Hello, IS? It's me Jeremy...

Roo

After nearly 17 years of companionship, my best friend and traveling companion (Ruach Wanderer; Wandering Wind) Roo for short, has died. Roo had been fighting a cancerous tumor in his sinus cavity for the last 6 months. He had been doing pretty well until 2 months ago when it ulcerated creating Rob Zombie like blood fest throughout the house. It was the second time it had happened. I was hoping for the same results as the first time.
The first time it happened, 8 months ago, Roo had gone from being lethargic to being relieved of all the pressure and he was once again running around like a maniac keeping order in the house and herding the cat.
This time that wasn't the case. He was more panicked and his breath was coming in gasps it was painful to see. After a few days he was leveling off but his constant napping and long gaps between breaths let me know his leaving me would be pretty soon.
It wasn't soon. I had to make a decision about his life that I wasn't ever thinking I would make. I had to decide to put my dog down; put him to "sleep"; whatever the polite words to describe it, I had to decide whether or not I wanted to KILL my dog, My BEST friend.
When I think about Roo as being my best friend it makes the decision much simpler. My Human friends, Bill, Fred, Karl, Nathan, would not be happy with simply existing, breathing in short gasps not ever getting to walk around the block, not able to play with their favorite (chew) toys. They all enjoy Life far too much.

I'll write more... but I need to get packed.. we are moving today.. and this really has me down... J

nearly there

Its been an awkward couple of weeks for me at work. There hasn't been a whole lot of informaton shared about what is going on with me.I didn't feel it was appropriate to put stuff here that would be read by current students of mine.. soon Ill explain some stuff and maybe the result will be a changed opinion..... or not.

meanwhile here's some amusing junk.

You Passed 8th Grade US History

Congratulations, you got 6/8 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade History?

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How did this happen....

OK so I taught my first class at the museum last night. Class got out at 9:30, it went well and looks promising even though the class is really small. (5 students) Anyway I went around the darkroom looking at the enlargers trying to find out what needed to be repaired and I got out around 10:15. Then I spent the next 40mins or so shooting some photos of the intersection in front of the museum just because the ligth there is pretty cool at night. When I got home itwas 11 and I was hungry. The new meds I'm taking seems to reduce my apetite a little and by the end of a busy day I get ravenous or I fall asleep...
Anyway I'm RAVENOUS... and I look in the fridge and there is nothing....salad.. but nothing else.
S says order a pizza.. ok so I decide pizza is a GREAT idea. I NEVER treat myself to dinner but I feel like I deserve this... I found the flyer from Vesuvio and called. Thier flyer says 5pm -2am... 4am thurs-Sat! COOOOOOOL.. The phone is ringing....an answering machine tells me... "its Tuesday and we will be closing at 9 o'clock"
WHAT!!!????!!

Jeremy
(eating peanutbutter and jelly)

The trip..

well I'm back from California and I haven't posted a damn thing. I've been ridiculously busy with classes starting and Doctors appointments and getting my car registered and insured here in Indiana. So I thought I'd see if I can get some stuff down here for folks to read.
Some of it will be right form my journal including the spelling or abbreviations... so bear with me.

I headed out of Sacramento at 3:00 PM and had to be back in Indiana by Sunday night to teach Monday I figured I "gots plenty o'time" boy did I cut it close... Check it out!

I'd been in San Leandro the morning I left and had to hop the train to Sac to get my car. At the Richmond station I ran into a former student from the Main College of Art, Ben Carpenter. Ben had worked with me on a couple public art pieces and is now in the the bay area making sculptural fab work, VERY cool to see him and such an appropriate way for me to enter back into my "on the road" lifestyle.
In Sac there was an issue about a box of tools I'd shipped that hadn't turned up yet. I'd been fortunate enough to not need them at the shop but I'd want them on the road. My experience about road trips is if you travel with tools you will not have major car issues.. if you don't... carry a AAA card and a cell phone; you'll probably need 'em.
I got to Sac around noon I guess and had called Dave to have him meet me at his Post office and see if the tools had arrived. THEY DID!!! (COOOOoooool) and Dave and I rolled over to the shop where I packed up the car and said my good-byes to Dave.
I'd already said my so-longs to Dan and his brother Crazy Red (also a Dave but there are soooo many) and set off to Crazy's house to drop off the shop keys, and a photo, from my recent exhibition, for Dave, Diedra and their son Alex. Time to gas-up and get out.


