Weekend visitors

This weekend we have had visitors. My parents have come to spend the weekend with us.



Fall in New York. This is my parents in battery park.



We had a great time walking along the walkway and just chatting.
We were on our way to the Statue of Liberty. We took a ferry.








The statue of Liberty is an interesting thing. It was one of the tallest structures and and engineering marvel at the time it was built but since then much more sophisticated buildings have been built. But the thing that is unique is tht it was a gift from the French to the Americans. There was love then. It seems a shame that when this now relatively small structure, with "old skool" engineering, stands for freedom, but sometimes it seems we're locked in hate so much of the time.

We also visited Ellis Island. My mom loved it. I liked it because of the building. it was old and big and quite empty but that was it's uniqueness in this "starving for space" city of New York.

Happy Halloween

what a good trip

We just got back from a fun 4 days away from NY. I was getting some training Wed,Thurs,Fri, and then we played in Boston on Sat. Minna and I just had a good time. I spent most of my time in Providence Rhode Island (my first time to the smallest state in the nation) while I was getting trained by a true New Englander... When we talked about "data" he said "datar", and "source" was pronounced "sauce". "Alpha" is pronounced "Alphar" I learned alot. Minna spent her days in Boston visiting her friend Julie.
Providence is a pretty cool town, filled with people and students. We visited the campus of RISD, what does that mean?... well it took us a while to figure out. so we finally asked someone. We decided that it could have been but wasn't Rhode Island Sick Dogs. Minna guessed the D stood for ducks, but in reality the SD or RISD stands for School of Design. Which reminds me of the design of the womens bathroom. They designed the toilets so that when one was sitting upon the porcelin you were sitting at the sink, and were able to wash one's hands at the same time. It's true I'm not fibbing. Perhaps it was an efficiency design... but I dont' know we didn't exactly ask.

this morning

This morning was kind of funny... well, it was funny once we got home. Minna woke up with a terrible neck kink. I called a Chiropractor and walked just a few blocks to the closest one. Minna nearly lost her lunch due to the pain of his examination, but he did some ultrasound therapy and she felt better. The funny part is that he sold us a neck brace. It is such a silly device, but it works. I love you Minna.



I'm still convinced, from my past few expriences with a Chiropractor, that they are salesmen, like a medicine man of old that would go from town to town giving samples of tonic to people and when they feel better they buy. Not that what he is giving was fake but as a salesman was keen, like a lawyer, of what to say to give so much credit to the product. Well, our Chiropractor gave us samples of "BioFreeze", a Bengay type product which, if we like it, we can purchase in no stores, but is only sold in doctors offices... which is true but I found some easily on the web: here Well salesman or not this man that Minna saw was helpful and was a blessing, but I don't think I'm going to buy stuff from him. oops we already did, Minna is wearing it.

The arrival

I haven't been able to post to my website for a while (due to not have the right permissions), otherwise I would have posted more about our drive from Salt Lake to New York in a 24 foot Truck. We loaded it up in Seattle, with Caleb's stuff in the back half of the truck. He drove it to Salt Lake and we flew out to meet him there. His stuff was unloaded and we were off across the country.

In about three and a half days we arrived in Rego Park NY. Passing through all the states in between. We stayed the first night in North Platte Nebraska, in a hotel but the next night we spent somewhere in Illinois at a reststop. We pulled out some of the padding for the furniture and a feather sack we pulled a blanket over the top of us and we went to bed. In the dark were stacks of boxes piled up behind us that we couldn't see and furniture shuffled to the side so that we had room to lay on the floor. The sounds of the night were large trucks as they exited I-80. The thin walls of our truck didn't offer too much shelter from the noise but we slept well enough to make it to Eastern Penn. where we stopped more because of the terrible rain than because of tiredness. Again we slept in the back of the truck, lulled away into slumber by the nearest diesel truck slowly chugging in it's parking spot. Minna said that she was so comfortable that night that she didn't want to get out of bed. But we did. We drove through New Jersey and on through Manhattan and Queens via the tunnel 34th street, tunnel. Thankfully some people from our Branch helped us unload. It would have been an all day job for us without their help... we are very grateful. We are officially living in New York City.

We really live here. It was always beyond me that we would ever have this opportunity. I walk out the door of our apartment down the stairs and skateboard down the street and up Austin street turning towards Queens Boulevard to catch the E train avoiding the strange looks people cast, bewildered by such a long skateboard. Coming out of the subway I walk straight into my building across the dark marble floor past the security guard, into the elevators. I get off on the 3rd Floor walk down the hall and through a door way. Here are my co-workers. I walk around a few cubicles and arrive next to the wall where a cube has my name on it and I sit down, in New York.

Alone

Here I am at work. There is no one here. well I can here people out in the hall every once in a while. but nobody is in my office. It's kind of nice just to have the whole place to myself. I just went with minna to the airport. She's flying to Salt Lake tonight to hang out and decorate her brother's house. So I'm alone for a few more days. It won't be so bad since I'm going out of town myself, on an office retreat sort of thing. but I'm with minna so much of the time that it will be quite strange. Tonight it was really fun to hang out with her at the airport before she left. She really is just beautiful. I'll miss her.

Traveling

We go through life traveling, we moved around everyday it ages us, we gain or loose heath by our daily journeys. Life is a journey. Even if we don't think we are moving, we are. Things are always changing. For example if you live in a home and then move out and then have the opportunity to visit the same home again it's the exact same home and it may look the same but yet it doesn't seem the same, even if it looks the same. Two days ago we arrived in Seattle and drove away from the curb on our journey toward Lake Stevens. We pulled around the way and headed toward the freeway, my wife's father passed this same stretch circling maybe five or six times before he picked us up. Many cars passed this way accumulating thousands of laps every day. I'm suprised that the smog around the airport is not more donut shaped. They should create an automobile race at the airport called the Airport 500. Here the ground is trodden and anything there upon. As we drove away from the airport passing white lines, a car floor-mat half fliped over by passing cars we discussed the flight and flying's usualities.

Yesterday we drove back to the airport picking up my wife's mother having who had been in Utah for the week. Minna dropped me off and circled while I went to the bathroom. Her mother would not arrive for a few more minutes. I came back and took the wheel while she went in to use the facilities. I eased onto the gas pedal to begin my slow circling and add my treads to the unofficial airport 500 race. I rounded the first bend curious about the interesting airport architechture, keeping my eye on the road began the turn back toward the curb passing a car floor mat, the same mat I'd seen the night before but a hundred yards further down the road. It was now at the fork where the road splits to head toward the freeway or back toward the exit. It seemed like the mat had traveled the distance on its own, 100 yards in almost 24 hours. It was the same mat I had seen the night before yet different having moved along on its path it had progressed in its journey unnoticed by passers by. I would say that 100 yards for a car mat is quite a distance (on its own). What a journey. We picked up Minna's mother and I tried to snap a photo of the mat. The photo didn't turn out but I have the memory. This week Minna's brother is getting married. I'll be going back and forth many times to the airport this week picking up relatives. I may see the same mat again perhaps a little further on its journey. I'll try again for a picture but it won't be the same.