Here We Go Again

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Reluctant Mechanic

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

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

That part of me won out.

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

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

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

At least that was good.

Sunday Afternoon Sliding Away...

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

Great.

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

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

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

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

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

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

I guess that's life.

At Last... My Favorite Day

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

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

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

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

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

A Winnie the Pooh Day

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

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

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

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

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

The Rise and Fall... And Rise Again?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Today things are different.

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

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

The Art of Acquisition

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fast-forward to two days ago.

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

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

"Will this one do?" she asked.

Happy Sunday Morning!

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

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

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

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

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

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

I Love a Good Deal!

But then everyone does, don't we?

As I have already explained, I had ordered a SD card for Sarah's new camera last weekend. Days went by and no communication from the company about anything. When I finally contacted them, they explained that it was backordered. Wasn't that nice of them to keep me so well informed? I thought so, and to show my appreciation I canceled the order and chewed them out.

That put me online yesterday morning, and that's where I first found this deal.

Staples.com had a 2 gig card on there for 19.95 with an "instant savings" of 5 bucks, bringing it down to 15 bucks! I was just about to hit the place order button but stopped. With shipping and tax it ended up being about 23 bucks. I paused and closed the browser window. I decided to stop by their Kent store on the way home. I figured they oughta be about the same and that way I wouldn't have to wait for it. Imagine my surprise when I walked up to the rack and there it was with a price of 49.95 attached to it! I couldn't believe it. I mean, I'm used to disparities between stores and online, but come on--That much?! Well, a store employee came up to me about that time and I tried my best to avoid venting on him--After all, he didn't do anything wrong. I may have let a little frustration and color escape my lips, but then he saved the day:
"We do price matching," he volunteered.
"For your own company's prices? Online?" I asked, making sure we had the story straight.
"Sure."
Well, he couldn't believe it either when he carried the item over to the computer, went online to their site and plugged in the SKU number. There it was: 15 bucks. So, he was my hero... He took me up front and did the price match and I walked out of there a happy man with my deal of the day.

I wrapped up her camera and the card and took it over to their house but nobody was home. I guess that's getting to be pretty common. Of the last 5 or 6 times I've "dropped in" over at their house it's been that way. As I told Suzie last night, I guess it's another era ending. Now they both have other places to go and ways to get there. I'll try again tonight, but I'll make it a little closer to dinnertime.

In other news, it would appear that Bruce knows about Suz and I at work too. I was working on something back at Elaine's table and he came walking up.
"Well, did you tell Elaine yet?" he asked.
"Huh? Tell her what?" I asked, trying to figure out what he was talking about.
"You musta forgot that you gave me the address of your blog." he laughed.
I laughed. "Oh yeah, that's right." I said. I told him that we had indeed told her, and brought him up to speed on the events of the last day or so. He thought it was pretty cool that we were both together. I couldn't agree more. Every time she visits it's like we haven't seen each other in a month.

I suppose it's just a matter of time before more coworkers happen to notice things though. We're reckless!

The Big Surprise

Boy, sometimes you just never know how people are going to react.

My day yesterday was very ordinary. Not too busy, but I found plenty to keep me busy. I spent most of the day working down in Elaine's area of the shop. Sue and I had discussed telling her about us and by afternoon still had not done so. There was one "almost" when she came back to where I was working and about that time Elaine left and another coworker drifted nearby.
"Darn, just when I get here Elaine leaves and he shows up." She said, pointing to the nearby coworker. I didn't know exactly what she was going to do because we still hadn't really planned anything.

It was almost quitting time when Suzie came back again and was puttering around where I was sitting at a workbench. Elaine was about 10 feet to my right when Sue leaned over and kissed me a couple times.
"Shoot, she wasn't looking!" Sue said in mock frustration. Obviously, we needed to be a little more direct.

"Elaine..." I called, waving my hand and motioning her toward Suzie and I.
"Did you know Suzie and I were 'an item'?" I asked.
She had a sort of blank look on her face until I turned back to Sue and kissed her a couple times and we both smiled.

Elaine instantly blushed red and started crying!

Sue left to go back up to the office up front and I asked, "Elaine, are you okay?"
"I just want everyone to be happy!" she said, still blushing and weepy, but very happy.

