COVID kept us from the Christmas we wanted. My dear mother wanted to come and see us, one last time. She’s, fortunately, in excellent health. But, she fits clearly into the high risk category. But, she understood as did we, that this Christmas was an ending.
My lovely wife and I were married December 19th, many years ago. We were married in December because we were on break from school at BYU. We were both from the Pacific Northwest. We drove home for winter break, got married and then drove back to school to prepare for the start of the next semester.
Our first Christmas was just the two of us. We bought a simple 2 foot Christmas tree.
We still have it and. Put it up every year.
Over the years, our family grew, of course. Adding children through birth and then through adoption. Later through the marriage of our children and the addition of grandchildren.
But, this year is different. This is the last year we have kids in school; high school. We have five kids actually living at home right now. Two high schoolers, a college student, a local service missionary, and a son about to leave for a two-year mission.
Next year? Who knows. But, the college student will probably be on his own. The two high schoolers will likely be either off at college or on missions themselves. It could be just the local service missionary will be at home. We may go from five at home to just one.
Our older kids will be even more involved with their own families.
This is what the future will be like, I guess. Just as our family grew over the past years, we will continue getting smaller. It’s what my dear mother understood and why she wanted so desperately to be here this Christmas.
I’m not complaining. . .too much. My family is all healthy, even though several have been COVID positive. We got to see more of them then we might have. And everyone had a wonderful Christmas. We even Facetimed with grandma.
Welcome to the New Year. May it be happy and healthy for you and your family.
Stay safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
Follow him on
Twitter (@rodneymbliss)
Facebook (www.facebook.com/rbliss)
LinkedIn (www.LinkedIn.com/in/rbliss)
or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2021 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
Tell your friends about this!
I’m not into exercise. I used to play basketball pretty regularly. And I go hiking and camping. But, mostly I depend on a good overall health and an extraordinary lung capacity.
Okay, maybe I should explain that last part. I’m short for my height. When I was a kid, I got sick with Crohn’s disease. I was about 15 years old. The doctors told me that the steroids that they wanted me to take would probably take four or five inches off my height. My dad put it best,
Do you want to be tall or do you want to be well?
Pretty easy when you put it that way, even for a 15 year old. It took me years of prednisone and azulfidine but, I got better. And I got shorter. Okay, I just didn’t get as tall. My rather is 6’5″. My other brother (neither named Daryl) is 6’2″. I have larger hands and feet than either one. I probably would have been the tallest of the three of us.
My grandson recently was born about 6 weeks early. He spent a few weeks in the NICU. One of the last organs to develop are the lungs. His were not yet ready. (He’s doing great now.)
A few years ago I was having some issues with stress. (Okay, that seems to be every year, but it was worse this year. I found myself feeling shortness of breath. I went to get my lung capacity tested. The doctor tried to give me some idea of what to expect.
Most people have 4-5 times the capacity they actually need to survive.
I blew into their little tube while he yelled at me to
BLOW, BLOW, COME ON! MORE! MORE! KEEP GOING!
It was weird. One minute we are talking normally and the next he’s turned into a hyper-active cheerleader. Anyway, after I completed blowing into the tube he looked at the results,
Okay, you have 7 or 8 times the required capacity.
Remember that period of being sick when I was a kid? My lungs were fully developed. In other words, my lungs were designed for someone 6’5″. I’m barely 6’0″ when I’m wearing socks. So, I’ve always been able to run forever. When I was running semi-competitively, I always had an extra gear after a long run.
That was a really long way of saying, I don’t exercise regularly.
So, why did I find myself at the gym for the past couple weeks? It’s my son’s fault. My son will be getting on an airplane next Monday to fly to the Midwest to start a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (The Mormons.) He’s currently going through the training to prepare. And because of COVID, he’s doing that at our house.
One of the things you might have noticed about missionaries is they are always in pairs. Even though my son is working from home he still needs to have that companion. And my son is an exercise fanatic.
He does “leg day” and “shoulder day” and “arm day” and more that I can’t even remember. Anyway, he needed a gym buddy. So, every morning for the past couple weeks, I got up at 6:00am and head to the gym. Actually, it’s the community rec center. The last week of December, especially at 6:00am, the gym was pretty empty. He worked out, I walked.
