[01:45] : Hello cock sleeve.
[01:46] : my bad wrong person
[01:46] Cotton Candy (tailmon1): luls
[01:48] Cotton Candy (tailmon1): smiles who where you after dear? I have a nice locking cock sleeve here. I'm the stable and kennel mistress on Enslaved

Some days you just have to LOL

As I had talked about earlier in my last FA submission I went on a Cart ride with Otakuwolf or Ota. His nickname is normally Ota or Wuffy as he likes to be called.I met him and Amelie in Second life a couple of years back. I liked his art and followed him and also contacted him and even met him several times in Second life. Always he was dressed in Armor and his Wolf avatar.

That rarely changed over the time but his being in SL was dropping off and I was also in a habit of buying his art work. I love to write story's and Most of his art done for me has a story for it. Some of the story's are rather good or so I have been told. Many of them are actually linked as the time has passed and I even have two story's half done for art that well I got sidetracked and just didn't finish yet. I am certain that I will get them done soon enough.

So I have been after Wuffy for a while now. Knowing his love for latex suits and bondage its not hard to find his button and also perhaps trapping him and having a Wuffy for a pet for a while. Sadly. Wuffy has an owner so I have to ask permission to try things like catching him or in this case going for something nice like a walk on a leash.

After a month and then two of hit or miss with Ota and his Owner I was about to give up on the Walk on a leash. It was Christmas evening when I was contacted by Ota and then his Owner about a walk. Sadly, I was locked up tight as a RubbaReindeer for Christmas. My owner was not around to let me out. After a short discussion Ota remembered he had a RubbaReindeer suit and his Owner helped him into it. After that it was getting strapped in and ready to pull. It was not a sleigh but a nice two pony cart.

My husband Red showed up and helped with things and also helped instruct Ota's owner about the cart commands. Things were a bit rough as we started since Ota has been a cute puppy but not much of a Reindeer or Pony to speak of. It took some time and him pulling us into walls and off the road and more before things settled down and he got the hang of working with me. By then we had reached the main road from my land and away we went.

My Husband Red took plenty of pictures of the long ride and I hope everyone enjoys them as I do. Pulling is a job and you cant just say AFK or BRB. If you do that then you crash or worse since no one can stop the other pony from pulling away and your fighting them to keep things from going off road or into a wall, missing a turn....ECT.

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It was nice that a Friend paid for my roomate and myself to go to Star Wars at the theater. I have not seen a 3D movie since my younger years when it was a rage back then. Things have progressed way beyond what I remember and things had depth and more. Nothing like a Star Destroyer Sticking out of the screen at you as your watching the movie.Star Wars was Ok but well I cant just say more without ruining it for others that have not seen it. We went, watched and drank the four dollar soda. God Concessions are outrageous these days. pop corn costs as much as the movie! Facepalm!

So, After driving 35 miles to see the movie. We had to stop into PetCo to pick up some Ear mite drops for Gennelle's kitten. It suddenly had them bad in one ear. Entering PetCo we were lost trying to find things since it was Christmas and it was packed and where the Medicine was posted it was all for Dogs.. It took a while to track down an employee to help show us where the Cat medicine was at.

During that time I looked at the kittys for adoption and I almost fell over.. They had a Main Coon! I almost fell over and it was young! Not a three or more old cat but a year old. I played with her and she was so loving and needed a home. Best of all the Adoption fee was half off for Christmas! I found the phone number for the person in charge of the adoption kitty's and I called to get a Message. I sighed and went and filled out the paperwork anyways hoping that I would get a call back soon.

We were sitting at Carl's Jr getting food when my phone went off. Sadly she was at work and could not make it to PetCo till 7:30 Pm, I was on the way home and that was over five hours away. I tried for December 23rd but she insisted I come back that evening. I went home and tried to rest for the second trip to get the kitty.

I drove back and the lady was waiting on me. We talked a bunch and one thing that they had to get complete assurance on was that I did not Declaw the kitty. We sat in the Adoption room while the Cat Named Ce Ce ran around and climbed up into the rack of things behind the drapes across the small room. I held Ce Ce for an adoption picture and filled out pages of paperwork and more.

Finally after it was all settled I paid the Twenty Five Dollars and Ce Ce was loaded into my pet carrier for her trip back home. I was surprised that Ce Ce was totally quiet the whole way and when I got her home I opened the door and she ran under my table by the wall and hid. I knew that it would take a day of so for her to start coming out and visiting. Their was also the getting along with my other cat Kunnan.

At least I did one grand thing at Christmas! I gave a new home to an abandoned cat.

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This is Ce Ce

Here I sit at the computer on the evening of Christmas Day and I am happy in many ways.
Granted there are sad things that I have to deal with but still without the help of others and the kindness shown to me Christmas would have been a crappy time. And believe me I have had times when a Home cooked Pizza was my Christmas dinner in my life.

After my break up with my Comonlaw husband years back I didnt have much for Christmas. It was just me alone. Granted my Job at that time seemed to always have me working Christmas or Thanksgiving I was still alone for the holidays. It was a time for reflection and wondering of what to do next year and nothing more. I had no one to really give gifts to or a family to speak of. After my change I lost my Real Family. its sad but not one of them wanted anything to do with me after my mother passed. I find it sad that I changed to make myself whole and my family abandoned me.

Flash back about 8 years and I was at home with Pneumonia and a Co worker started to care for me. She came over and helped me with many things including food and getting to the doctor along with care when I was bedridden. After that we became good friends. I would guess we looked like the Odd couple at times but soon we were a pair that is rarely seen apart around town. This relationship continues today with Her. I drive her around most times and we share many things including cooking food several times a week.

Elfi was mostly alone also and had her father and what I call here adopted family here in town. They Lopez's are a rather extended family and Jose and Rosie were her adopted parents when she came to Texas and lived across from them. The family's were close and their son grew up with her and the Family's stuck together all the years including moving to the town I now live in.

After my bout with Pneumonia I was invited to their Thanksgiving and after that Christmas gatherings. It was not hard to see that Elfi and myself were partners and they accepted that and not one had an issue with my Gender change. I will always appreciate that and also that I was accepted into the family. This year was harder than most with me not having any real money to spend for presents or to add to the events. They didnt care one bit. They would have driven over and brought me protesting. Still I managed to wrestle up some things this year with my meger cash and Food stamps.

They had gift exchange and I spent eight dollars on a Magic 8-ball. you know the ones you shake and it has an answer in the bottom. it was a great gag gift. I also got a Ham for the meal that everyone enjoyed. Everyone ate chalupa's and the ham along with the goodies everyone brings to the gatherings. Elfi and myself brought soda and her famous dips that everyone likes.

The one thing I have noticed is the amazing amount of young children that are happening since my start there have been baby's and I have watched them all grow and more baby's. And there have been passing's. Last year Jose passed at the age of 94 and it was not such a grand time. This year Elfi's father passed at the age of 88 and that leaves her alone with just me now and her extended family. It was good to go and eat talk and see the family even if its not my real one. To bad that my regular family was so closed minded to forget me. At least I have my adopted one that is so much better..

So here I sit looking at a very old bottle of Brandy. It was aged three years before being sold and I found it at Elfi's fathers home and she mentioned that her mother probably had purchased it at least 10 years or more earlier. So, its aged and a good Brandy. I grew up in Wisconsin where Brandy is perhaps consumed more than any other place in the US and of course I am named after it. I pulled out a nice blue tinted brandy snifter and will pour a glass and raise a toast to my friends past and present and wish everyone a great Holiday week.

I'm sure most of you know that I was on Workers Comp do to an accident at work. Here we are two and a half years later and I am still injured and looking at a fairly bleak situation.
I've fought with the Workers Comp tooth and nail and one thing I can say about the whole system is that its Set Up For Everyone To Fail! Thats right they use their own doctors and all of them are told to fail patients for under what is needed for them to pay out. A Doctor stated I had Bursitis in my shoulder. And they denied my operation on my torn rotator cuff because of an opinion from a doctor that stated "I cant really read your Cat Scan."

