the real estate deal

Yes, the seller must have laughed with derision, as he counter-offered $5k below his asking price (which was $80K above our offer). The property had been on the market for over a year, originally listed at $380K, and reduced to $325K. Karen offered $240K, on the outside chance that he'd be willing to take his profits (he originally paid $150K in 2005, and has, since then, split off 1/3 of the lot and built a new house, which he is listing for $480K).

At any rate, it is not going to be our great deal, and, considering that the seller's real estate agent is also his girl-friend, he's not going to get 'taken' by a couple of slick (not) Portlanders.

Did 5 loads of laundry, and the two house guests are, even as I type, in the air bound for points south. Spent today organizing our camping box and repacking for a slightly-different kind of week, among mountains and lakes, instead of the ocean (although there will be some oceanic experiences - more later).

--------------------------------------------------

FLASH!! Just got a call from our realtor in Manzanita. The deal is not yet dead! Karen is willing to up her bid to $275. We will get some faxes with three degrees of compromise, to sign and fax back to our rep - she will deal with the seller while we are out of town, over the next few days.

Here's the funky old 1920's house (which the seller was going to just bulldoze, but is currently occupied by a very nice single English lady and her young son):



and here is the view from the back, looking out over the Nehalem river, the bucolic valley, and surrounding ridges:



The funky house needs either a major rennovation or a tear-down. Karen imagines a duplex, with a large deck overlooking the amazing view, with one unit permanently rented by a local, and the other available for us, our friends, or other occasional renters.

In order to make that vision happen, just imagine the sheer number of car trips between Portland and Nehalem, that this would entail! Yikes.

(temporarily) back in Portland

We've been in Manzanita for the past week. Had a little rain, a little sun, a little wind, and a lot of clean, refreshing air and vistas. We even put in a bid for a view property in Nehalem, with a little house on it that currently has a renter. If the Seller accepts our low-ball bid (unlikely), we will just sit on it for a couple of years, until we decide what to do, but I'm expecting him to laugh at us before tearing up the offer.

Tonight we are cleaning the house and our clothes, and starting to think about the next phase of Summer Vacation '07. Tomorrow, our two guests (Karen's 96 year-old Mom and her long-time-friend-who-has-MS-and visits-us-each-summer) fly back to California, and, Sunday morning, Karen, Dylan and I head out for a few days up on the Olympic Penninsula, with a house-sitter staying here to watch the house, animals, and vegetation.

Expect to have very limited internet access next week, but it was fun in Manzanita, walking up and down the streets with my WiFi enabled Pocket PC, finding the open hot spots to check mail and news headlines. It never fails.

Lots of laundry still to go tonight, then we are all going out for a last dinner (Thai). Happy Summer, everyone.

cool

Maybe human ingenuity WILL save us, after all.

stress levels are declining

The past few days have been very hectic, with two out-of-town guests arriving, a big dinner party Tuesday night, and a construction project in the yard that went terribly wrong last Friday.

The crew is here today, and they claim they will finish before they quit for the day. They have a lot of stone pavers to lay, and the sky is darkening. One hour into the project, last Friday, they tore up the electrical line which, we emphasized, is the one thing they must NOT do. It took until late yesterday to get that fixed, so that things could resume.

Also, work has been very busy. Just when I had thought I had put all projects to bed for two weeks, I got hit with a last-minute request from a client, that necessitated connecting their Access database with a MySQL database over the internet, and applying its data (customers and orders) to the Access tables. Naturally, the MySQL database was still under construction, as its developer was frantically applying last-minute changes, prior to going live TOMORROW!

Unfortunately, several design issues which affect my stuff were still in flux, up until 30 minutes ago. Yesterday, we were both working against his database at the same time, which was horrifying. He agreed to freeze his design at this point. I may have to do some work on this next week, at the beach, but I hope not too much.

My piece doesn't have to be ready until mid-August, so I have a little breathing space. Still, it was a shock to have this come up this week, just when I thought I could relax.

We leave for a week in Manzanita tomorrow morning. Then, we're back in Portland for a day or so, to take the guests to the airport, then we leave for a week at Log Cabin resort, where we last stayed about 10 years ago, when the boys were little.

Still much to do in the next 24 hours, but vacation is near.

dog daze

Supposed to be over 100 degrees today. Still early - beautiful morning so far.

Down in the computer dungeon, where it's plenty cool, but no work to do - waiting for clients to make some decisions and test out stuff I delivered last week.

Reading lots of blogs, but, more important, am absorbed in Gore Vidal's novel 'Julian', which I've read a couple of times over the years. It's about the 4th century Roman emperor, who was the last best hope of preventing Christianity from taking over. Every page has depth of both imagination and historical insight.

