Goodbye 2008

I think I speak for all members of the Typhoon that we'll not miss 2008 much. Oh, sure, there was a LOT of good in the year. I could count our blessings all day. We ARE ready, though, to set a better course and move on.

Tonight we have a houseful of lovely people. Our god-children are here, as are their parents, L and H. We also have the Johnstons here. As I write this, a rousing game of Partini is underway in the living room. The two eight year old girls are upstairs playing as girls do. The two eleven year old boys are playing a Nintendo game here in the master bedroom while I hang out with them.

I'd rather be in the living room, but I'm struggling with a little physical challenge that's going to require a visit to the doctor after the holiday. It's not a big deal. But if my hunch is right, a hernia I've lived with for a number of years has just become acutely uncomfortable and a bit painful. Coincident with the increase in discomfort has come a sudden decrease in my overall energy level.

A hernia really is not that big a deal, but it is a drain. If bad enough, a little outpatient surgery fixes it right up. It just takes requires stopping and attending to the issue. Like a lot of things in the Johnson Family. Time and attention, one at a time, understanding that for every two we resolve, one new one will come on to the end of the queue. Resolve a house issue, resolve an insurance claim; add a hernia issue to the list; resolve the 2008 taxes; get all our healthcare checkups done by the end of the year; add potential orthodontia to the list of things to prepare for. See what I mean?

2009 will start with further cleanup. It is our supreme wish that we can keep the list ever-shortening throughout 2009. We want things to be much, much less stressful in 2009.

Transporters

I decided to have a little fun over the snow-in. A little self-indulgence, I guess. Over on the right side of the blog is a series of photos, titled 'Transporters.' I'm attempting to create a gallery of photos of every automobile I've ever owned. I've tried to find examples that match as closely as possible to the one I drove*. So far, though, that isn't entirely possible. The 1972 Ford Galaxy I drove was seafoam green, not the lemon yellow I have posted in the gallery. Most of them are pretty close, though.

If you click on the gallery, I did include comments and captions with each car. I also attempted to place them in chronological order.

I'll be working on this little documentary as time allows. It might change a bit as time goes on. I also expect that the gallery will slowly filter itself, like sediment, to the bottom of the blog, as do the bits of ferrous metal that comprise some of the cars are already disposed. Still, its fun to be had!

 

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* I don't seem to have any surviving photos of any of the vehicles I owned prior to 2005. Not sure what that says about me, but there it is. If any of my long-term friends/readers just happen to have a photo of one of my old cars, I'd appreciate a copy...but don't knock yourself out looking for it.

Intriguing Weaponry - Thanks MAKE and Instructables!

Build A Net Gun - More DIY How To Projects

The Dash, The Barre and The Mushroom

We spent five days at the beach, starting the 23rd and ending with our return today. Our original plan was to drive to the beach in the late afternoon on the 24th, but the snowstorms lined up such that we had to make the trip when the weather allowed.

All the highways to the Oregon Coast were closed on the 21st and 22nd. They opened for the 23rd, but with the threat that they'd close again on the 24th.

So we darted for the beach at around 7pm. The thinking was that we'd let the roads get as passable as possible, then scamper over before the roads could get icy again. The tactic worked. We had to use chains almost 70 miles, but we got through uneventfully.

Before we left, though, we had to make a quick trip to WL May Appliance Parts to get a part for the fridge in our garage. Turns out that some refrigerators get all 'backwards' in their operation when the room ambient is actually colder than the inside target temp. Our fridge is one of those; it stayed in the defrost cycle once the temperatures go below freezing, resulting in defrosted food during a blizzard. Imagine! It's easily fixed, however, with a 'garage kit.' The garage kit is just a resistance heater that wraps around the defrost timer. With that little bit of heat, the fridge snaps back to proper operation again.

The highways weren't closed on the 24th afterall, but they had accidents and traffic delays throughout the day. Others who drove to the beach on Christmas Eve reported that it was a long, miserable trip.

So the Typhoon got to the beach for Christmas. Aunt P, however, was completely snowed in. She was without power, too. Those conditions left her farm animals too exposed for her to make the trip to the beach for Christmas. So it was five days with the six of us all getting along nicely in a small beach house in the December rain.

Back in Portland, things warmed up and snow started melting. By the time we got home this afternoon, our two foot accumulation was already gone. Since I'd shoveled the sidewalk before we left, ours was already clear when we returned. No puddles or flooding in the back yard; no leak in the basement; no roof failures; no frozen pipes; no backed-up sewer lines; no broken refrigerator... nothing. Just a well-running house, warm and dry.

Grandma and Grandpa put on a fine show. The tree was lovely. The food was great. We played LOTS of games. Board games. Wii games. Cribbage. We read a lot of books, too. Interestingly, there were lots of board games and books under that tree on Christmas morning!

Santa brought M a ballet barre. He brought R a pommelhorse mushroom, too. Great tools for them to work with.

DePoe Bay, 1965

How's this for a blast from the past? A September day in 1965. A two-and-a-half year old ME. I have a memory of this day, though it's a fleeting one.

 

 

Here's a photo of the same bluff forty years later...

 

That's my Christmas Eve post for this year.  Reporting from, well... reporting from the beach!

Please Say Some Prayers

C's oncologist has called her in for the dreaded 'further tests.' Seems there's some funny-looking stuff on the ultrasound around her original cancer site. Its in amongst the suture scars, where its hard to distinguish. So, C does a short-notice MRI tomorrow. C's Oncologist doesn't mess around with stuff like this.

Statistically speaking, this will be a non-event. But then again, the 'further tests' in 2005 should have been non-events, statistically speaking, too. They weren't, of course. They were defy-the-odds life-changers, those.

We don't want any more of those life-changers. We've had enough of those. Come to think of it, we've had more than our share of could-have-been-a-life-changer moments lately.  The two car-totaling, not-my-fault, non-injury accidents I had in 2008 come immediately to mind.

While we're all at it, saying prayers for C, let's say some prayers for S, too.

S isn't a direct member of our family, but she is one of C's cancer sisters. In S's case, its a brain tumor that seems to have come back. S is something like 22 years old. It's just not fair. Let's say some prayers for S and C together, that they may benefit from healing and protecting energies.

Peacock Lane Rarities

Here's a stitched-together panorama from our dining room window. Let's put this into context:

In this picture, it's 8PM the Saturday night before Christmas. Peacock Lane is directly in front, in the center of the frame, behind the tree. On the Saturday before Christmas, Peacock Lane should look like a shopping mall on Black Friday. There should be carolers. There should be crowds.

Except...

When it's 18 degrees, with sustained winds of 20+mph. That's what you're looking at, here.

It's beautiful. You just don't get much of a chance to see Peacock Lane like this unless you just happen to live staked out at the top of the street like we do. Not that I'm bragging. Just sayin'.

Today, two days later, the snow has accumulated so as to fill the streets up to the curb. I worked today from the dining room table. The VPN to work is running much better than in the past. I was able to do almost everything I would normally do from the office, but from home. In the picture here, you can see people walking down the center of what should be Peacock Lane itself...if it weren't buried in the snow.

This morning I did some work on the Odyssey. Installed the chains, tested the battery and charged it when I couldn't get the engine to turn over. Once it did start, I idled it for a good half hour to defrost the windows. Not because we needed to go anywhere, but just so -- if we did need to drive today, we could. Just being prepared.

Other people today were prepared for work as well, Until almost dusk today, the most common form of transport on Stark Street was cross country skis. The most common mode of travel this morning, for people who were obviously commuting to downtown, were their skis. Really. Here's one of the half-dozen sets of ski tracks they were creating in the process. This set of tracks ran over the sidewalk in front of our house.

Our plan has been to travel "over the hill and through the woods" to grandmother's house on Christmas eve. At this moment, all those highways are closed. We could, in theory, drive along the Columbia River to Astoria, then down Hwy 101 to get there. That's a 200-mile, four-hour drive...but it gets us there

Better than using the cross country skis to get to Grandma's!

Blizzard Adventures!

