Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Keys on a Key Ring

What is it about a key ring full of a zillion keys that makes it magical to me? I just read a poem called "When I Am Old" by Ray Nargis. One line is

And have a key ring with about a hundred keys
And I won't know what any of them open and I won't care.


When I was a kid I loved finding old keys, especially if nobody knew what they opened. It was like magic - this key opens something, maybe something wonderful, but nobody knows what it is. Perhaps that knowledge was lost in time. Perhaps it was meant never to be found. Was it treasure, buried in the clutter of our basement? Did it open something in the old three-flat we used to live in? Did it turn on some secret machinery?

I have a container of keys at home, on my desk. I don't know what some of them are for, any longer, or where they came from. One of these days, I'm going to walk around the house with them all, trying to find out what they open. Some are obviously house keys; some are car keys. I don't really expect to find anything to open with them. but the smaller keys - that's a hunt I can look forward to!

I hope one of them doesn't open my own, personal Pandora's Box.

Monday, November 5, 2007

Time to Get Serious About Losing weight

You read the title; I don't need to repeat it. At fifty-one years of age it’s time to get down to the weight my doctor proposed for me: 235 lbs. I’ve already joined Weight Watchers, but haven’t been really been “into” (apologies to the Quotation Police) losing weight, haven’t really been serious, until today.

So, what’s on the menu?

Breakfast
10 oz. OJ
1 ½ c. oatmeal, with brown sugar (2 rounded tsp) and a pat of butter
water
1 small Gala apple

Do I need to cut down the brown sugar? Yes, I suppose so. But oatmeal is only palatable when sugar and milk/butter are added. I’ll figure the WW (Weight Watchers) points out a little later, and update this as the day progresses.

Yes, I also know I need to exercise!

Lunch
mixed greens (salad)
sprinkling of shredded cheese
sprinkling of sunflower seeds
carrot sticks
1 hardboiled egg
1/2 c. cottage cheese
1/2 c. red kidney beans
4 Snackwell sandwich cookies

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

My Favourite Things . . . Re-Visited

Big German pretzels and beer in tall glasses,
Served by voluptuous, Dirndl-clad lasses;
Big ol’ cheeseburgers, a side of hot wings;
These are a few of my favourite things.

Rocky and Bullwinkle, Barney and Andy;
Playing piano and Fannie May candy;
Any song cute Kristin Chenoweth sings;
These are a few of my favourite things.

Fawn pugs and black pugs, lower the boom, Clancy!
Charlie Brown’s Christmas and my little Nancy;
Chicago Bear football and Super Bowl rings;
These are a few of my favourite things.

When the Cubs lose,
When my car breaks,
When I’m feeling sad
I simply remember my favourite things
And then I don’t feel so bad!


Why re-visited? Well, for a couple of reasons, but let me also indicate that I changed a line. Line two: "Dirndl-clad lasses" was a bit different last time. If you'd like to know why, read on!

First, I visited Munich this past September. I stayed in the Freisinger Hof, a very nice hotel, and one in which the staff wears the Dirndl, a traditional German dress. (Thus, the change in the line.) I also had some good German beer, in tall glasses, even!

Second, the Cubs lost again. 'Nuff said.

Third, "cute Kristin Chenoweth" is in a new show on ABC - Pushing Daisies.

All these things made me think of . . . my favourite things!

I should probably write a new verse or two, too . . .

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

A Reflection

"I do most of my work sitting down; that's where I shine."
- Humorist Robert Benchley

I do most of my work sitting down, as I
Am a computer programmer. Not
A desirable job, to say the least, rather
I consider myself to be just another

Tradesman, plying his trade like any
Other would do, driving nails, bending
Pipe (of one variety or another), tarring
Roofs of buildings, plowing furrows . . .

A computer is just another tool,
Is it not? Like a hammer, a saw, an anvil
(Though perhaps much more like an anvil
Or an anchor than I’d like it to be.)

Some days, like today, I rather wish I
Was Garrison Keillor, Teller of Tales
Of Lake Wobegon, or Harry Connick, Jr.,
A Singer of Popular Songs . . . but I’m not.

Not that I don’t shine, sometimes;
Sometimes I impress with the speed
At which I pound out code, fingers
Lighting the keyboard on fire, Logic

Firing on all synapses, it’s all there
Before me, like the world laid out at
The feet of Christ himself. For a time
I have it All Together; I am Happy.

Arbeit Macht Frei, nicht? A Self-
Sacrifice in the form of endless labor.
Or should a sign be posted:
Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter Here.

For this is not the sacrifice Christ
Made for us; the means of salvation.
This is the sacrifice of time away from
Those we love, to be able to support

Those we love. And realizing that, it
Seems evident and abvious that
I cannot really be Happy, even in
The minor successes of working.

But I am often Happy sitting down
Wife next to me on the sofa, watching
Dancing with the Stars, rubbing her
Feet, and, quietly, loving her.

Monday, September 17, 2007

Day 9 :: Prague, Copenhagen and Home

This is the Day Nine posting. Since it's not day nine yet, I don't have anything to post, so consider this a placeholder. Watch for the pictures!

Day 8 :: Prague

This is the day eight placeholder; posting to follow.

Day 7 :: Prague

The is the Day Seven placholder; posting to follow.

Day 6 :: Prague

This is the Day Six placeholder; post to follow.

Friday, September 14, 2007

Day 5: Munich & Prague

I'm writing this not at the end of the day, or looking back from the next day. Rather, I'm writing this on the train to Prague. I've just completed the first leg, where, surprise!, I had to de-train and switch to the Prague Express (or such as it might be called) in Regensburg. The sun is now streaming through the windows on my right, practically blinding me, but at least I'm on the train I'm supposed to be on.

