Reality Bites

Reality jumped up and bit me in the ass today.
I am taking my mom on a trip to the doctors tomorrow, and during the conversation setting it up the conversation drifted around to "Whose turn is it for Thanksgiving this year?" I knew it wasn't ours, but as it tuens out, it is our turn for Christmas Eve.
Today was just drifting around in my head, looking at the next couple of months, when I thought "Holy Crap! We are going to have to make egg rolls!"
For Thanksgiving.
Let's see. We are going to go see Trans Siberian Orchestra the weekend before, so that is out.
Weekend before that we will be babysitting "i", so that is out.
We have something going on the weekend before that.
That leaves..........this weekend.
Guess I know what we will be doing Saturday.

Shiner

Whenever you have any kind of procedure, they always give you a whole list of "possible" side effects, right before you sign the waiver. The list is always long and bewildering. Having a hangnail removed? Possible side effects: infection, amputation, paralysis, the end of civilization as we know it.
We all just blow by all of this because of course they don't apply to US.
Well, right now the right side of my face is all swollen up, and I am sporting my very first ever black eye. It is a thing of beauty.
I need to sit down and construct a story Worthy of the black eye.

Under the Knife

In an effort to help my Periodontist upgrade his car from a Porche to a Ferrarri, I am having oral surgery tomorrow.
I had three teeth extracted a couple of months ago. I am having new implants put in. These are top back teeth. The bone structure there is weak, so before they can do the inserts, they have to build up the bone.
They do this by inplanting a piece of vacated bovine bone matrix, which will actually integrate itself with the existing bone. It takes several months for it to become contiguous with the existing bone.
Bovine?
as in cow.
Now when someone calls me bull headed, they will be partially correct.
SO if I am not around, it is because I am loaded up on percocet and drooling on the couch.
The lengths some people will go to to get their hands on some drugs.

Angels

Our neighborhood is a very diverse neighborhood. We have blacks, mexicans, asians, anglos and racially mixed couples. It is mostly a quiet urban neighbohood.
It has a lot of kids.
I get along well with the kids in the neighborhood. When I pass them I always stop and say hello, ask them how they are doing. when I pass by they always wave. I love the way they think and how they look at the world with fresh eyes.
Tonight there was a rap on the door. There on the stoop were a couple of little angels, age about six. One white, one black.
Their hands were full of flowers, which I suspecct had been purloined from neighborhood flower gardens. They were for me.
Little angels spreading joy on a blustery fall day.

The Quiet

This weekend reminds me so strongly of something I carry around with me that most other people seem to not have, or not value. As I said in my last blog, when I go into the woods, the quiet seeps into me until I become a part of it.
When I go into the woods I want to go to a point where I can no longer hear any evidence of people, and stop and sit. It takes a while of sitting silently for you to become a part of the environment. Slowly you become aware of things around you. After a while you become aware of the sound of a small bird in the bushes or a squirrel in the firs.
But for me, I become mostly aware of the quiet in between the noises. Quiet is the steady state that lies underneath the sounds, contrasting them.
When you become aware of this, you become a part of it. And it becomes a part of you.
Back at work I carry it with me. It is there in the back of my consciousness. Like the tail on a kite, it keeps me pointed in the right direction.
But like a battery it needs to be recharged at intervals.
A little piece of me is still up in the Olympic mountains, sitting on a log.

Lake Quinault

We took off after work on Friday and headed out to the Lake Quinault Lodge, which is one of my favorite places. It is about a three and a half hour drive, but worth every minute of it.
Peace and quiet.
No cell phone service.
No television.
No phones in the rooms.
Miles of trails through the rain forest.
Since this is the off season, room rates are lower. Not cheap, mind you, but lower than at peak.
We always stay in The Boathouse, because the rooms there are critter friendly.
The attached restaurant is very good. On Friday we had the Cedar Plank salmon with braised vegetables. It was one of the best meals I have eaten this year. Enhanced by the Marionberry Cobbler with Vanilla Ice Cream.
Despite the fact that the Lodge is in the rain forest, it did not rain while we were there. Saturday after breakfast (Eggs Benedict) we drove to the end of the road up the south fork of the Quinault river to the end of the road, and hiked until we got tired. We found a small batch of Chantrelle mushrooms, which I will be cooking up with butter and a little bit of salt shortly.
During the entire hike, which lasted over three hours, we never saw another human being. The quiet seeps into you like water into a sponge. leaving little room for stress and worry. Those things belong to a different existence.
It was with great reluctance we returned home today.
Mrs A starts her new job tomorrow, and we figured it might make a bad impression if she didn't show up on her first day.

