Life is strange at times

A number four celeb has died. No more Billy Mays for Oxyclean. Billy was found dead this morning by his wife. Mays was 50. No cause of death given.
This is surprising in that there was four deaths in just a few days. But the real surprise was that two of the departed were just 50. I feel for his wife and family but I was no fan of his ads. Now I wonder if we'll get an endless loop of his ads. You know how that works, make as much money on the guy before kids start saying Billy who?

So when I depart this world here's a bit of instruction for those I leave behind. Hoist a brew or your favorite drink in my honor and then get about your business because you never know you just might be next. Life is short.

Beaver announcement

Ladies and gentelmen I wish to take this opportunity to anounce that I have nothing to say about Michael Jackson. Being a woodland creature who's main focus is building dams and feeding my family I have never heard of the man. For that matter I avoid humans at all cost as my relatives and ancestors have been hunted for our hides for hundreds of years. I hope you'll forgive my lack of interest. Now if you'll excuse me I need to get back to my dam building.

Stop blaming republicans?

Just watching Megan McCain on Bill Mahr last night. Didn't think I could stomach listening to her blather. Her biggest pet peeve was the president continuing to put blame on the last eight years. Well young lady I'd do that if just one aspect of American life wasn't touched in a bad way by the teenage mentality that ran this country for the last eight years. Like a teen party on a Friday night the "kids" got together and stole mom's checkbook and credit cards. They maxed out the cards and were bouncing checks all over town. When they were finished with the party I'm surprised the roof was still attached. But they weren't satisfied with just confining the party to mom and dads house. They had to wreck a couple places in the next towns over. When dad heard about the mess he started to prepare for the clean up even before he got there but he wasn't prepared for what he saw. When dad saw his checking accounts overdrawn and his cards maxed out he had to take out a bridge loan just to start with the clean up. The locks were broken the front windows were smashed and the carpet looked like it had been used as an ashtray. There was nothing in the fridge which had been unplugged and thrown into the backyard. All the dishes were broken and clothing from the closets was stuffed in the now overflowing drains. The second car was reposessed because nobody paid the bill like they were told and the mortgage payment missed.
And when confronted with the mess Missy, her brothers and all of their friends boldly said it was done by some of mom and dads friends. That it was all dads fault that they were now broke because he had to borrow money to fix the mess. Missy insisted she was a very responsible young lady as the drugs and condoms fell out of her purse. I don't know how those got there she insisted. It must have been one of dads friends.

So if you're smart Ms. McCain you'll keep your big mouth shut like the kids in my example and let mom and dad finish trying clean up the aftermath of what the republicans did to this country the last eight years. And no more back talk from you about this lest you find yourselves kicked out of the house for good. And when dad is trying his best to fix and clean up the mess stop telling him "No" you won't help. Because in doing so it only shows what a spoiled brat you really are.

I'm glad to see this

Tesla Motors is getting a large government loan to start building it's electric cars. I think that's a good thing and will be the next generation for the auto industry. There are a few bugs to be worked out in making these cars. Mainly the way the batteries are produced. The raw materials come from Canada and are shipped to China then the finished batteries are sent to Japan. Why not just make them in Canada for transporting the finished product to the U.S.? I think that will be the wave of the future. Cars rather than being built with parts being shipped around the world will be built regionally thereby saving shipping costs. That sure would add to the labor force locally. The beauty of the electric car is that it has far fewer parts to wear out than a gas model and it runs (from what I hear) as well at the end of it's life as it did at the beginning. Then of course there's the issue of renewable energy to run those types of car.

I had been thinking about buying a Prius before the economy tanked.

A boring problem

As I posted last month the boring machine at the Brightwater treatment project broke down putting 60 of our guys out of work. What I didn't know was that there was actually two machines in operation. One was digging from east to west and another one was boring west to east. Well now the other machine just broke down putting 67 workers out. It could take several months months to fix this and will certainly screw up the schedule. The first break down
Add to this another 140 Boeing lay offs last week and the bankrupcy of Eddie Bauer and things aren't looking too great around here. The only good news is that there are several road projects scheduled to start next month that should get a few guys to work. As for me still nothing.
Murphy seems to be having a field day around here. Glad I finally got my garden going.

Link to The second machine breakdown

Neda

This is Neda Agha Soltan. I didn't know and still don't know much about Neda other than the bits and pieces I could scrape from the internet. She was a 26 year old philosophy student who was with her singing teacher on a side street in Teran. They had just got out of the car in hot weather. She was not political. Her only wish was for freedom. A simple philisophical concept that has eluded the middle east.

I can only wonder what her parents are feeling. First the shock of loosing your daughter. Then the anger at the snipers and the government responsible. Then there's the reaction of knowing that your daughter may become a symbol of a revolution. Is there any confort in knowing that your daughter did not die in vain? Or will it be a sense of embarassment and a reminder of the pain of the loss?

Mountain Beaver

Not beaver mountain. For friday's Friday Beaver thought I'd try to one up Dana with an animal story of my own... Oh Hell who am I kidding I can't get anything on Dana. So here it is anyway.

Some years back I worked at Boeing doing some haz mat work for them as a contractor. We did chemical spills in the tunnels under the plant. On one particular night (my partner and I were nocturnal tunnel rats) we had finished cleaning up a small spill in the bowels of the building. It takes a bit to squeeze your body through the pipe filled tunnels. And I never figured out how my coworker an ex marine of 220lbs could fit through openings in pipes that I could barely fit through. I'm the guy they call on when nobody else will fit.
So we had finished my partner was taking a long extention cord to the van I was about fifty yards behind carrying a vac. As I got up to ground level and turned the corner I see my coworker flailing the extention cord around and whiping the ground. As I got closer I could see he was fighting off some angry critter. He tried backing away from it but it keep coming. By the time I got to him he had managed to drop kick it a couple of times and stunned it. I opened the lid of the vac and we shoveled it inside. Making sure the lid was shut tight we called their fire department to see what to do with it. The firemen borrowed a pair of leather gloves and we opened the container. He proceeded to nudge the beast a couple of times but no life there. He was nice enough to take the remains for further idenification, this of course after many jokes and jests to my coworker. The next day we got the word that he'd been attacked by one angry mountain beaver. The manager had to laugh and give him guff about being attacked by a beaver.

So watch out for those beavers they can be mean.