The helpful support staff at our Munich office booked my trip for me, for which I'm grateful, but I assumed from the booking, and then the ticket, that it was straight through; a non-stop trip through the countryside. Silly me, I didn't pick up a schedule or a route map in the Munich Hauptbahnhof (train station). Important Safety Tip: PICK UP A SCHEDULE AND/OR ROUTE MAP IN THE TRAIN STATION!!! Fortunately, the rail company is efficient enough to have us de-train on platform 5 and re-board on platform 4, and the two are connected. Also fortunate for me, I know Eb bisschen Deutsch. Really fortunate for me: the conductor spoke English and told me what to do. As we entered the station I heard her announce that we were to go to Gleis 4 to board the train for Prague.

And, lo and behold, she's on this train, as well. She just passed by. Didn't even ask for my ticket . . . she's already seen it and me.

So now, let me describe the countryside. The area around Munich is basically flat. Western Illinois flat. You can see small groves of trees, but basically it's farm fields once out of Munich central. That slowly gives way to rolling hills, and many more railroad cuts, which somewhat limits my viewing of the countryside, but that's okay. There's a lot of greenery, and some of the trees have turned to what I know as Jack Pines - straight, tall pine trees that lose most of their lower branches, so they can be bare from the ground to twenty feet up or so. And they're close together. (The lower limbs must grow then die and fall off, leaving a lot of stubs, which are broken and stick out just en ought that if you're not careful, well, let's just say you don't want to run into the bottom of a Jack Pine.)

But mostly there's still farm fields. A lot are now bare, but many still have corn planted on them. The corn is not sweet corn - it's used as animal feed. I asked at the Munich office. Seems they don't have the right something to grow sweet corn. My father tells a story about German POW's, brought to Kansas during World War II to help with the harvest. This isn't slave labor; it's hard work rewarded with a decent meal. Seems the folks cooked up a lot of sweet corn, perfectly acceptable as part of the dinner, but the Germans wouldn't eat it. They called it "Pig Food". Too bad for them; I probably would have called it delicious. Just roll it in butter and you're ready to go!

Here's another announcement over the train's loudspeaker: nope, can't really understand that one, either. I get bits and pieces, but I'm really, really glad that (so far, at least) my travel needs have been met by the very many people who speak English here in Germany and in Denmark. We're pulling into Schwandorf . . .

Back to the countryside. Before we pulled into Rosenberg, we must have passed a fields of onions. The smell was quite strong . . . it had to be. When I was young, we drove through one western state or another that grew onions and the aroma (not stench - I love onions!) was quite distinct. And I believe that I saw the beginning of what might have been called foothills off to the east, but I don't really know if we're climbing higher as we move into the Czech Republic or not. Have to wait and see on that one.

We seem to have a short wait here. I just moved from a rear-facing set to a forward-facing one that has a table. There are over 50 seats in this train car, but there are only four people, total, in it. Nobody else has stepped in here at our stop. The seats are nice and wide, and spaced far apart, too! First class travel by rail beats coach air travel any day, in my book. Oh, and a good-sized bathroom, too!

At 19:00, that catches me up on the trip so far. Let me talk about the rest of the day. Some of us were able to "sleep in" a little bit (not me - up at 05:30 local) as we had dinner in the Freisinger Hof's restaurant last night. It must be good - it was completely booked. We couldn't get a table for five at 19:00; we had to wait for 20:00. And it was full! Not a table or an extra chair to be had, which is too bad for the two people from the company who tried to join us at the last minute. The staff was quite clear that it was impossible to add two more people; were we going to leave? Nope. We apologized to our co-workers, but stayed and ate.

And what a dinner it was! I really enjoy a good Wiener Schnitzel, but I have to say i haven't had one as good as what I had last night . . . ever! Everyone's food was delicious, from the salad to the, well, nobody had room for dessert (and I was going to get a selection of cheeses if anyone was up for anything). I'm really, really hopeful that, some day, I can bring my wife back to Munich to the very hotel I stayed in. It was gorgeous! She would love the flower boxes, the flowers in the lobby, the decor in the rooms, the chocolates on the pillow, the china (especially the tea cups) at the breakfast tables, the friendly staff. I just can't say enough!

Uh-oh. Another announcement. We're being delayed for what I think is signal trouble for 50 minutes? Can that be right? No - it's 25. Time to grab something from the store on the platform.

Okay, just magazines: Fotographie, Sport, Erotika . . . I'll pass. Nothing to spend calories on un-wisely, though.

A couple more cars just joined up with us. Quite a band and bump, if you weren't waiting for it. I watched them get everything hooked up, thinking that we were adding a few cars from the next train. Then we started moving . . . backwards! Hmmm, this is either gonna make me late, or make me waaaaay late. I hope they know a way around the broken signals. Oh, and three German police just walked by, down the aisle. What does that mean?

Okay, I just asked the (new?) conductor, who doesn't speak much English, if this train gets to Prague tonight. Here's why the safety tip above is so important - we were supposed to arrive in Schwandorf, then pull out just as we did, backwards, and head to Prague after adding a couple of cars. He said the trouble was with the train from Frankfort to Schwandorf; it was late so we had to wait for it. Heck . . . if I could've understood the German I guess I would've known right away. Title this: international rail travel for the un-educated.

Looks like we're on target to be thirty minutes late. We're down to three people in the car, by the way.

Now it's 20:10, and we're traveling in the dark, though the coach is well-lit, so I can't see outside well at all. It seems to me that the ground has gotten higher, and we seemed to be running parallel to a river for a while, but I think that's gone. So much for describing the landscape.

Passport control just came through. I haven't a clue what the man said, but I gave him my passport, as I saw he was checking that of the man behind me. The stamp is for a exit from Germany. I wonder if I get a second for entry to the Czech Republic? And if he was speaking Czech, I certainly didn't understand word one . . . There's a whistle and the closing of doors. Looks like we're off! I knew we'd stop for a passport check, but I thought I'd get a Czech Republic entry stamp, not a German exit one. Got my train ticket stamped a second time, too. That stop was at the border, I guess. On to Praha! (The Czech spelling for the city which is spelled, alternately, "Prague" in English, and "Prag" in German.)

