Blog Entries for Roger Kovack

Morning Coffee

webheavy@yahoo.com — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 07:00:00 +0100

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My wife slept next to the bedroom window that looks out on the garden where I had left our Shasta daisies in a plastic pot. I dug up a part of the front yard where the new steps are going to be built. My wife had planted the daisies in a little garden space I reclaimed from the forest, but now they were in the way of the new stairs and had to be dug up and transplanted. The shovel cut into t [...]

Into the Shade

webheavy@yahoo.com — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 07:00:00 +0100

We went to the hot springs this week but we didn't take our camper with its kitchen and bed and coffee grinder. Instead, we drove my little pickup truck with its tiny camper shell. No soft bed, no candle to set the mood for sipping wine with a baguette, no place to brush our teeth. It's just a truck that I use to haul trash and carry tools and lumber.

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Drifters

webheavy@yahoo.com — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 07:00:00 +0100

I got a new cell phone this week. It was kind of a swap for the phone I've been using which worked fine for me but I could pass it on to someone who cares about all its features and in its place I got a $20 brand new phone that just talks and not much more. It doesn't have a camera or play music or surf the web or drive the car while I'm doing other things.

But let me explain. I was passionately interested in electronics when I was about six. My dad encouraged me with wires and switches and books and even a tutor. He was a manager at one of the big defense contractors back then and brought home everything inc [...]

Power Points

webheavy@yahoo.com — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 07:00:00 +0100

I've been back to working at the software factory for the past few weeks making a slide presentation for people who aren't software developers. You know, the real people that really use software and would rather not know anymore than they have to about it.

My job these days is to be sure that software does what people really want it to do. Now please bear with me here because this isn't technical and, besides, everyone already knows that software never does what we want and it's so frustrating for everyone.

There is a real, old time dance hall in town complete with a hardwood floor and wood plaques on the walls from the local square dance groups. I don't know when the place was built but it must have been in the 40's if not earlier. It looks as if the walls are batt and board with shingle siding and it looks like more rooms were added on over time. No matter how it came to be, it feels like a place with hoop skirts and a caller and fiddlers and it's been that way fo [...]

Dress Code

webheavy@yahoo.com — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 07:00:00 +0100

"What are you doing coming in here like that?" the bouncer asked me as I showed her my ticket.

Now the bouncer looked like some teenage amazon wearing an outfit that didn't even begin to cover her and left me incapable of meeting her eyes as I'd already been blinded by her other assets. Was she standing there with an "OLD HIPPIES NOT ALLOWED" sign that I was too dazed to see? Wasn't she too young to even be out at that hour [...]

Pizza Crash Blues

webheavy@yahoo.com — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 07:00:00 +0100

Some people are doing okay but some people are suffering during these times. The president and congress are suffering and the executives are suffering and the office workers and assembly line workers are suffering. The milkmaids are suffering because no one trusts even milk anymore and the ditch diggers are suffering because rich people don't need any more ditches.

Planning

webheavy@yahoo.com — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 07:00:00 +0100

"I just wanted to take down the Christmas tree yesterday morning." She was stroking the needles softly as if stroking that part of a cat between the ears. They were still stiff and green and weren't dropping. There really wasn't any reason to take the tree down except that New Years has come and gone. The holidays are over, the glow of the New Years party has turned into the cool, clear light of a rainy morning and the confusion about the calendar has settled down.

The reality of New Years eve is rapidly approaching and with it comes the tradition of resolutions. I don't even know what a resolution is but dictionary.cambridge.org tells me it's a decision made with strong determination.

Strong determination? No. That's not me. Most of my resolutions are lucky to survive a couple of days. Maybe I just don't do things with strong determination. I'm lily livered. I kind of cruise willy-nil [...]

Party of Two

webheavy@yahoo.com — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 07:00:00 +0100

Christmastime is a great time for us to get away for a few days. Being empty nester's and living in the California wine country, Yosemite National Park is an easy five hour drive from here. Well, its a five hour drive for people that are intent in getting from point A to point B but for me it could easily stretch into eight hours what with stopping for this or that little gadget I've decided would be just perfect in our 24 year old VW camper. I'll give myself the time to do that these days.

The Santa Secret

webheavy@yahoo.com — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 07:00:00 +0100

There is something about Christmas that is melancholic for me. I think I'm supposed to be all joy and light and let everyone know that I'm just so happy it's disgusting and it's Christmastime and that's why.

Maybe it has to do with Santa Claus. How did I come to the exceptional insight at the wise old age of four maybe, that Sant [...]

Ornaments

webheavy@yahoo.com — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 07:00:00 +0100

I ran into two pre-teen girls selling sprigs of mistletoe on my way into the grocery store. They had a plastic garden tray, a flat that would hold a whole set of bright and deep violet petunias for sale in the spring. Their flat had neatly arranged rows of small plastic bags, each holding a branch of mistletoe with its velvet green, almond shaped leaves and almost pearl colored beads. One of the girls told me they had just picked these that afternoon. The mistletoe was fresh and sparkling like t [...]