8MinutesOnHigh

Sunday, December 31, 2006

Fun links

My friend John's web site
http://www.wamajama.com/wamajama/

The PodCast John introduced me to, that got me into podcasts
http://www.escapepod.org/

Fun
http://forums.programming-designs.com/viewtopic.php?id=102

Sorry
http://www.sorryeverybody.com/

Thursday, December 28, 2006

Its been a tough year.

Wow what a year.

I lost my job. Didn't really lose it, but it became another job. New insurance, new benefits, job interview.

My mother died. Really did. My sister came up, a day late and a dollar short as usual, but she arrived. My brother too. We had tried to do, no I should say that I had tried to do the big Christmas thing last year, but my sister couldn't make it, my brother couldn't make it, my girlfriend was hung over. The only people who made it were my Dad and Paula and officially they don't do Christmas. I say officially because Paula loves to give and get presents. She just says she doesn't like Christmas because she thinks it will make Dad happy. So my one last chance to have a big family Christmas was doomed from the start. I should probably put this at the beginning since it technically happened last year, but things tend to flow and this is about how my family was a pain in the ass with the whole mom dying and the funeral and all. Brother in real pain. Sister being a pain. I guess she was out of her mind, but it seemed just like being a pain.
I yelled at my sister. She was just being such a pain in the ass. Wouldn't stop preaching homoeopathy. I acknowledged it. I understood it. I thanked her for her sympathy. Then I asked her to give it a rest. Several times. Then I yelled at her.

This made my other sister sad. That made me sad. Then we went to the funeral.
I loaned my girlfriend two hundred. I helped her move. I complained because her kid was in the way instead of helping.

I got a new job. It was the same job with a different name.

My uncle died. He took care of my mother's estate. Told me repeatedly not to do anything with my mother's estate. He'd taken care of everything. Leave those letters alone. DON'T OPEN THEM! You have to understand. This is a powerful little man. I didn't open them. They're piling up. But every time I try to open them I hear his voice. I feel really guilty that he died. I told him what I really thought about the house he recommended that I buy. That I bought. I told him how the heat was expensive, the furnace needed replacing. He'd said the old radiator system was going to keep the house really toasty warm. I didn't visit him in Syracuse after he moved into the assisted living place. I hate Syracuse. I didn't visit him in the hospital in Syracuse. He was sick, but my cousin told me there was nothing 'really' wrong with him. He'd talked at my mother's funeral, about how his time was coming. Six weeks later he was dead. We'd talked a lot over the recent years. We were bachelors together. We did historical research together. It seemed like more than genealogy. We talked sports. We talked family. We talked stocks and medicine. I was like an old man with him, but he was like a kid with me. I told him things I haven't told anyone else. I still stop and think "I've got to tell Uncle Paul that". I miss him.
My other sister had surgery and then had to be in a show. I had to take her to the surgery. Watch them put a needle in her and boy she didn't like that. It was painful to watch her in pain.

We had a flood. No, really. A big ass, hole in the ground, three days off work, flood. And I was on call.

My friend lost her sister. What can you say. She was young and beautiful and meant so much to my friend. She was, is, heartbroken. Its just a hole. You can't fill it.

I got hit by a deer. Insurance. Car repair. Pain in the ass.

I had to replace my furnace. It now runs efficiently - wild. Won't always shut off when it should. Not a pain in the ass. Not much.

I got two cats. They need, litter, food, flea powder, spray, collars. I NEVER vacuumed at the old house. Never. AC After Cats - I bought a hand vac and repaired the upright.
Cats need shots and fixing. Cats are remarkably stupid. Cats are warm too.
I had to fix the cats; not unlike the car and the furnace I suppose. It was all more money!

I had to fix the car.

I got my job back. At least in name. I am told I'll start with the old company January first, but first I had to apply, and theoretically I have to take a drug test and a physical too. They're on their third Personnel person since they decided to move us back. I faxed in my app. They lost it and then went away on vacation.

