yada, yada, yada

It's 4am, it's friday. Not much can be said about that.

The shop is back on 50 hour weeks, the only reason I heard was that PR wasn't happy that only a couple of the electricans were coming in on voluntary ot, it wouldn't suprise me if that was the case. Granted, since no one seems to know where LC vanished to, and JB is going to nights week after next, I'm gonna need 50 hours to keep up, normally with two of us things run sweet, neither of us has to crazy rush to get things done, just keep a steady pace all day, but with only one, well it can get hetic.

And Sweety is on the trail of a 450 Rebel again, or at least something similar. I hope I can find something for her real soon.

I'm outta here, gotta finish getting ready for work.

New Avatar

Just a new one I made.

Been Awhile

Yep, it's been awhile since I've posted anything. Work and the real world have been taking up most of my time lately, I'm taking a break from it all to go to the Starbird Car Show here in Tulsa today. First real car show I've been to in a long time, most of the ones I've gotten to in recent years have just been the local cruse night types or a local townie event, this one is actually a national event, and of course the admission price tells that, 20 bucks to get in! But what the hey, might as well go. I did a little research and it turns out that the Starbird Museum is about an hour and a half from here, so maybe it might make a nice day trip this summer.

More later....

Another week is over with.

I gotta tell ya, 50 hour work weeks really suck. I'm glad it's over for a couple of days, of course now the house work begins, I got a head start by cleaning up most of the kitchen and after I finish this post I'll go back and finish the other half and put away the dishes that just finished up. Sweety is just getting home right now, I can tell because I hear the truck and the dogs are stirring. Oh well, see ya all later.

My Garage

I posted awhile back that I had finally got my garage back. Well, I have now spent several days cleaning and organizing and it looks pretty good. The V-Star sets on the left side, I have to keep it in there for now because I keep it plugged into a battery tender. My chopper is setting on the right side, looking a bit rough right now, because I haven't been able to work on her because it's been too damn cold and the garage is not insulated or heated. Two problems hopefully that will be solved by next winter.

Once again into the payroll fray

Well, I found out something today that explained why my check was screwed up, it turns out it was my fault. I had a small bout with the flu bug last week and took Monday off as a sick day, now up till now all the companies I've worked for had the same policy - If you call in before work starts, the absent is noted and approved. Appears that at my current employer, they still want you to call in, but after you get back you have to fill out a form stating that you want the hours you missed taken from your sick time hours. In other words, if you call in sick, you still have to request sick time afterwards. Kinda silly I think, also a pain in the butt when no one bothers to inform you that you have to do that, all I was told was that you had to call in and let the boss know. Plus I forgot that I had went home early on that Friday due to the ice/sleet storm and that I was riding the bike at the time.

Oh well, lession learned. Now because of this I've started keeping track of my hours and hour usage in my schedule book that I carry with me at all times now.

Payroll screwed me again

Ya know, sometimes I just get fed up with blaten stupidy. The payroll dept. where I work has screwed up my paycheck once again and it's going to be Monday before I can get it straightened out. They processed my check through with only about half my hours on it. The damn thing is annoying enough to figure out to begin with. Instead of filling in the regular and overtime hours like any normal company would, they have this thing about refiguring the hours. I'll explain using round numbers.

Normal company's math
(40 regular hours * $10/hr) + (10 ot hours * $15/hr) = $550

My company's math
(50 regular hours * $10/hr) + (10 ot hours * $5/hr) = $550

Now, while this does add up to the same total, it doesn't make any sence to me why they do it this way, I mean it's not like they have to do any real math, everything is entered into a computer that does all the math and then prints out our checks. In general this does work fine when I work a full week with no sick/holiday/missed days in it, I know my check should read 50 and 10, but if you through anything odd into the mix, you have to stop and calculate what your hours and payrate should be. And it never fails, if you do take some time off, your check is going to be screwed up, I had a bout of stomach flu last weekend and ended up taking monday off as a sick day, needless to say my check was all screwed up, they only payed me for 27.8 hours of regular time. Don't ask me how they ended up with this number, I worked the rest of the week. I should have had 32 hours of regular time and 8 hours sick time. I can't wait to see next weeks check, it should be for 40 regular hours and 3 ot hours, but there's no telling what it will end up being.

My rant for the day, thank you for listening.

I hate insurance companies!!!

Yep, that's right I hate them all. Every last stinking one of them. They're all a bunch of money hungry, stab you in the back a-holes (pardon my french).

This opinion has of course come from trying to get a new rate quote tonight, I've been at it for about two hours now and still haven't gotten anything worth looking at, or the systems have been down and not able to process my request at the moment. I think they do that just to get all you info so that they can put you on the tele-markerter list so that somebody can call and bug you all hours of the day/night. They all talk about how fast and easy it is to logon and get a rate quote, what they don't tell you is that they want a life history on you before they tell you that thier system is down or not working at the moment. Big buch of sorry loosers as far as I'm concerned.

Enough bitching for now, I think it's time for something fun.

Asta

I finally have my GARAGE!!!

Yes, today I will finally get my garage. It's not that I didn't have one before, it's just that it has been filled with someone elses stuff since we got here, long story that I don't feel like telling right now. Her crew is supposed to show up today at 1:00 and move all her stuff out. Then since this is a long weekend I will still have two whole days to start cleaning and sorting out all my stuff and finally get my chopper into the garage so that I can fix it!!!

Immigration: Scary Stats

Immigration: Scary Stats

If this doesn't open your eyes... nothing will!

From the L.A. Times

1. 40% of all workers in L.A. County ( L.A. County has 10.2 million

people) are working for cash and not paying taxes. This was because they are

predominantly illegal immigrants, working without a green card.

2. 95% of warrants for murder in Los Angeles are for illegal aliens.

3. 75% of people on the most wanted list in Los Angeles are illegal

aliens.

4. Over 2/3 of all births in Los Angeles County are to illegal alien

Mexicans on Medi-Cal, whose births were paid for by taxpayers.

5. Nearly 25% of all inmates in California detention centers

are Mexican nationals here illegally.

6. Over 300,000 illegal aliens in Los Angeles County are living in

garages.

7. The FBI reports half of all gang members in Los Angeles

are most likely illegal aliens from south of the border.

8. Nearly 60% of all occupants of HUD properties are illegal.

9. 21 radio stations in L.A. are Spanish speaking.

10. In L.A. County 5.1 million people speak English.

3.9 million speak Spanish.

(There are 10.2 million people in L.A. County).

(All the above from the Los Angeles Times)

Less than 2% of illegal aliens are picking our crops,

but 29% are on welfare.

Over 70% of the United States' annual population growth

(and over 90% of California , Florida , and New York )

results from immigration.

The cost of immigration to the American taxpayer in 1997 was,

(after subtracting taxes immigrants pay), a NET $70 BILLION/

year, [Professor Donald Huddle, Rice University ]. The lifetime

fiscal impact (taxes paid minus services used) for the average

adult Mexican immigrant is a NEGATIVE number.

29% of inmates in federal prisons are illegal aliens.

If they can come to this country to raise Hell and demonstrate by

the thousands, WHY can't they take charge over the corruption

in their own country?

We are a bunch of fools for letting this continue.

THE U.S. VS MEXICO

On February 15, 1998, the U.S. and Mexican soccer teams met at the Los

Angeles Coliseum. The crowd was overwhelmingly pro-Mexican even though most

lived in this country. They booed during the National Anthem and U.S. flags

were held upside down. As the match progressed, supporters of the U.S. team were

insulted, pelted with projectiles, punched and spat upon. Beer and trash were

thrown at the U.S. players before and after the match. The coach of the U.S.

team, Steve Sampson said, "This was the most painful experience I have ever had in

this profession."

Did you know that immigrants from Mexico and other non-European

countries can come to this country and get preferences in jobs, education, and

government contracts. It's called affirmative action or racial privilege. The

Emperor of Japan or the President of Mexico could migrate here and immediately be

eligible for special rights unavailable for Americans of European descent.

Corporate America has signed on to the idea that minorities and third

world immigrants should get special, privileged status. Some examples are

Exxon, Texaco, Merrill Lynch, Boeing, Paine Weber, Starbucks and many more.

DID YOU KNOW?

Did you know ... that Mexico regularly intercedes on the side

of the defense in criminal cases involving Mexican nationals?

