Stupid music in my head

On the road again,
Wish I wasn't on the road again,
Rather be back home with my kids and my best friend,
Wish I wasn't on the road again.

Yeah, I'm on the road working again. It's the first time since D Money was born, so it's an experiment for all of us. I know it's necessary, at least for now, but I still feel like I'm ditching the fam'. I did the best I could for Franny. My folks will be there part of the time, and her folks part of the time, but she'll still have a couple days by herself with two little tyrants demanding the world. Good luck, F. I wish I was there to help you.

I'm back in Montana this time. I've made this trip a few times, but the last was February. It occurred to me maybe half way here that I took off without a map and without looking up any directions. Apparently I've been here enough to find it familiar. I must have been right since I didn't get lost.

The trip to Missoula took about nine hours, and at least it was decent weather. I was worried about 4th of July Pass in Idaho, since I've found poor road conditions there in the past, but all was clear yesterday, so it was pretty smooth. Today I continued on to Bozeman over the Continental Divide. 6,380 feet up if you're interested. The weather wasn't so hot although it certainly could have been worse. It sleeted part of time and I'm sure the pass is pretty icy at night. There's melting snow all day and 20's at night, so I'm sure it gets slick. I guess it's supposed to get more wintery later this week. It is Montana, I suppose.

I did find that the last hour or two in the dark last night was a lot less fun. I knew I had been driving too long when I realized the I was emphatically (and loudly) singing that I am indeed a redneck woman. I was half right anyway. Actually, although I don't even know any Tanya Tucker songs (much less all the words), and I'm hardly the girl next door in my neck of the woods, the song wasn't entirely wrong. I would rather drink beer all night than swig that sweet champagne. I definitely ain't no high class broad. My Christmas lights weren't on the front poor all year, but they did make it to March or April. And most importantly, I can certainly buy that same damn thing on a Wal*Mart shelf half price. Hell Yeah.

It looks like I should drive less and sleep more. Sounds like a plan. Good night.

Travelling again, but this time for fun

Last weekend, we wandered up to see my folks on Whidby Island along with my sisters' families for a reunion of sorts before all the new kids show up. The house is nice, but it was only barely able to contain everybody, as there were 15 of us -- 7 kids, 3 pregnant women, my mother, and a bunch of guys doing their best to keep up/tolerate the pregnant lady talk. None of us are new to it or bothered by it any more, but get real, it's not about us right now. Nobody cared how my boobs were doing or how my heartburn was going.

It was a lot of fun though, and the Mizz had a great time with his cousins, especially "Baby J", who lives in Seattle and will probably be "Baby" forever according to my son. Both of them are, for the moment, single children, and are not near as good at playing with others as the 5 from the Colorado household. Imagine our surprise when they turned out to have a great time together, pushing cars back and forth and just generally copying and following each other all over the place. It looks like they're going to be excellent big brothers.

This was probably our best road trip with the Mizz yet. He's finally getting to the point of being able to be entertained in the car for long stretches. He even watched the DVD player that Franny found on sale. Usually, shows don't interest him for very long. This was a pretty easy trip. Soooooo, I guess it's time for another one.

It was good to see everyone and it was good to do it before things get even crazier. Next time there'll be 10 grandkids running around. Based on the current crew, that should be even more fun.

Montana notes

Well, I made it back to civilization, at least compared to Montana. No offense, but there're more people in Portland than in the entire state of Montana. The biggest city in Montana (Billings, I think) still doesn't even have 100,000 people. (I sure hope nobody from Chicago or New York reads this and decides to start spouting statistics at me. I'm guessing that New York probably has more people than the whole Northwest. And don't even get me started on Tokyo and Mumbai and whatnot.)

I actually got back a day earlier than I expected. One of our customers declined service, so I could speed things up a little bit. They never said it explicitly, but I got the idea that money was tight, so they decided to forgo calibration this year. I'm not sure that's such a great plan. It's a little like deciding to do oil changes every 10,000 miles to save a few bucks. You'll probably still spend the money later and then some. It worked out for me though, so whatever.

I make a lot of noise, but I actually like travelling to Montana as far as travelling for work goes. People are friendly. The scenery is beautiful. This time around, there was some winter weather, but nothing that slowed me down. Lots of the rivers and lakes were frozen over, which is always cool. Lots of miles though. I think I put on about 2,400 miles in two weeks and stayed in 8 hotels, which is at least 6 too many. I have to give a shout out to La Quinta Inns though. Their rates are usually decent ($49.00 in Missoula for a single king room), the rooms are equipped well enough, and the beds I've had have always been extremely soft, which is a nice change from the ultra-firm plywood beds of the Super 8's and such.

I did have to be amused with Rock Creek, a little town near Missoula. Much of Montana is ranch land. Part of beef ranching is the annual activity of turning bulls into steers. Long story short -- you drive east from Missoula and see billboards for the Rock Creek Testicle Festival. That's all I'm about to say about that. I'll let the fine folks at TestyFesty.com deal with any further details.

On the way home, I happened to catch a radio story about a barge that hit and damaged the locks at the John Day Dam on the Columbia River last Friday. This is somewhat interesting in its own right, but it struck me because I was driving by the dam when I heard to story not too long after it happened. The lock was actually out of service for a few days, but the Corps of Engineers has since installed a temporary gate to restore passage to vital river traffic. The broken gate is floating on a barge until they can figure out how to make a permanent repair.

If this post sounds little random, it's because it's taken me almost a week to write in tiny bursts. I came back home to a sick toddler and last night was the first real good night's sleep this house has seen since I came home. Fun.

In penance for taking so stinking long, here're some interesting/funny videos that are not remotely related to Montana.

I'm still out here

I'm still running around out here on the far side of the Rockies. I'm not exactly absorbing the local flavor this time around. I'm at the 6th hotel in 8 days (Kalispell, Missoula, Helena, Bozeman, Billings, and now back to Bozeman again). That kind of sucks, in case you're wondering. Moving in and out every morning isn't exactly fun, and it's especially annoying considering the cart full of work crap that I can't leave out in the car due to the fact that it's something like 20 degrees out at night.

Enough with the complaining. I got some sad news from home today. Not personal news, but somebody close enough. Just a reminder that there are people out there with bigger problems than my traveling woes.

I woke up to a couple inches of snow this morning. It wasn't enough to cause any problems, but it looked nice anyway. Despite the snow, Montanans consider winter to be about over. It's above freezing most days, at least in the populated areas, so it's almost business as usual.

I got to go clothes shopping yesterday. I say "got to," but "had to" is more appropriate. As usual, I managed to get away from Portland without something critical. In the past, I've left without sneakers, jeans, work pants, work shoes, underwear, and about every third time, sunglasses. This time, I found that I was the only person in Montana without a coat. I had a raincoat (Go PDX!), but nothing warmer than a fleece (Go PDX again!). Given the weather, that's not so good. I was going to buy a cheap winter coat and donate it to Goodwill when I got home, but I couldn't bring myself to buy something that I already have at home, especially something that hardly ever gets used. My other option was finding something unlike anything I own, but I am inherently thrifty (pronounced "cheap") when it comes to clothes, plus I lack a sense of style. I usually figure I'm pretty safe with something from Old Navy. I may not look stellar, but I probably won't look too bad. Anyway, as luck would have it, it's late in the season, so coats are on sale all over the place. More specifically, some pretty nice leather coats are on sale at Macy's. So, without assistance, I managed both to spend money on clothes for myself and to get something that actually improves my wardrobe. Now if I can only get some decent pants, shirts, and shoes, I can go out with Franny without embarrassing her.

Enough rambling. My laundry's done, so it's time to go.

On the road again

I'm a couple days into what should be my last long work trip for a long time. Montana this time. This is a busy trip. I'll be in 6 different hotels in two weeks this time, although I'm cooling my heels for four nights in Helena right now.

The weather's been beautiful out here. It's a bit cold at night, but it's been totally clear. On my way out on Monday, the night was clear enough and the moon bright enough that I was still able to see all the mountains around me, which makes for much better night driving.

Speaking of the moon, I've monitored the eclipse from my window this evening. It looks like the moon is going to make it. I tried to check out Saturn's rings too, but my little binoculars were no match for the distance.

I'm pleasantly impressed with the radio on the new minivan they gave me for this trip. I've been able to find something to listen to for almost all of the trip, even picking through the mountains. I do admit, however, that at one point I had to choose between James Dobson of Focus on the Family yammering on about something and loud angry music. I went with Metallica, Ministry, and Tool, along with a bunch of more recent bands I'm too old to recognize.

All in all, this isn't too bad a trip, as far as trips go. Montana has some beautiful scenery, and if you have to travel, this isn't too bad a choice. Plus, unlike Hawaii, I appear to be healthy this time. That helps a lot.

Bad blogger. No soup for you, one year!

OK. So I obviously made it back to to land of easy internet access, but then I got lazy. Apparently, I spent enough time in Hawaii to catch a case of the "paradise paralysis" that afflicts most people who live there. I keep meaning to post something, but then it would be, "Hey, I can always do it later." A week and a half later -- pathetic. I can't say it's the worst problem to have, though, at least not for us poor souls afflicted with it. People who have to deal with us, well...

Anyway, I'm back in the land of normal working and not being sick and toddlers underfoot and whatnot. I have to say that between being ill and the monsoon rains, this wasn't my favorite trip to Hawaii, but it beats having a day job, I guess.

I missed mentioning Valentine's Day too. I remembered it at home, which I guess is the important part. I used to see it as a cheesy Hallmark day, but Franny and I took it back for ourselves the day nine years ago when she said "Yes." It's still cheesy, but now it's our own special brand of cheesy. The Mizz got a valentine from his cousin with a couple stickers in it. He thought that was great, and keeps mentioning that "I got a card from Baby J." (I'm curious how long his cousin, who is less than a year younger, will continue to be "Baby J.") I feel kind of bad that a card didn't go the other way too, but the Mizz is lucky "he" remembered to get his mother a card.

One other Mizz note. He's brilliant. I was gone just long enough to notice a marked improvement in his speech. He's hardly completely clear or anything, but it's noticeably better than when I left. Plus, he now understands the concept of zero. If he has one thing, and you take it away, he knows that he has zero now. In hundreds of years of civilization, the Romans never even figured that one out, although they might have him beat with the roads and aqueducts and empires and such.

Lava!

We managed to avoid the rain long enough to find some lava for Franny to perch on.

Back in action in aloha land

I gave up writing this week for a while. I felt awful and since nobody wants to hear someone just complaining about being sick, I just decided to keep quiet, since feeling awful was pretty much all I was thinking about. To paraphrase all mothers, "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all." Or the governator, "You whine like a girly-man."

Anyway, I've pretty much gotten over whatever it was, although it made for a long couple weeks. Last night I actually went out wandering around Waikiki for a while, and even enjoyed some Cold Stone Creamery.

