My Kind of Optimist!

Went and visited some friends of ours over the weekend and saw the house they moved into a little over a year ago.

Dave was showing us all the planting they had done, including a little maple tree outside the bedroom window. A young little maple tree - trunk was maybe an inch thick.

"It'll shade the bedroom well when it gets big," Dave said. And he's right - it's the right kind of tree in the right place for summer shade.

Dave is 80 - and my kind of optimist!

A Father's Day Checklist...

[x] Clear bathroom sinks so they drain freely.

[x] Replace 11 chipped switchplate screws.

[x] Build second compost bin (attached to first.)

[x] Fix gearshift lever on BMW. (OK - Attach gearshift lever the way it should have been attached when I replaced the transmission...)

[x] Clean up around the shed.

[x] Call dad and wish him a Happy Father's Day!

Almost Sold Out in Canada and the U.K.!

According to Amazon, there's only one copy of The Portable Dad left in Canada, and two in the U.K. So if you're in either one of those places, act fast so you don't have to wait for the next shipment.

Also, if you're in Romania, welcome! Looking at the web traffic stats, www.theportabledad.com seems to be popular in Romania. Not sure why, but who cares? Bun venit!

It's Been 10 Years Since...

Thanks to all who participated in the poll. The majority did get the right answer, which either means they know me pretty well, or I do a lot worse job cutting my own hair than I realize!

Modern Car

Although I currently drive this 1974 BMW 2002 (and it is my only car at the moment) I have had more modern vehicles in the past decade, including a 2005 Toyota Tundra.

Paying for Haircuts

Sometime in the late '90s I started getting my hair cut short. When it got short enough that the stylists started using clippers, I decided a drunk monkey could do that and stopped paying for haircuts. I have had one professional haircut in that time - before Diane and my wedding in 2003 - but Diane's stylist who did it is a friend and gave us the haircuts as a wedding present.

Doesn't look that bad, does it?

Shaving
Yes, I do. Picture prove it.

Breaking Bones
I actually haven't broken that many bones in my life, remarkably enough. Did break three in 2001 or 2002 at the Sea Otter biking festival in Monterey. Short-track mountain bike race and I crashed hard and ended up with compression fractures in three vertebrae. Painful, but no lasting ill-effects, I'm happy to report!

New poll soon - thanks for playing...

Fully Dug - Now to Refill!

I'll post answers and explanations to the "How well do you know The Portable Dad?" quiz tomorrow, but did want to take a moment to share progress on the parking pad - it's all dug out.

Now I'll put four inches of rock back into the hole, then some reinforcement, then call in the concrete truck. So yeah, more to do. But the digging's done!

Pick and Shovel Progress

The new parking pad - OK, the new hole in the ground where a parking pad will be - is coming along.

Most evenings I'm able to get out there for a couple of hours and get another three to four feet (of 20) dug out, and that should even start to move faster toward the end because the packed-rock top layer (which I already dug out) was deeper on that end.

Just wish I had taken a photo every evening from the same vantage - would have made a great time-lapse filmstrip!

New Poll: How well do you know The Portable Dad?

Rather than wait for TMZ to dig up dirt about The Portable Dad, we'll spill a little here by means of the new poll. One of these answers in the sidebar to the right is true - can you guess which?

And while we're on the topic, how does one get those TMZ folks to dig up actual dirt? I could use a hand in the driveway if I'm going to make my self-imposed deadline of pouring concrete by July 4...

Testing this mobile-posting setup between Blogger and my Blackberry Curve.

If this shows up - in English, mind you - we have success!

Cheaper Than a Gym

May was a busy month with a lot of deadlines and a lot of desk time and by the time it was winding down I was feeling decidedly out-of-shape.

I realize that perhaps a normal response would be to go to the gym, take a few more runs and generally try to return some desk-world balance to the equation.

I am forced to admit I am not normal.

The Portable Response was to decide to expand my driveway and pave a 20 x 12 area that until now was just packed gravel over dirt. So about a week ago I started digging out the top eight inches of rocks and dirt in that 20 x 12 space. Been spending a couple hours most evenings out there.

Now, there's no chapter in The Portable Dad about pouring concrete parking pads, and believe me, most landlords are going to take a pointedly negative view of you paving their property without permission. But I do have to say, taking on a big project like this is great exercise. It's cheaper than a gym membership, and nothing keeps you motivated like a big damn hole in the ground where you'd like to park a car!