IT WAS A BAD DAY

I wake up this morning around 7:00 and knowing I didn't have to leave the house until 8:30 for an 8:45 appointment to fix a gentleman's front bumper on his truck. So I took my time and had some fun with my cat playing with his ball of yarn he is trying to trade me for. Inside joke.

All was well when I left the house but little did I know my day was going to go in the crappy sooner rather than later. I get to the dealership where I told the gentleman to meet me and there he was waiting for me. I looked at his front bumper and told him it wouldn't be a problem to fix and with in 45 minutes all was taken care of and I thought it was over. Little did I know that a couple of days ago he damaged his back bumper as well. "Just a little dent", he said. So I walked around to the back of the truck and it was not a little dent. From one corner to the other his bumper was completely smashed in. I don't know if it's the gambler in me or the idiot in me that made me think I could fix this. I'm pretty sure it was the idiot! Right off the bat I start pressing on the bumper and blow out a fitting on my press. So I switch it out and the very next press blew out that fitting. Again the idiot in me decides to try instead of folding and I blow the third fitting and break the ram for the press. Fittings are $8.00 each and the ram is $110.00 It's part of the job and it happens. But I kept plugging along. Finally after2 hours of working on this bumper (it looked worse than when I started). I finally gave up, which has to be done on occasion, and told him he will need a new bumper. He was glad I tried and That was the end of that.

We settled up and my phone rang. A salesman from another car lot. He has a customers bumper he would like for me to repair and the customer lives in Knoxville. I was in Morristown working today. My impression of the phone call was the vehicle was at the dealership in Morristown and the guy wanted to know when I could have it fixed by so he could pick it up. I told the salesman I was on my way and to have his customer there at 1:00 pm. He said it wouldn't be a problem. I get to the lot and the salesman said he would be there a 1:00 with the vehicle. I told the salesman I was under the impression the car was already there and he wanted to know when to pick it up. Simple misunderstanding. I let him know I would be back at one and to tell the customer to wait in the waiting room and not bother me while trying to fix the vehicle. Salesman said he would leave that up to me and then turned to me and said he didn't like my attitude and could care less if I fix the bumper because he didn't like me and he didn't want me to make any money.

I followed the salesman inside to the showroom and asked what I said wrong. He started (rather loudly) throwing a few "F" bombs my way and said he wasn't going to talk to me about it. So I went to the main manager, who heard, along with several others, what had just gone down and told him what I said. The manager said the salesman is an idiot and to be back at 1:00 and take care of the bumper.

I showed back at 1:00 to fix the problem and found it was just missing a part and I decided to screw one into the proper spot. Unfortunately I grabbed the longer piece instead of the shorter and mounted it right into the windshield washer fluid reservoir. Fluid was flying everywhere. Awesome! A crap day getting more crappy. So I price one of those at $100.00 and get that taken care of and get the vehicle already to go back to the customer. While getting in my truck my $150.00 Ray-Bans on my head fall off as I am shutting my door and needless to say it was a perfect hit and they ended up in a couple hundred pieces on the ground. What else I think? It's not over yet folks.

My next stop I am taking off the rear bumper of a Chevy truck and my air ratchet literally snaps in half on me. You know what? It's awful hot out today and I was about ready to go off. But a couple deep breaths and a small stroke later I am staying positive. I at least got that bumper fixed and it looked really nice and nothing blew up on me after that so I thought my luck was changing.

The next stop there wasn't' anything to do. So nothing to break or screw up and at that point I decided to stop at Lowe's and get some supplies. This past weekend I lost a nut to the tonneau cover on my truck and picked one of those up to replace the lost one. I get all my supplies back to my truck and put them in the cab and open the tonneau cover to see if the nut fits. It does, so I pull out a ratchet to tighten it up and the bolt holding the bracket snaps in half and now my tonneau cover won't stay open. I thought it was changing for the better but I was mistaken.

So needless to say I decided to quite working for the day and come home and see if I could burn down the house somehow, slip and fall in the shower or maybe break a window. I'm not sure.

None-the-less I'm alive and life is good. Sometimes you just have to laugh about it.

GOODBYE

I live way over here and my children live way over there. So when we have the chance to see each other it is a great joy but a difficult time when we must go back to our lives.

For the last four days my youngest son was in Tennessee with me and we had a blast. It didn't matter what we did, when we did it or for how long it lasted. The important part was that we were together. It was a GREAT feeling and I miss the feeling already!!! The last couple of hours have been very emotional for me and I am sure for him as well because of what we are together.

We had our chances to have some very open conversation together. I know he would tell me anything and not worry about being judged. I won't judge him but try to teach him from the mistakes I made because I acted instead of thinking things through at the same age.

He was very open to me about how he wants to be with me and not where he lives now. That is a great feeling but a difficult pill to swallow because of the circumstances. It broke my heart to put him back on a plane and send him somewhere that doesn't make him happy but just adds to his misery. That is why it is SO hard for me to say "goodbye" to him.

It's not like we won't see each other again but we also know the outcome when we do. It, like all the other times, will come to an end and we will go through the same emotions and feelings as we always do. I don't have this thought with just him; I have it with all my children. The more they grow and have their own lives it becomes a little easier but when they are that young and rely on a parent to help them through the high school years it is extremely nerve racking.

I know that no matter what or with whom it is in every persons best interest to make the most of their time together. Love them like you want to be loved. Know when they need you, even if they say they don't and know when to give space. NO matter how tired or dragged out you are, if someone needs something find the power to be there for them. There may be a day when the situation is reversed. More than likely there will be a day and maybe more than one.

I LOVE my children and the people around me with all my heart!!! But when it comes to saying goodbye it is not any fun.

Over 30

Got this in an email earlier today and thought it was too good not to share.

If you are 30, or older, you might think this is hilarious!

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning.... Uphill... Barefoot... BOTH ways. yadda, yadda, yadda

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!


But now that I'm over the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today. You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a Utopia! And I hate to say it, but you kids
today, you don't know how good you've got it!

I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have the Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the stinking library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!!

There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter - with a pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox, and it would take like a week to get there! Stamps were 10 cents!

Child Protective Services didn't care if our parents beat us. As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to kick our ass! Nowhere was safe!

There were no MP3's or Napsters or iTunes! If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself!

Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio, and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up! There were no CD players! We had tape decks in our car. We'd play our favorite tape and "eject" it when finished, and then the tape would come undone rendering it useless. Cause, hey, that's how we rolled, Baby! Dig?

We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called, they got a busy signal, that's it!

There weren't any freakin' cell phones either. If you left the house, you just didn't make a damn call or receive one. You actually had to be out of touch with your "friends". OH MY GOD !!! Think of the horror... not being in touch with someone 24/7!!! And then there's TEXTING. Yeah, right. Please! You kids have no idea how annoying you are.

And we didn't have fancy Caller ID either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your parents, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, the collection agent... you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

We didn't have any fancy PlayStation or Xbox video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like 'Space Invaders' and 'Asteroids'. Your screen guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination!!! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen... Forever! And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!

You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your ass and walk over to the TV to change the channel!!! NO REMOTES!!! Oh, no, what's the world coming to?!?!

There was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying? We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little rat-finks!

And we didn't have microwaves. If we wanted to heat something up, we had to use the stove! Imagine that!


And our parents told us to stay outside and play... all day long. Oh, no, no electronics to soothe and comfort. And if you came back inside... you were doing chores!

And car seats - oh, please! Mom threw you in the back seat and you hung on. If you were luckily, you got the "safety arm" across the chest at the last moment if she had to stop suddenly, and if your head hit the dashboard, well that was your fault for calling "shot gun" in the first place!

See! That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled rotten! You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980 or any time before!

Regards,
The Over 30 Crowd