IBM. Officially these letters stand for International Business Machines. They were in the typewriter business before they got into the computer business and then the printer business and now they've dropped the printer biz into its own entity, LexMark. I know all of this because my father started working for them in 1956, I think, maybe 1958. Like many other early employees of Big Blue (nickname for IBM from their blue striped logo), my dad was hired on after a stint in the military. He was sort of a baby blue Marine and became a Big Blue manager, eventually.

It's an interesting coincidence that my father's nickname is Blue. In fact, he goes by it more than his given name. In fact, his IBM employee name tag even said his name was Blue. He got the nickname long before there ever was an IBM. I believe the story goes like this: When he was about 7 years old, he had a red bicycle, but insisted it was blue, not red. Somehow from that, my father was tagged "Blue" and it stuck. Some of his grandchildren even call him Pappaw Blue.

The coincidence gets thicker because my folks are serious fans of the University of Kentucky Wildcats, particulary the basketball team. Basketball is a religion in Kentucky, you know, and the UK Wildcats are known as Big Blue too. So, dad is just blue all over. He's a Big Blue fan, retired from Big Blue, having been a baby blue Marine and being known as Blue for over 60 years now.

But that's not the topic of this blog. *grin*

IBM, as an acronym, has been teasingly said to mean other things. From the geek world it's been Itty Bitty Machines, although most IBM computers were originally Infinitely Big Machines, great massive and mysterious boxes filling warehouse-sized rooms. From an employee's standpoint, IBM often meant I've Been Moved. In the early years as IBM expanded rapidly and opened up many new offices and plants, employees were often 'asked' to relocate, but trust me, there was only one permissible answer if you wanted to remain employed with them. Fortunately my father was not asked.

So finally, I get to the point of this blog... sorta.

I am Being Moved... again.

I was born and raised in Lexington Kentucky - Bluegrass and Thoroughbred country, Home of IBM's Office Products Division at one time, Home of LexMark (named so for fairly obvious reasons), Home of the University of Kentucky and the Big Blue Wildcats of NCAA basketball fame.

I lived there until I was 35 at which time my fairly new spouse had a job change that moved us to Nebraska (which I have not-so-fondly called Neptune, but all of that is for another blog). After a 3 year stint on that foreign soil, we were moved again, this time to the Home of Rush Limbaugh, ie, Cape Girardeau, Missouri.

And now, I am being moved to Northwest Arkansas because spouse has taken a job there. You might be thinking that he's in the military or something. He isn't. He's in the automotive business. He's a general manager. Just because there is a cluster of auto dealerships in every town in every state across this country... doesn't mean there's always a job where you want to be.

So, we are moving. I am being moved. But I have an inkling of what these moves have been about, besides the obvious. I will expound in another blog. In the meantime, I'm eyebrow deep in prepping a house for sale in one state, finding a new one to move into in another state, and trying to keep track of what state my mind is really in. Right now I'm thinking it's a rather harried and confused state, but such is the way of these transitions.

I'm Being Moved.