life changes

this has already been a really weird weekend for me. for the first time in a long while i've had to really act like it's weekend, rather than just another day or two. i'd been spoiled.

for a little over two years i've worked from home. meaning i could get up, brew myself a great cup of coffee, wander into my office area, turn on a computer and begin working. lots of computer work. scheduling some outside appointments. weekly out of town trip. but mostly, my time was my own. i didn't have to punch a clock, so if i wanted to mow the grass on wednesday afternoon, well, who's to say i couldn't. i needed to get my work done, but mostly the done could happen just about any time throughout the day.

so saturday and sunday weren't dramatically different than normal working days. well, i didn't do much work. sometimes a little. but the schedule remained essentially the same.

but all that changed last week when i accepted a job offer from a different company. and now it's off to a real office at 8 in the morning. and stay there til 5 or so. kind of marks the end of certain freedoms. at the same time, feels good to be back in the work-a-day world.

by friday i was really looking forward to the weekend though. just like most monday thru friday workers do. and now it's sunday, and i'm sorta sliding into a funk thinking about going back to the office monday. and tuesday. and wednesday. and so forth and so on. makes me feel like i should try to accomplish something today. but i accomplished most of my things needing accomplishing yesterday. what's left that i need to do? well, not really anything much. but whatever i don't get done today will have to wait until next weekend. i'm not sure i like being normal.

it's been a while

been a fairly long time since i've written anything real here. i can't really put a finger on just why. I guess i can blame writer's block. but i think in order to catch that disease you have to be a writer. and i doubt i have those credentials. so rather than blaming it on writer's block i'll blame it on what i call "lack of inspiration".

sometimes where you're my age it's hard to get inspired. if i get inspired once a week or so, that's plenty. and on top of that the current news trend is so uninspiring. recent news headlines include . . . jimmie carter says the republican senator who accused president barry o of lying did so because he's a racist. now just a minute now you silly old peanut farmer. how can you tell from that one statement that the guy's a racist. cause i'm thinking the same thing. the health care plan does not expressly preclude coverage for illegal aliens. not from what i've read. so me having the same thought, mister ex-president peanut farmer, does that make me a racist? i guess so, but i never felt that i've been racist. ask my buddy jimmy easter. last i saw of him he's still a black man, and a very good friend. that type of headline will uninspire anyone.

more of the same in today's headlines. obama now claims health care anger is not motivated by his race. good. good that someone realizes that. but printing that garbage as a headline makes most wonder if the anger may actually be racist motivated. why even address it if it isn't happening. it's like saying "the city water system was tested and found anthrax free." reading that wouldn't you wonder why they tested it in the first place? was maybe it laden with anthrax earlier? just starts stuff that doesn't get started.

yahoo's most prominent headline right now says "barrymore's hair matches her odd dress". forgive me if i didn't read the article, for i find no possible interest in the content. what i find peculiar is that this is the headline and story that yahoo chooses to be it's focal point. boy, our society could be in big trouble.

here's another headline i find curious. former miss california defends position on gay marriage. well, first of all, she's no longer miss california, so why is this an issue. secondly, she should not need to defend her position on this issue no more than those that believe in gay marriage, but are not in the public eye, have to defend theirs. it's what you believe. or, in her case, what she believes. should those in the public eye be called upon to defend their position if they believe in gay marriages? no. and neither should she. it's an opinion.

we all know michael jackson died (unless you're one of those that thinks they snuck his live body out of neverland or wherever the hell he was living at the time) cause it was front page news for a month or more. some of us may have noticed that walter cronkite died. cronkite was the most respected and beloved news reporter this country has ever seen. and we were reminded of his life and death for a couple of weeks. not nearly for as long as we were innundated with the king of pop's details. and who can honestly say that michael jackson had nearly as much impact on our society as a whole, on the course our media has taken, than walter cronkite. and cronkite was "normal".

speaking of death. mary travers died. that's very sad to me. peter paul and mary. puff and others. there will never be such an inspiring folk group. alas, the demise of the group may mark the demise of the music genre. very sad.

