Another day in the snow

The morning started way too early today. Joshua was up at 6:30 and let the dogs in the house, after which Amy had to get up, make him to back to bed for an hour (hopefully) and put the dogs back away in the garage. Not one to break with tradition I slept peacefully through this entire ordeal.

White memories

     Amy is making breakfast as I write this. We woke this morning to a white wonderland outside. I should say the rest of the house woke while I slept on for about another hour. By the time I joined them, they were already tired and ready to come inside. I guess I missed my chance to spend time with them in the snow. Maybe they’ll want to do it again later and I can be part of it.

 

In the meantime, here is a picture of our wonderland this morning.

 

 

I’d better run and get my laptop off the breakfast table before breakfast is served.

Talk again soon!

Just taking a moment to say hello

   It’s 9:30 on Saturday night and I’m sitting on the couch working in my journal. Quite a few days have passed since my last post. I find myself meaning to write more often, but succumb most times to the other menial tasks that occupy human life.

 

The last few weeks have been full of adventure, some of which you might find worth knowing. Last week Amy took her staff to Snowshoe to enjoy a few days of skiing. As the bosses significant other, I was brought along on this journey, though post-incident recollection confirms my suspicions that I was brought as the entertainment, maybe even the jester. Whereas the typical jester amuses his court with feats of acrobatics leaning towards occasional incident, I chose to perform my duties via feats of incident interspersed with occasional acrobatics, usually as a result of a failing attempt to avoid a catastrophic accident in the midst of aforementioned incident.

The times I fell, foundered, bounced, rolled, and gracelessly skidded down the mountain in a variety of amusing poses was thankfully not recorded too often on camera, though Amy did get one apropos image during the trip as you can see. At the exact moment of this photo, I was stuck, tail down, in a soft pile of snow surrounding a light pole. According to my betters, these bright yellow barriers are actually NOT points at which one should aim oneself unless you have the skill to turn prior to actual contact. I do not.

 

In addition to this barrier, I took out one small child, hit a giant rock dead on, and skied thru a "Slow” sign while attempting to snow-brake my descent to something below 40 miles per hour as I approached the ski lift at the bottom of the hill.

In a much less action packed, though no less enjoyable event, Caroline treated the group to dinner on Wednesday night at the Ember, the restaurant located in the bottom of the Soaring Eagle lodge. Dinner was a wonderful myriad of well-prepared courses that might have been orchestrated as an ensemble, so perfect was the progression of the meal. We began with a lobster-stuffed ravioli and a course of Kobe skewers followed by the main course during which I enjoyed a steak. Anyone familiar with me knows that I have no other options available to me if the menu contains any option for a large amount of fine-cut bovine sacrifice. Dessert was a three course crème brulee titles Menage ah Trois, accompanied with Port. I enjoyed the company of these three wonderful women with my usual coffee, but the wines were all spectacular if the amount of empty bottles were to be any indication.

 

The weekend was full of more skiing, tubing, more falling, and eventually we returned on Thursday upon which Angie pronounced me the recipient of the “Good Sport Award” which I took to mean that while apparently sucking so bad, I still retained my humor throughout the repeated and often-increasingly-painful tumbles. To say I merely sucked is an award-meriting understatement, but i had a truly wonderful time and as soon as the doctors release me from intensive care and the required six months of at-home traction is completed, I will be eagerly awaiting my return to the slopes.

 

Bonnie

 

 

Upon our return to Albemarle, I was given a wonderful present the next day by Amy. This little ball of irrefutably-adorable fluff you see on the left is Bonnie. It occurs to me now that while I was raised with dogs all my life, bred them, trained them, loved and raised them, Bonnie is in fact “my” first dog. That is to say the first dog that hasn’t been a family pet, but one that belongs to me.

 

I’ve been waiting for 14 years, since I moved to Greenville, to acquire a dog of my own because I personally think it’s cruel to have a large animal in a small apartment or condo. My own tastes were leaning towards Labrador or Sheppard, but both breeds are large animals and I wanted more space first. It was Amy who convinced me to try something new and so we have spent six months waiting to find an Australian Sheppard.

 

Bonnie, shown left, was born on December 11th, 2009. I picked her up to take her home on Friday the 22nd of January, barely seven weeks old. She has shown remarkable aptitude for learning, something her breed is known for, as after only three days she had semi-mastered verbal commands for Sit, Stay and Come. 

 

I brought Bonnie home to the family (Amy and Josh) tonight. After three hours of unrelenting attention Joshua fell and busted his lip against the stone kitchen floor and Amy busted her bottom lip open. Thus far the puppy remains unharmed, though possibly psychologically scarred.