Did you know ... that Mexico has NEVER extradited a Mexican

national accused of murder in the U.S. in spite of agreements to do so?

According to the L.A. Times, Orange County , California is home to 275

gangs with 17,000 members, 98% of which are Mexican and Asian.

How's your county doing?

According to a New York Times article dated May 19, 1994, 20 years

after the great influx of legal immigrants from Southeast Asia, 30% are

still on welfare compared to 8% of households nationwide. A Wall Street Journal

editorial dated December 5, 1994 quotes law enforcement officials as

stating that Asian mobsters are the "greatest criminal challenge the

country faces." Not bad for a group that is still under 5% of the population.

Is education important to you? Here are the words of a teacher who

spent over 20 years in the Los Angeles School system. "Imagine teachers in

classes containing 30-40 students of widely varying attention spans and

motivation, many of whom aren't fluent in English. Educators seek learning

materials likely to reach the majority of students and that means fewer words and

math problems and more pictures and multicultural references."

WHEN I WAS YOUNG

I remember hearing about the immigrants that came through Ellis Island

They wanted to learn English. They wanted to breathe free. They wanted

to become Americans. Now, far too many immigrants come here with

demands. They demand to be taught in their own language. They demand

special privileges ... affirmative action. They demand ethnic studies that

glorify their culture.

NOW ...

WHY CAN'T WE SEND THEM HOME

HOW CAN YOU HELP?

YES WE CAN, the sheriff od Mecklenburg County NC requested training from ICE (immigration) and since May IN HIS JURISDICTION ALONE over 900 illegals, convicted criminals and regular run of the mill (wets mohows, creek jumpers, brown travelers ect ect) have been scheduled for deportment or have been deported. Seems someone in our or your community has dropped the ball if they are not also doing the same w/these slugs. Seems AL, NC, CA, FL and AZ have all received training from ICE, and there are only 14 depts and 6 states that have requested this training. WHERE are the community leaders on this matter?????
So hey if/when U fwd this to another please ask, "WHAT IS OUR COMMUNITY DOING REFERENCE THIS MATTER?"!!!
Did U vote? Do U pay taxes? If yes then it seems U have a right to ask the elected local/state/federal officials, "WHAT THE HELL R U DOING? Do U only puff up and act like U care when votes are needed or DO U REALLY CARE? How much has the local population of illegals costs OUR community and maybe UR PAY should reflect Ur action or lack of."
No backseat/couch quarter backing/bitching if U cannot do something about the problem, we have enough bullshit from those who make a living off our inactivity.
So you are either a supporter or a opponent of the current status quo!!! PICK

The long weekend is almost over

Well, it's Sunday, Thanksgiving weekend is almost over. Haven't done a whole lot this weekend, spent T-day itself just relaxing on the coutch and in front of the computer. Spent Friday and Saturday messing with the chopper, finally got it out from under the tarp in the backyard where she's been hiding since we got to Tulsa. Gotta say that I love those old Hondas, she's been sitting for about three months now and I know the battery was half dead when I covered her up. I put the key in her, turn on the gas, closed the choke and two kicks and she was running. :) Mind you not purring like she should, but she made a couple of laps around the block ok. I rolled her back up to my garage and decided that maybe the timing was off a bit. After getting the timing light hooked up I noticed that I wasn't getting a pulse from the #1 wire, so I checked the rest and they were good. I pulled the wire and checked it with my meter and got a reading of 10K ohms, yep a bad wire, just for the fun of it I decided to check the rest, I avg. 5k ohms on the rest, ok, one really bad and the rest not far behind. I did a little research and decide the problem was that I had used graphite core wires. So, after a trip to the local O'Reily's Auto Parts, I had a set on order for Saturday morning. The next morning I did my running around gathering a few tidbit parts and my new wires. After putting on a new set of wires, I took her for another spin around the block, well, she's running a lot better now, but still got a few bugs to work out.

All for now - Asta

Yes, it's been awhile

Ya, I know it's been quite a while since I last posted. Not much has changed in my world and I spent most of my time today working on my new blog site, it's for all those joke you get via e-mail. Check it out while I go move a truckload of mulch. LOL

http://woogaus-jotd.blogspot.com/

Time flies ...

