6ixString's Home Improvement and Mindless Ramblings Thread....
POSTED BY: 6ixStringJack
UPDATED: Monday, May 9, 2016 00:48
VIEWED: 54567
PAGE 10 of 21
So, Frem... I might be doing a permanent security gig in June at a hospital. I think that would actually be pretty ideal, don't you?
Pros: Air Conditioning. Far enough from anywhere that matters that there would be any terrorist threats. People there generally are in need of help, so there's little reason to have to rough anyone up. There will be enough people coming and going to keep things from being so boring as my previous gig. There's always the chance that I could score another gig inside the hospital that pays more and has benefits after people there get to know me.
Oh..... and I look pretty sexy in a uniform, and there's a MUCH greater chance of meeting a sexy young thing than any of my previous jobs in the last decade. 
Cons: I'm sure I'll have to walk across the street to smoke. It only pays 9 bucks an hour.
In the mean time, I'm going to do some side jobs and see if there are any better positions out there, but it seems like I'm a lock on this job when it starts.
Sorry I'm not replying to your last post. I mean, I did reply, but it took me about an hour to write it and it got "lost" in limbo when I posted it. Our interactions were getting way too long for even us to follow anyways, so I hope we can start again and if there were any important things you'd like to reiterate we should start fresh here. 
Later,
~6
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The thing about kids and mentoring is that you're never going to be perfect, so you might as well start where you are now if you want to do it. I did junior high staff from age 19 to 24, I was sort of talked into it, Bryan really needed people so we were all told to give it a try and see what we thought. I thought I'd be horrible at it because junior high was a horrible time in my life so why would I want to hang out with a bunch of kids that age? But right from the start I loved it and knew it was where I belonged, the kids were great and we had a blast. When I finished up almost two years ago it was because I couldn't keep up with the younger staff, not because I couldn't keep up with the kids. :) My staffmates were driving me to distraction and so it felt like time to finish up. I still see all my kids a lot though on Sun. mornings etc.
I know you've said you'd like to find a woman who already has some kids that you can help her raise, so you don't have to start from scratch, and that way some kids who need a paternal figure can have one who will care about them and raise them like his own, I think that's super cool! I think she's out there too, maybe at this new hospital job, ;)
I assume you're my pal until you let me know otherwise.
"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya.
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Another con, 6string: Hospitalz will be ground zero in the zombie apocolypse.
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DUZ XaT SEM RiT TQ YQ? - Jubal Early
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Feh, $9 an hour ain't bad, especially for a non-armed position and a rookie to boot, frankly that's premium wages as a starter.
No benefits worth a mention, unless the hospital kicks em in the side, which'd make that a little tastier but it's good enough as-is for the time being, right ?
Now, the position you DONT want, is door warden for the Emergency Room - trust me dude, you do NOT want that, it can get hairy, it can get ugly, and it's also very likely to leave you morally offended at the Hospital besides - just trust me on that one, okay ?
And yes, the babes dig a well groomed guy in a spiffy uniform, although generally they tend to jump harder for the lean & mean look rather than buff roid-head or spare tire porter, hehehe.
I'm more lean and grisly than lean and mean, and once outside the office in "work mode" I am kinda scary, cause that runs on almost a mental-autopilot built out of conditioned reflex - now if you actually speak to me I'll defrost enough to chat one up for a couple minutes before getting on with it, but outside of that I stay pretty frosty, and when I go full stormtrooper folks run for cover.
Speakin of grooming though, you'd appreciate this for cheapness - I got really, really sick of payin $15-$20 for a friggin haircut cause all I ever get is a straight buzz all the way around anyways, and just chop it back when it starts lookin ragged, so I took careful note of what the places reaming me for the cut were using, and then bagged a Wahl Performer kit, new(old stock) in box for $8.70 on Amazon, got the cutter, the attachments, comb, scissors, brush and oil all with it, and with a little practice, and I mean very little, you can pull that off solo in about ten minutes or so.
