Life goes on

It's been about a month, so I guess it's time to check in here.

Yay! I finally, thru the efforts of our local Geek Squad, have my inherited lap top on wireless. This is a good thing. I will now be able to be online at the same time as my wife or son, without going through complex negotiations or feeling guilty about wrestling the desk top away from one of them.

I can also recline on sofa or the "Dad chair", which is what we sometimes call our old leather recliner at our house, and simultaneoulsy be on the lap top and vaguely watching t.v.

That's probably about as close to conciously multi-tasking as I try to do.
Ok, I'm notorious for not being able to talk and drive at the same time.

One really anoying thing about this lap top is that as I'm typing, the cursor is jumping back through the previous text. Several times per line. Sometimes halfway back through the previous word, sometimes a whole line or so. I suspect that it may be somthing I'm inadvertantly doing on this unfamiliar keyboard, or perhaps I'm just hoping that's it and that I'll soon figure it out, without having to call Geek Squad back for a tune up.

Health continues to be an issue. I.B.S. is not going well. more tests going on, blood work, upcoming colonoscopy(oh, That'll be fun), etc. I was not aware that one can take daily vitamins and still be "seriously" deficient in vitamin D, or that they can/will write a prescription for weekly mega-doses of same. As you might expect, all that can put a serious damper on one's self employed earning ability, as well as one's ability to make obligatory work deadlines.

Hey, it's not like a single proprietor in a service industry needs a positive reputation for time-reliability, right?

The rest of this spring is set to be rediculously busy, hectic, a little scary, um, you know life.

Yesterday, I spent four and a half hours leaning into an aft cock pit deck hatch, attempting to fix a vacuum leak in a marine head system. It was less than totaly successful. The toilet will indeed flush, however the vacuum generator refuses to hold a vacuum, so the pump continually restarts every minute or so. What that means is that none of that time and painful effort is billable, and I still need to finish the job.

Imagine, if you will,(spoken in Rod Serling voice) lying on a boat deck, supporting your weight with your chest on the fiberglass edge of a long narrow hatch, stretching across about fourteen inches, down about a foot, over a flat topped square water heater, bracing your arms at about bicep level against the under side of the opposite edge of the hatchway , down about another foot, behind the water heater to work on water heater type hoses and a human waste pump system where you can sort of see about the top half of the system and get one, sometimes two hands on the work precariously, and with little leverage....for about four and a half hours. Oh, and all the while one is doing this, there is the pervasive oyfactory ambiance of well aged human poo, requiring serious hot showering IMMEDIATELY upon home arrival. I've got one line of welts(okay, bruises) all the way across my chest, two more across both biceps, more on my inner fore arms and wrists, and yes, they are pretty damn sore. And oh, did I mention I've still got to go back and fix the system, or - wait for it....switch the whole system over to a different type of electric system. NOW WE'RE HAVING FUN! It's good to have work, It's good to have work, It's good to have work.

Took AAron & his mom for new tennis shoes the other day. He is ecstastic with his new Sketchers light up "racing" shoes. He went out to the patio in the dark last night and did a little tap dancing type light show. It was actually kinda psychodelic. Kids get to actually display how adults sometimes feel about our new shoes.

Now I've gotta go talk to the boat head factory tech guy, then probably start researching ways and costs of changing to a new system.

Why we wear bike helmets

Hi, My name is John, and it's been two and a half months since my last post.

Yesterday, it was a beautiful Spring-like day here in Portland. After helping a cousin with moving some guy-stuff(dirt bikes, power tools, wooden boat, etc.), My son, 6-ish, and I went for a short bike ride around the neighborhood. As we got started, I noticed his helmet, mandatory in these parts, was too loose. Naturally he behaved as though I were killing him during the strap adjustment - "It's too tight, Too Tight! T'T'TOO TIGHT!, AHHHHH!!!!". I finally had to resort to the "No hemet, no ride" decree.
Off we went down the sidewalk, to the paved path through the "don't stop here" apartment area(really, don't stop there, it's just not pretty), over to his grade school four blocks away, back up the "you have to push me" incline and almost home. That's when I, the intrepid biking dad, managed to dump over an eighteen speed fully macho mountain bike while going up a eight inch curb. I of course flipped over the handle bars at somthing bordering on the speed of Yikes, with aproximately the force of a 140 lb sand bag, and landed crookedly on my head and shoulder, all with my son coming towards me six feet away and watching the whole thing with fascinated awe. Bouncing back up very quickly and remounting the bike in typical "nobody-else-saw-that-right?" fashion worthy of any house cat, I casually said "Now son, did that totally on purpose demonstration adequately illustrate why we wear helmets and keep them on tight?" (yeah, I sometimes speak that way to my 6-tomorrow son - it's a gift, right?) He excitedly responded that yes, he saw that now. Of course, he had to tell his Mom ALL-ABOUT-IT ... IMMEDIATELY.

I'm fine, by the way.

kid stuff.

AAron has been really enjoying kindergarten. especially his music class. They also use a lot of song as mnemonics in his regular classroom. He is learning a lot.

sung to the tune of "Oh my darlin' Clementine" - "Oh my monster, Oh my monster, Oh my monster, Frankenstein - You were built to last forever - You're so scary, Frankenstein".

And now he's reading to us. Reminds me of when Amelia, now 28 and teaching at Montesori, was about his age.

