Long Time

Since I posted here...
Last week I spent on day shift taking a Mobile Crane course required by Boeing.
I drive the mobile crane maybe once a year. It is difficult to become proficient on something that you rarely drive. Use it or lose it as the saying goes.
Getting upo at 4:45 am everyday was a pain in the #$%s.. I hated it. Besides, I couldn't sleep much anyway as I am normally awake those hours...
A week long course, cramming numbers and concepts into my head. OUCH! A hundred and twenty five question test on Thursday. Needing an 80% to pass, meaning you can miss 25 questions. I passed with an 88, I missed 15. I honestly believe the bar should be set to a 90% to pass. A mobile crane is not a plaything although experienced operators make it look so...
To celebrate I met my son Ryan downtown for a beer and a burger, he took me to where he works and showed me around. Wow, lot's of people downtown..
As I arrived home and pulled into the garage, my wife met me and wondered when I got the flat tire? I somehow had a flat tire and made it to my garage without ever knowing! Luck of the Irish I guess. Maybe I should have bought a lottery ticket that day!? :)
In September I have to pass a hands on test with the crane. It is a difficult test and I am gong to be practicing my operating skills.
My boat is still not sea worthy! It is killing me not to be able to get out and get after the Salmon that are showing up. My kicker motor is perhaps on it's last legs.

My neighbor offered his sons kicker but it has the same problem as mine. Tonight a fellow worker is supposed to bring in a kicker motor for me to try out. We might make a trade, some custom golf clubs for his motor. That would be sweet!
I am preparing for my first paid magical gig coming up this Saturday! I am excited for it! About time!

For Your Efforts!

Yesterday, after I got home from fishing, my neighbor Andy saw me drive into our drive way, he came over to see my catch. Then he says, "hey, I got something for you". When he returns, he hands me this...
While building a fence for his deck, I had mentioned that it would have been nice to have a "sawsall". I guess he made a mental note of it!
Andy is an awesome mechanic, over the years he has helped me numerous times with my car troubles, not only mine but our boys too. I was more than happy to build this fence for him, I enjoyed it. I have some decent carpentry skills. Not saying I am a carpenter but maybe just above average?! It gave me great pleasure to be able to give back to Andy and his.
Thanks Andy! I will definitely put the saw to good use!

Our day with Mr. Bobgan!

Like I have posted earlier, our p.c. at home is dead, getting my pictures uploaded has been non existent... I went to our neighbors and used her p.c. so I can now use my p.c. at work to add some photo's and catch up on my blogging..
Wed. the 11th we took Johnny Bobgan out to dinner at El Caporal, a favorite Mexican restaurant of ours.
Our Nephew Mike joined us and actually drove us to the restaurant in his new truck!

We enjoyed a hot meal and catching up with Johnny and Mike. Johnny is a childhood friend of our son Eric. They have been friends forever, they both went thru all 12 grades of school together. Johnny is also a marine and was home on leave. He calls Joan and I his other parents! :)

Our waiter was clowning around with me, both of us having fun with each other, so... I did a little magic for him, crazy man's handcuffs and then for our table neighbors I performed the Hot Rod and vanished it at the end. Funny what a little magic in your life can do! There were about three other tables looking on by the time I finished.
Sweet!

After dinner we did a bit of clowning around...

Magic session at Denny's

Leslie Thyagarajan, the man from India! That's him, the gentleman I met earlier this year at Magic Monday. We met at Denny's in Renton last night to discuss magic and the like.

Leslie has been a magician and an artist for many years. It is interesting how we meet people in this life if we just take the time to notice them and say hello! I met him after performing at Magic Monday way back in March. He really enjoyed my cups and balls routine. He is a quiet man and generous. My friend Tom Frank would tell me, "Tim, there are two kinds of people in the world, givers, and takers. We both know what we are." Leslie is definitely one of the givers. I asked him if he still had some of the magic kits he gives out to the children he teaches magic. I offered to pay for a couple of them but he wanted to gift them to me. Sometimes we need to let people give us things. It is a graciousness to accept at times as well. People feel good in the giving. I am going to give the magic kits to a friends son who is interested in magic. Leslie has some great insights into performing for children. I have found that the magic I perform is more suited for the adult mind. I am trying to get more into performing for children. It is definitely a special person that can hold the attention of the wee ones. I'm not talking about playing down to them, they are smart and bright, intelligent people. It is just hard to keep their focus. It is hard to be "silly" with them sometimes when you have been working so hard to learn "serious" magic! Ha ha!
I look forward to watching some of Leslie's teaching in the near future. He thinks I am this great magician, maybe I am!? I studied under quite a magical character in Tom Frank!

