The family has spent the last week at Black Butte Ranch hanging out in the semi-desert of Central Oregon amid golf courses, miles of trails and houses that are worth more than most houses back in Portland.

I haven't been here all week because of work. But I made it for the last few days --saddly, we go home tomorrow. I've been cramming in as much hiking and bike riding as I can. My rear hurts in ways it hasn't hurt in a long time (that's another topic -- why the heck haven't bicycle seats been figured out?). Now, I'm sitting on the back deck, looking out over green grass and off to snow covered mountains and enjoying the good life for one more evening.

After finishing all the work on the rental, I today had some time for chores around here. So, a quick trip to the transfer station to drop off some garbage and old pesticides. A stop at my mother's followed by a stop at the comic book store (what I read is a subject for another entry)

The afternoon was filled by putting fertilizer on the lawn. Well, more than just fertilizer -- it need lots of help so it got clay breaker-upper, root growth enhancer, bug killer as well as the nitrogen. Then some putting around the house before cooking steaks for the family and dog.

Now I'm here filling in my blog. Live goes on.

I haven't put pictures up in a while, so here are my pictures from the Forth of July and pictures out the plane window from a trip to California.

We're going to Black Butte next week, so I'll have lots more pictures.

I haven't been on much as you might tell -- I've been under the gun at work (BIG project with lots of visibility) and our renters moved out.

The latter is what's been keeping me off the computer the most. The last few weeks we completely repainted the house (ceilings and walls), re-installed linolium, replaced all the light and plumbing fixtures and cleaned, cleaned, cleaned. What a lot of work.

I will now have my evenings back and can spend some time on the computer. And with my blog.

So why is it that in some towns people say "hi" to strangers while in other towns they don't?

I was out jogging the other day and noticed that everyone I went by looked at me and said "hi" or "good morning". Couples walking together, single men, single women, people on bikes all greeted me as I ran.

I've been in other towns where no one -- and I mean no one -- looked at me let alone said anything. I've been in resorts or nice neighborhoods where people look straight ahead and do their best to not acknowledge my existance.

It seems to be characteristic of the place. Why is that?