Friday Morning Coffee Time

It's a lot better coffee these days too. The coffee maker I got for "free" a while back has been working fine. It errored a couple times during the first few days, so I had my doubts. One time it mysteriously shut off after only brewing about a half inch of coffee, and one time it shut off during warmer mode right before I went down for my second cup. It has been fine ever since. I'm using the coffees that came with it, so that may account for it tasting better too.

I told TJ at work about me and Sue yesterday. He thought it was pretty cool of course. Can you believe that nobody has caught us yet? I can't--We have made a few bold moves here and there, throwing caution into the wind. Is this any way for grandparents to act? You bet your ass it is!! I really love this lady and I'm really, really going to miss her when she's in Hawaii visiting her folks for the second week in March. Both of us have been totally smacked upside the head by each other, and even though it happened this late in life, it was worth waiting for!

Teresa called last night, wanting to know if I'd supervise and teach her to change the oil in her car. I know I've covered this before, but I will again. She should just pay someone to do it for her, but she's umm... frugal to say the least. On the other hand, it's good that she wants to learn stuff herself. She told me last night that she wants to do the whole thing this time as I show her what to do. In theory it's a great thing, but in reality I'm sure it won't exactly work. She won't be able to get the filter off for one thing. Oh well, considering she has to put up with Sarah's teen angst 24/7, it's the least I can do. I told her this afternoon would work fine, and if not, Sunday perhaps.

Boy was I in cleaning mode last night. A load o' laundry, washed dishes, cleaned toilets and sinks in both bathrooms, cleaned the tub/shower, and even managed to clean myself too. I kept that water heater working nonstop I'll bet...

There's one thing that happened last weekend that I still haven't mentioned in my daily musings. When Suzie and I were over at her son Denny's new house during the move process, we were out front talking to her oldest son, Kevin. Well, she and he were both talking while I was standing next to her is more accurate. Anyway, I was very pleased to hear him give his mom the verbal "thumbs up" about she and I being together. It gave me a good feeling. That's the first time I've heard anyone say that in my presence. Thanks, Kevin! As it stands now, most are good with it, a couple are okay with it, and one hates it. Not a bad average. The one that hates it better get used to it--This is his mom's time and she is going to enjoy the hell out of it, 100% approval or not.

Well, today is "get paid" day as well as "pay" day. My check comes in, hits the bank, then I stop on the way home and help my landlord pay his mortgage. Then I get to pay Teresa when she comes over. Hmm... When I think about it, it's like I'm paying her to allow me to change her oil isn't it? What a weird thing.

I talked to Sarah on the phone a little last night. I wanted to know how she did with tennis tryouts earlier in the week. She didn't do well because she was sickly, and was still coughing on the phone while I talked to her, but apparently she is going to be varsity this year! Not so much how she did, but rather the fact that they have just the right amount of good players to fill a varsity team and have a couple extras when someone doesn't show. She is good enough that she will get to play any time she is there I'm sure. She also told me that she was one of 7 people selected for a little $100 scholarship given by the local Masons club. She will be going to a dinner sometime in the near future to receive that. It's not much, but it will look good on college applications. Good for her! I have no doubt that she's college bound grade-wise, but she not exactly applying herself. She is smart enough that she could be a mover and shaker if she wanted to. She's just got her dad's "laid back" persona. Sorry Sarah... We didn't get to select features when we built you.

Yoo hoo, Suzie... It's Friday! It's our day!!

Health and Lack Thereof

No, nothing is going wrong with the vessel that my brain walks around in, but sometimes it seems like it's all around me.

Steve called me from the hospital last night. He went in to have a knee replaced on Monday and was giving me an update. In his usual chipper funnyman self, he opens with,
"Hey, what's going on? You know anyone with a Harley tricycle for sale?"
I didn't get to talk to him very long, but he's doing well and gets to go home today. He'll be real close to home for the next several weeks, but it seems to have went well. I wanted to go visit him while he was in but never got the chance. I wasn't about to go on Monday or Tuesday because his "situation" would have been too fresh and chances are he wouldn't have even known I was there. I'm glad he's doing well though. A knee is something you don't think much about until you can't use it. I'm not talking about the walking and not being able to support your knee--I'm talking about a situation where, for whatever reason, you can't bend it. Whether it's in a cast or whatever the reason, when you can't bend a knee it makes you realize how often you actually need to bend it. Even sitting on a toilet requires you to bend your knee slightly, so you have to have some way to support one leg. And if you have a short distance in front of you, you really have troubles--Ever sit on a toilet side-saddle? A lot of everyday chores will make you appreciate the ability to bend a knee when you suddenly don't have it. Ever try to put your pants on by yourself without being able to bend a knee?

In other medical stuff, my mom and dad are slightly closer to finding out whether he has lung cancer or not. To me, it's a no-brainer--I would just assume at this point that he does. He has smoked since the late 1940's, and was found to have emphysema a few years ago. At the time they found it he had already had it for quite some time, but at least that caused him to finally quit smoking. It was probably too little too late though. We'll see. He'll probably come out of it okay because what they found is fairly small at this point, but you never know. They're still getting yanked around by the hospital quite a bit. Sometimes I wonder how much our method of insurance plays in our getting the required treatment and how timely we get it. For all I know it's just a typical symptom of Medicare.

