Rage against the machine

Flashback, a year or two ago. It was an seemingly fine afternoon, and I had just come home. The lift in the backyard waited for me with quiet spite. The day before, my mother said it sounded a little off... I dismissed it as 'probably nothing'...

I stuck the key in, and held the button to rise.. up, up... hm.. it REALLY sounded off. And getting slower. And slower. The top reach closer, bit by bit, and I muttered at the lift to 'come on.. just a little farther', as it inched up, ever slower.

Then, two inches form the top, is just stopped. "Son of a...." I sat, and debated my situation. If the door could open here, I could have 'jumped' the remaining distance easily, but the door could not open.. it didn't have clearance physically, nor did safety measures allow it to open if not at the top.

I pulled out my cell, and dialed my mum, who lives in a little suite on the lower floor. "Hey, can ya do me a quick favor?" We soon found out that the lift was indeed plugged in, but wasn't getting power. No breaker she could find would solve this.

I hit the up button again. Up half an inch. Then I lost control. I had entered the altitude where the lift decides "Ok, I see where you're going, I'll take you the last couple inches." Except it couldn't. It didn't have the juice. That didn't stop it form trying. Again, and again, every second or so, bouncing me ever so slightly. Lovely.

"Maybe we should call the fire department.." Ridiculous, mum! Get me the number for the lift guy. Well, the lift guy wasn't picking up. I left a message. "I'll give him some time to get back to me." (He was out of town)

Finally I relented and called the fire department. They came around, even an off duty one who lived nearby and saw his buddies. It ended up that I was hauled out and stuck on a deck chair while my chair was hauled out separately. Mildly embarrassing, but life goes on.

As it turned out, the power was out due to a previously unknown breaker located apart form the main breaker box. The lift had been trying to milk its battery, and without more power coming in, it's only managed to literally jerk me around. When not in use, the lift stores power to use above and beyond what the outlet gives.

Back to the near present. Last night, 9:30pm, after getting home from the weekly Optimist meeting... The lift had been sounding tired the last few days, but the power was flowing.. I must have been imaging it.... or not.

A quarter the way up, it was DEFINITELY going slow. By half way up, it had stopped. But the power was flowing...! I gave the battery a few minuted to soak up a little juice. And got up another 2 inches. I let it soak for one minute. And got up 2 inches more. 5 minutes? Still 2 inches. It seemed the battery had lost it's ability to store more than a trickle. (as batteries will do in time) I was determined to inch my way up.. and I was going pretty good.. then I remembered that if I couldn't make a 'large' leap at the end, I'd get trapped like before. Unable to convince it to give me more than a couple inches at a time, I finally gave up.

I rang up my buddy adam. "Hey, feel like some exercise?" "huh?"

I hit the down button, and slid softly back down, negating my half hour of inching up. Adam and my wife Michelle hauled my butt, chair and all up the front steps. And now I was stranded upstairs until I could get the lift guy..

thankfully we wasn't out of town, and had things fixed pretty quick, replacing the battery, and tuning a couple other quirks the lift had developed with age. I'd been putting off a few things with it for a while... like my gloves (had to order on ebay) and various wheelchair repairs... (still procrastinating...)

The president has no dog.

The Lucy saga has come to a close. A mere day after that first family gave Lucy back to us, another family took her in. They had also responded to the craigslist ad. They have 3 boys, ages 5-12 if I remember correctly, and no other pets. All in all, it sounds like things have been going pretty good. So long Lulubelle. We'll miss ya. Kinda. Sometimes. She's a good soul overall, just.... well, not suited to our home as it has become.

In Optimist club news, last night we held the yearly elections. When the term changes over in October, I'll be the new pres. I kinda knew it was gonna happen. I held the door wiiiide open for someone else to step up, but I think most people were already assuming I was going to be president. I'm VP right now, and our current president calls me the 'co-president', since I take the helm when he's traveling for work, etc. And the fact is, I do a lot. I was also open to the secretary/treasurer position for various reasons, but the chips fell where they did. Here's hoping I don't **** it up TOO bad.

We're on the trail for this "walk for youth" we want to have on June 7. I sought out joiners at the elementary and the highschool. The elementary said that they already had a lot going on, but once I found the right fella at the highschool, it sounds like we might get a lot of participation from them. The pathfinders are pretty much guaranteed in, and the freshly elected VP for next year has plans for some local teams.

I also plan to look into a youth theater group, and the youth centre in Maple Ridge, when I can get out that way. If I'm lucky, tomorrow.

IF ONLY I HAD A CONTACT OR TWO WITH THE SAINT JOHN AMBULANCE CADETS (COUGHCOUGH)

In other news, I now have the fully-marked-up editing copy of Lifehack. Bit by bit, I'll be reviewing the proposed changes, and entering them into the manuscript. I also have to touch up the cover, add page numbering, and have a new photo taken for the back.

Yute progress is slow but steady. Me and the characters are still recovering from THE BAD SCENE, and when thier mood picks up a little, so will the pace of the writing, I think Either way, Yute or Lifehack is going to take the forefront at the temporary expense of the other.

