Puppy Love

After I returned from Vegas, I got a letter from my father. It was a very nice letter, and something I didn’t expect. It is always nice to hear how much my dad loves me. He is a good man, and his approval is nice to hear. The other thing he sent was a check for a few bucks. He said that it was for Starbucks, but I decided to use it to finally break down and get us something my wife has been asking for since we got married.
I got a puppy. I went to the doctor on Tuesday for my right elbow pain (I found out I have “Tennis Elbow”), and sleep problems. Since I moved to swing shift, I have been unable to get more than a few hours of sleep each night. This is maddening, since I also am the child care for us when Jamie is as school during the week. Sleepy dad syndrome does not make child care that easy.
Anyway, after my appointment with the Doc, I went to the Humane Society to see what it might take/cost to adopt a puppy. Twenty minutes later and a call to Jamie, I was on my way home with our newest member of the Treichel family, Rocky.

He is a Boxer mix, but doesn’t have the tell-tale boxer face. He is pretty mellow so far, but I imagine that this will change in the next couple of weeks.
He likes to sit anywhere you are, and will whine for you to pick him up so he can nap on your lap. He is a light brown with black highlights, and has some white on his neck and chest.
I have been very resistant to getting a dog for a long time, and I really don’t know what prompted me to change my mind, but I am glad I did… at least for now. I know that pets are work, and I know that cleaning up poop and pee may change my mind.
I also know that my kids absolutely love “Rocky”, and if we take care of him, will provide companionship and entertainment for years to come.
If we could just get him house-broken sooner rather than later….

S#!t storm!!

So, after my ordeal in Las Vegas and Reno, I was so glad to be home that I almost forgot about what was awaiting me. My house.

My house hates me. I swear it does.

I have been trying to sell it since I started construction in 2004, and haven’t gotten even one offer. Not that I wouldn’t live here if the payment wasn’t so high, because I would love to not have to move again. Unfortunately, it really is too expensive, so I hate it, and it hates me.
For instance, a couple of years ago when I tried to get my final inspection papers, the inspector said that all was good and clear. I was so happy after he left and I had my papers in hand. I thought that maybe all of the hard work was finally done. The kicker came five minutes later, when the guy returned and asked to see his inspection papers again. After handing them to him, he said that he wasn’t supposed to sign off on the house yet. He was supposed to go under the house, and it was too wet, (boo-hoo for him) so he couldn’t sign off until it dried out. He left and took my papers with him. Three weeks later, he came again, and said that he couldn’t sign because the water was still to high, and that I would need to get it to be able to stay dried out before he would sign. To this day, two years later, it is still wet under there, and I am still waiting for my final inspection papers. So see, my house has it in for me.
This time, however, it wasn’t just water that was the problem. I came home to find that my house had taken a crap all over my backyard. The sewage tank was overflowing, and there was raw sewage literally oozing up from the ground where my tank was.
Well, we can’t have that, I needed to get it fixed. For starters, I had my original installer out to look at the problem, and he said that there was a grease blockage. So then, I called Roto-Rooter. They said that I would need to have my tank pumped, so I called All-Out Septic, and they sent a guy out, Justin.
Justin told me that if I wanted to get the tank pumped, it would cost about 350 smackaroos. Whoopee, I have 50 bucks in my account, maybe he could only suck one seventh of the crap out. Before I called him, though, I got a brilliant idea.

“Maybe I could get the blockage out with a hose, and some home grown ingenuity.”

Nope. After about an hour leaning into the second tank (the empty one) trying to shove a water hose into the drain to clear the blockage, it became clear that Justin was going to be my only option. So, covered in mud and poo water, I had Jamie throw down the phone, and effectively raised my white flag. My house had won again.
Justin came over and looked at the situation. After quoting me his price, he got his own brilliant idea. He thought that my kind of tank might have a filter between the chambers. Ok, I didn’t see one when I was face to face with the poo, but he was more than welcome to try and find it if he wanted. He left the poo covered yard at the back of my house and returned shortly with shovel in hand. Uhh, ok, he was the “expert”, but poo-digging wasn’t for me so I let him have at it.
He dug a hole midway between the two chambers, and to my surprise, *CLANK*, he hit something hard. Little did I know, but there is a filter between the two chambers. A FILTER!!! Ahhh!!! Of course, to filter the good poo from the bad poo. Right…, why didn’t I think of that. He pulled the filter up, and it was like he flushed all of my problems down the toilet. The sewage immediately went back to where it was supposed to be, (not in the yard) and my problems were solved. Hooray for Justin!!!
I asked him what I owed him, and he said that the problem was so minor (to him) that I didn’t need to pay him anything. ALRIGHT, my kind of price!!!
So, after I filled in all of the holes, and cleaned the toilet paper from the yard, the score is now House-1, Joel-1. All in all, a draw. For now…*shakes fist*
Anyone care to take a guess as to what was clogging the filter??

Semi-Published

I was in Nevada last week visiting my parents with my two kids. (there’s another story there) I was checking up on my entry into the Corrections Connection essay contest, and found that I didn’t make the top three. I did, however, make an honorable mention.

You can see it here. It’s the last entry on the page. Yay for me!

In other news, I had a great time with my parents, and my kids absolutely loved being with Gramma Neenee and Papa Paul.
While I was there, I installed a home theater system for them, and helped my dad spend some money on new components. Dad bought 6 in-wall speakers, 1 powered sub-woofer, a 6.1 Dolby Digital receiver, and the Pièce de résistance, a Harmony Remote Control (not to mention a bunch of cabling to connect it all together). I find that spending other people’s money is cheaper and less guilt ridden than spending my own. It was fun, and when it was all said and done, the system sounded and looked great.
My only real problem was when I went to leave. We got to the airport about an hour and a half before my flight, but when I went to check in, there was a line.
Now, when I say line, I must explain that this line wasn’t just the usual ticket line. This line went from the front desk of the airline into a snake in the immediate lobby area, then outside snaking in the immediate area outside the entrance, then all the way down the terminal to the very end of the terminal. This was one mutha of a line. When we were finally at the entrance to the terminal, the line was so long that I literally couldn’t see the end.
After waiting in line for about an hour and fifteen minutes, we sprinted (My mom, dad, myself, and my two kids) to the security checkpoint. We said some quick goodbyes, and left my parents. At the checkpoint, I was made to take my kids’ coats and shoes off (shoe bombs, ya know), and then I sprinted to the gate… just in time to see my plane taxi away from the gate. OMG! @#$%, @#$%, @#$%!!!
So, I went to the counter and asked the nice lady how I could get to Portland. The nice lady said that I needed to go to Reno, and wait for the connecting flight to Portland. I would be waiting for about, oh, SIX HOURS! I took the flight.
Seth, my two year old, didn’t like the plane ride to Reno, he was tired (no nap) and hungry (no lunch), which is not a good combo for anyone. The nice thing, is that when we got to the Reno airport, we had plenty of time for both. We ate lunch, and I let the kids blow off some steam by running around an empty terminal.
After a couple of hours, I was able to coax Seth to sleep, and he slept up until we got on the plane. Ryleigh, my 4yr old daughter, was great. She was bored, but coped well, and was a huge help keeping Seth occupied.
We got into Portland at about midnight, after a delay of an hour in Reno. I really didn’t care though, after about 3 hours, anything after that is pretty much the same. I was just happy to be home.
Of course, the fun didn’t stop when I got home, but that may be for another post. Suffice to say that I had a “shit storm” to deal with the next day.
Ahh, life. Ain’t it grand?