One martyr down, how many more to go?

It was with a certain amount of measured optimism that the White House and Iraqi government announced the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi yesterday. Certainly the U.S. military could be justly proud that one of their most important missions for public relations had gone right and that an avowed and dangerous enemy of the United States was put out of commission for good.

But in the great scheme of things, will this make any difference? Zarqawi's followers are already praising his name and thanking Allah that he died as a martyr. His designated successor(s) will take over and the war will continue. If anything, we will see an upsurge of violence and deaths as revenge and retribution is added to the hatred of the insurgents. When will it all end? How can it all end?

I think it was a travesty to call this current action a "War" on terror just as it was to call previous efforts a "war" on drugs or a "war" on poverty. Drugs, poverty, and terror have always been around as long as there has been civilization and there doesn't appear to be any reason that they will soon disappear. At what point do we declare victory? Do we change campaign slogans and let the war die as we did with the war on poverty? Or do we maintain a continuous, low level effort as we are with the war on drugs?

I'm hopeful that Zarqawi's death will mean something to the Iraqis - maybe show them that none of their enemies is invincible. Maybe they'll be able to rally around some show of justice and pull together enough that we can start bringing our troops home. Maybe this will be the excuse to start declaring (again) "Mission Accomplished."

Why Men Never Remember and Women Never Forget - a review

"Why Men Never Remember and Women Never Forget" by Marianne J. Legato, MD, is a self-help book along the lines of "Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus". Dr. Legato's experience in gender specific medicine lends great credibility to this book that basically describes all the ways that men and women are different and gives some clues as to why that might be. From hormones to differences in the size and placement of various body organs, nature has insured that there will be differences. She speculates about the evolutionary advantages that such differences might have conferred and compares humans to animals which often show even more gender differences.

She is cautious almost never to state categorically why something appears to cause a difference, instead throwing out possibilities in the hope that we'll agree with one or the other. I found this a little unnerving because that isn't much better than simply listing all the differences and saying, "Well, we really don't know why these differences exist, but we have lots of documentation that shows they do."

The book is easy to read. It also tempts a person to find themselves or acquaintances in the examples she uses so profusely. But except for the overall, "Men and women are different. Get over it." sort of advice, there really isn't much else to the book. It's sort of a Do It Yourself kind of self-help book.

Number of the beast

Yesterday was the sixth day of the sixth month of the sixth year (of this century) or 6-6-06 (666). The usual hexakosioihexekontahexaphobics must have too much on their minds to worry about it but others obviously didn't. For your enjoyment I bring you the following:

SIGN OF THE BEAST
(Original by Richard Findler)

OK, we all know that 666 is the number of the Beast. But did you know that:

$0.66: Ground Beast per pound.
00666: Zip Code of the Beast.
1-666: Area Code of the Beast.
1-666-666-6667: Wrong number of the Beast.
1-888-666-6666: Toll free number of the Beast.
6, uh... What was that number again?: Number of the Blonde Beast.
66-66-66: Bust, waist and hips of the Beast.
666DD: Number of the busty Beast.
333: Half brother of the Beast.
555: Number of the Wanna-Beast.
666....999: Quotation mark of the Beast.
666º F: Oven temperature for roast Beast.
666B: Neighbor of the Beast.
666 Minutes: Weekly news program about the Beast.
666@hell.org: E-mail address of the Beast.
Motel 666: Beast Western.
Phillips 666: Gasoline of the Beast.
Vick's Formula 666: Cough syrup of the Beast.
666DL: Volvo of the Beast.
Lexus 666: Luxury sedan of the Beast.
Mazda 666: Economy car of the Beast.
Windows 666: Bill Gates IS the Beast.
666....999: Quotation Mark of the Beast.
Sick Sick Sick: Humor of the Beast.
666 Pennsylvania Ave: Address of US President Beast.

Carmichael Shade - part 2

Google finally got their picture uploader working so I could finish our story.

