2005 Summer Vacation – July 31th – Day 2

After spending most of the day at Fort Worden it was time to see what we could of Port Townsend. The town itself rated as a ‘Gem’ in the AAA TourBook, meaning they consider it “of exceptional interest and quality”. The book Washington Discovery Guide says of Port Townsend:

Gracefully aging Port Townsend is one of the most appealing towns in Washington and certainly the most intriguing on the Olympic Peninsula. Its main street) on a low coastal shelf, is an outdoor architectural museum, cut stone and false front buildings. They house boutiques) galleries and several restaurants. Cluster-globe street lamps add a final touch to this Gay Nineties scene. Elegant Victorian homes stand in neighborhoods on the bluff above. Some are stylish bed & breakfast inns.

Port Townsend was founded in 1851 and became the chief port of entry for Puget Sound. When plans for the extension of the transcontinental railroad to Port Townsend fell through the boom went bust and Tacoma and Seattle, with new transcontinental railheads, took over.

We toured the historic buildings of Port Townsend using a driving map which pulls out of the brochure ‘Port Townsend and the Heart of the Olympics’ which we found locally. The map provides a suggested route through the city and includes a brief description of over 70 historic homes & buildings. The brochure also includes a walking/biking map of the city.

The old homes were gorgeous! We did not get to go into any of them but that just gives us an excuse to come back :)

Reference:

• Seattle and the Olympic Peninsula for Dummies
• inside out Washington: A Best Places Guide
• Washington Discovery Guide
• Olympic Peninsula – Insiders Guide

2005 Summer Vacation – July 31th – Day 2

Our plans for the first day was to visit Fort Worden and see as much of historic Port Townsend as we could.

Fort Worden was just half a mile from our campsite at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds and is located on the northeastern tip of the Olympic Peninsula.

Our first stop at the fort was the visitor center where the helpful volunteer suggested some things to see and started a short video about the history of Fort Worden.

We then visited the Port Townsend Marine Science Center out on the pier. The center includes critters from the surrounding waters in salt water aquariums and in open touch pools which provide a hands-on aquatic petting zoo.

Admission also includes the Natural History Exhibit located across the street. It includes interactive displays regarding the areas geology, paleontology, shoreline ecology, and ornithology.

While Von & Kirsten went to the beach, the three boys and I went to explore the coastal batteries which were part of the Iron Triangle coastal defense system. The volunteer at the visitor center had suggested we bring flashlights to explore the batteries — and she was right!

The boys had a blast exploring inside the dark batteries and especially the long maze like tunnels that connected different parts of the batteries that were pitch black. It was quite a walk up to and then through the batteries but the boys continue to talk about the fun they had going through all the tunnels.

We were ready to cool off so back to the beach we went. The kids had a lot of fun playing in the sand and water. The water temperature was ten degrees colder than cold! I got in up to my knees but my feet began to hurt due to the cold almost immediately.

Finally it was time to go. We wiped off as much sand as we could and drove to downtown Port Townsend to do a driving tour of the historic buildings.

Photos:

• Fort Worden Photos
• 2005 Summer Vacation

Reference:

• Seattle and the Olympic Peninsula for Dummies
• inside out Washington: A Best Places Guide
• Washington Discovery Guide
• Olympic Peninsula – Insiders Guide

2005 Summer Vacation – July 30th through 2th – Days 1-4

Our first vacation stop was Port Townsend. We parked the trailer at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds for 3 nights. The facilities were very basic but more than adequate for our needs. And the price was unbeatable. $12 a night for E&W or $15 for EW&S (and no taxes). We opted for the $12 route and just used the RV dump as we were leaving to empty the holding tanks. The RV dump and showers are available at no extra charge to campers.

Reservations are not taken but it does not sound like space availability is a problem. They do, however, close the campground to the public during special events at the fairgrounds such as the fair.

Almost the entire campground is on a slight slope so very few of the sites are level. The reported water pressure was 175 psi so a regulator was mandatory if you didn’t want to blow out your pipes. Grass (or what passes as grass at a fairgrounds) covers the entire campground area.

I will definitely look into RV sites at other fairgrounds for our next trip.

