A Moment of Change

I think we all have times when we wish we could get a do-over. We wish we hadn’t made that faux pas at work, we wish we’d chosen differently in romance, or maybe we just wish we’d thought of that witty comment a few minutes sooner.

It occurred to me the other day that every time we have one of those thoughts, it’s at a different moment in our lives. That means that every moment is one in which we could make a change. No, really: Every moment, even this one, is one in which we could change our lives.

Of course, we have to want to change, but if we do, isn’t it wonderful that it’s never too late? I wanted to share that in this holiday season, before we make our New Years resolutions. Why wait? Be the change you want to see in the world.

Christmas Rush

The Christmas Rush is an annual tradition in Kent, WA. The event includes a 5K walk, a 5K run, and a 10K run.

This past Saturday was the 27th annual running. This year, things had to be a little different. A nearby dam is weak, so the usual course is covered in industrial-sized sandbags. I used to walk my dogs down there on Sundays, but the bags cover so much of the trail that we had to look for other opportunities to get some exercise.

The weather has also been unusually cold for the Pacific Northwest, with temperatures below 20F consistently. Normally, I avoid running outside if the temperature is below 40F. I’d like to toughen up, but exercising in the cold and then going back indoors triggers my asthma.

That meant separating the parking area from the starting line by a 5-minute walk. I don’t know if they tried to put registration in the parking lot and couldn’t make it work, but it was near the starting line. That meant walking 5 minutes to the starting line in below-20F weather, registering, walking back to my car and dropping off my gear, then walking back to the starting line. I saw a lot of people doing the same thing.

The course was lined with sandbags but, because it was a two-lane road instead of a walking trail, there was still plenty of room for everyone. Frager Road, it turns out, is badly in need of repair. That was a large pot hole filled with ice, an area of leaves frozen to the road (which can be extremely slick), and a spot where one lane of the road is slipping into the Green River. My favorite was the nursery with signs saying “open to the public,” “no trespassing,” and “private property.” Talk about mixed messages!

The event was well-attended. The parking lot was packed. I would have made two other changes. First, I would have moved Heaven and Earth to have hot food and/or beverages at the Finish. We certainly missed having Ivar’s handing out free clam chowder! I suspect the grill and oyster bar that let use their parking lot for registration and start/finish put limits on who could be there, but since they didn’t do anything to support the race beyond that, I don’t think I’ll be eating there.

Second, I would have divided the return lane by runners and walkers, with runners getting the inside lane. Because they didn’t make that division, those of us finishing the 10K were dodging the 5K walkers at the end, and collecting irritated glares as we did so.

Overall, I think it’s a terrific event and I’ll run it again.

Holiday Pops and Cirque de la Symphonie

Last week I caught up on gaming at my other blog. This week I’ll try to catch up on some cool things other than gaming.

I’d like to start with a plug for Paolo’s Italian Restaurant. A neighborhood Italian cucina in Kent, Washington, Paolo’s serves very good Italian food in reasonable portions at great prices. We had a lovely four course meal there Saturday night. They do serve lunch, as well, and I highly recommend checking it out if you’re in the area.

This past weekend, courtesy of my in-laws, I got to attend the Seattle Symphony’s Holiday Pops and Cirque de la Symphonie concert. I had attended the Holiday Pops concert in the past, and enjoyed it. It really got me in the holiday spirit. Until this past Saturday, the closest I’d gotten to Cirque du Soleil was The Simpsons.

Seven Cirque performers – three aerialists, a dancer, two strong men, and a juggler – performed during the concert. The athleticism was breath-taking. It made me want to go see a full Cirque du Soleil performance.

The Seattle Symphony, with guest conductor Gregory Vajda, performed beautifully in the S. Mark Taper Foundation Auditorium of Benaroya Hall. If I have any complaints it’s that some of the music was unrelated to the holidays, and the audience’s applause during the Cirque act obscured the music.

Overall, it was a thrilling experience and I am really glad that I got to see it.

Tomorrow I’ll talk about starting Saturday with a 10K race…

Crash! Crash! Crash!

I haven’t posted in awhile. Here’s why.

• In the second week of November, I totaled my car. No one was hurt. It’s easy to total a 22-year-old Corolla. At that point, there’s very little point to repairing it.
• The next week, I went to the doctor, and the dentist. I’d been having a lot of sinus ache on one side of my face, and my teeth hurt on that side. I thought the two might be related – the sinuses pressing on the nerves. The doctor said that if I didn’t have a sinus infection, I would in a day or two and put me on antibiotics and a nasal spray to open my nasal passages. The dentist said my teeth were fine.
• The next week, the day before Thanksgiving, my computer crashed. It didn’t get fixed until the middle of the following week.

So I’ve been dealing with a few things, and frankly being involuntarily off-line probably helped. Instead of hiding in a computer game, I had to deal with life. I feel fine, and I’m back to regular posting.

Gain or loss?

Yesterday I wrote a eulogy for my beloved 1987 Toyota Corolla FX16. It’s still on my mind, but my sorrow and loss are giving way to other things.

• I don’t normally take the Lord’s name in vain, but WEAR YOUR GODDAMN SEAT BELTS. My car didn’t have airbags or crumple zones or anything, but I didn’t break my nose or any ribs because I had on my seat belt. Seriously, people. Why do we need “Click it or ticket” ad campaigns? Quit your bitching and buckle up.
• Going without a car requires sacrifice, but so far it’s easier than I thought it would be. I drive my wife to work, and pick her up after. On some days, she takes the car and I just stay home and work on the computer and the Internet. Our in-laws live close by, and my father-in-law is about to retire, so we can borrow vehicles when we need to. There’s public transportation, flex cars, and many other options.
• Driving a different car can really remind you of the flaws in the vehicle you normally drive. When I drove my wife’s car to Tacoma, it reminded me how loud my car had gotten.
• Our insurance rates will probably go up, but on the other hand we’ll only have one car on our insurance for awhile. I’m curious how that will work out.
• We never intended to take the Corolla if we relocated for work. We always intended to replace it or do without.
• In the words of Warren Zevon, written when he knew he was dying of cancer, “Life’ll kill ya.” Be grateful everyday for what you have, because things can change in a heartbeat.

So: Did I lose a car, or gain some insight, or both? I don’t know yet. Time will tell. Eventually.

Good-bye, car

In the first season of the TV show, Life, Charlie Crews drove a beautiful, expensive car. He had taken up Buddhism while in prison, which decries attachments to things. Charlie would occasionally catch himself enjoying his ride, and would repeat, “I’m not attached to this car.” Well, I was attached to mine.

In the winter of 1993, I’d been out of the Army for a year. I knew next to nothing about looking for work, managing my personal brand, or selling myself. All my advice came from family, who hadn’t looked for work in over 30 years. Times were tough. I couldn’t afford my Toyota pick-up, so with my family’s help, I traded it in for a used car. That car was a red 1987 Toyota Corolla FX-16 hatchback.

It was a very basic car. It had no air-conditioning. It had a manual transmission. The radio was AM/FM, without a tape player (CD players were just becoming common in cars when I bought it, and no one had heard of MP3s yet). One tail light kept filling with water when it rained and shorting out. There was a problem with the electrical system that made it think a door was ajar when none was, but the dome light would come on. Sometimes the dome light would come on randomly in the middle of the night and drain the battery. When the muffler died, it turned out the dealership had used whatever they had on hand and welded it to the frame. Eventually I discovered that more than half the electrical problems was caused by the battery being too small for the demand.

The next spring I started working at Wizards of the Coast, and my life got better. I met the woman I would marry. We got a dog, and he fell asleep in the backseat of that car on the way home from PAWS. I paid off that car. Friends and family bought cars, and I kept my Corolla. It ran just fine. Only in the last year or two did it start really falling apart. For about 20 years, it was cheap to own and operate, and it ran well. Every Toyota person I met got a gleam in their eyes when I told them about it. Apparently the FX-16 was very popular, once upon a time.

On Tuesday, I was coming home from picking up some part-time work. I was approaching an intersection. The cross street had stop signs, but we had no control. A block ahead was a controlled intersection. The road was wet from recent rain. There was a big pick-up truck several car-lengths ahead of me. Apparently, a few cars in front of the truck, there was a vehicle making a right turn. Everyone had to slow down or stop. The traffic light, a block ahead, was green. I didn’t notice the change in conditions. I tried to stop, but I couldn’t. I slid into the back of the truck.

I haven’t heard anything official yet, but a 22-year-old compact car with over 198,000 miles on it that I couldn’t drive away from the scene will probably be totaled out. The claims person on the telephone told me to take all my things out of the car, because I would probably never see it again. Then the tow truck took it away.

