Category: Family Matters
Retirement
Trying hard to become retired but neither clients nor judges nor fate is cooperating much. Days tick off relentlessly as the Feb. 28 deadline to vacate the office looms like a grizzly awakened from hibernation who has spied his first meal of spring. Deadlines imposed by indifferent authorities creep forward relentlessly, competing for time against financial challenges and puzzles that for years were content to lie dormant but have chosen this time to turn urgent and threaten dire consequences. Not to mention other obligations ranging from those spawned by dad’s demise to the grind of simply dealing with life’s mundane daily challenges. I take little breaks when possible to read books, a recent one of which took an analytical look at the saying, “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”. The author noted that such things could leave you disabled or otherwise in a condition other than stronger, however much someone might argue about strength of character. So, I’d just as soon skip a third heart attack, thank you very much. Wish me luck. And, if anybody wants some impressive-looking law books to decorate their walls, I have quite a lot for the taking, as well as a few desks, chairs, etc.
Farewell Pappy
Hail and farewell to a unique personality, my father, David Paul Chappell, who passed away on Sunday at the age of 95 from causes not related to Covid-19. He was a renowned rocket scientist who worked on all of the Apollo missions, an aeronautical engineer who designed the Osprey aircraft, and an award-winning member of the American Helicopter Society. He was also a sports car collector and mechanic. He played multiple musical instruments, focusing in his youth on violin (Beethoven) and piano (boogie-woogie), in mid-life on classical guitar, and in later years on bagpipes. He traveled widely and studied the French, German, and Italian languages. He was the father of four and the grandfather of three, and he remarried after the passing of my mother, with both marriages lasting over 30 years. Self-sufficient by nature, he did a lot of thinking outside of the box and rarely saw things the way most others did. This world will be different without him.
Copied from Jeffrey Chappell’s Facebook
So It Goes
November 9, 2023
Family Matters, Life, Memory Lane
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John Chappell
I was logged in on the Chappell Family Blog to take care of some WordPress updates. The administrative “Dashboard” has sections with information that might interest an administrator. One of them is “Site Health Status” and I was gratified to see “Great job! Your site currently passes all site health checks.” I don’t recall ever seeing that before. There are usually at least a couple of “fails”, although one is usually about the absence of a recommended PHP module — something beyond my control.
Moving on down the Dashboard I saw various site statistics, such as total number of posts in the blog (248 – is that all?) and total number of comments (271 – that many?). For a few moments I pondered the greater number of comments than posts. Moving on, there were dates and titles of “Recently Published” posts. It listed five, dated from 10/10/2023 to 09/14/2022. This was followed by “Recent Comments”, showing the first line or two of the most recent five comments. They were dated from 05/07/2023 to 09/15/2010. 2010? Yes, five comments in about 13 years. Well, it’s not a very big family, and I suppose the posts haven’t been what anybody would describe as earth-shaking.
So it goes.