'HAPPY whatever doesn't offend you'!!! Version V

 This guy's post is 98% on the MARK, if you want to check out his recommendations CLICK HERE 


If you want to read mine from 4 years of doing this: CLICK HERE


ENJOY!

 To all that think the world owns you something, a prophet from the 60s named Mick sang a little song that EVERYONE needs to know and ACCEPT!

 

It has ONLY taken over a year......

 BUT I finally completed it. Let's go back a year shall we? My cousin, his girlfriend and I started installing 'heat barrier' and had to abruptly stop when he fell through the ceiling. OUCH! That will leave a mark!

 Well it's been a year and I have done a little bits of it at a time, BUT not during the summer months because it gets REALLY hot up there and quick! Do you really wanna see a picture of it? It is not that exciting BUT OKIE DOKIE, I hope you like it? HA! Anyways, here are the 'ANDY things to have and remember when doing ANY project due to this STUPID brain stuff''

• Have my phone on me at ALL times.
• Take your time and remember that "Rome was NOT built in a day".
• When that feeling of 'unbalance' occurs, take a break.
• Do things slow.
• Remember that you are NOT 18 anymore.
• Realize that "THIS IS YOUR LIFE NOW".1 

 This is what I used and I STRONGLY suggest you install it because it works REALLY good and it's gives you some tax rebates! Not saying you will pull a TRUMP and not pay any taxes, but it will help you NOT pay as much.

 FYI- this was a post that was NOT 'written in stone'. You see, in the middle of the month, I was just chillin' on the couch reading some stuff on DA NET. I went to reach for something on my coffee table/my great great uncle's old tool box, when I lost my balance and fell on the floor. I fell hard, KRIPES I KNOW I DID, because when I fell, I was in such shock and pain that it took me a good 5 minutes to catch my breath. So I was limited to what I could do because I did something to my side when I fell, I think I bruised my ribs pretty good. ANYWAYS, this 'limited' me for a while. I just hung out of the couch and healed while my butt and the couch became BFFs and I helped my mom out by scanning a freakin' shoe box full of pictures she had.


 Oh and kids!?! Whatever side of the aisle you are on (Republican or Democrat) THE SUN WILL come up the day after the election. Your life will be the same, and as much as the media, internet and both parties tell you, we will NOT head for an apocalyptic future!

1. My good friend Mike C. told his dad this when Mike's mom had cancer and she was getting chemo. His dad grew impatient while he was in the waiting room, saying that it was taking too long and they had lunch to go to at a certain time. Mike told his dad to relax and THIS IS YOUR LIFE NOW and he had no choice but to accept it.

POPCORN!!

 I love eating it BUT I really don't like seeing it on my ceilings. It WAS the thing to do to a new house in the 80s and 90s BUT it is sooooooooooooooooooooooo '20th century' now... I have always wanted to take it off for years BUT I never have gotten around to it UNTIL my cousin fell through the ceiling in 10/15. Don't worry, he was OKIE DOKIE and we so patched it up.

 BUT!!! It had me thinking, "What better time than now to start doing it." PLUS I saw how awesome my neighbor's house looked with it all removed and I have had plenty of time to do it! FYI- I was laid off in February and STILL currently jobless, that's what happens when you DON'T look for one. ANYWAYS! It was a great excuse for me to just deal with the mess it creates and work on it room to room. It's really not that hard to remove. Just spray it with some water and scrap it off. SEE, I told ya it wasn't that hard. The ONLY thing that kinda sucks is having to stop to move furniture and stuff around, UGH I SHOULD have done it when I first bought the place when there was NOTHING in it.

The first room was the back room.

 

 With confidence, I did the main room.

AHHHH kripes!!! I ain't here to waste your time, here are ALL the rooms:

And here they are ALL painted.

 In other news, the crew that 'reclaimed', that is what they call it now, left some of the stuff they did not use on the side of the road. So I took my old truck (18 years old) and got a few loads of 'rip rap' rock and filled in the back corner of my house.

HA! Check out Bailey who 'photo bombed' the picture.

 Besides that, there is NOTHING new here, BORING blog entry I know and I am sorry. Words of advise for ya, NEVER write a check your @$$ can't cash! Take care and talk to ya next month.

NEW ROAD & it's ABOUT time!

 Yep you heard me right, after having a 'sub' level road to and from casa de McBride, they are redoing it! HELLO appraisal value! Actually, my house has NEVER fallen past what I paid for it over 10 years ago... HA! Too much info I am sharing you say, WELL it's ALL public record so ANYONE can see it. Don't believe me? Just put in your address and see YOUR info. ANYWAYS, they are first replacing the drainage pipes at the end of each driveway, they are replacing the old metal ones that tend to rust over time to new plastic ones, and because of that, they have piles of concrete and asphalt. On my daily walk, I was talking to the foreman of the road crew and after chatting for an hour about how they redo a road, where he lives, high school football, his crew, what I planned to do with all the old concrete/asphalt and just life in general, he told me to take as much of it as I needed. He even had one of the guys on his crew DELIVER a few loads for me.

  So I did just that! HA!!! And made a retaining wall so the driveway my neighbor Jimmy just made to go to his SWEET @$$ shop doesn't have run off from my yard.

Picasso, I mean Jimmy, showing his new driveway who is boss, HIM DANG NABBIT!!

PLUS it looks nice if I say so myself.

Right side.

Left side.

 I also built a retaining wall where they put in the new drainage pipe because when it rains hard, look like this:

 ALSO, I used some quartz and other rock they had so I could make the access to my septic tank easier to find for when the guy comes to pump it out every other year.

HA! Don't think for a SECOND that when I talk about ANYTHING to do with 'sewage', I won't include this dandy scene that we ALL love!

Oh and, this is where the 'Buddy Christ' I have in my car is from.

 One more item I would like to address. R.I.P Gene aka Willy Wonka. The majority of people on Twitter quoted "But Charlie, don't forget what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he always wanted.... He lived happily ever after." Every time I hear that, I think back to 2002 and my brother's wedding. The bride's maid made her speech and said this almost exactly. I was a little tipsy and said real loud, "HEY, that's from Willy Wonka!, You plagiarizer!" Have a great month you wild and wacky kids.

Dare I say, it's too much of a good thing in the SUN room........

 At casa de McBride, I have a back room that I usually hang out in because it has lots of windows and I have direct access to get WIFI that my neighbor's have and gave me the password to!!! WOO HOO!!!! FREE RULES!! Here is what it was and I placed 'bullet points' for each thing I and others did.

•  March 1, 2016 The first thing I did was replace the ceiling fan. My friend Scott S. helped do that. 

• March 1, 2016 Then we also started taking the stupid 'popcorn' off the ceiling. I think EVERY house built in the 80s and 90s, mine was built in 1997, had this CRAP.

•  May 1, 2016 After consulting with many females, I painted it GRAY, it's actually called 'DARK ASH'. My cousin Chris calls it 'boiler room gray' HA!!

•  May 9th, 2016 Ripped out the carpet.

•  May 12, 2016 Secured a mount for the where a TV will go eventually.

•  May 15, 2016 My neighbor Jimmy came over and showed me how to make sure the ceiling is all smooth to paint.

• May 15, 2016 He helped cut a hole in the ceiling so I could add some heat barrier to it.

• May 19, 2016 Tiled a section and used some tile left over from casa Mike and Liz also some that I picked up from the parking lot of the old tile factory in Olean, NY.

 

• May 27, 2016 Jimmy helped cover the hole we made in the ceiling and I finished painting it...

 

• May 27, 2016 Placed wall tile where an old wood stove will go eventually.

• May 28, 2016 Installed brand new hardwood floors, well actually they are lament flooring but YOU would have never know if I did not tell you.

Day 1

Day 2

• July 5th, 2016 Hung some 'nostalgic' stuff around it and made it all pretty. 

