I had followed Apple from a distance roughly since the mid to late 90's and of course Apple had already seen great success in the 80's. When I started following Apple, they were on the downside of their glory years. Down and sliding further into obscurity every day.

Steve Jobs had returned to Apple between 96 and 97 I believe, and while I am no expert in all the details here, I thought, why after such a bitter ending would he do such a thing after being seemingly treated so poorly in the 80's during his dismissal? He had a growing successful company now in Pixar entertainment, and a new company called NEXT, that had potential however was not going anywhere fast. He had successfully moved on.

Steve Jobs love for Apple and all things Apple became clear to me in about 2000, and 2001 around the time of the first Ipods. I bought one. It was my first Apple product. It was a little clunky, and until version 2, I think did not work well or much at all with Windows, which was still my OS that I had been using for more than 11 years at that point.  Ahh the days of firewire.

There was something about that player though. Tami and I both wanted to like it, and it was great in concept and it's sound was better than anything in it's class at the time in my opinion. However it was just missing something. It also looked cool and you felt as if you had something valuable in your hands. "Value" That was the key that would eventually draw me all in.

Along came Itunes within a year or so. Within 4 more years I finally bought all in and bought my first Mac. A Mini. It was early 2005, and now a couple of ipods, in the halo effect for me had happened. Believe me when I say that Halo effect thing is real.

Today I am enjoying a really zippy super mobile 11' Macbook Air, and Lion and our household is all things Apple.

What does any of this mean? It means that in all liklihood I'd never had bought into Apple had it not been for Steve Job's vision, and tenacity for what is today the worlds most successful technology company that has come from almost certain bankruptsy in 97. In fact one of the top 5 companies in the wolrd as far as Market value only second to Exxon as of this writing.

It is nothing short of unbelieveable and not likely to be repeated in my lifetime. My hope for the man who turned that Dinosaur into a Dynasty, somehow made it through his incredibly rough health problems he has endured for many years now.  It has been painful to watch, but also another lesson. If you love what you do, nothing but death can stand in your way of getting you there.  Steve Jobs is not only there, he has far surpassed it. Unlike his leaving in the 80's, he has firmly positioned this company that clearly has his face stamped firmly on it for years to come, to have both a positive growth roadmap for the coming years without him.

That is the mark of success x10. Unlike my PC past, I feel like as a customer, there is a sustainable clean, secure and well run ecosystem here, that will continue to improve. I'm sold. But on this day and the day prior, I am a little sad but knew it would come. As Jobs steps down I look forward to the September announcements with a little angst but great hopes for this company in Cupertino. 

Barely a year later, the Ipad is now a global sales phenomenon. While I'm still enjoying my first gen model, the 2nd gen just keeps looking better all the time, but I'm holding out to skip a Gen. That said, this version of the Ipad thats been out now since about April has been impossible to get hold of due to stocking issues, so the wait is likely to be much longer.

The use of my Ipad is also growing into some real productivity too. Oh sure I usually use it for media consumption,, book reading, news and photography, it is also becoming more of my quick communications tool too.  I can't wait for IOS 5.  That will re invigorate my ver 1.0.

The hot days of summer are around the corner. I'm already feeling it in the humid state that is MD. In my travels that take me to DC, VA, and FLA of course it's even hotter the further south we go. We have fortunately had some great rains, that have really helped my second garden recently planted in the past couple of weeks. This years, garden more simple. In other words, if I get this one right, or most everything grows properly, I'll try and expand on it maybe next year.

Roma Tomatoes, Beefsteak tomatoes, Scallions, Chives, Lavender, Sunflowers, Basil, Fennell, Spinach, Arugula, Carrots.

I am not sure why I put the root vegetable in there, but last year, nothing came from the carrot portion of the Garden, so I have better hope this being much closer to the planting time table according to the Farmers Almanac. A great resource by the way. 

She is going after it with an excitement and voracity like I have never seen before. She is finally seeming to grow again, and get out, see and spend time with old friends, and creating new opportunities. It is a breath of sunshine that I am so happy to see for her.