Blueberries for Ernie

I think the story of the blueberry form is best told through pictures. So here goes....

Amos H., youngest son of my college friend Bill H. and his wife Amy.

Blueberry field in Maine here on Red House Farm. Blueberries grow so well in Maine because the soil is so rocky and therefore have no competition from other plants. Yes, basically blueberry bushes are the low plant on natural selection totem pole and are winners here.

Red House is an organic blueberry farm, therefore the berries are considered "low bush." The berries grow best when the plants are new buds, that's why there number of berries are so great. To get new buds to sprout, the fields are burned after a harvest and therefore are on a two-year cycle. The berries are so numerous because of the hand weeding that the farm does in the winter and spring as the bushes are starting out.

Step 1: Rake

Step 2: Fill box

Step 3: To the Winnowing Shed

The winnowing machine at rest

Step 4: Dribbling the blueberries into the winnower. The dribbler is the point guard of the winnowing operation. Depending on the quality of the berries (i.e. are they too mushy and squished or are there too many stems) the dribbler has to maintain the right pace for the pickers below.

Once the berries go "down the chute", a fan blows out all the leaves and branches. The downward moving belt guides the heavier and nicer berries down to the second belt while whisking the lighter/smaller berries out the back. 30-40% of picked berries are rejected at this stage.

Step 5: Pick through. Sitting for hours on end (sometimes) picking berries is tough. You're looking for squished, small and discolored berries. Once the belt is turned off and you look at the belt, it appears to move backwards. Totally a mind blower.

Step 6: Boxing and Delivering! 230 Pounds of blueberries ready for delivery to a local coop. The majority of Red House blueberries are delivered to a local coop and CSA. However, about 1/3 of blueberries are sold via pre-order for pick up by local residents. Red House boxed 300 or so pounds of blueberries a day.

However, these are premium blueberries for personal consumption. A majority of berries are harvested for a local company which doesn't care about the visual quality of the berries as they will get these other not-so-perfect berries into yogurts and pancake mixes. Red House takes some 500+ pounds of these type to an outfit called "Coastal Blueberries". At the end of the season, Coastal will determine a price per pound and credit the farm for the amount they delivered.

For those of you wondering, Amy and Bill both teach and make the bulk of their income that way. Running the blueberry farm in the summer is a work of love and also earn enough income to send their three kids to school.

Here the berries are marketed at the local coop!

Family photo at the coop from a few years ago.

The red house of Red House farms.

I spent the week sleeping on the enclosed porch seen here.

The kitchen! It's amazing how well one can eat while on a farm! The food tastes so much better. It's true!

Less that 5% of food I ate the week I was here was processed.

A tomato and potato blight has moved through New England. Here is Bill burning the tops of potatoes.

The boys had just received the game of Risk for one of their birthdays. I was roped into playing.

They were so obsessed with it that for most of the week we would play while winnowing by rotating out the player who was not involved in a battle. Alas, I have to admit that I introduced trash-talking to the boys of Red House. When I starting saying "Man-Up" and "Bring-It-ON", they looked at me funny. But by the end of the week, they had clearly learned the essentials of goading each other and followed my lead in taking great joy in eliminating a player off the board. Their parents asked me to hide the game by the end of the week. Boys, if your reading, the Risk game is under your parents bed!

Afternoon swims at a pond around the corner occurred almost daily!

The boys with Noah of Lubec, ME. Noah is from Down East and worked for Red House for the week. Turns out he knows former students of mine from Lawrenceville from Lubec AND went to college with two HRS students I know. Perhaps my world is too small.

"Frroonzis"

Many of you know that I am spending a week in Maine helping out my friend Bill H. (a fellow high school Math teacher) his wife Amy and their three sons, in age order, Max, Ezra and Amos on their blueberry farm in Maine. There will be a posting in the days to come about life on the farm and blueberries (like huckleberries in Montana) are coveted like and illicit drug by those who know about this organic blueberry farm and its product.

