Here we are at the coveted 12th blog entry. I figured I’d be totally excited to be done with yet another assignment but I’ve actually enjoyed this. I never gave much thought to blogging; I mean seriously who cares what I think or have to say. I’m not highly educated or terrifically informed, heck, I barely watch the news. I’ve only read a couple of books in my life so it’s not like I’m gonna talk about books. I like music but my knowledge is mostly of a trivial sort and I don’t know much about the newer popular music. So what’s the deal? I’m a story teller by nature; in fact anyone who knows me will tell you that. I drive my friends and family crazy ‘cause I start a story, that generally takes to long to tell, get off track and then, a while later, pick up right where I left off and finish. My friend, who is a professional writer, has been reading my entries and called me one day to say; “Boy yer writin’ some good stuff,” quite a compliment coming from someone of his stature. So the question is: To hang it up or keep it up? I’d be interested to hear what you readers of the blog have to say. Don’t worry about hurtin’ my feelings, I’m just curious. ‘sides I ain’t gonna blog about feelings. So post something on the blog, if that’s possible, or drop me an e-mail. mgoldfin@dri.edu

Tell’em Mitch says hey

Supermoto Saturday

After not doing so much homework as I should have, on Saturday, I went outside and jumped on my chores. I worked like a house-a-fire ‘cause, just like a kid, my wife gives me the stink eye if try to leave before my they’re done. Well knowing that the preliminary races at the Supermoto were to start at 2:00 I cut out about 1:10 for the Grand Sierra, where the events were taking place. When I got there I had to drive around for about 20 minutes before I found a parking space near Glendale Avenue; which was a long way from the action since the races were on the south side of the casino almost to Mill Street. I walked into the casino to purchase a ticket for 10.00, a great deal, and as I was standing in line a guy (this was classic) says “pssst hey buddy you wanna buy a ticket for $5.00?” “Is it a good ticket?” I asked. “Yeah” he said, “I got like 8 of ‘em from work so I figure I’ll just sell what I’m not gonna use for beer money.” “You gotta deal pal” I said, slipped ‘im a fin and made my way past the endless line and into the races with an extra $5.00 in my pocket. A good time was had by all.

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A long time ago I used to ride motorcycles (dirt bikes)racing cross country and just puddle jumpin’, you know trail ridin’ with friends. Well in 1984 Tiny Bill, Jackson and I decided we would go race the grand daddy of ‘em all “Barstow to Vegas.” It’s a 175 mile point to point race with about 1500 riders. Well, it took place on Thanksgiving weekend, so armed with thanksgiving leftovers we left for Barstow about 3:00 AM Friday morning. We got to Barstow about 11:00 AM and checked into a Motel 6. We would only be there for the night ‘cause the race was Saturday morning early. Since there were three of us and only two beds we flipped coins and I got the floor. We were kickin-back watchin’ football when we heard some clatter from outside. Jackson peered out the window and said “it’s the maid with the towel cart we should grab some extra towels.” “Sounds like a good idea,” I said and got up from my sleeping bag. It was pretty cold out and I was in just my boxers but I figured that I would just run out, grab the towels and run back in. Well I ran out, grab the towels, turned around and the door was shut. I banged on the door and Jackson yelled “who is it?” “Open the door Jackson” I said. Jackson peered out the window and said “Bill, it’s Mitch!” We were all so tired that it really seemed funny and we started crackin’ up. Luckily Jackson opened the door before I froze or got caught by the maid.

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Ahh, Saturday time for a little R&R…..NOT! First thing I gotta get a little school work done to free up the rest of the day to do chores. I didn’t get to do weed eater last weekend so the edges are lookin’ a little shabby and don’t even get me started on the culvert ditch out front. I’d really like to get the corn patch rapped up ‘cause pretty soon it’s gonna be to late to plant. Plus I slept in late this mornin’, almost 7:00 and been burnin’ daylight watchin’ world cup. We’re soccer fans around here and a little worried about the US team making it to the next round; I could spend the rest of this entry explaining the scenarios that could transpire to get us there, but I gotta get outside. Yesterday at lunch a lady asked how offside works and by the time I finished explaining it to her my food was cold and she looked like a deer in the headlights. Anyway, I wanna get my chores done ‘cause there’s “Supermoto” at the Grand Sierra today and the last time it was in town was about six years ago. We don’t get enough of this stuff around here, so when it does come I try to make it. Gotta go!

