Emotional Night

I’d have to say that last night was filled with more than its share of excitement. Right after I put Hallie to bed, I walked by the windows where red flashing light was shining. A fire truck was creeping its way down the street. Needless to say, I stepped outside to see where it was going.

When it stopped a few houses down, I recognized the family of my next door neighbors. My neighbor Jay had collapsed on the sidewalk while out walking the dog with his girls. After making sure their kids were settled, I offered to go with his wife to the hospital, where I waited as she checked up on him. When she told me I could go, she said the doctors thought he had had a mild stroke.

He’s just 36 years old. Scary. A full heart workup was being prepared as I drove home, so more should be known today. I guess we’re lucky to have a fire station less than a half-mile away.

After I got home, my wife and I were pretty wired and couldn’t sleep, so I checked email and webpages once again. While I was out helping my neighbors, my brother was announcing a new arrival. Wow! We spent another hour talking about that; including when they knew, what a crazy time holiday will be, and how close the kid will be to our upcoming son’s age.

Just like that I went from something frightening and sad, to something profoundly happy. Its like I save all of my emotional dessert and eat it all at once. A binge or something.

Now, I wonder what today will bring!

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Jeanne Storm Remnants Expected Today

Keep a watch on the weather today. Strong winds from Hurricane Jeanne could spawn tornadoes. And tornadoes are bad, mmmkay?

On a more serious note, my friend and former coworker Jeff deals with the aftermath of these storms on a regular basis. Through his rescue efforts, people whose lives are shattered by disaster are often pulled from the brink. One of his current rescues hit close to home.

Thanks, Jeff, for what you do. I am thankful there are people like you who regularly put their life on the line to save others. If you feel the same way, drop Jeff a note. I’m sure he’d appreciate hearing from you.

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Wolfpack Escapes Blacksburg

I watched the Wolfpack steal a win from Virginia Tech Saturday when Tech missed a last-second field goal. Score was 17-16. I was impressed watching State’s defense smother the Hokies. Our “D” has really improved from the ones of last season and before. It’s been carrying the load as our new quarterbacks struggle a bit to come up to speed.

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A Lake Gaston Weekend

We got back last evening from a weekend visit with the Naylors to Lake Gaston. Meeting us there were Kelly’s parents and brother’s family, as well as Ralph, Suzzanne, and Matt Naylor. We had a great time just visiting, or doing whatever lake activities came to mind.

The weather was beautiful. Sunny and dry all weekend, though Sunday brought more wind than Saturday. Ralph and I took the daysailer out and raced across the lake. Kelly told me I had an ear-to-ear grin as I hurried onto the boat.

Hallie has a nighttime cough which woke us up Saturday night. Thanks to the comforting skills of her Mommy, though, she was back to sleep in no time.

It’s always tough leaving, but today its back to reality.

We’re loving the new drive time there: just an hour as opposed to 90 minutes.

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There’s Green In The Yard

This morning, I was thrilled to see grass sprouts all in the yard. Looks like the seed is germinating!

I’m off to Lowe’s again today to return the puny sprinklers I bought and buy the “cannon” sprinklers instead. They cost three times as much, but they cover more yard with less hassle. Moral: Good sprinklers are worth the price.

Wanted: Carribean Island

Can anyone help with this little project? I’m trying to get rich.

I’m looking for a Carribean island with the following characteristics:

1. Not part of the U.S., but within easy flying distance.
2. Large, modern airport.
3. Stable political atmosphere.
4. Educated populace.
5. Good natural resources, especially fresh water.
6. Low taxes are a plus, but not required.

Heck, it doesn’t even have to be an island. A Central American country might do.

Looking through the CIA Factbook might be a good place to start.

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New Brain-Music Interface Found

I broke down and bought some new earbuds today to replace the ragged fifteen-year-old Awias I had. Best Buy had what I needed: a new pair of Sony MDR-EX51LP earbuds. They’ve just become my best headphones in the house.

The biggest thing for me is sound quality (naturally). A great deal of headphones at the store had frequency responses of 20 Hz to 20KHz, which in book is too narrow. Sure, you can listen to music in that range, but it’ll have all the charm of hold music. The Sony’s rock in that they cover a greater range of lower frequencies, in addition to some more high frequencies (which is a nice plus, but not critical for me). Total range: 6 Hz to 23KHz. They bested my trusty (and quite rusty) JVC headphones, hands down.

The headphone models at the store could do a bit better, but not by much. A pair of Aiwa headphones on the shelf boasted 5 Hz to 25 KHz. I decided it wasn’t worth paying the dork price of wearing coconuts on my head just to squeeze in a little more music. I’m enough of a dork as it is, thank you very much.

Comfort is another big plus to these earbuds. The Awia’s I’ve put up with had foam covers which quickly got lost, making the earbuds a bit tiring on my ears after a while. These Sonys have rubber cups which fit very snugly in my ear. They shut out outside noise in a way the Aiwas never could.

Now I’m rocking out with my Zaurus kicking my Ogg Vorbis-encoded music collection straight into my head. Yeah, I know I’m a dweeb, but at least now I have an excuse for silently grinning and staring into space.

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Back In The Saddle

My back pain is completely gone this morning. It’s so weird how for two days straight it hurt to move my head, but now its totally gone. I think I must have pinched a nerve or something.

I was really bummed yesterday because it was painful to sing. Normally, it’s only painful for the people around me.