Category: Leisure

September 18, 2025 – Really… Is It Worth It?

September 18, 2025 /

This is the post that derailed the train. I had penciled this in to come out in mid-July. I moved it to late July and then late August and then I gave up. These were all range trips scheduled that got superseded by something more important. While it is not critical for me to go to the range and certainly not for the purposes of taking pictures and gathering information to write here about it, it has been rather frustrating to plan on doing something and to get overridden by someone else’s poor planning agenda.

I am leaving that all behind now. What are we looking at? It is effectively a 20 gauge shotgun firing 9mm ammunition. This is accomplished by the device in the middle called a barrel adapter. The basic idea is that the adapter fits into the shotgun chamber and that has it’s own chamber for some smaller caliber.

Barrel adapters are not new but they are unique. There are several boutique manufacturers that seem to machining operations at their core. The biggest knock is that they are expensive and made to order. It tends to be $200 per adapter. That is actually double what I paid for the shotgun and so I have held off for a long time. It wasn’t until I discovered this four pack of adapters for a little over $200 that I made the decision to buy.

I have one break action shotgun. It happens to be a single barrel but these things do work in doubles. In theory, you could have one barrel loaded with shot and one barrel loaded with a pistol caliber. Assuming the premise of all of this is good, that is a pretty compelling amount of versatility for situations like small game hunting.

The devil is in the details here. Barrel adapters come in different lengths and you can even get them rifled and unrifled. It would be much better to have a rifled adapter from an accuracy and repeatability standpoint. Mine are 8″ long and rifled. I think it is ideal for the situation, not too long but yet some of the benefits of a longer barrel, kind of like shooting a long pistol. Considering that the chamber is included in the overall length, it effectively makes it a 7-7 1/2″ barrel.

The big thing to consider is that barrel adapters are an ad-hoc situation. I found it helpful to have a prying tool to remove the spent casing. The shotgun shell ejector/extractor will not reach the smaller diameter pistol casing. I imagine that a finger nail would work but you also risk putting you fingers into sharp, hot metal.

Just for benchmark purposes, I shot 115gr 9mm at about a 10 yard target. I found it to shoot about 6″ higher than the aiming point. There are of course many variables that could change all of that. Would a different brand perform differently? What about 124gr or 147gr bullets instead of 115gr? Given that kind of discrepancy, it seems like a 50 yard shot might be closer to dead on. That is good news from a hunting standpoint but this is a shotgun and lacks rifle sights which would make a big difference in accuracy as well.

This kit came with adapters for 9mm, 357 magnum, 45acp and 45 colt. Most shooters know that 45 colt is the same diameter as the 410 bore shotgun, so in this case the chamber is actually 3″ to accommodate for the shot shell. Believe it or not, I do not own a 9mm pistol and so the rest of the calibers I will be interested in comparing velocity data between effectively a 7″ pistol (the adapter) and a regular handgun. That is future work to do.

The first thing a new firearm gets from me is a function test. Does it actually work? I know that this is not a firearm but essentially it is. In fact it is a non-branded use and so function testing is definitely more important. I am happy to report that everything worked like it was supposed to. I am now going to go on the process of testing all the calibers an permutations for future range trips.

This shotgun is part of a set that is no longer made. I originally purchased it to haul around in a survival kit. It is a youth model and I was originally going to start my kids on it but I had several very unpleasant recoil experiences that I would not let them use it as it was too light. That being said, I kind of wish that I did not own it. It was so inexpensive that it really is effectively worthless. Hence the desire to seek more utility from the setup.

End Your Programming Routine: Let me bottom line it. I would not go out and purchase a break-open shotgun to then buy adapters for versatility. I still have a lot of testing to do but I don’t see the accuracy with the sights and the difficulty to reload as better than a 9mm handgun. It will also never replace my 870 as a shotgun. But, since I already own it I might as well have some fun and try something different.

September 16, 2025 – What My Bookshelf Says About Me

September 16, 2025 /

In the picture below, you see all the books that are on my to be read list. One month ago, I was laying in bed and looking at the titles when I had a thought. What if an alien came to earth and entered my room and looked at what was on that shelf? What kind of conclusion about the kind of person that I am and what I am all about would they make?

