Memorial Day

Today is the day we are suppose to remember and honor all those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice for the freedom we enjoy. Or should I say take for granted. To so many people, this was just a day off from work. A “three-day weekend”. I personally cannot recall anyone I knew that has died during wartime. I have not had to sit across the table from an empty seat that was once filled by my father, brother, mother, sister… But I still do what I can to honor those who have fallen and those who are still alive. I still remember as a kid going to the VA hospital in Alexandria, Louisiana with my parents and other Knights of Columbus members and bringing books and magazines to the Vets. We would play bingo with them and help the ones who could not see anymore, or the ones who could not move their hands to mark the cards. At an early age, I had a great deal of respect for those men and women. And I still do.

These days I don’t go to the VA hospital anymore, but I do donate money to DAV and other organizations that support our past and present troops. And I do not shop at those stores that don’t have the same beliefs that I believe in. Today is a day to remember and honor all those who did not make it back home. Please take the time to teach our kids what it took for them to enjoy the pleasures in life they take for granted. You should do more than burn a few hot dogs and drink some beer. Later.

L'Auberge du Lac

Cheryl and I went to the new casino last night. L’Auberge du Lac opened its doors to the public on Thursday at 10 PM. After we both got home Friday after work, we decided to venture out and see if we could even get in. It wasn’t bad at all. There was no line to get there, and a still a few empty parking places. We planned on gambling a little and eating at one of the many restaurants. When you drive up the main road you have the golf course on both sides of the road, and straight in front of you is the hotel, 26 stories tall. It is an impressive site. They have turned a piece of swampland into a beautiful resort. After parking, we walked around the hotel lobby and then went to the gaming area. Figured we would play a few bucks, then go eat. After playing for a while, we starting looking for a restaurant. All of them had lines out into the hallway. We decided we would go and eat at Cancun’s instead, after we gambled a little more. We were there for over two hours and had a great time. I spent about $15 dollars and left with over $30. Big spender, I know. Cheryl made out like a bandit. She made a 435% profit on her money. Not to shabby considering neither one of us are big gamblers. It is definitely a better class of casino than the riverboats. I think it is even nicer than the Coushatta Casino in Kinder. This one is set up with the restaurants, coffee shops, and gift centers in a horseshoe design around the gaming area. You can walk in and out of the casino on three different sides. The atmosphere and quality of the surroundings are set-up like those in Vegas. They have everything from penny machines to the “High Limit” area. Lots of nickel slots.

Most folks laugh when you say you are playing nickel slots. The thing is, you can play 45 credits at a time, or even more on some machines. That’s $2.25 a pull. And your chances of winning are greater by playing 20 lines or so. For a while, we were playing 400 credits at a time on the Alien penny machine. We watched one lady get over 7900 credits on a “Monty Python, Holy Grail” nickel machine on just one play.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am not a big fan of gambling. I may spend maybe $20 bucks are so twice a year out of my own pocket at the casinos. I spend more than that on my "Redneck 401K" powerball lottery tickets. We have a 5-gallon water bottle we keep our spare change in. Every 6 to 10 months we cash it in and go do something like slots at the casino, go to the horse track and bet on the ponies, or just go to the movies and then eat out. Gets us out of the house. Later.

Making Memories

Dad and I took the boat out joy riding today. We called it a "fishing trip", but neither one of us wanted to catch anything. Having to clean fish would ruin a good day of boat riding. Whenever I first acquired the boat, I always planned on taking him out one day, just the two of us. We really enjoyed ourselves running the river that he use to fish and go frogging on we he was a young-un, pointing out different landmarks like old abandoned buildings and telling the stories behind them. We put in at I-10 Bridge, and headed south. Took a tour of PPG Riverside, Prien Lake Park, and the three casinos. Then it was up river to West Fork River to Sam Houston Park. There were hardly any boats out this morning, traffic didn’t get heavy until around noon. We fished at two different spots, with no luck. You couldn’t have asked for a better day. The water was as smooth as glass. It was the calmest I have seen on the lakes.

