October 28, 2026 – Pacific Northwest Beer Culture

October 28, 2026 / / 0 Comments

There is a little town just south of us that has posted some signs about all of the movies that have been filmed there. That kind of spurred an interest in watching them ourselves. A couple of weeks ago, we rented the movie “Sometimes a Great Notion” filmed right here staring Paul Newman in 1972.

Watching the movie, most of the in town scenes looked to be filmed in Newport, OR. The featured home is still identifiable and is on the Siletz river, still only accessible by boat. I wont go too much into the plot of the movie but it is about an Oregon logging family and their struggle to fulfill obligations in the face of a logging strike. One consumer placement (intentional or not) was copious amounts of Olympia beer.

We are all aware of the Pacific Northwest beer revolution. Brands such as Rogue and Redhook kicked craft beer into national prominence in the 1990s. So much so that they made a major impact onto the national brewers causing industry consolidation and to a large degree decline.

When I was a kid in the 1980s, Budweiser was the self proclaimed “King of Beers”. The big three brands were Miller, Coors and Budweiser. To some degree, the first two were regional with Miller being the most prevalent in the midwest, Coors being largely contained in the mountain west and Budweiser for everyone. They were all here, but what reigned above all were the regional brands of Blitz-Weinhards, Olympia and Rainier.

After watching “Sometimes a Great Notion”, I began to think about those brands again. It used to be that every tavern would have one of those regional signs in the window. Rarely would you see a Coors Light or Bud Light sign in the window. I started doing some quick research to see what became of them. Now, you have to sort of follow the industry in general to get the full picture but I will try to consolidate it into a few words.

The year 2008 was a big year. Remember “too big to fail”? In 2008, Interbrew and Ambev merged and purchased Anheuser-Busch. That same year, Miller and Coors merged to form SABMiller. Later in 2016, InBev merged with SABMiller. There are some other players in the conversation namely Constellation brands (think Mexican beers), Heineken (think European brands) and Pabst brewing. For domestic labels, it is either inBev or Pabst as the current owner.

My dad used to drink Blitz-Weinhard beer, an Oregon beer. This was the cheaper cousin of Henry Weinhard’s Private Reserve considered a higher end choice because it mostly came in long neck bottles and locally sourced ingredients. In 1999, Henry Weinhard’s was purchased by Miller and shutdown the Portland OR brewery. That was the beginning of the end with production ceasing in 2021. However, the name was revived by Hop Valley, an inBev company and has limited PNW distribution.

Rainier definitely had the least penetration into Oregon. So while it was known, it wasn’t as popular. Rainier was already owned by Stroh’s (also owned Miller) but was sold to Pabst in 1999. Ironically from 1999-2003, Rainier was brewed at the Olympia brewery after the sale from Miller to Pabst.

That brings us to our subject, Olympia Beer. Pabst purchased the brand from Miller in 1999. At that time, Pabst bought the label and Miller kept the brewery. Miller eventually closed the brewery and both Rainier and Olympia became homeless. Both were moved to California and Olympia continued until the pandemic. 2021 saw the Olympia brand disappear for the foreseeable future.

After watching the movie, I thought I want to see what this Olympia beer was what I remembered it to be. I was reading that at one time it was the sixth largest brewery in the United States. To my surprise, I couldn’t find it anywhere on the shelves. That is actually what lead me down this trail today.

I cannot always say that the old ways are the better ways. The gold rush of post World War II into Oregon forests eventually cut down all of the old growth forest and all those mill towns that existed as proximity to the resources dried up just like Olympia and Blitz-Weinhard. At the top of this post I mentioned Newport OR. That used to be a shipping hub for logs going to Asia on major container ships. Aside from logging, the fishing fleet also had a strong presence. That too has largely gone boutique just like beer and logging.

End Your Programming Routine: Probably someday you will be able to buy Olympia beer on e-Bay like you can buy Billy beer. I myself won’t really miss Olympia having had it in the last ten years. From my memory, it was metallic and somewhat unpleasant when compared to other options. That being said, I cannot deny that my nostalgia for what I remember as ‘good times’ is strong. That beer fueled a generation that is rapidly disappearing and made us what we are today.