Have you ever joined a gym? If I were to guess, I’d say you probably joined in January. Most people join in January. Lots of people join in January.
You know what happens in January? Gyms get full. It typically clears out by the end of January. We suck at keeping resolutions. In fact, many people who regularly exercise avoid the gym for the first couple weeks in January.
That’s what I would have done. But, my son isn’t as averse to people as I am.
And just like clockwork, the gym got busier as soon as the new year came around.
Pickup games were banned. Two people was a large number of basketball players.
The only area that was just as busy before New Years as after was the pickleball courts.
My mother used to have a pickleball court in her backyard. One day my brother described it as a “mini tennis court.”
It’s not a mini tennis court! It’s a pickleball court! They are very different.
While walking around the track, I got to watch a lot of pickleball games. Now that I’m more familiar with the game I can definitely say,
It’s a mini tennis court.
So, here I am walking around the track with the new resolution folks. I didn’t even have a resolution to exercise and I’m still stuck with the gym crowds.
My consolation is that since I’m just walking, I don’t dress the part. I like boots and jeans.
And old t-shirts for teams that never went to the World Series
Hope your News Years Resolutions are going well.
Stay safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
Follow him on
Twitter (@rodneymbliss)
Facebook (www.facebook.com/rbliss)
LinkedIn (www.LinkedIn.com/in/rbliss)
or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2021 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
Tell your friends about this!
This blog isn’t about politics, even of though I am passionate and opinionated about politics. Mostly, I view politics as a spectator sport. Like the World Cup, the presidential election is a four year competition.
And like sporting events, I’ve viewed the results of elections and politics as being largely disassociated with my day-to-day life and personal experience. While I have my favorite teams, I’m pretty ambivalent about the team colors once the contest is over.
But, today was different. Today wasn’t about political politics, or calculus. It wasn’t about one side getting a strategic or presumed advantage over the other side. It’s not a “political payback” move. No “whataboutism.”
Today was technically insurrection. An attempted insurgency.
“If two or more persons in any State or Territory, or in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof. . .”
– US Code 18, section 2384
I have two major problems with what happened today.
First is with the false equivalencies I’ve seen people post. Today was not like when Antifa rioted in Portland. It’s not like when Anarchists in Seattle declared an Autonomous Zone. It’s not like Occupy Wall Street. It’s also not like the armed protest in Michigan’s state house last year. It’s not like any protest or even riot we’ve seen in the past.
The difference is that today was an attack on our government. Literally, an attack on the most iconic symbol of our government. Rioters literally chased legislators from their desks. They stormed the very seat of power and then occupied it. And their purpose? Their purpose was nothing less than disrupting the peaceful transfer of power that has been a bedrock of our republic for centuries.
The last time the US Capital building was breached was when the British burned it in 1814. This is obviously the first time it’s been breached by our own citizens.
So, no. Nothing in our political history or landscape compares to this. This was literally an attack on our democracy. If you side with the rioters, just realize you are condoning open insurrection.
Second, and much more serious, was the behavior of our president. I didn’t vote for President Trump. But, as a conservative Republican I found his election convenient. I supported his Supreme Court nominees. they are good people. I appreciate his efforts to reduce much of the government regulations. I think getting out of the Paris Climate treaty was a good thing. I think fostering normal relations between Israel and Muslim countries is a good thing. I think moving the US embassy to Jerusalem was a good thing.
So, I could accept Trump as president and take what advantages I could from his position. He wasn’t great, but in my view he was better than the alternative.
Some will tell you that by not utterly condemning Trump I’m supporting all of his worst traits. That’s not true, of course. I can love the city of Seattle, but disagree with the city’s decision to allow the Autonomous Zone. I can support the American military (which I do) while denouncing incidents like the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison during the war.
Today, President Trump held a rally. He then encouraged his supporters to march on the capital. Not surprisingly, his supporters then marched on the capital. And we saw what they did.
President elect Biden gave a speech today wherein he invoked the best in us. He called on our better natures and utterly condemned the violence. He also called on Donald Trump, the president of the United States. The man who’s rally, for good or bad, sparked the rioting, to give a speech and call for the siege of the capital to end.
Eventually, president Trump did give a speech. He started off saying how he won the election by a landslide and that it was being stolen from him. He then praised the rioters. He said they were special and that he loved them.