When I had my first operation with my last of my health care the specialist not only could see the tear in the Scan's he showed proof in the operation that I had "ZERO Bursitis" in my shoulder. Still Workers Comp didnt pay for operation but they gladly paid for my not being able to work. Funny that the admitted I was injured but would not pay the bill.

Fast forward to 4 months after the operation. I had been extremely careful with my shoulder
knowing that if it was hurt again I probably would never recover any decent amount of usage or strength in my arm. I was at Physical Therapy and the Clown decided to do a range of motion test and he pulled my arm around despite my protests he pulled my arm up and over my head beyond what I knew was my present range. I heard and felt a "POP" and instantly I was in pain. I told him he had re-injured me and he stated "Its just scare tissue coming loose." What a crock!

My progress went completely backwards and the pain came back like crazy and again I was in the you cant sleep worth a shit mode do to the pain. Even exhausted when my body had to sleep it was maybe two hours before the pain got me up. Its been like that from the start of my Injury and was back full force again. I went back to the specialist who tried a couple more cortisone shots. They were a temporary pain reducer after the massive pain of getting them. Finally he did another cat scan and sure enough it was re-tore.

It was again scheduled for an operation. And again Workers comp denied it the day before it was to happen. After that its been constant fighting to get either my operation or approval for Disability. Laughs I was approved to work with one arm! "Sure" What the Fuck! I cant use my dormant arm anymore I am perfectly good to work! What kind of bullshit is this? My maximum ability tests were all rigged.

The first couple of doctors Quit the Workers comp system. I have been through five now and not one good doctor wants to mess with them or the fucked up system! One doctor assined to test me didn't even have complete paperwork to do the exam and grabbed and moved my injured arm to make under the magical 15% rule so they do not have to pay out till my retirement. In fact every doctor has done the grab and move on me. I have a witness to it all.

So, My workers comp ran out on December fourth and Long Term disability will not kick in untill January fourth leaving me with no money for rent or bills. Sometimes life is just fucked and good hard working people that paid for years do not get their benefits because they are two things... White.. and have a college education... Forget the unless arm, nd half toasted back from my Dell days.

So, Christmas will be one of no money this year and pleading to my landlord to hang on till January.

The past week has been hard for me. On Thursday morning I received a call from my best friend. She was pretty much bonkers and had gotten ready for bed and looked out the window at her fathers trailer home and saw that the lights were on in his bedroom. That was very out of the ordinary and she found her father laying on the bed, He was dead. I drove over and confirmed he was dead. Being former EMT trained I also could tell he had been dead for perhaps 5-6 hours. He was in full rigor. Still it was a rather sad sight and also that he had passed.
Hans was 87 years old and had a good life and perhaps some bad times having been in the German army during WWII He was captured and finally returned home after the war and he moved to south America where he worked setting up factory's and more. My good friend was his daughter and she spent a lot of time going around the world with him before he settled down in Good old Central Texas.

So I called the police who came and checked, Who called the local EMT's who said he was dead. (Guess my former EMT background was not enough) Then the Justice of the Peace who checked and pronounced him dead. Finally the Funeral home that came to take the body to be prepared for his burial. When it was all done and I took My friend home with me to keep an eye on her. I crashed with her now on my couch sleeping at 6am. She found him around 2:30 am.

The next days were full of handling my friend and helping with the funeral and earlier was the funeral home showing where I spent several hours with friend and her now displayed dead father for others to come see. Tomorrow he will be buried in the local centenary. Then things will grow with having to clean out the trailer he lived in and doing more estate stuff. Its not going to be an easy or fun time for the next weeks or longer.

Well being a pet is sometimes boring and others nonstop business and doing things. I can say that its never boring at Wildfire. With events and the constant amount of friends and people that visit you always have things to do mostly. Still its nice to curl up with your pet and cuddle. I may be a pony 90% of the time. But the others I am often a puppygirl and locked as tightly as I am when in Ponygirl form. Mistress keeps things changing and also keeps me locked and controlled. Considering my fox nature that takes a lot of skill and love.

I soon learned that my time spent running things has changed my submissive side lots. Having privileges taken is not new to me but this time they are not just one inconvenience. In SL there are things that one can consider necessary and others you have forgotten you use. Like flying, using world maps, the mini map. All are used but not missed till they are gone. Then the Teleports. All gone. I have been tightly gagged for ages and doubt that will change. Some tend to be worse when it comes to meeting and being with people. The loss of names and titles often leaves me wondering who is talking and who is who.

Still being a puppy was not to bad. The being always leashed cuts down on mobility and also puts you in the same area all day. If its in a busy area its not to bad. If there is a nice cuddle spot available that makes things nice. Cute soft Fennec puppygirls are great things to hold and cuddle. Smiles and They really do purr in real life.

Attending pony events means being leashed and taken to them. Its pretty much been standard procedure for me these days. I would be allowed to change to my pony form and be taken to events to compete. Afterwards I changed back and was leashed again. Lately I was experimenting with avatar sizes and scripts at events. Mainly making my tiny Fennec bigger by using the Rubbapony suit from Stuck products. Its a nice piece and since it needs a human body form I used my human body which is basically just the head with the RubbaPony suit wrapped around it and the form of your base human avatar.

A couple of events back I was in my RubbaPony or Pwnie Mk II as its was dubbed.
Mistress was their. It did look silly because my fox muzzle has always been locked to my head no matter what avatar I had. The RubbaPonie suit had a muzzle gag that mostly covered it. Still after a few runs Mistress Said. I want to see what is behind the muzzle. So she took a picture and sent it to me and I realized she wanted to see my Human avatar.
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She then unlocked the Muzzle and I changed to my new mesh human avatar.

When I changed I was instructed to get my pony gear on so I began putting on my pony gear. it took a bit and since my cuffs were already red I matched the rest up.
When it was done She was pleased and I got the "You look so pretty" the ooh's and aaah's. I then had to continue with my event as a human and well I didnt do as well as I had hoped since my avater had changed. The physics and area and more were different. When I was finished I was leashed to a post and sat watching others do their runs.

After it got quiet I decided to change. I was not really told to stay human and wanted to return to fox form. One of our Sr Trainers was there overseeing the event and when I said I was going to change back I heard my gear all lock. EEEP!
"I like you this way and now you cant change anything. So I was now stuck as human and well she indicated that I would be this way for a long time.. Taking my leash I stayed with her the whole event...
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After the event I was taken back to the stable and leashed to my normal spot and left there. Its been more than a week so it seems I am destined to be human for a while. It takes some getting use to the fact I am not a tiny fennec but a small sized human woman now. I miss my fur and fluffy tail and all the cuddles that a cute fox gets..

Wildfire also has many other events that are not pony competitions. Tuesdays and Thursdays we have a submissive meeting. Tuesday it is sub only. Thursdays its sub and dom together.

To be continued...

I've always associated October with change. In Texas its the month when the furnace down here finally shuts down and we have decent weather. Instead of the mid 90's and low 100's we drop to the 80's and lows in the upper 50's and lower 60's. Its time to do some outdoor things like walk, work out doors and other things. Several projects come to mind.....

I also have a Halloween art piece done every year for FA and am now open to artists that wish to do a nice full color commission of the Pink Fennec me. I'm currently locked in Puppy mode on SL so it might be nice for someone to be holding my leash

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Sadly my budget is very tight this month and I have only 35 usd to spare on cost for this Halloween art.

A - Age
55 yep I am a true Grandma Fox

B - Biggest fear
being homeless


C - Cold or warm weather?
Live in Texas well thats self explanatory

D - Drink you last had
Cptn. Morgans Special stock. (Good stuff!)

E - Extraterrestrials, do they exist?
considering the galaxy and the potential its a given.

F - First thing you did when you woke up
Visited the bathroom

G - Ghosts, are they real?
Seen one myself

H - How tall are you?
5'9

I - In love with someone?
have a thing for puppy girls and kittys

J - Jealous of someone?
the filthy rich that didn't do a thing to be there

K - Killed anyone?
close once. did my share of beat downs on gay haters that
assulted me/

L - Last time you ever cried
few days back with Girl friend she had bad news.

M - Music genre you dislike the most
Rap its so bad and degrading to people


N - Newest acquisition
Roomate from Seattle

O - One wish
Shape changing

P - Pie flavor, which is your favorite?
Cherry

Q - Question you often ask
Whatcha want?

R - Reason to smile
People I like being happy.

S - Song you like the most
Last thing in my queue listened to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_-Ue0LhVsI
Thing I keep going back to most: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvddLotvgLA
Favorite song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Tdu4uKSZ3M

T - Time you woke up
5am

U - Underwear color
Red

V - Video game you like the most
FFXI

W - Worst habits
to nice to people

X - X-rays taken
more than you can imagine! I should glow in the dark!
Collar bone, shoulder (Torn rotator cuff) Broken fingers. last count
5 over the years. Broken arm, Kidneys. some Cat scans and more!

Y - Your favorite food
Pizza deep pan Chicago style

Z - Zodiac sign
Leo (isn't that a surprise)

After missing the geyser we sat around the huge old lodge. It was full of tourists and the German ones were very nice. Still we had to wait and I was going to just sit in the warm lodge waiting till the last moments instead of being outside and getting wet. It proved to be the best thing. After being wet from earlier I was not about to get wetter and perhaps dry out some instead. With about 5 min to the predicted time Old faithful began to spew more steam so we got up and walked out to the covered view area.

At the area I at first had a nice clear view of Old Faithful till a bunch of Asian tourists decided to crowd in-front of me. I was rather bothered by this. I had the spot and they could have moved down further into the rain or found a different spot. Instead my first attempts at taking pix were full of their camera's being held up directly in front of me as I tried to take my shots. You sometimes wonder where rude and not caring came from because I had thought better of some people.

I then managed to push the camera down that was being held above the persons head directly in my face and then they got the message. After that I took several pictures of Old Faithful going off.

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After it finished we packed up and began our journey south to Texas. The road we were on was one of the ones that I soon found out took us over the continental divide three times! Ugh! As we climbed out of the park we soon ran into a freak fall snow storm! Big heavy wet snowflakes began falling and were so heavy that the wipers on the truck were caked. Up and down three more time and each one had snow it was a total pain. It also ate gas bad. One bright spot was the Indian reservation in the center of the state had reasonable gas at 2.56 a gal the cheapest so far.

We finally hit the interstate at the bottom of Wyoming and took it to Laramie where I had sort of planned to stop. After more gas and a call we were advised to push into Colorado. Continuing on I began to tire. The plan was to get beyond Denver that night but. Well the body and mind were cooked. So we pushed again on the interstate and took a short cut on 287 and after a check with a friend about a hotel room we crashed on the south side of Ft Collins in a Holiday In Express.

After the attempts at truck sleeping the hotel was a godsend. After parking the truck we went in and signed the papers and then went up and took nice hot showers and then crashed in the wonderful soft beds. (anything was a godsend after that crappy truck) The next morning we got up at 6am and repacked then ate the free breakfast stuff at the hotel and headed for Denver. Sadly we hit it at rush hour and it was a total pain going through even if we passed Mile high stadium.

After passing Denver we continued down interstate twenty five to New Mexico. Of course we had to make another gas stop just past Denver and the long ride to New Mexico was well at least all interstate. We had winds and large hills and more. At Trinidad we topped off again and pushed for the border. It was again more climbs and downhills.

New Mexico was a trip as we topped off at Ranton and drove across the top corner and looked at the dormant volcano on the way to Texas. We ended up on 287 and took it to Amarillo. It was a long haul. The godsend was the gas prices! Filling up just over the border we got gas for 1,79 a gallon! more than a dollar less then Washington and almost a dollar less then any other state! Thank God! At that point I was down to eighty dollars cash and praying my paycheck would be deposited.

We stopped at around 5pm in Amarillo and ate at the "Big Texan" Restaurant the home of the 72 oz steak challenge. After a slight wrong turn we made it to the restaurant and had our meal on our Dom who had paid for it for us. It was an int interesting place with a near full lot and as we ate we had a guitar and fiddle player that came by and played a song for us. I didn't find my 8oz sirloin that great.
Mine had a bunch of gristle in it however my friends was perfect. To be truthful its a decent place but smiles.. I can get better right at home in my area for less and more steak.

Full and slightly happy we pulled on the highway and then followed 287 to Wichita falls Texas. On the way I could see two huge thunderstorms. As the time passed we got closer and closer until we could see the lightening and more. Finally we ended up under them. Gaaah! Torrential rain and winds! After a while I pulled over to a rest stop to take a break and we spent two hours there waiting on the storm.

We again topped off in one of the small towns for 1.89 a gal and continued and soon I was again in the thick of the same storms we had hoped would die out or move away. It was such fun watching the hundreds of frogs or toads that were jumping on the highway. Add to that the rain and rain and more rain. It took a good hour and at some points slowing way down just to see the road before we got through. I was so happy to see Wichita Falls.

After passing through the town we again put gas in the truck and headed to Ft. Worth Texas. It was now dark and the road was not bad till about 20 miles north of Ft Worth where I missed a turn. We ended up back where we came from about 5 miles and I pulled into a station and the nice Texans gave me proper directions and I purchased a new up to date road atlas for like 5 dollars more than a normal Texas map! Sheeze.

We hit Fort Worth at 3am and it was all tore up and I was very happy we didn't have lots of traffic. It was such fun driving through the narrow lanes and rough roads in that beached whale of a truck. Still we pushed on and made Waco just before dawn. Their we pulled into a Denny's and ate breakfast. Also had a picture taken of us sitting there for a German friend that loved the place when she visited the US a couple of years back.

Gassing up in Waco we turned off I35 to hwy 77 that eventually makes it to my massive town of Giddings Texas. It took another couple of hours to make it home from Waco but it was all down hill to town. I parked the truck out front of my house and We dragged ourselves into the house and slept for a few hours.

Spent Saturday and Sunday unloading the truck into my home and plants around the house. I also slept a whole lot I was totally cooked from this ordeal. I doubt I will do such a thing again. Monday morning at 10am I took the truck back and dropped it off with a full tank of gas. If i had not they would try to charge me eight bucks a gallon to do so! So I sat down and tallied up the trip. The truck cost 333 dollars to rent. I didn't add any extra costs to it than the rental. We had a budget of 1225 dollars. The first thing was the unexpected things like the ferry toll and the tollway and park entry plus food. that easily took 150.00 dollars. Then the blasted truck drank gas like a drunk sailor. Over one thousand dollars worth! Talk about breaking the bank!

Right now I am broke but my friend is here and safe. Arrgh!

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I will have to admit that this trip I did will probably be my last ever. I knew this would be one hell of a trip when I got onto the flight from Austin to Dallas then I had to take a connecting flight to Seattle. I've flown many times in my life but never stuffed into a plane like sardines in a can like my first Leg of my trip. The plane had no empty seats. Along with the tiny cup of coke a cola and a tiny bag of peanuts and a landing that took as long as the flight I arrived in Dallas.

Arriving at Dallas I had to pee something fierce and ran to bathroom. After the deed I made the boarding line just in time to get my place properly. Getting on the plane in the first group was nice. I grabbed a center seat toward the front and tried to relax in a chair meant for a 100lb midget. I was more than going to regret the tiny seat the rest of the flight. At least there was no full plane and plenty of room between people this time.

4 hours later and three tiny cups of drinks and a bag of pretzels and peanuts. The plane finally landed at Seatac. I got my suitcase and headed for the shuttles to the hotel and much to my surprise they would not come unless I had a reservation. Well there went 21 dollars I had hoped to save by taking a taxi to the Penske Truck Rental place in Seattle. Arriving I soon found out that despite the promises and guarantees Penske made me. "Their was not a 24ft truck in the whole city!"

