YellItLoud

a time before now

2011-04-01T15:54:00.000-07:00

a time before now
when i was there
a fatal blow to the head
right side
haunts me for eternity
headaches, headaches, headaches
always early, always early
never ambushed again
headaches, headaches, headaches
a time before now
when i was there
a fatal blow to the head
right side

Waiting for "Superman" - Not

2010-10-26T14:09:00.000-07:00

Waiting for “Superman”, I have not seen but I'm sure Oprah, Bill Gates and Davis Guggenheim have no idea what it takes to be a teacher in America today.

My wife, Chris, is a 2nd grade teacher in San Diego county. She has been teaching about 10 years after going to college late in life. In her 40's she went back to college and got her BS degree and teaching credential.

Yesterday was Monday 10/25/2010 and we got up at 5:00 am our usually time. Chris was out of the house by 6:30 am. School starts at 8:00 am and runts until 2:45 pm. As a teacher you need to get there early to fight for resources, copy machine time, etc. Chris was home about 3:45 pm having put in about a 9 hour day at school. After a little bit of down time Chris is at her home desk on the computer about 5:00 pm. Besides her normal daily lesson plans and grading papers today she also has to transcribe the minutes of last weeks School site council meeting.

It is now 8pm and “Dancing with the Stars” has started, yet Chris is busy working and I change the channel.

It is now 10pm and I tell Chris good night and go off to bed.

It is now 11:30pm and I wake up and notice the light in the living room is still on. I get up and ask Chris if she is going to stay up all night and work. She replies, “I'm almost done”.

I go back to bed never sure what time she finally came to rest. She has put in about a 17 hour work day.

Oprah, Bill, Davis was any of this in your Waiting for “Superman”?

Tuesday 10/26/2010 and Chris is out of the house by 6:30am. Before leaving she says she'll be late as one of her co-worker had a death in the family and asked Chris to take over his after school program.

Morning poem - watching the clock

2009-02-11T18:16:00.000-08:00

04:43
04:47
04:83
04:53
04:57
05:01
Another day

Marcel Marceau you made me smile

2007-09-23T10:20:00.000-07:00

I heard on the radio that Marcel Marceau had died. For those that don’t know Marcel Marceau was a world famous mime. I wanted to share this news with my son and wife and I felt it would be fitting if I acted out the news of his death and did not speak it. So when I got home I did my silent impression of a mime’s death. My son guessed a “dead mime” but did not know Marcel’s name. We all enjoyed my poor acting and Marcel Marceau put a smile on our faces even after his death. Thank you Marcel.

36 spokes and no respect

2006-09-25T17:10:00.000-07:00

My son’s friend father is a bicyclist. How do I know this? Well I stumbled across a web link which lead to another link and finally to a picture of this father in a bicycle race. By bicyclist I mean one who wears a spandex outfit and pays hundreds/thousands of dollars for their equipment. His bike is one with the wheels that has very few spokes. How can a wheel with only 4 spokes be considered a bicycle wheel? I believe a bicycle wheel should have 28 to 36 spokes. From the picture this father has ridden in the Death Ride which is recognized as one of the premier cycling events in the West. I think of my 30 year old bike and feeble attempt to occasionally ride and I feel like a failure. My wheels have many spokes, how can my son respect that? To be really successful your wheels should have maybe 1 spoke which would be an engineering marvel and then your children will respect you.

Touché for the bum

2006-01-22T13:41:00.000-08:00

I was insulted by a La Jolla bum today. He was on Girard Avenue with his bum supplies and bum bicycle standing on the sidewalk. As I walked by he said he had a Rolex for sale for $800. I pointed to my watch and said, “No thanks Timex”. He said “yeah I had one of those when I was 8 years old”.

The first time i saw her

2005-12-18T19:43:00.000-08:00

The first time I saw my wife was about 1965, she would have been 10 or 11 years old and I would have been 11 or 12. At the time I saw her I did not know that our paths would cross 13 years later. My father, brother and I had been on a rock hunting adventure which had taken us from Northern California down to Rosarito Beach, Mexico and over to Mexicalli. This trip was the first time I saw the rocky landscape east of San Diego as you travel towards El Centro. I remember looking out the car window and thinking this rocky landscape is what the moon must look like. I don’t remember the exact route of our trip but I do remember that we traveled into Mexicalli. As we traveled down the dusty roads I saw this skinny little Mexican playing along the side of the road. Our eyes met as we drove by and we stared at each other until neither of us could see the other. Little did I know at that time that this skinny kid would become my wife and the mother of my children. My wife does not remember and won’t believe that this encounter really happened but I can still see that dirty little face gazing at me as our car passed by her dusty play area.

