Dale's Random Thoughts and Musings

Fifty Things About Dale!

2009-02-03T12:17:00.000-08:00

Yikes! where does time fly! It's been so long since I've posted anything I have doubts that more than a couple people even read this stuff. I DO know at least ONE freind has been keeping up since I was just "jabbed" for not updating!

I have always, and traditionally been ferocious about my privacy, and now I find myself revealing all my little secrets! But its all in fun! So anyway, this morning I thought, what the heck, I'll respond. Then once I got the original twenty five finished, I found I still had enough mental creativity and memories to go for FIFTY! Next thing you know, Ill have 75!!!

I have been making some slight changes during my "winter hibernation" and now that Spring is right around the corner, and Ol' Dale is crawling, once again out of his cave I imagine I'll have more to post.

But for now, Here is "Fifty Things About Dale"!!

1. Lived on a sailboat for three years.

2. Was a cross-country, long haul truck driver for a decade.

3. Kept a road atlas. Noticed that after about 6 years, had traveled to every State in the lower 48 (except Maine). Been to or through every major or medium sized city (except Miami) traveled every Interstate freeway from end to end, all US highways, most State highways and countless county roads and racked up well over 1 MILLION miles of accident free, commercial driving. Drove through every imaginable kind of weather, including remnants of hurricane Ivan! Had a tornado touchdown a quarter mile from his truck once!

4. Wonders how he will come up with 25 things to write on this list.

5. Drives a gasoline truck.

6. Has many aquaintences but only a few choice freinds.

7. Trys to eat oatmeal for breakfast but often ends up with a spicy burrito or SOS!

8. Can NOT function without at least two cups of coffee in the morning.

9. Thinks this endeavor reminds him of those writing classes in college where you had to sit down and just start writing ANYTHING.

10. Likes to walk. Sometimes for hours.

11. Began riding a bicycle last year for the first time in nearly 30 years.

12. Loves sunrises...and sunsets.

13. Thinks the entire country should adopt the law in Oregon where it is illegal to pump your own gas! Finds it odd that as a professional I've had to complete extensive training to handle Hazardous Material, get an endorsement, maintain strict standards, and undergo scrutiny, and the general public blindly and casually fiddles around with FLAMMABLE LIQUID with a cellphone stuck in their ear as if they were fiddling with WATER.

14. Likes V8 juice, cranberry juice, and orange juice WITH pulp, not necessarily in that order.

15. Loves thunderstorms, big ugly midwestern thunderstorms.

16. Loves the smell of cut grass.

17. Reads far less than he used to, usually falling asleep with a book after only a few pages.

18. Joined the Air Force in 1972.

19. Has owned less than 10 cars since buying his first one in 1973.

20. Wonders why he writes this in third person.

21. Is a frustrated pilot. Always wanted to, but never became one. Too deaf, and blind for military flying and too poor to learn, rent or buy a civilian airplane! BUT is a aeronautical genius on Microsoft Flight Simulator! :D

22. Has religious beliefs and practices from several sources, but does not like to inflict them on others.

23. Sees that three of his "facebook family" have prodded him with "25 things" requests!!!

24. Sometimes feels old when his children are all 30 years old or near to it!!

25. Thinks .... "Wow! I made it to 25 things!!!"

PART TWO....Lets just go for FIFTY!!!

26. No longer irons his sweatshirts!

27. Is fanatical about a clean car.

28. Enjoys the music of his youth. Upon hearing a certain tune, can be instantly returned to particular places, with particular people and particular memories.

29. Thinks it humorous when he sees a seagull or some other bird gliding in flight while also listening to the sound of a passing jet airplane!

30. Loves bare feet in warm sand.

31. Thinks that some teenagers drive far better than their parents. And so, thinks that the arbitrary age that determines ones capacity to drive should be eliminated. Thinks a standard examination measuring one's psychological makeup, maturity level, and sense of social decency along with the mental and physical ability to hurtle a piece of complex machinery in the midst of crowds of people should be required!

32. Also thinks the ridiculous notion that people are tested only ONCE in their lifetime to drive a car is a joke! Test them every four years, with in-depth written AND driving tests.

33. Finds a peaceful harbor in the fog relaxing.

34. Had some really great freinds who once tipped him over in an port-a-potty outhouse! Which landed on the door trapping him inside! Ewwwww! But when they lifted it up and Dale stormed out of the door they were all FAR AWAY! HAA!

35. Keeps his disappointments and regrets deeply buried within, but regards his past with a smile.

36. Thinks coming up with FIFTY is harder than he thought!

37. Trys to keep his glass half full and often with Iced Tea!

38. Wonders if anyone will actually read this drivel!

39. Took his 12 string out of it's case after nearly ten years! Starting to work on getting some finger callouses back.

40. Suffers from "Mighty Mouse Syndrome" and often feels the pains and struggles of friends and family.

41. Sometimes feels an urge to have Christmas in July and shoot off fireworks in December.

42. Can find tranquility in the simplest places. Like watching a tree branch move in the breeze.

43. Gets a big kick out of tossing a stone into a perfectly calm, smooth pond.

44. Would be interested to see what a shrink would say about some of these thoughts! HAA!

45. Has fond memories of older, departed people and wishes he had listened to more of their wisdom than he did.

46, Likes it when he has enough downtime to just quietly sit and watch a sunbeam move across the floor.

47. Likes wind chimes, red potatoes, creamed corn, and BabyRuth bars.

48. Hopes that if anyone reads this stuff, that they might be inspired to simply sit back for awhile and let their own minds roam.

49. Thinking I might take these "50 Things" and transpose them to my blog that I havent updated in AGES!!

50. Thanks you for reading this far, and thinking he needs to get outside on this beautiful Pacific Northwest day and enjoy it!

The Meaning of Life and a Jar

2008-11-04T07:20:00.000-08:00

I received an email the other day from a dear, old freind.

In today's world, with it's strife, confusion, stress, day to day problems, and not to mention disgusting, offensive, political jockeying relentlessly shoved down our throats, this email shed a bright light on the REALLY important things in our life.

So, with permission, I share it here in the hope that it brings a little thought, tranquility, and renewed purpose into your life.

"When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the two cups of coffee.

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with an unanimous 'yes.'

The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

"Now," said the professor as the laughter subsided, "I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things--your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions--and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.

"The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car. The sand is everything else--the small stuff. If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you.

"Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal. Take care of the golf balls first--the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand."

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented.

The professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend."

Author Unknown

More "Getting To Know Me"

2008-10-09T15:06:00.000-07:00

Okay, I'm back.

In the interest of keeping this thing going, ( I'm getting into a "techo-burnout" phase, where computers, cellphones, yadda yadda yadda, are starting to wear on me! but it should be only temporary ) I realised I need to post SOMETHING before the snows fly for the winter!

Once again, a friend of mine just posted one of those self-revealing themes. And since I apparently live enough if an enigmatic life that more than a few people have commented to me that reading my blogs tells more about me than they ever knew! That's rather sad in itself isn't it!

Anyway, Here is the next installment of "Getting to Know Dale"...by the alphabet.

A is for AGE: Currently 54, which increases at an annual rate each June.

B is for BEER: Since I choose not to imbibe, I'd have to say ROOT Beer..any of the high quality brands sweetened with honey. But plain old Iced Tea with Lemon and no sugar is my "brew" of choice.

C is for CAREER: I drive a truck. After a long period of time traversing the country, I stay home these days and deliver gasoline.

D is for DOG: I don't have a dog...Our neighbors had a dog when I was a little kid, who I shot in the butt with a BB gun when I was 12, and have felt bad about poor Rex's yelp ever since! Ol' Rex was such a sweet old dog! Boy! the baggage we carry!

E is for ESSENTIAL ITEM YOU USE EVERYDAY: Geez! There are so many! How about my glasses to start! Then Mr Coffee, followed by a toothbrush, a pen, a bar of soap..where does it end!

F is for FAVORITE TV SHOW: I very rarely watch TV. I suppose if I did it would be something from National Geographic, The History Channel, Discovery, a few favorite OLD shows, and old CLASSIC cartoons.

G is for FAVORITE GAME TO WATCH: That's something Ive never really thought about before. WATCHING sports bores me to no end! Football, Basketball, Soccer, etc, etc, etc, are all just "human ping pong" to me! Run back and forth across the field once and its all down "repetition hill" from then on! I used to watch JEOPARDY on occasion on TV.

H is for HOMETOWN: Tacoma, Washington. Been here, and there, and everywhere in between, but Tacoma has always been regarded as home.

I is for INSTRUMENTS YOU PLAY: None at the moment. However I first seriously, picked up a guitar in the 1970s and played regularly until I began my driving career and lost all my finger callouses. Now I don't play at all, but have an fairly decent 12 string collecting dust.

J is for FAVORITE JUICE: Depending on my mood, it's generally Orange Juice or Cranberry.

K is for WHO'S BUTT YOU LIKE TO BE KICKING: Well dang, sorry to disappoint anyone, but I can't think of any one's butt I feel a need to kick.

L is for the LAST PLACE YOU ATE: Actually I just finished a grilled cheese sandwich sitting right here in this chair!

M is for MARRIAGE: Twice. Whether there is a try for "Third times a Charm" is a complete mystery to me. Time will tell or not. It isn't something I'm preoccupied with.

N is for NAME: Dale

O is for OVERNIGHT HOSPITAL STAY: I've been lucky enough through my years that I haven't spent a night in a hospital, UNLESS one counts the TWENTY SIX HOURS it took for my oldest son to make his entrance into this world!!

P is for PEOPLE YOU WERE WITH TODAY: Uhhh Lets see, the lady at the Marina Office, The guy at the gas station, and Mom.

Q is for YOUR BEST QUALITY: I'll say, quite out of character with utter lack of modesty, that I have a number of qualities. However, if I were to narrow it down, I'd have to say, my integrity.

R is for WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY READING: Ive usually got a few books within arms reach, however I read a little bit of "When Eight Bells Toll" by Alistair MacLean this morning.

S is for RELATIONSHIP STATUS: Single

T is for the TIME YOU WOKE UP TODAY: It was late for me...605 AM.

U is for the type of UNDERWEAR YOU HAVE ON: Good grief what a question, I bet I could really raise eyebrows with this one! How about Pink and Lavender Paisley thongs with little red hearts! But that would be a lie! OK everyone just calm down! Don't get all excited! They are plain old white, Fruit of the Loom BRIEFS!! Sexy stuff huh? I think maybe "U" should be for "U have entirely too much free time thinking up these questions!"

V is for VEGETABLE YOU LOVE: Just the basics, Corn, Peas, Green Beans, Carrots.

W is for WORST HABITS: By far and away, Plain old Procrastination.

X is for XRAYS YOU'VE HAD RECENTLY: Dental

Y is for SOMETHING CANDY: How bout "Y" NOT!!! or YUMMY! How bout Baby Ruth...I had a bag of miniatures in my little truck until they magically disappeared!

Z is for ZODIAC SIGN: I am a hopeless, unchanging, typical, and well fitting to the image, CANCER.

Okay, there you have one more installment in what makes Dale tick.

As always, stay tuned, updates, edits, and entirely new posts are prone to appear on a whim.

Stay Safe, Happy and Healthy!

Who Am I?

2008-09-17T08:24:00.000-07:00

I read a friend's blog yesterday whose "Getting To Know Me" theme I promptly swiped to use for my own blog since I could'nt think of anything else to ramble on about! :)

Ive been suffering a bad case of blogging procrastination lately! Ive been fairly busy through the summer and I have had many thoughts at different times and in different situations of, "Hmm, that would be a good blog". But alas, the thought gets buried away, to get lost in the jumble of other neglected thoughts.

So here goes nothin!

WHAT DO I LOOK LIKE?

Hmm, what a question! Wouldn't it be easier just to look at the picture on my profile! Okay, I was six foot two at one time, but I swear I've shrunk with age and now fit in somewhere around six foot. I used to have hair of dark brown color. Today what is left of it is quickly turning to a well earned gray! And I don't own a comb! I have a slight slouch that either comes from heredity, or bad posture habits, or a bit of both. I dress casual but always clean. Ive been seen in a tie about four times in my life! I wear glasses because I haven't got the nerve to allow some doctor to go roaming around my eyeballs with a laser gun and I've got this notion in my head that contacts are a big hassle.

