Vol. 2, No. 1

If this blog posts at 6:38 PM as planned it will be exactly 56 years (or 29,453,760 minutes) since I came slimy, squirming and squalling into this world.  As I mentioned 4 weeks ago, I am now 8 in dog years (or to use the logic of my first blog the new 33 years 7 months 9 days.)  OR one year closer to the grave, or a day older than I was yesterday.

In case I haven't mentioned it, I'm gettin' old.  They say memory is the second thing to go.  I've reached the point where I think of something I want to look up, so I open a new browser tab to Google it, and by the time the tab opens I can't remember what it was I wanted to Google.  Long term memory is a different situation.  Retrieval is not reliable, but there's crap in there I wish I could delete.  Just this week, while discussing Star Trek a co-worker mentioned the actor Scott Bakula.  Bubbling up from that fetid cauldron I call Long Term Memory came Eisenhower and Lutz.  I won't inflict the rest on you, I'll just leave it for you to Google.  (If you can remember.)

I have repeatedly promised to come up with something worth reading to put here.  I am about to despair of that ever taking place.  I've had 8 days since posting my last blog, and I actually started writing this one at 11:01 AM on the day it's "due."  I haven't changed.  I actually did my first draft on the 4th, but that was just how long it will be from today until the first day I can retire.  Creative prioritization.

Oh, I almost forgot my Out of Context Quote of the Week:  (how long do I really think I can keep this up?  I think it should be an occasional feature.  Anyway, it's really a runner up from last week.  Okay, it came in after the deadline.  Anyway, here goes.)
"... or get off the pot."

(Of course you know the quote, it's the context that makes it.  And I can't give you that.  But I can amuse myself.  It's my birthday.)

Anyway, I can retire in 659 days.  You kids get off my lawn.

667 Days

I don't know if I can wait that long.  Whenever I announce my time remaining I find myself saying "three hundred" instead of "six hundred."  Think that's Freudian?  (My Boss pointed out that tomorrow it will be 666 days.  Is that an omen?) If I do manage to stick it out, I give the credit to the strength I draw from the first entry in a new feature of this blog, which I do now hereby institute:

My Out of Context Quote of the Week:

"What a bunch of pinheads."

Unfortunately, I will never be able to give context to that quote, but I take great comfort in it.  

Next Saturday will be the anniversary of my first blog post, so next week I blog on Saturday.  I plan to set it to publish at 6:38 PM (for reasons of my own, if anyone's counting.)

Anyway, I can retire in 1 year, 9 months, 27 days.  Get off my lawn.

Time is depressing

Einstein said it's relative.  He's probably right.  I know time spent with relatives passes slowly.  (I'm actually blogging this last week, so how's that for relativity?  And I almost forgot to post it.  How's that for stupid?)

But back to depressing:  You've probably figured out that I'm using an online calculator to figure out how long (1 year, 10 months, 3 days) it is until I can retire.  It's a pretty cool website:  

http://www.timeanddate.com.

Problem is, there are a lot things you can calculate.  Big time waster.  Time I could be wasting looking at kitties or dancing hamsters.  Last week (or a couple of minutes ago, time is relative after all) when I was calculating times for all my April blogs, I noticed a link on the page labelled "Find when you are 1 billion seconds old."  So of course I did.  1989.  I passed a billion and a half in 2004.  I'll hit 2 billion on 9/11/2020.  If I live that long.

You probably think that's morbid thinking.  Let me show you morbid.  My Dad passed away several years ago at the age of 80.  His older sister preceeded him, also at the age of 80.  Their ages at death were so close, I thought I'd check on how close.  I was able to get my Dad's dates from an internet obituary, but I couldn't find hers.  (It seems to me that when we paid for her funeral they said we had a "perpetual" internet memorial.  I'm going to look into that.  Anyway, I was able to determine that my Dad lived 29,338 days.  On Sunday, August 23, 2037 I will be the same age as my father.  If I live that long.

So you kids get off my lawn.  I can retire in 674 days.  If I live that long.

Happy Birthday, Puppy Dog

   
This is Alexia.  I call her Lexi.  I thought I had a picture of her face, but I guess she moved.  It was just a blur.  She turned 12 on Monday.  (I took the picture on her birthday, before leaving for work.) Since Bandit has been getting all the blog time, I thought it was time to Lexi got some attention.  They tell me the odds of her being with us another 12 years are pretty slim, but I choose not to believe that.  She's a good dog.  As I point out to my wife, we probably could ask for a better one, but that would just be greedy.

I have a birthday in 3 weeks (and a day) myself.  I'll be 8 in dog years.  (She's smarter than me too.)

On another subject, my friend Eric's project, the first authorized graphic novel of Robert A. Heinlein's work, has been successfully funded on Kickstarter:
 

    http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ergignac/robert-a-heinleins-citizen-of-the-galaxy-graphic-n
 

There was 10 Grand left to go 4 days before the deadline.  I put my $100 where my mouth was, and the next time I looked it was funded.  Can I take credit for that?

Anyway, I can retire in 681 days, so you kids get off my lawn.  (Go read a book.)

Good Friday

It's Friday until Midnight, so I still have time to post this blog.  Good Friday is a state holiday in Louisiana, so my usual posting time slipped by me.

I said a couple of weeks ago that I would be finished moving by the 15th.  That's still my story, and I'm still sticking to it.  The move is over, now we're in the unpacking phase.  My wife estimates 5 years for that.  I think she's an optimist.

