jonesin'

OPPORTUNITY?

AN UNTRAVELED ROAD CAN SOMETIMES LEAD YOU TO UNEXPECTED PLACES.......

I THINK ITS TIME TO GET THE CAMPER LOADED UP AND HIT THE ROAD.....WE ARE JONESIN' FOR SOME ADVENTURE!

ocean city snow

Interesting work day friday. I dont know the umber of continuous days I have been working, but I think it hit me on Friday that it had been too many. Things were not flowing for me and I was struggling to make good progress. I said to Andy, "man we should go camping, just load up and go." We both agreed that it would be nice and went back to work. I continued to day dream about some great adventure for the better part of the day. Later that day about 2 pm Heather and the kids came around on their walk to visit with their dad and Andy asked, "Do you guys want to g o to Ocean City?" The reply was a resounding yes from all parties. I dropped my shovel and exited the trench and called Hollie to inform her of the new plans. And that was that. I spent the rest of the day getting ready for departure........
Hadden testing the water proofness of his boots

HARMONY flashing a goofy smile

The Vanagon and whatever you call our setup
oh, it snowed

The weather spaced itself out perfectly for us to have a fire and hang out

And to run around on the beach. Poor foxy had to stay on leash, she is injured.
Its a bit strange too that you can drive your car on the beach at high speeds...knuckleheads abound!

The Galley in the vanagon was in full flight

Of course....

That is one nice setup those Sorters have

Everyone took there turn wearing the vacation glasses

washed up

UDO was bouncing off the walls off leash until the cars started coming. He is feeling much better and putting weight back on. I am stoked about that.

Proof the weather was god enough for a bon fire. Hadden prefers to slowly tan his marsh mellows, while Harmony goes for the quick burn method. Both techniques yielded killer smores.

It was a quick trip, and great to get away. It was just what we needed and really got my fire lit to get back out on the road again. I think Hollie and I will be hitting the road again this year for a long one....stay tuned.

pictures of progress

Okay, here are some of the new developments on our little project up here. The ditch. 2920' long, just about 10 football fields in length, its 3'+ wide and 3'+ deep, and its bedded with washed sand. That was a lot of work. Even with all the big equipment we have access to here, I used my John Deere 2210, a shovel and a rake for 75% of the work. The initial hole was dug with the Excavator, an amazing machine and fun to operate, but it doesnt leave a very clean hole...hence the shovel! So, the ditch is done and the 15000 volt cable and 2 transformers are in place. $22,000.00. WOW, the thing I dont get is we did all the work!!!????
So what else is going to go in that big utility ditch? Cable? NOPE! we called about putting in cable, even though there is no service out here and Comcast wanted $43,000.00 to drop their cable in the ground, plus the cable would have to be boosted every 400'. Scratch that. Phone? Nope! Qwest wants us to trench an additional 1000' all the way to 101st ave to tie into the main phone cable. their fee is much smaller, but there is now way we can go another 1000'. so it looks like we will be crossing our fingers for new technology.
Here is what we are thinking:
Dish for the television and internet. We currently use Wild Blue for SAT internet and it is less than stellar. Download is alright, but upload is turtle pace. this is where the rub is. VONAGE has a wireless VOIP phone, but our upload at this moment wont support the phones min. upload speed. So, we will have to rely on cell phones as our primary communications and its not great coverage either. So come on technology! if anyone has any ideas about our communication crunch let me know!
Below are some pics of our progress:


hollie chucking big rocks out of the ditch

andy on the backhoe

15000 volts.

brrrr......its cold

watering hole

end transformer

hadden pitchin' in

back filling the turn to the Remote temp power

voltage artery

we are well on our way.

Random post

ME AND MY FOX

I really just wanted to post this picture so that Matt Shriver could see how sweet foxy is. For some reason, Foxy wanted to eat Matt alive when he was out here. Sweet girl! Udo, my boy is not doing so well right now. He has lost a lot of weight and the vets are scratching their heads. I hope this blood test reveals something useful that we just had! Udo is 51lbs right now. He is usually 70lbs. all this weight loss happened since the 14th of December. SAD!

2008

Well, we brought in the 2008 with some .30-.06 's and some gasoline! Our new neighbors put on quit a show. The xmas tree goes out in this show too. Lee and Christeen, and their 2 children are really nice folks and I thank them for having us over for the show. We had a good time out there! Tradition? you bet, they do it every year.

I CANT BELIEVE MY EYES!

yup, that is a building permit. I finally got one. I dont even know what to do now! Well, I kind of do. First thing is to button up the utility trench and get the power and phone buried. Then hope for 24 dry hours to put in the foundation. Then Septic tank, then frame the walls, second floor joists, frame more walls, ceiling joists, roof stuff, electrical, plumbing, finishing, move in.
how does that sound. I am shooting for April.

C&H

That is Hollie and I at lake Tapps doing our usual xmas day stuff. Its nice, hang out with a big family and do nothing all day. perhaps drive some golf balls off the dock in to the lake, but not much more.!
Well, that is about it for now. I will try to get some trench pics up. If you have been following this blog then you know I have a previous trench post...well, this one is going to make the first trench look silly. thats right silly. 2917ft silly, 3+' x 3+' silly.