I guess I'm lucky I'm such a healthy person overall because people have gotten hammered by a flu bug in recent weeks. Some people have been hit really hard too. I've watched a few at work get it and were out for days. Sarah has been sick off and on for a while too. I've been around enough of it to know that if I were going to get it I would already have done so by now. Our gauge at work is whether or not someone calls in sick on Friday. If they're willing to miss payday (most of our employees live from paycheck to paycheck I think) they must be sick.

I guess we're lucky that we humans work as well as we do considering we are just a walking group of finely balanced chemical processes. One small imbalance is all it takes. We should treasure every day we have, whether we're doing anything earth-shattering or not with our lives, right?

Blogs and Pictures

I was surprised to find out this weekend that Sue is a blogger! I never knew that about her. It's funny how the parallels in our interests keep making themselves known as we explore each other. While she is nowhere near the blogger that I am as far as frequency goes, she is a great writer. Now I have links to Suzie's blog and Rhon's blog over to the right. My two favorite blogger ladies!


When we were going over slides this weekend I was very surprised and delighted to find that I had a picture of my old camera collection. I instantly remembered it when I saw it, but had forgotten all about it. In addition to a couple others I wanted to scan, I put it on my scanner so I could put it on the photography page I'm working on to add to my website. I had to do some serious work to get the colors to come out right. See, that's the thing with film cameras you never know about--You never know what kind of shot you got until you see it when it comes back from the developer. For whatever reason I never retook the shot, so this one is my only existing picture of the collection. Here ya go (click on it for a bigger picture):

One of my great regrets is that I sold the collection. I don't know why--It's not the first time I've done stupid things that I regretted. I guess I got tired of it. Maybe I'll start accumulating them again. I do like collecting things. Hmm...

When Sue was over last night she showed me a website that looked very interesting--A site that enables people to upload and sell their "stock" photos, called Fotolia. That could be kinda cool to have fun with pictures and sell them too. It's only a small money, but hey... It's something.

Well, time to head out to work.

The Brain-Dead Blogger

Sometimes I just don't feel like blogging. Part of me screams out, "Blog, you fool! Sit down there and pour your thoughts and feelings out! The whole world wants to learn your story!"
At the same time, part of me speaks, drawling in the same voice Eeyore uses on Winnie the Pooh, "I guess you could blog... If you felt like you had anything to write about... Not that it matters if you don't..."

Yesterday I felt so disconnected. I can't really put my finger on it. Maybe what happened was that I allowed myself to become derailed by other people's schedules again. When I got up yesterday I already knew that I probably wasn't going to see Suzie all day, and that may have been the whole problem. I think my mind was working reactive instead of proactive. I decided I was going to get my domestic duties done, then wash my car at Teresa's house. I figured while I was doing some laundry I could get a toilet and a shower cleaned and still have time to work a bit on my website. Before I got started on any of it Sue sent me an email saying that I was welcome to come up there and wash it at her house instead, which for some reason never entered my head as a possibility. I saw hope for the day then!

The phone rang. Part of me dreaded picking it up for fear that it might be Teresa, whining about another part of her house falling apart or Sarah being a surly teenager. No, it was Denis. He wanted to know if I felt like riding along with him to look at a 50's model Willys 4wd pickup that some guy had for sale out in Spanaway. I hadn't visited with my brother in quite a while (after all, we live several blocks apart!) so I decided that it would be fun. It was a beautiful day for a drive (although I much would have rather we rode our Harley's instead) and we had a good visit. I kinda doubt he's going to buy the rig though... It was pretty rough. Although when you think about it, it is 50 years old after all...

While I was out there I got a text message from Sarah saying that she needed to play some tennis because tryouts were tomorrow. As usual, she waited until the last possible minute. That's ridiculous. You can get away with that when you're writing something or doing homework or whatever, but not sports practice. She makes it like one session on the court is going to do it for her. Wrong. Besides that, she's still sorta sick from a cold she caught last week. At any rate, I said okay and went over there after Denis dropped me back off at home.

She wasn't even dressed yet and it was after 2pm. Teresa was out with their dog. I guess she went over to her friend Noelle's house or something. Anyway, Sarah was working on some sort of homework thing (probably just started that at the last minute too) and I walked around the house a bit. What a filthy mess. I would be embarrassed to live there. Oh wait, I remember that--I believe I was as a matter-of-fact! By the time we got to the tennis court it was after 3. I doubt if we played for an hour. She said she was tired and didn't feel good. Okay, here I am, an out-of-shape 51 year old and I'm running circles around a 17-year old? Hmm. I was enjoying it and could have stayed longer easily. When I took her home we had to wait around outside for a little bit before Teresa got home to let her in. She couldn't find her keys (in that house it doesn't surprise me) so we just left to go to the tennis court regardless. The instant Teresa got home she started whining about Sarah again. It's obvious that she can handle the "nuts & bolts" of being a single parent well, but not the emotional/disciplinary side. The trouble is, when she starts in like that I just feel like I have to run and escape. I don't know if that's the right thing to be doing, but I just feel so "wrong" when I go over there. I feel very out of place in their house. I guess it's just that I left that household for a reason, and part of it floods back whenever I go back over there.