My sister got sent to the hospital. By my brother. I said she was nuts. Before that she flew off to Montana and a story I don't think I can tell here. Can't tell for two reasons. 1: I don't really know what happened. 2: She supposedly will never talk to my cousins again. She's sane now and it really makes a difference. Its almost like coming back from the dead. Its actually fun and interesting to listen to her, to talk to her now. I always loved my sister, and I liked her too, but she had been a pain in the ass. Now she's helpful. That's a big change.
All of this probably contributed to making my Dad sick. He's at the point now where his hearing and health are so bad, I need to go to his doctor's with him. I took him to his colonoscopy. A person shouldn't look at the inside of his father's colon. I'm just going out on a limb here I know, but I'm sticking by it. His father's colon shouldn't look like my father's colon either. Pink is good. Yellow is bad.

My friend's father died. He had been great to me too. Went there often on Christmas eve. The whole family had welcomed me with open arms. It was embarrassing how generous they were to me. I had had a snit and not talked to them for a while. One thing about missing my Uncle was that he, like me, was Donohue. Its hard to explain what being Donohue means, but if you look at not talking to a whole family over some stupid dispute during a game. And for years. Then maybe you get an idea. I believe in some stereotypes, in some degree. I think Irish people are nuts, and not always in a good way. He was Donohue. I say now that I am Donohue. It is liberating. Its also nuts.
It was really good to see them all again. It was really bad that it was at the funeral home. This was my third funeral this year. Its been a tough year.

I asked my girlfriend for the two hundred back.
My girlfriend left me.
I still don't have the two hundred. I miss it.

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

My Christmas Song

Here is a Christmas song that I like a lot. I felt that I believed in what it said.

Actually like so many songs, this one reminds me of someone who once told me "I like this song" or "This is my favorite Christmas song". Then I read what this web page said and I began to wonder a bit whether it meant something completely different. What do you think it means?

http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=4121

Lyrics for: I Believe In Father Christmas

They said there'll be snow at Christmas,
They said there'll be peace on earth,
But instead it just kept on raining,
A veil of tears for the Virgin birth.

I remember one Christmas morning,
The Winter's light and a distant choir,
And the peal of a bell and that Christmas tree smell,
And eyes full of tinsel and fire.

They sold me a dream of Christmas,
They sold me a silent night,
They told me a fairy story,
'Til I believed in the Israelite.

And I believed in Father Christmas,
And I looked to the sky with excited eyes,
Then I woke with a yawn in the first light of dawn,
And I saw him and through his disguise.

I wish you a hopeful Christmas,
I wish you a brave New Year,
All anguish, pain and sadness,
Leave your heart and let your road be clear.

They said there'd be snow at Christmas,
They said there'd be peace on earth,
Hallelujah! Noel!, be it Heaven or Hell,
The Christmas we get, we deserve.

Posted by: Robert - Snellville, GA

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Some things I say

I like to quote people. Here are some things that I say, when I sort of quote myself:

We have too many things.

The universe is big.

Every family needs three professionals that they can trust, because their lives may depend on it: Their doctor, their lawyer, and their mechanic.

The Castle


It occurs to me, as I again think about the wars in the middle east, that we (the US) are fighting a mediaeval enemy.

I know this is an arrogant conceited superior attitude and I beg forgiveness for it. But listen.

What if perhaps, the path to enlightenment, cultural and social enlightenment, follows certain steps. In that vein I propose this.

We (the west in different time and differing permutations) went through our mediaeval period. We had warlords. They had castles. Castles for safety. Castles for keeping with your own kind.

We came out of the castles eventually. To trade. The great bazaars of Europe lead us out of our castles. What we had was abundance. Extra stuff to sell. And a need for learning. A curiosity about others.

In Baghdad now we Americans are living in a castle, protected by a wall, keeping like minded people safe and together.

Iraqis. The ones who are left. Lock themselves behind their walls at night.

I know I've oversimplified it, but we and they must come out from our and their castles.

[I encourage everyone to read PJ O'Rourke's "Eat The Rich". Read the section on Albania! Really. Go to the library, find it, read that chapter. Albanian society disintegrated into anarchy after their pyramid schemes failed. People holed up together, in hotels, which machine guns out front!]

I wonder sometimes if the middle east isn't in a castle period. Is Israel a castle?

The Arabs had the leading, most advanced culture in the world for centuries. One time they built a great astronomical research center, but a religious leader made them take it down. "... observatory was razed to the ground by the religious extremists. " http://www.spacetoday.org/DeepSpace/Telescopes/Observatories/Afghanistan/AfghanAstronomerPrince.html

This leader was afraid man would learn too much. The west, with its insatiable appetites, and after its own religious inhibition of learning, explored. And went past them.

