Posts in the “personal” category

Rafael Nadal, October 9, 2020: “It’s important to go through all the process. You have to suffer. You can’t pretend to be in a final of Roland Garros without suffering. That’s what happened there. But I found a way, no?”

Very soon I’ll be under anesthesia for the 19th time in my life. Hopefully when you get to 20 you get a prize. :)

Ninety-nine dreams I have had
In every one a red balloon
It’s all over and I’m standing pretty
In this dust that was a city
If I could find a souvenir
Just to prove the world was here
And here is a red balloon
I think of you, and let it go

~ from the song, 99 Red Balloons

“Humans without romance become curmudgeons and predictable with misery.”

~ Carlos Santana

Listened to a Buddhist teaching on impermanence while watching a brand new crack in my windshield grow to 20" today. Now in Fort Collins, Colorado.

~ a Facebook post from September 29, 2011

Apparently my lasting memory of moving out of my apartment in Broomfield, Colorado in September, 2020, is going to be getting stung by a bee when I walked into the local Walmart for the last time. Both a guy pushing carts and I saw something fly directly into my chest, but neither of us could figure out what it was. About thirty seconds later the bee stung me at this point in my arm.

Getting stung by a bee can be kind of a big deal to someone with mast cell disease (MCAS), so I walked over to the pharmacy and got a bottle of liquid Benadryl and some Zyrtec, and swallowed the pills with the Benadryl. A helpful pharmacist also had an EpiPen on standby for me if I needed it.

I don’t know how “normal” people react to bee stings, but this photo was taken almost five days after the sting.

While I’m sharing photos of Siberian Huskies I’ve known and loved, here’s one of Rocky working on a bone. My wife originally found him stuck in a cinder block in Virginia when he was 12-18” long, and he became the first husky we’d know. He became famous for destroying furniture, howling, and running around saying words like “Oprah” and “Geraldo.”

Remember when we was on ice skates,
And I thought you was supposed to be great,
So I kept giving you lip,
And you kept trying to slip,
So I could catch you.

That was our first date,
And after that,
Every day was great.

So now I want you to know,
That wherever you go,
Atlantic City or in the snow,
Don’t worry about a thing,
’cause as long as I got this ring,
I’ll always be there to catch you.

~ Rocky’s poem to Adrian in Rocky II

September 18, 2020: Apparently my lasting memory of the Walmart near Apartment #1 is going to be getting stung by a bee.

I’ve had these computer Christmas lights going for a while now, and tonight I’ll put up the others. I don’t know what it is about them, but when it starts to get dark I like a little color in the evening.

FWIW, if you’re interested in Christmas lights like these you can buy a similar strand here on Amazon, or look at a list of them here.

Had a talk with a doctor this morning about autoimmune diets, statins, apples, water tables in Mexico, almonds, bees, Zen, quality of life, and death. Good stuff.

~ September 7, 2016

In the interest of truth and honesty in politics, the full context of the Joe Biden quote, “You won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America,” is this:

“Since they have no agenda or vision for a second term, Trump and Pence are running on this, and I find it fascinating: ‘You won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America.’ And what’s their proof? The violence we’re seeing in Donald Trump’s America.”

I really despise all of the lying in current American politics, so I wanted to share that “fact check.” You can find this full, accurate quote on the Daily Mail and many other websites.

Four kidney stones, lined up in a row next to the ureter stent.

Way back in the day — in the days that were mostly before Linux — I did some work with the Santa Cruz Operation, which was known as SCO. When I moved to Louisville, Kentucky in the 1990s, I went from working on Unix systems from IBM, DEC, and SGI to working on SCO Xenix systems. Because of that business I eventually became an SCO-authorized instructor.

One lasting token of that relationship is this SCO clock. I always liked their tree logo, so I’ve kept the clock all these years, but as I was packing a little today, I don’t know if it’s going to make the next move with me, or not.

I realized today that most of my nieces don’t know me as the guy who co-founded a successful small business. (Back in the day we had 15 employees, five contractors, revenue of almost $2M and profit of $400-500K.) Instead, they know me as the uncle that moved to Alaska, has a rare blood disease, and writes books.

“Whoever knowingly and willfully obstructs or retards the passage of the mail, or any carrier or conveyance carrying the mail, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.”

~ from this Cornell University Law School page

When I went through the process of renewing my passport yesterday I was reminded that once upon a time I had Canadian auto insurance.

I can confirm that it’s hard to stay upright when your blood pressure gets too low.

For those in the know, here’s an eighth of an inch stone.

Grown men may learn from little children, for the hearts of little children are pure, and, therefore, the Great Spirit may show to them many things which older people miss.

~ Black Elk

In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities; in the expert’s mind there are few.

~ Shunryu Suzuki