As part of the Shades of Carmichael fundraiser, the hundred patio umbrellas that had been painted so beautifully were to be auctioned off with the resulting funds going to the cause of the municipal pool and other parks and recreation needs. Ten of the umbrella deemed to be on the high end of value were to be sold by live auction, the others through a silent auction. I don't think I mentioned that on Saturday, while admiring all the umbrellas, Carolyn put a bid on 8 or 9 and I even bid on one.

Sunday afternoon we dropped over to the park again to see if any of the umbrellas that Carolyn had bid on were still "ours". We got there in time to take part in the last 2 or 3 umbrellas of the live auction. Some of them were selling for as much as $400 so we didn't participate in all of them.

However, when this one came along, Carolyn did manage to be the high bidder.

We had to wait a couple of hours before the bids closed on the silent auction. We still had a couple of umbrellas that were in our price range while a couple that we wanted had already gone too high for our tastes.


While we waited, we strolled over to the bandshell where several areas bands were putting on a concert. Every hour a new bank would take over the stage, some of them definitely "community" bands and others sounding very professional. With pizza and drinks available, it was a great way to spend an afternoon.

As the silent auction came to a close, some people were jealously guarding the umbrella they were high bid for. We didn't fight anyone but still came away with the following three umbrellas.





We're thinking that this might become a real tradition for Carmichael and with that the prices are liable to increase. We'll remember when we were able to contribute while still feeling like we got a good deal.

The church doesn't speak for me

This article in the Salt Lake Tribute caught my eye. BYU instructor and management consultant Jeffrey Nielsen comments on the General Authority pronouncement that was read in our church yesterday and in all other Mormon churches either yesterday or the week before. I will quote it in its entirely.

The leaders of my church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, recently spoke out against gay marriage and asked members to encourage their U.S. senators to pass a constitutional amendment prohibiting homosexual marriage.
As a member, I sustain the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles as LDS general authorities; however, I reject the premise that they are thereby immune from thoughtful questioning or benevolent criticism. A perfect God does not require blind obedience, nor does He need unthinking loyalty. Freedom of conscience is a divine blessing, and our privilege to express it is a moral imperative.
When the church hierarchy speaks on a public issue and requests that members follow, it is difficult indeed if an individual feels the content of their message would make bad law and is unethical as well. I believe opposing gay marriage and seeking a constitutional amendment against it is immoral.
Currently the preponderance of scientific research strongly suggests that same-sex attraction is biologically based. Therefore, it is as natural as a heterosexual orientation, even if rare. It seems it might be caused by environmental conditions in the mother's womb, before birth, triggering the DNA to give the fetus a homosexual orientation. Neither the mother nor the child has any choice in the matter; it is a completely natural process.
Truly, God would be unjust if He were the creator of a biological process that produced such uncommon, yet perfectly natural results, and then condemned the innocent person to a life of guilt, while denying him or her the ordinary privileges and fulfillment of the deep longing in all of us for family and a committed, loving relationship.
Even if the scientific evidence does not yet establish this beyond reasonable doubt, it seems that virtuous moderation and loving kindness require us to exercise caution before making constitutionally binding discrimination against a whole class of people based only on fear and superstition. In fact, when we examine the statements opposing gay marriage, we find few reasonable arguments. It is not enough to claim that we should oppose gay marriage because historically it has never been recognized. This is the fallacy of appealing to tradition, which was also used to fight against civil rights and equal treatment of women.
Further, to say that gay marriage will destroy traditional marriage and the family without giving any reasons why is the fallacy of appealing to fear. Indeed, once you get past the emotion, it is quite an unfounded claim. How could the union of two committed and loving people negatively affect my marriage? I believe that quite the contrary is true; namely, legalizing gay marriage reinforces the importance of committed relationships and would strengthen the institution of marriage.
Ultimately, any appeal to religious authority to create law is misplaced. Our Founding Fathers were inspired by their study of history to separate constitutional authority from religious belief, recognizing as they did the potential for tyranny in unchecked religious influence. In our pluralistic democracy, attempting to restrict an individual's rights and privileges based upon a religious claim is a dangerous rejection of our Founding Fathers' wise insight, and it should be unacceptable to all Americans.
As for the statement by church leaders that God has ordained marriage to be a union between a man and a woman, I find it quite troubling. It sidesteps the role of polygamy in past and future church teachings. It seems to me that if church leaders at one point in time, not very long ago, told members that the union of one man with several women was important for eternal salvation, but now leads them to believe that God only recognizes the union of one man to one woman, then some explanation is required. (I am not endorsing polygamy.)
God is not the author of incoherence or injustice, but we humans often are. We in the LDS Church must be more honest about our history, including the past and future practice of polygamy in our official doctrine. This will be difficult, for it will reveal that we have been less than truthful in our public relations, and it will show our inconsistency with current statements opposing gay marriage.
We can no longer afford to teach only what is useful and hope people won't discover what is true. In this day of easy Internet access, a person can find more real history of the LDS Church in 30 minutes online than the same person would in a lifetime studying approved church materials.
This is not right. Too many individuals have suffered a loss of faith when they were forced to choose between the truth or their family after innocently discovering the discrepancy between genuine history and the official story of the church.
We need to trust the membership of the church and treat them as adults, as equals. We are a church of brothers and sisters, not one of the few privileged leaders and the many subordinate followers. There might be a diversity of roles and responsibilities from prophet to Sunday School teacher, but we are all peers with one another and equally irreplaceable in God's thoughts and affections.

The last time the church encouraged us to let our elected representatives know our feelings about gay marriage I did exactly that, just not the opinion that church leaders probably expected. Between the people who move further from the center of the church because of the church's political stand and those members who outright oppose such positions, the church may yet decide that the separation of church and state is good even for Mormons.

What kind of American English do you speak?

Time for another quiz. I ran across this little gem the other day and found it fascinating. It was rather difficult to take the quiz because I found myself being so influenced by the suggested answers. Sort of like the suggestion that "when in Oklahoma speak like the Oklahomans do."

Anyhow, this is what I came up with. Please click on the link below the chart and report back in a comment how you did.

My Linguistic Profile::

70% General American English

10% Dixie

10% Upper Midwestern

5% Yankee

0% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

I found a test about memory loss that I was going to share on this blog but I forgot where it was.

Bonus humor (an old verse that made the rounds several months ago):

Ode to a spell checker

Eye halve a spelling checker
It came with my pea sea
It plainly marks four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot wea.
Eye strike a key and type a word
and weight four it two say
Wheather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait a weigh
As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite
Its rare lea ever wrong.
Eye have run this poem threw it
I am shore your pleased two no
Its letter perfect awl the weigh
My spell checker tolled me sew.

Shades of Carmichael

The swimming pool at Carmichael Park has become unusable which is a shame because the park otherwise is so attractive and multi-functional. There is a band shell, two complete play structures, tennis courts, and even a nice dog run. But the pool needs help. Actually the Department of Parks and Recreaction has shut down the pool and is now drawing up plans to replace it. Thinking that some additional funding might bring about the replacement a little faster than otherwise, Carmichael has started a fund-raiser - "Shades of Carmichael".

Local artists were recruited to paint patio sun shade umbrellas to be auctioned off this weekend. Both mature and young artists were involved. In a couple of cases, groups of children participated. You can see some of the elaborate examples here. I tried to upload more pictues but Blogger decided it didn't want to cooperate any more today.





It was a really fun event for a good cause.

Roasting marshmallows

This is certainly the time of year to enjoy a backyard picnic. Although it was a little too hot for my taste during the day (over 90) it cooled down to a comfortable 80 in the evening and 75 by the time we had the party going.

The kids invited us over to enjoy their backyard with them last night. We got to help the grandsons put up the tent and get ready to enjoy it.

We also watched Ed chop wood for the new fire ring he got for his birthday.

Chuck enjoyed supervising the activities.

And Jake learned how to roast marshmallows and make s'mores out of them with chocolate and graham crackers.

The lazy man's geocaching

Several weeks ago I had randomly come across a web site that was sort of like the geocaching website which allows geocachers to log the caches they find. This site, however was designed for registering dollar bills (and other denominations) so their movement could be tracked. I thought it was an interesting idea but never did anything about it.

