Marcel's Blog

Hello everybody! So much time has passed since my last blog entry that I don’t even know where to begin. As most of you know by now Charlotte and I have moved down to Portland Oregon where the sun shines 5 more days a year than it does in Seattle, or so they say. We liked Seattle a lot, but found it difficult to live there for various reasons that I’ve mentioned before. We love Portland and everything seems to be working out just fine here. We hope the city of Roses will be our home for many years to come

Charlotte has found a good job similar to the one she had in Seattle. I can’t say much more about it due to nondisclosure agreements, but basically she is learning new things and enjoying the challenges her job brings. I have also found a good job as a PC repair technician, which I really like. Its hands on hardware repair of desktops, laptops, software fixes, data backups, etc. I’ve always preferred hands on work rather than sitting in a cubicle or chatting on a tech support line all day, so this is the perfect job for me and a nice way to get back into the computer field after being in Telecom for so long.

Before I found this job I worked on a couple of contracts, and volunteered at a local nonprofit place called freegeek. Freegeek accepts all kinds of computer donations, and then people who are volunteers go through a series of processes to determine if the computer or parts of the computer are worth keeping. The volunteers recycle the old or bad parts and keep the good parts. More volunteers use the good parts to build new refurbished systems and put the Linux operating system on them, which if you don’t know already, Linux and most programs for it are FREE. Linux has a big following in Portland and several major companies are choosing to use it instead of Microsoft. Currently I’m about halfway through the Freegeek build program and plan to finish that by the end of the year which should give me somewhere around 100 volunteer hours. I’ve met quite a few interesting people at Freegeek and can say its truly a Portland experience. The Portland culture is very progressive and Freegeek is just one example of that. To learn more about Freegeek visit their site.
FreeGeek Website

In April I had the chance to work with my dad in Albuquerque for a couple of weeks. I’ve been there a few times before and always thought it was a beautiful city so I was delighted at the chance to visit again. The southwest architecture is really amazing and the food smothered in green chili is super-delicious. After spending a couple weeks in NM I noticed the people seemed a bit strange like you would expect from an X-files episode. You know, like they all know something that you don’t, and they all know you aren’t from around there but will be leaving soon anyway Don’t get me wrong, they are friendly, but kind of distant and secretive. I get a similar feeling in Salt Lake City, but probably for different reasons. In some ways NM is like a different reality, or a parallel universe. Could there be more to all of those Roswell alien souvenirs than we outsiders know about? Hmmmm

I did manage to have one heck of a cosmicadventure while I was on that trip. Due to a miscalculation with the job my dad and I were working on I had to drive a box truck back to Dallas to pick up more supplies and then drive back to NM in a couple days. This was one hectic trip driving all night and arriving just hours ahead of one of the worst thunderstorms Dallas has seen in years. I tried to rest as soon as I arrived but I was a bit delirious and really tired after driving all night. When I laid down it felt like I was still moving, and then the sirens went off. A tornado touched down just miles away from where I was staying. I lived in Texas for 10 years and never heard tornado sirens before that moment. It turns out a handful of people were actually killed in that storm, 6 was the total if I’m not mistaken. I was really lucky to arrive in town ahead of that storm instead of driving through it in the middle BFE, or BFT to be exact. After the storm passed I finally did get to sleep and didn’t wake up until about 12 hours later. The next couple of days I had a great time visiting old friends and family that live in the Dallas area.

In May my cousin Jason from Minneapolis was in Seattle on business. He had the weekend off so Charlotte and I headed up there for a day to visit with him. It was our first trip back to Seattle since moving. We showed Jason around town visiting all of our favorite sites and the usual tourist locations too. It was a fun day for all of us, especially at Pikes Market. On the way back we got stuck in a traffic jam at 11:00 at night which added nearly 2 hours to our driving time. It was at that moment that we remembered why we wanted to get out of that rat race in the first place. Back to Portland, home sweet home

Last week Charlotte and I had our first official visitors from out of town. My dad, my sister Tara, and her boyfriend Hugh all came to visit. We went out to dine in some of the fine local restaurants, and to tour some of the coastal towns and beaches. The beaches are breathtaking, but the real highlight of the week was no doubt the Oregon Brewers Festival. You can view the brewfest website here if it’s still up.
Oregon Brewfest Website

The brewfest had two huge beer tents set up near on the waterfront where you can sample endless varieties of microbrews. I haven’t seen a party this big since Oktoberfest, not that anything can really compare to the Munich but this was pretty darn cool. It was also way too much fun if you know what I mean (“the hangovers hurt more than they used to”). But even more entertaining than the festival itself were the local “Portlanders”. It’s really something you have to experience for yourself to understand. The locals here are very unique and most people in Portland are actually born and raised here so there isn’t a lot of outside influence- yet. Some people describe Portland as a cultural epicenter, liberal stronghold, progressive & forward thinking, freakshow, one love, etc. Whatever your opinion, Portlanders are definitely a unique bunch of people in a very livable city.

Speaking of freakshow, our new travel gnomes Sparky and Jojo have been busy making babies and now we have a whole family of travel gnomes. We even sent two of them off with Tara and Hugh to colonize California. The gnomes all had a great time at the brewfest, and later on at Kell's Irish bar where we eventually got kicked out We are definitely inspired by our gnomes antics so there will be a lot more to talk about in the future concerning their adventures. In later blog entries I’ll elaborate about the unique culture in Portland. For now I’ll leave you with a nice little picture of Wolfgang as he enjoys some frites and local Widmer Hefeweizen at Kell’s