I have not checked email for several days which means I will have angry emails and a back log that could have me doing nothing but email all day.
Category: Daily Life
Ramblings, often stream of conscious, journaling the events of my life.
They are more important
I am so stressed over my work that my head feels like it is going to crack. Noah wants to make blueberry muffins. I can’t argue with that. I love blueberry muffins. However, poor Noah needs guidance. Lots of guidance. He gets priority.
If you haven’t had a 10 year old boy yet, their brains don’t work.
The cooking lessons are fun. I enjoy watching him go through discovery. This morning I have had questions like:
"What’s a muffin pan?"
"Where’s our can opener? How do I use it?"
After getting the mixing bowl, "Where can I get a bowl to put in the ingredients?"
I had no doubt that one or two of the eggs would splat on the floor. One did. Learning to crack and egg is scary. I feel bad for him. He will have to go to school before these are done. This child moves in slow motion!
Fading Light
My Joy cannot beat Misery
Our Stress weighs too heavy
Stealing away the Happy.
Our Days are filled with constant pleasures
Like firecrackers, numerous, small, quick.
The Suck is like a Nuke
And evaporates all positive energy.
It is all Wrong.
Losing my Fight.
Bionic Mother-in-Law moved
Cathy and I helped move her mother from rehab to home. One mocha later she was very happy to be back in the real world but wishes the laundry lady would have come with her. New knees, less pain. We returned home heavy one skeleton and one dracula both of which remain buckled into our backseat.
Lower the bar!
I have to quit taking on the impossible projects.
What am I doing now? My current contract is to allow a user to enter a single product id or a list of product ids then go out to a government website and download the 17 or so pages of pdfs for each product. Then I combine the multiple pages of pdf documents into a single pdf document and present it to the user for download to their local machine. I may end up inserting footer information into each page of the pdf. I have to do this for 4 different countries. Then I have to convert the code from php 4.4.4 to php 4.0.0.
Hypothetical Question
If you got called into jury duty selection on a Monday, and you knew your wife was getting out of rehabilitation from double knee replacement surgery on Tuesday, what would you say to the judge? Apparently, nothing is the correct answer.
Pressure
The walls are closing in.
The Flaming Cat Is Out To Get Me
If your cat looks like this, you might be schizophrenic.
MMMMmmmmm Java!
I haven’t had coffee in several weeks. I bought Cathy a Caramel Hot Cider at Starbucks today and did not have the will power to withstand ordering a house coffee. Life is good.
Driving Topless!
I love the Internet! The Jeep has been sitting in the driveway with a bad water pump. Relatively speaking, a water pump is a pretty straightforward repair. Unfortunately, my Haynes manual was a little vague on the details of the repair. Fortunately, a simple search gives wonderful details that I would have missed. (like 3 additional bolts that needed loosening) Good thing I couldn’t find that crow bar!
The Jeep went back together with relative ease and no apparent leaks. Next task is a radiator flush but I’ll leave that to the shop. Before it gets too much colder I need to reattach the metal bar to the top of the windshield that holds the roof. Then go to ebay and buy a top.
Night Hike at Alum Cave Bluffs
Years ago one January I drove to the Smokies with a female companion and we embarked upon a night hike of the Alum Cave Bluffs trail. Our only source of light was the moon and two cheapo AA battery $1 flashlights the first of which died on the hike up just as we emerged from the tree line.
• Alum Cave Bluffs Trail (11 miles round trip) starts off easy but become difficult. An initial one-and-a-half-mile trail takes you through Arch Rock’s erosion-created tunnel. the next 0.8 mile is steeper and leads to Alum Cave Bluffs which is a 100-foot high cliff. This last half of the trail is steep and, at times, hikers must grip trailside cables to traverse cliffs. The trail begins at the Alum Cave Bluffs parking area at Newfound Gap Road between Newfound Gap and Chimney Tops on the Tennessee side of the Smoky Mountains. Elevation gain is 2,800 feet. [Source
We conserved the batteries on the other light and chose to walk the rest of the way up by moonlight. It wasn’t long before we came to a thick, solid sheet of ice covering the trail. To our left, a steep ravine. To our right, a towering ice and snow covered cliff face.
I was pushing the boundary of my comfort zone. This was dangerous, we were ill equiped for such endeavors, and no one knew we were on the trail. I would have been more comfortable alone.
I am a strong believer that we grow by pushing our boudaries. We find the edge of our comfort zone and step just beyond it. That night we made it carefully up the slippery slope and, on the way down, we rode the trail like a surfer rides a wave. It was blast! Right after the ice the second flash light died and we had to hike the rest of the way in the forest blackness.
There is a fine line between pushing the envelop and stupidity. We can step outside of our comfort zones and still be safe. Personal growth comes through experimentation. By definition, nothing happens in stasis. Walk a different path to class. Drive a backroad to work. Wake up earlier than normal. Look at the tree outside your office building and study it. Create change in your life. Seek entropy. And try something that makes you uncomfortable. Live!
and I can’t getup
Last night I fell and slid down a hill. I couldn’t stop. It was a terribly helpless feeling. The effort I made trying to stop pulled several muscles in my right side and shoulder. It felt like I had dislocated my shoulder. This morning I still feel it.
Until last night, I always thought getting hurt by falling was due to stress and trauma. Very strange experience.
Deep questions
Sometimes I like to ask philosophical questions of myself. Right now I’m asking, "how do you lose a 3 foot long black iron crow bar?"
Time to fix the Jeep
I can put it off no longer. Time to don my rubber gloves and replace the water pump on the Jeep.
New Orleans French Quarter
This video is from June 2006. For me, it could have been 1980. Looks very familar!
