Kelli with an I

When little Chucky was small and he would come to his father when things were not the best and ask, "Daddy, can you fix this"? Since then Chucky became Charles and then just plain Chuck. He still on occasion comes to POP and asks for help, but not so much because he has a very special help mate at his side. Kelli, you have become a blessing to my youngest. You have brought a special joy right from the start. I can see the love growing in your heart for my little Chucky. Our family is now your family. United in one purpose we adore you. Our hearts you have won. All because of the love you brought to our son!

Happy Birthday Kelli

Babies to people

We childproofed our home number years ago and they're still getting in! That’s a joke.

My little granddaughter loves to manipulate all around her into a great circle, holding hands and saying in cadence, “Family, Family, Family”.

Sunday, my son and daughter-in-law brought by the most wonderful chicken soup for lunch. Kelli had learned to make homemade noodles and had added a pressure cooked chicken. It was a gastronomical delight. I would have eaten more than I should but at the door came my Princess daughter and in tow my favorite granddaughter. We ate soup, drank a little wine and enjoyed the wonders of my family. I try to see the subtle changes that make that little blond extrovert into who she is becoming.

The front door opened and there was my favorite grandson with mom following intently. Little Joe had come over for his monster truck that “Pop Pop” had fixed. MM and Joe had brought their own lunch and we were just one big family in the manse. Joe went outside to play in the little wading pool and I went out and watched the little sweet one pour water over everything.

I tried to remember my little Larry when he was young. I really didn’t take enough time to just sit and watch him when he was little. I do remember musing over what he would become just as I also thought deeply about my little Joe. Just as all were getting ready to leave here came JR.

Family, Family, Family.

I believe that when we were born, certain personality traits were already imbedded in our being. There is no changing the nature of what we really are at our core. Nature vs. nurture has proven that nurture plays a part in a child’s development; the encouraging, caring, guiding, equipping, and cultivating which a parent, grand parent, family and environment provides. But there is also a nature part of a child’s development; it’s his or her individual nature and personality. We can nurture our children and train and equip them all day long, but there is a natural characteristic to them that we must accept; their personality with their strengths and their weaknesses which we should value and appreciate.

It was a great feeling of when my children are born and again when there are grand children to nurture. Bonnie and I probably try and imagine what these little bundles of joy will grow up to be like. It would be great if they grew up with the bright outgoing personalities mirroring the mothers and the great organizational skills of the fathers or some other admirable characteristic. I can imagine each will be a little version of the parent’s personalities combined. Then, all of the sudden to our surprise they become their own little personality. We discover we can’t raise them the same way. Not only is getting used to a brand new personality and temperament a challenge, but when you have multiple children and now grandchildren, the complexity grows even larger!

Meaning of Perfect

I was sitting in my office this afternoon cleaning out a number of files off of my temporary thumb drive because it was full and I wanted to save some more important files. I can across a picture I had taken a month or so ago. It was of two of the most perfect persons in the whole world. Now don’t get me wrong here, I am not prejudiced just because these two little souls are my grandkids. I caught myself getting a little misty and my analytical side broke in. What is perfection?
One of the oldest definitions is the one from Aristotle:
Perfect is that
1. which is complete — which contains all the requisite parts;
2. which is so good that nothing of the kind could be better;
3. which has attained its purpose.

The first of these definitions is a part of the second, but between the second and third there is a giant difference. Something or someone is perfect that could not be better and something that has attained the designed purpose.

I struggle with comparisons. And following Aristotle’s line of logic there is no comparison in perfection. It is not that one is better than the other. A grandson who would rather ride a little car is no less perfect than a granddaughter who prefers a tricycle. Blond long hair is no less perfect than short blond hair. A "I love you pop pop" filled with bravado is no less perfect than a little smile and two pointing fingers directed to the depths of my soul. Both of my grandkids are complete, nothing could be better and reaching their purpose.
What is perfect? Perfection is that which brings a teardrop to the eye.

Theory

In theory, the difference between practice and theory is due to practical considerations that theorists find it impractical to fit into their theories. If something dosen't follow exactly that they predicted they say they are anomolies.
In practice, theory uses the practice of theorising about practical matters, while not noticing that the theoretical method practically distorts the theory beyond application to practice.
Theoretically then the practical facts are that the theory is in practice good for predicting what happens in theory, but impractical as a theory with direct implications for practice, except where theory states that the practice is sufficiently close to the theory to make any difference for all practical purposes theoretically zero.
In practice this does not happen very often.

