MS SUNBM

 

So every weekday for the last six weeks or so, this car has been driving by the house and honking twice.  It happened for about a week before I really started to look for it.  Each morning, right about 7:15, a golden colored sedan drives by and honks. 

This morning, put a chair into the driveway, right behind the van and waited.  After about five minutes, I could see her rounding the corner and then she honked.

As it turns out, my mystery honker has a personalized license plate: MS SUNBM.  Now that I have a name (of sorts), I am going to make a sign for the front yard asking MS SUNBM to kindly stop honking. 

It is possible that she is honking at the neighbors, I don’t know.  I suppose I really don’t care if she wants to honk as she goes by, but I would like to know why. 

I’ll keep y’all posted.

And so it goes.

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RUSH

Happy Fathers Day all.

For those of you who know me, you know that I have a particular affinity for the band Rush.  I first heard about Rush when I was a sophmore in high school.  I was dating a flute player at the time, so I started hanging out in the band room.  All of the drummers listened to this band called Rush.  I started listen to the group and I really liked them.  I got to know one of the drummer pertty well, Jim, and he lent me a video of a Rush concert called A Show Of Hands.

I took the video out to my car and started reading the back of the VCR box.  That was when I read that Rush was comprised of just three guys.  I was really impressed that three guys could make such complex music.  The more I listened to them, the more I liked them.  Their first album, self-title Rush was relased when I was four months old.  They relased their 19th original album, Snakes and Arrows last year.  The style of music has changed through the years, but it all carries the same spirit that makes it fun to listen to.

Of all the people I know who have heard Rush, I can put them all into one of two camps: I Love Rush or I Hate Rush.  (I am sure that I have met some people who are luke warm, that doesn’t make for a good blog post.  So I’ll follow the general example set by the government (all of them, not just the current) and pretend that they don’t exist so I can make my point much, much more dramatic that it really is.) There is also a nearly perfect correlation bewteen love and hate and musician, not musican.  I think you have to be a musician to really appreciate what they do.  Just like being a writer enhances your ablity to discern great writing.

This year marks the 20th year that I have been a Rush fan.  I hope to teach my kids how neat Rush is.  I don’t care if they don’t like Rush, but I will teach them to appreciate Rush.

And so it goes.

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It’s Garbage!

 

A little update before we get down to business.  

I got our taxes done.  That was fun.  We are even getting a little bit of green back.  Work is going well.  We are not really seeing an improvement in the economy, but we aren’t seeing a decrease either.  I’ll take that.  

Noelle turns seven on Monday.  She has a blog now.  It is artbynoelle.wordpress.com

The matriarch of the family will be in town for a few days.  It has been over two years since I have seen her, so I am looking forward to the visit.  Ralphie will be in town for three weeks.  As usual, we are excited about that.

Joy has raised 2,605 of her 3,900 goal.  If you can, please donate to her cause.  You can check out her blog at birdtribird.wordpress.com for a link to her fund-raising site. 

The blog bug is currently napping while I draft new topics.  I usually go a few months without much and then explode for a month or so.  

Ok, on with the show.

There are six people in my house. Two thirty-somethings and four crumb snatchers. Between the six of us, we fill 1 60 gallon garbage can a week. Now that might sound like a lot, but a 60 gallon can is the smallest they have for the county. Each week I roll this thing out the curb and I am happy to know that there is still room. What is the secret? What about the rest of the waste of the house?

Let’s look at the kinds of waste generated. First there is green waste. These are food and compostable items. Next are the recyclables. Paper, plastics and glass. Finally, there solid waste. This is the stuff that ends up in the garbage can.

My compost pile in the backyard offers mute testimony to the amount of compostable items that we generate.  In boy scouts we had sign in the mess hall that read, ‘We Support Zero Ort’.  For the uninitiated, ort is food waste.  We don’t like to have any, but it happens.

The recyclables make up the majority of the volume of things that leave the house.  Cans, bottles, jars, paper and plastics go into a can in the kitchen and then out to the curb twice a month.  That is a 90 gallon can and there is rarely room.  

The rest is stuff that is not safe to compost or is not recyclable.  

So take some time and evaluate what comes in and what goes out of your home.  You’ll be surprised.  

And so it goes.

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Saint Patrick

Hi kids!

Sorry for the extended break.  I have been doing a lot of developing over the last few weeks.  For starters, I am working on a series for the blog that is like a life story.  I have been reading Tim Russert’s book, Big Russ and Me, and I am inspired to do a little writing about myself.  

