wash the dishes (what's new?)
do laundry
buy more dog food
make vegan fudge
lock all my windows
pack
sleep
find someone to deposit my paycheck while I am away
clean out my car
put the bike rack on my car
get gas
buy beer
...I know I am forgetting something.
26.6.08
Kyri's Tips for Moving #1-3
1. As soon as you know you're going to move, put a notebook by where you process your mail and start logging who sends you mail. This is best done a month in advance. Visiting usps.com can allow you to do an online address change for a $1 charge on your credit card, and your mail will be forwarded for one years. Remember, however, that this does not apply to magazines or catalogues you are signed up for, nor will anything marked "Do Not Forward" or "Address Correction Requested." These will need to be manually updated, though it is best to notify everyone who sends you mail regularly that you are changing to a new address.
2. When it comes time to start packing, go to your local WalMart and get an inexpensive tackle box. Equip this box with a Sharpie, packing tape, a knife, and a pack of small Post-Its. When you get to the point where you are disassembling furniture and taking nails out of the walls, place all pertaining screws, washers, bolts, etc. in a single compartment and put a Post-It in that compartment indicating what item they came from. Some other things to consider keeping in this tackle box: A tape measurer, a pen and paper, and any allen wrenches you may need, as they are small and are easy to misplace.
3. If you are moving somewhat of a distance and have a pet who gets anxious in its carrier or on car rides, speak to your vet about getting a sedative for the day in question.
2. When it comes time to start packing, go to your local WalMart and get an inexpensive tackle box. Equip this box with a Sharpie, packing tape, a knife, and a pack of small Post-Its. When you get to the point where you are disassembling furniture and taking nails out of the walls, place all pertaining screws, washers, bolts, etc. in a single compartment and put a Post-It in that compartment indicating what item they came from. Some other things to consider keeping in this tackle box: A tape measurer, a pen and paper, and any allen wrenches you may need, as they are small and are easy to misplace.
3. If you are moving somewhat of a distance and have a pet who gets anxious in its carrier or on car rides, speak to your vet about getting a sedative for the day in question.
22.6.08
Atomic Town
It's a feeling I'm not sure you could replicate anywhere else. The size of all three is a little more than Spokane halved, though Richland itself is about 1/5 the population. Nonetheless, they roll themselves out like a carpet over this sagebrushed area around the Columbia. They know they're safe, they vaguely work for the government, and nobody bats an eye at the deadliness of uranium.
A Little History
Richland officially became a town in 1905 and became incorporated in 1910. However, in the early 1940s, the government came in and purchased 640 square miles along the Columbia, evicting Richland's 300 residents as well as the nearby towns of White Bluff and Hanford, which to this day remain unpopulated. It then moved in people for the war effort, making Hanford a work camp and Richland a bedroom community for the workers of the Manhattan Project. The area was top secret. Misleading addresses were distributed, and all mail was postmarked Seattle. The Army Corps of Engineers designed the new town, which now had a booming population of 25,000. They assigned housing, planted trees in yards, cut out the streets and named them after engineers:
Notably in the city's history is the incident of the "Day's Pay." In 1944, every worker at the Hanford Nuclear Site donated a day's pay to the US Air Force to purchase a B-17G plane. A mural commemorating this act is painted on the exterior wall of Richland High School, home of the Bombers.
It wasn't until 1957 that the government pulled out and started selling land to private citizens. In 1958, Richland was officially reincorporated, making 2008 its 50th anniversary.
A Little About Hanford
You can't talk about Richland without addressing Hanford. The Hanford nuclear reservation was built in 1943 as part of the Manhattan Project during WWII. It is home to the B-Reactor, the first full-scale plutonium production reactor in the world. Plutonium manufactured at that site was used in the bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan three days after the Hiroshima bombing.
During the Cold War, the project was expanded to include nine reactors and five plutonium processing complexes. However, during the early years of the facility, disposal operations were inadequate, and the site released radioactive material into the air and water of the Columbia.
