From Atlantic To Pacific, Gee, The Traffic Is Terrific
Well, that was a whirl-wind of a holiday visitation: nearly 600 miles on Big Red in four days travelling. Visited my mom, two brothers, two 90+ year-old Grandmothers, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews and friends. But, man-oh-man - all that driving!
Day One: Seattle-to-Longview Day Two: Longview, Kelso, Lexington, Castle Rock Day Three:Longview-to-Gresham-to-Portland-to-Beaverton-to Longview Day Four: Longview-to-Seattle
My Grandma in Portland (my dad's mom) is doing better than I expected. Although she's pretty much confined to a wheelchair, and her eyesight is almost completely gone, her hearing is still reasonably good (with aids of course) and we spent two hours chatting. She insists she's going to make it to her 100th birthday in 2015, and I have no doubt she's going to get there.
My other Grandmother in Kelso just turned 90 last month, and even though she had to move out of her house and in with my aunt and her husband, she actually looks - and sounds - better than I've seen in quite a few years. I think having the pressures - both physical as well as financial - of maintaining a home has taken quite a load off her, and she seems healthier, more alert and responsive, and just more energetic than she's been in ages.
(This means three of my four grandparents have lived into their 90's: so, I think I've got a pretty good shot at hitting that mark myself.)
Except for the white-knuckle trip across the Columbia River in 40 mph gusts on Saturday and the traffic accident on I-5 just south of Seattle that took over an hour to get through on Sunday the various drives were uneventful. But still, when you're the one doing ALL the traveling, it does get a bit wearying.
And aside from sitting in the driver's seat for hours on-end, that's about all I did for most of the rest of the time; I don't think I walked more than a 1/4 mile at any stretch during the time I was down there. And of course, the diet was completely thrown out the window - my mom's side of the family are strictly mid-western meat-and-potato types, and with the exception of boiled carrots with dinner on Friday and a canned fruit cup with breakfast on Sunday, I saw nary a vegetable for the entire four-day weekend.
So, needless to say, although I do enjoy getting together with family for the holidays, I'm really glad to be back home where I don't have to go anywhere that doesn't involve walking, and where most of my diet doesn't consist of dead animals and tubers.
You Know What The Sun's All About When The Lights Go Out
Strange, intermittent power outages at work this morning. A transformer blew out somewhere in the neighborhood, and we've lost phones, along with some power and lights. But, other outlets & lights are okay, and I managed to reroute power to get our computers, printers and Internet connection back on-line.
And there's this weird odor of burning plastic or insulation or something wafting through the air; very unpleasant.
Oh, and we just discovered that the hot plates on the stove in the kitchen are working, but for some strange reason the oven isn't.
Like I said, weird.
UPDATE 10:40 a.m.
We're back. Phones, outlets, lights - and the oven controls - are all working again.
Generally, I'm not terribly big on "the holidays". I'm not actively against them, mind you, it's just that I feel a certain amount of ambivalence. Some of it may simply be due to the fact that, in this part of the world November and December tend to be dark, cold, dreary months which sap your enthusiasm for just about anything besides sleeping and sitting around in your bathrobe eating warm chocolate chip cookies and watching bad television. And since I don't normally do either of those, there's not much to motivate me to get out of the house. In fact, if it weren't for being surrounded by full-spectrum UV lamps all day at work, I'd probably have a case of S.A.D. that would make an Existentialist feel positively cheery by comparison.
The other part of it is that I don't have much in the way of family in my immediate vicinity. My closest relatives (aside from a cousin who just moved into town recently, but with whom I've never been terribly close) are just far enough away that I don't have a great deal of regular interaction with them. This compares with a lot of my local friends who truly are locals: they have parents and siblings and aunts and uncles and cousins galore living within a few miles of them, so obviously there are a lot more opportunities to get together outside of the holidays.
Thirdly, I think I've just developed a stronger sense of independence over the years than some other members of my family. I'm the one who pursued a career in "the big city" away from the nexus of either side of my family, whereas many of them have maintained much closer ties. Two of my brothers live within a few minutes drive of my mom (well, one still lives at home - maybe someday I'll get into that), who in turn lives just a few minutes drive from her mom and sister. Two of my dad's siblings have side-by-side condo's in Portland, not very distant from their mother, and some of their kids and grandkids are relatively close by as well. In short, they're all pretty tight-knit. I'm one of the few notable exceptions.
In this respect I think I take more after my father (who just celebrated his 70th birthday yesterday - and who is probably reading this, "hi dad!"), and who I think in some ways got it from his dad. While each of us has exhibited varying degrees of sociability in our personalities, I think there's also been a tendency on all our parts to feel that we didn't really require the sort of close attachments that other members of our family seem to embrace. It's not that we're ANTI-social or ANTI-family, it's just that we don't seem to desire the constant contact with them that they do with each other. Also, I think each of us inherited a bit of the "wanderlust" that reaches back down the trunk of the family tree: the same urge to move that brought our ancestors here from Europe and Britain and who-knows-where in the first place. Maybe I'm off base a bit on that, but that's my impression anyway.
And it's not that we don't like our families, although I grant we've all had our portion of issues with individual members over the years (but really, what family doesn't to some extent?), and I think, at least for my dad and myself we genuinely appreciate the occasional opportunities to reconnect. But to some extent it's the fact that we don't see each other all the time that imbues those more infrequent encounters with greater meaning and significance; if we saw each other as frequently as some members of our family do, we might take it too much for granted and it wouldn't feel as "special".
Things are finally starting to wind DOWNWARD as I hurtle, like a snowball rolling down a ski-slope toward the Christmas Holiday.
We held our annual Open House on Monday afternoon, which was the main reason I was in such a frenzy to finish up some of the remaining remodeling projects. Spent the entire day cooking (thankfully we have a full-sized kitchen including a four-burner stove, dishwasher and TWO refrigerators): a 10 lb. spiral-cut ham, 5 lbs of Swedish meatballs, 5 lbs of Cajun shrimp, 5 lbs of pot-stickers, 5 lbs of roasted potatoes, 75 mini-quiches, plus prepping and laying out the obligatory cheese-and-crackers, fruit and veggie platters, cookies (made by my friend Leslie), and other assorted goodies. If that sounds like overkill, well in some measure perhaps. But, we had about 60 RSVP's - about twice the number we get typically - and probably had about 75 come through the door throughout the afternoon and evening, which is roughly half again as many as I've seen in the four years I've been participating in these. Had it not been for the incredibly cold evening temps (our office actually had no heat and was a chilly 49 degrees when we came in Monday morning!) we probably would have seen an even better turnout; that's the thing with these events - you just never know how many people are going to show up.
(Strangely, we had lots of fruit, veggies - and cookies - left over, but very little of the meaty snacks. Also, the three cases of beer remained veritably untouched, but the case of wine was completely emptied.)
Now, if the above sounds like a lot of overworking on my part, keep in mind we do adhere to the time-honored rule that, "those who cook don't have to clean", so I was excused from the post-open house clean up, which left me time to shiver down the hill to see some friends play their Weimar/"Cabaret" era inspired music.
After that, the rest of the week seems positively sedate.
Plus, it's really, really quiet now, because I'm the only one in the office.
Tired Of Playing The Game Ain't It A Crying Shame I'm So Tired
Things have been (relatively) quiet the past couple of weeks - at least the frenetic level of activity has been dialed down to a simmer, as opposed to a full rolling boil.
