Still on the Edge in Sumas

Graffiti Mystery--Found written in snow this morning on the sidewalk in front:

There's another one with "Love you" inside a heart. Mark denies writing them. Besides, its not really his style. Hmmm.

Nothing happened this week. Except,

Last Monday the power went out a little after noon leaving me with no capability to continue work so I let Mark drive me into B'ham where we picked up a used P4 XP desktop. Power returned about 10 hours later.

Tuesday I worked a bit then drove to the Seattle office and plotted drawings for 4 hours then had dinner prepared by Randy--he's always so nice to me...tacos and spinach salad and brownies, oh my.

Wednesday was a tedious office meeting in which I realized that apparently work on the Hanson project is going to go on forever. We are like mice trying to devour a piece of cheese the size of a battleship. Then I went to Goodwill outlet, then a festive potluck at the "house on the hill" with 30 people or so (hiya Betty, Rick, Jeff, Lyle, Arthur, Ford, Carl, Phil and...) then I returned to the great north. Mark had already ran off to Vanc for his own work stuff.

Thursday woke at 4am; I worked all day, and then decided that a couple more xmas cards were in order. Then I layed about 70 feet of G scale track and played with my trains. Mark still in Vanc.

Friday woke at 4am; I tried charging old batteries and wondered about all the disposable batteries in the world. Our old beard trimmer has a battery inside that says, "Must be recycled or disposed of properly". Of course there's no hint on what they mean by 'properly' nor have I ever heard of battery recyling centers. Perhaps in The Netherlands--my new 12 pack of Energizer batteries contains a little icon warning not to throw the batteries in a landfill, "Batterij niet weggooien, maar inleveren als JCA." Meanwhile the batteries I bought on-line from Ebay for the old EnerTek vacuum robot won't hold a charge. I'm beginning to think that batteries are some form of incidious life form bent on taking over by very gradually poisoning us. Then I started thinking about how to build a scene on the back of the van to reflect some sort of subdued environmental doomsday. Featuring hoses turning into snakes, orange cone as hat, and batteries half submerged in a swampy goo of petroleum and industrial waste, maybe a rat skeleton--all situated to fool the casual driver that its just another contractor's maintenance truck. What would be really cool is if I could bring it to life.

Mark's in Boston Bar where there's 4 feet of SNOW.

Saturday was cawfee w/the usual suspects (minus Kevin?!) and a pleasant surprise when Mugwort popped in. Lots of talk about making Western Washington a better place for transit and also about goings on from Wolf Creek--permaculture is the word. Then a call from Mentor in Vanc. Then a trip to Hardware Sales where life is always ultra-butch yet friendly...met one of the owners and lots of the staff--pretty nice bunch all going on about the police car (pardon me, the Apocolypticop...someday I have to fix the spelling). And then a visit to Ted at St Joe's Hospital, now with both legs amputated but thanks to the painkillers seems to be holding up. Diabetes. Then a 75+ mph ride home with Death Cab for Cutie and my eyes were dry almost the entire way.

Sunday bed at 2am I got up and wrote this. Seems like I'm not even thinking bout xmas but I'm still freaking over all the shit going on. Christmas for me is so low maint...but I'm very aware that I have nothing yet for Laurel's kid. When you're six, I think xmas matters. What to do? Whoretense loves you.