I saw the sun!

At least I think that's what it was. You know, big atomic explosion thing in the sky. Fries your eyeballs and fries your skin. Known to cause cancer from too long of exposure.

Not something we have to worry about up here in Latteland lately. Hell, we even made the National News.

It has been raining for days and days. I was in the drivethrough at the local Starbucks when I looked out the window at the lake, er, I mean parking lot, and there was an honest-to-god salmon migrating towards the Fred Meyer.

It does this every year, especially in the Snoqualmie Valley. This brings the migration of Gor-tex clad reporters out of their concrete hovels to stand alongside the dependable flood spots to show the fish going across the road, the cows standing in the field, people wading down what used to be streets, and rowing around their neighborhood in fishing craft. They always act surprised.

I took Mrs A. around for her annual poking and prodding today. She hates driving on the freeway. So do I, but because I am the Male, I am expected to do it anyway. One of the obligations that comes with the equipment.

Who kills the ferocious spiders? The one with the penis. Who tunes up the car? The one with the testicles. Whe unplugs the stopped up toilet? The one with the package.

Oh well, the rewards are worth the hassle.

Got to crawl back under the blankets.

Stay dry!

The good, the bad, and the not-so-atractive

Yesterday was a day of ups and downs.

I was bummed because it was R.s birthday. I don't know where she is living or what she is doing. It was the first time I haven't had something planned, but given that the last time she was around, she threatened Mrs A.s life, I have told her not to come around until she has her head on straight.

She called last night and said she was thinking of coming by, and I had to tell her that it probably wasn't a good idea right now. I told her I would meet her for dinner and drinks, abd she said she would call me back. Of course she didn't.

I did my biggest Christmas shopping yesterday. Mrs. A. said she wanted to go visit her son in Utah Dec. 20th - 24th. So I got on the computer and reserved her flight for her last night. God, I love the Internet.

Back last summer we ponied up some money so her son and family could make the down payment on their first home. With all the money we have given to the girls the last couple of years, her son has gotten the short end of the stick because he takes care of himself and his family.

I can't get the time off, so Mrs A. will be going alone. On one hand I will miss her terribly. But it is only for a couple of days. Just long enough to be really happy when she gets back.

On the other hand it will be nice to batch it for a couple of days, sit around in my underwear, drink milk right out of the carton and leave the toilet seat up ALL the time. Don't tell me I don't know how to have fun.

So I felt like a bad father, a pisspoor husband and an ungratetful beast.

But I did make the reservation round trip, and made sure she was leaving her dog behind.

Books

This was rattling around the Blogosphere lately. I think I stole it from Rick, but maybe Renratt. It's betting pretty bad when you can't remember where you stole something. I'd feel bad if I could remember what it was that I was supposed to feel bad about......

1) One book that changed your life. Walden Pond By Thoreau, The Plague by Albert Camus, The Foundation Trilogy by Asimov. I could go on.

2) One book that you’d read more than once. I have read Walden about a half dozen times, the same for Tolkien’s Lord Of the Rings.

3) One book you’d want on a deserted island. The Bible. You could read it a thousand times and still find something new in it every time. The Collected Works of Shakespear as backup.

4) One book that made you laugh. English Creek by Ivan Doig A coming-of-age story in Montana. Parts of it are hilarious. I really like Ivan Doig's books.

5) One book that made you cry. Trinity by Leon Uris. Story of The Troubles in Ireland.

6) One book you wish you’d written. STAR by myself. I’m a severalthousand words into it but sort of high centered at the moment

7) One book you wish had never been written. Mein Kampf

8) One book you’re currently reading. The Book of the Dead by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child. Love all of their books. I think I have read everything they have published.

9) One book you’ve been meaning to read. Nothing on the horizon at the moment.

Wet Weekend

Poured Rain this weekend. Will pour again tonight. The Raiders are in town for Monday Night Football tonight. It is supposed to rain between 4 and 6 inches today. People all over the States will ge a chance to see the REAL Seattle.

This weekend was my mom's 80th birthday. All of the kids were together for the first time in many many years. We tried to figure out when was the last time we all had been together. We never could come to a consensus, but it was probably some time in the late 70's or early 80's.

There are seven of us kids, three boys and four girls. We are all intelligent, opinionated, outspoken people. Hell, I am one of the quieter ones. I know some people out there find that difficult to believe.

I was counting up, and figured that there were 21 people there at Mom's Birthday party. And that is just immediate family. It was a loud and boisterous group.

Mrs A. had an anxiety attack. She suddenly could not get enough air, and had to get outside. It took her several minutes to get it together. She had been dreading seeing my son and her former friend and their new baby. There is some bad blood there, and having them show up pushed her over the edge. I have had a panic attach before, and it is no fun at all. She is OK and after she calmed down we went back inside and she was able to keep it together.

She felt pretty embarrased afterwords. Oh well, keep it in perspective. I don't love her any less.

So we kept a pretty low profile on Sunday. Went grocery shopping, and I cooked pork tenderloin baked in Cranberry Chutney. It was delicious. Watched some tube, took a nap, went to bed early. I am fighting a cold or something, so I feel pretty drained. Wish I could just curl up under my desk and take a nice long nap.

Bad Trip

No cemical substances cause this. Darkness, rain, and back roads did.

As I said yesterday, we had a appointment with the headshrinker yesterday. It went very well. We got a lot of positive validation and some good advice.

Afterwards we like to go to Redmond Town Center to wander around and get something to eat. We went to the Golden Chopsticks to eat. Good food, very relaxing, good service and a couple of Asahi Super Dry beers had me in a good mood. A little shopping. Got what I needed. Mrs A. wanted to do some recreational shopping but I whined my way out of it. To me shopping is about as recreational as the dentists chair. Mrs A. loves to shop, and just doesn't get how it could be so stressful for me. Someday I am going to drop dead while being dragged around shopping. My headstome will read "I told you I didn't like shopping."

But I manged to get out of any extended shopping. Maybe I would have been better off to have stayed a little longer.

I like to drive back roads. A passenger once remarked that , given a choice I would take four back roads rather than one major road. I don't deny this. For the most part I enjoy driving.

Not last night. There are three main ways to get back to our house from Redmond. I, of course, took the long way around Lake Samamish and down Sunset Hiway. Traffic came to a screeching halt as soon as it was too late to turn around. There had been an accident. So once traffic got screwed up, it never got better.

It was pouring rain like a cow peeing on a flat rock, it was pitch black and all I could do was follow the tail lights in front of me. If the guy in front had driven off the road, I probably would have gone right after him.

I took over two hours to do what normally takes about forty-five minutes. By the time I got home, I was exhausted.

Aside from that It is my Mom's 80th birthday on Saturday. It will be the first time all of us kids will be together in about ten years. I have a couple of sisters that live in Minnesota and we don't see each other very ofter, so it will be nice to have everyone together.

I have been tasked to bring egg rolls for the party. I guess that now that it is getting into the Holiday season, we need to sit down and make another batch, because we are going to be requested to bring them to every potluck and celebration from now to New Years.

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Headshrinker

Mrs A, and I are going to the headshrinker todady. I don't mind, and it helps her. She has a hard time sticking to the idea of tough love. She goes into it with the right idea, but then starts second guessing herself.

I can tell her ten thousand times that she is doing the absolute right thing, and I might as well be talking to the dog.

However if a complete stranger came up to her in the street, and told her the exact same thing, she would be quoting them for weeks.

Oh well, if it helps her keep her head together, it's all good.

I worked in the Psychiatric Service in the Army, so there isn't anything new or intimidating for me. I have already been headshrunk by the best.

My boss in the Army was M. Scott Peck, the author of "The Road Less Travelled". In his book, he writes about The Techs. I was one of the Techs. Working with Scott was a very interresting time in my life, and an experience that has stayed with me my entire life. It gave me a perspective on life and behavior that prepared me well for later life.

I like to tell people that being the liaison officer for the locked psychiatric facility was good preparation for management at Boeing.

Random

This was stolen from The Peanut Queen.

13 Random Things You Like:

1) Reading a good book
2) Good conversation with intelligent people.
3) Naps
4) A good steak, like flank, done JUST SO on the BBQ
5) Salsa. I like my home-made the best
6) Love making on a lazy Saturday afternoon
7) A good long hike in the mountains, or at the beach
8) Good live Jazz with dinner
9) The feeling you get when a fish takes your dry fly right in front of your face.
10) Pushing my 1977 Datsun 280 Z right to the edge of losing control, but never losing it.
11) Lying in bed with Mrs. A. listening to the rain on the roof, nice and snug and dry.
12) Beer. As Benjamin Franklin put it “Beer is proof that God loves us.” Amen, Ben.
13) The laughter of a child. It always makes me feel that things are right with the world

12 random movies you like:

1) Lord of the Rings
2) As good as it Gets
3) Romancing the Stone
4) Indiana Jones: The last Crusade
5) Second Hand Lions
6) The Stand
7) Little Big Man
8) The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
9) Batman Returns
10) Citizen Kane
11) Casablanca
12) The African Queen

11 Random things you dislike intensely:

1) Going to the Dentist
2) People who drive like idiots.
3) Anyone who tries to make themselves appear better by degrading those around them
4) DSHS
5) Having to work on the Plumbing
6) Stepping in dog poop.
7) People who abuse animals
8) Freezing cold when I can’t get warm,
9) Rats.
10) Earwigs. Thanks to an episode of Twilight Zone where they dropped one in a guy’s ear.
11) Centipedes. I got bit in the ass by a 12” long centipede when I was on Okinawa and nded up in the hospital.