And now it's time to show off the final result.

 I also went on my annual tour to see people and go some places I have NOT been in a long time:

• First stop was Boone, NC, where I went to college. I just walked around the campus and reminisced and thought that there is NO WAY I could EVER get into this fine establishment today!

• Then went to Charleston, West ' BY GOD' Virginia to hang out with an old radio buddy who is very 'unique' and as he said it, "In EXILE" up there.

       
           He took me to a FREE concert that night too!!! I consider Joe Walsh one of the most
          'unappreciated' guitarist EVER!!

•  The next day I drove up to Mansfield, OH to spend a day with my grandma McBride, YES! She is STILL alive!!! In her 90's and still pretty darn feisty!!! I also hung out with my cousin Chris! He and I are kindred souls! We both like doing the same stuff.
•  The day after that, I drove up to Erie, PA and stayed at casa de Kaye for TACO NIGHT! Her daughter SHAY SHAY, showed me the WONDERFUL world of 'walking tacos'! WOO HOO!!!! I have SEEN the top of the mountain, AND it is GOOOOOOOOOOD! Anyways, Kaye is an old friend and her and I just hang out on the back porch and busted out old photo albums and we reminisce about stuff and laughed. She has 4 teenagers so it's needless to say that the house is ALWAYS busy. She also gave me a gift for the back room. 
 

 It's an old pot belly stove that needs some TLC and will look AWESOME in the back room I just redid.

 FYI- They use to have POT BELLY wood stoves in railroad stations and cabooses. I thought it would be PERFECT for keeping the room warm on those few days it gets cold here. FYI- whenever you are placing something REAL heavy in your house, you have to support the beams under it. So I went and did just that a few months ago.... SORRY but I took no pictures because the LAST thing I want to do in a wet, dark, dirty and cramped space is stop what I am doing and take a picture. So just 'image' it in your mind.....

•  The next day I drove to Allegany, NY but made a stop at the R.R museum in Salamanca. I went 20+ YEARS ago but I needed to go again for a refresher. Got a thing or two for the back room I just did. Hung out with Steve and Lynda K. I know I was a special guest because Lynda put on a bra for me. HA!

•  Went to a wedding on Saturday, saw some relatives that are ALWAYS great to see at my cousin Karen's 'getting hitched' day

•  Sunday, the majority of the Cawley Clan gathered up at the Sunny Hill camp site.

•  Took my morning walk with an uncle of mine and I was SOOOOOOOOOO excited when he asked me if he could go with me! We just solved a few of the world's problems and talked about life! It was GREAT! AHHHHHH the simple things are the most precious!

•  Monday: I hung out with an old friend who is sick BUT we still had a blast just hanging out and talking. I'm all about 'free will' but I will say that smoking= a very yucky and slow death...

•  Tuesday: Evan K. (E-Train) and I went hiking at Rock City. We had fun hiking around and exploring. E-Train just turned 16 and is learning to drive, so I had him drive us to lunch. GOOD LORD! Teaching someone to drive through a 4 way stop sign and round about can be really stressful BUT he did a great job.

•  Went up to Buffalo and had lunch with an old friend and checked out the Bills and Sabres stores. OH and the new Harbor Center is SWEEEEEEEEET!

•  Another uncle along with his buddies took me canoeing on the Alleghany river

       And I reminisced about when I was a kid and my buddies and I made 'Molotov cocktails' and would throw them against this old bridge. AHHHHH the stupid stuff we ALL did as kids!! If I did
that today, I would so be getting a knock on the door from 'homeland security'.

       I am ashamed to say this BUT I had NEVER seen a bald eagle, OUR national bird, until that
      day! I know, HELLO COMMUNIST!

• Then went to my BFF's house in Virginia. We hung out with some other friends, Mo and Travis.

        

        The next day we went to the Manasses Battle field park. Pretty cool stuff but VERY bloody!