Just happened to look and see when the last post was, didn't realize it was that long ago. It's been real busy for me lately, I finally finished mocking up my bike last monday. Everything is done except for the seat, so it all got ripped apart for the finish work. I'm going to be bringing the frame home tommorow so I can work on it at the house some, Sweets gets a bit lonely when I spend half the night at the shop. But the clean up work I have to do on the frame I can do at home, so I'll work on that here. Laz, our painter is going to bring some fine line tape to the shop tommorow so I can get my tank ready for paint, I think I'll do the painting here as well since I'm only going to rattle can it for now.

'Night everybody, it's time for beddy bye. Asta

It's Monday - yippie?

The start of a new work week, and the start of a new project at the shop for me. Hmm, I haven't been talking much about what has been going on at the shop lately, quick update.

1. Hired a new guy, fresh outta MMI two weeks ago. He's doing great, him and the boss get along great and he actually knows enough to be past the danger point. Best thing he knows is when to ask for help or advice on how things are done in the real world as opposed to the classroom world.

2. Hiring the new guy has let me get back to build projects, namely Victor's chopper, since he was complaing the most. LOL. It's a sky high monster, I can barely see over the fuel tank and I'm 6'1". We finished the mock up and most everything a couple a months back, but without a third guy at the shop, it's been a pain to work on it, since hiring the new guy, I've been able to devote the last week and a half to getting it finshed and on the road. It's about 90% done, but I had to stop because I ran outta parts, gotta love backorders.

3. The Smoke Out is this weekend, so we all have been spending a lot of time helping guys get thier bikes ready for that, mostly little things that they can't take care of themselves. Most of the guys that go to the Smoke Out tend to work on thier own rides and usually only come to us if it's beyond thier abilities.

4. Started a new project this morning, an OLD shovelhead FLH, it's not excatlly the kind of job I like to do, but I'll do my best on it. The owner was rebuilding it himself, kinda of a long term project for him, unfortunally he passed on before he could finish it and his family asked us to finish it for him. I imaging that once it's finished, they will probally want to sell it. Personnaly, I think that if that's the case, they should just sell it as is. Basicly though, all I'm doing is getting it running, doing what's needed to be able to show it does run. I figure if there are no major setbacks, I'll have it finished by friday and hopefully the rest of Victor's parts will be in and I can finish his next week.

Ok, that should bring everyone up to date on the shop work. As for the personal rides, I'm planning on finishing the oil tank/battery box for mine on thursday night, hopefully have it mounted as well, I'd like to be able to spend this weekend tying up a lot of the little loose ends so that I can spend next week wiring the bike. I've decided to get the bike running as a rat chopper for now, I'm still not 100% sure I'm gonna like the sucide clutch / jocky shift setup, plus I need to see how the Amen suspention will need to be tweaked for the best ride, so it's just gonna be a rattle can paint job for now, I figure by this fall I should have all the bugs worked out and then I'll finish it up completely. That will let me get to work on Sweety's trike project sooner, gotta keep her happy, so I'll be happy.

Well, that's all for now. Asta

it's been awhile

Yep, it's been awhile since I've been here. Life is like that. It's mostly been the usual crazed pace of life that's been keeping me occupied lately. A big project that's been going on is research, Sweets has decided that she would like a trike. So I've been researching them, looking at different kits, convertions, and of course the costs. Let me tell ya, there not cheap, no matter how you do it. The photo above is the one I like the best so far, it's made by a local outfit www.eztrikekits.com . We drove over there last wensenday to check them out and we both got to take the one in the picture for a test ride. You can't tell it by the photo, but this one has been raked out to 40 deg and was set up as a drag bike, not excatlly a streetable setup. But it did ride nice for the most part, it had a bit of a shake in the front end taking off, I'm figuring is due to a improperly balanced front tire, but other than that I liked it. Of course like most, it's not cheap, but at about half the cost of most, it's an option we're discussing a lot.

Well, I'll try to get back later, time to get ready for work now. Catch ya all on the flip side, asta.

I wanna be the product tester !!!!

