Ahhhhh….the Pacific Northwest!
Good stuff….and a good short film.
Thanks again, Vimeo…..and thankyou Janssen Powers!
Anything about riding a bicycle around and camping is interesting to me.
Figuring out that the thrift store fake tree we got has stopped smelling like cat pee is interesting to me, too
Probably the cat pee thing is a more pressing concern, anyway.
Christmas with a foul smelling fake tree is not very pleasant….no matter how much money we saved.
Here’s a couple who are cycling around to show how water conservation is important.
Makes good sense.
I missed a second post out of 1529 somewhat consecutive days of never missing a day of writing this blog….last night.
I mean, I missed a day.
Of writing.
2 now….2 missed days out of years of writing.
Dang.
It’s really no big deal.
I’m the only one who probably noticed.
But, it’s just like the running.
If I don’t skip at least one of the priorities that I need to try to cover….whether it’s cleaning up after myself….or trying to fix something that is broken or sure to break later….or….maybe just getting some sleep….if I don’t put the activity out in front of my responsibilities….I’m going to miss a day at some point….and every time I miss a day, it gets easier to miss a day on down the line.
Once you miss one, the spell is broken and you see that none of it really matters.
I fell asleep with Nate…putting him to bed….and when I woke up it was 11:00 and the computer was off and I didn’t think about anything other than just going to bed
So…..I didn’t post anything.
Until I woke up this morning, I didn’t even realize that I’d missed another day.
But….maybe it’s better to not post “anything” than it is to try to find another video to hold my place until I’m not too groggy to write something that I actually care about?
Maybe.
Nah…..here’s another video.
Maybe I’ll get some rest and the pointless string will continue.
And….it’s really hard to find a “stupid” YouTube video when you’re trying to prove a point. This video is actually kind of cool….cycle touring Japan.
That would be a good reason to miss a blog post…..cycling Japan.
That would be more exciting than trying to fix the old dishwasher.
Man.
2 out of 1529 isn’t really all that bad.
We have a big dog now…a Great Pyrenees….named Appa.
Appa chews everything.
We cleaned out a storage shed that we had some stuff in, and found a bunch of old slides and photographs that I’d had for a while….stuff from high school and college….and during the process of finishing the cleaning, Appa got hold of them and chewed them all up.
This photo is one that I saved from the trash can.
Photos are easy to lose.
Memories…..not easy to lose.
I’m thankful for that.
In the picture, I’m standing behind Mel Brooks at a Diamond Brand Christmas party.
I’d moved back to North Carolina to work at Diamond Brand Camping Center….and had been there for a couple of weeks.
(I’m kidding about “Mel Brooks”. The man is the owner of the company….Arnold….and I’m photobombing him….)
The reason this picture is important to me is this is where I met Jenny for the first time.
She was at the party with a co-worker….and I spent the evening trying to talk to her without usurping my friend’s attentions.
I was snaking in the most subtle way.
I remember that after the party, I was sitting at the lunch table with some of my friends at work, and I mentioned that I thought that it was weird meeting her, that it felt like “I’d met my wife or something”.
So….that’s what this picture is all about….the first time that I met Jenny.
I had another picture in the bunch that got thrown away that actually showed her off to the side….but that one is gone now….in some landfill somewhere.
That’s why memories are so important.
I didn’t see Jenny again for three years after that party, but when I did I asked her out and….the rest is …history.
Today is our 23rd wedding anniversary.
That’s a big deal….4 children….a lot of living under our belts….always together.
Thank goodness I went to that party.
Thank goodness that Appa’s teeth missed this one picture.
It’s fun to have it and remember.
This is not political.
It’s just a guy measuring snowfall….alone in a cabin in Colorado…filling his days with an activity that proved useful later.
I don’t know how Climate Change….or whatever you want to call it….became such a political issue.
Now, it feels like a witch hunt or something, rounding up all the people who supported the theory, refuting that there’s any truth to the idea that the planet may be going through some hard times, and that we may play a part in shaping what our ecosystem reacts to.
Of course we play a part in the whole thing.
Of course we do.
Now, we may not be the whole problem.
It may be a bunch of cows expelling methane out in a pastoral looking field who make the most impact.
The cows are oblivious, of course…..
Whether we politicize it or not, it’s happening.
How deep into it do we need to get before people say that maybe something is happening?
This guy measured snowfall…..and knows that something is different.
He’s not trying to shut down the wheels of commerce.
He just knows that it doesn’t snow like it used to.
It’s not all political.
That doesn’t make it any less sad.
I hope this doesn’t get me sent to the “Climate Change Concentration Camp”.
It’s almost too easy these days.
Here’s a lady talking about a 15,000 dollar house.
That’s pretty cool.
Now, of course, I don’t mean that building a house for fifteen thousand dollars is easy.
That’s incredibly hard….but attainable, obviously.
What I mean is that it’s a lot easier to find out about any of this stuff these days.
Seek….and ye shall find.
You can find the information….and the people to supply the information….pretty quickly if you know where to look.
Finding a “building guru” was a little harder back in the day.
“Back in the day”? It’s all back in the day.
By the time you recognize that something happened, it’s “back in the day”….even if it was only milliseconds before.
It’s all back in the day.
What am I saying, anyway?
I like being able to see people doing interesting things.
I like, hopefully, to do interesting things myself.
A 15,000 dollar log home?
That’s pretty interesting.
If I had the time, I could do stuff with no money.
I’m too busy trying to make money to do something interesting like build a 15,000 dollar house.
That’s my excuse, anyway.
Our dog, Appa, will pull me down an icy slope in the morning when it’s still too dark to see what I’m careening into, down towards the garden where he will spend the day after a long, cold night spent in the laundry area on the porch.
He’s a big Great Pyrenees….almost too big….almost too strong.
It’s hard to hold him back.
I imagine that he could pull a sled all by himself….if he thought that it was his idea.
Look at all the dogs in this video!
That’s a lot of dogs.
I’m glad that I only have to worry about trying to control Appa.
It would be hard to keep my feet on solid ground if I was holding back 50 dogs.
I don’t think that Appa is really a working dog, anyway….unless eating and digging and chewing up all our stuff is a job.
Maybe that’s his avocation?
Who knows? He’s a dog….that’s what dogs do.
Film by Elias K. from Vimeo.
Willie and Merle.
It doesn’t get any funnier than that…..or any better.
Here they are singing a song about the state of part of their world.
I miss Merle.
Hang in there, Willie.