Bowling update / Weekend plans

Retalix Strikers, my bowling team, didn't bowl so well this week, or last. "Sweetie" stopped in to the bowling alley tonight with her son, "Other Two" and watched our team lose two of our three games. Last week, we only won one of three games as well, so the team has moved from first place last week, to probably 4th or 5th after tonight. Our team captain is out for a few weeks with a sore elbow on his bowling arm, so we are a player short... However, that doesn't account for our recent losses, that is due to our less than stellar athletic performance. The good news is that it is still early in the season and if we can just bowl our average or better, we can easily regain our position in first place.

This weekend my brother's wife is going out of town, and because he has to work, and his oldest son wants to play in his football and soccer games on Saturday, they are staying at home. My brother will be working at Heinz Field during the Pitt and Steelers games on Saturday and Sunday, so I get to spend time with my nephew again.

My nephew is coming over Friday night after I get done with work and is going to spend the night with me, and my kids;"Two" and "Four." I think my daughter, "Three", will be coming down as well, so I will have a full house. We may go catch up on the current movie releases at the theater, rent a movie or two, or just sit in front of the wide screen TV and play video games on the PlayStation. Saturday we get to take him to his flag football and indoor soccer games. He really enjoys soccer, but football doesn't yet seem to get his enthusiasm going.

I am really looking forward to a non-work, fun filled weekend with the nephew and the kids.

Later Lou

Sigh...

Bank Update:

To the bank's credit, they didn't charge me the overdraft fees, as they said they wouldn't. However, I still have a negative balance because an automatic bill payment came out of my account yesterday, and that WILL give me an overdraft charge... So all in all, I lost $105 to the bank in fees this month... (sigh)

Cavalier Update:

Tuesday after "Two's" scout meeting we got the new battery installed. After we brought the car back to the "Ex's" place, and he was backing up in the parking spot, I heard an usual noise from the car. I asked "Two" if he checked the transmission fluid when he was going over the car, and he said he did. He assured me it was checked properly, and had enough fluid in it.

I told him that the transmission sounded bad when he backed up and that he should try a test the next day to see if it was just a noise or a more serious problem. I suggested he drive to the end of "Ex's" drive way, and put the care in reverse and backup the length of the driveway. The driveway has a very slight downward slope, so has he reversed it would be a very slight up hill, just enough to put a little pressure on the transmission.

So this past Wednesday when he got home from school, he did the test. The car didn't pass. It only backed up the driveway about 90% of the way, and then gave out. The car no longer goes in reverse. The optimist in me says, "I am glad we found out now instead of when you were out driving around." The pessimist in me says, "How are we going to come up with the money necessary to fix the transmission?"

"Two" was very upset because the transmission work will cost pretty close to his entire purchase price of the car, and of course he doesn't have the cash now. It will take him about 2½ months to save up the money for the repair.

I am going to take the car to a local transmission shop, and get a proper estimate. The estimate the mechanic gave me over the phone without seeing the car is around $700 for a used transmission or $1,050 to rebuild the existing one. I am hoping that he will give me a better estimate when he sees it. (sigh)

Parking update:

I forgot to move the trash cans I was using as a parking space barrier to the curb. So Thursday morning when the trash collectors came I expected they wouldn't empty the cans... I was wrong, they did... They just emptied them, turned them over, and put them back where I had the barrier setup... SOOOO... I haven't opened up the drive way in front of my garage to see if the neighbor will return... I think after this weekend I will remove the barrier and put the trash cans away... It looks bad with the cans sitting out in the driveway. (sigh)

Bowling update:

We officially sucked as a bowling team last night. Ok, that's just me expressing my extreme displeasure at not winning any games last night. We don't suck completely, just a little bit. The team we played last night was just better than us. Last week however we did win 2 games and total points, so we moved into second place. After this week's loss, I am thinking we will be at the bottom of the list again! (sigh).

Sweetie update:

At the end of the post "Weekend Work...", I said the following:

I am not sure exactly where we "are". We didn't really make up, but we didn't really say we would stay apart... We are somewhere in between.

