Touch a Truck

I spent the better part of my Sunday freezing my ass off dressed in white armor. There was a "Touch a Truck" fund raiser in Weymouth, and I was the lone trooper. Here are a few of my favorite shots:


TK8103, meet T&K
"I don't want stormtrooper Daddy!"
The two faces of Homeland Security
Posing with the ladies
Yeah, I'm cool

Halloween is getting closer...

Only a couple of weeks until Halloween. Here's a peak at our front yard decorations this year:



And a sneak peak at my costume in progress:

I had a fever dream

Just got in from The Bunny Boy show. All I can say is.... wow.

I was standing maybe 10 ft from the band the whole show. An incredible show. I'll post more about it later. For now, I'm still trying to process it all.

What is and should not be

So, yesterday I get home from work and my stepfather says to me "I want to tell you something before your wife gets home."

OK.

He's out of work right now, and apparently has plenty of time to kill during the day. It seems many years ago he purchased the "5 Gates of Hell." He had never worked up the nerve to actually try it on. Until yesterday.

Now, mind you, he's relating this story to me as I'm standing in the kitchen, ice coffee in hand and my children playing in the next room. He manged to force his junk through the rings, and soon discovered it wasn't going to be easy removing them. He was nice enough to tell me he had shaved earlier that morning, so at least his pubes weren't getting caught.

He did manage to get the thing removed in time to pick up my son from preschool, and without a trip to the ER.

So, after he related this misadventure and went home to my dear mother, I had to ask myself: Was I more disturbed that he owns this contraption and decided to play with it (at 60), or by the fact that he so casually decides to relate this tale to me?

The horror, the horror.

Dude, there are just some things you don't share with your children. THIS IS ONE OF THEM!!!!

One week to go...

Needless to say, I can not wait!

Ninja Cat

It's a slow burn at first, but well worth it

Turn, turn

Well, it would appear summer has left New England. granted, the leaves haven't gotten serious about changing yet, but there's a chill in the air and it's getting dark earlier.

I like fall. It's my favorite time of year. I love the crisp, clear air. The smell of leaves on the ground. Dressing in layers. Halloween. I'm not a fan of what fall leads to, but that's the cycle of life.

What I don't like is how expensive living is going to get. Dropping $3K on a wood burning stove. Another $400-500 a month to keep the house heated. Snow. These things I can do without.

Day off

Today I took a for-the-fuck-of-it vacation day.

Drove the boy to school, window shopped for wood burning stoves, split 2 cords of wood, worked on my Halloween costume, did some laundry, watched some TV.

That was it, and it was great.

RIP, Richard Wright

I remarked today that one of the things that sucks about having mature taste in music is that you have to watch the greats pass on, one after the other.

And no one sings me lullabyes
And no one makes me close my eyes
So I throw the windows wide
And call to you across the sky....

Happy 9/11 Day!

Seven years ago today things changed slightly here in the US of A. Namely, airplanes stopped flying for a couple of days, any pretense of personal liberties was pissed away, The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson was unfairly yanked from the airwaves, and the news crawl became a permanent fixture on CNN.

Seven years on, the country as a whole has still failed at passing through the Kubler-Ross model. We're not anywhere near acceptance. Not when the footage in Cloverfield is considered too soon. Not when a city can crawl to a stand still over Lite-Brites. Not when W still holds office. Not when you can't wear your shoes to pass through airport security.

Come on, folks, seriously. We'll never forget, I swear. We won't. It's a defining moment for the 21st century. The images of that day will forever be imprinted on our memories. But we can get past the mourning, the hand wringing, the fear mongering. We can move on.

We may never get back our pre-post 9/11 world, but we can buck up.

The wheel keeps on turning

Another weekend come and gone.

Friday night M and G were otherwise occupied, so KG and I watched season one of Arrested Development. We retired early, and that was nice.

Saturday Hanna arrived. We took the kids to Edaville Railroad for a "Day Out With Thomas the Tank Engine." The kids had fun, and we managed to be there in between the worst of the downpours.

We survived what was left of the hurricane with a minimum of damage. There was some flooding in the office, which is not a good sign. I can't figure out where the water came in from, but it appears to be somewhere inside the wall. The next door neighbors lost the top of a tree, which landed on and shatter one of the panels on my picket fence. One of the new ones, of course.

