Pallet

Sea't

Tired

Only a shoe--no foot--I checked

Tetherball?

No, I didn’t only take pictures of junk washed ashore.  As proof, I submit more random photos from our little holiday.

On the hike up to a lighthouse

South end of Long Beach

Footprints followed me

Waikiki Beach (HDR)

Old dock in Astoria, OR

Sunset on Long Beach, Wa (HDR)

Growing up in Alaska, some of my earliest fashion (if you can call it that when you’re 6 years old) memories are of flannel shirts.  The Western-style button-ups with the snaps were a particular favorite, being as I wasn’t as prone to ruin the garment when I tore it from my body forcefully, à la The Incredible Hulk.  Of course, that practice was rather frowned upon by my mother–she preferred the normal Bruce Banner over the Hulk-y version.

Now living in the Seattle area, I still love a good, soft, flannel shirt, properly styled, with good jeans or khakis.  It’s Autumn out there, after all.  Why not be warm and well-dressed?

That is all.  Be good to each other out there.

It finally dawned on me the other day that Seattle drivers are passive-aggressive drivers.  I was sitting at a four-way stop waiting for the driver with the right-of-way to go so the rest of us could then proceed in the proper order.  The driver on the right, instead of engaging her transmission and throttle,  engaged in a staredown with the driver on the left.  According to the rules of the road, the driver on the right should, and does, have the right-of-way.  After a thirty-second standoff, the driver on the right finally rolled down the window and irritatedly waved the other driver through.  It was like she was saying to other driver, “I prefer to be polite and nice rather than a good driver, and now I’m pissed at you since you refuse to read my mind and recognize that and proceed through the intersection at your peril…now I might just T-bone you out of spite.”  When someone is polite to you, you’d better appreciate it.  Or, else!  Gotta love the Jet City.

About a million years ago I wrote about how people in this town don’t know how to merge onto the freeway, or let others merge.  I touched upon how if someone is trying to merge, they really should use the on-ramp as it is meant to be used and SPEED UP TO MATCH THE FLOW OF TRAFFIC.  They should not expect the 60mph tide of traffic to stop and let them on.  Conversely, it doesn’t help when those already on the freeway speed up to beat the driver getting ready to merge.  That 1/10 of a second that you’ll be saving by being ahead of that one car out of thousands, isn’t going to factor into your day…other than making traffic worse for other folks–folks, by the way, who’ll be cursing you from the passive-aggressive safety of their locked Hondas.

So, I say to all of you overly cautious, clueless, polite-but-angry drivers: Be aggressive!  You want to anyway…just do it.  Aggressively follow the rules of the road.  It can be done both safely and politely.  But don’t sacrifice right-of-way, etc., just so that people you will never see again will like you.  Aggressively set your cruise-control at 63mph and aggressively take a chill pill.  Let us all put the AGGRESSIVE back in passive-aggressive!  Don’t make me say that California drivers are better than Seattle drivers.

Anyway, I have to drive to work now.  If you see me waving at you, just get out of my way…I’m only being polite, not friendly.

I like these boots.

This year for Lent, I decided to fast from alcohol.  A couple of weeks in I started to wonder whose brilliant idea it was to put St. Patrick’s Day smack in the middle of Lent.  No biggie, though.  Guinness and Tullamore Dew will be there after the Lenten Season.  Did you know St. Patrick’s Day originally started as a feast day in the Catholic tradition, honoring the patron saint of Ireland?  And that the original color of St. Patrick was blue?  You do now.

Growing up (and still) non-Catholic, I didn’t really learn anything about Lent until college at least.  I know that several other denominations/sects/etc. also include Lent in their list of observed seasons, but from what I remember, it wasn’t much celebrated at my church…or maybe I simply didn’t pay attention–I’m pretty sure I was A.D.D. as a kiddo.  I’ve never even really thought about observing any sort of Lenten fast, although I always looked forward to hot-cross buns and ham on Easter.  Funny that we like to celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord…who was Jewish…with a pork product.  But, “What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.” (Acts 10:15)

Anyway, this year for Lent I am fasting the drink.  Of course, the week after I launched into that fast, I read an article all about American Whiskeys and which ones I should buy and how they are so smooth and delicious.  But, I love Jesus more than whiskey.  Not that a religious observance is how we should demonstrate love of God, but sometimes one flows from the other: ie. I love God, so I’ll give up alcohol for bit.  In all honesty, I’ve been neglecting one of the key points of a Biblical-type fast, though:  spending time with God.

In six words:  I suck at being a Christian.  Sure, I can give up this or that and I can talk a good game, but when it comes down to it I’m just not very good at following Christ.  What I should be doing is not drinking, and in lieu of drinkin’-time, spending some time in prayer or reading the Bible or something like that…reading a motivational book…something.  Instead, I’ve been watching TV.  I have impeccable taste in TV, too, so I wouldn’t exactly call it a waste of time…ahem…anyhoo.  The fair Jeannie (my lovely wife) has given up during-the-week-TV-watching for Lent, and actually has a bit of discipline.  She (most of the time) spends evenings reading and studying and listening to me watch TV.  I am not the best influence sometimes, though.  Last night we watched Lost off the DVR.  I really need to be a better support to her that way, by not adding extra temptation.  I would certainly profit giving up some of the Tube for a bit, that’s for sure.

My commitment today is to lead my family in a better direction than what the SyFy channel tells me.  At least until Easter.