Vacation pics, late as usual

So without much comment here are pics from my trip to Colorado in August. I had an amazing time; it was great seeing both my mother and aunt, and I had fun in everything we did. We hiked, ate, shopped, ate, wandered around, ate, and just relaxed (and ate). I've been going to my aunt's place in Vail since I was about 10, but hadn't been there in about 15 years. It was nice to go back and see the place again. It has changed in a lot of ways, but hasn't changed in a lot of other ways. The only thing that didn't work out like we had hoped was the hike up the mountain my mother and I attempted. It was 4.5 miles with a 2500 foot climb in elevation. Seeing as we were starting at 8300 feet, it was a little too ambitious. We made it a little ways up and decided it would take us all day to make it to the top, if we did make it to the top. Beyond that it was a great trip and I'm very glad I decided to go. It made a nice birthday gift to myself.

Weekend this and that

Just wanted to drop a few lines here since it's too easy to get into the habit of not writing anything. Well, a "few lines" with me is usually a couple of pages...

There hasn't been too much to report, and that's OK. I'm still obsessing over tires, but when it comes time to buy I'll do what I usually do and go with my gut instinct and end up bring right in the first place. But, it gives me something to do and process so it's OK. I received in the mail the leveling kit I ordered. It will lift the front of the truck so that it's level with the back of the truck. It looks like it's going downhill all the time, so I'm looking forward to having it level. Now the challenge is finding someone local who can do it. I have one place I found but it seems kind of expensive so I need to do a little more digging. Once that is done I'll get the tires put on.

We did some house cleaning this weekend, and it was definitely due. It's amazing how dirty the house can get, and how nice it is when it's clean. I still have to go upstairs and clean the shower in my bathroom, but I'll do that just before I take my shower tonight. Real exciting huh?

Anthony starts school tomorrow...yay! He was able to get approved for "commissioner approved training" through the state which means they play for his tuition the first quarter and then pay him the equivalent of weekly unemployment benefits for the two years he's in school. I think it will be good for him to get more training and be able to do something different when he graduates. It should open up more opportunities for him than he has now. Plus it's not a bad way to ride out the current economy spending it in school.

Sadly I don't have lots more to report, but I guess that's good. I'm hoping we get back over to the boat in the new future and start getting it ready for the summer. We're going to have a lot of cleaning to do outside, and we need to have it hauled out to have new bottom paint put on. Those should all be easily doable. Just more things to do of course, but oh well.

Weekend in San Diego

Last weekend we were in San Diego. It was Anthony's first trip there and for Jayson and me it was our first visit in 10 years. The impetus for the trip was to visit Anthony's brother and family, but we also added visits to my friend Rick and Jayson's friends Jim and Khristie.

It was kind of weird being in San Diego again. It brought up lots of memories for me, some good some bad. I was surprised how much I remembered about the place and was able to direct Rick through areas he wasn't familiar with. Seeing the place again reminded me of the things I didn't like about it when I lived there. It's just not the place for me.

Thursday after we arrived we spent the evening with Jim and Khristie. Actually, we spent some time wandering around Old Town before meeting them for dinner. Old Town is kind of interesting, although it's really nothing more than a lot of shops and restaurants in old buildings. It still has a nice feel. I used to joke that when visitors would be in town and wanted to go to Mexico I would drive them around up and down the freeway and then end up in Old Town. It's really what people think Mexico will look like, although Old Town is much much nicer than Tijuana. Dinner with Jim and Khristie was great. It was as if we'd seen them just last week and we were picking up right where we'd left off. Anthony and Jayson had fish bowl-sized margaritas, and of course finished them. It's funny to see Anthony, who says he doesn't drink, down 64 ounces of margarita.

The next day we spent tooling around town with Rick doing some sight-seeing. We made a trip to to Balboa Park, which is still one of my favorite places in San Diego. Anthony, Jayson, and I spent some time wandering around the main prado area but had to keep the visit short. We spent the evening with Anthony's brother and sister-in-law, John and Amber, and their two daughters, Olivia and Elizabeth. It was the first time Jayson and I had met any of the family but it was nice. They made us feel very welcome and comfortable. We had dinner at their house and then "hung out" just chatting and getting caught up.

