The Anacortes Oyster Run

When we awoke Saturday morning I still hadn't decided whether or not I wanted to go up to Anacortes a day early or not. As we sat there drinking our coffee and talking about it, the day got nicer and it sounded more and more like the best scenario. I did quite a bit of digging online to find a room in the general area because we waited so long, but I succeeded getting one in Mount Vernon for a relatively good price. Okay, with the help of my ol' man AARP discount...

While Suzie ran up to her house to throw some things together, I hit a couple stores in Auburn, hoping to find a better (read that legal) helmet before we left. I had heard stories that the coppers were starting to crack down on bogus helmets. I didn't find anything and went back home. Suz was back by the time I returned. I also changed the oil in the bike before we headed out. When it came to packing our stuff, the rack that I bought on Craigslist a few months back proved to be very valuable. The bag strapped around the backrest and sat on the rack just as pretty as you please.

The day was beautiful--No doubt about that. We didn't stop until we hit the rest area up around Smokey Point, at which time Suzie exclaimed how much she loved the new seat. That was what I wanted to hear! I think she said it a couple times while we were there. I have to say, as many miles as she has put on the little pillion pad on our previous rides shows her character. She deserved a new seat.

As she mentioned in her blog, Suzie was amazed at the motel room. Hell, so was I--I've never been in a motel room with two floors. I didn't even know they existed. When it comes right down to it though, it was still a motel room: You still hear things that let you know there is someone else nearby.

After we dumped our stuff, we hopped back on the bike for a cruise around the area, hoping to find a good spot to sit and eat an early dinner. Mount Vernon is divided into two halves--The "new" half with all the shopping stores and fast food, and the "old" half with all the brick buildings and small shops. That's where we ended up. We stopped downtown because we saw the main drag blocked off for some sort of event and we figured we'd walk the street and see what was going on. During our walk through their arts & crafts show (or whatever it was) we found a sports bar that looked like our spot. We went in and ate a delicious meal. To the best of my knowledge, it was the only time in recent history that I didn't finish a meal at a restaurant. The burger itself was so stuffed that I had to set it on edge in the fry basket and leave it there as I ate, stretching my mouth to the limit with each wide bite.

We finished our evening with a ride out Chuckanut Drive, a road famous enough in the area that it has it's own website. I had heard about how nice it is for years, but never drove it. Well, I shouldn't say that... I drove half of it once, way back when during my tenure as a food delivery driver. We picked a good time of the night for it--The sun was waning. My intent was to go to the end and turn around and come back. For some reason I thought it was basically a dead-end road. When it took us into downtown old Bellingham I was surprised. At any rate, we turned around and went back, this time stopping at every turnout so Suz could snap pictures. She got some beauties!

The next day we got ourselves together and checked out of our room at about 8:30. It was a beautiful morning, but cold enough that I had to mop the bike off with a towel before we could sit on it. We got to Anacortes just before 9, and even that early it was apparent that the town was going to fill up quickly. We wandered around quite a bit, taking in all the sorts of weirdness that make it one of the best places I've ever seen for people watching. I made it a point to stop by the Oyster Run t-shirt booth, but was dismayed (and I voiced my feelings to them) to find that all but one color of t-shirts they had were 50/50 blend instead of 100% cotton. I mean come on, is a cotton t-shirt too much to ask? Apparently so. I did manage to buy a couple other shirts from other vendors though, and at a much better price. How can you lose with a $10 t-shirt? After all, I practically live in them.

Suzie's blog (the link is over on the right on this page in case you didn't know) describes things pretty well, but I think it's probably the only time I've ever actually seen the Cossacks' whole show. I've seen them doing bits here and there at different events, but this time I saw the whole thing from start to finish. It was quite the deal. I love their bikes! I would so love the opportunity to be able to ride a tank-shift Harley some time before I die, but I doubt that will ever happen. That's not something someone will just let you do for the sake of doing it. Speaking of old bikes, we walked around an antique bike show that was in a bank parking lot too. There were some beauties! Vincents, Harleys, Indians, a beautiful BSA Lightning that looked like it had just rolled out the showroom door--They were great. I love the old machinery.

