There’s a lady at work who is absolutely one of the sweetest, kindest people you could ever hope to meet. Last week I had the chance to talk to her more than usual and she told me how earlier this year her sister died, and just a few days later her 8-year-old nephew died, too (not the child of the recently deceased sister). That’s way too much tragedy for such a nice person.

Yesterday I sent out my first e-mail newsletter since leaving Yahoo Groups. (Did you get it? Send me an e-mail at news@stevenewedel.com and I’ll put you on the list.) I heard from two friends from college as a result of that. One of them just wrote tonight and told me how in May she gave birth to a wonderful baby girl, and just a few weeks later learned she had a tumor on her brain. Four surgeries and rehab followed. This particular young woman was a gentle, caring voice when I was put through all that shit at UCO. No way she deserved a freakin’ brain tumor.

It really makes a person stop and think about how fragile life is.

And how it’s a crime to waste 80 minutes or so of that life watching a steaming pile of crap like Garfield, A Tale of Two Kitties. Me and Kim sat through that thing with Amanda, Jacob and Sara yesterday. I really think the writers sat down and said, “How many good moves can we rip off for this one?” The basic plot was stolen from The Aristocats, with bits lifted from Silence of the Lambs, a Marx Brothers movie, and, of course, films based on the works of Charles Dickens. I shudder to think that someday somebody will read Oliver Twist and think the line, “Please sir, can I have some more?” was stolen from this film.

Oh, the other friend I heard from is in southern California, where she’s scored parts in some indie and major motion pictures, and has appeared in several of the top TV shows. She always did amaze me with her ability to succeed at whatever she did.

I did a little bit of updating to my Web site yesterday.

I guess that’s all for tonight.