Blog Number 281

The wife and kids were in a bad car accident yesterday.  The daughter escaped with only scratches.  The son has scratches, some bruises and swelling in his nose, wrist and knee.  They were treated and released at a nearby hospital emergency room.  The wife was flown via helicopter to another hospital.  She had large cuts requiring stitches on her head and more than likely suffered a concussion.  She was kept overnight.  The whereabouts of the dog (Gabbi) are unknown.  She was in the van at the time of the accident.  I will try to keep you posted.

Jon

Blog Number 280

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

I found out today that two of the people that I helped to train last January in Cordoba, Argentina are coming here to Plano, TX for a 2 week stay.  It was up in the air until almost the last minute as they had to go to Buenos Aires to interview to receive their visas yesterday.  But all the paperwork was done and they are flying out tomorrow.  I am very excited (as is the wife for some odd reason).  In my excitement I offered to pick them up from the airport.  And then I remembered something.  The flight in from Santiago, Chile, arrives at 6 AM local time....on Sunday!  So I am getting up very early in 2 days to pick up mi amigos at the airport.  Oh well, at least there will be no traffic.  I am a little concerned about them being able to check into their hotel that early of the day so I might have some refugees in my house for part of the day Sunday.  No matter, I am still excited.  While I did not spend a lot of time with these two specific people, the others in Cordoba bent over backwards to help me out while I was in their country and I intend to do the same while they are in my country.  I'll keep you posted.

I just finished a very interesting book titled, "The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary"  This could be the longest title of any book I have ever read.  A few weeks ago as the wife was heading to the library I asked her to look at the "Staff Recommends" bookshelf and pick me out something interesting and this is what she brought home.  It is a great book and I would recommend it.  It is 1 part history and 1 part great story.  I had never heard of the history of the Oxford English Dictionary.  I know that most of us take dictionaries for granted but can you imagine what it would be like to compile a dictionary in the 1800's?  No computers, only lots and lots of reading books, comparing words and meanings and arguing over pronunciation.  It took over 70 years to make this one and one of the greatest helpers of the dictionary only contributed via postal mail as he was locked up inside an insane asylum for the last 40+ years of his life.  Anyway, great book (thanks dear for picking it out, no pressure now next time to find another book this interesting).

Well the kids are in their pajamas, popcorn is being made and Little House on the Prairie is calling me from the DVD player.  Until next time...

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 279

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

Sometime over the weekend (Saturday I guess) I was playing with the daughter.  She had her clay out (not really clay but kind of like Play-Do).  We were sitting my my bedroom and she was building a plate about 1 inch in diameter.  I decided to build a pan but it ended up looking like a wok with a handle.  She then made a pot with a lid (including the little handle on top) and then she made a bowl.  While I busied myself with some (out of proportion) silverware she made some little peas to put in her pan.  The peas were too big in comparison to the pot and wok but were a good fit for the massive spoon and fork I had fashioned.  The play time lasted up until I got some clay under my fingernails (which I don't like) so I quit and went quickly to wash my hands.  She, however, continued on throughout the rest of the day improving and adding to her kitchenware clay creations.

Sunday morning as we piled in the car the wife noticed that the daughter had some clay (still in the pot and plate shapes) on her shoes.  As she reached into the back seat and did her best to clean off her shoes she was wadding the clay up into a ball.  This ball of clay she promptly put in the cup holder of the Buick.  As I watched her do this I could not help saying to myself, "Welcome, clay, to your permanent home."  You see, things that are put in the cup holder "temporarily" always end up there for the long haul.  Hair clips, rubber bands, used tissues, change (rarely), and trash of any kind all go to that cup holder conveniently located right there within reach.  The are put there with the same promise / lie, "I will take that out when we get home."  I am powerless as the driver to do anything but play along with the charade.  "OK" I say.  That is the only line I have in this little play.  I do sigh heavily but I am not sure if that is an actual speaking part.  The last scene of all is the person (usually the wife) who put the stuff in the cup holder leaving the car (fade out, start theme music).

I forgot to check on the way to work this morning if the clay made it out or not.  With the Texas summer coming though I fear that unlike other items that are deposited there, the clay will do some permanent damage.  I will have to let you know.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 278

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

Less that 2 weeks to go until I am unshackled from these glasses (I hope).  I have noticed this week that I am "feeling" my glasses on my face more.  I notice the pressure points and even how uneven they feel.  I also notice the slightest unevenness on how they sit on my face while I look in the mirror.  But soon it will all be a distant memory (I hope).  In the back of my mind I can see the doctor coming in after my evaluation and saying, "Mr. Dieterman,  I don't know quite how to say this but your eyes are so bad it's a wonder you can even see to walk.  There is no procedure now, nor will there be in the foreseeable future, that will even come close to repairing your mutated eyesight issues."  Since I am bracing myself for this exact response, more than likely whatever they tell me will be a relief.

