My sons desk. I am currently writing from an ipad. Not easy.

I wrote a few paragraphs and when i stopped to try and figure out how to make the font bigger i lost my writing. When that happens to me i lose interest in writing. But i had yet to tell the story i sat down to write so i’ll say a bit more….

I did not yet tell you the last straw with my laptop last night. I think i must have mentioned the cursor disappearing for a while, well i was able to shut it down and of course the cursor returned…. The thing i failed to mention was the last straw thing. In re-setting up a new user on my freshly wiped machine a week ago i had taken a photo from the computers lens of my face for the image that shows up with me as a user. The kids picked out a ying yang symbol for their username picture. I think i put in an owl for caroline, and i had this goofy picture of me with a fake smile by the light of my desk lamp. Well, after loading back up my new laptop from my external hard drive/ time machine backup yesterday, i specifically remember seeing my goofy grin staring back at me when i logged in. But after the cursor malfunction when the user screen came back up, my picture is now one of the computer stock images of a parrot. That was when my energy force left that laptop. I know because it had happened with my truck a couple days before. I thought i would be sad but after cleaning out my truck and pulling out of my driveway toward the car lot to pick up my car, i lost all interest in that truck and it became just anther hunk of metal at that point. My laptop also became a boat anchor to me when it said “Satchel Raye” under the picture of that bright red blue yellow bird.

I am sitting on the couch with the ipad in this industrial swivel mount that we had used at lightnin salvage to take orders for the last couple years. The thing is swiveled just so my hands rest and i have 2 fingers on each hand typing. I have already gotten about as fast and efficient as i was on the laptop and it’s ony been 20 minutes . The insertion point gives me no trouble on this ipad. I am not sure if this is the right device for me to do a lot of writing on but i do think i could possibly get to be even faster at typing on this ipad than on the laptop. I still want to try the chromebook. I am ashamed to report that before i even went to bed last night i ordered myself one from amazon. It’ll be here wednesday. I’m ashamed because instead of continuing to fight apple over the lemon computer i have decided to throw money at the problem. Just as i downsized from my honda ridgeline to a small prius, i am “trading in” my macbook pro for a google chromebook. I remember 20 years ago writing a lot and i was using an old typewriter. I remember spending too much time talking about the device i was using to write, the typewriter. I remember i had to use white out to correct my mistakes as i went. Later i graduated to a typewriter that had the whiteout built in and you could go back and hit the letter again with white ink over the black. I remember sending so many years on those old typewriters and a common theme was the writing machine itself. Not much has changed for me it seems. Yesterday it was the laptop, today and ipad, and on wednesday it’ll be a chromebook, whatever that is.

I am getting up early and taking the kids to school, and then going to make 5 gallons of ginger ale syrup, lemonade syrup, cola and root beer. My son is making a new soda flavor as a science experiment for school. Tomorrow when i get home from work and he gets home from school, we’re planning to make a papaya/ lime soda. I feel like a candy man working with so much sugar, channeling willy wonka it seems.

I made boiled peanuts today. The kids went nuts. Get it? Nuts?
No, seriously, my kids LOVE them some boiled peanuts and sweet tea. This was the first batch of sweet tea i’ve made this year. It’s a summer thing to go with the peanuts. I make a real sweet heavily steeped batch of decaf tea (we call it kid’s tea…)
The kids get obsessed and giddy over the salty and sweet pummeling of the combo.

I also cleaned out the shop and ate some leftover millet and flax pizza. Yum.

so, tonight, while looking at a website called colossal, my cursor disappeared altogether. i was moving my finger over the trackpad and every once in a while something would sortof highlight like the cursor was there, but there was NO CURSOR. i was finally able to direct my imaginary cursor to the apple at the top and get RESTART to work. And now, of course, my cursor is back.

My incredibly sharp mind tells me that when a young “lemon” computer such as mine, gets its trackpad removed and re-installed 3 times over a 6 month period, that it could easily cause glitches like this. Of course, it’s only just happened this once but I did JUST get the computer back about 12 hours ago.

i have this thing that i don’t like to capitalize. but then lately i started to feel guilty like i should just take the extra few moments to capitalize…. so now i am sometimes capitalizing and sometimes not capitalizing. It looks better when I do. It looks like it’s likely easier to read. It looks more real and like writing is supposed to look. but it’s so much easier to just NOT capitalize i and all the other things that i’m supposed to capitalize.

my cursor or “insertion point” just jumped up a paragraph while i was typing. i fixed it now so you don’t read gibberish. it happened once before on an email tonight too. the computer is not fixed. but don’t worry. please, don’t feel bad for me having a bad computer. feel bad for apple because they are going down. feel bad that a company that was once so innovative and strong is going down down down the tubes.

my kids need a computer they can share. my son has an ipod he loves. my daughter has an ipad mini she loves. their computer is a really old mac mini. it’s slow and working less and less reliably. so this is a happy occasion. this is the happy occasion when i realize that it’s time to give my kids a macbook pro. kids- have at it. enjoy watching movies or playing minecraft or even writing your school projects with an occasional shifty and possibly disappearing cursor. your pop is going to investigate the chrome book.

my wife has a imac she uses. it has been nothing but trouble. we’ve installed 3 hard drives in it that have all failed after a few years. i think it was an overheating thing because after the third hard drive i installed a fan app that runs the inside fan all the time and we’ve had this hard drive for a couple years now…. it’s annoying as hell when your computer is in your living room and the fan is running about 80% of the time. her imac gets buggy all the time. trying to switch between users it gets frozen up sometimes for longer than it should.

i will admit the ipod and ipad are good inventions. the iphone too but i think my old 4 was more reliable than my 5…. something happened with apple. as nacho would say, “i’m serious.”

