one point one of the ladies that was “in charge” at the dft had asked me to do some stuff and I did. After about the 5th thing I did for her I asked her name and she said “Katy”…I hollered with joy “Katy? Hell my wifes name is katy, I can remember your name and I do what katy says so I am your beatch for the week!” oh and she is red headed and I know from experience don’t argue or fight with a redhead!

I realized right off that this theme camp was my type of people. They were all from Houston and Austin with a few from the Dallas area. And Texans, well at least the ones there at the DFT camp, know how to fix things, and build things and are not afraid of hard work. Plus the heat sure didn’t bother us. For us it was nice and cool. No humidity! Can you imagine!

Getting the DJ booth working was a challenge. I had never worked on one before but after a little studying me and DJ Darius from the Rainforest Refugees (he showed up about 10 minutes after we did) got it working and we had tunes to work with.

About 7 pm or so I was up on the ladder to the dft trailer running some lights and looked down and saw the guy in charge of the rainforest camp….and thus a great story begins….

Parked!

2005-12-20T18:19:00.000-06:00

Rainforrest, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

So we gave our ticket, and were welcomed home. We knew were our theme camp was.

Paulina asked us to drop her off at the dang fricken Texans. (from here on refered to as DFT and they are not really the dang fricken but it will do)

the DFT's were suppose to be between 4 and 4:30 on Gestalt street and we were between 4 and 4:30 on Fetish.

The way the streets are layed out 4 to 4:30 is huge. about a long city block long.

so we drive to gestalt and find the DFT's about 4:20. get out meet them and in talking with them told them were we were suppose to be with. they said that we were right behind them and damned if we weren't.

Was quit funny, Paulina who for 2 days was worried she wouldnt find her camp ended up camping 22 feet from mine! I actually set up my tent on the property line between DFT and the Rainforest Refugees who I was suppose to camp with and right next the DFW and Beyond camp.

This photo is were I parked my truck for the week. the car is were Rainforest main tent went.

so we get out of the truck and Tom and I started unloaded stuff, just moving kinda slow. and what happened next was quit shocking to say the least.

One of the girls walks up wearing a scarf as a top (I loaned her the scarf as her stuff was in another vehicle) and what I call work out panties. no biggy we had already seen some nude people and it was hot. But what she did next was.

she hands Tom a jar of vaoline with the lid off and ask him to hold it. Then hands me the lid then she drops her panties.

Ok yes we were floored. Just what in the heck are you doing. Tom and I are both married, its the middle of the desert and your handing vasoline to us and dropping your panties. DAMN girl just what the hell is going on.

so Tom and are standing there with our jaws on the ground not knowing what to say or think and she proceeds to rub vasoline between her thighs explaing that she read in the BM survival guide that it helps with chafing in the dry desert. They also recommend putting it up your nose to keep it from drying out. I did neither and was fine but I grew up in the dry desert air.

Me and Tom although we didnt really mind the view were both quit relieved that this was all it was.

it was the last time I was suprised until the next sat. Not the last time I was shocked but last time suprised.

Off topic, or Glasses are for wimps

2005-12-18T07:55:00.000-06:00

Not burning man related sorry...

Friday I went and had Lasik surgery on my eyeballs. I now have 20/20 vision without glasses, can actually see better at night compared to wearing glasses at night.
was not to painful, just kind of weird. Its not every day that you take a hit of valium, some guy cuts a flap in your cornea (and you see him do it) a laser buzzes your eye for a few seconds and you can see better because of it.

I wont go into details about laser eye surgery, you can google that and find out more info than you care to.
I will talk about some other things though.

Way back mom was worried I was gonna use drugs. What she never knew was I was to damn paranoid. I always had this fear of getting busted and ending up in prison with a cell mate named bubba that liked to rape his cellmate. So I pretty much stayed out of trouble not from fear of mom or dad but big time fear of Bubba.

And then the few times I took legal pain medication I did not care for the felling I got from it. I dont like the felling of being out of touch like that.

So right before I got into surgery they give me half a pill (10mg was the full pill) of valium then you stick the other part under your tongue. so 10 min later they help me up to go into the laser room, I can hardly walk and the nurse says how do you fell? "like wow man i fell stoned!" So the stupid DR. (all Dr. are pretty much stupid) say ok I am gonna do this and that and are you ok? hell doc, I dont care what you do just be quiet and let me rest man!

