Plumbers and Harpoons

This Sunday the wife let me know the drain wasn't working very well when she was taking a shower. I decided to put some laundry detergent down the drain and checked it after a while but no increase in drainage occurred. Why detergent? I used to clean the drains in my last residence which had chronic clogging problems with detergent and it usually helped. The next step was to go to the store and get some Drano, and long story short, it didn't work. I noticed after running the water in the kitchen the bathtub in the bathroom, of course, had water in it where as it didn't moments before. This was a disturbing realization as it meant all water would flow backward through the tub drain. Yikes! Also this meant no toilet. 'No toilet' is the key terms that signal when it is time to call a plumber. Surprisingly even in the modern metropolis of Seattle it is very hard to find a plumber on Sunday, and after calling several plumbers, over six, with good reviews on Yelp and no responses we called one of the Plumbers in the yellowpages that stated they were available Sunday. One of the first things the person on the phone said to my wife was that it was going to cost $100 just to come and look at the problem, and after the actual plumber showed up I had to show him where the clean-out was, because he couldn't find it. I was informed that to run a snake would be $477. I had to repeat the amount because I couldn't believe it, but he was there and I wasn't sure that we could get another plumber to show up or that we could go without a toilet for a day, so I gave the 'go head'. Unfortunately I assumed rather erroneously that the $477 included the $100 show up fee and tax, but that wasn't the case. We were harpooned for the gargantuan sum of $630 just to have a plumber run a roto rooter snake down our drain, but wait there's more. The guy who couldn't find the clean out 3' in front of him continued to try to sell a video survey of the drain for an extra $150, or else he couldn't guarantee the clean out. Maybe I don't have to say it, but I passed on the expensive sewer video. On the bright side the plumber did point out a leak in the drain from the kitchen I wasn't aware of. After the Whaler A.K.A. the plumber got in his truck and left I investigated the leak from the kitchen and found it was coming from under the sink. The odd thing was it was a really bad leak but it didn't flow out into the kitchen. Today, Monday, I tackled fixing the kitchen sink leak but found an old galvanized fitting that had corroded away that I was unable to break loose. I did my best to mend the situation and put everything back together. The result is the leak is a much slower drip instead of a flowing stream, and the landlord will be coming by this week to see what he can do. 

Snow in Seattle

This last week Seattle's nasty wintry weather was national news, and at one point the L.A. Times called us in Seattle something like 'snow wimps'. The snow wasn't too bad even though we got more than expected, but the freezing rain really screwed things up. The Tacoma Narrows bridge had to be shut down because big dangerous chunks of ice falling from the suspension cables on to the road way. Trees covered first by snow then coated in heavy ice from the freezing rain caused a few roofs to collapse and trees to snap; in some cases snapping trees and branches took out power lines. Power has been out for tens of thousands of households for days, and according to the local T.V. news the power companies are still working to restore power to customers. Where I live we were fairly fortunate only getting a small amount of freezing rain and only about 6 inches of total snow fall, also we never lost power. Our biggest heating problem has been that during the storm our heater working harder than normal started making a loud rumbling noise most likely from a bearing going out in the fan. During winter storms the city of Seattle only plows and treats 'arterial streets' or main commuter routes leaving the side streets covered in whatever state nature left it. Driving isn't that big of a deal with chains or four-wheel drive and I say that living on a small hill. I watched some knuckleheads and inexperienced drivers slide around on my street. I really miss having a 4x4. I mostly stayed off the roads for the worst of the three days during the storms, but mostly because I didn't want to become a victim of the knuckleheads or inexperienced drivers; state wide there were thousands of weather related auto accidents during these storms. When I did drive before and after the storms in my two wheel drive car I didn't even chain up, but to be honest the roads were at worst snowy but mostly slushy. As far as Seattle being 'weather wimps' I think not, but there are those who won't go out of their houses if there is any kind of sticking snow on the ground which is of course a drastic over-reaction. I can't imagine how the greater Los Angeles area would react to this same kind of weather as I have personally seen how badly traffic gets in SoCal when some residents become frightened by water mysteriously falling from the sky or otherwise known as rain.

Wish Lists

This morning I was watching the news and the subject of 'gift registries'/'wishlist' was being covered. It is the Holiday Season, but who knew there would be such polarized opinions about wishlist. There are people that like having wishlist, like myself, who believe there is nothing wrong with letting people know what gifts you might be hoping for. There are also those who seems to like the convenience of being able to see what someone would prefer. On the other side of things there are people that don't want to have a wishlist because they want people to put thought into the gift. And there are people who believe that people who have wishlist are being arrogantly expectant. But who's right?

I myself think that a wishlist/registry should be vast in the amount of items it contains, and diverse with concern for price ranging from the ridiculously expensive to the humbly affordable. I believe my system allows the shopper a true option to be thoughtful. I'm not saying that a big wishlist is being expectant, but rather shines a light on ones interest and in that way a shopper could decide on their own if they want to purchase a wishlist item or come up with something on their own based off of the information they have observed from the wishlist/registry. From this stand point the argument could be made that people who have wishlist with very few items or have no wishlist at all are conceited jerks who desperately want attention, but that could be false. I believe some people are actually humble, and I believe there are people that want to hide behind a facade of being content for elitist reasons but really do have wishlist wants they won't publish. And then again there are people who aren't very creative, so they just aren't able to add many items to their wishlist. There could be other reasons for having a limited wishlist but frankly I don't care. So is a big wishlist wrong?

No! There are some people out there that see a big wishlist and think the creator of the wishlist is greedy. I disagree. In addition to the points I've made above I'd like to point out the obvious, it's a "wishlist", it's not a 'practical needs list'. What fun would a 'practical needs list' be anyway? If society decides to go that route I think it should be based on all one's needs, and not just selective needs; we can all learn so much about one another. For example: You are looking at someones needslist and see the person needs hemorrhoid cream, you now know more about that persons life and you can assist with an uncomfortably personal gift. After all wouldn't that be thoughtful? That may be too extreme. I don't think it's wrong for a person to list their wants and/or needs, or even their demands. There is nothing that says you have to buy anybody any gift if you don't want to. I don't even think it's presumptuous if someone dares to add a "highest" priority to a wishlist item, and that being said I wouldn't hesitate to purchase an item from a wishlist that has a "lowest" priority, as the person who added the item to their wishlist obviously wants it but just not as much as something else. So what does my wishlist look like?

It should not shock anyone that I have 173 items contained in 8 categorized wishlists. Of the 173 items and 8 list there are 23 items in one list of weird and/or funny things I've found that I don't want, but thought it would be neat to share my finds. My categories are fairly basic; Clothes; Cooking Stuff; Media; Outdoor; Tools; Ridiculous; Stuff I don't want; and Miscellaneous.  If you are curious as to what the biggest and most expensive item I have on my 'Ridiculous wishlist' is, it is a new Toyota 4x4 pickup. Am I ashamed to display such extravagance? No. It's on my ridiculous list for a reason, and I have no expectations or even rational hopes that I'll be receiving such a thing as a gift........well ever. The least expensive items in my wishlists are only around $4.

As a shopper/gift-giver I don't think I've ever looked at a wishlist and thought "what an expectant @#%!" or anything like that. I'm not saying I've never had a problem with other peoples wishlists, because I have. My issues with other peoples wishlist are usually things like they have too few items for any gift to be a surprise, or every item on the wishlist is more expensive than my budget. I have also found that sometimes I'm just ornery and don't want to purchase any of the options listed, but manly because I don't understand the interest in the items. Eventually I get over my personal issues and figure out something to give. It's hard for me to understand the people that just hate wishlist. 

Basically I think there are people that prefer to complain and try to justify their negativity with a glazing of moral superiority. I don't like it. If you feel some sort of irrational obligation to buy a gift from a wishlist that is your problem, and resenting the list or the person who made it isn't going to help anything, nor is it in the holiday spirit. If you don't feel that way GREAT! My advise to everyone this holiday season is to relax and enjoy being with people you love or at least like, and if you are going to give gifts remember it's hardest to think of something on your own, it's easier to shop off someone wishlist; it's even easier to pick something at random; it's even easier still to give a gift card; and it's easiest to give cash. Giving nothing doesn't count because doing nothing is nothing and nothing is disappointing.

Hope and Change Not Paying the Bills

I've tried to avoid politics on my blog, but that is about to change. So no matter who you want to blame for the United States economic crisis it is clear the government doesn't have any good ideas how to fix it. I have some serious ideas, yet what fun would it be to focus on those. What could I possibly have in mind? We the tax payers are paying for storage of untold thousands of secret documents, and occasionally some of them get released after they are deemed and/or censored safe. I think that the U.S. government has some information in files that are deemed secret yet pose no risk to national security, and could be wildly profitable. Currently the government just announces they are going to release designated files and they become available to the public; I think this should continue, yet I think this process could be modified to provide much needed cash. The premium price I propose would be for early release and the limited rights to individual specific media formats; Movie; T.V.; Internet; T.V. news; Printed news; Books, etc. All deals would of course contain a royalty clause for smaller yet continual revenue flow; no contracts would be forever exclusive and other parties could produce materials based from public records after they have been released to the public. I think all items should be subject to public auction to avoid any 'behind door deals' or any unforeseen manipulations, as well as public right to know who made the purchase, and how much money we the people received for the privileges. I'm fairly sure the entertainment industry would pay a premium for the opportunity to view and produce materials from certain types of government information. For example I think the uncensored U.F.O. files or the files for the J.F.K. assassination would be top picks.

