Category: Uncategorized Page 29 of 157

I got a call from my sister earlier this week – my dad’s brother Roger took his own life recently. Roger – or Uncle Dodge, as we called him – had been estranged from most of the family for a long time. I don’t really know what caused it, other than some bits and pieces that didn’t quite add up, but it had been many years since I’d seen him or talked to him.

I didn’t really know him that well when I was growing up. In contrast to my dad, Uncle Dodge was kinda loud and intense – maybe a little intimidating, perhaps. We didn’t visit his family often and while his family visited with the rest of the relatives for holidays we didn’t seem to mesh. Or maybe that was just me – it was a long time ago.

My best memory of Uncle Dodge was when I was in college and spending the summer with my grandparents. He took me, his second wife, and my other uncle – and my uncle’s kids – on a rock climbing trip. And for not being a fan of heights, I had a good time – even managed to excel with my long limbs reaching some difficult handholds. It was a much different interaction than when I’d been a kid and I think we both appreciated each other a bit more.

Something happened over the years – still don’t know what – but when his second wife passed away, he didn’t tell anyone until after the funeral. And when my grandmother – his mother – passed away, he wasn’t at the funeral for her with the rest of the family. The same when my aunt – his sister – also passed away.

I bring those up not to paint him in a bad light – though it bothered me at the time. It just seems like, when a family is facing a crisis or a loss like that, this could have been a time for some kind of reconciliation.

And now it’s too late for that.

Being estranged from my uncle makes dealing with his passing both easier and more difficult. Other than a few bright spots from my memories, he was largely a stranger. But I could have done more, could have made more of an effort to reach out. Maybe I could have done something to help bring him back. Maybe.

I talked to my Dad to see how he was doing. He’s tough to read, but I know he’s troubled. We don’t know if there will be a funeral and I didn’t even know what state he was living in – turns out, Florida.

I’m sorry that things turned out as they did and that my uncle found himself in that dark place. And I wonder what we could have done to have things turn out differently for him.

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The University of Akron experienced a loss of our own recently – a student accidentally stabbed and killed his room-mate. Reports indicate they were both intoxicated and there was an argument over fast food. Every report mentioned that part – I don’t know if it was in an effort to diminish what happened or that everyone was so incredulous that something so trivial could lead to those consequences.

I didn’t know either of these kids – though I found out one of my student assistants knew them both. She’s struggling to just keep going – finals are next week and her mother had been fighting cancer.

I tried to offer her some kind words and support, but it’s hard to know what to say. Even though I didn’t know either of the kids, they were still part of the UA family and to see such potential lost is deeply saddening. Both for the one that is no longer with us – and missing his graduation – and for the one in a jail cell with his life destroyed.

——

So, feeling a little lost this week. Both my uncle’s death and that of the UA student were at a remove, but no less troubling.

I guess this should make me appreciate what I have and the family and friends around me, but instead I just feel kind of empty and a little numb.

I’ll have some time off around the holidays and it will be good to spent time with my family. There will lights and laughter – warm homes and warm hearts.

But for now I feel for those in the cold and the dark. And wonder if the fates could have been swayed.

The other evening, I had just gotten back from not destroying anyone’s soul while christmas shopping when I noticed that my neighbor was out raking leaves. It was dark and she was working by the light of the street lamp – using a box to scoop up the leaves into a trashbag.

I parked my car, took in my purchases, then went back out with a shovel and rake and offered to help. Seems her tree drops the leaves all at once, but usually not until after the city does leaf pick up in our area.

With better tools, we made short work of the pile in front of her house – then went down the street a couple houses to get the rest of the leafs that had settled there. After a bit the owner of that house came out and with the three of us we finished up that pile too.

So, a small good deed and getting to meet the neighbors. I like to think it balances out the terrible things I was thinking about people at Target. Really, people? You gotta take up the whole aisle with your cart?

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This morning, I was up bright and early to head over to the Ronald McDonald house to volunteer. This is for a committee at work and while we were supposed to have 4 volunteers, only three people signed up. And then one person canceled this morning.

So, it was me and my co-chair cleaning the entire facility. Mopping, moving furniture, wiping down tables and chairs, vacuuming – the works. We were well organized and worked very quickly and very efficiently. In two hours, we were exhausted, but done. The staff there were impressed and we headed out – and I went to eat lunch at mcdonald’s.

