My neighbor and I watching ourselves and his sons on YT from the initial space it was created in.

Our new psychedelic staff tank tops arrived today and I got me one. I haven't seen these colors since the Summer Of Love, 1967, in Golden Gate Park.

I've got three skins in the Mega Million drawing tonight, and when they announce the winning ticket being bought from the Taz Mart on the outskirts of Lawrenceburg, TN, and it's me, here's what I'm going to do.

The cash out is seven hundred million plus. Everyone says you need to quickly hire on a management staff to take over everything. Fuck that!

Please, just deposit it into my checking account.

My local bank Capstar, where the inside girls I genuinely like, would gain great notoriety! The town would bloom from tourists around the world flocking to see where the man who won the Mega Millions lived.

Then I would hire a local law firm to take care of all the legal stuff. I would ask around my few friends here and take their advice. The same with an accountant.

Ok, continuing in my little house at the end of a dead end street in southern Tennessee is probably not a good idea.

So, I would find the coolest old mansion around here, with beautiful properties all around, and buy them up.

Then I would invite every friend and family member in my life: daughter, son, grandkids, great-grandkids, sisters, brothers (I have one each) to take up residency around me.

I would pay for their homes and set them up finanicaly. If they chose to accept, I would be surrounded by family, not substance.

Hey, this could be an important document, so I better shut it down and save it...

Man, Parkinsons and Dementia. I've been really forgetful lately, and it almost cost me big time this morning. I walked out to my truck in the rain with an armload of stuff for work, and set my $1,200 Samsung S20 on the roof of my truck while I got everything inside.

Then I drove to work in a downpour along my twisty little back road. I tought it was strange nobody was there yet, but I parked the truck in the shade, and then reached for my phone to clock in. It wasn't on my seat and I yelled "Oh Shit"!

I jumped out and looked on my roof and damned if it wasn't still there. Wet, but there. I pulled the case off and dried everything off, then called Liz to see if we were running today. We weren't, and I would have had all day to back track looking for my phone, in the rain...

I love my vehicle's Garmin GPS, but the woman's voice is like some drunkin ex-wife, sitting in passenger, with a map in her lap, telling me which way to turn. Drives me nuts!

I got ripped off last week when I tried to re-schedule that home wellness visit because I had to drive a couple loads of tubers that Monday. They ripped me off to about $96 in debit charges along with monthly subscriptions. I canceled the card and the Bank Of Commerce in Driggs, ID is working with me to refund that loss.

I complained in an email to Blue Cross/Blue Shield about the incident, and an investigator just called me about it. His name was Don, former FBI guy, working with BC/BS to resolve these kind of incidents.

He wanted me to go through my phone records for the 15th and compare the called phone number to the one on my insurance card. Sure enough, I had misdialed. There were two numbers on the card, I dialed the first digits then looked back to the card and typed the last four digits of the second number.

Don was excited, now he had a number to call. I told him to rip them a new asshole, he said he would do his best.

I just bought this very exiguous device called the Magicteam Sound Machine. It generates 20 non-looping sleep sounds: white noise, brown noise, pink noise, blue noise, fan, brook, rain, ocean, bird and bonfire.

I got it specifically for the brown noise generator, which has been established as a sleep aid. I tried it out last night.

Plugged it in, set for brown noise, cranked it up and placed it a foot away from my pillow. Instantly, the noise that I endure throughout the night such as traffic out on the highway through my open window, my neighbors air-conditioner below my window, and my refrigerator noise, disappeared.

I had a great sleep, amazing dreams, and my watch gave me a sleep score of 80. I highly recommend this $26 device!

I've been organizing my office space the last couple of days, which consists of an old desk and a small metal container with a lock door on it.

It's been the catch all spot for patching, storing dead or near dead tubes, life jackets, compressor, and various patching shit. It has been a mess.

I've been gradually pulling old tubes out and determining their status. If they have a big ol gash in them, I'm deeming them patch material and stacking them on the right side. If they're dead from an old patch that has fallen apart, but might be revived, they go on the left. In the middle in the back are about a dozen tubes to be examined, and assigned.

