My Lego Adventure

The other day I was sitting in my spare room watching some TV when I noticed a small movement in the corner of my eye. There on the floor was a piece of a circuit board. As I watched it, the piece move slowly, haltingly, like something was struggling to move it or rather that whatever was moving had the piece stuck to its back.

    I picked up the piece and found several ants clinging to it. I thought it was curious and so replaced it on the floor and let them struggle with it. I'd seen ants try to move large piece of nacho cheese Dorito in a group once. I watched them for a little while longer and lost interest.

    It was a short while later when I noticed another set of ants, or perhaps it was the same ones, but they had another piece of circuit board. Now they had my interest and I watched to see where they were going, well at least I checked on their progress during the commercial breaks.

They went behind the end table I had and so I pulled it out. There behind the table I found a whole mass of ants assembling hundreds of small circuit boards into a pile. There was an AC adapter in the outlet there that I don't remember what it went to, but it now had the cable connecting to the ant's pile. I left them alone to continue what they were doing.

It didn't occur to me to wonder where all the circuit board pieces were coming from, but later that night the idea came to me that it might be from some of my projects. I build computers from spare, used or new parts and give them to friends and family. I have dozens of odd pieces of outdated equipment. I have video, sound, and network cards, and even a few old modems which I don't even use anymore. I was too tired to do anything about it then and figured I would check in the morning.

I woke well rested. When I looked at my clock I saw why I had slept in a hour and a half later than I usually would. Luckily it was the weekend. It was strange that my alarm had not gone off. My clock I use has an alarm but I don't like it. I use the one in my PDA as it works well to wake me up and isn't annoying.

As I was getting myself ready for the day I remembered the ants and went to check on their progress. They definitely had been busy during the night. What had just been a pile of circuit board, now resemble a small city seen from far above. The whole thing had a slight glow to it. This city was certainly powered up. This concerned me quite a bit. What in the world was going on? I wondered; the AC adapter was still connected. I unplugged it and the glow faded away. Hundreds of ants came running out of the structure. Not really thinking I stomped on their little city. It stuck to my bare foot and now the ants were crawling up my leg. I shook it off and it bounced to the floor. I was freaked out and tried wiping the ants off my foot and leg. They mostly dropped away once the city was back on the ground, but I still jumped around like an idiot, goose bumps running up and down my arms and shoulders. I didn't see any more ants on my leg and I began to calm down.

I saw the ants were all moving back towards their little city. Soon they had surrounded it and the whole structure slowly moving back to where it had been. OK, I thought, now what do I do? I thought about it quick moment and picked up my cell phone to call my brother. When I picked it up I noticed the heft of it wasn't right. I tried to turn it on and nothing happened. They didn't, I thought, they couldn't have, I wondered. I pulled of the back cover and the battery was still there, but behind it where I could usually see a portion of the circuit board, it was gone. I could see how they could have removed it, but it was certainly gone. I grabbed my PDA remembering that the alarm had not gone off either. It too didn't feel right. Now I was ticked off. I wasn't about to have them crawling up my arms if I tried to pick up their city. I needed to get out of there and get some help. One smart thing I thought to do before leaving was to turn off all my circuit breakers. No more free electricity for you, I vented at them. I grabbed my keys and my shoes and left.

I crossed town to my brother's place and after some explaining I got him to come. He didn't really seem to believe me but I'd convinced him to at least check it out.

When we got back to my place I took him to where the ants had been. They were gone. I'd been gone for only an hour, where could they have gone. I looked around but could find nothing. I showed him my cell phone and the PDA. He had a strange look like this is a lot to go through for a practical joke. I understood what he was thinking. I stood there thinking where could they be and then saw what I was looking for. My heart skipped a beat. My computer! NOT MY COIMPUTER! I shouted in my head. I had my own super fast, lightning quick, mega, ultra, blue LED, sweet, awesome computer sitting on the floor under my desk. Next to it, against the wall was my battery backup system. I could squeeze a couple hours of gaming out of that battery backup, before I would usually need to shut down. I could now see several wires that hadn't been there before running to that little city I had been looking for. Only now I noticed that instead of typical green or yellow-brown circuit board, there was a large amount of red. The very color my computer's motherboard consisted of. My heart cringed when I saw it, but knew it was too late. I dropped to my knees and pointed. My brother got a puzzled look on his face and then followed my pointing finger.

