8/22/12

Didn't run today.  Didn't get anything done around the house really.

Washed the dog though.  Had to.  We ended up at the beach and he was filthy. 

Sarah had seen news reports of whales at Avila Beach abnormally close to shore so we went for some fish tacos and a look.  Yep.  Great big ol' humpback whales about 200 yards off shore in a field of boat moorings.  Pretty cool.  The fish tacos weren't bad either.  It was something of a more relaxing day.  I could use it after the past few days at work.  ER nurse can be a trying job sometimes.  Don't let anyone tell you it is easy.

Then we came home and had a good night.  Tomorrow evening, Sarah's parents arrive.  Thus begins the whirlwind.  It is good and I am looking forward to seeing them.  It just gets busy when guests arrive. 

I'm thinking of adding a photography section to the Adventure Nickel site. That would give me a writing area and a photography area.  Add in some music and I can say I have covered the arts and will have to move on to the sciences. 

8/19/12

Woke up, had coffee.

Went outside and played a little catch with Max.

Washed IRV, Flo and Hondo from top to bottom and then ran 5 miles in a personal best time. 

4.99 miles in 40:08.  I would say the transition to Vibrams has been successful so far. 

Now a nice drink and some reading/snuggling.

Ahhhhhhh....

8/18/12

Changed tires around on the house today.  We had the bubble tire on the trip out and replaced it with the spare.  Finally got around to having a new tire put on the rim so I pulled the spare off and put the new tire on.  Then I took a tire off the other side and put the spare there.  The other tire had some damage and needed replacing.  I'll get to the other two soon I guess.

While I was working I heard Sarah admonish the kids to, "Stop jumping around, Daddy has the house jacked up."  Isn't that what ever little girl dreams of saying?

Also got the tool today I need to repair the slide out cable.  Now I just have to order the repair kit.  Probably will buy two and then be ready when something else breaks.

The salt and marine air is hell on the exposed metal parts of anything around here.  I need to figure out a good way to stop that and repair some of the spots that have appeared. 

Yep, my vacation life.

8/17/12

Today, like any day I am not working, Max started bugging me immediately to go outside and play catch.  He would do it all day, every day, if given the opportunity.  So, a few times every day I will go out and play catch with him for 20 minutes or so.  He catches pretty well, but he throws very well.  Of course, I am biased.

While I was washing the dog, Max saw some new neighbor boys visiting one of the RV's here.  They were 8th graders from Davis, CA.  Max noticed they were playing catch with a football and somehow got their attention.  Then they started playing catch with Max.  They, and eventually some other neighbors all came out to watch Max throw.  They asked Sarah his name so they could say they knew him when he was just a kid. 

After dinner I went out with Max and played catch and I got to witness some of this first hand.  All I heard was how awesome Max was.  Apparently several people have taken notice of us playing catch out there and they are impressed with Max's skills. 

Awesome.

Now, another interesting thing happened here.   Michael came out and wanted to play too.  He had been hearing all this adoration of Max and wanted to get in on some of it.  I think he is really used to being the star of the show with his big brain, language and reading skills.  It became obvious pretty quickly that Michael isn't much at catch.  And I'll quote Michael at one point after missing an easy catch, "You have probably noticed that I'm not the best football player in the park." 

I was impressed with his ability to assess himself and most of all his ability to let Max shine.  He didn't belittle or try to minimize what Max was doing.  He wasn't exactly doing PR for him or anything, but he seemed to realize that it was Max's turn to shine. 

Awesome. 

It made me feel like Sarah is doing a great job raising the kids.  :-)

8/14/12

Today didn't turn out like expected.

We got up and did the morning routine as usual.  Then we cleaned the lizard cage.  All good so far.  Then we decided to go into Santa Maria to get some tools I will need to finish a few projects around here.  It was lunch time so we decided to check out a local eatery in Nipomo that I had heard good things about.  It looked like this hole in the wall dive, which is a good start in my book.  Turns out they wanted $9 for their hamburger and up to $17 for their steak sandwich.  Uhhh....no.  So we went to In and Out burger instead.  We hadn't been there before.  When we pulled into the parking lot we noticed the temperature guage was pegged high.  Not good.  As we stopped and shut it down we got a strong whiff of antifreeze. Another not good.  I opened the hood to a cloud of sticky sweet steam for the not good trifecta. 

We went inside to get food while the car cooled.  Pretty good burger really and for a good price.  Simple ordering system too.  It was nice to see them making fries from real potatoes there while you watched.  Not a bad deal.  Too bad we didn't find them before we decided to eat a more vegetable based diet.  Actually that is probably a good thing.  After we finished I walked over to Trader Joe's and bought some bottled water. I went back and filled the radiator so I could find out where it was leaking.  The water was seeping out from the entire top plastic portion of the radiator itself.  It was slow enough that I thought we could make it home.  So we filled everything up and drove home.  On the way Sarah called a local auto parts store and lo and behold...they had a radiator for a 99 Honda Civic in stock.  I drove the truck to the store, picked up the radiator and spent an hour or two putting it in.  The old radiator was a crumbling mess.  The fitting for the radiator hose broke off when I tried to pull the hose off.  Nice.