Time goes on.

Life is good(scary sometimes, but good)

new house, old back

There is sand in this picture. There is sand in this post.
close enough.


We are pretty much fully in our new place - nice little two story townhouse. cool ceilings. better area, just on the edge-farm field 1/2 block away.





I've got a tiny(20'x26') little private back yard with an appropriately sized patio. It has dirt - and bushes-wooden fence-all that. It has weeds. It has needs...like weeding and some serious but tiny landscaping. I have a yard debris cart. There is only one way into the back yard. Through. the. house. Technically, the cart will fit through the doors. But it's just wrong. Now I've got to go buy one of those long skinny "runner" drop cloths just to get the unwanted portion of my yard's bio-mass to the curb. Still, I love my new previously unattended, unloved and disturbingly muddy(at this point) back yard.





Yay for life changes(sometimes, like new different homes)





My darling oldest daughter, scavenger and thrifter deluxe, recently brought me one of those green plastic turtle sand boxes for her 5 year little brother. She called me before she delivered it to ask if her little brother would find it's lack of eyes as traumatically disturbing as she thought, and if so where to get eyes. Craft warehouse. Her friend _-_-_-_, had meticulously cleaned it and the new big brown puppy eyes are kinda cute. now for sand. Six 60lb "truck tubes" were acquired. (you know, they go in the bed of one's pickup to add traction when nature takes some back during winter) Ow! 60lbs(times 6) weighs more than it did 20 or 30 years ago. The tubes are now stacked neatly in the garage. waiting. they will wait until: A. we decide where we want the sand box turtle for ever and all time(I'm not moving this stuff all in one pile) B. my back to stop hurting, or at least to hurt less.(went to the Indian Clinic today and got a couple of week's worth of Vicadin)





Boo on life changes(like what happens to the human body,slowly, over 50 or so years, while you're not paying attention-heavy is heavier, tired is tired-er, the ground comes up faster- and hits much harder, etc.)

Still, the sand box is worth the pain. Liking the new place A LOT.

new home.

I'm actually still here. I know, it may seem from this blog as though I'm not, but I am. I've been really busy, and I've not known shat to say here.

Yesterday my wife and I signed the lease on our new townhouse across town. we will no longer be living in public subsidized housing. this is both scary and exhilarating. There are all the usual arrangements to be made. There are a ton of things to be done, in addition to all the usual things.

It will be a new phase in our lives. Oddly, I find there are actually things I will miss about where we live now. One of those will be my frequent drives down Marine Drive, right next to the river(Columbia). Obviously, there will be just as many good things that will be different(or else we wouldn't be doing it.

Onward through the fog.

...and home again...

Family and I just got back from a small vacation to my Folk's place back in Kansas, some 2,000 + miles to the south east of our present home/location here in Portland, Or.

Got to help celebrate my father's 80th birthday. That was great. One of the guests help put things in perspective for him I think, when she said "I wish I was 80 again...that was a while back". Now THERE'S a sentence one doesn't hear often.

We went to the local little river damn. we saw long horn cattle(not the norm in Kansas). We saw buzzards on an armadillo carcass('dillos haven't been in Kansas that many decades - they're extending their territory to the north gradually) Arron thought both were very cool.

I noticed a lot more birds singing in the early mornings in my Dad's back yard than one hears in Portland.

I believe a good time was had by all. It was stormy and then it was hot(to us) in the mid 90s F, with much humidity.

We skipped most of the outings we had hoped to make - Woolaroc museum and etc.(Google it if you want info), the local safari zoo(home of the retriever nurtured white tiger cubs - google book TIGER PUPS).

There were more hoped for, including Aaron's 1st fishing venture - also didn't happen.

That's all just fine. We had a good time hanging out with family in the profusely glorious central air conditioning, something not that common here in the Pacific Northwest - it's just not that necessary here.

Took a couple of short road trips, compliments of my brother and sister in law's generous loan of a snappy little Saturn automobile ... Suddenly I'm hearing in my head ZZ-TOP - "she don't love me, she love my automobile..." big fun.

Went to see my brother's new(to him) house in Topeka. very nice. kind of bungaloish, not far from Washburn University.

Visited Ginny's folks in Blue Springs, MO(Not far southeast of K.C.)

Took a few pictures. may post some later.

I always find the whole experiencing one place, jet ride, then experiencing some other place half way across the country thing to be kind of surreal feeling.

Now we're back home...or was that back home, I get confused.

LOTS of boat work to get done in the next few months, probably more than is actually possible to do. both unnerving and exhilarating in that "good to have work" way.

Have been enjoying reading some fine blog posts from some of you, as well as your tweets. If you haven't, check out HEY LOLA (You'll have to find your own way there, too tired to do the link thing = sorry)

Wanted this to be much more....um, entertaining.....too tired...sorry.

more later,

john ross

This Week.

What a difference a week makes. Aaron has been getting out more. He's found a couple of boys about his age to RIP around on big wheels with. He chased a bee. He caught it. He learned about bees. He's learning to dribble a basket ball - pretty well. We thunder storm yesterday. I'm really busy at work. Stressing on deadlines. I'm going to Dad's next week - very good. Exploring more twitter (when can, It's a lot more diverse than previously realized). Back still hurts, some more - some less. That's about all I know right now.