So I was surprised a couple of days ago to see Carolyn pull this dollar bill out of her purse:


According to the web site noted on the bill Track Your Cash there are 667 registered users and slightly less than 30,000 bills that have been registered on the site. With about 25 billion bills in circulation in the country the chance of finding a bill that is stamped like this is something like 1 in 1,000,000.

When I did some research I discovered a website that is much more active called Where's George. This site claims to have over 3.5 million registered users who have registered a total of 83.9 million bills worth $470 million. Now that's a database where there is a bit higher chance of getting hits. Not quite the lottery of the other site. In fact, according to their statistics about 11% of those bills that are registered are "hit" by being registered a second time. They estimate that about .065% of the currency in circulation is registered on the website so you have about 1 chance in 1,700 of ending up with one.

To play the game, you sign onto the web site and enter the serial number of all the bills in your wallet. Later, when someone else enters the same serial number, they will see how far the money has traveled since it was last registered. As a registered user who logged that bill you get notified as well. This is all done by zip code rather than actual addresses so there isn't much danger of big brother noting your spending habits - at least no more than there already is. Of course, no one will even think of registering the bill you did, unless you mark it something like this dollar has been. Our particular bill started out in Porland, Oregon last July so it has traveled at least 480 miles in the last 320 days or about 1.5 miles per day.


This map shows where the greatest "action" is, yellow being the counties with the most registered "hits" and red being next.

What I found really interesting in the comments for registered bills on Where's George was how frequently they had been placed in geocaches and had been making the rounds of the country much like the travel bugs that geocachers are used to transporting. The difference, of course, is that you use muggles to help move the "dollar bug" and you don't have to find any caches. Hence, the lazy man's way to geocaching.

Rest in Peace, Skippy

It may be hard for some of you to believe but I actually shed a few tears when I heard from Natalie that Skippy had died. We're not sure how old Skip was when he came to live with us but he was probably at least 15 when he died. Not bad for a dog. Ever since my dog Meatball died when I was a teen, I've tried to keep some emotional distance between any of our pets and myself. But I'm not always successful. Skip is a good example.

He came to us from the Seal Beach Animal Shelter with a healing broken shoulder (hence the name Skippy) and a name that was something like Cheyenne. The thing I remember most about the process was how careful the shelter was about letting us have Skippy. We had to explain what our home and yard was like and state that we were going to treat him like one of the family. They even explained that they might do an onsite visit in a few days to verify that we really were taking good care of him.

Of course a trip to Petsmart was necessary to get all the necessary equipment such a leash, feeding and watering bowls as well as some dry dog food. But I went along with it thinking that would be the extent of my involvement. After all, he was Natalie's dog, a present for her 16th birthday. We all know how that goes. A mission, marriage and living in a "no pets" apartment, can certainly change the plans. I won't claim to have been the major caregiver for Skippy at any time but I did my share of picking up his poop on some of our neighborhood walks. It seemed like it was his job to make sure we didn't walk too far or too fast.

When we bought the "ancestral family home" in Long Beach, it came with a dog and when we left the house in the care of Natalie and Richard, Skip went with the deal. He was finally back with his own human.

Please feel free to add your own comments about Skippy.

Anatomy of a news story

It’s not that often that I’m so up on the news of the day that I can watch a news story unfolding but I feel that way about the alleged Haditha massacre that is now rapidly becoming a major news event.

On May 19 I happened to be listening to the local NPR radio station air a piece about an ongoing investigation into an alleged massacre of Iraqi civilians by a small squad of U. S. Marines in November 2005. Since I hadn’t heard about it before, I assumed it was the breaking news of the day and would be all over the next morning’s paper. It wasn’t. In fact, there was no mention I could find about the alleged massacre.

That evening I Googled the topic “Iraq massacre” getting only a few relevant hits. Virtually all the hits were from right leaning blogs and websites denouncing Representative John Murtha (Democratic Congressman from Pennsylvania, former Marine of 37 years, and long-time military supporter) for his “too eager” revelation of the incident. He was called a “bandaid soldier” and worse for “speaking without any facts” and “aiding and abetting the enemy”. I didn't even remember NPR quoting Murtha but I could have missed that part.

Days went by and the Googled references increased but still heavily weighted in favor of those who were mostly upset that anyone would dare discuss this in public.

Finally, 12 days after I first heard the program, the story reached the main news outlets. The story hasn’t changed from what NPR discussed 12 days earlier but the right-leaning websites and blogs had changed their tune. Now they were accusing the press and liberals of “convicting before a trial” and “tarring the entire military” with this one incident. Now most sites that I visit are impartially reporting what is known and quoting the military as saying that there will be full disclosure once the investigation is over. Left leaning websites and blogs are “tarring” the war (not the military) with the evil that a massacre represents and also pointing out that such misdeeds aid the enemy much more than our discussion of them. They are also claiming that the military wouldn't be investigating this event if Time hadn't first begun raising the question. Now congress is even investigating the possibility of a cover-up

I doubt we’ve seen the end of this news story. And to think that I heard about it almost before it was born.

Darwin’s Dangerous Idea – a book review

“Darwin’s Dangerous Idea” by Daniel C. Dennett is a fantastic book but definitely not for the faint of heart. The book is almost 600 pages long and written in a style that requires college-level analysis to understand. My review can hardly do it justice but hopefully it might encourage you to check it out of the library for a couple of weeks of interesting reading.

Dennett, a foremost philosopher of our time and professor of Cognitive Studies at Tufts University in Massachusetts, says, “Charles Darwin’s fundamental idea [expressed in “Origin of the Species” in 1859] has inspired intense reactions ranging from ferocious condemnation to ecstatic allegiance, sometimes tantamount to religious zeal…. Almost no one is indifferent to Darwin, and no one should be…. Darwin’s dangerous idea cuts much deeper into the fabric of our most fundamental beliefs than many of its sophisticated apologists have yet admitted, even to themselves.” He goes on further to state, “The fundamental core of contemporary Darwinism…is now beyond dispute among scientists. It demonstrates its power every day, contributing crucially to the explanation of planet-sized facts of geology… down to the latest microscopic facts of genetic engineering. It unifies all of biology and the history of our planet into a single grand story.”

I will have to get my own copy of this book because there were so many good quotes that I wanted to underline or highlight but I thought the library might take a dim view of such actions. Dennett takes the time to carefully explain what Darwin’s theory is and what it is not. He chastises those who have tried to “defend” the theory by packaging it in more palatable form and creating a new, non-defensible theory when the original was just fine. In fact, Dennett believes that all the attacks on Darwin’s theory has simply made it hardier, more robust.

In the process of explaining Darwinism, Dennett describes how it covers so many more areas than just biology. Language, culture, “memes”, and even mathematics are explained through natural selection as well. What we’re left with is a richer appreciation for nature and the “tree of life” than we might have had with the mythical explanations that have come to us through religion.

Religion is treated respectfully by Dennett. However, he classes religion with wild and dangerous animals. Kept in a zoo cage or on a preserve, the lion should be allowed to live so that future generations can appreciate the animal. But we cannot tolerate saving the animal in his natural habitat “at any cost” which may entail the death of humans or loss of other, more valuable opportunities. Likewise, religion (if it behaves itself) can be valuable for study and observation. But it cannot be allowed to exist in its wild state where human rights are made secondary to dogma, where human sacrifice or murder is condoned or even encouraged. Even those who, under the guise of religion, misinform children about the truths of evolution, should be condemned as much as would someone who advocated teaching that the earth is flat. The future of our world depends on our children being taught reality as it has been discovered.

Dennett ends the book by claiming that Darwinism can best be described as the Beast in the story Beauty and the Beast. While having a form that appears dangerous and frightening, Darwin’s dangerous idea is really a powerful defender of the truths and values we cherish. Excellent but challenging book.

Car of the week

With Carolyn traveling almost every week, she's had a great opportunity to try out a lot of different cars. This week it is the Chevrolet Malibu 4-door hatchback. It happens to be fully loaded with a great sound system, power locks, cruise control, etc. When you're going to be driving a couple hundred miles to your destination, you want something that has a few creature comforts.