The rail car has cooled-off nicely, now. It was hot before. And the first compartment I was in - a sauna! Fortunately, I was alone in a compartment that seated six, so I turned off the heat using the control nob for that cabin and opened the window. I won't open a window now; it might get too cold.

It's now 21:00 . . . will we get to Prague at 21:45 (or so), the time I saw on the Deutsche Bahn web site, or at 22:45 or so, the time my itinerary says I'll get there. I hope Prague is in a time zone one hour further along than Munich, because that will mean that I'll be getting there sooner than I thought. If not, it's going to be a real stretch to stay awake the whole time! Oh, heck, I just checked the time settings on my PC and it's the same time zone as Munich. Shall I simply drift off - I can't see anything anyway. I guess time will tell!

OK . . . 21:25. I've drifted in-and-out a couple of times, but am still pretty much awake. Get the PC out - that'll help. I've been up for sixteen hours now, with what looks like at least two more to go. We've just stopped in a city, now, but I didn't catch any signs. Ah, we're in Plzen, or Pilsen, if you prefer the German and English spelling. This is the home of, yes, Pilsener beer! But that's more of a type of beer nowadays, not a brand. If I only had one or two of those . . . I'd be asleep. Looks like we've got a bit of an extended stay here, too. The stop here in Plzen is the "Halvni Nadrazi" - i believe that's equivalent to the German "Hauptbahnhof" (main train station) in Czech, as the station at which we're terminating in Prague is the "Hlvani Nadrazi". (By the way, I've left off the punctuation over the "i" in "Hlavni" and the first "a", "z" and "i" in "Nadrazi".)

We just added one more to our car, but it appears as if he's staggering a little. Too much Pilsener?

A small aside: it appeared to me that after we entered the Czech Republic the train was held to a lower speed than what we were doing in Germany. I mean, we were moving along! When we passed another train (going the other way) it was whoosh! and gone. It seems that the tracks are a little less even, we're swaying a bit more and the ride is a bit bumpy. Perhaps they're not suited for the speed we achieved in Germany. It is night now, though - are trains supposed to travel slower at night, much like the day/night speed limits for trucks on some US expressways?

If I could go back and do anything different about this train ride, I'd go back and buy an extra bottle of water, I'd have something to eat (though I wasn't really hungry before boarding) and I'd have bought something to munch on during the ride. I've only got a package of M&M's I'm bringing for Kerry from her friend Lisa and some chocolate mints I bought in Germany to break a 20-Euro note. Can't eat the M&M's and I've had 5-6 mints already. Too much of that good thing would be bad.

Another stop; this one is Rokycany. Boy, the brakes are squeaking! No new passengers in this car. The conductor just came through and asked a sleeping Mr. Pilsener for his ticket. Looks like he's got one, but in second class, and he's being sent to the other part of the train car. And that's another interesting feature of this train - first and second class. First class definitely has nicer seats (and six to a compartment with a sliding door on the first train, which helps keep the noise down if the train is full). First class is also guaranteed a seat, which is why I bought a first-class ticket. (Of course, with the company paying for my air travel, I could afford the 77 Euros for the train.) But there are both first and second class seats in each train car. One section for each, split (I think) down the middle. Makes good sens, when yo think about it. There's no reason a train would have to be split up into so many cars all first class and so many cars all second class, like an airplane's sectioned off from front-to-back, first class to steerage, er, that is, coach.

Just passed 22:00, and I guess this typing is going to keep me awake. I hope and pray my co-workers made it to London. They were due in two hours ago, I think, staying overnight near Heathrow for a somewhat-early return flight to Chicago on Saturday morning. My own return is Tuesday, first a 10:00 flight to Copenhagen, then a 15:30 flight to Chicago, and a limo ride home. I have exactly four hours to lay-over. Time to eat lunch, grab a magazine or a book, buy a snack of some kind for the 8-hour flight home and wait for a short while at the gate.

I was told that the trick of flying to Europe is in sleeping on the plane, then staying up all day and going to sleep at your regular time; regular time, that is, at your destination. The trick on coming home, I'm told (though it didn't work for me last time), is not to sleep on the return flight, but go to sleep at the normal time at home. That means I'll get up by 6:30 and go to bed at the equivalent of 29:00. Will it work this time? Maybe I'll sleep until I wake up, then go into work. At least for one day.

22:20 This stop: Horovice (yes, there's some punctuation missing). This is the first stop I've seen where a signalman is out with a lantern.

I took a few pictures of the Munich station - I left at 16:45, right during the heart of rush hour. What a busy place! Many, many different tracks (1-36 upstairs but even more downstairs). A nice young lady helped me navigate through the screens of the ticket machine. You don't get an actual ticket, any more, from your travel agent - just a code number. Find out how to enter the secret code and you just may get your ticket! Actually, had I understood their English translation of the German terminology, I'd have been able to get the thing myself. It's easy . . . once you know how!

22:40 We were supposed to be there in five minutes. Hope Kerry sees that we're delayed, and that it's posted how much longer it will take (25 minutes?). I was looking at the map of the area around Prague; it seems that the train line winds way south of the city, then runs roughly parallel with the Vlatav river for a while before crossing it. The train line literally loops back on itself - is it climbing a steep grade, perhaps? It seems like we're climbing, to me. And moving pretty good, now, too. Need to build up speed to get up the hill?

22:56 There's the bell! That means a stop is near. And as we're definitely in town, will it be the terminus, or a local stop? Local stop: Prichoo K Nastupisti. Let's see how many more locals there are.

Have we exported graffiti, maybe? It was present in Munich and it's present here. Some was even present on buildings in the middle of nowhere in Germany. Some of it's pretty cool, but some of it is just nonsense. Looks just like back home, though.

Boy, the train is making a lot of noise! Seems like we went through a tunnel. Hey, here's our stop!

