July 10th, 2008...Clear Skies (original attempt 7-10-08)

Sorry for the delay on this...This is the post I was writing when my computer decided to take a dirt nap....

Today's forecast, sunny and clear, with a high of 112, and alow of 69...no rain in sight(with two hours to go in the day at the time of posting).

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Thank you to all of you who wrote or called to wish me Happy Birthday. I truly treasure the sentiments from my closest of family and friends. And yet, it doesn't really feel like a day to celebrate. To be honest, it feels like just another day. I know I've said it before, but after a certain age, there is little reward for remembering your birthday. As a young child, you look forward to it for the presents, and as a young man, you look forward to the benefits of age (at 12, you look forward to becoming a teenager, at 15, you look forward to driving, at 18 graduating high school & voting, at 21 being able to drink legally, and at 27, you get a break on your car insurance). But then something happens, and age no longer means much. It seems that as I age, I feel more and more drawn to celebrating the people that have made an impact on me in the previous year, rather than giving myself credit for my parents' actions some 31 years ago.

To allof you, I give my greatest appreciation. For my life would surely be less than the great thing it is without you...

So, Happy Year 31 of mylife to all of you.




ULI

Life is good...

First, let me appologize for not posting yesterday. I got home after work, logged in to my computer, and before it had the chance to tell me I was signed in, I was fast asleep. It had been a long day, and I'm still not sleeping well...not that I ever do.

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Yesterday I had a meeting with a representative from the Washington Blues Society. He wanted to know if I, as radio NCOIC, would play more of the Blues genre on our radio station. He also wanted a lot more, but I won't bore you here. I did what I could to anser his questions, and pointed him in the right direction if he wanted to contact our main radio headquarters. It felt good, knowing that even though I could only do so much of what he wanted, he walked away happy and satisfied. He will probably stay a loyal listener because of it (not that there's much choice).

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Today I had some philosophical and theological discussions with a coworker of mine. I do enjoy getting to find out how and what other people believe. And you know what, we actually believe a lot of the same things. Granted, our religions are based on similar precepts, but the differences separate us slightly. Still, we had good discussions, and we each brought up points that made the other see things in a different, and occasionally new, ways.



Then this evening, I went to a Bible study. It was informative, and as they tend to be, spritually fulfilling. I now have some direction to go to if other people are keeping me down - that is, making me do all the work, hurting me, and they reap the benifits. It was good stuff.

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Vanessa has been wonderful. She calls me in the studio while I'm on-the-air, and we get to talk before she has to go to work. It's so great to hear her voice. It makes this place feel not so far away. We talked for a long time on our anniversary...like we should have. As I've said so many times before, she truly is a stronger person than I am. If she were the one gone, I'd be beside myself (probably living on microwave dinners, and sleeping at work). The bible study will keep her (and "the situation") in our prayers. It felt good to know that.

Yesterday I got 6 packages in the mail. Vanessa wasa doll, and sent me anything and EVERYTHING she thought I'd need for the next month. The guy that delivers the mail is going to know me on a first name basis before too long. I'll probably end up sending some of it back (my room is so small you can touch all the walls from the center of the room), but some of it was just sweet gestures. Just thought it was worth commenting on. Afterall, it's MY party, and I'll blog what I want to.

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Thank you all for your well wishes, and notes of love. It means a lot to have people talk to me, if even for only afew minutes online. I miss everyone so much, and you make my day that much better.

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I will begin doing themorning radio show next week, so this week, I'm getting to work an hour earlier every day, to prepare me for getting in to the station by 5:30 every morning. YIKES! I may have to move to a new building, so I don't keep waking up the guys next door to me. One of them absolutely detests noise of any kind while he's trying to sleep. I do what I can to accommodate (like sleeping on the floor occassionally so my bed doesn't creak and groan when I crawl in at 3am), but I don't know f it will be enough. We'll wait and see.

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The photo illustrates just how truly tiny my room is. Vanessa liked that I put our weddingphoto in the focus of the room. I thought it was just common sense.

With nothing much else to write, I'll simply say goodnight, and my Love to you all!

ULI

07-07-08

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY VANESSA!