When we finally decided we needed to get out of town it was late. Well, not late actually, but much later than I had ever left the Oyster Run before. Add to that the headache that I was getting and I was feeling more like could just avoid the ride home altogether. We we started to leave town it was apparent that it was going to be stop and go all the way. Yep, it seemed like it was an hour later by the time we finally reached the turnoff for Whidbey Island. At first I just wanted to blast by and go home, but by the time I got to that turn I decided I needed to "open it up" a little and let the bike cool back down (they are air-cooled you know) and give Suzie the opportunity to see Deception Pass. She had never seen it before and I knew she'd like it. We did talk about taking the ferry across from the bottom of Whidbey Island, but after seeing that traffic I'm sure the ferry would have been an all-night affair. When I got back to the Anacortes highway (20) after our detour to Deception Pass, the traffic hadn't thinned much if at all. Even after turning off and taking farming roads (the back way as I call it) we still hit traffic a lot. Hell, even on I-5 we still hit traffic a lot. There were slowdowns here and there all the way into Everett.

By the time I got home, I was exhausted. I rode us straight through without stopping and I was totally wrung out. I collapsed on the floor. After all, supporting a passenger and a heavy pack on a bike in stop and go traffic is not an easy thing to do for any length of time. I was tired, I had a splitting headache, and I was chilled to the bone with flu-like symptoms. I get that sometimes when I get sun-baked. When I went to the mirror before bed and looked, it was apparent that I did indeed get too much sun on the head.

All in all, it was a most excellent weekend. Suzie and I both had a great time. Would we do it again? Of course we will, but will we stay that long next time? No way baby! Leaving the Oyster Run at later than 1pm is a no-no in my opinion...

Be sure to check out the pictures page... Suz has already uploaded a bunch of hers and some of mine will follow as well soon.

A Whirlwind Weekend

It actually started on Thursday.

This was a touchy thing really: What do you do when your first (yes, very first) girlfriend is in town? Well, to tell you the truth, I was a little apprehensive. On one hand I'm head over heels in love with Suzie, but on the other hand, she was my high school sweetheart and I was curious. Although we had talked on the phone a couple times late last year, I hadn't seen her for at least 25 years. She currently lives in South Dakota but her brother was my best friend in high school, so he was really our common link in this area and how she was able to still know how to find me. Suzie was none too thrilled about her being in town let alone me actually seeing her, but she reluctantly agreed to let it be. At any rate, we agreed to meet on Thursday night. It went well. We just went out to a local restaurant and sat and yakked and yakked. At no time did anyone toss "sparks" or feel uncomfortable. Suzie sent me a couple of text messages to keep me grounded just in case I started drifting--I loved that. When I took her back to where she was staying (right here in town at her girlfriend's house) at about 8:30 it seemed like about the right time to cut it off. I was tired.

The big news is that I did what I stated I was going to do in my previous blog post: I put my truck up for sale. I got 3 replies right off the bat. The first one turned out to be the classic "I'll take the truck and send you a cashiers check if you'll ship it" scheme that seems to be so prevalent these days. The second guy was genuine and was close by up in Covington. He sped down on Thursday night and scoped it out, mostly concerned with the undercarriage. Of course the truck refused to start, which was exactly what I told him it would probably do. Anyway, he loved what he saw and he agreed to buy the truck. After negotiating back and forth a bit, we agreed on a price of $1900. He was so happy! "I started looking for this truck in June," he stated, "There are just none out there that haven't been beat to death."

The next day (Friday) I had just gotten home and had a beer and checked my email when he showed up with his trailer. Fortunately it started this time and he was able to drive it onto his trailer instead of winching it up. Bye-bye truck!


Suzie came over right after he left, and she still parked in the usual spot, which would have been right behind the truck.
"How come you didn't park up closer to the house where the truck used to live?" I asked.
"I dunno... It seemed weird."
It does seem weird. That truck has lived and leaked in that spot since the day I moved in.

A little later in the evening the doorbell rang. I had totally forgotten about the fact that a guy was going to show up and buy my old slide scanner too. It was good that we were still there, because it seems like we were thinking about going somewhere for something--I don't remember. Anyway, he bought that so that was another item crossed off my list.

Two sales in one day--Not too bad!

The rest of the weekend? The Anacortes Oyster Run! That will have to wait until the next post. I'm outta time.