I do not see how people get addicted to valium. That stuff sucks. Your out of touch, your sleepy groggy kinda. I will pass thank you very much.

And again the DR. proved my theory. The nurses and admins run the show, the DR.'s are there to be the token stupid person. The Dr. made me fell as comfortable as a whore in church, but the nurses were awesome. they explained what was going on, what I would fell in human terms were this Dr. (who had the personality of a dead orangutan) was ugly for one thing, and the one joke he said came out dumb as anything. why cant Dr's act normal? because there not. There freaks dam it. (all but my dumb sister who is a dr. she is not a dumb dr. she is a dumb sister, there is a big difference. She is probably a good dr. but still a dumb sister)

so I have to put drops of stuff in my eyes about 12 times a day or some crap for the next two weeks. But I wont be putting on any glasses except sunglasses beatches!

Right past the greeters.

2005-12-15T10:25:00.000-06:00

City streets!, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

About a quarter mile past the ticket station is the greeter station. These are volunteers who welcome you to Burning Man and make sure you know what your in for.
They mention or ask several things.
Do you have water and food? Shelter?
Don’t put anything that does not come out of your body into the porta poties.
Are you with a theme camp? (in our case since I was the first one there for Rainforest Refugees, they took me to another guy who made sure we set up in the correct place.)

The first thing a greete says is welcome home. Kinda funny since 3 of the 4 of us had never been. But it actually makes since to me. Just because you had never been there does not mean its not your home.

My greeter was a woman somewere between the age of 25 and 35 I would guess. She was wearing combat boots and orange stretch panties and nothing else. She was having a blast. But she did get serious when she asked all the important questions or talked about the porta poties.

They have a bell you can ring if you want for virgin burners. And if you ask they will give you a spanking. It use to be tradition that virgins got a spanking there first time, but alas someone sued and it’s no more. (to some of us the man represents Lawyers and we burn that SOB down!)

The greeters is were the party starts. They are having a blast and make sure you do too. Having fun is very contagious and it started right there at the greeters. It was like ok here is the rules…first have fun, then scream, then have more fun, then act goofy. Woohoo party time..ohh and don’t put nothing that don’t come out of you body into the porta poties..oh and have fun!

Ticket Station

2005-12-12T20:11:00.000-06:00

Ticket Station, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

The Ticket Station.

This is were you gave up your ticket and got "IN"

Did I mention that 99% of all people working at burning man are volunteers? they are. You can volunteer for anything from Ticket taker to a Real DR. they need everything. and its amazing how many volunteer. more volunteer than opening are available.

I volunteered for Greeters but they didnt need anymore. The greeters shifts were 4 hours each about 25 per shift 24 hours a day from Saturday until Friday at midnight and they were full on volunteers about mid June!

Whats great about everyone being a volunteer is you could come dressed as you wanted (one of the greeters not the ticket takers was not wearing anything..more on that next time) so you could come dressed how you wanted and if you wanted to sit down you just did. If you wanted to act crazy they did.

Now the ticket takers did take there job serious but they had fun with it. Its not like they could get fired! Sure they could be told that there services were not needed anymore but you wouldnt care since you were not getting paid anyway!
They searched our truck for stow aways and said go on in! that easy!

now tickets...I bought my ticket for 175 bucks on Jan 5th at 1pm central time when they went on sale. the ticket structure is set up this way.
the first 10,000 tickets were 175
the next 10,000 were 200
the next 5,000 were 225 and after that they were unlimted number at 250.
you dont get anything diffrent with each kind of ticket. they all just admit one person. No ticket sold after friday night and no more admited either. if your not in by friday before the man burns your out!

for the cost of the ticket you get to come in and use the port a poties and thats about it as far as what they supply.
since its on federal land they have to pay the Govt for each person that is onsite each day. I think its about 4 bucks a person per day. I was there 8 days so that was 32 bucks. then they have to have porta poties that the federal gov deems adequate.
I will say they were very adequate as far as porta poties go. fig thats about 40 bucks for my share.
then they have to bring in electricity for center camp, build the man, buy supplies to build the street signs, greeters station, ticket takers fence cones etc.
they also give away several hundred thousand dollars in art grants. anyone can apply for one.
they dont make money on the event.
they make about 7 mill on tickets and spend every bit of it.