"What the…," he said under his breath and stepped closer. "There's got to be thousands of them. Is that part of your…?"

"Uh-hunh," I replied.

"I thought you said they were just ants?!?" he wondered out loud. "There's some bigger what look like black beetles too."

I got closer and could see the beetles he had seen. He bent over and picked one up before I could stop him.

"Strange," he said. "It's changed into what looks like a Lego."

Confused I looked at the thin piece pinched between his fingers and it certainly looked like a Lego piece. I looked around my room to a shelf where once had been a few dust covered Lego creatures I had built several years ago. They were gone. I looked closer and could see faint trails in the dust and the outlines of where my creations had been.

"What are these things?!" I blurted out as I looked back at the little city that glowed slightly.

My brother quirked, "I don't know, but I'm going to get some pictures." He took out his own cell phone and took some pictures. He took a video of the beetle that changed to its Lego shape when he picked it up. "Now what do we do?"

"How should I know? They certainly don't teach you what to do in IT school or boy scouts for things like this. Why don't you send the pics and the video to your wife? She could at least put it on YouTube. They don't seem to want to cause any harm. They didn't even bite me when I stomped on their city earlier or when I was wiping them off me. What is a beetle that turns into a Lego, going to do to you?"

"I'm going to turn the power back on so they don't keep draining my battery. I've got some old circuit cards they may not have found up in my closet. Hopefully that will keep them from spreading to my living room and my electronics down there. I noticed they were still working when we came back from your place.

 

 

During the next few days the city had double in size. There are more of the beetles now. They seem to have stopped using the circuit boards and are now using plastics to build. I've dug out all kinds of old plastic bottles, and food containers. They use it up fairly quick and seem to be content with just the things I give them. The beetles are no longer just black; they seem to keep the color of the plastics I've been giving them. I'm running out plastic though, at least the plastic I don't need. I wonder what they would do if I tried to move them. I'll see what happens if I take just a few of the ants and beetles.

I put them in a glass jar just as if they were the bugs they seem to be. Now to see what happens when I take them somewhere where there is lots of plastic, the city dump.

So far; so good, I think as I arrive at the city's dump. The bugs seemed happy to work on the "food" I put in the jar with them. The ants are nearly twice the size they were and seem ready to pop. I parked to one side of the facility where I was mostly out of sight. I opened the jar and let them slide out. I watched as they scurried off in different directions. The ants I noticed seemed to split in half just before they were lost from sight.

Quicker than I thought the plastics nearby seemed to disappear. Soon I could see hundreds of the beetles. They were clearing a section near a power pole. Several wires spiraled together in a kind of rope, were stretched up the pole and connected to the power lines. Then things really started to happen. A new structure began to be built at the base of the power pole. It stretched through the chain link fence and even formed around the links. On the other side of the fence I couldn't see what was going on, but I could hear things being moved around. Just slight scuffling sounds, but my imagination got the better of me and I began to panic. What if these creatures weren't as benign as I thought? Too late to do anything about it and so I went home.

When I got home I could hear a phone ringing inside my house. I opened the door and went inside. It was my cell phone. I picked it up and it was my brother. He was worried that he hadn't been able to reach me since last night. I told him what I had done and he told me what had happened on YouTube. There had been several hundred thousand hits on the video and then the link they had put to the pictures on Flicker was shut down because of the high traffic. He was half expecting a knock on their door anytime from some men in black.

Well I let him know that whatever happens, it's too late to stop it. The proverbial cat is out of the bag and in a place of plenty.

I then noticed my PDA light was flashing. I picked it up and turned it on. It was working too. I quickly glanced over towards my computer. The old parts I'd given to the bugs were back in their boxes. I looked to my dusty shelf. My Lego creatures were back where they were, minus the dust that had covered them. I swung my gaze back to my computer. I could see the gleaming red motherboard through the clear side covers. There were also several glass jars teaming with the ants. I think they are ready to go I thought. Everything is back where they had found it, though I don't know how.

I put the jars in a box a drove them back to the City dump. A line of cars were at the entrance but I made my way past them to the side where I'd let the other bugs out. I let the ants go free at the power pole. I noticed there was a much fresher smell to the air than had been there earlier.

I drove back up to the entrance and glanced into the yard. What I saw was not what I expected. I saw a bright green field of grass. No, it wasn't grass it looked more Lego-y. From a distance I could barely see the block shapes to the field, but it certainly wasn't quite all rounded. I could see a white picket fence being put together, but there was no one doing it and it was going up much faster than any person or persons could do. It was then I noticed the blocks were not just appearing but were being flown into place. I got out of my car and could see that all the other cars were empty too.

Several dozen people were just standing around watching things being built. In the far distance I could see what remained of the dump as it had been earlier today. There was still more than three quarters of the place still looking like a dump but it was slowly disappearing. In its place was a growing field of green. Then what looks like a blue pond appeared. It filled with crystal clear water, and now there where multi colored Lego fish swimming in it. I was watching the spectacle dumbfounded when a local TV camera crew arrived and stared broadcasting live. This was getting big I thought.

The road coming into what could hardly be called a dump now connected with the greenery. The road continued on and the green now became a blacktop road, smooth and glistening, with bright yellow dashes spitting the road in two. A brick red structure began to be built in the distance at the edge of what was left of the dump. More than half of it converted. The structure became a house, human sized. Trees began to grow and out stretched the branches which were soon covered by Lego leaves. Flowers blossomed in the flowerbeds. A tire swing now hung from the tree. A black iron fence formed around the house marking its boundaries. I was surprised that this fence actually did look like iron and not Lego. They're branching out I thought, literally.

Before long there were other houses, and a playground. After a while I began to realize I must have been there for hours. I looked around and there were hundreds of people standing around. I realized my feet were tired and I made my way to where the real grass became Lego grass. I said out loud that I could use a nice park bench to sit on. No sooner had I said it than it started to form in a nice slate color. Once completed, I sat down and relaxed. I then noticed everyone else was staring at me. I shrugged my shoulders and smiled and stretched my arms and legs. I settled back into the bench. Others now began to move out onto the shiny black road towards the house. The white picket fence kept them off the grass.

Before too many people headed down the road a toll booth appeared with a drop arm. A sign on the arm asked to please wait your turn. A couple dozen people had already passed the booth and continued on. All of them were adults.

The far end of what used to be the dump became a forest of Lego trees and shrubs. Three houses had been built and a playground. A tall man walked over to the tire swing at the first house and looked it over. He pulled on the ropes holding it in place and then tested his weight by hanging from it. The tire swing was a little low for him but as he climbed in, the ropes shortened. He sat down and began to swing. His feet didn't drag at all; it was the perfect height for him.

Several of the other adults made their way to the playground. Things there seemed to fit each one perfectly too. The crossbars that had been too low for one person had risen in height so her feet were just far enough off the ground. A swing that at first was too narrow for one stocky guy, extended so it fit him fine.

One of the others was from a TV station and was with her camera guy. She began to report on what they were seeing happen and how this place seemed too good to be true. They went into one of the houses. The ceiling and roof were clear in parts and let in plenty of light. The bedrooms had windows and shutters and a solid ceiling keeping out most of the light. There were couches and chairs and tables, but not yet any personal amenities.

 

I began to wake up after that. I guess there's never a dull moment in my head while I'm dreaming.

Is this on Earth? If so, I want to go there!

My older sister and I had been hiking down a well worn path through the forest. The scenery reminded me of the Northwestern US. Most likely Oregon since that is where I'm from, but the rest of the dream is unlike any place I’ve ever heard of or seen. I can understand why it was such a tourist attraction… I’m getting ahead of the storyline so back to me and my sister.