In case you cannot read everything I will give you a quick run-down. On the top shelf, there are two items. I actually will talk about the recipe card tomorrow so hold on for that. The book below it I have also read. It is called “Where the Wild Dads Went”. A father’s day gift and it is a fifteen minute read so that is an unofficial entry. It is really what is on the second shelf that is on my to be read.

Going from top left to bottom right, the first book is “Atlas of the Heart” by Brene Brown. I have not read that because my wife forbid me from reading it without her. I tried to read some when she was in the hospital last year but it was not the time or place. At some point, I will probably read it anyway because at this rate we will never get through it.

Beneath that, there is a couple of magazines. They are not actually periodicals but the hunting and fishing synopsis published by Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. They contain things like law changes for the new year, unit boundaries, season start dates and bag limits. I pick these up at the end of each year and reference them periodically throughout the year. One is for big game hunting, one is for fishing and the third is game birds.

Beneath that is a book that I actually purchased for my wife. It is a idea book for home dates that include recipes to make for dinner. I imagined that we would start at the beginning and work our way through. I think that she thought it was better for me to take the initiative on that front since I tend to be the cook and have zero romance naturally.

The last book is called “Steak”. It was a Christmas present that I will eventually get around to. You see how thick it is, who knew that there was that much to actually write about steak? I have thumbed through it and there are some recipes so that takes up some space. A lot of it is about the cuts and the handling etc. I will likely read this maybe this winter and like many cookbooks, I will probably not read it cover to cover.

The middle stack is mine. I will definitely read “Fountainhead” by Ayn Rand. I wanted to put some space in-between this book and “Anthem” since what I know about it so far is that it is going to be a very similar tone as her other work. The next book was recommended by a former co-worker. I think it is going to be a short read and up my alley in personal business development. The last one on that stack is “Deadly Force” by Massad Ayoob. This is an update to “In the Gravest Extreme” that I went through earlier this year.

The stack on the right is a little bit deceiving. The top book is “Mere Christianity” by C.S. Lewis. I am currently reading this book and I am about half way through it. This will be my next book review in series after I finish “Boundaries” this week so I won’t say too much more on that.

The book below that is my weekly journal. In it I sort of summarize the previous week and look forward to the things I need to do in the next week. I use this book as an organizational tool to plan on what things I need/want to do as well as track progress. It also captures a few personal things usually as they pertain to social activities and how they effect my time and attitude. I have been writing in it on Sunday Nights since probably 2012.

Finally, there is the Bible. This is the same one that I received at my Baptism in second grade. To be honest, I will probably never read it completely but I do keep going back to it. It is the translation that I read Revelations earlier this year as an example. I do really prefer the NIV translation because it is so much easier to understand but this one is not too bad, it is much more modern than King James.

And so I ask again, what does my bookshelf say about me?

End Your Programming Routine: While possibly not perfect, I think that my bookshelf represents me exactly. It is complicated and diverse: Christianity, libertarianism, self defense, personal and relational development as well as food. It is mostly non-fiction but not completely. They are all my interests and so they are me.

August 6, 2025 – What Everyone Tells You To Do But Never Does

August 6, 2025 /

Imagine that you want to buy a new car. It is easy and smart to go to various websites and look at specs of your short list of cars. After you narrow down the options, there is likely a list of two to four cars that meet the specs but you still want more. So, you go to the dealer and they say ‘these are the cars that you can look at’. The key word is look. I one time looked at a Porsche 911 but the salesman said that I could not drive it unless I made an offer to purchase. How would I know I want to make an offer if I cannot drive it and see it is for me?

As a high school trap coach, I see plenty of new shooters. They may not be new to shooting but most are definitely new to the game of trap. Most of them fit into two categories. There are those that fall into the camp that they purchased a shotgun to participate which is almost always inadequate and those that upgrade their shotgun within a year. The latter group is often the ones shooting dad’s or older brother’s shotgun.

What I can say from experience is that fit is king. I don’t care if you are shooting 20 gauge as opposed to 12 gauge, if the gun does not fit you are going to struggle. A few years ago a kid on the team was shooting a beat up Remington 870 pretty well. He purchased a semi-automatic Tri-star and could not hit the broad side of a barn. After struggling six out of eight weeks with his newer and fancier shotgun he switched back only to shoot season high scores. Neither gun was wrong but the simpler 870 fit him much better and so he scored better.