Other than feeling crappy, I've had a decent stay here. It's been a bit rainy, as is more or less normal this time of year, but other than that, it's been okay. The hotel I got put up in this time is pretty nice; a lot nicer than the Super 8's and such that I normally travel to. I also did pretty good on the car. My boss reserved a compact car, in the hopes that they would be out and have to upgrade me. However, they had several Toyota Yaris's, which wouldn't remotely hold two people's stuff. So I had to upgrade, and the next step up that was available was a full size, which in this case, means a brand new (244 miles) bright red Dodge Charger. I like this car. The only downside is that this island is maybe 30 miles across and choked with traffic, so I haven't really opened it up much. But it's still fun. I could get used to this car. I like it a lot better than the Chrylser 300 we rented that's basically the same thing with different styling. I'm not sure what exactly is different, but this one handles much better and seems to have more kick. I wish Franny had been here for that. She's been waiting to drive one of these for ages.

Waikiki is a trip. The area is pretty much entirely dedicated to tourists. There is a long strip of mainly high-end shops and really nice hotels. Along the strip, there are a number of regular street performers looking for tips. There're the silver guy, a bronze cowboy guy, two different gold guys (one of which wasn't even trying), a robot, a rastaman with a steel drum, a regular stoned guy with plastic buckets, a seriously tarted-up psychic with prominently displayed cleavage, a couple magicians, some missionaries being ignored, a spray paint artist who was wearing a respirator while everyone around him sucked noxious fumes, a group of capoeira performers, and someone calling himself "The Basketball Guy". I don't really know what he did. He was dressed in orange and black and there were several basketballs on the ground, but he just pretty much wandered around the sidewalk in a circle dancing like a mental patient. There are some back streets of not-quite-as-high-end shops and other hotels. Lots of restaurants and souvenier shops and convenience stores and nightclubs and, for some reason, indoor gun ranges. There's a public golf course right behind Waikiki that claims to be the busiest course in the world. I can't verify that claim, but it's had people on it every time I've looked out my window. Waikiki is is oppresively touristy as far as I'm concerned. When I come over here, it's interesting to wander through the mayhem once, and then I'm done. Yesterday was it. It was mildly amusing, but later in the evening, when the prostitutes came out and inquired into my need for "company," I figured I had seen enough and it was time to get out of here. So today I leave.

The best part about it is that Franny is on her way here right now. I'm meeting her at the airport and we're flying to Hilo for a few days of vacation. Without the Mizz. I miss him a ton, but my folks are sitting for a few days so Franny and I can get some much-needed alone time. It's been almost three years and I'm guessing after the second one, it's going to be even tougher.

I know that complaining about the weather is not usually interesting, but Hilo's going to be a bit soggy, even by Hawaii standards. I expected showers here and there, given that we're here during the wet season, but the last week's been extreme for the state. Everybody got excited Tuesday because there was snow on three different volcanos: Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa on the Big Island, which is normal, and Haleakala on Maui, which is not. Yesterday, they had epic rains on much of the Big Island. Hilo had 11 inches of rain and there were several major roads closed due to flooding, although it looks like not the ones near our hotel. Another place on the island had over 17 inches of rain yesterday. It's even rained some in the Kona area, which doesn't happen all that much. The entire Hawaiian island chain is under a flash flood watch through today. How's that for timing your vacation? It's supposed to lighten up tomorrow to a more normal level, but I'm not really holding my breath. Oh, well. We'll have a rental car. If there's a sunny spot on the island, we'll find it. And even if there's not, we'll still sleep in tomorrow morning, which will be nice regardless.

Hello from O'ahu this time

I've moved on to Honolulu. Actually we got here last night. Yesterday was way too long and I felt awful. I never checked, but I'm pretty sure I had a fever by the time I went to sleep. Sooooo, no update yesterday.

Today was better. I think I'm on the downhill side of this cold finally. I had to work today, but I don't feel near as beat up as I did last night.

Tomorrow's a day off and I intend to sleep as much as I need to feel better. It's not exactly a good use of paradise, but I'm going to be here a while and it won't be much fun like this.

On a good note, the weather looks like it should be pretty good for the rest of the week. I can handle that.

Aloha

Since I don't have the internet, you get a delayed action blog post. Actually, I do sort of have the internet. The hotel finally installed wireless internet, but in an evil twist, you have to pay separately for it, far too much, in my opinion. So delayed it is.

1/21/08: I made it to Hawaii today. The flight from Portland was fine, and a good day to leave too. It was somewhere near freezing when I left and the temperature was set to drop throughout the day, including freakishly low wind chills.

I unintentionally spent the day as a guide. My coworker hadn't flown in quite some time, so I got to shepherd him through the vagaries of self-check kiosks and post-9/11 security. Then I spent the flight to Honolulu with a woman who claimed it was her first real flight, whatever that means. At the least, it means that she didn't understand much about airplanes or what the beeps meant, what the flight attendants were talking about, or how to work her seatbelt. She was quite friendly though, and although she didn't let me sleep or read, she was pleasant enough to talk to and the conversation helped pass the time. (For the record, she was older than my folks. Don't get any ideas.) Then on the flight to Kona, I sat next to a guy who had never been to Hawaii before and was fascinated by Diamond Head, the various islands, the sparsity of those islands, and the volcanoes. He sounded extremely Japanese, but he said he was from Las Vegas. He is a sushi chef and is moving to Kona for three months to help a friend of his open a restaurant.

Plus, we saw whales from the plane. I always heard they were big, but they looked like ants to me.

James and I went to a second floor open-air bar called Lulu's for dinner. Rick and I had gone there last year, and we had added a dollar to the collection of signed bills stapled to the walls and ceilings. I distinctly remember standing on the bar (overlooking the street) to reach the ceiling to staple it up (they didn't mind), but we couldn't find it anywhere. Oh, well.

