Sometimes Things Started Rough

Had a very rough start to the weekend, Thursday night, my shoulder was killing me. I have had problems for the last year and a half with my left shoulder, I don't know exactly what I did to it. There is a constant pain and the heavy lifting at work really seems to aggravate it. I told the manager Friday morning that I would not be in that night, she saw how much pain I was in and got the shift covered. I called the doctor after work and made an appointment for 10 am, it was early so I called the Saturn dealership to see if the had an opening, I was getting a loud noise from my car's back end. Sounded like the wheel bearing, and I was right, hey, it's a 2002 Saturn Vue with 100,000 miles on it, it was due. I left the car at the dealership and they gave me a loaner car so I could make my appointment, go home and get some sleep. There's not a lot the doctor can do for me right not other than give me some powerful painkillers. I will set up a physical therapy session this week and I have an MRI set up for next week. We will just have to see how things go. I got a couple hours sleep and went to pick up my car. The bill; 963.00, OUCH!!! What the hell it's a nice car and I have to take care of it,don't I. My entire driving life I have buying piece of crap cars and driving them into the ground. Hell the last few cars I bought I got from my boss making payments to him, the car would break down and I would have to take it to the shop next door and make payments to the mechanic. Yes, they did help me but it was becoming a bad cycle, at one point I owed them about 3500.00. I was working 2 jobs, 6 days a week to pay them off. I met Darlene during this time, It's amazing we had and time to fall in love. Well I busted my ass, got them paid off before the car broke down again and worked on getting a better car. This is my baby and the only people I will let touch it is the dealership, yes it cost a little more but I don't have to worry about anything "breaking" while something else is being fixed.

On Saturday, I took the family to the Puyallup Spring Fair. Seeing that I didn't go to work Friday night, we were able to go earlier. The only problem was I had to have my arm in a sling and couldn't go on any rides or really do much other that keep Andrew on a leash. Darlene had to pack everything this year(heh, heh,evil laugh!!)

We had lunch there then we went to see my friend, Steve Hamilton A.K.A Steve the Pretty Good. He puts on a very entertaining show and the crowd really liked him, I met him about 10 years ago when he first came to a Tacoma Magic Club meeting, he has come a very long way!!!!

We checked out the booths, sites, had some treats, and saw the pig races. Then it was time for the event we came for, the Slam Fest Demolition Derby. I have never been to one of these, and it was a blast!!! These guys are nuts!!!! The loud pyro and engines were a little rough on Andrew, We had to cover his ears. Once the cars started crashing into each other, he went nuts!!!!!

Now it's Sunday morning and I got some errands to run, grocery shopping, pick up some shoes and get my registration paid for the D-Day scenario game at Operation Paintball for June 6th.

Well, Spring almost started.

I had a rough start to the beginning of the month, the 2nd was my daughter Margaret's 18th birthday. I was hoping to take her out to the Space Needle for dinner only problem was that she had to get dressed up. She doesn't like to do that, so instead of a night out I just got her a nice cell phone. When I gave her her birthday present, it was the first time I've seen her in 2 months. She stayed just long enough to get her phone and get it activated. She was supposed to come over this weekend with her brother for a visit, didn't happen. When I arrived to pick up her brother, I was hoping she'd come out and say HI, but she had already left with some friends. I guess now that she's 18 she no longer feels that she has to visit her dad. To bad child support isn't based on how often you get to see your kids, I bet their mom would make sure that I would get the time the court says I'm supposed to get!

My stepson, Jasper, is adding frosting to the drama cake. He's taking collage classes that he and his dad are splitting the cost of. Well, grades are out, his dad wants to see them, he won't show them, he won't even show us. The last time he pulled this stunt was high school when he failed several classes. We have him signed up for basic health insurance, we are paying that based on his income,17.00 a month premium and he makes a 15.00 co payment per visit and 15.00 for meds. To keep that coverage we need proof of his income, which he has yet to give us. His insurance is about to be cancelled. I have lived without health insurance,it sucks.

Things are rough at work, the business is being investigated by Liquor Control because it was reported that an under aged employee has been buying herself beer and drinking it on the property. She was written up and was supposed to be suspended for a week, the suspension never happened. This really bothers me, in December, I didn't make sure the gate was locked and although there was no proof that someone went back there on my shift and broke into one of the tow trucks, I got 3 days off. A coworker "copped" an attitude with the boss and was suspended, he later quit. These suspensions took effect immediately, hers has yet to happen, I don't think it will. The boss feels betrayed and is upset because a former employee ratted him out. I am on the fence on this, I have been there 14 years and don't always agree with the way he treats his employees, but I need this job. There is a lot of favoritism there and I feel morale is low because of it. Oh well enough bitching about that.

We had a couple of nice days last week, Saturday and Sunday. It was great, only problem was on Saturday I couldn't get any sleep due to all the motorcycles riding by. We live next to a biker tavern. Andrew got a kick watching all the motorcycles go by. I gave up on sleeping and just sat up with him and watched the show. I was too nice to stay in anyway.

Sunday, I went down to Famous Dave's, picked up a couple slabs of ribs and a chicken,came home, ordered Wrestlemania on pay-per-view and vegged. Great show!!

Easter weekend, my son, Nicholas came over and on Saturday we BBQ'ed some steaks, tasty meal!!!! Stayed up late watching Idle Hands on FEAR.NET. I love this movie!!!!

Easter Sunday we slept in, had Andrew hunt some eggs in the house as it was raining outside. I will be making a nice ham dinner this evening before I have to run Nicholas home.
A few weeks ago I decided to invest in some equipment to make busking easier.

I bought a Crate Taxi battery powered rechargeable speaker and a Sennheiser battery powered wireless headset transmitter and receiver. I am looking forward to trying this out. I think I will head out to the Seattle city center on the first warm dry weekend this summer and see how it goes.