All I want in Life is a dead deer in the back of a pickup truck.

One week before I go back to the Sack and I have to find a vehicle. I don't really have to find a vehicle to buy but I would like to have a good idea what I want/can afford before I leave. This is complicated by the fact that I will be away on a job for the next few days and have exactly one zillion other things that I have to do before I leave.

I got a picture message from Eric on Saturday morning with a picture of a dead deer in the back of his pickup truck. The caption said something to the extent of 'This is what happens when you get a truck, welcome to the club'. I will be shooting a deer with my bow either over Thanksgiving or Christmas and if I own a truck by that point I will deposit said deer in afore mentioned truck and be happy as a clam. Oh ya, I have to practice shooting my bow, I know have one zillion and one things to do.

In the spirit of discussing dead deer and why I need a truck here are some pics.

My two cents....dont wreck your car

It is a huge pain in the ass. On top of that while I was writing this post I missed a Bag of Crap in the latest woot off. No car, no crap and 10,000 things to do. I'm to distraught about the latest bag of crap to continue writing.

Toyota Tacoma

So I know Ive always talked about getting a new truck but I never had the balls. Well today I totaled My Honda Civic by sliding on some wet leaves and smashing a Chevy Tahoe. So I suppose its time to put up or shut up. Im 99% sure the car is totaled but I wont know for a few days. So the search begins, I have a hellacious commute and it is totally impractical for me to have a truck but theres just something about it. Perhaps Ill talk myself out of it and get another car but its gonna be tricky. Anyhow I hope the car can be fixed but only time will tell. I have some pics Ill have to try to post.

I'm home,Sweet!!

So anyone who has ever traveled for work knows what I'm about to discuss. You are about to embark on an all day voyage in an airplane. Everyone you talk to co-workers, family and friends say the same thing "have a safe flight". I had to hear it around 15 times, Ive even said it to people in the last week. But really what the hell does that mean? "Have a safe flight" Im not going to talk to the pilot and say 'oh bye the way, some people want me to have a safe flight so lets be on our A game'. No in fact Im just going to sit in my undersized seat and sleep, wake up read a few pages of books and sip on some ginger ale and fall immediately back to sleep. How about just "bye".

When you think that you are having a bad day.....

A bit if background information. The town that I am working in Marysville, CA is a complete shit hole. Today in the field I found 3 pipes (2 crack and 1 pot), and two used needles. The town is situated at the base of some beautiful mountains (the Sutter Buttes) and has so much potential. It is filled with drug addicts, transients and just trashy people in general, Im sure that are some great people that live here but I have not run into any yet. But their is some interesting history here. It was a big area around the gold rush and people flocked here to find their fortunes. Anyhow I had to meet this guy to get a key for the levees in Marysville, he told us story's about the guys huge pot plants that I mentioned earlier and where the big homeless populations where that we should stay away from. He also told us about a cemetery that was located right next to the levees. All of the tombs have been raided by meth addicts who steal the platinum coffin handles and the jewelry right off the stiffs fingers. Now I'm not sure when you hit rock bottom and say to yourself "hey man lets go dig up some 150 year old dead people and steal their shit" but when you get to that point you should probably call it quits. This guy also told us of some interesting people that where buried here. So today I was working right next to the cemetery and thougt I would go and see if I could find the people that I was looking for.

I found her:

So imagine. You are a young woman and you go with your husband to find your fortune in the Mountains. What should take a few months ends up taking two years (1846-1847) and on top of that you end up chowing down on a few of your buddies, more on that here. Then a hundred and fifty year later some waste of life drug addict decides to dig up some of your dead buddies and steal their shit. Unbelievable, I guess when I think that I'm having a bad day it kind of puts things in perspective.

Field Day 22

This weekend I went back to Lake Tahoe. Had big plans to go hiking again but after a night of boozing and gambling at the Casino until 4am those plans got sidetracked. We had a good time, but being their and not doing anything outside makes me feel like a waste of life.

Ive been here in California for almost a month and I believe that Im starting to loose my mind. This one guy that I work with everyday is driving me crazy. Hes the kind of guy that likes to grab your shoulder alot and try to say some inspirational bull shit. He refuses to use the proper names for our equipment and instead makes up words for everthing and it drives me crazy.