Well... We are still talking to one another, and planning events and outings together. This upcoming weekend, "Sweetie" mentioned she would like to do something outside like go on a hike or something. Personally I am happy for the opportunity to spend time with her, as I really enjoy being with her, but at the same time I don't want to feel I am forcing her to be with me by my continuing to "chase" her when she has told me she wants to "move on." Maybe this weekend we can have a heart to heart and either decide to try to make a real go of it, or do an actual separation. (sigh) Tenant Update: I still haven't asked my tenants for the October rent... yeah, yeah, yeah... I know I need to be more stern, but I really hate being the "bad guy", or the "mean landlord" and demanding the rent. (sigh) New News: As I was typing this post, my brother just called and told me we finally got a bill for the funeral home. I haven't written about it, but a few months ago, my mother past away. The funeral director was seemingly in no hurry to get his money, and didn't send out the bill for quite some time. Anyway, the bill is for $6,000, and after we use whatever money my Mom had saved, which isn't much, we (my brother, my two sisters and I) have to share the remaining cost. Supposedly my mom had enough money to cover at least half of it so that means I am going to have to come up with about $750. (sigh) Later Lou

Bowling update

Real short bowling update: My bowling team won 5 out of 7 points last night, which means we won 2 games, and total pins for the night. This is quite a feat as we are in eigth place in our division and we were bowling against the 7th placed team! :-) Later Lou

Lunch

I am sitting in one of my local lunch hangouts, a place my co-workers and I refer to as the "$2 pizza place", but it is actually called "Adrian's Pizza". They have a lunch special for $1.99 where you get a small (personal sized) cheese pizza and a drink. The pizza is actually pretty big, yummy, and it is paired up with a free refill drink. All together it makes a great lunch. The $2 pizza isn't the only lunch special, and it's not the only good, inexpensive food either. I usually get the Italian Hoagie lunch special: a good sized Italian sandwich with a large order of fresh fries, and a free refill drink, all together for under $5. Who says you have to carrt in a lunch to eat inexpensively? However, eating healthy is a whole different issue!

Last night (Thursday) our bowling team lost big time... I mean really big time. We didn't win a single game, and lost all 7 points. No oppurtunity for optimism there, except that next week we bowl a pretty weak team, unlike the team we bowled last night... To be honest, the team we bowled against wasn't really the problem, rather we just really didn't bowl well last night. I once again bowled under my average, and I believe most (if not all) of my team mates bowled under their averages as well... I think we need to start practicing, get professional training, or maybe we should wish upon a star?

Wednesday night I finally gave in on one of my new year's resolutions: No carbonated drinks. I had run out of bottled water at home, and I didn't feel like making iced tea. Sitting in the fridge was a few remaining cans of root beer that "Two" had asked me to get for him. I was at home alone, and still feeling a little down about "Sweetie" telling me she was "moving on", so I fell off the wagon and had the beer... the root beer. But I didn't stop with just one... I had two, and after last night's loss, I had another... I think I am becoming a root beer aholoic! :-)

It's time to go back to work, yeah... I went back to work yesterday, after my two day mental health break. I have talked briefly to "Sweetie", but there isn't anything positive to report on that front... (sigh)...

Later Lou

Unexpected HVAC issue

I am in an extremely pessimistic (glass half empty) mood today, which is not my general tendency. To be totally honest, that isn't exactly true... I am pessimistic by nature, but I have been trying the last few years to train myself to be optimistic. For the most part I have been doing very well. When I got the ticket the Wednesday, I didn't freak out, and tell myself all kinds of horror stories about why this was bad. Instead, I told myself with my self imposed optimism, that since I have now gotten a ticket the police probably can't ticket me again.

Bowling update: As I mentioned yesterday, last night was our first night of bowling. When we arrived, our team (Retalix Strikers) was started in second place slot in our division. This position was based on our total team pin count from last year. We bowled against the team listed in first place within our division. Well, we haven't bowled since the end of last season which was this past May, and if you would have happened to have watched our games last night, you would have assumed we had never bowled in a league before. Needless to say we were a little rusty, and we lost the first two games without question. However, we did squeak out one win with the last game of the match, but for the night, we only took 2 out of 7 points.

FYI: A match is made up of three games, and the winning team of each game gets 2 points, and the team with the most pins over the three games gets an extra point. So each night a team can win up to 7 points.

