I am not hiding anymore

Changing my hair. NO more bangs and fringe. NO more Martha Stewart and hello Jackie. I think I hid my face for more than one reason.

Plant Loco bitching about the parts hard to install. Well, ya know, it is 25 degees outside and the parts are pretty fucking cold when you put them on line.

Had to put a new blower motor on the furnace this week. 835.00 US dollars. The repairs just don't quit here at the old homestead.

Have to get a root canal in a week. Then the crown. Don't know the price for the root canal yet. Crown was 1500.00 US dollars.

Glad I still have a job for a few weeks.

The Murray Car and Me

I am getting tired of this waiting around for the next chapter. Boss isn't talking or returning calls, plant is telling me I need to work for the newbys, newbys think they know it all-and the vehicles are still crooked and have to be towed off the line as they are NO GAS FILL.

The Murray car was a man's imagination put to reality. A member of our family. We have lived through it all (Ford is still on top without having to worry about us this time) and we are ready to move forward. Right now forward is in Asia, not in the US. Instead of the three legged dog pissing on me it is the Fix It Again Tony crowd teaching everyone how to mop floors. How clean floors are going to sell crooked vehicles with no gas in them I cannot explain. I want to move on. I want to be like the Phoenix and rise from the ashes of Detroit and be productive. I am tired of here with the stupid shit.

Kwame got a good deal, great house-lotsa money-and no real problems as everyone seems to be afraid of his homeys. Dave Bing doesn't have to do much because he used to play basketball and no one wonders why he lost his business as everyone else went under. Council President wrecks his car and does not report it for a few days because he does not want to bother the police. Obama rushing Government Motors into uncharted and potentially dangerous waters. And Fiat can't pay back their loan but buys SHAP the worst assembly plant in terms of productivity and quality. WTF.

I need to make a decision. First on my crown due for delivery this week. Then for my future. Then on spring clothes. Shanghai beckons. New jobs are waiting. The year of the Tiger and I don't mean Woods.

I think I am getting sick

Just don't feel right. Nothing in particular, nothing I can put my finger on, just not right. Kinda coughy, achy, very tired and sleepy. Well maybe it is just February in Michigan.

The Prince of Italy had to shut down Warren Truck today. Sent them home at 7 Am. No word on the real cause. Blaming it in supplier issues at this time. HHMMMM.

New vehicles still crooked and weather here in Michigan still sucks.

Not just low but also crooked

I love launching new vehicles. Tight assed dickwads from Corporate walking around with grim expressions and nasty, testy comments to all. They still believe they are high and mighty auto managers when they are all owned by the UAW. Anyway . . .

I just found out why the new vehicle is so low to the ground. The air ride system does not work. This also explains the crooked vehicles. 4 independent air rides that do not work in a coordinating manner. Hence the crooked vehicles. Gotta love it.

Nothing in the house has broken for a few days so I ordered a new kitchen faucet. Well I have needed a faucet for a while due to the excessive dripping and I need to get this fixed before I leave. My UAW repairman told me today that he would never buy a Moen. Guess what I bought. Oh well . . .

This week I have to go to the car wash. It has been 20 years since I have been to a car wash. I am scared. I was waiting for Big Daddy to come home and take the car to the car wash. Yea, see how that worked out.

Oh, and today I got an email on my Blackberry for an emergency meeting for launch. For Thursday. Since when is a 2 day notice an emergency? WTF

I love Advil

I am living on Advil. It helps me live through the throbbing pain in my jaw. The pain that started hurting real bad when the dentist was off duty. The pain that might be because the cracked crown I had was not put on properly in the first place and the little thoothy underneath the crown was cracked. So $1500.00 US dollars later I am in pain and probably looking a root canal. An expensive root canal.

