Is this thing on?????

So I’m not certain what drives me to continue to do this. I’m not all that certain who reads this mess but I will just keep it up if for only my own way to release.

It seems there is so much going on around us with regards to natural disasters that it certainly does lend credence to some of the doomsday predictions. Some would say this is the beginning of the rapture. I would say that you only need to go back as far asY2K to understand all the nuts out there predicting the end. There is no denying, however, the unprecedented disasters in such a short time, be they tsunamis, earthquakes (perhaps that was not the right order for those two), fires, tornados, floods, you name it. So are all of these disasters part of a grander plan or is it just a bunch of tightly wrapped coincidences? The debate churns on.

Now I don’t know about you but I think Osama Bin Laden has gotten enough press. This guy was nothing more than an overeducated animal. There are more to follow him within that culture of terrorism and this fight will never end. Good and evil and fought each other from the beginning of man and nothing we do will eliminate that completely. We can work to make the world a better place but let’s not have false perceptions that terrorism will be eradicated. This is all I will write about this as I’ve already given him too large a paragraph.

I know part of the answer to this next question about the few readers that actually look at this but do any of you go to church? Why do you go? What do you get from it? What do you give back to it? Do you have the expectation that you only get from church and should not have to give? I’m not speaking merely of a financial nature but of the three T’s and if you go at all I need not explain them. (If you don’t go look it up!) Twenty something years ago I finally realized that to me your religion was not only something you received something from but something that really commanded interaction. We live in such a shallow world these days that people can’t look past their I-Pads or cell phones to even begin to understand that this life is not all there is and I would suggest you work on yourself to make the positive transition to the next life. Does this mean going to church every Sunday? It does for me and this is the one thing I need to be selfish about. I’m not going to pretend to know what’s right for everyone but I do know what’s right for me. I’m not making judgments about how everyone lives out their lives just trying to make you think. If you have children you owe it to them to at least give them the right start.

So that’s it for now. I must head out the door and continue to make a living. I am so blessed and have so much to live for and hopefully have many more years to get the most I can out of this temporary life. But my point to my previous paragraph was I hope everyone comes to the realization that what you have here and who you are now is only a stepping stone and you might just be determining the next stone you are stepping on….

The Time Is Upon Me

So I knew in my mind I needed to write this if for no other reason than for self-therapy. The day is fast approaching when it’s been a year since my dear Dad passed and joined our Lord. I have thought of this man every day since he has passed and that is no exaggeration. So I thought I would write a few jumbled thoughts and memories of this man.

He was not perfect…..unless of course you asked his opinion. He was loyal to all that were loyal to him. He loved to use his hands to craft just about anything and he indeed could craft just about anything. He was a very prideful man which could often be seen in his craftsmanship. He grew up in a time and place where men just didn’t express emotions outwardly. That being said, when he shook your hand and meant it….you knew. He never uttered I love you freely or openly…..but if he loved you…..you knew. As time went on he mellowed a bit with his emotions but he still had a very strict set of public display rules. I saw my Dad cry twice in my life. Once when he lost his soul mate and once as I was departing on one of my last trips North when I think we were both scared it might be our last face to face encounter. Both times were difficult for me but the last time was much harder. I was privileged to be able to spend alone time with him after losing Daisy and I could share what I went through losing Karen and he really listened to what I had to say and I think we connected in a way I never had until that time. I will never forget that.

More memories of this man….I remember brook fishing with him…..I remember when I was 13 being hit by a car while living in Lyon Mountain. He was sitting on his recliner (which he loved to do after a hard day of work) and heard the siren of the volunteer fire department all the while thinking someone else will get this call. Little did he know at the time I was the reason for the siren! I remember our shopping trips to Malone to the Ames Store….big doings for me…and then eating at the A&W. I remember him teaching me to drive. (Or at least trying to teach me)

I remember when his Dad was aging and getting near death how difficult it was for my Dad. He had to go and do some of the most basic things for him. I don’t remember him actually crying about this time but I do remember how sad and frustrated he was. Ironic but I was probably feeling some of the same emotions before my Dad passed as he did years ago about his Dad.

I remember his smile…..I remember the mischief in his eyes almost always followed by and action to reinforce the look. I remember his patience (OK this was in his earlier years as his patience wore thin over time)…..I remember all of his Arthurisms i.e.…”oh my aching back…holy mackerel,” etc. I remember his firm handshake. I remember my one spanking…yep I deserved it. I remember his trumpet playing in the basement that so inspired me. I remember playing with the hair on his arm as a child and getting the firm stop it and it only took once. I remember the wafting cherry tobacco smoke of his pipe. I remember his annual Christmas Eve parties. I remember our cross country jaunts with travel trailer in tow and listening to him an Daisy argue about the best route…I remember keeping my mouth shut during those arguments! I remember our political jousts which we always thought in the end we each won.

I suspect I lost everyone reading this who doesn’t know either me or him in some capacity and that’s fine. I really didn’t write this for anyone but myself. That being said, I think it important for everyone to realize and consider how your actions throughout your life can both impact and inspire. I was fortunate to have a Dad that did those things for me and so much more.

