Bagel Run

I'll be leaving tomorrow morning to deliver two dozen bagels to western Pennsylvania. The poor folks out there don't seem to have a ready source of pumpernickel bagels and it's my sworn duty to keep them supplied. I'll also be taking somebody precious from her vacation at Grandma's back to her Mom and if she and I agree on the music as we did when I brought her east a month ago, it'll be a very enjoyable trip.

The bagels were ordered from Wegman's - one dozen plain pumpernickel, and one dozen everything pumpernickel. It was requested that they be ready for noon. I got there about 15 minutes early and they were just coming out of the oven. You remember that I love punctuality? I was impressed with their right on time service!

When I was walking out of the store with the bagels and other things I picked up I was a bit concerned about them fitting into the crate. I don't estimate space very well. There was room for everything with room to spare!

Not only were the bagels fresh and warm from the oven, but they made it back to the house still warm. It 's unfortunate that they'll need to make the 250 mile trip tomorrow before some of them get eaten post haste. I can only imagine how good they'd be still warm from having just been baked.

Oh, I could snitch one without getting into too much trouble, but I'd be breaking my diet which is going very well. I love the avatar my daughter made for me on her Wii. I don't do the exercises, but I use it to track my progress with losing weight. I think the little guy looks a lot like me. Well, maybe except for the gray he doesn't have.

That's down from a high of around 250 lbs. about four weeks ago! I'm pleased with my progress.

I'll have 'net access out west and might drop by to moderate comments, but I probably won't write anything of substance till I get back on Monday around suppertime. Maybe I'll add some things to the "What I'm Doing Now" section in the sidebar and pretend this is Facebook and that there are people actually checking such things.

Enjoy the weekend!

All the Time in the World

My mom, dad, sister, and I lived with my grandparents till I was in the fourth grade and my parents built a new home. My grandpa was my first and in many ways my greatest hero ever. A lot of who I am was shaped by him, probably in some ways I don't even know. One way I do know, though, is in my hyper awareness of time and resultant neurotic punctuality. One of Gramps' favorite sayings was, "I'd rather be an hour early than a minute late," and I made it my own credo before I was even old enough to realize that I had.

I can't help but to be aware of the passage of time. My watch is like an albatross around my neck sometimes. On the few occasions when I've forgotten it on a work day, I've borrowed one from one of the kids to get me through. It's ironic that just yesterday I read on a website, "Tempus fugit, mors venit." I knew the "Tempus fugit" well enough, but I had to Google the "mors venit" part. It all reads, "Time flies; death advances." And so they do, with each tick of the clock.

I read somewhere two weeks ago that the point in time of 04:05:06 07/08/09 would pass by today. I set an alarm on my cell phone to wake me up this morning so I could be aware of the time going by. I got up, waited, and got a picture. When I sent it to my sister who's nearly as neurotic about time as I am, she reminded me that 12:34:56 7/8/9 would also pass by today. I set another alarm on my phone and waited. I held my breath and pressed the shutter release at precisely the right moment to get the picture. Though the 9 doesn't show in the date on my watch, I know it's "there." Another century will pass before this precise moment can be written once more in this form. Mors venit! None of us will be here to see this time come 'round again.

So much of time gets wasted in waiting. On a day like today I look at the sky, and I wait to ride...

Am I to trust the blue sky and white clouds on the lower right of the view from the backyard, or to be suspicious of the dark clouds to the left and above? And as I wait and wonder and procrastinate because I want to ride but don't have anywhere that I need to go, time marches by. Precious minutes that won't come ever again are wasted as I second guess the weather.

When I feel somber the passage of wasted time weighs heavily upon me. I think of some distant time when all I'll do most days is take stock of my life. I'll want these wasted minutes back then, but it will be too late.

How apropos that even the dashboard of my BV has a built in clock.

Live! Love! Ride like there's no tomorrow!

They're Kidding! Right?

I'm sure my blood pressure rose a few points on both the systolic and diastolic scales when I saw this on CNN this morning...

When I was a junior in high school a surgeon saved my life. I've never done a thing to "honor" him.

Damian, our handyman, spared my kitchen from being flooded with toilet water. I don't typically "honor" him.

I could go on, but I don't need to bother. What am I doing to "honor" Michael Jackson today? Absolutely nothing.

Why do we make musicians into heroes? I've never understood it. Every day from September through June I see the names of bands and "artists" written all over some kids' notebooks, and I've never understood why.

Michael Jackson gave us a few good songs. But he's no hero to be honored. No musician is, even if he's playing free to raise money for farmers in Indonesia who lost their crops to giant locusts.

Old MJ's getting a bigger send-off than John Paul II did.

Why do we care so much about entertainers?