WHAT IS MY ETHNICITY.

On my fathers side, I am strictly Norwegian from both grandfather and grandmother. I can trace my paternal tree back to the early 17th Century to a small farm called Ryalen in the mountains of Norway's Hedmark region, near the village of Hodalen, not too far from the Swedish border.
On my mothers side I am of British descent. Although she was born and raised north of London in the area known as the Midlands, her father came from Cumbria, in the far north of England near the Scottish border, and I have only recently learned that my mother's grandmother only spoke Gaelic. Whether that is Scottish or Irish Gaelic I have no real idea, but due to geographic proximity, I'd guess Scottish.
I feel a closer tie to my maternal family. My Norwegian side, has two preceding generations of America blended into it. Whereas, on my British side, I am the first American born of that family line. And then again, I recall many, many times as a child when my angered, frustrated, and exasperated father would exclaim, "You're just like your mother!" And these days, I have heard more than once my mother likewise claim "Your just like your grandfather!" Well I do share a bit of his posture and hairline! And apparently his odd sense of humor! HAA!!

WHAT WORK DO YOU DO?

My work, job, career, whatever you call it, has never been a great focus in my life. Its been a way to pay bills. I am not my job.
However for the most part I have been involved in Logistics in one way or another, since finding myself in a Transportation unit in the Air Force in 1972.
Recently someone asked me if I was nervous doing such dangerous work. That question raised a thought that I pondered for awhile. I have at times made brief mental glances at the reality that my jobs did at times, possess certain risks. However, that was probably one of the first times I gave it any real thought.
There were the times I flew as a courier with a second rate airline contracted to the US Air Force.
There was the time I found myself literally up to my elbows in Agent Orange while on a disposal project for that stuff.
For a time in my short Air Force career, I was the "transportation guy" on loan to the Munitions Squadron, probably because I was the only guy who didnt give much thought about the conseqences of swinging hammers around bombs and assorted explosives while palletising them!
About a decade ago, during a life changing phase, I took up truck driving and found that driving an 18 wheeler through blizzards, ice storms, hailstorms, windstorms, even hurricanes (Ivan), drenching rainstorms, oppressive heat, bonechilling cold, and occasional tornados, just to park for the night in questionable industrial sections of large cities became normal life!
Today I drive a gasoline tanker truck. But its all "Just a job"

WHERE DID I GROW UP?

Mostly Tacoma, Washington. As a child we moved constantly! I think I attended at some point nearly every elementary school in the North and West Ends of town. I attended four high schools, and the school I graduated from I attended twice! For reasons I'm not really sure, I've considered the section of Tacoma (and today a separate city) called University Place the town I "grew up in". Maybe because our family actually owned a home there, or because it was the one place we parked the longest. We were there about six years. I was fourteen when we returned to a Tacoma neighborhood, and those six years at that age represented a large piece of life. However, due to the number of places lived, schools attended, and various family ties, Tacoma's North End is just as significant.

WHAT IS MY RELATIONSHIP STATUS?

Today, I am long ago divorced for the second time and single.
In my teens and early adult years, when I discovered that girls really werent "icky" I fostered notions of a perfect Ward and June Cleaver situation complete with "white picket fences and rose bushes". The reality of life proved that such thoughts were just rose colored dreams, and today I no longer search for such things.
Certainly, a part of me will always hold out for the future possibilities, but I dont actively look anymore. If the "right one" came along I wouldn't run, but I am perfectly comfortable at this time in my life, just enjoying rewarding, platonic freindships. Today I am content and accepting of the hand dealt me.

WHAT ARE MY ISSUES?

I suppose coming from a broken, abusive, alcoholic homelife as a child, I could come up with all kinds of issues. I came to terms long ago with those earlier experiences that abusive alcoholics are their own problem. My thoughts on that are, we can choose to live their problem, or we can choose to put it in its place and move on. Sort of like the old saying of, "If someone hurts you once it's their fault, if they hurt you twice its yours."
However, that early childhood has been a direct influence for certain traits I have. I have a strong disgust for obnoxious, sloppy, especially mean spirited drunks, I see red at the thought of, or news of, irresponsible and abusive men toward women, and maybe that is in part where my occasional bouts of "mighty mouse syndrome", of jumping in and "saving the day" comes from.
However the "issues" I have today are a certain sadness, and frustration of the collapse of our society. All of our problems can generally be traced to the single aspect of selfishness.

WHAT ARE MY POLITICAL LEANINGS?

Traditionally, and from where I really dont know, I have been a Conservative Republican for most of my voting life. However in my later years a change began to develop to a different way of looking at things. Im certainly not of the hard core Conservative Republican path I supported for all those years, (if I ever really was at all!) nor am I of the Liberal Democrat philosophy either.
Quite frankly if there were a "Disgusted With It All" party I'd be a raging, card carrying member!
I find it silly that we elect a savior every four years from a pool of deception who we are sure will save us, only to spend three years hating our choices until we repeat it all again.
Awhile back I took a fun little "test" that indicated one's political leanings. The results then showed me to be a "Conservative Libertarian"
As I have said before, I'll just peacefully smile and let the rest of the world figure it all out.

WHAT ARE YOUR RELGIOUS BELIEFS?

I have always considered myself Christian. There was no real church we belonged to as a child. My mother is from a Church of England/Anglican path that we never followed, and my father's family made the attempt to at least look like 'devout Lutherans" although even the most church going members of that clan were Christmas and Easter church goers at best. We never really had a church education as kids.
Over the years, as an adult I looked into several Christian denominations to one degree or another.

Today I tend to avoid those organized groups as I have found that for the most part its little more than "We are right and they are wrong and God loves us best".

In the end, I think we all find God the way we find him.

WHAT IS MY LEVEL OF EDUCATION?

My education is one of those things I to this day scratch my head over! As a child, throughout High School, I barely scraped by. The standard classroom setting bored me to death! I remember the time in the first grade at Wainwright School in Fircrest. Lunchtime came, and we all dutifully lined up in a perfect row to follow the teacher across the playground to the lunch room door. I was last in line. When I got to the door my young mind thought, "I can go through the door, OR no one is watching so I can just duck around the corner and go home! So, I went home. I walked in through the unlocked kitchen door and looked at pictures in my dad's history books and dined on Oreos and Milk! All this at the tender age of SIX!
In later years I skipped classes, not for mischevious adolescent reasons, but rather to sit in the library reading and learning what I wanted to learn. I would have been a prime candidate for homeschooling were it available then.
In my middle twenties then a married father, I started college on the GI Bill as an alternative to unemployment during a period of economic recession. After three and a half years, I earned a Bachelors Degree in History, with Minors in English, Education, and Military Science with enough electives to amount to over five years of college credit.
But with all that said, my education has pretty much been of the Hard Knocks variety.

OK, thats ME. Feel free to comment. And as usual, this post may be edited or added to at a later date so check back often!

Something To Think About

2008-08-21T08:33:00.000-07:00

While I'm sitting here on the boat, watching scattered rays of sunlight filter in as the clouds slowly, ever so slowly, try to dissipate, I find myself browsing the Internet as I enjoy a simple breakfast of crackers, cheese, and an apple. Quite unusual for me, but I had the makings at hand and thought, why not.

So, in my online browzing, I find an interesting and thought provoking story.

It seems there was a young boy who ate far too much sugar. The boy's mother tried and failed, tried and failed again, to get her son to stop eating so much sugar.

At her wits end she took him to see the boys idol, Mahatma Gandhi, with the hope that maybe HE could persuade the boy.

Gandhi told the mother, "Come back in two weeks, I will speak with your son."

Two weeks later the mother and her son return. Gandhi simply tells the boy, "Stop eating so much sugar, its not good for you". The boy promised to stop.

The mother then asks, "Why didnt you just tell him that two weeks ago.

The answer was, "Two weeks ago I was eating too much sugar myself"

The moral of the story is, "If you want to see change, BE the change"

Interesting idea isnt it?

Now, back to my cheese n crackers, (the apple's gone already) ;)

I think I may go for a walk somewhere. Later today I'll be bike riding with a good freind and maybe even more freinds.

More later, or sooner, which ever comes first.

Enjoy your day, Be Safe, Be Happy.

My Day!

2008-08-14T20:49:00.000-07:00

Wow! Whats this? Dale makes THREE postings in a matter of a week or so!

So, while I wind down from my day today, and get ready to hit the sack for the start of another work week tomorrow, I thought I'd take a second and post this really neat picture I took..oh, maybe 30 minutes ago.

Its not "artsy". In fact due to the surroundings its pretty "industrial"! I wasnt able to get a clear shot away from masts and other dock type junk. But I hope it conveys even a part of how great this looked as I drove home tonight. I had to pull off, into a nearby parking lot to snap this picture of the nearly full moon rising next to Mt. Rainier just after sunset. Trust me, it looked far better "live" that what my cheapo camera could show

Yesterday, I went up to the Foothills Trail ( see earlier posts) again, for another bike ride. I pooped out after only a few short miles. I had a tire that was lower than it should have been.

Later that afternoon I met one of my freinds for a GREAT pizza, and got a reminder that the local bicycle club was riding this morning. So, there I was with another challenge! ( I dont call them "dares" anymore! hahaha!!)

So, after polishing off a darn near full pot of coffee this morning ( I was supposed to limit myself to a HALF pot, so I'd have no excuses to sit around the boat and poke trolls and otherwise waste a beautiful day!) I headed up to the Foothills Trail in Puyallup. But all good intentions aside, I still arrived after the group had left. So I drove up to the next trailhead to meet them there. They arrived just as I was climbing on the bike. But, it wasnt long before I was soundly left in the dust! I caught up with them again at the park a few miles ahead, then we played this cat n mouse game all the way to South Prairie, where we took our halfway rest before the return trip. Up there I found "Bill the Bike Guy" and I sat and listened as he shared some stories and advice, and I was advised of the necessity of getting my bike in for its service. So I thought, "Gee they are ALL getting after me!" HAAA!!! Besides the fact that I HAD been putting it off, the 20 mile ride I did today, felt like 40! And it just didnt feel like, or ride like the bike I bought last January. So I was convinced.

And I DO appreciate the gentle prods and reminders, I really do. I'm just a stubborn old coot sometimes and have to bang up my own knees! Of course I AM pretty good about prodding others myself so I understand how that stuff works! HAAAA!!

At any rate, poor beat up abused and neglected Glinda is in the shop for her first 'tune up" after what MUST be over 500 miles by now. I might guess that that is a low estimate.

After my ride this morning I took off and returned to the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge ( see last weeks post) for another walk. Am I nuts or what? I get three days off, and shove all this exertion into the last day! ( I really SHOULD cut back to half a pot in the mornings!) so there I was traipsing around the refuge in record setting heat. It was in teh high 80s today, and the forecast is for hotter tomorrow! But I carried my kewl new water bottle ;) and wore a hat, and there WAS quite a bit of shady tree canopy over the trail so it turned out to be a fun, yet peaceful walk.

After my stop at teh bike shop, and a shower, I dropped in on mom and my sister and took care of a COLD glass of lemon water and a chunk of pie before making it back down here to provide all of you with kewl mountain pictures, open the hatches on this boat to cool it off enough to sleep, and THAT, along with a cold cup of mint tea, is where I am right now! ;)

There ya have it, "My Day" ;) Arent you glad you came along!

Big Hugs to all my freinds and family ( arent they the same thing?) and I'm off to bed.

Be Safe, Healthy, and Happy....more later.

Defending the Faith?

2008-08-12T07:16:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, I received an e-mail from my son.

As a matter of background, he and his wife belong to the particular church which this e-mail regarded. The e-mail contained an attached commentary written by a fairly well known celebrity who set about doing his part to clear up the misconceptions about this faith.

As I read it, I had thoughts of, 'okay here we go again'. I say that because with my own experience having lived for a time in the place dominated by this church, and having been, long ago and for a very short period, personally involved with this church, I came to the conclusion long ago that those who claim this faith, spend a great amount of time defending it! Sometimes among themselves, and often to others.