I recently attended an event that my range put on. This is a new thing; they used to host a fully automatic shoot that was a real hoot. This was intended to bring back a fraction of that fun that no longer can happen due to insurance costs. But the premise was to bring in a number of manufacturers and a whole lot of guns to shoot. Ideally, that would lead to purchases from the sponsor of the event.

What you can see in the picture is about a third of firearms that Sig Sauer brought to the event. There were a number of other vendors there as well. The idea was that participants would purchase tickets that would be presented to vendors for ammunition. Depending on what caliber you chose to shot, a ticket was worth 10 22LR, 8 9mm, 6 45 ACP etc.

In today’s world, semi-automatic handguns are king. In my day growing up, 38 special was the same price as 9mm ammunition. Not so today, 38 special is three times the cost as 9mm. This event was almost exclusively 9mm pistols which is too bad because I don’t own any. On top of that, my tastes are pretty eclectic. For instance when I visited the Taurus bay, I really wanted to shoot a Judge (45LC/410 revolver) but no such luck.

I have heard over and over from multiple sources that first time, gun owners should try a bunch of different firearms before just buying one. But how, where? This event was awesome for handling and shooting a large number of the most popular firearms in the market. In fact, the majority of firearms I have purchase were a surprise in how I shot with them until I purchased them and went to the range for the first time.

I could have shot different exotic things but I did not. I tried three different 22LR, a 9mm and a 45acp pistol. I tried some shotguns that were way out of my price range and also a 6.5 Creedmoor rifle. The pistols were things that I have considered over the years. The shotguns and rifle was just for fun. Nothing I tried is on my next to purchase list but then again they didn’t really have what I wanted to shoot to begin with.

I definitely learned some things. I learned which 22 pistol I liked over the others. I learned that I really liked the 9mm and I learned that I didn’t like how the 45 felt in the hand. The one overall lesson I learned was with the 6.5 Creedmoor. This has become an extremely popular cartridge in the last ten years. I wanted to shoot a rifle that I considered affordable and without a silencer. This particular rifle had a muzzle brake on it.

After firing the first round, it blasted my ears causing them to ring even with ear plugs in. I have heard about this phenomenon before but never personally witnessed it. I found myself closing my eyes on the remaining two rounds which I am sure that effected my marksmanship. If this is how all brakes work, this is a definite no-no for me.

End Your Programming Routine: I am fifty years old and have been in the scene most of my life. There are two places that I can think of that actually rent firearms but you are limited to what they have on hand and the disciplines that they offer. This was a very unique experience to get a large swath of manufacturers of similar firearms together. This is something that you really cannot reasonably do, try before you buy.

July 31, 2025 – Rip It Up

July 31, 2025 /

One of the things that I take for granted living in Oregon is the coastal, sand dunes. As I understand it, it is not the only sand dunes in the United States. Apparently, there are dunes in Utah, Colorado, Michigan, Indiana, California and North Carolina at least. When I was doing a quick check on where the others were located, I was also checking to see if off-roading was allowed; that is not universal.

In Oregon at least, the dunes are off-roading heaven. They also go on for miles and miles down the central and south central coast line. All my life I have known people that aspire to spend their weekends jumping humps and drag racing up extremely steep hills. This is what my son wanted to do for his 19th birthday.

If you watch the video, you can see that he got a four wheeler. I ended up renting a Honda Talon side by side for various reasons. One of which is that my arm is still bothering me some and I thought it would be a little smoother (which I believe that it was). I felt no pain or soreness after riding around for three hours. I know that my son wanted to rent something bigger and faster but you had to be over 25 to rent and drive this vehicle.

We had a lot of fun for the majority of the time. Unfortunately, there was a small accident that cut our time short. It was no big deal but it did break the flag pole off and we were instructed to call the shop if a roll occurred. They wanted us to nurse the thing back which is why we went so slow in the video.

Right before we left, I packed my Baofeng GMRS radios. I have never used them before and I thought this might be a good place to test them. It turns out it was the perfect place to test the radios. When the accident occurred, we of course did not have any reception. So, I went down the hill to get cell signal. Once I got the instructions from the shop, I radioed to my son. We would have never been able to do that without the radios.

