Today was warm (low 80s) but not nearly as humid as it was all week. I can take the heat just not the humidity. I took my mother and sister out shopping today in Honesdale, PA. It really is a nice little town and is about a 40 minute drive away. The drive out there is beautiful it’s mostly all country and farms. Mom didn’t want to walk around town so we hit the dollar store and Wal-Mart which is a little outside of town.

On the way out of the dollar store I decided to treat them to the Ming Court Buffet. It’s was okay, the waitress was rude and didn’t keep up with clearing of plates, drink refills, etc despite it not being busy at all. The place used to be great but looks to have gone down hill a bit. It was warm in there the AC had to be set at 75° or so, which is cooler than outside, but not cool enough for a restaurant in my opinion. The food was decent but not as good as it used to be. My guess is they got hit by the recession, cut back on things, and still haven’t bounced back. It’s a shame.

Anywho, I’m off for a short walk as it’s about dusk right now and I don’t want to run into any animals –  Lions and tigers and bears oh my! Tomorrow back in full swing with my walking only went 3 days this week due to the heat.

Big Dan's New walking hat and sunglasses

Here’s Hank’s Mashup:

Crikey

Pretty cool eh? It’s funny that’s exactly what I thought about when I bought the hat.

Hank also did my Shrek avatar whenI messed up my hair cut.  You can see this as my avatar on most forums and currently on Facebook.

My Baldie

Big Dan is Shrek

A few years back I posted a pic of me sleeping while on vacation, Hank seen another opportunity:

Big Dan Sucking his Thumb

LOL, Hank’s a very talented dude and it’s a been a pleasure to know him these last few years. If your ever looking for a DJ in Boston, Hank is the guy to look up!

The fine itself was only $100, the statutory minimum plus $85 in court costs. The fact that I received the minimum fine even though the dbag cop recommended the maximum tells me that if I had plead not guilty and went to court it probably would have been dismissed. I have no one to blame but myself I really wasn’t looking forward to standing up in court and questioning this asshat with my stutter and all.

So, I made out a money order, as apparently my check wouldn’t be good enough and mailed it in today. Heck $185 is a train ticket to Florida so it’s not the money it’s the principle. The fact that a cop can be a gigantic prick for what ever reason and me as citizen is supposed to stand there and be sweet as pie. I don’t think so. I was respectful as can be until he showed himself to be an assclown. There is an inequity there. For that reason I respond to anyone, badge or not, with an equal amount of douchery.

The problem is there’s no recourse for a citizen against a cop in situations like this. If you talk to their commanding officer at best all they will get is a letter in the their file. Big whoop that’s not a punishment, I don’t even consider it a reprimand. At worst you will draw the ire of their brethren and get harassed every time you pull out of your driveway.

To the dbag cop all I have to say is next time think twice before antagonizing someone 3 times your size. There is no reason to be discourteous and downright disrespectful to any citizen until they’ve proven themselves to be disrespectful of you. Next time you might not get a guy like me, who will just run his mouth, but someone who doesn’t care and will dr0p you like the sack of chit you were acting like.

I seen the trooper on the corner at the light. Do I really look stupid enough to litter right in front of  the cop? Well I might look stupid enough but I promise you I’m not. Just from the way the guy raced up on me, like a super Trooper I knew this wasn’t going to end well, lol.

The Trooper comes racing around the corner pulls on to shoulder stops 10 feet in front me. Jumps out like he chasing someone on the 10 most wanted list and asks “Do you have ID” to which I reply “No officer, I don’t carry ID when I walk, why are you asking for ID?” Side note: I don’t carry my wallet when I walk because I’m wearing jogging pants and stuff falls out of the pockets very easily. I know the law carrying ID is not compulsorily when walking in public areas. Further more according to NY law a police officer can demand ID but no where does it say you have to comply. That being said I’m not a jerk if a cop wants to see my ID, I’ll show him.

he says “I just seen you throw papers on the ground.”

I turned back and seen them so I says “Oh, I’m sorry I’ll go pick them up”

He’s says “You would’ve left it there if I didn’t stop you, right”

“To be honest I didn’t even realize I dropped them so yes” I replied.

Cop says “Can you go back to your house and get your ID?”

“No problem” I say and turn around and start walking towards my building.

Here’s where things get a little hairy. He pulls aside me, parks, and says “Go pick up those papers.” Now, I took issue with his tone, he wasn’t asking, but ordering me. Badge or not, I was in no way disrespectful to him, I felt his tone was a little disrespectful. However, I figured he really didn’t want to be bothered was going make me pick up the papers then go on his merry way. I walked back picked them up. He gets out his notebook. Right then and there there was a 75% I was getting a ticket. I got a little hot under the collar, I says “You’re kidding me, Right? Look all around you there’s cigarette buts, there’s a coffee cup over there and your going write me a ticket for a couple of gum wrappers that I offered to pick up?”

“That’s doesn’t make it right” he says.