At first she thought it was a sort of random event, but I explained to her that Sue and I had discussed it and decided that we wanted to include her in on our little secret. When I told her that she was the only one we wanted to be in on it and share it with us she was very moved. Sue and Elaine and I all work slightly staggered schedules so they are there longer than I am, and after I left, Sue went back over and talked with her a little bit more about it too.

Wow. Neither of us expected quite that much of a reaction from her. I talked with her a bit afterwards right before I left for home, explaining a few of our details. Suz came by my house later on when I was cooking dinner and talked for a minute before leaving to go to a church meeting near her house. We both agreed that her reaction sort of took us by surprise.

Needless to say, that was quite the event. Now there are three of us that are in the know. All of us will have the Mona Lisa smirk!

Random Tidbits of my Monday

It was a good day. The drive to work was nothing--Even though there was snow on the ground. Usually people here go whacko and start calling a little half inch dusting of snow "Winter Storm 2008" or something like that. Even though we're fairly far north here, due to geographic features in the area we on the western side of the state don't usually get much snow. Due to that and the fact that many people that live here came up from California, many people don't know how to drive in snow, and that creates quite the chaotic situation when we get some.

Sarah's new camera showed up yesterday just like the tracking info said it would, but I haven't given it to her yet. I think I'll try to wait until the memory card shows up. If that's not going to happen soon I'll re-think it.

I got a hankering for meatloaf during the course of the day so I stopped by a couple stores and fixed myself up with what I needed. When I decided to have meatloaf, I have to jump right into it when I get home because of the prep involved. When I got the meatloaf finished and ready to put in, I cut up a bunch of potatoes for fried potatoes. When that was all done I texted Suzie and invited her over for dinner. My timing was excellent because she had just left work. She never needs an excuse to come here, but likes to get an invite anyway. Hell, who wouldn't? It assures you that you're really wanted. You know how it is--People will say, "Come by ANYtime!" but in reality they go "whew" when the door closes behind them. Not so with Suzie. If I go "whew" when she leaves, it's for a totally different reason! Love that "whew" factor...

Right after I finished prepping my meatloaf and stuff I got a call from Teresa wondering if I had any gas in a can. Apparently she was driving Sarah's car over to Sarah's friend's house to pick her up and ran out of gas. Ha, she should know better! She totally knew it was that low but thought she could make it to picking her up and then hitting a gas station. Wrong! Anyway, I have a gas can but didn't have any gas. She had almost made it to the people's house when she called and was walking there as she called. About the time I told her I didn't have any gas she had just gotten there and was telling them what had happened. I guess they handled it at their end because I didn't hear back.

Right before that I got a short call from my dad, thanking me profusely for fixing his slide projector. It's funny when he does that. I don't know if he has a momentary lapse of "feelgood" or my mom is standing behind him with a rolling pin poised over his head. Either way, it was nice of him.

Suzie and I decided last night that we should tell Elaine about us. We both like Elaine and she is such a good friend that we felt that if we were going to share it with anyone it should be her. She's practically family to me, and we've shared many stories and details of each others' lives over the years. How and when we tell her remains to be seen though.
We both feel the same though--Like when you have something amazing going on inside you and you want to jump up on a fence and shout it to the world, you know? Maybe part of you wants the scream it and part of you wants to keep it private so you have something to smirk about. That's probably what Mona Lisa had on her mind when she posed for her famous portrait.

You think?

Blah, it's Monday.

Okay, I don't really feel too blah... I'd just really rather not have to go to work today, especially because I awoke to find snow on the ground. Just what I need to make for a nice drive to work. Not! Okay, there is also the fact that I woke up at about 2am and never really got back to sleep.

