I took the week of my birthday off from work. work has been interesting, since hiring on in janaury, weve had  2 experienced liquids people go over to to other pars of the plant, and two newbies  hang around a couple of weeks befor going over to other parts of the plant. one  full timer took a week off about 2 weeks before I did. our lead is taking off next week or the week after, and   the other remaining person is taking off for maturity leave in the next few weeks. this is all out of  5-6 positions between the two nightshifts.  neither of the others on my shift can pull overtime right now so it falls to me.  looks like 430 shift will be down 1, and   6 30 shift may be almost nonexistant here in the next few weeks. wonder if I'll have to pull 14hr shift. I hope not.


We went camping in the Mt.baker snoqulami National forest.  Up at boulder creek near baker lake.  Friday Saturday and most of Sunday were beautiful.  I needed to be out in the thicker forests again  its been  more than 4 years. too long. Some part of me craves the  sort of silence that those forests have.   the small buzzing of  bugs, the calls  of birds the  slight breexes through the  creek and river rapids. most of the parks   and wooded tracts this end of town are not large enough to   block out the city.Cornwall park comes  close though  by repaved most of the trails  the city has reduced that feel. to really get it you'd need to hit sections of Whactom falls, lake Padden, or Even Larabee state park.  I really should hike and bike Galbrith this  year again. and Saulk Mountain

on drawing and writing  Ive been  stressed to the point where  I lack motivation to create. It feels depressing and generally terrible. getting back out intothe woods helped. no constant   tromping clomping on the other sides of the walls.  no thick foul air. rumbling motors. No pressures obligations. all the things i find choking about city life. dont get me wrong there are plenty of parks and wooded  trails or greenways around streams,  just not enough comparison to the strip malls,  housing development and the like this end of town.  not like the south-end of the city  where i can  go the almost 3 miles to the bay these day  only riding or waking of the street a few blocks of the war . the rest being woods /wooded buffers and  field/ meadow and gravel tracks depending on the rout I were to take.

anyhow  i feel finally the  scratching of  muse faintly at the back of my mind ones more.  Definitely hitting the trails this year. I have friends and co workers  interested in it as well. so It will be something other than tabletop rpgs  and games to fill my downtime.