I’m glad we were able to help out, but I kinda wish the rest of the committee would be more involved.  I think we’re going to try and do more on-campus volunteering – hoping that gets a better participation rate.

The Wayne College branch of The University of Akron is going to have a Maker Faire in May of 2017. There will be vendors and booths for people that make all kinds of things – from 3-D printing to knitting. Which, I guess, is a kind of 3-D printing too.

I figured some Modular Origami would be a good fit and I’ve signed up – and completed the 5 page form. Yeah.

I won’t know for a bit if I’ve been accepted since they’ve got a committee that will need to make the final call. I’m guessing they don’t want to have a bunch of duplicates there, but seriously, who else is going to do Origami?

Under the assumption that I’m going to be accepted, I’ve started planning. I’m going to take plenty of cranes and boxes to give away, have plenty of paper to teach simple things, have modular creations to display – and the giant menger sponge I built.

[what is a menger sponge?]

Except the one I built isn’t very portable.

It won’t fit in my car and I won’t have a way to get it to Wayne County. So, I’m rebuilding it to be portable.

The new version is going to be 20 smaller cubes, each with 12 sheets of paper per face. So:

6 * 12 * 20 = 1,440 sheets of paper.

That’s almost three reams of paper. I’m closing in on the first ream completed, but I’ve still got a ways to go to fold all the shapes and then put them together.

Big project, but should be worth it.

I had to run some errands yesterday after work and when I was done I could see that the southbound traffic on Route 8 was going. to. be. horrible. So, I fired up the GPS, told it to avoid highways, and directed it to take me home. (note to self, better set that back before I go to visit my folks for thanksgiving – otherwise, super-duper long trip)

I had some music playing and the route seemed pretty clear and everything was fine until I took a turn a little too sharply.

The GPS went flying off the dashboard and headed right for the passenger side floorboards. On the way down, the cord dragged on the volume control and cranked it up.  Like, all the way.

We went from a peaceful car ride to the GPS yelling at me from the floor and Aimee Mann screaming at me from the speakers.

I got through the turn safely, turned down the music, and carefully retrieved the GPS from the floor. Everyone got settled down and we were on our way.

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I got home and set to work on an origami wreath for Jim. He liked the thanksgiving one I had done for work and “hinted” that he’d like one too. I got the paper folded and glued, then started fixing a late dinner. The food was close to being done when I got a text from Jim at photography class. Turns out his professor had to bring her 6 year old son with her today – and he’d been there all day. And would I be interested in sharing a little origami lesson with him?

I thought about it a moment and then quickly agreed. Watching someone take pictures as a 40-something year old can be a little boring at times. Watching people talk about photos as a 6 year old must have been a boredom nightmare.

So, dinner turned into lunch the next day and a hot pocket went in the microwave as I got some paper together. I ate the hot pocket – pepperoni and cheese – and planned what folding projects a 6 year old could handle.

I drove to campus and found the classroom – and met Jim’s teacher and her son. The little dude was quite excited and we sat down to work on some projects.

He had fun picking out the paper and we started on a bird – which I switched over to a butterfly since we needed an easier warm-up. Next was a bird, then a dragon, a peacock, and a cube.  It’s a careful balancing act since I wanted to encourage him, keep him on track, and end up with something that actually worked while still letting him do most of the folding.

We folded for maybe an hour before it was time for class to end and I quickly made him a goldfish while Jim was getting his stuff together. The grateful mom wondered if I was a teacher since I was good with kids – but that level of focus is exhausting for me.

I left him with a box of treasures, hidden math lessons, and maybe an interest in paper folding of his own.

And the day was saved.

On Saturday, Jim was at the University to print out some photos.  This is a time consuming process and since we had planned on meeting up and running errands afterwards, I decided to walk to campus and meet him there.

It’s about 3 miles and took me about 45 minutes to get there.  The trip was uneventful, though I did go past an abandoned warehouse/factory that no amount of scooby snacks could have convinced me to go in – even in broad daylight.

When I got to the art school, I found the print lab and walked in – and it was so unexpected that Jim didn’t recognize me for a moment.  I went and got some hot chocolate at starbucks and then came back and played a game on my phone until he was ready to go.

I think that may have been my last long walk for a while – winter arrived the next day like it was trying to prove something.

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We went to dinner at PizzaFire that evening and while we were waiting for our meals Jim tapped his straw on the counter to remove the wrapper.

