Great idea!!

Here's a great idea for recycling/re-purposing those old T-shirts that you've outgrown or are otherwise unwearable (but hard to throw out).

http://hellorewind.com/

Clark

Blizzard 2.0!!

We're getting hammered again.

This time we're only getting 10-15 inches of the white stuff. However, this time it comes with 20-40 mile per hour wind!

White out!! (insert Wipe Out music here)

In the midst of all of this, I caught the stomach flu. It was pretty bad. Not quite as bad as the dreaded New Year's flu, but bad nonetheless. I didn't make it home from work before I started puking. Thankfully, my dearest Ellen and I carpooled, so she could drive while I vomited into a Target bag (Thank you...would you like to apply for a Target VISA card today?)

I think I may have lost a few inches of intestine as a result of the amount of puking I did. I shivered and shook and ached. Nastiness!

Clark

Blizzard!!!

Here are some wintry pics!!



The dog wasn't too happy about the lack of yard space...



I mean...it was more than twice as deep as she is tall!!



Clark

Blizzard!!

It is snowing like no tomorrow.

It's been snowing about 24 hours now. Its about up to my waist on the deck. The DC area hasn't seen this much snow in decades. It's more snow than the nearly two feet we got right before Christmas (Dec 19th snow storm).

I will post some pictures as I get time to go out and take them.

Clark

Hired!!

I've hired an attorney to settle or plead my case to a jury.

It will be months before things get settled of course. There are a lot of things that will have to happen, but I've changed. Every little twinge or feeling makes me wonder if I'm going to have a heart attack.

Stay tuned....I'm sure I can't post everything about the case, but I will do what I can.

Clark

Texas blogging

Yahoo!!!

I managed to make it back from my trip to Texas unscathed.

I worked hard and enjoyed some really good BBQ. I also ate one of the most delicious hamburgers (a tie with Five Guys) at a place called Terry's. It was built inside an old gas station. Very cool.

I had to leave early because there was a massive snowstorm coming to the DC area. That was fun....not! The flight was packed and bumpy. It left at about 9pm Texas time and arrived at about 12:30 DC time.

My dearest Ellen had all sorts of trouble while I was gone. The Grizzwold curse really took over while I was gone. Just before leaving my middle daughter had gotten some sort of stomach issue. We thought it might have been some bad restaurant food, but when my littlest one got sick with the same symptoms a couple days later (bad enough to have to go to the ER) we were sure it was a stomach flu. Later on my oldest got the same thing (and had to go to the ER as well because my dearest thought she had appendicitis) . In and around all of that, my dearest had to go to the dentist and eye doctor too. I am very proud of her for flying solo.

Clark

More on my heart problem...

The condition is called a Right Bundle Branch Block. You can go to the Mayo Clinic and read on it here.

In a nutshell, the right side of my heart has an electrical irregularity that causes the heart to pump inefficiently. The doctor says that since I was not being treated for hypertension or other heart related illness, the RBBB was probably brought on by the accident. The outside of my body was belted into the car, but as my body was being held in relative position, my gizzards and heart were banging around inside.

I now have had three "episodes" where I don't feel well and there is a heaviness in my chest (not pain, not insufferable). One in the car the moments after collision. One a few days later. One in the cardiologists office.

The cardiologist is taking a wait and see attitude towards my condition because I feel he thinks that it will resolve or not require invasive procedures or be managed. That's good because I take it personally when people want to poke around my insides to see if there is anything wrong. I'm not restricted on movement or anything, so that is good.

Sadly, I have no idea what the future holds. Fortunately, I don't have a Left Bundle Branch Block. That is worse than the Right one (see the Mayo Clinic article to know why). The fear of the unknown is unnerving.

I consulted a personal injury attorney and am considering hiring her to see if I have a case against the insured.

A man knows...

...when he's up against it.

I was in a car accident right before Christmas. Not severe, but the impact caused me some discomfort of the chest, so I was taken to the hospital.

Now I have a problem with my heart. I have no idea what the future holds. It's more electrical than functional, so I'm probably going to be having to watch it vs. getting a procedure for it.

I have a pretty good doctor, so I think I am in good hands.

I have to try and keeps things in perspective. So far it hasn't caused me to discontinue what I like to do. However, I have to lose more weight (I'm down 40, but I need to lose at least another 20).

Clark

It's been such a long time...

(all apologies to Boston)

Time flies...

Sorry that it's been so long.

While I find blogging therapeutic to an extent, the time to do it has been fleeting.

I've been so busy with work and softball. I have two new clients that I've been working with in Maryland to add to the third one. I've been running up and down the road to the tune of a hundred miles a day or more back and forth.