There's no denying it - it's cold in Portland. Right at this moment, early on a Sunday morning, it's 21 degrees F. Last night, it was 17 degrees with sustained 20+ mph winds. We've go a good six to eight inches of show across the Laurelhurst neighborhood, with drifts as much as two feet high. I haven't seen powder snow like this since Montana or Utah. The Willamette valley just does NOT get powder like this. And if we do, it doesn't stay around long, that's for sure.

A long, protracted week of sub-freezing has taught us quite a bit about how weather tight the Cottage is. An 85 year old home has the potential to be pretty drafty if it still hasn't been retrofitted with insulation. The news is pretty good about this house. Overall, the windows and doors are pretty draft-free. I notice that the cupboards along the exterior wall of the kitchen and dining room are noticeably colder inside than the ambient of the house. These cupboards are on the eastern wall, where the exposure to the wind is higher. It's not a cold spot, just noticeable that the air cools down inside. The furnace doesn't run overly hard to keep the house warm - it seems to be turned off more than 50% of the time, even while keeping the house 60 degrees warmer than the outside temp. Upstairs has some 'cooler' spots. A little electric space heater usage, though, and everything seems to be fine. The biggest change to normal living is that we close the door from the kitchen to the basement when it's this cold. The basement stays warm within reason, but right now the temperature differential is enough to create a convection draft when the door is open. If that's our big compromise for all this snow, that's not bad at all.

Last night was just a little different, though. With the wind blowing at 20mph sustained, from the east, and ambient temps already in the teens, windchill was extreme. The wind absolutely howled across the rooftops. People trying to walk Peacock Lane bent into the wind like walking uphill. No one stayed long.

I worried for a while last night that the Chestnut tree in our front yard might lose a limb or two overnight. I reassured myself that the tree has withstood similar storms for many years. Still, those aged branches - full of now frozen rain seepage - could snap under these conditions. A tree that mature is allowed to have a couple weak points in its branches. In the morning light, however, I see we've lost none and my worry was - however justified - not required this time.

Through a couple circumstances, I ended up falling asleep on the couch in the upstairs family room last night. The rest of the family was having a 'nightowl' session in the downstairs bedroom, making use of the TV. Needing some time away, I curled up with Michener's Hawaii, and read for a while. The wind was definitely sucking heat through the window panes, but really nothing different than we experienced even in the 21st century construction of the Lesser Way house. I did wake up early this morning, however, because of the cold. But then, I was sleeping on the couch with just one throw blanket over me, six hours after the thermostat had switched to nighttime temperatures. It would be unfair to think my morning chill was any different today than on any winter day.

Nevertheless, here I am, sitting in the home office at 7am on Sunday morning, blogging. Not sleeping. Setting up the Vista environment on C's PC now that she uses the computer much more regularly as a communications device. Watching the perceived source of light shift from the snow (as it always seems that the night is lit from below by the snow) to the grey, hazy morning sky. Thinking.

I've a night photo of Peacock Lane that I took last night. It's a stitched panorama showing the full view from our dining room. I'll post it later.

Knocking Off the Ninjas

Remember back in September when my S-Class was rear-ended and declared a total loss? Would it surprise you to learn that I still haven't been paid for the damages?

Looks like that's about to change. I've got final paperwork and a settlement value I can live with. I'm not coming out ahead; not really coming out even either. But it'll do.

A couple months ago, someone asked me how I was doing. "I'm fighting too many ninjas" I found myself saying."I can fight quite a few ninjas at one time, but right now, there are more than I can keep up with." The car insurance settlement was one of the more persistent ninjas from that time. It's good to have that one handled. On to some other ninjas, yeah?

I don't particularly care for the ninjas and am glad to be rid of them. I've really been more of a pirate kinda' guy anyway...

Thinking of Grandma

I'm wearing my ski sweater that my Grandmother made for me before she died. I think I've had this sweater since the late '80s. She made this sweater for me when I started skiing.  It's wool, and grey with a pattern of snow flakes and shapes that make it look like snow's piling up on the window panes. It has a monsterous and functional turtleneck. Grandma made this sweater to be my primary under-coat layer, so she designed the turtleneck so it can be pulled up to act as a face gaiter in pinch. I know, I've had to use it that way before.

On cold days like today, it's nice to wear it, feel warm and think of her...a chance to honor her.

The Normally Dynamic Typhoons Morph into Hibernating Bears

I got to work today. Roads are clear, but the snow/sleet is still forecast to arrive this afternoon. Drove the Jag (chains safely stowed in the trunk) and found that the cat handles nicely indeed on slippery surfaces. I just drive smooth, and steady on the pedals, then let the traction control computer handle the rest of the stuff. So for, it's working just fine, thanks.

My family is hibernating. Last night C and the kids made it to SW Portland for R's gymnastics workout. It was slow going. So, when they got back home at about 7PM, I had the dinner mostly ready to eat (C had put it in the oven to cook while she was gone). M, however, had fallen asleep in the car. I carried her in, and put her on our bed downstairs. I didn't even take her coat off her, just gently placed her there. She's eight; normally she wakes up from this sort of nap after a half-hour or so.

Not last night, she didn't. She claimed C's half of the bed until morning.

The awake members of the family ate together. C shared that she had a big headache and preferred to go straight to bed after eating.

That sounded like a good idea. So that's what she did.

With M already sleeping on the downstairs bed, C claimed my side of the bed.

R took seriously his new job* as official family dishwasher technician and loaded the dishes into the dishwasher with my assistance. We checked the news and discovered that Portland Public Schools had already announced a school closure for the next morning. With that news, he headed off to bed too. He read a while and had his light out well before 9:30.

So, everyone but me was in bed or sleeping by 8:30. And why not? They're tired, it's cold outside, and the bed is toasty warm.

I stayed up until about 11. First I did some computer work, then I crawled into a bed myself to read a bit of a book I've just started. I opted to just sleep in M's bed upstairs instead of disturbing the ladies downstairs. It was fine.

I got up this morning, and disturbed no one. C was up at about the same time. We let the kids sleep. C went back to bed after seeing me off. M and R were both still sleeping. At 10:30 this morning, R was still sleeping. For him, that's a good 13+ hours. M - having gotten started earlier - slept more like 14 or 15 hours.

The family needs this quiet time. Thanks to the weather for giving them the opportunity to have it now.

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* R has been a vocal critic of the 'cleanliness' of our dishes coming out of the dishwasher. Sometimes rightly so, but nevertheless he's been relentless. Our response was to suggest he take over being the family's dishwasher technician. That way, he can have complete ownership of the situation. His response? "Yeah!" He was glad to be put in charge!

The Global Petroleum Economy and Oregon

Note:  I blogged this to another site yesterday. But it bears reposting to the family site as well. Just as a data point, I bought gas today at $1.58.

 

 

This chart is sourced from GasBuddy.com. I used their tools to plot the Portland area average gas price against the US national average. We're all pretty acutely aware of the rapid run-up, followed by the plunge in gas prices. What's on this chart really just confirms what we all know already, right? As the head of a household, I look at the 2008 chart and I breathe a sigh of relief. I felt the pain in June when it cost $100/tank and my family spent almost $800/month just on gasoline. I shake my head a little and chuckle when I realize that our family road trip to southern California coincided with gasoline's all-time high (figures...) I feel better knowing that our gasoline, food, and part of our utilities now fit inside July's gasoline bill. That's how this graph affects me.

But the gas data takes on some new meaning, when charted on a six-year scale. From this vantage point, you can start to see how gas prices affect us all. It becomes a larger issue than my own pocketbook. Here's what I mean:

Imagine if this graph represented your paycheck. I don't care whether you were overpaid or not, if your family income went through this sort of change, it would be destabilizing to say the least.

Now, what if this were the income stream for a company? Or the income stream for a country? For Russia, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, et. al, this in fact, is their country's main revenue stream. Viewed from a long-term perspective, the plunge in the price of oil is probably going to do us more harm than good as a global economy. So, what's good for my family checkbook right now may be worse for lots of families globally (again, mine included) over the longer term.