Nobel prize

2005-09-18T16:00:00.000-07:00

Whoever invented mashed potatoes should get the Nobel prize. What a stroke of genius and keeping it simple.

Bi-year warrior

2005-06-05T11:57:00.000-07:00

It is that time of the year again when I make my bi-yearly trip to Stanford. Time to pickup Andrew and bring him home for the summer. I usually start thinking about this event in April or May. At first I’ll be a little excited thinking about the up coming adventure. As the trip gets closer I start to regret having to drive 500 miles, the getting headaches, and all the negative things one can think of. But now that we are only a few days away the regret has turned backed into excitement. Planning my gas and coffee stops, where will I stay, can I find wireless computer access? Saturday I purchased my supplies for the trip. I have to get ready like a warrior going on a crusade. I have granola bars, cookies, gum and barbecue potato chips. With these few supplies you could conquer Mt. Everest. This time I’ll spend the night at the state park in Half Moon Bay. I could stay at a hotel but staying at a hostel or state park helps me to feel that I’m still young and can pickup and take off whenever I want. That’s not true and the reason I’m looking for free wireless computer access is due to my long umbilical cord to work. This bi-yearly trip I make because I love my son and oh so soon these will come to and end. Andrew get ready dad will be at your dorm come Thursday afternoon.

Chores

2005-04-09T08:44:00.000-07:00

It is Saturday morning and weekly I must vacuum the house. Big trouble if I don’t get his accomplished on Saturday. So I’ve been trained to do it early in the morning and I always begin out in the enclosed patio near the cat’s litter box and my 34 old Schwinn bicycle. Now I flip the switch, start to vacuum and every Saturday when I get to a spot near my old bike DonH pops into my head. Why would I think of DonH every Saturday when I vacuum the rug near my bicycle? DonH has never been in my house; he has never ridden my bicycle or knows that I have a bike. Like clock work I know come Saturday he’ll come to visit me while I’m vacuuming. Odd, I usually think about DonH and his family who I don’t know, I only has a faint outline in my mind of them.

Now my vacuuming DonH event is strange but before I realized this was happening I realized when I cut the grass in the backyard, and only the backyard that JohnR comes to mind. Again JohnR has never been to my house or in my back yard. Yet every few weeks when I reach a certain spot in the backyard he comes to visit me. Out of the blue I’ll be pushing the mower back and forth and here comes JohnR.

Months ago I realized JohnR was popping into my head when I cut the grass but only recently did I realize that DonH was also coming to mind. Luckily I only have admiration for these two individuals so I don’t mind them helping me with my household duties.

Death again

2005-02-23T18:41:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago my brother-in-law passed away. Gone at age 56 and other folks live to be 100+. Why is that? Couldn't we figure an average and everyone lives to 70 or 75? Now a few days ago Stan at work passed away. He was a nice guy and gone at 52 or 53. I think 73 would have been better. Where is everyone going?

Adam's spaghetti jar nightmare

2005-02-05T21:09:00.000-08:00

What you are about to read is an epic saga that spans two weeks and will bring into question the very nature of the human soul.

One day, two empty jars of spaghetti sauce magically appreared in our sink. I figured they were dirty and would be thrown away by their owner. They were filled with water, and the lid was screwed on.

They next day I noticed the jars were still there. I did not know their purpose, and let them be.

Days quickly turned into a week. And still the jars sat in the sink. I decided to take action. I put the jars on the stove burners. I figured, when my roomates wanted to use the stove, they would be forced to deal with the jars that they had neglected in the sink. What a clever plan! Confident this would work, I went to bed.

The next morning, I ran downstairs to see if my plan worked. To my astonishment, the jars were back in the sink! Well, that was enough. I would get down to the bottom of this. I asked one of my roomates if the jars were his. He said no. That left two suspects. I knew one of my roomates had been eating spaghetti, so the jars were probably his. I was able to deduce what had transpired:

My roomate used two jars of spaghetti sauce. Being a clever person, he decided to clean out the jars and use them to store dry goods. Those glass jars are excellent for storage. So he washed them, filled them with water to soak out the sauce, screwed the tops on, and put them in the sink.

Hours pass. Hours turn into days. Days turn into weeks. And I get impatient.

So, I asked him why the jars had been in the sink for so long. He said he had been busy, and would get to cleaning them ASAP.

Well, another week passes and the jars were still in the sink. They were driving me insane.
One evening, my roomate needed to go to school, so I gave him a ride. On the way back, he was very gracious, and asked if there was any way he could repay his debt. I said, "Well, there are your jars of in the sink..."

