…and happy father, grandparents, and aunt.
Born at 37 weeks — 5 lbs, 12 oz; boy with full head of hair.
Many happy family and friend supporters, too!!!
Tag Archives: family
Bouncing babies – updated, new and improved!
O, many stories to tell…babies born on sidewalks, in the maternity waiting room, on elevators, at the full moon, during bad weather when barometric pressure is low.
Waiting on our niece to deliver us a new family member.
Thx to everyone at Women & Children’s Pavilion of Huntsville Hospital, including Helen who loves any dessert with pineapple, Kathleen from New Jersey who loves the South, Rosalind and Christy; family and friends who have stopped by and prayed.
More as we labour in love.
Genisha, too.
Is your childhood functionally extinct?
We can think of our sets of states of energy as a microclimate/microenvironment (i.e., the microbiome).
As we age, our symbiotic microorganisms are more or less compatible with our current bodily conditions.
Thus, we may create a situation where we make some species functionally extinct within us.
How many diseases or syndromes are such situations?
Is that my Epipen or Livescribe Pulse/Echo?
Every theory that I test always falls back to this position: is there anything that contradicts the fact this body is a set of states of energy in constant flux?
All the other details fade in comparison.
For instance, I found a 4GB flash drive on my desk this evening, completely unaware of its contents until I plugged it into this notebook PC. On the flash drive are subfolders labeled GE184, IT104, IT250, IT302, TB133 and TB143 under the main folder labeled ITT, all of them from the year 2009.
There’s also a file labeled “Lesson Plan Outline – Twenty Minute Segments – Spring 2009.xls” for IT104 – Introduction to Computer Programming.
Is it coincidence that I read an online article about professors and students this afternoon which led me to think about my teaching days at ITT and then to discover the flash drive in the pile of junk on my desk later today?
We make our own coincidences, do we not?
Ever since I got married in 1986, I kept the promise to stay physically devoted to my wife, putting aside the thoughts that once led me to pursue women.
Sure, temptations are there everyday when I see people of all shapes and sizes, their sights and smells capturing my attention like Seirênes on strange shores.
I do not take lovers anymore. Instead, I convert my amorous feelings into short stories and poems, inspiration for dreams of life on Mars and other celestial bodies.
I’m getting older, if I’ve ever been young, yet I’m always a kid at heart.
Falling in love over and over, day after day, takes its toll on this little old kid.
To spend one second holding the hand of another on the dance floor is an eternity of feelings — happiness, joy, trust — moments I barely remember from my younger days.
Next week I will compete in one dance with my wife, then my wife and I will compete separately with Abi and Stephane in a different dance.
How do I dance with someone as beautiful and graceful as Abi without falling in love with her?
How do I feel about competing against my wife, so to speak, in the PROAM OPEN NEWCOMER SWING MALE/FEMALE divisions?
How does this affect my belief in the theory that I am alone in the universe which is here solely for my entertainment?
Whenever I feel myself attracted to another person, I revert to generalising and stretching my practical self into expounding about universal theories in order to protect myself from becoming a blathering idiot and making a fool of myself.
It’s no coincidence that the Echo and Pulse pens on my desk are not Epipens because, unlike my father, I have no deathly allergic reactions to protect myself against.
I have been a solo artist for so long that I’ve forgotten what it’s like to dance with another person as one.
What I have remembered is that the dance partner is the one toward whom I give my fullest attention, all barriers dropped temporarily, whilst we give ourselves over to the lord of the dance:
Lord Of The Dance
I danced in the morning when the world was young
I danced in the moon and the stars and the sun
I came down from heaven and I danced on the earth
At Bethlehem I had my birth
I danced in the moon and the stars and the sun
I came down from heaven and I danced on the earth
At Bethlehem I had my birth
Dance, dance, wherever you may be
I am the lord of the dance, said he
And I lead you all, wherever you may be
And I lead you all in the dance, said he
I danced for the scribes and the Pharisees
They wouldn’t dance, they wouldn’t follow me
I danced for the fishermen James and John
They came with me so the dance went on
Dance, dance, wherever you may be
I am the lord of the dance, said he
And I lead you all, wherever you may be
And I lead you all in the dance, said he
I danced on the Sabbath and I cured the lame
The holy people said it was a shame
They ripped, they stripped, they hung me high
Left me there on the cross to die
Dance, dance, wherever you may be
I am the lord of the dance, said he
And I lead you all, wherever you may be
And I lead you all in the dance, said he
I danced on a Friday when the world turned black
It’s hard to dance with the devil on your back
They buried my body, they thought I was gone
But I am the dance, and the dance goes on
Dance, dance, wherever you may be
I am the lord of the dance, said he
And I lead you all, wherever you may be
And I lead you all in the dance, said he
They cut me down and I leapt up high
I am the life that will never, never die
I’ll live in you if you’ll live in me
I am the Lord of the dance, said he
Dance, dance, wherever you may be
I am the lord of the dance, said he
And I lead you all, wherever you may be
And I lead you all in the dance, said he
The unintended influence of pop culture
Especially the cinema.
I never imagined that our nieces would choose names for their children that easily reflect popular movie actors.
The first niece in our family to have a child named her daughter “Shannon Elizabeth.”
The second niece in our family to have a child plans to name her son “Owen Luke.”
Curiously strong resemblances, n’est pas?
My niece’s baby shower
Hard to believe the little girl I used to toss in the air is about to have a little onec of her own.
Modern wonders
The water heater is a work of modern technology, the latest in state-of-the-art design, where form meets function and efficiency on the way to convenience.
Let’s take a look, shall we?
The Internet is full of simplistic drawings of water heaters, drawings that leave the highly-curious desirous of more detailed explanations of how cold, sediment-filled water entering your domicile is converted to hot, sediment-free water in practically no time at all.
These simplistic drawings miss the most important part of the water heater that any average PhD would know — the water pump!
The water pump hidden inside your water heater, in conjunction with the sediment level detector, pulls sediment-laden cold water from the bottom of the water heater when you open a hot water valve in your home, such as in the bathroom or kitchen.
Cold water holds up to 100% more sediment than hot water due to the quantum effect at an atomic level we won’t go into details at this time. Suffice it to say that the electronic sediment separator device in the water pump makes sure that cold sediment is cleared from the water heater while flushing out the water line before the water pump switches to pumping fresh, clean hot water to your bathtub or kitchen sink.
Did you know that the number one reason your water heater fails is a clogged water pump?
Rarely will a plumber tell you that information.
Instead, a typical plumber’s visit includes convincing you that either you need new thermostats or heating elements, a costly repair; or worse, the plumber will convince you that the leaking water heater is due to corrosion.
Here at Modern Wonders, we dispense with the hard selling techniques that force many a homeowner to shell out hard-earned dough for a new water heater.
For a low yearly maintenance fee, we will visit your home up to twice a year and clean out the water pump inside your water heater, providing you decades of life on your water heater.
Not only that, we’ll guarantee that you’ll never have a water pump failure inside your water heater!
Give us a call before your water heater’s water pump fails, causing your water heater to overpressurize, forcing a leak out of the weakest weld seam, damaging your floor in the process.
We service all brands, makes and models of water heater.
Call us within the first 24 hours of you reading this advert and we’ll send a certified technician to demonstrate how a water pump works.
Plants mark time…
Previous image: late 1970s.
Next image: 2013.
The apple tree is happy with fruit this year:
Grease-stained driveway
A little retail therapy today — thx to Leslie and many busy smiling faces at JC Carmike 14; Lillian at Belk; Phil’s Dream Pit BBQ; Hardee’s — there’s more to consider.
Who are our influences?
I usually sit down to examine the “why” — why does a single person inspire us to stand up straighter, feel good about ourselves, more confident, courageous, happier?
Inner beauty and strength?
I will think about this line of casual reasoning at another time…savouring life in realtime has my full attention, as it should.
Thanks to my male heirs for making/creating by hand and collecting good quality tools passed on to me and other family members. I now have a little something extra for my projects.
Speaking of which, as much as I wanted to support local crawlspace/foundation rehabilitation companies, my wife and I examined our home improvement budget, deciding to focus our funds on ceramic tile and hardwood floor projects we’ve held on the back burner for a few years.
Thus, I will reinforce our gutter system to prevent water runoff soaking the crawlspace.
I have observed that after installing a “gutter guard” style cover on the gutters, the steep incline of our roof led to a waterfall flowing over the gutter during rainstorms and pooling along the back wall of our house, permeating the concrete block foundation.
For a simple solution, I’m going to remove the gutter guard covers, hoping the uncovered gutters will catch and divert more water.
I’ll continue insulating the crawlspace vent holes, sealing any gaps, and remove old pink insulation over the next few weeks.
After all, time may be money but I have as much time as I want to divert from the computing world.
All I want one day is to die on Mars.
The rest is butter.
Close shave
An undated photo of my father at Smitty’s barber shop given to me by Dad’s fellow Army and Masonic buddy, Smitty himself, who has cut my hair for 45 years. Tempus (and hair) fugit.
treetrunkdings 