The Wayward Celt

My parents visited us last weekend, which prompted us to take some touristy day trips with them. Since I’ve been exhausted since then and work ramped up activity too, I wanted to at least get out some of the pictures from the weekend and get that weekly blog post done. I may write up something more, but for now it is just visual.

I present these mainly untouched photos (a few have been mildly altered) as the best of the weekend either by my choice or my Dad’s (as we looked through them and he pointed out his faves).

Evergreen Air and Space Museum, Canon Beach in Oregon, and North Head Lighthouse on the Southern Washington coast:

As always I welcome your comments critiques. I know there’s a LOT of photos here, so don’t feel the need to comment on any/all… I hope you enjoy them in their ‘raw’ state!

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Along with my love for lighthouses, I also have a soft spot for covered bridges. To my enjoyment, Oregon provides quite a few of both!

Call it an excuse to get out of the house, or an excuse to take my camera on a drive, Saturday’s sun made it the perfect day to get out and see some covered bridges in their wooden glory.

Using the information over at http://www.oregon.com/covered_bridges and armed with my GPS, Jean and I took a drive Saturday afternoon in search of as many covered bridges as we could pack into a day. All told, we got to ten of them within the Willamette valley, over the course of 270 miles. (To get to the rest will take a bit more planning and strategic execution as they are now outside a quick afternoon’s trip.)

The images below are just a few of the best photos from the day. All are relatively untouched as no cropping was done, but I did adjust the levels minimally as I tended to over expose due to the bright sunshine.

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I actually completed this nearly two weeks ago, but it took me a bit to test, take pictures, and get around to posting them.

Specs: 1960′s era Telephone Operator’s headset. Dual prong 1/8″ RCA plug. Modified to run a Plantronics CT-12 wireless phone and Firefly headset system (with the glowing ‘in-use’ microphone tip).

From the photos, you’ll see I completely re-wired the internals of the headset. I used the Plantronics Firefly headset internals to swap into the operator’s headset, removing the original wiring, mic, and earphone. This left a great deal of space to work with in the ear piece, and surprisingly even more in the mic section. I used an extra foam earpiece as a backing inside the operator’s headset to hold the much smaller speaker in the center of the earpiece. The mic section is wide open and internals are visible through the perforated clear plastic covering, allowing for the red “in-use” LED indicator to be visible.

Once I learned how to wield a soldering iron, making a wiring swap was fairly easy for this project as it was essentially just shoe-horning the Firefly headset internals into the much larger operator’s headset. I retained the wired plug at the end to connect into the CT-12 wireless keypad so I have access to dial/talk/release functionality anywhere in the house. Next up is to find a solution to hide the base-station and antennae. I’m thinking a simple but nice cherry/oak box will hide it with class.

Of course, now I need to focus in on my 1930′s hand-crank office phone. That one is going to be a bit more of a challenge to retain as much functionality as possible and still make it a usable (and by usable I mean with dialing functionality) for daily office use.  To that end I have obtained an older slimline Samsung push-button wired phone from the late 80′s early 90′s which I should be able to shoe-horn into the base of the 1930′s crank. Should be very cool if I can make it work!

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Information… give me looooooong distance…

Ok, enough Manhattan Transfer. While out antiquing a few weeks back, Jean and I happened upon a particular store which has a small specialty in restored vintage phones; the majority of which have been rebuilt with modern parts to function with today’s phone lines. While I love the idea, I just can’t bring myself to shell out the $200-400 wanted for such pieces, which are more novelty than truly functional due to the minimal feature sets.

So, while out browsing eBay once again, I happened upon a few fun vintage pieces which I looked at and thought to myself, “I could probably hack in some thing to make these functional”. So I bought them, and they’re now sitting in my garage awaiting inspiration to strike. You know, that moment when I can finally visualize how it will all go together. Mind you, I have ideas for each bit, I just haven’t really decided on an overall idea: do I want them to be semi-functional, 110% vintage, and stay wired? Or do I want to go wireless and maintain functionality if not 100% authentic looks. It all really depends on -how- I can make these work for me in my daily job, since I’d love to replace my desktop phone with a vintage hack.