Oregon's state plan, as led by Governor Kulongoski, to increase Oregon's sustainable energy programs is intended to reduce the impact of oil in our local economy by reducing our need for oil to run our region's economic machine. With our oil dependence reduced, whipsaw changes in petrochemical markets don't transfer so easily into our economy. In the short term, we may pay a premium (in the form of reduced tax revenues) in order to encurage the building of the infrastructure. That investment comes in the form of Business Energy Tax Credits (BETC's) in which the state trades short term monies for long-term stability in the economic machine.

It starts to make sense, doesn't it, when you see it all from the right vantage point?

The Simulation was Pretty Close

About a week ago, I posted the text from a Weather Service bulletin that predicted snow the following weekend. Well, that weekend has just passed, and the Weather Service got the basics of the warning exactly right, didn't they? Take this shot from a friend in Lake Oswego:

Last night was the 'preview night' for Peacock Lane. The plan was to close the street to traffic and create a special pedestrian mall. It was a great idea, and seemed to play out well. The snow on the street made it even MORE poignant to look at. But M-I-S-E-R-A-B-L-E to experience directly. I didn't see more than a couple dozen people on the entire street at any one time. For what should have been a crowded place with a constant flow of a couple hundred visitors every half hour of so, the cold took the attendance way down.

C and the kids took the dog for a walk to enjoy the closed street. They didn't go all the way to the end. It was too bitingly cold. Instead, we sat in the dining room, played Carcassone, and watched the lights from our warm and cozy dining table. R did a nice Boy Scout thing and took cocoa to the Lane staffers manning the barricades across the street from our house. That was a gesture that went over well.

What are YOUR plans for the holidays?

Previously in this blog...

One Year Ago, Typhoon Johnson noted the following news:

• 1992 Mercedes 300E clears 200,000 miles.
• M performs her second Nutcracker with Mother Ginger
• Cottage rehab work in process includes M's closet, R's closet, finish details to main bathroom, and baseboard trim throughout.

Two Years Ago:

• Yosemite for Christmas
• N now working at Sunstone
  

Three Years Ago:

• C finished chemo and radiation.
• N working at Clarity Visual Systems
  

Is Winter White Coming?

We have a company holiday party on Friday night. It could be quite 'holiday' indeed. Here's what the local weather service is saying today about our upcoming weekend weather:

...TURNING EXTREMELY COLD WITH VERY LOW SNOW LEVELS THIS WEEKEND OVER SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON AND NORTHWEST OREGON...



THE COLDEST AIR OF THE WINTER SEASON WILL BE SETTLING IN OVER SOUTHWEST
WASHINGTON AND NORTHWEST OREGON THIS WEEKEND...BRINGING VERY COLD
TEMPERATURES TO THE REGION AND SNOW LEVELS POSSIBLY NEAR THE VALLEY
FLOOR.



THE INITIAL SURGE OF COLD AIR WILL SPREAD INTO SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON AND
NORTHWEST OREGON FRIDAY NIGHT AS A STRONG COLD FRONT MOVES THROUGH.
WHILE AIR AHEAD OF THIS FRONT WILL BE RELATIVELY MILD...VERY COLD AIR
BEHIND THIS FRONT HAS THE POTENTIAL TO DROP SNOW LEVELS QUITE LOW...NOT
UNLIKE A SNOW EVENT THAT OCCURRED IN MID NOVEMBER OF 2003 WHICH DROPPED
SEVERAL INCHES

OF SNOW IN THE PORTLAND METRO AREA. WHILE THIS KIND OF DETAIL IS NOT
CERTAIN AT THIS POINT...THE SNOW LEVEL AT THE BACK EDGE OF THE COLD
FRONT FRIDAY NIGHT COULD TURN OUT TO BE QUITE LOW.

After Friday, Saturday is a Boy Scout service project for R, and gym session mid-day. M has the day off, I believe. That evening is also a party at our friends, the Andersons.

Sunday night, the 14th, is an unofficial sneak-peek night on Peacock Lane. The neighborhood's going to close the street to all vehicular traffic and kick off the display season with a 'pedestrians only' evening. We'll certainly be lit for that event at our house!

Reading Material

This link is for R, an article with one of the key designers at Nintendo. Games and robotics will only continue to expand their overlap. And why not?

Mental Snapshots

One of R:

He's in his Boy Scout uniform, on the indoor basketball court at the church where the meetings are held. Impulsively, he does a front handspring, just missing sticking the landing. I had seen him do the front, but only on a trampoline or tumbletrack, not on a solid floor without any spring to it.


One of M:

She's playing the piano. Two handed. It's a simple piece, but it has chords sprinkled throughout the mostly single-note melody. She has to switch modes and rapidly move her hands to chords. It's hard work, learning that transition. But with each time through the piece, her transition time shortens and the tempo of the piece improves. The energy wrapped around her as she does this exercise? calm and satisfaction. Learning new skills on the piano seems to relax her, not make her tense. Because of this, I love it when she practices; her calmness spreads to me whenever she plays.


I'm overdue to post some video pieces. I'd better fix that.

Writer for Hire

C is working. She's writing freelance for a friend and colleague. It's ideal work for her: technical writing on an as-needed basis, for a woman owned & staffed company that intentionally structures its operations around the scheduling needs that moms have. In other words, work from home and pick your own hours.

This on top of her own cancer book project.

She seems happier. Full-time stay-at-home Mom will not be C's profession for the rest of her life. Now that we have our youngest in second grade, and we're past cancer, and the house remodel, she has mental bandwidth to spend the pursuit of a skilled craft that contributes to the family income. Her rhythm this week has been to write in the evenings. It makes for a lovely vignette, really.

See, I come home late enough that its already dark in the winter. I pull the car into the garage on the alley, and approach the house from from the back yard. From that angle, the double-wide window in C's office frames her beautifully as she sits at her desk, writing. It looks peaceful. It looks homey. It looks...safe and happy. Each evening, I find myself stopped on the steps down to the patio, looking at her while she works. Last night, I gently tapped on her window and waved to her from outside.

There are times - over and over again, really - when we experience asking God in our prayers to PLEASE help, provide, open a door, something. It's surprising how often, when it really counts, God does exactly that. Answer our prayers, I mean. C had been asking God for something to do that paid. Two days later, she had it. Imagine.

Maybe we'll need the money. Maybe we won't. Doesn't matter. I can't speak for what happens inside C's head, but on the outside she does seem happier being Mom when she also knows she has monetary value.

I'm thinking that an increased feeling of self worth can only be good for any of us Johnsons.

How Was YOUR Thanksgiving?

Ours was good.

We had the Thanksgiving holiday at my sister's house. Her boyfriend's family (two brothers & their SO's), along with Mom & Dad and the Typhoon. My sis lives in the hills outside the metro area. It was misty and foggy up there, but that helped set the tone of the holiday.

Sis raised quite a bird for the event: a home-grown, range fed 50-pounder! The cooks opted to cut the bird in half and *only* serve up 25 pounds of roasted bird.  And it was GOOD!

R and M were the only children present. They spent most of the afternoon playing in the pole barn with my sister's barn cat (really, just a very socialized kitten) and rough-housing with the four dogs. But then there were the horses.

See, my sister built her horse paddock in such a way that three sides of her house are contained within the paddock.  That's not such a big deal,except that the horses and my sister have developed a trait in which the horses feel safe sticking their head inside one of the windows, looking for a treat. Sort of a horse-based fast food drive-up. The kids really got a kick out of that!

Football was on, naturally. That took up the attention for the three brothers, and Grandpa. I watched some, but took the opportunity to take a nap as well. M brought her Whoonuu game, which got a lot of play with the ladies.

The kids got to play some Nintendo Wii for the first time in almost four months (ours has been put away until just this weekend - parents had to make a statement) after all the football games were done. So, we didn't leave on the 30 mile drive home until almost 11pm.

It was fun, though. It was a good time. Thanks for hosting a nice, jovial, harmonious event, Sis. We sure appreciated it.

The Ruhi Signature

We've been hosting a Ruhi course at our house. It's a Baha'i thing. Ruhi is an institute that puts together mateIrials intended to provide a consistent and measurable set of spiritual deepening for Bahai's worldwide. Think 'prepared Bible study' and you've got the right idea...except we're not studying the Bible. We're studying Bahai Writings.

