Numb

I was numb yesterday after following several hours of coverage of the tragic school shooting in Connecticut.

This one hit too close to home and by "home" I don't mean my geographical location; I mean my heart as a dad.

I told Wife as we watched and listened to the news accounts yesterday that the community of Newtown is much like the one in which we live, and the school where the tragedy happened is much like the one our children attended as youngsters.

In addition, Daughter is now a kindergarten teacher.

In this age of instant communication, in which I am participating by virtue of this blog, comments and opinions abound. And we all know about comments and opinions.

But for what it's worth, count me as one who favors stricter gun laws. I have felt this way for years and an event such as this reinforces my feelings.

Go back and read my posts over the past four years and you'll see I'm not a liberal. Frankly, I don't see this as a matter of being liberal or conservative, or even a matter of politics for that matter.

This has nothing to do with the Second Amendment. Your right to bear arms will not be affected by required background checks and other reasonable controls put in place.

No, this will not prevent the crazies from doing what crazies will do and I realize that discussion of character and values also needs to take place. I totally get that.

But can we not make it more difficult for the crazies to get the guns?  Or at least try?

Please hear me:  I have no problem with your owning as many guns as you want. I bought a shotgun for Older Son when he was in high school. He bought a rifle himself when he reached legal age and if I'm not mistaken it's still in his room here.
 
When the Kansas City football player recently shot and killed his girlfriend and himself, NBC sportscaster Bob Costas made comments during the broadcast of a game, calling for stricter gun laws. Like me, he wasn't calling for repeal of the Second Amendment or outlawing guns (even though his critics tried to make it sound like that). He simply said maybe it's time to consider enacting laws that help prevent this kind of thing from happening.

Since his broadcast, we've had a mall shooting in Oregon and now this horrible event in Connecticut. Could stricter laws prevent these occurrences? I don't know but I think it's worth a try. 

From one Bob to another:  I'm with you, man.

Modern communication

Wife recently switched all of our "communication channels" (my term, for lack of better words) -- phone, cable and Internet -- to one provider.

Wife handles all of these matters because I am woefully inefficient at doing so, and also lacking the patience required to maneuver through all of it. Where once talking on the telephone and having one installed in one's home was a relatively simple process, it now involves "bundling" and other such nonsense.  A phone wired into in one's home is now called a "land line" and more and more, folks are opting not to have one and making their cell phone their primary point of contact.

I can remember an antenna on top of my parents' house that enabled us to watch three channels of network television, before we advanced to "cable-vision" which gave us the same thing plus Public Television, and a much clearer picture. When Wife and I married we used "rabbit ears" until we got cable when our first child was born. We needed something to do in the middle of the night when we were up with him and reception was too sketchy. Now of course there are hundreds of channels available via either a "dish" or "cable," although there is very little of any quality on any of those channels.

Last but not least, the Internet comes into our home via mostly wireless devices now, whereas once various wires and cords were necessary. 

Of course this is a gold mine for the companies that provide these services.

Wife got tired of our cable and Internet provider overcharging us every month. It got to the point of being ridiculous. When she would call them they would always apologize and credit back the overcharged amount, then assure her they would fix the problem. Only the problem never got fixed.

She talked to our telephone provider and they gave her a sweet deal that included everything, at a substantial savings. We made the change about a month ago and it's been fairly smooth sailing ever since. Of course our old cable and Internet provider did everything but offer to come cook Thanksgiving dinner if we would stay with them, but Wife stuck to her guns. Since she is a kind and merciful person, she became very sad during the parting conversation, but let's face it: they caused it. If the new guys start the same shenanigans, we'll look at going back.

Here's the big news involving our new service: it includes a new "smart phone" for yours truly. I now am the owner of an iPhone 4S.  A couple of years ago I wrote a piece here about all the modern services in which I did not take part. I have now succumbed to this one.

So far I like it. It's much easier to use than I thought it would be.

But please do me a favor. If you see me walking down the street looking at that silly phone and ignoring everything and everyone around me, stop and yank it out of my hand.  Thank you.

Love this season

This is definitely my favorite time of year, when the air is crisp and Thanksgiving is almost here.

Here in Middle Tennessee we have had one of those fall seasons where we (literally) run our air conditioner during the day after sleeping with the heater on.  A big cold front came through last night, along with heavy rain, which canceled my plans for early morning fishing. I was one day too late. Yesterday would have been perfect.

Oh well, what can you do?  This is the second time in a month this has happened to me. My friend who was going with me sent a text message last night wondering if the closest we were going to get to a fish fry anytime soon would be Captain D's.  Could be.

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We will have a total of eleven on Thanksgiving Day. Wife has put ten at the dining room table before, but never more than that. I think one year we had twelve and she split us up -- six in the dining room and six in the kitchen.

Of course our philosophy is the more the merrier. And Wife would love to have all those merry folks making merry at one table.

"What would you think about putting two of our six-foot tables end-to-end in the living room?" she asked me the other day, speaking of a couple of utilitarian folding tables we have down in the basement that are not esthetically pleasing but look fine with table cloths thrown over them.

I gave her a quizzical look and before I could answer she said she thought that would work fine, answering her own question. I quickly agreed. (I'm no dummy). 

Today she brought one of the tables up from the basement, put it in the living room, put a table cloth on it and walked around it a couple of times. She tells me she's not sure yet, that she's still thinking about it.

Doesn't matter to me, but I am putting odds on her deciding to give it a try. Just a hunch I have.

Whatever she decides, it will be great. We will have a delicious meal with people we love. There will be much conversation and laughter. And so much for which to be thankful.

I'm definitely looking forward to it.