Reflections of July

Paul Simon wrote a song many years ago titled "April Come She Will" which recapped the months of the year from April to September. The phrase he used for July went: "July, she will fly and give no warning to her flight."

July, arguably my favorite month of the year, has indeed flown by in supersonic fashion.

July 2011 came complete with five weekends--I was home only one and I had just returned from a two week trip for that one. Of 31 nights in July, I was away for 17 of them in three very different places--Ithaca, the Caribbean West Indies, and Ocean City.

Wow. And I think I even got the lawn mowed somewhere in there, too.


Last evening, we has a fantastic dinner at a marina side restaurant in Ocean City which really capped the month of July. It was an awesome way to wind up the best month of the year.

And alas, July has flown by and we are standing on the doorstep of August.

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Notable quote

"No gramma, I'm not bored. I like picking the dead skin off your legs. It males me feel like a truck mechanic." - Ethan, while laying on the floor beneath Chris' legs.

We were having a quiet afternoon of napping and chilling at the time.


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Location:Ocean City, MD

From Sea to Ocean

What experiences I have had during the past couple of weeks. From enjoying the Caribbean West Indies to returning to life at work and now spending time on that small strip of Maryland on the Atlantic Ocean shore known as Ocean City.

The view from the condo is fantastic, looking right out onto the ocean. I am sitting here listening to the waves crash just over the dunes and to the sounds of sea birds calling to each other.

It has been a very long time since I have been in Ocean City. Maybe more than 10 years. And I am such a beach guy, too.

I had forgotten how pretty the low sand dunes are as they strive to protect the land from the sea and provide a foothold for shore life.

The long open beach goes on seemingly forever until it slips beneath the waves of the unstoppable force that is the mighty Atlantic Ocean.

The air is clear, although it is already hot as the day is going to be a scorcher.

And I have escaped, once again. If only for a weekend.

What could be better?

Successes and Failures coupled with Ups and Downs

It has been a bit of a wow week, as I shake off the remnants of island time and get back into the grind and pace that is my life.

I have been able to celebrate successes with friends--and today I am celebrating another success as one of our people departs for a new assignment. I can say that I am a bit envious of his good fortune--which he totally made for himself, but that he and his wife are in a place to pick up their lives and go for their dream is reassuring and at the same time reminds me how entrenched I have become in this place where I live.

I confess, I really did not want my recent vacation to end. Often, I get to the point on vacations where I am ready to go home and leave the fun behind. Not so this year. I was in no way ready to step back into the complexities of my life. I could have used an additional week, or maybe a year.

And then, upon my return, I was greeted with a personal failure of sorts. One that I knew in my head was probably going to happen, but that I had convinced myself that this time--maybe this time, the outcome would be different and restore my faith in the system I work within.

But alas, I got the same narrow-minded response that I have come to expect and that I alluded to in a blog I published on September 25, 2010 about Plug-n-Play Leadership: The Wrong Answer.

But that is my own personal axe to bear. (It is axe to bear and cross to grind or the other way around?)

It just still hurts a lot when I take a big personal risk, lay it all out there and then feel as if the paradigm du jour was blindly applied for the sake of easy out leadership.

It took a couple days, but I am mostly over it. Spending time reviewing and editing the images we captured on vacation has really helped. I have about 930 already loaded into Picasa, and there are about 100 more that need loading, but my camera had the wrong date and I need to get the date fixed before I load them into the main directory.

The sine wave of life then is full of ups and downs.

The key is whether the trend is up or down. I like mine to be in a trending up kind of position.

And it is.


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An Evening with Josh Groban

Last evening, Chris and I headed off to downtown Washington, DC to listen to one of her favorite singers give a concert at the Verizon Center.

Josh Groban, with the help of his warm-up act, provided us with a pleasant evening of music and entertainment. I admit, right up front, that I am not a fan of this big voiced tenor who also demonstrated a musical talent on both the piano and drum set. But, he is talented and gave an entertaining performance which kept the evening moving.

There were many more women than men in the audience. I had noted this as we entered the arena--but Josh also made a comment about the men in the crowd being good for the next two hours and possibly being rewarded for their acquiescence. I did find that humorous. He also made a reference to the high ticket prices we paid for the concert and promised to sing "his ass off" for us--or most of it, and he did.

Josh sings in multiple languages--last evening, in addition to english, songs were sung in spanish, portuguese, and italian--and possibly others but who really knows?

He did cover some other writers songs--most notable being Neil Diamond when he covered "Play Me." Of course, he also covered "You Raise Me Up" which is aptly arranged to suite his uniquely big voice and broad vocal range.

The stage and set was interesting and dynamic. He used two stages during the performance--one in the middle of the audience, the other being the main stage. This afforded him better access to the attendees and showcased his style. His supporting orchestra was also fabulous.

As the concert ended, promptly after the promised two hours, I was left wising for a few more songs.

All-in-all, it was an enjoyable evening with good music in a first class concert setting.




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Train Wreck Coming

I cannot begin to imagine the pain and suffering that will ensue if the President and Congress cannot come to an agreement soon on the debt ceiling impasse.

The game of budgetary chicken is not good for the country, is not good for jobs, and begins to relegate the US to the status of a third world country.

We CANNOT continue to spend more than we take in AND we must make good on the promises already made--such as social security and other entitlements. But, we must continue to operate the government. It is funny that none of us want big government in our lives, but yet we continue to vote for things that demand big government to operate, like Obama-care.

Cutting the federal workforce is also not the answer because too many things have been laid on the federal government through the social engineering programs of the past. Services will be destroyed for those who can least accommodate less availability of service like the disabled and the elderly.

Yeah--it is all gonna hurt--but it will hurt all of us a lot more if the US defaults.