Instead, this posting is about my experiences with native rural Mainers. A few days ago Bill and I drove down the road to his neighbor George's to deliver some blueberries in return for George helping Bill and his wife bale hay earlier in the summer. Bill warned me for the experience, to speak slow and to listen closely. As we're driving down there is a car at the side of the road just sitting there. I get out and ask the woman if everything is ok. She says that her car keeps stalling but that she'll keep trying. I tell her that if we see her on our return that we'll help her out.

Bill and I deliver the blueberries to George, who greets us in his yard with his son Alvin. They have just installed a new motor in Alvin's truck. Bill and George start talking farm stuff so I am there chatting with Alvin. I literally have NOTHING in common with this 20 year old. We end up talking about the barn on their property that they rent to some person who houses 10,000 chickens within its huge metal walls. However, this took me some three minutes to get this information as I need to keep asking questions of Alvin to try and figure out what he's saying, while not asking him to repeat himself. There I am going, "so you say that there are birds in that building?"

Our business time with George and Alvin comes to an end and so we hop back in the truck to drive back to the farm and the car on the is still on the side of the road. Bill hops out, tries to get it going and it keeps stalling. No dice. He and I decide to pop her car into neutral, tie a rope from his truck to her car and tow her to her destination. However, this requires me to get into the car with the older woman, who we guess has only seen an Asian person on television but not in person. I am going to steer the towed car.

There's your picture. Myself and an older native rural Maine woman in the passenger seat. We first try and find the emergency blinkers, we are successful. However, the two of us are unable to communicate how to figure out how to turn on the defrost as it's starting to steam up in the car. No, there was NO hanky panky, but for some reason the windows kept fogging up. I try and start a conversation with her by asking her name. Her reply, "Frooonzis". I say, "what?"

Now, make your mouth into a sphere and put your tongue at the top of your mouth. Pretend there are marbles between your tongue and the back of your throat. Now say the name, Frances. Say it OUT LOUD. DO IT. That's what I heard.

Frances is wearing hot pink sweat pants and doesn't carry a cell phone and turns out when we see her get out of the car, doesn't really walk well. My mind thought about what she was going to do if we didn't help her out. She just sat there, seemingly totally at peace and without any sense of distress.

Bill and I towed her the mile to her destination, which apparently was the family of her son's girlfriend. They came out of their trailer, yes, I said trailer. Three of the men were shirtless and had body types that did not allow them to see their feet. The women were wearing sleeveless shirts and were not the most efficient of walkers.

Bill untied the truck from the car and pushed the car into a logical spot while I finished my steering duty. Frances got out the car as fast as she could, before I had even finished turning off the car. One of the men said thanks to us and we went on our way.

Bill chuckled in the truck on the way back stating that I had truly had a Mainer experience.

Addendum: The next day, Bill, the boys and I were driving to go swimming and saw a boat trailer that had been towed apparently blew out a tire because we say the gouged swerve of the blown tire (and now rim) in the dirt road. Where did the new rut end? At the trailer where we had dropped off "Frroonzis." Where else?

Hiking the Appalachian Trail

NO! I am NOT Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina. Come on! I've just spent a few days in the wonderful Upper Connecticut River Valley with beloved teacher Anne S. By the way, I now understand why she gets so excited when I come and visit because I have students who I have taught for whom I feel the same way. When the likes of Emily D., Alicia D., Peilin C., Nick J. and Evan B. find me to connect, I must get just as excited as she does.

A couple of the highlights of this past few days has been the discovery of the Upper Valley Aquatic Center (an amazingly nice pool that is open for lap swimming ALL the time), seeing my friend David C's mother who is the director of the Prosthetics unit at the VA Hospital in White River Junction, seeing the movie "(500) Days of Summer" (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, when did you become such a hottie) and having dinner with Carlos P. in Brattleboro, VT. Anne and I drove the North-South leg and Carlos the East-West leg coming from the Albany, NY area and we converged for dinner.

However, the most enlightening part of the few days was spending a couple hours hiking a tiny section of the Appalachian Trail in New Hampshire.

Doesn't it look like the tree is growing out from the rock itself?

Anne S. and see if you can spot her dog Mr. Bunsby!