Would we stay here again? Yes

2005 Summer Vacation – July 30th – Day 1

We left the Tri-Cities for a week’s vacation. This is the first week-long vacation we have taken in seven years when we spent a week at the beach in Ocean Park, Washington.

We have gone to Ocean Park on the Long Beach Peninsula for a family reunion almost every year for the last 20 years since Von & I moved back to the Northwest. I remember going to the family reunion as a teenager over 30 years ago. The family gets together to celebrate grandma's birthday at Ocean Park. So for years grandma’s 4 kids and as many of the 17 grandkids and umpteen great-grandchildren that could make it would show up. Nothing extravagant was planned — only a pot luck dinner for Saturday evening. Otherwise we just hung out either at my aunt & uncle Rinearson’s place (aka Rhinoville) or at Ocean Park Resort where many of us stayed, either in a motel room, an RV, or in one of the old cabins that they used have at the resort.

This year we decided to take the long way to Ocean Park. We decided we would go all the way up and around the Olympic Peninsula on Hwy 101 and visit various places in and around Olympic National Park and then finally make the winding trek down the coast to Ocean Park.

More Photos:

• 2005 Summer Vacation

Michael Spencer writes a very good comparison of two ‘great’ men, Charles Spurgeon and Joel Osteen. He uses two comparable sermons, Spurgeons as he takes the position of pastor of New Park Street and Osteen as he ‘dedicates’ the former home of the Houston Rockets to now hold ‘the largest church in America’.

Spurgeon talked about the Gospel and the Savior. Osteen talked about turning out champions in life.

Charles Spurgeon:

“I would propose (and O may the Lord grant us grace to carry out that proposition, from which no Christian can dissent), I would propose that the subject of the ministry of this house, as long as this platform shall stand, and as long as this house shall be frequented by worshippers, shall be the person of Jesus Christ. I am never ashamed to avow myself a Calvinist, although I claim to be rather a Calvinist according to Calvin, than after the modern debased fashion. I do not hesitate to take the name of Baptist. You have there (pointing to the baptistery) substantial evidence that I am not ashamed of that ordinance of our Lord Jesus Christ; but if I am asked to say what is my creed, I think I must reply: “It is Jesus Christ.” My venerable predecessor, Dr. Gill, has left a body of divinity admirable and excellent in its way; but the body of divinity to which I would pin and bind myself for ever, God helping me, is not his system of divinity or any other human treatise, but Christ Jesus, who is the sum and substance of the gospel; who is in himself all theology, the incarnation of every precious truth, the all-glorious personal embodiment of the way, the truth, and the life.”

Joel Osteen:

Osteen talked about his father. A lot. A whole lot. He talked about dreams. He talked about dating his wife. He talked about a church that would teach people to be champions. He said God’s favor is on Lakewood and on all those who attend there. He talked about Lakewood’s diversity. He told, again, how he didn’t want to be the pastor. He was positive. Funny. Grateful to God. Likeable. Upbeat. He made you feel good.

Jesus Christ, the savior of sinners? The Gospel of salvation? The cross of Jesus Christ? Salvation by grace, through faith by Christ? As usual, Osteen had nothing to say about these matters. Once again, he sounded like a motivational speaker, encouraging his audience to stay tuned to Lakewood and get in on the miracle favor of God that is obviously on tap.

Just reading Pastor Doug Wilson’s Blog and Mablog about Judas at the Last Supper.

St. Paul tells us that our Lord instituted the Supper on the night He was betrayed. The indications from the gospels are that He served the elements of that Supper to his betrayer, Judas, who was already under the influence of Satan himself. And Jesus knew this.

At the first celebration of this Supper – and it was a celebration, for Jesus’ gave thanks – the table was marred by the presence of a false one. Jesus knew this, and He established the sacrament anyway. Let God be true, and every man a liar. The sacraments are what God says about them, and never what men say about them – which is a good thing, considering the history of controversy that has swirled around what we are doing here now. We are told to take, eat, and not take, speculate.

As we think about the presence of a traitor at the first Supper, this makes us think of all the traitors present at this Table since that time, down to the present. But instead of looking around us for a Judas, we need to understand that each of us brings more than enough of Judas to the table ourselves.

But know that the sin of Judas was not that he was at the table, sinful as he was. His great sin was that he departed from that table and went out into the night. If you obstinately cling to your sin, even if you remain in your seat, you are following him there. If you confess the goodness of God to you in His free forgiveness, then God is here giving you nourishing bread and rich wine.

