Blogs

(Don't just now step in this minefield without having read Part I, then Part II first. But do so at your own risk).

June 11 2010. An office building. What should have been lunchtime.

A quick update for now… no time to hash out the rest, but I need to at some point.

(NOTE: Backstory, aka Part I, is the previous blog entry.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

June 10 2010. Shelbyville, KY. 9:37 pm.

This is the real-time deal. It is not a joke.

(Note: This is raw, adult, and slightly terrifying. But I need to do it, for reasons I’m not exactly sure why... I suppose the ready-snark-fire internet at large will see it as some lame TMI attention grab, but it’s not. Years ago, just after I was last trapped in this place, in proper settings I was told my shared perspectives lent context and healing to others.   So maybe this is a chance to do some good.

I am digging and clawing and fighting.  I know others are involved here but they will get their due in time.   There have only been a few people I’ve known who were courageous enough to face and talk about it… I apparently am the only one stupid enough to put it on the internet.  If that forever brands me as a freak in the land of snark, or shoots down some future prospect, then so be it:  take your best shot but know it won’t be anything I haven’t heard before, and I’m pretty thick-skinned so I really don’t give a shit anyway.  And if you’re the kind of judgmental coward who won’t examine the soul of another man’s shoes, then fuck you.

At any rate, if/when this syndicates to Facebroke, it may explain where I’ve been, and maybe serve as a final opus there for a while.  I don’t know.   I love and admire you all, even the oddballs I barely know.   Life is a wonderful thing.   Especially when it drives one to desperation and out of it.

It’s not done. I have so much to add, and so much to get through, but snippets are fleeting and it’s hard to stay at a computer all damn day like this.  If/when I can add to this, it will be done. In the meantime, there's no sense running from or trying to hide it anymore).

Judge not, lest ye be judged yourself.

Also, I am my own judge. And executioner.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
June 9 2010:

2010 has been kind of a slow year in the Saint Canard backshop so far, owing mostly to family matters (er, that would be "business" and not the Urkel show), work (that is if Kentucky's elected blowhards can pull their collective heads out of their asses), and a general feeling of malaise over the early winter months.   The overall lighting and ambiance in the new place’s basement just isn’t up to par, which makes photography a chore and general enjoyment difficult… so motivation wanes a bit.   I installed a cheap track lighting system to band-aid the situation this week; while not perfect by any means it nonetheless adds warmth and brightness, so we'll see how that pans out.  I could decide it's just the ticket, but I reserve the right to rip it out and set it on fire.

Really, what I need is a properly finished ceiling, but I promised Anna that I'd destroy and rebuild her craft room properly before I'd do that. Well, guess what I started doing last week? Sledgehammers and crowbars have always been my favorite tools!

So pull up a chair and pour out a cold one, cuz here’s a list and breakdown of some of the more interesting projects to emerge so far this year. Even though it's been a slow one, this is a long read. You know me: I can't shut up...

I just realized most of the recent updates here have been model-train related. Oops! I’m usually not so obviously one-dimensional. So, given what with the blue skies and the pollen bombs and the warmer weather come thoughts of the outdoors – and working on things we enjoy in the outdoors, like cars in my case (among other things), let me try to add a measure of cool by random updates on the auto projects front. A couple o' these have only been graced a fleeting mention before!

Consider the following picture:

Waldo is in the trunk. Also, my basement may or may not look like this at any given time.

IN addition to a proper Hippie's Springtime jaunt that involved a nice hike in some desolate wooded hillside property, and an unspoilt natural cave, I spent last weekend at the farm making more progress on the Archaeological Dig known as the "tractor crib." If you can see the car buried within, good for you!...

Just a few things to mention this update, but first: Announcing the fleshing out of an old page, and the creation of a new one!

First: When I was restructuring the photo stash (which is pretty much done, yay), I found...

Author's note: On February 8, 2010, the regular contributors at Hooniverse and I posed the question "What's Your Eleanor?" to our readership. The term "Eleanor" is of course borrowed from the original Gone in 60 Seconds, where it referred to the one, singular car that taunted and teased the protagonist, for better or worse. As such it has come to represent the one car that an individual gearhead dreams about. As the day went on, we individually posted stories about our own "Eleanors"... and essentially broke the website with traffic. The results were widely varied and often surprising. What follows here is an excerpt of my own article:

Pfft, bleah, gotta get these cobwebs outta my mouth, geez, who's responsible for the upkeep around here?! Oh, wait. Yeah, so it's been pretty dead around here lately, eh? I never have been one to blow my own horn, and if you didn't believe it, just take the last few months around here as proof, 'cuz there's been plenty at times to roll with. So if you're indeed bothering to read this I thank you for the courtesy, and would you be so kind as to give my knees a good mafia whack or two just to get 'em moving again?

Free Software is what this site is built on so maybe I should shut my yap and figure out how to use it!

Actually, for about the last month or more much of the photo gallery hasn't been working properly. Turns out an update to the plugin I use broke dang near everything, thanks to an newly-deemed incompatibility with my long-standing naming convention. So I spent a fair chunk of spare time over the weekend troubleshooting and ultimately making the necessary changes... and it seems things are working again. Yay.