So, until I decide and get a move on, here’s a quick look at the original pieces before any modification. I will, of course, post a write up with full details and photos once/if I complete the project and get a functioning system:

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This past weekend was indeed a symphony of sawing, hammering, and cursing, as I had predicted. My task: to install an IKEA PAX customizable closet system into a space with dimensions smaller than the rectangular framing of the wardrobe out of the box.

I chose the PAX system after countless hours (really years, 3 years to be exact) of deliberating on how I could best utilize the closet space we had. I balanced every possible combination and solution, none of which really gave me what I was looking for. Remember, this is a budget build, so full custom closeting was not an option here, as I don’t really want to spend upwards of $10k on this space. I’d rather save that money for something useful, like a new roof or kitchen remodel

To give you an idea of the space I was working with, here is a before picture, showing the cheap clothes rack as a temporary (as in 3 years) workaround:

Before the battle, clutter abounds.

You’ll note in this picture, the beam height, sloped ceilings/walls, and wall mounted space heater (the whole house is electrically heated via baseboard or wall mounted heaters like this). Combine all of those items and you have a difficult space with very few out-of-the-box installation solutions. As such, I determined that the best way to obtain the covered closet space I needed, as well as utilize the space as best I could, was to buy an off-the-shelf system and bend/cut it to my will. Now, because I’m no carpenter, I opted to go with a budget system from IKEA rather than risk destroying any nicer furniture in the process. Plus, we have found that the finishes of the IKEA browns fit nicely with the existing furniture we already have in the space.

Last Friday night, after work and a filling meal of Indian cuisine at Abhiruchi, I tackled cleaning out the space in preparation for the next day’s fight. Here’s the wide open space with piles of clothes on the dresser awaiting a space to rest in covered slumber:

The first wave, scorched earth...

Saturday was the day of reckoning. I began working at about 11am by triple checking my angles and measurements before cutting. I started with one of the inner frame walls, as I knew that a mistake there would be easily rectified and hidden if it were uglier than expected. After my initial cuts to fit the frame against the angled/sloped ceiling, I brought it upstairs for a test fit. No dice. Sigh. Apparently my measurements were not generous enough, so it was back downstairs for further adjustment. A few more cuts with my circular saw and jig saw, and back upstairs for another test; still not enough… third initial cut, and another test fit, this time the side frames finally fit. Using the first frame as a template, I scribed the rest of the cuts onto the other frames, and proceeded to kill myself with sawdust in the garage.

Back upstairs with all my modified frames, I begin piecing the rest together in typical IKEA fashion; by which I mean using the various bits of included hardware and one tool to put it all together. It was just as I was starting this work that Jean left for a meetup with her knitting group. Likely the smartest thing she could have done at that point, since not a minute after she left, catastrophe struck and set the stage for the rest of the build. I was following the directions, which noted to connect the top and bottom to one side frame on the floor, then lift and attach the other side frame while it was standing up. Easy enough, except the instructions called for two people, and I wasn’t thinking clearly as the unsupported top and bottom pieces tore out of their mount points shearing away the pre-drilled holes and crashing back down to the floor causing the first in a long series of non-reproducible curses to flow freely.

Thank gods for the nail gun! While my instruction sheet didn’t call for one to be handy, I quickly rectified my initial failure with brute force and gas-propelled finish nails. Of course nothing comes easy, as when I finished building the frame, supported on all sides this time around, and raised it up, somehow the sides (previously checked and refit 3 times after the cuts I had made) now did not fit under the main beam. I sat for a bit pondering not only how that could be, but what I could do to correct it, as my methods previously used to cut the bits would not be as useful now that the frame was fully built. Then inspiration hit me in the form of my reciprocating saw. A simple and quick two cuts and I was back in business as the frame slid snugly into place under the beam; my angle cut fitting precisely as I had hoped… at least I got one cut right the first time!

The rest of the build progressed at a normal pace as I’d hammered out most of the issues by this point and the second frame was a breeze. Ah, the lessons we learn Of course, once both were built, I ran into one final issue with the door mounts. Because I had to drop the top of the frames by a few inches to fit under the beam, the holes I used to mount the tops turned out to be the holes which the doors expected to be hung from. (As an aside I -did- check out the build instructions for this system before I bought it, to wrap my head around it and ensure it would work for me. I just missed the doors install, but had accommodated for all other issues.) Luckily for me, my brain was still working at this point and I was able to re-drill new holes for the doors only 3/4 of an inch off the originals, and hung them with ease.

Another half hour of cleaning and a quick shower, and I was done for the day. It was then I looked at the clock and realized I had been working, non-stop for over 8 hours. So, I opted to not fill the closet quite yet, but instead sit on the couch with some Aleve and a hard cider and just relax after a battle hard fought and hard won. Sunday, I filled the closet and snapped a few ‘after’ pictures too. So, here you go the loft with newly installed ‘custom’ closet system:

Victory is mine! Chaos controlled!

An inside look at victory

The story all-told, you’ll understand why I didn’t have the energy to work on my 1930′s vintage hand crank telephone and operator headset to functional digital system hack. That WILL be coming, just not this past weekend as I’d hoped. Stay tuned

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I’ll be the first to admit that I am no salesman; that I work in client support because I -can’t- sell is not a trait that has gone unnoticed by me or others. But, as my career shifts and molds to new adventures, more and more I am finding the need to sell myself, or more specifically, my ideas and abilities.

When About.Me came onto my radar, I jumped at the chance to use it as a virtual business card of sorts; a way to roll up a general idea of who I am into a few sentences and connect to some of the other places for more information depending on context.

http://about.me/acdntlpoet

As with everything, this is a work in progress. I think it gives a fair representation at present, but I may remove more personal items in favour of more professional. Time will tell how I modify this based on usage and feedback. For now, it seems to stand well as yet another signpost in the ether connecting the various spaces in which I play.

Of course, as one of the people I follow on twitter noted: (This is a) boring concept with good execution. So I’ll have to see if great implementation alone will make this a useful tool, or if it just another internet fad/profile which I’ll end up forgetting about and abandoning within a year. For now, however, my profile has been built and will stand out there as another way to self promote, albeit in a rather passive way.

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This past weekend Jean and I went out antiquing. While we have a few items we are specifically keeping our eyes out for, we typically don’t find anything to bring home. This past weekend, however, we found a few fun things:

vintage goggles

I stumbled upon these goggles in one of the various shops in Aurora, Oregon. They’ll need a little cleaning and some mild repainting to deal with a bit of rust, but the optics are surprisingly clear. I’ll also be redoing the strap to improve on the basic elastic. I’m thinking I’ll do leather strapping since I think they’d make a great set of motorcycle goggles for use on a cafe racer.

Phone Ringer

My other happy find was this vintage phone ringer which I immediately re-purposed into a door chime to replace the plastic chime box which used to grace our living room wall. This box fits the overall decor and mood of the room far better than a cheap plastic box.

Glass/Pyrex juicing bowl

Jean even found a nice glass/pyrex juicing bowl; something she’d been keeping her eyes out for. All in all, a surprisingly productive day for us!

