Click here for pictures of my bike ride through the tunnels.
Click here for pictures of my trip to Baraboo WI and the International Crane Foundation.
My time in WI is wrapping up, two four days til lift off!! Here is the itinerary for all of those inquiring minds. It is going to be a challenge wrapping up all the paperwork and saying goodbye to my new friends, but I am ready to be back and CA and can't wait to see my family and friends. Tomorrow I'll be attending the world famous Cran Fest! More pictures to come.
Last night I had "Friday Fish" with a co-worker and her husband and a friend. This is a WI /Midwest? tradition where all the restaurants serve their best fish on Fridays all you can eat style. Of course you only eat one serving as it is so big. At this particular restaurant the fish broiled or fried, is served on a slice of marble rye bread. I hate rye and asked the waitress to hold it, she replied, oh you don't really eat it, the bread soaks up the grease. This was said in a matter of fact tone as thought there were not a thing in the world wrong with needing something on the plate to soak up the grease.
Wed night: Chamberlain SD
Thurs night: Cody WY
Fri night: Salt Lake City UT
Sat night: Yosemite CA
Sun night: Paso Robles CA
Mon night: ***Please join us at Little McClintok's in AG for dinner at 6:30***
Mon-Thurs night: Arroyo Grande CA
Fri night: Hollywood
Sat night: Wicked at the Pantageous
Sun morning Aaron flies back to Ohio
Mon:relax and organize
Tues: orientation at UCLA
Wed: First day of work!!
Thurs: Work
Fri: Work
Sat: open studios SLO
Sun: Hang with Gramps and Gram!
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Saturday, September 13, 2008
17 days left
I knew my time in Wi would fly, but I had no idea how fast. I have to be out of my little nest at the B & B by Tues. the 23rd because the apartment was already rented for CranFest. I guess CranFest is this areas main event, I can't wait to see it. I will be staying with a college from the VA who happens to be good friends with Suzanne who runs the B&B. She manages the kitchen at the VA so I've gotten to know her pretty well. She has an extra room and her house is within walking distance from work. I will be staying with she and her husband for about a week before leaving on the cross country treck.
The itinerary for the trip is done! CLICK HERE FOR THE MAP
I'm planning to get into SLO on Monday night. For those of you I haven't told, I'm traveling with a friend from Ohio named Aaron. I'm bringing a real-live mid westrener back for show and tell.
In other news I finally get to start doing Modified Barium Swallow Studies!! I have been waiting since day for a memory chip to make the system run, yes a memory chip that I could have bought at Walmart, just waiting for the buracratic paperwork to go through. I'm doing two a day until I leave to try and make up for the back log.
Here are some pictures from the beautiful Wisconsin country side, the leaves are already starting to change!
The itinerary for the trip is done! CLICK HERE FOR THE MAP
I'm planning to get into SLO on Monday night. For those of you I haven't told, I'm traveling with a friend from Ohio named Aaron. I'm bringing a real-live mid westrener back for show and tell.
In other news I finally get to start doing Modified Barium Swallow Studies!! I have been waiting since day for a memory chip to make the system run, yes a memory chip that I could have bought at Walmart, just waiting for the buracratic paperwork to go through. I'm doing two a day until I leave to try and make up for the back log.
Here are some pictures from the beautiful Wisconsin country side, the leaves are already starting to change!
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| From Beautiful Wi Fall day |
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| From Beautiful Wi Fall day |
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Jumping in to the political fray
First of all, although the candidates would like you to believe otherwise, it has been shown over the past eight years that it is not the president who makes most of the decisions, but his advisers, and if they don't make the decisions they strongly influence them. This is of utmost relevance because we are not asked to elect one man, but rather one man plus a whole bunch of people we can only guess at now. The people who will be the face of our country on a daily basis around the world, shaping policy for health care and education: they are unknowns.
Second, I will admit I am not really going to do a ton of research about the candidates for this election, they are both flawed. Neither is exactly what this county needs, and neither will solve all that ails us. Rather I am using logic, psychology, communication and reason to choose who I will vote for. The media is all spin, from the spin one must pick the solid facts and make their own conclusions. So here we go.
On the topic of McCain's VP: Ms. Palin made a choice to have children, that was her choice, with that choice comes responsibility, the responsibility to raise those children to the best of her ability. Just 15 months ago she made a choice, to get pregnant with her FIFTH child. A child who is still in the bonding stage, foundational to all further development. A child with special needs, a child who will require exponentially more stimulation, attention and care to thrive and meet his full potential than a typical child of the same age. Yes, she has a husband but even if he is super dad, he cannot do it all, and outside help is not sufficient to replace a mother. Coming from the party of "family values" I would think Sarah Palin would understand better than her democratic counterparts, when you choose to have a baby, you choose to put your baby first, even when your baby is 17 and about to have a baby of her own. You take care of your family, even if it means sacrificing your political ambition. Am I judging? Yes you bet I am. Do I have all the facts? No, but it is obvious campaigning to be second in command is not compatible with the hours of support and love a special needs baby and a pregnant teenager not to mention three other children require. Yes you can be a mom and have a very successful career, but the day you get pregnant you make a choice, your family comes first. The message this sends to children breaks my heart..."Mommy loves me, but not as much as she loves her job". It will take a lot of counseling to undo that one.
This is the choice John McCain made for his running mate. A strategic attempt to balance the ticket, if Obama had picked a woman he would have picked a minority. John McCain has been part of the political landscape for the past 25 years, he is entrenched! The people you associate with are the people you know best, so it stands to reason the people he will have in his white house will be part of the political establishment as well. The political establishment has not been good for this country, I could go on and on about this, but for now I will only state, health care, education, the economy, forgien relations and the war, even McCain in his TV ads admits we are worse off than four years ago.
Unfortunately, I do not believe the Democrats have all the answers, I think less government intervention would be a good thing, capitalism can be used to solve social problems, but we are not there yet. Barack Obama has consistently demonstrated throughout his career that he is capable of thinking outside the box that is politics as usual. I read his biographies, the first written before his foray into politics. He has lived and struggled in the real world! A world where people daily struggle to make ends meet. He was not always popular, not always, the hero. He is a man who can bring together people from all walks of life and get the job done. No you won't get your stimulus check in the mail... did you ever stop to think how that was possible while we are fighting a billion dollar a day war...or why someone making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year needs a stimulus check? and yes those of you making $100,000 a year are going to have to start paying your fair share of taxes. Our country is at war, our young men and women are dying, daily and this country has not sacrificed at all. Gas prices go up but we still drive 80 mph to work on the freeways, we hear the body count on the evening news but it doesn't register. If it did we would not tolerate a candidate who did not have a time table for withdrawal. Our country enmeshed itself in a country with a history of sectarian violence and perpetual civil war, for oil, for power and money. If you think this war has anything to do with the Iraqi people or democracy or liberation you are sorely deceived. To see what this war is really doing please watch this documentary
We watched it at work and I almost started to cry right there in the staff meeting. These soldiers are returning home and perpetuating the cycle of hurt and violence they observed, it is effecting their families, communities and friends, their ability to obtain meaningful employment and complete their educations. So they sit and smoke outside the VA with men twice their age, refuse from a similar conflict, left behind, as one vet told me after finally getting clean "I'm thirty years behind the rest of the world and still can't remember what I had for breakfast this morning". At 23 they pray this is not to be their own fate, yet the memory loss and the sleep deprivation continue to prevent a meaningful existence, and all we can offer them is one psyc. appointment a month.
Will Obama change this situation, I don't know, but I know McCain won't. Our government sent these guys to their death physically or psychologically and either way our society needs to make it right or the "trickle down" effect will be much more profound than that of the stimulus package.
If it means raising taxes on the wealthy for the short term, to get these veterans help, to pay our teachers a decent wage, and provide health care for all, then so be it, the effects of not doing anything are far more devastating. I won't extrapolate here, but, small easily treatable problems snowball into large expensive disasters, enough said.
Which candidate has a long term focus in terms of energy policy? healthcare? forgien relations? The Republicans would like you to believe Obama is against nuclear power, but this is not true, he is just more willing (although not enough) to invest in clean energy, unfortunately his opponent is constrained by his relationship to big oil. Another issue specific thought; if the insurance companies know you have more money in your pocket to spend, don't you think they will raise their premiums and co-pays? I don't place much weight on the individual issues, most of which are merely campaign promises and political posturing, spun so fast and hard the details blur. The only thing we have to go on is the individual and the choices he is making in running his campagin the leaders he is choosing and the people he has aligned himself with in the past, who he admires and attempts to emulate.
This election comes down to two men and the choices they will make in deciding who should run this county. Will it be the Washington elite who have been living the definition of stupidity "doing the same thing over and over expecting different results" or will you vote for someone with the proven ability to energize hopeless situations by choosing leadership capable of thinking creatively and taking a new perspective to help our country take care of its own.
Second, I will admit I am not really going to do a ton of research about the candidates for this election, they are both flawed. Neither is exactly what this county needs, and neither will solve all that ails us. Rather I am using logic, psychology, communication and reason to choose who I will vote for. The media is all spin, from the spin one must pick the solid facts and make their own conclusions. So here we go.
