Happy Holidays everyone It’s been almost a year since I’ve written a blog about what has been going on with us so here it is.

It’s hard to believe we’ve been in Portland for almost 2 years and in our new Portland home for a year already. So far we are very happy with our cozy new home and neighborhood, but we do at times wish we would have waited another year to buy. We’ve made significant progress this year on many different fronts, but it has also been a lot of work and stress just to get by and try to have some quality of life while doing so. We took a big leap when we bought our house and then suddenly we were bushwhacked by a faltering economy. Who would have thought I would get the news the company I was working for was going out of business the day after we closed on our house. I wasn’t out of work long and did find a job, but with the longest commute I’ve ever had. Shortly afterwards gasoline skyrocketed in price costing me nearly 200 a month just to get back and forth from work. Then inflation went crazy 80’s as a result of that and the housing market bust just made things even worse. I’m sure many of you are also feeling the pinch in some way too.

All of this has had a sobering effect on us and our budget. We knew things would be tight after buying a house but we had no idea that things we used to take for granted would be so difficult now. Mainly we haven’t been able to buy things we normally would or travel at all outside of regional driving trips. Regretfully this has caused us to miss a few important events with family and friends that we would have normally attended. Things are still tight for us but we are getting by and thankful that our situation isn’t as bad as it is for many other people in our country and around the world. I guess one positive to come out of all of this is that we are learning to be a lot more responsible with our money and doing a much better job with budgeting. I give Charlotte all the credit for that along with a financial blog web site she frequents which is based locally in Portland GetRichSlowly If you are interested in improving your finances I’d recommend checking out some of the advice given on that site. I sincerely hope that things do improve next year not just for us but for all the others who are having an even more difficult time than we are.

Another positive note about this year has been Charlotte’s job and career. She is doing well out here in the Pacific Northwest and the company she works for seems to be going strong. Unfortunately I can’t say the same for my career or any job I’ve had since moving out here. I lived in Denver for 6 years and had exactly 2 employers that entire time. Since moving out west I’ve had 9 different employers which include two short term contract jobs I worked, and will have a 10th job soon when I start delivering pizza part time next year. My current job has been the best one I’ve had so far out here even though it is the most unstable job I’ve ever had. I’m currently working for company that is assembling data server racks for a major internet search engine company. We basically build several different server rack configurations, wire them, test them, sometimes perform upgrades, and then ship them out to wherever. It’s somewhat monotonous work but the group of people I work with are all really cool folks. Our work environment is blue collar which is a nice change for me from the corporate “office space” environment I worked in for 5 years at Comcast. We can wear shorts in the summer, and I can listen to my mp3 player while I work. The downside is that the long early morning commute really sucks and the work fluctuates so one week we are leaving work early everyday and the next we are asked to work 10-12 hour days all week. Still I’d take this job any day over a job where I have to listen to customers complain about their computers, phone, plotter, or whatever not working. The bad news is that I’m still just a contractor with a company who is contracting work from another company that could very easily get bought out in the near future. That’s a lot of if’s so I’m keeping my options open, even though there aren’t a lot of options available right now.

One very bright spot in 2008 has been our new doggie Mulder. If you read the last blog I wrote entirely about him then you already know a little bit about the “wild animal” living with us. He is doing very well now and although he is still a rowdy puppy teenager at just 15 months old he is starting to mellow out a bit. He has grown to 80 pounds and will probably fill out a little bit more. We’ve taken him on quite a few adventures hiking, to the beach, and local festivals that allow dogs or are for dogs. He really is like our own kid and has definitely added a lot of life to what would otherwise be a quiet household.

Other good news is that we’ve had quite a few visitors this year. My mom has visited twice, Charlotte’s mom and brother have visited, and my dad was just here for Thanksgiving. It’s always nice to see family and we are glad that we have a decent home with a guestroom to accommodate folks who want to visit. We’d love to have more visitors in 2009

As far as hobbies go I’ve been snowboarding a few times and hiking quite a few times. For more info on this visit the new PNW hiking page that I just recently created. I’ve added hikes from Mt St Helens and South Sister and plan to add about 10 more pages from hikes I’ve done out here over the last couple of years. We have many more pictures from Portland and other regional trips we’ve made around Oregon and Washington but I just haven’t had the time to post them or fix the gallery 2 section that became corrupted when I tried to upgrade it. Someday….

If you haven’t seen JavaFoto in a while check it out. Charlotte has quite a nice blog going there with updates on daily life in Portland. Since she has pretty much turned JavaFoto into her personal website and done a great job with the blog that has further encouraged me to slack off with the upkeep of cosmicadventure. Plus I work a lot and don’t have access to a computer on the job like I have in the past, which is also why I just don’t keep up with email the way I used to. None of that is likely to change next year since I will be busy working two jobs at least until the summer. However with the launch of our new website greencropcircles.com in the spring I am renewing my commitment to writing and research. If you haven’t heard about our new site go ahead and check it out but keep in mind it doesn’t officially take off until spring 2009. Right now there isn’t much there but we do plan to do this full force next year in an effort to raise awareness about global warming and other environmental issues. Charlotte and I feel very strongly about this topic and hope that we along with many others can make a difference; yes we can!

For now that is all from this cosmic channel in Portland, Oregon. Tune in next year for more updates and cosmicadventures:wave: