You’ll notice that I entitled this catogory “poems,” and not poetry. This may be subtle, but I don’t think of myself as a poet. A poet is “a creative artist of great imagination and expressive gifts and special sensitivity to his medium.” I’m not sure I know what that means, but it ain’t me. I make things rhyme. I probably do better than country music, but that’s not saying much (I love country music and really don’t care when it doesn’t rhyme). So let’s just call these things poems and be done with it.
Marty Beirne is the founding partner of Beirne, Maynard & Parsons in Houston, Texas. This is a litigation firm that has been extremely successful under Marty’s leadership.
Well, a few years back (more that two and less than 15), Marty’s family decided to celebrate his 50th birthday with a Texas style party at Rio Ranch. My wife and I were unable to attend, so I wrote the following poem for my dear friend.
ODE TO AN AGING BARRISTER
Happy be the man who has a friend, Marty,
A man much too wise to be only forty.
A man quite intense, who pushes to the limit,
A man who love life, cramming every last minute.
A half century’s gone, a substantial term,
But he’s witty and prosperous and has his own firm.
He’s loved by his friends and respected by his foes,
He flies like an eagle, and dumps on the crows.
But fifty is a milestone,
be hail and be hearty.
Let’s go to Rio Ranch,
for a Texas style party.
We’ll lift one for the guy,
for he’s a special friend,
who electrifies the air,
and hangs in there to the end.
Bespectacled and hair thinning,
but still oh, he’s so nifty.
I’m sorry I missed the party,
Let’s do it again in fifty!
Getting a Slow Start
I don’t know whether I am technologically challenged, or technically challenged or just challenged. Probably, all of the above. But, I knew I was in trouble when I couldn’t understand the tutorial.
I am determined, however, to have a blog and the fact that you are reading this indicates that I am making progress.
The blog site started me out with an authorization code that had 31 characters, and my first task was to convert the authorization code into a handy-dandy password. It took me two days (with the help of support service) to accomplish the fete. I kept getting a message that said, “Authorization is denied because you have an incorrect customer number.” They gave me the customer number. I was looking at it in their email. That customer number was the only thing I knew was right. The next day, the support service technician told me to ignore the message. Not a warm fuzzy, but when I resubmitted the password, it went through.
I think many of us have a love/hate relationship with our computers. The more frustrating the computer becomes, the greater the joy when it does what you want it to, even if it is just changing the password. I think I am going to get to know many of the support service technicians on a first name basis.