10 random things about me

1) I am an artist. I have actually sold paintings for money
2) I have had several poems published
3) I like to work on cars, especially sports cars.
4) I love kids. I get along with them very well. Maybe because we have a similar mentality.
5) I married the same woman twice. I also divorced her twice.
6) I like working with my hands.
7) I am a good cook. I love cooking, but I don’t always have the time for it.
8) Mrs. A. and I are roadies for a Christian Rock band.
9) I went to Mexico last summer on a mission to an orphanage.
10) we sponsor a child at the orphanage.

9 random people you last spoke with:

1) The other Al at work. He just had oral surgery last Friday and just came back to work today. We have the same Periodontist.
2) M. the lead guy, comparing salsas. I brought in salsa and chips to work today.
3) Mrs. A. I can’t go out the door in the morning without a goodbye kiss and telling her I love her
4) V. He didn’t get a 90% on his math test because he didn’t read the instructions properly, so he only got 84%.
5) Marty. Hadn’t seen him in a quite a while. Had to give him a ration of crap.
6) CD, one of the most intelligent people I know. A little witty repartee always lightens the load
7) The Lunch Lady. She has a British accent. I always liked the sound of a British accent.
8) L. the shop investigator on second shift. We always BS a little as we pass each other.
9) S. one of the engineers. Comparing notes on last night’s episode of Myth Busters.

8 random favorite foods
1) Steak. I was raised of beef, and I can’t imagine living without it
2) Salsa and Chips, but only some brands. I am REAL fussy.
3) Shrimp. Can’t get enough of them. Shrimp Gumbo I made myself from scratch .
4) Cheesecake. I am diabetic, and I control it very well, but don’t get me near cheesecake
5) Thai food. Three stars, just enough to get you to break out in a light sweat
6) Ice cream. I know, I know, it’s bad, but once in a while?
7) Home made jams. Raspberry, black berry, strawberry
8) Veggies and dip.

7 random favorite comedians

1) The Marx Brothers
2) Laurel and Hardy (This is another fine mess you’ve gotten us into”)
2) Robin Williams. He can be a little off the wall, but what a trip!
3) Bill Cosby
4) George Carlin
5) Johnathan Winters
6) Jeff Foxworthy
7) Reba McIntire

6 random pets you have had
1) Spot the English Water Spaniel (Chow hound)
2) Molly our Shi Tzu
3) Chico the Rottweiler
4) Napoleon the Emperor Scorpion
5) Slither the Trans-Pecos Rat snake
6) Tons of tropical fish

5 random shows you never miss
1)Myth Busters. Never mess a semi-legitimate reason for blowing stuff up
2) Antiques Road Show
3) Monk. Best detective ever.
4) CSI Whatever. Some times they get into some REALLY weird stuff
5) Nature shows on The Discovery Channel

4 random shows you do not watch
1) So-called reality shows. Let me take there jerks out in the woods and I’d have them all calling for their mamas in a matter of hours
2) Dubious talent shows.
3) Anything with Donald Trump. The man is a complete ass.
4) Poker Tournaments. So what if someone I never met and could care less about bluffs someone else I will never meet?

3 random people you would like to meet in person

1) Benjamin Franklin. I’d like to sit down over a couple of brews and talk philosophy.
2) Leonardo Da Vinci. Of course I would need an interpreter,
3) Christ.

2 random famous people you admire

1) Ghandi
2) Bill Gates for his foundations and charity work

1 random person whose brain you would like to pick over dinner

1) Again, Ben Franklin. His width and depth of thought is amazing. And after all, he is the man that said “Beer is proof that God loves us.”

Frost

Reality is a nice place to visit, but I wouldnt want to live there.......

But sometimes reality bitch slaps you in the face, and you just can't ignore it.

The first frost of the year is that way. Although you know that summer is over, you grasp at the last vestiges of sunshine and warmth, cozied up in your denial like a baby with its blankie.

And the next thing you know, you are out there in your winter coat with your gloves on, scraping ice off of the windshield. Gone are the illusions of summerhood. The question on your mind at the moment is "Is that water or black ice on the road?"

This is no daydream B.S. question like you are normally contemplating at this time of morning. We are talking the possibility of injury, mayhem, destruction and maybe a scratch on your car.

Will the overpass be iced over? SHould you take the long way around and avoid the possible mess?

And all this before the morning coffee kicks in.

Oh well, adrenalin has a way of waking you up.

As the old poem has it:

The frost is on the pumpkin

and the fodders in the shock

and your cars in the ditch

or something like that...........

Parent Teacher Conferences

So last night was Parent Teacher Conferences for V.

All of his teachers said basically the same thing. V. is the smartest kid in class, but does barely enough to get by. He should be getting straight As. Blah, blah, blah. No news here.

Except for a new ripple in the stratosphere.

V. has always talked too much in class. Except now he is using words that are not acceptable in an institution of higher learning. Holy Shit! I wonder where that came from.

We have noticed a predeliction to scatology in his vocabulary recently, and have warned him about it. I guess it's time to break out the cuss jar.

Every time someone uses a cuss word, they have to donate a quarter to the cuss jar.

I am already planning the trip to China on the proceeds.

Dangling Conversation

Which is, of course, a song by Simon and Garfunkel.

I was a big fan of Simon and Gatfunkel. "Bridge over Troubled Water" is still and incredible performance. Their words and music fit so well together. I mean, literate lyrics, and soulful sounds, right there together.

R. called last night. I had left her a message to get ahold of me.

I knew that after last weekends grudge death match with Mrs. A. that his would not be an easy conversation, but I don't want to lose touch with her completely.

She started off with a surly "You wanted me to call?"

I explaned that we needed to talk, because things were pretty messed up. We kinda did a little "She said, I said", but when I brought up the fact that she had threatened to kill Mrs. A. she completely denied it!

I told her "I was standing right there when you said 'I will kill you, bitch'. I am not imagining it"

So she told me I was lying, and then left me listening to the sounds of silence.

I wsh she would go get some help.

Bloodwork

I saw in the paper yesterday about the football coach who kicked several of his players off of the team because they were giving blood at a school blood drive when they were supposed to be at practice. What a jerk!

It made me think of this story.

When I was stationed on Okinawa, the members of the Psychatric Service hung out a certain bar, Mama Susies. That wasn't the real name of the bar, but I can't remember the real name.

Mama Susie was a retired madam, and she knew everyone in town. If you wanted some companionship, all you had to do was mention it to Mama Susie, and she would send out word. The Girls had to pass her muster before she would hook you up. She was in her 60s, and she was a real hoot.

We found out that she had a niece that needed gall bladder surgery, but they couldn't afford the blood required for the operation. At that time, blood was going for $600.00 a pint, and they needed six pints.

I checked in with the brass, and the Army would not allow us to go to the Okinawan Hospital to give the blood. We would have to give the blood at the aid station, and then transport it down to Naha.

So I got together five other guys and we went into the aid station and gave blood. We brought along a cooler and ice, and loaded the blood in the cooler.

We went out and waved down a cab. He wanted to know what we had in the cooler. We looked at each other, and without saying a word, flipped open the cooler.

The poor taxi driver's eyes got huge, he got very agitated, and started yelling in Japanese at us. I didn't understand a single word he said except for "#10 GI, #10 GI" as he sped away.

We finally called in an on-base taxi, who took us to the Oknawan Hospital. He kept looking in his rear view mirror very nervously for the whole trip. But we did manage to get the blood taken care of and delivered.

The operation was a complete success.

I could do no wrong at Mama Susies. When I ordered a drink I would get a water glass full of whatever brand I wanted with just a little mixer. I never needed more than one. And she wouldn't take my money.

The only problem was she kept trying to marry me off to her "Nieces".

And there was one........

but that's a different story.

Woke up this morning

and you were on my mind?
and the gypsy woman said?
and you were gone?

Pick a line.

I woke up with a screaming migrane headache, so I chose to take a day of sickleave. If it wasn't for all the other crap going on right now I might have toughed it out, but all my resources and reserves have been used up.

It's a good day to just turn over and pull the covers over my head.

Except that when I got up. I discovered that the computer was hosed. It took me about an hour to get it up and running.

Mostly I just need some peace and quiet, and to be left alone for a while.

Except, of course for you.

Here I Am....

Stuck in the middle with you.....

Who the heck sang that anyway?

Clown's to the left of me.
Jokers to the right
Here I am
Stuck in the middle with you.

Things seem to have drfted back from the edge of the ice and are meerly teetering along on the thin part 0f the ice. I feel like if I make the slightest misjudgement, it will all collapse and I will fall through into the dark and the cold.

I can't walk away amd I can't go forwards or back.

So here I am

Stuck in the middle.

Train Wreck Weekend

Didn't make it to jail with the band this weekend. I was busy overseeing a train wreck right here at home.

I talked to John on Friday night to say that I wasn't going to come up to Kenmore just to drive back down south, but would meet them at Mission Creek. That way I got to sleep in.

Mrs. A. was not going to go, because her dog, Molly is sick. We took her into the Vet on Thursday night, and she is still having problems. Nobody knows what is wrong with her, but she keeps throwing up and has the squirts.

