Flying

Last Wednesday was my son's first day of second grade. To celebrate, I took half the day off and picked him up from his early release time. We then visited a local Radio Shack and picked up a Flytech Dragonfly. This is an amazing toy and I highly recommend it. We modified the tail a bit and can now fly it around the house.

big

I used to say I was only bigoted towards bigots. It's all about looking for a sense of power over others. Power over others to stay safe and keep "mine" safe. If you are one of "my" friends, then you "belong" and you're "safe." If you do something that I view as threatening, however, I can excise you from "my" group and you are then one of "them" who are out to get some of "mine." If I give you the label of "bigot" then it's okay for me to treat you like "one of them", right? Left? Right? Moderate?

In an odd way, I'm glad I briefly spoke to the Cicada Killer killer last night. At least he heard from someone who had a different view. I hope it may plant a seed of thought for him. And of course, it's hypocritical of me to want to "kill" the guy for killing the killers...

when Jesus said Love your enemies, I'm pretty sure he meant don't kill them.

-Anonymous

So, yellowjackets are okay to spray, but Cicada Killers...? Where does one draw the line? When does that line vary?

Killers killed for disturbing the lawn

As my daughter and I were walking to the library to return some books this evening, we passed one of the yards where our family watched Cicada Killers buzzing about several evenings ago. A man I assumed to be the home owner was busy filling the holes with some kind of pesticide. To make a long story short, the guy first claimed the females would sting. I informed him it really wasn't supposed to be painful - only a pin prick and only if severely disturbed. He then replied that he didn't like all the dirt they dug up in his yard. As we talked, one of the females crawled out of a hole, completely covered in whatever pesticide dust he used. She flew up and away, passing between us. At that point I simply said, "Well, I guess that's a problem." and strolled away, knowing he wouldn't/didn't care about anything I said - his perfect lawn was more important than some fearsome, but harmless looking creatures. I really just wanted to scream, "What the (expletives deleted) are you doing?"and give the guy a taste of his own medicine. However, my wise mind won and my daughter was not exposed to watching her father do something violent to another person. (cue music...)

You've taken everything that you wanted
Broke it up and plundered it and hunted
Ever since we said it
You went and took the credit
It's been headed this way since the world began
When a vicious creature took the jump from Monkey to Man

~Elvis Costello, Monkey to Man

Granted

Next time you go for a walk, talk, and nosh on a snack at the same time, take a moment. Remember to be grateful your amazing body can coordinate all those activities without falling over or spewing what you're putting into your mouth before it hits your throat. We take so much of what our bodies do for granted. We're truly marvelous machines. Our daughter simply takes us beyond what we assume we can do - and that's a good thing, though stressful at times.

What's important?

Here I am, a health professional, complaining I don't make enough money to cover our family's medical expenses. Hmmm...

I'm grateful to have my mental health relatively intact. I'm grateful to live in a place where we have access to good health care. I'm grateful we won't go bankrupt from upcoming medical expenses. I wonder what the next half of my life will bring? Maybe I'm not even half-way there. If I work at it, maybe my own medical expenses can be kept at a minimum while maintaining decent health. What do I want my kids to learn from how I live my life day to day? Heck, what do I want to learn about myself day to day? How can I live my life in way that is fair and respectful to my child with Down Syndrome and my child who I can't keep up with?

Right here and right now, I'm just grateful to be able to experience all of this amazing thing called life.

Rain

We had our first gentle rain in over a week and a half last night and this morning. By one rain gauge, we received 2 inches over 10 hours. The previous rain was about two weeks before and the rain before that I can't recall. We've been in drought mode for much of the summer. It was so pleasant to go out and play in the rain and splash in the puddles this morning with the family.

Gripping

Two quick points:

1) Our daughter will continue to need lots of therapeutic intervention (time and money) for quite a while (like at least 20 years). What do we have to let go of? What gifts await us?

