The Wheelchairs And The Hills

School has gotten almost as difficult as it's going to get all year. Still don't have my science books yet, but otherwise, everything's going smoothly. I've got lots more free time than I've had in previous years.

Math hasn't bothered with reviews this year, which has been slightly difficult, but it's coming back pretty quickly. Trigonometry. It's like an old friend. The kind you hope doesn't recognize you.
Classical languages is both fun and easy. Learning Latin and Greek roots is really useful, because with them you can work out the meaning of just about any big word you come across. Any English word anyway. You can also make up words for things that sound real and have actual relevant meaning.
I don't care for the History book's slant. If Christians were terrorists who killed everyone who didn't believe, the author would be their king. A tad too fanatical for me. I'd rather have an objective history book than a Christian-biased one. Just as with any biased history book, they tend to go overboard and only tell half the story.
Drumming is drumming. Getting fast on the bass-pedal, which always sounds sweet, and usually makes up a good portion of professional drum solos, but losing a bit of coordination with fills and time-keeping.
Government and Economy is crazy fun. That's my summer subject. Bought the books for myself and read many of them on my own time. Now I get to keep doing it and get credits for it. How cool is that?

Hair cut on Wednesday morning. Decided I've always wanted to try shaving it all off and going Vin Diesel. Perfect time of year for it, won't get sunburned, won't freeze.
So I did.
So far I really like it. Not so warm, though if I plan to sweat I need to definitely wear a hat. It'll grow back before the winter gets really cold, unless I decide to keep it this way, which is quite likely. It's great.

Stopping by the neighbor's every afternoon after school to push their daughter's wheelchair up their driveway. Sentry, you remember the McBrides, right? They live right next door, see, and I'm not sure what was the deal, but their daughter is growth-stunted, can't talk, and doesn't seem to have a whole lot of motor control. One of her parents is having back problems and the other has had some sort of massive triple-hernia surgery, so neither of them can push her wheelchair up the hill to her house. It's fun to wait for the bus with her dad though, he's really smart. Showing me how he built the hydraulic lift for her wheelchair to get into the house, or explaining ways to make environmentally-safe insecticides, or giving examples of different systems of well-pumps. It's cool.

Then yesterday Tim called up and wanted some help moving. I'm not even going to try to make sense of the mechanics of his life, but from what I could pick up, we were moving his hunting and fishing stuff from his old girlfriend's house to his new girlfriend's house, who lives across the street from me. Other than all his landscaping equipment, pretty much all he owns is hunting and fishing stuff, but he's got boatloads of it. Luckily he packs things mostly in plastic tubs, so it was really pretty easy. Hour and a half later, ten bucks richer, plus ten from last time I worked for him. He pays sporadically.
The most exciting bit was when I was backing his truck up. Was doing just fine, going slow because he loves his lawn, had it all under control, he decides to start directing me. Okay, fine, it's his house, his truck, he says keep going backwards I'll keep going backwards, it looks all clear, though one of his side-mirrors has been broken for months. So up into the garden I go, and he's still nodding like a bobble-head and waving me farther back.
Then I hit something.
He keeps directing me back for a second, then stops, smiles and nods, and starts unloading.
What the heck?
So I jump out and head to the back...he directed me directly into a large rock in his garden. Luckily for him it was the tire that hit, so no damage was done to the truck, the rock just got shoved back a bit.
He's not the sort of person I would hang out with by choice, but I don't mind his money. :)

Skipping back to Monday, drove into town to pick up some huge lava rock a guy from Dad's work wanted to be rid of. Well I've never seen a lava rock this big. If it was hollow, you could probably fit two people in it. Or one average American. It was heavy, and sharp. Dad, being the maniac he is, had to be reminded by someone to put on gloves so he didn't slice his hands apart. No one else was around to do it, so that was me. Lava rock is sharp. We still both ended up with some scraped-up arms, Dad's being by far the worst, because the guy who lived there kept trying to help and getting in the way. Between Dad pushing as hard as he could and this guy sort of stumbling around, I felt safer and more useful clearing stuff out of the way as they rolled it to the truck. The guy who lives there is cool, and really nice, but not much good at moving rocks, it would seem. Big chore getting it into the truck, ended up using ramps to roll it on.

Then once we were one the road Dad got down to the trivial business of figuring out where he's going to put it. lol. Stopped for Frosty's at Wendy's on the way home. We picked out a nice spot by the hot tub for the rock.

I'd post the really good stuff, but I'd rather y'all just be driven crazy with suspense wondering what it could be.

FTTDOTD: Walmart undercuts the American economy by carrying merchandise manufactured entirely overseas, which it can then sell for lower prices than other stores whilst still making a profit. Great idea, business-wise, but screwing the world's greatest superpower while they're at it. (Mom is a major conspiracy theory hunter, and she dug all this up) Anyway, so here's what you do. Walmart carries everything, right? So put on a black coat and sunglasses, grab a cart, and fill it with wire, wire-cutters, needle-nosed pliers, clocks, rubbing alcohol, toilet-cleaner, bleach, duct-tape, light-switches, and remote-control car parts if you can find any. Wheel the cart over towards the checkout, but don't get in line. Start digging conspicuously through the cart and fiddling with things. Make sure that at some point you start a nice loud clock ticking. Then yell 'CRAP!' and run out the door, abandoning the cart where it sits.
PS: Don't really do this, unless you LIKE jail.

SOTD: Deirks Bentley - Long Trip Alone (Cool song, sticks in your head.)