i am basically excited because i imagine there is an inexpensive solution out there that will suit my needs perfectly. it may be the chrome book? i’ve never seen one but i read about them on a tech blog a while back. i would like to try a google chrome book before trying a windows computer. i’ve had some years with a windows system and i’m not very fond of the microsoft universe. so with windows and now apple behind me, i’m ready to see what google is up to. that’s especially funny considering my google password was once “googlesux” because they wouldn’t let me have the password i wanted. they said it was too weak. who the hell are they to tell me the strength of my 8 digit password? ok, they are google, but still…. i was fond of my clever 8 digit password.

anyway, i’ve gotten over that. but then there was the time that they made me keep a google plus account to be able to have my youtube videos even playable. that made me mad. i’m still a little mad about that one. but i haven’t gotten a single google plus email in a while so maybe i was able to make some progress on that front.

regardless of all that, i have not tried their hardware yet, google’s that is…. if the chrome books are truly $250 like i remember them being then sign me up. i just want to type….

good night.

computer is fresh out of the box.
this blog is my first stop to try just a bit of typing.
not too much because i don’t want to be let down just yet.
i want to imagine it is fixed for a day or two at least.
they replaced the…. trackpad for a THIRD time, but they also replaced the hard drive. whoa.
this is the 5th and final attempt at repair. if the new hard drive does not solve it then i will give up. so far, so good.

so, i had to get new shoes. my last pair only lasted 9 months. keens. the pair before that were keens too and the sole came off after 8 or 9 months. i don’t know why i bought a second pair of keens but now i’ve learned my lesson. don’t buy keens. i bought some cheap brand, avia i think? anyway, new shoes.

i got a new car. i traded in my big bulky camo truck. i was so tired of living at the gas station. i drive 15k miles per year and 90% of the time it’s just me in that gas guzzler. i do not need all wheel drive. i made a mistake buying that but it’s gone now. my goal was to get at least 30 mpg. i went to this used car lot that has a great reputation and right away i saw this cute small grey hatchback that i thought looked awesome. it was a prius. a prius? i thought they were goofy looking? this was the latest small prius and one of 3 prius models they now make. i test drove 4 cars there and 2 at another place and settled on that small prius c. i’m getting about 55 mpg for a savings of over $2500 per year. needless to say i am very excited.

and a new computer. with this new hard drive i feel like i have my best chance at a new computer. so far so good. so far no problems. i need to quit while i’m ahead.

let’s hope we don’t have to talk about my messed up computer again. i’ve got much better stories to tell.

my computer making two mistakes in 2 attempts does not prove enough evidence for me.
i want more proof.

so i will write away to see how my computer will be. funny how attached to the thing i am. i can sit here and spend hours every day with this machine, and i can get so mad at this machine, and i can waste away my life with this machine. but like a toothbrush it has a purpose and use. i must be careful with how much hate i give the laptop.

i honestly think it may be a good position to accept my lot and type slower. i mean, the “problem” of the cursor moving happened in the first line of this writing and instantly i was troubled trying to decide if maybe i had hit the keys wrong. could i be hitting the keys wrong every time and blaming this notebook? at this point anything is possible. i have nearly given up that apple will figure it out and i don’t think they will give me credit for another computer. so, why do i waste my nights away here trying to avoid downloading my en

ok. now i am certain as the day is long that i did not hit any wrong key when it happened just at the end of the previous paragraph. so 4 times in 3 tries and i am now convinced my computer has a problem, not me.

so, i will call them tomorrow. i will report my findings. they will tell me to mail it in and i’ll live without it for a while. my guess is they will send it back unfixed but i should not feel that way. i should feel encouraged about jack, who said the “white glove team” would figure it out. he said they were a special team of techs who handle the repeat problems like mine. oh apple. should i love you or hate you? i’m not too old to switch to the google universe…. the big galaxy phone, the chrome book…..

the only reason i have this fancy computer anyway is for video editing. and you know how often i get into video editing lately? never, that’s how often. i used to do it a lot. i used to make short little videos of me doing stuff at work. i used to want to string together a longer movie. a 30 minute or 1.5 hour thing. i even have lots of the visuals filmed and i got stuck on the audio file. i tried to make it a collage of short vignettes and stills and stop motion action and the plan was to tell stories over the images. to see if there was a way to tell stories where the random images might collide with the story mood here and there.

the stories were flat. i feel like a guy who has stories but can best tell them with painting and physical collage. the droning of my voice, the pretend inflection, the yearning for meaning, the striving to find the right words…. they all shot my stories right down. and then the imagery then just seemed hum drum and sleep inducing without any dialogue for support.

anyway, after that i sorta gave up the video editing. it would take me much nicer cameras, much better equipment, and so many more people to put together any film worth watching. even the low budget indie flix have what seem like an enormous credit line of cameramen, and extras, and specialists, and production help. i mean, i hate to get all overwhelmed and defeated on a project but my normal everyday life is hard enough, challenging enough, interesting enough, and fun enough. as much as i would love to make movies, i just don’t have the time or skill or help for it. so, honestly i don’t think i really need the video editing capabilities of this computer, especially since the only program i know is iMovie 2006 version.

beditme.
my list for tomorrow is longer than it should be. my list has me exercising, ordering shirts, finishing the vine logo on their building, painting a mural on the concrete wall by the bocce court, hanging with the kids and wife, working the restaurant dining room after 5, and working on a painting in the studio. it might happen but it’ll mean i have to stop this nonsense.

so i am only writing now to test my computer.
is it a hardware or software problem? this is the issue we are currently solving together. you and me.
while there is the medium strong evidence that the issue occurred twice yesterday with my “clean” computer, both instances were “different” than previous instances because i felt i may have mis-hit a key. so, at this point i feel pretty much 50/50 about if the problem is still there or if it is no longer there. this perfectly balanced uncertainty has me writing again with nothing much to say – to “test” the typing on this machine and see if the insertion point jumps…

if there is anyone left reading my blog, hello. welcome to the inner workings of my mind. welcome to the place where i go to whittle away the minutes cleaning my conscious and testing my mac. i will tell stories that will surely take you to wonderful places and then drop you off in boring-town.
tonight. saturday night. friday night was busier than i expected and i spent entirely too long trying to put up a new shelf in the prep room for my soda supplies. i expected it to be busy. i dreamed about a deep dish all day. and then by some crazy turn of events i ended up eating a large cheese pizza and having a beer with my wife, listening to great live music, while my kids ran around in the rain. somehow the weather slowed business to a place where i could just listen to music and hang with my wife and some come and go others…. an old friend was there on a date…. we met a new couple with another friend…. my 1st cousin and 2nd cousin were there for a while….. saw my son’s 5th grade teacher…. i was actually enjoying LSE for the first time in months…. and i’m not sure i can even remember a saturday night having fun up there with my family until 9pm!
cada at one point had a brownie that was so freshly made and iced…. and i ate a bit of it… and it was the best brownie i ever had.

