Alan Seeger
Alan Seeger wrote a poem years back,
I Have A Rendezvous With Death that I quoted in a paper I wrote in college about an accident scene that I went to as a volunteer on a rescue squad in NJ. I spent 7 years "riding" with the
West Essex First Aid Squad and went on over 1000 "calls". This particular call involved a mentally challenged man that was walking on Interstate Route 80 and was struck and tossed into a river that was 20 feet below the highway. It seemed as we transported the body to the hospital that alcohol played some role in the tragedy. There are a few experiences that with the slightest of provocation stand up in my mind and wave their hands like mad to get my attention. One was brought to the surface this weekend.
Girl killed by car, bus driver saves two others One of the last calls I went on involved a 9 year old boy who was accidentally run over by the school bus he had just gotten off. It happened directly in front of his house on Mountain Ave in North Caldwell, NJ. He was dead at the scene but as often was the case in trauma deaths we transported his body to the hospital. We were half way home when we were called back to the scene. His mother had come home and was confronted with the scene of the police, school bus. She was told that her boy had been transported to the hospital but his condition was unknown. She became distraught and we were requested to transport her to Mountainside Hospital. I sat in the back of the ambulance for the 17 minute ride to the hospital knowing that the boy was dead while his mother plead with me for information. She was crying and begging me to tell her he was going to be alright. He was such a good boy. Everbody loved him. I will never forget those minutes.
Sorry, needed to vent....... are you ready for your barricade ?
ba
NOW !
I'm a PC gamer. Specifically military or "reality" based FPS (first person shooter)games. I have 7 PC's on a network in my house and Tuesday nights are LAN party nights. If you ever played ARMY as kid you understand. Some friends come over and we play mostly;
Battlefield VietnamBattlefield 1942Medal of HonorHaloPlaying these games leads me to walk into
EB Games once in awhile to see what new game I can spend my hard earned money on. So the other day....
As I drive into the parking lot and I notice that an attractive women, maybe 35, is holding the door open to EB Games. How nice I think. I eat at Outback a lot and if you've ever eaten there you know that often they open the door as you walk in and say "Welcome to Outback, Good Day Mate" or something similar. I thought maybe EB Games had taken a clue and was now welcoming me to their store. I parked, got out of my car and wandered over to the door. This nice lady continued to stand there, holding the door open. I walked by but didn't hear "Welcome to EB Games" or anything like that. Instead she says very bruskly, "Let's go". I'm thinking I just got here but ok, so I stopped and started to turn around to leave saying "ok mom". She glanced at me with a look of despair and from the corner of my eye I noticed a 9 year old boy playing one of the console game demo's located 15' inside the store. Oh I get it. I turned back and continued into the store. This time with a voice of sheer hopelessness and frustration. "Brian, we need to leave lets go!" Brian didn't look up, didn't acknowledge mom, Brian kept right on playing.
BRRRRUUUPPPPP BA BA <-trumpet fanfare
I notice that the store is empty except for the clerks who are all the way in the back. I walk up to Brian and in my most stern father voice I say "Brian, your mother wants to leave!". Brian looks up briefly at me and then goes back to the game. Wow, this kid is good. I screwup the meanest look on my face I can muster and loudly proclaim,
"NOW!". Nothing, no response. Not even a twitch. For a brief moment I thought about going and standing by the door with his mom, defeated and keep her company why she waited. But I'm not that easily defeated so I reach over and push the power switch on the TV. Brian looks up at me with the most incredulous look on his chubby little face. He reaches over to turn the TV back on but I'm to fast and my hand blocks the switch. HA HA HA HA I laugh evilly. Brian tosses the controller up on the counter in defeat and walks out of the store. I sigh a victors sigh and after making sure Brian was safely inside the family SUV I continue in the store and begin my meandering.
This post is mostly true. The lady was standing in the doorway the whole time. I did speak fatherly and growl at the kid and I did turn off the TV.
ba
By __ __ __ __ -- __
Back when I was kid there was a commercial that ended with 2 note, 3 syllable phrase that's alluded to in the title of this blog. If you guessed it feel special, very special.
I spent an hour or so the other day playing Frisbee golf with some buds over at Jamesville Reservoir County Park.
Park Info Frisbee golf is normally a relaxing game much like tiny ball/little cup game that it's patterned after.
This particular game started out as no exception however, as we neared the 7th hole it ominously started to rain. We should have recognized the impending trouble that lay ahead. Foolishly, instead of heading for our cars right then we decided to skip the 8th hole and move on to hole number 9 and then get outta there. We hurriedly finished the 9th hole and discovered that Bob and Kyle (their real names) were locked in a tied score. Now, normally a bunch of guys with our personalities could care less about a tie but for some reason today the chest thumping started (okay maybe it was thunder) and we had to have a winner. I, who had graciously stopped counting my "strokes" at 12 over, chose to assert my leadership and announce the special hole that would determine the winner. Throw the disc from the #1 green through any square of the metal swing field gate and into the basket on #6. Kyle decided to add BLITZ rules to the hole. Blitz rules means everyone throws the disc at the same to start the hole then the first one in the basket, regardless of the number of tosses, wins.
