May 29, 2002—Memorial Day

 
Starting at 9 AM and finishing up at 1:30 PM, Dave, Bret, and Dad all joined me in taking three units of saw dust trucked in by Highway Fuel Company and dumping it about the yard. It was long, gruelling work. My thanks and the Mexican dinner at Los Arcos I bought for Dave and Bret was really insufficient compensation for the hard work they put in. I owe them one.

As for the yard itself, it looks sort of like it snowed. We've got saw dust piled everywhere out back. Three units, the number recommended to me, was probably one unit too many. How much is three units, you ask? I don't actually know, but I think a unit is 7.5 cubic yards. If anybody knows different, feel free to correct me. Dave brought his digital camera and snapped some shots, so I should be able to give those interested a visual clue as to the amount before too long.

Participants looking forward to the Reach the Beach photo CDs will have to wait a touch longer. I'm hoping to have them in the mail in the next few days, but I've been too busy (especially today) to work on them. Soon, though, very soon.

 May 27, 2002—Memorial Day

 
OK, maybe in most years it wouldn't be considered the most patriotic way to spend the day, but spending money helps keep the economic engine hummin', and God knows in this economic climate I deserve at least some kudos for that sort of thing. Plus now I look fine, and increasing the aesthetic beauty of the world always rates high in my book.

I met Joe and Carol at the Woodburn Outlet stores at 9 AM, so we could shop at Brooks Bros. and get their 25 percent Memorial Day Sale discount. Joe showed off a gorgeous blue wrinkle-free (non-iron) shirt of theirs over the weekend, and, needing to update my wardrobe, I was sold. Now I want to be clear that these are not inexpensive duds (regular price for a non-iron shirt is $54), but ooh, baby, they are fine-lookin'. And frankly, if you're gonna go shopping for clothes, it's very helpful to go with people like Joe and Carol who are not only really fun to hang with but also have very good fashion sense. I came away with 2 shirts, 2 ties, and 3 pairs of socks, and no complaints whatsoever.

In fact, as strange as it sounds, this was just the sort of trip I need to take. I have for many years disregarded fashion, and perhaps worse failed to appreciate the value of fashion in several respects. First, dressing up makes one feel better about oneself. It's almost a self-evident truism, but something which I've not heretofore worried all that much about. I think maybe I should. Second, other people's perceptions are dramatically influenced by fashion. The best service I ever got in a store was when I was dressed to the 9s. Customer service reps were falling all over themselves to help me, and I guarantee you that had I just been wearing jeans and a tee shirt the experience would have been dramatically different. Finally, I've really failed to appreciate the cost of clothing, and assign any sort of meaningful value to garments (especially those I own). All that changed today.

So I spent a good portion of Memorial Day giving Erin a fashion show, combing through my closet and trying different combinations of clothes. Although she remains in the thick of year-end school work, she glanced up now and again to give me her assessment. The conclusions for both my high-end and mid-range wardrobe were very positive. I've got a number of get-ups which look smashing, and more importantly, I realize it. It's been a very long trip to get to this place, and one which I've probably not fully conveyed because, hey, I've been oblivious.

I still need to go through my casual, around the house wear—and by that I mean shorts, tee shirts, and such—but at least I know what I need to do. Before today, I'm not sure that I even would've said there was a journey to be undertaken. Cluelessness takes many forms, and before today, fashion was part of the deal for me. Perhaps not so much anymore.

 May 24-5, 2002—Battle Ground, Washington

 
Erin and I drove up to Battle Ground where we joined Joe and Carol for an immensely fun road trip up to Seattle to catch the Mariners' game at the impressive Safeco Field. Being Memorial Day weekend, we had to negotiate a fair amount of traffic, but it's a lot easier to not care about that sort of thing when you've got good company, and we certainly did.

At Safeco we joined Susan, a mutual friend from the UP days, and cheered the M's to a 6-2 victory over Baltimore Orioles. Initially we did a little cheering for both teams (since Carol is an Orioles fan), but it soon became more palatable just to cheer for good plays—especially after the Mariners' 5-run fifth inning.

For those planning a trip to Safeco, let me recommend (as Susan did to us) International Wok for dinner at the field. If you like stir fry, well, here you go. We also enjoyed watching the retractable roof close at the conclusion of the game. That's quite an engineering achievement.

It was late when we left Seattle for Battle Ground, but the ride home was merriment—including one mirth-inducing bit about Howard Johnson's—so no complaints about sleep deprivation from this reporter, except to say how thankful I was to be able to crash at Joe and Carol's that night.

