Odds and Ends

Our Systems Support guys had to rebuild the image on my laptop and now all my hardisk documents are gone. Vamoos, kaput, Poof...gone. Of course they have a backup, and restoring it will take a day, but well, here I am, my half finished blog article disappeared from my now virgin laptop.

So I’ll just ramble on about mostly inane stuff, with no apparent continuity as I flit between topics incoherently. Well somewhat like a Donald Rumsfeld press conference.

The past weekend went by so fast, and I cannot even reminisce doing all that much or getting overly sloshed. Must of it was spent catering to the whims of a precocious two year old, ridden with a bad cold and cough. Since fall is fast approaching, the weather is playing dicey in Michigan. It was cold and wet on Thursday, Friday and Sat and warm and sunny on Sunday. We have an annual local carnival jamboree at a neighborhood suburb Troy, called Troy Daze, which we have been frequenting every year. From Sep15 thru Sep 18.

This is a good, fun mela-type carnival with rides and pageants, contests and food stalls. The kids have a great time. Because of the vagaries of the fall weather this year, we could not really make it since the only opportune time was the past Sunday. Sidharth fell asleep in the afternoon, and the festival was supposed to end at 6 PM. Oh well, next year, maybe.

Fall, as I mentioned earlier is fast approaching. Though the color change is not yet evident, some trees have begun shedding leaves. Northern Michigan, just like Virginia, Vermont or Maine warrants a visit during the fall, to see the trees, up in flames. The air is crisp and if the sun is out and shining, it makes for a glorious drive and sights to behold. I’m not that big on photography, but if we do make a fall drive this year, I will try and get some pictures of the foliage. At the very least, I shall walk around our sub, clicking away, baring any dogs let loose on me during my creative walk.

Since I am practicing hard for the Detroit half-marathon on Oct 24^th, I ran my 7 miles of practice jog on Sunday. This is a 13-mile run, and the course includes a run across the Ambassador Bridge into Canada and back from Canada thru the underwater tunnel. Our team is sponsored by ASHA, , a non-profit all volunteer group, which does excellent work for education of kids in India. Please check out their website and help in any way you can. They really do terrific, terrific social work.

I am supposed to be running about 260 minutes every week, and sadly I have been slacking, but only a little, at this effort. Pretty soon, I will have to start my fundraising effort for the run, and I’m sure my charitable buddies will open their check-books to encourage me in this stupendous effort. And for a good cause, of course.

Vinod, Nita and their two exuberant sons are heading back to Bangalore, India over the next few weeks/months, to start living the expat life, in a country far, far away. They have been the catalysts of good times for our social gatherings in Michigan and have spread much fun and happiness to whoever have got to know them. Our social gatherings here will be that much poorer, in mirth and laughter, at their departure. But as Sujatha, so eloquently asks the question in her excellent article , what makes people happy? Each one of us have our own yardsticks of measurement for this answer, and the least we can do is feel happy for someone who seeks what their heart desires. But we will miss Vinod and Nita from amongst us, a lot.