Out The Door

This past week has been a blur, but it's all worth it. Tomorrow, 10 am CST, I shall be placing my feetses upon the soil of northern Illinois. Barring any bad luck...

Saturday, the cousin in law and I went to the mill and got started on pulling all of the breakers, cleaning and checking them, and then re-installing them. We got an early start, but the mill wouldn't let us cut power until 1, so we were slightly delayed. Seems they don't want to shut down dust collectors when there's concrete dust in the air. Babies.

We got rolling, and were moving along at a very good clip. Hell, we did in five hours what it took us just over seven, the last time we worked there. Things were flawless. We finished one section, and raced home.

Once home, had little time to shower and shave, and then we headed out to a party. I wasn't really in the mood to go, as I didn't know the people hosting it, and I thought that I needed to be going down to the shop to catch up some more. But my family was insistent, and there was free beer and chow... I ended up going. And I had a pretty decent time, too, as is evidenced by my blog.

The area has a boat parade, and folks along the canals throw parties... everyone stands out on the dock and cheers as the boats go by, and the peeps riding the boats toss candy and beads. I thought it would suck, but it really wasn't bad... especially the boat that had Santa and his eight helpers . The helpers were decked out in high heel boots and very short dresses. And legs? Mmmmmm... It was very inappropriate, and my favorite boat, by far. Well, with the exception of one other.

One boat came by and they had a pretty good crowd on there. As they went by the first time (the route turned around and headed back), I noticed the Marine Corps flag flying proudly. When they made the turn, they were on our side of the water, and when they all yelled, "Merry Christmas," I answered the same, and then yelled, "Ooo-Rah!" Right away, I noticed a young Marine whip his head around, locate me (with my glass upraised), and yell back, "Semper Fi!" Then he turned and yelled something over all of the other cheers and holiday greetings to another guy, who looked to be his father, and he yelled the same to me. The he turned and yelled something to an older, but very fiesty young old guy (my guess is his father), and he grinned, raised his beer, and yelled, "To the Corps!" I drank to the Corps with three generations of Marines. It made me beam with pride...

Five vodka jello shots, and way too many Killian's to count, later, we made our way to another party. I ended up visiting with one of my cousin's neighbours for about an hour. He owns a trucking business, and we were working on a way to get my motorized bicycle down here. How much of this he remembers, I don't know, but it was a very good time. Unfortunately, the cousin in law and I had to finish up the job at the mill the following morning, so we wobbled on home early.

Sunday morning saw us up bright and early, and off to a good start at the mill. We had about three hours of work at the most, and were sure that we'd be back home in time to catch the Bears-Bucs game. HAH! We hit a snag.... a major one. We ended up with an ancient breaker not functioning properly, and no power to over half of the mill. Not a good thing. We had to make things work, and that meant the we ended up putting in over ten hours. Gotsta say, while I wasn't really hung over, I was feeling mighty weak by the end of the day. CIL, too.

This morning, I woke up still feeling it, but knowing that today would be my last day in Florida for a week, so I was in a pretty damned good mood as I tried to finish up everything. It didn't quite work out that everything I wanted was done, but my aunt is left in a pretty decent situation. She shouldn't have to work too hard while I'm gone...

And tomorrow? Six o'clock, and I'm on my way to the home of the silver bird, where one of the winged wonders will carry me home.

Wednesday evening? Fritz's.

I'm leaving my laptop here, so blogging may not happen too much over the next week. I'll try, but don't count on anything. (That way, whatever I post is a suprise!)

Peace out, Merry Christmas, and may the Force be with you.

Posted by That 1 Guy at December 18, 2006 08:47 PM | TrackBack