October 24 – thinnest of margins

thinnest of margins
my life didn’t change today
whale ropes, driving

Driving home on I85 in Gwinnett County, Georgia, I made the simplest of lane changes.

Going to my left with the car in front moving at my same speed, I checked my left side view mirror and glanced at my rear view mirror and started to merge slowly into the next lane.

I looked up and the car in front had stopped, most unexpectedly.

Instead of a smooth, gradual slide to the left, I jerked the steering wheel and the car swerved hard to left.

I reversed the wheel to the right and straightened out in my new lane, moving past the stopped car that had been in front of me.

It had to have been all by instinct.

They say that the time it takes for a batter to decide to swing at a baseball is longer than it takes for a pitched ball to travel 60 feet 6 inches.

Baseball is a game of inches.

I doubt there was room for a folded over piece of paper between my right front bumper and that car’s left rear corner.

A whisker.

A hair breadth.

And I was on my way home.

The driver of the car in front of me was on their home.

No accident.

No stopping of rush hour traffic.

No exchange of paper work.

No waiting for cops to determine who was at fault.

Nothing.

Nothing worse than a bad scare.

The scare was bad enough.

It was several minutes before I could relax and say a quick prayer of thanks.

I have been in an accident where the margin went the other way and the car coming up from behind me barely clipped my bumper and both cars were badly damaged though no one was hurt.

At least once a week, I see worse.

Much worse.

In Moby Dick, Herman Melville writes, “but it is only when caught in the swift, sudden turn of death, that mortals realize the silent, subtle, ever-present perils of life.”

Melville is commenting in his passage that describes the rope known as a ‘whale line’ the work of the men in a small boat going after whales.

He writes, ” when the line is darting out, to be seated then in the boat, is like being seated in the midst of the manifold whizzings of a steam-engine in full play, when every flying beam, and shaft, and wheel, is grazing you.”

But whaling and whale ropes?

I was driving a car, something un-imagined by Melville.

Maybe Melville couldn’t imagine a car but he knew life and he writes,

“All men live enveloped in whale-lines.”

October 16 – rainy Wednesday

rainy Wednesday
Piano Sonata 8
the perfect sound track

After a slow, gray and rainy commute, Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13, or the Pathétique, was playing on the radio.

Wikipedia reports that Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13, commonly known as Sonata Pathétique, was written in 1798 when the composer was 27 years old, and was published in 1799. It has remained one of his most celebrated compositions.

Although commonly thought to be one of the few works to be named by the composer himself, it was actually named Grande sonate pathétique by the publisher, who was impressed by the sonata’s tragic sonorities.

Wiktionary defines pathétique as (post-classical) full of pathos, affecting, pathetic.

Tragic sonorities full of pathos, affecting.

Wow!

Perfect for a rainy day in Georgia.

October 10 – 10 run 1st inning?

10 run 1st inning?
grand slam in the 10th? You choose …
zugzwang at the park!

Atlanta fans for once did not wake to the news that, once again, their team did not go down in flames. (Just what did Sherman start here?)

Because the Braves played at 4:30PM and it was all over by 5PM and Atlanta fans went to bed knowing what had happened to yet another pretty good baseball team.

Later that night, the Los Angeles Dodgers lost in the 10th inning on a grand slam home run.

Atlanta Braves brains considering zugzwang of Oct 9th

10 runs in the first inning or a grand slam in the 10th.

Nice symmetry of the number 10 and it is October 10th today.

This was also the 10th consecutive playoff series loss for the Braves.

Recently I have been made aware of the chess term, zugzwang.

A situation in which the obligation to make a move in one’s turn is a serious, often decisive, disadvantage.

In other words, you have to make a move but all moves are bad and most likely make the situation worse.

So many times in life fit in with zugzwang.

Almost of all sports is.

Tony La Russa once said, “There isn’t much I can do to win a ball game but there are a lot of things I can do to lose a ballgame.”

Or as one writer put it (it may have been Roger Angell), “Go to a bullpen filled with convicted arsonists?”

Zugzwang.

So to the original question.

10 runs in the 1st?

