Happy Fourth Of July & Watch Where You Walk

Happy Fourth Of July:
To all, everywhere, even if they aren't US citizens or living in the US. I believe freedom is our natural state, and hopefully we have the courage to live that way. I recommend clicking on the link above for some fun facts relating to the celebration.

Watch Where You Walk:
Where we live, personally owned and detonated fireworks are illegal...yeah, right. A friend of mine owns a nice sailboat that has a permanent slip in the harbor off the ocean. For this weekend he tells me that starting Friday at noon, orange construction fencing, armed patrols and private security officers are swarming all over the harbar and that controls are in place for how many people are allowed into the area because literally thousands and thousands of inlanders come over to the beach for this holiday. He tells me that he parks his car in a safe place away from the harbor on Friday around noon, and doesn't even try to use it until Tuesday morning after the holiday. He stays on his sailboat to keep it from being messed with and then for the actual city-sponsored fireworks display he goes to the big restaurant facing the harbor and watches from there. Other of my friends tell me that walking on the beach during the 4th of July evening is like walking in a war zone because of all the private-and-illegal fireworks being set off. So, how do the fireworks get past the bag-searching, jacket-pat-downing and ever watchful police? Well, my friend who owns the sailboat tells me that for about a week before 4th of July weekend folks can be seen carrying in suspiciously heavy bags, heading for remote areas of the beach and surrounding hillsides, and burying the bags then leaving without them. My friend tells me everybody knows what is going on, including the police, and so guess how many illegal fireworks they find on people going into the area when they start searching at noon on Friday? None of course *:-) Have a great holiday *:->

Movie Recommendations:
"Fortunes of War" (1987) - Yes, see it. OC+
"Y Tu Mama Tambien" (2001) - No, don't see it. OC-
"Hop" (2002) - Yes, see it. OC+
"Dead Letter Office" (1998) - Yes, see it. OC+
"Body Heat" (1981) - No, don't see it. OC-
"One Hour Photo" (2002) - No, don't see it. OC-
"The Student Prince" (1998) - No, don't see it. OC-
"Midsomer Murders: Market For Murder" (2002) - Yes, see it. OC+
"Big Business" (1988) - Yes, see it. OC+

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Rose Hips, European White Birch, Fathers' Day

Rose Hips:
Unbelieveable as it was, I did see a large squirrel, grasping the horizontals on a wooden fence with only its hind feet, stretching up full length and violently ripping rose hips from the neighbors rose bush and stuffing them into its mouth. I had no idea that squirrels were smart enough to eat rose hips for health and I was amazed at the strength and balance exhibited during the process. I was pleased also when the squirrel's entire focus changed as it got hit with the three high speed .62 caliber paint balls that I fired *:->...last seen running headlong down the phone lines *:-)

European White Birch:
I'm still not sure how it happened, but it did. We set out yesterday to get a Fathers Day Tree for my son and his wife to plant at their house so they could have something to remember their two fathers (one each) by. After a series of lengthy discussions and quite a good tutorial from the garden center tree expert, a small concrete bird bath ended up going to my son's place and my wife and I are now determining where to plant the gorgeous European White Birch that we purchased for ourselves. How do things like that happen? *:-)

Fathers' Day:
Happy Fathers' Day to all of us who are Fathers and understand what that means, and to all those who will be Fathers and will come to understand.

Movie Recommendations:
"Wilbur Wants To Kill Himself" (2002) - No, don't see it. OC-
"Hope And Glory" (1987-2001) - Yes, see it. OC+
"Kitchen Stories" (2004) - Yes, see it. OC+
"Danny Deckchair" (2003) - Yes, see it. OC+
"Love And Death On Long Island" (1996) - No, don't see it. OC-

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Tree Tent, Poison Oak & Very Cool

Tree Tent:
Today my wife arrived home and was working in her studio. A knock was heard, somewhat muffled and far away but still probably for us. A face appeared in the port-hole of our gate, and a pleasant looking, smallish woman began apologizing for the intrusion. She explained that she was from "The County" and that because we have fruit trees we are officially "requested" to allow the county to hang insect traps in the fruit trees to control pests and provide early warning info prior to ordering overhead spraying for the entire county, which nobody wants. If they catch the infestation soon enough, they don't have to spray everywhere. My wife said yes, and we now have tent traps in some of our trees.

Poison Oak:
I am exceptionally allergic to poison oak and when we first moved to this home in 1987 we hired laborers to remove the oak from the property (no small job) by hand pulling and de-rooting the stuff. About 3 years ago a small patch appeared on the county road side of our property, and I spotted it and dug it out. It comes back each year but I know where to look and so I just remove it each year and it does not come back until the following year. Two years ago a second, closer-to-the-house patch appeared and I spotted it and removed it also. This year both patches dutifully appeared in the spring, grew to about 2 feet in height, spread to about 18" in circumference, and when I spotted them I dug them out. Then the weather changed. This spring has been quite different than average, and the extra rain and the combo of rain-sun-rain has caused things to go through a regeneration cycle. I did not know this until I was working on the county road side of the property installing better deer fencing, moving back and forth and not paying much attention to the ground, and then dropped a tool and as I was bending to pick it up, came face to face with new poison oak growth, 2 feet high, growing straight up from the location from where I dug it out earlier in the spring. I stopped dead still, looked all around the area, and when I realized that this was the only spot, I then very carefully removed and got rid of the oak, cleaned all the tools with gasoline, washed my work clothes twice in hot soapy water, and took a hot soapy shower myself. The oak discovery cost me about 1.5 hours of productive work time, and it has been a week now and no oak has appeared on my body, so I guess I survived *:-)
I then realized that the other spot had also probably grown back, so a couple days later I took that new growth out as well.

Very Cool:
Our cat, while truly a "Cool Cat", is also quite upset with us. We did not listen carefully enough to the radio weather warning about the sudden drop in temperature accompanied with wind and cold rain and we left our cat out ALL DAY in the cold and rain *:-( She is still pissed off about it and provides us with reminder lectures as she goes in and out the door now *:-)

Movie Recommendations:
"The Inspector Lynley Mysteries 2: (all episodes)" (2003) - Yes, see it. OC+
"Swimming Pool" (2003) - No, don't see it. OC-

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Who Was That Masked Cat?

Who Was That Masked Cat?
I returned home to find my son and our daughter in law talking with my wife on our deck. They were looking, talking about and gesturing toward one of the apple trees over by the back shed. They were excited because the cat in the tree was not ours, not any of the 5 neighbor cats that we know, was large, had poofy long gray fur, was physically very active and was climbing the apple tree with great skill and was focused on a squirrel that was several yards away. We are excited because perhaps this is the cat that has been helping us by killing the squirrels. Welcome, newcomer *:-)

Movie Recommendations:
"Swades" (2004) - Yes, see it. OC+
"Lover's Prayer" (1999) - No, don't see it. OC-
"A Series Of Unfortunate Events" (2004) - No, don't see it. OC-
"Swimming Upstream" (2003) - Yes, see it. OC+
"Allo Allo!" (1984) - No, don't see it. OC-
"A Different Loyalty" (2004) - Yes, see it. OC+
"National Treasure" (2004) - Yes, see it. OC+

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Veteran - Warrior

Veteran:
I am one. April of 1968 through September of 1970. As of today, 2 people have thanked me for my service to our country, and I have also been honored by a Native American ceremony for warriors, where I was asked to step into the center of the ceremonial circle. I am not Native American, and I was the only Veteran at the ceremony, but they asked me to step out anyway because it is for all warriors and I am one. The Native American honoring dance was the first time I was recognized as a Veteran, and that was in 1998, 28 years after my service ended. I will be using my Veteran status to help me get my next job, if what the county and state say about Veteran preference is true.

Movie Recommendations:
"The Life And Death Of Peter Sellers" (2005) - Yes, see it. OC+

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Cats 1, Squirrels 0

Cats 1, Squirrels 0:
I came home yesterday and as I was preparing something to eat I glanced out the kitchen window and saw a dark, strung-out object on our concrete walkway that leads to our gate to the main road. It bore no resemblance to any shape I was familiar with, was remaining completely still, and had some grotesquery about it that made me curious. I left my food prep area and walked outside and approached closer. Heh. Heh Heh. Heh Heh Heh. *:-> The smallest of the 3 squirrels that have recently started entering our domain lay very definitely dead on our walk. I'll spare you a description of the grotesqueries unless you email me for the details. I verbally and loudly thanked the cats (invisible somewhere in the bush) for their efforts, shoveled up the remains and walked some distance up the road and flung them into the wildness of our mountains.