Think about that. The president of the United States looked at rioters occupying the United States capital building and told them he loved them. Regardless of his role in getting them started, telling insurgents you love them and that they are special, is only going to empower them.
Granted he did tell them to go home. But, that wasn’t the point of his message. He praised them. He actually seemed happy for the situation.
Trump failed his duty as president today. I don’t know if he should be removed via the 25th amendment, or impeached, or simply ignored for the next two weeks.
But, today, Vice President Pence was acting presidential. President-elect Biden was acting presidential. Unfortunately the person not acting presidential was the man who should have been most presidential of all.
Today will be remembered for generations. It might seem so now, but January 6th, 2021 will take its place alongside 9/11/2001, 12/7/1941, 7/4/1776.
It’s not a day anyone should be excited to have lived to see.
Stay safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
Follow him on
Twitter (@rodneymbliss)
Facebook (www.facebook.com/rbliss)
LinkedIn (www.LinkedIn.com/in/rbliss)
or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2021 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
Tell your friends about this!
Yesterday I talked about how I made toys for my grandkids for Christmas this year. But, I also made presents for older kids, like kids in their 20’s. (They’re still “kids” if they are my kids.)
Presents this year were in two categories, well three, if you count the ones my father-in-law made years ago.
First, were footlockers. It’s a design I created several years ago. Over the years, I’ve made them for more of my kids. This year, I finished up with the last of them. They are made from A LOT of 2×2 boards and reclaimed shelves that my lovely wife’s sister gave us.
I opted not to paint them, unlike previous years. I’ll tell you that it was a design decision. But, when you finish up Christmas Eve, it’s hard to get the paint to dry in time.
They are designed according to the “helicopter” principle. Things in my workshop are built so a helicopter could land on them. For being as strong as they are, I’ve managed to make them much lighter over the years.
The other gifts I made were not built to the helicopter principle. One of my daughters got married this year. She married a wonderful man and changed her name to Sanchez. And, as I have for my other married kids, I carved her name in wood.
Last year, I di it for other kids and my lovely wife,
Finally, I refurbished two cars that my father-in-law gave to my two oldest children years and years ago.
While I also made copies for my grandkids, I’m pretty sure that these particular ones may become display pieces.
I spent a lot of time in my workshop this year. Next year, maybe I’ll go the commercial route. But, somehow I doubt it. Will my kids and grandkids appreciate these toys more than something I bought? I hope so. I know my oldest two were happy to get the old cars my father-in-law made back.
Stay safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
Follow him on
Twitter (@rodneymbliss)
Facebook (www.facebook.com/rbliss)
LinkedIn (www.LinkedIn.com/in/rbliss)
or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2021 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
Tell your friends about this!
I spent a lot of time in my garage between Thanksgiving and Christmas. In fact, I was still working in it late into the night on Christmas Eve.
It was a crazy year last year. And I decided in the midst of the crazy that I wanted to make Christmas gifts this year. I started with my grandkids. I have ten grandchildren. Nine are living. Three were born this year.
I have a tradition that I started last year. Who knows how long I’ll long I’ll keep doing it. I create each child’s name in letters. They are big, easy to grab, impossible to choke on, letters. This year I made three names, a total of 16 letters.
My children who were around last Christmas weren’t too surprised. And I didn’t try too hard to keep it a secret. I have a new son-in-law. As he shook the box that contained his child’s name he heard the wooden pieces clanking against each other
Sounds fragile.
Nope. Not very fragile. If I build a toy for your child, it’s going to be pretty tough.
Next on the Christmas list was my one-year old granddaughter. She got her name from Pawpaw last Christmas. She also got a bunch of painted blocks. This year, I needed something a little more advanced.
A couple weeks before Christmas my daughter was talking to her sister and mentioned she was thinking of buying her toddler one of those toys that are round rings that you stack on a base with a curved bottom.
I don’t know. I think I might hold off on that.
Her sister had seen my workshop and the toy I was making.
The sizes were largely dependent on the sizes of hole-saw blades I had. I’m thinking I may need to buy some more saw blades before next year.
Finally, we were ready for the older kids. And by older, I mean 3-6 year olds. I have to admit I broke my rule, the rule my lovely wife calls the “helicopter rule.”
