Summer of work and play and guitars

This summer has been the best on record for Seattle. No days above 90F and mostly in the 70s. Of course there are plenty of locals that think this summer is really autumn or winter and I pity them.

I've acquired a bass guitar and though used, it shows nearly zero wear. Fender P-bass, black and white. Upgraded hardware and pickups. Got an Ampeg BA112 to get it booming. It booms. Time to start learning some PUSA tunes!

Building a fence

Home improvement projects are a fact of life for the common Yuppie suburban-dweller with a family and a home that wasn't built to specification. Heck, even then my money is on some degree of change happening quickly...needs turn into hardware store familiarity and a desire for a lifetime supply of vidocin.

Over the past few months I've managed to stick a bunch of 4x4 posts in the ground (yes, in concrete - and yes, I know that's frowned upon by many) and erect six or seven panels that I'm reasonably happy with. Having never built a fence, or anything bigger than a large planting box, a fence was ambitious regardless of the design and desired outcome. Looking back, I can already see an endless stream of mistakes and setbacks that experience would have helped me avoid. And checklists. Especially checklists. Building stuff demands checklists and I can see why construction crews lean on them heavily. Heck, at least I can undo what I've fastened and fix my mistake without a digger or dynamite.

So what about the fence? Well, it works as expected. Children don't find it as easy to run away from home now. However, the gate latch has proven not difficult enough. What's more, the one year old has learned quickly that he can simply crawl under the gate, where I have removed the sod and it is not yet filled in with a new walkway. So the work continues...

Kiva - one of those "it's the least I could do" things

Americans are frequent abusers of the phrase "it's the least I could do" - it is one of those phrases that I have an immediate sort of roll-your-eyes reaction to because not only isn't it true, but ninety-nine times out of one-hundred it's clear evidence of our universal apathy in the face of doing things that actually make a difference in OTHER people's lives. Especially other people that didn't get a winning lottery ticket (see John Rawls and A Theory of Justice) at birth.

One of the funny things about this category of things that people do that are evidence of either apathy or simply a lack of any real awareness of possessing a winning ticket is to actually give someone else money. Based on life experience I think that this is partially due to a desire to see others actually show some kind of effort in exchange for your willingness to help them skirt the minefield of poverty and accident of birth. So, if you fall into that camp - and I know that I do - then Kiva is just the sort of idea that fits your need for a sense of personal responsibility tied to some form of charity.

Kiva provides the opportunity to loan your money to people all over the globe, watch them pay it back through their hard work, and then repeat that process over and over. I've found it to be rather fun to watch the money roll in, pretend I'm the Monopoly banker, enjoy a bit of an egomaniac trip, and loan my money again and again. Part of what is pleasurable about it is that it's painfully obvious to me that these folks are putting my money to much better use than I would a lot of the time. Given the choice of buying those four or five extra pints of Ben & Jerry's or loaning that cash to a cattle farmer in Tajikistan I'd much prefer to imagine the farmer getting up at the crack of dawn to feed his cows than actually watching my weight creep up week by week, my cushy lifestyle leading me to become an expanding mass accumulating rolls of skin and fat that originated in a food container with a corporate label and was the product of some marketing whiz targeting my demographic.

Anyway - go make some loans. Kiva is offering newbies the chance to do so with SOMEONE ELSES MONEY. That's right, you don't even have to loan your own. So just do it. http://kiva.org/invitedby/poblin

Easing back into wine buying

Those that know me through wine connections are probably aware that I've cut back on consumption and have almost entirely stopped buying for the past couple of years.

I’ve really been enjoying my Quilceda wines over the past year – probably drank six bottles since last Fall. So I checked with their web site to see if I’m on “the list” and I confirmed that I am getting notifications of their releases and offers to purchase – just not the flagship Cabernet. Since all I want is the Red Wine (well, maybe I’d get some more Pelengat or Galatzin vineyard if the price doesn’t keep going up) that’s fine.

Because I do want to continue to have a little bit of wine – a steady supply, but no longer stocking a cellar, just keeping my 40-bottle fridge stocked – I’ve re-activated my club membership with Basel Cellars. It’s where Karen and I were wedded, I like their wines a lot, and they are reasonably priced.

So, no longer totally “dry” on the “flowing in” side of things, though I haven’t actually bought anything yet. My wine collection has continued to shrink to the point now that I think I have only about 50 bottles in addition to what I have in my wine fridge – down from a high of about 475. Almost eighteen of those bottles are what’s left of twelve cases of 2005 Columbia Crest Grand Estates Chardonnay – my favorite white! It drinks so easily and goes with anything, and now that it's warmer I consume maybe a bottle a week. So, really what I have (in reds) is about three cases in the closet and a small fridge full of pricey, delicious choices.

Wait...didn't I recently get notified that Soos Creek is about to release...