 

It seems the predictions have been proven accurate as we are just this moment enjoying our first snow of the year. As I write this about two inches of soft powder coat the grass outside the house, promising tomorrow to be a day full of fun and sledding. Sadly we do NOT live on a hill, but Josh remains undaunted in his desires, fully confident in my skills as a draft-horse for his sledding enjoyment. When faced with the dilemma of having no hill upon which to plunge during dinner, he reached over and patted my arm without a moment’s hesitation and said “That’s ok, mister Tommy can pull me, right mister Tommy?”

 

I’d love write more but I’m merely taking a moment while Amy reads Joshua a book before bed to communicate with those of you who choose to follow my life through my blog. Thanks for taking the time to read. I hope all your lives' are blessed and going well. I’m home with the woman I love and with the exception of having my beautiful daughter here to share this time with me, this time of my life is perfect. Until next time.

2010: A new year with a promise of new excitement

It’s almost 9 AM this first new day of 2010. I sit here at the keyboard with my coffee and CMT playing on the television and Amy sleeps on quietly in the room behind me.

 

I awoke this morning with the desire to make my resolutions for the new year. What will I do this year? What contributions will I make to my own life and to the lives of those who share mine? Doing my best thinking for me involves slowing my brain down enough to make sense of the thoughts that fly through my cranium at lightning speeds on their way into oblivion and the best way to do that is to get on a keyboard and put them down as they fly by. At first my fingers have an impossible job; to catalog the material screaming through my head, but as I continue to type the thoughts seem to slow just enough, like congested traffic passersby, angrily honking horns inside my head in impatience. They do eventually however resign themselves to their fate and wait patiently to be let through the highway of my consciousness, allowing me to sit and speak to most of them personally, if not each and everyone. For example I just let that one about Brad Paisley on the TV pass right on through.. waved it right on by. My hands walk out onto the shoulder of the mental interstate and just shudder at the traffic flying by. The only way to bend it to my will is to step out in the middle of it, raise my hands, and force it to stop and wait. It’s an interesting phenomenon when I sit and force myself to think slowly. It’s almost painful sometimes.

 

So, what am I going to do this year different than last year? It’s a lot to think about, and even more to try to put down on this blog.

 

For starters, I’m going to step back and punt… take a moment to look downfield at what’s ahead of me, back up a few steps to collect my breath, and then charge ahead and kick the hell out of this new year. I’m going to drive my dreams all the way to the end zone this year. I’m going to dodge where I need to, charge ahead where I need to, and sometimes I’m going to lose ground and need to come up with a new play. Ok, enough with football analogies.

 

I’m going to take Twisted Networx in new directions, but mainly I’m going to bring us back into control and focus our push in to areas we have ignored a little bit this past year. I’ve learned this year that while I’m great behind a keyboard, look fine in a suit, and enjoy jetting off to other parts of the country from time to time I am much happier at the end of a day when I’m tired, dirty, covered in sweat and grime, and just finished a long day of hard work. So that’s what I’m going to push into; push back harder into structured cabling, custom wiring projects, telephony and spend less time behind a keyboard clacking keys.

 

I’m going to get Jordan’s Woodshop opened up, at least in a small sense. My father was a craftsman, as was his father before him, and I find that much of the skill lies dormant within my own spirit. My mind is most at rest when working with wood, so I’m going to take a little time this year to use that as my zen-place. I’m going to take on projects that people request, but I’m going to do them in my own way. I’m going to work the woodshop to please myself, not others. If I don’t feel at home with the idea, I’m not going to build it. If I do build it then it will come away with a piece of my spirit and my soul in it. If it’s not what they thought it would be, then they will have been better shopping at home depot rather than at my shop.

 

I’m going to move. I’m going to give up my condo with its hardwood floors, enormous living room, and contemporary decor and I’m going to spend more time at home with Amy in Albemarle. More than anything that place and that woman bring me peace, make me want to be better than I am. The air is crisper, life is plainer, more black and white, and the love is purer; so that’s what I’m going to do. There are still shades of grey, most especially within my own spirit, but they are all painted with smoother strokes and softer brushes than the life I’ve had for so many years. Lots of what makes me who I am has to be shed, reshaped, and some things have to be pushed away, put down, and there needs to be room for me to be the man she deserves me to be. She makes me want that life and want to be that person, so it’ll be a battle, but I’ll do it because she’s worth it.

 

And now, today, my new years resolution is to go get this woman some breakfast. It seems Bojangles is the order of the day today.

 

Happy New Years to all of you.