Christmas gone, Playing catch-up at work, Nargles

Cousin Don and Aaron, who moves too fast for "sport" mode.

Aaron, at Grandma's Christmas Eve.

A REALLY old Santa

The Granddaughters:

Zoe, Athena & Winter, with our daughter Tiffany, Mom of two.

Christmas is done & gone. It was a good time. Good family times.

Portland has indeed gotten more snow in the last two weeks than has ever been recorded on the ground at once before. EVER.

Thankfully, it has warmed up to the mid forties (Fahrenheit) the last few days, so that snow is pretty much just a memory now.

Uncle had to go back to the hospital Sunday, just as we were getting ready to eat another dinner. a Really unsettling combination of high blood pressure, very high heart rate, erratic heart beat, etc.

They think they've got him back to what passes for normal for his system.

He should be coming back home tomorrow.

Disturbing, but unfortunately not an uncommon occurrence for him over the last couple of years. The Hospital stays are getting way too frequent. I've lost track of how many and when over the last year or two.

Most of the rest of this week will be boat head jobs(sanitation systems) and broken fresh water systems (from the cold, not adequately prepared for by some).

The plumbing/sanitation work actually pays a lot better than the less technical, less nasty work I do on the outside of boats. There's a good reason for that. They don't build these systems to be worked on. When I get into them, I am generally in very confined spaces, with very nasty stuff, that really wants to get as intimate with me as possible. Again with the "Perversity of the inanimate" as Amelia would say. I could have provided any number of detailed photo illustrations. I doubt that's really necessary or appropriate here now. Just take my word for it.

Aside from the higher pay scale, the major gratification for doing marine sanitation is in how people react when the system that wasn't working, that they knew nothing about and didn't want to get into anyhow, is once again doing it's job(usually better than it did before it broke-how I roll :-) People who might have a reputation for being less than gracious to their own employees can be downright Lavishly effusive with their praise and gratitude for the guy who fixes their boat head. Especially if it's say, the second day out on a week long cruise, fifty miles down river from home, with the wife and teenage daughter - and both heads quit working.

How did we get from cute kids on Christmas eve to mental images of stinky non-functional boat sanitation systems?...

I guess the tie-in is that it's all part of the widely diverse patterns of my everyday life.

And still sometimes it gets to be ...just more of the same. What's the phrase - "Loonnnng stretches of real boredom, punctuated by brief periods of absolute panic" I suspect that probably says a lot more about my mindset than about my circumstances..."I suspect nargles." (luna Lovegood, from HARRY POTTER and The PRISONER of AZCABAN).

Fine then, consider this my not well laid out or well organized...or even particularly lucid version of a Sleeping with Bread Monday.

I think you can figure out the parts I'm happy about and not ....

Have a Happy and SAFE New Year's Eve.

more later.....

Stuff & Nonsense(probably)

German glass, older than dirt(which didn't exist, as a word until sometime in the 1940s)

The "Indian" Angel ornament, from our first Christmas together.

Our Christmas tree Angel. Pretty old, though young enough for electric lights, from Ginny's life before me.

This is Aaron, snow angel-ing at the beginning of this, the biggest snow storm in Portland, Oregon since 1968. Um, that's 40 years for you math majors.

It's been interesting and challenging.

This kind of thing used to be a common occurrence for me in my Wichita, Kansas days. (HI Todd & Amy!)

Not so much here in the "Rose City", city of bridges, city of the ever present, nine months of the year rain.

Cleaning snow off of my lovely wife's little Ford.

Yesterday, when there was only about half a foot of snow, round two or three, after all the previous week's snow had melted.

Yesterday's depth of snow on the Subaru's windshield. a mere 7 or 8 inches.

Today's snow on the Subaru, more like a foot or so of drift. We actually only got ....well, almost a foot here in this part of town, over some ice, over the prior snow, over some ice.

The airport here has been canceling flights like the great CATACLYSM cancelled the flights of pterodactyls...

OK, maybe not with that finality.

Many people stranded at PDX.

