So there I was, hauling along about 80 or so, northbound on I35 a few miles south of Waxahachie, when suddenly there was a “bang,” followed by a sharp drop in speed and a loud, rhythmic popping sound at a rapid tempo, which dropped from prestissimo to andante as I decelerated. Instantly, multiple warning lights flashed red alert. My first […]
Continue readingCategory Archives: Pearls of Wisdom (Commentary)
Personal musings and reflections about this and that
Yet Another Milestone
Today marks the twentieth anniversary of Computer Medic as a brick-and-mortar business. By 2003, I had been working out of my house for several years. But you can only go so far with that arrangement. People don’t take you seriously unless and until you have a physical location. So I was looking to take it up a notch. A lady […]
Continue readingA Very Long Year Indeed
Today, February 21, marks the first anniversary of my cancer diagnosis. An eventful year, as you might imagine. It’s all better now, but for a while it very much wasn’t. For some folks, a cancer diagnosis is a bombshell, a bolt from the blue. Mine was more like the confirmation of a nagging suspicion, following years of minor but mostly […]
Continue readingThe Soft Power of Sincere Apology
I was walking the dogs the other day in the green space behind the shop when a neighbor, Ana by name, flagged me down. I thought, “uh-oh,” because the last time we had spoken, a year or two previously, she had been really unpleasant. She accused me of letting my dogs poop in the un-maintained area at the far back […]
Continue readingFun Times Ahead
Back in the bad old days of the Cold War, when Russia was the USSR, its government was a black box, and the country was run by old-guard communists not kleptocrats, there was a class of experts, called Kremlinologists, whose job it was to figure out what was really happening behind the scenes, using whatever cryptic clues were visible to […]
Continue readingWar Story
Or: When Push Comes to Shove When your business serves the general public you can expect every type of customer: courteous, surly, reasonable, demanding; the good, the bad and the ugly. Occasionally people even cross the line to be downright threatening. A few days ago we had an incident in the shop involving one of those. The customer wanted some […]
Continue readingForward to the Past
Everything has an upside, even the decline that comes with aging. For example, thanks to slipping testosterone levels, I have developed an appreciation for musical theater. Well in fairness, it’s always been there to some degree, but I no longer bother to hide it. Anyway the girlfriend and I watched the recent remake of West Side Story over the long […]
Continue readingFarewell to an Original
Shocked and saddened beyond words to learn of the untimely death of my good friend Paul Mullen, who was killed in an auto-pedestrian accident late Friday night a few blocks from his home. But not surprised, to be honest. Ever since I’ve known Paul he’s had a rough time of it. Frequent bouts of depression, a weakness for spirits, bad […]
Continue readingToo Close for Comfort
Today marks exactly five months since I faced emergency surgery to address a case of sepsis. Eight days earlier, I had undergone a routine procedure to remove a stage 1 cancerous tumor from my lower GI tract. The excision was successful, and all traces of cancer are gone. But the sutures in my colon failed for reasons not entirely clear, […]
Continue readingOpportunity Lost
I was on the way home from the girlfriend’s house this morning, a routine trip I have made literally thousands of times. As I was merging from southbound Mopac onto Loop 360, a long sweeping left-hand curve between high roadcuts, a small movement caught my eye. Nearly hidden in the tall grass by the roadside was a young puppy, black […]
Continue readingThree Little Words
A few weeks ago, someone said to me those three little words. No, no, not those. The words everyone hopes never to hear: “You have cancer.” The person saying them was my doctor, following up on an abnormal finding on an otherwise routine colonoscopy. In all honesty, I was not surprised. I have had issues, minor and low-grade, in that […]
Continue readingRecollections from a Former Life
Yesterday, May 3, marked 25 years since I left my former employment as an editor at Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Publishers. It was a warm, sunny, humid day, one of those days that finally banishes the last traces of spring. I remember standing in the parking lot for the last time, looking back at the dark green glass cube that […]
Continue readingThe Path of Greater Resistance
Or: A Skeptic’s Journey We all have our favorite topics, and those of you who have read much of this blog undoubtedly know that one of mine is Climate Change, AKA Global Warming, AKA Global Weirding, AKA Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming, AKA Climate Alarm. In this subject I have a minority viewpoint, but one that is, I think it fair […]
Continue readingDog was My Copilot
My first encounter with the midsized catahoula mix was very nearly the last. I was headed home after work, taking the back way as usual, eyes focused on the middle distance, thinking about nothing in particular, when a sudden movement from the right caught my attention. The movement continued rapidly onward, directly across my path, on a collision course with […]
Continue readingCycles and Seasons
With the passing of the December solstice yesterday, the season officially shifts from autumn to winter, which may be news to some folks around these parts who have lately been battered by waves of cold and snow. We call it the “winter” solstice here, but in the Southern Hemisphere, the opposite calendrical condition prevails, and on that date Spring officially […]
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