What with the writer's strike the wife and I have been rationing out the few tv shows we have left recorded on the computer.  We have a few Prison Break's, Jericho's and House's left (having burned through all the CSI an CSI NY episodes).  No new shows really caught my fancy so I decided to give some existing shows another shot, namely CSI Miami and Numb3rs.  I downloaded all the CSI Miami episodes, read the tv.com review of last season's cliff hanger to get a feel of where they left off and tried to approach the show with an open mind.  I had tried to watch this show in years past and just had to give it up.  I think the show has a bunch of trained monkeys as writers.

Writer #1 - Hey, how about we have a really pretty young girl with hardly no clothes on.
Writer #2 - Yes, I like it.  How about this, she's dead.
#1 - Yes, I like it.  Ok, she's young, pretty, dead and naked.  Now what?
#2 - OK, she's in a swamp.
#1 - Yes!
#2 - OK, lets take a banana break.

The characters are so shallow and way too pretty.  Also, they tend to wear white pants suits to bloody crime scenes.  And the tireless drivel that passes for dialog is just painful to watch.  This is the 3rd time that I have tried to give CSI Miami a chance and also the 3rd time I have given up. So I decided to try Numb3rs again.

Numb3rs intrigued me when it first came on since I majored in Math in college.  The first year was pretty good.  The geeky math dude (who's brother was an FBI agent) helped his brother solve cases.  The problem is that I could tell when it was real math and when they were making stuff up.  I suppose it would be the same if a medical person was watching House or if a police officer was watching Prison Break (and this might be the reason I like those shows - since I cannot tell when they are making stuff up to move the plot along).  Anyway, once they exhausted the 10 ways that math could help solve cases, they resorted to the same useless dialog and made up stuff that CSI Miami has come to use.  Take episode 3 of this year for instance.  It was about a car that crashed into a coffee shop.  The car was street racing.  So they are investigating street racing and all its dangers.  Toward the end when they know who crashed the car, they head to a street racing hangout to catch the killer.  They see him and instead of walking up to him and arresting him, they come in with sirens blaring and stop 100 foot from the bad guy and get out to chase him.  He then gets in his street racecar and takes off making the FBI agent chase him down the streets of LA.  This sounds straight out of the playbook of the Dukes of Hazard to me.  First of all, street racing is illegal and the FBI appears to know where all the street racers hang out but yet this is the first time they decided to drop in to arrest people.  Secondly, the racers appear to pay no attention to those around them and the FBI guys could have walked right up to them and arrested them but they chose not to.  Thirdly, coming in with your sirens blaring and STOPPING the CAR 100 FOOT AWAY is just STUPID.  I mean, drive right up to the bad guy, hit him with the car if you have to but don't just plan on chasing him on foot.  Fourthly, and here is the stupidest part, don't make me think that an FBI dude in a standard issue government car is going to outrace a street racer in his decked out car.  At the start of the race / chase I stopped the show and immediately deleted the other 10 episodes off my computer.  The are now resting there comfortably with all the CSI Miami shows so they will be in good company.

Well i can smell the bacon from the kitchen so breakfast is ready.

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 277

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

I have finally done it.  I have scheduled my Lasik evaluation and surgery.  I have put it off for years for one ridiculous reason or another but come April 10th (Lord willing) I will be done with glasses.  There is a mandatory evaluation that takes about 3 hours where they do some sort of topography of my eye (this is beyond my comprehension but the brochure explains it all).  Once they have that, they can program the computer that runs the laser and whammo, no more glasses.  I will have to keep you up to date.

The Buick tire was repaired just fine (free of charge, thank you Discount Tire) so I am back in the driver's seat again.  I was in a fender bender last Tuesday where I rear ended a Lexus on the way to work in the rain.  There is a spot where the highway goes from 3 lanes to 2 and since the drivers around here are missing the "merge gene" everyone comes to a stop.  It was clearly my fault since I was the rear-ender and she was the rear-endee.  I could see no apparent damage but I gave her my insurance info just in case.  When we were exchanging info I noticed 4 other cars in another lane that appeared to have suffered a similar fate.  I was contacted later that day by my insurance company to get my side of the story.  I was short and to the point, "I hit her" and then that was that.  I was contacted the next morning by my insurance company to say that I was indeed at fault and that if there was any damage that I would have to pay.  This phone call seemed entirely unnecessary to me but I thanked the lady anyway.  I am supposed to get an email whenever the status of a claim changes but I have received nothing since that last irrelevant phone call.  I just logged into the claim tracking section of my insurance company's website and I see the claim was marked as "closed" 4 days ago so I guess I am off the hook.  In talking to the lady that I rear-ended, she mentioned that she "is lucky" when it comes to these kinds of things.  I am not sure how to take that.  Either she is in a lot of accidents and she usually has no damage or...well I don't know.  I guess her luck rubbed off to my car when I ran into her.  I'll take what I can get.

The last tournament in the PBA (Professional Bowler's Association) season starts today.  I follow the qualifying rounds on the PBA's website.  The US Open (this weeks tourney) is "open" to anyone and there are like 500 people signed up to compete over the next few days.  The bowlers are broken up into 3 squads and bowl 6 games each day for 3 days at which time the field is narrowed down for the latter rounds.  Today is the first round and the person currently in last place shot the following scores...

