Archive for November, 2014

Happy Thanksgiving

Thursday, November 27th, 2014

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Had a chance to think today. Here’s what I wrote on Facebook:

This has not been the easiest year of my life, with the loss in February of Shannon Morrow, my wonderful wife of 35 years, and then my dear mother’s death in September. I think my heart has broken anew every single day.

And yet out of the ashes of my life has arisen a new, happy, wonderful present and future. Joanne Marie Richards Parsons came into my life in the spring. It started with a serious interest, quickly turned into love, and just recently blossomed into our engagement. Joanne’s love has given me immense happiness and strength. Her circle of friends has embraced me. Her wonderful children have been kind and welcoming to me. My life is filled with love and happiness.

My children have reached out to me and loved and cared for me, even as they dealt with their own loss and grief. My relationships with them have grown stronger and closer. Each one is a strong, happy, independent adult and I couldn’t be a prouder father.

So along with personal tragedies, 2014 has brought me peace and happiness and given me optimism for the future. My past was wonderful, my present is wonderful, and my future promises to continue to be happy and full of wonder. Life is good.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Nothing to add. See you tomorrow.

Airborne entertainment

Wednesday, November 26th, 2014

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Here’s the view from my airplane seat last August, on my way to Detroit to see my mother for the last time. Live baseball on my iPad at 30,000 feet! I like how Southwest does some things. Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken at altitude in a Southwest 737 in August, 2014, and part of my famous Electronics, Food, Machinery, and Vacation series.

I didn’t know it was my last visit with my mom. But it was. She was sick by then – very sick indeed – and in the hospital when I got there. They moved her to a rehab place while I was there, but she didn’t make any improvement and she left that place for hospice at home shortly after I came back to Las Vegas at the end of the week. I’m so grateful I got to see her one more time, in spite of the terrible shape and low spirits she was in. She was a wonderful mother and a truly good person and I miss her.

There are a few new things to discuss today, but it’s very late so I’ll try to keep it brief.

Paul’s here! His two-week stay is up tomorrow. We’ve had a very nice visit and I’m sorry to see him have to go home. A few hours after Paul’s departure, Andy arrives for Thanksgiving. I love having the company!

Mark got a new phone yesterday. His iPhone 4S was getting very old and its battery wasn’t holding much of a charge anymore. So we got him a new 5S. Yes, I know that’s an older phone, but it was what we could afford and it’s a whole lot better than what he had. Besides, a few short weeks ago, it was the coolest thing on the block. I think he likes it.

I finally finished the first draft of the website I’ve been contracted to produce. I thought it was probably pretty far from what my client wanted, but it turns out I was wrong. They love it! I have a bit of cleanup work to do, the client needs to provide me a bunch of text, and he needs to get hosting arranged before we can go live. But I’m truly excited about having a design they’re happy with.

I think I’m ready to start working full-time again. Currently, I’m planning to concentrate all my efforts on PhotoDoc for at least a few months. Maybe once I get things under better control and feel that I’m providing my customers and potential customers a product and customer service we’re completely proud of, I can turn my attention back to iOS apps, but this is the thing that’s currently most likely to provide me a living, so that’s where my effort is going.

Speaking of working on iOS apps, I’ve been thinking about an iOS app to complement PhotoDoc. I don’t think we’ll try to put the analysis tools on an iPhone, but I’m toying with the idea of using the iPhone/iPad as data gathering tools, with photos, audio files, interview forms, growth chart data, and even possibly traumagrams being captured on the iDevice and transferred automatically to the user’s copy of PhotoDoc. I need to talk to my partner and our odontologist advisors to see if there’s any interest in pursuing this. The idea is that customers could use the device they always have in their pockets to gather information whenever it becomes available and get it into PhotoDoc immediately. It’s already possible to use those devices to gather data, but it currently requires a tiny bit of work to get it into the app on your computer’s desktop. We could save that bit of effort and make it a free or low cost add-on to the program. Just a thought.

Ken came over today to visit before Paul leaves. It was good to see him. We’re getting together again on Thanksgiving afternoon and again on Saturday for a couple hours for me to help him set up his Christmas village in their living room. I enjoy hanging out with Ken.

Joanne and I have a bunch more travel coming up soon, which I’ll discuss here at a later date.

And that’s about it for today. Things are great.

I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity: crime-fighting fake fish!

See you tomorrow.

Happy couple

Thursday, November 13th, 2014

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Here are Joanne and me feeling happy a couple days ago. Note the fourth finger on her left hand. Such a pretty ring! And we look so happy! Why, you might ask, are those people so happy? Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken at Rubio’s Fish Tacos on November 11, 2014, and part of my famous Event and Joanne series.

The event, of course: my engagement to Joanne. I actually proposed on November 5th, but we didn’t get her ring until the 11th. These things take some time, Loyal Readers.

Anyway. I’m tremendously happy and very much in love. We expect to get married in a couple years, so there’s plenty of time to prepare. The tentative date is November 5, 2016. We’ll see whether that date changes.

Since we announced our engagement to Facebook, there have been many friends who have congratulated us and wished us well. That’s gratifying. Joanne in particular has a very large group of friends, many of whom have become my good friends too. I’m not just marrying a wonderful woman and I’m not just marrying into a sweet family; I’m marrying into a whole ecosystem of friends, fun, and happiness. It’s amazing. I love it and I love her.

Let’s see, what else is new? Oh, yeah: Paul’s here! He got into town yesterday morning. We’ve been having a great visit. He’s looking good and appears to be doing very well. He and I went downtown to have lunch with Joanne today, after which we went to fly quadrotors with my good friend Bob. Sadly, Bob’s quad had broken the day before, so the three of us took turns flying mine. Amazingly, nothing broke and we had a great time running through six of my seven batteries. We then retired to Bob and Diane’s house for a refreshing beverage and enjoyable conversation, after which we headed for home. A very pleasant afternoon indeed.

Back on November 1st, Mark, Joanne, and I went downtown for the Light the Night walk, sponsored by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. It was a beautiful night and the walk was very well attended. It was a moving thing to be surrounded by so many people whose lives had been forever altered by blood cancer and who have chosen to help raise funds to eradicate this disease. I’m especially grateful to my family members who donated generously to that cause in Shannon’s name.

And that’s about it for today. My intention is to start posting more frequently again. We’ll see. In the meantime, I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: Doughnut Magnate Crashes Into Honey Bucket!

See you tomorrow.