....and life goes on. seems like i've fallen into the habit of posting weekly for awhile now. it is what it is. hmmm.....wonder when the last time i posted was? [checking....] yep, it was a week ago. so what's happened in the meantime?
i've been working pretty hard this week, at home even more so than at work. i've pressure washed about two thirds of the cedar fence in the backyard. it's taking a very long time, but i'm trying to do a good job on it. i've stripped it down to bare wood, hitting it until it stops lightening up while doing the least possible damage to the wood. the pressure washer i've been using (Dad's) is 1650 psi, lower than most i've seen, and i'm basically getting right up on top of the wood, from between 1-3 inches away (depending on how bad the board is). i'm doing each board by itself- that way i have a clear stopping/restarting point. i've been averaging somewhere between 8-12 boards per hour, or 5-7 minutes per board- slow going for sure. but the results are good; i'm comparing the color of the wood to brand new boards put up on a neighbor's fence- when the boards dry out, they look the same- for the most part. get it all stained and sealed it'll look fine.
got over to Melissa & Jason's yesterday to borrow Jason's hammer drill, to demolish the concrete swing set footings that have bothered me since i moved in. it took 5 hours on Saturday to break them into small pieces. the holes i dug around the footings varied a little, the shallowest was about mid-thigh deep, the deepest a little more than waste deep. i only dug out enough to be able to completely expose the footings. the plan was to dig them all out, break up the concrete, then bury them right back in their same holes, as deep as possible. it took about three hours to fill in the holes, (a couple of which took place today) while simultaneously removing all the plant life (especially the immense root structure of all the weeds). i was hoping to get the dirt back in the holes somewhere near where the grade sat before; i'd shovel so much in and tamp it down, then do a little more. i lost some dirt when i backfilled the cave-in in the back corner of the yard with dirt from those holes, but i also moved some dirt that was burying the back fence into the cave-in too, so i didn't lose too much. i also gained a little depth with the concrete completely buried as opposed to being partially exposed. it was a toss-up whether it would all work out or not, and in the end it's really a moot point, since i'm going to turn the whole yard over anyway, but at least i now have about 15-20% of the lawn done.
the next step is to finish pressure washing the fence, then get started on the dog run- eliminating the mud problem is the most important thing to be done. i need to find something to retain the gravel i put down, and i'm considering laying some larger rock to help with drainage. i need about 4 inches of larger rocks- like one layer or so- then about 4 more inches of finer gravel. there should probably be something in between those layers to keep the big rocks from coming to the top over time. my neighbor used burlap to keep ground from sinking down into the drainage rock he laid, i s'pose could do something like that.
in any event- all this ain't gonna get done before i'm outta here to NY for vacation. only a couple days left- time to start putting this other stuff on the back burner and get down to figuring out what the hell i'm gonna bring with me.
Today (Monday) was Loren's first day at home solo....only it wasn't really solo since he was watching his brother. Loren gets to be Lord God King Mighty and i'm hopin' he wields his authority with some restraint- and that his lone subject proves somewhat rulable. and that the house stays in one piece. and that no one gets dead.
ok i guess that's it for now; i'm certain i've thrilled both my readers to death.
L8R
2005-06-27
2005-06-18
coffee....cigarette....morning
nothing altogether too spectacular to report since Tuesday. Wednesday was uneventful. Thursday i came home from work, cracked open a beer (Henry's, on sale), turned on some tunes (Pink Floyd's "Animals") and headed out back to dig out the rest of the concrete footings the previous owner sunk in the ground to anchor a swing set. they need to be demolished and re-buried before i can fix the rest of the yard. first things first.
maybe today i'll get over to Jason's and borrow his hammer-drill to weaken those bastards up before i bust 'em into gravel. gonna have to hit my pops up for some grass seed and weed killer, since he's got access to all that stuff now. with my pitifully small backyard it can't take much of either to do it justice. also need to get out to the gravel boys and fill up my truck bed with something to throw down in the dog run. and get something to retain it with. smells like a trip to the hardware store.
which all costs money. gotta get on top of the bills this month before skipping out to NY for a well-deserved break in the action. just BARELY made the house payment on time, using every bit of the grace period to make it happen. someone at the bank mentioned tying my credit card account into my regular one for overdraft protection; i asked them about that a bunch of times over the last couple years and was always told it couldn't be done- go figure. whatever; next time the mortgage payment's due and i don't get paid at the right time, i can just pay the bill and worry about it later...which might come in handy at the end of the month.
after diggin' up the backyard it was time to watch game 4 of the NBA finals- great game. the Pistons played like world champs. Ben Wallace was flat amazing. the Pistons set the NBA record for least turnovers in a finals game, and outscored the Spurs by around 30 points- the Spurs only led once, in the first quarter, by a point. after that the closest they got was -8. maybe Loren will get out here to watch the deciding game; depends on how the rest of the series goes.
Loren was supposed to be here this weekend, but in typical end-of-school-year fashion, everything resembling a schedule has gone to hell, and he decided he wants to hang out with his mom. so be it. the only thing i have truly planned for this weekend is watching tomorrow's Pistons/Spurs game- should be a good one; the series has become a best of three contest; San Antonio won the first two at home, then got soundly trounced in the next two in Detroit (well...outside of Detroit).
i do have some chores to catch up on, and i should get over to Dad's to wish him a happy father's day tomorrow. maybe i'll borrow his pressure washer and hit my fence and deck while the weather's not too great. that would be the smart thing to do....dunno if i'll prove to be the smart one or not.
the aforementioned great gal (see earlier posts) called me up Thursday; she's been as busy as i have. nice to hear from her- i'd pretty much given up. it was khoul to see her, but i stayed over there pretty late, and it cost me some sleep i could have used after a full day of work and a few more hours of manual labor in the yard- i paid for it on Friday. not to say it wasn't worth it ;)
we ran out of parts early in the day, and i got elected to tear down the old shed behind the shop. broke out the cutting torch and demolished the steel frame (i forgot how much fun it is cutting steel with a torch), then broke out a bunch of concrete the hard way- with a big steel bar- which made better progress than i imagined it would; the concrete wasn't overly thick. next i'll have to level the ground (leaving a little slope since some wet work is going to get done in there), and build a simple form and pour a pad (something like 6'x16') to build the new shed on....if someone else doesn't get assigned the project when i'm back to running parts again. then it's gotta get framed and roofed and sided. fun project if i get to see it through- doubtful at this point. when putting the torch away, the guy i was working with underestimated how heavy the tanks were, and dropped them....i saw them going over, right beside me- frkn SCARY! you've never seen someone jump away, turn their back, cover their head, and shrink up as fast as i did. BANG! they hit the ground solidly on the sides of the tanks (damn lucky, as they were on an incline and could easily have snapped the regularors off). again we got lucky, the tanks survived intact and the regulators didn't seem damaged. needless to say, i tried to impress upon the guy how dangerous it is to drop tanks. this shop isn't great about safety with tanks in the first place- but this was just a bad move by an inexperienced guy.
