Thankful to God for my Tammy

This has been a scary week at Knight Shift Headquarters.  Very scary.

On Monday, my miniature dachshund Tammy started yelping in pain at the least touch that I gave her.  Especially around her ears.  She's had ear infections before and they can be a real nuisance.  But she's never cried out before when I've tried to examine them.

Then came Tuesday.  And Tammy took a turn for the worst.

She had jumped up onto my bed that morning, and refused to move from her spot.  She hadn't eaten anything, she hadn't drank any water.  She didn't seem motivated by anything at all.

About noon Tammy laid down near my pillow.  Her breathing was labored.  And as the evening wore on it gradually became less pronounced.  She had this look in her eye, that I'd never seen before.  She looked... I don't know.  Tired.  Resigned.

I was really in fear of something.  That these were going to be Tammy's final hours.

I'm aware of things.  Next week she'll be thirteen and a half.  Tammy has been in great overall health, but dogs, like humans, don't live forever.  But I've made it a sacred mission of mine to give her a good long meaningful life, for as long as I can.  A few nights before Dad passed I promised him that I'd look after Tammy.  She was his dog too.  Indeed, she was more his dog than anyone else's.  He was the one who first had the idea of opening our home to a miniature dachshund puppy in 2012.  He was the one who named her.  She's always been her daddy's dog.  I'm just the guy who's taken care of her since Dad left us almost eleven years ago.

Two nights ago I really did find myself thinking that this might be it.  That she didn't have long.  I was bracing myself for the inevitable.  I knelt down by the bed and asked God for a miracle.  But I also told Him that if this was when Tammy and I had to be parted, I was thankful for all the years that He let us have.  They have been wonderful years.  Tammy and I have looked after each other all this time.  I've taken care of her and she's taken care of me.  We spent a year traveling across America together, and in that time she visited 18 states, played on the beaches of both the Atlantic and Pacific, has met so many people... I've tried my best to give her a good life, as full a one as a dog might have.

I really did come close to giving up.  I called one of my best friends and poured my heart out to him about what was going on.  And sometime during our conversation I did something that I haven't done in over ten years.  Something that I had thought was impossible to do, because I've come to think that the meds I take to manage my bipolar disorder had taken it away from me forever...

I started crying.  Real honest tears.  I cried for Tammy.  I couldn't imagine life without her.  It's just she and I in the area where we live.  We're half an hour from friends in Greenville, South Carolina.  If anything happened to either of us, the other would be left alone.

I didn't want to be left alone without her.

So I cried.  And it felt good.  It felt like a lot of things that I've carried pain about for over a decade came out.  I'm a grown man and I cried my heart out and some part of me was loving it.

I cried and I hoped somehow that God might see it.

The call ended.  I laid down next to Tammy.  And not for the first time that day, I prayed.

Then, about 8 p.m., Tammy suddenly jerked to life.

She came to, jumped up, stood on all four feet, walked around on the top of the bed, and then... she leapt off the bed and landed squarely on the bedroom floor.

Until the day that I die, it will be something that I will NEVER forget.

Tammy shot me a look.  If I were to translate what her eyes were telling me, it would be a single word: "Nope!"

She was telling me in her own way "Not now.  Not this night.  I'm not done yet."

Tammy walked around the room for a minute or so.  Then she went to my sleeping bag that's on the floor, she "nests" on it every now and then.  She curled up and laid her head down.

I called another friend, who I had been keeping informed all afternoon.  I told her about Tammy's leap.  And then in the midst of our phone call Tammy came to her feet again, got up and walked to her food dish where I had poured some food a few hours earlier.  She ate it all.  She then drank some water.  And then she walked out the door and into the hallway where I put her doggy pads.  She peed a lot and then went back to her nest.

That was two nights ago.

If anyone had told me 48 hours ago how Tammy would be tonight, I would not have believed it.  It really, truly is a miracle.  God reached down and touched Tammy.

