The Annual Seattle Fremont Solstice Parade

It's hard to put into words what you experience when you attend the Fremont Solstice Fair and Parade in Seattle. The Fremont district is quirky in itself, but every year the best of the weird show up to turn their ideas into substance and their bodies into human art.

This was the first year I managed to make it to the event. Imagine that--Living here all my life and never attending such an event before, but yet knowing full well how zany and cool it is. For whatever reason I just never made it. Maybe there was something else going on that same day, maybe it was not great weather, maybe I just forgot about it until it was too late. Add to that the full knowledge of the madness of traffic to and from the area, and I probably chose not to go several times just for that reason alone.

Yesterday I finally made it.

Although I dearly wanted to take Suzie with me, she had obligations both yesterday and today and couldn't make it. It was truly a photographer's bonanza. Never have I been so inclined to spend all day at an event, just wandering and taking pictures. I guess the timing was right for it considering that I'm so into my photography hobby and the number of pictures I can take these days is practically unlimited. Well, although I could have stayed all day, that was not to be the case. Again I was struck with the same notion that I had during my vacation trip with Sarah last summer when I decided then that she was not anywhere near the adventurous type. Sarah is not a good partner for my kind of adventures. Although I love her dearly she is just not fun to travel with. You can just see it in her face all the time--The pained expression that, punctuated with an occasional burst of interest, reflects the fact that being there at that particular place and time is not convenient or fun. I'll be first to admit that attending some events can be tedious and you have to have a certain attitude to make it pleasurable. Sarah apparently hasn't got the right attitude for anything that takes her out of her comfort zone.

Anyway, back to the event.

Fortunately I know Seattle well, so given the traffic and such, we were able to approach the area from the best direction. The bad part was that because we were less than an hour from the start of the parade we had to park a good mile or so away. That's the trouble with parades and similar events--There are no parking lots like fairgrounds have. It's first come, first served--All residential and city street parallel parking. In the process of walking towards the area of the parade we saw quite a few interesting people. We probably saw a good half dozen naked bike riders go past us at various times, their bodies turned into a painted canvas. By the time we got to the beginning area of the parade where the floats and other interesting performers were staging, the nude bicyclists had just departed. Alas, we were still a half a block away from seeing that strange and colorful visual close enough for pictures. I don't know how many there were, but I'm sure there were a couple hundred easily. Some were painted head to toe, some just had designs and markings, and others were fully nude. Basically full nude to fully painted, and everything in between.

We continued walking and walking, trying to find a good spot to view the parade from. We still had a half hour or so before the parade actually started, and we used that entire time searching. It was at that time that Sarah first became annoyed. She was voicing her desire to get off the street. I think she was totally embarrassed to be walking on the street right in front of everyone, but that was really the only option. The sidewalks were totally jammed and nothing was moving. It's not like we were the only people walking on the street--That's pretty much how it had to be done if you wanted to move. At one point I detoured off the street and onto the sidewalk. That was a mistake. After a little of that I took us back to the street. The temperature yesterday was in the upper 70's, and when you add wall to wall bodies in a crowd scenario it felt like 95. Anyway, we finally found us a decent place and she lightened up a bit. There was actually a nice, wide concrete railing we could hoist our butts up onto and that helped us cool down a bit too. We had to be careful though--It was probably 30 feet down behind us.

Sarah shot about 200 pictures with her camera, and by the time we were finished I had taken 369 myself. The difference was that I was taking them all the time and she only took them from our parade viewing point. My favorite pictures are all the ones that I took before and after the parade. They truly captured some of the freedom of expression that the Fremont Solstice Fair is all about. Thousands and thousands of people, all out there to see or be seen. I only wish I could have stayed there longer. I missed you Suz!

That Travelin' Bone

I don't know what it is about me that does this, but it seems to happen from time to time. I get a taste of something and I let go of my grip on the handrail and jump in with both feet.

This time it seems to be that I have a bit of the Travelin' Bone.

Part of me keeps thinking back to our Harley adventure this last weekend. The smells of the forest, the bright greens of the new spring growth on everything, the boulders, the rivers--You name it. This time of the year is the prettiest time to travel in this state--Especially over mountains or around the mountain highways.

I mentioned this to Suz last weekend: Little by little people that inhabit the greater Seattle/Tacoma area have spread out. I've lived here all my life so I know: What once were rural lands are now connected routes leading from one area of urban sprawl to another. Little by little we have been "removed" from the wilderness that we took for granted growing up here in this beautiful state of Washington, but it's happened in slow motion and many of us haven't noticed. Add to that the effect that media has on us, and we spent all our free time either watching TV or attending "cultural events" or other "happenings" that are wall-to-wall people. Sure, they're both fun, but getting out there past civilization is what we need to keep doing to remind ourselves why we actually ended up living or staying here in Washington State.

Here's another thought: Gas prices have probably been a good thing for the wilderness. There are probably fewer and fewer folks willing to get into their gas-guzzling urban assualt vehicles to explore our beautiful mountain highways. From what I saw this last weekend, it still looks like it did in my memory: Clean and litter-free. I'd like it to stay that way.

You know what though? We still have the ultimate way to explore our state as long as we have motorcycles. The ability to follow a hawk with your eyes as it flies overhead, the ability to smell the pine needles as roll past--Those are great things to experience. Add to that the fact that motorcycles get good gas mileage. One thing they are not (nor will they ever be) are "comfort vehicles" so they require you to stop occasionally (unless you're a masochist), rub your ass, and take in your surroundings. That means you get off, take deep breaths, comment on how beautiful it is there, and reach for your camera.

Yep, got that Travelin' Bone. Let's hit the road!

Just a Blurb

I don't have much to report or yak about today, but thought I'd throw a little bit out there.

For those of you that use Firefox as your web browser, there is a new version out. It's a major upgrade, you might not notice a lot of difference, but there is a lot going on behind the scenes. HERE is a list of features they've put into it. If you don't use it, you should. It's so much better to use than IE that it's ridiculous. Just using Firefox instead of IE can eliminate most chances you would have with malware and creepy crawlies jumping into your computer. If you want it, there's a link to it right here on this page over on the right side. Look... Yeah, over there below the menu. See it?

Suzie and I have been uploading a lot of pictures lately, not the least of which are pictures from our ride last weekend. She took some awesome ones from the back of the bike while we were moving with her smaller camera. She also chronicled Sean's accident Saturday pretty well too, even getting shots of him being loaded into the meat wagon. I'm sure he loves those as a reminder... ha ha.

Okay, I guess I'll go get ready for work now.

The Toppenish Run

Boy, where do you start when you're trying to blog such a great weekend?

I think it's fair to say I was probably more nervous that Suzie was about it--After all, this was her first "biker" event/weekend, and it could make or break how she feels about ever doing it again, right? Here we were both sacrificing a vacation day by taking Friday off, and that's not to be taken lightly beings that we don't get anywhere near the amount of time off that the Boeing people get. I mention that because we were the only "non-Boeing" people in our group. For them taking a day off is nothing.

