Kingfisher Cove

Just This. (for now)

Kicked into the Week-After-Turkey-Day

And it happened so FAST! (I knew it would). Frankly, I hadn’t let myself think beyond this long weekend, mostly because it was fraught with dread and panic. And here I am, facing all that dread and panic. Gah.

And that’s all I’m going to say about that.

So, how was your Thanksgiving? It was good to see my dad, see my brother and his family. See Camano Island. It was a gray day, but dry, and it was calm.

Too bad the tide was so high, because a beach walk would have been nice.

My brother and I went together and gave my dad his Christmas present early. Just because.

He needed a new TV downstairs, so we moved his old(er) flat screen down there and got him a bit of a bigger one for upstairs.

Nate spent Thanksgiving in Albuquerque, New Mexico with sailor friends, and also his balloon girl, Nancy.

He called me Thanksgiving night and it sounded like he was having an excellent time. On their drive back to San Diego, they stopped at the Grand Canyon and he sent me this picture:

Awesome!

Feeling so heavy-hearted for my good friend, Margaret, who is facing such a huge, sad loss. Whatever angst I feel in my life these days completely pales in perspective of what true angst really is.

Juggling

Did I mention it’s a crazy, impossible week? Not to mention that we’ve had double record rainfall – the storms have been beyond crazy. I feel like my work commute itself is the equivalent of putting in a full day’s worth of work.

I loathe November. You can look back at any previous year’s November posts and read the same thing. It’s so dark, and so wet, and so windy, and so gray-dead-depressing-godawful. At least December has Christmas lights. November is just the dark pits of hell. If I can survive this month, I can survive anything.

Had an interesting eye-opener the other day. I was taken out to lunch by a couple of the company’s big wigs, including the new (as of August) COO who fired my beloved boss, you know, based on “taking the company into a new direction.” It was a “thank-you” for my hard work, which I appreciate, (I do) but I also feel like there was some backroom discussion that went something like this: “Let’s make a strong point to make Tonya feel appreciated, in the wake of this separation of her supervisor and friend.” I sense they have tick-marks on their to-do lists. I do adore my “new” boss, who probably shouldn’t really be my boss. He’s a Sr. VP heading toward retirement (very soon, from what I hear) and he’s a wonderful, sweet guy (with adult daughters whom he laments are liberal and he is not, and I get a kick out of that) with no real understanding of A/E marketing. But, at any rate, after lunch that day, which happened to be an astounding and unexpectedly BEAUTIFUL day, we opted to take a walk across the newly completed pedestrian bridge that has been such an inconvenience to all of us throughout its construction.  Mid-span, there is a bit of an alcove that overlooks Elliott Bay and on a day like that it is a breathtaking view. A lone fellow occupied that space with his trumpet, just riffing mellow and moody tunes with a nice vibrato. It felt uplifting to me, much in need of “uplifting,” and with the combination of the gorgeous sunny day, I couldn’t help but grin big. It was lovely! And then the COO said to my sweet ol’ guy boss in his British accent: “Where are the Seattle police for disturbing the peace?”

