taxed enough? 

Only 16 days left 

maybe I'll be able to aim well enough to hit the right spot with this post 

Mai arrives 

not necessarily autobiographical 

Finally

I came through!

La de dah

La de dah la de dah la de dah

La de dah la de dah la de ma

Dippety do yeah yup

Dippety do yeah pup

La de dah la de dah la de pa.

The Day After

It sometimes pays to be late
To procrastinate or to just plain wait
When discounts abound
Lots of deals can be found
But do I now look like a cheapskate?

More Heartfelt than Flowers

There once was a gal named Suzanne
Whose fair singing was best in the land,
At the drop of a hat,
She’d weave a song that
Would make us believe she’s so grand.

Almost anything that she would hear
Could send her quick mind in high gear.
She’d croon for all those
Who could not find repose,
So that’s why she’s the one we revere.

Super Sad Sunday (and Monday)

Sunday morning I arose early to once again tell my wonderful wife that we should dump the daily newspaper. I seldom make time to read it and it just clutters up the house and my truck. But as I sat down to eat my morning oats as any good horse would, I grabbed the thick paper filled to overflowing with ads. I couldn’t easily find a book and I always, yes always, have to have a written security blanket sitting next to my morning bowl.

So away I go chomping and reading, reading and crunching, trying to chew and digest both at the same time. One of the front page articles on this special Sunday was about Northwest Airlines, their financial troubles and the employee concessions being made. As I glanced through the article with its many pictures, I noticed some familiar faces. Near the bottom of the page was a married couple who both worked for Northwest and I recognized them. In fact I spent a lot of last summer working on their lakefront home. The article told of how they had spent the past three plus years remodeling their dream home and now they were finally ready to enjoy it and spend the rest of their years in this place. However, it looks like she will be losing her job and his wages will be cut substantially. And there is just no way they can stay there under these circumstances. It was sad reading of their plight, having worked with these wonderful people.

Later in the day I attended a second church service. This one in south Minneapolis. The gathering was encouraging and enriching, but what will stick with me the longest is what happened near the end of the service. Each week a different member of their community introduces communion. This particular evening the call was given to a long-time participant who strolls along with the aid of a walker on wheels and needs the assistance of a computer to speak. He is fed through a tube and wasn’t expected to live much past birth. Through the computerized voice modulator he told some of his life story. He weaved this in with his trials related to taking the Eucharist. His disabilities have excluded him in more ways that one. As he introduced the meal we were all moved and challenged by his powerful insights. And even though he gave us quite a few things to laugh at, we were also saddened by much of what he has had to endure.

Once back at home, the wonderful one and I went out for a quick bit to eat. Back home I wanted to quickly check in to see if there were any updates from a couple who attends this fellowship and has been dealing with having a very premature baby girl still in the hospital. From their blog I stumbled upon a fellow couple from that church. I started reading their blog and then I was really bummed. What a tragic year they have had, dealing with four young kids and severe depression leading to hospitalization. The trials some people face seem insurmountable.

Then this morning I was greeted with even more sad news. One of the guys whom I have employed for almost three months and gotten to know quite well has slipped up. He graduated from Teen Challenge last year and was doing quite well putting his life back together. However, I got word that he left the halfway house where he has been living and we haven’t been able to contact him.

All this to say that I probably shouldn’t get too upset over a relatively small thing like having to bring in our year old Highlander for what might be some major repair (and with 42,000 miles, it’s not under warranty). Oh well, at least I blogged.

# 3--My fifteen minutes (heck a whole day) of fame

I'm just to the right of the cross in the back row.

I was tagged some time ago with the responsibility of telling five things that people did not know about me. I guess I’ve mentioned a few things, but not wanting to rush into complete disclosure, I still have three tidbits left to share. Well, it’s a good thing I waited, for today I’ve made it big. Real big. Front page big.

After neglecting the Minneapolis Star Tribune for weeks, I finally took a glance at today’s front page when I sat down for lunch. And what did I find? What a surprise it was. There I was front (no make that back) and center. Actually I was as far back as you could get. But there I was with my shiny bald head projecting proudly. I am there just to the right of the cross, the good looking one (cross, that is). Some tall guy in the foreground is waving his hands profusely. I think his name is Doug. (Actually I do know that his name is Doug, ‘cause I see him a lot at Solomon’s Porch.)

Doug is showing the photographer how she should adjust the focus and zoom in a little more so that she could capture that bald guy in the very back row. But apparently she must have some wimpy zoom and couldn’t get that special shot without interrupting all the people reclining in their couches. Oh well, Kyndell will just have to try harder next time.

It is time...

Tim isn't here. He's doing tax work. I, the tax widow, am home alone.

So, I think to myself, it is time.

Time to hijack the blog. Again.

Time to fill in the space with words so you can have something, even something trivial and meaningless, to read until the day when the Author Of Blobjects Returns.

He'll be back. One day, he'll return.

But until then, here's some drivel from his other half to fill up the empty space.

Keep up the vigil--I know it will be worth the wait.