I'm doing this while maintaining our present stash of tubes in use across two big containers. At the end of my day I put the tubes that are not maintaining pressure in the middle, to be examined the next day.

Some tubes just have a slow leak, it might be from an old patch with a bit of air coming out, or a pinpoint hole sometimes impossible to find. Often it's best to just blow them up hard and send them out on the creek for a 2.5 hour run. They'll hold up.

My boss Ricky just dropped by two boxes of new tubes. Fortunately I had space in the new office to store them. I asked our driver Rocco, who really runs the outside show, if we had room for new tubes. He said, after putting those old blue ones into service following Saturdays rush, no.

Ok, this is the current state of affairs in the tube department, at Crockett Shoals Tubing, from the tube manager!

To expand on yesterdays post, it seems to me that when you buy a ticket from a commercial airline, you are establishing a contract with them that states:

We will transport you from this location, at this time, to this destination at this time, for X amount of money, up front. We both understand that emergencies and weather could affect this, but otherwise it our responsibility to fulfill this agreement.

You then plan your life around this contract. If the airline fails to perform as specified, we should be able to sue them. A whole new industry of law firms would pop up, specifically to assist travelers to sue the airlines for damages.

If they over schedule, overbook, or push their people too hard such that things fall apart and your flight is delayed significantly, or worse cancelled completely, they need to be held accountable.

The air traffic controller shortage issue is bullshit. This is a federal agency and the country needs to divert a few billions from the money going to Ukraine, and fix it!

Here's the kicker: you can buy expensive insurance to protect you, if the airlines or the feds blow it. This ripoff industry needs to go away, you shouldn't need it.

We need a new federal law protecting fliers from airline breach of contract!

My flight to Seattle is on Sept 12, departing Nashville at 1017, arriving at 1753, a perfect time to hook up with Brian, and Riley can pick us up from his shop near the airport, right after work. It cost me $500 and change.

It was perfect, until American Airlines changed the terms of the deal yesterday. Now they have me laying over in Charlotte, NC for 5 hours, changing the arrival time to well after 2100!

So I called Priceline and requested rescheduling. The recorded message told me I would be subjected to a $200 charge plus any difference in the cost of the flight. I was starting to fume, shouting what a scam to an empty line.

When I finally spoke to a nice young lady, I explained that arriving at 1700 was critical, I wanted a different flight, and I didn't want to pay an extra dime, since American broke the contract. She put me on hold and I didn't know what to expect.

I got a new flight, even better than the other one, it leaves at 1143, 55 minute layover in Dallas, arrives in Seattle at 1658.

The best and most critical part was, American waived the $320 surcharge because the change was due to their scheduling, not my whim.

So, I've taken my share of commercial flights, but I am far from a seasoned flyer. I learned something today, perhaps you did to.

Daniel talked his sons Chad and Drew into bringing an amp over and playing some music for the old man on his birthday. Enjoyed the hell out of it! Thanks guys.

What of a way to turn 76! I could have been sitting in a beach bar on an ill-conceived road trip, sipping a cocktail alone, wondering what the hell I was doing.

Instead, I showed up for my job, wore my company shirt for all of one minute, then stripped it off and started patching tubes.

It's Saturday, it's very hot, and folks started showing up in droves! I was patching the down tubes as fast as I could, but we started running out.

Rocco pulled out blue tubes from the container that were flat and hadn't been used since last season. It was hectic, I even found our blue double tube, inflated it, and gave it to a dad and his kids.

Meanwhile, I kept getting birthday wishes, both online and from the staff. (Liz and I are FB friends). My very small circle of family sent regards, and my sister gave me a very generous Amazon gift card.

Now I'm home, cooling down, sipping on a cocktail. Which in this case, beats a strange bar any day!

Every birthday is a milestone when you reach my age. I marvel at it, respect it, and I'm thankful for surviving one more year. But the truth is, where your head is at, is the most important thing.

My head is fine, I'm working, with people I enjoy, and I'm contributing to the happiness level of many folks, every day.

Rock on!

