Requiem.

Consider the title of this post your only warning.  Besides this one.

Clancey, our border collie, died almost a week ago during our move from Austin to Houston (KB is a chaplain in Houston this summer, so this is only temporary).  Rather than give details of his passing and health, besides assurances that he did not suffer and that we stayed with him the whole time, I want to tell you about my friend Clancey.

I met Clancey on my first date with KB.  I was later told that he did not always take to larger guys, but he and I were instantly friends.  KB had him since he was a puppy, and when I met him he was a very spunky teenager.

Clancey loved people in general, and was always kind.  I think part of that was viewing everyone as sheep that needed herding and tender loving care (with the occasional nip at the heel).  He was friendly towards everyone, especially kids.  He seemed to know when someone was upset, and would sit next to anyone crying to clean up tears.  When toddlers or other little folk were around, he would simply lie down and wait for them to pet him, mostly so he could lick their (hopefully bare) toes.

Clancey was smart.  You could always tell that there was a spark of understanding.  One of my favorite memories is from a rainy day in our house in Houston.  The mud outside prompted me to leave a towel by the back door to muddy paws and feed Clancey inside to minimize that mud.  As I poured food in his bowl, he immediately knocked it over.  I looked at him exasperatedly and said "You better clean that up!".  He looked at me, grabbed the towel in his teeth, and dragged it over the food on the floor in order to cover it up.  How could I do anything but laugh in amazement and hug hm?

Clancey was fast.  So fast.  At the dog park, he would run after a thrown ball with a speed that was awe-inspiring.  On a bad day, he led the pack.  On a good day, he could outstrip all but the greyhounds, a black and white streak dashing for a ball in a moment of unbridled joy.  Once he got to the ball, he never seemed to mind if another dog took it, because...

Clancey was, above all, desirous of pleasing the people he loved (which was pretty much everyone).  Whether it was by sitting and staying, coming when called, playing, caring, or cuddling, Clancey wanted the people in his life to be happy, and the best way he could do that was by doing what they wanted.  He was the epitome of utter selflessness.

I know that many of the qualities I attribute to Clancey can be written off as anthropomorphization, or projecting qualities I find noble onto a blank slate, or even part of grappling with my own mortality.  Those things may well be true, but I also know that he was an example of living a life in perfect communion with how one is Created.  He was perfectly himself, if that makes any sense.  There's a trite saying (probably on a bumper sticker) that goes something like "I hope I can be the person my dog thinks I am."  I would much rather be the person my dog was; someone who loves unconditionally and fiercely, and who seeks to make the people around them happy.

Clancey was a good boy, and I miss him terribly.

On music.

Most people that know me (even just a little) know that I have a deep love for music.  More precisely, I have a very deep love and knowledge of popular music that is derived from traditional American blues and falls into the "rock and roll" category.  I also love the blues, jazz, traditional, and older country music, but rock and roll (and most of its ancestors) is what I really love.  I could write page after page, but I thought I would focus on a very specific moment: the song that changed my life.

Obviously, that phrase is hyperbolic, but hearing it really opened my ears to music for the first time and stirred my love for music.  It was fall of 1992, and I was right around the age of thirteen, what seems to be the perfect age to fall in love with music.  My dad was driving me home from soccer practice, and Eric Clapton's "Layla" (the "unplugged" version) came on the radio.  I was instantly slack-jawed.  The rhythm, the tone of Clapton's voice, and the lyrics hit me with Road-to-Damascus-level force.  I instantly demanded that my father relinquish every bit of knowledge he had on the song and its artist on the double-quick.  After finding out just who the Eric Clapton was, I set about hearing anything and everything I could.

It should be said that I was not some kind of pubescent hermit; I'd heard music before.  I loved Michael Jackson's Thriller years earlier, but this was the first time that hearing a song made me not only want to hear more, but everything else by a particular artist.  It was not just a desire to hear, but to know.  Where was he from?  What other bands was he in?  What made him want to play the guitar (because he made me want to play the guitar)?  I was driven by a distinct need to know and to hear.

So off I went.  "Unplugged" by Eric Clapton was the first CD I bought for myself after Christmas 1992 (when I received my first CD player).  From there, I bought Cream, Derek and the Dominoes, and Blind Faith.  I stretched beyond Clapton to the Who, Hendrix, the Rolling Stones.  The Band, The Beatles (how the heck did I miss them?!), Elvis, Muddy Waters, Leadbelly, Howlin' Wolf.  The CD collection grew.  While friends dove into Nirvana and Pearl Jam (they came a few years later for me), I was devouring everything I could by Pink Floyd, Steely Dan, and Stevie Ray Vaughn. 

