Musings

Enchiladas in the oven. Green sauce, chicken enchiladas. My favorite. 12 more minutes so figured I'd quickly get down some stuff from the past couple weeks. 

Listening to Train's latest, California 37 , in my classroom. Student observes that this is the first time he's heard me playing anything later than 2000. I tactfully don't tell him that Train had their first hit (Meet Virginia) in 1998 when he was one year old. (I am know for my tact throughout my extended family. In fact, if they forget my name they just say "the tactful one" and everyone knows they mean me). Thinking about his comment, however, I realize that I don't buy nearly as much music as I used to. I have about 14,000 songs on my ipod so I guess I just don't feel the need to get more at the same rate. (Or maybe today's music is crap and I don't get how these young kids can listen to this noise). Just kidding, of course. Lot's of good stuff out there.

Speaking of good stuff, here's some that isn't so much. Listened to some music by Alexisonfire the other day. Great name, but good grief. The lead singer (and I use the word loosely) mostly just screams. The one song I heard was interesting (which is why I went looking for more), but then when I went to listen to the more it got old reeaal fast. Oh well, to each their own.

Jonesing to get out of town about now. Three weeks left in school, fifteen days to go. I really want to be somewhere else right now. Been to Portland twice in the last couple months on the bike, once in the pouring rain, once in the bright sunshine, plus went camping in Wenatchee last weekend.

Oh yeah, Wenatchee camping. Rained most of the way there, howling gales while we were there, rained part of the way back, had a great time. Good company, tons of excellent food, good riding (if you remember that I missed most of last summer and it's been a cold winter that makes more sense). It was some of the folks from OCDO, a campout that has become an annual event. My first but will definitely return. Rode Highway 2 over Stephen's Pass and what a nice ride, even in the rain. Waterfalls, fog, trees, vistas, then dropping down into Leavenworth by the river which is scenic enough to be dangerously distracting. Saturday took off for a little ride up through Chelan on the west side of the Columbia, crossed over north of Chelan and came back down the east side (a side I've ridden more than once as that becomes Highway 2 down towards Wenatchee). It was tempting to turn left and head east across country but I am responsible (and all my camping gear was back in Wenatchee).

Picked up some nice new items for motorcycle camping. I think I'll make that its own blog post.

Well, enchiladas are ready and I have to do some grading so I'll hit the camping gear highlights tomorrow.

A Very Different Summer

Just finished my seventh year of teaching.  For the math challenged out there, this means that I just finished my seventh free summer and this one has been so completely different that I feel it warrants a few comments as I get ready to head back to my classroom tomorrow morning.

So what does the typical summer look like for this teacher.  Well, I start the break by still getting up at 5 am since that's what my body tells me to do.  By August I've generally stretched that to 6:30 or 7:00, but no sleeping half the day away for me.  Never have, doubt I ever will. 

My mechanic business has expanded to the point that for most of the summer I can (and often do) work seven days a week.  There are a lot of people out there looking for a reliable Harley mechanic who charges less than the $80+ per hour that the dealerships are charging.  I have tried to take the weekends off, but this year, with nothing much going on in my life, found myself working through.

There is always a vacation, often with friends and always on the motorcycle.  California this year, solo to Albuquerque last year, Niagara Falls a few years ago.  Anywhere from a week to three depending on who is with me and where I feel like going.

So what was different about this year?  Well, those of you who have been following my blog already know the answer to that question, but bear with me a little.  The difference started three weeks into the summer, right at the tail end of my vacation when I crashed my Harley into the back of a Suburban on Highway 18 down in Oregon.  You can read all about it here.

The rest of the summer was an education and an awakening.  I actually enjoyed my week in the hospital, even with what amounted to two arms, one leg, and one abdominal muscle out of commission.  I didn't have any books to read, there was little of interest on the TV (although I did get to watch the Tour de France each morning), yet I still enjoyed the down time.  After I returned home I spent a significant amount of time reading, watching TV, and browsing the internet.  It was a couple weeks before I could walk further than the bathroom.  A month into my convalescence they decided that further surgery was needed and my hands and arms were back where we had started, with very limited ability to pick anything up, open jars and Tupperware containers, or perform simple tasks like showering or getting dressed. 

Yet through it all I found that I never really got bored or frustrated. Down time has never been my strength and over the years I have had a very low boredom threshold.  If I was tired or had only a couple hours to kill, I could kick back and watch some TV or read a book, but otherwise I quickly ran out of patience and had to get going.  With my wife gone in the divorce four years ago and my roommate of the last two years moved to Alaska to finish his degree, there was less and less to keep me at home.  Over the past year and a half I became more and more of a workaholic.