October 26, 2026 – Farewell Sweet Girl

October 26, 2026 / / 0 Comments

I don’t care what anyone says, being present while something passes on is not beautiful. When hunting, there is reverence and gratefulness for the life that was given in sustenance. But I can also speak personally that there is elation but also heaviness. In some cases, killing a varmint is a closure of rage. It is me, besting my enemy that has sought to cause me harm by stealing and damaging my property.

People that are experienced such as a butcher justify the event as ‘better than the alternative’ and use the phrase they ‘had a good life’. Now, I am not going to stop eating meat and I believe that God put resources on this planet for our survival. It still doesn’t make the situation any easier.

When it is a person, sometimes there is regret or fear or doubt. We have a whole metaphysical justification with the soul and higher calling and no longer in pain. I am going to largely leave people out of this conversation because unlike pets or livestock our relations are significantly more complicated as well as typically significantly longer. There are so many dynamics such as old versus young, accident versus sickness etc.

My dog was six years old. Forget dog years and all of that, this was something that was cared and nurtured for a short period of time. It would be as if of a six year old got terminal cancer. We are as parents still our children’s everything until at least twelve or thirteen when they are able to start acting somewhat independent such as thinking beyond the moment, self care and transporting themselves in some way. By the way, I am not saying children and pets are equivalent, they simply share many of the same needs on a similar time line.

Our girl stopped eating Wednesday night. We had gone through this rodeo a couple of months earlier. At that point, we were able to get some steroids and she seemed mostly normal for a couple of months. But now, the medicine was not working. To make matters worse, she would drink water and then vomit. Even if we tried to get some medicine down, her mouth would become foamy and she would start heaving. Time to circle the wagons.

In our area, there is a service that can schedule a vet out to euthanize a pet or livestock. For that, we set an appointment when we could see death was imminent. In the meantime Raya wanted to be close but not be seen. She was upstairs while we worked but hidden behind the bed. She didn’t make it to the appointment. About 10PM Friday, we heard a death groan. I stroked her head and my wife prayed for a quick passing. In about ten minutes, her struggle was over and she was gone.

Part of me was very relieved that we were no longer subject to the countdown clock. Part of me felt angry that we were selfish in wanting to schedule her passing for when it was convenient for us. And yet, after she died I felt a sense of relief. My wife and I embraced and cried. I have heard it said that abundant life also requires abundant death. One does not exist at the exclusion of the other. I get that, I just hurts is all.

To My Sweet Girl, Raya Hope.

You came into our lives at a period of global instability. We were still grieving the sudden loss of our beloved Snowflake. I was sure that you were not going to be a suitable replacement. But you earned your place with my respect and you did it in a different way.

You did not instantly love every person that walked by. Instead, you protected your people first until you knew that there was no threat. Then you loved them just the same. I can respect that because I felt like I could trust that you had our best interest in mind. I could also feel relatively comforted that you were all bark and no bite. You were intimidating without being dangerous. Yet, I have no doubt that you would put yourself between the bear and us without hesitation.

I am grateful for the time that we were out of town for cancer treatment and yet you were barking out the window at the stranger loitering on the corner. Your teenage brother was scared but assured that you had his back. On more than one occasion your presence gave confidence to the kids that they were going to be OK as long as you were on the job.

Don’t get me wrong, you were sometimes annoying. Like when we would lock you up to keep you away from someone working at the house and you would bark incessantly because we didn’t give you the opportunity to do your job. Or when you thought that the cinnamon rolls were made specifically for you. Those are the things that we will look back in time and chuckle about but it is also what endears us.

I am crushed to lose a good companion so prematurely. You can rest assured that there will not be another one like you, the right combination of Burmese and Golden. I want you to know that we will be OK and that your time of watching over us is complete. I thank you for the job you did, you were loved and you will be missed.

