Bob's Life
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Below are the 10 most recent journal entries recorded in the "Bob" journal:[<< Previous 10 entries]
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09:40 am
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It's my grandfather's 154th birthday
He was born December 18, 1963, during the Civil War. A fine musician, he was a piano tuner by trade. He died in 1951, so I never met him.
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12:14 pm
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Wear it on your wrist... input with your... nose??
This Slashdot article talks about an 'arm-wearable' (actually the referenced article says it's wrist-worn) computer. To quote the Slashdot article:
The Zypad leaves the user's hands free — it has no keyboard, just a touchscreen and navigation keys.
OK, let me picture this... It's on my wrist... It has a touchscreen and navigation keys... I can use it while keeping both hands free....
What are my options? Nose? Toes? Tongue (Ugh! too messy....)??
Tags: humor
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03:45 pm
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Mass Flooding
Man, what a deluge we've had lately! I can't even remember when it started, although I know that I had been planning on mowing the lawn last Friday, and I couldn't because of rain...
Anyhow, yesterday both Gail and Jared were home from school because of the rain and flooding. The Boston Globe has had pictures of flooding in Peabody for two days in a row now. Yesterday afternoon Gail went out to go grocery shopping. Both Market Baskets in the area were closed due to flooding, and she ended up going to a Stop and Shop via a roundabout route. Jared and I went down to North Reading to get Jared's hair cut and dyed, and we had to take a detour because Rte 28 was blocked off between Andover and North Reading.
In the evening, I went to take Jared to his Tae Kwon Do class. We came home after half an hour of driving around, having tried several different approaches to the area, only to find that the whole section of town where the class was was flooded out.
Today's been better. Gail and Jared went off to school in the morning, and this afternoon the sun is coming out occassionally. Tomorrow will be even better. This on Thursday the rain will return... I'd better get the lawn mowed tomorrow...
Tags: family, weather
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02:04 pm
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My Foster Son
Last fall, some time after Thanksgiving, Gail told me about a boy she met at the high school. He had a lot going for him, but the one he didn't have was a family. He had a rough life, and she was concerned that he'd fall in with the wrong bunch of kids. All he needed was a decent break. And a family.
So we kicked around the idea of getting to know Jared and possibly taking him in. We discussed it with all our kids. Gail met with Jared a few times outside of school, and then one day Gail & I took him out for pizza. Jared did seem like a really decent kid.
So we started getting serious about taking him in. We started having regular meetings with the counselors at the home for boys were Jared was staying. Gail & Jared started volunteering together at the MSPCA in Methuen, and Jared really liked it. We got him involved in the youth group at our church, and he started developing some good friends there.
So by April, Jared was staying with us almost all the time, and on April 20th I brought him home for good. On April 30, our family went to church and lit a candle for Jared, and our minister presented him with a special church t-shirt.
Now Jared has never had a father. Although Chris has been my stepson for a few years now, my relationship with Chris is different, because Chris has always had his own father. So it's different with Jared. We shared guitar-playing and fishing (new for me).
Our life has changed quite a bit, suddenly having a 17-year old boy in the house full time! A lot of time is spent on homework, and of course on driving Jared and his friends places. Soon Jared will learn to drive and also get a job, and those will be new experiences as well! So, welcome, Jared!
Tags: family
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07:22 pm
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I need to write more!
I haven't blogged much during the past few months, either in this blog or my technical blog. But it's not from lack of things happening in my life. On the contrary; so much has been happening!
So I'm going to try to keep this journal up. To keep a record of everything, and also because it's good having the writing practice... Perhaps a future job will have a lot of writing in it....
Tags: family
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02:21 pm
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Bush Faces Rare Audience Challenge in N.C.
Bravo, Harry Taylor, for telling it like it is....
Tags: bush, politics
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05:21 pm
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chocolate covered graham crackers
The nice thing about your family is that they know you. I haven't talked to my sister Sue lately, but I got a package in the mail for my birthday - chocolate covered graham crackers ! We used to love eating them when we were little. Of course, my mom would limit how many we can have at once. Sue remembers the limit as two; I think it was three. At any rate, I'll limit myself. For one thing, that allows me to share....