I was having a pretty good start to my Sunday yesterday until the phone rang. It was my dad. When he and my mom came over to Sarah's party on Saturday night, he was dragging his old slide projector. The on/off switch was totally broken and he was wondering about the possibility of fixing that. The funny thing is, he was directing all of this dialog towards my brother. He's a smart guy and all, but fixing something like that is my forte' not his, and I'm pretty sure my folks know that. When they got ready to leave, I suggested my dad leave the projector here and I'd take care of it.
"No, that's okay--I've can take it apart. I've got all the stuff I need to take it apart." he said.
My brother and I made eye contact with each other, rolling our eyes. Both of us noted that he said "take it apart", not fix it. My mom told him to go ahead and leave it for me to look at, but he was adamant and took it with them when they left.
Well, as I said before, the phone rang yesterday. When I heard his voice on the line I knew exactly what was up.
"What are you doing today?" he asked.
"Nothing yet that I know of" I admitted, knowing what was coming.
"I got that thing apart but I can't see what the wires are going to," he said. He just kept repeating himself over and over like he usually does. I told him to bring it over.
When he showed up, he had taken all the screws out of the bottom of the unit, whether they were actually holding the bottom on or not (most were not) which meant some of the components that should have been still anchored to the base were now rattling around. He had all the screws and nuts in a plastic bag and poured them out on the table.
"I don't know where this spring came from" he said over and over, "When I opened it up it just came out."
To make a long story shorter, he had parts neither he nor I knew where they came from or how they fit, parts that were missing, and after all that he still didn't even have the unit all the way apart yet at this point. I spent almost an hour just analyzing the fit of everything and making sure I could get it together without damaging anything. When I had determined that it was doable, we went out and bought a switch at Lowe's that would be a suitable replacement. After cleaning everything I put it all together and checked it functionality. All was well. This projector is a unit from the 50's so it is almost totally mechanical with linkages and stuff going everywhere that interlock with each other. At least it's working again. They have a LOT of slides at their house. The total time was about two hours... Probably roughly twice what it would have taken me to do it if I had started the job myself.

Oh well... That's what happens when you're the "handyman" son.

A Successful Gathering

I waited until the last minute and that's entirely my fault. I don't know why I thought that Teresa would have some sort of party for Sarah's birthday. I should know by now.

Our family events are never very many people, but if the few "regulars" do show up it turns out to be a great gathering of folks, and just the right size. Such is the case yesterday. I called Friday afternoon for an event that was to happen the next day at 5pm so I didn't expect miracles, but to my delight we got almost 100% turnout.

To make it easy on myself, I relied on quick-fix foods. A few days earlier I had bought a 100-piece shrimp cocktail, and lucky for me I remembered to take it out of the fridge beforehand (they come frozen). I took it out for about 3 hours on Friday and about the same yesterday, and even then it was just barely defrosted. There were still some ice crystals here and there. Whew, dodged a bullet on that one. I also added two Papa Murphy's pizzas--One of the new chicken/bacon/artichoke variety that I had just bought for the first time recently, and one classic half pepperoni half Canadian bacon/pineapple. Guess which one the kids went for (stupid question)? I also had some sweet and sour meatballs in the crock pot. I only had bottled water for the younger folks to drink, but other than energy drinks, that seems to be about all they drink anyway. There was plenty of wine and beer for the older folks. Teresa brought the cake and ice cream with her.

We ended up with my sister and her daughter (Sarah's age) and her son and his girlfriend. Also, my brother and his wife and daughter (also Sarah's age). A little while later my parents showed up, and much to everyone's surprise and relief, my dad was very tolerable for a change. Oh, and of course, Teresa and Sarah too. That was a good size group of folks.

I had a good fire in the woodstove, had streaming music from Radio Paradise running through my stereo, the house was clean, and Mona (my mannequin's new name--Like it?) was dressed in a new Harley shirt. Halfway through the event we even turned the traffic light on, and that hardly ever gets used. See? Things were just clicking nicely.

I had Sarah bring her laptop with the excuse that I was going to reinstall her printer driver. I don't know if she wondered about that or not, but in reality I wanted to see how it fit into her new laptop bag. She loved the new bag and so did everyone else, and the laptop was a perfect fit. I also gave her a $100 check inside her birthday card. I don't recall what she got from everyone else because I was partying and mingling and enjoying myself. I told her that she had another present coming that would be in on Monday. That is her new digital camera. I also added to that and ordered a 4-gig memory card for it the other day, but I have no idea when that will show up. I think I'll try to hang onto the camera until that shows up. It only makes sense. She's going to need that 4-gig card with a 7 megapixel camera.

