My Wife Rocks...

My wife had a really trying week. I'm still out of town, and as such, the house Gods saw it fit to punish me again for it. Well, this week was no different. For a short history of what has happened, check this out. When I left NY, we were in the midst of one of the worst Spring Nor'Easters in history. As a frame of reference, we got the most rain in 24 hrs (7+ inches) since 1882! For the first time in my life, I experienced a real "100-year storm" that we frequently plan for at work. However, there was a silver lining to all of this. If this storm had happened in the 2004/2005 timeframe, it's likely that I would have been faced with a massive recovery effort. Who knows if it was luck, karma, or what that lead us to this point, but I'm grateful nonetheless.

As for the title of this post...my wife has come a LONG way since we got married. For an example, read this. She wasn't always this level-headed under pressure. In fact, if this happened 7-8 years ago, there's no doubt in my mind that we would having a serious discussion about my changing jobs. SOON. Luckily for me, we can now get through just about any house issues that are thrown at us, errrr, I mean thrown at HER :-)

Thanks to all who commented on her blog and shared their support during this week of hell. I appreciated them as much as she did.

What's wrong with this world?

Here I sit in beautiful (sic) Mentor, OH on a Friday night away from home watching a CNN feed of coverage from Johnson Space Center in Houston. Today had the unfortunate luck of being the second in a week where a questionably sane person decided to take a gun and shoot innocent people. The Virginia Tech shootings happended just 3 days ago, and the wake of those events are still on the front page. I'm sure that I don't have to share my feelings about these dispicable acts, as they likely echo those of 99.999% of all Americans. However, there are a few things that I feel I must talk about here, since at the moment it's my only outlet...

What I wrestle with more than anything during weeks like these is the contradiction of how they happen in our society. We live in a society predicated on free will, giving our citizens the ultimate in personal freedoms. The duality comes in when you realize that ultimate freedom also breeds ultimate carelessness. Our society gives people every opportunity to hurt others; we just hope & pray that won't. Why would they? I'm generally in favor of protecting people's freedoms because I truly want to believe in the good of people. Furthermore, I'm not really sure how beneficial to society as a whole it would be to ban all handguns. Something just tells me that mentally unstable people like the freaks of this week would simply find another means of doing their bidding. Which brings me to my final thought...

I'll be the first to admit that I understand very little about mental illness. I can't even imagine myself in that situation, where I've lost all appreciation for the value of human life and am willing to kill others and myself. Perhaps these two individuals were so out of their minds that their thoughts of hate and murder appeared to them to be pefectly lucid and sane. All I have to reconcile the acts of the past few days is the hope that they weren't fully aware, because the contrary really scares the hell out of me.

Tucson

Remember way back when I blogged about finally getting some head? (in my beer, you perverts...) I know, it's been a while. Well, at the end of that post, I lamented having to take a film camera with me on my trip to Tucson. During the lag of having to remember to take the film in to get developed, waiting for the HS kid behind the counter to do his magic, and remembering AGAIN to go pick up said film, over a month has gone by. A month! By digital standards, I'd having taken 1000 photos and blogged up at least 5 posts. I'm such a spoiled kid...But alas, my rant much end and I must share some cool pics I took while out there.

I was lucky enough to go to Tucson with some seasoned visitors. Several from my company make the annual pilgrimage to the Waste Management conference so over the course of the last 5-6 years, have discovered many cool day trips in the surrounding desert and mountains. On the Sunday I was there, we drove east a few hours to Chiracahua National Monument.

It's the former home of the Chiracahua Apache Indians from as far back as the 1400's (remember Cochise & Geronimo? Chiracahua Apaches). In addition to the historical context of the place, it also has some amazing geological formations, which look like stone towers rising out of the ground.

The only downside to this day was that we didn't have enough time to truly enjoy this place. We had to get back to Tucson by 4 in order to attend the conference reception. Work is always getting in the way of fun...

Next year the conference goes to Phoenix. I've never been there either so I'm hoping I get a chance to go. I've already heard great things about the red rocks of Sedona...