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Now, most of you are laughing at the title, thinking to yourself, “How can he have a fear of commitment when he’s been married to Jean for 14 years, together for nearly 20???”. Yes, I know, it amuses me too. But that isn’t the commitment I am speaking of. Rather, I have recently discovered I have trouble committing to more mundane aspects of life something for fear of what I’ll lose or ignore by doing so. Specifically, this has come to me in terms of hobbies, or extra curricular activities outside of work.
A friend recently blogged the following quote, which resonated with me:

“What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.” ~T.S. Eliot

I have been hesitant to start up any hobby which forces a time commitment for me, mainly for fear of choosing to focus on something and find that I have neglected other things, or simply missed seeing something I’d want to do even more so. Take, for instance, my desire to learn how to play my tenor banjo. Do I commit cash and time to lessons, find a group to play with, only to find that I am no longer focused on photography, motorcycling, writing, or (shudder at the thought) my whiskies tasting group?
While I recognize my need to be more social, this fear of committing seems to keep me from jumping into a group and really getting to know local people. I also recognize that in order to begin with anything, I need to end this silly indecisiveness. An end to the day-to-day doldrums will indeed be the place from which I start.
Here’s to new beginnings!

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Ah, yes, the long awaited update on my weekend. I know you don’t really care about what I did over the Dec. 3rd-5th weekend, you just want to know what it was like to meet my birth mother. So, I’ll try not to bore you with a chronological listing of everything we did, but rather try and intersperse perspective and reflections throughout this tale of three days. Someday I’ll post further on the back story, but until then you’ll have to be satisfied with the present story…

Friday morning, Jean and I caught an early flight to Denver where my half-sister (henceforth referred to as “Kally” or “my sister” for simplicity) picked us up and we headed out to spend the afternoon in Colorado Springs. You’d have never known that Kally and I didn’t grow up together; the banter was in full swing by the time we were exiting the short term parking at Denver International. Kally even went as far as asking the parking booth attendant if it was too late to send us back (admittedly deserved on my part, but still). That should give you an idea of what was to come.

First stop was the “Garden of the Gods” in Colorado Springs; an absolutely stunning rock park. Such a distinctly different terrain than what what Jean and I are used to from SoCal or Oregon. It was around this time when we realized that Jean and I left our camera in the hotel room, so we stole Kally’s camera for the day as we drove through the ‘garden’ snapping away shots out of the sunroof and passenger window.

From the garden, we moseyed on over to a small wine shop for a tasting, and then over to the Miramont Castle for a self guided tour of a very interesting architectural build. I thoroughly enjoyed the fact that Kally shares similar interests. That alone made for a great afternoon, and we saw some fantastic sights to boot! A win/win in my book

By the time we were done with the tour of Miramont Castle, it was close enough to dinner time that we had to head back to the Denver metro area so we’d be there in time to meet up with Debby (my birth mom, hereafter referred to as Debby or just mom for simplicity). We had a bit of a drive ahead of us from Colorado Springs, back up to Denver to meet Debby, giving us time to digest the gravitas of the impending meeting. At one point Kally had asked me if I was nervous. I can report back with all honesty, that I was a startled by this question; not because she asked, but rather because it hadn’t even occurred to me to be nervous. I am also happy to say that the act of realizing I wasn’t previously nervous did not suddenly cause me to be nervous.

Having some time to think, I realized fairly quickly that I had social media to thank for my comfort level. Not to sound like an apologist for things like Twitter, Facebook, or email, but it is precisely due to these three tools which allowed me to connect with Debby long before we actually met in person. The discourse we shared the months prior to meeting in person, along with the passive views into each others lives, really set me at ease and with a comfort level in meeting which just made it feel like I was getting together with an old friend for dinner, much lower on the gravitas scale than meeting my birth mom for the first (ok, technically second) time in my life.

Well, we arrived at Undici early, and Debby was running a tad late due to work issues (seriously, ALWAYS the way when you have something planned), so Jean, Kally, and I sat at the bar for happy hour and enjoyed some cocktails. Looking back on it now, I’m happy I was able to have a drink before hand as doing so did loosen me up a bit. I guess I was mildly nervous after all, even though I couldn’t discern any tangible change which would have indicated any level of nervousness.