Boy, it's hard to believe she's 17 years old already!

Friday Morning!

Friday means many things to many people, but for the most part it means the last day of the work week. For me it means I won't get to see Suzie until Monday. I'll see her at work today of course, but she and her family members are all taking a trip to Leavenworth for the weekend to play in the snow.

I guess it's a simple case of new love withdrawals.

It's pretty cool working together and having nobody know about us. She came out yesterday at break and said, "I need to see you upstairs." During break time, the upstairs is deserted--Need I say more? Having my lunchtime nap later in the day put on hold to show a little love certainly makes my day too. It's so much fun to sneak around like that! We both know one of these days the cat will be out of the bag. We may actually let it out ourselves, but for now we're having a great time with it!

I went shopping with her last night and we had a great time. She just started a photography (her passion) class this last week and she had bought herself a new camera online. We went to Office Depot in Federal Way to pick that up. It's a nice camera! A Canon Digital Rebel is a 10.1 megapixel camera that's half SLR and half digital camera. She's going to love that camera! After we left there we headed over to WalMart's new super store that's across the street. To finish off the night out, she bought me dinner at Rio Blanco, a Mexican restaurant in South Auburn before heading back to my house.

I'm gonna miss her this weekend.

I ordered myself a new ignition switch for the Harley on Tuesday morning using an Ebay "buy it now" with free shipping and it showed up yesterday. That was fast! There is nothing wrong with my current switch as far as functionality goes, but the cap that hinges down over the key portion had a spring broken off it and it buzzed badly at certain speeds because it wouldn't lock down. The new switch is also a lot better inside supposedly. I know it does seem to have a lot better "feel" to it.

Tomorrow is Sarah's birthday. Unfortunately, her camera won't show up until Monday. I guess I should have ordered it a day or two sooner than I did. I hate it when that happens. Oh well, at least I have the laptop bag for her to wrap up. She was over last night to have me scan a couple things for her so she could Photoshop them, and after I was done she asked if I could just email them to her. The two of them together were over 3 megs in size and I told her no, that wouldn't be very good for her because she's on dialup internet. Instead I reached over and grabbed my brand new 2 gig flash drive and put the files on that. I handed it to her and told her I had a brand new one in the package that I was going to give her for her birthday but instead she would get this one that was open. She already has a couple of flash drives (much smaller ones) but never seems to have them around when she needs em. This time I put it on her keychain with her car keys.

I'm not sure what's going to transpire on her birthday. I wanted to host an event for her tomorrow, but that didn't work out because none of her friends would have been able to attend for various reasons. Maybe I'll just have family members over tomorrow for afternoon munchies or something.

The Limit?

Yes, it could be true... I may have finally found my limit.

Most of you know I ride to work all the time in cold weather. I don't like to park my bike when it's winter, but like it or not it definitely gets limited use. I ride to work pretty much any day that the internet weather reports says it's going to be decent at 2:30pm when I get off work. If you do the math, getting off work at 2:30pm means you start work at 6am. For those of you that don't know anything about the world at 6am because you've never experienced it, it can get damn cold, and it's always dark.

I don't use a windshield when I ride and that seems to enhance the colorful descriptions people have for me. Basically, it's about the fact that I routinely ride to work when the lighted bank signs that we all pass say 29, 30, or 31 degrees. I tell them, "Hey, if I don't ride to work in the morning when it's colder than shit, how the hell am I going to ride home from work in the afternoon when it's nice out? Besides, if I ride my bike I don't have to scrape the ice off the windshield."

Duh.

Even the "bikers" I work with think I'm nuts. Screw em. I get the last laugh when I grin all the way home from work on those sunny "nuts" days...

So back to today. It was a little different today. Each bank I went past said the same thing: 22 degrees.

Actually, I was going to ride to work yesterday too, but neglected to have it's winter trickle charger plugged in during the previous week. Cold weather can really whack a battery, and it refused to turn quite long enough to fire yesterday morning. After being plugged into it's electronic I.V. overnight though, it spun over this morning like it was rarin' to go.

Even though I only have to go about 7 or 8 miles each way it's still a challenge in cold weather.