This attached commentary, went to great lengths explaining how the members of this church were wonderful people, great neighbors, outstanding citizens. They were trustworthy, and made great boy scouts! Every one of those attributes I can and WILL agree with.

I will ALSO make the comment that such traits are NOT exclusive to this particular church. I have seen it in that church, and many, many others. I will also mention, quite emphatically, that such behavior is also common to faiths, and followers of NON-Christian beliefs, and to those with no faith whatsoever!

Then the commentary went on to say how many other denominations, spend a great deal of time and energy "proving" to themselves and the rest of us, how this particular church is wrong, they are a cult, they will never get to heaven, and their church is based on lies and misconceptions.

I can speak on this subject becuase I have at various times in my life experienced ALL of this. Ive seen the good and bad, regarding my son and daughter-in-law's church. I have also been under the roof of "mainstream" churches and experienced the nasty, "teachings and warnings" against this faith.

So, the point of this story is. If one claims a certain faith or belief, why would one also feel a need to defend it?

Its YOUR choice, YOUR church. If it works for you, enjoy it, learn it, grow in it!! Then allow others to do the same as they find the way to do it themselves in their own way!

If someone chooses to see God in a tree, so be it. Who am I to judge whether that is right or wrong. If another finds God in polished pews and stained glass, more power to them!! I tend to find God in a combination of those ways and many others. In my thoughts, God is all encompassing and reaches far outside any man-made, "church".

I have experienced God in the whisper of a breeze through the trees, in the crash of waves on a beach or a simple ripple on a pond. I have seen God show his face in amazing sunrises and sunsets. I have seen hints of the power of God in a tornado or two that passed too close for my comfort. I have seen the face of God in the simple smile and laughter of a young child, or a brand new flower at the onset of Spring. I have experienced God amongst the polished pews and stained glass of ancient cathedrals, neighborhood churches, and even on a folding metal chair in a start up, store front gathering.

Also, I do not think God, in whatever house we put Him, would be very amused at the tendency we have, as humans, to self-righteously build ourselves up, in the process of tearing others down! I just dont see the "reward" in that.

I am inclined to think that the New Testament of the Christian faith teaches the "way" of Christ. I believe that "way" is a lesson for all of us in the practice of humility, love, acceptance, and growth, taught by Christ by His example

I have heard it said that "in Gods house there are many rooms" If that is the case, I doubt that God made some rooms perfect, and others not so.

There ya have it. My opinion. Just as with YOUR brand of faith, you can take mine or leave it, add to it or take from it.

A Walk In The Sun

2008-08-06T21:20:00.000-07:00

And some folks probably thought I gave up on blogging, or fell into a pit somewhere.

Nope, nothing so dramatic. Just been busy, either being busy, or busy NOT being busy. You know how it is, when you work long hours, its pretty hard work just vegetating. Ok Enough excuses!

It wasnt but a few days ago, when a freind of mine, once again, gave me a gentle prod by making notice of the fact that I hadn't blogged in "a LONG TIME", then I got a "BAD DALE" to boot! Now how can anyone ignore such a thing! So since then, Ive been fiddling around with trying to remember what Ive been doing since the last post. Truth be told, I think Ive satisfied my life-sharing needs on my fun little Twitter thingy where I fire off messages to my freinds and read theirs. Its fun, but it's NOT a blog.

Ive also given some thought to taking a cue from that same freind who also blogs, who dedicates one day a week to a particular theme. One day for positive, happy posts, and another to shall we say, unload the system, with a whine n cry about one thing or another, etc etc.

I might have a hard time finding a day to whine too much, as any long blogging I do gets done on my day off, and I just cant bring myself to blow negetive smoke on my day off! Maybe when summer is over and the weather turns to poop and I get bored sitting inside for weeks on end, THEN I can bitch on my day off! HAAA!! But then, sometimes I just make my mental plans and ideas out loud. So we shall see, what we shall see.

But today, I took a walk..

Twenty-odd miles south of here, just off I-5 sits the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge. Its a beautiful place that is situated in the middle of the Nisqually River delta, where the river empties into Puget Sound after running its course from its birth on Mt. Rainer. Being a wildlife sanctuary, where humans are mere guests, we are limited to simple foot travel, which lends itslef to a peaceful walk through nature.

I took a handful of pictures along the 6 plus mile walk around the perimeter on what is known as "The Dike Path" There is an official name for it, but that is what I'VE always called it. There was a time when this entire area was a farm, and a elevated dike was built around it. Now there is a path on top of that.

Here is a batch of cattails

and a few yellow flowers of some sort that caught my eye.

I was having some "historical" thoughts as I walked.

In this river delta, on the ground I trod today, the beginnings of what we know as the State of Washington were planted.

Issac Stevens, the first Territorial Governor of Washington and some sixty tribal leaders of the surrounding Native tribes, signed what was called the Medicine Creek Treaty in 1854, right here on the shores and fields of this Delta. This treaty, essentially bought the tribal lands for somewhere around $30,000, gave the natives permanent hunting and fishing rights, and of course relegated them to Reservations. I have no idea of the EXACT location of this event, but right there on the banks of that inlet could be just as possible as anywhere else in this delta.I'm not going to use this blog to rant~n~rave about injustice and all that. I try to keep this post light. However, if anyone does see the injustice, they might be interested to know that Ol' Issac "bought the farm" just eight years later while serving as a General in the Union Army at the Second Battle of Bull Run in Virginia in 1862.

A personally interesting sidenote. This 1854 treaty was signed just two years after my own great, great grandfather became the third white settler in Goodhue County, Minnesota in 1852 after emigrating with his family from Norway. And shortly after Governor Stevens was getting himself shot off his horse in Virginia, my great grandfather, Oliver Ryalen the settler's son, found himself firing off cannons with the 10th Minnesota Artillery at the Battles of Nashville and Chattanooga before finding himself on "provost duty" in Mississippi until the end of the Civil War.

Oliver wasnt nearly as glamourous a character as his brother, who after chasing the Sioux around western Minnesota, spent his Civil War adventure in the 10th Minnesota Infantry, and according to family legend, ended up in the stockade when he and some pals decided they'd had enough "soldiering" and stole a train to go home to Minnesota!! He was also the 'mystery" my father struggled with during his thirty year research of our family tree. It seems this character finished his war, returned home and settled down, only to vanish around 1900. My own grandmother related the story of his son, who when on his own death bed in 1961, was reported to have said, "Take me to my father, I know where he is". And that was the last of that.

But MY great grandfather Oliver the apparent responsible one, farmed, married, and raised a batch of kids, the youngest one, Albin Oliver, becoming my own grandfather.

I guess I have Oliver on my mind today since just this morning, on an internet search, I discovered that in November 1878, he was elected as "justice" in the township of Ten Mile Lake, Minnesota. Here is a picture of Grandpa Oliver taken shortly before his death in 1914.

Okay then, that is your history lesson for the day!

Back to my walk.

Sometimes it amazes me just how much many areas here in Washington State, remind me of England. At least the rural part where I lived for my two year time in East Anglia. These rolled bales of hay, brought back some of those mental images.

Here's a few geese, that were giving me some serious popeyed glances as they swam past.
One thing I enjoy on my all to infrequent walks through this Preserve, is the old trees. Sure, they are beautiful, they are majestic, but one should also be aware that they are quite humbling as well. The life and history those old trees have witnessed! When you think like that, it reminds us of just how insignificant we humans really are. To me, a stately old tree has as much "put you in your place" power as a gaze at the Milky Way.

Thats about it for this post. Hope you enjoyed my little shared journey through time and nature.

As always, stay tuned, and remember that as with all my posts, the one you read today might change tomorrow. I do have the inclination at times to go in and edit or add to existing posts.

Just Some Assorted Fun Stuff

2008-07-02T11:02:00.000-07:00

I'm back! Finally Summer is HERE! I am on my second day off of three, and sunshine and the outdoors beckons! However I just wanted to post a short blog and post a few pics taken on some recent activities.

Last week, in celebration of yet another annual anniversary of my entry into this world over half a century ago, my long time freind Debra gave me the gift of this really KEWL bicycle statue! Although I'm not REALLY sure if it was in celebration of my birthday, OR a congratulatory reminder of my 40 plus milestone ride a couple of months ago! Either way it was thoughtful as usual, and I just wanted to share it with the rest of you. I also found it interesting that it bears a striking resemblance to the three statues on the Green River Trail up in Kent! ( see earlier posts)As a further birthday celebration I was treated to a visit to the McMinneville Aviation Museum in McMinneville, Oregon last week. The main attraction there is the Spruce Goose flying boat built by Howard Hughes that was moved up to this museum from its former resting place in Long Beach, California a number of years ago. I tried to get a picture of it, but frankly it was SO huge and imposing that it filled the entire building and there was no place I could find to fit the entire craft in one frame! So, it just sort of fits in on pictures of the other aircraft surrounding it in the hanger. Frankly, I just wasn't all that impressed with it. It was BIG, and I suppose that was impressive in and of itself, but I found far greater interest in the other exhibits that surrounded it.

That picture above gives a good hint at the size of this monster. As you can see, sitting under the starboard wing is an F-105. Now I can tell you that the F-105 is a BIG airplane. The people standing on the ladder shows that fact. So, then compare that to that huge wing towering overhead!

Then I had fun walking around this F-4 Phantom reminiscing about my younger days when I was based for two years in England. Occasionally I was "drafted" to the Security Police unit to walk fence lines in the dark, or wander around a cold, wet, windy hardstand. To make a long story short the upside down "V" of the F-4 tail design provided a wonderfully dry "roof" and as soon as the maintenance guys showed up and started the thing up, it made a great HEATER while running at idle! I do recall even after more than thirty years, that when you're on a windy airfield a short three miles inland from the cold North Sea in December, that you found your heat wherever you could find it! You know, dumb young kids don't think about stuff like this, but I'm really glad those guys never decided to "goose" the throttles back then! HAA!

I was rather impressed with two of my favorites displayed together. Here are a few shots of the 'Two Mustangs'.

A number of years ago I read the biography of Lee Iaccoca, who was the mastermind behind Ford building the Mustang in 1964. As it turns out the automobile was inspired and directly fashioned after the P-51 Mustang. The story related the design features that made the Ford Mustang what it was. A long nose ( hood), a forward slanting trailing edge on the shorter tail (trunk and rear panel), the fastback roof line, and, when one looks at the lower air intake on the airplane, the Ford Mustangs distinctive grill is clearly evident. As a side note, one might also find interest that the tailfin fad of the 1950's actually began with a very subtle "hump" on the tail of the 1948 Cadillac, based on the twin boom design of the P-38.

So there you have some aviation inspired automotive trivia for those who care.

I found this Spitfire interesting in that this particular airplane was posted at a Royal Air Force airfield, just down the road from the village where, and at the same time, my British born mother was about to marry my father and leave home to begin her life in this country!

This was a rather interesting display. It is the partial remains of a Japanese "Zero" that was discovered on a remote Pacific Island, obviously cleaned up a bit, but displayed in "as is" condition.

This was my 'artsy' contribution to the list, it is just the polished propeller hub on the B-25

One thing you find in these museums, is a collection of old codgers telling "war stories". Listening to one, I learned some trivia you can share at your next get together. I learned the origins of the common phrase, "The whole nine yards". As it turns out, World War Two aircrews, when preparing for a mission, would draw ammunition belts for their .50 caliber guns. Sometimes, when the trip was expected to be of short duration, with little expected enemy opposition, they would take a smaller amount. However, if a long trip, with heavy opposition was expected they would draw a full load. As it turns out, a full length belt of .50 caliber ammunition, on a typical Flying Fortress bomber was twenty seven feet long. 27 feet divided by 3 feet to a yard, hence the term, "Gimmie the whole nine yards!" So there is your trivia tidbit for the day.

(After some thought, I want to make this addition. I love these old airplanes. There is something about the look, feel, smell, and sound of these old birds that strikes a nerve in me. Maybe its childhood dreams and imaginations, maybe its just a guy thing. Then again, maybe it is understanding the very short timeline involved in the technological advances of these craft. Less than forty short years prior to some of these machines, aircraft were only a dream. Less than thirty years later, man was walking on the moon! However there is one thing that should be remembered. These machines are not motor vehicles, they are not coffee grinders or washing machines. Some of them were designed and built for the sole purpose of breaking things and killing people. We need to remember the millions of people, in and out of uniform, whose lives have ended over the bickering's of nations and politics. Just my opinion.)

