Another Day, Another Tennis Match

Yesterday was Sarah's first tennis match of the season. It should have been the day before, but it was postponed due to rain. As usual, she did very well, but unfortunately she was paired with a pretty lousy player. It seemed like every time Sarah returned and excellent shot, her teammate blew it for them. They ended up losing badly. Their school won at least.

Sarah was so mad about the match that she actually called me after she got home and yakked good-naturedly about it. That's kind of rare for her to do that. Maybe it should happen more often? She never calls me unless she needs something.

I ended up playing the nice guy and taking Teresa with me. As I mentioned previously, the match was out in Bonney Lake and she always likes to car pool when she can. Sue doesn't like it when I do that, and frankly, it's grating on me too. I noticed yesterday that I changed the instant she got in the car. It's like my defenses went up. I try to just be nice and have conversation but found myself becoming easily annoyed. I would turn the music on and she would start talking. I would turn the music down and she would stop talking. I did it again and she did it again. Finally I left the radio off.

All those years and I never knew that she had a volume knob...

Hump Day!

I don't normally call Wednesday Hump Day. I'm not usually a "day counter" like so many other people are that are anxious for the weekend to show up. In my case however, I am anxious. I want my woman back. Daily emails and the occasional text messages and phone calls are great, but sometimes things like that just make it harder (excuse the pun). The pace of things are work aren't making it any easier either--Things are very slow there.

I had another one of those strange things happen to me in the world of software yesterday. I must be getting older. I think I've already discussed this in the past--The irony of the fact that the only software purchase I've made in probably at least 15 years is the one that lets me pirate software via newsgroups. Well, there may soon be an addition to that lonely purchase. I've gotten to the point where I'm tired of not being able to stay with a particular antivirus package that works for me. I can get by with them for free for a while, but they always find out that certain serial numbers are bad and blacklist them. That means no more updates. What frustrates me the most about security software (that's what they're calling them all these days) is the fact that they have to always be running in the background. What that usually means is that they end up taking over your system instead of the hackers they're supposedly protecting you against. The only one I've ever used that doesn't slow your system to a crawl or seriously hamper boot or shutdown speeds is Trend Micro. Theirs used to be called PC-Cillin but now is called Trend Micro Internet Security. I had it on here (pirated of course) for about a week and loved it, but then it stopped updating (they always catch on eventually--Sometimes sooner than others). After browsing the web, I found that I can get that one at a good price, so I will eventually end up buying it (the crowd gasps in amazement) sometime soon. In the meantime I went to their site and downloaded and installed it. It's a full version that will work for one month, and by then I'll have my own.

It's yet another milestone in my life I guess. It's kind of like when a guy gets to an age when he suddenly decides he's finished working on his own car and starts paying to have it done instead. It kind of makes me picture a scene in a Star Wars movie when Alec Guinness says, "I sense a great disturbance in The Force."

Weirdness at Work

No, I'm not talking about the Bobsey Twins this time--This one is about me. Well, mostly.

I guess it's fair to say that things are very weird at work without Sue there. I can't really vouch for the feelings of people within the confines of the front office, but I'm sure it's weird there too. The main thing is how everyone has to answer the phone when it rings instead of pretending they don't hear it.

What's weird is the things I caught myself doing. She usually comes in at 8 o'clock and I caught myself glancing at my watch before 8 on more than one occasion, then telling myself, "You dumbass... She's asleep in paradise right now." I would walk into the office and find myself automatically glancing toward her desk, then immediately brought back to reality by the sight of her dark, cold computer monitor. Having lunch in my comfy folding chair upstairs, I caught myself listening for her footsteps. Thinking of the almost daily occurrence of her coming to share some hugs and kisses with me on the sly. Nope, no such thing yesterday. It's funny how one person missing can have a dramatic impact on daily thoughts and activities.