Things made in my workshop are built so that a helicoptor could land on them
My father-in-law was a logger in his younger days. A mishap with a tree put him into a wheelchair for the latter part of his life. He turned his interest with wood into the hobby of making wooden toys. I used a model a car that he had made for my two oldest kids when they were my two only kids.
I ended up making five cars. They look like tractors.
I can’t take credit for the design. That was Joe’s. But, when he made them for our kids, he cautioned us that the axles, made from 1/4″ pine dowels, were a weak point. And he was right. My children had broken the axles while playing with them over the years.
We gave them to three of the grandkids on Christmas morning. And sure enough about an hour later, my grandson fell on one of them and cracked the axle.
Fortunately they come with a lifetime bumper-to-bumper service contract.
While building the 2020 version, I also restored the 1990s versions. My daughters were coming to visit on different days. (Social distancing and all that.) I gave my second oldest daughter hers on Christmas day. My oldest brought her kids by the next day and watched them unwrap their presents.
I heard that you gave the original to Katrina yesterday.
Well, here. This present is for you.
What is it?
Sometimes the timing just works.
The new models were almost indistinguishable from the old.
Stay safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
Follow him on
Twitter (@rodneymbliss)
Facebook (www.facebook.com/rbliss)
LinkedIn (www.LinkedIn.com/in/rbliss)
or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2021 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
Tell your friends about this!
Well, it figures. One final screw up in 2020. Most years, I use the last five days of the year to give y’all a recap of the most popular posts from the previous year. That means I should have started posting last Friday so that I would finish with #1 on December 31.
Oh well.
The #1 post from 2020 was the first one posted. I talk about statistics and degrees of precision, but not in a boring way.
Happy 2021 and good riddance to 2020.
Many thanks to all of you who put up with these scribblings every M-F. You have no idea how much I appreciate you all. (But, it’s a lot!)
====================================
How I Guessed the Exact Amount Of Coins In The Jar
January 2, 2020
It’s a common raffle. There’s a jar full of stuff. Maybe it’s gumballs. Maybe it’s jellybeans, or guitar pics. Or, as in my case, coins. You have to guess how many. Or, again in my case, how much.
How much are the coins in the jar?
I like using cash. Despite our society’s continued push towards a cashless society, I actually like cash. I prefer to carry bills.
Maybe it’s a sense of nostalgia. After all, despite having a phone (with it’s ubiquitous clock) I also have a smartwatch, and yet I carry a pocket watch. I have for years. My car is a 1996 Toyota that includes manual transmission, manual door locks and manual windows. I write letters. And I write for a local newspaper that exists only in print edition. I work in IT, but my life is definitely not ruled by technology.
I like cash, but, I don’t like carrying coins. I have a jar that I keep coins in. I don’t collect them. Well, I do collect coins, but not every coin. So, I have this jar and every time I have coins I dump them in. Eventually the jar fills up, of course. It doesn’t fill up in a strictly linear manner. Occasionally, a child will need change for a dollar. Or during Chinese New Year when we give the kids money it typically comes out of the coin jar.
But, eventually, it gets too full to hold any more coins. I then take it to the bank and get it changed into cash. Bills this time. Plus, some remaining coins of course.
I try to guess how much money is in the jar. And this time I guessed it just right. Well, almost. But, really, really close.
Do you ever play the lottery? Maybe you’ve hit the numbers. Chances are you haven’t. But, I’ll bet you’ve been really, really close. Like maybe only off by a number or two.
Yeah, we all have. In fact, I was just as close to guessing the amount of money in my coin jar as you were to hitting the lottery. That is to say, very close and incredibly far off.
Yesterday’s powerball numbers were 49, 53, 57, 59, and 62, the Power Ball was 26 and the Power Play was X2. If you had known these numbers yesterday, you’d be $220M richer. (No one matched all the numbers, so you have still have a chance.)
Someone matched five numbers. They won a million dollars. (Oh, so close.)
Have you ever played the powerball lottery? I haven’t. It’s not just that Utah doesn’t participate in the lottery. To quote a disgraced actor from a good movie, “I believe in the power of large numbers.”
Ever wonder why no one picks the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 as their powerball sequence? Stupid question, right? No one would ever pick those numbers. There’s virtually no chance those numbers would come up.
