April 30

Another long week is over. We had a full crew this week so it was better. Wednesday I got off at midnight. I still had energy so I went rollerblading down on Ruston Way in Tacoma. Now, in the daytime, that is a wonderful public skating sidewalk. It meanders along the waterfront for at least a mile. There are lots of benches and large lawns for the walkers and skaters. I was kind of worried about how it would be at night. Fortunately I only saw a dozen people. There were six teenagers skating out on the public docks up to who knows what kind of mischief. And I puzzled over the dark van with the engine running and the interior lights off. On the way back someone was leaning in the window. I guess the junkies gotta get their fix somewhere. The weirdest thing I saw was a couple of cute 19 year old girls on the swing set by the skate path. I was really cruising as I approached. They couldn't help seeing me with my lighted skate wheels glowing like hot coals. They were giggling and waving me to stop as I blew by at 17 knots. They must have took me for a John. No way I was gonna stop, I was on a roll and feeling fine.

April 26

I worked 5 days swing this week. Several of them were 14 hour shifts. Thank God that is over. I feel like someone milked my soul dry when I work that much. For fun this weekend I golfed with my daughter at the Lake. We are still really bad. I compare my golfing acuracy to shooting deer at 500 yards with a derringer. We are talking 7 strokes minimum and that doesn't include wading into the lake to fish out balls. I also tried out my new lighted Spitfire Rollerblade wheels. In the daylight they are barely visible. However I went out at dusk tonight and was blown away. Those little wheels glowed like a red hot poker at speed. The faster I went the brighter they pulsated. Staring at your feet and skating fast at night is not a good combination. What makes them so neat is there are no batteries. There is a generator built into each wheel. I know it isn't "cool" for an adult to skate. However, for knees like mine, it is a painless way to exercise. Plus, rollerblading on a hill is exactly like downhill skiing, same turning technique minus the cold.

Top of Page

April 22

Lots of talk about the Denver school insanity. I hate to agree with Tom Lycis but he is right in saying there is nothing we can or will do. We make choices in life when we have kids but don't make time for them. Lots of people leave for work at 6 am and don't return until 7 or later. And then they wonder why their family falls apart. But we like the money and the lifestyle it buys. Daycare centers raise our children. I am lucky to have a wife who makes our kids her priority. They have their share of teenage problems but shooting up the school isn't one of them.

April 17

Conversations at the Easel, Mt. Rainier roadside viewpoint near Paradise

"Ooooh, very nice", How long have you been painting?"
"Uh, do you mean on this one or all together?"
"No, on this one, Honey! Come over hear and look at this painting!"
"About a half hour.But I actually started it a couple months ago in the garage. I can usually finish one up here that is half this size in 4 hours."
"I love those pink colors on the snow and the blues in the trees"
"Yes, I had to bring it up here to get those right, I couldn't remember them when I was painting out in the garage."
"So, do you frame them and sell them in Gallerys?"
"Yes"
"Is this the only thing you paint or do you paint other things as well?"
"I paint all kinds of things but my gallery has had good luck selling these mountain paintings. She keeps asking me for more so I keep painting them."

Sue and I went up to Paradise cross country skiing today. I carried my painting pack as well as the usual backcountry stuff. Unfortunately after we humped our packs on and skied uphill for a mile to the first good viewpoint on the skyline trail I found the summit covered with a cloud cap. Other than the top of Rainier we could see everything. Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Adams and the Goat Rocks were all out. We hung out in the sun for an hour watching the mountain play hide and seek.

The snow is incredibly deep up there this year. I was looking for some trees I have used to frame the mountain in previous paintings. I found them but they were 20 feet shorter. Sue had to explain to me that it was the deep snow. Finally I shouldered my heavy pack and lumbered down to the car. We drove down to a roadside view point and I finished a large painting I started a couple months ago out in the garage. It was so nice to be painting from life instead of guessing at colors under the florescent. There is just no other way to see those exotic alpenglow colors than to be there in real life. Cameras can't even come close. I painted at the pull-out just below Narada Falls. Half a dozen tourists were kind enough to compliment me on my painting. One lady was gushing over the piece while her hunky boyfriend posed on the snow bank. That is usually a good sign. If I can paint well enough to break through the apathy of total strangers, I usually have a good piece.