I think it's about time these files were open to the public, so why not make a buck on it? With the J.F.K information I find it very hard to believe something that happened over 48 years ago should remain a secret. I have no idea why the J.F.K. files are off limits and I wonder if it is because of some misguided honor to the Kennedy family. It's not quite clear why, and that is a problem. There are other files that are mysteriously still off limits with no real explanation as to why. I understand that some U.F.O. files would contain current military information, and that should of course remain off limits for the near future. Yet with very few exceptions information 40 years and older as well as the non-military stuff should be public, and uncensored; or at least minimally censored. I mean what is the point of releasing pages and pages of blacked out text? This information after all is the property of the U.S. tax payers, and if we are not allowed access to information we pay for we should at least ask 'Why?'.  I don't think that this is going to happen, nor do I think it will fix the economic crisis or even stop the ever increasing national deficit, but it would add revenue to a damaged system that doesn't seem to know how to manage a budget. The next step would be to hold politicians accountable, but I think that is a topic for another time in another Blog.

Movies, Me, and Mind-Mush

I found myself curious what the worst movies have been and how many of them I've seen. I found a list of the 'Bottom 100' at http://www.imdb.com/chart/bottom, and I am happy to report I've only seen two. What are the two horrible movies from the bottom 100? I'll tell you, 'Gigli' and 'Meet the Spartans'. I can't imagine that I am alone when feeling slightly embarrassed in my admission, but I can explain. First 'Gigli' was a movie my wife wanted to watch, and as a married man I understand there are some compromises worth making; luckily it wasn't too bad, but it was bad. Second 'Meet the Spartans' was something I saw while on an airplane, and I have to say that I may have enjoyed my flight a little more if I hadn't watched this cheessaster (that's cheesy-disaster). I can not say that I did not willfully watch either of these movies because that would be a lie, but I can say joyously that I did not like either one. I'm not sure that just because I've only seen two out of 100 of the worst movies means I have excellent taste in movies, but rather lucky or fortunate that I haven't seen more.

When it comes to good movies I can't say that I'm an oracle or anything as I've only seen 59 of the top 100 movies from http://www.imdb.com/chart/top, and I can't say that I loved every single one of the 59. It was a bit disappointing to see that 'Star Wars: A New Hope' (1977)  was ranked a mere #16, and 'Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back' (1980) ranked higher at #12, and 'Star Wars: Return of the Jedi was ranked a lowly #96. Even though I would rank the Star Wars movies from best to least-best in that order it was still slightly disturbing that not one of them ranked in the top 10. On the bright side none of the Star Wars prequels ranked even in the top 250, and rightly so. I was amazed at some of the movies that made the top 250. For example 'Ratatouille' ranked #191, and I found it disenchanting that a mediocre animation flick could out rank #196, 'The Princess Bride'. Oh well, I guess it is just further proof of the mind-mush epidemic.
*(Mind-mush epidemic is not an official epidemic, yet)

Really Bad Poetry

I was struck with the will to write down some words that look like poetry........well Vogon Poetry. Just sharing the weirdness, enjoy!

When the wind blows the shadows fall, the heart sinks to an all new low. Dried up puddle residue is keeping the regret. Whispers of ghost not known as friend or foe, taunting the hinder of delight.

NASA's Folly

What may fall from the sky is usually unknown, but according to NASA an old satellite will fall to the ground as soon as tomorrow, Thursday September 22, 2011. The first news report I saw said the largest chunk of debris could weigh up to 250 pounds, and not to worry, most of the debris will weigh 1 pound or possibly less. If you are feeling O.K. with getting hit by a 1 pound piece of debris I'd like to point out that the debris will be traveling at velocity, and unless the debris has an immense surface area, like a piece of foam, I would prefer not to get hit by any debris even if the pieces are small....... even as small as lets say a bullet. The news report also said that NASA had no idea where the satellite debris will land and would not have any idea of it's final trajectory until the moment it enters the atmosphere, giving anywhere from 2 hours to as little as 20 minutes warning. It's not clear if the warning will be made public or not. To top it off the statistics given are 1:3,200 that a person will be hit by falling debris. Since it is not known how many pieces of debris will impact the surface it is slightly frightening to consider that 1:3,200 could lead to a large number of injuries and fatalities in a densely populated area. If the unfortunate falling nightmare comes down in my neck of the woods, Seattle, the horrifying number of casualties could be as high as 1,277. I think 1,277 is massive. When did NASA become so.............incompetent? They shut down this satellite in 2005 and I find it hard to understand why they didn't bring this thing down sooner, purposely, controlled, and as safe as possible. It didn't seem that long ago that the U.S. Navy shot down a toxic Russian satellite, yet tomorrow we could have a 250 pound burning hulk return to earth through my roof....I don't think my landlord is going to like that. If I'm one of the unlucky ones to take a NASA sky-turd to the grave I want my friends and family to rejoice that they knew me and sue the bastards that killed me. I hope you make it, but be aware I'm seriously thinking of wearing my hard hat tomorrow.