Bernie (the frugal money-man of the LaCroix brothers) came out yesterday with one of those green hanging file folders. I watched in amazement as he carefully and completely repaired it with packing tape instead of throwing it out because it was worn through. It's possible that he's still in shock over having to shell out the money for a new (okay, new to us) company van. I'll bet he hasn't slept recently because of that one. I suppose we'll end up moving the old van in and out of the shop every night for several years just like we did with previous vehicles they got rid of. They have a bad habit of trying to sell their old vehicles as such laughable prices that they never get any interest. By the time they finally do get rid of them, they are in such bad shape from neglect that they practically have to give them away...

In other news, I won bid on another windshield for my Harley on Ebay. As most everyone knows, I'm not a "windshield person." I prefer not having one on my bike so I can occasionally feel the mortal pain of a bug smacking me at 60mph. (No, not many people understand that.) Anyway, there are occasions when it would be nice to have a windshield.

I don't like my original windshield for a couple reasons: For one, it's not detachable. Almost all Harleys in recent years have detachable windshields. The actual shield itself is the same, but they have totally different hardware holding them on so you can remove or install them in seconds. Mine it a bolt-on, requiring washers and shimming and aligning and adjusting--It's a total pain. The second reason is that it's a full-height windshield. If I had good, erect posture it wouldn't matter so much, but I always found myself staring at the very top edge of the windshield. Contrary to popular belief, you are not supposed to look though a windshield on a bike, but over it. The windshield is there to provide air deflection. The one I just bought is a slightly shorter version so it will fall lower in my line of sight. Without a windshield, any passenger that rides behind me will also be subject to the same bugs and wind that I am, and I would rather they had some protection--Especially with the factory passenger seat because it sits taller than my seat does. Hopefully this windshield will fit all my criteria. Oh, it's also slightly tinted too, and I like that aspect of it beings I have a dark, ugly "stealth" bike.

Monday Morning

I hate changing clocks to and from daylight savings time. I like the effect, but hate actually doing it. It takes a while to get things back in order with my internal clock.

It's going to be weird without Suzie around this week. Nobody to trade knowing glances with, steal kisses and hugs with, trade love notes with, or any of the other little things that make the workday fun for us both. Ho hum... Just the usual grind. I guess I'll try to stay busy so I don't dwell on it too much.

Tennis season is upon us, and I get to spend time watching Sarah playing tennis after school on certain days again. She's a good player--One of the better ones. She will never be a fantastic player just because she is not one of those "extra mile" type of people, but she is definitely good. I like to watch her play. Tomorrow is their first game and it's up at Bonney Lake High School.

I went to the library yesterday to return a couple movies that I had copied, and had a notification to pick up another one that had come in. I stopped at Sarah's to see if she wanted to go with me, and while I was there picked up Teresa's Harley leathers for Suzie to try out. If they fit maybe we can do some wheelin' and dealin'.

I stopped by my folks' house on the way home from dropping Sarah off and had a pretty decent visit. Right after I pulled up Denis and his wife Kim pulled up as well. I ended up sitting there and yakking through 3 glasses of wine (that's probably what caused me to take a nap a little later). Nothing new as far as dad goes. The MRI thing is slated for tomorrow so I guess everyone will no more then. Nothing changed as far as his attitude goes. He's still hard to hold a conversation with as ever.

'Twas a fairly humdrum weekend really--Laundry, oil change, and other mundane stuff.

I never have posted a picture of my mannequin before but it occurred to me yesterday to do so. Her official name is Moana (yes, I know how I spelled it). Pretty hot, don't you think? Her look changes from time to time. As always, you can click for a bigger picture.


She's wearing a t-shirt that Steve bought me back in Louisville (duh) a couple years ago when he was there on vacation. He got it on the clearance rack and it's no wonder. What you're seeing here is the back of the shirt, which I think is one of the coolest designs I've seen on a t-shirt in a long time. Nice colors and layout. What's on the front of the shirt is nothing but a HUGE orange and white Harley logo. I mean HUGE. It's totally ugly. When Moana saw that she said, "Hey, I ain't wearin' that shit!" I talked her into putting it on backwards instead.

