More fun in the Putty Knife factory

Hiya!



While there are several major events going on around me, life isn't all that changed.  I just figured I'd drop in a new blog for grins.



We're planning to go to Nebraska this weekend for the Camp Creek Threshers Bee.  Basically, this is big antique tractor show with live demonstrations.  It's only planned on the hottest day of the year in a big treeless field.  But, if you can stand the heat, it is a lot of home town fun.  They have all the usual fair food like funnel cakes, corn dogs and old fashion lemonade.  Plus watching the giant steam tractors is amazing.  For those that don't know... tractors were first developed as steam engines makeing rough the size of a locomotive.  The rest of the show focuses on the steam powered era.  Again, amazing to see how we used to do thing at the dawn of the industrial revolution.  Here's a link...



http://www.ccthreshers.org/



Work is busy with multiple testing schedules and new data partners to work with.  You'd be surprised at how different "standard" implementations can be...  Work is work... I still don't like it.  I have some silly idea that maybe I could make money at writing.  But it just doesn't seem possible that I could make money at it.  After all you have be learned for that, right?  Dunno... may have to give it a shot in my spare time.



World of Warcraft continues to be the most played game in my list.  While the game is huge and comprehensive... I'm getting less enjoyment from it.  It's a nice time-filler, but not as "new" anymore.  I have 3 characters at maximum level on a player-versus-player server (the most challenging environment) so the challenge is dropping.  Blizzard is pushing out more content, but all most all of it is aimed at huge 40 player groups... Something I rarely have time for.  But still it's the best way to hang out with the guys in Nebraska even tho I'm in Kansas.



I bought tickets for the T-Bones AAA baseball game on the 22nd.  My folks will be coming down and we'll have all the kids that weekend and the following week.  I'll have to work... but at least I'll get to see them after.



On the "not fun" list is more financial mediation with the ex about child support and more "discussion" about when I'll get to see them in August.  Since the ex moved 45 minutes away it's been really hard to see my two.  I can't quite describe how totally unfair the whole thing is.  Mostly I just try to do the best I can to see them, but when the school year starts it will be even harder.  I miss them all the time already.  I have hard time understanding why I would be given these two great children and love them so much and then have them kept away so much.  Thank God for my wife and Gabe.  I'd go crazy if I didn't have them.



Amy is doing well/struggling with her night classes.  But I keep telling her "any forward progress is good progress".  It may take a while to get through the program she's in, but like all highly skilled careers, you just have to keep putting in time to gain experience.  She should finish her BA this Fall and then complete here translator program in the 2-3 years following.



We both are working on finding some way to excercise more and get back to our svelt forms.  I know (that for me) I just have to start doing it instead of thinking about it.  Of course tomorrow always seems like the better day to start.



The power company sent us a promotion to have a free programmable thermostat installed.  I thought that was a great deal.  Our house has your standard old dial model.  Of course the programmable part doesn't do us quite as much good since Amy and Gabe are in the house most of the day (so you can't turn things down during the day like they expect), but nice to have just the same.



That is most of the news from Curt-Land...

Do it for her

When the day is hard
When there seems no end

Do it for her...

When life is a stuggle
When there are few reasons

Do it for her...

When you are down
When it seems impossible to get up

Do it for her...

When old friends leave
When family is far away

Do it for her...

When nothing makes sense
When you need faith

Do it for her...

When all the doors seem shut
When you wonder if your dreams will come true

Do it for her.

Just Chillin' on Vacation

Just a little project we did on vacation.  I also have a new friendship bracelet from my daughter. 

We haven't been doing much, just hanging around the home town and doing the fun things we never seem to quite get to do.

Theory of Cosmic Evolution

Being from Kansas issues about Evolution are commonly on my mind.  Not because I really have any doubts that evolution works or that statements like "God put the dinosaur fossils in the earth to test our faith" to be absurd... But mostly because its facinating.  On one level it obvious that the creatures of the Earth of closely related and yet on another level the mechanic of evolution (slight variations over millions of years) seems not quite right.  I don't have the answer, but I do have a concept...  The condition of DNA replication is the lifeform itself not the individual species that use it.



All living things on this planet have DNA and cellular structure that replicates to create larger organism with traits and abilities... DNA is therefore highly adaptable.  Inside DNA is all the complexity of all life.  The codes to everything are contained within.  DNA itself is a mechanism to create our type of life.  DNA can survive in a multitude of forms.



I imagine then that the whole Earth is common DNA organism of many parts and the instict to survive goes beyond each species but to the whole survival of DNA.  For as long as there is a single replicating strand... life could conceivable repopulate an entire planet.  Perhaps someday our planet will be smashed by rock large enough to shatter the world and piece of our world will spin off to then someday smash in to another warm rock.  Will then we seed that world with our bacteria? Will that world grow to be not too much different than ours?  Maybe it will be dogs that develop large brains and opposable thumbs, but regards our DNA will spread and follow similar design criteria...  Maybe our world was seeded in the same way... and there are other planets out there with DNA based development.  They will be grandly different, but I bet we will be shocked at the similarities.

Haunted (fiction)

She comes to me in this place.  On cold, gray days when the stone seems to absorb the heat of a touch she comes to sit next to me.  Even though I long for the touch, her hands are cold.  Her body pressed next to me on the stone bench provides only a chill.  But my heart leaps with boundless joy.  She's come back to me.  She's come back. 

I can almost make out her outline, but she disappears when I look right at her.  At the edge of my vision I can make out indistinct outlines of red curls and blue eyes.  Her body is silhouetted in something white and flowing.  She looks at me.  She always looks at me.  In her presence I remember everything so clearly.  I become an old man laughing at nothing—muttering replies to unspoken questions.  I don’t care.

The wind blows making my eyes tear.  Though the blurred tears she almost comes in to focus and I can see her face, but only for a moment and she’s gone again.  Her touch seems to ignore the many layers of warm clothing I always wear when I visit.  She waits so long to show.  My joints ache and my heat is nearly drained away as if my very life is needed to summon her.  Sometimes she doesn’t come.  When the sun sinks below the trees I can’t stay any longer.  It’s a struggle to stand—to stagger back to the world of the living.  Crying from the wind or remorse or the pain… or the loss.

Her presence never wavers when she does come.  We talk in our way until the sun sets.  I try to stay longer, but I’m too weak.  I can’t stand the painful cold.  I think she understands.  When I stand to go she remains sitting.  She watches me as I walk away.  Even as I leave the cemetery behind I can see her sitting there.  I always leave behind the flowers I bring.  They are always gone when I return.

I know she wants me to stay.  I know someday I will. 

Ray Charles

Hey I know it's cheesy to see a movie and then be all like "this is so cool" but I am...



I saw Ray about 2 weeks ago and it was so good I went out and bought some Ray Charles music (not the soundtrack by the way).  Perhaps not surprising, it is amazing.  Ray is a little out of my generation, but it is damn good music.



So if you're out there impulsing buying the latest Jessica Simpson "Look at my giant Knockers" CD, consider a little Ray Charles soul too.  It will probably last longer.

A note from my daughter

I could not love you more Dad.  I Love you to micro pieces I Love you, full bag of Love! to : Dad