I had a lot of projects to do over the weekend. Unfortunately the weather had different plans for me. I couldn’t work on our privacy fence, something about the combination of power tools and rain just did not appeal to me. Obviously the rain also trashed my idea of cutting the grass. So the only projects I was left with were 1. try to fix flat tire on my car & 2. build a table for Michelle.

Well left over project #1 didn’t sound to hard. I have already found the only “hole” in the tire & plugged it. Unfortunately it still has a slow leak somewhere. I bought some “tire slime” that coats the inside of the tire and stops leaks. To get this inside of the tire you have to use a special tool to remove the valve stem (the inside of the part where the air goes). No problem. I have one of these tools…….Ok, one problem. I can’t find it. So I spent an hour our so searching for the tool and of course had no luck finding it. So I will put the tire off for another weekend.

That left me with building a table for Michelle. Let me give you a little background on this (that translates into here I go rambling). Michelle had a custom advertising / sign design shop in what I will call her past life (also known as Before George). It was a very large (6,000 sq ft) business. She did everything related to advertising - banners, signs, vehicle lettering, screen printing, sand blasting, business cards, shirts… you name it she did it. Easiest way to explain it is she sold most of the equipment to move onto a new life.

She kept a couple computers, some software, a couple touch tablets & a small cutter. Basically the bare minimum in case she wanted to do some small work on the side. Well my honey has decided that she would like to start the business up again. It will be based out of the house to start, and as the work grows we can look into moving it to a retail space.

One of the most vital things she needed was a big work table. Preferably one around 4ft wide & 10ft long. Problem is the only room we have to put her equipment in isn’t big enough for the computer, cutter & a big table. Michelle had been telling me about an idea for a wall mounted table that would save some space, but the design wasn’t making sense to me. After many weeks of her trying to make me understand it finally started making sense to me. Now I had the idea in my head of what she was looking for.

Me & an idea can make for a dangerous situation. Once I have something figured out I have to act on it. So we headed out to Lowe’s. Yes, I know I have stated that I hate Lowe’s but they are close & they have what I need. After a relatively painless experience at Lowe’s I started building the support. I wanted to make sure this thing did not fall on Michelle while she was working. I would never hear the end of it.

Pictured below is the skeleton (supports) of the table -

Michelle modeling next to the almost completed table -

This was enough work for one day. At this point it is almost finished. Just needed to add approx. another 2 feet of table top to it & it will be done enough that Michelle can start working on it.

Sundays work wasnt to hard. Just had to finish the top & then set up the computers. Wow, the table was finished on Sunday (well almost, I want to put a smoother top on it, but that can wait) and Michelle & I are still on speaking terms. We didnt kill each other. Michelle said this table is at the perfect angel for working on signs & banners.

Below are her work computers. One on the left has touch screen, and digital tablet/pen for designing art work. Is that a Logitech wireless keyboard & mouse? Wonder where those came from?

Here is her cutter & vinyl storage. She really misses her big cutter & all of the vinyl she used to have. One day soon it will all be back.

Sorry everyone, this isn’t a funny post. More of some serious thoughts running around in my head. I decided to write about it just to get it cleared out of my brain.

There was an incident at work this past week that got me doing some thinking. It was rather tense couple of hours (actually days, but the major incident was a couple of hours). Some people in uniforms had to be called, some things took place and during the whole thing I somehow stayed very calm. Sorry for being so vague but sense it mainly involved someone else I can not directly discuss the situation.

Looking back on the situation I realized in a way I had played many roles - counselor, crisis management, negotiator, and probably a few more things. This is what really got me thinking.

First I wondered, how counselors/therapist can do their jobs? The small part of this that I experienced was extremely emotionally exhausting.

Then I started thinking about why I seem to always be in these situations. Why do people come to me for help? Why do I seem to search for situations that most people would avoid?

Please do not take this wrong, I am not saying I am any sort of adrenaline junky or wanna be hero. Just looking back over my past & possible future. I am not bragging. I am just trying to figure out what makes people act certain ways.

Over the last couple days many of these past situations shook loose and made it to the front of my memory and I feel the need to write these memories down.