Losing It

Sometimes you start down the path, take a misstep, and the next thing you know you are nekkid in the cornfield. (it's just a saying. fer heaven's sake)
Every Friday, I stop over at my Mom's and see if she needs anything, stop and visit and get all the news of the family. When I was there, my badge fell out of my pocket. She called me later to tell me she had found it. No big deal, I would drop by and pick it up sometime over the weekend.
Well, I forgot.
Monday when I was getting ready for work I was going through the checklist (beeper,badge,bug,wallet,watch,cell phones)
Badge. Oh crap I forgot to go get my badge. It is way to early to go by my Mom's to pick it up, so I will have to stop at the Badge Office and get a Temporary Badge, which includes a Security Token so I can get into our work area.
After work I stopped by my Mom's and picked up my badge. As I was walking out to the truck, my work cell phone rings, and the guy I share a desk with is on the phone. I did not undock my laptop and secure it. What did I want him to do with it? We made an agreement.
This morning when I got to work and went to wand myself into the work area, it would not let me in. I had forgotten to turn in my temporary badge and Security Token.
I had to go out to the Badge office to tell them I had forgotten to turn in the temporary badge and Security Token, could they please reset my badge?
Today when I went to leave work, there in the pocket on the door, was the temporary badge and token. I sure as hell didn't put it there. I will have to remember to turn it in tomorrow.
Who knows what adventures await me tomorrow.

Lost weekend

So where the heck did the weekend go?
I had a great weekend, only there is never enough of it. How is it that a day at work lasts FOREVER and a day off flashes by on fast forward?
Saturday we slept in and did a little work around the house. Then we went to Jazz Alley for dinner and to see Average White Band. What a pleasant evening. The food was good, the music was good, and we shared the table with a very nice couple.
Sunday I barbecued a buffalo roast, we did some work in the yard, and I worked on Frankenhealey, adjusting the timing and the carbs. (without burning myself) It is running much better, but I am still having a problem with the linkage for the gas pedal. On the other hand it runs great and accelerates well enough to be a little scary. Just the way I like it.
Now if I can get the lights working, the wipers and turn signals going, I could actually drive it around.
And then the weekend was all the sudden over with.
Gone like it was never there.

BWA-HA-HA

In my further efforts to drive Mrs A out of her pea-picking mind, I did something last night to push her one step closer to the edge.

Friday was her last day at work, so she is feeling a little off ballance this week. She has been working everyday for the last thirty five or so years, has never been on unemployment. She feels like we are on the brink of financial disaster. But truth is that I make enough money that we don't NEED her salary. But she is still in this OMG WE'RE GONNA CRASH place.

I was perusing e-Bay last night. I have bids in on a couple of engine parts for Frankenhealey. One of them is listed under Lotus, so when I went to check out my bid status, there was this absolutely gorgeous tribute Lotus 11 that the bid was about to close on. The car was worth well over $50,000 and the bid was at $17,000. So I decided to throw in a couple of bids. The car had a reserve, and I'm sure it was nowhere near the reserve, so I put in a Max Bid of $20,000. Mrs A saw me do this and about went breserk. Where are we going to get $20,000?!?!?!?!?.
I can just put it on my Visa.
The car is in California, how would you get it home?
Buy a cheap plane ticket down there and drive it back.
It is not licensed.
Trip permit.
It doesn't have a top!
I'll buy a helmet.
My high bid was almost immediately overbid, and the reserve was never met.
I had no intention of buying the car.
Oh, if I could have gotten it for the price I bid, I certainly would have bought it and had it shipped up here. I could have made some money on it.
But it was an opportunity to tweak Mrs A.
BWA-HA-HA!