The ULTIMATE SACRIFICE

 When I worked at Wells Fargo and I handled subprime loans, the best example of my theory of that there are two types of people in the world: RENTERS and OWNERS, was unclogging a toilet. If you could handle the fact that YOU had to fix it NOT call a freakin' landlord than YOU could handle the whole 'homeowner thing'.

 I am not going to go 'FULL BLOWN T.M.I' on ya so I will just say that my eating habits have not changed but I STILL had to flush the toilet a few times when I....... SOOOOOOOOO I went under the house and 'snaked out' the pipe from the toilet to the septic tank, fyi- that sewer pipe STUUUUUUUNK! Then I took the toilet off and cleaned off the wax seal and replaced with this.

 I am happy to report that all is OKIE DOKIE now! It flushes like a champ now! My bowel movements and I am very happy with this! I am ecstatic I could share this with you.

In OTHER news:

  HA! But seriously, I do like trees even though my elderly neighbor asked me "you don't like trees do you?". Let me rephrase that: I DO like trees BUT-

• If a tree has the future potential to touch casa de McBride than I cut it down.1
• If it is a smaller one that has no chance of growing, usually it sucks the nutrients from the bigger ones. Any arborist will tell ya, little JUNKY trees do not help the bigger ones keep healthy. They steal the water when it rains from the bigger ones..
• OR it is a PINE or CEDAR TREE! Those are some weak trees when it comes to ice.

 I usually cut the tree down with my good ol' saz-all and cheap pruning blades for Harbor Freight.  They usually sit there until friends like Boike or Todd can come down and cut them up for me.

BOIKE using Marvella (My chainsaw) to show those logs who is boss

, HIM!

Todd cutting up some logs at
casa de McBride...

 I will have plenty of wood to burn in my newly installed wood stove AND DA B##B aka, fire pit. The only tree I DON'T burn is cedar. Why you ask, because the sap in the wood POPS A LOT when burned. The last thing you need is sparks from a POP coming at you when you are enjoying a good fire with, in my case, an N/A beer with friends. HECK, I will even burn the pine. You just need to let it age longer then the six months the article states for aging hard woods. SORRY to get all wood-NERDY on ya. Just remember this- cedar and treated wood =BAD, all other woods= GOOD to burn.

 I also made this, NOW I know why people are always talking about government waste! The crew that redid our road, just left this stuff MONTHS AGO! The pole is an old street and the boards are from an old construction sign. AGAIN! They left this stuff! 

The marker I have at the corner of my property,
 I got the idea for places and the miles to them
from an old TV show.

 Before I go for the month, I want to say THANKS to my parents! I was REALLY depressed about all kinds of stuff for a few days and they let me hang out with them. FYI- No matter how old ya are, parents are ALWAYS there for ya. ALSO Jen S. who told me that she actually "googles" my name each month to read my blog! I was flabbergasted by this and very thankful someone deems me important enough for them to actually work to find my blog.2

1. You NEVER want a branch from a tree touching your house because it can give a critter easy access. 

2. I send out an email to people on my account, notifying them to check out my blog. I noticed that her name was not on my list and so I asked her how she knows to look for it. She gave me the scoop.

Pot Belly Pig (NO, not really!)

 But POT BELLY is in the name... Let me explain. They use to have POT BELLY wood stoves in railroad stations and cabooses. I asked Boike to be on the lookout for one and being the SMART @$$ he is, he wanted me to buy a whole caboose and put it in my backyard. So I did the next best thing. Here ya go DUDEZILLA!

This is an 'N' gauge caboose I found in one of my closets.
So Boike, here is your caboose!

 My friend Kaye up in Erie, PA had one just sitting outside and she gave it to me. Here is some time lapse videos for ya of me wire brushing an painting it. ENJOY!

 Jimmy, my cool neighbor, came over and helped me install the through the wall chimney.