So I slept in, and was just getting ready to leave when R. showed up. She immediately went over to the couch and crashed.

Mrs. A. asked her where was the DVD she "Borrowed" a week earlier, and she said it was still in somebody's car. Mrs. A. got on her case, and one thing led to another and it got out of hand. There were a lot of things said, very loudly, and then it got ugly. Punches were thrown, hair was pulled and lots of shoving and swinging.

I was stuck in the middle of it all, trying to keep them separated. Eventually R. was asssisted in leaving.

I changed all the locks in the house.

When I got up this morning Mrs. A. was packing. She said she was leaving.

She handed me a note that basically said that she had cost me my family, and I would be better off without her.

A whole bunch of tears and talk later, she said she would stay if I asked her to, which I did. And she did.

I am glad I was here Saturday, because who knows where things would have ended up. At one point, I restrained R. from going for the knife rack. It might have ended up with one in the hospital and the other in jail. Or worse.

I'm always stuck in the middle. If R. is not going to clean up her life, it is better if she doesn't come around. I guess I don't have to worry about that for a while.

I fell like I've been run over by a train.

Or maybe two of them.

Goin' t' Jail

Tomorrow I'm going to jail.

No. no, no not like that.

I'm going with Morning Light for a concert to the Women's Correctional Facility at Mission Creek, ouside Belfaire, Wa.

It will be a busy and confusing day, partly because Mrs A will not be accompanying me. Her dog, Molly is ill, and she can't bring her, and she can't leave her home. So Mrs A. will stay home with Molly while I go to prison. Hope she doesn't forget about me.

We have been doing this for a couple of years, but this will be my first time solo. It will be a little uncomfortable without her, but I will do it anyway, because we have made a commitment, and I take that very seriously.

Not a lot of people choose to minister to the incarcerated. It is very uncomfortable when those big doors go CLANG behind you, and there is a whole set of other gates before you.

But this is probably the most appropriate audience in the whole world. About 80% of the people in low security facility facilities are there for drug and alcohol related offences. The Message of the band is that it is possible to have a whole lot of fun without drugs and alcohol.

And of course that you need to find a higher calling in your life.

Although it is backgound, they always sign off with their song "King of Kings" because that is what the message is.

When you lay down tonight, think about your life and ask "What am I doing and where am I going."

Talk to God and maybe you will find the answer within your self.

My weekend will, if nothing else, help to provide a channel that someone might use to get to a different place.

What did you do with your weekend?

Me and My Big Mouth

I mentioned in my post yeasterday that I just might be a Smartass.

My smart mouth has gotten me in considerable trouble over the years.

Here is an example:

In the early months of 1967, my friend Dave and I decided to move to San Francisco and become hippies.

On the way down, we stopped at his Aunt and Uncles place in Oroville, Cal. They put us up for the weekend.

We had just gotten out of High School (and were on our way to a different kind of high scool). He had a female cousin who was a senior, and it was Girls League night at the bowling lanes, so we went to say hi to his cousin and all the girls. There were all sorts of possibilities.

The next day, Dave's Aunt was in a traffic accident and wrenched her back, and could not drive. It was her day in the car pool to drive the girls home from school.

Would we mind giving the girls a ride home from school? Oh it would be a terreible burden to give a ride home to a car full of nubile young ladies , but we were just the guys for it.

We were driving Dave's taxi-cab yellow custom Plymouth. (Think Christine in hysteria)

We drove over to the school, and waited in the parking lot.

The Police pulled in behind us. The officer motioned that Dave should roll down his window. Dave complied.

"Did you know it is against the law in the State of California to loiter on School Property."

He had noticed that we were sporting Washington plates. That and the car itself made us mighty suspicious. Not to mention our long hair and paisley pants.

Well, me and my big smartass mouth replied "According to Webster's Dictionary, Loiter is defined as to consume time idly and without purpose. We, however, are here with a very specific purpose." Oh why do I do it? Some times I am my own worst enemy.

The officer turned several interresting shades of red, tending towards purple.

He informed us that we had better get out and not look back.

So I had to ask "You see that street over there? if we go park on the other side of the street, is that School Property, or public domain?"

He turned an interresting shade of puce and ordered us to leave NOW!!!

So we went and parked across the street and were immediately arrested. Handcuffs. Back of the patrol car. Fingerprinted. The big holding cell door went CLANG!. One call, wait four hours to get bailed out.

All charges were dropped and we pleaded probable cause so we couldn't sue for false arrest.

One of the girls we were to give a ride home was the Prosecuting Attorney's daughter, and he was NOT happy about her having to find an alternative ride home.

That is the extent of my arrest record.

And I could have probably avoided that except for my big smartass mouth.

Did I learn from this experience?

Hell no.

No 'Mo

L. called last night to lay out her latest list of woes. It is always the end of civilization as we know it.

Only last night Mrs a. just told her "Not our problem. You and N. had better figure out how to tale care of it, cause A. and I have resigned as the national bank and help agency. If N. is not capable of taking care of you and the kid, you are facing some hard choices. Leave N. Stay with N. and put the kid up for adoption. Put the kid in foster care. You need to figure it out."

I was proud of her.

Afterwards she asked "Am I a bad mom?"

I told her she was such a bad mom that I heard they were asking for her resignation fom the Mommies Union. They were taking her picture out of the mommies manual and burning all the back copies.

Until she realized I was pulling her leg, I thought she was going to belt me.

Who's a smart ass?

You talkin' to ME?

I in all seriousness, told her that if she continued to enable their bad behavion, THAT would make her a bad mom.

But all in all, things seen to be stabilizing.

New Arrival

I have a new grandson.

This is kinda bittersweet.

We found out third hand. Both Mrs A and the DIL work at the Credit Union. In fact DIL introduced me to Mrs A. So when the baby was born, all of DILs friends knew, and one of them forwarded the e-mail to Mrs A. who forwarded it to me.

This is all because Mrs A and DIL are feuding. Mrs A would make up in an instant, but DIL is a hater and grudge holder. My son has turned into a pussy-whipped spineless wimp. He never calls V any more and has not done anything with him since July.

What are they thinking?

I hope it is the most colic prone crying little snot ever was.

I am going to sneak down there and feed him Coca-Cola until his little head spins in circles.

I will buy him ridiculously loud and obnoxious toys.

Welcome to the world Elliot Alexander Warren, ever after to be known as E.

Best of luck to you.

Captions

I suppose I should put some words down to go with the pictures.

The Church has parking lots on three sides. The second view is part of the South lot, There were more bikes out further, but I liked this view of the bikes lined up in the first row. The first shot is of the East lot. I didn't include the West lot because I didn't have a shot I liked.

The two other shots are of bikes that Russ designed. They are both really nice and really original. Both won trophys in custom bike shows.

The Memorial service was very tastefully done, although I did not know Russ could walk on water and change water to wine.

I on the other hand, can change wine back into water.

The ride and Memorial Service were covered on the local news. It was SRO. The chapel seats 1500, but there were people standing in the aisles and along the walls, and in the foyer and outside. There was enough black leather to upholster a herd of Black Angus and enough chains and zippers to start a small hardware store.

There was a ton of food and drink for the reception, and NO ALCOHOL.

I saw badges and colors from a half a dozen different motorcycle clubs. Everyone got along just fine. If you are a people watcher, this was the place to be.

It was a little disconcerting to glance over at the 250 lb, black leather clad, bearded and tatooed colors wearing bad-ass looking biker to watch him wipe a tear from the corner of his eye.

I was glad to be there for my sis. She was pretty shaken up by the whole thing. She doesn't like being center stage.

At ease

smoke em' if you have em'

Memorial Pics

So Long Russ

First off, you need to understand that I was not real close to Russ. Sure we were shirt-tail relatives, and I saw him at family functions, and my daughter worked for him for a couple of years, but that was about it. We had a few friends in common, but we weren't buddies.

He gave my brother Bill a great deal on a 100th Anniversary Road King, and that gains him points in my book.

Russ was the Golden Child. He had it all. All the toys, the cars, the big house on the lake, and connections all over the West Coast (and beyond). More money than he knew what to do with.

I was green with envy for the things he had, but here I am living and he is not. All of the things he had couldn't give him one extra moment when his number came up. I feel so sorry for his daughter and his mom and dad, and the rest of his family.

I didn't particularly like Russ. He was so arrogant and self assured. To be fair to him, my perceptions were skewed because he had all the things I wanted. He was a very tallented custom bike builder, and won all kinds of awards for his bikes. He could schmooze with the best of them, and managed to keep things on an even keel under some pretty chaotic circumstances.
He got along with everyone.

I remember R. talking about The Banditos coming down when she worked there and basically taking over the store. But Russ kept it all under control. He did equally well when Evil Kenival was there demanding attention.

So I will go out and get a small bottle of Crown Royal tonight and sit down and toast Russ.

Russ, wherever you are I hope they have a special fast machine for you, be it helicopter, car, boat or bike. Your flame burned too bright and went out too quickly.

But I'm much better now........

I was a big fan of Night Court. There was such an endless parade of characters. One of the bit parts was Harry's dad, played by John Aston (he was Gomez on the original Adams Family) he had spent some time in a mental institution, and when asked about it would go into some bizarre tale, which always ended with "But I'm much better now."

