Down On Ferry Farm

Lots going on, let’s get right into it: Wedding – I went to a wedding last Saturday (friends of friends). The big drama was whether the ceremony was going to be held indoors or out. You see, it was raining sporadically throughout the day and the event planners needed to know where to set up. The bride said, “Plan for both” but you knew she wanted it outside. At the last minute, the weather cleared and everything went according to plan. As soon as the reception began (indoors) the rain poured down in buckets. Crisis averted. Electrical Problems – I walked into my kitchen at some point last week and saw someone standing in my back yard. “Hello?” I said from my kitchen (window open, of course). There was no response from him. He leaned lazily against my back porch and seemed to be staring into the sky. I walked out my back door and asked, “Can I help you?” He told me that my neighbor had called and said the piece of equipment that hangs over my yard was sparking and that lights were dim...

Following is a list of women I find very attractive who all share a common attribute: they are featured players in shows about renovation. Either they do it themselves or they are the designers or coordinators. This list is in no particular order. Amy Matthews (Sweat Equity) – This is a recent addition to this list. The cable package I have does not include DIYNetwork but some of their shows have been ported over to HGTV. I happened to find her show on one day and – wow – she is really cute. She has this great quality to her voice and she really knows how to swing a hammer. Almost every time they mention her name, they precede it with “Licensed Contractor”. She can renovate my house any time. Kristan Cunningham (Design On A Dime) – Kristan is an interior designer and artist who uses only $1,000 to remodel a room. Her greatest accomplishments in the shows are the “finds” on furniture and accessories at thrift stores and antique shops. She also likes to take an ordinary item and use it...

Say what you will but sometimes the timing of life is perfect. Next week would have been the last week of unemployment. I say “would have” because I was offered a job this week. In fact, I really had two job offers. Several months back I interviewed with a company that was a subcontractor for the military. In this area, it’s hard to get away from government contractors. The job, as it was explained to me, would be the hardest job I’d ever have to do in my life. There was going to be a lot of physical parts to the job and a lot of traveling involved. I wasn’t looking forward to this job but it was a job. This company got the ball rolling on my security clearance (which I’d never applied for, therefore never denied). As I understand it, these are very expensive to acquire. I filled out all the paperwork – it took me about 4 hours but I did it – and submitted my fingerprints. I did whatever they asked and they were expecting me to be there at the end. Fate had other plan...

I spent a lot of time outdoors this weekend. The weather was nice and I’m glad I did but I ended up with a mild case of sunburn. Saturday I went to the spring version of the Virginia Wine Festival. My sister Dee works for one of the major sponsors so I called her up and asked if she was getting tickets. Turns out she was going to be out of town but hooked me up with a pair of tickets for the event. So I asked G-Lady to see if she wanted to go. She’s not a wine drinker but I don’t really have any close friends that are wine drinkers. Usually the festival is in Town Point Park in downtown Norfolk but, since the park is being renovated, they had it on the pier behind Nauticus (I kept wanting to say Nautilus). Saturday was a bright, clear day but it was windy down on the water – and I mean RIGHT on the water. Being on the pier meant the water was about 4 feet from the edge with no fencing. Things and people were being blown all around. G-Lady took in all the sights, as she had never been t...

In my quest to organize my life, I’m going through some old accounts and closing them down. As I traveled through life I made a spreadsheet of all the accounts I had signed up for: site name, account name and password. I may have missed one or two but it’s a pretty complete list. Don’t worry, the accounts I’m shutting down are not ones I use frequently. In fact, in shutting some of them down I found out the site had closed my account due to inactivity. I also found out that some of the sites no longer exist or had been transferred (bought out?) by another site. Okay, so the process is simple, right? I log in with my username and password and then close my account, cool? If that were only true. About half of the time I ended up using the “forgot my account” link because it said I was using the wrong password. In my compendium of passwords I have the password as “assmunch” for the site. I hit the link and it sends the account name and password to my e-mail account (a real security breach...

I know that movies made in Hollywood are meant to be entertainment. I watched a couple of movies recently that defy that statement. House of Sand and Fog – I remember seeing the commercials for this movie and wanting to see it when it came out. Boy, would I have been pissed to see this stinker in the theater. Jennifer Connolly played a recently-divorced woman who has deluded herself into thinking everything is okay. She gets a knock on her door one morning telling her she’s just been evicted. At the same time, an Iranian immigrant has been eying the property, waiting for it to come up for sale. The woman is thrown out of the house and the immigrant buys the house. Everything seems like a done deal, right? Wrong. The woman gets entangled with a sheriff's deputy (thereby ruining him and his family) and tries to get the immigrant to give up the house (thereby ruining him and his family). She got a lot of letters telling her what was about to happen. As her lawyer tells her ...

Generally, I don’t like to review a movie after having JUST seen it. This movie is no exception. I had such a positive response to it; I wanted it to “simmer” for a while before I handed down judgment – just to see if, in the clear light of day, I still felt the same. The good news is that I do. The movie is shot in a smooth documentary-style. You would think this would be off-putting, but it really isn’t. I love the casual way the script is written. It is not hard at all to believe that people say these things to one another. I was also a big fan of the diversity shown – both in the wedding participants and the music that is played throughout. Without all the family drama that occurs, I’d love to go through a weekend like this. Conversations are sometimes carried from room to room flawlessly and without effort. If the director gave any more direction than “just talk to one another” I’d be amazed. Having said that, there were a couple of times where it seemed bits of scenes were thrown...

In “Quantum Leap”, Scott Bakula stars as Sam Beckett who is part of a team of scientists that create a time-traveling machine. Sam steps into the time machine prematurely (due to the possible cancellation of the project) and vanishes. The introduction to the show sums it up: Theorizing that one could time travel within his own lifetime, Dr. Sam Beckett stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator and vanished .... He woke to find himself trapped in the past, facing mirror images that were not his own and driven by an unknown force to change history for the better. His only guide on this journey is Al, an observer from his own time, who appears in the form of a hologram that only Sam can see and hear. And so Dr. Beckett finds himself leaping from life to life, striving to put right what once went wrong and hoping each time that his next leap will be the leap home. At which point he ‘leaps’ into the body of a particular character and has to figure out who he is and what need...

There’s been a lot of talk recently about “Cloud Computing” and “Software as a Service” (SaaS). The past week I’ve been doing quite a bit to move these ideas along. I guess it was about two months ago that I learned about “Google Docs” where you can store your documents online. It was only a few days ago that I learned my Hotmail account came with 25GB of free storage. (If you have a current Hotmail account, look for something called "SkyDrive") I love this kind of stuff. So I have been burning up my Internet circuit trying to upload files to the cloud. I’ve got all my poetry sitting at Google and all my (original) music sitting up in Hotmail. The love will certainly run out if something happens to these files. There’s a service called Carbonite that you can use to back up files and store them off-site. The price for the service is ridiculously low. In the past few days I heard a story about some of the data being lost. Can you imagine? Another provider, HP, had a service cal...

It’s a strange position to be in: wanting to be seen as well as be invisible. I want to be seen by people that are hiring (obviously) but unseen by those who want to ask me questions about or give me advice on my job search. I’m the kind of person who doesn’t like to answer a lot of questions about myself. I have to do that on first dates and job interviews. When I’m put in that position, I have to put on a brave face and answer the questions. Maybe because I hesitate or try to divert the question they may see me as untrustworthy or not confident. I try to relax and put on that face that says I am somehow at ease. It’s not easy. I feel like a fisherman trying to reel in something on which my family can feed. Out in the water, my boat slowly moves because there are so many other boats around – there are so many lines in the water. I want to find that secluded spot where the fish congregate that no one else knows about. I want to respond to an ad that I am supremely qualified for that no...

Following is a list of websites that I go to with varying frequency. Some of the sites I visit every day, some of them -- every couple of days, and a few of them I just "check in" every now and then. I guess it all depends on how often they're updated. This is by no means every site I read, just the ones I want to talk about. Falling Sand Game - To me, this is less of a "game" and more of an "activity". Four streams of sand are falling from the top of the screen and you get to decide their path by setting barriers up or creating trails for them to follow. Controls are at the bottom of the screen. Cover Lay Down - This is a blog that deals with folk tunes... either someone has covered a traditional folk song or someone has taken a standard song and given it a 'folk edge'. Either way, the commentary is smart and insightful. Definr - Plain and simple dictionary. I like the clean interface but I don't understand the "Meep". Delicio...

Can you explain something to me? I really don’t understand what’s going on here and I’d like some kind of answer. I must admit that I feel a little stupid and I’m just not sure why. Here’s the basic problem: people are asking for my opinion but then not following it. There’s a wholesale denial of my implied expertise. Let me explain. Scenario 1: A few months ago I was over at my parents. Somehow we got to talking about computers and I relayed my story of how I’ve never had luck with a certain manufacturer I’m going to call Right-Hand-Widget (RHW for short). I told my Dad how I was working for a company that ordered 20 of them for office use and I had to return all 20 because none of them worked – none of them. I went on to tell him of my most recent venture with RHW, that I was “forced” to purchase one at my last company and it also had issues and needed to be returned. I railed on the customer service (worst in the business) and all the foibles I went through to return the PC. Fast-f...

I am a child It is the Monday of my life No one knows me yet Or what I will be I can only learn to be confused And so the day goes on I’m just thirteen It is the Tuesday of my life People know me now But not what I’ll be I have begun to be confused And so the day goes on I’m twenty-three It is the Wednesday of my life People know me all too well And what I’ve become It’s never too late to be confused And so the day goes on I’m fifty-one It is the Thursday of my life It’s time I learn about myself And look at what I’ve done Now I learn and only look confused And so the day goes on I’m sixty-three It is the Friday of my life I know all there is to know And have done all I have wanted There is too much time to be confused And so the day goes on I’m seventy-five It is the Saturday of my life The days seem to last for weeks But the night only fifteen minutes long And when I wake, I’m confused And so the day goes on I’m ninety-two It is the Sunday of my life No more prayers to save And soon ...

