Bob and I climbed to Camp Muir on Mt. Rainier last week. I wanted to post a bigger picture than this but the next size on Flickr is way too big. This is a few pictures put together. It was cool up there in the 60's, with some wind. I think we were slower getting up there than last year. There is more snow in the Muir Snowfield but hazards still exist. Avoid the blue spots. You can hear water running underneath and the footing is poor. I have more pics to assemble.

I got my CPR certificate yesterday. Tomorrow I'll get stuck with more needles, hopefully finishing off my vaccination routine. The Nursing Assistant Certified course will start the 9th of October. More small steps.

Writing of "small steps," I'm going to try out my leg this afternoon. I am hopeful after last week's climb that I'm ready to start running again. Wish me luck. I need luck with the steelhead too. I might have had some bites yesterday, it's hard to tell. One of the CPR instructors was telling me about his steelhead experiences. He echoed the sentiments of others, that the first steelhead fight will be memorable. Without exception, this is what I've been hearing. 'hope so.

Y'all have a splendid day.

I headed up to the river this morning, but didn't get a bite. I saw two other people land some steelhead though. I must be doing something wrong. After that I went to the ESR picnic at Pine Lake in Sammamish. It was nice to see my them all again, if for no other reason than to show them that I'm not dead. I had to explain a number of times about my injury (I don't know much about it) and my current regimen of beer drinking, donut eating, work and some fishing. I've really made a break with the group, which I'd like to re-establish. What I've found is that I'm not the only one. The cohesiveness of the group ebbs and flows, much like the river.

Tomorrow Bob and I will be climbing Mount Rainier. This is our annual hike to Camp Muir. I don't have to run the day before this time (see "current regimen" above) in order to give myself a handicap. I'm not even packed yet. This should be fun.

I didn't make it out to the river as I had hoped. There is still the after-effects of whatever I had. I also had to make an appointment for a CPR course and some vaccinations/tests and then run back with my college transcript. I finally went to the grocery store, made food for the week and did my laundry. Somewhere in there I pulled Lee away from her Sammamish abode for lunch. It is eight now. Oh yeah, I also went into Seattle and picked up some weighted floats. I just have to darken the bottoms. Maybe I'll go back to one of the rivers tomorrow after work.

Here is another shot of Mount St. Helens, as taken by my sister. We would have had to have paid a fee if we had wanted to get any further. They were happy with what they were seeing. It is really quite a sight.

Jeannie and her two friends left yesterday after their brief visit to Seattle. They are members of the Red Hat Society. They went on an Alaska cruise and then stayed a little longer to visit me. Picture a ship of red hatted women whooping it up. The first day I immediately drove them out to Snoqualmie Pass in order that they get an idea of the local area. On the way back I showed them Snoqualmie Falls, Issaquah, Lake Sammamish, Redmond and then my place in Bellevue. Saturday we drove out to Mount St. Helens to look at the steaming volcano. The weather was perfect (as opposed to how I was feeling), except for the slight haziness in the picture below:



After a school related meeting this morning and then some domestic laundry duties, I'll head back out to the river for some steelhead fishing. This is the hole I'm working on in Index. No bites yet. Y'all have a great week.

After some fishing in Sultan with Eric this morning, I drove down the road to the Wallace River Hatchery. Here are a load of Salmon; Kings I think. Correct me if I'm wrong. I ordered my steelhead pole, reel and line this morning. I figured that all that money spent (uh, credit card) on the car's transmission, without anything other than my freedom of movement to show for it, I would order something for my renewed hobby. Eric landed some small salmon and took one home. I didn't get anything. I think that river will be closed now for a month. My next task will be to get this place cleaned up for the arrivals of Jeannie and Jesse. They won't be staying here but they give me a good incentive straighten this place out. Two relatives in the same week - from all the way across the country. Who'll be next?

I went back to the Wooden Boats Festival a few weeks back. I like the position of these two ships together. I have more pictures of fishing and the festival (different days). Here is a quick update: I have a cold, the transmission in the car is being rebuilt, work is taking all the energy out of me, I'm still not running and it seems that I'm not getting anywhere either. I have new seed beads though. I wish I had more time for that. Lee got the first string. Happy birthday. Y'all have a great rest of the week. Time for bed.

Happy Independence Day. Go here and listen to this reading. Listen to the grievances and think about our present predicament. Remember what Ben Franklin said, "They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." Don't let tyranny pull up a chair and make itself at home. Throw the bums out.

...and about that "liberal agenda."

We had a crappy, crappy craptastic meeting this morning at work. The knob has gone over to the dark side. He sort of confronted the owner on Friday about the lack of means to get all the jobs done. We don't have enough equipment for all of the crews and he said that as it goes now, he can't do the job. He pretty much resigned too, again. He did this last year at this time also. All these jobs are under-bid too. That is where much of these problems start I think. Well, the owner took this for a very short time before he brought him into the office for a lesson on Monday. So then today, Tuesday, we have the worst meeting I have ever been in. it was totally shitty. It was a my-way or the high-way sort of confrontation with a pretense of dialogue for pc consumption. What happened is that the owner doesn't like to lose so he threw it back at him, like two monkeys throwing poo at each other. What lovely shit! Which describes the writing on the wall. A**holes. G'night.

I took a ride up to the North Cascades yesterday. This picture is from Darrington on Rte. 530. From the map this must be Whitehorse Mtn. It was a long trip, so by the time I got this far my hands were getting cold. I didn't get back in time to have one of Dad's cigars for Father's day.


