This has been my first time having a blog. I thank the few that may have stumbled upon it and decided to give it a read. I assure you that under different times of my life it may have been provocative and titillating. The blog may have needed just a little more cowbell.

Lucky in Limerick

The building in Limerick that houses the new liquor store was a flea market that was foreclosed. Even before there was a structure built on the land it was an outdoor flea market. Some developer had the idea of having an indoor flea market, but it didn't last very long and the building was vacated and closed down. I always thought that indoor shopping is called the Mall. The indoor flea market required merchants to pay rent and sign leases on stores instead of the old days of renting a table for like $25 per day. Come on, who doesn't like flea market? I'm sure we have have all seen the old fashioned flea markets where dirty, sloppy, and down right scary people are trying to sell you their junk. You just aimlessly trudge around looking their junk and try your best to let the seller think they have good stuff. Anyway, it was at this very same old outdoor flea market that I scored probably my most valuable treasure. I still remember the day vividly, a hot Sunday afternoon in June or July in 1987. I collected baseball cards, and the only reason for me to go to a flea market was to find some hidden treasures or maybe an old Playboy if extremely lucky. Well I don't remember any Playboys that day but I was convinced by a seller to buy an entire set of Fleer basketball cards for $10. I enjoyed and watched the NBA back then(unlike today), but I didn't collect basketball cards, just baseball. Basketball cards were not coveted like baseball cards but it was an entire set that the guy was trying to unload for only $10. Seemed like a good deal at the time, well it was great deal, for me that is! The basketball set it turns out was the first basketball set in the past 25 years for Fleer. The valuable cards within this set are too numerous to mention. I will mention that in the set are rookie cards of Akeem Olajuwon , Karl Malone, Patrick Ewing, Charles Barkley, Isiah Thomas, and only the greatest basketball player of all time, Michael Jordan. I think you have heard of him. This $10 investment is probably worth around $4000. The Jordan alone is worth $1500-$2000. Needless to say I keep the cards guarded and protected. Jury is still out if my son will get the cards some day. But who knows, I may be strapped for cash some day or the set would make a nice down payment for a new automobile.

Surprise !! You Old Buzzard!!

It seems like once you get married and have children the good times cease. By good times I mean drinking, smoking, and cussing. Well that may be true, but it is nice when you can gather with your friends for something other than a child's birthday or baptism etc...It could be we are simply maturing, but these rare occasions seem to be dwindling. We were able to have such a gathering recently at a local fire company. I know, sounds pretty classy. It was a blast. The fire company has a fully functional bar and 5 lane bowling alley. That's right...beer and bowling with friends. It gets no better. We were celebrating the 40th birthday of Frank. Frank is 40 now, but he acts 14. Very youthful, but he and his wife don't have kids, so that may explain his energy. Nonetheless, a large majority of the party goers had kids or at least pets the left at home or babysitter. Just good friends sharing some laughs and fun. How do you like my bowling shirt?

No Liquor For You!! Well....Not Just yet!!


A few posts back I had written about the PA. state liquor store I had painted. Although the job has been completed for some time, it is a lengthy process to get the store up and running. This one one of the larger stores due to its expanded wine selection. In order to open the doors for business the entire store obviously needs its inventory, duh. Well as it turns out there is a truckers strike of some kind going on in Pennsylvania. I honestly do not know the specifics, but I have heard it is dispute with independent truckers and the rising fuel costs. The trucks that deliver the precious booze is apparently delivered by you guessed it... Independent truckers. I was able to enter to store to snap some photos for this blog. Well I didn't tell the store manager it was for my blog, I told him it was for my company web site. The store may look filled and ready to go, but because of the truckers strike there very limited wine supplies and the store room is practically empty. FYI This problem with the trucks will probably affect all of the stores state wide. So eventually there may be no Wild Turkey in Lock Haven,no Boone Farms in Philly, no Bombay Sapphire in Carlisle,no Bushmills in Wilkes-Barre, or possibly no Seagrams Wine Coolers in the Burgh. Lets all say a prayer that this truckers thing is put to rest, because a little sips of Jamesons usually puts me to rest.

Lessons in Humility

A few days ago I finally was able to begin a painful, arduous process that I have been looking forward to and also dreading for years. And no it's not hair replacement surgery for any of my smart ass friends who may be reading. I'm not balding, it's just a little thin, you jerks! Anyway, this past Christmas my wife purchased 2 golf lessons for me from a local instructor with a tremendous reputation. The instructor has provided tutelage to a few LPGA golfers. It has been a long time coming. Besides my family and (most of) friends, golf is one of my deepest passions. It is an ever changing and evolving process towards betterment. As you golf, you battle the course, the weather, your opponents, but mostly yourself. Overcoming all the external factors is much easier than the issues that arise between your ears. Over the many years of my golf there have been some great shots, but unfortunately the bad shots far outweigh the good. Enter lessons. What better way to enjoy golf than to get better from somebody that knows what their talking about.

The amusing side-note to this tale is that I have been politely suggesting for the past 5 years that lessons would make an excellent gift. Christmas and birthdays would come and go, but no lessons. My wife isn't exactly thrilled at the notion of me becoming a better golfer. She's not a mean person by nature, but when I start playing the golf I want to play, I may never slow down and she knows this. Honestly though, she doesn't have to worry about that. The cost of this blessed bastard of a sport is a little ridiculous at times and will always be the speedbump to keep me in check. Nonetheless I bought my wife a very special piece of jewelry for our 5th anniversary last summer and low and behold on the Christmas afterwards I finally received my lessons. Coincidence?