     That's it for McBride Tour '16, see y'all next time! And to everyone I saw on my trip, THANKS
     for putting up with me! After a 6 month 'sabbatical' and a 1730 mile road trip, it's time for me to
     look for a job... FYI- I am bored! Talk to y'all next month.

A little nugget of information for ya....

 I, Andy McBride, used to work at a machine shop named PMI when I lived in WI. 1999-2001, with the Haver brothers.

Andy H., me and Scott H.

.

 They taught me how to weld and all kinds of stuff that involved MACHINING! Y'all, I know the difference between welders and proper machining maintenance (use some sort of oil when drilling so the bit doesn't dull so fast...)

A step I made for when I was climbing in the back, usually in a tent.

Just a front trailer hitch to make it easier to move stuff around without trying to steer and move around stuff like my boat while looking in my mirrors. 

In WI and other states, you HAVE to have license plate in the front, So I made a holder that I could just put in my hitch.

So after about 13 years, the last time I was up there was 2003, I went and saw them... Here are some highlights and a couple lowlights.

• I LOVE the Havers (Andy and Deanna). They were VERY good to me in some rough years.
• I am soooooo glad to have seen how much PMI has grown... I saw it first- KRIPES just look where I stayed!

Spa De Haver

• Scott H. is SUPER cool to hang out with in his office and just talk to!
• The Haver kids Holly, Natalie, Heidi and Mitchell are pretty funny and ALL grown up! MY GOD!

Holly, Natalie, Heidi and Mitchell

• Holly is getting her freakin' DOCTORATE in Bio Chemistry! The kid is gonna cure cancer!!!! I asked to cure spinal cerebellum ataxia too! I'm sick of falling and moving around like I am an 80 year old man.
• Natalie just graduated 'beautician school' and gave me one of the best haircuts EVER! I can so tell people that she cut my hair after they see her on CNN's news segment about her whooping sweet business 'HAIR-PA-LOOZA' and the empire she has created!! GUYS, I think she will be the hair stylist to the RICH and FAMOUS in under 10 years.
• Heidi is your typical teenager who is on snap chat ALL THE FREAKIN' TIME, 'borrows' her sister's cloths that she deems are cool and ALWAYS has some DRAMA she is dealing with in her life. She has like 1500 friends too!!! HELLO SOCIAL BUTTERFLY! She also has a great loud laugh like I do. FYI- people, a mile away, can tell when she laughs.
• Mitchell is my buddy because my humor is very immature and he laughs at the stupid stuff I say and I SAY A LOT!!! Oh and DUDE, I KNOW 'pizza-pa-looza 2016' was a huge success, who cares if the whole house smelled like a camp fire.
• Spent some time with Kathy K. (my ex girlfriend's mom) and she was so happy I came by to say hi. She is such a sweet heart. We sat around and chatted for a few hours.
• Andy H. was going to fly me to St. Cloud, MN but you know that one person we all work with that needs their hand held ALL THE TIME? WELL that person decided to have an EMERGENCY meeting with Andy. SO he was not able to fly me. Instead I drove to MN. and I had a Jeep and I was NOT impressed with it.... The list of things wrong with it could go on for a few hours but I will spare you. All I will say is, NO WONDER Consumer Reports has it on their 'DO NOT BUY' list. The only thing kinda cool about it was that when you stopped at a light or something, the engine would stop and start right back up when you pressed the gas pedal.
• Was stopped by the PO PO for suspected DUI. Thank GOD I had a note from my DR. telling of my condition. I had to do a sobriety test and THANK GOD it is the same stuff my DR. has me do when he examines me. They also had me blow into a breathalyzer, which read 0.0... They had nothing on me after I blew zero so after an hour, they let me go. ANYWAYS, the whole thing really upset me because I LOATH what I am becoming! UGH! BUT Deanna H said something that she tells her son after a bad inning "Shake it off".
• Stayed with the Dan and Melissa clan in St. Cloud, MN. They are so COOL!!! Sure we may not agree on EVERYTHING but I don't care because I LOVE hanging out with them. And for the 2nd straight year, their friend John, made me almost pee my pants with the funny stuff he would say.