It was cloudy and cool when we left, but all signals pointed to it getting better as we went. I was starting to have my doubts about the group early on. A few of us met at Steve's house in Puyallup, then rode up to a place out past the Roy "Y" on highway 7 to meet the rest of them. The people we met were sitting in there having drinks, so then the people in our group went in and had drinks. When we finally go going, we ended up stopping for drinks again in Morton. A few miles later we stopped again, this time in Packwood, and this time for lunch (and drinks of course). I was beginning to wonder if we would ever get over the pass...

Well, we did get over the pass, and it was a beautiful ride all the way. We chose to go over White Pass on the way down, and that was good because I really didn't remember the last time I had been across White Pass. It wasn't without mishap, however. One of the guys in our group (I can't remember his name) had a problem crop up. Right as we crested the pass his bike started spewing oil out the breather. Fortunately we were in the very back, but even we ended up with a light dusting of oil on the front of our Harley. Everyone in our group seemed to have trouble stopping when that happened. They stopped too frantically or too quickly or whatever. At any rate, some of them were lucky to get stopped without crashing into each other like idiots. Maybe it was their drinks? After "oil slinger" (as Suzie and I refer to him) got going again, it happened a little ways up the road again, only this time the stops were even more haphazard--This time making us even have to do some power braking. I'd say Suz is lucky I have some riding under my belt because it was like a comedy of errors every time the group pulled over like that.

We finally got to our motel in Toppenish at about 6pm. The ride was pleasant other than what I've noted already. The weather got warmer as we went, and it was about 80 or so in Toppenish when we got there. There were bikers everywhere in town. The event was only about 8 blocks or so from the motel, so it was very easy to find. All of us in our group were staying at the same motel except for two couples that brought their tent/gear with them. They were staying on the grounds of the bike event. What did I think about Toppenish? You can have it. After hitting two stores to buy some beer and having no luck, I finally asked someone why. It turns out that where we were standing was the edge of the Yakima Indian Reservation and there was no beer unless you went farther up the street. Weird. The town has "The City of Murals" as it's slogan. Apparently a town that has absolutely nothing going for it needed something to be proud of, so they have a lot of buildings downtown with full wall murals painted on them. We were going to get a bunch of pictures of them the following day, but due to unforeseen events, that never happened.

I guess a few of the guys got together and decided that we were going to ride out to a place near the Columbia River where there was a replica of Stonehenge. We all met outside the motel at about 11am, all , all amped up for a nice ride in beautiful sunny weather--Most of us in t-shirts. As usual we were in the rear, but this time Suzie had her little Canon pocket camera in hand. As we were headed up a long hill, a passing lane opened up and an opportunity presented itself. Suz and I sped up and slowly passed each of the riders, taking pictures of each of them as we did so. When we finally got to the front, we slowed back up and took pictures of each of them again as they slowly passed us. I haven't seen the pictures yet, but everyone was totally excited about the possibility of great riding shots of them. Action shots of people actually on their bikes are the hardest ones to get! You know what the only downfall was? Nobody got shots of us.

About a half hour further up the road after cresting Satus Pass, guess what happened? Yes, "oil slinger" strikes again. This time we were a little farther back than most folks, but it didn't unfold quite like the previous events. The guys were a little closer together this time, and when they pulled off the road they did it too quickly. They did avoid crashing into each other, but Sean and his wife Tracy took a spill when the front wheel slid out on the shoulder gravel while they were in the midst of panic stopping. Fortunately they were almost stopped when it happened. Sean sustained 3 broken ribs, and Tracy ended up with bad scrapes on her entire left side. She was not dressed for bike riding--She was dressed for summer. Needless to say, we ended up with paramedics, State Patrol, and Sean and Tracy got a ride to the hospital in Goldendale. Although that was a severe damper on our day (not to mention theirs), things came out all right. Sean and Tracy got a ride back to Toppenish by a family friend of one of our group that lived near Toppenish that drove out and picked them both up.

We did end up eventually seeing the replica of Stonehenge. We all took a bunch of pictures of that and had a good time in the sun. At that point, the rest of the riders took off on their own, and that was just as well with us. We both saw what traveling in a group had gotten us--A series of near-misses. Although sometimes a group is good, sometimes it's not. We really enjoyed our solo trip back at a leisurely pace, and was able to make a couple more picture stops on the way.

We did manage to make it to the actual biker event on Saturday night. It was fun! We sat and partied with a few of our group at their campsite a couple times, and wandered around taking pictures and stuff. Funny--We even ran into a prior La Croix Industries employee over there while we were sitting in the beer garden. After a couple hours of listening to the band, watching burnout tire smoke wafting over the crowd, and generally just taking it all in, we went back to the motel and hit the hot tub. It was a very interesting day to say the least.

We left at about 10am for our trip back, bidding goodbye to the remaining members of our group that were still milling about. Apparently Sean had gotten hold of a friend that was coming over with a pickup and trailer to get his damaged Gold Wing that was still at a home nearby where his accident occurred. We rode leisurely toward home, looking for a good breakfast spot, finally stopping at a place in Naches. Sitting there waiting for their food to show up was Mark and Joyce, one of our group. We left there after they did and immensely enjoyed our ride over Chinook Pass, stopping a couple times near and at the summit for pictures. We stopped at the Naches Tavern in Greenwater for a beer, and right after we sat down in the sun of their outdoor seating area, here came Mark and Joyce again! Funny how we think alike eh?

We made it back in plenty of time for Suzie to get to the graduation ceremony of her youngest son, Keith. It took place at Auburn High School, so it was just a walk through the park from my house. Her daughter Rachyl dropped by and accompanied her. Sarah came over right after they left, and the two of us walked over to visit with my folks on their porch. It was a nice day for it.

All in all, a very good weekend. We rode about 500 miles, had excellent weather, and the bike ran flawlessly. Although Suzie had the misfortune of witnessing an accident, she also experienced the good parts of motorcycling. She had a great time and I'm so glad. We both agreed that a new seat for her was in order though. Stay tuned for pictures on our pictures site--There are many coming up!

Happy Friday the 13th

It looks to be a pretty good day at this point. It started off well mainly because I didn't have to wake with my alarm clock this morning. I have the day off, Suzie has the day off, and we're about to embark on a weekender on the Harley. Maybe I should go buy a few lotto tickets to test the superstition!

Taking a trip on a motorcycle is not easy from a luggage standpoint. With a car trip you have almost unlimited space, and with air travel you're allowed an awful lot of space as well. With a motorcycle you're not so well off. Even when traveling alone on a motorcycle it's tough to cram all your stuff on board. Add a passenger and you add twice as much need for space. I spent a while out in the garage last night trying to figure things out and had a little success, but won't really know until Suzie gets here and we start cramming. When you break it down into categories you see where the problems can arise. Tools & supplies for the Harley, footwear, clothing, toiletries, laptop computer (hey, it's the 21st century!) and cameras--Those are the main things. The saddlebags that stay on the Harley don't hold as much as you'd think they would. I added a tool bag onto the back to put stuff in, and that will also help support the bottom of the luggage bag we'll be strapping on and help hold it up off the license plate and tail light. What I should have done (and meant to ages ago) was build a small, detachable rack to go on the back. I'll still keep that on the "to do" list. I also gave it an oil change and washed it. I didn't wash it to make it look nice, but to "de-bug" the windshield from our last outing.