I never made it up to Suzie's and I was sad about that. I moped the rest of the afternoon and evening, never really coming out of the funk that I found myself in. Nothing got done here at all. Nothing.

Saturday was fun. Sue and and helped her son Denny and his wife move a load of household goods to there new house. They are excited (and rightly so) to be leaving that house in Pacific. It sits right next to train tracks, and for those of you that don't know it, a lot of trains go through this valley. They moved to a quiet neighborhood right up the street from Sue's house, so they're probably have to have recorded train sounds to help them get to sleep for a while. As a matter-of-fact, they're only about 4 houses away from Sue, so that will be good for babysitting duties when she has to watch their son. It's a nice neighborhood. Anyway, we didn't stay all that long because it was in such a disarray. They should have rented a big truck and gotten it done all at once, but instead were using the multi-vehicle "caravan" approach. That works too, but it's a lot of work getting things to fit (if they even do fit) and it takes longer to accomplish. Sue and I were both kinda tired anyway from lack of sleep the previous evening (that's another story) and left after that first load. There was just too much standing around and things weren't getting done anyway. We finished off the evening by watching my slides and critiquing my photography skills. Suzie got even more of an insight to my life by watching them.

I guess I'm still okay--She hasn't run away screaming yet.

Friday Hair

I don't have much desire to write today, but I am wondering about something that occurred to me a while ago:

What makes hair totally "wing out" on some mornings when you get up and some mornings not? Granted, hair is always messed up when you awake in the morning, but I'm talking about more than that. I'm talking about goat horns sticking out the side of your head.

The side.

You would think that if hair was going to stand up on one side of your head it would all stand up on that side wouldn't you? Instead, I got two little areas about 1" each that decided to secede from the general hair populace.

I looked in the mirror and sighed. I tried to flatten them down (I don't know why--In case someone "dropped in" for a visit while I was making my lunch at 4am I guess) but to no avail. They just laughed at me and told me not to worry about them, knowing that I would drown them in the shower and force them to behave anyway.

I'm glad it's Friday.

Lunar Showmanship

You know, it wasn't all that long ago that we had a lunar eclipse. One of the advantages of blogging is that you can search your archives to find things like that, and according to my blog, we just had one on August 27th of last year (here's the blog entry for that one).

Last night was a little different though. It happened at a time of the evening when I could watch it, and it happened at a time when I had a brand new camera setup to take pictures of it with!

I didn't get to see the very beginning of it. Suzie was over and at 6:45-ish was just leaving to head to her photography class. I was just telling her, "Be sure to bring up the eclipse in your class" thinking maybe they could go outdoors for a "field trip" photo session or something. She walked out and came right back in.
"Look at it now!" she exclaimed, motioning me outside.

It was cool. The earth's shadow was just to the point of covering the entire moon. Only a tiny sliver of brightness was visible. By the time I got out there with my camera it was all shadow--Kind of a dull orange/yellow thing going on. I put my long 75-300 zoom lens on and mounted the camera on the tripod. I spent the next couple hours going outside and snapping pictures at various settings. As with anything like this, some came out good, some not so good. Here are a couple of decent ones (you can click on them for a bigger picture):






It's pretty cool being able to take as many pictures as you want of a subject without worry of running out of film. I haven't had this kind of creative control over photography since I had my old Nikon FM film camera, and even then I only had the one standard lens.

I ordered myself a new camera bag the other day online and it should be in tomorrow at work, so I'll take all my gear to work with me tomorrow so I can play with it when it shows up.

Fun stuff!

Biker Babe!

Yep, ready or not, Suzie has been dragged into the world of motorcycling. Ready mentally: Sure! Ready physically: Uh... Hey, it's still February! Brrr!

She came over yesterday morning just as the sun was coming out. I had been over to Teresa and Sarah's house to put a new toilet valve kit in their toilet (which went flawlessly easy, thank goodness) and had just gotten back. Because it wasn't quite yet time to go, we opted to head to Southcenter (in the car) to check out a few camera bags. Although we only stopped at a couple stores and didn't buy anything, we did get some good info to proceed on.

When we got back to the house we dressed her up for the ride the best we could. Granted, we don't have any chaps, and I don't ride with a windshield, so we were somewhat limited as far as comfort goes. I hoped that because she was behind me it wouldn't be too much of an issue. Helmet, leather jacket (I have a "so-so" fitting one here that she wore), jeans over thermals, and heavy socks and hiking boots was her uniform of the day. We weren't planning on taking a long trip or anything, just a ride to somewhere with our new cameras to take some pictures.