--timman's wife aka The Warden aka Swansmith

A Silence of the Blogs Apologetic

In the words of the great Southern novelist Walker Percy: . . . In these times everyone is an apostle of sorts, ringing doorbells and bidding his neighbor to believe this and do that. In such times, when everyone is saying “Come!” it may be that the best way to say “Come!” is to remain silent. Sometimes silence itself is a “Come!”

Or maybe that’s just an excuse for sloth.

I think I ate a rare chocolate

I've written before about how I think the Japanese have the best chocolates. This evening I was getting my chocolate fix when I popped open a small box of chocobaby nuggets. They do look a little like mouse turds, but the taste well makes up for any such association.

On the box one notices that a few of these little mini-bite-size pieces have a gold star on them. I estimate that about one in ten have this special mark. However, before I even noticed any of these markings I grabbed a handful and popped them into my mouth. Only after it was too late did I notice that one of them had a perfectly formed smiley face in yellowish-gold. But it was now past my tongue and into my tummy. I didn't think that this might be a very special chunk of candy. But maybe it was. I searched in vain for another smiley among the 100 or so little chocolate pieces.

Maybe I could have have won some special Japanese version of a Willy Wonka tour. But without an ability to read those funny looking characters, I'll just have to hope that I didn't eat away my chance at financial security when I chomped on that little brown critter.

Maybe our favorite Japanese student can fill us in on the wonders of chocobaby someday. For me it's now time to find some good instant java to accompany my little treat. 

Trying to feel the Blues

I read in today’s newspaper that this very day is the gloomiest day of the year. I forget exactly how they figured it, but it has to do with amount of sunlight, distance from Christmas, and a few other factors. For the happiest day of the year statistically we’ll have to wait until June 23rd.

On a related note, the sermon at our church yesterday was on the related topic of depression, presented by an M.D. in our congregation. (I don’t know if the leadership at church timed his message to correspond with today’s special date or not.) So depression has been on my mind these past few days.

However, for some odd reason I can’t relate right now. I worked a mere eight hours today, came home, tried to catch up on paper work on my desk, gave up, went to the Lazy boy, pickup up a book ,read a few pages, fell asleep, woke up with my wife’s nudging, ate some meatballs and rice, snuck some (well more than some, actually quite a few) Hershey’s chocolates, drank some coffee, grabbed my iPod, and headed out into the cold to my brother’s accounting office to work on year end stuff like W-2s and 1099s. And as I sped (but well within the legal speed limit) down highway 100 passing cars doing only 80! (kph, that is, told you I was being good), the snow started lightly falling. And it was beautiful. And the roads were quite good. And I had the stereo cranked with a mixture of my favorites. And I was feeling so great I almost felt guilty about it.

So was it the 25 byte sized chocolates? Or was I just being a counter balance to all those who were in a funk today? I don’t know. But I was feeling great this evening and I actually finished with my official tax documents earlier than I ever have been in my life. It is only January 23rd.

What will I do for the rest of the week? I hope I don’t get down for lack of anything to do.

Yikes! Scratch that thought, I just glanced back over at my desk, the one that has just enough room for this one keyboard. (The mouse has to sit on another table.) But even the huge pile of papers hasn't got me down.

But for those who are stuck with the blues right now, I hope and pray that this will be the down-est day of the year, and the days to follow will begin to improve and continue to flourish.

# 2 -- I was on television once

In my younger grade school days I used to tell people that I have been on television. I would wait until they were duly impressed before I would let on that I was speaking about my family’s personal TV, the one that sat in the living room, the one that had a quality cabinet built around it, the one that would hold a 70 pound boy. Sure I should have thrown in an indefinite article to speak more properly about my feat, but hey that wouldn’t have quite worked to gain people’s astonishment.

But as I aged to that ripe old year of 14, I actually did appear on television. And it wasn’t my parent’s this time. I was actually on the tube in the greater Minot, ND metropolitan area. I had my 15 seconds of fame as they actually brought TV cameras to record a game between the Crystal, MN Babe Ruth Senators and the Minot Babe Ruth all-stars. Somehow I managed to get a hit that night and it was recorded for all those watching the city’s (I think) sole television station’s evening news to enjoy.

That was a great evening. I think we won the game. It was mid-June, so some teammates and I were able to walk from one end of the town to the other around 11 p.m. and still have daylight. That was cool. And even cooler than that was I got to hear a new song that weekend. The host family’s kid just purchased Deep Purple’s latest album and played “Smoke on the Water” over and over and over. I now also take pride in the fact that I can still play this awesome rock anthem on the guitar even to this day. (This is an extra little known fact thrown in for free.)

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Why the heck am I blogging about this? I was tagged a while back with the assignment to name five things that people do not know about me. Of course I hated to rush into this to quickly. I responded back in December with one earth shattering revelation, the fact that I was tagged. Well, I guess this makes the TV disclosure number 2. (“Smoke on the Water” is number 2.25.)

Too many words of late, time for some pics

photographing the sisters

yes ladies, he is single 

Should they really be wearing red?