It always helps to write it down, get it out. Think of it as popping a big mental Zit. It hurts like hell until it is done, but a lot of relief afterwards.

So yesterday was one zit-popping pus draining post.

But I'm much better now.

So the memorial for Russ is Saturday. I was talking to my sis last night and they are expecting about 5,000 motorcyclists from all over the Northwest.

The chapel only seats 1,500.

It is going to be a complete circus. Little sis wants me there for support, and I want to be there for her and her hubby. One of my other sisters called her up yesterday and asked if she wanted her and mom to come, but she told them they didn't need to go, because Al would be there.

Guess I'm stuck now.

If nothing else, it should be entertaining.

I'll take pictures.

Avoidance

I've been puting off writing this for a whole bunch of reasons.

Like the wounds are too fresh and it is uncomfortable poking at them.

Let's start off by saying last weekend was not the best weekend I've ever had.

R. called Saturday morning and asked me to come and get her. There was some cursing involved. She was pissed at her room mate and wanted to move back home. As long as she is straight and making a sincere attempt too clean up her life, it is OK with me.

Mrs. A went off to the gym to work out. I had agreed to do the brakes on her Pathfinder, so I went down to the Auto Parts store and got new front pads. I waited for her to come home

and waited

and waited

and waited.

Four hours later she rolls into the driveway, so I can finally get started on the brakes. She pops out of the car and says "Let's go to Chang's for lunch." Well R. had just had a long conversation with her room mate and wanted to go back to her place, so I said "OK, but let me run R. home first."

Mrs A came unglued. After ranting and raving for a couple of minutes, she went and found R and lit in to her "Would you please make up your mind what the HELL you are doing.....blah, blah,blah"

R got pisseed off and stormed off saying "I'll walk, you old witch" and refused my offer of a ride. I haven't seen or heard from her since. She was having a real hard time getting herself straight, and Mrs A just dropped a turd in her punchbowl.

I have been worried about Mrs As mental state lately. Now that we have our house back and everything, I figured she would relax and lighten up. If anything, she has gotten worse. She goes aroung crying for no apparent reason. I mean, nothing bad is going on, but she has worked hersulf into such a state that tears start.

She said maybe it would be better if she just moved out. Now, nothing had happened between the two of us, just between her and R. This came from WWAAAYYY out in left field.

After spending considerable time and effort with her, she calmed down, and finally she asked "Do you think we are going to make it? You know, stay married?"

This is not the first time she has asked this, but it was the first time I couldn't be sure of the answer.

Then on Sunday, my brother-in-law's brother was killed in a hellicopter accident.

Russ Tom

I just don't want to think about any of this shit any more.

Geek Joke

OK, so yesterdays post was a geek joke.

Heisenberg was a physicist. He came up with the idea that you could never be 100% certain what the position of an electron was in the subatomic world, because just by observing it, you had altered it. In other words, you could tell where it USED to be, but could never predict where it currently was, or where it would be.

This is called Heisenbergs Uncertainty Principle.

This is a very important scientific theory, because it signals the end of the Clockwork Universe theory, and is considered by many to be the father of Chaos Theory.

For centuries, scientific theory was that through observation we could ultamitely predict atomic behavior if we just knew enough facts about the laws that govern it. In a gross sense this theory works, but when observing complex systems in nature, you cannot predict thier bahavior over time. Weather models can predict the future for only a very short time, then the variance from the models very quickly expands to the point of uselessness.

One explanation of this is called the Butterfly Effect. If a butterfly in the steppes of Russia flaps his wings, it causes a rainstorm in Paris.

The simple explanation goes something like this: A herd of caribou is feeding. A caribou sees a spot of color and goes over to investigate. It turns out to be a butterfly, who upon seeing the caribou, becomes disturbed, and flys off. This in turn startles the caribou, who gallops off, in turn startling the leader of the herd, who thinks something must be terribly wrong.

The herd leader running off causes the whole herd to gallop off, raising a large cloud of dust. This dust travels in the air, and provides the condensation nucleus for rain which in turn causes a rainstorm in Paris.

Is this predictable? no way.

Up with Chaos!

?

Heisenberg may have been here.

Dreams

I take Metformin for my diabetes. It is a little hard on my stomach, so I have to be careful what I eat, because I get a terrible upset stomach from overindulging in a lot of things.

For instance I can have a couple of beers, but if I have more than a couple, I will be up all night with an upset stomach. Same with Pizza. Any more than two slices guarantees a restless night.

So last night I had three slices of pizza and four beers. I woke up at 2:30 with my digestive track making the most entertaining noises. Repeated doses of Pepto didn't really do anything for me.

I tossed and turned and didn't really get back to a solid sleep, but drifted in and out of awareness.

The trouble was, I kept having nightmares.

In the first one, I was riding in a bus around Alki, across the bay from Seattle, when it was hit with a carpet bombing attack. Skyscrapers were falling, fires were burning, and a fighter turned and headed for the bus. I could see the water spouts as the machine gun rounds walked across the water towards the bus. I was trying to figure out how to get out when the rounds started hitting the bus.

I woke up in a sweat, looking for a way out.

When I drifted out to lala land again, I had managed to make it home, but someone had nailed all of the doors shut, covered over the windows, and set the house on fire with Carol and I inside. I had to pry a sheet of plywood off of the big window in the living room, and jump through the glass to escape.

When I got outside a guy was over in front of the house with a knife, cutting the hose in two so that I couldn't put out the fire. I was too late to stop him.

So I picked him up by the throat with my left hand and stated pounding him in the solar plexus as hard as I could. I pummelled him into unconsciousness, then woke up.

Although I was still real tired, I was also relieved when the alarm went off.

Squirrely blog

We were sitting around waiting for the Evacuation Drill this morning. We weren't supposed to know that it would be at 9:00, but I have my sources......

We started telling critter stories, and I remembered this one:

We had a family of squirrels that lived in to top of and old lightning struck Pine in the back of the yard. I have no great feeling for squirrels one way or the other, but females seem to find them "Cute".

So my daughter and my ex decided to hand feed them on the deck right off of the living room. After a couple of months, they had gotten to the point where the squirrels would take food from their hands. They would wait outside the sliding glass door, and all you had to do was crack the door open, and stick your hand out, and they would come up and take food right from your hand.

I wasn't real enthused about it. I could see a home invasion in the near future.

R. had gone to the store with her mom and gotten a big chocolate bar. She had taken the outer wrapper off, realized she was going to want a glass of milk to go with it, laid it down on the floor still in it's silver wrapping, and gone off to the kitchen.

A squirrel had been watching from out on the deck. The sliding glass door was open.

Mr. Squirrel darted in and started dragging her candy bar away.

"Hey R. you better get out here and rescue your candy bar. Your friend the squirrel just stole it!"

She comes running out of the kitchen as he makes his break for the door, R. in hot pursuit.

The candy bar was heavy enough that he couldn't jump up on the handrail of the deck and into the tree beside it.

But he was determined to keep it. So they ran around and around the deck for several circuits.

Finally he got tired dropped the candy bar and fled. R. brought the candy bar in and I looked it over. Other than a few tooth marks in one corner it was still fine, so I trimmed off the chewed on part and let her eat the rest of it.

I sure wish I had had a cam corder at the time.

Hi Ho

Hi Ho, it's off to work we go.

Yeah, the Seven Dwarves going off to their mine.

Did you ever stop to think that if you walked up to someone in certain parts of the country and started the conversation with those words, you'd likely end up with a mouthfull of bloody chicklets?

Oh well.

This was a good weekend. We went up to Bremerton with the band for a show at the Roxy theater. The band was in fine form. Too bad there wasn't a larger crowd.

We stayed at the Hampton Inn. It was Mrs A. and me and V. and R. We ate dinner at a Pizza place around the corner from the Hotel. Best Pizza I have eaten is a long time.

The Plaza outside the Hotel has a real cool fountain. It has a program that lasts about 20 minutes with all sorts of spurts and splashed chasing each other around the fountain. Watching the kids around the fountain was a real trip.

When we came back home, I took the long way, down the Eastern shore of Hood Canal. It was a beautiful drive, with the fall leaves just beginning to turn, the sun shining off the water and filtered though the trees. They air had that early fall kinda blue haze to it. I took some random turns and wandered in and out of the National Forest. We stopped and gawked and talked.

It was how short road trips are supposed to be.

And they're off....

In more ways than one.

We are going to Bremerton this weekend with the band for a show. We are spending the night in a Hotel, so it will be a nice change. Since the performance is in a theater, we don't have to set up lights and sound system, just the drums and a couple of speakers and maybe a spare amp, and the keyboard. That will leave up plenty of time to just relax, go to dinner, and listen to the show.

Yesterday was an absolutely perfect fall day.

I woke up feeling so good, I decided I felt too good to go to work. I have been in need of a day all by myself for quite some time now. I haven't been able to take one for the last six months, and since the kids moved out, I have been waiting for the "right" day.

I slept in, I read a book some, I went and got my hair cut, I went out and looked at cars, wrote in my blog, curled up and took a nap (without any threat of being disturbed!)

It was gloriously, totally quiet.

I could feel the tension leaving like the water in the bathtub when you pull the plug.

In the evening R and a friend came by. Ms. B came over with brownies baked in the shape of a heart, and all was well with the world.

Life is great when the clouds clear and the sun breaks through and you find yourself standing in a beam of light.