What was enlightening you ask? As many of you know, I have this romantic desire to hike the length of the Appalachian Trail. I was planning on hiking Georgia and North Carolina portions in late June/early July but I chickened out. I have always imagined that the hike would be full of inspiring vistas and a beautifully maintained trail itself. Boy has that been shattered. Anne and I spent a couple hours mucking through mud, fighting off the bugs and in the "green tunnel". As seen by the pictures above, it was just a wall of trees. Not a vista for miles. I'm rethinking this hiking the Appalachian Trail thing, well, at least, I have a more realistic vision of what it will be if I ever tackle it!

90% of My Material Possessions in One Room

Well, the day is here. I have packed up my belongings and they are all in one of the rooms in the lower floor of my condo. It's pretty empty in the rest of the place, the echos are pretty startling. I've spent a lot time this past week saying to myself "this is the last time I'll see/do "this" in a year". It really is like saying good-bye. Even though I know it's just a year, and that will fly by in an instant, somehow there is this sense the this is a final good-bye. I'm not sure where the future is going to take me, but I have this gut feeling that San Francisco might not be where I live when I return to the United States.

But looking to the future, it's all pretty exciting. I've got lots going on in the month of August. Look out for lots of postings and pictures and adventures that will make you envious of the life I'm leading at the moment.

On the streets of Downtown Seattle

When I was in Seattle last week, I was walking along 3rd Avenue and I hear my name called out. It was Chris W. who I met and became friends with back in the summer of 1987. He was waiting for the bus to go home. I had a couple hours before meeting a friend for dinner, so I rode the bus home with him and we did our best to try and summarize our lives while playing Wii tennis. Even after the decades, the conversation fell into a comfortable rhythm and openness. It was the highlight of my visit to Seattle.

Myself and Chris W. on the front steps of his home in West Seattle

A close up taken by Chris

Accounting

These last 10 days of July are a whirlwind of good-bye's to people who I won't see for a year and less thrilling, packing up my stuff to put into storage. Luckily, I pack the boxes and then simply move them downstairs. You see, I'll be using the two bedrooms in the basement as my storage unit. Convenient.

I'm doing an adequate job of culling items that I don't need to pack up. For instance, the possibility of me actually using the Structural Geology textbook from college again is nil considering I haven't opened it since 1992. The most interesting thing to come out of this packing chore is the amount of electronic gadgetry that I have just sitting around and am no longer using. Here's a list of what's in a box that I will put into the e-waste corner of the dump next week.

Found in 121 Cortland Avenue, San Francisco, CA

1 Wireless Router
2 Land line Phones (with cord)
1 Alarm Clock
1 Cordless Phone
3 Smoke Detectors
1 Cable Television Box
1 External Hard Drive (Dead)
1 Answering Machine
1 Wireless Keyboard
1 Inkjet Printer
1 DVD Burner (I'll keep this)
1 Canon S400 Digital Camera (Dead)
2 Auto Focus Film Cameras
1 1-6 Plug Expander
1 103 Plug Expander
2 Jawbone USB Chargers
3 Jawbone Plug Chargers
3 2 Prong to 3 Prong Plugs
1 Cable Splitter
1 ???
1 Stereo/Speaker Wire
3 USB/Sqaure Side Cords
4 Mac Laptop Charger Extender Cords
3 Coaxial Cables
2 IPod Earbud Earphones
2 Airline Earphones
1 30 foot Internet Cord
1 6 foot Internet Cord
1 3-Prong Plug Extender Cord
3 Cell Phone Chargers
3 Audio/Video Television Cords
3 Phone Cords
2 Cords where I can't read my handwriting

And I consider myself someone who is about average in terms of purchasing electronica. I can only imagine the amount of e-waste sitting around this earth. Yikes.

All you readers with kids, here's something for you (actually your kids)

Announcement and opportunity from my friend Mason K. (who now lives right in my 'hood and who has an office spitting distance from my front door)

I have some excellent news to share with you: AMK's First Annual Kids' Digital Design Contest is now up and running! It's a free juried digital design contest that we are putting on for kids between the ages of 0 and 15. That's right--take care to protect your keyboard from animal crackers and spilled juice boxes--this competition challenges kids and (with their parents help) to use SketchUp to create a "structure for living" in an aquatic, intertidal site. SketchUp is free to download, easy to learn and dangerously difficult to put down) There are separate age groups to ensure fair competition and plenty of cool prizes for participants as well as winners. For further information and links to free software downloads, click on this link.

Entries are due September 15th and winners will be announced on September 22nd as part of the AIA San Francisco's "Architecture and the City Festival." So head to our contest page for more information, or feel free to forward this mail on to anyone you know that might be interested in entering-- the more the better.

Ok, I hope to hear that the winner is some child of a reader of this blog!

On My Game When It Counted Most

This past Saturday I was up in Seattle for my annual week long summer visit to see the family. My high school was holding it's annual alumni golf tournament the Saturday I was there so my Dad and I signed up (well he signed me up and paid the entrance fee all under my name) and off we went for an 18-hole scramble. The 20th Claude Johnson Memorial Golf Tournament, by the way I was one of the few at the event who actually played for Claude when he was the Lakeside golf coach, was held at a private course owned by a significant Seattle area and school family. It's their own private course with it's own maintenance staff. The course, in the town of Arlington/Lake Stevens is about a 40 minute drive northeast of Seattle.

My Dad and I were paired with an alum from the class of 1968 and his friend. We trekked out to the 9th tee and started our round there. This being my first round of the 2009 calendar year, one can imagine that I was rusty. I didn't contribute to the group score until the 3rd hole. However, as the round progressed, I got back in the groove and with the increasing inebriation of our playing partners, my Dad and I began making the shots and drives our group ended up using.

The big moments of the day happened first on the par 3 1st hole, which for our group was our 11th hole of the day. Lakeside's number 1 alumni cheerleader, and former teacher of mine Bruce Bailey and the alumni office members were sitting and watching groups go by. There was a $10,000 prize for a hole-in-one. I stepped up and hit what turned out to be my best shot of the day. It arced over an tree that hung over the corner of the green and landed some 15 feet from the pin. Bruce pulled out his binoculars to make sure he wasn't going to fork over a bunch of cash. (Before I hit the ball, however, I stated that I would donate the money back to the school.)

Two holes later, Bruce is driving along in a cart and pulls up behind our group which is about to hit our second shot into the 3rd green. My dad and the other two guys of the group spray their shots short and left of the green. I drop my ball, pull out a six-iron. As I'm standing over the ball, I'm thinking about how good it would look to again hit a great shot. The gods were smiling because I nailed a shot that the pros would be happy with. It had perfect arc, was dead on with the flag stick and eventually landed 6 feet from the hole. I got kudos from Bruce.

Who knows if this performance may play in the future when I apply for a job teaching at my alma mater. If not, at least Mr. Lakeside himself thinks I can hit the ball well on the links!

Lynn & Justin's Wedding

Childhood friend Lynn K. got married this past weekend. Desiring to not subject her friends and family to the traditional ceremony/reception double whammy, she and her not husband Justin D. went all out and did it their way. They wanted their friends and family to interact and play over a couple of days. Therefore, the wedding was held over a weekend in the Trinity Mountains in way northern California. We were about 50 miles from the Oregon/California border. About half of the attendees rode the biodiesel "LOVE BUS" which picked up at two different BART stops here in the Bay Area and then made a stop just north of Sacramento and then we were on our way. Most of us camped in tents or stayed in cabins on site. Friday evening was a BBQ and and roast of the bride and groom.

Camping in the Trinity Mountains of Northern California

Looking up from the hammock

Carlos and new friends Andrew M. and Maury M.

Saturday morning was spent hiking, playing frisbee or going swimming. The ceremony was held in the afternoon. The officiant was Justin's youngest Aunt and although the bride and groom knew the outline of the ceremony, most of it was a surprise to them.

The ceremony setting

Justin and his parents

All of the 25 children were invited to process before the bride

The bride and the couple's "soon not to be a bastard child" Terren

The married couple!

The bride's parents giving a toast at the dinner

Dancing into the night and morning

What I take away is that someday I hope to engender that much love as the couple do for each other. It was a wonderfully uplifting and inspiring weekend.

"Nulla Osta"

Shown above is the authorization for me to work in Italy for a year.

