A Rumination Station

In my prior life, I was a software support analyst. For a glorious couple of years, I was the Team Leader of an esteemed group. In that position, I was a liaison between our support manager and the support team. I knew what each side was thinking, and it was my job to meld everything together in to a well oiled machine.  There was this one time when there were rumblings that we may have a layoff in our group. We were a pretty close knit group. Several of us used to hang out during non working hours, meeting for drinks, play golf...stuff like that. Because of this, I didn't want to see any of us lose our job. There was this one lady who I considered a friend. We included her in our after work get-togethers; some of us helped out when she needed someone to watch her son while she tended to her responsibilities. We even helped her move out of her apartment and in to her new home when she was facing a deadline.   She was also the weakest link in our group. Not specifically du...

Living in Grief: Coping With the Death of a Loved One The following is a record of some of what I encountered in the days following my younger brother's death. It is not the complete account, but rather some tidbits that stick out in my mind. While it is not a term paper, it is still capable of putting across some valuable insight into the grief experience. March 4, 1991, 10:20 p.m.  My fiance' and I had just gotten home about 10:00 from the airport after a five day trip to Acapulco. We went through the drive through at Burger King and when we got home, I said hello to my dog and to my guinea pigs. I was just about to sit down to my food in the living room and watch the last ten minutes of M*A*S*H. The episode was the one where Frank Burns pretends to know how to operate a tank in order to impress Hot Lips. Anyway, Holly finished talking to Bill and Cindy(the people who took care of our animals), and then the phone rang again. I didn't think anything of it, I thought it m...

  My First Post - What is it All About? By Dave Stoxen I've long had the idea in my head to start a blog, but have always had reasons to not follow through...I was working, going to school (I got a Paralegal Studies degree later in life partially as a hedge against the struggling economy and partly to take my mind off of my job a little bit); raising kids - basically just busy living life.  Recently, things have finally lined up in such a way that I now have time to engage in this hobby. My children are grown, and are now on treadmills of their own. My wife and I moved to a condo on the beach in Hilton Head Island South Carolina, and we were fortunate enough to be able to retire from our computer support jobs earlier this year. So I now have time.  What will be the subject matter of my writings? Well, pretty much anything that I feel like writing about at a particular time. I envision this being a place for me to go to get things off of my chest, to unload my thoughts, my...