To sum it up Theory is not practical and practices are not theoretical.

Wheels and meaningfulness

In a meeting today an associated engineer, trying not to do a complete rework of a major portion of a configuration stated, “Let’s not reinvent the wheel.” Reinventing the wheel is a phrase that means to duplicate a basic method that has already previously been created or optimized by others. In theory that could well be a great argument. But at issue is there is a difference between theory and practice and in practice theory is not always practical.
Reinvent the wheel. OK, isn’t the wheel the most reinvented thing in the world? I mean we are not driving our cars on large roughly hewn rock rounds. With the exception of Fred Flintstone, our wheels are almost perfectly round and are made of the latest materials. There are thousands if not millions of variations to the wheel theme. Maybe that is the meaningfulness of this whole thought. To me, it seems there are two primary reasons for reinventing the wheel: 1) to adapt it to a thing to a new context and 2) to learn how it works. Often when in a new situation or new context it is probably better to take it apart and reinvent the silly thing.

Lunch with the Chuckster

My Son Chuck is on jury duty downtown and we have taken the philosophy of "when you are served lemons, make lemonade". So we had a chance of having lunch together. I forced him to walk 6 blocks to the River City Brewery. For Chuck it was a special for the day Patty Melt, me fish and chips. He had to have the onion rings instead of fry. As we were eating a big smile comes across his very expressive face and with a voice filled with a slight grease stain came the words, "This is the best Patty Melt I have ever had". Now that is saying something, in his previous jobs he traveled a great deal and had the opportunity to taste a vast plethora of slightly greasy, well toasted, hamburger slathered with cheese, sandwiches.
It is good times with the tonsorial prince of Patty melts.
Meaningful, not much but, good anyway.

As the planes flew by

Meaningfulness comes from different directions. Took my two best grandkids for an outing Saturday in the early afternoon. We strapped them in their kid's seats and off we went in the direction of the Mather air show. Between my wife and I we did not have enough cash between us to get into the air show proper but we also knew that the two little ones in the back would probably not last that long anyway. So we drove to a park within the flight zone of the planes and let the cherubs play on the apparatus for a while. From every direction came the jets. Each pulling G turns over our heads. The kids were more and more excited with each pass as the noise was pounding in a great crescendo.
In a flash from the past I remembered when we were living in Reno we used to get frozen yogurt and park at the end of the airport and watched the airplanes take off and land. It was a cheap date but it was wonderful in its simplicity. So was this day: cheap but very enjoyable.
That which we enjoy must not be dictated by the amount of money we spend.
Meaningfulness is more important.

Labor day

According to the U.S. Dept. of Labor website, “Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.” I would think the holiday is in a real need for a "Quest of Meaningfulness". To the millions that are struggling to make a living, to the numbers reaching 10% of our population that are out of work, Labor day is either another day to press toward the mark of employment or to make meaningful the work that is being done. Labor day is supposed to make the nation grateful for the work that is being done and the day to day achievements of improvement of our country.
Labor day makes me think about how my father labored to provide his family a good home, even though it often meant he was not around to enjoy it with his family. A simple strong willed man with small expectations. It makes me think of the jobs I have had: worker at a slaughter house, retail meat cutter, cleanup/janitor at a supermarket, Pastor, bus driver, computer trainer, IT worker, IT manager, project manager, but I would suppose the most important was the job of father to three perfect children.
The only problem is the current environment of prosperity or the lack of it, does little to improve the plight of the worker.
Meaningfulness - Labor day, they really don't have much in common.

Well it has been two weeks doing the job as a Project Manager. I often feel as though I have been captured and assimilated into a BORG collective. Resistance is futile. Trying to close up a small project in the next two weeks so I start an even bigger one. The new one has muli-million dollar budget. Remember friends, "a million here and a million there and it soon adds up to real money". I have to architect, plan, implement, close a project that must have capability, compatibility, concurrency, conformabiliy, efficiency, installability, maintainability, performability, recoverability, reliability, scalability, securability, supportability, and usability. And by the way it must come in under budget and on time.
That is allot even if you are building a peanut butter sandwich. Wish me luck.
By the way is this what I was looking for in my quest for meaningfulness?