Posts in the “personal” category

Today (February 19th) is an anniversary for me. After knowing “something” was wrong for a long time — I used to tell doctors it felt like I had been poisoned or was experiencing the symptoms of anaphylaxis or sepsis — I went unconscious for the first time on this date in 2014.

While that in many ways was a horrible event — if I had fallen to the right instead of the left when I blacked out, I probably would have cracked my head on the bathtub and died right then — in the end it was necessary for doctors (and I) to take things more seriously, which resulted in seeing a total of 26 doctors to learn that I have MCAS, a rare but treatable non-contagious blood disease (something I was born with).

Last week I was trying to remember the name of a hotel in Wyoming that has/had a big boot in front of it. Then Google came up with an interesting suggestion. :)

During a dream this morning, I was going off to college and my wife’s grandparents gave us a stack of papers, thinking I could use them at school. The papers were all like plain printing paper, and most were clean, but some of them had things written or printed on the back side. They were big on using everything, so the implication was that I could use the blank side for my needs.

When I flipped one of the pages over I saw that there was writing in my grandfather’s handwriting. It was like a diary page, with today’s date on it (with a different year), and it had two notes about his wife. The first was, “Take care of you Dilly,” meaning that he would take care of her. The second was, “Seriously, I think that was the best meal you have ever made.”

~ February 16, 2021

Traditionally I’ve spent a number of springs in Virginia Beach.

#MeepMeep

This photo is from the Cubs Facebook page back in 2015. It’s relevant again in 2021, because Jake Arrieta is back with the Cubs.

“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.

“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

~ The Fellowship of the Ring

In a way I know my heart is waking up
As all the walls come tumbling down
Closer than I’ve ever felt before
And I know, and you know
There’s no need for words right now

~ from the song Breathe, by Faith Hill

February 8, 2021: I’m reminded of this:

“I’m going to do my best. I offer you my heart, and my spirit.”

~ Carlos Santana to Faith Hill, before playing her song Breathe.

“My purpose is to serve humanity ... every day is a battlefield ... if you fight with anger, you’re part of the problem, if you fight with joy, you’re a solution. You have to have conviction, ‘Before I die, there will be hearts touched by my spirit.’”

~ Carlos Santana

Back in the day I lived in this house.

I don’t know how long it lasts, but on Feb. 6, 2021, I just saw that Amazon is having a big sale on the Ring Alarm Five-Piece Kit.

In an alternate life I became a baseball pitching coach after high school, and taught many pitchers how to throw a changeup, among other pitches. This photo shows Trevor Bauer’s changeup grip, which I originally saw related to this espn.com page.

For a couple of weeks the song “This Beat Goes On/Switching to Glide” by The Kings has been in my brain, so in an effort to get it out of there, here it is:

Introduction: After reading the following text in the book, The Science of Enlightenment, I decided to try meditating outside in sweatpants and a hoodie in the freezing cold in the evenings. It’s now my favorite form of meditation because you either do it right, or suffer the consequences. Here’s the text:

~~~

Several months later, as winter approached and it was getting cold and uncomfortable, the Abbot told me that if I wanted to be trained in traditional Shingon practice he would allow it — but I would have to do with the old-fashioned way. I would have to do a solo retreat for one hundred days in winter, most of the time with no source of heat, in complete silence other than occasional instruction from him, and with no meal after noon.

My training began on December 22, the day of the winter solstice. The Abbot had warned me that part of the old-fashioned way involved certain ascetic practices derived not from Buddhism, but from the shamanic tradition of Shinto, Japan’s pre-Buddhist tribal religion. One of the most common methods that tribal cultures use to obtain visions of gods or spirits is through prolonged exposure to extreme hot or cold. In India, Hindus have the five fires practice; in North America, Native Americans have the sweat lodge and the sun dance. These involve heat. The traditional Shinto shamanic practice goes in the other direction. It involves cold — squatting under freezing waterfalls in winter, standing in cold springs, dousing your body with ice water, and so forth.

If you haven’t seen the movie I.Q., it’s a cute love story. This line in particular reminds me of a couple of people I’ve known who have great minds, but don’t seem to trust that.

When I have some free time I’d like to work with this image to make it look more like an oil painting. It’s not really mine to name, but I call it, Death of the Father.

The following quotes are from this article about how (and why) Peter Garbiel left Genesis and went out on his own:

“He (Gabriel) was a joy to work with, so smart and witty. It was just that sometimes he was a little overwhelmed by the speed and intensity of the sessions. A British interviewer came out to Toronto to meet him; then the headline declared: 'A Mumble-Free Gabriel!'

"With us he developed a new confidence and swagger. Prior to that he was a bit shy. He had to learn to shout to get through to us. There were just so many characters in their own right involved.”

Ezrin praises the contributions of guitarists Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner, bassist Tony Levin, synth player Larry Fast and other key players.

“We put a fantastic band together. They were like the Dirty Dozen – each of them was a psychopathic expert in their particular field of destruction. It felt like letting the crack criminals out of prison and putting them together in a gang for the Big Job.”

Facebook tells me that I found this quote by Janis Ian back in 2014. Still seems like a good idea. :)

“My father always used to say, ‘Don’t raise your voice; improve your argument.’ Good sense does not always lie with the loudest shouters, nor can we say that a large, unruly crowd is always the best arbiter of what is right.”

~ Archbishop Desmond Tutu

“If we think we want to get joy for ourselves, we realize that it’s very shortsighted, short-lived. Joy is the reward, really, of seeking to give joy to others. When you show compassion, when you show caring, when you show love to others, do things for others, in a wonderful way you have a deep joy that you can get in no other way.”

“You can’t buy it with money. You can be the richest person on Earth, but if you care only about yourself, I can bet my bottom dollar you will not be happy and joyful. But when you are caring, compassionate, more concerned about the welfare of others than about your own, wonderfully, wonderfully, you suddenly feel a warm glow in your heart, because you have, in fact, wiped the tears from the eyes of another.”

~ Archbishop Desmond Tutu, in The Book of Joy