Monday morning

After I got my car back from the tow yard and the shop, I promised myself I would start driving more, and I've been doing that. Last week I logged 378 miles on Dr. J, and I'm hoping to get at least an equal mileage this week.

Yesterday (Sunday) I spent most of the day organizing my place, which included breaking out the Dymo label-maker and putting labels on all those little black power adapters that have been floating around the house.

Bunny coming for a visit this Friday!

Planning a move to a new neighborhood early next year.

And also tentatively planning one, and potentially two, trips overseas in 2015. No details yet. Everything still sketchy.

Retrospective

12 YEARS AGO
In 2002 I was living in Portland; it was my first full calendar year here. I was living at the Commodore on SW 16th and Morrison. By the end of 2002 I'd left my job at Mercer, and was doing temporary work. The 9/11 attacks were still a fresh memory, barely a year in the past, and the economy was still feeling the effects. I was in the process of working out my politics, too - I'd been active in the Green Party for several years. At some point, probably around 2002 or 2003, I left the Greens and became a registered Democrat for a brief period which would end in February 2004. (Sentator Joseph Lieberman abandoned his quest for the Democratic nomination on February 3, Tuesday, and I joined the Republican Party the following day.)

7 YEARS AGO
In 2007 I moved back to San Francisco to spend more time with TNG and to pursue a relationship with G. The date of my move was 2007-08-09; I moved into an apartment on Market Street. By the end of the year G and I had broken up and gotten back together at least once. Bunny was born in September. By December I was fully involved with G and Bunny (I had to abandon a long, rambling science-fiction story I'd been writing) and was pondering moving in with G.

FOUR YEARS AGO
By 2010, the relationship with G was well and truly finished, but I'd formed a wonderful relationship with Bunny. In September I moved into a one-bedroom apartment in the Mission, not too far from where G and Bunny lived. From about this time I started keeping a journal on the now-defunct OhLife.com, so from here on I can retrieve my daily events in some detail. (I've been keeping longhand journals for many years, but they're not as easy to access from the computer.) By about Hanukkah time I'd settled into a semi-regular routine in terms of sharing care of Bunny with G.

ONE YEAR AGO
I'd decided well in advance that I would move back to Portland once TNG had turned 18 and completed high school; so 2013 was my last year in SF as planned. It was a busy year for me all around: I turned 50 and bought a Glock in January (my first time owning a firearm, though I'd had plenty of practice shooting an M-16 in the Marines), worked full-time at a major corporate HQ in San Francisco, and took Krav Maga lessons. Back and foot pain became increasingly a problem for me, though, and I had to quit both Krav and the job for a few weeks. Fortunately I was able to identify the source of my problem - bad posture - and after that summer I had no further problems with my feet or back.

The last part of the calendar year 2013 was mainly devoted to wrapping up things in San Francisco. I managed to get TNG and his mom, Bunny and her mom, and my dear friend B, all together for a couple of surprisingly pleasant visits.

By this time, G and I were on very good terms and had developed good strategies for co-parenting Bunny.

Late in that year, an older relative of mine died, leaving me the executor of my uncle's trust for the remainder of its duration. By Hanukkah time, I was getting my apartment cleaned up and spending quality time with B, TNG, and Bunny in anticipation of the move. TNG got to spend some time hanging out with Bunny, and showed himself to be an awesome big brother. Bunny worked hard and enthusiastically on her math and Hebrew.

By the end of December, I'd made a visit to Portland and signed a lease on the main level of a duplex house in NW Portland - the place where I'm living now. I spent New Year's Eve hiking at Trillium Lake with a couple of friends. Then I headed back to San Francisco to pack. ...

Retrospective 2

7 MONTHS AGO
At the end of last May, I was working at an underpaid and overstressful position at a local utility company. My boss, "Darla", was impossible to please and I was looking forward to the end of the assignment. In my off-time I was finishing up an online course in digital cryptography from Stanford, offered for free through Coursera. On May 27, I took the final and aced it. (This was the second of two goals I'd set for myself - earlier in the month, on May 4, I took the test for my ham radio Technician license - and got 100% on that one, too.)

4 MONTHS AGO
By the end of August, I'd mostly gotten the old junk cleared out of my new place - it would've been a lot cheaper to do it before I moved, obviously, but there wasn't time. There wasn't much in the way of excitement, except that on the 22nd some goofball came up to me on the street and snapped a picture of me. With the radio license and cryptography course under my belt, I got busy signing up for an online CompTIA computer certification course and classes at Portland State. It would be a crunch, because the PSU term started almost immediately after the computer class ended, but I figured I could do the computer classes at home - with no distractions, and in comfort. Or so I thought.