Cheywolf

What's a "Cheywolf"? First of all, the Chey part is pronounced like the city in Wyoming, i.e., shy, not she. Some think Cheyenne is derived from the Sioux word for red. Cool. Well, I like wolves, and the red wolf is one of North America's most gorgeous natives, although they are now endangered and extinct in the wild. So, Cheywolf seemed like a suitable nickname.

No wolves out tonight, though we do occasionally spot red fox in our area of rural Georgia. Just a perfect night for star gazing from the back yard swing. Cool enough that bugs are few, but dry and very comfortable. Simply purdy.

Much more wildlife happenin' last night, for last night was author night at the Alpharetta Barnes & Noble, with the Lemony Snicket author Daniel Handler. We arrived at 3:30 pm, and the line had snaked through about three quarters of the store. By 7:00 pm I bailed to get some not-so-fast Burger King for dinner. We were about half way from where we started. Ya know, at that point it becomes a matter of how much time you have invested in the relationship. There's no turning back, we are going through with this. Parents had fun comparing this with waiting in long lines for concerts when we were young. Well, at 11:30 pm the goal was achieved: author met (a very amicable and animated fellow), book signed, and on our way home. Two words: never more!

Psalm 104:23: "Then man goes out to his work, to his labor until evening."

Bouncy, trouncy, flouncy, pouncy...

...fun, fun, fun, fun, fun! The wonderful thing about (Jack) Russells is we've got more than one.

Two actually. Guests for five days while their master is on vacation. We've always thought that if the energy of kids could be harnessed, stored and redirected there'd be no energy crisis. Update: if the energy of a tenth of the Jack Russells could be captured, we'd have clean (sic) energy for the foreseeable future.

Our calm, clueless pound puppies are no match for their guests. Pretzel didn't know what to do when the 'lil dervishes got in her face; she'd just look at us woefully, pleading with her eyes to make them go away. But Pretzel is starting to catch on and show a bit of aggressive play towards her two gnats. They'll bring out her inner beast yet. (riiight)

Something the Know Your Jack Russell books won't tell you is that they can teleport themselves up to six feet instantaneously. I had just gotten comfortable in my recliner last night, when our guests materialized on my lap. They quickly settled in and were off to chase squirrels in their dreams. So, I joined them for an hour or two, waking to the Iron Chef late show, and the task of getting the darlin's re-situated for the evening. Ah, puppies.

What a week. For techies, we seem to be at one one extreme or the other these days, on a scale from unemployed to 60+ hour weeks. I'm blessed to be closer to the latter, but am so looking forward to the two weeks I'm scheduled to be off at Christmas/New Years. Can't/won't gripe too much about cancelling a week off in November, either, 'cause the entire company's scrambling to meet new business requirements. And besides, under the circumstances, I can bank the time until next year. Which gives me 4 weeks vaca. Which segues nicely into the 4 weeks vaca I'll have in my 15th year there. Toughing it out and trying to do your best at your job occasionally has it's advantages.

Not that loyalty means anything like it used to. As the business environment has been changing over the past decade or so, we're keenly aware that, bottom line, we're not too much more than company resources and liabilities. If you're not needed or your output is not what's expected, you're quite outta here. Very understandable from a business viewpoint, harsh reality from the human side of the equation. It's a price of freedom; by and large, we have the freedom to excel and the freedom to screw up. I'll take it. Sure beats tyranny.

Job 10:12: "You gave me life and showed me kindness, and in your providence watched over my spirit.

The balance

What a stunningly beautiful Saturday morning! Except for some trees down and new culverts carved into the landscape, you'd never know that Ivan ripped through here two days ago. The bugger's unleashing the last of it's fury on the northeast US this weekend. But as for Georgia, it's a dry, sunny, breezy day. As we were told when we moved here 13 years ago, if you don't like the weather in Atlanta, wait a day or two; it'll change.

Seasonal changes are renewing, especially the winter/spring and summer/fall variety. I don't mean the date on a calendar, but I do mean those days, like today, when there's a marked change in the weather to an ever so slight chill in the air, but the air is dry and the sun's warm.

The frequent changes in the weather can do the same as the seasons. We humans get so easily bored and irritated by the weather that a top ten day like this changes your whole outlook. You know, living on an island paradise where the weather's (almost) always pleasant may be enticing (not that I have that option right now,) but I believe many of us would become apathetic and indifferent: in our current state we're just not cut out for full-time paradise. What's that quote... "there are many who long for immortality who don't know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon".

There's balance everywhere if you want to look for it. Weather, career, relationships, life. Each has seasons, and each has smaller hills and valleys, so enjoy the ride. Whatever the circumstance, look back and learn and understand, look forward in faith and hope, live what life has to offer now, 'cause now only comes around once.

Ecclesiastes 3:1: "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven."

It was another dark & stormy night

(let's get this out of the way...) First post! Never thought I'd be doing this! Might as well get on the bandwagon! (there, I feel so... free! C'mon! Laugh!)

Six hundred and eighty three cable channels, and nothing on but The Weather Channel. Must be another hurricane steamrolling through the southeast US. We can't help ourselves. It's Ivan this time. Inches of rain every hour, winds howling at 40+ mph (you call that wind, mate? try 100+ at landfall. yeah, well, the way things are built around here, that would leave us with a bunch of sticks... and angry fireants,) horizontal rain, flickering lights (shut down the file server 'cause it's ups can't respond fast enough to prevent an instant power-down), and national weather service alerts that cut the audio on every channel and run the warning message across the bottom of the screen at 0.3 words per minute (yeah, they even run it on TWC... pure genius). Oh, the inconveniences we endure. (uh huh. tell that to the folks in the Caribbean.)

Speaking of hurricanes, TWC, and the southeast... there's a rumor going around work saying what's really behind all these hurricanes hitting Florida is The Weather Channel trying to take over Disneyworld. I don't buy it. Altering the weather would surely have unpleasant side-effects. But in my mind's eye I can see the Disney Imagineers just down the beach from TWC's reporters at landfall, studying the storm for the new Hurricane! ride at MGM. Another theory is this is God's way of saying we better count the Florida votes right this November. They were leaning just a little to the left, I believe.

And how about those weather folks stationed all along, well, ground zero? We've decided that TWC doesn't have a retirement plan. They just send staff to the field and watch what happens. (Another joke, son. TWC has to be one of the top five employers for graduating meteorologists.)

I've always been energized by severe weather. Does that make me a rainy day person? I'm not sure how I ended up becoming a computer programmer/analyst, rather than in some career in meteorology, or even astronomy. Lord, the heavens contain so many mysteries. I was browsing the Chandra X-ray observatory today, and am absolutely amazed by the billions of oddities out there. Check it out! Our galaxy is just a speck compared to the size of many of the objects in the sky.

So much to this universe, yet look at how many of us can't reach beyond our racial, religious and provincial differences without killing each other. It is so good that we aren't God! We'd have hit the "smite planet" button eons ago. Gives you a new perspective on the mercy of God.

Well, the night wears on and there's chitlins to get tucked in. Night, night.

Psalm 103:14: "for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust."