Powhatan Five-0

Coming to Powhatan, VA? Better slow down, cause the fuzz is everywhere.

When driving home from my sister's place on the night of Thanksgiving, I couldn't help but notice there were three different speed traps set up on Rt. 60 which is the central highway running though our county. For those of you who don't know, until recently, one speed trap in our county would be considered a lot, and three in one night is pretty much unheard of. Now that I think of it, I have noticed more police set up on the sides of Rt. 60 trying to catch speeders. This begs the question: What are the authorities up to? Is there some new law enforcement initiative designed to crack down on incidents of speeding to increase public safety? Is there a shortfall on tax income and the government is looking to make some of that up through fines? Is government threatening to pull funding from police departments unless they show they are doing enough police work to justify the money they receive?

Many of you who know me know I have mixed feelings about our local sherriff's office. Our deputies seem professional and well trained and equipped. And, crime isn't running rampant in our county, so they must be doing something right. However, every encounter I have ever had with our sherrifs deputies has sort of left me questioning what they are doing with my tax dollars.

A week before the first Christmas Daleen and I lived in Powhatan, our house was broken into. I came home from work and noticed a bunch of closets were open and several drawers in our rooms had been pulled out and dumped. I'll admit I'm a little slow and didn't realize right away what had happened. All I could think of was, "I wonder what Daleen was looking for and why was she in such a hurry that she couldn't clean up after herself?" Daleen arrived home shortly after me and when I asked her, she replied, "I didn't do that!" I immediately had this sinking feeling when I realized we had been broken into. If you've never had someone break into your house and steal your things, it is a rather unsavory feeling.
We took a quick inventory of what was missing. Mostly cash and jewelry. We had gifts under the tree but those were untouched which I thought was strange. Next, I called the police.....and then we waited... and waited.....and waited.
I can't remember how long we waited, but it was a long time. Finally, one of the deputies arrived and asked us a couple of questions. He then called the "investigator" who also took a considerable amount of time to arrive. The deputy was in his uniform, the investigator was in jeans and a sweatshirt, wearing some kind of camo ballcap. The investigator guy had a camera and he took a few photos, looked the whole house over, and asked us a few questions. Standard stuff I thought. And then.... then he then went into a long discussion about how hard it was going to be to find out who broke in and that they probably weren't going to figure out who did it. When I heard this I started wondering, "Am I in the twilight zone?" It wasn't what I really wanted to hear. Also, from the tone of his voice, I was guessing he wasn't probably going to try very hard to figure it out. The deputy notified us they would be phoning us in the next day or two to give us an update on the case and give us the case report number for our insurance. And that is the last time we ever heard from the sherriff's department. They never came back by. They never called. It was as if they had left and promptly forgot all about us. Let's just say I was a little dissappointed by the whole experience and even now, when Christmas approaches, I start to get a little nevous and wonder if this is the year we'll get broken into again. I wasn't expecting a lot. I wasn't waiting for David Caruso and the CSI team to show up and start inspecting my house for footprints and "mysterious fibers". But I did want to feel like the people who I pay through my taxes to at least make a serious effort. Dissappointing....

Then there is the curve in the road near my house. People come flying down my road and hit this curve and go into the ditch. It's not a weather factor. People have wiped out there in the middle of the day on a dry road. While no one, since we've lived there, has ever been seriously injured, I have never been able to question one of these folks to see what they were doing when they had their accident. Although I'm certain the answers would all be the same (going too fast and not paying attention to the road.) There is a set of mailboxes they normally take out. Although there is a power pole they've hit along with a neighbors fence and my culvert pipe. We usually see three or four accidents a year at this spot. Usually when I am out cutting the grass by the road in front of my house and a car comes, I can't help but remind myself if the oncoming car goes out of control, I probably wouldn't be able to get out of the way in time. Why doesn't the sherriffs office do something about that instead of sitting out on a straight stretch of highway like Rt. 60? I would think my neighbors are getting tired of having to replace their mailboxes.

We've had an increase of crime this year. From what I can tell, the sherriff's office has handled it fairly adequately and like I said, it's not like we are cowering behind locked doors while criminals are out running wild in our county. I generally feel safe where we live and I know our local law enforcement has a lot to do with that. As our community grows, we are sure to see a corresponding increase in crime. I want to feel good about our local cops and the tax dollars we use to pay their salaries. I want to feel they are working as safely as they can while responding to the needs of the community and helping to provide a safe place for my family to live and play.

So whatever you do, be sure you slow down when you come out to Powhatan. You never know where the Five-O might be parked, ticket books in-hand, waiting on you to come flying down the road.

Croup, Not Malaria

Daleen phoned this morning from her parents house where she and my son are visiting. Colin is sick. He has croup, accompanied by a pretty bad fever. While I feel bad for my boy and want him to be well, I was a little relieved to hear this. Since yesterday, I'd been concerned he might have malaria.

I phoned Daleen yesterday and she told me he felt very warm. She took his temperature while we were talking and confirmed he had a fever. No big deal I thought. He frequently gets minor fevers or small colds, as do all kids his age. She asked if I thought she should take him to see a pediatrician. I asked if she had given him anything yet and she said no. So, I suggested she try giving him some children's Tylenol which usually does the trick and then, if that didn't work, she should think about taking him to see a doctor. She then mentioned he had a couple of mosquito bites but that was probably unrelated.

After we hung up, I started to worry.... a little. Tzaneen, the town where Daleen's parents live is also home to the Malaria Institute of South Africa. It is in the far northern region of the country, not far from the border with Zimbabwe and Mozambique. People in that part of the country do get malaria, although is is more prevalent in the rural areas than in the suburbs where my family is. When I first started going down there, I used to pop Mefloquine tablets (an anti-malarial drug) like they were candy and I used to almost bathe in bug spray. However, in recent years, I haven't taken anything and usually forget to put on the Off and I've been completely fine.

The mosquito bites and fever bothered me. While I have never had malaria, I have been with someone who did get it. My friend Matt and I were working in Dakar, Senegal when he got it and it was pretty bad. We were teaching a training class and by the end of my talk, he was laying on a couch with a severely high fever and he was shivering and complaining he was freezing to death. Now that scared me because I had no idea what it was and I certainly didn't want to get whatever kind of Ebola Virus that I was sure he had. It really hit him quickly and bad and he was in rough shape for the whole week we were there.

What I didn't remember, until this morning when Daleen phoned, was that Matt had actually gotten it during a previous trip to Cameroon and that it had taken two weeks to incubate before the symptoms showed. I somehow doubt Colin had gotten bit by a malarial mosquito in November in Powhatan before they left on their trip. (I wished I'd remembered that yesterday.)

So Daleen took Colin to the pediatrician in Tzaneen. South African doctors, by the way, are definitely some of the best on the planet. (Did you know it was a South African doctor who performed the first heart transplant?) After a night of fever and coughing, Colin was diagnosed with croup. They gave him some antibiotics and he is getting a nebulizer breathing treatment. Daleen says trying to keep a nebulizer mask on a two year old is slightly more frustrating than trying to herd cats.

I feel terrible that my little guy is so sick. I know he's going to be fine and Daleen and her folks are taking great care of him, but it's just my automatic Dad response. I can't help but want to go over there to be with him. I'm sorry this is happening on his vacation with his grandparents as well. I know he'll be fine and I'm looking forward to seeing him a week from Thursday, when he comes home to me well.

Man On Fire

It's been five days since my last posting and man, have I been busy. I've been totally on fire and have been burning through my to-do list with unbelievable rapidity. It feels great and it definitely is what makes it easier to handle Daleen and Colin being gone for the past two and a half weeks. (See, I told you their month-long visit to her parents would go by quickly.) I'm doing a lot now, but when they get home, everything will be done, and all I will have to do is relax and enjoy their company.

This past weekend was especially crazy though.


Friday:
Up at 4:00AM and off to go hunting with my friend Russ. (Hey, I said I was busy. I never said it was all work....) On our trip I had three bucks and eight does walk out in front of me and I let them all walk away. Too small. To be honest, that's the best kind of hunting in my book. The deer come in, so you know you've done it right, and then afterwards you get to go home without a lot of extra work.

After I got home, I made some lunch and then got to work on painting some new cabinets for our laundry room project. In between coats, while the paint was drying, I went out and worked on getting up the 5 tons of leaves covering my lawn. Every year, I promise myself I am going to keep up with the leaves and not let them get all crazy. Then I promptly break that promise and let them pile up.

After the leaves/painting, it was time for dinner (grilled steak, brussels sprouts (love the sprouts), and a salad. Dinner was followed by dish duty and then on to the main event for the evening: laundry and ironing. Like the leaves, I had let the clothes pile up too. I like ironing in front of the TV though. My friend Chad loaned me his "John Adams" DVD. (It's an HBO miniseries.). Two episodes, three hours, more than enough time to finish with the clothes. I thought it was very well done and I can't wait to see the other DVD's in the series.

In bed at 11:45PM. A long day.


Saturday:
Slept in until 6:30 (that's sleeping in for me usually). No hunting this morning. It was around 20 degrees out and I am simply not that crazy.
Spent the morning finishing up painting the new wall cabinets for the laundry room. They are a very handsome avocado green color now. I also managed to get the kitchen cleaned up from Friday night. Late morning and the entire afternoon was devoted to getting up the last of the leaves. I burned some of the leaves along with some brush I had piled up, but this ended when the breeze started kicking up. The rest of the leaves went into the woods. Thank goodness that job is FINALLY OVER!

At 4:30 I headed out the door to head to my next function. Our church had it's annual membership meeting Saturday evening. This is the one time of the year where we come together to vote on church business items which require the members approval. We also have dinner together, followed by some music and reflection on what we've managed to accomplish in the past year and what we have to look forward to. It was really nice. The business meeting part was VERY short as usual and the food was excellent.

Unfortunately, I couldn't stay very long after dinner as I was then off again to a work function. Our night shift guy, Joe, was going to be relocated to our NY office. He didn't really want to make that move so he found a new job in NC, close to his wife's family. Anyhow, we had his Hail and Farewell party Saturday evening. Joe was a great coworker and he will be missed, but everyone feels good when they see someone who makes a job or career move, not for themselves, but for their family. I made it home by 10:30 and watched 2001: A Space Odyssey on Netfilx Online. It's a great movie which I had seen before, but man, Stanley Kubrick was whacked!