I took many other photos that I have yet to post. Possibly I will edit this and add those later. In addition to the hanger that housed these aircraft and many others, there was also a separate building devoted to Space. That building contained several other interesting displays, such as the X-15 rocket plane, examples of Mercury and Apollo spacecraft, and other various and assorted gadgets and doohickeys related to mankind's exploration of space. Outside this hanger was an example of the SR-71 Blackbird. A record setting high speed reconnaissance aircraft, one of which set a speed record from New York to London in less than two hours!
As enjoyable as the day was, which included a drive through some beautiful scenery of the hilly, rural, west side of the Willamette Valley in Oregon. It did involve my 4 hour drive down, and the 4 hour drive home back here to Tacoma which made for a very long and tiring day. When I got back to the boat, I don't remember my head hitting the pillow!

In addition to the airplane stuff, the last week included yet another Wednesday night boat race, where this time we actually had enough breeze to almost stick the deck in the water! Its funny, when I was driving a truck cross country all month, where trucks are not supposed to tip over, then coming home to sail for a day or two, how the normal heeling action on a sailboat gave me the creeps!

This one is a fun shot, knowing that it was taken as a sideways shot across the boat. Heeling over quite a bit, it didn't capture a horizon, or distant beach, but rather the water which as one can see was actually on the SIDE of the boat instead of below!

OK, that's about it for now. I have a summery day to get out and enjoy!

Trusting in Good Health, Safety and Smiles for my readers!

At the Races

2008-06-19T07:48:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, when my friend that I spend Wednesday evenings with on our usual bike ride of just under thirty miles (see earlier posts) had to cancel due to a pressing workload, I took the opportunity to join my sailing buddy and four other friends for some sailing, belching, bragging, cussing and throwing peanuts shells on the floor (well, the peanut part is true!) on the Wednesday night boat races here on Tacoma's Commencement Bay. It had been a year since I had been out with them, and even though I missed riding with my bike buddies, this was one of those diversions that reminds me of all those other things I enjoy just as well.
Weather was beautiful, especially considering the lousy "spring" we've had in this part of the country. It did however turn into sweatshirt AND jacket weather as the sun began to set. Anyway, I'll take jackets and sweatshirts on a dry night on Puget Sound over the sweltering Northeast states and the flooding Midwest any day.Beats me if we won or not, or even where we placed in the pack, but I don't think "winning" is the point of racing anyway. We overheard a couple far too serious characters bellyaching at each other from boat to boat, and we thought....Sheesh stay home! Too bad for them because the remaining 95% of the racers had a great time, just chasing each other around the bay.

With that, and now that my coffee is cold, and I am drawing a blank on expounding any deeper, Ill just let the few photos I took tell the rest of the story.

Friday the 13th...and boring details!

2008-06-14T05:31:00.000-07:00

Yikes what a day!

Yesterday I grabbed the keys and logged into a loaner truck from one of our other terminals.

Ready to start out on what SHOULD have been a fairly easy day. I had three "local" loads that are normally a piece of cake.

Arrived at the loading racks to find out the truck was not in their system, and certain documentation had expired.....lost about 45 minutes there. Ok fine, all that done, started loading 11000 gallons of gas...........easy enough.

Finished all that and ran off the bills to discover that the computer had double billed the entire load.....gee not too sure WHERE I could stick 22,000 gallons guys!

That adventure took about 30 minutes to fix and rebill.

So, first stop well over an hour wasted.

PART TWO

Return to laoding racks for second load......log on to system...."Truck is logged on at another location"......Hmmm, now isnt this an interesting error message! There goes 30 minutes of facility staff trying to figure out where my truck was.....pointing out the window and saying, "Its right over THERE!" didnt seem to help much! :)

OK they "found" my truck and discovered it the error was related to the earlier billing problem and all was set and ready to go......finished that task and lo and behold.....yet ANOTHER double bill!! There goes yet another 45 minutes!!....OK, off to finished load number two.......

Return to loading racks to load Number Three and finish up and get outta Dodge!!!!!

"Truck is logged on at another location".......Okay, by this time Dale is thinking about pulling his hair out but remembers he hasnt GOT any..........back inside again.....this time they get ambitious....they decided it must be with my log on number since its only ME having these problems......SO they change me in teh system....I run out and load the truck.......run the bills.....you guessed it.....ANOTHER 22,000 gallons!!! By this time Ive long given up on sanity and am calmly smiling like an insane person......but havnt reached the point of mumbling to myself! By this time some "expert" from the bowels of the facility gets in on it ( where was he for the first two!?) and discovers in less than FIVE MINUTES that my truck is conflicting with another truck and has the entire mess fixed ( we'll see this morning!!)

So off I go to finish my last drop and go home.......just intime for a solid Friday night traffic mess that turned a 45 minute drive into TWO HOURS!!!!!

My day ended at just over 12 hours......without lunch by the way...

I have a bunch more "blogs" floating around in my head and apologies to my freinds who have been wondering when I might post a blog.....

OK back to work.......more later!

Be Safe, Be healthy, Be Happy

Trying something new

2008-05-27T22:27:00.000-07:00

Just a few days ago a friend posed the question of, "Hey Dale, you update your blog lately?" Of course I took that as a gentle prod, as it was obvious I hadn't! Ha!

So, this afternoon on the first day of my "weekend", I decided to take a short little drive "outta Dodge" along Hood Canal ( the western "arm" of Puget Sound), for a little rural, peace, quiet and sunshine, away from the city.

Camera in hand I found a tiny stream leading from the forest, across the beach and into "The Sound". Not to be confused with the SOUND of the rushing water that captivated me enough to take this video. So here it is, for you to enjoy....one more "geek project" to challenge myself with. Just click the little arrow and enjoy! :)

Problem is NOW I have to PEE!!!!

DORKS!!!

2008-05-15T06:10:00.000-07:00

Haaaa! What a blog title!

I did my Wednesday afternoon ride with my two bike pals, Lisa and Gary, up on the Green River Trail again yesterday. For the first time this year the weather did NOT have any possibility of cold wind driven, frozen chunks falling from the sky. It was in the 70's with a slight overcast and humidity that reminded me of New Jersey! Actually I half expected a thunderstorm to pop up!

When I read the forecast for today, it mentioned "Clear and Upper Seventies" ....however at this early hour, from my boat I look out the top hatch to see more overcast and my little wind indicators are fluttering like crazy! Maybe the weather man is a DORK!

So, the ride. Gary and Lisa are wisely decked out in the proper, well padded and ventilated clothing for a nearly 30 mile bike ride in Mid-Spring on an unusually sticky Pacific Northwest day......but Dorky Dale, who just spent hard earned money on padded bike shorts, leaves them hanging in a closet becuase he is too modest in a DORKY way to flash his bare white legs to the world, and its too warm to pull a pair of sweat pants over them, shows up in beat up old JEANS as usual.

So after a while of pedalling away, and not really thinking at THAT point that 'I should have worn shorts' Lisa falls behind and soon I hear a laughing voice yell..."Hey Dale! Stand up on your pedals" ......... So there is Dorky Dale, dum de dum dumming along..."OK Ill stand up"...dum de dum dum, doh de doh doh. The next thing I hear is more laughing voice announcing her 'blog post pic of the night'!!!

So after her blog gets posted, I go have a look and there it is....my saggy, blue jean butt posted for the entire world's enjoyment on the internet!! HAAAAAA!! As a gentle reminder that Dale needs to start wearing those dang shorts!!!

Well after about 25 miles of this ride, I start getting a warm feeling in the seat of my pants that is NOT connected to thoughts of Mom's Apple Pie and TeddyBears!

OK so I admit it.....and here you have it, publicly posted and announced. Next Week Dorky Dale Wears The Bike Shorts! But NOW I will be a little more cautious when freinds start suddenly falling behind!!

Now then since Dale was DORKY enough to forget his camera again, Im sure Lisa wont mind if I swipe HER pics and post them here just to illustrate what a neat little trail we have found and to share amazement that whoever planned this trail was NOT a DORK and pulled it off in the center of the huge industrial complex of South Seattle where we are sometimes mere yards from buzy freeways and warehouses! )

Here, Lisa captures Gary and I in a well aimed, backwards picture, just before she put a sneaky, devilish expression on her face and fell behind for the "Famous Butt Shot"! HAAA!!And then she found this neat subject. "Pink Blossoms on the Trail", that I can't swipe and post without the reminder that we ARE on a bike path in the middle of a large urban industrial area!! Way to go UN-dorky trail planners!!

OK, more DORK stories........

A few weeks ago, I was at work, about 11PM, unloading gasoline at a station, had my hoses plugged in, and my little orange cones set out (you'll have to read previous blogs to appreciate my sensetivity on this subject) when this car with a couple Big Dumb Stupid DORKS pulls up and runs right over one of the cones!!! So, I give them a very stern, scowling look and a very direct finger jab to direct them back out of my danged work area, which they do, and Dale returns to his job with a disgusted head shake at how STUPID people can be....but what does he see next? The SAME Big Dumb Stupid DORKS once again drive right back over the cone and into a second one!! So, at this point, the station attendant is out, and I holler over .. Hey! Go ahead and call the cops on these idiots! To which he asks, rather timidly, "Do you really want me to?" to which I exclaim with full intent and escaping steam..."Hell yes I want you to call the cops!!" While this exchange is going on, I am walking around to the open drivers window (becuase of the glare of the overhead lights, I have no idea who is in the car!) in full "pi**ed off mode" with a well placed, "Hey! Are you having a problem here tonight!!?" When I WANTED to say "What the @&%$ is wrong with you, you stupid moronic idiot?!! My exclamations ended in mid-sentence when I rounded the drivers side to find my two co-workers"B" and "N" in the car on their night off, laughing so hard they nearly had tears running down their faces!! So the cops never got called and we all enjoyed a good laugh. And I was given the compliment that "Dangit Dale your patient!! I would have gone ballistic when the first cone was run over!!

OK so you'd think I would learn and be wise to this stuff, Right?

Last Sunday morning ( Oh! I am on DAY SHIFT now!!! :) I was unloading at another station when this stupid moron in a car drives up alongside my work area...sees my orange cones and opens his car door and slowly drives along knocking each one over!! Just to discover it was yet ANOTHER co-worker who was happening by to fill his car! Yep I work with a real fun loving bunch of DORKS!!! HAAA!!!

Be safe and have a great day :)

Poopy!

2008-05-03T14:35:00.000-07:00

OK short blog alert and a whine!

So, Here I sit.

I got brand new, super studly bike shorts, new super fast bike tires, and after a nice long nap, here I sit, with rain pitter-pattering on the deck above, coffee polished off, looking at the latest weather update before wandering off to work!
Sunshine tomorrow!!! YAYYYYYY!!!

Hey! I AM eating right!!!

2008-05-01T08:53:00.000-07:00

OK I'm still here! Good grief! It came to my attention that it's been well over a week since I posted anything on this doggone blog!!

Last weekend I attempted a ride with my bike buddies on the Foothills Trail. Started the day with grandois plans to knock off thirty miles. Well, it seems I was getting the tag of "FlatTireDale" with all the tire trouble Ive been enduring lately. I ended up struggling the first 7 miles up to South Prairie with a pooping out rear tire. So, bike buddy Bill with his hi tech tire inflating device ( I RILLY need one of those!) Refilled the poopy tire in seconds, and off we go on the return trip. That lasted about six and a half miles. I limped back in to my truck for the last half mile knowing that there wasnt going to be any thirty mile ride for me that day! :(

But I must admit that the tire problems were only part of it. Physically I was WORN OUT!! I had been lacking some serious sleep over the previous days. Mostly due to my extended swing shift schedule and earlier rising daylight, now that Spring has arrived here in Washington State. On top of that I was seriously neglecting a proper diet! Living on coffee, junk food, and chili burgers while trying to rack up serious mileage on a bicycle just dont work. Not to mention it was probably downright dangerous! Dale needed a reminder that tires ain't all of it. I need to maintain the bicycles "motor" as well!