Upset and with a schedule to make I took the 16ft truck on the words of "They get the same Gas Milage" I soon found out that was just a sales pitch and it would be costly later on. After the check and inspect to find that the new 10600 mile truck had been damaged in several places previous to my taking it. All was recorded in the contract and I got into a new GMC 16ft moving truck and headed to the Seattle ferry to Bremerton.

I only got lost once on the way there. Seattle downtown is interesting but definitely not for a 16ft truck! I found the ferry and got my first sticker shock of a near 60 dollar tab for a ride to Bremerton. Well I found out later that had I driven instead it would have perhaps taken 30 more min and cost 2/3 less in gas but well you learn. The Ferry ride was intresting and I saw the biggest fish dorsal fin in my life along the way. And yes it was cold wet and windy also. (Arrgh)

Docking I drove to Port Angeles WA and found out that it was all two lane roads. Such fun! Arriving around 4pm in the aft I was cooked. The truck was parked and as I found out how easy it was to sleep on a lazyboy chair they packed the truck. I woke up to the smell of burned meat and ate a nice steak that My sis cooked. After I found myself again sleeping. I woke up at around one AM. That was when I woke up Sis and then she made her good bye's and I fired up the truck and away we went.

It was smart of me to start when we did at that time. Getting around the bay so to speak and through Seattle and up over the mountains before daylight. Just after the top of the hill we pulled in for gas and the first of many Mc D's meals. The gas was arrgh 3.08 a gallon! Gaah! In Texas it was 2.06! I began to pray it would get cheaper as we headed to Texas. As we crossed Wa state it was rather desolate other than the huge farms. One point of interest was the huge wind generator facility along the highway.

Idaho was an interesting detour to avoid the fires along the interstate. It was long and mountains along with a new sensation of Engine Brake that I had never experienced. The long stretches of nothing but road and then the Lewis and Clark trail road through the river canyon in Montana and more. It was long hard and mostly single lane. The river trail was pretty and looked great for fly fishing. Still wrestling a wale for a truck through 45mph twisty hilly roads was not much fun. When we exited the river roadway the truck was on fumes and I had to fill up. Surprised we made it.

We entered Wyoming at night fall and closed in on Yellowstone. At around 9pm I was cooked and had to rest. Parking on a scenic overlook on the way to the last town to Yellowstone I crashed in the truck with Sis. It was dark and well soon we found out that the GMC was a real turd when it came to trying to sleep in it. Their was zero room to stretch out in the cab and worse it just sucked totally. After about 4 hours of fitful sleep along with a state trooper's flashing lights and spot light as he kicked the fallen rocks off road not far from us. I fired up the wale and made it into West Yellowstone where I parked it again in the Mc D's parking lot. Their we again crashed after I had filled the tank and waited for the park to open.

We ate a small breakfast at McD's. Then it was off to see some of Yellowstone's sights. And at the gate into the park a nice 30 dollar fee! It was nice to get a map and more from the park entry. We used it to head to Old Faithful. One thing that put a big damper on the trip was that it was raining at the park. the twisty roads were 45pmh only and there were plenty of wild creatures to be seen. Buffalo, deer, antelope and eagles everywhere.

Reaching Mudd Flats I pulled in since it looked really cool and it had bathrooms that we desperately needed. Arrrgh! Rude tourists and having to wait for the bathroom and then finding that they decided to not sit on toilet but pee over it was a pain for me. After that we toured the mud flats and the small geysers along with the neat pools of clear hot water. We took a bunch of pictures and more as we walked the special walk around the flats and looked at the pools and steaming little geysers.

Getting back into the truck. We turned on the heater and tried to dry out while we drove to the next stop Old Faithful. By now the park was getting slightly full. At the start we were one of the first people in it. On the way to old Faithful we ended up in a line of cars and trucks. Soon we had to stop do to a herd of buffalo on the road. I actually laughed as people sat looking at the buffalo nearly face to face from inside cars as they wandered around on the road. Finally they moved on and we continued to old Faithful.

Their we found many buses and rows of RV's and more awaiting us in the parking lot. Finding a decent spot I parked and we walked across the lot to the huge lodge located not far from the geyser. Once inside it was nice and warm and smelled nice of fresh cooked food along with many people. What surprised me is that after listening and talking. We were a minority at Old Faithful. Nearly everyone was a foreign visitor! I was rather bummed that we missed the going off of the geyser by a few minutes. Arrgh!

Tuesday I will be making a trip to Seattle to go help a friend in need. This entails me flying up to Seatack and then renting a moving van then driving to Port Angles to get this person. After loading the truck we will start the long drive back to Texas and my home where I have an empty bedroom for the person to stay in. Nothing comes without a price and I had estimated the cost around One thousand dollars to do this.
Their were hopes that the Go fund me drive would have brought in the money to help but the response was sad at best. Still the 225.00 minus their charge was enough to cover some of the gas we hope.

I had the plane ticket to Seattle donated and that helped a bunch. But still rental and gas will not be cheap. Its good that the prices have gone down some this past month it will again help things. I took out a loan to cover things and thats what had to be done and I pray that paying it back will be done fast. So tomorrow at around this time I will be at the airport in Austin waiting on my ride to Seattle. Wish me luck and again to the people that have helped so far I give my deepest thanks.

I'm certain that everyone has watched heard and experienced the drama and changes that have happened to FA since its being sold by its owner Dragoneer.
A while back I had chatted with him and I also loved to bug former Mods in the forums that are now gone. I do miss the old FA a lot. I can understand the need for
change and money to support such a place. So far I have not been liking the changes and how things are being done. I see ignorance and idiocy rampart in the whole thing. I have Modded a forum larger than FA for years and changes there were done and still are done gradual. They are at this time the last bastion of not being bought up by big corporations and i am happy that they keep resisting. Others I used to be in and modded have fallen into the Corp trap and I was given a nice kick in the ass out of the forums by the new owners with no explanation other than "We don't need you all anymore" It makes me sad and more that this seems to be the way of things...

Here I sit the last morning at animefest. It all comes to an end this afternoon. For me another year passes. The convention also grows another year older and also again grows in attendance I'm certain that we are at the 10k attendance mark finally or darn close. I'm happy to say I got to see and talk to all of my friends along with work my shifts and sadly more than that.
It was a year of people not showing up for their volunteer work again and it seems to be on a five year cycle of sorts. I don't think its all con related but more like the Holiday weekend related. Labor Day being this late in September seems to make it harder for people to work the con. On top of that several of the Manager staff also ended pulling out the last weeks before the con adding to the issues and lack of staff. This was just the Department I worked in. However, All departments were short staff this year.

Old guard staff like myself are not so upset if we work the whole con. In my view it makes me feel good to be helping the others have an enjoyable experience at the convention and giving them a good reason to return for the next year. I also enjoy seeing the same people year after year and believe me I do see them. I also like seeing the cos-play outfits and more that happens at anime cons.

I did see my breakfast friend this year two times. Sadly no breakfast this year but at least we got to chat each time for a short time and I registered him again for as may years as I can remember at Animefest and hes probably one of the longest attendees at the convention. So I will finish packing up my stuff to take to my car and then eat breakfast along with my friends one last time. Then pack up my car. Tour the con one last time. Then do my last shift before getting my parking validated and then heading back home.

Yes Here I am again at Animefest. Its another year and again I am in the usual place as Registration staff. You can find the Grey Haired old Lady sitting doing the cash transactions as usual. I have been working A-fest for a few years now and have always enjoyed it. From the large amount of people that come to the event each year to the wonderful cosplay outfits. An anime con is never a boring place to be.

Much to a Fury's surprise one can and does suit up for a con if they like and no one says anything but gives them Glonps and hugs! Still for me its seeing old friends that are distant and as the years go by growing older each year. This year my normal breakfast friend is missing. The slightly older man that I would see every year is very much missing so far and I am afraid that some real life issue has happened to him.