Friday night Nichole & Chris invited me over for some grilled steak- which was excellent. thanks guys! it's always nice to see those guys. i really should get over there (and to Melissa & Jason's) more often. not to mention down to see my folks. Chris broke out his humidor and we had a cigar after dinner- always good. nice to see my nephews too! Cole was a little worried i had Chowder with me, but for nothing since Chowder was holding the home fort down.
ok, when i'm bored typing it's a good sign it's time to walk away. no one's likely to have read this far, and that means no one's likely to see me say
PEACE
maybe today i'll get over to Jason's and borrow his hammer-drill to weaken those bastards up before i bust 'em into gravel. gonna have to hit my pops up for some grass seed and weed killer, since he's got access to all that stuff now. with my pitifully small backyard it can't take much of either to do it justice. also need to get out to the gravel boys and fill up my truck bed with something to throw down in the dog run. and get something to retain it with. smells like a trip to the hardware store.
which all costs money. gotta get on top of the bills this month before skipping out to NY for a well-deserved break in the action. just BARELY made the house payment on time, using every bit of the grace period to make it happen. someone at the bank mentioned tying my credit card account into my regular one for overdraft protection; i asked them about that a bunch of times over the last couple years and was always told it couldn't be done- go figure. whatever; next time the mortgage payment's due and i don't get paid at the right time, i can just pay the bill and worry about it later...which might come in handy at the end of the month.
after diggin' up the backyard it was time to watch game 4 of the NBA finals- great game. the Pistons played like world champs. Ben Wallace was flat amazing. the Pistons set the NBA record for least turnovers in a finals game, and outscored the Spurs by around 30 points- the Spurs only led once, in the first quarter, by a point. after that the closest they got was -8. maybe Loren will get out here to watch the deciding game; depends on how the rest of the series goes.
Loren was supposed to be here this weekend, but in typical end-of-school-year fashion, everything resembling a schedule has gone to hell, and he decided he wants to hang out with his mom. so be it. the only thing i have truly planned for this weekend is watching tomorrow's Pistons/Spurs game- should be a good one; the series has become a best of three contest; San Antonio won the first two at home, then got soundly trounced in the next two in Detroit (well...outside of Detroit).
i do have some chores to catch up on, and i should get over to Dad's to wish him a happy father's day tomorrow. maybe i'll borrow his pressure washer and hit my fence and deck while the weather's not too great. that would be the smart thing to do....dunno if i'll prove to be the smart one or not.
the aforementioned great gal (see earlier posts) called me up Thursday; she's been as busy as i have. nice to hear from her- i'd pretty much given up. it was khoul to see her, but i stayed over there pretty late, and it cost me some sleep i could have used after a full day of work and a few more hours of manual labor in the yard- i paid for it on Friday. not to say it wasn't worth it ;)
we ran out of parts early in the day, and i got elected to tear down the old shed behind the shop. broke out the cutting torch and demolished the steel frame (i forgot how much fun it is cutting steel with a torch), then broke out a bunch of concrete the hard way- with a big steel bar- which made better progress than i imagined it would; the concrete wasn't overly thick. next i'll have to level the ground (leaving a little slope since some wet work is going to get done in there), and build a simple form and pour a pad (something like 6'x16') to build the new shed on....if someone else doesn't get assigned the project when i'm back to running parts again. then it's gotta get framed and roofed and sided. fun project if i get to see it through- doubtful at this point. when putting the torch away, the guy i was working with underestimated how heavy the tanks were, and dropped them....i saw them going over, right beside me- frkn SCARY! you've never seen someone jump away, turn their back, cover their head, and shrink up as fast as i did. BANG! they hit the ground solidly on the sides of the tanks (damn lucky, as they were on an incline and could easily have snapped the regularors off). again we got lucky, the tanks survived intact and the regulators didn't seem damaged. needless to say, i tried to impress upon the guy how dangerous it is to drop tanks. this shop isn't great about safety with tanks in the first place- but this was just a bad move by an inexperienced guy.
Friday night Nichole & Chris invited me over for some grilled steak- which was excellent. thanks guys! it's always nice to see those guys. i really should get over there (and to Melissa & Jason's) more often. not to mention down to see my folks. Chris broke out his humidor and we had a cigar after dinner- always good. nice to see my nephews too! Cole was a little worried i had Chowder with me, but for nothing since Chowder was holding the home fort down.
ok, when i'm bored typing it's a good sign it's time to walk away. no one's likely to have read this far, and that means no one's likely to see me say
PEACE
2005-06-14
boom
the forklift at work has a wheel that's been shearing off lug nuts for months now. it started with 9, yesterday it broke the 7th, leaving it with 2. it's one of the front wheels, which makes it slightly more dicey than if it was one of the back wheels. i'll drive it all day without being nervous, but took to standing clear of that side of the lift when it's carrying something. obviously it was going to have to be fixed sooner or later. i guess that was the final straw, the owner finally broke down and loaded it up on a trailer to take it down and get it serviced. the trailer he rented had the worst ramps i've ever seen- almost preternaturally perfectly wrong for the forklift; it was a big hassle to get it loaded. this guy was thinking of laying some 1x4 down over the ramps; i suggested some 1/2" steel flatbar....he went with the flatbar, and had a guy tack weld it to the ramps- not a bad move.
our lot is on an incline, and he finally decided to take his 2-ton pickup and face it downhill, to flatten out the ramps up onto the trailer. by the time that was accomplished, i was back to running my milling machine in the shop, with the front end of the pickup sitting inside the bay doors, about five feet to my left side. running my machine requires having my back to the bay doors, and it's always loud so i wear hearing protectors- very good ones (-30dB) that i bought at a gun range a few days ago after having mine crushed by a bonehead at work....with the very same forklift. they kind of tend to make you zone everything around you out, and i was listening to what my machine was doing.
so suddenly i hear SKREEEEEEKRRRRRRRSHH and i turn and BOOM, the pickup (no driver in it) gets shoved or slides through the bay doors and skids a dozen feet into some pallets of (pretty heavy) steel parts, pulling the trailer (with the forklift on it....very heavy) behind it.....woke me right up. no real harm done to the pickup. the first in the row of pallets was shorter than the bumper, and braked the truck somewhat before sliding into the next one, which did likewise- they got lucky. in all about a half dozen pallets of steel and aluminum saved the truck and the building. lucky no one was standing in front of it- that would've been a serious injury at the very least.
and switching gears again: the Pistons look like they're gonna make a series of it. YES! seven games, that's all i ask.
yesterday i watched American Beauty. i was hoping it wasn't going to be this overly negative "family melodrama" piece. i think the thing that saved the movie overall was the drug-dealing next door neighbor character. it was a pretty good movie, but i'm not sure it was as good as the hype. but then, few things are.
crashed out for a while after work....tired today....and maybe a little down....just a little. had a headache this morning and was kinda draggin' ass, but i was back to normal by late morning, so that ain't it...
my friend Matt woke me up about 8pm; looks like poker tomorrow night. should be fun.
spent some time tonight filing pictures i've scanned. need to get my @)#$)((@#$@!! printer installed correctly so i can get back on that project. the new pics are in the online album, a fairly large update (info top left, in grey, link to the album top right, in typical red). most of the pictures are stuff from the late 80s, including some shots of me playing live with my old band Witness, and some stuff from right before i moved to Florida with my friend Scott, and some others are scattered throughout the folder structure.
time to git up offa this thang.
PEACE.
our lot is on an incline, and he finally decided to take his 2-ton pickup and face it downhill, to flatten out the ramps up onto the trailer. by the time that was accomplished, i was back to running my milling machine in the shop, with the front end of the pickup sitting inside the bay doors, about five feet to my left side. running my machine requires having my back to the bay doors, and it's always loud so i wear hearing protectors- very good ones (-30dB) that i bought at a gun range a few days ago after having mine crushed by a bonehead at work....with the very same forklift. they kind of tend to make you zone everything around you out, and i was listening to what my machine was doing.
so suddenly i hear SKREEEEEEKRRRRRRRSHH and i turn and BOOM, the pickup (no driver in it) gets shoved or slides through the bay doors and skids a dozen feet into some pallets of (pretty heavy) steel parts, pulling the trailer (with the forklift on it....very heavy) behind it.....woke me right up. no real harm done to the pickup. the first in the row of pallets was shorter than the bumper, and braked the truck somewhat before sliding into the next one, which did likewise- they got lucky. in all about a half dozen pallets of steel and aluminum saved the truck and the building. lucky no one was standing in front of it- that would've been a serious injury at the very least.
and switching gears again: the Pistons look like they're gonna make a series of it. YES! seven games, that's all i ask.
yesterday i watched American Beauty. i was hoping it wasn't going to be this overly negative "family melodrama" piece. i think the thing that saved the movie overall was the drug-dealing next door neighbor character. it was a pretty good movie, but i'm not sure it was as good as the hype. but then, few things are.
crashed out for a while after work....tired today....and maybe a little down....just a little. had a headache this morning and was kinda draggin' ass, but i was back to normal by late morning, so that ain't it...
my friend Matt woke me up about 8pm; looks like poker tomorrow night. should be fun.
spent some time tonight filing pictures i've scanned. need to get my @)#$)((@#$@!! printer installed correctly so i can get back on that project. the new pics are in the online album, a fairly large update (info top left, in grey, link to the album top right, in typical red). most of the pictures are stuff from the late 80s, including some shots of me playing live with my old band Witness, and some stuff from right before i moved to Florida with my friend Scott, and some others are scattered throughout the folder structure.
time to git up offa this thang.
PEACE.
2005-06-12
another week in the can
well....what to say about this last week....it's been 7 days long? a true enough statement, but not what one might call ground-breaking commentary. hmmm.
guess i should back up to last weekend first, since i haven't posted on it yet. so....Friday night Loren was here, but since i can't really remember anything about what we did i'll leave it at that. Saturday night i went to a place in Snohomish called Mardini's, a little bar with an area clear of tables set aside for dancing. i was sitting here eating ice cream and reading my book (yes, i know, a simply thrilling Saturday evening for an outgoing, charming, reasonably-good-looking, fairly interesting guy like me) when my phone rang. on the other end was a great girl who invited me out for a little dancing. i used to be up for dancing at the drop of the hat, but that was a long time ago. it's not that i don't like dancing, or can't dance- i used to be pretty smooth- but my dancing bone must have atrophied from lack of use. regardless, this lady is something pretty special, so i wasn't about to pass up the chance to go out, dancing or no. we had a few drinks, but evidently it'll take a more than a few to get me on a dance floor. kinda kickin' myself for it now, i could certainly have had those drinks hehehe. i suppose it's sort of an unwritten rule not to write about people without letting them know about it, so i'll let her remain nameless for now. suffice it to say she's flat gorgeous, and clearly very bright, and great company, not to mention a great dancer, and i had a great time hangin' out with her. at this point i don't know if she enjoyed my company as much as i enjoyed hers, but i'd like to think she did (i'm not wholely unappealing), and that i'll have cause to write more about her later. in the meantime.....
worked really early all week this week. i'm actually pretty used to getting up at 4am at this point. i've always been pretty much a night owl, and i'm still probably not getting enough sleep during the week, but at least i've been getting something out of all this time. hearing some live music (from a decent band at the aforementioned hole-in-the-wall) was enough to inspire more guitar playing than i've been putting in lately. i really miss playing in a band. Loren's getting older, maybe it's time to start looking seriously for some people to jam with again. playing with the guys from work (last job- see previous posts) was all fine and good, but it wasn't a steady thing and didn't have a real purpose. there wasn't any give and take and not much in the way of artistic expression goin' on, it was more like a few guys makin' some noise, and blowin' off some steam after work. not an overly musical thing, more of a social one. that's not what i'm looking for- i'd like to play something meaningful, something that requires some concerted creativity on the part of all involved, something that's about creating a new thing that didn't exist before. the more i think about it, the more i realize how unique my old band situation was. it's not everyone that has the opportunity to play with a bunch of gifted musicians who were good friends before playing together. especially my friend Pat- we're like brothers, and playing music with him for 10 years, spending time together working at becoming more accomplished musicians, regardless of any potential commercial success of our projects, was a rare opportunity that i don't see happening again. now i guess the best i can hope for is to hook up with some guys that have something to offer, and try to bring something to the table myself. wonder what Dean's doin' these days....always liked to play with Dean....
