Three days ago a police officer was killed in Seattle and the news has spent, in my opinion, WAY too much time on the murder and the search for who did it. Please, don’t get me wrong: I am sincerely sorry that an officer was killed. What gets me is the amount of coverage for it while all we hear when a service member dies overseas is "Seven soldiers died in Iraq/Afghanistan today." and its off to the weather. Oh, occasionally they’ll show us a picture if the soldier was a local and may even mention that there will be a memorial service but even that seems rare. The local news shows have spent hours showing us damned near everything they can about this one officer and the aftermath. I’m having a problem with that. But, I do expect the News to either over-something or trivialize a story. They all slant things. I could go on for hours. Don’t get me started.

Things are going well. SWMBO got back from her trip to Oregon, Ohio over a week ago and it’s really great having her back. I had to drive around the airport arrivals lane only twice before picking her up! Cool! Poop Dog went absolutely ape when SWMBO got out of the car at home!

Other than that things are pretty much SSDD. Still working on bookshelves. Still ripping our tv shows to the media drive. Walking down to get mail when it ain’t raining.

Moved all the furniture around in the "family" room (where my computer is) to make room for the new Pool Table SWMBO is getting us. Everything was going okay until the tv fell over off the couch. Ouch! That’s the second time that’s happened in the last 10 years! Damn! You’d think I’d learn after the first time. Got things mostly in place but won’t be able to do the final move until I actually get the pool table in the room to see how everything fits. Next Saturday. Looking forward to it.

And that’s it from Warshington…

But I live in "Warshington" so that’s not strange or anything.

SWMBO has been gone these past two weeks to Ohio to visit her folks and do some genealogy searching. It’s been just me and poop dog around the house and there just hasn’t been much of anything going on. Building bookshelves and taking walks to the mail box and back (total of a mile). When it ain’t raining, that is. Guess I’ve gotten soft in my old age.

Went on an NCIS marathon starting last Monday. Started up the tv server, right clicked on the NCIS directory and just let it run. Four days later the last episode that we have played. Cool. Can you think of anything more boring? No, I don’t mean NCIS (I like that program!) but that a tv show is the only thing happening in my life. Sort of. I’m still doing all the other stuff I’ve been doing; trying to learn to read music, beating piano keys to death, scanning and playing with Vue 7.

Speaking of Vue 7; made a landscape and animated it (on the laptop) and the 60 second video took FOUR DAYS to render. Four days! And to top it off the animation didn’t turn out the way I wanted it to. Damn! I need a faster, super!, system so I can see my mistakes sooner. I do really like that program though.

Just not much going on. I’m still waiting for Obama to bring down Society as we know it and declare a dictatorship. Still waiting for MY $700 Billion check in the mail. (Heck, I’m still waiting for the $1k refund from the contractor that didn’t get to build our house.) Still waiting for Poop Dog to realize what the hell "fetch" means and I’m still waiting for my epiphany. I don’t care really what the epiphany is about; I’m ready to have it.

I think I just need a job. Even a part time job. Not much available for my skillset in this neighborhood though. Even though I’m a (N)ever (A)gain (V)olunteer (Y)ourself retiree I’m thinking of finding a volunteer position for something around here. The Catholic Church up on the corner is a designated Emergency Headquarters (for emergencies and disasters) maybe they could use some help from someone that has extensive first aid and disaster preparedness training.

Unless you’re independently wealthy this Retirement crap is Crap. Sure, I’d love to go to the beach (even in Washington) or drive down to Mt. St. Helen’s for the day (or even down to Salem, Oregon to celebrate a certain event!) but, at $1.87/mile I just can’t afford it. Same for buying new power tools for the wood shop I’m trying to put together or any of a dozen other things I’m interested in.

Why are guy hobbies so expensive?

Anywho, that’s about it from around here.

One thing I have noticed the past couple of weeks: Even though the dog seems to still get excited its not the same ripping off a good one without the delayed sounds of retching coming from the next room. We kinda miss SWMBO around here…

Well, no. I actually enjoy my showers. Even without SWMBO. What I hate is looking in the mirror and seeing that old guy looking back at me. Yes, today is one of those days where I feel that I’m wasting my time and wasting my life and wondering where the hell all the time has gone. Ever have a day like that?

Other than that, just not much going on. Been kinda lonely around here without SWMBO. Especially for Poop Dog. Now, every time I leave to do whatever it is I have to do away from the house, he acts like he’s never going to see me again. Worse than a little kid!

Started working on a new bookcase for the living room. Just a skinny one to fit a certain short wall. Will hold probably around 100 paperbacks or half that many hardbacks. We’ll see. It’s going well; when I slow down and think about what I’m doing. I think part of my problem is that I want it NOW.

Was working in the basement yesterday when the lights started flikering. Guess I got really windy somewhere around here. All our lines are underground so it had to be a branch brushing the wire somewhere down the road. And I was hoping that we’d moved someplace where the power didn’t go out at the slightest breeze. Guess I ought to make sure the generator is working…

Decided to get a burger for dinner tonight and took Poop Dog along. He about crapped his non-existant pants waiting until we got home before I’d give him his burger. He eats meat and bread without prejudice. Good Dog!

Even though SWMBO is in Oregon, Ohio visiting her folks and doing genealogy research.

Got up at 0500 last Friday so I could get some sleep earlier Friday night before getting up at 0230 Saturday to be out of the house by 0300 to take SWMBO to Seatac Airport for her 0630 flight. We went out to breakfast at FPH and ate with a couple of her friends from work. Was nice.

The trip to Seatac was okay; at least there wasn’t much traffic between 0300 & 0530 when I got back home. Would have gone back to bed except that I had to pick up Grapes & Apples at 0800 over in east Bremerton. About 0700 it was either get out of the house or go back to sleep; so I took off. Was way early to do the pickup!

Did get over to my friends house and downloaded Fringe, Supernatural & Smallville. Was way tired when I got home to stay. Stayed up late though. Guess it’s way strange not to have SWMBO in the house.

Spent most of Sunday & Monday plucking grapes off the vine and boiling them down. Did the gross filtering but need to get to the store to buy some cheese cloth for the fine stuff. After doing all this by myself I’m not sure that making my own grape concentrate is worth it. It’s MUCH easier to drop by the store and get a half gallon of grape juice. But, it’s still good practice for when I have to do it.

Did manage to take another friend, Philip, to COSTCO and stopped by Home Depot and bought 3 sheets of cabinet grade plywood ($107!) to start either book shelves for the living room or a headboard for our bed. Will figure out which later. Also stopped by Fred Meyer’s and bought a fruit/vegetable strainer for my mixer. $44 for the damned thing.

I say "damned" thing because I hooked it all up as per the directions that came with it and it seemed to be working fine then, it stopped up and, before I could turn my mixer off, completely stopped the rotating thingie and overheated the motor. I’m talking maybe 3 seconds. Burst out a portion of the strainer and now my mixer makes a slight grinding noise when I turn it on. Damn, I hate things that don’t work right!

And that’s about all that’s going on around here. Weather is getting worse; supposed to have high winds and rain starting this afternoon lasting a couple of days. I’m all caught up on Smallville, Supernatural, Fringe and NCIS. Been watching "TV" on my laptop; the screen on my desk is the same size as the tv across the room and I’m thinking it may use less power. Plus I can do other things while watching shows.

I don’t know why I can’t do one thing at a time. Gotta go finish filtering the grape juice then water-bath can it. Oh, fun!

In Al Jubail during Desert Storm