One memory is of my friend Rusty & I working at his old house. He was cutting down a tree that day (or something, that part is kinda foggy) and we heard what sounded like a loud explosion. Normal people would have headed inside. Notice I said normal people. We hopped in my truck & took off around the neighborhood trying to find out what happened & to make sure everyone was ok.

Another time me & someone (can’t remember if it was Ken or Matt) was at my house & we heard a fire alarm go off at the apartment building across the street. Instead of running inside & calling 911, we called 911 from the cell phone as we were running through the apartment building trying to find out what was going on.

And another memory (one I would like to forget) is of me standing in a hospital parking lot in 40 degree weather, at midnight, shirtless watching an ambulance drive off. A friend’s little boy was in the ambulance being rushed to a children’s hospital. I had given my shirt to my friend while she was getting into the ambulance because she had left her coat at home & was freezing. I did not think anything of this at the time. I still don’t think it was anything special. It is just what I think anyone should do.

When I see someone isn’t acting like they normally do I try my best to get them to open up about their problems.

But then if someone asks me what would make my life easier my first response is for everyone to stop coming to me with problems. I would say I am tired of dealing with everyone’s issues. I need time for my own problems.

Sounds like the simple answer would be for me to stop bringing it on myself.

When I talked to someone that is actually licensed to give advice/counseling he told me that this is somewhat normal. He also pointed out this is a trait for people with ADD. He said I just need to focus on pulling back some & making sure I put my needs first.

I guess I will just continue to be me, listen to people’s problems & try to fix things.

Ok to lighten things up a little here is one of my favorite pictures -

I will start with a brief overview of the entire weekend.

Friday I took off from work. Michelle & I started off the afternoon by working out at the YMCA (more on that later) and in the evening we went to downtown Albemarle for a classic car “cruise in”. Essentially a car show, but they don’t close off downtown. All the cars & trucks park in parking spaces on the street. Here is a link to pics - click here

Saturday was spent recovering from Friday’s workout, trying to keep our privacy fence from completely falling over & being very sad that the lot next to us has been cleared of trees (either neighbor sold the trees, or someone is building a new house right next to us).

Sunday morning was more recovering from workout on Friday (we over did it by the way) and the afternoon was spent buying new ceiling fan in bedroom.

And that was just the highlights…. now for the long version -

Friday was nice. I love having a day off from work. Michelle worked half day, so we were able to spend most of the day together. After eating lunch we decided it was time to go work out. Get ready people, here comes another day in the life of George at the gym. I wonder if other people have this stuff happen to them or are they able to have a normal boring day when they work out.

I knew I had to find out a different workout routine because my knee injury has come back to haunt me. Even doing the “zero impact” work outs destroy my knees, so I went back to what I did years ago - upper body weight training. Cool, no problem. I am a semi-expert at this. I spent almost an entire year of my life doing this, reading all kinds of books. Studying with people I knew that were either trainers or professional body builders. I even spent time with police officers during their workout routines. No, not the donut eating, stereo typical out of shape cops. I mean the “I am S.W.A.T., I can stop bullets without a bullet proof vest because my muscles are so big” cops.

So I am very familiar with all the weights & work out equipment used for strength training right?……………………….WRONG

So we get to the YMCA and Michelle sets up on the treadmill. She is so cute with her hair pulled back in a pony tail, running along, listening to her MP3 player.. I walk away smiling.. Yeah thats my girl.. look all you want… oh wait, we are upstairs where no one is around.. eh, its ok… I still walk away smirking. Time for my work out.

They have numerous (20 or so) different Nautilus weight machines. Wow, what are these things? Some of them look more like torture devices. Ok mind wandering side bar conversation (like my entire post isnt on big mind wandering conversation) - Is there any difference in torture devices & work out equipment? Hmm… ok back to my story

I find a very awkward shaped machine that has a label on it explaining it is essentially the same as doing a shoulder press or military press. But on this machine you are seated & the bar set up is very strange looking. Ok, got it figured out & completed my set on this machine. Now that I have used it, I feel this was a very well designed set up. Ok, moving on.

