June 29th, 2017

Bon dia !! (A “Good Morning” in Papiamento that you may hear visiting Aruba.)

It never ends. That hateful helpless feeling you get when one of your kids gets sick. This week it was Jessica’s turn in the barrel. She developed a terribly painful ear ache that grew into a full blown flu. Hopefully the meds will help because it is tough to watch her feeling so bad. It doesn’t matter if they are 9 or 39… you still wish you could do something to make them feel better right away.

This week I learned some stuff:

• I came across a bunch memorabilia when I cleaning out my office this week. A golf ball with a life jacket, given to me by my team in Indiana when I started to play golf regularly. My Y2K Deutsche Bank Harmonica still plays. I found the ransom note from my team on SBS informing me that my coffee cup would not be released until I met with them to resolve some issues with the SBS installation process. I found various Boss day and birthday cards signed by my leaders and teammates over the years. I actually got two EDS 5-Year Letters. Those who worked in the old EDS might remember getting a personal letter from their manager celebrating their first five years with EDS. To write a good anniversary letter, your manager had to research your track record, talk to old bosses, etc. This was often a tough task because people moved around a lot at EDS. My manager, Jim Benson, was able to dig up enough material on me for two letters. One was the formal normal letter and the other was a collection of funny anecdotes about my past. Of course, he presented both in a full team meeting and embarrassed the hell out of me. I also found reminders of how Jim came to my father’s funeral, conveyed our teams condolences and asked my step mother if there was anything EDS could do to help out. Throughout my career at EDS, I felt empowered to do the best job I could, recognized for doing it well and appreciated in a way no other professional environment ever made me feel. Lots of company’s talk about how their people are their first priority. EDS walked that talk for me every day of the 27 years that I worked there.

Website Update
• New Vocabulary Quiz!!! Woohoo!!!
• This week I also added the lyrics for “Your Saving Grace ” from Steve Miller Band and “So Begins the Task” by Manassas for your sing-a-long pleasure.
• Added a quote from Maya Angelou about how people will remember you.
• This week’s “Interesting Human” is Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, painter, poet, sculpture and architect from the Renaissance.

Writing and Painting Update:
• I got the critique on my Purple Shamrocks that I painted last week. I am going to get some tweaks on it and try to get it framed in time to enter it in the show.

Weird-Stuff-O-Meter:
• Sometimes I wonder if I have just lived to long to make sense of it all. Donald Trump is president (not my fault) and Toby Keith and Willie Nelson put together a fun video called, “ Wacky Tobaccy”. I guess maybe its all the same cosmic message… “do not take yourself too serious” cause it just gets crazier from here. Here is the link:)
• Random thoughts. I was wondering what the likelihood of being pooped on by birds during my life. Have you ever wondered about that. Well, it turns out we are doomed to live non-poop free lives and here is why:

Assuming independence, average probability etc,
each person has 0.06*24*60*60=5184 seconds daily exposure
birds poop every 2880 seconds on average, so probability of 1/2880 each second or a poop probability each second of 0.001(1/2880)
thus, probability of surviving 1 day without poop is (1 – (0.001 * (1/2880))) ^ 5184 = 0.9982016187
or in lifetime chance over 78.74 years (average American life expectancy 2012): (1 – (0.001 * (1/2880))) ^ (78.74 * 365 * 5184) = 3.411896044e-23 ~= 0, which means a lifetime risk of ~1.

Music Update:
This week’s UJT Radio program features a reverse run through the library which yielded some cool tunes for y’all:
• Toby Keith – I Love This Bar — Once upon a time at the corner of Ludlum and Bird Road in South Miami, Florida was a bar by the name of Sids. If ever there was a perfect place to fall into when your life was falling apart, Sids was the place. Those good folks picked me up, dusted me off and sent me on my way ..a lot richer for the friends I had made and a lot wiser for what they taught me. Anyhow, every time I hear this song, I think back to those days, with Sid, Betty, Cowboy, Cindy, Jessica, Lou and all the rest of the pilgrims who put up with my lame ass stuff and still found a way to put me back together again.
• Who — Who Are You — These boys just put sooooo much energy into their music. For awhile there I was simply addicted to Tommy”. It was so creative and amazing. I swear I almost dislocated something listening to “Live At Leeds” at full volume on an 8 track tape in my friend Deans GTO when the track changed.
• Venice — Hold Me — This one is from their Venetian Vinyl album. Just another really pretty Venice song amongst so many.
• Steve Windwood — While You See a Chance — His second solo album, “Arc of a Diver” went platinum this week in in 1981. This was the biggest hit from the record.
• 10cc — I’m Not In Love — This was their biggest commercial hit. Its a spooky tune about how big boys are really just little boys when they get hurt. Some beautiful harmonies.
• Stevie Miller Band — Your Saving Grace — This is the title cut from one my favorite Steve Miller Band albums. This was before he got all commercial and successful. Back then he was playing for a certain audience that smiled a lot. The drummer, Tim Davis wrote and sang lead on this one. Ben Sidran plays the organ and I think it makes it really pop.
• Manassas — So Begins the Task — This one comes from Stephen’s new band, Manassas debut ablum. Beautiful harmonies, Al Perkin’s haunting petal steel guitar and Joe Layla on drums makes this a special deep cut.
• Steely Dan — Doctor Wu — This one is just a Miami song. I can close my eyes and see the Cuban gentlemen playing backgammon in the park smoking their stinky cigars and laughing. Great percussion and Phill Wood’s sax is special on this one. This one is a sound track for too much cocaine and weirdness. This one come from their, “Katy Lied” album.

That’s it… Do the best you can; Laugh every chance you get; And always remember … The best is yet to come!

As always, thank you for being my friend!

James
Under the Jacaranda Tree URL: http://www.jfmccann.com