work this last week was just....work. smooth for the most part. a little OT, but not much. paid bills. did chores. waited for Loren to come for the weekend. i did manage to fire the opening shots in the War of the Backyard....should've taken some pictures before i chopped it all down. it was pretty much the worst i've ever let it get. there's really no actual grass left to speak of back there, it's all weeds. a roto-tiller is probably the only answer at this point. and i still have to get the concrete footings for the old swing-set out of the ground. and get some gravel down for the dog run. to find the ground again, i broke out the lawnmower, but starting it up it made some really awesome metallic clangs, and i found a piece i'll call a "blade mount" (a pot metal piece that must have held the blade steady in relation to its spindle) in two pieces- end of lawnmower, at least for now. i don't think you can weld up pot metal....though i can prob'ly rig something. but that was not to be in the current battle. realizing that my good gas-powered weedwhacker's guard was broken, i tried out the old electric one that i inherited with the town-house when i bought it, which still has about 3/4 of a guard left. it did an incredibly dismal but steady job, and made a small dent in the 45 minutes before the electric motor started smoking. exasperated by this point, i threw caution to the wind and broke out the gas powered one anyway. did great for the five minutes it took to throw some unidentified vegetable matter into my right eye, convincing me to go back inside and break out some safety glasses. pretty uneventful after that, i got about 90% of the ground exposed before running out of line. i suppose "uneventful" is a relative term though; if you asked the scores of flayed slugs i'm sure they'd have a different opinion. i was truly become the maker of slug death....it wasn't pretty. chowder seems to appreciate the effort, which i suppose makes it all worthwhile.
it turned out on Thursday that Loren coming for the weekend was not to be- his mom's sister was in town, and they decided to head out to Ocean Shores for the weekend. Loren got to make the decision to go with them or come here, but regretted choosing to go with them the next day.
before that regret surfaced, it looked like i'd have nothing but free time for the weekend, so i gave the aforementioned Great Gal a call to see if she'd like to do something. her weekend looked busy. [sigh]. i'm not altogether naive, and i realize most people, even busy ones, will make time for someone special, so i kinda took it as a hint, but you never know. it's easy to jump to conclusions when you're disappointed, so i'm not going there either. i'll leave it at: the ball's in her court now, and i'll know soon enough what's up with that.
Loren, in the meantime, feeling the full weight of his regret, gave his mother a really hard time about wanting to come home, to the point of being rude to both her and his aunt, and got in a significant amount of trouble. from his mother's explanation it sounded like he deserved it, but Loren says at the outset of the whole idea for the trip he was afraid his mom would get angry with him, or that he'd hurt her feelings, if he said he didn't want to go with them. i told him he should have levelled with her before they left, and let his mom's reaction be what it was. you have to be honest with people when they ask you to make decisions based on what you want- and let the cards fall where they will. eventually she'd had enough, and decided to bring him back. they got stopped up by some bad evening traffic in Tacoma, so they decided to hole up for the night in a hotel. Loren called me wanting me to come get him, but at 6:30 at night that'd be a 3+hr round trip; not a bright move, considering she was coming back this way the next day anyway. i tried to let him down relatively easily (he understood when i told him the time involved), and made him apologize to his mom.
by afternoon yesterday, Loren was here, and we took care of some minor chores, played a board game by the simple rules, and figured out the advanced ones for the next time we play. fun game, it's called Heroscape. one of the great things about bein' a dad (of a son) is getting to do all the kid stuff over again. if i was 12 i think Loren and i would be best buds. he called his grandparents (my folks) and thanked 'em for the hoverdisk (not the exact one pictured in my post concerning his birthday party, but another, smaller one). they called back a while later and invited us out for dinner, willing to make the drive up here. we took 'em up on it, so Saturday night was dinner at La Hacienda- carne asada for me- yum. Loren managed to spill his pop TWICE, and once more with an assist from me. i have no excuses for myself, but for him i'm going to chalk it up to pre-teen awkwardness coming on (oh no!). no real harm done, and dinner was great. thanks guys! love mexican food. then we headed home for a little coffee before Mom and Dad left, and Loren and i continued our exploration of the first season of Deep Space Nine (old Star Trek show, for those who live under a rock). after Loren crashed out i jammed my guitar until all hours of the morning (neighbors be damned! no, i'm kidding....can't crank it up when Loren's sleepin'....although that didn't stop me the rest of the week). before i knew it, it was WayTooDamnLate O'Clock and i finally hit the sack.
today i slept late (really really late) and i took Loren over to his mom's to get his school stuff, since he was planning on spending the night and had work to make up from when his mother took him out of school for the last two days of the week (@#$*@#@#!!!!). ok, so we got the work and brought it home, but it wasn't the right stuff- and he doesn't have the right stuff and no idea where it is. DBL-GROWLZ. Loren's mom wanted to come and use my computer to type some stuff up for Phoenix (school work of his, which he was having a hard time doing since he cut the hell out of his thumb with a knife today, and her computer wasn't working anyway). Loren's "B" in health class is likely about to drop to a C+. TRIPLEGROWLZ. i'm annoyed with the whole thing. next year i'm getting him his school stuff and working out a system with him before his mama does. organization (believe it or not) is a stronger point for me than it is for her. don't laugh too hard Mom. (she's grinning right now).
Phoenix was going to get to see a movie he wanted to see (The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl) and Loren's been wanting to see it too, so he decided to take the opportunity to go too, the prospect of getting up at 3am to get out to his mom's before i go to work at WayTooDamnEarly O'Clock affecting that decision to some extent. so, since the schedule's been effectively switched anyway (the plan is he'll be here all weekend next weekend) he went home with his mom when she left. fifteen minutes later i was glued to game 2 of the NBA finals. the Spurs pounded the Pistons- it wasn't ever really close. i was rooting for the Pistons, i just want to see a 7 game series, whoever wins.
back to work tomorrow. vacation's coming- looking forward to that. Loren's out of school for the summer soon- hope i get to lift his punishment.
suppose that's it for now; i'm up-to-the-minute. guess i'll read for awhile. PEACE
guess i should back up to last weekend first, since i haven't posted on it yet. so....Friday night Loren was here, but since i can't really remember anything about what we did i'll leave it at that. Saturday night i went to a place in Snohomish called Mardini's, a little bar with an area clear of tables set aside for dancing. i was sitting here eating ice cream and reading my book (yes, i know, a simply thrilling Saturday evening for an outgoing, charming, reasonably-good-looking, fairly interesting guy like me) when my phone rang. on the other end was a great girl who invited me out for a little dancing. i used to be up for dancing at the drop of the hat, but that was a long time ago. it's not that i don't like dancing, or can't dance- i used to be pretty smooth- but my dancing bone must have atrophied from lack of use. regardless, this lady is something pretty special, so i wasn't about to pass up the chance to go out, dancing or no. we had a few drinks, but evidently it'll take a more than a few to get me on a dance floor. kinda kickin' myself for it now, i could certainly have had those drinks hehehe. i suppose it's sort of an unwritten rule not to write about people without letting them know about it, so i'll let her remain nameless for now. suffice it to say she's flat gorgeous, and clearly very bright, and great company, not to mention a great dancer, and i had a great time hangin' out with her. at this point i don't know if she enjoyed my company as much as i enjoyed hers, but i'd like to think she did (i'm not wholely unappealing), and that i'll have cause to write more about her later. in the meantime.....
