The Haze Filter

Merry And Neal=Wedded Bliss ::

My co-worker, Merry, and Neal will be getting married in about an hour or so at Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain, Georgia. I wish I had been able to make the trip over there, but it just wasn't possible. We wish them the best and I'll post some photographs sometime next week.

Six Jobs I've Had In My Life

1. My stepfather was a building contractor and from the time I was around 12 years old I worked on new home construction and remodel sites doing grunt work during the summer and vacation periods. The work was hard, the hours were long but, to a youngster the extra few bucks were great! I now can go into new home construction and knowledgeably critique, and I find most new houses to be abysmally constructed!

2. I spent almost 4 years in the U.S. Navy primarily has a high frequency direction finding technician ultimately being a watch supervisor at net control at the communications station in Rota, Spain after stints in Pensacola, Florida and Adak, Alaska. I would not take anything for the time I spent in the Navy and absolutely loved the experience. The military will take a young person, train him or her well, and give this person a huge amount of responsibility. I have long felt that every able American should experience some sort of national service!

3. After my military discharge I worked at the factory where I worked during my college years. This was one of the largest manufacturers of children's clothing in the world and I was an account executive handling national retail accounts such as W.T. Grant and S.S. Kresge (K-Mart). I was young and had a lot of responsibility, but I ultimately left due to the stress levels after having been diagnosed with an ulcer with the distinct possibility of needed surgery. Luckily medication solved this problem.

4. After the children's manufacturer I went to work as a stereo store salesman and store manager. This is how I got to Atlanta when the local manager kinda decided not to show up for a few days. I love music, but the irony is that I pretty much have a tin ear with zero musical instrument talent. On the upside, I discovered that I was a pretty good salesman which I put to good use later when I was general manager of 3 camera stores and a photolab in the Atlanta area. I made it a point to impress on all of the salesmen who worked for me to always be honest with any customer who walked in the door. These days, no matter which business you visit, you will most probably be helped by nothing more than an order taker who knows little, if anything, about his product!

Sad!

5. I have been involved with photography since I was in high school and somehow I have been able to make some sort of career out of this and I have been commercial lab production manager and general manager. At the last place I worked in Atlanta I did all of the mural printing and I did all of Coke's point-of-purchase display photographs which went to the local screenprint shop for mass reproduction.

6. I currently work for a large government organization in Huntsville, Alabama which has been involved in constructing a habitat for humanity in space. When I first came to work here 14 years ago we were a standard photographic lab operation, but we have now evolved into an all digital operation and everything I learned through the years has changed. There are no darkrooms. There is no smell of fixer. I have heartily embraced the digital age and I seem to be able to navigate it well as I get older (so old that when I fart, I fart dust), but I still sometime miss the old days

Go here and look at some of my photographs!

Three Bad Habits ::

This portion of the meme is pretty interesting because I guess the response depends on the definition of "habit".

1. My patience is often far shorter than it should be, but I think that the years have tempered this a bit. Dealing with the traumatic brain injury caused me to slow down and really think more about how I react to something which would have previously been a major irritant to me. Having said that I must say that my patience with bad drivers, tailgating drivers, and drivers who are more engrossed on the cellphone conversation than the traffic around them continue to try my patience. No one needs to be so well connected as to endanger those traveling the same road!

2. Not listening well, and this is one I have been fighting for years. Comprehension is not the problem, but I very often find my mind wandering at times when I should be more focused.

3. My dog wakes me up at around 2:30am each morning wanting to go out and guess what, I usually have the same problem so I let her out the back door and I pee off the back porch! There is nothing like whizzing outside whenever possible especially on these cool early mornings!

Taylor's Wounds ::

D. sent me 5 photographs this afternoon and this is one which shows Taylor's injuries at what is probably their worst. I talked to Taylor this afternoon and she is doing well, as I would expect from her and she is handling the injuries well although she did seem a bit restrained, but I attribute that more to our talking on the phone rather than in person. Taylor and her mother will be in Tennessee in a couple of weeks and we'll do a road trip and see her then.

She will be ok and it's not like we don't know some of the finest plastic surgeons around! D. told Taylor that if the scars didn't heal well we would take her to the plastic surgeon. Taylor's response:

"but mom, I don't need boobs"! Ya gotta love her!

A Dog Attack ::

Just about 16 months ago we were visiting in South Carolina and the oldest daughter, D. and her significant other, B. bought a pit bull puppy. We were just up there a couple of months ago and we played with the dog, named junkyard, and he was a lot of fun to play with although immensely strong. He was an inside dog and had never caused a problem.

Last night he attacked Taylor who will celebrate her 10th birthday next week. She is ok, but she has a broken nose, a serious skin tear from the inside of one eye down her nose, a 3 inch skin tear on one cheek, and some puncture wounds on her forehead. She is doing fine, considering, but will probably be facing some significant scarring although only time will tell just how bad that will be. One wound required 3 stitches while the other required 9. Unfortunately there were areas where stitches were not an option.

Junkyard was put to sleep this morning. I guess this was the right decision to make although this is just another sad part of the story. We'll get through this, but I'm tired of those ass-kickings we all sometimes get from life!

Things I'd Do If I Were A Billionaire ::

The meme continues:

Actually, I cannot conceive of anyone having that much money and I see no reason that anyone should ever accumulate such wealth. There have been plenty of times in my life when I felt wealthy if I had an extra $100 or so.

Having said that, if I happened to hit the billionaire lottery I would first make sure that all of my grandchildren, as well as my brother's grandchildren, would be taken care of forever.

I would fund research into dealing with head injuries of all sorts.

I know that the world has changed a great deal over the past few decades, but I could see myself with a modest home in the land of Miguel de Cervantes for at least a good portion of the year and I would never, ever miss a Semana Santa in Seville!

Five Things On Today's To-Do List ::

1. Drive the redneck convertible around the yard.

The yard is primarily clay and after a sustained rain, such as we had last week, several days are required for drying. As it turns out I still have puddles of standing water in several places.

[update] I got the front done and will work on the sides and back during the week.

2. Color J.'s hair: or at least help. I'm not quite sure how I became the designated colorist, but I have been helping for the past several years.

[update] J. decided there wasn't enough gray showing yet and we'll wait a few days for this.

3. I bought some more lattice to put up around the back porch at Lowes yesterday evening so I will begin that task in a few minutes. Sable, the black Chow who is impossible to photograph, gets under the porch and emerges with muddy paws. Since she is an indoor dog the vacuum gets a daily work-out.

[update] completed

4. Take J. to the local mall in search of foundation garments. Specifically we're going to Victoria's Secret. Oh, Joy!

[update] The search for a suitable foundation garment was a success!

5. I'm going to try to do some fishing this afternoon. There is a small pond next to our house and there is a catfish pond on the other side so I can just go out my back door, walk a coupla hundred yards, and be fishing in just a short time.

[update] Too much yardwork to fish right now, but I'm still keeping my fingers crossed!