another September sunset in the bag

[subject leans back in chair, lights a smoke. the soft crunching sounds of kibble float in from the next room.]

one more week in the can. worked fairly long hours this week. today our CNC torch took a crap while i was cutting. the tip and tip cover are held in place by a specialized retaining nut, and the male-threads it screws in to are stripped. scratch head. think for a moment. wish for aluminum foil. look around briefly for something that will serve....find energy bar wrapper from co-worker. what the hell- tear thinly-metal-coated-mostly-plastic energy bar wrapper into strip and wrap around threads like pipe tape. screw on retaining nut, light torch. leaks flaming propane/oxygen mix still. strip it down, try again with thicker layer of energy bar wrapper. light torch. success! cut 20 link sliders. energy bar wrapper go snafu. wish for aluminum foil. co-worker go on aluminum foil run, return somewhat belatedly after brief sidetrack mission. receive foil. strip torch head. replace energy bar wrapper with foil, reassemble torch head. success! lasts for a couple hours before slightly-loose torch head moves when removing slag BBs. disassemble, clean tip and tip holder, replace foil, reassemble, light torch- success! lasts the remainder of day. despite the stripped head problems, i managed to cut some of the finest link sliders i've seen. getting the torch business down to a science.

tomorrow's my short week, and hopefully Loren will be coming back Monday after school. nothing's ever set in stone where his mom's concerned. always waiting for the other shoe to drop.

watched The Scarlet Letter last night. alright movie. nothing special. Demi got naked briefly. Gary Oldman didn't disappoint. always like period pieces. much more Native American storyline than i anticipated- nice surprise. Robert Duvall was a nice surprise, too, but i couldn't help feeling the movie was missing something. Hester is a nice name. i used to know a girl named Aggie, another name you might associate with old folks, but she was quite young (and pretty). a new face definitely brightens up an old name.

so, a weekend to myself this weekend. chores, i suppose. work on the back yard? heater core for my truck? football on Sunday- Seahawks home opener vs. the Arizona Cardinals. Kurt Warner at QB over there, plus Deon (sp?) Branch in the lineup for the 'hawks. 1-0 on the year so far, and 22-3 at Qwest Field since 2002. bring on the 12th man! have fun Jas, if you're not still outta town on HL business.

s'pose i should git to watching The Thin Red Line this weekend too. dig into my book, Shadow of the Giant, or my other book, ...Tristram Shandy, Gentleman.

neighbor's car stereo got stolen the night before last, and i had some camping gear and a boom box in my truck (among a whole pile of other less-likely-to-be-ripped-off things) but they didn't get taken, even though the one neighbor who saw what was going on watched the guy scope out my truck. had a saw stolen from it right after i moved in, and i've made a serious effort not to leave anything valuable in it ever since.

so far, so good. so roof, dagos. so for, so goad. so go rod sofa. so doofos arg. sodas for goo. so sad for goo.

really oughtta get back to conventionalizing my MP3s. wonder where the hell i left off on that endeavor? always get into it and get distracted by something. usually a major holiday or something. tells you how long the process has taken. craziness. nothing more frustrating than having a (conservatively estimated) 6-month-full-time project dragged out over a period of years by....LIFE.

tired. think i'll go wash up, get the shop off me. sit someplace more comfortable for awhile before i completely and utterly hit the wall.