I love you Dad…..I will always carry you with me….and I will always remember……..

Thank You Kelly

So recently I was invited to my brother-in-law’s retirement ceremony in Washington DC at the Arlington National Cemetery women’s Center. I thought I would share a few impressions about the whole event.

If you’ve never been to Arlington you owe it to yourself if you consider yourself a patriot or even a historian. This place is a very impactful representation of how so many have given up the ultimate sacrifice to allow us to be safe and allow us to have the freedoms we so often take for granted. Just the size of the place made me emotional and touched me to my core. The next time I hear someone whine in a line at the grocery store about how long it is taking I will think of this place. The fallen in this place fought for you to stand in that line without fear.

I was in the Air Force for one stint and although I really don’t place myself in this group it makes me proud to know I served. I still get overwhelmed thinking of the first look at Arlington. There are no words I can write to describe the feelings.

Now on to the occasion that I visited this place; my brother-in-law Kelly was being honored in a way most NCOs’ are not honored. He was retiring from the Air Force having achieved what only 3% of Air Force NCOs’ do achieve and that is making it to the grade of Senior Master Sergeant. There were many other reasons to honor this great man. He served with some of the top Generals in the Armed Forces and also distinguished himself everywhere he went including some pretty difficult theaters.

To meet Kelly is to know Kelly. He has no pretention about himself and you never need to wonder where he stands on any particular issue. You do have to have a pretty radical sense of humor if you plan on keeping up with him. He is honest to a fault….thoughtful….intelligent…..a great friend; husband, brother, uncle and Son. If he never served in the Air Force he would have distinguished himself wherever he went.

I know no better honor for any man than the last paragraph. So to close this I just want to say thank you Kelly. Thank you for spending all those lonely nights….those challenging days….and those 28 years as guardian of our great country. Most importantly, thank you for allowing me the privilege of knowing you.

Passion

For some strange reason that escapes me as most strange reasons do, I seem to be thinking about a word lately and just how it relates to life in general. The word gets tossed around frequently and can sometimes be misconstrued. Its killing you now right? Ok, enough toying with my reader…..the word is passion.

Now I’m not letting the discussion degrade into the sexual connotations of the word although I do believe the parallels are uncanny. Let’s do something I do frequently when bringing up words and look to the origins of the word. So here is what I found out about this word:


Date of Origin 12th c.
Latin patī meant ‘suffer’ (it is the source of English patient). From itspast participial stem pass- was coined in post-classical times the nounpassiō, denoting specifically the ‘suffering of Christ on the cross’. English acquired the word via Old French passion, but its familiarmodern senses, in which ‘strength of feeling’ has been transferred from ‘pain’ to ‘sexual attraction’ and ‘anger’, did not emerge until the 16thcentury. Also from the Latin stem pass- comes passive (14th c.), etymologically ‘capable of suffering’.


I had a feeling that the origin would be through Christ’s passion specifically about his suffering during his last human days. This topic now becomes even more relevant as we are into Lent now and that suffering for many Christians is about to be relived once more. That will always be the ultimate display of “passion”.

Another by-product of passion, at least in my eyes, is how successful people always have it in their lives. Most people I know do not luck their way into success. Think about anyone you deal with, work for or read about who is successful. If you ever listen to someone speak about what makes them successful almost all will say to have a dream, work for that dream and you will realize success. Having dreams is important but I think without the passion to work for that dream, the dream by itself is of no real value.

This passion does not always reveal itself in a most abundant or recognizable way. Take my Dad, for instance (God rest his soul), you might not always see his passion. He was often a soft spoken man but if you knew him and I mean really knew him, you knew where his passions resided. Here are a couple examples…Yankees, politics, family, working with hands. I threw the last piece in because those other aspects were pretty in your face and obvious but if you knew how he kept busy in his woodworking long after he retired you understand what I am talking about. It wouldn’t matter if it was a flower box on his house, or a picture frame or clock he would always use the same meticulous passion for detail that made anything he worked on extra special. That’s the kind of passion I’m referring to at the moment. I’ve had bosses who had it. If you take the average person and inject passion into them about something, it spills over and becomes very inspiring to others.

Passion is not something you are necessarily born with and that may be the best news of all. There’s still time! You may be confusing passion with self-respect and although most that have passion have the second trait there are many who don’t hold both characteristics. There are many hard working people that don’t necessarily exhibit passion about their work and that’s OK. The leaders that are successful generally take care of that.

I took on this subject not to bore you….ooops too late….but really to kind of make you step back and perhaps look at yourself. Do you have passion about something? Do you share that passion? If not you should. You may just impress someone who could change your life. Food for thought….or perhaps not.

Once Again..Oil Companies Get The Goldmine and We Get The Shaft

I am always somewhat amazed as are many just how quickly gas prices tick up at just the thought of turmoil in the Mideast. As if this is something new these countries are suffering from internal fracturing. Libya is somewhere around 3% of the world’s oil production and yet they seem to have an amazing impact on refined gasoline prices.