We stopped for pictures at the Green River Gorge. I intended to just use the bridge that spanned the river far below as a basis for some potential pictures, but neither of us were prepared for what we found when we stopped. Right there near where we parked the bike were ponds with geese and peacocks roaming around. Evidently the male peacock near us was somewhat the showoff (typical male, right?) because the minute the cameras came out he paraded over to us and gave us the full peacock feather display just a few feet away. We got some pretty good pictures! From there we continued to the sleepy little burg of Cumberland and stopped for a beer at the City Hall Saloon. It felt good to sit outdoors in the sun and talk for a while.

For a first outing on the bike, she was left with a fairly good overall impression I think. There was no problem with my piloting abilities, but we definitely need to "ramp up" the clothing for her. After all, it's not exactly summer... I think I left her with a little bit of a perspective on how nuts I really am to ride to work in 22 degrees.

"Yes honey, I believe I was dropped as in infant... Why do you ask?"

The Sunday Morning Report

The weekend got off to a great start Friday. I rode the Harley to work in the morning hoping for a good ride home in the afternoon. It was 35 degrees on the way in, but after my 22 degree ride a few weeks ago, nobody at work thinks much of it any more. They know that I apparently know no limits (or I'm brain-damaged) when it comes to weather. When I left work it was starting to drizzle, but it was still a great ride home.

As soon as I got home I turned on the computer while I changed clothes. I was planning to switch over to the car and go out and pick up some beer and drop Teresa's child support check off to her. When I went onto Craigslist, I spotted a deal for a camera for sale and called the guy on it. It turns out he was right here in Auburn, so I zoomed down to the ATM and up to his house. I ended up buying myself a used Canon Digital Rebel XT setup for $500. That alone would not be too good of a deal because you can get Canon's latest offering, the XTi, for not much more than that--But I got extras. It came with a nice 75-300 zoom lens (in addition to the original standard 18-55 lens), an extra battery, and a camera bag. The extra lens would cost almost what the camera would if you bought it separately. I felt kinda bad though--Sue came by and was playing show-and-tell with the lens she just bought for her camera and I stole her thunder. Still, she got a smokin' deal on the 80-200 lens she bought for only $100. The bottom line: Now we can go on photography outings together!

The camera I bought didn't come with any memory cards because the guy wanted to keep the two 2-gig cards he had for his new camera, so when I stopped by Teresa's house to drop off her check I repossessed the two measly little 32-meg cards from Sarah's old camera (the one that stopped working before Christmas). Her new camera uses a different kind of memory so these cards were of no use to her any more anyway. The only trouble is that each of them will only hold about 8 pictures from my new camera. Fortunately, there's a hot sale on a 2-gig card at Staples today so I'll hop on down and pick one of those up. That will allow me to store about 500 pictures.

Suzie came over yesterday morning and we went out for breakfast. From there we went and bought a helmet for her so she can go riding. None of the old ones I had around were worth a crap and didn't fit anyway. We also made a couple other stops while we were out. We are both looking for a new camera bag that will store our camera and the zoom lens, but so far nothing yet. She did buy herself a tripod at WallyWorld though.

It was a nice day yesterday and after we got home I spent an hour or so checking the brakes on her car. None of them needed replacement, but it did create a hair-raising experience when she left later last night. It seriously scared me. Her car has 4-wheel disc brakes on it, and when you pull disc brake calipers off to check them the the actuating piston will creep outward and require you to squeeze it back into caliper so you can put the caliper back on. Trouble is when you do that the pedal will go to the floor until you pump it a few times and re-seat the piston and eliminate the extra clearance. We didn't do that. When she backed out of the driveway later she had no brakes. Fortunately nothing happened, but I had to watch helplessly and open-mouthed as she went backwards down the street while pumping her brake pedal. Whew! I don't ever want that to happen again. It really creeped me out. That could have easily been a major disaster!

Hey, here it is Sunday and I'm off tomorrow as well. How cool is that? I think Suz and I will go out on the Harley with our cameras and go somewhere for some picture taking. It should be a good day!

It's Friday, and it's a 3-Day Weekend!

I love my Fridays. Suzie loves them too. Know why? That's because we don't have a bedtime on Friday and our parents let us stay up as late as we want. Neener, neener.

Yesterday was a boring day for me at work, but a fairly good one for Suz. We had discussed leaving her a "secret admirer" valentine for people at work to talk about. For some reason, they think that she's going to die a lonely "old maid" or something. Maybe it's the fact that she's worked there almost 10 years and has been single the whole time--Who knows. Anyway, it was time to dispel that notion.
I bought her a single rose, a little heart box o' candy, and a valentine card. The card was one of the "secret admirer" variety. I spent a little time the night before cutting out a bunch of letters from ads and magazines, making the outside of the envelope look like a ransom note you see on movies. It said "For Sue" on the outside and "Guess who" on the inside. I didn't want anyone to catch my handwriting. I left them on the corner of a table in the shop that sits near the door to the office. When it was found and carried in, it gave everyone something to talk about throughout the day.

In other news, the picture site I have online that I was ranting about the other day came back up. When that happens it's kind of a wake-up call and reminds you that you shouldn't put all your eggs in one basket. I'll make sure to have some back-up for that site like I do everything else. I still own all the original pictures of course, but it's nice to at least know what was in a site that might go down and disappear. Sometimes you can't remember everything that was in there or linked to it.

