Apologies and updates

    First off, I need to apologize for yesterday's post.  I was cut off in the middle of writing it as I was sent to the other office.  After re reading it, I realized just how bad a light it put on my wife and I apologize.  My wife is a very supportive and caring woman.  The post was meant to be a humorous inward look at how money can affect the questions we ask verses what is actually meant and it failed at that.  There may have been a small amount of truth to some of it, but I did not need to air it out here.  If I say I can fix something, my wife is very supportive.  The same is true if something is broke and I say I can't fix it.  As for the "it's fine portion," that is only partially true.  I exaggerated it quite a bit.  The truth is, that as long as it isn't dangerous and performs its function for the most part, she does insist it is fine, and it usually is, otherwise she does allow me to get something new when we can afford it.  Being a man, I just want it to work perfectly or I "need" something new.  This doesn't give me the right to make fun of my wife.  I truly love her and I was wrong to have hurt her so.
      Now that that is out of the way, I can get to the meat of my comments.  My Brother in law, Joe arrived yesterday (we knew he was coming and he was invited, so sit down.)  This makes for some interesting conversations.  My wife will yell for Joe, and she gets two guys wondering what they did wrong.  Just kidding, when she yells Joe, I know she mean me and I can usually figure out what I did.  It's the softer "what do you want to do, Joe?" that gets us.  We decided to go camping tonight.  It should be interesting as we will be camping at the campsite near us.  At least we have some clue of what we are doing and can avoid the whole what do you want to do conversation.  It really is great having him out here.  We have good conversations and connect on so many things.  Unfortunately, I have duty on Sunday which means I won't be able to see him off.  This also means you probably won't get a Manic Monday post again next week, but may get a Sunday post instead.  Well, I have stuff to do, so I will sign off for today.  Have a wonderful weekend, and enjoy your time with family.  And yes dear, I am sorry for yesterday and I do love you.

It works fine.

        This whole week has been weird and I am not sure why.  First off, I didn't get to post Monday as I explained Tuesday, then Yesterday, I got sent to the other office and was unable to get on a computer to do my Happy Hump Day post.  I really don't know what is going on and the sad thing is it is not a new feeling.
         We have all had times in our lives where we were sent to do something and had no clue what we are doing.  Most of my life has been like that.  It wasn't until I was married that I realized exactly what that feeling meant.  I just thought that when I was going in circles I was figuring it out.  Turns out that I had no clue.  Now, for some inexplicable reason, my wife expects me to know what is going on all the time.  Take my recent trip to Italy for example.  As we went through the various airports, my wife relied on me to guide us through safely.  Never mind that I had been to them just as much as she had.  Never mind that we both can read rather well.  Never mind that she is the one carrying the info (she insisted).  I was the one responsible when we went in circles.  I was the one that got asked, "are you sure we're going the right way?"  Not really, but this is the best guess I got.  I'm just winging it most of the time.
        I really love the question, "Are you sure you know what you are doing?"  It just adds so much confidence to me.  It makes me want to reply with a simple, "sure, why not?"  The problem is, half the time the answer is no.  It really doesn't help that when I actually break down and say I'm not sure what I am doing that my wife suddenly gets super supportive and has huge amounts of confidence in me.  Usually the level of confidence she has in me just happens to coincide with how much it's going to cost us to have someone else fix it.  Free to fix/replace means she is going to inevitably ask, "are you sure?"  Where a hundred dollars gets me, "I know you can do it." 
        There is the other side though.  You know, when something is working, but it is making funny noises or is not working up to its max potential.  This is where my wife's confidence in me is tested.  If it doesn't matter, her confidence in me is high.  If there is the slightest chance that I could screw it up, I end up hearing, "are you sure you need to mess with it, it's working fine?"  Never mind that you can't hold a conversation next to it when it's running.  Never mind that it smokes slightly.  Never mind that you have to shake it and hit it just right.  "It works fine."  There are buttons missing.  It has a remote, it works fine.  It is stuck on one setting.  How many do you need, it works fine.  It scares the children.  Don't operate it when they're around, it works fine.  Apparently, fine is all that is necessary and right is just a bonus.  It drives me nuts.  Anyway, I'll see you all tomorrow.  I have to go to the other office now.  Have a great day.

Financial Odities.

