Cleaning out more than I bargained for

This weekend I took on a task that I have been putting off for many months. To be honest, it is probably a year of procrastination.  The IM training has kept me busy and I have neglected a few items around the house.  Well, to be honest again,  I preferred training over household chores.  So my task was the garage, I committed myself to cleaning out the garage.  I got two boxes out , one for Goodwill and one for the trash.  As I went through things I came across a lot of stuff that was my Dads.  Things like parts of his train collection, his CDs and diskettes from his computer. Lots of books from circa 1950 about TV and Radio repair.  I was very reluctant to get rid of his stuff.  There was absolutely no reason to keep a book on TV repair that had no mention of integrated circuits.  The schematics showed no transistors but lots of electron tubes.  Technology had left these devices in the past and here I was holding onto these books.  I think I was afraid to get rid of them because as long as I held onto them,, it was a connection to Dad.   It really tore at me to throw these into the Goodwill box.  There was no way that I could have put them in the trash.  I think, knowing that someone else might get some use out of them,, I was okay with things.  I did hold onto one book that Dad had from his army days.  It was like the other books, obsolete but in the front page, Dad had written his name.  I hung onto that one.  He wrote his name there and it was more of a connection to him.  I thought that cleaning up the garage would be sort of therapeutic,, to finally have this not hanging over my head, but in truth, it was an emotionally tough job.  I still have several boxes here to go through that all contain Dad's stuff and then,, I have his house, workshop, shed and house in East Texas to go through.   It is all good though. I like thinking about my Dad.  I miss him. 

 

Got my hand slapped

As the title say's, I got my hand slapped in writing class.  Our assignment was to read someone else's story, and write an analysis of it.  The stories were given to us without names so we would only be basing our comments on the content of the story, not how we react to the person writing it.  As soon as I read the first paragraph of my assignment, I knew who the author was.  It started off with a description of a man getting ready for work.  The man did not have use of his legs.  This scenario automatically gave away the author as Garage Sale Sally.  The name was changed to protect the truly crazy author.  GS Sally is this Earth Momma type who always wears pretty much the same outfit.  Tie-dyed T-shirt with bib overalls and sandals or,, when she needs to dress to impress, she wears tie-dyed Moo-moo dress with lime green Crocs or some plain Birkenstocks.   GS Sally has read several of her stories in class. I will give her one thing, she is a prolific writer.  She always has something ready.  I struggle to get something out, meanwhile she is churning our stories.  They are all the same basic plot.  The main character has a hurdle that they must overcome.  Some times it is a physical defect, something like paralysis, or a deformity.  Usually the circumstances were industrial accidents or car accidents, and occasional birth defect.  The drama of her stories usually revolves around the physically challenged main character having to overcome a challenge.  Things like a new job, falling in love, facing a fear or tackling some angst ridden confrontation.  One time the fear was a steep hill that a wheelchair bound person kept avoiding.  The majority of her story was about how the character would take Main street one day or Willow street another day.  Luckily the city where the story took place was small and we only had to hear about 5 different routes before the main character finally made it down the hill.  I think the story would have been better if she would have had her heroine freefalling down the street, careening off of buildings and cars before she safely coasted to a stop at the bottom of the hill.  Not our luck, GS Sally described the ladies slow agonizing trip,, one block at a time, describing every crack in the sidewalk and even the "urine soaked doorway's"  that she passed.  

 

The story that I was fortunate enough to critique was about a paraplegic who was working through his daily activities as he got ready for a job interview.  All of his challenges  and then the anxiety of getting geared up for the interview.  He was trying to get a job at a shipping company,, yes,, a shipping company as a delivery driver.  It was not with UPS,, but a fictional company named,, ready for this,,,,"VQT".  In case you did not get the significance of this name,, VQT is made up of the next letters after U , P and S.  GS Sally had our hero, "Hal",applying for a job as a VQT driver. She described his thought process as he got himself ready to respond to all the negative reactions that he expected at the interview.  She had him plan his very own special delivery truck and how he would hire assistants to help him out with tough deliveries.  She never did explain the economics of this,  Economics and cost justification had no room in this story,, this was about the noble human spirit and how man can overcome anything.

 

In my critique, I wrote "This story seems to be plagiarized from several stories that have been submitted in class throughout the year.  Substitute "paraplegic" with "Burn Victim",  change "delivery truck driver"  to "sports agent" and "Messenger of the Year" with "the most successful sports agent of the year" and this story is identical to "Burned no more" that someone else wrote.  I went on to say that the story lacked originality, and was not very creative.  Here is where I probably went to far,, I suggested that the title be changed from "In-Time and On-Time"  to "Stand and Deliver"

 

 

 

 

I am so vain, I probably thought this video was about me

With apologies to Carly Simon,,I finally got to see and hear me finish at Arizona.  You can go to the following web site http://www.ironman.com/events/ironman/arizona?show=tracker&y=2007  and type in my bib number 1894, then scroll down to "Watch me Finish".  So,, I did it and I got to actually hear what was said and see me finish.  For next time,, I am slowing my ass down after I cross the finish line.  In the video,, I come across the finish line,, zipping in and out of the frame.  I also know where the camera is and I will make sure I am looking at it as I slowly make my way across.  Amazing how vain I am,,,, and you know what,,, I am okay with that for now.