Before waking up this morning, I had a vivid dream that took place at my father's office, on West Water Street, in Elmira, New York. He had driven me downtown and, staying in the car, asked me to run in and get something for him. I walked thru that familiar door and into that familiar space, where I had seen him countless times.

The business was dissolved long ago. The building that housed his office was torn down after the devastating 1972 flood, and the site is now a park by the now-placid river. My father died in August 1982.

Today would have been his 95th birthday. Odd.

Our summer plans are coming together. This Friday, Karen's friend Barbra, who has been dealing with MS for several years, arrives from Napa. Karen's 96 year-old Mom arrives from Pasadena next Tuesday night. We all go to Manzanita for a week at the end of next week.

Then, we are home for a day (to take the out-of-towners to the airport), then we drive up to the Olympic penninsula for another week.

But today and tomorrow, it's going to be hot, and all I can think about is the billions of dollars we are flushing away in Iraq, and how the Roman Empire became so totally rotten.

James Madison said:

"If the President be connected, in any suspicious manner, with any person, and there be grounds to believe he will shelter him, the House of Representatives can impeach him; they can remove him if found guilty."

Enough

I continue to marvel at the scenes from 'Sicko' that showed 100s of thousands of people marching in the streets of Europe, demanding that their voice be heard. The film stated it plainly: in France (especially) the government fears the power of the People. In the US, the People fear the power of the government.

The 2nd point that the film makes, is that life in the US appears to be intentionally structured to keep people fearful of getting in political trouble, because it might mean losing their job and their health insurance.

Independence Day is tomorrow. It's beyond time for a Declaration (we don't even need a new one - the original is still just fine).

I am disgusted.

Constitutionally speaking

If you read the clause about Impeachment, it includes 'bribery' among the sins for which officials can be impeached.

Seems to me that commuting Scooter's prison sentence is the same as saying "I'll do this for you, and you keep you damn mouth shut, OK?"

hmmmmmmmmmmmm

before I go to the dentist this morning...

I took this simple test, and you should, too.

Spoiler alert: you are very likely headed for Hell. I am.

the invisible man

Dennis Kucinich was to appear at Benson High School last night. I had planned to go, but hurt my back Saturday, and spent all day Sunday in bed (reading Civil War history, so it wasn't a total loss).

This morning, I checked the web sites of all three Portland TV stations to read how the event was. Surprise! Not a single word, from all three, including KGW (i.e. 'Northwest NewsChannel 8').

You'd think that an appearance by a Democratic Party presidential candidate would merit mentioning. It might even be important enough to take the place of the news video at the top of today's list: Employee inflating a tire injured when it exploded.

If I was paranoid, I might tend to believe there was a conspiracy to keep news about Dennis from the public. Ya think?

a quaint notion

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
– Declaration of Independence, 1776

a night at the movies

Went to our local multiplex this evening, with Karen and a couple of friends. Before the previews began, the theater ran what amounted to an ad for the National Guard, praising its wonderful advantages and other benefits.

We all sat there muttering to ourselves, until someone had the courage to shout 'Bring them home now." The theater erupted in applause and cheers, and I turned to my friends and said "I love this town."

And then the movie began - Sicko.

We emerged from it depressed and enraged. You will, too. See it.

Canada is looking better all the time.

so much news, with many levels of importance

On KPOJ this morning (our local Air America affiliate), they presented an air-tight case for Impeachment, over the warrantless-wiretapping and attendant stonewalling and disregard of the Congressional oversight. Quite convincing.

Meanwhile, 5 more GIs dead in Iraq and the Bushie Supreme Court turns its back on its own precedents.

These, among others, are serious issues here in the human dimension.

And yet, my attention is drawn to the last three words in this headline.

Tick, tick, tick.

obama, where are thou?

hmmmm

the solution to all our troubles

It appears clear that the strategy of the Democratic Party leadership is topermit the Bush Administration to 'run out the clock', rather than calling the Executives on their many, well-documented (and acknowledged) High Crimes.

I do understand the political calculus behind that decision, and a convincing argument can be made that, the longer the festering Bushies remain in power,the more rats will leave that sinking ship, the more outrageous abuses come tolight, and the more damage is inflicted on the already-crippled NeoCon/GOP regime.

With this, Democratic electoral prospects for 2008 are improved (given enough turnout to clearly overwhelm the finely-tuned election fraud techniques, that the Rovians have mastered, since the Coup of 2000).

The only downside that I can see, is that we face another 18 months of needless military deaths (a small price to pay for Power), blatant Defensei ndustry corruption (ho hum, nothing new there), and the continued transference of the nation's remaining wealth into the pockets of the already-hideously wealthy.