Amen!

Just finished listening to The Broker by John Grisham. The first half was from listening to WFPL’s broadcast of Dick Estell’s Radio Reader. I did not get to listen to the last half so I checked it out the audio book from the library. The audiobook was read by Michael Beck.

The story begins with some funny anecdotes about a President leaving office who only won Alaska when he ran for his 2nd term. And he only won that one state by a handful of votes — so the new President contested the Alaska election just in case he could make a clean sweep. The best part was that Alaska was the only state he did not visit during the campaign. The soon-to-be ex-president was cajoled by the CIA into releasing a prisoner so that the CIA could monitor the released man (aka the broker) and see who killed him which might help them figure out who was involved with a secret spy satellite system. The story is about this man’s attempt to keep himself from getting killed and the story moves at a pretty good pace. I was surprised at the end (but won’t give it away).

The other thing I learned from listening to both the audiobook and the radio program is that I really like Dick Estell‘s reading of books. He has a great voice to listen to and does not try to come up with ‘voices’ for all the characters, but reads it just as you or I would.

Insurance Journal reported on a [Progressive Insurance survey] detailing some myths that persist about insurance ( and so that they could make get their name out in front of the public for ‘free’). The one I hear the most frequently is:

Myth: Car insurance companies consider vehicle color when determining rates.
Survey Says: Twenty-five (25) percent of drivers surveyed mistakenly believe that the color of their car affects their auto insurance rate.
Fact: Color is not used to calculate auto insurance rates. Information that is used includes the vehicle’s year, make, model, body type and engine size, as well as information about the driver.

What is missing here is that statistically I will bet you red cars do cost more to insure than white cars – especially white or green vehicles with wood panelling! How often to you see a mom driving her kids in a bright red astro van? How often do you see a little sports car with wood panelling? So there is some ‘truth’ behind the misconception – just that the facts are misinterpreted.

I saw this on Lark News and am real tempted to buy it. If only they had on the back of it – “Mourn, God may hate you.”

Pastor Doug Wilson in his Blog and Mablog writes that the Church’s repesponse to the culture wars needs to be won inside the church before taking it out in the public square, and actually that if the battle is won inside the Church then it will naturally flow to the outside world without the need for mass rallies against xyz.

The Church does not have the political solution to what ails America. The Church is the political problem that ails America. There were women in pulpits before they were in the cockpits of F-16s. There were open homosexuals in bishops’ attire before they appeared among the ranks of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In fact, they have not appeared among the joint chiefs yet. There was dishonest monkeying with the text of Scripture for the sake of feminism lite by our well-respected evangelical Bible-mongers before the recent Kelo impudence offered up by the Supreme Court. Everything the crazies are currently doing to the Constitution was done long before that to the text of Scripture by Christians. “What does this verse mean to me?” was current in the Church long before “What does the Tenth Amendment mean to me?” was current in our curcuit courts.

It is worth reading & rereading Pastor Wilson’s understanding of what the Church’s response should be to our fallen culture.

I could not help but chuckle at this ‘story’ from Lark News about being pulled over for being “spiritually intoxicated” after a revival service:

“He was swerving all over the road, and laughing and staggering around when we got him out of the truck,” says an officer.

Henderson could not stand on one leg, nor walk a straight line, and was thrown into the city jail for the night, where he giggled and spoke in tongues.

“I was so high on the Holy Spirit, it was a good night for me, no matter where I was,” he says.

My wife, Von, and I have been looking at for a new vehicle. Our 15 passenger 1992 Ford Club Wagon (in the background of the photo) has served us well but the air conditioning compressor went out last year and I just did not want to sink any more money into fixing it. We pretty much settled on the Ford Expedition because it can seat 8 (fairly comfortably) and can tow a decent sized trailer.

I had pretty much figured out that all we needed was the base model Expedition as long as it had the tow package option. I went online that the local Lithia Ford store had 6 base Expeditions (with 4-wheel drive) in stock. (It appeared next to impossible to find an Expedition without 4-wheel drive.) I then went to Edmunds.com and found out what I should expect to pay for the vehicle using their True Market Value.

Next, I drove over to the dealership to look at them (they had closed many hours earlier) and I was pretty sure I had found our next vehicle. I then drove over to the other Ford dealership but all they carried was the super deluxe model with all the options. Then, as I was driving away I saw on their reader-board that Ford was going to be matching GM's Employee Pricing Program .

That next morning my wife and I were headed down to Lithia Ford to look at the base Expedition. I decided to stop at the Lincoln-Mercury store for fun and drive the Navigator. BIG MISTAKE! That vehicle was so nice. Every option on the Expedition must be a standard feature on the Navigator — but we did not need all these features. (Keep repeating that phrase).

We finally got to the Lithia Ford and the salesman took us for a test drive in the base Expedition. What a let down. After driving the Navigator this Expedition seemed like I was driving an old company pickup. All plastic – and I swear it rattled while I drove it! My wife didn’t even get behind the wheel.

Well, they did have a 2006 Eddie Bauer Expedition on the lot we could test drive. So, in we hopped and it was like night and day. Not all the frills of the Navigator but huge leaps ahead of the base Expedition. The 2006s were not included in Ford’s Employee Discount Program so the dealership offered to have one shipped in for us. They worked up some numbers for us, and although we have gone years without a car payment now – it seemed like a good deal – and I knew I was getting a good price. It has more options that I was looking for originally – but if we keep it for 12 years like we did the van then we will be glad to have them.

The Detroit News reports that buyers are clearing out the 2005 inventory and that July sales are 50% above last year’s.

GM, struggling with lackluster sales, bloated inventories, and North American automotive losses, jump-started industry sales in June when it introduced employee pricing on new cars and trucks for all consumers.

The result was a 47 percent spike in June sales. Total industry sales jumped 16 percent, and are now up 1.9 percent this year after a weak start.

Ford and DaimlerChrysler AG’s Chrysler Group — which initially scoffed at GM’s offer — essentially matched the deal in early July.

The best part of the deal for consumers: No haggling!! You get the employee price! We became one of those buyers. We had been looking but when Ford matched the deal we bought a new Expedition.

CBC News reports that the province of Newfoundland plans to ban the use of age, gender, and marital status in determining auto insurance rates by August 2005.

The province’s Government Services Minister Dianne Whalen announced the changes on Thursday, saying they could save young drivers up to 46 per cent a year on insurance fees.

“It isn’t fair: 85 per cent of young drivers who do not have accidents have to pay huge premiums for the 15 per cent who do,” she said.

From the article it appears that there will be one base rate for everyone with the only thing that would raise your rates is your driving record. At first glance this might sound good; especially if you are under 25 or a parent paying insurance for your child. What is not mentioned is that the rates for all of the ‘low risk’ drivers must now go up.

Do you want to save money on your auto insurance? Why? It is not fair for you to find a company that only covers good drivers. You should help out all those bad drivers and get your insurance at a high risk company.

Or better yet – lets do away with age and gender for life insurance! Why not! Its not fair that an 80 year old has to pay 3 or 4 times as much for life insurance as a 30 year old.

Just finished listening to Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry. It was ready by Norman Gilliland in 10 30-minute segments on Wisconsin Public Radio’s Chapter a Day in September & October 2004.

This story meanders as much as the Kentucky river that borders the small town where the main character, Jayber Crow, tells his life story. It is not just about his own life but the life of a small town, a town that is dieing because there is no longer any reason to live there.

I would not have finished reading this book if it had not been read to me. Just not a compelling story and the few plot lines were too ordinary and far fetched at the same time – example: Jayber dedicates himself to be the ‘faithful’ husband to a woman who is already married. ??? In other words he would remain celebrate and she would remain with her husband. They would have chance encounters where they would walk together in the woods. ??? Ok, I am glad they didn’t have an affair – but the story line makes no sense. Maybe someone is that crazy in real life – but it is not interesting enough to write about!

But if you want to read about the life and death of a small rural town, this would be the story for you.

Am putting together a bunch of mini marshmallow guns (or shooters) for our company picnic later this week.

I have made these in the past and they are a hoot. A couple pieces of pvc some elbows and tees and a bag of marshmallows – then let the kids at it.

A marshmallow is dropped into the ‘chamber’ and then the shooter applies a blast of air to the pipe. The marshmallow can travel 40 or 50 feet depending on the skill and size of the shooter.

They have almost as much fun designing different ‘guns’ – from pistol designs to sniper rifles – as they do pelting each other with marshmallows.

If you need something to print out, here is a PDF file of instructions on how to build one.

I just finished listening to The Hungry Ocean : A Swordboat Captain`s Journey by Linda Greenlaw. Abridged into fifteen 30-minute segments which were read by Jim Fleming on Wisconsin Public Radio’s Chapter a Day in September 2004.

This book was a captivating ‘book on tape’ or should I say ‘on mp3′. Greenlaw, as one of the few female sword-fishermen, is captain of this swordfishing boat. She tells a great story, or memoir, of one of her month-long expeditions. Describing life on a commercial fishing boat, from the monotony of the ride out to the fishing grounds to the sleep deprivation when the fish are being hauled into the boat and including financial details of how the crew is paid (or not), made this an interesting listen. And the fact that Greenlaw is a woman gives the story an interesting twist but is not the focus of the story.

From the back of the book:

The Top Ten Insurance Myths You Need to Know! on About.com is a good start for examining your current insurance coverages. They give a paragraph or two on each item with links for more details.

• Myth #1: Hey, Your Paying the Premiums…Insurance Should be Bought and Used for Every Accident and Disaster.
• Myth #2: If I am Alive, I must need Life Insurance!
• Myth #3: I’m the Breadwinner in the Home, So Only I Need Life Insurance.
• Myth #4: Whole and Universal Life are the Best Life Insurance Choices Since I Can Get My Money Back.
• Myth #5: Flood Insurance is Only for People Who Live in a High Risk Area.
• Myth #6: My Son Uses the Car for Delivering the Newspaper and His Pizza Delivery Job. He’s Not Self-Employed So Our Auto Insurance Will Cover Any Accidents.
• Myth#7: I Don’t Need Disability Insurance…If I Become Disabled Social Security Will Take Care of Me.
• Myth #8: If I Need to Stay in a Nursing Home When I am Older, The Government Will Pick Up the Bill.
• Myth #9: Umbrella Insurance Coverage is Just for Rich People.
• Myth #10: People Who Decide not to Purchase Health Insurance Don’t Effect Others.

Myth’s #1 and #6 are the ones I run into the most since I primarily deal with auto insurance. People feel that every scratch and ding should be turned in and then wonder why their rates are going up. #6 is the one that worries me the most with clients. You see the pizza guy driving around with that pizza sign probably has no insurance – even if he has insurance. If he does not have a ‘business’ policy – then his personal auto policy may not cover him while delivering pizza.

The problem gets real interesting with newspaper delivery. I swear no one delivers papers on foot or by bike any more. Mom gets up and drives the poor kids around the neighborhood. Guess what. That is business use. Bleary eyed and un-caffinated you hit something? Guess what. No coverage. Unless you lie. Then it is fraud.

I don’t think I have ever asked the question “Are we having fun, yet?” (in Matt’s presence) so I am safe from the flames of Matt’s rant :)

After 3 attempts to understand the reason a person would ask such a question Matt decides this must be the algorithm a person uses:

Fourthly, as I already alluded to, this is the poor man’s sarcastic witticism. The poor man’s logic for arriving at a witticism runs something like this:

    if (CanThinkOfSomethingWitty()) {
        print SomethingWitty();
    } else {
        print "Are we having fun yet?";
    }

Matt then suggests a slight revision to this logic:

    $attempts = 0; $max_attempts = 5;
    while ((!CanThinkOfSomethingWitty()) && ($attempts < $max_attempts)) {
        $attempts++;
        sleep 1;
    }        
    if ($attempts < $max_attempts) {
        print SomethingWitty();
    } else {
        CounterpartExpectingResponse() ? die "Well, have a good day!" : print "";
    }

And always wanting to be of help and not just rant Matt makes the following offer:

Being the friendly and helpful guy that I am, I will personally volunteer to upgrade the firmware of anybody suffering from the above logic error for free! All you have to do is sign a little waiver, have me stop by with my handy-dandy EEPROM programmer, and you’ll be able to start using the new and improved logic (almost) right away.

Just finished reading The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement, a book on business management written in the form of a novel. It started out slow but was interesting once it got going.

