Licensing Woes!

So I found out that my drivers license was suspended due to a couple unpaid speeding tickets. $575 later and I've got my license reinstated. It's really my fault for ignoring the tickets, however I was really pissed when I found that one of the tickets jumped $150 in price. I had originally appeared in court to fight this ticket and had it dropped down to $125. I didn't have the money at the time to pay the ticket, and soon after forgot about it entirely, especially after 2 years had gone by and I hadn't heard a single word about it. And they didn't take actions to get my WA license suspended either. However since then it's gone to collections, and I found that if they have to do that, it's automatically bumped back to it's max value. Guess that's the price I have to pay for neglecting it. Tonight I have more running around to do. I have to run down to the Oregon DMV (Dept of Motor Vehicles) to pay a $75 license reinstatement fee, and then back up to Washington to get things handled here. I'm not worried about the WA fess, because my license was going to expire at the end of March anyway. Then I have to get the blazer registered and licensed. Fortunately the DOL (Dept of Licensing) is in the same building as the DMV. Man am I glad I have tomorrow off, I'll finally have some time to play around with the blazer. Maybe visit some pull-it yards to do some finishing work on the blazer?

New Rig

It's been too long since I've had my own transportation. Last year after my old neon failed to pass DEQ testing, I garaged it and have been in the process of overhauling it. Since then Darci and I've settled into being a one car household. And even though it's been difficult at times to coordinate we've managed. I've finally getting close to finishing the Neon, however I won't be able to paint it till this spring/summer when the temperatures rise. So in the mean time I've been on a search to find myself a decent quality older truck. The search ended this last Saturday. With the help of Heath's extensive Chevy/S-Series knowledge I found and purchased a 1989 Chevrolet S-10 Blazer Tahoe. This small rig is in fair condition inside & out, with only a handful of cosmetic fixes needed. We got things started off right by installing a new thermostat, new coolant, wiper blades, headlights, and a ton of misc lights on the vehicle. I've very excited about this new addition. It's a perfect fit for my needs at the moment. I wanted something in decent mechanical order, with four wheel drive, towing package, room for the family (x3), and a roof rack for bikes/boards/etc. All the needs are met. This is also going to help give us more independence. It's been nice sharing one car with Darci, but there have been times we've had conflicting schedules and that's when the coordination has become difficult. Either one of us has to go far out of the way for the other, or one is left stuck at home. So this will got a long way to helping our sanity. This is also going to help me with my workouts. It's been impossible for me to get the gym before/after work when we're sharing one car. So now that I'll be driving myself to work I'll have plenty of flexibility to get my workouts back on track. And with the extra capacity of the Blazer it'll be a whole lot easier to load up for camping, snowboarding, etc. Darci and I are planning to buy some Mt. bikes so we can start doing more physical activities in our spare time. I'd also like to work my way up to riding to work occasionally. Anyhow the blazer will help us transport these bikes around better then the Jetta will. So all around I've very excited about the "new" blazer!!

Site Problems

The website froze up yesterday afternoon. At first I thought it was some issue with my database, but turns out that it was a never ending loop in my blog code. The logic I had built in to create article summaries wasn't able to handle short articles that didn't require a summary. So when I added the entry discussing Johari & Nohari windows the code went into a never ending loop and eventually timed out. I've since fixed the code and it's working now. I know this isn't the last time I'll run into holes in my code as I never tested it thoroughly, but that's okay it's a work in progress and it's evolving daily. I'd put more effort into making it rock solid if this was to be used on a more professional site. Anyhow if anyone notices any problems with the site's functionality please let me know, thanks!

Personality Model Mapping (Johari & Nohari)

While reading a friends blog, I found out about the Johari Window, which maps good personality qualities. Inversely there is also a Nohari Window, which maps bad qualities. Seems interesting, so I created one of each for myself. If you know me personally please take a min and contribute: Johari & Nohari.