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Big Minny

A while back I told you about Minny the dog. She’s very lovable and fun; at 14 months old she is still quite the puppy, big puppy. We were at the vet last week and she weighs 91 pounds. I don’t know if she’ll get much bigger but she’ll probably fill out and end up about 105 to 115 pounds. Anyway, Minny took a shining to Lori’s flowers; she started eating the flowers off of the stems. So like we come out in the morning and we have a bunch of green stems sticking up but no flowers. So let the training begin. Well we got her off of the flower thing and things were going good when she discovered the mini solar lights along the walkway. Just like with the flowers, she topped the lights. Yeah, she ripped the tops off the mini solar lights so all that was left was the stems; if you will. Once again Minny’s in the dog house, literally, hiding from Lori ‘cause she’s pissed, Lori that is. After an intense training session, on solar light nibbling, Minny seems to have figured it out. But no, today I get home from work and there’s a piece of soaker hose from the lilac hedge and Minny hiding behind Opie in the dog house. I’ll bet she wishes she had a door on that dog house so she could lock Lori out. Well we’re heading out to get her some chew toys to see if that will help. She ate the ones from before.

Tell’em Mitch says hey

Well heck, here I am again up late doin’ homework. It’s no wonder I didn’t do well in school when I was young, this is hard work. It isn’t as hard as it is time consuming and sleep detrimental. Okay, enough belly achin’! It’s Thursday night, well almost Friday Morning, and that means no school and no work for the weekend. Yippee skippy I’m gonna try to get my corn patch finished. I’ve got the posts in and I have all the fencing. The other day I started attaching the chicken wire to the bottom of the fence panels (chicken wire for rabbit proofing) once I’m done with that I can attach the fence panels to the posts and run the sprinkler system around the inside of the fence. Then the cool part, plantin’ corn. It’s really kinda funny that I get excited over this stuff, ten years ago I couldn’t have cared less. I been thinkin’, I can’t have a corn patch without a scarecrow and right now the image I’ve got in my mind is kind of a cross between the scarecrow from Wizard of Oz and Dolly Parton. I know, kinda weird but it’s just crazy enough to work.

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I forgot

Whoops, I almost forget to make a blog posting. It’s about 11:30 on Wednesday night, I’d been working on assignment 6 and then read chapter 7 and took the quiz and was getting ready for bed when I realized I forgot. I forgot, though commonly used, is rarely accepted in the world of excuses. Back in about 1990, when we had our own business, we weren’t very diligent about tax records and such, but that particular year we were ready before April 15 and feeling pretty cocky, since it was the first time ever. Well, come the 15th, we were all in bed asleep when suddenly I woke up with a jolt; SHOOT!(PG) I shouted, waking my wife in alarm, we forgot to mail in our tax forms. It was about 11:30 PM. Lori said, “send it off tomorrow and tell them you forgot.” “Yeah,” I replied, “good one honey.” And I bolted from bed, through on some clothes, ran to the car and beat cheeks for the post office on Vassar. We live in the back of Lemmon Valley so by the time I got to the post office it was like less than 1 minute to midnight and the crowd outside was incredible. Since I’d already experienced the wrath of the IRS I knew I had to get that envelope time stamped before 12:00. I parked on the street, on the East side of the post office, jumped the fence and with postal security hot on my tail, ran across the compound, jumped the fence on the other side, ran in the front door (right past all the other people in line) and handed the envelope to the clerk. I had made it with 8 seconds to spare. Suffices to say I wasn’t very well liked at the P.O. that night.

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Cars

Working on my own vehicles is something I’ve always enjoyed. A couple of Saturdays ago I changed the driver’s side hub/bearing assembly and tie rod end on my truck. Seemed to be a pretty simple task and with an early start I should be done by noon or so. Or so I thought. First thing, I realized I didn’t have a large enough socket to remove the hub nut so I had to go purchase one to continue. Well not a big thing ‘cause I needed to go pick up the parts I’d ordered. When I got back I dove into the project. I got the hub assembly off and while it was, I R&R’d the tie rod end. It was going good. Then I replaced the hub. I got it on and torqued to the proper specs when I realized I had forgotten to replace the brake rotor protection plate. Dang it! So off came the hub assembly, on went the plate and I put the hub on for the second time; back on track. That is until I went to put the rotor on. The darn plate was on inside out, ERRRRR! So I removed the hub for the 3rd time, flipped the plate and after much frustration finished up in time to have the front end aligned and a cold beer before dinner.

