I know, I know...Where have I been?

Well, like the title says "where have I been?" I am sorry, apparently there are a few people that actually enjoy reading my random thoughts. Well, I guess I can come up with a few reasons why I haven't been on in awhile. One being I have just been lazy and two is the fear that I don't have that edge I used to. The ability to be fired up and passionate about writing things down here, in cyberspace, so let me explain why.

A few months ago I had to find a new physician. Mind you, my previous physician was my first primary care physician in 20 years and he decided to just up and move after a year of care....I sometimes have that effect on people. Anyway, I find a new doctor and have to start again at ground zero and build a new rapport with this guy. Now, I am not a big fan of doctors, just medication....that's a joke, kind of. So, I meet with my new doctor and we discuss my high blood pressure (thanks to my family for that little gift) and steps to keep it lower. Then I decide to bring up another bullet I have been dodging for 20+ years...my temper, which, from time to time, has been known to soar completely off the charts. I figured it might be a big plus in keeping my blood pressure down. I proceed to explain to my doctor that there are certain days that I wake up in the morning and just know what type of day I am going to have and what type of disposition I will have. Those that know me well and have had the esteemed privilege of living under the same roof as I do can vouch that I can be a real douche bag one day and a prince the next. I must admit, as I have gotten older, I have learned to harness that "power" and redirect to other outlets, one being ranting on this page. But, lately it had been becoming more and more difficult to hold back and keep it all in. I would sit at work in the morning, when we all tend to rib each other the most, and some days just feel like a volcano that is about to erupt. I realize with my temper and being 6', 250+...there is not going to be alot to do to stop my wrath if I decide to pop. So, I convey all this info to my doctor, who is just looking at me like I he is not surprised at all. Pretty odd, seeing at this point I have only known this guy for 10 minutes. So, he proceeds to explain what makes me angry and unreasonable from time to time. He tells me that I suffer from a condition that 1 in 5 males suffer from. That my brain either does not produce enough or burns through too quickly, this natural chemical called serotonin.
Wikpedia states that in the central nervous system, serotonin plays an important role as a neurotransmitter in the modulation of anger, aggression, body temperature, mood, sleep, sexuality, appetite, and metabolism.

This explains alot...really.

So, I immediately receive a prescription for a wonder pharmaceutical called Zoloft. Now I am convinced that I am a head case. So, I begin to take this medication and I must admit that within 2 weeks, I noticed a change. things were not jagging me quite as easy. Now, a month and a half later, things really just roll right off my back. One of the biggest moments that I noticed this was out in traffic a week ago. I was in traffic, in a turning lane, yielding to turn across traffic, when I noticed this beat up Jeep driving erratically, coming straight for me. This guy is swerving all over the place and speeding. He then locks up his brakes and is driver's window to driver's window with me. Looks at me and screams "F--k you!", flips me off, and peels away just as fast as he arrived. What do I do? I laugh, right in the guy's face as he is telling me off for no apparent reason. AAHHHHHHHH, gotta love Zoloft. A month or two earlier, I would have chased the guy down, ran him off the road, pulled him from his car and beat him to a bloody mess....for real. But now...It's pretty f--ken' funny!



I was worried though that I would not have the passion to write something that would still keeping you all wanting more. There are quite a few people that have wrote to me and told me that this blog is quite entertaining and they enjoy reading it, so I will try to keep it going.

One thing that I am sick of is this election. I really hate talking politics because it is my belief that if you are a politician on any level, from municipal to congressional, you are a liar and will pretty much sell your soul for a vote. I don't care if you back Obama or McCain, both are full of false hopes and promises and like every other politician, will not do a minuscule fraction of what they are promising. I think this country is in for another big let down, and things are going to get alot worse before they get better. The outside world seems to be getting more violent and more extreme as time presses on. God bless our children and their futures, they will need all the help they can get.




Till the next time....

"The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease." ---Voltaire (1694 - 1778)

Questions & comments? email: Michael.Perry@us.ngrid.com

Ok, so I lag, yet again....

I hope everything is well with everyone.... I mean my 2 fans that actually read this tripe that I spew forth on this blog. It has been a very busy few weeks both in and out of work. I have managed to take a few minutes for myself here and there. A few quick personal updates.
Work, still the negative environment that everyone there seems to make it. What can I say other than our company is owned by the British, you know....bad teeth and a "Red Coat" business strategy....How did that work in 1776??
My wife....yeah, is the proud owner of a 2008 Harley Davidson Night Rod. The fastest production bike Harley makes. She even managed to get it BEFORE she was a legal rider. God bless her, my little law breaker, that's why I married her. I'll be quite honest with you, I rode the bike most of the first weekend,(while she was getting her licence) and the machine is EXTREMELY fast! It is safe to say I can, and probably will, be left in the dust on my Road King at any point in time now.

We also took a trip with the "crew" to the Harpoon Brewery Fest over in Windsor, Vermont last weekend. What can I say, beer & meat is the main theme of this event as dozens of cook teams show up from all over to cook meats. My non-beer drinking, vegetarian wife did not have as good of a time as myself and my red meat eating, beer guzzling constituates, but she persevered and overcame and all was well. We also saw my good friends Crispy & Corey over at the brewery. They were camped for the weekend to see her brother compete in the strongman competition the brewery sponsors during the festival. I must say if I had the option of drinking beer and eating barbecue or dead lifting 1000LBS in the hot sun, well, I guess you can figure out which I would prefer.
One thing I would like to rant about for a quick moment would be something I not only saw alot of at the Brew fest, but everywhere in general. I guess it is a sign of getting old, but I noticed that all of the tweens (18-28 year-olds) are all the same these days.... I mean every girl I saw looked like some dumb blond or brunette from one of these M-TV or VH1 shows. My God, I never thought "Stupid" would be in style, but low and behold, there it is. We are talking big 1970's sunglasses, cowboy boots, cut-off shorts and the shirt from the 1983 movie "Flash Dance". My wife watches this crap on TV called "The Hills" which is all about stupid kids with too much money and a whiny attitude and what kills me is this is what these kids strive for. As far as the guys are concerned, all I have to say is buy a belt for Christ sakes. I don't want to see your underwear. I mean these kids can buy pants now with the underwear sewn on the waist. It kills me. Yeah, we did some weird shit too, like rolling our pant cuffs. My wife constantly reminds me that tapered jeans like the Levis 550 Relaxed are not cool anymore. I just can't see wearing jeans that will hide most of my friggin' foot. I mean, how the hell will I know if my shoe is untied or not?
PPPHHHHEEWWWWW, ok I am done, sorry. I get a little carried away. If I could verbally express myself, my arms would be flapping all over the place and my face would be red.

Anyway, moving forward. We went to see the new "Dark Knight" movie in IMAX yesterday and I have to say it was as cool as I thought it would be. Every movie should be viewed in IMAX. If you have not been to an IMAX movie, start with this one. A 50'tall X 75' wide screen and luxury seats with no obstructed view....yeah, you can't compare. The movie itself, well, I am a biased super hero fan, so it was awesome. Heath Ledger's final performance as The Joker is certainly of Oscar caliber. We've come along way from the artsy-fartsy performance of Jack Nicholson in Tim Burton's 1989 version of Batman. Trust me, if you like a good action movie, go check it out. If not, oh well....stay home!



"It was on my fifth birthday that Papa put his hand on my shoulder and said, 'Remember, my son, if you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm.'"--- Sam Levenson (1911 - 1980)

I'm sorry, all I heard was......

...."Blah, blah, blah, I'm a dirty tramp, blah, blah, blah."

Yeah, I have no idea what the hell I was thinking there other than that line from Adam Sandler's Mr.Deeds. I am a little daffy as of late having done nothing but WORK since my return from Massachusetts on June 23RD. It seems my company's new theme is that if there is a black cloud in New England, FEMA should be standing by. As the Northeast has been getting one rain pattern after another this summer, the powers that be at my place of employment find great joy of plucking it's employees from their personal lives to sit idly by and wait for power outages that never show up. I know, why am I bitching? It's free money, right? But the fact is, it gets old sitting around waiting. I have already donated the first three weeks of my summer to the company, why not more. Oh well. I have to admit though, on a day to day basis, the work has been alot more interesting and fun now that my qualifications have gone up.



I have also recently taken some time to re-establish a relationship with my older brother. You see, I come from the typical modern family of steps and half siblings. All told I have two older and one younger step siblings and three younger half siblings, two of which I have never met. Yup, gotta love it. The New American family at it's finest. This blog post would be tremendously long if I explained it all, so I will save the story for another time. Instead I will get back to my older bro. You see, my step siblings & I have been together since 1978. I was 5, younger bro was 3, older bro was almost 7 and older sis was almost 9. We have all been through alot together over the 30 years. Ups & downs, hurt feelings, anger, joy, a full gamut of emotions. We always remained close, despite distances and periods of time that separated us. About 5 years ago, my older bro called me with news of a life change for him that I was not happy about at the time. It had reminded me too much of the bullshit we had seen growing up. I was angry and I turned my back on him. I tried to stay in touch with his now ex-wife to make sure everything was ok with her & my nephew. I did this for a couple of years, until she met a decent guy and remarried. I was and still am happy for her, and decided that instead of being the awkward ex-brother-in-law, I would back away and let things go as they should and since lived my life with no real family action other than my wife's family. Last year, however, I reconnected with my younger step brother whom I had lost touch with just because we were going in separate directions & he lived 2000 miles away. Through Myspace, cell phones & text messaging, I talk to the little bastard all the time now, and it's great. It is from this that he started prodding me to quit being such a dick and talk to my older brother and after thinking about things and hearing how great things were going for him, I decided to try & make amends. To my surprise, there seemed to be no hard feelings at all. He is remarried, happy and has a step daughter and a beautiful newborn daughter.