No problem.

I say, if we are going to be saddled with the Cheney/Bush Administration until January 2009, let's make some lemonade out of those lemons!

My remedy is simply to continue to go about our daily business. Let the Mainstream News Media continue to direct our attention to Missing and/or RichWhite Women, let the Stock Market continue to reflect the Good News of International Corporatism and Globalization, and, above all, let it stand that the Vice Presidency is a 'special' Constitutional position, with unlimited power to dictate (and enforce) national policies that were previously unthinkable.

We can let Clinton, Obama, and Edwards duke it out for the top slot. Heck, maybe we can even let Kucinich's voice be heard, for a change - what does it matter? The position of 'President' is, now, such a pre-9/11 concept.

Consider this: Al Gore for Vice President!

surprise, surprise (not)

latest poll from New Hampshire shows Gore leading Hillary. Cool, eh?

Cheney, Cheney, Cheney - scared you, didn't I?

Fooled again. DOH!

This has got to go down in history as the most-perfect expression of Self Actualization in modern times:

You are appointed to head the Find-a-Vice-President committee, by a know-nothing, frat-boy, scared-shitless figurehead, and you nominate yourself. Then, you take over all the controls, and let the figurehead President do all the ceremonial fluff jobs (that the VP traditionally handled).

I heard this morning that the Secret Service's code-name for Cheney was 'Back Seat'. Quite amusing - those guys sure have a finely-tuned sense of irony.

Bush was all-too-happy to let Dick run everything (more time to exercise and cut brush!) and, now that Cheney is a runaway train, it's too late to rein him in. He is The State, and the rest of us better shut up, and that includes you, too, George.

The perfect symbol of this: when Bush was called to testify before the 9-11 Committee, and The Administration (hmmm - who could that be?) insisted that Bush and Cheney appear together, not under oath.

The Edgar Bergen/Charlie McCarthy editorial cartoons were spot on.

Only now is it emerging that Back Seat considers himself as the Supreme Overlord, accountable to nobody and with limitless power, and, coincidentally, with a stock portfolio that, come 2009, will be in great shape.

It's hard to know if this is a case where the Bush Crime Family was outfoxed by the quiet guy from Wyoming, or if they are instead quite contented, in that Back Seat delivered the goods (think 'The Carlisle Group') far more effectively than W ever could have done.

Too soon to tell.

currently reading

'Under a Green Sky'.

Yikes.

a very random thought, leading to a long digression

From time to time, I browse the offerings in the craigslist 'CD/DVD/VHS' category, to see if someone is offering the 'Vertigo' DVD for $2 (I can dream, can't I?), or anything else I'd be interested in. It always astonishes me (speaking here as a movie snob) how many times you see an ad like this:

"Must sell today - $5 each"

...followed by a list of 10-15 generally stupid and/or insipid 'popular' movies.

To me, this is a tribute to the Genius of American Marketing, which, somehow, convinced the dumbasses of Our Fine Country that it's reasonable to continually shell out good money to own a completely disposable film - one which is difficult to justify paying $8.50 to see in an actual theater.

I suppose that people feel that, by buying these DVDs, they are 'building a video library' that they will proudly display in their drawing room, to convince guests and potential paramours with their urbane sophistication. How else to explain this list, actually found in a craigslist ad today:

Billy Madison
Irobot
Scary Movie 4
Stealing Harvard
Wedding Crashers unrated
War of The Worlds (New one)
Soul Plane
Family Guy Movie
Fun with dick and Jane
Stuck on You
Yours mine and ours
King Kong ( New one)
Date Movie
Bewitched
Saw II
The 40 year old virgin (New in plastic)
American Wedding
Die another day 007
NAtional Lampoons Black ball
Willy wonka and the chocolate factory
Malibus most wanted
The waterboy (Adam Sandler)
Elizabethtown
The benchwarmers
South Park Movie

Which leads me to mention the two most-recent DVDs I purchased for my video library. I bought them at my local Safeway, which had a 2-for-$10 special sale: 'Gettysburg' and 'Dr. Strangelove'.

I am an obsessive Civil War student. This goes back to the following experiences of my youth:

1) collecting the Civil War trading cards that are still fondly remembered

2) learning that my home town was the host to the prison camp that was called 'the Andersonville of the North'

3) discovering the weathered, stone block, along the curb in front of the Water Street house where my grandmother used to live, on which was carved something like 'boundary of the Elmira Prison camp - 1864'

4) and the Big Experience - visiting Gettysburg with my family, around 1958. I remember driving the battleground tour route, stopping at the key landmarks. I VIVIDLY remember the museum and the famous 'Electric Map' (with the narration using a phrase which was forever burned into my brain: "blood dripped in the Devil's Den".

