Geezer

There are 386 posts filed in Geezer (this is page 20 of 39).

Tanning no more

Once upon a time in my foolish youth I thought it was cool to get a suntan. There were many summers during my teens where I would “sunbathe” with almost nothing protecting my skin. Several times I got a crispy result.

The turning point for me was a visit to Hong Kong with the Navy back in 1991. Many of the crew and I visited a water theme park in the hills above the city. It was blazing hot so I removed my shirt, I had no sunscreen, and I was on a mountain in the tropics for several hours. I had huge blisters on my back for the rest of the week and came very close to requesting a light duty chit to recover from that foolhardy damage. Never again would I take that for granted, I vowed.
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Hallie leaves elementary school

Hallie's first day of school, 29 Aug 2007.

Hallie’s first day of school, 29 Aug 2007.


Today is Hallie’s last day at Conn Elementary school. It was 2007 but it seems like only yesterday we received the thrilling news that Hallie was accepted into Conn’s magnet program. On visiting Conn at its open house, Hallie was thrilled as well:

“I love it so much I want to kiss the whole school!”

“I don’t think anybody is as happy as I am!”

“This is the greatest day of my whole life!”

“I’m so overjoyed I feel like I’ve got a bellyache!”

“I don’t think I can wait one bit for Conn!”

“I wish they’d named it ‘I love it!’”

“When I first went down there I felt a bit scared and look at me now!”

And, on our way out of the parking lot, “Turn around!”

Now our girl is bound for Ligon and the future is just as bright for her. Still, it’s a day that reminds me how fleeting life is, how quickly the days pass, and how we don’t get to do any of those days over again.

Pardon me if I’m a weepy mess today.

Old eyes

Reading the newspaper this morning, I discovered I can no longer read text that is within a foot of my face. I only went to the optometrist a few months ago, where I read the tiny text with some difficulty but successfully. My eye doctor said my vision was starting to slide in that regard but that I could simply buy reading glasses at the drug store to supplement my contacts.

I guess this explains why I had such a hard time reading those extremely tiny labels on the Dell computers at my last job. Oh, and I’m getting old, too!

Thirtieth anniversary of becoming a North Carolinian

I can’t let March go out without acknowledging the anniversary that just passed on March 15th. It was that day in 1983 that I became a North Carolinian when my parents moved us from Columbia, SC, to a new home off of Park Road in Charlotte.

It was my first taste of March Madness as this New Yorker basketball coach named Jim Valvano was all over the TV commercials. It was around that time that my dad came home from work one day mentioning that he had a chance meeting with Charlotte mayor Eddie Knox. I take for granted knowing the mayor now but back then I thought that was pretty cool. I suppose it was my first realization that politicians could be everyday people.
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Ten years after the Iraq War

Today is the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War. Countless lives lost, countless money thrown away, and what do we have to show for it? A crumbling, corrupt regime hostile to the U.S. and too cozy with Iran. What a colossal waste.

I remember the cheerleading leading up to the war. Local conservative radio outlet WPTF tarted up its web page with rah-rah graphics advertising the war. It was as if war were some kind of street party. I saved a copy of that website somewhere, knowing that one day it would have to be seen to be believed. I hope I can find my copy.

I’m proud to say that ten years ago I wasn’t fooled. I knew what a clusterfuck we were walking into. I didn’t trust Bush any farther than I could throw him. Cheney, well, I respected him when he was my Secretary of Defense, but his unmitigated greed must have turned him into a lunatic. Perhaps he had me fooled.

If there was any justice in the world Bush and Cheney would be rotting in a jail cell somewhere. Perhaps somewhere in Iraq.

Gideon v. Wainwright – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Today is the 50th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court case, Gideon v. Wainwright. This case established the right of everyone to counsel during a criminal trial, regardless of one’s ability to pay.

My Great Uncle Fred was Gideon’s lawyer for his retrial, during which Gideon was acquitted.

Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335 (1963), is a landmark case in United States Supreme Court history. In the case, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that state courts are required under the Fourteenth Amendment to provide counsel in criminal cases for defendants who are unable to afford to pay their own attorneys, extending the identical requirement made on the federal government under the Sixth Amendment.

via Gideon v. Wainwright – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Chopping veggies or copying code?

Last night while I was chopping vegetables for tonight’s supper, I thought about my service in the Navy. At the time I was a cryptologic technician, which included a security clearance and sounded pretty futuristic. In actuality, I learned how to copy Morse Code: the oldest form of electronic communication available. I haven’t used either my Morse Code nor my security clearance in a job ever since.

It made me wonder whether I should’ve used my Navy training to become a cook. Now there’s a skill that will never be out of demand! The cooks on the ship really had respect, too, because if you treated them right they might get you an extra can of coffee or give you dibs on certain foods.

There’s also a kind of zen involved in chopping vegetables, a meditative state where one simply zones out and lets one’s hands do the work. At the same time, though, listening to Morse can also put one into a sort of trance, with the stream of dots and dashes requiring a certain kind of focus and having a certain kind of rhythm.

At the end of the day, however, no one wants to eat dots or dashes!

Highlights of 2012: Parks board fun

The year 2012 was the start of my second year as chair of Raleigh’s Parks, Recreation, and Greenway Advisory Board (PRGAB). It’s been a busy year, too, I might add.

I continued to speak on behalf of the board at a number of park dedications and groundbreakings, among them the House Creek Greenway Dedication, Carolina Pines Community Center, Jaycees Community Center Dedication, Five Points Center for Active Adults Dedication, Buffalo Road Aquatic Center Dedication, Anne Gordon Center for Active Adults Dedication, Historic Chavis Carousel Groundbreaking, Method Road Playground Dedication, the “Function at the Junction” where Wake Forest’s greenway meets Raleigh’s, and probably a few other events I’m forgetting. It seems that these have become so routine that I don’t even blog about every one!
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Highlights of 2012: Volunteering fun

As if serving on my city boards weren’t enough last year, I embarked on even more volunteer opportunities!

Around the start of the year I came across Little Raleigh Radio and soon got heavily involved, becoming its first board chair. I’ve continued to help organize the station and we’re in pretty good shape to be granted an FCC license this coming October.

I’ve also long been a fan of world music. After missing the AfroCubism show at the N.C. Museum of Art, I called up the show sponsor, Friends of World Music, and soon wound up volunteering for the organization. The highlight of this volunteer effort to date was the Tinariwen show at Carrboro’s ArtsCenter.

I look forward to continuing more of my volunteering in 2013 and helping make great things happen in Raleigh!

Highlights of 2012: RCAC adventures

I spent 2012 chairing two boards for the city: one the Parks board and the other the Raleigh CAC (RCAC) board. The RCAC is a board made up by the officers of the city’s various CACs. It is a rather large board with 19 members: so many that there was often not enough chairs to seat everyone.

I had been a member of the RCAC during my time as chair of the East CAC but I never felt comfortable taking on another leadership role until I had stepped down as East chair. With the handover of the East CAC I could focus on leading the RCAC.

I held monthly RCAC meetings, not of all of which were televised as they usually are. Some of these took place at retreats where we discussed important topics in-depth. I made sure the members helped decide the agendas and gave each some time to discuss what was happening in their neighborhoods. It was quite flattering to have Dwayne Patterson remark about how well the meetings were going.
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