A New Direction

Well, I went ahead and did it.
I signed up for a course in glass blowing.
I had mentioned a couple of months ago that I might, because Boeing had been paying for any classes you took. Of course the minute I expressed any interest in taking course, they dropped the funding like a hot rock.
It is a little expensive, $275 for three classes, but I decided I wanted to pursue it any way. So for my birthday, I asked for classes. Mrs A wanted to pay for the entire cost, but I told her that was too much for a birthday present, so she gave me $200 and I will finance the rest.
I have a creative/artistic side of my personality that I have allowed to stagnate the last couple of years, as I have been busy restoring sports cars. It is time to take a different path for a while. I love glass, think it is an incredible medium, and happen to live in one of the world's hotbeds of art glass creativity. I have visited a couple of glass shops in the last year, and I am getting the bug.
It will be interesting to see if I have any talent in this medium.

So Far, So Good

Every day the bubble of gas in my eye gets smaller, and the vision in my eye gets a little better. It is really weird. I have no depth perception when I look down because the damn bubble is in the way. Going down stairs is a bit of a challenge. I'm OK as long as I don't think about it, But the moment I look down I lose my depth perception, which makes me dizzy.
So me left eye is just the same as it always has been, but my vision in my right eye is constantly changing, although I can see better up close with my right eye. So I have taken a pair of glasses I had made for hiking, and removed the right lens. No matter what I do, for now my vision is sort of messed up.
If I put on my regular glasses, I can see out of my left eye, but my right is messed up, with no glasses I can see better with my right eye, The best compromise is my hiking glasses with the right lens removed.
Eventually, I will have the other eye done. Then when everything settles down I should have good short range vision, and have to use glasses for long range, like driving.
Yesterday, I spent four hours working outside. It is my fault that it rained today, because I pressure washed the deck. It was kinda a challenge washing the deck when I have no depth perception.
Today started out raining, so I took it easy until the rain stopped, then went out and got Frankenhealey running. Then I got the Westfalia running. I need to get started working on it. I think tomorrow I need to call and talk to the guys that do the engine swaps to put a Subaru 2.5 Litre engine is the Westy. I need to get it finished before August for the family reunion in Idaho. Time goes by so quickly. I have to stay on top of things all the time or it will all get away from me.

Free at Last, Free at Last

Thank the Ophthalmologist, I'm Free at Last . I went in for my post surgical check-up today. Everything seems to be going according to plan.
The bubble of gas in my eye is dissipating as expected. The hole in my macula has healed. The new lens in the eye is doing fine. and the REALLY BIG NEWS, I no longer have to stay face down.
I do not have full vision in my right eye. But I have enough to drive. So the first thing I did was drive up to the store and buy a six-pack. Ten days without a beer. I really didn't miss it all that much, it was just the idea I couldn't really drink a beer while face down. I guess I could have resorted to using a straw, but that was just a little too much for me. I'd rather just do without.
The main hassle with the face-down recovery was that I couldn't sleep. I have pretty bad arthritis in my neck and shoulders. I find it hard to sleep at night because if I stay in any one position for too long, it starts to hurt. Normally I just change position, but with the face down gear, there was no other position, If I took a couple of Percocet, I was good for six hours, but I wouldn't allow myself a second dose. I have read all of the stuff about how addictive prescription pain killers are, and that's a road I don't want to go down.
The worst part of the face-down recovery was that I really couldn't take a nap. If I wanted to sleep, it was all or nothing. If I tried to take a nap, I felt like I was suffocating.
When I finish with this, I think I will go and take a nice nap.
The doctor gave me an OK to do pretty much anything I want......
Except for go to work.
I will be OK to go back to work on the 7th.
Damn.... looks like I have to take a week off.
Oh well. a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.

On the Eve

One thing I know for sure. As of tomorrow, things will never look the same.

The Vitrectomy will repair the Macular hole in my right eye. When they are working on the eye, they will also replace the lens because of the developing cataract.

Then comes the hard part. Recovery from the surgery requires that I remain face down for a week to ten days. I am renting some special equipment to help. A piece of equipment so I can sleep face down, a special chair so I can sit supported by my legs and chest and remain face down, with a shelf to hold a book or my laptop.

In a week or so, I will be able to see, unaided, out of my right eye. This is something that has not been possible since I was in the first grade. Once the right eye heals and my vision clears, they can do the second eye. Then the real possibility exists that I will be able to see unaided for the first time in my active memory.

So I got the opportunity to use a couple of bad jokes in the real world.

I'll be back when I can see coming to work.................

Eye surgery: It's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

A Small Treasure

My mom is moving into an assisted living facility. Consequently she is going through all the "Stuff" in her house, as space will be limited. Since she is 82, she has acumulated considerable stuff.

On Friday afternoon I stopped by as usual, and was helping her get some stuff down off of a high shelf.

"That goes to your brother Bill. that goes to your sister..."

Then there was the figurine... "That goes to the dump or Goodwill".

Wait a minute, I have an idea that might be worth something.

"I don't even know where it came from."

Well, let me have it and I will check it out.

Took it home and researched it on the Internet. The sculptor is Kelsay, and the one in the picture which is identical to the one at home and is currently for sale for $5,000.00.

That's not saying I could get that amount, but it is a lot more than I ever figured it was worth.

Now comes the question of what to do with it.

Coming soon to an eyeball close to you.....

The first big date is May 20th. That's when they will be doing the surgery for the Macular Hole and replacing the lense in my right eye.
I am in the midst of arranging to get some special equipment to facilitate staying face down for a week or two. If the doctor deems it necessary for "Medical Reasons" my insurance will pay for 80% of it. His office is in the process of getting it done now.
Then, after the right eye has heled, I will go back and have the other eye done.
I just want it to all be over with.

Cinco De Mayo

Most people don't know that back in 1912, Hellmann's mayonnaise was manufactured in England.

In fact, the Titanic was carrying 12,000 jars of the condiment scheduled for delivery in Vera Cruz, Mexico,which was to be the next port of call for the great ship after its stop in New York.

This would have been the largest single shipment of mayonnaise ever delivered to Mexico.But as we know, the great ship did not make it to New York.The ship hit an iceberg and sank, and the cargo was forever lost.

The people of Mexico, who were crazy about mayonnaise,and were eagerly awaiting its delivery, were disconsolate at the loss.

Their anguish was so great, that they declared a National Day of Mourning, which they still observe to this day.

The National Day of Mourning occurs each year on May 5th and is known, of course, as...................

Sinko de Mayo.

WHAT?!?!???

Sorry about that. I know this is a repeat, but I just couldn't help myself.A really bad joke bears repeating.

More good news/bad news

I don't know when the operation on my eye(s) will be. They are supposed to call me tomorrow to set things up.

The good news is that they are going to try to squeeze me in in the next couple of weeks, so maybe I'll be able to be back at work by June 1st. I sure hope we can work it out.

The other news is that I am developing cataracts in both eyes. When they operate on my right eye for the Macular Hole, they will also replace the lense in that eye. Because of the discrepancy of vision between the two eyes, they are also going to replace the lense in the other eye ASAP. I could end up not needing to wear glasses at all.

That would be so cool (and weird). I have worn glasses since I was in the second grade, all the time. The first thing I do after I turn off the alarm, is put on my glasses. The lase thing I do at night is take off my glasses and put them where I can find thiem in the morning.

Like I said, no dates yet, but they are supposed to set it up tomorrow.

Good News/ Bad News

The bad news first.
Yes Indeedie, I do Have a macular hole. Yes aroonie, I need to be operated o n, and last but not least yesadoodie I will have to stay more or less face down for ten days to two weeks while I heal.
The operation part is bad enough, the staying face down part will drive me bat shit.

The good news.
Given the bad news, it being inevitable that I be operated on, I checked out the guy doing the surgery. The referring opthaolmologist told me this guy may be the best in the world. I of course took that with a grain of salt. As far as I knew it could be Omar's Eye Surgery and Croisants, working out of a dumpster near you.
So I checked him out on the Internet.
I was impressed. Elected one of the top Physicians in the US. Was head of Opthalmology at Group Health, currently head of Opthalmology at Swedish Hospital. Teaches Opthalmology at The University of Washington. Does approximately 500 surgeries a year.
I have an appointment with him next Tuesday for an exam and to set up surgery.