Teresa called last night. She's still the fearless furnace fighter, still refusing to pay for the part that will allow her furnace to work without having to jiggle a wire all the time and hope for it to start. While she sounded like she had finally met her limit and was ready to get it fixed, I doubt she will. If she managed to get it to come on one more time she'll put it off. She's just like Bernie at work. "Will it work until tomorrow with that duct tape on it? Good, give that a shot then."

As I said, we have Monday off at work. The good thing about that is both Suzie and I have the day off. What will we do? Who knows, but I'm sure it will be enjoyable regardless what it is. Maybe we'll go shooting pictures somewhere. She has a new zoom lens for her new camera that she's going to be excited about trying out.

Happy Valentine's Day!

For the first time in a LONG time, I'm excited about Valentine's Day! I think Cupid has either tried to assassinate me with arrows or has just kept shooting, not knowing that each one did indeed find it's mark.

Head over heels... That's me!

I have myself a Valentine
no wait--Much more than that.
She dominates my thoughts all day
no matter where I'm at.

I seem to have a newfound joy
to go to work each day.
When we both make eye contact
they have so much to say.

We love to sneak a touch or feel
when we pass each other by.
We know some day that we'll be seen
by someone else's eye.

The excitement of our secret
makes our workdays fun
to steal a kiss when possible
whether stopped or on the run.

An office romance is a thing
that can go very wrong
But I think that this one will go right
our feelings are so strong.

To work with someone like we have
and never really "meet",
came close to being unfulfilled
but now we are complete!

Here We Go Again

I am very active on the internet and I use many parts of it to my benefit. Besides the usual web surfing, shopping, and things that people usually do, I also have many places with my personal files and pictures on them.

Finding web space out there in cyber-land has never been easy. Sure, there are tons of places offering free space to park your own personal website or your personal pictures or whatever, but I have certain standards I look for. Those standards make it tough for just any free site to "make the grade" and prove themselves worthy of my attention and time. Some of the things I look for include:

• Unlimited space - I don't want to run into a size limitation if I have too many files
• No ads - Okay, this one is tough, but I'm willing to live with an ad or two if I have to
• No pop ups - This one is a definite. I will NOT even consider such a place if they have pop ups.
• Speed - I don't want to click on one of my menu items and have it take forever to load the page, right?
• Reliability - This one is a hard one, and the subject of this blog post. Sometimes you win, and sometimes you don't.

My search for free hosting falls into two categories: Site hosting and picture hosting.

My current personal website coexists in two places on the web. Anyone that visits my website will only know about the one that I have provided them the link to. The other one sits quietly in the background in another part of the cyber-galaxy... Ready to spring into action should the main site disappear. It's happened before. I have had the proverbial carpet yanked out from beneath me many times in the past. For whatever reason, the geek that runs the site I may have my files on either sells out, decides to change to another format, or disappears altogether. I am fortunate that the site that hosts my website now is a big one with no limitations and it works very, very well.

That brings me to picture hosting. I am constantly on the search for places to host pictures, and that is tough because of my standards. My requirements for picture hosting include:

• Unlimited space - Pictures can be big you know... Especially nowadays with 10 & 12 megapixel cameras.
• No resizing - For a site to have a dimensional size limit on a picture is ridiculous. It should have options to view pictures either small or original size.
• Albums - Believe it or not, some sites don't allow you to be able to create and manage separate albums, but I think they're becoming fewer.
• Public vs. Private - Some things you don't want to become public and you should be able to have full control over that. The ability to password an album is a plus.

I'm sure I've forgotten some things here, but let's get to the real reason for the post today. My recent favorite picture hosting site seems to have disappeared. I'll keep my fingers crossed, but I never expect things like this to turn around. If they do--Great, if not--Oh well.

When picture hosting sites vanish, it takes a lot of time to re-upload pictures to another site (that is assuming you find a suitable replacement to begin with). It also affects a lot of links from existing web pages.

Well, all I can say is free sites are worth every penny.

The Reluctant Mechanic

I hope I have a better day today than I did yesterday. While nothing went really wrong, not much went right either. It was a day when attitude fought patience, and created frustration.

I started working on the Harley while waiting for Sarah to show up. In retrospect that was probably not a good idea. In this case I decided to put the new ignition switch on it. I had just managed to get all the wires unhooked when she drove up. Great. Part of me screamed out, "Hook the wires back up... You won't forget what goes where that way" and part of me screamed out, "Don't worry about the Harley... Get started on the car right away because you don't know how long it will take."

That part of me won out.

I had gone over to their house and tested the charging system and found it to be a bad alternator, and I had her drive it over to my house where all my tools were. While I felt lucky that it was near the top of the engine, I still really had no idea how everything was mounted and how the belt was adjusted and so on and so forth. It took me a couple hours to get it off the car because of that.

$125 dollars later, I came back home with it's new alternator and put it in. It went in easily, but I still had no idea how to do the serpentine drive belt tensioning/adjustment thing. It took me over an hour to get that figured out. If I had to do it again, I could have the whole job done easily in less than an hour. I didn't bleed, but I definitely mumbled a few choice words every now and then. Oh well, it's done and works great. Sarah spent the whole time doing homework in the living room.