Now, I’m good at a lot of things but there are a few areas where I completely fail. And one of those failure points is removing straw wrappers – I can never get it to work.  I usually try a few times and then just tear the dang things to shreds trying to get at the straw.

It’s a minor thing, but for someone who enjoys figuring things out and doing things, it kinda irks me that I can’t get this.

I can’t knit either.

This time, though, I paid very close attention to the technique and replicated it exactly – and the straw promptly popped through the wrapper.

I was so excited I could only point at the straw – speechless.  Jim figured out what I was so excited about and congratulated me.

“You’re a big boy now!” he said and I laughed because I was thinking the same thing.

Later on as we were walking downtown, I confessed that while eating my pizza I bit my tongue so hard that I started to bleed – and that it was still bleeding.  I apologized in advance in case I ended up spitting blood.

He considered this a moment and then said, “Well, maybe you aren’t such a big boy if you can’t chew your food without biting your tongue”

In mock outrage, I stopped and turned in the other direction to walk away. I took a couple steps and he stopped me.

“Stop right there.  You aren’t allowed to cross the street by yourself,”

He’s quick.  🙂

I had a dream the other night that I was a corporate saboteur. I had infiltrated the headquarters with a mostly bogus ID and kept falling back on “I’m the new guy” whenever I couldn’t produce the right password. When my ID card didn’t work, I blamed HR – all the while trying to make my way towards an unguarded terminal so I could crash the system. My plan fell apart when I got onto an elevator with a working ID, but then got trapped with the real employees when I couldn’t put in my pin number to get the elevator going. They got suspicious and canceled the trip – opening the doors back onto the lobby floor.

Apparently, though, while we were arguing in the elevator, the office building got another visitor. We barely had time to get out of the elevator before the full wall of glass in the lobby exploded inwards and gigantic greenish-black tentacles crashed through, dousing the tile floor with seawater.

It was a kraken.

We all ducked off to the sides of the elevator as a tentacle crashed into the open doors. I did a roll, came up, and headed for the curved staircase. Racing up the stairs I dodged another tentacle that crashed through the railing, then threw a shoulder into the door of a supply closet. I emerged a moment later holding a box cutter in one hand and some kind of long serrated blade in the other.

I jump a tentacle as I went back down the stairs and tossed the box cutter to an employee. Neither of us spared a moment to even loosen a necktie – with a roar, we both ran towards the monster.

And then I woke up.

I read a book a number of years ago by David Brin called, simply, Earth. It was a somewhat heavy-handed future environmental focused sci-fi novel that had some good moments, but sort of stumbled at the end. Not that memorable, but for one quote:

"There may someday come an end to the need for war, but there will always be a need for heroes"

The need for war – interesting. Recognizes that – at least at this point in our civilization – sometimes conflict is necessary. If a person or culture is being oppressed, then sometimes conflict and war is an effective solution.

And if we ever somehow get past that need for conflict and war to free people and cultures from oppression, there still needs to be heroes to save us from ourselves.

Seems fitting to think about on Veteran’s Day – and the week where we elected a new leader that has been disrespectful of veterans and their families.

I didn’t serve in the armed forces – my path took me a different way – but I have family and friends that served. And they are in my thoughts today.

Our country has been at conflict with itself for a very long time. The latest changes to our leadership didn’t start this cultural conflict – though they did make it much more visible. On one side; treating everyone decently, respectfully, and equally. On the other; racism, misogyny, and xenophobia.

And I’m less worried about the leaders than those at the periphery who now feel vindicated in their frankly terrible ideas.

It’s not war, but it is conflict. And while the folks at the front line aren’t soldiers, perhaps they can still be heroes. We need a little triumph of good, a little rescuing from oppression, and maybe a little sacrifice if we’re to change the way america treats itself.

So, today, we recognize our veterans and the sacrifices they made on our behalf . And hopefully recognize that what they fight for – freedom – means freedom for everyone.

Thank you to my friends and family that have served and continue to serve.

I hope we can make you proud.

The online-virtual interview got cancelled at nearly the last minute, but I still wanted to take Edna and Louise out to dinner. I had a stressful day at work, but managed to get out on time and headed to their place to pick them up. We went to Applebee’s and though Edna had some trouble finding something she wanted on the menu she did eventually settle on a dish. Louise went right for the ribs and I had a chicken salad. They both gave the server a bit of a hard time and I made some origami to leave along with a nice tip when we headed out.  Oh, and Edna still thinks I’m fat.

