Apparently…

Tonight I went to work out at my apartment complex’s gym.  As I was walking home, I noticed some light fog had rolled in, and the street lights were all haloed and pretty.  I also noticed a tree in front of the office that had a back light that made really cool shadows and light beams. 

So I got home, grabbed my camera and tripod, and back to the office I ran to catch the moment.

I set up my tripod, took a few test shots and began trying to dial in the right exposure to catch the back lit tree.

A guy walking his dogs walked up and here is the conversation that ensued:

guy:  hi

me: Evening!

guy: Taking pictures at midnight?

me: yea (it was 11:30 actually)

guy:  You know we’re supposed to report that?

me: huh?

guy: they consider it terrorist activity

me: huh?

guy: I’m not making this up, we are supposed to report it, you know, you  taking pictures of buildings and stuff late at night.

me:  (thinking:  WTF?)  Terrorist?

Two things.

1)  People suck.

2)  People rock.

Sometimes at the same time.

We’ll start with Pat Robertson.  He spouted off a bit of conspiracy drivel about the Haitians and a pact with the devil.  He didn’t make it up, it is a piece of Haitian folklore.  His comments in context are not as harsh as they sounded in clip.  He was simply stating that the pact and the subsequent curse has been the result of Haiti’s fairly depressing history.  He at least went to great lengths to also mention all the things his organization is doing for relief.  So maybe his choice of words was insensitive, and it was, but at least he is striving to do the right thing anyway.

Rush Limbaugh.  Rush, in essence said that Obama will use this to shore up his support by showing his compassionate side.  There are two things to consider:  A)  Politicians are cynical creatures, and that is exactly what they tend to do.  Rahm Emanuel has been quoted talking about not letting a tragedy go to waste.¹  This is commonly known as reality.  And it is a bit of bipartisan cynicism that is unavoidably true.  Any politician knows this and will use it.  Obama already has.  That said, personally I wish that Rush had waited for this to happen, rather than predict it, which will now allow him to dissect Obama’s actions as proof.  His words may be true, but his timing sucks.

So, as I considered what to write about this holiday, it occurred to me that I could spend a whole post whining about all the things I am not thankful for, or I could write about what I am thankful for.

While I have lots of fodder for the former, I choose the later because I find myself more inclined to focus on the positive than the negative.

So this week I will say a few words about a few things I am thankful for.

I start with my friends.

I am blessed to have the best and coolest friends on the planet.  They are there for me as I go through these stressful days.  They inspire me, they comfort me and they humble me.  And sometimes, when I need it, they do the most important thing I can ask:  They tell me the truth.

I have friends from my childhood, and friends made just this year and countless in between. 

Some are local, some are far away, but all are precious. 

There a even a few I have never actually met, yet our lives have been touched.

The concept of change has been in high visibility lately.  Obama ran on a campaign promising change, one that resonated quite well with people. 

And it should have.  There are a lot of things in politics that desperately require change.  But the promises and the reality ended up in different directions, as is unfortunately normal in politics.  Maybe I will blog about that sometime.

So that, along with some local and personal events, forced me to once again examine change from many levels.

Now, I am no stranger to change, nor am I narrowmindedly dogmatic about change, one way or another.

Some history:  In the Military change was an interesting phenomena.  On one hand you had what we called “the brown shoes”, the old timers who resisted change, seemingly out of nothing more than habit and comfort.  On the other, you had those who were driving change, the least of which was a change in how the Air Force dealt with and evaluated change.  One of many of the programs that reared up somewhere along the way was one called Total Quality Management, or TQM.  TQM was a  business management strategy aimed at driving awareness of quality and process improvement at all levels, instead of just at the top as was the Military norm, in some ways.

To the Issaquah Highlands, anyway.  After being in the same apartment complex for the last 7.5 years, my daughter and I decided to move to a new location, save a few bucks in rent and basically establish a new space for ourselves.

While I am in the process of moving, blogging will be lite for a few days.

Meanwhile here is something to entertain you while I get all moved in.

This is how you know when your child is way too obsessed with a video game…

Various birthdays have significant meaning, as they are transitions.

18 makes you an adult.  21 makes you a real adult.

25 marks your 1/4 century, the precursor to getting old.

30 marks the end of your wild ages.  And 40, well at that point you are entering your dotage in some peoples minds such that many lie and claim to be 39 for a few years running.

And don’t start with 50.

So today was my birthday and it was….none of the above.

48 actually.  And yet, even though it was not one of those traditionally intense days, I still found it a remarkable one.

This year has been a strange and remarkable year, what with my children scattering to the winds and my divorce looming.  This birthday I had figured to be a low key, uneventful and forgotten one.

It was anything but, really.

I headed to my dad’s house on the Peninsula and expected a nice dinner and such, but instead it was a fairly wild day.

First we got to see one of the Seattle Ferries ram the dock, something they typically try to avoid.

A former coworker sent this to me, and I wanted to pass it on to you.   The story contained about his wife Janette is completely true, I was at her funeral.  Put the politics aside and make a difference.

Light the Night with Luke and help fight blood cancers

Here we are, more than halfway through summer and that means that the Light the Night walk is just around the corner. It is once again time to gather friends and family to Light the Night in honor of Janette and all of those who have been touched by cancer. This is the eighth year the J-Team will descend upon Greenlake and Ruston Way to show our support for all those who have been effected by cancer. Over the past 7 years the J-team has raised over $43,000 dollars for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and every year I am touched by the number of people that walk and donate in support of this wonderful cause.

I will be on the road making a photo tour of the Oregon and Washington coast areas this week, for some badly needed personal time.

Hopefully I will be able to get some Wi-Fi access and upload  a few photos along the way.

See ya soon!

LSU

My daughter and I am on the road in California for the next week, so blogging may be a bit lite.

While down here I hope to swing by the Marine recruiters office in Berkeley and see how the stand off is these days.  More on that later.

I am also going home, as they say, to see my old haunts and homes here in the Bay Area.  Tomorrow for example we drive north to Oroville to visit a high school friend and his family.  There may be guns, ATVs and four wheel drive  vehicles involved.

Armed with my trusty new Nikon D60, I should have some fun pictures to post.

I will try to post updates and stories as I go.

Sadly there are some serious issues I will also be monitoring  such as that horrible botched abortion story circulating.

I have a lengthy post in the works about that one.

Thanks,

LSU

My daughter has been a frequent co-contributer to this blog, mostly behind the scenes in the form of ideas, inspiration and occasionally comments.  But several times she has also appeared in the form of blogs I have reposted, with understandable fatherly pride.  The responses have been amazing as she is a gifted writer.

This is no exception,  and may be her finest post to date.  She sent me this in response to the vitriolic comments over a blog I posted yesterday mocking the attempts to create an Obama Federal holiday.   I am immensely proud of her, not because she shares some of my conservative values, because she is unafraid to make her beliefs known. 

Enjoy ~ LSU

Once more, this now-eighteen year old has to just shake her head at what a group of grown adults can babble and scrabble about.

As I sat down to write, I originally aimed my focus at denouncing those who have posted some strange gibberish under my dad’s post about Obama-day. But after a few days that have left me emotionally exhausted (Including losing one of my co-workers to a heart attack) and drained, I decided to write something else, and to, perhaps, give someone out there a view into the mind of at least one of America’s youth.