1/22/08: Despite being in Hawaii, today was mainly boring, what with all the working and such. Saw some lava. The weather was fine, I guess, but we were inside for most of it.

I did learn more about the big ocean water pipe I found last year. I found someone who could give me a more complete description of what they are doing there. It turns out they have several big pipes bringing up seawater for different uses. They do grow the Maine lobsters, but they also grow several other things, including shellfish, algae, and seahorses, 'cuz hey, we need more seahorses. The factory bottling expensive Japanese health water is still there and actually has its own pipe, and is currently the only use of the water that is really making money. I also found out about another use of the water. The water from 3000 feet down comes up about 40 degrees. They also have a pipe that brings water from about 70 feet down which runs around 75 degrees. Somehow they harness the temperature differential to make energy. I have no idea how much of that energy is used to pump water 3000 feet up the side of an underwater volcano. I assume there must be some extra, or they wouldn't bother doing it, but nobody I worked with knew much about it.

Other than that, it was pretty much just working. I did see a gecko and some mongooses (mongeese?), but no whales today.

1/23/08: We finished work in Kona this morning. Kona has the traffic problems of a much larger place. The problem is that, for some reason, they seem to lack any traffic planning. Everything is build as cul-de-sacs or neighborhoods built off the one main road through the area. This means that everyone in the area has to use that one road to get anywhere else. The state is widening a portion of it, but the never ending construction is actually causing even more trouble for the time being. I'm not sure how the locals deal with it.

We drove across the island to Hilo this afternoon and into the Hilo rain. It isn't always raining in Hilo (We had great weather last year.) but it's more likely here than in Kona. We got settled in and ate dinner at a place that seemed to be filled only with locals. I like that.

1/24/08: I'm on the internet for real this time. I had to break down and pay so I could get plane tickets. So while, I'm here, I'll check in with the world.

Today was a long day. Better weather though. Sunny most of the day. Among other things, I visited the volcano today, although I was working and never actually saw it. I did find that the eruption has changed significantly since last year. At that time, the lava was flowing entirely through a tube and exiting underwater, making lots of steam, but not being directly visible. However, in the meantime, there was an earthquake that collapsed the tube and the lava started flowing above ground again, but in a different area. Unfortunately, however, I will only be able to see this lava if I learn how to fly. It is in the middle of previous lava flows, which are much too dangerous to walk on. This is the same unstable new ground that collapsed to cause the earthquake.

Before I headed up that way, the radio stations kept playing civil defense messages, a sort of non-emergency emergency broadcast. It was detailing the lava flows that are potentially endangering a particular neighborhood. It kept saying that only residents are allowed in the neighborhood and that all remaining residents have been informed. However, at the volcano, I found out that the neighborhood was completely surrounded by miles of lava something like 20 years ago. "All remaining residents" turns out to be one apparently very stubborn guy. He used to have to walk to and from his house, but apparently he recently got some sort of ATV that can get over much of the lava.

On a low note, my entire trip so far has been marred by a cold. I kind of thought/hoped that warm moist air might help, but no luck. Too bad.

We're off to Honolulu tomorrow for another long week. Talk to you there.

Yet another whirlwind week

I've been a tad busy this week. It started with a quick overnight trip to Bend to clean up some work left from a couple months ago. And I do mean quick. Not even time to say hi to my aunt. (Hi, Becky.) January isn't really the best time to go to Bend. It's fine to BE in Bend, what with the skiing just outside of town, but GOING to Bend, at least from Portland, can be interesting. All directions go over mountains, which get snow every time it rains in Portland. That's a lot. Getting to Bend wasn't actually too bad, but coming home over the Santiam Pass could have been better. At least the sun was out. I can only imagine the icy mess that was there a couple hours after I passed through.

If anyone catches the timestamp on this post, I'm up way too late again. I tend to get too wired to sleep before I have to leave on a work trip, which of course makes getting up early to get on the road that much worse, so I worry about that, and can't sleep, and the cycle of wired continues.

Anyway, I leave tomorrow for a trip to Hawaii. I know. Nobody has much sympathy for me, but as much as I'd rather be working in Hawaii for an extended trip than in Idaho (sorry Idaho), I'd still rather be with my family than in Hawaii. It's going to be busy, but if you have to travel, you could do worse.

The biggest drawback for the next few days is that we'll be staying in the last two hotels in the country that don't have internet access. I don't know what that's about. I'll have to poke my head back into the internet next weekend to clear out the e-mountain of e-mail that will certainly be waiting for me. Most of it will be useless, but maybe you'll send me something. I imagine it will be something like, "Oh, poor Dave. Stuck in paradise with no connection to the outside world. Shut up. Nobody wants to hear you whine between Mai Tais." Yeah, probably something along those lines.

Merry Christmas!

Between the holidays and the toddler, it's been busy, but I had to post a Merry Christmas to everybody out there. Ours was fairly low key. Most of my family was in Colorado, but we couldn't make that trip unfortunately. Only so much leave to go around. We did get a chance to see them on the webcam, and although the Mizz has about a one minute tolerance for sitting still, we still got to see family on the appropriate day.

We actually started Christmas Thursday when my folks came through on their way to the Colorado festivities. They brought along a winner -- a tent and tunnel combo. The Mizz loves it, although it does pretty much fill up the living room. We're down to the tent right now, which is still plenty big for him. It's full of legos rights now. He keeps inviting me inside, but I can only fit about halfway in laying down. He keeps telling me to wake up.

