Archive for May, 2014

Chinese lanterns

Monday, May 12th, 2014

chineselanterns

Here’s the front of the City of Hope on February 1 of this year. They decorated the campus for Chinese New Year. I loved the decorations. Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken at the City of Hope, and part of my famous Architecture, Event, Garden, Medical, Shannon, and Statue series.

Lots of famous series there. Today’s picture is also important to me because I took it on Shannon’s last full day of life. The City of Hope is still a sacred place to me and I’ll always remember it as the place where we had hope for Shannon’s recovery and life and where I rediscovered the sweetness of our love. That it had to be the place where her life ended doesn’t take away any of the meaning for me.

No posts on Thursday or Friday. Sorry about that, Loyal Readers. Stay loyal! I’ll try to do better. I might even succeed! But don’t count on it.

Pretty good weekend. I went out for lunch with Joanne a couple times and she invited me to a birthday party for one of her friends on Friday evening. We had a wonderful time. The honoree works for the company that runs the restaurant where the party was held, and they really did an amazing job. There was a never-ending stream of delicious appetizers. I met a few of Joanne’s friends and really like them all. Strangely, they seem to like me too. Kind of suspicious, if you ask me. Anyway, I’ve really liked everyone she has introduced me to.

Happy birthday to Nan McCulloch, my wonderful mother-in-law! I truly appreciate Nan for the kind person she is and for her loving care of Don all these years. I know she’s brought great happiness to his life and I trust it’s been a fulfilling life for her too.

Saturday evening, Mark and I went with some friends to the Jazz in the Park concert at the Clark County outdoor amphitheater. It was great! The evening was beautiful, the temperature was just right, and the music was very enjoyable. There was a bit of wind, but it never got bad enough to bother us. A few musicians had a bit of trouble keeping their sheet music on the stands, but that was their problem. Joanne and I are going to the one on the 24th of this month as well.

Shortly after we got home from the concert, the wind got very strong indeed. I thought we were in Kansas for a minute there and was starting to wonder which wicked witch my house was going to land on. I’m glad it didn’t get bad until after we got home.

Sunday, I went with Joanne to visit her late husband’s grave. He’s buried in a nearby veteran’s cemetery, and they recently notified her that his gravestone has been put in place. She wanted to see it but didn’t want to go alone. After our visit, we walked through the adjacent park and talked about her late husband Jerry and her extended family, and then we talked about Shannon and our extended family. We both needed to get some tears out. It was a good talk.

And that pretty much brings us up to today. The most notable thing I did today was to break the Business Casual Software website. I was trying to update WordPress to the most recent version and something went wrong. The installation got halfway done and broke the website. I pondered my options and decided to get on the GoDaddy website and see if I could reinstall the update through their website. It worked brilliantly and I’m back in business after just a short outage.

Spent 45 minutes or so in the jacuzzi this evening. It’s so relaxing I can hardly keep my eyes open anymore. So I’ll quit here!

I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this combination exciting Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity and food violence news: genius chair-moving, food-stealing beagle!

The beach – Mar 4, 2011

Wednesday, May 7th, 2014

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Here’s Shannon on the beach at Half-Moon Bay back in March of 2011. That was a great weekend with good friends. The weather was a bit chilly for beachgoing, but it was just perfect for being together. Great Art courtesy of my old Olympus digital camera and part of my famous Shannon and Vacation series.

And I think this is the where my daily pictures of Shannon end. I have many more that I will continue to share, but I think it’s time to add some Great Art from the present too. Life is becoming easier and easier to live in the present. That’s how it should be, I think. I still want my old life back so, so badly. But it’s not there anymore. And my new life is a happy one too.

Pretty good day today. I got a bit of progress made on my iOS program. I have all the warnings eliminated except for the one telling me to update my distribution certificate soon. I’ll take care of that shortly. Tomorrow, the changes start being applied.

Mark and I went to Roberto’s for dinner today. I meant to make something, but it got late again before I did anything. I have some really good steaks to barbecue. Just need to take the time. Maybe tomorrow.

After dinner, we went over to the Sunset Station bowling alley to meet Joanne’s children and grandson. They were there for her grandson Riley’s sixth birthday. Several of them are really good bowlers. Note to self: think twice before accepting an invitation to go bowling with those guys. But the important thing was meeting her family. They’re all delightful, fun, happy, quirky young people. Just like their mom. It was a pleasant visit and Joanne reports they like me too.

Let’s see, what else happened today? I got an email from my parents-in-law. I had been thinking about them the other day and it struck me how devastated I would be if one of my children were to die – possibly even more devastated than I have been since my wife died. So I sent a note expressing condolences for the effect Shannon’s loss has had on them and thanking them – especially Shannon’s dad – for the great foundation in life they gave her and for their ongoing love. I also mentioned once again how crucial her dad’s example has been to me in my bereavement. Today they responded with a very kind note expressing their love for Shannon and for me. It was touching. I took a moment to cry, which is something that has been happening less and less lately but is still there just below the surface.

And that’s it for today. My Loyal Readers will be surprised to hear that it’s very late and I need to get to bed. I’ll leave them with this shocking food violence news: banana break-in!

See you tomorrow.

Longwood Gardens – June 9, 2012

Tuesday, May 6th, 2014

IMG_0861

Here’s Shannon at Longwood Gardens on the day after my birthday in 2012. We were there to see an amazing outdoor light installation. Those lily pad-looking things in the background there were part of it. Here’s a very brief YouTube video advertising the show. And here’s another YouTube video with a bunch of still pictures of the installation. Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam and part of my famous Shannon, Event, and Garden series.

The thing about Longwood Gardens was the immensity of the place and the perfection of everything. It was beautiful during all four seasons and it would take you days to see everything. And everything would be perfect every time you visited. Truly one of the most amazing places I’ve ever been. We went often during our year in Pennsylvania.

How I loved going places and doing things with Shannon! She was such a fun companion. It’s only been a bit more than three months since her death and nearly 15 months since her diagnosis with Leukemia, but will this aching heart ever truly mend? I can’t imagine that wound ever healing, but I know the pain has eased greatly in the past three months and will continue to improve. But life will never be the same, ever.

I’ve mentioned my friend Joanne here a few times. She and I both feel a strong connection and really enjoy being together. But she still loves and yearns for her late husband Jerry and I still love and pine for Shannon. And that’s okay with both of us. She and I are doing many of the things Shannon and I wanted to do here in Las Vegas and having a wonderful time together and it’s still totally safe for us to both miss our spouses and wish they were still here. I’m so grateful for her sweet, feminine presence in my life. I’m finally truly feeling like my heart can still be alive without forgetting or turning my back on the wonderful life that has so recently ended.

Got a little bit more done on PhotoDoc today. I really need to get back to Common Core Classroom again. I’ve been working on just getting it to compile without errors. Every time Apple updates Xcode, they break my code. Kind of frustrating, but such is the life of the iOS developer. Fortunately, I can always eventually figure out what has happened and update things to make them work again. Hopefully having finished that process in the next couple of days, I can start adding the updates I promised my little group of users.

And that’s it for today. Our housekeepers are coming early tomorrow morning, so I need to get to sleep. I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity: joyriding chihuahua!

See you tomorrow.

Historical landmark – Aug 24, 2007

Tuesday, May 6th, 2014

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Here are Shannon, Mark, and Andy checking out a historical landmark: the Sonora Pass, elevation 9,628 feet. Not the highest mountain we’ve ever been on top of, but probably the highest one we climbed in California. Assuming we accept the definition of “climbed” as “drove to the top of.” Which I do. Great Art courtesy of my old Olympus camera, taken during one of our trips to Clark’s Fork, and part of my famous Shannon and Camping series.

Pretty nice day. I had a few things that needed doing, but never quite got to them. It’s so easy to occupy my time doing other things. I’ll get to the important stuff tomorrow.

Mark and I went to Tokyo Boys for dinner with the Sushi group. It’s a nice place I’ve been to a couple times before and it’s pretty close to our house, so I was glad the group went there today. There were two people there I’ve eaten with before, but everybody else was new to me. There was a mother and daughter who were with the group for the first time tonight, which is nice.

The weekend was very nice. Joanne and I went to Lake Las Vegas for dinner on Saturday evening. We ate on the patio of an Italian restaurant that overlooks the water. There’s a stage right off the shore – maybe floating, maybe not – and there was a very nice jazz band playing. The music was loud enough to easily hear but not so loud you couldn’t carry on a conversation. There was a fairly decent-sized crowd listening, the weather was nice and warm with just a very gentle breeze, the food was great, and it was just a pleasant evening. We walked around the little village after dinner and just really had a nice time.

Sunday, Mark and I went to Ken and Melanie’s house for dinner as usual. We had lasagna and it was delicious. In a pleasant development, Tonya’s husband Diego was there. He has recently changed jobs due to a promotion (yea for them!), and thinks his Sunday evenings will be free from now on. I’m delighted about that – he’s a very nice guy and I like chatting with him. Both Tonya and Laura are married to great guys.

And that’s it for tonight. I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: butter rage!

See you tomorrow.

Yosemite Lodge – July 21, 2008

Friday, May 2nd, 2014

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Here are Shannon and Mark relaxing at the Yosemite Lodge back in July 2008. I don’t remember what they were waiting for – may have been the tram that took us around Yosemite Valley. Great Art courtesy of my old Olympus camera, taken at the lodge in Yosemite National Park, and part of my famous Shannon, Architecture, and Vacation series.

Pretty good day today. I started working again on the Common Core Classroom app. Today’s activities were pretty much confined to figuring out why a ton of compiler warnings have suddenly appeared. I believe it’s mainly because the latest version of Xcode comes with 64-bit compilation set as the default. I don’t think that’s a good thing for my app right now because I believe I still need to be compatible with a few older 32-bit devices. So I’ll change that back on Monday and see where I am.

Or maybe not. I just read something that says the binaries generated are universal, meaning that they include binaries for both 32-bit and 64-bit devices. So I might as well figure out how to fix the warnings. And then I can get to the actual changes I want to make. I also believe I found a bug today that can keep the last alphabetical name of a student from appearing in classroom reports. It’s always something, isn’t it, Loyal Readers?

Went to Kaizen Sushi Restaurant with Mark this evening for an all-you-can-eat dinner. It was delicious, but I’m stuffed and I’ve been very thirsty since I got home, no matter how much water I drink. Have no fear, Loyal Readers: I will survive. But I can’t believe how thirsty I am.

Anyway. The restaurant makes some really unique rolls and Mark and I tried several of them. Delicious! We’ll go again.

And that’s about it for today. I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: exploding artichoke!

See you on Monday.