A few days after we finished the moving phase (around the 19th for those of you keeping score) my wife and I were sitting in the front yard (there's plenty of furniture in the front yard for sitting on) just looking at the ... crap.  She said that as soon as she can find her stuff, she's going to make a sign: "This ain't no yard sale, this ain't no junk shop."  (This ain't no foolin' around.)

Okay, I reworded that slightly to amuse myself.

Anyway, I told her to leave everything off her sign but "Yard Sale."  I actually got her laughing, which (at this point in the move) was a major accomplishment.  

I'll go down to 412 and put up a sign: Yard full of crap, 1.4 miles.  Let me know when the American Pickers get here: "Is there anything, anything AT ALL, that interests you in this yard?"  "Nope.  Not a damn thing.  But the guys from Hoarders are right behind us."

Well, it was funny at the time.  I guess you had to be there.  Then I walked out to the road and took this picture:

It doesn't really show it all.  I had to ease to my left until my wife was hidden behind the POD.  (But I'm still alive.  And married.)

I also wanted to mention this:  I ran across it on LinkedIn.  I don't know what we can do about it, but Tujaugue's is an important piece of New Orleans' history.

Please Read and Help Save Tujaugue's!  http://icont.ac/1F57c

Anyway I can retire in 688 days.  You kids stay off my lawn (for your own safety.)

Don Perkins Bennett, Sr. 1933 - 2013

Last week I blogged that my move was over.  That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.  It's really never going to end.  The amount of stuff at the "new" house will see to that.  I had some smartass things that I think are funny to blog today, but I've just learned of another funeral I won't be able to attend, for another close friend I haven't been able to visit with much for over 20 years.  I would say something about the admiration and respect I had for him, but I think his obituary speaks for itself:

In Loving Memory

Don Perkins Bennett, Sr.

11/20/1933 - 3/15/2013

Don Perkins Bennett, Sr. was born in Sabine County, Texas on November 20, 1933 and passed from this life on March 15, 2013. After spending the first 12 years of his life as a barefoot farm boy in the backwoods of East Texas, he moved to Beaumont and graduated from Lamar High School in 1951. Don served in the U.S.A.F. from 1953-1957, and returned to graduate from Lamar University in 1961 with a B.S.E.E., going to work in the aerospace industry, first in Seattle, and then in California.

Don returned to Texas in 1968, taking a job with Boeing Aerospace until 1990. His long career ranged from training Apollo astronauts to designing safety specifications for the Space Shuttle. He received a Silver Snoopy for his work on Apollo 11, as well as many other mission achievement awards. Don retired from Boeing in 1990, continuing work on the Space Shuttle program at SRS Technologies until 1995. He later came out of retirement in 2003 to provide support for the Return To Flight Program at Barrios Technology, with his final retirement in 2010.

Don began his life-long commitment to the Boy Scouts of America in 1969 when his eldest son joined a local cub pack, and continued his volunteer work right up until his final illness. Don's many accomplishments included the transformation of the Camp Karankawa Winter Camp, held by the Bay Area Council, into a large and well-established event. Don always liked to point out that there were more merit badge counselors by the 20^th year of his directorship than there were campers in his first year. Don was also known for his successful mentorship of Troop 609 in League City, TX, which went from 4 boys in 1982 to a large and thriving community of scouts by 2013. Don was awarded the Silver Beaver, the Bronze Pelican, and the St. George emblem for his work. He was also a member of the Order of the Arrow scouting honor society and the Wood Badge adult leadership program. He was especially proud of the many boys he mentored to the rank of Eagle Scout.

Don will always be remembered for his green thumb, his love of oak trees, his talent with a chainsaw and his devotion to his family. He is preceded in death by his beloved wife of 53 years, Patricia Bedair Bennett, his parents, Bertha Solly and Benjamin Perkins Bennett, his brother, Archibald Bennett, and sister Joy Cowart.

He is survived by his sisters, Maurene Roberts and Dorothy McCall, and by his children, Don P. Bennett, Jr. (Deborah), David B. Bennett, Margaret R. Bennett (Richard Luciano), and his grandchildren, Margaret, Benjamin, and William Bennett, Susanna and Elizabeth Luciano, plus the many young men and women whom he took into his heart and loved as an extended family.

In lieu of flowers, please send a contribution in his honor to the Boy Scouts of America, Bay Area Council at www.bacbsa.org.

Friends are cordially invited to the visitation with the family on Friday, March 22, 2013 at 1:00 P.M. followed by the Funeral Service at 2:00 P.M. at the Jeter Memorial Funeral Home Chapel, 311 N. Friendswood Dr., Friendswood, TX 77546 (281) 992-7200. Interment will be on Saturday, March 23, 2013 at 1:00 P.M. at Yellow Pine Cemetery in Yellow Pine, TX.

Finally

The move is completed.  (I'm writing this on the 12th, anticipating having it posted on the 15th, and assuming that when this posts that statement will be true.  Wish me luck.)

Regardless, when this posts I'll be in Alexandria, wearing my pirate hat.  (I can attribute that description to our Junior Past Grand Master, who will be installed as Grand Commander of Knights Templar this weekend.)

And since I brought it up I might as well post a picture.  (It can't be as bad as the last one.  Can it?)

(Okay, maybe it can.)

Oh!  If there's anybody reading this, take a look at Kickstarter:

  http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ergignac/robert-a-heinleins-citizen-of-the-galaxy-graphic-n?ref=live

My friend Eric Gignac is behind this project.  If you have any money to invest in a creative endeavor, I recommend it.

Anyway, I can retire in 702 days, so you kids get off my lawn.