We were seated in an area which provided me with a good view to the front, so I was able to see Debby as she walked before she saw me. I took this opportunity to have a little fun and walked up to her, addressing her in my ‘professional’ tone, noting, “Excuse me, ma’am, but I believe your table is waiting for you over this way”… a quick pleased to meet you and hug later and we were on our way to the table. Now, most people will take a moment and hesitate before realizing I am not staff… not Debby. The recognition was immediate; so much so that I doubt she processed what I’d actually said until we were halfway to the table. There was undeniably, no doubt, clear as day, who we were.

Throughout dinner I’d catch myself,  and the other three at any one given time, staring in awe at the similarities we shared. While Kally and I are very similar, a fact that was a constant source of amusement for us all on her trip out to meet us in Oregon, Debby and I are even more strikingly similar; a theme which would permeate the rest of the evening, and weekend for that matter. While Kally and I share interests and other personality traits, Debby and I seem to share those even more deeply to the point where attitude and personality start to manifest in shared mannerisms and expressions. At various points during dinner Debby and I would catch ourselves holding our hands in the precise fashion as the other while listening to Jean or Kally talk, completely unaware that we were mimicking each other unintentionally. Which was fine until Jean pointed it out resulting in Debby and I both became acutely aware of it for the rest of the night to the delight of the other two.

Dinner was spectacular, but for once I won’t drivel on about the food or wine. That, obviously, wasn’t the point to this particular meal. Nor will I blather on about our after dinner drinks (also spectacular) at a small wine bar called Paris later that evening. What I will say, is that the night was far more than I could have hoped for or even expected. I went to bed that night with a satisfaction that I didn’t fully know I desired or needed. My intent for the trip to Denver had been fully realized and successful beyond my imagination. And to think, this was only Friday; we still had two days in town with both Kally and Debby to enjoy the area and each other’s company. It was all icing from this point on…

Saturday morning did come a bit early, even with sleeping in by an hour. The excitement for the day, however, got us moving in no time. We met up with Kally at her place after Debby picked us up from the hotel. On the docket for the day: Estes Park. First up was the drive out, opting for the Peak to Peak route which was ultimately gorgeous if not a tad perilous at parts. Ok, I may be exaggerating a bit, but it really was a beautiful drive. Coming down into Estes Park, we had an amazing view of the Stanley Hotel, which we had discovered on the drive in is where we were going to be having brunch. While I was excited for this, Jean was ecstatic to visit the Stanley as she is a serious fan of Steven King and the Stanley is, of course, where he was inspired and ultimately wrote the Shining.
We had an excellent brunch, and the moseyed down to take a tour of the hotel. Having been on a number of tours of historic buildings previously, I was pleasantly surprised at the length and breadth of the tour given at the Stanley. If you ever find yourself in Estes Park, take the tour. You won’t be disappointed. We sure weren’t!

The rest of the day was spent in Estes doing a little shopping to punctuate our stops at two different tasting rooms for some wine. Hey, it was chilly! We had to warm up somehow And of course we sought out and found the infamous Elk of Estes Park… the herds of them just wandering the city causing raucous after amusing and damaging raucous. In our case, however, we just watched them stop traffic as they crossed one of the main roads. From there, we dined in the early evening at the Rock Inn, another fabulous dinner replete with more amusing conversation (which honestly never really ceased throughout the day). It is funny how Kally and I, not having met until this year, can so easily fall into the jokingly bickering and relentless needling so often seen with siblings who grew up together; only made even more poignant when Debby rolls her eyes and laughs with/at the two of us.

After dinner, Kally drove us all back to Denver, where she left to go dancing and give Debby, Jean, and I more time together. This provided us with what I think was one of the most telling points of the entire weekend, as Debby asked if we’d like to go to a Christmas party being hosted by some of her friends at their house in the Cherry Hills / Greenwood Village area. I noted when she asked that this was a tough question for her (later confirmed directly that it was), and while my initial fear of new people and social situations crept up a bit, I was more honoured that Debby was comfortable enough with me that she’d want to introduce me (and Jean of course) to her friends. So away we went to meet her friends.