Off the train, down the stairs - there's my daughter! We took one metro line down one stop, took the other to the end, found the tram after a mistake in direction (my fault) and got to the hotel. What a day!

I'll update the other posts (Days 3 and 4) and get them out some time after this weekend, unless I get in a writing mood. At 2880 words, this is a post-zilla! Probably a record for this guy . . .

Day 4: Munich

This is a placeholder for Day 4's blog - eventually to follow.

Day 3: Fredensborg & Helsingor

This is a placeholder for Day 3's blog entry - eventually to follow.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Day 2 :: Fredensborg & Helsingor

My co-workers (Heidi, John and Pantelis) arrived in Copenhagen on the best of their flights so far, got the biggest rental car they could find and drove to the Park Inn to pick me up. I was waiting in the lobby, of course, and was ready with my two bags and two bottles of water. Off we went, through Copenhagen to Fredensborg.

Reflecting on my stay at the Park Inn, one thing that comes to mind is how kind and helpful all of the staff were. I didn't encounter a single person who wasn't willing to provide any help that I needed, from figuring out how the lights were turned on (see my previous post) to patiently answering that, yes, you could pay for two bottles of water with a credit card (I haven't exchanged any dollars for Danish Kroner).

We arrived at the plant in good shape, after negotiating several areas of construction along the highway, with its already-narrow lanes. Perhaps the guy who runs Denmark's road system is from Chicago (where we have two road seasons: winter and construction). Hollister Dansac is located in a small industrial area off the main road. The street you take to the plant is somewhat hidden; we missed it on the first pass. and, yes, it's narrow, as well. Considering the much longer history of Denmark (after all, where I live still isn't fully built-up) I guess these roads hosted a lot of horse traffic in the not-so-recent past.

Dinner was at a Restaurant da Oscar, a nice Italian restaurant in town. I had a half-liter Carlsberg beer, tomato soup and a beef dish seasoned with peppercorns, oven-broiled potatoes, cauliflower, some kind of vegetable pate' that I can't begin to identify (though it was good), sorbetti and coffee. I'm not going hungry, that's for sure. Water has to be asked for, though it was brought out by the pitcher when we did. I caught some good-natured ribbing from the waiter when I wasn't sure of what to order (there were eight of us) and he had to pass me by, both for the appetizer and the main course. (I was sharing a menu with John, and hadn't really made a selection when we started to order.) The waiter said something like "we often have to wait on the women", to which I replied, "I don't know about that, I'm from Chicago", so I was called "Chicago" from that point forward.

Our room reservations were at the hotel Marienlyst, which is much nicer than the Park Inn. For some reason - probably because I was a late addition to the trip - I got a two-room suite. Not bad - two flat panel TV's, a mini-bar (which I never touch), a separate mini-fridge, a nice desk and such. The bed was layed out in what I now know to be typical European style, with a bedspread and two separate comforters (we might call them feather beds). The pillows are square and not at all dense.

This hotel has a casino, for which we were given a couple of chps. Will have to try to spend them tomorrow. There's also an indoor water park - though I'm not sure if it's a full park or a dressed-up swimming pool. Another thing to visit.

It's the end of a pretty long day, so I guess that'll be it for now.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Day 1 :: Copenhagen

Tuesday morning, 11 Sep 2007

I'm sitting in the lobby of the Park Inn here in Copenhagen (that's Copen-hay-gen to the Danish, Copen-hah-gen to the Germans, I was corrected by the agent reviewing my passport) at the beginning of the second day of my trip.

I flew SAS for a second time - it's a very nice airline. Sat in the middle section of four-across seating, though, and didn't sleep much, or well when I did. We had a late dinner and an early breakfast, and both were very good. My daughter flew British Airways to Prague recently, and arrived hungry. Not so with SAS.

In any case, I found a taxi when I landed and made it to my hotel. Small, small car - I'm a few inches over 6 foot, and barely could squeeze myself into the back seat. I'm close to the airport and far from downtown. Took a nice walk over to the ocean, though. Day was cool (60's farenheit, I'd say) with a little sprinkle of rain. The beach looked quite nice, though nobody was there swimming. I'm sure the water was quite cool, as well. Being far from downtown wasn't bad - I had wanted to try to see a few sights, but it turns out to have poured rain later in the afternoon.

The hotel has a nice restaurant and bar. I had trout for dinner, with some small red potatoes. It was really quite good. Their breakfast this morning was good, as well. It kind of puts the "Continental Breakfast" we receive at US hotels to shame. They offered all kinds of things: meats and cheeses, including thuringers and danish summer sausage, real scrambled eggs (not powdered), kashi cereal, large rolls with butter and jam, juices and coffee. They don't seem to be too worried about their butter; they seem to be rather proud of it!

Guess I needed my sleep last night. Ten hours! I haven't slept that long for quite some time. 'Course, I slept little on the plane, so when I dropped into bed last night I had gone from 5:30 AM Sunday to about 3:30 PM Monday (10:30 PM in Denmark) on what . . . two hours sleep . . . maybe?

Other observations: lots of English is spoken here. By the people working at the hotel, those eating near me in the restaurant (some French, some German, some Danish) and on the radio. In fact, except for the announcer, you'd think I was in the States. (All rap, too; what's up with that?) The lady at the front desk (or what passes for a "desk" - two kiosks) spoke not with a Danish accent, but with a decidedly British one.

When I was in Las Vegas earlier this year, and it was time to return to the airport, my wife and I noticed two tour busses parked near the smaller hotel shuttle bus. They were soon filled with people from the far east, touring the area (Hoover Dam, et al). This morning I came downstairs to piles of suitcases stacked at one side of the lobby waiting for - two tour busses filled with people from the far east.

