When I was 32, it was a very good year....

I turn 33 today. That means my 33rd year on this earth is over. Things that happened this year:

-I began my exploratative process into becoming a teacher.

-I began writing a novel.

-I found a new Sunday School class, and made some new friends.

-I continued my decline of how many movies I'm able to see in a given year.

-I got a camera.

-I decided a want to get a CB radio.

-I went to Las Vegas by myself.

-I went to Minnesota.

-I began immunotherapy.

-I started working with children at church through the LifeCare ministries.

-I coached children's soccer.

.....finally, and most importantly by far.......

-I met the love of my life and asked her to marry me.

32 was a good year.

Another case of the Reflections

I've got another case of reflectiveness again. It's my blog, I don't think anyone reads it, so I guess I can indulge. I'm here at work and I should be busy. But I'm taking just a few minutes to write because if I don't the moment will escape me. This happens to me about once every month or so. Just depends on the time of year, I guess. This is one of them.

It's easy to reflect on the past when the present and future are pretty good. It started over the weekend sitting out at the pool. Sitting by the swimming pool is for me a stark reminder that it's summer. Not a profound thing, but it is what it is (2007 called, Jay. It wants its cliche back).

I tend to be consumed by time. Not in a sense where I watch the clock, but moreso that years are like names and dots on a road map. I like to classify years. Each year is unique, and points to the lamentation that there is a time for everything. 1996 and 1993 were both good years, but they were unique. 1996 was more profound; more meaningful. So was 1997. 1998, 1995, and 2001 were hard dark years. But 1998 is an abyss, while 2001 is brick to the spine. 2002 was its own abyss, but was a lesson learned.

2007 was the most unique year of all, possibly. It started painful, but with that pain I began a hard journey. I won't say I found myself; when does one? But in 2007, I began to "befriend" myself. I realized how weak I was, but how much stronger I could be. This time last year, I was ill a bunch due to an allergy burst and I was still kind of reeling from a breakup (one I shouldn't have taken as hard as I did). I was also getting ready to move. The last week of June of 2007 I was preparing to move away into a place that wasn't any better than where I had left, but was a change of scenery. I was so happy to be moving. I was also looking forward to a trip alone to Las Vegas. The trip ended up being an event unto itself, with its own exposures and reflections.

I guess what makes me think of all of this is I recently put in a library request for Howard Shore's Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring score. This time last year, I was listening to it in my car for a couple of weeks straight. I lost it on my iPod, so I'm going to attempt to re-download it. I just think back to last year how happy I was just for something different. I was so excited for a change in my life. It's just another thing I give thanks for in the middle of a difficult time.

I've written before about my favorite scene in any movie ever. It's the scene in Cast Away when Tom Hanks's character has finally broken the reef to escape the island that has both held him captive and kept him alive. When it finally dawns on him that he is done with that time in his life, he pauses to just look at the island. He doesn't say anything. There is only a beautiful piece of score in an otherwise mostly musicless film. He turns Wilson around, and they just quietly watch the island get smaller and smaller in the distance. I suppose there are a few ways to interpret that scene. But my interpretation has been that Chuck Noland is saluting that island. After all the frustration and contempt for the island, he realizes what it did for him.

We salute our tough times after the escape. We hated it while we were there, but it not only kept us alive. It gave us a story, and made us stronger and a better person.

I confess!

I like John Mayer.

Coffee

I've been sick for almost a week. Over the weekend I had a bad reaction to the combination of Prednisone, Ciprofloxicin (sp?), TheraFlu, NyQuil, and Walgreen's expectorant. I took all of that to help me sleep because I don't sleep well when I am sick. Bad move. So now I'm just down to the Prednisone and Cipro.

Also what I've done is to get off coffee to keep me hydrated. I'm now on my 6th day without coffee, and it's been a while since I've felt so rested.

More radio tower business

On my trip to Minnesota last weekend, I came across a few more radio towers that I hope to at some point get pictures of:

-east of I-35, around the Braman exit

-a couple of miles east of I-35, near the Wellington, KS exit

-west of El Dorado, KS, about 2 miles or so north of I-35

-Highway 4 in Kansas, near Meriden, KS

Megan

In case you haven't seen her, this is my Megan. Isn't she beautiful?

(I know I am sappy).

Indulging my obsession

I have an obsession with radio towers. These photos are rather amateurish, but I'm not really concerned my photos being fine art. All but one of these towers are photos of a tower that were several miles north of my old campgrounds in Anadarko. While walking up (or down) the hill to the boys' dorms, I could always spot it off in the distance. I enjoyed camp to some degree, but I was also usually pretty homesick. I've always wondered where this particular tower was. During the day it was just a faint line in the distance. At night, it was a flashing light in the distance.

I've decided to collect pictures of them, as some of them I believe are being razed. I know of 2 in particular that have been razed in the last decade or so. The earliest one I can remember is one that was just north of Wilshire north of Yukon. It is no longer standing. There was also one on the west side of Highway 81 in Grady County in between Minco and Pocassett that is no longer standing. I'm very sorry I missed them, but it's motivated me to take pics of them. Another problem is that while the towers remain, some of the booster drums are being taken off the towers. The booster drums added a great deal to the towers because it gave them an odd shape.

I know of one in eastern Colorado along Highway 287 that looked like a giant wearing Mickey Mouse ears.

On Monday (Memorial Day) I took a drive out to Caddo County to find this tower. On the way down, I saw off in the distance another tower. Unfortunately, the drums had been taken off this tower. I saw another tower in New Mexico on my way out to Las Vegas a couple of summers ago that had its drums taken off. On my way back from Anadarko/Gracemont, I drove east of Hinton along Highway 37 to find this tower. That first picture you see is that particular tower east of Hinton near Methodist Road in western Canadian County. I wasn't able to get close to this tower, thus the reason for the tower being so far in the distance. This was on my way back, but I had to turn around and head back to Hinton as it seemed like I was getting further and further away from where I needed to be. I thought 37 would take me at least to Union City, but the road kept winding southeast instead of due east.

I had some amount of trouble finding my Anadarko/Gracemont Tower (I know its FCC registration number, but I'm just going to leave it out of my blog and just refer to it by the towns it is near). As I drove in on Hwy 281, I saw it off in the distance and pulled over to the side of the road to see if I could get a good "deep distance" shot. The far left photo on the second row is that shot. I continued south, looking for a secondary road to pull off and head west. I had trouble finding a good secondary road that would intersect where the tower was because trees and brushes would block my vision to the tower. I finally found it on a road that was "Closed in 3 miles." I pulled off and took pictures of this tower.

I hope to take more pics of radio towers in the future. I am hoping to take a picture of the Holy Grail of radio towers, the elusive station that lies northeast of Pueblo, Colorado some distance east of Interstate 25. I call this tower the "Begging Dog" tower, and I hope that one day I figure out if the Begging Dog tower is the same tower as the "Boxing Elvis" tower I saw near Pueblo with my family several years ago.