Into Every Life...

a little sunshine must fall!
I think the group of people I support wanted to poke a bit of fun my way! They nominated me....
Employee of the month! For June! Hahahahahaha..


You gotta be kidden... musta been the magic!
I performed at the Renton field Preflight Family Fun Day. It was a great show and I think it was much appreciated. Along with the "honor" of being employee of the month is a few nice perks. I received a certificate for 100 points to spend at the Boeing store, yes, Boeing has a store that they sell all kinds of trinkets with the Boeing logo. Blankets, watches, flashlights and much more...
I have been working for Boeing for more than 29 years and this is my second employee of the month. I got one back in 1984... let's see... 2007.... 1984... that's a 23 year gap, holy cow, by the time I get another one I'll be 71 years old and have 52 years with the company! OY!

Salmon eyes

I fished Possession Bar again yesterday morning with my friend Dan Nomura.
We took his boat, a 19 foot seaswirl (I think). These boats are mainly pleasure boats, but Dan has it outfitted for fishing as well with GPS, two electric downriggers etc.
We drove to the Edmonds Marina and they "sling" your boat into the water there.





Once we in the water we had trouble getting the boat to start. Dan has two batteries tied into each other,(parallel) one of them he thinks is going bad, He went to his truck and was going to "borrow" the battery from it but instead the people that work at the Marina had a battery/engine starter. So off we went, worried that the electric downriggers would drain the batteries and we would have to kicker motor it back to the Marina later in the day... Gotta fish! You know!
We started fishing about 6:3o on the Eastern side of the Bar. There were about three to four hundred boats scattered all over the water. We saw lots of bait fish but not many nets out netting fish. The day started out calm and promising but it wasn't long and the rain began to pour and pour and pour... Imagine that!
Dan mentioned why not that many fish are caught in the rain is because of the Barometric pressure change, this change affects the fish for about a day, he said if it is raining the next day it shouldn't be as big a problem as the fish have acclimated a bit.
Anyway, I caught about 6 dawg fish, we eventually moved over to the West side of the bar but still no fish caught nor did we get any real strikes. There were boats everywhere, it was almost as bad as Lake Washington on opening day of Sockeye season.
Dan wanted to go to Point No Point and mooch, so that is what we did. I haven't mooched in years so was not fluent in the technique, so that must be why on the first "let down" to the bottom of the sound my bait I got a solid strike. I thought of course that it was another dawgfish, but much to my surprise and delight... it was a nice 12 pound Blackmouth with adipose fin removed, in other words a keeper!


We went thru many more dawgfish using this mooching technique, dawgfish destroy your line and you must replace your lures almost every time you catch one, which is just about every time you let your line down. Since it was raining so hard and the chop was picking up, this was a real pain in the %^$, by this time I was soaked, I didn't bring any rain gear and Dans' boat has no overhead covering, my fingers had water ripples... I am beginning to really fall in love with my boat!
Dan caught a nice blackmouth of about 15 pounds but we had to release it because it was a "wild" one.
We finally gave up and headed home. A long day, fun and interesting, and stink in the boat!

Break Out Another Thousand (B O A T)

Dug my boat out of the garage again today, I say again because about a month or two ago, Ryan and I took it out on Lake Sawyer to test it out, the kicker wouldn't "pee" and the big motor decided to cause the low oil alarm to sound. I have no time for this, I ma not a mechanic, want me to cut wood and build something? I can do that!
So the boat went back into the garage and stayed their pouting, Maybe I was pouting...?
It got re-buried and today (yesterday) I dug it out again, Ran the big motor and it seems fine except that I need to change all the spark plugs. I'll do that tomorrow (today) and of course my kicker motor needs to have the impeller replaced, this is a bi yearly occurrence except this year it is a one year occurrence. There is no way to flush out the bottom of the unit. I am going to drill holes in the lower housing so I can periodically spray WD 40 in there. My neighbor Andy is a great mechanic and is helping me get this going.
I hope to be fishing on Thursday!