It works on her...

Workplace Fashion Faux Pas

We've all heard the stories. A big party hosted by the boss... You want to make a good impression and want everything to be perfect. When you and your lovely wife arrive and are greeted at the door by the boss's wife you discover that she and your wife are wearing the exact same dress. Gasp! This is the epitome of a social embarrassment to many women. Men aren't quite as bothered by such things.

Okay, usually.

This week a similar situation happened at work. Here's how I recollect it.

First of all, the hourly folks that work there all show up at 6am. The people that work in the office, however, show up at all kinds of different times. Some are salaried and some are hourly, but their schedules are pretty flexible. Anyway, Scott wandered in as one of the first office employees to arrive. He's a great guy and is always upbeat, and as he took off his coat and hung it on the coat rack behind me he said good morning to me in his usual chipper way. I didn't think much past that at that particular moment.

A little while later, Tenney (I'm not sure if that's short for Tennyson or what) shows up and goes by me into the office.

(Hey, wait a minute... Isn't that the same shirt Scott was wearing?)

It's pretty common for someone to wear "almost" the same shirt, but I was thinking more than "almost" at this particular time. Now I was intrigued. I got up and went into the office and took another look, memorizing his shirt, then I went back out into my area and sat down. Scott was out in another area of the shop and soon wandered by on his way back into the office. It was a dead match. I could hardly contain myself.

"Nobody told me there was a particular uniform we had to wear today," I said, stopping him on the way in.
"Huh?" he said with a puzzled look.
"Are you and Tenney pretty close? Apparently you collaborated on what to wear today... You'd better go have a look," I warned.

He gave me a "don't tell me" look and went into the office. While he was gone a few other folks came and went by my area and of course I had to fan the flames:
"Have you seen Scott and Tenney this morning? You haven't? Go take a look."

After a little while it had spread like wildfire and everyone was joking about it. I have to admit they took it pretty well. I don't think it mattered a whole lot to Tenney, but Scott (and many others) probably didn't really care to be associated with Tenney too much (he doesn't seem to really do anything), let alone having it look like they were twin sons of different mothers (Scott is on the left):


I'm not sure which is more embarrassing really, to find out that

• someone else is wearing your exact shirt
• someone you don't really care for has the same taste in clothes
• you both shopped for them at WalMart.

Judges?

Friday Evening... Alone

It's been a while since I spent a Friday evening alone. Over a period of time Friday has evolved into mine and Suzie's favorite night--A night we could look forward to all week long to spend with each other. So why alone tonight? I put her on a plane to Hawaii a couple of hours ago. She'll be back a week from Monday.

Her parents live on Kauai, and this is a trip she looks forward to so much all year long. If I remember correctly, this is the first time that she has went all by herself--Usually she has one or more of her kids along with her. Given the choice, she would have loved to have taken me along with her this time. We are both very, very avid sun lovers. She has been tanning several times a week this month to help her minimize any effects that the transition from rusty to sunny might tend to cause when she ends up spending all that time in the sun that her body isn't used to.

We spent an enjoyable evening together last night. I made us some 'tater skins complete with cheese, bacon, and sour cream. They came out very well for my first try! I supplemented that with barbecue pork sandwiches on oven toasted rolls. It was pretty good. She came back in the wee hours this morning right before I left for work so that she could hitch a ride with me. Instead of her usual 8-4:30 schedule, she worked 6-2:30 like I did today so I could take her directly to the airport after work. I suppose our arrival together this morning raised a bit of an eyebrow to the uninformed. Ditto when we both left together.