All things considered, I thought that this cartoon was appropriate:


I had a little thing happen to me on the way to work yesterday morning that I found a little odd. I had this desire for a Breakfast Jack from Jack in the Box, so I cruised by there and was pleasantly surprised to find only one car in the drive-up line. I placed my order, and drove forward after hearing the, "Thank you, $1.08 at the window." When he handed me the bag and I paid him with a dollar and a dime, he asked, "Do you want the pennies?"

Say what?

Although at the time I answered no (they just end up on the floor somewhere anyway), the more I thought about it on the way to work, the more it disturbed me. Have we gotten to the point that we so thrive on convenience that accepting our deserved change is something we may not even want to deal with? Imagine it from the restaurant's perspective--That could translate into millions of dollars of free revenue! If all the employees at all the restaurants all over the world asked every customer that and even 1 out of 5 declined their change, that's still huge. The funny thing is, when I got to work and opened the bag, I had my Breakfast Jack in there, but in addition found a sandwich called an Extreme Sausage. I tried it, but didn't really care for it, but at the same time couldn't help but think, so much for their profit from my 2 cents.

This morning I looked out my little window in the entry that points toward the street and saw a shopping cart sitting out there at the edge of the road in front of my car. I chuckled to myself. The Fred Meyer store that's just across the street has signs posted all over warning shoppers that the carts have devices on them that will render the wheels unable to turn if they leave the perimeter of their property. Come on... It doesn't take a genius to see that there is no device anywhere on those carts. They're the same old crappy wheels they've always had. Apparently, they're playing the odds like Jack in the Box by putting signs up:

If it works on even 1 out of 5...

The Highlight of Your Day

This cartoon yesterday kinda hit home. I don't know how many times I've felt this way, but there have been many I'm sure (click it to see it full size):

Fortunately my girlfriend works where I work so I have a little more incentive to proceed past my coffee cup these days.

It's Eating Me...

Sometimes I don't see myself blogging any more. I've done it before. I know I won't do what I did last time and ever delete my blog (I still can't believe I did that), but I can seriously see times when I won't write anything in it for a while. It's weird though--I start feeling guilty about it.

The way my mind works is the whole problem. Did you ever see someone in a movie or in a TV show that starts to talk, and little by little their words get closer together and they start talking faster and faster and their voice gets higher and higher and pretty soonthey'retalkinglikethisandpracticallyscreamingpanicstricken? That's kind of how it works. I think about things, and my mind gets too analytical and critical and one thing leads to another and pretty soon I'm feeling overwhelmed or frazzled or something. Most of the time I can stop it, but sometimes it drags me down into a funk. It's like my mind punishes me because it thinks I'm doing everything all wrong.

My blogging has reached the point it has been at times before--The point where it becomes tedious. I think what it is, is the fact that more often than not it's just a boring diary. My favorite blogging is during times when I become introspective (like this post) or times when I do a poem or other times when something almost literary springs forth from my keyboard. Will I stop it? No. I will always feel the need to jot something exciting or dreary down in words. I think I just need to be more inspired or something. Basically, I'm saying if you don't see anything written here for a few days every now and then, it's one of those times.

Back to my wandering mind--My feelings of frustration and the like. I started thinking about it, and everything in my life seems to be going very well--The best it's been in a long time as a matter of fact. I'm totally in love and feeling great about that, but there's something there in my mind--Creating thoughts of uneasiness and eating at me.

I think I've figured out what it is this time: LaCroix Industries.

I like my "job" as much as I've always liked it, but suddenly (maybe not suddenly, but I just realized it) I don't like my employer any more. There are too many things going wrong there, and too many people playing the "blame game" on each other. I used to think it was just a sort of tension that suddenly existed between the owners and us (me and Suzie) since they found out that we were seeing each other, but it's much more than that. There are times when I wouldn't feel at all surprised if someone went postal there out of frustration and our little company ended up on the news. The owners want the company to grow and adamantly state that it will do so, but yet are doing nothing at all to help it grow except accepting more work that we can't handle. We've exceeded our capacity, we employ too many idiots, and we're using pencils and scratch paper in a computerized world.

I also get so mad at how Suz is being treated in the office. She has worked there like 11 years or so, and has gotten 3 raises during that whole time. I got 3 raises my first year. She does a huge amount of work that encompasses many areas of expertise and what does she get for it? Nothing. The workload of late has put office staffers on overtime just to try to keep up, and what happens? Accusations, finger-pointing, blame--Nothing good is happening in there. I'm getting fed up at watching it unfold before me.

I want us both OUT.

The Saturday Morning Report

Hello readers (and I know you're out there). Suz had to go into work this morning for a few hours, so that blew our Saturday morning all to hell. It's not like we really do anything in particular, but we both really enjoy the feeling of waking up next to each other and snuggling for a while. Who wouldn't? Sitting in our robes and talking over our morning coffee, browsing over web stuff--Whatever. Oh well.

I have a big band-aid on the side of my face where a big bump used to be. That thing on the side of my face practically "spoke" to me every time I'd look into a mirror, it annoyed me so much. It would embarrass me and worry me at the same time. I was about to the point of going in to my regular doctor and not waiting for the appointment I have with the dermatologist next month. I figured that way if it was something that needed lab work or something else it could get taken care of sooner. Like I said, I was about to go to my regular doc, then Teresa started in on me and urged me a little. First it was a text message like, "Did you have that thing looked at yet? You need to do that right away." Then yesterday morning another one a little more insistent. "You go to the doctor and have that looked at NOW" or something similar blurted out from my phone screen, followed by "signed, your pain in the ass ex-wife." She's very much the worrier about stuff like that. After all, she lost her mother to cancer because she ignored signs. Well I did call and got in right after work at 3pm.

The doctor looked at it and said he was positive that it was nothing more than something called a hemangioma, and not cancer or anything to be worried about. Here's what I got off the web this morning:

"A Hemangioma is a mass caused by abnormal growth or formation of blood vessels. Capillary Hemangiomas are bundles of abnormal blood vessels that are close to the top layer of the skin. They may be red or purple in color."

He said, "Tell you what--Let me 'clear the deck' and get some of these other patients out and we can go ahead and cut that off for you. Just sit tight and wait for a little while." I was all for it, feeling good that it was nothing to be worried about. After I was there about an hour or so they finally got down to business. I got the local anesthetic and he and the nurse went to work. Apparently I was quite the bleeder. I guess that makes sense beings that he was trimming off blood vessels to begin with. It was kind of entertaining listening to it all. They had their hands full stopping the bleeding. I was on the table with my head turned to the side and under a paper thing, so there's not much I could do but listen and throw an occasional wisecrack in. When they finally got it under control he cauterized it with some kind of electronic thing and put a large band-aid over it. He was going to put a stitch in it, but didn't need to after all. I'll go back in a week from Monday so he can have another look at it, and by then the lab results will be back on it as well. I was just about to make my escape when the nurse says, "Oh, we almost forgot your tetanus shot." Damn. All things considered, I feel fine today. My face never did hurt one bit, and my arm is only barely sore from the shot. I still haven't peeked under the band-aid though... It's probably pretty ugly.

My mom called me Wednesday and said my dad was back in the hospital. Apparently he had some instances where he couldn't seem to catch his breath so they took him back in, only this time it was right here in Auburn. She said he was going to be in there for a few days while they tested him. I was just about to go visit him after work on Thursday when mom called and said he was back home. I didn't get any details (I'm bad about that) but I guess all is well. Maybe I'll drop by there today and see what's up.