We're settling in to the new office, and most of the finishing projects have been completed. Spent 10 hours last Saturday wrapping up several of the remaining large projects: putting up drapes in the conference room, painting some kitchen cabinets, a bit of touch-up painting, leaving only one moderate-sized project to complete, plus some little things I hope to check-off this weekend - just in time for our annual Holiday Open House, which of course, I have to do all the shopping for. On the plus side, the other two people in the office are going to do most of the prep work itself, so I should be able to just sit back and enjoy most of the proceedings.
Have also been working on a few "beautification" projects at the theatre: carpeting our stairwell landings, stripping out and replacing some vinyl tiling in our entryway, and am about to experiment with stripping and refinishing some of the steps themselves. That's going to be a piece-meal project and will probably take me several months to complete, assuming I don't just chuck the whole idea because it turns out to be more hassle than it's worth. But, we'll see.
Otherwise, it's a slow creep-up to Christmas. Assuming we don't get snowed in again this year, which according to the usual sources may be a distinct possibility (can you say repeat of Snowpocalypse 2008? I knew you could), I'll head south on Christmas Eve and try to do the Longview-Kelso/Portland loop over the long weekend, and then MAYBE find some time after the New Year to take a little vacation - even just a few days out-of-town would be nice, because lately it seems that even when I get an extended weekend, such as last, I end up spending half my time working on some project or other.
Now that Thanksgiving is solidly behind us, most normal people can now contemplate getting in the mood for the next major holiday on the calendar.
And for many of us here in the Upper Left-Hand, particularly those with some sort of theatrical predilection, that means at some point attending a performance of The Dina Martina Christmas Show.
I've waxed - well, poetic doesn't seem like quite the right description - let's just say, I've mentioned Dina in the past, so long-time readers (all six of you) already know the score. But for the uninitiated, think of the most horrible, awesome, hilarious train-wreck combination of late vintage Judy Garland, Tammy Fae Baker, and Joan Rivers, with a generous dollop of Courtney Love, a bad drag show and the scariest clown you've ever seen, and you only begin to develop an approximate image of the sheer want-to-close-your-eyes-but-don't-want-to-miss-the-fiery-collision that is Dina.
Aside from the rampant malapropisms (Christmas gifts, when expressed by Ms. Martina become "Chreeshmesh Jifts" for example), wardrobe malfunctions of apocalyptic proportion, and inappropriate holiday song melodies that only your butcher could love, Dina's shows always include a little holiday hand-out. I've been going to these shows for about six or seven years now, and generally expect she'll single out some relatively nondescript person in the audience upon which to shower her largess. Today however, perhaps owing to the large contingent of local theatre folk in attendance, when she asked if anyone wanted some "jifts" and my hand went up, she picked me. It might also have had something to do with the fact I was sitting in the second row on an aisle, which meant I could get to the stage pretty quickly - whatever.
Below, you see some of my swag, which consisted of (from Left to Right): A package of Gummy Maggots, a package of Sour Cream & Onion flavored Crickets (they were crunchy, but not very flavorful), and the "pasty resistance", a coveted (no kidding) container of Cheetos Cheese Flavored Lip Balm (not shown: a five-pak of "Saved By The Bell - The College Years" bubblegum trading cards).
And that big, bloody looking smear on my forehead would be the remains of a wet one planted on my noggin by Ms. Martina herself - I'll probably need a Scotch-brite pad to scrub it off.
Walking back-and-forth to work these past couple of weeks has been an interesting experience. While on the one hand I'm traversing very familiar territory, on the other, the simple process of moving myself from Point A to Point B each morning and back again each evening has started to give me a little bit more of a solid connection to the neighborhood in which I spend most of my time.
Typically this time of year, the weather has ranged from bright-and-sunny and very chilly, all the way to rain blowing sideways in sheets - and very chilly. Having lived in this part of the country my entire life this isn't really a big deal; I've got enough foul weather gear to handle a trans-oceanic voyage, and I recently purchased a very cheap pair of velcro-strapped walking shoes, simply for the convenience of having something that is: comfortable, stays dry, and is easy to slip on-and-off once I get to work, where I keep two pair of "regular shoes" stashed beneath my desk. So, regardless of the weather conditions walking the route between my apartment and my office is relatively easy and doesn't result in my arriving at either terminus looking - and feeling - like a drowned rat.
I've tried to vary my route ever so slightly each trip, just to give myself some variety, as well as to get a little better sense of what sorts of things are around me that, in more than 5 years living in the same place, I perhaps have overlooked. I'm trying to be more observant, more aware of my surroundings, taking note of what's there, and more importantly what sorts of things are absent.
Seeing as my path takes me from the edge of the Central District (traditionally, the center of Seattle's African American Community) up over the back side of what used to be known as "Second Hill" ( a description that's long been in disuse), down into the heart of the Pike-Pine Corridor (a sub-district of the surrounding Capitol Hill neighborhood), generally past the Theatre, across Broadway, the major north-south corridor through this part of town, and finally the short descent down the front side of the Hill to where my office is located, just east of I-5 (Important Assimilation Tip: Washingtonians NEVER preface this with "the" as in "the I-5" or "the 5" - that's how we spot the Californians in our midst).
Of course there's the usual things I pass by nearly every day: the Ethiopian restaurant on my corner, the partially abandoned gas station, the bike store and yoga studio and coffee shop right across the street; the Lamborghini/Mazerati dealer; the police precinct, the soccer field, community college, etc., etc. But, if I veer off just a block or so at any point I find myself turning unfamiliar corners, or noticing an establishment that I didn't realize existed until just then: the wrought iron foundry, the hydrolics repair shop, the print bindery, the chiropractor, the auto detailer - dozens of small businesses quietly plying their trades in the back alleys and off-the-main thoroughfares where most of us seldom venture, or just completely overlook when we do.
There are a few places I wish I would discover: a really good deli/butcher shop, a full-service bakery (as opposed to, say, cupcake bakeries which seem to be sprouting up around town like mushrooms in a rain forest), a tailor's shop, a decent Chinese restaurant (Thai, Japanese/Sushi & Vietnamese we got plenty of already), a small electronics repair shop, a 24-hour diner (or at least one that serves after 10:00 p.m.), a greeting card store - just a handful of specialty businesses to round things out.
Maybe that's a little old-fashioned of me, but the whole idea of having the place where you live and work being within walking distance of each other seems like rather an old-fashioned idea that might be coming somewhat back into fashion - or at least seems like an idea that SHOULD come back into fashion.
No, no I haven't dropped off the face of the planet, despite what the near dearth of recent posting might indicate; I've just been really, really busy.
We've settled in to the new office space, but there's still plenty of work to be done to get the finishing touches in place, and I find inordinate amounts of my work day occupied with drilling holes in walls and ceilings, inserting anchor bolts & screws and hanging things (curtain tracks, roll-up blinds, brochure holders, coffee mug hooks, et al) to them; rearranging the contents of file cabinets, labeling key sets - all manner of activities that aren't directly related to my actual job description.
In short, on top of being the Membership Director, Office Manager and Bookkeeper, I've now also become the office handyman, due in part no doubt to the fact that I own a set of battery-operated power tools and have competency in using them.
On top of all of this, I've been spending a lot of my so-called "free time" (i.e. weekends and evenings) the past couple of weeks babysitting workshops, auditions and rehearsals utilizing our resource room - as I sit here there's a rehearsal going on down the hall for the Theatre; on Sunday it was a five hour camera acting workshop.
