All I want for Christmas

Christmas has come and gone but the tree is still up. It's the Saturday morning of the 29th and little Christmas cheer is left. The point of the holiday has escaped me altogether and what is left but the feeling that this time of year is supposed to be of great joy and thanksgiving. I am thankful for the things that make my life as comfortable as it is but the feeling doesn't come as easily as one would hope. And the joy that accompanies is in someone elses company. These feelings are easy when you're a child, the responsibility of making sure everyone got their gifts and working extra hours in the cold to make sure we can afford them is joyless. As a child the thrill and excitement of presents made the holiday, I felt as if my family knew what I wanted and loved me enough to get if for me. Granted I had told them explicitly what I wanted so that I would not to have to return it, exchange it, or feign gratitude but the feeling of love was still there. I'm 26 now and the wife and I knew what we wanted months in advance. So, come late October we decide we can afford to get each other the Garmin Rino GPS/2-way radios that we desired so much and bought them. It takes a bit of fun out of Christmas morning when there is one present under the tree and the rest are either opened already, or take the form of cash money. Was this a terrible holiday, not entirely... I got to spend it with my darling wife that I adore spending time with, and we got a fun little camcorder from my father-in-law. But when it comes down to it I miss the childhood Christmas that I once had. Perhaps next year Santa will bring me a bit of the old days. Or maybe I need to not be such a spoiled brat about the whole thing and makes someone elses holiday a little brighter.
On a side-note I wish I were a student or teacher so I didn't have to work so much during Christmas break.

Thanksgiving with Family

Jessica and I took a trip down to Coos Bay for Thanksgiving and in some free time we decided to do a bit of caching. I found myself explaining exactly what geocaching is a few times and trying to justify why it is a viable hobby. I think I got my father hooked on it when we went to Charleston and found a couple caches. The funny part about our adventure was my mistake in entering the coordinates in the GPS. When we got back home we discovered the reason why the compass was directing us 200 ft. past the end of a floating dock. Oops, I'm learning slowly. Next time we'll show them how geocaching can be when human error isn't involved.

daily ritual

I am a bus rider... in Portland this puts me in a position to witness a cacophony of strange things and perplexing events. Most people are normal and just try to get from one place to another without being harassed. Others are sometimes the ones doing the harassing. Every morning I catch the same bus and see many of the same people; the older lady with her cup of coffee, the group of junior high students going to school, the smelly older gentleman who gets off at the MAX train station, and the security guard who gets on there. They are my community in a very real sense but I know little to nothing about them. I can only assume. This is how a large portion of my day is spent, observing the populus and fabricating the backstory of others lives. Perhaps they do the same to me, perhaps they don't care at all. I feel as though I should be writing a novel about the rediculous lives of fiction that I create. Maybe I will find the time, make the time, and sit down and be inspired.

I've been repeatedly astounded at the spending that goes into a religious institution. My wife and I live across the street from the Apostolic Faith Church in Portland and they own three pieces of property which line both sides of duke street from 52nd Ave. to 56th Ave. Across 52nd Ave there is the Apostolic Faith Headquarters. The church building where services are held is a monument to the kind of over the top structures that religious institiutions believe are necessary in order for numbers to grow. The church is taking over the community and building RV parking at the back of the bible camp. I've lived in this community for over a year and I have never met anyone from that church. I wonder if they even care what their neighbors think about them... Oh well, it doesn't really matter that much to me, I was just considering the churches role in the distribution of wealth and what scripture might have to say about it.

time keeps on slippin' into the future...

