The wonder of it all

Every few weeks we take the opportunity to Skype with our oldest daughter who lives in Minnesota.  What a wonder this technology is!  Here is how it goes...

There is my daughter sitting in front of the screen with our newest grandson on her lap.  Then there are three blurs flitting about, screeching occasionally, that will resolve (briefly) into one of our other three grandsons.  We try and make comments about each one IF they stay still long enough for us to see any details, what they're wearing, how they look, what they are trying to get us to see in a modern version of 'show-and-tell'.  Soon the nearly three year old is so wound up that he is literally falling all over himself and piles of brothers and the screech level approaches ear-splitting decibels.  After 15 minutes of this we are out of things to say and simply watch the mania for another 10 minutes or so and then we have to sign off!

But I love it.

I love the fact that when these boys see us on Skype it is instant pandemonium!
I love the fact that when these boys come to see us in person it only takes a brief while before they feel right at home!
I love the fact that, though it is a poor substitute for real, face-to-face communication it is almost like being right there.  We can have a conversation! (albeit punctuated by shrieks, yells, protests and proclamations - wookie dis!)

Yes.  It beats writing a letter and enclosing a picture.

The wonder of it all!

50 years of change...

As we will soon be reminded (ad nauseum) this month is the 50th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Democratic President of the United States.  I was 10 years old and in the 5th grade at Bellaire Elementary School in White Bear Lake, MN at the time.  Since MN is in the same time zone as Texas the event occurred right around our lunch time and we were in our classroom when our teacher came rushing in clearly upset about something.  He rolled in a television and turned it on and we watched history unfold.  There was an awful lot we didn't understand and the coverage was disjointed and truncated.  The thing that I remember most is that there were no commercials!  We finally had to go home since school was over and I am sure we watched the television for coverage of the event until it was time to go to bed.

Lot's of things have changed in the world in the 50 trips around the sun since that November day.  All of us alive have had a corresponding change to our age. (Duh!) We have lived during the administration of the following Presidents who succeeded Kennedy:
    Lyndon Johnson
    Richard Nixon
    Gerald Ford
    Jimmy Carter
    Ronald Reagan
    George H. W. Bush
    Bill Clinton
    George W. Bush
    Barack Obama

The Vietnam War
The Cold War
The Iran Hostage Situation
The Fall of the Iron Curtain
The Transformation of the USSR
The First Gulf War
The Rise of Terrorism
Desert Storm
9/11
Operation Iraqi Freedom
The Occupation of Afghanistan

During this time also the world turned to computers and have experienced the exponential change computers have brought to the world.  No one had a clue what the internet was when Kennedy was killed.

Only 50 trips... loads of incredible change.  What will happen next?

I feel like a bellhop in a busy theatre

In my job as a Firefighter I come across some weird 'cosmic' situations.  The other night was just such a time...

Around 0330 hrs we were toned to assist another unit responding to an adult family home.  We were called for 'elderly male, not breathing'.  This almost always results in a CPR call - I've done a lot of CPR over my career - and so we were gearing up to join a crew with CPR in progress.  The other crew arrived and just a minute or so later advised that we could cancel.  Dispatch had said something about DNR (do not resuscitate) paperwork being completed and it must have been true.  Let me say this - DNR paperwork was one of the best things to happen to the fire service.  Now instead of assaulting someone to the grave we can just confirm that their heart has pumped its final time and let them go in peace. 

Then, just an hour later the crew that had cancelled us at the potential CPR call was dispatched for 'immanent childbirth'.  They got the opportunity to welcome a new child into the world, albeit in 'fast-forward' mode.

So in the space of one hour that crew ushered someone out of the theatre (so to speak) and then ushered someone new into their seat.

Cosmic bellhops.

At your service.