All is well and he is anxious to re-establish our relationship. This is great and I look forward to it. It does make me think of another relationship with a friend of mine who is like a brother that is also strained and cut off. I wrestle with the notion that life is too short and I need to let by gones be by gones, but I am such a stubborn son of a bitch, I can't help it sometimes, you know? Is it wise to let shit go, even if you don't agree with it? It's like I sit back hoping for the worst so I can throw out the biggest "I told you so" I can deliver. It makes me feel horrible when I think about it, but it's how I am. Oh well, it is something I need to work on and perhaps I will.
Until the next time....

"To err is human; to forgive, divine."- Alexander Pope

The Sunapee House Saga...

......it's off, it's on, it's off, it's on, and now it is off again permanently.

You know, people say there are a lot of headaches with owning a house and I think that all starts right with the buying process. For those of you that may not know, Bapple & I were in the process of buying a house in Sunapee. We signed a purchase and sales agreement a month ago when I went to school. This agreement was pending a septic & a home inspection. Well, we never made it to the home inspection part of it, the septic failed first. So, in haggling back & forth and with Bapple doing a lot of the leg work over 3 weeks, the owners had agreed to replace the septic(something they would need to do either way) at their cost. That is UNTIL there less than professional agent realized that her commission could grow and said we were taking advantage of the owner, and talked them into demanding $7K+ more on the agreed price (which means we are paying for a new septic). Well at this we have finally had enough of that bull sh!t and had our agent tell their agent to take a hike, we are all done. And you know what, say what you want about renting, but our place is not that bad, I am minutes from everything and with heating fuel prices the way they are and our heat is included..... I'll stay right here and save a few bucks in the process.

It has also been my first week back at work, albeit a short one, but long none the less. I return to my area a "rated man" which means all the 1ST Class lineman can now work the higher primary voltages with me on the ground as a set of eyes/rescue.
This means overtime, which except for horse shoe night at Maggot's, has been every night I have been back. So, if I am not buying a house I want.......

"Never hate your enemies. It clouds your judgement."-Michael Corleone, Godfather II

So it comes to an end...

Well, this is my last night down here at 2nd Class lineman school and I will say that I am going to miss working with my buddies down here. It's nice to be around a group that is on the same playing field as you are. Don't get me wrong, I like the guys I work with in Lebanon, but I feel that most of them have been tainted with a little negativity that comes with age and having been in this trade for a long time.
The attitudes at home tend to wear on you after awhile. The daily "I missed this call last night" or "I got f-cked out of over time here" or "Management is trying to stick it to me there", these things set anyone into a great negative tailspin and it starts to reflect in other aspects of life.







You gotta check out Wingate, he climbed to management height:



Down here in Mass has been like a bit of a vacation work wise. The guy's keep it fun, we talk about pretty much everything, not just work, and it is a much lighter atmoshere. Perhaps we have not been soiled yet by the industry we or company that we have chosen to work for. I must say, I never see to many smiles from the people that have been at this trade or in this company for any lengthy amount of time. I hope my friends down here & myself, do not end up as hardened and bitter in the years to come. Believe me, the temptation to transfer to Malden to work with the boys is always on my mind. If I thought my wife would like it, I would consider it. Another downside is I would fall to the bottom of that work roster and have ALOT slimmer chance at crew leader pay in the future as I would in Lebanon, IF I decided to stay with the Grid.
I do get to go home to my Bapple, with whom I have a great time no matter what. She is the mainstay to helping me repel the negativity that I tend to gravitate to after a long day at work. I get to back home and possibly continue my house hunting? Yes, that's right, more house hunting. The house we are trying to get now just failed it's septic inspection and a new septic system is anywhere from $20-30K. It also will change the landscape of the yard if it is required to be a mound system. Which in tern will change the way the house lot drains itself. Not to mention hydroseeding if we want a lawn this year.
So it's all good, and I am going home refreshed, with somewhat of a more positive spin on things...lets see how long that lasts.

"I owe it all to little chocolate donuts." --John Belushi

Wow, it's been awhile...

