How Can It Have Been 5 Years?

August 6, 2011

Jim Reeves Personal , , Leave a comment

Thursday was 5 years since my father died.  It struck me as I was driving that the anniversary passed two days ago, without my realizing it.  It sure doesn’t seem like it’s been 5 years already.

On Father’s Day I wrote about the time he tried to teach me to swim, which went badly.  Today, I think I’ll mention something that went reasonably well, and had as much a long term effect as the swimming pool incident, but with positive results.

For my 12th birthday, my parents bought me a set of books.  They included Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Black Beauty, Tales from the Arabian Nights, and a couple of others.  I still have several of them, sitting on a bookshelf in my bedroom.  A couple have managed to disappear in the intervening years, but five have managed to survive.  I don’t recall if those books sparked my haunting of the school and public libraries for the next decade, or if the gift of the books were a result of my enjoyment of reading.  Either way, they began a life long love of reading.  Now it’s possible to read books on a pad, or on the computer.  I’m not sure I like reading that way, though.  I read a couple of short novella length books on my iPhone, and it’s not really a good way to enjoy a book.  The iPad might be different, as it’s a bigger screen, and the Kindle and similar devices might be good, too.  Guess I’ll have to try one out, someday.

Of course, that creates a situation a bit like the scene in Men in Black, where K says “looks like I’ll have to buy the White Album again”.  It’s a bit odd paying for a book you already own, just to have it handy on an electronic device.  Perhaps it’s worth it.

At any rate, back to the 12 year old and his birthday present.  Dad brought the box in, and even though he might not have been the one to have selected the present, or suggested the titles, he did carry it in and give it to me.  That’s one of the good memories that have held on about him.

Five years.  That’s still a bit odd to consider.  Time marches on.

Those Sexy Nerds

August 3, 2011

Jim Reeves Personal , , 4 Comments

Not safe for most work places, nor for those who are prone to the vapors.  For the rest of us, this is pretty good stuff!

You’ll NOT put a towel down on MY floor, by Gawd!

July 29, 2011

Jim Reeves 9-1-1, commentary, Humor , , Leave a comment

At least she didn’t call 9-1-1….

But she did call the Sheriff’s Office because her roommate told her she couldn’t put a towel on the floor while she took a shower.  They actually got into a heated argument about it, to the point where shower girl called the cops!  The other half fled before the Deputy arrived, so not much got resolved.  We don’t even know if towel girl got to take her shower,  bare floor or not.

 

Sunday afternoon with a friend

July 25, 2011

Jim Reeves geek, Personal , , , , 1 Comment

Jim and Jazmin chillin’ on the couch at Ted’s condo.  Ava is just out of frame, sawing logs.  A lazy Sunday afternoon in Fresno.

OK, Ava after the jump.

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Atlantis lands, Shuttles retired, NASA’s next mission is… what?

July 21, 2011

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Space Shuttle Atlantis lands at the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida, in the pre-dawn hours of July 21, 2011.  42 years and one day after Apollo 11’s Eagle landed on the Moon’s Sea of Tranquility, the last shuttle to fly touches down on KSC’s runway 15.

It’s appropriate that this image shows the shuttle touching down in the dark, because the United States now has no manned access to space.

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Ted’s Birthday Party

July 18, 2011

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Ted’s 36th birthday bash at the Fresno Express was held Sunday night, with a good time had by all.

 

You think you had a bad day?

July 15, 2011

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It’s not often we feel sorry for the “bad guy”, but this time it’s a near thing.

Here’s tonight’s story of a poor guy who just can’t catch a break….

He was released from prison early in the day.  He gets back to Tulare County, and just about the first thing that happens is he gets stopped by a deputy, who proceeds to do what we call an “FI”, a field interview (or interrogation).  After that, the two “buddies” with him apparently blame him for being harassed by the cops, so after the deputies have gone they decide to start beating the crap out of him.  Someone sees that, and calls 9-1-1, and the deputies head back to intervene.  Of course, once they get back on scene, the “buddies” have flown the coop, and our poor “bad guy” is sporting some bruises and scratches.  “Bad guy” refuses medical help, and is not interested in prosecuting his “buddies”.  Since he won’t cooperate, and his injuries are not severe, the deputies leave.  Some time later, but not much, “bad guy”, who is now on foot, gets hit by a car!  Of course, it’s hit and run, and the driver gets away.  9-1-1 gets called again, and deputies, CHP, and an ambulance are dispatched.

While our just-released ex-con is laying on the road, waiting for the ambulance and the cops to arrive, someone decides to kick the crap out of him!  Of course, THEY take off before the good guys arrive, and we don’t have any arrests (so far) for either the hit and run, or the assault.  To add insult to his now many injuries, his common-law wife takes all his money, his last 3 bucks, out of his pocket, and leaves him laying in the road!  By this time a crowd had gathered, and when the deputies, ambulance, EMTs, and CHP arrive, they tell them of the last few minutes of our poor “bad guy’s” day.

So let’s recap: Gets out of prison. Gets stopped by the cops.  Gets beat up by “friends”.  Gets hit by a car.  Gets kicked senseless (or more senseless than the hit and run caused) by one or more individuals while he’s laying in the road.  His “girlfriend” rummages through his pockets, and takes his last $3!  Once help arrives, he ends up being helicoptered to Fresno for emergency medical treatment.

In what might be the only good news in this story, the “girlfriend/common law wife” was arrested for being under the influence, and for robbery.  She sits in jail as he lays in the hospital.

It’s almost enough to make you feel sorry for him.  Almost.

Compared to this, I don’t think I’ve ever had a bad day.

My Star Trek Adventure Continues

July 9, 2011

Jim Reeves geek, Personal , , 2 Comments

My iPhone 4 gets a new look.

Way overpriced for what it is, but still cool in a Trekkie geek way.

“Enterprise, this is Kirk” or, Beam me up, Scotty!

July 9, 2011

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A brand new toy from 1966.

End of an era: Last Shuttle launch

July 8, 2011

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An era ends.  The last Space Shuttle lifted four astronauts and tons of supplies into the Florida sky today, enroute to the International Space Station.  The first Shuttle launch, of Columbia, occurred on April 12, 1981.  That launch was a mere 20 years to the day after the first manned space flight, by Yuri Gagarin of the Soviet Union.  In those 20 years, we went from the first dangerous launches on modified ICBM rockets, to the Saturn 5 that took us to the Moon six times, to the “space truck” that is the Shuttle.  The last Shuttle mission, flown by Shuttle Atlantis, is scheduled to land on July 20, the 42nd anniversary of Apollo 11’s landing at the Sea of Tranquility on the Moon.

Once Atlantis lands, the United States has NO way of launching astronauts into space.  We hope to have private industry doing so “soon”, but that “soon” could be a decade away.  In the meantime, we buy rides on the Russian Soyuz.  “TAXI!”

 

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