I am sooo lucky...

I laid the last coat of sealer on the deck early last week. IT WOULDN'T DRY!!! The mornings got so cold and damp for the last week that permanent puddles formed and started to run the paint! Add to that the dog's inexplicable need to scratch up a section of the deck for a taste-test (what? Is it edible or something?) and I had dire visions of a pond forming in the workshop below the deck. I DREAD the thought of tearing down the walls down there and turning the whole thing into a big, covered, concrete patio. Not before Granpa passes away; and thus removes the necessity to store all the tools down there. At least I wouldn't worry about drainage...

But we had SIX HOURS of sunshine today...and the paint is DRY. Tho' I may still have to re-do a couple of spots. All I ask is ONE, just one more sunny day to get this done right. The deck appears to be (mostly) water-tight at the moment, but I want to be CERTAIN. I still have about a half-gallon of Deck Kote (tm) left, and that will more than suffice. I also have a line on two Five Gallon cans of deck paint for FREE! - from the Buyn'sell press. Guess somebody had a house burn down, or something.

Work is getting BUSY!!! As per usual; things are getting botched, details are getting missed, and expediency is winning out over rationality. Add to the mix a sudden push by top management to "ramp up" our shipping output (set a facility record Saturday of some 93,000 odd cartons shipped) and I can see some turbulent times on the horizon. We are ALREADY carrying 1.5 times the traffic (combined) that the old facilities used to handle, and things are bound to get more...interesting as time goes by.

Just finished a 15 minute "help us improove Blogger" survey on a google site. Wanna improove? Gimme back the archived entries you guys lost! Stop losing my posts! Waah Waah Waah...cry 'em a river, eh? Was OK; looks like they're adding some features Real Soon.

L bought the kids a game console for Xmas. I WANTED an Xbox (tm), but that's a little out of our budget (isn't everything?), so we ended up with the 'budget-package' Gamecube (tm). We did a little demo run of Starfox Adventures (tm) and I can safely say the kids will likely be blown away. Of course, they were already impressed by Donkey Kong Country (tm) for the SNES (tm). They have a version of the arcade classic "Spy Hunter (tm)" for the Gamecube (tm) that I think I will be renting from Microplay sometime soon. The Xbox (tm) is the DEFINITE console to beat, taking the #1 spot from the PS/2 (tm)...I guess an onboard Hard Disk really DOES make a difference. Sony has announced that the PS/2 (tm) will also have a Hard Disk soon, maybe next year.

I was tickled by the "Helen, Sweetheart of the Internet" comic today...a wry commentary on the RIAA's offer of "amnesty" to all us scum-sucking freeloaders who won't pay 25$ or more per album containing ONE hit single we actually want to listen to, and which will be completely unplayable by the time the copyright OUGHT to run out; oh, and did I mention that most of the tunes I grew up with aren't even AVAILABLE through retail channels any more? I think the only one getting killed by the Great Filesharing Revolution is the Columbia House Music Club...and good riddance!

So...Arnie Schwarzenegger groped women in health clubs...and Gray Davis beats up on the women on his office staff. As Steven Greenhut pointed out, California is the bellwhether state. What happens in California will happen to the rest of the US in another 10 years or so. I weep for the state of the Union.

Jean Chretien: go home already!!! Mr. Martin has already assumed leadership of the Liberal party, so technically 'ol J.C., a.k.a "da liddle guy from Shawanigan" is now no more than just another sitting MP. I don't expect Canada to get any better with the current elitist-socialist cadre in charge, but I don't have any reason to believe things will get dramatically worse in the near future - at least, I don't have a reason for such pessimism YET...

More later, I gotta go build a bike now...