Big Day Tomorrow

I finally have my appointment with the opthamologist tomorrow.
I am pretty anxious. There are a lot of things I can hear tomorrow, and most of them are not good.
Anything affecting your eyesight is pretty major. If I lose too much of my eyesight, I lose my ability to do my job. I guess I can look at it that if I lose my job because of a disability, I qualify for Social Security. I also have long term disability insurance through work.
With my luck, it will turn out that my vision will be diminished, but just enough to make me miserable, not enough for me to retire on a disability.
At this point everything is just speculation, but I have to admit I have not been sleeping well.
If they are going to operate, they need to do it soon, as the next P8-A hits the line the end of next month, and I need to be ready to work by then.
The toughest part is that my appointment isn't until 3:30, so I have all day to stew about it.
Oh well, what will be, will be.

That's Gotta Hurt

I got a call at work on Wednesday at work. It was MRS A.
We have this circular staircase that is the only access between the middle and top floors of our house. It is really cool. Everyone who visits remarks about the cool circular staircase.
In truth is is a pain in the ass and a death trap.
Mrs A was the latest victim. She was going upstairs when the top step collapsed, and fell off. She hit her ribs on the handrail and scraped her leg. I am just glad she was going up the stairs instead of down. She is very stiff and sore, and milking it for everything she can get.
'Al, could you take this dish out to the kitchen? I'm injured."
It is one of those selective injuries. It only hurts when there is something to be done that she doesn't want to do.
I can't believe the step came completely loose and fell. It was supported by a couple of half inch wide by eight inch thick brackets. One of the brackets broke in two, and the other pulled loose. When I saw how it was put together I was surprised it held together as long as it did. The straps holding it together were half inch wide with quarter inch holes drilled in them. Naturally they broke right where the closest hole to the bend was. The brackets I put in are the same thickness as the old ones, but are three inches wide with four nails in each end.
Although the thought crossed my mind, I never said a word about maybe losing a little weight. That would have probably resulted in a fatality. Mine.
Mrs A did ask if I had recently taken out a large Insurance Policy on her...........

Around and Around and Around

I took off early from work today so I could drive Mrs A to the doctors to discuss the results of her Colonoscopy.
The diagnosis recently has gone from Crones Disease, to Irritable Bowel Syndrome, back to Crones Disease. Her symptoms are very mild for Crones, but nothing to just overlook.
They are putting her on a new medication, a mild steroid, for a week or so, then another medication after she stabilizes. No one knows how it will go.
She is afraid taking the steroid will cause her to put on weight. Damn woman, it I was troubled by intestinal pain and constant diarrhea, I'd damn well do whatever it takes to feel better.
We will see what we will see.
Next week is my turn in the barrel when I have to go see the Opthamologist and face eye surgery.

Medeline Peyroux

Our anniversary was on the 9th, but we celebrated it yesterday.
We went out to Jazz Alley in Seattle, to see Madeline Pytroux. A good time was had by all.
I wasn't quite sure what to expect. Her performance was outstanding, and her band was surprisingly good. A little bit of everything. All of it with a blues/jazz slant. Some rockin' hard blues, some almost abstract poetic jazz, all done with class and a unique style.
In particular, besides the Lady herself, I was impressed with the quality of the band members. The keyboard player's style was crisp and skilled, the guitar player could handle both the jazz and rock styles with seeming ease. The bass player was the best I have seen in recent years. I takes a lot of skill to rock out an a six foot tall upright bass. The drummer was really different. Just about every drummer I have ever seen wants to beat the crap out of the skins. This guy was COOL on the drums.
At times Madeline sounded very much like Billie Holiday, especially during "Dance Me to the End of Love".
For a change the service at Jazz Alley was very good. Usually the waitstaff is pretty slow and arrogant. They seem too have the attitude that they are WAY cool because they work at such a cool place, and customers are an annoyance necessary to the business. Last night was a pleasant exception.

I'm Worried for My Country

I am first and foremost, an American Patriot.
I served reluctantly in the Armed Services because I figured it was my duty to repay our society for the rights and privileges we enjoy.
I don't cheat on my taxes.
I vote.
I support out men and women in the Service of our country, even if I don't always agree with the reasons for their deployment. I know what it is like to deployed a half a world away from home.
But I am worried for my country.
Common courtesy seems to be eroding. Since when has it become acceptable for our representatives to heckle the President when he is addressing the people of the United States. Such rudeness should in no way be tolerated.
The Right Wing seems willing to believe any fantastical Bullshit tale about the President, and no one seems to be willing to check the facts before they propagate nonsense. There seems to be no accountability. Anyone who propagates lies about the President should be held accountable in a court of law. Freedom of speech does not give you the right to lie about other people .
On the other hand, The Dems seem willing to erode our basic rights in favor of Their perception of what is good for us. They will remove our right of free choice in favor of what they chose to force on us for our own good. As Henry David Thoreau put it "If I knew a man was coming down the road with the intention of doing me good, I would run the other way as fast as I could." Or something pretty close to that. As one of my heroes, Benjamin Franklin put it "He who is willing to give up Freedom for security deserves neither"
You have the Tea Party who seem to lack common sense and direction. They are mad, and with good reason, but have no plan or direction. They are just pissed off. Still, that is no reason to foment insurrection. Come back when you have plan.
The Militias are arming and digging themselves in.
Armageddon is imminent.
The Mayan Calendar runs out in 2012 and that means the world is coming to an end.
The sky is falling the sky is falling!
GET OVER IT!
The sun will come up tomorrow and things will be just about the same as they were today.
If the people of the United States are seriously concerned about the state of the country, get serious about going after the heads of the Financial Institutions. They are the ones that got us in the mess we are in now. As long as we accept Institutionalized Greed, the economy will not recover. Giving them Billions of Dollars without any sort of accountability is like feeding dollars to the pigs and expecting them to shit gold. Enormous bonuses are necessary to keep the execs from going elsewhere? LET THEM ALL GO! Surely there are some honest and Honorable individuals left in this great country who would be willing to represent the corporations without bleeding the populace dry.
Well, as my hero, Benjamin Franklin also put it "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy".
Think I'll go have a beer.

Catching Up

Boy have I been bad about posting. Lack of focus is my only excuse.
We had "i' over for last weekend. R had to work and she didn't want him missing out on the Easter Sunday egg hunt and get together. L and her son and boyfriend were coming over.

I BBQ'd a huge mess of ribs and cooked a pork tenderloin with Cranberry Chutney. Mrs A made Potato salad, which was excellent. L brought over an angel cake with whipped creme frosting nd fruit topping. The food was great and everything was good.

R and the sperm donor showed up later. She brought over bagels from Noah's with some rally good spread. I guess that makes him a sort of Universal Sperm Donor. He is a nice enough guy and he fathers beautiful children, but that don't keep him from being an immature person. He is not listed on "i"s birth certificate, so he pays no support. So put five kids under 8 together with an eight week old puppy, and it was a mobile scrum.

I was wearing about three hats at work this week. It was Spring Break, so all of the parents with young kids took the week off. I was pretty worn out by Friday. I also had to go to the dentist and have a tooth capped. It looks nice.

Friday was out seventh Anniversary. I bought Mrs a a bottle of Asti and some flowers and a card. When I got to the checkout counter the clerk asked "OOOHHH, What did you do?" I told her it was nothing like that. Mrs A FORGOT OUR ANNIVERSARY. So I am way ahead on points right now. We are going out this coming weekend to celebrate. Madeline Peyroux is coming to Jazz Alley, and we have reservations. I am really looking forward to it.

Yesterday Mrs A went out with her sisters for a girls day out. I stayed home and worked on cars. Adjusted the alternator on the Westie. Got Frankenhealy running, got frustrated with the Z trying to access the dash lights. The truck had the servce engine soon light come on, so I got under the hood, and it turned out the oil was low and so was the water. This should not happen, as it has a brand new engine with about 3000 miles on it. At any rate I topped off the fluids, and took off the battery terminal to reset the error code, reinstalled the battery terminal, started the truck up, and everything was OK. Frankenkealey still has a stuck clutch, but I am not in the mood to do anything about it.

The downpipe for the washr and kitchen sink is partially blocked, so it is leaking, so I need to get down there and pull put the cleanout plug and snake the drain. I hate plumbing.

Puppy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTW75NSJPu4&feature=related

I couldn't resist providine the link. For some reason, the pup reminds me of Frisky Puppy, of Warmer Brother's fame. Monk's relationship with Molly is a lot like Frisky's with Claude the Cat. Except that Molly is a Shi Tzu, but they are catlike enough for the comparison to work. The other think is that the pup doesn't bark, but he does ambush Molly.

The way the pup acts is SOOOO true for monk, except for the barking.

Enjoy

New Family Member

Yesterday, Mrs A brought home a new family member. He is a Brussels Griffon . Contrary to very strong visual clues, he is NOT part monkey, although we are for now calling him Monk.
He is very quiet, and very clingy for now. But then again, he is just a baby.
Molly, the Shi Tzu is very rattled. She has been an only dog for all her life with us, and strongly objects to having to share. For now she has retired to the bedroom and only comes out to eat and go to the bathroom. She refuses to have anything to do with Monk.
He is not potty trained, so Mrs A has some work in front of her.

She has been hinting she wanted a second dog for a couple of weeks. I have fought the good fight, and eventually ended up with something I can live with. I do not like yappy little dogs. First she saw a white Pomeranian she liked. It was way to excitable and wound up. Then it was a Sheltie. Again, way too yappy. Then this one came up. Calm, not yappy, and so ugly he is cute. I can live with this dog.
Mind you, if I was picking a dog for myself it would be a golden retriever or a Lab, but this is Mrs A's birthday present, so she gets what she wants.

Weird Shit

I was at work today, slaving away on the computer (OK, OK, playing solitaire) when I realized that the yellow spot that has plagued my vision for the last two months is gone.
There is still a small visual distortion in the area where it was located, but it is gone. There is a minor floater, but it is located slightly to the side of where the yellow thingie was.
I just looked up, and realized it wasn't there anymore.
Everything I have read says this does NOT happen. It gets worse, but it doesn't get better.
I'm afraid to sneeze or anything, since I don'r know what made it go away.
Knock on wood.
I still intend to go to the eye doctor and see if he has a clue what just happened.
Thank you Lord.

Stilll here

First, I was too busy throwing a pity party to blog. I was too busy sitting in the corner sucking my thumb to blog. Then I had absolutely nothing I wanted to say. Then I was busy doing research on the internet on the surgery they do to repair a macular hole.
It's called avoidance. Or procrastination.
Then I got sick. Nothing major, It started with a scratchy throat, and then stuffed sinuses. I'm not positive, but it almost seems to me more like alergy than anything else. I guess it doesn't really matter since the result is the same. I spent all day yesterday sleeping. The damn phone kept waking me up, but I was really out of it. Tried to read, but after a couple of pages I'd be back in lala lane. Drifting in and out of sleep while reading Dean Koontz's Frankenstien amde for some interesting dreams.
Today I am better, but figured I still feel like crap, might as well pull the covers back over my head and make the world go away.

the EYES have it

I have a hole in my macula, it seems.
This is not a good thing, but not terrible either. I have a big floater right in the center of my right eye. And everything is distorted around it. They cannot correct my vision with lenses or anything. My vision is 20/50 in that eye, corrected.
There is some sort of surgery that they can try with no results guaranteed. At any rate, I have a referral to the eye surgeon to take a look at it and see if anything can be done.
Part of the surgical alternative is you have to lie face down for a period of time after surgery. Anywhere from 24 hours to 4 weeks. I'd rather put up with the big floatie.
They are supposed to call me to set up an appointment.
I guess I will forestall jumping to any conclusions until after the referral.

Optometrist

A couple of weeks ago, this funny thing appeared in my eye (no, it wasn't one of the kids or anything like that).
It is a yellow thing in the center of my vision. Kinda like when a bug hits the windshield and leaves his guts all yellow right in front of you.
It distorts my vision and interferes with reading. I am right eye dominant, and of course it is right in the middle of my right eye fielld of vision.
It doesn't feel like I have something stuckk in my eye, but that's how it seems. Like it is floating on the surface of my eye.
At any rate I have an appointment with the optometrist this afternoon. I have fingers and toes crossed that it is nothing serious.
Both my grandfather and father were blind in later life, so I hope this is not the start of something bad.
Guess I'll find out this afternoon.

Westy

Here are a couple of pictures of the Westfalia. It is very straight and pretty clean. No dents or rust, starts right up.

Westfalia1

Well, I bought the Westfalia.
It is VERY clean inside, really shows no wear except for a couple of spots in the canvas of the pop-up. No dents, no rust. It is a kinda creamy yellow. It needs some TLC, but that just makes it so I will feel it is truely mine when I get it all fixed up.
It was last licensed 10 years ago, so it is almost like breaking it in all over again. So far, I know it needs the brakes workes on. No big deal. I have done a whole lot of brake jobs over the years. Of a little more concern is that the gas guage isn't working, probably just from sitting for so long. I don't particularly like working on gas tanks, but if that's what it takes, that's what I will do. I ordered a complete repair manual for it, and it should be in next week.
I would have pictures, but it is cold and rainy out, not to mention gloomy. As soon as the clouds part, I'll take some pictures.
I had originally thought that the engine was the 1.9 Liter air cooled, but found out it is the 2.1 Liter wasserboxer, which is supposed to be one of the most robust engines ever made. I have never owned or worked on one, but it seems pretty straightforward.
I spent a little while this afternoon inside it, just figuring out where things were and how they worked. It'll take a while to figure it all out. I read the owners manuals, and figured most of it out, but will need a little time to translate all the words into sense.

Westfalia

Our plan for this year is to buy a used Volkswagen Westfalia when we got out income tax return back. Well, the money hit the bank Saturday, so I have been looking this week. They are not cheap. Your basic "It runs, needs some TLC" Westfalia is priced between six and seven thousand bucks. I have been watching prices for six months or so. so I know where the local market is.
I ahve called on two vans this week. The first has some issues, which is why it wasa priced a little low. I didn't want to deal with the particular problems it had, so I passed on it.
I went last night and looked at one, and I made an offer on it. The price was $6500, but I offered them 6K cash. I am going over for the buy this afternoon. The only possible deal breaker is the title. They say it was their dad's van, and he passed away, so I will need some proof that they have the right to sell it. It is straight with no rust or dents or anything. Starts right up and runs OK. but probably needs a tune-up. A good way to get acquainted with the motor.
They are notoriously underpowered, but I am already eying a comversion kit that takes it from 1.9 liters to 2.3 liters. I could buy the rebuild kit and do the engine down in the basement over next winter.
We'll see how it goes.

Z

I haven't blogged about the Z lately. I promised to publish some pictgures after I put on the ground effects kit, but I never got around to it. Well, Saturday I put on a set of custom wheels and new tires. That pretty much completes the outside of the car.

Maybe tomorrow (or Later today) I will dig out a couple of "before" pictures.

Of course I'm never done. I still need to get the driver's seat reapholstered, and I need to find and fix a mminor "Clunk" in the rear end, but then I will pretty much be finished with it.

I will probably sell it and get a new project.

Just another Ssaturday

The weather continues to be incredible. The temperature was in the sixties today, so of course I had to work inside. The downstairs toilet started leaking, so I decided to bite the bullet and completely rebuild it.
New gaskets, new bolts, new fill tube and flapper, new mechanism., new cold water line.. The worst part was that the bolts that held the tank to the bowl were corroded to the point I could not loosen them. I went down and bought a special holder for a hacksaw blade to get in and saw the bolts in half. The toilet had 10" clearance on either side, so it was a pain in the back to get in there and cut them. But I got it done. Have I mentioned I hate plumbing?
It took longer than I thought it would, and I had barely finished when My grand daughter and great grandson showed up with her new fiancee'. Not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he seems OK. As long as he treats her right and she is happy. Little Nikko is 19 months and jabbers a mile a minute. Occasionally you here a word in there. His favorite is of course "NO".
I had a busy day planned, and there visit wasn't part of it, but it was nice to see them.
Needless to say, their visit made me rearrange my day. I recently got a bonus at work. I planned to use it to put wheels and tires on the Z. I got a set of used magnesium wheels from a guy I work with, and after I got done with the bathroom, the plan was to drop off the wheels at Firestone and have new tires put on them, then take the Z down and have the wheels and tires mounted, then go down and get the old wheels and tires. But I ran out of time to go pick up the tires tonight. I'll have to go do that in the morning.. The plan included getting a haircut and BBQing a mess of ribs.
I ended up tending the BBQ by flashlight, and the haircut will have to wait until tomorrow.
But the bathroom is done, and the new wheels and tires are on the Z. If it doesn't rain tomorrow, I'll have to finish cleaning up the Z and take some pictures.
After I get a haircut.