I will be going home this weekend and I plan on doing alot of nothing for a few days. Ill have to come back out here at some point but when that will be is still kind of up in the air.

Im going to bed.

Only in California!!!

So as i mentioned we are now working on some fairly urban Levees. So Today I went to the Levee department headquarters and got a key so that I could get vehicle access to the Levee roads. While I was there I asked him about any spots that we should be extra careful working in because of the homeless people. He gave me some advise and then told me of some other interesting things I may see if I am working in another area. It just so happened that's where we where working. Here is a picture:

Its kind of hard to see but those green bushes in that backyard are actually 7 foot high pot plants. Now one may ask why the police do not get involved, well they already are. You see the police just raided his house last week according to the Levee commission guy, and these are the plants that he was allowed to keep. That's right in Cali with a permit you can grow up to six pot plants. The police took two because he had eight and that is illegal. So as I worked on the levee their was around 10 pounds of pot growing about 60 feet away, you could smell it from the top of the levee. Now that is something that you wont find back east. Weird!

Interesting Post soon!!

I have an intersting story to tell. I dont know If I will get to it tonight but hopefully. Something that you will NEVER see back east!! Thats my teaser.

Field Day 15

Here is what 15 days in a row in the Sack can get you.

-The ability to navigate around without a map.
-You become on a first name basis with the hotel staff (except for 'stomped on chick', we just call her 'stomped on chick').
-You can swim underwater 3 laps of the pool (the 3 banger) drunk.
-Your rental vehicle developes an odd smell that you cant seem to get rid of (Joe has more on that)
-You are now a Super Elite member of the Marriot
-You have the telephone number of around 13 Sacramento people in your phone most of which you use every day.
-You have done more laundry at the hotel than you have done at yourt own home.

I have to get out of here....

Random Crap of the non-woot variety (part 2)

sontavas.com has two loyal readers (steve and my mother) and steve has asked me to update more often. So when of 50% of your audience wants more you have to cater to their demands.

So Im out here working in Sacramento and we have contracted some laborers from a local temp agency. So I am in charge of supervising these guys in the field. Its kinda odd having a man that is easily twice your age saying 'what can I do next boss?'. I had to sign a their timesheets on friday and that was kinda odd as well.

The hotel that I am staying at is awesome. Heated pool, hot tub, bar and the rooms are awesome. I frequently find myself sitting in the hot tub with a glass of bourbon after working a 12 hour day. Its not as glamorous as it sounds the 'glass' is actually a Styrofoam cup and I shiver after every sip but something about it just feels right.

Today I was off and bored so I took a gander to my favorite place in the world, Costco. Now their are a few differences between the costco here in cali and the costco back east. Their are still a plethora of free samples which I thoroughly enjoy. Now in MD their is a stampede of overweight people waiting by the free samples waiting for the woman to put out a fresh batch. People like myself hover over the tray and wait patiently, you would think they where giving away hundred dollar bills or something. Here in Sacky the free sample people have to work to get people over to the kiosk to eat some of their free shit. Unbelievable, I am confident that I made some of them very happy today by consuming more than my share of free food in little Dixie cups.

Casey has returned to blogging at http://foreclosurehelpbook.com . Thats kinda exciting for me becasue I am a huge dork.

The latest woot off resulted in no bags of crap. Perhaps a crap in a regular woot soon. Im on the west coast so checking it right when it changes is much easier to do.

They are here and they are organized!!

Some of the levees that I am working on are in the middle of no where. They have picture perfect mountains in the distance and blue herons are a dime a dozen picking huge crayfish out of the canal. There are other Levees though that are located in Urban areas, these have a high homeless population living under bridges. Apparently the homeless in one area have become organized and are orchestrating attacks on people in the levees. The levees in those areas are littered with wire insulation because people steal wire and strip it to sell the copper inside, and if you leave any equipment unattended it will vanish.

We finished the work in the nice area and now we are moving to the urban levees. The only thing we have going for us is the resistivity cable that we are using is running about 700 volts through it at any given point. Id like to see someone sneak up and try to grab that wire...