I am not really a handyman, but for the past several months I’ve had the urge to fix. I’ve attempted to fix things that I normally wouldn’t think twice about hiring someone else to repair. For example, I replaced a car battery, changed our front and back door locks, and fixed a leaky faucet. I know, I know, I’m not rebuilding a car engine, but for someone like myself who is not mechanically inclined, these are quite surprising feats.

As I’ve mentioned before on Janella.com, we bought a new washer and in dryer. They both initially worked great, but the dryer stopped doing a great job in drying several weeks ago. By going through the troubleshooting steps in the manual, we figured out the problem was with the dryer exhaust hose. The hose connects from the back of the dryer, runs underneath the house, and exits through the side of the house.

No Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock here. Lucky me, I get to go under the house! The last time I was under house was four years ago. It was an unpleasant experience. I think I may still have a few scrapes from that last adventure. As a kid, going under the house was fun. When we had plumbing problems that required someone to go under and check on “the pipes”, I readily volunteered. Of course I was much smaller and slimmer back then. But now as a larger and more phobia-straddled adult, going under the house is not much fun. It was also once fun to climb up to the roof of the house to watch the Fourth of July fireworks. Now the only reason I go up on the roof is to clean the gutters before the next rainfall.

For this trip down below, I was intent on being prepared or as best prepared as possible. I bought a pair of coveralls at Sears (on sale!). I also bought a pair of hardy knee pads at Lowe’s, in hopes of counteracting any beating my knees might encounter. In hindsight I should have also purchased gloves, as my hands can take quite a thrashing under the house as well.

To make a long story short, with my wife’s help, we were able to replace the dryer hose and fix the problem. The dryer once again works as advertised! I know it’s not rocket science, but it just goes to show that all it takes is a little research and hard work to fix certain problems around the house. I’m not sure where this “urge to fix” has come from - perhaps from all the DYI shows on television. But with the help of the Internet, with all of its self-help websites and videos, you can do almost do anything. I don’t think I’d tackle rewiring the house, but as for the smaller jobs, leave them to me.

I’m watching videos and reading information on HE (High Efficiency) detergents. We just purchased a new HE washer - waiting for it to be delivered soon. You can watch two more videos on HE information here and here. We were hoping to get a front-loading washer, but space limitations forced us to get a top-loading HE washer. I think it’ll work out great.

The last time I saw my uncle was thirty-three years ago when I went to the Philippines. It was the first and only time I had been to the homeland of my parents. I was young and bratty, traveling without my sisters for the first and only time. I’m not sure why my parents took me, but I went willingly.

At that age, I had two concerns going to the Philippines, (1) the lack of a tv, and (2) the lack of food I was accustomed to eating. I was a child comfortably familiar with fast food, enjoying McDonald’s and KFC more than any Filipino dishes.

To be even more honest, I was afraid that any meat I would eat on this trip would be a dog. I bought into this notion for some reason. Perhaps it was my sisters who sold me on the possibility, I’m not exactly sure, but it was ever present in my thoughts around meal time. I was still young enough to scream and cry if I didn’t get my way. But while in the Philippines I would often not get my way because I just couldn’t. For those occasions, I just did not eat.

But one day my Uncle David gave in. He had two dogs when I first met them. From what I recall the dogs were friendly and full grown. He traded his dogs to another person for chickens, chickens for me to eat. I thanked him, at my mom’s prompting, not fully grateful for his kind gesture. Only days later did it really sink in what he did for me.

I gravitated to my uncle as the days passed. He was the only other person I could talk to since he spoke English, the others talking very little. He would translate for me and talk to me about anything and everything. We spent as much time as we could knowing the days would pass by quickly.

My uncle was always there for me during our time in the Philippines. One day I was a complete idiot and hurt myself while hanging out with the cool adults. I managed to get my foot caught in the back spokes of a motorcycle as it was being pushed forward. He picked me in his arms and rushed me to the local hospital.

He did so much more for me now that I think about it, and I wish I could recall more, but the memories are fading.

