Early Monday Morning

Here's a picture I took while I was at work this weekend photographing that floral design convention. Feel free to comment on what you think.

Much has happened in my life since that last posting I made. My MAC laptop croaked...so I had to splurge on a brand new computer. This time I opted for a desktop. It's a beauty. It's a 27inch I-Mac with one terabyte of storage capacity....and so much RAM...it flies through tasks I ask it to do.

I spent all day Friday, Saturday and a hunk of the day this weekend photographing a flower show in Fairfax. They provided all my meals....my lodging.....and my registration for the event....and I got to take a ton of pictures. It was certainly an interesting event to be part of. But all the flowers....the pollen...the fragrances...etc...sent me into an asthma overload. I have hacked and coughed all weekend long.

Another side benefit of the weekend was getting the opportunity to visit with my married friend, Doug. He's a floral designer...and just a wonderful person to be with. We laughed and got to spend some really special time together.

Late on Friday night, my world got a little bit complicated. A man that had served as my former pastor in my other life when I was a fundamentalist pentecostal was tragically murdered at the hand of his oldest son following a rather heated argument over something trivial. From what I have heard...and it never has been confirmed by the family...and probably won't, the young man has been battling his own demons for quite sometime. He's been diagnosed as being bi-polar...and on top of things, he is a gay man -- clearly something that his dad could not accept.

My pastor died on Monday....and now his son is charged with first-degree murder.

There is going to be a memorial service here in my area next Sunday. So, I am planning to go and be part of this...to offer whatever kind of support I can to the remaining family.

I was fairly close to my pastor. In fact, I served as the Chairman of the Board of Deacons during his tenure. It is a shock...and I am still unglued by it all.

While he was serving my church, the eldest son was always living out of the area....and they never seemed to talk about him much. My gaydar went off a number of times when I would get to see this boy....but it was never really confirmed until just now.

Tonight when I got settled back home....I was invited to dinner by my pal Greg the photographer. He was telling me all about his photoshoots....and I got to tell him about my adventures in the land of floral design....and flowers!

Dan appeared at my house tonight....and we got to visit and get caught up. "K" has sent me a ton of messages that I received on my Blackberry while I was at my photoshoot. Andy sent me an email just before he toddled on off to bed. I felt bad because I didn't get it until just now when I opened my email here on the computer. So I fired off a note to him fairly quickly. AND...I just noticed that Sex God has emailed me. (I just haven't had the energy to open that one.)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Lovey is in town. She and her mother are headed off to the Netherlands tomorrow afternoon. My daughter and I are invited to breakfast with them first thing in the morning. She and I then have a swim date with Dan at a mutual friend's swimming pool.

So lots is happening. Lots has happened.

And I apologize to all of you dear and faithful readers for not being able to keep you updated while I was working my buns off over the weekend.

Happy Birthday--2

What a great day! I've received a number of emails....cards in the mail.....and telephone greetings. Thanks to all of you for remembering me...and for your words of kindness. They are very much appreciated.

But that's not why I posted about my birthday today....

I suppose what it comes down to is the fact that I have a reason to celebrate. I survived the year and I am looking forward to the coming weeks, months and years to see what good things come my way! I am so thankful. You will never know.

It seems like the long dark night has passed.

Finally, for this post I want to end with a funny thing that happened last night that I meant to post before, but since I write these things early in the morning at the office before the day goes crazy...I can be somewhat incoherant. So I forgot this.

While driving to my daughter's college yesterday and my wife and I were talking about the overall shallowness of her family not contacting me....and the fact that the pastoral staff hadn't bothered to contact me, a song came on the radio that I hadn't really focused on. It hit the nail on the head...and further affirmed me. (Please note...that I'm no longer bitter about all this....but in some warped way I can see some humor in it.)

The song is from the latest JoDee Messina album, Delicious Surprise. This is the same album that contains the song, "My Give A Damn's Busted" another fun song!

This one's called simply, "Where Were You?" I hope no one ever has to say this to me after they've gone through a storm.

Where Were You?

It's good to see you come 'round, it's been a while
Sure is nice to see your smile
Yah I'm doing better now, thought about
Callin' you a hundred times
Oh I had left a couple messages
And I never heard a word from you
Not one

Chorus:
Where were you when I needed somebody
Where were you when the walls started caving in
I was waiting for someone to save me
When I was coming unglued
Where were you

A lot of things got pretty bad pretty fast
I never thought you'd turn your back
You left me out there all alone hanging on
I just have to deal with that

Oh I can count on you when everything is easy
But when the going gets tough
I guess not
Repeat chorus

I had to find my own way
Now that I've made it through

It's not a whiny or sad song...but comes on very forceful and with a tinge of attitude. I guess that describes me and where I am at the moment -- with a tinge of attitude.

Time to celebrate!