Saturday, August 28, 2010

It Broke Free

Our car broke down the other day on the way to work. I left home from work and noticed my front tire looked really low.  So I stopped and filled up the tire hoping the problem would Brake Free. Brake free is my term for fixing it self. I was sitting in traffic on the Marcum bridge and somebody signaled me that my tire was flat. Portland is that type of town and people are nice that way. So 3 long minutes later (they were probably 72 seconds long -you know you have had them) I pulled in front of OMSI and put the wobbling car next to the curb. Quickly a homeless person pedaled up to me on his bike and offers to fix the tire. I once again wondered if the problem would break free again.  But for the life of me I could not find the spare tire and the homeless man quickly grew restless and pedaled on. There I was with a flat tire and with  precious little time to rush home get our son and head off to our beloved soccer teams game at PGE park. Then I thought like a super hero. At the time super hero could have been a term for large hoagie from Pennsylvania. But out of the phone booth I emerged determined to make the footy game.

From droppingtimber.com

So I did the illogical thing at the time and took out the directions provided in my car. The car never broke free or fixed itself. Then I read the directions and actually followed them. All the time thinking about one time when I had gnarled my finger as a teenager changing a tire for my girlfriend on an icy frigid day in Pennsylvania.   But i surprised my self and actually located the spare on the Prius (Toyota hides them to save mileage by encouraging walking when having a flat tire) and changed it with an attitude.

Thank you tire for not breaking free and fixing your self. We made the game and had a glorious evening at the Timbers game.

We just back from Maui on what I would describe a perfect vacation. We had a wonderful young man named Anthony house sit while we on vacation. He was asked to do he usual stuff like walking our very bad beagle, watering the plants during Portland non rain season and just live there and not party too much.


We got back and the house was in an expected disarray when a teen ager stays in your house. But the one thing I did notice is that garbage disposal simply did not work when we got home. I would turn it on and either the entire sink shook violently or the disposal did nothing but hum. I asked Anthony about the disposal and sheepishly said that it shook violently albeit rather surprised that I would notice such a thing.

So I spent the last few days just doing nothing to the disposal (taking an Allen wrench and spinning the nut on the  bottom of the disposal like some direction book I had once read) and still the disposal either hummed or shook the kitchen violently.

Today I woke up early for work and mindlessly put the coffee grounds from the coffee maker into the disposal. In retrospect, I usually dump the coffee grounds into the compost can we have on the kitchen counter but in my groggy state I put he grounds down the drain then Iand mindlessly turned on the disposal.

The disposal had broken free.
It was working perfectly.
It had fixed itself.

It broke free.

As in no charge to fix it when its broken.

Friday, August 27, 2010

Call to the Teachers in The World (Well actually one)

This week the state of Washington was fortunate to land a great Teacher. My lovely wife has started teaching at Ilahee up in Camus Washington. She brings a passion for teaching that I wish I had in my job everyday. She brings in the experience of some great mentors as well as the foundation set by her hard work obtained at Lewis and Clark College.

But it is the passion of teaching and doing what she loves that will serve these kids well. She sits at home and makes charts and graphs for the kids much like a kid. That is with open eyes like she is seeing it and living it for the first ime. She loves the feel of crayons, sharpies and abrand new note book.

She wrote lettters to the kids before the first days of summer had barely passed. She recieved her first response and she read it with starry eyed anticipation. She has decorated her room so it lools like ma room where I want to just sit in the back room and give the teacher an apple.

I look forward to hearing the updates daily and even when the day is difficult. It looks like it is going to be a long year of learning and growning as she falls asleep while getting a much needed foot rub.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Hawaii 11.11 Things


1. Bob and Lana got married  At  what I can consider one of the cooler weddings I have ever been to. Beautiful evening to get married on the beach with family and friends. I was honoured to be there. Bob and I now appear on each others marriage certificates.

2. Running - Got to run every day and on most days it felt really good.

3. Spending time with my wife -Don't get to do that all that often and it was nice to be un rushed and not on a schedule. That was pretty special.

  • 4. Snorkeling -That was   funner than i anticipated. I lost my wedding ring the second I hit the water but I was swimming along and I said to Jenna "Look Down" and there was a giant sea Turtle under us.

5. Gary the Car Rental guy is a flaming idiot. He is a company man on a mission. The car my friends is a gift to you. Would you like to purchase the additional insurance for 30.00 a day. NO.  Do you realize if you crash the car you will have to pay blalablablablabla...Oh would you like a car with windows that roll up for another 10 dollars a day...NO. Well we don't have that car anyways so I'll have to give you a nice car at the same price. GARY AT Advantage. You are an idiot.

6. The Picnic Bench Bunch - Everyday at 730 the locals gather by the picnic benches and stood around and told stories and drank Budweiser the entire day. They were a cool bunch.

7. The Pineapples- I really can't explain it but the Pineapples were sofa king good.  I kind of like Pineapples, but these were off the planet.

8. The fact that I like Hawaii - I tend to veer away from things that are popular and mainstream. Everybody loves Hawaii and so did I.

9. Mark, Patty, Ellen, Allie, Callie, Curt, Ed, Marilana, Bob Sr and Jill. -They made us feel like family.

10. Geckos - are pretty cool. Its comforting to have them in the room with you.

11. 91.5 KEAO "Mana'o Radio": Eclectic / Free Form (LP).  They played great music..Loved the free form radio.
11.11 - Doing absolutely Nothing - Have not perfected it yet.


Koaniani & a Konane
A Gentle Breeze and a Bright moonlight

Monday, August 16, 2010

Bob and Lana

The Smitten One
Life is full of quirky nuances. You know the cliches.
  1. Being in the right place at the right time.
  2. No matter where you go, There you are.
  3. Good things happen to good people.
  4. It is better to be Lucky than Good.
And on this lovely planet the fickle hand of randomness
is truly just that. Some may say it is in the cards and others
may say WHOA. How in the world did that actually happen.

From an analytical perspective lets look do the Math real quickly. There are 6.5 billion people on this planet, with a basic assumption that half are boys and half are girls what are the chances that a boy from the deep south would meet a girl from the from the Pacific Northwest.
About 18 billion to one.   (Give or take a billion)

Then You get over that 18 billion to one odds thing and actually meet.

What are the chances of making it to a second date.  (Multiply that by  the fact they met in pool room, in the dark of winter) and a third date, and that they would actually could effectively communicate with each other and actually like each other and that falling in love thing.

That's straight math with a sardonic touch of my own.

The world doesn't work in mathematical equations.

Back to life's Axioms -Which of these are true in this case?
  • Being in the right place at the right time.
  • No matter where you go, There you are.
  • Good things happen to Good people.
  • It is better to be Lucky than Good.
How about Really Fantastic people who were in the right place at the right time and were starry eyed and love struck enough .

The one axiom from above that does not exactly hold true is that it is better to be lucky than good. There is some luck involved but for now it is about being good and that is exactly what Bob and Lana are. Well not exactly they are great together.

There is hardly anything that Bob has not done. He has practically fixed most things in our house and he is always there to help. Today we learned he knows how to make a pineapple upside down cake.Unlike myself, Bob thinks things through and can be be calculated and analytical. Bob is a warm spirit and has a heart of gold. Add in Lana's angelic spirit, optimism and zest for life you have a couple destined for greatness.Getting here had some luck involved but moving on from here is all about being great, putting in the hard work that marriage requires and enjoying ones self.

I improvised here.

Bob and I were running down a hill today and I commented that this is like being a kid. And that's part of moving forward the ability to have fun and enjoy yourself and remembering the kid inside.