They are saying quite a few of them won't get flights out now until after Christmas. I very much feel for them. I was once stranded by an erstwhile charter for three days in Seattle. It was January, 1976. I was 17. Some very nice retired Pacific Lutheran University Profs came and rescued me and put me up till the next Charter came to take me to Hong Kong. 'nother story.

When I go outside, to smoke(haven't quite quit yet) I always find myself looking to the sky. I've been looking to the sky, it seems, all my life. The sky here is not as big, as expansive, as the sky back home in Kansas. They Call Wyoming "Big Sky Country". I've been there. It's got nothing on Kansas for BIG skies.

Still, when I look to the sky, especially at night, where ever I am, I am always reminded of how huge the world is, still, even in this info-age without borders, compared to me....and how tiny the world is, compared to the immensities of the universe. (I sometimes go to Science/Astronomy sites just to remind me how un-fathomably huge the universe is).

I've been holed up in a two bedroom apartment for three days with my wife and our 4 year old, who is literally bouncing off the walls. It's actually been not too bad for me. Ginny has been down with migraine/nausea/low grade fever for a couple of those. She got back up to help assemble and decorate our artificial tree(economic, not aesthetic decision). Bless her holiday heart.

This season of the year I am always reminded, as I'm sure many are, of so many Christmases past. Fifty of them, on down through the years, some better than others. But...All with that more sweet than bitter feeling of belonging, of wanting the best for friends and family, of generally love and good will - at least on my part, and I prefer to think in the hearts of most.

I wish not for the Norman Rockwell fantasy Christmases so well ingrained in the hopes and expectations of our naive youths, but for the sense of belonging and of hope that comes with the Meaning of Christmas. I not much of a preacher. But, thanks God, for this and everything.

Thus endeth the nostalgic, possibly sappy ramblings of a middle aged Guy.

Merry Christmas.

worried about the humming bird

I'm worried about the humming bird.

A sudden cold snap turned it 20 degrees F with a 25 m.p.h. wind - wind chill about 5.

The humming bird's sugar water keeps freezing up.

I know they have to eat about every fifteen minutes or so, especially when it's sub-freezing.

I realize that for many of you, this is just normal December weather. For Portland, it's not.

We got about three inches of snow and frigid temp/wind chill and you'd think the world had totally ended. I grew up in Kansas, where this is normal December weather, and I hated it as much as any of the born and bred Portlanders. It's supposed to stay this way all week, with more snow Wednesday and Thursday. We have hills here. People slide all over them.

Did you know that you only use chains on the front tires of a Subaru Outback, and not at all if you have the P225-60-R-16 tires(which I have). So what are we supposed to do when the highway dept calls for mandatory chains or studded tires? Stay home? Well, that would be nice, if one could afford to take snow days off.

One from the Ironic file - A semi tractor/trailer carrying road de-icer juice slid on freeway and overturned spilling deicer all over the road. It shut down the road all day....and the winter god's laughed.....

Thanks God, My Aunt & Uncle had in-the-house work for me to do today.....just getting over major sinus infection, I don't need to be out in this crappy weather any more than absolutely gotta.

9 days till Christmas. Am I ready? Oh hell NO! Not even close. As long as I get the ittle-bittys taken care of, I'll be Okay. .. and the Missus, but she knows the situation.......

Like I think Barrack may have said "It's the economy, Dumb-ass!" Ok, he didn't really, but I bet he's thought it about a bu-zillion times lately.

Got a warm home & bed. Been staying well fed. my dog wears Keds, never ever trust Feds.....

Okay, that last couple of parts was just for fun....I don't have a dog.

The economy is so sad/bad/mad that Powell's Books have requested that their employees voluntarily cut back on their hours so they won't have to lay anyone off for Christmas.

Life in the goofy lane.

There are pros and cons to Aaron's being in early school now.

pro: He's picking up new things from new teacher & kid influences.

Con: He's picking up new things from new kid influences.

Last evening I got a call from his older brother, I think on behalf of his older sister (who has two daughters, one just four months Aaron's junior, the other two & one half. It's seems there was some reference made to "putting a baby in someone's belly". Granted, I had a fever at the time the call came in, but my reaction was kind of like "OH great, and so it begins". I admit. I've been taking the coward's way out today and waiting for AAron's mom to come back from migraine land to deal with it.