 Don't worry Mert and Lynn, It's a triple layered thru the wall one. It's NOT a freakin' pipe that Jimmy and I put through the freakin' wall. ANYWAYS, thanks to the fine folks at McBride Building supply (no I am not kin) and Home Depot, I can now enjoy my morning JOE (coffee) without freezing my butt off in the back room.

TEMPORARY but it will do for now.

 OH and don't worry mom and ALL of the mothers out there. I have these too.

Fire Extinguisher, smoke and a carbon monoxide Detector

 Now that I have a stove, all I need is a bear skin rug in front of it and it will be like 'bees to a hive' with the ladies.

 FYI- school is going good, There are one or two punks, I MEAN, other students that I think are 'tools' but there are PUNKS everywhere! Another thing is that EVERYTHING is on the internet now. Homework, class notes, ETC! AHHH TECHNOLOGY! To all 4 people that actually read this, I am taking an English class so if you notice that my writing is different. You will know why.


Have a great month and I will talk to ya later.

NEW YEAR= NEW ATTITUDE! BLAH, BLAH, BLAH

 KRIPES, How many times do you here that the first week of the year? 

FYI- This AIN'T one of them! It just so happens that January is when the semester starts. After spending the last 8 months working around the house and taking a couple of trips:

• http://raspix.blogspot.com/2016/03/not-going-brazilian-but.html
• http://raspix.blogspot.com/2016/04/i-need-to-learn-word-pace.html
• http://raspix.blogspot.com/2016/05/neighbors.html
• http://raspix.blogspot.com/2016/06/going-on-trip.html
• http://raspix.blogspot.com/2016/07/a-little-nugget-of-information-for-ya.html 
• http://raspix.blogspot.com/2016/08/dare-i-say-its-too-much-of-good-thing.html
• http://raspix.blogspot.com/2016/09/new-road-its-about-time.html
• http://raspix.blogspot.com/2016/10/popcorn.html
• http://raspix.blogspot.com/2016/10/it-has-only-taken-over-year.html 

I decided to go back to school to get my I.T degree. Sure I am nervous! KRIPES, I LOATHED school BUT when it came to college, I treated it as a job and 'dealt' with my demons and did OKIE DOKIE. If I recall, I graduated with a 3.5 GPA. This may NOT sound like that big of a deal BUT my G.P.A in high school was 2.6. I KNOW there will be challenges1 BUT that's life and I HAVE to accept it. So classes in the morning and a part time job in the afternoon and evening, AT LEAST that is the plan. Wish me luck kiddos!


And STILL in the Christmas spirit!

FLASHBACK TO 12/1976:

 The McBride clan lived on Dean St. in Olean, NY. We had an elderly couple (the Flemings) that lived next door. For Christmas they had an old Christmas light wheel that I thought was the 'cat's meow'. To me, it was a mechanical MARVEL, but in reality; it was a freakin' flood light and 4 different color lenses that spun around.

12/16 (40 years later) 

 I went the day after baby Jesus's birthday to one of the GREATEST stores in modern civilization, Big Lots, and bought, 75% off, the 21st century version of the GREAT 'FLEMING CHRISTMAS WHEEL'. WOO HOO!
 

 That's all for now, Sorry this is so short but I need to study up more math.

1 I had to take a placement test for my I.T degree. I took it once and let's just say that the math part took me behind the wood shed and beat the BEJESUS out of me! 20+ years of not using too much of it was a HUGE factor. ANYWAYS, I go to the local library to study up on MATH so I can take it AGAIN. The other day, a black guy, YES I just told you his race (NOT PC of me I know) because these companies PREY on these folks. He was having a problem filling out the application for some cash he needed to borrow, on-line. He asked me if I could help him out, WHICH I was more then happy to do. We fixed the issues and it spit out what he was qualified for and it made me GASP in shock! The EFFFFIN' interest rate was 300%! In perspective, the interest for mortgages are CLICK ON THE LINK   This is why I DESPISE this industry, they feed on poor people that are desperate and scared. After thinking about it, he walked by me and said that he won't do it and I responded 'You are a good man for NOT doing it."

'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???