Victory, Thy name is TRUCK!...(sort of)

ok first let me say that My new goal (among all the others) is to post on every sunday. or at least once a week. so all of you who are breathlessly checking this everyday can hold off and just check once a week. see it's simple!

ok just to get this out of the way you must-must-must read this blog (mom2my6pack.blogspot.com) or the monsters that live in you closet will secretly eat your toes every night for a year.:)

I have achieved the ultimate in vehicular victory! as of Wednesday my "project" truck had some "issues" (and of course by issues I mean that it was a rattling deathtrap that no sane human would even consider entering, much less riding in) and by saturday it was ALIVE!!!!!! (sort of).
I was able to put in a new lock cylinder (where you put your key to start it) and reconnect the alternator to the electrical system. no more pliers! No more worrying about my coworkers moving my car in our wasteland of a parking lot for sport! whoo whoooo!

So left to do is figure out the power windows issue (as in they don't work) and replace the outside lock cylinders. but I feel so incredibly confident right now! I can fix the world, just let me grab a big enough pair of pliers!

I feel I should explain some of this excitement. You see I have grand vision about what I should be able to do mechanically, however I have never been the most mechanically gifted of men. As in hide the tools, and pray he doesn't light himself of fire. Really. So I bought this vehicle as a way to pull myself from the depths of my mechanical depravity by my metaphorical, and possibly literal, bootstraps. My wife got a very nervous look on her face and promptly hid my tools. Did I say my tools? I mean her tools. My wife is very handy, in fact she has her own class of handyness. I have my class of ineptitude so I think it evens out really. But I can't seem to shake the feelign that I should be able to do this stuff (working on cars, building things, changing lightbulbs) without a trip to our local hospital and/or burn unit-airport-and-tire-care-center (we are in a small town after all we have to economize). Although I think in my defense it might run in the family. My father gives an automotive problem about 15 min. If he cant' fix it, he sends it to a highly paid professional. And he thinks I'm bad with mechanical stuff. He once told me to "put down the wheelbarrow son, you know you're not good with machines."
just think about that last one for a minute.

I'm sure you can sense my excitement about all of this (although after typing all of that I am slightly depressed.....) and I'll let everyone know of my vast mechanical prowess in the future.

I did get up to dallas last weekend and finally helped my sister and her hubby with some vintage cave paintings on their upper walls. I'll get into the joys of stradding a collapsible ladder 10 feet off the ground while hovering over a 50 gallon fish tank that is filled with evil fish sharpening their teeth and looking at you hungrily. It's amazing how a clown fish can look like a hammerhead in the right light. :)


until next time, Keep on ....keeping on (wow I need a better catch phrase... carpe burrito?)

El Goldo.

Confessions of an Addled Mind.

Ahh! it's good to be back in the friendly confines or cyberspace! cyberspace, it's where to go when you don't feel like being... you.

So as some of you may or may not know I recently purchased a new Project. (and when guys say the word "project" we really mean a hoplessly complex hunk of something that most likely will never-ever function as designed unless divine intervention becomes involved)
And I couldn't be more thrilled! Now I will admit that I had the wind taken out of my sails a bit by a so called professional telling me that I would be better off using this particular peice of machinery as a boat anchor, but I think I can prove him wrong! After all, what does a dozen certifcations and years of experience really mean?

On to happier topics.
If anyone happens to read the incredibly moving and fantabulous blog of someone near and dear to my heart (or herat as I like to say) you'll know that I may have an opportunity here at work to make some changes. I will say that I'm looking forward to working more in line with my natural biorythms than what I've done previously in my working career.

on a lighter note (you'll get this in a minute), I've joined a GYM! (see? losing weight, lighter note... Yes I know, I'm so witty I scare myself and numerous woodland creatures) Apparantly my place of employment has an in house gym where for a small nominal fee I can go and make myself all stinky for the enjoyment of my coworkers! They are thrilled at the idea, I must tell you. In all seriousness, I could stand to lose an ounce or two and so I think this may be a good thing for me in the extreme long run. But who knows, maybe I'll get lucky and it will kill me. (joking, just joking... sheesh no one appreciates a good death joke anymore.....)

Have you ever thought about ego? about what makes a persons ego, and how it/they respond to it? I think that ego (specifically the male ego) is nothing more than an extreme case of selective hearing. it's the part of the brain that filters out all the negative and accepts only the positive. think about it.
Here's a good example. A freind of mine accused another freind of mine of being romantically interested in me. Both of us know that the very concept of us together is laughable based on everythign we know about each other. Outside of the obvious issues (marriage, children, and all around general happiness) the two of us have nothing in common. none. not a one. however my ego heard "I think this girl likes you" and got all puffed up. ridiculous isn't it? Rationally and in everyother way possible, any type of relationship other than the friendship we currently have is ludicrus and preposterous, yet the ego takes the inflating part and stops listening to the rest.

if nothing else it made me think of this topic, so it accomplished that. It's always nice to try to understand yourself (and your gender) a bit more. I believe that it's near impossible tol understand others, if you truly don't understand yourself.

not trying to start a philosphical uproar, just my personal belief.

thanks for joining!

until next time.....(if there is a next time after this one)

M

cool link.

Hello blog fans.
just dropping a short note.
be sure to check out this website. it has some great music. especially if you've ever been a programmer. I reccomend Code Monkey. also search for some of the titles on YouTube.com. people make video's to the songs and they are awesome.

If I was in prison, would I be up for parole? :)

hello all, and welcome back for the newest edition of the El Goldo Times! that's right coming to you from under the flight path to the world famous austin-bergstrom airport (and no, no one know who or what Bergstrom is) it's me and my wonderful life.

well my wife and I just celebrated our 8th wedding anniversery (anevadaversery to all you Friends fans out there) and I couldn't be more ... stunned. Really? 8 years? where did the time go? I mean I don't feel like I've been married for 8 years. I feel like I'm only 22 or 23. But no, at last count I seem to be 27.... and climbing! Don't get me wrong, I love being married to my wife and she knows this, but wow. I used to think people married almost 10 years were... well, old. Does that make me old?

I always used to say that age was nothing but a number. (at the time I was chasing older women) and while I still believe that, I have one small problem. I was blessed/cursed with looking more.... mature than my age. when I was 18 people thought I was 25, in my early 20's, around 30. People now ask me do I remember shows from the 70's. I have lost count on how many people ask me about sanford and son, or the jeffersons, or all in the family..... really!

anyway, on to more philosophical musings. I read a gread book this week called "the gryphons skull" by H N Turtletaub (you can find it here). Its a historical fiction about ancient greek seafarers and philosphers. Very interesting and a good read. I recommend it highly.

it does bring into question some philosophical issues. For instance in ancient greek society women had to be covered from head to toe and veiled so that "lustful men " wouldn't see them and be tempted. You can look at this two ways, one they were being protected from men, or second that men were "holding them down". I think that the real problem was (and is in some cultures today) that that philosophy only taught men that it was ok to be lustful animals. That a man obviously can't control himself so let's limit his temptations. It just seems to me that all this does is teach men that it's ok to be that way. maybe it's just me.


My wife asked me a question about stocks today and seemed a little confused by my answer. I explained that the stock market is all a confidence meter. If I feel confident that a company is worth the 20 bucks a share I buy it. If I am not confident in that company I sell it. How a company builds confidence is by good financial history and new developments (think Apple and Texas Inst.) Some companies have good histories but no new developments, so I'm confident they will stay where they are Value wise, but I am not confident they will develop anything new so I don't expect the value to go up. Here is a good example of how confidence drives the stock market. Enron stock crashed to the floor (around 25 cents a share) the day after all the news broke about the fraudulent financial statements and fileings. Someone asked me what I thought about it and I told them it sounded to me like a great time to make money off of Enron. I told them to but abut $10K worth of enron stock at $.25 a share because it would rebound the next day. I told them to sell it about noon to 3:00 on the next day because people wouldn't want to believe that it was a real crash. They didn't take my advice but sure enough the price jumped to 1.75 a share the next day. why? because people still had confidence in the company although all this stuff was going wrong. They felt that the company was worth the 1.75 investment. I don't think that I am explaining this very well this time either, but my point is that all the number crunching and all that is good, but what matters is confidence in an investment.


This is a long and drawn out post, and I apologize for it being all over the board but bear with me for one final paragraph. I want to challenge everyone who reads this to think outside of their confort zone today. we all get so stuck in ruts and routines (especially in our minds) that days can go by without us having even a thought that is origional or creative. I have the blessing of working in a job that requires much creative thinking and It has helped me in the rest of my life tremendously. Just stop today and instead of doing things the same way you always do, try it a different way, find a new position, take a different route. You never know what doors you might unlock in your mind.

a quick funny before I go (because people seem to expect it from me for some reason):

a man(corenor) was in court testifying and was asked how sure he was that a man was truly dead. the coroner replyed that the man's brain was in a jar on his desk at that very moment.
the lawyer replied But did you check for a pulse, or hook up a heat monitor to ensure he was dead? The coroner replyed, no I didn't , I suppose he could be out practicing law somewhere!

Goldo out!

Up The Creek Without a Drama Paddle!!!