We ducked away Saturday night to Newport, Oregon. It's not exactly prime beach season, but we figured, if you're going to be cooped up out of the rain with a toddler, you might as well be somewhere cool. As we rolled into town, the rain stopped, so we were able to run around on the beach for a while. The Mizz has never really seen the beach, so rain drenched sand in the cold was still pretty cool to him. He did a lot of playing with kelp and sand and just running around. He kept saying that he wanted to go the beach. When we pointed out the fact that he was at the beach, he said, "No, I want to go to the beach of the water." He then ran directly for the surf. Luckily, we had seen this coming and we were a good hundred yards from the waves and the sharks and whatnot so he was easy to catch. We also caught a glimpse of some harbor seal napping on rocks. The next morning, we checked out the historic bayside, specifically to take the Mizz to the Undersea Garden. It wasn't that cool. It was a good sized aquarium, but unlike the brightly colored brochures, it was pretty drab. A whole green and brown aquarium full of green and gray and brown fish. Somewhat interesting, but only for a short time. The Mizz did get to touch a starfish and was pretty pleased about that. More interesting were the sea lions lounging on the dock outside. They were a little wary of us, but stood their ground. After all that, we decided that although getting away was nice, cooped up in a hotel with a toddler isn't that great. We wandered up the coast a way, with a quick stop in Depot Bay (world's smallest harbor) to observe the storm action in the blowholes. The water was shooting maybe 30 feet above the roadway, which was already quite a bit above the water. Very cool. After that, we'd had our fill of driving in the rain, so we called it a trip and headed home.

Today was pretty relaxed. The Mizz got a few things, but he's still pretty young to really understand the whole day. He has fun opening presents, but if they hadn't been there, he wouldn't have noticed. Waiting for him under the tree this morning was an old Tonka dump truck of mine, circa 1974(?). It is labelled as "hydraulic." "Spring loaded" or "catapult" might have been a better description. We'll show the Mizz that feature some other time. He also got a bunch of new legos, as I was feeling limited in my creative possibilities with his old ones. Now we can build much taller towers and much more complicated castles. We even built a house, because the Mizz wanted one to put a flower on. I'm just the builder, not the designer.

We got a taste of white Christmas. We got a good bit of heavy wet snow that made everything pretty, although it didn't stick around for long. We were going to go for a walk in it, but it was already raining again by the time we got moving.

To end the day, some friends brought over Chinese food, and unbeknownst to us, some more gifts for the Mizz. The best was four eggs worth of Silly Putty. The Mizz got four plastic eggs, WITH the original wrapping, and the rest of us got a lump of nostalgia to play with.

Anyway, I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas, whether it was a big family holiday, or just another day off.

Back West

We made it home yesterday. The Mizz likes to kick airplane seats, but other than that, he's an awesome traveller. On just about every flight we take with him, we get an unsolicited compliment about how well he behaved. I always imagine the compliments to be sarcastic, but on the other hand, people who really had a problem with him probably wouldn't bother to say anything at all, at least not directly to us. I attribute his positive public response to exceptional parenting.

It was odd to get back to Portland to find that it was dry. When we left DC, grass and whatnot was covered in snow and it was sleeting on us. In Portland, it's obviously been raining lately, but today, it's clear as a bell and much milder. Franny bundled the Mizz up in the airport and put on her own hat and gloves before we went outside, not realizing that it was almost 50 degrees. I kind of chuckled inside, but it was fun to watch.

Another fun thing about this trip was rediscovering video games. Specifically, by brother-in-law brought Guitar Hero, or more specifically, Rock Band. I always thought this game looked ridiculous and couldn't possibly fun for very long. That was before I played it. My rudimentary guitar experience was irrelevant, since although the controller is shaped like a guitar, it's still pretty much just a video game controller. However, picking up this guitar is much easier than the real thing, so it's easy to feel like you're really making killer music. Even Franny thought it was awesome. Add in Scene It, a movie trivia game with individual buzzers (as all trivia games should have), and Franny and I were actually having a serious conversation about getting an Xbox for Christmas. Perhaps I'm not be as old or mature as I feel sometimes. Knowing how we are, one of us will probably look at a price tag or something and decide that maybe there are better ways to waste money, but it must have been fun if we were actually having the discussion.

We had a good time back East, but it's good to be home. We were in our regular bed and the Mizz seems glad to be back in familiar territory. At the very least, our house is somewhat childproofed, so we can comfortably let him play at his own convenience for minutes at a time. That's worth a ton right there.

Now if I could get him to sleep later than 4:30...

I did it again

There I go again, wandering off and forgetting the blog. For three days I was travelling without the internet, but no excuse otherwise. Lazy? Probably.

The internetless travelling was a whirlwind work trip to Bend, Oregon. Lotsa work, long days, whine, whine, whine. Actually, it wasn't horrible. The guy I was working with has a timeshare membership that scored us what amounted to a two bedroom condo for $30 a night (total). No internet, but that per diem is going to feel great for this one. The real problem was coming home. We had to get home Wednesday evening, but Bend is on the other side of the Cascade mountain range from Portland, and as luck would have it, there had been a boatload of snow on the Cascades the night before, with more on the way. Both of the reasonable passes through the mountains had lots of snow and chain requirements. Although we had chains and some snow driving skill between us, we decided to be prudent and go straight north to The Dalles on the road that only had a weather warning rather than the severe weather alert on the passes. This might have added and hour and a half to our trip on a normal day, but due to the snow that happened during the trip, it added more like three. So a trip that's normally about three hours ended up taking us six, although we found that my van, loaded down as it was, actually held the road rather well and we never even had to put on the chains. But still, nine o'clock at night is no time to roll in if you haven't been out doing something fun.