Oh, and the "exchange" here at the hotel is quite slanted in the hotel's favor. where I get an exchange rate of 5.4 DKK per dollar on Yahoo!, the hotel is offering 4.85 DKK per dollar. That looks to be a 10% commission . . . is that usual? Think I'll have to find out. Of course, if I continue to use my corporate card and purchase directly, I get the best exchange rates.

A little about energy use: Lots of bicycles here. What I think of as 1960's vintage - balloon tires, no extra gears (single speed), coaster brakes, baskets. I saw one lady biking down the street with what appeared to be a 4x4x4 basket on the front and her small child standing in it (where was my camera?), complete with zippered canvas top and sides.

The hotel has signs asking you to be careful about how much water you're using to shower, with an explanation that only 10% of the world's water can be used for drinking. And another feature that I've never seen before - in order to turn the lights on in your room, you stick your plastic key into the slot of a switch that runs all of the lights. Take your key with you when you leave and all of the lights go off. I guess that's not a bad idea (think of all the lights kept on in Las Vegas all night!); I've just never seen it before.

It's been a little over 45 mnutes since my co-workers flight landed at CPH. They're picking up a car and meeting me here for the ride to our company's facility in Fredensborg. With the need to get through customs, get their luggage, arrange for the rental car and drive over here I think I've got a few more minutes to wait. But I think I'll complete this post and switch over to Sudoku for the remainder of the wait. 'til later, then . . .

Saturday, September 1, 2007

On to Europe!

I got word last week that I'm to be sent to Denmark and Germany on business. But the best part will be my side-trip to Prague, in the Czech Republic, where I'll be able to see my daughter about one week after she's moved over to teach English!

As my former co-worker used to say, "How cool is that?"

Thursday, August 30, 2007

The Bird on the Sidewalk

I found a bird on the sidewalk
Just outside of the hospital
The new building of the hospital
The Busse Center (or is it Centre?)

I couldn't tell if it was live
Or dead (the bird, that is
For a hospital is certainly
Both alive and dead at the same

Time, especially when you hear
Code blue or the music that's
Played when a new baby is born
And it’s cute when it plays

Two or three times in a row
And you finally “get it” and
Realize that, congratulations!
It’s twins or triplets)

The poor bird, though, was just
Lying on the sidewalk, and I
Couldn’t tell if it was dead or simply
Stunned like the parrot in the

Monty Python skit (“it’s stunned,
You stunned it”, “the Norwegian
Blue loves kippin’ on it’s back”,
“It’s pinin’ for the fjords”, “It’s
Not pinin’, it’s passed on”) from

What, thirty-three years ago? That
Would be at Northern Illinois
University in 1974, a freshman
Destined never ever to graduate

And now it’s too late, but for
The bird it might not be, so I
Place it, gently, underneath a bit
Of shrubbery, protected from

Others walking by who might
Throw it in the trash, so that
Maybe it wakes up and lives . . .
Just like the rest of us

A Poem :: Sonnet

Sonnet

The late Gracie Allen was a very lucid comedienne,
Especially in the way that lucid means shining and bright.
What her husband George Burns called her illogical logic
Made a halo around our syntax and ourselves as we laughed.

George Burns most often was her artful inconspicuous straight man.
He could move people about stage, construct skits and scenes, write
And gather jokes. They were married as long as ordinary magic
Would allow, thirty-eight years, until Gracie Allen's death.

In her fifties Gracie Allen developed a heart condition.
She would call George Burns when her heart felt funny and fluttered
He'd give her a pill and they'd hold each other till the palpitation
Stopped - just a few minutes, many times and pills. As magic fills
Then fulfilled must leave a space, one day Gracie Allen's
heart fluttered
And hurt and stopped. George Burns said unbelievingly to the doctor,
"But I still have some of the pills."

Alice Notley

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Recap: What's Up For This Year?

It’s been a good year so far, though some of what I thought might happen didn’t and, of course, other things did. Here’s what I thought would go on, and how those things turned out:

  • Jan - Phil Keaggy in Rockford, IL

    Missed it. Couldn’t get anyone else to go – was it the Winter weather?


  • Jan - Visit to Hope College in Holland, MI

    Didn’t go until March.


  • Feb - Annual sales meeting in San Diego, CA

    Got there. Fly in, stay a night, fly out. Pretty nice weather, though, and our training sessions went well. Had a nice dinner after our training was complete, at a restaurant directly out of the 1950’s, on the bay.


  • Mar - Church band to Heartside in Grand Rapids, MI

    Happy we could make this one. Daughter Amy had an internship at Heartside, and we were happy to bring (a smaller version of) the church band there for their store-front service.


  • Mar - SAP BW and Portals Conference in Las Vegas, NV

    Nancy went with me to this conference, the third year I’ve gone and the first she has. Conference was minimally exciting (I’m not planning on going again next year), but was able to spend time with Nancy and her cousin leroy and his wife Jerri. Our conference hotel was the Venetian – absolutely gorgeous, especially in the very expensive room we got due to arriving late on Sunday after all of the “standard” rooms were given out.


  • Apr - Visit Aunt Yolie in San Antonio, TX

    I didn’t go down to San Antonio this year, but Nancy and her sister Linda did. Glad they got to spend time with Aunt Yolanda and their cousin Harv. Nancy bought her dad a book about the San Antonio River Walk, as her parents really enjoy San Antonio, as well. When Nancy showed Aunt Yolanda a picture of her Aunt – Rosita Fernandez, “San Antonio's First Lady of Song” – Aunt Yolie pointed out that the little girl in the picture with Rosita was her!


  • May - Graduation at Hope College in Holland, MI

    Two down, two to go . . . what else can I say?


  • May - Open friends' cabin in Land O' Lakes, WI

    A beautiful weekend “Up North”. Take a look at this map link and you’ll see how far north in Wisconsin we were.


  • Jun - Church band to Pecatonica, IL

    Played at a Lutheran church out west of Rockford, IL, in our music director’s home town.


  • Jul - Family reunion in St, Louis, MO

    Cancelled!


