Red Region Inferno

Every day I go by this log yard.
It is 3 blocks from my place of work.
Some days it is full and others it is close to empty.

The logs come and go...

Both ways bother me.
My family goes a long way back in this dieing  port town.
Logging and fishing and mills are what built and kept us alive.

Now the trees are disappearing and so are the fish.
The logging industry (and the mills that feed off of it) are pretty much toast.
Fishing has went the same way over the last decade.
My town is a shell of what it once was.

When I see the logs I know people are working.
I know my town will survive a while longer.
When the logs are not there I worry.
How much longer until it is really ended?

At the same time however I hate logging.
I hate that we in the pacific northwest didn’t start farming our trees until it was to late.
I hate that what we are cutting can never be replaced.
I love the trees. I love the forests.
I don’t want them destroyed.

Living with the national park in my back yard is cool.
It is protected for sure… but it still gets cut.
They do it for other reasons. Fire lines and such.

Yet we have private timber stands out here that are 10 times bigger than most parks.
Vast stretches of forest that are not protected.
I have watched them slowly disappear over the course of my life.
It sucks.
Soon they will be gone. Maybe 10 years at most I think.
The world sucks.
We are all shit.

I want the mills to keep running so my family and friends can support themselves.
I want the forests left alone so when my daughter is grown she can hike into a place that was made by God instead of man.

I want to preserve what we have left… yet I want hardwood floors.

Who amongst us is not either a hypocrite or a self righteous murderer of our earth?

I have had a cold for almost 2 weeks.
It is a crappy ass cold that has stopped me from training and sucked every bit of energy from my body.
My nose is plugged up, but still runny.
It sucks!

The cold however will not stop me from having fun.

We leave tomorrow for our big weekend.
Actually it is Ocean Shores Big Weekend to be precise.
Thrown by Tri Freaks It is a big athletic weekend featuring many races.

Lucky for me – I signed up for the sprint triathlon rather than the olympic distance I had originally considered… because I know that I would not be able to finish it with this blasted cold.
My lovely wife (who doesn’t swim will be competing in the 10k run.

Oh this cold pisses me off.

Not just because of messing up my triathlon… nope, not just that.

You see we also have a couples date.

Way back in January I made a post about missing the pajama jammy jam party and how we would most likely not get to meet up with a certain sexy couple until summer.
Yep, summer is here.
Yep, they are meeting us in Ocean shores.
Yep, I have a fucking terrible cold with all the nasty symptoms on the cold medication box plus a few more they don’t cover.
Ain’t life grand?

To much planning and time involved for any of us to consider cancelling.
To long of a wait already.
We have all wanted to meet since last October and I have wanted to do the Ocean Shores big weekend for 2 years.

Yep, the cold sucks.
Hopefully by some magic or grace of God I will get better super fast.
Even with the cold though I am excited.
I am excited for a weekend at the beach.
I am excited for a nice hotel on the beach.
I am excited for a mini vacation from work.
I am excited for my wife to get a break from her stresses.
I am excited for the triathlon. (even if I will do terrible)
I am excited to finally get to meet a pretty girl I have been texting with for many months.
I am NOT excited about my cold… but mind over matter – I am gonna have a blast anyway.

Besides the race and the sex we have plans to build sand castles, fly kites, play on the beach and enjoy a fabulously relaxing time.

Wish me luck!

My wife told me she had never been up in the Seattle Space needle so we just had to go.

I had not been  in many years…

The food was excellent, the service was excellent, the view was excellent.

What a view

If you have never dined at the top of the needle you really should.

If you are visiting Seattle make it part of your trip.
It is a famous part of the Seattle sky-scape that shouldn’t be missed…
and if you live in the area you certainly should if for no other reason than to eat some great food while checking out the Emerald City from above.

A word of advice…
You will need reservations and the cost is on the high end for Seattle dining.

Living in the land of ‘Twilight’ sucks.
(pun intended)
I could barely get into my coffee shop yesterday because of the long line of campers outside the movie theater.
I don’t know why it is so important to see the movie at the exact moment it opens in the theater Bella went to… but it is for some.

The long line blocking my coffee shop and the book store I go to daily.

The people in the front of the line actually camped out for 5 days.
Can you imagine camping on a busy street next to a trash can in front of a movie house for 5 days just to be one of the first to go in?

These people in front actually camped next to a trash can for 5 days!

So… crazy campers aside.

One cool thing going on was that a local casino was offering a chance to win a truck like Bella’s.

Corner angle view of Bella's truck with a cut out of Edward.

Front view with cut out of Bella inside.

I didn’t enter to win, but I thought it was a great idea.

Even if you are not a big Twilight movie fan it would be awesome to win this pimp old truck.

After mentioning in my last post that I was training for a triathlon next month I went home and to my surprise found some new art on the wall.

The best triathlon motivational poster ever!

 This fabulous work of art was created by my two and a half year old daughter – with some help from her mommy.

When I walked in the door she said… “Daddy, Daddy, Daddy… I made a poster for you!”

What a great way to show support and offer some motivation in my training!