We were following the well worn path. To either side the brush was thick with grasses, ferns, stinging nettle, probably some ivy… anyway it was pretty much impenetrable to the average hiker. The trees were a ways back and the path seemed quite open. We continued on down the trail. I seem to remember the feeling of being followed but it was just in the back of my mind and didn’t really come to the surface. I just didn’t have any desire to return the way we had come. Eventually we came to a fork in the road. Down one branch we could see that the patch had been washed out by a stream that was still flowing briskly. Down the other were several smaller trickles where the other stream had at one point crested and began to flow down that direction too. We weren’t about to try crossing the larger stream and turned to follow down the trail with the couple smaller flows. They were easy enough to stay out of.

As we headed down our chosen lane we ran into more little streams merging with the ones we had followed. In the distance we could hear a low roar. We both assumed it must be a waterfall and continued onwards being careful to stay on the high ground. The sound of thunderous water came clearer as we went on. The bushes, shrubs and trees gave way to open sky and we enter a magical valley of vast waterfalls. Not just one or two but hundreds as far as I could see. The walls of the cliffs were broken and layered giving the water cascades of iridescent drops that sparkled away into the mist. I saw where the stream we had avoided sprang into the open air and fell hundreds of feet to the river below.

I thought there could be nothing more amazing, but little did I know, but the waterfalls were just a small part of this magical place. We continued down the trail that now was joined by others. There we people in groups being led to certain areas among the cliffs where the stopped and one person, the one obviously leading them, began to explain what they were seeing at that area. There we amazing beautiful crystals and colored rocks in strange formations. Some looked as if they just sprung from the ground. Others were as intricate as lace. My sister and I avoided the groups. We had been here before and had our destination in mind. We took a shortcut through what must have been an ancient lava tube that was perfectly smooth as if someone had carved the passage through the stone.

There began to more and more people and we knew we were near our destination. We found an empty stair case leading upwards and began our ascent. We came out in a large cavern that opened to the sky at the far end and overlooked the waterfalls. The end of the cavern we were in had dozen of tables and display cases filled with hundreds of different colors of rocks and crystals and probably some gemstones as well. Peopled milled around looking at the many varieties excited at what they could do with their purchases. We made our way through them to the open area which contained the rock pools. This was a site to see. Thousands of varieties were each in their own pool. The pools were used to refine the rocks and smooth them in a more natural way. Jets of air would sift the rocks against each other occasionally spitting one a foot or so into the air. It made quite a racket but with the waterfalls nearby it just added to mystical nature of the area, but this still wasn’t our final destination. As we snaked our way through the people we ran into our Mom who was enjoying one of other treats found here. Some of the pools were made so you could walk out into them and you would sink half way past your knees in the rocks. The rocks were constantly being shifted by the air from underneath which created just enough movement to allow someone to walk through them. It is slow going but you can slowly work your way out and sit with all these little rocks bouncing against each other and against the person sitting there. It can be quite an incredible and relaxing massage. Mom was in line for her turn.

As we circled around the rock pools we caught our first glimpse of the area the "younger” crowd generally comes to see, the water slides. The ancient lava flows have been carved out and smooth by thousands of years or running water. There were people everywhere, but we had our own little known place that we had found and that was our destination.

My Steampunk Adventure

There was more to the beginning of my dream, but it escaped me shortly after I woke. The first I remember now is that I had need to go visit my friend who was quite an eccentric builder of strange instruments, well beyond my understanding. I seemed to know that the time period was closer to that of the late 19^th century rather than my current one of the early 21^st.

As I made my way through the swamp, for I remember having to walk on a strange sort of wooden trail, somewhat rickety so even the surest footed man would need something to keep him upright as he followed it amongst the buildings. Luckily someone had thought of that and had developed a system that you held onto as you made your way down the path. I only remember it being a board that hung down and I held onto it. The trail wobbled quite often and I lost my footing many times but as long as I held onto the board I remained upright and could re-balance myself and continue onward. The wooden path was not nearly as tall as the swamp grass but easily followed. As I made my way down the trail at night, I seemed to be able to tell that there were a multitude of creatures hidden in the swamp grass below me. A majority were snakes.