Top of Page

April 13

I am going to wreck my track record here. Two halfway happy entries in a row. For those of you who prefer angry, depressing prose, see depression.I woke up this morning at noon, called in and was surprised to hear I had Wednesday off. Until we got busy a month ago, I was supposed to be working four tens with Wednesdays and weekends off. I guess we are slowing down. Or perhaps they are getting sick of the long whining notes (short stories) I write at the end of my solo swing shifts. My foreman said they were so entertaining he was going to start saving them and putting them into some sort of a shop whining journal. They usually end with, "You can pick through them, but I think they should all be THROWN IN THE TRASH!"

Today I met an Artist friend of mine named Judith Smith at work to plan the pre-press for the poster advertising an Art Competition at the Friesen gallery across from the Seattle Art Museum sponsored by the Northwest Pastel Society. After we drove the artwork down for some expensive professional scans I came home and went rollerblading with my daughter Lisa. We had energy left after cruising the neighborhood so we went golfing at our overgrown community 9 hole golf course by the lake. We could really benefit from some lessons. Even as bad as we are, it's still fun banging the silly little ball around, dodging the water and trees. Lisa kept looking around saying,"Dad, we suck at this". I had to chuckle, you can't be proud learning a new sport.

Top of Page

April 12

I had a great 3 day weekend. Friday I spent driving around South Seattle seeing a bunch of my old printing friends, several of whom have succeeded in breaking free of the printing business and now are living on their computer skills. I also put in a lot of family time with the wife and kids. I am always amazed at how lucky I am. I have the nicest family of anyone I know. Today was such perfect weather I took my studio painting of Mt. Rainier outside in the sun and worked on it for a couple hours. Sunlight is so much better than garage light. Plus I can hear the wind in the trees and smell spring coming. This all sounds so happy I am ready to gag.

My son Clint has been working on his latest jump out in the woods. He and the neighborhood kids have built a huge BMX jump. It is 10 feet wide, 4 feet high and 20 feet long with exquisitely contoured and shaped ramps and lips designed for maximum airtime. They got the dirt for it 150 feet away up a steep hill using wheelbarrows. The pit where they took the dirt out is head high and 12 feet wide. This is a kid who thinks taking the garbage out is too hard. They slave like dogs for days in a row in all kinds of weather to build these jumps. They are just starting to jump this one. I watched them take the first tentative runs at it. I always feel like I should have an aid truck waiting nearby. I hope to get him interested in something safer like rockclimbing this spring. We use ropes in rockclimbing. There is none of this unplanned flying though the air to doubtful landings.

Top of Page

April 9

I got a gruesome email yesterday. Cancer struck one of my old climbing buddies. P and I started climbing together in '77. I almost broke up with my wife because P and I climbed together so many successive weekends in a row. She worked weekends and couldn't come with us. She eventually came to care deeply for him. We all three took many trips together climbing in the sun of Leavenworth and Smith Rocks. They used to sit together on the belay ledges and heckle me as I spent 2 hours inching up a crack a hundred feet above. He was my best partner ever. No one else even came close. He is still with us, in remission now for a couple months but lost his great job at Boeing and is close to broke. I am reminded of my mother telling me to count my blessings. That is so true. I have a bad tendency to wallow in self-pity. At least I have my health.
Top of Page

April 4

Hey, it is a new month. I have been keeping this online journal for almost one month. I am determined to do less whining this month. Last month was all work and no play. I am going to try wallowing in positive thinking for a while. I saw one of my long lost cousins at my Dads yesterday. Marcus flew out from Minnesota for an Ornithology conference (birds). He has done very well with his life. I used to kid him about how he was a professional student whereas I had a steady job as a pressman. But times change. Now, he and his wife, who is also a college professor at the same school, live an enviable life. They, and for that matter, most of my relatives, can afford to fly across the country for conferences and family reunions. I really should insert some whining about how poor I am here but since I am on a whining diet I'll pass. We do the best we can with what we have.

Top of Page