TugDug

Wow, Monday was a wild drive home. Going up the South Center Hill the hail was coming down so hard I was starting to worry about our windshield. It was so thick on the road that cars were losing traction. After the hail came the rain. Big sloppy rain coming down at a rate that even with our wipers on full blast we had trouble seeing.

I've mentioned my friend Doug here before. Doug is one of those men that are slowly disappearing from the American landscape. He's a wiz with all things mechanical and displays no hesitation when asked to crawl under machinery to see where "that drip is coming from". From what I've seen he can drive just about anything. I've seen him behind the wheel of a car, a tractor, a tow truck, and a front loader the size of Michigan. He is truly blessed with a wide range of skills and abilities. This alone isn't what makes him an endangered species. You see, Doug also possesses a truly genuine heart for people.

I know many people I would describe as kind. I've been blessed to know a larger than average number of folks who put their kindness into practice and the term "salt of the earth" fits them well. Doug however will always be who I think of when I hear the phrase "Be salt and light".

My friend Doug wears his love for people like a sandwich board. It's easy to see and the reading lamp is lit.

I wake up in the morning like a grumpy disoriented bear, scratching, grumbling and squinting with one eye looking for something to swat at. I imagine that Doug gets out of bed, does something akin to an Irish jig, and says "Who am I going to get to help today!" It sounds fanciful I know, but if you knew Doug you'd be able to imagine it too, if only a little.

One of the other things that Doug can drive, and it blows me away, is a tug boat. In fact that's what he does for a living. His boat is moored in Tacoma and he works all over the Puget Sound but spends a good deal of time in the San Juan Island area. To me this qualifies him as having one of and perhaps the most interesting commute. He's often gone for a week or more at a time and lately he's been sending pictures of his trip using his camera phone. I think Doug would have been quite at home in an era where people drew on cave walls. He is adept at communicating with pictures. His version of "texting" is writing a note on a napkin, taking a picture of it and sending it to the recipient. Here's Doug showing me where he was at one day.

 

 

Here's the view from his "driver's seat".

 

 

It really does make a bright spot in my day when he catches one of these shots and sends them my way.

Doug and I are very different people. You put a wrench in my hand and the most likely end result will be a bump or welt. I try hard never to use a hammer out of a strong dislike for emergency rooms. Just last weekend I stained the deck and opening the bucket of stain was nearly a cause for breaking out the insurance card. I've always been that way. Not only am I lacking aptitude in those areas but for the most part I don't have the urge to work with my hands. Don't get me wrong, I have skills, just not that kind.

I'm particularly good at identifying voice over actors. People are frequently amazed when I call out "Kiefer Sutherland" or "Robert De Niro" during a credit card commercial. If you ever find a need for someone to quote Star Trek facts, or recite lyrics from obscure bands like Oingo Boing or The Tubes, I'm your man. Tammy recently discovered that I can do a pretty good Bobby McFerrin impression and if there's a Muppet emergency I can do a passing Kermit singing Rainbow Connection. Oh, and yah, that computer thing pays the bills, but really, making sure people can get on You Tube or umm, well, read my blog doesn't really make a list of vital skills. When the power goes out no one rings me up and says "Wes, we need more RAM!" Good thing too because I'm too busy calling others to ask which hole the gas goes in on the generator.

Thankfully I know people like Doug and with any luck he's in town when the power goes out.

Don't drive angry! Drive weird!

P.S. – For those of you that don't know, the different colored text in these posts is links to something else. All my links are to things I chose, for instance the link for "these shots" points to the rest of the pictures Doug has sent me. Sometimes links in blogs aren't placed there by the author and just amount to advertising. So feel free to follow my links, it points to something I meant you to see ehehe.

A voice from above

Tammy is home and just in time too. I was close to forgetting what vegetables look like and was on my last Hot Pocket. Oh, and apparently if you keep compressing the garbage in the can with your foot it becomes impossible to remove. Live and learn. Hmm, and I appear to be missing several right shoes.

I'm not a fan of flying. I always end up with marks from the arm rests where I tuck my muffin tops in. I'd provide a link to a definition for "muffin tops" but I couldn't find one that didn't include inappropriate pictures of girls wearing jeans 2 sizes too small. So anyway, let's say I'm as comfortable on an airplane as a The Church Lady at an Ozzy Ozborne concert. Tammy has to do an Atlanta trip 3 or more times a year and she dreads it. Her trip back this time was a little different though.

We use technology to stay in touch when Tammy is out of town. We try to have video calls each night using Live Messenger but at a minimum we text chat through the day. Nothing makes up for not being together but it does take the hallow feeling away some. If you've ever spent significant time in an empty room you know what I mean. I've moved into new apartments and been too busy to unpack for a week or two. By the time I hung pictures and set out knickknacks I'd start to get fidgety. I'm still alone in the room when Tammy is away but the technology keeps me from getting fidgety.

Tammy's "commute" home on Friday had a little help from the Internet. Her flight was 7 hours long including a layover in Milwaukie. During the layover she sent me email with an update on her progress. We swapped several messages and she mentioned that AirTran was providing free Wi-Fi during her flight so for the leg to Seattle she broke out the laptop and we chatted. A couple weeks ago my friend Doug, who's a tug boat captain, sent me a link to a site that allows you to track ships at sea in real time. That got me to thinking and sure enough I found the same thing for air traffic.

So here I sat in our living room in Lakebay while Tammy was 36,000 feet over Wisconsin traveling at 400+ mph. She's telling me how cramped the seat is while listening to XM satellite radio and I'm letting her know as she crosses over state boundaries or flying over major landmarks. How crazy is that? The world does seem smaller these days. Her battery went dead shortly before she crossed in to Montana but I continued to monitor her progress. When she approached Washington State I left the house and the timing was dead on. As I walked up to her baggage carrousel she was coming down the escalator.

Ok, sure, I was about to do the nerd equivalent of the Ickey Shuffle but every time I get close to describing some technology as virtuous I start to think about the shadows left behind. While I never have to feel the severity of that separation the cost is never feeling the joy that comes from a reunion after a long absence. I may never have to sit in a quiet empty room, but it's becoming increasingly hard to find that empty room when I want it. Along with the all the benefits that technology brings comes a sort of digital leash.

I'm not saying that I'm concerned enough that I'm considering disconnecting the power and recycling our computers. I can pull off the look (I have the legs for it), but those brown robes are too drafty and I bet that rope belt chafes. It's enough though to keep me from giving my entire life over to a digital version of itself. There will always be something restorative about the sound a house makes when it settles. I love being able to listen to a good book in the car but there are times when the convenience can't compete with a comfortable chair and the feel of a hard back book in your hands.

So thanks for tuning into this blog and allowing me to decompress my stress. Now turn off your computer and have a look outside. If the lights are on out there then it means the thing we call "The Sun" is in the sky, don't stare at that, it will hurt. But if there aren't any clouds between you and it, you'll likely feel warm and that's pretty nice. If it's dark, spend a few minutes looking up at the sky. Those endless points of light you see are what the writer of Genesis in a footnote on creation referred to when he said "He made the stars also". And that my friend is real technology.

Don't drive angry! Drive weird!