Category Archives: Life
The Other Harry Heckel
When I first started this blog, among the most common searches that directed people here were “sailor Harry Heckel” and “Captain Harry Heckel.” This isn’t surprising as I happen to share my name with the oldest man to ever circumnavigate the globe.
I’m also very proud to have him as my grandfather.
At age 97, he’s retired to live on land, and he’s still sharp enough to stump myself, my uncle the chemist and my incredibly bright daughter by asking us to spell a word pronounced “ti-sus.” Just so everyone knows, it’s phthisis. He’s a great man and a fantastic inspiration.
He’s also now a writer with some assistance from my aunt, Florence Russell. His book, Around the World in 80 Years: The Oldest Man to Sail Alone around the World – Twice! is now available both in print and in Kindle format on Amazon. It’s also available in a variety of e-formats on Smashwords and should be out at the Apple e-store and for Nook on the Barnes and Noble site in the next few weeks. It’s the story of his voyages around the world (with stops) in his eighties. For anyone who wants to know more, please check out the book.
And if anyone asks, I’m the other Harry Heckel.
Here are the links:
Kindle Version
And just to make sure you have the right edition, here’s the cover:
The Black Widow Strikes (or thankfully doesn’t…)
My apologies to all my blog followers for not writing and my thanks to my friend who e-mailed me yesterday and noted, “You didn’t make a post for the entire month of April.” Oops!
I’ve had lots of ideas about posts, but it’s the usual story of life and projects getting in the way. So, I was going to post about my upcoming work on Mummy: the Curse and a superhero anthology and all sorts of statuses, but an interesting topic presented itself this morning.
So, I woke up this morning to a soft tickling feeling on my back. I thought that it was probably one of those imaginary feelings that you can have or else just a blanket or sheet rubbing me strangely. I reached my arm back to move whatever it was or just convince myself that I was imaging things.
Well, the tickling feeling moved as I reached for it, and I spun and somehow, with a dexterity that I didn’t know that I had got out of the bed. (Fortunately for her, my wife was already up and out of the room.) And there was a spider, and it was a BIG spider. And well, it was a shiny black spider that looked basically like this:
Except it was on my blanket, and I’m completely positive that it was 10 times bigger than that picture. (Yes, I know that there is no scale there, but this was one of the largest black widows that I’ve seen.) I didn’t get much of a look at the underside, only to see a hint of red.
Fortunately, there was a marvel of German engineering available in my bedroom, the Dyson Animal vacuum cleaner. I grabbed it, plugged it in, pulled out the wand and found that the spider was gone. At this point, my wife came into the room (something about my yelling). She carefully pulled back the blanket and exposed the target.
I try to be merciful to spiders, but one that can make me seriously ill or worse from its venom isn’t one of them. For the record, in the conflict between spider and cyclonic vacuuming power, the Dyson won easily. I spent the rest of the morning moving roleplaying games, pillows, curtains, miniature boxes, dressers and the like and cleaning like crazy.
The moral of the story is that crazy things can happen to you at any moment, so I really need to get my novels done. I hope everyone woke up in a better situation that I did.
Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there!
For the record, I still think highly of this Black Widow:
A Touch of Reality and a Big Thank You!
Hi everyone,
My apologies for not writing over the Labor Day weekend. I hope everyone had a good time, especially the folks at DragonCon in Atlanta, GA. I haven’t been in too many years, but perhaps I can arrange things for next year.
In the meantime, I’ve gone through a major change in my life. I left the company where I’ve held a day job for the last seven years and set out on a new chapter in my career. The new place is working out well as I go through orientation and the people there are great. However, I want to give a shout out to all the people at my old company for a wonderful going away party.
I have rarely felt as appreciated as I did during the going away happy hour that my friends held. Everyone, co-workers in my current department (IT), friends from my former department (Concierge) and everyone else from across the business, including several former co-workers who came out made me feel fantastic. I want to give a special shout out to a lady named Mary who organized the affair. Thank you all!
The finale came the next day when I left the building for the last time. One of my co-workers, a gentleman, scholar and renaissance man named Bruce Frostick surprised me with music when I drove away. I always imagined leaving a job with something like I’m Already Gone by the Eagles playing. Well, Bruce is a master of the accordion, and so I walked away with the sounds of the accordion playing. Here’s his website.
Truth really can be stranger than fiction.
All the best,
Harry
Harry Heckel 