Yesterday I bit the bullet and downloaded the full version of Tetris to my new phone so I could retire the old one. At a whole $5.99 I figured "what the hell" and did it. It came with a demo version of it, and it was little more than a exercise in frustration because you could only play it for like one minute before it would end. Anyway I was glad I did because it helped me pass the time at the doc's office. I guess I'll just use the old one as my kitchen timer now.

Wednesday Morning Confusion

This morning I woke up the second I went to bed. At least that's what it felt like. I also awoke in complete confusion, wondering why my radio suddenly started playing.

Maybe it was something I ate? No, more than likely it was how much I ate.

Suzie and I hit the Old Country Buffet last night. They have an "E-Club" that you can belong to, and they send you a "buy one-get one free" coupon on your birthday. They expire in a short time so we had to use it. I hadn't been to one of those places for years--Probably since before Sarah was born. We had a good time. I believe I ended up going back 3 more times for a new plate after the original one was finished. Although that sounds like a lot, they weren't heaping--They were just different arrays of stuff I wanted to try. Besides the occasional "too this" or "too that" (I'm pretty picky you know) it was all good pretty good.

Let's see what else is going on in my life lately. Hmm.

I've been getting up 15 minutes earlier than I used to lately. I found that I was running just "slightly" short on time every morning. Although most people wouldn't get up anywhere near the time I do if they didn't have to, it works for me. Maybe some day it won't work for me and I'll stop. Anyway, the extra 15 minutes seems to be working out well so far.

I'm kinda worried about a bump on the side of my face that recently sprang up. It's very weird. It's like my body decided almost instantly that there should be a bump there. It started off life feeling all the world like nothing more than an ingrown hair, but one day it got nicked while shaving and it bled and bled. It's about ¼" in diameter and reddish. It doesn't hurt, itch, or otherwise cause any discomfort other than the fact that it's right where I have to shave. Okay, and the fact that it shouldn't be there... Yes, I have an appointment with a dermie doc (I'm not stupid) but it won't be until next month that I can get in. I hate it when my body does something weird--Especially where everyone can see it. It's very embarrassing and it makes me nervous as to what it is.

A few days back I blogged about numbers. Wouldn't you know it that on the very day I mentioned the score I had going on my retired cell phone playing Tetris I lost it all. It's the stupidest thing too. If you accidentally select "new game" instead of "continue saved game" it resets it all to zero, and that's exactly what I did. I think my score was something like 1,790,000 or thereabouts. Oh well... Now I don't feel like playing it any more, which is just as well I guess.

I've been adding lots of pictures to my pictures site, but nothing has been new really. I'm still playing "catch-up" with albums of pictures I already had. I sure like the usability of that site! Along those same lines, I also did a little minor consolidation of my regular website. I basically combined a couple of separate web pages into the main photography page. There wasn't much info on them and there probably would never be, so I just added the info to the main page and deleted them both.

Work is still very busy and the place is still every bit as fragmented as it was. Their "growing pains" have still not been addressed yet, and likely won't be real soon. The "brothers La Croix" are very cautious when it comes to business decisions. The key here though is that they are actively involved in such a thing almost every day. There have been lots of long "planning" meetings during the day between them. Although my job is very busy, I can still keep up with it without overtime. Suzie isn't so lucky. She has been working extra hours every day for a few weeks now, and the end really isn't in sight that I can see.

We're both looking forward to our Harley adventure in just over a week from now and hoping for good weather. I'm predicting a good time--After all, we're leaving on Friday the 13th! It's just for a couple days, so it's no biggee, but still--It's an adventure and it should be fun. It will be Suzie's first "Harley event". Although she has been around a few gatherings of bikers and wannabe's, she still hasn't really been to an event yet. This one in Toppenish might be fun. If nothing else, she will be amazed at the Anecortes Oyster Run in September. That one is HUGE!

Costumed Dogs and Kamikaze Flies?

Suz said a lot of the office people were going into work very early on Friday and mentioned the possibility of us going to work on the Harley, which I thought would be cool of course. I got all set to go and had the bike warming up, but still no Suzie. After calling her to confirm I wasn't going to "just miss" her, I continued on to work. When I got home in the afternoon I called a person that had replied to an ad I had on Craigslist for my old car magazines. He and Suzie showed up at the same time. It was nice to get rid of them and of course also nice to get $50 for them. We decided to unwind from our work week by lying in the sun out back with a few beers.

It was then I noticed the Kamikaze fly.

I don't know if he was flying at supersonic speed and couldn't stop, or had bad vision and just thought he could make it, high on poop fumes or what, but he apparently tried to go through my screen at some time in the recent past. When we found him there with only his head stuck through the screen, there was no telling how long he had been there. Maybe he was just trying to show off for his friends.
"Hey guys, watch this!"
I had a lot of fun trying to capture him with my camera. Do you know how hard it is to take a picture that small?

Saturday morning Suzie and I picked Sarah up and went to Auburn's First Annual Petpalooza animal show. We were going for picture-taking, but it ended up being great fun. The weather was "iffy" but it only rained slightly--Not enough to cause problems. Although there were many types of animals there, it was mostly dogs. There were dogs of all shapes and sizes.

There were big dogs, teeny dogs, ugly dogs, spoiled dogs--You name it. There were tons of them wearing all sorts of odd costumes (I don't know what that says about their owners). There were a lot of dogs doing frisbee catching acrobatics too, and we spent quite a while trying to capture good shots of those. Some of those dogs were amazing! One of my favorite things (as well as Sarah's) were the outfits that were adopting Greyhounds out. They were former racing dogs, and I can honestly say I have never met a dog with a sweeter temperament. They were the most loving dogs I've ever seen. We all loved them!

Suzie and I both took tons of pictures while we were there, and we put many of them on our picture site. Click the link over on the right and check em out!

It's All About Numbers

Everything we do is all about numbers isn't it? We measure everything we do in life by numbers. It's how we know something is better or worse than something else. Numbers. Just try to explain something about anything without numbers coming into play somewhere in the explanation.

I had a few insignificant number milestones over the last week I may as well relate.

• I broke my previous high score of 637 (see the post on October 19th 2007) on my bathroom Yahtzee game. The new score is 641. See? Sometimes sitting in the bathroom for a while can be beneficial.
• I bought a new cell phone a while back, but I still carry the old one to work with me every day. Why? To play Tetris on. New phones don't have games preloaded on them like that one did. Anyway, the current Tetris game I'm playing is at over a million and a half.
• My 1995 Plymouth Neon was bought new in June of 1994. Just this last weekend it rolled over 100,000 miles. I was kinda pissed that I missed it to tell you the truth. I was actually going to pull over and take a picture of it (how anal can you get). Pretty low miles for a car of that age isn't it?
  

How much we make, how fast we go, how many we have, how long it is (oh wait--Size doesn't matter), how far something is--There is no end to how many things that are based on numbers. See? There's another one. Heck, just pick one topic: How much gas costs, how many gallons your car holds, how many miles can you go on it, what octane is it, how long can you drive on one tank... Yada, yada, yada.

