Monthly Archives: February 2011

Happy Anniversary

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Fourteen Years ago today, I got up super early, moved my few pieces of remaining furniture out to the driveway for the Salvation Army to pick up. I gave my next door neighbor my house key. Then, on my hands and knees, I puked in my bushes in the dark.
What was I doing? I didn’t even have a key to my own house any more.
A friend picked me up in my old van that I sold to his business. And took me to the airport.
As the plane took off, and curved over the Chesapeake Bay to head south, I looked down out of my window at the familiar land and I actually cried. “I Failed” I thought to myself. “Ten years here, I have a house, I had a good job, I had everything but a wife and I failed!” I felt completely, utterly, miserable and afraid, wondering if I knew what I was doing.
The further south the plane went, the better I felt. When the plane descended into Grand Cayman I was so excited and happy I could barely contain myself. I started the day puking in my bushes and ended the day snorkeling off Seven Mile Beach.
It was one of the best days of my life so far. I have never regretted it.
For years before I moved here, I wanted to move back to the tropics. I wanted to stay in Hawaii after living there almost 5 years but fate had other plans. Then I was planning on moving to Belize, I was planning and thinking, going to the library, planning and planning, and thinking and thinking. For years. It only took a couple months to make the move down here, and it was action, not planning that did it. I made a phone call, for a yard sale, and sold everything I owned, a whole 3 bedroom house full of stuff. I made another phone call, Real estate manager. (I still have the house in Virginia, rented out). I made a call, airlines; airline ticket. I sold my car, turned in a letter of resignation at my long-time job. Very little planning, just actions. This a lesson I need to re-learn over and over again in my life. Now I’ve been here 14 years.
Sometimes I’m still miserable and afraid, thinking about the future and the unknown, but life is good, I’ve got the best wife ever and the best life ever and I’m glad to be here, and I don’t regret a thing.

The past is gone, we can’t do anything to change it. That’s why the past is called History.
We don’t know if we’ll be there tomorrow, or what’s going to happen if we are. That’s why the future is a Mystery.
All we have is Today. Today is a gift, that’s why we call it

The Present

Two days after my Grandfather was born….

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…the oldest person on Earth verified by the Guinness Book of World Records was born. Now she’s in the news because she died a couple of days ago. Eunice Sanborn of Jacksonville, Texas, died quietly in her home on Monday. The obituary cited a birth date of July 20, 1895, but her family says her age is uncertain. My Grandfather , Damon E Grim, was born July 18, 1895.
Read about Eunice Sanborn and see a video on CNN here. To think she was born two days after my Grandfather really makes me think. A generation is pretty big, time-wise. A parent and their child can span a hundred years easily. I wonder if Eunice and my Grandfather ever crossed paths. Maybe they actually met.
Of all my relatives, my Grandfather was my favorite, and the person I always wanted to be like the most.
I get kind of sentimental about it really, a person lives, and a person dies. But when a person dies, people still remember them. After a time, everyone who actually remembers a person dies. 1895 seems like a long time ago, but I remember my Grandfather. He died in 1976. If I could go back in time, I would ask him a whole bunch of questions, and take notes.
I think humans need to focus less on who dies, and more who is still alive. I remember years ago, hearing about an old man who died who was instrumental in inventing the internal combustion engine. I thought, “I wish I knew he was still alive before he died” Does that make sense?

With Eunice Sanborn’s death, the “oldest living person” designation goes to Besse Cooper of Monroe, Georgia. She was born in 1896

God Bless North East Australia

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Captured: Wednesday 2 February 2011 01:30 UTC
As I type this, Queensland, Australia is getting whacked by Severe Tropical Cyclone Yasi, a category 4 or maybe 5 typhoon.
This is a very strong storm, the news says it is stronger than anything in the memory or “recent generations” and may destroy even “Cyclone proof” homes with sustained winds of 300 kilometers per hour. That’s about 186 miles per hour. Winds may gust up to 40% higher than the sustained peak. That’s gusts of 420 Kilometers per hour, or about 260 miles per hour.
Plus, being a continent, and not a small island, there are tsunamis probable. With an island, the water can go around the land, on a continent, the water has no where to go but ashore. To me this storm looks like it’s going to be really really bad.

This picture forecasts the storm coming ashore as a category 5.

I hope Australia makes it through with amazingly little damage and minimal deaths. I’ll be thinking about them. I have been through several hurricanes, here in Cayman and in Hawaii. Mainly Ivan and Ewa. There is nothing that can compare to the power of a hurricane.
Click HERE for the Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology.