• Another lesson learned in the classroom of life

    (Spare bathroom, Kauffman Household v2.3) Your tour guide through the psyche of a middle-class everyman, and the undisputed master of his domain, was studying his profile in the bathroom mirror this evening when he made an astounding discovery. Weight gain can change the shape of the human head; and with this change in shape, the eyes can be made to look closer together.

    U.S. Airways is offering one-way travel from Tampa, FL to Stockholm, Sweden for $1519.00.

  • And then there was one

    There is a fog of contentment when your child is born. Those first days in the hospital are exhausting, yet exhilarating.

    And then the baby comes home.

    By the end of the first week you are still exhausted, but by now the exhilaration has worn off, leaving just the exhaustion. Midnight feedings and three a.m. diaper changes become the rule. Six hours of sleep becomes a really good night. Caffeine becomes more important than football.

    And then it happens.

    Like something inspired by Rod Serling, you wake up to the rising sun. Just like that, another one of life’s great milestones has passed you by. Your first driver’s license, your first rated ‘R’ movie, your first time retching behind the bushes at your friend’s house after having too much to drink, and now, perhaps the best of them all, the first time your child sleeps through the night.

  • NPR listeners need not read further

    I was listening to NPR on my way home yesterday and I heard the most interesting observation. It was a listener’s comment on a previous story about cell phones, and their impact on society. The listener was a blind man, and he commented that the use of cell phones in public has lead to some confused blind folks. Prior to cell phones, a blind person could safely assume someone was talking to them, if that person was in close proximity and loudly said, “HI! HOW ARE YOU DOING?”

    You see, blind people and cell phones have something in common – people tend to speak really loud when talking to them. Now, what once was a clue that someone was talking to them has been taken away. The obvious question arises: have cell phones made blind people more aloof in public?

    I’m not advocating banning cell phone use. I’m not suggesting this is one more example of the decline of western civilization. It’s just something I never would have thought of, from the point of view of someone living a completely different life than mine. It’s funny how things can affect our lives and the lives of others, in ways we never could have possibly conceived (at least I couldn’t, anyway).