Joe worked Saturday, but prior to his departure we assembled all the digital photos from last week's Reach the Beach excursion. Participants can expect a CD-ROM full of jpegs in the coming week. Like any group of pictures the quality varies widely, but some of the images are outstanding and the sheer totality of shots does a good job of capturing a lot of memories of the event. (Thanks to Joe and Dennis for making their images available for this collection.) I hope to mail out the CDs on Tuesday.

After Joe departed for work, Erin started writing some finals for school, and Carol and I set off to get Quicken operating on one of their machines. We spent the bulk of the afternoon entering Quicken data, and by the time Joe returned (and entered some info himself) a lot of the year's financials were in. Let me take this opportunity, as I almost always do, to encourage everyone who's not using it to consider buying and using Quicken. If you let it, it will change your life.

Our thanks and appreciation to Joe and Carol for the great road trip and overnight!

 May 22, 2002

 
Dad joined me for a Salem Police volunteer appreciation luncheon today. We heard a brief yet inspiring speech from the Chief, and I got to introduce Dad to a lot of the Salem PD command staff. That was cool. Bonus was that I got to take home a floral centerpiece for Erin, since I won when they raffled them off.

While I was there I had a chance to talk for several minutes with Deputy Chief Bill Kinch about the Citizen's Review Board which the City Council is putting together. Though there's no statistical evidence to support this, I think that sort of thing might be useful in a city like LA or NY where police abuse is not as uncommon as one might like. For a group like the Salem PD, I see this as a waste of time, money ($30k a year), and effort.

There is a fear on the part of the rank and file officers, I think, that this board will be hijacked by minorities seeking to air unfounded grievances—to be basically play the race card in a legitimized setting—without any appreciation for the dangers and situations faced in by officers on the street. The police union has opted to bargain on the matter.

None of the above should be construed as Kinch's position or words. He was very smooth about the whole thing, and may actually be more in favor of the board than I am. I am wondering, given my ever-growing background concerning local law enforcement issues, if I should be apply for the board. It seems odd to serve on a panel if you don't think it ought to exist, but if it's going to exist regardless, maybe I should help ensure that it's a useful vehicle for the community to voice its concerns and not just a polarizing agent. I'm undecided.

 May 21, 2002

 
We celebrated Mom's birthday this morning with an early breakfast over at the Chalet. Bret came down from Portland, and we all sat around and had our typical good ol' Davison time. Even the waitress got into the act, telling Dad that his Visa card was rejected just so we could all see the look on his face. (Dad eats there regularly, so the waitresses know how to respond appropriately to his goofy nature.) Happy birthday, Mom!

Afterward, Bret came over for a bit, we worked on a couple cover letters, and then we took off the Santiam Cinema 7 to see Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. Thankfully this time around Lucas didn't make a tedious movie. Most of the acting was all right, and of course the special effects were great. The tone was pretty weak, the pacing frantic, and the sense of B-movie serial fun was missing entirely. This seemed like a movie that took itself very seriously. I'm also sorry to say that I think C3PO has lost whatever integrity as a character that he might have had. Still, you know I'll end up owning the DVD when it comes out, and honestly, if you're at all a Star Wars fan, it's worth doing on the big screen.

 May 19, 2002

 
A group of us climbed the dune at Pacific City, the summit of which I'd not seen since October 21, 1990. The date sticks so prominently in my mind because that time around I was on the retreat where I first met Erin. This was only a few months after my trip to Europe, and I was still coming out of recovery from what was decidedly one of the lower points in life. (Those wishing to hear the artsy version will be able to have their dream fulfilled: The song "Grace" on Undeserved details a lot of this psychological trauma.)

There are events which we use as mileposts in our spiritual journey through life. The time atop the dune some 12 years ago was such a marker for me, and today's return offered the opportunity to reflect on that time from a different vantage point and with gratitude for the progress that's been made. It was unexpected—I didn't even realize the dune was at Pacific City—and a wonderful bonus to an already fantastic weekend.

 May 17-18, 2002—Pacific City, Oregon

 
Coming down from Battleground, Joe and Carol swung by, picked me up in Salem, and we headed out to Pacific City. They'd procured a beach house featuring a magnificent ocean side view. Walk in the front door and all you see are waves. Walk out the back door, and you're on the beach. Some wacky temperature controls literally left the place continually a little too warm, but in proverbial respects this was a very cool house.