Part of our build-out for the space was supposed to include creating a security barrier between our office proper and the resource room, kitchen and restrooms precisely so that this sort of on-site supervision wouldn't be necessary. But, there's still a gaping hole in the hallway above the security door and until that's sealed up, I just don't feel comfortable leaving the space unattended, even when the people using it are trusted friends and colleagues. The maintenance guy from our old office was supposed to have come in on Friday to take some measurements for the framing of the sealing partition, but in typical fashion he never showed up. At this point I'll probably have to spend yet another weekend afternoon putting something in place myself if I plan on having anything resembling a personal life between now and Christmas.
Well, needless to say I survived last week. Despite the numerous rocks thrown in my path the office did get moved, the data and phone networks were eventually brought online and the unpacking is nearly completed. There will be plenty of finishing touches to complete, but these can be done at a relatively leisurely pace. But, at this point in time My office is basically set up with only a couple of boxes awaiting some sort of bookcase/shelving to come in before being unloaded. As I type, my boss is trying to assemble his Ikea window blinds (his office windows front right onto a sidewalk and he's becoming a bit bored already with feeling like an animal on exhibit at the zoo). The only pieces we're waiting on to complete the major load-in are our conference table, which will arrive Monday, and a buffet sideboard for our conference room, which is on back-order and may not ship until after the first of the year. Otherwise, we're more-or-less back to business as usual.
And I've walked to and from work three out of four days so far this week. Unfortunately, I also seem to have hit a bit of a plateau, and am struggling to get below 200 lbs. I'm holding steady, but haven't dropped any weight for the past few days.
The fundraiser went remarkably well; not as many in attendance as would have been my preference, but the staff was overjoyed, and despite the somewhat (IMO) middling turnout a good time was had by all. I've probably already mentioned it a thousand times, but one more won't hurt: my undying gratitude to everyone - performers, volunteers, artists, contributors - for helping to make it a success. I learned a lot in the process, and should be able to do an even better job of it next year - just have to figure out when to do it, since Halloween falls on a Sunday in 2010.
We Got To Move These Refrigerators, We Got To Move These Color TV's
It appears I made it to 49 after all. The way this past week started out, I wasn't exactly full of confidence I'd survive in good enough shape to be more than a blubbery pile of goo on the floor by now, but despite the set backs, the delays, all the things that were supposed to go one way, but insisted on going the other, here I am.
The second team of movers proved more than equal to the task, even despite the fact that our massive main reception desk initially couldn't be maneuvered out of the old office. But, removal of a few drop-ceiling panels and brackets gave us enough clearance to just squeeze it out.
And the guy who did our data line wiring just happened to be available for a brief window and was able to come in and rewire the entire phone system on Thursday, plus fix a couple of boo-boos (totally my fault) that were overlooked during his first installation.
So, once again, just about everything came down to the absolute wire. But, the good news is the phone system was up and running on Friday morning, we sussed out our data network and all the various and sundry machines are happily beeping and booping with each other and - most importantly - with the outside world. The only negatives at this point are one network jack that seems to be on-the-fritz, and the fact that my boss picked up a virus on his laptop most likely due to the temporary jury-rigged Internet connection we set up earlier in the week (we ganged my co-worker's Clear Wire modem to my wireless router, but had to leave everything open and unsecured, because nobody else could get my WEP access code to work - the techno-geeks among you know what I'm talkin' 'bout).
Friday morning I rented a small storage locker and in the afternoon picked up a rental van, and we all schlepped over to the old office to clean out the last of the odds-and-ends, hauled it all back to the new office, emptied the truck, then filled it with about 60 bankers boxes full of old documents we don't need on-site, but aren't allowed to throw away, and my boss and I then took them over to the storage facility and loaded them in. Even though I rented the smallest space they had available, we still only managed to fill it to about one-third capacity, which means we can still get to things in the highly unlikely event we ever need to access anything.
The final bit of business was to contract with someone to clean out the detritus still left at the old space and haul it off to the dump/recylers. There's a company in the same building that does this, but their estimate was IMO somewhat excessive, so I contacted the building maintenance man (the same guy who drove me to distraction on the kitchen counter project), and he underbid by about $200. Plus, he would have had to check us out of the space anyway, so this way we don't have to worry about that part of things either. He came by around 5:00 p.m., we handed him a check and all the keys and access cards for the old building and parking garage, and so the moving part is now officially done.
There's still a huge amount of work to do: lots of re-arranging, moving things into place, getting rid of packaging, along with general clean-up and a final move in of a couple of items, most notably our conference table which is in the process of having its surface refinished. But that will happen next week - or beyond.
I finally managed to attack my new office on Friday, and even in the short amount of time I was able to devote to it, got it into workable shape; now it's just a matter of dealing with the finishing touches, and turning the place into our new home. We have about a month before our annual Holiday Party, which should be plenty of time.
So, tomorrow it'll be back to a somewhat normal routine, plus playing catch-up on the rather modest backlog of things that didn't get dealt with last week. It's just good to have it all over and done with - the scope of this project turned out to be akin to the massive build-out at the Theatre I managed in the spring of 2008; just as nerve-wracking, frustrating, but ultimately satisfying in its completion.
Now, all I have to do today is whip together a ginormous fundraiser for tonight.
The Good Ship And True Was A Bone To Be Chewed When The Gales Of November Came Early
So, today is Moving Day. With the help of several over-the-counter pharmaceuticals (Thanks, VLW for the TheraFlu recommendation!) I managed 12 straight hours of sleep last night; not nearly enough to make up for three weeks continuous sleep-deprivation, but sufficient to get me through the day.
And I'm sure you're all sitting on the edge of your seats wondering how the day's been going, right? (Humor me, please. I could use a little levity right about now.)
Well, let's start with what's gone RIGHT so far - oh, wait. NOTHING has gone right so far.
Which leaves the following as "A Partial Listing OF What's Gone WRONG Today":
- The office movers apparently have never actually moved an office before, at least not one comprised of anything that weighs more than about 100 pounds. They can't take our regular household sized refrigerator or the largest pieces of office furniture.
- On top of that, the arrival time that I had scheduled for 9:00 a.m. turned out in actuality to be more like 12:00 Noon, which worked out somewhat seeing as how it was pouring rain for most of the morning anyway. The question now is, can they get back from the new site, pack up the remainder of what needs to go and then off-load it before 5:00 p.m.? My guess is, "probably not". So, how long in fact WILL it take them? Your guess is as good as mine at this point.
- As if that weren't enough, some of the pieces of furniture they were able to move won't fit through the doors to the rooms they're assigned (e.g. my new office desk). So, I'm going to have to disassemble a couple of pieces before they can be put into place, then reassemble them again. Not a huge task, just another thing to add to the ever growing List Of Things Still To Be Done.
- The phone lines went dead at around 9:30 this morning. That was expected, since they have to be switched off at one location before they can be activated at the other. Strangely however, the DSL line didn't go dead at the same time. When I called the phone company a couple of hours later, it turns out the service tickets for our three separate accounts hadn't been linked together, so the DSL switchover hadn't been scheduled until Friday! By the time I got that straightened out and got the deinstall/reinstall moved up to tomorrow, I got a call from our phone system tech who was trying to reinstall that end of things at the new location saying that: A of all.) all the phone jacks in our office need to be rewired because they're an old-style residential system that can't handle our multi-line system, and; B of all.) he doesn't have the equipment to do that kind of work, because it's going to require drilling through "hardpan walls" (there are no drop ceilings or fancy metal studs with convenient punch-outs through which to drop cable).
