Geezer

There are 380 posts filed in Geezer (this is page 29 of 38).

Checkup

I got a physical this morning; the first one I’ve had in a few years. There are a million other things I’d rather do than get poked and prodded by a doctor so I put it off for as long as I can, but I figured I was now overdue.

I’m pretty darn fit for a 42 year old, it turns out. Blood pressure is an excellent 114/68, pulse 74 (though I took my pulse last week and clocked it at 50, lower than my previous best – ha!). Even my cholesterol is trending very nicely in a healthy direction, with only a slightly elevated LDL.

The one thing I’m looking at is a low white blood cell count and a low platelet level. Outside of my initial visit as a new patient it was the first time the doc quizzed me on my family history. That raised my eyebrows a bit, and later I found that these numbers can sometimes indicate something bigger. My doc didn’t seem overly worried, though. I’m due to get another lab run next month and hopefully these numbers will be back to normal.

On another health note, I reached my target weight today! I set a goal last year to drop back to 170 pounds and this morning I was there. I feel great!

Sinking sun

Stepping out this morning on my daily dog-walk, I noted that the sun was no longer awake before I was. We’re facing the end of summer and in spite of the mosquitoes and oppressive, record-setting heat the thought makes me a little sad, I have to admit.

It’s been a great summer. We’ve seen the kids through swim meets, T-ball games, soccer games, and sleepovers. We’ve spent many afternoons at the pool and had a wonderful time building our garden and enjoying the bounty it’s provided. We’ve taken trips to see Kelly’s parents and gone on the best-ever camping trip to Grayson Highlands. Soon, we’ll be taking our biggest trip of the summer as we head off for a week on Orcas Island in Washington state.
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The Brewery and Farmhouse to be razed

I’m bummed to learn that The Brewery, one of Raleigh’s oldest music venues, is closing its doors for good this weekend. The building’s been bought and will be razed for a mixed-use development. The last band will take the stage Friday evening.

I’ve seen many shows at the Brewery and made some fantastic memories there. It was small (or shall we say, intimate) and had a lacking beer selection, but those are about its only faults. You could stand anywhere in the room and have a great view of the band. And it had the best sound guy anywhere: the bands always sounded great. I’ve seen many local and national acts there: Cracker, Mojo Nixon, Whiskeytown, Dig, Southern Culture On The Skids, and many, many others.
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Space shuttle

This morning at 11:26 AM, space shuttle Atlantis may or may not make its final flight into space. This will be the last mission of NASA’s shuttle program.

I remember watching on TV as space shuttle Columbia made the very first shuttle launch back in 1981. Of course, I also saw a few rocket launches for things like Skylab and space probes like Voyager, but the shuttle program was different. It was touted as essentially a space bus: making spaceflight routine with a reusable vehicle.

It didn’t turn out that way, as the reusable aspect of the shuttle made it incredibly expensive. Shuttles turned out not to be as reliable as they were initially touted. I remember being in my high school’s library, watching video of Challenger exploding as my math teacher sat nearby, weeping. It was a cruel reminder that nothing about riding rockets would ever be routine. The flagship shuttle, Columbia, proved that when it disintegrated above Texas during landing in 2003.

If all goes well, Atlantis will make a safe trip to the International Space Station (ISS) and then roll its way into a museum. With it, a space program stretching into the early 1970s will come to an end. I’m not sure what comes next for American space exploration but I hope it continues in one shape or another.

Patriotic passports

My first passport, 21 years ago!

Kelly and I took the kids to the post office this week to get their passports renewed. We were hoping to have them in time for our upcoming trip to Orcas Island, so that if we had some time we could cross the strait and see what it’s like to riot in Vancouver. Okay, not really, but it’s always good to have an up-to-date passport.

While we were waiting for the paperwork to get done, I recalled that it was about this time of year that I got my first passport. It was July 5th, 1990 and I was serving in the Navy during that time – my ship, the USS Elliot (DD-967), was visiting Hong Kong that week. I remember the humor of celebrating America’s Independence Day while docked in a British colony. Continue reading →

Tiring of hotels

Boy, it didn’t take me long to get tired of hotels. It’s not like I’ve been traveling much lately – in fact, I don’t travel nearly as much as I used to. The travel itself is fine, though: I love going to new places. It’s the hotels that I’m not fond of. For this week’s stay here in St. Charles, the best available hotel I could find was the Best Western. It’s turned out to be okay for what it is but it’s rather free of personality.

I was reminded the other day of the absolute joy I had with staying at a bed and breakfast during my weeks of consulting for NeTraverse for a project we were doing with AllTel in Jacksonville, Florida. I really looked forward to leaving work and joining the B&B owners on their front porch for wine, cheese, and deep discussions about all sorts of topics. Here, I come back to an empty hotel room, which is not that thrilling to say the least.

I think I’ll check out some of the area B&Bs and see if I can find something a little more lively for my trips to St. Charles.

Chipping away at the speeding

Raleigh Police are making progress with the speeding motorcycles. Last night officers cited two motorcyclists for careless and reckless driving. The officers caught them as they were lining up, apparently to race each other. Six other motorcyclists fled the scene.

Police have learned that motorcyclists come here from all over specifically to race. The word on the street is that they meet at a gathering place and then go to the racing area (which is, unfortunately, my neighborhood apparently). Printed fliers are apparently used to organize these events. If officers find evidence that motorcyclists have been deliberately racing each other they can not only arrest the perpetrators but they can also seize the motorcycles involved.

I know many officers are motorcyclists themselves and I understand the appeal. I just don’t want anyone racing at 120 MPH down a street near my neighborhood.

On the air with Rivendell

By LeRe Pics

My use of online music services like Pandora, Mondomix, TaintRadio.Org, and my recent voiceover dabbling has gotten me itching to start my own online radio station. Or reignite my itch, I should say: back in 1997 I became one of the first to apply to the Library of Congress for a compulsory license for Internet radio (back when the list of online radio stations would fit on just few pages). I never followed through with it because it was a leap of faith: the song royalty rates were not fixed and could have been enormous once they were.
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Road Rage

I rediscovered this gem today.

Catatonia
Road Rage

If all you’ve got to do today is find peace of mind
Come round you can take a piece of mine
And if all you’ve got to do today is hesitate
Come here, you can leave it late with me

You could be taking it easy on yourself
You should be making it easy on yourself
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Local blogs

I was searching through the MT.Net archives tonight, trying to find the name of the service that sorted blogs based on their location. Turns out I found it, or where it used to be, anyway: Local Feeds. It used GeoURL meta tags to mark your blog so that you could easily find blogs in your area. It was a pretty useful service when I first found it seven years ago.

Wow. That’s a long time.

Anyhow, Local Feeds is defunct now, which is a shame. The reason I love Facebook so much is because I like knowing what’s going on in the area. I check Twitter often, for the same reason. Problem with Twitter is that I don’t get enough depth from it. I guess the same applies to Facebook: there’s only so much that one can fit into a status update.

I would like to see someone revive the blog geotagging idea and provide folks with a location-based blog search. I think it would fill a gap that the status-update services just can’t provide. Anyone out there want to take this up?