Quick Trip to Boston

Myself and Jeff O. who is not a happily married man>

Many thanks to Ian L. and the wonders of Facebook for this picture. Jeff is the latest of my friends to tie the knot. He is married to an architect who is a native of Peru, but is of Japanese descent. They actually were married in a civil ceremony back in December 2008 but their reception/celebration was this past weekend. It was held at one of the art museums on the Harvard University campus. Although there was only one other Cornell friend there, it was great to see his sister, her husband and Jeff's parents, who I hadn't seen in over a decade.

Congrats, Jeff and Andrea.

Learning Not to be a Drama Queen

It's been a few months since I've posted. Lots has happened, but well, I just have to swallow the fact that those two months of my life won't be documented. So what event occurred to get me over the hump to write again? It was a potentially expensive health care issue that was resolved. Let me explain.....

In speaking with the director of the program, I learned that my health insurance covered me from the time I got on a plane and ended when I returned to the United States. My health insurance through HRS ends on 8/31/09. I would rejoin the HRS plan upon my return on 9/1/10. Because my contract and apartment rights end at the end of June 2010, I had a two month gap where I was going to be uninsured.

I assumed that I could buy two months of COBRA and the issue solved. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that to get COBRA it has to start immediately after the end of the policy and must be continuous. Therefore, for me to be insured for July and August of 2010, I would need to start paying for COBRA in September 2009. The monthly COBRA payment is estimated to be between $450 and $500 per month just for a single person with no dependents like me.

So, I wrote to SYA to see what they could do. My pie in the sky proposal was that I forgo their insurance and see if they would be willing to pay my COBRA. What came back was an even more ideal solution. It turns out that SYA's policy allows for 60 days of the plan (it's some expat American overseas plan) to be used while on United States soil. So SYA will, instead of starting my insurance on July 1, 2009, will start the insurance on September 1, 2009, which is the day after I end my HRS insurance. The SYA insurance will end on August 31st, 2010 and I begin HRS insurance again on September 1, 2010.

WHEW. That's money in the bank! Lessons learned? First, now that I was faced with potentially having to scramble for health insurance, I can understand how crazy our patchwork system is. How can it be so hard to get insurance. It should be a fundamental human right to have health care. The second thing I acutally didn't learn, it was more a case of keeping calm and having faith that things would work out. I didn't let myself play through all the worst case scenarios and I didn't start forking over the money. And just as I have experienced in the past, things figure themselves out without me having to expend emotional energy. I guess that's having life experience.

Officially a Facebook Believer

I am always slow to get on the bandwagon for cool things that everyone raves about. I'm about two years late to Facebook, but after reconnecting with a friend that I knew for all of 4 months back in 1988-89, I'm in the Facebook camp. Ok, ok, so I need to get an iPhone. I know, I know.

So, Shannyn Moore, welcome back into my world. To boot, because Shannyn has become a major liberal political commentator/figure in Alaska politics, she has had her OWN Air America show and has been seen on Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow (don't get me started on my man/lesbian crush on the latter). And, Shannyn now gets me two degrees of separation from one Sarah Palin since they have each other on speed dial.

Welcome back into my life, Shannyn.

Look Out California

Gavin Newsome, age 6 and Jerry Brown, age 36, both in 1974

Both are planning on running for the Governor of California in 2010 to replace Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is term limited. Possibly add to the mix Senator Dianne Feinstein and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaragosa and it's going to be a wild wild wild ride in the Democratic Party's primary. What fun!!!

India/Italy, they are both five letter countries that start with I

So, I am having a "mid-life crisis" as my friend Shahana S. publically announced in her Math Department email. I realized that if I signed my contract to teach at HRS next year, I would be doing the exact same thing for the 16th year in a row (less the one year of recovery from my accident). Now there is something to be said about routine and security, but I knew I would always regret not DOING something while I had the chance.

So, I applied to teach at a high school year abroad program in India. As you know, I applied to get to India on the State Department's dime last summer and didn't get the fellowship. This time, the Mumbai attacks of late last year caused security concerns for Americans and so the program was cancelled. Therefore the organization I applied to asked if I would consider having my application considered by their European programs in either France, Italy or Spain. Sure, I said.