Sunday:
Up at 5:00AM. Ran the lights at church Sunday morning. Our church is in the process of building our permanent home, but in the meantime we are mobile. I like to think we are nomadic, but we really go to the same place every week. Every Sunday, the trailers carrying all the stuff needed to run a church are transported to Powhatan High School and are unloaded. We do church. Then everything goes back into the trailers and is driven away until next Sunday. In between the unloading and reloading, something really amazing happens. If you attend Powhatan Community Church, you know what I'm talking about. If you don't... well... I'm not going to tell you. You'll just have to come and check it out for yourself.

As I mentioned I ran the lights for the service rehersal and two services. The Tech Team to which I belong also is tasked with setting up and tearing down our stage setup, which is fairly complex. Running the tech gear during the rehersal and two services is generally fun. However, as you can guess, tragedy does occasionally strike, but somehow, the problems always get fixed and we move on. No matter how crazy things get, my friend Beth always says "It'll be fine!!", and it always is.

I almost lament our moving into our new building. I hate to think my son is never going to know what it's like to be a part of a mobile church. Right now, when you say PCC, people think of this awesome group of people doing amazing things. After we get our building, when you mention PCC, people will think of our building. We're going to be able to do what we do so much better when we get moved in, but we're going to lose a little something too. I think we should, one Sunday a year, fill our trailers up and take them somewhere and play a bunch of old photos and DVD's to remind ourselves of where we came from. I know it sounds crazy but it would be good to remind ourselves the building we are moving into is just another tool for us to use to do what we do.

After the second church service, it was time for the first rehersal of the Christmas play I am in. Believe it or not, I actually pretty much have all of my lines memorized. The rehersal was fun and it was cool to start to visualize how we are going to pull this thing off. My friend Chad and I have the two big speaking parts and we got a chance to ham it up for the rest of the cast. They all laughed when they were supposed to which was encouraging.

After rehersal, I got back home, loaded up my truck and took all of our trash to the dump. Once that was finished, I fired up my lawnmower and cut the grass, then spread out the last application of fall lawn fertilizer. I then sprayed roundup on some trouble areas around my driveway, put everything away, and headed indoors. It was dark then anyway.

Once inside I cooked dinner (baked salmon, more brussels sprouts, and a salad), did the dishes, and washed some more laundry while watching the beginning of the movie "2010", which is not nearly as wierd as "2001". I like Roy Scheider and I think Helen Mirren is just awesome.
I had a glass of wine with dinner and that's all it took to finish off my weekend. I was in bed at 7:30.

Unfortunately, my alarm went off early at 4:00 this morning. Time to get ready for work. I feel rested, and good this morning. This is going to be a busy week for me, but I am ready for it. I am a man on fire.

What Comes Around, Goes Around

What comes around, goes around.

This is one of my favorite phrases, and it is so true. The TV show, "My Name is Earl" is centered around this concept. I try not to watch a whole lot of TV, but I do find the show is funny and I like this idea that in the end, people always get what's coming to them.

Wikipedia describes the show by saying, "Jason Lee stars in the title role as "Earl J. Hickey", a petty crook with occasional run-ins with the law, whose newly won $100,000 lottery ticket is lost when he is hit by a car. While lying in his hospital bed after the accident, he develops a belief in the concept of karma when he hears about it during an episode of Last Call with Carson Daly. He decides he wants to turn his life around and makes a list of all the bad things he's ever done. After doing his first good deed, he finds his $100,000 lottery ticket. He sees this as a sign and, with his new lucky money, he proceeds to cross items off the list, one-by-one, by doing good deeds to atone for them."

I don't know if I'd call it karma, but I like that the character Earl is the epitome of the concept of what comes around, goes around. I also like the fact that he also organizes his time and energy around a list that he has made. (As you know, I too am a list maker...) However, over the past couple of weeks I, yet again, have experienced this idea of what comes around, goes around for myself.

The other week, one of my friend's phoned me in the early evening and told me about a lady who goes to our church who was having a problem with her well. My friend couldn't make it over to her place that night to look at her system and was concerned that the problem could make her well pump fail. When asked if I could go have a look, I said yes and headed over. In the end, there really wasn't anything wrong with the well. However, after I looked at the well pump and pressure tank, I was invited to stay for dinner, which happened to be spaghetti with probably the best sauce I have ever tried. See? I felt rewarded for doing the right thing.

The next day, I went on a hunting trip. That morning, sitting out in the woods, as the sun was just starting to appear, I said a little prayer like I always do for a successful hunt. This time I did add a little something like, "Ok God, I cheerfully did what you wanted. So perhaps if it isn't too much trouble, maybe you could somehow see your way towards sending me a nice deer?" Fifteen minutes later, I was standing over the largest deer I had gotten in the past three years. See what I mean?

Of course, this idea also works the other way for me as well. I was out in my truck on Monday and I got caught behind another truck with a hunting dog box on the back. They must have been looking for one of their hunting dogs because they were only going 10-15 mph. The bad part was, we were on a narrow road, and they were driving in the middle, and for some reason, wouldn't let me by. We continued on with me right on their rear for about a mile to the next intersection. I tried to remain calm and I didn't honk, yell, wave frantically, or use the incorrect finger to tell them I thought they were "Number One!". However, my blood was starting to boil and I didn't know what their problem was. I just wanted them to get out of my way.