It has been an amazing year, filled with highs and lows, laughter and tears, togetherness, and separation - yet through it all, you have stood firmly by my side. You are an amazing woman; full of passion, energy, sympathy, and caring that go beyond your years. Where I am strong, you supplement me nicely, and where I am weak, you more than complete me. You are my better half. The piece of me that was missing. You're my lover, my care-giver, my anchor, my shoulder to cry on. You're my best friend, and my life is so much better with you in it, than it ever was flying solo. You picked me up and helped me to walk again, at a time when I thought no one would ever see my weakness. You opened my eyes to a new and bright world, full of amazing things, places, and people. For these things alone, I will forever be grateful. But there is so much more you bring to my life. It is difficult to put into words how you make me feel. Just your voice can cause my heart to jump. Seeing you smile is like seeing the first roses blooming in Spring. And to hear you laugh, that sweet, angelic melody, is as divine an experience for me as almost anything I've ever experienced. To you, my Darling, my Love, my Butterfly, and my Cherished Shooting Star, I say, "Thank You."

Thank you for believing in me when no one else would. Thank you for confiding in me, when I seemed no more than a stranger. Thank you for taking a chance, and falling head-over-heels. Thank you for throwing caution to the wind, and listening to your heart, rather than the voices of discouragement. Thank you for the past four years, and every Love-filled moment we've spent together. Thank you for not always agreeing with me, so we can grow together as a couple. Thank you for giving me space, even though I didn't ask for - nor want or need it. Thank you for the countless gifts of your time when there were things you'd rather be doing. Thank you for showing me what Love is again, and for never letting me forget that it's a Love that will last throughout eternity. Thank you for being my teacher, as well as my student. Thank you for every tender hug, every passionate kiss. Thank you for being my one, my only. Thank you for saying, "Yes." Thank you for the past 366 days of marriage.

I look forward with eager anticipation, to the next year, decade, nay, lifetime together.

With all the Love I have within me to give...

I Love You.

(MORE)

ULI

Enter The Hooch...

This is the hallway that leads into our hooch. If you look closely, you will see there are blankets lining the walls. Those are our doors.

And this...this is my 8' x 9'r oom. Small, yes, but it does fine for one person. The bed sits 5 feet off the ground, so getting in and out is sometimes bothersome. I'm working on getting - or making - a ladder to help. I will have more photos tomorrow...

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I like the people I work with. And I like being able to help people with the little parts of the job that can make it easier to do.

Today, I got to teach one of the Marines how to use a color correcting tool (Color Effect) on his non-linear editor. I feel good about this inparticular, because this knowledge was passed to me by the man I consider to be my greatest military teacher (way back at Lajes).

A few days ago, I also taught another of the Marines I work with how to "backtime" - that is, do the math in seconds, rather than tens, to get to a particular point in time. Basically, you find out how much time is left in, say, a song, then add that to the current time. Then you subtract it from the time you want to get to. For example:

If you have a 3 minute song that has 1 minute and 30 seconds left to play, and the current time is 11:53:10 (Eleven Twenty-One and Ten seconds); when the song finishes the time will be 11:54:40. Then you subtract that time from the point you want to get to...say, noon (12:00:00).

With time math, rather than borrowing from the hundreds to fill in the tens, you borrow from the minutes to fill the ten seconds column. You subtract 1 from the minutes...but you add 6 to the tens column, because 60 seconds is a minute. so you could write 12:00:00 as 11:59:60.

11:54:40 from 11:59:60 equals 5 minutes and 20 seconds left over. It took me a while to get it, too, but I had the benifit of learning this in college. I find it easy, and I've taught many beginning broadcasters how to do it.

The rest of our crew is getting along for the most part. We still have some growing pains to do, but since we're here for a while, I believe we'll all come together sooner, rather than later.

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Oh, and hello to my stealth readers out there, that never leave comments, but read the blog. I found out one of my co-workers, that also works with Vanessa is a reader. So he's pretty informed on our lives. It's cool though, both Vanessa and I respect him a great deal. He's got only a little while left here, before he gets to return to his family, and his "normal" life.

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ULI