As I get older it would appear that holidays hold less importance than they did before. This year Halloween is apparently going to slip by me without even letting me know that it had showed up in the first place. The wife and I have been so busy that we neglected to get pumpkins to carve. I've definately decided that we are too old to go trick or treating. Not that we did such things even a couple of years ago. But we did go Trick-or-canning. Instead of collecting candy for ourselves we decided in college to dress up in costume and collect canned food for the Portland Rescue Mission, and perhaps obtain some candy at the same time. We had oodles of fun and felt good about it. But, alas! We are getting up in years and cannot walk around in the bitter cold so I petition those who read this blog, as few of you as may be, to encourage young ones to take the opportunity of going door to door to do something noble and good. Regretably, Jessica and I were not able to go to TLC this year because she felt ill. Our food donation will have to go through other channels; perhaps a young person will visit my door on halloween to collect it.
And the big news with us is that we got each other our Christmas presents already. We each have a Garmin Rino GPS/2-way Radio so we can go Geo-caching as much as we like. And hopefully not get lost in the process. We're big nerds.

Bot Fly

I seem to have a strange fascination with gross and wierd things. I saw this video when I was in North Carolina and now you have to see it too.

My other reality

I doubt if I'm the only one who day dreams. But it is possible I am losing it. I seem to have this one image while I'm driving of me using a spin maneuver on a driver who fails to use their turn signal and I get out of the car and punch them right in the ear through their window. I know that some people are not from around here or they just forget but it happens all the time. On the other hand... some people actually deserve to be drilled in the side of the head. The other day dream I have regularly is me riding a motorcycle to work. I've been wanting a motorcycle for a long time but it doesn't seem like that's going to happen anytime soon. Have you ever thought that it would be interesting to be an international spy? Ever follow a stranger for a few blocks through town, watch to see if anyone is following your car in the rear view mirror? Ever look around a room making sure you know where all the exits are...? I do. Maybe I've seen too many movies, maybe I'm just bored, but my imagination lets me deal out justice and take risks that normal people just don't do. The positive side of being boring is the fact that I can look myself in the mirror and sleep like a baby with a clear conscience. Speaking of sleep... zzzzzzzzzzz ...................zzzzzzzzzzzz
Whoops! Goodnight.

So Sad...

Some people genuinely astonish me. Not necessarily in good ways either, but rather in sad and embarassing ways. Embarrassing for them I might add. I have to wonder if people ever try to see themselves from another perspective because they say and do things that can only be explained by obliviousness. Know anyone like that? Besides Michael Scott from The Office...

politcal party like its 1999!

After years of being content with not really knowing what is going on in Washington, in Salem, and in Portland I've decided that I want to know more about political issues. I see commercials for different measures from each side of the arguement and politicians giving sales pitches but as we all know you can't trust what you see on television. I'm going to devote some of my free time to researching various issues in my community. I've been an american citizen all my life enjoying the freedoms that other people made happen and I know so little about how my country and community got to where it is. I don't want to spend all my time sifting through campaign garbage but if I can find reliable information I'll be a valuable citizen and voter. It seems like a lot of people have given up on the democratic system and are relying on corporations to make decisions for the country. I won't stand for it any longer. I'm choosing to be a part of the solution... In some capacity.

Just thinking

I now know that there are some who are reading my blog and now I feel an overwhelming desire to please. I have been thinking about the process of writing and have determined that the best thing about each of us is the ability to create art. In any form the concept of art is the very essence of our existance as humans. When God created man in his image one of the things that I believe is that he made us with the ability to discern right and wrong and furthermore to create. One might say that if you give an elephant a paint brush it will make broad strokes on a canvas and it would fetch more money at auction than my 3rd grade crayon drawing of a dinosaur. To that I say the elephant is doing as it was trained where as a person actually feels the desire to communicate an image or story in the very core of their being. Art can take the form of painting, sculpture, music... anything. The best of all creation is man and the infinite possibilities that lie within.

Untitled

I successfully completed another day of work, I have a paycheck to show for it and a couple more slivers. Just an average day in the lumber business. To elaborate further on my own alternate universe in wood; I have a book on grading hardwood lumber for work. It contains dimensions for average lumber milling, charts for moisture content, anti-terrorism combat tactics, and stolen recipes from Martha Stewarts kitchen. Well, if you were actually paying attention, I was joking about the last two... But anyway, I like learning new things about my job, but at the same time there are parts that seem to be monotenous. As any job can be, it is the high and low, the exciting and dull, the frustrating and the relaxing; it is one of several things that give my life purpose. I embark on a new journey soon to learn even more about myself. Nervousness, anxiety, excitement... all these things describe my future and my daily psychological profile. I'm not being too specific but that's on purpose. Simply put, I'm not finished becoming.

A lot of nothing

My wife informs me that I have a lot to blog about but I really can't think of anything at the moment. It's been a long time since I blogged last and things have been happening so here is a recap. I got a chance to go to Virginia for a week for work and play. I met new people and learned new things about the lumber business which nearly all of the population does not find as interesting as I do so I won't go into that. The Sunday that I was in Washington D.C. was a great day. I did the rush tour of the capitol mall area and had seen nearly all the museums and monuments by 2 p.m. Without my wife it was difficult to really enjoy it. I now find it selfish to see new things by myself; it sounds wierd but its true. The best thing was seeing the Lincoln Memorial, the building, the statue, the engraved excerpts of famous speeches, all of it was enough to bring an overwhelming sense of national pride through me.
During the week I was in D.C. I got to stay in a beautiful house all by myself; I also got a vehicle of my own to use all week and to drive down to Wilmington, NC to see my cousin for the first time in ten years. A big deal since we were like brothers before he moved away from North Bend. North Carolina is disgustingly humid, who's with me? I've got to go to work now so to all those who will read this... I plan to continue this blog soon.

When I try to think of my favorite things I have a difficult time saying them because it automatically says something about me when I do. These things are more important to me than anything else. They define what I do with my time. They show others my main concerns. And that is far too serious... Most of the time I would rather not be taken seriously. Life is much too serious to be serious on the internet for everyone to see. So this is my apology to all who have read my blog and thought, "this guy is way too serious." Here it goes.
Bar-B-ques
Frisbee
Fellowship with friends
Reading new things (so much so that I rarely finish one thing because there is so much new to be had)
watching The Office with the wife
Building furniture (Absolutely one of the most expensive things I like to do)
Drawing (mostly pictures of furniture projects)
Writing (usually about a fictional life where I play myself)
Hiking (when I can go somewhere new)
Swimming (though shark attacks are a concern)
Eating (more than the average Joe, but less than the average grizzly bear)
Oddly enough I like working most of the time
Traveling (though I don't get to very much)
and building school projects with popsicle sticks (granted the sticks are acquired by consuming the popsicles)

there is more to come later.
Until then stay tuned to see what next weeks show will look like...

My world: a broken record, broken record, broken record...

My life is thoroughly disinteresting, my days are the same. My relationships consist of distant friends and a loving wife. Which is by no means a lacking relationship. But as far as readable content it surely is boring to say the least. My exciting moments are few and far between and I use exhausted idioms in my speech like an old man. I will turn 26 in three months and what I'm looking forward to the most is the spill proof coffee cup my wife said she would get me for my birthday way back in January or something. I garden and build in my shop, my evenings are planned around church activities and television shows. My life is predictable.
Not a bad life, just one that lacks spontaneity. Who's with me? I don't think I'm the only 20 something who feels that life looks to be set on repeat every day. Like a carousel ride I get the ups and downs with a repetative backdrop. And the music stays the same and soon it drives a man crazy.

An extra ordinary day

A day like most, just working at the lumber yard. I meet interesting people all the time. Most people are interesting because they are quirky or they swear alot or they have a large goiter on their face or whatever. Monday I met a person on a whole other plane of interesting. His name is Bill Johnson and in 1984 he won the olympic gold in the men's downhill ski and on top of that he was the first american to do that. His story is one that rings with heroism and soon a movie will have been made about his story of triumph amidst difficult circumstances. He gave Phil and I an autographed picture and let us hold his medal. It was very unexpected but awesome. The medal was rectangular with soft rounded edges and the event and seal stamped on either side.
What's more is that Mr. Johnson accomplished living through a terrible accident on the mountain. Phil said he saw the accident on television and Mr. Johnson was going about 70 mph when he fell. He's a great guy and I'm lucky to have met him. Kudos to you Bill Johnson!

My new pet rabbit

Okay, not really. She's way cuter but she is a biter!

A question for the marketing directors at Red Robin

My sister is in town for the week of spring break and since she has never been to Red Robin in her entire 16 years of life we thought that it would be a good experience. All was well and good, but there was one problem that no one could solve. There was an fold up paper advertisement on out table much like many restaurants have. It was designed to look like an old style car but with information about Red Robin products on some of its sides. Just out of curiosity, either my wife or I had decided to look the entire thing over so not one iota of information would escape our attention. This curiosity would soon take us to the bottom of this colorful advertisement and deliver an answer to a question that never entered my mind. "61, Chevy" was the answer Red Robin had chosen to give me for any question I had for a cardboard box. Looking it over and over for several minutes we decided that there truly was no question given. This trivial answer was perhaps more profound than just announcing the model of car the advertisement was designed closest to. My wife's inquisitive nature took her mind to a far off place where answers are the questions and questions are the answers and she explained her philosophical conundrum by saying that there was a purpose to an answer without a question. And that purpose was indeed to get us to question the necessity of answers at all. In truth it is the questions that we seek and causes us to expand our minds to possibilities outside of a single persons answer to any one question. We asked the waiter if he knew where the question might be... not on the coaster, not on any other boxes... nowhere to be found. In fact, he was not even aware that there was an answer on the bottom of this box. Looking around he found that some boxes had answers and some didn't. Could this be a reflection on the broad spectrum of people who would be dining at this restaurant? Are some people presumptuous enough to think they have the answer your looking for? I don't know but I'm wondering if maybe there is a lesson to be learned here... or several of them. What is your Question? What is your Answer. Next time life throws you a curve ball just remember, the magic eight-ball only holds the answers... YOU HOLD THE QUESTIONS.

Case of the Mondays

I've decided to take this Monday off in order to catch up on some the things I've been missing out on. Housework has taken the biggest hit lately. With the rabbit stuff to take care of the other things take the back seat until the weekend. The last couple of weekends my boss has had me working so Saturdays went from clean up days to more exhausted days. I anticipate the summer sun to increase productivity. The winter cold forces retreat under a blanket and hours of TV watching. Jess and I have begun watching several TV shows on a regular basis. This accounts for most of after dinner hours until bedtime... Perhaps a springtime lightening storm will blow up our TV and then we can get something done... Then again many shows are available online. Only Time will tell.This Monday is unlike most, Tuesday will be my back to the grind.

Pet People

It is my pleasure to announce the arrival of our new baby girl! Okay, not a human baby but my wife and I find great joy in the new addition to our family. We got a 4 week old bunny named Beesley. She's about 7 inches long, grey, and the apple of my eye. I much rather prefer this bunny to a child, a cat, or even a small breed of dog. It doesn't bark nor need to be let outside. However she does need to have her pen cleaned, she does bite (not so much anymore), she does require some attention but probably not as much as we give her, and she does leave presents on the carpet that are easy to vacuum up. All in all she is the ideal pet for us. (Pictures are coming soon).

I wish I had a super power that would help me do my job better. This is a list of the super powers that might help me work better. Telekenesis would help me move lumber from here to there without a forklift. Super speed would help me get from one side of the warehouse to the other in a fraction of a second thus being able to get a pen, some paper, or a calculator whenever I had forgotten one. If I could see into the future I wouldn't do anything that would get in the way of what someone will have to do later and keep me from feeling stupid.
Now for some less impressive powers that would help me do well at my job... Remember what it is that I am doing at any given time of day, not being colorblind would be a super power for me and then I would be able to distinguish species of lumber much better. In reality I would be better at work if I could just focus on one thing at a time... Oh well. Maybe my special power is that I can change if I want to. It seems like a lot of work though... Only time will tell whether or not I will refine my abilities and achieve my highest potential... Blah, blah, blah. Bye.