So on yesterdays ride, my bike buddy gently reminded me with a "Havent I been telling you to eat right?"
OK, so there ya have proof. Dale IS starting to get a proper diet going again!

Oh man was this good!! In that bowl, on top of some kind of trendy cereal from a small, overpriced box, is a handful of blueberries, and handful of grapes, and a handful of shredded almonds.

And that mug holds fresh dripped REALcoffee fresh from a resealable bag of "Peets House Blend" ( and they were NOT whole beans!!! HAA!) I still havent found a coffee grinder yet, but since my poor old drip coffeemaker has been running unusually slow the last few mornings and making some nasty gurgling "death rattle" noises, I think one of todays chores might be searching out a replacement. If I do that I may as well look again for a grinder!

(A side note for those who don't know, "REALcoffee" has become my own tag for ANY coffee that comes in a small, overpriced, resealable bag with trendy labeling, instead of the large, mass produced, round tin can that we all grew up with!)

Looking at that mug I am reminded of the tour I took through that old submarine (USS DRUM) that is on display in Mobile, Alabama. A couple years ago another guy from the long haul trucking company I worked for, and myself, spent an afternoon carousing around the USS ALABAMA museum while waiting for loads. This submarine was open to the public and I was amazed at just how TINY it was in that thing!! It made my little sailboat feel like the Queen Mary! I bet WWII submariners had to be 5 foot tall or less. My 6 foot plus headroom requirements just didnt cut it in there!

Just a side note. That afternoon tour took place PRE-Katrina. I read later that the storm did some very serious damage to the museum complex which sits right on the shore of Mobile Bay. I read where the battleship ALABAMA, which sits permanently moored in the mud of Mobile bay, ( in a special dredged out pit ) actually listed 8 degrees during that storm!! Gives one an entirely new perspective on the power of nature. I was surprised after reading that, that the submarine even existed after the storm. It sits mounted above ground on two concrete pedestals. The story I read indicated that it was the LEAST affected display in the entire complex!

OK, let me step back a smidge to last weekends bike ride. When I had to bail out on the ride due to tire trouble, and the fact that I could have fallen asleep while pedaling! The rest of my bike pals continued on. So on my way home, I passed them on the highway and decided to park up ahead and ambush them with my camera!

I know at least one of them wondered what that weird guy up there was doing hunkered down in the ditch!! This picture of my bike pals earned the title "Four Cyclists of the Apocalypse"! I think to properly take in this picture, it should have a soundtrack of Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries"!! HAA!!

OK, continuing on. In the days since, Dale has caught up on sleep, recharged his system with decent nutritional intake, and yesterday met his bike pals and we set out to do our usual Wednesday after work twenty mile ride on the Green River Trail. At our usual turnaround spot, Mollie led us farther up the route that we didnt know existed. We ended up adding an additional seven and a half miles to our usual ride! I' m pretty sure we actually entered into the limits of the City of Seattle. Although the extra time involved, put us in the path of two rain showers that soaked Dale's street pants to the skin! One of these days I am just going to have to bite the bullet and start wearing those super studly, contour revealing, bike shorts! Of course Dale had a pair of semi-rain proof pull on pants in his bike bag, but was either too stubborn or lazy to stop to put them on! (And to admit to a well placed question I was asked..."No, that didn't work too well for me"!! Actually they DID go on later when the ride ended and it was mutually decided that we needed a vast, massive intake of Mexican food!!! (I just couldnt bring myself to embarrass myself OR my dinner partner wandering into a public place looking as though I had serious bladder problems!!)

Ah, but part two of yesterdays ride. I stopped off on the way up and had my local bike shop replace the tires on Glinda with some RILLY kewl aftermarket tires. They are a bit thinner and much less soft. The kid at the shop told me I would probably find the bike a little faster and easier to pedal. NO KIDDING!!! These dang things made 27+ miles feel like 15!!! If it werent for sitting in soaking wet pants and the fact that we were starving, I could have done a second loop without even thinking about it. Here is the proof of mileage, AND the kewl new hi tech tires, taken in the rain, with soaking wet pants, with a rain spattered cell phone camera!!

More bicycle stories. Yesterday, on good advice, I joined our local bicycle club. Tons of local rides on a near daily basis that will fit my ridiculous schedule! I might join them for a ride tomorrow, and most likely will go out Monday morning. Ill post more on those adventures later.

Unless I can come up with more to update this blog, thats it for today!

Later Taters, Stay Safe

Another Milestone

2008-04-21T13:42:00.000-07:00

I probably could have used a little more sleep after a relatively long night last night. I'm one of those guys who, regardless of how tired, has a hard time sleeping when the daylight shows up! I'm just not a "night person". Anyway I wanted to share yesterday's events, but will do it mostly with pictures in that I think Dale's "prose factory" is in shutdown mode today!!

I recently reached yet another milestone in my bicycle adventures!

Lisa, met me, Gary, and Bill at the Foothills Trail in Puyallup for what was intended to be a thirty mile ride through the Orting Valley and back. This is the same trail that was the focal point for part of the earlier "Procrastination, Milestones, and Rogue Waves" blog I posted a while back.

It is a wonderful paved path that begins just outside the town of Puyallup and winds through a pleasant river valley connecting the three towns of Puyallup, Orting and South Prairie. Fifteen miles up and fifteen miles back.

Here are the four of us in Orting's City Park, barely a quarter of the way. Left to right, Me, Bill , Gary and Lisa.

The next few pictures were all taken near the end of the trail, at the halfway point in the town of South Prairie
I think somewhere during this photo op, Bill and Gary were sharing humorous stories. Lisa was mentally planning her practice sessions of clipping and unclipping her new hi-tech shoes and pedals without hugging a tree!
And Dale was just wondering if it was really true that the wind blows both ways at the same time in this valley!!

It does, and it DID!

My "hybrid" bike doesn't allow me the opportunity to hunch down into the wind as well as the road bikes the three of them had, so after awhile I noticed I was falling back a bit. A short while later I managed to catch up. But I will guess it was more of the three of them slowing down for me, rather than Dale becoming super fast, hard pedaling "Rocket Man"!!

By the time we made it back to Orting, Hi-Tech Lisa and Bill with their Superbiker Clips and Shoes had pulled quite a ways ahead of Gary and I. We thought we could see them WAY up there. At least we wondered what those two little Orange and Yellow "dots" were so far off in the distance!

So plodding along, enjoying the easy ride back towards our starting point in Puyallup, Dale was "drafting" fairly close behind Gary, when nearly simultaneously Gary stops, Dale's brakes engage, Dale's rear wheel comes off the ground in a backwards wheelie, and we meet Lisa and are introduced to her friend Janet as they were heading back to the opposite direction!! Gary had to head back, but I had time to kill before work, and was thinking about pushing beyond our planned thirty anyway, so I accepted their gracious invitation, and turned around for some more miles and another pleasant ride.

Here is Lisa at the REI "rest area" between Orting and South Prairie, setting up her "Hi-Tech, "Gorilla Pod", Moment in Time Capturing Device".

And here is the resulting picture of the three of us. Janet, Me, and Lisa.

Dale got a little brave on the return trip and managed to single handedly reach behind, pull out his camera and snap off a couple pictures while riding without ending up as roadkill in the ditch!

Here are Lisa and Janet.

Then I got REALLY brave and scooted ahead of them, to try and capture a head on picture of the two of them by pointing backwards.

All I got was my shoulder and Lisa, following behind, probably wondering if that goof was going to end up in the ditch!!
And THEN...the image for history that Dale REALLY DID pass the FORTY MILE MILESTONE!!!!

Take care all, be safe, more later.

Islands and Trees

2008-04-18T23:26:00.000-07:00

A title like that gives a little of a peaceful feeling doesn't it? Maybe an evergreen tufted rock here in the Pacific Northwest, or maybe a swaying palm in a warm south sea breeze.

This evening, while driving at work, I turned on the truck radio for a weather/traffic report. After a while the station aired a brief segment from a call-in talk show earlier in the day. The topic was in regard to Time Magazine's idea of using the famous Iwo Jima flag raising photo, with a tree in place of the US Flag. Their reasoning was to call attention to 'global warming'.

As one would imagine, it sounds like it stirred up a fire storm of heated debate surrounding 'sacrilege' and disgrace.

Then I got to thinking about it. You know there was a time when Dale would have been right in there flag-waving like crazy.

Not anymore.

Put all the politics aside. Forget the hero worship. Forget global warming.

Sixty-three years ago, over 26,000 US Marines and Soldiers were killed or wounded in the invasion of Iwo Jima. Nearly all of the 21,000 Japanese defenders were killed during the month long battle.

(As a side note, to attempt to illustrate the intensity of that horrific battle, I recently read a couple books on the subject. A correspondent who was on that beach later said, "Running through the hail of bullets and not getting hit, was like trying to run through rain and not getting wet." Another book related the story of one who returned to that island many years later, and remarked how the volcanic sand was "red", and upon closer inspection realised that the SAND was not red. It was simply a beach covered in rusted bullets and shell fragments!)

My guess is that if those young men lost on that island were able to talk to us today, that most of them would think a living, blossoming tree a far better memorial than a rusty flag pole.

Here is my memorial. For them.

Daffodils, Tulips, and Hyacinths!!

2008-04-17T10:04:00.000-07:00

And you probably wonder, where on earth does Dale get these off the wall blog titles?!!

Yesterday was Wednesday. Bike Ride Twenty Miles in Kent Wednesday. Hey if you gotta find a routine, I cant think of many better ways to do it! ;)

So I run up to Kent where I meet my freinds Lisa and Gary, and we started the very pleasant ride up the Green River Trail...and I'll repeat it here. Just as I was told, King County, Washington has some really kewl bike paths. Of course I base that on the fact that THIS path is the only King County trail I've ridden, but if it is any similarity to the rest. My guess as well, is that there are even better riding paths up there.

Absent-minded Dale manages to forget his camera and so, pirates a couple pics from Lisa. Besides hers are a lot better than mine, so maybe I didnt REALLY 'forget" my camera!! HAA!!

OK, OK, seriously I DID really forget mine, but since she graciously allows me to swipe hers to post here, why not post those better than I can take myself! :) So all photos, courtesy of Lisa and her hitech camera and talent!

This one was taken at our ten mile, halfway turn around point ( I actually measured this on my neato, groovy, kewl wireless bike computer that read 10.03...or something like that!)

So, we get turned around and head back south towards Kent with the "Tulip" ringing her bells and the "Daffodill and HyacinthMan" shouting ring ring bell noise to harmonize through the echoing tunnels and underpasses like a bunch a danged goofs!!

(NO! I did NOT say 'harmonizing in our underpants'!! And I don't need a danged hearing aid!! Whadjusay?? HAAA!!!)

Hey! Who says "fortysomethings" can't act like little kids!! And YES!! We are ALL "fortysomethings"!! ;D

You know that reminds me. All the strife and discord in our crazy, modern world could be lessened significantly if more people just dumped all that dopey, self imposed seriousness 'becuase I am grown up and have to act like it', hogwash and let the 'kid' in them come out to play once in awhile, the world would be a far happier place. I can tell you, I know three people anyway, who are discovering "the secret".

Maybe our esteemed, world "leaders" should all go out and buy bicycles with big brass bells!!

Nearing the end of our ride, we stopped to pose by some other bike riders. Many have mistakenly assumed that these are metal sculptures. In reality and known only to people with bizzare imaginations, these are real people, who one day, while riding on a rainy day without proper rainy day stuff, froze, rusted on the spot, like Dorothy's TinMan! One day we'll have to remember to bring our oil cans on a ride to save these poor characters.

You know, come to think of it. This picture DOES resemble Dorothy, the Lion, and the Scarecrow dont it!! HAAA!! Wheres Toto?!!

And so, you still ask, "Whats with the off the wall blog titles? OK Ill tell ya, its really a simple, enjoyable tale.

On our ride back we passed an office complex and glanced over at our reflections in the window and said to ourselves, "Hey those guys look like a bunch of flowers on bikes!! So, there ya have it. Its all in the shirts! Yellow Daffodils, Pink Tulips and Blue Hyacinths! Are we craving Springtime up here or what!! HAA!!