Got the new one off and drove the car to Wal Mart to buy a new coffee pot.  Everything seemed fine.  Heck...with the truck poser steering hoses, the RV toilets and water heater, the Civic's brakes and radiator, if I'm not careful I could end up Handy. 

8/13/12

My never ending battle with procrastination got put off for yet another day.

I did get a run in.  3.78 miles in 30:45 in the Vibrams.  No worse for the wear really.  We will see how I feel tomorrow.  Cowboys preseason football on television tonight.  They looked awful, but hey, football is back.  Still trying to decide if I want to play fantasy football this year. 

Found out today that Sarah's parents are coming to stay for two weeks and they will arrive in roughly ten days if I understand the plan correctly.  That puts them here squarely during the time we are supposed to go to San Marcos to see Dad and Julia.  Since we are planning on heading much closer to her parents for the next contract we asked if they would mind us going to see Dad and Julia while they stuck around here and had a mini vacation of their own.  They seemed amenable.  We will see how that goes. 

Looking into the possibility of doing the Austin Tough Mudder with my brother Brian in October.  Final decision will rest with the details of our next contract so there is still some play in that plan.  Good day. 

8/10/12

Got called in to work today. 

I don't know why I answered the phone.  Just before she handed it to me Sarah said she thought it was work because of the area code.  I answered it anyway.  They have asked me many time while I am at work if I am interested in picking up extra shifts and I always say no.  Today though they had someone leaving and were short for 6 hours, would I mind coming in?  Guilt got me and I went. 

I spent the entire day resenting the fact that I was at work.  I constantly thought about other things I could be doing.  Every little annoyance became much larger.  My attitude sucked. 

I don't like work.  Well, I don't like working for other people.  Big surprise right?  Nursing has been good to me, don't get me wrong.  There is a great upside to this gig.  Especially in the ED.  You see some pretty profound things.  Still, I spend my time making money for other people.  I do things on their orders and I don't like it. 

Still do it, don't like it.

I have had chances to do other things.  Hell, I have done other things, several other things.  All of them felt like work and all of them seemed like an intrusion on my real life.  I somewhat envy those people that are so energized and excited by what they do that they wake up eager to go to work.  I somewhat suspect they aren't real too though.  Hell, even if it was that way, then you would be eager to get up and leave your family.  That doesn't seem right either.

You know, I had a shot once to make a try at becoming a guitarist.  It was a small shot, but legitimate.  When I worked for the Osmonds and stood in for their guitarist for a while.  I could have taken that opportunity like I did the audio engineer opportunity and learned enough that I could make it a real job, but I didn't because I was afraid that it would become work and then it would suck.  Probably a good thing.

The only thing I ever did that I really felt energized and excited to do that could have been considered work, was acting.  Rehearsal was never work, it was play.  The actual performance was awesome.  I thought long and hard about trying to do that for a living and even made one half-assed, pathetic attempt to move to California and give it a shot.  I spent a few months sleeping on the floor in a friend's house.  It came to an end when his kid asked when I was leaving so he could have his play room back. 

I was never really encouraged by my family when it came to acting.  They were supportive in a way that communicated to me that this was a cute hobby, but not something you spent your life doing.  That is how it seemed to me anyway.

I was actually pretty good at acting I think.  In high school I got pretty much every part I tried out for.  I won an award or two.  I really enjoyed it.  There were rumors around the school from some of the kids that I had some 'special' relationship with the female drama teacher of the day , Mrs. Davis.  I always thought she just thought I was a good actor. 

One day, Senior year, I decided, fuck it.  I don't care what anyone thinks.  I am going to be an actor.  I want this.  So I went to my teacher for a little encouragement.  Hell, I got all the parts, everyone supposed we had this great relationship.  I wanted to know if she thought I had what it took.  I waited until after a rehearsal for a play.  After everyone was gone I made excuses to stick around long enough to build up the courage and asked her.

"Mrs. Davis, do you think I have what it takes to move to Holly wood and make a living as an actor?"

She paused, wrinkled her nose up a little and replied.

"Well...you don't really have that leading man kind of face." 

It sat there like a turd on the table.  I muttered a 'uh..oh' and left.  I wonder now what a difference that one little remark made.  I later turned down a scholarship offer for an acting scholarship at a nearby school.  I chose to go to the larger state school because it would be better for parties.  I wasn't really good enough to be a 'real' actor anyway. 

My acting teacher at OU said I had one of the best perspectives of any actor he had seen coming through his class.  I had a great understanding of the craft, but seemed to lack motivation.  I went back to my dorm and got high.  Lasted one whole semester. 

I did some community theater later, nothing much though.  It still amazes me how big a thing that all was to me and Sarah has seen me do it.  I think if we settle down somewhere I might audition for a community theater.  For the fun of it. 


Shouldn't have answered the phone.