Changing Things

This is a blog of a few changes that have come about in the last couple of days.

First of all, there's a new change this morning: I switched from my summer weight flannel bathrobe to my heavier terry robe. It was finally time to face facts and admit that I was freezing my balls off when I got up in the morning these last several days. No more nudie man making his lunchtime sandwich in the morning while the coffee brewed. It's time for coverage!

Yesterday I rode the Harley to work. I knew the instant I walked out the door of the garage that it was "different" out there. I traded my standard short riding gloves to my gauntlet style gloves that cover my sleeves. I also pulled out my "head sock" to wear under my helmet. It was time I had something covering my ears. I was glad of both of those changes. It was evident as I sped down Auburn Way that it was considerably colder. The first bank I rode past said 40° on it. Brr!

Yesterday was also the first day I rode the Harley with its brand new seat on it. To tell you the truth, I was a little disappointed. I really hate it when I buy something that I don't like 100%. It's even worse when you do research after research and finally make your selection and it turns out to not be quite what you hoped it was. To add to that, it was over $350. What don't I like about it? It sits me higher up on the bike, and also seems to put me slightly farther forward as well. The design of it has the front of the passenger seat providing "additional back support" to the driver, and that may be part of the problem. I'm a sloucher, and it's trying to help me not slouch. But hey, slouching is me--Especially on the Harley. I was a little more forgiving on the way home from work though, vowing to give it some time to break in. After all, this brand of seat didn't get to be #1 by having everyone unhappy with their purchase did it?

The biggest change to report is a change of mind. Suzie and I are going to drop the house idea I touted in yesterday's blog. While the notion of buying is very appetizing, it would be a bad idea for us financially. While each of us has assets and credit, only one of us is employed. Even if mortgage lenders did approve us, we would be stretched pretty thin and wouldn't have capital to work with afterward. I thought quite a bit about it yesterday, and had pretty much changed my mind already, but hadn't given up on the idea completely. Two of Suzie's kids dropped in for dinner last night, and they proceeded to pretty much talk us out of it the rest of the way. I said afterward it was like an intervention. She's very lucky to have a family that is that passionate about her well-being. I don't have that in my family.

I'm going to put the truck up for sale. I'm at the end of my rope with it. I've already formulated the ad to put it on Craigslist and I'll snap a couple of pictures of it tonight after work. I'm going to open with the fact that it doesn't start and I don't know what it is and I'm tired of putzing with it, yada, yada, yada. I've listed all it's features and new parts and stuff already. It would be a great truck for somebody--Especially if they get it going by winter and can enjoy 4-wheeling with it. I used to love that aspect of it. I'm going to ask $2000 for it and see what happens. It might be a $5 fix for a knowledgeable person. I'm apparently not that person. I know when to finally admit defeat... It just takes me longer than some people.

Get it out of here--It's time for a change!

Investing in the Future?

Suzie and I have been talking about buying a house. Yeah, I know--It's such a big step, yada, yada--I'm sure my readers would have a caution flag flying. Well you know what? It is a big step. It's also a timely step. This is a day and age when it's totally a buyer's market. House prices are likely as low as they're going to go.

Some may say that it's an odd thing: Shopping for a house as a couple of single people. The truth is, way back a hundred or so years ago that's exactly what Teresa and I did. The market was ripe and I said, "You know, even if we don't end up staying together I think we should pool our resources and buy." That was the best move we could have possibly made. Literally only a year later our house was worth double that. Of course, that was a little bit of luck to have beat a housing boom like that.

Sue and I would like to believe that we're going to be together for the long haul and we've talked off and on at length about the problems we would face about combining our lives. It may be a surprise to most, but our religious differences are way down the list (as in not really on the list at all). Recently we were at her house talking and I said (basically quoting) that I "didn't see any space for me here" as I motioned around us. I was talking in the "physical space" sense. Although her house was of a decent size, there was really no space for my stuff or me anywhere. Kitchen, bedroom, garage--You name it. It wasn't any one thing really--More of a combination of things. She still has two grown sons living at home. That translates to having two bedrooms in use, two cars more in the driveway, and who knows what all. She also has half of her garage currently being used (until spring) as a household storage unit. If you combine all those things there really is no place for me to just "absorb" into her life if I want to. Add to that the fact that how easy it is to offend someone that has basically built everything in the house from the ground up in the 17 years she's lived there by suggesting any kind of difference in the status quo and you have the potential for a problem.

