Just like the ones I used to know...

Respect meeeeee

Today Scott and I drove straight to Washington. We did not sleep for 45 hours. Nice.

On the way, it started raining and Scott's windshield wipers were out of control terrible. T-E-R-R-I-B-L-E. I couldn't see anything and was really worried about when we would get up to places were it would be snowing.

We could not figure out, for the life of us, how to get those stinkin things off. Easily spent an hour fooling with them. When Kragen opened at 8am, we asked the lady who worked there if she could help us. It took her, seriously, 2 seconds.













Once we made it, Scott had to celebrate.

sports were never my strong point

.

Deck the halls

All 4 of us in the graphics department created a different christmas card in our own style to send out to all the offices. Here's mine:

But they just moved in

Yesterday morning an F-18 fighter jet crashed into a San Diego neighborhood without warning.
昨日の朝、F-18の戦闘機がサンディエーゴの住宅地に急に墜落した。





Eating lunch with some co-workers, I'm watching the crash site from a heli-cam on the news. The street looks so familiar, but...that's impossible. I mean really, this kind of stuff doesn't happen to people you actually know, it just happens on TV right?
レストランのテレビで、空撮からその墜落事故のニューズをじっと見ていた。道は僕のをすごく似てるだろうかと思っていたけど。。。うそ。ぜったいそんな事はないよ。

I get a call from the roommate. It was across the street.
ルームメートから電話がきた。「俺らの家の前だったよ」

Across the street?!
「まじで？！」

Yeah...a fighter jet crashed into our friend's house. It's gone. The house is just gone.
「そう。。。ジェットが前に住んでいる友達の家に墜落したよ。なくなった。。。すっかりなくなった、家は。」

Nothing can really prepare you for hearing that. Suddenly this whole thing went from being incredible to being gut wrenching.

. . . . .

Last month my friend's aunt and uncle moved into the house across the street from me because they needed more room for their growing family.
先月僕の友達はおじさん家族と僕らの前にある家に引っ越した。赤ちゃんが最近生まれて、家族がちょっと大きくなったからね。

That two story house now looks like this:
その二階ある家は今、このかんじ：



I took this picture from my roof last night after being escorted to my door by the police. As you can see the house is just completely gone. There's really no heap of rubble, its just gone. The saddest part of this is that, while my friend and his uncle were at work, the rest of the family was home. The mom, grandmother, and 2 kids were all killed in the accident.
夕べ、警察が玄関まで連れてくれてから、この写真は僕の屋根の上から取った。見えるとおり家はなくなってしまった。一番悲しい事は、友達とおじさんがいなかったのに、おばさんも、おばあさんも、子供たちも、墜落事故の時、家の中にいたから、皆いなくなりました。

The picture doesn't really do it justice, but it's like a warzone in my neighborhood. Military personnel are walking around, police, firetrucks, and a swarm of news vans completely block the road.
この写真でちょっとだけ見えるけど、近所は戦争のような所になった。兵軍とか、警察とか、ニューズキャスタとかが近状のあちこちを歩いている。




This is the site that greets me now in the mornings on my way to work. Right outside our dining room window is a horde of newscasters and cameras. My car is parked up the street so I walk through them all on my way.
ダイニングの窓から、こんな景色が見えるようになった。ニューズキャスタばっかり。

It's an incredible tragedy that affected the whole neighborhood. My house has very somber atmosphere right now considering we all know the guy who lived there. But at the same time of course we feel an eerie sense of relief and thankfulness. The jet passed right over our house on the way down. Had the pilot aimed just a hair lower, it could have collided right into us, and with all 3 of my roomies home at the time, it's not a pleasant thought.

And to think the only reason I came into work (I was going to call in sick) was to show a co worker a portrait of her family I had finally finished.
仕事からサボってないわけは同僚の家族の肖像を描いて終わったばかりだったから、見せたかったさ、俺が最近かぜひいちゃったのに。

What an intense day.
大変悲しい日だったな。。。