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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
Chris Foxx's LiveJournal:
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| Tuesday, May 15th, 2012 | | 2:02 pm |
| | Monday, April 30th, 2012 | | 5:16 pm |
Long time, no see!
And there's a heluva lot to report on, most of which I'll spare you and touch on the highlights. My dad's still in the nursing home and likely to stay there. Foreclosure proceedings have finally begun. I doubt we can save it no matter what. Right now all I can hope is that we'll be able to get out what we can get out before we're chased off of the property. My house isn't far behind. I was counting on my IRS refund to pay my back property taxes -- which by all that's holy I thought I'd paid! -- and I hadn't -- but it was garnisheed for my back IRS taxes from year before last when Patty left out 3 1099's. It's over $700 and I have until early July to get the cash together. I'm getting contract work, some anyway. We're eating. I have new Story ideas to get down. My personal problem that's been causing tension between the wife and I seems to be better and we ... y'know ... have. My new (to me) Volvo is great to drive, has some peculiarities but doesn't stop me from enjoying it, except when the seat belt doesn't want to disconnect and let me out, otherwise I'm having a blast with it. My lawn needs mowed. My drawing ability is getting much better. Anthrocon is coming and thankfully my membership is already paid for thanks to last year's volunteer hours, since I'll be there on *very* limited funds I'll be volunteering again and hopefully getting enough to cover next year's membership as well! My Acer laptop still needs a new display, cheapest I've found so far is $65 on eBay, which is $66 more than I can spend, so like now when I'm in the library on their Internet, I have to put up with the constant -- CONSTANT -- blinking out and in. My new (to me) Dell Inspiron 6000 has been brought back to life, a copy of one of the flavors of Suse Linux gifted unto I by Simcha actually fixed the hard drive, after I replaced the DVD drive, the battery is shot so I use my son's battery from his Dell XPS (the same laptop only a lot beefier) when he's not home. My lower back is hurting. My new phone has an app that comes on whether I want it to or not, otherwise it's working really well. I think that's it. Current Mood:  complacent | | Wednesday, December 14th, 2011 | | 12:52 am |
The Worst is Over, Sort Of
It never really is over, losing someone, is it? I mean, yeah, they go in the ground and life goes on. But it never really ends right there, they're always still there. Ken Minnear, "Kenbo" as I used to call him, was my wife's father for pretty much all of her life. Okay, her whole life. Patty was the youngest of 4, and as most of you may know and remember, we lost her older sister Christine Metz somewhere over a year ago. Now they all lost the patriarch. Ken's funeral was today, Tuesday, at 11 AM. Great little service, ending with a song that not only described him perfectly but opened every tear duct in the house, and now thanks to that I know that no one in the family will ever be able to listen to Frank Sinatra's My Way ever again. I'll be doing my husband job as best as I can, hugging Patty when she needs it and doing what I can and am asked to do by her or her mother. As I write this we'd finished watching a comedy, something we needed to break the tension, and she's in bed. I'm going to go to bed as well in hopes of sleeping so I can work at whatever bone I'm thrown tomorrow. I'm down to $18 in the bank, the amount of work I'll be able to do will be limited and Christmas won't come this year. Patty isn't too interested in Christmas, as I doubt a lot of her side of the family will be. It won't be the same without Ken being there. Oh yeah, we all know he will be there, in spirit, like Christine will be, and others who've gone ahead. It just sucks that he won't be there in body. Goodnight, sweet prince. And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest. Current Mood:  sad | | Friday, December 9th, 2011 | | 3:36 pm |
In Memorium: Kenneth H. Minnear
It's with a heavy heart that I report that my wife's father passed away this morning. And by "this morning", I mean yesterday, Thursday, December 8th. Now it's Friday, everyone's had a night's sleep, things are a little easier. A little, but don't expect miracles. Patty, my wife, her father had A.L.S., also knows as Lou Gehrig's Disease. This was discovered a few days before Anthrocon 2009, causing me to cut my time at the con short by a day and a half and go home to scoop up our offspring for a road trip to her family's A-frame camp in north-central Pennsylvania for a reunion weekend so everybody could be with him. Some people said that he was having a problem speaking, slurring his words now and then. I never noticed. But despite my missing the rest of the con, we all had a very nice time and nice visit, in the backs of our collective minds coming to grips that it may well be the very last one. Which it was. It took me longer