It's now Thursday night.  Today Tammy has eaten a full meal, has also eaten some of her bacon-flavored dog treats as well as some of the chicken nuggets I made for dinner last night, is peeing and pooping normally, her breathing is regular, and earlier today she jumped up on the sofa as I was working on some stuff with my iPad.  I didn't even hear her come into the living room: she just suddenly appeared.  She's letting me rub her belly, which she likes.  She's yawning, in that very cute way that she yawns.  And she's smiling now, that patented Tammy-grin.

I am just totally shocked.  Bewildered.  In awe.  God has brought my dog from the edge of death and restored vibrant life to her.

She's still a little woozy.  I'm giving her half a tablet of Benadryl every six hours.  One of my best friends suggested that Tammy perhaps has had an allergic reaction to something.  It's possible.  Dogs, just like humans, have different reactions as they get older.  If that's the case then the Benadryl is likely addressing that.  It's making her a little drowsy.  She's snoozing atop a blanket on the living room floor as  I write these words, I gave her another half-tablet about an hour and a half ago.

My dog is alive, and recovering.  She's going to make it.  Two nights ago I thought she was gone.  I was desperately praying for a miracle.

And God sent one.

Our Lord spoke of the kingdom of Heaven being like the woman who loses a coin, and searches for it and cannot find it.  And then when she does, she tells all her friends and neighbors that she has found it and she praises God for it.

I almost lost my dog.  My sweetest little friend in this life.  Tammy gets a bit of space in the book I've written that will be published next week.  She's owed that.  She has kept me from making some horrible mistakes over the years.  I couldn't go through with them because well, who would take care of her if not me?  Like I said, we've taken care of each other.

I am compelled to praise God tonight.  And as I ask Him each night, I hope that He will give Tammy and me many more years together.

From now on, if anyone asks me if I have faith in God, I will absolutely say yes.  Because I've seen Him work. Tammy's leap from the bed the other night and recovery since then is testament to that.

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Forgive me, for I have sinned (against good grammar)...

This is something I need to get off my chest, before anyone jumps flunky on me about it.  Because YES I know this is wrong.  I'm well aware of it.  But it's not something I can go back and fix so I might as well embrace the horror.

Here is a snapshot of Keeping the Tryst's page on Amazon (for the Kindle edition).  Notice anything?

The "the" in the title is capitalized.  It shouldn't be.  "The" is such a minor word that it's VERY rarely if EVER used in the title of something (except for songs, it seems like every word in a song title is capitalized for some reason).

It SHOULD be expressed as "Keeping the Tryst", and not "Keeping The Tryst".  What happened?  Blame me for typing it so fast on the hardcover edition's title field and not recognizing it until after I had submitted that one to Amazon.  I did it on the Kindle edition too but then realized what I had done.   I can repair the "damage" on the Kindle version but for some reason the system isn't letting me do it for the hardcover.  So I pretty much am just shrugging and capitalizing it as "Keeping The Tryst" for both of them.  The subtitles are appropriately capitalized properly though.

So, that's the story behind that.  But I hope that readers will be kind and overlook it and still be able to enjoy the book.  And hey, maybe in time it will be that I have established some precedent and it becomes good grammar after all: capitalizing every word in a title, but not the subtitle.  It could be my own humble lil' addition to the English language.

A writer can hope, can't he??

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Keeping The Tryst: "What is the deal with your name?"

Some people are asking about my name on my book Keeping the Tryst: "Robert Christopher Knight".  Inside the book I'm almost always referred to as Chris, which is what I've answered to all my life.  So where does "Robert" come from?

Okay, here it goes...

My full name is Robert Christopher Knight.  My dad was Robert Rankin Knight.  Instead of me being a "junior" my parents gave me a different middle name.  And I guess to differentiate Dad and I when someone was attempting to communicate with one of us, they called me Chris.  And that's the way it's been for all my life: I've been "Chris Knight".  I've very rarely been called "Robert Knight".  One of my first teachers in college called me "Bob" early on and he was REALLY confounded about my preferring to be "Chris".