The SP9004 Spudgun

Only in America can a guy make a living making and selling potato launchers! Just amazing, here's the link to his site.

http://www.spudtech.com/default.asp

Lazy Sunday

Well, it's a lazy sunday around here. Not that I just sat around all day doing nothing, I did go to the shop and work on the chopper I'm building for a few hours. I manage to get a start on the rear brake setup, that's been fun, the Amen Saviour frame I'm using was designed around drum brakes and I'm trying to rig a hydraulic system on it. I also worked on the oil tank and electric box as well. I managed to get the box made and got a good start on the tank, I figure about one more night should take care of that. As for the rest of the day, well...... I found a fun website.

http://www.veoh.com/


You can watch the previews if you like, but it doesn't cost anything to sign up, you do have to download a viewer program to watch them, but there is a lot of content there and not just porn either!

But just for you preverts out there ----

Fun with garage doors

Well, keep the first part short, my Dad and me had a discussion about the garage, his thoughts were to tear it down and build a new one, after explaining that the current garage was grandfathered under the current building codes and that the only thing wrong with the old one was the doors, we went out today and bought new doors. Let me tell you, garage doors ain't cheap! But, we came across a deal at Home Depot, they had a two sets of matching doors the right size that had been returned minus about half the hardware needed to install them, so we did some talking and ended up getting the whole mess for $250 bucks, the doors were originally $300 bucks apiece. These are some nice doors too, two inch thick steel clad insulated doors. :)) Well, after getting them home and inventorying what was there,I had everything new for one door except for a couple of brackets. Not a problem, considering that the east door never gets opened, I've got a work table and one of my toolboxes up against it now and the door is locked down so that it won't raise. I spent today taking down the west door and installing the new one, had to do a little engineering with the brackets at the top to get it all to work. Had real fun doing that since the instructions didn't mention which way they had referenced left and right, turns out that it is looking at the door from the inside. With a little help from a Hilti hammer drill that I borrowed from my nephew I was able to get the door up and almost working, remember that left/right thing I mentioned. I've got to switch the two bottom roller brackets around, right now the door will only go up about two thirds the way up and gets stuck. Oh well, that's tommorow nights job fixing that, by the time I got that far I was beat, so I just called it a night. The other door gets to wait until wensenday.

That's about it for tonight, I'm beat and I think I'm going to call it a night early. Asta.

It's finally over, at least as far as I'm concerened.

Sweets and me have been having a series of discussions about work, my job in particular. She wants me to quit and work some where else, doesn't matter where, or if I actually like the job, just not at the bike shop. It's not that she doesn't want me to work at a bike shop, just not the one that I currently work at. There are several reasons behind this.

1. She doesn't like my boss - on this one, well a lot of people don't like him, he's one of those types, you either like him or not, period.

2. The pay isn't the greatist - I've been checking around, the pay isn't too hot anywhere. But at least I'm getting a raise at the end of the month.

3. No benifits - Been checking around on that one too, not too many places have benifits that are worth even mentioning, most places you have to pay for your insurance anyway. I worked for Motion Industries for six years, big outfit, google it's parent company sometime - Geninue Parts, I was coughing up 80 bucks a paycheck for insurance - $2080.00 a year and I wasn't even paying the full amount, when I started the company was called BerryBearing and the insurance was paid by the company, all the Berry employes got a bump in pay to cover the cost of insurance at the time of transition, but it was a one shot deal, after that if the cost went up, we had to pay for it.

4. No overtime pay - This issue is fixed, the boss and me had a talk today, starting at the end of the month, I'm no longer on a salary pay schedule, it's going to be hourly and I'll get overtime pay if I'm needed to work some extra hours, not that I expect extra hours, I very rarely have any now.

Anyhow, to sum things up, the boss and me had a nice chat today and straightened out a few points and straightened out a few issues and I've decided to stay put and stop looking at other jobs. Of course the fun part has yet to happen, telling Sweets this. LOL

Oh well, asta for now.

I like what he said

This is an e-mail I got, like most "chain letter" e-mails I don't know if it actually came from him, but whoever wrote it, I think they got it right and I agree with what is said. I have NO problem with people wanting to live in America, just do it the legal way. Sign on the line, become a legal American like the rest of us.

