Ceremony

This week there was a Change of Command ceremony at work.  The Military does things a certain way, and I have come to see that there is comfort in knowing what will happen.  In this case, the outgoing Commander added a bit to it, and while the guys moaned about the practice in marching (which they aren't used to)  out in the sun so that everything would go as planned, the actual ceremony was awesome.  Listening to the speakers and seeing the guys standing in formation and then passing in review was a big reminder that I work every day with heroes.  Of course, coming back into the building after the ceremony all filled with new respect for these warriors, they started being their usual selves, so I went back to fussing and insulting them per Standard Operating Procedure.  Still they all looked truly awesome all decked out in the 'good' uniforms and on their sharpest Military behavior while it lasted.

As shown below, it seems that I can post pictures directly from my IPhone.  If I'd known that while I was at Mt. St. Helens I would have posted them from the site rather than waiting 2 weeks.  I don't know if there is any limit to the number of photos posted this way on the blog(s).  Guess I'll just keep posting them till I find out.

It works!!!

Pictures of Mount St. Helens weekend of the 4th sent from my IPhone.
Who knew I could do this!

Title Goes Here

Can't think of even a boring title today.  Odd week.  Tuesday was a day of change for many around me, some good, several not so good.  My partner at work got a call that a teenage niece who has been living with my partner's Mom had been in a bad accident.  So, she ended up heading to the other side of the state to be with her family.  Mom my moved Tuesday.  I reported that they loaded up the big truck and headed off.  They got to Kansas City around 1am, slept a few hours and went and unloaded the truck into Mom's new apartment.  As of tonight she is mostly unpacked and moved in.  Signs she's back home:  While out running errands she saw a storm approaching, and that my Aunt had laundry hanging to dry outside.  My Aunt was at work down the street at the library.  So, Mom stopped and grabbed the laundry and put it in her car, then went down to assure her sister that despite what neighbors might call and say, her clothes hadn't actually been abducted.  After the hard rain shower Mom went back and gave my Aunt her now dry laundry.  In unpacking her freezer items some frozen peaches got thawed, and since Mom didn't want to take the time to do anything with them she took them (again, just down the street) to a family friend and former neighbor of hers who was going to make them into a cobbler to take to the senior center.  Mom's home.

Another not so good thing that happened Tuesday was my friend Turtle Lady's son was injured and had to have emergency surgery.  TL and her husband are across the state from their home, camped out near the hospital as the rest of the family gathers around.  Prayers and good thoughts for the family are solicited as they have some long-term issues to work through helping their adult son through this.

More went on this week, but I'll post more on that tomorrow.

Going Back

I took some time and re-read some of my earlier postings to the blog from a few years ago.  Funny, it seemed while reading them that I was talking about things just the other day rather than 3 or more years ago.  I am still working on many of the same issues, and others I have fallen even further from where I want to be.  I keep pondering but what I need to do is stop pondering and get up and do. 

Over at SimpleLiving.net I'm participating in an inventory challenge.  Because I'm actually reporting in I feel obligated to count something every night.  That would be rather the point of posting, that sense of something outside of myself forcing me to actually do it.  As I count I pull things out and turn over the items so that the less used things are up front.  I actually get rid of things, or at least put them in the pile for Goodwill.  I also make notes of where to purge further if/when I need to fit things into a smaller footprint.  I want to fit everything except me and the cats into a modular moving cube when I move cross-country again.  No more big moving trucks pulling my Jeep behind again if I can help it.

Speaking of big moving trucks, Mom is right now in the process of moving to Kansas City.  A cousin flew in this morning and they picked up the moving truck.  Mom hired a couple of guys and they loaded the truck and Mom and Butch took off from Nashville around 2:30 pm.  Butch said they will drive till they get there, which is how I tend to do things, too.  I told Mom to take pillows and a blanket in the cab with her (they are pulling her car behind like I did my Jeep) so she can sleep.  She didn't think she'd need a blanket, but I said that they could always stop at a WalMart and get one if she does.  I'll call yet again to see how they are doing in a bit.  When I got off work they were already just over an hour from St. Louis.  Mom tends to just get up and do things.  She checked out places to live  when she was back there Memorial weekend, and she's moving there today.  I've been whining for a year that I want to move back, and here I still sit.

Finally

Today is the first day I have been too warm.  The East is having a heat wave with 100+ degree days.  Here, today was the first day that I peeled out of my fleece upon getting to work.  I wouldn't have needed it at all, even with my short sleeve top, but I did need it yesterday with a long sleeve top, so it was habit.  I was too cold for part of the past weekend, even with the fleece, outside.  Also, there is a bright orb in the sky that looks only vaguely familiar.  Maybe summer (all few days of it?) is finally here in the PNW.

This past weekend I drove over to Mount St. Helens.  It was cloudy so I only saw the middle part of the mountain.  I was going to post a picture, but that's why I haven't written about the trip, waiting to get around to posting the picture.  Maybe I'll post it this next weekend...  I found a restaurant on the road to Mount St. Helens that advertised via a large sign that they have home made cobbler.  I stopped and had some soup, then had some strawberry rhubarb cobbler.  It was awesome.  Almost worth the 75 mile drive down to the place just for the cobbler.  If you drive 505 to 504 you can't miss the place.  That was the highlight of the trip.  I may go back and see the mountain on a clear day, now that we may actually a few.  It was 50 degrees and windy at 4000' where the visitor center is.  It cost $8 to actually hang out there, and since it was cold, windy, and cloudy I didn't pay money to see what I could see from the roadside pullouts.  Again, maybe next time.