Al to the rescue

I was sitting on the couch half watching the Mariners lose yet another game while reading a classic John D. MacDonald Travis McGee (The Deep Blue Goodbye) when the phone rang.

It was Ms B, the lady next door, and she was a little shaky and shrill. She is a very nice single mom with two girls, the oldest in her last year of middle school. Her former husband lost his job and couldn't find another, so he ran off to Florida and divorced her.

I occasionally do guy stuff for her. NO NOT THAT KIND OF STUFF. Sheesh, get your mind out of your pants.

"There's a rat in the toilet, what should I do?!!"

I talked to her while trying to find my BB gun, but it was nowhere to be seen.

After a little thought I asked her if she had a bowl shaped pasta strainer. No, but she had a flat one. I told her I would get my bowl shaped strainer and be over in a minute.

After being guided to the throne room, I flipped the lid, and sure enough, there was a full grown live rat.

I scooped him up with the pasta strainer and put the flat strainer over the top. Rat under control. Of course he was not happy with the situation and was trying to escpae, but I kept the lid firmly in place.

"I don't have a cage or anything, what do we do with him?" inquired the lady. She is the sort that couldn't stand to have me crush his little vermin ridden skull right there on the batroom tile.

"Tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to take him for a little walk, and I'll be back with your pasta strainer in a little bit."

I had a cardboard box that was covered in plastic. about 12" square and only had a small opening. I sprayed Mr. Rat down with Thrust to calm him, and dropped him in the box. I then sprayed some more into the opening and then covered it.

Thirty seconds later Mr Rat was anesthetized.

Fatally.

Painlessly.

I went over to return the strainer and told Ms B that he had taken a long and permanent nap.

That would have been a real shock. Lift the lid, prepared to expose your most sensitive parts, glance down and there, swimming in the bowl is a big hairy wet rat. It would make you reluctant to expose yourself, make yourself vulnerable.

Of couse, being male I would never have the problem. I never put the seat down except when I have to.

Got any dragons you need slain? Princesses you need rescued from a fate worse than death?

Fall Back

As in the time correction for Daylight Savings Time: Spring Forward, Fall Back. It is an appropriate reflection for reasons other than setting the clock.

Whenever Fall rolls around in the great cyclic spiral, I go back in my mind to previous Autumns. A lot of good things happened in late Summer, early Fall.

Here's a memory from one October a long time ago.

We had gone out to the U. District to score some weed. I used to hang out there a lot, so I knew a lot of people. Bruce, J.B, Dave and I. We were wandering up the Ave tring to find the best deal on a lid. When we did, the dude wanted $12.00 for a lid of some "Special Shit". We went over to the Drug Store to get change (Ironic, huh?)

We all came back out and headed down the street. Bruce noticed some guys following us. We decided to split up. When an opportunity presented itself, J.B. quietly split to go make the deal, and the rest of us headed back towards the car. Sure enough, we had the same two guys following us, so we cut over to the alley, and then back over to the street,

We had no idea who there guys were, but they were big and ugly and looked vaguely crimnal.

When we stopped at the light, one of them rushed up and grabbed Bruce by the shoulder. Bruce turned around and belted the guy in the mouth.

A whole lot of yelling and pushing ensued, during which we found out that they were undercover cops. I ended up being the mediator between us and the cops, a position I ususally got stuck with. I explained to them that they had never identified themselves as Police, so we were well withing our rights to defend ourselves. Although there was a curfew on, we were all over 18 and therefore exempt.

They said they were going to arrest us on suspision of posession. I volunteered that we were all clean, and they could search us right there. Eventually cooler heads prevailed, and they let us go.

Little did I know that Bruce was standing there with his stash in his shoe.

We hooked back up with J.B.. It was a little after noon, so we headed out for a drive in the country. Of course we had to check out the quality of our purchase.

We were on a two lane counrty road out in the middle of nowhere. J.B. was driving. All the sudden he swerved to the left, then to the right.

"WTF J.B., what are you doing?"

"Don't you see them?"

"See what?"

"The Wooley Bear caterpillars!"

He was veering the car back and forth on the road to run over Wooley Bear Caterpillars. You know, the big puffy orange and black ones. They were all over the place. Now that we knew what he was looking for, we started spotting them for him.

I have always wondered if they were really there.

Dust Bunnies

When I was stumbling down the aisle on my way to get jump started with a 20 0z. Diet Coke this morning, I was viciously attacked by a commando dust bunny. I thought he resembled the head of Osama Bin Missing. Luckily the adrenalin rush keyed up my response and I not only escaped serious injury, I eliminated the threat for the good of my fellow countrymen.

This is not the first time I have withstood attack by forces of unsuspected and misunderstood nature.

When I was not as rational and mature as I am now I was once attacked by a force of nature that was unsuspected.

I love watching cheap horror movies. I don't know what impulse it is that drives me to always look under the rock to see what lurks there, but said impulse is a part of my nature.

Back when I was having one of my "Unassisted by a female presence" periods in my life, I was staying up late watching horror movies. What movie I was watching escapes me, but it was a classic. Perhaps "Atom Man Vs the Mole People", or maybe "Godzilla Vs MechniKong".

The house was silent except for the settling noises a house makes at night to get revenge on the owners. I caught a motion out of the corner of my eye.

As I turned my head to look. It was a very large dust bunny comeing out from under a chair. It start moving towards me. Neither one of those things was by itself alarming. I mean, dust bunnys bred under every piece of furniture, and occasionally a breeze would inspire wanderlust in one and it would set off in search of a new lair.

What was disturbing is that THERE WAS NO BREEZE!

As I watched I saw the mutant dust bunny deliberately move towards me! Yes, It was moving by it's free will. In other words IT WAS ALIVE!!!!!

As my heart beat faster and my palms started sweating, in an act of foolish bravado I got off of the couch and got down on the floor to look more closely, knowing full well that I was exposing my jugular to whatever freak of nature lurked there by the telephone table. Oh shit, it was trying to cut me off from the phone!

Heedless of my danger, I got close enough to inspect it

It was mouse gray, and about three inches in diameter. It lunged forward towards my exposed flesh, and I jumped back.

Retreating to the kitchen, I got a chopstick, and came back and with trepidation and trembling hands, poked at it.

It jumped in a frenzy of activity, trying to make it under the telephone table.

Thinking quickly and using my lightning fast reflexes, I got an empty mayonaise jar and and dropped it over my ferocious invader, and put the lid on.

Holding up the jar I looked at its underside, trying to figure out what manner af predator had invaded my sanctuary.

It had webbed feet and toe pads.

A light came on, and I started to laugh.

My son had been raiseing tree frogs in his room. One of them had disappeared a couple of days ago.

In an effort to bluff his way out of the house, he had built himself a gillie suit out of volunteer dust bunnies, who readily attached themselves to his slimy sides so they could make a break for it.

It was their unfortunate luck to run into me, standiing guard over home and family.

The frog was cleaned and returned to Froggie Bottom Detention Facility, where his sentence was extended to life.

The recalcitrant dust bunnies did not fare so well. I destroyed them and their sanctuary.

Ever since, I have been concerned that they were out for revenge.

King Albuchadnezzar

You are King Albuchadnezzar, the emperor of Babylon. You are part of a long tradition of Middle Eastern dictators. Like any good dictator, you possess the attributes of pride and ambition in good measure. Your ambitious nature drove you to conquer much of the Middle East, including the kingdom of Israel. You subsequently put the people of Israel into bondage. You also tend to be very direct with your friends and enemies alike. You prefer to tell people exactly what you’re going to do and how you’re going to do it. Your position in society and your imperial army give you the ability to do this with impunity. Unlike many Middle Eastern despots, you are a very good ruler and you happen to treat your own people quite well. You might be a biblical villain, but I’m sure you’d make a good dictator in the 21st century, if given the chance.

Brownies for breakfast

I was going to be good......

Honest....

No REALLY!!

When I got in today, there were two things on the communal table. Salsa, and brownies.

Salsa is good for you. Lots of veggies and spices. No sugar. No carbs.

But we're talking brownies here. A 12'" X 18" slab of brownies.

Since no one else would step forward and cut the slab, I did the honors. The sheet was very firmly stuck to the cardboard, so on my second attempt to cut a square loose, I butchered it. We didn't have a spatula of any kind, so I was using a butter knife.

Well, I couldn't foist off a butchered brownie on someone else, could I. I mean I have standards.

So I had to destroy it.

So you see, it really wasn't my fault.

I should have known better....

When the kids left, Mrs. A was still wound up tighter than a recoil starter. One little pull and she would go WHIRRRRR and little parts would start flying off.

I told her to relax, that it was over. She told me "Oh no, it's not over!"

As usual she knew what she was talking about.

They showed up at her workplace yesterday, and more or less demanded money from her. She relented and gave them $20. They complained "This is all you are going to give us?" Of all the unmitigated gall.

They were trying to make it sound like they could not feed K. unless we gave them money.

Mrs A. told them if they couldn't feed K. that didn't make her a bad grandma, but it did make them bad parents. Needless to say that did not go over well.

Evidently they think they are above going to the food bank to get some groceries. Probably couldn't fit in between their busy social life and the time they need for playing video games.

Mrs A. told me she doesn't want to see or talk to them.

Fine by me. Now if she will just stick with it..........