But I digress.

I have read many books on Gettysburg, including the famous eye-witness account by Frank Haskell, and I was thrilled to see the film, produced by Ted Turner almost 15 years ago. For a measly $5, I could have a film that obsessed the writer/director for 15 years, that was partially filmed on the actual battlefield (apparently, they had to very carefully position actors and props to hide the innumerable monuments, statues, and markers), that involved thousands of volunteer re-enactors and equally-obsessive attention to detail, whose remarkable performance by Jeff Daniels completely erased all the bad karma from 'Dumb and Dumber', and, finally, whose eloquent and thoughtful script firmly established that Longstreet was right.

A couple of years ago, a chilly, snowy January, the Nature Conservancy sent me to Harrisburg, PA, to do some training on the Invasive Weed database I developed for them. I used that opportunity to use Baltimore as my base-of-operations (visiting friends there, from long ago), and I drove to Harrisburg via Gettysburg. I had an entire afternoon to drive around and had the place mostly to myself.

There were 3-6 inches of snow on the ground, but I spent a considerable time on Little Round Top

and at The Angle.



It was the first time I had been back there since my visit as an 8 year-old.

But I digress.

We look at Gettysburg knowing about World War I, and the profound futility of an infantry charging an entrenched line, that is well-supplied with (compared with the Napoleanic Wars) effective artillery and (relatively) easier-to-reload, accurate rifles. We today understand that Lee was blinded by his brilliance and successes of the preceeding campaigns (remember that his astonishing victory at Chancellorsville was only 2 months before). We understand (kinda) how 15,000 men could be convinced to obey the order to march a mile uphill, entirely exposed, in 90 degree heat, against Hancock's seasoned veterans, for glory and honor.

The 'Gettysburg' film was over 4 hours. I watched the first half (leading up to the 20th Maine's defense of Little Round Top - words cannot express this) at one sitting, and began the 2nd half. I paused it just as Longstreet gave his sad, silent nod to George Pickett, to prepare for the Charge.

It was appropriate to pause at that point, when it must have seemed within grasp that the Confederate army just might be on the verge of the final, decisive action, that would end (and win) the War, already in its 3rd bloody year.

I waited two days to watch the (now inevitable) finale. When it was over, Lee's gamble had been lost. Nobility and self-sacrifice were not enough to overcome, as Longstreet said, 'the mathematics'. The war would continue for two more years, and, if Gettysburg was a harbinger of the mass slaughter of World War I, even more horrifying battles were to come the following year, at Spottsylvania and (shudder) Cold Harbor.

But I digress.

Haven't watched the 'Dr. Strangelove' DVD yet. I've seen it many times. I'm waiting for the right moment, to savor it's many pleasures. Reading the Internet Movie Database page for that film, though, I did come across this delicious trivia tid-bit: Stanley Kubrick never told Slim Pickens that this was a comedy. Think about it.

I guess I can't end this post without shamelessly listing my own 'video library', in no particular order. These are films that I can watch over and over:

Casablanca
Lawrence of Arabia
Amadeus
Vertigo (VHS)
Stop Making Sense
Buster Keaton silents (a bunch - all VHS)
Rocky and Bullwinkle - Season 1 (3 DVD set)
Fargo
The Producers
The Great Escape
Pee-Wee's Big Adventure

and, of course:

Gettysburg
Dr. Strangelove

And now a couple that I picked up various places, that you can have for $2 apiece:

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (worth watching twice, but that's all)
Lifeboat (Hitchcock's ham-handed WWII propaganda - Karen won this in a contest - worth watching once)
Melinda and Melinda (hey, it was only $5)

Must sell today (or let me know and I'll give it to you the next time I see you).

Just got one of those GOP robo-calls

Just like Randy Rhodes described a few days ago. The nice lady asked me if I would be able to answer a brief survey question, after listening to a brief message from Senator John Ensign. I naturally said 'sure', while quickly googling that Senator.

Of course, the recording was all about those damn liberals, especially Hillary and Obama, who want to destroy all the wonderful things that Our Great Leader, Ronald Reagan, stood for. You can imagine.

After a very brief delay, the lady came back on the line, and asked if I agreed that 'the country is on the wrong track, and we need to return to the ideals of St. Ronnie'.

I said, 'I certainly agree that the country is on the wrong track', but before she could launch into the "now I've got him" pitch, I added '...but not because of the reasons the Senator mentioned.'

'You see,' I continued, 'I believe the only President who has done more damage to America than George W Bush was Ronald Reagan.'

There was a short pause, and then the line went dead.

Wonder how they got my name and number. Obviously, they didn't go thru Homeland Security.