Tag Archives: Life

Things that are part of common experience etc.

Tick Tock Tick Tock

Tick Tock goes the body clock.  The way its supposed to work is, u have a schedule, your biology adapts to that schedule.  After a while u don’t need an alarm clock.  u sleep and wake up, look over at the clock and its like 5 min before the alarm goes off.

(insert normal daily routine, fast forward to bedtime)

Now at your normal time your body (brain) naturally takes a chill pill and drops out of impulse drive (u spent your day at various numbers of warp drive!) and sleep happens without much effort.  The thing is so effective that if u stay up past your “normal bedtime” u may fall asleep almost on your feet. without wanting to. yawn.

Now lets take a visit to my sick and twisted schedule.  First there’s the days of work:  2 on, 2 off, 3 on, 2 off, 2 on, 3 off. repeat.  btw 12 hour shifts.  add a good sized dose of commute, 60 minutes.  top off with night shift, 6 pm to 6 am.  So basically the days i work i have a 14 hour plus work commitment. Overnight.  now i don’t mind the overnight thing, my ‘natural’ awake time.

and i have sort of adapted to it. but there r complications.  like i like to sleep with my wife when on my days off.  so i try to just nap when i get home around 7am after my work instead of ‘regular sleep’. just a few hours on the couch and then theoretically when we go to bed i sleep at night instead of work at night.  Sometimes it works.

and other times my body just naps and i wake up at say 12:35 am and the body is telling me – “hey why r u in bed, its the middle of the day?”  I can force it back to sleep by staying in bed until boredom shuts off the mind, but that can take hours and i risk waking up my lovely normal schedule wife with my tossing around.

so usually i get up, and now i can blog in the wee hours when in theory i should b sawing virtual wood.  zzzzzzzzzz  zzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzz

this may b shaving years off my life.  really hope not.

p.s.  –  I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS SORT OF SCHEDULE TO ANYONE

thanks for listening, i feel a little better.

 

Seasonal Disorders

I’m sure you have heard stories about people stuck in a small cabin and snowed in for the entire winter.  Tensions rise, emotions take over and then the descent into insanity.  Well not always but the stories are there.  This location i live in is not prone to such maladies, but we truly had a lousy winter from my perspective.  The perspective of having a 60 minute commute and a snowy winter.  And what seemed excessive cold.

So it is with great enthusiasm that i greet my favorite seasonal emotional period:

SPRING FEVER!!!!!

I feel very happy and know it is also infecting the local population as well by the audio signals – you can hear the motorcycles and hot rods cruising as the driver winds up the engine and gets that wind in your hair sensation.  Although in this state the helmet is decreed by law.  That’s another subject.  For now – HAPPY SPRING!  YAHOO!

 

Game Farm 04

Look at these cute cubs.  The do grow up to at least 350 lbs and like to ravage trash cans when they can.  While still bears and a dangerous animal they are small compared to the grizz or polar varieties.  At this age they are just cute.

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Sometimes i feel like him and just want to nap in the sun.

 

May Flowers 08

These are not part of the group from the park.  This shows the flowers from a rhododendron pjm in my yard.  The thing is beautiful in bloom.  Only thing is the flowers drop too soon.  Guess maybe becuz its a hybrid.

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Remember:  A thing of beauty is a joy forever.

 

Tech / Sport

Credit where credit is due dept:  this is not my idea. Originally from a woman at my church, my wife taught Sunday School with her for a number of years. So Connie, i herby give u credit for noticing and describing the principle. I have decided its time to lay it out for the world to see and acknowledge, to name it and “scale” it, so those inclined may find themselves a spot in it.

The idea is this: us menfolk tend towards either technical skills and preferences, or sports skills and preferences.  By sports i mean a physical, coordination requiring activity such as, but not limited to: football, basketball, tennis, hockey. Etc.

So here’s my “Tech – Sport continium”. The center of the scale is M – for median. This would b someone who is evenly divided technically / sports sense. (Not sure if there r actually any people out there that would fit this spot on the scale. Just in case we will assume there should b.) So now your engineer types might be T+8 or T+9, a hard core programmer geek a T+10. While your pro football and hockey players might be S+9 or S+10. It seems to me it is rare for most techs to b really into sports. This is where i place myself. I also see that many sports types might have trouble wiring a light switch. Thats ok. I can wire a house but u can’t depend on me to consistently catch a ball thrown my way or shoot a great swoosh and “snap the cords”.
Both types can b taught the other end of the continium. We r just talking about the internal gift the person carries.
I have tried not to b negative in any way. There is no zero just a theoretical medium. Both sides of the scale are positives. We need warriors and builders, coders and quarterbacks to make the world go round. Any thoughts?
 

 

 

WW Derby 03

This poor guy.  He capsized upstream out of our view.  but not too far away, he had probably gone at least 3 miles from the put in and done fairly well.  The people at the house u see actually went into the creek and retrieved his boat.  A little crazy, a companion had the boat fetcher by the collar so he wouldn’t wash away.  anyway our intrepid paddler walks down to where his boat was and decides he’s going to go on from there. Brave lad!

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Well he didn’t get too far.  maybe 10 feet and into it again.

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But he was unharmed, except perhaps his pride.  There is nothing to be ashamed of.  Another boat of his friends got dunked way upstream from there and the fiberglass hull was split open.  I talked with a race organizer when helping load up the broken boat.  This was maybe 2 hours after the official start of the race, and he said there were 35 boats unaccounted for at that point.  No news today of anyone hurt so that’s what is really important.

These guys (and some gals) are all far braver than i am.  i only do flat water paddling.  btw the water temp was somewhere in the 30s.  Yikees!!