I am glad we got to do that. Just out enjoying the day, making memories. Later.

Insurance Quote

I called the insurance company today to see just how much insurance would be on the 1985 pick-up Chris and I found yesterday and were debating on getting it to fix up. To get 100,000/300,000/100,000 coverage, which is what I carry on all my vehicles, will run Chris $306.60 a month! With good grades, defensive driving, and other reductions it comes out to be $198 a month. If he keeps a 3.0 GPA or higher, it would save him 70 plus dollars on this vehicle. That’s a lot of dough just to make good grades. After finding out this disappointing news, it didn’t hurt my feelings that much to see the truck no longer on the lot. Someone else already got it.

I pay less than $100 a month for the truck, 4-wheeler, and boat; all with full coverage, comp, and collision. How can they expect a kid just getting out on his own to be able to pay the kind of prices they quoted me today just for the insurance? Let along the truck note. 10,000/20,000/10,000 coverage is the minimum required by state law in Louisiana. That wouldn’t cover much more than an overnight stay in the hospital. Let along the $40,000 truck you hit and totaled out. That’s why I carry the higher coverage on all of our vehicles. CYA. Later.

This is a picture of the sun setting behind the Isle of Capri Casino. Also in the picture is the I-10 bridge over the Calcasieu River. 

Here is a picture of the seawall in Lake Charles. That is the Civic Center in the background. It wasn't to crowded. We stayed on the outskirts of the crowd to avoid the drunks.  

This is the barge in which the fireworks are set off for the big display. It was getting dark when it finally showed up. 

Here is a picture of the two bumper stickers I had on the back glass of my truck. It isn't obvious who I voted for is it? 

Lift Kit

Chris and I installed a 2-inch lift kit on the old Z71 this weekend. Two inches isn’t all that much, but it does look a little different. I don’t do much off-roading, but I just wanted a little different look. One of the old u-bolts had to be cut out. Two of them were rusted to about half their original diameter. All it takes is about 2 hours, some hand tools, and about $50 worth of parts. That’s just to raise the back; the front is free and takes about 10 minutes.

I have been debating on trading the old gal in and getting something different. A Jeep Wrangler 4X4 perhaps, or a two-wheel drive short box pick-up that I could make more of a sporty ride out of. I did find a 454SS in Sulphur, but he was asking too much. Chris and I found a 1983 or 1985, not sure, GMC short box today. This is his dream truck. That body style anyway. We talked about selling mine and getting that one and fine-tuning it to our likes: stereo, rims, paint. What I would do is get this one, get all the bugs out, fix it up and then Chris would have something in a few years. But we would have a father/son project till then. And it is something we can both work on. No fancy computers on this one. One of the problems is the fuel economy of a carb instead of fuel injection. It has a 305 with automatic. Probably wouldn't get much worse than what I have now. Just a thought. Well the weather is getting bad here. I’ll talk about the rest of the story another time. Later.

Ready for the weekend

I just finished getting the boat ready for this weekend. You see, in Lake Charles we have Contraband Days. It last about 2 weeks and consist of a carnival with a fireworks display over the water on the last Saturday of the carnival. This Saturday coming up to be precise. This will be the first Contraband Days that I have a boat big enough to bring the family in. I plan on experiencing the fireworks display for the first time on the water. Best seat in the house I am told. So I changed the plugs, put in some fuel stabilizer/injector cleaner, charged the batteries, and adjusted the idle. Ready for the water. This will also be the first time I have navigated this boat at night. Nothing like a bunch of drunks in high powerboats scrambling for the boat launch in the dark. I figure I’ll just stay anchored for another 30 or 45 minutes after the fireworks before we head for the launch. Later.

Here is one for the Micheal fans. 

New Project

My wife and myself went this afternoon to my parents and picked up an old trailer and some scrap iron. I always like having a project going on to occupy my time, so I am going to build a deer stand. It is going to be a box blind that folds down by means of a boat winch and some Ragley ingenuity. Some of you may have seen my disc for the four-wheeler I made using parts from a 4160-volt circuit breaker, wheels from a tow truck, and a disc made in the turn of the last century. I had to make new bearings out of wood. The old ones finally rotted out. I really get my jollies off when I make something from nothing. I could have put the wheels on one side and the disc on the other, just flip it over. But what fun would that be. I would have a disc like everyone else has. So I used the racking mechanism to raise and lower the axle off the ground and set the depth of my disc. Who else has a disc rated for 5KV?

I like building something that is functional and is different. Something that someone can buy but I can build instead, that’s for me. I would have built my trailer that I recently purchased instead, but the price of steel was too high. It just made more sense to let someone else make it for me at about the same price. One axle set with tires was $350. I needed two, plus angle, channel, and wood. I paid less than $1000 for the trailer I got brand new from Big Tex.

I will get some pictures hopefully when the box blind is in progress and complete. Oh, by the way, I passed College Algebra with a 93. That is an A on our ten point grading schedule. I was worried for a while; it just looked all Greek to me. I didn’t remember any of that stuff from high school. But I passed, and I am glad I do not have to take any more maths. Later.

World Youth Day

Some of you may not know this, but I got to see Pope John Paul II back in 1993. It was the World Youth Day in Colorado. It was a lot to see for someone raised in Ragley. We took a bus from Lafayette, Louisiana all the way to Denver, Colorado. Almost 20 hours if I recall correctly. We were there a for several days, and on the second to last day, we hiked for miles to get to this huge open field where a stage was. We stayed in the field overnight and then attended a Mass given by the Pope the next morning. There were thousands of kids everywhere that night. Just laying anywhere you could find a spot. I remember waking at one point to find Rob, a guy from our bus, using my leg as a pillow, and two girls I never met using my other leg. As far as the eye could see, there were kids heads over the rolling hilltops. We were pretty close, about 100 yards from the stage. We actually won a lottery of some sort to get front row seats, but it was impossible to get up there. I think they had more attendants than expected.

But it was great, going to different seminars all week, staying in the Embassy Suites. They had huge birds in cages through out the lobby and atrium. We would eat breakfast on the outside deck with a view of snow-topped mountains. We got to do some none church-stuff also while we were there like go to Pikes Peak by Cog Railway and go to Mile High Stadium. I really enjoyed that trip. It was a chance of a lifetime, and I am glad I went. Later.

Comapny Paid Vacation

The other day, my company advertised for positions available in Trinidad. Four jobs were available for a 6-month project testing new switchgear. I put my name in the hat, but was not picked for the first round. They were looking for people to commit for the entire 6 months, and I couldn’t and didn’t want to go for that long. In my letter, I told them I could go for the first 30 days if they had trouble manning the job. We have a small office where I am at, and losing one person for any great amount of time would bring about hard-times. I was told that when they send relief crews, I would be at the top of the list. We’ll see. I may change my mind by then.

But I have always wanted to go work overseas. Although Trinidad isn’t that far away, in the Caribbean for those wondering, it requires a passport, and that was far enough for me. I once was given a packet of papers to fill out for a job at the Russian Embassy. I was working in Indiana at the time, and when I finally got the papers filled out and mailed back in, the job positions were filled. I’ll never get to go any place like that on my own, that’s why I wanted to go to Trinidad so bad. There were already two employees there that I knew, and I would be going with three others I know. We currently have two techs in Afghanistan, and I won’t be applying for that job, I promise you. A tropical resort in the summer, yes. A cat-litter box where they be-head you, don’t think so.

I remember when I went on my first out of town job in Iowa, then to Nebraska and Indiana. I really enjoyed traveling like that. The only part I don’t care for is finding a hotel room that first night. You don’t know anyone or where the good verses bad parts of town are. After you get to talk with those on the job, you find the best rates in a clean place, and then it’s all right after that. Just always hated that first night. Later.