The JackB

"When you're in jail, a good friend will be trying to bail you out. A best friend will be in the cell next to you saying, 'Damn, that was fun'." Groucho Marx

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The Warnings

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I think I have received about a half dozen warnings via email over the past week or so.

They are all tied into the blog and tell me that certain plug-ins aren’t active anymore and if I don’t make adjustments I won’t be able to track information or take advantage of XYZ.

I get tired of being warned because the language in said warnings chaps my hide. Could be that I am irked about other things and thin-skinned now or that their marketing language is weak.

A softer message would probably go over better with me. I see value in being notified that some changes are impacting the functionality of the blog.

But I also recognize some of those changes are intentional so sending me email after email declaration of the sky falling isn’t useful.

Reminds me of a couple of people who wrote me to ask me to update links on posts that are more than 10 years old.

Something about the manner in which I was approached ruffled my feathers so I took the posts down.

Maybe it is just me.

Maybe I am getting cranky and ornery in my old age or maybe it is something else.

Don’t you just love decisive stances where we take a position of maybe.

Disconnecting From The Office

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The lack of consistent posting here doesn’t provide any insight into the other things going on in my life or why things have slowed down.

But that is not what this post is about, nor do I think most readers have that kind of interest in the little details.

This is more of a note to myself, a reminder that I haven’t done a good job of disconnecting from work during vacation.

Or maybe it is better to say the last three or four, because I was better about it in the past.

Anyhoo, the one thing this blog does a great job of establishing for me is how fast time goes and how quickly children grow up.

Which is why I have promised to leave my work phone and laptop at home when I go on vacation at the end of this week.

It is time to disconnect.

Time To Make More Memories

My children probably don’t recognize slides though I know they have seen them before, but shots like the one above make me smile.

Because they remind me of great trips from the past and invaluable experiences with friends and family.

The goal when I leave this week is to make some more and to put myself in a position where work cannot distract me because I will have no way to see it or acknowledge it.

Ideally there will be no great fires or challenges while I am out, but if there are, they will wait.

It is time to disconnect and recharge my batteries.

This computer will come with me and maybe I’ll update the blog again, but the primary focus will be on creating and enjoying experiences.

Life is too short to ignore the clock.

Is It Really 17 Years?

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I have been cleaning up broken parts and pieces of the blog but that is not the reason I haven’t updated the way I said I was going to.

And yeah, I know I keep talking about it and talk is cheap.

Those things are all true and there is no doubt that action is the only thing I will accept as having merit or should I say proof of my intentions.

Anyhoo, I came across Troubled Waters? What Troubles Does Water Have? and realized it is 17 years since my paternal grandfather died.

That is shocking and yet not at all because when I think about it there is no doubt that much time has passed.

Except I have to think about it because it never feels that long ago until I start to actively consider what is different between then and now.

It Is A Different World

It is a different world now in almost every important and measurable way. Though if I talked to grandpa I think he would tell me he went through the same things, even though the changes might be different.

He saw political upheaval, big changes in the country and the world. He buried parents, saw his kids grow up and watched jobs that were once important disappear and new ones evolve.

Are the changes more profound or just different.

I lean towards just different but I would have liked to have discussed it with him. Guess I’ll have to just consider the options and what I think he might have said,

My dad would have said it doesn’t matter because I do what I do regardless of what anyone says, 😉

A Missed Blogiversary

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Think I missed my blogiversary, been at it for 20 years though I think I have been self-hosted for about 12.

Probably should take the time to put something more elegant and well-thought-out together.

Probably should look at my About Me page and consider updating it or maybe updating some of the links to more recent work.

Twenty years, it is a lifetime and a half in this industry. Very few stick around for this long.

Kind of wild to think that something I picked up on a whim is still going.

She Is A Grandmother Now

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There is a group of us who gather together to catch up on recent events in our personal and professional lives.

We laugh about some of the common changes that aging has bestowed upon us and compare notes as to who has had the most surgeries or is taking the most pills.

I lose both of those by quite a bit which makes me happy because it means my health is doing better than just holding up.

Conversation floats into some stories about college and a couple of fraternity events at which point some ask whatever happened to so and so.

One of the guys who went to high school and college asks about my high school girlfriend.

“You sort of dated on and off in college didn’t you?”

“It fizzled out by the middle of our junior year. She said if we kept dating we’d get married and I told her I wouldn’t marry her.”

He says he guessed that mostly ended it and I shrug my shoulders.

“Whatever happened to her?”

“She got married three or four times. First husband hated me. We had lots of friends in common so I used to bump into them.

He got drunk at a wedding and mouthed off. I wasn’t particularly nice with my response. Made some crack about her bedroom habits that set him off. Probably shouldn’t have said anything, but I was 25 and had a couple of drinks in me too.

Anyway, she is a grandmother now which I guess means he is a grandfather. So clearly they are quite old.”

The guys laugh and someone says “Aren’t you older than she is?”

“Yeah, but younger than him.”

The thing is most of us have at least one friend now who is a grandparent or about to become one so the old comment is relative.


One Day

The really funny thing about it is the guys who are still married and have kids have begun hearing bits and pieces from their wives about what kind of grandmothers they want to be.

Some who planned on downsizing are no longer sure if they are going to do it because there is this idea of having a house that is big enough for everyone to come home.

When they ask me for my thoughts I shrug my shoulders again.

“Do you remember what my dad said about being a grandfather? If he had known it was that much fun he would skipped being a dad.

I sort of suspect I’ll be a little like that but it is not happening any time soon and I am ok. Told the kids to live a little bit before they settle because it will change things.

And if I have learned anything, it is not to expect that kids will come to my house just because I want them to. There are always a minimum of two families, so I’ll wait and see what life looks like.

One day I’ll have an answer.

****

That is a common refrain for me, “one day.”

It is how I am living, one day at a time.

Got lots of things going on and some big potential changes that make it harder to plan out too far, so it is easier to just break it up into pieces.

Live one day at a time and see where it leads.

Kind of relaxing if you ask me, takes much of the pressure off and that is a good thing.