The Walterland Blog

Last night, I let the cat out for the night. He may as well be a stray at this point. He comes around when he wants some food, eats, and then leaves. I bet he has a couple homes by now too. It can be some time before he comes home to feed too... I bet he's filling up at one of his other houses.

Anyway, as I stated before, I let him out last night. He pisses me off if he's inside in the morning. Beginning anytime after 4:30 AM he just starts meowing... I've learned of only two things that will make him stop. You either have to get up and let him outside, or be able to hit him with some kind of object... A shirt, a slipper... anything will work... only if you hit him. If you get close and startle him, well that's just not good enough.

Sometime between letting him out and closing up for the night he brought us home present number one. The wife found it... a half dead (or is it half alive?) bird. What do you say to such a gift? I understand these are tough times for him and he doesn't have a lot of money... but sometimes, the gift just doesn't fit. The only thing I felt like doing with it at that point was to drag the piece of carpet it was dying on out onto the deck.

This morning when I came downstairs to leave, I see the cat. I am instantly reminded of the present. I know I have to do something about it now. If I don't and the kids go out to play... well, it could be ugly. I also didn't want the wife to have to deal with this so... I stepped out onto the deck. There it was... still there... it didn't fly away, nothing came and took it... it was still there. Now, it's fully dead. Armed with one of the kid's toy shovels, I scooped the bird up... walked it down to the creek (which is dry now), and gave it a soon-to-be burial at sea. Next time it rains it will be a burial at sea.

Not too sure what to do with the cat now. Let him out and risk getting more presents? Keep him in and risk waking everyone up? Not too sure what I'm gonna do tonight...

The other day while at Target, we picked some of these up for the kids. What they do is change the color of their bath water. There are three different colors of tables inside this container: Red, Yellow, and Blue. You can drop a tablet in and make the bath water that color. You can also mix them up to create other colors… Last night… was orange.

After bath time and the kids were asleep I got to thinking. These things are made by Crayola… so they must be non-toxic. Especially if you are going to be putting these things in kid’s bath water. So, I thought it would be fun to change the color of our fish tank.

I was going to make the water some off the wall color… so, I thought orange. After talking it over a little with the wife, we decided that since we have only goldfish (and one algae eater thingy) it probably wouldn’t be a good idea. We kinda figured they would just be bumping into each other all the time. Since this was a test… I dropped in a blue tablet. The fish are still alive and the tank is as blue today as it was the first day.

I’m thinking, tonight… I may add a red tablet. I may just have to take a picture of that to share.

More to follow…

Over the weekend Emily got her first bike. She loves this thing. I took her out for a walk around the hood when we got home Saturday... it was a little drippy outside, but she was excited... and so was I a little. She has all kinds of ride on toys, some... with pedals. In my mind I felt she was too big for these toys... it was time for her big girl bike.

She is able to get on and off the bike herself without falling, and she can reach the pedals no problem. She also knows how to stop (that was one of the first lessons). While we were out walking on Saturday, it was more of me pushing her than her pedaling.

Sunday morning... we went for another walk. She musta slept on it or something because that morning... I took her bike out into the road and she tore off like a bat-outta-hell. She was so excited that she could do it all herself, so we stayed out for a few more laps... until we got cold.

Lately the weather has been so crappy that we haven't been able to go out since. I believe the Mrs. took her for a walk today so she could ride her bike. I'll have to get some pictures.

For lunch today, I walked up to the Sheetz by my work. This place can get pretty busy during lunchtime, but nothing like today.

I walked in and there was a line for the register going half way through the store (no lie, half way). I figured that I had time to kill and I'd wait it out. I placed my order at 12:07. It took me a good 15 minutes standing in line just waiting to pay. I didn't really care too much. It's either stand in line and wait, or stand in the store and wait. I knew there were lots of people getting food before me.

A few people in front of me I took notice to a little boy and girl running all over the place. If my kids were doing this, I would have made them stop. Not this mother. She was basically acting like she didn't even see them. It got to a point where I didn't think they were even with her. Once she paid for her food, back into the store she went to wait for it to be made. She called for the other kids to follow her... well, I guess they are her kids.

A few more customers later and I found myself playing the waiting game along with them, as well as plenty of others. These kids were doing everything they could to keep from getting bored. Playing tag... Hanging from the tables... then, they found it. The ultimate cure for boredom right there... staring them in the face from under the table... Have you guess it yet? Yep, old chewing gum.

These kids were pulling at it like taffy and wiping it all over the place. There must have been a ton of gum under this thing. Mom... turned a blind eye. A bunch of us took notice and I gotta admit... I'm glad they found the gum. It made my wait go a lot faster. Every time the little boy would go in for gum, he'd wind up getting it stuck to himself somehow. I was just waiting for him to bite off a piece and blow a bubble. It was kind of nasty.

As they were leaving mom took off first, while holding a baby... guess I forgot that part. I looked over at mom during the gum-capades to if she was going to put an end to their fun. Well, she didn't... instead; she was holding this baby and letting it suck on one of her chins. This family fascinated me. Anyhow, mom left first with the baby, and then the little girl ran and caught up to her. Realizing she was one short, she stopped and waited while the boy untangled himself from the gum.

I walked out the door after receiving my lunch at 12:40. I was there for a total of 30 minutes from the time I place my order until the time I received my order... but the time just flew by.

On my way home from work on Wednesday, I learned what would happen if you are operating an uninspected, unregistered, uninsured motorcycle without a license... well, you get pulled over...

I was more than half way home when I looked in the mirror and saw it... the cop car. I think to myself, "Mother fucker..." but I keep going... eyes on the road, and the speedometer. "Maybe he won't notice. Maybe he's on his way home for the day." About a mile later I heard the chirps. I looked in the mirror again and saw all the lights... son of a bitch, this is going to be expensive.

The officer came up to the bike and asked me if I knew that the bike was uninspected and the registration was expired. What do you say to that... I know this is a test. "Yes sir, I did know that." I'm not going to lie to the guy... I know this is just going to get worse. Next thing he asks for is my license which I gladly hand to him. He then asks me if I have insurance. Now, while I do have insurance, I don't have motorcycle insurance... "No sir, I don't."

By now I am picturing my wife punching me in the face... He's looking over my license and nowhere on there does it indicate that I can operate this thing legally. He tells me to sit tight. I knew I was going to be there for a LONG time.

About 45 minutes have now passed... I knew the longer he had me there, the more expensive this was going to be. I knew he was busy in there writing up tickets. Eventually, I hear his door close.

"OK Mr. Walter, you're going to receive two citations today. One is for the expired inspection. The other is for the illegal tag, and I'm going to be taking that with me today." Did I mention that the tag on the bike was not even supposed to be there? It was at no point in time ever registered to that bike or any of its owners. He then continues on, "I could have been writing all day." I believe him... he showed me much mercy.

So my new problem... getting home. He asks me if I have a cell phone... I do. He recommended that I call someone for a ride, but after he leaves... I can do whatever I want. He wasn't going to radio ahead and he wasn't going to be sitting down the road. He was going back to the spot he was sitting at before. He did tell me that the inspection sticker sticks out like a sore thumb, and now I wasn't going to have a plate. Oh boy... what the hell do I do? I don't have any other way to get this back. I waited for him to leave and called the wife to get her opinion. She tells me to do whatever I wanted... so... I fired it up and headed for home. The rest of the journey was, thankfully... uneventful. I pulled it into my driveway and there it's been sitting.

I will be mailing them two checks today.