Long weekend long overdue

Sorry for the delay, my friends. Still grinding away at work but light is streaming through the cracks at the end of the Chunnel we're excavating. We'll break through soon.

This weekend, I'm taking Friday off to extend the holiday weekend. The fam and I are taking a train in the morning to Santa Barbara. A nice four-hour train ride, then two days in Santa Barbara hanging out, exploring and not really doing much of anything planned. I absolutely cannot wait. To say the change of venue and the time away from the office are overdue is the understatement of the epoch.

We come back on Sunday to have a barbecue with friends. Then a Monday off to do NOTHING. NADA. ZIP-A-ROO.

Oh yeah, I turn 37 Saturday. Whaddaya know?

I was thinking about the trip to Santa Barbara earlier and realized that my last (and only) visit to the city was when I proposed to Lori in '96. Probably almost exactly 10 years ago. With all the circuitous, circadian, cyclical circumstances circumnavigating our selves, I find it kind of funny (post-loan, in particular) that we should be inspired to return to the place of our engagement -- the location of the calm before the storm. Yes, I know the engagement actually occurred 30,000 feet higher and about 200 miles south en route to L.A. before changing planes to Santa Barbara, but BACK OFF, I'm reminiscin' here!

So long, screwy. See you in Saint Louie.

How do I love Apple? Let me count the ways.

Yesterday I finally took the iMac to the Apple store for repairs. Over the past few months, our beloved computer had been demonstrating increasingly erratic behavior. Specifically, it would shut down unexpectedly in the middle of the day without warning. Lately, it would take between four and six times to boot, the machine simply shutting off mid-start each time.

After scouring the Apple support forums, it appeared as though our iMac was among four production runs that were eligible for an extended warranty service. Even though our machine has been off warranty for about six months, machines in certain batches of serial numbers were eligible for free replacement of the power supply unit and/or logic board.

Even though it meant a weekend (or longer) without Warcraft, I knew I could wait no longer lest the machine get permanently damaged. I took it in to the newest Apple store in town at the Spectrum (the third Apple store within about 10 miles of here...have to love that.) They checked in the machine, affirmed that the work would be done free of charge, and estimated 7-10 business days to get the machine back. I resigned myself to a Mac-less life at home.

Well, today I got the call that the machine was ready. Instead of 7-10 days, it was more like 27 hours. How cool is that?

I was so inspired, I bought about $4,000 of software for the business. The guy at this store matched the discount I had compelled from his counterpart at the South Coast store. So here's the cool part.

Upon checking out, I was asked if I wanted someone to help me out to my car. Thinking that it was going to be a bit of a haul lugging two bags of software and my iMac across several stretches of the Spectrum and a broad parking lot, I took them up on the offer. I have long been a fan of Apple's retail presence. They put so much polish on the buying experience, that it is truly inspirational. I have saved several of their retail bags, for instance, in my work samples file solely for their production values.

Well, today as I gathered my software up, I realized that Apple's biggest bag is actually a friggin' backpack. As I unfolded it, sure enough, I found two corded shoulder straps. I flung it over my shoulders, grabbed my smaller bag, slung my iMac beneath my arm and set off to my car...the picture of perfect Mac bliss.

Kudos, Steve Jobs, for yet another validation why you're the Apple of my eye.

The rumble down under

This is too cool not to share. Just found this article. Seems that Mount St. Helens is quite the active matron. There's a shark fin-shaped mass growing from the lava dome at a startling rate. Specifically:

If the skies are clear as forecast, volcano watchers who turn out for the reopening of the Johnston Ridge Observatory on Friday will get a spectacular view of a hulking slab of rock that's rapidly growing in Mount St. Helens' crater.

It's jutting up from one of seven lobes of fresh volcanic rock that have been pushing their way through the surface of the crater since October 2004.

The fin-shaped mass is about 300 feet tall and growing 4 feet to 5 feet a day, though it occasionally loses height from rockfalls off its tip, said Dan Dzurisin, a geologist at the U.S. Geological Survey.

It began growing last November, steadily moving west and pushing rock and other debris out of its way as it goes.

Mount St. Helens has been quietly erupting since a flurry of tiny earthquakes began in late September 2004. Scientists initially mistook the quakes as rainwater seeping into the hot interior of the older lava dome.

But it soon became clear that magma was on the move, confirmed by the emergence of fire-red lava between the old lava dome and the south crater rim a few weeks after the seismic activity began.

How cool is that? 4 to 5 feet every day! Amazing and wholly humbling.

This May 14, as we celebrate our own mothers, we should marvel in the splendor and magnitude of Mother Nature. The saying "I brought you into this world and I can take you out" carries a certain amount of weight with her.

One sick Syd

When something is wrong with my baby
Something is wrong with me.
-- Sam & Dave

Sydney is sick again. She had a bug a month or so ago and, frankly, hasn't been fully right since. She's been in a kind of malaise. It's been increasingly obvious that she has been suffering from a festering illness. Lori and I are certain it is strongly connected to the fact that Sydney refuses to blow her nose. A doctor confirmed today that, in addition to an ear infection, she most likely has a formidable sinus infection.

Neither Lori nor I seem to be able to convince Syd that expelling all that goop from her sinuses would do her a world of good. We've attempted "overcome your fears" tactics. I shared all the things I was scared of that, once I took the leap, I looked back on and laughed at my original trepidation. You see her listening, but she refuses to give in. She claims the sensation of stuff moving in her throat is too unpleasant to bear. When we finally get her to attempt a blow, the effort is so pitiful that we can hardly expect any benefit.

I realize this is the same girl that fought pooping on the potty for about two years longer than Em. This is also the girl that has herself pretty well psyched out of ever riding a two-wheeler. And this is the girl who is my daughter. She clearly isn't the shy little bugger I was (Emelie is much closer to that). To her credit, she has conquered any fear of swimming about eight years sooner than I did. She interacts with others, tries sports (co-ed and all), does Girl Scouts, but she still manages to obsess over and intimidate herself about seemingly mundane endeavors.

Even though Syd's always seemed self-confident and largely indestructible, it's interesting to witness these little insecurities. To see how emotional fragments that are so prevalent in Emelie can surface subtly in Syd.

I'm sure, like most everything she's done, she'll climb the fence when she's ready. Maybe this has some deep seeded memory of the booger sucker connected to it. Who knows? I think us trivializing her fears either embarrasses her or makes her recoil even more. I don't know. But it's just a painful shame to see her suffer because of such a little thing. She may think blowing her nose is a horrible proposition, but it's not.

It'ssnot...get it? (Doesn't really work in typed form, I know. :)

The man who sailed around his soul

I'm sorry if this is getting to be a lame gimmick, but when I work into the night with iPod streaming away, some song lyrics just percolate to the surface as particularly resonant for any given period or mood. I've recently been delving deeper into XTC's library and really understanding what master craftsmen they are as songwriters. The widespread availability of lyrics online allows me (and, perhaps, now you) to appreciate some of their finer work:

The man who sailed around his soul
From East to West, from pole to pole
With ego as his drunken captain
Greed, the mutineer, had trapped all reason in the hold

The man who walked across his heart
Who took no compass, guide or chart
To rope and tar his blood congealed
When he found his self revealed ugly and cold

And the sirens that sing
By your nose with its ring
They'll drag you in
For your sins

Now he sits all alone
And it's no place like home
It's empty skin
A bag to keep life's souvenirs in
The man who sailed around his soul
The man who sailed around his soul

The man who sailed around his soul
Came back again to find a hole
Where once he thought compassion and the truth
Had laid to warm his freezing carcass on return

The man who walked across his heart
Was doomed to journey from the start
Of every love affair he'd broken
All the lies he'd ever spoken
Tattooed on his arm

And the jellyfish stings
Even angels with wings
Who look too deep
And dare to peep

Now he sits all alone
Knowing flesh blood and bone
Is everything
He found the treasure he'd been seeking
The man who sailed around his soul

-- XTC