For Clyde II

In a e-mail conversation with Rick the other day, he made a remark about "What if someone in the future was looking at your blog, what would they see?" or some such.

Although I like the poem, I suppose it might not make a lot of sense to anyone without some context.

When I was first learning my trade as a Manufacturing Engineer, I was working at Boeing Aerospace's Electronic Systems Division in Kent. We were doing some state of the art electronics Research and Development.

I had a lead man named Clyde Sparks, who was quite a character. One of his favorite sayings was "We are all just monkeys walking around with suits on". So I wrote the poem.

BTW a hire-suit is a tuxedo like you rent for a wedding, which is of course also known as a monkey suit.

So although the poem is light and maybe even humorous, it asks the bigger question about determinism.

We like to maintain the illusion that we are in charge, but who's to say we arent marching to someone elses music. Are we in charge of our destiny?

Or are we just monkeys in suits?

For Clyde

This image was around last week. It was one of those "Write a story of 500 words or less" things. Well I didn't do it but it reminded me of this:

.

.

.

.

.

.

For Clyde

The mustacioed organ grinder

and his hire-suited charge

cavorted on the waterfront

Beside a rottin barge.

In the failing light of evening

they divided up the loot

the man he kept the cup of coins

the monkey kept the fruit.

And when it all was over

And each received his due

I wasn't sure if I ground the organ

or wore the monkey suit.

A Ray of Sunshine

The clouds for the moment have lifted, and a solitary ray of sunshine has found its way through the overcast and lit up our little corner of the world for at least this brief moment.

And the weather's not bad either.

Mrs. A came away from out counselling appointment yesterday feeling much better about everything. She really needs to have her actions validated by a Professional. I tell her the exact same things the Therapist does, but because I am sitting on the same side of the room as her, my words just don't carry the same weight.

At any rate, the weather was beautiful. The hard rain had cleared the air of all the pollen and pollutants, and the sun was shining in that half hazy end of summer light that seems to carry all sorts of subliminal messages. It probably has something to do with the change of seasons bringing out some ancestral migration urge.

We went in to Redmond Town center. Several years ago they built this huge area that is all upscale shops, restaraunts, craft stores. The have a real nice All-you-can-eat Sushi place called Todai's. I have been trying to get Mrs. A to go there, but she isn't as enthusiastic about sushi as I am. (BTW for all you troglodites not all sushi is raw fish).

At any rate, when we got to the map, I noticed that there was a Thai Ginger place, so we elected go there. The food was great.

We took the long way home, around Lake Samamaish. The sun was low in the sky and being reflected off of the lake. The air was still and we were in no hurry. It was beautiful. Too bad I didn't bring the camera.

When we got home, the kids were moved out, so now it is just Carol and me and Vinnie. Carol and I got up this morning with smiles on out faces. Vinnie is a teenager, so to him morning is an evil thing.

I sure hope the little ray of sunshine hangs around.

Hump Day

If Mrs A. and I can just make it through today,Ii believe we will be over the hump. The kids went down to Sumner and got the trailer yesterday. They are getting a heck of a deal. It is a 30' Fleetwood travel trailer, complete with working appliances. I was afraid they would end up in some 12' tin can. At least now they have something worth working on.

They are moving the rest of their stuff today, and I am giving them the rest of the money so they can get the trailer moved into a trailer park.

Mrs A and I have an appointment with a therapist this afternoon. She feels a need to have things validated by someone outside the situation. I feel no such need, but if that is what it takes to help her, I'm all for it. Having worked in the field myself, I have no illusions about what can or cannot be accomplished by therapy, but if it makes her feel more secure in her choices, it certanly can't hurt.

The upside is that I get to take off work a couple of hours early.

Too bad it is raining like a cow peeing on a flat rock.

Shootout at the not-so-OK Corral

Mrs A. has been teetering on the edge of a blowout for the last couple of weeks. We have both been hovering on the edge of a major confrontation with the kids.

Some time back I told them that September would be a good time for them to find other accommodations. They basically told us that there wasn't anything available in their price range (free) so we would have to cosign a lease for them to move. This didn't set well with us.

So they have been mooching off of us and "Borrowing" money. You could feel the pressure building up like the air feels right before a thunderstorm.

Mrs. A. was trying to get ready for work this morning when the kids got into a fight. Nothing unusual about that. So it was F this and F that so Mrs A yelled at them to just knock it off. They took exception, so she told them to just get the Hell out.

They called me and told me that in order to move they need $450.00. That is $200 for a trailer and $250 for a space in a Trailer Park.

I told them I would be home at lunch time to give them the $200.00, and could give them the rest tomorrow. It is worth it to me to get them the heck out of our house, but mostly for Mrs. A's peace of mind.

Dreams

I woke up this morning with this absolutely great idea for a blog entry for today.

Of course I imediately went back to sleep and forgot it. I should have written it down. Several times now I have awakened from a dream that would make a great short story and thought "I should write that down" but of course I don't, and by the time I am fully awake, it is long gone.

On the other hand, frequently after waking, and in the harsh light of reality, the ideas suck.

I have had a series of related dreams for years, that actually hang together as a coherent story. The Government has been overthrown and I am leading a small group of rebels going around attacking government outposts. We are living in the mountains in Eastern Washington or North Idaho and conducting guerilla warfare. I never die or get hurt in these dreams, but get a great deal of satisfaction blowing things up.

Wonder what Sigmund would have to say on the subject.

I wear a black stud in my left ear to remember 9/11. I swore I would wear it until they brought the twisted mental defectives who thought up this terrible act to justice. It is too bad that five years later I still wear it.

I have no vendetta against the Arab peoples of this planet. Like any other people, they are mostly good people trying to survive in a very confusing and complicated world. Doing the best they can.

So remember the victims and heros today.

ps: I "Borrowed" the picture from Rick's Blog.

Short week, long day

It always seems to me like life demands that you have to take so much crap at work every week.

It doesn't matter how many hours you work, you still have to account for the same amount of crap. So weeks with a Holiday in them mean the crap just has to be shifted to the other days to make up. The weeks that are really bad make up for the sick days you took when you weren't really sick, or the time you go on vacation.

Don't get me wrong, I love my job and have a hard time thinking of doing anything different, but there is always a certain amount of crap to go along with the gravy. (Now there's a nasty visual).

So hope everyone has a great Friday and a better weekend, and be careful of the lumps in the gravy.

Parrot Joke

A guy I know has a pet parrot. He fed it by hand. Hepoured some nuts or sunflower seeds in his hand, and the bird would eat them out of his hand.

The problem with this was that the bird was an agressive feeder and sometimes would bite his hand. As a result his hands were always sore.

He decided that the best solution would be to file off some of the parrot's beak.

He went down to the hardware store to buy a file. The clerk asked him what he needed, and he said "I'm here to buy a file."

The clerk asked "What kind of file we have flat files, round files, rasps, even half round bastards. What are you going to use it for?."

The guy explained that he was going to use it to file off part of the beak of his parrot.

The clerk said "You can't do that, the parrot will starve!"

The guy said "I didn't ask for advice, just a file!"

So he bought a file and went home.

A couple of weeks later he was back at the hardware store and ran into the same clerk.

The clerk asks "So hows the Parrot?"

The guy says "Oh, he died."

The clerk says "HA!!! I told you he would starve without his beak!!!"

The guy says " You don't know anything. He was already dead when I took his head out of the vise!"

Last Deck Post

So, I promise I won't bore you any more with anything to do with my new deck, But I did promise to publish a photo of it when it was done.

Here it is with the new furniture. We've had dinner out on the new deck the last couple of days. It was real nice.

I sure am glad to be done with it.

Welcome back Blogger

For the last couple of weeks, Blogger has not allowed me to access the site from work. Don't ask me why.

I felt like someone stole my binkie, and I didn't have my blankie to console me.

Today everything has returned to the status quo (you notice I didn't say normal).

The deck is done. Yesterday, Mrs A and I went out looking for outdoor furniture for the deck. We found a very nice aluminum and wood table and chairs marked down from $699 to $349 on an end-of-season sale. Unfortunately it had no umbrella, and they were all out of replacements. They suggested I go straight to the manufacturer.

So we had hamburgers outside on the deck last night, and it made it worth all the hard work and cusswords. I hope my neighbors have recovered from the shock and the blue sulfurous cloud that hung over that corner of the house during construction.

So long to Steve Irwin, who was way too cocky and obviuosly took too many risks, but entertained millions of nature lovers. He will be missed.