Actually, the odds are 1 in 292,201,338 that those numbers will come up. Do you know what the odds for yesterday’s winning numbers (49, 53, 57, 59, 62, 26) were?
They were 1 in 292,201,338.
Weird, huh? The exact same odds for both numbers. There’s a pattern here. By this time you can guess the odds of any number being the winning number. Yup, it’s 1 in 292,201,338.
It doesn’t make sense to us. We know that 49, 53, 57, 59, 62, 26 is more likely than 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
Don’t we?
I remember seeing a computer parlor trick one time. The website claimed it could read your mind using a set of cards. The website showed you a group of five face cards and asked you to mentally pick one. Once you had picked your card, you clicked NEXT. And it worked. Magically, the website managed to make only your card disappear.
I like puzzles. And this one had me stumped. I visited the website multiple times. And it absolutely worked each time. One clue was that the website didn’t allow the back button in the web browser.
I eventually figured out the trick, of course. The website didn’t just make the card you picked go away. It made all of them go away. It simply replaced them with a new set of four cards. The trick, like all good magic tricks was about misdirection. You, or rather I, was so focused on my own card, that I ignored the other cards. Later, when I was presented with a group of four face cards, which replaced a different group of four cards I didn’t notice.
The lottery is like that. We focused on our own numbers. We hardly pay attention to the winning numbers, except to note that our card isn’t there. All the rest of the numbers look the same.
If the computer had showed me a new group made up entirely of the cards Ace, two, three, and four, I would have immediately noticed that they were different. But, since the face cards all have a familiar pattern, I didn’t notice.
When I took my jar of coins to the bank, I guessed there was $65.00 in the jar. I got it right. Or nearly so. There was exactly $67.72. The distribution was
Pennies: 672 $6.72
Nickles: 158 $7.90
Dimes: 171 $17.10
Quarters: 132 $33.00
Dollars: 3 $3.00
Total: 1,136 $67.72
It’s remarkable, don’t you think, that the total value includes the same numbers that are in the pennies total, the numbers 6, 7 and 2?
No?
No, it’s not remarkable. It’s coincidental, but really that’s all it is. And when your powerball numbers seem oh, so close to the winning numbers, it’s not remarkable. It’s a coincidence. Because the odds of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 being the winning numbers are exactly the same as 49, 53, 57, 59, 62, 26.
When I guessed my total value of coins, I knew it was somewhere between $55 and $75. And since the distribution of coins was random, the odds that it was exactly $65 were the same as the odds the total would be $67.72.
I only missed it by that much.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
Follow him on
Twitter (@rodneymbliss)
Facebook (www.facebook.com/rbliss)
LinkedIn (www.LinkedIn.com/in/rbliss)
or email him at rbliss at msn dot com
(c) 2021 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
Tell your friends about this!
There were a lot of offensive things said in 2020. But, not everything that was found offensive was actually offensive. Some people viewed lack of offensiveness the same as politeness. It wasn’t the case.
=====================================================
I Hope You Find This Post Offensive
March 11, 2020
Seriously, if I don’t say something in this post that offends you, I have failed.
Now, let’s be fair, as someone who writes on social media daily, I understand that nothing will make a post go viral quicker than a little bit of controversy.
But, that’s not my intent. It’s not about offending for offense sake. I think we as a society have forgotten how to be offended.
15: I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
16: So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
Revelation Chapter 3 (KJV)
We find ourselves, as we do every four years, in the middle of a presidential campaign. There are three main people left in the race, President Trump, a polarizing Republican, Senator Bernie Sanders, a progressive Democrat and former Vice President Joe Biden, considered by most people to be a moderate.
Four years ago, Donald Trump was the most polarizing candidate in the Republican field. His critics (including this writer) were sure that he would not last a month. . and then that he would not make it to the convention. . .and then he could not possibly win the presidency. After all, Senator Hillary Clinton, his opponent was much more moderate.
Why did Donald Trump win? This post is not nearly long enough to delve into that topic. Besides, I was consistently wrong all through the campaign last time. But, one thing that can be said with certainty is that Trump was much more objectionable than Senator Clinton. And yet he won.
I got put in Facebook jail today. Apparently one of my comments failed to meet the community standards for Facebook of bullying and harressment. I was naturally surprised since, as a writer, I pride myself on keeping my comments polite and well within the bounds of polite conversation.