Today started off with KG and I having a shouting match in the kitchen, but that resolved quickly enough. Took the kids to McD's for breakfast, and then had an open house at TKJr's kindergarten. Tonight I created yet another gift application on Facebook, and am now preparing to call it a night.

Tomoorw starts another exciting week at work. Closing for August is Thursday ( Never Forget!), so I'm sure it'll be a stressful and highly annoying week. Woohoo, I say.

It has arrived

Got my copy of The Bunny Boy today. I have not had a chance to give it a good listen yet, but I am very much looking forward to my commute tomorrow morning.

I'm very interested in seeing how their planned internet series works out. For now, I'm just counting the days until October 12th.

w00t!

Sometimes I just want to talk. About feelings and things. Those annoying mushy things that supposedly connect one person to another.

Is it asking too much to have a conversation about us?

I've got a story to tell

Unsupportable Stupidity

I was cc'd on the following email conversation this morning:

Manager: Do the clinicians need to do anything other than turning the computer on and signing in?

Help Desk: No, I have set it up such that regardless of who logs on they should be able to open Citrix, log in, and use it as desired.

Manager: Thanks very much – can someone please write up step-by-step instructions so that Extended Hours staff in need will know how to use the desktops correctly? Thanks!

Umm, excuse me?? Step by step instructions??

Step One: TURN ON THE FUCKING COMPUTER.
Step Two: USE THE FUCKING COMPUTER.

For the record, this exchange was prompted by the manager attempting to turn on a desk top PC . She pressed the power button on the monitor several times. When this failed to boot up the computer, she freaked out.

Thankfully I did not have to respond to this request. I probably would have been fired.

Figures, don't it?

I called in sick to work yesterday when I was not indeed sick. I believe in the importance of the occasional mental health day, and of course I'm often called upon to stay home with a sick child.

Now, it's a little after 10, I'm tired as hell, my eyes are itching and I've been sneezing all evening. Top that off with a scratchy throat.

Guess I'm going to have to ride this out and hope it's just allergies.

Show some love for Hallmark

It would appear that the good folks at Hallmark have begun selling greeting cards for same sex marriage. While this may appear to be forward thinking and inclusive, the some what less good folks at the American Family Association think differently.

They've gone to the trouble to set up a website where you can send an email to the Chairman of Hallmark expressing your disgust.

Funny thing is, you can edit the text of the email. What's to say one doesn't instead send an email of support? Eh?

Click here and turn the hate around.

[Note] You might want to just cut and paste the email address rather than using the AFA page. I got me some email from them this morning.

Little Man

So, last night I experimented with the slide show maker that comes with the Nero software. It was fairly easy to use, but I must admit the constant pop ups asking if I'd like to buy the updated version were annoying.

Please excuse the varied wipes and fades. I just wanted to get a feel for how they all looked, and by the time I was done burning it I was far too tired to go back and replace them. I did manage to get in one star wipe, though. So I got that going for me. Anyway, here's a tribute to the boy:

Burn, baby, burn

I took advantage of the tax free weekend to finally replace my broken CD-ROM drive. I upgraded to a Sony DVDR drive. The install was fairly painless, and everything seems to be working. I burned a quickie CD, and it sounds fine.

I also purchased a plug in to convert VHS to DVD. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get that installed, dust off the VHS deck and dig out my old home videos. I'm guessing that'll keep me out of trouble and up late for a while.

Lightening!

Apparently the refrain of choice when nearly hit by lightening:

"Holy shit!"

Oh, he's not going to... arghhh!!!

So, I'm driving through North Quincy today on my way to pick up my daughter. I was waiting at a red light, idly gazing around. I noticed some guy walking on the sidewalk. He didn't look homeless or crazy, just an average looking, middle aged black man. He drew my attention because he stopped short at a large rain puddle on the sidewalk. Suddenly, he got down on all fours, and to my abject horror began drinking from the puddle. DRINKING!!!! I was stunned. I jest not when I say he was lapping that shit up! I was actually too shocked to grab the camera sitting in my laptop bag.

I have no earthly idea what would cause a man to drink rain water out of a sidewalk puddle. Some sort of mental illness is surely to blame.

Just another day.

Coincidence or conspiracy? You be the judge

A hep cat named Sal pointed this out to me today, and I must admit the resemblance is a tad uncanny:

The CW Network logo
Allah

While I'm not usually inclined to buy into conspiracy theories, I do offer this in support of the theory. You've been warned.

Screw you, high bidder!