  • Aug - Vacation in Land O' Lakes, WI

    We went in July, over the Independence Day holiday. What a great time! But by the end of the week it was hot, hot, hot! Ninety-some degrees in a climate where daily highs can only reach into the low 60’s at times (like our first vacation trip Up North several years ago).

Reprise: I Think It's Time To Hang Up The Wenches

My daughter has my 2002 Honda Civic now. She lives in Michigan, about 200 miles from home. She called recently to let me know that the brakes were making noise, and that she was worried about them. Eventually, we agreed that she would take the car to the mechanic her boyfriend’s parents use (and trust), and I’d talk to them after they’d completed an estimate of the work that needed to be done.

They called a couple of days later and told me that the car needed pads, rotors and calipers on the front and shoes and new drums on the rear. Total price: $700.

Now, I know I said that I thought it was time to put the wrenches away a while back (7 Jan 2007), but when I called the local auto parts store and found out that the total cost for parts was only $230 – and I’ve done all of the work that needed to be done on different Honda cars at some time or another – I decided to do it myself, inspired by the approximately $470 in savings.

Happily, there’s no real down-side to this story, except that the Chilton manual is wrong on how it instructs you to re-install the back brakes (it can’t be done on the 2002 Civic, at least). Oh, and I cursed myself out for being too stupid to figure out how to stretch the top spring across from one shoe to the other (I’m sure there’s a tool I don’t have that would have been useful).

I finished the second part of the job last night – the front brake repair – and I have to say that, after driving the car to work today with no ill effects detected (and the car stopping like . . . something that stops . . . well) I feel pretty good about getting the job done!

Quotations V3.01

Ran across this one in the March 2005 Smithsonian ["Where East Met (Wild) West"] about the excavation in Deadwood, South Dakota's old Chinatown, which dates from the 1870's.

"These people had names. They had faces. These people were alive."
- Rose Estep Fosha

Friday, July 13, 2007

Quotations V3.00

A new, and timely, quotation from French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau, who participated in writing the Treaty of Versailles at the end of World War I. At bottom . . .


"Luck is when preparation meets opportunity."
-- Drummer Neil Peart of Rush

"I don't have to write about the future. For most people, the present is enough like the future to be pretty scary."
-- Science Fiction Writer William Gibson

"Never forget, even if you win at the rat race of life, you are still a rat."
-- as quoted by Prof. Dianne Porfleet, Hope College

"There is not enough time to do all the nothing we want to do."
-- Cartoonist Bill Watterson

"Just to live in the country is a full-time job. You don't have to do anything. The idle pursuit of making a living is pushed to one side, where it belongs, in favor of living itself, a task of such immediacy, variety, beauty, and excitement that one is powerless to resist its wild embrace."
-- Writer E. B. White

"It is much easier to make war than peace."
-- French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Quotations V 2.00

A few quotes I find interesting. Will update this when I find a new quote worth saving . . . and that's today, already!

"Luck is when preparation meets opportunity."
-- Drummer Neil Peart of Rush


"I don't have to write about the future. For most people, the present is enough like the future to be pretty scary."
-- Science Fiction Writer William Gibson


"Never forget, even if you win at the rat race of life, you are still a rat."
-- as quoted by Prof. Dianne Porfleet, Hope College


"There is not enough time to do all the nothing we want to do."
-- Cartoonist Bill Watterson


"Just to live in the country is a full-time job. You don't have to do anything. The idle pursuit of making a living is pushed to one side, where it belongs, in favor of living itself, a task of such immediacy, variety, beauty, and excitement that one is powerless to resist its wild embrace."
-- Writer E. B. White

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Interesting Reading

I recently picked up a book called "Crime Novels - American Noir of the 1930s and 40s" from the Library of America (http://www.loa.org/) - a collection of 6 separate novels. Very interesting reading, especially because I'm generally a Science Fiction reader and don't read much other that data processing technical manuals.

What I find most interesting, though, is the description of the way people lived at that time. Switchboard operators for the apartment buildings. Most people taking taxi's from place to place, rather than driving their own cars. Lots of hard drinking (which my parents did when friends dropped by, much different from my three drinks per month). Overhead fans instead of air conditioning. In one novel, a dance marathon (They Shoot Horses, Don't They?).

I see the places they describe, in my minds eye, in black and white, though I realize that it's only television and movies coloring my inner vision. I also see my relatives in some of the situations - my folks when the scenes are placed in the city, my aunts and uncles when the scenes are West Texas or Southern California. It's funny, too, but I don't see myself in those scenes, though I've always thought that I'd like to have lived then.

The stories are also very inventive. There aren't any horrible scenes of violence (thank goodness, as that really turns me off); most of the stories turn on the interaction between characters and the situations they find themselves in. And there are a few really neat twists and turns in the stories - things I didn't see coming at all.

If you're not a reader of this type of novel - or if you are, but haven't read back into the novels written in the 30's and 40's - I'd suggest picking this book up and giving it a read.

Quotations

A few quotes I find interesting. Will update this when I find a new quote worth saving . . .

"Luck is when preparation meets opportunity."
-- Drummer Neil Peart of Rush

"I don't have to write about the future. For most people, the present is enough like the future to be pretty scary."
-- Science Fiction Writer William Gibson


"Never forget, even if you win at the rat race of life, you are still a rat."
-- as quoted by Prof. Dianne Porfleet, Hope College


"There is not enough time to do all the nothing we want to do."
-- Cartoonist Bill Watterson

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Where Am I, Anyway?

In case you were wondering - Philadelphia. Training class. SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio.

Aren't you glad you asked?

A Poem :: Ars Poetica

For my first blog post in months (where have I been?), I present this poem, received in a daily E-Mail message from The Writer's Almanac

Ars Poetica

The goose that laid the golden egg
Died looking up its crotch
To find out how its sphincter worked.
Would you lay well? Don't watch.