but i should have made a deep dish pizza. the large cheese was fine but i could have been so much more inventive.

the problem with my computer happened. i fixed it so you can’t tell but i looked up and the insertion point had moved up the text a couple lines. so, now i am CONVINCED it is a hardware thing. whew. sorta nice to not be worried about all my data and what of it is corrupt? because it IS NOT MY DATA but the computer that is corrupt. the problem now is that i wonder if they can actually find the issue.

that’s enough for me to feel able to stop writing. i saw it happen for a third time in 2 days and while i will wait for at least 2 more occurrences before i call apple back i am now at least semi-satisfied that i have it narrowed down to hardware.

good night.
lightnin’ salvage is awesome.
had a great time back there tonight.
good music, good food, good kids.

ok so the computer… since i decided to go there before and now there is a new development, i am going to follow that new lead and tell you about it also.

my computer sucks. it’s a brand new macbook pro and my 1 year warranty is almost up and i have been having ongoing problems with the cursor jumping around. (minor details in previous post.)

with a week or less on the warranty i set aside a couple hours today to deal with it. call apple. talk to JACK. Jack, a reasonable name and a reasonable guy.
jack tells me not to worry or think about a new computer, that apple is going to fix this, inside or outside of the warranty. jack says he does not think i am crazy and that there is nothing to worry about. jack says everydamnthing i ever wanted to hear from a computer guy. he sympathized, he was sure they would figure it out, he did not want me to buy a chrome book, and he had some ideas about things to check and talk about.

for a pissed off consumer calling a simple number i found on the first online search, this dude was speaking my language. i later discovered he was in arizona, he had a 2010 macbook pro, it had trackpad problems and he got them fixed with a new trackpad. he agreed with me that my problem is not the trackpad. wow. i mean this guy had me calmed down in about 1 minute.

here’s what happened in the end: he had me backup and wipe my computer clean. he waited online with me through the entire process. he explained that if i choose to NOT back up all my files and use my new clean operating system (software) for a few days and see if the problem occurs. if it does occur then we know it is a hardware issue. (i.e. need new trackpad or battery swelling…) if it does not occur then it is something in the software: something on one of my files that is corrupting the computer. he did not use that language but i am inferring….

as to how we will proceed once we know, that is for another post. but i can tell you one thing right now…. i have been typing a long blog post with no cursor movement. i would have expected by now my “insertion point” as it is technically referred to, would have moved up in the text by now but it hasn’t. which so far leads me to believe there is an issue with some or other file. which would lead me to suspect my kids because last summer i let them use my computer to play minecraft and such, and i bet they installed or clicked on some dangerous thing. is it a bug installed by google to make me hate apple and want to get a chrome book and just switch over to the google universe of samsung galaxy android phone and google play and google drive….

conspiracy theories. they abound in our world. i’m mostly just kidding when i discuss the “virus” that causes my computer to do weird shit. it’s not happening now which encourages me so much more than i want to admit.
it makes me want to open another bottle of wine.
it makes me giddy thinking that jack at apple might have narrowed down my problem here to a software issue…. and here i was ready to give up on apple. here i was ready to trash their name to anyone who would listen. and here it is they just don’t know? they don’t know what is causing my computer problem but they want me to be happy. they want me to be a satisfied customer.

look. i am only still writing now in an attempt to try and make my cursor jump up in the text. i am only writing because i am caught up in the excitement that jack may have at least narrowed down the problem to a software one. of course, this just means that something in my data is corrupt. i have to be super careful about what i add back to my computer. this just means that it’s not actually apple’s fault but something in my data that is causing my problem. hmmm.

the satch sour soda that we now serve is far superior to the sour soda that we sold up until now. it’s straight from the bottle with no fountain. much better. tastes like champagne.

the ginger is a hit and it may be a flavor we have to 86 once in a while.

the colas which i thought were perfect still are not perfect. but they are good and better than their competitors but they can be improved.

the new cream soda is a nice change. an employee tonight mixed lola cola and cream soda for a vanilla cola. good idea.

emmalemma lemonade will get better each week.
lennie lemon lime is the undiscovered gem.
ruby root beer is still getting better and also well liked.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

tonight was great.
customers were so happy.
employees were in the zone.
it was a wonderful reality even though there was a woman who “collapsed” and 911 was called. the woman was fine and was having an episode that sometimes happens to her in crowds (this was info i heard from a nearby table…)
the family had finished eating and all were relieved that she was ok and they were enjoying their evening despite the strange occurrence.

there was a (young) man who told me he had triple bypass heart surgery and that he had been “saving” for a month to come have “one slice of pizza without meat” tonight. he said he always had good food and service and he had never had a bad time or heard anything bad about us.

there was another man who told me that only 3% of women can have bypass heart surgery because their arteries are fragile. this had nothing whatsoever to do with the other man’s bypass story.

there was the woman who told me about her recent travels and wine tastings abroad, was in kroatia? and how she had some of the best wines and times and she described a couple things in detail and it was a great story. this one woman took them in and showed them 6 huge stainless steel tanks in their basement that were all full of the most amazing white wine.

there were newborn babies. there was a woman who is due in 10 days. there were folks from kentucky, new york, and maui. paul from sound ideas was there. paul “don pablo” was there. CR johnson was there, as always, eating anchovies. justin came in for an early week millet and flax. will he be in tomorrow night too? i would bet danielle picks up tomorrow. the mills were there eating calzones and helping out the 911 table. kelly bonds was there and zack told a great lazy man’s joke. i spoke at length with an indian family who were so in love with our pizzas and ginger ale. one woman had moved recently to orlando and this was the first night since being in florida that she could say she had a good meal out.

on the employee side: i learned that casey lee is married to kasey lee, and casey has a ’65 ford falcon and a honda 125. wade is about to go to europe for 10 days. tammy is coming back for a light schedule next week. leah is making sure people are doing everything right, and danny made an amazing homemade knife. the kitchen was caught up all night. brieann is spelled b-r-i-e-a-n-n…. and i “missed” mary and noon tonight. missed them in that i thought about “where are they? i miss them.”

i had started to write a paragraph about how my computer was “fixed” and then the problem occurred, screwing up my whole train of thought and my paragraph. so now i am here to say that the problem is a hardware issue. i am not 100% sure because maybe it was me that caused it that time. after writing for so long i was convinced it was fixed but then it happened. was it something i did? did my thumb hit the trackpad errantly in my typing?

this story is not over. i am sorry to report that i still do not feel sure if the computer problem is solved but i will keep researching. i want to be 100% sure that it is not something i am doing to cause the problem. i will write more long posts in days to come trying to discover whether my computer problem is hardware of software related, or just problematic typing.

word count is 1466. 1469…. way too may words…. a “wall of words” if you will.

we set records today all around saturday. busiest day, busiest night, busiest LSE….. and with a fine running homemade soda system to boot. we have a satchel full of new employees. they are all very bright and hard working.

i am enjoying that it is early sunday morning. i am enjoying the sounds of crickets and frogs at my house. i have the glass doors open to hear the night sounds.

i saw an instagram photo of my restaurant tonight. it made me so happy to see my pizza joint photographed on instagram. i enjoy the photo as a piece of art.

the soda project was rough. hard. intense. took all the courage i had.
i guess that’s a good thing. sure is hard but it feels good. it feels good like in the way it felt good to rebuild my wheelbarrow when any normal person would have just bought another one. when i got into that project and was trying to get off 10 rusted carriage bolts. there were so may time i should have given up. and it took 3 times longer than i would have guessed it would

in the end i got so much more satisfaction from rebuilding that wheelbarrow than is warranted. i was so pleased with myself and feeling like i could conquer anything before me. the same sorta happened with the soda project but in a bigger and yet smaller way. bigger in that as endeavors go, the soda one is so much harder to pull off successfully. smaller in that i did not feel the satisfaction nearly as much as when i finished the wheelbarrow. maybe the two are related.

local artist adrian pijoan made a nice comic about the life of the van, this is an image from that comic….

and that is entirely enough for any blog to say in one wee morning hour of a sunday, but i will take you out with a snoozer….written earlier in the night and pasted here for posterity.

my apple computer is not working right. it is under warranty for 2 more weeks but i’ve given up.
in an effort to bore you to tears i will include some lengthy apple support community dialogue. i suggest and beg you not to read it. it is basically a record of my complaint for the world to see. an open letter to apple if you will. it will not make sense because the problem doesn’t make sense. the problem is that when i write my cursor jumps to a previous part of the text often times. it happens “while i am editing my reply” to someone in the community and so i leave it there and then talk about it later. this makes for really confusing logic and readability.

stevefromgainesville
TS1449 Re: Jumpy erratic cursor/arrow – Moves & Selects without touching
May 2, 2013 5:47 PM (in response to Esor Asil)
i have had the same problem. mine has been sent in and the trackpad replaced twice and the problem persists.
i am so ******[they *** out where i had written the word PISSED here].
what do i do, buy a PC? i can’t use it. every time i type my cursor jumps. apple has not been able to diagnose. i”ve been in 4 times. and have 2 weeks of warranty left. brand new macbook pro. *****[i think i said shit here but not sure. i am surprised actually that i had two words they had to bleep out].
i’m out $1200:(
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Level 7 (22,530 points)
Thomas A Reed Northeast Ohio
TS1449 Re: Jumpy erratic cursor/arrow – Moves & Selects without touching
May 4, 2013 1:50 PM (in response to stevefromgainesville)
i am so ******. what do i do, buy a PC? i can’t use it. every time i type my cursor jumps.

Have you tried any of the solutions that have been posted previously on this topic? Have you taken it to an Apple Store to let a tech look at it?
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Level 1 (0 points)
stevefromgainesville
TS1449 Re: Jumpy erratic cursor/arrow – Moves & Selects without touching
May 4, 2013 8:47 PM (in response to Thomas A Reed)
Yes. I was actually trying to avoid the longer story. but yes.

went to a tech at the store. could not get the problem to re-create while he watched me (and my kids tugged at my side). genius changed a bunch of keypad settings. F keys and such. problem persists.

sent it off. they changed the trackpad, reinstalled os. problem persists

called after a long pause of frustration…they said they would get to the bottom of it this time. they would “dig deeper.”
mailed it on a monday and it was back on wednesday with a note saying they replaced the trackpad.
take it out of the box and get the issue in the first email i write.
cursor jumps from first line of email to subject line.
*******

call back. they want me to take it to the local guy. i take it to local guy. he can’t find any problem running diagnostics. changes a couple trackpad settings.
get home. problem still happening.

i am not hitting errant keys. i wish i was that good of a typist. my hands are steady. my trackpad settings are on lockdown.
yes. i have tried every remedy i have found online. i have yet to find a solution to my issue.
my issue has nothing to do with the cursor highlighting text. i’ve never had it do that. mine just always goes to a previous spot in the text when i type. it might happen 10 times in one email and then not again for a week. it might happen every day for 2 weeks, then not again for a couple days. it is obviously a problem with my computer that is not about the trackpad or the settings or computer cleanliness. imail t might happen filling out a form online or in an e
Den ganzen Beitrag lesen…

it’s 11:59pm and i have 32% battery left with no power cord.
i have just emerged semi-triumphant from the most grueling couple days.
back in 2012 i decided the next project i needed to take on was making my own sodas for my restaurant. taking so much pride in every other aspect of my business from every single lightbulb to every single song played, the ONLY thing about my business i was not proud to serve was pepsi. not because i have some hatred for that particular company over the other but because it was high fructose corn syrup and chemicals and preservatives and just overly sweet and so corporate giant.
i did quick online research and began my collection of ingredients to make a cola. this is where the story draws out for months as i make and make and make sodas. i decide there is no way i can make them for my restaurant because of the logistics of the syrup pumps and fountain machine but i continue making sodas weekly leaving my kitchen a sticky mess.

enter craig. craig is a customer at the restaurant and i hear he makes soda at home. we are soon talking about my idea and pretty soon craig is sending me emails showing how i can buy an all set up refurbished fountain machine. easy. then i see craig and mention the bag in box problem, and how i want to re-use our 5 gallon feta buckets and next thing i know i’m getting texts with links to the quick release valves that would work. damn that craig.

28% battery. one things leads to another and i somehow convince myself i can buy a machine and replace all my sodas with homemade ones. i run into obstacles left and right and center. the ginger ale only tastes good with real ginger juice but the juice is heavy and sinks. the lemonade does not taste enough like lemons. the root beer is like trying to learn to write chinese. these problems persists and i keep going at them like a bat out of hell and making my wife crazy. i get to a point where i decide i need to start putting the elements together for the real deal. i get butch to weld a stand for the buckets. i talk to craig about how we can keep the ginger juice from settling. i order the fountain machine. i keep trying to learn chinese writing. finally in my insanity i cannot take it anymore that my desk is full of essential oils and my bucket collection is taking over my living room and even though i don’t know how to make root beer and i don’t know how i will solve the problem of keeping up with demand at my insanely busy restaurant, i make the huge leap of setting a date to install the machine. the saturday night before the install i go to work at 5:30 and have to leave at 7. i am so nervous about the project, my mind is racing so hard that i have to go home to deal with my anxiety. this is unusual for me

25% battery. enter freddy. freddy is the fix it man of all fix it men. his son is freddy, his second cousin is freddy. they all come and fix my equipment and move my equipment and help me in the middle of the night or day. a restaurant can’t run without a freddy. there’s also james. james is freddy’s main right hand man. freddy and james are set to come take out the pepsi machine and install my new old machine. i don’t tell pepsi. you can’t have them scheduling a uninstall so i can make my own sodas. the restaurant is closed on sundays and mondays so we start on sunday morning and here we go.

23%. we don’t do special events on the “weekends.” our weekends are sunday and mondays and we are so busy during our 5 day work week that we all need the 2 days off so we don’t go insane. at some point i get an email asking me to host an end of tax season party for 70 cpa’s and i agree. monday april 15th at 5:30pm. when i scheduled the soda install and the cpa party for the same weekend somewhere in my misguided mind i thought the install would be easy and the cpa’s would be drinking homemade sodas. the party quickly grew from 70 to 103 and so i went from renting out our back lounge area to the crowded 70 to renting the restaurant and lounge for 100 and we were catering salad pizza and dessert.

21%. i have to get busy.

the pepsi uninstall takes longer than i expected and mid day my friend denise arrives to help me start making the many buckets of syrup i will need for this new venture. freddy and james are busy getting the machine installed and denise and i are making simple syrup. the hours fly by. at 6pm everyone needs to knock off for the day and i take the chance to meet my family for sushi. we have a blast. the kids eat like champions. i tuck them in bed and am back at work to “clean up” and maybe make a couple more flavors. i walk in to a flood. the water line to the machine is leaking. i call freddy. he says he’ll fix it tomorrow. i turn off the water. i mop. i make sodas. i clean up. i get home around 1 am. my mind won’t rest. i wake a couple times and then for good at 4am. why didn’t i purge the water line? it’s probably still leaking. how am i gonna get it fixed, have time for the machine to make it’s ice bath and get ready for the party by 5:30? i get out of bed at 6 am after worrying myself silly and make breakfast for the kids and i’m back at work by 7:30am.

17%. oh my. freddy has a couple errands. i try and fix the faulty clamp unsuccessfully. craig arrives to see my progress. he looks at the clamp. freddy arrives and then leaves again for lowe’s. he’s gone forever. i am cleaning and trying to figure out how the pumps will work and getting the syrup valves attached. craig is helping. freddy is gone for a long time. he finally gets back, works on it another hour and decides he needs to go to home depot. i am losing my ever loving mind here. it’s lunchtime and he’s on his way to home depot and the machine is still leaking and we haven’t even introduced the CO2. craig and i go to lunch and i complain and bitch and moan and drink 3 cokes to wake me up. we get back and freddy has fixed the leak. he is on to installing the water filter. craig and i are back at the syrups ready to turn on the CO2 gas which pushes the soda and activates the syrup pumps. the whole damn operation is foreign to all of us. freddy can fix an oven or install an ice machine but he is scratching his head looking at this counter electric fountain machine. craig and i are pouring over the “instructions” that came with the machine. it’s written like an installation for dummies guide with huge font and pictures but we are stumped at every turn. craig is not phased. craig is a solution looking for a problem. there is no obstacle craig cannot surmount. craig is the only reason i am doing this stupid thing.

13%. we hook up the syrups and go out back to turn on the gas in the huge tank behind the dry goods storage. we come back in to an explosion of soda syrup in the office where the syrups are kept. i run back out and turn off the gas. we have a blown gasket on a soda line not seated right. we steal a gasket from a line we’re not using and do it again and get the same results. exploding syrup all over the office. the next two times we get smart and use our cell phones to communicate. we get leaks both times and now we have an office covered with sticky sugar water and craig is also covered. he conveniently has to go get his kids. says he will return and leaves me with hours of cleanup. it’s 3:30 pm and my phone gives the alert to remind me what i don’t need reminding: the cpa’s impending arrival in 2 hours. i clean. i re-clean. i mop. i re-mop.
i call the people working the party and tell them to come in early, not because the office needs to be clean for the cpa’s, not because i need sodas for the cpa’s, they can get bottled sodas in the lounge, but because the rest of the place is a mess and i have to have a clean kitchen and server station before the party. 5:30 arrives and i have holed up in the office stacking all my crap on every surface and am on my knees wiping walls and baseboards and filing cabinets.

