I drove home last night without the AC on, I opened up the sun roof and all the windows. We hit a record high of 103 yesterday and I wanted to feel it all. When I stuck my arm outside the window the air felt like it came from a hair dryer.

We went swimming against last night but didnt' stay as long. Mosquitoes came out after the sun set. It was still a very plesent evening. Thanks to the swimming, I'm sleeping well despite the heat.

To stave off the heat, RO and I went to Kennydale Beach Park to swim, to have a light picnic and to watch the sun set.

What a great place. After the life guards left, the beach came alive. People kept showing up, mostly teenagers, but many families as well. You could hear laughter everywhere. Of course, the best part of swimming someplace without a life guard is that you can do whatever you want. Lots of people were swimming outside the buoyed off swimming area. People were jumping off the rails, playfully pushing each other off the dock, playing tag in the deep water, floating on air mattress and all those other officially unsafe, yet fun, activities.

The sunset was beautiful and broadly red. Then the sky turned a deep dark blue. Perfect for swimming.

Well... we're going to open a second store. It seams that we will be doing this by maxing out our credit cards, selectivly not paying bills and buying inventory on credit.

If we succeed, then good. If not, it will all be over before my 40th birthday.

We had dinner at Clem & Bates. They had interesting stories to tell.

Clem & Bates have an open relationship. One day while Bates was away, Clem took out an ad on Craigslist, including a below the waist nude shot.

A neighbor, a married woman, called Clem and asked "Did you take out an ad on Craigslist?" Clem tried to be vague and avoid the question. The neighbor continued "I recognize the linoleum on your bathroom floor. I know that's you!"

Busted.

Boone put up a memorial for our dearly departed cat.

http://ronaldscottboone.com/blog/?page_id=47

It's been a busy couple of days. Where to start?

My cat is gone and probably dead.

My mother misplaced her passport and we had to go to the consulate.

RO and my mom got into an argument. My mother started to try cry.

First the cat; the last time we saw him was Friday. We noticed that he wasn't around on Saturday. Sunday we got worried and started looking. In a way I'm glad he's gone because he was a messy cat. On the flip side, I feel bad that i'm a little happy that he's gone.

My mother's passport; when my mom flew to Seattle, she accidentally grabbed my dad's passport. Even with the wrong passport she managed to talk her way into the U.S. But, she was given a stern warning that she had to exit with proper documentation. So Monday, Mom and I went to the Canadian Consulate to get the right paper work. It was relativly stress free, though we did end up waiting around for an hour while things were processed. I learnt that the Candian consulate has my and my brothers names and addresses all on file-- the asked my mother for this info to double check that it was really her.

And finally, RO made my mom cry. We were out for a walk through the Fremont Sunday Market. We were talking about my brother and his perpetual financial and woman problems. Mom my said something that could have been interpreted as RO was using me for my money to support the store. She really didn't mean it that way.

RO stewed on the comment for a while. Then on the way home they talked which escalated to an argument.

They have since made up and all is well. But, I don't like knowing that eventually RO will blow up at all my family and friends. In fact, I can't think of a single friend of mine that he hasn't got irritated with. Mind you, I shouldn't really single out my friends and family. RO has gotten in *very* heated arguments with many of his friends as well. It's his nature. Mostly he's a great man. But, he has his buttons.

At work at work, I see people around me whose careers are underperforming; who are on the verge of being fired if they are junior, or being shuffled off to some harmless department if they are senior. But when I compare these people to me, I don't see that much of a difference. Yet somehow the powers that be trust me and give me great freedom to do whatever I want.

It's this freedom that let's me suceed-- I make as many mistakes, even more, than some of the troubled employees. But the freedom means that people mostly don't notice. If I was a problem employee and being managed for performance, then every mistake I made would become an issue to be delt with and provide a bit of data used to solidify negative judgements. Free from the eye of upper management, I get to clean up my mistakes before anyone notices. I come away looking clean.