X.J. Kennedy

Sunday, February 18, 2007

To An Old Dog

Sunday, 18 Feb 2007

Yesterday we put our old dog down. My wife Nancy and I, along with our friends Bucky and Cindy, took Bo on a short drive to the veterinarian, where a large dose of anesthetic stopped his heart. Bo didn't know what was coming, and he was nervous (as he always was) once we reached the vet's office, but he was at peace at the end.

Bo wasn't healthy any longer. He was almost fifteen years old, as old as our house. We adopted him from a shelter that first summer. Our kids were between five and nine years old back then. The kids and Bo grew up together, but as the kids reached their twenties Bo became an old dog. We noticed that he couldn't hear any longer, that his eyes were cloudy, that he never seemed to sleep well, that he whimpered and cried in his sleep, and sometimes barked at nothing for a long, long time.

The vet told us that he wasn't well. One of our friends, who is wise in all things dog, said Bo was showing signs of being disoriented and confused. Like when he barked at the china cabinet for fifteen minutes one night when they were over. What was he - almost 105 years old in human terms (that 7-to-1 ratio of dog to human years)? He was falling apart . . . his time was up. It was our duty to make those all-so-difficult arrangements.

So to you, Bo, you fur-ball, you hairy mongrel, I want to say a couple of things. You were loved - perhaps much more than you could ever know. You were fun to play with. You were our loyal friend, even when your hips no longer allowed you to get up and run to the door when you heard our car coming down the street. You will be missed.

If Heaven includes dogs - and why wouldn't it? - you'll be up there made whole again, waiting to run to us for a petting, playing with the other dogs and being happy.

See ya again, some day.

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

A Snippet :: The Wheel and the Brake

Praise without end for the go-ahead zeal
of whoever it was invented the wheel;
but never a word for the poor soul's sake
that thought ahead, and invented the brake.

"To the Congress of the United States, Entering Its Third Century" by Howard Nemerov, from The Selected Poems of Howard Nemerov. © Swallow Press and Ohio University Press.

A Poem :: The Walrus and the Carpenter

"The Walrus and the Carpenter" by Lewis Carroll.

The sun was shining on the sea,
Shining with all his might:
He did his very best to make
The billows smooth and bright —
And this was odd, because it was
The middle of the night.

The moon was shining sulkily,
Because she thought the sun
Had got no business to be there
After the day was done —
"It's very rude of him," she said,
"To come and spoil the fun!"

The sea was wet as wet could be,
The sands were dry as dry.
You could not see a cloud, because
No cloud was in the sky:
No birds were flying overhead —
There were no birds to fly.

The Walrus and the Carpenter
Were walking close at hand:
They wept like anything to see
Such quantities of sand:
"If this were only cleared away,"
They said, "it would be grand!"

"If seven maids with seven mops
Swept it for half a year.
Do you suppose," the Walrus said,
"That they could get it clear?"
"I doubt it," said the Carpenter,
And shed a bitter tear.

"O Oysters, come and walk with us!"
The Walrus did beseech.
"A pleasant walk, a pleasant talk,
Along the briny beach:
We cannot do with more than four,
To give a hand to each."
The eldest Oyster looked at him,
But never a word he said:
The eldest Oyster winked his eye,
And shook his heavy head —
Meaning to say he did not choose
To leave the oyster-bed.

But four young Oysters hurried up,
All eager for the treat:
Their coats were brushed, their faces washed,
Their shoes were clean and neat —
And this was odd, because, you know,
They hadn't any feet.

Four other Oysters followed them,
And yet another four;
And thick and fast they came at last,
And more, and more, and more —
All hopping through the frothy waves,
And scrambling to the shore.

The Walrus and the Carpenter
Walked on a mile or so,
And then they rested on a rock
Conveniently low:
And all the little Oysters stood
And waited in a row.

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes — and ships — and sealing-wax —
Of cabbages-and kings —
And why the sea is boiling hot —
And whether pigs have wings."

"But wait a bit," the Oysters cried,
"Before we have our chat;
For some of us are out of breath,
And all of us are fat!"
"No hurry!" said the Carpenter.
They thanked him much for that.

"A loaf of bread," the Walrus said,
"Is what we chiefly need:
Pepper and vinegar besides
Are very good indeed —
Now if you're ready, Oysters dear,
We can begin to feed."

"But not on us!" the Oysters cried,
Turning a little blue.
"After such kindness, that would be
A dismal thing to do!"
"The night is fine," the Walrus said.
"Do you admire the view?

"It was so kind of you to come!
And you are very nice!"
The Carpenter said nothing but
"Cut us another slice.
I wish you were not quite so deaf —
I've had to ask you twice!"

"It seems a shame," the Walrus said,
"To play them such a trick,
After we've brought them out so far,
And made them trot so quick!"
The Carpenter said nothing but
"The butter's spread too thick!"

"I weep for you," the Walrus said:
"I deeply sympathize."
With sobs and tears he sorted out
Those of the largest size,
Holding his pocket-handkerchief
Before his streaming eyes.

"O Oysters," said the Carpenter,
"You've had a pleasant run!
Shall we be trotting home again?"
But answer came there none —
And this was scarcely odd, because
They'd eaten every one.

Tuesday, January 9, 2007

Life With A Teacher, Vol. 1

My wife Nancy teaches Sunday School (4-year olds) as well as pre-school. A few weeks ago she was getting ready to leave Sunday School when one of her students returned to the room. He saw her getting her coat on and asked, "Teacher, where are you going?"

She said, "I'm going home. I have a house and a family."

"You do?" he replied, in surprise. "I thought you lived with God!"

Life Around My House, Vol. 1

So my wife and I were talking about what to have this weekend when our friends are over for dinner. Here's what I have to put up with . . . .

Nancy: Can you grill some salmon?

Mark: Sure, we can grill all year long with the gas grill.

Nancy: How 'bout broccoli to go with it?

Mark: I vote for corn.