Today I went to the doctor's - again. Now I've got a sinus infection. oh great. It's kinda hard to do my job when bending over is a very bad thing as to face pain. And still there's the fever.

Picked up Aaron this eve. Told him about the doctors and getting a couple of different shots(ok, 3) to which he loudly proclaimed "OH-MY-GOD!" "Don't say OH-MY-GOD!, son, say OH My Gosh". "ok" We drove around a little while in the neighborhood, delaying getting back out in the main rush hour traffic, and looking at Christmas lights.

AAron-"OH-MY-GOD!".

Dad- "GOSH".

AAron- "OH-MY GOSH!'"

42 times in roughly a half hour.

ok, maybe it was only 4o times.

Christmas gifting is going to be very lean this year.

I'm sure that's the same for many, just doesn't make the parental "wish I could do more" any easier.

Aaron & Dad & Fevervision

Aaron & I have both been home with colds, and he with an ear infection, for the last two or three days. We've both been going in & out of fevers.

Fevered perception is an odd enough shift in & of itself. You know, that somewhat detached, not quite there, twilight Zone feel to things. Kind of like some kind of tripping, perhaps.

Add caring for a four year old under the influence of antibiotics, cough medicine and Tylenol to that and you truly have an adventure of sorts.

For the most part, it's been as OK as could be expected. Hey, he's finally learned to blow his nose, if not well, at least with enthusiasm.

We've watched about a bu-zillion hours of Cartoon Network. Some of their programing has gotten truly strange - or maybe it's the fever. not sure. No, Total Drama Island is odd, though better, I think than the "reality" shows it lampoons.

Still haven't decided if he and I will make the trip across town to Grandma's for the Turkey-fest tomorrow. OH, who am I kidding....we'll most likely be there, for better or really not. Everyone there who is going to get this has already had it I think, so that consideration is kinda moot.

The photo is a from the Willamette River view of the Burnside bridge, in Portland - with Fever-vision added.

If you haven't ever been, go to this http://www.homeonthefringe.com/portland/index.html

It's John & Kirsten's Views of Oregon flash show.

They are of this http://homeonthefringe.blogspot.com/ blog, have Fringelements.com banner design, and have done a really truly fine job on the Oregon slide show. I have no idea if they're from here or where. Imagine my surprise when I was browsing through their photos in their blog page and was suddenly in the middle of a powerhouse show of my home area. Very cool.

And Kristen writes some major posts, though I haven't seen anything for a while.

My daughter Amelia will be doing Thanksgiving with her Husband's family, so I won't get to see her tomorrow. I'm kinda bummed about that, but it's OK. i guess. if I have to. I'm sure I'll get to see her again soon. I will also not be with my folks & brother back in Kansas, or my brother & sister-in-law in Seattle. I will be missing them as well.

Otherwise, the work I have missed doing this week will be waiting, if not patiently, when I get back to it. Life will go on. The fever will pass. Perception will get back to what passes for normal with me.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all.

more later

My Favorite Book Store..IN THE WHOLE WORLD!

Okay, here is the deal .
This entire post will be pretty much nothing but a shameless plug.

Powell's Books, a Portland Oregon landmark, is THE BEST DAMN BOOKSTORE IN THE WORLD - PERIOD. http://www.powells.com/partner/33558

I don't say that because I'm now a web partner of theirs. I'm a web partner of theirs because I'm really very proud of them.

I take my daughter shopping there as the rare Father & Daughter treat when I have some spare money & want to make her Really Really Happy. (Could there be anything cuter than a highly intelligent, articulate, and studious 27 year old woman/daughter reduced to a giggling 5 year old in the middle of a huge bookstore?)

Powell's Books is the world's largest independent book store.

The original store in downtown Portland, Oregon, takes up an entire city block, four stories tall, of books and related shopping space (and I think perhaps a couple more floors of warehouse space). It has it's own parking garage, and of course, It's own cafe/coffee shop. The Coffee shop is also an independent, not a Starbucks - though Starbucks, another Pacific North West bred company is fine too.