Me, I just slap a No2 attachment on it and clear the deck, with a hand mirror and by touch where you can't see, it's pretty easy, actually - and don't cost no damn $15-$20 neither, heh.
As for the other stuff, feh - better that I don't sit here and clobber myself about the stuff on my conscience, can't unring the bell, you know ?
Oh, and a suggestion.
Quote:
People might be "inconvenienced" by my "no shoes and no bare feet" policy upstairs, but that's how this floor will look just as good 10 years from now, without having to polish it with substances that will make easy refinishing impossible when the time comes. Besides, that's what the basement bathroom is for. Shit on the seat for all i care down there. It will be a long time before I fix that and I trust that I've prevented 99.9% of all future flood circumstances.
Why don't you just steal a march off the Japanese here - drop a set or three of house slippers inside beside the door for the use of guests, this makes it much easier to keep a place clean, which is why they do it, and you can select slippers which'll not leave marks on the floor, so that one is win-win, yes?
-Frem
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Heh, in this economy sadly, being able to be in the A/C and make 9 bucks an hour without a college degree isn't bad at all. I just don't know how anybody not in my position otherwise would be able to make ends meet. You'd never be able to pay a mortgage on 9 bucks an hour, unless you were married to somebody making at least that much. If you were renting, you'd probably have to have a roomate. Not to mention a car-note that I've been lucky enough to avoid for quite a while. Hopefully my baby keeps purring for at least until I can get a better job.
9 bucks, assuming it's a full time gig, is pretty much the bare minimum I need to survive, with a few bucks left over week to week to afford some minor home improvement/maintenance costs. There's no way in hell I'll be buying the gutters I need any time soon with that, let alone the natural gas backup unit in case the electricity goes out (a requirement in this house, before I even consider rehabbing the basement). Damn property tax bill coming up next month too. Drat! It's not too bad here though... only about 350 bucks more than my monthly rent was for a 2bed/2bath apartment in Wisconsin a few years back. If I were still in crook county in the exact same house on the same sized land, it would cost me about 4 months rent at that same apartment, for just six months of taxes!!!!!
I'm sure there's no benefits, or at least I'm going into it with no expectations anyway. I'll probably be one of the only white people on staff there besides some of the doctors, but I've usually found that I get along great with black people in a work setting. It might be different here, because I'm wearing a guard uniform, but I can lay the charm on think when I want to. I'm great at building rapport and making acquaintances. Not so good at making real friends... but who needs to make friends at work?
I'll make a note to self about the emergency room. I actually thought of that myself, particularly given the neighborhood of the hospital. I'd rather not be in the thick of any tensions that arise from a gang related gut shot wound. Funny that you mentioned that.
I don't know if I'd be considered "lean and mean". I have a few scars on my forehead and face, but they don't look so bad that you'd think I took shrapnel. Most of them are from stupid shit I did as a young kid, or stupid shit my parents did, but that's another story. Nobody has to know that though. It could easily pass for battle scars. Even with those growing up, before I bulked up, this girl I was really hot for called me "pretty boy". Never did hook up with her. I think I could have someday with persistance even though she was into the ghetto white boy DJ type.... but I ruined that when i hooked up with her sister one night. In my drunken state, I somehow thought it would be a way to make her jealous, and that's the only reason I did it lol. Nope... bad idea.
I'm 10 years older now though, and my features had definitely hardened over the years. I certainly don't waste money on new threads like I did constantly back then too. So I'm a bit more ragged and blue class than before.
I have some clippers, and occasionally I do trim everything up, especially in the back where I form a "duck tail", but it's hard work. I've messed it up before and then I have to cover up my head until I can get a haircut. I actually enjoy getting a haircut where I go, and drive out of my way to get it. I'm pretty hot for two of the girls who cut my hair, but one is married, and the other one has been dating some loser so long that she might as well be (they live in her Mom's basement together). The haircuts are only 13 bucks, even though i throw them the change from a Jackson, and I get it cut short and have the type of hair that can go about 90 days and still look good if I trim it myself before getting another cut. They do it better than I could do on m
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Ah, yeah - the haircut as a tradition or social event, I get that, I'm just too bloody cheap most of the time...