I arrived at my destination and I called out to my friend. I somehow knew he would be in this certain workshop of his and as I opened the entryway upward I was surprised to see the wall of a wooden device staring back at me. It was varnished to a high shine and seemed to almost glow. I made my way around it and was greeted by my friend. I noticed the contraption then in its whole entirety. It was a boat with strange metal boxes and pipes. I knew it must be some sort of engine. How I knew it was an engine seemed to come from the fact it was built on the back end of this curious looking boat. Rather than a propeller it had two large enclosed fans that were extended to either side of the back of the boat. They could be controlled in a way that they could be tilted forward and backward. Thus I knew that they were what steered the boat.

My friend greeted me and began to tell me about his newest invention. I only heard half of what he said as I continued to examine this wonderful craft. The first thing that sunk in was him telling me he had wanted to do some more fine tuning on the boat over the next couple days but that she was more than ready for a trial run and he asked if I wanted to take it out with him. I whole heartedly agreed and was as excited as I could ever remember being.

The next I remember was sitting inside the boat as he released the controls and the floor the boat rested on began to lower. It was a wooden floor made of multiple sections that as they lowered the boat began to tilt forward and slide. In seconds we escaped the confines of his workshop and he started the engine. It was extremely quiet compared to the revving of the fans. Somehow I knew the engine ran on the power of steam rather than the modern day fuel of combustion.

It was still night out but the sky was clear and the stars were bright. I don’t remember seeing the moon. I felt the wind on my face as we accelerated into the night. The swamp grass did nothing to impede us as we sped out into open water. For several minutes we zoomed around and around testing the maneuvering of the boat. I was thoroughly enjoying the night air rushing around us, but sooner than I wanted we were heading back to the shop. He mentioned something over the roar of the fans about it building up too much pressure in the engine and needed to get it checked out and something about it possibly exploding if it wasn’t released. I was all for it not exploding. I left him to it and made my way out of the workshop.

I next remember being in his study. It was a cozy corner of the room I headed towards that had a high backed brown leather chair that looked very comfortable and which I quickly learned was as comfortable as I imagined when I sat down. Books and papers and designs were piled on nearly every table and desk. He began telling me of his pressure problem in the boat’s engine and I interrupted and joking said that it sounded like it needed to fart. He got this faraway look and I knew our conversation would be short now that he was back in design mode. I guess my joke was somewhat of an answer after all.

The next part of the story ended when I awoke from my dream and could have been quite an adventure but as we all know, a dream must end sometime. Sometimes our lives are like dreams and we always hope for that happily ever after. I’m still looking and dreaming of mine.

I went to meet my friend out near the river. He and his wife were there as well as another young lady I unfortunately don’t remember much of, just that I knew she was a friend of his wife. Built on this spit of land was sort of a park and my friend was there working on another wooden contraption. This new construct suspended a rather large kite looking object. I knew it to be some kind of glider that you could be strapped below and float on cushions of air, but it was more streamlined and angular, closer to a large paper airplane. We were nowhere near any cliffs that this could be launched from. As I approached I saw that his wife was harnessing herself beneath the glider. I knew her to be quite an adventuring sort and new she was very excited to be part of whatever her husband had created. As I came closer I saw that he had in his hands a long tube open on one end and a pointed cap at the top. He was attaching it to the glider. His back was too me as I approached and before I could get there he ignited what I then saw to be a rocket and shortly afterwards the propulsion launched the glider up his wooden supports. His wife’s feet left the ground as she was propelled into the air. I could hear the excitement in her voice as she soared out above the river. Suddenly there was a shift in the wind and I knew a storm had come. I looked towards the glider and saw that it had been sharply turned from its previous course. It looks like she had wanted to turn and return to the park but the strong winds instead took her further out over open water and towards the large lake that the river emptied into. I could already see that the water was becoming rough because of the wind. Instantly I thought of my friend’s boat. I knew he was thinking the same thing as we both ran in that direction. His workshop was not far, but I also knew that his wife was not wearing any floatation device, so she was in quite a bit of danger. I somehow knew my friend had fixed the pressure problem so that was no need for worry. The thing we worried about was getting to her in time hopefully before she was forced to land in the lake.

It was there that I woke up. Danger is often one of things to wake me from dreams. I think that is why I have never really sought much adventure or extreme sports in my younger days. I have always had plenty adventure in my dreams. I would always find away to escape the danger in my dream or wake from it. I found this dream fascinating enough to want to put words to it. Maybe this is something I will do more of as I seem to be having more of these dreams and can remember much of them as I awake. I’ll post this one on my blog and see what the response is, not that I get many visits. Especially since it has been more than a year, since my last post.

Until my next adventure...

It's been a while so I want make a quick update.

I've made it to Portland, and have since moved to Vancouver. Got a real nice place out in the Orchards area. Glinda, Keith and I are sharing it together. I moved in at the beginning of March. Glinda & Keith moved their things the last couple Saturdays in March. I still need a couple more furniture items and I'll be set. plus I have a few more things to clean out at my parents place.

I am working for Integra now at their Vancouver office. I started there back in mid January. I am enjoying it a lot and they are keeping me busy. They have me doing several projects to help with the merger. Mainly handling some of the domain and web hosting issues. Eventually they will finish training me on their systems so I can begin taking calls for Integra instead of just the Unicom calls.

Shoot me an email when you get a chance and I can give you my new home phone number. My cell number will stay the same until probably September. I hope to update this more often. Thanks for checking it as often as you have. See you soon.

I could be back to Portland soon

My employment has changed somewhat over the last few months, but not really much has changed for my job. At the end of March, Unicom was bought by the Eschelon Telecom, Inc. We had learned a few weeks earlier that another company was about to buy out Eschelon. The new company was Integra Telecom. We had several months of meetings and announcements of the impending buy-out. The merger closed on August 31st, 2007. I am now an Integra Telecom employee working out of the Unicom office.
For a while it was a possibility that I might be able to stay in Bend and work for a local network and computer repair/consulting company call AccTech Solutions, Inc. This would have been great and would have put me right on track for doing what I went to school for. They would have helped me to get and/or finish my certifications towards becoming a Network Engineer. As it came down to it, they were in need of a Cisco Engineer, and I did not have those skills yet. They found someone that did.
So as it turns out, Integra has their support staff in Vancouver, WA. They told me shortly after the buy-out that they would have some openings there as things began to settle down. Most likely next spring. Last week I was told by my supervisor that they are going to need someone there much sooner, probably before the end of November. I told my supervisor I was ready to go whenever they would like. Living in Vancouver would be great. I'll most likely get a nice raise, and if I live in Vancouver, no more state income tax. (So kind of another raise) I'll be back close to family again and Ican keep up with all my nieces & nephews who I miss a bunch.
I moved back from Reno just in time for Shirey's wedding last time. This time I might have moved back in time for Rosanne's.
Other than work, nothing much has happened here. I did have a great Birthday though. Chris Angie, and Pria got here the Friday night before. We went out to the Roadhouse Grill and got to throw peanut shells on the floor. The next morning we ate at Shari's (I think) and went looking for a camera shop. Got to see quite a bit of Bend. We went and saw Tumalo Falls that afternoon. Angie took a bunch of, I'm sure, great pictures. We soaked our feet in the freezing cold water down below the bridge. Angie is the champion for leaving her feet in the longest. We got back in the Yeti and drove back to town and relaxed the late afternoon away.
We had some tacos for dinner at my cousin Randy's and then made our way to Pilot Butte to watch the sunset. Pria had fun running all around the top of it. Angie made fun of all the people using a flash when trying to take pictures of the sunset. We stayed well past sunset and watched as the lights of Bend began to come on. Angie took many more pictures. (I hope to see some when I'm back in town.) Back at the hotel we ate some snacks while waiting for my parents to get in to town.
They got to their hotel about 11 that night. On my drive home I decided to stop by. We talked and got caught up and then the next morning we met out at Jake's Diner for breakfast with Chris, Angie, and Pria. No one went away hungry.
Glinda and Keith got into town just as we were finishing up. C, A, & P had to head back so Chris could go to work. The rest of us went for a nice drive around following "The Lakes" loop. Got back that evening and drove to Redmond for my Birthday dinner. We ate at Madeline's Mexican Restaurant. Best Mexican food in the area. Glinda and Keith were just here for the day so they headed back after dinner.
I took Mom & Dad up to Pilot Butte but we got there just after sunset. I was a little cloudy which made a beautiful sunset. Dad started talking to a guy and he had their camera with all their pictures from their Alaskan trip. Surprisingly the guy went through all 240+ pictures. The next morning we went to church. The Bend Stake was being reorganized and Elder Scott was there to officiate. Afterwards we had some lunch and went to the High Desert Museum. It was a lot bigger than I thought it would be. I would have enjoyed it better not being in my Sunday clothes, but it was a lot of fun. Definitely would like to go back again. Mom and Dad headed back after that. I made it over to Randy's for our usual Sunday dinner/movie night. Got a good night sleep and was back to work Monday morning. A busy weekend, but a lot of fun.
I'll be happy back close to family again. I'll keep you all informed of when that might be. See ya.