to notice his speech issues, I just talked with him normally whenever I saw him and never noticed until later. As time went on, he had more trouble talking, then more, over the next year losing the ability to speak altogether. For me, the last time I saw him alive, he had been taken to the Emergency Room for a precautionary thing more than anything. Now Patty, my aforementioned wife and mother of my offspring, lost her sister Christine Metz only a year and change ago. Her biggest regret was never having gone to see her before she passed away. Last Wednesday she decided to go see her father, and she did. Thursday morning (yesterday at the time of this writing) my alarm went off at 8:15 AM EST, the phone rang maybe 2 minutes later. Her older sister called to say, "I think Dad passed away." Well, we got dressed and hustled on over. And I have to tell you, it's a very surreal feeling to go to your in-law's house on a phone message like that to walk in the kitchen door and find your father-in-law, dead, lying on the floor in front of the sink, covered with a blanket up to his neck. More surreal was as the family began arriving, my mother-in-law putting up a front and probably having already cried her eyes out, making small talk with people, going out to the kitchen with her son, and talking normally as they stepped around the body. Not being callous mind you, just mid-coversation and in the same room. Of course Ken (the former occupier of said body) wasn't using it, he's long gone to that really big place that all people who lived a good live go (Heaven, for those of you in Rio Linda). This morning, Patty's a little better. Ruth, her mom, has had time to get used to the idea of her husband of almost 61 years being gone. They're together as we speak, and if I were there I might see a different story, who knows. But that's what's happening. My heart has joined the thousands, for our friend stopped running today ... Current Mood: sad | | Thursday, October 20th, 2011 | | 10:58 am |
Down for the Count
Well, the unthinkable has finally happened. Thanks to the horseshit way Worldwide Tech Services runs their railroad (not paying for expenses nor mileage nor car expenses), I have been unable to pay my bills. My cell service has been turned off already, and last Tuesday my phone and Internet were turned off. I'm basically out of work now. Sure, I've been unemployed since the day before Valentine's Day 2009, but I've been able to at least keep our nostrils above water with my contract work. Now with our nostrils above water, someone's gone water-skiing. I am arse and elbows broke. My access now is at the library in Foxburg (appropriate, eh?), with my laptop with the blinking-constantly monitor that pisses me off. I have no idea when I'll be able to come back on a regular basis again. Or make a phone call. I'll be at the library at least once a day, twice if I can, weekends who knows. Pray for me, be nice to me. Anyone expecting a reply, this is why you haven't gotten it yet/ Current Mood: depressed | | Saturday, July 30th, 2011 | | 6:21 pm |
Time's almost up, on all fronts
The Story So Far: my dad has been in the nursing home for over a year. He ain't coming out from the looks of it. He could, all he'd have to do is commit himself to exercising his legs and doing what the PT people want him to do, but nope. Now his house is about to be taken away, and everything he owns. My sister and her husband and myself have been dragging our heels, now we got a posting on the house that because it is "apparently vacant" that they'll soon be going in to change the locks and weatherize the house. I'm out of storage space, if Sue and I pool together we can get a storage locker from my wife's brother but it'll be strain on both of us to do it. The real insult is that we had ALL THIS TIME and did so very little. We will be losing family things and memories we'll never be able to get back. I'm going to try to remember to call my DeMolay brother the lawyer and see if there's any recourse, injunction, whatever, to stop or slow things down. And me, I have until early September to cough up several hundred dollars for my back taxes or we lose our house and we're homeless. I think we can do it, but it's race. I'm 50 years old. I've spent most of that life skating the thin ice, and no one will give me a way out of it. And every time someone does, I find a crack and fall in, and find myself starting all over again. Honestly, I'm tired of it. Sorry, had to vent. Any good news, any good news ... I got my friend Tobi's sketchbook sent back to Germany, hopefully he'll have it before EuroFurance! And I'm taking on new projects which are dangerously close to landing me back into working on copiers -- these are the copiers that're also fax machines, printers, scanners ... "AiO's" they're called, or "All in One's". They pay more than these Dell calls, only thing is they sometimes take me further out of town than I'd like to drive. But the money's not bad. I'm still covering my own expenses, but I'm not doing this through OnForce.Com where I'll lose 10% to a sort of "finder's fee" for the call, and another 4.7% to business insurance every call. Working the Dell and other OnForce and FieldNation (when they come in) calls between 'em, I may pull something out. If I could do 'em every day ... say, 2 every day, I almost wouldn't need a job. Pie in the sky, as my dad would say. Back to work, methinks. Current Mood: depressed | | 6:10 pm |
