Bad Habits

I've been a baaaad boy the last couple days. I rarely go out to eat but I have the last 2 days in a row...and it was worth it both times! Last night I walked back down to Wally's again to try their clam chowder....I wasn't disappointed! I finally feel vindicated after my trip to Maine a couple years back where I went out to eat seafood twice and it wasn't very good either time. Even though I was only about 5 miles from the coast at that time I don't think any of it was fresh. The stuff at Wally's though is fantastic and it's easy to see why people get so worked up about seafood.

This morning I got up and walked to the local farmers market to pick up some vegetables. Now if I can just keep myself out of Wally's for a few days I'll get back to saving money and making my own food.

SOLD!!

Yesterday morning I got a call from Edith saying the financing had come through on the person who made an offer on my house so unless sometime unexpected happens my house will be sold and closed on in about a week. Yippee!! It feels great not to have to worry about it anymore. The extra money from the sale will be welcome too but pretty much all of it will probably be going into a CD so I won't get to enjoy it all that much (at least not now anyway). Many thanks to Mike, Edith and Lyle for showing the house and getting it sold. I also owe my mom a huge thank you for getting the house cleaned up and ready to sell after I left. I was just going to leave it as is and sell it really cheap because I didn't have the time but she got it all prettied up for me. I know it was a lot of work and took a lot of time.

To celebrate last night I decided to go out to eat. Tim and Katherine (the people I'm staying with) are out of town on a mini vacation for a few days so I was on my own. When I got to the house I found a half bottle of wine on the counter so I sat down to relax and finished that off before walking down to Wally's for what I was told was the best fish and chips around. Growing up in the midwest I'd never had fish and chips before so I was pretty excited. I got a mix of cod and halibut so I could try them both along with another glass of wine. Now, I don't have anything to use as a comparison but I can't imagine fish and chips getting much better then this. Oh, the things I've missed in my sheltered existence! I've heard great things about their clam chowder too so I'll have to go back and see if it's all its cracked up to be as well.

That blows

Things are going well here in Tacoma. After sleeping in the Nature Center parking lot for a couple nights I met up with friends of Sarah's last night, Katherine and Tim, who will be giving me a place to live for the next couple weeks. So far we're getting along just dandy and I think it's going to be a fun time. Work is going well too and I had most of the day off today to explore downtown Tacoma a little.

It was raining and dreary when I woke up this morning and it continued as such until a little after lunch. But hey, this is the PNW so I just went with the flow. I put on my hat and rain jacket and took a stroll. I found an old camera shop downtown to poke around in for a while but managed not to spend any money there. I continued walking and checked out the Museum of Washington History as well as the Glass Museum. The Glass Museum was mostly dedicated to blown glass and it was an impressive site. They have a working shop in the museum that apparently goes about non stop. They have seating set up around it and have turned it into a spectator sport of sorts. It's amazing how easy they make it all look, though I'm sure it's incredibly difficult. I got to watch for about 20 minutes or so until they took their lunch break. Their was also a “Bridge of Glass” that had tons of blown glass art placed it in, both over head and set up on “shelves” behind glass. All arranged to they would be backlit by the sun (clouds in my case). I'll have to make it back there on a sunny day.

After succumbing to hunger I made my way back to the shop to make myself a turkey sandwich. I thought of eating out but I've already done that a little too much recently, but it's been good stuff so that makes it worth it. Next stop was the post office to send some stuff back home and now I'm sitting in a library catching up on some things. Sitting here in the library I don't know what's more annoying; hearing little kids who can't talk without yelling or the parents constantly 'Shhhing' them. I think it's the parents.

I've heard from back home that it's been a very hot and dry summer and that everyone was hoping for some rain. Well, the other day they got it with a strong thunderstorm that came through with 60-80 mph winds that flattened some of the surrounding corn fields. I don't think that's quite what everyone was hoping for. My mom sent me a picture she took as she walked out of work that evening just as the storm was approaching. I do love a good thunderstorm and that's one thing I'm missing about the midwest.







I've started a separate photo set on Flickr for my pictures from Tacoma. You can see them here. I'll be adding to it during my visit here.

Mmmmmmmm

Today was my first day at work in Tacoma and I think the best part about it was that the shop has a fridge and is right next to a grocery store. On my lunch break and I walked over and bought some groceries so I could make myself turkey sandwiches for lunch. Mmmmm, I love turkey sandwiches and it's been a few weeks since I've had one. It really hit the spot!

Belated 4th

I've been meaning to get this posted for a while but haven't taken the time to sit down and organize the pictures and video.

A few days before the 4th of July I found myself in Plain, Washington for a 4th of July iATN camp out at Albin's place. Every year a bunch of iATN members from around the world gather at Albin's place for some fun, learning, and relaxation.

I had a absolutely fantastic time at Albin's and am very happy I happened to be traveling through the area this summer. It was a great time, with great people, and great food!!