worked really early all week this week. i'm actually pretty used to getting up at 4am at this point. i've always been pretty much a night owl, and i'm still probably not getting enough sleep during the week, but at least i've been getting something out of all this time. hearing some live music (from a decent band at the aforementioned hole-in-the-wall) was enough to inspire more guitar playing than i've been putting in lately. i really miss playing in a band. Loren's getting older, maybe it's time to start looking seriously for some people to jam with again. playing with the guys from work (last job- see previous posts) was all fine and good, but it wasn't a steady thing and didn't have a real purpose. there wasn't any give and take and not much in the way of artistic expression goin' on, it was more like a few guys makin' some noise, and blowin' off some steam after work. not an overly musical thing, more of a social one. that's not what i'm looking for- i'd like to play something meaningful, something that requires some concerted creativity on the part of all involved, something that's about creating a new thing that didn't exist before. the more i think about it, the more i realize how unique my old band situation was. it's not everyone that has the opportunity to play with a bunch of gifted musicians who were good friends before playing together. especially my friend Pat- we're like brothers, and playing music with him for 10 years, spending time together working at becoming more accomplished musicians, regardless of any potential commercial success of our projects, was a rare opportunity that i don't see happening again. now i guess the best i can hope for is to hook up with some guys that have something to offer, and try to bring something to the table myself. wonder what Dean's doin' these days....always liked to play with Dean....
work this last week was just....work. smooth for the most part. a little OT, but not much. paid bills. did chores. waited for Loren to come for the weekend. i did manage to fire the opening shots in the War of the Backyard....should've taken some pictures before i chopped it all down. it was pretty much the worst i've ever let it get. there's really no actual grass left to speak of back there, it's all weeds. a roto-tiller is probably the only answer at this point. and i still have to get the concrete footings for the old swing-set out of the ground. and get some gravel down for the dog run. to find the ground again, i broke out the lawnmower, but starting it up it made some really awesome metallic clangs, and i found a piece i'll call a "blade mount" (a pot metal piece that must have held the blade steady in relation to its spindle) in two pieces- end of lawnmower, at least for now. i don't think you can weld up pot metal....though i can prob'ly rig something. but that was not to be in the current battle. realizing that my good gas-powered weedwhacker's guard was broken, i tried out the old electric one that i inherited with the town-house when i bought it, which still has about 3/4 of a guard left. it did an incredibly dismal but steady job, and made a small dent in the 45 minutes before the electric motor started smoking. exasperated by this point, i threw caution to the wind and broke out the gas powered one anyway. did great for the five minutes it took to throw some unidentified vegetable matter into my right eye, convincing me to go back inside and break out some safety glasses. pretty uneventful after that, i got about 90% of the ground exposed before running out of line. i suppose "uneventful" is a relative term though; if you asked the scores of flayed slugs i'm sure they'd have a different opinion. i was truly become the maker of slug death....it wasn't pretty. chowder seems to appreciate the effort, which i suppose makes it all worthwhile.
it turned out on Thursday that Loren coming for the weekend was not to be- his mom's sister was in town, and they decided to head out to Ocean Shores for the weekend. Loren got to make the decision to go with them or come here, but regretted choosing to go with them the next day.
before that regret surfaced, it looked like i'd have nothing but free time for the weekend, so i gave the aforementioned Great Gal a call to see if she'd like to do something. her weekend looked busy. [sigh]. i'm not altogether naive, and i realize most people, even busy ones, will make time for someone special, so i kinda took it as a hint, but you never know. it's easy to jump to conclusions when you're disappointed, so i'm not going there either. i'll leave it at: the ball's in her court now, and i'll know soon enough what's up with that.
Loren, in the meantime, feeling the full weight of his regret, gave his mother a really hard time about wanting to come home, to the point of being rude to both her and his aunt, and got in a significant amount of trouble. from his mother's explanation it sounded like he deserved it, but Loren says at the outset of the whole idea for the trip he was afraid his mom would get angry with him, or that he'd hurt her feelings, if he said he didn't want to go with them. i told him he should have levelled with her before they left, and let his mom's reaction be what it was. you have to be honest with people when they ask you to make decisions based on what you want- and let the cards fall where they will. eventually she'd had enough, and decided to bring him back. they got stopped up by some bad evening traffic in Tacoma, so they decided to hole up for the night in a hotel. Loren called me wanting me to come get him, but at 6:30 at night that'd be a 3+hr round trip; not a bright move, considering she was coming back this way the next day anyway. i tried to let him down relatively easily (he understood when i told him the time involved), and made him apologize to his mom.
by afternoon yesterday, Loren was here, and we took care of some minor chores, played a board game by the simple rules, and figured out the advanced ones for the next time we play. fun game, it's called Heroscape. one of the great things about bein' a dad (of a son) is getting to do all the kid stuff over again. if i was 12 i think Loren and i would be best buds. he called his grandparents (my folks) and thanked 'em for the hoverdisk (not the exact one pictured in my post concerning his birthday party, but another, smaller one). they called back a while later and invited us out for dinner, willing to make the drive up here. we took 'em up on it, so Saturday night was dinner at La Hacienda- carne asada for me- yum. Loren managed to spill his pop TWICE, and once more with an assist from me. i have no excuses for myself, but for him i'm going to chalk it up to pre-teen awkwardness coming on (oh no!). no real harm done, and dinner was great. thanks guys! love mexican food. then we headed home for a little coffee before Mom and Dad left, and Loren and i continued our exploration of the first season of Deep Space Nine (old Star Trek show, for those who live under a rock). after Loren crashed out i jammed my guitar until all hours of the morning (neighbors be damned! no, i'm kidding....can't crank it up when Loren's sleepin'....although that didn't stop me the rest of the week). before i knew it, it was WayTooDamnLate O'Clock and i finally hit the sack.
today i slept late (really really late) and i took Loren over to his mom's to get his school stuff, since he was planning on spending the night and had work to make up from when his mother took him out of school for the last two days of the week (@#$*@#@#!!!!). ok, so we got the work and brought it home, but it wasn't the right stuff- and he doesn't have the right stuff and no idea where it is. DBL-GROWLZ. Loren's mom wanted to come and use my computer to type some stuff up for Phoenix (school work of his, which he was having a hard time doing since he cut the hell out of his thumb with a knife today, and her computer wasn't working anyway). Loren's "B" in health class is likely about to drop to a C+. TRIPLEGROWLZ. i'm annoyed with the whole thing. next year i'm getting him his school stuff and working out a system with him before his mama does. organization (believe it or not) is a stronger point for me than it is for her. don't laugh too hard Mom. (she's grinning right now).