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A Typical Sunday morning

Most every Sunday Lori (my wife) and I and our friend Ed go to breakfast. We have a circuit of restaurants and cafés that we rotate through. It started out one Sunday when one of us heard an ad for a real cheap breakfast deal so we checked it out. We had a ball just visiting and joking around while we ate so we decided we would go out again the next Sunday. This time one of the other members of the trio would be responsible for finding the most breakfast for the lowest price. And so it went, how much bang could we get for our buck. We were finding some really good deals but sometimes we were getting more quantity than quality, so we had to raise our standards as to what was acceptable. Our credo became: a respectable sized portion of good food with attentive service for a fair price. Since then, and this has been on-going for a few years now, we have sampled numerous eateries of our community. When we recon a new place we’re very open minded yet critical. As if to be restaurant critics we converse on the service, the quality and size of the portions and the price of the meal. Then we collectively decide if the establishment is worthy of being added to our list of possible Sunday venues. Sometimes if we really like a place we let them know they have been accepted and that we will put them into the rotation, it always makes them very happy. If we don’t like the place, we just pay up and split.

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When Thumper comes to visit

Our daughter, who lives in an apartment in town, has a dog named Thumper. Thumper is a “Bull Boxer Pit” and he is a real good dog. He is very inquisitive and has to have his face in what ever you are doing. He has even gone so far as to try to sniff the bar of the chainsaw while it was running; adorable but not so bright. Anyway, when she goes out of town, or sometimes just thinks he needs to visit with his dog relatives, she leaves him with us which we enjoy. Thumper’s favorite thing to do is rip around the yard with Minny, our giant girl puppy, and reap all kinds of havoc including dive bombing the other two boy dogs Opie and Lucky who are older and don’t have the patience for such nonsense. But Minny and Thumper love each other and just have a ball. It’s actually a good break for Opie and Lucky “cause when Minny get’s bored she terrorizes them. She’s a Shepard/mastiff cross 14 months old and doesn’t realize her own strength so she can be a little brutal sometimes, even though she’s just playin’. So Thumper is the perfect playmate they go non-stop the whole time he’s around. Thumper’s biggest fault is he likes to run like crazy and go splash around in the dogs’ water dish, so we have to change it pretty regular when he’s here. Well by the time she picks Thumper up from his visit everyone, including us, is ready for some R&R.

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The Garden

Last year my wife and I had our first successful vegetable garden ever. We have tried on and off through the years but they always get over taken by weeds or we neglect the chores that goes along with a garden or rabbits get to it. We live on an acre, which isn’t big but since we no longer have horses, pigs, sheep, goats or chickens we haven’t been utilizing the back half of the lot. We are bringing back chickens next year ‘cause we miss the fresh eggs; and with chickens you always have someplace to throw food scraps you don’t feed to the dogs. Oh yeah dogs too. Anyway, we cleared a space about 24’ x 36’ got all the weeds out, put up some posts and surrounded it with hog panels (left over from the pig pen) and ran 24” chicken wire around the perimeter to keep the rabbits out, we have lots of jack rabbits out here. We buried the chicken wire 6” down ‘cause them dang rabbits is sneaky. Then we ran some drip line tubing around the inside perimeter of the panels and installed 4 sprinkler heads. We didn’t get fancy about the sprinklers, we ran the loop about 2’ off the ground and attached it to the panels with zip ties. There are 4 sprinkler heads, one on each side, that spray a half circle each and cover the whole space very nicely. Well, we enjoyed it so much, we’re doin’ it again this year and I’m puttin’ a corn patch.

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Here I go a bloggin'

Hi, my name is Mitch Goldfin and I’m very new to the whole blogging thing. For those of you out there in Bloggerville, who know me, I’m taking a class at TMCC and having a blog is one of the requirements; so don’t be cuttin’ up. For those of you, who don’t know me, don’t be offended by the above statement. You’d have to know some of my friends. ‘Cause if you told them that Mitch Goldfin has a blog they would laugh. Anyway, I’m 52 years old, was born in California and moved to Sparks right before my 10th birthday in August 1967. I grew up on East Lincoln St. which is the street that intersects with East McCarren over by Sierra Sid’s and there’s a car wash on the corner. But when I was a kid that whole area was nothing but fields and ditches and it was a great place to grow up. I graduated from Wooster High School in 1975 and then worked in construction, as a carpenter, until I took a job at Desert Research Institute with the maintenance department as the in-house carpenter in 1999 and I’m still there. I started taking classes at TMCC in 2006 to earn an AS in Construction Management. I take two to three classes a semester and should finish up in the spring of 2011. Currently the only class I’m in is IS 101; it’s a condensed summer session class and man is it fast. I’m muddling my way through it and it’s only four weeks long so “ain’t no thang!”

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An introduction

Well here I go, bloggin'!