When I got to work I had to look in my mirror to get my helmet unclasped because I couldn't feel my fingertips, and even then it took a few tries. I had to wait at least a half hour before my nuts finally decided to come back out of hiding, and I don't think my penis has been that small since I was about 8 years old.

But you know what? It's worth it to see the look of awe (I think that's what it was) in my coworkers' eyes.

The bottom line: I grinned all the way home in sunny weather. That makes it all worthwhile.

Yes, I may have finally reached my low temperature limit, but I'm still not sure. It's going to take some more experimentation I guess. I'll let you know.

Aw Man... It's Monday Morning Already?

I didn't accomplish diddly this weekend with the exception of buying a couple things for Sarah's birthday.

Back before Thanksgiving Sarah's digital camera bit the big one (hey, what does that really mean anyway?). I remember thinking that the timing for something like that to happen really wasn't too bad. After all, it was before Black Friday, so chances are I would find a hot deal on something good then, and if not the Christmas deals would surely present something good.

I did a lot of "deal watching" for them, having to relearn what was new on the market and read reviews voraciously, trying to pick up on what was hot and what was not. Well, there was no deal on Black Friday of course (or I would have already blogged it, right?). A week or so into December is when I decided on buying her a laptop, so the camera idea got pretty much pushed aside for the time being. I still continued to watch for them, learning about them as I went, secretly hoping I wouldn't find a deal before Christmas so I could minimize the fallout on my bank account.

Since Christmas, Teresa and I discussed buying her a camera for her birthday and we agreed to go half on one. Because she is frugal (polite words!). I knew she would be okay with that. I asked her about a limit and told her $150 would buy her a nice little camera with great features and she agreed on that price.

I still couldn't find a better camera for the money than a Canon, and that's what I ended up ordering for her yesterday morning online. Usually I get a sour taste in my mouth when something dies and hesitate to buy one of that brand again. I still maintain that rule regarding Sony products though. I won't buy Sony for two reasons: First of all, I've had several Sony products and something has went wrong with almost every one of them, and second, they have too many things that are "proprietary" or unique, so it becomes a compatibility thing. Anyway, cameras have come a long way since hers was bought as far as features go, and the prices are holding well. Value, feature, and picture quality-wise, Canons are still getting good reviews. My main thing was sticking to a camera that takes AA batteries. The lithium-ion batteries may hold a charge longer, but you have to recharge them yourself or buy another to swap out if you're "in the field" taking pictures and you run out of power. I figured for her AA's would still be best because she already has the rechargeables from her other camera, and she can put alkalines in if she get s in a jam.

I also ordered a bag for her laptop online yesterday morning. I bought it from Circuit City and had to speed up to the Tacoma Mall store to pick it up. It's a nice looking bag in the "messenger style" instead of standard attache' type you usually see. It really boils down to how well it will fit into it and all that. One thing about it, it does have some style at least, and it's not black--It's some sort of sea greenish/grayish canvas type material. I hope she likes it.

Suzie came down yesterday afternoon and we went and saw Atonement at the movie place in Kent. As far as movies go, I give it an okay rating. It was a very visual movie and had some really good camera work. It did a good job of capturing wartime England in the forties. I'll give it a 3-star (barely).

So I got a few things done and got to see Suzie twice this weekend so it was a good weekend. If I could shake the thing that's going on with my back I'll really be happy. It only bothers me when I'm lying down for some reason. Most of the time back problems are the other way around.

Well, it's garbage day too, so I'd better get cracking and get that stuff dragged out before I leave for work.

Off The Market?

Here I am, divorced for two years and I seem to have found myself in love. It's something I never thought I'd encounter. It's not that I never thought I'd be in love with anyone, it's how in love I seem to be. When you're over a half century old it seems weird to be head over heels in love with somebody. It's not the "in love" part that that seems weird, it's the "head over heels" part. You think it only happens to school kids.

I keep telling myself, "It's just the newness of it--It will calm down after a little while." So hmm... Maybe so, but what if it's been a few weeks and it's still getting stronger? That would seem to be a pretty good indication that it's not to be taken lightly. I worry about myself because I know how I am--Going hot and heavy on something new and then all of a sudden being totally burned out on it.

So who is this person?