So, I'm Chris Knight.  But whenever I've published something or run for office (which there will likely only ever be one time that I do that) I've done so as "Christopher Knight".  Why?  It's in the pages of my book.  It's something I do in honor of what God has done in my life.  Saul of Tarsus became Paul the Apostle.  Just so, I took on a different name for my writing (and other stuff).

But the REAL reason why my name is "Robert Christopher Knight" on the cover and title page of my book?

I don't want to be confused with Christopher Knight who played Peter on The Brady Bunch.

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Robert Redford passed away this last week

I really liked Redford.  Yes, he and I had different beliefs on a number of issues.  There's no denying that.  But unlike a lot of "celebrities" these days Robert Redford never used his star power to shove his opinions down the throats of anyone.  He understood that he was an actor, that he was there to play a part in a movie.  He was above such things as making his personal politics a factor in his professional career.

The man was an amazing actor.  And a very good director.  Some of my favorite movies that he was in are The Sting, Sneakers, and The Natural.

Indeed, The Natural is the first Robert Redford movie that I ever saw.  We watched it at a birthday sleepover at a friend's house when I was in fifth grade.  I thought it was an amazing film.

So in honor of Robert Redford, his life and his career, here is the magnificent scene toward the end of The Natural, where Roy Hobbs hits one last home run.

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What I'm feeling like after reading all the news lately...

Looking around, seeing all the anger and hatred, coming from all sides it seems of American culture.  Feeling like I'm an outsider to it all, can't figure out where I fit in.  Not that I'd really want to fit in.

What has happened since Charlie Kirk's passing has been especially troubling.  I can't remember the last time I saw so many people rejoicing over the death of a man.  Especially an innocent man.

How did we come to this?  How do we overcome it?

Some people, it seems, want to hate others.  And they are getting angry when they express that hatred and there come to be consequences of it.

(Why anyone would openly post on social media that they are delighting in the death of a fellow human being, I've no idea.  As has been said, "The Internet never forgets."  Some people are learning that the hard way now.)

So here I am, watching all of this unfold, the mistrust and the paranoia that's enveloping America.

What most readily comes to mind, and this really is how I'm feeling, is MacReady's line from the 1982 film The Thing:

"ALL RIGHT, CUT THE BULLSHIT!!!"

Apologies for the full quote, but that honestly is how it is right now.

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A special preview of Keeping The Tryst

In a little less than two weeks my autobiography (it's really more like two or three typical memoirs mashed together... what can I say I've had a complicated life) Keeping The Tryst will be released.  After more than ten years of on and off work it will at last be in the hands of readers, and then I guess we'll see what happens.  I'm hoping and praying for at least ten people to buy a copy, whether the print edition or Kindle ebook, and enjoy reading it.  That would make me extremely happy.  A writer only needs one person to read what he or she has composed and to come away feeling like it was time well spent.  That's who I've been laboring for: just one person, whoever he or she might be.  But it will make me happy if more than that read and like it too!

So since we're in the home stretch leading up to publication, I thought I'd share a bit of it. What you're about to read is the opening to chapter five, which spans the course of a year between my being ten and eleven.  A lot transpired in that period of time: some good but some of it not so pleasant.  These first several paragraphs though convey one of the happier memories of my childhood.  And it delights me to share it now...

 

There is a scene in the movie Citizen Kane where Mr. Bernstein mentions how sometimes a person will remember an occurrence without understanding why that particular memory is so vivid.  He recalls how long years earlier he saw a girl in a white dress, carrying a white parasol.  Bernstein saw the girl for just a fleeting moment, and she didn’t see him.  But he confesses that there hasn't been a month that he hasn’t thought about her.

            My “girl with a white parasol” moment happened on July 26th, 1984.  And I doubt there has been a week since that she has not come to mind.