Friday plus...

Friday was a good day. I spent several hours helping our neighbor Andy and his wife Nikki build a fence around their deck. They have become foster parents recently.
The state requires a full fence around their deck before they will allow them to put their above ground pool back up. I volunteered my services. It took about 5 hours on Friday and I finished the job (mostly) on Saturday. It turned out pretty nice.


Sunday after church it was another round at Joan's moms home, cleaning and getting things boxed up and moved out so the house can go up for sale. We are making progress, sometimes it seems like we aren't, but we are! More cool stuff has been found, more lighters and vases... books and tools. We basically have the garage cleaned out and are ready for an estate sale. I don't know what Joans dad was planning to do with all the stuff he aquired over the years while traveling as a navigator for several airline companies. Was he planning on selling this stuff? Or perhaps giving it to his children and their children?

I went fishing on Monday, My neighbor Andy and I went North to Possession Bar. I have never been to the Everett Marina. It is a nice marina. lots of room to launch and still waters because of the break water. A long boat ride to get to open water before you can let your motor run at full speed.
I got out of bed at 3:30 am. Banged on my neighbors door at 4. Made the long trek up to Everett. We started fishing about 6:30 am in Andy's 19 foot Bayliner...
It was a beautiful day as the sun came up, mountains all around us, the water was like glass...
took awhile to catch a legal fish. We released 5 dogfish
and several shakers, a nice maybe 3 lb. Blackmouth that was not long enough. Finally I caught a small maybe three pound silver. Since it was the first legal (barely) fish of the year, in the cooler it goes. Maybe around 10 am, I hooked into about an 8 pound Blackmouth,

it was fun as it tried to escape, the wonder "zing zinging of the line as the fish fights for it's life, pulling line from the reel, all you can do is hang on... Most wonderful of feelings...
Andy netted the fish as it was a legal fish, meaning it was a hatchery fish.
Not long after that I hooked up again as I was letting the bait down on the down rigger. I was holding the rod so felt the hit, what a feeling! Joy surges thru you! I handed the rod of to Andy, a beautiful Coho, dancing and flying across the water about a hundred yards from the boat, we scramble to get the manual downriggers up, the net out etc. We land this fish and finish up the day by catching another nice silver about 11:30... My Blackmouth had a tag in it's head so the game checker cut it's head apart to retrieve the tag.
I really don't like having our catch checked. It's not like we took illegal fish or anything, It's just become a bother. They charge an arm and a leg to fish anymore, limit the fish you can keep, regulate you silly and then take up your time on the dock checking your catch. Really annoying.

Funny? Not Funny?

(Click to enlarge)

More Travelin Man...

Our son Ryan told me the other day that my blog was boring and that It was because I hadn't posted lately. I mentioned to him that our computer at home is dead and that I like to post with pictures. As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words... Not being able to upload pictures because our p.c. is dead has made me not post lately. I also told him that I wanted to do a post about his trip to the Philippines and Cambodia, do you have any god photo's? Here is his reply:
Dad,

Here are a few pictures from Cambodia. A little information:

We went to the Goldstone School of HOPE Worldwide in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
We were there for one week working with a class of 8 - 9 year old kids (third grade I believe).

They all speak English to some extent, and we spent time teaching them songs and playing games and sports with them.

They all love football (aka soccer). We also played a lot of basketball.

It was hot and humid all week, we were very sweaty, especially me.

On the last day at the school we brought all the kids a gift bag of school supplies and donations of clothing for the school teachers to distribute later.

The school was started six years ago and each year adds one grade level. They currently have grades 1 - 6 and a total of about 150 students.

On our team were Miyoko, her sister Manami, our friend Tim Jacobs, and myself. We were housed and taken care of by local Cambodians.

Hope this is enough info and some good pictures.

Love ya,

Ryan

Where I Work, What I Do...