You may have figured it out already. She goes by Sue but I like to call her Suzie. She was the first person I laid eyes on the day I went to apply for my job at La Croix Industries, but that is coincidental. She has been their office administrator for several years, doing a million things to keep the company running smoothly. I have always liked her, but obviously it was purely from from a friendship standpoint back then. After all, I was married when I got the job there. I do know that I have always enjoyed talking to her, and I felt that we had a sort of a bond even back in my first years with the company. I never thought I'd be sitting here telling all of these current developments to the world though!

She has been divorced for about 10 years, and is mother to four boys and one girl, as well as grandma to 3 kids. She is a strong woman and brought her kids up well on her own. We are compatible in so many areas it's spooky. She's smart, pretty, funny, energetic, passionate, and so many other things. She is not afraid to tackle a home improvement just because she's never done it before. She owns her own home East of Auburn about 15 minutes away. As I have stated before, she is a member of Jehovah's Witnesses (the crowd gasps).

Can it work? Can someone like myself coexist in her world? Can she coexist in mine? I would be first to admit that I'm a little rough around the edges, but I'm basically sound. I have been known to cuss a blue streak, and I'm a non-believer in any religion--In other words, I do almost everything wrong in that regard. There are so many issues that scare me. She assures me that they (Witnesses) are the most misunderstood religious group out there, and it can indeed work. You know what? It could be interesting.

I still have thoughts about pledging myself to someone. Do I really want a steady woman in my life? I keep telling myself that I like being single, but yet I seem to keep "reaching out" and always wanting to meet new people. I think I like living in solitude but yet I keep doing things that are counterproductive to that notion. I find the whole thing scary but at the same time I'm so consumed by it. She dominates all my thoughts. I find myself doing something at work and the next second thinking about her in some way. My thoughts are constantly derailed by Suzie sneaking into them. I have those moments while driving where you can't remember a single detail of the last several minutes of your drive--Functioning on autopilot so to speak. She is going through exactly the same thing in her day-to-day activities. Neither of us can get each other out of our minds.

Or lives at work are interesting and fun. Catching each other's eye across the room with a knowing smile, passing love notes, and enjoying the fact that nobody around us knows (yet). My cubicle is the right outside the door to the inner offices, and I'll find myself looking up almost every time the door opens, hoping it might be Suzie.

People may have wondered why my blog posts have waned significantly in the last few weeks. Well, now you know why. A lot has been going on in our lives in the last few weeks, and I was hesitant write about it. At the same time, it dominated so many of my daily thoughts and activities that if I didn't write about it, I had little to write about.

Man, I've got it bad.

Ah, 'Tis a Better Day

I awoke this morning in more of a normal fashion--Tired. Not in pain--Just tired. After all, who wouldn't be tired? Some little plastic box manufactured by General Electric woke me up, not my own body telling me it was time to get up.

I stumbled around yesterday at work feeling all the world like I was hungover. I mean it. At one point at about 7am I felt almost queasy, and I'm sure if anyone were analyzing me at that moment my face would have probably looked white and slightly shiny. Oddly enough when I got to work I felt like I needed to do a bunch of physical labor so that's what I jumped into. I basically went on the pallet offensive and did some serious housekeeping so we could have some space. Of all the days I could choose to do physical labor (the key being that I chose to do it) why would I pick a day when I felt so crappy? Maybe I hoped to beat my body into submission? Maybe I wanted to sweat it out? I dunno... It's just weird. Although I did feel better as the day wore on, it was only marginally better.

I hoped to go to bed early, but it was not meant to be. Sarah texted me at about dinner time and asked if she could come over and do some homework. Duh! Of course! She cited "too many distractions" at home (aka: mom?) as the main reason, but she also wanted to print a couple things. Her new laptop never did have her printer installed on it. Jeez, who is her bonehead IT tech anyway? He put the file on the "desktop" of her laptop but never ran it because it would have asked to plug the printer in (and he didn't have it handy). Still, that was weeks ago that I (I mean the IT guy) should have done that.

She did a lot of work while she was here. I left her totally alone downstairs with Radio Paradise playing on my laptop and through my little stereo downstairs. Every time I went down there to the kitchen or whatever she had her cell phone out and was texting someone, but she was also steadily cranking the work out. By the time she was done she had 6 or 8 pages of some pretty heavy math stuff.

