Etta James, probably best known for her song At Last, just passed away. It’s sad to hear for me because Etta and At Last were what Gee and I picked for our wedding 12 years ago. We didn’t even have to discuss it…it was the first choice for both of us. Even today, over a [...]
Happy New Year’s Eve to all my friends and family. This is the last day of the year and I, for one, am very happy to see 2011 end. I hope the New Year brings all of you success, health and happiness. I hope that 2012 will be a better year for many of us. [...]
Holidays, present a difficult situation for many recovering alcoholics, since the parties of the season often involve alcoholic beverages, and one may not want it known that they are a recovering alcoholic. The Crying out Now blog provides a pretty good list of tips for those trying to maintain their sobriety during this time of [...]
Wishing all my family and friends a very Happy Thanksgiving. May this holiday find all of you happy, healthy and safe. I ask that my beloved weather goddess watch over all of you during your travels this week. May you all have safe journeys to warm hearths and berths this week. Even though this has [...]
I’m lying on the foredeck of my friend’s sailboat, thinking about and missing Ellie. When she was younger, she used to love sleeping on the foredeck of S/V Pretty Gee. She also used to curl up under the dodger, above the S/V Pretty Gee’s companionway. Right now, she appears to be missing in action and [...]
I have been working on a book about what Gee and I went through in the short 23 months and one day we were together. However, I haven’t really been able to write the book and couldn’t understand why until this week. This week I finally realized what had been keeping me from really working on the book. The problem was I did not know the how the book would end. This week, I think I finally figured it out—but the ending has yet to be written.
The other day I was in West Marine, picking up some supplies for s/v Pretty Gee. There was a bucket of assorted candies at the register, so I dug through it to find the miniature Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. The cashier commented that those seemed to the be most popular candy they had in the [...]
I just wanted to wish all my readers, my friends and my family a very Happy New Year. I hope that 2010 brings good fortune, fair winds and following seas to all my friends, both personally and professionally. I particularly want to wish Jen and Adam Thomson a happy new year, since it is their [...]
To honor all those who served our country, I’d like to repost this. It was posted on a sailing forum I participate in. ******************************************* It was the Veteran who inspired these stories: JFK’S Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, was in France in the early 60′s when DeGaulle decided to pull out of NATO. DeGaulle said [...]
Happy Anniversary Gee… I miss you still. Today is Election Day 2008, and would have been our eighth anniversary. Almost eight years ago, Gee and I walked to the local elementary school and cast our votes in the 2000 election. This morning, I did much the same thing, but at a different elementary school. It [...]
Today, I’m writing about Courtney, the young daughter of an online friend of mine. She passed away earlier this week, due to complications from her cancer. She was one of the youngest women to be diagnosed with breast cancer , as she was only twenty or so when she was diagnosed. Today is her memorial [...]
Heather Neill announced her plans to circumnavigate the globe in s/v Flight of Years, a Pacific Seacraft Flicka last year. This was a rather unusual announcement, given that Heather was not a sailor, and had relatively little experience sailing at the time of her announcement. You can read about her and her preparations at her [...]
This season seems to be an unusually good one for New England sports fans. Last night, the Boston Red Sox just swept the Colorado Rockies to take the 2007 World Series. It does appear that the curse of the Bambino has finally been broken, as this is their second World Series victory in just four [...]
Today is always a day of mixed memories for me. Twenty years ago today, my identical twin brother, David, was killed by a drunken driver just outside of Nashville, Tennesee. The drunk driver only got 90 days suspended due to the incompetence of the police department that handled the accident investigation. It took the police [...]
I’d like to wish two very special people a Happy Father’s Day today. They are my father and my father-in-law, Gee’s father. These are two of the most important people in my life, and I don’t believe that I tell them this enough. My father-in-law honored my in a way that I had never expected. [...]
Why give in to the criminals? Why give in to the terrorists? A while back, I wrote about one of the more sane responses to terrorism—you can read that post here. Why should we help the criminals and the terrorists achieve their goals? I think the media in this country has to re-think its approach [...]
“If I knew that today would be the last time I’d see you, I would hug you tight and pray the Lord be the keeper of your soul. If I knew that this would be the last time you pass through this door, I’d embrace you, kiss you, and call you back for one more. [...]
While I’m no longer a big fan of this time of year, I would like to wish my readers, friends, and family a Happy Easter or Passover, as appropriate. One of my favorite photos of this season is this one:
Today is my nephew Nicholas’s sixth birthday. He is very excited to be six. My sister had a massive party with tons of his friends. I avoided the party… that many five and six-year-olds are way too noisy for me. It is also the forty-something birthday of one of my best friends, Brian. He’s over [...]
I got up this morning at about 5:00 a.m. I had an 8:10 flight to catch back up to Beantown. After getting dressed and packed, I walked down to the hotel lobby. I asked the front desk to call a cab for me, to take me to the Newport News airport. A few minutes later, [...]
This weekend, I headed down to Newport News, Virginia. Getting to Newport News was a challenge, but not all that bad, except the nine-and-a-half hour day spent in Logan International Airport. Flying down to Virginia, while tropical storm Ernesto is sitting over the state is not really my idea of fun, but I had made [...]
Reuters is one of the largest media companies in the world. Their well known for their news coverage in written, photographic and television media. They are also well known for their business and financial news coverage. However, recently, their credibility has come under fire—understandably so. A recent photo, that was supposedly taken by a Reuters [...]
There’s a post on a blog I read called Fear of Death. The post is about the fear of death, and of dying that was caused by her friend’s diagnosis with a particularly nasty form of non-Hodgkins lymphoma. The author writes: “And it was only then, maybe ten minutes before they arrived, that I finally [...]
Well, I did go out sailing on Wednesday. While the day was pretty good overall, my cell phone was killed in action. It fell out of my shirt pocket, and into the water along side the Pretty Gee, when I was tieing off one of the docklines. So, if you’re trying to reach me at [...]
I want to wish all my readers and visitors a Happy Fourth of July. This will be a very brief post as I am leaving for the marina in a few minutes. I was there until about 3:00 this morning, and am going back… While the weather doesn’t look all that promising for a sail—a [...]
The Republican Party has gotten rid of Tom DeLay, in the fears that someone tainted by money laundering charges, and who embodies corruption and other ethical problems may reflect negatively on the party in the upcoming elections. There is a good article on his replacement, John Boehner, and some of his past activities over at [...]
I saw this video because of a post on h2uh0, and wanted to share it with my blog readers. The video takes a different perspective on the events of September 11, 2001, and comes up with a strong case for a conspiracy. While, I don’t agree with some of what is in the video, and [...]
Apparently, the powers that be are angry with Apple for succeeding where the other technology companies could not….or for that matter the music labels failed too. Thomas Slattery has been given the green light for his monopolization claim under the federal Sherman Anti-Trust act according to the articles at eHomeUpgrade and Tera Patricks’ blog. I [...]
The Irregular Times blog, one of my regulars, has an excellent analysis on the differences between Al Gore and Hillary Clinton’s take on democracy and the actions of the Bush Administration. You can read the whole article here. I’ve quoted the conclusion below. It is one that I strongly agree with. Whereas Al Gore’s speech [...]
Apparently, the Democrats have realized that George W. Bush has broken the law. Al Gore denounces GWB in his speech on Martin Luther King Day. In his speech, he and Congressman Barr, a conservative Republican, both denounce the actions of George W. Bush. Barr has also stated that we are close to becoming a totalitarian society here. I have quoted Gore’s speech below.