My Clapton obsession led to the making of a list for my own personal records; a list of every Clapton album available for sale (fine, it was a checklist).  I soon found myself not only scouring through the CD section of any store I went into, but memorizing the title and release year of every Clapton album I found.  I had a Wikipedia-worthy list compiled within one year of purchasing “Unplugged”.  Through about 1995, my list was pretty comprehensive.

I never came close to owning all of those Clapton records, but my ears had been opened; I was now attuned to the lyrics and music coming form the radio.  I was always looking for the nxt obsession, the next life-altering song (which comes about two-and-a-half years later in the form of a music video), but my love of Clapton and the blues continued (and continues to this day) to grow.  It is one of the truest expression of the soul I have found in popular culture and music.  If nothing else, it tells the listener that they are not alone.  Someone else aches the way I do, someone else is overjoyed the way I am, someone else's feet are stomping, someone else's ears are opened, and someone else's life is forever changed,

Extra Ordinary Time.

If the church's liturgical calendar is suppose to mirror not only the seasons of the year and the lectionary, but the seasons of our lives (birth, celebration, death, resurrection, etc), I feel like the last several months have been very Pentecost for me.  Not in the "everyone wear red this Sunday!" way, but in the long stretch of time through the summer in which we simply carry on.  It is often called Ordinary Time.

Perhaps this is not the best analogy.  It's not like things haven't been busy or changing rapidly.  Plenty of curve balls have been thrown (Surprise! You're moving back to Houston for the summer!), but I don't feel the roller coaster ups and downs as much as I usually do.  Maybe I'm getting used to them, maybe they aren't as big as they seem.  Right now I feel like I'm in ordinary time; soldiering on, because that is just what you do.

I think a big part of my personality comes from my grandfathers; family men, consummate churchmen, and men with close friends that they loved.  A big part of both their personalities was simply doing what needed to be done without much complaint.  JUst pressing on despite obstacles, because that's just what you do.  I know it's a generational mind set common to many of the "builders" but it is something that really stuck with me.

The season of Pentecost is often symbolized by wheat or other growing things.  It is ordinary time, but it's a time for growth and renewal.  Since KB and I will get to spend the entire summer together, we're counting on some of that.  The last few weeks I have really felt the lack of hours together compounding like interest, and need very much to pay back some of that debt of time.  It will be good to have a season to be together, to grown and renew, and to find joy in the ordinary.  Thank God for extra ordinary time.

Editor's note: this post isn't as well written as I want, but I also want to be better about regular updates, so...take what you can get.

Uncle Travelling Nick

So to start with, it's one thing when people tell me to update my blog in person.  Now I'm getting texts that say "Either update you blog or just delete it."  Wow.  Come on, peeps.  I've been crazy busy for the last...OK, so it has been a while.  Sorry.

So where to begin?  I've been travelling a lot work (hence the Fraggles reference above; also I was, in fact, in the land of the Silly Creatures).  I've been to Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, California, and Toronto in the last two months.  Throw a truly wonderful Boston trip in there, and I'm really racking up the frequent flier miles. 

The reason for my lack of updates is simply feeling that I don't have anything to say.  I try and write things to provoke thought or discussion, to draw out ideas, or to help form opinions.  I've been so engrossed in work that I have just not had any thoughts worth sharing lately.  It occurs to me, though, that the people reading this may not really care and are simply interested in what I'm doing or have to say.  Which is weird to begin with, but brace yourselves; here comes the engine stuff...

So let's talk tractors.  Like this one:



A John Deere tractor

 Tractors have what is called a "common sump" design, meaning that the fluids that lubricate the entire machine (except the engine) are in the same housing that runs the length of the tractor.  My company makes additives that go into the oils for those sumps.  We focus on parts like this:



Look kids! A piston pumps! And my desk!

Our chemistry helps maintain the integrity of parts like this piston pump.  It's made of a lot of different kinds of metals (note the yellow metal on top) that all have to be cared for.  Bad oils can be very detrimental:


Worn elliptical gear section

 The gear teeth above are worn down from being used in a bad oil.  This shortens the life of the tractor.  However, what we make...



Happy gears!

 
Keeps gears from spawling (metal shaving off), and extends the life of tractors and farm equipment.

OK I think that's it for now, my darlings.  You are all wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.  I'll make sure to send postcards the next time I venture out into the Land of the Silly People.

Blog, Interrupted.

I suppose when one is informed by two Top Tier FriendsTM* that his blog has not been updated in "over a month!", it should be taken as a sign of dereliction of duty.  So to the two of you, thanks for the prodding, and my apologies for the lack of updates.

Work has been slightly insane, with a fairly substantial increase in travel and a tremendous amount of new things to learn about engines, chemistry, mechanics, business, negotiations, etc.  I have been under a pile of work pretty much since January 1, and there are no signs of it evening out for a while.  I will, however, make an effort to be more diligent with my blogging.