All week I've been watching an auction on eBay for this original Burma Shave sign:

It was at $10 until this evening. With a few hours to go, it jumped up to $35. I sat on it until the last 39 seconds, and ended up getting out bidded at $65.

Fuck, I really wanted that. It's been a while since I caught the auction fever, so now I'm all riled up. I guess I'll have to make due with the knowledge that the asshole who got it ended up paying a lot more because of me.

Mosaic meme

Oh, and it's click-o-riffic!

So, I found this on Mycalls blog, and thought it would be fun. Of course, he has a nice actual mosaic showing on his page. Me, I just don't feel like joining Flikr today. So my meme, you gots to click the link to see the picture. Here's the rules:
1. Type your answer to each of the questions below the mosaic into Flickr Search.
2. Using only the first page of results, pick an image.
3. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into mosaic maker.


1. What is your first name? Christopher,
2. What is your favourite food? "What? Oh, not much, hanging out, eating some pizza...",
3. What school did you go to? Salmacis,
4.What is your favourite colour? water droplets in the shower - o.k. bokeh,
5.Who is your celebrity crush? Come for the celebrities,
6.Favourite drink? Mmmm, there's more in here....,
7.Dream vacation? Reminder to Self: Slow Down on the Caffeine,
8.Favourite dessert? angry CIA killer,
9.What you want to be when you grow up? The Snuff Film,
10.What do you love most in life? An old Killarney home,
11.One Word to describe you? DEEP SEA HARDHAT DIVER #8 "NO EINSTEIN ON THE BEACH",
12.Your nickname? The Power of Blood (2nd in a series)

My answers? (highlight)
1. Christopher
2. Pizza
3. Mount Ida
4. Blue
5. Katee Sackoff
6. Sam Adams
7. Tropical island
8. Tapioca
9. Content
10. Kerry
11. Eclectic
12. Schultzy

Sweet smelly tongue goodness!

So, yeah... HAPPY DAY!! Tickets went on sale today for The resident's Bunny Boy show at Foxboro.

Tickets have been purchased, and we'll be soaking up some eyeball goodness on October 12th.

Woohoo!!

You, sir, are a true vulgarian

And I salute you.

Open post to the drop ins:

Sorry, guys. I have no information about Wall E stuffed animals. If there are any, I'd like one.

Interracial fellatio?

In the fron lobby of our building, they have a handy map. I never really took note of it until today, when I noticed the following:


The room that corresponds to the rather dirty looking pictogram is the gym. I don't know, but that looks like one hell of a work out.

Holy shit

Have I mentioned how fucking AWESOME this looks?

New digs

Today I was relocated to a new cube. While I've enjoyed being tucked away in relative seclusion, I did have to share my cube. Not any more.

Here's a shot of my former habitat. There was a bit of a buzz since my move was sudden this morning, and a lot of folks thought I had quit.
No such luck. Instead, I set up shop in the front of the office. While I'll be more exposed, there are a number of bonuses. First, it's my cube. No sharing. second, I'm getting a privacy screen to protect the sensitive information I spend all day manipulating. I suppose it'll also protect unwitting office drones from the occasional goatse or 2 girls 1 cup.
Double plus good: My snarky motivational poster is highly visible.
For those of you without super zoom glasses, it reads "Teamwork: A bunch of harmless flakes working together can unleash an avalanche of destruction."

Woohoo, Mr. Koch

Boston Beer Works is now the biggest US owned brewer of beer in America.


I salute you, good sir. And your delicious product.

Wall E

So today I took TKJr to see Wall E. Partly because I thought it would be fun to do something, just the two of us. And, partly because I really wanted to see it.

What a great movie. Most of the reviews I had read were right on the mark. Beautiful to look at, touching and lots of fun. The complaints over the depiction of humans: unmerited. I felt that humans were shown as victims themselves, and displayed an almost immediate desire to live as shown as the option was available.

I really, really enjoyed it. Pixar usually does a great job, and this is hands down their most stunning achievement. Go see it.

It's going to be a steamer!

I was just taking a peak at the 5 day forecast, and it don't look to good. 90's and humid mostly. Anything over 80and I'm way out of my comfort zone.

To make matters worse, the thing that is on my mind this week is... winter! Thinking about heating oil and wood burning stoves. It makes me sick that I need to buy oil now, before it's over the $6 per gallon mark this winter.

