For those of you who still click on your bookmark and come this way in vain hope a new posting has been made, you're in luck. The rest of you,I'm sure, got here by accident and don't have to feel bad for moving on.
The title of this thing will soon need a change, but I don't care to do it as the feeling of oneness with Canada still holds and it remains a long term goal to once again call the place home. the part that will be less accurate is the Oregon part. Being in the doldrums since all the going back to Canada fell apart last fall and finding the joys of pointless grunt work fulfilling I've been on the hunt for a change. Funny thing is I've found it. by this 1 September I'll be moving to Denver, Colorado to get settled before starting nursing school in November at a private medical college. I'm actually in Denver this moment just having gone through all the official testing and financial BS yesterday and general checking out of the place today. To be honest, I'm freaked. This place makes Calgary's sprawl look tame. Having spent the past 2 years in the softest city in America it'll take a bit to get in the Denver flow. Kinda one big 'burb. Those familiar with Beaverton or Gresham will understand.
Flying back tomorrow night and then beginning the thinning of the shit and making of preperations to hit the ground running.
Let the next adventure begin.

Yes, it's amazing outside and I'm in here fucking about on the computer. Working outside kinda takes the wow out of the weekend warriorism. The trusty Mt. bike is apart in the basement victim of a bad bottom bracket and a thin wallet. Riding in Michigan has gotten the juices flowing and its time to get it rolling again. Next weekend will see me on Mt Hood skinning up then ripping a nice long 4000 foot run back down.
Plans are getting going for a return to Denver to get the school thing going, Bend shall see me the first part of June for my nephew's graduation, odd having seen him be born and he's now 18, and if it can be swung, an August trip to Canada to see all you good folk. I know it's been mentioned before, but this could actually happen!
Here soon it will be full time studying for teh entrance exam for school then thinning through my shit again to avoid the nightmare that was the return from canada. Gonna try and get everything in the Soob. we'll see.

Well not a ton of stuff going on here as of late. Went camping this weekend with some friends from the USFS up near Mt Hood and went to the retirement party of someone I'd met only once before, but enjoyed the food nonetheless. Took a while to get back in Oregon mode after Toledo. Sheesh, what a shit hole. This week started with a pit bull attack earlier today. I managed to avoid getting bit, but still did the twitch and shake thing for a while. I fucking hate my job. On the plus side, things are moving forward with the nursing and I'll be headed back to Denver the end of June to get all the testing and paperwork done for enrollment. Need to bone up on dividing fractions and all the fun fraction shit. Boy, I love the metric system. More good news was on my home page today. Looks like the country I want may want me after school is done. We'll see it's a long way off yet, but a good sign anyway.
If you have a pitbull, fucking kill it and get a cat. Miserable fucking currs.

I'm so fucking sick of hearing about the goddamn swine flu horseshit I could puke blood. More children die in this country from abuse every fucking day than this high test sniffle has caused in the week of it's spotlight status. Yes, infectious diseases are important to keep an eye on, but this has gotten insane. NPR has jumped on the shithead band wagon as well which really gets me fired up. Praying for it to turn into some virulent ebola type bug and spreading like wildfire causing untold thousands of deaths to justify the coverage hasn't yet worked, but I'm still trying. Fox and Co are just thrilled it has taken the spotlight off of King Shithead's criminal gang of torturers long enough for Americans to possibly forget and follow the new shiny little object catching their attention.

On the Entertaining Things Going on in Ohio side of life I found this by the sidewalk today:
Yes, it's a bad phone shot, but those in the know are aware of this little packages contents. It's a big fat bag of weed. And a fucking Bic lighter! SCORE! Well, score if I still smoked pot, but that ship sailed a LONG time ago. So what did I do with it? Left it right there so some unsuspecting and impressionable youth could find it and take their first step down the road of desperation and debauchery. Good luck, finder of the sack! Won't even have to steal a goddamn lighter. All ya need is a pop can and you're good to go.

On a missing home note.....
if I'm here much longer something like this is gonna seem like a good idea.

For some reason, the gods have deemed it necessary for me to be in the right place at the right time to keep me well humored and my take on the absurdity if humanity fresh. This has been accomplished today by witnessing 2 separate, but equally informational events. the first being a solo EMT trying to provide care to some oldish very heavy woman who somehow managed to splat HARD on the side of a busy road. There were times as a medic where 3 folks weren't enough to handle a patient, but this guy was breaking every rule of patient management trying to get this faceplanted blob of a human dealt with all by himself with an increasingly growing audience of kids. You may need my particular lens on the world to find the humor in such a situation, but it's there if you look for it.
The second bit of goodness came when entering the nearby Meijers Superstore and hearing a car go buy that was easily on its last legs and making some fucking horrible sounds. A rotund twentysomething couple, as most folks here are, came out the door as I was headed in and the gal just shoots off "Maybe with your next welfare check you should buy a muffler!" The words themselves may not be much, but the tone of voice used to utter the above floored me. I'm still chuckling.
Oh, and if one thinks I'm a bit of a west coast snob with my harsh citrique of Toledo, I've not uttered words 1/10th as harsh as many of hte residents of the place. "Welcome to my town, the shithole!" Go Mudhens!

And here is a photo of the cat that would have ripped off my face had not the screen prevented him from launching himself at me. Nasty little fucker.

Having just finished reading a comprehensive history of the Inquisition, and not just the Spanish period, the whole fucking thing I have a suggestion:
And remember: Cold is just god's way of telling us to burn more Catholics!

So, the day started at the nifty little crowded and small, but decent, Maumee Bay State Park about 15 minutes east of where I'm staying. At this point I've yet to troll around downtown so was still a little positive about the place in general.


This is one of the numerous refineries across the bay in Michigan making it obvious this was no major natural area or an ocean.
Then, after getting a good sunburn:

and seeing the 3 girls I would actually consider attractive since I've gotten here, it was time to hit downtown.
Here is the coal fired power plant on the NW edge of the city right on the water. It appears that a little further south of this place there is an attempt to make a big waterfront commercial/residential/retail infill type development, but it is going nowhere due to lack of $.

This is the I-280 bridge and the photo doesn't do it justice as it's actually a damn cool piece of architecture. The city has a lot of great old architecturally interesting buildings it's just that crack heads life in them and they're falling apart. Driving around downtown for and hour or so just got me depressed as the place was dead except for the Mudhens game and the 8 people in town for the "Glass City" marathon. Oh, and the drunk guy pissing on the side of a building and yelling shit to no one in particular. Damn, this place sucks. I don't mean that in a West Coast snob kind of way, but more in the trying to find the good and seeing damn little of it here kind of way. Could be that having lived in so many amazing places my whole life when I'm faced with what a lot of folks have as standard conditions there is no way to relate.
Oh, here is the oil refinery in the middle of 'burbs I drive past every day to and from work. Gotta love Sunnaco.

Now, yesterday was a hoot as it involved hooking up with a coworker and heading to friend Scott's place NW of Detroit and getting out and playing.
Scott and Jared on a sunny windy Midwest day. We were prepped to get out windsurfing, got the car all loaded up:a thunderstorm came up and dumped a shitton of rain and killed all the wind.
Waited an hour or so, unloaded the car, reloaded it with Mt bikes and headed to Pontiac Lake park to get in a good 10.5 mile ride. It amazes me that I'm perfectly willing to hurl myself down a near sheer cliff on a bike when if I were in a car I would be shitting my pants going down such a grade. The ride got me fired up to get my bike back in tune and try and get some riding in back home. Need to head to Bend and hit the old trails again soon.