Collecting radios...

Since I have been writing about my various hobbies, I might as well continue on for at least another post. :)

I have been interested in radios since childhood. I made my very first radio (with the help of my father) at the age of eight or nine from directions out of a Cub Scout manual. I've been hooked on radios and building electronics projects ever since. There's something magical to me about capturing radio signals out of thin air. I have spent many nights in the last forty years listening to many different types of radios, trying to receive stations from all over the world. My kids don't understand, because they have the Internet. That's kind of sad to me, as I always found it to be an exciting challenge to pick up that far away station, especially with an old vacuum tube radio. Ahhh.... there's nothing like sitting in a darkened room listening to an glowing radio... Must be the romantic in me. :)

I have been collecting radios for years, but I was forced to quit for a while as I was accussed of cluttering the house up. I used to collect the old vacuum tube radios, but they are getting too expensive, rare and too large to store. I'm now on the look-out for small transistor radios. There's still lots of them around and they are relatively inexpensive. I must say that I do enjoy searching second hand stores and thrift shops for interesting deals. That's something I'm going to combine with travel in my oncoming "new" life.

I have photographed a few of my radios which can be seen here. I have a bunch of nice old wooden cabinet radios, but they are all stored (or hidden) away for the moment...

Merry Christmas to all!


I wish everyone a Merry Christmas!

I will celebrate Christmas with my kids tonight, on Christmas Eve. My European parents instilled that one in us kids. :)

Have a loving and caring Christmas!

And finally, the other shoe drops...

Well it's finally happened. The first solid step towards my "freedom" has occurred. My wife has finally retained a lawyer. She curtly announced to me last night that I should get my lawyer to contact hers. With pleasure! I know there are going to be some tough decisions ahead, but I have to admit that I'm excited over things starting to move ahead. One of many burdens has been lifted off of my shoulders.

I went to a "singing bowl" concert last night which was fantastic. I have never heard them before and it was a real treat to listen to the wonderful harmonics and overtones. Very relaxing...

I will be spending Christmas Day and Boxing Day by myself. My wife will be taking the kids with her to her various family members. It will just be the dog and I, which might just be a nice thing...

"And in the third row a ligure, an agate, and an amethyst." - Exodus 39:12

Another hobby of mine is rock hounding, particularly for agates. In the past, my parents would take us kids rock hounding on the banks Fraser River. Every Sunday would be spent driving up and down the Fraser Valley in our Volkswagen Bus, looking for choice rock hounding places. We never really new much about rocks, but we became acquainted with the pretty agates, which glowed in the sun with their unique radiance. The winter is the best time to go rock hounding at the Fraser River, as the water level is usually much lower than in the summer and choice rock hounding areas are exposed. Agate is a relatively light weight rock, so the banks of the river are replenished every year by rock being deposited by the current and the scouring action of the river when it runs high. It can be a lot of fun to hunt for these colorful rocks when the sun's angle is just right and a recent rain has washed the area clean. The Agates in the picture above are rocks I have found at the Fraser River and on the beaches of Boundary Bay. Click here for a larger picture of my Agates.

Agates will always hold a special place in my heart. I love the way they glow in the sun, I love the way they feel (Agate is a softer rock, therefore it feels different than other rocks) and I enjoy the challenge of finding them. It always amazes me how the Earth has produced such interesting wonders as the diverse amount of rocks and gems. I always wonder from which volcano and when in history an Agate that I find was made.

There is also gold dust on the banks of the river, but usually it can only be found in very small quantities by gold panning. I have several gold pans which I received as a child which have been put to good use on the Fraser River. Unfortunately, I've only ever recovered a small amount of gold dust.

There are also Agates to be found in other parts of British Columbia, particularly a type of Agate called a "Thunder Egg". I have never found a Thunder Egg, but I look forward to taking the dog and kids into the interior of the province to do a little Thunder Egg rock hounding. This is where my dream of having a Volkswagen Westfalia Camper comes in, something like that would be perfect for exploring the back roads and wilderness of British Columbia.

I'm hoping that I'll be able to return to my hobby of rocking hounding in the near future, plus I would like to enlarge my scope to hunt for other rocks and fossils, and possibly dabble in some lapidary.

Life is going to be so much fun once I gain a little bit of freedom. This is so exciting!

Collateral damage...

I'm trying to figure out all of the things which will be affected when I finally move out. One thing which I'm concerned about is one of my hobbies - Blue Orchard Mason Bees. These bees are unlike honey bees in the fact that they are not social bees. They do not live together in a hive, Mason bees are solitary bees. They are very hardy bees and superb pollinators, but they do not make honey. The Mason bee has a peculiar life cycle, they emerge once the daytime temperatures reach about 15 degrees C., and their lifespan is about four to six weeks. Eggs are laid during this time in old trees or logs which have holes from Woodpeckers or other things. The eggs are sealed off with a layer of mud and "bee spit", which is quite weatherproof. These bees are quite docile, the male bees cannot sting, and the females rarely do. They are extremely efficient pollinators, much better than the common honey bee. My father and I got interested in these bees about ten years ago after we saw an interesting article on them in a local gardening magazine. My father built some nesting blocks and was able to successfully "capture" some bees (none were actually captured, bees laid eggs in the nesting block). I was able to take some bees home and start them going in my back yard. That grew into me having a dozen large nesting blocks set up, with enough capacity for four to five thousand bees. They do multiply well, if encouraged! I gave away about eighteen hundred bees last year, but I still have a bunch left. I'll have to do something with them before Spring. The kids and I have had a lot of fun with them. I'll miss them...