We were joined in Pacific City by Dennis, Maria, Susan, Eileen and her husband Dave, and Robyn and Jared. Of this 10-person assemblage, only Dennis, Joe, and I would participate as riders in the American Lung Association's Reach the Beach bike ride, but I can attest that the moral support of all concerned was much appreciated.

After a dinner at the Pelican Pub, I sat down for a game of Phase 10. The card game proved nigh impossible to complete, so thank god for playing with friendly, happy folks. I think it was like 2 AM when we declared a winner, and so exhausted was I by that point that I actually have no recollection of who won (except to say that it wasn't me).

Maria, Carol, Joe, Dennis, and I were up relatively early the next morning to drive to Amity, the start of the 55-mile Reach the Beach bike ride. Dennis, the first of us to sign up a couple months ago, had unexplainable registration problems as they couldn't locate his name on their registrants list. It was a bizarre situation which he smoothly resolved (turned out later that organizers had not, for whatever reason, charged his credit card). Happily these early difficulties were little speed bumps and not ominous signs of impending doom.

After receiving good wishes from Maria and Carol, los tres amigos mounted their metal steeds are rode off into the sunset toward Pacific City. (It wasn't really sunset; I'm just quoting a cliché.) For my part, I spent the first 10 miles or so just trying to figure out how to change gears, a situation that was rectified only by Dennis helpfully riding behind me and directing me what levers to push and when. With his assistance it all worked out, but let's just say I'm glad my SAT scores weren't based on a test of this stuff.

As for the physical part of the ride, I was a reasonably happy camper through about mile 30. Joe and Dennis kindly stuck to a moderate pace of about 12 miles an hour which enabled me to keep up. I'm sure Joe could've gone a little faster, and Dennis, well Dennis probably could've found a way to alter the time-space continuum and finish the race before he started if Joe and I weren't around to slow him down. OK, perhaps not that fast, but I'm sure he'd have had no problem averaging a good 5 to 10 MPH faster than what we did. It was very charitable of him to take things slow and, you know, help me change gears. (Unfortunately, I was unable to figure out a way to have him pedal for me as well.)

Anyway, as I was saying, life was pretty grand through about mile 30. My overly-muscular, soccer-playing legs were holding up just fine. Unfortunately, my butt apparently did not play enough soccer because it began hurting like crazy. Either those bike seats are too small and hard or my gluteus is a little too maximus. Maybe both, but I'm thinkin' I'll blame the bike seat.

By the time of the final rest stop about 14 miles out of Pacific City I was pretty much spent. My lack of training time on the bike had caught up by then and no amount of Gatorade-like drink was going to change that. Regardless, we forged onward. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I may be stupid, but I'm not a quitter. (Long-time readers might recall that the last time I used this phrase I herniated a disc in my back playing basketball. I'm relieved to report that my back is fine.)

So we pedalled ever more slowly toward Pacific City when, about five miles out, God looked down from the heavens, saw me wretchedly struggling to keep a pace that would've gotten me lapped at a grand floral parade, and decided, in His infinite wisdom, to blow Dennis' front tire all to hell. For this I give Him most humble thanks and praise. Because I needed the 10 minute break it took Dennis and Joe to change that tire like a junkie needs his heroin. I was so spent that one-legged 90 year-old with a walker using only wind power, solar energy, and continental drift for propulsion would've beaten me to the finish line. (As was, she almost did.)

Divine intervention can be a wonderful thing: Given even that all-too-brief respite, well, it was only another 5 miles, and apparently I was able to build up enough of a reserve to make it. I didn't take advantage of it, but knowing that the beach house had a jetted tub overlooking the ocean waves which I could drop into proved to be pretty good incentive too.

Many thanks to my comrades-in-arms, Dennis and Joe, for their help in, you know, making sure I didn't die.

 May 15, 2002

 
Erin and I watched Kramer vs. Kramer over the weekend. It was an Oscar-winning, well-regarded movie that I've not wanted to see for some time. I don't like stories about bad things (divorce being one of those). It didn't turn out near so bad as I imagined, and honestly, the film got nine Oscar nominations for a reason. Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep, Justin Henry (the kid), and Jane Alexander were superb. The film is sadly let down by the courtroom scenes which come across as more or less '70s TV drama. (That's not a compliment.) Hoffman and Streep continue to be great in those scenes, but the rest of it feels incredibly hokey instead of incredibly powerful. Nonetheless, a movie worth seeing.

