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The blog of the 30-something fag- January Edition 2005
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January 30th, 2005
On The Road Again
 I did it again. I've signed up to do the long 585 mile ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles in June. This will be my 4th journey down the coast for charity.
We used to call it the "AIDSRide". now it's the "Life-cycle". This tells you a few things about the mentalty behind the purpose.
When I first did "The Ride" as it's called now, it was all about fighting the disease in the memory of those that have passed. Today it's much different.
The issue today for me is not about remembering those I have lost, but in keeping those that I'm losing. I now know more people living wih AIDS and HIV than have passed, and that's a srange flip, isn't it?
The AIDS Lifecycle's proceeds go directly to fund the programs that help make the lives of HIV and AIDS infected people of a quality as close to "Normal" as one could hope.
You can read more about the ride, and how to make an online donation to rider 3886 by going to www.aidslifcycle.org
I'll be riding it from June 5-11th, and I need to raise $2500. I'd like to do much more than that- please write or call me if you have any questions, and please give generously. I'll be posting my fundraising totals as they come in, and THANKS!
Feedback to this article HERE
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Check out the AIDSLifecycle website by clicking here
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January 27th, 2005
Cracked-house, not Crackhouse!
The house lifting began this afternoon, with a crunch, a moan, and quite a few cracks. I watched in horror as the facade of our stucco home became perforated with the winding veins of stress to verticle enhancement.
The job foreman told me today the living room went up as much as 1.8 inches. This news stunned us both, but the windows did not break.
A lot of hammering, the whine of hydraulic pump engines, sawing, noise and dust.
Rusty and Mickey are taking it well, though their Daddies would appreciate a stiff drink.
I'm seriously considering cancelling the party this weekend, we may not be ale to accomodate anyone with our house all torn to peices.
Feedback to this article HERE
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A gallery of images of our
Home Leveling project has been compiled for you,
(Mostly just the damage!)
view by clicking HERE
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January 27th, 2005
Lift and Separate
 Before the house foundation can be repaired and re-surfaced, the house has to be lifted up, and while it's up, why not level it?
That's what I though anyway, since and spill of a doggy dish sends a small river of water throught the kitchen and out the back door. I'm just happy that whole house leans towards, and not away from, the laundry room.
Today the lifting work begins, and the HUGE container they parked in front of the house is getting filled with all the soil they are currently excavating from beneath it.
If they fill this monster, (and they will) it will be exactly one ton of dirt that they've removed from under my house. I'm considering insalling a ping-pong table down there. . . . .
Feedback to this article HERE
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As of 6 p.m. tonight, they are at the 65% level, and still digging
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January 26th, 2005
German Chocolate Belation
 I'm happy to report tha Bang is just as nutzo thrilled about birthdays as I am, so there will be one less person rolling his eyes, and one more person hovering over the colored flames of birthday candles at (insert your name here)'s next birthday party.
We stopped at Gelson's on our way home from the gym and Bang snagged a nice German chocolate disk of loveliness(seen here).
We didn't actually get to eat it on my birthday because we were running late for the dinner at Houston's so we had it a day later- and was still just as yummy!
Feedback to this article HERE
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January 26th, 2005
Train Derailment happening NOW
10:35 a.m
Bang informed me this happened this morning, a few blocks from the old house on Silver Ridge. The train I have ridden several times during my commutes to Santa Clarita, the Costco Parking lot is where the triage is set up, that's our local Costco.
The trains were travelling at over 75 miles per hour when they hit a Jeep Cherokee, derailed, struck a freight train and another commuter train. 3 trains involved.
Some 26 year old idiot parked his car on the tracks in a failed suicide attempt
(named Manuel Alvarez DOB: Feb 26, 1979).
I'd advise him, next time, try a ROPE!
Police are charging him with multiple counts of Homocide, 10 people dead so far . . .
60 people treated and released, 36 taken to 13 area hospitals
Among the dead, a 23 year Veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department.
47 years old, deputy commuting to work from his home in Simi Valley. He has a wife and 3 small Children.
Dogs are being used to find any unknown passengers possibly trapped in the car that is wedged underneath another.
News Link HERE
Feedback to this article HERE
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For a current Gallery
of images of the Scene,
click HERE
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January 25th, 2005- 5:08 a.m.
 How do you put "Gone with the Wind" in your portfolio?
My latest wrapped up project is a marriage between stock brokers and film makers. Check out www.filmfund.com, my client says it's a good looking site, and I should be proud, plus I get paid referral fees for investors who sign up, or film makers who produce a hit movie.
I wonder why no one has thought of this before?
Feedback to this article HERE
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This is what surfing the net at 5 in the morning will get ya!
Click this guy . . .
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January 25th, 2005 4:39 a.m.
Insomniac
It's 4:39 a.m. and I just finishing filling out forms for the Los Angelel County Tax assessors office. Why at this hour? Because apparantly the lacky's at Houston's Restaurant cant tell the difference between caffeinated, and de-caffeinated coffee.
I woke up at 2 a.m. with the sudden urge to set the sprinklers on their "Rain" mode, then remembered that all these tax forms the county sends me have deadlines.
I filled out one tonight that excempts us from some strange taxes simply by stating that we LIVE here. I guess that would be the "Buy but leave vacant" tax, or the "Purchase with intent to rent it out" tax. So we get a break if we set up shop here.
What the hell.
Feedback to this article HERE
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January 25th, 2005
39 for the first time
Whenever anyone asks my Father how old he is, he always said "39-and LYING"
39 years ago today, my dad was 39, That makes this my Fathers and My champaign year anniversary- Happy Birthday to me, and congratulations Dad, now we're BOTH 39.
it's called a crawl-space because . . .
Our contractor added another grand to the bill with the news that the crew needs to create ore space under the house in order to get the proper work done. Seems there's not enough room to swing a hammer, and they can't life this sagging house properly with only 8 inches of head room at one end.
This endeavor involves several latino laborers working round the clock, and a large ugly container parked in front of the house.
Oh, goody!
The crew showed up to start the excavation under our house this week, just in time for the housewarming. I told them if they find any bones, to remember we just moved here, and left all those bodies at the Old house.
Feedback to this article HERE
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January 20th, 2005
No where safe
I went out for a ride on Saturday, trying to get some miles on my Calfee Luna, and a surprising thing happened. I got hit by a van.
I'm not what I would consider to be a racist, but I was screming obscenities like I was on Saturday, when a large, unshaven middle-aged Latino man, driving a beat-up white van with no plates made a hard right turn from the far left lane on Eagle Rock Blvd. and virtually ran me off the road. I started yelling and thumping on the walls of this big nasty rig before he slammed on the brakes and I shot me forward to rip his rear-view mirror of the passenger door with my arm and shoulder.
I stopped in the road in front of him and berated him for 5 minutes, while he sat behind the wheel of the van, staring blankly at me, as if he was trying to figure what it was I was actually saying.
If he saw how red my face was, he could have guessed some of the words in my vocabulary.
I decided my Sunday ride would be on a safe, quiet bike path.
On sunday morning I headed up the path that runs paralell to the 5 freeway and came upon someting unsettling.
A car had run off the road the night before and hit a light pole, the lamp was hanging over the railing, the arm that held the light was jutting out over the bike path at a 16 degree angle, at about 5 feet off the ground. Jerry O'Connor didn't see it, because the sun was in his eyes I suppose, and when I caught up to him, he had hit the pole with his face at about 19 mph, and it kocked him clear off his bike.
When I got off my bike to help him remove his shattered helmet, I found a laceration on his face going from the middle of his forehead, across his brow and down his right cheak. His nose was crooked and bleeding like crazy, and he had bitten his tongue in half.
A woman named Jocelyn helped me get Jerry's bandana over all the parts of his face that were bleeding, and her husband Rob called 911 from Mr. O'Connors phone while she and I kept him talking, and calm.
I talked with Roselyn later in the week, and she said they put a plate in Mr. O'Connors face, seems he shattered his upper jaw. They stitched his tongue back together and he was out of the Hospital within 7 days. Seems there was no safe place to ride last weekend for anyone in Los Angeles, but I learned a valuable lesson.
Always wear your helmet (Mr. O'Connor would be dead without his) carry a Cell Phone ( we were a long ways away from the nearest public phone, or building) and always carry ID with you. These three simple items saved Mr. O'Connors life.
Feedback to this article HERE
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Betwen Mr. O'Connor's Ride and mine, I'll take a bruise over a faceplate anyday!
In case anyone was wondering, Mr. O'Connor was able to take his bike with him in the ambulance to St. Joes. .
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January 22nd, 2005- 2 days until my 39th and counting . . .
Road Show of the Future!
Bang and I went to the L.A. Auto Show last week, and saw a lot f awsome prototypes, and the latest cars due to come out in '05 and '06.
On the way out, as we entered the parking garage of the Los Angeles Convention Center, it dawned on me; we just got done visiting the parking garage of the FUTURE!
Feedback to this article HERE
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2006 Ferarri
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January 20th, 2005- 5 days until my 39th and counting . . .
Pond Scum and Good Friends
The Housewarming party is coming up, the invitation is posted at eVite.com.
Come if you like, tell the guy at the door the BLOG sent you!
Bang and I have a along list of things to do before the party, the least of which is to get the last of our junk out of the old house on Silver Ridge.
Today I went down with a few buckets from home depot to rescue the 30-some fish I have in the pond that need to come with us.
I got some hoses placed strategically and started the draining process, and one thing is for sure, nothing stinks like a pond that's 7 years old. Whew! Nasty!
 Talked with friend Camber Hill today, realizing that he is a born Blogger, and he should not waste any time and get out there and post a blog as soon as possible.
He's been thinking he needs to obtain skills in web design and graphics, but I told him he really doesn't, that he could do it at blogger.com quite easily and effortlessly. Hopefully he'll get on that right away! Keep an eye out for thinkfabulous.blogspot.com.
Feedback to this article HERE
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Click here to see the beloved pond in it's finest days- Gone Forever
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January 3rd, 2005
Snug as a bug in a . . . .
 Bang and I are all settled in the new space, and quite happy with the results. We have a contractor coming in next month to help us level the house, and after our housewarming party on the 29th, we'll be taking hammer in hand and starting the demolition of the old kitchen, to make room for the new, stylish, amazing room that will be our New and Improved kitchen of the present!
Last week we had our first-evver dinner party when good friends Camber and J'Me came over with wine in hand to congratulate us on our new digs, and to help us christen the house with drunken shenanigans and tomfoolery. It was a raucous 90 minutes we'll soon never forget.(we all had to get up early)
Feedback to this article HERE
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Rusty proved to be a quite effective
U-Haul guard dog
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