a few of us noticed that henry gibson died. if you're not my age or a little older and weren't acquainted with rowan and martin's laugh in, you didn't know henry gibson. but short little comedic actor who seemed like a pleasant enough fellow. even the day of his death he wasn't front page material. page 10 for henry gibson.

not much of a plot. not much of a theme. just some things i needed to get off my back.

and, oh, i got a new computer. toshiba laptop. with a numeric keypad. know how handy that is on a laptop when you do anything at all with spreadsheets? well, it is. and i'm liking this new laptop pretty well except about every 10th browser page locks it up. i'm told it's vista. that being the case, i don't like vista.

another new item since the last post is a new cell phone. my cell phone life has been a little zany lately. alltel, the carrier i use, is generous enough to give you a new phone every two years in exchange for you renewing your contract for another two years. or you can pay a little for a phone and get an upgraded model. well, i did that in april. got a phone with a camera (don't really need that), slide out full keyboard so i can succumb to the kids request and send and receive text messages, and even access e-mail and web browser right there on the phone screen. pretty nifty, eh?

well, it was. but this phone didn't fit in my phone holster, so i just carried it in my pocket. one day i changed my pants at mid-day (sunday, i'm doing laundry, wanted to wash the ones i was wearing) and an hour or so later wondered where my phone had got off to. and i figured it out. went on an adventure through the washing machine cycles along with my pants. cell phones don't like that kind of adventure. it quit working.

so now i'm kind of hooked on texting and e-mailing and browsing on my phone. so i call alltel and tell em my phone quit working. they asked me if there was a little red mark under the battery. yep. well, you 've gotten it wet. not covered under our warranty. i knew that, but would have listened if they'd told me it was covered.

so they've given me a free phone, they're not gonna give me another, so i gotta buy one. and i find the perfect one. motorola q, whatever that is. camera,e-mail, browsing. perfect. and priced pretty cheap. i buy it. i receive it. it doesn't work. not since alltel is merging with verizon. won't work. so, to make a long long story a bit shorter, i got another one. a blackberry. and it does it all. not sure i like it, cause it buzzes all night long to indicate i've got an e-mail message, text message, whatever. but sure makes it nice to check e-mail when you need to. now if i could just get the kids to quit sending those darned text messages.

life, so full of meaning, and here are a few

when scooter and ryno were in the eighth grade i drove them to school every morning. ryno was scooter's best friend. an equally nice kid, and both of them were wise beyond their years, likely because they spent so much time as my captive audience on those rides to and from school. they learned a lot of valuable life lessons.

the first lesson i taught them was the secret words of life. these words, so valuable, yet so simple, i explained, can be used for virtually any purpose. to woo a girl. to lift yourself when you're down. to display intelligence when those around you may be doubting you have any. and we owe it all to johnny rivers. boys, i told them, when you find a girl that you may be smitten with, look her straight in the eyes and quote this magical line . . . do doo doo wah, schooby doobie. and there you have it. you'll win that chick over before she has a chance to cover the tracks of her tears.

as scooter and ryno grew into adolescence and on into adulthood they parted paths. sad. but it's a coming of age thing. friends in eighth grade just have to drift apart sometimes. so we reached a time when i no ryno was no longer able to partake of my words of wisdom, so i simply continued to share them with scooter alone. and i grew from this act as well.

i tutored scooter on the meaning of life, the facts of life, the pratfalls of life, the virtues of life. for 22 years i've saturated his mind with meaningful, insightful tidbits of information that he will be able to draw from throughout his entire life. the kid is now nearly as sage as his old man.

and then today i learned something else. and i can't wait to share it with him. this might be the most meaningful thought since johnny rivers' famous quote. so scooter, i share it with you now. a very important rule of life - are you ready.

son, life's too short. don't sweat the petty stuff. and by all means, don't pet the sweaty stuff.

