In May of last year, when Cheryl moved in, my two car garage became a one car garage. She has so many boxes packed with stuff we had to use 1/2 the garage to store it. Merging two households will always result in redundancy. Some of the items she has boxed were not unpacked because I already have cookware, dishes, decor, etc. Other boxes? I have no ( Read more... )

One of my LJ friends is in the midst of a genealogy search. She's posts about it, pictures and stories of days and people gone by. Anyone dedicating that amount of time in search of ancestry is obviously comfortable with the tree they fell from. That's not true of everyone. Some people run fast and far from their roots. There are others types of ( Read more... )

"The only currency you have in this bankrupt world is what you share when you're not cool."

That is a line from the movie 'Almost Famous', spoken by actor Philip Seymour Hoffman in a phone conversation with a down and out friend.  He was admitting to being not cool and understanding that his most genuine moments in life were when he was not trying ( Read more... )

It's fast approaching one year since the phone call that marks the dramatic change in my son's life. It's hard to believe he's been incarcerated for much of the past year. Weeks pass with little contact from the people dealing with him. His right to privacy and insistence that I be left out of his case keep me mostly in the dark. I understand the ( Read more... )

I'm not the kind of man who beats himself up over mistakes but I'm not afraid of some healthy introspection. I know precisely what my flaws are, I have several but today I was reminded of one particular quirk I have.

I had a terrible morning. Captain Sod had verbally abused Hermanos after he dared question the accuracy of Sod's information. Rather ( Read more... )

After several posts filled with negativity regarding my workplace I suppose I should balance the record. Monkey Tech has it's issues but it's no dungeon. We're small, only 15 people, and we do some high quality precision work. Unfortunately being small means we work in close quarters. We're divided into camps. The most obvious division is between ( Read more... )

As a fan of baseball, it's history, nostalgia and the game it's very easy to get caught up in the emotion of what the pastime means to the people who truly love it. The game connects me to my youth, the memories of playing sandlot ball, Little League and days listening to games on the radio with my Grampa sitting on the front porch. My dad coached ( Read more... )

Dishonest people and their misdeeds can stir an ill wind in our souls. They bring out our worst. Our feelings of scorn are unfamiliar even to ourselves. No one knows me better than I. These thoughts are not normal. How can an individual arouse such ignominy in my heart? I think about this and why it is so.

His eyes scan the pawn shop in a calm but  ( Read more... )

 
In my 30 years in the workforce I have learned a few things, one of them is this. You cannot be an affective manager and be best friends with the people working under your supervision. End of freakin’ discussion! Well, not actually. I’ll ramble on for a few hundred words saying what I just stated in seventeen. It’s what I do.

Sometimes you must ( Read more... )

I'm convinced my 18-year-old son has chosen the perfect major as he enters college. He is the sounding board for his group of friends. They come to him with their problems from home, issues with boyfriends, girlfriends, teachers, parents and whatever else stresses their angst ridden teenage souls. His teenage therapist status was brought to my ( Read more... )