This has been a major touchstone for me recently. I thank God that the Ruhi class comes to us. If I had to travel to get there, I probably wouldn't go -- too distracted. Instead, it comes to us: adult classes; children's classes and guitar players, piano players, violin/cello players. and a roomful of people unafraid to sing.

Every Friday evening, our house fills with people, love, joy, music, laughter, and spiritual work.

I'm glad for this because we're putting our spiritual signature on the house we restored. We built it with our hands; with the Ruhi courses, we're signing it with our hearts.

May the energy of these evenings  become part of the vibrations withn this house. I want that to happen. I want that very much.

Thanks, Maggie. I needed this right about now

Devon Gundry - Armed

Devon's a Baha'i. This song is a Baha'i prayer set to music. The actors are all Baha'is, and not professional acting talent. For those of us in the Baha'i community, we can spot Red Grammer as the man in the suit who helps the mugging victim. Don't know who Red Grammer is? Look him up here.

I Must Not Fear...

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear... And when it is gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear is gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”

Thank you, Frank Herbert.

Scientists say Copernicus remains, grave found

 

Researchers said Thursday they have identified the remains of Nicolaus Copernicus by comparing DNA from a skeleton and hair retrieved from one of the 16th-century astronomer's books. The findings could put an end to centuries of speculation about the exact resting spot of Copernicus, a priest and astronomer whose theories identified the Sun, not the Earth, as the center of the universe.

Scientists say Copernicus remains, grave found

Yes, Comes The Thaw Indeed

This year, R's 'struggle subject' has been Spanish. He has a 'struggle subject' every year. Last year it was writing. The year before that, math. He struggles, he breaks through, and he blooms afterward.

We've been hunkering down for a long, seige-like approach to Spanish. Each time we've had a 'Struggle Subject' in the past, it's taken most of the school year to fix it.

So, imagine my surprise to hear last night that R had his breakthrough yesterday in Spanish. He not only participated in the 'championship' competitions, but he won. Twice. And he served up the first defeat ever to the reigning undefeated kid! R came home full of pride and motivation for the study of Spanish. In three weeks he transformed himself from and 'F' grade to a contender for the head of the class.

THEN we went to Boy Scouts.

A large group of Webelos visited Troop 22 last night. When it came time to line up for the flag ceremony, R, a first year, was surprised to find that the senior troop leadership picked him to act as Patrol Leader for most of the Webelos. He stood there, at the front of the line of scouts, with a look on his face that said 'how did I get here?' And he dutifully paid attention to the proceedings - not his habit when he hides in the crowd. In the crowd, he loses focus and daydreams.

After the flag ceremony, the troop announced the wreath sales contest winners and awarded prizes to the top scouts. R was not expecting to win a prize. But he did, nonetheless. $15 at the Scout Store. Another reward for his hard work and effort. A successful outcome for his first foray into the neighborhood, on his own, to deliver on a fundraiser. That made a good first impression for the Webelos: they were lined up behind a young man who also was a real leader.

We celebrated Spanish and Wreaths after the meeting by going out for ice cream!

If my kid sloshes water out of his shoes as he walks through the house. If he leaves a damp spot on the sofa when he gets up... I won't mind. It's just the melting away of his reticence. The real R is steadily emerging.

Comes the Thaw

R had a Boy Scout campout this last weekend. The troop went to Camp Meriwether, on the Oregon coast. I went along. He had some good decompression time with his 'boys'. He's starting to get the hang of it within the troop. He's not yet contributing as his full potential, but he's starting to be proactive about some duties, and also starting to show his true colors within the troop.

He often hides his skills. They're there, though. Like something valuable, frozen deep inside a block of ice, we all can catch obscure glimpses of those skills, but cannot reach them. People don't know how to utilize him because they can't get a good handle on what we can or will do. Boy Scouts, however, is starting to melt that facade away, starting to call him out as a doer and a leader. He won't fully thaw for some time, but the shell is getting thinner with each campout, each merit badge.

Scooby Doo: Haunted House Hallway Chases

 

I was checking in with an old friend this morning, when an image popped into my head:

 

Over the last few months, we've been unable to button up the real estate situation. Doors have been closing, closing, closing. Just closing.

Our response has been to keep seeking open doors, and to pray for a speedy, safe resolution to the situation. Of course, some days all I could pray for was to 'just make it stop' and leave it up to God to know what I meant by 'It'

Suddenly, stuff starts happening. Doors start opening in unexpected places. We all know the karmic pattern: a door has to close for another to open. Doors are just flying - I really can't keep up with the massive swirl of opportunities coming and going at home and at work. Life looks like one of those Scooby Doo chase scenes in the hallway of a haunted house, where we get to watch everyone run from room to room, doors opening and closing in a flurry. Which door opens next? what/who will come out of it?

The process of having opportunities come out of nowhere is unsettling. It just adds even MORE chaos to a chaotic time.  But I can now ground myself a little more in what's happening. Silly as it is, the Scooby Doo imagery is rather comforting. The chase always ends; the bad guy always gets caught.

This, too, will end well. I can feel that way about it now. But it will end....how? That's what I don't know. God will show us.

Doors are going every which way!

Release. Release. Just Let Go.

There's a voice in my head lately. It goes like this:

"Release it. Release it. Go ahead, release it. ReLEASE it. It's okay. Release....it.
Release it. releaseit releaseit releaseit.   Oh c'mon, release it! releaseitreleaseit
releaseitreleaseitreleaseitreleaseitreleaseitreleaseitreleaseitreleaseitreleaseit
releaseitreleaseitreleaseitreleaseitreleaseitreleaseitreleaseitreleaseitreleaseit!"

Those gentle readers who know why I would write the above can understand that I'm working so hard to do exactly that.

"Release it."

The voice is trying to help. Still, I'm experiencing full-fledged anxiety.

You see, I am dealing with a full-fledged heartbreak, and doing so for the first time without the shroud of low-grade depression to deaden the feelings of uncertainty and fear. Low-grade depression may have led to much of my personal inward struggle as a young man, but it was also my protector, my armor. It deadened the joy, but it also killed the pain.

Odd as it may seem, I wish to celebrate this as good news, worthy of the family blog.

I suspect that I am feeling difficult times through all of my emotional faculties. I am feeling fear, anxiety and uncertainty in full flower. It's like being partially deaf, getting a hearing aid and going to a symphony. The change from the deadened familar to the exhuberant whole is unsettling. All that information available requiring mental processing is overwhelming.

It's okay. Let it go."

I had a pretty good handle on my depression during C's Cancer. C's cancer was indeed a fearful time. But it was different. It was an external effect upon the family. It was not heartbreak; it was crisis mitigation. We avoided heartbreak thanks to a victorious outcome. This current situation is directly tied to choices I made, as family leader, which put us inadvertantly in an unstable (notice I didn't say 'dangerous', or 'crisis') position. I tried to help my family recover from the aftermath of cancer. I wanted to make it all better by changing our world. Ultimately, I succeeded in not making it better. I just made it a whole lot of work.

I am in new emotional territory. I am grieving something to the point of violence. For the first time in my life, I can truly relate to the crying, screaming, tear-your-hair-out grief.

"Release it. You need to exercise Detachment."

I am glad, I think, to be having this lesson in heartbreak with an inanimate object - a house - instead of learning this with a loved one (Aki, our aging and geriatric dog, comes immediately to mind). I put so much into that house. I demanded so much sacrafice and effort from my family to achieve the goal that we all bought into. And we achieved it. That's the heartbreak. We DID it....and yet it's entirely possible that we should not even try to hold on to it...that letting go so soon is the best thing for my family.

Though it could easily have turned out so much worse, I still feel real physical pain from this situation.

"Release it. Let it go."

Learn to manage it NOW, N, before you have to manage the heartbreak of something really important.

"Um... you're not letting go yet, you know that? Detachment. Detach!"

Yeah. I know. I'm working on it. Speaking of which, mister voice-in-my-head, wouldn't this be a good chance for you to practice your ... patience?

Now Is The Time For A Global Society...

From Reuters. Whoa.
[link]

LONDON (Reuters) - The international financial crisis has given world leaders a unique opportunity to create a truly global society, Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown will say in a keynote foreign policy speech on Monday.