“I agree but this is a nuisance infraction, I offered to correct my error — I don’t understand the problem” I said

He ignored that and started asking me my name and all. I gave him all information and offered my driver’s license ID number. Figuring if I don’t make him go through the trouble of searching for me he might be a little lenient.

“Just hang tight, I’ll be right back” says the Trooper

I’m standing at the back of the police car for a good 10 minutes this is in the middle of town and quite frankly I’m embarrassed. 4 people I know waved at me, they must be thinking “What’s he up to now?” lol

He gets out and hands me a ticket. That was it for me. I says “Your really effin’ kidding me” I took the papers I picked up out of my pocket and throw them down on the ground again. The look on the cop’s face was priceless. “What are you doing?” he says. “Well you wrote me an effin ticket for littering, I’m going to have to pay the fine, I misewell just leave it there.” The cop was dumbfounded I betcha that’s first time he’s ever gotten that.

After a couple of seconds he’s says “I’ll write you another ticket”.  He was trying to get a rise out of me so I had to be a dink right back and said “Go right ahead you can write tickets all day, doesn’t mean I’m going to pay them.”

He starts walking to his car and says you know what never mind I’m going to recommend the maximum fine and if you don’t pay it’s 5 days jail time. I couldn’t stop myself I had to go back at him and says “That’s okay I’ve been to jail it before it doesn’t scare me in the least.  Actually I need some dental work done that I really cannot afford maybe I’ll just stand on my head and sing I’m so pretty for 5 days while I get my teeth fixed courtesy of your tax dollars” he said something like “Why am I not surprised you’ve been in jail before” I says “You know what go eff yourself”

He floored the car away. LOL   I admit I was a jerk but so was he. I probably shouldn’t of pushed him but to be honest it just aggravated me so much that he even stopped me for littering THEN he makes me pick them up AND still writes me a ticket. It should have ended with me picking it up and him saying if I see you do it again I’m going to write you a ticket. That’s how any decent cop would’ve ended it. I felt he was making a fool out of me by making me pick it up and then writing me a ticket.

Now I have a ticket I have to mail in and either plead guilty or not. I’m guilty but since he said he’s recommending the max fine I’m going to plead not guilty and go to court. If it’s still the same judge, I know him pretty well and more then likely won’t get the max fine, which I believe is like $200. There’s no way on God’s green earth they’re getting $200 + court costs out of me, I’ll stand on my head in jail for 5 days before that happens.

In my defense and not for nothing I generally have the utmost respect for cops until they act like gestapos then I’m just as big of a dink to them.Just because you have a badge

On a positive note: I met an old teacher of mine 5 minutes after I got the ticket. He’s really an awesome dude, he’s retired now and we had a little chat. He looks like he ‘s just enjoying life. I’m happy for him, he was one of the most positives influences I had going to school.

The paint job came okay there is streaks though where it didn’t quite cover. I think it’s a combination of the paint being cheap and rolling over 7 years of nicotine stains. Mom says why don’t we buy a 5 gallon bucket of primer, great idea mom AFTER I do three rooms, lol. It kind of feels like I did all the work for nothing but we’re going to get a flat white primer and just leave it as is after I prime. If I’m feeling frisky next year I’ll buy a 5 gallon bucket of semi-gloss and do the whole apartment again, with the prime coat being only a year old I should be okay if I sponge mop it first.

I had a little mishap putting the outlet covers back on, apparently a flat head screw driver fits perfectly in the outlet causing a nice little jolt. Thankfully it didn’t fry my brain anymore then it already is.  It was a nice pick-me-up though I highly recommend it over a cup of coffee.

Yesterday I went to the ER to get some antibiotics for an infection that’s been festering for a couple of a weeks. It all comes down to a bad tooth that I haven’t taken care of mainly because it to expensive. $240 to see the surgeon to have it yanked out. The infection felt like it spread to my ear because that’s been bothering me and my neck glands have been pretty swollen and hurting something fierce. While I was at the ER I found out my blood pressure was pretty high. So high that they took 3 readings and made the doctor come back and talk to me before I was about to be released.   High BP is strange for me because even if I’m all frazzled it only slightly elevates. That’s got me a little worried, so I have to find a cheap general practitioner and get a check up. I’m not fooling around with that as heart disease runs in both sides of my family and at my weight my heart certainly doesn’t need the extra strain.

What’s worrying more is the pain in my neck, I really hope it’s just an infection but ya never know. We’ll see if the antibiotics clear it up in a couple of days. I was trying to put off the DR visit until we got the car fixed and inspected on Wednesday but the pain got to bad. Thankfully the ER doc gave me a script for pain killers too.

While I was waiting for my scripts to get filled I says to mom we should get some food shopping done so we got that all done for the month. The closets were pretty bare so we wound up with two carts full of stuff at Wally World. Mostly dry goods and some other household stuff, paper goods, etc. Guess who got to lug most of it up the stairs? Yours truly.

On a positive note, I finally have my bed off the floor! A friend of mom’s has been promising to build me a platform since I’m a kid but was always to busy. They delivered it this past Thursday. It’s the first comfortable night’s sleep I’ve had in quite a while.  It’s pretty cool basically two boxes that come together to form the platform. Once I’m feeling better I’m going to sand it down and stain it to match my nightstands, them I’m gonna figure out how to mount my headboard to it and I’ll finally have a semi-normal looking bedroom.

Today I spent the day organizing our kitchen cabinets. Since we don’t have a normal pantry cabinet space is at a premium. For some reason mom decided to shove a bunch of cups that we never use to the back of various shelves which wasted a bunch of space. I got all the cups out of there and wrapped them in a box we’ll probably give them to the Salvation Army or something as they’re going to waste here. My sister had about 10 boxes of tea bags hidden in various spots those got all combined into one box. Let over from one of her diets is about 5 boxes of instant oatmeal wasting space. I stacked them up to the ceiling. I’ll start having some in the morning to get rid of them.

I’ve had the AC going all day in my room. It’s been pretty humid here all weekend. Rosie da cat has been hanging out in my room most of the day cooling off. Here’s a pic of her all snuggled up in the blanket.

You can see the platform a little bit in the picture too. How was your Memorial Day weekend?

Here’s my dirty little secret my desk isn’t always that clean either. I do try and keep it clean but this week I’ve been extra busy and neglected keeping up with it. Without further ado here is my embarrassingly messy desk.

Miss Daisy went in for inspection and didn’t pass. She needs a tie rod and brake caliber before she will pass. In addition to that the mechanic said she’s a bucket of rust underneath and we need new brake lines that’s a $500 job and  out of budget right now.

In addition she needs rear struts, some sort of spring in the rear and there’s still an oil leak that we don’t know where it’s coming from and probably isn’t worth fixing. On top of that is an issue with it starting — sometimes the key has to be turned twice for it to kick over. I would guess that’s the starter.  The plan right now is to get what needs to be fixed for inspection then run it around see how reliable she is. If she’s reliable up around here I’ll save up over the summer and get the brake lines done then the struts.

A car this old probably isn’t really worth it and we didn’t pay that much for it so I really cannot complain but expected for it to be usable for at least 6 months or so. The real kicker is she runs so smoothly and has some real nice get-up-and-go for a 6 cylinder. Ah well I guess I better get things done with the car and enjoy it while I can.

We bought a 1995 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme with 136,000 miles on it.  The car has some minor cosmetic damage  scratches and the like but that’s to be expected with a 15 year old car. I’m really surprised at how luxurious it is. Everything is all power, leather seats, it has a power port for the passenger seat which was a surprise considering how the age. It even has keyless entry! Which most people take for granted but we haven’t had a car with that in quite a while. For what we paid for it so far it’s a steal. There’s minor problems but she rides real nice. The only problem that needs to be addressed right away is it seems like the starter is going because sometimes you have to turn the key twice to get it to kick over. We needed two new tires so we got them on Wednesday. If has the optioned 16″ tires so they’re a bit more expensive then regular old 15″ but we can always get 15″ rims down the road and swap them out.

Let’s get to the pictures~

There she is after I cleaned ‘er all up today. She was really filthy on the inside. The person we bought it from was an old farmer apparently farmers don’t clean their cars. It looked like the dashboard had never even been wiped down. I guess it’s good in the way all the dirt caked on prevented sun damage. I cleaned the whole car inside orange degreaser then armor-alled everything it really looks like new as you can see in the pictures except for some wear on the steering wheel and seats.

I took my arse on over the car wash and spent about 20 minutes vacuuming, all kinds of leaves, gravels, and crap. I vacuumed everything including the trunk and under the hood. I also washed and waxed her, the only the I couldn’t do is the rims as I didn’t have any cleaner oh well that will be another day.

The stereo in this baby is kicking. Like all GM cars they have a pretty decent OEM setup, we don’t get many radio stations so I have to figure out something to get my iPod to play over the speakers. I’ll either buy an FM transmitter or one of those tape with a wire on it that plugs into the headphone jack.

It’s real nice to be back driving again it had been almost a year and it was killing me but the real great thing about the new car I can take on Mom’s driving responsibility. It will be like driving Miss Daisy. The first plans are to get mom in front of an eye surgeon to see what can be done for her cataracts she had one but she has other health complications that aren’t conductive to her being put under for the operation so we’re looking for someone who can do it with just a local. It would be phenomenal if mom could get her eyesight back.

Other than that now that I’ve got wheels under my ass I can get out and look for a regular job. I’m looking forward to it, I’ve been out of the work force for to long and a steady income would do me well.

Lastly, I have to figure out what to name the new car. The last car I named “The Beast”  that was a Town Car that always had something going wrong with it. Betsy is to common for a car. Maybe Sally.. I don’t know

She goes in for state inspection on Tuesday so wish me luck!