We got to the intersection and they turned on their indicator to turn left. There was enough room on the right to come along side of them and make my turn. I didn't look at them when I came to their side, I just turned on my indicator, looked for any cars, and then punched it. I was actually pretty surprised at how the rear wheels on my truck peeled out with a really impressive squealing sound. This was completely unintentional and unexpected, but for me, it was the icing on the cake. In my mind I was like, "Yesss... I showed those guys!" They knew I was angry with them because they were just bad, slow, inconsiderate drivers. I mean I really showed them. The only thing that would have made my moment more rednecky is if I had a horn that played "Dixie" as I peeled out of there.

And then it happened. On my way back to Powhatan, I felt like my steering was out of alignment. "Strange", I thought. "I'll have to get that checked out." Another few miles down the road and I noticed the steering alignment was worse. And then the thudding noise started coming from the right front tire. "What is that?", I wondered. I pulled into a gas station and sure enough, I had a flat tire. Specifically, I had blown out the belt on my tire.

One hundred and forty dollars later, I asked myself, "Was that worth it?" Why hadn't I just been a little more patient? I probably could have just honked at them to get them to let me by. Who knows? My little moment of anger cost me. A lot. I didn't have to show those guys. If they were being jerks, then they would eventually get what was coming to them. I learned my lesson yet again.

What comes around, most definitely goes around.....

On To Tzaneen

Spoke with Daleen on the phone today. They finished up their week-long holiday up in the mountains and headed on to Tzaneen to her parents house. The resort where they stayed was apparently very nice. My father-in-law got to play a lot of golf which he loves to do. Colin got to take some pony rides and they had a big children's play area where they had a trampoline for him to jump around on. (He loves trampolines.... although he doesn't know to stay away from the edge which is always a little unnerving for us.) The resort was up in the mountains so it didn't get too hot and it rained, but usually for just a little while in the evenings. They left early this morning to make the seven hour journey home.

Tzaneen is a large town in Limpopo Province, which is situated in the northeast corner of South Africa. It is centered in the Tzaneen Valley and has a sub-tropical climate. The name Tzaneen is derived from the Sotho language and the main industry in the area is citrus farming (bananas, oranges, mangoes, avocados, etc). The town itself is very hilly and contains a downtown with a large shopping area (they even have a mall) surrounded by many suburban style neighborhoods. However, the neighborhoods drop off quickly into farmland. The Limpopo river runs through the town and they have a real hippo crossing sign by the river which I think is pretty cool. (By the way, Hippos are extremely dangerous and injure more people in Africa than all the other animals combined. Consequently, the churches do not do river baptisms there!)

Daleen grew up in Tzaneen. Until last year, her parents owned and ran a small fruit farm. They grew avocados, mangoes, and litchis (a small, red, and very sweet fruit which I love). Her dad bought the property when it was just wild land. He built their house and grew all the trees in their orchards while working full time for the railroad driving trains. After his retirement from the railroad, he took on the farming operations full time until he and my mother-in-law were really ready to retire.

My father-in-law was concerned about going fully into retirement. He once told me he had worked so hard, for so long, that he had no idea what he was going to do with his time. I didn't think it would take him very long to figure it out. He did spend a couple of weeks relaxing and reading Louis L'Amour books which were his favorite when he was working on the railroad. Now they've moved into a house that is a real fixer-upper and dad has happily gone back to work. He's basically his own general contractor for the house which is keeping him busy although just like here, many of the contractors he is dealing with frustrate him to no end.

I haven't seen their new house yet. I think the next time I go I will be disappointed to not be going back to their farm. While I won't miss getting up at the crack of dawn to pick fruit (yes, they put us to work when we go over to visit), I will miss all the open space and I'll definitely miss their swimming pool. (Did I mention it's subtropical there...as in Africa-hot subtropical.)

Tzaneen is really a wonderful place. I always enjoy going to visit, and I know why Daleen gets so homesick. There is just something about the town. They have this strange mixture of people and cultures. On one side, there is this high level of civility. It's the British influence that includes specific times for meals, tea, and afternoon coffee. There is a mall, nice neighborhoods, beautiful houses and golf courses. There are blue laws, and Sunday afternoon barbecues. When we go in the summer, it is Cricket season, so watching sports on TV includes watching guys in white uniforms play a gentleman's game that stops for lunch and tea breaks. The shops and stores there understand real customer service where they know how to smooch up to you and there is an unbelievable level of politeness. It's civilized.

However, there is also a side of the town which counters the civilized British influence. There are numerous Africans who work on the farms in the valley. Many of these people don't have cars and simply walk everywhere. You can see the poverty. Often, their homes consist of corrugated metal shacks or brick with thatched roofs, and they cook their meals outside over wood fires. They usually don't have toilets or running water. Donald, one of my father-in-law's employees, has a home in the nearby town of Modjadji, where the "Rain Queen" lives. The Rain Queen is sort of a tribal religious figure who supposedly has the ability to control the clouds and rainfall. It's really wild to see these people who are carrying on with very ancient traditions and ways of life, meshing with a modern civilization. I think it's hard for many of these people to get beyond the past and move into the future towards what we would consider a better life for them and their families. There are many circumstances and cultural and educational obstacles that need to be overcome. They're moving forward, but it's slow progress.