Softball has been pretty good. The travel team did fairly well. We won about half of the the games that we played, beating most of the teams that we should have. We will struggle at times because we are going to end up playing 14U teams that are a year older and stronger.

We have been caught up in the whole swine flu epidemic the past two weeks. My dearest Ellen had a cold for a couple days, then my youngest (now 5) got sick a couple days later at the same time I did. It all lasted about 5 days. Now my dearest and my oldest are sick.

I will try and post some more later...

Clark

Picture!

I've added an approximation of "me" to the left side. There's a web app on the "Mad Men" website that allows you to create a "Mad Men" version of yourself. I do sort of look like that. Here are the other pics I made:




Clark

Final Beach Blog

Well, we're back.

Actually, we got back pretty late last night, so there was no opportunity to blog about anything (not that I'm that consistent or anything).

The truck managed to hold on long enough to get us home. We still need to figure out what's going on with the rear end (torque steer from a rear wheel drive truck?).

The rain came again in the morning while we ate a delicious breakfast at Mammy's Kitchen (Rt. 17 near the big parking garage and Rt. 501). We decided to do some souvenir shopping on the way out. I got a few T-shirts and other trinkets for the kids. Spent a hundred bucks. It was pretty easy to do that.

I think the highlights overall were the weather and the accommodations. We had a comfortable room at a reasonable price. Location was ideal as it was close enough to good places to eat, but not too far away from the hubbub. Best meal was a tie between Preston's and Mammy's with a "Surprise!" Vote to the Villa Romana. Villa Romana serves up traditional Italian cooking (4 course meal: appetizer, soup, salad, and entree'). It's pricey (14.00 for Spaghetti and Meatballs), but you get a lot of food for what you pay for.

There were a few lowlights. Some of the behavior of 9-12 year olds is trying at times. The Landmark didn't employ lifeguards, but there was a lot of staff around and some of them did their best to keep the rif raff down. Probably the worst was "Creepy Video Guy". I noticed this guy (a balding paunchy white guy with Aviator sunglasses) standing on his oceanfront balcony with his video camera scanning the beachfront. He'd record something for a few moments, pull the camera down, scan the sand again, raise the camera and record something else, etc. repeating the process several times over the course of my observations. When someone came out of an adjoining room to stand on their balcony, he slid back into the safety of his room, leaving the balcony door open to finish recording and then closing it slowly, while standing and seemingly admiring his handiwork. Creepy. My dearest saw him do it too. I'm hoping that impressionable young ladies in revealing swimwear have not been captured for any untoward website or DVD sales.

Clark

Beach Blog #4

It had to happen eventually...

Rain.

It's been pouring here for the past hour or so. They chased us out of the pool at around 2pm. It's been pretty hot (around 97 degrees F), so it was bound to happen at some point, even if it was just the excess humidity kicking off.

The kids are trying to be good. We're heading out to see an IMAX 3D movie and perhaps shop for souvenirs.

Clark

Beach Blog #3

I'm sitting here on our last full day at the beach having a little room service breakfast.

We had a good day yesterday, although I'm a little sunburned. We spent the day at the many pools and the beach. Then we had a nice dinner at a place called Preston's in North Myrtle Beach. Th buffet was really nice: full salad bar and dinner bar with seafood and country cookin'. The kids have been pretty good (only a small minor 4 year old meltdown today).

Update to Beach Blog #2. I mentioned that Ladies needed to keep their tattoos on their backs on the small side (no Constitutions or Dead Sea Scrolls, Ladies). I saw a replica of the South Carolina flag (palmetto and crescent moon) on the lower back of one woman (nice but unusual). I also saw another one that was a complete no-no: horseshoes. I can't imagine what someone would want horseshoes on their lower back. What kind of message does that send?

Clark

Beach Blog #2

Tattoos...

I've been here in Myrtle Beach, SC for about 48 hours now and have seen a boatload of tattoos. I've seen cheap tattoos, expensive tattoos, small tattoos, large tattoos...the whole gamut. I have no tattoos on my body (not that I haven't thought about it though). Nor does my dearest Ellen. I've come to a couple of conclusions taking in the skin art here at MB:

1. Small is better, especially on women. Ladies, a large, amorphously shaped tattoo on your shoulder doesn't seem too sexy. However, a small butterfly, heart, or star on the front or back of your hip is really hot. Guys, a dessert plate sized full color picture of a Rottweiler on your left chest is nothing short of weird. Tribal designs are OK, so long as they don't end up looking like Ivy vines crawling up your pants leg.