Non sequiter FYI: my capitalization of The Dalles is correct. "The Dalles" is the actual name of the city. Why the mix of the French "Dalles" with the English "The" I have no idea. I was thinking you might see this type of thing in Canada, but then I figured that there, it would probably say "The Falls/Les Dalles" with some kind of legal fight as to which part should be listed first. This is the main reason this country should never officially declare an "official" language, god forbid two of them. We are still free to call things whatever we please, as long as we can convince other people to call them the same thing. Freedom fries, anyone?

Now we're travelling again, this time back east to see family. I wouldn't say the Mizz was a complete joy to travel with, but he could have been so much worse. He got to ride in a taxicab, two airplanes, a bus, a black car, and some escalators, all equally fun to him. He took a good bit of entertaining on the planes, but for the most part, we were able to keep his feet off the chair in front of us and he only cried one in the Chicago airport, mainly from being way overtired and cooped up. Due to a kindly jet stream, we actually got to Chicago about an hour early. However, due to an unkindly winter storm through the Midwest, there were delays all over the place and our next plane took off an hour and a half late. O'Hare is not cool enough to justify four of my hours. The flight from Chicago to DC was pretty bumpy -- not so bumpy as to frighten you, but bumpy enough that the captain kept the seatbelt sign on for the whole flight and wouldn't let the flight attendants up either. Not scary, but miserable for lots of people, especially the Mizz, who kept wanting to "come see Daddy" or "come lay on Daddy". We talked a lot about the signs with the arrows (seatbelt signs) and the fact that Mommy and Daddy both have to wear their seatbelts too. He wasn't buying any of it, but we all survived. The plane was late enough getting in that they were in a rush to get the next set of passengers boarded as quickly as possible so they could get off the ground before 10 pm, as there is a hard and fast curfew at Reagan National. We finally rolled in about midnight, much later than planned, but luckily we have nice relatives, and they were up waiting for us. Thanks guys, you're awesome.

The funnest part of the trip so far has been the car Franny scored for us. She had a couple free upgrades from Enterprise, so she tried to get us a Dodge Charger. They were out of them, but we're running around suburban Maryland in a Chrysler 300. It feels a little wrong. This is quite a bit more car than we're used to driving, but it's kind of fun. It's not the top of the line version, but then, I don't think I've ever driven a top of the line anything, so I don't really know what I'm missing anyway. This one has 250 hp and handles wonderfully, so we can certainly have a little fun. Franny's main gripe is that, since it's not the really nice version, there aren't nearly enough gadgets and buttons for the passenger to play with. The Mizz is fine with it though, as the dash is full of blue lights at night. We could drive him around on a tractor if there were enough lights on it.

Well, poop.

Today just didn't work out right at all. A couple days ago, I was going to have a couple quick stops this morning and then be home in Portland sometime in the afternoon, which is good since I was supposed to drop a piece of equipment off for my boss to use tomorrow morning. That slipped a little bit yesterday when I worked with another one of our techs and he was having trouble getting all his stuff done. He's only been with us a few months and apparently doesn't have the Speedy Gonzalez thing figured out yet.

Anyway, in a fit of stupidity, I said I'd pick up a couple things from him, which put me getting home an hour or two later, but no big deal really. Then the last thing I was working on last night ended up requiring a stop back again this morning. Again, not too bad, but not helping. However, when I got there, my contact was in a meeting, but "he'll probably be out pretty soon." Twenty minutes later, I decided to go get something else done and come back. By the time I got back, nothing continued to happen. "I'm sure he'll be done soon. This is much longer than they usually meet." Great. Now what? My next stop is 70 miles up the road, so I'm not exactly going back and forth, and I have to meet this guy before I leave since some of his stuff is broken and he needs to know about it. So, I wait, watching my getting-home time slipping further into the evening.

About half the equipment at the next two places (the originally scheduled places) was not working right, taking even longer. Now I'm looking at getting home at maybe 9 pm. Not what I had in mind, but it's still home.

And then I get the call from the office. It starts by asking can I stop by one more place tomorrow on the way home? I've got the only stuff to work on this particular equipment, so it's got to be me. Hell, no I can't stop by tomorrow. First, the boss wants the stuff I have tonight, and second, I don't want to be out here anymore. So, naturally, I'll be stopping by tomorrow. The boss decided for some reason to switch his schedule around, so getting home tonight, although still desirable, was no longer an absolute requirement. I ended up deciding that neither I nor the guy who desperately needed this last stop wanted to do it starting at 6:30 this evening. He didn't want to come back to work, and it would optimistically put me home no earlier than 10 or 10:30. Given the rest of the day, optimism seemed misplaced. So, I'll see this guy first thing in the morning, fully caffeinated and ready to go, and then drive like a crazy person to get home before the turkey day traffic gets too bad. It sucks that Franny is stuck alone with the Mizz for another probably too early morning, but what can you do?

We'll see if this plan holds any more water than the one I had today. At least I'm getting paid, right? Sorry for the rant. It's been that kind of day. For reading this far, you get a treat. I give you the true origin of hip-hop.

Under a log?

I must have been under a log; I haven't posted in two weeks. I have been busy though. I'll try to be brief. We all know how that'll work out, I'm sure.

I had started a work trip almost two weeks ago. I went out to Bend for a few days of work before continuing on to Southern Oregon. However, a day into it, I had to run back to Portland to spend the night in the hospital with the Mizz. When Franny called me from the doctor's office, it was very clear to me that I had to get back there. I missed the worst of it, as the Mizz was finally asleep by the time I got there. That was the longest three hour drive I've ever taken. I have a very good imagination.