I believe we, the citizens, need to write (email) our congressional representatives and the President to urge them to find a solution and a compromise today!  Before we wind up like Greece.

Remember--we the people are not powerless. We elected everyone in congress and the President as well. We must hold them accountable (as specified in The Constitution) for properly managing the finances of the country.

Catching Up--another post-script

The problem with vacation, it seems, is in trying to catch up after the time away is over.

Whether it is with house-related activities such as the lawns, gardens, pool or wash; or with work-related issues it seems that catching up after a vacation at times takes more effort than it should.

I also have hundreds (literally almost a thousand) images to go through and decide how or whether to display and add to my Picasa web album.

But taking the pictures was fun, catching up on the job and house issues is not so much fun.

It makes me dizzy just thinking about all of the things that I now have to do, yesterday it seems.

But life goes in and so do we.

As the vacation fades into memory, it will not be so foremost in my mind. Sadly, we planned this vacation for over a year; and now it is over.  The two weeks away passed so quickly that I am very melancholy about the whole thing.

And so I am left with memories, images, and a few stories about the places I saw and the people I met.

I will definitely remember the 6 foot Goliath Grouper for a long time. And Albert our driver. And Marek our Captain. And Nevela the woman working the desk at Oasis Marigot who made so many arrangements for us.

But the pain of catching up on the email is also very real, too.

No good deed, it seems, goes unpunished.

Monday Musings - July 25, 2011

1. Digital cameras make taking too many pictures too easy--now I have to go through them all and figure out which ones to keep.

2. There is no way than individual Americans should be expected to be fiscally responsible given the example being set by Congress and the President right now.

3. During the past two weeks, I had my cell phone off more than it was on and I found it to be a freeing experience.

4. With the final touchdown of the space shuttle fleet--how many years do you reckon it will be until another manned space mission is launched from US soil?

5. Which are more Americans concerned about: ending the NFL lockout or the looming US credit meltdown? Sadly, the NFL situation seems to be getting more press.

6. The tragedy in Norway with the shootings and bombing just sadly reconfirms the idea that in every society there are scary, sick people who
have no respect for others and who may do things which defy reason. I grieve for the Norwegians and for everyone everywhere who have lost loved ones in terrorist/extremist attacks on civilization.

7. In a snub to the traveling public--did you hear that as some excise taxes ended on airline tickets that all of the major US airlines raised fares to compensate--so the only ones benefiting from reduced taxes is big business rather than the traveling public. Nice.

8. Lesson learned from my recent vacation--I am not cut out to be a sailor. There was a reason that I wanted to be a jet fighter pilot when I was younger!

9. And here is the latest twist on Obama-care: since employers are going to have to provide health care benefits to part-time employees, employers are reducing or finding ways to force part-timers to leave. I wonder what impact this will have on the employment figures next year?

10. Speaking of big business scooping up profits--have you noticed that gasoline prices are not falling even though the government is releasing oil from the strategic reserves?


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Sunsets of St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines

One of the things we enjoyed the most during the vacation were the sunsets.

Almost every evening we enjoyed the sunset usually involving the Caribbean Sea and boats or birds.

And so, here are my favorite images and memories of the sunsets we enjoyed.





Marigot Bay, the second night, July 10, sitting on the dock down the hill from our villa.



3rd night--from the the dock in front of a restaurant in Marigot Bay, Cafe Margot on Monday evening July 11th




Sunset from Julietta's on the hill above Marigot Bay on Friday evening July 15th.




Also from Julietta's that same evening, just a bit later.



Fire in the sky, our second night at sea, July 17th, between St Vincent and Bequia



Third night at sea approaching Tobago Cays July 18th. This is of the clouds reflecting the sunset which is behind the camera.



Our last night at sea July 20, our next to last night of vacation provided a couple interesting sunset shots. We are in Cumberland Bay, St Vincent and the boat is anchored and tied to a tree.





also from July 20 in Cumberland Bay.




The final sunset image of our vacation, July 20 from Cumberland Bay, is appropriately birds flying away in front of a setting sun. Much as the sun was setting on our vacation and our sailing adventure and we were about to begin winging our way back to our home.

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Lessons from St Lucia - A Postscript

During the course of the vacation, we learned some things that we want to remember for the future. Some of them are funny--and some, not so.



We heard phrases and we talked to so many people who left lasting impressions on us--two that come to mind are Albert our taxi driver and Marek our skipper. But then there was George the water taxi man who was there to help us board the Javelot when it was looking very bleak late on that Saturday afternoon after we had been sitting on the dock all day since about 10am.

Things we learned include:

Island Time -- a phrase we used when things took longer than expected or didn't happen when we expected them to happen.

"It is not a competition" -- a phrase that our skipper Marek used to describe his fishing (and in truth it really means he wants to win!)

"It is an obligation" or "It is not an obligation" -- translates to a requirement or not a requirement, again a phrase used by Marek.

We learned to wait -- There was lots of waiting. Waiting for water taxis, waiting for boats, waiting in lines, and waiting to get someplace.

The journey can be as important as the destination -- Whether driving or sailing, or walking sometimes we need to realize that the destination is sometimes just a means to help us appreciate the journey.

TSA has no sense of humor when it comes to liquids and aerosols.

Banana trees only grow one bunch of bananas in their life.


Bananas are matured in big blue bags right on the trees.

Life is too short to move too fast (and you get really sweaty when you do)

A good day for navigation (sailing) may be a bad day to be a passenger!

We learned all about how cashews grow.

"It's perfect" -- Marek's response to how things were going.

Important information can be lost in translation--like I was trying to find out how far away we were from something and I learned how tall it was.

Happiness is not found in possessions, but rather it is a state of mind. We saw abjectly poor people who seemed incredibly happy.




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