Rare Blue Sky

Shanghai a few days ago from the balcony.

Enquiring minds want to know why my name is so strange. I started this blog because I was laid off from my job for the first time in my life. I was bored and everything in my life was so strange. Also I did not want anyone to know who I was as I wanted to speak freely. I am still somewhat cautious in identifying people and places, it can be a small world and a vicious one. My name stands for the major companies I dealt with, Ford, General Motors and Chrysler. It started out as an automotive blog written from my viewpoint. The pictures at the top are significant to me.

The old car is actually owned by the family and was manufactured by a family member. We could have been rich but Henry Ford is rumored to have burned the factory down twice.

The middle picture is a drawing that a guy on the line drew when Cerberus took over Chrysler. You can see the love.

The Phoenix was my hope that I would have a job in the future. We can see how that worked out. I am unemployed in the one place I was hoping not to be.

A friend convinced me join a social network to play free games as I was bored, broke, and slightly batty. This required my having a name. So I made up another one. I did not want anyone to find me on the social network. There are various reasons for this but the most important one is that I am the black sheep of the family. The truth is I always expected to find Jerry Springer on my porch sent by my family for an intervention. They find me lacking in their brand of Christian love and I have no money to share with them. Bless their hearts.

So, MOV, you can call me Nola. New Orleans is my favorite place.

Badger, no I will not be driving in China as it takes years to get a license and more moxie and insurance than I will ever have.

I need a car in the US because I am a pessimist and await the other shoe dropping and going home with no money and no car, and no ability to get one. You need a car to look for a job. Big Daddy works for a suspect company and I can no longer be surprised by anything that happens. The only thing that surprises me is that bullshit, ignorance and stupidity seem to be the norm.

So to lighten this up a bit,

The good:  BD bought me a foam rubber, covered in cloth, thing for the bed. I slept through the night without pain and got out of bed without a lot of pain. I cannot scrunch on the long train rides with my back. When I birthed Punkin Head it was discovered my tail bone points in the wrong direction. Was not great for either one of us.

The bad: Delta, the shit airline I must fly home (if I want to get there in less than 4 days) has now changed the Economy Plus seats on International flights to only Plats and Diamonds without charge. Must get on Flyer Talk about this one. So I have to pay 80 US dollars both ways for a seat that will allow me to walk off the plane without assistance. On a crappy 747 with no personal entertainment other than the cabin crew dissing the pax.

The Ugly: Mr. Rooter seems to be having a problem with refunding my money for the "not to code" chimney liner they installed. This will require me to go to the bar of my choice in Detroit and speak with my council person. And then others. And this just pisses me off. Not going to the bar, love the bar. He has one week to make this right. We spoke with the credit card company and that is the max time for his promises to appear on their system.

The Way We Play Football in the USA

Defense. Plain, simple and downright ugly.

You gotta have the ball. It is easier to keep the ball than to get the ball back.

Well I played ball today with the plumbing and heating guys. And I still have the ball.

First the heating people were prepared, they actually remembered the service call. It seems my chimney liner is an inch or two on the small side. Which makes the furnace a death trap in their heating experience. They did apologize that we might have died in the last year as they never caught this in the last 2 out of 3 inspections.

Second the plumbing company took 2 separate calls as they have names that are quite similar. The plumbers were a bit of a problem. They accused me of yelling at them. When I explained for xxx number of times that I was calling on a cell phone from China they seemed to calm down a bit. They however could never find their paperwork and fobbed me off on a manager with no warning. He was not Mr. Happy to get this call.

One thing they all had in common was wanting to come to my home and review the fiasco.  With a 3 hour window. This is gonna cost me money. Which I explained in a very nice way, if I have to hire someone to sit and wait for you to show up to see if your work is done properly this is an expense to me. Why am I paying someone so that you can check and see if your work was done properly and to code?

We still have no answer on why the city inspector signed off on this and I don't want to go there without a plan.

I have to call Mr. Plumber tomorrow at 9 PM my time to see if he has figured this problem out yet, and he did agree we need to tackle this problem with the least expense and drama to all parties involved.

As I am back in BFE I suppose it would be appropriate to see if Mr. Clay Man has a snake to add to the collection. Snake in the grass?  I am also a bit morose as the Dragon lost one of his hands and I have no glue to fix him.

My back is acting up and I think a massage is order in the morning, wish I had Coach Schembechler here to give me some pointers. RIP Bo.

Travel Pet Peeves

Home again to Michigan and I must say it is just as gray and dreary as I remember. There is some sun this morning so I should savor it, they say rain is on the way. Loving the TV and the fast Internet. Loving the pastrami and Swiss my special girl picked up for me. Big Daddy is so jealous I have real food. Speaking of BD he is back at the Best Western and went into the lobby bar for the infamous beef hamburger without beef. The bitch was still there but she did not wait on him, she sent the two girls. BD said they were trying not to laugh when he checked for the beef so this is obviously a story that made the rounds.

We tried to call for a taxi but the front desk never answered so we pulled all the bags to the front ourselves and Mr. Gatekeeper came up to us with the jabba jabba. As he has never spoken before I was in shock and awe. And of course had no idea what he was communicating. Turned out he was helping us get a taxi from the 3 stooges. 2 of the stooges spoke a bit of English so I heavily stressed drive slow and no crazy. Mucho pantomime. That worked out great, better than the child proof lock lessons. This guy for reason was using the child proof locks and was flummoxed when the doors would not open. This happened more than one time.

