Serious but short.

Post season baseball makes the fall perfect. I mean, the summer is fantastic, but man, I do love drinking a beer and watching some playoff ball.

Oh capital!

I voted today. Dawn and I went down to the register office and put down some funky fresh democracy on y'alls. I'll be honest, I like to vote, because I'm such a hudgge in so many other ways. I don't really volunteer (or at least can't do what I want to do until I have a few more months as a trained RN for the Int'l Red cross), I'm not interested in joining the armed services, and don't own enough bulletproof clothing to teach our youth. Voting is one patriotic duty I can do. I mean, I do give to charity here and there, but that isn't doing so much on my end. So, I read about the various candidates, looked over some literature regarding the propositions, and made an honest effort to vote my conscious. The only races I didn't really go over were school board candidates, but at least now I can now count on two write in votes for Mr. Potato head and Edward Scissorhands. One person had no competition! None! So I figured I'd write in some for them. Democracy in action! I'm hoping here that as things settle in, voting will only be one of the ways that I get involved in my community and government, but for now, its' a start.

On another note, Dawn and recently celebrated our anniversary. I came home from work that night to find a huge ass television in our house. Dawn is pretty bad-ass in that sort of way.

Oh yeah.

So in the last blog, I started writing about stores closing, and then I lost the point. The point is: I went to a really really cool bike shop yesterday, and I really really hope it stays around. They just moved to the hipster part of town, so we'll see how it goes.


Just wanted to add that.
Oh yeah one more thing: though the drink itself is one of my least favorites, bud lite's real men of genius is one of the best ad campaigns in the history of radio advertising.

The pinch

So it's been a few weeks since I really walked around hillcrest, but upon going to thai food last night I found that every single business that had opened in the last six months sans one was closed. Ordinarily I would have chalked it up to poor business decisions, locations, and a misunderstanding of the market. however with so many places gone so fast, I think it's safe to say that the economy has caught up to my main street. Which quite frankly comes as shock because hillcrest is supposed to be somewhat insulated from all of this, what with the woo-hoo fabulous people all around who are very savvy. However, the fact that I'm renting the condo I am renting for the price I'm paying is only because it failed to sell in the first place, so I'm sure it was "the correction" slowly encroaching before I showed up. Even still, when national news events start happening in front of you, it's a bit of a wake-up. I've been lucky for the past few weeks because with my new job, at which I am getting ever closer to being off new hire probation, the money has been better than ever for dawn and I. We're actually able to do things like go buy clothes and go out to eat...with cash!!!! shocking for me. So while for dawn and myself, financial are good, and getting better, for other people...well...I don't know. Makes me happy to have the career that I do (f'ing best job ever btw). Will it really affect me? I hope not. Hopefully I'm still young and dumb enough to think It won't matter. Or maybe I'm getting old. Either way, it's a wake up.

Autumn. Say what you will, it's the season of change. Elections, new school years, new fashion (if you are so inclined.). But mostly leaves. Ah yes. Leaves. They do not change here, in perfect weather "OMG-I-don't-even-know-is-it-winter-or-summer" San Diego. In other parts of the world, like Flag, and leafer mecca, vermont, the public is starting to get a wondrous little show that adds such ambience to life. Sets the mood. In memory of that, I'll share a favorite memory. October 2004, I was with the NAU cycling club somewhere in the peaks. We crested a hill and a glorious autumn rain started, barely perceptible to us, but it started a cascade of gold, orange, and merlot aspen leaves to fall. We were enveloped in leaves, and riding the trail was like riding a golden path in a world of orange. Somewhere along the line, I let the brake go and I just remember flying through the trees. Everyone has memories of special almost zen like moments. Most all of mine take place in the fall. Tour de fat, the first blister of cold, and biking around a deserted copenhagen at sunrise all sit there in my head, fall as the backdrop. Its a time of year that's good for the memories. So even if I can't have leafy memories this year at least it doesn't mean the end of cycling season. So maybe san diego has something going for it there....