So, where did that leave me? The movers can't complete the move, the phone system company can't complete the install, my new office isn't even going to have a desk in it when I get over there, and I'm sitting in a half-empty office that currently looks like a complete and utter disaster area trying to juggle multiple calls on my cell phone - and it looks like it's going to start raining again any minute now.
Okay, maybe I exaggerated just slightly above; despite the continuous series of wild fires a few things have gone my way today: I found a professional office mover who, on less than 24 hours notice can pick up and deliver our larger items, and at the same rate as what I'm being charged by the other moving company. Also, after yet another call to the Business Services Dept. at QWest, I not only managed to get a second service order set up to install the DSL tomorrow, but they'll come prepared to drill in the additional phone lines as well.
As I write this, the movers are back for a second load, but they're going to leave behind most of the other file cabinets & desks. It's okay, I've already called the other movers and they can handle it within their window tomorrow morning.
And at least I've still got Internet access at work (that's also A Thing That's Gone Wrong, but one I can still use to my advantage.)
AND I haven't strangled anyone.
AND and I haven't gone completely bonkers.
AND AND after all the hubbub and insanity of the past several weeks I just now realized how quiet and peaceful it is here in the office right now.
Hm, maybe a little TOO quiet.
Like, the sort of quiet one might experience in the eye of a hurricane...
'Tis The Song The Sigh Of The Weary, Hard Times Hard Times Come Again No More
I didn't think we were going to make it - and it did in fact come right down to the wire. As of 10:00 p.m. last night the kitchen still wasn't completely finished and it was another sleepless night filled with thoughts of dread and dire vengeance.
At this point I'm so sleep deprived I've almost completely lost all sense of time: I drove a few miles north yesterday afternoon to attend a party at a friend's house that was actually scheduled for this evening. Tonight, I went back, was there for two hours and it felt like I'd been there all day. It's now 7:30 p.m. and I'm fully intending to crawl into bed as soon as I finish typing this.
This is the lesson I've learned about contractors: if you give them a deadline they will push you right up to it, within hours even. I think they get some perverse sort of pleasure out of watching their clients squirm and fidget and palpably vibrate just for the thrill of enpowerment it must give them; why else put another human being through that kind of torture?
But, whatever. It's done. There are still a handful of tiny details to complete, little bits-and-pieces that only someone who's been staring at that same spot on the wall for three straight months would probably even notice. But, from a purely functional perspective, those can be dealt with.
It's done, over, finito and we start moving at 9:00 a.m. tomorrow. , Only of course, it's not done, and probably won't be for weeks, for however long it takes us to settle in and work the kinks out of the new space, the ones I hadn't even thought of.
Enough from me. The TheraFlu is almost gone. Time for bed.
Things are starting to get close to the wire for both of my major projects. The new space is maddeningly close to being finished; the kitchen sink, dishwasher & counters should be completed by tomorrow latest, then there are a couple of tiny build-out projects that - hopefully - will be done before the weekend. Then, I've got a small amount of touch-up painting and a couple of minor projects to complete this weekend before Moving Day on Monday. But as of now, we're about 98% of the way to having the new space completed.
I've finally begun packing up my office, which isn't going to take me very long, but there's also a great deal of sorting, trashing/recycling and packing up to do in the main office as well. Fortunately, my co-workers are handling most of this, but I still have to go through things in storage to decide what we have to keep (financial records mostly), and what we can toss. What's time-consuming is that I'm having to make some sort of trip - to the office supply or hardware store, over to the new space to deal with a delivery - just about every day, so between that and the normal day-to-day work that still needs to get done AND walking people around the office to show them what we have available to "take away" (e.g. the book case in my office that was moved out not ten minutes ago) I just haven't had much time to devote to this part of the move.
Still, things continue to move in a forward direction and despite the rampant insomnia that's been waking me up at around 4:00 a.m. every morning for the past week, I'm feeling reasonably confident that we're going to pull this off - not necessarily without a hitch; that would be too much to ask - but well enough that we should be more-or-less business as usual by mid-week.
Down Here All The Fish Is Happy As Off Through The Waves They Roll
Dear Bloggie Friends:
I'm afraid the time has come. I've waited, with patience and hope, but it's been more than three months now in some instances, and your blogs have remained un-updated. I know, I know, I've slacked quite a bit myself. "And besides," I hear you say, "all the cool kids are Twitting and Tweeting, and FB'ing like crazed hyenas, and the long-form blog has become so much work! All that typing! All those letters!" That plus your 587 "friends" have to come TO your site to read it, rather than you just thumbing what you had for breakfast and "KA-POW!" The entire Netiverse instantly knows what flavor Cap'n Crunch it was.
And so, it is my sad duty to inform you that some of you have been declared "Lost At Sea", and I've moved you to the bedrock sea bottom of Davy Jones' dead link locker.
I'll check up on you once in a while, just to see if you float back up to the surface. But for now, sleep peacefully with the fishes my friends.
Boy, You Got To Carry That Weight, Carry That Weight A Long Time
Stepped on the scale this morning and it finally registered below 210 lbs. - just barely, but that particular milestone has at least been achieved.
I've been on something of a plateau the past few weeks, with a bit of see-sawing to boot, and needless to say the frustration level has been palpable. I feel like I've cut out 90% of the bad stuff - leaving room for the occasional adult beverage, but skipping most other "treats" - I even turned down a Diletante chocolate truffle today, just on principle. And although I'm not keeping obsessively diligent records, I've feel reasonably confident I've reduced my daily caloric intake by roughly 25% to roughly 1,800 calories per day.
Not to make excuses, but, there are a few things going on right now: the office move (which has turned into a much bigger undertaking than I originally anticipated, what with having to be more closely involved in supervising the build-out of the new space than I had intended), plus simultaneously planning the fundraiser, among others, that have stressed me out to the extent that I've probably been somewhat less diligent about monitoring my intake as I should have been (I think that rack of short-ribs I cooked at the recent Theatre Retreat a couple weeks back was the harbinger of my temporary downfall).
I seriously doubt I'm going to hit the 200 mark by my birthday, as I had hoped (now projecting that'll happen sometime around the 18th of November - just in time for Thanksgiving, yay!), but at least I'm once again trending down.
And, as of today I'm 1/3 of the way to my goal, and actually still achieving a reasonably good loss rate of about 1 2/3 lbs. per week (slightly less than my initial goal of 2 lb. per week) despite the two week stagnation. So, if things remain on a steady course and I don't run into further impediments, I should be down to my overall goal of 180 lbs. by Valentine's Day.
I'm Bound To Pack It Up, I'm Bound To Pack It Up And Go Away
Hard to believe the office move is a mere four weeks away. So far, things have gone relatively smoothly; the build-out is essentially done, with just a little bit of network cabling left to install, and what's turned out to be the most complicated project, tracking down a suitable sink cabinet to install in the kitchen.
Turns out that, because of the location of the plumbing and the dimensions of the room, a standard six-foot sink and counter won't fit - we've only got a five foot opening between the stove and a portable dishwasher we're bringing in - so after rather exhaustive research, it looks like we're going to have to have one custom-built; which is fine actually, since the handyman at our current location is willing to do it, and can get the job done a lot sooner than the 4 - 6 weeks shipping lag we've been given by other businesses, and for several hundred dollars less than the cheapest commercial estimate we've been given.
Otherwise, it's a matter of starting the process of packing what we're going to take, consolidating and getting rid of our excess office furniture, shredding no-longer-needed documents, and making sure all the little "i"'s have been dotted and "t"'s crossed between now and the 26th, when the move itself is scheduled.