In his annual speech at the Lord Mayor's Banquet, Brown -- who has spearheaded calls for the reform of international financial institutions -- will say Britain, the United States and Europe are key to forging a new world order.

"The alliance between Britain and the U.S. -- and more broadly between Europe and the U.S. -- can and must provide leadership, not in order to make the rules ourselves, but to lead the global effort to build a stronger and more just international order," an excerpt from the speech says.

Brown and other leaders meet in Washington next weekend to discuss longer term solutions for dealing with economic issues following a series of coordinated moves on interest rates and to recapitalize banks in the wake of the financial crisis.

"Uniquely in this global age, it is now in our power to come together so that 2008 is remembered not just for the failure of a financial crash that engulfed the world but for the resilience and optimism with which we faced the storm, endured it and prevailed," Brown will say in his speech on Monday evening.

"...And if we learn from our experience of turning unity of purpose into unity of action, we can together seize this moment of change in our world to create a truly global society."

According to a summary of the speech released by his office, Brown will set out five great challenges the world faces.

These are: terrorism and extremism and the need to reassert faith in democracy; the global economy; climate change; conflict and mechanisms for rebuilding states after conflict; and meeting goals on tackling poverty and disease.

Brown will also identify five stages for tackling the economy, starting with recapitalizing banks so they can resume lending to families and businesses, and better international co-ordination of fiscal and monetary policy.

He also wants immediate action to stop the spread of the financial crisis to middle-income countries, with a new facility for the International Monetary Fund, and agreement on a global trade deal, as well as reform of the global financial system.

"My message is that we must be: internationalist not protectionist; interventionist not neutral; progressive not reactive; and forward looking not frozen by events. We can seize the moment and in doing so build a truly global society."

Blazer Game

Thanks to our friends, the Loverinks, for helping us score four tickets to last night's Blazers-Rockets game. Final score: 101 to 100, Blazers in overtime. Blazers won the game on a buzzer-beater shot on an inbound pass with 0.8 seconds to go.

From this morning's article in The Oregonian:

"It is, and maybe always will be, one of the greatest shots in Trail Blazers history.

"And it came after Brandon Roy was about to be a goat for at least 48 hours.

"I thought I lost the game," Roy said.

"In a stunning end to a grueling and sometimes ugly game, Roy swished a long three-pointer at the overtime buzzer on an inbound play that started with 0.8 seconds left that gave the Blazers a 101-99 victory over the Houston Rockets on Thursday.

"Wow. Unbelievable shot," Roy said. "I can't say I called it. It was a blessing from above."

"Roy's shot was the ultimate ending to a see-saw final two seconds that saw him make what many thought was a game winning shot with 1.9 seconds left, only to have it erased by a three-point play by 7-foot-6 center Yao Ming with 0.8 seconds left. Yao was awarded the go-ahead free throw after Roy reached in and fouled him while he made a baseline jumper."

The kids had a blast at a delightful game. I got to explain a bit about how basketball works to my lovely daughter; my son already gets the basics of the game, so he was right in it.

The thing they liked best? The blimp that flies around the stadium and drops coupons. Oh, they liked the T-shirt cannons, too.

It was Kevin Duckworth tribute night, so that was fun, if also a little bittersweet. Blazer alumni were there. Chris Dudley worked one of the T-shirt cannons. Somewhere in the fourth quarter, while the fancam was running on the arena jumbotron, the whole family suddenly popped up. The camera framed the four of us: M and I grooving to the music; R bopping around, all involved; C sitting stately and contemplative, yet clearly watching the game closely. The kids were thrilled. Everybody around us was excited for the kids.

We were up really late last night. The kids will probably be useless at school today. But they got to go, and they had a lot of fun.

Thanks again for the chance to go, Loverinks -- it was awesome!

---

Oh, our second house is being shown today. Just a little thing, that...

Photos from PCB Design West back in September

 

I just got a couple candid shots of me, during my presentation at the PCB Design West conference back in September.

 

Thought it'd be fun to share them here.

Wow

Just... wow.

Will Barak Obama be the man to lead us out of this? I don't know. God could put the most qualified person in charge of the US and they could still fail to lead us out of this. This is tricky. As for me, I am willing to let Obama try.

 

Would John McCain have been better? I don't know.  I would have been willing to let him try, too.  I do not know exactly who is the most qualified to lead us through this. I was willing to support whomever we chose; we chose Obama.

 

But... is it possible that the world just became a different place because the United States believes in Barak Obama? Ah, now that is entirely possible.

 

Bahai's are not supposed to be political (apolitical is not the same as being anti-government.) We will continue to pray for the protection of the leaders of our country. We can support the government and the laws we live under.

 

The Johnson family prays for the Obama family. May they have the utmost safety, protection, and wisdom as they transition to their new roles.

House on the Market

We've got the Lesser Way house back on the market. It's not listed with the MLS quite yet...we're flying a craigslist ad for the property as a FSBO at the moment. I expect that our 'realtor for life' will get us listed within the next couple weeks.

Pumpkin Carving

Ten Things I learned While Carving a 102lb Pumpkin:

1. The walls of such a pumpkin are over six inches thick.
2. There is a surprising lack of seeds and 'goo' inside.
3. Children are even LESS interested, on the whole, about scooping out a large pumpkin than they are in scooping out a smallish pumpkin.
4. I've come to realize that it's a pumpkin until the first face cut is made. Then it becomes a jack o'lantern.
5. One can use an iPhone to research the probability of raising pumpkins next year using the seeds from this year's pumpkin...in real time.
   
6. There is no practical way (within my skill set, anyway) to carve a detailed design on the face of a six-inch-thick jack o'lantern. Beyond a certain size, it's best to revert back to traditional, simple, geometrical faces.
7. No amount of loving encouragement from my wife can change the realties of #6.
   
8. One single candle still lights up the entire inside of a huge jack o'lantern.
9. Pumpkin carving parties are still as much fun as I remember.
10. I really like our friends. And their children.
    

I am learning to share the bounty of helping. I don't have to do it
all. There are areas that definitely require my specific skills. In
other areas, let someone else who's skillful do a better job. Manage
your resources, in other words. This is true for me at home; this is true for me at work.

Copenhagan Suborbital

BoingBoing ran this earlier today. I'm adding a similar write up here. Most people who know me know that I'm pretty positive about any space-based activity. But I gotta say THESE GUYS ARE FREAKIN' CRAZY!!!










C O P E N H A G E N S U B O R B I T A L S

Rainier!

I was talking to my Mom on the phone this afternoon as I drove home. It was a picture perfect sunny autumn day. The sky was cloudless and the temperature had just touched 70 degrees in the afternoon. The deciduous trees are starting to turn, dotting the hillsides along the I 205 corridor with the colors of pumpkin, newly-pressed bricks and latte cremas.As I talked to Mom, I crested the hill and rounded the curve near Johnson Creek. Locals will know the one I mean. I interrupted a　thougｈt I was sharing with her to point oug that Mt St Helens was beautiful in front of me. "Hey Mom, I said, "you won't believe how beautiful Mt St Helens is today. There's a fall moisture in the air that works like a magnifying glass, you know -- the same way the autumn moon gets so huge? Well it's making Mt St Helens look ..." And thats when I saw it. I couldn't believe it. Poking out from behind Mt St Helens, like a class clown making funny faces behind the teacher, was the summit of Mt Rainier.

"Mom! I can't believe it. I can see Rainier!"

I truly cannot recall a time when I could see Mt Rainier from the Portland metro area. Not while on the ground, anyway. It was one of those subtle, sublime moments. I'm glad I noticed it. I could so easily just have missed it altogether.

But I didn't!!

And The Number of Intelligent Civilizations In Our Galaxy Is...

31573.52

No really. At least according to Duncan Forgan at the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Edinburgh.

The Drake equation famously calculates the number of advanced
civilisations that should populate our galaxy right now. The result is
hugely sensitive to the assumptions you make about factors such as the
number of planets that orbit a host star that are potentially
habitable, how many of these actually develop life and what fraction of
that goes onto become intelligent etc.