It was a thread on a news site. The discussion was about guns. Dick’s Sporting Goods has announced they are going to stop selling guns in more of their stores. In the discussion the assertion was made that guns are only designed to kill people. After a few exchanges a woman named Christine Hall said,
We’ll agree to disagree
I responded,
Christine Hall, you can opt for that, but honestly since you have zero experience, your opinion really doesn’t carry much weight. Your ignorance is not equal to Al’s experience. When you “agree to disagree” with someone who has experience, you are really saying, “I don’t want to become educated on this issue.”
That was it. I asked Facebook to review it again. Two minutes later they sent me an email saying they did. And it was still in violation of the harressment and bullying policy.
I’ve seen much harsher comments on Facebook. So have you. I can only assume that Ms Hall reported my comment. I cannot imagine a scanning robot flagged it.
When facts conflict with someone’s world view it is easier for them to reject the facts than to change their world view.
And if you continue to argue facts, people often become offended. (And on Facebook that can get you thrown in Facebook jail.)
The legendary comedian John Cleese talked about the idea offense is necessary to comedy. And since comedy is often a slightly absurd look at society, society itself needs the ability to offend and be offended.
But, modern society has done everything possible to remove offense. We have trigger warnings to warn use that we might find something offensive. We have safe spaces were presumably we are “protected” from being offended at all. However, rather than improving society, these trigger warnings, and safe spaces, and facebook jail sentences, have turned us into a nation of wimps.
My son is an athlete. He will be a on the varsity football team at his high school this year. He noted that the best athletes get special treatment. “They don’t want to risk you getting hurt.”
He will quickly learn that special treatment doesn’t mean getting excused from exercise. In fact, the better the athlete, the more the coach will want them to hit the weight room, and the track.
Good athletes become great athletes when they are tested. When they subject themselves to hard workouts, grueling two or three-a-day practices. The best athletes understand that it’s the hard that makes them better.
It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. It’s the hard that makes it great.
– Manager Jimmy Dugan “A League Of Their Own”
If it’s true for athletes, it’s also true for our social lives. Being offended and learning to deal with that makes you a better person. Not just better, but stronger. Constantly being protected from being offended is not empowering. It’s debilitating.
Now, I may be a mean cuss. But, I’m the same mean cuss with everybody out there on that football field. The world don’t give a damn about how sensitive these kids are, especially the young black kids. You ain’t doing these kids a favor by patronizing them. You’re crippling them. You’re crippling them for life.
– Coach Herman Boone, “Remember The Titans”
The great British Prime Minister Winston Churchill said,
You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.
So, don’t be afraid to offend. Be hot or cold, radical or progressive, but not lukewarm. And realize that being willing to stand for something is what will make you strong.
I will post this to Facebook. . .tomorrow after I get out of facebook jail.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
Follow him on
Twitter (@rodneymbliss)
Facebook (www.facebook.com/rbliss)
LinkedIn (www.LinkedIn.com/in/rbliss)
or email him at rbliss at msn dot com
(c) 2020 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
Tell your friends about this!
I wrote this before COVID hit. My class and our high school, has had our share of deaths. And since writing this there are been several more. As the title said, I’m not sure I can take anymore memories.
===============================================
Not Sure I Can Take Anymore Memories
February 28, 2020
Mark Lovelady Class of 1989
Stephanie Cresswell Class of 2015
Jamie Sandifer
Jon Paulson Class of 91
died by suicide 2013
The messages pop up on my Facebook feed unannounced. Some familiar. Most not. All of them tragic. Many of them jarring.
Raymond Estores Class of 2012
Scott Crapo Class of 81 or 82
Nick Walker Class of 84
A fishing accident with his grandfather
I graduated in 1983. My generation grew up with computers. We remember our parents buying their first microwave oven. And we remember our first computer.
We are the “old” people that are the reason the current generation abandoned facebook. But us? We are all over it. We use it to keep up with our grandkids (who are too young to know it’s not cool.) We are friends with our neighbors and church members. We plan our reunions with it. And we use it to keep track of our friends from high school.
Some friends from high school created a new facebook group and invited me. It’s called Timberline Blazers Gone, Never Forgotten. As you’ve probably realized by now, it’s a memoriam group. It’s a group dedicated to remember those from my high school who have passed away.
