Life in This MedjoPangit World

This was my backyard just a week or so ago. My back is feeling it after this month, I tell ya.

Digging ditches, singing barbershop, and NOT dying a fiery death

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10/29/2024

How did a month just happen?! Well, a lot can happen in four weeks... and that's no exception, in my case.

In these last several weeks, SO much has changed at my house. I went from not having a sprinkler system in my backyard to having a fully functional one. I went from having a wood shed overgrown with weedy trees and vines to a clear and easy to access shed now supplied with power and network. Dealt with a battery backup unit at work that was literally leaking acid. I insta. . .

Just a nice mid-afternoon view from my back window.

Sparks and Songs

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10/01/2024

Well, I can safely say things are at least feeling better these past couple weeks compared to the previous others.

I'm still stuck where I'm at, but at least the bullying and belittling has ceased- granted, so have any interactions with [REDACTED], but hey, that works.

But that's uninteresting and irrelevant. What good things have happened? Well, for one thing there's a stray cat who often frequents our property. It's shy but very friendly and nice, and even cuddly; I. . .

The way ahead is nothing but uncertain- but even if the tunnel is over a mile long (and this one is), it does have an end.

Things get dark and difficult...

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09/17/2024

If you're one of the few and possibly non-existent people who actually happen to regularly follow these blog posts, and you're wondering why it's been a few weeks... let's just say a summary wouldn't do it justice, and yet it has to.

Perhaps I'll start out with the nicer things, though it's not exactly all chronological. Let's see... I almost tipped my car over going offroading a few weeks ago. I went onto a little side ridge road next to the real dirt road, and forgot I wasn't i. . .

Probably the pretties view we got on our adventures- photos never do it justice, though.

Widows and wolves and moose- oh my!

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08/27/2024

Well, I just had to go and get one more wild and crazy adventure in before the summer was over- and I think I succeeded.

It began Wednesday. Just after I got off work in the late afternoon, I picked up a few of my friends and we set out on a long and pleasant drive that would take us about 10 hours to get to Glacier National Park. It was mostly uneventful, with only a gas stop and a dinner stop on the way, plus switching drivers once or twice; but then there was the moment where,. . .

Evening at camp by the river, after the rains came through and made everything all the more green.

What goes up ... must look forward til tomorrow.

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08/20/2024

You let two weeks go by, and both the most amazing things and the worst things in awhile manage to come all out of the blue. Perhaps I should begin with the good- always a classic move, right- breaking the good news, first?

Well, I not only sang a duet that went really well in a large church even last weekend, but this last weekend, I got to sing at an acapella convention in a chorus- and it was really fun! I practiced well enough that I didn't totally screw up my part- which i. . .

This was a few hours worth of me saying, "Oh, it just needs a little more tension and support!" It didn't work.

Greener Grass - Of Sprinklers And of Hammocks

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08/05/2024

I can't deny, there's just something I really, honestly love about the summer months. And yet, at the same time, between the intense heat of this August and the boatload of projects I still have to do before the season sets in, it sometimes feels like I only get to enjoy so much of it. But let's be honest- I'm just so lucky that I get to, at all.

One of these fun projects came in the form of irrigation work at my house. I had noticed the front distribution box on my sprinklers w. . .

[NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART] Jut a few of the nests I found and destroyed.

Battling wasps and singing my brains out

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07/23/2024

Not at the same time, mind you... actually there might've been some mild singing involved, come to think of it... meh, whatever, why not both?

Yeah, it's been another fast and fun week in the life. On Thursday, I found myself rehearsing with a choral group I perform with (I'm pretty dang new, so I'm still learning a lot) and we practiced an arrangement of Bon Jovi's Livin' on a Prayer. As a tenor in that arrangement, there are some pretty stinkin' high notes to hit- and combine t. . .

A view not far away from where we camped in this slot canyon (this was the wider part of the canyon).

How much could possibly happen in three weeks?

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07/15/2024

So... it's been a few weeks. And what a few weeks it's been, man. What a few weeks it's been.