You know what was cool? A while back--A couple weeks ago or so--I ordered us each a little electronic remote for our Canon cameras. It was an Ebay purchase, and they came from Hong Kong. Other than a genuine Canon remote (which was way overpriced for something with only two functions) the only ones that are really available are from Hong Kong. After doing a little digging, I decided that they looked like nice little units and ordered us each one. I wanted to give it to her as a little surprise gift. A few days ago we were talking and she expressed a desire to buy one (of some kind) before her trip to Hawaii. I reluctantly divulged the fact that I had ordered us each one. Guess when they showed up? Today! It was great timing. I tested it out a while ago and it works beautifully. I've very happy with the purchase. I got both of them for $12 shipped, and they even each came with two extra batteries. How can you beat that? I know she's going to enjoy using it on her trip. She is taking her tripod along to use with her camera, so I know it will come in handy on some beautiful slow-exposure timer shots.

I'm going to miss her this week but I'm pretty sure we'll be able to converse via Gmail chat and emails.

Her trip is kind of multipurpose. Besides the obvious sun, water, beaches, weather, and vacation aspect of it, she of course is also going for picture-taking. Mainly though, she has the desire to spend some serious time with her parents. I'm not real savvy about everything that happens in the Witness religion, but apparently protocol dictates that when they date someone that's not a member they have to become what they call "dis-fellowshipped." Apparently, it's a given for it to happen unless you only date and marry within the church. Suzie has admitted that when you couple the religious aspects within her faith along with her age as a single mom, there just aren't any good men "on the inside" and necessitates someone to reach a little more outwardly for a life mate. Her parents are elders within the church over in that area and she wants quality time to spend with them before explaining what's going on in her life to them (in a letter) after her vacation is over. It's not that she's afraid to tell them while she's there, it's just that she's positive that it will create a cloud over her visit and she doesn't want that. She's torn about the whole thing though. Sad that it will limit her contact with congregation members, but excited about the prospect of us spending more time together and sharing experiences. I'm sure she'll correct any of it that I got wrong, but I' think it's close.

It's a very complicated life people lead sometimes. I can't understand religious things very well, but I do understand people's desire for spirituality and their need justify their existence and give their lives extra meaning. I wonder why it skipped me? I have no such feelings that I know of. I can coexist with it just fine (after all, it's all around us), but never feel the slightest need for it myself.

At any rate, I sure hope Suz is having a great flight. I wish I could have went along too!

The Garage Door Saga

By now everyone knows what Sarah did to her garage door. While this sort of thing happens all across the U.S. I'm sure, it's not all that common any more I'm sure. Why? Mostly because hardly anyone seems to even have a garage any more. There are so many apartment dwellers that it's made having garage parking almost nonexistent--Especially to a 17-year old.

But now her garage isn't a garage any more--It's a carport.

For those readers that may have not gotten the emailed pictures, here's one of them that will give you a good idea (click for larger):


Sarah has been stretching herself a bit thin lately. Teresa said she's got practically a failing grade in math this week, and up until now it's been her best subject. It's not easy math she's into--She's in the realm of pre-calculus and still it's been a good subject for her. This time it's a matter of not understanding the newest offerings that they're studying is the story I got. Because it's always been her best subject, she is understandably frustrated. Now, take that frustration and throw a little tennis into the mix. Tennis tryouts were last week and although she was somewhat sick during them, she did make the varsity team. Now it's time for the nightly practices. Some evenings she stays after practice is over and has more one-on-one coaching as well. That's a pretty good workload to maintain. Now add to that the fact that someone saw her boyfriend driving her car in the parking lot. Sarah swears she didn't know he was going to do that. She asked him to go to her car and get something from it, and when she found out what he did (and was caught by someone else) she was pretty upset. That was the night before the garage door.

Now it's yesterday morning and she and Teresa are running all around the house trying to find her keys, making her almost late for school and frustrated as well. (If you could see their house you'd know why they always lose them.) Apparently, Teresa opened the center garage door where she keeps her car instead of the door that Sarah's car actually uses. It's a pretty common thing. Well, Sarah gets in her car, and because her mind wasn't on the task at hand, just saw that the garage was lit by daylight and assumed it was her door like it usually is. She then put it in reverse and backed up.

