gaijin_in_hell

Bah

2007-09-25T19:17:46Z

Not to be a whiner, but being sick sucks.

Remembrances

2007-09-11T11:16:00Z

Regardless of my personal beliefs on the validity of the current conflicts the U.S. is engaged in overseas and domestically, today is a day to pause and remember those people who lost their lives on September 11th, and all those who have lost their lives in human conflict, no matter what their nationality.

Their loss, past or present, should never be forgotten.

"War is delightful to those who have no experience of it".
-Desiderius Erasmus

Iai-jutsu

2007-08-29T15:00:07Z

The Eishin-ryu Iai-jutsu I'm training in is proving a nice complement to my aikido, but the terminology is just different enough to be bothersome. It's also interesting to see the waza variants since they're so similar to aikido.

Tonight

2007-08-26T19:51:13Z

gaijin_in_hell @ 2007-07-31T04:48:00

2007-07-31T08:49:02Z

I just woke up from a dream about my friend Livia. She was an amazing person and I cherish the memories of the things we got to experience together. She drowned in a kayak race in the Rockies some years ago. I wasn't even in the country at the time, but I was told later that her kayak flipped and she got wedged between some rocks upside down in the rapids. It was four minutes before they got to her and it was too late.

In the dream I heard her voice talking about the things she'd done in her life, as well as the things she still hoped to do. It was like movie clips playing in my mind with her voice as a voiceover - Livia playing guitar, making jewelry, mountain biking, dancing...

I loved her. I knew it then but I was too immature and scared to be able to say it to her. I don't think she would have been upset if she had known, but I was never able to tell her.

Her family started a foundation in her name shortly after she died, and they've done all sorts of good things in the community. I think she would have been pleased.

I haven't been back to the town where we both lived since before she died, but I think I need to go back sometime soon to pay my respects to her. I still miss her and when things like this dream happen I end up having a bittersweet day afterwards, thinking of her and how I felt about her and wishing I could have told her how I felt before it was too late.

I never got to say goodbye.

What's going on

2007-07-09T10:13:45Z

OK, so the home renovations are almost complete. I've finished the basement, including the new home theater. We've had people over a few times and they've all really enjoyed watching movies. Who wouldn't? The screen is 9 feet wide! :)

Now that it's over with my renovation tasks are minimal, weekend-installation things (other than the master bathroom renovation, which is still in the planning phase). I'm going to add a fieldstone path round the side of the house to the back deck, I need to get the multizone audio functioning so that we can have sound throughout the place, and I'm going to be installing a hot tub on the back deck before the fall.

With all of that in the pipeline, it's time to find something else to do, so I did that this weekend. I've been teaching aikido for the past six months and that's going well, and I'm still studying iaido twice a week, but I needed something else to do (like I always do <smile>). I stopped by the local dive shop on Sunday afternoon and chatted with the owner, and to my surprise he's looking for a divemaster for their charter boat. I haven't been in the water in a year, and for the four years before that my diving was in warm water (82 degrees and higher, mostly in Micronesia and the South Pacific), but after a few minutes of chatting he offered me the job! My checkout dive is Wednesday night...

So between teaching aikido most weekday mornings, taking iaido Monday nights and Saturday mornings, home renovations and working as a divemaster most afternoons that'll pretty much take care of my free time for a few months, at least until it starts to snow this fall.

Feeling better

2007-06-13T13:37:44Z

I've managed to clean the sword and get a shower in. We still have running water so that's a good thing. I feel a lot better, although I don't really want to look at the - thing - on the back deck.

I've decided I need to try and get into town. Wakefield's only 8 minutes from here in the truck, and I have a full tank of gas. I can hit the major grocery stores, try and get some supplies, and get back here again. Hopefully I won't be gone more than an hour.

If I don't post again, could someone who knows me please tell T that I love her? She's underway right now, on her way to patrol in the Gulf, so she should be safe for a while at least.

I hope I'll be back soon.

Trying to contact people

2007-06-13T13:21:21Z

I finally thought of contacting people I know to see how they're doing and how things are where they are. Duh - I could kick myself for not thinking of it sooner.

I tried using Yahoo IM to get in touch with Steve in L.A. but he didn't answer. He's always connected, so he must still be asleep. It's only 6:15am on the west coast and I know he sleeps like the dead (no pun intended). At least I hope he's just asleep.

Neither of my brothers are answering either, but they're on a flight to Cincinnati this morning so the likelihood of catching them is slim. God, I hope they're okay.

It's done

2007-06-13T13:09:10Z

It was easier than I thought, and harder too. I came out of the garage back door and he had his back to me. He actually moved slower than I expected. One single shomenuchi and the katana went straight in. I guess my sensei wasn't kidding when he said the blade was razor sharp. He dropped where he stood and hasn't moved since. That was 10 minutes ago.

That was the easy part. Once the adrenaline wore off I had to deal with the retching. I still am. I haven't cleaned the sword yet. The sight of the gore on it makes the nausea worse. I'm going to have to suck it up and deal with it soon.