So last Thursday, I interviewed on the phone with the three directors in each of the countries simultaneously for an hour. The next day, I was offered the one year teaching position at the program in Italy!! Here is a link to the SYA Italy website.

In short, I teach five classes to a total of 60 or so American high school juniors and seniors who are in Italy to study the Classics, Art History and Ancient History. I get a furnished apartment from August 1st, 2009 through June 30th, 2010. So it's off to Italy I go........

Now, if you see me you should ask me what Plan B was for my "mid-life" crisis.

Inefficient Sleep

The contraption to gather data on my sleep.

The results? I have minor sleep apnea. Not a surprise for those of you who have tried to sleep in the same room as me. What is a surprise is that I am out of REM sleep 45% of the evening. Even though I am not "staring at the walls like an insomniac" awake, my sleep is fitful and not recharging my energy batteries. I go into sleep school this upcoming to learn what possible options I might choose for addressing this medical issue.

Pajama Bingo

This being the 500th post of the blog, I think it's fitting to have a light hearted posting about my night spent with The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence gay bingo fundraiser. Don't need to say much more other than everyone around my friend Roberto and I was winning in some form or the other. Two women right behind me both ones games of bingo AND won raffle bags of "free s***." They each walked away with over $400 worth of cash and goods. To give you a flavor of the kind of humor we had, here were the different games of Bingo we had:

Regular Bingo
"Obama" Bingo (get the boxes around the free spot)
"One Finger" Bingo (in honor of our 43rd president, where you had to get a vertical row)
"Railroad" Bingo (fill BOTH the I and G columns)
"Top Corner" Bingo
"Diagonals Only" Bingo
"Six Pack Abs" Bingo (Any block of six in the I, N and G columns
"Tops or Bottoms" Bingo (The top row or bottom row, this being a gay favorite)

Tear Down This Wall

This past weekend, I spent in Los Angeles with Peter S. (a regular on this blog) and his business partner and friend Eric M.. The purpose of the trip? The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley of course.

Reagan's Headstone at the location of his interrment

Peter S., Eric M. and myself

Reagan's Headstone at the location of his interrment

I'm not sure if this was his planned schedule or a log of what happened.

Sometime after the actual library was built, the first Air Force One was retired and moved to Simi Valley. Private Donors built a huge addition to the facility and it is glommed on quite awkwardly to the chronological tour through Reagan's life. The plane was broken into 10 parts and then reassembled onsite by Boeing.

Looking North from the Reagan Library

A piece of the Berlin Wall. We heard Reagan say "Mr. Gorbachev Tear Down This Wall" in some fashion, from some video or audio clip at least every 7-10 minutes.

On the eve of Obama's inauguration, this seemed particularly poignant when I read it.

Overall, without the Air Force One Detour, the museum is on par in size with the Carter Museum and with the same level of technology. It is clear that it was built in a different time. There is nothing interactive. But in a most critical vein, it felt like, as most of the presidential museums have been, completely propoganda. The only museum that has allowed for dissent and alternative interpretations has been the Truman library, which I think is the gold standard for presidential museum.

A common site this weekend. Both Peter and Eric are iPhone users and like the iPhone owners I know, surgically attached to their iPhones. Twitter was something I heard about all weekend.

Over and over again, different Apps of the iPhone made our lives easier. We found places to eat, my motel, driving directions to every place and Earls Donut's here in Chatsworth off of Yelp.

I saw signs all around for electric charging stations. I gather they are becoming more prevalent in Southern California. Here's what one looks like.

Instead of flying home, as I did on the way down, I elected to take the train back up to the Bay Area. I originally was to take the train back from Simi Valley, but after the foray to Earl's Donuts, I stayed in Chatsworth, which is located in the far NW corner of the San Fernando Valley. Here's a rundown of my journey home, which, was seamless. I'm quite proud of getting from LA to SF in this manner.

1) Chatsworth to Simi Valley $5.25 Amtrak/Metrolink
2) Simi Valley to San Jose $41.25 Amtrak to San Luis Obispo & bus to San Jose
3) San Jose to Millbrae $7.75 Cal Train
4) Millbrae to Glen Park, SF $3.65 BART
5) Glen Park to 30th & Mission $1.50 SF Muni

My wait in San Jose was 11 minutes. The wait Millbrae was 6 minutes and at Glen Park 4 minutes. You can't get better than that.