What a beautiful Day!

We awoke this morning to sunshine and blue skies. The unit we are renting is a block way from the beach, so after breakfast, we walked down to the beach. It was an incredibly nice morning for February.

We then went into town, and hit the shops. There is my favorite shop, Dragonfire,, which specializes in glasswork The picture is of our latest acquisition, a glass sphere about 3" in diameter. Because of the way it is made, the top half is clear and the bottom half opaque. Because of the way the color elements are twirled it looks like it goes on forever. This is the third piece we have purchased by the same artist. Double click on the picture, and you get a pretty good idea what it looks like, but you really can't get the full impression.

We went to a late lunch ad The Driftwood Inn. They have the best clam chowder ever. I grew up on clam chowder, come from the land of Ivar. All the way from Latteland I was thinking about the clam chowder, So of course I started out with the chowder, and it was incredible. I also had the crab sandwich, which is Dungenesse Crab on an English Muffin covered with melted cheddar cheese. Those of you not from around here have no idea what I'm talking about here. Dungenesse Blue Tip is the best crab in the world, and anyone who thinks different can meet me in the street at high noon for a Crab-out. Soft shells? HAH! King? Bring it on, bigger is not better! Hokkaido? Been there, done that. Snow crab? You can't snow me!

Later this afternoon, I wandered down the street to the Glass studio and spent about an hour talking with the owner. Learned a bunch. Kinda inspires me to follow up with the glass blowing classes when I get back. Glass is such an incredible medium, and I saw so much incredible stuff today.

Mini-vacation

I am typing this sitting on the couch at Van Buren Lighthouse Inn at Cannon Beach, Oregon. It is a very nice unit, more of a condo than a hotel room. One bedroom with a very comfortable queen size bed, kitchenette. Sleeper sofa dining table, gas fireplace, high def TV with VCR/DVD player. Since it is the off season, it is $125.00 a night. Two blocks off of the beach in the middle of Cannon Beach. We'll have to do a little more figuring out exactly where everything is tomorrow. The four hour drive left me without a whole lot of ambition.
As always, we stopped in Raymond, WA for lunch. Mrs A is thoroughly convinced the DQ in Raymond has the best Fish n' Chips anywhere. I had an oysterburger. There are probably people out there who will cringe at the sound of oysterburger, but I like them,
We decided to just relax this evening. The weather is supposed to pretty nice tomorrow, so we will have a full day.
Maybe tomorrow I will take a couple of pictures of the unit and upload them.

Babysitting

Here I am being tortured by "i". It is a real pleasure to have a child in the house for a while. Seeing him gaze up at me with his big grin so full of love and trust and innocence makes life worthwhile.

As much as I love having him around, two days is the limit.

By the time two days are over, I am happy to also see him go back home. There is a reason children are given to the young. We mature folk just don't have the energy to keep up with little ones for any great length of time. We were worn out by the time "i" left.

He is 20 Months old, and already potty trained. The only time he had an "accident" was when he was asleep. It makes taking care of him a lot more pleasant, but just as time consuming, since you have to make sure you remind him, and take him in and help him and wash his hands after and everything.

Taxes

We went in to H & R Block yesterday and did our annual Income Tax work. I wanted to get it done ASAP because I am getting a wad back this year.
We have agreed that we want to use the money to buy a used Volkswagen Westfalia camper van. We had an Airstream 19 foot motor home. It had it's good points, but I hated the way it lumbered down the road and the fact that it got about 6 miles to the gallon. A guy came by last spring with a wad of cash and I sold it and used the money to put in a new heat pump.
We love to go camping, but I wanted something a little more practical. A Westfalia will be just right for the two of us. Complete with stove, refrigerator, sink, and heat. But still getting around 20 MPG and usable for everyday chores.
Used ones in good condition run from five to eight thousand. I have been watching the adds on Craigslist, and there are some good bargains. I should be able to buy one and have a few bucks left over to work on it. Now I just have to wait for my return to come in.
We are having a family reunion of sorts in Sandpoint, Idaho in August, and I want to have it in good shape by then. It would be nice to take it out for an inauguration trip before then.
Then probably later, a trip to Utah to see the kids down there.

Still Here

I know I haven't written diddly SH*% lately. Truth is, I have been totally lazy.This happens to me this time every year.
I just had a very nice weekend, sorta. It didn't start out so great. I missed work on Friday, because I was up all night with stomach problems. I never got sick, but I think I would have been better off if I had stuck a finger down my throat and got it over with.
My body does not like one of my diabetes medications, Metformin. I have heard from other diabetics that it is not unusual for people to have a bad reaction to it. I get a stomach ache and heartburn that is really, really bad. Bad enough that sleep is impossible. No amount of pink stuff or pepcid or alka anything else will stop it. You just have to hang on and ride it out. It usually lasts about eight to ten hours. Usually I can figure out what I ate (or drank) that caused it, but Thursday night I didn't do anything real bad. Sure, I had a small batch of chips and dip, and I had a couple of beers, but normally this would not have effected me.
So I got up and called in to work and crashed on the couch. When I got up I was still disoriented.
My cousin, K who lives in Texas was up visiting. His primary reason was to visit his sister, who was recently diagnosed with cancer. The cancer has metastasized into her bones, and is inoperable. With treatment she has maybe four to five years. Bummer.
He wanted to spend some time here, and wanted to go see our aunt and uncle on Vashon.
It started out as just him and I going over, but ended up as six people and a minor family reunion. Everyone had a great time, even though we were watching the Datona 500 and had to stay longer than we intended to catch the end of the race.
He came back here and spent the night, and I took him to the airport around noon. It was sure good to see him. He gave us a little fiddle concert this morning before I ran out to Sea-Tac.
He left me with a 16 gig flash drive with about 80 CDs on it. I spent the day downloading and sampling music. He is and Old-timey fiddle player, so a lot of it is old time fiddle, bluegrass, Irish, and folk. Not my usual stuff.
The one that I had to immediately transfer over to itunes so I can load it on to my ipod was a best of cd from Edith Piaf. Love it. Wish I understood a little French.

The Death of Blogging

I think Blogging is dying.
A lot of the people I used to share with have slowly dropped out.
Fewer people, fewer new blog entries, less general traffic.
Sure there are a few of us diehards out here slogging and flogging and blogging. But it just seems to me it has become less relevant.
It requires spelling skills, and more attention span than a gnat, unlike twitter.
And then I heard the stroke of doom. The Catholic Church is encouraging priests to take up blogging. If The Church encourages it, that means it has gone so main stream that no self respecting churmudgeon could continue. After all, sharing space with the worlds largest organized group of pedophiles just isn't cool.
Maybe they will just keep to themselves......
Oh well, I guess I'll stick around for a while.

Pilgrimage

The boy is off on his annual pilgrimage to Stanford this weekend. Argumentative teenagers from all over the country converge there for a grand Debate tournament. He brought home a trophy last year.
Not only willV be there, but my neohew from Minnesota will be there also. What are the odds of having two members of the same family at the event?
Let's hope Stanford is up to the experience.
This also means that Mrs A and I will have the weekend to ourselves. Believe me, we are looking forward to having the house to ourselves. I just may disable the phones.
I hope I get the time to get out and get Frankenhealey runninig. My cousin K is coming in from Texas next week and it would be cool to at least start it up and take him around the block. If we go any farther, it will be in the Z.
We will be going over to Vashon Island to visit our Aunt and Uncle. He hasn't seen them in about ten years. I haven't been there in four or five.

Do I know how to have fun, or what?

I think Homeland Security must have decided I was smuggling aliens around in my ass or something.
My health care provider sent me off the the gastroenterologist.
They made me drink a gallon of gawdawful swampwater, so I spent the evening pooing my brains out. For those who have accused me of having sh** for brains, I can assure you that it is no longer true. Anything below my hair and above my knees that even remotely resembled poo was forcibly ejected out
If that wasn't enough they inflated my intestines with compressed air and shoved a camera up my ass. Fortunately during the exam they filled me full of drugs so I didn't care. "Hey, more air over here. I think I can play the Star Spangled Banner on the Butt Trumpet!"
This is the only medical procedure I have undergone where I was actively encouraged to fart.
At any rate, they found no aliens. One small polyp that they removed. A small patch of diverticulitis but nothing major.
Two days without a decent meal. The first thing I did afterwards was head for Denny's and a decent breakfast. Unfortunately they didn't have any.
I think I will decline to do it again.

Did I really say that?

My mouth gets me in too much trouble.
I was minding my business this morning, parking my truck. Because I have been there forever, I have a parking pass that allows me to park a couple hundred yards closer. There is this security guard we call the Parking Nazi. He is a real ass. Just about everyone I work with has a story about an encounter with him. We sometimes sit around and swap stories.
At any rate, Robocop was patroling the restricted area. He pulled in behind me. I got out and started off. He said "Hey, do you have a parking pass?" I answered in the affirmative. He demanded I get it and bring it to him. So I said, Hey, there's no need to act like a dickhead.
I showed him my parking pass, started off. He waited until I had gone about 30 feet, pulled up and told me he wasn't going to put up with me. He demanded I stop and came over and called his superior. Who came out and asked me what the problem was. I said "Him".
I explanied that I had broken no rules, and did not care to be treated like a criminal by anyone. He tried to cover, saying that I had to display my parking credentials. I turned and pointed at my truck "See the blue truck. See the parking pass on the dash. That's where it was. Can you see it?"
At any rate I am now on double secret probation. The guy is seriously on this power trip and needs to be brought down a couple of pegs.
Next time I see him I will have to tell him that we all sit around and tell stories about him and laugh at him. He is just the kind of pompous ass that it will eat at him thinking about us laughing at him.
Nah, I'm just not mean enough.

The Line

When you are in a relationship, you have to take advantage of the opportunities that are presented to you. You need to be aware of your partners needs and moods.
Mrs A is sitting next to me.
Do you still love me?
Of course my dear.
At this point you know at this point that she is looking for something more that a yes. Don't give in at this point.
How come?
I don't know, I just do?
This is not the answer she is looking for, she will have to take it to the next level.
If you don't know why, maybe you will quit loving me.
You have set it up, now to go in for the score.
I don't think about it. It is like breathing. I don't think about breathing, but like breathing, it is something I must have in order to live.
He shoots. He scores!

30 And Counting

That would not be me.......
That would not be my marriage.........
It would be how long I have worked at Boeing. Although my actual Anniversary is tomorrow, the Company took me to lunch yesterday. I generally could care less about this sort of thing usually, but the prize in the puddin' was that I got to take the rest of the day off after lunch. Not to mention that the two choices for lunch were steak and salmon. Our cafeteria at work is pretty bad. Admittedly better than the School Cafeteria or the soup kitchen, but definitely south of fast food. I think of it as fuel as opposed to food.
The luncheon was at the Bellevue Club, a hoity-toity members-only kinda place. Everything was very nice and the food was excellent. Shake and pictures with the BIG BOSS. The head of Engineering for BCAG and VP of BCAG, Mike Denton is a nice guy. There were about 20 of us celebrating our 30th, one her 35th. Each one had to get up and say howdie and give a short autobiography.
"I stood on the tarmac of Boeing Field in Seattle on December 28th 1967 and watched the very first 737 take off on it's delivery to Lufthansa airlines". Some of you with rudimentary math skills might catch the fact that 1967 from 2010 does not equal 30. I had a couple of breaks in service. The first was because Uncle Sam decided he needed me. Very much against my will I was dragged, kicking and screaming into the Army, where I ended up as the Liaison Officer for the locked Psychiatric facility on Okinawa. As I explained, it was excellent training for my career at Boeing.
The second came when we lost funding for a top secret research and development project I was working on. The laid me off two weeks before Christmas, with no warning and no notice. I swore I would never go back. But of course I did, and I really don't regret it. It has been fun and a challenge.
I guess I'll stick around for a few more years.

Why animals eat their young

Because if you don't terminate them when they are small, they will turn into teenagers.
First of all, V came in the other night and announced he needed money for the Debate Team trip to Stanford. He has known about it since before the Holidays. The information he gave me said that the money was due by Jan 8th. He handed it to me on the 12th.. The actual trip is the weekend of Feb 8th. $200 for the room. Airline reservations another $175. Food and spending money, an extra $100. Total, almost $500, and I had to hurry and make the flight reservation before it filled up.
Not to mention that the night before, I reminded him that garbage pickup was the next day, and he just blew it off. Mrs A, ended up having to take it to the curb as she was going to work.
I was pissed enough that I told him to go away because I didn't want to see him right then.
Big debate tournament this weekend Saturday V uses the bathroom, uses the toilet and messes up the seat, doesn't flush and leaves his dirty boxers in the floor.
He won two trophies at the debate tournament. Second place in Extemp and third in Congress.
He got home late (11:00) from debate and by the time he unwound it was close to midnight, but I wouldn't let him go to bed until he cleaned the bathroom. We had left it for him and just used the one downstairs.
I told him that it was bad enough he chose to live in a filthy room, but he had no right to bring his filth out where the rest of us to have to deal with. It was really EEEWWWWW.
So he spent the day cleaning today.
It was either that or death by swirly.

Quiet Weekend

Didn't do a whole lot on the weekend. Saturday, L came over and she and Mrs A went shopping. I donated $100 to the cause. I had brought home work to do, so I spent the time doing data collection and collating. Boring stuff.
The reason I brought work home was that I went out for lunch and didn't come back.
A bunch of us that used to work together try to get together every Christmas and catch up. This tradition is over 10 years old, and is always fun. Our annual holiday fell through in December, so we decided to get together last Friday.
We went to BJ's Brew Pub. I decided I didn't want to go have a couple of beers and then go back to work.
Right before lunch they come to me and say "You know the statistical analysis you did on the costs on the last airplane? We need you to do it on the one before that, so we can do out headcount predictions for the next one"
I told them it would not get done Friday, but that I would work on it at home over the weekend and have it for them by the end of shift on Monday.
Lots of tedious number crunching At any rate, while the women were out, I put on the blues station and crunched numbers.
Sunday, R and "i" came over. We had a huge box of pull-ups for her, and she had promised to reorganize our spice cabinet. I'm not saying I'm a bit of a packrat, but some of the spices went back to 1985. They were probably still good..........................
All in all a nice quiet weekend.

The Mysterious Case of the Missing Remote

I am not the ultimate Hi-Tec guy, but I need the basic amenities. You know, the 50" high def LCD TV with cable, surround sound And dvd player.
When the country went digital, I had already been there for over a year. Comcast set me up with a free converter box, so I had no problems.
The downside was the universal remote needed to run all the stuff. It is not really user friendly, but we have learned to live with it.
Second part of the story, I bought a very expensive laptop computer for Mrs A and I. Not for any one else. Just for the two of us. The old laptop became community property. I am deleting all personal information off of it and using it as a recording studio for my old vinyl. When I am not using it, it is free for anyone to use.
V. is sneaky. He is a technogeek, and there was this brand new high end laptop sitting there. I told him he was not to use it. Since I was still setting up things, I left it unprotected. I had a sneaking suspicion that V. was getting up in the middle of the night and messing with it. I know there is some way of checking history, but I don't know how.
So yesterday I password protected the computer.
When we got up this morning, the remote for the TV was missing. Mrs A and I made a quick check around, and it was nowhere to be found. Didn't have time to get serious about looking. When I got home, I tore things apart looking for the remote,, and came up empty. I knew that V. was the last one to use it, since the TV was on Comedy Central and Mrs A and I never watch that channel. He was upstairs taking a nap.
I went upstairs and woke him. "OK you were the last person to use the remote, you need to get up and find it!"
Much grumbling and "I don't know where it is"
"Get up and find it. I am pissed and not likely to get any better until YOU find the remote that YOU had last!"
He got up and came down stairs. After a cursory search, he went out in the kitchen, looked back at the living room and said "There it is right there" and came in and fished it out from under a chair.
"See, it just fell off and got lost"
Where it landed was under the sectional. It would not be possible for the remote to have landed where it did without a considerable amount of assistance. The physics just don't work. Someone had to have deliberately put it there.
Now let's see......someone was pissed because I had password protected my new computer, and was the last one to have used the remote, which mysteriously disappeared, and then found in a very short period of time when confronted...................
A picture is beginning to emerge..................
The dog did it.

Laughing through the tears

As I mentioned the other day, my Aunt Mary Rose Glahe passed away on Christmas eve day. She was a very special person to me.
When we were growing up, her family lived right outside Olympia, Wa. The trip now is about an hour down the freeway, but back then it was about double that. We went down there or they came up here pretty regularly. I was close to my cousins growing up, but eventually the moved to Utah, which to me was the equivalent of moving to the back side of the moon. After they moved, I think the only time I saw them was in 1970 for my Grandfathers' funeral in 1970.
A few years ago My cousin Ginger and I got back in touch, and have visited back and forth a couple of times a year. She and her husband, Pat have a beautiful home in Coberg, Oregon.
When Mrs A and I first started going down to Coberg to visit, Aunt Mary Rose would come over and visit along with her brother, my Uncle Fred.
When we first got back together, we figured out that it had been about 32 years since we has seen each other. But the minute I walked in the door, it was like the years in between had evaporated. We spent several hours remembering things we had done when we were kids and such.
I had spent a couple of weeks in Olympia with them a couple of times, working in the strawberry fields. The most significant thing I remember about strawberry picking is that they paid us in silver dollars. That and the strawberry fights, and eating strawberries until I couldn't eat any more. In fact, to this day, I am not real fond of strawberries.
I also recall the time we went camping at the ocean at Westport, at Twin Harbors State Park. In the middle of the night a rain storm moved in and we got drenched. When the air mattresses started floating, we had enough, broke camp and headed home. Olympia was about held way home, so we showed up and Aunt Mary Rose and Uncle Franks' house wet, bedraggled and chilled to the bone. I was never so happy to see their porch light.
Shortly after she passed, Ginger sent a very nice piece talking about their experience, and included some stories of life with her parents. A couple of them were downright hilarious.
I read them sitting there on the couch laughing right out loud with tears running down my face.

New Computer

Our main present to each other this Christmas is a new computer. It is a Gateway laptop. Top of the line 17" screen dual core P8700 with INVIDIA Geforce GTX 2600M video card with 4gb DDR3 Memory. Good enough graphics for gaming, Extended life battery (6 hours), built in web cam with Windows 7.

It has taken me most of a day to set it up and get it running. It will take a while to get used to Windows 7. Just when you get used to one way of doing things, they change it.

The Old laptop is now more or less dedicated to being an Audio Studio. I have started converting my old vinyl to MP3. Then they need to be edited and stuff. Some of the really old stuff has so much hiss and pop that the software can't tell where one song stops and the next one starts, so I have to go in later and divide the tracks up and title them.

We went and saw Avatar today. Quite the Movie. Incredible Computer Generated Imaging. I've
seen some great stuff in games, but it is pretty much static background with a figure moving through it. Three dimensional continuous CGI. I can't imagine how much computer time went into making the movie. I give it four starts on a one to five star ranking.

Merry Christmas

I Hope everyone's Holidays are going well.

It was our turn to host the Christmas Eve. So we had a whole house full of Warrens telling lies and solving the world's problems. Everyone brought wonderful food, and we ate and drank until we couldn't eat any more. What I love about Christmas Eve is that there is never a sit down meal, just all buffet all night.

Little quiches, eggrolls, my home made salsa (killer!) with crab eat and cream cheese or shrimp and creme cheese. Chili cheese dip. Chinese sweet and sour meat balls. Deviled eggs. Crab dip. Chicken wings. Wild huckleberry cobbler.

Crown Royal, Tanqueray of Pyrat Rum. Fat Tire Amber Ale. Horneby's Hard Cider. for those who drank. Knudsens sparkling Cider for those who didn't.

We don't do a gift exchange any more, we just give a collection for the poor. We did have a $20 gift exchange, complete with stealing and all that.

Our two daughters and the kids spent the night, so we did have the Christmas Morning present opening and madness.

Mrs A got me a Sony Turntable that converts old vinyl LPs to PM3 files, so I may next surface in a couple of weeks, as I have around 400 old albums to convert to digital files. The turntable comes with a pretty complicated suite of software, so I have to figure out how to run everything, how to run the editing software, set the titles and separate the tracks. Then convert it over to itunes so I can load it on my ipod.

We still plan to get a new laptop after the Holidays, but no rush.

On a sad note, my Aunt Mary Rose passed away at 11:00 in the morning on Christmas eve day. She was my favorite aunt. In fact my daughter, Rose is named after her. She had been failing for a couple of years, and her passing comes as no great shock. My mind is ready to accept her passing, but my heart is not yet ready to let her go.

787 First Flight

Everything went quiet in the factory here in Renton, starting at about 10:00. All the big screen monitors were tuned in to the same site:
The live broadcast of the 787 Dreamliner, set to take off on it's first flight.

There had to be a lot of sweaty palms and tightened sphincters around Boeing. This had been a long and difficult birthing. It had already caused several careers to flame out. It had cost a huge pile of money and resources. It had tried the patience of stockholders, corporate officers, and the work force. It had cost the image of The Boeing Company to take several hits to it's credibility.

Things had started out so spectacularly. The competition didn't have a ready answer to a light, versatile, fuel efficient people mover. Sales went through the roof, anticipation built, the stock went up and up and up.

It didn't take too long to show the near fatal flaws in the business model. No one had tried to put together an aircraft in quite this way. State of the art all composit construction divided among several stake holders, to be assembled somewhere else. Admittedly, the bottom line looked like an Ebebezer Scrooge wet dream, but was built on such a happy path plan, that it couls not succeed as planned. A product of this complexity could not be initiated by multiple stakeholders in multiple countries and assembled. The basic rules of Chaos Theory warn us that complex systems accumulate error probabilities in a way that makes first try success impossible.

As the assembly completion and first flight dates slid further and further to the right, it became all too clear that the business plan was flawed. Boeing's reputation has always been that if they promised something, they delivered. It now became a minefield of delays and excuses. The stock fell, Heads rolled, the stock fell.

But today, for one all too brief moment, all of that became past history. All of the false starts and disappointments became part of the past. It flies.

Oh, it's not done with yet. There are still lots of things to iron out in the assembly process, the supplire chain, and the final design. But the first major milestone has been passed.

BUT IT FLIES!

Still Freezzing

Since Sunday, the temperature has not gotten above freezing. In places today, it got down into the single digits. It set all sorts of records for low temperatures.

But tomorrow starts the beginning of a warming trend. They predict the high will get up to maybe even 34 degrees. We may get a chance to remove at least one layer of clothing. Don't worry, that won't expose any skin. By Friday it may warm up enough for it to rain, or maybe the "S" word.

Right now it is too cold for even frost, except for frost stars on the windshield in the morning. This morning the frost stars were about a half inch in diameter. They really looked nice. they weren't heavy enough to have to scrape the window, just there enough to refract some of the light from the street lights.

Of course I turned on the defroster as the car warmed up. After a few minutes suddenly the windshield cleared. It was as if someone suddenly scraped the windshield clear all at once. One minute, frost stars, next minute none.