Since all the machines are so strange looking I started walking around just reading labels. I found one that said it was for lateral raises. Very strange looking machine. Instead of doing the raises with your arms stretched out completely, you have your arms bent. This machine was so strange looking I had no clue what to do. Thankfully a YMCA worker was walking by, and I guess my confusion showed because she stopped & spent almost 5 minutes getting the machine readjusted to fit me. Ok, good work out on this one. Very strange design, no way I could figure it out on my own, but it worked. Moving on again.

Up to this point, when you sat on the machines all of the actual equipment was behind you. This was about to change. I came across a machine that worked a strange part of your arms. You sat facing the machine, well actually the machine surrounded you. You had to lower the back of the seat and slide in almost like you were in a limbo contest. Once you were seated you raised the back of the seat up & it pinned you inside the machine with the weights in front of you. You put your arms in the machine stretched out in front of you with your thumbs facing upwards, almost like you were getting ready to clap for someone. This is about all I remember because it took literally almost 5 minutes to get my big ass into the machine, 2-5 minutes to get it adjusted to my height & my monkey like arms. Then only about 2 seconds to realize doing the actual exercise even on the lightest weight hurt like hell. Then came the almost 5 minutes of me trying my best to get out of the machine. Luckily the YMCA worker was not around to laugh at me. Or maybe she was and I couldn’t see her from my position in this new age torture device. Next machine.

Ok so from this point everything was semi-normal, crunches, bench press, etc. The final work out was on some machine that worked out your inner thighs that when I sat on it all I could think was some pervert invented the machine and whoever placed the machine less than a foot away from the wall of mirrors was even a bigger pervert. I spent more time adjusting my knee length shorts than I did working out. No one should be forced to see my tightie whities while I am working out, not even me.

So that pretty much is the end of the work out story.

The Downtown Albemarle Cruise In was nice. It was a nice day for it, although Michelle got cold once the sun went down. I loved seeing all the cars, trucks & motorcycles. I would guess there was around 150 vehicles there. Maybe more.

We ate at a little “hole in the wall” place that has recently opened up downtown called “Pork Fats”. Now with a name like that I was expecting pretty decent North Carolina home cooking. They did not disappoint me. It is a very small restaurant. I would say it would seat maybe 20 people if everyone got close. We will definitely being going back. I believe in supporting these small family ran businesses. Unfortunately they are only open for breakfast & early lunch Monday-Saturday, so we will only be able to go once a week, but I am sure my diet will be thankful for that.

Saturday morning was a little upsetting. We awoke to a lot of noise coming from the nice wooded lot next to us. When I went out back to see what was going on I saw a 40ft tall tree come crashing down. There was someone cutting down / knocking down all the trees from the center of the lot. Actually right up to our property line. Either they cleared the trees out to sell the wood, or it looks like they are clearing the property to build another house. This would be very, very close to ours.

Saturday afternoon was mainly spent rigging our privacy fence so it would not fall down. When we installed the fence the ground was so hard that we could barely get the power auger to dig in at all. Unlike everyone else in this part of North Carolina, we do not have red clay for our “dirt”. We have some weird gray clay that when you first look at it appears to be concrete. I guess this wonderful earth material has become saturated from the last couple weeks of rain & has decided to let go of our fence. The top of one section was leaning towards our neighbors by about 10 inches. So I bought some tie down stakes & put them in the ground, which was very easy since the ground is so wet. Then I took metal cable & tied it from the fence to the tie down stakes. It is not pretty but it is a temporary fix until I can get another auger in here and new posts and concrete.

Sunday..well Sunday was spent with me trying not to dwell on the fact that everything was falling apart. My car had a flat tire (Thought I had fixed this on Saturday). Our fence was falling over. The ceiling fan that I bought about 6 months ago has been making a clicking noise for over a month and of course I no longer had the receipt or the box. I had spent good money on a decent fan from Lowes so I would not have to go through this, so why would I keep the box & the receipt.

This is a good place for me to insert this thought - When I moved to NC I was very happy. We had a Lowes with in 5 minutes of our house. In FL all we had was a Home Depot and I hated Home Depot. Is hate to harsh of a word? No, and I can not think of one harsh enough for my feelings towards Home Depot in Port Charlotte. So everything is good now. I just shop at Lowes… not so fast……….

