Thanks for our freedom . . .

According to CBS Sunday Morning, Arlington National Cemetary has 27 - 30 funerals a day.

If blogging is so simple . . .

why did it take me hours to figure out how to add hyperlinks? When I found the "trick", it really ticked me off that it was so simple (and this is where I fall back on the best excuse I've ever had) -"not that bad for somone who has had brain surgery!"


You may note that I've gone back and added a few hyperlinks to previous posts (click on those blue words and you'll quickly find yourself somewhere else). Also I've added two easy ways for you to subscribe to this blog so you won't miss any more insightful gems (or crap) in the future [over there to the right, up at the top of the column].


In my research, I stumbled across an offer for additional (gratis) blogging education -- all I have to do is post the following here:
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I'm evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they're letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.

It covers:

• The best blogging techniques.
• How to get traffic to your blog.
• How to turn your blog into money.

I'll let you know what I think once I've had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it's still free.

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Being my mother's son (she could never pass up clipping a coupon), I've done the deed. Now I can't wait to receive my free education. Mom would have entered in her coupon log that she had just saved $x. Yeah, she really did that. As a "stay at home Mom", it was her way of demonstrating her contrbution to the family's financial picture since she was emphatic that her saving on expenditures was just the same as "making" the money in the first place. Actually better, since all her "revenue" was tax-free!

Rediscovering Love

Just got back from my first flying trip in six months. Since my Platinum status is still active, I had checked fares on American over two weeks ago for flights to OKC, with a return from Tulsa the following day: over $1,000 round trip! After I got up from the floor, I modified the itinerary to look at going up to just TUL and back the same day: aha! a much "better" fare: only ~$550! I dusted off the http://www.iflyswa.com/ URL in my Favorites folder and checked their fare: $259 including peanuts. Even someone who has had brain surgery can make the prudent decision here.

Truthfully, I haven't flown Southwest out of Dallas for at least 5 years. Not because I have anything against the airline; quite the contrary, it's refreshing to have an airline perform as well as they do, with a hint of fun and a believeable patina in customer facing employees that they are glad you chose their humble company. The main obstacle has been that they fly out of Love Field (just north of downtown Big D). I think 90% of the traffic hassles that significantly consume one's time and patience around here exist between my house and Love.

Because my bodacious beautiful lady (BBL) had serious doubts that I could even find this airport again by myself, she volunteered to chauffer me this morning. Together we discovered that traffic hassles are minimal at 5:30am. I found myself in the security line at 6:10 looking at a huge sign proclaiming Love Field the #1 airport in the country in customer satisfaction according to J.D. Powers. I suspect Mr. Powers wasn't polling anyone at this hour when the rating was determined since it took almost as long to clear 100 yards in the security line as it took us to drive the ~30 miles to the airport.

The security queue was one of those UUU arrangements so popular at amusement parks, where you snake back and forth looking at the same 20 people who are ahead and behind you in line. I couldn't help noticing that apparently the very early morning hours are not very kind to the attractiveness of the North Texas flying female. To this untrained eye, there did not appear to be much "lovable" about their appearance or attitude!

Thirteen hours later I was back at Love Field after having spent the day in Tulsa with a Marine escort who sells our products whenever he isn't on active duty. Got to say the landings at Love are more exciting (seems to be a faster and steeper descent than at DFW). And, to be fair, when I passed the security line at 7:30 pm, there had been a role reversal: Now the males appeared to have turned wrinkled and surly! You gotta love the irony of it.

This is work?

One of the first email exchanges with a customer upon my return to work:

Him to me -
Subject: Freight
My man in S. A. is hearing that your company is going to freight collect with an order charge. That being true, would you please give me your competition's phone number?

Me to him -
RE: Freight
"Only for shipments that go every other Thursday between the hours of 10pm and midnight, unless your order was entered on an odd-numbered day before noon. Still the best deal in the industry! Thanks for allowing me to clear this up for you."

Nice to know I still have it! (Wonder why he hasn't ordered lately?)

Why am I doing this?

It's been an interesting year so far: a craniotomy in early January to address the larger of two chronic sub-dural hematomas in my head that were the result of getting hit in a crosswalk by a fine upstanding citizen of Little Chute, WI (who was driving without insurance and under the influence of something other than alcohol). Then a staph brain infection, a byproduct of the craniotomy which resulted in a second one. After many weeks of antibiotic treatment, the old noggin got a cranioplasty to replace the missing bone flap with space age materials designed to seal off my skull's "pop-top." I'm very thankful that my surgeon remained focused during all of these procedures and didn't sucumb to any latent desire to be a GYN and perform a "D and C'" up there.

During this journey, the family and I started communicating with others interested in our situation via a website called CaringBridge (highly recommended). Over time, our posts there transformed from the mere facts ["he's in the operating room"; "he had his 1st solid food";
"the nurse was surprised by the size of his BM"] to more commentary on the first hand experience of being the subject of hospital procedures, workman's comp, side effects of medicine, etc.

The commentary portion seemed to resonate with some of the readership who have carelessly (recklessly?) encouraged me to continue blogging my thoughts and experiences. The idea has been bouncing around in the old noggin (there appears to be more room up there these days for new thoughts), and then we had a close encounter last week with an experienced blogger (aka a friend and customer) who was brave enough to accept an invitation to be our house guest during his business trip to the Metroplex. We discovered he maintains two blogs (he's such an over- achiever): The Dry Spot and Born Again Cubs Fan -- the latter one really endeared him to my bodacious beautiful lady (that's "Tex-Mex" for wife)!

So "ceeelcee" unintentionally (and unknowingly) pushed me off dead center. We'll see how this experiment plays out. Proceed at your own risk.