Zoomie Writes

Can I finally get back to 1976?

2010-01-02T15:52:00.000-08:00

TOON T & BIG Red (circa 1998)

Paula and I were married in May, 1974. We lived in a townhouse in Lafayette until 1976 at which time we moved from the noisy townhouse to a super quiet duplex at the end of the lane next to Jack In The Box, just down the street. After settling in for a few months, I was sitting in the super quiet patio, which backed up to the walking trail, sipping on something and thinking, "There is absolutely nothing I need to do."

By years end we had purchased our home in Pleasant Hill, a neighboring town of Lafayette and moved in, and from that day forward, I have never been without the demand of something that had to get done. Nag, nag, nag. Year after year, after year, there was always something on my plate that somewhere along the line I really needed to get done.

It is now, January 2nd, 2010, and yeah, I have a ToDo list. It's formal, too, with categories with items and sub categories with items. All of these items I have to one day get done. But you know what? I think this might be the year that I can finally clear the 34 year-long todo list. Oh my, what will it be like? To finally be able to set back and say, "There is absolutely nothing I need to do."

Good bye and good riddance 2009...

2009-12-27T13:01:00.000-08:00

I'm glad you're over. It started out okay ... lots of time off with a few larger jobs towards the end. And for the first time, attended the Grand National Roadster Show with my friend Cliff. Oh my, we had a great time ... lots of super cars, old friends, and even my friend Doug was in town, so it was the three of us walking the car show on Sunday together. What fun. FYI: Doug Mueller, owner of Auto Electric & Fuel in Concord is currently replacing the motor in Black Widow 2 as well as making other adjustments and upgrades via his top mechanic Chris Madera.

Back home, at the age of 60, I decided to finally send in a stool sample. I had a little pain in my gut. The findings were instant, I had to go in for a colonscopy. And there, too, the findings were instant: I had colon cancer. The operation was scheduled for mid Feb.

What to do with my business? I asked a local handyman friend, John Rienecker, to handle the load while I went under the knife. John did a super job for all concerned. The operation went okay but the recovery was rough. The good news was that I got a great corner room with a 270 degree view for recovery wherein my friends, like Cliff, came to visit. The TV got FOX News. Yep, it was the penthouse.

Back home, now totally out of commission for a few weeks, my friend Al Vico comes in from his home in Idaho and takes over the day-to-day jobs. Al and I used to work together back in the early '80s when I was doing property management. We worked together on jobs. And when I first started my handyman business in 2001, he was there to help. We were 2HandyGuys.com. We did very well and enjoyed many days of fixing stuff. So once again, it's Al and Rick, the two Goombah; Derived from Italian, meaning close friend, or accomplice, mentor. After all, Al's last name is Vico and my mothers' maiden name was Baroni. So Al does the hard jobs and I suffer through the little stuff. By this time I'm starting on chemo. In a word: chemo sucks!

The summer comes and goes. Al and I work the jobs and have fun. Al leaves to go back home in Sept and I suffer through on my own, still on chemo. Chemo finishes up at the end of Sept, so now I start recovery from that. My immune system is shot. And because of this, I come down with the swine flu in Nov. Thank you very much. Five weeks later, I'm feeling okay, my energy is back and I feed fine. So in a word: the flu sucks!

Let me add that during the late summer, our big screen TV takes a dump. That needed to be repaired. It took a good month for the parts to arrive and installation scheduled. They had to replace the 47" LCD cause the problem was on a circuit board associated with the LCD unit. And, to top if off, right after Christmas, our new Blu Ray unit takes a dump. It goes into Sears for repair or replacement, thus we start off the new year with no Blu Ray player.

Oh yeah, did I also mention that during 2009 Obama became president, the economy which was already on the skids kept sliding and generally speaking business was less than previous years. I did okay, and Al did okay, but it was obvious that there was less business, smaller jobs and people were very concerned about the future and thus spent less, unless they were secure. A few were.

On some high notes: I sold my 1954 Ford F100 to a nice guy down in Orange County, I started a new hot rod project to emulate an early '60s "short" t-bucket look, and my model car making got going again.

Best of all, Paula is doing swell, as are our dogs/kids, Petey and Wave.

So, that was the year that was. I look forward to a better 2010.

I really don't want to do this...

2009-12-11T09:23:00.000-08:00

I have to admit, I have avoided 'blogging' ever since I heard about it, and that was years ago. I am not new to posting editorials and newsletters on-line. I first started doing this on the Club 100 BBS back in the early '80s. It was a simple time, wherein your post was an ASCII file and the link was a tag in a menu file of the BBS software.

Today, blogging is well defined activity, a business, a service, and almost a no brainer for just about anyone who can figure out the system and write stuff, not to mention the skills to upload photos and videos -- something we didn't have back in the BBS days. And behind the source material is an entire industry dedicated to finding, cataloging, distributing and promoting blogs. Oh and did I mention all the marketing tied to and around all this stuff.

It's so evolved now, with hundreds of thousands of participants from all walks of life, and here I sit, posting my first blog into this frighteningly complex system that I am pulled, kicking and screaming against the technology. Quick … will someone please get me out of here.