Carolyn has had a chance to take big SUV's and vans as well as the smaller cars. Whenever three or four are traveling together, it just makes sense to get the larger vehicles because of the luggage. She and her colleagues almost always use rental cars rather than drive their own car and claim mileage.

It is actually cheaper for the state as well. Last week I rented a car to drive myself and three others from the regional center to Redding and not only did I feel better about whether we'd have any car troubles, I figure I saved the regional center at least $50 by using a rental car.

Decoration Day

Interesting how holidays have a way of changing throughout the years. My early recollection of Memorial Day was that it was just as often called Decoration Day and was the day to visit both the Lehi and American Fork cemeteries. I don't recall any connection with honoring veterans who had died serving their country. That was left more to Veteran's Day in November. Instead, it was a time to gather up all the flowers around the house and all the quart jars with chipped rims and number 10 cans or old tomato juice cans. We five kids would dress in our best school clothes and hop in the car for a real day of visiting.

The drive from Springville to American Fork was a good hour's drive at least because there was no freeway between the two towns. At first we didn't even have a car radio but that was a bonus because Dad would lead us all in singing with his wonderful baritone voice. We'd often stop at Grandma's house in American Fork before proceeding up to the cemetery. At Grandma's we'd gather even more flowers and containers.

At the cemetery, we'd clean up any old rusted cans and throw out flowers that had wilted there. We kids would try to remember where each of the family plots was and who was buried in which plot. Most of the headstones were very readable but there were a couple that mysteriously had only a date of a cryptic inscription of "Baby". Cousins, aunts, and uncles would start arriving from all over the valley and we'd have a mini-family reunion right there in the cemetery.

We would, of course, want to docrate the graves that meant the most to us and want to put as many flowers on each grave as possible. But we had to hold back because we still had the graveyard in Lehi to visit. Soon, we were piling back in the car and heading to the neighboring town where we repeated the decorating process while meeting and greeting relatives from the other side of the family.

After what seemed like hours, the adults would finally realize that us kids were bored out of our wits. We'd then go back into town or back to American Fork to eat with some relative or we might even find a park and have a picnic.

Decoration Day is one of the things our kids missed out on because we moved to California to raise our family and traveling 12 hours to decorate graves was just never part of our plans. We didn't have any graves or even that many living relatives in California to make it a day of remembrance or family gettogethers.

There's hope after all

I went to the doctor recently for a half-dozen (probably imagined) ailments. As a result the doctor ordered some lab tests which I apparently successfully passed. I was very impressed with Kaiser's new system of emailing patients with a notice that the lab results are available and providing a link to see your lab results on their website.

Just in case the patient is not computer literate, Kaiser also mails out the results. What really made me feel good this time was the inclusion with the results of a lab slip for follow-up tests with the notation "Please continue your medicine and do a repaeat blood test in 1 year. Lab slip attached." This shows me that (1) the doctor thinks I'm healthy enough that I'll be around another year, (2) the doctor thinks my health is stable enough that he really doesn't expect to see me before another year, and (3) the doctor thinks my memory is good enough that I'll actually remember a year from now that I have to do this lab test and I'll be able to find the slip ordering the test.

With confidence like that from my doctor, how can I help but not be positive about the next year!

Grandkid fix

Although we were tired from the Jazz Jubilee, we hadn't had our grandkid fix for a number of days. So we stopped and pestered the kids and grandkids for a couple of hours.

Tim was helping his dad plant a garden in the back yard. It's been such a wet spring that gardens are going in a little later than normal this year.


Jake was doing his part in the watering but it was more playing with the hose than actually getting the plants watered.



Tiffany had just finished Tim's costume for an upcoming dance performance which will have an oceanic theme - hence the blue colors and the wave-like streamers. Tim gave us a little impromptu tap dance show with his new costume.


And Chuck decided he would watch the show from the comfort of the couch and blanket.

Jazz Jubilee

This post is a little later than I had hoped. Sorry about that.