Daleen and Colin are going to be with her folks for another two weeks. She's got family and old friends to visit. There are several safari animal parks nearby so Colin will have plenty of opportunities to see some lions, zebras, and elephants. I have no doubt they are going to have a great time. I miss them, but am glad they are spending time with her family. I just hope they don't run into any hippos.....

Last Will And Testament

It's open enrollment season at my work. This is the one time during the year I can make corrections to my employee benefits such as health insurance, life insurance, dental, etc. This year, we added a flexible spending account so we can use tax free money to pay for various medical and dental visits and prescriptions. It's a pretty sweet deal.

I was reviewing my information prior to deciding on any changes and what struck me was all the various financial accounts Daleen and I have. Between insurance policies, bank accounts, investment accounts, a 401K plan that is severely devalued, and various vehicles of credit, I realized we manage quite a lot. But what has really struck me recently is, what would happen to all this if I were to suddenly pass away?

Daleen's sister died very unexpectedly just over a year ago. She didn't have a will. At least she didn't have a will in the U.S. that was legally binding here, even though she lived in Florida. However, she had most of her account information fairly well organized. But even with her somewhat organized account information, Daleen has run in circles for the past year trying to close up her sister's estate. Without a will, it ain't easy. I mean it really ain't easy. Without a will, because of privacy policies and identity protection, nobody would even talk to her. Daleen had to get a lawyer so she could be appointed as the executor of her sister's estate. Then there has been the forms. An entire mountain of forms. To compound this, the people from the various insurance and banking companies that are supposed to be helping us are for the most part, extremely inefficient or simply not adequately trained for their jobs. Sometimes I think they are either trying very hard not to part with Naomi's assets or claim money, or all of their other clients are like Methuselah and no one has ever died, and they just don't know what to do.

Her having a will would have helped us immensely. At the time, we didn't have a will. We definitely have one now.

Now, lately I have been looking into all these accounts and policies we have and feel like I need to get this all organized. Right now, if something were to happen to me, I don't think Daleen would know who to contact to get the ball rolling. So here's my plan. I'm going to compile a list all of my accounts and policies. All the policy and account numbers, values, and contact information. I'm even planning on including a letter stating exactly what I would like to have for my funeral, what to do with my remains, and who to make phone calls to.

Daleen has been fighting for over a year to finalize her sister's estate and she still has a long way to go. I don't want that for anyone who does the same for me someday. My hope is that whoever needs this information someday will find it comprehensive and it will make their job easy. They're going to have all the information they need and they'll have my will to provide them with the authority to execute my wishes.

I know this all seems a little grim, but since witnessing first hand how having a will and organized documents could have made a difficult time a lot easier, I am passionate about this. My sister-in-law had a nice funeral. Daleen and I then transported her remains to South Africa where we had another memorial service and saw her to her final resting place. Through all of that, and all the subsequent things that have needed to be done, we have tried to carry on with her affairs the way we think she would have wanted, but we're still only guessing.

When I pass on, those who carry out my final wishes and finalize my affairs won't have to guess. I plan to make sure they know and that gives me real peace of mind.

Ons Klein Meneer

Recently a couple of my friends have had their pets pass away. It's strange because they have all occurred in a single week. I am so sorry for their loss. It's easy to see how our pets become integral members of our families and it can be painful when they are no longer with us. Sometimes, when the family has young children, it can be especially hard because there could be some difficult questions and conversations to deal with. Thinking about my friends and their pets got me to thinking about the pets I share my home with.

Daleen and I have this pack of nutty cats that more or less live with us. (However, we are NOT crazy cat people... It's not like we have thirty of them living in our house.) I say more or less because we have only one cat that actually "lives" with us. Then we have a stray that has lived under our shed for the past few years, and there are a couple of other strays that wander by from time to time for an easy meal.

I'll start with the strays. We have, for some reason, this female cat that lives under our shed. She had a litter of kittens once, so we named her "Momma Cat". Momma Cat hates us. She doesn't let us pet her or even come near her. The only time she wants to have anything to do with us is when she wants to be fed. So we give her some dry food every day. In return, she is a member of an extremely efficient lawn mole killing force. So, she lives outside year-round and likes to kill small animals. She is definitely the toughest member of our lineup.

After Momma Cat, we have "Visiting Kitty" who was our first stray. Then we have "Skinny Cat", so named because.... well, because he's skinny. Visiting Kitty and Skinny Cat are both males so they don't stick around. They do come back from time to time and we are always happy to see them.

And then there is Tazz. Tazz is our house cat. He technically belongs to Daleen and came with her when she moved from South Africa. He is what you would call "ons klein meneer" in Afrikaans which is Daleen's primary language. It basically translates as "our little gentleman". He is an integral part of our family and I honestly believe Daleen would have to be hospitalized if anything were to happen to him.

Daleen got Tazz before we stared dating. She says he was the ugliest kitten she had ever seen. I have to say I agree with her... I've seen the pictures. He first came to live with her in her apartment when she lived in Pretoria, the capitol city of South Africa. Even at an early age, he was adventurous. He would routinely sneak out of her apartment window to go visit other residents in her building. She would come home to find him gone and would immediately have a heart attack. But eventually, the guy he usually went to see would bring him back.

When Daleen made her decision to move to the US, there wasn't even a question about Tazz. He was coming too. So we learned a lot about importing pets into the states. It's actually pretty easy. We put him in a pet export kennel in South Africa for a while before he flew to get his shots and go through a short quarantine. While we flew back to the states directly on South African Airways, Tazz got to fly on KLM. He flew to Amsterdam where he had a day-long layover. They let him out to walk around but I doubt he made it into the city to check things out. When he arrived in Boston, he cleared customs without any issues and when I went to the KLM cargo office to pick him up, he was out of his box and the employees were all lined up to play with him. He was in his little kitty-glory.

When he flew over, the pet export folks built him this ultimate, IATA approved, animal shipment crate. We never got around to getting him a regular cat carrier, so when we have to take him to the vet, we use his crate. We always get these strange looks when we bring in the crate. It looks like there could be some crazy wild animal in it. I think there is always some disappointment in the waiting room when we open the crate and this little white cat comes out.

Tazz's Shipping Crate (very sturdy, don't you think?):

Tazz's Crate Shipping Label ("1 Live Cat"):

When Daleen moved to Boston, Tazz was the only other living creature she knew there besides me. Shortly after she moved, I got sent to France for a month-long assignment. It was February and we had a huge blizzard while I was gone. Daleen had never seen snow before she moved to the US, so she was trapped in our apartment, for a month, with no friends or family around. But she did have Tazz with her and I think if it wasn't for him, she would have gone home to SA.

Tazz took the move to Powhatan really well. He is happy here. He's a lot older now, so his play is much more subdued. He's even starting to get arthritis in his back legs which has cut back on his running and jumping and he sleeps a lot. However, in Powhatan, Tazz is living his dream of being an outdoor cat. He had always lived in apartments before, so Daleen would never let him out. Here in Powhatan, he spends most of his time outside, prowling about our yard, following his feline instincts. He has even managed to assist Momma Cat in taking care of our mole problem. But he lives the life of leisure, spending his days outdoors and sleeping at the foot of our bed every night.

Tazz is a great pet. He is really good with Colin and shows a great deal of patience with him. He's low maintenance but very affectionate. For the four weeks while Daleen and Colin are in South Africa, he is the only other member of our family at home with me. His just being around makes it much easier to deal with my wife and son being away for such a long time. Daleen thinks we should get another kitten so Tazz will have a playmate. I don't like this because I think he would get jealous and it would make people think we really are crazy cat people.

Tazz has been a good companion to Daleen over the years and she truly loves him. He is getting older but he still has a few years left on this earth and he has aged gracefully. He stopped being that ugly kitten years ago and has lived a extraordinary life as far as cats go. He's lived in two large cities, flown internationally, and now spends his days chasing moles while taking naps on our bed. As far as cats go, he is a true gentleman..... n' klein meneer....

Having A Blast With Friends

Since Daleen has been out of town, I have been running around like a madman.

She and Colin have already been gone a week but it feels like they only left yesterday. I now have three more weeks until they return and I am already getting concerned I won't be able to finish all the projects I am working on before they get back.

However, I realized in order to keep going and be expeditious and efficient with my work, I needed to take a break; a day of rest if you will. So yesterday I took off to go do some clay pidgeon shooting with a couple of friends.

I am a member of Cavalier Rifle and Pistol Club in Montpelier, VA. As you can guess, it is a club devoted to the shooting sports. We have various rifle ranges, pistol ranges, and sporting clay and trap ranges. In addition to the shooting activites, we have other ammenties such as a campground and two fishing lakes. One of the things I really like is that the club doesn't allow shooting after 3:00PM on Sundays so members can have cookouts, go fishing, take nature walks, etc.

So yesterday I took my friends Rob and Josh to the club. Our first event was shooting clay pidgeons. There is a manual clay launcher on our trap range and I like to go when they're not running the automated system. The reason is when the automated trap range isn't operating, there aren't any other shooters there, so we can just relax and have some fun. If we miss a bunch of times (which usually happens) there isn't anyone there to roll their eyes at us.

Now, shooting a little clay disk flying through the air isn't terribly hard, but it isn't all that easy either. The problem is most folks use their shotguns for hunting big game animals, where you point, aim, and shoot. When shooting clays, the process is completely different and most people have to break some serious habits, which is what generally provides the most difficulty. My biggest problem is instead of swinging through the target, I stop when aimed at the clay, which is bad because as I mentioned, the target is continuing to move. Everyone had a lot of fun on the clay range though. Josh was on fire and I had a much better day than I have seen in a long time. It had been a long time since Rob had shot clays, so he had a bit of a learning curve at the beginning, but was doing really well in the end. Isn't that how it always goes with any sport?

After the clays, we headed over to the pistol range where I was reminded of how good a shot my friend Josh is. Remember in the first Lethal Weapon movie when Mel Gibson and Danny Glover are at the police pistol range and Mel shoots a smiley face in a target at some ridiculous range? Yeah, my boy Josh can do that. Rob and I on the other hand.... not as good. But we still had a lot of fun getting our bit of practice in.

