Right Here, Right Now 3.0

Last Thursday, at 12:30 a.m. (did I mention it was in the middle of the night?) Mom, Jay, Lynne and I went back to Ohio to bury dad. Laurie flew in from St. Louis and met us in Cleveland.

Thursday was get acclimated, get the hotel room, etc. Mom had originally reserved one room for the girls and one room for the boys. Lynne and I independently called to get our own room. Cranky aren't we.

Friday, Lynne and I went to Bowling Green and hooked up with Pat Dennis and his sister Mary. Growing up, Pat had been a friend of mine, from 3rd grade on, and Lynne and Mary were pals. Going into it, I figured Lynne and I would tool around BG, visit some of the historic sites and maybe meet Mary and Pat for lunch. Well, Mary turned into our chauffeur for the day (taking hourly breaks to adjust her kiln) and Pat was with it for most of it as well. Mary's husband Bob joined us for lunch. It was real nice to see all of them.

We got back Friday night in time to see some friends of the folks, for dinner at the local Outback.

After dinner we went over to see Jan and Arne Fortune. Jan is one of dad's three cousins. They aren't people we spent a lot of time with growing up and it was great connecting with them. Great humor, very warm. I felt like I had discovered a long lost family. I am guessing we really never visited them because their kids are quite a bit younger.

Saturday was the service. I almost over-slept. Just as well because I didn't have time to get terribly nervous. Lynne and I picked dad up at the funeral home to take him out to the grave-site. Talk about having the whole world in your hands. Holding his urn was quite something. "Special" is too trite a word, but it was that, at least.

The service was great. I moderated and opened by welcoming everyone and briefly summarized the memorial service we had here. Dad's best man told several funny stories about their time together. There was a contingent of high school friends, who had recently seen the folks at the 55th reunion, and one of them spoke. Jay and Lynne each said a few words and mom closed by thanking everyone for attending and she offered a brief prayer.

After the service we all went to the Merry-Go-Round museum in Sandusky where food was served, stories were told and catching up was done. I am currently of the opinion that people should give a month's notice that they intend to die so that they can hear all the great things their friends and family have to say about them.

Saturday night Lynne, Jay and I went to see Corpse Bride. Draw your own conclusions.

Sunday and Monday were spent trying to get the hell home. We missed our connection and ended up spending the night in Chicago. The upside (and there's always an upside) is that we got to see some cousins, one of whom I hadn't seen since his wedding 254 years ago (ok, not quite that long ago.)

Family and friends was the lesson of that trip.

So, here's a link to pictures of the trip Lynne and I did to BG. Mary is the woman with the longer hair, Lynne is the woman with the shorter hair. Pat is the man with the hair. The church is the one we attended as kids, Lynne is taking a drafting class and wanted to draw it. My dad and grandfather built the shed in 1960. The house (424 S. College) has housed students since we moved out. The brick house was the first off-campus place I lived. There's a picture somewhere of mom and dad holding me upside down, by the ankle when I was a todler (I looked like I was enjoying it... :-) )

The big boy is a joke. Mary was astonished that I'd asked to go visit. (She used to do restaurant inspections for the county, I think that figured into her astonishment). But, it was a hang-out for me and Pat during our mis-spent youth. Glory days.

"They say that patriotism is the last refuge
To which a scoundrel clings.
Steal a little and they throw you in jail,
Steal a lot and they make you king."

Bob Dylan: Sweetheart Like You.

"If you owe the bank $100, that's your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that's the bank's problem."

J. Paul Getty

"We face a demographic tsunami" that "will never recede," David Walker tells a group of reporters.

Sadly, it's no laughing matter. To hear Walker, the nation's top auditor, tell it, the United States can be likened to Rome before the fall of the empire. Its financial condition is "worse than advertised," he says. It has a "broken business model." It faces deficits in its budget, its balance of payments, its savings - and its leadership.

Speaking of Rome...

The Army said on Tuesday it was looking into whether U.S. forces in Iraq put prisoners in a cage with lions in 2003, but Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called the accusation by two Iraqi men "far-fetched."

You have two choices for today's quote.

They rode against the railroads,
And they rode against the banks
And they rode against the governor
Never did they ask for a word of thanks

-Frank and Jesse James, Warren Zevon

Interpretation is the revenge of the intellect upon art.

- Susan Sontag

I really like this blog. It generally talks about doing such a great job in making software that your customers are passionate about what you do. Anyone who works at Apple, say, should understand that creating passionate users is a reasonable goal.

The current post proposes that creating sotware is like dating. So, I get tips for how to be during and after work.

Kay Baily Hutchison's Press Secretary, apparently with insight on future indictments, says Plamegate isn't as bad as Monicagate.

Arianna Huffington says (and documents) that Cheney, Rove, Bush and Libby (in order of importance to the administration) have clearly lied to the American public, if not under oath.

Plamegate: Worse than Watergate: "But what they were covering up was much more than the outing of Valerie Plame. They were covering up the way the White House had used lies and deception to lead us into a war that was reckless and unnecessary -- what Lt. Gen. William Odom, National Security Agency director under Reagan, has called 'the greatest strategic disaster in United States history.'"

Forbes.com: "Conservative outrage over President George Bush's controversial pick of Texas lawyer Harriet Miers to fill a vacancy on the US Supreme Court was unabated Sunday as activists called on the White House to withdraw her nomination."

Wherin I use the blog as my delicious-like service. stopmotion - Stop Motion Animation - Dancing

Kay Bailey Hutchison, putting principle above all else.

Quoted, in the NYT:

Ms. Hutchison said she hoped "that if there is going to be an indictment that says something happened, that it is an indictment on a crime and not some perjury technicality where they couldn't indict on the crime and so they go to something just to show that their two years of investigation was not a waste of time and taxpayer dollars."

A simple Google search for "Kay Bailey Hutchison Clinton Perjury" leads us to:

In 1999, however, she stood with Republicans in voting to remove President Clinton for grand jury perjury and obstruction of justice in the wake of the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

(Tom Delay's booking photo.)