Isaac helps George plan his next play
Laughs between turns
George makes a play
Dessert bars
Another Tuesday, another family game night. This edition included bagel bites, Skip Bo Deluxe, and homemade dessert bars.
It was also an excuse to see how well the 35mm 1.4 worked indoors as I try to determine whether I want to keep it or not.
Some of my best memories were playing ball/catch with my dad. I wouldn’t mind if it were the same for them
Amazing to me. I can think of very few things I’d be willing to risk a limb for.
About this time last year, I lost my paternal grandfather, Marshall Hartman. Kate and I had just come back from Ireland, and he passed the next morning. 7 weeks later, to the day, my grandmother passed away.
I was fortunate to be born with four grandparents and three great-grandparents. While I didn’t see them as much as some others, due to growing up in Australia, but their influence on my life was fairly strong. My teenage years involved lots of time with family; 23 cousins and 8 sets of aunts and uncles.
I didn’t lose any grandparents until 2003 and 2006, and had two grand grandparents until junior high.
I realized last summer I had no more grandparents. It hit me a little when Thanksgiving came.
Dynamics change when your grandparents die. The generation and their descendants are gone, and everyone moves up a step. Grandparents are gone. My parents are the grandparents for my kids, and aunts and uncles lose the direct family connection that brought us together. We still get together, but it’s not the same, and won’t ever be. I have become the person in the role my parents had in my mind while growing up. My kids are me. It’s just part of the cycle.
I loved all my grandparents differently and have fond memories of them all. I probably felt more affinity to my Hartman grandparents, due to surname identity and my dad’s frequent stories about them. Marshall Hartman was well-respected, as was Luther, his father (and my namesake); I inherited some of that respect by virtue of his life.
It hasn’t been a drastic change, not a difficult one, but more one of perception. A clear realization of the cycle of life that has moved to another stage. A loss of ties, history, care, and, to an extent, identity.
We got together with much of my mom’s family today for a baby shower. The mood was good, time was enjoyed, and I love them. But it wasn’t the same without the grandparents. Our initial common link is gone.
Granddad yesterday, I drank a chocolate malt from Braum’s [your favorite] in your memory. I would have poured a sip on the concrete, but I know how thrifty you are; didn’t want to waste any :-)
A lengthy — and disturbing — piece about the failures of government agencies and two presidential administrations in overseeing oil exploration.
Rolling Stone pulls no punches in its criticism of the handling of this crisis.
Troubling quotes from the [long] article:
On the failure to examine drilling applications (a carryover from the previous administration)
Nowhere was the absurdity of the policy [of fast-tracking deep sea applications] more evident than in the application that BP submitted for its Deepwater Horizon well only two months after Obama took office. BP claims that a spill is “unlikely” and states that it anticipates “no adverse impacts” to endangered wildlife or fisheries. Should a spill occur, it says, “no significant adverse impacts are expected” for the region’s beaches, wetlands and coastal nesting birds. The company, noting that such elements are “not required” as part of the application, contains no scenario for a potential blowout, and no site-specific plan to respond to a spill. Instead, it cites an Oil Spill Response Plan that it had prepared for the entire Gulf region. Among the sensitive species BP anticipates protecting in the semitropical Gulf? “Walruses” and other cold-water mammals, including sea otters and sea lions. The mistake appears to be the result of a sloppy cut-and-paste job from BP’s drilling plans for the Arctic. Even worse: Among the “primary equipment providers” for “rapid deployment of spill response resources,” BP inexplicably provides the Web address of a Japanese home-shopping network. Such glaring errors expose the 582-page response “plan” as nothing more than a paperwork exercise. “It was clear that nobody read it,” says Ruch, who represents government scientists.
On BP’s safety record
Since 2007, according to analysis by the Center for Public Integrity, BP has received 760 citations for “egregious and willful” safety violations – those “committed with plain indifference to or intentional disregard for employee safety and health.” The rest of the oil industry combined has received a total of one.
On plans for future Gulf drilling
The president, for his part, praised Salazar as “one of the finest secretaries of Interior we’ve ever had” and stressed that his administration had studied the drilling plan for more than a year. “This is not a decision that I’ve made lightly,” he said. Two days later, he issued an even more sweeping assurance. “It turns out, by the way, that oil rigs today generally don’t cause spills,” the president said. “They are technologically very advanced.”
Eighteen days later, on the eve of the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, the Deepwater Horizon rig went off like a bomb.
On responsibility
Instead of seizing the reins, the Obama administration cast itself in a supporting role, insisting that BP was responsible for cleaning up the mess. “When you say the company is responsible and the government has oversight,” a reporter asked Gibbs on May 3rd, “does that mean that the government is ultimately in charge of the cleanup?” Gibbs was blunt: “No,” he insisted, “the responsible party is BP.” In fact, the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan – the federal regulations that lay out the command-and-control responsibilities for cleaning up an oil spill – makes clear that an oil company like BP cannot be left in charge of such a serious disaster. The plan plainly states that the government must “direct all federal, state or private actions” to clean up a spill “where a discharge or threat of discharge poses a substantial threat to the public health or welfare of the United States.”
A Latin phrase meaning, “it is solved by walking.”
I was recently talking with my bride about solving a problem while walking to watch a basketball game. I had been working at it for a few hours, but no easy solution had materialized. I wasn’t a few minutes from the door, however, when the answer came to me. It was a little frustrating because it was an easy solution, but one that did not appear until I took a walk.
Has this ever happened to you? A challenge or an answer coming while you’re not thinking about it? There’s something powerful about our created minds and their ability to process information without having it at the forefront.
Resolved:
A sea lion picture to start your Friday.
I wish we had thought of this a few months ago. It would have made the Great double-tooth-pull of ‘10 much easier.
George, enjoying a summer afternoon, chalking up in our backyard, ready for some fun.
I love our backyard.
My entry in Mandy’s Fun Photo contest.