Our final stop was the 100yd rifle range. Everyone brought a couple of rifles to sight in. I brought two myself. One that is easy on the shoulder and my Africa rifle which is somewhat of a bruiser. I proved again that all my stuff was dialed in and any innaccuracy was definitely caused by me alone.

All three of us needed a day off to go out and act like guys. Everyone needs a break from time to time so they can recharge their batteries. I especially needed this as I am looking at the lack of empty spaces on my calendar for the next three weeks until Daleen and Colin come home.

Cavalier is one of my favorite places to unwind. And contrary to what you may think, it's not a bunch of redneck guys standing around plinking cans with daddy's shotgun. A large percentage of our members are female (they're typically the better shooters by the way... more patience). We have every type of age and income group you can imagine. I think it is the variety of people at every skill level I like the best about our club. I love seeing one of the "good ole boys" in a ratty pair of overalls with a ratty old hand-me-down shooting iron sitting next to a real blueblood in brand new crispy safari wear, sporting a polished new custom-made rifle, chatting away as if they were next-door neighbors.

I feel better this morning and I am definitely well rested. After we left the club yesterday, I did some grocery shopping and headed home where two Netflix were waiting on me. I can't remember the last time I just sacked out in front of the TV for an evening, but it was nice; the end of a great day. But the best part though was spending some guy time with my friends Rob and Josh. It was a real blast....

3rd Annual Small Groups Olympiad

I belong to a church that plays well together.

We work really well together too, but for some reason, games, and competition always brings out the best in everyone.

Tonight was our church's third annual Small Group Olympics. In a previous posting, I talked a little about the small groups at our church, their function, and how they generally operate. Well, the Olympics is more or less a celebration to mark the end of our annual fall series where there has been a large emphasis on folks joining small groups and new groups starting up.

There are actually two parts to the Olympics event. The first is the chili cook-off and the second is a series of games and there is a winner from each part.

The chili cook-off was pretty amazing. Each group brings a crock pot of chili and everyone votes on a favorite. In addition to the chili, my friend Cathy cooked enough hot dogs and hamburgers to feed an army, and the small groups brought desserts and lots of cornbread. I am telling you that the people I go to church with can cook! As I am sitting at home writing this, I am asking myself if I really needed to sample all of that chili and cornbread. At the time, I really felt it was my duty to be as objective as I could in my voting and give as many chilli's a chance as I could. (There was a particular chicken/white bean one that was unbelievably good..) However, I am just hoping now that the Tums will work quickly and I think I can feel my double-chin has grown.

Naturally, after everyone was nice and full on chili, cornbread, and desserts, it was time to gird ourselves for pain and athleticism.... Well, not exactly, but there was some fierce competition in the games. Some of the "sports" included a relay race that involved carrying a clothespin between the knees and dropping it into a cup, charades, a word association game, and hula-hooping. Yeah ok, so it's not like we're doing the decathlon, but you would be surprised at the competitiveness our small groups displayed. On the word association and charades games, some people were shouting out answers as loud as they could and our group huddled and strategized about how we could effectively carry clothespins between our knees. Just like the regular Olympics.... we had the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.

Our group didn't win the chili cook-off. And we didn't win the games either (although we did win three out of the five events we competed in). But we really had a good time tonight with a lot of laughs and I can tell we made a quantum leap forward in our relationships with one another and with other small groups in our church. We are much tighter as a group, more like a family now, than we have ever been, which is really what this entire event is about.

So while we didn't actually win the games tonight, our time together as a small group was a win, the new level of our relationships is a win, and the competition tonight made all that possible. We are true champions in that respect.

Now we just need to spend the next twelve months working on our game so next year we can take home some medals......

Under Pressure Pt. 2

Ok, so now I don't have high blood pressure.

As I stated in a previous posting, I had a very high blood pressure reading during a health screen for a program my work has. I was fairly nervous about it and decided not to wait before making an appointment to see my doctor.

I got to the office and the nurse took my blood pressure. Normal. Then my doctor came in and took my pressure reading. Also normal, even slightly lower than the first one at 114/74. Needless to say, I was a bit perplexed by the significantly lower reading, but happy when she stated that I most certainly don't have hypertension. (But I do most likely have pre-hypertension.....yay!)

We spent some time reviewing my blood work and measurements. I really appreciated my doctor taking the time to listen to the endless questions I had. In the end though, the prescription remained unchanged. I have to eat better, lose weight, and exercise more. I have already started using my gym membership more frequently than I was, which wasn't very hard to to. (It has been nice to see some of you there.) Then, this morning I downloaded a ton of info on a diabetic diet my doctor recommended as my blood sugar was slightly elevated and she wants me to better control that.

My doctor reminded me of some unfortunate things I have going for me in the way of family history. As I said before, my mom has been on blood pressure medication forever and my dad has already had quadruple bypass surgery and is a diabetic. So I potentially have all that to look forward to no matter what I do. My doctor told me that because of my history, even with the right diet and exercise, she wouldn't be surprised if she had to put me on blood pressure meds within the next five years.

I'm still optimistic about the diet and exercise bit though. I'm just getting started with this and I already feel better. And I'm not worried about what's going to happen with my health in the future. Life really is too short to spend a lot of time worrying. I'm going to work with my doctor to monitor this stuff, we're going to catch any problems early, and I'm going to make the lifestyle changes I need to make.