Then of course, there's the "making sure everything ends up in the right place and that all the machines work like their supposed to" part that happens immediately afterward, at which point we can actually think about settling in, which hopefully won't take more than a few days.
Because I have a major fundraiser for the theatre happening the following weekend.
And a board meeting the following Monday.
And then, I think I'll deserve a bit of a vacation.
Sat With Strawberries & Cream Listening To The Players Scream
Our local Performance Art presenting organization decided to host a city-wide badminton tournament yesterday, featuring teams from a whole slew of different arts groups (theatre, music & dance companies, art museums, funding orgs, pottery collectives, even a local weekly news-and-arts paper) as part of their Season Kick-off. What they expected to be a handful of participants turned out to be something like 26 teams, all vying for the coveted "Golden Shuttlecock on top of a bottle of Jack Daniels" Award (J.D. being sort of an inside joke among the org's staff).
The parking lot across the street from the venue was fenced off, four courts set up, plenty of beer was available, as well as hot dogs and great Hawaiian/Korean/Mexican mash-up comestibles (the kimchi fried rice was particularly delicious, as were the spicy pork tacos!), and teams engaged in ritual racket combat until darkness descended and everyone moved inside for the championship match played out on the venue's main stage.
In the end, the top honors went to Pottery Northwest(that's them in the photo above, on the far side in the pink-and-black outfits) who pulled off a come-from-behind upset over the heavily-favored team from Seattle Repertory Theatre. There was a slight bit of controversy attached to their victory, as no one could definitively say whether the twosome met the team qualifications (participants had to be either a staff or board member of the organization), but in the spirit of fair-play, they were allowed to take-court anyway.
A good time was had by all and the whole thing turned into a very unique and fun networking event. Unfortunately, "Team Annex" made a pitiful showing, being eliminated in the very first round by the team from the above-mentioned publication; a grudge rematch is already in the making for next year.
According to today's local forecast, we should hit 91 degrees - that's as hot as it's supposed to be in Phoenix, hotter than Redding, CA. Portland? Eh, not even close.
So, for those of you who live in those other places - enjoy your chilly weather.
Last week "Big Red" went into the shop for annual maintenance and a complete rebuild of the front end: new ball joints, tie rods, linkage; pretty much everything but the steering box itself (which is still being contemplated, but may not be necessary.) At this point in time, I've now replaced all the major mechanical components with new or newly rebuilt parts: engine, steering, suspension, transaxle are all less than seven years old and have - at most - less than 50,000 miles wear.
Just to put that into perspective: when I replaced the engine with a new rebuild back in 2001 Red had about 190,000 miles under his wheels. Currently my odomoter is just over 240,000. Granted rebuilt parts don't have the same kind of useful life as new OEM parts, but they should get 75 - 80% of that, if not more with due care and regular maintenance. And, given that I'm only putting about 3,000 a year on it at this point (with an average annual mileage of only 6,250 over the past eight years), barring an unforeseen catastrophe, it's entirely possible I can keep Red in good running order for another 20 years.
Assuming of course that gasoline is still available in 20 years time, that is.
(Although secretly, I'm hoping mass-produced hydrogen fuel-cell conversion kits will hit the market in about 10 years.)
I Have Missed Things And Kept Out Of Sight, But Other Girls Were Never Quite Like This
Dawn and Bob were married today. This was the first time I've actually met him; he seems like a nice guy, and you can see that they're truly, deeply in love with each other. So, in some respects it wasn't as hard as I thought, watching it happen, but it wasn't exactly easy either. I felt privileged to have been invited; I'm sure it's not common for ex's: boyfriends, husbands, lovers, get invited to the wedding, so I imagine it's indicative of a level of trust when it does happen, and I'm grateful and humbled to be found worthy of that degree of trust. And yet, while I'm truly happy for both of them, at the same time I can't help but acknowledge the tiny, selfish-sounding whisper deep down inside that taunts, "buddy, that could have been you."
As I was leaving, Dawn came up to me and asked if I was doing okay, as if, of all things on her wedding day she needs to be worrying about me. Of course I told her I was, and told her how beautiful she looked, because she did look beautiful, and that I was sorry we hadn't kept in better touch over the past few months. She rolled her eyes, "yeah, we've both been kind of busy, haven't we?" which is certainly an understatement. I reminded her that the wedding present I'd just delivered had originally been intended as a Christmas present, and later was repurposed to a birthday present. "I'll do better about that," she said and gave me a hug, which in hindsight was really what I needed at that moment.
So, here's to Dawn and Bob: may they share much happiness, peace and prosperity as they begin their new lives together.
Mille failte dhuit le d'bhreid, Fad do re gun robh thu slan. Mo ran la ithean dhuit is sith, Le d'mhaitheas is le d'ni bhi fas!
Sooooo, I keep thinking there hasn't been all that much going on lately, and thus nothing of real import to convey, but then I realize the reason I think that is because I've been so darned busy of-late that I haven't had much time to think much about all the things I HAVE been doing.
A brief summary to-wit:
Although the office move is still a good two months away, there's been a huge amount of prep work involved: for example, I've been dealing on an almost daily basis with the contractors who are building out the new space, which frequently involves mid-day site visits to check on progress, answer questions, clarify where things are supposed to go, etc., etc.. Fortunately, we have lots of time to get this phase completed, and the contractors are making excellent progress, so that part of the job should be finished by next week, which will give me a little bit of a break before dealing with the second phase, namely, starting to get the current office ready for the physical move.
In addition to the above of course, I'm simultaneously identifying and implementing the various logistical elements involved with the move: securing the services of a mover, document disposal, scheduling with the phone companies, the post office, getting change-of-address info out to vendors, our members, and our national staff, getting bids on new signage, et al, along with starting the process of figuring out what we're getting rid of, what we're taking, and where it's all going to live once it gets there.
And of course, all of this is occurring in the midst of our normal, day-to-day work load, which has been much busier this late summer than normal. The TV series shooting down in Portland is winding up for the season, but because the last two episodes are being shot simultaneously (I'm guessing it's a two-parter), it's essentially doubled the amount of work we would normally need to do during an equivalent time-frame. Plus, they're adding and subtracting cast as the scripts and shooting-schedules change, so I've literally been on the phone with their Associate Producer and/or modifying cast clearances three or even four times a day. It's not a huge amount of extra work, but it is high-priority, so anything I happen to be doing at the time gets dropped; definitely messes up the "flow".
On the good side though, they've been renewed for a 3rd season, and it looks very likely they'll return to PDX for shooting next spring.
And in the middle of all of this, I'm well into week four of the ELDM diet. Haven't actually started weighing myself, as I thought I'd try to drop a few pounds before self-inflicting the dread of whatever scale number is going to come up, but I continue to notice a gradual loss of extra padding, to the point where a couple of days ago I could actually see something that vaguely looks like a rib beginning to show through; just one mind you, so I've got quite a ways to go before I have to start worrying about losing too much (!), but it's an encouraging start.
Things at the theatre are in a bit of a lull for the moment. We just closed our final shows of the season, and are officially on a teensy hiatus until the next show opens in late October, although we have a month-long "mini fringe festival" event coming in starting next week.
Actually, it's pretty exciting. Back in 1991 Seattle was the first U.S. city to put on a Fringe Theatre Festival (there had been several running in Canada prior to that), but it went belly-up in 2003. Still, a lot of Seattle performers have continued to ply the Canadian and eastern U.S. festival circuit, and they've frequently returned with reports of terrific performances and companies that no longer have an opportunity to be seen here. So, a bright, ambitious individual, one Andrew Connor, himself a veteran of the fringe fest circuit, has decided to do something about this, namely, to invite a whole passel of fellow festival acts to Seattle for a month-long "best of" mini-fringe fest, appropriately titled, The Suitcase Festival.
