Monday, July 6, 2009 - Good Times, Bad Times: Strange Days Indeed

(This entry was started on June 30th)

Nation: so much has been happening lately - we are losing celebrities as though the Plague has made a return to modern earth: Ed McMahon (83), Farrah Fawcett (62 with legendary hair - even with cancer), MICHAEL JACKSON (50!!), and Billy Mays (50 "OxyClean" pitchman). All these people are too rich to die. What is happening here? 4 gone in less than 1 week! Over the weekend (July 4th), triple MVP Steve McNair, former QB of Houston Oilers/Tennessee Titans and then Baltimore Ravens was shot dead - he was 36 years old. Holy crap. Apparently a woman was found shot to death also at the same location.

I have a new iPhone. Just wanted something for easier texting, but through my company I got a phenomenal discount, so I couldn't pass it up. I even got my Tech Dept to circumvent administrative firewalls so I could upgrade to brand new software! (Gotta have a friend in IT.)

So here I am as old as the hills, blind as a bat but I've got cool technology in the palm of my hand.

On a much more somber note, July 1 was the 2 year anniversary of my brother's passing. On that morning while driving to work at 6:45am, I was coming up the hill on Route 17 into Saddle River. There about a quarter mile ahead was the FERGUSON

delivery truck. I cried of course. I could hear Christopher in my

head: "Don't forget about me." Like that could ever happen.

I've been missing Christopher more than usual this past 6 weeks, as my daughter graduated college and I think he would have liked to have been there. I know he would have RULED at her graduation party, which she arranged (we paid) in our backyard - tent, catering, and 3 bands. In between, Band 2 was actually a partially 'unplugged' session with members of #1 and #3 (along with other musically-inclined party guests) playing acoustic (one kid had a mandolin!). No family for us was there at all, which sucked, as they are all so far away and the in-laws (not Grampy) came down from the compound for the graduation ceremony, so they couldn't do both. Here's a pic of the boyfriend singing with Band #1 (that lonely folding chair held the lyrics which nervousness kept Keith from remembering); the acoustic session; and our headliner (which so rocked the neighborhood one of our neighbors from down on the river set up a chair on his deck to listen while his wife and daughter (who is autistic) just danced in their backyard):

I think it's been just about a year for the gray hair experiment. It's certainly a great shade of silver, but it won't grow fast enough. If it's not one thing it's another:

Lots of work stuff (and personal empowerment) going on as well, but that'll have to keep for another day.