I would estimate that we got about 3 miles maximum of reception. It seemed 1.5 miles was reliable but beyond that things got spotty. I heard him at 3 miles but he did not hear my response. When we got back home, I realized that I actually have a longer set of antennas also in the box. It would be interesting to switch and see what the difference is. I also had a set of Midland walkie talkies that are lower power, but we didn’t really have enough time to mess with those as well.

We call it Sand Duning. It is one of those things that it seems like many out of state visitors are drawn to. Many people that I have met seem to bee-line to the sand dunes and rent a ATV. This is why I started out today saying that I just don’t think about it much. I guess it is been there, done that.

That being said, it is one of those activities that seems approachable. If you watch the video carefully, you can see the RVs on the left hand side at points. People trailer their vehicles and camp out on the sand. Then, they can just leave from their camp sites and go play. Four new quads is certainly cheaper than one new boat. I could see really getting into it. But then again, I don’t need anything else to take my time and money.

End Your Programming Routine: I think that it has been ten years or so since the last time we went Sand Duning. That was also for my son’s birthday. My wife was jealous, she wanted to go as well but she was out with her girlfriends for her birthday. I guess that is the way the cookies crumble. But, I wouldn’t be surprised if we have another trip in out near future.

July 30, 2025 – Getting In the Mood

July 30, 2025 /

Believe it or not, I had a free Saturday not too long ago. I was free of any obligations because everybody was working or doing things that they deemed more important. I didn’t have to wait around for somebody to pick-up something or deliver something or babysit or host a party and I have literally been waiting weeks to try out my recrafted Danner boots as well as jump start my return to hiking.

I put on my boots and only packed a day pack. I put up water and a couple of snacks because the focus was the boots and it was only going to be a five mile loop. Using the All Trails app I found a pretty close trail that I never knew about and set off.

I am happy to report that my toe no longer rubbed on the plastic toe cap. This would become raw in a day or so and my enthusiasm to put on the boots rapidly diminished each day to the point where I would rather take other shoes even if that meant wet or cold feet. One other side benefit I noticed immediately that I didn’t realize was a problem was the constant squeaking with each step.

Apparently, the heel supports had detached from the sidewalls, that is what the cobbler said. With each step it would rub on the leather and cause a very slight squeaking. It was definitely annoying and not the kind of thing you really want while out trying to sneak up on game. There were two, new kind of minor issues I noticed.

The most pressing was that the tongue was biting into my ankle. I tried to adjust it a couple of times but I cannot see anything unusual. I don’t know if it was the socks I was wearing or I just laced them up in a weird way. More to report some other time but I never had that problem before. The second was that the boots left a black ring around my socks. I think this must have come from the re-dying of the leather. I assume that will resolve itself.

I took a number of photos when I was out. Most of them were from animals that I ran across as I was out and about. The one that I chose spoke to me because if you change the sky and the temperature, it could easily have been deer hunting season. I saw four different deer after all.

Now that I have finished my kick, my mind is drifting to the fall. I realize that we are a week or so away from the technical, mid-summer point. Traditionally our whether starts to turn in a couple of weeks. The sun looks different, it is more muted and by the end of August it is setting by eight o’clock. The overall humidity often goes down and so it feels cooler that it actually is. This becomes harvest season.

Coincidentally, harvest season is also hunting season. The official start of Dove season is September 1. If I was an archery hunter, my big game season would also begin. But a short and pleasant month leads to the real, big game seasons. As I have stated previously, we won our tag draw this year and so I am planning on doing Mule deer hunting rather that Blacktail deer hunting this year. Maybe this is the year I finally go for coastal elk, I have seen plenty of them this year. It all depends on how things go with medical appointments and things as we move past summer.

I am adding some new gear this year (surprise, surprise). I have heard over and over on Meateater how the binocular harness is the number one piece of gear that they use. I will write more about that later. But I just got my base part and so I am anxious to get that tested out before the season. It seems like a good idea to put on my boots again and get out there just to feel things out a bit. The season is barreling towards us faster than I can imagine.

End Your Programming Routine: We are getting to my favorite time of year for many reasons but chief among them is anticipation of hunting season. I can say that the money was worth Danner boot recrafting if for anything than removing the squeak, I am sure that I will work out the ankle pressure thing next time I put the boots on. Yeah, I could have paid less and gotten new boots that would possibly work better than these. But, this is why I believe in buy once, cry once.

