It's News to Me

I don't know what it is about us old farts, but the older I've gotten, the less sleep I seem to need. Again this morning I awoke at about 4:30 A.M., so I tossed and turned for a little while and then decided to give in and get up. I started the coffee, which was set to come on at 6, settled in with a cup of Joe and began surfing the 'net, as is my usual custom. I find that my mind is unusually active early in the morning. If I were a real writer, I suspect that this is the time when I'd do my best work because for some reason I find it very easy to get lost in thinking about a topic during these early morning hours.

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I had a priceless opportunity when I was growing up to become a greasemonkey. My dad, Willie Nelson (yes, boys and girls, I am Willie Nelson's son), owned a used car lot, the Decatur Auto Exchange, during my pre-teen and early teenage years. There were always plenty of cars in need of all kinds of minor, and sometimes major, work to put them in working order and get them ready for resale that I could have learned on. My dad even had people who worked for him who would have gladly taken me under their wing, allowed me to be their apprentice and learn the ins and outs of rebuilding a carburetor or setting the timing of a motor. A lot of kids of that era, the early and mid 1950s, would have given almost anything to change places with me and take advantage of the unique opportunity I had. But me? As has all too often been the case with me, when opportunity was there pounding on my front door, I wasn't interested in letting it in. I had no curiosity at all about cars, the mechanics of what makes them work, nor any interest in getting my hands dirty or greasy. Though he never expressed any unhappiness to me about that choice, I can't help thinking my dad must have felt at least some disappointment that I didn't show any interest in something he seemed to care so much about. And I can't help but wonder how different my life and, probably not coincidentally, our relationship might have been if I had.

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The highlight of my boyhood Saturday afternoons at the movies (price of admission about $0.25) wasn't the cowboy movie or the Tarzan flick that was at the top of the bill; it was the cartoon! Who'd have ever thought I'd be able to add a classic one, such as this, to my blog!?

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My friend Jane Hascall's husband Benny, who is only 60, suffered a stroke on December 6th. Fortunately he is recovering at one of Colorado's finest rehab facilities, the Craig Rehabilitation Center in Englewood, CO. With the assistance of Benny's daughter, Katie, Jane utilized one of that facilities' excellent services to create a web site where she posts updates on his condition. That way, his friends and relatives can be kept current about his progress by subscribing to those updates or just by periodically visiting the site. This solution is so much better than Jane's having to send out periodic emails to a distribution list.

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I like this series of commercials ...

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This may be in my future ...

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Now that I'm back from my visit to Georgia and again have access to a real Internet connection, I've got to get back in the habit of posting regularly to this blog.  Please forgive the slow posting during the last month while I celebrated and stressed out about the holidays.

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Long ago before the World Wide Web came to be, I, like many others, became fascinated with the fact that I could use my computer to communicate with people from across the country and around the world by participating in a BBS.  Using a dial-up connection, I would connect to a BBS System here in Knoxville and login to one of its SIGs (Special Interest Groups) called ILink Writers.  This particular SIG was populated by a diverse and talented group of people who enjoyed the act of writing about an almost unlimited number of subjects.  It was during this time that the writing of one Paul Moor, who has since that time become a dear friend for about 15 years now, first caught my eye.  Not all the writers in that group were professionals (after all, I was one of them), but all of them were quite skilled at their craft, and I derived hours of enjoyment getting to know them and having the chance to interact with them. 

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Young Americans

Originally uploaded by scriptingnews.

I can only say that it's good to know that other people's youthful photos are as embarrassing as mine. This picture was posted on Flickr by Dave Winer.

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