Quigs’ Corner

Wednesday started with sad but not unexpected news.  My mom’s brother, Frank had died.  After several years of declining health, his body finally gave out.  Obit

Though you’re not supposed to have favorites, Frank was by far my favorite uncle.  He was always quick to tell a joke, loved to talk and drink coffee, scratch lottery tickets in hopes of hitting the big one and tease any animal or child he came into contact with - which made them instant friends.  

A skilled mechanic for years, he left the profession to go to sea as a lobsterman.  Frank loved the ocean, and was lucky to have found a job that he loved in spite of the danger and incredibly physical requirements.   

As I’ve already said, Frank loved to talk.  Back in the day, he would stop into the store Ma and I had after he had sold his daily catch and we’d talk about anything and everything.  Right up to the end, he would stop by Ma’s house and they would sit at her kitchen table drinking coffee, shooting the breeze about this and that or go to a local diner for ’suppa’.  He made friends no matter where he went, and everyone loved him - and remembered him. 

I’ve made the trip back to NH to help celebrate his life on Monday, and anticipate some good stories will be told that we’ll all say, ‘Yep, that was Frank’.  

I hope he’s in a better place now, where he’s no longer in pain, and can cruise the ocean safely.  

RIP Uncle Frank. We’ll miss you. 
 

We all use Google, Yahoo and any other number of search engines to find what we want on the vast world wide web.  Google is so entrenched in our day-to-day activities that it’s now frequently used as a verb, as in ‘I Googled myself last night’.  This is not a desperate plea for companionship, but curiosity of what one will find if their name is put into the massive search engine.   

This my friends, is all about to change.  Viewzi is a new visual search engine that gives you small visual renderings of the web pages and other content it finds and displays them on the screen.  No more clicking to read the result, clicking the back button to get back to your original search results only to repeat over and over til you find what you want. It’s all in front of you in many different ways - photos, web pages, mp3s, weather just to name a few.  

Click here for an idea of what the site looks like.

I learned about this engine on tonight’s local news, and it seems that Viewzi is still in beta. But, since you have taken the time to read my blog, I will give you the secret to getting into this site before it’s open to the general public to get a sneak peak at the beta.  To test out the site now go to Viewzi.com and enter "cbs11" as the referral code.

Take it for a test drive, and I predict it will be one of the new ways you’ll search the web.  Remember, you heard, er I mean read, it here first!   

One of the benefits to living in North Texas is that there are a lot of ‘festivals’ here…the Plano Balloon festival in September, Taste Addison, The Cottonwood, Main Street in Grapevine…all in May, the granddaddy of them all - the State Fair of Texas the entire month of September and the Wild Flower festival, which was in Richardson this past weekend.  

We’ve been to all of them at one point or another, and most of them have booths with ‘fair food’, games and crafts.  None of this is different than any other festival in the US except for some reason we’re able to attract decent musical groups here…not the current ‘it’ groups, but ones that were once popular.  Due to this, we’ve seen our share of not-so-hot-anymore groups, for a small price of admission to the festival and got to enjoy music that we like. 

That said, there are few bands that Mr. Q and I agree on, but this weekend at Wildflower, we went to see Pat Benatar.  Now, I know she’s been around a while, but MAN she can still sing!  We were outdoors, and I have to say, the music was louder than Aerosmith at the AAC.  Regardless…she played all my favorites, and everyone had a great time.  The best part is that it was within a 30 minute drive.  And, we even bought the t-shirt!   I can’t wait to see who wanders through next year. 

One day that I look forward to is ‘Clean Sheet’ day. Getting into a cozy bed that isn’t all wrinkled and that smells nice at the end of a long day is a simple pleasure. The only thing that could make it better is if I had a clothesline to hang them on - a heavenly smell. But, here in Stepford, we’re not allowed such things. Maybe if the price of energy continues to rise, the residents here will rise against the rules :-).

I just returned from a long weekend in New England, visiting family in NH and attending SLM’s graduation from UCONN. We had a good weekend - the weather held out for us, and Sunday - graduation day - was amazing. Connecticut is a beautiful campus in the spring! We (Ma, RLM, WSP and me) had the pleasure of going to Foxwoods with SLM on Saturday night (by the way, no more quarters [or nickles in my case] dropping into the tray when you win - you get a voucher!), then after graduation, we attended a get-together with her professors and fellow graduates. It was a nice gesture, and enjoyed meeting the people she’s been spending all her time with for the last four years.

I’m proud of her getting this done, and now she moves onto the next chapter of her life, as a grad student…still more work and studying to be done, but I think she really likes her field of Athletic Training (which she is now officially certified in) so it may not seem so much like work (yeah, right!).

I wish her all the best as she moves on, and up.

As we go through life, our priorities change as our lives take on new responsibilities and opportunities. I, like everyone, have had my share of life-threatening emergencies like no date for the big dance or not being able to get tickets to that concert you’ve been dying to go to. Of course, as I look back, these were trivial, and I might add exactly what my mom said at the time.

In the past few years, I’ve been lucky enough to be included in my family and friends’ occasions such as graduations, marriages, and new babies. I’ve learned, like everyone, what really matters and what is important.

This weekend is one of those weekends that I get to share with my friends and family alike, and for completely different reasons.

My oldest and dearest friend, LLC, whom I’ve know since my BK days in NH lost her dad on Sunday. He was a vibrant, active man that didn’t let much stand in his way. LLC is very much like that and a person I’ve always admired for her ability to overcome adversity and be successful in spite of the obstacles that stood in her way. I was already planning on being in NH, so will spend some time at the memorial service remembering and honoring her dad, and her.

I’ll also be spending time with my family for a happier occasion - SLM is graduating from UCONN and I’ll be there to celebrate the event. It’s been a long haul for her, her mom and those that love her and want her to be successful. I’m looking forward to being a included in this celebration and really wish her all the best.

What a wide range of emotions and situations all in one weekend. It seems that I’m sending more sympathy cards than congratulations cards these days, and this has a way of resetting your priorities. I guess this is the ‘circle of life’.

To life and all the speed bumps along the way…….

A lot has happened since my last post - I will do my best to catch you up.

First, the most annoying thing - I lost my voice for a month. Those of you that know me know that is particularly annoying to me. Not ‘cuz I like to talk, but because I do talk alot - for my job. The voice did eventually come back (much to Mr Q’s chagrin)…til this week. I’ve lost it again, and to make matters worse, the upper respiratory thing that came along with it is even worse this time around. I’m coughing up a lung on a really regular basis and pretty unhappy about it all. I’m working with the docs to find out why this is happening.

Next, we got our new roof installed last week, and it looks great! The roofing company was fair, the crew was fast and clean, the sales person was here everyday and helped us find tradesmen to get some things done. We all know the reputation of roofers, and so far, I think we made a good decision to use this company.

We are in the process of canceling our satellite provider, DirecTV. We’ve been loyal customers of theirs from the time we lived NH, when we had that awful Aldephia. Anyway, our most recent bill was much higher than anyone should have to pay to watch television. And with the roof being redone, they needed to remove the dish anyway, so I called to see what they could ‘do’ for us on price. My answer was a plain old ‘nothing’. The CSR didn’t care we were long time, loyal customers that always paid on time and never called tech support. So, we’re going to cable.  We’re voting with our checkbook. The CSR at Time Warner was very nice, patient and helpful. The price is lower, and I get at least one person that actually gives a crap.

There’s more, but I don’t want to make this post too long, so stay tuned…hopefully for not as long as the last time.