Last night, while I was at work, our daughter Asnakech called. She told Kathe that she had seen our son Tesfaye, that not only is he alive, but he appeared to be healthy.
Combined with the fact that Tes appears not to have been arrested anywhere in Oregon for the last year, this is especially good news.
//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Take what you can get."\\
Friday, February 27, 2009
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Don't Take Our Stuff
Back when we had a functioning wood stove, we periodically acquired piles of firewood, and sometimes we'd get a piece of wood that was just too big to break up. Such pieces of wood tended to wind up down along the Tenth Street side of the house, near the shed that at one time was a garage. There they would sit until they eventually rotted away.
The hunks of wood never really served any purpose, except that occasionally one of them would be used as an anvil for splitting a smaller piece of wood, but we did take a certain enjoyment in admiring "the stump garden".
When the wood stove rusted out, the stump garden remained, its massive knots gradually decaying until only one remained.
Then the other day I noticed that the one chunk remaining was gone. A trail of ground-off punky wood led into the back yard of the house adjoining ours on Tenth Street, where we had seen (and smelled) the residents, a sadly typical bunch of college students, burning garbage in defiance of both law and decency.
So we called the police (again) and complained of our rotten log being stolen. We explained that no, we didn't actually want the log back, but we didn't want to establish a precedent of their coming onto our property and taking our things with impunity.
They haven't actually been puned this time, either, but I hope that the visit from the police and the fire marshal did at least leave them feeling pwn3d.
//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Do not take what does not belong to you."\\
The hunks of wood never really served any purpose, except that occasionally one of them would be used as an anvil for splitting a smaller piece of wood, but we did take a certain enjoyment in admiring "the stump garden".
When the wood stove rusted out, the stump garden remained, its massive knots gradually decaying until only one remained.
Then the other day I noticed that the one chunk remaining was gone. A trail of ground-off punky wood led into the back yard of the house adjoining ours on Tenth Street, where we had seen (and smelled) the residents, a sadly typical bunch of college students, burning garbage in defiance of both law and decency.
So we called the police (again) and complained of our rotten log being stolen. We explained that no, we didn't actually want the log back, but we didn't want to establish a precedent of their coming onto our property and taking our things with impunity.
They haven't actually been puned this time, either, but I hope that the visit from the police and the fire marshal did at least leave them feeling pwn3d.
//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Do not take what does not belong to you."\\
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
One Word
One Word.....
One Word.
USING ONLY ONE WORD! It's not as easy as you might think! Copy and change the answers to suit you and pass it on. Be sure to tag the person you received it from!
-----
1. Your cell phone? Active.
2. Your significant other? Shining.
3. Your hair? Drab.
4. Your mother? Determined.
5. Your father? Decrepit.
6. Your favorite place? Bed.
7. Your dream last night? Busy.
8. Your favorite drink? Coffee.
9. Your dream/goal? Marriage.
10. What room you are in? Workroom.
11. Your hobby? Writing.
12. Your fear? Failure.
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Home.
14. Where were you last night? Work.
15. Something that you are not? Content.
16. Muffins? Sure.
17. Wish list item? Hope.
18. Where you grew up? Oregon.
19. Last thing you did? Work.
20. What are you wearing? Scrubs.
21. Your TV? Uncabled.
22. Your pets? Dead.
23. Friends? Some.
24. Your life? Difficult.
25. Your mood? Determined.
26. Missing some one? Yes.
27. Car? Borrowed.
28. Something you're not wearing? Rings.
29. Your favorite store? Matt's.
30. Your favorite color? Blue.
33. When is the last time you laughed? Cheezburger.
34. Last time you cried? Harbors.
35. Who will resend this? Nobody.
36. One place that you go to over and over? Library.
37. One person who texts you regularly? Kathe.
38. Your favorite place to eat? Home.
39. Your favorite food? Coffee.
//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Succinctness."\\
One Word.
USING ONLY ONE WORD! It's not as easy as you might think! Copy and change the answers to suit you and pass it on. Be sure to tag the person you received it from!
-----
1. Your cell phone? Active.
2. Your significant other? Shining.
3. Your hair? Drab.
4. Your mother? Determined.
5. Your father? Decrepit.
6. Your favorite place? Bed.
7. Your dream last night? Busy.
8. Your favorite drink? Coffee.
9. Your dream/goal? Marriage.
10. What room you are in? Workroom.
11. Your hobby? Writing.
12. Your fear? Failure.
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Home.
14. Where were you last night? Work.
15. Something that you are not? Content.
16. Muffins? Sure.
17. Wish list item? Hope.
18. Where you grew up? Oregon.
19. Last thing you did? Work.
20. What are you wearing? Scrubs.
21. Your TV? Uncabled.
22. Your pets? Dead.
23. Friends? Some.
24. Your life? Difficult.
25. Your mood? Determined.
26. Missing some one? Yes.
27. Car? Borrowed.
28. Something you're not wearing? Rings.
29. Your favorite store? Matt's.
30. Your favorite color? Blue.
33. When is the last time you laughed? Cheezburger.
34. Last time you cried? Harbors.
35. Who will resend this? Nobody.
36. One place that you go to over and over? Library.
37. One person who texts you regularly? Kathe.
38. Your favorite place to eat? Home.
39. Your favorite food? Coffee.
//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "Succinctness."\\
Sunday, February 08, 2009
25 Random Things About me
I think I did this already, but I don't suppose there is any rule against randomly doing another one.
1. My hair was bright red as a child. It turned brown many years ago, but I have never been reconciled to it, and it always looks wrong in the mirror.
2. I have always considered the dense freckles on my arm to be a connection to my grandmother, who has the same. I finally mentioned that to her in a telephone conversation we had not long ago.
3. My wife and I have attended the Corvallis Friends Meeting for some years, off and on. I never seriously considered calling myself a "Christian" at any time, nor did I ever feel the slightest urge to declare Jesus Christ my personal Lord and Savior. But a few years ago, I was driving along and started turning the phrase "Friends of christ" over in my head, and concluded that, all issues of the supernatural aside, I certainly felt entirely comfortable declaring that (to the extent such a statement has meaning), I was "a friend of Christ". Suddenly I burst into tears, which was quite distracting since I was driving at the time, and I considered pulling over to contemplate the matter at more length, but in the end I just went on to my destination. This is probably as close as I am ever likely to get to a conversion experience, and doubtless not nearly enough to get me into Heaven*, but it was quite odd and surprising.
4. *I do not believe in an afterlife.
5. If I ever become the owner of an apartment building, the apartments will not have numbers, but names. I am thinking that the building will be called the Mark Twain, and the apartments will have names like "The Tom Sawyer Suite". Wouldn;t you like to have "Pudd'nhead Wilson Suite, Mark Twain Apartments, 369 Maple Street" for an address?
6. I am very fond of rats, have enjoyed petting and playing with them since I was a small child and befriended the rats my father used in his psychology research, was delighted in 1984 when I learned that my new friends (including the one who became my wife) kept rats.
7. I currently do not have any pets of any description, neither rats nor cats nor dogs. It feels weird.
8. I currently do not have any children living at home, and doubt whether I ever will. It feels weird.
9. There is a five-foot-long stuffed facsimile of a catfish about ten feet to my right. I bought it at a garage sale.
10. There is a twelve-inch globe of Earth's Moon about four feet to the right and upward from the catfish. My parents bought it during the Apollo Moon landings. I'm not sure why I have it and not them or my brothers.
11. I have two brothers, born in succeeding years (John in 1960, David in 1961, Tom in 1962). We gave one another an unhappy childhood. This is not a joke, we were in fact unhappy, and it was in large part due to our mutual hostility.
12. I have a fabulous sweater which evolved gradually out of a tie-dyed thermal undershirt, over more than twenty years of mending. You can see it on my Facebook profile, among other places.
13. I love my wife very much.
14. I read comic books, and have since I was a small child. Although my reading habits have always been eclectic, at present I read almost nothing except graphic novels which I check out from the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library, and ghraphic novels which I buy at Matt's Cavalcade of Comics Cards and collectibles and then donate to the Library.
15. I have a great fondness for the big, bright full Moon such as we have tonight.
16. The sliver-thin new Moon is also very special to me, because of an occasion when one of my kids saw it and burst out laughing, saying, "Moon 'tending be fingernail!" Damn, I could have lived a thousand years and never had that thought.
17. I have worn black socks almost exclusively since I first joined the Navy.
18. Whenever I see a reference to commercial sea traffic, I think of my wife's father, who died when she was a little girl.