I have now spent the last two months in enforced idleness and have enjoyed it.  Sometime in the next month or so I will return to a semblance of physical normalcy, but I will be making an effort to continue to relax, to unwind, and to take some time out to just enjoy life a bit more.  I like both my jobs, the teaching and the mechanic work, but they are both time spent doing things for other people.  Maybe now I can get back to some time spent doing something for no one but me.

Different but good.

Blogging from Behind

Been so busy that I haven't posted anything in almost ten days. That's what working two jobs and having a death in the family will do to you, I guess. The less important things in life, like entertaining a few friends on the internet, go by the wayside.

My nephew Malcolm passed away.  He was twenty one, severe disabilities, not really supposed to make it this long, but my saint of a sister kept him in such good health that he outlived the predictions by quite a bit.  He was a wonderful kid, always laughing at stuff we couldn't see or hear, but the last two years of his life were quite painful, both for him and the family, and hopefully he is in a better place now.

It seems to be coming on for motorcycle season.  I worked Friday night, Saturday, AND Sunday this weekend.  I hate doing that but it was worth it when I got the text message from the owner RAVING about how much she liked riding her bike with the changes I made (front lowering kit and Carlini pullback ape hanger handlebars). Plus the $$ are always nice.

Thought about blogging a bunch of times but it was almost always when I was in the car.

Sandra Fluke:  What can I say?  I don't agree with Limbaugh's comments, they were over the top but seriously folks...  $1,000 a year for birth control?  Condom are what, less than a buck each?  The pill is $15 to $50 a month and Planned Parenthood gives discounts for low income (Attn: students!).  Canadian news this morning announced that Limbaugh lost another advertising account for the comments he made about a woman who testified "in favor of birth control."  Seriously, that's how they reported it.  She testified in favor of birth control.  Not "in favor of forcing a Catholic university in which she enrolled knowing full well that they wouldn't pay for it to pay for it".  And you wonder why Canadians seem to be so ignorant about what really happens down here.  I have serious issues with the fake moral outrage by the left on this anyway.  Bill Maher calls Sarah Palin a "t**t" and a "c**t", Ed Schultz calls Laura Ingraham a "s**t", do a Google search for Deneen Borelli, a black female conservative and supporter of the Tea Party Movement, and the fourth result calls her a "black, teaba**ing, n*****", and the racial epithets hurled at Michelle Malkin are obscene.  President Obama has never called any of these women and the mainstream media has never gone on a crusade to restore civility in our society or get any of the above commentators fired.  Pure hypocricy. Want to read more, check out Kirsten Powers' article.

What else has happened?  Well, the Canucks are stumbling along with the second best record in hockey, winning (and losing) what must be a record number of games in overtime and shootouts.  I guess a win is a win and points is points, but I worry that when the playoffs start, all it takes is a few lucky bounces the other way and you are out.  It is just surreal that it seems like they aren't very good yet they keep beating the best teams in hockey and continue to win.  Maybe I'm just still reliving thirty years of frustration.  Oh yeah,  Versus hasn't played a damn hockey game all year.  The only time there is a hockey game on my TV is on Saturday when the Stinking Leafs play on Hockey Night in Toronto Canada. WTF?  Why did they even buy the contract this year?

Update: Not sure who has the rights.  There aren't any hockey games on.  If I want to watch hockey (and if I didn't live right by Canada) I'd have to subscribe to the NHL Network.  Who is in charge of this crap?

Speaking of WTF, one of the slogans reportedly bandied around for Obama's reelection campaign was the short lived and much made-fun-of Win The Future.  Apparently someone didn't get the memo that everyone outside of Obama's office knows what the initials stand for, and it isn't a winner in politics. LOL.

Debating internet dating.  It just feels wrong to me.  I struggle with talking to complete (female) strangers in person, how could it be better to sit and type at them.  I am bound to type something really stupid that my social filter might catch if I were sitting there.  Plus there's the whole facial expression, context thing.  Plus it just seems weird to meet people on the internet.

If I were Frank J. I would call this Random Thoughts but he beat me to the good name by several years.  Thanks, Frank.

Listening to Lake Wobegon (BY ACCIDENT, jeez, give me a break) and heard a funny one.  Where do all those blond jokes come from?  Brunette's sitting around on Saturday night.

Bye now.