Several folks have pointed out to me that my birthday comes later this week. I know it sounds funny, but i wasn’t expecting a birthday anytime soon. This one sort of crept up on me.. Is not a particularly significant one.. I even had to think for a bit to remember how old i was going to be (54).i got asked if i wanted anything special for my birthday (i dont).. And what kind of cake id like..(thats easy.. Diane’s apple cake) Don’t get me wrong.. I feel the passage of time.. And i like marking birthdays. I feel that I’m about exactly the age i should be. I have everything i need so no need for presents.. So, whats a good way to mark this birthday ? In past years I’ve jumped in icy lakes, made naked snow angels, went for long runs on a beach… None of that sounds good this year… Any ideas ?
Went to work today after 3 days of being under the weather. I think it was my bodies way of telling me to slow down. I had a really full day at work.. Im working on some interesting and complicated stuff right now… .. Or at least its complicated for me.. I love tough problems… The challenge for me My as always, is knowing where to focus first and where to focus most.
I took a break at lunch time to have lunch with my friend and mentor Chris. I always love talking to him.. We have similar world view, similar interests.. Even similar reading tastes… The difference is, he’s supremely organized and i know that I’m not.. He often teases me.. Constructively about that… He told me about a favorite story he remembers from his youth. It was from the Canadian humorist Stephen Leacock . Leacock wrote a story called “Gertrude the Governess”. In that the protagonist lord Ronald is known for his boundless, but unfocussed energy. In one line that chris said was often cited in his family :
“Lord Ronald said nothing; he flung himself from the room, flung himself upon his horse and rode madly off in all directions.
Tats was i was thinking as i ran off from our lunch.. Lates as always…
Sigh…..
I’ve never been a sports fan. In fact I’ve never voluntarily watch the sports game that one of my children was not in. Still, I like watching people watch the Superbowl.
Were up at Tim and Jen’s doing just that now. The highlight of the game so far for me has been the failure of the light system. I can’t help thinking of the poor engineers scurrying around somewhere trying to figure out what happened.
That’s actually been a theme I’ve been meditating on for a couple of weeks. It’s probably because I have a couple of very tough projects both at work and at home. It seems to me that one off projects are very difficult to make foolproof on your first try. No matter what you do, you cannot anticipate certain fault scenarios. That kind of resilience is a fundamental aspect of complex systems. There’s no getting around it. Somehow, I don’t think that’s going to be a great excuse tomorrow when that Ford engineers shows up talk to his or her boss. Still, you need to wonder what Beyoncé’s halftime show power requirements were actually. That was pretty cool.… And no wardrobe failure either.
They’re about to recycle the lights so I should get back and pretend to be watching again. I’m not even sure who I’m for, except that I have many relatives in Baltimore. What’s more I guy Arthur Jones went to Diane’s high school. So I guess I’m for Baltimore. But that’s easy to say because they’re ahead.
I woke up this morning knowing it was Groundhog Day. But like the groundhog himself, I could not see my shadow. In fact I couldn’t see anything… My eyes were glued shut my conjunctivitis and spread to my other eye in both eyes were swollen and stuck tight.
It was kind of cool and kind of scary. I had to feel my way to the bathroom and stand under a shower for about 10 minutes before I could unglue my eyes enough to crack them open. It makes one realize how important Our eyesight is to us.
By midmorning, I was feeling pretty Healthy, except for my itching eyes. I called the doctor but was told that I should not go out in public because I was probably pretty contagious. So I spent the entire day inside by myself with the dogs. It was wonderful. I didn’t try to do anything or get anything done.
I guess that means six more weeks of winter. It’s going to be that anyway.
Night all, might Sam
– Me
– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