Dynamite

My mother's side of the family has traditionally held a family reunion on the Fourth of July every year. I have always enjoyed getting together with the relatives I don't see the rest of the year and see what everyone has been doing. Not the same people show up every year, so there is always someone different to talk to. It is always potluck, with everyone bringing something they make especially well or are proud of (not necessarily the same thing). It is pretty much a traditional Fourth of July.
Except for the dynamite.
My Aunt and Uncle live on the South end of Vashon Island, where they have a sizeable chunk of property. It is a very rural setting. The land is mostly second growth timber and brush. At the time, because they were clearing land, they could but dynamite (for agricultural purposes only) at the Co-op. Anyone who has spent time on the business end of a muck stick and prybar trying to get a stubborn stump out of the ground can really appreciate the pristine beauty of a couple of well placed sticks of dynamite. Not to mention the fact that it is a heck of a lot of fun to make things go BOOM. Both the relatives on Vashon and my family in Idaho had obtained and used dynamite for a number of years.
For the family get-together, people would usually start arriving around noon, and start out with the veggies-and-dip, and chips and snacks. Around the same time the first fireworks would show up. The policy towards fireworks has never been consistent in the State of Washington. Heck, it is not even consistent from block to block. It is literally possible to buy fireworks, walk a couple of blocks and be arrested for setting them off. It is not a policy designed to to build a great deal of respect for the law and its enforcement. To complicate matters, the Indian Reservations are only subject to Federal Law, so you can get a lot more of "The Good Stuff" from the Indians, including some stuff that is outside Federal guidelines.
Every year, McCord Air Force Base in Tacoma holds an Airshow to celebrate the Fourth. They generally flew North out of the base and turned around at the North end of Vashon. During the day we would see all kinds of Aircraft from fighters to cargo carriers, to bombers. We would hear them coming and rush outside to see if we could identify the type and model of the plane.
The fireworks would typically start with the younger kids lighting snakes and smoke bombs, then progress through lady fingers, regular firecrackers, bottle rockets and the usual small fireworks. Since we had to take the last ferry back to the mainland at around 7:00 we never got into the more elaborate airborne displays. We spent the afternoon and early evening, when not occupied eating, inventing new and more elaborate ways of blowing things up.
Firecrackers were placed under tin cans.
Holes were punched in tin cans to pass the fuse through, and then the cans pushed down into mud or soft sand. The idea is to see how high in the air you can blow the can. My personal favorite was an Old El Paso chilies can inside a regular soup can partly filled with water. If you didn't get the fuse wet, it was good for at least a hundred feet of altitude.
I suppose that it was inevitable that we would someday come to the conclusion that since we had dynamite, and there were stumps to be blown, there was no reason we couldn't blow stumps an the Fourth of July. We didn't do this every year, just when the urge was irresistible.
One year after sending cans flying as high as possible, we started speculating how high in the air we could send something if dynamite provided the propulsive force and we could find something sturdy enough to not disintegrate. First we took an old wellhead, dropped a lit stick of dynamite down it, followed by a section of madrona. It made a satisfactory BOOM, but the wood disappeared completely. We never saw it after it left the pipe.
Next we saw a car wheel laying out by the barn. Perfect!
We put the car wheel on a flat place over the top of a stick of dynamite, lit the fuse and got back.
BOOM!
Totally unsatisfactory. The wheel, spinning madly went about thirty feet in the air. Heck we could blow tin cans a lot higher than that. The problem seemed to be that the force of the explosion needed to be focused. Not an insurmountable problem. Having experienced the benefits of the fact that water is not compressible, we decided to dig a pit slightly larger than the wheel about a foot deep, fill it with water and try again. And since one stick of dynamite didn't provide enough propulsive force, three ought to do the job!
We finished digging our pit and filling it with water. Actually, but the time it soaked in, it was more like thin mud than water, but we were pretty sure it would do the job. We had waterproof fuse, so we didn't have to worry about the fuse going out. We set three sticks of dynamite equally spaced in the pit, and dropped in the wheel. We lit the fuse and got the heck out of there.
Just as we lit the fuse ad retreated, we heard a thumping noise on the horizon. It was a flight of six helicopter. Surely they wouldn't be coming anywhere near us! But they kept on a course that would bring them right overhead.
OH SHIT!
We looked at the wheel with the dynamite under it. The fuse got shorter. No one was willing to go near it to pull the fuse. A mistake would probably be fatal.
The helicopters came closer.
The fuse got shorter
Closer
Shorter
BOOM!!!
We had succeeded in our plans, for the wheel flew a couple of hundred feet in the air.
Right into the view of the helicopters. They must have seen it, because the formation split apart and headed away.
We figured we were in huge trouble. The first thing we did was put the dynamite back in the powder shed. Then we all went in and watched some sporting event on TV and prayed nothing came of it. Every time a car went by, we figured it was going to turn in the driveway, filled with guys in grey trenchcoats and black fedoras, but we never heard a thing.
I always wondered what the Flight Leader reported. I don't think he would want to report that they were under attack by car wheels. Maybe they never said a thing and that's why we never heard anything.
The only thing I know for sure is that the next time we went to the Co-op to buy dynamite, they wouldn't sell us any.

At Last.

So I am taking tomorrow off to help Rose move.She is going to be staying here at least part of the time. If she is genuinely trying to get herself together, it is a good thing, although I foresee some stormy weather ahead.

I haven't managed to get much done on the deck lately. All I have left to do is nail in the 2 X 2's to close it in so kids can't fall off and get hurt (or growed-ups either). I wanted to get done by Friday so I could actually take a couple of days off and maybe swill a couple of beers and read a book. I just bought Dean Koontz's latest (The Husband) but haven't had a chance to crack the cover yet. Maybe when I get through here.

I haven't written anything here lately because there has been too much other stuff going on. I need to order up a couple of extra hours a day.

Tonight it is raining, so I had to give up on working on the deck. OK with me. I have spent nearly every available moment working on it for the last couple of weeks.

I know there is a good story roaming around in my head somewhere, but I haven't had time to do much with any of them lately. Maybe I'll pull something out of some orifice or the other.

So, here's the deck. I am getting set to start on the handrail.

On the homefront, both L & N have jobs, so they are looking for apartments. Mrs. A and I had to co-sign the lease, but we will be dropped off of the lease after six months.

R. comes and goes. I'm not sure of what her plans are. She referred to the spare bedroom as "My room" so she may be moving back in. When N and L move out she can have the big bedroom in the basement. She and I can work together to fix it up.

I had my annual diabetes checkup yesterday, and my hemoglobin acl was 7.1 which is very good control. Everything else was normal too, so I guess I haven't abused my body too badly. The one complaint I had was not being able to sleep, so the doc prescribed some sleeping pills, with the understanding I only use them occasionally. I think I will try one Saturday night. I have been averaging only about 5 hours a night, and I'm getting pretty raggedy. Thank God for caffeine

Back to the grind

My computer at work will no longer allow me to log on to update my blog, so I have to do it from home. No big deal, I just used my lunch and breaks to do stuff.

I am not quite done with the deck. Still need to do the handrail and ballisters. I don't have any pictures at the moment.

It was hard to get up and go to work today, having slept in for a while.

R. spent the weekend. It's the first time she has been around for any significant amount of time for months. Emotionally she is all over the map. I hate to see her suffer, but she chose to go down the junkie path, and I can only support her if she is trying to go straight.

At one point she wanted somebody to drive her over to her suppliers house, but everyone told her we loved her too much to do that, so she left on the bus.

It is awfully hard on me to let her go, but I need to separate myself if I am to survive.

Get'n 'er done

Progress on the Deck. I think one more day and the deck will be done, less the handrails and that kind of stuff. And my life will return to its normal state of chaos.

I hurt in all sorts of places from doing things my body isn't used to.

Surprisingly, the sholder that was operated on last October hasn't hurt in particular, and it hasn't hampered me from doing whatever I wanted.

Some progress

So here is the progress on the deck so far. Things are taking a lot longer than I anticipated. I guess there probably won't be a camping trip at the end of the week.

Damn!

And so it begins

Bolgger is messed up and won't let me upload any more photo's for now. I wanted to show the progress we have made. The framing is about 40% done.

We went with Morning Light this weekend for a concert in Centralia, so Saturday was a great but long day, Sunday after church there wasn't much time to get started on the deck, but today we put in about 6 hours. I have to admit that V. was a big help, which surprised me. Of course I let him use my new cordless power tools, so that had a lot to do with it.

More pictures tomorrow, if Blogger allows.
Here's where the deck will go. It's a real mess at the moment

Here'e the big pile of wood dropped in our driveway Hard to believe it cost almost $7,000.00

V.A.C.A.T.I.O.N.

Tomorrow we are going to jail.

We are going with Morning Light to Maple Lane in Centralia for a concert. They will load up the truck with 13,000 lbs of gear tonight and we will head out in the morning. When we get there, we will set up a full sound system with light show. Not to mention setting up chairs for a couple of hundred kids. Two one hour shows, then break it all down and go back home. It is one long day.

Here's a picture of the crew and band from last time:



















I am on vacation as of tomorrow. Oh yeah, I have a deck to build, but I am looking forward to it. The deal is that whenever I take on a major project at home, I get to buy a new toy (oops, I mean tool). Since I will be puting the deck down with deck screws, it will require the purchase of a new cordless drill.

And I will be working with my hands, which I don't get to do all that much. It is a nice change from my normal work.

I had to move to a different cubicle today, first thing this morning, fourth time in the last month. I have it down to a science now. It took me an hour from when I started until I had the computer up and running and was handling my e-mail.

Happy Friday everyone. Have a great weekend.

Deck

They delivered the materials for the deck yesterday. They mixed up some of the order, but I'm not going to complain. I ordered treated redwood decking, and they deliverd Redwood composite decking. I priced the composite stuff, and it was almost $1000.00 more. I won't be returning it. Someone also threw in a 14' treated 4 X 6 that doesn't appear on the manifest.

I am taking off next week to build the deck, but I may get started tonight. I need to remember to take pictures as I go along.