Update: My boss Ricky just dropped by and gave me a family made apricot fried pie. OMG, never had one, delicious! The South is really growing on me. Also, Liz just texted me the count for today, 270 people rode our tubes down Shoal Creek today, beating last Saturday by 22.

Here you go, half eaten:

Did you know that the average monthly rent for a Manhattan apartment is over $5,000. I pay $450 for my little man cave on a dead end street in a hick town in southern Tennessee, and I got a creek and a park to go with it.

I can crank my sound system as loud as I want, I leave the door wide open and suck air through it with my ceiling fans, and out the back windows toward the creek. No air conditioning and I have chipmunks walk casually into my house for peanuts.

I see everyone who comes into my neighborhood, down my quiet street, and my shotgun is loaded and a few steps away. But I've been here four years now, and have not had any bad actors roll through here.

The other night I left my truck wide open with my wallet in it crammed with cash and my cards. I woke up at 0200 realizing what I had done, and walked out naked and fixed it.

My grocery store, my liquor store, my gym, my job, many restaurants, and Walmart, are within three miles away.

So, New York can charge 5k for the privilege of living in that crime and drug infested crap hole of a big city, and shove it up their ass!

My boss Ricky and I took care of those rocks today, that were busting tubes under the bridge. Daniel loaned me a badass pry bar that worked well. I asked Ricky if he had one on his truck, and he said, yea, bigger than that. He is a contractor after all.

We used the one I brought, mainly to break up rocks with pointed edges, and manually moved the bigger ones to the side of the creek. Should make for smooth tubing down a fast moving stretch.

Ricky showed up at 1030 and his timing was perfect as I was trying to figure out what to do before my in-home medical checkup at noon.

The medical visit went great, a distinguished older doctor showed up and he updated the things my provider needed to know, checked my b/p, heart, reflexes and general stuff. Right from the comfort of my big chair. I passed!

He was probably more then fifteen years younger than me, but I bet he wouldn't be rolling big rocks around the creek in his spare time.

I watched my neighbor knock off a can of Vienna Sausage the other day, and then I saw some good ol boy waiting to ride our tubes, also eating a can of these things. They are a convenient source of protein I suppose, with the little tear off lids and all, but I don't eat them.

So I asked Daniel if this was a southern thing, and he said yep, along with potted meat, pickled pigs feet, spam, chitlins (hog intestines, deep fried), pork brains and eggs, rooster fries (hog balls), and pork skins.

Ok...

And I don't think my happy son in the Pacific Northwest is feeding Ariella any of those things.

We have a new put-in spot for the tubers. Actually, it was our original spot when I drove for CST a couple of years ago. I love it, it's my favorite, it goes right down our dead end street, past my little house, with a full driveway to exit without any backing.

Much better then the spot down the road where the neighbors were complaining and we were blocking one lane of a two lane street. I'm one of the neighbors here, and I know the others, so no complaints.

My manager Liz told me that tubes were being flattened at a spot down under the first bridge (now the second bridge since expanding the run), so I drove over today to check it out. I think I found the culprit, a narrow little passage that draws tubes in, and then accelerates them right into some gnarly rocks.

I shot a little video of the spot, and then later on Rocco and I drove a big two bus group of beautiful young people, down to the new spot to try their luck.

They posed for a group shot down at the drop, and I really wanted to stand next to the lady that was taking it, and shoot my own, but I thought they might have freaked out, so I didn't. OK, no balls...

Also, my little 8 year old helper Maddie found a pinpoint hole in a tube that was driving me crazy, bought her a peanut butter cup!

Anyway, check out the video if you like:

I was talking to my co-worker Rocco today about The Tubes. You know, that eclectic San Francisco band that formed in the early seventies. My friend Skoge was actively involved with them, and I just hung out.

Perhaps you've never heard of them, or their music, so I'm going to share a couple videos here. Btw, I was amazed to discover that they are still touring!

Also, Micheal Cotton, the keyboard player, was an artist, and designed a logo for one of my companies computer products.

