When your random web-surfing leads you to this image, it is time to stop.  Just walk away.

Alright - have laptop. Life without was driving me insane. Fighting with undergrads for computer, and fighting at home with son and wife was too much. Being on a budget, I bought used off eBay, and came up with this.
It’s the same laptop I had issued to me at School 43 as the librarian. I abused that poor machine for three years, and it just kept on ticking. It was also the laptop in the lab carts, which the students abused mercilessly for the last few years. So I figure it’s a good bet to hold up for at least a couple of years.
But it hopefully means I’ll post a bit more regularly. I’ve got a few things I want to mention, and I’ll try cross-posting at my Facebook page as well to see if that works out. It seems to be the usual way many people are posting.

The safety bar cable on my mower broke a while ago, and it’s rained since. A friend of mine gave me this mower, blades already sharpened, and I’m giving it a test run right now. The front lawn was cut by borrowed power mower a few days ago, so that cut well. The back forty…well…this is going to take a while. That’ll teach me to let the lawn go this long.

However, I’ve found out many things using the push mower. Among them that grass is easier to cut when it is shorter, you can actually have a conversations with people while you mow the lawn with one of these things, and it doesn’t chop up kids toys like the power mower.

There is a sort of quiet, meditative quality to this.  We’ll see how long it keeps up.  I’m just gonna keep going while I can with it.

Gorbachov!!!  Check out the pecs!

(To anyone under 26 this will not make a damn bit of sense.)

Alright, so here’s the deal on what happened to interrupt posting:

June 16th, I went with Seth to see Modest Mouse.  Incredible show.  Part way through the opening set, I had shooting pains in my left arm and felt light-headed, so I walked out to get some air.  Everything went away, and it all seemed to be fine.  Got home way past my bedtime.

June 17th: feeling woozy, light-headed, and numbness and pain in my left arm.  Some chest pain as well.  Mary, my wonderful friend, looked at me and got the school nurse to come up and examine me.  We went down to the nurses office, and Jessica (my wonderful wife) came to pick me up.

Chest pain, left arm pain, light-headed - you thinking what I’m thinking?

Went straight to the emergency room at Strong.  Got an EKG, waited, got admitted, waited, had blood work done, waited, got a chest x-ray, waited..

The next day, I got a stress-test, and everything seems to be fine. And they let me out.

Jess was with me both days, despite my insisting she shouldn’t stay in the hospital overnight.  But she was there, and has been there.

It was an enlightening experience, to say the least.  I’ve learned a great deal, and I’ve been taking the past week or so to process much of what happened.  More on that later.

Went with Seth to see Modest Mouse at the Main Street Armory on June 16th. It was a great show - more detail later. Life has handed me an odd mix of late, and I will write it all down at some point soon.

But if you get the chance to see them, do.