While initially, we had all intended to stay for a brief time to say hello, meet everyone and maybe have a drink, I have to say that Debby’s friends were so warm and welcoming to both Jean and I, that we ended up staying far later than anyone of us had expected. The conversation flowed the entire time as both Debby and I answered initial questions, and then Jean jumped in the mix as we talked through some of the story about how we came to find each other. It was such an interesting time for me to be asked those questions and have the other side standing directly next to me to round out the stories. Two things really struck me from meeting everyone: 1. how honestly interested people were in the story behind our meeting, and 2. how quickly they all accepted me and made me feel right at home. And while I know Debby wasn’t “showing me off”, it still felt really good to know that she thought highly enough of me to want her friends to meet me, and conversely that I am important enough for her to want me to meet her friends. That simple encounter spoke volumes about how we were all feeling about meeting for the first time; comfortable is really the only word to describe it all.

Sunday came a bit too early again, but this time accompanied by a bout of real nervousness: we were meeting two of my three nephews for brunch. Yep, two of Kally’s kids, Chase and Jeremy, were going to be dining with us. Not being great with kids, I was nervous about how to interact, but also simply because… well… because the realization had just struck me a few days prior: I have nephews. Not sure why I didn’t realize this before, since Kally has spoken of them often in our email correspondence over the past year. I guess my brain just never processed it before.

Luckily, the kids have the same attitude, sense of humour, and demeanor of their mom and grandma. They had me laughing up a storm and ganging up with them against their mom. Hey, I had to make up for years of missing out on tormenting my sister, right? I’m sure that helped ingratiate myself to the two boys. We had a great time at brunch, and I hope to think that Jeremy and Chase did too. Touch to say with a 15 year old and 10 year old respectively, though I’d wager that Jeremy and I connected at some level over music on the ride to drop him off at his dad’s. And while I am sure they are both a terrible handful for Kally at times, they really struck me as good kids from the short time we had with them.

From brunch we all reconvened at Debby’s after dropping the kids off, and headed up to Creekside winery for an afternoon of winetasting.(See, I TOLD you we all had shared interests!) This was some of the best wine of the trip (to my palette). Because of how their tasting room is set up, we sat at a table and all ordered a different flight from their tasting menu which made for a nice leisurely afternoon tasting. Very enjoyable. Of course we may have been too leisurely as we spent more time than intended there and didn’t have time to explore the rest of the area. We all headed back down the mountain and parted ways with Kally just before dinner.

Debby took us out to dinner at one of her favourite spots called La Loma in the northwest Denver area. She opted to take us there because we’d been noting how tough it is to find -good- Mexican food in Oregon. I’ll tell you it didn’t disappoint. And neither did the conversation, still. We found so much to talk about that what had been plenty of time to have dinner and get us to the airport, turned in to an “oh wow, we need to go” moment. Not late mind you, just not exactly early either.

And this is where our weekend effectively ends, folks; at Denver International, standing on the sidewalk saying good-bye after having only met around 36 hours prior. But not a bittersweet good-bye. Nothing like that at all. It was the simple good bye of people who don’t see an end, but rather the beginning of something larger than themselves. We ended on a high, and I’ve stayed there since.

So, when people ask what it was like to meet my birth mother for the first time in 37 (or so) years… I can honestly say, it was interesting, enlightening, wonderful, and spectacular. I am a better person for knowing both Kally and Debby, who they are and the depth of what I share with them… and now you all know what I mean when I say that.

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Dad (Howard O’Donnell for those who don’t know) just sent me an email noting that he was recently interviewed by a blogger. Here’s the direct link:

http://budplant.blogspot.com/2010/09/new-interview-and-biography-of-bud.html

It is short and to the point (much like this post), but really paints dad as part of the early in-crowd in the comics industry. Very cool!

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