Sadly, we were only the once a year hello lets eat and chat kind of friends but still I do miss him anyways. It is rather lonely eating alone in the hotel these days and I can also blame that on the hotel do to their exorbitant prices for food these days. Years back a buffet was reasonable and affordable to con goers. Lately its outrageous as is the normal menu. How about ten dollars for a bowl of oatmeal! Its really sad that Sheraton misses the point and opportunity at bringing in lots of customers and money by not having a special "Con Only Buffet" at a reasonable cost to the attendees....

Instead they would rather have this huge restaurant sit empty while all the con attendees walk down the way to the local restaurants and pay 1/3 less for food. Its such a waste and also a stupid move on the hotel's part to do this. Any normal business person would shake their head at this. Still I see it and roll my eyes and tomorrow I will join the walk to the eatery's down the road for reasonable food!

Speaking of the Convention. If you volunteer to work it you really need to show up and work it. Cons need help and for that help you get in this case free entry into the con. The normal at the door cost is sixty five dollars for the weekend. They asked that you work 18 hours of the four and a half day con to wave this fee. To top it off your not working all day but normally a three to five hour shift each day to get it out of the way. It gives you plenty of time to attend most of the Con and to explore the artist ally and dealer's room.

So, If your bored and need something to do.. Come down to downtown Dallas and visit AnimeFest!
https://animefest.org/

I guess that September will be the busy month this year for me. Its been quite a while since I have attempted what I am going to do in September.
First I am working at Animefest in Dallas again. Well, I always work Animefest. I have not received my schedule yet but I normally work Fri- Sat- Sunday. I can also work Thursday this year if needed. But until I get my schedule I will not know what hours I have to work so I wait and time is drawing near. From the 4th to the 7th of September will be my Animefest time.

September 15th will start the next stage of my Adventure in September. I have posted before about helping a friend that is in need. Genn is going to be homeless at the end of September and I have offered to take her in as a roommate and friend. I know her through Second Life and work with her daily at Wildfire. She has been through a lot and needs a new home and new start in life. Her goal was to raise one thousand dollars to help her move to Texas.

I am a bit sad at the response. Somethings were donated that helped a lot for this move. Genn is a plant person and will do well here in Texas. I'm hoping to help her back on her feet and get her going with her plants and work. Being in a new place away from the past should help plenty. Still She needs money help.

I have rented a truck in Seattle along with maps and a prayer. I will fly in on the donated plane ticket to Seatac. Take a taxi to the Rental place and then drive a (Hopefully 12 ft truck to where she is living and load her stuff up. Then we make the Long haul back to Texas. Its around a 40 hour drive non stop. I seriously doubt that will happen. Old Cotton is not a young fox and will have to rest way more than her "I drive across the US" Days.

Still we are not even half way in the donations needed for truck rental or the gas to get us to Texas yet! I hope more people will donate!

http://www.gofundme.com/zc3u2ag

If you are unsure of making a Donation you can send me money via my paypal

im_gatomon[at]msn.com


Thanks for your support!

Its my birthday and I turn 55 and that makes me an official SR Citizen Canidate!
Yep AARP bound and all that stuff I am afraid...
I was always told by a friend long past that you as old as you want to be. However, One's mind is always the age it wants to be. Since my teens I have been an adult or as you would say a young adult and a responsible one. I stayed along the line of good and out of most trouble that people get into throughout their lives.

Sure I have had my stages of issues. Two bouts of Being a constant drunk. One on college and one when I worked for my Father. Dads was very stress induced and well the booze helped cut that pain. When I decided to do my change I had my Chemical stage where I was on heavy antidepressants because of the pressure Dell and my manager and management were doing to me. I can never ever make up for the fact that one friend dragged me off site to eat and literally beat me over the head to get off the drugs and wake up because Dell was really working to get rid of me.

I woke up got off the pills and managed to get my manager fired instead. In the end I stayed at Dell and all the BS they tried through the years to make me quit or get fired. In the end they layed me off with 500 other long term general employees in a move to reduce costs and payroll. It was sad that old Mikey was and still is only concerned in his own personal money and not the people that helped him get rich.

So, here I sit now at age 55 with a wrecked shoulder and bum arm on my birthday. At least In Second Life I can be what I want to be I can forget my RL pain (Mostly) and have some fun...
http://puu.sh/jFABQ/ffa45bd790.jpg

Today I had to put down my Cat Cassandra. I'm rather sad and had been crying for a while now. I had figured she would have passed on last summer but she continued to surprise me over and over by just going and going. But time and age is one thing that no creature can avoid and at age of 22 I had to take her to the vet and have her put to sleep. The past few months were hard on me. I watched her slowly get thinner and thinner. She started not making it to the litter box. Soon I was constantly cleaning up my hallway and in front of the box because she didn't make it.

The bad part began when it got worse and she would poop anywhere and it was liquid poop that dried onto things and arrgh it kept getting worse. Kitty stopped eating hard food and I began feeding her soft canned food. It helped but it also made her produce even bigger puddles of poo. I knew she had to be put down but I am so soft. Finelly she began to just poop anywhere and that was the end of things it was costing me $$$ and more.

Today I called and then drove to a more rural Vet. The town ones wanted 100 dollars or more to put down my kitty. The rural one said "Bring her by at ???? and that will be 44 dollars. Being on a limited income it was hard driving with her in the pet carrier and her cries as we drove to the vet. Getting there they told us how it was going to happen with a relaxer shot that makes them sleep like being spayed or neuterd. Then when they are out of it he injuected her with the lethal stuff.

So My Best friend held Cassandra till she went out. We petted her and then after 5 minutes He came in and give the final shot. She passed quietly and in no pain. I am still tearing up over this. I am down to only one cat now. Old Kunan is not a very socail kitty like all the others I have had. But Like Cassandra he showed up at my doorstep as a kitten crying and alone. I still remember that late spring day in the 90's when I opened my door and found Cassandra sitting there as a kitten she said Meow and sat their. After that she was one of my group of cats I had back then. Over the years they slowly died out one by one.

Cassandra was a wonderful friendly cat that would greet people that visited my home. Very few cats do that. Most like my remaining cat will hide and wait for them to go or after a period get to know you enough to come out. A good lap cat and one that would be with you always. Sigh I am not sure if I will get another cat anytime soon. My next kitty I hope to have is a mane Coon if I can find one free. For now I have just Kunnan and hes staying in hiding, I don't blame him.

RIP Cassandra

The HP computer is well on its way back to being a functional computer. After many hours of cleaning, Brushing, and removing, Tape, stickers and layered gunk I had the pieces as clean as I could get baring a dip in a bucket of contact cleaner. A good roll of paper towels along with three different kinds of cleaner and a mystery wipe I did to the outside that removed the tape residue and also restored its case color.

The end result was surprising.
First from a talk with the original owner reviled that she had indeed replaced much of the computers guts while she owned it. A replaced Mother Board, New Power supply, New high powered Graphics card. I'm certain she didn't make any of it up.

Her last work done was the installation of a PNY 550 TI card in the machine and that's when it began to have random shut downs. She also had them clean her machine each time it was at the repair shop. From what I found its obvious that the Repair shop never cleaned a thing! Just to let you know why I never took any work to a Big national place for repair this is why....

The Computer was always taken to Best Buy for its repair and cleaning. I find it sad that She paid 35.00 each time for a cleaning that was never done! Can we say Rip- off and not Doing the job? Sadly thats over three years back and its Doubtfull she would get anything from them.

This is the system as it came from the factory...
http://support.hp.com/us-en/product.....ent/c01643511/

It came with 6 gigs of memory that she paid to have updated to 8gig. What I found was 6 gig and the two single sticks were not the same as the two gig sicks. After some digging I found two more 3 gig sticks of the same 677 speed. Now it runs at 677 not the 555 of the lowest stick of 1 gig memory.