Phoenix was going to get to see a movie he wanted to see (The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl) and Loren's been wanting to see it too, so he decided to take the opportunity to go too, the prospect of getting up at 3am to get out to his mom's before i go to work at WayTooDamnEarly O'Clock affecting that decision to some extent. so, since the schedule's been effectively switched anyway (the plan is he'll be here all weekend next weekend) he went home with his mom when she left. fifteen minutes later i was glued to game 2 of the NBA finals. the Spurs pounded the Pistons- it wasn't ever really close. i was rooting for the Pistons, i just want to see a 7 game series, whoever wins.
back to work tomorrow. vacation's coming- looking forward to that. Loren's out of school for the summer soon- hope i get to lift his punishment.
suppose that's it for now; i'm up-to-the-minute. guess i'll read for awhile. PEACE
2005-06-06
just a quick post
...to mention that i updated my online photo album. it's now current up through the end of May, and includes all the pictures of Loren's 12th birthday party.
see? i done told ya: quick.
see? i done told ya: quick.
2005-06-02
retracing my footsteps
last night when i got home from work i checked the email and then promptly fell asleep right here at this desk, in this chair....it's likely unnecessary to point out that i woke up completely stiff. i then managed to make it as far as the couch in the living room, where i immediately fell asleep again for the remainder of the night. twelve hours of sleep did me some good, but as comfortable as the couch is, it's still not my bed, and i felt a little wooden this morning.
backtracking to Sunday (Loren's actual birthday), i gave Loren his presents, most of which i elected to save for the occasion. he really liked the new bat (it's sweet!) and baseball i gave him, as well as the comic book subscriptions (Marvel comics all: Spider-Man, The Hulk, and- best of all i think- The Fantastic Four) and the Scene It! game (he took it to his mom's- wonder if he tried it out...). i asked him to save the last gift for when Mom and Dad came over later in the evening.
Loren headed out almost before the wrapping paper hit the floor, to dig up some kids to hit a few balls with, and i gave him some peace for awhile before tracking him down to remind him his grandparents were coming over, and we needed to eat dinner. still, it seemed a shame not to pitch him a couple, so we stopped by the common area behind our place for a few. i tossed him a few underhand then switched to overhand. he used to put up a fuss when i threw overhand to him and i think the momentum of the moment let him get by that. it's been a while since i pitched balls to him in any manner whatsoever, and he might have gotten over it anyway. besides, in the interest of full disclosure i must say i have actually pegged him with the ball a few times, and he did take a couple hard pitches (one to the side of his helmet and one in the rear) the one season he played baseball on a team, so he had legitimate reasons to be gunshy. however, new bat and ball won the day, and he's all for the overhand pitches now, which is great because i pretty much suck at throwing underhand. in any case, i tossed him a couple overhand pitches, and i think it was the third pitch that he just clobbered. it was easily a 50-yard shot- it went the length of the common area and would have gone a lot farther if the building hadn't gotten in the way....it had just gotten into the downhill part of its arc when it hit the roof about a foot below the peak (it's a two story building) and took a big curving-around-backwards roll to eventually land conveniently in our own yard- a damn fine hit, and easily the farthest ball he ever hit! that was enough for me to declare the common area off limits for baseball; we're going to have to take it someplace there's more room if he's gonna hit 'em like that. Loren was impressed enough to talk about maybe playing baseball again, which would be a good thing if he still feels like it come next season; this season's well underway.
pizza's smellin' finished- more later.
just watched Ocean's 12- pretty good movie. the original was fun, and this one was almost too cute sometimes, but it was still good. but i digress; i was writing of the remainder of last weekend.
incidentally, if one digresses from a digression is that a trigression? i think i just trigressed....
so we came in from the minor baseball session and i tried to get some dinner going. a couple fine steaks were the bill of fare, grilled to perfection was the plan. unfortunately, the propane tank (finally) ran empty, so broiled steak would have to do. dinner was hot on the table when my folks arrived. Loren ate what he could manage of his monster steak, though of course the mashed potatoes were immediately gone. i knew there was no way he'd finish all the food on his plate- he's getting big but he's not that big. my own steak went down the hatch, and Chowder got a nice bone. soon enough dinner was done, and Loren was ready to open his last gift, a couple new D&D manuals (the Monser Manual III and the Psionics Handbook). they went over every bit as well as i imagined they would. as a gift giver, nothing beats knowing what the recipient likes. in short order a couple of Loren's neighborhood friends showed up, and we split Loren's (delicious) birthday mud pie (courtesy of Mom & Dad) 6 ways. Loren went out to take advantage of the rapidly waning daylight, and i had a little more coffee with the folks before they left. Loren hit the showers, then it was time to dig a chapter further into The Wishsong of Shannara before Loren hit the hay.
Monday was really laid back. i'd planned to hike up Mount Si with Loren, but the weather was iffier than i would have liked; we ended up playing it by ear at home, before heading out in the afternoon to catch the animated movie Madagascar at the new theater in Alderwood. it was pretty good, and we sat all the way through the credits since Loren's determined to catch all the "easter eggs" he can since i explained what they were to him. then we headed to Melissa & Jason's house for some barbecued salmon. Nichole, Chris, and their boys made it out, as well as Mom and Dad, so the family was all there and it was fun. Jason's done a lot of work in the yard, including clearing most of their trees, and he showed me the view of south Whidbey Island from their garage roof- very nice. if only the neighbors could be convinced to chop down their own trees, they'd have a fantastic view. from the garage, you get a dramatic peak-a-boo of one of Whidbey's cliff bluffs abutting the Sound. Jason said he'd like to put a second story on the garage and connect it to the house- a great idea, though a lot of work. i'm sure it was nice for the Wylls to get everyone out on their new deck, a nice piece of work Jason completed last summer. while Jason and i were on the garage roof, Ethan and Chris came to the edge of the deck. Ethan (and Cole too for that matter) wanted to come over too, but as that involves a (somewhat dicey) walk across the top of a fence from the deck to the garage it was out of the question. he asked his dad how we got over there, and Chris told him, "you jump from here." there really aren't words to describe the look that Ethan gave his dad then, but it just busted Jason and me up. i suppose it was something along the lines of, "....are you @#$)(@#$ kiddin' me?" hilarious. yes, i know, you had to be there, but i was, so i'm writing it down, so there.
off home after the barbecue, for another chapter of Wishsong and then bed, before a 4:30 alarm and a 5:30 road trip to Granite Falls then back to work. when i got to Loren's mom's house in the morning, Loren was wearing his sandals rather than his tennis shoes, which he elected to leave at my house as he has another pair at his mom's. for a change, all the lights were on there when we arrived, and Loren's mom kinda grumped out the window about "where are his shoes?"....which i didn't really understand....but then 5 minutes later, while i was southbound on Mountain Loop Highway, she called to apologize, explaining that she was only short with me because she was thinking it was 7:15 (slightly more than an hour later than it actually was) and Loren was going to be late for school, and he didn't even have his real shoes. this incident shall henceforth be known as The Mystery of the Advanced Alarm Clock, when it is inevitably referred to, in a subsequent age, by historians, and scholars of all stripes, tracking the profound implications of the event back to their humble point of origination.