And so.

~~~~~

Nate called me this morning from the University of New Mexico where he is visiting his lovely Balloon Girl lady friend and her family for Thanksgiving. He called to inform me that his PROMOTION IS NOW OFFICIAL!! Apparently it was posted on the website this morning and he’d been monitoring it and finally saw his name on the list. He is now an STG2 (sonar tech), 2nd Class, E5 in the Navy. Pretty good, considering that he came out of Boot Camp as an E2 – most come out as an E1, but because he had done so well on his Navy entrance exam, the promise of that was part of his signing deal. This mama is a proud mama. (And also a redeemed mama for jumping the gun!)

Drip. Drip.

Leisurely headed down to Harstine this oh-so-wet Saturday and arrived a little after noon. John immediately weathered the weather and secured a big tarp over the back 2/3 of the trailer roof – we have a leak problem. The carpet in the bed area is sopping wet, but we are so thankful that the bed itself is OK. However…it wouldn’t have been long and that bed WOULD have been wet. Soaked, even. The ceiling over it is fairly laden with, well, wetness.

The trailer is nearing 27 years old, after all. It’s tired.

While I’m angsty over all that I must do this coming week (it’s head-spinning, both at work and at home), I am allowing myself to thoroughly relax today. Not hard to do, really. Listening to tunes, John’s working a jigsaw puzzle (soon to take a nap), I’ve done some online Christmas shopping, and although my feet are sort of cold, it’s basically comfy and lazy here. My main “chore” today will be to make a shopping list of food stuffs so I can prepare my assignments for Thanksgiving and some snacks and ingredients for Lemon Drops when Helen comes to visit on Friday. (I’m actually hoping that I can find some decent pre-made stuffing/dressing at the grocery store deli so that could be one item I could check off my To Do list…) (Yeah, i.e., cheat).

We’re heading down to the neighbors’ for dinner this evening with a promise of a fire in their fireplace and “excellent gin!” I’ve had their gin before and was pleasantly surprised – while gin wouldn’t be my drink of choice, it does have a certain appeal.

{{Holy crap! A major item I ordered on Amazon about an hour ago has already shipped! Wow!}}

Oooops.

I jumped the gun. (Or is that the shark?) I screwed up. I was…w-w-w-rong!

OK, but to borrow an excellent phrase from my friend, Laura: “No clear info, no guarantee for accuracy.”

So the fact is, Nate was not promoted. At least, not yet. I suspect it will happen relatively soon, based on all those facts I was basing my “confident report” on, but the pinning deal in my previous post was for a commendation he was awarded that is one of those things that will be part of the cumulative checklist of positive attributes that go toward his total score for promotion.

I really should have suspected, because in the course of actually being promoted, it would be presented by a much higher-up than his buddy/shipmate (who does have a higher rank than Nate, but not by much).

I did plead to Nate ahead of time to tell me WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN? But I never heard back from him. Not until I took the plunge and then he saw that I’d linked my blog post on Facebook. And set me straight. In front of, you know, everyone.

Lessons learned. o_O

~~~~~

I realize that it is evidence that the economy is improving when my workload is a pack of wolves biting my heels, drawing blood, coming for my throat. I had SO HOPED I could take off early next Wednesday (the day before Thanksgiving) to go grocery shopping, prepare food to take to my dad’s, and tidy up the house for Helen’s visit on Friday. But there is no way. PLUS, we’re going to Harstine this weekend (heading down Saturday morning).  It’ll have been 3 weeks since we’ve been there, and John must put the tarp over the trailer roof because we’ve been having a leak problem. We’ve also been invited to dinner at our neighbors’ for an “Obama Celebration!” (tee hee!) Truth be known, both John and our neighbor John are former republicans who just had enough of the batshit crazy and at least for now have switched sides. And gleefully so!

~~~~~

Nate called me last night and we talked for over an hour. So great to hear from him, except for this: we both have iPhones and while we really do love them for all they can do, talking on them as a phone is a royal pain in the ass. The sound quality sucks! Makes me genuinely miss land lines. We haven’t had one for several years now. Actually, I am just not much of a phone person anyway, but I do so LOVE hearing from my boy.

Promoted!

Well, at least I THINK so! I spent several hours yesterday reading a book on my Kindle and so I was away from social media for a while. (Shock!) When I finally climbed back on Facebook, I saw a photo posted from one of Nate’s Sailor buddies/shipmates that he had tagged with Nate’s name (which is why I was able to see it in my timeline). (Do you remember this hysterical photo of the talent show? That’s his buddy). We met him during the ship tour, too!

The caption on this picture was: “Me pinning this dirtbag sailor!” (Which I take to mean “I was really proud to be able to do this for my good friend.”)

Nate looks pretty darned happy about it, dontcha think?

The reason I say that I think this is the case is because I haven’t heard from Nate himself! But, I know he was up for promotion after taking his test and after receiving commendations and his excellent evaluation, so I feel quite confident in reporting this! “Pinning” is what they do for a promotion. (And no, I don’t believe they are “stabbed” as they tend to be in the Marines). It’s additional hardware to all the stuff they wear on their chest that displays their rank, rate, and qualification achievements.

And this would be a promotion in rank – E4, 2nd Class Petty Officer. According to Wikipedia, (check it out for more info) that means this:

Petty officer, second class is the fifth enlisted rate in the U.S. Navy,^[1] U.S. Coast Guard, and the United States Naval Sea Cadet Corps, just above petty officer third class and below petty officer first class, and is a non-commissioned officer. It is equivalent to the rate of sergeant in the Army, Marine Corps and Staff Sergeant in the Air Force.

It also means a significant pay increase. Nate’s been working toward this for a long time, aiming to improve his finances above poverty wages!

I’m really proud of him. Also rather frustrated with him that he didn’t call me or text me or email me or something! I know they are currently out to sea on an “away”, but obviously his buddy was able to post about it!

Sons. They be quite different from daughters.

This ‘n That

It’s a stay-home weekend (for me; it’s a work weekend for John) and in between some chores, I’ve been playing with glass! I did a little bit last weekend, too, but before then it had been a l-o-n-g time. It felt good to have a block of time in my “studio!” (Heh. Also known as Nate’s room). I have accumulated so much glass *stuff* that the room is a hopeless mess. Just not enough space for storage. Ugh! 

Lately, I’ve been experimenting a lot with jewelry and discovering the magic of dichroic glass. It’s commonly used in jewelry these days and has amazing optics and blazing color—and is also very expensive. At first I wasn’t all that interested because, hey, everybody does that (plus the price was off-putting). But I’ve been having fun with it, as well as frustration because working with such small elements makes me realize how awful my eyesight is. (Plus my acrylic nails make it difficult to maneuver and grasp, even using tweezers).

I made this bracelet. (Please ignore the freckles. OK, thanks).

And right now this is cooling in the kiln:

What you see here will look totally different once I take them out of the kiln. With dichroic, you don’t really know what you’ll get! (Usually it’s pretty amazing, though).

And THEN.

I’d made two 4x6  rectangles with a clear base and covered with nipped glass pieces (not dichroic) of blue, green, aqua, and purple (I forgot to take a picture). I dropped them off at a frame shop today to have them custom framed (OH MY GOD THE COST IS KILLER HOLY SHIT) and they will look a little bit like this. (Although no gold glass, and the pieces are shaped a little differently):

 

I grabbed this photo from Pinterest, I think, and thought to myself, “Oooh! That’s pretty and would be quite easy!” Yeah, well. Just godawful expensive is all! But hey. It’ll look cool in the Harstine house. Sort of “beach glassy.” And we’ll justify it by calling it “fine art,” right? Heh.

I also went to Fred Meyer today and picked me up a couple of sweaters. I noticed when I went out the door after paying for my purchases, the alarm went off when I went through the security awning thingy, but it almost always does anyway. I peered back at the check stand and they weren’t interested. So I went home. THEN I discovered that the checker hadn’t removed the security buckle/pin/whatever-you-call-it from one of my sweaters, and I’m pretty sure that attempting to remove it myself would result in ink sprayed all over my sweater. So I get to go back to Fred Meyer tomorrow with my sweater and receipt and have it the damned thing removed. (Freddies is NOT just a hop, skip, and a jump away from our house, either. Grrr!)

Should I admit that I also purchased some Christmas shit stuff? Yeah, my bad.

Even though I know that Nate won’t be here for Christmas, I’m not feeling as bummed as I was last year. Last year I couldn’t have cared less about the holiday, knowing he wasn’t going to be around. For the first time ever. This year I guess I’ve acclimated. Still bummed, but finding myself somewhat intrigued about the holiday. Although, I’m still not sure I’m going to put up the tree. It is SUCH a job, and John isn’t into it, so I’m thinking about getting another tabletop tree, although not like I got last year. It was sort of a “floral” getup with real branches stuck into a foam cone. It was a HUGE mess. So I’m thinking about a prelit artificial tabletop. We may have Christmas Eve here with my brother and his family (I don’t know! I haven’t heard from him in ages!) but if not, there’s really no sense in majorly decking the halls.

~~~~~

One more election ditty: The Florida win brings the Electoral vote total to Obama 332 to Romney 206, and the national popular vote 51% to 48% - a 3 million vote margin. People, that’s one helluva mandate.

Then, there is this. It was like a slap along side the head. Why is it that the argument and the attitude is so familiar today? I’ve been hearing the equivalent of this all election season long. Which is why I voted for Obama. (Yes, it’s a real flyer from the days of the fight against women voting).

