As I was saying.

I went away for a while. I first went to bellingham, then to Ketchikan, Alaska, then back to Bellingham, and then wrapped up the whole trip up in Seattle. I rode skateboards, and bikes, and walked a whole ton, and drank probably two tons, and ate, and slept as best as I could, and at one point stressed so hard I peed blood, which was pretty rad, and now that I’m home, I find that it’s time to get back to work.

So as to not drag the post out for days, I’ll start by simply saying besides going to Bellingham to see my folks, it was there I planned to embark aboard a ferry with my dad for Alaska. We got to see a whole lot of beautiful country, only a tiny smidgen of which I could capture;


While traversing though, and en route to said beautiful country, I also noted that if one were to fall overboard, or find themselves in the frigid water for any reason, the best course of action would be to don one of the supplied Poler Hangover Sacks™©®;


At last that’s what I thought they looked like.

I’m no seaman, so what the hell do I know?

And anyway, so the travels continued;












After five days away, (as I mentioned in this post), I returned to find out I’d lost an important person in my life. At that point, I snapped out a bit and headed to the hills with friends on two consecutive rides aboard borrowed steeds, proving once again that there’s nearly no mental anguish that can’t at least be temporarily quelled with some time aboard two wheels;








And on those days I felt for the first time in days, I could finally breathe again.

Eventually my life partner arrived to town, and after spending some quality time together with her and my folks, we boarded a bus en route to Seattle where we would bear witness to the wedding of one Hodala Sally and his soon-to-be-bride Brandi.

Initially my plan was to spend the first eventing in town seeing The Toadies. Never one to work very quickly, I learned the show had been long sold out. Thankfully I know people who know people and no sooner did I say ‘guest list’ were Demonika, Corndog and I on the guest list.

I hadn’t seen them play in two years (and then it was an acoustic set). Before that it has been however many years it’s been since 1994.

They didn’t disappoint;

After drinking all the drinks Seattle had to offer, I spent the following day recovering, at which time we got spiffed, and headed to the main event, (along with a side trip to Dank HQ), all of which in some form or fashion looked like this;

As I related to Sally in a text afterwords, with all of the heaviness at home, I had a lot on my mind, but there was absolutely nowhere I would rather have been.

The love between not only those two crazy kids, but that which exists within my family of blood, as well as my family who were present on the evening in question is truly a pure, and beautiful thing. When looking outside to the world, and the chaos that it serves up in new and horrifying ways every day, that love is a thing that has given me shelter even in the most turbulent of times.

With my finally breath, to you/anyone who’ll listen, or even the wall, I declare that to be an unbendable, and absolute truth.