Tiny's Tantalizing Text

Another week has passed since my weekly musings. This time we're heading for a long weekend. I have to work alone Saturday morning, but I'm heading to the City in the afternoon so it's all good. Main objectives on the trip are to eat at Long John Silver's (I know it isn't very healthy, but I LOVE their food), go to Best Buy and possibly purchase a DVD recorder, Wal Mart Supercenter for some slabs of Baby Back Ribs and maybe some other grocery type items, and maybe a trip to Arby's for some Roast Beef Sandwiches to take home. I hate it that the closest Arby's and Long John Silvers are both about 60 miles away. Of course, maybe that's good for my waistline.

I'm not sure what else is going on, but I'm planning to Bar B Q some ribs on Monday, but I don't know if I'll have company over or not, haven't invited anybody yet. I've also got a nice netted pork roast in the fridge that I'd like to slow cook on the barby. Might do that on Sunday while waiting for the race to start.

So far this week, I've slept better than I have for quite some time...just hope I didn't jinx myself by bringing it up.

Well, that's all I can think of that could be considered noteworthy for now.

Keep it real.

I was wrong about Saturday night's Nextel Cup race. It was actually pretty enjoyable. Only 10 cautions for 62 laps. Far short of the 20/158 that I expected. I still didn't see much side by side racing, but the pit strategy kept it interesting.

Friday night's Busch race, however, lived up to all expectations I had. 14 cautions for 85 laps (that's out of 250, so nearly 1/3 of the race was behind the pace car).

Welcome, dear readers, to another round of me posting what is or isn't going on in my life. First off, I still aintgettinany, so if you have a good looking female friend in the midwest, between say 20 and 40 or so, that you want to punish for something, hook us up.

This weekend the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series rolls into Bristol for their annual night race. I expect that only 3-4 cars will escape with no damage. I'm not real crazy about this track since it leads to mostly single file racing (parade), where the only way to pass is to knock the guy in front of you out of the way, usually leading to cautions, that usually take up 1/4 or more of the 500 laps. That being said, I haven't missed watching a Bristol race on TV since the last time I raced during it at my local track. I don't know if I'll have some guests over or not...right now I don't feel like cleaning the house to Dad's "company's coming" specs. I wouldn't mind clearing the table and some of the counter, and vacuuming the living room, but I simply don't have time or energy to asolutely clear the counter(s), pick up everything all over the upstairs, and whatnot. And then have to make some food for us to munch on during or before the race.

I e-mailed one of my best friends from High School yesterday to see when he's coming back this way. His reply blindsided me with news that he is about 4 weeks from finalizing getting a divorce.

Last thursday I was supposed to get a haircut after work, but forgot about it until later that evening. I decided to go try to find my "stylist" and apologize...that trip was successful, as she was just walking out of her house when I was driving by. My haircut has been rescheduled for tonight. I'm looking right at a note to remind me, so hopefully I won't forget again.

Well, that's about the extent of my week. Thanks for reading.

Good morning. Are you ready for a rare Saturday morning post? I hope so, because teacher Todd gave my friends at my new "home" message board a writing assignment that is due Monday morning at 8:00 local time. And, since I don't get to work until 9:00 local time on Mondays, I have to do it now to get it done in time. Anyway, it is supposed to be 5 or more paragraphs on "What would you do if money wasn't an object?".

I guess the first thing I would do is have bariatric surgery, since I'm a really overweight person, and would like to have the energy and ability to do anything at any time. Also, a year or two after that surgery, I'd probably have some cosmetic surgery to get rid of the excess skin that would arrive from the loss of so much weight.

Now that I'd be in shape and lookin' good, I would get a motorcoach and follow the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series for a season or two, all the while interviewing candidates to become Mrs. Tiny.

After my tour with the Cuppers, I would probably have to do something to stay busy. Possibly by getting an IMCA Stock Car, Modified, or Late Model, and make an attempt to either win the National Title, or make the Supernationals Feature Race in Boone, IA.

I've thought about getting a job driving a truck, should I ever happen to lose a considerable amount of weight, but I don't know if I would still want to do that if I didn't need money any more. Maybe a few runs for a Company here in my hometown when they need an extra driver.

One thing I definately wouldn't do, is forget about my friends, both local and Internet. I'm not saying I'd throw money at them, but we would spend time together.

Well, that's about as good as I can come up with.

Good evening (or whatever time of day you are reading this). I was just sitting over at Dad's desk killing time until closing time when I realized I hadn't posted my weekly thoughts yet.

Over the weekend was the 25th Annual Carp Contest held at Blackhawk Lake in Lake View, Iowa. My buddy and I have fished in it the past 2 years, so we tried our luck again. The first year, I caught 2 carp, and my buddy got shut out, though he landed one for our third partner. Last year, he caught one or two, and I got shut out. What happened this year you ask? We both got shut out. Our third partner got one carp before we got there on Saturday, and a catfish, then a bullhead while we were there. On Sunday, this other guy caught a bass...an inch and a half long. We also got rained out after about 3 hours on Sunday. If we'd gotten the whole day in, I'm sure we would have caught something.

I also had the misfortune of breaking a reel on Sunday morning. I had casted out with my doughball and was going to turn the crank to tighten the line when it slipped over and wouldn't reel in. Well, I just thought the screw was loose, so I borrowed a screwdriver and tightened it, then it wouldn't move at all. Took it apart and found the crank handle was broken where it goes on the shaft, so I borrowed the crank handle from my other rod & reel (got it out of the water first so I wouldn't get a fish on with no way of bringing it in). The reel still wouldn't move the line in, so I took the cap off the reel and manually wrapped the line around the spool until I got it all in. Five feet from shore, I got snagged and had to break the line, but I didn't lose my hook since my buddy found it wrapped in his line when he did a bait check.

I should have known it was going to be a bad weekend for fishing. Didn't feel like making my bait until Friday night, Saturday when I was bringing lunch home for Dad and I, my buddy's fire department got called out for a garage fire, so that bought me a little extra time to get my stuff loaded. I left town 5 minutes later than my original plan, knowing that his department hadn't returned to the station yet...they called in when I got 2 miles out of town. Well, anybody who has spent time with a fire department knows that the work ain't over yet, just because the trucks are back at the station. There's usually hose to re-rack, tanks to fill, etc. Well, they finally got done, I took him home so he could change and grab his gear, and we finally got on the water (from shore, not on a boat) at 3:00.

Which brings me to our fishing spot. I had a low branch overhead and a downed tree in the water to my left. I'm also a lefty. I pretty much had to throw sidearm to get under the branch, but had to release late to keep it out of the downed tree. I'm much more accurate overhead. Needless to say, I spend most of Saturday unsnagging from trees and tying on hooks.

Wow, what an entry over a fishing outing. Good thing I can't remember anything else that happened since my last entry.

Welcome weaders...er, readers. It's time to post my boring weekly updates.

First off, news from the health front. As you may recall (maybe not, I don't know if I ever posted it), my leg has been bothering me at night by stinging like heck until about 3:00 in the morning, from finishing up on it's leaking procedure for the day. Yesterday I decided I wanted to do something about it, so I called the Physical Therapist that got me started with the wrapping procedure. She said it was quite possible that I had an infection in there, and that was also causing some excess leakage. She suggested I see my regular doctor, but since I had a refill left on my antibiotics, I decided to just refill that and see what happens after a few days of taking them again. She also recommended starting again on my diuretic/water pill. The main problem with that is, I work until 5, don't remember to take it until 7, then I'm up all night peeing. I don't really mind waking up several hundred times a night, I just don't like to actually get up during the night.

Overall, during the day, I feel like I've been losing a couple of pounds here and there, but I just ain't seeing it. Of course on this body, a couple of pounds is like removing a cup of water from Lake Superior. I guess my belly doesn't seem to interfere with my steering wheel as much lately, so I suppose that's measureable progress.

My favorite fishing lake is having it's annual Carp Contest this weekend. It's usually worth $10,000 (10 fish tagged worth $1,000 each). This year it's a biggie...$25,000 (25 tags worth $1,000 each). My buddy and I are going to hit it for the third time.

Sunday will also, unfortunately, mark the fifth anniversary of my sister's passing. One day, I'll return to Wichita to relive some of the fun events I shared with her. Like going to a Wichita Wrangler's Minor League baseball game, visiting the "Exploration Place" (a place built mainly for kids to learn stuff at, but is really fun no matter what your age), mini-golf, and some of the restaurants. I had no idea writing this paragraph would make me tear up a little bit.

I think last week I mentioned something about straightening my desk a bit. Well, I got it as far as it is going to go. Used to be level deep with about 6 inches above my PC tower, with just enough desktop exposed to set our wireless keyboard and mouse on. Now I can actually see parts of the desktop...didn't remember it was that color. lol. However, it still falls under what most people would probably call "cluttered".

Well, that's it for today. My butt hurts so I'm gonna go sit on Dad's chair for a while and maybe cop a snooze until closing time.

Well, the time has come again to make my definate weekly post. I know I should post more aside from Wednesdays, but I really don't have much to say.

This afternoon we had a little excitement in my old neighborhood (I recently moved a block and a half East of my former residence). There was a small electrical fire in the basement in one of my old neighbors' house. 2 minute response time, mostly just using our ventilation fans to blow the smoke out of the house, but we did take a "booster reel" hose in and spray a little water after the smoke was cleared out. Not sure what was on fire since I didn't go inside.

I suppose some of you are wondering how my leg is coming. Progress seems to have really stalled out again. At least it isn't going backwards is all I can say. I really wish the fluid wouldn't leak out through the skin, that's causing some problems with sleeping. You see, when I lay down at night, I usually lay on my left side or stomach. Guess where the leaks are...left side of left leg and the front of the leg. And, for some reason, they sting really bad until 3 AM unless I have a clean towel under the leg (new one every night).

It seems like I am actually dropping a couple of pounds here and there. I noticed Monday that the walk into the store from my truck, the walk with the Meals on Wheels food at the Senior Center, and my walk back from lunch didn't take as much energy from me as they had the last few weeks, and I wasn't looking for something to lean on in order to stay standing. I know that sounds weird to those of you in decent shape, but for me, that was HUGE. However, since I noticed that, I expected to feel that good all the time, and I don't know if it's just because my expectations are too high or what, but I don't feel quite as good today.

Well, I told my boss (Dad) that I was going to start trying to straighten out my desk somewhat today, so I better get to work on that since I only have an hour left here today.