KB has also had her share of travel lately, but we still manage to find fun things to do.  Last weekend we had a housefull of people to eat dinner and study theology.  There was also a guitar based antecedent to the evening, so it was a ton o' fun.  We made Red Beans and Rice for some friends that perhaps hadn't gotten a taste of the Gulf Coast delicacy.

Thanks, Garden and Gun!

It turned out wonderfully, and we will likely do it again sometime.  I think we may invest in a better stock pot, though.  KB made some seriously great molasses cookies for dessert that made their way to Houston this week.  Minus a few, because I am a weak, weak man.

* The Top Tier Friends designation is a registered trademark of NJ Friendship, Inc. and denotes friends of an unsurpassed quality.  Primary specification: the patience and apparent desire to read ramblings of NJ Friendship, Inc.

Inside/Outside.

I walked into our bathroom the other day and noticed a bottle on the counter with its label facing away from me.  I knew instantly that it was a bottle of Listerine due to the shape of the container.  Even if it had not been full of green (burning, delicious) liquid, I would have known what it was because the packaging is fairly iconic. This prompted me to think about other iconic packages that you can identify without text or contents.

An old glass Coca-Cola bottle, a Smuckers' jelly jar (thanks to the checkered cap), a CD jewel case, a Tiffany's box (again, because of the color).  These are all things that simply by seeing the exterior, you know what the contents will likely be.  It seems to go against the axiom of never judging a book by its cover.

It dawns on me, though, that all of these products have iconic packaging because they are associated with their contents.  We know that something in a pretty aqua-marine blue box will be beautiful, sparkly, and of high quality because Tiffany's & Co. have established themselves as such.  We know that Smucker's will be consistently good (maybe not great, but good).  The insides make the outside recognizable; the contents create icons of the exterior. 

I want to leave this post fairly succinct, but I also don't want to pass up an opportunity to leave some advice for my godchildren.  J, PC, R, T, and V: I know you, I know where you come from,  and I know the things that make you the amazing, unbelievable people you are.  The attributes and traits that constitute you are of the highest quality.  There's no need for any of you to worry about your "packaging"; be yourself.  Be the best you that you can, and I promise that you will be known for the content of your character regardless of how it is packaged.

Twirrible.

So as promised, I read the first book in the Twilight series.  Let me begin by saying that I genuinely tried to come at this with an open mind, and leave any bias behind. I wanted to read critically for plot, style, and character development, but also to see how enjoyable the book actually was.  I tried my best to be impartial and objective.

This book is terrible.  It is boring, lacks any real development of its central characters, and was written in an overly simplistic style.

First, the boredom factor.  So much fat could have been trimmed from this book.  This is clearly the work of a lazy editor.  For instance, rather than using the reaction of characters to allow the reader to understand the supernatural beauty of the vampire characters, the author (Stephanie Meyer) relies heavily on descriptors.  This is fine in moderation, but at some point you have to wonder if there should be a special permit for a thesaurus.  I too have the ability to look up the word "pretty" in Roget's, but you don't see me showing off.

Next, the characters.  They are so painfully flat, that they made an already lengthy and slow novel drag all the more.  The main female protagonist (named Bella...ugh, we get it, she's pretty) falls in love with a vampire kids named Edward.  She pays attention to him despite his warnings that he is dangerous (he is a contentious vampire).  Why? Mostly, it would seem, because he's pretty.  Or because he uses vampire magic.  Not because of shared interests, or history, or having anything in common.  He's pretty and magic.  Edward, Bella's main squeeze, is not much better.  He seems to only like Bella because he cannot read her mind (so in case you were wondering if inscrutability was a factor in love, you now have the answer).  He stalks her (not like prey, but like...you know, a stalker) and warns her that he is dangerous.  Neither seem to care, and fall "in love".  They never really move past this puppy love stage, and seem content to be pretty together.  As far as the message these characters send to readers (especially girls)  goes, it is pretty much this: "Being pretty is the most important thing in life, besides having a boyfriend."  Look at Harry Potter, with its cadre of strong female characters, or The Hunger Games, with perhaps the most well written teenage girl in recent memory.  They all have great lessons to teach; not Twilight.

Finally, there's a lot of "telling", and not enough "showing".  The characters all speak (or think) any descriptions or expositions.  They literally question each other (\incessantly) about everything on their minds, so rather than reading about someone reacting to something, they just come out and say it.  It is rather boring.

Seriously, if you're looking for a good book with a strong female lead, read A Wrinkle in Time, or either of the alternatives mentioned above.  Twilight will not teach anyone anything, other than how to write best-selling dreck.