Mexican Standoff

I don't know how everybody else feels about it, but to me I think Hispanic people in this country, legally or illegally, made a huge public relations mistake with their recent demonstrations.

I don't blame anybody in the world for wanting to come to the United States of America, as it is a truly wonderful place. But when the first thing you do when you set foot on American soil is illegal it is flat out wrong and I don't care how many lala land left heads come out of the woodwork and start trying to give me sensitivity lessons.

I don't need sensitivity lessons; in fact I don't have anything against Mexicans! I just have something against criminals and anybody who comes into this country illegally is a criminal and if you don't believe it try coming into America from a foreign country without a passport and see how far you get.

What disturbs me about the demonstrations is that it's tantamount to saying, "I am going to come into your country even if it means breaking your laws and there's nothing you can do about it."

It's an "in your face" action and speaking just for me I don't like it one little bit and if there were a half dozen pairs of gonads in Washington bigger than English peas it wouldn't be happening. Where are you, you bunch of lily livered, pantywaist, forked tongued, sorry excuses for defenders of The Constitution? Have you been drinking the water out of the Potomac again?

And even if you pass a bill on immigration it will probably be so pork laden and watered down that it won't mean anything anyway. Besides, what good is any other law going to do when you won't enforce the ones on the books now?

And what ever happened to the polls guys? I thought you folks were the quintessential finger wetters. Well you sure ain't paying any attention to the polls this time because somewhere around eighty percent of Americans want something done about this mess, and mess it is and getting bigger everyday.

This is no longer a problem; it is a dilemma and headed for being a tragedy. Do you honestly think that what happened in France with the Muslims can't happen here when the businesses who hire these people finally run out of jobs and a few million disillusioned Hispanics take to the streets?

If you, Mr. President, Congressmen and Senators, knuckle under on this and refuse to do something meaningful it means that you care nothing for the kind of country your children and grandchildren will inherit.

But I guess that doesn't matter as long as you get re-elected. Shame on you.

One of the big problems in America today is that if you have the nerve to say anything derogatory about any group of people (except Christians) you are going to be screamed at by the media and called a racist, a bigot and anything else they can think of to call you.

Well I've been pounded by the media before and I'm still rockin' and rollin' and when it comes to speaking the truth I fear not. And the truth is that the gutless, gonad-less, milksop politicians are just about to sell out the United States of America because they don't have the intestinal fortitude to stand up to the face reality.

And reality is that we would never allow any other group of people to have 12 million illegals in this country and turn around and say, "Oh it's ok, ya'll can stay here if you'll just allow us to slap your wrist."

And I know that some of you who read this column are saying "Well what's wrong with that?" I'll tell you what's wrong with it. These people could be from Mars as far as we know. We don't know who they are, where they are or what they're up to and the way the Congress is going we're not going to.

Does this make sense? Labor force you say? We already subsidize corporate agriculture as it is, must we subsidize their labor as well?

If these people were from Haiti or if they were from Somalia or Afghanistan would we be so fast to turn a blind eye to them? I think not.

All the media shows us are pictures of hard working Hispanics who have crossed the border just to try to better their life. They don't show you pictures of the Feds rounding up members of MS 13, the violent gang who came across the same way the decent folks did. They don't tell you about the living conditions of the Mexican illegals some fat cat hired to pick his crop.

I want to make two predictions. No. 1: This situation is going to grow and fester until it erupts in violence on our streets while the wimps in Washington drag their toes in the dirt and try to figure how many tons of political hay they can make to the acre.

No 2: Somebody is going to cross that border with some kind of weapon of mass destruction and set it off in a major American city after which there will be a backlash such as this country has never experienced and the Capitol building in Washington will probably tilt as Congressmen and Senators rush to the other side of the issue.

I don't know about you but I would love to see just one major politician stand up and say, "I don't care who I make mad and I don't care how many votes I lose, this is a desperate situation and I'm going to lead the fight to get it straightened out."

I don't blame anybody for wanting to come to America, but if you don't respect our immigration laws why should you respect any others.

And by the way, this is America and our flag has stars and stripes. Please get that other one out of my face.

Pray for our troops

What do you think?

God Bless America Charlie Daniels; April 10, 2006
http://www.charliedaniels.com/