July 1, 2025 – To Be a Kid Again

July 1, 2025 /

When I was a kid, I loved Legos. Between my brother and I, we didn’t have a ton of them but certainly enough to be creative. There wasn’t the plethora of different lines that they have today but I was partial to the ‘Space’ series. A couple of those kinds of sets along with a good foundation of basic blocks gave us enough to build lots of things.

The pinnacle of what we built was a clipper, sailing ship complete with cloth sails and rigging. My only regret is that we didn’t have enough of the same colors to make the ship really look proper. I was pretty proud of that back then and if they had allowed Legos in the state fair then, I think we could have won. I have a picture of it somewhere, maybe I will try to find it some day.

The Legos of today seem to have tons of specialty parts. I feel like that takes some of the creativity out of the process. For one thing, after I built the model and threw away the instructions, that was the one and only time the actual structure was built as intended. Everything else was improvised.

I know that when I built my Ford GT500, all I did was follow the instructions. Everything was in unit bags and all you had to do was open the unit bag and follow the instructions sequentially. It certainly took several hours but honestly it was easy. I see no reason why the most advanced kits are labelled for ages 18+. Honestly, a determined 12 year old should be able to follow directions and complete the model without breaking a sweat.

My wife bought me this set for Father’s Day. It is from the ‘Botanical’ line. I am taking my time building one type of flower a day. This is just to extend the enjoyment that I am getting from doing this. I don’t think it will ever get disassembled and my wife wants to display them where we currently have a Lego cityscape.

There are certain pastimes that I did as a youth that I honestly believe were highly influential as an adult. Those things would be reading, Legos, G.I. Joes, Dungeons and Dragons and drawing. Some of things I have written or spoken about before and some I have not. I am pretty sure this is the first time I have written about Legos at least.

We had this old, brown fleece covered bean bag. That thing became army base, moon scape, race track etc. I remember times when it would be all setup and then it was time to put stuff away for the night. I instructed everyone in the family not to touch the bean bag because it would then ruin the scenario that was setup for future play. You know what? It worked more often than it did not.

Not having a build plan, not having a bunch of specialty parts, not having access to mind numbing TV is what made this so beneficial. I had to look for pieces, I had to estimate scale from a picture, I had to figure out how a bunch of squared off blocks could make a curve of a hull. I think that another thing I learned was that if I didn’t have the exact part, it was going to be OK.

We like puzzles in this house. I think puzzles and Legos share some common elements. But more so than that, I believe that puzzles are good for the brain. This is especially true for analytical skills. There is pattern searching and recognition as well as visualization involved.

One other thing I notice with puzzles as well is that the efficacy diminishes over time. I attribute that to brain fatigue. I think that awareness with puzzles can help you become cognizant of when you are starting to see brain fatigue.

End Your Programming Routine: We often do a puzzle during a break time like Thanksgiving or Christmas. That has become a mixture of Legos or a puzzle over the last ten years. As I stated above, I think that they provide similar kinds of benefits albeit puzzles are significantly more difficult and cheaper. The next time you are wanting to go back in time a little bit, try building a Lego set.

June 26, 2025 – Finding Something New

June 26, 2025 /

Touring out of town visitors can sometimes be a boon for local discoveries.  We took a Portland day on our recent vacation to see some of the local sights.  It is not that I didn’t know about the Portland Japanese Garden, it is just that we don’t go up that often.  Probably the bigger thing is that at $22 per person, it is something that you want to commit to.

One of the things that we take for granted on the west coast is our proximity to Asia, relatively speaking.  What seems relatively foreign in say the Midwest is everyday normal here. Of course, I am speaking primarily of things like food and culture and not so much ‘Made in …’.  Even so, I think that goods like cars were much earlier accepted here than in other areas of the country.

What binds us and Japan is multi-pronged.  One of which is a very similar maritime climate.  It makes the vegetation and the landscape look very familiar in both.  The wood-built society resonates strongly with both and the evergreen backdrop that is carpeted with moss is our world.

What I respect about Japanese culture is the attention to detail.  It seems like many things are specifically deliberate.  It could be things such as tea or calligraphy or food preparation or gardens.  The idea of efficiency is to make sure that everything has a purpose versus our idea of efficiency is to get more with less.  It is no wonder that they invented concepts like Lean Manufacturing and total quality management.