Writer's Block: On repeat
Believe it or not, it's called "The Ballad of Zig Zag", based around the backstory of Zig Zag from James Bruner's "Zig Zag: The Story" inspired by my Sabrina Story. The first stanza refers to her running away "When Daddy became a monster in [her] eyes." I immediately knew it was a reference to her father going from beating her to molesting her. I don't know why, that part right there gives me those bumps, and angers me too. | | Friday, June 10th, 2011 | | 11:09 pm |
Behind the Scenes with "Sabrina Online: The Story": Characters
Driving around today with the radio off, I was thinking for some odd reason about The Story and was wondering if I could remember, without looking, who the characters I created were. I realized how important GOOD characters are when I was first laying out The Story as a concept back in 1997. To keep The Story from being called "fanfiction" (yech), I needed to actually create *story* and to do that, I needed good *characters*. David Gerrold, the guy who wrote "The Trouble with Tribbles" and "More Tribbles More Troubles", amongst other things, for "Star Trek", said that the writer, to do his job right, has to become every character in the story. It's one thing to say, "Hello, I'm the writer, I'm going to put words in your mouth" and quite another to make those words *belong* to *someone*. Even though I'm the one doing the writing, I can't have Chris and Sabrina say things that could interchangeable. Chris has to say things Sabrina would never say -- "Kitten, hand me that piano" -- and Sabrina has to say things that Zig Zag wouldn't say -- "Will you get your paws off my ass!" -- and Zig Zag has to say things that Clarence wouldn't say -- "Drop 'em!" -- and so forth. Lines to a character have to be *the characters*. So when I write The Story chapters, I *am* Chris Foxx, Sabrina Mustelidae, Clarence Skunk, Zig Zag, Susan, Cindy, Debbye, Amy, Thomas, Mr. Canis, the cop directing traffic, the lady in the elevator, the porn star on the chandelier, you name him or her, and I have to be him or her and *know* them; know how they think, what they think, what kind of life they led, interactions they had before with others, with characters now, what they're likely to say or more importantly, NOT say, the list goes on. The characters I could think of off the top of my head: Chris Foxx Susan Feline Cindy Lapine Debbye Squirrel Mr. Canis Dexter Collie Angel Collie Jim (dep't manager) Clarence Skunk Mrs. Skunk Rodney Lapine Ellen Lapine Wendy Vixxen Wanda Vixen Mark (Photographer) Dawne Civet BondoFox Older raccoon florist Tina (bridal consultant) Bert in StrongArm H.R. Marvin Badger Purse-snatcher Elmer Foxx Susan Bob Robin Collie Jeremy Collie Stacy (StrongArm I.S.) Bear with the vacuum machine Male stripper at Christmas party Bear hospital orderly Some were easy, like Chris Foxx, Elmer Foxx, Susan and Bob, BondoFox, and Dawne Civet, because they're all based off of people I already know or knew. Some took some time, like Clarence; he became sort of a cross between me and a friend of mine from high school, Ken Yossa, who went on to become a Catholic priest. Others had to be created out of whole cloth, like the girls of The Clique. Tina the bridal consultant was based off of a real person who helped me with the chapter in which Sabrina and The Clique first went to the bridal boutique. Jim was based off of the Jim who held the same position when I worked for The Armstrong Group, the company StrongArm is based upon. Bert I swiped from "Dilbert". The Clique, f'rinstance, had to come across as a group who'd known each other for a very long time. Or at least a year or so. So Susan's and Sabrina's backstories took them back to junior high school, this is why they're so close and spend more time together one-on-one that each does with Cindy or Debbye. This is how Susan knew something was wrong at Sabrina's bridal shower and she went to investigate. Chris and Dexter are best friends, with a character conflict: Chris is very open, sometimes too open, with conversation topics, and Dexter is more reserved. Chris will tell what he and Sabrina did on their date, Dexter would never tell what he and Angel did. Chris and Sabrina are learning they also have personality conflicts. Chris loves Sabrina and would do anything for her, including keeping his muzzle shut as she takes over and redecorates his house. Sabrina and Zig Zag have MAJOR personality conflicts. So Sabrina keeps her own profile low-key when she's in the office while Zig Zag flaunts herself and is very sexually open. And a writer has to key into all of this. Did you know I was the first to utilize Zig Zag beyond anything she said in Max Blackrabbit's or other artists' drawings of her? Okay, we know she's a sexpot, okay, we