            It was the summer after fourth grade.  And it had been a grand one in my little world and beyond.  Summer vacation began with a solar eclipse three hours after school let out.  Between that and the start of fifth grade were two trips by my family to White Lake, the premiere of Ghostbusters, a Star Trek marathon, the race between Reagan and Mondale, the music… the summer of ’84 was on fire!

            The family was at peace, that summer.  I wasn’t in fear of anyone, and that felt good.

            In the midst of all this my parents and sister and I took a trip north to visit our cousins.  We left on Friday afternoon and made it to Virginia Beach late that night.  The next day Dad drove us across the harrowing Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel.  A few hours after taking the Cape May ferry to the southern tip of New Jersey we arrived in Point Pleasant, just in time for dinner with Bill and Mary.

We stayed with them until Wednesday.  Then we left for somewhere that Mom and Dad said would be a place we would never forget: Amish Country.

Lancaster County, Pennsylvania was unlike anything I had ever expected to see.  “Plain” folk were going about in their simple clothing and riding their horse-drawn buggies.  We passed by a barn that was being built.  All of this and more, a place that was incredibly out of time with the rest of the world… and I loved it!

“Is this just for the tourist trade?” I asked my parents.  They insisted that the Amish really did live this way and had been for hundreds of years.

It was just before noon, following a morning of going on a guided tour of the area and being taught about the Amish and their culture.  We decided that we needed lunch.  We pulled into a McDonald’s parking lot.  The four of us went inside and got in line.

And that’s when I saw her.

            She was a little Amish girl.  She must have been about ten, like me.  Wearing a long blue dress and a white bonnet and black boots.  She was waiting to be served at the counter also.  And it was just such a strange juxtaposition, seeing a girl dressed like that in line at a modern fast food restaurant.

            She was soooo incredibly cute.  My heart began doing things it had never done before.

            And then our eyes met one another’s.

            She smiled at me and said “Hello.”

            I had never seen anyone so beautiful.

            “Hello,” I said clumsily.

She smiled again. 

            The Amish girl picked up her order.  She said goodbye and with a whirl of her dress she was headed toward the door.

            I watched her leave.  I waited, hoping she would turn back around and smile one more time.  At just the last moment she did and waved at me.

            Encountering that Amish girl was the greatest thing that happened to me all that summer.  And more than forty years later, I still think of her.

            It was the noontide of my childhood.  But I could not know that yet.

Keeping The Tryst drops on Amazon at 12:00 AM UTC on October 1st.  That's about 8 PM on September 30th in Eastern Standard Time, if I'm figuring it right.

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A poem that comes to mind right now

 "The Wrath Of The Awakened Saxon"

By Rudyard Kipling

It was not part of their blood,
It came to them very late,
With long arrears to make good,
When the Saxon began to hate.

They were not easily moved,
They were icy — willing to wait
Till every count should be proved,
Ere the Saxon began to hate.

Their voices were even and low.
Their eyes were level and straight.
There was neither sign nor show
When the Saxon began to hate.

It was not preached to the crowd.
It was not taught by the state.
No man spoke it aloud
When the Saxon began to hate.

It was not suddently bred.
It will not swiftly abate.
Through the chilled years ahead,
When Time shall count from the date
That the Saxon began to hate.

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Keeping The Tryst: The proof copy has arrived!

It arrived yesterday, actually...

As you can see it has a "Not for Resale" watermark wrapped around it.  I think there might be a few other things that will also differ from the final product.  I've also changed some of the text on the back cover since submitting this version for printing.

This being the proof copy, intended for review before the finished product rolls off the assembly line, I've spent much of the time since yesterday looking it over, finding places that need correcting and improving.  There have been some of those, things that I didn't catch already.  A few chapters for whatever reason had an extra bit of space padding the distance between separate paragraphs.  Don't know how that happened in Microsoft Word, but those are all fixed now.