Baby I't's COLD Outside

The temperature was in the low 20's this morning. It is supposed to maybe get UP to freezing this morning.
I know there are people that think this is nothing to complain about. Having spent most of my adult life here in Latteland, I have to admit I have never seen it get below Zero.
But we Lattelanders are poorly adapted for the cold. Admitted, a percentage of us have a fatty layer of insulation that would seem to insulate us from the cold, but I think if you gave it some study you would find that the fatty layer is not evenly distributed, and therefore of little value.
At home, our domiciles are poorly insulated, and out pipes tend to freeze often and with disasterous results. I have attempted to oversome this by redirecting a heat vent down into the basement. After all, you don't need a great deal of heat to keep the pipes from freezing.
The next several days will follow the pattern of frigid nights and freezing days, with no sign of respite until maybe Friday.
At least the sun is shining.
But all that does is lull you into a false sense of security so you will go outdoors, where the wind and chill will freeze your face off.

Way Too Much Crap

On Sunday, a career criminal went into a coffee shop in Lakewood, South of Tacoma frequented by Police, pulled out a gun, and murdered four Police Officers. One of the officers managed to get his weapon out and return fire. This is the single worst attack on Police in the history of the State of Washington.

The gunman hopped into a waiting car and sped away. All four of the Officers had family: husbands, wives, kids, brothers, sisters, parents. All were respected members of the Lakewood Police Force. They were not known to the gunman. The cowardly viscous unprovoked attack seems to have been entirely random.

Maurice Clemmons was out on bail from charges of child rape and assault. He had had a lengthy prison sentence commuted by Gov. Huckabee in Arkansas, where he was in prison for multiple counts of burglary and one for assault on a police officer.

At 2:45 this morning, he was shot and killed in South Seattle, a short distance from where I live. Having murdered four Police Officers, there was little hope he would be apprehended alive. My personal opinion is that the human gene pool has been improved by his removal from it.

There is no way that this scumbag should have been walking the streets. With his extensive record and the pending charges against him, he should have still been in jail.

It was quite evident that he had been helped by several people to evade police. He had been woulded in the abdomen by the one officer that managed to get off a shot before being murdered. The wound had been dressed and treated by someone. He was driven away from the crime scene by an accomplice (who can be charged with accessory to Myrder of the four officers) he was hidden, and moved from place to place. Conspiracy to aid a fugitive, aiding and abbetting a fugitive and other charges are being filed. I believe they currently have four people in custody on a variety of charges. I hope they all get apropriate sentences, if found guilty.

This comes a couple of weeks after two Seattle Police Officers were murdered in their patrol car.

Way too much tragedy, murder, violence and death.

A tragedy of major proportions. No one wins and there is NO happy ending.

Too Close for Comfort

Friday, I was taking R and "i" home after babysitting "i" overnight. We were in a not-so-nice part of town when R said "OMG Dad, look out the window"
I did, and ther was a cop in full SWAT gear running down the sidewalk with an M-16 in the "Ready" position. Other people were running all over the place.
As we wnt a little North we came upon the RiteAide Parking lot, and there was a guy on the ground in a pool of blood.
We were stuck in traffic at a light with cars in front of us. All I wanted was to get the hell out of there. We were stuck, as three police cars with lights and sirens came roaring down the wrong side of the road.Even though the light had turned green, we were stuck there for a while.
I was relieved to finally get through the intersection and head away from the scene, but we had to pull over three more times so two more cop cars and two ambulances could access our side of the street.
I never did find out exactly what happened.

A Three Beer Job

First of all, I hope everyone out there had a great Thanksgiving. Mine was fine. The food was great, the conversation was scintillating, and all was well, other than the fact that we were short a few family members this year.

I have been waiting for a convergence of sorts. The first was a break in the weather. Latteland is known for it's gray skies and precipitation, but usually it is a gentle bath. I grew up with drizzle and mist and accept that as normal. However that has not been the course of things lately. It has been back to back downpours with high winds for the last three weeks. When The Summer That Would Not Die finally passed, Mother Nature went in for the full weeping and gnashing of teeth. She rended her clothes and threw herself prostrate.

My truck developed a vacuum leak in the Brake Power Boost unit. It was fine as long as I didn't use the brakes. Then there would be this loud hissing noise, and the RPMs would drop. Occasionally the engine would die if it was idling. Not a good thing. When you have power brakes and power steering, the car objects adamantly to stopping or turning once the engine is not running.

Friday was sunny and dry, if a bit chilly. We were babysitting "i", so I didn't think I would be able to work on the truck, but Mrs A was kind enough to take over babysitting chores so I could . For some reason she was unsettled by the whole thing with the truck dying and having no brakes or steering, Go figure.

List Price for a new unit is $460.00. Thank God for junkyards ($45.00). I have never heard of a Power Boost unit going out before, so I was reasonable confident in purchasing one from a formerly living truck. I have also never replaced one before, so I had to slip into my library when no one was looking and read up on how one went about replacing it. It was much easier than I had anticipated, at least on paper. But we all know nothing is as easy as it looks on paper.

Removing the clip from the brake pedal was a piece of cake. Except that the brake light switch is attached and when I worked it out of the way it came apart, the guts flew out. Removing the Master cylinder was easy. However removing the four bolts holding the unit to the firewall proved to be a real challenge. It was one of those times when you could SEE all four nuts, but only two of then were accessible. As a matter of fact each one of them required a different lash up of ratchet, extension and socket. I was required to go down to the Auto Parts place and buy a special deep 15mm socket to get out the last nut.

It was easier putting it back together than it was taking it apart, except for one thing. When I hooked it all up, the brake lights would not go out. Remember the brake light switch I mentioned? Well I hadn't found all of the guts when I put it back together. I finally found a small spring on the floor, and being a master of deductive reasoning, I tore the switch back apart, inserted the spring and viola', the brake lights worked.

A Three Beer job. Not real simple, not real difficult. Only one run to the auto parts store.
Between three an four hours total, most of it upside down under the dash immitating a contortionist.

I have a few muscles that are telling me that i failed to loosen up before strenuous exercise. I'm pretty sure that means I am supposed to finish off the rest of the six pack.

Tonight we go to Jazz Alley to see Taj Mahal. Should be a very entertaining eventing.

TSO!!!

Last night was the annual TSO concert.



Of course it was an awesome heavy metal screaming guitar pyrotechnic laser light show Christmas music and performance extravaganza. Hard to describe, but it should be experienced at least once.



After the Christmas part of the show they do other stuff. In this case, they did selections from their new release "Night Castle". It inspired me to go on-line this morning and purchase the download MP3 version.



The only bad part was the drive. It took almost two hours to get there. The trip normally takes about a half an hour. I allowed an hour, or double the normal travel time. So we missed almost an hour of the three hour show. But better to remember the incredible two hours we did see.



Also:



On the home front........

I had these brass swing arm wall lamps in the bedroom. The one on my side of the bed broke, and I couldn't fix it ( a rarity ). I went on the Internet to see if I could find a replacement. I came across these gorgeous Tiffany swing arm wall lamps. I could envision them in out bedroom, so I went ahead and purchased them. They came in on Thursday, so instead of working on the toilet, instead I assembled and installed the wall lamps. I have to say they look incredible.

Grazing Day

Today is grazing day at work.We have next Thursday and Friday off, and a lot of people take off next Mon-Wed so thay have a total of nine days without a wake-up.

This means that we have to have our potluck's today. There are a LOT of groups having their potlucks today. I call it grazing day, because a people wander around eating a little here and a little there all day long.

I brought egg rolls. But we have a lot of real good food. Chinese style pork with hot mustard and sesame seeds. Deer dip (kinda like chili cheese stuff with Vennison) Sweet Potato suoffle', main course of chicken. Cheese trays, vegetable trays, meat trays. Spinach dip in the hollowed out bread. And don't forget the cookies, donuts, and pie. And sodas.

I declare today a guilt-free, calorie-free day.