Movie Recommendations:
"The Life Aquatic" (2005) - Yes, see it. OC+

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Progress, Preparation, Possibilities

Progress:
At today's business meeting for an area group that I am currently chairing we voted on and passed several items that have been hanging around for along time. Thanks for everybody's help and good will *:-)
Preparation:
A large international meeting is coming up and our elected delegate needs lots of help in preparing to "be the voice of the people". He is adamant that all of us do our part to make sure he is representing us and not just his own desires at the votes that will be taken. It is inconvenient for us to do all the preparatory work that could be avoided if he were the sort that allowed us to shirk our duty. Thanks go to his committment to the process.
Possibilities:
They are infinite. I am working to remember that. And they can be infinitely good as well as bad. Stay tuned.

Movie Recommendations:
"The Young Visitors" (2003) - Yes, see it. OC+

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Opossum, Squirrel & Bird

Opossum:
It's back. Big, old, absurdly heavy, agonizingly slow, long tailed opossum. It climbs into the plum tree, hangs upside down and walks paw-over-paw out to the end of the limb, bending it horribly, to get to the non-ripe and just-set green fruit that is starting. For some reason I am not motivated to shoot it...yet...and will think about that for awhile. Noisy beast too.

Squirrel:
Game On! Several squirrels of several sizes have re-entered the game court on our property. Still entering on the telephone line and seemingly much faster this year. They quickly recognize the sound of my paint ball rifle and also don't like the orange paint that splatters them with near-misses. I haven't gotten deadly serious yet about aiming, and I will keep playing for awhile longer until the apples start getting ruined by the squirrels, then I'll aim more carefully so I can knock them to the ground where the cats or my axe can finish them.

Bird:
We like the birds, the birds like us. We are blessed with many varieties that other neighbors don't see much, probably because of the variety of fruit trees and other foliage we have. Our cat is completely incompetent at catching birds so no worries there because she was brought up by her mom to be a mouser and only a mouser, which she does very well.

Movie Recommendations:
"Birth" (2004) - No, don't see it. OC-
"Hotel Rwanda" (2004) - Yes, see it. OC+

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Neighbor, Dust & Rock

Neighbor:
Nice fella, young, married, two dogs, one child, lives in a house right across from our driveway, which shares a cul-de-dac like end with his. Since we live in the mountains our driveway is...ummm...unpaved. Mostly dust actually, with occasional stones and pieces of fallen limbs *:-) Day before yesterday I came home from work early and wheeled rapidly into our driveway. My neighbor was standing in his (recently blacktopped) driveway.
Dust:
He stood quite still, facing our driveway, as a huge and thick cloud of dust enveloped him and made him gray from head to toe. He said nothing, didn't get mad, didn't smile, just stood there and eventually went into his house.
Rock:
I got on the phone immediately to the local quarry rock delivery service and ordered 7 yards of 3/4" Aromas washed rock. It arrived promptly and was dumped in the common portion of our driveways. As my wife and I retired for the evening, we could hear the scrape and toss sounds as our neighbor began spreading the rock over the common areas. I finished the job the next morning and now we don't cover him in dust when we pull in *:-) He brought over a half-watermelon this evening and is smiling a bit *:-)

Movie Recommendations:
"Dirty War" (2004) - Yes, see it. OC+
"Echos of Enlightenment" (2001) - No, don't see it. OC-

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Library and Bibliographic Instruction

Library and Bibliographic Instruction:
I had the opportunity recently to research what is happening with school libraries these days. It seems that the school administrators are using the library budget to buy laptop computers for the "library classroom" instead of many hardcopy tomes. I believe there is a fundamental difference between bibliographic research using a laptop and library research using a professional librarian at the elbow of the person trying to learn. Unguided bibliographic research can present the student with a black hole full of info tidbits that may or may not be relevant to the research project. A guided research effort with a professional librarian, coupled with a least a few actual books to hold in the students' hands will, I believe, produce a better informed and intelligent result.

Movie Recommendations:
"Aviator" (2004) - Yes, see it. OC+
"The Phantom Of The Opera" (2004) - Yes, see it. OC+
"The Best Of Zagreb Film: Nudity Required" (2000) - No, don't see it. OC-

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Paving Stones, Bamboo & Clay

Paving Stones:
We visited our son and his wife at their new(ish) home today so my wife could do some measurements for some maternity clothes for my son's wife. I asked me son to take me on a tour of his property and he did and we got to talk about the landscape and remodel plans they are working on, which I enjoyed. He even listened to and acknowledged some of my comments relating to using paving stones to provide an efficient and pleasant looking parking area near the front of the house! He would not commit to allowing me to install a "baby cam" in the nursery so my wife and I could log on to watch the baby-to-be though *:-)

Bamboo:
While we were at our son's place my wife got a call from a friend who happens to live just a few blocks away from my son's and the friend needed some help so we went over there too. After the help part was done we got a nice tour of their property too and they showed us some of their recent nursery purchases, which included some golden bamboo still in the nursery containers. The Jasmine was in full bloom and the entire yard was filled with the most exotic and fulfilling fragrance...it was wonderful.

Clay:
My wife's friend's husband loves to work with clay and since I taught pottery for several years we talked about different clays and firings and we both agreed that working with clay is something we both enjoy. He is enamoured with throwing on the wheel, while I am enamoured of hand building and pinch potting. We offered to let him fire his smaller stuff in our electric kiln if he wants to start making stuff again. He is a gifted jeweler and bead worker also.

Movie Recommendations:
"Star Wars III-The Revenge Of The Sith" (2005) - Yes, see it. OC+
"Little Black Book" (2004) - Yes, see it. OC+

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Storming The Castle & Eating The Rose

Storming the Castle:
I took the huge sword and sliced the entire bridge and entrance from the castle. Hugely crashing onto the plate the sectioned arch was quickly covered in slimy white from the spitting dragon's mouth and the blood red boulders fell to cover it forever.
The castle-bundt cake is delicious, especially when covered in whipped cream and strawberries *:-) My wife has taken another step to become Queen Of The Bundts *:-)
Eating The Rose:
Secrets are found in every bite and only the Queen Of The Bundts knows from what they are made. Delicious again and again and again her creations are my opiate of choice.

Movie Recommendations:
"Trainspotting-Collectors' Edition" (1996) - No, don't see it. OC-
"Connie and Carla" (2004) - Yes, see it. OC+

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Hedge Hog & Lawn Hog

Hedge Hog:
It's a great tool. Even the professional loved using it. Try one yourself and check it out. Just google "hedge hog" and go to the tools and hardware result. I love using it *:-)

Lawn Hog:
Ditto for the lawn hog. The auto-mulch setting works very well even on wet, tall grasses and weeds. Cuts nicely through plastic waste-water pipe that is left too high above the ground also *:-(

Movie Recommendations:
"Himalaya" (1999) - Yes, see it. OC+
"Murder, She Wrote" (1984) - No, don't see it. OC-

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Memory & Memories & Memorials

Memory:
I still have mine (the brain function, not the computer kind). I have not noticed any degradation in function or capacity or recall capability and I am greatful for that. My wife is brilliant about foods and cooking utencils and I have good DNA and I am hopeful too that I will get another 30 years out of my memory function because grandkids are just starting to be part of our lives and both my wife and I are doing pretty well otherwise. Good luck to us *:-)

Memories:
I believe it is time for me to start my autobiography! Wow, I had not really thought about that and blogging about Memorial Day has put that thought on the table for consideration. Cool! Please feel free to click on the link in the blog header to get more info.

Memorials:
I've seen some good, some bad, and of course it depends on the viewer. Those that have been purchased for memorializing a primarily egotistical event or person depress me and I believe send the wrong message. Those that memorialize a shared, human emotional experience and are presented in a healing way I find to be exceptionally valuable to my journey here and I believe we need many more of that type. The town I live in is silly when it comes to that sort of thing and I find that sad.

Movie Recommendations:
"House Of Flying Daggers" (2004) - Yes, see it. OC+

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Friends Near & Far

Friends Near & Far:
I have friends. Some are local and some are in other countries. What I have learned is that for me to make a friend takes a very long time. Each of the friends who have come to my aid in my time of need I have spent years with and have had many hours of close personal activity. I am interested in the dynamics of friendship and what it takes to create a friend. As I think about it, in each case there has also been considerable emotional exchange involved. I will think and reflect and read more on it.