know that some country should name a port of entry after her (get it?), but how would she react to, say, having her purse snatched? Would she even carry a purse? Jury's out on that one still, I imagine she would when she needed to; now assume it was a day she needed to and she got it ripped from her arm by a guy running past her and on down the street? Would she: A> Stand dazed and petrified 2> Break down and cry III> Take off after the guy like a crazed motherfugger with a "WTF do you think you are??" attitude, burning to shred him from top to bottom I got an email from Eric Schwartz after that chapter had been posted and said that after chatting with Max, I pretty much had hit the nail on the thumb and gotten her right. Sabrina, reading the comic, I pegged as demure and naive, big-hearted and friendly. Amy I decided was the opposite, big-hearted sure, but with a male-hating unreachable side to her that Thomas had managed to crack. And Thomas didn't much to offer me to build off of at all, so I decided he'd be a serious college student, athletic and friendly with a serious side. And so on. One issue I also had, the first years when I was writing The Story coincided with my finding "The Collected Omaha the Cat Dancer". I discovered I couldn't write after I'd read because the mood of their stories was interfering with mine, and my character were behaving more like Waller's. I also couldn't write after watching "Seinfeld", the rapport between Jerry and George was too close to the rapport between Chris and Dexter, which meant no Story for you! Or at least until the brain purged. Current Mood:  blank | | Thursday, March 31st, 2011 | | 9:59 pm |
I'm hoping against hope that I didn't just cut my own throat
I've been a field service technician for 21 years, including the almost 2 years I was doing helpdesk work for Mellon Financial Sucks back in the early naughties. After having been ass-raped in 2009 by Information Sucks (a Cum-Dick company (not that I'm bitter, mind you, and they still owe me money)), I've been on unemployment. To supplement, I've done a crapload of contract work through OnForce.Com -- IT guys, you need to look into this, seriously! Last October I took a position as a "contract employee" with Worldwide Tech Services repairing Dell desktop and mobile computers. Nice work! Easy work usually, and it's work I love . The only trouble, they pay peanuts for the work and pay no expenses at all. I took the gig because I needed something , and it's easier to find a job if you already have one. Well, my unemployment finally ran out. My family's net worth is now floating around $100. And payday isn't until next Friday. I have appointments set for next Monday and I have no idea if I'll be able to run them. I just wrote my supervisor a very nice, very professional email that, read properly, says that either they offer me some kind of recompense for fuel and van, or I can't work for them anymore. Not working for them would also mean no more free certifications for name-brand computers, and being on the outs 100% with zero income potential. This is a serious step of Faith I'm taking here. And I pray it's a good one. Current Mood:  scared | | Wednesday, December 29th, 2010 | | 6:43 pm |
The Foxx is Goin' Mobile Again!
It's rough, but it's a ride! Still in the 20th century though, but same as the Oldsmobile, a 1999 model. Ford Windstar minivan, in many ways eerily similar to our 2001 Dodge Caravan. Which is still sitting in my driveway, currently being used for storage. It's rough, it's been rebuilt from apparently hitting a deer. The front clip was repaired with putty. There's parts of the SealCoat that've peeled away. It has a CD button but no CD player built into the factory radio/cassette player. Looks like it seats 6, possibly 7, maybe 8. Plenty of room now for vending machines :) And room for hauling Dad's personal stuff away before the nursing home and/or the bank get their filty effing mitts into it. Oh, the *really* cool thing, the button we thought opened the rear hatch ... well, we kept pushing it waiting for the hatch to unlatch, imagine our shock and surprise when the engine started! :) Long story short (heck, why start now?), we're taking it. $2,000. When the insurance settlement check comes in, hopefully it'll cover the tax/transfer/etc. The plate from the Olds will transfer to the van. As I said, it's rough. Not as rough as the Olds was, but it has its spots. And I'm looking forward to taking delivery! And soon I pray, I'm using my dad's car and it didn't pass inspection, 2 more days and I'm dead in the water while my appointments pile up! Current Mood: relieved | | Saturday, December 18th, 2010 | | 1:45 pm |
The Word is Given
The Oldsmobile is (finally) officially totaled. The upside, we actually make a little money, the settlement will be for more than we paid for it! The downside, timing; we won't have it in time for Christmas shopping. Which begs the question, should we in the first place? It'll help, absolutely, but we really need another car. In any case, weather permitting, we'll probably start looking again after the check comes, which will probably be before New Year's Eve if all goes well. Keep your eyes on your driving when you're out there, ladies and gentlemen. Current Mood: sad | | Thursday, December 2nd, 2010 | | 10:28 am |
