the day after

this picture was taken december 26, 2005.

i chose it because it epitomizes the day after christmas.

caveats: in 2005, we spent christmas at my in-laws place along with 4 other families ... 16 people in total, so the amount of trash was significant for that reason

it's over ...

christmas eve

Christmas Mediocrity

christmas light - dec 23, 2012

This muse was from Christmas of 2008.

For years, my wife has been asking me to put up outdoor Christmas lights. This year I decided to break down and try. After burning a hole in my wallet, I brought home a few boxes of lights.

I had no plan. I figured that if I simply strung up a few lights along the front eves, it would suffice. If I had time, I'd throw a few over the bushes and call it good. It would be gloriously simple. The kids would call me a hero and the neighbors would approve of my holiday cheer. It would be one of those houses you drive by and think "Oh, how nice" and then look at the next house.

As I began my project, I quickly grasped the complexity of the physics required to string lights along our high-arching eves. I also became conscious of the fact that I had one outlet to work with. All my estimates were falling very short.

"Well, I'll take this one step at a time" I thought to myself. "I'll string up the middle section, hook it up to some lights on the bushes and then take it from there." I began to work. Soon the middle section was complete and one set was on a small bush. I took an accounting of what assets I had left and what still lacked. I was two sections and three bushes short. I had one power strip, upping my outlet capacity to five, but I was all out of extension cords. I was also out of lights for the eves. The 50 foot estimate had doubled to 100 feet. I would have to buy at least another 50 feet to complete the project! The prospect of going to the store to buy more lights dampened my holiday spirit like seeing all your eggnog get dumped down the drain. I lost all drive. The whole project sputtered and came to a complete halt.

The sun set and the moment came to turn on the lights. The kids were outside. I flipped the switch and the kids squealed with joy. I walked out to the street and bowed my head in shame of the half-"butted" effort I gave.

Jim, our neighbor, came outside to take a look. "Looks good so far Rocky! When you going to finish it?" I hesitated and then mumbled something to the effect of "in a few days." But I knew it wouldn't be done this year. The eves above the garage and above the left side of the house were black holes. No cheer emanated from the sides. But the middle 50 feet and the one bush shone gloriously. I felt like Charlie Brown bringing home a dumb ole Christmas tree whose needles were falling off and could not support a single ornament.

But at least our young kids loved it and I guess that is what's important.

lake houston

Freakin' Hairy

This muse was from July 2007 and it sill gives me a chuckle.  I wrote this under another handle - Apollo.

I enjoy running. I don’t run every day, but I try for 3 times a week. In high school, we’d run cross country in the fall. Since school started at the end of August and beginning of September, we began to train in the latter end of summer. Usually we’d run without our shirts … we were studs. Back in the day, I gloried in my chest … it had a little hair. But times changed and I soon didn't like the hair on my chest. By my freshman year in college, I was shaving … my chest. It’s all gone downhill from there.

The other day, I was out on a brisk 5 mile run at 6:30 in the morning. It is very humid and hot where I live. About half way through my run, I shed the shirt and I feel as light as a feather. The only problem is the negative consequences of me running in public without a shirt. My first victims were two women walking opposite of me. “Oh my word Megan, would you look at that!” Megan covered her mouth and let out a gasp. As I approached, the other woman started gagging and heaving. When I passed, Megan, who had stepped off the sidewalk and was backing away from me yelled, “PUT YOUR SHIRT ON YOU FREAK!!”

After I passed them, I thought I heard one of them dial a number on her cell phone. I was running through an upscale neighborhood, so maybe these women were just haughty. Two miles later, a mother and daughter were walking their dog. I drew near them. The little girl looked startled and hid behind her mother. The woman looked at me for a split second and then lowered her head and started coughing uncontrollably. The dog turned aggressive and barked rabidly. I stopped and asked the woman if she was OK. The dog kept barking and the woman was trying to hold him back. “I’m fine” she said. She tried to look up, but when she did, she’d get this strained look in her face and then dry heave like Gollum.

The bright side is that I make loads of money off my hairy chest (and back). You see, it’s so thick and smooth that my wife got the idea that we could sell it as pillow-stuffing. We got the idea when I had fallen asleep one evening and the next morning found that our dog had cuddled up in the small of my back. It took a minute to find him. Every week, we get out the hedge clippers and go to work. Once we've sheared off 20 lbs. of the stuff, we ship it to a Swedish firm who turns them into pillows. They call them Apillos … a play on my name … Apollo.

You should see the commercials. A woman in silk pajamas demonstrates the comfort of the Apillo while a low, seductive voice explains the aura of it. “The Apillo will soothe your aching head. Made of 100% man-silk, the Apillo adjusts to the shape of your neck and head giving you the best sleep possible.”

The Apillo costs $59.99.

growth

the bridge

rocky rook dr.

little acorn

Bing It On Challenge

I took the Bing It On challenge ... and Google won :-)

green blue yellow

spying on mille

pleasant sunday afternoon

new art in office

the latest piece of art from daughter hanging proudly in my office.

The End of Sparta by Victor Davis Hanson

My pace of reading books has slowed tremendously.  I was just reviewing the last several books I've read ... last year at this time, I was still reading the Patrick O'Brian books and had about 5 books to go to finish the series before the end of the year.  This year, I've only managed to polish off about five books, yet here we are in the 10th month.

A couple of things have contributed to the slow-down.  I got off to a great start with End of Sparta, but then the book just didn't hold my interest.  Along with that was our very long summer trip coupled with the fact that I moved work locations and can no longer take the bus into work  ... I no longer have those two hours a day to read.

