Maggie’s What's Your View II

My travels took me near an old beloved place this morning, and I had some time to make a few stops and pay some respects.

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The old store was owned by the same man who owned the place my grandparents lived on (sharecroppers).
Charlie Kunath and my grandaddy had been good friends most of their lives.

He used to take me with him to that old store and what my grandmother had hoped would be a quick trip and back typically turned into an hour or more, especially in winter when things were an even slower pace and no one was in a hurry.

There was an old spitune by the potbelly stove in the center of the place, and Charlie's aim was abysmal. I learned pretty early in life what the typical blast radius was, and I never crossed his line of fire.

The shelves were stocked with Prince Albert tobacco, cardboard oil cans, 3 In One, BC powders, Campho Phenique, Castor Oil, and so on.
There were "nabs", moon pies, honey buns, canned goods, fresh sliced bread, thick cut bologna, and a big wheel of sharp cheddar. Assorted candies and 5 cent sodas.

Many a tall tale told in that old building.

As I rounded the bend, I fully expected to find old store either completely gone or in disrepair. A most pleasant surprise to see the exact opposite!

I contacted Mr. Kunath's grandson and asked who was restoring the old place. He confirmed that it was he who had been devoting as much free time and extra cash as he could to the project.
You just have to respect people who see value in these old things. I certainly respect him for that.
I wish there was an old photo of his grandaddy and mine sitting in the chairs by that old stove. It would be fun for he and I to get together and replicate it.
I'll follow up on that.

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My great aunt owned a store in Teetervile, Ontario. It was the gas station, post office, general store, local restaurant and hair dresser. Spent part of a summer there, but have never gone back. I love the old places like that.

Beautiful pics Tucker.

Edit: Looks like it's just a house now.
pics added.
 
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Kunath...that's what we'd call Bogey if we had a lisp.

THAT is some funny shit. As it happens I ran into some airboat drivers from back home in the bar the other night. They're working a job over here and I've been trying to get hired on. My "Kunath" accent came back instantly and is "tick like dat" at the moment.
 
Quite the 24 here, friends and neighbors.

I worked on a server for a furniture store Monday night. Took it back to them Tuesday morning and all seemed well. Running like a top! Cha-ching! Overnights pay well.

Did my thing the rest of Tuesday as documented priorly, and around 5 PM the furniture store called me and said the server wouldn't turn back on ... after the fire.

What? What?!!

Never had this happen before, but the power cable to the DVD drive was apparently loose and it arced/overheated enough to get a little smoke and melt going.
HO-LEEEE FUCK!!!

Luckily, this occurred a few hours before closing, and they were able to disconnect the power before things got way out of hand.

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So I'm all cranked up last night, and cannot sleep or anything. So I decide I may as well use this nervous energy and give the 72 a proper scrubbing.

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That helped some, but I still got damned little sleep last night, worrying about what could have been with the furniture store.
A million dollars worth of inventory and property.... POOF.

"What happened?", says the insurance investigator. "Well, ask Tucker. He just 'fixed' the server yesterday.
SHIT!!!!
Everything I have worked my whole life for, gone up in smoke.

So I go in this morning, expecting the worst. Threats of lawsuits. Rushing a few days before Christmas to get a new server up and running. FUCK, FUCK, and More FUCK!!


The owner is amazingly calm and forgiving. "I know it's nothing you did. Shit happens. Don't worry about it."

WOW!

I replaced a couple of parts and found another impinged cable and corrected it, and she's back up and running, good as new within an hour!
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Then a good friend sends me a text and a pic, "I was just in the bank and your dad is in there singing, "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" to everyone and they are loving it!"

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... and I'm damned near in tears. What a fucking roller coaster of a day!
he's 87 and one damned half, and he is amazing!

What am I drinking tonight?
All I can, boys. All I can!

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Tucker301. I Feel your pain man. I absolutely hate getting a phone call from a customer with in about 96 hrs or so of releasing a vehicle. Makes my balls shrink before i even answer the phone.

I tell everyone the absolute most stressful job I do is change oil. Has the lowest profit with the greatest cost if you make a mistake.
 