At the end of the Cold War, the weapons production reactors were decommissioned, leaving behind 53 million gallons of nuclear waste--2/3 of the U.S.'s total nuclear waste. Today, Hanford is the nation's most contaminated nuclear site. While most efforts on the site today are focused on the environmental cleanup left behind by the war era, Hanford also hosts a nuclear power plant, the Columbia Generating Station, which provides 9% of the state's electrical generation capacity.
Today, many of the area's "high end" jobs are at companies having one thing or another to do with the Hanford site--whether it be cleanup, power generation, or the extensive centers for scientific research and development.
Today
In an area dominated by nuclear reactors, there is a sense of community that draws forth. The city has only two high schools, and people tend to live here their entire lives. Other focuses of the area are agriculture and viticulture. The Columbia Basin hosts 7,000 hectacres of wine grapes, and nearby Red Mountain consistently grows award-winning wine grapes. Richland itself has three wineries in town, 20 more within a 15 minute drive, and more than 100 within a 60-mile radius.
With wide streets, a multitude of community activities, a tight-knit feel, and acres of lush parkland adjacent to the Columbia River, how can one not believe the residents who adamantly claim again and again that Richland is a good place to raise a family?
A Little History
Richland officially became a town in 1905 and became incorporated in 1910. However, in the early 1940s, the government came in and purchased 640 square miles along the Columbia, evicting Richland's 300 residents as well as the nearby towns of White Bluff and Hanford, which to this day remain unpopulated. It then moved in people for the war effort, making Hanford a work camp and Richland a bedroom community for the workers of the Manhattan Project. The area was top secret. Misleading addresses were distributed, and all mail was postmarked Seattle. The Army Corps of Engineers designed the new town, which now had a booming population of 25,000. They assigned housing, planted trees in yards, cut out the streets and named them after engineers:
- George Washington Way: President Washington was a surveyor
- Stevens: John Frank Stevens was the chief engineer of Stevens Pass and the Panama Canal
- Goethals Drive: George W Goethals designed the Panama Canal
- Thayer Drive: Sylvanus Thayer was the founder of the first professional school of engineering in the U.S. at Dartmouth College.
Notably in the city's history is the incident of the "Day's Pay." In 1944, every worker at the Hanford Nuclear Site donated a day's pay to the US Air Force to purchase a B-17G plane. A mural commemorating this act is painted on the exterior wall of Richland High School, home of the Bombers.
It wasn't until 1957 that the government pulled out and started selling land to private citizens. In 1958, Richland was officially reincorporated, making 2008 its 50th anniversary.
A Little About Hanford
You can't talk about Richland without addressing Hanford. The Hanford nuclear reservation was built in 1943 as part of the Manhattan Project during WWII. It is home to the B-Reactor, the first full-scale plutonium production reactor in the world. Plutonium manufactured at that site was used in the bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan three days after the Hiroshima bombing.
During the Cold War, the project was expanded to include nine reactors and five plutonium processing complexes. However, during the early years of the facility, disposal operations were inadequate, and the site released radioactive material into the air and water of the Columbia.
At the end of the Cold War, the weapons production reactors were decommissioned, leaving behind 53 million gallons of nuclear waste--2/3 of the U.S.'s total nuclear waste. Today, Hanford is the nation's most contaminated nuclear site. While most efforts on the site today are focused on the environmental cleanup left behind by the war era, Hanford also hosts a nuclear power plant, the Columbia Generating Station, which provides 9% of the state's electrical generation capacity.
Today, many of the area's "high end" jobs are at companies having one thing or another to do with the Hanford site--whether it be cleanup, power generation, or the extensive centers for scientific research and development.
Today
In an area dominated by nuclear reactors, there is a sense of community that draws forth. The city has only two high schools, and people tend to live here their entire lives. Other focuses of the area are agriculture and viticulture. The Columbia Basin hosts 7,000 hectacres of wine grapes, and nearby Red Mountain consistently grows award-winning wine grapes. Richland itself has three wineries in town, 20 more within a 15 minute drive, and more than 100 within a 60-mile radius.
