March 30, 2001 - This week had some good and had some bad. Wednesday, Mary Ann and I were going to go to a Sonics game. Whilst Mary Ann was driving to pick me up from work, smoke began to billow from the front of the van. She had pulled over along I-5 and waited for the smoking to subside and called me at work. The smoke had quit and it did not return unless she turned the heater fan on. We ended up going to the game, figuring we had to drive it home anyway, might as well continue with our plans. The game was great, seesawing back and forth until the final minute when the Sonics pulled out a 94-93 victory. We had a great time and the ride home was uneventful. Mary Ann took the van in today and ..... AHHHHH ... $1300.00. Apparently the clutch for the air conditioning malfunctioned. It is tied to the heater fan and while the fan was working, the damage was done. It burned up and actually was on fire. OUCH!!!
March 24, 2001 - We had some great weather this week! I got outside and started to really work on the tent trailer. Unfortunately, in doing that I discovered it's a lost cause. In addition to the canvas being rotted in several places, the wood had been wet and dry too many times and the underlying strength of the whole trailer is really in question. To make matters worse, I severely tweaked my neck and have been in a lot of pain the past few days. Yesterday my head was locked straight forward, not really able to turn my neck in any manner without discomfort. I suffered through work yesterday and today it improved a little in that I got 30-40% of my neck mobility back. I'm still walking like Dr. Evil from Austin Powers. Mary Ann went to a Seattle Supersonics game tonight with several of her workmates. Bartell Drugs has a box at Key Arena, so I'm sure she'll have a great time (the box seats have a free buffet and they are extremely plush seats with the best views of the game). Next Wednesday, her and I are going to another game with free tickets. Unfortunately, I won't get to experience the box seats, but I think she said they are in the 15th row at midcourt. No free food, but probably a good view. Got to get to bed.
March 18, 2001 - I came down with a cold at the end of this past week. Called in sick on Friday and have been trying to shake this thing since. Mary Ann hosted a stamping party Friday night and had great success at it. In case you don't know what that is ... stamping is an arts and crafts thing for making cards (birthday, Christmas, etc.), book covers, bookmarks, and more. Heather and her had gone to a party about 5-6 weeks ago and really enjoyed it. By hosting, she gets a few items for free, and I think she just wanted an opportunity to entertain. We went to Marla and Dans' house yesterday for Dan's 60th birthday party. That was quite fun. Happy Birthday, Dan!!! I'm making corn beef and cabbage for dinner tonight (St. Patrick's Day thing) and I'm going to try to find a recipe for soda bread as well.
March 12, 2001 - A real long weekend at work. I was kept busy almost every day. I guess that's why my mind wandered so as I drove home. I was thinking of my youth and a longing for all those old friends who were very important in my life. I started remembering all the fun we experienced and I gotta tell ya', my heart was aching. I just wish we could somehow freeze moments in our life and take a vacation to that moment. Riding my motorcycle back and forth to Harding Lake with Steve Carboy or my brother, Jeff; those long sunny weekends water-skiing from 8 am till the next morning at 2 am; windsurfing with Joe Earsley in Maui; windsurfing with Joe in the Columbia River Gorge; hitting the gym with Steve and Talia; just hanging out with Sue Carboy and Merry Staley; going fishing in Valdez and Homer; going to Cleary Summit with Jeff and skiing, skiing, skiing; going to Mt. Alyeska and skiing with everyone; going up to Tim's house and bringing in the hay. It just seems as I've gotten older, I've lost some of that spark that fired me up as a young man. I guess why I bring this up, is that I want to regain some of my youthful exuberance. I'm not saying that I want to change who I am or who I'm with or who my friends are. What I want to do is cherish the quality time I spend in my life with those around me and not feel that I've wasted a moment. I can certainly look back but I also want to look forward and long for that time as well. With all that said, I am now going to get off my behind and start WORKING OUT!!! I was once a big gym rat, as most of you know, and I enjoyed the time I spent busting my behind. It certainly uplifted my spirits and attitude and I think it is a good starting point. I'll keep you posted.
March 8, 2001 - Back to work tomorrow. I needed to be called in for overtime, but didn't get any this week. That'll hurt us next paycheck. We seem to just be scraping by right now. I did some work on the tent trailer today and it looks to be a project. I'm going to add new outside trim and try to add more supports along the edge. We had some great weather this week. I blew off yesterday and went up to Bellevue to play cards with a friend from work. Mary Ann is getting a bonus check tomorrow. It won't be a lot, but it will give us some money to put into the trailer and for the hitch on the van and to finally afford to start repairing the damage in Zephen's old room. Mary Ann is already making plans for Heather's birthday .... nothing too big, just a slumber party and a trip to the Rain Forest Cafe, but Heather's real excited about it. We've finally got Zephen's old doctor bills down to about $500 and I'm hoping we can get those paid off real soon.
March 6, 2001 - I've had the last few days off and have been pretty lazy. Mary Ann had gotten some old-fashioned photographs of her and Heather done and picked them up last Friday. They suck you in with a 11"X14" photo for $14.95, then they offer you a package of photos for about $230. Oh well, they are beautiful and here are a few of them (I colorized the one with Heather).
March 1, 2001 - We survived!!! In case you live under a rock and don't know, Seattle had a 6.8 earthquake yesterday. I was at work doing some patient care, when all of a sudden a little tremor began. Initially, I wasn't concerned but I did call out to the others in the ICU that we were having a little quake. Well, as soon as I spit it out, a big WHOMP hit and everything began to roll beneath our feet. I walked over to the doorway and looked out into the unit. Everything was shaking pretty violently and people were jumping under desks (with hugh computer monitors on top of them, like how smart is that?). I rode it out in the doorway, but I really didn't think it was that bad. We had water running down one of the stairwells and some impressive cracks in the wall on the ninth floor (where the respiratory department is), but the hospital got through it okay. Mary Ann was at work and they got through it with little damage. We were both concerned about the house. I was mostly worried about our water lines bursting (two neighbors in the last year have had their lines go bad). I was 35 miles northeast of the epicenter of the quake, but our home is 25 miles southeast of Seattle (much closer). We were very lucky that we had no damage. Heather was between classes at school and had just gotten on the second floor. As the quake hit, several kids fell on the stairs and like dominos, they fell on the ones below them and tumbled to the bottom. Fortunately, they only had a few bruises and bumps. All in all, we were very very lucky. We've had a dry winter, so the ground isn't saturated with water. Had it been a normally wet winter, we would have had several landslides (maybe even the hill behind our house!). The quake was about 30 miles deep, and that was fortunate as well (closer to the surface would have been more violent).
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