So I bought another car.........

Since our friends in the middle east have made it damn near impossible to enjoy my SUV that I so dearly loved for 3 years, I've had to step back and re-evaluate my transportation needs.

I bought my Mercury Mountaineer ('99) back in 2000 due to the fact that I needed reliable transporation in the foothills of the Aleghany mountains over in western Pennsylvania. Now that I'm back in Ohio where it's not all that important to have said transporation, I have become just enamored with the costs that I have been putting into my beloved truck.

So last week I started searching around to find something more reliable and more economical. I searched around and I just really didn't have the monies to put down on a really nice car. Side note, divorce can really kill a guy!!! So I test drove several 'economy class' cars.

After 2 days of himming and hawwing over the crappy vehicles I was about to put myself in to, I test drove a Kia Sephia.......Now wait, before you say anything, I laughed at the dealer too when he mentioned it. C'mon, the name alone is just over the top effiminate for me.

So I did the guy the favor and took the car for a test drive. I was pretty impressed! It was a nice comfy ride and who can beat 35-40 miles to the gallon???

Im driving about 90 miles, round trip, daily back and forth to work and was averaging about 100$ a week in gas to and fro......On top of it, the Kia was a '98 with, get this, 16000 miles on it! 1 6 0 0 0 miles everyone! This car was damn near mint conditon.

So I broke down and, lets see, cut my cost for vehicle payments damn near in half, I'm gonna end up paying about $20 a week in gas now! It's just a win win situation.

So just remember as your poking and making fun of me as you roll by me, that I may look out of place, but my wallet feels a whole hell of a lot better!

The end to another week!

Here it is, upon us yet again, the weekend!!

Except going into this weekend I turn the dreaded 31!

After this week, it feels like 41!!!!

Lessons learned from the week:

1. You can never be sure a person understands you unless you are POINT BLANK OBVIOUS WITH YOUR THOUGHTS......

2. No matter how hard you try you can never please everyone!

3. Friends created online truely can be GREAT friends!!

4. No matter how hard you try, no one will have the same drive as you!

5. And my parts to ship to my customer are still not done! Yes the same parts that screwed my trip to Boston! Gotta love a good Quality Department!

So whats on the agenda for the weekend? Hopefully some gaming with my buds and maybe go out and treat myself to a beer or 2 to celebrate. I was asked to a wedding tonight, just not sure if I'll make it. Talk about irony, it's my wife's (the X) cousin who is getting married, and here I'm gonna go with my X as a guest! LOL, just don't look at us as an example!

Hey, 8 years of marriage, and I can say that no one ever tried harder in a relationship like I did!

Someday a woman will be proud to have a guy like me around! Woot!!

You ever have one of those days???

Today sets an all-time record for suckedness!!!!

Let me explain.......

I woke up a bit early after tossing and turning with a million things on my mind. I just couldnt get to sleep. So I finally roll out of bed at 4:30a.m., go thru the daily routines and I'm out the door around 10 til 5 or so.

Well it's a bit of a haul but I have about an hours drive to work everyday. It's boring, but hey, I can listen to some sports radio !!

Well, I stop to fill the tank of my gas guzzling SUV and fill the tires. Their a bit low and I REALLY need to change all of them.

I fill the last one that is pretty low and figure its got a slow leak somewhere. It's the right rear tire. Well, I get about 40 miles from home and I'm noticing that the front is pulling to the right pretty bad. SO I over compensate and figure I'm just gonna have to drop the cash and get the 500$ set of tires all around. Just as I'm contemplating it, BAM!!!! The front left drops to the ground and its a smoldering rubber mess flying down the express lanes of Cleveland's east side!!!!

Well, to understand the rest of the story, you need to understand what type of a kid I was growing up. THE KID THAT HATED DADS SATURDAY MORING, EARLY AM , COME OUT AND HELP ME WORK ON THE CAR DAYS! I would constantly stand there kicking the ground griping about having to be outside working on a car when I wasn't even old enough to drive. I WAS 13 YEARS OLD!!!! I wanted nothing to do with the process. Luckily my younger brother paid attention and is usually able to help out!

