Two of our friends celebrated their birthday's last week, so that had a large birthday dinner on Saturday. It was a great experience. Expensive, but worth it.

Afterwards RO & I went to the local bars. RO ran into a man, visiting from Arkansas whose last name was Mathews. It just so happend that RO was wearing a sweat shirt with "Mathews Inc." on it. So, RO swapped his sweat shirt for the guys shirt.

Work has been very stressfull lately. It seams that everything important is due at once.

Yesterday and today, we are 'calibrating' our employees-- evaluating all the employees for bonus, raises & promotion. It's very contentious-- one of the managers stormed out of the meeting when the debate around a particular employee didn't go the way he wanted.

I suspect today will be just as combative. Rumor has it that one of the managers has been trying to hide a failure. I work closely with the manager involved so I have to investigate, have an opinion and ultimatly take sides. If I'm not carefull, the manager in question could make it difficult for my employees to get bonus or promotions, so I have to enter this debate with backup.

Rain, rain...

The weather in Seattle has been unseasonably wet. I know Seattle has a reputation for rain, but May received almost double the average May rain. June is on the same path. June usually gets 1.5 inches of rain. So far June 2010 has had 1.57 inches.

Tuesday evening, Clem & Bates were over for dinner. As usual we had a wonderful time even though we drank too much.

We all agreed that at somepoint we have to live where it's Sunny.

Tommy, how sunny is LA?

All is busy here. I know nothing about the arraignments for RO's sister's funeral. I don't think RO knows either. RO said that when other family members have died, they were just buried with no proper funeral. Maybe that's just the way his family operates.

It's the opposite of how my family operates. Everyone who died had a wake, a funeral and a post funeral reception. Death is very social. There is some grieving, but mostly it's a somber get-together.

RO's sister died about half an hour ago. RO said she was in a lot of pain and that it's for the best that she's gone. When RO said that I could tell he was on the verge of crying.

RO's sister has stage 4 cancer. She is refusing treatment and may be in the last days of her life.

RO is spending much time with her and trying to help in his own way. She can't chew food so he has been making her ever more elaborite smoothies with tofu and vitamin pills.

I think something has gone wrong tonight. Usually he spends a couple hours with her before he heads home. Tonight, it's getting late, and he's not returning his text's.

Be strong RO.

aex said...

That you are a solid rock in a swift stream. ... one needs solid rocks to cling
on, was the water of life rushes by.

Thank you aex, whoever you may be.

Yo won't be moving in with us. He's kept putting off his move on account of finances. RO asked for the key back. I finally found him online-- I didn't spell his last name properly. When you do that, you learn all the details.

The local newspapers used him as an example in an article about improper state oversight of sex offenders. Yo had a license for a job that allowed him to work alone with children. The state didn't revoke the license after Yo was found guilty.

I just realized that I've known Tommy Boy, ItsAllGrandLike & John for longer than all but a few of my friends. I can look this kind of stuff up with the blog.

I've known Tommy since 2001. ItsAllGrandLike & John since 2002. I've met most of my local friends since then. I think the one exception is Steven who I've known since 1999.

I still have all my old friends from Canada. But my Seattle friends come and go. Hmmm. I wonder what that says about me.

RO threw a surprise birthday party for me. It was very sweet of him.

I had worked all day and was heading home when RO called me "Come to the store" he said "my sister wants to have a drink with you." We argued for a while. I was tired and didn't want to go out for a drink, but he twisted my arm enough, so I headed back to the store.

When I got to the store, lots of people where there. It was a great evening. Too much alcohol was drunk. Other than that, everyone had a great time.

Thanks RO. Love ya babe!

Am fourth now. 40.

I wrote a long blog on the philsophy of being 40, but blogger ate it up when I clicked publish.

"ya'll sure take in some odd fellows.. ya'll have big hearts"-- Tommy

Thank you Tommy. I don't know about the big hearted part. I agree that some of our roommates are odd.

I've been thinking about that. As a philosophy, I believe you should choose your acquaintances carefully-- you become like the people you hang around. In practice my friends and acquaintances are chosen more because I like them than for their virtues. A charming fool is easier to befriend than a quiet wise man.

Yo may move in with us as our new room mate. We agreeded on this a while back and he has the key. But, he's been putting off the move.

Today we learnt why. Yo is a registered sex offender. When he moves in our address will be published on the state sex offenders web site. He's been hesitent to tell us this.