Barbecue Spider

 Ever plan something small but good only to have it get all bugged up? Last night I planned on grilling some delicious salmon for dinner, yet I became aware of a small problem with our gas grill. After letting the grill preheat I went back outside with the fish and noticed the right burner was not lit, yet the valve was set to high. I turned off the right burner and then tried to lite it again on the higher 'lighting' setting; it lit but went out when I turned the knob to high. I thought for a bit.......well a few seconds, and then re-lit the right side and left the right burner on the highest burner setting, 'lighting', and watched it. At first the burner fluctuated from being skimpily barely a lit, to ferociously flaring out like I was pouring lighter fluid on it. I wasn't adding lighter fluid, and I don't even own any if you were in some kind of delusion that I was, or am a pyromaniac. I'm not. A little after a minute of the fluctuating flame business I got a big surprise when the right side went out and seconds later ignited under the grill where the burner and the valves connect. First thought, hand toward fire to turn off the valve. Why? Prevent explosion; I used to work on high-pressure gas wells and I guess it is just a left over reflex, not that I ever had to put out any well fires. I was a little freaked out, a little miffed, and most certainly confused as to why the fairly new grill was acting up. After a minute or two I grabbed the fish, put it on a foil lined jellyroll pan and added some butter and olive oil to it then broiled it in the oven. While cooking the fish in the oven Sam and I hear, BANG! and we both look at each other and say "what the hell was that?" and we both head to the kitchen. Out of the oven there is a little bit of smoke seeping out of the door, and I'm thinking "well fuck, I guess I'm going to catch everything on fire tonight", but luckily the smoke was just some of the spattering oil burning off and the bang was the jellyroll pan contorting in the heat. After the fish finally cooked we enjoyed it's tasty goodness, but I wondered what they heck was wrong with my grill.

I really couldn't imagine what the problem could be with the BBQ because it is only a few months old, and it had been working fine. It wouldn't seem to be a problem from assembling because it would have gone wrong months ago, so I wondered if it was a manufacturing problem. I started to think that Char-broil had screwed me and I was really getting agitated. I looked online and didn't find anything about my specific grill, but i did see some stuff about people pissed off at Char-broil because they will not fix problems with their grills. Disheartened I resolved to try to figure out what exactly was wrong with my hunk of junk, and see if it could be repaired. From the way the right burner was acting I figured it was a clog as something further down the line would have effected the left burner. I disconnected the crap keeping the burner module in place, and son of a bee sting I busted the wire connection to the ignitor start. Once I finally had the burner out I blew into each of the two venturi-tubes (the right venturi tube shown below), and sure enough the right one was noticeably restricted. 'Hmmmm, I know I'll shove some wire up there and see if that makes a difference', it didn't, but I did notice spider webs on the end of the wire when I pulled it out. I really don't see how a spider big enough to cause a blockage could get in there but I figured I should get it out if there was one in there. I turned the tube toward the side-table of the grill and started tapping and after only a few seconds, VOILA! the culprit had been found. I'm pretty sure the trespasser had been barbecued to death the night before, so the capital punishment was accidental; but I would have totally killed that fucker had I caught it alive. I'm thinking of just repairing the stupid wire to the ignitor and returning the burner to the grill and seeing if the dang thing will work, but I have asked Sam what she thinks because blowing myself up over $20 seems stupid. I still don't see how that spider got in there as all the opening I am aware of are way smaller than that guy.

Jury Duty

My entire adult life I have been free of jury duty or even a notification, but that streak has ended. Today I opened the mail and found a jury selection questionnaire from Hawaii. I am a little surprised that the State of Hawaii would send me something like jury selection since they had to mail it to a Washington address, but I'm sure they wanted to give me every last chance to participate just in case I had my heart set on being in a jury. I really kind of wish that they had a selection box to check that indicates I am no longer a resident of the state of Hawaii, but sadly it's not an option. I hope this is an easy thing to get squared away and doesn't turn into some lame drawn out thing where I have to physically go there to prove I'm not living there; because that would be ridiculous. 

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

This last week me and the wife went to see two different baseball games here at our local Safeco Field. Neither Sam, my wife, or I had been to a game in over a decade, and we felt it was about time to see one. I had lost my childhood interest in baseball after player strikes, cable-viewing extortion, and steriod abuse scandals, but after some time I was willing to give baseball another shot.

Sam and I went to see the Boston Red Sox vs. Seattle Mariners, and Toronto Blue Jays vs. Seattle Mariners. Sam and I are both Boston Red Sox fans; Sam has been a life long fan, and I became a fan after watching a rather small-statcher rookie hit the first home-run of the 2007 World Series which for me was what baseball is all about. That rookie Red Sox player was Dustin Pedroia, and rather coincidentally is from Woodland, CA, my home-town. For the Red Sox Game I bought two tickets in the lower level 40 rows behind 3rd base which were the best seats Sam or I had ever had the chance to view a game from. The day of the Red Sox game we dawned our Red Sox attire and caught a bus downtown. Just on the short walk to Safeco Field from downtown it was surprising how many Red Sox fans were in attendance. Inside the game it was hard to tell if the home team was the Red Sox or the Mariners as it seemed to me there was at least a 50/50 mix of Red Sox fans and Mariner fans. Noise wise it was clear it was Bostons house that night as Mariners fans could barely be heard, and during the 7th inning stretch " the Red Soxs" was clearly heard over "the Mariners" in the traditional singing of 'Take Me Out to the Ball Game". It wasn't that the 1st place Red Sox were dominating the actual game, because they didn't; the Mariner's first batter Ichiro Suzuki hit a home-run on the very first pitch which kind of set the pace for the game. Red Sox fans are not easily deterred. We had hotdogs, Crackerjacks, Sam had Cotton-Candy and we watched the entire game only to have our team lose. On the bright side we did get to see hometown boy, Dustin Pedroia, hit a homerun, and that was pretty cool. When we took the bus home it stunk like stale beer, which I think was from other baseball fans filled with traditional liquid-fun, and we were able to complete our transit without incident. After having a pretty decent time at this game despite the loss to our favorite team we thought we would make the effort to attend another game before the season ended.

After only 4 days since our last visit to Safeco Field we were back for the Toronto Blue Jays vs Seattle Mariners game. Sam had signed us up to go to her companies annual baseball outing which came with a free company t-shirt to wear to the game, a free meal at the game, and of course free tickets to the game. The group seats were upper-level, but when the tickets are free I'm not going to complain; but honestly the view was still pretty good for upper-level. I took the bus downtown to meet up with Sam after work to have dinner, as we skipped the free meal; I've haven't had the best luck with free meals so we thought it best not to risk it. After dinner we made our way to the game. The game was fairly uneventful and not entirely interesting as both the home-team and the away -team suck donkey balls. Sadly whatever gusto the Mariners had when they beat the Red Sox it was clearly gone as the Blue Jays pummeled the Mariners. It was the quietest Major League Baseball game I've ever been to. We left the game in the 6th inning with no regrets, but still happy we went.

I just have to say it must suck hard to be a Mariners fan. I'm not saying Mariners fans suck, not at all, but I am saying the experience can't be very pleasant. It's not easy to be a fan of a losing team, and I know because I was a Sacramento Kings fan; and when I was a kid the Kings lost more than they won. I kind of felt bad for the Mariners fans at both games I attended because at both games the visiting teams had substantial fan representation, and the noise of the visiting team fans was noticeably louder than the home crowd. Where else does this happen? I've never experienced a sporting event where the home crowd didn't overwhelmingly out number the visiting team fans. I understand that the Mariners don't have a winning record and I agree that is a problem with getting the home crowd to the game, but I think the Mariners organization is going to have to reach out a lot more than they are now if they want people in the stands. As it appears now it is unclear what the Mariners mission is. It seems to me it would be better to have a ballpark filled at half-price than have 1/4 to a 1/3 of the park at full/current price. I believe that with a Safeco field full of people there is positive pressure on the Mariners to play well and not disappoint the fans. If nothing else I believe there is a fear factor of being booed by a very large group of fans. In this time of economic down turn I really think the Mariners are going to have to face facts that they are stink'n horrible and no one should pay to watch them play/lose, and after they get over their major league ego issues they then can show fans and potential fans they really really really want their attendance and give those fans a reason to make the effort to show up. To reiterate: the Mariners organization is failing to give local baseball fans a reason to be Mariners fans.