Category: Life

On the Loss of F_____

I’m not one to give trigger warnings. That said, I’m giving one now.

Things have a tendency to not go as planned. Several weeks ago, a dear friend’s health declined rapidly – unexpectedly, even – and he passed away. Even after days of relative sleeplessness, I found it hard to rest. My thoughts kept turning and churning and refusing to let me be until I wrote them down. This is an exercise in catharsis.

Some of my readers knew F_____. One of my regular readers is his wife.

[edit] For the record, I have permission and outright encouragement from the family to share this. [/edit]

If, after all that, you want to continue, click on to the next page.

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Sunday Snaphots

I actually took quite a few photographs this week, mostly for the upcoming yearbook.

Nevertheless, I did take a few I can share with you. I’ve taken the liberty of arranging them into a sort of photographic story.

storm comingIs there a storm coming?

Hail Hail HailYes. Yes there is.

OCD at the Gas PumpGood thing I put gas in the car!

And what wonderful numbers, too!

down the roadIt’s still sunny on the drive home.

And no, I didn’t take this while I was driving.

I was in the car, but I was in park.

No one was behind be, either.

springform panIt’s a perfect night to make some cheesecake!

fortune cookieMaybe we’ll go out to eat instead.

You will overcome great obstacles to achieve success.

Lost in Translation

The other day I decided to have some fun by running book titles through the Bad Translator engine.

One of the first I did was Neil Gaiman’s Fragile Things: Short Stories and Wonders, which changed to

You Can Write A Secret Medical History of Miracles

I found it funny, tweeted it, and went about my day. Imagine my surprise several hours later when I went back to Twitter and found close to an hundred notifications. How did this happen? How did this little tweet gain such traction?

The answer was not found on Twitter; instead, it was in my inbox:

Neil Gaiman Retweeted MeThat’s right; Neil Gaiman – the author himself – retweeted me! This means that I have now been retweeted by both Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer. To me, that’s epic.

Other titles I ran through the translator and their new titles are:

Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances (Neil Gaiman)

An Experience to Report to the Police

The Art of Asking; or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help (Amanda Palmer)

This Basis may not be According to Plan, but there is a Way, as You Know, of Fear.

The Silkworm (J.K. Rowling aka Robert Galbraith)

Insects, Of Course

The Cuckoo’s Calling (J.K. Rowling aka Robert Galbraith)

People say Crazy Things

From the Earth to the Moon (Jules Verne)

A Few Months Ago

A Pocket Full of Rye (Agatha Christie)

Large Sports Bag

Gone Girl (Gillian Flynn)

Come On, Guys!

What about you? What titles can you mangle?

 

Don’t forget to follow me on:

Facebook – where I share news stories, articles from other blogs, and various and sundry miscellany that happens to catch my eye. It’s stuff you won’t see here! Well, mostly.

Instagram – where I show you my Life in Motion and share quotes and such. The widget only shows my last three photographs – don’t you want to see them all?

Twitter – where you can see my thoughts in 140 characters or less. Also, funny retweets.

Sunday Snapshots

Enjoy a sampling of the photographs I took this week:

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Intersection of Life and History

Every once in a while history and real life collide.

This year marks the 103rd anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.

RMS_Titanic_3Given the number of film and articles written and dispersed over that time, I don’t think I need to retell the story.

What does this have to do with me? My great-grandfather was supposed to be on Titanic as a ship’s printer; that’s right, my great-grandfather was employed by White Star Line. I never knew my great-grandfather, so I’ll never know exactly why he quit instead of jumping at the chance to serve on what was already the most famous ship of its day. But quit he did; he obtained new employment on the banana boats. I know this because of the matchsafe he left behind:

IMG_2355
I do know great-granddad lost friends and colleagues and acquaintances that cold April night; it is only by Divine Providence he did not perish as well.

And while I couldn’t find his immigration records (I forget his first name), here’s the immigration record for my grandpa:

grandpa's passenger record

Oh, and today marks the two-year anniversary of this blog. Happy Anniversary to Me!

anniversary with wordpress

Lazy Friday Afternoon

IMG_2599I went fishing today.

When I was younger I hated fishing: the monotony of nothing for hours on end punctuated only by the droning of dragonflies and the gently swaying cattails as black bass taunt me from the shallow water a few feet from shore.

This afternoon fishing was just what I needed: the monotony of nothing for hours on end punctuated only by the droning of dragonflies and the gently swaying pampas grass as I cast my line out from the kayak over bluish-grey waters of a North Carolina estuary.

I found that sweet spot where the wind and waves moved me back and forth along a fifty-foot stretch of water – no paddling necessary, except to correct course every now and then.

IMG_2555A heron bobbed twenty feet ahead of me. I wonder now if he knew something I didn’t; otherwise, he’d be diving down into the murky depths for a tasty morsel.

The tide was low, much lower than normal, exposing four feet of muddy riverbank and constantly threatening to beach my craft. I wish I had a camera I could take out on the water.

Eventually I hear a call from upriver – time to head in.

As we stow the gear and put up the canoe and kayak, Father in Law sees a large mouth bass laying up against the bank. “I’m going to catch him,” he says and promptly

casts his line into a tree,

rolls it out onto a stump and

from there down into the water

where the bass strikes immediately.

IMG_2558Some people have all the luck.*

I still had a good afternoon.

For the record, the bass was back in the water and swallowing real insects in a matter of moments.

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