My next appointment is in six months. I'll let you know how it goes....

Shopping for One

Daleen and Colin left me yesterday, and now I am all alone....

As many of you know, Daleen is an alien, living among us (a legal alien that is). She is actually a citizen of the Republic of South Africa. Her mom, dad, and family are there and while we try and get back there as often as we can, she goes for long periods of time without seeing them. As you can imagine, there are times when she gets extremely homesick, sometimes to the point where I just wish she would buy a plane ticket and go home. Going home however, is an expensive proposition. So when South African Airways ran a special, basically cutting the airfare in half, her parents decided to buy us all tickets to come and visit. Unfortunately, by the time I was able to get my work situation straight, the tickets for the special had ran out. Luckily, Daleen and Colin both got tickets and left yesterday for a four-week vacation.

They're spending a few days at Daleen's sister's house in a town called Centurion, which is a suburb, half-way between Johannesburg and the capitol city of Pretoria. Then they're going on holiday for a week at a golf resort in the Drakensberg mountains, followed by a couple of weeks at her parents house in the town of Tzaneen (pronounced "Zaneen"), which is in the northeast tip of the country. It's summertime there now (southern hemisphere), which means it will be "Africa-Hot" when she gets to her parents place.

Packing for such a trip really takes us a long time. Now, the South Africans basically have all the stuff we do in America. They have shopping malls, bad traffic, urban sprawl, regular grocery stores, etc. It really is more like the U.S. than any other place outside of the U.S. However, there are a few small things you can't get there and that's why packing our bags takes so long. When it comes time to go, we basically turn into overladen human pack animals. Here are just a few things we usually take with us besides clothes: Duncan Hines Cake Mix, Folgers Coffee, Vidalia Onion Salad Dressing, Russell Stover Chocolates, Crime Novels, Grated Parmesan Cheese (I am not kidding), CD's, DVD's, etc... Basically, we pack all of our clothes into one suitcase and we finish filling that one and a whole other suitcase with non-clothing items. They payoff is, when we come back from visiting, we use all that space to mule back everything we like but can't get here. Those items include: wine, mayonnaise (this is Daleen's, I think personally it is the nastiest stuff I have ever tasted), household cleaner, chocolate, more chocolate, Indian curry spice, Peach Chutney (Mrs. Balls brand... it's to die for) , salad dressing, and all the handicrafts we end up buying while we're there. Let's put it this way, we use a scale when packing and go right to the limit of our weight allowance.

Yesterday, I drove Daleen and Colin to Dulles Airport to catch their flight. Daleen seemed really upbeat and we had a cheerful goodbye. Although I didn't envy her sitting on the nonstop 15 hour flight with a fidgety two-year old. We finally said our goodbyes and I waited till they cleared security.

I now have four weeks completely to myself. A vacation you ask? Hardly. I sat down the other night and tried to plan out all that I want to do while they are away. I have found there just isn't going to be enough time to do it all. Four weeks, I feel, is going to slip by quickly and it already feels like they are going to be returning tomorrow. I should take the opportunity to relax, but when I'm alone, I like to work and run around like a crazy person. It's just how I'm wired.

I know some of you are worried about me actually cooking and keeping up my house while Daleen is away. I can assure you that I will be quite fine with this. I lived for quite some time on my own and can find my away around the kitchen. I even know how our vacuum cleaner works. I've also already started cleaning the house from top to bottom. Luckily for me, we have a new Trader Joe's in town. We had one where I used to live, and I like the fact that they sell awesome foods in single-person sized packages. Shopping for one? No problem.

I just got off the phone with Daleen. They had a great flight and Colin was perfectly fine. After take off, they watched Finding Nemo and WALL-E and then Colin lay down and slept until breakfast was served, two hours before the plane landed. They made it to her sister's place and as we were talking, my brother-in-law and niece just arrived home from getting dinner. They got McDonalds for my niece and Nandos for everyone else. Nandos is like Chik-Fil-A, except its about ten times better. She said it was nice and warm there, and from hill my sister-in-laws house sits on, they could see the clouds carrying a lightning storm roll across the savanna.

Wish I was there....

Boating in the Election

I took my two-year-old to go vote yesterday.

Luckily the line was pretty short and we only had to wait ten minutes or so. Colin of course, took the time to ham it up and get everyone in the line laughing.

I kept telling him we were voting (with a 'V"), but all he heard was that we were going to Boat. He couldn't understand why we were going into a building, but figured the boat must be in there. He asked lots of questions about the boat, which got some of the folks in line smiling.

By the time I got him to say the word "President", everyone was laughing. Someone then asked him what his name was and he said "President!". When asked how old he was, he held up two fingers and said "Three!" (We're going to have to work on that one.)

Making a two-year-old wait in a line to vote is like trying to herd cats. It's hard, (he did like the touch screen voting machine though). But I'm glad he came with me and saw people exercising their rights and engaging in their civic duty. A lot of people have died so we can have this right and I think it very important our children don't become complacent when it comes to voting.

We have a new president-elect as of this morning. My guy didn't win, but I'm looking forward to seeing what Obama is going to do. He's got a lot looking him in the face. No matter what, I can tell with all certainty that with the amount of voter turnout yesterday, the democratic system in this country is alive and well, and I feel great about that.....