The rest all happened so fast....
A relatively new disc golf player Dave (his real name) was standing slightly behind me and had never heard of BLITZ. He watched as everyone else simultaneously tossed their discs and ran toward the gate. Dave speaks and asks me what's going on? I explain that in a BLITZ round everyone throws their discs at the same time and the first one in the hole wins. I watch and listen as Dave prophetically declares that if he throws now he'll hit someone in the back of the head as he was proceeding to throw his disc.
I should explain that the gate was low to the ground and downhill from where we were standing so Dave's toss was deliberately not very high off the ground.I watch in stunned silence as Dave's disc flew about three feet off the ground to it's prophetically announced target. Kyle who was bending down to pick up his disc stopped the flight of Dave's disc instantly and arrogantly with the back of his head. I was 35 feet away and heard the noise, it sounded like someone hitting a tree with an aluminum baseball bat.
In reality the prophecy of the bloody event happened many years ago.....
Click Here Get it ?
ba
For more info on the invention of the Frisbee
Click HereFor more info on head wounds
Click Here
Knit 2, Pearl 1, Smile Always
I had some free time yesterday so I wandered into a local park. There have been few things bugging me lately and I needed to try and set some different thought processes in my mind. Kind of a self-coaching session. Like the advice and counsel Real Estate Agents and Pastors pay money for. If your honest enough with yourself who needs Mike Ferry or Ministry Coaching International.
* hmmmm?? Both Real Estate Agents and Pastors have professional coaching available. The clear advantage to self coaching is it's free. The obvious disadvantage is, if you are an idiot you may never know it. If ignorance is bliss how happy are you?
As I was walking into the park I saw this older women sitting on a bench knitting and it brought back memories of my mom and her knitting. I remember her trying to teach my 6 year old hands to knit. How I never poked one of our eyes out is beyond me. My mom never liked having her picture taken and because of this very few pictures exist of her after age 30 which makes me sad.
So while I never really settled any of the stuff that's been bugging me I can offer you my human being coaching tip of the day.
Let your picture be taken..... they're not for you anyway.
*Mike Ferry Coaching*Ministry Coachingba
FootNote: Do coaches have coaches ? Maybe I'll start www.coachescoaching.com Yeah.
Would you like the salt water or fresh ?
For years I would occasionally drive by these two signs...
..... and wonder about the irony, the humor, the absurdity and who the heck decided to put these two business next to each other and therefore on the same sign. Talk about your circle of life staring you in the face. Mufasa would be happy to take Simba here for the lesson alone, let alone the salmon croquettes.
Let's pretend fish can read and two of them caught a glimpse of only one of the signs on the way into the parking lot.
"Holy Mackerel, did you see that ? We're going to an aquarium store. The life of Kyle is ours. Sure the tank is small but the fish food drops like manna from the heavens."
"Fish food is right and we're it. Hopefully broiled to perfection, not deep fat fried and covered in bread crumbs."
"What are you talking about? We're going on display!"
"We're going on display alright on a platter."
and so on......
ba
Beep Beep Beep
I work in a cube in the back of an office building on SU's quad. I had a picture with my trademark red arrow but I can't find it.* So you'll just have guess which building it is.
I get to work about 7AM most days and today was no different. About 7:12AM I notice a scraggly looking student peering in the window near my rectangle. I try to duck out of view but alas it's too late and he notices me and though I pretend not to notice him moments later he's knocking on the door just outside my squared.
I go to the door and open it just enough to peer out.
Everyone knows that a fully open door is an invitation where as a partially opened door states emphatically "WHAT DO YOU WANT NOW THAT YOU'VE BOTHERED ME?".
The gentlemen hands me a pager just like this one....
....and in broken english says something like "I found this outside the house and I know of no one else to place with". Those probably aren't the exact words but I do remember "house" and "place with". With that he's gone down the hall and I'm left holding a pager that I'm really hoping is wet with morning dew not what looks like Mountian Dew.
I stare at the pager for a moment noticing it is featureless save for the features of every other Motorola pager I've ever seen. Shrugging, I put it down on a counter and go back to whatever I was doing. About 5 minutes after 8:00AM the pager goes off. I'm really hoping there's a number to call but alas 11 isn't an exchange in Syracuse so I clear the message and put it down again. What follows is 7 more pages of 11, 22, 22, 12 and finally an 889-1207 which is also not a working number. Clearly the loser (of the pager, not Jerry Springer's typical guest) is looking for the thing. I suddenly realize that this is symbolic of a lot of relationships I've had. I want to help, I stand ready to be a friend with feet but am powerless due to a lack of information. Ill equipped to meet the defined need.
Eventually the loser put his telephone number in and we re-united them and yes I dried the pager off and washed my hands thoroughly.
ba
THE SECRET PHRASE IS ->>>* the arrow appears to come and go as it choses.
