TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES

We are, most of us, surrounded by technical objects. Eventually they all break down. One of the problems with being poor, borderline in my case, is that when this happens you just have to live with it.

The little remote clicker for my car's locks/alarm quit working. Got a new battery. It didn't help. I can't unlock with the clicker and if I unlock with the key, the alarm goes off. I had to just disconnect the horn. Ho-hum.

The mp3 player on my blackberry has to be re programmed every day before I can use it. I use it a lot working by myself on boats. It helps my rhythm, and also drowns out the constant loud ring in my ears.

Now my laptop will only charge when it's turned off.  This really cuts down on how long I can be on it at a time. In the time it has taken to write this it's used about 10% of it's charge. No long sessions for me.

I should shut down now.

Sometimes being poor really sucks. Having said that, I realize that many, many people would love to be "affluent" enough to have the issues I've described, that "poor" can be a relative term. I guess what I'm struggling with is trying to get over that hump to not being "poor", to being "normal", at least by American standards.

music 101 - Colvin & Krause

One of those tunes that my children & grandchildren should know about, in order to have a well rounded familiarity with relevant music of our time..

Shotgun Down the Avalanche


Take note, this vid will self- segue into a series of vids including, but not limited to Suzanne Vega.



The other thing I wanted to show you today is a slide show presentation from Home on the Fringe 
who unfortunately just don't post very often. They do great banners, etc. if you're in need of.  It seems to be a kind of travel log vid, but it could well be the best pro-tourism commercial  ever not broadcast(to my knowledge).
welcome to Portland & near

backpack-cat spray

Well, it's about a new backpack and a cat...and moving a young relative..

Not long ago I went to help my son move. It went OK - for not having a truck.

There were two ill trained cats there. I saw one of them climbing in and out of open car windows. I kept my Subaru closed, except while I was going back and forth to load a dresser in the back.

In the front seat was my new Swiss Guard day pack - made by Wenger, one of the two real Swiss army knife companies, guaranteed for life, pricey and a joy to use everyday.

Got done loading, got in the car AND SMELLED CAT!

It turns out that my new pack got cat-sprayed. You know, that territorial scent gland thing they do. Yup, right on the front of my new day pack, which I DO use every day.

That was three weeks ago and no amount of Fabreeze, etc. has diminished the funkiness. I don't want to have to wash the pack, but may have to. It's hard on packs.

I'm sure this will be hilarious at some point in the future.

Things we Know how To Do

Aaron said "I know how to drive, Dad." He is six. He does not know how to drive.

He knows how to sit on my lap and "help" steer as I back the car out of the garage.

I remember thirty years ago when I "knew" how to do life (and what death meant.)

Was I just sitting on God's lap playing with the Big(steering)Wheel of Life, the Universe and Everything?

Aaron likes to think he knows how to drive.,

I let him think that, as others have let me think I knew things.

He and I will both have to learn as we go.

The Talk

     My son Aaron is six.  The other day I had to give him The Talk. No, not THAT Talk
(though it's coming soon enough-he Really. Likes. Girls.) This was the other talk.  No, not the Death talk either, we've done that(and will again, I'm sure)

No this is the talk about "When you see something on t.v., or the net, or yes perhaps in print....and you get it home, and you follow the info-graphics, and then...it just isn't right. No, Dad can't make it be right either. No, If we took it back to the store for that they would give us another one JUST LIKE IT, and it still wouldn't be right, cause this thing or that isn't made quite right.

It takes a long time to get that essential not rightness of the world across to kids.  Some, more than others.

And, it's always kind of sad when you have to see when it clicks with them. That little, corresponding click in their eyes, the slight fading or brightening of the light in their eyes from the shock and disappointment. If tears are gonna happen, it's usually then.

It's not the shock of Dad can't fix this because it just IS, or about a particular toy. It's nothing that easy.

It's about trust in the rightness of the world, just a little thing the kids may hardly notice themselves sometimes.

But, you'll see that look again, and you know it... and again...and again...

The balance trick here is perhaps to help them trust in the rightness of the world again. Point out those little extra-rights and better than imagined things that occur in our worlds. Positive affirmation time.

And you still gotta be honest about that "some things, some times just aren't gonna be right, or maybe even alright" thing. And that has to be alright too.


What did I leave out?

Standing in the back garden, blinking in the unusual sun, like some just un-earthed thing,  I'm startled by a sudden loud buzzing just to one side of my head. It is not, as I thought for a split second, the world's largest bumble bee. I've just been buzzed by a humingbird. Is that good luck or just a good omen, either would be fine, really.

Suzzy V - go find her & listen

Ok, this one is very hard to find for free on the net(legally, which is how I roll...)

Find a copy of Suzanne Vega's Beauty & Crime. No, Really, Go-Find-It.(yes, right now) Tracks 7  and 8. Bound & Unbound. The string arraignments alone in Bound would make it worth finding, Lyrics will cut you deep, if you've ever been where of she's relating.  Over tones - haunting.  Unbound starts out seeming almost "Walkin' on Sunshine" pop, then redeems itself admirably.  It works as a stand alone piece, but works best following bound. Kind of like sherbet after a really heavy-duty red curry dish. 

The rest of the collection is also very good, but these two cuts especially are ... Favs.

Mother's Day with Ginny & Aaron

This last Sunday was, of course, Mother's Day.  After a leisurely morning we headed off down the road to the Evergreen Aviation Museum near McMinnville . It's where they keep the famed Spruce Goose, which may yet be the largest airplane to ever fly. Certainly the largest wooden one. It's really huge. Aaron went BANANAS in all his Mildly Autistic six year old Glory. Besides seeming frantic to see/hear/do EVERYTHING. AT. ONCE. he really enjoyed himself. He was, at times, as frustrated with my direction as I was with his apparent lack of attention to directives(I know, it's part of his thing). I did my best to kid wrangle in as good a combination of tolerance and effectiveness as could. It was definitely a balancing act.  

Ginny, bless her heart, was typically mellow and tolerant towards both of us and our usual fray of wills and wants.  I think she was just glad to get out of the house and be with her "boys" somewhere different.

In the end, it's the memories, greatly if not exclusively happy, that count for all of us I think.

'nuff said.