The problem was that the Mizz had a bad reaction to a shot he had received the day before for the croup. It was a normal enough prescription for his issue, but he experienced a rare side effect. Rare enough that it is not a warning you normally get with it, but common enough that the folks at the childrens' hospital understood what was happening. Luckily it seems to have caused him no lasting issues and he seems to be back to his normal toddler antics now.

When we felt that he was going in the right direction, I had to return to my previously scheduled job responsibilities. Friday night, it was down to Roseburg to be ready to work first thing Saturday morning. Worked on and on and on through today. Tomorrow is almost a day off, just a couple of hours of driving to be further down the road for Monday morning.

I spent several days on the Southern Oregon coast, even stretching down into California. I thought I was going to get rainy weather all week, but it was beautiful on Sunday when I went out to the coast. Then Monday is was raining with gale force winds. Then it was beautiful, then drizzly, then sunny, and then rainy again, with rain heavy enough to make even Oregonians complain. Most of the time, our rain is just a drizzle. I have a raincoat, but I almost never put it on. With this stuff, however, you could actually get wet.

Lots of places (including Portland) like to make the claim that, "If you don't like the weather, wait 5 minutes." This is intended to help you understand just how unpredictable the weather is in the speaker's particular part of the world. Most people act like they invented the phrase, and hey, aren't they witty. However, although it may actually apply to other places too, the Oregon coast in the Fall is the place I've been that most deserves to say it.

Thursday evening, I made my way down to Eureka, California. It's not super far, maybe 100 miles south of the border, but it was a pretty long trip down US-101. It was slow and twisty, drizzly, foggy, and since that section of road is called the Redwood Highway and goes through Redwood National Park, there were giant freakin' trees right up to the edge of the road. "Elk Crossing" signs too. Somewhat stressful. It was much better on the trip back north the next day. Beautiful, with either huge trees in the mist or ocean vistas. I found the elk. They were lounging on a lawn in front of some cabins by the side of the road. These ones seemed to know about the lack of hunting on national parks. I also passed the "life-size" statues of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox at Trees of Mystery. It's a side-of-the-road attraction in the middle of the park that has a tour through the redwoods to show you just how interesting 1000 year old trees can be. I remembered the statues like it was yesterday, even though I was only 9 or 10 the last time I saw them.

Eureka is in the middle of Humbolt county. It's reputation preceded it. On my way through the redwoods, the only radio station I could get for a while was playing 2 straight hours of the Grateful Dead. It was interrupted only by commercials for greenhouse and hydroponic equipment dealers. However, despite being in town for almost 14 hours, not one person offered to sell me pot. Luckily, I live in Portland, so if it's ever an issue, I'll just roll down Belmont or something.

I spent today with one of the crassest individuals I've had the privilege of meeting. They customer is always right though, I hear. He has several small locations, so I got to follow him around the mountains all day. I'm done with him though, so tomorrow it's a little further south, and then home by Tuesday. I've put on something like 1,400 miles so far this trip, and I have another 500 or so left. I'm sick of the road.

So much for brief, but you didn't really expect that, did you?

Welcome Home Mama

Franny got back last night. I was happy to see her, but it was late, she was jet lagged, and I pretty much got, "Hi Dave. I'm happy to see you, but I'm going to bed now. I'll talk to you in the morning?" No big deal. I was still happy to have her home.

The Mizz took her return in stride. This morning, when I came downstairs after my shower, he was playing with Franny and looked up at me long enough to smile and say, "Bye bye Daddy," before returning to his toys. I was fine when I was the only option, I guess, but Mama's back now, so see ya later.

The Mizz and I survived our four days just fine. I figured we would. I'm very happy to have Franny back though, not the least for the adult conversation. The Mizz is fun and cute and all, but not exactly intellectually stimulating. I can only build so many Lego towers, make so many Play-Doh snakes, and force feed so many toddlers before I have to challenge my brain at least a little bit now and then.

Plus I like having Franny around. Chicago (Si-ca-do according to Mizz) is too far away.

Guys Weekend

Well, the Mizz and I are on our own this weekend. Franny left this morning to visit a friend in Chicago, so it's just us guys for the next couple days. It's new for me, since I've never been totally in charge of him for even a whole day. The Mizz seems to be taking it pretty much in stride, although "Mama ona twip" seems like a vague concept to him. He still tells me that "Mama takin a shower" or "Mama ina bafwoom" from time to time. This whole thing is new for Franny, as it's her first night away from him ever. I'm sure she'll miss him, but I'm also sure she'll enjoy the respite. Due to work, I've been away from the two of them far too regularly, but it's an experiment for her.

I wasn't sure how I'd do, but I think I'll be alright. I've had him solo lots of times at various points of the day; it's just a matter of stringing them together for four days straight. And actually, it isn't that much different than a normal work day for me. For the most part, I'm pretty much committed by work or the Mizz from the time he wakes up until he's in bed for the evening, just now I'll remove the "work or" part of that phrase. I still get about the same evening time for personal stuff plus and hour or two during nap time. And like it or not, my nights on the road have more than prepared me for quiet evenings alone. So, although I'd prefer to have Franny here, both for the company and the assistance, I think I'll survive, and I know she deserves the break. Have fun in the Midwest Babe.

Oxygen is Good

Well, I did make it home, and this was waiting for me. I'm not sure what the Mizz was doing with that first "E" there. Franny "helped" at bit, with the scribbles, I'm assuming.

I had to see this by myself though, since we got back at 10:30 Friday night. I wouldn't have done such a long day myself (Pocatello, ID to Portland, OR; almost 700 miles), but there were two of us and we were well fueled on Starbucks, so we decided that it was worth getting home to our own beds, even if it was late. The decent mattress was worth it, but I was wrecked Saturday. The Mizz still gets up early. Apparently I'd have to be gone a lot longer than two weeks for that to change. Franny and I both were in no mood to make the 5+ hour trip up to my folks' place just to turn around and do it again the next day, so we'll have to catch them again later. We're hoping to make a slightly longer weekend out of it and make the drive more worth it. Hopefully in about 3 or 4 weeks when we can open up a weekend.

I've been playing catchup since I got back, and I'm still tired; thus the dearth of blogging. I enjoy rambling to the world, but you know I'm tight on time and energy when I forgo the opportunity to spout my opinions about things. I think I'm about done with the critical stuff though, so tonight's a normal sleep night, if I still remember what that is, and maybe I can get back to blogging insignificant drivel.

Oh, and we had an earthquake Sunday night. It wasn't huge, and if I was asleep, I certainly would have missed it. But it was sort of amusing to see my lamp shaking just a little and try to figure out what was happening. At first I wasn't sure I actually saw anything, but then I realized I was feeling something too. It felt like when our washing machine is on the spin cycle. The machine is on the second floor, and although this is great for use, you can slightly notice a shaking when the spin is on, maybe like a large truck speeding by your house. Anyway it felt like that, but the machine was not on. I had a slight suspicion of earthquake, but it's been so long since I felt one (about 25 years or so), that I had no way of knowing. Anyway, I caught the news Monday morning and found that, indeed, there had been a 3.6 quake about 40 miles away and 14 miles underground. No reports of damage, but it interested a science geek.

The oxygen reference has to do with the lesson I learn every time I travel to Idaho or Montana. At four or five thousand feet, I feel insanely out of shape. At first, I always blame it on lack of sleep or crappy food or whatever. However, after a few days of getting winded after one flight of stairs, I usually remember the altitude and cut myself some slack. The first, and worst, example of this was a couple years ago in Burley, Idaho (motto: Nothing to do but drop out of high school and get pregnant early.). I went out for a run, and although I wasn't in the best shape (as if I am now...), I felt absolutely pathetic running for maybe a half mile before I had to stop and gasp for breath. I felt like a complete schmuck walking back to the hotel, although being Burley, there was nobody around and therefore no reason to feel too much embarrassment. I didn't think until the next day to check and find that Burley is at 4150 feet. Anyway, it took me a few days again this time, and it felt great to take the Mizz out in the backpack when I got back and realize that I could, in fact, handle some physical exertion, at least at the 200 feet or so where I live.

Missing in Action

Well, Missing in Idaho anyway. I apparently haven't been in a blogging mood lately. I tend to get out of touch when I'm travelling for work. I get some news and such, but my only real connection to anything else is Franny. Outside of her (and by extension, the Mizz), I don't really deal with the rest of the world much. Odd, since I have more free (stir crazy) time out here than I do at home, so I can't say I've been too busy.

I'm in Pocatello (still). We've been here since Friday night. We had Sunday off, but that's it. Other than that, it's been pretty busy days.

We actually had a pretty rough day Monday. We went to Soda Springs, Idaho, which is a little town not on the way to anywhere. From what I hear, at the time when Brigham Young founded the town in it's current location, there were a number of geysers in the valley that had coated the area in mineral deposits. So of course we built a dam and made a lake over the geysers. Now the best they have is the only man-made geyser in the world. Building a hotel, they dug in the wrong spot and found the aquifer that fed the old geysers, which started leaking or geysing or whatever. They decided to attach a bunch of plumbing and regulate it, so now they have their own old faithful. All the excitement of a small town fountain mixed with the slight smell of rotten eggs. Cool.

They also have, and actually are proud of, a slag heap. For those who don't know, slag is the leftover stuff from smelting ore into metal, in this case, into phosphorus. And a heap is a big pile. In this case, a REALLY big pile. Anyway, the slag comes out of the furnace REALLY hot, and when they pour it on the heap at night, it supposedly looks like lava flowing down the sides. This was mentioned to me several times that day, so either it's REALLY cool looking, or they REALLY don't have much to do there. From the looks of the town, I'm guessing the later.

I actually worked at the phosphorus plant with the slag heap. Apparently they make the purest elemental phosphorus in the country. It's used in all sorts of things: food, fertilizer and weed killer (go figure), toothpaste, etc. Plus it's insanely reactive in air and melts at around 100 degrees, both of which make it interesting to handle. It's kept under water at all times, as it bursts into flame when it touches air. Nice stuff. But, mix some other chemicals with it and it whitens your teeth or grows your potatoes.

(start complaining) Anyway, this place made for the rough day. When we first got in town and contacted them, they said that we'd have to wait until later because their power was going to be cut off for a couple hours. I went to help our other guy work on some stuff elsewhere, when I got a call that the power wasn't going to be cut off after all, so come on over and get started. Needless to say, after an hour of safety video and discussion and stuff, the power went off. I was resigned to having to make the trek back some evening to finish, but the other guy got so delayed working on his stuff that we were still in town when the power came back on. By this time, it was too late to do anything back in Pocatello, so my partner waited in the van while I went in and calibrated for two hours plus. He hadn't done the safety stuff earlier, so he was out of luck. Longer work for me and boredom for him. Everybody wins. Anyway, we rolled back into our hotel at 8:30 that evening after leaving at 7:00. And by the end, we had barely managed to do work that should have taken one person a normal day to finish. Good times. (end complaining)

Other than that, it's been long days, but not near as annoying. One of our customers even gave us cake today. It was their September company birthday party, and they weren't taking "no" for an answer. Since they had triple chocolate something cake, I wasn't giving "no" for an answer. Everybody wins.