noeticmicrobe.com

Good riddance

Well Goodbye 2009.  You can’t be gone fast enough.

Nothing else left to say.

God is great!

I just met my Grand Daughter, Khloe.  What a wonderful beautiful little girl.  I am awestruck.  Such a sweetie, It has been awhile since mine were that small (My youngest is 24).  God sure knows what he is doing when it comes to babies.  It is neat to watch my Son and Daughter-in law grow into their roles as parents.

Generations

I witnessed a milestone today.  A new generation has stepped up to take its place in my family.  Welcome to Khloe Abigail Poorman, born September 22, 2009.  John and Kerry, y’all did good.  Now I have a new title, Grandpa.  I hope and pray that I am worthy of that title.

why?

Why do we have such a difficult time providing health care for our citizens?  Doctors, Dentists, Surgeons, etc. already do wonderful work for church missions providing healthcare to those in foreign and developing countries.  Why don’t we do that here?  Why don’t we donate time to free clinics in cities?  Recently I read of such an event in Los Angeles.  People who hadn’t been to a Doctor in years were lining up for free care.  Why? Is it the lawyers who are always on patrol for a nice fat paycheck?  What is wrong?

I also need to ask “Why?” concerning the recent cash for clunkers deal uncle Sam was pushing.  Cash for clunkers took working cars and trashed them so they could never be used again.  That makes for a shortage of used cars.  Duh.  For a government that is always screaming about how we need to help the down trodden and less fortunate, it seems rather hypocritical.  There are a lot of single moms and other people who desperately need transportation and can’t afford it or don’t have public transportation.  They need cars as well.  Why not use those clunkers (the better ones) for those people.  Sure they may not be as efficient as a new car but they won’t be driven that much and you have truly helped someone in a tangible way.  I think it is reasonable to assume that if you can’t afford a car to begin with, you won’t be driving it all over the place or on vacations.  Donate the old cars to charities who will fix them up and put them in the hands of those who need it.  Take the charitable tax deduction instead of cash.  Help someone for real, not just the auto companies who don’t deserve help.  If they had run their businesses as they should have, they wouldn’t be bankrupt.  Twice in the last 10 years we have chosen to donate old cars to organizations like I mentioned above, and I hope actually helped someone or a family take a step up in the world.  If I have the opportunity in the future to do so again, I will.

…been gone way too long

Well this is what you get when you are way to busy and involved to sit back and reflect.  The amazing ride continues.  This past February my Mother -in-law passed away unexpectedly.  My oldest Son and his Fiance, Stephanie co-officiated a very nice memorial service.   On June 13 my oldest son, Kevin and Stephanie were married.  It was a great ceremony in a beautiful little CHurch in the country.  It was the first time since John was married that all the kids had been together with us.  Stephanie is also a graduate of Duke Divinity. In a weird twist of fates Stephanie and I graduated from the same High School, just a whole lot of years apart.

If that’s not enough, I am about to become a Grandparent.  John’s wife is expecting a cute little girl any time.

Right after Kevin’s wedding Deb and I flew to Pittsburgh to surprise our daughter at a dance program put on by the studio where she works.  That was a blast.  We flew in and were picked up and hidden until the show.  After the show we were secreted up on stage and surprised her totally.

All in all a busy year so far.

Three months and a wedding later…

It has been awhile, 3 incredibly busy months.  I was able to travel back to my childhood home and help my mother sort through my father’s belongings.  That was amazing.  I learned some incredible things about my dad that I am not ready to write about because I haven’t confirmed them, but there may be more to him that I knew.  I also laid claim to some priceless (at least to me) heirlooms like his slide rule (anyone out there know what one is? or what it does?)  They haven’t used them since the 1970’s.  If you watched Ron Howard’s Apollo 13 you saw one used. I also have a complete set of books for the revolutionary Physics course curriculum called Harvard Project Physics, which he helped design.

That was followed by the announcement that my youngest son, John, was engaged.  Then he found a better job and in the span of a month will have been married and moved to Virginia.  Their wedding was beautiful and was officiated by his big brother.  Made me proud, also made me feel a little old.

I was asked to assume the role of Public Information Officer for my county ACS/ARES group (Emergency Communications)  I wrote my first press release today.

And to top it all off, I got an iPhone.  Man, is it cool!

Life Goes On

After two months of dealing with bad news, finally some good news.  My youngest son has proposed to his girl.  She said yes.  I am really happy for him.  Way to go J.  Life goes on.  

The unbiassed news media in Tampa

I am sick and tired of our so called unbiassed media trying to tell me what to think.  News should be Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How.  Let me decide how I feel about something.  I am tired of having to run everything I see on the News through my personal BS filter to get rid of all the crap in the news today.  Every network has an agenda they are pushing down out throats.How’s this for journalistic excellence…FL passed a law last week to allow people with legally licensed guns and having a concealed carry permit to take their gun to work  and leave it locked in the car.  The local NBC station in Tampa Ch. 8 chose to report this over B roll of various rifles, shotguns, and assault weapons laying on the seats of cars.  No images of a handgun being locked in a trunk, glovebox, or center console.  No agenda here….yeah right.  Obviously they are against the idea and they are trying to make you believe everyone will now be packing their assault rifle with them at work.   For the record, I do not own a gun, but I do support the right to own them.  Look at the story as it aired, courtesy of a local radio host who recorded it and put it on line.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBKdDdfWZKU  Now I hear that there is a special museum honoring the News in Washington D.C. probably paid for with our taxes too. Well, only in D.C. and Hollywood would you get such a self serving lovefest.  Just look at all the awards shows that are more about the glitz and agendas than about the substance and work of the movie, or show. A disillusioned viewer  

De Ja Vu ( haven’t I been through this before?)

Wednesday March 26, 2008.  Helen Short age 105 years, died of respiratory failure from the flu.  That is what will be written.  I lost a loved family member, the second one in a month.  I will miss her a lot, even though for the last 5 years thanks to the ravages of old age and Alzheimer’s disease, she did not know me.  As with the death of my Dad, my gene pool shrunk just a little bit more.  My grandmother was a teacher and wise friend, always willing to share her experience and her faith with me.The saddest thing was that this didn’t happen sooner.  I know that sounds weird and insensitive, but thanks to her age and the Alzheimer’s she literally out lived everyone she knew or could remember.  The one exception was my Mom who she seemed to still recognize most of the time.  She is once again reunited with her husband who died in the 1980’s, and my Dad and in a much better place.  Grandma, you earned your rest, enjoy it.  Thanks for letting me know someone who was 105 years old.  I will miss you.

The last of the big 3 is gone.

I noticed last night the Drudge Report was mentioning the passing of Sir Arthur Clarke.  For those who don’t know, I am a big Sci-Fi fan and he was my favorite author.  He had another claim to fame in that he was the first to propose the use of geostationary satellites to communicate in 1945, decades before the first artificial satellites were launched.  I think my favorite Clarke story was the one titled “The Sentinel” This short story was later developed into the Space Odyssey series of books.  He also penned the Rama series of books.  He was the last of the big three science fiction authors along with Robert Heinlein and Isaac Asimov.  Clarke penned 3 laws that are still pertinent today.  They are:

1. “When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.”
2. “The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.”
3. “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

 I think my favorite Clarke quote is: “Somewhere in me is a curiosity sensor. I want to know what’s over the next hill. You know, people can live longer without food than without information. Without information, you’d go crazy.”I will miss his writings, but cherish the books of his I own.