fuzzy teeth, buzzy brains

Ok, I should know better. I don’t drink all that often and every time I do, I pay for it. Oh am I paying for it.

Saturday, a bunch of us who live in the area or were home visiting family got together at the local park. We cooked hot dogs, drank beer and played in the sun for the better part of the day. I got thrown in the lake twice. I got sunburned, just like everyone else. It was fun. We had a great time catching up on all the things we’d done since the last time we were together. Not exactly a reunion, but more like a neighborhood get together.

Sunday, we did it again. Yeah, we are dumb! However, it wasn’t at the lake, but at Craig’s house. One of those big farmhouses just out of town. There must have been about 20 of us and enough booze for 50. Craig’s mom made lots of food, and we ate and drank until most of us were too stupid to drive home. Craig’s dad took the car keys of the really drunk ones and handed out sleeping bags. I was going to walk home, as it’s only about a mile away, but by midnight, I didn’t really want to walk. Couldn’t walk. So, I slept on the grass with the rest of the bunch.

Woke up this morning and called George. Explained that I’d be late and hung up. Jim and I drove home. He laughed when I said “home James!”. That had been a joke between us ever since he was little. Silly things sisters do to brothers. I can’t remember what movie we actually saw that had the actors saying that. It’s still funny.

By the time I found something to wear that didn’t hurt my sunburn, downed enough aspirin to stop my head spinning and was able to brush my teeth, it was nearly 11am. George laughed at me when I showed up with sunglasses on my bright red nose. I told him he was thinking too loud.

Of course, this being Monday, all the people who messed up their computers over the weekend were calling for help. The damned phone wouldn’t stop ringing! awwwwwgh… I even turned down the ringer and it didn’t help. And, right around 4pm, my favorite customer called. Yep, Mr. I-can’t-get-rid-of-the-cookies-on-my-machine. grrrrr! However, in spite of the 9.5 beer hangover headache, I managed to be polite.

George was nice though. He took me out for dinner. Partially to celebrate him getting rid of the sling, and partly because he took pity on me! Barbecue! Yummm….

I got home about 30 minutes ago and I think I’m going to bed. After I take one more dose of aspirin!

Muck, sunburn and miles to go before I shower!

Ok, the steel toed boots got a workout yesterday! Kevin, George and I loaded up the work truck and headed out towards the first on a long list of towers. The first one is just outside of town, and George has climbed it a lot. They put a repeater up on the tower so we could test the RF frequencies. Had to let the local sheriff know what we were doing too. We plan to help the local law enforcement with their communications issues once we buy the towers.

Then we got to drive up and down the highways in the area to see when we lost the signal and how far away it was. I got to do the mapping on the paper map while Kevin worked the laptop. Wheee…

After a quick lunch, it was off to a tower out on the plains. In the middle of a cow pasture! I think George stepped in the cow pie first. However, it didn’t matter how careful we were. In some places the only choice was cow pie or cactus. Uck! Oh, and let’s not forget about the dust. It has been so dry out here that everthing is bone dry. This tower is twice the size of the first one. George only went up about 100ft. We took pictures and as soon as I can wrestle the camera away from the guys, I’ll download some of the pics. The next tower was nearly 50 miles farther east. It is bloody huge! Must be at least 350ft tall. Four of the first tower would fit under it with no problem. The guys did their thing with the radios while I stayed on the ground. Watched for rattlesnakes too! shudder!!!

We finally stopped around 8pm, because the sun was setting. I must of put sun screen on twenty times during the day, but I still got burned. Collected bugs too! That stuff must be aphrodisiac for the damned things! The safety belt rubbed my shoulder right at the edge where it was burned. It made for a long ride home. yeah, a little tired and whiny by that point!

I think I figured out that we traveled nearly 250 miles on this trip. Had the guys speaking in computer babble most of the day. Scary part? I’m beginning to really understand it!!! Oh, and the phone rang while we were out in the field. It was one of our regular customers who bollixes up his computer all the time with viruses and porn. George handed me the phone and I talked him through it! No computer, no notes, nothing! When I handed the phone back to George, he and Kevin just smiled at me. Called me G33k gURL the rest of the day on the radio.

Best part of the day though was the shower. I went straight there and threw all my clothes on the back porch to wash. I’ll need to hose off the boots. I crawled into the shower and I swear that the water ran brown for at least ten minutes! I had mud in the drain! Of course when I got out I had to laugh! I have a farmer’s tan! Head, neck and lower arms sunburned and rings around my eyes from the sunglasses! sigh…. Good thing I’m not too vain about the whole “body beautiful” thing. There is no way I am ever going to even this out. sigh…

Today George and Kevin are going to the ARRL Field Day event. Umpteen gillion Amateur Radio guys (well, most of them are guys) wandering around with their ham radios. kd9 ***, receives your signal 4 by 5. I teases him about playing with the stone age geeks. He says that they are really SteamPunk, only they never left the Steam Age! In some ways, he’s right. Granted, if he and Kevin have their way, I’ll have my technician’s license in a few months. The little radio’s we use just don’t hack it the way his ham radio does. So,…. I just have to hope they can’t find me a radio in some embarrassing color like pink!