With wide streets, a multitude of community activities, a tight-knit feel, and acres of lush parkland adjacent to the Columbia River, how can one not believe the residents who adamantly claim again and again that Richland is a good place to raise a family?
21.6.08
Firsts Sometimes Look Like Memories of Ancient Past
I know I'm getting frustrated because the F-bombs keeps dropping from my lips. I was always the bad influence on those around me, though ask any officer and they'll tell you how innocent I look. Today I used a term I normally despise, but nothing else seemed to fill the gap between frustration and expression, and even that word didn't seem to fit right. Though words you think yourself above using usually are all elbows when they resonate from your voicebox for the first time.
Of course the five hours of sleep doesn't help any, though I wouldn't trade the exhaustion for the vigil through the shortest night of the year as the sun made its brief getaway, horizon to horizon with spilled royal blue and a spattering of pinprick stars in the interim. And you, and I, ice cream and Jewish wine, movies, Phase 10, midnight store runs and finally Rock Band until we saw the sun's toes to the east, her breath across the whole sky. And I fell into bed on my face, sage knit and fan on my feet. I thought it would be too loud to sleep through. That was the last thought I had before he woke us with a fist on the door. When you work bank hours you can't be picky about what time the cable installer wakes you on a Saturday morning.
And then breakfast big bellies, showers and wine. And as the sky began to weep, you left, back on the black ribbon that would lead through the ancient ripplemarks--now covered in sagebrush and wheat--from here to there. Did the rhythm of the road sing to you as tiny flying creatures made your windshield their sacred burial ground?
And I, my hope that rain would evacuate my duties squelched, standing in the downpour, hose in hand as the sky split open again and again.
Later now, and the bills are paid. The balance added up. New to-dos added to the list which somehow never shrinks. A call to reclaim the love that has flown to Philadelphia. Exhaustion creeps in, sits on my lips and scratches at the back of my throat. My eyelids remind me, and now it's almost ten. Yes, I will go to sleep. But this is more important. This is much more important.
Of course the five hours of sleep doesn't help any, though I wouldn't trade the exhaustion for the vigil through the shortest night of the year as the sun made its brief getaway, horizon to horizon with spilled royal blue and a spattering of pinprick stars in the interim. And you, and I, ice cream and Jewish wine, movies, Phase 10, midnight store runs and finally Rock Band until we saw the sun's toes to the east, her breath across the whole sky. And I fell into bed on my face, sage knit and fan on my feet. I thought it would be too loud to sleep through. That was the last thought I had before he woke us with a fist on the door. When you work bank hours you can't be picky about what time the cable installer wakes you on a Saturday morning.
And then breakfast big bellies, showers and wine. And as the sky began to weep, you left, back on the black ribbon that would lead through the ancient ripplemarks--now covered in sagebrush and wheat--from here to there. Did the rhythm of the road sing to you as tiny flying creatures made your windshield their sacred burial ground?
And I, my hope that rain would evacuate my duties squelched, standing in the downpour, hose in hand as the sky split open again and again.
Later now, and the bills are paid. The balance added up. New to-dos added to the list which somehow never shrinks. A call to reclaim the love that has flown to Philadelphia. Exhaustion creeps in, sits on my lips and scratches at the back of my throat. My eyelids remind me, and now it's almost ten. Yes, I will go to sleep. But this is more important. This is much more important.
16.6.08
Apt Words the Text Predictor on My Cell Phone Suggests, Listed as what I meant followed by the predicted word
enough: ennui (before the 'h')
bummer: atones
me: of
home: good
cool: book
bummer: atones
me: of
home: good
cool: book
14.6.08
Kyri Moved
You rented a truck and packed up your apartment today to go live with Ian in Richland. I am so very happy for you, but I will miss having you right down stairs from me. I will miss having you give me the once-over for a date, Thursday movie nights, game nights and so much more.
I will see you next weekend, Kyri!
I will see you next weekend, Kyri!
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