Happy Birthday Mom
Love & miss you all

I wouldn't have thought that. Its amazing the things I get into these days.

 It's been hard lately, giving you the love and attention you need.
Its dark outside when I leave, and its dark when I come home.
Add to that, the twenty degree weather and its the cold season,
and there's just not much left of me by 6pm.
Its supposed to snow 1 inch today, and 4 inches this weekend,
but I'm glad for the timing. At least I won't be knocking it off the truck windows this morning at 7am.
Life in Pittsburgh is a little rougher than I'd imagined. I thought it would be more like Louisville.
I keep thinking of Peter, living in the Lake Michigan area. He must be missing Louisville badly.
Rod and his family are having weather like us.
Then again, I think about Florida, Vegas and San Diego. Those guys are having great weather.
Of course, life would be perfect here if we could telecommute !!!

We went back up to the trash compactor today. What a beautiful day !!!
While we were up there, I decided to put some windshield washer fluid (with deicer) into the truck. A girl pulled up behind us, and I asked her if she'd like some...she said YEA!!! Then she asked me if I'd like some Rainex...I said YEA!!!
That was cool.
We needed some quarters for the washing machine, so we went to Big Eagle.
Becky hopped out of the truck, and couldn't walk. She's got tendonitis in her right knee.
That was not cool.
I got her to drive one of those motorized carts. She did. It was fun watching her navigate the cart.
That was cool.
We're getting old. We're starting to give back all of the gifts we recieved from our youth.
And that's not cool.
But on second thought, I'm with a beautiful woman. We're going to age well together.
And that....is very cool!!! 

She woke up, and said "It's Becky's birthday today"
I said, babe, "You're Becky"
She said, "I thought Becky was at the White Capitol"
I said, "No, that's the White House, and she...I mean WE, went last week, or did we go last week?".
She said, "No, I think we went last month.". "So, I wonder what Jim got me for my birthday."
I said, "Jim?".
I'm trying to figure out who and where I am these days
Am I Joe Six-Pack, Joe Lunchbucket, or the White Collar Elite ?
Do I live on Main Street, or am I the McMansion type?
Joe Six-Pack is generally understood to be one heckuva nice guy. He drinks, but he never drinks and drives. When he does drive, he would be the last person to tailgate or cut anybody off in traffic. He just Wants What is Best for America.
He has lunch with a lot of so-called "blue-collar" types - plumbers, electricians, truck drivers, the guy who owns the local car-repair shop. Some make more money than Mr White-Collar Elite. Joe Six-Pack is the one the politicians seem to like best. He's usually married to Soccer-Mom.
Soccer-Mom doesn't logically exist, or I don't know any of them. Soccer Moms work hard for their kids, but soccer is far too expensive for most middle class Moms. I think the middle class mom would be best coined as a Pink Collar Mom since most Mom's have to work these days. Mr and Mrs Cleaver are working so Beaver can spend all of time online.
Joe Lunchbucket  is a working stiff who has to pack his own lunch and can't even afford beer. Nobody seems to mention him much. I don't know any of these guys. Most of the people I know in this class work through lunch.
The White-Collar Elite guys live one subdivision away. In fact, you can catch all these guys after they've taken off their white or blue collars and put on t-shirts to go watch football. They're awfully hard to tell apart.
Wall Street is where all of those stock brokers go to have panic attacks, heart failures, and mental breakdowns just before they get soused at a local bar, then take the subway home. Nobody I know, knows these guys.
Main Street I think is where we are supposed to live. I can't usually afford to live downtown.
I think I'd call my self Joe Cubical,
I live in Back Street America. You never hear about that. 
Most of the people I work with don't take lunch breaks. Who takes lunch breaks these days?

Its on a hill side in the forest. Our sliding glass door opens up to an open patio where theres a sloped yard, lots of trees and a creek. We expect to see plenty of wild life, like deer and racoon. What makes this location really great is, when we look through the forest, there's some shimming lights. They come from a shopping center with a Giant Eagle, Taco Bell, KFC, an interesting restaurant/bar and some very interesting shops. We can take a trail down the hill and through the forest we can cross over a bridge and a highway, and be shopping in 10 minutes. It's only 6 minutes from work.
Some of the people I've met live nearby on ranches
One girl complained about her two horses. She said all they ever do with them is feed them. The damage caused by the pollutants decades ago has hurt the nutrients in the soil, so they have to feed the horses hay and grain.
The days are shorter here, due to the hills.
So driving to work is shady and bright. The air is humid. The weather is perfect when its 60 degrees. At 90 degrees, going outside is almost intolerable. I'd expect this winter will be rough, with lots of slushy snow.
Last Sunday, 70 mph winds blew down power lines all over Pittsburgh. A lot of areas are having to boil their water. Tree limbs are in the roads. Some of the high shrubbery has been blown flat to the ground.
This morning, the fog was so thick, I could hardly see the stop lights.
I LIKE IT.

What is great about Seattle
- The view from this apartment is incredible.
- Relatives living nearby is awesome.
- Working here has been easy.
- The country side is beautiful.
- Washington is by far the most beautiful state I have ever seen.
What isn't great about Seattle
- Driving here is a mess. I've seen 9 way stops with no lights. People park in the travel lanes.
- Parking is next to impossible, and it is very expensive ($280 a month to park at work).
- The cost of living here is easily twice that of Louisville ($1,200 for a one bedroom).
- Insane and homeless people are everywhere. Most people ignore them. I think its something in the water.
- People yell and fight in the streets.
- People are allowed to sleep on the sidewalks.
- We never found any fun places to go. We saw no bands. We saw no dance floors.
- The buses are overcrowded and are never on time.
- My Identity was stolen here.
- My truck was been burglarized.
- I had to pay for parking at both at my apartment and work.
- I see police stopping drivers every day, while homeless people get away with blocking store exits asking for money.
- I found that most of the people here are either self absorbed or morally bankrupt.
- I had to booby trap my cubical, someone went through my cubical drawers and my personal notes.
- Someone else went through my PC, saw my diary, and told everybody what they found.
- Someone I never talked too, was spreading terrible lies about me through email.
- I'd see people go into my cube when they thought left for a bathroom break.
Seattle is, by far, the scariest place I've ever lived. It really creeps me out.
I don't think I'll be coming back here.
The cities outside of Seattle look great though.
I think I'd love to live in Bellevue, Olympia or Redmond, Wa. They had a normal feel to them.