The obvious solution? Move into a new house!

We drove by a place the other day and looked at it, peering in windows and such. It's in the same housing area she lives in but "farther in" towards the back, or outskirts if you will. It's a really nice 3-bedroom rambler with attached two car garage like most have. The kicker? It's sitting on a seldom-traveled (it's in the back as I said) on a full acre of ground! It's a huge lot, but (there's always a "but" isn't there?) it has power lines running across the back 25% or so of it. That fact alone may be why the price is as it is, but it's not really a deterrent to us. At least so far. The beauty of the place is that it's higher ground than her existing house is (about a half mile away) so it's a lot sunnier, and the size of the place and being on the corner gives it a ton of space for anything we'd ever want to do. It's also hardly landscaped at all, so we'd be collaborating on everything instead of "changing" everything. We both agreed that just landscaping and fencing the place would contribute huge to raising its value. From what we saw the house needed absolutely nothing. It was build in 86 so it's not old really, and the inside looks like it has been very well maintained and needs nothing at all.

Yeah, it's a big idea, but it's an exciting one. We still have nothing in concrete yet, but we're looking into it. Who knows?

The Bob Effect

"That should help him."
I was walking by the packaging area I used to work in and Bruce was there, stacking and organizing some boxes neatly with their appropriate paperwork underneath--Boxes that were destined for Boeing.
"Who? What?" I asked, stopping.
"Bob. This should help him get it right." he said, motioning to his pile of boxes.
I laughed and thought about it for a moment. We were always commenting on things Bob had done wrong or strangely on any given day. Then I had an epiphany.
"Yeah, anything you can do to minimize the Bob Effect is surely a good thing," I said, suddenly proud of the sound of the new term I had just created. I could tell Bruce liked it too. It sounded like something sinister--Something from a sci-fi movie.
"The Bob Effect." he repeated, tasting the words as they rolled off his tongue.

Bob is about my age and he's working the same packaging area I used to work when I was first hired on, and is also doing most of the driving just as I did. I don't think he used to be quite as scatterbrained as he is now, but he's had some interesting screwups. We used to call them "Bob-ism's" and still do occasionally. When we would hear about something he did or didn't do, we'd just shake our head and mutter.

One time when he was still relatively new he was up north somewhere doing a delivery or pickup of some kind. Word had gotten around that the company was going to be looking for a "new" van to replace the aging relic that we had to deal with. Bob actually stopped at a dealership in Kirkland and talked with a salesman! He came back with literature and everything and told Bruce about it. Bruce, of course, was flabberghasted. If Bernie LaCroix would have ever found out that he did that on company time he would have been gone I'm sure. That was the first real slip. A Pink Floyd album comes to mind: A Momentary Lapse of Reason. Little did we know all the things the future would bring.

Bob is a classic. One time he was gone a couple hours. The time went by with Bruce wandering by every now and then.
"Bob come back yet?" he asked.
"Nope, nothing yet." I said, and we both shook our heads.
When he finally showed up, Bruce asked him where he had been.
"I went to PM Testing." he said, in a matter-of-fact way. PM Testing is one of the companies that does finish work like painting and such for us. They are located in Fife, which is about a half hour each way if there is no traffic (there is always traffic).
"Who told you to go to PM Testing?" Bruce asked in disbelief.
I don't remember his exact response. Basically, nobody told him to go. He just went. On his own.

Hellooo... Earth to Bob... Do you read?

Bob would constantly deliver the wrong thing to the wrong place and have to go back and correct things. I'm sure he cost the company money on more than one occasion--Making a delivery late for whatever reason. He routinely takes twice as long as I do (or most anyone ever has) to make deliveries and pickups.

We have determined that he must be working for free.

The most common instance of the Bob Effect is when he departs when Bruce wasn't ready for him to leave yet.
"Where's Bob?" Bruce would ask, coming out of the office.
"He just left."
"Bob! Jeezus... I haven't even given him everything yet." he'd say with exasperation. We'd both exchange a look of helplessness and shake our heads.