Okay, that's enough. I really just wanted to brag about my high scores and pat my car on the back. Oh yeah--I'm also another year older today. Can I stop now? I like it right where I'm at.

Taming Unruly Growth

We spent the afternoon at Suzie's house yesterday dealing with her lawn. She has a big yard, and if you let it get out of hand it's quite the job to get it cut. Between the two of us I think we spent 4 hours or so at it. She spent time weeding while I was edging, then she did edging while I mowed. Yep, that was pretty unruly growth.

There was other unruly growth that we had to contend with, but it was a little more convenient and easy to deal with: My hair. She has offered to cut my hair quite a few times, and after the last haircut I got (it was pretty bad) she was determined to not let that happen again. When we finished her yard work she grabbed all her barber stuff and came to my house. She did an awesome job on it! Too bad for her--Now she's stuck doing it.

Sunday found us on the Harley yet again. We decided to head down to TJ's (one of my coworkers) "vacation" property down on Ohop Lake to pay him a visit. Suz had never been there and he told me at work last week to pop on down if we were out on the bike. Anyway, it was pretty warm out and we foolishly took the liner out of Suzie's jacket. Unbeknownst (is that a real word or just slang?) to us, the closer we got to his place the colder it got. We never got rained on but we did see evidence of rain just ahead of us that still hadn't evaporated off the roadway yet. He was there with his wife & daughter and one of her friends. It was a good visit but we didn't stay long because by the time we got there it was getting a little late and we didn't want to get rained on or anything. Suz made an observation yesterday that all weekend it seems like we had better weather here in Auburn than anywhere around us.

I called my folks' house last night to get the latest on my dad and was surprised by him answering the phone. Apparently, time flew by a little quicker than I thought this weekend. I never did pay him a hospital visit during his stay. I'll swing by this afternoon after work and get the lowdown on everything.

Well, it's the end of a really good 3-day weekend. Now it's back to work time. This is one of those 4-day work weeks that my employer always has the mandatory 10-hour workdays. I seldom stay for any extra hours, but if my job is swamped at all it could happen. It will be my choice though--Not theirs.

Blog Fodder?

Friday night Suzie and I were just getting ready for bed when she remembered she was supposed to check on her son's kittycat to make sure she was indoors while they were out of town camping.
"Oh shoot, I forgot to check on Denny's cat. I'd better run up and do that," she said with a sigh.
She was in her jammies and brushing her teeth when she had that amazing revelation. I was wearing even less than that, but was equally ready for bed. Being the nice guy, but I offered to go with her, so I put some jammie bottoms and some kind of shirt for a jacket and away we went. Just outta town we were stopped by a slow, lumbering freight train.
"Aren't we just something else," Suzie said, "Sitting here in a car at 10:30 on a Friday night in our jammies, watching a train while on our way to check on someone's cat."
"At least we've got blog fodder." I said.
Well, the cat was already indoors, and because Suz went and checked she was able to sleep without worrying.

Speaking of blog fodder, how about this cartoon? It's getting to be a sign of the times:


Okay, let me back up a bit. As soon as I got home from work on Friday I ordered a pizza for us to be ready an hour later. I had just gotten back home and was washing dishes when Suzie showed up. We sat around talking for a bit and I told her we couldn't cook the pizza yet because I was waiting for a phone call from a guy that had a bicycle for sale up on the hill here in Auburn. We had already communicated and he said he'd call when he got home after 6pm. Well, he did call and we zoomed up to check it out. It was beautiful! I ended up buying her a nice (hardly used) Diamondback Topanga mountain bike for $50. It was a steal and way better of a bike than I have. We were feeling pretty good when we came back home with it and went into pizza mode!

Yesterday was beautiful when we got up. The sun was out and it was so nice and warm! We were planning on going to a park here in town for an event they call "PetPalooza" to wander around and possibly take pictures, but it turned out that it was next weekend instead. Now we had 2 choices: Harley or mountain bikes? Well, we opted for black leather and asphalt, and we decided to take a trip over the mountains to see if we could find out where all her offspring were camped.

It was a fantastic ride out. When we stopped at the top of Snoqualmie Pass to pee it was in the upper 60's and sunny! We stopped for a quick lunch in Cle Elum before hooking up with them. They were camped at a beautiful spot about 15 miles farther south. We hung out with them for a couple hours, taking pictures of everything around us, then we headed out to come back home. When we headed over the pass to the Eastern side of Washington the clouds got a little thicker. It's usually the exact opposite. Anyway, the longer we stayed there the more cloudy it was getting, so we decided we should head out. I'm glad we did. All we got hit with was some drizzle once or twice for a few seconds. Because it was such an open area we were riding in we could see the areas of rain--The kind of areas where the clouds are streaking towards the ground--And they were all around us. It was awesome to be able to see all around us like that, but I'm glad we missed all the rain. The closer we got to home the nicer the weather got. You've gotta love that! By the time we got home at about 9pm and about 200 miles later, we were exhausted. Riding at 70+ for that long takes a lot out of you. Seats, wind, noise, temperature, vibration--It all takes its toll.

It was a fantastic day!

Trying to Play Catch-Up

So much time has passed since I last posted anything... It feels weird. I don't know what to cover because I don't really know what I did or didn't do at this point. Let's see if I can cover how and what has transpired since then.

The funeral I attended went without a hitch. It was hot as I knew it would be, but it wasn't terribly uncomfortable. Suz went to her funeral as well, and we planned to get together afterwards. Well, that didn't quite work out as I thought. By the time we finished eating and talking and finally leaving the church where the funeral was held it was 3pm. From there we ended up at The Mint in Enumclaw, where we ended up splitting a few pitchers of beer and a couple of giant plates of nachos between about 10 of us. It was there that I noticed that my phone had a message on it and returned Suzie's call. She was out and about shopping for plants somewhere, but wasn't really in a position to rush over to Enumclaw. Her funeral was only about 45 minutes for her so she was out quickly (way before I called). We rode the Harley out to the south end of Auburn later on and met with some of her kids at a river park. We were both wearing our overalls and looking like summer geeks. It was a great night for a ride. We ended up taking a bunch of pictures of all of us while we were there, and on the way home I opted to take us up on cemetery hill overlooking Auburn. I wanted to see if I could get any good shots of Mt. Rainier. It was fun, but the shots were only so-so.

If memory serves me, we ended going out the next day to a nursery in Sumner called Windmill Gardens & Nursery. Suz was looking for a few specific plants and opted to try their store out. I had never been there before (not much of a nursery shopper after all) and was surprised at how big the place was. While Sue was browsing for plants I was wandering around taking pictures. I got a few pretty good shots while I was there. From there she bought us a great pizza for lunch at Aversano's restaurant. She ended up buying a few more plants at McLendon's Hardware before we finally headed home. We thought about going out on the Harley, but instead decided to hang out and do some sunning out back and relax with some beers and each other's company. It was a great weekend!

I don't really have much to report for the last few days with the exception of last night when I attended the presentation of awards for Sarah's school tennis team. It was a potluck and I managed to get a couple good pictures of the group here and there. While I was there I got a pictures of Sarah's art project skateboard too. It and others from her art class were on display within a glass case in the main hallway.

Today was mom's birthday and she got to "celebrate" it in a strange way: By spending all day in the hospital with my dad. He got his lung cancer operation today and apparently he will be there for about a week. Denise spent the day there with her too, so that was good. I really don't know what to say about all that's going on with him though--I can hear details about stuff like that all night long but can never seem to relay them. When I listen to someone explain stuff like that it just goes in one ear and right out the other with me. The bottom line is, mom is glad to be home this evening. Sue and I went over and visited with her for a while, as did Denis, Kim, and Cassie. Mom & dad's weird dog Jake was finally starting to warm up to Suzie by the time we left. When we first got there he was totally frantic and skittish. That's okay though... There were plenty of cats there to pet.

The picture site that I subscribed to a few days ago is now mine and Sue's together. I decided that she needed a place to showcase her pictures too, and with no limitations on storage or anything we'd might just as well share space. If you click on that link you'll see us.

The Saturday Morning Report

Well, summer seems to have finally arrived! It's been nice and warm the last couple days and Suzie and I are just eating it up. We're both sun lovers (or is it just heat and skimpy clothing?) and we look forward to this time of year so much.

I rode the Harley to work Thursday and Friday both and was the only one of the four of us at work that own motorcycles to do so. Kinda weird. I'm sure Harry would have ridden if he had been at work, but he was off both days. He rides an old Kawasaki cop bike that he bought used. I call it his Kopasaki.

Sue has been working a lot of overtime all week, and that included starting earlier and staying later most days. She decided it would be cool to ride in with me yesterday morning on the Harley all decked out in her leather finery. I agreed it would be most excellent.

Well... Not so fast. When she brought up the subject to Bernie (the office manager of the two LaCroix brothers) he "started in" on her. All she wanted him to do was to let her in from the shop side as soon as he got there. See, when he or his brother, Phil, come in and open up the office the shop area is already functioning and work is underway. They'll come in, shut off the alarms, and maybe make it back to the shop door quickly or maybe not. Sometimes they get sidetracked by a phone call or email or any number of things. She just wanted him to be aware that she would be in the shop waiting to go to work and to let her in as soon as he got there. Well, he started flipping her all kinds of grief.
"I'm not about to start altering my schedules to suit my employees," he said (or something similar). After more ranting and raving she finally said "Okay, okay--Never mind" and went back to what she was doing. The bottom line is that the two brothers are "old school" and have a severe problem with letting the distance between themselves and their employees get too slim. They want to maintain absolute power at all times. This seems to be why they have such a problem with Suzie and I seeing each other. They see it as nothing but trouble for productivity, creating distractions and all kinds of things. They hate "us".

Anyway, back to the ending of the little story: When I came to work yesterday morning I glanced up at the alarm lights and was surprised to find them already "winking out" one by one at 5:55. That meant that one of them was already in the office, unlocking and turning things on. At exactly 5:59 Bernie came blasting out of the door, looking around, and said a hasty good morning and went back in. I couldn't believe it. It was as if he actually hoped or expected to find Suzie sitting there so he could chew her and/or us out! It was obvious that that was exactly what he was doing--You could tell by the way he popped out like a prairie dog and looked around--He never does that. What an asshole. When Suz and I were talking about it last night I told her, "I wonder what they would do if we both gave our notices at the same time?" We both got a good laugh out of that, and Sue postulated that both of us departing the company at the same time would most definitely create a problem. Although we are a couple of people there that do a lot of things to keep the business running smoothly, her departure would send some serious ripples through the office. There would be some serious problems if we both left--No doubt about that. The more I think about it, the more I want to do it just out of spite...

I got home after work yesterday and had no beer, so I parked the Harley and hopped in the car to take care of that. When I got back I enjoyed one while I went over my email and stuff. At that point, I had to get back on the bike--It was just too nice out! I did a little ride around town and filled up the gas tanks. At $14 (it uses premium) it's sure a lot easier to take than filling up a car is! On the way home I stopped at my folks' house and yakked with them for a little while. When I got home Suzie was already there, sitting out on my patio in the sun, and after I stripped down I joined her. We had a good time laying out there talking, drinking beer, and "misting" each other with a spray bottle of water. When we decided it was time to eat, we opted to walk uptown to have burgers at the Spunky Monkey. It was a beautiful night for a walk! On the way back we stopped at my brother's house and visited with them for a while. It was a great evening.

Because each of us have funerals to attend today (which is extremely weird) she opted to stay tonight instead of last night so we would have plenty of time to get all the stuff done that we need to do. It's going to be quite the weekend... Forecasters are showing mid to upper 80's here.

In the Blink of an Eye...

...Weekend plans can change. Suzie and I were planning to wander around the Monroe Swap Meet (it's BIG) this Saturday, a day when it is supposed to be pulling a total weather swing the other direction from what we're used to. They're saying low to mid 90's this Saturday, and we've been lucky to have even 60 degrees lately.

I talked to my mom the other day and she asked me if I was going to Buckley on Saturday.
"Sue and I are going to the Monroe Swap Meet on Saturday. What's going on in Buckley?" I asked.
"Gloria's funeral." she said. Gloria is Melinda's mother who died March 27th.
"Hmm... That's odd," I said, "she never told me about it."
She probably just forgot, or maybe she didn't tell me on purpose because she knows how much I hate funerals, but either way, I feel I should go. My dad would say, "I didn't get an invitation so I'm not going!" I could hear him hollering that in the background when my mom was on the phone with me. "He didn't get an invitation? I wouldn't go. I wouldn't go." I hate talking to my mom because it's never just her "on the phone". It's him too, listening and adding to everything she says. So anyway, I'm going to a funeral on Saturday instead.

Suzie was going to go with me, but then came news from her camp that she had a funeral on Saturday too! A close family friend suddenly died on Tuesday and they're having a funeral for her this weekend. My funeral is at 1pm in Buckley and her funeral is at 2pm in Covington. We're going to hit our own respective funerals and then she'll probably join up with me after hers. I'll probably still be in the area of the funeral drinking beers or something with all the family members. Not a good way to spend a 90+ degree day, but oh well.

In other news, I joined a picture-hosting site yesterday called SmugMug. It's the best out there and photographers swear by it for speed, usability, and everything. It's a pay site, but it's worlds away better than anything else out there from what everyone says. From what I've seen I believe it. It will allow me to post my pictures with no limitations. Unlimited storage, bandwidth, and picture size. I also posted a new addition to my personal website: A photography page. Gone is the page on nudism (there wasn't really anywhere I could go with that one) and now there is new info covering my return to the world of photography. The link to my pictures is in the menu on my photography page, but I'll give you a quick jump to it here over on my blog menu as well. So far only pictures of ballooning in Walla Walla have been posted. I'll get the rest up soon enough... Keep watching.

A Milestone

It occurred to me yesterday at work that I passed a milestone Monday evening without realizing it. The act I performed was not itself a significant thing, but rather the fact that I have never done it. You'd think that by this time in my life I had done most things, right? I will be 52 soon and I sat at work and wondered how I had managed to slide through life without ever being exposed to the opportunity.

Monday, for the first time in my life, I drove a riding lawnmower.

Yes, my life is somehow more complete now. A thing I can add to my long list of accomplishments on this earth. I have driven practically everything there is to drive that is powered by an engine, and even things without. Trucks and cars of all sizes, backhoe, grader, ambulance, cop car, school bus, motorcycles of all shapes and sizes... The list goes on and on.