The clerks at Powell's may have poly-chromatic hairdos (or tats), multiple piercings in more places than you really want to know about, and funny clothes (by whatever standard you might apply) - or not. They WILL be courteous and helpful and will absolutely know their stuff.

Powell's sells new and used books. TOGETHER.

What this means is that when you find the book your looking for, or one you just happened on to, you will find not only pristine new copies, but also any used copies they have - right side by side.

Like many book stores now, they have multiple computer terminals for customer use throughout the store, dedicated to their inventory and or web site.

If you do a search for a book the system will give you not only the price and location of the new copies, but also individual listings of any and all used copies and the prices thereof (Which will be in the same location as the new copies). And those used prices will often vary according to a number of factors - hard or soft cover, condition, Or perhaps a signed edition (not at all unusual as many authors appear and sign at Powell's). You may very well have a range of price options for any given book to fit your budget and desires.

They will also buy your used books - on line, if you like.

They have a marvelous Rare & Collectible section.

This part of the store is like a whole separate little enclosed old world book store within the store. It is generally presided over by a somewhat aged, bearded & reading glasses wearing fellow who will be... you guessed it - Courteous & Helpful & who ABSOLUTELY knows his stuff.

I once found about a 100 year old copy of a really wonderful book on Japanese art there, for $5 - IN THE REGULAR ART SECTION. It didn't even rate being in their Rare & Collectible shop.

One of the grown Powell Children has been quoted as saying that when the "old Man" first said he had this great idea to shelve new and used books together, the then young man thought it was crazy and would be the downfall of the store. Happily, just the opposite has proven to be true. That format has been Wildly popular with Powell's customers. For all I know, other bookstores may have followed suit by now, but I'm not sure as I don't often go anywhere else.

Check out their web site's pages of essays and blogs, some of which will be by author guest blogger/essayists.

If you like cats, cat's stories - as told to persons having opposable thumbs, or book store cats (every good book store should have at LEAST one), then please check out the page(s) about Fup, Store Cat (see water color image, top of posting) http://www.powells.com/fup/228.html

As you may have figured out by now, Powell's is pretty much it's own not so little literary world.

Their bumper sticker is the only one I allow on my car. Incidentally mine depicts Mt Hood, the local dormant volcano & tallest peak of the Oregon Cascade range, the most climbed and most deadly mountain in the U.S. Timberline Lodge on Mt Hood was where the Jack Nicholson version of THE SHINING was mostly filmed. Oregon trivia for the day.....

Happy Sunday

John Ross

A servicetech & family medical day

sweetgum & two japanese maple leaves in full fall redness.


Wednessday morning I woke up about 4:30 am. I spent over nine hours on the phone to Comcast & Netgear & going between two computers on opposite ends of the house trying to get my Aunt & Uncle's new computer and old computer to be ok, get on the internet & talk to each other via wireless network.

Meanwhile, My uncle was at the hospital having scary and unpleasant medical stuff done to his throat to hopefully help with a long term ongoing medical problem of serious nature.

I got dropped off the phone twice - or was it three times?

I got wrong intsructions two or three times.

My Uncle and Aunt got home, with more antibiotics or similar to combat another infection, he obviously in major pain and she pretty concerned.

I finally was given a web address to download new soft ware for the Netgear wireless adapter card - did so, installed it on the computer only to have it refuse to install the adapter. gave up about 8pm.

Came the twenty five miles home, somewhat stuporously(is that a word?), missed my exit by about 3 or 4 miles, finally arriving about 9.

AAron, 4 was back home from Grandma's having had a bad cold all day. he was out like a light.

About 10pm he woke up - hungry, ate a hot dog and some potatoes, drank seven up and proceeded to bounce off the walls, somewhat less rapidly than usual, until I finally got him back down about 1am.

Ginny, having worked from 7 till 4 with the remnants of a two day migrane, had gone to bed about 11pm.

I am very tired.



Sorry not to be any more entertaining or enlightening.

Tomorrow back at the computer thang.

the end.

more latter.

p.s. I don't care what the time stamp on this says. it's not 12 something a.m. It's 1:42 a.m. Thursday.