No Mention Of Apes
7/27/1
I forgot to wear my belt today. Not a big deal, since these black jeans fit well, but�it�s part of what I wear. I had to clip the pager I wear on work hours to my pants. Doof-us.
And the beeping, remember the beeping? Well, it�s beeping. The director is the only person with a key to get into the little room that the alarm thing is kept in, and I�m the only one [at least here] that knows the alarm disarm code. I thought that thing was supposed to contact the police when someone was messing with their �evidence storage� on the hill. Ha, looks like a bomb disposal unit, just like we were told when they started construction. Is nothing sacred?
Aisai�s car repair was $600.95 and the amount we get back from the government in the Instant Tax Cut is $600.
There are two ways to look at the tax cut amount we got back. You can see it as us getting back the maximum that we can get back, or you can realize that there was a cutoff of 600 dollars and that we would actually get back more if they hadn�t decided to keep more of our money.
Oh, and lovely Alabama is going to tax the refund. Even though I was already taxed on the money when that was my income, Alabama is going to tax it again. Grr.
And there is also two ways to look at the repair bill. Now, if we�d gotten the bill before we knew about the money back, and then found out about the money, we�d be elated that we didn�t have to spend any of our money. Well, except me having to pony up that 95 cents. However, we know we are going to get the 600 on September 14th or so, and then we found out about the car repair. So, not the best news, but I�m still glad it worked out. Nice that it was only $600 and nice that we actually have a car to get repaired. Oh, and it�s pretty good that we had the money to put up between now and when it comes in, and nice that the money is actually coming in.
The man in charge of the service department at Toyota actually drives a 1990 Mazda MX-3. I asked if it was the one with the 6-cylinder engine. Mazda made this crazy 2.0L six for the MX-3. It was, at the time, the smallest six-cylinder engine in a production car. He said he didn�t, which meant he had the B6E engine that was in my Mazda 323. He loves the thing. It�s the low-end torque. Dang, I miss low-end torque.
This is the second time that I�ve had a mechanic rave over the B6E. The last time was at the Mazda place when I got a free battery under warranty�I think. I don�t know why else I would actually go to the Mazda place rather than to Clark�s Honda. In any case, he said it was so easy to work on and was the most perfect design of an engine he had seen.
And it was easy to work on, too. Take it from me, the man with minimal mechanical abilities.
Now, �minimal mechanical abilities� doesn�t mean that I can�t rig something or figure out how to repair it. That�s different. But complex things, oh, they have so many parts. The last thing I want to do is be like some carnie who has a bucket full of bolts left over after he�s finished assembling the Ferris wheel.
Microsoft Word had the word carnie in the spell check. Bwa!
And speaking of spell checking, do all diarylanders write their entry in the little blank�like directly into the webpage? If I did that you�d be reading�oh, horrible misspellings. Shameful misspellings. I went to an American public school; I can barely walk and look at things at the same time.
Actually, I was shocked earlier this year to discover that the high school I went to, named after a dead astronaut, is the best one in town according to the SAT scores. Gah, I though it sucked. However, I do hear that it is an excellent academic school. There are rumors that it�s full of drugs. Uh, I went there and it�s just that the layout of the school only allows the druggies to hang out in front of the school. There is no way for them to hang out at the rear of it unless they want the jocks to be with them, and that�s what every 88 lb dope head wants, a 220 lb jock mocking him from his jacked up yellow Jeep CJ-5.
Uh, but what was I saying.
One thing that I�ll tell those who are around me often is that I only have about 2000 things I ever say, so if you�ve already heard me say it, then just tell me. The B6E is one of those things. See, I�m planning on being a boring old man.
Oh, and that reminded me of the song �When I Grow Up� by Michelle Shocked. Stuffo Radio might be updated on Monday. I�m not sure how many people actually listen to it, but it appears that about one or two people listen for about an hour each day. I think that is just random traffic at Live365. I should update it on Monday. It was going to be today but I didn�t understand how long the volume normalization program took on each song. In fact, I�m sure it�s still working on what I started it doing this morning.
Today, oh, joy, I get to do fieldwork that involves shovels.
I could make some crack about �why did I go to college� or something, but I know why I did. Because this is the first time in five years that I�ve been asked to do anything with a shovel, and that is because the maintenance people wouldn�t do it right.
Hi-ho, hi-ho.