Another often repeated scenario was when he left and didn't take the product with him. I told Bruce if he didn't actually have sailboat fuel for brains I'd think he planned it that way so he could make two trips to kill more time. But we determined that he really had no clue.

Other instances of the Bob Effect come in-house. When he packages something and writes on the box, we can no longer assume that what's written is inside the box. If he writes the weight on a box and gives it to me to send UPS, I re-weigh it when he's not looking.

We constantly make jokes about him, but you know what? We like him. He's our own Jester. He's the one thing we need to keep our mundane day interesting.
"Where's Bob?" Bruce will ask.
"Probably at Ernie's Truck Stop," I'd say, "perusing the greasy goodness behind the glass in their deli case."

The Bob Effect. You'd better hope it doesn't spread.

A Strange Phenomenon

Maybe nobody reading my blog has ever heard of David Foster Wallace. Don't feel bad--Before last night I never had either.

An American genius of literature, dead at 46.

The phenomenon I speak of is not David Foster Wallace himself. No, the phenomenon I'm referring to is what happens within me when someone like this dies. Why? To be perfectly honest I don't know. I was annoyed with myself that I didn't know him. Not that I hadn't read his works--That I had never even heard of him. I felt like I had cheated him somehow. I felt like I was ridiculously out-of-touch for not knowing who he was.

Last night when I got home I read Google News. There among all the usual chaos that makes up our news, there were all these stories--Stories of a true genius that lived right here in our time. I started reading news articles voraciously, one leading to another, and then another. I found myself searching Wikipedia and learning about him. Who was he really and what did he accomplish? I wanted to know it all. I even found myself before work this morning trying to watch a full-length interview of him when he appeared on Charlie Rose in 1997. I even found myself slightly irritated because I wanted to turn it up louder (I have bad hearing you know) but was respecting the possibility of my neighbor being home and hearing it. I wanted to keep watching it but had to go to work instead. I got home tonight and did a Google search once again, this time finding a link to a page on Harper's magazine where they had put all the writings that he had done for their magazine up for free in pdf form. Now I have to read that stuff too.

Isn't that so often the curse of a genius? They have so many thoughts racing through their brains that they truly are on the brink of madness most of their lives. Some go their whole lives and endure it and some don't. Some find fame in their chosen fields and some do not. I can't grasp what it would be like to be that way--To be able to hold multiple story lines in your mind at any given time. To be able to analyze and approach an idea from 10 different directions at the same time. I guess it's just as well I'm a simple man with simple thoughts.

I don't know who it was that caused me to feel this way the last time it happened to me, but I do know it's happened before. It's just weird...

A Slow News Week

To me, here--A slow news week. To other parts of the country, the catastrophes rolled on, from hurricanes to train wrecks. I guess it's a good thing to be right here in a slow news area now that I think about it.

I came home one day this week--Wednesday I think--And found Alan the landlord on the roof with a pressure washer. My truck (yes, the one that I had just washed last weekend) was covered with shit that he had blown off it. The roof has been in bad need of attention, and he probably didn't know exactly how much he was getting into. Anyway, he spent that day and the next two days working the place over. He did the roof, the walls, the driveways--EVERYTHING. He was truly giving the washer a good workout. He came with his boy yesterday and finished it up, and included trimming all the shrubs, trees, and ivy too. He even cleaned off the fence in my backyard that had green on its north side since before I had moved in here. Maybe he had just bought the pressure washer? I know when you start using a pressure washer it's hard to stop. He showed all the signs. At any rate, I'm glad he did it all. He did a great job--The place looks better than it ever has!

Suz and I were futzing around on her hot tub yesterday. She had a hot tub repair guy that she knows and trusts come out one day and his diagnosis was a fuse blown on the circuit board. Initially, it wasn't blown--We're sure of that--Because when we first set up the tub everything worked except that it didn't get hot. Later on when Tony did some electrical work everything ceased to work. No pump, no light, no nothing. Chances are something got bumped and blew the fuse during that time. The fuse was made to be "not replaceable" by John Q. Public. It was soldered to the board so you would have to spend $200-$300 on a new circuit board. Instead, we removed the board, desoldered the blown fuse and soldered a heavy-duty fuse holder in its place. Next time it blows we can just unscrew it and put another fuse in. We also put a new heater element in it, which was likely the original problem back when it was first set up.