I made the mistake of trying to continue on the Harley switch afterwards. I guess I misinterpreted the sense of relief from finishing Sarah's car as the desire to keep working, but that didn't last long. I kept dropping little screws. When one of them fell down into an area requiring disassembly of one of the gas tank halves to retrieve it, I knew I made a mistake. I stopped, closed the garage door, and ordered a pizza.

At least that was good.

Sunday Afternoon Sliding Away...

I was feeling pretty good about today when I got up, but it has indeed slid a notch or two since then. I intended to go over and rebuild the toilet in Teresa and Sarah's house this afternoon, putting new guts in the tank. It's a pretty easy job and I was just about ready to take off and the phone rang.
"Dad? The battery light is on in my car. It came on yesterday on the way up to Megan's house." she explained.

Great.

She also said that it made a loud pop noise when she started it at Megan's house to come home. I expected the worst when she told me that, but in actuality really expected to find the drive belt broken. I didn't find that, and all indications are that the alternator is bad. I'm waiting for her to come over with the car right now. I told Teresa to forget about me fixing the toilet today because I wouldn't be in the mood for it after replacing Sarah's alternator to the tune of about $150 (and no, I wouldn't bet footing the toilet bill).

I really, really hoped I could get on the Harley today. It's a pretty decent day out for February, and a lot of bikes have been going by. It's like their sound is thumbing it's nose at me, taunting and jeering because I'm not riding mine too.

Friday night I had just gotten home from work and was opening up my new coffee maker that had arrived that day when the phone rang. (I'm starting to hate phones, can you tell?) It was my mom, explaining that my dad has what appears to be cancer in one of his lungs. They won't know until Tuesday when they get in to see the specialist. His 50+ years of smoking are taking their toll. I'm really surprised that he only gets a good checkup once a year considering they found that he has emphysema a couple years ago. That's what finally made him quit smoking. I would think that at least twice a year x-rays would be in order. No matter what they do find, surgery will be in his near future... You can bet on that.

After spending a very enjoyable evening here with Suzie on Friday night, I picked her up at home the next day and the two of us went to Seattle. I went with the main intention of buying some hand cream that a coworker turned me onto which is only available at one store, but we also turned it into sort of a photography junket. Her Wednesday night photography class gives out assignments, and we used the Pioneer Square vicinity as a sort of theme. We were including everything from store displays to scenic pictures of the waterfront. It was fun. We finished off the evening with a movie at her house.

Now back to today. Sigh. I told Sarah to hurry up and get her car over here because I have no idea how long it will take me to change it out. Had I not told her, she probably wouldn't show up until the sun was about to go down. She is very slow to move. I find that frustrating.

Well, I hope all goes well. I'm not in a very good mood when things like that crop up... Especially when they dash the intended plans I had brewing for the afternoon.

I guess that's life.

At Last... My Favorite Day

It didn't used to be, but Friday is my current favorite. Why? Well, there's the obvious: The fact that it's the end of the work week. The real reason though is because it's the night of the week that Suzie and I get to spend the most time together.

I got hold of my old boss at Boeing yesterday after work. He wants me to email him a resume as soon as possible. Apparently they're extremely short on planners due to attrition. Because so many employees have retired lately they're hurting for new bodies. The part that I don't like is the fact that he said it is a contract job for at least 6 months. At that point they would do whatever they can to make you a permanent employee--Assuming you stand the test of time. The good part is the money. He said it's currently paying 45-55 bucks an hour. Wowsa. The bad part is that because it's contract I would have to do my own withholding and pay my own insurances. He also couldn't give me a good answer as to what their current workload is. The last thing I want to do is go to a job that is so overworked that it carries mandatory overtime on a daily and weekly basis. You know I value time over money.

I guess it wouldn't hurt for me to submit a resume to him. Maybe I should tell the powers that be at work--It would definitely be nice to see what (if anything) they might bring to the bargaining table. In reality I would be happy if they'd just give me some more vacation time. At least I'm fortunate to work at a company that welcomes employees back with open arms when their intended new ventures don't work out. I just don't know. I emailed a couple people at Boeing to see if they can give me any insight as to the current work status of any contract planners they may know. Maybe that will help me.

I think I used to be more decisive than this. I guess it's tough when you don't know all the answers and your future hangs in the balance.

I know I'd sure be sad to leave my workplace romance behind. That's probably a big reason for my indecisiveness right now. Both Suzie and I have been so happy at work lately!

A Winnie the Pooh Day

Yes, it's blustery out there all right. I'm sure glad today isn't garbage day because it is blowing hard out there! The wind is blowing hard enough that it woke me many times during the night. Fortunately, I had no trouble getting back to sleep each time. I'm still attributing my better sleeping habits of late to my having flannel sheets. The only thing that would make it more cozy is to have someone in there to spoon with.

