Matt hast started paying rent and has set up a home office at our place. I guess he's going to be staying for a while.

His breakup with Sandy is transitioning from 'amicable' to 'sour.' For example, Matt has his eye on a new dog, a small toy-dog from a rescue shelter. While they were together Sandy prevented Matt from getting this new dog. This choice was not unreasonable as they already have two dogs and four cats.

Now that they are appart, Sandy sees Matt's decision to get a new dog as proof that Matt is not serious about getting together. He may be right.

Sandy thinks that RO and I support Matt's decsion to act in bad faith towards their relationship. This creats much bickering, texting, debating and speculation between Matt and Sandy. I'm trying to stay out of it, but RO gives his opinion, even though he is tired of doing so.

Every time Sandy texts me, I feel like I'm walking in a mine field. I have to answer his questions in very neutral Zen Koan's.

I got a promotion at my day job. It's a fairly important promotion. My title will change and new doors open to me.

I already see some of the changes. Even though my promotion has not been announced, the partners in the business are walking into my office and offering me career counseling.

The first lesson I've learned is that I have to become a "Puppet Master." and set up situations so that people make the choices that I want them to make.

RO now has a perscription for Xanax-- the store has been stressing him out and he needs help sleeping. Xanax strongly affects him, I guess it's a popular drug for a reason, by Sunday evening, he completly forgot about the day. He thought it was only Saturday evening and couldn't remember a thing we did on Sunday.

The store is facing new challenges. Our lease expired last March and we have been living on a month to month contract. We have a signed letter of intent to have a new lease, but have not yet received the lease from the land lord. Then, a representative from a leaseing company showed up and told us that he would soon put up "For Lease" banners. I suspect the landlords think they can get more money from another tenat and are hoping the letter-of-intent is dropped.

RO has a new suspician about our roadside pooper. Clem & Bates are having sceptic problems right now and when RO mentioned the bag of shit to Clem, he very quickly changed the subject.

Poop.

We have our groceries delivered. The grocer has the groceries on our door step by 6am.

Monday morning was a bit different. When RO was leaving for work, he noticed a grocery bag from our grocer. It was full of something. He thought that perhaps the grocer made a mistake and forgot to bring one bag of our groceries to our door step.

He looked in the bag. It was full of shit and napkins.

We are not sure who or why someone would do this. We suspect that the Grocer's truck driver really had to go to the bathroom, so he used a grocery bag and then left it behind.

Matt is moving in with us for a few days. He and Sandy have split up, supposedly for good. He's moving out of the city, but needs a few days to collect his stuff.

We visited the bank this morning. There was very little they could do. Then they found I am a permanent resident and not a U.S. citizen. Suddenly there was nothing they could do.

I know RO will fight tooth and nail for more money. But, when I do the numbers, I don't see how that will happen. Even with a generously low interested rate, our monthly payments will be much larger than we can afford. To survive for more than six months, the store's sales need to triple. In the short term we can pull a few tricks that leave us deeper in debt and deplete our inventory. But fundamentally the store is running deep in the red and my paycheck is no longer enough to cover the difference.

I'm actually looking forward to bankruptcy. I could get my weekends back and RO could get a paying job. With a chapter 13 bankruptcy, I'd could keep the house (and the mortgages) as well as my 401K. We'd lose the business and everything I've put into it, but that's a big hole right now, a hole that's going to take years to fill in. Seven years of bankruptcy on my credit rating is starting to look mighty attractive.

RO's brother in-law has cancer. Last January a cyst developed in his nose and kept growing. The doctor removed the cyst last week. Subsequent testing showed it was cancerous.

The brother-in-law will soon undergo chemo and radition treatment. I hope all goes well.

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.