ciroccoj | Random stuff

I love my kid. I can tell him "Daniel, you are one of the dumbest kids I've ever met," and it can be constructive and make him smile.
By the time Stan Rogers was my age, he had been dead for five years. So had Mozart and Jesus. That's a sobering thought. Also a cautionary note to anybody who's thirty-three and an over-achiever.

Rogers, by the way, wrote Northwest Passage, Barrett's Privateers, The Mary Ellen Carter (this link goes to a video of Stan in performance, btw, though the song doesn't start till 1:30 in), Make and Break Harbour, The Idiot, Fogarty's Cove, White Squall, and Tiny Fish For Japan, among many others.

Mary Ellen Carter
She went down last October in a pouring driving rain.
The skipper, he'd been drinking and the Mate, he felt no pain.
Too close to Three Mile Rock, and she was dealt her mortal blow,
And the Mary Ellen Carter settled low.
There were just us five aboard her when she finally was awash.
We'd worked like hell to save her, all heedless of the cost.
And the groan she gave as she went down, it caused us to proclaim
That the Mary Ellen Carter'd rise again.

Well, the owners wrote her off; not a nickel would they spend.
"She gave twenty years of service, boys, then met her sorry end.
But insurance paid the loss to us, so let her rest below."
Then they laughed at us and said we had to go.
But we talked of her all winter, some days around the clock,
For she's worth a quarter million, afloat and at the dock.
And with every jar that hit the bar, we swore we would remain
And make the Mary Ellen Carter rise again.

Rise again, rise again, that her name not be lost
To the knowledge of men.
Those who loved her best and were with her till the end
Will make the Mary Ellen Carter rise again.

All spring, now, we've been with her on a barge lent by a friend.
Three dives a day in hard hat suit and twice I've had the bends.
Thank God it's only sixty feet and the currents here are slow
Or I'd never have the strength to go below.
But we've patched her rents, stopped her vents, dogged hatch and porthole down.
Put cables to her, 'fore and aft and girded her around.
Tomorrow, noon, we hit the air and then take up the strain.
And make the Mary Ellen Carter rise again.

For we couldn't leave her there, you see, to crumble into scale.
She'd saved our lives so many times, living through the gale
And the laughing, drunken rats who left her to a sorry grave
They won't be laughing in another day...
And you, to whom adversity has dealt the final blow
With smiling bastards lying to you everywhere you go
Turn to, and put out all your strength of arm and heart and brain
And like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again.

Rise again, rise again - though your heart it be broken
And life about to end
No matter what you've lost, be it a home, a love, a friend.
Like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again.
The more I read about the research articling position, the more I want it. And the more I'm thinking that, whether they accept me as an articling student or not, I'm going to apply for a "real" job there as soon as I can.

I'm also kinda nervous. ::gulp::
"You're doing Jesus pie again!" Chris says from the living room.

It takes a moment for me to figure it out. "Oh! You mean Pie Jesu?"

"That one, yeah. Your music's on the piano bench, by the way."
Few things are as beautiful as a three-year-old's smile upon seeing his very favourite people in the world. We babysat ninja_kat Jr. yesterday, and although he had a lot of fun and didn't really want to go at the end, the way his whole face lit up when his parents showed up was one of the reasons I love kids so much. Yes, they're a lot of work, and can be annoying, but their love is whole-hearted and their joy is infectious.
I keep forgetting to say just how incredibly cool being a blue belt is. We're in the upper-level class now, which makes us the newbies once again, and it's a totally different feel. For one thing, it's one hour instead of 45 min, and for another, it's a hell of a lot faster-paced. There's very little standing around having basic things explained and repeated, as often more than half the class are black belts. It's exhausting, but in a good way. And! Chris and I are no longer almost the only adults there! Very cool :) :)
I have all these other entries I really want to make, about lessons learned from our kids & serendipity, and smallpox, and my favourite Star Trek novel, and bone marrow donations, and somehow can't manage to find the time to write them. I'm hoping having this as a list will inspire me to make the time.