Movie Recommendations:
"Pompeii: The Last Day" (2003) - Yes, see it. OC+

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Different Breed, Learning, Deciding

Different Breed:
Tibetan Mastiff is not for me as a pet dog. We have enough room and if we made the fence a lot stronger we could let the TM run free but the inherent behaviors of the Tibetan Mastiff breed are not going to work out for me. I like strength and some independence in a dog but the Tibetan Mastiff is still classified as a "primitive" breed and does not train well and does not remain close on command. The search continues.

Learning:
I have planned to attend a local "doggie day" in the park during the first week in June. I will just hang out and learn more about me and dogs and if I want to go in the direction of becoming a pet owner right now. I hope to learn by observation what the different relationships of dogs and owners are and how they work when outside their home turf.

Deciding:
I haven't set a deadline for myself on deciding if a dog is coming into my life or not. I'll let that decision arrive when the time is right. Because I'm still interested I'll keep checking things out.

Movie Recommendations:
"The Cazalets: All Episodes" (2001) - Yes, see it. OC+

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Extra Combo VCR-DVD Recorder, Bad Fries (Fry's)

Extra Combo VCR-DVD Recorder:
Logic failed me. We have a project where we need to convert a couple hundred VHS tapes to DVDs. My logic said that it would be most effective to have a single unit that could do both. When it was very difficult to find one like that, I should have known something was up. I finally found a high quality machine at Fry's Electronics, and they promised me it would do what I needed. It doesn't. The proper solution is a stand-alone VCR, a stand-alone DVD recorder, and a stand-alone TV monitor. I now have both solutions and will be donating the combo unit to a worthy cause (cash would be nice).

Bad Fries (Fry's):
Fry's lied to me. No question about it. I have a problem with Fry's because I spent over one hour talking to several departments before I purchased the combo VCR-DVD unit and they lied to me in two ways:
1. They said no TV monitor would be required to use the machine. WRONG. It is impossible to set up the machine for different audio/video performance without using the remote which requires a TV monitor to see the commands. Pisses me off! *:-(
2. They said, no they positively strongly encouraged me, to go ahead and take the unit home and try it and there would be absolutely no problem in bringing it back if it did not do what I needed. WRONG. It has been 17 days since I bought it and since Fry's is quite a drive from my home I called to schedule an appointment to return it and was told that there is a 15 day limit on returns for the particular device I purchased. Pisses me off! *:-(
I will be spreading the news about how Fry's behaves whenever I can. I feel better now *:-)

Movie Recommendations:
"Nero Wolfe: {all seasons}" (2001) - Yes, see it. OC+

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Dog? References? Letters of Recommendation?

Dog?
I have a growing desire to have a dog as a companion. My wife has had companion dogs during our married life and they seemed to provide her with a great deal of love and affection, and were great friends to her and were fun to be around. The last dog I had was a German Shepherd mix when I was in my early teens. He started out being mine when my family lived out in the country, and then when we moved into the city we made a decision to put him on a run in the medium-sized back yard and that just did not work out. He became agressive and loud. I did not understand much about dog behavior in those days, and although I tried to do my best at caring for him it actually fell to my mother to do most of the work while I was in school and she was not into it. One day when I came home from school my dog was gone. I was devastated, lonely, angry and confused. My parents told me they had given him up for adoption. They did not discuss this with me at all before giving him away. I did not believe them and I told them I thought they had him killed and although they assured me that a man had come to pick him up and taken him to a farm in the country, I did not believe them. After about 2 weeks they agreed to drive out into the country so I could see him for myself. There he was, on a chain, on a small run down farm far off the beaten path. I am still sad today. I am working on healing that experience and am considering trying again with another dog that could be mine. I am not sure yet so I will be hanging out with dogs and their owners and doing more research. At the moment, the breed that interests me the most is the Tibetan Mastiff (see hyperlink above). We will see what happens.

References?
I am putting together a short list of people that I want to be references for me during my job search. This is much harder than I had anticipated and the professional networking organization that I belong to has also warned me to be very careful before listing someone. I'll know more after I complete the spreadsheet today *:-)

Letters of Recommendation?
I am also putting together a short list (much much shorter!) of people that I will ask to prepare letters of recommendation for me for the two jobs which I have applied for. This is a daunting task as well, but somehow I feel better about it because I only need 2 per job, and I can have more dialogue about what will be in the letter prior to publishing them.

Movie Recommendations:
"Storyville" (1992) - Yes, see it. OC+
"Kavanaugh Q.C., Disk 2, Set 1 (1995) - Yes, see it. OC+

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential for healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential for healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Palatino Linotype, HTML & Concentration

Palatino Linotype:
Never used this font before as a choice. Of the fonts approved for the job app I completed and submitted today, Palatino Linotype was the only one MSOffice had available. After using it and printing out the sample page, I recognized it as the font used long ago by pre-Windows machines. I even had fond memories of using vi as my word processor on the Unix boxes I ran *:-). Didn't look all that bad and the resume didn't look all that bad either without any formatting. Kinda nice *:-)

HTML:
The copy and paste application I was required to use to submit the online application worked perfectly because I did what I was told:
- Remove all formatting!
- Do NOT underline!
- NO bullets!
- Save as HTML only!
- Do not make any typographical errors or mis-spellings!
Wow...I'm back in first grade *:-)

Concentration:
I did not have a problem with concentration during the 3 full days it took to get this cover letter and resume completed and turned in. I was exhausted when it was done tho, and went grocery shopping with my wife as a break and bought and ate a whole bar of chocolate all at once (dark, 60% cacao, milk free). Yum *:-) I was hyper-active for about 2 hours after eating it and my wife was a fairly good sport about it and no disasters happened (that I remember).

Movie Recommendations:
"Dandelion Dead" (1994) - Yes, see it. OC+
"Midsomer Murders: Murder on St. Malley's Day" (2002) - Yes, see it. OC+

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Mother's Day, Free Lunch & Wolaver's

Mother's Day:
My wife is very happy. She heard from all our children, and our son and his wife actually took us out to dinner at a time and place that my wife really was happy about. Thank you, J & P *:-)

Free Lunch:
This is the first time that I have not forced my son to take money from me for part of the dinner expenses (it was not cheap). He was very enthusiastic about paying for the whole meal and that is cool. Thanks P.

Wolaver's:
I tried Wolaver's India Pale Ale for the first time and liked it very much. While I was away from the table briefly my wife tried a few sips from my glass and said she liked it quite a bit as well. This is a big change because my wife does not like beer and to my knowledge has never had any when we were dining or partying. We will try it again to make sure it holds its appeal.

Movie Recommendations:
"Never Come Back" (1989) - No, don't see it. OC-

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Veteran & SARAH

Veteran:
I am one. 1968 -1970. I survived, and did a good job when I was in. US Army. Drafted. Right after the TET offensive in '68. Seems like a long time ago now. Doesn't really make any sense either. Oh well. I intend to use my Veterans status to help get a better job.

SARAH:
An acronym standing for Shock, Anger, Resentment, Acceptance & Hope. It has been my experience that all humans go through SARAH when any major event occurs in our lives that seems to block the plans we have made. I believe Resentment is the most dangerous and I am always grateful when I feel I have reached acceptance. This is a constant process for me.

Movie Recommendations:
"The Return Of The Pink Panther" (1975) - No, don't see it. OC-

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Pops & Hats

Pops:
Actually, "Hey, Pops" in reference to me by someone else. I did not expect that ever to happen and it has. I was driving and at a traffic intersection stopped for the red light. Two youngish skate boarders were crossing the street with the green light. They were not staying in the white pedestrian lane. One of them walked in front of the car that was in front of me, and one of them walked between the car in front of me and my truck. That is not a bright thing to do. Both my door windows were down all the way. As skate boarder #2 finished crossing in front of my truck and was walking along the my passenger side he leaned towards me and said in a semi-derogative manner "Hey, Pops don't worry, take it easy." I was shocked *:-(

Hats:
'Pops' ties into 'Hats' this way: My wife has been telling me that my choice of headgear this winter and spring "...is making you look funny...". I suspect what she is too kind to say is that my hats make me look old. I wear fedora style and straw-brim fedoras. I will not wear them anymore and am on the look out for what I can find that will be right to keep the sun off my face and also help me look as cool as I really am *:-) A lesson learned. Thanks, youngish, derogatory skate boarder.

Aggressive, Assertive & Creamsicle

Aggressive:
Behavior that is actively hostile, bold & energetic.

Assertive:
Self-assuredly bold and confident.

Note: Most of my life I believed my behavior could often be defined as aggressive. However, today several learned colleagues assured me that NO, it is not aggressive. They all agreed that it is strongly ASSERTIVE though *:-) I feel a little better *:-)

Creamsicle:
A color said to be a combination of papaya, orange juice & amaretto (no dictionary definition). My colleagues at work were trying to convince me today that it is a true color and can be found in paint stores and the like. I am not yet convinced.

Movie Recommendations:
"Pennies From Heaven (British TV, 1978) - No, don't see it. OC-

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Blog, Unix and SCO

Blog:
I've been blogging here for about 4 months now and it is very healthy for me to do it and I enjoy it. Wangjianshuo's blog kind of showed me how it should be done and I have been reading his for almost 2 years. Thanks Jian Shuo *:-)

Unix:
Every time I say or write "unix" I smile because of the hundreds of hours I spent using many forms of unix to build my first awareness of what computers could do to get people together and get information from one place to another. I still greet some of my friends from my unix time with the greeting "ps -ef" to say "what's happening" *:-)

SCO:
Xenix used to be the best OS around and I used and enjoyed it. Too bad they got sick and died.

Movie Recommendations:
"Spanglish" (2005) - Yes, see it. OC+

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Reference, Approval, Guilt & 9 weeks

Reference:
I am grateful. A friend has agreed to serve as a professional reference for me on a job application I submitted last Friday. Choosing what reference person to ask is a little more difficult than I had expected and to have someone say yes feels good.

Approval:
I still don't fully understand how a need for approval from others gets built in to some people at such an early age. I am going to pay attention to it and try to learn.

Guilt:
I still have guilt! I am amazed at how certain situations come up that show it to still be sitting with me. I am fortunate to have friends who have the courage to point it out.

9 Weeks:
Our son and his wife are 9 weeks pregnant and we are happy about it and grateful that they will have the chance to have children.

Movie Recommendations:
"The Final Cut" (2004) - Yes, see it. OC+

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Google Ads, Networking, Decryption

Google Ads:
LOL is what happened when I logged into this blog (OurAutumn) this morning to check which movies I had OCD indexed yesterday. To my dismay, delight and disgust I found Google Ads on my site referring to some of the unpleasant duties of home maintenance. The best phrase which cracked me up is "...eliminates sewer odor and stops the stink overnight" *:-) After scratching my head over how Google Ads could have linked that to my site, I realized that I had written about the movie rental house "Blockbuster" *:-(

Networking:
Just in case you need it, as I do now, here is the definition of networking as presented by the chapter of Experience Unlimited that I belong to:
"Networking is the art of making contacts".
Works for me.

Decryption:
We found a way to decrypt our VHS tapes. We have ordered the device and it should arrive in a week or so. We'll let everyone know if it works or not.

Movie Recommendations:
"The Pink Panther Strikes Again" (1976) - No, don't see it. OC-

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Netflix, Blockbuster, Amazon, Daewoo & Encryption

Netflix:
Ok, you win. I have sent multiple complaint emails to the faceless reply-bot explaining carefully how you are failing to match the number of disks we return with the number of disks we get back. We send 2 in, you send 1 back, then the other one follows several days later. What's up with that? I have read (not heard, nobody ever called or emailed) your standard responses about multiple stocking locations, disk repair, disk inventory and on and on. My wife and I do not own a TV and we only use Netflix for our entertainment. We have been having to supplement with Blockbuster DVDs and also a few delightful DVDs from our local, low-profile, almost surreptitious DVD house called "Scoob's DVD". Anyway, we just upgraded from 5 out-at-any-time to 7 out-at-any-time. That had better resolve the availability issues or I will begin a fax, phone and email campaign of complaints, with cc:s to whomever I believe would be interested. There!... are you frightened now?

Blockbuster:
I guess all the negative publicity about how Blockbuster lied about the terms of their advertised "No More Late Fees" has had some repercussions because our local Blockbuster is being very nice, being very generous with the $1 off early return coupons, and also showing quite a bit of hustle in finding out if a return has come in that hasn't been put back on the shelf yet. I believe Blockbuster is an anachronistic business model though and so I don't expect them to be around all that much longer.

Amazon:
What's the fuss about Amazon buying Netflix? I think it is a logical and obvious thing to do and Amazon has always been very good about doing what they say they will do, and backing it up with lots of data. Did you know that J. Bezos outlined the first proposal for Amazon right here in the community I live in at a small cafe next to where my wife used to work? That kind of info delights me and I still like to stare at the exact spot J. Bezos was sitting when Amazon conceptualized before his eyes *:-)

Daewoo:
Well, it was a very strange experience (as most of my experiences at Fry's Electronics are) and after 1.5 hours, 6 sales reps, 3 store departmental transfers we now own a Daewoo VCR-DVD combo which will copy our old VHS tapes to DVD. I learned a lot, and I believe not very many folks know as much as I do now about DVD-, DVD+, Apple products, Dell products, and the related interfaces.

Encryption:
Which brings me to encryption. We own many old VHS commercial tapes that were copy proofed and we want to copy them to DVD. The Daewoo unit won't do it automatically and so I could use some help in finding a way to getting them copied so we can view them on our DVD player. Remember, we don't have a TV and use Apple products to view our DVDs. Help is welcome via comment to this blog.

Movie Recommendations:
"Bramwell: Series 4" (1998) - Yes, see it. OC+
"Falling for a Dancer" (1998) - Yes, see it. OC+
"The Pink Panther" (1963) - No, don't see it. OC-
"ZZTop: Greatest Hits: The Video Collection" (2004) - Yes, see it. OC+
"Awakenings" (1997) - Yes, see it. OC+
"The Perfect Murder" (1988) - Yes, see it. OC+

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Garbage & Water Pollution

Garbage:
Watching DVDs that show areas of our earth that remain nearly pristine and then show the same area years later after it has become a dump for household refuse is a sobering experience for me. While I know that I have not yet perfected my own recycle processes and am working to improve, the shock of seeing that which I love carelessly defiled was disconcerting and will stay in my thoughts for some time.

Water Pollution:
The same with waterways. We bumped into a person at the local grocery store yesterday and she told us her story of being called into work (on Sunday) because she had to unclog a drain that was threatening to flood the inside of an extended care home. She detailed what she found in the drain that was plugging it up and all of a sudden we were less hungry and I had to forget about what she said until now because it was too gross, the people doing the damage were too cavalier about it, and she said it is getting worse not better over time. Lots of work to do here.

Movie Recommendations:
"The Celts: Rich Traditions and Ancient Myths (all volumns, 1987) - Yes, see it. OC+

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

SHELL, Buying A Home & iDVD

SHELL:
What are they thinking? After many years of avoiding SHELL gasoline stations because of IMHO inferior products, anti-social corporate practices, poor staffing and poor hygiene issues, a few years ago we started using the nice bright shiny new stations that began appearing and we found the products to be good, the service improved, the business doing its best to respond to criticisms, and the technical and ergonomic performance of the equipment that delivered the gasoline to the auto gas tank to be safe, odor free, spill resistant and pretty fast too.
All the SHELL stations in our area have recently undergone replacement of all gasoline pumps which reduced the average number of pumps from 6 to 4 and supposedly were offering more high tech and faster delivery to the tank. Over the last 5 weeks I tried the new station equipment 3 times, twice in one location and once in a completely different location.
On try number one, the metal lock that flips down to lock the trigger in place to allow hands-free operation when filling the tank became dislodged and because of the angle it dislodged to it pinched my finger between the base of the nozzle and the metal lock. The end of the metal lock was razor sharp and cut me and caused blood blisters as well. I reported this to the staff on duty and they told me they hated the new pumps and that they also were ruining paint jobs on motorcycles because they don't work properly at that angle. My injury was painful for a couple weeks and made it more difficult for me to use the keyboard.
On try number two, a couple weeks later, after inserting the nozzle and getting the gas flowing and locking the trigger in place, I began moving around the car washing the windows and headlamp lenses. After about one minute the nozzle suddenly popped out of the gas tank of the car and sprayed gasoline over the side of the car and also the concrete around the pump until it stopped after about 2 seconds. Quite a bit of gasoline got spread around.
A couple weeks later, on try number three, at a completely different location but with the same new style pumps, exactly the same spraying of gasoline happened except this time I happened to be close enough to get gasoline all over my pants and shoes as well. All the staff would do was give me my money back and loan me a soapy towel to wipe off my pants and shoes.
My wife and I will never use SHELL again until the new pumps are replaced with customer friendly ones. Be careful!