Love, Dad

October 23, 2026 – The Fountainhead; Part 1, Chapters 1-5

October 23, 2026 / / 0 Comments

This series has been long anticipated by me. As I mentioned last week, I have been reading this book for quite a while. This particular section I read months ago and so I had to go back and refresh my mind about what specifically happened. As always, this is not going to be a book report but an analysis about how this book is relevant in our current lives. That is what makes a true classic anyway. In case you are not reading along, I will start with a short summary.

The book starts with the introduction of the two main characters. One by the name of Howard Roark who is an idealistic, architecture student and the other is the Peter Keating who is the star pupil. It is recognized that Roark is the more talented of the two however he refuses to modify his ideals regardless of the consequences. This leads Roark to get kicked out of school and have difficulty finding employment without credentials.

Keating on the other hand seems to have no qualms about delivering what is asked. This includes a propensity to go against his grain even if it is in contrast to his own inner compass. Keating recognizes that Roark is in fact better at his discipline than he is and it drives him crazy that he will not apply it to the ‘common good’. That is winning project work regardless of his design sensibilities and principle.

As they both begin their careers, Keating move up at a rapid pace. Some of that is his ability but there is also a component of win at all costs. This manifests itself as deceit and manipulation. Roark on the other hand stays attached at the hip with his mentor Henry Cameron. Because his aesthetic sense is not popular, it becomes his financial ruin and Cameron gives up his practice leaving Roark out on a limb with no job or prospects.

There are a number of other characters that are introduced into the story that I will simply just introduce the primary ones for now for possible reference at a later point.

  • Guy Francon – Peter Keating’s benefactor and employer
  • Catherine Halsey – Peter’s Girlfriend and safety net
  • Ellsworth Tooney – Catherine’s uncle and renowned art influencer

At one point in my life, I was a member of the Brewers Association. I was having an issue with my chemistry career and I was seriously thinking about opening some kind of craft beer establishment. It came with a magazine and industry information and I remember reading a opinion piece. It went something like this.

I am a degreed and experienced brewer that owns and runs a brewpub establishment. When I make beer using malt extract it comes out better than starting with grain. So this is what I make and serve. Does this make me any less of a professional beer maker?

For those of you not in the know, malt extract is the condensed form of wort (or sugar water). It is considered a short cut in the brewing process and it very common in homebrewing because it reduces the amount of equipment and time required to brew beer. Suffice to say, I could read the angst in the question because it was clearly a chink in the questioner’s ego.

Keep in mind that this kind of dilemma is pre internet forum or social media. This would be the kind of thing that today you would read about in Reddit or similar. It is also the kind of question that would come up in a new or isolated or enthusiasts environment. Rest assured that if SAB Miller thought it would save them money, they would start with malt extract as well. Mind you, I know nothing about their operations and so this is not an accusation. I am simply saying that working with the largest food companies in the world, there is no room for ideals such as starting point conflicts.

For a lot of my career, I have had the distinction of working with and mentoring many younger associates. What I have observed is that school is full of ideals. That could be the ‘best’ way to program or engineering means to do things in this way. This often times leads those associates to end up having a conflict between what they believe to be true and the way that things really are. Academia often is oriented towards research and the purity of the process whereas business is primarily about the bottom line.

I myself have never had these kinds of moral questions mentioned above because I don’t really think that they matter. It doesn’t mean that I don’t have principles it simply is the result of my pragmatism. Does the code do what it is supposed to do? Is it reliable? Is it supportable? After that, technology choices and ways to do it are preferences, not principles.

One last anecdote. I was a year in with a former company and another co-worker of mine was lamenting that every day working here he was losing his programming skills because the technology curve was several years behind. What I said to him was that he would have to make a choice. In our current field, this was cutting edge; not the technology but the application of it. If being at the bleeding edge of technology is important, then it would be best to find someplace better to apply skills.

End Your Programming Routine: I want to make sure that I am not misunderstood, principles are very important. I think that many times people confuse principles with preference. It really depends on how you frame those principles and I am not advocating for justification. That often translated to a failure of leadership but that is a totally different story. Know what you believe and why. Then you can apply what you are doing against that lens.