The graphics card was also suspect since it was new and the system started having sudden shut down issues. So I pulled it for a thorough cleaning. After the complete clean I put in a 300 series Radon card I had and ran the system as I tested and installed and removed over 100 old programs from the computer..

I finished the removal of all the old programs and other things that might have given up passwords and such or access to games that once were on the system. It took hours to trim cut and remove all that was on the system. Again baring a Virus and spam ridden computer I was given to repair by a friend that went surfing porn. (Talk about nuked) This was a close second.

Now it sits running the 550TI card again and its being monitored for heat issues and such. Hopefully I can ship it in the next few days to the needy person. From what I was told the system sat in the upper 80's Celsius when running, Right now after sitting with Second Life open on High Quality its running at 63 c and the processor is at 60c a dramatic improvement.

One thing I noticed was the crappy air flow through the system. I took a new spair 80 mm Cooler Master Case fan and mounted it next to the HD carrier where it can draw in air from the front and side openings blowing back on the processor.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ.....9SIA1K63582717
I had picked up a couple on sale for back up in my gaming computer and well I will need more. It seems that adding an extra fan sometimes makes a world of difference
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v.....ps0w1tojjo.jpg
You can see where the fan is at. its not huge but it fits well and the small used rubber mount I put on it to secure it to the HD cage will keep it from falling over so it will blow air on the processor where its needed. The only upgrade I could recommend is a high speed fan on the back of the case to pull air out. That will need to be done by the next owner.

Here is what it looks like all cleaned up and the stickers removed ect...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v.....pshfwkkzrq.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v.....psewjfmf06.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v.....psiw9acrk2.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v.....psdriffbsx.jpg

Smiles I will prob package it up and ship next week when I have an extra 40+ dollars.


My newest project is this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823816018&cm_re=Corsair_Raptor_K30-_-23-816-018-_-Product

My friend that I helped build his gaming computer had purchased this awesome keyboard for 69 dollars at Fry's. A month later he showed up at my door and handed me it stating "I spilled soda on it and the keys stick. Instead of tossing it away I figured you might be able to save it. No I don't want it fixed I already replaced it so its yours if it works..."

Now you just do not get nice gaming keyboards every day and sure enough many of the keys stuck! Ah but I am a resourceful person. Using the Well if I break it so what view I began to pull and pry till I figured out how to remove the keys..
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v.....psjhvlzs3x.jpg
Its easy to see there the soda went and well its time for good old time consuming cleaning! Some cleaner and careful work removed the sticky stuff from the keyboard base. I took all the keys and soaked them hot soapy water for several hours then dried them out. Two days later Volia! Nice to me great new keyboard!

I'm sure that I have mentioned in my journal that in a former Job I worked at Dell as their Sr Quality Auditor... That job is long gone now and I still have to wonder why Mikey did what he did. I guess money is way more important than people. Dell idd a great job of moving all the older well paid people into the Refurbish branch then they set many unreal goals and still we made them all... Finally in a turnabout move he went and subcontracted out the Refurbish work to a contractor that really didn't care and neither did Dell about things being fixed well.

Where is this leading? Computers of course! So I have been tinkering again with computers with builds for friends and some basic repairs. I built a couple of machines and was working on my Hopefully new Roommate's new computer.
http://www.gofundme.com/zc3u2ag
The last pieces showed up Friday.

I also received a package from a friend. It was her old computer she retired a year back and left it to sit. She explained that it shut down randomly. Along with her stating it had a newer Video card and some other things like it was running windows 7 on it. We have a mutual friend that is in need of a better computer than what she has now. Her's is old and constantly being patched up and barely runs some days. The plan was for me to check the system out and fix it if needed and then ship it our to the other friend in need.

The Post office decided to open the box and look at the contents. I guess they just don't consider a computer with Readable media just media mail. I had to pay 22.50 to receive the package. When I opened it again myself It was sad just sad.
The post office had opened the case and never put the cover back on. The system was packed in foam peanuts that were now all inside the computer. I shook my head at the condition of the computer on top of the extra peanuts inside.. It was nasty!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v.....psjlemz0s6.jpg

This was after two cans of air blowing out and my removing the Video card memory, both fans and more!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v.....psu8fikupu.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v.....ps8jc0zzm7.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v.....psnmbiu4nv.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v.....psmiwauyu0.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v.....ps9uuzabzl.jpg

Now remember I had wiped it off and out spent two cans of air blowing things. I decided to put some elbow grease into this and began a full clean of the system. I took the totally gunked over fans and scrubbed them and used a Q-tip to work on the blades and insides to get the caked on stuff off. I used several kinds of cleaner on the system. It had lots of tape that had to be removed along with what it had accumulated inside.

Now I will tell you that Smoking is bad for your health? Smoke and smoking around a computer quickly kills it~ Add to that animal fur and if you look closely the system was peed on! yep prob more than once. And it still ran before it was boxed? Wow Just wow. I scrubbed cleaned brushed and more to get the system clean and ready for more. Taking out the small items and even the Dims that were coated with gunk! Each piece was worked and cleaned.

Some of the issues I found were:
A. Owner said she had them work on it adding Memory for 8 gigs.
I found 6 gigs in system two sticks of 2 gig and two sticks of 1gig and only
the two gig sticks matched. the others had different speeds.

B. Video card was huge and sucked up 116 watts of power and the system came with a 230-250 watt power supply. Granted she had it replaced but I am betting its the same range of power. Add to that gunked up stuff and fans running all out with the rest of the load ......

C. The system had sat for all that time out and was totally gunked up with stuff along with the doggy pee. You have to just see what smoking does to a system. Ugh its gross and more. This is probably the main cause of the shut down issues. All the gunk covering cooling fins of processor cooler and fan blades reduces the computers ability to cool and it gets hot and auto shuts down.

After the clean up I sat down with my stack of Dims I had. I was surprised that I had two sticks of 2 gig Ram the same speed as the others in the system! Yea! full 8 gigs and all the faster speed to boot. With the brushing and cleaning of the fans I am sure the computer will run way cooler now. And I can check to see if they are really running also.

The outside was Ugh ugly and dirty. I peeled off tape and stickers. Scrubbed the side panel inside and out. Pulled the front bezel and cleaned it inside and out using a brush. Then I used more cleaner and then used a trick to bring back the color on the case. It looks almost new now.

I pulled the huge video card for testing now and have two lesser power consumption to check also. So later I will be finishing the reassembly and firing up the computer and praying its not dead..

If y'all read my earlier journal you know that I am trying to get a friend down to Texas to live with me. She is flat broke and in great need of help. I have volunteered to fly up to where she is at and drive her back to my home in Texas. I live in a three bedroom house and have a nice yard that she can start her plant business in. I have the time and can take her to get things done to help fix her life and get her back on the road. If you can Please help her.



hey all my friend and your friend too pink lemonade aka littleviolet needs help moving down to cotton in Texas..

http://www.gofundme.com/zc3u2ag

help out if you can!!!

I'm sure the people in the NW United States are happy for the rain the past two days. This years EL Nino has been powerful to say the least. Texas finally ended seven years of drought that was more like ten on my view. Sure we had some rains a few years back but everything was always below normal in the end of the year. The past two years were the worst for everyone. Water rationing and worse dead brown flowers and lawns. I lost both of my new peach trees. Flower beds were nothing but dead.

This year its been rain, rain , and more rain. More than any year I remember in my years of living in Texas. I'm closing on thirty years of living in Texas and will probably die here. The Noah's arc like rains continued almost every days and my last guess we topped thirty inches already here in good old Giddings Texas. It was epic having my new house almost get flooded. The water was up to the door steps several times do to the constant rains and lack of the land being able to draw it in anymore. Driving in rivers of water was new to me in the little town. Now the heat is on and its baking things hard again. Add to that the humidity your talking dangerous times outside.

So we are in the deep heat of summer. Toasty and time to only be outside in the mornings and evenings. Trips during the day are best done in an air conditioned car and one does not stand outside unless your accustomed to the heat. Even then you need water and shade. Plants need more care and your pets also need to be taken care of. So where does this lead into.