We spent quite a while wandering around from store to store gathering up all the supplies that we needed. When we got back to her house I started by putting the new heater unit because with that finished we could start refilling the tub. It worked out well because by the time I had the circuit board repaired and reinstalled the tub was almost full. After a false start (the circuit breaker GFI was tripped) we were greeted by full operational status! One of the things she bought during our shopping was a floating thermometer. When she filled the tub it was 62 degrees. We spent a couple hours at Denny's house up the street having dinner and playing Wii bowling (fun stuff!), and by that time it had risen to over 70. By now it's probably almost up to optimum temperature.

Looks like a little tubbing tonight!

The Weekend Report

Despite some things that didn't go according to plan it was a good weekend. I guess a lot of the credit for that goes to the weather for a change (excuse the pun).

The plan was for Suz and I to spend Saturday up at her house--She cleaning her car and me cleaning my truck. The poor truck has been sitting virtually untouched for well over a year, and because of that the paint was severely oxidized, the wheels had rust on them, and the trim pieces had green stuff growing around them. It was pretty sad. When we got ready to leave my house Saturday morning imagine my surprise (not!) when my truck refused to start yet again. I played with the key quite a bit, refusing to give in without a fight, and just as it was starting to show signs of the battery dying it started. Rather than abandon our plans for fear of the unknown we proceeded to her house, she following me in her car.

One thing about Suzie's home: It ends up being kind of a social event of sorts sometimes. As I went by her son Denny's house I glanced over to see if anyone was out and about, but I heard her give the usual "beep, beep" behind me. Apparently that signals the troops that she's home. By the time I had backed my truck up through the gate and into her back yard, her 3 yr-old grandson Joe was there. Apparently his auntie Heather watched him carefully as he made his way down the street to grandma's house. He proceeded to help me wash my truck which was pretty fun. I haven't had a little kid help me wash a vehicle since Sarah was small. Little by little we ended up with everyone dropping in. While I was finishing up the wash job Denny went back to his house and retrieved some polish, and when I was finished he started polishing it. It was a pretty dramatic difference! He went around the whole truck, shining it up and granting it some of the glory it used to have in its former years. I was pretty surprised about that. That was a nice thing he did! We never did get her car done because of all the hubbub around there. When we finished my truck we all migrated down the street to Denny and Heather's house for dinner. I should note, however, that my truck didn't want to leave her back yard. Once again it refused to start. It turns over like crazy but won't fire. Then just as before, as the battery was just starting to slow down, it started. I drove it out and backed it up her driveway behind her car. I guess it was good that I did that because later on when I wanted to leave, it refused to start. Nothing I said to it changed its mind either. Apparently the clean & polish job had no affect on its ego, and the swearing also refused to help. I coasted it (Suz gave it a bit of a shove too) across the street and parked it in defeat. Truck = 1, Rick = 0. Suzie gave me a ride home in her car.

Yesterday was Puyallup Fair day. She came over at about 11:30 and we headed out. It was a great weather day for it, and fortunately for us we got there before the traffic jams really started. We had a great time wandering around. We zigzagged all over the place multiple times, enjoying the displays, the performers, and a few of the food items. At one point we detoured outside the gate and I treated her to a couple of interesting meat turnovers from Miller's Fleishkuechle (yes, that's how you spell it--I kept the name off the bag so you can Google it) stand. As usual on a nice, sunny weekend day at the Puyallup Fair, we saw plenty of interesting people and things.

This was a "turning point" year for me at the fair. This was the first year that I refused to drive around and around, looking for a free parking spot and walking a mile to the gate. This year I paid $10 and parked at a car wash a block away from the main gate. It's gotten to the point that the city is slowly but surely taking more and more free parking away from the populace, making it all but impossible except for the earliest arrivals. Or maybe it's just another sign of age. Yeah, that's it.