248 people rode our tubes down Shoal Creek today. It was a beautiful hot Saturday and the folks just kept showing up all day. We almost ran out of tubes and the staff were throwing flat ones they found inside the storage unit at me, as well as ones that got flattened on the creek from rocks and who knows what shit.

I was a tube patching machine today and now I'm home and walking around the house like a fucking old man. Oh, wait...

I'll be 76 next Saturday, and I'm still working out here at home before I go to work. Eating very healthy, no sugar, meat on a rare occasion. I inject meth into my arm before bed to help me sleep (ok, I drink hot lemon juice). I'm trying to beat the odds and stay alive!

I am the PatchMan.

...and thank god patchman.com is taken, I don't feel like programming a website.

We went down a driver yesterday at Crockett Shoals Tubing, Marvin had to leave to help his dad with Parkinson and Dementia. Turns out, they put me on their insurance and I'm now a back-up driver along with the prestigious title of tube patcher.

I actually did a run today, had a great time, glad to be back.

Then, I rode to Hollywood, via Waco to connect Daniel with his freshly serviced Harley. I tried to keep up with him on the ride home, but he smashed some gears, and left me in the dust.

I bought my Zulay lemon press last September, and I love it. It's got two compartments, one for lemons and one for limes, but will actually work on any small fruit. Just cut things in half, insert face down and squeeze.

It's sturdy, you can put some muscle into extracting every last drop, then just flip it open and the flattened fruit drops out. Quick and efficient.

It's a little awkward to clean, but you learn how quickly. As someone who has used it daily, I highly recommend this device, if you decide to get into hot lemon juice drinks. Or if you just need this kind of tool in your kitchen!

Yea, I should get a commission from Zulay for this, but click an image below to go there on Amazon.

I stopped drinking coffee quite a while ago. Oh I would have a cup on the road when I traveled, but I don't drink it around my house. I have replaced it with one freshly squeezed lemon, hot water, and a dash of sea salt.

I have one cup every morning, gets me going. I have recently discovered that it's a sleep aid, which is counter-intuitive to a morning drink.

For example, I woke up at 0230 this morning, couldn't get back to sleep, and said screw it and got up. Made myself a hot lemon, read my mail, watched a little TV, then went back to bed about 0415.

I fell asleep quickly and had an incredible deep rem sleep, with amazingly vivid dreams. Woke up at 0600 and felt totally refreshed!

Tonight I'm sitting here writing this post, drinking a hot lemon. It's 1915 and I'm ready to hit the sack, should be interesting. I should also note that I did three laps, worked out, and hit the gym hard today. Goodnight.

I was listenen to a song today, and the lyric, hold on tight to your dreams, jumped out to me. I'll be 76 shortly, and I ain't got no dreams left.

I live day to day, with a few plans down the road. Today I walked the path, worked out, ate catfish, bought some stuff to put in the side holders of my bird feeder, and hit the gym.

None of those things stack up as dreams, and there certainly ain't nothin to hold on to. So, just glad to still be alive!

Meanwhile, my planter is lovin the daily water, and is giving me presents in return.

I really upped my game on the job today. I've been struggling with removing old patches that were leaking, for replacement. I've been using my fingers, with a little help from pliers once I got a corner up, and then the old glue was impossible to remove fully.

I bought a dispenser of denatured alcohol that Daniel recommended and a bottle of DeSolveIt he loaned me, along with lacquer thinner, to no avail. So before work this morning I dropped into True Value Hardware, told the boss man my issue, and what I was using. He said those were my best options and couldn't recommend another product.

Then he suggested something that became a game changer. He said buy a hair dryer! It's great for melting the glue, allowing it to be removed. Brilliant!

Then I picked up a mid-sized Conair 1875 watt dryer at Dollar General for $15. First thing I do now with an old patch is to heat it up from a couple inches away for a minute. Then, with the glue melted it peels right off.

I spray denatured alcohol on the reamaining glue and let it soak in, then I heat it up some more and wipe it off with lacquer thinner. Slick as a baby's ass.