Big Daddy had to cancel his vacation due to the stupid actions of his underling. Asshole went to the tool shop, changed a bunch of due dates to suit his own schedule, took a supplier vehicle and went to his home town for preparation for the fucking Chinese New Year. And refused to come back to work. And when he was told to not return to the tool shops and report to corporate Monday he decided to take vacation time next week. This guy has gotta be on some heavy drugs. Or he doesn't need the money. Maybe he only needed the travel to cover up other activities.

So I am not going to see Big Daddy, have a vacation time, go to China or anything else. Just no job and nothing to do and no where to go. This is great.

Oh, my dishwasher is still broken-just like the Toyotas.

Plant Loco is going 10 hours 6 days just when I will be let go. Be careful what you wish for Barbie.

Quality in Moderation

What a week. The parts I hand carried in Tuesday to band-aid the Plant Loco system issue worked great. So why did they not obsolete the old parts and ask for the new parts? Because they are disorganized and cheap. So what happens Friday when you get yet another audit call. Gregory the worm when confronted by a person higher on the food chain decides to order all new material. Problem is it is Friday and this is the lowest production run vehicle in the world. Well, there are no extra parts. And no extra people to make the parts. Why? Because your orders are so low and we don't have people sitting in the lunch room until we need them to make parts. And we are not Walmart. And I get lectured by the materials supervisor that I did not mark the parts as new level. Well they are not new level. We did a mean shift and when the Plant Loco engineers did nothing it came in as a normal shipment with mixed parts. Not my problem dude. Until I had to sort it out as they guys can't find their ass with both hands. So I am jumping hoops to help people who awarded the new vehicle to Korea. Who do you think is gonna jump your hoops next time? Just remember 5 or 6 weeks on the water and customs at Metro when you pay for air freight. Cost save my ass.

Back to my real life, passed inspection with the city on the hot water tank, leak fixed in the laundry room, window fixed on the back door. Only the dishwasher still remained a problem. Guy said he had to pull it out and take it to the shop. This is the guy that urged me to hire him for water tank. When I come back into the kitchen he is still working on the dishwasher. I ask about the pulling it out for the shop repair. He can't get it out. I tell him there have been no changes since it was put in. He does not believe me. WTF. Now he thinks it is a limit switch. He has to see if he can find one. Do not use the dishwasher as it is a hazard without the switch. And don't touch the door as it is held on with one screw. WTF? What happened to the other screws? And now I can open a cupboard drawer that I could only open before with the dishwasher open? So with only the dishwasher fucked up I thought I could have a quiet Sunday morning and just finish up a few odds and ends.

Sunday morning with the papers and the crossword from the NYT is my favorite time of the week. I keep hearing noises and convince myself there is no problem. My house is haunted but ghosts don't hurt people. It is probably thunder after all it is raining outside. Old houses creak and groan. It is normal. Just then there is a tremendous crash and I can no longer pretend all is normal. I think there is a gang outside my family room with a battering ram. As I look out the doorwall at this biggest limb of a tree I have ever seen on the ground I see a possum with something in his mouth running across my patio.

Call the handy man and try not to cry. The tree limb dented my gutters and popped a tumbled Ohio blue stone slab out of the ground. Thankfully it did not take down the wires or the roof. While the handyman was checking the roof he noticed the squirrels frolicking on the roof so he followed them to the little vent in the peak where they chewed through the wood slats and appeared to access the attic. Upon checking the attic thank goodness, and God, I have wire mesh between me and the nest the little fuckers built. So tomorrow he will clean the gutters I paid to have cleaned in November, cut up the tree limb, fix the attic thing if he can find the wood, and get me a price to have the damn tree cut down. Because guess what? Opossums live in trees and hang by their tails. And I do not want a possum in my family room while I am watching TV. Now that I have Comcast on speed dial. Sorry Big Daddy, that tree is a goner.

Shanghai shopping

Big Daddy got a present for Miss Donna when we go to New Orleans. It is a copy of a Cartier necklace. I cannot wait to see it. He went to the Cartier store and yep, it is very similar.