8%… time to make a long story short. craig arrives back. it’s 6pm. we figured out what we had done wrong and now all that’s left is setting the syrup flavors. we start this process during the party and the cpa’s are getting beers and wines and tea and so we are not in the way. i start with the cola. i turn one screw this way for more syrup, i turn the other screw that way for less soda water. i use my special 1 to 5 measuring cup and within 2 minutes the ratio looks right. i take a sip. it’s cola. i’ve done it. i am elated beyond belief. at that moment a customer behind me requests a stella and a coke. the server says, “you have to go to the lounge for sodas. “ the guy seems a little put off.
i say, “NO. i have a cola right here. “ ice, cola, BAM. hand it off, he says it’s for his wife and i am finally beaming for the first time in weeks. i take another sip. then another. hmm. “there’s a slight hint of root beer,” i say to craig. and then i realize why. the exploding root beer line had covered the top of the cola bucket with root beer syrup.
i had cleaned the buckets but there is that tiny vent hole on top of the buckets. craig had taken the lids and “welded” on a micron screen for a vent hole using some method from his lab. probably a half a teaspoon of root beer syrup had slipped into the cola. I’m mad but then i figure no one will notice. At that moment the woman comes to us and says her cola tastes like root beer. she doesn’t like root beer. my first soda. rejected.

i’ve come home now. i’ve taken a shower. i’ve plugged in my laptop. i want to go to bed but i am so jacked up on sugar that i just want to get the rest of this down.

i was excited still about my soda because i had made 2 colas to start the week and i knew i could just switch out to the other syrup. we moved to the second valve. we spent 10 minutes. it wouldn’t calibrate. no matter what we did we couldn’t get the required syrup. “we’ll come back to it” craig finally prompts. we skipped to the third valve. the third valve is not setting right. we quickly go to the next. the next one gets stuck open and won’t shut off. we have to go unhook the syrup bucket and wait for the lines to empty out. we fiddle with that for a bit and then give up and move to our favorite, ginnie ginger ale. we cannot get any syrup to come out of this valve no matter what we do. we move to the final one and more problems in calibration. the screws are not doing what they should. “why did i buy this ‘remanufactured’ piece of crap?” remanufactured means they spray painted it black. i have one flavor, a cola that tastes like root beer.

craig says he has to go. “we’ll figure it out man. no big deal.” “what do you mean we’ll figure it out? we’re screwed! i have to open tomorrow morning with new menus and tons of hype on twitter and i’ve got nothing. “ i moan. “i’ll call the guys you got the machine from tomorrow and get them to overnight us some valves,” craig says, ever the optimist.

craig leaves and i go into the office to escape the sideways interest from my employees and the “tax day party” atmosphere all in the nearby dining room. i go in the office and sit to call my wife. the office is a wreck, tools and hoses and rags everywhere. after telling my wife the bad news i decide to go home and get my wits and wait for the party to be over and then go back and clean up and figure out what to do. “maybe i can switch the cola out and move the diet cola to that lemonade line that seemed like it might work.” ever hopeful but losing faith.

at home my wife looks up lancer valves and reports they have 39 parts to each valve. she finds the phone number for the certified lancer tech in the biggest nearby city, an hour and half away. we talk about it all, switching back to pepsi, forging ahead, ordering brand new valves at $117 each… i read the kids a couple chapters, tuck them in and it’s just past 9. i head back in to face the nightmare.

i had thought all along there had to be a second adjustment to the flow. i searched through the paperwork for the tenth time and found nothing about any secondary flow adjustment. i go to the diet valve that didn’t work earlier. i start turning a couple screws thinking it might help…. and then PPPPPPPSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!! water and syrup start spraying out of the top of that valve like nobody’s business. spraying me in the face with such force. i tighten the screws back up quickly but no change whatsoever. i’ve busted something bad. i jump on the stepladder and turn off the water behind the machine.
i unplug the machine. the water does not stop. i walk away and text craig to call me right now. he kept saying it was “asian night” and while i had no idea what that meant i felt like i had already bugged him too much to call him at that moment. besides, what can he tell me to do that i haven’t done? the thing is still spraying and it’s been a minute. the server area is getting covered. then i think, GAS! maybe i’ve broken a co2 line. i run into the office and back down the regulator so there’s no pressure there. it’s still spraying like crazy. what the hell do i do? i think of the main co2 line. i run behind the shed and shut it down. i get back in and still spraying but not as bad. it’s subsiding now. shit. i must have busted a co2 line. i am defeated. how did i ever get myself into this mess? i decide maybe i can just take this whole valve out and then clean up and continue on without that valve. i screw around and figure out how to get it off. i turn the water back on and it sprays out of there like a fountain. i sit down outside, defeated again. craig calls.