Tuesday was another early start; beginning then and continuing for the immediate future (at least) i'll be starting work at 5am. a very busy weekend and a few early starts in a row, plus some longer-than-normal work days certainly contributed to my nodding off right here in front of this computer last night. i fully intend to get fully horizontal tonight. with any luck i'll have another really interesting dream like i did last night, though i doubt it. last night's was pretty strange.
REM report portion of this post:
Scene 1:
i was standing atop a city building with a small group of people (2 or 3 others), looking down into the alley between that building and the next one. at least 10 stories below lay the body of a girl, or woman, in a short yellow dress. she was splayed in a position that would have been extremely uncomfortable had she been alive; as it was she lay atop a remarkably large and irregular pile of debris. i got the impression that the inhabitants of the two buildings (none of whom were visible at the moment) had just thrown all the items, large and small alike, from the windows of the buildings into the alley, to fall where they would and who gives a damn. at some point my mom was there, and she was telling me about a terrifying close call in a failed elevator in the building we were standing on. then it was as if Mom had never been there, and i had only the story she told me, which i passed on to the disbelieving members of the small group i was still standing with. their discredulity seemed to stem from the fact that the building didn't seem tall enough for the story to be plausible.
Scene 2:
i was inside the building with the most incredulous member of the group, determined to prove Mom's story. we were standing in the parking garage, a split level affair that resembled the parking garage of the Park Place building in downtown Seattle. the sunlight was streaming in from my left, as i looked toward a bank of freight elevators directly in front of me. the human traffic in the parking garage definitely resembled an airport, and i saw a man in a uniform rolling a very large, dark blue baggage cart (with red accents) away from me, perpendicular to the traffic flow into the garage, toward the elevators. i was explaining to the other person something along the lines of, "see there's the elevator bank right there."
Scene 3:
then i found myself on the tarmac of an actual airport, with planes on the ground. a pilot was heading for his plane, and it didn't seem out of the ordinary at all for me to be standing on the tarmac with him. he was an older guy, and he offered to make an exchange with me....something i had (paper....my ticket?) for a sloppily-folded $100 bill. he held both items in his hand, and i only paused a few moments before taking the money, at which point he asked me something along the lines of, "now, isn't that better?" i'm not sure i agreed with him but i couldn't resist the money.
Scene 4:
then suddenly i was back on the rooftop again, looking down at the dead girl in the yellow dress. the very next thing i can remember is falling, down into the alley, toward the body. at the moment i should have impacted i woke up.
many people might be scared by a dream like that, but as i've stated before, i never get scared in dreams. anxious sometimes, a little tense, excited certainly- but never scared. i just find the whole thing too interesting. that was definitely a wierd one. usually they come in bunches, so maybe i'll get lucky and have another one.
falling asleep early yesterday, i never made it out (as planned) to get a new pair of shoes for work. i refuse to ruin another perfectly good pair of sneakers in that machine shop. it's too harsh an environment for them, the soles just can't take the grease and steel chips. i knew i was going to have to get out and get some boots, which i finally managed to do tonight. i spent about as much as i expected, which is more than i would have liked, but i think i got something that will last a while, and won't be too hot come summertime. we'll see how they work out, and how long these last. i tried on a bunch of what they had in my size, and the most comfortable ones were actually the cheapest, i'm just hoping they're tough enough to take the abuse.
this is the point of the post where i realize i've retraced my footsteps all the way back to where i am now: the point at which i let you off the hook and head for the sack with my book.
PEACE
backtracking to Sunday (Loren's actual birthday), i gave Loren his presents, most of which i elected to save for the occasion. he really liked the new bat (it's sweet!) and baseball i gave him, as well as the comic book subscriptions (Marvel comics all: Spider-Man, The Hulk, and- best of all i think- The Fantastic Four) and the Scene It! game (he took it to his mom's- wonder if he tried it out...). i asked him to save the last gift for when Mom and Dad came over later in the evening.
Loren headed out almost before the wrapping paper hit the floor, to dig up some kids to hit a few balls with, and i gave him some peace for awhile before tracking him down to remind him his grandparents were coming over, and we needed to eat dinner. still, it seemed a shame not to pitch him a couple, so we stopped by the common area behind our place for a few. i tossed him a few underhand then switched to overhand. he used to put up a fuss when i threw overhand to him and i think the momentum of the moment let him get by that. it's been a while since i pitched balls to him in any manner whatsoever, and he might have gotten over it anyway. besides, in the interest of full disclosure i must say i have actually pegged him with the ball a few times, and he did take a couple hard pitches (one to the side of his helmet and one in the rear) the one season he played baseball on a team, so he had legitimate reasons to be gunshy. however, new bat and ball won the day, and he's all for the overhand pitches now, which is great because i pretty much suck at throwing underhand. in any case, i tossed him a couple overhand pitches, and i think it was the third pitch that he just clobbered. it was easily a 50-yard shot- it went the length of the common area and would have gone a lot farther if the building hadn't gotten in the way....it had just gotten into the downhill part of its arc when it hit the roof about a foot below the peak (it's a two story building) and took a big curving-around-backwards roll to eventually land conveniently in our own yard- a damn fine hit, and easily the farthest ball he ever hit! that was enough for me to declare the common area off limits for baseball; we're going to have to take it someplace there's more room if he's gonna hit 'em like that. Loren was impressed enough to talk about maybe playing baseball again, which would be a good thing if he still feels like it come next season; this season's well underway.
pizza's smellin' finished- more later.
just watched Ocean's 12- pretty good movie. the original was fun, and this one was almost too cute sometimes, but it was still good. but i digress; i was writing of the remainder of last weekend.
incidentally, if one digresses from a digression is that a trigression? i think i just trigressed....
so we came in from the minor baseball session and i tried to get some dinner going. a couple fine steaks were the bill of fare, grilled to perfection was the plan. unfortunately, the propane tank (finally) ran empty, so broiled steak would have to do. dinner was hot on the table when my folks arrived. Loren ate what he could manage of his monster steak, though of course the mashed potatoes were immediately gone. i knew there was no way he'd finish all the food on his plate- he's getting big but he's not that big. my own steak went down the hatch, and Chowder got a nice bone. soon enough dinner was done, and Loren was ready to open his last gift, a couple new D&D manuals (the Monser Manual III and the Psionics Handbook). they went over every bit as well as i imagined they would. as a gift giver, nothing beats knowing what the recipient likes. in short order a couple of Loren's neighborhood friends showed up, and we split Loren's (delicious) birthday mud pie (courtesy of Mom & Dad) 6 ways. Loren went out to take advantage of the rapidly waning daylight, and i had a little more coffee with the folks before they left. Loren hit the showers, then it was time to dig a chapter further into The Wishsong of Shannara before Loren hit the hay.