in memorium

i like geese. well, at least the canadian variety that seems to like hanging out in the humid area we call oklahoma. they're very entertaining. i like the way they waddle. i like their voices. and just watching a flock of them on the ground is quite comical. whenever we stumble on to a flock i'm always driven to smile. i really like geese.

they settle in our neighborhood park from time to time. we have a lake there. and a walking trail. and when i walk the dogs on the trail around the lake we enjoy the geese. petunia tries the chase them. for the most part they humor her and pretend to run away. she hasn't yet learned that they can turn back on her quite fiercely without notice. could be fun to watch.

one evening we were going to dinner. hon and i, my sister and brother in law. driving east on 50th street, a semi-major thoroughfare here in the city. suddenly all traffic had to stop. here, right in front of us, was a flock of geese just waddling across the four lane street. taking their time. not a care in the world. and it pleased me greatly that not only did we stop, every car in every lane stopped to allow the geese to pass. and i think everyone who witnessed the crossing was smiling. geese are just fun.

so much so am i affected by the geese that i've pretty much concluded that i, in an earlier life, was a goose myself. well, hopefully a gander. partly because i'm so amused and smitten by them and partly because i tend to walk like them, and, according to my wife, can nearly duplicate their noises. enough about that.

monday evening hon and i decided to take a walk around our neighborhood lake. we do this frequently when the weather's nice. it's a peaceful area. probably a 10 acre park with a 4 or 5 acre lake. playground equipment, volleyball, swimming pool, basketball court. kids playing and riding their bikes around the trail. ducks in the lake all the time. and on this occasion, one lone goose floating on the lake. that's unusual, for geese mate for life. unless one mate has passed, you just don't see a goose solo.

as we rounded the lake to the west and looped back east, we encountered some neighbors who asked if we'd heard a gunshot. no. apparently they had heard one about two or three minutes before we got to the park. and apparently that gun shot had killed two of my beloved geese.

we continued on the trail until we reached the site of the killing. there were a young couple who had been fishing when the shots were fired. their story was that there had been a small flock of geese hanging out near the lake. no fences, just yards blending into the park. and one old guy didn't like the geese in his yard. so much so that he came out and yelled and screamed and chased them off. and then two minutes later the young couple fishing hear a shot, and looked up just in time to see most of the flock fly off. and two stagger, then fall into the water.

the young man, justin, ran to the aid of the geese. alas, all he could do was fish the geese out of the water and lay them on the shore. they had passed.

hon cried. actually was so upset by the senseless killing that she cried. i didn't cry. i was incensed. angry it not an apt word to describe my feelings. justin was on the phone with the 911 operator. an officer would be dispatched.

some ten minutes later two of oklahoma city's finest arrived. they investigated the area and found the wad from a 12 gauge shotgun. as well as obvious markings indicating the geese had been killed by shotgun shot.

there was only one house near enough to the crime scene for a 12 gauge to have had the impact to kill two geese. the officers approached the house and knocked on the door. an elderly man came to the door - sliding patio door - and the police asked his name. he told them. they asked if he owned a shotgun. he said he didn't have to answer. they asked if they could come into his house. he refused. they asked if he had fired a shotgun at geese. he refused to answer. then he began to attack the police, "i don't like your attitude. go to hell. i don't have to tell you anything." and the cops walked away from his door.

they talked to witnesses a bit. it was obvious they were pretty mad at the old guy. they talked about having ballistics come out. they talked about calling federal game authorities. they talked about getting a search warrant. and as they asked the crowd that had grown to disburse, they indicated that they had done all the above.

i know it's a felony to discharge a firearm in the city limits. the guy should be hung for that, assuming ballistics can match the pattern in the 12 gauge wad. and the feds, from what i hear, don't take kindly to folks killing protected geese. and i don't know which makes me angrier, the killing of the geese, or the fact that this a-hole fired a shotgun into a park area where lots of people were walking and kids are playing. just insane.

so hopefully this old fella will spend at least a day or two in the slammer and pay some horrendous fine. if not, alas, it's true. there is no justice.