Listening to the news this morning; hundreds of weddings have been planned for today, considered to be a lucky day for its date of course (07-07-07). I think it’s interesting enough to make a notebook entry, but I’m certainly not superstitious about it… and most marriages these days need less superstition and more hard work in the relationship.
I consider myself an optimist so when someone say’s to “think positively” I’m usually agreeable to the idea. But then today I read an article, Dear Oprah, please stop promoting The Secret written by John Gravois for Slate Magazine. In it he puts forth a rather convincing argument that people are so busy thinking about the best-case scenario, that they forget to plan for problems.
His only two examples of professions that are trained to think negatively are doctors and computer workers. While I’ve never thought about myself as a negative thinker, “Murphy’s law” is invoked regularly at work, so negative thinking might have slipped in unawares. When I write programs I do have to plan for everything that might go wrong and come up with solutions to handle the events gracefully.
So what is the power of negative thinking, and how could it help improve our lives?
We had a doctor’s appointment today and found out that we’re going to
have another girl. Now to figure out a name for her… 🙂
I was thinking about the coming months with a new baby on the way. I’ve been thinking back to when CDF was pregnant with MD and how that was. The first thing that comes to mind is all the doctor visits that we had. Then all the evenings we spent together, often with me giving CDF a massage (foot or back) while we talked, or read a book together (often a pregnancy/what-to-expect book).
Then I was looking around on the Pregnancy magazine website and an interesting article on the front page jumped out at me, Pregnancy Magazine – The Last Big Hurrah, about taking a “babymoon” with your spouse before the baby arrives. First on the list was Mexico, so I think this is right up my alley. For about $1,300, she and I could spend a week in Manzanillo Mexico in a Garden Suite at the Karmina Palace. They also suggest Hersey, PA, which would be more appealing to my wife.
For Labor Day CDF and I had family and friends over for a hot dog cookout. I cooked hotdogs and the others brought sides and desserts. We started about 5:00 PM and the last to leave — Dom, Amber, Heidi, and her roommate Brandy — were out by 8:00 PM.
It was a beautiful day, mostly sunny during the morning with a few clouds in the afternoon, and it was nice and cool. The temperature has gone down to the 60’s and 70’s lately and it’s been very nice outside. It was just a nice day to be outside.
We had spent the morning doing yard work. I finished up trimming the grass around the yard, and then worked on getting rid of one of the holly bushes on the side of the house. CDF weeded the flower beds and raked pine needles. Finally MDF helped me take the grass clippings to the back of the dog pen. We fill the recycling crate with handfuls of grass and then I carry them back to dump it. MDF does a really good job helping me with that.
Rick came over last night to jam. It’s been at least six months since we last got together. I set my drums up in the living room and he plugged in at the bay window. It took us a little while to get warmed up, but eventually we got going, playing some 12 Stones, Switchfoot, SFB, and just jamming for a while too.
I’m looking forward to see if we can get something going.
This morning I heard a Cardinal singing for the first time this year. He was sitting pretty in a Crepe Myrtle bush just outside the CFCC administration building.
I didn’t realize until today how much the Cardinal’s song reminds me of spring. But it makes me think of the green of spring and of the Azaleas blooming in Dadu’s back yard.
I got together with Mr. Johnny yesterday. We went through the band equipment so we could divide it up among the four of us (Dom, Jeremy, Johnny, and myself). We haven’t played together since the concert at Emmanuel ARP Church in August 2003. Johnny’s cousin had offered to buy some of his audio equipment and wanted to know if he would sell any of the band equipment. So Johnny called us to talk about what we wanted to do with the equipment.
Dom wanted the sub-woofer, Jeremy wanted the small 8-channel mixer, and I took the cable “snake.” Johnny kept the big, 1200 W power amp. I think he’s decided not to sell the equipment in case he wants to play more music after his son leaves for college.
So after 7 years of being together, SFB is officially disbanded (pardon the pun).
I think fall is my favorite season of the year. The others have their good points, but fall takes the cake. I’m not sure what it is exactly, but it all the changes combined: the cooling temperature, now it’s dark at supper time, the leaves are changing and falling off, the anticipation of the holidays, etc.
I always want to be outside more once the summer heat is gone. I start wanting to go on walks again, especially in the country (or woods). Spring is next best for this sort of thing, but there are fewer pests in the fall.
The past couple of days I have really noticed that it has started getting darker at supper time. Of course the time change on Oct 31st is a big factor, but it’s still been a noticeable change in the past week. Tonight CDF had a candle burning on the dinner table and some music playing. Only one light was on in the living room and it gave the house that wonderfully cozy atmosphere that fall and early winter have. Maybe it was a pre-holiday feeling, festive but still restful.
I?m sure the holiday memories play a part in the way I feel about fall. Between my birthday in late October, and then spending time with the family at Thanksgiving, as well as the anticipation for Christmas time, it all plays a part in bringing in good memories and feelings this time of the year.
I just want to note that today (although still technically spring) the temperature is still very nice, warm but not too hot. Seems unusual to me, though my dad always claims it doesn’t really get hot until August.
It should be a “cool” summer for CDF’s parents too. They’re about set to head for Japan. CDF went up to Jacksonville to say goodbye and they’ll be heading for Raleigh tommorow.