Buying A Home:
We are happy to report that my wife and I were able to help our daughter and her husband in making a solid offer on their first home *:-)

iDVD:
I made my first DVD using iLIFE '05! It works ok and I am sure I will get better with it over time but the image quality isn't great when the DVD is played on a PC. I'll keep practicing.

Happy Birthday You Know Who *:-)

Saddle, But No Horse In The Money

Saddle:
I am busy four days per week with committee meetings, team meetings, workshop facilitation for the state organization I work with and a couple other community volunteer efforts. Which brings me to the second point.
But No Horse In The Money:
I am currently 100% volunteer and am not receiving payment for what I am doing. It's cool because learning still happens, service still happens and networking still happens. I feel as though I am nearing an upgrade in results for getting paid for working and am altering my activities to match the opportunities. Good luck to me *:-)

Movie Recommendations:

"Prime Suspect 3" (199x) - OC-
"The Player: Platinum Edition" (1992) - OC-
"Meet The Fockers" (2005) - OC-
"As Time Goes By: Complete Series 7" (1998) - OC+

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Chai, Soy, Rye, Almonds & Fruit Spread

Chai:
We find the best chai ever found by us for our home-made hot drink is the green label liquid chai made by the Masala Chai Co. (www.masalachaico.com). Ingredients are Water, Honey, Assam Tea, Spice Blend and Citric Acid. Good job Masala Chai Co.!

Soy:
We find the best soymilk ever found by us for our home use is the green refrigerated package Silk Unsweetened Organic Soymilk (www.silkissoy.com). Ingredients are Filtered Water, Whole Organic Soybeans, Calcium Carbonate, Sea Salt, Natural Flavors, Carrageenan, Vitamin A Palmitate, Vitamin D2, Riboflavin (B2), Vitamin B12. Good job Silk & White Wave!

Rye:
We find the best rye flatbread for us is the red dry packaged FINN CRISP Delicately Thin Rye Crispbread. Ingredients are Whole Grain Rye Flour, Yeast and Salt. Good job FINN CRISP & Vaasan & Vaasan (www.vaasan.com).

Almonds:
We find the best almond butter for us is Zinke Orchards Natural Almond Butter (no web site). Ingredients are Dry Roasted Almond, grown without insecticides or miticides. Good job Zinke!

Fruit Spread:
We find the best fruit spread for us is St. Dalfour France Four Fruits (www.stdalfour.com). Ingredients are Strawberries, Red Raspberries, Black Raspberries, Cherries, Concentrated Grape Juice, Fruit Pectin and Lemon Juice. No preservatives, no artificial flavors or colors. Good job St. Dalfour!

Movie Recommendations:
"Zelary" (2003) - Yes, see it. OC+

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Discipline, Money, Time, Love

Discipline:
I have been getting "input", messages, comments and vibes that it is time for me to increase the discipline with which I maintain the healthiest possible lifestyle for me. I am naturally an early riser and feel lumpy and irritable when I get my day started much after 5 am. When I get going by 5 am good things happen and I feel that I am doing my best to participate in the life I have been given this time around. I have noticed that when I get to bed after 9 pm then I need to spend a large amount of my will power to get going by 5 am. I am choosing to follow a more natural course and have chosen a goal of getting to bed by 9 pm. I know it seems obvious but I haven't been doing it and am not feeling the way I want to about myself *:-(

Money:
I need more of it coming in right now. I had plenty coming in for the last 25 years but right now I need more. I am working on it *:-)

Time:
I like this saying:
"The only decision I need to make is what to do with the time I am given this lifetime" (I don't know who said it yet and will find out).

Love:
For me love is the river that I allow to run through everything I am, do, say, think and live for. It works for me and is making me a better person the longer I work at it *:-)

Media Recommendations:
Movies:
"Ned Kelly" (2004) - Yes, see it. OC+
"Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason" (2005) - No, don't see it. OC-
"Prime Suspect 1" (1991) - No, don't see it. OC-

Music:
"The Very Best Of ZZ Top: Rancho Texicano" (2004) - Yes, listen to it. OC+

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Yard Sale Success & Crutch Loaner

Yard Sale:
The non-profit organization which we supported through donations and service work had a successful yard sale this weekend *:-) Nice to see all the hard work pay off.

Crutches:
Our son-in-law bashed up his knee again and since the physical therapy shops were closed today since it is Sunday he was driven up to our house and we loaned him our adjustable crutches. We hope he gets better soon.

Movie Recommendations:
"Prime Suspect 4" (1995) - No, don't see it. OC-

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

New Mac Software

iWork '05 is very nice so far. I loaded the just-purchased new application today because my wife has a presentation to give on Wednesday and we just got started on the slide show today. I am impressed so far with how the Keynote 2 application works and am looking forward to trying out Page. With iWork I can also appreciate how nice the 17" Powerbook is because of the multiple windows I can keep open as I jog back and forth between apps to size the images and create the slides. Thanks Apple *:-)

Movie Recommendations:
"Tom Brown's School Days" (1971) - No, don't see it. OC-

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Webcams & the Tungsten T5 are cool IMHO

Logitech Webcam -
Installed a Logitech webcam and got it working a couple days ago and am having fun with it logging in to other computers we have here and watching me watching myself watching myself *:-) I did not get the one with motorized controls because I don't understand what that would be for and the guy at Circuit City said I wouldn't need it. The image quality is very good and I find it quite good at balancing the light sources at different times of daylight illumination and artificial illumination.

PalmOne Tungsten T5 -
I purchased the T5 just when they first came out and have been using it regularly and absolutely love it. I was using a Tungsten C and appreciated the power of the C but found it inconvenient to use. The T5 is fabulous and I am happy *:-)

Movie Recommendations:
"Millions" (2005) - Yes, see it. OC+

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

And Just As I Clicked "Publish"...

Hoo Boy.
I created a long blog entry late last night about "Comcast, Canada, Sabrina And Connectivity" which detail our getting through the latest broadband outage, or so we thought. Just as I completed the blog entry and hit publish I was informed by the system that the page on which I had created the blog entry was really just a cached page of the blogging site and that nothing had happened and that I was still without access to the internet and that all my text was gone forever. I went to bed.

Movie Recommendations:
"Awakening" (1997) - Yes, see it. OC+

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

The Shadow Knows

Hadda lotta fun the last two days *:-) I was surprised yesterday to have been elected "Person Of The Month" at the state facility where I am working and I was not expecting that at all nor had I heard any rumors. It's cool because I get pictures taken of me, stories written about me and I get teased by everybody else until the next person gets it. On the day I was chosen I was asked to come to the front of the organizational meeting we were having and that is when the award was presented and because I was dressed all in black I was nicknamed "The Shadow" and so for the rest of the month people will be referring to me in that way when they want to tease me.
Today a special workshop session just for those of us who are certified trainers was held and of course the two poor guys who had to present to us got heckled mercilessly which was a lot of fun especially since the workshop was on Powerpoint and the Epson projection and Dell laptop equipment that is necessary to make it happen. Because the state owns the equipment there are lots of rules about how to use it that make it a little funny but the funniest was the remote IR Mouse that was totally limp and took forever to get the changes to happen in the presentation. After 2 hours it had gotten beyond funny and we were making wise cracks every time the presenters would explain what they were going to show us and then the little arrow from the mouse would very slowly wander around the screen landing and executing commands that were not what the presenters wanted. Hilarious and hopeless *:-)

Movie Recommendations:
"Sideways" (2004 widescreen DVD) - Yes, see it. OC+
"Prime Suspect 5" - No, don't see it. OC-

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Cat Fan Of Fiber Arts

Our cat is a big fan of the fiber arts. She has found a very cool new spot to snooze after rejecting the two nice towels we put on the back of the sofa when she decided to start sleeping on top of the back rest cushions. My wife is a weaver, spinner, dyer, knitter, felter, dress maker and teacher of sewing so our home is full of wonderfully colorful dyed wool in both finished and unfinished forms. Our cat found a spot in which she is very nearly invisible to us and yet she can still easily observe everything we do. Under the Great Wheel that is just over the stair railing there is a small pile of wool which is made up of one finished knit hat and some not yet spun dyed wool. It is just her size and she can either stretch out full length on it or curl up as her mood dictates. She is very content with her new place and when I finally noticed her and approached her to give her head a stroke she lazily extended her neck slightly so I could reach her and then closed her eyes again and curled back up and is quite oblivious to all the things we think are so important going on in our home. Cool Cat.

Movie Recommendations:
"Festival Express" (2004) - Yes, see it. OC+

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Yellowjacket Defense Perimeter

The last two days have been mighty fine weather and that motivated me to remove the tarps covering the summer deck furniture and accessories. The earliest of the yellowjackets that will eventually swarm over the fruit that drops from our several fruit trees are already out and flying fast and hard around the yard. My wife tells me that this is the time that the queens of the yellowjacket tribe are out and about and that if we can trap the queens then the population of yellowjackets will be greatly reduced. We purchased the hanging traps that have a compound in them that is supposed to be irresistable to the yellowjackets and today we got the metal hanging posts to place some of the traps in a perimeter around the deck so the population that actually reaches us and our guests will be reduced. Our arborist tolds us that when the full yellowjacket season is on (which will be later in the summer) he has seen 2 or 3 of the yellowjackets wait just outside the entrance to a honey bee hive and when one of the pollen collectors arrives to enter the hive two of the yellowjackets hold it and the third one tears its head off. We don't have honey bee hives and I have witnessed the ferocity of the yellowjackets just in competing for a piece of fruit that they want. Pretty vicious characters and we hope to keep the population under better control this year.

Movie Recommendations:
"I'll Sleep When I'm Dead" (2004) - No, don't see it. OC-
"Alfie" (2004) - No, don't see it. OC-

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

I Didn't Know My Brother Died

My sister says she tried to leave me a voice mail on my mobile phone when he died last Saturday and I never got the message. I check my messages every day so either the number was wrong or something else happened. My brother M. had been sick with cancer for a very long time and his health degenerated fairly quickly in the last few weeks and I was not surprised that he died. I had been leaving messages with his son and I now understand why I did not get a response because the family was so busy with all the arrangements and "things to do" related to my brother's death. I loved my brother and he loved me and I am told that he said goodbye to me when he left his body. He maintained a strong belief in his spiritual practices throughout his life and so does his family and so at the end there was peace available for which I am grateful. I have begun living my grief for his departure and will pay attention to the meaning of his departure. May his spirit make its journey in peace and may he rest in peace. He was a good man and is remembered lovingly by everyone that I know that knew him.

Movie Recommendations:
"Into The Woods" (1990) - No, don't see it. OC-
"All That Jazz" (1979) - No, don't see it. OC-

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Smoothies

I will live forever or at least another day or two. My wife makes protein smoothies that upon consumption have the immediate effect of making my body feel immortal. I love them and they make me feel good and they are actually good for me and I am grateful for them. Also, they remind me of the smoothies that Tommy Chong makes in the movies, and with Cheech, which reminds me of "Up In Smoke". The last time I saw "Up In Smoke" I was walking along a street in Los Angeles doing nothing special and not going anywhere in a hurry and was suddenly grabbed by the image in a department store window that was playing "Up In Smoke" on several of their demo TVs and I had the same reaction I always have to that movie which is that I laugh uncontrollably, loudly, and without stopping, and with tears flowing in my eyes until someone helps me move out of sight of the movie which in this case took a while because the people I was in Los Angeles with were behind me quite a way having stopped at a different store to get something and they finally arrived and helped me move on to the hotel.

Movie Recommendations:
"All About Eve" (1950) (DVD) - Yes, see it. OC+

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Group Learning

I belong to a group... an internet group... a Yahoo internet group that is a tool for professional communication for two departments of a state funded networking organization and one department is Marketing and one is Training. I became a better navigator of the group electronic resources today through some demos and practical applications. I was impressed at how sophisticated the free public groups have become and how much can be accomplished without spending big $$ on application software for my individual computer. I was humbled by how much I do not know because back in '82 I was a Unix guy and was way way way ahead of most other people and it is humbling to re-enter the net as a semi-novice and it is also exciting *:-)

Movie Recommendations:
"Vera Drake" (2005) - Yes, see it. OC+
"Diva" (1981) - Yes, see it. OC+

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Solenoid-Code PO770 and Two Trips To Toyota

Ok, I am more relaxed now because our blue pickup is back in the driveway and the check engine icon is no longer lit. Mr. T. says that when the service department called the factory they said that before the (under warranty) solenoid needs to be changed out for sure that the local service guys need to rack the pickup and totally flush the tranny and replace all the fluid to find out if that will keep the light out. If the light comes on again, and if the computer spits out exactly the same code then we get a new solenoid at no cost to us. During the phone call from the service department to me about this approach I began to hallucinate about me driving down the freeway at 70mph and having the transmission solenoid freeze which would send me into a total instant stop and that would result in an end-over-end flip of the pickup which would cause me to flip over 7 or 8 semi-trucks and end up in the ocean. Wow, when I communicated my fearful fantasy to the service guy he chuckled and promised me that I am no danger of that happening and if the light comes on again all I have to do is drive back to the dealership and leave the truck for a day and I get the new solenoid. Well, ok then *:-)

Movie Recommendations:
"Around The Fire" (2003) - Yes, see it. OC+
"Closer" (2004) - No, don't see it. OC-

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

My First Time

Today was hammer and tong day at my distant dentist and I was in the chair for 1 hour and 45 minutes of sweat inducing effort on the part of the dental surgeon as he completed the root canal that I needed. Multiple x-rays and his expert opinion say that the operation was a success. I am not in terrible pain and I definitely know that someone was walking around in my mouth today.
On the long drive back home from the dentist (I took today off) as I got within about 10 miles of our home something happened to me that has never happened before. I drive a 2002 pickup which my wife and I like very much and which is reliable however today, for the first time in my life, 10 miles from home, driving at speed, I was presented with the dreaded lighted orange "check engine" icon in the form of an outline of an auto engine. I checked all the other indicators on the dash and could not see anything signalling a problem and then I called the service department of the dealership where just 1500 miles ago the truck had completed the 30,000 mile check. The service guy was nice and said that the check engine icon really just means that nobody has any idea what could be wrong and it could be one or many of several hundred things and the only way to find out is for me to get the truck to the service department for a full diagnostic which I will do tomorrow. I wonder what it is?

Media Recommendation:
"My Sweet Lord" by George Harrison - Yes, listen to it. OC+

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

"Voluptuous? Who, me? Well, maybe Statuesque."

Several recent comments by others have helped get someone very close to my heart to begin to accept the description "Voluptuous" as being applicable to her. I don't know why she doesn't like it and most of us feel it is very accurate and also a compliment. "Statuesque" did not offend her quite so much so maybe I can say that without retort.
Nice potluck gathering today at our son's house with nice relaxed people and a couple cats not so relaxed. We brought kichari, waxed paper and flowers as our contribution to the potluck. We did not eat the waxed paper or flowers and the kichari was very good.

Movie Recommendations:
"The Sound Of Music: Special Edition" (1965) - Yes, see it. OC+

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Classic Rock, Cathedral Bundt & Classic Video

My son works at Yahoo and he has been 'suggesting' that I switch from Google search to Yahoo search to show family loyalty. Its a good thing none of my kids works at Google because then I would have to search every other one every other time *:-( Anyway, I tried Yahoo search for the first time a couple weeks ago and it works pretty good, and I did not know that Yahoo had the application that allows searching of video clips as well so that is new and I'll check it out to find material to support the workshops that I facilitate. Cool! I don't know how to find out if Yahoo is better than Google so I'll ask him today at our Easter get together if there is a rating service or a performance scorecard that I can check. A side benefit of spending time on Yahoo is that a friend of mine in Australia is on Yahoo Messenger which I had never used so I figured since I am spending time on Yahoo I might as well try that too so he accepted my request for seeing when he is online and now we can do internet telephony. The best part though is that along with Messenger I found the Launchcast application and am now, yes right now, high volume rocking out with the classic rock selections from Yahoo *:-) I love ZZ Top and hadn't had the opportunity to listen to them for a while. Cool!
My wife was suddenly overwhelmed with the desire to make a classic Cathedral bundt cake for me for Easter and that turned out great, thanks sweetie! At about 4 pm yesterday I was suddenly overwhelmed with the desire to get some corduroy fabric for my wife to make herself some new dresses because she looks really cute and sexy in corduroy and she never buys stuff for herself and because she is a master dressmaker and even teaches it I wanted to get her some new fabric so she can create some new stuff. She went along with it and we raced to the fabric store just before closing because they aren't open today on Easter Sunday and we found four good colors for her and got plenty of fabric and while we were in there this young lady and her mom came in and were all confused about how to make this dress that the young lady had designed and so my wife hooked up with them and helped them and then the young lady signed up for my wife's next class session to actually make it. Cool!
I was crying about an hour ago because I finally watched the DVD video "Up From Zero" put out by the U.S. Dept. Of Labor about the twin towers disaster of 2001. Follow the link above to get a free copy.