Amid all the 787 roll-out hoopla, perhaps the coolest event went unnoticed. On Saturday night, Boeing had all of the 787 airline representatives at an event at the Museum of Flight. At 7:07 PM, an Omega Air Refueling Services 707 landed in front of the crowd (after taking off from Paine Field in Everrett). At 7:17, an AirTran 717 landed. This continued until 8:17 when an Air France 777-300ER landed. In the end, the 717, 727, 737, 747, 757, 767, and 777 were lined up nose-to-tail on the taxiway. It is the first time Boeing has had every 7-series airplane in the same place (not counting the 787, which couldn't make the flight, of course). Also, notice the Dreamlifter off to the left and the 1st 747 across the street to the upper right. There is also one of the first 737's (if not the first) there too.


(click to enlarge)
Although I wasn't there for the building of all these wonderful planes, my small contribution over the last twenty nine years has been rewarding!

Independence Day!

Independence Day! Yea! One of my favorite holidays! I think it is most peoples
too. You don't get any gifts, you don't have to get any gifts for anyone else either, no stress. Just enjoyin' your family and friends, picnicking, and later in the evening, when it gets dark... FIREWORKS!


Do you know anyone who doesn't like fireworks?! Me neither!


I think it has to do with fire, and being a kid and loud bangs!




Remember when they let you light the fuse for the first time?!

Was that cool or what? Like being a big kid. I spent the evening at Cedar River near Boeing with some friends and my wife and daughter watching the fireworks over Lake Washington. That was Wednesday night.

Thursday morning we got up and drove two and a half hours to Ocean Shores and hooked up with Dale and Jean McDowell and their daughter Jeni. They own a house on the canal at Ocean shores. We arrived about 5 in the evening.
Friday dale and I golfed at Ocean Shores golf course, we do this every year. It was a two club wind this time. We had a great time. Recently another friend of mine taught me how to get out of sand bunkers. I have gotten fairly good at it and I taught Dale over the course of our round. He picked it up pretty fast. Sweet. Later that same day Dale and I began installation of a new screen door at their place. Those things are not that easy to install properly. We got about half finished and called it a day and enjoyed dinner and got back to it on Saturday.
Dales son Scott, and his girlfriend Milea came down as well, and our son Ryan came down with his girlfriend Myoko on Saturday. We had a huge feast Saturday. Fresh live crab, Sockeye Salmon, Steaks and salads too.(pictures when my p.c. gets repaired)

After dinner I performed some magic for everyone.
I started with the Chinese Sticks, later Jeni told me it is one of her favorites, she has seen it many times and still is baffled...
And then I followed that up with the Acrobatic Knot and then the Ring, Rope, and Wand. (Thanks Daryl!)
Then I performed Celini's Cut and restored rope and dove tailed that into the Lassoing a card, a new trick that wowed everyone, I wasn't really sure about it but the reaction It got was tremendous. Lassoing a card... blew them away. Sweet!
I performed The Legend of the Five Mystic Rings (my son Ryan's new favorite!)

And of course, I finished with my favorite,
The Cups and Balls!

I actually dropped the ball during my performance doing the Vernon wand spin, no matter, I am sure greater performers than I have had this mishap! I vanished the ball using the striking vanish instead. I finished strong and the gasps and sounds of amazement were worth the effort!

I was tired before the performance, I am sorry to say that I didn't give it my best effort. I messed up a card trick called the tricky wallet. One I love to do and don't get to perform often because you need at least three spectators to assist. I know what I did wrong and will be better for it!
Lassoing a card turned out to be more than I hoped for. Quite astonishing. I went into the effect after the cut and restored rope. I had a friend pick a card, replace it in the deck and lost it in the deck, truly. I let him shuffle the deck. I looked for his card several times and failed to produce it. Finally, I gave up and let the piece of rope find his card in a bag. Gasps all around as his card was produced tied in a knot at the end of the rope. (I must thank Scott Ocheltree for this fine handling of this great effect)


Every night we built a bonfire in the backyard and roasted marshmallows and of course, that means S'Mores! We started using Carmello candy bars in our s'mores!
Everyone ate really good over the time spent there, including Cub our dog.
We spent time at the ocean flying kites and hunting for natures treasures, some sand dollars and stuff!
Saturday night we went to the beach around 11 pm to light off the fireworks we had purchased. It was the 7th of July. We lit of several nice fireworks but it wasn't long until the local police chased us away. No fireworks allowed after the 5th... Who new!?
Now, back to the grind, work!
(All photo's in this post by Dale McDowell)

Gettin things done...

