You are currently browsing the category archive for the 'Uncategorized' category.
Very rarely does the weather cooperate for sunny outdoor adventures on Memorial Day weekend here in the northwest. I am sooo glad ‘09 bucked the trend. I’m not sure this weekend could have been any more perfect, both in terms of weather and activities.
The camping trip to Panther Creek was a ton of fun. Big thanks to Ted for reserving the sites and organizing the whole shenanigan. Among the highlights:
- Ted getting pulled over on the way there for “expired tags and weaving all over the road.” (There was a third reason the officer gave, I don’t remember.) Don’t worry, it was only Ted holding a bag of cookies and simultaneously eating and driving that caused the weaving. 
- The delicious food. Let’s face it, it’s one of the highlights of camping. With everyone pitching in to contribute something, we ate very well all weekend.
- Saturday’s hike to Falls Creek Falls. Wow. Those falls are gorgeous. I felt like I had been transported to the Amazon.
- Krista’s t-shirt.
- Backwoods Olympics (ok, this one is a bit of an inside joke.)
- The “1 1/2 mile” hike (said Ted) that took us almost two hours and back to camp with barely enough daylight to see.
- I personally enjoyed having some competition for the role of the weirdest person on the trip. I’ll let you guess who that competition is.
- The absolutely breath taking beauty of God’s creation, and the ability to experience it and enjoy it with good friends.
After a great weekend of camping, returning home late Sunday night to a hot shower and my own bed was a delight. As if the weekend could possibly get any better, Memorial Day itself I got to explore some new waterways via kayak with my friend Sybil, breaking in her new kayak and paddle. Neither of us had paddled Smith and Bybee Lakes in North Portland, and it was a beautiful spot. Lots of calm water with hours and hours of potential paddling area and views of Mt. St. Helens, Adams and Hood. Ah yes.
I’m thankful to live in the best place on earth, for flawless weather all weekend long, and good friends with whom I can have adventures. God is good.
No pun intended, I promise.
With the unseasonably beautiful weather and high temps the last few days, it has us rain and snow soaked northwesterners turning our thoughts toward the upcoming sunny days of summer. I know I’m not the only one who braved shorts during this pleasant sunny spurt.
I mused aloud just yesterday that I feel sorry for spring; if sympathy for an inanimate thing can exist. The moment it rears its head folks automatically start counting down for summer, as if wishing away spring altogether.
Spring is a conflicted season for me. Being a ski bum, it’s always a sad day when I wash the snow gear and pack it away for the rest of the year. While I do so with hesitation, I also revel in the thought of the fun that lies ahead in the coming months. Music festivals, BBQs, camping, wakeboarding/boating, trips to the swimming hole, hiking and more. No other time of year (besides the holidays) do adventures outside of work take center focus in my mind, and things like work fall into their appropriate latter place.
Yes, there are still a few more months of spring rain mixed with showers before the glorious weather gets consistent. And fortunately, ski season is still going strong for at least another month. But oh, summer is coming!
I’m sure my thoughts aren’t unique; I simply wanted to make a note of the historic weather we’re having in the Portland/Vancouver area during this time of year when we sing “may all your Christmases be white” but they rarely are. In fact, I pondered aloud to several, with no rebuttals, that I don’t remember EVER having a white Christmas here at home.
Nor have we ever, in my 30 years at least, experienced this much snow so continually without melting. I remarked to a gal I had met who was new to Portland from Florida that it NEVER had snowed for several days in a row without melting away. And that was last Friday – six days ago. It’s STILL snowing and has been ever since then. Truly remarkable.
For all the fun and excitement of white everywhere, school closures, unexpected days off from work and the like, the forecast was quite plain that it would transition to rain and above freezing temperatures on Christmas Eve, making the white stuff a memory just in time for the day it should be present.
Oh the delightful errors of meteorology.
Rain mixed with snow prevailed on Christmas Eve and then an absence of precipitation for awhile.
When I awoke this morning, I found not only a fresh dusting but that it was snowing heavily, as it did throughout most of the morning and into the early afternoon. A white Christmas at last!!!
Here are some pictures from the scene.
My parents' house. Site of the festivities.
My Pathfinder, parked overnight, had a good dusting on it Christmas morning
I doubt I’m the only one who finds the male fascination with video games odd and a little disturbing. When I was a child, video games were an innocent way to spend a few hours in the afternoon when it was raining outside. My brother and I had many good times playing the original Nintendo, and before that, the Texas Instruments video game …thing. I don’t remember exactly what it was called. But when the rain cleared, the games went back to gathering dust. They found their ultimate home in the dust collectors bin once Garth and I were out of elementary school.
Fast forward a few decades to the 21st Century and now many guys who are well beyond puberty spend hours staring at the screen, game controller (joystick?) in hand, as hours go by. What’s wrong with this picture? Just for kicks, in case you need clarification, I’ve put together a list of ways that you know you’re a gamer if …
- You spend more than two hours per day gaming, don’t have a girlfriend, and haven’t yet figured out the cause/effect relationship between the two.
- If you do have a girlfriend, you manage to block out the sound of her voice when she complains about your excessive gaming. (Note: this would make you not only a gamer, but also a loser.)
- Sleep and showering are secondary and tertiary to “beating your last score.” (See also #1)
- You have posters of girls on your walls, but you don’t actually know any girls personally.
- You place potato chips on your gut while you play, or you can reach into the bag without taking your eyes off the game.
- When someone talks about a fantasy, you assume they are taking about football.
- You’re over 25 and you still live with your parents.
- Last time you checked, you had a Super Mario Bros. ringtone on your cellphone. But it’s hard for you to remember because its been weeks since someone called you.
- You’ve never met any of your closest friends in person.
And finally, you know you’re a gamer if … - You took personal offense at more than one item in this list.
I’ve been intending to start a blog for about a year now. It’s just one of those things that for some reason I never could get myself to do. I’m not sure why. Maybe it was some invisible, undefined expectation that if I started a blog I had to immediately fill it with deep, insightful posts and a beautiful design. But ultimately, those were unreasonable expectations.
What it finally came down to, after all these months, was taking four minutes to fill out a form on WordPress to get it set up. Though a small move, it was a step through the door, and into the journey of blogging. The deep, insightful posts will come, as will the shallow, ridiculous ones, but for now at least I have it set up!