Second, I am in the process of moving my WordPress account from the basic web-based to a domain-based platform. That will allow me to pay less for my e-mail and play around with some ads to play for the thing.  I am hoping to have that rolled out in mid to late April.

Today is Saint Patrick’s Day.  I remember when I was working at Wyndham Consumer Finance some folks in accounting were throwing a Saint Patrick’s Day party.  They were looking for trivia questions, so I gave them a few that were Catholic based.  The primary organizer got a somewhat distasteful look and and stated, ‘I think we should leave Catholicism out of this.’  To which I replied, ‘Then you shouldn’t be celebrating ‘Saint Patrick’s Day, should you…’

It’s somewhat comical to me, that in our increasingly secular society, we loose sight of the fact that so much of our history is based on religous ideas and people.  The two largest cities in California, as well as its capitol, are named in honor of Mary, St. Francis of Assisi and the Blessed Sacrament.  

Los Angeles: El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles de la Porciúncula (The Village of Our Lady, the Queen of the Angels of Porziuncola).  ’Our Lady’ being the Blessed Virgin Mary.

San Francisco: Saint Francis 

Sacramento: The Blessed Sacrament

As you enjoy your beer and beef (or in my case, beer and yummy raw food something.  I don’t know yet), try to give some thought to those who went before you and try to consider the impact you will have on others.

And so it goes.

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Driving By Braille

As is my standard practice, I have followed up last months blogging binge with a blogging hangover. There has been a lot going on lately keeping my away from the keyboard. Ralphie and Steve were down for a visit. Casey’s computer died and I had to reload the OS and all the programs. My company laid-off 300 workers and I sat around wondering if I would be one of them. I wasn’t. My prayers go out to those who did get laid off. Having been through it just last year, I know it is never easy. I had an old friend and his family from high school over and we had a great time. It’s nice to know that he is still a great guy. His wife and kids are great, too. I always breathe a sigh of relief whenever I come across good kids.

Not having blogged for a while, I have found myself developing thoughts more than that writing them. This was due in large part to the then-impending job cuts. There is a sobering feeling that accompanies an event like that, though I don’t have to say that. Your lively hood usually depends on someone else’s decision and that is always a little unsettling. It’s nice to be the ‘master’ of your destiny, but it’s always important to remember that you are never really are. It’s nice to pretend sometimes.

Driving by Braille is a term my friends and I used when we were driving after we had perhaps a bit too much to drink. The idea was to let the driver side wheels run on the center road dividers.  That way you knew you were driving with the road.  In reality, it didn’t work like that.  I spend a lot of my life driving by Braille, but in a more philosophical sense. 

Leela is going to be baptized next week.  We are all looking forward to that very special occasion as she is joined the Body of Christ.  All sorts of family and friends will be in town for it.  Should be a very good time.

I bought a new Bluetooth headset, so I can call my friends and family again. 

That all for now. 

And so it goes.

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Fantastic!

When I am not busy at work or rearing four kids, I like to take some time to play Fantastic Contraption.  Here is the idea:

You are given five objects.  A wheel that rotates clock-wise, one that rotates counter-clockwise, and one that is neutral.  You also have a solid rod and a liquid rod.  Nothing can pass through the solid rod while most objects can pass through the liquid rod.  You also have a construction area, a goal area and a goal object.  You simply try to get the goal object (a ball or square or combinations) into the goal.  

Observe:

or

and

The best part is that you can pay a one-time $10 fee and design your own levels and play other people designs.  

Hope this wastes a lot of time for you, because this is pretty fantastic. 

And so it goes.

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Woot!

Don’t forget to check out the new Woot-Off pictures on my Woot page… (over on the right, where it says Woot…)

Pack your bags…

…it’s time to go campy!

On one of my favorites sites, Woot.com, they feature a 4 o’clock flash section.  At 4 pm they highlight a new flash game.  The neat thing about this game, Nine Billion Miles From Earth! is that it’s done in stop motion animation, just like the classic si-fi movies were done.  To play it all you need is a flash player and the link, which is here.  It takes a few minutes to load and you need to have the sound on for the full effect. 

My favorite quote is from level six.  ‘Jiminy Christmas, things are getting hot out here!’.  Please persevere until you reach that level.  Pay close attention to the speak at the end.  Classic eye shot.

And so it goes.

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