My Story Of Life

There's so much I want to get done. There is so much that gets in the way.

That will need to change.

Well, I am back from Redding. It was an interesting trip in which I learned a lot about the machinery we use and what we actually do as a company. I think I have quite a bit to go off of - at least for a little while. Hopefully it will be enough to make a difference in how the safety code is written. If not, there is always the mounds of plans that I took home from the office there....

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gatorbuoy and I watched I Am Legend tonight; it is interesting watching the film with the techniques I studied in class. Even with my scrutinizing eye, I think the film passes - although I certainly like the alternate ending much better....

It has been a wonderful Father's Day. Grandpa spoke at our Sacrament Meeting, and he and Grandma were able to spend some time in Gospel Doctrine class. It was wonderful listening to their participation in the class. I am glad that we live close enough that we be apart of each other's ward activities.

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Tonight for Father's Day most of the W. family met at the grandparent's house for a celebratory time together. This was one of the last chances I had to spend with these wonderful people; and it's interesting seeing how each of the relationships I have had with these people have changed. How much closer have we gotten, and how much has changed since we were little toddlers running on that same lawn!

I haven't really contemplated how different being on a mission will be; that is something I can think about should I ever go up to Redding.

Whew... concrete piers are in. Three pretty busy days of work have ended, and hopefully a short respite is in order before we plug ahead with the next step. But today was another one of those days where another large barrier is crossed.

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Some days I really come to understand just how much I appreciate my family - who they are and what they mean to me. Today was one of those days.

I hope that as time passes on, I can remember these wonderful memories that built the foundation of love.

Well, lots of work done today - and plenty more to come tomorrow. I have a wonderful hope that tomorrow will be the hump day, however. Once the concrete is poured and set, all that remains is to put the jousts in place and lay that deck down...

...Right?

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Whenever I wish I had the life of our cat, I watch him be spooked by every single noise at night and realize that at least I've got relatively little to fear about. I have traveled to many unique places; he's made it to the mailbox once or twice before freaking out. His sphere is much smaller than ours - but part of me is pretty sure he is okay with that. That's all he really needs in the end, anyways.

The matches hurriedly lit the many candles, each one a symbol of so many emotions, failures and successes, life. All of them were lit, and they let off a small glow that illuminated the house. Then they were all extinguished, and smoke emanated into long strands that swirled up. Smoke of wisdom and experience.

Happy birthday, gigiss.

Wow. It's only Tuesday, and already I am starting to feel tired. Hopefully I can hold up until the end of the week at least.

Today at work I continued trying to make sense of the safety code for the company. I sure hope it means something to someone in the near future. That would be kind of nice.

Tonight the Bug and I watched Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey together. It has been many years since I have seen that movie, and part of it is ingrained into my childhood memories - certain scenes and emotions, happiness and terror. It wasn't necessarily the same thing, but it was interesting seeing the Bug cover his eyes at some of the same parts that I did myself when I was his age. Then we read another chapter from The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. I was given those books when I was around his age, and I regret to say I wasn't as interested in them then. I am glad that we have a chance to spend time with one another and be able to appreciate a wonderful story together.

Then I came out and watched the Lakers barely make it past the Celtics tonight. This is turning to be one challenging series for both sides - just the sort of thing I like to watch.

Despite the music, today has been quite a wonderful day in retrospect. We started work on bolting the beams down for the beginnings of the deck until we realized that we did not have enough bolts to continue work - and we had lost a lot of momentum because of it. Hopefully sometime during the week we can get back into it in time for pouring concrete piers.

After we had called it a day, gigiss and I went to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which was an absolute blast. I was excited enough just to see an Indiana Jones movie in theatre, and it ended up being just as exciting as I had hoped it would be. It was good bonding time for father and son, which I always cherish.