I should insert here that our "rental" car for the weekend was Rick's Mercedes E55 AMG. It's his weekend car and was very generous in letting us use it. I had a great time driving it, sometimes too great. I definitely tried to drive the car as it was meant to be driven, namely fast. It was a real treat to drive it, and the fact that John and Amber lived 50 miles north of Rick meant that I got to really enjoy the drive.

Anyway, spent Saturday with John and Amber again and this time John drove us around Camp Pendleton. We actually didn't get to see much of Amber as she was running errands a lot of the day. Camp Pendleton is huge and it took a couple of hours to just touch on some of the highlights of the place. Still, it was interesting to see the place, and to spend time with Anthony's brother. John and Amber had plans for Saturday night so it was back to San Diego for the evening.

We had made reservations to go to one of my favorite restaurants, Cafe Eleven. It's been there for, as we found out, 24 years and I've been frequenting it for about 18 of those. The food was just as good as I remembered, and some of the same people were still working there, and remembered us. It was a nice dinner and evening, other than the fact that somehow I left significantly less for the bill than I should have, but I got it straightened out.

Sunday Jayson was leaving around noon so we had breakfast at DZ Akins, a Jewish deli that's always good, and then dropped him at the airport. Anthony, Rick, and I played tourists the rest of the day going to Point Loma and Sunset Cliffs, and seeing a little of downtown. The highlight for Anthony seemed to be getting to drive the Mercedes from Sunset Cliffs to where we had dinner in Point Loma. I'm glad he got to experience it at least. After dinner we were all tired so we watched a movie at home and called it a night. Monday meant that Anthony and I had to leave so we had a big breakfast out and then killed some time driving around Mission Hills, just so Anthony could more of San Diego. Rick dropped us at the airport and we had an uneventful flight home.

It was a good trip, and made for a nice weekend. It was great seeing Rick, along with everyone else. Rick was very generous in hosting us and providing us not only his car to use but also a very nice and comfortable place to stay. It's like visiting family whenever he and I are together. I just wish he and I lived closer to each other.

As is usual, here are some pics from the trip:

Really overdue post-Houston post

In typical fashion for me, it's been almost two weeks since I posted anything. I felt kind of busy after getting home from Texas so haven't written anything since then. The trip was, in a word, great. It had been a long time since I had spent any real time with my father and step-mother and it was nice to do. We spent a lot of time just chatting and catching up on life. My father and I would run some errands in the day, usually have a lunch out, and maybe just drive through some of the local areas. On the weekend we did a lot of sight-seeing and that was also lots of fun. Saturday we drove south to the USS Texas and the San Jacinto battlefield monument. Both were interesting but the Texas, a US battleship built in 1914, was really interesting. I love boats of any kind and it was great getting to crawl all over this huge ship that was chock full of history. The lower-deck areas were open and it was fascinating to see just how the crew lived on the ship. The accommodations were very "rustic" to say the least. We thought we'd spend about 30 minutes on the ship but I convinced my step-mother Sharon that it wasn't difficult to negotiate the ladders below decks and we ended up spending about two hours on board. I took lots of pictures, but sadly lots of them look alike.

The San Jacinto battlefield monument wasn't as interesting, but still was enjoyable. It's a big tower built in the 1930's to commemorate the battle between Texas rebels and Mexico. It was the battle that led to Texas becoming a US territory, so it was a fairly important battle. There was a small museum with some interesting pieces and then the tower itself. Sadly, being approximately 60 stories up in southeastern Texas still doesn't give much of a view. It's from the ground, it's flat from above.

Sunday we decided to drive down to Galveston since we all like the area, and we wanted to see the damage from Hurricane Ike. There was clearly visible damage starting in the Clear Lake area and it got worse and worse as we got closer. Galveston seemed to be rebuilding well, and that was good to see. We decided to catch the ferry over the Bolivar since Sharon had heard the damage was really bad there. The eye had passed right over the eastern end of Galveston Island so Bolivar was in the very dangerous northeastern quadrant of the hurricane. On top of that, the storm surge was much higher than anticipated, about 20 feet at Bolivar. Making things worse, most of Bolivar is no more than 4 or 5 feet above sea level. One can do the math and figure out how much water was covering the area, and add breaking waves from the winds and it was pretty ugly. We expected a lot of damage, but weren't prepared for how bad it really was. We first stopped in a residential beach neighborhood and it had been mostly wiped off the map. The houses before the hurricane had been built on stilts to protect them from storm surge. Sadly, it didn't make any difference for most of the houses. Where there were rows of houses before, there was just a collection of sticks poking out of the sand. We found sinks, light fixtures, ceiling fans, floor tiles, and all kinds of other evidence of the houses sticking out of the sand. Everything metal was turning to piles of rust after being inundated with sea water. Sharon and I commented on how quiet it was and I realized that there was just no life anywhere. On the beach in Galveston there were manyh seagulls and other types of birds, and as we drove out of town we continued to see lots of birds in the trees. In Bolivar, there was nothing. No birds had returned to the area and it was completely quiet. It was eery not having any sounds of nature.

We drove further east towards the town and the devestation just went on for miles and miles. When we reached the town, or what was left of it, it looked like a bomb had gone off. Many of the buildings were destroyed, and those that were left were uninhabitable. It was amazing that it had been 5 months since the storm and what we were seeing was after considerable cleanup had been done. After a while it became overwhelming and we decided to head out. Unfortunately the devestation continue for miles and miles as we drove out of the area. It was interesting to see the power of nature, but also very sad to see how the lives of so many people had been disrupted. Not to mention the couple or more dozen people who were killed in Bolivar when the storm went through.

So, I thoroughly enjoyed the visit with my father and Sharon. It was a real treat for me, even more so because they not only paid to get me there, but insisted on paying for everything while I was there. It was a very nice gift for them to give me since I do enjoy spending time with them. And of course, here are a few pics.

Update: This post was long enough (OK, more than long enough) but I meant to add a link to some before and after pics on the USGS site posted here.

Hillbilly gift baskets, and other Texas fun

The last couple of weeks were busy with me getting ready for a trip to Houston to visit my father and step-mother. I got here on Tuesday afternoon, after getting up at 3:00 in the morning for a 6:00 flight. I’m here until next Tuesday evening. We have nothing planned other than a little sightseeing, lots of talking and catching up, and lots of eating. We’ve had two big lunches in two days, looked at new pickups, looked at new Harley Davisdons (with no intention of buying either), and spent lots of time playing with the dog. We’re going to be out and about tomorrow and this weekend visiting some small towns in the area.

I always forget how different this part of the country is from Seattle and Cascadia (the Pacific Northwest). It’s flat, it’s bland, it’s full of strip-malls, and the 12-lane interstates (with 6-lane frontage roads) are the largest and most interesting features, man-made or otherwise, in the area. I’m not sure how people complain about the traffic in Seattle compared to places like Houston. While it might take longer to go X number of miles in Seattle, there are flat out lots more miles to cover here with equally terrible traffic, which makes any commute a real undertaking. Tonight we were looking at pictures I’d taken of the Oregon coast, the Washington coast, Seattle, and the Cascades and I was struck by how different, and how much more beautiful, that area is from here. My father and step-mother were also struck by it, and that’s one of the biggest reasons they would like to move up near Seattle.

Pointing out even more differences today was a trip to the grocery store. First inside the store was a rack of books marked “Recommended Reading". Every book had something to do with the christian bible, in some form or another. Next to that was a copy of Ann Coulter’s latest book, along with books by some other unseemly “authors”. I wasn’t sure if we were in a Kroger or a right-wing bookstore. The bakery department was interesting for the total lack of artistic ability displayed on the baked goods. There was obviously some creativity but no ability to carry it off. Sadly, those shopping seemed to think that the baked goods were incredibly artistic. The pile of blue icing masquerading as a flower that completely obscured a cupcake was a good example. I took pictures but they aren’t worth posting. What does a pile of icing look like in pictures? Well, a pile of icing…

