• Tori said that the month went by in the blink of an eye. 
• Petroleum construction company stopped by yesterday and did the site assessment I requested. I was told that my gas volume is pretty impressive for the store size. Should have the bad news sometime next week.
• I lost $20 at poker last night. I swear the bastards cheat.
• Hiring a new employee and doing the interviews today. Hiring people is a crap shoot, but I enjoy giving kids their first job.
• Sunshine Station, the place down the road from us is closed, as I mentioned previously, and I talked to the owner of the place yesterday. He asked me if I’d be interested in buying the place. I asked him about how long the place would be restricted and he doesn’t know. I do know that places I dealt with in the past were closed for periods that ranged from 2 to 10 years.
• Went 4 wheeling in my Rubicon yesterday. That freaking thing is scary how capable it is. I took it down a slope that I wouldn’t walk down and it just idled down as nice as could be. I then turned around and drove up that same slope. Amazingly agile! As a stock vehicle, it is more capable than my modded Sahara.
• SHIT! They’re talking about the next presidential election on the news! I hate politics.
• We have a fire nearby, again. The Tres Lagunas fire is surrounding a friend’s business. Since he happens to be a fire chief and the head of a smoke jumper crew, I doubt his business is in jeopardy, but I still wonder. This fire is about 15 to 20 miles from us.
• Once we know what’s going on here in the summer and fall, info that we should have in 2 weeks or so, Nina and I will plan a fall trip someplace. The info that I need will be construction, liquor license, and employee related. We’re leaning toward another trip to Ouray, but we may go elsewhere.

Thats all.  Peas.

I restart Pilates today. I’ve missed going and am going without Nina for the time being. She may or may not resume going too.

Erin did the Sam’s Club shopping with us yesterday. She’s Nina’s human cane. She walks holding Nina’s hand so Nina doesn’t fall again. It’s cute to watch.

Every week at Sam’s is $1000. You’d think we get some sort of award from them for spending that much money there or something, but nope. The bulk of the product gets set one fire, cigarettes.

Tomorrow we head to the foot doctor and have Nina’s foot checked out. I’ll update you on that later.

Day off for everyone but the workers at Pecos River Station. Sorry people!

• Nina and I are going to Sam’s Club
• Tori’s staying close to handle any dumb shit
• Debra is caring for Shirley now
• Andy will be doing nothing work related
• And Erin will most likely be with us

While I like the money spent during days like this, I really don’t care much for holidays. I guess it’s a holdover from my garbageman days. A day off meant working twice as hard before and after that day off.

With the train crashes and bridge collapses that we’ve seen this month, it makes you worry about the safety of this country’s infrastructure. Our country wastes so much money on wars in countries that mean little to us, and if we spent that money repairing the infrastructure it could go a long way to improving the economy. Wars no longer help the economy the way they did in the 40’s and 50’s.

Just heard a report that the infrastructure is being hurt more by fuel efficient cars than general wear and tear. They are reducing the trust fund because of their efficiency, and that reduces the money spent on roads. 18¢ per gallon sold goes into the trust fund to pay for road and bridge repairs. Ban fuel efficient vehicles and bicycles to raise the trust fund’s revenues!

To all my hooker readers, Joe from Arrow’s Ridge is up there alone until mid-afternoon and he sounds real lonely. Why not take the initiative and head up there to ease his loneliness.

Peace out people.

We have the little one again.  Always great getting her home.

We’ve had one good weekend so far and the motorcycles are already annoying me. Don’t they hear the racket they are making with their unmuffled shit bikes? Has me praying for weekend rain or snow about now.

Arrow’s Ridge had the Mixed Grill last night and I had a great time. Small group and our table had a great group of people.

It has been determined by an expert that Tori has Tourette’s Syndrome. Now it all makes sense and all it took was a casual visit by a friend to diagnose this issue. Thank you Dennis!

. . . being my fault according to Erin, we had a great 4 days together. She and I did the Burger King thing again on Wednesday and hunted down a new playground for her to explore. We found one that borders I-25 and there were kids for her to play with, both there and at BK.

A house that I always had an interest in finally sold. Originally listed at $275K, it sold for $100K lower than that. Oh well, the time was not right at this time and while it would be nice to live off-site of the business, it’s better for me to live on-site.

The news reader is telling me that we will have a huge tick season this year and lime disease is a real danger this year. We need to kill more deer for this reason. I’m sure Nina will be spraying herself hourly to avoid ticks, one of her greatest phobias. Ask her someday of the tick I removed from her when camping one time. She loves to tell that story.

We’re planning to remove the center island from the kitchen this summer and replace it with a tiny table just big enough for  2 or 3 people. Don’t ask. I’m also planning on replacing the flooring when I tackle the island removal.

Happy birthday Carl.  I hope you get some today. Everyone should get some on their birthday, right?

I’m off. Going to Santa Fe to have my Jeep service. 7100 miles so far and it’s due for it’s second lube and first tire rotation. I do a 5 tire rotation on my Jeep. When it comes time to replace the tires, I have to buy 5 tires but on my last set of tires I got 72,000 of very good service because of the 5 tire rotation. Also, when you wear out all your tires and have to buy 5 tires, your spare matches the 4 on the ground. Not an issue for car owners, but when your spare hangs out for all to see, it’s nice that they all match.

Later people.