Tonight Smokey was stalking a fly, trying to follow its erratic movements through the air while leaping into the air to try and grab it with his paws. He managed to chase it into the bathroom, where I proceeded to dispatch it with a flyswatter. Afterwards I showed the dead bug to the catten, who sniffed it for a moment or two and then promptly went away to eat some more food. Once the hunt was over, there was nothing left to possibly interest him. Silly.

Today marks my first time at a construction site. I showed up at the site, ready to observe some fellow coworkers for inspiration in updating the safety binder. It was really cool when I first showed up; it was kind of surreal watching the whole paving operation happen. After a couple of hours of waiting for the construction to finish so we could start the testing, however, the novelty started to wear off a little bit. Overall, it was a long day that hopefully yielded some important fruits in the end.

Unfortunately, going to the site meant I missed gatorbuoy's Promotion ceremony earlier today. But it goes without saying that I absolutely proud of my younger for the hard work he puts into everything that he does. It is comforting to know that everyone in our family works their hardest.

Today has been a wonderful day - a really wonderful one. Work was nice; it is always more enjoyable when there is a little bit of time to chat with coworkers instead of being a recluse and not using my voice all day. I came home and played a little bit more of Fire Emblem, which was nice.

Tonight we played Yahtzee for FHE, which was very enjoyable. The Bug creamed us all, of course; his "luck skills" seem to never end.

Tonight I had a cool time reading Preach My Gospel and found some interesting things I hadn't seen before. I think I will take a look at them again in the near future....

Whew! Today has been a rather exhausting day. Much of the day was spent making the side yard look presentable once again so we can get the wheelbarrow around to make some concrete piers in the near future, as well as destroying the bamboo that has been making its way into our yard from our neighbor's. My hands and back are pretty sore, but it was a productive day, which is always good.

I played a little bit more of Fire Emblem until one of my guys kicked the bucket halfway through a battle. It takes a special game to make me this frustrated and satisfied at the same time.

Later Mom, gatorbuoy, bunge and I went to see Prince Caspian, which was a pretty decent movie. I don't know if I like it as much as the first one - I suppose a couple more watchings might decide that. But of course, that will have to wait until after my mission. Until then, there is plenty to do and watch...

Tonight was the annual Eastside Band Festival, where all of the musicians from the elementary, junior high and high schools come together in a way-too-small gym to show what they have learned and experienced over the past year. It is a wonderful chance to hear the talents that are developing and to say goodbye to the school year.

gatorbuoy and the junior high performed wonderfully; we had one last chance for us to hear him in the Jazz Band, and they performed a tribute to Guitar Hero that was quite excellent. The other bands also performed wonderfully, as well - watching Casa perform again brought bittersweet memories. The alumni that were in the audience were asked to stand up and be acknowledged, and it reminded me of the time when I had only lived in Petaluma, had not gone out to experience the world. It feels like a different life now.

At the same time, I was blessed with the opportunity to meet up with some choice friends that I had not seen in a while and chat about how their lives are going. They are all the same: they are moving on and moving up, as they should. I hope I can keep in touch with them as time passes on.

All in all, a wonderful night filled with many neat experiences.

This morning we woke up to find out our Beta fish Bluey had passed away during the night. He was floating near the bottom of the jar, his body slowly losing its color. We buried him tonight in the backyard - said a few words, sprinkled some dirt, and finished burying him.

It is interesting to me that he has lived with us for two whole years - far longer than is normal for fish of his species. Yet since he was not really a pet that we could interact with - like Smokey - to me he seemed to almost blend into the background, just swimming in his container. Now there will definitely be something missing in our home.

The Bug seems to be taking it the hardest. I will have to watch him over the next couple of days.

Today has been a rather ho-hum day for the most part. Work was pretty slow - which is not necessarily a bad thing, as long as things are accomplished. I read some more of East of Eden and played some Fire Emblem with the Bug. Yet despite the seeming lack of activities, I am still pretty bushed. Perhaps a little extra sleep would not do me amiss...

