We recently celebrated our anniversary. Tonight, we had Lori and Pooh over for dinner and popped open one of our oldies.
It was a bottle from a winery that we visited on our honeymoon – an almost 20 year old chianti that we brought back with us. The cork didn’t leak or budge in the last two decades, so the wine was really pretty good! I am very happy to be able to share it with friends.
🙂
This week a friend of mine died unexpectedly – a fellow sailor, a husband, and father of 3, who worked in the IT industry by day, and sang karaoke at night.
This week is also the 3 year anniversary of the unexpected death of a cousin of mine who was my age.
Mom died not too long ago, not unexpectedly, but creating a great hole in our hearts.
An aunt died without any warning signs, mourning the loss of her husband 2 years before.
My sister-in-law’s brother died this year unexpectedly as well.
The impact of all these losses piles up, in the mind. And it causes me to pause. And maybe because of that when I saw this quote posted this week, it touched me:
So live your life that the fear of death can never
enter your heart.
Trouble no one about their religion;
respect others in their view, and demand that
they
respect yours.
Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all
things in your life.
— Chief Tecumseh’s Words of Wisdom
I shall strive to do so.
Another shot from yesterday’s walk through the woods. I found myself literally surrounded by trees as far as my eye could see — much like I feel with my todo lists from work and home. It was a reminder to try to keep the big picture in perspective, and not get hung up on the little things.
I recently discovered OpenCulture, a website that touts itself as “the best free cultural & educational media on the web.” And i’m a fan!
They have compiled a listing of free audiobooks, movies, massive open online courses (aka MOOCs), and bunch of other interesting tidbits to enlighten and amuse. I’m currently listening to a dramatized reading of Brave New World, narrated by its author, Aldous Huxley back in the 50s. I read this novel in a mind-expanding and life-changing English literature class when I was in highschool. It’s a treat for my brain, now that I have reached such an advanced age. 🙂
OpenCulture also has daily posts that usually are clickworthy, you can add them as a blog (using their url) to follow via your WordPress Reader page or another RSS reader, or like them on Facebook or follow them on Twitter.
Check it out!
I woke up this morning extra early – given the time change yesterday. This was the glorious sunrise sky that lay right out side the front door. I was prompted to go out and take a look when i noticed that the light coming in through the windows was making the entire inside of the house glow pink.
And, what is that sparkle on the horizon? Could it be something new coming my way….?
Today is the last day of my vacation. Tomorrow it’s back to work for me.
My day started with a mimosa and ended with a glass of champagne — with this absolutely gorgeous sunset squeezed in between. I snapped this as we headed to BB Rover’s for a quick dinner.
Monte and I have discovered the Showtime series called The Tudors. We don’t have Showtime, but BBC America is broadcasting past seasons’ episodes via cable. Yesterday and today have been a marathon session of season’s 1 and 2. I found seasons 3 & 4 on Amazon Instant Video, so we can stream them for free at our leisure. 🙂 Speaking of leisure… I can’t wait til Friday!
“And we must study through reading, listening, discussing, observing and thinking. We must not neglect any one of those ways of study. The trouble with most of us is that we fall down on the latter — thinking — because it’s hard work for people to think. And, as Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler said recently, ‘all of the problems of the world could be settled easily if men were only willing to think.'”
— Thomas J. Watson, 1915 (audio)
IBM founder Thomas J. Watson was an inspiring figure and entrepreneur. He introduced the “THINK” slogan in the early days of the company to motivate and inspire IBMers. It was the first US trademark registered by IBM. Over the century, this one-word slogan has adorned IBM buildings, publications, ads and presentations. Back in the day, IBMers carried around small, leatherbound THINK note pads to capture great thoughts and ideas.
Those little notebooks later inspired the name of the IBM ThinkPad line of laptops in the 1990s. I’ve always thought that was clever. I think TJ Watson would, too.
I had a long day of meetings today. Tomorrow evening I fly back home – always the best part of a business trip.
I didn’t take my camera with me this morning, so by the time I got back to the hotel it was dark, I was tired, had little material to work with, and was searching for inspiration for a blog post. During my daily catch-up on blogs I read a post on the wordpress blog itself from last week. It was an announcement for the 2nd annual WorldWide WordPress 5K, on Sunday, April 29th. The WWWP5K is a virtual 5K, originally conceived by the employees at Automattic, the company behind WordPress, to get their geographically-dispersed fellow employees to run or walk a 5K “together,” each in their own locations. They invited the entire blogging community to join them and to blog about it. Last year I did. And I plan to again this year.
Thanks WordPress for a fun idea, and for providing me with the inspiration for a photo for today. I didn’t bring my running shoes on this trip, so these will have to do.
Mark your calendars, and walk with me!
I had a doctor’s appointment this afternoon which took me downtown. Since I was in the neighborhood, I just had to stop by the Sno-Beach snocone stand. If you’ve never had one, you must. It will change your life. If you don’t live in Austin, fly or drive down here as soon as you can and get one. They make the absolutely, hands-down, indubitably BEST snocones on the planet. If any of you are skeptical, I’d even put money on it. And I NEVER make a bet unless I’m sure I’m right (even when i’m wrong) 😀
Even though there were about 30 people in front of me when I got there, and when I left I was in the middle of rush hour traffic on Mopac, it was worth it.
I’d like to work on ways to transform my blog into something more interesting for other people to follow. Up til now I’ve mostly been doing this for my own enjoyment. The Daily Post is hosting a Post-a-Day-2011 and Post-a-Week-2011 challenge, an online community really, for bloggers to share their posts and inspire eachother. It started at the beginning of the year, but I’m joining mid-way (or in work-speak, at the end of 2Q 🙂 ). I recently completed my own 365-project (a year of posting one photo taken of a moment from each day) but I have been and will continue to post here. So, in search of inspiration, today I signed up for the once a week version, check it out:
Oh, wait, one more thing! Here is a link to a video that my friend Teri took of us on Cupholder last weekend as we were all headed up to Cypress Creek Cove for the raftup. (we’re the little boat in the distance that Teri and Jim are catching up with quickly). It was WINDY… and we had 2 reefs in, so only a tiny bit of sail up, but we were MOVIN’! It’s good to be back…
Sheila365 