And late last night I got the notice from Amazon: Keeping the Tryst, both the print edition and the ebook, are set to go on sale on October 1st at 12:00 A.M. UTC (that's 7:00 P.M Eastern Standard Time on September 30th for those of us here on the east side of the United States... I think).

This copy has a nice feel and heft to it.  It's also printed on cream paper.  A lot of friends suggested that it would be better for the eyes instead of pure white.  And I might be biased but reading it has a nice "flow" to it.  I like to think that for all its size, it's going to be a nice book to read.  It's going to go by fairly quickly (sort of like a Game of Thrones novel, back when George R.R. Martin actually did write Game of Thrones books!).

Now, if I can only figure out the best way to market my book.  I'll admit that I'm not the best when it comes to presenting a product.  The best I ever did was when I ran for school board in 2006 (although if we're to be honest, it IS a bit hard to not get people's attention when you're using the Death Star to blow up schoolhouses!).

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And the book's title is.........

 Coming October 1st, 2025, the memoir of Yours Truly.

I present to you: Keeping The Tryst.

Look!  Front cover!

You can thank my friends on Facebook for wanting the title reveal.  I was going to unveil it next Sunday but then I figured "They've waited a year and a half.  Why not show it now?"

It will be available on Amazon, in hardcover and also for Kindle readers and apps.

EDIT: I uploaded the Kindle version this afternoon and was expecting it to be within the next 72 hours when I would be notified that it had passed review.  But I just checked e-mail and they already approved it!

Here is the Keeping The Tryst for Kindle product page on Amazon.  You can find the description but not much else at the moment.  You can pre-order it though and have it ready to deliver to your device on October 1st.

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Book status this week: We have a product!

It could have been easy to upload the manuscript as an ebook and have Amazon derive a printed edition from that.  But that's not what I wanted.  I desire and need something that has shown real effort made toward something beautiful.  Or at least as beautiful as a guy without a strong background in visual design can pull off.

So it is, that after a lot of work in the past several days, a finished book - from front title to description and author picture on the back cover - now exists.  And it looks BEAUTIFUL, if I do say so myself.

The hardest part has been coming up with a description.  My life has been such a complex thing, that it's been very hard to boil it down to the space of a few brief paragraphs.  But I came up with something and perhaps it will catch the attention of potential readers.

Well, it's done.  There is now a hardcover volume that after it goes through Amazon's approval process (something I'll admit some concern about, there's no telling what could result in it getting rejected and sent back for revision) will be soon available for purchase.  I don't know when that will be.  But I'm thinking on a Tuesday would be good.  That seems to be the day that most books get released on.  The plan is still to have the hardcover, the softcover, and the paperback released at the same time.

I hope this sells some.  When I ran for school board I told everyone that I was going to be very happy if just ten people voted for me.  I wound up getting almost forty-seven hundred votes.  If only two or three people buy my book, I will be thankful.

More soon.

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One of the most amazing people who I have ever known has left us

 

A short while ago I got the word from her daughter that Nell Rose, one of the most enthused and energetic and especially dynamic people who I have ever had the great pleasure of knowing, passed away yesterday.

Nell was the embodiment of model leadership.  She would see things that could have been better and she threw herself into it, no questions asked.  This was especially noted in her myriad of activities involving education.  She spearheaded a number of initiatives when she and her family moved to Charlotte.  And then some years later when they moved back to the Reidsville area, she brought that same vision to bear.  The woman was nigh unstoppable.

I knew Nell from a variety of situations.  The first time we met, it was during our high school swim team's weekly meets.  Her two daughters were on the team and Nell often came to cheer not only her own girls on, but she was behind all of us.  Her beautiful beaming smile never failed to encourage and inspire us ever forward.

Nell was one of the first members of the consolidated school board after all the systems in Rockingham County merged.  And that led to further contact with Nell as I got involved in the county's education affairs.  She and I had many conversations about a variety of subjects, and I always went away feeling that much more wise and enlightened.