So anyways, back to the story.....

I get the jack out and start working on getting the front tire off. Well, I get the tire off, go to put the spare on and low and behold, the car is too low for this task!! I try to get this garbage piece of crap, telescoping jack to lift it higher. No luck!

I get this nice lady to stop after waiting for 2 hours FOR ANYONE TO STOP!!!! That was the crazy part of it all. This is the busiest time of the morning on this stretch of highway and not one person is willing to stop. I had 3 city trucks go by and never stop. FINALLY, I get this nice lady who stops, lends her jack and after 20 mins of fidgeting with hers I get the tire on, bolt it on and Im ready to roll. T -2hours I have now lost. She gets the good cemaritian award and a crisp 20$ bill for her troubles.

I begin to pull away and "Vos is los?" The wheel is grinding and jerking. Oooo, great!!!!

I get the car stopped. And figure I better make the trek. I had to walk a few miles to the nearest gas station and had a few guys who were great and tried to get me a tow over to their shop. Well their guy was in Detroit and had to call another tow company. Company A.) 40$, Company B.)85$!!! Chaaaa-ching!!!!

Mind you this jack off has to haul me down a ramp, make a left, go under the bridge, and drop the car off at the gas station on the right. You know, THE ONE I CAN SEE RIGHT FROM WHERE I'M FRICKIN BROKE DOWN!!!!!!

So this tool shows up to haul me away, and whatdoyaknow!!!!! I had the tire on backwards!!! Don't mind the fact that it was freezing cold outside, dark as hell, and I have this lady pacing along a highway with cars rolling by at around a pace of 75 miles an hour.

Grand total for my tire change? A days lost wages, and 98$ to the garage for the tow and to put my tire on the right way!

Go ahead, lay it on me, I'm a reject that is lucky enough to know how to change my oil!!!

So the damage is not done yet. I now have to buy a new caliper, tie rod, and new bushings for the wheel.......

Boy, this is gonna be an expensive week, I can see it now!

From art to part..........My life!

So many times I get asked what it is that I do, and it always seems to draw a blank stare on those asking the questions........

So I thought I'd throw in a few pics of some of the cool things I've been working on lately.

As some may (or may not) know I work with our manufacturing group to produce implants (for many different things) for the medical industry.

It's been a fun and challenging job, one that's already sent me to Switzerland for some great experiences!!!

Here's some images of the parts. Both in the CAD rendition and in the finished state. How cool is it to start out with just a block of titanium and end up with that at the end??


From art to part!


In its 'solid' state!


The finished product!

All these games and no time to play them!

XBox is such a wonderful thing!

Working this new job, unfortunately, has taken away from all the fun lately and I have been a bit sad! I've really created a great group of friends from Live and my beta days. I really miss getting into a game on a Friday night and fraggin til the weeeee hours of the morning!

Such a powerful line-up of games out right now, that I have purchased, but just havent had the time to play.

If someone figures out the whole cloning technique, please share the info as I would like to have my clone go to work every day so I can stay home and play!!!

Heading to Boston.......

Well, the weeks gonna end with a heck of a weekend planned!

I'm heading out to Boston to meet with the boys from gamertag.com!!!

I've been friends with quite a few of these guys for going on almost 2 years and it has been one heck of a ride! We're climbing to an unprecedented 50,000 users on this site!

I've had the pleasure of joining the team and hanging out and it's been fun.

Looking forward to finally having a chance to meet everyone face to face!

First-time blogger........

So I'm learning the ways of blogging and finding it pretty cool to work with!

Now the question arises, will anyone really care whats in my blog? How do I make it stand out and get people to WANT to stop by it?

Ehh, who cares? I'll just keep having fun ranting and raving like a mad psychopath!

My first rant!

Hey,

Look at me, trying to be someone and get my own Blog rolling!

Well, after reading thru the great posts of my buddy Asphyxiate (XBLF and GTDB for life!!), I became inspired to start my own rants and let the world see how whacky a mid-west kid can be!

With that said, I look forward to everyones comments and hope to create a place that draws you back occasionally!

Enjoy~