It started with a couple purchases from Lowes that did not hold up to my expectations. Then I purchased a rather expensive shop vacuum from Lowes that died with in 2 days. When I returned the vacuum the woman behind the counter said “Ya know, my husband has been through 5 of this in the past 6 months.” Ok, that was all I needed to hear. I took my refund & drove an hour away to Home Depot. The shop vac that I purchased there has worked flawlessly.

Now on numerous occasions I have tried to find something at Lowes and they wouldn’t have it, or I would buy something and it would break. But hey, they are close and they aren’t Home Depot. Right? I hate Home Depot.

So on Saturday when I was trying to fix my fence I went to Lowes to get the tie down stakes I needed. I have purchased them previously from Lowes. They are used to tie down storage sheds (that Lowes sells). Well on Saturday I was told since the renovation of our Lowes, they no longer carry the tie downs or anything related to tie downs for a shed. Even though in most locations it is required by code that these sheds (that Lowes still sells) must be tied down. Ok… thats it f*ck Lowes…..

Ok, sorry… back to Sunday. Once I took the ceiling fan apart and found out it was a problem with the motor I knew I needed to buy a new fan & there was no way I was buying another fan from Lowes just for it to break in 6 months. So we spent part of Sunday driving to the Home Depot. Upon arriving Michelle turns, looks at me and says “Honey, don’t you hate Home Depot?”. It was at this point that I realized the world was no longer in sync. That the Yin and Yang had switched positions. In Florida I would drive an hour to get to Lowes instead of throwing away my hard earned money on Home Depot’s junk. Now the roles have reversed.

What is the world coming to??????????

Anyway, got back home. Unpacked new ceiling fan and within 30 minutes we had air circulation with no annoying clicking sound.

And think, I have edited this post down. You should see how much of my “rambling” that I deleted….

Hope everyone had a good Easter…….

Happy Easter everyone from Michelle & George

Even though I had more than enough work to keep me busy today, I felt extremely bored.

We had almost 20 people to interview for our new class starting next month.
I had to finish doing my yearly employee reviews.
Yet I still felt bored and this is dangerous.

Thanks to my friend Jared and his boredom I went to a website that allows you to alter a picture to see what you would look like with certain styles of makeup.

Let this be your laugh for the day (Eat your heart out Boy George)-

Since my weekend did not end so well (wasn’t able to go out with Jared & Jess.. family “issues” that ended in lots of profanity) I will only focus on Saturday.

I have been trying to work out some recently. Everyday at work instead of taking my lunch time to eat, I have been working out in our gym. I spend about 30 minutes on the recumbent bike. Very proud of myself, in less than a week I am up to almost 5 miles in 30 minutes.

Since I know I need more of a work out than this, I decided to consider different options.

I need more time to work out. I could either come in to work early (I live almost an hour away from my work) and work out before my scheduled start time.
I really don’t like this idea.
Or I could stay late & work out after work (and not getting home until 10pm).
Yeah.. not liking that idea either…

So the only other option is  joining a gym (stretch the budget tighter). This would allow me to go to the gym in the morning & come home, shower & get ready for work. Also, Michelle would be able to get more of a work out.

She has been walking around the park outside the YMCA. That’s what us poor people do. We walk around the park outside of where the fancy people work out. “Hey look at Mr. Fancy Pants… He walks around a track inside…. I am so impressed”

Ok so anyway, back to the story. Saturday morning I decided we would become fancy people. We drove to the YMCA and signed up. If I would have done this in January they would have waived the expensive sign up fee, but no I wasn’t thinking of that back then. Michelle was, and she kept telling me, but I ignored her like any good man does to the woman that he loves.

Since we just shelled out a big chunk of change, I decided we were going to work out while we were there. Why not? Already parked & already inside with all the other fancy people.