I can't thank everyone enough for making it happen. Not only to Alice and Albin for hosting this great event but to everyone else who chipped in to organize, cook, clean, and make everyone feel welcome. Thank you all.

Also thanks to Pat and Harvey Chan who invited everyone up to their house in Vancouver, BC for a few days after the celebration was over at Albin's. They were great hosts and showed us some great sites. Also big ups to Steve Brotherton's sister Leslie and her husband Trace for inviting all of us out for a day cruise aboard their yacht; it was a truly amazing experience.

I'd highly encourage any iATN members reading this to take the time and head out to Albin's place next year, I don't think you'll regret it. I'd write more about it but they're almost ready to kick me out of the cafe that I'm in at which point I won't have an internet connection.

For some more to the story and to view some pictures here's a link to a Flickr set from Albin's place. There is more information about the pictures in the description of each one. Below are a couple videos from launching Donald (you'll know what I'm talking about after looked at the pictures I linked to).

What's your Fantasy?

I've been a little behind in updating my travels but it will be coming soon. Internet connections and lots of free time to organize photos and write have been few and far between lately so I've just been doing small quick ones. A recap of my time on the Olympic Peninsula will be coming in a day or two as well as recapping the 4th of July festivities. But for today I have another short one.

A recent post on a forum I frequent got me thinking. The poster asked a simple question, “What's your fantasy job”. And not just a way out there fantasy (insert ridiculous fantasy here), but a realistic one that could actually be achieved.

My first thought after reading the question was that I already had it, but after thinking about it a little I realized that wasn't true. This is hardly a job and while it's currently what I want to be doing more then anything else I realize the desire to do this won't last forever. I actually don't have a fantasy job, something I came to understand a few years ago. It used to be that fixing cars was what I wanted to do more then anything, or at least something in the industry. I lived and breathed the electronics and computer systems in todays cars; spending almost all my spare time teaching myself, learning from others, and attending training classes around the country. In the end I spent too much of my spare time doing those things and I ended up being very burned out and started devoting my free time to other things that gave me pleasure. I thought after a little break my enthusiasm would be renewed, but it wasn't.

I thought of getting a new job in some other field and moving away from Estherville but when I thought about it I realized there wasn't anything else that I really had a burning desire to do either. I was reluctant to move somewhere just for the sake of moving so instead I decided to stay where I was and to prepare for something that might come along later. I should say now that it's not like I hated my job, just that I didn't have much enthusiasm for it anymore and I kind of missed that.

I started by taking much better care of my finances. I began saving money and not wasting it on needless things (this still didn't stop me from buying 3 kayaks last year) and I used any extra money I received to pay towards the principle on my house loan. I decided that when that “something” came along that I really wanted to do that I was going to be able to do it and not have anything holding me back. After taking a 2 week vacation to Arizona this spring in which I either camped, slept in the car, or stayed with friends I couldn't stop thinking of how much I'd like to do a lot more of that. I was back home for about 4 days when I decided that within a month I wanted to hit the road for an indefinite amount of time; and that's just what I did.

There were multiple reasons for the trip; the main one being purely for pleasure. I also thought that working at new shops and with new people along the way might re-spark my passion in the automotive field; and if that didn't happen I might stumble across some other field I wanted to get into. So far nothing concrete has turned up but there are a couple opportunities that have come up which could take me in a totally new direction and I'm giving them a very serious look. So far this little adventure of mine has been a lot easier then I expected and I really feel that my options are limitless. It's like looking out at a totally blank horizon and I can choose whatever path I want to get there. It's too soon to know what the conclusion will be or if I'll wind up even more lost then when I began, but I'm hopeful. I'm keeping my options open for anything that might come up and that's about all I can do for now.

So, are you currently living your fantasy life and working at your fantasy job? If you are then congratulations! If not then what are you doing to make that fantasy a reality? I'm starting to to think it's not as hard as everyone wants you to think it is.

NOTE: Here's another thought I had after posting this. Maybe we should be striving for a fantasy life rather then just a fantasy job. What's better, a fantasy job or just a regular job that allows you the freedom to live your life's fantasy? Maybe that's the real definition of a fantasy job?

Greatest hits

For anyone who's been faithfully following the blog you can skip over this post. It will be linked to on the right side of the page for people new to the blog who want to catch up on what's been happening without reading every single entry.

Listed below are links to some strategical postings which should get you up to speed in a hurry:

Howdy

Close Encounters of the Buffalo Kind

The High Hard One

Blowout

Cane you dig it?

Big City Blues

Back in the Groove

Partially Torn Acronyms

Of course there are many more things that have happened besides what is listed here but they should hit the high points good enough to catch you up. Please check out the archive list on the right hand side of the page to see all the posts listed by month (posts pertaining to my current trip start in May. February posts are previous little adventures that didn't actually happen in that month.