A worthy cause

I haven't posted something like this before.  But the young lady, Judy, is someone I know and can tell you that she has an inspiring story of strength and hope.  You can read about her story here at College Fund.

Her goal is to go to college and then nursing school.  She has overcome so much in her short life.  If you can donate a few dollars towards helping her achieve her goal, it would be much appreciated.

My wife and I know her family.  I can tell you that they are wonderful people. And they are appreciative of being in this country. If you have any questions, email me. Thank you!

One to go

Well, I have emerged from the long tunnel of studying today.  I passed all the exams for Captain with high scores and will be turning in my paperwork to the U.S. Coast Guard after completion of the Master's exam.  I've heard that one isn't hard.  But I will go over the material and take the exam next week.  I have completed the qualifications to be an operator of uninspected passenger vessels (OUPV).  Hopefully,  I will add Master to that over the next week.  Then all the paperwork gets submitted, and I will be officially licensed.

I feel as if my focus has been to study, work on the garden, take a few breaks to chill with my wife, and go on the boat.  I simply have not felt like blogging.  The break from blogging feels good.  I may continue to take breaks because frankly there is much more that I want to do than sit at the computer so much.

I will catch up on blogs though and leave comments.  I want to know what you have been doing.  But my story seems to be one that has become repetitive.  I am involved in as little drama as possible.  I don't have to deal with issues at work.  I concern myself with gardening, sailing, meetings of Al-Anon, and what little family I have.  Most of the time, my existence is simple and care free. I miss those who have died and think of them often.  But I am grateful to still be living and healthy.

I learned over the past few weeks that I didn't suffer bad withdrawal from blogging.  Instead, I felt a relief that I didn't have to write the same stuff over and over.  I am at peace with who I am, flaws and all.  And I am relieved at the moment that I can go to a dinner meeting tonight, maybe stay up late and watch a movie, and not have to open a text book to study.

We are off on the boat for the weekend.  Time for some fun!

I believe in this

I may be coming down with a cold or something akin to that.  I have felt really tired and my body aches. But then I have been crawling around on the boat and doing a lot of varnish work on it for the last few days.  I will just ride it out and see if the fatigue is just that or if it is something else.

Today, I am staying home.  Yesterday, I was interviewed for a program on ETV.  I enjoyed the producer and the cameraman. They were interesting, asked good questions, got great footage, and made the interview fun.  I have done a lot of interviews over my career.  One of the facts about me is that I was once featured on CBS National News with Dan Rather.  But the interesting part was the research and the interesting critters that I was studying.  I didn't care much about any focus on me.  And the same thing yesterday--we spent over three hours talking about some extremely interesting critters in the salt marsh whose behavior in many ways is more civilized than ours.

I received some sad news about a friend yesterday.  He has been diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia and is undergoing intense chemo therapy.  He was a colleague of mine and one of my running buddies.  We did some research projects together.  I told him that I would be willing to come to where he is and help out in any way.  He said that he knew that, but that it was now up to God and the doctors.  I get that, but that part of me still wants to reach out and make things okay for others.

He was kind to me when I first came to work at the institute.  He put us up in his house while we were looking for a house to buy. And he came to visit my wife when she had her heart attack.  He has done countless other things over the years that are too numerous to mention.   Suffice to say that he is not an alcoholic nor one who has been affected by alcohol or drugs.  He is just a good-hearted, genuine person.  And that is a rare commodity in many ways.

It is odd how one day the world gets turned upside down by something that you didn't expect.  That is when we not only rely on our inner strength but on our friends and on a power greater than ourselves.  What amazing opportunities I have been given and what an amazing life this is.

And finally this:

"I can believe things that are true and things that aren't true and I can believe things where nobody knows if they're true or not.


I can believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and the Beatles and Marilyn Monroe and Elvis and Mister Ed. Listen - I believe that people are perfectable, that knowledge is infinite, that the world is run by secret banking cartels and is visited by aliens on a regular basis, nice ones that look like wrinkled lemurs and bad ones who mutilate cattle and want our water and our women.


I believe that the future sucks and I believe that the future rocks and I believe that one day White Buffalo Woman is going to come back and kick everyone's ass. I believe that all men are just overgrown boys with deep problems communicating and that the decline in good sex in America is coincident with the decline in drive-in movie theaters from state to state.


I believe that all politicians are unprincipled crooks and I still believe that they are better than the alternative. I believe that California is going to sink into the sea when the big one comes, while Florida is going to dissolve into madness and alligators and toxic waste.


I believe that antibacterial soap is destroying our resistance to dirt and disease so that one day we'll all be wiped out by the common cold like martians in War of the Worlds.


I believe that the greatest poets of the last century were Edith Sitwell and Don Marquis, that jade is dried dragon sperm, and that thousands of years ago in a former life I was a one-armed Siberian shaman.


I believe that mankind's destiny lies in the stars. I believe that candy really did taste better when I was a kid, that it's aerodynamically impossible for a bumble bee to fly, that light is a wave and a particle, that there's a cat in a box somewhere who's alive and dead at the same time (although if they don't ever open the box to feed it it'll eventually just be two different kinds of dead), and that there are stars in the universe billions of years older than the universe itself.