[link]

Changes In Habits

I've spent the weekend getting to know the Asus Eee. Easy enough to do, since we were at the beach visiting Grandma and Grandpa. I took the work-issued laptop along, and vowed not to fire it up unless I absolutely had to.  All-in-all, I was quite successful. The swith to Linux is generally uneventful, except that I'd like more access to the desktop, not a program launcher.

The biggest issue so far has been finding a blog authoring tool. I've been using Microsoft's Windows Live Writer. It's a tool that's quite easy to get used to. Blogging from there is a delight. I found that, while there are a number of blog authoring tools for the Linux world, none of them jump out as being on par with Live Writer. So I'll be trying out some new ones.

Right now, for instance, I'm using Scribefire, which runs from inside my linux version of Firefox. It connected easily to my blogger account, and took about 30 seconds to get started with...as evidenced by this very blog entry. It's not, um,... as beautiful an experience as blogging in Live Writer, but it'll get the job done. I'll play with some of the other choices, though. I may still find what I'm looking for.

anybody have any Linux-based blog authoring tools they'd recommend?

Cloud Eee

I just picked up one of these:

No, it's not a full-sized laptop. The photo hides the fact that the unit has a 9" screen and weighs a bit more than two pounds. When folded up, it's about the size of a Franklin Planner. It is my intention to use this as a personal unit, utilizing 'cloud' computing as much as possible.

Wish me luck. I'll keep you informed of my adventures in Linux-based ultra-mobile cloud computing!

Readying for Winter

The front porch is, as of yesterday, ready for winter. We did a number of little things here over the past few weeks. The mailbox is new; gone is the little mail tray thing that was attached to the window frame. Now we have a family-sized, locking box. Better. I, uh, poured the concrete for the mailbox myself, you know...

 

A couple weeks ago, I removed the front screen door. This resulted in our needing to do some rehabilitation on the door frame (scraping, sanding, hole-filling, painting) to finish up.

C and I tag-teamed the work, a bit here  and a bit there, until C finished it yesterday with a fresh coat of paint all around the porch. All traces of the screen door are now removed, and the front entry just gleams.

Remember how we started? No? Well, prepare yourself. Like this:

Constance*

I put some time into the Jaguar over the weekend. The car's condition is a bit of an unknown quantity right now ... when was the last time it was waxed? Oil changed? ... you know, all that jazz. Because I got the car on consignment, it didn't get any dealer detailing attention. So I gave her a basic all-over detail this weekend. While the weather is still nice, you know...

• Hand wash
• Hand wax
• Wheel chrome polished and waxed
• Tires conditioned and blackened
• Detail brush along all edges and grooves (thanks for that simple, elegant tool, Paula!)
• Engine degreased
• Engine compartment rain gutters cleared of all pine needles, and 'gunk'
• Engine compartment plastic parts refreshed with protectant, for a like-new shine
• Trunk contents organized (first aid kit, tool kit, roadside assist kit, etc.)
• Trunk rain gutters cleaned and polished
• Floor mats cleaned of all grime spots

It took about half my day, but she gleams now. Inside and out. Ready for winter. Here's the engine, just as an example:

See what I mean? The plastics are once again clean and well-conditioned.  That just-built sheen has returned to the exposed metal bits. The scattering of pine needles are gone.

Sunday afternoon, R walked up to the car - unaware that I'd detailed it the day before - and casually ran his hand along the rear fender, just as a daydreaming boy is likely to do.

"Hey! The car's been waxed!" he hollered, surprised and excited. I was flattered, personally. He's not really one to notice things like that. It jumped out at him THIS time, though. He made my day.

I also spent time on the garage this weekend; I finished the interior painting. The garage doors themselves needed paint, as did a few stray 'missed spots' on the walls. Once I tidied up the paint, the next logical step was to finally organize my tools and equipment. It was great to be organizing the space. The garage looks good and, with a detailed car emitting the odors of wax and protectant, smells good too!

The kids were pleased to end the weekend with their computer now properly ensconced in the common room upstairs, instead of hiding out on my basement workbench. I succeeded in getting the desk moved up from the basement, and verified that their shared PC would both connect to the internet and connect to the wi-fi enabled printer. They're all hooked up now, and ready to do their homework as needed, in their own environment.

Which leads me to the basement itself. Organization there continues. We're steadily putting things in an order that makes sense, the end result being a sense of 'spaciousness' instead of oppressive clutter. It's good.

 

* Some, but not all, of my vehicles had names.

	Car	Name
1984 - 1989	1978 Honda Civic	Gertrude
1989 - 1994	1989 Honda Accord Coupe
1991 - 1993	1986 Saab 900 Turbo	Bette
1993 - 2006	1992 Isuzu Trooper	Bessie
1995 - 1998	1995 Kawasaki GPZ1100	Prudence
1997 - 2005	1996 Pontiac Grand Am
2005 - 2008	1992 Mercedes E300 4matic	Babych
2006 - now	2006 Honda Odyssey	Ulysses
2008	1994 Mercedes S320
2008 - now	2004 Jaguar XJ8	Constance

Wreath Double-Whammy

UPDATE: the kids figured out that Peacock Lane is, in fact, unclaimed territory. They wasted no time in claiming it as their personal wreath-selling domain. In previous years, a Boy Scout would serve the street's greenery needs; he apparently moved on. Nobody else has supplied the street for a few years, leaving the residents on their own to buy at retail. So when M and R walked the street, and identified themselves as "the house on the end, behind the tree," most of the houses ordered.

 

Of course, it probably helped that I was putting up our holiday lights this weekend, signaling to the rest of the Peacock Lane residents that our house will, for the first time in anyone's memory, participate in their show. 

Because of this, we've been invited to the Peacock Lane planning meeting.... looks like we're now running with the IN crowd. Thanks, kids!!

 

Add another case-in-point to my earlier blog about the small-town community feeling.

----------

 

M dances ballet. This year, her ballet school is doing a holiday wreath fundraiser. There's a ten wreath minimum. There is one wreath to choose from. Ballet wreaths are 'local delivery' only. Basic 20-inch wreath: $20.

R is in Boy Scouts. This year, his troop is doing a holiday wreath fundraiser. There is no explicit minimum, but the scouts have a whole bunch of wreath and swag choices. Boy Scouts can ship an order anywhere in the continental US. Basic 20-inch wreath: $20. Shipped anywhere: $38. I'll post pictures of the Boy Scout offerings shortly.

Oh, the dilemma! **

I get the strong sense that both programs are using the very same wreath manufacturer right here in Portland; the end product should be identical in both cases. And, because both programs are going direct to the manufacturer, they're selling at the wholesale price.

Here's the description that seems to be accurate for both programs:

Hand tied northwest greenery using Oregon Juniper, Incense Cedar and Noble Fir. Adorned with Ponderosa pine cones. Inner diameter: 12 inches; outer diameter: 20 inches. 

These same wreaths, at the local store or corner tree stand, will cost around $30 this year. So you get a discount over retail, and help fund a developmental program.

So here's the general call out for wreath orders. If you're local to the Portland area and would like to support either program, we'll happily take your order for a wreath and deliver it directly to you. You can specifically state your preference for one charity or another. Otherwise, we plan to fill the ballet minimum requirement ahead of the Boy Scout program.

Boy Scouts have another fund raiser they do as well, so Scouting isn't really missing out if we err toward ballet.

Gotta love the conflicting family obligations, yeah?

 

---

** One program (ballet) uses the stick (minimum sales) to complete the program; the other program (Boy Scouts) uses a carrot (more options, shipping).