Viral

I love Rachel Maddow. Just sayin’.

 

And if you don’t feel like watching (which you should because it’s entertaining, really!), this pretty much sums it up:

Facts matter.

Relieved, Butt-Kicked, News from Nate

I am so relieved that the elections are over (as I’m sure everyone is!) and that President Obama won re-election. Common sense prevailed. The people spoke, not the Koch Brothers, or Karl Rove, or Sheldon Adelson, or Citizens United. (And they all spent many millions of dollars that could have helped alleviate the devastation of Super Storm Sandy beyond measure).  Not men who think rape is a means of conception. Not willful deceit. Just plain ol’ common sense. I don’t doubt that we’re in for more gridlock since the republicans maintained the House and the democrats maintained the Senate, and it’s sad that the filibuster will likely break even more records in its over-usage and obstruction. (Contrary to what Fox News says, the democrats NEVER had full control of congress – the filibuster made certain of that with the 60-vote requirement that the dems never had). I just wish that the republicans would mellow out a bit with their ideology and reflect on what they need to do to be viable. Learn from Nate Silver that math and science really matter. Learn from Chris Christie that when the chips are down (and even when they are not), it’s all about governance, not power. Learn tolerance for minorities and differing religions. (And learn to say “no” to what used to be the radical fringes who actually believe that rape is a means of conception!) Women do vote, and it was an ugly, often violent journey to get to where we could. (And those who fought that fight to get us where we are now were not conservatives, so put that in your now-legal pot pipe and smoke it).

(Yes, an actual photo from 1903 of a woman being beaten having the audacity of trying to vote).

But yes. Relief. Happy to have that beautiful family continue on in the White House for four more years. (And boy have those girls grown since 2008!)

(And of course, Pres. Obama is so much grayer now!) Michelle continues to be as stunning and smart as always. The best First Lady ever!

~~~~~

Work is kicking my butt and I’m so weary of it. The godawful commute day in and day out. The workload beyond crazy. The stress of it all. And the stupidity of it all:

Me (in email) to project manager: 1) do you want the cost estimating subconsultant added to the org chart? 2) I see a discrepancy on page 3 regarding piping size – which one is correct? 3) are you the signator on the cover letter or is xxxx? 4) are we including the project schedule in the narrative or in the appendix?

Project manager (email reply): Yes.

Can I just retire now????

~~~~~

So, last night in the midst of watching and listening and reading about all things election returns, I was also multitasking with a Facebook chat session with Nate! (It had been ages since I’d heard from him). Changes are afoot!

He said that this coming April or May he’ll be going back to school for the latest and greatest system training for sonar, and then will be assigned to a new ship—the USS Gridley that is a newer destroyer stationed in San Diego (schooling will be in San Diego, too). He said, “School will be from 8 months to a year and I'll have to sign a 2-year extension for sea duty that will put my out-of-the-Navy time about 3 months after what it already is...[how does that work?] …not too bad considering this will help me be prepared for bigger and better jobs when I get out of the Navy. Also, results for advancement come out in about 2 weeks so keep your fingers crossed.” He’s taken his advancement test (which he feels he did very well on), plus he’d received an exceptional evaluation (“the best evaluation possible”), a prestigious award, and a good conduct award, all of which are added up for a slew of points accredited toward his test score for promotion. It would mean a significant boost in pay.

He said filming for that movie was completed. He said, “I was in quite a lot of shots and I mean the camera was really on me so I should be visible!!! Look for that pilot on TNT!” (“The Last Ship” – I think due out on TNT in January or so). I teased him about ending up on the cutting room floor. (My bad). He also said that Adam Baldwin and Eric Dane will be accompanying them on an “away” as sort of a thank-you. However, they’ll get to sleep in state rooms and probably enjoy lobster dinners with the top brass. But wouldn’t that be cool if Nate is actually seen in that movie? I’m excited about it! Something unique to look forward to.

