Background Noise
The internet connection's been so iffy today I feel like I'm back in the early nineties on a walloping 33.6 dial-up connection while AOL dumps me every ten minutes. We'll see how moody it is when I hit the post button. I also can't begin to tell you how loud it's seemed in the shop today. Even though other days of sawing and grinding steel must have been just as loud, today is driving me nuts for some reason. It should be the final day of this particular ruckus. Monday starts a different type of ruckus as they begin to construct my office cage.
But… it's not totally over. You can see through the mesh floor of the mezzanine, and it gives 'just a little' underfoot as you walk on it. I think it's cool. The women are terrified of it. So I priced 1/2-inch acrylic today to add a little bite, and the quote came in at $3,000, which is pretty much what I paid for the entire structure. I have numbers for tempered glass at home, (which I can't find on the on/off internet today), but if memory serves it won't be that much less expensive, if at all. I think I'll be looking for another 'cool' alternative.
The bathroom guys came in this morning to put the final putty on the walls and then left. The general contractor that employs them wants more work out of me and is bringing another quote for lighting and metal shelving laminates on Monday. Ten minutes ago I went to inspect it, and the damned sink moves. It moves. After three plus days, the sink moves. The patch job on the wall above the sink is less than exemplary and he told my partner that she should just put a mirror over it. I'm thinking he's not getting any more work from me even if I have to fix it myself.
Following up on my Congressman Jefferson/WSJ post the other day it seems that Byron York has my back.
Me: So for eight months Jefferson refused a subpoena and the House leadership was unaware that something was going on?… Let me hear about the negotiations or lack of them.Mr. York: Among its other duties, the House Office of General Counsel represents the staff of the House of Representatives. Its purpose is not to be the lawyer for any individual but to represent the interests of the House as an institution; … [this] indicates that the House Counsel took the position that neither Jefferson nor his staff should be required to turn over the subpoenaed documents to the Justice Department. And that suggests that the months-long resistance in the corruption case, which most outside observers have attributed to Jefferson’s individual intransigence in the face of overwhelming evidence against him, was in fact backed by the House of Representatives itself.
Also 'kind of' backs up my observation of Jefferson during his press conference as a 'deer in the headlights' type. He's guilty and is relying on the kindness of strangers to dig him out of this mess, as I'm sure Dennis Hastert is not a close friend of his. As usual York comes up with some interesting information, which is well worth a read.
I've had few premonitions, but one of note was when I realized that George Bush 41 would lose his reelection bid if he didn't retract his 'read my hips' statement on breaking his tax pledge. Up until now it was the most offensive thing I'd heard uttered from a Republican to the people that put him in office. My latest prognostication is that if the Republicans don't get on the right side of this, their constituents are going to stay home come November. There's blood in the water, and Democrats aren't stupid. If they manage to reel in their left wing [granted, a big 'if'), the coming months may be remembered as the 'quiet' campaign as the Dems retake the House by default in big numbers.
Bush as Party leader needs to get out in front of this thing soon and discipline the troops, or for the last two years of his Presidency he's going to be taking direction from Hillary.