October 22, 2026 – What Happened to the Garbage?

October 22, 2026 / / 0 Comments

Yes, I have lived in an urban environment since the mid-1990s but I grew up in the country. When I did we had the local deer that ate my dad’s garden and my mom’s flowers. There was an occasional possum and some rabbits every now an then. One time my brother actually found a hedgehog (alive) in the pasture. I have no idea where or how that happened since they are not native nor was anyone around missing a pet. My dad said that about ten years ago, there was a cougar down in the pasture but it was a one time event.

Since we have moved to the lake, it has been a stark awakening. I talked to my neighbor as I was cleaning up the trash and he said that his can got hit too. He said that it was a first time even though it has happened on the street before. He has told me a couple of times that we are ‘on the edge of the outback’. I guess so.

I have to admit that as much as I have been at the coast including years and years of deer hunting, I must have been naïve. Not only have I rarely seen deer but never a bear or a cougar. As a local and being more in tune with the chatter, I am realizing that we are surrounded by wildlife including some potentially dangerous ones. I have been reading on Nextdoor about bears getting into the garbage in the community about five miles south but not here.

I am still in the funk of moving and I will be for many months to come. Now that the furnace is installed and the electrical work is almost complete I started working on organizing my outdoor gear last week. Not only is it camping and backpacking but also my hunting and shooting supplies. Everything is cased, boxed or split up in different locations.

Everything? Well, not quite. As a defensively oriented person I still have quick access self-defense. But, this thinking has largely been oriented toward varmints or two legged threats and no where near where I want to be when I am done organizing. For that reason, I have felt ‘safe’ for what I have expected and prepared for.

Given that the likelihood of a dangerous wildlife encounter is extremely small, I feel like this is a wake up call. I don’t know if that bear was male or female. I don’t know if there are cubs around and that takes things to a different level. Heck, I feel like I should possibly be armed if I go outside after dark.

I always wanted to live somewhere that was much closer to nature and particularly animals. I also wanted to live with a little more peace and quiet like out of the city. When we were discussing this move, I kind of saw it as the surrender of that dream. We are not in the city but we are not far either. I saw this property more like a vacation property then in the wilderness. It is kind of seeming more like what I wanted, just without the wide open spaces and ponderosa pine.

You might be wondering if I am scared. No, not really. I will say that my wife is a little freaked out. What I will say is that I am going to be a lot less carefree. It is no longer a slim possibility that something could be happening outside at night. It makes me wonder what things we should change if using the hot tub after dark as an example. What should I do if I let the dog out after dark? It is things like that.

I think the truth is that cougars are more of a threat than bears. Bears can overpower you based on their size and defensive instincts whereas cougars can stalk and attack. Cougars are more likely to run away so as not to be seen but they are also more likely to attack as well. You just don’t really know.

End Your Programming Routine: So now we can say that we lost our cat by a suspected cougar and had a bear in the trash. I think that what I am going to do is keep an eye out for more of this type of activity. Unfortunately, with laws the way that they are, we cant just keep a shotgun propped in the corner, nor would I do that. But, I might just have think about getting stuff organized a little faster than I have been doing.

October 20, 2026 – What a Dying Dog Has Taught Me About Compassion

October 20, 2026 /

You would think that with my experience with cancer I would have learned all the things that I should have before this incident. There are some differences between this one and my other experiences which is what helps learn those lessons. This is kind of a different situation which I address in the podcast but it has also led me to be more introspective. Tune in to find out.

October 16, 2026 – The Fountainhead; Introduction to the Friday Reading Reviews

October 16, 2026 /

I know that I have been dragging my heels on this for months. Admittedly, I was scared to start because I was afraid that it wasn’t going to be as good as Atlas Shrugged or at least it was going to be repetitive. Then, there was the whole moving thing. It was hard for me to keep up with all of the things I was doing as well as AltF4. The grind of reading, thinking and writing on a consistent basis takes a lot of discipline and prioritization. I also will admit that both The Art of War and Surprised by Joy kind of took it out of me. They were not my favorites.