It's shit like this that makes good people go bad. Or whiney people whine more.

The delicate sound of thunder

Thanks to I-Mockery's post on the art of firecracker labels for the pic.

I'm sitting at the computer tonight listening to the sound of amateur ordinance all around us. Abington canceled their fireworks display, so I'm guessing we'll have more than the usual backyard pyrotechnics tonight.

As usual, I'm not overly inclined to stand and gawk, oohing and ahhing at the sparkles. Fireworks really don't do anything for me.

I do, however, ruminate about the poor pricks who live or have lived in war zones. For too many, the same sounds I ignore tonight would be the signal to get in the basement. Duck and cover. There's nothing festive about bullets and mortars, that's for sure.

I'm very pleased I live in a country that has not had a war on it's soil for many, many a year. It's not something I wish to experience. Barring the complete collapse of civilization ( a distinct possibility, mind you), I don't expect to have to suffer that in my lifetime. And for that, I am thankful.

So, happy birthday, America. For better or worse you shuffled off the oppression of Great Britain to claim your independence. So that you could go on to crush many more people and countries with that very same oppression. Well done, and thank you for keeping your killing out of my backyard.

I'm ready for my reach around

In order to help fill the state coffers, Massachusetts just put into effect an additional $1 per pack cigarette tax. So, add to the $4 a gallon of gas, now I have to spend $7 a day to feed my addiction.
Fuck you, Massachusetts. Sure, I'm the dumb pecker who continues to smoke despite the obvious health risk. I'm weak willed enough not to be able to easily conquer a minor addiction. But that's not the point. All I'm saying here is stop bleeding me dry, yo.

In other news, it took me two hours to get home today. Woohoo! The best part is I get to share the road with assholes like this:

Stoked!

From the horse's mouth:

New album due for release first of September.
Brand new material from the most eccentric band in the world!

With THE BUNNY BOY, The Residents have created another off beat pop gem. A sonic roller coaster in the style of Duck Stab, The Commercial Album and Demons Dance Alone, the album features 19 fast paced songs. Obsession, insanity and the coming Apocalypse have never sounded better. The THE BUNNY BOY'S release will be accompanied by a world tour and a narrative internet series.

Track Listing/Features:

* Boxes of Armageddon
* Rabbit Habit
* I'm Not Crazy
* Pictures from a Little Girl
* What If It's True?
* Fever Dreams
* Butcher Shop
* I Like Black
* Secret Room
* My Nigerian Friend
* It Was Me
* Golden Guy
* The Bunny Boy
* Blood on the Bunny
* I Killed Him
* The Dark Man
* Secret Message
* Patmos
* Black Behind

Exactly what I was hoping for!

Friday

This afternoon at work we got a pretty decent thunderstorm. There were at least 2 lightening strikes close enough to set off car alarms. Here's a shot of the sky as I was leaving work and the storm had passed:
There was some flooding due to the downpour. Turning to my car, I saw the traffic that awaited me on the lower deck.
Here I am 15 minutes later, not even 1/8 of a mile from my former parking space.
Thirty minutes after leaving work, I was just getting on to the Zakim. Don't know if you can see the two staties in front of me:
They were escorting a box truck that was being towed by a flatbed tow truck. The box truck was not ON the flatbed. It was being pulled behind by a chain and cable.

WTF?

A little over 2 hours later, I was home. The weekend begins.

Ominous skies

For a few moments there, I thought we were going to get a whopper. No dice. It rained pretty heavy for a few minutes, and then rumbled away.

The highlight of the day was coming out of the O'Neil tunnel to black skies, tons of lightning streaking down, and "Lucinda" blaring on the stereo.

Good night, funny man

"Atheism is a non-prophet organization."

"Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist. "

"Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday."

"If this is the best God can do, I'm not impressed."

Breakfasts past

If there's one thing that I love, it's breakfast cereals. Here are 3 of my all time faves:

Remember when...

Personal responsibility and parental guidance meant something?
Those were the days.

Fight the future

OK, life imitating art or ironic branding? You be the judge:

Cyberdyne

Skynet

I, for one, bow to our new robotic overlords.

Oh shit

5 scientific reasons a zombie apocalypse could actually happen.


The only good news being, if any of these reasons come to pass, we've got some time to prepare.

Considered for dismissal Vol 2

Once again it's time to submit parking ticket appeals. Nothing quite as amusing as my first post, but I thought I'd share a few anyhow.

providing medically necessary services. - Ticket for Resident parking. Appeal is short and to the point.