And then there was Theatre Guild of Rockingham County.  Nell served on the board of that.  And she came to most of our performances.  It was a special feeling, knowing that she was in the audience as we put on our production.  I think we made sure to put a little extra heart into the act when Nell was in the house.

Wow.  So much I could say about this fine lady.  She was the kind of person who really did make this world a much better place for her being here.  There is, was and ever will be only one Nell Rose.  God broke the mold when He designed her.

Here is Nell's extensive obituary on the Citty Funeral Home site.

Thoughts and prayers going up and out for her loved ones.

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Dear Microsoft: In the name of all that's good and holy, overhaul Word!

Well, it turns out that there was one tiny little thing that I've forgotten to do with my book's manuscript.  I totally overlooked the page numbers.  To be perfectly honest I haven't needed them all this time.  I'm so intimately familiar with my book, I can zero in on any part of the 140,000-some work.  Page numbers seemed like an afterthought, at best.

Those are what I'm trying to implement.  But I'm having a surprising amount of difficulty.  What I need to happen is for the numbering to begin several pages in, after the dedication, at the start of part one.

But I can't do that straightforward.  I doubt anyone can.  Doing so requires some splitting the manuscript into sections and that is a task all its own.  And then giving each section its own numbering.

I'm sure this lends itself toward boasting about Microsoft Word's prowess.  Buuuuut...

There has to be a much simpler way of doing this.  Come to think of it, there are quite a few things that Word could do better.  Recently a friend was lamenting on how imprecise Word is when comes to placing images.  Among other issues that I've heard of across the years.

It's enough to make me wonder: is Microsoft actively monitoring the issues that have arisen in Word?  Or has the company rested too much on its laurels with arguably its flagship productivity software?

Because seriously, when was the last time that Microsoft really lauded serious innovation in Word?  I can't think of much going all the way back to the arrival of Windows 95, thirty years ago last month.  Oh sure, there have been numerous refinements of the program... but a serious examination under the hood for purpose of - gasp! - improving it?

I'll say it if nobody else will or can: Microsoft Word needs to be rebuilt.  From the bottom-up and the inside-out.  The company needs to make a comprehensive list of all the requests and concerns and take them into account and recreate their product.  And then produce a Word that will set the platinum standard once again for word processing.

They can do this.  We know that they can.  We will absolutely appreciate it if they do.  Well, this writer in particular certainly shall.

Come on Microsoft.  I don't know if one humble blogger might have any sway with you.  But I know that I'm not alone and I think you know it, too.

Reboot Word.  You know you should.  Microsoft's original mission was to put a computer on every desktop: a tool for letting its users achieve the impossible.  Redesigning Word would be in keeping with that, and very much so.

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Book report for last week of August 2025

 The latest lowdown on my book:

As was reported last time, there are three versions of the manuscript to publish: the hardcover, the softcover, and the ebook.  Each one is formatted for their respective media.  The plan as always is to publish all three at the same time.  If the sales are strong I'm going to release a "special edition" of the softcover that includes some photos.  I'm hoping to be able to include this photo in it:

Photo by Ted Richardson

That's Dad with his friend and fellow farmer John Ashe, in a photo taken in February 2012 for a syndicated newspaper story about the state of tobacco farming especially for independent operators.  I got in touch with Richardson a short while later and got his permission to share the photo on my blog (Richardson told me that this was the best photo assignment he had ever done).  I love this photo and want to include it in the enhanced softcover edition.  Going to take some investment in order to pay the licensing fee but it will be worth it.  If there's demand for it, I'm going to make the new edition as good as it can possibly be.

In the meantime, the hardcover edition's text is now 100% stitched together.  The last substantial thing to get added is the acknowledgments, which were a lot of fun to come up with.  There is going to be some figuring out where to add blank pages in order to have it all looking proper once printed, and that's going to be a project for this coming weekend.  But after the hardcover edition is formatted properly, I think the softcover will quickly follow suit.

