Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Labor Day Weekend Stuff

My daughter kayaking on Friday night as my uncle and I fished.



Thanks to Arianna Huffington for saying what I’ve thought about the Larry Craig case. Check out her column. Like Huffington, there’s a lot to Craig’s politics that I don’t like, I just have to shake my head at the details of his crime. I never knew that tapping one’s foot was a signal for gay sex, and it seems to be silly evidence for a case. I can picture the DA telling the judge, “Your honor, he kept tapping his feet and we all know that white guys with rhythm must be gay…” All I know now is that I’m going to be paranoid the next time I’m in an airport bathroom and will make darn sure I keep my feet firmly planted on the floor.

Labor Day weekend was a blast. My uncle and cousin (she’s just a couple years older than my daughter), as I wrote about Sunday. L and I went fishing Friday night and caught a pretty good mess of bass and bluegills. Our daughters got to try out a friend’s kayak and had a good time. After we got back from the game on Saturday, we were beat and spent most of the rest of the weekend lounging around as much as possible. We were bone tired. They flew out yesterday morning.

Yesterday afternoon, I was scheduled to be videotaped on a piece of property that I have a hand in developing. I don’t really like talking into a camera and all those different “takes” drives me nuts. But I got through most of it fine. The last clip was planned to be shot on the top of a hill at the back of the property. I’ve driven up there several times, but this time the field hadn’t been brush-hogged and the grass was high. I didn’t see a boulder that I scrapped. This is mostly sandy soil and the boulder rolled up and lodged under the truck, between the motor and the back axle. I was stuck and worst yet, in dress clothes. Luckily, I keep a small shovel and a blanket in the back of the truck. We got to work jacking the truck up and finding stuff to block it up (I wasn’t going to crawl under with just a jack on sandy soil) and after about an hour was able to dig around the boulder enough so that it dropped back down and I could drive out. Then, when I got back to the highway, there was the great racket when I started to speed up. I again crawled under the truck. A light metal heat reflector from the exhaust had been bent and was resting against the universal joint (where the drive shaft connects to the transmission), which meant that the faster I went, the more noise it made. I was able to pull the reflector away and it appears nothing more is harmed, but I’m going to have to take it to a mechanic and have it put up on a lift to make sure that I’ve not missed anything. Needless to say, we didn’t do any more filming.

Keep in prayers the folks down in Central America as they endure the wrath of a hurricane. It was two years ago that I was in Honduras for a near miss, as I wrote about in my blog at that time.

12 comments:

  1. Who knew that filming could turn into such an adventure? I hope everything ends up being ok with your truck.

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  2. I can't come within ten feet of a car in dress clothes and not get dirty so how you dug for an hour underneath one without getting dirty must be a miracle.

    If I get some spare time, I'll have to google for the clip and see if I can find it.

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  3. Dawn, yeah it was an adventure, one that I didn't need!

    Ed, I have a pair of wool trousers heading for the dry cleaners... Google for what clip? If it's the Huffington post, I put the hotlink into the post.

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  4. I was referring to your interview on the property you are helping to develop.

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  5. Ed, I'm not sure it'll be online; if it is, it won't be online until the end of Sept. or early Oct.

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  6. Yeah, I'm gonna be paranoid in public restrooms from here on out!

    Looks like I'll need to do an addendum to my male restroom etiquette rules :)

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  7. Sage: Everytime I'm on the road weird/bad stuff happens. I'm in Vegas and Anna Nicole Smith dies. I'm in Los Angeles and now Restroomgate! I hated hearing the tape, though. EWW!

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  8. Gorgeous photo.....Glad you had a great holiday :)

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  9. Nice of you to remember the folks in the path of the hurricane, I was hoping this would be a good year for our coast and it seems to have been so far.

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  10. Hopefully the nice people of Central America will make it through unscathed . . .

    I'd have more sympathy for Craig if he'd stop denying he's gay - as if that is the problem. Old men soliciting creepy bathroom sex is the problem - and while that might not be illegal in Minnesota, if I was a mother travelling with a young son, I'd feel better knowing someone was looking out for these guys . . .

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  11. For once I think I can agree with Arianna. We don't have enough resources to protect our borders but we've got plenty to regulate morality in bathroom stalls. I do think Mr Craig was soliticing sex, so I think it's good his constiuents know of his hypocrisy. It also makes me wonder if that's just the tip of the iceberg with the leadership in this country, red and blue. Personally I'm ready for another color, maybe flourescent orange.

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  12. Bone, your rules are great--this will just make them even funnier

    Michael, at least the bad isn't happening where you're at

    Mistress, thanks

    Deana, I feel sorry for those caught in a storm down there--from my experiences, being in the path of a huricane in a 3rd world country was much more frigthening then growing up with them along the Atlantic Coast

    Diane, you make a good point

    Pat, how about Green?

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