travis' brain dump

You know, it’s been amazing to me. All the time I spend on the internet every day and sometimes it’s just plain hard to get in a good personal blog. Well, a general public personal blog that is. 🙂

Not a whole lot has changed in the last few weeks since my last public update. Life around the house has been pretty calm all in all. Amanda has gotten all settled in for the most part. She’s got her routine forming and has been watching a little boy from church for some extra money which has been nice. She’s also learned where things are and has been slowly converting the house into a fully formed home. Now it’s my turn to get off my rear end and get some more of the remodel finished. I’ve got to finish that whole downstairs in the next few months. That’s my goal. At the very least it’s time to replace a couple more windows before winter sets in full swing here. With the fever of snowboarding season beginning, so is the realization that I need to get the window tasks finished up quickly before the temps get down too low as the rest of the stuff is primarily cosmetic and all inside. At least these next two window replacements should have a profound impact on the heating bill. The two plus the new doors I installed already have since obviously helped. Arwen’s room is much warmer in the winter and the downstairs room that got remodeled has been quite nice since. 🙂

Work has been one of those changing efforts. I started a new assignment/contract right after we got back from Mexico from Tyler’s wedding last week so it’s been kinda interesting despite the fact this is my first full week here due to some illness (acquired in Mexico) that had me figuratively tethered to the bathroom for a couple days… boy that was fun. At least the trip was nice, despite being short. It was also nice to discover how quickly we can make it down there now. The old route (going through Phoenix to pick up Amanda) was insane! 15 hours to Phoenix then 8 hours to her parents house. The new route is nice… 10-10 1/2 hours to the border and 2-2 1/2 hours to her parents! Now we’ve got an updated pass for the car now too, so it makes it that much easier to make it down. You can leave at 5am and be there by supper! hehe I only wish it was as easy for me to travel home… that’s still 21-22 hours. *shudder*

Back on the job subject. This new contract isn’t too bad. I came in, met some people and they turned me loose on my list of things to do. It’s kinda wierd to be honest. I don’t really interact with the folks here too well. I really miss the place I was at before here. From day one I got along with those guys and it was an overall great experience working there. We got a ton of work done and had a lot of fun together. Here, I just kinda do my thing and rarely interact with anyone. At least I’m learning some new stuff though, that’s always a plus. Maybe I will get a good chance to use this knowledge for something more permanent in the near future. Either way, at least I’ve been keeping busy and been able to start getting caught up on everything from when I was unemployed. I would very much enjoy *not* doing that again despite the fact it was only 2 months. The only thing so far that has actually really been a downer has been the riding of the bus everyday since it’s downtown and absolutely pointless to try to drive down here. I worked it out to cost about $12.00 a day if I drove to include gas and parking. The bus… $5.50 a day. So it’s up at 5:30, on the bus by 6:30, at work by 7:15, 9 hour day, on the bus back at 4:55 and home by 6:00…. o.O Another aspect I miss of the previous contract… it was 10 minutes from home and didn’t start until 9am, LOL.

I can’t really complain though. Despite the funky schedule and the wierd working environment at least I have a family at home that loves me and I’ve got the best friends anyone could ever ask for. At the end of the day, that’s all that really matters to me.

Well, enough blogging… time to get back to work. 🙂

Apparently, if you live in Orlando Florida, feeding the homeless while they are in a group carries a pretty hefty penalty. And there I thought that was restricted to the bears in yellowstone… *shakes head* what’s this world coming to? I mean, c`mon people – if someone wants to feed some homeless folks, let them! I’m going to stop and leave the rant there… If I go off on this one, it won’t be pretty…

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ORLANDO, Fla. — A controversial city ordinance has led to a number of protests and now a trial. An Orlando man is the first person to face a jury for feeding the homeless.

It’s the first trial of its kind. A man is facing a judge and jury for violating Orlando’s ban on feeding the homeless. Eric Montanez, 22, was caught feeding a group in Lake Eola Park earlier this year. The prosecution told Eyewitness News their case rests on video taken of Montanez feeding the homeless, breaking Orlando’s feeding ban.

“There are a lot better things for law enforcement to be doing in this town, but this was an outrage,” said George Crossley of the ACLU.

Montanez and a small group of supporters marched from Lake Eola Park to the Orange County on Monday morning.

“We’re ready to take this on,” Montanez said.

Montanez and the group he’s involved with, Food Not Bombs, returned to Lake Eola just after sunrise to once again violate the ordinance that has him on trial. Food Not Bombs volunteers served breakfast to about 100 Montanez supporters, most of them homeless. They will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner during what they’re calling a three-day “ladle fest,” not a protest.

“Me personally, I think that’s discriminating for one,” said Lamont Robinson, a homeless man.

“We’re out here trying to survive from day to day life and this gentleman over here is helping us,” said Melvin Moore, a homeless man.

In April, Montanez was arrested for violating the city ordinance that bans mass feeding in one area. His attorney will argue that the law is a violation of civil rights and say Montanez did nothing wrong, because every feeding that he participated in was done at a public park.

“The law itself should be illegal. Feeding people should not be criminalized. Being poor should not be criminalized,” Montanez said.

The group is hoping to pressure city leaders into axing the ordinance that they believe is a violation of their civil rights, but the city has made no mention of such consideration being in their plans.

ahhh yes… this was the scene this morning in Breckenridge. With only 53 days until the official opening of the season there, the fever is kicking in… No official word yet from ABasin as to an opening date, however if trends speak anything it will be a couple weeks before Breck and Keystone open up for sure. Last year was October 13th… I can’t wait. 🙂