I also bought a tool from Amazon last week that allows me to apply a hard textured roll to the new patch, that works amazingly well. I then let the new patch sit for a while with weight on it. As a result I knocked out an impressive number of repairs today, ran out of tubes to fix, and went home at 1230.

How about that shit!

My mechanical genius neighbor Daniel conceived a method to hang my bird feeder between the house and the tree, and to make it squirrel proof with a couple of cones, that will spin and make them fall off.

We've been buying the parts over the last few days, and hooked it up this afternoon. Here's a little video of it:

Riley and his family are down on an Oregon beach for a little vacation time. This photo just warmed my heart so much, I had to share it!

Busy ass day! Our tubing parking lot looked like a big used car lot by midday. And consider that each vehicle carries a group of people! I did a walk around for the video below.

My commute along the back roads is just under two miles, takes five minutes, with no stoplights. Man, how fortunate am I to find a nice little summer gig, with those commute numbers.

And I'm tired and sore, which is alright...

Did a walk around of my new working space at Crockett Shoals Tubing.

I encountered Melissa and Michael at the gym today. They were on the treadmill as I walked in, and wouldn't make eye contact. I saw my favorite machines open and started my workout.

After rotating around the gym, Melissa walked by me, and I came up behind her and called out her name, three times. She totally blew me off and kept on walking. It was impressive. I said OK, and backed off.

I finished my workout with a good treadmill session, and split.

What I wanted to say to her, was that I was sorry for everything. I'm an old asshole who gets his feelings hurt easily. I regret my reactions, I wanted to shake her hand and tell her good luck in life.

Instead I got ignored, like a worthless piece of shit.

Ok, I get it. There is no reconciliation here, they hate me so much. Steph watches the kids while they work out, and then goes to work. I guess it's time to finally move on from Summertown, and get on with my life.

And just pretend they don't exist at the gym...

Update from Mellisa:

Checked your blog. Sorry if it seemed like I ignored you, I wear wireless headphones and cannot hear with them in. I told you I wouldn't bother you, so I let you be. Apologies if it seemed like I was Ignoring you, I did not hear you. Look, I forgive you. Shit happens and we can all do things in life that hurt other people's feelings. I don't hate you. I am extremely protective of my children and what happened with dillan made momma bear come out. He's an amazing young man despite what we went through with Chris early in his life... he's not perfect but I love and cherish him. As far as what happened, it's water under the bridge. You can be at peace with that situation.

Thank you for the kind response. Sorry I mis-understood.

I was buying my regular bag of ice at the tobacco store today, and an Amish dad and his three kids were set up there selling vegetables from their buggy.

As I drove by I made eye contact with one of the young girls, about five, in her little Amish outfit, and waved at her. Her face lit up, she smiled broadly, and waved back.

Sometimes you get ignored in life, and sometimes small victories occur!

I busted my ass today! Showed up at 8:30 and the boss man Ricky and I started patching tubes. He showed me the tricks of the trade as we begin moving through a backlog of flat tubes.

The work area is between the office and the storage area, and the sun was moving in a straight line directly overhead. By noon I was drenched in sweat and then Rachel (Rickys daughter and manager) showed up with a big canopy and a fan. Wow, what a great difference.

Rachel told me that they were looking for a tube manager, and me showing up yesterday was perfect timing. I really feel like they're glad I'm back.

Things have gotten automated from two years ago, with a great little phone app where you clock in and out, and your pay goes straight into your bank account.

So I got me a summer job, how about that!

btw: We launched 269 people down the creek today.

It looks like I have a new summer job. I dropped into the tubing company I used to drive for, to see if they needed a driver, and they said no. But, they needed a tube patcher.

Now I've had some interesting jobs in my life, but this is different. I'll be working when they're running, Friday through Monday, so I get to be in on the action, just sitting in the back maintaining the tubes.

I've never patched a tube before but I used to live in Michael Cottens house, the keyboard player for the rock band The Tubes, when he was on the road. That counts!

Update: Ricky the owner just dropped by my house and we sealed the deal, start tomorrow. We also talked about a wine touring bus driving job that would require me to re-up my CDL. I said I'm on board.