Resources:
Knox Cellars
Beediverse

Turning Challenges into Achievement...

This week has begun as very busy, but satisfying with much to do at work. That's a good thing, as I fought my loneliness and inner demons all weekend long. I started work at 5:30 AM in order to do a bunch of work in the "quieter" time. I'm the prime in a project which is migrating long distance telephone traffic onto a national voice over IP network, and it's been a lot of work to stay on top of the others involved. I'm being paid an awful lot to babysit, but hey, it's a job. :)

My wife's actions are growing increasingly irritating, but I guess that comes with the territory. I received an e-mail from her in my company e-mail this morning which states:

"Since I have not heard anything more about your plans for Christmas, my family and I will go ahead with the following arrangements:

I will be taking the boys for Christmas - Dec. 25 and Boxing Day - Dec 26th

I will be working the following days:

December 27, 28, 29, 30, 31 & Jan 1, 5, 6 & 7

Blah, Blah, Blah..."

Whatever... things are very close to the end now. Bizarre, we're still living together, yet she has to communicate in this fashion. I guess so everything is in writing for the lawyers... In a way I'm glad she wrote that e-mail, as I'm the type of guy who needs a kick in the rear every so often in order remain on track. This sort of stuff absolutely convinces me that I need to get out and escape from all of the nonsense.


I purchased another book on the weekend, "The Law of Attraction" by Abraham-Hicks. This is a different book than the one that I have been reading by Michael Losier. It is an excellent read with lots of interesting ideas. I'm quite excited by the book and the process it lays out. It's just more cool stuff to help me along this crooked path.






I forgot to mention in last week's "creativity" post about a wonderful documentary I watched with my youngest son. It is called "Dogtown and Z-Boys" and it's a wonderful look at skateboarding history in California. I am in no way a skateboarding enthusiast, but I thoroughly enjoyed this story and it's characters, particularly since this all happened at the same time when I was a teenager (back in the stone ages).


This week might prove to be interesting if my wife actually does see her lawyer. I used to be frightened by the idea... now I'm just plain excited.

"I'm lonely, yeah baby I'm lonely..." - BTO, Life goes on

Paragraphs removed due to security concerns.

Our ego is our enemy. It makes us do stupid things, it creates tremendous pain and it turns us into liars and cheats. Wouldn't it be nice to discard the ego? I know that I could have had a different life without that damn ego in the way. So... there's another challenge. Tone down the ego and try looking out of these eyes with a more simpler, humble perspective. Will it buy me anything? Who knows...anything to get away from this stupid pain...

"Message in a Bottle..."

I subscribe to daily "Notes from the Universe" at tut.com for a bit of a moral boost and it amazes me with what I get from them at times. Today's note reads:

They went looking for you awhile back, Greg. They heard rumors you were headed out on your own. That you had returned to the jungles of time and space. That you wanted to prove once and for all that dreams do come true, thoughts become things, and that all is exactly as it should be. That the size of a dream has no bearing on its ability to come true. That abundance, health and harmony are one's default settings, and their attainment comes effortlessly when you invite them into your life with demonstrated expectation.

They wanted to tell you they already knew this.

Oh heck,
The Universe

Wow! Pretty accurate for a random note. Maybe there's hope after all!

"I guess you know that I, uh, I love you so
Even though you don't want me no more
Hey hey hey hey, I'm cryin' tears..." - Al Green, Tired of Being Alone

Paragraphs removed due to security concerns.

I had another visit to the retinal surgeon yesterday. My eye is stable, so we're going to wait with the injections or surgery. That's good news, I suppose...

Christmas is starting to look decidedly unpleasant. I can't wait to get that over with so I can push ahead as hard and fast as possible. I can't bear living like this anymore.

This self pity and sorrow sucks...

I wanna be an artist when I grow up....

I've been having these terrible urges to bust out and do all sorts of creative things, but I don't really know how to. Some days I feel like taking open cans of paint and throwing them against a wall to see what I can do (hmmm... sounds more destructive than creative :) ). This all makes me wonder how people can live in a repressive society where creative thought is a no-no. That must be like torture to some.

I need to find a medium through which I can develop some artistic skills. Presently, I can't draw or paint worth a darn, but maybe I can look elsewhere for a creative outlet.

Artsy stuff I find interesting:

Ayad Al Qaragholli - I love this man's paintings. He is an Iraqi artist out of Baghdad. See his paintings here: http://alqaragholli.com/gallery_paintings.htm .

Music - There is so much cool music hidden in blogs right now. The trick is to find it all... Some cool stuff I've stumbled upon:
Cassettes Won't Listen - neat stuff, particularly "The Sidewalk Cruise".
Bluebell - Oh man... she's got one of those voices that I fall in love with right away... The song "The Fight in the Cafe" is beautiful.
Buck 65 - One of my real favorites. I love the words and mood in "Drunk without Drinking".
The Madrigirls - Something a little different. Three women singing in a medieval and renaissance style. Beautiful voices.
The Ditty Bops - Great voices and cute too.

Making music - Reed Ghazala's Anti-Theory Workshop . Now this is cool stuff, making music with modified (mutilated?) children's toys such as the "Speak and Spell". The anarchist in me loves the idea!

I'd really like to learn to make short movies or animations. What I'd like to start with is podcasting, and then move on to video casting. Something to strive for in the future...