Stories from the Mission... bit 20

8/21/11
  Normally I'd say I'm done reading a book when I get to the end, but with The Shack, I'll never be done with it, I'll be re reading it for years to come. Sarayu, thank you, I now know where my art comes from. I highly recommend the book, go get it!
   The old rail bridge south of here with the shed in the middle raised up today. I didn't get to see it happen, but some day I will. (Note to readers, I not only eventually saw it go up, but watched it from less than 100 feet away. Ping Tom park is very close to it and a really nice place to relax.)
   And now another random story from my past. Jr. year of high school, the middle of a very cold winter, gym class. A posting shows up on a wall about something called 'Polar ball', but nobody pays much attention to it. One day a buddy and I decide to go outside and see what it is all about. All we find is a big empty filed, a soccer ball, two nets and no teacher. This says one thing to us... no rules! Snowy and cold, we had a blast! The only informal rule we had was to get the ball in the other goal, any way you can. Kick it, throw it or carry it, it was a free for all. Within three days the word got out to the other kids and there where 25 of us running full speed into each other, our heavy winter jackets acting as football pads. By the fifth day it was over. Seems too many guys where showing up in the nurses office... heck, I had two concussions, lol.
   Some day I want to take two radio controlled boats that have the same radio frequency, and hook them together like a catamaran. They'd need to be at least two foot long and solidly built. In the space between them I'd hook up a motorized fishing reel and use the rig to go fishing. Can you imagine the fun when you hook a big fish?
      DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME! In my teens I got a hair brained idea to tie a dart onto a fishing pole to try and go hunting for birds. DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME! It was a good casting reel and I could zip that dart at least 200 feet, with no accuracy. DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME! When you're fishing, getting it within a few feet is fine for casting, but hitting a tiny, moving bird is impossible. DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME! The main draw back, and it's a major scary one, is that the steel tip of the dart had a habit of getting stuck into a tree well above what I could reach to pull it out. DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME! So the first time it got stuck, I just yanked the pole back a few times. I had to pull it really hard. This time, it's accuracy was really good, but the target had become me now. It returned faster than it went out, and while it should have been obvious, this was shocking! It missed my head by a foot the first time. Yeah, dummy me just had to try it again, lol. DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!
8/22/11
   I was asked  to help out in the  mail room today, and it was the quietest day I've had since I arrived here. It seems there is always someone yelling in the halls here somewhere. They need help once a month with the news letters we send out. One of the main way we get supported is through the Radio show, Unshackled, and the newsletters we send out are another.
   I'm getting excited about my first 6 hour pass coming up this Friday! I'm going to get a Gyro and then head down to the Art institute. There is something so cool about seeing actual Impressionist artworks in person, I know I'd seen them years ago as a kid, but this is different. Now I am an artist.
   Dave up and left the other day, it's too bad, but it happens here a lot. You get to know a guy, see him all the time and then POOF, he's gone.