dotnethed Blog

This photo is one of my favorites, although it was taken with only a 3.2MP Sony Mavica camera (the best digital camera that I could afford for many years). The photo was taken from the base of the “Virgin of Quito” statue on el Panecillo in Quito, Ecuador.

The large blue building in the upper-right corner is the Basilica del Voto Nacional, an enormous neo-Gothic Roman Catholic church. The building is not actually blue — in fact, I have several other versions of this photo in which the Basilica is green. The length of the exposure causes the colors to change.

Since my wife and I are getting ready to head down to Tampa in a couple of weeks, I thought I’d share this photo from a previous trip to the area. One thing I can say about Tampa is the skies are incredible. We just don’t have sunsets like this in Upstate New York. Not to say we don’t occasionally get a good one up here, but nothing like the Florida sunsets — at least not on a regular basis.

Of course, another thing we don’t have as much of up here are good places to scuba dive, which has a lot to do with our reasons for visiting Tampa. After many, many years of thinking about it, I’ve finally committed to take the plunge, so to speak.

I’ve done the non-certified diver thing a couple of time (where you can dive with a PADI instructor even if you’re not certified yourself) and it was amazing, despite one minor incident where I vomited under water…. The whole thing turned out not to be as bad as it sounds, but I wouldn’t recommend it. The plan is to try not to make that a regular habit. Apparently I suffer from vertigo, and being pulled violently up to the surface doesn’t agree with me. Still not quite sure why my instructor did that, but oh well — I’m sure he had his reasons. Better than running out of air under water I suppose. Or having the boat leave without you. Or a number of other consequences I can imagine. Anyway, I’m still alive, so it’s all good I guess.

Not that any of this has much to do with a sunset photo, but you’ll probably get used to this if you follow my blog with any regularity. I’ll try to keep the tangents to a minimum…not making any promises though.

Since it’s pretty late and I seem to be rambling, I guess I’ll sign off for now. Obviously I’m new to the whole blogging thing, so please feel free to leave any feedback, comments, or whatever. I appreciate hearing from you, and will do my best to take any constructive criticism into consideration when writing future posts!

Thanks for stopping by — I hope to see you here again. Oh, and if you have your own blog or website, by all means leave the URL in the comments below and I’ll be sure to return the favor.

A good friend of mine died last Sunday. I guess maybe I’m at the age where that’s to be expected. Not that it happens all the time, but it seems to be happening with increasing frequency — certainly enough to make me take notice. Without a doubt, my friend lived a long and very full life, and he suffered extensively toward the end, so — as I’m finding often to be the case — his passing was in some ways more of a relief than a devastating occurrence.

That’s the way it was when my mother passed away a couple of years ago. She had been battling pancreatic cancer for three years, and although a lot of people (including myself) were devastated by her loss, she had suffered long enough, and it’s for the best that she is now at rest. My wife’s father died about a year later. I think on some level he was ready to go, although on others he was not. But he also lived a long and productive life and saw seven children grow to adulthood, so his life was not taken before he had lived it.

That’s not always the case, of course. Another friend of mine died a few months ago from brain cancer. He was about my age, and it happened suddenly. He left a wife and young daughter who now must grow up without a father. I get chills thinking about it and it’s hard to find a positive slant on his passing. And it’s not just me. Friends of mine are constantly losing loved ones — some very old, some very young.

But my friend who died last weekend was unique in many ways, and since his passing just happens to coincide with me starting this blog, I feel it only right to honor his life here. I won’t go into all the details (books can, and probably will be written about him). I will touch on some of the highlights.

This friend is special because, in the truest sense of the word, he saved my life. He saved the lives of many, many others as well. Not that his life was without controversy by any means. In fact, he may have been the most controversial figure I have ever known. But greatness usually involves controversy, so I don’t put too much importance in that.

My friend was an army tail gunner who fought in the Pacific in World War II, and that was not only a pivotal, but a focal point in his life. He was a decorated combat veteran and extremely proud of his service for this country he loved. Now here’s where it gets weird. I’m just going to tell you what happened and you can draw your own conclusions. But the more I think about it, the more convinced I am that it’s not merely coincidence.

I do think it’s important to mention here that my friend was one of the most spiritual individuals I have ever known. One of his best friends was a medium, so it goes without saying that he believed in life after death. He always said that he would be with us after he died. I didn’t hear of his passing until today, but last night my wife and I just happened to watch the movie Pearl Harbor on TV. Even at the time, I noticed that we both had a strange feeling along the lines of “why are we watching this?” We don’t usually watch war movies (my friend never watched them — they just brought back too many memories). For obvious reasons, the movie was the farthest thing from my mind when I got the call today of his passing. I was somewhat stunned, and on my way out at the time.

A short time after leaving my house, I came to a red light where I stopped behind a little red Honda. (My friend hated Hondas…well, anything Japanese. While I can’t say I’ve ever shared his feelings — I own two Hondas myself and love them — I can’t say I don’t understand the way he felt. After all, the same companies that built these cars built the planes that killed thousands of his fellow soldiers, and tried to kill him repeatedly.)

At first I didn’t notice, but slowly my eyes began to focus on the license plate in front of me. “WW2VET” — a New York plate, probably one of my neighbors, but I had never seen this plate before. Never. Why now?

I’m sure there are many skeptics out there who will write this off as meaningless, silly, happenstance. And you’re entitled to your opinion. I won’t even suggest that you’re wrong. But maybe — just maybe — my friend was letting me know he’s in a better place now. That he‘s watching me as he had promised. Could be I’m reading more into all this than it warrants. But I’d like to think I’m not. I’ll sleep better tonight believing I’m not.

Rest in peace my friend. You may not agree, but you deserve it.

P.S. I wrote this blog entry immediately before going to bed last night. When I got into bed, my wife who hadn’t been able to sleep, started talking about our mutual friend’s life and death. We spent several hours reflecting on his life and what it meant to us and to the others he had touched. When we finally reached the point where we were ready to go to sleep, I picked up our digital alarm clock to set it, and the time was exactly 4:41. Suddenly it hit me: the place where both my wife and I met this friend (and where he introduced us to each other) was just off Route 441.

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Please consider donating to help WWII vets attend the The National World War II Museum: http://www.nationalww2museum.org/giving/10-for-them.html