Randomness Revisited

I can’t believe it’s October already!  When I lived in Michigan, WV, PA, or even the Netherlands, there was a transition time from steamy summer, to cool, crisp autumn nights, follow by a week or so in October when it warms up, a baseball team you expected to do well in the playoff’s does a ‘Chicago’ on you and chokes, and the cool weather settles in for the duration. 

Ok– the Tampa Bay Rays are doing their part and have proven that they are equal opportunity slackers.  They choke just as surely whether it’s against cellar dwellers like Baltimore and Kansas City (2-5; shut out three of the 5 losses and a single run each of the other two), or division leaders like Texas. 

But that’s a different story.

Back to autumnal transitory weather patterns.  Up north, or in higher elevations, you get a warning.  Leaves turn color, squirrels collect nuts, the harvest comes in, high school football hits full stride and nasty political
ads start hitting the airways. 

In west-central Florida, and right now in particular the area just north of Tampa locals call the Nature Coast, apparently because it’s too scruff to build million dollar condos and you are allowed to run nekky in the mangroves, the transition is much more subtle.  It began with a stalled weather front which so far has deflected three tropical rain systems up to New England.  So far this year New Hampshire has had more tropical rain systems than Florida has.

The stalled front was followed by two Canadian cold air high’s that US Customs failed to do a passport check on, and which subsequently crept illegally across our northern borders.  That one is probably OK.  Canadians don’t generally demand we all start speaking funny English or French, demand social security benefits and free healthcare, or change our street signs.  They just flush their winter over the Minnesota border.

Simply put, autumn on the Nature Coast usually means daytime highs in the 80’s instead of the 90’s.  This year, the last few days have actually struggled to hit 80, and the humidity has been very low, so it’s really been quite pleasant.

Except for the Rays.

And the Dolphins.

And the Bucs.

As I write this, there is a high probability that the weekend forecast will includes scattered chances of excrement coming in contact with air circulation devices.  I won’t get any more specific than that.  Just think happy thoughts and keep us in your prayers.

Today is Thursday.  In three days, Linda and I will be married 6 years.  When people meet us they generally think we’ve been married for 30 years.  I guess that’s what it’s like when you finally get it right.  Anyway, I am blessed beyond belief with this woman.

When God created Eve, I believe He had this idea of a wife completing and complimenting her husband; that she fills a missing part of him that is shaped just like her.  She’s a ‘fit’ that makes him complete.  A fit that strengthens his weaknesses and fills in the missing parts.  Jesus talks about this and so does Paul.  Proverbs says:

Who can find a virtuous wife?
      For her worth is far above rubies.
       The heart of her husband safely trusts her

     Her children rise up and call her blessed;
      Her husband also, and he praises her:
       “ Many daughters have done well,
      But you excel them all.”
       Charm is deceitful and beauty is
passing,
      But a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised.
       Give her of the fruit of her hands,
      And let her own works praise her in the
gates.

(Proverbs 31:10-11,
28-31, NKJV)

This is my wife.  My partner.  My best Friend.  My better half.  She brings out the goodness in me, she loves
me even though she sees the pimples.  In her eyes I see the potential by which I can be the man I want to be.  I am truly blessed.

Am I the only one who gets irritated by someone who repeats something in a conversation about 5 or 6 times sequentially, each time sounding like she’s talking to herself and asking a question?  I try to sleep in on the mornings when she comes.

Or people who listen in on your conversations, and then interject themselves into a private discussion.

Or people who think the rules are not for them.  We went to Wal-Mart the other night.  We parked away from the storefront because there weren’t any close spots, and no Handicapped spaces open.  Wal-Mart
is strange like that their regular parking is closer to the store than the handicapped spots.

There was a large red van parked in the closet handicapped spot.  No mirror hanger, no handicapped plate.  I stopped by her window and interrupted what I’m certain must have been an emergency phone call to point out that she was illegally parked in a handicap spot, while people like me, walking with my cane, had to park elsewhere.  Her response?  Brooklyn wave, and the strong encouragement that I discover a way to copulate myself.

It’s called entitlement.  It sucks. 

I wanted to grab my Blackberry, take a photo of her vehicle clearly illegally parked, and email it to NPRPD or PASCO County SD.  Linda, who is more level headed than I am, suggested that such action might not really be in my best interest, reminding me that Biblically by showing this individual kindness we were in fact heaping coals of fire on her head.

I was going to write about writing, but as this is already 900 words long, perhaps another time.

Happy Trails!

(I promise - I will eventually figure out the paragraph spacing thing.  Honest!)