Today has been an wonderful day for celebrating our nation's bravest and noblest. As is customary, we had our annual ward breakfast celebration in the morning, which was a nice chance to socialize and enjoy one another's company. Lots of families were out of town, which meant that attendance was rather sparse, unfortunately. For those that were there, however, it was a choice experience - one more memory that I will cherish while on my mission.

The rest of day's plans kind of went out the window once we came home. The rest of the family headed up to RP to order materials for our back deck, while I stayed behind for a little quiet time (which meant, of course, that I played Super Smash Bros., pretty much the loudest game we have). Later, the Bug, gigiss and I went to a friend's house to swim - which makes perfect sense when the weather is fifty degrees.

Tonight we had dinner at the D.'s house, which was a wonderful time to reunite with that choice family (and get to play with their adorable brand new puppies). Now that we are not at school, we hardly see each other outside of church, which is too bad - but at least we have these times here.

Today has been quite a wonderful day. Church was pretty crazy; I substituted for the CTR 5 class and that turned out to be a handful and a half. Mostly it was about making sure to keep them distracted for long enough and try to get something into their tiny heads. I suppose it was somewhat a success, or at least it was enough to make me do it again - but only if I get a break every once in a while.

The rest of today was pretty loose and calm, which was nice as always. Now we're at the D.'s house watching their dog and getting ready for the upcoming holiday...

Another day of long driving - except this time I was by myself the entire way. Suffice to say that I was slightly nervous with how it was going to turn out. Luckily the first couple of hours went smoothly - no real hitches whatsoever. As I made my way north, however, I suddenly found the way I was taking lead me right into San Francisco - straight into downtown, the last place I really wanted to be. Luckily, there was a GPS in the truck I was driving, and it led me well.

I managed to meander my way out of the city and arrived back home just in time to head over to gatorbuoy's award concert, where he received an award for top jazz performer. It was phenomenal - everyone that played was very top-notch, and I am interested to see where they go with their musical careers.

And now I am tired. I suppose driving all can do that to you.

Today has been quite a nice day. Work was spent entirely on organizing the hundreds of sheets of paper into some coherent sense. I think I'm about halfway there with what I have so far. Tomorrow I am going to be heading back south again, however, to pick up the truck that was meant to be the purpose of the trip last week but ended up not being ready.

Tonight I helped the Bugalet out on his homework, and I noticed something very interesting. I recently noticed a book at work that mentions instilling work values in children and the best way to do it. The Bug and I had an interesting discussion about how we felt about homework and work in general. I don't think I said anything that might persuade him of the positive qualities of work - but hopefully I can work on that a little bit.

I wrote a little bit more tonight. It wasn't a whole lot, but it's a start, and I hope that the more I do it, the easier it will be to get back into it. I'll just have to see.

Today has been a wonderful Sabbath day. Church was great; it was Seminary Sacrament Meeting, and the people involved with that did a wonderful job. It seems hard to believe that hardly a year ago I was doing the same thing - how time moves so fast.

This afternoon I lay on one of the bunk beds and proceeded to read Prince Caspian in a couple of hours. Although it is not my favorite Narnia book, there are certainly some parts of the novel that are worth reading. It will be interesting to see what they do with the story once we go and see the movie.

Tonight we had an interesting discussion about our lives and how we can let the Lord guide us in the direction we need to go. We brought up some interesting points that I will be thinking about a little more during the week. I hope we can have a similar discussions in the future.

Tonight I snuggled with the Bug to put him to sleep. We rested our heads on each other and wrapped our arms around one another. He was asleep in less than two minutes.

I love that brother of mine.

Today has been a rather wonderful day. Not a whole lot was done in the way of productivity, but that is fine. I suppose the most notable thing that happened today was going to a friend's house to go swimming, which was miraculous in this heat. The rest of the day was reading some more of East of Eden and writing a bit more for Sunshine Farm, playing Wii with the brothers, watering the plants with the youngest brother, and taking a half of a nap.

I don't remember having a day like this in a while - or perhaps I haven't looked around enough to see them. I'll enjoy these while I still have them.