Job 1:21
The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away. I had a really good accident last night. Everybody remember the white 1999 Oldsmobile Cutlass I mentioned a couple of journals ago, the one we bought last spring? That was when the Lord gaveth. Last night He tooketh away ... eth. Driving home last night I got distracted, and when I turned back to the windshield I saw traffic had stopped for someone making a left turn. I was still going somewhere around 50 miles per hour. When I hit the brakes, it was too late. I hoped I could steer out of the way, but I was going too fast and the brakes were locked (as brakes will do that when you stomp on the pedal) and plowed into the car in front of me. Airbags are cool. The airbags deployed, which the nice lady at the insurance claims orifice told me does not necessarily mean the car is automatically totaled, but man when they go off, they put off a stink that's unbelievable! Not to mention the nuclear fallout they put inside those bags. My driver's door could only open a few inches, meanwhile I couldn't breathe! When a local guy came by and got the door open for me, I got out and was pretty much legless, both from the fumes and the fallout and the trauma. And wouldn't it stand to reason that this was 5 minutes after I'd filled the gas tank up with $39 worth of gasoline at $2.999? I'm okay, just some stiff joints, and you'll have that. My pride hurts like [heck]. My wife doesn't want me doing any work today, so I put my service calls (the ones I have so far) off until tomorrow and one for next Monday. I'm still able to work, I feel fine. But it keeps peace in the family. I'm willing to bet my car will be totaled. I won't be down and out completely; when the insurance adjuster is able to get around to it (not knocking him, I just know this is the season they get really busy) I'll have a rental car for a spell. Meanwhile I have my dad's car, Lord knows he won't be using it anymore. And today is the day the insurance on THAT needs to be paid or it get canceled. I talked to my sister last night, sounds as if they're going to take care of that for us. And I just now got word that they did. I guess when life hands you shit ... make shit-ade? Wait, it'll come to me ... Current Mood: depressed | | Monday, August 30th, 2010 | | 12:35 am |
Where do I begin?
I got a nudge from one of my closest friends I have yet to meet to update my LiveJournal. The trouble is, my updates suck. Good news, Chapter 58 of "Sabrina the Story" is coming together. I got four pages together today with more on the way, Racky has about 10 times that, you're going to be entertained if it kills us. The bad news, the past couple of months have sucked rocks. And not in a good way. My wife's sister passed away. Some of you may remember my posting something about her having suffered not one but two embolisms that should've killed her on Mother's Day 2003. Well, last July after 7 years of work and care and attention from the best husband a girl could ever have asked for (I think he's been recommended for sainthood), she finally got called Home. Patty still isn't quite over it, and isn't likely to be for some time now. Her sister Christine was 53, same age my mom was when she died. My dad fell and fractured his hip slightly before that. He got a new one and it took him a week and change to recover from the effects of the anesthesia and meds. He went from there to a nursing home, Sunnyview, for physical therapy. Since then he's had 2 minor seizures that sent him back to the hospital twice. And now as his therapy is coming along, he decides last Thursday evening to get up and walk. When he stood up, the alarm on his wheelchair went off and 3 people made a dash for him as he started to walk, but he was apparently too fast for him and gravity did the rest. He's currently in the hospital where everything's okay except for a small fracture in his back they're going to fix tomorrow or Tuesday. Meanwhile during the trip from the ER to his room, they lost one of his hearing aids, worth a little over 2 grand. Me, I need $360 by Friday, September 10 or my house goes up for tax sale on Monday, September 13. My unemployment has run out and I have no idea if I'm going to be approved for another extension or if I'm going to be SOL. Not like I'm not looking for a job, I am, and right now I ain't particular on what. Contract work's coming in but slowly. And my "new" Oldsmobile needs front brakes now. Everything comes in 3's. My 19 year old daughter is getting dental work out the wazoo if she had a wazoo. 15 root canals, 8 teeth pulled (4 are wisdom teeth), crowns ... I think she *now* understands what I mean when I say, "Brush your teeth". I always try to end on a happy note. I ain't got one. Denial's fun, but I can only live in it for so long. New chapter soon, I promise! Current Mood: worried | | Thursday, June 24th, 2010 | | 12:11 am |
WOO-HOO!
