it's late, but a post is in order

i'll try to justify the occasion with a worthy offering- and still manage to get to bed at a reasonably sane hour not to sleep all day tomorrow (again).

Loren's been here for nearly two weeks now. he's been on his own quite a bit during the work week, but he seems to be enjoying himself. he always seems to relax when he's here for a while, and this is the longest amount of time he's spent here in at least a year- and by the time he goes back to school, it'll be the longest unbroken time he's spent with his pops since he lived with both his parents. i've given him some chores to do, and gave him a good book to read, and made sure he's gotten some exercise, but left him time to spend doing whatever he wants- which has pretty much translated to TV, video games, creating pictures in MS paint, messing with his Yu-Gi-Oh and Magic: The Gathering cards, reading up on D&D and making characters...all the usual stuff. just what the doctor ordered, i think. Chowder's certainly been loving the company; someone's been home all day and Loren takes him out for walks.

as for me, as of today, i'm on vacation! i had to work off the hours beforehand to get a paycheck this week, and even so, i came up about a day short of 40 hrs, but i have the next week off. tack on the weekends on either side, throw in Labor Day for good measure, and you get 10 days off in a row. well deserved, i think. i'd originally planned a trip for us earlier in the summer, river rafting in Oregon followed by some hiking and camping (which those who've been reading already know), but his unexpectedly extended stay in Alaska put the kibosh on that. when he made it back here, i managed to allow work and spending time with him to distract me from remaking those plans....so now i'm hoping we'll be able to put something together on short notice. procrastination strikes again. either way, 10 days off with Loren here will be fun, trip or no. Loren will be going back to school the day i go back to work, and i'll be dropping him off for his first day of 8th grade, the first time i've gotten the privilege of sending him off to school since he was in 1st grade....that's a long time.

i have my fingers crossed that he'll have more success academically this year than he did last year. he seems determined to make some effort toward that end, and i'm determined to help him as much as i can. i'm of the opinion a little success breeds more success, and i mean to see he gets to enjoy some.

the return of school also means the return of soccer season, so now i have to figure out how to get him signed up for that, if it's still possible (which is likely). one more birthday and he'll be too old to play in the league he's played in for years, then it will be a matter of whether his school has a team, or finding another league.

had a chance to spend a little time with my friend Chris this week. he was in town from Hawaii after the recent death of his grandmother, who lived here. their family had a lot of her effects to find a home for, or dispose of, and his mother (who also lives here) decided to move back to Hawaii herself, which required packing a bunch of stuff as well. those were two jobs and a half, and kept him pretty busy. i was the grateful recipient of a nice dresser, a large shelving unit, and some power tools. Loren chose a WWII-era machete, possibly from the Philippines, owned by Chris's grandmother's husband, and a pair of eyeglass-frame type flashlights that run on AAA batteries- nifty. i just realized i could be repeating myself here...but i might have mentioned these little details in an email rather than a blog post. the dangers of not posting for extended periods....

in any case, it was damn good to see Chris. he came over last night (again, it's still Saturday to me, i haven't slept yet) and we got to hang out for a while. the conversation turned to the same types of things it always has with Chris: building things, music, common friends and family, creative pursuits. i hooked him up with a few boogie board blanks i've been holding for him for quite a while, and an old GK amp that's been gathering dust on a shelf here, which he couldn't take to Hawaii with him when he moved there about 4 years ago. hard to see him go, he's one of the few people i truly enjoy spending time with, and a True Brother. Aloha, Chris! hope to hook up with him again on his home turf...always wanted to see Hawaii, and hangin' with him over there would be the more Worthy.

Chris is another one of those guys who's always got something brewing in his head, like i do. there's what's actually going on, and then there's what you'd like to be involved in if you had more time or energy. sometimes just a little push in the right direction is all it takes, and mulling those types of things over with Chris always pushes me into a more-likely-to-take-action stance. i guess if i really have a little more motivation than i've had, the evidence will show up here.

but back to the mundane: gotta get some school shopping for the boy accomplished this week, give us both a haircut, get him mentally prepared for school, and talk with his mom about a more acceptable visitation schedule for the next 9 months. i've discussed a likely option with Loren, and he agrees it's worth trying, so now it's up to me to broach the subject with his mom. the last time i was over there i told her i thought my reception the previous time was pretty chilly, and that i didn't feel like i'd given her any reason to be upset with me, and that i'd like to feel like we could get on with the business of trying to work with each other- and she seemed genuinely happy to let the tension go, at least for the moment. that's a step in the right direction, i guess. i'm all for more of that.

after Chris's visit last night i had a pretty decent headache going, and hit the hay. Loren wasn't inclined to wake me up, and i'd killed the alarms, but i didn't expect to sleep until 2:30pm. must have really built up the sleep debt this last week. i was certainly exhausted yesterday (Friday). but even that wasn't enough sleep; i managed to fall back to sleep on the couch for another hour and half later in the afternoon. Loren seemed alright with it; i can't help but feel a little guilty when i'm sleeping all day on his time, but (while it's certainly not the rule) it's not unheard of for me to be exhausted and crash like a Big Dog. i feel 100% better than i did at the end of the work week, and if you can't sleep as much as you want on vacation, when can you? the rest of the week'll be a different story- hopefully i've gotten the sleep debt out of my system.

so tomorrow we try to accomplish some things, and still have some time for some fun, and i get to spend a Sunday not dreading work on Monday. and maybe i'll have a little more time and motivation than normal during the next week to post, and again have something interesting enough to make posting worthwhile.