Thanks, Sue (& Fred) !
Current Mood:  happy
Tags: family
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09:31 pm
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a time of reflection
Last Saturday the Chameleons played once again for WinterRest at First Parish in Chelmsford. As I played my recorder to Time of Your Life (Good Riddance) and listened to Phil sing, it reminded me of another time when I found myself in a similar point in my life. This one came on so suddenly that I hadn't had a chance to tell the guys in the band, opting to be quiet and stay focused on the music.
I've often felt that when I'm sick and have to stay home, it's my body telling me "You need to rest - NOW!". Similarly, I feel that what I'm going through now is a wake-up call. Fate has told me to take a good hard look at my career, and how it reflects who I am, and how I can best contribute to the world.
Current Music: Time Of Your Life
Tags: career, music
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09:34 pm
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ALA Bike Trip
Gail and I recently went on a 3-day bike trip, a fundraiser for the American Lung Association . The total trip was 160 miles on Cape Cod, though we ended up doing about 117 miles (we didn't do the whole route on Saturday).
Friday's ride was 62 miles. A good portion of that was in the pouring rain. The end of the day was the worst - sharing a road with cars and trucks in the late afternoon, with lots of puddles and splashing, the rain coming down so hard it was hard to see! We arrived at the camp tired and drenched to the bone. By the time we found two available bunks in one of the buildings (we had to go from building to building looking for available space) and located our luggage and found where
the showers were, we asked when dinner was, and told it was starting right then! So we were at least a half an hour late for dinner. Overnight was no picnic either - someone in the building we were in decided they needed to wake up at 5 AM, even though breakfast wasn't until 6:45 AM. And of course they had to announce to everyone there how they didn't sleep very well.
So we didn't start out Saturday in as great a mood as we were in Friday morning. Even so, the whole experience so far had made me grateful for the basics: A dry place to sleep, some food in my stomach... The ride started out wet, and we were concerned that it would be a repeat of Friday. Plus there was some cold wind, whereas at least Friday was warm. Then one of Gail's legs started acting up - it felt considerably weaker than the other; she figured maybe it was a pinched nerve or
something. Anyhow, we had plenty of concerns by the time we got to the first rest stop (there's a rest stop on the route about every 15 miles; this one was about 13 miles into the route on Saturday). We decided to bag it for the rest of the day and get ourselves to a motel close to the camp in Brewster where the group was going to be spending the night. That of course was a bit of a logistical problem, getting us, our bikes, and our luggage to one warm, safe, private place.
The trip volunteers were very helpful. Someone helped us find an inn near the camp in Brewster. We met Dana, who was a trip volunteer and also the trip photographer . He gave us (and our bikes) a ride to the inn, and we started to decompress and dry out. We walked down the road to a pizza place and had lunch, then went back to the inn, figuring our room would be ready. Unfortunately, the people in our room had not vacated, and were nowhere to be found. The innkeepers ended up finding us a room at another motel down the road in Orleans. Meanwhile anothe trip volunteer, Jim, had our luggage, so we had to contact him and tell him that we had moved. It took us most of the day to get reunited with our lugggage, but at lease we had some down time. At dinner time, we went to the motel lobby to get info about eating places, and met Mark, who was also on the bike trip. His family was staying at the same motel. We discussed places to eat in the area, and his wife was nice enough to give us a ride to the laundromat so that we could wash our wet clothes. We ended up going to the same restaurant and sitting near each other.
On Sunday morning, we rejoined the group at the camp in Brewster, having made arrangements to have our luggage picked up from the motel we had ended up at in Orleans. On Sunday there was no rain in the forecast, and Gail was feeling better, so we were anxious to get back to riding. The trip through the outer cape was I think about 42 miles, and had plenty of hills. But we had a good time. Gail was really exhausted by the end (her legs mainly). We finally crossed the finish line in P-town at a school not far from the tower, and were handed our medals.
All in all, quite an adventuresome weekend !
Tags: biking, family
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12:27 pm
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Rain, rain, and more rain
I have a week off between jobs, and it looks like it's going to rain all week! Oh well....
I haven't written in my blog lately. Stay tuned...
Tags: career, weather
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