Lookit what I got!!  My son Chris II -- aka "Hunter Bahamut" to the furry art world, and I, went to the Pittsburgh Airport to pick up his girlfriend Jen, aka "Apoxon" on FA and "Zer0dram0n" on dA, along with their friend Cain, we're all attending Anthrocon this year. Jen has a side business making plushies. And as a "Thank You for Picking Us Up", she made me this!!
w00t!!And a happier fox you won't find! Current Mood:  bouncy | | Friday, May 21st, 2010 | | 3:32 pm |
The Foxx is Mobile Again!
Well, our tax refund arrived! And my wife Patty had the best idea on what to do with the money: let's get a car!Made sense to me! When the refund arrived, it was light about $700. What we forgot was a few years back we were apparently "overpaid" that much when we were on food stamps, and they zapped that out as repayment. Leaving us not a heluva lot to go carshopping with. End of sentence preposition aside. Well, we found one at a dealership in Cranberry, PA called "4 Your Car Connection". We've driven past it hundreds of times. If you ever read the book "Weird Pennsylvania", they're in there with a "School's In Session/Drive Carefully" display featuring an upside-down school bus. In our price range were three cars. To make the long story short we got the one that may or may not've been the right choice, but we were desparate: I'd already caused my son Jeremy to be late to work twice that week thanks to my using his car for two service calls that kept me a lot later than normal, causing him to lose about 6 hours of work combined. So we needed a car. We chose the white 1999 Oldsmobile Cutlass. With the black bumper sticker featuring a white silhouette of a dragon and a person with the obvious words: Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons. For you are crunchy and good with ketchup. We test-drove it. When I stopped at the end of the parking lot the brake pedal floored, then came back up, scaring the pants off of both of us. After that it worked fine, but the ABS light did come on during the drive. In short:
The brake thing happens every so often.
The engine makes a noise when it's running
There's body paint work that needs done.
The driver's side master window control does not open the drivers or right-rear windows.
Lighter doesn't work well (that's where I plug in my iPod adapter)
Shimmies, broken belt in one of the tires.
Out of alignment.
Radio reception could be better. Lots better.
Cruise Control not working.
Driver's front wheel well liner loose.
Air conditioner not putting out cold air, but works.
Fan speeds 1-4 don't engage, only speed 5 (high) does.
Leather seats are stained in the back, driver's side seat is eaten up pretty good.
Pros: None of that's necessary for the car to be usable, it drove well, and the salesman brought the price down from $1495 to $1195. We took it! I discovered something else the next day: it apparently doesn't like Interstate 79. The next two days as I drove home it threw bits of black plastic, large and small, at the traffic behind me. Remember that loose wheel well liner? Well, it was apparently rubbing against the tire, the tire wore through it, and now there's no wheel well liner at all. I also discovered something else. The engine gasket's leaking. More joy, the previous owner, for some reason, had disconnected the sensor for the Low Coolant warning light. I learned this when I took it to my mechanic, and he asked me how long I was running the car with no water? I'd refilled it 2 days before. Well, the engine's repaired with new gaskets, total cost $353 and change, gawd I miss having a real job and a real income ... The engine noise, which I thought was a bad serpentine belt tensioner (belt needed replaced, I got that done too), turns out it's coming from something called a "piston skirt", and to repair it would require disassembling the engine. But the piston skirt making the noise won't interfere with the car's running, so it'll be there forever. But the fan or the radio will drown it out nicely. So far, I've been driving it all over the place. Gas mileage is below the norm for the car, only 19-20 MPG combined highway/city, should be 21. But it's getting me to service calls and I can stay at them as long as I need to and I can take late afternoon calls as well. And I can come and go whenever I darned well want to! So I'm a happier fox :) Current Mood: content | | Friday, March 19th, 2010 | | 5:03 pm |
Pizzafox becomes Vixxen Vending
Okay, here's what's happening. March is in full bloom and confused out of its mind; 60-degree weather in the daytime and 30's at night/early morning. Yikes. And at the end of March, for those of you playing at home, I'm supposed to -- read: "hopefully!" -- be working with the owner of Fat Chaps Restaurant in Emlenton, PA (6 minutes from my house) and hopefully be working a deal in which I'll take over the long-defunct pizza business and hopefully become rich and make hundreds of thousands of dollars. About a week and a half ago or so, with the weather breaking but snow still on the ground, I drove past the place. Closed for the season, remember. On the marquee it said in large friendly letters, "CLOSED" and beneath that, "FOR SALE". Now that doesn't scare me too much, I know the place is for sale. So I can deal with that. I just called the owner's number. Disconnected, changed, or no longer in service. Not-panicking ... not-panicking ... Meanwhile, I've been looking long and hard (sort of) at my life and my so-called career. Nothing to show for 20 years as a technician, at my age now I'll never be able to retire from anything, at a point in life where other men prosper I'm reduced to living in Eau Claire, if you can call that livin'. I've been unemployed for over a year, I have no transportation of my own to get to a job if I did find one. So I have time to think. Through one of my web endeavors I came into a little money, a little over $200. With the tax people unable to proceed against me until September when I can hopefully save the house yet again and pay them off, I did some research. Lots of research. And I stumbled into something I never really thought about before. And the more I looked into it, and the more research I did on top of that, the more intrigued I became. I doubt I'll get rich in the next week, but over the next few months maybe I can make some inroads and move on and beyond. I bought four used vending machines. Two of them of a model many of you may have seen before, three rectangular hoppers (hard to call them "globes" when they're not spherical), all high-impact plastic, vending candy and usually with a sticker promoting a charity. Also they're hard as hell to get, there's always someone sniping on eBay on these machines called the VendStar 3000, in fact I was deliriously jumping up and down happy when I successfully sniped the sniper and got my first one! Not just proud of myself, smug :) The other two are for a candy I've never heard of before, Buzz Bites. These are chocolate chewy heavily-caffeinated candies -- imagine if Sabrina had given these to Tabitha instead of the handful of Pixie-Stix! -- that apparently not too many people know of outside of the west coast. I made friends with the guy from whom I bought these; he's lessening his personal territory and is selling off his surplus machines with candy; sell all 50 pieces and the machine's paid for. I have two prime locations if they'll take 'em, both comic book shops that cater to people coming in and gaming anything from D&D to Pathfinders to Pokemon to Magic. My gut tells me these would go well with this crowd 8) I need a name. Foxx Den I'm already using for the computer business such as it is. So enter Wendy Vixxen. And Vixxen vending. Why 2 X's? Why, that's our rating! :) Cash flow is my only issue, right now I can't buy any new machines until next month at least. Stands to reason the VendStar Company has a deal where I can buy a brand new machine until the end of March for $179.99 including shipping, they normally sell for $399. Right now I have about enough to buy candy to fill the used ones I do have coming, which should arrive Monday with any luck. Everything I'm reading says that vending candy is a pretty good business if you find the right locations. Well, here goes nothin'! Current Mood: hopeful | | Tuesday, January 5th, 2010 | | 8:06 pm |
We've Been Robbed
Yesterday someone logged into our PNCBank online account and transferred the money from our savings account to our checking account. Then they went and used my wife's debit card information to purchase over $1,400 worth of jewelry from a store in Atlanta, Georgia, Don Carter Jewelers. Which apparently doesn't exist. Our current checking account balance is $-800.00+ Taking in the purchase(s) (our account only $740-ish) and 4 $25 bounce fees I was told by our bank that we would not incur. We're broke AND we're screwed. We filed a police report before dinner with the Pennsylvania State Police. I'm sure we'll recoup all of the money including the bounce fees the guy I spoke with this morning assured me we wouldn't incur. But for the time being, our cash-on-paw net worth is maybe a little over $100. Patty had promised Verizon to pay our bill Wednesday, now that won't happen. The cell phone is how I get SMS pages from OnForce.Com for new and upcoming contract jobs, without it I'm at the mercy of email, and checking it every few seconds so I don't miss one and get beaten out of it by another provider. Not to mention the need for gasoline, food, etc. Angry? You bet. Angry enough to commit murder. You bet. Kidding? Not an iota. Meanwhile, our debit cards have been killed and it could be up to a week before we get new ones. The online banking logins have been changed over the phone . Any computers here are being scanned, Patty's will have DBAN run on it and reloaded. Patty found the store's web presence. It's called "Heavenly Treasures", which states it's connected with Don Carter Jewelers. She called all three phone numbers; 2 of them had recordings saying they weren't taking calls. She left a really good message on one that worked, and they called back! Turns out that not only is DCJ bogus, but the Heavenly Treasures people checked out the website and discovered it was a copy of theirs, 95% of their content lifted and placed there. This is why I trust no one. And never will. Current Mood:  angry | | Friday, December 11th, 2009 | | 12:39 pm |
Pizzafox
