Posting Back from the Future: An introduction

From this site

I am writing this post and the posts about our 2012 Southwest vacation well into the future.  I wanted to follow along on the dates they happened, and provide some memories for my children to read some day.

Thinking back to the great times we had on this trip seems to put a lot of dust in my eyes.  I am the most blessed man alive.

Goodbye Chuck

My wife and I watched the final episodes of Chuck Friday night; afterwards I searched the internet for reactions and explanations on why I shouldn't be horribly disappointed. I was certainly happy that everyone other than the main characters were getting shots at their dreams, and I was pleased that Chuck was showing his devotion to Sarah and that Sarah was willing to try to fall in love with Chuck again. I applauded the choices to take Chuck and Sarah back to when Chuck had the Intersect and to see the same locations of previously memorable scenes. Why did the authors feel compelled to throw away 5 years of the relationship built between Chuck and Sarah? I even read in an interview with Chris Fedak that this was a happy ending. After thinking long and hard, I wonder if this is a byproduct of America thinking the early part of a relationship is the best part. I can certainly empathize; the first years of meeting my wife, falling in love together, and starting our future were amazingly fantastic. But I wouldn't want to go back and relive that time -- to trade in the rich relationship we have now and to give up our years of shared experiences. I think Chuck did the right thing -- sticking by his wife and working to make her fall in love again. However, like Chuck and some of the fans, I certainly grieved the death of the relationship that was and the picket fence/children life that was to be. It was their relationship that I had enjoyed most about the show.

Memorial for mom

I used Google pages to put up a memorial site for my mom. I miss hearing her voice, but am glad she's in her savior's arms.

I don't get it

Last thanksgiving weekend I was out with my wife picking up my in-laws pizza dinner. While waiting for the pizza to come out of the oven I was opening the door for people going in and out – I have had people do the same for me many times when picking up pizza for my family. Most people were thankful, but one young man insulted me (somewhat unintelligibly) as he left (stormed out). My motivation wasn't gratitude so I wasn't angry or hurt -- just puzzled. A gift must be received in order to be given -- what made this man so distrustful to not accept my help? Was it pride? I am definitely out of touch with certain segments of our society.

Mom

Virginia Anne (nee Bruce) Williams passed away from melanoma on April 23, 2011. After 43 years of marriage, Gini leaves husband John, son Doug (Liz), grandchildren Jacob, Bethany, Elijah, Trinity, Charity, and Selah (Cincinnati), daughter Elizabeth (Laramie, WY), brother Robert (Lin) and his children and grandchildren, and sister Margaret. Gini grew up in Laramie, graduating from the University of WY in 1967. John and Gini settled happily in Cincinnati in 1979, with yearly summer trips back to her beloved SE WY mountains. She was an active volunteer in her children?s schools and served ably in her church in many roles, including deacon, elder, handbells, choir, and financial secretary. She touched lives wherever she went and will be missed by all. Memorials may be made to Northminster Presbyterian Church, 703 Compton Rd, Cincinnati, or to the UW Bruce Scholarship in Psychology. A celebration of her life will be held at Northminster on June 4 at 10 am and a graveside service in Laramie on July 16.

Firefox and Encoded URLs

Firefox seems to automatically decode URLs. Not a bad thing, but it's important to know! Developers encode URLs to pass data between internet applications through URLs because not all data passes well (an easy example is the Carriage Return character). I was working on a single sign-on web application by copying and pasting generated data into a second application; however, I failed to realize the errors in the second application came from Firefox decoding my safely encoded data. I actually switched to IE in order to get the proper values.

My wife zings me, and for once I laugh last

There are some key ways that I fit the stereotypes about guys to a T, and one of them is reading maps and asking for directions. If I don't know an area I almost always arm myself with a google map, but this time I was taking my family only about 15 minutes away -- and why waste a sheet of paper for such a short trip? And if the trip takes longer than expected -- so much the better because I love to drive new places and find new routes in the car.

My wife, who doesn't share my love of exploring, is a model of sainthood on these expeditions --but I know she suffers. So recently when she came up with one of the all time great zingers, I could do nothing but practically laugh myself off the road into a tree.

As I mentioned, we're on a short 15 minute drive to my friend's house. I glance at the google map, but don't print it because I think I know right where this is and how to get to it. I do jot down a few street names in my GTD moleskin notebook, and give the list to my wife. We get to our first major turn, and I take it. My wife immediately points out that the name in my notebook does not match the street sign. I say (of course), "I'm pretty sure this is the street though. Let's check the next street sign. "

We drive a little ways, and of course the next sign matches the first one -- but I drive on having a hard time digesting this turn of events. Immediately my wife says, "Quick honey, call the county because someone has put up the wrong street signs. Someone must be told!" After laughing myself to tears for several minutes, I tell her we're going to take the next planned turn and double check that the street sign doesn't match. She accepts this arrogance in quiet amazement as I try to talk her through that this really is the only possiblity of the route as we know the other streets around there reasonably well.

So we take the turn and look at the street sign -- and it Matches what was on the list! That never happens to me -- usually when I insist on the stupid choice I immediately pay for it in some wonderfully humiliating way. But this time ... I was right.

Putting that aside, the zinger has come up countless times and provided tons of laughs -- another credit to my lovely wife. But, she now has to put up with another couple of years of new routes as I remind her about the last time I knew the route.