Pro Opere et Gloria Dei

December is the cruelest month. I know that's not how the actual saying goes, but I think that December - at least the first three weeks - can definitely be the most demanding, exasperating, and just plain difficult time of the entire year. I know - it sounds like Scrooge all over again, and I'm sorry, but from the day after Thanksgiving until Christmas Eve, my life is a sleep-deprived blur. I work in Finance, and like millions of others, I find year-end to be filled with the most hectic and challenging of work schedules. The fact that get a week off between Christmas and New Year's only means that the "year-end" occurs on December 24th rather than on the 31st. Okay, I should be grateful for the annual vacation, but it comes with a price... three weeks of absolute craziness trying to close the books on another year. Add to all this the Holiday activities, shopping and decorating and everything else, and it only compounds the frustration. Really, who has time for a

I keep a personal journal. On the shelf, that is. I know the importance of maintaining an ongoing narrative of one's life experiences, both as an important step toward improved self-awareness and as a gift to future generations who might find it interesting to know how people like me managed to get through this whole business of mortality in one piece. A journal well-kept is a personal treasure. My journal covers over twenty years. All in only twelve pages. Months and even years pass between entries, and most of those are a single paragraph. I even have one entry that reads something like "I had the most interesting experience today." Then nothing. I have no idea what it was that was so interesting, and it obviously will be a mystery forever. The real mystery is how, on such an important subject, I have neglected to follow the rules. I cannot count how many times I have been asked if I remember something that happened years ago, only to find out half my life has faded awa

Luc and I made the trip to Palmdale, California to attend the 20th anniversary celebration for the B-2 bomber. After standing in line for 45 minutes with 7,000 other people, we decided to take off and wander around aimlessly in the Mojave Desert. Luc wanted to hunt for lizards, and I had hopes of taking some exciting pictures. (Sorry, I can't take credit for the top photo). Luc was very persistent, looking under every rock and tumbleweed he could see. We spotted a couple of Jackrabbits but nothing else. I, however, had some exciting results. I found a living room in the desert, complete with TV: And there was this elegant sofa! Needless to say, you just can't expect to find a lot of scenic wonders when you're wandering aimlessly in the desert hunting for lizards. Actually, we did manage to get a few good shots coming to and from the desert, like the shot below of the California Aqueduct (kind of pretty at sunrise). In the mountains above San Bernardino, after years of drivi

The vast universe of cable TV has a rich assortment of exciting documentary programs with which one may expand his or her awareness of things unexplained. I refer mostly to the sudden explosion of material dealing with paranormal phenomena: hour upon hour dedicated to the proposition that all spirits are created equal - or are they? Some show up as full-fledged apparitions, while others just cause a needle to move on a little meter. Meanwhile, there's the invasion of the extraterrestrials, who now reside chiefly at Area 51. I've watched the amazing autopsy films from Roswell, and marveled at the magic metal that once formed a real flying saucer. And who hasn't been persuaded by all that eyewitness evidence of Sasquatch, the Loch Ness Monster, and all the other creatures lurking in the wilderness? Well, in our home there is at least one true believer. I'm learning new and exciting things about the nature of life and the origins of the universe. Finally, it all makes sens