Behind in my thanks: Cassia, Amy, Ashley, CAT, Dr. Patel, Katlyn, Dr. Keane, Dr. [Woody] Reeves, Jeremy, Stephanie, phlebotomy crew, Brandi, Lynn (dietitian), Tamma, care team (Susan, Larry), Dr. Mohsen, Lisa, Deborah, nursing students (Amanda, Lynn, Jared), Dr. Sullivan, Ravonna, Dr. MacDonald, PJ…Seaver Donuts…more to follow…
Tag Archives: family
Family-Oriented Link o’ the Day
The moment when you realise you’ve raised a great child transforming into an adult before your eyes…
Your bonus: professional spam of the day, a tasty insight into modern manufacturing methods!
because i am speechless, i’ll let history tell its own story for now…
A Bit of Sports History from Lou Gehrig, himself:
“Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about a bad break I got. Yet today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.
“I have been in ballparks for 17 years, and I have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans.
“Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn’t consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day?
“Sure I’m lucky. Who wouldn’t have considered it an honor to have known Jacob Ruppert; also, the builder of baseball’s greatest empire, Ed Barrows; to have spent six years with that wonderful little fellow, Miller Huggins; then to have spent the next nine years with that outstanding leader, that smart student of psychology, the best manager in baseball today, Joe McCarthy? Sure, I’m lucky.
“When the New York Giants, a team you would give your right arm to beat, and vice versa, sends you a gift, that’s something. When everybody down to the groundskeepers and those boys in white coats remember you with trophies, that’s something.
“When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides with you in squabbles against her own daughter, that’s something. When you have a father and mother who work all their lives so that you can have an education and build your body, it’s a blessing. When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed, that’s the finest I know.
“So I close in saying that I may have had a tough break, but I have an awful lot to live for. Thank You.”
I have a lot of people to thank, commend, comment on, analyse, etc., but now is not the time for written words. Now is the time to live them!
The Corner of Sadness and Lonely
Imagine, for a moment, my fist held up high, arm bent at the elbow and slapping the palm of my other hand on the biceps of the upheld arm.
That is my message to the .pl-based spammers.
I will not go away quietly!
= = = = =
On another note, I am not my blog.
In a world of analysing subcultural trends to figure out how and what will be said by whom when, there is the other side of life.
Me, the little five or ten year young boy, staring wide-eyed at the world, wondering what I’m supposed to do in this adult body, with grownup decisions to make.
…sigh…
Be a man, right? Suck it up. Every family faces tough decisions and keep them from the light of the public eye.
But I am also a writer, a journalist, at heart, if not by trade, a hobby craftsman putting these symbols together for personal and perhaps species-level entertainment.
Maybe a little enlightenment, too.
I haven’t fully recovered from the loss of my dear mother in-law and now this?
Live and learn.
Pain goes away eventually, one way or another.
The lesson today is family trumps politics every time.
Details will wait another day to be pulled out of the emotional wreck I am at this moment and scratched onto this virtual slate.
Quiet and solitude will suffice. Peace is a word, a blurry image barely discernable.
Sitting here, perplexed, not quite dejected, on the corner of Sadness and Lonely, pushing aside pride and other feelings that a person like me is supposed to personify in the image of a MAN.
Willing to cry…today, that is enough. Words from a rational viewpoint will have to wait.
…today?…is “today” a real world? I don’t know. It doesn’t sound right. Where’s my hardback edition of Encyclopedia Britannica to resolve the matter logically?
Sports Literature image of the day
Pertinent post for professional American football fans (with note from mon père/mein Vater):
Ode to my father, continued…
Here are some images in a continuing series of an ode to my father — the days when he and I attended automobile races together.
Today’s feature race:
the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach
(with a side visit to the Richard Nixon Library and birthplace);
memorabilia attached below…
The other day…
The other day, my father recounted the first snow he remembered at Christmas.
He was in the Boston area, interviewing with MIT for an undergraduate student opening.
My father was a very independent child, often, in his early teens, riding the train from Knoxville, Tennessee, to Washington, D.C., seeing the museums, going on to Norfolk, VA, to visit his father who was stationed at the naval base there and then returning in time to attend school on Monday.
To earn money, my father had a newspaper route.
So it was not a big stretch, as it might be for some, to imagine attending, let alone applying to, MIT.
Fast forward a few decades and his daughter, my baby sister, a school counselor in the Virginia public school system, just received Teacher of the Year.
As a counselor!
Wonderful news.
Soon, my sister’s son will graduate with a baccalaureate and start his postgraduate career, possibly in law school.
Where?
Well, if my father put MIT in his sights, perhaps his grandson will set a similar goal.
We’ll see.
In my parents’ empty-nest years, they’ve volunteered to serve food at the local middle school football games, sell Christmas trees for the Colonial Heights Optimist Club and give assistance to neighbours in need. They’ve attended Citizens’ Police Academy, providing support for the local Neighbourhood Watch program, as a result.
These are the examples my parents have set for their offspring, raising successful children and receiving successful grandchildren in return.
That, in a nutshell, is what life is all about. Everything else is just spare pocket change.
May all of us inspire our children to seek great achievements, just like Nanxi Liu and Annette.
And congratulations to my sister one more time!
Sweet Nothings
How many generations of kids whispering sweet nothings in their ears can an old man like me take and keep biting my tongue?
“Aww, leave ’em alone,” me wife says. “They’re going to fall out of love eventually and become ornery curmudgeons just like us soon enough.”
Good thing me wife is so wise…
How does parenting affect future adults?
Ahh…the parody, of the day, if not a lifetime: “Daddy didn’t hug me” photo series.
And a look back at military humour, just to show the progress of time is an illusion:
Like Jackie Gleason said, “Ten million comedians out of work and I’ve got to compete against the absurdity of politicians to get quality air time! Who’s gonna think I’m funny after listening to them?”
A nod to humour everywhere, including Cairo.
Maybe a little ancient air-conditioning will cool off international tensions.
Back to raising the next crop of hackers to keep our species honest, whatever that means.
Flashback, courtesy of my father, Dad
Real football -- no pads!
What do you see in a photo?
My father sees his 1966 Chrysler station wagon.
I see my racing bike which could leap over dirt ramps.
A doctor sees my broken wrist and cast.
Who sees the fashionable pants?
Who sees the helmet and cleated shoes?
The brick wall?
The potted plant?
The cracked sidewalk?
The jersey?
The window shutter?
The type of photo paper?
The date?
What else do you see in this nine-year old boy staring back at you, unable to play football because of a plaster-of-paris cast?
treetrunkdings 