To say I've done some home fix-ups feels like an understatement. I've spent countless hours, sometimes long into the night installing and fixing things. Just in summary...

I built my wife an easel (from scratch materials) for painting.
I bought and setup a new TV that is as wide as I am tall.
I installed an intercom box by our door
I replaced our attic door ha. . .

A glorious sunrise over the... valley... wait........

That's no sun...

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06/26/2024

Some weeks, like the last, felt like they kept going on and on forever- and not in a good way. This week, on the other hand, felt like it was over all too soon.

I finally caught up on a couple of things that'd been on the frontburner of my to do list, one of which being that I ran the (almost) last two ethernet lines through my house, one to my backyard camera, and the other to my kitchen TV. It wasn't the hardest thing ever, but it required some crawling through a host, dry atti. . .

A view of the small town below, during a night hike as I was camping this last weekend

Just how many ladders did I walk under in a past life???

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06/19/2024

How do you describe a week in which some of the most unlucky, awful things happened to you and made you wish you were dead instead of having to deal with the aftermath, but also you got to get away, go camping, kayaking and in spite of the sheer insanity of bad luck, great things were accomplished? ...I don't think you really can. But I'll try, anyway.

I can't list off every single item of bad luck on here, lest this would become Pity Party - The Musical. Aside from rather prepo. . .

Alright, electricans- how many abominations can you count in one photo?

Leaky lines and electrical sins

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06/10/2024

It really finally feels like it's warming up to be a proper summer. ...and now it feels like it just jumped from perfect temperatures to scorching heat in no time at all. Well, that bodes well for the first week of June, right?

It's just been another good life in the week. Paying bills, buying thing to fix the house, and watching money go faster than it comes. One of my big projects this week was a leak in my sprinkler line. I've dealt with many of these in my life- but never . . .

A wonderful view, shortly before we ended our offroad trip, that day.

Off... by about 3 miles.

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06/04/2024

And summer is on! It's kind of weird to think that it's June already, and I'm still occasionally bringing my jacket with me to work in the mornings... honestly, not really needed, at this point, but they keep the office really chilled, sometimes... and putting that down into words makes me realize that it may be one of the most cushy first-world problems anyone could have.

It's been a nice week in my life. While I've still been quite busy with house work, I've also tried to be ca. . .

My amazing wife, running towards adventure.

From explore-the-coast-ing to hosting

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05/27/2024

From one adventure to another- I probably sound like a broken record with that idea, but it feels like life just keeps picking up and getting faster and faster, and there's just no time to enjoy it all. But I do.

We made it back safely from our northwest pacific vacation just fine, in spite of the timezone change and 12 hour drive. And we made it back one day before we had elected to host a whole bunch of family at our house for the weekend. And between the time we made it home . . .

The view from the top of the hill

Work Hard, play hard, and use a Craftsman Drill.

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05/22/2024

Nine times out of ten I like the privilege of being able to say I work hard all the time and hardly ever have time to goof off and play around. This week I get to claim both!

The hard working part of things, aside from the usual grind, comes from me installing a bathroom fan. Previously, I installed the unit itself and got it wired up and mounted. Thursday was the day I got the ventilation run. BOY was that an effort or ten. It's one thing to drill a normal hole through wood. . . .

A passing rainstorm at sunset

Look before you leap and check before you pour.

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05/13/2024

So I guess this the norm now- just keep forgetting to post every other week? Oh well.

If I began on every single thing I've done to fix up our first home in the last two weeks, I'd have enough to say to put everyone to sleep, so I'll only mention one of the more ambitious ones. I ran some ethernet line to one and a half places from my basement server rack. One I ran along the outside backyard wall to the lawn, ready to have it make a full 80-foot run to my shed, and the other on. . .

A relic of OLD audio technology. Don't ask where it originally came from... I don't fully know.

Routing wires and madness winding down... maybe.

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05/01/2024

A week later, I can say that by no means are we feeling like everything is all done and good (I don't think that feeling ever actually comes, because there's always something, right?), but we've unboxed most of our things and have done some basic stuff to get the house how we want it.

Probably the biggest task I took on was routing ethernet cables throughout the house. By that, I mean routing almost a dozen wires from my basement up to the attic through a small but sure gap around. . .

At a client's house... I... this decoration...

And we've moved!

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04/22/2024

So yeah, it's been two weeks, I know. And honest, it didn't have to be- we had minimal downtime network-wise, but MAN have I been a busy fella this week. Why?

Because we moved! I can't overstate enough how weird it is to think we actually own a home, now. I hardly need to even say anything about the state of it all right now, that for this beautiful (albeit old) home, I'm still fathoming the fact that we live in it and own it. With that said, moving was a hassle, as it always . . .

From sick to running

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04/09/2024

Well, I've spent the last two weeks sick as a dog, only to get better in time to move to a new house. As if I even needed to breathe.

Honestly, I don't have much to speak of in my life this week, aside from the fact we're moving into a new home. Even though our official moving day isn't until Saturday, I've already created enough turmoil to keep myself busy with no breaks. Frankly, I had considered moving more boxes this evening, but I'm glad I didn't- not only because my legs a. . .

I rewired this whole trailer, lights, wires, connectors and all.

Do you ever get that feeling of Deja Vu?

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04/01/2024

Those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. Usually that statement is applied to people who act hypocritically... but this time around, I'm going to apply it to my self last week, naively thinking life was all good and fine, and the worst things that could happen were servers getting destroyed temporarily. Oh, you poor unsuspecting fool.

So on Wednesday at work, I was just going through some documentation on a client and updating it, but I had noticed gradually that mo. . .

Oh me from a week ago, you have NO IDEA.

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03/26/2024

Those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. Usually that statement is applied to people who act hypocritically... but this time around, I'm going to apply it to my self last week, naively thinking life was all good and fine, and the worst things that could happen were little cheap LEDs burning out. Oh, you poor unsuspecting fool.

I imagine at this time, not a lot of regulars read this blog on a weekly basis- but for those who did happen to visit between the last few da. . .

That moment when you walk past a used book table and see a book you haven't seen since like the second grade!

Those who cannot remember the past...

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03/19/2024

I'm starting to understand better that maybe sufferings and pain must precede the good stuff in life. Why do I say that, you ask? Oh, only because we finally did the thing we've been fighting tooth and claw to accomplish for like two or three years and bought a house.

That's right! The same day I last submitted this blog entry, we put in an offer for a house. I was a little worried, because two other offers had already been put in; but against all odds, they accepted ours, and . . .

Just caught this photo tonight! A lovely dusk.

Ever feel like you got stabbed in the mouth over and over?

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03/11/2024

This week is about the good, the bad and the ugly.

Let's start off with the good. I finished spending somewhere in the vicinity of 50-100 hours on editing a concert and it's finally a refined and proper listening experience! The hard, emotionally tiring process it was to complete that was something I hadn't anticipated. It wasn't the hardest thing I've ever done by any stretch, but it certainly didn't spare me on being a difficult task. But the feeling of accomplishment I have . . .

I caught a nice, beautiful late winter sunset!

T, B, P, D, F and sometimes H are the letters of evil!

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03/04/2024

There's no moment quite like when your in the dentist chair, halfway through getting a filling done on a root canal, and the doctor addresses you by name, asking a question... but the name he addresses you by isn't yours... .........? .................!

Laughing aside, that actually did happen to me this week, though everything went just fine. And for the most part, nothing else big happened this week. No, most of my time has been filled up on editing a recording I've put off for. . .

Why did I never get a fifth grade eduation like this?

With all due respect, that might've been the worst play I've ever seen.

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02/27/2024

What sums up a week in late February like a random tech miracle, a bad play, and the game monopoly? ...I don't know the answer to that.

Nor do I know the answer to what happened last week. I had spent hours and hours on a project to setup a PBX phone server for a new client. While that would normally be a fairly quick and easy project (more or less), we ran into an issue as we were setting up their physical handsets. And to simply what was hours and hours of narrowing things do. . .