I am not necessarily in love with everything Japanese.  For instance, they have a wood working culture that is every bit as deep and respectable as the western one but I find myself always leaning more European than Asian in tooling, methods and design.  I know that my thoughts are biased from a lifetime of cheap, mass produced junk rather than the respect that a true artisan can muster.  When I see great execution, then I acquire a newfound respect and seeking more inspiration in far eastern techniques.

The gardens are beautiful.  They were created in the 1960s as homage to our connections that I talked about above.  The thing that I will say about it is don’t expect to get the full experience as intended.  I found that there were just too many people running around to get into a zen state.  That probably says something about my westerness as well that I am unable to fully block out distractions. 

When you enter the gardens, there is a short walk up the hill into a faux, simulated village.  There is a gift shop, concessions, offices and conference rooms and a small art exhibition.  The gift shop was closed due to a technical, card processing glitch.  The art display was pretty minimal with dyed textiles and finely cut paper stencils.  Leaving the village was a bonsai display which was very cool but the volunteer could literally answer no questions about the art.  I was starting to feel pretty underwhelmed at that point.

Leaving the village takes you into the garden proper.  There are five distinct rooms or gardens each with their own focus on landscape, plants and features.  In some ways, I feel kind of bad because a lot of what is used is native or common but just pruned to look good and fit in with the vibe.  It makes me feel like this type of environment could be affordably achieved if I just put in some effort.  

One time, I purchased what was labelled as a Japanese Maple at a local plant sale for $0.50 and it just kept growing and growing.  Talking with a local landscaper, he told me it was actually a sweet gum tree.  Now it is too big for where it is placed.  I am kind of in a dilemma of whacking it extremely and trying to keep it small or taking it out completely.  So much for my tip of the hat to the Asian garden.

About five years ago, I purchased a bonsai tree at a local nursery, it was some kind of elm variation.  I placed it in a terrarium for my touch to our home décor as Asian in a Victorian go well together.  It looked great for about a month and then it started to die.  My theory was that the humidity level was whacked due to the enclosure.  But, this trip has inspired me to try again.   Amazon seed kits start at $25 and you get at least five different chances.

End Your Programming Routine: According to Trip Advisor, the Japanese Garden is the #9 attraction in Portland.  It is beautiful and it is expensive.  I would say that if you could get in relatively alone and take your time then it would be worth it.  If you are in Portland for a week and looking for things to fill up the time, it is probably worth it.  My bottom line is that if you cannot meet those criteria, then I probably wouldn’t go out of my way to squeeze it in.  To that end, if you live relatively close to Portland and haven’t done it make time to see what it is all about because it is pretty inspirational.

June 25, 2025 – Who Doesn’t Like Orcas?

June 25, 2025 /

I have recently been taking a required leadership course. As these things do, a seemingly random collection of individuals are put into a small group. With these situations, it is common to have an icebreaker question that everybody would answer. In my last session, the question was ‘if you were a tour guide for visitors, what would you show them about your home territory’?

That is easy, I am already doing that. I would take them to the beach. They live 5 miles from the Mediterranean. The Oregon coast is nothing like that. While you are at the beach, besides getting wind whipped flying kites, beach combing or chartering a fishing boat, whale watching is a low barrier of entry for guests.

That was the Seattle area. We have our own whale watching culture in Oregon. We did also have a trip booked to see gray whales. If you have never seen whales or been to the ocean, I highly recommend doing it. I suppose it is our version of a safari.

I have done it a number of times. Don’t get me wrong, I was looking forward to the trip. But, I happen to know that it is not quite the serendipitous discovery to see whales. Operators report in to each other and keep track of what is out there. They pretty much know where they are before they leave the dock. I suppose that I would hate to go on a four hour boat ride and not see anything. But, it does make me feel like the boat operators kind of phone in the trip.

In today’s day and age, many of these trips are prepaid or purchased online. It is customary for a fishing guide or whale boat captain to ask for tips at the end. If you bought the trip online, many of them have a tip line included which is what we typically do. But that also leads to the malaise of the trip. I definitely do not mind tipping, but on this trip I heard the hand speak two times in the whole four hours. The point is, if you want to leave a tip, make sure to have cash on hand as you leave the boat.