Zoo Day

A day at the zoo for the wife and I was a refreshing difference from the typical weekend of sitting around doing laundry. Refreshing like falling off a crab boat in the Bering Sea. It was supposed to be relatively warm but the Oregon Zoo sits a couple hundred feet above the rest of the city and the wind was howling. For most of the animals; the polar bears, the penquins, the sea otters, but the strange exhibits were the rhinos, giraffes, and zebras because it was 40 degrees and the savanna isn't exactly just a stones throw away. How is it possible for these animals to survive in our Pacific northwest climate when their natural home is so much warmer? Anyway, I kinda felt bad for the poor creatures, the only way I can really justify keeping the animals in such a small habitat is the conservation work that zoos do. I do enjoy seeing the animals but that is outweighed by the sadness of an 11 foot elephant walking in circles in a room only three times its own length. That's all I have to say about that.

Quarter of a Century Old

My wife recently purchased some books with her Barnes & Noble gift card, of which there is a book entitled An owners manual to the Brain. I don't know if this was some kind of humorous dig at my apparent absentmindedness sometimes or some interesting academic literature. Anyway, it makes a good bathroom read. I was reading this book today and there was a section about personality changes over time and how age plays a role in personality. There are significant marks in one's lifetime that help to change their personality such as working full time, getting married, living alone, having children, etc... I've reached a place in my life where I am pretty adult and I feel it every time I go to bed at 8:30, every time I feel like soaking my feet after work, and when the television and the music is getting too loud. This last point is what has me reeling. I like loud music, but for some reason there are times when it is just too loud for this grumpy old man. I would like to clarify that I am not complaining, I am just thinking introspectively about my youth in contrast with life as it is now. Imagine what life will be like in 30 years...

music of the four seasons

I find that at certain times of the year I prefer different kinds of music... In the summer I enjoy hard rock, classic rock, country, and some hip hop, In the fall I enjoy a softer indie rock sound as it gets colder. A more meloncholy mix of music with grunge, indie, and slower softer music. In the spring I like a little inspirational, some 90's rock, and 80's pop music.
I don't know if this is a normal phenomenon but I would be interested to hear what anyone else thinks. It seems as if my life requires a soundtrack, could this be the influence of watching television far too much, or the onset of Seasonal Affective Disorder... I'm a fairly balanced individual but is this how my range of feelings are manifest in life? Please comment...

I am a fan of Family Guy, like it or not

New blog, bigger better, incoherent...

I don't know what I will choose to write about but I do know that I didn't like my old blog so I aborted it. It's okay it was being neglected and it was better to put it out of it's misery. Hmm, Misery???? I need to watch that movie. Anyway,
The wife and I went to Boise this weekend to help out a friend I work with and to help myself to some used truck parts for my S-10. There is a floor installer that rents space in the warehouse I work in and he needed some flooring to go to Boise where lies a truck that bore the parts I desired. Since Boise is a seven hour drive from P-town I asked my wife to join me on a road trip. She did... As far as road trips go it was conciderably nicer than others have been. No stolen items, no broken windows, no vehicle trouble, and no unexpected detours.
One thing I would have liked to do was go to Zoo Boise... But the truck took a little more time than I would have liked and the zoo closed at 5pm. So we stuck around my friend's sister's house where the truck resides and conversed a little while. The strange part was how hospitable these people were to complete strangers. My wife, having little to do while I scavenged the vehicle outside went inside and soon left with the rest of the women departing for Costco. It was interesting how in a matter of minutes these strangers were like a family to us, they fed us and offered tours of Boise. I think there is something wrong with people that live in the big city. There is something to be said for the hospitality of country folk, but I don't know what to say...
-More Later...