I've heard Yo's side of the story. I'm trying to double check it online but I can't find him in the registered sex offender databases.

The sex offender database is fascinating. You can pull up maps that show you where the offender lives and where the nearby schools are. It includes pictures, a brief description of the charges and the risk of re-offending.

I didn't realize there were soo many sex offences. Aside from the obvious ones, rape, molestation and child porn, there mysterious ones like "Indecent liberties" and "Sexual Motivation"

I searched for my friends in the database. No dirt came back.

I'm surprised how many sex offenders offended with children. Rape of a child is uncomfortably common and not the 21yo-who-slept-with-a-17yo variety either. The majority of the offenders are white men thirty and older who did something with someone under 16. It's very creapy and depressing.

So what then to do about Yo. I would feel a little more comfortable if I could find him online, but I can't. I searched by first name and last and variations of his first name and nick names and the cities he's lived in. But no Yo. Where are you hiding Yo? What did you really do?

Tommy says "wow... one big family...interesting"

It is interesting. They like living in an extended family-- everyone from the grand parents through to the nephews and nieces under one roof. Great grandma used to live with them, but passed away last year.

They are also the first to admit there are drawbacks. You have to be good at defending your personal space and time.

If you have kids, there is always some one around to baby sit.

On the other hand, The adults have to do much co-ordination and communication. Otherwise the most lenient among them usurps their intent.

It doesn't work if one kid can only play X-Box from 7:00pm to 8:00pm while another is allowed to play after he finishes his homework.

If you buy an expensive birthday present for a niece, then you have to buy expensive birthday presents for all the nephews and nieces for the next year.

The kids also learn to work the system. If mommy or daddy won't let me have a cookie, then maybe the aunties or the uncles or grandma or grandpa will.

My brother and his wife flew in for a few days. It was a fun but short trip. Altogether we ate too much.

I worry about my brothers finances. They spend money at the drop of a hat. They live a sheltered life so they've never had to save. They live with her family and her family (grand parents, parents, brothers & sisters, nephews and nieces) all live together in one huge house.

We are almost out of the warehouse. RO has been furiously throwing garbage out for the last two days.

The new company is moving in as we move out. They do some kind of photocopier refurbishing. The warehouse is slowly filling up with used copiers.

Neily at work is being tested for cancer. It's freaked him out. He's had and beaten cancer before. Still, this is a big kick in the teeth.

He's known about this for a couple of weeks. About a weekago I noticed that he's been secluding himself and has been extra irritable. I mentioned it to him and he snapped at me, so I left him alone. Yesterday he told me what's troubling him.

It was a tiring weekend. Saturday RO and Yo worked at the warehouse while I worked at the store with Boone.

Yo is an interesting characters. He's single and as no job. He had a store near our old store, but he had to close that down.

Yo has set things up to work from anywhere. He has a mobile credit card reader and a wireless extender for his laptop si he can find and use free wireless from almost anywhere. He's taking pictures of stuff in our warehouse and posting it on eBay and Craigslist.

Saturday night RO and I went out to see Spring Thaw. RO got very drunk. On the way home he told me that he's been fooling around with a man about once a month. RO said that the man probably wanted to marry him and that he would be happy if he married this guy. RO then went on to point out some of the things that he didn't like about our sex life and what I could do to improve it.

RO sometimes mentioned that I don't often write positive things about him in this blog. He has a point, but this time he's earned it.

I'm not sure how to react to RO. I'm glad that he was open and honest with me. I don't like the direction that our relationship is taking. Maybe I'm too tired to deal with this. The store and my day job are exhausting. I could try and extract some kind of promise from RO to never do this again. Would I believe him?

Sunday RO, Yo and I worked at the warehouse. In the evening we delivered a large cabinent to a customer. I'm very happy that the delivery went well-- many things could have gone wrong-- the cabinet was 9 feet tall and barely able to fit through doors. The customers house had very twisty halls. It took much planning to get the cabinet into the room without damaging or scratching anything.

We are shutting down the warehouse and have to be out by the end of the month. We are having a warehouse sale today and it's going well.

At my day job, the team on the floor below us goes hom by 5pm every day.

I kind of want to work for them.

Their administrator has a big candy bowl outside of her door. It's always full of good candy. I raid it every night at 5:05 pm.

RO is hiding more injury from me. I think that he's cracked a rib. He denies it. When I mentioned it he changed the subject. But, he acts like a man with a cracked rib.