I guess she went running and crying into the house. Teresa said she was lying on the floor crying and saying, "I just can't do anything right!" I have no idea what transpired between her and Teresa or how much hollering went on, but Teresa went out and pulled her car back forward. That was not the best course of action. I'm sure half of the damage to her car came from that. From what I could see, the car had door damage right up to the rear window. Most of it is scrapes that didn't quite go through the paint, but there is paint missing in a spot or two. There is also a small hole in the giant plastic "tail light looking thing" that spans the whole rear of the trunk, as well as her radio antenna was broken off cleanly.

I dreaded the worst when Teresa sent me a text yesterday morning and gave me the gist of what happened. When I got home and had a beer, curiosity got the better of me and I grabbed my camera and went over. I must say, I was amused. I would have rather had a picture of the car actually protruding from the door, but apparently I was the only one that even thought about taking any pictures. After I shot the few pics that I emailed out, I went home and grabbed my cordless drill with a socket in it and came back. Taking the door panels off was a quick job, taking only about 5 or 10 minutes. I just finished when Teresa called and I gave her the updates.

They don't have much of value in that garage. The only thing I would worry about would be the 10-foot fiberglass ladder (pretty expensive) that stands in there, and maybe Sarah's bicycle (that I doubt has even been used in the last 5 years). Given that, I doubt the door will be replaced any time soon. Here's a shot of the far left garage stall. It's the one that I used to park in when I lived there. See what it's become? (again, click for larger)


The bad part is that there isn't a single bit of anything that's worth spit in that whole pile. As a matter-of-fact, I doubt if she even knows what is even in the pile. Notice the green tarp in front of where Teresa parks her car? More junk. In this picture you can see that junk has infiltrated Sarah's parking area as well:


I called last night and talked to Sarah for a few minutes. I wasn't mad at her or anything--I just wanted to see how she was doing. The conversation started out like this:
"You had a pretty bad day today didn't you?"
"Yeah."
"How are you doing now?"
"Okay. I won one of my tennis matches at least."
And so it went. After we talked tennis for a while I went back to the car. She didn't even know that she had torn off her radio antenna until I told her that she wouldn't have any radio any more. I also told her that maybe she could cut some kind of a deal with her uncle Denis and he could buff out some of those scrapes on it. The rest of the conversation was spent with me telling her how important looking is when you're backing up. How it could have easily been a person walking, someone's car--Anything could have been back there. The point was that she didn't look first.

Sometimes life's lessons can be a little harsh. This time she was lucky.

A Glimpse of Bright...

...From behind the clouds of gloom that is. I'm feeling a little better today. Actually, I was feeling a little better last night. I had a fair amount of hustle/bustle that kept me busy up until bedtime and I ended up chatting online with Suzie for a while before bed. I suppose that also helped.

I'll cover a few more things from yesterday.

I had a good day at work, all things considered. I was busy for the first half of the day building a "charging station" for them to put all their cordless drill chargers on. Basically it was just a board with all of them permanently mounted and wired in. That led to me rewiring an overhead light and wall socket to give them all a way to work together without extension cords snaking around.

On the way home I stopped at a little optical shop and picked up Sarah's new glasses. She has been complaining a lot lately about eye strain from reading. Her eyes are becoming slow to focus back at infinity when she has been reading or doing a lot of close-up work. From what Teresa said, she was pretty anxious to get em. From there I proceeded to Winco and did some grocery shopping.

Speaking of that, there is a whole pile of yummy-looking pork top sirloin waiting in the wings. Winco had giant packs on sale for dirt cheap. The one I selected was one of the smallest ones I could find and it was a full 4 pounds. No bones or fat makes that a whole lot of meat for 5 bucks. I spent some time last night and placed all the pieces lovingly into the crock pot with seasonings in between all the layers. That's one thing good about a crock pot nowadays--You can fill the whole thing up and have it ready to go and waiting in the fridge, then all you have to do is drop it into electric half of the appliance and go on about your day. That also gives it more time to steep in the seasonings I guess. In the old days those crocks were all one piece. Some things in the past are better left there...

