I believe I should have the answer to that, after all, I AM AN INSANIAC. At this time, I’m barely able to cope with anything that is going on around me (no, it’s not a suicide thing or denial or hormonal). It’s because everytime I step forward, I have to go back and follow up with something that could/should have been accomplished the first time or the second time through…BUT NO-O-O-O! Just back up, run head first into the stone wall, repeat, repeat, repeat. You know it’s coming. You’ve been listening to it for seven to eight months now. It’s the jacks for the coach thingey. Two weeks ago, I took the coach in for ‘jack replacement’ surgery to Wheeler RV. Yikes! The jacks hadn’t even been ordered, even after I was told they were in. While I maintained my cool, they told me to follow up on a call the following week. Being the insaniac idiot that I am, I asked why I had to follow up. Why wouldn’t they just take care of it and let me know what was going on…after all, I am the customer. Or am I? Maybe I’m their appointment calendar, or their favorite person to ‘bitch slap’, or they keep a file on people to see how long it takes them to become an insaniac and lose it.

Of course I followed up. I may be an insaniac but I’m not a total diptard insaniac. I called on Wednesday of last week and spoke with Don Inthar, the manager. He assured me would check everything out, order and all, and get back to me. I called on Friday, voice mail. A few hours later, I tried again, voice mail. So maybe I was a little pissy and threatening in the voice mail – who cares at this point? They certainly don’t. A guy named Jeremy called me back, around 5:30 p.m. He would follow up on everything on Monday, with Newmar. He just couldn’t figure out why the jacks hadn’t come in on the 27th as the order said they should. Umnhhhh…that’s a real mystery. I think they are the jacks that never were. There really aren’t any heavy duty replacement jacks out there. I’m #1 in their file and they know I’m losing it.

So Monday came along, I called them, voice mail. Called a few hours later and got a real person, Ms. Tommy Lee. She assured me that the jacks would be in to Wheeler RV on the 7th, next Monday, but they couldn’t get me in until Wednesday. Kee-rist! After seven months, you’d think they would send out a limo to get me and put me in a suite at Bellagio while they worked on the coach. Of course I took the appointment. And, just as expected, she told me I’d better call on Monday to make sure the jacks came in. And just as I expected, I replied, “Why is it my job to call you to find out what’s going on?” But again, I will be calling for a status report before I drive out there again and leave the coach for ‘jack surgery’.

So…if everything goes off without a hitch (pun intended),I plan on pulling out of town and heading North on the 11th of this month, with or without the heavy duty jacks. I’m going North, through Salt Lake *ugh* and then on up through Pocatello ID, take the cut-off about 12 miles out of Butte MT, go through Missoula MT, further North into Kellogg Idaho, and down through Couer D’ Alene, still North, to Sandpoint ID. Only this time, I want to take my home with me. That is why I bought it, and damn it, I’m going to do it. One way or another, I’m going to take my home out for a drag…about 3,000 miles round trip. Then it’s back to Las Vegas, more Dr. appts., and back to work. Yes…I’ll be heading back to Bellagio around the end of August, unless I find a million laying around somewhere that no one needs.

But the insaniac issue isn’t caused by only the jacks, it’s a combination of everything. Dr. referrals that never happened so I had to call back and then make a trip back to the original office *phlag* (cross between phlegm and gag).

Then I couldn’t send email this a.m., although I could receive email and connect to the internet. Two hours of calls between the satellite installers here in Vegas, to motostat, to hughesnet, back to the installers, back to motostat, go register at hughesnet, reconfigure email client,and I am truly an INSANIAC. As it turned out, motostat failed to tell their clients that direcway.com had been phased out/purchased/died and hughesnet.com had taken it all over. That happened about three months ago but they just finally cut the cord. *BOOM!* Add gasoline to that fire and turn up the fan…don’t even count to three…just get the hell out of the way because the insaniac is coming apart at the seams.

Then the USPS, the wonderful postal service, can’t figure out what my mailing address is, even though I went online, changed my address, and paid the $1 charge on my CC so they would know that it was really me. Tomorrow a.m., will find me calling them to see if I can get it straightened out. But these aren’t the whole bundle, there are a lot more little irritants along the way, turning everything into a rolling avalanche that just picks up speed as it careens wildly across the desert floor, right into my face. At least I’m not a screaming insaniac, not yet anyway.

The only funny part of the motostat deal was the last tech guy I spoke with. While I was registering at hughesnet, with the tech guy on the phone, we managed to talk poker, and he thought Chris Moneymaker was like the god of poker. *major chuckle* This is the end of the Insaniac Whine for the day.

*****

My sis, Vickie, little Ms. Truck Driving Queen was in town for 24 hours with her driving and life mate, Monte. We hung out, laughed our butts off, they drank, I watched and wished I was drinking (tested positive for the ulcer virus and am on some ugly meds for two weeks). I dragged them to Frye’s Electronics with me. First I wanted to find out about streamingvideo – I knew more about it than the three people I talked to in the store – and then I wanted to try out the massage chairs they set up for demos. They had four, different styles, features, functions, and colors. Vickie and I jumped into two of them, switching off, chatting, laying back like big lazy dogs, while Monte surfed the store. We must have been in those chairs for an hour anda half while other people tried the other two chairs and the back massage cushion and looked at us as we hogged up on the furniture. I finally asked her, “Do you think the managers come over pretty soon and tell someone to get the hell out of the chair?” *laughing outburst* We finally left to do other things. Later in the night, we wondered if we could go back to Frye’s and ask them to serve cocktails while we reclined, possibly they would roll in a big screenTV for us, and I suggested aroma therapy. It ain’t gonna happen, but those chairs were so damn nice, I really want one. Just not sure which one. Vickie and Monte hit the road, early in the a.m. She has now traveled over 50,000 miles in under seven weeks. D-A-M-N! Monte was driving a long time ago. He’s probably traveled from here to the sun and back.

I spent a few evenings with my little buddy Riot and his dad, my son, Darian. Riot is a riot! He’s got more faces and acts than an entirevaudevilleact put together in a summer tour. And he picks his nose…and eats it! *booger diet* Yuck! I suppose most kids do that, and he is in the ‘terrible twos’ phase. But he sure is cute.

*****

Of course I have an eye for the bizarre and unusual. So when I pulled up behind this van at a stop light, I had to have a picture of it. There’s nothing written on the temporary license except the expiration date. You figure it out. I can’t.

But this one really has me wondering. Notice the rocks are placed on ‘item’s to hold them down, the newspaper, etc. Rocks stacked on things usually keep the wind from blowing them away, or the rocks depict a turning point in a trail or a destination point (a cairn), or they are at the corners of a homestead – defining borders. But these are in a median, up in the Northwest part of town. It’s not even a good ‘begging’ corner. Maybe the claim staker is an insaniac.

The monster poker event of the year is going on at the Rio and I’m out taking pictures of weird things in the streets. What is wrong with me? How much time do you have?