The Bigger It Is, The Smaller It Feels

I've been ruminating on this for a while now and it has been sneaking into my blog. I find it paradoxical that we've moved into the city core from the metro edges, only to find that we have a tighter, more hometown flavored life now than ever before. Here are some cases in point:

1. Our neighborhood has a beat cop. I haven't met him yet, but I know his first name.
2. The gas station attendants know us as neighborhood locals. They ask how we're doing as we fill up our cars. When we need air for tires, they give us tokens because "neighbors can use the air machine for free."
3. The neighborhood Boy Scout troop connects us throughout the central SE by way of professional contacts, with doctors, restaurateurs, sewer workers, lawyers and architects.
4. I read the neighborhood newspaper, the Southeast Examiner only to find long-lost college classmates quoted in articles - and living only blocks away!
5. My son gets to meet the mayor...and give a speech to the Portland City Council.  Among a handful of things that makes R stand out to the mayor is the uniqueness of our location...right off Peacock Lane
6. More than one restaurant in the neighborhood not only remembers us but tends to know what we're going to order -- we have 'usuals' !!
7. A neighborhood meat wholesaler has offered to let us by at restaurant pricing, just because we live in the neighborhood and are active in the neighborhood community.
8. Political candidates come to our door. No, Really. We get a lot of door-to-door canvassing.
9. We shop in the same Fred Meyer store where Grandpa Jerry worked as he finished school. There's a multi-generational thing there, nowadays.

All this, while we live, flat-out, in the city. Oh sure, you might be thinking to yourself, you're in a neighborhood, so you've got neighborhood stuff. Well, here's my list of big city things we live with that are of note:

• I can take any one of four bus routes to other places in the city, all within  two blocks of our front door.
• The library is two blocks away.
• Things that do not require driving to access:
  
  • The airport ($2.00 each way, no parking necessary)
  • Ballet (both performances and school)
  • theater,
  • downtown
  • mall shopping
  • nightspots
  • professional sports
  • family-style movie theater
  • three different high schools
  • groceries
  • pharmacy
  • garden store
  • gas station
  • dance studio
  • play ground
  • Boy Scouts
  • dozens of restaurants
  • Kinko's
  • Health Care (docs, naturopaths, optometrists, etc.)
  • City Library
  • Banks
  • outdoor produce stand
  • haircuts
    
• Come time for high school, we can choose between the neighborhood high school, or three close-at-hand magnet schools: technical; arts & dance; business & commerce
• We are equidistant to three universities: Reed College; Portland State; University of Portland; and a seminary. All three are close enough that a child could live at home while attending.
• Our in-town fireworks display, on the Willamette River, is a bike ride away -- 35 blocks.

Here's the paradox. When we lived in the 'burbs, the societal arguments for doing so often included 'sense of community.' Okay, I'll accept that. EXCEPT that I never had a beat cop I knew by name. I never had a candidate come to my door. The mayor didn't recognize my kid and know where he lived. Shoot, I even recognize the three guys who scavenge returnables out of our recycling every Thursday evening, before the garbage trucks get there.

This is the sort of 'know everybody' stuff you expect from a small town -- Myrtle Point, say, or Pacific City. Only it's happening deep within the one town that contains half of the state's population.... it's certainly not happening in the suburbs, where we're told we'll get that sort of lifestyle.

There really isn't a way to wrap this set of observations up; no ribbon of prose to tie around this blog entry like a bow and turn it into an essay. It's just a societal paradox I need to put forward. I'll close with a question:

We're learning that the post-WW2 belief that our cars would change the world turned out to be all too true, but in dangerous and unanticipated ways. Our 'alternative energy' societal thinking marks not NEW thinking, but rather a return to sustainable OLD thinking. Does it not follow, then, that the post-WW2 thinking about suburbs, and the aloofness they built into themselves, is yet another body of societal thinking that is changing?

I certainly feel like my SE Portland experience has re-shaped my thinking.

The Face of the Fan Base, 2008/9

 

So, we got the following email this morning. This is worth celebrating, in my opinion.

Hi N,

I thought you might get a kick out of this site: http://www.nba.com/blazers/index_main.html

S and I are actually shown at the top in the animated GIF!

P

A quick look at the link, and ..... Yup. There they are!

Founding members of the Johnson family VIP people Hall of Fame.

Portland is such a small town, really. I could riff on how, the closer to the center of city I move, the more it transforms into a small-town community atmosphere. This snapshot is just another example of how intimate our town really, really is. 

Here they are, afterall, two of our favorite people now representing the whole community as 'the face of the fan base' on the front page for the only top-tier professional sport in Portland. Imagine... 

Taliban splits with al Qaeda, seeks peace

This from CNN today:

Taliban leaders are holding Saudi-brokered talks with the Afghan government to end the country's bloody conflict -- and are severing their ties with al Qaeda, sources close to the historic discussions have told CNN.

During the talks, described as an ice breaker, all parties agreed that the only solution to Afghanistan's conflict is through dialogue, not fighting.

My Baha'i identity is watching these events unfold both cautiously and hopefully. Please let this be for-real.

Sources: Taliban split with al Qaeda, seek peace - CNN.com

Weekend Update

I got to start my day with a workout at the gym. C got the kids going with the still-new routine of ballet and gymnastics on Saturday mornings. It's working better every week, this new schedule.

The rest of the afternoon was devoted to a variety of maintenance and get-ready-for-winter activities. I washed both cars, for instance. I did some basement and garage organization and cleanup. Stuff  like that.

Saturday evening was at Baha'i Star Trek night. I'll explain Star Trek nights in a future blog post. Suffice it to say they're a lot of fun and rather goofy!

There is just SUCH a sense of community evolving for us here. Tonight, for instance, C and I were reading our community newspaper, The Southeast Examiner, together. I was reading an article on the upcoming Apple Festival at the Portland Nursery when I stopped dead mid-sentence. You see, I came across a name of someone I knew from college. He's a neighbor! I haven't crossed paths with this guy since 1985 in Corvallis. He's about six blocks away. I just HAVE to look him up; even when we were college acquaintences, we never lived this close to eachother.

Workouts - Oh How I've Missed Them!

Though we've had a membership at a gym for about 18 months,  we've been under-utilizing it. Mostly because we've been concentrating our time on the house project. Well, last week, both C and I started 'poking' at the implementation of regular gym workouts. I started carrying my gym gear in my car, and pushing things around on my calendar to make room for workouts. Though I didn't actually get in to the gym last week, the setting-up process sure got my appetite going.

C, on the other hand, succeeded in getting to a morning class or two last week. She was ecstatic, as a result. This is, after all,  something the oncologist has been counseling her to do ever since she finished her cancer therapies.

 This week, she's already done three classes, with plans for more. She says pilates 'hurts so good' and that it's rewarding to be going again. Looks like the schedule works in her favor, too. She can drop the kids at school, go immediately over to the gym and be on with her day by 10am, energized and exercised. Apparently, the class instructor has already made a relationship connection with C, and is working with her to develop specific strategies for improving her overall fitness post-cancer. I'm proud of her for making this a priority.

For me, Wednesday nights are an obvious choice for a non-negotiable workout time, as are Saturday mornings while the whole family is over in Tigard doing ballet, gymnastics, etc. Even if I can't get to the gym on Saturday, I can still use that time to jog, or something. It'll be put to use, I'm sure. I worked out yesterday, with bike time and some upper body weights (light  weights, high reps, concentrating on remembering the form). This morning, my chronic back pain (from falling down the stairs last spring) is noticeably better. As is my posture. Dang but my body likes it best when I work out.

There's still room, I think, to fit in a morning session or two during the week. I'm continuing to sculpt my schedule to support that idea. Not being a morning person, for example, I've been actively working to move my natural wake-up time forward. I'm not actually going to the gym yet, but the clock radio and the timer on the coffee maker are cooperating to train me for an earlier wake up.

I haven't mentioned it to C, but she seems to be getting up earlier too. I sense that she's moving things along more purposefully so as to get to her class on time. This has the side-effect of a more relaxed, in-front-0f-the-curve school prep. The kids are feeding off the calmer atmosphere and stepping up their performance as well. It's all good - so much less drama nowadays!

So, it seems we all got an immediate emotional boost from the return to the gym. The children sure connect with the benefits of their dance and gymnastics time. Now, us parents get to have the same benefits.

Robber uses Craigslist to hire unwitting look-a-like decoys?

 

by The Oregonian
Wednesday October 01, 2008, 9:42 AM

A guy who robbed an armored truck driver Monday in Monroe, Wash., and escaped downriver on an innertube may have hired as many as 12 men to dress the same and show up for a temp job at what would become a crime scene. The Seattle Times has the full story here.

