boom

the forklift at work has a wheel that's been shearing off lug nuts for months now. it started with 9, yesterday it broke the 7th, leaving it with 2. it's one of the front wheels, which makes it slightly more dicey than if it was one of the back wheels. i'll drive it all day without being nervous, but took to standing clear of that side of the lift when it's carrying something. obviously it was going to have to be fixed sooner or later. i guess that was the final straw, the owner finally broke down and loaded it up on a trailer to take it down and get it serviced. the trailer he rented had the worst ramps i've ever seen- almost preternaturally perfectly wrong for the forklift; it was a big hassle to get it loaded. this guy was thinking of laying some 1x4 down over the ramps; i suggested some 1/2" steel flatbar....he went with the flatbar, and had a guy tack weld it to the ramps- not a bad move.

our lot is on an incline, and he finally decided to take his 2-ton pickup and face it downhill, to flatten out the ramps up onto the trailer. by the time that was accomplished, i was back to running my milling machine in the shop, with the front end of the pickup sitting inside the bay doors, about five feet to my left side. running my machine requires having my back to the bay doors, and it's always loud so i wear hearing protectors- very good ones (-30dB) that i bought at a gun range a few days ago after having mine crushed by a bonehead at work....with the very same forklift. they kind of tend to make you zone everything around you out, and i was listening to what my machine was doing.

so suddenly i hear SKREEEEEEKRRRRRRRSHH and i turn and BOOM, the pickup (no driver in it) gets shoved or slides through the bay doors and skids a dozen feet into some pallets of (pretty heavy) steel parts, pulling the trailer (with the forklift on it....very heavy) behind it.....woke me right up. no real harm done to the pickup. the first in the row of pallets was shorter than the bumper, and braked the truck somewhat before sliding into the next one, which did likewise- they got lucky. in all about a half dozen pallets of steel and aluminum saved the truck and the building. lucky no one was standing in front of it- that would've been a serious injury at the very least.

and switching gears again: the Pistons look like they're gonna make a series of it. YES! seven games, that's all i ask.

yesterday i watched American Beauty. i was hoping it wasn't going to be this overly negative "family melodrama" piece. i think the thing that saved the movie overall was the drug-dealing next door neighbor character. it was a pretty good movie, but i'm not sure it was as good as the hype. but then, few things are.

crashed out for a while after work....tired today....and maybe a little down....just a little. had a headache this morning and was kinda draggin' ass, but i was back to normal by late morning, so that ain't it...

my friend Matt woke me up about 8pm; looks like poker tomorrow night. should be fun.

spent some time tonight filing pictures i've scanned. need to get my @)#$)((@#$@!! printer installed correctly so i can get back on that project. the new pics are in the online album, a fairly large update (info top left, in grey, link to the album top right, in typical red). most of the pictures are stuff from the late 80s, including some shots of me playing live with my old band Witness, and some stuff from right before i moved to Florida with my friend Scott, and some others are scattered throughout the folder structure.

time to git up offa this thang.

PEACE.