After we got to my house and hung out for a while resting our feet and having a beer or two, she drove me up to her house to (hopefully) get my truck. It was kinda funny--As we were nearing Denny's house, she said something about not honking this time when she went past so she could just relax at home and get some work done. As we round the curve here comes Denny blasting down the street towards us on a go-cart, wide open and flying! She laughed and laughed--Noting that apparently it doesn't matter if you honk or not. Anyway, I had the new license tab with me (yes, I drove up to her house illegally the day before) and put it on before opening the door and hitting the key. As usual when it has a "fit" and refuses to start, the next time you try (later on or the next day) it lit right off instantly. Figures. At least it's back home now and looking as clean as it has in a few years.

One other important (at least to me) note: The alien on my face seems to finally be gone! After having it fileted off by a laser (or whatever they used) a second time and babying it for the last week and a half, the last little bit of scab departed, leaving only a mild discoloration behind. Finally... Smooth skin I can shave over again!

Hiking and Stuff

As I reported Monday we decided to do a little hiking--This time going up to the Snoqualmie Pass area. During my blog post then I couldn't recall the name of the place we were going to go, but a little investigation revealed that it was Talapus Lake.

It was my first use of the hiking boots I scored on Craigslist a while back, and I have to say they performed well. More than one time I walked on mossy rocks, roots, and fallen logs, and I never lost my grip. I had plenty of comfort too.

You see some odd things on hiking trails, but when you think about it, why should they be any different than any other place? I think it was the fact that there are not exactly a lot of people on a hiking trail. After all, it's not like you're at the mall, right? Imagine my (our) surprise when a nun passed us on the trail. Yes, a nun. We had just been on the trail ten or fifteen minutes when a woman dressed in her full nun gear (not the long gown style, but still all black and white with the headgear too) passed us on her way back down to her car with her companions. Interesting. Come to think of it, I'm not sure exactly what she was wearing because I was too surprised to take in all the details. Later on we were halfway back to our car when we came upon a family group of Indian or some other middle eastern folks. What caught our eye first was the fact that they actually had a baby stroller with them! Also, one of the ladies in the group was wearing open sandals with nylons. See? You just never know.

My truck is now fully operational. Woohoo! Okay, at least until the next time it doesn't want to start... I came home Monday and the time felt right to take it down to have it emissions tested so I could get my license tabs renewed. For us here it's every two years, and this was "the year" for my poor ol' truck. That was a lot of what motivated me to get it going. Anyway, I drove it down and ran it through. Right off the bat it failed both gas cap tests. They pressure-test gas caps before they even do the running portion of the test. Fortunately it passed that part, and they said if I went down and bought a couple of new caps and came back to the office with them they'd change my fail to a pass and I'd be good to go. I argued for a while about both caps failing at the same time, but to no avail. After all, they were old caps and didn't get much use recently to keep them pliable either. So the good news is after spending $15 on an emissions test, $18 on two new gas caps, and $65 on new license tabs, my truck is now operational. Oh yeah--Insurance too. While I was able to add the truck online over the weekend, I have yet to receive the policy change in the mail with the bill. It shouldn't be too much. I still don't know if I trust the truck implicitly, but at least I can drive it now (after the tabs show up today or tomorrow) if I need to. I do know that it's in dire need of a wash and wax. The finish has oxidized pretty badly and the chrome wheels have started to suffer the degradation of the dreaded acid that is cat piss.

I'm pretty excited for Suzie. She has gotten her second client for her Memory DVD's business. Not a bad start to have one per week. She's going places with this thing--I can tell. I only hope it doesn't go too crazy to where she's having to sacrifice sleep and other things to meet deadlines, although it would be a nice problem to have wouldn't it?

The First Day of September

It's somehow fitting that I turned the heat on in this room this morning when I got up. It's also fitting that I made my bed with flannel sheets last night. Our last few weeks of August around here in the Seattle area have been much the same as today: Cool and not in any way a real summer if you're a sun worshiper. Yep, the Labor Day weekend puts summer officially behind us. I even glanced at my wood stove in a new way yesterday as I walked through the living room--Like it was trying to catch my eye and tell me that it was proudly standing by when I needed it.

Anyone that reads my blog knows that it's been a non-blogging week. It's partly that I haven't felt like writing and partly that I didn't have much to write about. Let's see if I can stretch my brain--Back to the last time I blogged. Oh yeah, Nudestock! Now that was an interesting weather anomaly: Having one nice, hot day in the midst of two or three solid weeks of cool days in the 50's and 60's.