Oh! I forgot! Caitlin's 7th tooth is almost done popping up, and the lil scamp can climb the entire starcase with very little effort! May 27th is her first birthday, and party plans are underway.

Correction

About half an hour after I posted this, the new home called. Lucy is now on her way back. She didn't get along as well with the resident dog as hoped, and the situation scared their kid, yadayadayada, long story short... dognotsogone.

We'll try a couple more replies form craigslist, then we might have to check out 'beaglepaws'....

So long, Lucy

Doggone!
Our dog, Lucy, has gone to a better place. Somewhere in Burnaby. (Did I fool ya?) We stuck her up on Craigslist for free to a good home, because after 3 and a half years here, "Pain in the butt" had been turning into "Look, this just ain't workin out."

One of our neighbors has a couple dogs trained as attack dogs. They've already attacked our tenant's puppy who snuck under the fence, and later the 2 attack dogs snuck under another fench to chump on another neighbor's dog. When you have kids, why are you training your gods with padded "maul me" sleeves?

The other reason we wanted Lucy outta here is Caitlin. They get along GREAT. Except at meal time. Caitlin likes to share, and Lucy doesn't know when enough is enough. And yes, we did try a lot of things to make peace, but the beagle in her found a way to destroy all possible solutions in one way or the other.

I tried to put her on Craigslist once, and couldn't make myself submit the posting, but a week later, I managed it. I felt better once I got it through my head she's be going to another home, not a wood chipper. The home she went to has a 7 year old boy and a beagle/terrier, so that family is used to breeds with attitude. They go for daily walks in a dog park, and overall, it sounds like a great place for Lucy.

Say Aah!
At 10 and a half months, Caitlin's 7th and 8th teeth are finally peeking out, surrounding her 2 lower middle teeth. Crawling is a mastered art now. Standing without support has happened many times, but not for long. I think a solid 7 second count is the current record. And she has dance fever. Tunes from a few select noisy toys can get her rockin' out like there's no tomorrow. For food, she generally has whatever we're having, cut into manageable chunks in many cases, but a bottle now and then can supplement dinner if it's something she want very fond of.. though she seems to like most things..! Check Caitlin's site here.

Optimism in the streets
The MeadowRidge Optimist Club will soon have it's won website which I'm putting together with design/content guidance from the rest of the club. When it's up, the address will be posted here, on some business cards for members to hand out to whoever, and some signs for generic uses.

These signs will be making their first appearance at the first annual MeadowRidge Optimsit Walk for youth, which will be a part of the Pitt Meadows Day parade

Lifehack and Watching Yute
2nd edition of Lifehack is in the hands of my last of many volunteer editors. And maybe my dad might take a crack too.

Yute is still being chipped away at. Not much of a page count increase over 130, but a lot of segments are getting streamlined, and re-sorted from the sort of 'sketchbook' phase that many scenes get written in originally.

Game On
I'm pretty much done my Oblivion addiction, looking forward to LittleBigPlanet, Home, and Bionic Commando: ReArmed. (2d gameplay! SLICK 3d graphics!)

Now playing: Crash Bandicoot:Warped (had an urge for some platforming) and FF7. Why FF7 all of a sudden? Blame Advent Children. Sure, the flick isn't new, but it triggered new toys! Right now I'm surrounded by AC and original costume versions of Cloud and Tifa, original Aeris, and AC Vincent and Sephy, which I've been buying one by one since AC originally came out. I'm not trying to get them all, but 'Reno' is on my 'get me' list. Anyway, I guess having all these guys standing around got me in the mood to play the game.

Yute Page 130

Today I wrote the 130th page of Watching Yute. It's a pretty depressing section, and right now the writing takes a lot out of me. When I'm done for a bit, I'm wrecked, wanna cry, but feel darn satisfied..

I want to get at least as many pages as Lifehack (2nd edition) is, (230-ish), so I'm more than half way now. There's still lots of story to tell.

One thing I have problems communicating to people is that even though Yute takes place in the same fictional country as Lifehack, and some events from Lifehack are triggers for events in Yute, they're almost entirely separate stories. I want Yute to be readable by people who have no idea what Lifehack is about, and at the end of Yute, they'll only have the foggiest idea of what things may have been from any previous story. (On that note, Doc Brock is back, and gets a TINY bit more fleshed out)

Yute is also a very different beast than Lifehack. I can describe Lifehack as an adventure in many ways. Yute isn't. Aside from a minor confrontation near the start, the first actual threatening ACTION happens around page 80.

Will Yute appeal to the Lifehack readers? Hopefully. Yute is as different from Lifehack and I am a different writer than I was in... hm... 2002? 2003? When I started Lifehack.. Well, I could analyze all the different points in that, but I just dont have the time right now! Ha!

Dog Eat Dog

When we got our dog Lucy, there wasn't many dogs in the area. Some, not many. I couldn't tell you were the occasional other barks were coming from, but they were out there. Now and then Lucy would get into a 'conversation', and with little doubt, our beagle cross was the noisiest in the land.

Three and a half years later, our renters downstairs have two dogs (generally very well mannered dogs compared to mine), and every neighbor I in every direction seems to have at least one dog. The neighborhood's gotten noisy.

