Saturday, September 13, 2008

Review of my week 9/7/08-9/12/08

Imani has decided to join the tennis team. I’m concerned that this may be a distraction from her schoolwork, but I’m hopeful that this will help drive her school spirit. This kind of took me by surprise. She never really seemed to have an interest in tennis before. She doesn’t even have her own racket yet. Obviously, I’ll need to get her one soon. Tomorrow she and her teammates are having a car wash at Hagin’s Automotive on Alhambra in Martinez to raise money for uniforms. I wish I could help but I’ll be working overtime tomorrow.

Isabel is currently in Texas performing her duties as part of the Navy’s relief efforts in the wake of Hurricane Gustav and now Hurricane Ike. I’m very proud of her.

One week ago today Charlie got his little nuts removed. The vet put this plastic cone around his neck so he couldn’t mess with his stitches. He really hated it. He would just lay there on his side with his little forepaws pushing up against the cone and whimpering. I really felt bad for him. The cone’s off now and it doesn’t look like being nutless has lessened his spirit any. In fact, I caught him trying to hump Zoe earlier this week. That little guy’s got a really LONG penis! I know, eeeww! I am glad it’s done though. I’m glad that neither of my dogs are capable of breeding.

Matt Dorado got a real snowball started. He sent out an group email to all the Tennyson class of 1985. He said that he had heard that Arvie Carrington had died and did anyone know anything about it. I looked up Arvie’s name (her full first name was Arvanola) on Google and discovered a news report from May of last year that she did indeed die in a car crash.

I threw out a suggestion that perhaps we could pool some money and make a group donation to some charity in her name. The ensuing discussion then evolved into an idea of setting up a scholarship fund for a Tennyson student. It would be one hell of a big undertaking but it would be a great legacy to leave on behalf of our old classmates that have since passed away. Amber Love counted eight, eight of our class that have died.

It would have been a stretch to say Arvie and I were friends in high school, but I certainly don’t have any bad memories of her. In fact, as far as I can remember, she was always nice to me.

There’s one memory of Arvie from high school that I will never forget. It was toward the end of our Senior year. It was the Senior show. Arvie sang a solo, but I don’t remember what the song was. I was working the sound board with Shawn Forsythe. Halfway through the song her mike went out. Shawn and I tried our best to get everything working again, but Arvie could do is just stand there in the middle of the stage all by herself, basically stuck, more or less. People in the audience started to yell at her to just sing anyway, without any amplification. And so she did. She finished the song carried by the power of her voice alone. She got a really huge ovation when she was done. She was really wonderful. I didn’t even know she could sing.

It’s really sad knowing her life came to an end so soon. Tina (Snowden) Chaney also told me that another classmate, Regina Works, also had died in a car crash, and it happened in front of her kids, too. I’ll be glad when we’re able to do something nice to honor their memories.

I launched my dog website on Monday. So far, I’m satisfied with it. But I know it has potential to be much more. http://dogspeakup.blogspot.com

I also decided to start a new techie blog. I’ve just launched it already. It’s called The Tech Slayer. http://techslayer.blogspot.com

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