More rides and more tales later. Thats my blog for today!!

Be Safe!

Celebrations and "Safaris" !!

2008-04-15T12:27:00.000-07:00

Not yet sure if its lack of sleep, not strong enough coffee, or a vague rushed feeling that I still need a nap, and a bike ride before I start work in three and a half hours or what, but lengthy prose escapes me this morning!

Yesterday I helped my friend celebrate her successful SIXTY MILE bicycle event this past weekend with lunch at Pt Defiance ( Oh Man I'm feeling hunger pangs again..this blog will have to be short!!!)

Afterwards we took off, cameras in hand, for an impromptu "photo safari" in our local park, where I was taught a few of the finer points of 'pitchur takn' from a real pro! Of course my weenie little camera pales next to her hi-tech photograph-ic gadgetry and talent, but here are a few samples of an early Spring day in Washington State.

It would appear that certain people really get into their work wouldnt it?

And then we found, rocks and seaweed, the resident seagull, and flowers. TONS of flowers!

I have mentioned on occasion, during these outdoor excursions how much one sees when walking or bicycling. I have lived much of my life right here in Tacoma. During part of my childhood in University Place in the 1960's, before UP was a city, and long before it became developed, the forest was our backyard playground. Maybe I didn't "see it" then, but I never noticed ferns like these growing from tree trunks.

So with this small sampling, welcome to early Springtime in Washington!!

And with that I need food, fresh air, and a nap in a yet to be determined order.

More later!!!!

Satisfaction!

2008-04-12T15:09:00.000-07:00

Woke up this morning to a BEAUTIFUL sun-filled day! Fiddled around down here on the boat for a little bit, then headed out for a few loops on Glinda around Pt Defiance Park....

Reality Reminder! You have to remember that Dale has just endured his first entire winter here in Washington in TEN YEARS. For the better part of the last decade, I'd come home for a few days then leave for sunnier climes. Well that same thing applies to the first REAL day of Spring here in Washington. During those years away, I forgot what happens in Washington when the sun comes out!!

Reality began to set in when I saw a cop directing traffic into the park several blocks from the park entrance! So tricky Dale just figures, 'Ah well, Ill just go in the back way'...Uh Huh...They were parked all the way outide the park entrance!!

So Dale, still in the blissful throes of a sunny day decides, "Ok, the park is out, I'll just head over to secondary plan. So, in full Spring mode, Dale rolls down the window and fires up the local oldies station, and lacking only foam dice, CRUISES on over to Chambers Bay.........Hmmmm, parking full up over there too! Then Mick Jagger starts whining to me that he "Cant get no Satisfaction" and still in Happy, Spring mode, Dale yells at Mick.....Ahhh Shaddupawreddy!!

By Gads, Dale is going to find his satisfaction SOMEWHERE!!

So, off to a favorite feeding trough and a purty dang good French Dip....which leads to a purty dang good sweet tooth.....which leads to a purty dang good giant cookie with a pile of ice cream that looks like the "Iceberg that ate New Jersey" covered in caramel and chocolate!! Hey, when I indulge I indulge ok! HAAA!

Now I am peacefully relaxed and happy in the sun on my quiet little barge in the bay trying to take a nap and blog at the same time which dont work too well and refusing to get in a crabby mood about going to work in a half n hour :(

More later!! E N J O Y!!!!

Ragitty Dolls!

2008-04-11T13:50:00.000-07:00

No one is too sure, or accepting of the notion of the SUN actually making an appearance, however this morning it HAS!! What really bums me out is the knowledge that I have to go to work in a couple hours! What a SUCKY thought!

Never did get a bike ride in today. But I did run up to the hardware store for another hose nozzle for my big Springtime project. Winter has been very nasty, not only for us people, but it was especially hard on my poor boat!

My young neighbors here at the marina, a couple nice kids, installed a diesel heater to survive this downright SH**TTY winter we've all endured. So, with that AND the obnoxious harbor taxi up in front of both of us, little specks of diesel soot gathered to spend the winter on my deck. I wont even mention the grime that is ALWAYS down here from the simple reality of living in a downtown, industrial marina next to railroad tracks and freeways! Sometimes I miss that nice, quiet, park-like, clean, marina down in Olympia. Earlier this year, my neighbor, apologising all over the place, offered to wash his soot off my boat, but I figure what for, it'll just get dirty again. I could have been a grumpy old turd and whined, but really what would that do other than make the poor kids feel worse. So I decided to just wait till Spring. However, now that I have discovered how much scrubbing goes into removing diesel soot, I should have let him go for it!! HAA!!

So with that I can say that Dale's poor neglected, winter-weary, "Rag Doll" ain't quite so ragitty anymore! And I have wet pants, (still oil stained from yesterday!), wet feet, and a neglected, starving, empty, stomach, and with this great day, a really crappy attitude about work :(

More later!!

Tulips, Daffodils....and Dirty Pants!

2008-04-10T10:41:00.000-07:00

So one would ask, what the heck kind of title to a blog is THAT!?? One with a discerning imagination could conjure up all SORTS of images with that I suppose!

OK so truth be told. Yesterday evening, my friend and I enjoyed a very pleasant 20 mile ride on the Green River Trail before we scarfed down a well deserved feast of bacon cheeseburgers and fish and chips. Anyway, as we rode along our chat included daffodils and tulips which made me comment, "Hey! Daffodils and Tulips! What a kewl idea for a blog title!!" So there ya go. Pretty simple stuff huh?

Now I bet you want to know all about 'dirty pants'. OK I'll tell ya....but I refuse to put into words the descriptive language I used when I learned I wrecked my favorite pair of blue jeans! I mean come on, you know how it is. Your favorite jeans are like old shoes and comfort food! And you just dont mess with stuff like that!

Anyway the story. A long overdue oil change on the boat was in the works. Next time I find a four inch mechanical robot to do this nasty job. I was kind of thinking that if I could find the Teutonic Marine Motor Engineer who designed this thing, that I could tie him up to the bottom of the keel and take him for a leisurely cruise over barnacle encrusted rocks!!!!!

One needs to keep in mind that I am 6 foot plus and this engine access is only about two feet across. If that weren't challenge enough, the oil filter is way down underneath and off on the side!! You cant see it in this picture, but the clearance under the motor is MAYBE four inches, and the side access is in fractions!! Lets not forget either that I banged my head on a hinge that I didn't get out of the way of, and dang near put out an eye hanging my mug over the top of the engine and that was just to check the dipstick!! Yeeesh! ( For perspective, if someone was standing behind me while I was in there and took this pic, my hunched over back would have filled the entire picture. Yeah its TIGHT in there! )

So, in all the ensuing contortionist acrobatics, I got danged oil stains on my best danged jeans!

Yeah, Yeah I know, wear cruddy clothes when you do cruddy work. I know all this, but the other voice in my other ear says, " Your good Dale....REALLY Good Dale, you and ONLY you, can pull this off perfectly well without so much as a smudge on a fingertip!" Ya right!

OK thats my story and thats my blog.

I cant think of a witty title for this blog!!

2008-04-09T01:44:00.000-07:00

Despite some local opinions about our Pacific Northwest Spring weather and the lack thereof, I decided to undertake an investigatory exploration.

Yesterday, when an intended short ride before work was interrupted by a roving rain squall (actually there were several roving rain squalls), I opted for a walk instead of a bike ride at our local park. I was glad I had my camera handy just in case any wild beasts were loose, and discovered this amazing phenomenon!!

What I was shocked to discover were these GIANT TEN FOOT TALL DAFFODILS!!! Proving once again, that although we might wonder what the dangdadgummed delay is in getting Springtime going around here, we can still rest assured that at least the FLOWERS are getting ready here in Washington State!!

In other news, today I DID get in my much needed bike ride! It had been nearly a WEEK with all this cruddy, wet, weather we've had to endure, and I felt it! Knocked out ten miles before heading off to work.

Tomorrow another twenty miler and the weather is REALLY supposed to start drying out soon! Really it's TRUE!!!

(Photos provided by Dale's cheapo camera!!)

UPDATE: I probably should in all fairness, mention that the story of 'ten foot tall daffodils', was only a tenfoot tall notion in Dale's half asleep imagination! ;) We dont grow em THAT big around here....maybe in Puyallup they do!!! hohohehehaha!!

Help! I'm surrounded by 'bozos' with the ability to breed!!

2008-04-07T10:40:00.000-07:00

It happened again. Although I am no longer surprised by it, or even phased beyond finding a blog topic.

As some of you know, I work as a gasoline tanker truck driver. One requirement of the job is securing the unloading site with bright orange, highly visible, safety cones. They aren't intended as targets by people in cars too distracted, uncaring, self absorbed to avoid them.

Their intent is to protect a work area where I have multiple hoses leading from the truck and trailer into large underground fuel tanks. These hoses and the fittings where they connect, unload gasoline at the rate of nearly 500 gallons per minute.

I wonder if these same, distracted, uncaring, self absorbed 'bozos' might grasp the image of what would happen should they drive their cars, with hot engines over one of those fittings.

So, just the other night, right on cue, there goes "Mr Bozo in Acura" right over a cone and halfway into my "secured" work area in an impatient attempt to gain that extra inch in line. I walk up to the window, as politely as my irritation allows and inform him that they have one of my cones jammed under their car simply because they weren't paying attention. The standard response so far, and almost verbatim is, " It wont cause any damage will it!?" To which I politely as my irritation allows, inform them of the spectacular consequences to ensue should they drive over one of my fittings with gasoline pouring through at 500 gallons a minute under a hot engine, and THEN I offer the suggestion regarding the cone of, "Aren't you glad it wasn't a small child?"

"It won't cause any damage will it?" Good Grief!! The greatest concern is that a piece of semi- soft rubber cone will scratch the undersides of their precious Oldsmobeemer! No clues at all!!

Along these same lines, I was chatting with a station attendant one evening while unloading. Often the topics of conversation are about these very same 'bozos'.

He related the story of how a few months back, Madam Bozo in SUV pulls up to his pump, ciggie in full burn hanging from her nicotine stained lips. He informs her of the NO SMOKING laws in gasoline stations and in turn is curtly advised to "F-Off"!! So, he advises her that he will simply flip the switch and shut down the pumps. Her excuse then becomes "I haven't got an ashtray!" To which her daughter ( great parental examples huh!!?) offers, "Mom you can use my soda can". Ahhhh the wisdom of a child!

Another amazing observation I have is how gasoline tanker trucks seem to act as a magnet to bozos. After midnight, not much traffic, eight pumps in a station, place is empty and here comes Mr or Ms Gasoline Purchasing Q. Public. EIGHT pumps on four islands to choose from. Where do they go? Right next to Gasoline Tanker Truck dumping 11,000+ gallons of highly flammable liquid! Just last week I see such odd behavior and as the "driver" gets out to pump gas, Nicotine Addict Passenger With Window Down is puffing away less than ten feet from 11,000 gallons of gas!! At least THIS one when I informed them, managed an authentic "Oh S**t, I'm sorry!!

If these stories aren't scary enough, keep in mind these people BREED!!!!!

Before I had this job, I always wondered about the seemingly bizarre laws in the State of Oregon where it is illegal for people to pump their own gas. Now I think I have a clue!!

Sometimes I think, there ARE truck driving jobs where its just toilet paper back there!!

Procrastination and Milestones

2008-04-04T09:46:00.000-07:00

There have been rumors that Dale fell into a gravel pit in Mongolia, or a giant mutant whale came along and swallowed him, boat and all in the night!

Both rumors are false! I was gently informed yesterday by a good friend that "Its not like you don't have anything to talk about".

How true!! It HAS been an eventful week. My problem is that there has been so much to talk about that its all blended in my mind now!

Its sort of like food. On my other posts, I have concentrated on one particular event or maybe two. Its easy to post about 'ham n eggs' or a 'strawberry milkshake'. But now that I've been a lazy blog poster, I'm sitting here with a giant pot of 'vegetable soup with rice and barley and a handful of exotic spices' and cant figure out where to put the carrots and onions on the same spoon! So, if I tend to ramble here, please bear with me, as rambling seems to be my way of getting sorted.

Big Milestone this week. I think it was last Monday. I met my buddy Lisa and her friend Ken, at a nearby bike path for a ride. Until last Saturday when she and I did the 21 mile ride that involved the flat tire story, (See the "Living and Learning" blog) I had been content, and felt quite accomplished with a ten or fifteen mile series of loops through our local park. But last Monday the three of us pulled off a THIRTY MILE RIDE!!

Here is a pic of the three of us at the halfway mark and the 'end of the trail'. It was a great ride although the weather just had to stick its boogery nose into the whole thing! On the way up we fought a bit of a headwind that to me anyway, made flat ground feel like a mountain!! It WAS however much easier on this trip. The first time I rode up there was on the back half of this route, which amounted to fifteen miles for me. On that particular trip I rode it unaware that I had a brake dragging! Nothing like blissfully pulling 'Dumbo' the elephant in a little red wagon!!

Anyway, back to the headwind story. A general assumption would be, one would think, that if your going one way into a headwind, that one could freely sail back with a tailwind..right? WRONGO!!! The nasty weather gods took a look down at those three crazy bike riders and thought amongst themselfs, "Hey Barney, ya wanna have some fun with these characters? ;)"

So off we go on the return leg and into another HEADWIND!! Trouble was this headwind brought along to play, some rain to include bits and pieces in varying assortments and quantities of FROZEN CHUNKS.

There was some concern for Lisa as she had started the ride not expecting such turns in the weather ( none of us did!) and was dressed for a dry ride. Freezing rain on bare legs is not a good combination. The poor girl was nearly blue when we finished. Afterwards she introduced me to a little Mexican joint, that I always thought of as 'fast food" however it was not, and was actually quite good, where we had a chance to warm up and celebrate our thirty mile milestone!!!

The day before yesterday I was invited up to Kent for another ride with Lisa and some of her friends. Folks I am STILL relishing the great feeling of surrounding myself with normal, fun, non-whining, clean people who do not live in truckstops!!! It almost feels like a re-birth or re-entry from a long extended space trip to Jupiter!

At any rate, Lisa, Stephanie, Gary and myself met and began a wonderful ride ( it was breezy again, BUT sunny and Spring-like!!)

Here we are at the 5 mile mark, where Gary and Stephanie's schedules and time restraints turned them back.

Lisa and I continued on over the bridge and pedaled on another five miles, and part of that route was a new adventure for both of us as she had not been on a section of that trail until that day. Once we got a general idea of how this path worked, and where it was headed, we had some ideas about an eventual farther ride down the road. Its true, just as I was told, King County, Washington has some really KEWL bike trails!!

We escaped that headwind breeze on our return trip and enjoyed a rather leisurely cruise back to complete a twenty mile ride!!

I was mentioning yesterday that I was still trying to figure out who this guy in my mirror was, and if I would end up looking at thirty miles as a 'warm up'. Folks you need to remember that I've only been doing this bicycle stuff for about six weeks or so. When Lisa got me on that first 5 mile ride as a 'dare' the thought of riding a bike 5 miles was a BIG, BIG step. Now I think, 5 miles? Are you serious? Is that ALL?!!

After our ride, we stopped off for dinner at a seafood place nearby. Sounds like food is connected with these rides doesn't it! Hey, let me tell you...burning up all those calories on these rides gets one downright RAVENOUS!

Often Ive found that finding decent 'non-seafood' at a seafood restaurant is challenging at best. (I'm not a big seafood eater) However, this particular place turned out one dang fine bacon cheeseburger!! Yeah I ate it because I CAN!! ;)

The other part of this blog has little to do with bicycles. Well no, I guess it does actually.

As some of you know, I live aboard a 33 foot sailboat on Puget Sound. Storing a bicycle aboard is a dicey situation at best. Hauling it on board and taking it off again every time I wanted a ride was getting to be a pain. Not to mention that the salt air was already beginning to show some rusty consequences, and getting the bike on and off in tight spaces was scuffing up my deck. And where I had it locked up it was blocking some locker hatches that I need to get into. Then I realised that this arrangement was going to be impossible if I felt like going for a sail. So I figure, Glinda needs a home.

This is how bad I have been bitten by the bike bug. Who on earth goes out and buys a TRUCK to house a bicycle!!!!

Yesterday I bought a matching white canopy for it, and I'm trying to devise a permanent way of securing Glinda in the back.

I'll also add that riding a bit higher than in the car, has its rewards. Now I can see out past the cars parked far too close to the intersections that block my view without nosing halfway into the street, and I don't feel like I need an arm extension when reaching up to the ATM drive ups! AND it has a kewl CD player!
Yeah I'm happy now!

More to follow. Be safe.

Living and Learning (also known as Guys Do Not Belong In Grocery Stores, and Little Mice That Roar.)

2008-03-30T10:00:00.000-07:00

You ever notice how some weeks seem to produce more learning experiences than others?

ACT ONE, SCENE ONE

Earlier this week, Dangerous Shopper Dale wanders into a local grocery store and thinks, 'Hmmmm, maybe I should get some of that fancy, snooty, gourmet coffee and see what the big deal is all about.' So Dangerous Shopper Dale disses his lifelong morning buddy, the Folgers can, and picks up a fancy, snooty, gourmet looking bag of fancy, snooty, gourmet coffee.

The next morning Half Awake, Stumble to the CoffeePot, Dangerous Shopper Dale with one eye still shut, struggles to finally pull open his brand new bag of fancy, snooty, gourmet coffee to discover that Shopper Dale picked up a bag of WHOLE BEANS!!! Of course you will know that since Dangerous Shopper Dale has spent the better part of 35 years with a Folgers can, that DSD does not own a COFFEE GRINDER!!

Now then, anyone with a decent caffeine addiction will appreciate this, but you have to put the image in your mind of half awake Dangerous Shopper Dale, in the shock of discovering he has no coffee, other than a bag of WHOLE BEANS, valiantly dumps a handful of WHOLE BEANS into a ZipLock Sandwich Bag and earnestly ( spell that , IN PANIC ) begins pummeling this little ziplock bag of WHOLE BEANS with a pepper shaker in hopes of "grinding" enough to make that first cup!!!

Lesson for Dangerous Shopper Dale.....LABELS ARE FOR READING!!!! :)

By the way, Dangerous Shopper Dale in the process of becoming Upscale, Snooty, Fancy Coffee Drinker Dale has FIRED his FOLGERS can AND is actually contemplating the notion of SHOPPING for a COFFEE GRINDER!!!

I N T E R M I S S I O N

ACT TWO, SCENE ONE
Later in this story I will explain the Roaring Mice thought.

Yesterday, my bike pal Lisa and I did our pretty much usual Saturday morning bike ride but with a slight twist. Friday afternoon, Lisa suggests in an email, a slight change to our usual Pt. Defiance loops by offering the thought of a slightly longer route outside the park. (Read carefully as there are several lessons to be learned in this story).

This new route took us, essentially, along the entire west end of Tacoma. Starting at the park we pedalled south to the Chambers Creek area south of town. Then returned to the park by a route farther to the east. Basically a long narrow loop.

Lesson One for Dale was another reminder of just how quickly one adapts to strenuous exercise. Two months ago, if anyone were to suggest getting ON a bike, I might have done so with the intentions of a nice, easy FLAT ride around the block. However, if anyone would have suggested spending a couple hours, conquering at LEAST a half a dozen hills on a twenty mile ride I would have stared at them with a bewildered, lost gaze! Today I approach those hilly challenges like a mighty Thor, charging from the clouds on his magnificent steed with giant, thundering, hammer raised in defiance.........(Uh Dale, lets not get too carried away here!)

Our weather here in Western Washington is the usual unsettled early Spring stuff that one would expect, EXCEPT for the last week or more, WINTER has not been leaving quietly! The entire ride we were threatened by very dark, saturated clouds moving in from the west, (more than a few times we felt those cold wet raindrops, with the added exhilaration of FROZEN CHUNKS!!! The coming week however hints at a more Spring-like pattern with partly sunny skies and temperatures nudging the mid-to-high fifties!!!

Nearing the end of our ride, we changed our planned route to a more bike friendly path... ( Hmmmm, 'bike-friendly'? OK, the rest of the story is coming soon ) We found a bridge that crossed high over the freeway and into quiet West End neighborhoods. So we start roaming through these side streets in search of a route to reach the nice, easy, anticipated, two mile or more COAST back into the Park.

Pedaling up a fairly easy incline, I begin to sense a certain mushiness in Glinda. ( Yeah Ive become such a bike freak that she actually has a name now!!) Next thing I find myself uttering the dreaded words, "Hey, I got a flat tire here!"

ACT TWO, SCENE TWO

(Where Dale learns embarrassingly painful lesson on bike ride!)

When you have a neat little bag under your seat designed to carry flat tire fixes, you don't empty half of it into the trunk of your car to make room for pointless things like wallets, and cellphones!!

So there we were, two miles from the finish and no spare tube! I DID have the patch kit, but with approaching weather Lisa makes the wise suggestion that she ride ahead to her truck, and come back for me n Glinda. So off she goes.

At this point Dale is swallowing a combination of Male Ego and Gentlemanly Notions about Letting the Lady Ride Ahead Alone. But Dale reminds himself that at this point former paramedic/rescue person, Lisa is in her element.

I start walking with Glinda towards the park to lessen Red Rescue Ranger travel distance and soon after, Red Rescue Ranger arrives. Glinda gets loaded in back for the ride back to the park and THEN Dale is inundated with hysterical laughter from Rescue Person Lisa with a well placed, well deserved, "I cant believe you left your tube in your trunk...NO ONE leaves their tube in the trunk!!" And to make matters worse, I had to remind myself that I missed out on that nice, long, fast, coasting cruise DOWNHILL for the last two miles. So in the end, Lisa does twenty-one miles, and Dale only manages a bit less than nineteen. Still not bad for a middle aged guy who began riding 6 weeks ago!!

Tomorrow, after today's day of R&R, we do THIRTY MILES!!! (One should remember that while I am doing this in the pursuit of a fun new leisure time hobby, my bike buddy is in serious training for a 200 PLUS mile event coming up in just a few short months!)

Oh about the "Roaring Mouse" I mentioned. I learned yet another lesson on this trip. Bicycle tires are not quite as durable as semi truck tires!! The culprit that brought my ride to an end was a VERY, VERY small shard of glass. Smaller I'd say, than a grain of rice!

Poking Trolls!

2008-03-29T09:48:00.000-07:00

Oh boy did I have fun last night. Fun in my own slightly obnoxious way.

Was sent out to a particularly busy station last night with a full load of Unleaded. Got there to find out this place was REALLY low ( another two hours and they would have been empty and shut down). So, I show up and start unloading. A short while later my buddy Paul shows up with a second load. We were really gonna fill this place up!

THEN, a few minutes later some other company shows up with yet another load! And out comes Big Bubba Truckdriver....donut crumbs on his shirt and everything!

Well Big Bubba don't like my style of unloading....you know, responsible, methodical, careful. He spouts off loud enough for several customers to hear. " This is the dumbest thing I've ever seen...How long you been doing this!!"

So, ol' Dale answers his "question" with his own ( just loud enough for those same customers to hear ( shame on me I know) "So, Big Bubba, how long have YOU been doing this?

Well his chest puffs out (still a good 6 inches in from his protruding hangbelly!!), and he sticks his thumbs in his belt loops and rocks back n forth on his heels in an excellent self-righteous stance and announces ( loud enough for customers to hear) "Ive been doing this for 23 years!!"

So, ol' Dale comments ( just loud enough for customers to hear ...Shame on me again) So, Big Bubba, you've been sticking hoses in the ground and for 23 years and that's ALL you've done?? Really Big Bubba, this is ALL you've done in 23 years?...to which he proudly and self righteously acknowledges. Then he stomps off to his truck for yet another donut and mountain dew...and I turn around to see two customers giving me the high five!! It was a riot!!

I think maybe about 2012, Big Bubba MIGHT get my point!!

Silver Linings!