....And I can say that it has been VERY busy. I am presently back in Taxachusetts for another summer of fun, courtesy of my employer. This year it's not climb poles in the heat, it is wear a a bunch of layers, consisting of rubber, leather, & cotton and work in the hot sun. Hey, it's what we are all about. I must say, it is good to be back with the boys from Mass. We all operate well together, so well, that I am constantly beckoned to pack up my wife and transfer to Malden, MA so we can continue our daily rapport. Seeing that the wife & I are looking to buy a house up in NH, I don't think it is going to happen. Especially since her boss is in Malden.

We also have taken on a new member to our team here at lineman school. We have all grown to know him as "Joey" even though that is not his name. He is a cross between Joey Tribiani from "Friends"---mentally, and Joey Lawrence from "Blossom"/"Dancing w/ the Stars"--physically. Basically he is kind of a dumb ass and we have a great target for our humor.

Oh well, alot of other stuff has happened too, since my last post. Let's see, Father Time turned 40....old bastid.




Spring fishing trip came & went, we spent Memorial up at Lunchbox's camp in East Nowhere, VT.




My younger brother turned up last weekend from St. Louis, always a trip to see him.


And, like I mentioned earlier, Bapple & I have been on the house hunt, which the latest has us pointing back to my home town of Sunapee. Now, I have to admit, I am very mixed about the whole Sunapee thing. I have not lived there in 15 years, and had prided myself on "getting out" of that town, even if it was only to the Upper Valley. I really like the Lebanon area, and if it wasn't so goddamned expensive to live up there, I'd stay. The taxes in Lebanon are INSANE, the town has it's head way up it's own ass, really. Anyway, back to the Sunapee thing, I just don't know what to think. I mean I have a few good friends there (and I am not knocking them in the least for choosing to stay there, Sunapee itself is a great town) and I have a large number of friends in Newport. It would put Bapple in a good spot to get to her family, in all areas. I just hesitate because of the winter commute, up the worst stretch of Interstate in NH, also the inconvenience of not being close to shopping and all the conveniences of Lebanon. There is also the underlying principal of Sunapee that I did not like growing up. The clique atmosphere of the "thick as thieves" regime that I know is still there in one way or another..... I just don't know, it is a beautiful town with the mountain and the lake, and I do have a couple of great friends still there (yeah, I mean you Crispy), it just poses a little hesitation.

Oh well, did you miss my rants?....probably not.

"The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help." -----Ronald Reagan

A lot in a short time...

You know, it is all too often in life we take for granted the day to day acquaintances that we come in contact with. What you can take away from each and every individual that you have the opportunity to spend time with, whether on a personal level or a professional level, is what helps shape the character people perceive you as.
Today was a day where I had to say good bye to a co-worker with whom I really enjoyed working with. Gordon J. Hunt, or Gordy as we know him, is a very unique and admirable person with a well of knowledge on the trade of being an electrical utility lineman. Some of his practices and techniques might have been viewed as unorthodox by today's standards, but there are certain situations sometimes that call for an unorthodox answer and I'll be damned if Gordy usually would have a way to remedy a situation.
Another reason I really liked Gordy on a personal level, is even though he was a lineman for 30+ years, he did not adhere to this "old school" bullshit you find out there amongst the trade. Some of the guys I work with know and can attest as they came up through the ranks dealing with "good old boy" ways in this trade.
These are things that I can barely tolerate, even as minor as they are today. The reason being is that I started from no where, earning peanuts, breaking my ass in a run down lumber mill for minimum wage. I did this for 2 years, hoping the job would build character in my 18 year old life. While the people I went to high school with had the whole "college experience" I tried the hard work, out on your own method.
I went on to landscaping, carpentry, masonry, and warehouse, eventually finding a break working electrical construction as an electrician for many years. All these things I did to get where I am, helped shape the person I have become. I laugh because sometimes I think that a select few I work with have never really gone down the hard path to get somewhere. I see somethings that go on and wonder how some people's work ethic has come about. I came from the "you are responsible for your own actions" type mentality that I see is sometimes not shared by some of the people I work with, which to me is sometimes distressing.


My friend (and now retired) co-worker, Gordy, understood where I came from and had been there himself. We had many a conversation on the in's & out's & up's & down's that one would find in this field. I admired his integrity and he will be missed by myself and my fellow co-workers who had the honor of working with him alot longer than I got to.



On another humorous note...
We had to do some training at work this week which consisted of "pole-top rescue". This is when you must climb to the top of a utility pole to save a fellow lineman who is in danger or has been injured while working. In training this is done with a 100LB+ dummy. Now at the company's training facility, we climb to the top of a 40' pole and rescue the dummy...... Let's just say on or home turf, the training wasn't quite as rigorous...for some.

For those who know us, this pic says it all:


Oh well, I had a little on my mind, now that I have "spread it", I can go tot bed.

“Marriage is about the most expensive way for the average man to get laundry done”-----Burt Reynolds