Dad Occupation: Not quite an exit strategy …
My daughter asked me recently to take down an embarrassing part of my LinkedIn profile, now that she links to me as a professional herself: Dad Christina's Family 1991 – Present (23 years) My most important job, and a priority ongoing project. I started out as a feeder, cuddler, diaper changer, burper, and did other repetitive menial tasks without complaint. Eventually I moved up to educator, slowly transitioning...
My One-handed, Left-handed Months: The Start of It All
Yesterday, for the first time in almost two months, I signed my signature with my right hand. Until now I've been signing it with my left hand -- backwards -- and since it's a scribble either way, no one will notice. Where do I start? On January 19th, a Sunday, I was working on some really thick reclaimed hardwood as a hat rack foot. I had just bought an extra-long blade for my jig saw, but I figured I'd save a...
“Lake Effect Blizzard of 2014”
Sometimes there's a house across the street, sometimes it's uncertain. Wind chill? My mailbox is attached to the house on the front porch and I'm probably not going to get dressed head to toe just to check it. Pajamas, bacon chowder, call my Dad, catch up on blogging. Maybe take down some Christmas decorations now that Little Christmas is passed. That's the plan. And I'm okay with that.
Space: 1999
I used to watch [[Space: 1999]] as a child and it inspired some of my earliest sci-fi fantasies. At about 6 years old, I crushed on Barbara Bain, and even wrote her a letter, the response of which, lip stick and all, was probably ghost-written by my mom. A few years later, around 8th Grade, I wore a Moon Base Alpha patch on my jacket, and got much ridiculed for it. This year we finally found it on Netflix (or more...
Garlic, Take Two
Just planted four cloves, barely under the dirt and covered by a thick layer of used guinea pig shavings. As per a friend's advice (Russell, the father-in-law of the current head of my lodge, and a WWII vet), I meant to plant them closer to Columbus Day, but got side-tracked. It's been a very raining late summer, and we just ripped out the last of the plants, harvesting the remainder of green tomatoes and such. The...
Gericho Loop
I actually dreamed about this. Literally. In my dream, I was talking to a client who wanted me to do something for them they heard about -- taking a website viewer somewhere else to do something before going to the target of a link. They said it was all the rage. Apart from advertising interstitials, I never heard of such a thing, especially the way it was described. In the course of the dream, I discovered it was...
Mug Handles, Revisited
Ah, nothing so taken for granted in our society than mug handles. Unexamined. Unchallenged. Unergonomic. They compress the fingers and are awkward on the wrist. Most long-standing functional objects have been perfected in times of yore. Well I don't want your daddy's mug. I want something that you can carry liquid lead around in without overburdening the top of your index finger or giving you carpal tunnel. My...
A Week Without Facebook
I posed the question of being on Facebook too much --- on Facebook. Someone said if I wanted to know if I was addicted to it, I should just quit it for a week. So I did. No blood pact or promise or fanfare or proclamation. I just stopped outright visiting. I still had Foursquare and other apps and sites post on my behalf, but not directly using it was easier than I thought. I had a few (but surprisingly few)...
May Its Spirit Fly
A baby bird passed away today. Merry was trying to nurse it to health, feeding it baby food with a syringe. It didn't seem to have its eyes opened, and never unfurled its wings. We buried it respectfully in the landscaping of the pond I was working on. I will always remember its body is there, but will always picture it free from the constraints of the physical world, finally in flight, weightless, among the astral...