its worth noting here that after craig had left he texted me to say he sees light at the end of the tunnel and i just see a headlight coming. i tell craig the bad news that i busted something. i tell him the good news that while taking off the valve i think i found the secondary flow controls i needed to make it work. but now i don’t think i have co2 and not only can’t turn the machine back on but won’t be able to push beer through the kegs either. craig says maybe i should try and replace the valve i took off with the spare we had. i told him it would be like trying to order for 16 people in chinese. i’m not the engineer, he is. i’m the artist. “can you come down here and try and install the spare valve and see if i have ruined it for good?” “no, i’m on kid duty,” he says. it’s almost 10 by now. his kids are asleep. he’s just had enough. it’s late. i’m screwed. it’s my problem. “i think the headlight is getting closer in that tunnel” he says. “yeah. call the soda guys. see if they can send us some valves. i’ll talk to you tomorrow. “

defeated. utter and complete failure. no wonder i had such foreboding about this. i get up and go look at the situation. i don’t look at the sprayed syrup and water everywhere. i look at the spot with the missing valve. i inspect it. i see the washer i thought was lost. i see the other washer. i keep looking. i get the spare valve. somehow, i don’t know how, i don’t understand why i even attempted to imagine i could replace a soda valve, but i started tinkering. there was no power, no water, no co2 to the machine. i figured it out. i replaced the empty spot with a spare valve. i slowly turned on the water. it was not leaking. i plugged it in, it was running. i turned on the co2 and it was all just fine. somehow it was all fine. not only fine but i had discovered those secondary flow controls. i could cut back on the soda water to get the calibration to work. i started with the cola again. i switched to the new syrup bucket. i ran syrup though the lines. the cola was fine. i moved the the diet, stevie z-cal. made with natural stevia and zero calorie. i used the secondary valves and it worked! moved to the 3rd. worked. 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th…. the one that wouldn’t stop before stopped fine now. the one that was so so weak in syrup sped up once i moved the secondary valves open and shut a few times… i tasted sodas. all the way down the line. all 7 flavors. all 7 flavors are fine. i sat down at 11:59 on tax day to tell my story of my insane idea to make all my sodas from scratch and hook it up to a fountain machine.

it’s 3:05 am now. i scrubbed down everything with “sugar in my step.” i cleaned up that office better than it was before i started. I just can’t believe I pulled it off in the end.

this was the worst week of 2013 so far. work has me overly stressed. i can’t seem to get away from it mentally. i’ve reached burn-out stage. i’ve let customers down and made employees mad and upset. i don’t want to clean my desk, look at the computer, answer the phone or talk to people. i want rest. i want quiet. i want down time. i so love sunday

closing 2 days a week is the best decision i made regarding my job. i just wouldn’t keep doing it if it were 7 days in a row.

so, i found this…journal entry?…poem? on the dining table the other day, written by my 8 year old daughter. she’s so precious:

The azaleas are blooming!
Today is Feb 2nd, 2013.
The large pink azaleas are blooming.
Under the shade of a tree they sit.
With that beautiful pink glow they attract all eyes.
The beautiful hot pink color gives people’s eyes quite a site.
Look at them while you can cause any day now they’ll be gone.

so i took my son and 2 of his friends to the beach for a sleepover/ minecraft marathon. the 2 friends had never seen nacho. they never even heard of it…. naturally we had to give them some culture. my poor boy, he’s seen it at least a dozen times, maybe even 15. but he sat through it like a champ, even laughed again. i must say, every time i watch it i think i like it a little bit more, if that is even possible. i know i’ve seen it 15 times or more. and it’s still my favorite. every shot is so perfect, every quote so quotable. so awesome. minecraft, alligator park zipline, satchel’s pizza, blueberry scones, tacos, spaghetti, and even homemade soda. it was worth taking a day off work.

my son has some technology tutoring to help him with his dyslexia. he needs technology more than most. we found the best tech tutor named mr. rhodes. mr rhodes taught my boy about google docs and more recently google draw. i had never used these tools myself and i was jealous that my son was learning to draw on the computer and i still don’t know how. i asked my son to show me and he drew the eyes and then i finished off this portrait of the tech tutor, mr. rhodes.

so i don’t hate google as much right now. i haven’t gotten any annoying emails from google plus since i started blogging about the issue so i’m sure google noticed and laid off the emails. i like google draw. now i can waste even more time on the computer.

i was getting emails every day about some dude sharing shit with me on google plus. i got so sick of it because i don’t use google plus that i finally went on google plus to figure out how to stop getting google plus notifications. i deleted stuff and unchecked this and that and felt sure i had done it. the next day i get the same stupid email…. “so and so had stupid shit for you to check out on google plus.” well, i’m the kind of person that “unsubscribes” from all my junk mail and as a result i get hardly any junk mail. i waited a couple weeks and still got the emails so i went back and deleted my google plus account. that’ll show them. ha. wrong.
i recently noticed a youtube video of mine was all black. i went to play and it said: this video does not exist. i went to youtube and they said, hey, you deleted your google plus account which means all your videos are private. stupid google. they bought youtube so now i can’t have a youtube account without a google plus account. if you want to get into my google plus account just use the password googlesux. i dont want to be this mad but i just can’t stand that google makes me have a google plus account to have youtube videos up. they are two different things!
sorry for the rant dear diary. i’m done.

this is the only sneak peek at the coffee mug coming out soon. this art wraps around the mug. atlas screen printing makes mugs and whether i get 24 or 150, the cost is the same per mug. this is great news to me. i plan to draw a new mug and print limited editions of 24 each time, making them highly collectible. ha.
anyway, this goofy one is number 1, not numbered or dated. in the future i think they will be numbered and dated. now you know.

my desk is always a mess except for the short time after i clean it and before i dump out my pockets out onto it soon thereafter. lightbulbs, a favorite kitchen knife that needs duct tape on the deteriorating wooden handle, receipts, notes, unopened mail and my recent ginger ale recipe. last week it was cola, this week ginger ale.