I'm off!
The first few hours are kind of a blur and I just put the pedal down and left California. I had tags on the car that had expired in 2004 and one trip permit in the window. I figured the place I would get the most hassle would be in the state that the car came from so I just wanted to get out. I stopped once to check under the car to see if something was loose because the car felt so twitchy on the road towards Donner pass. But nothing was wrong and when I got back on to I-80 I discovered it was just the right lane that had really taken a beating with all the snow and big trucks.
Nevada is really a funny place... step across the state line and you find slots in virtually every gas station. Gas is a bit cheaper here considering I'd spent huge amounts in California and that was the biggest expenditure for my budget I was thrilled to no end to be getting a break on fuel. Around 7pm PST I lost cell contact in the midst of a brief conversation with Shannon to tell her I'd be out of cell range till I got to Wendover.... that was funny I thought but Shannon had thought I was screaming (I was laughing ) as the phone cut out which made her a bit concerned for my well being...
I was really getting tired by the time I got to Winnemucca
but there was no place to nap that felt secure and there seems to be a bunch of meth heads running around at midnight.. whoda thunk?
As I was rolling out of town I kept seeing the American flags on the light poles running through the middle of town. Since 9-11 there has been an abundance of "Lee Press-on Patriotism" in my mind and I find it kind of creepy. I wonder if these flags were up before the tragedy or if they were some one's idea of creating a nationalist unity. I'm not picking on Winnemucca, NV this phenomenon is going on everywhere but I was so interested in it here that I got out of the car and shot this particular flag for around ten minutes... it was a good way to wake up before I got back on the road.
I drove on felling the weight of my head heavy on my shoulders, my eyelids flickering and brain dimming. Not a good thing... ahead of there is a set of blinking lights and I'm trying to figure out what the hell it is. I should be closing on it MUCH faster than I am and I realize its moving. I'm driving down a mountain pass with the sunroof cracked open the heater on and a window open just to get a little cold air on my face and try to sharpen me up.
The flashing lights are getting closer slowly and as I approach a tight bend in the freeway I slip into the left lane and go around this slow moving truck... it takes me a second to realize its not a truck like a semi its A freakin' snow plow!
Just as I'm wondering what the hell a snow plow is doing out here in Nevada the road takes on this odd glow and sure enough I'm driving through snow..... Its cold I'm tired and the road is significantly more slippery all of a sudden and I'm on unfamiliar roads in the middle of the night and did I mention I was so tired that things were running through my brain at 18FPS (frames per second)and I felt like I was moving down the road in CHUNKS of time.... Just as I crest the pass I see a bunch of trucks pulled over to the side of the road their lumbering hulk snoozing away their engines running to keep their pilots warm... I pull over, put the seat back in the fully reclined position elevate my tray table toss my jacket over my head and fall asleep. I sleep till I get cold; fire up the car to warm it up again, get out, stretch, walk around, water the local flora on the side of the road, and climb back in the car to fall asleep again....

Arrival

Arrival


Well this is the starting point for my Journey across country. San Leandro, CA. This is where my mom lives. Visiting with my mom is entertaining. Since my Dad died she has adopted 3 cats. First there was Yuki then Marley and the most recent Raj all rescue cats from the Hayward animal shelter.
While I stay here mom always has something that needs to be done around the house yesterday it was hook up the DSL modem she had sitting in a sealed box in the garage. No problem hooking up a wireless DSL modem is a cakewalk so I set out to install it when I got up. After about 45min of tracking down phone outlets and hooking up DSL filters at each outlet I set up my computer on here service. I know the airport card in my machine works so I figured it would be a good test bed.
I messed around with it for another 20 minutes trying to get the modem to recognize my computer and finally, after starting to get really frustrated, I gave up. (for the time being)
I went over to OSI where my dad worked for almost 20 years and where my mom works now, to see a friend of my dad’s. Harry is a great guy and he and I sat and talked about the classes I’m teaching and about taking care of a family member (his mom, my dad) and I showed him photos of dad and gave him a photo he is in with my dad. He really thought that was great I thought its just a work print and it’s the least I could do for someone who came and hung out and talked with dad when he was dieing. Anyway it was great to see him and meet his current cubical mate Dave (?)
When Mom and I got back home I played with her modem some more. It seems the Ethernet works fine but I got now airport/wifi signal…. I looked it up on the 2wire.com site and the product doesn’t even exist…. Hmmmm curiouser and curiouser said Alice…. I came to the bold conclusion that perhaps it wasn’t a wireless modem.. I hollered to my mom and said my suspicions and she yelled back from the back odf the hous that “ I guess its possible… I’ve only had it for a while though” only “a while “ turned out to be March 9th 2005…..

More soon

-Jeremy