This is the view north along the train tracks from Chatsworth Station. The tracks turn left into the Santa Susana Pass/Tunnel where there is only one train track. Right after that red light is the location of the huge accident that happened in mid-September where a Northbound (direction we're looking) communter train blew collided head on with a freight train coming the other way.

Returning to Old Patterns

I fully admit to neglecting the blog these past few months. Sometimes, I just get into a mental space where I don't think anything that happens or whatever I think would actually be of any interest to anyone. The thinking spirals and so what we all get is white noise of nothing. The new year and some recent events have jolted me back into a mindset where I'll just throw it out there.

First and foremost, hats off to Mom, Dad, Marl and the metropolitan Seattle area for gamely living with the snowfall of 2008. Just like all preciptation in Seattle, there wasn't just one huge blizzard which dumped a bunch of snow. For about two straight weeks, the snow fell for a couple hours at a time. The snow didn't blow around, it just floated from the sky. It was the snows version of drizzling rain. For the five days I was in Seattle, I never saw the sun. Only on the last morning, did the temperature warm up to start melting the snow.

Speaking of melting snow.....the City of Seattle elected NOT to put salt on the roads. Their thinking is that the salt washes into Puget Sound and contaminates the water and causes damage to the flora and fauna of the Sound. No salt on the roads, but sand was laid down and the plows worked to pack the snow down and then layer the surface with sand. It wasn't easy driving around town. I'm going to bet that the residents of Seattle will implore the city to forgo the environmental route next time and demand that the roads be salted and cleared for driving.

Each and every day, my father and I embarked on "EXTRACT GRANDMA AND GRANDPA". They still live independently but their house has a somewhat steep driveway. This in addition to the snow covered residential streets didn't allow us to actually get them out of the house every time we tried. I think our success rate was 75%.

After spending the holidays with Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa and Marl, I flew to Atlanta to spend a week with Alyn. A huge shout out to Kevin H., a 2001 graduate of HRS who let us stay in his 24th floor condo in Midtown while he was back here in the Bay Area for the holidays. Midtown is Atlanta's version of San Francisco's Castro. And the Kevin's building has a particularly large portion who play in my sandbox. So for the week, Alyn and I lived like A-List gays. Whenever we left the building, we would always walk out the front doors just to be seen.

My week with Alyn was good. I say that in the sense that we continued to learn about each other, we were comfortable enough to actually let our tempers show. Well, I threw a hissy fit at one point, and Alyn said that he did too. However, I actually don't remember him having some huge emotional moment. Maybe I was just clueless, but I think it's more that he has that Barack Obama type calm. It's a good complement to my being a spaz much of the time.

We did touristy things, such as visit the World of Coke and take the CNN Tour. We walked in Piedmont Park, saw back to back movies and visited an authentic Korean Sauna and Spa out in the suburbs. I never would have imagined that I would have been in Georgia surrounded by many naked Korean families. But we also broached some of those hard conversations that are what really make a relationship grow and see what each other is like when we have to lay it out on the line. I'll just summarize by reporting that our lives are in different places at the moment which means that we're just going to not make any big decisions. I'm just happy that we are able to agree that we're just going to see what happens. Part of me really wants resolution and action, but this is a case where I have to accept that I just can't bull my way to getting what I want. Can you all imagine those words come out of my mouth?

So, in closing, I have one serious thing and one comical thing to reveal. My snoring prevents us from actually sleeping in the same bed for an entire night. One of us ends up on the couch. So, I am now on a mission to try and drop some pounds to see if it might reduce the volume and intensity of my snoring. Yes, I am on a game plan to lose some weight so I can actually wake up in the morning next to Alyn. I find it worthy of a chuckle. Lastly, you'll notice that I'm on a "game plan". Alyn doesn't think I should use the d-word because it just sets me up to feel like a failure and not carry through on my quest. Game plan allows for the fact that there will be times when eat something I shouldn't. It's things like this that allow me to be a better person than I am without him.