19. I live in a house which depends on an oil burner for heat.
20. I recently turned my bed so its head, rather than its right side, was against the wall.
21. I have an injury to my back which has come and gone for years, but in the last few days has come and come and come.
22. I still have no tattoos.
23. Over the last thirty years, I have gone from jockey shorts to bikini briefs to boxers.
24. I have used Old Spice deodorant by preference for years, under the impression that it was my father's brand. Then a memory was knocked loose in my head and I remembered that it was actually Old Space shaving cream that he used. His deororant was Right Guard.
25. I had a gold crown come loose last summer, and it's been in a dish of nicknacks near the bed ever since, waiting for me to have the time and the money to get it put back.
//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "You never know when some little fact will turn out to be important."\\
1. My hair was bright red as a child. It turned brown many years ago, but I have never been reconciled to it, and it always looks wrong in the mirror.
2. I have always considered the dense freckles on my arm to be a connection to my grandmother, who has the same. I finally mentioned that to her in a telephone conversation we had not long ago.
3. My wife and I have attended the Corvallis Friends Meeting for some years, off and on. I never seriously considered calling myself a "Christian" at any time, nor did I ever feel the slightest urge to declare Jesus Christ my personal Lord and Savior. But a few years ago, I was driving along and started turning the phrase "Friends of christ" over in my head, and concluded that, all issues of the supernatural aside, I certainly felt entirely comfortable declaring that (to the extent such a statement has meaning), I was "a friend of Christ". Suddenly I burst into tears, which was quite distracting since I was driving at the time, and I considered pulling over to contemplate the matter at more length, but in the end I just went on to my destination. This is probably as close as I am ever likely to get to a conversion experience, and doubtless not nearly enough to get me into Heaven*, but it was quite odd and surprising.
4. *I do not believe in an afterlife.
5. If I ever become the owner of an apartment building, the apartments will not have numbers, but names. I am thinking that the building will be called the Mark Twain, and the apartments will have names like "The Tom Sawyer Suite". Wouldn;t you like to have "Pudd'nhead Wilson Suite, Mark Twain Apartments, 369 Maple Street" for an address?
6. I am very fond of rats, have enjoyed petting and playing with them since I was a small child and befriended the rats my father used in his psychology research, was delighted in 1984 when I learned that my new friends (including the one who became my wife) kept rats.
7. I currently do not have any pets of any description, neither rats nor cats nor dogs. It feels weird.
8. I currently do not have any children living at home, and doubt whether I ever will. It feels weird.
9. There is a five-foot-long stuffed facsimile of a catfish about ten feet to my right. I bought it at a garage sale.
10. There is a twelve-inch globe of Earth's Moon about four feet to the right and upward from the catfish. My parents bought it during the Apollo Moon landings. I'm not sure why I have it and not them or my brothers.
11. I have two brothers, born in succeeding years (John in 1960, David in 1961, Tom in 1962). We gave one another an unhappy childhood. This is not a joke, we were in fact unhappy, and it was in large part due to our mutual hostility.
12. I have a fabulous sweater which evolved gradually out of a tie-dyed thermal undershirt, over more than twenty years of mending. You can see it on my Facebook profile, among other places.
13. I love my wife very much.
14. I read comic books, and have since I was a small child. Although my reading habits have always been eclectic, at present I read almost nothing except graphic novels which I check out from the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library, and ghraphic novels which I buy at Matt's Cavalcade of Comics Cards and collectibles and then donate to the Library.
15. I have a great fondness for the big, bright full Moon such as we have tonight.
16. The sliver-thin new Moon is also very special to me, because of an occasion when one of my kids saw it and burst out laughing, saying, "Moon 'tending be fingernail!" Damn, I could have lived a thousand years and never had that thought.
17. I have worn black socks almost exclusively since I first joined the Navy.
18. Whenever I see a reference to commercial sea traffic, I think of my wife's father, who died when she was a little girl.
19. I live in a house which depends on an oil burner for heat.
20. I recently turned my bed so its head, rather than its right side, was against the wall.
21. I have an injury to my back which has come and gone for years, but in the last few days has come and come and come.
22. I still have no tattoos.
23. Over the last thirty years, I have gone from jockey shorts to bikini briefs to boxers.
24. I have used Old Spice deodorant by preference for years, under the impression that it was my father's brand. Then a memory was knocked loose in my head and I remembered that it was actually Old Space shaving cream that he used. His deororant was Right Guard.
25. I had a gold crown come loose last summer, and it's been in a dish of nicknacks near the bed ever since, waiting for me to have the time and the money to get it put back.
//The Magic Eight-Ball says, "You never know when some little fact will turn out to be important."\\
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