I live in a nice newer home in Texas. Last week my three year old Carrier Air conditioning unit died. Seems the fan motor has a pack of chips on it and they fried. I was told its not uncommon but geeze! This was not a cheezie unit. So I spent two days sweating in the heat. Not fun in any shape or form considering my health. I basically slept perhaps 6 hours in two days and that was around 4am to 7am when the house finally cooled off. A window fan and celing fans did a decent job but heat is heat and when your not used to it you just don't sleep.

Add to that two cats that wanted to be in the windows and claws make new screens full of holes. the end I had to close down the two open windows so the cats could not get out or at the screens. Then put my box fan in the bedroom sucking the air through the house. It was less than 20 min when I heard a crash and you guessed it cats came running out of my room. Sigh, I had to take pillows and fill the gaps around the fan to keep kitty's from knocking down the fan again.

I so slept when the air was fixed!

Now I have a slight problem. I have a potential roommate. She's from the northwest. I've been alone since I gave my Hubby the boot eight years ago. It was fine till I was injured at work and now I await the legal battle to end. My situation is this: One torn rotator cuff, and arm with no strength and no grip and muscles and nerves being swelled and I am in constant pain and when I am done with this letter My hand will be useless for the day since it normally goes numb as my shoulder begins to hurt. So they claim I am 11% disabled when they state I now can work but not use my right (Dominant arm) WTF?

So according to my Lawyer they cut me short. I have been denied, ignored and more from Workers Comp. Now they are trying to cut my benefits off way to soon. If my arm is now useless (Was told less than 10%) usage, According to law I should be more like 20% + disabled. Making it 11% puts them under the 15% that I need to be paid for the next seven years and that would take me to retirement. That's what I really need. So I am praying that things work out and I get my coverage that I really need. Because at age 55 with one arm who the hell will hire me? Let alone pay me a decent wage?

Now my friend in the Northwest is broke and has been living with someone as a house pet or so. I would like to get her to my home where I have a spair bedroom that is empty and furnished. I can take her around and get her set up for treatment and help she really needs. Perhaps soon she can set up herself into one of her skills and bring in money and with help get set for SSD. None if this has been done do to factors and not being taken and escorted to where she needs. I've done some math and checking. I would have to fly up to her and then drive her down in a Rental van with her belongings. She cant drive and someone has to help bring her here.

The cost I am looking at is around one thousand dollars for the move. Things I have checked are 1. Ticket to the airport in her city. 170.00 one way, Rental on truck 525.00 The rest would be for gas and food for the trip. Its a long trip and will take a couple of days. Cotton's constitution is not what it was 15+ years back when she would drive to Wisconsin and back several times a year and took a day to do so.

So, right now shes selling off things for money and I am looking into finding a way to raise some money to help her. My budget is uber tight myself. I'll keep everyone her posted to what is happening. Wish us luck!

Today us Americans celebrate our Independence. Our forefathers fought a long and hard conflict to free us from British rule and the taxes they charged. These days its a wonder we put up with the taxes we do have to pay now...
Well America is what it has become and I am happy to be here. Born and raised in the State of Wisconsin. Moved to Texas in my 20's and have been here soon going on 30 years now.

So, I have a new grill and charcoal with mesquite and lots of things to grill today. I had planned on only Hamburgers and hotdogs along with my favorite Bratwurst from Wisconsin. My Friends wanting to shop yesterday was crazy and the parking lot was packed and they were even out of shopping carts! Now I have steaks along with corn on the cob with cabbage and squash to try on the new grill.

I guess it will be a new treat to cook out again after so many years of using the oven and not getting that taste you get from grilled foods. Wish me luck its been many years since I cooked on a fire! Luls. I also have apple pie for later. I wish all of you a happy 4th and have a safe weekend!

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America's Independence day. To me the Official Middle of Summer. Back in my youth summers were days upon days that lasted forever and you would get up at dawn. Eat Breakfast of cereal and milk with fruit or with Grandma's special pastery Kugen or something like that. Then if you were smart of your mother knew that most likely you would be gone all day. She or you made a bag lunch. Taking that you would vanish into the fields and bare lakefront lands that were still around when I grew up. A couple of years we found a nice small grove of trees along Lake Michigan and built a really nice tree-house. We were rather industrious and pulled dragged or hauled various pieces of lumber down to the trees and climbing up we built the place. It was one of the houses that spanned several close trees and we had two levels to it.

By July we had it mostly done and my mother hearing about it decided to make sure we were not getting into some kind of trouble or danger. She sent My Grandpa out to look at it. Grandpa was a carpenter by trade and had built me many wonderful things. He arrived one day with a long ladder that to this day I wonder how he brought it in his old age. He put it up and climbed up to the house and inspected it thoroughly and he wrote down a list and said that it was basically safe but needed these changes and proceeded to give all of us basic Carpenter schooling.

The next day we put in larger support nails and improved the structure per his instructions. he also walked up the embankment to the closest house and made sure that we were not going to cause any issues if the land was owned. Back then people were not so I am going to sue you crazy. In the end we had one really nice place that we spent days upon days and several years at. Even a few sleep overs. It was very weather proof and lasted through the worst of storms.

What finally did in the old Tree-house was a rival group of older boys that found it and when they could not enter the locked place came with crowbars and sledge hammers and broke it up. It was a sad day and part of learning that others often desire to take and ruin fun of others for their own amusement. To this day it still surprises me that they traveled across half the town just to destroy our tree-house.

The standard fair of Apple Pie and Hotdogs were always part of the 4th for me. Of course the Traditional Bratwurst were also part of the 4th and so were dads grilling of the food. I can remember many years of grumbling and complaints about grilling but it was all show because the end result was always good cooked food. We even grilled our corn. Sunshine hot days and lemonade. Then as it got toward dusk the family would pack up the leftovers and head to the lakefront of Sheboygan Wisconsin and we would stake out a spot along the beach and watch the fireworks show. It normally started around 8pm and ended at 9pm. Many years of memory's and later in my life I took some nice pictures of things during my near Professional photo days.

Its been many years since I have been back to my old town. One often wonders what has changed and even if my family is still around. Its been nearly 20 years and my last contact with them died with no returns on E-mail about 5 years back. So I have become a Texan and enjoy things here instead. With local fireworks being sold. I have rarely had to go anywhere to see some nice shows. Often the people down the block would have stuff that would rival what a city puts on. Maybe tomorrow I will pick up that charcoal Grill and purchase hotdogs and take the Johnsonville brats out and thaw them. I still have to laugh about the brats since I went to school with the Bratz's who own the Johnsonville plant. Smiles Welp I wish everyone a good 4th and want to remind you that Old Cotton in another lifetime had actually marched in the 4th of July parade as a Boy Scout and am still darn proud of it even if I am a different person now.

Yes I am still swearing and wanting to beat on State Farm Insurance and the way they pull crap on you. You have to wonder how much of a rip off insurance is these days. Ever since Texas went to Mandatory insurance my rates have skyrocketed. I remember back in my car repair days I carried a policy that would allow me to be covered no matter what I drove for peanuts and it was nice. I had good coverage and even homeowners back then. Simple easy reasonable and they covered you and took care of you.

Then came the end of Ann Richards term in office as Governor and within months the insurance company's had bribed all the people and suddenly mandatory and unregulated insurance happened. I still remember the talk that it would make insurance cost less. "Competition and everyone having insurance will drive the costs down!" They all cried. "What a crock of shit!" I say.

Explain why my insurance went up 400% and never did drop? Along with the total lack of service and worse you had to always hire a lawyer in any accident because the company's always refused to pay for damages. It sucked and worse it cost all of use plenty and I hate to say it but there were now more uninsured drivers then ever!

I always had insurance and rarely had any claims. Come to think if it..... I have never been in an accident that was of my own cause. Not a one. I've been hit sure. Along with my car sitting out front of my home being hit three different times over the years. One was a hit and run that I got nothing from and it totaled my car. The other two were drunk Mexicans that were working here and both we caught and held for the cops. Surprisingly they had insurance!