Actually, it is probably more correct that I really didn’t give The Art of War it’s due. I kind of went about it more like a chore than the proper philosophical study. I have been thinking that I should probably read it again without the pressure of trying to write about it every week. But, that will be for later. I have read quite a bit of The Fountainhead already and I am finding that I really like it. Maybe even more Atlas Shrugged for different reasons.

My grandfather used to use the phrase “The Lord hates a coward” somewhat frequently. I think that means that just because there are a lot of options and you don’t know exactly what to do that doesn’t mean freeze. It means without resounding evidence of what direction to go, pick one and figure it out as you go. Well, I have been a bit of a coward afraid that I cannot keep up or that I will group things together that may not go together and that has to end.

Rather than make this study go on for a year like I did with Atlas Shrugged, I will pick a path that seems reasonable to me. I want there to be enough content that I am not struggling to piece something meaningful every week but not so much reading that I have a hard time staying ahead. For that reason, it seems like chapters that fit into a 75 page block is aggressive enough. It won’t go all year and hopefully I can stay ahead.

I am proposing the following schedule.

  1. Part 1, Chapters 1-5
  2. Part 1, Chapters 6-12
  3. Part 1, Chapters 13-15 and Part 1 Summary
  4. Part 2, Chapters 1-7
  5. Part 2, Chapters 8-12
  6. Part 2, Chapters 13-15 and Part 2 Summary
  7. Part 3, Chapters 1-5
  8. Part 3, Chapters 6-9 and Part 3 Summary
  9. Part 4, Chapters 1-7
  10. Part 4, Chapters 8-14
  11. Part 4, Chapters 15-20 and Part 4 Summary
  12. Conclusion

For me, that means that I have the first month already read. It will also give me motivation to keep going. I picked the book up on a recent business trip after putting it down in April and I was able to make significant progress. It is definitely not because the book is not enjoyable but my work schedule, moving, baseball playoffs, football season and all of the usual excuses. I do need to fight my eyes closing when I lay down in bed though.

I will go ahead and save all of the deep analysis for next week but what I can tell you is that this book strikes personal to me. I think what is different between Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead is societal versus personal consequences. Since my whole moniker is about changing your programming this strikes a chord. We need to realize that no matter how much the direction that everything around us is not going the way that we wanted, the only real person we can control is ourselves. More on that in the upcoming weeks.

End Your Programming Routine: My dad is fond of the phrase “it’s the principle”. Trust me, he has the fortitude to accept the consequences of a principle based decisions. That is the way that we have to be if we are going to stand into the wind. I tend to be a little more pragmatic than that. Sometimes the cost is not worth the effort or we may simply not have enough fortitude, social capital, money or whatever to withstand the ‘the principle’. These are the lessons that The Fountainhead is going to explore. Ultimately, we will see how that works out.

October 15, 2026 – You Know I am a Fan Boy

October 15, 2026 /

I had just finished up writing my last post and I was kind of staring off into the distance thinking about making breakfast when I realized that I was blankly staring at my Mug Boss. All of a sudden, I kind of thought that my fishing bucket was the first I have ever mentioned my obsession with that style of organizer. So, I searched and could not find any reference to Mug Boss. Sure enough, I never had.

I suppose that I have nothing to really prove but I thought that I had evidence right in front of me about how hard I have fallen for this idea. The picture is the Mug boss on my desk but I also have them on my bench in the garage and somewhere in the shed that is going to become my workshop.

The Mug Boss fits around a ‘standard’ sized mug. These days, mugs come in all kinds of sizes but it used to be most mugs were the same size. “You know it when you see it” is kind of my answer. Speaking of mugs, they are almost a revolving door in my house. Every new decorating whim gets a new set of mugs. Out with the old and in with the new and let’s be honest, there are only so many mugs you can house and use. For that reason, my most sentimental mugs that do not fit in the decorating motif typically get the Mug Boss duties. It is kind of a win/win where I still hold onto the memories while still keeping it useful.