I feel uncomfortable talking about this with my employees. As engineers they want firm objective standards for success. For me to suggest that how people judge them is just as important as the actual work they do, smacks of politics and subjectivity. It labels me as one of those managers who has lost touch with the work that needs to be done.

Yet, in an organization of quality people who have good judgement, what people think of you is a real measure of success.

It's Kent Cornucopia Days-- the cities annual fair. There was a shooting at last year's Cornucopia. This year the security is greatly beefed up-- two cops on every corner.

Cornucopia always brings in many people to the store and that's good for sales. But the street fair it self, well, is nothing special. There are a few local crafts and artists, but the bulk of the stalls feel like they were filled by randomly picking vendors from the yellow pages-- gutter guards, health suppliments, temporary tatooes, beads, random churches, the list goes on.

I just got back from the parade. There were a lot of chear bands, dance bands and spirit troups this year. Lots of good moves.

Mom is in town for a couple of weeks. It's good to see her, though, when I picked her up, for the first time I noticed that she's getting old. Not too old, but no longer middle aged.

Tommy, you are welcome to spend some time with us during the winter rain.

I'm a bit sunburt right now. There are three beaches nearby, all within two miles of biking. We went to the northern most one for a dip. We usually don't go there. Now I remember why-- the water at this beach is full of weeds. The diving raft is covered with goose poop.

Still, it was nice to lay on the grass and soke up the sun.

It's been a hecktic week, though this weekend is a long weekend. Friday RO and I dropped by Behr & Lucky's July 3 BBQ.

C6 was there. C6 had a heart attack about six months ago. They discovered that his heart is over large and not working well-- too many years of steroids and partying. He can no longer do cardio as his heart can't keep up. He is concidering a heart transplant.

Two couples at the BBQ are moving from Seattle to Phoenix. They didn't know each other before hand. But, both couples decided that they had enough of the winter rain and wanted year around sun.

RO and I spent Saturday at his sisters on the lake. The whole family was there. We boated, sat in the sun, chatted and drank. It was a pleasent day.

I'm halfway home from Oslo, stuck at the Newark Airport for a few hours, waiting for a connector to Seattle. I'm drinking coffee to help delay my bedtime. It may be noon in Seattle, but my body thinks it's nine p.m Oslo time. I've been up since seven am Oslo and I have another nine hours to go. Today will be a long day.

Thanks to a laptop, an mp3 player and a pair of noise reducing head phones, I can cocoon myself, listen to music and block out the world. All around me are weary travelers doing the same. Their diversions may be video games or or text messaging, but we are all using our gadgets to tune out, clustering around the power outlets while our devices recharge, but never going so far as to say 'Hi' to one another.

Who says we are social creatures? I think we are creatures that love to be entertained. Our gadgets are now more entertaining than our fellow men so society is being left behind. I have heard of the 'grass eaters' from Japan-- a new generation of young Japanese who don't date, don't engage in society, don't have career plans, they've seen their parents lives and don't want that. They don't want a nice place to live and all the creature comforts it offers. I don't think these grass eaters are unique to Japan. I see them in America all the time. Choosing to opt out by mindlessly entertaining themselves rather than becoming productive and involved.

We don't need that much to be happy. Once you have a good place to sleep, a good meal every now and then, a few good friends, a bit of entertainment and some clothes on your back, everything else is really not necessary. Yet American society has no place for this style of life. Our leaders and role models are most always financially successful. Yet the enticements for the grass eaters to join in-- work hard for 40 years, buy the latest creature comforts, retire someplace nice-- pale in comparison to doing what you want, when you want, with the people you want.

In the past the grass eaters would have loudly rebelled like the hippies of the sixties. What's different today is that they focus their energy into entertainment. Amusement as a surrogate for happiness. No rioting needed. Any squalid place can be a comfortable home when you can listen to music, play games and watch TV. And so, it's easier to drop out now than it ever was before.

The men's bathroom smells bad. Uncleaned outhouse bad. I would have left had nature not demanded I stay.

I've heard my first dead Michael Jackson joke. His will states his plastic parts are to be recycled into Lego so that children everywhere can continue to play with him.

When I heard that, I wanted to text it to my friends. Why text it? I didn't want to call my friends (For free) and tell them the joke. I wanted to text it and pay. More convenient and I wouldn't have to talk to them.

All afternoon a man has been shuttling people back and forth in a golf cart-- the elderly, crippled, parents with kids. The card doesn't emit a warning sound so ever few seconds he shouts "Beep! Beep!" What a great job.

I try out the noise cancelling headphones at an electronics store in the airport. They are pricey but very good. For a few hundred dollars I can block out virtually all noise around me. I also try on the My-Vu glasses that display a TV screen when you put them on. I'm not as impressed with these. The My-Vu screen may be in a pair of glasses, but they don't project a large screen. Instead it looks like a small screen a few feet in front of me. If that's all I get, then I may as well stick with my Zune as it is really is a small screen a few feet in front of me.

But, the My-Vu will improve. Just as blurry 50 inch projection screens have morphed into 50 inch LCD screens more clear than what you seen in a theater, one day, not too many years from now, I will be able to don unobtrusive goggles that display a clear wrap around image. How much will this lower our standard of living? What kind of hovel would I choose to live in if I knew that I could put on goggles and noise canceling head phones and be magically transported away? Grass Eaters already spend most of their free time at the computer and the screen. They really don't care about the kind of place they live in. It's an expense and not an investment. If the right goggles allow them to cut this expense, then they will do it.

Maybe there is a business opportunity here- a rooming house with high speed Internet access and laundry service.

My flight is leaving soon. I quickly get something to eat. I’m tempted to try Mc Donalds, I haven’t ate there in years, but the line is long. I look at the hot dogs at the place next door. They disgust me. I settle on a pizza place. One of the pizzas has greenery on it and I ask what it is. The server doesn't know so I settle on the sausage and pepperoni.

No table is free, but a single man sitting alone at a table for four. I ask him if I may sit there. He kind says yes. We proceed to ignore each other while we eat. Sometimes he smiles, but mostly his face is impassive.

The pizza slice is mediocre. And now I crave a home cooked meal, properly prepared with lots of veggies. I’m looking forward to home. I want to stare at my screens in my crappy office and listen to music on my premium speakers.

When I say "Western" I don't mean wild-wild-American-west. I mean old style, Western European culture. I really shouldn't be suprized that Oslo is 'Western' After all, 100 years ago it was called Christiana, and the people are clinicly, genetically, definitivly white. By any standard it's one of many founts of Western Christian culture.

I'm surprized about Oslo because I'm nieve about Europe. I've been to the Netherlands to visit relatives, but not to the rest of Europe. I've always viewed it as that place we (North Americans) escaped from because Europe was too, poor, or domineering, or whatever. Yet now that I'm here, I see that those poor Eurpeans are really living a refined, maybe even better, version of my life.

After rebelling against European dominance, you'd think we'd create something unique and different. Tommy Boy may be living that life in the south, but me-- well-- Seattle is Olso with urban sprawl, bad public transit and a deeper recession.

It's all grand, like-- I'm still going to take you up on your invitation. I'd love to visit Greece.

I saw "The Scream" today. It kind of surpized me. It's just hanging in the Munchs Museum in the corner of a room. No fan fair. No special signage. It's behind a thick sheet of glass. From the side, the glare off the glass obscurs the view so I didn't realize what it was until I stood right next to it. I wasn't expecting to see it. Then I turned and there it was.

After Munchs Museam, I tried to do some shopping. I wanted to get something uniquely Norwegian for RO. But, the truth is I can anything Norwegian for much less back in the U.S. At the Norwegian sweat shop, the sweaters started at $300.00 and quickly worked their way up to $400.00 & $500.00! Online I can find nice looking Norwegian sweaters for $200.00.