Daughter: Corn? You can't have corn with salmon.

Mark: Why not? I like corn.

Nancy: No corn; broccoli.

Mark: Who says you can't have corn with salmon?

Nancy: You can't. It's in all the cookbooks!


"It's in all the cookbooks?"

Monday, January 8, 2007

A Poem

A new poem, in actuality.


I'd like to say that I
Wandered through the dark
Recesses of my mind
To write this

I have to say, though, that my
Mind is not dark like a
Closet is dark, musty, closed
In actuality

I'd like to say that I
Thought long and hard using my
Boundless intellect
To write this

I have to say, though, that my
Words rolled out like
Newsprint from a press
In actuality

I'd like to say that I
Envisioned receiving
Acclaim for having the inspiration
To write this

I have to say, though, that my
Verse will probably not be noticed
Received barely, if at all
In actuality

I'd like to say that I
Couldn’t wait to put pen to paper and
Worked all night
To write this

In actuality
I fell asleep in front of the computer

Sunday, January 7, 2007

A Poem . . .

. . . that my father remembers from when he was a kid.

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
I like horses,
Can you swim?

I Think It's Time To Hang Up The Wrenches

My wife and I have a 1996 Dodge full-size van. It's eleven years old, but I still drive it to work because my 2002 Honda is with my daughter at college. Better that she drive the newer car to her internship, of course.

The van has been giving me trouble, though; trouble with the brakes. A couple weeks ago, I was hoping to simply bleed the brake system. As you might imagine, the parts are old and rusty . . . and the bleeder screw broke off. I took the rear brake apart and sprayed the brake line fitting with Liquid Wrench for several days. The fitting came loose - yippee! - but as I continued turning it, the fitting broke off from the brake line! Grrrr! So now I could remove the wheel cylinder (the assembly which forces the brake shoes against the drum when the pedal is depressed), but had to replace the line leading to the rear brake. Fortunately, the line was short, leading to a junction on the rear axle. I sprayed that for several days, too, and this time the fitting came loose without anything else going wrong.

Over the course of several more days, I bought a new wheel cylinder and a length of brake line, bent the brake line to (roughly) match that which was on the car, cut and flared the end, installed the cylinder, the line and all of the brake parts and (finally) bled the line. Then I broke the bleeder screw off the other rear brake.

Not that I didn't expect that to happen - I already have the replacement parts! But this whole exercise has led me to re-thinking my doing these kinds of auto repairs myself.

When I was sixteen, and had bought my first car, I told my friends that I never wanted to be tied down to having to see an auto mechanic for car repairs. As I was taking courses in Math, Science, English, Social Studies and German, and had no time for Power Mechanics, they taught me how to change the oil and tune up my car. From there, I learned to do brake jobs, replace radiators, water pumps, alternators, mufflers (and entire exhaust systems), clutches, transaxles, transmissions . . . .

I'm not sixteen any more. It's getting harder to work in the cold, and crawl around on the ground, under the car. Several years ago, while working on a '90 Dodge Caravan, it was sooo cold that I had to get a couple of pieces of cardboard to lay on - the concrete floor was so cold it was painful!

We're on a better financial footing, too, so the extra costs won't "hurt" as much.

But it feels like I'm leaving a part of my life behind, too. I'm kinda proud that I can do the work, and feel like I've been able to save my family a bunch of money over the years. It's "fun", too . . . and it's not programming a computer.

Can it be that I'm feeling a touch of remorse for the old days, or feel the years piling up on me?

Maybe it's fitting that the final episode of M*A*S*H is on while I write this.

Wednesday, January 3, 2007

For Any Who Are Reading This

Just to let you know, by the way, that I am beginning to realize how much I am doing this for myself - not necessarily for anyone else. But that's okay, too, isn't it?

Tuesday, January 2, 2007

From Mad Magazine . . . Years Ago!

How is it I can remember this from the late 60's/early 70's and can't remember what I need from the store when I get there?

To the tune of Downtown, "with apologies to Petula Clark".

When you eat meat
But hate the meat that you're eating,
Then you've surely got . . .
Ground Round

It's so unnerving
When they're constantly serving
In your favorite spot . . .
Ground Round

It could be called a chopped steak,
Salisbury or beef patty
No matter what it's called
It's always overcooked and fatty

What can you do?

Go up to your waiter there
Loudly pound on your table
Stand up on your chair, and shout

Ground Round! Always you're giving me
Ground Round! Always you're feeding me
Ground Round! Why must it always be
Ground Round . . .
Ground Round . . .
Ground Round . . .
Ground Round . . .

The Tyger - William Blake

You may have heard the line (with modern spelling), "Tiger, tiger, burning bright". Here's the poem:

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare sieze the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art.
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

What's Up For This Year?

I didn't do nearly as much travelling last year on business, but still visited a lot of different places. I like the travel, especially by car ("I wanna go somewhere with you" is playing in the back of my head).

Here's a sample of what might happen:

  • Jan - Phil Keaggy in Rockford, IL

  • Jan - Visit to Hope College in Holland, MI

  • Feb - Annual sales meeting in San Diego, CA

  • Mar - Church band to Heartside in Grand Rapids, MI

  • Mar - SAP BW and Portals Conference in Las Vegas, NV

  • Apr - Visit Aunt Yolie in San Antonio, TX

  • May - Graduation at Hope College in Holland, MI

  • May - Open friends' cabin in Land O' Lakes, WI

  • Jun - Church band to Pecatonica, IL

  • Jul - Family reunion in St, Louis, MO

  • Aug - Vacation in Land O' Lakes, WI

  • Oct - Close cabin in Land O' Lakes, WI

  • ??? - Parents' Weekend at WIU in Macomb, IL

  • ??? - Visit college friends in southern Illinois

  • ??? - Training trip to Kirksville, MO

  • ??? - Training trip to Stuarts Draft, VA

  • ??? - Training trip to Nashville, TN