think of this, if they wanted to get Budwieser to sponser the event they could. An easy estimate would be ok Bud you pay us 3 million dollars and you can be the official beer, plus we get one buck off each beer sold. an easy estimate of the take would be in the 10 million dollar range. so they drop the ticket price to say 75 bucks, and bring in 10million off beer sales alone! But the whole idea is none commercialzation, so they dont. one of the biggest reasons I went! I didnt have budweiser in my face all week saying buy me! or any other vendor. I did have people say "want a beer?" as they hand it to you and walk away, not expecting anything in return!

ok so anyway, they have taken our ticket and we next goto the greeter station....

signs and wind and dust

2005-12-11T09:17:00.000-06:00

signs, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

The long road into Burning Man. windy and dusty.

there were goofy signs every 20 feet or so. One of the many internet rumors is that the man gets smaller every year and when he disapears burning man is over. So these signs were pretty funny if you had heard that rumor.

signs

2005-12-08T09:57:00.000-06:00

signs, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

The day we arrived Sunday.

Friday we were on the road from 6am until about 10:30pm. We drove from Fort Worth to Durango Colorado. We swapped riders and drivers around and got to know one another.

Saturday we drove from 9 or so in the morning until 11pm that night stopping in Fallen NV. About 2.5 hours south of were Burning Man is held. By this time we had started to get on each others nerves. Not bad as everyone was adults and acted that way but it was tenser than the day before.

Sunday we get up late (9am) ate some breakfast and reloaded the trucks. Mark took Rob and they drove into Reno to pick up 4 more people that flew in that were staying with DFW and beyond theme camp (Marks theme camp) one lady flew in from Florida!

Tom, Serena, Paullina and me all packed into my truck and drove to the local Wally world and Safeway and bought last minutes supplies like water and booze! I guess we did buy some food. And Serena got a reply on an email on the way and ended up needing a business outfit because she had to fly out the next Monday to Penn. for a job interview so she bought an outfit at Wally world.

The Safeway was packed with "Hippies" like us buying water and food and lots of booze. These were my first true burners I saw. Multi colored clothes, dreadlocks etc what you would expect burners to look like in public. It was a fun atmosphere in the store!

Out in the parking lot loading up and waiting for individuals to finish we all started getting nervous and excited. None drivers, that is everyone but me opened a beer!

We piled the 4 of us cramped in big time into the truck. The 2 girls in the back with there knees touching there chins and me and toms seats moved all the way forward. It was going to be tough ride the next 2 hours!

I could tell we were all nervous, excited, and on top of that tired from driving and tired of each other plus we were cramped in like sardines. So I got Paullina who lived in Russia until she was 20 and who graduated from a University there to give us a Russian History lesson. This was a life saver. Got our minds off everything and learned a lot!

It was wall to wall vehicles the last 2 hours. Welcome to the desert! The last 45 minutes or so was real good. We got to see our first view of the event.

Entrance

2005-12-08T09:55:00.000-06:00

Entrance, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

Road leading in.

Special Event Ahead

2005-12-08T09:54:00.000-06:00

Special Event Ahead, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

sign on the highway. Notice the burning man drawn on the trailer.
we turned off onto a dirt road right after this.

First Look

2005-12-08T09:53:00.001-06:00

First Look, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

Getting closer

First Look

2005-12-08T09:53:00.000-06:00

First Look, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

You can see were burning man is. Distance is messed up in the dessert.

Lake

2005-12-08T09:52:00.001-06:00

Lake, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

Pyramid lake. about 80 miles south of were we were going.

Picture 008

2005-12-08T09:52:00.000-06:00

Picture 008, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

First views of the desert

2005-12-07T20:59:00.000-06:00

Start across Nevada

2005-12-06T17:35:00.001-06:00

Start across Nevada, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

Nevad Utah border. the start of the lonliest road in the world. and it was!

Picture 146

2005-12-06T17:35:00.000-06:00

Picture 146, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

Old tunnel in Utah.

Utah

2005-12-06T17:34:00.000-06:00

Utah, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

Utah

2005-12-06T17:33:00.001-06:00

Utah, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

Utah

2005-12-06T17:33:00.000-06:00

Utah, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

Utah!

Deer

2005-12-06T17:32:00.000-06:00

Deer, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

Deer crossing road after town we ate lunch in on day two.

break time

2005-12-06T17:31:00.000-06:00

break time, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

this is were we stopped in Utah to let my breaks cool and to eat a bite. Also I got extra keys made of my truck and passed them out. some of the simpliest things like keys need to be remmbered for burning man. There is no locksmith or key maker so if you lose your keys you have to go 120 miles into Reno for help! That can be quiet expensive!

Leaving Durango

2005-12-06T13:18:00.000-06:00

Leaving Durango, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

Day two on the road.

We drove into Durango at 11 at night. The next morning this is what we awoke to! One hell of a difference from the panhandle!

Allot happened this day.

We left Durango which is in the South West corner of Colorado and headed across Utah to the middle of Nevada.

Utah is awesome. Some of the best scenery you can ever view. I will post some pictures of Utah I took while driving.

Then we cut across Nevada heading to Falon. We took a road named the loneliest road in the world and it sure was. 270 miles with one city in the middle. Otherwise nothing was there.

In Utah coming down some mountains the breaks on my truck got hot and started grabbing. I was not using the transmission to slow down like I should have been. So we stopped for lunch and let them cool down and I remembered to downshift!

Coming out of the city after lunch these deer just crossed the highway in front of us! Was pretty amazing!

Welcome to New Mexico

2005-12-03T17:28:00.000-06:00

Welcome to New Mexico, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

Day one still. about 10 hours on the road now. Welcome to New Mexico.

We changed up riders several times. everyone got along real good the whole way. Yes there were trying times, mostly at night after driving 18 hours each day. But not as trying as it is with family. when you have a group of people with one goal everyone works towards that goal and things actually get done.

We stopped just north of albequqe for dinner. Kinda hassle but not too bad.
we stopped at a casino (Indian) one for grub but mark and I couldnt find anything we like so we made sandwiches out of his trailer while most ate inside the restraunt. Was about 6pm when we stopped for dinner.

was another 4 hours until we stopped for the night in Durango were we met up with toms wifes parents and left her. split hotel room, big rooms cheap. Getting a room was kinda hassle everyone butt ass tired and grouchy but we all came thru.

Up the next morning and on the road by 9am.

loadedtruck

2005-12-01T15:32:00.000-06:00

loadedtruck, originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

This is the 97 dodge dakota supercab that I borrowed from my Mother-in-Law.

Everything I would need it piled on it!

I brought 3 extra bikes for people flying in from New York. the people from New York were camping at the same them camp as I was and I volunteed to take them bikes.

The group from new york didnt know me at all so when they got to Reno (closest airport) they bought 3 used bikes themselves. This worked out great because Paulina and Tom didnt bring bikes, so woohoo now they had some and then the girls that sat up next to me had flown in from England (thats right the country England like across the ocean england) and they too had bought bikes but one of them wasnt worth spit, so the 3rd bike got a great home.

The only thing I had not packed/bought yet was water. We would pick that up in Fallen NV. the last big city before BM.

bothtrucksamarillo

2005-12-01T15:21:00.000-06:00

bothtrucksamarillo
Originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

Mark, truck, trailer, Paulina nearly out of frame

Lunch Amarillo Tx. day one.

2005-12-01T15:18:00.000-06:00

Lunch Amarillo Tx. day one.
Originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

Stopped for Lunch in Amarillo.
This was our first major stop. Lunch in Amarillo Texas. I had met Mark, Tom, Rob and Serena one other time at Mark's meet and greet. visited about an hour before this. we changed riders all the way to BM. Serena drove my truck for about an hour after we left amarillo. I drove the rest of the way there. Rob and Serena were the only ones that knew how to drive a standard and since both trucks were standards left our options limited.

On the way to Burning man

2005-11-30T09:41:00.000-06:00

ontheway1
Originally uploaded by hearsedrv.

We left Burleson about 6am. we were already one hour behind schedule. This is amarillo were we stopped for lunch.

The way it started.

I started planning my trip about a year ahead of time. Since I knew no one else that was going I got online to chat groups and met some. A guy here in DFW area runs a theme camp and had a meet and great about 2 months before hand. Met my first "Burners" there. Great bunch of people.

We (that group) decided to caravan the 30 plus hour drive together. Share driving, gas etc.