2. Location, Location, Location: Ladies, make sure you don't put your tattoo in the wrong place. Unless you plan on covering a whole body part or parts, make sure the spot can be covered up or accents your body part. Large dessert plate sized animal art on your entire calf just doesn't do it for me. Back of the next, ankle, small of the back (again, small is better), or front of the hip are sexy spots. Guys, covering the whole leg with just one tattoo is fine, but it needs to look finished. Multiple tattoos need to be limited to the arms unless you plan a sleeve.

3. Where not to put a tattoo: ladies, never put a large dessert plate sized tattoo in between your breasts. It's just weird.

Clark

Back to tournament ball

In the past, I have been a fastpitch softball coach for tournament level teams. Theses teams are together year round and play tournament on the weekends usually once or twice per month.

I've been out of that for a little while since my oldest was only playing in high school and my middle daughter had only just started to achieve that level.

An opportunity appeared one day in the form of a bridge between the 12U and the 14U level...13U!

This gave me an opportunity to get my daughter on a tournament team and then to bring her along as she grows, helping her to get the right skills to play high school.

This particular organization is pretty prestigious compared to the organization in which I used to coach. The caliber of player is higher and there is a lot of support.

I hope I'm able to fill the open spots with good players.

Clark

Softball Updates!!

It's been a long spring and summer season:

My house league team was runner up in their 12U division. The team entered the playoffs having lost more games than they one, but the average loss was only by a couple of runs. They played very well throughout the playoffs, winning an emotional game against one of our rival teams in the last inning on a deadly change up pitch by my dearest 12 year old daughter.

I was asked to coach a summer league all star team. Despite being loaded with good pitchers, we only had a .500 record. My dearest 12 year old lead the team in RBIs and triples. Rain dogged us in our early tournaments, where we only got to play two games out of a four game tournament. Our second tournament was much better as we seeded #1 on Saturday only to lose Sunday to the eventual tournament winner. Our last tournament was rained out on Sunday. We played very well on Saturday despite losing one of two games. We were seeded #4 going into the Sunday bracket, so we had a good seeding, although if we had won we would have needed to most likely play the #1 seed.

Clark

blogging from the beach

Hey!

As you all have probably already figured out...I'm not the world's most consistent blogger.

Nonetheless, when I get time to blog, I blog. (Sounds Shakespearean, doesn't it? To blog, or not to blog...that is the question).

I'm sitting here in my hotel room at the Landmark Resort here in Myrtle Beach, SC (http://www.landmarkresort.com/). It's the first time I've been here, but my dearest Ellen and the kids have been here a couple of times. I haven't been on vacation with the family in about 4 years because of lack of available vacation time. It's a nice place, about 4 out of 5 stars, and has lots of cool stuff for the kids to do, outside of just being in the sand and the ocean.

I'll catch you up on all the happenings in subsequent posts!!

Clark

Politics as usual

I sent a letter to my Senators the other day about the new Waxman-Markey bill currently in the Senate. I don't blog politically very much, but heard about this from a hyper conservative friend of mine. I read the major premise and section 304, the part where they force you to keep your house up to "Code" else they won't let you sell it. Here's the response from just ONE of my senators:

Dear Mr. ,

Thank you for contacting me about global warming and related legislation. I appreciate hearing your views on this important issue.

In order to best protect America's citizens and environment, I believe that we need to develop a comprehensive energy policy that both reduces our emissions and utilizes alternative sources of energy. Doing so would not only help to preserve the environment, but would also create green jobs and ultimately lower domestic energy costs. Any discussion of our national energy policy must also consider the international scope of this challenge as individual nations confront problems such as the finite supply of fossil fuels, overhauling outdated energy infrastructures, and many other important environmental challenges.

Members of the relevant Congressional committees are currently working on legislation that would address climate change on a national level, and I look forward to participating in this debate during the 111th Congress. Though the science surrounding this issue supports the need for dramatic changes in policy, any comprehensive legislation to address climate change must balance this interest with the need to keep our economy viable during this challenging time.

Thank you again for your input on global warming. Please be assured that I will continue to monitor related legislation and will consider your views as the Senate debates and votes on relevant legislation. I very much look forward to serving the Commonwealth during the 111th Congress.

Sincerely,
MARK R. WARNER
United States Senator

Talk about doublespeak! Sheesh!

Clark

Leadership, part deux

Recall my post on leadership? Well, since that post, the captains of my daughter's softball team have threatened her with bodily harm and told her that "I hate you".

Nice. If these are the future leaders of our country, I hope I don't live too long.

Clark

This little piggie...

Caught the flu! Coincidentally, while a huge media splash about a hundred or so cases of "swine flu" virus H1N1 has been at the forefront. We've been hit by the bug.

It wasn't me actually, it's my dearest Ellen. She's down with the flu today. I was working from home since the Speck is in the shop and she came down with some nastiness overnight. So much for my quiet day away from the office.

Clark