He leaves a week from Monday for his bonzai trip (this time in snow) to Albuquerque to spend a quick Thanksgiving with the lovely Balloon Lady. He’s excited about it, but also pragmatic about how difficult a long distance relationship is…  Makes me sad.  I wish for him happiness. :/

~~~~~

I’ll leave you with this because, hey, I just can’t help it.

I Could Have Written This!

But I didn’t. I was dismayed when one of my favorite authors, John Scalzi, took all the words completely out of my mouth and summed everything up for me better than I ever could have. (That’s why he’s an author!) Yup, it’s a bit long, but it’s amazingly well-written. It so perfectly represents how I feel, how I look at our president (who does have flaws!), and Mitt Romney, and today’s political climate, and what keeps me awake at night. There is nothing harsh or ad hominem here – it’s just a reflective explanation of one man’s take on where we stand right now. It fully resonates with me. I know I have some conservative family and friends who peer at my blog from time-to-time, and I encourage you to read this and see if you can gain some understanding of what hangs out in my heart and mind. (And no, I won’t tie you up this time).

 

“This should come as absolutely no surprise to anyone anywhere, but to make it official: I will be voting for Barack Obama to have a second term as President of the United States, and I think you should too.

There are, generally speaking, two reasons to give your vote to someone as president. The first is because you are inclined to vote for that person. The second is that you actively wish to deny another person the presidency. In this case, I am voting for Obama because I wish to do both: Vote for him, and vote against Mitt Romney.

Let me attend to the first of these now, and let me preface further explanation by pointing to a piece I wrote the day after the 2008 election, called “Reality Check,” in which I warned everyone who was expecting Obama to magically make everything better that, in fact, it wasn’t going to go like that. One specific thing I mentioned, which I will highlight here:

Your next president is going to disappoint you. Barack Obama does not fart cinnamon-scented rainbows. He is not trailed by angels and unicorns. Reality does not reshape itself to his wishes. Dude’s a human being, and a politician, and he’s going to have to work with other human beings who are also politicians. Per point 2, some things you want him to do he won’t be able to do, and some of the things you want him to do he won’t want to do, so they won’t get done. He will make mistakes. He will make errors. He will be caught flat-footed from time to time. He will be challenged by antagonists, foreign and domestic, who will have an interest in seeing him faceplant. He will piss most people off. His approval rating will drop below 50%. He is going to disappoint you. Get used to the idea.

Obama came into office with a burden of expectation absolutely unlike any other president, in no small part because he’s black. For the United States to have elected a black man to the presidency seemed like it had to herald a new era in our country. That made Obama a repository of a lot of hope and desire and a lot of people projected some frankly unachievable expectations on the man. The most ridiculous example of this was when Obama woke up one morning and found himself a Nobel Laureate, given the peace prize not for anything he’d done, but for who the prize committee apparently hoped he would be.

Which was nonsense. It’s not the most embarrassing Nobel Peace Prize ever given, but it’s probably in the top five, and I think crystalizes the problem Obama was saddled with, in terms of being an icon even before he was a president. To be clear, he didn’t exactly run away from the iconography that sprung up around him, because why would he? He was running to be president, and every bit helps. He was a participant in the cult of personality. It doesn’t mean it wasn’t a problem.

Obama has other problems as well: the caricature of him as Spock, the emotionless and cerebral Star Trek character, is not necessarily intended to be a flattering one. I think some people who expected him to be some sort of North American analogue to Nelson Mandela got a shock to their system when he turned out to be a prickly wonk; it also apparently didn’t help him in the chummy go-along-to-get-along world of Washington DC. Obama’s own party, which held both the House and Senate in the first two years of his presidency, was splintery and balky, which helped contribute to it losing the House in the 2010 election cycle.

And as for the Republicans, well. They’ve made it their policy to be against anything the man is for. If Obama said he liked the sunrise, the Republicans would have gone on Fox to explain how it was socialist to have sunlight distributed freely to all. The modern GOP has got a Stage IV case of Gingrichitis, in which Democrats are not just as seen as the opposing party, but the enemy of all that is good and pure in the world. This would be a problem at any point but it’s especially bad in the case of the modern GOP, for reasons I will get to later.

Obama came in burdened with unrealistic expectations, didn’t necessarily help himself on the ingratiation front, and faced both disorganized allies and a vehemently angry opposition. For all that, he managed to do a number of things that I approve of, including taking the first steps to universal health care, ending “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and choosing not to defend DOMA, killing Bin Laden, drawing down our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan and also (and this is significant) working to keep the American economy from entirely collapsing into a hole after the economic meltdown of four years ago. Yes, things got bad. Things could have been so very much worse.