Oh side story - one of the stereo types I did not mention in my previous gym rant showed up while we were registering. The “Gym Princess”. This is the woman that comes to the gym with her hair & makeup all perfect. It was all I could do not to bust out laughing as she passed us. You could tell she had spent hours getting ready to come “work out”. Later, after my workout, I saw her using one of the stair steppers, barely moving. Hoping someone would start staring at her… If I wasn’t in the process of having a heart attack I would have fell over laughing, but I was to busy trying to stay alive.

Ok, sorry back to the main story.

Michelle & I walked around our new fancy work out area, all 3 damn floors of it (see previous post for a better description) trying to figure out what we were going to do first. First? As you can tell I was still feeling good about myself at this point. We finally decided on the cardio room downstairs. “We decided” is my way of saying I finally stopped & Michelle was thankful I made up my mind.

Upon walking in to the cardio room I notice a woman about 70 years old on one of the elliptical cross trainers. She was going pretty good on it. I thought to myself “How cute”. Michelle set up on one of the treadmills at the back corner of the room while I hopped on an elliptical cross trainer in front of her.

Hey if granny can do it, so can I. Famous last words of an out of shape, 30 something call center supervisor. Literally almost my last words.

I set the machine on a variable resistance “weight loss” work out plan. This is the same exact plan I use on the bike at work. It is a 28 minute work out that changes between 2 levels of resistance every 4 minutes. On the bike at work I am just at 5 miles by the end. I should be able to handle this no problem.

Man what was I thinking. Riding an exercise bike & doing the cross trainer are 2 totally different things I have come to realize. On the bike I am just sitting my fast ass on a seat & working my legs. On the cross trainer I am moving/carrying 250 pounds on a journey of hell.

No joke 2 minutes into this workout I am sweating like crazy. I check my heart rate & it is at 147 beats per minute. Now I am not an expert, but from the chart on the machine this was WAY high. 160 was danger zone. I look over at granny & I kid you not, she is now running backwards on this machine. She has to be f*cking with me.

Ok I can handle this, or so I think. At 4 minutes the resistance changes - TO HARDER. F*CK. It was on easy to start. I look in the mirror in front of me & Michelle has a look of terror on her face. So I smile at her & try to make her believe I am ok. About this time my machine starts screaming some God awful noise. I look down & realize my heart rate has gone over 160, so I slow down to a very, very slow walking pace. Once my heart rate drops below 130 I continue my leisurely stroll.

Oh thank God. At 8 minutes the machine decides to stop torturing me & goes back to an easy level. For the next 4 minutes me & the machine battle about my heart rate all the while trying to keep a smile on my face so Michelle doesn’t completely freak out. Did I mention granny is still at it….and Michelle is just jogging away on the treadmill.. Worried, but she is doing great.

Just as the machine is hitting the 12 minute mark which I already realize is going to be another change in resistance, out of the corner of my eye I notice granny is no longer on the cross trainer. OH THANK GOD. I can quit & salvage some of my dignity. So I hop off of the machine from hell, tell Michelle I am going to get a towel & try not to die. At this point I see nothing else but a path to the water fountain.

Ok I get a drink, find the towels, mop off the flood of water pouring off my head and finally start breathing like a semi-normal human being. It is at this point I see the “Gym Princess” damn I wish I had the ability to laugh right now. Ok, put on a good game face & go back to Michelle in the cardio room. It is at this point I almost cry.

Granny didn’t leave. She moved to the back of the room. She is now running her little ass off on a treadmill.

That’s it. I am going home.

Honey can you carry me??

I love my girlfriend.. she is as crazy as I am.

Here is a conversation we had online about her having to many thoughts running through her mind & the need to control the thoughts.

me: maybe we should start trying to do tai chi

 Michelle: ok

 me: that is what it is good for

 Michelle: ok i will do it with u

me: and if it doesn’t work i smack you in the head

Michelle: honey that will make it worse lol

me: what?? u are more likely to do something right if there are consequences to doing it wrong…

do it right, no thoughts, and calming… do it wrong.. smack in the head

Michelle: WhATEver

me: sigh you must listen to your tai chi master…LOL

smack in the head

Michelle: of course i will try to do it right honey

yes master

no smack in head

me: smack in head

Michelle: no smack in head

me: smack in head

Michelle: i listened , yes master