On the topic of McCain's VP: Ms. Palin made a choice to have children, that was her choice, with that choice comes responsibility, the responsibility to raise those children to the best of her ability. Just 15 months ago she made a choice, to get pregnant with her FIFTH child. A child who is still in the bonding stage, foundational to all further development. A child with special needs, a child who will require exponentially more stimulation, attention and care to thrive and meet his full potential than a typical child of the same age. Yes, she has a husband but even if he is super dad, he cannot do it all, and outside help is not sufficient to replace a mother. Coming from the party of "family values" I would think Sarah Palin would understand better than her democratic counterparts, when you choose to have a baby, you choose to put your baby first, even when your baby is 17 and about to have a baby of her own. You take care of your family, even if it means sacrificing your political ambition. Am I judging? Yes you bet I am. Do I have all the facts? No, but it is obvious campaigning to be second in command is not compatible with the hours of support and love a special needs baby and a pregnant teenager not to mention three other children require. Yes you can be a mom and have a very successful career, but the day you get pregnant you make a choice, your family comes first. The message this sends to children breaks my heart..."Mommy loves me, but not as much as she loves her job". It will take a lot of counseling to undo that one.
This is the choice John McCain made for his running mate. A strategic attempt to balance the ticket, if Obama had picked a woman he would have picked a minority. John McCain has been part of the political landscape for the past 25 years, he is entrenched! The people you associate with are the people you know best, so it stands to reason the people he will have in his white house will be part of the political establishment as well. The political establishment has not been good for this country, I could go on and on about this, but for now I will only state, health care, education, the economy, forgien relations and the war, even McCain in his TV ads admits we are worse off than four years ago.
Unfortunately, I do not believe the Democrats have all the answers, I think less government intervention would be a good thing, capitalism can be used to solve social problems, but we are not there yet. Barack Obama has consistently demonstrated throughout his career that he is capable of thinking outside the box that is politics as usual. I read his biographies, the first written before his foray into politics. He has lived and struggled in the real world! A world where people daily struggle to make ends meet. He was not always popular, not always, the hero. He is a man who can bring together people from all walks of life and get the job done. No you won't get your stimulus check in the mail... did you ever stop to think how that was possible while we are fighting a billion dollar a day war...or why someone making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year needs a stimulus check? and yes those of you making $100,000 a year are going to have to start paying your fair share of taxes. Our country is at war, our young men and women are dying, daily and this country has not sacrificed at all. Gas prices go up but we still drive 80 mph to work on the freeways, we hear the body count on the evening news but it doesn't register. If it did we would not tolerate a candidate who did not have a time table for withdrawal. Our country enmeshed itself in a country with a history of sectarian violence and perpetual civil war, for oil, for power and money. If you think this war has anything to do with the Iraqi people or democracy or liberation you are sorely deceived. To see what this war is really doing please watch this documentary
We watched it at work and I almost started to cry right there in the staff meeting. These soldiers are returning home and perpetuating the cycle of hurt and violence they observed, it is effecting their families, communities and friends, their ability to obtain meaningful employment and complete their educations. So they sit and smoke outside the VA with men twice their age, refuse from a similar conflict, left behind, as one vet told me after finally getting clean "I'm thirty years behind the rest of the world and still can't remember what I had for breakfast this morning". At 23 they pray this is not to be their own fate, yet the memory loss and the sleep deprivation continue to prevent a meaningful existence, and all we can offer them is one psyc. appointment a month.
Will Obama change this situation, I don't know, but I know McCain won't. Our government sent these guys to their death physically or psychologically and either way our society needs to make it right or the "trickle down" effect will be much more profound than that of the stimulus package.
If it means raising taxes on the wealthy for the short term, to get these veterans help, to pay our teachers a decent wage, and provide health care for all, then so be it, the effects of not doing anything are far more devastating. I won't extrapolate here, but, small easily treatable problems snowball into large expensive disasters, enough said.
Which candidate has a long term focus in terms of energy policy? healthcare? forgien relations? The Republicans would like you to believe Obama is against nuclear power, but this is not true, he is just more willing (although not enough) to invest in clean energy, unfortunately his opponent is constrained by his relationship to big oil. Another issue specific thought; if the insurance companies know you have more money in your pocket to spend, don't you think they will raise their premiums and co-pays? I don't place much weight on the individual issues, most of which are merely campaign promises and political posturing, spun so fast and hard the details blur. The only thing we have to go on is the individual and the choices he is making in running his campagin the leaders he is choosing and the people he has aligned himself with in the past, who he admires and attempts to emulate.
This election comes down to two men and the choices they will make in deciding who should run this county. Will it be the Washington elite who have been living the definition of stupidity "doing the same thing over and over expecting different results" or will you vote for someone with the proven ability to energize hopeless situations by choosing leadership capable of thinking creatively and taking a new perspective to help our country take care of its own.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Chicago Weekend
Here are a few pics from the Chicago Trip last weekend. The weather was beautiful, the traffic wasn't too bad, the company was great and as usual we walked our feet off.
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