As an example, you cannot see it but this mug came from my CH2M Hill days. Not only did I work there but my dad did for his entire career. One of the founders came up with a set of guidelines called “The Little Yellow Book” which is why the mug is yellow. And since we worked at the original office, there was a lot of ownership in the wellbeing of a 30,000 employee company. Even though I only worked there about four years, I admired the spirit of many of the long tenured employees. For various reasons I never fully adopted the same mentality but my dad did. It does make me feel good to think about such an engineering juggernaut with ‘can do’ spirit came out of my small home town and my dad was part of that.

You know that I am a sentimental sucker. Why else would I go on and on about about a former workplace that I was happy to leave? Enough of that. I have three of these things and if I had another mug that was on the outs, I would probably have another one. The one in the picture is on my desk. It holds the things that I use (or used to) at my desk. I won’t go through everything but writing instruments, a pocket knife, multi-tool, screwdrivers, speedloaders for my pellet rifle when I used to shoot every day, etc.

When I have a shop bench again, I have one for marking and measuring in my shop. That would be regular pencils, sharpies, wax pencils, precision measuring as well as some kind of utility knife. The one I had on my garage bench holds similar type items for the types of activities that will happen in the garage. That would be things like food preservation, reloading, and simple home projects. Each one of the mugs have a similar story to what I shared above hidden under the canvas pockets.

Unlike the ‘Fishing Boss’, the ‘Mug Boss’ is still available at a street price for around $10 from many retailers. I would consider it a novelty item appealing to people like myself. That would be tool/gear oriented people that have a desire to organize their desktop or bench with pens, pencils and small tools. Despite it being a novelty, it is a very useful one that kind of shows your personality without being too over the top. People that know will get it immediately and those that don’t will just see the utility of it.

We are getting to that time of year again and I would say that this is an excellent stocking stuffer. To me, the good thing is that if you already have one I am certain that a use can be had for another.

ScoreAdvantagesDisadvantages
Value5/5Ten dollars and a mug to have what you need at handWill likely have to order rather than pickup at a retailer
Quality5/5Never worn one outDoesn’t fit all mug shapes equally as well
Performance5/5Multi sized pockets to hold different shaped itemsMug shape constricts what can be held.

End Your Programming Routine: As I am in the very slow process of putting my new spaces together, I find myself looking for the box that holds my Mug Boss very often. I want that bit holder or a sharpie because this is where I kept them. My shop just got wired a couple of weeks ago and my wife already has projects for me. I told her that I will do the bare minimum of organization for this first couple of projects. It is absolutely critical to me to know where stuff my is. Plus where else do pencils with no erasers go? To the Mug Boss of course.

September 28, 2026 – A Tackle Box Idea

September 28, 2026 /

I am pretty proud of my boy. He is working to find his place in life. Like many recent high school graduates, he is finding that life isn’t quite like he imagined or the picture that was painted. Of course, he has a lot of me in him and there is a lot of dreamer in him. I get stuck in my toolbox fantasy where some day I am going to do this or that when I have the thing I need.

Last weekend he spent three solid days bushwhacking and trying to catch a steelhead. This is something that I always wanted to do but there always seem to be more important things, like excuses. He wasn’t successful but I think he learned a lot and I think that he will be back. That leads me to why I built this ‘tackle bucket’.

I started putting this bucket together in mid winter. At that point, I had visions of surf fishing this summer. I thought our house closing in February and then March was imminent and we would be all moved in and ready to go. A big motivator for me was I have other dreams as well, like digging for clams. I thought that maybe I could cast a device called a crab trap out and let it soak while we were digging clams. The bucket was a device to hold the catch.

This is one of those posts that I actually had planned to write in May before I suspended things. It just kept getting kicked down the line as I continued to add more tackle. Now that I am trying to get things more regular again, meaning more routine writing I thought that I would finally finish this thing that has been in draft state since April.

My bucket organizer obsession goes back to the turn of the century. I actually got my first bucket organizer as a wedding shower gift. My dad had one in the early 1990s and my first impression was how he used it. It was more like a carrying container. You put the tools that you thought that you needed and took it to the work. This is how I started as well.

