It's News to Me

Cheryl Nelson, my daughter-in-law, was told, when she learned she was pregnant, that her baby would be born on April 29th. Since we found that out, we've also learned that the child will be a male, and recently, I've learned he'll be named Connor Michael Nelson. So today is his arrival date, according to the projections by the gynecologist. Recently there has been some discussion of inducing labor today, but in her visit to the doctor yesterday, everybody agreed to give the natural process at least another week before taking that step, so young Mr. Conner gets to make his entry onto the world's stage without having to be pushed from the wings ... at least, for now.

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My slightly topsy-turvy schedule gives me a different view of Monday morning than most people have. For me it is the end of my week and ahead of me lie my «weekend» days off on Tuesday and Wednesday. And while it takes a bit of getting used to to have to work each week on Saturday and Sunday, I've come to appreciate this time-shifted work-week. I find it amusing and take some pleasure in thinking to myself, that as others are muttering «I hate Mondays» or thinking of this day as «blue Monday,» I am saying instead, «Thank God, it's Monday!» Tell me there is no such thing as relativism!

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The colonoscopy was completed by noon today. I slept through the whole thing and feel no after effects, other than a little drowsiness that I took care of by having a nap when I got home. Mike was kind enough to pick me up and bring me back home after the procedure.

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Today I must prepare myself for my colonoscopy, which is scheduled for tomorrow morning, by taking nothing by mouth but clear liquids. I can have coffee, tea, broth, juices, Gatorade, and so forth, but nothing with any substance or bulk. Around 3 PM I must begin taking a laxative named Nulytely (4 liters worth of it), and then spend the later afternoon and early evening purging my bowels of their contents so that the doctor can inspect that during the procedure.

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We hear a lot about corporate greed nowadays. You don't hear much, though, about corporate gratitude, and I for one am pleased to see some signs of it turning up around the Internet.

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Actually, after installing Turbo Tax, I found it took me less than an hour and a half to enter all the information and file. So, true to my nature, I have completed the filing at the deadline, which only serves to reinforce my tendency to procrastinate. And I was right. I am getting a refund.

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Since it is the April 15th deadline for filing my income taxes, I thought that instead of doing what I should be doing I'd make a post here on my blog about my tendency to procrastinate. There are certain pivotal moments in the year where this tendency becomes quite evident. Today is one of them, and Christmas is another.

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I'm creating this post to acknowledge the beginning of this blog on April 14th, 2002. If you click on the title of this post it will take you to that first entry. Little did I know when I started that I'd still be doing this, albeit a bit less frequently, three years later. It just goes to show you: «You never know.»

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The year was 1954, a mere half-century and a year ago, when my bosom buddy, Del Jones, and I wiled away our summer together devoting almost all our waking attention to the fate of the Atlanta Crackers, known throughout baseball as «the Yankees of the minors,» because of their almost-routine dominance of their Southern Association foes and their eventual success against the champions of the rival Texas League in the Dixie Series. The likes of Bob Montag, Dick Donovan, and later, Bob Thorpe, were our heros, and their exploits implanted a seed in me that has since blossomed into a long-term love affair with the game of baseball. So today when the Atlanta Braves, the inheritors of my devotion to the game, begin their 2005 season against the strengthened and dangerous Florida Marlins, I'll once again be glued to the television in rapt attention to see whether the Braves can add another year to their phenomenal string of 13 consecutive division titles.

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Email is a part of almost everybody's daily life nowadays, I suppose. And since Google came along (that link recounts a short history of Google's growth and development), it has become everyone's favorite little «search engine that could.» So when Google decided to create an email client, called Gmail that offered 1 GB of storage, many in the technology world and elsewhere sat up and took notice.

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