Ironically, I’ve never been notably disappointed with Obama. His policies and political inclinations are largely in line with my own, I don’t mind and indeed kind of prefer a Vulcan president, and I voted for him in 2008 cognizant of the political realities into which he was being elected. I generally like his deliberative style and his willingness to take a half a loaf rather than nothing if half  loaf is realistically what’s going to be able to get. Which is to say I find him and his politics to be pragmatic, thoughtful and largely practical. The right likes to foam about how the man is a socialist, but I’m not obliged to pay attention to nonsense. Obama’s politics are “careful centrist,” and I’m fine with that.

Given what he’s accomplished in the context in which he’s had to work, I’m satisfied with Obama as president so far. That alone would enough in most election years to allow him to keep my vote in his tally. Is this the glowing, ringing endorsement that Obamaites can shout to the hills? I suppose it’s not, but this should not be confused with a lukewarm or half-hearted endorsement. This is not “you’ll do.” It’s “you’ve done well. Keep going.”

Now, to Mitt Romney. As I’ve said elsewhere, I don’t see Romney as an ideologue, I see him as an administrator, and in a different time, and against a different opponent, he might be a more compelling candidate to me. I don’t mind politicians who have a few core values but are also able to take the temperature of a room and say, “okay, let’s work with this.” However, I’ve already got a presidential candidate like that, whose core values are closer to mine. And there’s the little matter of the room Romney has to work in, which is to say, the modern national Republican party.

Look: The modern national Republican party is a hot mess, a simmering pot of angry reactionaries driven by selfishness and willful ignorance, whose guiding star is not governance but power, and whose policies and practices are tuned to build an oligarchy, not nurture a democracy. Its economic policies are charitably described as nonsense and its social policies are vicious; for a party which parades its association with Jesus around like a fetish, it is notably lacking in the simple compassion of the Christ. There is so little I find good or useful in the current national GOP, intellectually, philosophically or politically, that I genuinely look on it with despair and wonder when or if the grown-ups are ever going to come back to it. Before anyone leaps up to say that the modern Democratic Party has problems of its own, know that I do not disagree. But if your practical choices for governance of the country are between the marginally competent and the actively malicious, you go with the marginally competent.

In his campaign for president, Romney has embraced many of the worst elements of the modern national GOP policy thinking, up to and including choosing Paul Ryan, architect of a ruinously idiotic budget plan, as his vice-president. Romney’s run on this nonsense, and despite a late burst of tacking to the center, I think he’s beholden to it, and will be as president. I think it’s obvious that I believe it’s the wrong course for the country, economically, socially and politically.

More to the point, I think the real problem is that the actively malicious, awful and small-minded politics of the modern GOP have to be stopped. The modern GOP, simply put, has no moral center; it pays superficial obeisance to “traditional values” while yearning to implement policies whose highest moral achievement is consolidating wealth for the very few, and is perfectly happy to be as cynical as it needs to be to achieve that goal. If the GOP wins this election, it will simply become further untethered from the common good of the nation, because why shouldn’t it? There is no political reason for it to be otherwise. If mendacity continues to be rewarded, then mendacity is a legitimate strategy of power.

I would like for the GOP to be better than it is now; I’m pretty sure it was, once, and I’m pretty sure it can be again. I would like to actually feel that I can ethically give my vote to a Republican candidate at a national level. I can’t do it now. I don’t think I’ll be able to until it becomes clear to the GOP that to continue on the path it’s on now is a path to political extinction.

I have problems with Romney as a candidate — his lack of transparency regarding his taxes, his tendency to say “elect me, then I’ll tell you my plans,” his choice of VP, and the overarching sense that he wants to be president mostly because he feels like he should get to be president, and gets cross when it’s suggested that’s not a sufficient reason — but my biggest problem with Romney is the party he’s a candidate of. I can’t support it; I won’t support its candidate because of it.

So those are my reasons for Obama, and against Romney.

(And you may ask: What about a third party candidate? My answer: Dude, I’m in Ohio. Ask me to be capricious with my vote some other time. That said, of all the candidates on my electoral ballot, Obama’s the closest to my own politics. He would get my vote this year in any event.)”

~John Scalzi