First, I think it really says something about the state of things, that this evening I learned my Sister got injuried from her blog. Not a phone call, not an email, not even a voicemail, but by reading her blog. That being said she has carried on a fine family tradition. The tradition of course is completely down playing injuries and emergencies. You see she was sewing, to make a long story short she had the needle stab her in the finger and break off. Of course if that wasn't bad enough, the machine tried to keep going and really crushed her finger. What did she scream? What words of anger or panic came from her lips? None! That's right in the family tradition she just freed herself with her free hand, cleaned the wound and then went and told Mom.

Now this is just something we do. We don't yell or cry or cuss we just either let out a little growl or say something very subtle. An example of this, when I was fourteen, through a series of unfortunate events I managed to set the entire hallway floor on fire.  Flames are about three feet high and all along the floor, so did I scream, or cry or going running out the door? Of course not, I went and got Mom and sais "Mom, we have a problem". Of course the statement was completely true, but maybe just a little subtle for the Event.

Another example, my Brother J was framing up some walls, and we heard a misfire and a "errrr". Now anyone else we would think, that he was upset that they had a misfired, but in my family it means something happened. So we ran into the room were he working, he turned towards us with his thumb, in the cool Fonzie, "Aaaaa" position. We see that the nail went right through his thumb. So Dad without missing a beat, grabed his linemans pilers, grabed Js hand, and goes for the nail. Brother J was afraid that he was going to take his whole thumb off, and at the last second, Dad turns his hand and cuts the head of the nail off. Well, now the nail had to come out, and it has to go through, you can't back them out. So of course Dad says on the count of three. One, Two (now we know that Dad is going to pull it on two, he's been doing it since we were little kids), but just in case brother J braces for it on one. It was on two, and nail was out. And the only thing that J says is " I thought you were going to cut my thumb off".

Yet another example, Brother K is doing some framing, a making rip strips for fering out the walls. Well, as happens from time to time, the blade on the table saw reached up and bite him. Right on the top of his index finger. Of course in typical family style, he let out a growl. Well, J knew that it  was a "I am hurt bad come help me" growl. Anyone else would have wondered if he kicked a board or something. K, in typical K style, went down to the first aid kit and with the help of J, and bandaged up the finger so well that most medical professions would marveled at his handy work.

Family traditions, you have to love'em 

Okay, so driving would of been faster today. I usually wouldn't say anything remotely like that, but apparently because of the heavy rains, the trains can't go over 40 mph. Of course right now, we are currently not going over 4 mph since we are stopped. I left work at 4:40 and it's 6:35, and we are at least 20 minutes away from my station, if we start going right now  which we won't. So I am sitting on the train, listening to techno/celtic music (yes it does exist) and bloggin, what else is a poor commuter to do.

So, I've finally done it. I went out and bought a digital camera. Of course this feat didn't happen without lots of homework, research and agony. I am sure that I drove my Beautiful Wife up the wall with this one. But of course in her wonderful way she answered my barrage of questions with her sweet, your a silly man, but  I love you anyway. So what did I get? Well I got a Panasonic Lumix FZ20s. Okay, what's a Panasonic Lumix FZ20s. Well, it is a cool looking silver camera. (silver is what the s stands for). It is a 5.3 megapixel camera with a Lecia 12x optical zoom lense. The 35mm equivalent lense would be 36mm-432mm. Overall it is a really nice camera. Instead of writing a long review (which I am not very good at), here is one by steves-digicams.com

I do have to say so far I am really happy with it, and it lets me do almost everything that my old Pentax spotmatic does. Of course being a digital camera, it does have the whole instant gratification of seeing the photo right after it is taken thing going for it. So between the new camera, and the images I've been taking lately, I figured it was finally time to start a photoblog. We'll see if my hectic work schedule will allow me keep both my blog and it going.

This morning on the way out my Beautiful Wife told me she excepted to see some pretty pictures on my blog today. You see I just got my first digital camera. I am really excited about it. I spend a month shopping for it. And now it is here, so I think you can expect some more snap shots to be posted.

Yesterday, one of my co-workers took the train to work for the first time. Of course it didn't go smoothly there was a few snags.  This made me think about the first time that I rode the train for the first time. It didn't go smoothly for me either. In fact it was two months before  I wrote the train again. It was mostly because one of the conductors was a little intimidating. That being said, there was an amazing sense of accomplishment. You see I was born and raised in L.A. and that saying "Nobody walks in LA." is completely right. You see everything is an hour away. So you always have to drive. So the idea that I could get to work without a car was a liberating thought. Today, three years later, riding the train is second nature. I don't even think about it. However I won't soon forget that stepping off the train, just blocks from work, taking a deep breath and feeling like I accomplished something by getting to work without a car.

One thing about the internet, is you can always find something interesting out there. Well I found something interesting, that also made me smile. A Photo Essay of a Gentleman thinking about fatherhood, so he spends a morning with his sisters son.

So first thing, I have to say my Beautiful Wife is amazing. She gets that boys will be boys. That we aren't acting up to make her look bad, we are just playing. Tomorrow the Little Boy will be home from school, so we thought getting some videos to ease him into the weekend was a good idea. So the Little Boy and I were a little onery. We played in every isle of the video store (You know that one that starts with Bloc and ends with uster). I chased him down one isle and around the other. Met him in middle of the next. He grabbed my ankles, and I picked him up and held him on my shoulders and walked through the store. We check out and of course the Boy and I are still playing, he is on my shoulders and checker asks if we need a bag, and I says "sure, do you have one he will fit into?"