Erin told me that everything is my fault. When she told me this, I went through a list of things that I felt I was blameless for, but she told me that they were ALL my fault.

• Sneaking things for Erin from Tori, my fault.
• The dogs pooping on the rug, my fault.
• The tornado in Oklahoma, my fault.
• Wars, my fault.
• The drought, my fault.
• Justin Beiber, my fault.
• Dogs barking, my fault.
• Car alarms, my fault.
• Bird poop on my windshield, my fault.
• Shirley, my fault.
• Death, my fault.
• Canada, my fault.
• Bad tempered customers, my fault.
• Obama, my fault.  (That one hurt.)
• Uncle Andy, my fault.
• and finally, “Pake, everything’s your fault.”

She’s mean to me.

Erin

Nina and I are heading out for a shortish drive today, after which we will pick up Erin. Tori hates going there and since we’ll be in the general area, we’ll do it. Besides, I enjoy the attentions that Erin gives me in their presence. It irritates them.

This past week

Busy week last week. With the class I was forced to take and all the business items I was part of, this week wore me down. Yesterday Andy and I took a trailer to Santa Fe and bought some new shelves for the store and some table tops to replace the nasty looking tops that we have now. We spent almost 2 hours setting the shelves up when we arrive back at the store and another 2 hours, after we closed, stocking the shelves for the store. Looks good if you ask me.

Illinois

Nina and I are scheduled to leave for Illinois on 06/09 for a week. This is not carved in stone because of Nina’s busted foot. I’m not allowing her into that condo if there’s the possibility of any additional damage to her foot. All it would take is a bad twist or something to drop on it to require surgery to reattach the tendon and I ain’t taking the chance.

Utah

I’m thinking of going to Utah for our next trip. I was viewing pictures online from the Moab area and I was wishing I was there NOW. So much beauty in one place, it just don’t seem fair to places like . . . Illinois.

Marylou

What a whiny old broad. She had the staff at Vida call Nina and tell her that she was sick. Bullshit. She was just missing us and wanted or needed to see us. Next time I’m going to send Erin in alone to just talk to her about her dolls and stuffed animals. That should stop that type of thing. We have a plan of action in regards to her and at the moment it’s top secret. Shhh!

We spent about an hour there and she was very chatty. She is a wealth of old family stories and history. This is all stuff that Nina should be interested in since it’s her family, buts she’s really not all that interested. I know I’m not interested either. I faked a store emergency  to leave after that hour.

Shirley

She’s not very active as of late. Works for me. Yesterday she was in bed for probably 80% of the day. She’s been glaring at Nina lately. Not sure if it’s because we placed her at Vida when we went to London or if there’s a different reason. Doesn’t matter, it makes Nina uncomfortable. She’ not eating much anymore and she’s also drinking the bare minimum. Her doctor says that since she has a DNR in place and is aware and can function, we should let her do what she wants.

She listens to everything. She has amazing hearing. Oh well, She’ll do what she does. It doesn’t change the fact that out of the 2 old ladies, Shirley is the one like and it does make me somewhat sad to see her just sitting there wasting away.

Dat’s all.

Erin has toothpicks saved away someplace and every day she brings me one and throws away the old one sitting on the table next to me. Not sure why this is happening, but it is. She just arrives, gives me a toothpick, walks around me and grabs the old one and throws it away. No talk, just does it.

Dennis Miller

I’ve been listening to Dennis Miller podcasts lately. I have to say that out of all the political commentators that populate the media cesspools, he is the one that makes the most sense. I just finished listening to his chat with Donald Rumsfeld. It was an enlightening and fun listen.

I found out that if I’m walking alone, I can do 1.25 miles in less time than it takes to listen to one 15 minute podcast. Not a bad pace I’m thinking. When I walk with others I walk at a more leisurely pace and it’s more of a social thing.

Yesterday, May 16.

I was mandated by the federal government to attend a class because I own an AST or an aboveground storage tank. One of the things I learned in this class was that aboveground is actually one word and even though it’s one word, it’s not incorrect to break it down to above ground. I’m pretty sure that the above information was not what the facilitator hoped I’d learn in his class, but then I’ve always been a poor student. Actually I did glean some things from the class. I’m having D & H Petroleum come out to do a site assessment after the holiday. Don (from D & H) and I had a nice little chat about the things that have changed since they did the install of our pumps and tank 10 years ago. It’s a bit disheartening to find out that the government can just mandate changes that cost me a shit load of money. Bastards. By the way, shit load can not be combined to shitload without showing as an error. Not germane to the topic, but yet I’m writing about it anyway. That’s what happens here folks.

Weather

Nice weather here lately. I’ve started walking early in the day again rather than waiting until later. It’s warm enough early to allow me to walk without a jacket early. The weather here has been abnormal this past fall, winter, and spring. I’m glad that spring has finally arrived.

Me

Today I feel really good. Nice walk at the national monument. Had a nice chat with a customer from Colorado named Adonis, who happens to be the regional director of the mountain states Rent-A Centers. I also got to ask a perennial pain in the ass to leave the property, again. I talked to Dennis this morning and we had a nice chat. Had a great email conversation with Donnie Kleyweg earlier this week. He’s doing well and he’s pretty happy in life, but he questions if all the hard work is worth it. I didn’t have a real answer for him, but I asked if there was an alternative. Nice kid.

Piece.