The few times I ain't though, there's two places here.
One is down the road, has been there forever and the rickety old geezer is so old-school the damn chairs still have ashtrays built in, and he does the whole shebang, shave and a haircut, bay rum, the works.
He mostly services the old UAW grunts.
The other, a little further north up near Dearborn, is this little old jewish guy, I had a moment at his door where I kinda crossed up with some of my own prejudices cause I was having a real bad day and when I noted he was wearing a yarmulke I paused and began to turn around - and instead of taking offense he pointed out that he was a barber, as well as a jew and I really did need a haircut, could I not maybe put my issues aside for just a little while ?
Right there he had me, he's a way cool dude, and no more a fan of the Likudnik/Zionista crowd than I cause he winds up taking crap about it he don't deserve, and don't ya know he's a right good barber too.
Whats determinedly ironic about it is that a lot of the muslim dudes in Dearborn (and there's a bloody lot of em) come to him for a cleanup trim so they can look sharp while still keeping within their own code about such things cause they trust him to do it right - funny how people can find a way to get along when Government isn't in the way, innit ?
-Frem
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Haha... you know me Frem. The king of frugal, or "cheap" if you wanna be a dick about it.
Never went to a barber shop myself and had that kind of social atmosphere. I'm sure it's a generational thing, but I figure the best haircut you can get when you're looking to attract a 25 year old girl is the haircut you get from a 25 year old girl you're attracted to. Went to Supercuts as a kid, but then I found this Fantastic Sams that was down the street from a job I had 12 years ago and I've been going almost exclusively there ever since. Even when I lived in WI, i made a point of going there when I was in town visiting family. I'm definitely a creature of habit.
Interesting story you had there about the Jewish barber. Overall, I'm not a huge fan of what Jews stereotypically are known for, but my Uncle is one hundred percent Jewish and his kids are half since he married a Catholic Polish/Irish girl. They're 3 of my favorite people in the world. Dad owns his own business, the youngest son is going to be a politician, and the older son is already a politician and has hustled so much work and ideas that he's been his own boss and been able to pay for his own health insurance for a decade without relying on parents or a job to provide it for him. He's got a conscience too, which really counts. You can never know what goes on behind closed doors, but I really believe he has the interest of the community in mind and isn't just your average politician looking to make his own life better. (Being a politician has meant doing more work for other people than he's ever done in his life. He's smart enough and ambitious enough where the work he's putting in now would pay off 10 fold in one of his other endeavors).
I got more work done on the crabbage patch today. It's now, officially, over 5/8ths done. What a chore....
I had a few little helpers today for over an hour too. I was talking to my next door neighbor I rarely ever talk to since the work is right up against his property and he was mowing his lawn today. His daughter and her friend were out too. Later they were playing soccer and accidentally kicked the ball by me and said sorry as they came and got it. I told them no worries ... One of them asked what I was doing, looking perplexed. I told her I was removing all the weeds so I could lay grass down. She thought to herself for a moment and said "cool", and then ran off.
About an hour later, they both came over and asked if they could help. "Really? Why would you want to help doing this job?". They said they were bored and her dad wouldn't let them build a fort out of the scrap wood in the back yard.
About an hour later the dad came out and said "I thought I'd never see the day"... lol.....
I told them "I told you, you just set yourself up for more work now".
He said "Since you learned how to pull weeds, now you'll have to pull weeds in the front yard tomorrow."
She told her dad "This is a one time only deal, Dad!"
Kid's are so cool. Somehow, this was fun for them. One of them kept saying that this was "anger management" for her, as she took her hand shovel to the stone infested rock and dug away at it. I asked them how this was fun for them and they said, "you wouldn't understand, kids like this stuff".
