Wolf Tracks

It's been almost 6 weeks since mom passed and thanks to the love and support of many great friends and family, the pain of loss is pretty much gone and thanks to her many lessons in life, we are clearly focused on what lies ahead.

Several new adventures are brewing and I look forward to seeing them develop.  No journey is without its pitfalls however.  Without getting into a lot of boring detail, I am grateful to be working with a fleet lead who is not only a charismatic leader, but an honorable person as well.  It truly sucks when someone who is supposed to be in a position of senior leadership in an organization doesn't know the first thing about it and interjects themselves into your affairs when they have no cause to, and in doing so causes financial turmoil simply in the interest of trying to be popular to a whiney < ahem >.

I wish it were happier tidings I was posting since I haven't in a while. There have been many happy events including my first Europe trip on the BBJ since I last clicked away, but it would seem tonight is not that night.

Earlier today my brother called me greatly concerned about our mom whom he has been caring for nearly daily for the last couple of months. Her health has been steadily declining since she had to quit working a year or so ago. Four days ago he noted a sudden change in her daily routine - essentially that she stopped smoking (which she had done all her life) and didn't have a single drop of Scotch (also a constant in her life and where I developed my love of the spirit). She also quit eating and my brother had a hard time getting her to take even a little food. He was going to take her into the emergency room and see what the doctors could do to help get her back on an even keel.

*Taking a careful look around...

"Surface the ship!"

Ahh yes... still here. If a bit dusty and in need of updating...

*mumbling to self* yeah yeah, I know do something with the blog...

Ok, blame Malcolm for this one. He reminded me I should do this. Ok so it's partly out of a feeling of guilt and not Malcolm's fault for coming here and continuing the story and now that I know that there actually are people somewhat paying attention here, guess I better pick up the slack.

So.. where were we...

So here I sit at the airport waiting to head home from annual training, way early "just in case". Bummer no early flights home so what to do. Ah. How about an update on the Shinkendo?

My training has continued twice a week with more precision and forms being added, but it is amazing how easy it is to learn the more advanced forms once the core forms and techniques are known. The workouts are still intense with my pores getting quite a workout in sweating. November held several public demonstrations and I was very happy to be able to participate. Pictures from them are over in the gallery (nods thanks to his sweetie for getting the links module working). Getting a chance to review photos and video, there is nothing like embarrassing yourself when you zig while others zag to motivate you to learn a form better. (Don't worry James, you still don't need to yell at me :P )

Oh this is just too good to keep to myself. I got an email from a long time buddy who is also a pilot and he relates this story:

By now everyone has seen the iPhone commercial with the pilot looking at the radar and then talking to his dispatcher, yada yada...

I can't wait for the next ground delay or long taxi due to weather somewhere to get a smartass with a freaking iPhone shoving it in my face saying "Its NOT raining there... SEE?!"

Ok, now that I have ripped the pink out of the site... ahhhhhhhhhhh much better. I love the cause but MAN that hurt my eyes. :P

I'm patiently (although its beginning to fade) waiting on a new module to come out for MT4 that will allow me to easilly add in external links on the site. Things like... ohhhh I dunno... my photo album would be nice?! I have sent forth the "hunter-gathering" kitty (the wife to those of you who aren't in on the joke) to forage for the new module. She tells me the person developing it is "close". Hmmm, wonder if that's related to Soon™.

I'm also playing around with a new theme for the site. Problem is, the nifty theme generator doesn't play nice with MT4 ... yet. Guess I have to get off my lazy butt and actually look at the code for the back end of this thing and go play there. We'll see what happens. Stay tuned!