So I am going through passport control at the airport and I see this Chinese chick very oddly dressed. Well that was because she had her dress tucked into her panties in the back and her coat just barely covered her ass. After watching her awhile there was an opportunity to get her attention just before the security checkpoint where I knew she would have to take that coat off. I casually walked up and asked if she spoke English and thank goodness she responded yes. She thanked me. I hope she understood me.

Waiting at the gate I saw this guy, big guy dressed in shorts and a tee shirt. Well it was not shorts weather in Shanghai nor in Detroit. I was like, WTF. He just happened to be in front of me in the customs line and if me if it was always like this in Detroit. I asked him "like what"? He said passport and customs and I had to tell him it was the best I had ever seen, we were literally flying through. Although the bag carousel broke down 3 times and was still broken when I left. I asked about the shorts and he told me he was flying on to Atlanta. He said Atlanta International terminal was fantastic and very speedy. Who knew. So baggage claim is my first pet peeve, it sucks in Detroit.

I observed the flight crew arriving and I must say I have never seen a sadder looking group of people. Grim looking group. Not a smile to be had. They looked like they were dragging the world with them. And they stayed that way for the entire flight in coach. In B/E they perked up a bit but when they came through that curtain they left their smiles behind. I went back to the galley about 4 hours into the flight to ask for a glass of water and you would have thought I asked for the bitches tacky jewelry. They no longer put out the glasses and water for us scum in the back. When they served the last meal, breakfast, they give you a small styrofoam cup of coffee on request. No refills, none, nada. WTF. I realize water and coffee cost Delta big money but smiles are free. If they hate their jobs it is time to retire. And everyone of them was old enough for social security so what is the problem. Maybe they could just roll them over to be TSA and then they could still be mean but not have to pour the coffee. Pet peeve 2.

Gate lice. The final pet peeve. As in normal in China people started lining up for boarding early. Very early. But I noticed this was the white people in the "Elite" lane. And they stood there forever. And the Chinese chick checked their boarding passes and ok'd them. So when they call zone 1 I go get into the line and I am the last and only one. Hmm. Then I get to my seat, which is an "elite" seat and the bitch that was number 3 in line is in my row in the window seat. With no carry on bags. So why did she have to cheat. Did she think they were going to take her seat out and make her sit on the floor? And a lot of the other folks in the line ahead of me were all back in steerage with me too. And the Chinese chick let them cheat. Grr. Don't get in line until it is your turn.

Well to finish up with this post, as per my usual when I got home the toilet broke. As we are down to one toilet this is a bit of an issue. So yes, me and Mr. Rooter are dating again. He should be here this afternoon. Thank goodness Punkin Head stocked up the wine.

Mr. Rooter

Mr. Rooter won the hot water tank replacement for the bargain price of just under $3,ooo US dollars. And yes that includes permits. Ouch. New pipes and fireplace liners. What a disaster. Took 8 hours. And the dishwasher still does not work. WTF. And the dishwasher guy said the water tank guys were a rip-off. U Cool ice maker making funny noises, oh yea, I forgot to turn it off when I went to China. Defrosted it and am waiting to see if it will make ice again. Watered the plants and am waiting to see if they come back. Gotta fix this before I leave again in March.

Finally feel like I am back on track at home.

Work email is sending messages of email too full and I still have to do the PDP. Barbie is still pissing me off mentally and the leech is not my favorite person right now. Supposed to build S2 next week and we will see just how this is going to work. Let us see what Fed Ex brings us tomorrow. Good friend in the department was offered a transfer to Chicago as some southern plant wanted the guy fired for taking bribes back at their plant. She did not agree with the fact that they were wrong, so she is not their friend. Quality is Job 1, not job 2. What part of "you are part of the problem" are these auto plant people not getting? And you don't have to pay taxes on your insurance policy? Thanks Nancy and Harry!

Meeting new appliance repairmen

Well to bring you up to date, Barbie is still whacko and screwing everything up and she is now back on the upswing to piss me off. Dishwasher repair guy coming back tomorrow and now we get to meet the hot water tank replacement guy. And the pharmacy changed my prescription to generic and told me in broken English it should be fine. What country am I in. And Obama is not going to tax union health insurance policies? WTF.

Barbie stole all the auto tickets given to my plant and then reluctantly gave me 4 back. She gave them out to people who do not and have not helped us in the past. The person who threw her off the line. No tickets. The operator who had her thrown off the line, no tickets. What is this woman thinking? She hides from me and screws up everything she does. Plant Loco does not like her and this is not good if she wants to keep her job. And I checked with PC 35% of the vehicles produced are sold. Working 9 hours a day plus Saturdays to stockpile vehicles with gasoline going up. Good move.

Hot water tank is dying a slow death. So I investigated and priced and someone is coming tomorrow from Mr. Rooter to give me an in person estimate. If he is within the ballpark he can do the replacement on the spot in an hour. Cost for a tank, install by a licensed plumber, permit and take away about $700.00 per Lowe's and an independantt plumber. This is insane, but then again after I am done I can leave it to dry rot or rent it. Pretty much everything is fixed or new.

Getting my new improved parts shipped to me Monday for delivery Tuesday to Plant Loco and having replacement parts shipped to my home for someone who bought a vehicle with torn up parts delivered here also. Edge should be filled with boxes next week.

3 day weekend and much cleaning to be done, more later.