Thanks Suzie, for letting me mow your lawn and thereby allowing me the pleasure of putting another "notch" in my lifelong resume' of accomplishments. I'm sure it won't be the last time.

The End of a Great Weekend

Suz and I got home this afternoon after spending a fantastic weekend together exploring a little culture in Walla Walla. I drove about 575 miles and took about 500 pictures.

After we got moving yesterday after our nap, it became even more apparent that we had overextended ourselves during the car show pictures. Both of us were somewhat rubber-legged in the thigh area. As a matter of fact, we still are. My legs haven't ached this much since I don't know when. Anyway as I was about to say, after relaxing for a while we got ourselves together and took off once again for the balloon/fireworks finale over at the fairgrounds. We got an awesome parking spot right near the gate in a "no parking" zone that had only just then been commandeered by the masses. I didn't even hesitate to pull in behind all the cars in front of me that instantly filled the previously bare side of the street. We watched in amusement as the cars behind us did the same. When we got out of the car it was obvious that this was going to be one huge mob of people. What brings it out--The fireworks or the colorful balloons being lit by their burners at night? We lucked out and got a great spot to sit up in the grandstand right in the middle. We no sooner finished chowing down a couple of great Italian sausage sandwiches when showtime arrived.

The balloon event wasn't nearly as cool as the one earlier in the day but it was fun nonetheless. There were only about a dozen balloons at the night event. Neither Suzie or myself knew what we were doing when we started snapping pictures. We each took a huge pile of pictures of both the fireworks and the balloons. We kept changing lenses and settings, trying to get the perfect combination of things to make a great picture. One thing we really needed but didn't bring was our tripods. Nevertheless, we ended up with some pretty interesting shots. Here are a couple:

When we got back to our room and perused our newly taken pictures, we weren't nearly as pleased as we are some of the times we're out snapping away, but there were some pretty good ones. When it was bedtime we did exactly what we had thought about doing: We took the mattress off the bed. Sleeping on just the mattress on the floor turned out to be one really good night of sleep. It made a huge difference!

When we awoke this morning it was a little cooler than it was yesterday but still beautiful looking. Instead of the whitish, high-cloud day we had yesterday, we had a blue sky with floating clouds in it. In addition it was a little blustery. It was pretty obvious to us that there would be no more balloon launches that day. After all, wind is critical when you're in a balloon--It has to be in your favor.

We checked out at about 10:30 for our drive back home, but before getting on the freeway we investigated Washington State Penitentiary, Washington's only federal prison. While we couldn't get too close to it, we did manage to get a few good pictures thanks to long lenses and such. Here's a sample:

The whole thing was surrounded by more concertina (razor) wire coils than I have ever seen in my life. It's hard to tell how high the coils actually are, but it's safe to say that it's not a fence that anyone is going to be going through. This shot taken with my 300mm zoom will give you an idea. I really don't know how tall the fence actually is, but it's pretty tall.

We stopped at a really cool nursery right along that freeway near the town of Mabton. We spotted it on the way out and kept an eye out for it. It was totally cool!

The place had lots of rusty old cars placed strategically here and there, and had an "Old West Town" that they were in the process of creating as a tourist stop. We each took over 100 pictures there. Again, here's a sample:

We finished off our weekend with one last stop at Subway for dinner, and we enjoyed it alongside a nice river under sunny skies. I great ending to a weekend for sure!

Walla Walla Balloon Stampede

What a beautiful town! We've been wandering around it all day and Suzie and I both agree that we picked a most awesome time to visit. All the trees are blooming all over town and the weather is nice. It's a town that is very clean and friendly, and you can tell by the age of the trees that line the neighborhood streets that the homes and streets have been well-maintained for a long time.

Our drive here last night was a nicely laid-back journey with only one stop for dinner in Selah. The weather was nice and clear all the way and we got here just as it got dark. I guess the only thing we saw during the drive was the deer that ran across the road one car up from us as we neared town here.

Okay, I'm not going to lie--Our motel is kind of a dive. Reservations were sort of last minute so we didn't get to be very choosy. It's clean and well-equipped, but the bed... Hoo boy. We're actually considering putting the mattress on the floor tonight! The wireless internet works really great, and it has the usual amenities like fridge, microwave, etc. The hot water is barely adequate but that's okay if I still get the pleasure of ogling a freshly showered babe wrapped (barely) in a wet towel...

We got up early this morning for the big balloon event that started at 6:30. We were near it at a Safeway getting some coffee when we saw one of them go up.
"Our luck that will be the only balloon and we just missed it." I said sarcastically.
I couldn't have been more wrong. When we got there this is the scene that greeted us for a solid half hour. It was a huge mass of balloonists and spectators. The coolest thing was that people could get right up close and personal if they wanted to as evidenced in this shot:

It really was an excellent opportunity for people to see what makes ballooning what it is. We got to see them go through the whole thing from unfolding them and filling them with air via fans to heating them up and taking off. It was a photographer's dream!

After that ended, we took a couple-hour leisurely stroll up and down the main drag. We hit the Farmer's Market and a few stores, including Hot Poop, a great record/music store. Naturally, I had to get a t-shirt from them. After our stroll we went back to the fairgrounds for some more picture-taking, only this time is was a car show. We had a great time taking interesting shots like this:


The car show finished up with a visit to a horse race right next door. It was great. One thing about all those car shots we took (I took 200 and Suz took almost 300): We both needed a nap. Those pictures involved a LOT of deep-knee bends!

The cool thing about this trip? It's not over yet!

Scurrying Around

It's near the end of the evening and I'm just putting the finishing touches on packing for the weekend. I'm not very good at things like this, so just to counter any unknowns I usually pack too much stuff. I can pack real light if I have to, but when I'm traveling by car I usually say, "what the hell" and throw it all in there.

Suzie and I have been so looking forward to this little excursion all week. It's not the destination--After all, most people don't even know where Walla Walla is--Rather, it's just the adventure of it. It's our first real trip anywhere together. We're both sure we're going to have fun, even if the balloon festival is a bust (excuse the pun) due to weather or whatever. It's something we both want and need. It's a way for us both to have a mini-vacation away from LaCroix Industries.

We're both equally excited as far as the balloon festival thing goes too. We're both predecting some pretty awesome photo opportunities. Many of them will be in low light conditions probably, and those might be the most dramatic looking of all.

I have been emailing a guy that lives up in Duvall all week long about getting a part for my truck that he had advertised on Craigslist. One thing or another keeps coming up and I still haven't gotten to go up and get it. There has been contact, but it's sporadic at best. Screw him. I'm finished. Add him as a reinforcement to my adage that Craigslist people are DEADBEATS. I have things for sale also and have had numerous contacts in the last week and a half. Have I had anyone actually show up? Hell no!

Well, back to getting my stuff ready. Maybe I'll do my next blog post from a motel bed in beautiful downtown Walla Walla, Washington next time!

I'm Disgruntled Again

Not about my life. No, I am happy with the way my life is going (I had a very in there preceding happy, but decided my job could be better.)

I'm talking about web stuff this time.