I've also got to figure out the author bio and brief synopsis of the book.  I've found out that I'm no good at describing myself in a few sentences.  So I'm sort of contracting that task out to friends who know me best.  Maybe they can come up with something.

Finally, will come designing the covers.  Which has to be done after precisely determining the page count.  Coming up with the covers won't be any problem.  I already know what they're going to look like.

What this all means is that at the rate things are going, my book is going to be published by the end of September.  Well ahead of the original intent to have it on sale by the end of the year.  And then it will be out in the wild, for anyone to buy and read.  We'll see what happens then.  But as things stand now, it's going to be in y'all's grubby little paws within the next few weeks.

I hope you guys will enjoy it :-) 

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I have retroactively dedicated today to the memory of Reida Drum

Bit of a setup here: right now the usual work is slow.  So I've been supplementing that as a substitute teacher.  The school year just started up here so there hasn't been too much assignment-wise going on.  For now though it is providing what I need.

And maybe, maybe, a little more.  Today I filled in for an assistant in a five-year kindergarten class.  It was awesome!!!  The teacher said that I did an amazing job!  She said she was definitely going to keep me in mind the next time they need a sub.  I absolutely LOVED it.  This is something I could spend the rest of my life doing.

Well, it was about 10 this morning that the teacher asked me if I'd like to read a book to the students, who are not called "students" but instead "friends" (hey it beats calling them "clients" like I did when I was at the mental health department *laugh out loud*).  So I went to the shelf and for whatever reason picked out a book called Get Out Of Bed!  It's about as girl who stays up watching television all night then falls asleep and refuses to wake up no matter what the family does to arouse her.  Great tale!  And the kids loved it when I made sound effects and different voices while I was reading it to them.  I read two more books to them before the day was over with.

So when the teacher asked me if I wanted to read a book to our little friends, the very first thing that popped into my mind was "What would Reida do?"

My dear friend Reida Drum, who passed away in 2012.  She came to mean a lot to me, but especially as an experienced educator who I drew wisdom from, and an inspiration for children.  Reida spent many years in the public school systems, and was still somewhat notorious for "scaring the hell" out of rowdy high school students (but that's exactly what superintendent Allan "Doc" Lewis hired her to do).  She later served several terms on the school board.  Indeed, she was one of the sixteen candidates who ran in that very strange board of education election in 2006 that I took part in also.  I knew from the moment I hear she had filed to run that she was practically guaranteed a seat.  And so she returned to education and performed an admirable service to the people of Rockingham County.

Here's why she came to mind this morning.  Reida was well known for visiting elementary schools and reading books to the students.  She would always go in wearing her fanciest hat and one of her many feather boas.  The kids called her "the Feather Lady".  And there is no telling how many youngsters she entertained in her role over the years.  She made a real act out of her reading.  The kids were enthralled.  And so it is that the Feather Lady entered into Rockingham County Schools legend.

So when the teacher this morning asked if I'd like to read a book to our own children, Reida Drum is who immediately crossed my mind.  And I instantly thought "What would Reida do?"  So I resolved to read to the children with just as much vigor and delight as Reida would have had.

I think it worked.  And I kind of shocked myself.  I'd thought that acting with different voices and sounds like that, and especially interacting with children much as I did when I was active in the theatre guild, was something that had been forever lost to me.  Just a few more things taken away, part of the cost of what it takes to have a mind not turned against me because of manic depression.  But I wasn't that at all today.  I was a kindergarten teacher, who was making the children think about things like how much their parents would be impressed when they said "may I please have" something at the dinner table, and now nice it is when they also said "may I be excused" and "thank you".  I taught them how to write the number 2, and how to make a lower-case "b".

I could make a lifetime career out of doing this.

Well, we'll see.  I'm subbing again tomorrow.  This time for a fourth-grade teacher.  I think this is going to be a most interesting experience to notch on my belt.  There may be some opportunity to teach a bit of history, if the teacher's plan allows for it.