2008-03-26T21:36:00.000-07:00

First off. All you people from everywhere else in the country who see that fantastic scenery from Washington State, when the Hollywood film crews show up on July 8th to shoot their wonderful scenes. Keep in mind, its only a set!! Its not REAL!! So don't sell off everything and move up here because it looked great in that movie you watched!!! HAAA!!!

Only a few days until the month of APRIL and it is SNOWING in Washington!!!! In between a steady rain and wind!!! Its SPUUUUHRINGtime folks! Remember just a few days ago we were all counting down the days till Spring, so we could escape all that dreary, cold, stay cooped up in the house, weather?!!! Kinda makes one think, 'Hey! I bet they have gas tanker truck jobs in SAN DIEGO!!!'

I went out and rode my bike today.....like a nut of course!! But there WERE a couple other nuts around so I didn't feel too alone in my weirdness!! Mainly I went out to test my kewl new bike computer that I wasn't getting to work properly last weekend when I bought it. Got the problem solved and now I have a far more accurate idea of just how far my usual Chambers Bay route is. It came with a cost however......I GOT SOAKED IN THIS ENDLESS WASHINGTON RAIN!!! ( Rain pants Dale?...Nah....dont need no sissy rain pants, and I'm only gonna be out for one lap...I ain't wearing no danged sissy rain pants!") And I should say that WAS rain that had FROZEN CHUNKS in it!! Not to mention a brisk wind coming across the bay!!! OK where is the line...the long line of sympathetic people waiting to poor out wonderful, caring, supportive words?? ( Yeah supportive words....Now I have the tune, "Mrs Robinson" coursing through my brain....."Stroll around the grounds until you feel at home") ... Or maybe that should be "They're coming to take me away haha, they're coming to take me away hoho hehe haha...to the happy home with trees and flowers and chirping birds, and basket weavers who sit and smile and twiddle their thumbs and toes and they're coming to take me awayyyy HAHAAAA!!!!")

All kidding aside, I am SICK of this insufferable wet cold weather! The Pacific Northwest is great for slugs, umbrellas and people addicted to television!!!!! Come to think of it, I don't have a TV on this boat....and I don't have a fireplace either that I could toast my sock encased toes in front of! Heckwidit...I might just go to bed!

What was that, you ask, about "silver linings"?

Regarding the whining and crying about a few raindrops up there above, I couldn't very well mention silver linings with out clouds now could I?

So, silver lining for today: I had a chat with my friend in Wyoming this afternoon. Her pastor came through a concerning medical procedure with FLYING COLORS!!!! All clean and good to go...Now he only has to heal from all that invasive fiddling around the docs had to perform to make sure. But so much better than the alternative!!

So, High Fives and a Silver Lining to "Pastor S" today!!!!

Yep, I believe I mentioned something earlier about REAL wealth being Friends, Family and Good Health. ;)

Magellan?

2008-03-25T03:09:00.000-07:00

Awhile back, my buddy Joy christened me with the nickname of "Magellan". Occasionally my phone would ring and it would be Joy, sent off to some podunk place she had never been before. And more often than not, there I was on the other end of the phone line, memory in full sail, having been there at some previous time, with that "picture" in my mind of exactly where she was, and what highway and exit she needed to get where she needed to go.

Seems I should start using that term here in my local job. Seems the last two nights I have been out wandering around, blazing a trail to some new customer. "Make us a map" they say. I say get off your 'chairborne ranger' butt, and get in your company provided car, and drive out to these new places and set this stuff up with some communication, and people like me wouldnt have to be out playing Lewis and Clark in some strange place in the middle of the night with nearly twelve thousand gallons of gasoline behind us!

With that whining out of my system, I am going to bed! Good day all!!

So they want to know "about me"?

2008-03-23T09:19:00.000-07:00

So here we are, a guy who values the privacy of himself, his family and freinds, blabbing about his doings right here for the entire world to see!!

I suppose anything ten years old or earlier would have to go into a separate, ancient history file. Otherwise this blog would end up five hundred pages long and I'd have to find a publisher!
So, I could start about ten years ago. Around that time I suppose one could say I ventured off on a path totally different from the trail I had been plodding along before.

Stress!! In the late summer of 1998 my ex-wife, unwittingly started a chain of events that introduced to my life the entire list of top stress producers in a very short period of time. Between September of 1998 and June of 1999 I managed to experience Divorce, Loss or Sickness of a Spouse...

(she was diagnosed with cancer two months after leaving and since she had left, and moved on to her own life, I was completely in the dark about her condition and outcome for nearly 18months! Imagine reading daily obituaries hoping NOT to see the woman you married listed! But, thankfully today she is a survivor!!)

...a Job Change, (more like a complete lifestyle change!) a Major Relocation, and a New Relationship.

Shortly after finding myself a single guy again, while working in a very unsatisfying job..(or was it a pointless, meaningless GRIND?) I made a decision to train as a truck driver. Looking back at that time it was probably a form of ESCAPE! About the time I finished training and started with my first trucking job, I also met my freind Debra from Vancouver, Washington, and it was only a few months before I threw out half my stuff and saved or stored the rest, and moved there. The lesson is that 'rebound relationships' rarely work, but they CAN result in very good freindships. Debra and I long ago buried the boyfreind/girlfreind status and have become very good freinds! She and I have, with each others families shared deaths, marriages, births and life goes on as we all learn and grow. And I will add, looking back over all the people I have known over all the years, Debra is without a doubt one of the most caring, kindhearted, giving people I have ever known. I have often joked that if she discovered that the mother-in-law of the third cousin, of the step-brother of the stranger who lived 5 houses down had a birthday, or some other occasion, she would find a way to celebrate it!!!!

I had been involved in Logistics in one way or the other since 1972 when I found myself in a Transportation unit in the Air Force. All those years of seeing the trucks come and go must have put a bug in my head at some point. I started with a west coast company here at home and spent four years traveling the I-5, Seattle to LA corridor with frequent side trips as far east as Denver. On the third year I began going to places outside the normal company freight lanes, and visted places like Chicago, Kansas City and Dallas.

I got the bug to get out and stretch my legs and switched to a major carrier in Nebraska where I really started to travel. I had a road atlas that I carried (after nearly ten years it was VERY VERY well worn) and after my second year with that company and combined with the regional travels with the first one, I discovered by highlighting the routes in that atlas, that I had covered every Interstate Highway in the lower 48 states (except Maine) almost all the US highways and a good part of each individual State's highways, and visiting ALL the major metro areas became commonplace.

Often people would ask (and still do) what was your favorite part of the country. Funny thing, they all expect some wonderfully exciting, "travelogue" on my adventures. Truth be told that after logging well over one million miles behind the wheel of a semi truck, ALL OF IT has blended together into a faded, nearly distant memory. There are times when something will trigger a thought of a fun trip, a good load, the excitement of being chased by a tornado or two. (one was close enough to get me to start thinking that it was time to "quit this stuff") I've driven through the back end of hurricanes (Ivan), been in too many whiteout snowstorms where you trust the orange poles marking the ditch are accurate (IF you can see them!!) all the while knowing you cant stop from the danger of getting rearended by another truck! Driving in winds that could lift the rear trailer tires off the road became the course of a normal day. I know highways in this country where a typical winter trip reveals a truck on its side in the ditch every twenty miles! I'll keep to myself those times that carelessness, and irresponsibilty ended up in a far too close up view of the absolute WASTE of needless accidents. Even today I shake my head at the complete oblivious state of mind that most people drive in! If they only had a clue! Oh, by the way, my favorite part of the country? It's right here at home Toto. Just click your heels!

Several years ago, I found myself picking up a load of freight someplace in California (I think it was Visalia) where I met another driver from our company. I was going to Tampa, Florida with my load. Joy, was off to Chicago with hers. So we ended up travelling together, chasing each others bumpers as far as Amarillo, Texas, where after forming a new freindship our routes split.

The ensuing months and trips found us crossing paths all across the country and finding time to stop for mealbreaks and for me to absorb some of the thoughts and opinions of my living, breathing Bible Reference Guide and freind!!

Over a period of time, I think we both began convincing one another that 'regular people like us' have no business running all over the country in a "no life" life. She bailed about a year before I did, and is now settled in the Rocky Mountains, and our "get-to-gethers" now come in the form of occasional phone visits. But it should be said that the old jingle of "You meet the nicest people on a Honda", should be revised to "You meet the nicest people in a Freightliner"!! :)

About four years ago out of nowhere, a long forgotten interest in boats surfaced. One day I was driving across Montana, of all places, when I thought, I need a house....then I thought, who will cut my grass and take out the garbage? Then the idea of living on a boat began poking into my thoughts. Soon the thoughts turned into actually LOOKING at boats, with the guidance of my freind Neil ( I always seem to have to good fortune when starting a new adventure to be guided by absolute 'gurus' in the thing I find myself pursuing!..more on that later) who knows everything from the top of the mast to the bottom of the keel about boats!

I ended up moving back to Tacoma and into a thirty year old, 33 foot sailboat where I liveaboard today and it is from here that you read this prose! There are days when I ponder whether I did the right thing. When I was on the road, and home only for a few days at a time living aboard was a wonderful break from the truck. But I have to honestly say that after enduring a freezing winter aboard, climbing on deck in lousy weather to refill my water tanks, worrying about the dockpower overdoing the limitations of my wiring, staying warm, and trying to eat without proper refrigeration, I began to wonder. However, I also remind myself that I have a waterfront home with 360 degree water views, freindly marina neighbors, frequent ducks and an occasional seal passing by, not to mention the cheery racket of the ever-present seagull. And there is something to be said for getting gently rocked to sleep.

Now I have yet another 'guru' to add to my little group. And this story I tell becuase I think there is a message worth telling. While I was on the road, I absolutely detested truckstops and the people who frequented them. Chainsmoking truckdrivers who lost their bar of soap last year, with an unbending opinion on EVERYTHING, were not the sort of characters I wanted to share a meal with! I ended up eating in my little rolling "house" parked as far away from the filth, ( yeah they pour the contents of their Gatorade bottle "toilets" onto the lot!! I'm serious...truck drivers are PIGS!!) as I could and spent my down time logged into a laptop.

In some attempt to keep a connection to home, I began perusing the online version of our local paper. In there I got involved with posting comments to published articles and letters. After awhile there seemed to be a gathering of regular participants.

There was one in particular I had banged heads with over one issue or another. Lisa being labelled the Left Wing Wacko, Hippie, Liberal. And Dale, earning the title of the Right Wing, Republican, Conservative. As you can guess we had a few shall we say disagreements. Haa!

However it wasnt before long that our mutual interests down here on the water, ended up with a distant face to face "meeting" and a wave, and I think, the realization that we were both actually HUMAN! After that our 'battles" dissolved into freindlier exchanges. On occasion, we even sided together in arguments against others! Now the story goes further.

Lisa read where I made a comment about buying a bicycle. I knew some truck drivers who carried bikes with them, and I had a remote idea about maybe buying one for some vague notion of getting in shape. I started a regular walking routine last June when I came home, but this winter I, literally on the spur of the moment, bought a bike!

Now then, back to the story. So, Lisa reads in our online newspaper comment section that "Dale has a bike!?" Then she actually DARED me, in a public forum, to a ride around our local park.

(Photo's courtesy of Lisa and her kewl hi tech camera!)

This was after several short, flat, just around the block, excursions that I had been doing on my own.

So, the park, the ride. It was FIVE MILES! Something I wouldnt have considered in the past. When I discovered it was 'do-able', and actually not all that difficult, I was HOOKED!!

I try to ride every day and its ALWAYS at least 5 to 10 miles of the hilly route at the Park, or two to three hours of steady riding on flat ground in another part of town.

My weight ( which was never really bad) has dropped maybe fifteen pounds since last summer. My attitude is EXCELLENT. I find I have no interest in 'banging heads' anymore with differing opinions that prove nothing. My chronic backaches from years behind the steering wheel have vanished and I feel ten years younger....actually maybe more. When I was 43 I didn't feel THIS good!!

So, there you have it. Dales life in a nutshell. Its been up, its been down, its been here and there. Happily the downs have been far less than the ups. Today I enjoy life with the knowledge that REAL wealth is in the peace and tranquility that only comes from good health, good freinds and family. All the material junk is simply "rust and dust".

Welcome to my blog. Stay tuned for updates.