Well two weeks before lift off, me and Mark the other guy with a vehicle didnt have enough riders and gas was around 2 bucks a gallon. So I went online and posted I had room for a rider and he posted he had room. I got an email from a lady in houston needing a one way ride. So she drove up from houston on Thursday night, she had to work late and didnt get to my house until 2 in the morning. She crashed on the couch. We were suppose to meet Mark at 5:30 at caballas but woke up a little late.

So up at 5:30 and already late. Me and Paulina (my rider) who I just met 2 hours before, jump in the already packed truck and haul ass after leaving a voice mail with mark to go ahead and take off for Amarillo and we will catch him.

We caught him about 90 miles down the road. and that is really when the trip started.

Paulina, my rider is 27 from Russia. she has lived here in the USA for 7 years and was doing interperting for NASA. she speaks flawless english. and much better than I. She had been to Burning-Man 2 times before.

Mark had a big duelly pickup with a box trailer and tons of stuff. He is in his 50's retired, cares for his sick mom. he had been to BM 3 or so times.

the other riders were Ron and Salina, newlweeds my age. Tom who is my age. Toms wife road with us to Durango were we dropped her off with her parents. None of them had ever been.

It took us until 11 that night to get to durango. lots of stops. Every 2 hours we would stop for snacks/gas/p breaks. those took 20 minutes each time. Its challenging to drive across country with people you just met. But everyone did great, no one got overly excited or upset.

Life as I know is over

2005-09-26T19:16:00.000-06:00

Ok this stinks.
with my job I am on call one week out of 4. I get "calls" all hours of the day while on call. So they need to get in touch with me. up until about a year and half ago the company gave me a cell phone. They then changed policy and said they will only pay 25 bucks a month to a cell phone, there thinking was you will use your cell phone mostly for personal use and they shouldnt have to pay for that.
Well "The Man" was not getting away with that with me.
I dont need nor want a cell phone for personal use. Its one more way the "man" keeps you down.

So my co. said they would give me a pager. fine with me.
So for the last year or so I have not had a cell phone and all was right with the world.
I still have yet to hear a valid argument on why you must have a cell phone.

well my smart co. did an audit and found out they are paying about 120 bucks a month for my pager....OOOPPSSS
needless to say they quickly came up with a solution. get a cell phone and we will reinburse you for it. No dont go get the 1000 minutes blackberry enabled one, just get the cheap one be resonable etc.

So today I got the evil thing. My voice mail is "you have reached my cell phone, I dont answer the cell phone and I dont respond to voice mail, if you need me page me thru "XXXX" (our co's ticket generator) .

Basically means if there is a ticket I need to work, our ticket generator will page me and I will respond as I normally do.
You want to talk to me call my home phone or my desk phone.
I wont have the evil GW empire pumping there microscopic zombie drugs into my ear!

and cell phone co's do whatever they can to get every nickle out of you. What a scam. But if you know how to read you can keep above water. Dont let the man get you!

ok carry on

Burning Man

2005-09-24T14:52:00.000-06:00

Burning Man

How do you explain Burning Man to someone who has never heard of it.

How do you explain it to someone who has but has never been?

How do you do this when its family members.

How do you do this when you communicate as poorly as the President of the U.S.A.?

I am going to try.

But I will do it by just jabbering over the next few months on this blog.

I first read something on burning man in the mid 90’s.

My first impression was of people running around acting crazy doing whatever they wanted. No limits, no commercialization, no big band playing. It could be compared to some of the “Hippy” fest from the 60’s and 70’s without the rock and roll bands.

Basically it looked like one hell of a good time.

A few years ago I started asking my wife to go with me. The conversation went something like this.

“It’s a big party in the desert, looks real fun”

“Hotels?”

“well uh no you camp in tents”

“Like a camp ground?”

“Um well no, there are no services, it’s the middle of the desert”

“Oh, well uh what kind of entertainment do they have? What kind of food”

“Well nothing unless you supply it, it’s a participation event you make the entertainment and bring your own food and water.”

“were is it and when?”

“Its in northwest Nevada in the Black Rock Desert the last week of August, they burn the man the Saturday before Labor Day.”

“Isn’t August the hottest time of the year?”

“well yes but the nights do get cold and they do have dust storms so bad you cant see, they call them white outs.”

“and burn what man?”