The main problem is our neighbors to the rear, who got not one, but two german sheppards recently, and have been training them with 'maul me please' arm guards. When it was just the one, it got lucy into a tizzy now and then, but they'd often have fairly polite conversations. But with the addition of the second shep', we just cant let lucy out at all if the sheps are out there, or war begins. So now when Lucy has to answer the call of nature, it's usually on a leash.

So, the 3 dogs in our yard, Lucy, (ours, beagle/sheltie barking specialist) Outlaw, (renters' 4? year old white lab, giant cuddly bear) and the new addition, Kali, (renters' chocolate lab? Under a year old, enthusiastic spitfire) like to have discussions with the sheps across the fence now and then.

All in all, there's 5 dogs who dig at the base of the fence off and on, not generally with any more success than is needed to peek at each other. The other day Kali manages to squirm her little puppy self underneath, and figures she'll go play with the sheps.

The sheps are big, and they aren't trained to play nice. (le sigh)

SO, Kali spent a night at the vet on an IV to replace a little bit of fluids, and got the back of her neck shaven to check out the wound closer, but has since been released with a good prognosis. The neighbor I THINK has done some work to shore up the fence gaps, (pretty sure it's his fence, not ours) I doubt he'll be stepping up to help with the vet bill...

Oddly, my renters were planning to move out at the end of the month, so if Kali has stuck to our yard another 2 weeks, it all would have been avoided. Or if the neighbor hadn't been training those sheps to attack, or if the fence was better, or, or, or... Oh well... at lease Kali's gonna be OK.

And somehow, Lucy doesn't seem to be involved in this trouble. Lucy's on thin ice around here.. a dog that gets nippy over food, and hapless baby aren't a good mix. If we can't get Lucy to behave better soon, we might have to give her away. This area is becoming less and less ideal for a dog who likes to think she's the queen of all she surveys. She needs a home with a lot of space to run around, and no small kids...

I'd hate to give up on her though. We almost put an ad on craigslist to give her away, bet decided to give her another try, and consult with a trainer. The trainer came, and gave us some good tips... she was going to email later, but hasn't yet.. that's not a good sign.

Update with uninspired title!!

Ah, another of my frequent blog posts.

Baby news- Today Caitlin is 9 months old, and has discovered that legs can be helpful in crawling.

Book news-

-Lifehack (2nd edition of AZU-1:Lifehack) has it's editing copy in the hands of the 4th (of 5?) volunteer editors. When it's done it's tour, it'll be my turn to look at all the points they've marked, and correct all the ones I agree with. Some editors have mentioned they disagree with some things other editors have marked, so this tells me that they're being picky for little things, which is good..

-Watching Yute- had gone on pause while I was doing my initial edit for Lifehack. Since Lifehack's been out of my hands, I went through what I'd had for Yute, and applied the same standards to it, that I have to Lifehack. Formatting especially. I recently finished this editing pass through what I had written before my attention was drawn to the Lifehack project, so now I'm poised to break new soil in the story. It's 100 pages right now, and I'm approaching an even in the story I've had planned form the beginning, but am also dreading.

-Optimist news-

Well, the chinese newyear dinner/celebration was completed. I won't say without a hitch, but overall, it was a success. Both the MeadowRidge Optimist club and the Pitt Meadows Lions seem to be keen on doing it again next year, with a few more tweaks. This year we mainly stuck to the 'same old' which had worked in the past, but some things could use a bit of freshening up.

On the horizon we have several events brewing.... a walk for youth fundraiser/PR event, which we hope to attach to the Pitt Meadows Day parade, a bike safety event, (personal irony for me, huh?) and of course our eye gazes towards halloween, for our next showing at the Ghost Ridge haunted-house type event, which it looks like we'll have more planning input this time, since our efforts last year were so appreciated. I have a plan for a new exhibit in the haunted house, called 'The Meatlocker', which aside from being new, and not yet another horror movie rip-off, it will also serve to "un-group" clusters of visitors half way through. People tend to subconsciously clump together for safety in numbers, making it hard to surprise anyone but the leading few in a mob- the meat locker begins with a butcher, only letting a few visitors through the door at a time, robbing them of much of the confidence they may have built up at that point. I don't want to leak what happens once they're in.

-Art news:

Wow, there's none, really. I still haven't released a picture for the sake of having a picture, since may. On the other hand though, contracted art has been busy as heck. That would be great news if I didn't horribly undercharge. Last night I delivered a refil/update to a fella's business cards, some new signage for my HQ bookstore, I have a display box design open in another window right now for Wysi Wipes, my wife's mommy club keeps tossing lil tasks at me, I did a sign for a ford dealership which I've yet to invoice, I'm waiting for feedback on a logo for the Pitt Meadows Community Foundation, and a knitting needle 'track sheet' for a client's customers.

Fun? Some yes, some no. But it's been kinda hammering inspiration for my own stuff out of my head. I've been tempted to take a more realistic direction with my art.. I used to do some great realism portraits, then I got the anime bug. Oh well, I'll focus on this new direction when all 5 books I have planned are done, graphics contracts are less in number, and Caitlin moves out.