The first thing the book explains is how to see a businesses as an interconnected system. A group of Boy Scouts who spread out as they hike is used to illustrate the problem well.

The author sets up a 5 step process to achieve on-going improvements. The steps take the user from identifying constrainst in your process and working through them to maximize productivity. These five steps and an explanation can be found at Focused Performance.

The final chapter he gives his process for problem solving:

1. Determine what needs to Change.
2. Determine what it needs to Change to.
3. Determine How to Implement the Change.

Again this is an interesting read from a business standpoint. I am currently reading the sequel – It`s Not Luck.

A area of questioning that si always used to trip up (Bible-believing) Christians is the submission of wives to their husbands. First we answer, Yes, a wife is to be submissive to her husband. So we are accused of being chauvinists.

Or worse – they throw the curve ball, “What if she is being abused?” Is she just supposed to take it? What if it is verbal / mental abuse?, etc.

Doug Wilson gives a very good answer to this dilemma. I will only highlight the question below – go read Pastor Wilson’s full response.

“You Christians teach that wives should submit to their husbands, right?”

“Right.”

“What if a husband is beating his wife? Then what should she do?”

At this point, this becomes a choose your own adventure novel.

Afraid of getting in trouble for what you post? The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has published a Legal Guide for Bloggers.

Like all journalists and publishers, bloggers sometimes publish information that other people don’t want published. You might, for example, publish something that someone considers defamatory, republish an AP news story that’s under copyright, or write a lengthy piece detailing the alleged crimes of a candidate for public office.

The difference between you and the reporter at your local newspaper is that in many cases, you may not have the benefit of training or resources to help you determine whether what you’re doing is legal. And on top of that, sometimes knowing the law doesn’t help – in many cases it was written for traditional journalists, and the courts haven’t yet decided how it applies to bloggers.

But here’s the important part: None of this should stop you from blogging. Freedom of speech is the foundation of a functioning democracy, and Internet bullies shouldn’t use the law to stifle legitimate free expression. That’s why EFF created this guide, compiling a number of FAQs designed to help you understand your rights and, if necessary, defend your freedom.

The goal here is to give you a basic roadmap to the legal issues you may confront as a blogger, to let you know you have rights, and to encourage you to blog freely with the knowledge that your legitimate speech is protected.

Kent Runge over at Saints & Children asks if there is a difference between using “God Damn It” and “Gosh Darn It”?

The church I attended when I lived in Western Colorado had a small book store attached to it’s fellowship hall. After church one day I observed a frustrated mother say to one of her children “Gosh Darnit Johnny, stop that!”

I was fairly close by, and knew this mom so I walked over and quietly said to her; “Why didn’t you say “‘God Dammit Johnny, stop that!’ It’s what you were thinking wasn’t it?” (Something to bear in mind here is that I am now, and was then a counselor/therapist of sorts, God has gifted me with the ability to ask such questions in love rather than condemnation. Her honesty had a lot to do with how I said what I said.)

She turned pretty red but revealed the depth of her character, even under parental stress, smiled and replied; “Yeah, but I’d never say it.”

My question to a reader would be the same as my question to her; “What’s the difference?”

It is something I fight with my kids all the time. They know not to ‘swear’ but being around the neighborhood kids they pick up words and phrases: “That sucks”, “Dang it”, “Sheesh”, etc. — It is difficult because our nature wants us to be able to use some kind of ‘explicative’ – but what is appropriate? “Oh, Buddha”?

The Boomershoot at the Lewiston Pistol Club (warning: audio output) looks to be quite an event. There are some interesting videos of shooting exploding targets!

This is the net home of the Lewiston Pistol Club Boomershoot. This is a long range, high-power, precision rifle shooting event with high explosive, reactive targets up to 700 yards away. As if you needed one — this is a great excuse to visit Idaho.

I have a couple things around the house that I would like to shoot – and see explode. Hmmm…

Found the U.S. Department of Labor site which shows the statistics for economy of the Tri-Cities.

I am amazed to see the growth over the last 5 years! No wonder they are building apartments all over the place. If I am reading this right, the workforce here is growing at a good clip over the last 10 years. Clicking the Back Data button gives some graphs over the last 10 years for the labor force, employment, and unemployment.

Will want to come back to this site and explore some more.