Yappy Neighbor Dogs

I'm about ready to tear into my new neighbors. They moved in about 6 months ago and brought their yappy little dogs. Which for some reason they banish to the backyard for extended periods of time, during which all the dogs do is bark/howl/cry until they are let back in. Or if it's day time they start barking matches with dogs in other yards. All the other neighbors have been very respectable regarding their animals, and they bring them inside promptly after hearing their dog(s) bark. These people have got to be deaf because it goes on for hours. I can hear these dogs over my TV in my sunken basement and I'm a lot farther away then they are. The part that really annoys me is these people put the dogs outside late at night and early in the morning. I've even been woken up a few times in the middle of the night (2am-4am) due to their dogs barking. You'd think these people would have a hard time sleeping too and finally get up to let them in, but NO! it's goes on for hours. Last night really pissed me off. I was already having a hard time sleeping, and then when I finally got to sleep I wake up to these dogs again! And it's not just me, my good friends next door have also complained about them. Brandon even suggested we split the cost of a nice air soft rifle. It's really gone on for way too long. At this point these people are either completely ignorant or just a bunch of assholes!

I took some time to read up online about the problem and what the proper legal course of action is. I found the proper course of action as outlined by the city municipal code. I'm going to follow it and get this resolved. I'm starting off by writing a nice letter explaining the problem and asking them to please resolve it. If that doesn't work, then hell with them. I'll get Animal Control over there to talk to them, and if necessary I'll get a petition from all the surrounding neighbors and get the police involved. Should be interesting to see how all this plays out. Stay tuned.

Dental Surgery

Today was the most stressful/emotional day as a parent I've ever had. We found out a few months back that Logan has a lot cavities. This is a culmination of Logan having weak teeth that are highly susceptible to cavities and his mother and her family giving him too many sweets. So instead of putting Logan through the stress of multiple dental appointments to fix the cavities under local anesthetic (Novocain), we opted to have them all fixed at once under general anesthesia at the hospital. I've never had surgery myself or seen the direct effects of someone who has. So I had no idea what it would be like. I just assumed that it would be an easy process of putting Logan to sleep, and when it was all over he'd wake up just as normal as before the procedure (maybe a little sore or confused).

However it was completely different. We went into the hospital at 7am, checked in, and were admitted to a pre-surgery room. We talked with a few nurses, the anesthesiologist, and our dentist before hand. With each conversation we were getting more concerned. There was talk about having to insert a breathing tube into his throat via his nostril, he would throw up some blood, and that he would be dazed and confused for the remainder of the day. Then came time to give Logan some calm nerving medicine. I knew it was going to be hard to get him to drink it because it's nearly impossible to get him to take any medicine that tastes bad, especially without any water (he had to have an empty stomach). He drank half of it, but we ended up having to force feed the last bit. He was extremely mad at us, but that soon faded as the medicine induces a drunk like state. This is to calm his nerves before surgery so he's okay with leaving us. I must admit it was pretty comical to see him in this state. He acted like a real drunk, slurring his words, making jokes and funny voices, etc. He had all of us in tears of laughter. Pretty soon we laid him down on the bed by himself as he was getting pretty sleepy. Soon they took him off to surgery, we were all pretty emotional seeing him wheeled away.

We were told the procedure would take some time, approx 30 mins for the anesthesiologist before and 30 mins after, with the dental work taking approx 2-3 hrs. We waiting impatiently in the surgery waiting room which seemed like forever. I must have checked my cell phone clock a million times. Four hours later we got to see him in a recovery room. It was very emotional to see Logan lying there all wired up (heart monitor clip on one hard, IV in the other, and an oxygen mask on). He was sleeping off the drugs, snoring loudly. We looked him over making sure he was okay. We noticing his lips were swollen from all the dental work and local anesthetic, and nose a little bloody from the breath tube. It was hard to see him like this, especially when he woke up crying due to being very confused and feeling sick. He threw up a couple times (a little bit of blood that he swallowed during the procedure). He'd wake up for a couple mins and then pass out again. The nurse explained it was normal as he was wearing out the drugs. Eventually he became more alert and was able to drink some water. We waiting a while till he was more conscious and then got him dressed and went home. He slept on the ride home and about another hour when we got there. Eventually he woke up and we were able to feed him some soft foods like pudding, yogurt, and ice cream. And soon he was back to his old self.

Needless to say I don't ever want to go through this again. It was very hard to do, for everyone involved. So we'll have to make sure to keep on top of his sweet intake and dental care.

Death

The last couple weeks have been pretty hard on my family. On January 21st my Step-Uncle John Hill died unexpectedly from heart failure. This was after he was life flighted from McMinnville, OR to Providence Medical Center in Portland, OR the day before after a heart attack and an emergency double bypass open heart operation. While I wasn't really close to John I am very close with my aunt Ann (his wife) and my cousins Heath and Angela (Ann's children). As most of you know Heath and I are very close, almost like brothers at times. It's been very emotionally draining for them as a family, and I'm trying my best to be there for them. John's funeral services were held on January 27th @ Skyline Cemetery.

If that wasn't enough, my girl-friend Darci's grandfather Tom Hayes passed away on February 2nd. We got a frantic call that night from her sister Amber who had found him dead and tried everything in her power to rescue him. We drove down to Salem, OR immediately to be there with our family. The situation was emotional enough, but we had to wait for two hours before the coroner showed up to retrieve the body. It's very emotional for the family, especially Amber as she grew up living with her Grandpa. Tom's funeral services were held on February 7th @ City View Cemetery.

On top of all that I've had to address and explain the issue of death to my son. I brought him along to both funeral services as I believe it's time he learns about all of this. Naturally he had lots of questions and concerns. I didn't know exactly how to go about explaining it all to him, especially since he's being raised in a split religion house hold. His grandma has already explained Heaven to Logan when their cat died. And while my beliefs don't exactly agree with traditional Christian beliefs of heaven, I chose not to confuse Logan with religious doctrine and to just use the generic heaven answer. He seemed to understand most of what I said, but had a hard time understanding how death effects the body.

At the second funeral he was more curious to see the actual corpse in the casket. I let him make the decision if he wanted to or not, and after 45 min at the viewing he decided he did want to see. I didn't bring him too close about 15 feet away and he sort of peeked a few times. He didn't understand that the man was dead, and that meant he wasn't going to move, breath, or even think. I tried to explain the principals of a soul & body to him. A soul being the voice in his head that he talks to himself with, like when he's thinking of what to say, or when he's looking at a picture. I could tell in the end that he was getting it, but still had some confusion. From some reading I've done this is normal for his age, and he won't fully understand death as a permanent state until he's a bit older. For now I left the topic be, and will likely have to talk with him more down the road. Anyone else go through this recently?

Superbowl XL

Sunday we had a great party for the Superbowl at my place. Lot of friends/family, good food, plenty of drinks. I didn't get to watch every minute of the big game due to playing host to everyone, so I can't accurately judge the Seahawks performance. It sucks that they lost, but I'm happy they at least made it to the big game. That's enough to regroup the fans and get more support behind the team. Hopefully it won't be too long before they have another chance. And somehow I won $25 at my office football pool. I'm not entirely sure how I won, but I'm not going to complain. I just made 5 times my money!! I didn't get a chance to see all the commercials this year, but I did watch them on google video. My favorite's are:

• Full Throttle (Let Your Man Out)
• Vault (Scarecrow)
• Burger King (whopperettes)

The worst commercial has got to be Scotts Tissue (Mike Ditka). Plus it's 90 sec instead of the usual 30 sec commercials. So they must have paid a ton of moola for that spot. There's also a lot of buzz about how Go Daddy.com had a lot of trouble clearing their commercial for airing. Read more about it and see a time line of their efforts here.