I Hate Plumbing, and it hates me

The house lies in wait for moments of weakness. Nay, it veritable LURKS. Things always go wrong in bunches. I sense a sinister glee in the piling on of disagreeable tasks.
I accept that as a homeowner, I will need to do maintenance and repair, or be prepared to pay someone else to do it.
I prefer to do it myself, but some things are better than others. I will remodel a bedroom, lay new flooring, rebuild cabinets, rewire rooms and I actually enjoy it.
But I hate plumbing.
Oh, I can do about anything that needs to be done, but would prefer not to have to do it at all. And some of it is nastier than other parts. Few things make me shudder more than remembering the time when I pulled the cleanout plug out of the line going fron the disposal to the downtube and had it all blow back all over me. Multiple showers were not adequate to wipe the stain from my psyche.
So of course I Have been faced with multiple plumbing related repairs.
It started out innocently enough. I should have suspected that the house was setting me up for the one-two-three.
The knob on the Kitchen sink came loose. As a matter of fact the serrations inside the knob had worn off, SO I had to do some creative repairs to get it to work again.
As I went down into the basement to fetch a tool. I noticed water on the staris. It was dripping from the upstairs bathroom.
As soon as I was through with the kitchen I went upstairs, and there was water all over the floor of the bathroom. How does it happen that the cold water line all the sudden comes loose and leaks. It has been working just fine for a long time. There has been no earthquake or disturbance.
Although annoying, it is not a major problem. I took everything apart, cleaned it and reassembled it. Seems to work fine.
When I was going back to the basement to put away the tools, I heard water dripping.
NOW WHAT?!?!
The downstairs toilet is leaking.
The house is getting the upper hand. Somebody needs to call fifteen yards for piling on.
I think it is the wax ring has developed a leak, which means I have to pull the toilet. We have now passed from annoying to nasty.
I have purchased a new wax ring, and it is waiting for me tonight.
I think I may need to fortify myself with a couple of beers before I undertake this chore.
It is kinda EEWWWWW.

BAD BAD BLOGGER

I have been a bad blogger lately. Practically a non-existent blogger.I guess I just ran out of juice.
We went this weekend to see "2012". I hate end-of-the-world thrillers that are based on bad science.The last one I was coaxed to go see was "Day After Tomorrow" which I hated with a passion.
Mrs A needed a little pampering and a reward for being such a good sport with my mom. She insisted on going to go see "2012", so we went. Yes the science stinks. Yes a lot of the special effects are physically impossible. Yes the story line is ridiculous. But I went in having told I would not alow rationality to interfere with the movie. Every time that little voice started to say "Hey, wait a minute", I ruthlessly squished it. That made the movie tollerable. It held my interest for the entire show.
I'd give it a six on the sliding one to ten scale. The science would get a D at best.
For dinner we went to The Olive Garden. Love that place, except the wait to get seated on Saturday night is about 45 minutes. But the food was worth the wait. And a couple of Tanqueray and Tonics didn't hurt the mood.
All in all a good weekend.

Turmoil

I am not out to look for pity, because I am not one to blame things on other people. Pretty much, I believe that we are where we are because we have made choices that put us here. Things daisy-chain off of one choice to another to another. Sometimes it feels like life has painted us into a corner, but it isn't life or chance, it is our own decisions.

I see a lot of people try to blame their circumstances on others. It is mostly BS. I suppose there are people that have totally been screwed, but 99.9% of them are acctually where they are because of their own choices.

Sometimes I get down, like everyone does, because life seems to be kicking the shit out of me. But if I take the time to look at the situation, I ALWAYS find that I am the creator of my own situation.

My recent troubles with my teeth are a result of genetics, certainly. But only my decisions made them what they are. Seven years ago, I knew my teeth were going bad. At that time I made the decision to fight losing my teeth. I could have opted for dentures, but said "Hell no, I will fight every step of the way"
So if I lose a battle, the war is still of my choice.
There has been a lot of turmoil at home recently.. V. is a pretty good kid. He isn't into drugs or running with a bad crowd, or in trouble with the law. I know a lot of people would wish for a kid like him.
He is also an arrogant, insensitive, disrespectful, selfish spoiled rotten asshole.
There are times I really wish I could take hime out behind the woodshed and teach him how it REALLY is. But I am not willing to spend time in jail to prove the point.
He does not get along with Mrs A. He is disrespectful. Talks back. If he talked to me like he does to her, he would apollogize, or I would beat the crap out of him.
V is my grandson, now adopted, and legally my son. I don't need to go into all of the very painful circumstances that brought this about. But I accepted the responsibilty to provide him with a stable and safe environment.

As usual with idealistic undertakings, it has led me down paths I never anticipated or wanted. You have to understand that he has no other spokesman. No one who has been willing to stand up in his behalf and take his defence.

I have the legal and moral responsibility to be his patron. He is a senior this year, and will be 18 on July 1st next summer. In a way I look forward to the point when I have no legal responsibility and can tell him that I no longer am required to put up with his BS.

I don't know what he thinks will happen when he graduates. The world is not waiting out there, wanting to meet his desires and needs, has no legal requirement to give him anything. The world basically doesn't give a shit if he lives or dies. OR YOU, OR ME.

The conflict between V and Mrs A is dificult for me. I need to take care of V, but in a lot of ways I would really like to just kick the crap out of him. Mrs A is much more of a controller than I am, but she is not wrong in expecting to be treated with respect. On one hand I have a legal responsibilty. On the other hand I have my heart, because I love Mrs A more than anything in this world.

Which lands me right in the middle of a situation I can in no way control.

As I told Mrs A the other day "No matter what I do, I'm F&(*ed".

Updates

On Thursday while I was having my stitches pulled, Mrs A took The Matriarch in for her semi-annual poking and prodding. Earlier in the week, she had a spell when she got dizzy and kinda passed out for a short time. The doc checked her out and decided there was something a little "off" on her cardiograph, so he sent her to the Emergency Room.
Mrs A called me to let me know they were on their way to the hospital, so I jumped in the truck and met them there. We spent the next four hours with them running every test they could think of. First they were going to check her in for observation, then send her home, then check her in, then not.
After four hours they couldn't find anything wrong, so they sent her home.
We are taking care of "i" this weekend. He is a really enjoyable kid. With just enough mischief to make things interesting. It was R's birthday, and she wanted an evening out. Can't say I blame her. She has had to handle a lot over the last several months.
She got an early birthday present from the government. A $9,000.00 grant for education. She took some nursing courses earlier this year and had a 3.85 GPA. The grant is for her to continue and get her LPN. It's good to see her on a positive path.
Saturday was our other grandson's birthday, which they held at a bowling alley. I don't bowl, but it was "i"s chance to see some of his cousins. hate kiddie birthday parties, but at least there was a lounge. A double Tanqueray and Tonic took the edge off.
I believe we have an uncimmitted weekend next weekend. I owe Mrs A for being suck a good sport the last week or so, so I think a good dinner at The Olive Garden is in order.

In Stitches

I get my stitches out of my mouth tomorrow. They have been driving me nuts. I know, short trip.
In fact I had one hanging down in my mouth that was especially bothersome. So when I got home I got out the cuticle scissors and took it out. The doctor will probably give me hell, but I don't care.
Monday they had to perform an emergency root canal, and put in a pin, then clean up the bridge and reinstall it.
Today is my Mom's83rd birthday. Happy birthday, mom. She now holds the record for the longest lived of her family line. Just think, every day is a new record. Here's too a long string of new records.

Post Halloween Decompression

I am not a big Halloween Fan. Not a Hallow-hater, not a Hallow-lover. I appreciate that it is a lot of fun for it's fans, and any chance for kids to let off a little steam and race around celebrating their childhood is fine with me. I don't get dressed up and party or anything.
R and "i" came over last night so I could see him in his first costume. She dressed him up as a little duck. Hardly what I would have chosen, but he really didn't care. They went around the block and got some candy, had a good time.
Because it was late when they got back, they spent the night, so we had a chance to visit today.
Nothing I like better than to have a grandkid around for a day. He ran around until he wore himself out, and crashed in the middle of the living room floor. We just threw a blanket over him and let him be. R had a chance to take a nap, something she seldom does. Normally when he goes down, it means she can go do things she has put off.
All in all, a very nice weekend.
Of course there is the other part.
We made egg rolls this weekend.
Before we started, we went out for lunch. During lunch, the permanent bridge on the upper left side of my mouth broke off. Nothing quite as disconcerting as having your teeth fall off during lunch. I am not a person that panics over any upset, so I just had them box up the rest of my lunch, and we went home and made the egg rolls. I put the bridge back in. but any time I tried to chew anything, it just fell back off.
I called my dentist at home, and we made an appointment for Monday morning first thing.
Sometimes I wish for a life where everything just goes along and your teeth don't fall out over lunch.