THE DAY THE WORLD ENDED(ok not really)

Aaron & I at the zoo, in a land rover..nothing to do with post.

Last evening, about a quarter after six, I was having a very frustrating time at the work shop. things just not working. Unproductive time on a set-price job = lost $ for company. Not good.

Then My Lovely wife, called me. "Honey," she opened, "Did you get upset with the computer this morning?" Um, what do you mean?" "I - just wondered if it really pissed you off or something?" "Um, what DO you NEED, hun? what's up?" More terse than I intended, already having a bad Day, here..... "Well, Did you maybe push buttons a little hard? It's REALLY DEAD..."

I Swear. I JUST turned it off, which I relayed.

bottom line - It's says it requires re-formatting the hard drive(which may or may not work-it already had bad sectors).

Hundreds of photos will be lost. Yes I know what back ups are. the last time I tried to copy to disc, it wasn't going for it. And don't even get me started on recording music to c.d.s.

THIS - IS NOT GOOD.

We are not in a position to just go out and replace it.

Thank God, biz files are all on memory stick.

Right now I'm writing this at my Aunt's house on her computer.

I sort of knew how much the computer had become an integral part of our lives.

But, NO, I didn't really.....

Feeling Very vulnerable here.

That's just absurd. I went years with no t.v. NO problem. ok, need the cell phone for biz, understandable. but the Computer!?!

OH well, welcome to life in the twenty-first Century, in this "the Best of All Possible worlds"(Voltaire-CANDIDE)

wearing my brother's uncle's shirt

The above photos: Part of why I like the Pacific Northwest - Blooming Rose & Color changing oak - Same Yard - Same Day.

This is a re posting of my most popular post - ever. Interesting, because I think I've had better. Anyone out there, what do you think?

I'm sitting here wearing a shirt that belonged to my brother, and before that to My Uncle Henry, now Deceased. Whenever I wear this shirt I think of them both.

My Oldest brother, a good guy, talented guy, Very unusual - don't see him near often enough. I remember him driving me in his '47 Chevy sedan, back seat like a sofa, living room's worth of space to the front seat.

Taught me my 1st guitar cords, showed me Hong Kong on Chinese New years.

Uncle Henry, died decades ago and I never did see him all that often. Nor were we especially close. But, for several years in the mid to late sixties, as I recall, I would go spend a couple of weeks during summer with him and my Aunt Bea(yes really, Aunt Bea) in Arkansas. Ok, I grew up in Kansas. Even so, Sixties Arkansas was kind of odd, though I knew that less then than now.

Doesn't matter. What matters is the feeling I get when I wear Uncle Henry's shirt. I remember him, Not very tall, in western cut khakis, cowboy hat & big old cigar, driving me around the small town of Mountain Home, in his Ford pickup, where it seemed from people's reactions that he was King. He was a good guy. kind of guy never had a harsh word for anyone. I once saw him riding his quarter horse next to Aunt Bea on hers. They both were sitting full Silver concho'd Parade saddle in a Rodeo Opening. Very happy & proud. Easy going as always.

I have a chambray work shirt of my Dad's. When I wear it I think of him, at home back in Kansas. Dad's older now than when he wore that shirt to fix railroad electrical stuff, or fix our barn, or sit at dusk on the old rock table listening to the crickets and watching the fire flies. He taught me about tools, and fishing, and being nice to animals while in shirts like that(him not the animals). I also don't see my Dad nearly often enough. 2,000 miles is very far, made farther by the limitations of personal economics.

I have a polo shirt that belonged to my other brother. Like wise, wearing it invokes memories of him. from that last time I saw him, back to when he taught me to walk train rails, carefully balancing along the top edge of the rail road track rails that wound around two sides of my Grandpa's farm. I think I was about seven then. It was summer, hot in Missouri, hound dogs & cotton mouths....hillside caves, crawdads in a minnow bucket in the well house, the smell of the old barn......I don't see that brother nearly often enough either.

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Wearing someone else's shirt, someone you have looked up to, tends to cause one, to try to behave different. Interesting, that.

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Okay, I don't own any shirts of my Mom's that would be just creepy.

but then, I don't need a shirt to remind me of Mom(even though I forgot her birthday until four days later this year - D'oh!) ...and I don't see her often enough either...Ya gettin' a common thread here?

.

I have had many shirts, bought at great prices, from a bunch of different thrift stores. I have no idea who owned them. I sometimes wonder......

POWERS OF 10

One for the education and edification of all you and your kiddies, though I suspect that many of you probably saw at least an earlier version of this before. It's called Power's of Ten - slide show starts out 10 million light years from earth and zooms in to an oak leaf, and then into that to the sub atomic level.