They really didn't get much done, and I'll have to go over the area they covered tomorrow, but they got me to work another 90 minutes longer than I would have. They weren't looking for anything in return. They were digging for buried treasure. They found a huge polished rock that probably weighed 5 lbs that they wanted to keep. When I told them all the weird stuff I've dug up back there, one of them really wanted the rusty horseshoe that I found a few days ago for good luck, so I gave her it. Her parents will probably make her throw it away...
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People do surprise ya, don't they ?
Man, most folk don't know half of what they think they know - and only a few of us are smart enough to realize it.
-F
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Quote:
Originally posted by FREMDFIRMA:
People do surprise ya, don't they ?
Man, most folk don't know half of what they think they know - and only a few of us are smart enough to realize it.
-F
The more I learn, the more I realize the less that I know....
People can be pretty cool sometimes.
I dug around the power lines today without killing myself, which is pretty sweet. I didn't think they'd be dangerous since it would be a lawsuit waiting to happen, but I have respect for that kind of thing. I've been shocked several times in my life indoors because I was too lazy to turn the main off, but that really is just enough voltage to zap you out of whatever reverie you were in to do something so stupid in the first place. I'm sure those outdoor power lines would fry my balls right off.
That's exactly what I wanted to get done this weekend. I didn't want to be digging around those power lines during the week when the code enforcer/police/fire department vehicles might make a stop and hassle me about permits. Technically, I AM re-grading this part of the lawn which I don't even technically own(which would require a permit and inspection), but I'm not actually adding any dirt, just flattening it all out. If anything, there is less on my side after removing all the roots and a ton of stones. It just so happens that after taking out the hills and valleys in the crabbage patch that my higher lawn will run off right into my neighbor's lower lawn with no impedance.
It could be considered a dick move, but my neighbor didn't complain at all about anything when we were talking yesterday. Actually, I found out that his is considered the 2nd to the lowest property in the village aside from his nextdoor neighbor on the other side. He said that after only 10 days living here (about 7 years ago) there was a flood so bad that he had 7 feet of water in his basement. He said that overnight his 150k home loan ballooned to about 250k after the necessary repairs to his house and garage.
That's just so unfortunate. With upgrades made to the sewage/drainage system since then, nobody expects it to happen again and we should not be considered a flood plain in the upcoming review. It's nice not having to pay for flood insurance when you own your property outright, but it will be even nicer to know that the bank wouldn't require it if I had a mortgage
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Got 8 Hosta plants from my grandmother today!
Hers are about 8 years old and were mature enough to split, so i'm going to put them in the front yard tomorrow. Did a little work cleaning that bare area up tonight and realized that even though the dick-head previous owners removed all the Hostas they had (probably sold them on ebay), at least 3 new ones were already growing before i planted any of these! My grandma wasn't kidding that they're a hearty plant that doesn't need any care.
SixStringJack here to tell the world that the Hosta is the perfect specimen, human or otherwise. Where else in the world could you see beauty that is 100% self sustaining and zero maintenance?
The damn things would probably be classified as a weed if they weren't so pretty.
I was also telling my grandma over the phone that I had two "growths" that I didn't think were weeds, but I couldn't explain them right to her. When I saw her lawn and she was telling me the different plants she had, they look exactly like her Tiger Lilly plants, but about 1/5th the size.
Score one more freebie!
Oh, and has anybody EVER seen an Evergreen of any species grow on its own? There was a baby evergreen that my grams just noticed today that she didn't plant. She said in all of her years of gardening she's never seen that happen. She gave me that little "bud-that-could" as well.
So.... forget about the crabbage patch tomorrow. I'm all about cleaning the million of "hellicopter" seeds from the Maples, pulling all the weeds, re-grading the dirt, and planting all these new additions to the front of the house. I was left with a scrolling and side-winding custom made stone border for vegetation in the front of my house fit for a king. I think it's high time I start showing my neighbors how beautiful I plan on making this house on the outside, even if they're not aware of how much has already gone into the inside!
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