2) Done with Harry Potter. It was very gripping and I'm glad I have the rest of the weekend to get on with the rest of things.

What selfishness do I have to let die/go of in order for my family to live more fully, to have more opportunity? It's not about Darkness and Order, it's about choices and consequences. There will always be darkness and order. What's within my power to change? What can I accept? I'm in the change process, I can feel it. I'm not liking it, but at the same time looking forward to it. What's next? Thanks for the courage and the opportunity to grow wiser.

Time to grow up again.

Back story

Emile Bratsenburger is the pseudonym used here to keep a boundary between my professional self and my personal self. I really don't know what inspired the name Emile, but it it has an interesting ring to it. "Bratsenburger" was unintentionally inspired by an uncle's announcement of the menu at a barbeque: "We're having Brats 'n' burgers for dinner tonight." I immediately heard it as a name, liked it, and finally have a use for it.

Many thanks to Eric for linking to this Blog from the RedPost/Kit contest page. For those who don't know about RedPost/Kit, it's a "Linux-based, do-it-yourself home picture frame (for) hackers/tinkerers/great photographers." I have a few design ideas ready to go for the contest. One idea that won't fly, but I thought would be fun, in principle, is for a RedPost Etch-A-Sketch model. I suppose you could do a bit of trick hardware and software to allow one to do some "sketching" over the on-screen images via the knobs a la Perez Hilton... (gack!) but let's not go there, shall we?

On my taste in Sculpture

About a week ago, our family went out to see relatives out in Grantsville, MD. The land scapes there are simply stunning and lyrical to me. When we visited the Spruce Forest Artisan Village, I got to briefly meet Mike Edelman. He is the kind of blacksmith/sculptor I dream I could be. He's got incredible sense of line and form, bringing metal to life with an organic quality that my words cannot do justice. Please take some time and and explore his site, then go and find him.

Showing my age...

I'm amazed to look at my forearms and see gray hairs popping out. It's a reminder to me of my mortality.

Today I stopped by a big box office supply store and found a promotional sale for a 2 Gig SD card for less than $20... ?!?! They were all sold out, of course, but nonetheless... huh? How'd they do that?

In the fall of 1989 I paid about $325 for a 20 Mb hard drive for my XT clone. About a year later, I was sitting around at a U of MI computer consultant's office watching a guy working on a stack of discs. I asked a friend what he was doing. My friend, a consultant at the time, said something akin to, "Oh, he's working on putting together a 700 Mb hard drive! Can you believe that?"

I couldn't believe it then and now, as I sit looking at a 1 Gig SC card that's postage stamp in size and is so common... I just don't get it. I mean, I do "know" how it's done, but the reality of it is mind warping. Well, it's warping the gray matter on the inside of my skull. So, is my gray matter migrating out through my hair follicles? Is that why I don' get it anymore? I dunno... Back to Harry Potter for the nth night.

One last thing: I know it's been a while since it was released, but I'm really digging Elvis Costello's Monkey to Man. Talk about a take on change!

Looks can be deceiving

The family went out for a walk on this pleasant summer's evening. We were excited to see Cicada Killers buzzing about in some of our neighbors' yards. These large wasps look fierce and will hover about lawns, trees, and just about anything (like our baby stroller this evening). The good news is that they're completely harmless. Okay, well, if you step on a female, you may get stung, but their sting is reportedly only as fierce as a pinprick. We found a line of their burrows along one curb/lawn edge and were amazed at the amount of soil piled up on the street below: at least 2 cups per burrow. That's a lot of earth to move for one insect.

I haven't heard that many cicadas this summer. Hmmm... I wonder...

Funny thing, how Cicada Killers look vicious to us and our first instinct is to run away or smash them. Why isn't it that way with our current president and his cabinet? Maybe if they looked like Cicada Killers... I dunno. I'm off to read the latest Harry Potter.

Get A Grip

Yup, that's what this is for. To help me get a grip on things, I'll post random thought about issues I wonder about and/or feel strongly about.