Oh, great. This is going to be like shooting baskets with Magic Johnson watching. [Bill Pullman on watching Independence Day with President Clinton]

I hope that you had a good Independence Day Celebration. I spent most of the day trying to beat the heat. I rolled into town that afternoon to get a bite to eat and had a little excitement of my own. My car has been making some awful sounds and I couldn't find where it was coming from. Well I finally found out. While waiting in line at the Bell my car started screeching and getting louder. There was nothing much I could do while stuck in line. I made it through and drove down the road to where I could pull off. Popped the hood and still couldn't tell. I figured I better get back home. About two blocks later I heard a thump and all went quiet, all except the engine, and it sounded normal. I came to a stop sign and then started to turn towards home and the power steering wasn't working. I figured my power steering pump had gone out. I strong-armed my way towards home and gave Randy a call. Told him the issue and he said we could fix it this Saturday. He was online and quickly gave me the bad news as to how much it world cost me. $85 for the pump and a $45 core charge. I wasn't happy about that, but at least I could get my car running right again.

I got home and ate my lunch and continued to try to beat the heat. I had my fan on high trying to circulate the air and help me survive the afternoon. I didn't want to run my computer as it puts out quite a bit of heat on its own. So I tried reading. I got a couple chapters read but started falling asleep in my chair but would wake every few minutes to wipe the sweat off my face. That wasn't working so I broke out the laptop. It puts out heat but not as much as my other. Played a bit of Simpson's Hit and Run until it was almost 10. I had heard that Bend had the largest fireworks display in Oregon and they set it off from the top of Pilot Butte, an old cinder cone in the middle of Bend. You can see it from any high point in the city and from the lookout you can see all of Bend.

The fireworks started at 10 and so I took off and drove to the Forum ( A shopping center not far from the butte) There were quite a few others in lawn chairs watching the show. While I was parking I noticed some lights on the south side of the butte and thought they might be having some kind of display/show going on there. Turns out the fireworks caught the butte on fire. News report says about 3 acres. I heard also that it was about 6 acres. They had fire crews on hand so It was under control/out at about midnight. The fireworks though were preety good. When the big ones went off it shook the ground. It took about 3 seconds from when they burst until the sound reached us and echoed off the buildings, setting off a few car alarms.

Back to my car, when I got to the forum I noticed some steam coming out from my car. I popped the hood and the serpentine belt was loose. There wasn't much I could do there and the car had cooled off fine, but I waited until the traffic was pretty much gone and drove home, which is only 5 min from the Forum. I woke up early this morning as I wasn't sleeping too well anyways. It was about 5:30 and I kept wondering what I should do about my car. I still wasn't exactly sure what the problem was. My mind kept going in a loop and I wasn't going back to sleep, so I got dressed, grabbed my tools, and went out to check the car.

It was 6 am and still nice and cool (I wish it was in the house). The sun was up and I had plenty of light to work. I could see the belt had off of the pulleys and one of them was very loose and wasn't turning too easily. I wasn't sure what it controlled and thought to go get my laptop and see what I could find online. I eased the hood shut and shut the car's door and reached into my pocket...no keys, I had just locked them in and I had locked the house door on my way out. I guess someone else would be getting an early start too. I walked up to the door, turned around and started back to my car. I didn't want to have to wake Delores up. Changed my mind again and rang the doorbell. The house doesn't have a regular doorbell with a simple ding-dong, it's a rapid bell almost like a buzzer and easily wakes you out of a sound sleep. I stood and waited putting on the most apologetic face I could. Silence at first, and then her dog Buster started yipping, soon he was barking, and shortly after that she came to the door. I apologized and she mumbled about getting up anyways to open the doors to let in some cool air.

I got my spare keys and my laptop and made my way back outside, checking to see if I could find what the part is that's loose. I couldn't find anything that resembled it, checking several parts stores, google images, anything that I could think of. No luck. I gave up and decided to close up the car, but first wanted to see if I could get the belt back on and confirm my suspicions. It took me a couple minutes to figure it out and got it back on. I started up the car and the squealing was back but I also had my power steering. I shut it off and went back inside. Tried finding the part again and not succeeding. I still had a couple more hours before I actually had to get up and so tried gong back to sleep and succeeded marginially.

I got up and got ready for work, in fact I was running about 1/2 hour earlier than I normally do. I went out to my car debating as to whether I should call in or go ahead and drive. I chose the latter. The car squealed as I drove off. I was almost to Empore Blvd when it stopped squealing. Now comes the test... I've got about anothe 10 minutes of driving before I got to work. I decided I had gone that far, I would go the rest. I got to work and the gauge was showing only a little hotter than normal. Again a bit of steam came out, but nothing gushing.

I went in and told my boss the situation and that I could use a ride to the parts store later. He decided to take me right then. We went to Schucks and talked to the guy at the counter. I explained what it was that there were four bolts holding it in place, and he brought out some pulleys. They were'nt right. We got a parts book out and found a ggod diagram. He said it looks like the water pump cover ( I forget what he called it exactly, but my dad will know) He says when the shaft of the water pump goes back it will often become loose and sloppy. That's what mine was. They had the pump in stock and it cost me just $41.99. I bought it and we drove back to work. We even got back in time for me to clock in on schudule. So now is the waiting game. Randy won't be able to help me put it in until Saturday (Actually we do a trade off, he does the mechanical work and I do the computer work) So I just have to keep it from over heating until then. Only short trips to and from work. The weather isn't helping. ( We hit 102 degrees today) It'll be back to the 80's by Saturday we hope and I should be ready for my trip back to Portland next weekend.

See you soon.

When you give a lesson in meanness to a critter or a person, don't be surprised if they learn their lesson - Will Rogers

We had a little "critter" visit us in the little area behind our office. Added a little bit of excitement to an otherwise dull, and quiet day. We tossed out some chips and some pretzels but he was a bit to timid to check them out. I got a couple pictures though. Quality isn't good. If I moved towards the window he would hide in the pallets and had to use the digital zoom on my camera to get a close enough shot. I took these sitting in my chair at my desk.

We also get quite a few birds visiting us just about every day. It's kind of nice, we have a whole wall of windows to look out. It's mostly just the parkway that we look out onto, but since spring and summer arrived we've got crttiers and wild flowers to brighten up the area.

I'm trying to keep my camera with me more often so when the opportunites happen I can snap a few. I was locking up the building a few weeks ago and had four young deer walk across the back of ourparking lot. My camera was in my car. They were gone by the time I came back out.