What is befuddling to me is the fact that these countries have been at war if not with their neighboring countries then with themselves for about as long as they have existed on the planet. They know nothing but war as the way to solve their problems. This has almost always been the case and will be long after I’m but a memory in the flash of the human being pan.

Now the oil companies and markets can have a field day with consumers in the name of political unrest in the Middle East. What a farce! It is what it is. We will continue to be the ones to suffer and they can continue to dupe the consumer simply because we have no other option. As long as Liberals are controlling things, we will be powerless to be able to drill and become self sufficient. We will, of course, make sure that the clubbed foot seal or the spotted polar bear is safe long after we have left the planet. That seems to be a noble way to snuff ourselves out.

I know….I hear many of you saying that once again this conservative whack job is just spouting off. Then again, take note of your total at the pump next time you fill up and thank the government for saving the spotted ring horned horny toad from extinction. I think we will be extinct before the toad.

Vices???

I thought I would think a little about people and their vices. We all have them and if you deny it you are kidding yourself. (That in of itself is a vice) I always like when I think about simple things, which my little brain has a tendency in doing, to look at a word’s basic definition. Here is my outdated dictionary’s definition…actually it has several:

1 (a)An evil action or habit (b)evil conduct (c) I like this definition; prostitution 2 a trivial fault or failing.

Curious how prostitution falls under the evil action or habit (Habit???Really?????) And not under a trivial fault or failing. Seems to me it would be as trivial a fault as a habit! I guess I should not focus on that one definition as I think the author, whoever the author for Webster’s Dictionary might be, was almost making an editorial comment. The author could have said booze or smoking or a very large group of other vices.

Do you wonder who actually invented the first dictionary? I guess the Bible could fall under that in some ways as it definitely defined many things although with each passing generation man tends to enjoy redefining behavior as a way, I think, of rationalizing. What kind of person has dictionary author on their resume? Do they sit around in committees trying to think up new words or make up new words so they can write a new book? Seems like a pretty tedious way to make a living. Personally I prefer massacring the existing words and sort of literally burning them beyond recognition.

Seems I have strayed from my original thought, what a surprise, so I will revisit it for a moment. We all have vices. I’m not here to air any dirty laundry….I do believe my list of vices could be considered average to below average. Writing is a sort of vice for me but I would consider it a good vice….not the evil habit but more the trivial fault. As I re-read that definition I come to the realization that a good vice is an oxymoron. According to the Webster geeks a vice can only be evil or trivial. (or prostitution)

I guess in a matter of speaking many of us have vices to replace what we really should be doing. (Or to forget what we really should be doing) Many people drink for that very reason. The fact is you can drink yourself into believing you have no worries but eventually you wake up realizing everything is as it was with the exception that you are hung over and more broke than you were. So vices are in the very simplest terms I think crutches. You can put lipstick on a pig but at the end of the day it’s still a pig.

Don’t have answers and I make no judgments here. Vices are what they are. You either learn to live with them if they don’t destroy you or you change. I try to fix what I can about myself and let the chips fall after that point. If this little post made you think a bit than you are obviously intellectually far superior to your other human friends…so rejoice in your superiority but try not to do it with a vice.

Really Important Questions....(NOT)

So I have some questions about some of the oddities of life. I might just as well dive in so here goes…

Did you ever notice that a coffee mug and I don’t mean one of those prissy little pinkies in the air cups is about two cups of what your average coffee maker says? Is this some evil conspiracy to make everyone drink less coffee? It seems a little counter-productive if you make coffee makers. One additional thought….if you make coffee makers I guess that makes you a coffee maker maker…..hmmm

Why are pill bottles usually about 4 to 5 times larger than the contents? It would seem drug manufacturers could cut their costs (and ours!) if they would look at that!

I wonder about these new phenomena of post-it notes. I thought this was quite an ingenious invention but why are they now making them so small that it takes a magnifying glass if you actually want to write a note? They now make a computer post-it note…..what’s that all about….how many post-it notes does one have to write now that they must put them around virtually now???

I marvel at this issue….you know the issue of the incredibly difficult task of opening a CD. The companies seem to be adverse to improving their packaging so now another company says ok….we’ll make a new gizmo (technical term there) that with four swipes can disarm this packaging. American ingenuity abounds….or was it Chinese?

Here’s a puzzler to me; why are there about 50,000 varieties of batteries made? I understand that different voltages are required for different types of electronics but look at the watch battery kiosk sometime….they are all pretty much the same voltage and come in 50,000 sizes. (Perhaps a slight exaggeration) What’s that all about?

I wonder just how many wall calendars are made in or should I say for this country. They have entire stores in our wonderful malls devoted to calendars. I would bet they make enough of these often hideous calendars to put on every wall in every room in this country and even perhaps the world! I say our first green initiative would be to stop making so many calendars.

Here is something most people won’t care about which is exactly the kind of thing I enjoy bringing up….just how many types of weather radar are required to determine it’s going to rain outside and how do they still get it wrong??? Our local stations seem to have many different types with snappy names like Doppler Interactive Radar….why in the world would I care to interact with weather radar that gets it wrong anyway? My knee does a better job at the weather forecast!

More to come but I thought I would ask some of these things where most normal thinking people would not dare venture.