Teresa came over after I got home and I changed the oil in her car for her. She didn't pretend to want to do it this time. I told her there was no way she was ever going to be able to do it herself so there isn't much reason to try and she agreed. At one point my neighbor, Chris and his daughter Kailey came by and I made a lighthearted comment like, "I'm not even married to her any more and I'm changing her oil." She countered with, "Well, I've got the surly teenage daughter at my house to deal with." Chris laughed and said he thought I had the better deal. I think I agree.

While she was here I asked her about her Harley jacket and if she would consider selling it. She said sure, and added that she probably would never wear the chaps either so I might as well try those too. One of these days I'll get them from her and have them over here for Suzie to try out. I don't really remember the quality of the chaps, but the jacket is real nice. I hope at least one of them fits her. Although Teresa won't let them go for dirt cheap, it will still be nice to be able to try them on so close to home. It's like really local Craigslist shopping when you think about it.

I'm feeling the urge to go out and take some pictures. My photo blog is getting off to a slow start being only a "Picture of the Week" type of thing. Maybe I should just put them on any time I feel like it and just call them the "Featured Photo" or something.

Well, I hope I have a good day today. I'm expectantly watching the mail at work for a couple of camera remotes I ordered for me and Suz. I would really like her to be able to take hers with her on her trip to Hawaii. Even though they're coming from Hong Kong, there should have been plenty of time for them to show up. We'll see...

Sorry, No Good Thoughts Today...

Why can't I have a trustworthy daughter like they do on TV? I know it's a teenager thing to push the limits of authority, but I guess I just find it hard to believe the shit that kids do. No wait... Let me think back... Never mind... I remember.

Teresa called me a bit ago (I am starting to seriously dread phone calls from her). Her best friend Noelle was up at the tennis courts after school to pick up her son and saw Sarah's (former?) boyfriend driving her car. Okay, maybe he was driving it from one parking lot to the next, I don't know. What am I supposed to think? If he drives it from lot to lot, he damn sure has driven it other times and places. She will never admit such a thing though. I can say with total confidence that if she wrecks her car she will not be getting another one from me, and most likely from her mom either. That is assuming that it's just her. If someone else is involved with driving it, it won't be my insurance that will suffer, it will be hers and her mom's. She needs to understand that, but I doubt she ever will.

To add to that, Teresa said that Sarah's new camera that we bought her for her birthday has spent the majority of it's life in the hands of her (former?) boyfriend. As a matter of fact, it's at his house now and probably has been the whole time since she got it.

I have a hard time with this crap. It would be totally different if I lived there, but obviously I don't. I can talk to Sarah til I'm blue in the face and it seems to just go in one ear and out the other. In the meantime I've got to keep listening to phone calls from Teresa telling me all this. To add to that, I can't totally trust everything Teresa says either. She is notorious for embellishing things. I don't know who to believe and what I should do about it.

While I'm ranting and complaining, it hasn't been all that great of a week for me in other areas either.

I've had a headache pretty much constantly for over two days now. It's not bad, but neither does it ever go completely away. Other people I have talked to at work seem to have similar headaches. Perhaps it's a mutation of a flu bug or something.

My mom called last night and told me that my dad does indeed have cancer in one of his lungs. They are going to be getting two MRI's this week to see if it has spread to anywhere else in his body, which I understand is pretty common for lung cancer to do. The weird thing is that my dad having cancer doesn't really bother me. It's not that I have no feelings toward him, but to be honest, I really am indifferent. We never have really gotten along. I know it sounds terrible for me to say that but it's true. What does bother me about it is the ripple effect that it could cause. My mom losing her husband means a whole lot more to me than me losing my dad. Just based on that fact alone, I hope everything comes out all right.

I get into these moods and it snowballs.