The best thing I saw was what I instantly termed the hillbilly gift basket. There was a large display of leftover gift baskets from Valentine’s day, and they were all somewhat “quaint” in design. However, the best one was this:

Yes, it’s a six-pack of diet Dr. Pepper with a can of Pringles on top, with some leftover Halloween Snickers thrown into a cellophane bag with a ribbon on it. And, it’s been marked down to only $9.99 since it didn’t sell. Doing the math, a can of Pringles, some diet Dr. P., and some bite size Snickers don’t add up to $9.99. It’s no wonder the store didn’t dismantle the thing and try to sell each “gift item” separately; they’re still making money on it even at the markdown price. But I can’t help but wonder about both the person who would give this as a Valentine gift and the person who would enjoy receiving it. “Happy Valentine’s Day honey! Here’s some diet soda (oooops, “pop”…we’re in TX), some greasy chips, and some leftover candy!” It practically screams romance.

I couldn’t help but laugh when I saw this "gift basket", but it typifies the whole area. In my father’s and step-mother’s defense, they hate it here too, for all kinds of reasons. I've seen several things I find funny, that to the locals don't seem funny (like the company with a large sign out front with the name "BJ Services"). To counter the effects of the area on me, I’m currently listening to Bill Evans while I type. It’s a nice counter to the lack of culture and anything non-Texan here.

Monday evening mish mash

My day ended up being much busier than I anticipated, but it was good. The day truly flew by. I have a new-old employee at work and that's changed the dynamic, for the better as it turns out. The young woman is someone who worked for me for three years up until last year when her husband took an assignment with his job in Japan. They were there for a year and came back in December. They arrived back in the states a couple of days after we opened up a new position in my department. I had had some issues with her attendance when she was here before but I talked to my boss about it, and then we talked to her and now there are some understandings in place, so I feel better about it. Plus, when she was there she did a great job, and all the users just loved it. It was hard to come up with a reason to not bring her back in after the attendance issue was settled. It's been good to have her there so far. I like her personally, and she does do a really good job. By bringing her in the size of the group I manage grew by 25% so it's changed the way we go about our daily routines. It's amazing how quickly we've already hit a stride and I'm really happy about it.

Saturday I booked tickets to visit my father and step-mother who live just outside Houston. They have been wanting me to visit for a while, and I've been wanting to visit for a while, and I'm finally going down there. They offered to pay my airfare and how could I refuse that? I thought it was really generous and they insisted and I'm very grateful. I was afraid it wasn't going to happen since fares when up by $190 in the last week, but then Saturday when I checked they had dropped $220 so I jumped at it and booked a ticket. I'm not sure what we'll do yet but I know we'll spend some time just hanging out, we'll do some sightseeing, we'll eat (we all love to eat), and who know what what else. I know it'll be fun. It'll be just me going and it will be the first time I've spent time with them alone in, well, decades. It will be nice to work on the connections just between us.

I'm very lucky in that I have a mother who's one of my best friends, and a father who I'm not quite as close with but very close and who's very supportive. I also had a step-father who was a huge positive influence on me who was also very supportive, and have a step-mother who is a wonderful person, a very positive influence, and just an all-around sweet, intelligent, and caring person. I've been very lucky, and blessed, in the parents department! And, I don't take any of it for granted.

A headline on Rex Wockner's blog today: No on 8: 'We messed up'. Really? Ya think...?

This is very cool. Be sure to zoom in, and in and in and in, and then start scrolling. The detail is incredible and it's amazing that the crowd, almost all of it, was captured in a single image. Does anyone even think that we'd have a scene like that were it John McCain being sworn in? I seriously doubt that we would. The picture definitely captures in history as it was happening.

Speaking of Obama, we went from a President for eight years who could barely put together a coherent sentence in English to one who can launch into a foreign language, like Indonesian, at the drop of a hat. What a welcome change.

Ever have days where you feel like this? I do. Most days!

What does that say about me that I feel as if my wheels keep coming off...?