I found out that as I had more than one project going, I wanted a hammer here as well as there and so I thought, I will build a dedicated tool bucket. That way I will have everything I need and I would still have other tools back at the house. These things get very heavy when you start filling them up with lots of steel tools. So, the heavier it got the more likely I was going to leave the bucket where the work was.

That worked pretty good until it didn’t. What I mean by that is my first bucket was a general carpentry bucket. But then as I started to do more electrical and plumbing, I wanted specific tools for that kind of work. I added more buckets (or bags) that were more task specific. My original thought was that these would be trade specific and that would augment my first bucket. But, what I quickly found out was that it would be a lot easier to buy another hammer rather than carry an 80lb bucket of tools containing a hammer.

Today, I have multiple tool containers. One is a carpentry bucket, one is an electrical bag, one is a plumbing caddy, one is for painting, one is for masonry and one is a supplementary fastener bag. They are all largely self sufficient. I have to say that one I reach for the most is the electrical bag. I use it for data as well as high voltage stuff. Sometimes I grab it if I want some tools because it is significantly lighter than my carpentry bucket.

If you are caught up in ogling my CLC Wild River organizer, you should know that I bought this off of Amazon at a reasonable price. I do believe that it “new” old stock as I cannot find any reference in the CLC catalog. Custom Leather Craft or CLC is another competitor to Bucket Boss. While I believe that Bucket Boss was the originator of the bucket style organizer, there are many, many competitors.

Fiskars purchased Bucket Boss in 1996 and significantly expanded their product line. They capitalized on fishing, gardening, automotive industries etc. However Fiskars sold Bucket Boss to a holding company in 2003. Since that point, their offerings have been significantly paired down to the most popular products. One current alternatives available on online is sold under the brand KastKing and marketed for ice fishing.

At this point, I do not plan on ever doing any ice fishing. I think that you can find some of that if you head to eastern Oregon but generally, it doesn’t get cold enough here. So, I added a Plano bucket cover/organizer. It has compartments that I put lead weight in but it also doubles as a seat. Home Depot sells an actual swiveling bucket seat. I bought it but I have not tried it. My thought is that I could put the seat on a second bucket when we really do go clamming. That being said, I would rather have the utility of extra storage rather than the more comfortable seat. However, if you look around you can find even thicker padding options than the Home Depot seat if comfort is more important than utility.

There is a place to add a bait or filet knife. There is pouch that is pictured as a pole holder but an ice fishing pole is two feet long, I don’t see strapping in a nine footer. I put a leader keeper in there. That way I can pre-rig my double hooks for the inevitable snag. There are two pockets for those clear tackle organizers of which I have added both. I keep hooks and swivels in there now. I have plenty of room for expansion but I kind of have a theory. What works in certain waters works. There is no reason to buy a bunch of lures without a clue about the effectiveness. I will simply add stuff over time based on what I expect to work by word of mouth or experience.

There is a carabiner on the side. I added my leader rolls but I think it is originally for a towel or gloves. My leader may end up somewhere else as a towel is a good idea, but I will have to battle test it first. And finally there was a pocket that is designed for a battery powered aerator (bait). I currently do not have anything in it but it would be a good place to put you phone or wallet.

One last thing that I added was a TEC products replacement bucket handle. I reused a bucket that has been sitting around. While buckets can be pretty tough, sunlight is pretty hard on that handle material. I recently put one on my primary tool bucket as well. It seems to help carry the very heavy loads more easily and it certainly beats a plain wire. These can be added with or without the original plastic sleeve on the handle. I have tried both.

End Your Programming Routine: Buckets and fishing are very frequently linked together. I don’t think that this is the best solution for every situation. For instance, this takes up a lot of space so I think there are better options for a boat. But if you were going to sit on the bank, instead of taking a chair, tackle box and cooler, this is kind of all in one. It seems like the bee’s knees to hold clams while you have a line out at the same time. Obviously I am speaking from theory here but it sure seems like it will work.

September 23, 2026 – This Summer I Lost My Home, Truck, Dog… and Now Cat

September 23, 2026 /

I certainly don’t mean to come off as ungrateful. For the most part, I have a pretty good life. It is now officially Fall and I was thinking about my Summer. I realized I could make a country song about it. Of course, there is a little bit of sarcasm to it. I really didn’t lose a home, I traded it. Like I posted last month, this move is going to set me back years in terms of organization an getting settled in. That is a slow go.

But I really did lose my truck. This picture is from June when my pickup suddenly stopped running in a busy intersection. I was on my way to a doctor’s appointment over an hour from home. At that time, I thought that this is a temporary setback. There were a few things that I wanted to work on anyway like the constant engine ticking. I suspected that it was some broken manifold bolts and that was a job that I was really not going to take on.

About a week later, I got a call from the mechanic saying that the engine was seized. I said give me an estimate so that I can decide if it was worth moving forward. Weeks turned into months and that was OK since I was stuck in financial limbo anyway. I couldn’t spend money or use credit until my house sale was completed.

Getting an estimate took so long that I started investigating myself. I had second thoughts about whether this mechanic was competent in the first place. I called local part stores about crate engines and all signs pointed to buying a remanufactured engine from Ford at a price of $5000. By the time you add labor and incidentals like belts, filters, etc. we were talking over $7000. That was too steep. I can buy a running version for half of that with significantly less miles as well.

As a result of financial analysis, I made the call and surrendered the title last week. I have to say that I was kind of down. I purchased that vehicle over 23 years ago. We drove from South Carolina back to Oregon in 2004. It was my daily driver until 2016, that is when I got my Mustang. All my kids drove it until last year. I was looking forward to getting it back and doing some work on it before we started talking about moving.

This is just one memory, I remember putting my kids in the back when they were babies. We always went to the same gas station in town. They grew up and started driving to the pickup to that same gas station on their own. I could have sunk the money in and I probably would have if the price was half of the estimate but this is smarter even if I was sad.

I know that I have been pretty lucky. I never had any problems with that pickup until the last and final one. I also am lucky because I haven’t had a car payment since 2020. When I sold my Mustang, I only had paid off vehicles. I also know that my Navigator is on its last legs. It has 265,000 miles on it and is on the verge of being loved to death. So, a replacement vehicle is coming onto the horizon.

You already know all about my dog. What you don’t know is that she was knocking on death’s door a couple of weeks ago. We had scheduled a follow-up veterinarian visit on recommendation of her diagnosis and the new vet offered steroids. It has helped a lot in that by the time we met with the vet, she had not eaten in a week. Now she is eating twice a day and wanting more. This is not going to prevent the ultimate end but it is allowing us to enjoy what time we have left.

That same week that we got the news about our dog our cat went missing. As of this moment, it has been about a month. On the last night we saw him, my wife said that she heard a terrible scream. We found out a couple days later that there has been a cougar alert in the area. Given that he has never been gone longer than one day, I am reasonably sure that we will never see him again.

I didn’t have quite the same relationship with the cat that I do with the dog. I did appreciate his instincts however. We found a dead mole in the grass a few days before his disappearance. In my observation, not all cats are good cats. Even the good ones take a couple of years to develop. I guess that this is the hard lesson of city moving to the forest. I never considered this to be a risk, but now I know.

Fall is also football season and we are about a month into it already depending on how you measure it. I have never played football but my nephew did and it is common knowledge that a day or two after the game is film day. Film day is when you review every detail of the previous game in hopes of identifying things to work on as well as the things that went right. Clearly, not every team/staff is equal in using that information to improve. Just like in life, identifying problems is only part of getting better. I cant say that I would have done anything different only that the result is not how I would script a ‘good summer’.

End Your Programming Routine: I think that I have told this parable before but it is worth repeating. Lobsters become very vulnerable when it is time to molt. But, without taking that scary step to grow a larger shell, they are never able to grow to full potential. I think that we as humans sometimes are so scared of pain and risk that we get stuck in our potential to do more. Of course I did not want that day to come when I signed over the title for my pickup. But, this is the step to next pickup to go another twenty plus years.