Up, Down, and Sideways

Up
I got a note from my friend in Italy that her plans to increase the world's population are proceeding apace. Best of luck! Apparently her husband is trying to get her to blog, but I think she should hold out for a paid gig. She's a fine wordsmith, so I'll let you know if she either blogs or gets paid for publishing. If she tells me...

Down
After all the media coverage last week of death and destruction: VT, Ira.q, Blue A.ngels, we got a homegrown tragedy. A coworker of mine was killed saturday driving in to work. He was a nice guy. My last encounter with him was when he showed me the proper way to use a tool I was unfamiliar with. He was a good instructor, thorough and calm. It was interesting for me to see as he was mostly in a support role. I kind of wonder if he wasn't quite awake when he started in as his youngest child was just born in February. Their happy family picture with the new arrival is still on the wall in our cubical farm. If you ever have any degree of control in a car crash, don't hit a pole. If you must hit a pole, hit it from the far corner so it hits your crumple zone first. Cars are least safe in a crash when they hit a pole head on. I made parts for airbags for the last decade and this is one unsettling piece of info I learned. Wear your seatbelts, all. And rest in peace, Randy.

Sideways
In planning a trip back to Boston for a friend's wedding, it started to look like it might also be possible to head to my college friends' annual 4th of July party in the Catskills. But I started thinking about the fact that the hosts actually live in LA, yet I haven't seen them yet. Partly, I don't know what to do with other people's kids if I invite myself over. But despite that, I randomly sent a note today asking to get together and managed to wrangle an invite to a birthday party this weekend. Which is an excellent venue. Now I just need a gag gift. I'm thinking maybe a bottle of "Bitch" wine, if I can figure out where to get it. I wonder if it is made with merlot.