Mike, who wanted to be identified only by his first name, told KING-5 that he saw a Craigslist ad last week seeking workers for a road-maintenance project. He inquired and was e-mailed instructions to meet near the bank at 11 a.m. Tuesday and to wear specific clothing. "Yellow vest, safety goggles, a respirator mask ... and, if possible, a blue shirt," Mike told KING-5.

No contractor met Mike and about a dozen other similarly dressed men who showed up at the bank, and they thought they had been stood up. Then, KING-5 reported, a man told them about the bank robbery.

Did innertube robber use Craigslist to hire unwitting look-a-like decoys? - Breaking News From Oregon & Portland - Oregonlive.com

It's Different

C took the Jaguar for a solo drive last night. First time.

Now, C loves  her Honda Odyssey. It helps her perform her role as loving family COO, and it's such a safe, comfortable, pleasant, dependable, high-quality vehicle. It handles itself well in town and traffic. It roadtrips five people and a dog to central Utah like nobody's business. And it pulls MPGs in the high 20's for all the space it provides us. I don't think she'd really want anything else for her daily ride. We all love it, frankly. Running a family without one would be much, much more difficult. How we ever got along with the Trooper for so long is hard, now, to imagine.

Having said that, she often confided that having a Mercedes to ride in was a real ego booster sometimes and a nice treat. She noticed that she got a higher level of  respectful treatment when she drove the Mercedes; people were always just a little nicer to her, in subtle and undefinable ways. People would actually notice the car. She could see people trying to connect the car to the owner with their eyes. It was just...different. Special. Worth putting something nicer from the closet.

I had told her it was even more different in the Jaguar, that the conspicuousness goes up a notch, based on what I've seen so far.  She was a bit skeptical (thinking, I'm sure, about the pickup truck driver in southern Oregon who gave us all sorts of attitude just for having a Benz. I mean how could you be more conspicuous than inciting a guy to make gestures and yell out his window while we're on cruise control going down the interstate? Good thing the Benz had double-paned glass...the kids didn't hear the words he used. Neither did we, for that matter, I just read his lips), but then she took the Jaguar out herself and saw what I was talking about.

The gas station attendants immediately called her Ma'am, and used a completely different tone of voice with her -- hushed, deferential. It's more than respect -- awe. People don't just match the car to owner, they stop and admire the car outright. Pedestrians walking past the gas station actually pause and stare. Not at her, but at the car. Then they catch themselves and look for the owner...admiringly. Someone approached her as she waited, just to tell her how nice her car was.

She picked up on that difference once she experienced it for herself. I mean, how could you NOT? She did a good job capturing the feeling when she put it this way:

"In my Honda Odyssey, I'm just another soccer mom. In a Mercedes, I'm respectable. But In the Jaguar, I am a GODDESS!"

I love that line!

 

Driving to work,this morning, I watched a Geo Metro -- paint all beat up, with two young twenty-somethings, man and woman -- pull up behind me at the light. They were both really clean cut, well groomed and dressed like you'd expect a college graduate to dress for their first jobs. I could easily imagine them as a young couple in love, starting their careers after graduating from college last spring, making do with what they've got as they get started. Full of big dreams and ambitions. There was a happiness in their faces. But that changed as he sat behind me, impatient that I didn't make the right turn on the red light quite yet. His body language got a bit angry, as he spoke animatedly and gestured at my car. He wasn't gesturing toward me, I noticed, but toward the car itself. In the rearview mirror, I could see he was staring at the spot on the trunk where the badge is. It was about the car. He'd have been looking at the back of my headrest if he was angry at me. I could see her expression shift from engaged to withdrawn. She had been turned toward him, smiling, as they approached. She turned her head away and stared blankly out the window after that. I got the sense that he was frustrated that he wasn't driving a car like the Jaguar. I made the turn, as did they. For the next two or three miles, he followed me in traffic. They never went back to to their happiness. They were withdrawn.

The whole experience took me right back to my first couple years, driving a beat up Honda Civic. Happy as I was to have a car at all, there was still a hunger. I'd park in the lot at the software company, next to the Maserati, the BMWs, the Porches, and the CEO's Ferrari... in my stupid littl 1200cc Honda pillb0x. "One of these days," I'd tell myself, "one of these days." On a rainy day when the Ferrari wouldn't start again, and the tow truck would come to take it to the shop for an electrical harness dry-out, I'd count the dollars and realize that the CEO was spending more per month on towing than my car actually cost. At least my car would start in the rain, and a set of four tires cost me $60. I counted those things as blessings and told myself, once again, "One of these days..."

Well, young man behind me in traffic this morning: if you're reading this, don't make it miserable for you and your girlfriend. One of these days, you'll have a Jaguar too. Just keep working hard for it, wait for the right opportunity, and don't rush. I feel much closer to you, young man, in your Geo Metro, to this day, than I do to the other Jaguar owners around town. I may be one myself now, but they still intimidate me. I'm sure I'll keep talking to them in hushed, reverent tones -- calling them 'Sir' and "Ma'am" --  even as I drive a Jaguar myself.

Night time with the Jaguar

They are  nocturnal animals, afterall!

We spent the day doing some maintenance around the house. Just some winter-prep work. C painted the areas needing final paint. I mortared some sections of the outside basement wall to prevent any moisture seepage around the windows we replaced a year ago. We made it through last winter withour moisture, but the window still could benefit from some extra coverage. That, plus a  little lawn mowing and that pretty much covers the house work.

Prior to that, we had M's two(!!) ballet classes, and R's private gymnastics session. Both M's classes and R's class time turned out to be good investments. The children are getting SO dialed in to their respective pursuits - the progress is measurable week to week, almost session to session. If that weren't enough, toss into the mix a trip to the bank to finance a car, and it was a busy day!

So, to treat ourselves, we all piled in to the Jaguar for a night-time tour. It's hard to beat a warmish, clear/dry late-summer evening in Portland. Conditions just do NOT get any better than that. The kids each brought a book to read. R - bless his heart - is now reading Dune. M, that precocious eight year old, is reading the Legend of Despereaux. They snuggled up in the back seat, each in their pajamas, and read while we listened to music in KINK-FM,  'cruised' downtown (really! We cruised SW Broadway!)  and then drove around in the West Hills, enjoying some of the prettiest night-time scenery you can hope to find in Portland...before it's gone and winter sets in.

Back in the mid-70's, during the emergence of FM radio, KINK-FM ran a TV ad that showed a young, professional-looking  upwardly mobile couple driving around Portland in the evening, in a Porsche, listening to the unique blend of music on KINK. I may be the only person who still remembers that commercial. It was a low-key, lifestyle-based, cop-this-image proposition they put forth in that spot. Somehow that proposition has stuck in my head. Turns out that our drive was a replay of the drive they took in the commercial.  Imagine that. I didn't intend it, but there it is.

Bought the Jaguar XJ8

It's a great car. Oh my GOSH it's a great car. C test-drove it tonight and fell in love.  Just as I did a couple nights ago.

Then she drove a 1995 Mercedes S-class with a big-boy V12. It felt so familiar and 'normal', except that it had twice as much power as the S320 had. A very nice car, at half the price...and half the MPGs.

Her reaction? Same as mine. The Jaguar is just a much better direction to go; the cost is minimal. Maintenance will be less (for a while).

So we agreed on the Jaguar. We put some money down to hold it (it would otherwise sell over this coming weekend, doubtlessly). I'll process the financing/settlement/payments. The Jaguar is a good deal; blue book is at least $5,000 higher than we're paying for this car.

We're pretty pleased.

Swiss man flies over Channel on jet wing

 

Excerpted from the San Francisco Chronicle article, linked below:

"He had nothing above him but four tanks of kerosene and nothing below him but the cold waters of the English Channel. But Yves Rossy leapt from a plane and into the record books on Friday, crossing the channel on a homemade jet-propelled wing."

"Rossy's wing was made from carbon composite. It weighs about 121 pounds when loaded with fuel and carried four kerosene-burning jet turbines. The contraption has no steering devices. Rossy, a commercial airline pilot by training, wiggled his body back and forth to control the wing's movements."

Swiss man flies over Channel on jet wing