Now they have oil to sell.

Maybe they'll come out of their castles. Maybe they had to go through the castle time.

As we judge how their beliefs get in their way ... we should ask the same question of ourselves. Consider the American gated communities. Consider America isolated against the world. Consider our religious extremists. Our politicians. Are we headed back into a castle? Are our beliefs putting us there?

Friday, December 15, 2006

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Sunday, December 03, 2006

Well its been a quiet week in ... no ... scratch that ... particularly busy, busy

Ok. Some weeks you look at as they are coming and think "Oh my. This is a big one". I had one of those weeks this week.

One thing. Other people do it. Its definitely a Donohue thing because I've heard my uncle say he did the same thing. Write people off. I've done it. It can be a mistake. I overreacted once. Wrote off some people because I didn't know how to deal with what I was feeling. It was wrong and I deeply regret it. It was also dumb and immature. But then ...

Anyway a senior member of that family passed this week and I knew I needed to go to that funeral (wake). So I went. In a strange way, strange because it was a wake, I was glad to see them all again. Really glad. We need good people in our lives. Its such a mistake to not keep contact.

Maybe that will initiate contact. Its a painful loss of a great and good man, perhaps this small good will come of it.

That was Monday. Tuesday I tried to make the funeral but had the wrong time. Arranged time off from work and then went back to work. My boss probably thought I was nuts.


Wednesday were auditions at drama club. Fun. Long drive after a long day but I was glad to do it. I woke in the middle of the night, with an idea for my play, that I was going to write for some kids I know. Wrote. Went back to bed. Wrote some more. Went back to bed. Wrote on a notepad by the bed. Just ideas, but I'd been trying to think of a plot for three months! Woke tired.

Thursday. I stayed an hour late at work and stayed home and watched TV. Yay Thursday.

Friday left work early to take Dear Ole Dad to the hospital for his Endoscopy I think its called.. Long week for him too! Got the results. Talked to the siblings on the phone. At some point I should write about the sibs. Its not good. This is not a group that is thriving. I wanted to go to bed but they wanted to talk about Dad. I guess that is good.
Saturday, got up early. Got Evan in Binghamton and took him to RIT. Yay RIT!
Now the thing is, I don't travel well. I like traveling. It just stresses me. Is the car going to make it? Do I know where I'm going? (No) What's traffic going to be like? (Heavy) What will the weather be like? (Friday all the local schools got out early. A major storm hit the Midwest this week with ice and sleet.) I figured Friday night that I wouldn't go, but things cleared up and I hit the road. It all stresses my stomach, which wasn't good yesterday, but I went.Left late. Maybe 20 minutes. I had to be in Buffalo for the opening of The Nutcracker Sweet. My goddaughter is a Mouse and a Seahorse and part of a dragon, in it. 1:00 of clock!

Missed my turn coming out of RIT.
Got to Beefalo at a quarter to ... but took the second exit off 290, instead of 990, or maybe 990 is the second exit. I still don't know. Got directions from a coffee shop lady. Max couldn't hear his phone. He talked me onto the UB campus. Unfortunately it was the South Campus. I wanted the North Campus. So I headed south till I called him again. I hit 62 and 263 and Grover Cleveland Parkway and got to a place that seemed less and less like Amherst. I crossed Main Street at least three times. Never saw the ramp to Maple that the coffee house lady talked about. Eventually - at 20 after - "She's on early Max, get here as fast as you can. You'll miss her as a mouse. She's on again later as part of the dragon, but you can only see her feet."

The Nutcracker Sweet is put on by the American Ballet Theater in Buffalo. All the parking spaces near the Performing Arts Center are full at 1:20 on the day of the show. I grabbed my camera and ran across the parking lot. Max was waiting. Missing the show.

We caught a break. She wasn't on yet!

Good show. Great show. But, as Brigid said "A bit tacky" in spots. The camera worked in the dark. Sort of. I have pictures!




Hugs. You were great. Here's a book. Here's some music. Right back in the car. Possible lake effect snows after 7. I drove from Buffalo to Cortland without stopping. (Older men will note this.) And home. Another Islanders game on TV. A good week?