“Just a wooden man they build and burn on Saturday”

“So let me see if I understand this, we are going to drive 1800 miles to the desert of Nevada, AT the hottest time of the year. Camp in a tent with no electricity, no water unless we bring it, the only entertainment is what we bring or make except some wooden man they burn on Saturday, there are dust storms that are so bad there are white outs. No showers unless we make our own. No restaurants, nothing for sale and you want me to do this? Honey, you might have hit your head cause you have lost your damn mind!”

so...

2005-09-07T18:45:00.000-06:00

So I goto burning man and that is a whole story in itself.
Maybe I will tell you about it someday!

I left on friday before the huricane, arrive sunday morning.
found out the next Saturday that New Orleans was gone...hummm
the next morning I left, finally got to the interstate and got outside radio.
I kid you not the first news I recieved from radio or anything other than a naked hippy was this abc news radio...

Prsident Bush says, "we at the white house are going to do everything we can for the victims. We are having a blood drive at the white house and I encourge every American to go out and give blood"

What a stupid person (I cant call him a Man cause he aint one!)

Blood? WTF? and this was before I found out how bad it really was. That guy that is our president has to be the dumbest president we have ever elected. I cant even imagine anyone more stupid than him. My cats have more sense than that stupid fool!

I finally got a phone and called home, it had been 8 days since talking to my wife.

"well your sister and her husband had to evacuate"

when did I have a sister in New Orleans? Well come to find out I dont, it was another gulf coast city. Yea she probably lost her chit, but they saved the cats. Now me, I would have left the cats and grabed the videos!

sister sent me some shirts

2005-08-11T15:31:00.000-06:00

I am a T-Shirt and blue jeans guy.
Always have been.
I could make a t-shirt last 10 to 20 years.

I just got rid of a shirt that my wife had when she was in High School.

My sister sent me some t-shirts the other day.

they should last me a few years.

and they represent me quit well.

2005-08-11T15:28:00.000-06:00

I like this one.

2005-08-11T15:27:00.000-06:00

This is my favorite shirt

I killed a cat and another one dies soon...

2005-08-09T20:28:00.000-06:00

We had 3 cats

One Hillary got from santa clause...yellow cat...house cat ok cat as far as cats go.
no meat on the bones so wouldnt make a big meal.

this black and white cat with a hitler mustache that a relative adopted from her nieghbor cause the neighbor made it stay outside. Well hello! they made it stay outside cause it pisses on the carpet...so we have kicked it outside and I suspect it will find the same fate as...

the other black and white cat that just showed up one day..we took it in fed it etc, but it was typical stupid cat so I kicked its butt out and it got hit by a car.
No loss at all...

I hate cats and dont know why I let my daughter talk me into them...

now she has a rat...she goes and stays a week at grandparents and comes back saying she has to have a rat and granma gave her a cage etc..
but the rat dont bother me, he looks studly...big ugly SOB long tail and its a rat! you tell people we have a rat and they go ohhh uhhh gross yuck...yea we got a rat, want to stay the night? we let it rome the house...he might snuggle with you.

gets them losers out of the house quick.

but cats? worthless animals. death to all cats.
I want one of them pigs for a pet, raise him or her up, then pork chops and bacon.
or maybe some snake, taste just like chicken.

My camera kicks butt...to bad the owner cant use it right!

2005-08-07T07:45:00.001-06:00

My camera is awesome. The following pictures I took with it, yesterday at the pool (the pool that we built ourselves ha!) I took nearly 300 pictures in just an hour or so.
I was playing around trying to learn it see all that it does.

This set is chase jumping in. I had it set to sport and continous shooting. You just hold the button down until your finished and it will take up to about 22 pictures before it gets bogged down...5 to 6 pictures a second! then wait about 20 seconds or so and you can take another 22 pictures!

These pictures are resized so I could upload them. If you click on the pic it will open up, the opened up size is one half the original size. Here on the blog they are about 1/5 to 1/8 the size depending on your monitor resolution.

I have hundred upon hundreds of pictures. The sad thing is I dont have the best artistic eye to take pictures with. But if you take thousands one might really good, the law of averages you know!

Getting ready

2005-08-07T07:45:00.000-06:00

2005-08-07T07:43:00.000-06:00

Run

2005-08-07T07:42:00.000-06:00

Off!

2005-08-07T07:41:00.000-06:00

Praying?