Today I messed around downtown before my brother called and we met him at Zilker to play with his pitbull, Ajax. Here’s a panoramic photo I took with my camera at Zilker. Below I’m standing in front of the Paramount Theatre. We could have gone to see ‘Jailhouse Rock’, but we were late.
Today I had a lot to do when I got home, then I got overwhelmed and rebelled against the overwhelmed feeling by… not doing what I needed to do. Sound familiar?
When I muster the initiative to start a project I’m always surprised by how smooth everything goes, but it’s only a relief in retrospect.
Staring down the barrel of a big project can unnerve you, especially if you’re already worn down to a nub. The damnable aspect of it all is that you know that you’re forestalling what will come on its own anyway, so to kill the little worrying voice you occupy it with some other less pressing responsibility or another diversion like trying to draw with the mouse in Photoshop. The pile is going to try to bury me tomorrow.
I was messing around yesterday at work and actually scratched out a few doodles. Drawing is one of those few things you can do to create an internal sense of quiet.
Sarah and Breen have some cute new kittens they’ve named Boris and Boomer. Normally, Breen refers to all cats as “Mister Kitty” and all dogs as “Fat Dog”. I guess he couldn’t do that since he had two kitties to name. If I adopted two kittens I would name them Tango and Cash after the Academy award winning movie by the same name. Here is one of my cats, Clancey. My other cat, Sarah, is out killing stuff or hanging out with her best friend, the lady next door who works at St. Ed’s.
One of my grandfather’s little brothers, Albion, passed away yesterday. He was a great guy and will be sorely missed by anyone who knew him. He was one of those characters who seemed to know a million jokes. I remember him best wearing a white t-shirt with the stub of a cigar plugged into the corner of his mouth. This Christmas has been pretty hard on my family. Here’s the obit:
Albion James “Al” Sivori Sr.
SIVORI, ALBION JAMES, SR., “AL,” 75, of Louisville, died Sunday, January 2, 2005. He was a retired carpenter for Local Union # 64, a member of St. Clement Catholic Church and Friendship Club and a loving husband, father, grandpa and great-grandpa. He is survived by his loving wife of 54 years, Clara Imelda Eiden Sivori; his children and their spouses, Albion James “Butch” Sivori Jr., Anthony “Tony” and Brenda Sivori, Vincent and Tonya Sivori, Clara Snodgrass Sivori, Tina and Charlie Stewart, Rosemary and Terry Sandefur, Lisa and Mike Mullins and Helene and Steve Lynch; 19 grandchildren;two brothers, Frentz and Williams Sivori; two sisters, Margaret Bartley and Patricia Turner; and seven great-grand-children. His funeral Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Wednesday at St. Clement Catholic Church, 5437 Johnsontown Rd., with burial in Bethany Cemetery. Visitation will be from 5-9 p.m. Monday and 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Tuesday at Owen Funeral Home, 5317 Dixie Hwy. Memorial gifts may go to St. Clement Catholic Church Maintenance Fund or Hospice & Palliative Care of Louisville . Published in The Courier-Journal from 1/3/2005 – 1/4/2005.
I’ve been back from Oklahoma for about two days. It was fun and relaxing, although occasionally stressful. It seems to be that way when you have to stay with other people. I would prefer that all people lived in shells like snails and turtles. That way if you had to leave your town you would never need to invade another person’s private space. You could just tuck your arms and legs into your person shell and go about your own business.
The night before we left for the drive north I bought a new digital camera as a present to myself. It’s a Nikon Coolpix like my previous camera. This one is the 5200, which is smaller than the Nikon 775 I bought almost exactly three years ago when I spent Christmas in Louisville, Kentucky for my grandmother’s funeral. The 5200 is a 5.1 megapixel camera whereas the 775 was a 2.1 megapixel camera. Everything else is pretty similar, although it is neat to see all the enhancements they have made to the Coolpix line over the past three years. My favorite new thing is the panorama assist mode.
I took some photos over the holiday break. I had this week off from work, and I think that’s the first time I’ve had off for Christmas since I took a leave of absence to attend my grandmother’s funeral. It’s been nice. Here’s a photo from when I helped feed the cattle at Jody’s parents’ place.
There’s nothing to it, every day in the winter when there’s not enough grass for the cattle to graze you have to go out and give them sacks of feed made from dry molasses, alfalfa pellets, and feed corn. Keeping livestock is something a lot of people in the area do since the land is too rocky for farming. I asked Marty a lot of questions about raising cattle since I’m curious about it. Daily life in the US depends on farming and ranching yet many people know nothing about it. I also learned that cows normally give birth in the fall or winter. When we were there there were three or four brand new calves. There seemed to be a new one each day. You notice this because when you go out to feed all the cows they’ll come up and tagging along will be the new babies. One day I got up early and went out to do the feeding by myself. The part I hated the most was calling the cows to come up from the pasture. I felt like an idiot hooting and yelling, “Come on cows.” over and over. It’s difficult to yell loudly when it’s so quiet all you can hear is the wind blowing.
All things considered, Christmas was very nice. I got several nice presents from a few people. Much more than I deserved. I am ready to usher in 2005, and I look back on the past year with the usual mix of feelings. I am glad for everything I’ve experienced. Much has happened, so it seems when you look back and add it up. I hope the holidays found you all well and happy and I hope that the coming year brings to you a bounty of satisfaction and success. Here’s one last photo I took of Josalyn, red-faced from the cold, as the sun set this weekend:
I’ve learned a lot of things from this book I have with a bunch of condensed book summaries on different subjects. I love stuff like that. Regarding financial matters here’s some helpful advice, every time you get a paycheck, take your net income and divide like so: 20% to debts, 10% to savings, and live on the remaining 70%. It sounds good to me.
Here are some things I’ve learned on my own that I would add:
I jousted for another position here and lost again. Time to mull it over, pick apart my performance and qualifications, readjust my plans, consider other alternatives, and do a lot of deep thinking. The same day I found out I was not chosen for the job I was glad to see a message from the gods delivered in a fortune cookie from the desperation deli. It read: “The sun is new each day.” The gods can afford to be optimistic.
I suppress my inner voice because I don’t like what I hear. My mind is a lot like my closet; packed full of boxes and souvenirs, the wreckage of my life. Skins of my former selves hanging back in the corner where I don’t have to look at them. I know it’s all there packed away. I just don’t want to open it, and I’m too afraid to just toss it all out. What would I have left if I did?
Here are some things I’ve learned from others over the course of the year and have added to my mental arsenal. Where possible I have included the original statement as it was given. Many of things may not resonate with you, but you may find ideas worth consideration:
