Todnem.com (beta)

This may be a new mission for Spiderman, The Bowl Head Pirates, and the Wicked Witch of the West.  No blogs, no emails, and no phone calls.  Hmmm?

Lisa, glad you won't have to go to the vet. 

Our pastor told this story last Sunday:

 A helicopter pilot became disoriented in a dense  fog in Seattle and was lost.  He found a break in the fog and saw a large tall office building .  Seeing people inside he quickly he wrote "Where am I" on a large note pad and held it up while he hovered along side the building. One of the people inside noticed the helicopter and wrote back "You're in a helicopter".  From this infomation the pilot was able to determine exactly where he was.  You see, he had to be at the Microsoft Technical Service Building because where else would you get such technically correct but totally useless information?

Finally a day to do something other than move dirt.  It has been a VERY eventful week. I hesitate to say a bad week cause there was much good as well but we have to start somewhere.  Tuesday I forgot the cardinal rule of parking.  Never park small vehicles next to large vehicles.  particularly on the passenger side of the larger one.  Yes, I am my father's son, sigh.  You probably have it figured out by now but the 4 wheeler has a bit of a front end alignment problem along with half of a handlebar and a not so round front wheel.  I think we could say that round went to the water truck.  The  water truck came out of it very nicely with only a small scuff on the fender.  Aaarrrrgh, what was that about the bowl head pirates?
   Next the Bone head pirate captain who had the previous day checked the fuel in the cat was having so much fun that time flew by and so did the diesel just as he reached the top of the sloped bank and was starting down behind a full blade of dirt.  Needless to say the ship[Mr Tracks][ became very quite except for another Aaaarrrrgh from captain Bonehead.  Luckily we have a rescue ship called Longneck.  He was able to climb the grade and remove the dirt in front of Tracks and hook up a chain to tow Tracks into a level port.  One would expect that this being done, it would be a simple matter of a downhill run.  Now Captain Bonehead, being the cautious type thought he really wouldn't want to have Tracks start a runaway and come crashing into him so we summoned the First mate to use the brakes on tracks if necessary.  So far so good the First mate is in place the chain is attached and Longneck is huffing and puffing.  Long neck pulls and Tracks slide slightly and then decides he doesen't like this at all and refuses to move.  Well, Longneck is not about to accept this and snorts a little harder both lifting and pulling on Tracks.  They say chains were made to be broken which also resulted in Longneck and the captain doing a reverse wheelie but thankfully not an endo.  Now this really annoyed Longneck so he reached out his bucket and got behind Track's blade on one side and drug him down the hill one side at a time in a zig zag fashion.  This was a little disconcerting to the first mate as she was going down the grade in a side to side motion.  The tracks literally never turned as there is some automatic lockup if the engine isn't running.  After a little nuckle busting of injector lines and pumping the air out of the system Tracks is now feeling like his old self again.
  I should probably leave this one out but since the First Mate already spilled the beans to Grampa Ed you all may as well know too but first I want to express my profound GRATITUDE that I can tell this story with a happy ending.  Thursday I thought I could save some time and have the First mate run the compactor while I hauled more fill.  This machine has two control a hand throttle on one side and a forward -reverse lever on the other. This lever is designed so the more you move the lever the faster or slower you go either fwrd or reverse but it does not return to neutral by it's self.  Peggy started running in the area we were building up from the base of the excavation and was doing fine until she went further backward up the haul road that I use to bring in dirt.  I had been walking along side her as she was running the compactor  but she seemed to be picking up speed and I realized she was in trouble. This was a nightmare in real time. I was desperately trying to get to the  control lever on the other side of the machine.  My legs felt like concrete. I could see the lever but couldn't reach it.  In a moment of panic Peggy had pulled it to full speed reverse trying to stop the machine. Then I tripped  and looked up in time to see Peggy bail off the compactor just as the rear wheels were going over the bank. This is not the 12-15' bank I had built up so far but the 80' bank from dumping all the excavated material. Thank God she landed on her feet without a scratch.  I got to her in time to watch the compactor driving straight down the bank just like it new what to do.  Then it hit some brush and the other side slope of the hillside and did a flop over on its side still running.  Seeing her OK and with more gratitude than I thought I possesed I bailed over the hill to get the motor shut off.  Once that was accomplished Tracks made a short road to get off the hill and Longneck was once again willing to help and  turned his little buddy to an upright position.  The only damage was a few scratches and a bent muffler and some spilled diesel.  In the mean time Peggy is apologizing profusely for ruining the compactor. While I am gratefull that there was little damage, compared to seeing her standing OK at the top of the bank, the damage wasn't even worth mentioning. What Amazing Grace we were given.  We are currently considering a new agreement where she bakes the pies and I do the dirt work  All in favor?