No progress on the job hunting.  No progress on studying.  That's pretty much it.

More on Blogs

I have been thinking more about my rant here the other day.  I guess this is hitting me because when I started my blog(s) I saw it as a portal to put my own persona out on the web.  I have my own domain, which I do not use for the blog, and have been on the internet for years, and before that on email lists and such.  The blog was the next step in exploring the technology, and I spent some time mentally putting together what I wanted it to be as a reflection of who I am on the net.  I am nicer on the net than I am in person, by the way. 

These new 'focused' blogs that follow the cookie-cutter mentality and where making money is the main goal of the blog bother me.  I still remember when there was a huge fight about letting the internet go commercial rather than keeping it academic (and military, let's be truthful) only.  I guess that is some of what I'm feeling, that tug that it was more fun out here in blog land when they were used for personal expression and not just money making.

Mind you, I have no issues at all with blogs that folks talk about what they love and just happen to have some ads to make some money.  Most of those folks would be writing in some forum anyway.  People who are RV'ing and write about their travels and such especially.  I get value from the blogs and have even been known to donate some money if someone I followed regularly had major issues (such as a heart attack with no insurance).  I guess I just stumbled onto the personal financial blogs, the minimalism blogs, the 'location 180' self-employment blogs, at lot of which are just out there to make a buck and let folks brag about how they are making money working from their computer from exotic locations or whatever.  Some of these blogs are set up to have a formal group go to each other's blogs and click ads to make each other money.  They all write about the same books, and most will have an e-book for sale or some e-course, mostly telling you how to write an e-book or set up and e-course.  sigh. 

Time to go through my blog list and eliminate a few I guess.  I'm also feeling a bit like I'm shaking my walker at the young punks yelling 'Get off my lawn!'  Is this yet another sign that I'm irrefutably old?

Blogs

There is an article on CNN today about how to make your blog more popular.  It makes it sound like if I'm writing a blog about just my life, general topics with no overridding focus, and there are no comments (which there aren't here, much) that my blog is a total loser and I might as well just crawl into some dark crack somewhere and give up on life.  Well, I disagree.  I'm not so happy with the current rush to have a 'popular' blog, and to have lots of ads and make money from said blog.  In fact, on one blog (this is posted to two different sites) I actually pay money to keep ads the heck off my blog.  I don't really care how popular this blog is since I mostly write for myself and to let any interested friends know what I'm up to.  If online folks enjoy anything I write here, great.  If not, I still enjoy the process of writing and am learning a lot from keeping an online blog.  I'm learning that blogging on any kind of schedule is difficult for me.  I'm learning that having new and interesting material to write is even more difficult.  I appreciate the blogs I follow more because I have a good idea of how much dedication it takes to put out the quality they do.  I'm not so interested in those blogs that jump out to tell me how to live, in the narrow focus and popular vernacular of the day, who have all the right ads and who mention on the side that if I was just as cool as them I could also make money with my blog, and to learn how just buy their new e-book and put an affiliate link...  No affiliate links here.  If I like something I say so, and if I don't I also say so.

 

Sorry, just had to get all that out of my system.

It's Time

Time to update.  I got back to Washington State in one piece, then proceeded to come down with a bad cold. Over two weeks later I still have the cold, although not nearly as bad.  The last day in Tennessee was starting to be true summer, very hot and humid.  Back here it is still chilly.  The past few days it finally stopped raining, and the weather has been beautiful.  I really need to get out into it today and at least go for a walk.  I also need to make plans for next weekend as it's a 3 day weekend and I want to go exploring.

I am looking at my stuff with the eye to packing it all up again.  I'm going to extend my contract here at this apartment because I'll lose all of my deposit wherever I am.  In fact, out here the people consider it a good deal if they don't get socked for an additional cleaning fee beyond the deposit, as in up to $1000.00.  I know of a couple of folks that happened to, not just one, so I consider it a trend.  Since I feel better now than I have since I got back I'll start the process of looking for another job someplace else.  While I like the area, I can't afford to live here in the Pacific Northwest, and it doesn't have any hold on me to keep trying.

Ongoing projects include getting back to scanning important documents and getting rid of stuff.  I made enough room in the storage unit back in Nashville to hold what I have out here if I need to consolidate things while I go work someplace out of the country.  As always, I could have gotten rid of more while there, but it was emotionally draining being back there with no real place to call my own.

I'll try to post progress on at least one project later today or tomorrow.  Again I'm thinking I would like to update here more often.  I'll see how it goes.

I'm Officially Old

First it was while in Pigeon Forge last week.  Since I now have contacts I didn't get transitions lenses on my glasses.  I figured the glasses were just for evenings after taking my contacts.  Well, I end up wearing my glasses a lot, so I needed clip on sunglasses.  I found some neat ones that are spring loaded clip-on and made of glass.  So very (insert what decade, I'm not sure if it's 60's or 70's or what).  I love them.  I'm officially old.

Then, yesterday I joined AARP.  With the discount I'll get on the motel next week, it more than will pay for the membership.  When I go today and rent a car, I'll get another discount.  I caved.  So, I am irrefutably old.  Sigh.