I think about how my internet stops and starts whenever it wants to. I call tech support and it works fine. Sometimes it doesn't. I think about how Craigslist won't let me post linked pictures like they used to. Now I have to be happy with their stupid little bitty pictures or nothing. If I try to use pictures that are bigger and actually exist somewhere else or the posts won't show up.

Now I'm thinking about Suzie going to Hawaii on Friday. It will be lonely all next week without her. Can you tell I love her very much? Jeez. I know we'll be able to communicate while she's there, but it's not the same. She hasn't even left yet and I miss her already.

And this dull throbbing in my head isn't helping any either.

The Weekend is Behind Us

Suzie and I spent the whole of Friday evening here relaxing and having fun, feeling good that the work week was behind us. Pizza and jammies equals a good casual Friday evening. Oh, and beer too... Gotta have that.

Saturday sent us out shopping. We each took our cameras with us--Hoping for a good spot to stop and wander around for some picture taking. We decided to head toward Lakewood in Tacoma to start with because I wanted to see what they had at Eagle Leather that Suz would look good in. She bought a little wrap thing that goes around a ponytail to keep it in check called a "hair glove" but that's all we bought. They have a serious problem with too much salesperson pestering there. We got asked if they "could help us" what seems like countless times. They have a big store with lots of good stuff in it, but I didn't really feel all that keen on buying there. Maybe another time.

While we were leaving Eagle Leather Suzie's phone rang. It was the folks at the Tacoma Mall JC Penney calling to tell her that her new glasses were in. Yippie! It was good timing because we were only about 3 exits away at the time, and also because Suz was getting anxious to have them. After all, her Hawaii trip is next weekend and she wanted them before that.

On the way back we detoured by Steve's house to see how he was doing and to introduce Sue to Steve and Maria. We had a good visit. Poor Steve, his knee had way more stitches--No wait--Staples in it than I would have thought. I guess I really didn't expect to see a big incision almost a foot long right across his knee. In retrospect, there wasn't any other way it could have been... A knee replacement is serious business. Overall it didn't look too bad though. Not much swelling so that was good.

On the way home from Steve's we went up on the hill above Auburn to Mountain View Cemetery to take some pictures. For some reason, gravestones make pretty good subjects in certain lighting. We each took a bunch of shots and had a pretty good time. After a quick stop at my house to check out the pictures we took and have a beer or two, we continued Northward to Southcenter Mall. We wanted to check out a couple of camera stores to see what they had for filters. Both of the stores we stopped at were overpriced so we didn't buy.

This morning I spent some time on the Blogger.com. Not working on this blog, but rather making a new blog! I decided that I would start a blog just for the pictures I take, intending to post a "Picture of the Week" every week (duh). If I find that I have tons of pictures to chose from I can increase it if I want. The beauty is that Blogger lists the posts along the side so it will be easy to browse through all the Pictures of the Week at any time. Like all pictures in Blogger, you can click them to see them full size if you want. I called it Rix Pix and the link is over there on the right --->.

I spent the afternoon cleaning my garage and putting stuff away out there. I also cut up some firewood that I had brought home several weeks ago but never got around to cutting it. The day was nice enough that I set a few things up in the driveway so that I could take pictures for Craigslist. There is no substitute for natural light when it comes to picture clarity. Now I guess I need to get busy with the ads and get em posted.

Teresa was going to come by this weekend some time and have me help her change her oil but that never materialized. I noticed today that mine is due as well. Figures.

Friday Morning Coffee Time

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Health and Lack Thereof

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

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

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

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

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

Blogs and Pictures

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


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

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

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

Well, time to head out to work.

The Brain-Dead Blogger

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Friday Hair

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

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

The side.

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

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

I'm glad it's Friday.

Lunar Showmanship

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

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

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

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






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

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

Fun stuff!

Biker Babe!

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Sunday Morning Report

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Happy Valentine's Day!

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

Head over heels... That's me!

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

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

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

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

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

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