The crazy thing is that my high school is younger than I am. It opened in 1970. In May this year there’s going to be a celebration of the first 50 years.
What that really means is that most of the people who have passed away are close to my age or less. Despite my earlier comment I’m not old. I don’t consider myself old. And people who aren’t old shouldn’t die.
A couple of the posts in the group hit kind of hard.
Brad Tullis-Class of 83? in 2012
Brad was part of my group of friends. It wasn’t a huge high school. We had about 350 in our graduating class. I haven’t seen Brad since high school. But, knowing he passed away was a shock.
Some of the posts were personal.
Lavel Godwin – died a few years ago from brain cancer
Lavel was my brother’s sister. I wrote about it a few years ago. I actually didn’t know her. But, knowning she’s gone was a shock.
One of the posts hit closer than any others. I knew it would be there, and yet it was still sad to see it.
Danny Murdock – Class of 83?
While attending College, in a car accident
Danny was the first to die. He passed away before the first reunion. The posts in the forum sometimes are just a name. Sometimes they incude a graduation date. And sometimes they include a cause of death.
My class is in our 50s now. We are dying of the things that people die of. Some are sickness. Cancer mostly. Some suicides. Murders. And accidents.
Danny died in an accident. He was attending BYU. . .the same school I attended. I think I was possibly on a mission for the Mormon church at the time. Danny was driving down Provo Canyon. It was a winding mountain road. Two lanes with a mountain on one side and the river on the other. It winds for 20 miles from Provo to Heber, Utah.
Danny was headed back toward Provo. As he came around a curve, a car coming from the other direction crossed the center line and hit him head on. His car flipped into the river. He died immediately.
Danny’s family and mine were very close. We were in scouts together. We went to church together. We were in classes together. In fact, my brother and Danny’s brother married sisters.
I added an explanitory comment to the post about Danny. He’s buried in Utah. I’ve been to his grave a couple of times. I didn’t think Danny’s death could affect me. I was wrong. Several people posted fond memories of Danny. And there was one post,
It was tragic I was in Utah at the times and saw his obituary, later i met the dude that hit him it was tough.
The group has only been around for a few weeks. People are still joining. I invited a bunch of high school friends to join, just as someone had invited me.
And because it’s new, many of the names keep getting posted for the first time, and some for the second time. And each time a new message pops up on my Facebook feed I have to wonder if it will be someone I knew, or just another stranger that sat through classes in inside the same four walls where I spent four years.
Not sure I can take too many more memories.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
Follow him on
Twitter (@rodneymbliss)
Facebook (www.facebook.com/rbliss)
LinkedIn (www.LinkedIn.com/in/rbliss)
or email him at rbliss at msn dot com
(c) 2020 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
Tell your friends about this!
In 2020 we had to endure a 14 day quarantine as a family member had COVID and our household was exposed.
It came in as the 4th most popular post in 2020.
=============================
Quarantine
September 30, 2020
Renee got her results back.
And?
Positive.
Not what you want to hear after you just went on a weekend camping trip with Renee, your college aged daughter, five of your other kids, a son-in-law, your lovely wife and three grandkids.
We found out on Sunday that one of Renee’s roommates tested positive for COVID. Renee left immediately to go get tested. We weren’t too worried because she wasn’t too worried.
I don’t share a bathroom with her. And the only time I’ve seen in the past week was when I walked past her in the hallway.
Still we anxiously waited for the results. I have a daughter getting married on Friday.
But, we weren’t worried. . .much.
And then today, the results came back. So, what happens now?
First off, a two week quarantine. Not a simple, “wear a mask and social distance.” Nope. More of a “lock the doors and use the WalMart delivery service” quarantine.
And we went to get tested, right?
Nope.
Turns out if you don’t have symptoms, they want you to wait until seven days after your exposure. Okay, we just sit around for a week. Wedding on Friday? Yeah, good luck. Not going to happen with us there. Well, it will happen. We just won’t be there.
And I have three daughters who are pregnant. One of them might be induced on Saturday. New grandchild? Not with us there.
But, it’s cool. Sure, we all work from home. . .except my son who works at Burger King, and my daughter who volunteers at a discount clothing store. She’s now at home.