But over the last two weeks, I've taken this book with me everywhere I went and read while I had time.  I read it more at night as well as during lunch.  Today, I finally finished it ... after four months!

It was a good book.  It started off really good; slacked considerably in the middle and picked up a bit toward the latter part and in the end.  End of Sparta is about the Battle of Leuctra and then the first invasion into Sparta to free the helots.

I found the discussion on phalanx tactics used in the Battle of Leuctra to be quite fascinating.  The wiki entry for the battle does a good job explaining the change in tactics and how that change won the battle.  Hanson does a great job setting the scene up for that change in tactics.

The aftermath of the battle sets up a number of sub-plots for the rest of the book.

Then after the battle, the book slows considerably as the long wind-up for the invasion begins.

They finally decide to invade Sparta and break them forever and when the begin to muster, the book becomes more interesting again.

They break the Spartans, free the helots and help them begin their own democracy.  Of course, liberty is never easy or clean and there is consternation on the part of Epaminondas' army about this.  They figure it will take a few more years for the helots to work things out ... after all, they've been in slavery for over 300 years.

There are a few dialogues and passages in the book that I found interesting and I'll copy those here.

The first one comes from when they armies are mustering.  The main character, Melon, is addressing some of the men, and one of them asks him a question.

"So, Melon, do you really believe our Epaminondas should have settled up with the king?  Do you think his harsh words caused a war?"

"Melon frowned and went on, though he sensed his general was not serious, was teasing rather than learning from him.  "Of course not, my general.  Name a war, Pelopidas, that was an accident - just one that broke out over a wrong word."  He was soon stammering, worried that a big man like Pelopidas, leading an army to war, had little idea why they were at war at all.  So Melon pressed him further.  "Listen, my commander.  The men of the Peloponnesos invaded our land because they thought they could.  And, by the gods, we had done nothing to persuade them otherwise.  Why not?  We lost Koroneia.  We stumbled at Nemea.  Tegyra was only a small victory.  For years when you build women's barricades rather than raise shields chest-high, you send a message: that lesser men either cannot or will not keep the Spartans out."  Melon found his words were clearing his own head, putting into some sort of order what he knew in his breast.  He could not have stopped if he wished to.  "So for our part, why do you think Boiotians march this morning?  Only because Leuktra taught us that we could - and these red-capes to the south cannot keep their enemies our like they have the past seven hundred years.  Had we lost at Leuktra, not a northerner would be in the ranks with us today."

"Melon, the lone vine pruner on Helikon, had an audience and so he lectured the general on why his army was following him.  He thought states were like people, and knew people well enough up on Helikon - both how to keep the bad off his land and to enlist the good to help him.  "Most men have no belief, either good or bad.  They follow only the winners.  So they claim we are liberators and follow you, Pelopidas, because they think you can do what you promise.  If you cannot make them rich, then at least make them proud to lord it over the losers.  But stumble and most will damn you not just as weak, but as bad also.   Remember Backwash in the assembly.  Just like at Leuktra, if we win, he'll claim us as disciples.  Lose - and he will put the nooses around our necks.  Back home, right now he's waiting and tapping his foot as we march here.  Most men are like that: They pass on risks to be safe and liked."  (pp. 349-350)

And then there was this passage regarding thoughts on the price of victory ...

"Victory, the wealth of peace, proves as deadly to states as does defeat.  Is that man's doom?  That as we struggle to plane down the edges for the young, old men forget that their own blisters and cuts from these knots and burls made us the savvy carpenters we are?  That smoothing the splintery grain for our children only ends up smoothing them, so that they know nothing of the rough to come?  That in our wish to be good we ruin those who we wish to help, because we cannot let them suffer as we did when we have the power or the wealth to stop it?  That law of iron explains the fall of families and the poleis as well.  Did their Pythagoras have any answers for all this, since - Melon knew - his vanishing Zeus did not?"  (pp. 353-354)

The last section I marked, I marked because I read on the wiki entry for Epaminondas that some history critics felt that he did more harm than good.  Although his intent was to free the helots, he in fact, according to the critics, left all of Greece in disarray and vulnerable.  And by the time Phillip of Macedon came to power, and then later his son Alexander the Great, they were able to quickly and decisively conquer all of Greece.

Seemingly in response to all of that, Hanson had this to say in chapter 36: "Alkidamas turned to them and looked over at Melon.  'Are we ready for our climb up to the sanctuary?  Don't worry about our Melissos or whatever his name was or shall be.  I too believe that he may not quite be a killer, although he proved to be a killer enough still.  We did our best to tame him so he wouldn't learn just our warcraft but also the rule of law, our nomoi, as well and the voice of Pythagoras, which I think I heard in him beneath his strange speech.  What he does with that knowledge rests on his soul, not ours.  The One God sorts it all out in the end.  Enough; each man fights the battles of his own day.  Ours are mostly over, and his will begin soon." (p. 415)

You would have to read the book to know that the Melissos he refers to is Phillip of Macedon who served under and learned from Epaminondas as a young man.  He later returns to Greece and wins a decisive victory over Athens and Thebes at the Battle of Chaeronea.

And one last note ... a monument of a lion was erected at the Battle of Chaeronea (wiki link here).  Earlier in the book, Hanson envisions two monuments of lions erected at Messene - representing Chion and Proxenos.

gnarly pumpkin

cherub in the garden

Weekend Chess Game

Barry's Afraid

Does he need to take a leak?

Is he afraid of some testicle lock-box?

Is he trying to protect himself?

I mean ... talk about bad optics.

The man who holds the nuclear keys should never been seen in this position.