“Hey folks, this is Seattle, expect it to rain!” I find myself saying that all the time whenever I commute to the Marine Center during my time ashore. Even in rainy Seattle (we still get slightly less annual rainfall than Boston) drivers are inept when it comes to water on the road. If predictions are true, I will dip into my basket of surplus leave and avoid driving the highways if there is a serious snowstorm. But I plan on being in Hawaii half the winter. And in Seattle, if it snows, I will do my utmost to stay off the roads. Monday set a record of 1.55 inches of rain at SeaTac. However, it dried on Tuesday and may be a nice day. Here we are in November and I am still wearing short sleeves!
The Seattle skyline was strikingly lit against a dark backdrop of early hours before dawn. The Space Needle led the juggernaut of illuminating high rises with lit offices resembling sparkling stars in the cool morning air. Picturesque view only belonging to completed jigsaw puzzle settled on a coffee table. This I see on mornings while crossing the Ship Canal Bridge to my off ramp. It saddens me to feel that I will not be seeing that skyline much longer. I not look forward to driving to the office and seeing the fog shrouded Yaquina Bay Bridge in Newport, Oregon with few lit houses in the background knowing that place holds nothing for us except income to put food on the table and a roof over our heads. I certainly hope the background I see instead will be that of Diamond Head, high rises of Aloha Towers and Waikiki hotels in Honolulu off to the distance. Such a setting will not make the departure from Seattle melancholic, as I love this city. What makes Seattle special is I chose to live here and felt most at home after moving from Skagit County. Honolulu to us is a sanctuary from the drabness of Newport.
I am going to be in port in Honolulu for the next seven weeks and it’s going to be difficult to fill these pages with tales of my journey. The voyage will not begin until February. Meanwhile, I am looking forward to relief from all the paid political ads starting on Wednesday. That’s amazing from a political junkie! I am confident that nothing will change in two years and most of those who boasted these past few months about rescuing America will not have a chance to complete it. Campaigning for 2012 starts on Wednesday after the election and the science of economics will be misplaced on past laurels and old clichés. Results are no different than re-marrying your ex-spouse and then remembering why you divorced in the first place. Attitudes change in two years and patience is not a virtue customary to this culture. I have always been interested in politics and enjoyed political science, world and American history along with an array of liberal arts courses in college.
Events shape a person’s view towards life and several, both personal and public, altered my views from that of the late 90’s. I have not swung towards the left but remained in the middle. I had dinners with congressional representatives and luncheons with governors and senators as well as meetings and breakfast with state representatives. I attended political rallies and seen what a charade it was carefully choreographed to appeal to the press cameras. The most personal of meetings I’ve had with elected government officials was dinner with the current congressional representative from American Samoa as well as that island’s governor and brief one on one conversation the senior senator from Washington State who is in a tough battle with her opponent.
Blogging here is not a first for me. I wrote op-eds for several conservative web sites in the late 90’s during the ill-fated private sector period. In college, liberalism was embraced and as I got older, swung towards conservatism, especially in the 90’s when it was still an intellectual ideology. Today it consists of absolute set of overemotional morals aimed towards phobia of race and religion. Machiavellian television and radio celebrities’ influence thought processes. Followers parrot what they say and perilously take their words as spoken gospel. I had several op-eds published at web sites I did not wish to be associated with. Apparently those were lifted from archives of original sites. Since I did not receive compensation, the owner of the sites owned the articles. Because of my experiences with the media and blogging, I am always cautious whenever those elements are used as reference to support any assertion. I do not even like to use established press as credentials to my arguments. Just because it was in the Wall Street Journal does not make it right.
I went back to school because I aspired to be an engineer. However, my weakness in math and dealing with technology during the day soured my views towards studying it at night. I began to learn math on my own and the one who eliminated barriers to that was a San Diego high school algebra teacher who taught community college part time at night. Instead of gazing in a textbook or trying to stay awake during scripted lectures, he challenged students and it was up to me to find the answer and method for it. He explained where situations would apply to everyday life in the real world.
An electronics engineer I never became and instead of planning of strategies to enhance my career I am contemplating on how to finish off my productive years towards retirement. Whenever I attend formal classroom training, instructors ask if I am attending to obtain a certificate to aide me in finding another job or advance in my field. I look at him and reply, “at my age, right!” I like what I do and want to do it as long as health holds up and I am wanted around here. I will continue to be an insane sailor, crazier as I get older.
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