If this has spread as far as it seems to have I'm going to have to try and change my mindset. These aren't people. Not any more. They're rotting meat, and they need to be treated as such.

I wonder if this is how Dad views his patients in the clinic?

How do you kill something that's already dead?

2007-06-13T12:53:26Z

Damn, I'm glad I read the zombie survival guide last fall. I laughed my way through it, but now it makes a lot of sense. I've been reading what I can find on the net (this seems to be a good summary of what's been going on) and it sounds like the guide got it pretty much right. Hit them in the front of the head, or crush their head with something large (like my truck) and they'll drop. Now all I have to do is hope they don't get up again after I do that.

I'm also glad I brought my little souvenir back from Japan. Four years of aikido won't help me much, because breaking their bones won't stop them, but the four years of iaido might be of some use.

I've gathered together what supplies I can from the house. Lucky I've been renovating the basement. The sledgehammer is too heavy to be of much use in a hurry, but the prybar is only 10 pounds and not toobad to swing as long as there aren't too many of them. Here's my list of supplies:

o Katana
o Prybar
o Three bokken
o Two framing hammers
o Food for about 4 days (not enough!)
o Two bathtubs full of water, three toilet tanks full
o One battery powered radio and two 8-packs of AA batteries
o Cell phone (fat lot of good that seems to be at the moment)
o Hand-cranked flashlight

I have the generator out back, and its gas tank is full, but I really don't want to contemplate using it. I'm guessing the noise would attract them.

I've made up my mind I need to take care of the one on my deck, in case they can communicate with one another somehow. I hope I'll be back soon.

Wish me luck.

He's DEAD!

2007-06-13T12:21:10Z

OH MY GOD! When I came back downstairs the man on the deck was pressed up against the window in the kitchen. I think he's DEAD! He's wearing a pair of overalls like a telephone line worker, but his face is HORRIBLY burned! You can see right through a gaping hole in his cheek to where his tongue is working inside his mouth, and one of his eyes is gone, like it exploded out of its socket!

I puked. Oh god I puked. My stomach is still heaving, but there's nothing left in me. I can't even look, but I can hear him scraping against the outside of the window in the next room.

The radio reports were true. Crap, what now?

I'll be back later. Hopefully. I have to get some things together.

Weird morning

2007-06-13T11:40:22Z

8:08am
My cell phone reception has always been iffy in the house but this doesn't make sense. I've been all over the place, including my bedroom upstairs where I usually have signal and all I can get is a recorded message from the phone company saying "All circuits are busy. Please try your call again later". This is RHODE ISLAND, for pete's sake! There aren't enough people here to occupy all the cell circuits simultaneously!

8:04am
My weird driveway friend is back! I was checking the door from the garage to the back deck and there he was! All the doors were locked so that's some comfort at least. He's standing on the deck with his back to me. I'm going to call the police on my cell phone and get someone over here.

7:59am
I'm starting to get freaked out now. None of my TV channels are back and there's no dial tone on the phone, just a weird buzzing sound. I'm going to make sure all the house doors are locked, just for my peace of mind.

7:51am
OK, so I broke down and turned on the radio to try and get some news. The local NPR station plays BBC World News in the morning so I might get some international news rather than the fluff that passes for it on our Rhode Island stations.

They're reporting multiple incidents of what they're calling zombies (!) around the world, attacking people. I know this is their pledge drive week (or weeks, or month, or whatever the hell they call it now) but come ON, people! No need for Orson Welles pandemonium around here, and they definitely don't need to start with the short stories this early in the morning.

7:48am
He's gone now. No sign of him on the lawn any more. Hope he found his dog!

7:47am
That guy who was standing at the end of the driveway is on my lawn! I'm not too keen on going out to chat with him - there are a lot of strange people in this state. Maybe he's looking for a lost dog or something.

7:46am
Finished the paper and turned on CNN to see what's going on in the rest of the world this morning, Rhode Island papers being the bastions of isolationist news that they are. The TV's all snow - weird. Even the local cable access channels. Guess Cox has a problem at the local repeater station.

6:15am
I went out to grab the paper this morning at 6am, like I do every other morning. It's a grey, gloomy day here, with the wind blowing about 20 miles per hour, and it looks like rain, so I didn't want to hang around outside. I almost bumped into a guy standing at the edge of the road near my driveway. He wasn't walking anywhere, wasn't on his phone, wasn't doing much of anything, really. Just standing there about three feet from me. He didn't even look up as I came jogging around the corner to get the paper.

Anyway, back to the house and on my second cup of coffee.

Loneliness

2007-06-10T02:37:17Z

I'm so freakin' lonely, it's driving me crazy. It's 10:30pm and the girl is in bed - hell, she fell asleep at 7:45pm tonight. She tries, and I'm glad she does, but it leaves me alone most evenings. This past week she left the house at 6:30am at the latest and never got home before 8pm. Then she's asleep by 9. I sometimes feel like I'm living on my own.