Our new insurance at work caused me to make a change in my prescription renewal. I used to get my prescrip refilled at Top Foods, but they are not on "the list" of the new provider. Of the drugstores that are on the list, I evaluated (there I go thinking too much again) them based on location and how busy they usually were, and I decided that I would go with Rite Aid. I was thinking about all this at work yesterday, and Rite Aid was the one that never seemed to have lines of people any time I was ever in the store. When I got home, I popped onto their website to see about a transfer, hoping I could just do it online. I found that because it was new I would have to do it in person. The good thing is that while I was on there I found a bonus: They offered a Rite Aid gift card worth $40 for a new prescription transfer! I printed it off on the printer and headed over. The way it worked was that you get a gift card for $30 on the spot and you get $5 off each of your next two renewals. Not too shabby of a little bonus eh? That offsets the fact that my copay is now $30 instead of the $20 it used to be.

I got a call from Steve the other day that my old boss at Boeing was trying to get hold of me. When I got home there was also a couple emails saying as much too. A couple months ago I wanted to go back to Boeing--Now I'm not so sure. Two things have happened since then that make me feel that way: A raise and Suzie. I really like working there again thanks to those two developments. Still, I shouldn't count out the possibility of some big opportunity looming over the horizon. I called the guy that afternoon, but no answer. I forgot to call him yesterday. One of the emails was from a former coworker there, and explained that he thought it was a "contract" job. If that's the case, I don't want it anyway. Contract jobs are usually very lucrative, but there are no benefits and they are for 6 months at a time. They are perfect for retirees that have all their benefits already anyway. Besides, I'm not all that good at the job I used to do--They must be pretty desperate!

The Harley run that myself and my buddies take every year over to Chelan in June has died. Apparently, there was always some sort of rift between the club that sponsored it and the place that hosted it. That's why it was in a different spot last year. This year it's just over. No more. It's not that big a deal really, because we don't care as much about the event itself as we do actually making the run. I enjoy traveling on roads I don't get to ride on often (if ever), the camaraderie of the pit stops we make for food or beverage, the yakking and joking at the motel in between venturing on short jaunts--It's all a lot of fun because they're great people.

This year we're going on a run the following weekend over to Toppenish instead. It's sponsored by a different sort of an outfit instead of a motorcycle club, and it should be a decent event I would think. The good thing is that I've never ridden over Toppenish way so it will be cool to explore that area on two wheels. I made my reservation last night for two nights. We're planning on heading over on Friday June 12th at about noon. It's always good to have something fun on a calendar!

The Rise and Fall... And Rise Again?

I used to totally love photography, I just sort of stopped doing it. I don't know why. I don't think I "burned out" on it, but it definitely fell by the wayside.

What if I was just a little ahead of my time?

I was out with Suzie last night, helping her with a photography lesson for her Wednesday night class. The subject was shots with movement. By the time she gets off work on weekdays the daylight is somewhat limited, so if the assignment wasn't completed over the weekend, that pretty much limits her to night shots. I suggested a few various items before hitting on the one that we finally acted on. We grabbed my tripod and zoomed over to Auburn Station to see if she could get some interesting shots of the Sounder Train that was due to arrive in 15 minutes.

It was cold, but I was immediately drawn into the fun of seeing what kind of effects she could get by slowing the shutter speed way down to a point where everything that moved had a blur to it. I was having a great time visualizing the outcome in my minds eye and scouting out new angles and shots while she was busy setting up and taking them behind me. The bridge that spanned the train tracks afforded a great vantage point to catch car and bus traffic and a good overhead/side view of the train as it came and went.

What we didn't really expect were the shots related to the train stopping there: The humans streaming across the bridge we were using, and their vehicles streaming in a seemingly endless chain of lights as they wound their way out of the parking garage. Both made for some great shots!

I felt myself sharing the excitement that she had--The same feeling I used to get when I was on the hunt for shots with my old Nikon FM film camera. Some days when I was bored all I had to do was pick up my camera and head out the door. It usually provided a sort of catalyst for an interesting day of wandering. Back in the day of a 35mm SLR cameras, the creative tools were not apparent. The camera afforded a person with unlimited light settings and unlimited speed settings, but that was about it unless you had a bulk film cartridge and a motor drive ($$$). The use of filters was another option, but one that I usually didn't bother much with. In other words, it was mostly up to the photographer as to how to make a shot happen. I taught myself everything I ever learned about photography--Some by trial and error and experimentation, and some by reading books and magazines (no internet back then!).

Today things are different.

The camera Suzie has is nothing short of amazing when compared with those of yesteryear. There is basically nothing that it won't do. But the real exciting difference is digital versus film. In the old days I spent a LOT of money having my pictures and slides developed. There is a general rule of thumb that existed in the film camera days: If you got one really great shot out of a roll of film you were lucky. Sure, you might get a whole roll of shots with no flaws in them, but that "perfect" shot was the elusive thing. So it boils down to logistics really. The cost of the film, loading the film, storing the film, the cost of developing the film--All are non-issues now. It is truly a photographer's world in today's day and age.

Given my fickle nature, I can't help but wonder: If I jumped back in would I stick with it? Does that even matter? After all, when you're on this side of 50 years old the clock of life is running pretty quickly so there's not much time to wonder. Given my love of computers and the obvious link between them and digital photography, it's certainly an interesting notion.