It could have been worse, and if I wanted to look at things as an optimist, I would be saying we did a good job and that we were lucky to get two points! Yippee..! But the pessimist in me sees that the glass is less full than it is empty, and that we lost most of the points. So, the optimism training has failed me for today. After the game, as I was driving home, telling myself that I should be happy that we got two points in bowling, and that we still had 31 weeks to make up for the measly 5 points we lost last night, I got a phone call from my son, "Two". He informed me that the house was still very, very hot, because the central air conditioning was definitely not working. Earlier before bowling, I had him check the thermostat and the switch, and both appeared OK. So I told him to turn off the air conditioner (A/C), and open the windows. I only have a few windows in my side of the duplex building, so opening them didn't help very much. The building is only one story and has a flat roof, and there is very little attic air space, so on a sunny day like today the building turns into an oven. We ended up sleeping in a building that felt like a whole house sauna, even though the temperature outside was in the low 70's. This morning I called a local HVAC company to check out the A/C unit on my roof (no yard so the only place for the A/C unit is on the roof). He told me that the compressor on the unit was "seized up" and not working, and he could fix it with a new part that costs around $1,200 or so. He also said that since the unit was so old, it really wasn't worth spending the money on the repair, and I would be "throwing good money after bad. Besides", he said, "the price of a new unit is only a few bucks more". So what's a guy to do? Instead of getting a simple A/C repair, I told him to give me a quote on a new unit, and while he was at it to see if he could get me a quantity discount for two units so I could provide my tenant A/C as well. (I had promised my tenant when they moved in that I would have A/C in their apartment by next summer. I have felt bad for them the last two months, since I know how hot the inside of the building gets in the summer. ) Anyway, he called me about a half an hour later and said that he could install a new single A/C unit for my building, including labor (which includes lifting the A/C new unit to the roof) for approximately $2,100. He also said he would give me a discount of $400 if I did both units at the same time since it would be cheaper for him to do two at once because he would only need a lift one day instead of two, and only one crew. Yep, you guessed it, tomorrow I am going to be around $4,000 lighter in the wallet. Actually since the wallet is empty, the credit statements will actually be heavier. The day wasn't all bad news, there is good news. As a matter of fact the good news for today is two fold... It's Friday WOOHOO!! And I don't have to work for the next two days, and I got my car into the shop today, and it passed it's inspection without needing anything, which is I believe the first time that has ever happened to me! See, even when I am pessimistic, my optimism training kicks in and finds something good for the day. :-) Later Lou

Bowling season starting with a ticket...

Today we start the new bowling year for our league. I belong to the team "Retalix Strikers". Retalix is the name of the company I work for, and they have sponsored the team by getting us team shirts. This is the logo that is on the back of our shirts.

The team is made up of my boss here at work, myself, my brother, and two of my brother's co-workers. It's a a men only leauge, which is a sore spot with a few of my women co-workers. Last year we made it to the playoffs, and ended up making it to the "Super Bowl" of the league, and played the number one team. We didn't beat them, but we did win one out of three games against them, but just making it to the final playoffs was worth it, and a new experience for our team. If you are interested in watching our statistics you can check them out at this link on "League Secretary".

On a different topic, I mentioned yesterday that we were going to the old marital home and doing some major yard work. Well I got home later than I had planned, and we didn't get started until almost dark. We got an hour's worth of work into the place, and most of the yard was mowed and trimed. The hill side in front of the house still needs work, and the small piece of land next to the garage where "Ex" spread broken cement block needs to be done. Even though there is still a lot of work to do the place looks 100% better.

The reason I was late getting home last night wasn't because I left work late, but rather than I got pulled over by the state police for speeding. Apparently I was going 77 in a 55 mile an hour zone. Well, he found that my car's inspection sticker was expired, and made me an offer. He said he would only give me one ticket, and I could choose which one I wanted. I could either have the ticket for speeding or the ticket for the expired inspection stickers. It wasn't much of a choice since the speeding ticket is a moving violation and would add "points" to my driving record and cause my insurance rates to go up. So I chose the expired inspection ticket, and it came to $107.50. I am thinking of starting a legal defense fund, so if you want to donate to the cause, please Email me! :-)

Later

Lou