May has been on and off crappy weather. The rivers are really low so the runoff hasn't gotten up to speed yet. Meanwhile, the greening of the country side is behind schedule too. The result is a very lazy approach to yard work as I don't have the usual feeling that I'm way behind. I did get the house on the market again and the pictures (same as last year) are from mid summer and remind me of how far we have to go. Here's the link to the listing.
321 Lupine listing
The hooligan have started showing up and the arctic terns and bald eagles are all over feeding on them. That means the buluga whales and king salmon can't be too far behind. The sandhill cranes and rest of the migrating birds are everywhere. So it seems the fauna are right on schedule even if the flora are a bit behind. Works for me.
Tony and I saw a juvenile bald eagle snatch a rabbit up from the roadside yesterday. Ahhhhhh, spring time in Alaska.
Teri and I made a couple of trips to Homer to see Jake play high school soccer. Grandkids in high school, yikes!!
Hope all is well out there in the rest of the world.
Stay safe.
About Me
- Troy
- 1964: after high school life begins. Asked to consider not returning to OSU after the first year. 1966 drafted; grunt, door gunner, HU1 pilot. Out in Dec '70. 1972 married, joined fire dept and bought first house over a 6 month span. 1980 moved family (which now consisted of wife Teri, daughter Amy and son Ryan) to CO. 1990 moved all to bush Alaska to work for the dark side (the FAA). Started Blog to keep family and friends up on our whereabouts. Retired in March 2010. In Feb 2012 sold house in Alaska. By May had bought in Redmond and completed the move. Still nesting in Redmond and loving it!
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
It’s the Sixties for Gays
RANT WARNING, bail now if you are not interested.
A while back I met a very conflicted man. A very religious man whose wife proudly bragged of all the “good work” he did for the church in his spare time.
He launched into a verbal attack as a result of a story I told of a gay man that had hit on me while Teri and I were in the Keys. I tell the story to give an example of how slow I can be to read other peoples reactions and non verbal clues (I’m getting better). The fact that I was blindsided by his tirade was another reminder of my cluelessness.
Anyway, he thought I was gay bashing with my story. Seems that he had a gay son and was deeply offended. Later, after discussing the incident with the other two guys who were present and also targeted by the assault, we realized the source of his anguish.
He loved his son, but his religious beliefs convinced him that his son’s lifestyle choices were condemning him to eternal damnation.
We can legislate tolerance but it will take generations of children growing up in a tolerant environment to bring about a tolerant society. As long as there are people preaching that homosexuality is a choice and a sin, and as long as there are people buying that crap, the movement for tolerance will be stuck in the same place the movement for racial equality was in the sixties.
Xenophobia, “an unreasonable fear or hatred of foreigners or strangers” according to dictionary.reference.com. Will we ever learn tolerance, or will we always be stuck in the sixties?
What do you think?
A while back I met a very conflicted man. A very religious man whose wife proudly bragged of all the “good work” he did for the church in his spare time.
He launched into a verbal attack as a result of a story I told of a gay man that had hit on me while Teri and I were in the Keys. I tell the story to give an example of how slow I can be to read other peoples reactions and non verbal clues (I’m getting better). The fact that I was blindsided by his tirade was another reminder of my cluelessness.
Anyway, he thought I was gay bashing with my story. Seems that he had a gay son and was deeply offended. Later, after discussing the incident with the other two guys who were present and also targeted by the assault, we realized the source of his anguish.
He loved his son, but his religious beliefs convinced him that his son’s lifestyle choices were condemning him to eternal damnation.
We can legislate tolerance but it will take generations of children growing up in a tolerant environment to bring about a tolerant society. As long as there are people preaching that homosexuality is a choice and a sin, and as long as there are people buying that crap, the movement for tolerance will be stuck in the same place the movement for racial equality was in the sixties.
Xenophobia, “an unreasonable fear or hatred of foreigners or strangers” according to dictionary.reference.com. Will we ever learn tolerance, or will we always be stuck in the sixties?
What do you think?
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Yes, we are not in (fill in your least favorite spot) anymore
Yesterday I was informed that I had left you all hanging and I needed to wrap this up. Sorry about that; I'd say I was busy but you know better.
Getting home has been a little surreal. Frank took excellent care of the homestead in our absence, so cleaning was not an issue. The weird thing is now we are unpacking many of the boxes we taped up (and filled up the garage workspace) right before we left and moving back in. All I can think of while unpacking is I'll be reversing this process in just a few weeks. Hard to get motivated.
As much fun as the traveling and RVing has been, I feel a real need to get on with it and reestablish a new base. I guess if I could take it all with me and still have ready access to everything, I could be a true nomad. Because I don't care where it is but I need to have a place where I can lay my hands on that left handed screw shifter that I might need for the next repair job. All I would need for that would be a small fleet of tractor/trailer rigs. Sort of a traveling circus.
So, where does that leave us? Unpacking and getting the house ready for sale again. Maybe I'll know what I want by the time the summer is mostly over. Till then it will be baby steps till the job ceases to overwhelm.
On the bright side, Jake's soccer season has started so we are off to Homer tomorrow to catch a game and see the Teague's again. They spent the night yesterday on the way down to the Homer Shore Bird Festival. Good to get together and catch up. It has become the kickoff for the season. Sort of gets you in the mood to be outside again. In that vein, I got one of the bikes down and ready to go, just got to hope for some dry days to get out again.
So. I'll post a few more items as the summer progresses and get up to speed when plans start to firm up for the next snowbird flight.
Enjoy the summer.
Stay cool.
Getting home has been a little surreal. Frank took excellent care of the homestead in our absence, so cleaning was not an issue. The weird thing is now we are unpacking many of the boxes we taped up (and filled up the garage workspace) right before we left and moving back in. All I can think of while unpacking is I'll be reversing this process in just a few weeks. Hard to get motivated.
As much fun as the traveling and RVing has been, I feel a real need to get on with it and reestablish a new base. I guess if I could take it all with me and still have ready access to everything, I could be a true nomad. Because I don't care where it is but I need to have a place where I can lay my hands on that left handed screw shifter that I might need for the next repair job. All I would need for that would be a small fleet of tractor/trailer rigs. Sort of a traveling circus.
So, where does that leave us? Unpacking and getting the house ready for sale again. Maybe I'll know what I want by the time the summer is mostly over. Till then it will be baby steps till the job ceases to overwhelm.
On the bright side, Jake's soccer season has started so we are off to Homer tomorrow to catch a game and see the Teague's again. They spent the night yesterday on the way down to the Homer Shore Bird Festival. Good to get together and catch up. It has become the kickoff for the season. Sort of gets you in the mood to be outside again. In that vein, I got one of the bikes down and ready to go, just got to hope for some dry days to get out again.
So. I'll post a few more items as the summer progresses and get up to speed when plans start to firm up for the next snowbird flight.
Enjoy the summer.
Stay cool.
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