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THAT is some funny shit. As it happens I ran into some airboat drivers from back home in the bar the other night. They're working a job over here and I've been trying to get hired on. My "Kunath" accent came back instantly and is "tick like dat" at the moment.

Haha! Glad you liked it. I was hoping you'd see it. Y'all tick as t'eeves down dare wit dem boys frun da bayou?
 
And..........................fuck me! Here I am enjoying my southern winter, and get word that one of my best buddies dropped dead up in Chicago. If I can make the trip it's looking like 4* or so with a high of 12* for most of the time I'm supposed to be up there. That's what I get for jinxing myself gloating in my shorts for Xmas.

My suits and cold cold weather gear were happily buried in moving boxes. FML
 
And..........................fuck me! Here I am enjoying my southern winter, and get word that one of my best buddies dropped dead up in Chicago. If I can make the trip it's looking like 4* or so with a high of 12* for most of the time I'm supposed to be up there. That's what I get for jinxing myself gloating in my shorts for Xmas.

My suits and cold cold weather gear were happily buried in moving boxes. FML

Sorry about your good friend. Ain’t that the way it goes? It’s supposed to cool off a bit up this way over the next few days. Highs in the teens, lows around zero. Love it! Building ice on the pond for skating and hockey.

 
Noticed something tonight that you fellas might appreciate. A cheap magnetic dry erase board that hangs on my safe. If you’ve got these numbers with a solid wind call, you’re golden in Hooterville...

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I find myself somewhat thankful on this Christmas Eve for several reasons.

Last Friday night night we attended a closed casket visitation service for an in-law's father who was killed in a brutal head on collision.
He was the sole occupant of his pickup, coming home from work and about a half mile from getting there.
The other vehicle, an SUV, drifted into his lane. It is now believed that the other driver was either asleep or suffering some kind of medical issue.
The man laid his truck against a guardrail and had to a near complete stop when the SUV hit him at nearly 70 mph with no sign of relenting, according to witnesses.
Occupants of the SUV were two retired educators well known and loved by the community, their pregnant daughter, and the unborn near full term child.
The woman was driving, and she was also killed instantly. The father died a couple days later.
The daughter was critically injured, but has been stabilized and will likely make a substantial recovery. They say the unborn child and associated womb cushioned her blows and likely protected her internal organs from grave damage.
Lives destroyed, and associated lives marred for the rest of their days with horrors of the Christmas that turned their worlds upside down.

One week later, and my wife is driving home from work. I am already there. We swapped vehicles Friday so I could use the pickup to get fuel for my ATV and lawn mower. She drove the CX-5 with the dash cam.

She gets home and mentions that she got a bit of a fright just about a mile from the house, as a pickup veered into her lane, and then corrected in time. And there it is. The blinding reality of fate, circumstances, and dumb luck. Where one distracted or otherwise affected driver corrects in time to make it a forgettable non-incident, and how another one didn't, and the epic difference in the results.

Seconds. Fractions of seconds. We are here and we are gone.

Please, friends. When you are driving, stay focused on what you are doing and keep in mind that you are piloting the deadliest weapon known to mankind.

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About two weeks ago a friend of my wife's pulled out in front of another vehicle. Speed limit on this rd is 65; most people do 75. Passenger side rear took the brunt of it. Right where her 6 y/o son sits (same age as my youngest son). Life flight from the scene to Atlanta, resuscitated a few times along the way. Two weeks, fussed neck, pressure relief valve in his skull, ... later and he was taken out of induced coma Friday. He's talking and moving (seems everything still works). I've seen similar situations before and didn't want to admit what I thought the outcome was going to be. Prayers work. Whether mine were heard or not, I can't say, but someone was getting through. Stay safe and Merry Christmas y'all.
 
We've always gone out Christmas eve and looked at the lights people put up.
My daughters loved it growing up and they still like to do it.
Went out a day early this year because of other commitments.
Rebecca's kids didn't seem too enthused about spending time away from the home Wi-Fi.
About an hour into the trip (45 minute drive over there) we decided it would just be the two of us next year.

I honestly doubt they bothered to look out the windows at all.
I don't get it.
 