I'm going to close down my Rix Pix blog. It is clearly lacking direction and results. What did I have for direction to begin with? Hmm. I guess when I started it I thought there would always be a clear winner to showcase from pictures I had taken during the week. You know what I've found? There never is. It's always something:

• Not enough pictures and having to "settle" on one
• Too many pictures and not being able to choose one
• Dealing with dimensional size limitations (the blog only shows a certain size, and even when you click it to show it full size, which size should I make the full size actually be?)

I know I'm too picky. I guess I really need to have more of a photographer's showcase site instead of a blog that shows one here or there. I'll keep looking and thinking about it. In the meantime, expect Rix Pix to disappear any day now.

The other source of my disgruntledness (is that a word?) is my Harley site. I like the site and all, but I've been meaning to have all these pictures and things put up there and I don't know how I want to present it. I chronicled the entire upgrade process of my Harley last winter/spring, but when I put it all on the web I didn't like it and pulled it. There it sits. Again, I guess I'm thinking too much about it. Remember the old saying: K.I.S.S - Keep It Simple Stupid. That's what I need to do I guess. I'm also toying with a "timeline" sort of a layout regarding the bike. Just basically have a running page that is paragraphed by date. That way I can just add an entry any time I need to. That may be more doable.

In the meantime, I'll keep thinking about it too much and not getting it done.

A Little of This... A Little of That...

That pretty much covers my weekend.

Friday is an easy one to report on--Not much happened there. I had a good day at work except for the stern "talking-to" I got from the boss... Basically for being too happy when I ring the office bell and announce incoming things like UPS arrivals and such. He thought the way I did it was basically like I was flipping the office workers off each time I did it. Well, can you guess who I'm flipping off now Phil? Suzie came over after work and we had a nice dinner from the oven: Whole chicken and baked potatoes. We finished off the evening by watching the first disc of Gangs of New York.

Saturday was a crappy day, weather-wise. We ended up driving around doing some shopping and other stuff. It was fun, but it was your typical mundane stuff. At one point Teresa called, frustrated (and rightly so) about Sarah. While she was on the phone I repeatedly had to hold the phone out from my ear because there was so much yelling going on between them. Whew. It was all about Teresa saying no to Sarah about going camping with her boyfriend. Supposedly there were to be adults, but it turned out that the "adults" were his older brother and who knows who. She said no and Sarah screamed bloody murder about her changing her mind. I told her no and keep saying no. I'm glad she did.

Yesterday was a much nicer day. I did some laundry and went out to the library to pick up a couple movies that were waiting for me. I took my camera with me in case anything came to mind while I was out and about. After I left there, I went by a local spot and bought some beer. I was feeling in a good mood and decided I'd swing by Teresa and Sarah's to see if anyone was bleeding or dead. Apparently Sarah had just left, but Teresa was out back wandering around. We talked a bit and all was well between them again. Whew. I asked her if there were any birds in either of her birdhouses on the outside of the garage yet, and she said there was. I got out my camera and tripod to see if I could catch some pictures of them. At that point I offered her a beer and we stood around talking and taking pictures and drinking beer for a while. It funny--Now that I think about it, we had a strange "distance" thing going on. Although we enjoyed visiting with each other, we kept a barrier of respect (for lack of a better explanation) between us as we yakked. We talked about a bunch of stuff: Sarah, the puppy, birds, school, Suzie (she's fine with her BTW), flowers, Sarah's boyfriend, senior pictures--You name it.

When I left there and went back home I got a text from Suz. She came over and we went out picture taking. We had a great time taking pictures at a local skate park. It was a beautiful day, and the place was pretty busy. We were almost celebrities it felt like. Boys are only too happy to have someone with "real" cameras taking pictures of them. The posing and showing off for action shots was the order of the day. We each got some great ones! Here's a sample:


From there we went over to another park and took a nature photography walk, stopping for closeups of plants and stuff. Finishing up and awesome day, we decided a pizza was in order.

Nicely done for a Sunday... They tend to be boring sometimes. Not yesterday!

A Room Full of Me?

It's gross really when I think about it, but I'm pretty sure all the "dust" in my bedroom is me. I mean that literally--Without putting it under a microscope, I looks to be dried skin. Eww! When I had that epiphany last night, I was grossed out. I'm still grossed out...

A couple days ago I happened to be wearing black socks and was getting ready to leave to go somewhere. I was walking around the bed, making it like I usually do. When I finished, I noticed my socks were totally dusty from accumulation of dust under the bed. After all, I've lived here two years and the bed has never moved, nor can the vacuum access it. Last night I decided it would be a good time to move the bed and other furniture and vacuum under it. Before I did so, I stripped the bed to put new sheets on, and when I did a cloud of dust came out of it. I guess I had seen it from time to time but never really "noticed" the correlation or something. Last night it hit me like a ton of bricks because the sun was streaming in the window as I was doing it. It looked like I should be wearing a gas mask in there when I started banging on the bed!

Anyway, my theory is that it may have a lot to do with the fact that for so long I took showers at night before getting into bed, and they tended to be longer, hotter showers because of it. That can make for some seriously dry skin. I don't do that as much any more. One thing's for certain though--I'm going to keep better tabs on things up here. I can just hear the surgeon general's new warning: Caution: Breathing Rick might cause respiratory illness in weakened immune systems. Please use appropriate filtration."

Eww, that's creepy...

In other news, I finally put my huge pile of car magazines up for sale on Craigslist last night. I need to start squaring things away lest I start looking like some sort of a hoarder. I already have one interested person that wants them at $80. Not bad when you consider the fact that I got them all out of a recycling dumpster where someone had dumped them all at once. For a while I was selling them on Ebay, but that got to be very tedious. Yes, you can make a lot more money doing it that way, but it would take forever. I just want em gone.

Last but not least, I wanted to issue a correction to something I mentioned a few days ago when I was on the subject of "razor wars" between Schick and Gillette. I forgot about existence of the Gillette Fusion which has 5 blades. I wonder how that can possibly work if Schick's 4-blade one didn't. Oh well, like I said--I still like my old Trac II...

It's hard to believe it's May already, and look--It's Friday!

A Weekend Away

Suz was over last night and I introduced her to the fine, upscale taste of a fine genuine Johnsonville brat, right off the BBQ. I know they are highly upscale and quite frankly, I wasn't quite sure whether or not she was ready for such a taste treat, but I pulled it off anyway. Actually, I almost didn't even get to buy them when the people at the store saw how I was dressed. I had to show them my Harley Visa card so they knew I had enough class before they let me buy them.

Suzie's reaction? "Different..." "Good..."

Lucky I didn't go for the hedgehog liver/rutabaga pate'. That might have been a bit much.

After dinner we were talking and somehow got onto the subject of an upcoming balloon festival in Walla Walla called the 34th Annual Balloon Stampede (and yes, that's a real town to those of you not from around here, made semi-famous in this old Daffy Duck cartoon). She mentioned it and I told her that I had also been looking at it the other day. Well, one thing led to another and we decided that we would both love to go and wander around taking pictures of everything, so that's exactly what we're going to do. May 9th, 10th, and back on the 11th, we'll drive over (too far for our first bike trip) for our first weekend getaway together. Lucky I thought about reservations while we were sitting there because most of the motels are already booked. Had I waited much longer there probably would have been nothing left to pick from.

We're looking forward to it already--A weekend of acting like young (I said acting) lovers, photo geeks, and tourists.