Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Celebrating the Fifth

As I'm writing this, I can hear the soothing sounds of a mountain creek just outside the room. Lisa and I have been feeding ducks from our balcony and taking lots of pictures and videos.

Zoder's Inn is our favorite vacation spot. We've had wine and cheese at 5:00 each afternoon the past couple of days, milk and cookies at 8:00, dinner in-between at new restaurants.

We're in Gatlinburg, TN, where we got married on April 30, 2004. We've known each other for 9 years, been husband and wife for 5 years, and we're the best of friends. I couldn't ask for more from a helpmate, and I have reason to believe she's pretty satisfied with me.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

A possibly unfortunate confluence of words

I'm one of the web application testers for a change to the security infrastructure at work, and we got an email this morning concerning our upcoming test schedule. This line was lifted directly from the email: Focused testing sessions will core project team members, which have proved successful with a couple of applications over the past couple of weeks. I wonder if any of those project team members have ever been described as the apple of someone's eye?

Sunday, April 19, 2009

And here it is...

The point of the previous post, besides being my usual wise guy self, was to see how Blogger's email posting works out. As it happens, outside of the different font face, it's pretty seamless. And that's really all I have to say about that.

Friday, April 17, 2009

Procrastination

Ill have more to say about this later

Thursday, April 16, 2009

RIP Mark Fidrych

I remember the media coverage of "The Bird" in 1976. He was a genuine character on the diamond, and if you didn't enjoy his antics, you just didn't enjoy baseball. Of course, he was more than just a daft player; you don't go 19-9 with a 2.34 ERA and win AL Rookie of the Year on your personality. Nor do you pitch 24 complete games at the age of 22 -- 7 of them in one month -- without grave risk. He was 10-10 during the rest of his injury-shortened career.

He died a couple of days ago in a farm accident, suffocating when his clothes got caught in a power take-off on a dump truck he was working on. I worked around PTOs enough to know that just a moment's inattention would be all it would take.

Mark Fidrych, you're missed already. Your joy for the game was infectious. That had to be why you played, right? After all, your 1976 salary of $16,500 was certainly less than some players now make per game.

Friday, April 10, 2009

50 - 482: These Hands

These hands have held newborns and have helped carry caskets from the hearse to the grave.

These hands have cradled open books for pleasure and instruction.

These hands have, in compassionate acts of destruction, held pistols and shotguns, aligned the barrels with the backs of the heads of injured animals, and delivered the coup de grace.

These hands have spent uncounted thousands of hours upon the steering wheels of tractors, tilling the soil so that my father could follow and plant the new year's crops.

These hands have struggled with pencil or keyboard, trying to shape the perfect word, the perfect phrase, so that there was no place for ambiguity in what I had to say.

These hands have cleaned and dressed wounds.

These hands have placed rings upon the fingers of three women, in ceremonies ending in "I do".

These hands have signed two divorce decrees, saying "I don't, not anymore."

These hands have caressed lovers and rebuked children.

These hands are the instruments of my will, the tools I use to effect my small changes upon the world.

These hands are part of the long chain of humanity, past, present, and future. Everything they do has been and will be done again.

These hands are uniquely mine. Everything they do is done by me.

50 - 482: Beginning the countdown

August 5, 2010 is 482 days from now. That day, at 9:25 in the morning, I will be 50 years old. In place of a mid-life crisis, for nearing 50 seems the time for such, that would involve buying a bright red high-performance car, hooking up with a young blond woman of negotiable virtue, and hitting the road, I intend to firmly establish the what and, hopefully, the why of my life.

In one of my early Babble On pieces, I said that I had three reasons for blogging: memory, clarity, and the honing of my skills as an essayist. While the third reason is still a goal, it will always be a work in progress; it's the journey, not the destination.

For the next 17 months and change, I will be concentrating here more on memory and clarity. I have often joked, "I have a degree in history, but that's behind me now." No, not really. I have to understand where I've come from to have a grasp of where I am, and further, to plot my course from here.

Along the way, I will strive for humor and optimism, for I prize those traits especially. I will not be looking to cheapen anyone else in my recollections, but I almost inevitably will at some point, so I apologize in advance.

I expect joy and pain in the telling, for that is the life that has come from the exercise of my God-given free will. So, a pause to gather my wits, and let's go.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Pinging Andy White

I saw a bumper sticker on an SUV Monday evening when I was on my way to a Relay For Life meeting and immediately thought of you. You'll understand why, I'm sure:


Carolina: The Force

Duke: The Dark Side

UNC 89, Michigan St 72

After more than 30 years as a Tarheel basketball fan who has known my team to give away more leads than I can count, I spent the first half on pins and needles. There was no need this time; the Heels were otherworldly on both ends of the court.

It's mildly ironic that the highest scoring team in the country dropped its offensive intensity in the second half. The defense that was lambasted from all quarters during the first three months of the year never let up.

It's Wednesday evening, I'm finally coming down from Monday night's adrenaline high, and all I really have left to say is GO HEELS!!!

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Happy Birthday, Dad!

He's 77 today, and he's left his woodworking behind, except for one more show. Dad, Lisa and I will be at the Blueberry Festival in June. Hope it's been a good day.