It’s Monday…gotta get this TPS cover sheet done.

May 24, 2004

I had some witty comment that I wanted to open with, but during the course of the day it, like so many other pieces of information, have escaped me. Oh yes, now I remember. Ironic, considering what it was. As I discovered this morning, no amount of caffeine to stimulate my brain can prevent me from still being a dumbass. After my second mug of tea this morning, I was working on testing a bugfix in the software, and I kept forgetting what I was supposed to be doing. I wasn’t getting distracted with other things, but I’d think “OK, I need to uninstall this software and reinstall this software so I can test X.” I’d uninstall the first software, install the second, then completely forget why I was doing it in the first place. This went on for an hour or so. I’m glad I wasn’t doing something like the testing suite to make sure that everything was functional in a new build of the software, then I really would have been in trouble.

This weekend was humorous. As I mentioned last week, on Saturday I went to the coast with my Dad, but we took the back way, so to speak. It was a route that I’d never taken. I doubt it was a route that ANYONE has ever taken from Portland to the coast. A good portion of the drive was spent on dirt logging roads up through the wilds of the coast range, and not only did we need the detailed atlas of the state of Oregon that my Dad bought, but we also needed the GPS unit to find out where the hell we were. Only took us a couple of hours to get lost, but man, when he’s behind the wheel these shortcuts turn into longcuts. It was pretty much the way he wanted to go, but I don’t think he realized just how out in the wilderness it would be. It was humorous, though, trying to get from point A to point B (Portland to Newport) and having to wind through roads that no one had likely ever used as the route we were taking.

The trip itself seemed to be the main reason for the trip, though, as we didn’t stay long in Newport. We made an appearance in the literal definition of the word, shook a few hands, said hello, and then we turned right around and went back. We took paved roads, though, so our trip back was much shorter. We also stopped in McMinnville, OR on our way back, and I got to go to a new McMenamins. Pretty surprising, huh? This one was Hotel Oregon, which is one of the half a dozen or so McMenamins that doubles as a hotel in addition to a pub. Well, three pubs in the case of Hotel Oregon. The main dining room, one in the basement, and the rooftop bar topping off the three-story building. Pretty good view, what what I’m told, too. The rooftop bar is also the site of the annual UFO Fesitval that McMenamins throws, and sicne that was two weekends ago, there was still leftovers from the beer that had been brewed for the event. So in addition to the standard four McM beers plus the seasonal, Hotel Oregon offered the “Alienator Ale”, which turned out to be nothing like I expected. Good stuff. I believe that Hotel Oregon was McMenamins #26 for me, but I’d have to check….

I will say one thing about our Saturday trip, though. Valsetz Road may not be paved, on maps other than the detailed atlas my Dad had, or very well-traveled, but it’s beautiful country out there. I’ve considered leaving Oregon to live elsewhere in the past, but it’s times like that I’m sure glad I haven’t. The lush, green forests of Oregon are something I can’t leave behind, and hopefully now that I’ll have a car of my own soon enough I’ll be able to take more trips out into areas like thsoe without having to arrange borrowing the Escape beforehand. At one point we stopped to get our bearings (when you’re figuring out what road you’re on by taking longitude and latitude readings from one of twelve orbiting satellites, I think that counts as getting your bearings) and take a couple of pictures, and we were sitting on a bridge above the Siltez River. It was breathtaking. And muddy, but eh, I’ve come to expect that. I may even go back out into that area and explore a little more, because I’m curious to see a bit more of the terrain out there.

Which brings me to my Memorial Day weekend plans. I decided not to go out to Eastern Oregon and climb a mountain, because as my Dad put it, I should go with someone. So I’ll do that another time when I can rustle up someone to go with me and who’s willing to climb up to 8,500 feet or so. That leaves me without plans, but my Dad mentioned to me that he’d be interested in hiking around the Columbia River Gorge, so that may be what I’ll have to do. SInce I have three days, however, I think I might see if I can steal the Escape for the day and do some solo hiking, as well. I’ll have to see. Still interesting in bumming around the Gorge, Papa?

Sunday I was dragged along to Costco with my Mom where she always needs my help in loading and unloading the car, and even though we didn’t get the primary things we went to get, my help was still enough to warrant a case of beer and couple of other things that jumped out at me as payment for lugging around her stuff for a couple of hours. Costco is one of my least favorite places to go, and going on Sunday was even worse and even more crowded than it usually is. But as I said, I got a pretty sweet deal out of it, and all I had to do was run over a few old ladies with the shopping cart. That’ll teach ‘em to stand around and eat the free samples without moving out of the way. And I won’t be buying beer for awhile, either….

The rest of this week should be pretty fun. I’m getting a much-deserved haircut today after work, and then tomorrow after work I’m going to stop by a car dealership that my Dad has used for a long time and check out some of the used cars I’ve seen them offering through the various websites that list dealer inventory. I should be able to get an impression of size and comfort driving specific models, at the very least, if I don’t find something that immediately jumps out at me. This is an interesting process so far, but I’m really looking forward to the end result when I get handed a piece of paper that says that the vehicle belongs to me (though I’ll still be paying for it, I guess….) and I can officially go get a license plate that reads “Pimpdaddy.” Or not….

But for now, perhaps I should focus my energies on other things. Like getting back to work. Until later.

Posted in Beer, Geekery, General