Lately I have seen a lot of my family. Usually we just get together at major holidays but we’ve had a couple of recent outings. He’s Gone – my nephew signed up for the Army a few months ago. I’m sure I detailed the day my father and I spent waiting for him to be sworn in. My sister Dee suggested we all meet out at a restaurant and give him a big send-off. We didn’t really toast him or even talk to him that night. He sat at one end of the long table with his friends and the rest of us sat at the other end. We laughed and talked and ate food… which is really what we do when we’re all together anyhow. As we got up from the table to leave, that’s when everyone said their goodbyes. I knew that I would see him tomorrow when I dropped him off at the recruiters before he left for good. The next day as I drove him to the office building, I tried to impart some kind of wisdom on him, to try and tell him the secrets that would make it easier on him. The fact of the matter is: I don’t think he wa...

I hung out with a couple of the women I used to work with. It was Leslie’s birthday so we celebrated. I was hoping to see some more people there but it was nice. We met at a sports bar and had a few drinks. We were joined by Leslie’s cousin. He was cool and laid back. We probably should have done the seating differently – it was like bridge partners talking to one another: me and Raquel were across from one another trying to have a discussion and Leslie and her cousin were yelling at each other over the table. It turned out another one of Leslie’s cousins was working at a bar nearby so we piled in my car and drove over there. We weren’t there very long before the women wanted to dance. When we were walking to my car we passed a little outdoor café (though it was too cold for anyone to actually sit outside) and Leslie reached over and swiped an ashtray off one of the tables. Somehow I ended up with it… it was clean. I took off my jacket and left it in the car (I didn’t want to “check it...

Last Friday night Superman, Jared and I went to a Tiki Bar to see a band. Jared is a friend of Superman’s who was in from out of town. We went to see this particular band because Superman and I went to high school with one of the guys in the band. We reached the place when the band was already part way into their first set. They’re a dance band and there were some people dancing. I was glad to see the average age of the patrons was close to my age and not a bunch of twenty-somethings. So the time comes for the band to take a break. “Hey, we’ll be back in a few minutes” they announce. So Superman and I walk up to the small stage so we can reconnect with our old friend. First of all, he’s talking about 100 miles an hour. I don’t remember “Brad” being that tightly wound but it’s been a number of years since I saw him last. He swears he was only drinking water. We have a brief conversation whereby he can’t believe we showed up. A minute or two later and Superman and I are back at the table...

“It’s a star”, she said. I have thought about stars. I have thought about stars when I get out of my car and the night air is clear. I have thought about stars when I am trying to sleep and I need to clear my mind. I have thought about stars. There’s a sort of dizzy feeling you get when you look up at the stars. Your eyes lose the horizon and, for a second, you don’t know where you are. Unless you are out in a remote field laying on your back and looking up at them. I wonder what those stars are doing now? “I’m a star”, she said. I have thought about stars. I have thought about certain stars. I have thought about stars when I get out of fancy cars. I see stars in my head getting out of luxury cars and walking down red carpets. I have thought about certain stars. Shooting stars have a power over people. I always think about where they are coming from and where they are going. I wonder what those stars are doing now? I get that dizzy feeling when I look up. “It’s a star”, she said. I hav...

Currently, there’s a meme traveling around Facebook entitled “25 Random Things About Me” where you list 25 things about yourself and send it to 25 friends. Then they send theirs to 25 friends (including you) and so on. I don’t plan on doing this myself because everything about me is random. Instead, I plan to explore 10 things about my life that I’ve never done. This is not to say I will never accomplish these things but, as yet, I have not done these things in my life to this point. I admit some of these are unbelievable – the fact that I haven’t done them but, to the best of my ability, are true. So, to this point I have never: Ridden in the back of a stretch limo – I have been to several weddings and funerals where one of these vehicles was present. I have looked in the back of a stretch limo but never ridden back there. At a party one time a limo was ordered and I thought to myself “this could be it” but it was basically a modified Lincoln Towne Car and would definitely not qualif...

I must admit that my neighbors haven’t given me much of an issue lately but that’s only because they haven’t been to their house lately. Let me catch you up. For a number of years I have lived next to this average family. They are of African-American descent, but that doesn’t really factor much into this story. The father looks like he worked a physical job – maybe construction – but is retired due to disability. He walks around his yard sort of like Fred Sanford. A while back I recall seeing an older daughter but I think she’s long since moved away. The two sons I see quite a bit. They seem to be moving all the time. If they’re not coming from or going to work, one of their friends is coming by to pick them up and they’re off. I only know this because I hear the loud music being played when people are coming or going. One of them had a problem with their tire and asked if I couldn’t drop them off at a nearby gas station so they could fill it with air. I was running a little late but I...