On the way back to their place, Edna wanted to stop for scratch-off lottery tickets and of course Louise got the wrong kind when we stopped – so, we had to stop at another place.

I drove them home, helped Edna inside, and put the leftovers in the fridge. We talked for a while before I headed out – mostly about old times back from when I helped them move to Ohio.

There were hugs and promises to keep in touch. They’ll be moving this weekend so I probably won’t see them again before they go.

Edna seemed… a bit frail. I don’t know how old she is, but she’s a great -grandmother and though feisty, the years have caught up to her. Louise isn’t excited about the move, but she’s trying to put on a good face for her mom.

A move can be a stressful time and add in their ages and their destination, well, I worry.

I hope they have a safe trip and are able to get settled in easily.

April 8, 1998 was when they moved to Ohio.

Seems like a long time – and not long enough.   I wish my friends well and I’m glad we got the time that we did.

Out to dinner with friends this past weekend and the conversation turned to TV shows. When True Blood came up, we talked about our favorite characters and the demigoddess from season 2 was mentioned.

The engineer in the group asked, “Do you know what other show that actress was in?”

“Star Trek, the Next Generation” I replied with no hesitation. NONE.

The non-geeks at the table, along with the manager who had just then shown up at the table to ask how our meal was, waited patiently for us to share a “fist-bump of geek triumph” before continuing on.

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I didn’t do a walk-around on campus today for Halloween, but I still dressed up for the office. Late in the day I had to go across the street to meet with a couple people and on the way back, a guy in a UAPD truck stopped me and asked, “Blue Lantern?”

I grinned and told him I was. He then asked to see the ring – which of course I was wearing.

“Nice job,” he said and then asked what their thing was.

“Hope,” I told him and he nodded and smiled.

“Cool,” he said and headed out.

————-

We rule the world.

So, the Facetime test worked perfectly and Edna and Louise have agreed to the plan of me taking them out to dinner on Tuesday, then back to my house for the interview. Etta was kind of amazed that they went along with it and wanted to know my secret. I don’t really have one, per say, other than trying to be a pleasant and agreeable person. Sometimes that takes people by surprise.

Hopefully everything goes smoothly on Tuesday and things work out for them.

I also had some success with an apple laptop recently. Jim is in a photography class and part of the printing process involves color correcting the photos based on the printer he’ll be using. It can be a tedious process and he wanted to be able to do that at home – but still reference the printers at school. He called on his favorite geek and we spent part of last Saturday in the lab getting things set up. He powered up the printers and I found them on the network, but they were using generic drivers and wouldn’t have behaved properly. Jim was worried, but I hit the internet and found the right drivers. With those installed we re-set-up the printers and he was in business.

Am I morphing into some kind of Apple guy? I do have a hipster stocking cap, a tendency to grow a beard, and odd taste in music. Hmmm… maybe there’s pill for that?

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Prior to the photo printing lab success, I spent last Saturday morning making ornaments with the students for a Make A Difference day project. The ornaments will be donated to a local tree farm to be sent to troops stationed overseas for the holidays.

And on Monday, I had some special hand-made ornaments to give to the staff that had helped out as well. So, good deeds all around.

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I did the early voting thing this year since – like many folks – I just want the election season to be over. It went pretty smoothly and didn’t take long – and I once again amazed people by actually following directions and completing the entire request form. The final step involved putting the completed ballot in a sealed envelope and turning that in.

One of my friends raised the specter of voter tampering with that method since I’m relying on someone else to insert it in the machine later on, but I countered with a concern about tampering with the machine. At the end of the day, though, you have to let some things go and rely on the systems and processes.

You can’t worry about everything – especially since so much is out of our control.

I’m happy with my selections and no amount of media barrage can change things for me now. Still kinda tough to ignore, though. Ugh.

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This would normally be time of year when I would be full-on Halloween. Last year, though, was a little depressing to walk around on campus looking for my friends and finding they had been let go by the University.

Kinda put a damper on the Halloween spirit.

I do have a simple costume that I’ll wear on Monday to the office and if I have to go to any meetings on campus, but I’m not doing the tour this time. Just… not really into it.

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I’ve been tidying up the house today and doing some laundry. And spending a little time outside because it’s pretty amazing. Time to get back to it.