Cofer and I cruised over to Chattanooga, TN to catch the game. It was great! It was like college all over again. Road trip!!!!!! It was so cold there that we didn't have to worry about the beer getting warm. Like the hat? I may look like a tool but it sure does keep my ears from freezing off. Also the high school I went to, Charlotte Catholic, won a championship too! Things are looking good for me when it comes to football. This is the way I see it, my H.S and college have won championships so it's only natural that my Bills will win the Super Bowl in the next couple of years to complete the trifecta. Tell your friends you heard it first on 1-13-2006 by a wise man. The Bills will win it all!!!!!
The one issue that has been killing me this winter has been this DAMN gas bill!!!!! Alright people! You ready for this????? My last gas bill was $150!!!!! WHAT THE CRAP!!!!!! Honestly. I almost had an accident in my pants when I saw it. I cannot believe that a single guy in a 1700 sqft. house can use that much. Now I know they are filing us all full of this "due to the hurricanes gas prices will be going up" but this has to stop. Get this! The first thing I did when I saw the bill was go and shut off the heat!!! Look!!! I just took this picture of me working on the computer. Look at all of the stuff I have on!!! HE HE HE HE HE!!!!
Here I am watching TV. I knew this 32 degrees rated sleeping bag would come in handy someday!!!
You think that's funny. Look at what I wear when I go to bed....
That's right! Hat, long sleeved shirt, fleece, PJ pants and wool socks! The coldest it has been since I have turned off the heat is 45 degrees!!!! YEAH! That's cold!!!! THANK GOD I don't live up north! The cops and paramedics would kick down my door after I hadn't shown up at work for a few days and find me frozen in my bed! Go ahead and laugh but I will not pay that much to heat my house. Besides, it's only me. Now if I had a family it would be totally different. I would have no problem paying that to keep them warm.
I have been on my energy conservation crusade for the last couple of months. For Christmas I asked for and received a programmable thermostat! NICE!!!!! I have also installed those insulated foam pieces in each outlet and light switch, made a piece with insulation to go over the opening to the attic too.
I also checked under the house to see if anything needed to be re insulated. I found a few areas where there was NO insulation at all. I went to Home Depot and purchased some new insulation. Check it out!!!! Remember when I wrote about going there all the time when I was fixing the place up? I said "I'm there so much that the check out lady knows me by name. Too bad she has never seen a dentist. She'd be alright lookin'." Well I have an update on her. She is still kickin' it there and she has a new hairdo!!!! BUT! Her teeth still look like a 19th century chimney sweepers. I'm sooooo going to hell for that one but it was a great analogy. Anyways!!! I put on my coveralls, gloves and my head lamp and went under the house. Don't worry.... I didn't find any dead bodies. I did all the sections that were missing insulation and fixed everywhere the old stuff was hanging down. I also went and replaced every light bulb with a fluorescent one. I know this doesn't effect my gas bill but it saves energy and money. So I went ahead and did it.
Christmas was good to me. Mom and dad had a few pictures framed for me. This one is of our family tree.
These are prints of my Uncle Jim's pictures he painted and a killer letter he sent me when I was in college 11 years ago! It is one of the best letters I have EVER received. You see the $2.50? At the end of the letter he said "Here's $2.50. Go and take a big breasted woman out to a dinner and movie on me. P.S. Keep the change" CLASSIC Uncle Jim!!!!!!!! I know to some people reading this that might not be funny and kind of sexist but you had to know him... It was all in good humor. DAMN I MISS HIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My house has turned into the family art gallary... I have pictures from my uncles from both sides of the family. This one was from my great uncle Reed. It's a picture painted at the McBride farm in Ohio. It's about 50 or so years old.
This was done by my uncle Kevin. It's exactly what you would have seen looking out of my grandma Cawley's kitchen window 30 some years ago. Matter of fact, today it looks the same! WHOOPS!!! I forgot. They tore down the house right next to the church. But everything else looks the same.
I was giving the house tour to my best friend and his wife. Almost every room had a picture someone in my family painted and he goes to me. "Dang McBride! Your family is pretty talented... What happened to you?" What the heck can you say to that?
I also received a swing and some rocking chairs for the front porch.