Annex has had an ongoing relationship with Andrew and his company for a couple of years now, and we've been kicking around ideas for some time as to ways we could collaborate, so this was pretty much a no-brainer so far as our Company was concerned. Several of the groups are local, but most aren't, so this will be the first chance in a long time (if not the first time ever) that Seattle audiences will have so see these companies perform.
And who knows? Maybe it'll get people here excited about the idea of reviving the now long-somnolent Seattle Fringe Festival...
I Left From The Station With A Haversack And Some Trepidation
So, I decided to go on a diet a couple of weeks ago - nothing fancy; I call it the "ELDM" diet (Eat Less Do More), basically just being more mindful of what I'm putting down my gullet and making a point of actually getting out and moving around on a more-or-less regular basis.
I'm not experiencing any spectacular "lost 6 inches in two weeks!" sort of phenomenon, but at the same time, I'm not feeling overly compelled to sue somebody either. And it HAS made a difference; the pants are a little less snug than they were a couple of weeks ago, and the joints don't feel quite so creaky after a four or five mile walk. It hasn't required any major lifestyle changes, just a little adjustment here and there, so maybe I can even stick with it for a few months, just to see what happens.
Otherwise, not much else going on. I've been up to my eyeballs at work between catching up on the backlog from being gone for most of a week, to scrambling to get a few new projects booked for members, to starting in with the real nitty-gritty of the new office remodel and impending move. With my boss gone for the past two weeks, I've taken the initiative to pull all the pieces of the move together, of which there seem to be quite a few: scheduling movers, contacting the phone company, engaging a document disposal service, getting bids on signage, starting to contact vendors, coordinating with our national office, etc., etc.. Two months seems like plenty of time to get everything in place, but the way time seems to be flying by lately, it'll be mid-October before I can blink.
Oh, and did I mention I'm planning a fundraiser for The Theatre that - naturally - is happening at exactly the same time as the move? Of course I am.
Got My Glass Of Water Cooling, Got My Shades Over My Eyes
Lack of posting this past week has been due to, well, lack of anything momentous about which to post. Work was quiet, with very little backlog from my absence the previous week and my boss taking a two week post-convention vacation (as I also make note of the fact that Saturday - not an actual work day - was my 4th Anniversary of gainful employment at The Job); the weather ranged from a bit of rain to mostly sunny, but staying in our "ideal summer" uppper 70's/lower 80's; no big events in the offing (with the slight exception of a late-night show opening, and Saturday's flaming tribal dance BBQ spectacular.
Sometimes, it's good to not have a full plate, you know?
They've Burst Your Pretty Balloon And Taken The Moon Away
The 2009 AFTRA National Convention adjourned just after 1:00 a.m. Chicago time. Pre-planning for the 2011 Convention in Seattle began at around 1:15 a.m.
I guess I know what I'm going to be doing about this same time two years hence...
My local's delegation is caucusing right now, so I've got a tiny break before we go back into regular session.
Have seen very little of Chicago, except for the few blocks around the hotel and a brief glimpse of some of the waterfront on our trip to and from Thursday evening's social event. Fortunately, the weather has been mild, uppper 70's with low humidity; even rained most of yesterday. Today, temps are creeping back up and the humidity is also on the rise, as evinced by the mugginess I experienced on the two block walk to the deli for a sandwich a little while ago.
About the only perk so far this trip is that I was given a room (possibly the smallest hotel room I've ever been in - and I've been in some small ones) up on the "Regency Club floor", which apparently is reserved for frequent-stay guests. The Club itself is a rather nicely apportioned lounge where all manner of snacks and goodies can be had - for free - throughout the day. I discovered on Thursday that my room key-card lets me into the lounge, so I've been saving a bit of $$ on meal expenses by breakfasting there instead of going to a restaurant.
Turns out we don't have a session on Sunday morning, so it's possible I might have a slight window of opportunity to get out for a couple of hours to do a bit of exploring before heading to the airport tomorrow afternoon, but it really depends on how late things go tonight. I've heard that sessions can go as late as 2:00 or even 3:00 a.m., although nobody seems to be anticipating going much later than maybe 11:00 p.m. So, if I manage to get a good night's sleep (something that hasn't occurred so far), that might be a possibility; we'll see how things go.
Bet Your Bottom Dollar You'll Lose The Blues In Chicago
In Chicago for the AFTRA Convention, a bit of a challenge getting there though.
Got up at 4:30 a.m. yesterday, caught a bus downtown thinking I'd make use of our brand-spanking new light rail (even though it doesn't go all the way to the airport - yet), but we were kicked off two stops before the end-of-the-line because of a traffic accident on the tracks (no trains were involved, we were told). So, they put us on a bus to the last station, then we got on another bus that dropped us off at the airport. My impression of LINK: the trains are nice and comfortable, but even when the airport station opens later this year, I'm not sure it's going to be a faster trip than taking a regular bus.
Did the normal check-in, walk through security, then down to the departure lounge. My flight was scheduled to leave at 8:30 a.m., so I had just enough time to grab a quick airport breakfast (i.e. expensive and most reconstituted) before boarding.
We pulled away from our slot right on-schedule, but then sat on the taxiway for about 45 minutes before the pilot announced we were having a little mechanical difficulty and would be heading back to the gate. After another 15 minutes we were informed that a valve that feeds compressed air from the starter turbine to the engine turbines, thus starting them was malfunctioning, and that, because there was no spare in Seattle, they'd have to ship up a replacement from San Francisco, and that most likely the flight would not be able to leave until around 1:00 p.m.
Fortunately, they also let us know that, if we were travelling beyond the flight's final destination (St. Louis) we could call the airline and rebook on another flight. I lucked out and managed to get a direct flight to Chicago that left at 11;30 a.m. (by now it was after 10:00 a.m.), and I would actually get in an hour earlier than my original schedule.
Unfortunately, it also meant having to get my checked bag, getting back in the ticketing line to re-check it, then back through the security line, then back to another departure gate - talk about feelings of deja vu.
Long story short, finally made it to Chicago about 5:30 local, grabbed my bags, caught a train into downtown, then a taxi from the stop to the hotel, since I had no idea how far it would be, had just enough time to check-in, register my delegation for today's session, then meet them for dinner. Afterward, I took a brief walk around a few blocks of downtown, then crashed about 11:30 p.m.
The convention proper started this morning with a pre-recorded welcome to Chicago from President Obama (guess it helps when the POTUS is from the town where your holding your convention!), and all the usual housekeeping and committee reports that ensue during these things.
Highlight of the morning: during our mid-morning break I went out to the lobby to refill my coffee and while I was pouring some half-and-half into my cup this very soft, slightly southern drawl behind me asked, "excuse me, may I have a little of that?"
And that's how I ended up pouring cream into Morgan Fairchild's coffee.
The above poorly rendered image of Sonic Youth was taken Saturday evening the 25th at the Capitol Hill Block Party. I have no idea why it took more than a full week for the MMS to send-and-upload to the site.
It's hot today, I mean HOT! "Oh, pshaw!" I hear you scoff, "You people up there in your little green paradise don't know what hot is!" Don't believe me, just ask.
"Okay, I'll bite. How hot was it?"
It was hot, okay? Record-crushingly hot, not just the hottest day of the year, not just the highest recorded temperature for this date, but the hottest day EVER RECORDED in these parts since geeks with thermometers started recording temperatures around here about 118 years ago.