Can you imagine me in the pizza business? The Story So Far: About 6 miles and change up the road from I is a restaurant, Fat Chaps. Less than a mile from the I-80 Exit 42 interchange. Rural place, one billboard advertising them, PennDOT made them take down another sign pointing the way from the intersection because it was too close to the road or something, and they wanted 10 grand to let it stay. Cool sign, neat throwback to my younger days with the joke line on it: "Fat Chaps -- Turn Left, 200 yards -- Movie Stars Welcome". It's rural, you'd never know that 40 seconds down the road was an interstate highway. They sit across the road from Gaslight Campground. Big car park, long building. On the right in the restaurant. On the left is the pizza shop, formerly called "Basic Kneads" (boy, they made some great stuff then!) with a big outside deck and a couple of tables. In the middle is an ice cream shop wannabe. The place hasn't been in business for quite a long time. A neighbor of the owner's took it over last summer and it was open for the first time in a couple or more years, but got it yanked from her when she argued over who should pay the electric and propane bills. Yep, propane. I told you it was rural! And I know the owner, 79-year-old guy, nice as heck, known him for about 6 months now, give or take. And I've been thinking and pondering, what if I could hammer out a deal with him to lease the business? It's fully equipped, all I'd need is raw materials for making pizzas, cleaning stuff, and I'm ready to roll. Just no start-up capital to get those things, but I think I could hammer that out of Don (the owner) if I pitched it right. So I made an appointment to see him yesterday, then got 2 service calls, and changed it to this morning. I went up and had breakfast, and we chatted. We haven't hammered anything out yet. Turns out he's closing the restaurant part of the place (the only part that's open) on the 15th due to a slowdown in business, and going to reopen at the end of March. He suggested I consider doing the same thing because, again, this is a rural area, the campground across the street is great for incoming business but they're pretty much closed for the season too (winters get interesting here in Pennsylvania!), Christmas is coming, and so is the snow. Personally I'd like to open up, but the restaurant would also be one of my customers, so maybe it's better that way after all. Delivery, I'm not sure how soon I could handle doing those, the place was never really known for making them in the first place. One step at a time, though. The major downside is that I'd have to remain out of steady work for another 3 months, and I can't take that! Still, it's an interesting idea. Hmmmm? Current Mood: hopeful | | Monday, December 7th, 2009 | | 10:24 pm |
I took a shower today!
And yesterday, I washed some dishes for dinner! So, why am I making such a big deal out of personal hygiene? Because it means my running water is still running!! Squee! It should be too, anything that can be replaced, HAS been replaced! The long and the short of the end of this nightmare, God willing it IS the end of it, is that when we pulled the pump ... again ... I had voltages all the way to the pump. But it wouldn't turn on. So I got an RMA and replaced the pump. It didn't work either, brand-new out of the box. Voltages were all hot, 2 110-VAC lines all the way down. The next day I called Tech Support. The one guy I didn't like from before, Jose, answered. I told him what I had, including continuity in the pump motor. He asked if I had 220-VAC across the two 110-volt lines. The one thing I should've checked and didn't think to. So I went out and I checked again. 0-VAC. I checked the black line to ground. 110-VAC (VAC = Volts Alternating Current for those of you in Rio Linda) I checked the red line to ground. 0-VAC. ... huh? I pulled the power and checked continuity. Sure enough, the black line read 0-ohms and the red line read open. Son of a ... The line had a break in it somewhere. NOW I find this out!! For some reason, the day before I read a voltage on that line, today I didn't. DAMN! So, I may have replaced the pump and my cold water holding tank for nothing. -- grr -- So great, replace a wire, that's easy! I just have to replace a wire! Anyone can replace a wire! A wire, one single wire ... two-hundred-fifty-feet-long. ... But it's running. Thank God. Who'd have ever thought that running water would be a luxury? So we got the air purged out of the lines, my wife did 2 loads of laundry, we washed up, we flushed, life was good! Until the water stopped running. A-frigging-gain. ... There's only one thing left. And the Home Depot guy agrees with me. The only thing left in the equation is the water table. It doesn't make sense. I heard the pump *splish* when it hit the water less than halfway down going in. Jeremy said he could see the water, I looked and darned if'n I could, too! And nobody, nobody here , believed it. So, I had to tell each and every single doubter individually. Process of elimination: take away everything, and whatever's left over, however unlikely, must be the answer. If Sherlock Holmes and Star Trek taught us anything, they taught us that. So, we're still conserving water. We're holding onto it like it'll be illegal tomorrow. I did some dishes yesterday and all was good. Jeremy took a quick shower before his Pathfinders game and no problem. So I took one today, this morning. And joy was had. I'm clean! :) And still out the $$ for the new holding tank that apparently didn't need replaced. But clean. Current Mood: chipper | | Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 | | 12:32 pm |
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