He's been gone for seven years now. I was in Florida pretty much wasting my time. Some day I'll fugure out the significance of my time there. I learned how to cook, among other skills. I just might have over-extended my stay. I was supposed to be out here in Washington a few years earlier. This may sound like nonsense, but I was to meet an asian woman and have a kid. That didn't happen. That was a probable self. The girl would be about seven or eight now. I dreamt of her once. Beautiful.

If I had gone out west at that time then I might not have gone home to take care of Mom. Wow, Mom followed two years later. Was that five years ago now? I gotta get going myself. Landscaping aint cutting it (um, no pun intended).

I don't expect Dad's cigars to be any good by now, and not that they were in the first place. Dad preferred cheap ones. He doesn't have a cigar or pipe, but here he is with Mom, Jonathan and the three girls, before Chris and I were thought of. Thanks for the picture Scott.



A little slice of time.

Now would you look at my nice work there.

This may not sound like news, but for me getting this done, for some reason, is a sort of breakthrough. I repaired my chaps today. The snaps on the left leg were all broken. For the longest time I had to use duct tape to keep the leather from flapping around and then unzipping as I rode. This was driving me crazy. I was good as long as the duct tape held. I replaced the snaps on the left leg and used some rivets to secure the zippers on both sides. I see a metaphor in here but I don't really want to address it. The chaps are whole again. I went to a craft store in Issaquah and found most of the supplies I needed, and then a few thumps with a hammer and I was back in business. Woo hoo. I'll take my victories where I can get 'em.

Here is my apartment as black and white. It sort of reminds me of the early fifties, when the promotional pictures for books and such looked like this. My apartment complex is undergoing a major face lift. They are changing the name and also doing some serious work on the buildings and landscape. That is why my plants and deck stuff are inside.



Here is my apartment as blue:




It really turned the outside red. Pretty cool I think.




Here is a picture of the bike in front of the Wenatchee River just outside of Leavenworth. The rest of the ride was sort of wet so I didn't get many more pictures than this. I got onto 522 and kept going on 2 after I couldn't find the road I was looking for. I figured I was on the bike for about six hours. I went through three mountain passes and realized that I never want to live in Cle Elum; visiting there is just fine. I had a probable me bleed-through during the trip. It was very odd. I liked what my probable self was doing.


A few days ago I took my bicycle down off this hill and across the I90 bridge over to Seattle proper. The tunnel opens to the Philosophical Promenade. Nietzsche is quoted there:



It is kind odd to see Nietzsche and Plato over there. I was disappointed to not find Socrates. He was top shelf. Here is to an examined life. Cheers.

Aum Peace Peace Peace

leavenworth 5-31-06

I took a detour on the way home from work yesterday and I found myself here, along the Wenatchee River just outside of downtown Leavenworth. I got home a little after 9:30. Tired.

Too many.

Here is an example of high art. I know the director's father. Hi Carl! Click away.

Hunter over at Daily Kos says,

"The only error, Nixonites and their broad base of supporters determined, was getting caught. And so the difference between then and now is that this administration is even more secretive, using the War on Terror to claim preemptive legitimacy and secrecy over every action, no matter how absurd the supposed justification seems. They intend to circumvent the mistakes of the past. They don't intend to give any institution -- the Congress, the FISA court, the press -- the slightest hint of sunlight through which the new but familiar, ever-expanding 'programs' can be illuminated."

Read the rest.

I took the bike out for a ride yesterday and headed out towards Mt Rainier. I found out that 410, as it heads into the park, is closed, so I went up to the Crystal Mountain Ski Resort. This is what you see as you turn around to head back down the road. There is still some snow up there.

Today I returned to the Squak Nursery to get some plants for my deck. It proved to be a little expensive but I think will be rewarding once they take off and grow. The bugs should be happy too because I got some of their favorites, petunias and impatiens. I also picked up some plants for my empty bonzai planter. The miniature juniper is the right size now. I don't admit to knowing what to do with it if it survives. We have had beautiful weather here in the Seattle area. New England has been pretty wet. Even my brother up in New Hampshire is affected. Western Massachusetts seems to have been spared the worst of it.

I tried out my leg today and I think I can inch my way back into running, fingers crossed. I don't know what I'll be able to do next weekend though. I may pace some friends for their run.

I just clicked over to The Seattle Times and found this picture on their webcam. Pretty cool. Here is the link if you want to see what it looks like in your time-frame. You can go to this page and click on the picture. The javascript will pop it up for you.







I have to write this way down here so that it won't crowd the picture below.

Maybe this is where the motorcycle thing started. I remember wanting one for graduation. My mother laughed. I didn't really think about motorcycles after that until about 2000. Before that I identified more with bicycles even more than cars. If I could get by without a car right now I'd do it. This is a picture of me in front of my brother and his BSA. I'm told that my other brother and I used to run around saying, "BSA, BSA, BSA!" when Jonathan would show up with his motorcycle. If this picture was indeed taken in '66 or so then this was before he left for the service. Do I look 3 years old there? I don't remember much of the bike other than that. It was sacrificed to pay my parents' bills while he was in VietNam. One other thing I remember is my father thinking he could give me a ride on it or another, and of both of us falling. Any family members out there who remember better can correct me on this. I think I'm on my way to the city on my motorcyle right now in search of a book. Ciao.