Easter

Here are some Easter pictures that were taken after we got out of Church. We spent Easter going to church and then had dinner with my awesome in-laws (I love them!!) Later, the kids and I played Monopoly.

Actually, the last picture was Brianna when she just got the Easter dress. Ted isn't his usual photogenic self; he told me he was really bothered by the sun. Hopefully, you'll enjoy the pictures anyway.

Songs of Joy!

“One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain” Bob Marley; lyrics from “Trench Town Rock”

Is there a song that you know, and when you hear it, the song immediately puts a smile on your face? I have a couple. One is Eric Clapton’s “After Midnight”. The song has so much joy in it. I love hearing it, the tempo, vocals and melody all come together to make you feel great.

Another song is “I Ran”. I remember when the song came out in 1982. I was only 19. I became friends with this girl and we danced a lot at the Stone Hearth which was on Park Street in Madison, WI. We had an arrangement that when we heard “I Ran” we immediately headed for the dance floor. If we were in the bathroom and we heard the song, to the dance floor we went. If we were getting a drink, waiting @ the bar and heard the song, to the dance floor we went.

The lyrics are not the best part of the song but still they certainly convey happiness. When you hear the lyrics, “A cloud appears above your head; A beam of light comes shining down on you, shining down on you. The cloud is moving nearer still, Aurora Borealis comes in view…”, you have to feel the warm glow of wonder.

I love the melody and the instrumental arrangement. There’s a part of the song that is just before the guitar solo where there’s a long, sustaining note that grows louder, and it just gives me a rush of joy. I hear that and I want my radio as loud as it will go. Then the guitar solo and the guitar throughout the song isn’t brilliant, but it fits the song perfectly. The echoing guitar is a very nice effect. (The guitarist is in the center of the picture with his big glasses.)

Early in March of this year, I had the kids all with me. I just got my huge tax refund and we were getting a new computer. The song came on, I felt like it was1982; I was a mere 19 yrs. old. There was just a warm, happy glow that came over me. I played the song loud, and the kids enjoyed it as well. But they were saying, “Dad can you turn it down?!?” That’s not the first time I heard that question. There’s times when I act more like a kid, and they are they are the voice of reason/grown up (like the time I spun the guinea pigs in this hollow ball…but that’s another story).

The song also has a music video. The band plays the song and are spinning around. So you see them play their instruments and the background is moving past them. The drummer and vocalist aren’t noteworthy, and I don’t even remember if there is a bass guitar player in the song. The guy I’ll never forget is the lead guitarist. In any other context, he would be considered a nerd with his smallish build and large glasses. But when he plays the song, he just seems awesome cool!

“I Ran” played just after I got off of work and was driving home, and I remember the joy and turning it up as though it happened a minute ago!!

"the kids"??

It pains me to realize that I haven't added a post to this dear blog in a long time. I have been busy, more busy than usual. Let me tell you what's happened. We lost 4 law clerks in the space of 3 months. My law firm has offices for each of the lawyers, cubicles for the secretaries and there is a medium-sized office for me and 5 other clerks. Since I'm the oldest, have been at the law firm longer than any of the other clerks, I am perceived as being the leader and now (it seems) the supervisor. Also, I teach the clerks when they start out and introduce them to everyone else.

Anyway, of the 4 clerks we lost, we lost the last one in February. My boss then hired 5 clerks to replace them. All 5 of them are women, now I receive these strange comments. Secretaries that have been at the firm longer than I come up and ask me, "How are your girls?" At first, I thought they were referring to Brianna, my daughter, but when she said girls with an "s", I finally figured that she meant something else, then I said, "Do you mean the new clerks?" "Yeah". They're fine. Then my office manager asked, "how are the kids?". I had the same reaction and thought he was referring to my 3 at home, but he wasn't. So, I gave him the same answer.

Of course, none of them have really been tested with tough assignments, so I don't know how they'll react when that happens. They did encounter ants. One of our clerks discovered ants in about the same place we usually get cockroaches. We had a clerk get irate one time last summer when she spotted a cockroach. The fact is that it has nothing to the office being funky or having food out which we obviously don't. The reason we get ants, cockroaches and who knows what other vermin is that we are in a 85 year old building and there are 46 floors. They spray and put out poison that kills insects but they can always go to another floor. So after they spray we don't see them for at least 4 months.

In the last few months, it has become more apparent that I am looked upon as their leader and supervisor. I resisted being their supervisor for a long time, because I don't want to be their disciplinarian, and I would hate to go back to a situation where I am managing a classroom which happened over 18 years ago. However, the longer I've been at the law firm the more responsibility has been given to me. So, I guess it stands to reason that I am supervising the law clerks, and anyway, since they are only in their 20s, I'm old enough to be their father anyway.

Since these clerks are new, I am reluctant to "surf the 'Net" when they are in the office. I certainly don't want to be a bad example. With so much work being given to me, it's hard to be on the Internet anyway.
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On a different topic, I have started to exercise more. I have been fighting my weight for 17 yrs. now. I hate running, walking doesn't really burn many calories (I used to walk 2 miles, 5 days a week, & stayed the same weight), don't want to lift weights, jump rope or any of those other ways people lose weight. I don't mind biking. I don't love it, but I can tolerate it. My bike was in bad shape when it was taken out of the storage area last month, and I spent a fair amount of money getting it fixed.

However, it seems as though this spring there has to be numerous complications. When I went on the bike path I usually take, there were 2 areas where ponds have formed. The first time I encountered them I had no choice but to just plow through them. I was soaked up to my waist. Oh well, I kept biking the 3.3 miles of bike path.

Obviously, I had to choose another path. So, I picked another path, and there were no ponds. It was longer than the other path so I biked for at least 4 or 5 miles. When I finished biking and was back home, something strange happened. My eyes were watering, they were red, and irritated. When I woke up the next morning, I was shocked to see that the area under my eyes was all puffed out to the point that I almost had "bags" under my eyes! I took medicine, went to work, and since there was nothing at work to irritate my eyes, my eyes went back to normal.
Today, when I biked, I had some concern that the same thing would happen. Everything was fine, but 10 minutes into biking, my right eye was again very irritated. It watered and hurt. For the next 5 minutes, I biked with my right eye shut so that it would feel better and not be irritated. Finally, I was able to open it, and it no longer watered. When I biked in the same area again (I was going from Point A to Point B then back to Point A, so I realized that I was going to bike in the same area that made my eye react), I shut my eye again. Once I was out of the area, I had no problems. Apparently, there was something that triggered an allergy. It's strange because I never had allergies before.
The point is, I have to make these sacrifices because I need to do something to lose weight. I would love to lose over 20 pounds, maybe more, and that means I must work out to lose that weight. Since it seems like I've been eating less, I anticipate success! :)