Current Events

Welcome back to reality

The last several days seem like a surrealistic haze. A hurricane will do that to you. I spent Wednesday wondering if a storm would come this way. I spent Thursday walking around thinking about how much my surroundings would change in the next day or two. Thursday afternoon my employer let us off early to get ready for the storm. I went home and asked my wife if she thought I should skip the…
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Current Events

Battery run

My office is empty, or nearly so. Here’s a scene from my office earlier this morning, “Yeah, they’re expecting it to be a category two storm by the time it makes its forecasted landfall in the Tampa Bay area sometime tomorrow afternoon” “Wait a minute; you’re saying there’s a hurricane?” The office emptied out faster than you could say “preparedness.” By the way, if you are…
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Kitchen Sink

The calm before the tropical weather advisory

I really wish it would just rain already. It’s been three weeks since I last rode my bike to work. We’ve had three weeks of high rain probabilities and sporadic engagements that require my car during the day. Yet the last several days have been mostly sunny, and it’s driving me bonkers. The sun has been shining in my window all morning, uninterrupted, mocking me. Don’t you just hate it…
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Beth

Hands held high

On the first day of second grade my daughter said to me: “I liked my teacher, but she asked me to stop raising my hand so much.” Now my curiosity was piqued. “What were you saying to your teacher when you raised your hand Beth?” “Well, one time I told her I liked her shoes.” It was like the fog cleared from the shore and I could see for miles. The image of Beth raising her hand to…
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Going for Broke

Bugs, bug men, and that damn a/c unit

So how was your Friday? I got a call from Cheryl on Friday afternoon saying the termite inspection turned up some bad news. I was just getting over digesting that lump of coal when she called back to say the termite guy saw something wrong with the a/c unit in the attic. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The end of the work day did not bring a reprieve. I get home and the…
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Current Events

Please pardon my reflection

The other day I overheard a conversation about politics, and it led to some self-reflection. Why am I a partisan hack? Why do I so often use this space to spew left leaning politics? Here’s why. 1. As I see it, the Democratic party is the party of equal rights, and the government’s essential role in protecting those rights. This may turn out to be a bit of an oversimplification, but in…
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Family and Friends

We need a judges ruling in the kitchen please

“John, did you clean off the stove when you cleaned up after dinner?” (John is currently responsible for lots of domestic duties, not just because his wife is incapacitated with child, but because he is a swell guy.) “No.” “Why not. You know that this is part of the agreed upon dinner clean-up procedure.” “Well Cheryl, I’m an imperfect man living in an imperfect world.” If you…
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Beth

While I’ve got the time,

I’m looking out the window that someone at my salary level has no right having. I’m looking at the sun peaking out from between the clouds, and it’s like being smacked in the face with a metaphor. This morning, unlike the mornings of the last three weeks, was a ’50s sitcom morning. The only missing image was me in a suit and tie. The only mismatched image was Cheryl’s Amazing Inflatable…
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Kitchen Sink

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Something very strange has happened to me this morning. I had settled down into what had been a pretty typical rainy workday morning. I was peacefully plugging away at my desk, quietly jamming to the output of my too cool iPod, when suddenly, and inexplicably, I find my desk eerily barren. My pile of emergencies is gone. My low priority problem pile has similarly vanished. My shelf of garden…
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