...patient had begun to feel nauseated and soon began vomitting, some of which contained bright red blood... -Ticket for unpaid meter. Umm, TMI???

I was called to a patients home for an emergency situation and attempted to find resident parking but there was none available. - Ticket for resident parking. I'm not sure why she's appealing, since apparently she went out of her way to look for resident parking.

I was going to visit a pt who was discharged from hosp and needed medication and needed to be seen and admission. - Ticket for street cleaning. Nice use of the run on sentence, bonus points for verbing a noun.

When I parked meter said out of order. I put money in the meter but it did not register and still said out of order. When I returned to the car the meter no longer said out of order. -Ticket for unpaid meter. Obviously someone was fucking with her. I really like the fact that she put money in the meter despite the out of order notice. Like it's a freaking slot machine, and she might just get lucky.

Well, kids, that's all I have for today.

Holding out hope

Idiot me, still up past 11. I'm hot, sticky, tired and feeling under the weather. Cold? Allergy?
Don't know. Either way, I'm running ragged. There's an impressive line of thunderstorms marching this way, due in an hour or so. I was hoping to catch them.
Oh well, I'll either sleep through it, awaken and sleep less, or they'll miss as like usual.

Yeah, I know...

I'm sitting here covered in a thin layer of sweat. The house is sweltering, and I haven't even unpacked the fans or summer clothes yet.

More fool me. It's the beginning of June. A few weeks ago we had the heat on. Now it's 90 something.

Happy, happy. Joy, joy.

The chochotas strikes back

In the normal course of a day, I send roughly 20 some emails to various people asking them to complete, correct or re-do work. That's my job.

So the other day I noticed that both Rat-pizda and MD sent notes to the wrong clinician. I sent the following email to them:

I received a voice mail from CW this morning re: patient Joe Blow. CW received both an OASIS review and a Lock note for SOC visit of 5/22. However, CW did not admit this patient. CF did.Could you both please resend your notes to CF?
Thank you.

About 5 minutes later I received the following response from Rat-pizda:

Hi Chris, Just wanted to express how rude your manner is in this email. A simple Hi or good morning to start off an email wouldnt kill you to do so. Instead you start it off with an "I". We all get VM that dont belong to us. I got two yesterday for payer not showing up on cert creation which I helped both clinicians in doing so.
Im sure you wouldn't writer something like this to AMM or JH.
Plus it would of been easier for you to just forward the VM to MD and myself.
Have a nice day :)


Umm, OK. What the fuck, crazy bitch? That just about put me over the edge. I immediately forwarded her response to my manager, her manager, and the director of HR. Additionally, I filed an incident report.

I'm happy to report that the rabid little slit got in trouble, and was quite upset at the outcome. I don't think she expected to be called on the carpet. Ha ha!

Just now I got even better news... She just gave her two week notice. Oh, happy day.

Hell yeah!

I'm pretty sure Zack Snyder is gay. Regardless, I love the man. I want to fuck him.

Dumbass (n):

Gawker has a pretty amusing post about this tool.

You, sir, are a dumbass.

Toy of the week

GoBot Geeper Creeper

Sweet weeping eyeballs of joy

The Residents' bog announced an upcoming live performance in NYC this upcoming October. Color me excited.

"The Bunny Boy." New album? Don't know. However, Big Brother was nice enough to confirm that a tour is in the works, and Boston is being looked at, though no booking had been made as of yet.

Shit, I'll host a show in my back yard if need be. Seriously!

I'm a skin job

But a damn sexy one. Go figure.

Toy of the week

C-3P0 mask V2. I wish I still had the plastic aprons that comprised the costume part of these costumes.

Bed time stories

Credit where credit is due.

I got game

Thanks to the economic fellatio rebate, we've upgraded to an XBox 360. I just got back from Target with the Go Pro version (20GB external hard drive) and Lego Star Wars Saga. I'm on my way upstairs to hook this bad boy up.

What the.....?

Tonight, as I got Izzy ready for bed, I read her the Little Critter book "I Just Forgot." At one point, he is stating how he remembered to wash behind his ears in the tub, but he didn't forget to use soap. He just doesn't like it. Judging by the illustration, he also forgot his modesty:




Next time someone tells you you're hung like a critter, take it as a compliment.