I asked her about her boyfriend--Whether they were together, and she said no. I told her that I wanted her to be careful "out there" and that there were too many things that could go wrong. At that point, I admitted to her that I have the "Big H" and told her she definitely didn't want to have to deal with that. I gave her two condoms and told her to put them somewhere and keep them handy. I said they are not a "ticket to ride" but more like "cab fare" if you get stuck somewhere. We talked a few minutes about "H" in general as she was getting her stuff together to go home.

I'm glad that's out in the open. Most everyone else I know already knows that it's part of my life. Well okay--immediate family doesn't know. I may bring them into the loop someday too. Parents? Nah..

Hey look--It's Friday!

I hate it when I wake up in pain. I never know if I should just wait a bit and enjoy my coffee and see if it goes away, or address it with pain pills as soon as possible. This morning I awoke with a backache and a headache both. And tired too.

Nice way to start the day, no?

Much to my delight, Sue was over last night. It was a great night to snuggle in front of a fire, that's for sure. It might have been better if it was stormy out, but only because then we'd be able to hear it and it would add to the ambiance. Although she stayed past my bedtime, she still left too soon. I'm sure that fact had nothing (or very little anyway) to do with my feeling tired this morning. It was the pain not the sleep. Really.

I rode the Harley to work yesterday. It was one of those clear, cold mornings that would have required window scraping--I think it was about 31 degrees. It was a great ride! I was telling someone later that some days I ride in knowing I'm going to freeze and actually don't, and other days I might ride in expecting it will be somewhat comfortable and I freeze to death. Yesterday was the former. The only thing is, when I get to work I have to use my mirror to see where to unclasp my helmet because I can't feel my fingertips. I was telling Suzie last night that I put up with a cold ride in so I can enjoy a ride home obviously, but the macho side of me also enjoys hearing someone comment on it. Here's one exchange yesterday:
Shakes his head, "You must have balls."
"Well, I did when I left home..." I admitted, shivering.

I do know I didn't see a single biker on the way home last night, and it was a nice afternoon too. The old sports saying applies when it comes to riding to work in the winter:

"No pain, no gain."

Late For Work Because I'm The Dad

Yep, it's true. It wasn't anything I did though. It was because I was being the good "dad" and helping out.

I was sitting here enjoying my moment of coffee time yesterday morning and had just posted my blog post for the day when the phone rang.
"Dad? My printer won't print."

When Sarah calls at 5am on a Monday morning with a printer problem that means only one thing: She was up probably past midnight doing a report that should have been done days ago.

After talking with her a minute, we determined that her PC has some sort of USB connectivity issue and won't recognize the printer or even the mouse if you plug them in. That's the computer the printer is always usually plugged into. I asked her to try the laptop, but she said it wouldn't work either. I surmised that the drivers probably weren't installed for it yet. At any rate, there was really only one option that I could see.

"Email the files to me and I'll print them off and bring them by on the way to work." I suggested.

I didn't anticipate the amount of stuff she needed printed. There were six 1-page documents, and six 6-page documents! Holy crap. It's not like I have a laser printer you know, so it was a little slow due to most of the pages having a graphic of some kind on them (they were all some sort of math graphs). By the time I usually leave for work there were still two 6-pagers waiting to be printed so I had to call in and tell them I was going to be late. It gave me plenty of time to go out and scrape all the ice off my windows and warm my car up. By the time they were done printing I had everything ready so I grabbed them and jetted out. When I drove up to the front of the house, Teresa stepped out to get them.
"I hope they're all right because she doesn't get a second chance this time." I said and hurried back to my car.

As it turns out I was only 10 minutes late. Everyone in the place was staring with a look of mock disbelief, "You were late? Wow!"

I texted Sarah a little later and asked her if everything came out all right and she said yes. Whew. She's a very smart girl, but isn't the best at managing her time. Anyone that can bring home straight A's in high school has got my support!

The things we must do for our kids, right? Oh well, I'm not a real good dad as far as dads go, but one thing about me--I will always step up when she needs help, whether she brought it on herself or not.