Without getting into lot of technical babble about the golf swing and grip, it was a very humbling hour lesson. Basically, an instructor who has viewed and analyzed thousands of swings knows a bad swing when he see one. Mine is bad. He took video and showed it to me. He didn't say it was bad, he didn't have to, the video did. He is in the process of correcting my major flaws and get me on the right track. Rome wasn't built in a day. I process everything he teaches me, and go to the driving range and work in front of mirror with his suggestions. I'll go back in a few weeks and get his assessment and move on to something else with the golf swing. A bad golf swing is just like any bad habit. Hopefully I can get myself on the straight and narrow.

eBay Complaints


If you are like tens of millions of people worldwide buying and selling on eBay lend me your ear. Has anybody else noticed how shipping costs have ballooned out of control? I absolutely detest people who insist on recouping their losses or trying for a couple extra bucks by only offering bogus, inflated prices. As a rule I refuse to inflate my shipping and have even offered shipping at a loss (to me) to attract bidders. Conversely I refuse to bid on any items that have inaccurate shipping and have frequently ask sellers to justify their prices. For example, I buy and sell golf clubs every year because having new clubs in my hand makes me want to golf even more( hopefully, but rarely improves my scores) and I have fun doing it. My point is I know exactly what clubs ship for and can spot these shipping gougers a mile away. It takes the fun out of the auction when you worked hard to get a good price only to be bent over and forced to squeal like a pig with the shipping.

I am no power seller, rather fairly small time. In the seven or so years I have been a member I've probably accumulated eighty or so sales and purchases. Modest numbers. I did have a 100% positive feedback rating. However a few months back I received my first non-positive feedback from a sale, it was a negative rating. I sold a hardback copy of a piece of dung memoir entitled "Jarhead" by Anthony Swofford. The memoir was made into a movie and somehow was worse than the book. Anyway, I sold a relatively new hardback for absolute peanuts and some pin head from Missouri bitched about some book store stickers on it, and hence dished me out a negative. I go out of my way to be as friendly as possible and tried to reason with him that it was only a minor oversite and he did get a hardback book for like $4, he didn't care. He sent me a nasty email like I was so dishonest and misrepresented my product so much. His screen name had some connotation for being a lawman of some kind, frankly it figured. He struck me as the type of cop who will write you up for anything because you looked at him wrong or was not giving him the respect he so desperately needed to feel like a bad ass. I do respect authority as rule in life, it leads to less complications in the long run, but I truly dislike macho bravado. That's all I got tonight, happy shopping!!

FINAL TOUCHES ON A WINE & SPIRITS STORE

In my old hometown of Limerick will be Pennsylvania newest state wine and spirits(whew scary) store: http://www.lcb.state.pa.us/. While working there the spirits didn't bother much with me. I believe there was a poltergeist and maybe a few banshees. They were relatively friendly, but they haunted the electricians a little bit and knocked over some saw horses, but if you met the electricians you'd understand. Unsavory types.

We were the second painters on this job. Months ago we bid on the job and were not the low bidder (I can only assume that), and consequently were not awarded the contract. Well sometimes you get what you pay for, and the first "so-called" painters were excused from the job and we were then brought in to the "clean up" the mess. I will not go into detail about their shortcomings as painters, because I'll run the risk of sounding cocky. Most tradesman always believe they are the most skilled at what they do anyway. After removing the rust spots on the aluminum decking ceiling ( from using the wrong paint) and spackling the walls which should have been sanded properly before painting, we will be adding an accent border. The application is similar to the red wall I discussed in earlier blogs. The border is to be 8' off the floor and 1' wide. The walls and floors were not perfectly level surfaces, but to make a long day shorter for you the reader, we measured up in the corners 8' for the bottom of the border and made a pencil mark, then measured up another foot for the top of the border. We would then go to the next corner and repeat the process. When two corners were marked a chalk line was used to snap a straight lines. After all the chalk lines were completed I used the painters tape to mask out the lines. After completing the taping, I applied a small bead of chaulk between the edge of the tape and wall where border will be. The chaulk and tape combination will produce a perfectly straight line, the paint cannot drip down under the tape because the chaulk barrier will block it . And in similar manner to my other blog, you would be wise to apply a gray primer to serve as an undercoater to the finish, in this case, a wine colored burgundy. Here are some photos showing the process:

And here my friends is the finished product of two coats of red over the top of the gray first coat. I have always been told that red invokes anger, you know the bull and the matador's cape thingy. The wall looks great, but lets all hope it is not the spark for some office melee.

This photo was supposed to show up in the last blog. No harm, no foul. Rookie blogger is scared to attept the whole editing process.  

When I paint commercially I prefer not to use the blue 3M painters tape. For starters it is very expensive, nearly $7 per roll, and frankly I feel more "old school" when I paint without it. In my crazy head I like to think clients notice when I do not use tape and it comes out looking great, causing praise and admiration to flow like the mighty Monongahela. Seriously though, for jobs like this accent wall with a red next to a white wall and ceiling you'd be a fool not to use blue tape to ensure a perfect and clean edge when the two colors meet. Sure it would be sweet to puff my chest out and paint it freehand, but it would also be annoying to keep touch up the colors when one just crosses over to the other. On a tall wall such as this any veering off the straight line will show. Typically when you are painting a wall a dark color, it is recommended that you prime the wall in grey. Red and other dark colors can be difficult to cover in two coats over top of white or new drywall. However, if you use a grey primer it's a good bet that you'll have success with two coats of the dark over top. If you are simply painting drywall, the primer coat does not have to be actual primer. In cases like the grey on this wall, I took white (or any light colored paint) finish paint and added black paint until I reached my desired tone of grey. This may be the "Shades of Gray" that Jerry sang about, no, I doubt it. But it is always handy to keep a quart of black paint around to darken colors up.