What have you done!

WARNING: I try to keep this a family blog, but there is an F-bomb in this post.

So it's Memorial Day weekend. Got my flag out.

Things are good. Work is still challenging, but it is manageable and I am working at a steady pace and making good progress. I had that week off, then a week, and now a three day weekend. And I am looking forward to the day when I get to post that when you call the McDonald's 800-number, my system will answer.

For my birthday, I got this......and this...


That's five discs of Hunter S. Thompson's tape recordings. I've been diggin' listening to these. It's great to listen to the tapes that are essentially the source material for some of my favorite reads.

My favorite line so far is:

"What have you done! You put that fucking Chivas Regal in the Coke! You asshole! Jesus Christ! Good God man! That's horrible...put the top back on it man...that stuff evaporates...the whole thing will be gone in an hour!"

I got to see Hunter live once while I was at Berkeley. It was a great experience, don't get me wrong, but he had already become a caricature of himself. He showed up over an hour late. And when someone yelled, "Why were you late?" he replied, "Because there's no good speed in Berkeley." And then somebody shouted out a Barrington Hall phone number.

I was not in to that scene or anything, but I do know some people that were, and Hunter was right. The people that were in to that sort of thing had to road trip to Santa Cruz to get their drugs.

Some day I should do a post about Barrington Hall - my grandfather lived there and told me stories about how they would go on the roof and smoke cigarettes and look over at the girls showering in the girls' dormitory across the street. That was in the early 1900s - 1918 or so, I guess. By the time I got to Cal, Barrignton Hall had psychedelic murals throughout, purple sidewalks out front, and LSD painted in giant letters in the street. The reason was so that if someone was tripping and thought s/he could fly, s/hewould see those letters in the street and remember that they where high on LSD. Don't know if that actually saved any lives, but I would like to think it did.

Have I done a post on gender neutral writing and s/he yet?

By the time I left Cal, Barrington Hall was shut down, remodelled, and reopened under a different name. And all of the people who were in to that lifestyle moved to another co-op. Also, in 1991, during the first Gulf War, all of the real protesting was going on in San Francisco. I think we were there at the tail end of the Berkeley Legacy of hippie-freak-dom and activism. It still has its history, but in some respects, it might as well be U.C. Santa Barbara now.

So now I guess I don't need to do that post on Barrington.

Also, we're working on a major family project here. We are working hard in the Sun Room - aka the "place to put stuff that really has no place to go." Very soon, our guests will be able to use the Hotel Yorba Fitness Center and Meditation Room. I'll post pics when we're done. We've got ThermaBlock(TM) curtains up to beat the afternoon sun. We moved the Marcy Plate Home gym and the treadmill already. Hung up the punching bag. Tomorrow I'm going to K-Mart to pick up some more padded floor tiles. And Jake and Jeff and I will move the Elliptical and the Recumbent Bike and we will be all set to get a sweat on. Oh, and I'm gonna put our old stereo and a little TV in there so we can watch TV while exercising. And we'll also be able to do those Yoga DVDs. I'm really hoping this room will be a real life changer for us. And life extender, too.

And here, a result of odd lighting, is a weird picture captured from Video Skype of our dear friend Eraserted...

Queue up a little travelling music...

So let me tell you a little about where I am and how I got here. Work has been challenging. I had one major go live with that TDECU Max project and then was immediately immersed in another credit union and this McDonald's project. I never got a break between projects, and I'm hearing I may be working for McDonald's through the Summer.

I had a really bad day a couple of weeks ago where I felt like quitting and finding another job. I called Cuz and talked about my problems and he said, "Sounds like you have a bad case of the fuckits." I like the way he put that. It's hard to function in high stress mode for more than a few days at a time. And I'd been running in that mode for weeks at a time. You never feel finished, you never feel like anything is good enough and despite all of your effort, it doesn't feel like you've accomplished anything.

Anyway, I think the most important thing I did that day was put in a vacation request for this coming week.

I was burned out, and then not able to work effectively. The quality of my work was falling off as well as the volume. But once I had this week to look forward to, I found myself getting things done and done well. I put in some time last weekend to make sure I met all of my deliverables for Friday.

Jake had a baseball game in Ft. Bragg, and we were fortunate that Ted was back in town and home here, so we decided to make a weekend out of it. Jake road up on the team bus and we picked up his friend Travis at school and he came with us.

We went to the game yesterday. We got there a little later than we had hoped and the game actually went really fast, so we only caught a couple of innings. Oh, and I did stop at the McDonald's drive through for some sort of weird mental transition from work to vacation for me.

Anyway, the boys are having fun. Rachel took them tide pooling this morning. Ted and I played some Facebook poker together on our laptops last night. That was fun. I slept in a bit. And I was a little grumpy today, I guess. Rachel and I couldn't seem to agree on anything. But she took the kids to town and I did my thing. And I loved doing my thing. And Ted joined me in doing my thing.

This is my thing...
Ted launched and took some pictures.


I really needed this. I love flying my kites. And the last 4 or 5 times I've tried, I haven't been able to. Usually lack of wind has been the culprit. But today was great. A lot of wind, so I got to fly my big kite for the first time ever. It was a joy.

After that, we sat in his meditation room - another thing I need to do more of. It was great. And I am out of practice for sure, but I actually wept in the middle of it. Like I was able to let go of a lot of bad energy and negative emotions. I plan to dust off my cushion when we get home and do more of that.

The boys had a bunch of fun. I love when they make music together.



Then later, Bill Walters came by for a visit with his new girlfriend who was a treat to meet. Rachel and I realized we hadn't seen Bill since our wedding. He looked happy and it was great to see him that way.

And we all cooked together. We made a bunch of pizzas and they brought a fantastic salad and roasted vegetables that we used to top the pizzas.


It has been a wonderful day, and a great start to what I hope will be a great week.

You may notice how sunburned I am. And I was only outside for an hour or so. And I forgot about how one of my medications says to stay out of the sun. Towards the end of dinner, I had to go lie down. It felt like little pain bursts were exploding across my forehead. That sucked. But I drank a lot of water and Rachel put some lotion on my face and a wet washcloth. And I woke up a few hours later feeling much better. And while I rested, Rachel took the boys to see Wolverine.

Ted and I hung out, and when Rachel and the boys got home, the boys went to bed and Ted gave us a slide show of pictures form his India trip. It was great. The pictures are amazing - like coffee table book qaulity pictures and amazing stories to go with each one.

And, you know, I also really like to blog, and I'm doing that now. So I got to do a lot of things I love and spend time with a lot of people I love today.

As for the rest of the time off, I want to let the boys fly kites tomorrow if the wind is up. And I plan to spend the week taking care of some personal business that I have been putting off and/or unable to find time for. I also want to do some puttering and chores type things - basically do an office purge and tackle some home improvement projects to make our life better. And I will turn 41 on Wednesday. And I hope to play some golf and maybe some tennis as well. And I will wear sunscreen and a big floppy hat when I do.

Oh, and it is after midnight - so Happy Mother's Day to all of the Mom's out there.

And to mine especially. I hope we talk soon. I love you.