The Time, It Does Fly By

So, on the Book of Face today, there is a link to a news story out of Fort Lewis. It seems that a LTC Olsen is moving his reserve support battalion to Ft Hood for a year. It is a Reserve mobilization battalion, helps units or augmentees to prepare for deployments.

Okay, nice that we have such an organization. No, the story is that LTC Olsen was 2LT Olsen when we first met, in 1994 (?) at Engineer Officer Basic Course, Ft Leonard Wood, Missouri. That's right, Tom Olsen was in one of my first classes I taught as an instructor of Field Engineering, Camouflage, and Demolitions.

Twenty years. And he is potentially up for full Colonel soon.

My, they grow up so fast, huh?

Northwest Guardian Article

How Do They Do It?

I blame the Book of Face. It sucks up all my writing. It is tweeting without a hashtag.
How the heck do all those bloggers out there work the free ice cream machine so, apparently, well. I mean, I follow about a dozen daily blogs and deeply appreciate that the owners can update every day. Usually more than one entry.
Of course, some are aggregates, with nothing but links. Others are writers, putting up their own essays or commentaries.
I appreciate all of them.
Mayhap I can improve my mad-writing skills by trying a bit harder to get a post up more often.

Flurries of Yawns

So, 4 Feb. Big weekend here in Ketchikan.
Wearable Art Show, RE-INVENT, was Thursday through Saturday. Sold out every show, not even tickets at the door. I am constantly amazed at the depth of talent around here. There were some terrific outfits, some showing far more time and energy than others. Two grunge kids and chunks of guitar-shaped wood, I'm looking at you. Onward to next year, the theme for 2014 is Luminescence.

Super Bowl weekend. Meh. I just waited until Sunday night to look up the commercials. I really have gotten to the point of who cares who wins. I'm loving the fact that this one will go down into the books as the "Blackout" bowl. Thinking of the millions of dollars that went into the spectacle that is Super Bowl, and they blew a fuze? For thirty-four minutes? Superdome staff should be very worried as to who looses their jobs.

Today marks the first day of road closures at the Old Hospital demolition site. The building has been sagging into the muskeg across the street from us for years. Front facade is collapsing, held in place with chain-link retaining screens. Good luck on the city ever seeing a dime in reimbursements from the demolition.

The House Behind Us

The house behind us has been for sale for, oh, I don't know, maybe four years. It is a small, two bedroom house with some fairly major problems. You know, plumbing (surface laid water supply line), wiring (most of basement is strung with extension cords), water (backs into a hillside that then drains right into the unfloored basement), only one (maybe two) legal fire exits, the kitchen extension was built on a deck, black mold, tiny rooms, rotting front deck, rotting staircase from street level, undersized lot, and those are just the ones that you can see when you cursorily inspect the house.
What it does have is a great sunny location and off-street parking.
The owner and his family outgrew the available space and moved to Juneau. Most of the work that he had done while living here was done by non-bonded handymen, not contractors. An example: the front deck (we call it the aircraft carrier) is built of untreated lumber, with non-code joist spacing, perched on top of mortar pillars taller than code.. That is all the pillars contain, mortar. No aggregate, no reinforcing wire or bar, just cement and sand. You can kick them in half with a stout kick. One lick of paint on the boards and is it any wonder that the deck is already rotten, with holes in the decking after only four years?
We know what the owner paid for the house about seven years ago. We are also well aware of what he is asking now. I'm not sure even a skeevy landlord would purchase this place to rent out. There are plenty of folks who would rent it, but nothing would get fixed and the likely result would be further deterioration and higher rents.
Anyone who buys this place as an investment/rental property is going to maximize the rent, because the turnover will be horrendous. We have seen that already, with five renters in two years.
Make a great spot for a community garden though.

Where Do The Thoughts Go?

November 20th? Really? That is a pretty long time to not have any trivial drivel to write down or comment on.

Right now, working on the Wearable Art Show 2010 "On The Rocks" script. Lot of repetitive typing, working from the piece descriptions by the artists. It can be...rocky.

New haircut, or rather, loss. Just had Nicole give me a zero buzz cut. That and a beard trim. Looking kind of svelte. Then I look below my neck and that thought no longer holds true.

Left, Northern coast weather report: Rainy, complete cloud cover, gusty wind.