Robert Redford and Jane Fonda star in The Electric Horseman, the story of a simpleton rodeo cowboy, an aggressive reporter, and a stolen horse. It's neither deep nor moving, but there's some funny dialogue, and the performances are good. Not a must-see, but an entertaining way to spend a couple of hours. Recommended.

The Davison clan assembled out at the Eola Hills Winery for Mothers' Day on Sunday. There we met up with my Aunt Linda and Uncle Dwight (Linda is Mom's younger sister), my cousin Jeff and his family, and Jeff's wife's family. There were lots of a cute munchkins, so it was a good opportunity to see what we'll have to contend with in another year or two. Notable: Kids have lots of run-around energy, and I'm thinking that I might as well buy stock in the company that makes performance-enhancing Power Bars right now, 'cause I'll probably consume enough of them on my own to boost profits through the roof. Ah, well, Mothers' Day is as good as any for learning lessons about parenthood.

 May 13, 2002

 
First off, happy Mothers' Day to all the moms out there. God bless the mamas. Nobody loves ya like your mama.

I've got takes on a couple DVDs we saw over the weekend (Kramer vs. Kramer and The Electric Horseman), yesterday's US v. Uruguay soccer match, Mothers' Day events, and other various items. Unfortunately, they'll all have to wait until tomorrow because I'm too busy working like a dog to have time to post anything that would remotely do them justice. If all goes well, I should have an update tomorrow night.

 May 8, 2002

 
Erin and I headed to Life Source, a local natural foods store. It's unquestionably more expensive to shop there, but if you want organic produce and dairy there aren't many options in Salem. We could use a good Nature's or Trader Joe's, but I'm not holding my breath.

So this switch to organic will up our food bill. Given that the soil in the US is so contaminated that even organic produce show up with trace amounts of pesticides, I hesitate to think would standard produce must have on it. Wash those fruits and veggies!

In a related vein, GAO says there were 2900 school cafeteria food poisonings last year. That apparently continues a trend of increasing 10 percent a year. Allow me to quote extensively from the Wall Street Journal's coverage (May 1, 2002, page D8):

...Of those outbreaks with a known cause, most were linked to salmonella bacteria and Norwalk-like viruses, which cause gastroenteritis.

Officials don't know how many of those outbreaks were caused by cafeteria lunches rather than brown-bag lunches, but it is believed that school provided meals were the culprit in a majority of cases.

The Agriculture Department subsidizes school lunches and buys some of the food, while state and local agencies purchase the rest. USDA 'provides little guidance' to those agencies to ensure food safety, GAO said.

The good news is that cases of most major food-borne bacteria have been in decline since 1996. Just apparently not in schools.

This has been a very busy week, but I've also managed to get a lot done. Among the items:

• We'll be adding cable TV service next Thursday so that I can view the World Cup 2002 in its entirety on ESPN and ESPN2. I was planning to sign up for the lowest level cable package possible, but since I've got AT&T Broadband for the cable modem service, I was able to hop up to the lowest level of digital cable cheaper than regular cable. Having said that, it's still $39 a month (free installation + first month free though). I'll be canceling NetFlix this weekend (saving $20 a month) in the interim, but ultimately, we'll only have this cable package until the end of the World Cup. Beyond that, neither of us watch enough TV (or want to) to justify the expense.
• I've upgraded Trinity to Mac OS 9.2.2 as required for a beta testing program I'm in. The system feels faster to me, but ultimately, the question is whether or not it's as stable as MacOS 9.1. I found 9.1 to be very solid. Mac OS 9.2.2 is the last version of the "classic" Mac OS that Apple will produce, so I dare say that ultimately we'll all find ourselves there one way or another.
• I called on getting sawdust trucked in for the backyard. Looks like about $240 for three units (I have no idea what a unit is, but I'm guessing it's a lot). With the help of Bret and Dave, I'll be spreading that stuff at the end of the month.
• If you've not checked it out before, Fidelity.com has a whole bunch of very useful investment tools. There mutual fund finder is the best I've ever used, and I'm not just saying that because we have all our retirement accounts at Fidelity and own a bunch of Fidelity mutual funds. The mutual fund finder will sift through the entire universe of mutual funds by whatever criteria you specify, and personally, I find it very helpful.
• We picked up some Virgil's root beer at Life Source. I think it may be the best I've ever had; Erin wants to do a taste test with Henry's. Either way, we agree it's worth checking out.