But this day belongs to the memory of Reida Drum, who definitely inspired me to work with the kids.  And there are plenty more who I've known who might also inspire just as much.

(I promise I won't try to read "The Call of Cthulhu" to second graders though.  I won't do that again...)

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To the people of Greensboro who are about to get red light cameras (again): How to beat the system

Dear friends and family in the Greensboro, North Carolina area:

It has come to my attention that after an absence of several years, red light cameras are due to be installed again all over the city.  These first appeared circa 2001 and it was soon apparent that they were more a liability than they were an asset.  Well, not an asset to anyone but the city government and the company running the cameras (who got a healthy percentage of each ticket issued).

I could spend all day writing about why the cameras are wrong.  How they violate our rights articulated in the Constitution.  How it also seems that the intersections equipped with the camera have speeded-up the yellow caution lights so that there's more a chance of running the red light and getting your car's photo taken.  Volumes have already been published about how bad the cameras are and why.

I'm not going to reiterate those.  Not this time.  Instead I'm going to do something more pertinent to your situation.  Namely, how to beat the cameras.

This is what I did in 2002, when a red light camera snapped a pic of my car as I was speeding through an intersection to avoid getting rear-ended.  Now, you can file a protest through the company running the cameras, but that's going to do no good.  You have to rigorously attack them.  Maybe if enough people do this the city fathers (are we still allowed to call them that?) will get the message and pull the cameras out once more.

Okay well, this is what happened.  Here is how I didn't have to pay the ticket:

If you get a camera-derived ticket, go to the courthouse.  Ask where to go to in order to have a subpoena issued.  Go there.  Tell them that you are subpoenaing witnesses in your court case.  Subpoena the company that runs the cameras.  Specify that you require the source code for the software running the camera.

You have a constitutional right to face your accuser in a court of law.  You also have the right to cross-examine any witnesses against you.

The fact that the "witness" in the red light camera situation is a robot is not germane to the situation.  That is still most likely the only thing that the government (and the camera company) has against you in its attempt to deprive you of money.  You have the right to your day in court and to request the presence of the witness.

So tell the government and the camera company that you require the source code for the computer that was operating that specific camera on that date.  Tell them that you're going to post the code on the Internet, so that others can better examine the code.

In my situation 23 years ago, the case was dropped like a hot rock.  No company is going to want their proprietary software distributed to the general public.  They were cornered and they knew it.

It could also be asked what authority does a municipal government have the right to bestow upon a private company that has a vested interest in a system that makes them a profit at the cost of individual rights.  You can bring that up in court too.  So far as I know nobody has ever argued about that before the United States Supreme Court.  But there can always be a first time, right?

It worked in 2002.  It will probably work again.  Let me know if it does.

Now you know.  And knowing is half the battle.

"G-I-JOE!!!"

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There's a trailer for Fallout season two?? Why didn't I know about this already??

Okay, the past few days have been a little wacky on my side of the screen.  Quite a bit of stuff going on that has been below my radar and this is one of them.  Five days ago the trailer for Fallout second season dropped and I'm just now looking at it.

And having just seen it I got to say: it looks glorious!  Now, Fallout: New Vegas is the one Fallout title that I've yet to complete.  I bought it when the game first came out in 2010 and, let's just say that real-world circumstances have kept me from finishing it.  The last thing that I did in the game before having to take a "leave of absence" from it was to get to New Vegas and explore around.  I'm pretty familiar with the landscape surrounding the city before arriving there.  So I already know much of the terrain that this trailer touches upon.

Which makes my appreciation for this trailer even more profound.  This looks amazing.  Season one was some of the best television I'd seen all this past decade and this next season looks to intensify that.

Okay well, on with the trailer!

Fallout second season premieres on Amazon Prime this December.  Who knows, maybe I'll finally finish the game by then.

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