As we have in previous years, Carolyn and I volunteered to help with the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee which is always held on Memorial Day weekend. This is good because it is easy to plan for but sometimes inconvenient because this weekend is such a good time for others to schedule family gettogethers or neighborhood barbecues. Last year, for example, it interferred with our plans for attending university graduation exercises for two of our children. We chose graduation, of course, but it did mean that we needed to find substitutes for the Jubilee.



We actually have a very nice assignment - inside the Sheraton Grand Hotel. The Grand Nave is located on the bottom floor of the hotel. There are several stories about why it is called the Grand Nave. Nave is the name of the central portion of a church and comes from the Latin root meaning "ship". But this ballroom looks anything like a ship or a church. It is large enough for about 400 - 500 people to enjoy a band and have room for a couple of small dance floors on either side of the stage.



Our role is usually quite modest. This year we were posted outside one of the entrances and scanned the badges or wristbands worn by the people who wanted to attend one of the concerts. With tickets costing from $50 a day to $95 for the whole weekend, it is pretty important that we keep people honest. We generally work a 5 hour shift and then have the rest of the day to attend other concerts/events of the Jubilee.



Although it is easier than working the parking lots, it is still exhausting answering all the questions, directing people to the restrooms, and listening to the constant beat of the music. I'm afraid I like my peace and quiet too much to enjoy so much loud music in a day.

Just another crackpot

I received this from an old friend:

An elderly Chinese woman had two large pots, each hung on the end of a pole which she carried across her neck.

One of the pots had a crack in it while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water. At the end of the long walk from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full.

For a full two years this went on daily, with the woman bringing home only one and a half pots of water.

Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments.

But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it could only do half of what it had been made to do. After 2 years of what it perceived to be bitter failure, it spoke to the woman one day by the stream.

"I am ashamed of myself, because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house."

The old woman smiled, "Did you notice that there are flowers on your side of the path, but not on the other pot's side?"

"That's because I have always known about your flaw, so I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you water them."

"For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table. Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house."

Each of us has our own unique flaw. But it's the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding.

You've just got to take each person for what they are and look for the good in them.

So, to all of my crackpot friends and family, have a great day and remember to smell the flowers on your side of the path.

“Throw away” technology

As much as I’m impressed by the rapid advance in technology, I’m impressed by the move toward “throw away” technology – the idea that it is cheaper and more efficient to simply replace something rather than fix it. Upgrading used to mean making some minor modifications to a piece of equipment but now it is just as likely (or even more likely) to mean replacement of the entire equipment.



A case in point. A few days ago I commented about how much telephone and ATM technology has removed the human element in our transactions with tellers and operators. When doing a little research for that piece I came upon the fact that early telephone switches were designed to “fail 2 hours every 40 years”. Nowadays, we’d probably never state something in those terms because we can’t imagine a piece of equipment being in place for 40 years. Our modern computers are every bit as reliable, maybe even more so as solid state components are usually more reliable than mechanical switches, but we tend to think in terms of days or months.

Today our agency began swapping out the cell phones that various people in the organization have to do their jobs. The reason isn’t that the phones aren’t working. They are showing their age with scratches and such. But the real reason is that our contract calls for a replacement phone every two years. The phone company has planned for the obsolescence so they don’t have to be supporting and maintaining equipment years after it has been placed into service.



The new phones come with features that were cutting edge two years ago but are commonplace now. Things such as backgrounds, animated opening sequences, camera and calendar features. The phone representative explained that they won’t sell phones on contracts like ours that are “end of life” phones. Those will be wholesaled out to retailers who will sharply discount them. She explained that the “end of life” phones will work perfectly fine for another 3 or 4 years but they won’t be maintained in the same fashion as the “current” phones.

Backyard critters

One of the things we really like about our back yard is the little critters that we interact with (in a very limited way) there. Here's a series of photos I took while sitting on our patio reading the paper. This little squirrel didn't seem to mind that I was watching him as he fence-hopped from the back neighbor's tree to the apple tree in the neighbor's yard to our north. He would stop every 5 or 6 feet to see if anything really threatening had come into view but obviously I wasn't any threat to him.