Birthday Wishes

I'm off to Indianapolis to celebrate the 80th birthday of a good friend. We should all be so lucky. I probably won't be posting until Monday.

Back but only half full

It's been almost 2 weeks since I've been able to post or comment and I've become a complete desperado. I have a new laptop but my PC is in melt down. I swear Windows 98 has a self destruct command. Everything was fine until my ISP crashed. It took over 2 days for Comcast to get it together and ever since I have not been able to surf. My browser(s) were highjacked! Whatever I did, uninstall programs, reinstall programs, check settings, reset settings, nothing worked. The truth is Windows 98 is old technology and no one wants to support obsolete technology. I guess I should feel lucky it has lasted me 6 years. But I have felt very frustrated.

I did think about my "Mover & Shaker" days, when someone would solve these problems for me or at least expedite the process. It was questionable how important I truly was in Corporate America but I did have access to resources. Granted, managing those resources could be challenging, even daunting but there were definite benefits.

I abandoned all that for a life of comfort and leisure, ahem to work at home. Much has been written about people, like me, leaving the fast track for the slow lane and many people have given up big jobs (and large incomes) for small things, you know like having dinner with your family regularly and making the hours in your day yours, not someone elses .

My friends all thought I was nuts, too capable, too talented, with too much to offer to be satisfied with anything less than the march to the relentless corporate drumbeat, as if that could ever be entirely fulfilling. It is one thing to bamboozle your clients and collegues, it's quite another to fool your friends. I was stunned. Apparently, I am too smart to stay at home, volunteering my time, sitting on non-profit boards, dealing with the pitfalls and the triumphs of domesticity (and there are so many more than I imagined).

Honestly, I am exactly where I want to be and even though my computer skills (and patience) need considerable improvement, I'm back to making some noise...

System Crash

I've been having trouble...ISP,old computer old operating system...can't surf, unable to post (whenI want to) can't comment. Building new system. I promise I'll be back.

Untitled by Anonymous

Do not stand at my grave and weep;
I am not there, I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning's hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry;
I am not there, I did not die.

I wish I could take credit for writing this poem but I cannot. Even though it is quite famous, the author (and title) is still unknown. Often it is read at funerals and memorials. But I believe its message is even larger than death and is about transcendence of all kinds. Irregardless, it is lovely. Maybe you will think so too.

April snow 

Spring Blizzard in Denver

Yes! It's a white-0ut. I can't even see across the street. The city is expecting 5 to 10 inches and up to 30 inches in other parts of the state.
I picked a large bouquet of hyacinths yesterday. The temperature was 67 degrees.
We have experienced a nearly 40 degree drop in less than 12 hours which isn't all that unusual for this time of year. Welcome to Springtime in the Rockies!
Watching the snow accumulate, I'm sorry I didn't cut more flowers. It's the optimist in me. I actually believe there is a chance they will recover even after being smashed from the heavy weight of the snow.
Today would be a great day to post pictures, blog and pontificate. But I'm suffering from a lousy cold and can barely keep my head up. My thinking is as blurry and shrouded as the blowing snow outside. I'm going back to bed.

Transparencies 

Something worth reading in the New York Times "the quiet crisis"

The New York Times > Magazine > It's a Flat World, After All
Thomas L. Friedman writes about globalization and whether the U.S. is up to the new challenges it presents.
"Some three billion people who were out of the game walked and often ran onto the playing field... people of China, India, Russia, Eastern Europe, Latin America and Central Asia. Their economies and political systems all opened up during the course of the 1990's so that their people were increasingly free to join the free market".
"And be advised: the Indians and Chinese are not racing us to the bottom."
Instead of whining about outsourcing, Americans and Western Europeans should be thinking about raising "the bar" and doing things better.
"A quiet crisis" is eating away America's capability to compete in this new world market and is the product of three gaps now plaguing American society.
The first is an "ambition gap". Compared with the young energetic Indians and Chinese, too many Americans have gotten too lazy. As David Rothkopt, a former official in the Clinton Commerce Dept., puts it the real entitlement we need to get rid of is our sense of entitlement.
Second, we have a serious "numbers gap". We are not producing enough engineers and scientists. And finally we are developing an "education gap" C.E.O's...are not just outsourcing to save on salary. They are doing it because they can often get better-skilled and more productive people than their American workers."

Despite some peoples wish to "shut the gates", impose restrictive tariffs and regulations, economic protectivism will not work. A closed society unwilling and unable to compete in a global marketplace is destined to decline. America's ability to constantly create new products and services has always been the source of plenty, only widening the middle class and it is this ability to innovate that will best serve us in the future.

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth...

I can't believe no one has commented on the poem I posted called High Flight by J.G. Magee. Granted it's not Shakespeare, Milton, Wadsworth or Poe. I didn't study it at college or hear it in church. No one ever asked me to memorize it or even recite it. But all the same, it is very memorable to me and I think of it often.
I first heard it when television programming actually signed off for the night and was replaced with a test signal. All the channels used to sign off in those days. (I'm thinking of the 60's). But each had a slightly different protocol. Usually the American flag was waving and the National Anthem was sung, following a somber statement like "This ends our regular broadcasting. Our programming will resume...." One channel showed an airplane, I can't even remember if it was a jet or not, soaring through the clouds, as if you were in the cockpit. Accompanying this film was a man's voice (Donald Sutherland before he was famous?) reciting "High Flight". I was awestruck.


Over the years it has come to represent many things to me like NASA's triumphant space and shuttle missions , the Blue Angels, the pilots in training at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs ,and a variety of lofty human accomplishments.
Remember the first picture of Earth from space? The Earth looked like a bright shining jewel and I immediately thought of this poem. Whenever I travel and the plane rises above the clouds into brilliant sunshine , I think of this poem. In fact, whenever something big happens, or even beckons to happen, I think of this poem, as if it represents a pinnacle of human achievement and a hope that humankind can overcome the worst adversities and still prevail.


So am I the only pre pubescent, night owl ,baby boomer who remembers this?