February 21, 2007 by David.

This CNN article and the links within it are an absolutely fascenating look into the autistic world!

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February 19, 2007 by David.

I can’t boil water. I can’t even kill the teakettle. However, I can melt a kitchen sink drain.

Last night I put the teakettle on to boil water for tea and forgot about it until I smelled something hot. I jumped up from the couch and ran to the kitchen, feeling quite relieved the teakettle wasn’t ruined. Caught it just in time. Thinking a burst of water to cool it down might cause the hot metal to warp, I set it in the stainless steel sink to cool and went back to the couch. A few minutes later I realized the folly of that move when I detected a new odor - scorching rubber. Once again I raced to the kitchen, pulled the teakettle out of the sink and placed it on a cold burner, where, God knows, anyone with half a brain would have put it in the first place. Now the bottom of the sink was discolored, the rubber seal was smoldering, and the plastic drain had melted, almost falling off the bottom of the sink. It was a proud moment.

This morning I rummaged through plumbing supplies and found a new drain. Less than two minutes of sanding with an orbital sander took away the discoloration and in about 15 minutes the sink drain was back to doing what it was supposed to be doing – with an shiny new drain to boot.

Out of all of this I realized the reason a teakettle has a whistle on it isn’t so you know the instant it starts boiling. God made teakettle whistles so you don’t forget the teakettle is boiling. Mental note to self: Put the damn whistle in the teakettle!

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February 15, 2007 by David.

Not too long ago I was at an event where one of the sponsors hosted a cigar party in which a person talked about cigar construction while another hand rolled cigars which were then given to the guests.  And, yes, the were fine cigars.  Even for a very occasional smoker, there’s nothing like relaxing to a good stogie and a stiff drink.

The company hired for the cigar presentation was PVT Label Cigartainment.  Their site has a very informative and concise educational section they call Cigar College.  Check it out!  Between the event and the site I learned an amazing amount about cigars.

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February 2, 2007 by David.

It’s snowing in Graceland.  Well, it is snowing across the state line in Mississippi where I live and the local TV stations claim it is snowing even more in Memphis than it is here.  No matter where you live, an inch or two of fresh snow is a beautiful sight.

While I did expect hot and humid summers when I moved to the mid-south (now there is a term I hadn’t even noticed before I moved here), I didn’t expect the winters to be colder than I’d experienced in Portland, Oregon.  Not a lot, but definately is colder here.  More days in the twentys and teens than I had in pretty much any winter in thirty years in Portland, or eighteen years in Auburn, Washington, for that matter.

So, I took a walk this morning around the neighborhood, taking pictures of nearby log cabins on the lake, nestled in the trees under a blanket of snow.  Had a nice chat with the neighbor who is rebuilding a fire-damaged cabin.  He has the same first name, works in IT like I did for 22 years, has two Harley’s (one a running 1932) and does real estate renovations on the side.  If we were staying in this area we might become good friends.  Certainly we have a lot in common.  We even share the same first name.  …Just a little slice of life in the mid-south.  Good stuff.

This is a picture of our dock, where I love to sit at dusk and watch the sun as it sets over the trees directly across the lake.  It actually is prettier in the winter with leaves off the trees.  You get to watch the sun longer, plus the added visual intrigue of the sunset behind the stark outlines of the leafless trees.  Then there is the pink, red, and gray reflections in the water.  Did I mention the good life in the mid-south?

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February 2, 2007 by David.

Ok, I haven’t read Sarah’s new book, Leap! What Will We Do with the Rest of Our Lives? because it isn’t published for another 18 days, but I like what I’m seeing about it - probably because it is a book about right where I am in my life right now. It is about one’s choices and opportunities as he or she gets older and the non-trivial process of both moving into the new phase of getting older and making it through transistions in life, whether chosen or not, such as a complete change in career.  Those are exactly the two issues I’m dealing with currently.

Here are the topics, as decriobed on her webpage:

1. Coming Apart - Losing your identity. We’ve raised our kids, made a mark in our field. Why are we still here?
2. Trying to hang on - Having your face lifted and other ways to say it ain’t so.
3. Facing facts - Dealing with your kids leaving home. Becoming a “master” - the p.c. word for older.
4. Stepping out of the Box - Taking risks, leaving your comfort zone. As Crosby, Stills & Nash sang: “What have you got to lose?”
5. Giving Back - You marched when you were young? How can you help make the world better now?
6. The Inner journey - In the East, this time of life is reserved for intense spiritual work. Will we pursue that?
7. Actresses, Supermodels and Musicians - Stories of women who had the great bodies, and musicians who had the great chops. Can they still rock ‘n roll?
8. Expansion of love and sex - Do we end up with a partner or alone? Joan Hotchkiss, the actress who gave a one-woman show in L.A. about sex after fifty, said: “I refuse to go unfucked to my grave!”
9. Moving - Why and where do we move? Some do it to live more simply, some to build a dream house, some to form a community and grow old with a little help from our friends.
10. Surrender - Do we rage against it or do we accept: we’re not in control?
11. Rituals - Some do it with prayers, some with red thong panties and the Rolling Stones. How do we start this excursion to the unknown?

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