Sunday, February 24, 2013

Anne Hathaway's Oscar worthy performance

My whole family watched tonight's Oscar broadcast.  All of the movies I wanted to win won.  All of the actors I wanted to win won.  I was happy. 

I wanted to offer my congratulations to Anne Hathaway.  (Regular readers know my interest in her career.  We shared a moment in a Chicago airport many years ago.)  Anyhow.  Anne Hathaway, congratulations on your well deserved Oscar win.  Your performance was amazing and it is a pleasure watching you and your career. 

Congratulations to Jennifer Lawrence.  Amazing. 

D.

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Karma, Coincidence and Keys


(Note:  This is a little story from when my kids were growing up.  Must have been about 15 years ago.  Enjoy.)
 
I believe in God. I believe in Karma.  I believe in coincidence.
Let me explain a weekend I had several years ago and we'll see if there is something spiritual in it. 
My wife and I decided to go to La Jolla - a well to do village near the beach - with our kids to look at a friends' artwork at a gallery.  We hadn't seen her artwork and were wondering how talented she was.  She is good.  Was selected one of the top 100 artists in So Cal.  Everything was going great.  My wife mentioned that it was her mothers' birthday.  She died when our daughter was six months old so it was kind of hard for my wife.  She said her mom would have gotten a kick out of my son, Timmy.  He is a goofball.  He is a lot of fun.  I told my wife that her mother is getting a kick out of the kids.  She is watching all of the time.  'But I digress.  I figured that my wife would like to go up to the top of the local mountain.  We fell in love in the mountains, maybe that would cheer her up.  Besides the kids had never been up there.
So we go up to the top of the mountain.  It was kind of foggy but it was still nice. We played around there for a while watching my daughter, 7, do cartwheels on the grass and watching her brother try to emulate her. 
When we got to the time to leave, we couldn't get the car started.  I couldn't get the alarm to shut off.  I've got a kill switch and I couldn't bypass it. 
It was hot, and the kids were hungry.  We started to walk down the hill.  Timmy, 3, wouldn't walk.  He has short legs.   I ended up carrying him as much as I could. 
There was a church about a mile down the hill.  Church was just letting out.  We asked about a phone (this was before cell phones) and a lady asked us if we needed any help.  I explained the trouble and she said her husband is an electrical engineer.  He fixed her alarm switch.  Maybe he could fix mine.
He looked at it and cleaned it.  He said that might do it.  So he offered me a lift up the hill. 
When we got up there the car still wouldn't start.  I was really getting mad.  We drove around the hill and on the other side a tow truck had overheated.
I asked the driver if he could help me.  He said that he was broken down.  He couldn't help.  But he knew what the problem was. 
He pointed to the radio towers on an adjacent ridge, about 100 yards away.  Those towers were blocking the transmission from my switch to my car.
He said I had to put the car into neutral and coast down the hill until I was out of range of the towers. 



So I did.  No power steering, no power brakes.  I turned on the radio before I left the top and figured I'd turn the ignition when I heard the radio.  About a mile down the hill I could hear the radio.  Turned the ignition.  Bingo.  Started right up.
I went back to the church and picked up the wife and kids.  
So what do you think.  Coincidence???  Maybe...but.....
Both my wife and I thought that her mom was looking out for us.
I'm going to call it a spiritual weekend.