Saturday we are going with Morning Light to jail for a concert. That is always a lot of work, and a lot of fun, and a long day. I'll try to remember to take the camera. I am hoping R. will go with us. They have a lot of resources for recovering drug addicts and alcoholics. But you can't help someone who doesn't want to be helped.

STAR

Chapter VIII of STAR is available at http://star-pat.blogspot.com/

Deck

Today they deliver the materials for the deck. I went to Lowe's hardware and they have a program where you just put in the dimensions and what kind of wood you want and it spits out plans and a complete materials list.

Right down to how many nails you need.

So I have spent several hours going over the materials list and the plans and trying to make sense of it all in my head. It shouldn't bee too difficult for me, after all I am a Manufacturing Engineer. And decks are a whole lot easier to build than 737s.

Nonetheless, when I awoke at 3:00 this morning, my mind immediately went to work building the deck, getting the exact sequence of events set in my mind. And of course revising the plans as I go to accomplish what I want.

I am taking next week off to get the deck built. Hopefully we will get done a little early so Mrs A. and I can disappear into the mountains for a short camping trip.

I have a special place in mind, but will have to sedate Mrs A. to get her there. She has this fear of going off the road and into water and drowning. The place I want to go is 23 miles of bad road out in the wilderness, a lot of it with a cliff on one side and a dropoff on the other, plus the last barrier to the campground is you have to ford a stream with the car.

The payoff is one of the most beautiful camp grounds on the face of the Earth.

I think if I get her to take a couple of benadryl before we leave she will be enough in LALA land that by the time she realizes what is going on, we will be there. Of course this means she won't be helping me set up camp.

And then there is the trip back.

Another fine mess

I mentioned a while back that R. was back on meth again. I love my daughter with all of my heart, but I had come to the point that I had to let her go.

Completely.

Be prepared for the phonecall from the Police or the Hospital. It hurt like Hell, but I did it. Not that you can ever be prepared for those phone calls.

She got her head straight, and got clean (or so she claims). I have had a couple of conversations with her recently, and she seemed all right.

Last night I got a call, and she is all in tears and practically incoherent. She had this boyfriend. He was hit and dragged by a Metro bus a couple of years ago, and his settlement with the Transportation Department was several million dollars.

He is also a junkie.

They had a big fight a couple of weeks ago, and started not coming home at night.

Last night he showed up with a couple of his "homies" to get his stuff. They of course got into a big shouting match, and she got choked into unconsciousness.

One of the neighbors called the police, but he was gone by the time they got there.

While the Police were there, he called her on the phone and told her he was going to kill her, kill me and Mrs A. and everyone in the house. She told me not to answer the door for anyone I didn't know, and she was scared half to death. She said that the police checked and he has outstanding warrants, and so do the two guys that were with him.

Doesn't really worry me particularly.

First of all, I can take care of myself. I have no compuntion to "fight fair" and the quicker you can take them out, the better off you will be.

Second of all, most of these punks run on hot air and intimidation. If they were going to kill anyone, they would have started with R. when they had her. The threat to kill the whole lot of us is just a lot of hot air.

Mind you, I did put a baseball bat under the seat of my car just in case.

It's Only Money

So I went out over the weekend and spent a whole lot of money (by my standards anyway).

The deck off of the living room here at Moneypit Estates has been deteriorating for quite some time. It was bad when I bought the place 20 years ago, so I reskinned the deck with some nice cedar decking. But the underpinnings were rotting out, so it was time to start all over.

While Mrs A. and I were in Mexico I had N. tear the old deck off of the house. He thought it might be a good idea to run under the deck, hammer on the support beams and run out before the deck fell.

Of course that didn't work, and the deck fell on him and he ended up in the Emergency room. Luckily there were no major injuries. I pointed out to him that there were several lenghts of chain hanging in the shop that he could have used to PULL it down with, but he kinda got the "Deer in the headlights" look.

Shortly after that, he flicked a cigarette butt into the pile of debris from the deck, and set it on fire. Luckily they managed to put it out before the house caught on fire. The only casualty was my old yellow cooler.

Saturday we finished up cleaning up the boards from the old deck and got them neatly stacked in the back yard. I plan on using them to build raised beds in the back yard to plant vegetables in.

So Sunday after church, we went down to Lowe's and sat down with the computer and plugged in my design and it spit out the bill of materials.

I about had a heart attack when I saw the bottom line.

$6746.17 of my hard earned dollars just for the materials.

Luckily we have been saving for this for over a year and already have the money set aside.

Wednesday they are delivering the wood. Then comes the hard part: turning a pile of lumber and hardware into something approximating a deck.

Thanks Denny

I was so inspired by Denny's declaration of yesterday to be a national holiday dedicated to laziness that I stayed home from work today.

Since I found out too late to celebrate yesterday, I figured today was the next best thing.

Whew, that was tiring.

Think I had better go take a nap.

Home Blogging

So is home blogging kinda like home schooling? You don't have the interaction with the other delinquents, so it is safer, but the social skills are somewhat questionable?

I guess all of our social skills are questionable anyway.

I kicked V. off of the computer, partly because I felt he was beginning to morph with it, partly because I had not been able to use it for a couple of days. Withdrawal.

I haven't been able to blog at work, because it has been so damn busy I can hardly use my lunch time to catch up with my work.

If anybody gives a shit, here is an example

We buy a wire bundle from a company in Morocco. At the end of it it has a sensor that has six wires coming out of it, and a bunch of nuts and washers to adjust it. This is the flap sensor unit. It sends a signal to the cockpit to tell the pilot when the flaps have been fully deployed. The wire bundle and sensor and engineering are perfect. The unit goes on every airplane.

When we get the wire bundle, it goes to Everett, where it is integrated with other wire bundles. When we get it, it has a small bag with a bunch of hardware taped to the wire bundle.

A couple of nuts, a keyed washer, a lock washer. Well the routing of the wire bundle happens a couple of days before we install the switches and adjust them on a rigging job. Some times the little bag of parts gets lost.

Because we don't ever order the adjustment hardware as a separate item, there is no allowance in the procurement system to order them separately. However, the switch and attached wires IS an orderable item, so when presented with a missing washer or locknut, the mechanics have been ordering the whole switch, stealing the washers and throwing away the switch itself. The switch is a hundred bucks, the hardware, probably a couple of bucks.

So my mission for this week has been to figure out how to get a little bag of parts that costs a couple of bucks, but saves the company a bunch.

I am almost there. I have a couple of technical hurdles to get over tomorrow, but a small problem that costs thousands annually is about to be fixed. Other people have worked on this for several years. but no one could figure it out.

I can't tell you how I did it, or I would have to brain wash you.

If we can produce the most affordable and reliable aircraft if the world, the world comes to us.

We have that product. Now if we can make it even MORE affordable...............

That is one of several problems I have been trying to fix this week.

I always told Mrs A. I am happiest when I am juggling at leat three balls at the same time. This is one.

Busy day

No time to blog today. I am burried in work.

The main problem is that I am only here through Monday and I have several problems that I want to get resolved before I go back to my other job.

Got to get back to the rat race!

Statler and Waldorf

Statler and Waldorf are the two old guys that sat up on the balcony and heckled the cast on The Muppet Show. The were always one of my favorites.

At work , Billy and I sit at the shipside support area (called The Barge). We are a couple of well known curmudgeons, and somebody told us this morning that we reminded him of Statler and Waldorf.

Actually what he said was we reminded him of "the two old dudes in the balcony who heckled everyone"

Art imitates life, and life in turn imitates art.

I am now complete.

I am Muppet, hear me gripe.

Blogstipation

I tried to blog yesterday, but nothing came out.

It's not that there was nothing there, I just kept getting inturrupted. People expecting me to do stuff and all. Then when I got home, V. was firmly entrenched, playing Warcraft. He has just gotten a new subscription card, and it has been over a month since he was able to play, so I figured "WTF let him play, I'm blogstipated anyway."

Sunday I got up at zero dark thirty to go fishing. Here I live in a major metropolitan city, and at certain times, you can go catch a limit of salmon in the lake right here. There is a sockeye salmon run that goes up the Ballard Locks, through Lake Union, out into Lake Washington, down thru Renton and up the Cedar River to spawn.

They linger in the lake for a couple of weeks until whatever internal clock drives their lives clicks over and they get the urge. That urge must be pretty powerful, because the minute they hit fresh water, they start breaking down.

Spawning=death.

I am all enthusiastic about sex and everything, but death as a consequence would definitely make me think twice.

"Oh baby, oh baby I need you so bad"

"OK, but you're going to die"

"Can I reconsider this?"

At least with fish, it is equitable, because the fish BOTH die.

Not like praying mantises where the female literally bites the males head off WHILE they are copulating.

Where was I?

Oh yeah, sockeye.

The thing was, I also has a family reunion on Sunday, and I had to go pick up my mom.

So down to the lake, catch my limit of two fish, back home to clean and filet them, back down to bring my mom fresh salmon and pick her up for the reunion, back home to pick up Mrs A., off to the ferry terminal to catch the boat to Vashon Island. And all of this before noon. We missed the first boat by three cars, but that was OK with me. It gave me a chance to catch my breath.

Sockeye are wierd.

You don't use any bait or anything. By the time they hit the fresh water, they have quit feeding. So you use a flasher and trailing behind it about 18", bare hooks. For some reason they strike at bare hooks.

Oh, not just any bare hooks, they have to be red.

Why do they do it?

Not a clue.