Still as of the past ten years my insurance has barely changed and it seemed that my rates were ok, I'm an older driver with a squeaky clean record and not a single ticket in many years. No accidents in the past ten years. So I was ok with my insurance being forty two dollars a month for my old Chevy Cheyenne Pick up that is ancient 1972 vintage. The coverage was state minimum and I had my renters also. It was not very expensive and well not a bother for years.

Then my agent tried to up-charge me because I had another driver in my home. WTF? I went down to argue about this and her response was that "Your Roomate has access so we have to charge you more." I was shocked at this BS and let her have it and stormed out of the office. Several days later she sent notice she was dropping me as my agent. I more than suspect this was because she found out I was Transgendered.

I actually had moved to another town thirty miles down the road and just called up the local agent and he took me with no issues and rolled his eyes at the roommate charge and it was never brought up again. It was normal draw from my bank and it was not an issue and the prices stayed the same.

Fast forward to about three months ago. The old agent that was handling me retires and sells his business to another guy. Hum noting seemed different. I purchased a Ford Taurus of 2000 vintage from a friend it was well cared for and the engine had been basically rebuilt and new everything. My friend's old Toyota was on its last legs and the car easily cared her ancient father and myself and her to anywhere with working air and reasonable gas mileage.

I called my agent and added the Taurus to my policy and figured Meh it cant be much since its old and basic insurance along with my combo policy. "WRONG!" I got my bill and it had doubled! What the Fuck! I called them up and asked what the hell was going on and got nothing so I had them remove my truck since I was not really driving it. Next month even bigger bill! That was it! I walked into the office and went to the agent and tried to find out what the hell was going on. In the end after all the Bull Shit..

I find out they suddenly raised my home owners insurance. (No notice) They could not explain to me why the rates went up. Just now how does a newer safer car cost more than my ancient truck? Its fifteen years old yes but its covered for state min coverage anyways like my truck. I could not get any other insurance. After all the smoke cleared I was to pay another payment of eighty five dollars and then the next payment would be 65.53 per month for my car and home. Well it still seemed off and over priced.

While I was there I made sure the new payments would be taken out of my local bank account and also made sure they had my correct phone number. I even watched her input them in the computer. So about a month passes and I get a letter in my mail box from the bank in the other town. I was overdrawn and now had two charges and was not in the negative money area. When I saw the amount I blew a fuse. It was the Insurance payment that I had carefully instructed them to charge my new bank.

I walked into the office waving my overdraft notice and found only one back up person there. I let her have both barrels. The plade has done nothing but Phail! Phail this and Phail that. "But we called you?" she said. "What nunber did you use?" I asked. "Well ??? ??? ????" I rolled my eyes. "Thats my old number I had the person change I watched her input it in your system. Total Phail! Now you owe me twenty one dollars of an overdraft fee. I expect it to be paid and the bank contacted about the mess- up." I remarked tossing the overdraft notice at her and left.

When I got home I called up another local insurance company Germania and talked with the agent. Her comment was "We have been getting a lot of his people here lately." I wonder why? Anyways after discussing my needs and the crunching of their numbers. I found out that State Farm was indeed ripping me off!

Since it was Friday I had to wait till Monday. I went down to Germania and talked to the nice agent and in the end I paid less for coverage on both my car and Truck along with my renters! Sixty two dollars for all verses sixty five for my car and renters from State Farm. I'm very happy and none to happy with State Farm.

I also called my bank and explained what happened and they gladly waved the fees and put my money back in my account along with a note to not accept any charges from State Farm. I also walked to my in town bank and made sure that State Farm could not bill me either. Well at least after all the frustration and overpaying them one month its done and I have a better deal and both car and truck covered with renters for less@

Well I more than likely have not mentioned that in my past I was a Dell Wage Slave.
I spent 12 years plus 2 more a security for dell. In my time at Dell I was boxing for night shift Servers. A branch that was told we would fail. Later I graduated to the build area where I excelled do to my fantastic mechanical skills. Soon I was a top builder and helping others with issues. On an average shift we had to build from 5 to 12 servers a shift. I normally had my quota done by lunch time. That included them tossing the hardest ones at me.

Later, they has openings for lead and I put in for them but was turned down. I found out later why. They needed help in the Audit area and the lead was a crazy nutcase named Max. Turned out I was like the only person that actually got along and worked well with him. Later I became lead auditor and had a great career at Dell and it included my shutting down production three time saving them millions and huge headaches. But that is another story.

I always loved building and tinkering with computers and over the years I custom built my XPS 600 that only died a year ago. It was tweaked and running windows 7 64 bit with some nice graphics. Sadly Dells Cheap Capacitors on the MB all swelled and blew up finally proving that even with the good top of the Line EXPS had them. Still rather than spending 100 bucks to replace them I decided to build a nice Top of the line system that I posted in my journal a few months back. So why mess with old stuff?

I had a running Dell 4700 that my foster child used for many years that I picked up at a Resale computer shop for 149 bucks with keyboard and monitor for her. It was sitting around gathering dust for a few years and being bored I decided to load windows 7 on it for a hoot. Thus began the year long FrakenDell project!

Frankendell was supposed to be simple and just a disk and poof done. Instead it turned out to be lots of burned Window's 7 disks and finding that the 4700 also had blown capacitors on the MB. My first attempts at windows 7 always had some strange missing file issue. So I spent hours and months trying to find a good image. Then when I had it on and loaded it would not stick I had video issues reboot issues and lots of BSOD's and that turned out to be many things.

I found the blown caps on the board and sighed knowing that having it fixed was worth more than the system. E-bay solved that with a nice running MB with a 3.2 Ht processor for 24 bucks and shipping. It arrived and I swapped things over and rebuilt things and still it had issues. After some weeks of beating my head I parked it and left things alone. Months passed and I began to go through the left over XPS 600 pieces and pulled the 4700 out from the lower shelf and began tinkering.

I again ran into issues with BSOD and graphics issues. It was obvious that the 4700 would not take 64 bit and I even tried the better processor from the XPS and it didn't even work it was not usable with the 4700 board. I went back to the 3.2 HT that came with the board and it worked but I had to do many changes and tests before It finally loaded and ran windows 7 32 bit. Somme of the things I found out were.

The memory I had... four sticks of 1gig had issues. ended up using two of the 677 dell two gig sticks in the 4700 the two 800 two gig sticks I had from the xps would not work. Nor did adding any of the 677 one gigs the system only accepted two gigs period. That was days of swapping testing and reloading windows. I had the missing file issue lots Till finally I got a factory windows 7 image that was dell to use. It installed easily.

Still Frankendell had issues I had an older GT 7900 vid card and it proved to be defective and tossed that. Pulled out a GTX 650 Pny card to find it borked also giving me black screens on reboots. I tried a simple radon card and poof things worked fine but sadly it had no balls other than basic graphics. So I walked to my closet and pulled out a Evga GTX 560 Ti card I had just pulled from my third string back up computer. It had dual 560's bridged and ran fine till about a month back when the net port on the MB took a dump. I ended up installing a Ethernet adapter on it to get around the issue and the "Holy Hell!" costly MB! God you would think that MB's for an older system would be cheap but the intel 1133 boards must be made of gold.

I put in the High end video card that just fit and fired it up and Volia it ran perfectly! Even the when it updates and then locked issue was gone! So it finished and I had a functioning system. But I noticed that it ran very hot the video card was very hot. So I went digging into my spare fan box. I used a 80MM one on the front of the case blowing onto the Hd. I used a 120 mm inside blowing on front of the card and a old Dell HV case fan on the side blowing out of the grill on the case cover.

I did have one accident I was testing fans and while holding one of the old XPS HV fans and plugging it in it slipped and bit my thumb breaking the fan and of course gashing my thumb leaving me with a painful cut to nurse. In the end it runs and runs windows 7 and actually can run Second Life well.

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