The Art of Acquisition

I used to chastise Teresa for doing some of the things she did, and now I'm doing them.

Way back when, when we were fairly newly married and Sarah was not a part of our lives yet, I was still a delivery driver for The Peterson Company and happened to be working on a Saturday for whatever reason. As I recall, it was a partial workday because I came home at about noon. She probably thought she could have him out of the house before I got home, but I caught them.

No, no... Stop right there! I know what you're thinking and that's exactly what I wanted you to think. Gotcha!

She had some guy there that was demonstrating a vacuum cleaner. I couldn't believe it. I think it was a Kirby but I'm not sure. Anyway, I was miffed. It was Saturday and I came home after work to find some salesman in my living room?! I took her aside to get to the bottom of it.
"What the hell is he doing here?" I asked sternly.
"Don't worry, I'm not going to buy anything," she explained.
"Well then why did you even let him in? You're just wasting his time and ours. I don't want to come home and find a salesman in my house" I said with exasperation.
"Because he's giving away a free bread knife if we listen to his spiel and we don't have one!" she said excitedly.
I rolled my eyes and shook my head in disbelief.
"Okay, but I can't be around during this kind of crap. I'll be back." I said and went back out to my pickup and left.

Yes, she really did do that. The funny part was that the knife really wasn't anything special at all as far as quality. It was just a good bread knife as far as the design went, but the quality of it sucked. It just shows the lengths she went for a hot deal. The funniest part? I own it right now! I remember probably a year or so after the vacuum incident we were at a garage sale and she found another of the same knives and bought it for probably a quarter. When we split up I ended up with the original. Pretty strange.

I have no idea how many of those kinds of things she's done. Most of the time they are just those "no obligation" deals where you're automatically enrolled in some sort of thing if you get the first of a series or whatever. She would get them and the instant they arrived would call and cancel. I have to admit, she got some good deals that way.

One morning a few years back I got up in the morning and turned on the coffee pot and it went "phhttt" and gave up its meager existence right then when I needed it most. Teresa must have been up or maybe I swore loud enough to cause her to get up to see what was wrong. I don't remember that part. What I thought was funny was that she just calmly went down to the basement and came upstairs with a brand spanking new Gevalia coffee maker--Never opened and still in the box.
"What the hell? Do you always rathole appliances?" I asked, both pleased and in minor disbelief.
"It was one of those deals where you spend a few bucks on some of their coffee and they send you a free coffee maker. I just wanted the coffee," she explained. "Aren't you glad I did it?"
I muttered something I'm sure, but I was definitely glad she did it, yes. It was one of those kinds of coffee makers that have a thermos carafe though, and I never really liked that part of it because the second cup of my coffee was always too hot to drink. I had to turn it completely off after it brewed or I'd never be able to drink my second cup in time. It definitely made good coffee though.

Fast-forward to two days ago.

I went online and went to Gevalia and ordered myself two packages of coffee for $15 so I could get a new coffee maker. I am disgusted with the coffee maker I have now because it it the cheapest Procter Silex they make I'm sure, and it doesn't make a good cup of coffee.

You know the funny part of this whole story? The day I moved out she came walking up the basement stairs with it--Brand new in the box--And handed it to me.

"Will this one do?" she asked.

Happy Sunday Morning!

It's Sunday morning but it feels like I've had a 4-day weekend. Isn't that weird? You know how sometimes when you sit around for an entire weekend and do nothing that it seems to go whoosh and suddenly it's Monday morning? And other times you do something like go camping, or travel, or something that deviates from your usual routine and it makes the weekend seem so much longer and more pleasurable?

This seems to have been one of the latter. It's like time slows down or something. And here it is Sunday morning and I still have a full day off in front of me!

It's not what I did, but rather, who I did it with that made the difference I guess. How else can I explain it? Suzie came over Friday evening to a nice dinner that I had prepared for us, and the fire was roaring to keep us toasty. I think what really made for a perfect evening was the fact that we were both wearing flannel comfy jammies as lounge wear. Good food, good company, a nice fire, hundreds of movies to choose from, plenty of booze... It was definitely a recipe for a perfect evening!

Yesterday she came over again before noon and I drove us to Tacoma Mall for some shopping. I won't say what she bought because that would take away the surprise when she finally gets it in a couple weeks and gets to show her purchase off at work. On the way home I took us to a good burger lunch (no, not fast food). We both ended up ordering the same thing (she has good taste, and I'm a copycat). After going home and watching a movie, we both took a much-needed "post-burger" nap. When it came time for dinner later in the evening, we got to select from quite a smörgåsbord of leftovers in my fridge because I have been cooking almost every evening lately. We finished off the evening by looking at a bunch of pictures of each other's lives.

I know, I know--Yawn, right? Well everything is exciting when new love is blossoming. The most boring tasks take on a whole new light. The cool thing is, if the boring stuff becomes moderately fun and interesting, the more exciting stuff is bound to trigger some serious enjoyment.

Bring on the nice weather baby... We have some Harley riding to do!