4 runs in the 10th?

Both win or go home games.

Would you rather have it be over almost before it started?

Or snatch victory from the jaws of defeat?

Give up 10 runs in the 1st?

Are you kidding?

On five hits?

Is that even possible?

Who does that?

Who can do that?

Well, besides any Atlanta team.

My Dad often said he liked his team to get a big lead and steadily pull away.

Or a grand slam in the 10th after being up 3 to 1 earlier in the game.

That seems to have happened more often.

The 10 runs in the 1st was a new record.

A record one team wants no part of.

That’s what nightmares are made of.

A grand slam in the 10th.

That’s what dreams are made of.

October 9 – throughout your lifetime

throughout your lifetime
dollar amount, property
that you have taken

Question 23 on the Gwinnett County (Georgia) Sheriff Department job application.

It reads:

23. If you had to place a dollar amount on the property that you have taken throughout your lifetime, what would that amount be? This amount should also include any theft from an employer, including, but not limited to pens, paper, other office supplies. Please provide the dollar amount below and describe the items taken. If this does not apply to you then list “N/A” as your response.

Successful candidates could receive a job offer that day, the sheriff’s office said.

Deputy sheriff jailers can start with salaries ranging from $36,451 to $41,791, depending on their education level and previous law enforcement experience.

Senior deputy sheriffs can earn a starting salary of $41,538 to $53,569, depending on the same factors.

It doesn’t say if you have to give back any of the property taken over your lifetime.

October 2 – some thoughts, day after

some thoughts, day after
Jury Duty, angry bunch
warning signs to see

I have been called for jury duty a half dozen times.

I have been on 3 or 4 panels but only one jury.

My co-jurors in the pool have always been good natured about our common situation.

And my co-jurors have always been VERY respectful of the process and the system we now found ourselves in.

We knew that their were rules, customs and even language that we didn’t understand or need to understand and we were all determined to see this through.

But not yesterday.

First there was an undercurrent of plain old, ‘I am in a bad mood and I don’t care’ in the jury pool room.

As the bailiffs worked to shepherd us into panels, there was little good nature as people had to move and sit tight together in assigned order.

When my panel made it into the courtroom, the mood, if anything, got uglier.

There were 21 of us to make a 6 member jury for a domestic violence case that would be held that afternoon.

During the voir dire process, some of my co jurors became, well, beligerent.

The prosecuting attorney asked for a show of hands if anyone had had an encounter with a Gwinnett County Police Officer.

All the hand shot up.

The prosecuting attorney then went one by one through the jurors asking them to describe their encounter and would it impact their decision.

It was like offering a place to take a stand and speak their minds to a bunch of people who had had no voice for too long and they had some official representatives of Gwinnett County who were going to hear what was on their minds.

When this was over, I was pretty sure the guy on trial was going to walk.

Then the prosecuting attorney asked for a show of hands of anyone who had experienced Domestic Violence in their families.

BOOM all the hands go up and again the prosecuting attorney goes one by one giving each person a moment to vent.

AND VENT THEY DID.

I wanted to cry over some of the stories.

Some were beyond belief.

Many were again indictments of a system that had failed them and these court people were going to hear about it.

Everyone had a story and never did the man in the story come out as the good guy.

When this round of answers was over, I knew that the guy on trial was going down and going down HARD.

Not to be out down, the defense attorney asked, “Do any of you feel you are a part of or know of a dysfunctional family situation?”

BANG up go all the hands and again, one by one, we get to describe why we felt that way.

By this time, bailiffs are passing out Kleenex and hugs are being exchanged between jurors.

It got to the point that the lady next to me said to the court, “Listening to all these stories, my family is nothing like that, just cussing and drinking and getting in each others business. You know, NORMAL DYSFUNCTION.”

What is Normal Dysfunction?

After yesterday, I feel I know.

And ON it went.

Somehow, 6 people were selected out this bunch and the rest of us were excused.

Outside the courtroom, tears and hugs broke out again.

I think the court was as relieved as we were to be able to leave.

It was a cross section of my community.

And it wasn’t a happy bunch.