He told me he would clean them and put them away as soon as we got home.

I went to sleep happy that night. I knew that when I would wake up the next morning, those terrible jars would be gone.

The next morning, I ran down to the sink. Sadly, the jars remained. This was it. No more Mr Nice Guy. Next time I saw him, I pointed at the jars, and asked him why he had not fulfilled his promise. He said he would do it right after eating some Oreos. So I sat next to him, and waited for him to finish his Oreo binge. He finished, got up, and went toward his room.

"Stop!" I shouted. "The jars!!!"

"Oh, right," he calmly remarked. "You see, the problem is, I'm lazy. I don't feel like cleaning them right now." He picked them up, drained the water out of them, threw them into the trashcan, and went into his room. He threw them away!!! After having them sit for weeks!!

I walked over to the trash, and stared at the jars that had haunted my life for the past weeks. I took them out of the trash, and put them in the recycle bin. Not only was my roomate to lazy to wash the jars, he was too lazy to recycle them.

There you have it. Nothing in this account has been exaggerated. It is simply the cold truth.

Adam

Why?

2004-09-21T19:11:00.000-07:00

Why does the speedometer on our Ford Focus go up to 140 mph? The legal speed limit is 70 mph on most freeways in California.

Stanford trip #5 September 2004

2004-09-19T14:42:00.000-07:00

Chula Vista to Stanford in 8.5 hours. I forgot to reset the trip meter on the car so when I picked up Adam at UCSD it reads 81 miles. From that reading I predicted when we reached Stanford the reading would be 550. Well 8.5 hours later at the front of Stanford it reads 548.2. I am so proud that I get out of the car and start searching for a Stanford Professor. I want them to make me an honorary Idiot Savant. We delivery Andy's computer and supplies without an incident.

Fort Mason Hostel is a great location but the hostel experience may not be for everyone. Our room had 10 bunk beds and almost all 10 were filled. Unfortunately we were kept awake most of the night because someone was a loud snorer. Many of the guests appeared to be using the hostel as a base as they looked for jobs within the city. We eased dropped and the news of the day was free internet access at the Apple store. This provided them with access to job search which is of importance when you are not working. Free parking makes Fort Mason a great base camp to explore the city.

Pictures

Return trip Stanford to Chula Vista in 7 hours and 10 minutes. Our best time yet.

91 and still working

2004-09-08T13:54:00.000-07:00

I took Andy to the airport this morning and he is off to start his sophomore year at Stanford. We’ll missing having him around the house but he needs to get out and experience life. I told him to think great thoughts and keep an open mind. Plus I reminded him to brush his teeth.

Adam has his big qual exam coming up for graduate school next week so we’re keeping our fingers crossed and hope for the best. To get into the PhD program for physics there is this tradition that the 1st year students must be tortured with this qualifying exam. Perhaps the world of physics needs to come into the 21st century.

Another person at work is ill and it makes me wonder if I’ll every make it out alive. I don’t think so. Most don’t realize that I was born old so to get my true age you need to add 40 years. That makes me today 91 and I’m doing well for 91 but for 51 I struggle to get by. I’m sick of trying to juggle multiple skills. One minute someone is asking about transports in SAP, the next someone wants to do a WebSphere 5 deploy and at the same time you’re making sure all the stupid eWays are running. Oh by the way can you please remap all the EDI maps in your spare time. Work is a pile of 5hi7.

Monday's travel

2004-08-16T17:56:00.000-07:00

I traveled all day to get to Ann Arbor, MI from San Diego, CA. It wasn't much fun. Get in line, walk through the scanner, take off your shoes. Put your shoes on. Get in line. Sit in a little seat next to someone you'll never see again in 1000 years. Get off the plane, get in line, ride the bus, get in line, get a rental car. Look at the clock and try to figure out what time it is at home. Find a Starbucks, buy a Lotto ticket in a Lotto that I'll never win but I must keep trying......................

Here I sit

2004-08-15T10:45:00.000-07:00

Here I sit Sunday morning waiting for EDS to call. Yes EDS as in Electronic Data Systems Corporation, Ross Perot's old company. The company I work for uses EDS for computer services. Years ago some VP at work figured they could layoff a bunch of workers and now here I sit waiting next to the phone. I think that VP got a big raise and a bunch of workers had to use their 401K savings until all their money was gone. Now some of them are dead and the others have disappeared from my life. I was a coward and did not get laid off. Now I pay the price and here I sit. I sit next to the phone, waiting, waiting, .......

Saturday

2004-08-14T16:14:00.000-07:00

I'm really tired and don't feel like doing anything.