But, I work from home. And my son does his college schooling remotely. But, my high schooler is now stuck at home. Oh, and no football practice.
Varsity football games are by invitation only. We have five tickets set aside for us. My friend, whose son is also on the team texted me before he found out about our quarantine.
Do you have any tickets available for this Friday’s game?
Funny you should ask.
I haven’t been to a Mason’s meeting since February. We finally got permission to go back to lodge. . .this Thursday. Nope, not with me.
I have one son who is waiting to serve a mission. He spends a lot of time playing Call of Duty online. He’s going to be okay you’d think. We don’t let him play when his siter the missionary is home. Oops.
The family meeting was fun. . .in a “let’s disappoint everyone at the same time” kind of way.
We have a big house. We’ll see over the next to weeks if it’s big enough.
Stay safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
Follow him on
Twitter (@rodneymbliss)
Facebook (www.facebook.com/rbliss)
LinkedIn (www.LinkedIn.com/in/rbliss)
or email him at rbliss at msn dot com
(c) 2020 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
Tell your friends about this!
The fifth most popular post from 2020 was the heartbreaking effort to speak at my sister’s funeral
Originally published September 22,
=====================
September 22, 2020
These are the remarks I delivered at my sister’s funeral on Saturday September 12, 2020 in Olympia, Washington.
===============================
I knew this day was coming. But, knowing it was coming didn’t make it any easier.
Jennifer Bliss was born in 1959 in Anchorage, Alaska.
. . .
That’s as far as I got when I sat down to write the events around Jennifer’s life. I wish I could tell you about my sister. I can’t. I’m neither a good enough writer nor a good enough speaker to even begin to share a fraction of her life story. In fact, she had multiple stories.
She was a sister, the glue that held two sets of brothers together.
She was a daughter to two mothers. Both of whom she loved and honored.
She was a cousin. They were the sisters she never had.
She was a musician. Her hands were too small to play the violen or piano. She played them anyway. She passionately pursued her goals. No matter where they took her. She got a degree in and taught music.
She was a daughter of God. Sharing her faith with her brothers and staying loyal to it throughout her life.
She was a traveller. After high school she earned enough money for a two week stay in England. She returned three years later. Just recently she accompanied her mother to Germany. She was planning at least two trips when she died.
She was a teacher. In addition to music, she taught 5th grade. She taught at the Dragon School at Oxford. . .although, not to actual dragons. She taught her brothers to drive, and how to be better men.
And in the last several years she was an advocate. Her former colleagues speak at length of the impact she had in the Washington Mental Health field and on each of them.
She was a mother to three beautiful daughters and a grandmother to six precious grandchildren.
She was an aunt and a great aunt (in more ways than one) many times over.
And she suffered, struggled with mental health issues throughout her life. We feared at times that would be what killed her. But, she vanquished her demons. . .at least for a time. Mental illness never really goes away. She would be the first to acknowledge that. It was her mental health journey that led her to become an author. She wrote “Make bright The Arrows,” chronically the ups and downs of her journey to recovery. As her brother it was hard to read those stories at times.
She was also a friend. We’ve all experienced her advice, her advocacy, her help and her love.
This is supposed to be a life sketch and as I started trying to write down where she’d been and grew up and when she moved and where, I realized those dry pieces of data aren’t Jennifer. Her life was so rich, full and diverse, there was no way I could do justice to even one of her many life stories and certainly not all of them. And like an overly long Academy Award speech, I would certainly miss people, events and stories that are crucial to who she was. . .So, I’m not going to try.
She was the only sister I’ve ever had. I miss her terribly. I never wanted to be giving this speech. I didn’t even really want to be here. Because being here means she is not. My sister loved everyone I suspect.
I know she loved me, my brothers, our parents, her cousins, her daughters and grandchildren. And having read some of the messages you’ve written, I know she shared that love with you too. And that’s the legacy she’ll leave to all of us; have love and compassion for those around you.
Thank you for the opportunity to share with you a little about my sister. While I appreciate the opportunity, I really didn’t want to be here.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
Follow him on
Twitter (@rodneymbliss)
Facebook (www.facebook.com/rbliss)
LinkedIn (www.LinkedIn.com/in/rbliss)
or email him at rbliss at msn dot com
(c) 2020 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