Toy of the week

One of my first Star Wars costumes: C3P0

Tomorrow Never Knows

RIP Albert Hofmann.

Turn off your mind, relax and float down stream,
It is not dying, it is not dying

Lay down all thought, surrender to the void,
Is it shining? Is it shining?

That you may see the meaning of within
It is being, it is being

Love is all and love is everyone
Is it knowing? Is it knowing?

That ignorance and hate may mourn the dead
It is believing, it is believing

But listen to the colour of your dreams
Is it not living, is it not living

Or play the game "Existence" to the end
Of the beginning, of the beginning

Happy Birthday, Bluebird

My baby girl turns 2 tomorrow.

I told her when she was first born not to be in a hurry to gtow up.

She didn't listen.

Happy birthday, KG

36 years young today.

I love you, my dear friend.

That was easy

I forsook my real time viewing of BSG tonight for the opportunity to re-establish a long neglected connection.

And it was good.

I've missed hanging with Dude. We broke up years ago, and it's well past time that we rekindled that flame. We've grown older, perhaps not wiser. We have significant others and lives, but the kinship we shared is still there.

Plus, there's always whale cock to talk about.

Urban Legend? You be the judge

Here's the story as it was related to me:

Many years ago, two brothers inherited their father's house. The brothers were not on good terms, in fact they didn't speak to each other and wanted nothing to do with one another. They could not come to agreeable terms over the disposition of their father's house. Neither brother wanted to sell, nor did they wish to live together. Taking a cue from King Solomon, they did the only logical thing. They split the house in half.



I don't know how much truth there is to the tale, but here's the house. Tell me that doesn't look like a cut in half house.

Toy of the week

Yeah, I'm not much of a Trekkie, but I do have the odd toy or two floating around. This phaser projects a light on the wall and came with a couple of discs to project the Enterprise and some other shit. Long lost, but I believe the light and sound still work.

Chochotas

It's only Tuesday, and so far it's been an overly painful week at work. Mostly due to three individuals.

I don't ask for much from other people. All I want is for them to do their jobs. Accurately, and in a timely fashion. Is that asking too much?

Apparently.

There's not a lot I can do about Rat-pizda. Eveyone there, from management on down is too afraid of her rabidity to do anything about it. Whatever. She's certifiable, there's no denying it.

MD, on the other hand, she stepped on the wrong toes.

I ended my day having a lengthy and surprisingly productive chat with the district manager. I explained how a certain someone was attempting to order my people around, how a number of times she has been wrong and insisted otherwise. She has made some unreasonable requests, and has been sporting a real attitude as of late. AMM is going to have a talk with her tomorrow about her "behavior."

I'd call this a victory for me, but knowing the vindictive nature of these people, I'm sure I'll end up paying for this. Again and again.

Beer me

75 years ago today, President Franklin D Roosevelt repealed the prohibition on beer, declassifying it as an "intoxicating liquor." Although it would be a while yet for the 18th amendment to be repealed in it's entirety, today marks the anniversary of the return of good old, delicious beer.

Tonight I will happily indulge in a pint or two of Sam Adams, celebrating one hell of a President, and one hell of a patriot and brewer.

Thanks, guys!

Oh, and thankfully after inspecting the bottle of Sam Adams Light currently in hand, I noted the embossing on the bottom of the bottle reads N17, not N35. So I can drink in peace.

Thoughts about the wrong eyed Jesus

Upon us all a little melancholy must fall.

Unbidden memories have surfaced through the veil of dreams, turning my thoughts to the past.

I can't help but entertain these uninvited guests that have floated to the surface. Ruminating on the whys and hows that have brought me to my present place. I dismiss the what ifs, as that train of thought bears no fruit. But the urge to set the record straight and tie up loose ends grips me for the moment.

I can't help but wonder if the reason I've never reached my destination is due to the amount of time I spend reviewing and revisiting the journey to date. In the past I've hoped to work out my trajectory, to tease out where I might be headed. Now I know too many variables exist to make that determination.

"Still waters run deep
Deep in me.
I've got this crazy way
Crazy way of swimming in still waters."

It is accomplished

Well, our new found Irish friend completed the restoration of our stone wall today. I'm quite pleased. With the addition of some fill, some grading, perhaps a little terracing, that pasrt of the yard will be looking rather spiffy.


Not too shabby for two days work, I must say! Patty will be back in October, and promised to check in and see if we need more work done. We may. We may.