103 degrees Fahrenheit, to be precise.
That's pretty darned hot, by anyone's standards; just to put it into context, that's roughly 25 degrees hotter than the average this time of year.
And we're being told to expect more of the same tomorrow, another day in triple-digits, before it starts "cooling down" into the 90's and upper 80's for the weekend, where it will apparently remain for some time.
I never thought I'd say this, but being in Chicago next week is going to be an actual relief.
I Have Only One Burning Desire Let Me Stand Next To Your Fire
When a Goth, tribal dancer decides she wants a beach party for her birthday, she GETS a beach party complete with doumbeks, tambourines, and fire-dancing under the summer stars.
Too bad it also came with some jerk(s) raiding our picnic shelter for unattended snacks and beverage coolers. That's some bad karma they're not going to earn down for quite some time.
July 20, 1969 was a few months shy of my 9th birthday, but I still recall that day vividly; actually a greater part of that week, since the TV networks pre-empted whatever was on at the moment whenever a television transmission was beamed down from Columbia/Eagle. It's something I think a lot of people born in the modern era of total global media saturation don't fully comprehend: the Apollo 11 mission was the first truly world-wide media event, with literally one quarter of the four-odd billion human beings listening to or watching every detail of the journey as it occurred in real-time.
Here in the Pacific Northwest it's still light at 8:00 p.m. in July, when Armstrong crawled out through the Lunar Module hatch and onto the "porch" just prior to the beginning of the live TV transmission. I was laying on the floor of our living room, watching one of those gigantic old color console TV's; my dad sitting in his lounger behind me, and my step mom and younger brothers sort of wandering around, maybe paying attention, maybe not. My entire focus was on that TV screen, so any peripheral activity going on around me was pretty much blanked out.
The landing itself had occurred some seven hours earlier, around 1:00 p.m. local time, so this had literally been an all day event, what with the CM/LM separation, the pre-burn visual inspection, then the actual de-orbit burn and landing. The networks had essentially cancelled whatever regular programming had been scheduled for that day (a Sunday, as I recall). Most of this of course wasn't seen by the television audience, but the network commentators (or, if you wanted the "real coverage", just CBS's Walter Cronkite - R.I.P.) were backed up by teams of reporters staking out every facility in NASA's network, from Mission Control in Houston, to JPL in Pasadena, even the contractors if I recall correctly, and of course everyone had some sort of model, or graphic representation, or animation available to illustrate every maneuver and activity.
So, we're sitting there, glued to the tube, watching the pictures come in from mission control, and listening to the eerie, occasionally echo-ey audio, when suddenly this ghostly, grainy black-and-white image pops up with a crawler scrolling across the bottom saying "Live From The Surface Of The Moon". Frankly, it was pretty hard to make out at first, since the LM had intentionally come down facing into its own shadow. But then, in that darkness, there was movement, and after a moment or two you could just make out the image of a puffy figure climbing down the ladder attached to the LM's front leg; Armstrong making his way down slowly, testing his ability to move in the bulky 300 pound space suit in one-sixth earth gravity; hopping up and down from the bottom rung to the landing foot-pad (because, as it turns out, he'd landed so softly, even despite having only a few seconds of fuel left, the shock-absorbing landing legs hadn't depressed as far down as had been expected), all the while describing his actions as we're watching them, which helped clarify things a great deal since he really was hard to make out in the low-contrast image.
Then, suddenly he gets still, and you can hear the tension in his voice: "Okay, I'm going to step off the LM now", and there's a slight side-ways movement; "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." I've seen this footage literally scores of times since that day, and despite his intention of including that additional "a" before "man", I can say with full confidence that it wasn't there. No glitch in the transmission, no halting pause - he just forgot to say it, period. Don't let the revisionists tell you otherwise. It's not like he wasn't a bit preoccupied at the time.
And at that moment, I think the entire world must have let out a collective sigh of breath - I know I did. Because, as tension-filled as the landing itself had been, this was THE moment, what we'd all been waiting for since Kennedy's Rice University speech in 1962 when he made the challenge to "land a man on the moon and return him safely to the earth" before the end of the decade. Like Columbus (or maybe Erikson, or some unknown Chinese sailor) setting foot in the new world, Amundson at the South Pole, Hillary on Everest's summit, it's that one step, that physical touching of the unexplored place that seems to matter most to us, and here we were watching the most important step to occur in our lifetime, perhaps in any lifetime, live in glorious black-and-white television.
Cronkite, removing his glasses and wiping obvious tears from his eyes, with a grin as wide as the moon itself is also a memory that sticks with me. Anyone who grew up in that era, in the States at any rate, recognized him as one of our most trusted authority figures. He was the one on the news every night, telling us about the world, about our own country, the daily body counts of U.S. soldiers killed, the protests and unrest, the triumphs and tragedies of mid-century America; and here he was, unapologetically shedding tears of joy and relief, expressing how most of us felt at that same moment TO us. So sad that he had to pass just a few days short of this momentous anniversary, of which he was such an integral spectator.
After that, the rest of the moon walk is a bit of a blur in my memory. Once Armstrong set up the second, tripod-mounted TV camera, things were a little easier to make out, since it was out of the LM's shadow and showing considerably more detail and contrast. There were images of Aldrin coming out of the LM, down the ladder and onto the surface; magnificent panorama shots of the desolate, yet surprisingly smooth lunar landscape; two marshmallow encased figures bouncing up-and-down on the lunar surface; the setting up of the U.S. flag; Nixon's telephone call to the astronauts (another now taken-for-granted notion, that one can just pick up a phone and call someone, not just anywhere on the earth, but on another planet as well!); the unveiling and reading of the plaque attached to the LM landing leg intoning a message of peace and unity, ironic for a mission originally conceived in an era of paranoia and military competitiveness.
And then two and a-half hours later, they were crawling back into the LM. The TV transmission ceased, there were a few final comments from the reporters, and it was all over. I remember my dad getting us ready for bed, but who could have slept after a day like that? I lay wide awake in bed for hours, while those grainy black-and-white images continued to replay in my head. staring at the Revell 1/96 scale Saturn V model that stood In the corner of the bedroom I shared with one of my younger brothers. My dad and I had built it together (well, he did most of the building!) a couple of months prior; at nearly 4 foot tall it was bigger than me, and it loomed there in the darkness like a protective totem. I imagined myself, as I had done numerous times before, occupying that tiny silver cone at the very top, racing through the inky black sky toward the dull grey orb that even now was visible in the darkness above, wondering what it must have been like to travel down to its surface. But, I didn't have to imagine - I'd seen it with my own eyes, watched two men from planet earth traverse its landscape as if I was there standing next to them as they shuffled and hopped their way into history.
Hard to believe it's now 40 years later. Even harder for me to imagine why we stopped going, just when we'd made those first few tentative steps out into the darkness. After a handful more missions - it all just ended. Sure, we had Skylab, and Apollo-Soyuz (finally making friends - in space at least - with our Russian adversaries), but then another six years would pass before the first Shuttle mission - none of which has ever gone beyond 400 miles altitude above the earth's surface. All sorts of rationalizations have been put forth to explain the step-back: the public lost interest in the seemingly routine nature of the event (the near-catastrophic events of the Apollo 13 mission notwithstanding); politicians couldn't support the enormous costs, especially with a full-scale war raging half a world away; we'd reached the goal of beating the Soviets to the moon, so the race was effectively over. But, I'd seen the images of Von Braun and Bonestell, of Kubrick and Clarke; the moon was supposed to have been just the beginning, not the end. We were supposed to have giant space stations, and permanent lunar bases, and leviathan-sized ships traversing the dark solar sea to Mars - and beyond. By the first decade of the New Millennium going into outer space was supposed to have been as routine as taking a long plane flight; instead of a few hundred astronauts, there were supposed to have been thousands of us, perhaps tens of thousands, regularly leaving the surly bonds of earth and venturing out into the void. And yet, here it is nearly 2010, and we're only just now talking about going back to the moon, maybe, in another ten years or so.