The big news this week was Suzie and her new business venture. She spent Monday out "cold calling" with her sales pitch and armed to the teeth with materials to support her new DVD service. Imagine her delight and surprise when she scored her first client the very next day! A few hours work over a couple days brought in just shy of $300. If things go that way it could be very lucrative. The best part was not that she got the new gig, but rather the excitement that was apparent. She was totally pumped! When she finally delivered her first "baby" to her first customer, the woman was overjoyed. She totally loved the speed, the attention to detail, and the personal attention she received from Sue during the whole process. After all, when someone dies, the last thing you want is cold and impersonal right? She was very happy with the finished product. Spread the word lady, spread the word!

Saturday was interesting. It got off to a bad start right off the bat when I introduced a virus (a trojan actually) to my computer. Yeah, I know the risks and knew what I was doing and gambled anyway. It took me quite a while to get my computer back to normal. When I finally had that functioning well again, we decided to go to Cabela's new store down south of us in Lacey. Cabela's is a huge seller of sports and outdoor equipment, and has always been the catalog of hunters and fishermen (of which I am neither). Recent years has seen them opening retail stores here and there across the US, and our area got one a couple months ago.

Back to the story. I should say we attempted to go to Cabela's, but the fact is we did finally find the place. We were starting to wonder though. Although we were technically not lost, Suzie and I drove in circles for over two hours trying to find a place that we knew was there. Did that make sense? I didn't think so. Their store is right next to the freeway and I've gone by it several times since they've built it. The trouble is, the store is between two exits. It's actually a mile or so past the exit you need to take to get to their store. You can't see it at all from the exit that you use. The next exit is 4 miles down. Add to that the fact that the city of Lacey seems to have gone nuts with traffic circles and we had a lot of trouble. We kept going every which direction. They have traffic circles in multiples in some places, and they're only like one block apart. That gives you several choices in direction. Normally that might not be a problem because all you have to do is look at which direction you need to go and exit out that side right? Well, because it's all growing and new out that way, those places with the traffic circles have the same thing on all sides: Evergreen trees. Kudos for the city planners to be anticipating the growth of the area by putting the traffic circles in, but they are extremely vague when they are out in the middle of nowhere and in multiples like that. Apparently they are trying to eliminate the need for traffic signals. At any rate, it was pretty embarrassing. Lost for hours in the middle of everything. Well we did finally find the place, and although it was a totally beautiful store, we didn't buy anything. Their use of wood in the place was breathtaking. I think it really is the nicest store I've ever seen as far as the construction aspect of it goes. They did go a bit overboard on the stuffed animals (real or not) that they had displayed. They were everywhere. At any rate, the bottom line is, just because you "know" where someplace is, doesn't mean you know how to get there...

Yesterday started out a little better. I went over to Sarah's house and yakked with them for a little while then stopped by Fred Meyer. I was in the market for sheets and hoped to find something on clearance. They always have items on clearance. Every week it's either 40 or 50% off last marked down clearance price, which in itself is a good deal, but this week they have 60% off last marked price. I found two sets of flannel sheets that ended up costing me $13 each. I also happened across a killer deal on a blender. They had an Oster blender on clearance. It was the model with the high-wattage motor, heavy-duty steel gears, and glass tumbler. In other words, it was made to excell at crushing ice (it said so on the package). It even had a different blade design to work better with ice. At any rate, I didn't own a blender and bought one. It ended up costing $12!

I ended up spending a little time out under the hood of my truck yesterday too. I did some more tweaking and tuning and got it running good again! Well, as good as it's going to run anyway, and that's not too bad. Let's put it this way: It's running good enough that I got online and added it back to my insurance. I'll take it for a drive today and see how it's doing. I really want to be able to use it you know? It's a nice riding truck and it hauls things. Sometimes it's nice to be able actually not worry about whether you can fit something in your car or not. It will also be nice to be able to give it a good scrub down and maybe even a wax (gasp!) job. Who knows?

We're talking about a hike up on Snoqualmie Pass somewhere today. Sue told me where it was last night, but I don't remember things too well. I think it starts with a T... How's that?