Movie Recommendations:
"Up From Zero" (2003) - Yes, see it. OC+

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Happy Birthday & Cool Dinner Party

Happy Birthday today to our daughter, H.
Also, a friend put together a very cool dinner party last night to which lots of interesting people were invited. Lots of stuff having to do with "Mom" as defined by each of us individually. The stories were intimate, heartfelt, revealing and historically educational and significant. I discovered that one of the guests went to the same high school that I did and this is the first time in my many years out of high school that I have met anyone who even knew of the school and that was great fun being the only two people at the party who could share stories about the little "heres and theres" of the town and school. Thanks to the hostess for a successful, unique and fulfilling evening.

Movie Recommendations:
"Prime Suspect 2: Discs 1 & 2 (1992) - No, don't see it. OC-

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Too Much Chocolate And Not Enough Protein

I made a mistake today and did not eat in the way my body needs me to. I don't feel very well at the moment *:-( Which of course is exactly how it is when I make a mistake with food. Because of doing taxes I also spent too much time sitting still and working on the computer. I got lots of computer work done and was successful and paid the price. When the sun broke through the clouds I had a great chance to get out and take a walk and didn't do it. I tossed the cat out when the weather got nice and didn't do the same to myself! I'll do better next time *:-).

Movie Recommendations:
"The Lost Prince" (2003) - Yes, see it. OC+

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

The Acceptance Of Spring

It is unstoppable; heroic in size and scope and riveting to watch. Spring infuses every thought, movement and breath with inevitable destiny and with innumerable forms and outcomes. God, it is exciting! Far too easy for me to lose all else in the rushing flow of Spring. I have a body, fortunately, and so I become tired as the light fades and so do not exhaust myself beyond recovery. The big orange trucks, graders and scoops took control of our mountain highway today as they removed the boulders, sand and trees from both lanes and lines of us both north and south waited our turn when at the simple rotation of a small round sign we were permitted to pursue our dreams once again.

Movie Recommendations:
"I {heart} Huckabees" (2004) - No, don't see it. OC-

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Finding DentistLand

Blinding rain, howling wind, flooded roads, wipers madly thumping, tires loudly splashing, headlights gamely shining and on I went to the dentist far far away. I am not sure why my wife and I have chosen our dental resources at such a great distance from where we live and I believe it must have something to do with the fact that they are the best in northern California. This dentist, one of three that we have, each for different purposes, is a (wait for it) r o o t c a n a l s p e c i a l i s t *:-( Today was the preliminary exam and xray session and next Monday is the tong and hammer session. I shall bravely sally forth and take what comes in the hope that when I draw my last breath it shall be across attractive and healthy teeth *:-)
The city in which the r.c.s. has his office is undergoing major reconstruction and I became lost (again) both going into the city and out of it. The new light support poles are in place and the city has not had the time to hang the street names on them yet *:-( Also, many of the streets are blocked off from traffic and all normal and logical patterns are now chaotic causing me to visit places I would not ordinarily go into in order to ask directions. The School District's Administrator's Office was especially helpful and was not accustomed to helping lost out of towners so I appeared to offer some unexpected entertainment to the staff.

Movie Recommendations:
"Finding Neverland" (new) - Yes, see it. OC+

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Income Tax: A Vision Of The Recent Past

2004 is spread before me in all its detail. I know how many times I purchased books of stamps at the Post (7); I know how many times I purchased office supplies from Office Max (also 7); I know how many times I purchased wine as business gifts from Cost Plus World Market (5); I know how much the champagne and wine cost for my daughter's wedding (both were very good); I know how much we spent with Apple Computer for new Powerbooks (they love us); I know how much we spent with Dell for a new Latitude; I know how much the Department of Motor Vehicles demanded; I know how much the property assessor demanded; I know how much we spent on web hosting and related expenses to keep our internet access at the level we want; etc. Soon I will know how much the State and Federal governments demand after our tax preparer completes her work. I am resolved to manage our expenses more closely during 2005 *:-)

Movie Recommendations:
"Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid" (1982) - No, don't see it. OC-

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Starbucks Exists And No T-Mobile

My wife and I visited the newest Starbucks in the neighboring town today. Nice place, quite clean, no tattoos visible on the staff, not very busy either. They had the chocolate and tea I was after and also had a maple-iced baked scone that my wife enjoyed. I showed the staff my tattoo and then they loosened up a bit and showed me theirs which was a lot of fun and didn't matter because no one else was in the place *:-) I need wireless access when I visit Starbucks during the week and was surprised to hear that it takes about 1.5 years for each new Starbucks to get authorization and installation for the T-mobile wireless service. However, I was told that a neighboring tax service staff member had come over and offered to allow Starbucks patrons to login through the tax service open wireless connection if they wanted to, which the Starbucks management agreed to. I haven't tried it and it sounds functional and quite a nice gesture from one business to another. Maybe the tax service staff get free coffee or something.
We also went on to the largest town in our area and lightly shopped at the newest Trader Joe's which is a place I usually don't go in to. However, since my wife usually doesn't go into Starbucks and had done so happily and with pleasure, then I went ahead into Trader Joe's and had a good time shopping with her and also saw a friend or two. One of my wife's good friends and fellow artists painted a large wall mural on the Trader Joe's highest wall and got it done just prior to the grand opening a few months ago so we have a reason to drop in once in awhile. As a matter of fact my wife's friend had issued a call for help late one night so that he could be sure to get the mural done and both my wife and I used our art skills to help him get it finished before the deadline.

Movie Recommendations:

"Island At War: Discs 1, 2 & 3" (2004) - Yes, see it. OC+

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Carly II

Based on what I learned from hanging out with friends who are still locked into a local corporation that I am familiar with there seems to be more than one Carly F. type individual on the loose. Perhaps there was a breeding pool established by the government at about the time Carly F. was conceived and some of the breeders snuck out and fertilized more than their share of corporate blossoms.
Real humans sharing real stuff is wonderfully healing and I'll take as much of that as I can, keeping in mind that the experience is different for everyone and might be too much for people I am with or who are present as partners.

Media Recommendations:

"Page-A- Day Zen Calendar" (2005) - Yes, read it. OC+

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Our Kids Are Right

"The Incredibles" is a very good movie. We got it on DVD and watched it tonight and just loved it. I had a lot of assumptions about what it would be and it was much better than I anticipated. My wife and I did not see it in the theatre (which is still ok with us) and it was just fine on DVD with our wide cinema screen monitor.

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all! I wore lots of green and the best display I saw was at the bank where the tellers were all in green shamrock boingy antenna hats and the counters were all done up for the day.

Several hours at our dentist today for both my wife and I. I came out a little better than she did and she will be returning for a little more work in about 2 months.

I am sorting through all the schwag I picked up at the business fair yesterday and there is some cool stuff and some that I will toss after getting the contact info into my PDA. I am glad I was there.

Movie Recommendations:

"The Incredibles" (2005) - Yes, see it. OC+

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Business Fair: Wine, Ads, Government, Dogs & Technology

Today's Business Fair for local businesses was pretty cool. Half the exhibitors were a little casual for my preference and there were many who were very professional as well. All however were truly at the fair for business purposes and I had a good time visiting the other booths and working my shift at ours. I saw several colleagues I knew, some with whom I have worked before and some who are vendors to me and so it made a good event. I haven't talked so much in quite a while and although I would have liked to, I passed up the free root beer floats and passed up the wine tastings as well. When my wife and I can do the tastings together, probably at the wineries, then I can have fun. The Yellow Pages had the biggest booth which I did not expect. They also had the fewest visitors *:-)

Movie Recommendations:

"Stripes" (1981) - No, don't see it. OC-

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Spring Equinox 2005

All hands on deck!
Change is in the air!
The earth is turning!
Be ready or be peanut butter!

The Vernal (Spring) Equinox shall occur on Sunday, March 20th, 2005, at 0434 PST.
This will also be Palm Sunday. Cool!
Enjoy, and click the link if you wish more detail.

Book Recommendations:

"Still Here" (Ram Dass) (2000) - Yes, read it. OC+

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High healing and/or educational potential for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low healing and/or educational potential for people with OCD tendencies.

Spring, Patience & My Practice of Letting Go

Under and throughout the budding exuberance of Spring time, easily seen now because the ant, bird, bee, moth and butterfly members of my community show up for daily duty helping the no-legged partners shout the message of flowering, leafing, shooting, growing and feeding, there remains a powerful river of patience, stillness and peace. I have not before felt this and yet I know it has always been. I am happy to have noticed and will celebrate the occaision.

Book Recommendations:

"Anatomy Of The Spirit" (Caroline Myss) (1996) - Yes, read it. OC+
"The Way Of The Peaceful Warrior" (Dan Millman) (2000) - Yes, read it. OC+

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High healing and/or educational potential for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low healing and/or educational potential for people with OCD tendencies.

QuickBooks Pro

Our Tax Preparer (the official name) was burdened with several phone calls from me today as I went through the process of setting up QuickBooks Pro so that our returns for 2005 will be much better. I found that I am to late to use QuickBooks 2005 edition to do our return for 2004. I believe a flat tax is a better idea and I understand it is too difficult to administer which is too bad. I chose mostly the default selections during the setup, but only after conferring with Tax Preparer via phone conference. Some of the settings I decided to customize and not very many of them. So far I am not going to use the QuickBooks Checking program. I'll think about that and decide later.

Book Recommendations:

"Transitions" (1997 by William Bridges) - Yes, read it. OC+

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Tax Time A'comin'

I spent all Sunday (today) preparing the 2004 documentation for the beginning of our tax season. I expect another three 8 hour sessions will be required plus the meeting with our tax preparer. We did purchase Quick Books last week, and for the 2005 tax season I will be better prepared so that all we need to hand over is a CD with everything on it. My wife is far better prepared with the documentation for her business and sets a good example for me.
The sounds of spring are all around us up here with the distant cyclical hum of gasoline powered lawn mowers in the distance, the hacking sound of someone fairly close by cutting down last years growth of Scotch Broom (some say the proper name is French Broom) and our own yard full of the prunings from our fruit trees which have yet to be chipped into mulch. Our cat chooses the mown part of the yard to walk through whenever possible and gets only her paws wet when doing so while when she travels through the high grass she gets wet tummy to eartips.

Movie Recommendations:

"Edward & Mrs. Simpson" (all volumns) (1978) - Yes, see it. OC+

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Mexican Food: YES

Our favorite large Mexican Food restaurant (a real sit-down restaurant in an historic building) finally re-opened after a minor remodel and refresh. Everything we tried is just as good as it always was, and since the ownership has not changed, we felt very comfortable with the service and environment. We were blessed with the company of our youngest son J. who is currently an intern at the NUMMI plant nearby and also his very very good female friend K. who we have not seen in quite a while. We had a good time and because I was in an outgoing and sociable mood I paid the wandering Mariachi band to come to our table and play a couple tunes which we liked (the Mariachi's are the same group as before also, and are good).

Movie Recommendations:

"A Murder Of Quality" (1991) - No, don't see it. OC-

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High healing and/or educational potential for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low healing and/or educational potential for people with OCD tendencies.

Grass, Holes & A Wagon

The recent dry weather and the recent extended light of day has given me a rare chance to mow a portion of our mountain foothill yard closest to the house. How easy it is for me to forget all the gopher holes, dog-dug holes and left over children's hidey-holes that lie beneath the seeming smooth grassy surface. I am up and down at unplanned moments and the mower isn't always well syncronized with my movements causing groans and strains on the electric motor when too much grass is bitten off to chew. At the moment my wife's four wheeled laundry wagon sits precisely aligned with the flat smooth ground path I created last year for her to use in going to and fro the clothesline. I put the wagon there as a pathway guide so that my wife would not injure her ankle again when she cannot resist hanging the clothes out in the fresh sun and air.

Movie Recommendations:

"Oliver's Travels: Discs 1 & 2" (1997) - Yes, see it. OC+

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

Short Sleeves

Lovely weather here on the California Coast *:-) Saves me building a fire in the wood stove each night too, which leaves more time to enjoy the evening meal and a DVD when possible. The light is beginning to stay with us longer too and that relaxes me a bit. I got a surprise call from Germany via one of the free internet telephony services and it was a fellow who had just gotten broadband for the first time and he made his first ever internet phone call to me and had picked my user name completely at random. He was very nice and I talked with him at length although I rarely respond to those calls unless the person is on my contact list. He and his family have never been to the USA and his questions were refreshingly naive and honest. It was quite a nice chat actually and I am glad I loosened my rules.

Movie Recommendations:

"Inspector Alleyn Mysteries: Disc 4" (1990) - Yes, see it. OC+
"What About Bob?" (1991) - Yes, see it. OC+

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

It's Party Time!

Last evening found us on our way to friends for a double 60th birthday party. Our spirits were high and prior to actually arriving at the party we decided to drive past all the movie houses in town thinking perhaps there would be a great movie or two that we could go to at the late showing. That didn't turn out to be the case, but the drive-by did give me a chance to offend the parents of our daughter in law *:-( They are too nice to say anything about being offended, and here is the story so you can decide if I am to be banished to the boorish outlands:
At the last theatre we were checking out, my wife got out of the car to speak to the ticket taker to find out details and I waited in the loading zone with flashers blinking. As my wife was turning away from the ticket booth I saw J & L (parents of our daughter in law) walking toward the ticket booth and noticed that my wife had turned away too soon to see them. Because I was exuberant about going to the party, and because we had not seen J & L in quite awhile and because they live out of town and we hardly ever see them in the area where we live, my excitement caused me to honk the horn loudly, long and repeatedly until J (the father) finally turned my way. I waved to him and got out of the car quickly and jogged over to him and greeted him enthusiastically which he returned as best he could. Meantime my wife had figured out what was going on and she in turn greeted both J & L and then I greeted L.
Well, as we separated and my wife and I got back in our car and as J & L re-formed their own group, I noticed that they were escorting a couple whom we did not know and who looked rather official and sophisticated (uh-oh). So I am hoping that the "request for forgiveness" card that I will be sending to J & L will be accepted since I acted loudly and inappropriately in a public place in front of people that we did not know.
The party was a smash success and we had a ball and met lots of very cool people *:-)

Some Parts Of Town Seem Healthier Than Others

My wife and I were in several different parts of the largest town near us today. We each were affected quite differently in some parts and affected the same way in others. I seemed less immediately physically made ill in some of the over-developed, limited natural environment parts and my wife immediately felt ill. In my experience my reaction time is about two days slower than hers. She helps me by being a bit like a canary in a mine shaft by giving early warning signs that we aren't where we should be. Both of us were glad to get back in the trees where we live after visiting the town.

Movie Recommendations:

"Anna Karenina" (2000) - No, don't see it. OC-
"Inspector Alleyn Mysteries-Discs 1&2" (1990) - No, don't see it. OC-

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educatonal message for people with OCD tendencies.

Position Acquisition

Position Acquisition sounds a lot fancier than "job search" and both are what I am learning to become expert at. Transitioning from 25 years at corporate headquarters as an international marketing guy is quite a bit of fun once I adjusted the emotional entanglements that had built up over the years and re-aligned them into part of my network for success. Many of my professional colleagues were in town recently and invited my wife and I to a very nice dinner and we all had a great time. If it weren't for the elapsed time in commercial aircraft coach seating (which is a lot smaller than when I started flying internationally 25 years ago) I would love to offer my value to a broader geographic client base. I recommend that some of the government subsidies now offered for our agricultural sector be redirected to enhance the business class section of commercial aircraft so that our business persons could arrive more refreshed and ready to go, and also be able to get some work done on the plane. The criteria would be that only business people representing a company paying taxes in the USA could get the preferred seating discounts and would be given first preference for the seating. The times that I used either my frequent flyer miles or my own money (when I wasn't feeling well) to upgrade myself to business class showed me the benefits to the company for traveling in the appropriate way. My $0.02.

Movie Recommendations:

"Deadwood-The Complete First Season" - No, don't see it. OC-

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.

The McIntosh is dead and down

One of our oldest trees (planted long before we purchased our home) and probably at least 50 years old was felled yesterday by our arborist because it was diseased in the trunk core. Someone long ago had improperly trimmed it, and caused a great deal of water to be directed into the trunk due to pooling and that caused the wood to rot and become diseased. The squirrels are in total shock because the McIntosh apple tree was their primary ingress and egress from our yard because it interfaced directly to the power lines that run parallel to our property line and offered the best escape route from the paint balls as well. I'm smiling about that *:-) and I should have a better shot at them all year long *:-)

Movie Recommendations:

"Bertie & Elizabeth" (1997) - Yes, see it. OC+

Lee's OC Index:
OC+ = High potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.
OC- = Low potential healing and/or educational message for people with OCD tendencies.