I do remember the last day I saw him, the day we left. I hugged him and cried, not wanting to leave him behind. I told him I would write him every day when I got back home. He said, “Of course, you will, but you will forget in time to write.” He was right.

I wrote for the first several months when we got back. The months then turned to a letter once a year. Then it turned to no letters at all. When he would call my mom, and I would answer the phone, there was no longer a sense of connection when we talked. We had grown apart, time and distance creating a wedge I believe he know would exist.

Now he is gone, at rest. But he lived a full life, and I had a brief moment to remember him. I might have never met him if I didn’t go on that trip thirty-three years ago.

Happy (belated) New Year to everyone!

I suppose my year in review is a bit late, but hey, I was enjoying my Winter Break!  I didn’t feel the need to blog. It was nice having almost two weeks off to recharge the batteries. Farrah and I didn’t go anywhere particular or do anything specific. We just simply enjoyed the time off.

Anyway, let me see if I can summarize my last year in one blog post.

• Since the end of 2007, I’ve been lost in the idea of whether I should continue blogging or not. I’ve archived and deleted my Wordpress install on Janella.com at least a handful of times this past year. At times I feel the urge to create a long post, something seemingly unsuitable for Facebook or tumblr. This makes me think maintaining a blog is a must. But as I think about it more, it could really work well on tumblr. I just have a difficult time giving up control of the content. You know, what if the Tumblr goes under? Would I lose my data? I mean, Pownce went away. I’ll probably wrestle with this idea again this year.
• The big news for me this year was turning 40. I was in New York City when I turned 40. The trip was a present from Farrah. I must say New York was amazing. It wasn’t until later in the year that I felt a bit like a 40 year old.
• We went to Hawaii for Tiana's birthday in September. It was the first time we had been back since the wedding.  Farrah went again in October for Grandma's 90th birthday.
• We started exercising more. (This is when I started to feel my age!) We kick-started with personal training and are now doing it ourselves! I feel so much better.
• I changed jobs and companies in May of last year. The type of work is different from what I was familiar with, but it uses skills I have in my “toolbox”. The work environment is familiar but different: I work from home! We converted one of the bedrooms into my office. What was it before? The computer room. What makes it an office? Oh, the speakerphone does.
• I met up with good ol’ friends in Las Vegas. It was nice catching up. And man, Vegas has changed since I’ve been there last.
• We watched several good concerts: The Bridge School Benefit, Rachel Yamagata, and Morcheeba. Farrah and Lotte saw New Kids on the Block on their reunion tour. Man, I wish I could have gone (he says sarcastically).
• It was nice to get into politics last year. The political passion for the masses should exist in each election cycle. Hopefully, the future will be as bright as we envision.

I look back at the resolutions I made for last year. I managed to attempt all of them, but was only successful in maintaining one: the exercising.

What’s the resolutions for this year?

• OK, I need to try using the CPAP machine again.
• Lose weight - always a good thing.
• Cook more / eat out less when possible.
• Get rid of things, such as clothes, books, papers, old computer cables, etc.  Too much stuff just floating around.
• Write on blog entry a week. I twitter and tumblr more often then blog, but blogging has been lacking as of late. I think I need a particular weekday to post to get me going.
• Take more photos! Perhaps go out one day every two weeks for a photo assignment.
• Keep in touch with friends more - or at least talk to them via Facebook. This seems to be the medium of choice lately.
• Watch more movies! I’ve have not been watching movies much. I managed to watch several this Winter Break. I think I’d enjoy watching more good films, not necessarily in theaters though.

Well, that’s all the resolutions I can think of for now. Let’s see how I score next year.

Happy 60th Birthday and Happy Retirement

Yen and James welcome Timothy into this world. Congratulations!

Update: I just posted the photos we took.

At about 5:30 PM yesterday Farrah heard a large crashing sound in our backyard. It seems the old lemon tree we have there decided to partially crash.

The other half of the tree is up and seems to be holding well.  We trimmed a few branches from its side just in case.

Anyone need any lemons?

As this entry posts, I will be in New York City with Farrah. First off, I want to thank everyone who celebrated my birthday the other night. I was really happy to see everyone.