I believe in a personal god who cares about me and worries and oversees everything I do. I believe in an impersonal god who set the universe in motion and went off to hang with her girlfriends and doesn't even know that I'm alive. I believe in an empty and godless universe of causal chaos, background noise, and sheer blind luck.


I believe that anyone who says sex is overrated just hasn't done it properly. I believe that anyone who claims to know what's going on will lie about the little things too.


I believe in absolute honesty and sensible social lies. I believe in a woman's right to choose, a baby's right to live, that while all human life is sacred there's nothing wrong with the death penalty if you can trust the legal system implicitly, and that no one but a moron would ever trust the legal system.


I believe that life is a game, that life is a cruel joke, and that life is what happens when you're alive and that you might as well lie back and enjoy it." ~Neil Gaiman

Friday staff meeting

For some perverse reason, we always have our staff meetings on Friday. Right before the weekend we get all the news that's good and we get all the news that's bad.

In research at the current time, there isn't much good news in terms of funding. I think that marine science is incredibly important but most of the sciences are suffering in terms of budget cuts. Since all the "sheet" hit the fan on the economy, we've taken over a 40% cut in our operating budget. And today's happy little meeting was about possible furloughs and another cut coming. This is the first time that the F word has been brought up, other than many years ago when there was a nationwide recession.

But I have to look at the reality of living in a relatively poor state where education is near last, foreclosures are increasing, and unemployment is high. Under the current scenario worldwide, there isn't going to much emphasis placed on science of the oceans when so many other dire circumstances are occurring. People are interested in saving their homes, their jobs, getting medical care, and feeding the family.

In the big picture, I realize that I'm powerless over all of this. And I do have a lot of happiness for today. I have a job. I enjoy my work. I know that there is much more to be done in this field. And it's Friday which means that I get to spend a couple of days out on the boat breathing in salt air, snuggling by the fire, and going for walks. There are a lot of good things to focus on in this day.

Long week

It's only Tuesday but it feels like a long week already. I was spoiled from having so many days at home. And it doesn't help that my wife reminded me this morning how great retirement is. She said in a teasing way, "You ought to try it."

I've been thinking about retirement. I'll be pretty young when I retire. And I definitely don't want to sit around, watch TV, or complete endless lists of things that need to be done. I gave up the lists a while ago. I'm living on more of an "ad hoc" basic these days. And that feels good.

Anyway, I do make plans when it comes to work. I have to do that with my job as a department head. Reality is that I want to live one day at a time but also need to give consideration to career plans.

So this brings me to an idea that I've hatched. I'm thinking about submitting a proposal to be a Waterkeeper for some rivers in the southern part of the state. It's a non-profit group, the Waterkeeper Alliance, and acts as a watchdog for the waterways. I know the local Waterkeeper for the Harbor and it sounds like an ideal "volunteer" job for me.

There are lots of reasons to want to monitor the rivers and work to keep them at status quo or better. Here are just a few of those reasons:






You get the picture(s) right?

Finally, this is what I'm grateful for today:

• Thankful for a few days of warmer than usual temperatures
• Grateful for some good sharing at my home group meeting last night where we talked about humility
• Grateful that I no longer feel the need to let arrogance block me from others
• Grateful for another day in which I meet with a sponsee tonight and then go to a meeting
• Grateful for looking out a picture window for 28 years and seeing the Harbor and the city in the distance.
  

Have a good Tuesday everyone.

What work means

I haven't got anything special weighing on my mind today. I was thinking back over yesterday. I had a good day at work. The workshop that I hosted went well and everyone seemed to have a good time. It wasn't a big deal since it didn't involve but about 15 people, but when you see people be enthusiastic about something that you've done, it feels good. I also received a special thank you from one of my staff telling me what a good supervisor I was. That was also nice. I think that I have the best staff around. They are highly competent, motivated, nice people. I don't have to worry about the work that they do which is great because I never liked to micro-manage. I spent enough time on controlling drinking at home so it was easy to let things just move along on their own at work.

As I start to think about the years ahead, it is with a tinge of sadness that a career that I have so loved will be coming to a close. I've devoted years in graduate school and my entire working life to this profession. It's been a really good time overall. I still have a number of exciting projects yet to complete and others that are coming up this year, so I have a lot to look forward to. I do miss some of my colleagues who have left or are leaving. Some have retired and others have moved on to take positions elsewhere. One of the big carrots that gets held before your nose is whether you want to assume an administrative position. I've never had any desire to climb upwards in administration. It just isn't my idea of a fun time to do strategic plans, vision statements, budget projections, and all the other bureaucratic stuff. My focus remains fairly pure. I'm glad that my colleagues are making a decision to their liking. It just isn't an enticement to me. More money doesn't equal more happiness.

Work has meant more than just a paycheck to me. It's been a real journey and I've seen some fantastic things that few people will ever get to see. For that, I'm most grateful.

"Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses, and some don't turn up at all." Sam Ewing