If you are in Seattle, there are numerous outfits to do something like this. We of course chose to do things the hard way. We drove from south of Seattle to Anacortes. We took the ferry to Orcas Island where we met up with the tour. The whole point of that was to make sure we were providing an extensive tour of the Seattle area, including the ferry experience and the San Juan Islands. But it definitely took a toll. It was an eight hour round trip.

The last Orca trip we took was about six years ago. What I heard then was that the Orca population was in serious jeopardy following the decline in salmon population. I suppose that remains to be seen if salmon will be saved. On this trip, we were told that they were eating harbor seals. In the picture above, there was a harbor seal in the vicinity that probably didn’t make it. There was some serious circling of the five whales. I cannot confirm that they were successful, it just felt like the odds were on the whales.

It was a blue bird day in Seattle as you can see from the picture. Much of the year, this is an iffy proposition. Tours operate rain or shine. Pacific Northwesterners like to say that if you don’t do things in the rain, then you might not do them at all. I would highly recommend appropriate rain gear if you are going to go in those conditions. For all of our posturing, it is a miserable experience to be wet for hours in the rain. Likewise, it would be no fun to be in the cabin during the whole trip.

One other thing to watch for is sea sickness. If you get motion sickness in the car, you will more than likely get sea sickness. Unfortunately, my wife gets sick almost every time. It seems to disproportionately strike kids and females. She takes Dramamine with little success. If there is any silver lining, days of small craft warnings will keep the boats in the harbor. They are not going to go out in rough seas but almost anyone will get sick if it gets rough enough.

End Your Programming Routine: I highly recommend taking out of towners on a whale watching tour, especially if it is a beautiful day. We have taken exchange students from Spain, Taiwan and Japan. The sea life is different from Asia and the Mediterranean. Because the operators follow the whales all day everyday, it is almost a guarantee you will see something.

June 24, 2025 – Would You Believe That I Was In the ‘No Kings’ Protest?

June 24, 2025 /

I almost cannot believe it either. It is probably the last place that I ever wanted to be. I won’t lie that it was kind of interesting. Trust me, it was a necessary evil for what we were doing that day and at least everything turned out alright.

We drove up to Seattle to meet our Spanish family. They flew into Sea-Tac. As a result, we spent a couple of beautiful days in the surrounding area. Seattle is a great hidden treasure if you have not been there. It is a lot like Portland and San Francisco but kind of a better version of both (politics and nonsense aside).

We already had our tickets booked for the next day so this was the day that to go to the waterfront, Pikes Market, the Space Needle and all of the typical Seattle things to do. Unfortunately, it was also the day for the No Kings march. Doubly unfortunate was that some of that was happening right where we wanted to be.

Our first stop was what was called the Smith Tower. We had a reservation for 12pm. As we got out of the car and around the homeless passed out on the sidewalk, I also saw people carrying signs. As a result, I knew that we were going to be close. I would describe the individuals as old hippies. I am guessing that they drove in from the suburbs in their Prius, parked somewhere sensible and then walked to the assembly point.

As we were waiting for our time to go up in the tower, I observed two classes of people carrying signs. They old hippies and the yuppies. These were the rubes that this kind of event appealed to. It also told me that it was likely that this march was going to be relatively calm. I will talk about the after party later.

After the Smith tower, we walked down to the piers. That was fortunately in the opposite direction of where we saw the protestors going. My kids had 3pm tickets to the Space Needle. So after lunch, we started walking to Centennial Park. It turns out, so were the protesters. It appeared that the march ended at the park so I do not believe that it would have been possible to avoid in any capacity. We tried to skirt the march for many blocks. Ultimately, we all kind of looked at each other and I said ‘well, we are going to have to go through it or not go’. That is exactly what we did.

I didn’t want to call too much attention to myself and so I just snapped a quick picture. What you couldn’t see was that in the middle of the street but it was a young woman with a bull horn. She was yelling out chants that all the drones were repeating. She was clearly the plant in my section of the crowd because you could hear others up and down the line.

There were a lot of people on the sidewalks, probably in similar situations such as ours. Eating lunch and then a protest came by. People were on their balconies watching. It all seemed fairly benign minus the non-family friendly signs and shirts. We walked a couple of blocks until we could peel off for a straight shot to the park which was just packed with finished protesters.