Kansas City cold and pretty

When frozen mud thaws, it gets muddy

The conditions were constantly changing all day everyday. Frozen ruts to greasy mud to frozen ruts. Saturday it even decided to snow all day and get windy. Blustery! Good thing Jim Brown was a coast guard guy, tough as nails when it comes to weather. Anyway, the kids seemed to go about things normally and test tires and lines. They all seemed to prepare quite well and raced their rears off. The RAD Army that went out to Kansas brought home a stack of medals and a couple stars and bars jerseys. Cool.

Coach Chris gluing on some KILLER Challenge Grifos up

Those Grifos were the tire. Watching Benny rail those meats around the slopfest course was quite impressive...I am pretty sure that is what Andrea Caseblot was on too! Well, for me the season is over. I learned a lot about these kids, myself too and came out of the season inspired. Not only inspired but my bowling improved a ton as well. So for now I will stay glued to the internet waiting for results from Belgium, willing the success' those kids deserve.

Thurston County, Washington. Sucking since 1852

I would like to say that the Thurston County Development Services, Plans Examiners suck. What a bunch of turds. I would bet a lot of money the guy I am dealing with got his ass kicked on a daily basis before he entered the county bubble of protection. This guy is basically refusing to permit my building plans. why? "because" well thats helpful. Today I almost came unglued. I came in with the extra requirements he handed me at my last attempt...more engineering and details. (the plans are a canned plan that have been built numerous times and rubber stamped by this county!!!) Now all of a sudden this uneducated guy is over ruling structural engineers???
Anyway, i come in with what he asked for and he starts grumbling at me about where is this and where is that...and I say, I dont know, I just picked up the plans and handed them to you.
he replies: You have had way more time to look at this than I have!
I reply: You are the first to look at it, whats missing?
He: grumble grumble grumble, the stairs are not engineered.
I: Whats this letter from the engineer for," All revisions to this project have been reviewed and I certify with my stamp."
HE: Thats not good enough!
I: Why are you being so difficult?
He: I am not going to break state law for you!
I: Who asked you to break state law, I just am asking whats the problem with the engineered stairs?
He: Let me call the engineers...get this straightened out
I: Dont do anything outside the realm of your job!
He: What?
I: Hey pal, if you are going to give it, be prepared to get it right back. I dont need you to talk down to me or be combative and I sure as shit dont need you putting words in my mouth. If I had plans of non compliance I would not be in this god damn office applying for a permit. So what is it that you need for this project to be permitted?
He: Grumble grumble grumble.
I grabbed my plans and went to the front desk and asked for the head examiner. The gave me a card. Here is what the back says:

The Building Plan Review Section serves the public interest and fosters the general welfare of the people of Thurston County by promoting the safety of the built environment. We achieve this by:
PERFORMING competent, timely building plan review
Providing an educational resource for our customers in the building community and
Improving the quality and efficiency of our services.

WOW, I think they should evaluate that! "We Promise to be Condescending, Combative and guarantee to waste countless hours of your time to fill up our eight hour day." sounds more like it!

SHOOT ME NOW!

whats new???

FISHER TAKING A CLEAN ONE FROM ME

We just wrapped up the USGP of Cyclocross this past weekend down in Portland, Oregon. The course was the same as nationals in 2004, but the course was in much better shape...although the weather was horrendous. The Boys rode awesome. Steve won on saturday after being in the 2nd spot at almost every USGP race! So we were pleased as punch with that. Emsky rode really strong too and they both earned invites to the xmas cross camp in belgium. They will get to do 6-8 races in about 12 days over xmas vacation. eurocrosscamp.com check it out...donate! Also, Nick, our U23 guy earned a trip to the camp after a tough weekend. My bro from Durango came out too, Mr. Matt Shriver, mattshriver.com, He rocked on Saturday taking 11th and dnfed on Sunday, ahhhh cross racing! I must admit. It is getting harder and harder for me to be at the races without racing. Its killing me in fact...so, I joined the Hagens Berman Cycling team for next year. lets hope it turns out to be less than a total disaster! www.hagensbermancycling.com

Switching gears:
google the following: AMERO . WTF is Georgie trying to slide by us now????? Oh, black tar to the north, (thats canadian oil)and slave labor to the south (mexicans)...lets all be friends and for one union. GET FUCKED GEORGE!

Ron Paul. is he a quack? I dont know but he is the only one defending our constitution and not trying to rape it for their own financial good. He seems to be an honest politician, if that can exist, but will he win the bid to run for president? I doubt it, I wish someone with 2 real balls would get elected and put the whole bush administration in jail for crimes against humanity and take our country back. If you want your freedom back vote for Paul or even Kucinich, talk to your neighbors be civil and turn off CNN and Fox news. Use your brain and form an intelligent opinion. Check out Pauls stance on the IRS...it might freak you out. OPEN YOUR EYES PEOPLE

Sorry for the political banter but this country is going to hell in a hand basket. Stand up, vote, be heard and take your country back from the Neo / Theocons. Dont let fascism take our country by storm, because thats what is happening. The big corporations have stolen our government. I will probably get tazed for this blog but I believe in my right to free speech!

Google: Private military. yes like Blackwater...that is some scary shit. Now when the executive branch cant get the congressional nod to unleash the war machine, they just put out a contract and hire the private sector military. WHAT????? impeach those bastards! Bill got canned for getting a blow job. W and Dick are wrecking our country and violating all the laws that make our country what it is. ACCOUNTABILITY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hold those turds responsible

alright, that is enough for now...I am out.