Helluva Week

You know it's going to be a bad week when:

1- You tear a tendon in your finger pulling on a pair of socks.
2- Your older laptop computer develops a bad keyboard.
3- Your desktop computer fails to boot up.
4- Your wife's van has major problems and is in the shop twice in two weeks.
5- Your kid brings home a less than great report card.
6- You watch as 74 year old, John McCain wins the Florida Republican primary.
7- You develop a mucocele on your lip by biting it while sleeping.
8- Your neck hurts.
9- Your W-2 forms are screwed up.
10- You nearly lose your 60,000 word novel into the Ethernet!

And how was your week?

Warrior or Whimp

It was a sad day here in San Diego when the Chargers were beaten by the Patriots again, 21-12. Philip Rivers was the warrior, geting his knee scoped last monday inorder to play on Sunday. He will be having off season surgery to fix things up and be ready for next season.

Antonio Gates- warrior. He played the last two games with a dislocated big toe that will probably need surgery this off season.

Lorenzo Neal- warrior. Breaks his leg and returns Sunday to give it his all.

LT- ?. played only six plays in whst arguably was his biggest game of his career. Pouted for most of the season and whined to the press- starting after last year's Patriots loss. Sprained MCL in his knee. Won't need surgery, says he will "probably" miss the Pro Bowl. Hmmmmm. Sore enough to miss the biggest game of his career- but.... You make the call.

Who the Heck Am I ?

I was born in Milan, Ohio on February 11, 1847, the youngest of seven siblings and grew up in Port Huron, Michigan. I educated myself and my first job was as a telegraph operator. During my life, I was known as an inventor and businessman.

My first invention was the electric vote recorder, (U. S. Patent 90,646). Some of my other inventions included the phonograph, carbon telephone microphone, stock ticker and quadriplex telegraph.

I also invented the Kinetoscope (first motion picture camera) and sadly, helped develop the electric chair. Of course my most famous invention was the incandescent light bulb.

In 1874, I opened the world's first commercial laboratory at Menlo Park, New Jersey where Nikola Tesla and Frank Sprague were two of my assistants. I hold 1,093 U.S. patents. In 1890 I formed the General Electric Company in New York City.

I was good friends with the car genius Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone.

My nickname was "The Wizard of Menlo Park" and I died on October 18, 1931 at my home in West Orange, New Jersey of Parkinson's Disease. My last breath is contained in a test tube at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.

Who am I?

Click on the Title "Who the Heck Am I" to find out if you still don't know.

Not even noon yet... but

... I've already been out exercising. I ran for 1/2 mile and then walked for 4 1/2 miles today around Lake Miramar. Then since it was only 9 am I went to the Walmart to pick up some cleaning stuff. I've been going through it pretty fast lately! Then off to Costco for eggs, bread, milk, morning star veggie sausage, dried mangoes, English muffins, a frozen dinner, mini tacos, chocolate chips (for Sunday waffles), mini meatballs for the game on Sunday and breakfast Honeycombs cereal. Also 24 power bars for the wrestling tourney this weekend.

What's on tap for this afternoon? It's the final push for my personal housecleaning Olympics. Today will include dusting, floor vacuuming and cleaning the downstairs bathroom. I know- a real blast.

Whew... I'm getting tired just thinking about it!

Yet another clean up day

Talk about a good time. Cleaning out thr fish tank and then cleaning the kitchen from top to bottom. The only good thing was listening to the commentary about the Michigan primary on Fox News. Listening to Dick Morris while scrubbing the sink is almost too funny to think about.

The Staples floor mats arrived today. Finally. They look good and perhaps will protect the new wood floor from the rolling desk chairs.

We found three things today that had gotten lost in the shuffle of construction.

1- The license plate tags for the family car arrived in the mail and were misplaced in all the shuffling. Found in the folder marked "Desk".

2- My son's wallete with his school and military ID cards... but no $$$. It was safely tucked away in his drawer near his Hawaiian shell lei's from Hilo Hatties.

3- My registration for the CE course I'm attending on Friday... conveniently filed in the CE courses folder.

So- okay. None of the stuff was really lost. In fact all of it was exactly where it was supposed to be.

As an oh-by-the-way, I ran into Matt at the grocery store. He's an enthusiastic Charger fan. Matt's got a learning disability and is mentally challenged- but he sure loves the Chargers. We always have something to talk about when I go shopping.

I'm also slightly concerned about my BP. This morning it was a healthy 115/56 but this evening it was 135/65... after eating a small baf jalapeno spiced potato chips and doritos in the chicken taco salad for dinner. Hmmmm. maybe there is something to all that talk about too much salt.

Construction is completed- now comes the cleanup

Good News: The wood flooring is all in. Our upstairs is finished after nearly a month long journey that included: unlevel floors and power grinders, sanders, pneumatic hammers, a trip to Hawaii, and rooms full of displaced furniture.

During this odyssey, we cleaned out lots of useless stuff- some went into the trash and the servicable stuff went to the Salvation Army and other charities. Our World Book Encyclopedia (circa 1986) has been evicted after collecting dust on our bookshelves since Al Gore invented the internet. Good bye old friends.

Now begins the clean up. Putting everything back into the rooms it came from. This has involved shuffling of items from room to room and finding a new home for the massive family file cabinet- now nestled downstairs.

This lead in brings me to today's projects:

Clean master bath
Clan hall bath
vacuum all wood floors
take stuff to attic
move extra wood to garage

Also: check on Staples order
go to CVS for roller chair

Well I'mn off to get started with the happy memory of yesterday's 28-24 Charger playoff win still fresh in my mind!!!


Go Chargers !!!

Royalty in the World of Sci-Fi Writers

Arthur C. Clarke recently turned 90 years old. He was born on December, 16, 1917 in Mindhead, Somerset, United Kingdom. Knighted by England's Prince Charles in 1998, Clarke served the crown in World War II as a radar operator and introduced the idea of geostationary satellites in 1945. He is most famous for his novel writing. 2001: A Space Odysessy (1968) is known the world over. He also wrote Rescue Party (his first sale) Imperial Earth, and Rendezvous With Rama (4 seperate books).

He worked with the legendary Stanley Kubrick on the blockbuster cinematic version of 2001 which set the bar for science fiction movies. Clarke has devoted his adult life to writing and science, even though he could not afford to attend college. He is wheelchair bound (due to polio) and living in Sri Lanka.

A.C. Clarke was one of my inspirations and his novels along with those of Robert Heinlein inspired me to begin writing. Thanks guys.

Character Sketch #2

The man in the red ear muffs.

Elderly and weary, ear muff man sits by himself working at the table across the way. Clad in a
checkered flannel shirt and thread bare jeans, he labors with a crossword puzzle. Muttering a mantra to himself, while he puzzles out the words, he is oblivious to the world around him.

Adorned with shooters ear muffs to block out the everyday noise and distractions, he sits in his own world unaware and uncaring of the coffee shop and its bustling crowd around him.

Who is he?

William lost his wife five years ago. She suffered with cancer for her last eight months and he took care of her until she needed a hospice. He spent every day with her until the end. They worked puzzles together. And listened to music. Their music.

Now he sits and puzzles alone. Wearing the muffs, he blocks out the world around to bring back the good memories of his wife. Sometimes he listens to their song on his portable CD player.

He's not one to socialize- he hides himself in the crowded coffee shop and chants his mantra to drive people away. He wants the company of others without them. He wishes to be alone while not being alone. Sometimes when you have a good thing, like William and Mary did, it steals your life when it's gone.

William is alone in a crowd. He prefers it that way.