 That's all I got for ya this month, This month, I will do my annual tour. I will tell you all about it next month along with a project I have been working on. SO STAY TUNED!



Oh and ALL employees of my former employer were given this book in 2008.... Coincidence???

Going on a trip....

 Sure I have done quite a few things around casa de McBride but I am not finished with them so I will NOT talk about them until. AHHHHH HELL! OKIE DOKIE just a hint of the few things I have been doing or done:

 Instead I will devote this entry to Wisconsin. After a 13 year hiatus, I'm going to see some friends up there. A little nervous and excited all in one. A TON of emotions going through my head...To say it was NOT a huge factor in my life, is such an understatement. Sorry this is soooooooooooooooooo short but between making sure the TSA doesn't give me a cavity search and hoping Andy H. (who is gonna fly me in his plane over to MN.) really has a pilot's license, I'm a little occupied.

Neighbors!

 I am VERY fortunate to ,so far, have great neighbors... I would say that 98% of my time with past and present ones have been great!!!! My current ones Jimmy and Lynn ROCK like Van Halen at Rich Stadium in 1988, I know, because I was THERE!!!! They have introduced me to so pretty cool people and he has showed me how to do a few things around casa de McBride. He works for the natural gas company in the next county and he has some great 'toys' at his disposal. LIKE this!!!! A freaking backhoe!!! WOO HOO!!!!

 The guys is 'OBI WAN' on the thing.... He knows what to do and what it's capable of doing..

I, on the other hand, am very clumsy with it but with some more practice, I will be okie dokie.

 I helped him remove a tree and make a driveway to his workshop. He also removed some old tree stumps around his house. Next time he will bring it home and do the same around casa de McBride.

And in the 'hey I have no job so I have plenty of time to do (INSERT PROJECT HERE)'. One day, I decided to fix my borders in my front yard.

And this is the result after spending a few hours...

I also was bored one day and painted some of the floor in the garage.

"I went to the doctor today, guess what he told me"1 Shout out to Prince RIP! Anyways, Mrs. Boike and I went up to Duke earlier this month for a Dr. appointment and.... AH HELL, this is why I love Mrs. Boike, She explains stuff so much better then me...

" Kate, Andy’s summation below is pretty accurate.  The MD however did explain some more detail that I wanted to share with you.  When he looked @ the MRI, he said that pictures show the atrophy (or decrease in size of the cerebellum) and that the space that is lost is replaced by fluid (as opposed to nothing or air) & we could see that clearly on the pictures of Andy’s brain.  He was, as Andy mentioned, very impressed with no alcohol consumption and Andy being so compliant with doing all of the PT exercises.  Both of these efforts on his part have led to Andy’s status being very stable and also slightly improved.  Dr. Scott says that the progress of the disease shows different rates for different people, but it is not a rapid progress.  What is most important is how Andy is functioning.  Good nutrition, taking multivitamins, exercising, getting adequate rest are very important and will help make deterioration slow.  Andy is doing a great job @ all these things.

PT—he didn’t feel it necessary to go back to PT @ this time, but PT is advised every once in a while, just to make sure that Andy’s techniques and habits are continuing to go in the right direction.  I actually think that Andy’s diagnosis is shrinking cerebellum.  The ataxia is just a symptom of the shrinking cerebellum. 

I’m very proud of how Andy is handling all of this and being so very proactive with the way he has addressed the issues and problems, as I know you are.

Hope all is well with you and Ron.

Pat"

 As you can see, I'm doing A LOT of stuff around casa de McBride. I decided, while painting the garage floor, to wait to look for a job AFTER I go on two trips, one next month and then another in July for a wedding. THEN I will start the search. If you are really bored and want to hear my rational on this. CLICK HERE.

AND FINALLY, in the 'deuce' department. KRIPES just let the picture do the talkin'...

Have a GRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAT month everyone...


1. From the song "Nothing compares 2 U" that was written by Prince and performed by Sinead O'Connor