JamesSlusher.com

The title pretty much says it all–I’m sick. I don’t know if it is the flu or a cold or what, but my throat is killing me and I feel like I have a fever of about 211 degrees Fahrenheit.

I would like to just give in to it and take the next couple of days off, but I have applied for another position at work and one of the prerequisites is a good attendance record. Though I’m not sure missing the next couple of days would put me out of the running, it surely wouldn’t help.

Darn these cursed ambitions.

My daughter woke up in the middle of the night while we were in Conway. Screaming. I’m talking belting-it-out, top-of-the-lungs, wake-up-the-neighbors type screaming.

We tried our best to comfort her, cooed and said comforting things. She screamed. And cried. We tried talking tough and telling her that enough was enough. She screamed. And cried.

It went on long enough that we began to worry that the other hotel guests would be roused from their slumber. Then we began to worry that they might call somebody about it.

It went on long enough that I began to doubt my abilities as a father. What’s wrong with your baby? I don’t know. Why is she screaming? I don’t know. Are you always this incompetent? I don’t know. What do you know? I don’t know.

So I timidly reached over and patted her little back and tried comforting her again, resigned to futile attempts at nurturing.

Pffft. Emily passed gas. And was asleep again before the sound had even died away.

Sure, I’m still stupid. But at least the baby isn’t crying.

Visiting the family is great stuff and its always nice to see them, but being home is nice, too.

The hotel room was okay, but I hated the bed sheets and the fitted sheet kept popping off the corners. I would end up laying on bare mattress which I don’t like doing on my bed. Let alone the Comfort Suites of Conway’s bed. I love the Myrtle Beach area and will go at the drop of a hat, but I think I’m good until Spring. In fact, I’m good for any travel until Spring. In my heart of hearts, I’m a homebody. So I think I will keep my body home.

Happy Turkey Day to everyone out there. Except the turkeys, who are pretty much toast by now. And the corn. And potatos, not to mention green beans. And sweet potatos. Okay, Happy Turkey Day to everything inedible.

You may have noticed that I changed the title of the site. I wanted something a little flashier and not directly related to my name or the words “me” or “my”. The Chair and Automan was suggested by David some time ago when we were brainstorming ideas for my business name. He thought up Automan Empire, too. I figured if you wanted to stretch the metaphor a bit you could get a couple different symbolisms for The Chair and Automan. So that is why that happened.

I picked the Ice T quote because I thought it was applicable to what this blog is about and Ice T said it, which makes it that much edgier and hipper. At least, I hope so.

I have had a bit of contact lately with some family friends, Ken and Nancy Nelson. My dad absolutely loved Ken Nelson. And quite frankly, Ken and Nancy are about as cool as it gets. It doesn’t take much contact with them to understand why they are such special family friends. Good lord, Ken talks about downloading iTunes and RSS feeds and other such technogeek things. If you knew my dad, you would know that RSS feeds were not one of the things he would talk about. Or even know about, let alone care about. But you can tell alot about a man from the friends he keeps, and some of the things I’m still learning about the man are quite impressive.

I don’t know if I will be blogging much over the next few days as I will be at the in-laws tomorrow after I wake up, hopefully I will also get to spend time with my friend Chaundra and my goddaughter Taylor and then Friday it is off to see Dave in Conway.

I love the Myrtle Beach area and really only need the flimsiest of excuses to head that way. I look forward to the Blog Shindig this Spring and any other excuse I can get to go see my bro.

To any and all that read this blog, Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you have as many things to be thankful about as I do.

I had mentioned that the Mustang parts were an albatross around my neck. I have sold the last of the parts on Ebay and the albatross is no more. I essentially ended up paying about $600 for the honor of storing them for a year and a half, but lessons were learned and these mistakes won’t be repeated. The cart comes after the horse, you know. I’ve got that part down now.

Atrios points to some Rush Limbaugh commentary on the hip hop culture.

First off, what in the fork does Rush know about hip hop? He also speaks of gang colors. Again, what do you know about it Rush? Where do you get your info, dude? From your dealer? Oh, wait that’s a doctor.

I don’t believe for a second Rush knows a thing about it that isn’t reported on a VH1 special. I will say this, though. There is something that many street-wise veterans of hip hop know about Rush.

Never trust a junkie.

I finally grouted the floor that I tiled in front of the new built-in shelves. I’m only 10 days late doing it. Better late than never, which is what everyone around me says out of sheer necessity.

Okay, I’ve received the backseat from the 69 Mustang Fastback. That cost me $74.99. I also have received my black seat upholstery, which cost $57.95. So for $132.94 I have my cushions.

My next step will be going to buy some cheap wood at Lowe’s so that I can build the prototype seat frame. I want to be able to completely disassemble it so that I can use the pieces of it as templates for future loveseats. I will then take, for instance, the front piece and trace it onto a piece of oak or cherry and cut it out according to that. Since I’m starting this from scratch, I might as well set the infrastructure up so that I can easily reproduce my pieces. When I try other years (or models, or for that matter, makes), I will see if any of the pieces from other loveseats fit. If so I will just write the new info onto the template. If I label the template with an identifying number I can create a database that would eventually be able to tell me if I have all the pieces for a particular year, make and model. For instance, if Front Template #0001 fits a 69 Mustang Fastback and also a 1970 Mustang Fastback and (let’s say) 1971-1973 Mercury Cougars, that info would be marked on the template.

At the same time, if I looked up the templates needed to build a loveseat for a 1972 Mercury Cougar loveseat it would list (1)Front Template #0001, (2)Side Templates #0103, (1)Bottom Template #0301, (1)Back Template #1001, (2)Arm Templates #8989, and (4) Leg Templates #0006. These are all made up numbers, of course, but you get the idea.

This is going to necessitate getting a place to store all of these pieces of wood someday. But at that point it means I have made and sold many different pieces and I believe the problem will take care of itself then.