Minnie E. Raver 1881-1977 While going through my late mother’s pictures I came across a box of my great-grandmother Minnie’s old photographs. When my great-grandmother died in 1977 my grandmother Hazel took her pictures and stuffed them in her Hoarder’s level junk filled basement.1 After Hazel’s death my mother recovered Minnie’s pictures from Hazel’s hoard and … Continue reading Minnie’s Pictures
I write my Congresswoman about Syria
I just emailed this to my Congresswoman, Ann Wagner, 2nd district Missouri. I'm going to make sure I'm on the NSA's naughty malcontent list. Dear Ann, Your summer vacation from Congress is coming to an end. Soon you will be back in Washington dealing with little problems like: runaway deficit financing, relentless FED driven currency debasement, … Continue reading I write my Congresswoman about Syria
Yellowstone and Me
My wife in front of the Roosevelt Gate that marks the northern entrance to Yellowstone. The road to Mammoth Hot Springs and the Lamar valley are open during the winter. Most of the park is snowed under. I have moved so often that I am no longer from anywhere, but if asked, one place, Livingston Montana, … Continue reading Yellowstone and Me
Corporate Social Media Policies
You probably work for a company that has a corporate social media policy (CSMP). I'm betting that your CSMP's preamble starts with words like, "we would never restrict the free speech rights of employees but blah, blah, blah, ... It's what follows the "but" that matters. For example my employer does not want anything I … Continue reading Corporate Social Media Policies
The New SmugMug
Websites compete in a brutal Darwinian struggle for eyeballs and clicks: adapt or die is an understatement. Every few years users get "upgraded" whether they want it or not. Generally things move in a better direction. Even twenty-something web programmers aren't completely stupid but setbacks and complete disasters are not uncommon. My new SmugMug layout - click … Continue reading The New SmugMug
Too Busy to Blog
Blogging is like going to the gym. You tell yourself you're going to do it everyday and then you don't. The last two months have been all about my mother's death and work. Any remaining hours were siphoned off by my other hobbies: photography and reading. Yeah I count reading as a hobby. If we're … Continue reading Too Busy to Blog
More Photographic Waybacking
There are three things I like about funerals: meeting old friends and relatives, unlimited quantities of food and browsing old photographs. A few weeks ago my sister and sister-in-law went through my mother’s closets and found a stash of old photographs that had eluded my frequent attempts to catalog and archive family pictures. I have a … Continue reading More Photographic Waybacking
Evelyn’s Eulogy
Last Saturday, May 11, 2013, I attended my mother's funeral and gave this short eulogy. I will start with an apology. I hope to make it through this without crying. There is a reason husbands, sons and daughters are not encouraged to give eulogies; we don’t always make it through them. Never-the-less I am going … Continue reading Evelyn’s Eulogy
Now for a Nursing Home
Yesterday my mother left the Bozeman Deaconess hospital and went to a nursing home. The week before she fell on the way to a radiation appointment. The fall was serious enough to put her back in the hospital. The poor woman has been in and out of hospitals for six months. She has terminal brain cancer and … Continue reading Now for a Nursing Home
At the Palliative Care Ward
Visiting hospitals is almost as tiring as staying in them. For the last few days my siblings and I have taken turns spending the night with our mother in the Bozeman Deaconess's palliative care ward. She is terminally ill and doesn't want to be alone. Keeping her company is about the only thing we can … Continue reading At the Palliative Care Ward