This was only about 2/3 of the stuff I disassembled in my car to look for those wires that didn't exist.

Copper sulfate... not good for the eyes... got it.

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02/19/2024

It really isn't every week I can say I disassembled most of the interior of my car, rehearsed some grand choral numbers and burned my eyes in the same two days... but hey, that's just my life.

So yeah, life was interesting this weekend. I decided on Saturday, after the last parts arrived, to take on the task for which reason I ordered them- to add steering wheel controls to my 2006 Xterra. I was most anxious about disassembling the steering wheel, but that proved to be quite a lo. . .

One pretty view from my snowmobiling trip

Was it worth it, all for a little blue light?

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02/13/2024

Well, it was indeed a fun weekend. We took a couple of extra days off to enjoy a weekend away in the mountains in a rented cabin and with snowmobiles.

And it was about as costly as you'd imagine, but not that bad divided up amongst the seven of us that went. We had a great time; we watched movies, soaked in a hot tub, ate delicious meals, shredded some fine snow, and only sunk and tipped very rarely. It was nice introducing my sister to the sport for the first time, and she was . . .

One of the many cool displays at this exhibit!

Dragons exist.

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02/05/2024

Look at me, actually remembering to and having bandwidth to post on my usual designated day! Better celebrate now, it's bound not to last.

I think between now and the last time I posted, there was really only one big interesting thing that I did, and that was visit a rather unusual museum/exhibit. This exhibit was a large section of a large mall, and was themed after the idea of "dreams". I would describe the decor and interactive elements as what it would look like if a mega-ho. . .

A simple, pretty evening moonrise in late January.

When you literally get in trouble for being unlucky

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01/31/2024

You know the winter is starting to feel long and unbearable when you find yourself being talked to at work by your manager because... you are... unlucky...?

Although I'm kind of joking, that is seriously how my Wednesday last week went. I came into work, and my manager sat me down and talked with me about how things keep breaking... and they always seem to happen around me. That's almost verbatim how it started, ...and I was kind of at a loss of words. I always joked about how b. . .

You are confronted by a formidable server rack in a dark alley. What do you do next?

Wait a little season

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01/23/2024

Ladies and gentlemen, we've hit that time of year when things are about as slow as slow gets. This last week, however fine, was pretty boring.

I think the only thing of note was last night, in fact. During the day, a client had reported their internet had gone out. Found out the UniFi USG router's power brick had gone bad... and it's by far not the first one I've seen, unfortunately. But it was the first one I saw that bricked the USG itself, after replacing it. But, as I've t. . .

My flashlight-turned-microphone from high school! ...There's a long story to this one.

Ask yourself: WWDQD?

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01/16/2024

Have you ever wondered, what would be the best way to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr day? Would it be to do service for someone, or maybe learn more about history and cultures? Or maybe get a root canal, or perhaps take time to visit a local- wait, what was that last one?

Yeah, I had a root canal yesterday, hence my day-late posting. You know, surprisingly, despite the hype it gets, it was a relatively painless process. The worst part of it was the numbing, and then a weird pi. . .

Not super great, but a nice sunset shot I got, today.

Wait, did that actually happen?

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01/08/2024

It's funny how this is considered the "slow" time of year for me at work- and yet I'm running to and fro with my hands full and then some. Go figure.

My wife and I decided to pick up a copy of Wii Sports Resort and borrow my brother's console. I think the both of us had only ever played it just a little at a friend's house back in the day, so neither of us were super well-versed in it, but from our first gaming session last week, we had a fun blast! It was really a good, solid g. . .

A very cursed pencil sharpener I saw this last week.

May it be a light to you in dark places...

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01/02/2024

Sometimes the season hits you fast. And this year was no exception... and neither were the seasonal blues, as well.

I am normally all about being an open book and sharing some of my deepest hopes and fears... but as I've said before, moderation in all things is important to keep a balanced life- and that philosophy needs to be heavily applied to my thoughts from this last week. Let's just say the 27th and the 28th were not great emotionally... and I would go so far as to say perh. . .