      Sorry I missed Manic Monday, but I had other things to do.  Congratulations to my friend Darryl on his retirement.  In case you were wondering, that is what I was doing yesterday.  I felt it important enough to skip the post.  Now on to today's post.  I thought about doing yesterday's post today, but decided it just wasn't worth it.  I really don't need to upset myself with it.  So this weekend, we were planning on going camping.  Since there were a few items we needed, we decided to total up the checkbook.  We discovered that we had spent a little more than we thought and were down to the point where spending extra would be irresponsible.  So we ended up working on the yard and house.  Yesterday, we did a little shopping for necessities and decided we needed to transfer a bit out of savings to our checking account to get us through.  I decided to compare what the bank said we had and what we said we had.  After checking the math twice, I discovered that the bank said we had around twelve hundred dollars more than we said we had.  I have had a day to think about this now and have realized why this is.  We constantly round up our monthly bills to even dollar figures.  With about 15 monthly bills that we round up by about one to two dollars apiece, it adds up over the years.  Add in the fact that I am overestimating the amount we set aside for the house and you end up with a significant amount set aside.  It's nice to know that even when the checkbook says we are in the red, we are still safe (we only allowed ourselves to take $200 of the error back), not that we let the checkbook go into the red.  At some point we will have to go into the bank and have them go through our records, just to make sure that we are truly up to date.  I have to thank my wife for being so pragmatic at times that we can have this extra bit.  Now if I can only talk her into the Star Wars special edition Xbox.   Have a wonderful day.

Aha Moments.

     This has been a weird morning.  I am now coming to terms with just how old I am.  What made me realize this, you ask?  I have had several aha moments in just the last hour.  It is amazing just how much stuff I forgot and how quickly I forgot it.  Then you get those moments where you see or read something and it sparks your memory.  For instance, we need creamer for our coffee for camping.  I had completely forgotten about it (by the way, we were at the store just last night) and this morning on the way in, I was enjoying my usual cup of coffee (see my Happy Hump Day post for this week) and I said to myself, "this coffee is awesome, I wonder if it is the creamer?"  Ding! Aha moment.  Then I was reading a funny story on the Internet about someone trying to figure out which ink cartridge to get for their printer and: Ding! Aha moment.  Turns out we've been out of black ink in our printer for about a month (amazingly enough the color side prints it out, but the darn printer refuses to acknowledge that it is out of black ink).
     You would think this wouldn't surprise me.  I have aha moments more often than I would like to admit.  The unfortunate side is that I seldom have paper and pen to write it down.  Ding! Aha moment.  I need to remember to pack paper for our camping trip.  This isn't helping.  Maybe it isn't age, but genetics.  I seem to remember growing up and watching my dad have the same problems.  I remember the look on his face as he seemingly wandered the aisles at the hardware store.  I thought he just wasn't sure where something was, now that I think about it, I realize he was actually trying to remember exactly what it was he needed.  I also remember that as I got older he wrote down more information before going to the store and spent less time wandering the aisles.  I just never put two and two together until now.  Ding! Aha moment.  Take a hint from dad and carry a note pad and pen to write down things I think of.  Now that I think of it, that isn't an original thought.  I have a lot of aha moments and I think to myself, "I should write this down somewhere."  Then I promptly forget to write it down.  I probably won't remember this five minutes after I post this.  Ding! aha moment.  Email it now.  Be right back.......

Nothing important

    Today, my sons are having friends over for their first sleep over.  This should be interesting.  A bunch of 8 year olds sleeping away from home for the first time.  Anyone else expecting a bit of anxiety?  At least they all live close enough that it won't take long for them to get home.  I remember when I grew up sleep overs were a bit more complicated.  My closest friend was a mile away and thus sleep overs were not something you could back out of.  We'll see how it goes.
     There really isn't anything pressing on my mind today, so I have no idea where this is taking me.  Want to come along for the ride?  The wife and I are still looking for a realtor to aid us in selling our house.  We haven't really gotten anything solid yet and are still wondering which direction to go.  I really hope we find one soon.  I am up in the air about where we will go when I retire.  To be honest, I have had reservations about returning to Iowa and am unsure of where I need to be.  I still have a while to figure it out, but it is something that is eating at me.  First things first though, and that is getting the house sold.  We'll figure it out.  We usually do.  Not much else to say today.  Seems that I said enough the past couple of days.  Have a great day.  And have fun.