 May 4, 2002

 
I don't get the buzz off of gardening that some people—notably Erin—do, but it's enjoyable in its own way. We were out in the yard for a good several hours today, for example, and the pleasant weather and beautiful blooming flowers combined to create an atmosphere that's pretty hard to pass up. Erin's done a stellar job in the front of the house, and it really looks remarkably attractive. She's also got a number of vegetables going in the garden, and we're hopeful that a bountiful harvest is in store.

For my part I've done a fair amount of weeding, and, with the help of friends, plan to re-sawdust (if I can use that as a verb) the backyard later this month. The saw dust has to be trucked in, so it's a bit of an expense, but in terms of beautification and hampering weed growth it's a must. Slowly but surely, my plans for world domination are all coming together. Bah-wa-hahaha.

We watched Once Upon a Time in China last night. It was an early Jet Li movie out of Hong Kong. Some cool martial arts, but kind of weak on the whole, and the narrative wasn't very strong. If you're a fan of Hong Kong cinema, you'll probably dig it, but otherwise, I'd say give it a pass.

 May 3, 2002

 
I was already up in Portland on business, so I didn't have to make an extra trip, but it would've been worth doing had I needed to, because Garr's show at the Art Home Gallery was a resounding success. Garr's been in something of an abstract period in recent years, and all his works displayed here fit into that realm. loligo also played at the gallery, tastefully tuning their volume and style to the rather undersized venue.

The best news on the loligo front has to be that their second album, 40 Coals and a Funeral Cake, is now available. I don't have the online ordering set up yet, but I was able to pick up a copy at the show, and I think it meets or exceeds the high standards of its predecessor, Scarlet Fever. Admittedly, I'm biased, but both albums are highly recommended.

I spoke at length with Kevin Nettleingham, a Mac guy and the fellow who did the mastering on both albums. Sounds like Kevin might be able to cut my production costs pretty significantly when I get around to putting out an album of my own. So from a personal perspective, that was pretty cool.

I forgot to mention that last weekend Erin and I watched Happy, Texas, a quirky independent romantic comedy. It's middle-of-the-road faire, but I found it charming in its own off-beat sort of way. It won't kill you to miss it, but you could do a lot worse. Recommended.

 May 2, 2002

 
Dave and I woke up early, rolled down I-5, and caught the Mac Business Expo at the Oregon Convention Center. The keynote was rather humdrum in my opinion, but the seminars we attended covered a lot of Mac OS X Unix stuff of which I'm ignorant, so parts were a great learning experience. Not much in the way of free goodies at the Expo this year, but turnout seemed a little larger than I remember it from last year and that's a plus. The Unix geeks were particularly well represented, and that's got to be considered a great thing for Apple. Geeks drive the industry when it comes to a lot of stuff.

For lunch Dave and I met up with Dave and Sue, our Alaskan compadres, at Burgerville. Although Burgerville's on my "OK" list so far as food safety/quality goes, I had the Gardenburger. I'm currently in an email discussion with Dennis on the subject, and one of the things I've concluded is that I might be turning vegetarian. More on that another time, though. Today's lunch was all about seeing Dave and getting a second chance to see Sue. Actually, for Dave Van D., this was the first time he'd seen Sue in years and he'd never met her husband Dave. That was pretty cool, and, hey, I just love everybody assembled, so it was hard for me not to think this get-together rocked.

Dave (Hemstreet) has been taking some pilot training classes in addition to logging some major hours on PC flight simulators, and I confess to finding this really cool. Flight has, I think, a mystery and perspective of its own, and the idea of soaring above the clouds in a little Cessina is on some level very appealing to me. It's almost like getting above the earth gives one a chance to look down at life from a distance, like holding everything at arm's length somehow so it can be examined more readily. I don't know if that makes sense to anybody, but at 11:41 PM it's about the best I can do. Hehe.

Many thanks to Dave and Sue for the lunch meeting and to Dave Van D for the great day! The Expo was fine, but hanging with friends was excellent.

 May 1, 2002

 
Busy day doing all kinds of tech support for various Mac-using peoples. You know, going forward I'm gonna have to insist on having a copy of the Apple System Profiler from machines. My brain is simply incapable of tracking who's got what machine and with what installed. It gets nutty trying to figure out, and I'm already pretty nutty to start with.

Got our Public Employee Retirement System (PERS) statement today. It reflected the large losses in the system last year, but so it goes. It remains the most overly generous state employee retirement compensation plan in the nation. I'm a big fan of folks retiring well, but not if it bankrupts the system, and I fear that PERS is well on its way to doing that. Not sure yet what the solution is, but some sort of cap on annual contributions into the system might be a start.