Now, please tolerate my incoherent ramblings, as I try to purge my mind of the few thoughts I have regarding this milestone birthday, the fortieth year of my life. My thoughts sway to and fro of what has been and what is to come. I have been thinking more about the future, about what I want. I think that is a good thing. As I think I’ve stated before, I am not one to dwell on the past.

These past weeks, at times I have felt like David Bowman, the protagonist in 2001: A Space Odyssey, at the end of that film. If I recall the scene correctly, Bowman stands in a bright white room, wearing his orange spacesuit. He looks into the room and sees an old man. The old man, eating his supper, looks back at Bowman but he is no longer there. You then realize that the old man is Bowman himself. The scene repeats itself with an older version of Bowman looking at a younger version until he dies. But he is reborn as the Star Child, and… I don’t get that far in the way I feel though.

So I catch myself looking forward to looking back. I suppose we all do that at times, but I guess with the birthday it is amplified. You know, I think about those dreams: the education, the car, the house, the 2.5 kids, and the rest of the things everyone wants. It’s a matter of striving to get there, right?

I don’t think I’m required to have some huge revelation at this age. Perhaps I will, but it hasn’t happened as yet.

The 40-40 club.

In baseball, it is an exclusive club. You need to have stolen 40 bases and hit 40 home runs in a single season. Currently, only four players have done it. First was Jose Canseco. (Yes, I don’t believe it either.) Next was Barry Bonds. I’m pretty sure this was the pre-roid-juiced-up-mofo Bonds. But if Canseco was taking the juice back then, I guess you can never be certain.

But the 40-40 club holds a different meaning for me. It means I will be 40 years old in about 40 days. (BTW - I make this baseball reference mainly for Scott, a baseball fanatic who made me aware of the 40-40 club, and who will be joining me in this club shortly. Also to follow is BossaNova later this year.)

Ah, 40-40.

I am not feeling anxious as the fateful day approaches. At this point, it feels like any other impending birthday. But in my mind, I run through my life assessment checklist.  It’s a short checklist, starting with the big question, “What have you done?” and ending with “What would you like to do?”

Suffice it to say that I am very happy with my life.   I tend not to regret the decisions I have made. After all, the sum of the choices I have made represents the person I am today. I am pretty happy with myself - minus a few extra pounds.

I try not to look too far back, not wishing to question the choices I’ve made. I also try not to look too far into the future, not wanting to miss what is right in front of me.  So I try to stay grounded in the present, living in the moment.

There is still a lot of time for things to happen. 40 isn’t that old. Heck, 50, 60, and 70 aren’t old either. I have a co-worker who has parents in their 90s and they are still running around enjoying life. But when I look back at times, and it isn’t often, these 40 years can seem to have flown right by. It’s time to start checking off some of these items from the checklist.

I have done so many things, but there is so much more to do.

This is the second post about last weekend. As I mentioned previously, a great deal happened.

Last Saturday was Kristel’s college graduation celebration at Dynasty Restaurant in Cupertino Square. The event was celebrated with a dinner, sharing plenty of food with family and friends. I believe we had a total of twelve large courses, each one topping the other. Farrah and I have always enjoyed Dynasty Restaurant and this time was no exception.

At the party, Farrah had an opportunity to catch up with a former co-worker, Teddy, who recently came back to the states. Later in the evening, Kristel gave a heartwarming speech thanking everyone for sharing this moment with her, as well as sharing her feelings regarding the support her family has given her thus far. Nice speech Kristel.

Unfortunately, I didn’t bring my camera to capture any of these moments. After the fact, I wish I had done so. There were so many moments I could have captured. But for some odd reason, in the last several months, I have been very hesitant in taking photos. I think I am in a bit of a funk in this regard. I think I just need to pick up the gear and take photos.

Kayla went into the hospital this morning for surgery. The reason: to remove a cyst that had grown on the left side of her neck. The surgery lasted about 3 1/2 hours. Kayla is doing fine and resting in her nice hospital room with her mom this evening.

This morning we had breakfast with Yen and James at Hobee’s. They shared with us great news- they are engaged!!!

Congratulations to you both!