I can't imagine spending $200.00 on a sweater, period.

I'm staying up late tonight to try and get a jump start on reajusting to Pacific Time. It's now 4am and very bright out.

In the evening I went to a small bar and chatted with the bartender. She complained that the Norwegians don't know how to party. They stoop so low as to close the bars at three a.m! Three a.m! At her home in Latvia, the bars never close. I didn't have heart to tell here that at my home the bars close at two a.m. Not that it matters, I'm in bed by ten.

I love Oslo in June. I won't go all the way and say that I love Oslo period-- I haven't been here in the winter and this place is expensive. But this trip has been wonderful. The city is beautiful. The people are friendly.

A pint of beer is 50 kroner which works out to a about US$7.50. A meal that's about $20.00 back in the U.S. is about $30.00 in Oslo.

But, I walk around with a feeling that I don't have to worry about anything. I haven't felt that in years. I don't have to worry about my safety. We accidentatly walked through the tough part of town, and everyone was still polite and respectful. Beggers nod and look away when you say 'No.' At work I didn't feel like I had to be 'on,' My coworkers were so friendly, so nice, that I felt like I was at home.

Last night we went to Vigeland Sculpture Park, a large park in Oslo that has hundreds of sculptures of naked people. It's all very tasteful, sometimes funnly, sometimes creapy, always beautiful.

At dinner afterwards a drunk norwegian came up to us and just started talking, making jokes about how we didn't smell and that he smelt bad. This is the second time we've had a drunk Norwegian just sit with us and start chatting. While it is uncomfortable to have a drunk sit with you uninvited, in some ways it's wonderful that Norwegians are so unpretentious.

We walked back to the hotel at 11pm at night. It was still light out. The streets were full of people. Apparently the longest days of the year are an unofficial holiday. It was good to see a city so alive with so many friendly people at eleven at night. If it was down town Seattle, the streets would be full of the homeless and the drunk.

I think I could live in Oslo; at least in the summer. Although, the locals tell me that the weather is unusually plesent right now and they also speak of long & dark winters.

I'm suprized how many homeless people are here. When I asked what they do in the winter I was told that they stay. The Oslo homeless are very hardy.

Norweigan food is everything I thought Norweigian food would be. Heavy on the cheese, herring and pickles. Light on fresh veggies.

Oslo is very far north. The days are long. Yesterday the sunset was at 10:44pm. This morning the sunrise at 3:54 Am. Even though the curtains are thick, there is a slight glow throughout the night.

I took sleeping pills and got six hours of sleep, so I should be ok today. However 9am Oslo is midnight Seattle. If jet lag hits then this will be a long day.

I am in Oslo. Google and Blogger have detected this. The blog spell check has switched to Norweigian and Google prompsts me "Google.no nå tilgjengelig på".

I'm taking lots of pics. I didn't bring along the right cable so I can't download them till I get back.

Oslo is a plesant city. Very walkable. Parts of it look very old. Parts of it have been retro fitted with clean modern architeture.

I am supprized with how Western it is; at least Oslo Central. Most everyone speaks English. If it wasn't for the Norwegian signs, you could convice me that I was in a smaller west coast city in North America.

I'm off to Norway for for work for a week. I'm kind of excited to get away from Seattle for a while, even though the trip is long (15 hours one way) and I must work hard and act professional the whole time.

RO wants me to bring him back something nice and distinctly Norwegian. This will be challenging. It can't be a nick-nack unless it's art. It can't be clothing unless it's not found in America. Ditto for liquors.

Over the weekend, Boone and Dave had a garden party. This was no ordinary garden since Dave is a Master Gardner.

I'm sure it's taken him hears, but Dave's garden is beautiful; full of a wide variety of healthy plants.

RO is now inspired and jealous. He wants to make our yard just as nice.