Woke up, fell outta bed...
Got on the road with the big land yacht, our white suburban. Time to get an emissions test. Didn't know if it would pass or fail... burnin gas to get there, burnin gas to test it. Amazingly it passed! :) Now I am legal for two more years. That may be all it has left in it. Towing the boat, and launching it in salt water has caused the exhaust pipe to rust to the point that I had to break it off. The guy at the emissions test site wasn't happy to have to get on his knees to insert the two probes into the exhaust pipe. He actually whined about it and had a younger man do it.
After that I drove to Goodwill and unloaded many boxes of stuff from my mother in laws place. Books and books and books...
Got home and Mrs. Flynn informs me we're having hamburgers for dinner. That's cool, just means I gotta fire up the Hibachi...
Mowed the lawn and cleaned the hot tub too!
Man I'm good!

Travelin man...

Our son Ryan spent the last two weeks in the Philipines and Cambodia. He went there to teach children in the schools.
He said in an email:

Mi familia -

I have arrived at my final destination, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. It has been much flying from the Philippines we spend one day and night in Bangkok, Thailand, and then early this morning we flew into Cambodia. I am a bit exhausted... we were at the airport at 5 am, and it is so hot right now that it takes a lot out of you.

I am having a great time though. We are all staying in a sort of "villa" with each of us having our own rooms. There is a family that owns it that is not there right now, but will be back later this week. We were able to go to a sister-church this morning almost as soon as we arrived. It was a lot of fun, but almost entirely in Khmer (the local language). The children here are so fun to see. They are so poor, but so excited that we are here. I am going to play some basketball with the boys and maybe teach them frisbee too.

Things are safe here. There is not much you have to worry about other than dodging motorcycles which are everywhere, and being careful of what I eat. I have not gotten sick yet, but I would say that my stomach is "on the edge." So pray that we will all stay healthy for the remainder of this trip. It would be pretty unbearable to have food poisoning over here in this heat. There is however a possibility of eating tarantula later... Maybe I will save that for our last night here.

Miyoko is doing great too. She says hi to everyone and will probably see you all when we get back.

With love,

Ryan
____________________________________________________________________________________
The Khmer Rouge, the radical Marxists who controlled Cambodia for four nightmarish years from 1975–79, are infamous for their state-sponsored massacre of between 1 and 2 million Cambodians. They are also known for their impunity— in the two decades since the regime was toppled, not a single Khmer Rouge has been tried in a court of law.

Pol Pot, the regime's "Brother Number 1," has become, along with Hitler and Stalin, synonymous with brutal despotism. His death from natural causes on April 15, 1998, deprived the world of a sense of justice and closure to the Khmer Rouge era.

I am sure this was an intense time for Ryan and his entourage.

Top Ten of Military Golf Courses?

That's what the advertisement proclaims. I wonder how many years ago that was written?! Haha...
Me and the boys from work, my golfing buddies, made a long trek to the Fort Lewis Golf Course on Monday morning after work. I had heard this:


Fort Lewis Golf Course
Voted in the top ten of military golf courses by Travel and Leisure magazine, the Fort Lewis Golf Course is one of the best courses in Western Washington, and is open to the general public.

A treasure of the Pacific Northwest, nestled in the shadows of magnificent Mount Rainier, Fort Lewis provides the ideal setting for a memorable golf experience. With its impressive design and perfectly groomed layout, this 27-hole championship course features exceptional greens, manicured fairways and forgiving rough with tee boxes designed for all levels of golfers. Complementing the course.

I really don't know what is meant by the words "one of the best." Or who voted on the subject, or how long ago it was written.
But the course we played was in terrible condition. It has many very long par fours, with very tight, narrow fairways surrounded by tall trees lining the fairways.

That's all fine, but to also have postage stamp size greens that are not mowed, and the location of the cups looked to us like they haven't been moved in a week was pathetic.
The ad also says perfectly groomed layout, manicured fairways and forgiving rough...
HA! Maybe I'm just whining, but there was nothing forgiving about the tall wet rough and I saw lumpy greens, and brown grass around the cups which is indicative that the cups aren't frequently moved. Generally the cups are moved daily. Maybe it's because there's a war going on?
We all had a good time, but it was a struggle.
The ad did however get one thing right... It truly was a memorable experience! One I'll not be going back for seconds on.