c and i lived without a dishwashing machine for a long time. when we married i was a dishwasher by trade and so i took pride in easily washing the few home dishes by hand. over time c washed more dishes and complained of wanting a dishwasher. “but baby, i’m your dishwasher…” this line of attack only had me standing in front of the sink more often than i really wanted. we got our first dishwasher about 5 years ago. it was a bosch. we heard they were quiet and good. years go by and then we start to have problems with aforementioned machine. c started looking online and watching videos and realized i had run the drain line wrong. this caused much buildup in the bottom of the machine. she spent hours one night cleaning and fixing it.
then there was a weird sound. a loud sound. she had read in all of her research that sound meant the drain pump was on its way out. well, since “we” had spent so much time fixing the machine, let’s take it to the next level and get a new pump. $75. we ordered it. it arrived and sat for a couple weeks. the machine still worked but the noise when it drained was LOUD. one day i decide i will change out the drain pump. i spent hours working on this and had to go to work. she spent more hours after i was at work and got the drain pump installed. it did not make the loud sound anymore but it did not fill either. i studied the youtube videos. i imagined i could fix it. we’ve come this far….
i ordered 2 parts since i wasn’t sure which one was the problem. $50. 1 part was correct and the other was not the right part. i changed the 1 part. it was not fixed. then something weird happened. c’s friend, “A” had the SAME dishwasher with very similar problems and since it was almost christmas friend A got a new dishwasher. i went over and picked up the old one for parts. i replaced the other part (with lots of trouble and cursing) and now there were new problems. the machine stayed on when you opened it. it still did not fill. i gave up. i went on craigslist and found a dishwasher for sale and went that day and picked it up for $125. we decided to send back the parts we had bought ($125 and no hassle returns) and an even swap. i got the used dishwasher, installed it, and it cleaned dishes like you’ve never seen. those dishes looked like they just came out of the factory. it took off spots that had been there for years. wow. (now it sounded like a freight train coming through the kitchen but the dishes were clean no doubt.)
2 weeks pass. the dishwasher is quite loud. we would wait until going to bed to start it but if we forgot then we were running it the next day and it only took about 6 hours to clean the dishes. then i get the text at work. this dishwasher is not draining.
i took c to lowes and let her pick out a new dishwasher. it is not a bosch. we hate the bosch. so does friend A. we got a whirlpool. its quiet. it has a delay feature so you can set it for 2, 4, or 6 hours later. we like it. the craigslist dishwasher is still sitting outside my front door. i want to take it back to craigslist guy but i imagine it is useless. who buys some crap on craigslist and takes it back 2 weeks later when it breaks? i do. or at least i hope to find time to do that in the next few days when it is still fresh in the guys mind.
i wonder of the guy would take pity on me and give me some money back or just shrug and so what?

i really should clean my desk……..

it doesn’t look good for the st. augustine spot at this time… there is only one place i am interested in and the owner of that spot has an inflated opinion of the price. we’re probably about $30k apart. it’s ok because i have so many things going on and it’s hard to get into the idea of chasing something down and overspending on it. the place is so small and the community so mellow that it’s not even clear i can sell enough pizzas there to pay the mortgage. it’s hard to predict how busy it would be and the entire place needs remodeling so it’s unclear how much that would cost too.
i’m ok with that because i love spending time with my family, at the current restaurant, and in my studio. no need to make headaches for myself, borrow a ton of money, and feel like i paid too much. let the place sit there another year and i’ll offer again. i’ll be very interested to see someone else buy it at the inflated price, spend the kind of money t would take to remodel, and then be able to make enough to pay the mortgage. just watching that process would be almost as exciting as tackling it myself.

i made my own cola syrup yesterday. FIVE GALLONS of cola syrup in which i mix 1 part syrup with 5 parts carbonated water. it was quite fun and i think it tastes great. i am not much of a soda drinker but i had this idea i could make my own sodas for satchel’s…. a cola, a ginger ale, and a root beer…. of course, making enough for the restaurant is a huge ordeal and would take opening an entire separate business. i’m not sure it’s financially sound to jump through all the hoops it would take to certify another kitchen and begin this process. but it was really awesome making the cola.

this video is in very limited release. see it here:

i got to test drive a tesla and i am so hooked. if you ever drove one you would understand. it’s like a religious experience. it blows your mind in a way that’s hard to compare to anything else. i guess it would be like seeing the earth from space…. it’s that big.

pictured is the model x, set to come out in 2014. i’ve got my eyes on one. we’ll see if that can happen. i like to dream big.

after a trip to st. augustine i am again considering the idea of a pizza place over there. it could be mostly a small takeout joint. super simple right?

i wanna do something new. i love the restaurant and i have and i have lots of plans and projects already in the works for this year, but i’m eager to get my hands into something else….. of course, this means taking on some new debt too and i am not a big fan of borrowing money but i know it’s a necessary evil sometimes.

i’m also taking a year off of drinking alcohol. i did it the year i turned 40 and while it was challenging i felt it was a wonderful experiment in self control and sobriety… now i’m about to turn 45 and feel ready again for that sort of challenge. maybe i can do this every 5 years? anyway, it’s only been 4 days so far and i am quite excited about this year ahead.

i just ate this slice while uploading 74 pictures from my phone. there are things i love about macs, and things i hate too. apple is like my best friend and worst enemy. it is hard to explain i guess.

BUT– i don’t feel that way about pizza. pizza is always #1 in all my books. i can eat is early or late, thick or thin, spicy or sweet, meaty or vegetabletarian….. i love it every time. i honestly love everything about pizza.

as 2012 winds down i will tell you that my dreams now include making my own soda, making more stained glass windows than paintings, and worrying less about social media and my stupid computer.

i love my car more than my computer. i love my kids more than my job. i love my wife more than just about anything in the whole world….even though she drives me crazy. and honestly i can now say— i love peanut butter and jelly sandwiches more than mac n cheese and steak quesadillas….

i have seven photos of this one slice i ate tonight… here is one you haven’t seen….

spinach, beef, tomato, red onion, carrot, zucchini….. all light on the toppings….

1.try to find (and post) 5 pictures of the last 3 stained glass windows. post. dec. 9, 2012

2. i am coming to this one with great skepticism….
post a link to a youtube video:
(i do not think it is possible with this version of wordpress.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqRr0DQBJwY

omg. wow.

first video i have been able to post in a long time.
ok. i made this video for a not for profit commercial kitchen trying to make it in town here. this is to augment their indiegogo campaign to raise funds for their project.

UPDATE: NOW THE VIDEO DOES NOT WORK ANYMORE. HMM. IT WORKED WHEN I FIRST POSTED IT…. I SERIOUSLY HATE COMPUTERS.