****DISCLAIMER*******
please note that when I was typing this blog, the voince in my head that spoke it sounded alot like Kelsey Grammer from Frasier. so it might help if you imagine Fraisier Crane speaking this.... as a monologue.... but in writing......
*********END OF DISCLAIMER**********

Well then if we're all comfy and settled in, let's get started. Shall we?

in the not inconsiderable time since I last joined you much has happened. Over a month has passed and time, as it is ever prone to do, marches on with its normal steadfastness and commitment to unceasing certainty. (I'm feeling abit wordy this evening, so if you want a short blog, I recommend checking out my links to some other blogs :)) That being said I'll do my best to fill in the gaps that I'm sure you're all dying to hear about.
I'll start with work, I've been asked to change shifts at work. I was entering work at a unsightly but not quite horrible 7:00 AM CDT (that's 5:00 AM for you west coast types) and getting to leave at the unmentionable hour of 6:00 PM CDT (that's 7:00 PM for you east coast types) I have been asked by my overseer to come in at the obscene, ungodly, and , dare I say it, unholy, hour of 6:00 AM CDT not to be released until neigh on to 5:00 PM CDT!!!! Ladies and gentlemen, needless to say, This has rocked my metaphorical and literal world! I am sure that at some point in the indeterminate future I shall adjust and move forward with my normal life and routine but until that day comes, I am abit, as we say here, off kilter.

We recently had some houseguests! My loving bride's "BFF" and her two lovely daughters came to stay with us at "Casa de El Goldo". So that brought the current count of inhabitants to 3 adults, 5 children, 2 rabbits, and approx 45 million stuffed animals. They had a lovely stay adn we did many fun and wonderfull things such as going to the swimming pool (where we freaked out C by letting her child swim in the deep end of the pool, and no, no one was permanently injured. unless you count the parakeet....) the baseball game (children are apparently do not appreciate the fine art of large booming fireworks going off just above their heads as we adults do) and we went to the creek. This last part was, I'm afraid, an unmitigated disaster. Let me first defend my self by saying that we do this all the time, so I thought nothing of jumping into this outing full speed. C and her kids are city girls. They are fully at home in macy's or Nordstroms, places I don't feel I can afford to breathe, but not so much in a creek in the woods.
I'll tell the full story another time, but suffice to say two children (and I suspect 1 adult) ended in tears, or very near them, by the end of our 20 min adventure.

I'll sign off now as my wife accuses me from time to time of writing posts the "size of War and Peace" (by Leo Tolstoy as you all know I'm sure, as Woody Allen once said "it's about Russia")

So in the intrests of brevity, good night, good luck, and good fortunes.

movin on up (maybe), and traditions

Dear diary.......life has almost passed me by, it's been so long since I posted last. let me give a little background. I have for the most part always lived in the city. I have always wanted to live in the country, and have at this point in my life gotten as close as I can without taking the actual plunge of living off of well water and septic tanks. I am proud to announce that there is a potential for the possibility that this maybe, might, change! (ever notice how these definite statements just seem to roll off the tounge?) we are looking into purchase a tract of land and then bulding our own dream mcmansion on it! ok, so maybe my definition of a mcmansion differs from yours, but what do you care anyway? on to the random blog portion of the show

I have been reading latley (gasp!) a book called Veritas by a little known auther by the name of Ralph Waldo Emerson. He was an incredible thinker and while I don't agree with everything he says, he has some marvelous insights. I find that the more I read of his papers and speeches, the more I realize that as time goes by, things may change, names and places, but people do not. All of the same issues that we argue about now, we're being argued about onhundred years ago. People have issues with immagration now, they did then as well, tort reform, politicians, it's all the same. I think that the downside to being a student of history is realizing that people for the most part just go in circles, repeating all the things their fathers (or mothers) did, and never looking outside of themselves, or questioning why they do things.
I'll leave you with a story....
A man and a woman were engaged to be married, and she was cooking him a dinner one evening. They were having roast, and the man noticed that the woman cut both ends off of the roast before placing it in the pan. He was curious about this and wanting to know all there was to know about his beloved, he asked her why she did it. She replied that she did it because that's how her mom cooked roast. A few days later her mom came to visit, and he asked her the same question. "My mom always did it that way" she replied. His curiousity was in full force at this point and he called up his betrothed's grandmother and asked her, "grandma why do you cut the ends off of your pot roast before you cook it?" She laughed and said "That's an easy question, I didn't have a pan big enough to fit it in!"


Perhaps quesitoning whywe do things how we do them isn't all bad.

RTFM ?

In my job, I deal with upper management a lot. (A LOT). we have to update them on where things are and how they are doing. So I'm updating a rather senior manager (3 levels above my Boss Elmo) and in the email I include a link so he can look deeper into the issue if he wants to.

I show this to a coworker for proofreading, and he looks at me and busts out laughing. needless to say I was confused. he kept saying you just told him RTFM! RTFM??? what is that you ask, I didn't know either so I did ask. Read The F(expletive)ing Manual. basically that's what you tell people when the answer is in front of them but they just don't get it. Live and learn.

ever had an acronym you just can't figure out? let me know and I'll post the answers.

that's right, Ann Landers here I come!!!!!!