114 - 113 - 179 - 136 - 128 - 103

...for a 129 average.  Now I have not bowled in a few years and not bowled professionally for about 15 years but I think that I could beat those scores.  I mean come on!  A 103 game!!  That is like 2 spares and 8 opens with some bad counts thrown in for good measure.  Maybe after the first 5 games he just gave up but he still has 2 more 6 game blocks to get through over the next 2 days.  Good luck dude!

Well it is 8:15 and by the sounds of the Legos in the other room it is time to spend a few more minutes with the kiddies before bedtime.  Until next time...

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 276

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

Since yesterday was Easter, we had a choice to make.  Our church does not have Sunday School class on Easter Sunday so our choice was to go to the 9:30 AM service (the time we were used to arriving at church for Sunday School) or to stay at home for an extra hour and attend the 11:00 AM service.  We checked with some friends (and fellow attenders) and decided on the 9:30 service.  Being Easter it was of course more crowded than normal but not too bad (until I tried to navigate the parking lot as the 9:30 folks were leaving and the 11:00 folks were arriving.  There was an awkwardness earlier too when we were trying to sit in our normal area of the sanctuary and folks that normally attended the earlier service were jockeying for those same spots.  It is not anything that we haven't had to do in countless other churches in Easter past.  Also, the C&E attenders (Christmas & Easter) don't know the unwritten rules of any particular church since they only come a few times a year.  All in all though it was a good service and we arrived home around 11:15.

We had driven the minivan to church which is not normal as we usually drive the mighty Buick.  However when we were ready to leave for church we noticed that the rear driver side tire was completely flat.  I had put it out of my mind until we arrived home.  I had just driven the car the evening before to take my mother to the airport and did not have any issues.  The tire was completely flat so something was definitely wrong.  I put off taking care of it until around 3 in the afternoon (when the wind outside had died down and the temperature was up to 60°).  There was a small screw in the tire so I gave up hope of pumping it up to make a run to a tire store for a quick repair and then set about putting on the spare (joke) tire.  Now I do not do many manly things in general but I can change a tire.  I am not in danger of beating any NASCAR records for tire changing and I keep it slow and deliberate.  But there is something wonderful about doing this task.  It seems like a real manly thing to be doing and for a small amount of time I get a rush of man-ness.  I even get my hands dirty which is something I do not like to do (and trust me the first thing I did when I was finished was to give them a good scrubbing).  Anyway, I have this little joke tire on my car today and will have to work from home today and wait for the tire store to open as there is no way I am navigating highway 121 with that tire on the back of my car.

I was able to get up and do a Spanish lesson in this morning.  With the wife sick 2 weeks ago and my mother occupying the room that the family computer is in the last week I have fallen out of the habit of my morning lesson.  I will have to be diligent to review the 300 or so words that I know now so there is no permanent damage done.

Well it is time to unleash the dog on the kiddies.  She is the best "waker-upper" that I have ever met.  Yesterday all I had to do was open the door to their room and the son (after hearing the door crack and knowing what was coming - namely a large dog with a large tongue) jumped up and said, "I'm up!"  Anyway, she is whining at their door and raring to go and do her job.  Until next time...

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon

Blog Number 275

Greetings and welcome to today's random thought.

I have just returned from dropping my mother off at the airport.  She spent the last 6 days or so with us.  We had not seen her since Thanksgiving (now that I think about it, that is a long time).  We did not do anything particularly special while she was here other than go out to eat a few more times than normal.  We even had lunch today at IKEA.  I have been to IKEA maybe 5 or 6 times and have seen their cafeteria before but until today I had not eaten there.  They sell some of the food they serve as frozen food to go so I figured it must not be that bad.  Since they are a Swedish company, they of course had Swedish meatballs as one of their meal choices.  The daughter wanted meatballs.  The son wanted meatballs.  The wife ordered the medium meatball platter.  The mother did the same.  Now, I really like meatballs but I figured with everyone else getting meatballs I could probably get my fill by begging off of them.  I opted for the salmon with some sort of apple sauce on it along with some steamed vegetables.  It was quite good and only $5.99 (although mom was buying so what did I care!).  I ate it all and was able to snag about 6 meatballs off of other's plates.  As I sat there eating is all seemed rather surreal.  I mean, I have not eaten salmon that much and here I am eating it at a furniture store.

Today was our 11th anniversary.  We had talked about it for the last few weeks and we did go out to eat at Compari's on Wednesday (very good food, I will have to tell you about it sometime).  Anyway, this morning we woke up and neither of us remembered that today was the actual day of our wedding anniversary.  It was not until 7 AM when my reminder went off on my cell phone that we each remembered that today was the day.  I did not really set the alarm thinking that I would forget.  It is just that I have had my cell phone for like 18 months and had never used the calendar feature yet and this was the only thing coming up that was of any significance.  Anyway, we hugged and kissed and said Happy Anniversary and then went on with our day.

Well, it is time for popcorn and a Little House On The Prairie episode with the family.  Until next time...

Thanks for reading my Random Thoughts.

Jon