The kids went off to the Space Needle and us adults went to the Chihuly Art Museum. We did our thing and nothing that I could see happened as a result of the march. As we were walking back to the pier we started running across people with shields, gas masks and full kit. Fortunately, 70,000 protesters where nothing happened.

The one thing that I cannot figure out is one of the chants started with “Down with Trump and Democrats too…” It was the only mention of political parties that I heard in the ten minutes we were in the march. I don’t know if it was actually a red herring or the fact that just like Oregon, Washington is overrun with Democrats. There cannot be any other party at fault.

End Your Programming Routine: When we drove home, there was some medical tests that needed to be done. The hardcore protesters were camped out in Portland still, days later. As luck would have it, the hospital area is ground zero for tear gas and rubber bullets because there is an ICE facility three blocks down. I guess this was something that I didn’t have to deal with last year and I sure hope that this is not a sign of things to come.

June 12, 2025 – Convalescence, For the Body and Soul

June 12, 2025 /

In the days before modern medicine, treatment used to involve avoidance and to a large degree living with chronic diseases. I trace my recent family roots to convalescence in fact. My great-great grandfather came to Salem, Oregon to live out his life in a Tuberculosis home. As fate would have it, it wasn’t very long and my great-great grandmother was a single mother of some young children.

You know that I am a sentimental sucker. Why else would I keep, let alone write about 30 year old boots and batteries? When I read a book or see a movie talking about sitting on the front porch every night, it sounds so appealing. And yet I have a hard time sitting still. It is not that I am not patient but that I am always worried about the efficiency of doing nothing.

One of the reasons I love audio is that I can be listening and doing something else at the same time. That makes it doubly difficult for me to just sit and listen to music or a ball game. And yet, radio is my favorite way of taking in sports. It reminds me of a life that I do not lead, a life of leisure and nothing better to do.

One of the things that I have been trying to do this year is go back to my roots and following OSU Beavers sports primarily football, basketball and baseball and largely on the radio. As luck would have it, the Beavers have a pretty good baseball team and were hosting a regional College World Series tournament. As luck (unlucky) would also have it, I got knocked down with some kind of sickness that had me in bed all weekend.

We have had significantly better than average spring weather this year. I decided that I would sit in the sun on the front porch with the radio on listening to the final game of the Corvallis regional. It was win or go home. I had listened to other games in the tournament, but this was the one. I was going to dedicate the time to a game, this is the one to pick.

I did feel guilty that I was just sitting there so I brought my laptop out thinking that I would write with the game on. But, as luck would have it, the laptop was causing electromagnetic interference with the AM signal reception. The signal was clear as day until I flipped the screen open. I repeated this test twenty times or so just to definitively prove the point.

I know, I will move the radio away and turn up the volume. But, I couldn’t find a way to use the computer and have the game on with clear reception, so I gave up. I had to make a choice, listen to the game or work on the computer. I went into the house and grabbed an old bag of sunflower seeds that were stale and enjoyed the Beavers cruise to victory and on to hosting a super regional.

That mid-seventies sun was a good contrast to laying in bed watching television. Both were comfortable but there was something about the fresh air that felt cleaner and invigorating. I hardly had had a cough while I was sitting there. As I was sitting there just being, I thought to myself that I do not know how to relax. To me, relaxing is for when all the work is done. But when is it ever done?

I don’t know what makes us tick. I know that my dad enjoyed sports even though he never really ever sat down to watch or listen. I am sure that is where my behavior came from. My kids could care less about sports even though my wife and I fans. It is more likely she will watch a game with me than they will. I just don’t make the time unless I can find something else to do at the same time.

Even reading is not the same. While reading I am interacting with a book or magazine while the world drives by. It is different than watching the constant stream of cars and wondering who is listening like me as I pump my fist for the double play or home run. Since I am never out there, I am just a crazy guy watching everyone go by.

End Your Programming Routine: I know that I have problems with resting. But, I really enjoyed sitting on the front porch going through a bag of sunflower seeds and cheering on my team. It makes me think that I need to do more of it be it a beer or iced tea. It made me forget that I was sick for a couple of hours and I feel a tiny bit better than I did before I went outside. I probably would have never done it had I not been sick.