Paradigms...where shift happens!

Changes everywhere

This blog is supposed to be about coming to grips with change. Getting older is certainly a significant change and it seems to become a bigger challenge the farther we move along what I call the chronological continuum. Older people such as yours truly often measure it in decibels i.e. the increasing volume of the cracking in our joints when we turn over in bed or on the other end of the sound spectrum, the things we can no longer hear.

I discovered a new one this week. We have had 4 consecutive days of significant rain here in the Burg. In the old days, when the follicles in the center of the top of my head were healthier I could feel the rain hit my head. This week, while standing out in front of my office I discovered I can now hear it hit my head. It's a splat sound...the clearest and best example of the sound represented by the word 'splat' I can imagine. It's a better example of the sound than when a bird dumps on my car or a bug hitting a moving windshield traveling at 65 mph on Interstate 95. 

So there are really two pieces of good news here. First, I fully understand the meaning of the word "splat" now and more importantly, I can still hear the sound...come on rain...splat on!

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it....

Mysterious faces and the fruit they bear...

I am one of those people who feels quite embarrassed when I speak to or greet someone I think I know and then find out they are not someone I know. I hope for Matilda's sake she is much more level headed about that sort of thing.

At this point, I hope you are wondering who Matilda is.

I usually eat lunch alone since it's one of those times when I can just let my head rest while I read and eat. Today's lunch was no different. At my favorite Chinese buffet here in the Burg I was munching down on some General Tso's chicken as I paged through a book on business start ups on the Web.

I hear this lady's voice, very near and I see a small plate of fruit and a couple of napkins appear on my table. "Darn, they must have taken my fork!", she says.  As she walks back to get a clean one, I realize what's going on and think that this is going to be fun. She has gotten confused about where she is sitting. (Now, to tell you the truth I didn't have the "fun" thought right away. My first thought really was that this was some poor confused soul that had tripped a couple of breakers in her circuit box.)   

Clean fork in hand, she returns to my booth. She doesn't even look up until she is about half way seated. At this point she notices that I am not her husband and with an embarrassed giggle takes herself and her fruit to the booth behind me. She apologized, chattered something as she moved, (can't recall exactly what at the moment), and sat down with the correct man in the correct booth this time. He must be a very wise man because he just commented quietly about it to her and they went on with their meal.

Since I skipped the fruit, I finished before them. As I got got up to leave I handed them a card for this blog and told them that I was going to write about it on here and that they should "tune in" when they got the chance. I added that I would not introduce myself so as to not learn her name and thus avoid using it here by accident. I told her I would give her a "blog-name" though, so Matilda, when you read this, thanks for a lovely lunch time episode...we must do it again sometime...

That's my story and I am, by God stickin' to it...

Sunday was Father's...

Day, in case you missed it. Both of my young'uns came to visit along with the grand young'uns. We went to the "fimmin pool" and had a grand time with a cook-out (hot dogs on the grill, three kinds of mustard,  potato salad  and watermelon) and the weather was just what perfect summer Sunday afternoon weather is supposed to be. We had to drag both of the little ones out of the pool to make them eat but by the time we got to the really nice watermelon Wendy brought they were seriously conflicted over water vs watermelon.

The kiddie pool was beneath notice to Rachael (nearly 6) and Abbie (2). Both of them got themselves in over their heads in the shallow end of the big pool and had to be snatched out by adult hands Both came up spluttering but more surprised than upset. After clearing her eyes, Abbie, the youngest at a bit over two, immediately proclaimed to all interested by-standers that, "Abbie fimmin, Abbie fimmin!"

It was great having them all here and it was a great time in a quiet Southern small town way and then Gwampa needed a serious nap...

Niche marketing has...

...become a commonly used term in business today. Find a niche and fill it...or something like that. Judging by the TV ads for York, the central air conditioner company, there is a new niche in town, a pretty narrow one I would think but perhaps a niche nevertheless. They are pitching the idea of outside A/C units with your college logos in your school colors painted on the grill work that surrounds the compressor.

How big a market can this be? These things normally sit somewhere out of sight or nearly so don't they? Who can see them, rabbits, birds, snakes maybe? What does this "enhancement" cost? Ask any homeowner who has replaced an outside compressor unit what they had to pay and if they would have been willing to pay more for the optional college logo. Please write me if you get a 'yes' and include their name and address so I can send them brochures on mental health and on some beachfront  property on the Bering Sea.

I'm visualising college applications and the answers to "How did you hear about our institution?".

"I saw the college name and the nifty picture of your mascot on my Aunt Clarice's air conditioner and thought, what the hell, why not."

Pixel Poisoning?

I won't apologize for the dearth of postings for the last week but I will explain. I've set up a new web site for and about the creative community in the Fredericksburg Va area. If you are a total masochist and enjoy looking at unfinished work, you can see it at River Voices

There is a lot left to do and I don't fully grasp all of the ins and outs of the software I am using so the process is taking more time than I had anticipated. I am very happy with the concept and hopeful about its ultimate appearance and utility.

I was going to blame my absence on "pixel poisoning" but I couldn't find a doctor or an on-line source for such a disease so that's why I had to fess up here.

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.....

The devil is in...

...the details I think, when it comes to discussing opposing points of view on religion or the issues of the day. Listening to the other guy seems to have become a lost art except for the need to identify when it  is your turn to talk by the silence coming from the other side of the table. Even less often do you hear one person ask the other to "Tell me more about that." Constructive dialogue seems to have given way to a kind of rhetorical ping-pong where each party looks for the killing shot, the slam that shuts the guy across the table down.

The next time you are in a discussion like this, ask to hear more. And while we're at it, tell me more about your point of view on this....

Here's what I've been up to.

Wow, I didn't realize how long it's been since my last post here. I've started another blog project that I want to tell you about. It's called "Fredericksblog" and it's a place for people to post thoughts about this really cool little town I live in...well, a little town with attitude and energy in spite of itself. I sometimes refer to Fredericksburg as "Mayberry On Crack" and that's really more about the energy and vitality of the town than anything else.

It's a team blog so there will be multiple contributors and hopefully growing numbers of those. I'm inviting people I know who I think might have interesting things to say. There's not much there just yet as we only went live today but if you are curious it's at Fredericksblog .

This is a change from it's first location which was on Blogger.

And for the moment, that's my story and I'm stickin' to it....