I just hope to live long enough to see it happen again.
What a sad irony; Walter Cronkite, the last of the "Murrow's Boys" and the literal symbol of objective newsreporting for the past 40 years died today at the age of 92, just on the eve of the 40th Anniversary of what was perhaps the greatest story he ever covered as a news anchor.
For those of us who grew up in the '60's and '70's Cronkite was the ultimate authority figure: wise, usually somber, but not afraid to let a wry delight escape when appropriate. He was on television just about every night for decades, reporting on tragedies and triumphs, showing us the good, the bad, and sometimes the horrifying, but always informing us, teaching us more about our world and our place in it.
I was going to save posting this link until Monday, the actual anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing, but in honor of the late Mr. Cronkite, now seems like an appropriate time to put it up:
Kiss The World Goodbye And Away We Fly, Destination Moon
Although there has probably been some lead-up to this, as of 6:53 a.m. Pacific Time, the 40th Anniversary commemoration of the Apollo 11 mission has officially begun:
Celebratory events are being held across the nation. Unfortunately, only a few events are happening locally, but I would highly recommend checking out Monday's event at Northwest Film Forum, where they'll show the original televised EVA event at 7:00 p.m., followed by a presentation by filmmaker and sound artist Joe Militus.
In the meantime, for those of you who have never experienced this incredible footage, enjoy.
I baked 50 of these little morsels, all from scratch. Mixed and rolled the dough, grated the meat & vegetables, stuffed, folded, & sealed each and every single little pie (and found the dough press I bought this afternoon to be completely worthless - good thing it only cost me $6) and brought them all to hot, flaky perfection.
I Want To Ride My Bicycle, I Want To Ride It Where I Like
So, I bought a bicycle a couple of months ago - nothing fancy, A used Raleigh Mojave 2.0 that a friend needed to sell for quick cash. But since then, I haven't really had time to do anything with it until yesterday, when I added a few doo-dads and gee-gaws to make it a little more road-worthy (pedal stirrups, mud guards, a new lock, & lights), and finally took it out for a test-drive down to the Theatre for our monthly late-night cabaret.
I'm still a little sore.
First off, I haven't been on a bicycle in, well, I'm not exactly sure how long, at least 9 years by my estimate. I haven't owned a bike since I moved onto the boat, which would have been back in July of 2000, and it was stolen right off the bike rack at the marina shortly thereafter. I can't recall having been on one since then.
So, there's that period of adjustment, getting used to the new center of gravity, and balance, and all that. Fortunately, several years of scooter riding helps somewhat, but not completely; you're much higher up in the air, so the center of gravity rises accordingly. Also, the balance feels very different because the bike itself is so much lighter in comparison.
Then there's simply the act of pedaling; getting the seat and handlebars adjusted to balance between comfort and efficiency. Right now, the seat feels about right, but the handlebars need to come up quite a bit, so that will get fixed today.
Seattle is a city of hills (seven, according to the local history, just like Rome; you can spot the newbies when they try to name them, and get into arguments with the natives over which of Seattle's currently existing and/or long-vanished promontories qualify as the "original seven") and I happen to live on the back side of one of the larger ones, while just about everything I need to get to is on the other side. Fortunately, I'm close to the top, but getting to the summit is a somewhat steep climb for those few blocks; going over the first time, I ended up switchbacking over a few side streets that have a little gentler slope than the main street, although I did manage to make it up Union on the return trip. Still, it was huffing-and-puffing all the way to the top; but then, that's sort of the point, isn't it?
Of course, riding on hills also means dealing with gravity - going both directions - and having prior experience in terms of being hit on these same hills on "Little Nellie", I'm just short of paranoid when it comes to traffic, particularly coming off side-streets, alleys, and driveways. So, I probably won't be doing any speedy descents anytime soon, given that I know what it feels like to fall off a scooter at 20 mph, and that I'm sporting even less in the way of protective gear (the obligatory helmet aside) which means I can anticipate major "road burn" - or worse - in the event of a crash. And it's a given that, until I get in better shape, climbing is going to be the hardest part of the deal for a while.
But, still, it's a start. I may not get up to the level I was at back in high school, when I could do 70 miles in a single go, climb two-mile long hills without getting winded, and looked not unlike those bike racers from "The Triplets of Belleville": legs thick as Douglas Fir trunks, and a toothpick-skinny upper torso (why, oh why did someone not explain to me the benefits of upper body training back in those days?). But, if in the process it increases my lung capacity, improves my cardio, and burns off a few pounds, well I won't be complaining.
I'm A Lover, I'm A Sinner, I Play My Music In The Sun
For some reason I completely forgot to bring a camera with me to the annual Artopia/Georgetown Music Festival on Saturday - not even my trusty low-rez phone camera. So, no pictures of the event, although it was fun, and a good excuse to get down into a neighborhood I enjoy, but seldom visit. The bands were ones I'd never heard of before, but that's sort of the point, since they're apparently all considered "up and coming", and probably not familiar to more than a handful of people who are much more connected to the new music scene than myself. And the art was interesting to some degree, particularly a couple of installation pieces.
I don't spend nearly enough time wandering through either of these particular communities; I have a hard enough time just staying on top of what's happening locally in theatre, so it's a pleasant diversion to spend a bit of time visiting some other artistic realm - and the combination of these two previously separate events provided an excellent opportunity to do so.
Horrible picture, I know, which does not come anywhere close to expressing the sheer, giddy joy of sitting around with a bunch of your friends watching puppet karaoke at midnight - and of course, the song selected was, as referred to above, highly appropriate.
In The Summertime When the Weather Is Fine You Can Reach Right Up And Touch The Sky
Summer officially begins today, and in Seattle that means the commencement of the annual Fremont Fair & Solstice Parade. I missed out on the parade (the only rule: no signage or printed words) due to a work teleconference, and got there just as crowds were heading away from the parade route, but did hit the fair itself, which is an annual fundraiser for Solid Ground (nee Fremont Public Association), a social services agency for which I worked back in the early/mid-'90's.
I Think About The Implications Of Diving In Too Deep
I just finished putting 100 1 1/2-inch stainless steel screws into the marquee for the theatre I built last spring. The plywood facing is starting to warp just a bit, which is creating just enough of a gab between it and the plastic tracks so that the letters are falling through the gap between them. So, I ended up putting in a bunch more screws into the tracks, on roughly 2-inch centers, in order to push it flat against the plywood.
It sounds like overkill, I know, but I initially tried adding screws on 4-inch centers and found places where the letters would still slide out of position, so overkill it had to be.
Is there some rule that says crows will always wake you up at the earliest possible time of the day? Like, when the first glimmering of sunrise appears, say around 5:00 a.m.? I mean, it's not exactly like they have to get that early of a start on the day, right? The dumpsters are still going to be plenty full of last evening's fast food cast-aways, and not even the cats are out-and-about at that hour, so what's the deal?
Would it help if I hung a big "Do Not Disturb" sign on my front door?