I was attached to that car. It carried a lot of memories. I miss it. Good-bye, car. Good-bye, old friend.

 

The Widow’s Mite

I wrote recently about my in-laws helping us with remodeling our bathroom. It’s not a terrifically expensive project – all told, it cost less than $1,000 since we did the work ourselves. However, some of the people I asked for help couldn’t, and that got me thinking about how we help each other.

I remembered the story of the widow’s mite. We each give according to what we can. The value of our gift is not in relation to other gifts, but rather in what we can afford. If you have two pennies and give one to a panhandler, you’ve give half of what you have. If you have a million dollars and give a homeless person $5, you’ve given hardly anything.

I realized that we can all help each other, and that even the smallest support is meaningful.I confess that there have been times when I haven’t offered to help a friend or family member, because I thought I couldn’t help very much. I was wrong. Whether I have the skill or resources or I don’t, I can do something, and I should. Imagine if we all thought that way about our friends, family, and neighbors.

Review: The Men Who Stare at Goats

The Men Who Stare at Goats is a movie starring George Clooney and Ewan McGregor. I was intrigued because it seemed to offer a comedic take the US Government’s old MK Ultra program.

Synopsis

Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) gets divorced on the eve of the invasion of Iraq. Feeling lost, he decides to go to Iraq as a journalist and try to find a big story, and a big adventure. Once there, he stumbles into Lyn Cassady (George Clooney). Bob knows Lyn’s name because of an interview he did before his divorce with a man who claimed to have been a psychic warrior in the Army. Lyn is headed into Iraq as a contractor, and Bob argues his way into going along. He wants to find a big story, and quickly realizes that his story, and his adventure, are wrapped up with Lyn.

Response

The story is pretty tired – it’s about a young man who’s always defined himself by how others think of him, and who in the course of the movie’s events finds an independent identity. The good news is, that frees you up to watch the performances, which are uniformly good. Kevin Spacey plays a devious villain with relish. Jeff Bridges plays a career Army officer turned shaman, which is a bit like getting R. Lee Ermey to play The Dude. The movie briefly references MK Ultra in passing, but its New Earth Army is clearly its own conceit. It’s less a wacky comedy than it is a wistful sort of bildungsroman (technically a künstlerroman).

Overall, I liked it, which is unusual for me when the movie and its marketing campaign are so different.

My Birthday Gift

Monday was my birthday. One of the things I wanted was to repair and refurbish our bathroom. We’d had some water damage to the dry wall, and I wanted to fix it. My in-laws, specifically my father-in-law, offered to buy what we needed and to teach me what I needed to know. We spent the weekend on the project.

My father-in-law, clearing the last of the tile.

You can see one of the water damage spots here.

A sink-full of tile that we managed to remove without chipping or cracking.

The back wall of the tub, with the dry wall removed.

Back corner, with dry wall removed (that’s dirty insulation on the left).

The front corner, dry wall removed. This took several hours to do.

Front corner, new “green” wall in place.

Back corner, with new wall and spackle.

Front corner, new “green” wall in place.

Back corner, with the new surround in place.

Front wall, new surround in place.

I’ll publish pictures of the finished product, which we’re going to complete when my wife is available to help with color and material choices.

A Day for Remembering

On November 11th, the United States “celebrates” Veterans Day. We normally remember it with big retail sales. As a veteran, that seems a shame to me.

Veterans Day, or Remembrance Day, or Armistice Day, depending on where you live, commemorates the armistice at the end of WWI in 1918 (as opposed to the Treaty of Versailles, which wasn’t signed until June 28, 1919). It’s intended to commemorate our survivors, those who lived through their wars. I’m historian enough to know that American troops continued to fight on Russian soil against the revolutionaries until July, 1919; and that the Allies didn’t sign a formal peace treaty with the Ottoman Empire until 1923.

Memorial Day is also “celebrated” in the US, albeit in May. Memorial Day was originally instituted to commemorate those who lost their lives in the US Civil War, but was expanded to include WWI.

If you want to stick with the real meaning of the day, contact your local Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) post or American Legion hall. Ask them about observances. Some states, like California, will waive entry fees to national parks and forests on Veterans Day, so visit one. If you see someone wearing a red poppy, say “thank you.” Check the news for any national moment of silence, and observe that.

Personally, I’ll try to find time to watch Kelly’s Heroes, The Longest Day, and The Big Red One – three of my favorites.