Monday was really laid back. i'd planned to hike up Mount Si with Loren, but the weather was iffier than i would have liked; we ended up playing it by ear at home, before heading out in the afternoon to catch the animated movie Madagascar at the new theater in Alderwood. it was pretty good, and we sat all the way through the credits since Loren's determined to catch all the "easter eggs" he can since i explained what they were to him. then we headed to Melissa & Jason's house for some barbecued salmon. Nichole, Chris, and their boys made it out, as well as Mom and Dad, so the family was all there and it was fun. Jason's done a lot of work in the yard, including clearing most of their trees, and he showed me the view of south Whidbey Island from their garage roof- very nice. if only the neighbors could be convinced to chop down their own trees, they'd have a fantastic view. from the garage, you get a dramatic peak-a-boo of one of Whidbey's cliff bluffs abutting the Sound. Jason said he'd like to put a second story on the garage and connect it to the house- a great idea, though a lot of work. i'm sure it was nice for the Wylls to get everyone out on their new deck, a nice piece of work Jason completed last summer. while Jason and i were on the garage roof, Ethan and Chris came to the edge of the deck. Ethan (and Cole too for that matter) wanted to come over too, but as that involves a (somewhat dicey) walk across the top of a fence from the deck to the garage it was out of the question. he asked his dad how we got over there, and Chris told him, "you jump from here." there really aren't words to describe the look that Ethan gave his dad then, but it just busted Jason and me up. i suppose it was something along the lines of, "....are you @#$)(@#$ kiddin' me?" hilarious. yes, i know, you had to be there, but i was, so i'm writing it down, so there.
off home after the barbecue, for another chapter of Wishsong and then bed, before a 4:30 alarm and a 5:30 road trip to Granite Falls then back to work. when i got to Loren's mom's house in the morning, Loren was wearing his sandals rather than his tennis shoes, which he elected to leave at my house as he has another pair at his mom's. for a change, all the lights were on there when we arrived, and Loren's mom kinda grumped out the window about "where are his shoes?"....which i didn't really understand....but then 5 minutes later, while i was southbound on Mountain Loop Highway, she called to apologize, explaining that she was only short with me because she was thinking it was 7:15 (slightly more than an hour later than it actually was) and Loren was going to be late for school, and he didn't even have his real shoes. this incident shall henceforth be known as The Mystery of the Advanced Alarm Clock, when it is inevitably referred to, in a subsequent age, by historians, and scholars of all stripes, tracking the profound implications of the event back to their humble point of origination.
Tuesday was another early start; beginning then and continuing for the immediate future (at least) i'll be starting work at 5am. a very busy weekend and a few early starts in a row, plus some longer-than-normal work days certainly contributed to my nodding off right here in front of this computer last night. i fully intend to get fully horizontal tonight. with any luck i'll have another really interesting dream like i did last night, though i doubt it. last night's was pretty strange.
REM report portion of this post:
Scene 1:
i was standing atop a city building with a small group of people (2 or 3 others), looking down into the alley between that building and the next one. at least 10 stories below lay the body of a girl, or woman, in a short yellow dress. she was splayed in a position that would have been extremely uncomfortable had she been alive; as it was she lay atop a remarkably large and irregular pile of debris. i got the impression that the inhabitants of the two buildings (none of whom were visible at the moment) had just thrown all the items, large and small alike, from the windows of the buildings into the alley, to fall where they would and who gives a damn. at some point my mom was there, and she was telling me about a terrifying close call in a failed elevator in the building we were standing on. then it was as if Mom had never been there, and i had only the story she told me, which i passed on to the disbelieving members of the small group i was still standing with. their discredulity seemed to stem from the fact that the building didn't seem tall enough for the story to be plausible.
Scene 2:
i was inside the building with the most incredulous member of the group, determined to prove Mom's story. we were standing in the parking garage, a split level affair that resembled the parking garage of the Park Place building in downtown Seattle. the sunlight was streaming in from my left, as i looked toward a bank of freight elevators directly in front of me. the human traffic in the parking garage definitely resembled an airport, and i saw a man in a uniform rolling a very large, dark blue baggage cart (with red accents) away from me, perpendicular to the traffic flow into the garage, toward the elevators. i was explaining to the other person something along the lines of, "see there's the elevator bank right there."
Scene 3:
then i found myself on the tarmac of an actual airport, with planes on the ground. a pilot was heading for his plane, and it didn't seem out of the ordinary at all for me to be standing on the tarmac with him. he was an older guy, and he offered to make an exchange with me....something i had (paper....my ticket?) for a sloppily-folded $100 bill. he held both items in his hand, and i only paused a few moments before taking the money, at which point he asked me something along the lines of, "now, isn't that better?" i'm not sure i agreed with him but i couldn't resist the money.
Scene 4:
then suddenly i was back on the rooftop again, looking down at the dead girl in the yellow dress. the very next thing i can remember is falling, down into the alley, toward the body. at the moment i should have impacted i woke up.
many people might be scared by a dream like that, but as i've stated before, i never get scared in dreams. anxious sometimes, a little tense, excited certainly- but never scared. i just find the whole thing too interesting. that was definitely a wierd one. usually they come in bunches, so maybe i'll get lucky and have another one.
falling asleep early yesterday, i never made it out (as planned) to get a new pair of shoes for work. i refuse to ruin another perfectly good pair of sneakers in that machine shop. it's too harsh an environment for them, the soles just can't take the grease and steel chips. i knew i was going to have to get out and get some boots, which i finally managed to do tonight. i spent about as much as i expected, which is more than i would have liked, but i think i got something that will last a while, and won't be too hot come summertime. we'll see how they work out, and how long these last. i tried on a bunch of what they had in my size, and the most comfortable ones were actually the cheapest, i'm just hoping they're tough enough to take the abuse.
this is the point of the post where i realize i've retraced my footsteps all the way back to where i am now: the point at which i let you off the hook and head for the sack with my book.
PEACE
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