Soapbox

My Medical Riff

Sit back and enjoy a good old fashioned rant, boys and girls. Don’t sit too close though. There could be some spittle involved – unintentional, of course. I’m not going to review my medical history with you now. You’ve either been reading along and know it already, or you haven’t. Maybe you’ll get the basic idea – or not. I’m really not sorry. The other day I hit a wall. I wasn’t…
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Computer

It's 5:19 and I still have my MacBook

My MacBook wasn’t well. Its trackpad wasn’t quite right. I made an appointment with the folks at the local Apple Store to give it a look. That was at four this afternoon. I was expecting I’d have to leave it there – possibly for days. I did have to leave it there, after talking to the Apple tech and diagnosing the problem (and the solution: replacing the trackpad) – but it was less than…
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Kitchen Sink

An interesting day

Hearings kept me crazy busy yesterday and the medication let me forget about the headache. It was actually a fun morning. I thrive on days where I can lose myself in work, where time loses meaning. I love working with the Judge assigned to us, an old retired Colonel from the Marines. I enjoy talking to one of the attorneys I work with – a guy who worked as an enviromental engineer with the…
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Kitchen Sink

The ah ha moment

This is one of those posts that sounded profound and original one night at 3am… and a little less so as time passed – that, and less coherent. – – – People told me what to expect before, but I always humored them. I’m not stupid. I’d see this thing coming way before it happened to me. I wouldn’t be so easily fooled. Then a few nights ago it happened to me. We were sitting in a…
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Family and Friends

My baby sister

For the sake of this post, we’ll call her Lisa. We call her Lisa the rest of the time too, but I love the cloak and dagger stuff. Though, I suppose if I follow the metaphor through, I’ve removed the cloak and sunk the dagger. Jeez, I must be a terrible brother! Well, since she’s already uncloaked, let me tell you a little more about my baby sister. She follows the pattern set by her older…
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Kitchen Sink

All hail the beekeeper!

It turns out the bees won’t be treated so humanely after all. Back to that in a moment. First, I want to waste your time with a little narrative of this morning’s events. The wildlife expert/beekeeper came out, took a look at the bees, said, “yep, there’s a lot of bees for ya,” and went back to his truck to don his beekeeper suit. Meanwhile I ran inside to grab my camera to snap some…
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Kitchen Sink

As I wait for the beekeeper

I came home early from work today – it was a gotta go situation. I was giving a training for a small group of volunteers doing a workshop this weekend and I was starting to lose my voice. My boss was in the group, and when I appeared in his office afterwards he simply said, “bye.” I was at home sleeping, giving my body more energy to fight off invasion, when a familiar buzz woke me. It was…
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Family and Friends

Guilt, meet thy maker

A while back I wrote about a call I received in court on a really bad day. It invovled mistaken identities, my mother, and the possibility of cancer. If you recall, there was an instant when I was relieved it was my mother – because it meant it wasn’t my wife. I’d made a choice, consciously or not, and it made me feel terrible. We all make them. I don’t think we can help ourselves. I think…
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Computer

Trial, tribulation, and error

A few weeks ago, heresy showed it’s ugly face in the Kauffman household. Evil found a foothold in one of my vulnerable children. By now you know that when I speak of heresy I’m speaking of one thing: computers. Beth asked for a cheap Windows laptop. In the name of Jobs, The Woz, and The Lost Partner, I beseech you: where have I gone wrong? Because my parents were over at the time, my dad in…
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Kitchen Sink

Bringin' the bacon to work

I like crispy pig meat as much as the next guy, but after a while it gets old. After a year or two it gets really old. Truth be told, I was never really crazy for the stuff. It turns out my office is next door to a deli that dabbles in breakfast. I don’t really have an office anymore, so corral might be a better word. But wether they’re serving breakfast or lunch, they seem to conjure up a…
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