It will leave science-fan kids(like me) awe struck.

NO, really, it'll be fun, I promise.

Ok, I thought it was fun.

http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/scienceopticsu/powersof10/index.html

The site is called "MOLECULAR EXPRESSIONS: SCIENCE, OPTICS AND YOU" lots of educational resources for moms, dads, teachers or auto- didactic youngsters.

I'm really tired.

Doctor tomorrow. I.B.S. STUFF.

Dropped my cell phone in a parking lot, day before yesterday. it got run over before i realized & went back for it(oddly enough, only the functionality of the view screen was damaged) got new(rebuilt) one in the mail today.

Yesterday, dropped my favorite belt mount F.M radio in the river.(I know mp3 is now, I like the human connection of live radio when I don't see or talk to people all day some days)

No personal electronics lost today. YiPee!!!

The images above are NOT part of the powers of 10 slide show.

As usual, they're just there because I like 'em.

Ok, I obviously have nothing of any real consequence left to say, & no dependably, non fatigue affected cells to say it with. "WARNING COGNIZANT POINT OF DIMINISHING RETURNS EXCEEDED. PULL OVER TO NEAREST REST STOP IMMEDIATELY - - YA GOOF!"

Um, yeah..........

more later

Just Impressions

This morning, driving North West on Marine Drive, next to the Columbia River, between the Sea Scout Base and the Airport.......Uncharacteristically warm & sunny for October in Portland.

Kayaker going up the glass-flat river, I imagine with near silence - too far away to hear anyhow.

Black Cormorant sitting on the same snag as always, just ten yards off the near bank, wings held out and still, drying in the sun.

Red Tailed Hawk Crosses my path, maybe twenty feet off the ground, from left to right.

Why is it almost always left to right?

Looking then inland, across the Airport security fence, I see a Great Blue Heron, standing unperturbed as planes taking off and landing make an almost unbroken line of avionic commotion.

It's still close enough to the river to be HIS territory as far as he's concerned (which isn't far).

A mile down the road, passing between the Yacht club on one side and Country Club on the other, I come up to either a very new construction flager, or just the friendliest ever.

She's actually mouthing "thank you", grinning and waving to each slowly passing car that goes by - and there are dozens of us, at this moment.

Another twenty miles down the road, through St. Johns & over it's name sake bridge, my favorite in the area for it's 1920-ish cathedral window styled suspension towers....

North on Highway 30, "St. Helen's Road" out to Scappoose to do a little Gel Coat repair on a Silverton, then a pretty rugged six and a half hour wash and wipe on a fifty three Seline.

Couple of photos taken off the stern of the fifty-three, named "China Moon".

Little green "pocket cruiser", all of maybe sixteen feet or so in length - I like it.

Some Fella rowing his wooden boat up the Multnomah Channel, just at dusk, with Mt. St. Helen's through the trees in the background.

Just another day on the river.........not a bad life.

lattes & rainy days: You know you're from the Pacific Northwest if ...

I remembered seeing a thing about us Pacific North-Westers a while back. When I googled it, I got this blog spot blog. It may be that you have to live here to get it. I find it amussing.

lattes & rainy days: You know you're from the Pacific Northwest if ...

Nothing profound, or even attempted profound here today. Just stuff.

We have early mail in voting in Oregon. Got my mail in ballot yesterday. All filled in, off to the mail today. I'm out of it. Just waiting for the rest of the country to catch up now.

Dentist yesterday. Had an Odd dark patch in left lower jaw bone. Finally, after much consultation, they decided it's "probably nothing". We will do more x-rays in six months or a year, barring any swelling or pain. Also calcification spots in flesh near same area - also "wait & see"

Heavy I.B.S. action lately. Big no fun. Going to the Dr. Friday to see if we can adjust meds or what. I know I GOTTA quit smoking.

I know it's past Sleeping With bread Monday, but I'm grateful for family, that I have paying work to do, that there is such a thing as music, that I have a decent roof over my head and that life is basically good.

the end.

Power in the Sound - two

Think of this as song lyrics not yet set to music:

The Power in the Sound(2)

It don’t matter -
Your political affiliation
Sexual preference
Dietary inclination

If it’s Hip Hop, Be-bop, Country, Classical or Rock

You know there’s Something Sometimes there,
Nobody can mock

It can Sho-nuff set You Free
If even for a moment,
Show you the face of God
Maybe even a lost Love

It’s the Power in the Sound
Lift you up to Above

Power in the Sound

Power

Sound