Happy hump day. Coffee and Me

    Happy Hump Day.  I can't think of a better way to say good morning than that.  Especially since good morning is an oxymoron.  If ever there were two words that didn't belong together it is those two.  It's like trying to put a KKK member on a blind date with a black woman, the two will just never get along.  What is it about waking up that angers people so much.  You would think that waking up would make people a little more happy since it means you survived the night.  I could understand anger at waking up if it was to a stabbing pain in your chest due to say...a stabbing.  Then again, I am one of those angry morning people.  At least until I get my coffee.
     Speaking of coffee, why is it that it can remove my anger so completely after just one cup.  It is awesome.  There are times I am tempted to find out if this wonderful magic elixir works on my three year old.  That little bugger is so angry when he wakes up and it takes hours for him to be happy.  Some people would claim it is just because it wakes you up, but I believe there is something more.  Otherwise, how do you explain the fact that there are so many coffee shops here in the wonderful state of Washington?  I mean I pass a good dozen drive through espresso stands on my way to work every morning.  You can't tell me that people here are that much more tired than everywhere else.  It has to be a happy maker.  I used to call coffee go-go juice as it helped me go-go, but I think it should be renamed to happy juice.  I am only half way through my first cup of the morning and the day is already getting better.  Even my wife is happier after a cup and that takes work sometimes.  I'm no scientist, but I think this requires more study.  I volunteer to be one of the test subjects, I could use the free coffee.  Knowing my luck though, I would probably end up being part of the control group and thus denied my coffee.  On second thought, just tell me the results and leave my coffee alone.
        What is it about coffee that even people who don't drink coffee (why wouldn't you like coffee?  I don't get it.) like the smell?  It amazes me just how powerful just the smell of coffee is.  I'll buy a bag of special grind at the store and the aroma permeates the car.  The whole way home I'll smile and enjoy the aroma.  We take it camping with us and the aroma that wafts out of the camper as we set it up, just makes the day that much better.
         There is only one downside to coffee that I have found.  It makes going to sleep at night a bit difficult.  I hate that I have to stop drinking it 4 hours before I want to go to sleep.  Have you ever had a staring contest with a coffee maker?  It looks at you with that gleaming half full pot.  It points out the creamer in the fridge and wafts that wonderful aroma across the house at you.  It tells you that one more cup won't matter and then turns itself on to warm the remains for you.  It is just so hard to ignore.
         OK, I need help.  By reading what I just wrote, I realize I have an addiction.  Granted, it isn't one I really want to give up, I'm just pointing out the obvious before you do.  Aside from the addiction, it seems that I have inanimate objects talking to me.  I find that to be a bit disconcerting.  Well, my coffee cup is empty and I really need to refill it.  So, until next time, Have fun, enjoy yourself, and don't take life to seriously.  Now, where's that coffee stand?

Washington Weather: A Layman's View

      Oh the insanity.  I just had to set one of my friends from Iowa straight.  She said that she wanted Iowa to be more like Washington state.  I nearly cried.  Let me explain the weather in Washington.  This may take a a while.  You see there are actually three weather systems in Washington.  You have the coast, the sound, and the east side. 
      The coast is just that, a strip of land along the Pacific ocean up to the Olympic Mountains.  It has Pacific Northwest weather.  This means it is cold, it rains, and it gets windy.  There is a lot of sea spray and the beaches.  The sun comes out and there are quite a few sunny days. 
      Then you move inland to the sound.  This is where I live.  The sound is the area between the Olympic Mountains and the Cascade Mountains.  This are is just wide enough that it traps cloud cover.  What I mean is that it is wide enough for clouds to form between the mountains, but the mountains are high enough to block any chance of a jet stream or higher winds from moving said clouds.  So the weather here is weird as all get out.  Forecasting the weather here requires a psychic, a priest, and a lot of luck.  I took me 4 years of living here to put my finger on exactly why it sucked.  It is so obvious that I did a self facepalm afterwards.  It doesn't rain here all the time, but when it stops raining the clouds don't leave.  Thus the sun doesn't shine between rainstorms and rainstorms could be weeks apart.  The other thing the weather here does is hover.  Temperatures around here hover at steps for months at a time then suddenly jump up or down for a day.  In winter the temps hover in the high 20's to low 30's with random jumps up as much as 20 degrees and drops that are non existent.  Thus, when it snows, it only lasts a day or two.  This is the only place I have ever seen that it can snow and rain at the same time.  There is nothing more disconcerting than seeing a raindrop obliterate a snowflake in mid air.  To make things even more interesting, the temps will rise to the mid 50's around march and hover there until mid may.  Through out this period, the temps will jump up to the mid 60's to high 70's for a couple of hours every once in a while, just to trick you into thinking that spring is here.  Finally, around June, you get into the 70's about once a week and slowly build.  Around August and into September, you finally get sun on a regular basis (if you can call once a week or so regular).  Then in October the temperature plummet back down to the 40's and work their way lower for the next 2 months.  Maybe around thanksgiving we will get a snowstorm, but usually it is just rain so cold that it sucks the heat out of everything.  Oh, and there is no such thing as a serious rainstorm here.  A big storm is usually 3 inches of rain over a 12 hour period with high winds (and I do mean high winds).  The usual means the weather uses to deliver 5 inches of rain is a steady drizzle for a week.  Like I said, the weather here hovers.  It looks like it is going to rain everyday and rains once a week.  Yeah, sound weather is depressing.
       Then you get eastern Washington.  This is the area between the Cascades and the Rockies.  It is a high mountain plateau.   Thus it is dry, sunny, and hot.  This is the agricultural area and is sparsely populated.  It is also the major portion of the state.  I never really go there as I have to cross mountains to get there and that takes to long.
       This being said, I have to wonder what makes people want to move to Seattle.  It is right in the middle of the sound weather system.  Yet, people move there all the time.  If you want consistent weather and beautiful areas, you go to Hawaii.  Now that I have explained my thoughts on this weather, maybe you can enlighten me with yours.  Oh, and if you can ever figure out why someone would like this weather, don't tell me, I don't like being depressed.