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Thanks for the kind words and thoughts gents. As things look now, getting back up there for the actual service is going to be a massive logistics challenge, but I'm trying to make it up there beforehand of nothing else. I woke up to news that my neighbor passed last night as well, and I know her family is going to require a lot of help getting through the holidays with other crap they've got going on. For a relatively benign year by my standards, 2017 looks like it's going to go out swinging.

Yall enjoy joy a very Merry Christmas with those you hold dear.
 
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So after getting back from the Dealership yesterday I ran into Bad Santa at a friends going away party. Some of the 'other' pics of him haven't come through to my phone. His helper is suffering with operator error I believe. And Mrs Claus was getting a tad pissy cuz Santa was drinking Whiskey outta the bo bo. When Bad Santa gets Whiskey drunk he can be a handful. :p We love him anyhow.

Ended up getting the 3.5 ecoboost. I gotta tell ya, that is one smooth ride. Plenty of pop for what I need.


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I know I know why black? It's what they had at a price I was willing to pay. Don't matter anyhow. It's gonna be covered in dirt shortly. :p
 
Ended up getting the 3.5 ecoboost. I gotta tell ya, that is one smooth ride. Plenty of pop for what I need.


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I know I know why black? It's what they had at a price I was willing to pay. Don't matter anyhow. It's gonna be covered in dirt shortly. :p

That is probably the 2nd best Christmas present you will get this year. I see it has the keypad on the door. Did they get you the code for that?
 
That is probably the 2nd best Christmas present you will get this year. I see it has the keypad on the door. Did they get you the code for that?

lol I still haven't taken a pic of your awesome gift. These guys are gonna laugh their asses off like I did when I opened that damn thing. ;) The code? Actually no. But it might be in the glove box. I'll have to take a peek when I get home.
 
tnichols Thank you Mr Nichols. It's a very comfortable ride. I'm a tad impressed. ;)

Mike Casselton Yes, it should be. But it's a used 2017 with 17k on it. Hopefully it's in there so I can put it in my wallet. Thx Mr Casselton. ;)

Dont put it in your wallet. If you loose wallet it is just something else someone can use against you. There is a procedure to put your own code in. That is in the owners manual. It used to be that i recommended against doing that. But the 2014 and newer i have been told are a little different.

The older ones had the factory code "hard wired" on the circuit board. And it could not be erased. If you put your own code in it saved it to a memory chip that i have seen fail. The factory code would always work.

My understanding (have not verified) is the newer system has the factory code on a chip and if you put your own code in the factory code is deleted. I am not sure i believe this, purely from a functional stand point as this would null and void the wallet card.

Put the code in your phone as a note. But with no discription. Will just be 5 numbers no one will know what they mean. Once you memorize the code you will forget it on the phone.

Opperation is in the owners manual. But basics are. Press (7/8) (9/0) at the same time to lock the truck. Put in code to unlock drivers door. Press (3/4) with in 5 seconds to unlock all the doors. (Same idea as pressing unlock 2 times to unlock all the doors with the remote).
 
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Dont put it in your wallet. If you loose wallet it is just something else someone can use against you. There is a procedure to put your own code in. That is in the owners manual. It used to be that i recommended against doing that. But the 2014 and newer i have been told are a little different.

The older ones had the factory code "hard wired" on the circuit board. And it could not be erased. If you put your own code in it saved it to a memory chip that i have seen fail. The factory code would always work.

My understanding (have not verified) is the newer system has the factory code on a chip and if you put your own code in the factory code is deleted. I am not sure i believe this, purely from a functional stand point as this would null and void the wallet card.

Put the code in your phone as a note. But with no discription. Will just be 5 numbers no one will no what they mean. Once you memorize the code you will forget it on the phone.

Opperation is in the owners manual. But basics are. Press (7/8) (9/0) at the same time to lock the truck. Put in code to unlock drivers door. Press (3/4) with in 5 seconds to unlock all the doors. (Same idea as pressing unlock 2 times to unlock all the doors with the remote).

Thx buddy. I'll play with that later as well. Putting it in the phone is a great idea. If I change the code I should probably use my B-Day right. lmfao