No, not an Olbermann fan blog today!!


Humans are fascinated with time. I'd be no exception to that rule, in fact collecting clocks is a bit of a compulsive disorder with me. Every room of the house (except the bathroom, which curiously has no clocks) has at least two clocks in it. Sitting at my screen right now, and counting the computer clock, I have no less than 5 clocks within eyesight.

Every clock in my house works; and every one is set for the correct time (mostly.) My two most accurate clocks would be the radio controlled atomic clock that checks in with NIST every four hours...and my 100-year-old handmade "Regulator" clock that I adjust twice a year. I'm such a time nut that I have at least one clock set to "Zulu" (what used to be called Greenwich Mean Time), usually the stove clock. It drives my wife nuts.

We humans also obsess over events and timelines. As you well know, every Tuesday I keep a running total of how many days we've been in Iraq. Today is our 2,201st day in Iraq, for example. Like many of you, I counted down for over 1,000 days until the end of the Bush Administration. And even though he's been President for just 67 days, we'll be heading to the polls again in 1,319 days. The longest Mr. Obama can be President is another 2,855 days.



There's some other interesting personal tidbits to ponder. We went to Manila to pick up Javier 2,521 days ago. Mrs. TriSec and I have been married for 4,640 days. And turning darker, Papa TriSec just celebrated his 75th birthday. He's always said he wants to live to be 125, so more power to him! As for me, I'd be happy to be alert enough to celebrate the 100th anniversary of V-J day, which would happen the week after my 79th birthday, or 13,288 days from now.

Ah, but I'm no math whiz. I ran across this handy widget years ago online, and it's become indispensible.

Speaking of countdowns....we know Keith uses it in a paradoxical manner; he counts down the top five stories of the day, but curiously the most important is number 5, to the least important at number one. NASA made the rocket countdown a national institution, but did you know that it was invented by Jules Verne for "From the Earth to the Moon"? (Curiously, the Russkies don't use a countdown; they just push the button and go.)

Ah, and in my usual roundabout way, I get to the point of the story. In everyone's life, there are those events that you plan, perfect, and dream about for months and sometimes years. There's a thriving industry for retirement clocks, and the same company once marketed a Bush Countdown Clock. I myself have been tracking such things since I was a small boy; I always counted down the days until the last day of school, or a trip to Florida. As an adult, I counted the 900 days of the anniversary of the siege of Leningrad during the years of 1991-1994, and then immediately started counting down the days to when Mrs. TriSec and I would be married. (in 1996).

You all know that on February 17 of this year, I became another Bush economy statistic. So, I changed my countdown clock software to record the number of days I was out of work. I let it reach 21 days before I got mad at it and changed it to something else.

Back in 2007, a couple of weeks before the birth of this blog, we drove down the coast to the "happiest place on earth". There we met Bob, Raine, and Mondo face to face for the first time, and continued work on getting Four Freedoms off the ground. One of the hazards of visiting Disney World is once you leave, you immediately begin planning your return.

Even though my mother owns property in West Palm Beach, it's too inconvenient and too far to make routine travel to Florida possible. In fact, we were thinking about heading down this year for April vacation, but we were in a financial bind before I got laid off, so the plans never came to fruition.

About a year ago, I heard rumors that Disney was planning a huge, multi-year party to celebrate Disney World's 40th anniversary...in 2011. So I immediately siezed upon that as the year for our triumphant return. Your Loyal TriSec, young Javier, my niece, and brother TriSec all share the same birthday week. (July 31 and August 6, 8, &9), so what better place to have a birthday party than on Main Street USA with Mickey?

Anyway, we pitched this trip to Javier some months back, and started counting the days. Then I got laid off, and I started counting a different milestone. Finally, I got mad and switched it back.

So, we're heading for Disney in 28 months, 3 days, and 21 hours. Mark your calendars, folks. It's going to be a big party!