Commonality among Indifference

One shot, one kill and one for the freezer!

2006-12-08T14:06:00.000-05:00

You know it’s an early shot when all you see is fire in the scope after you shoot. But, early as it was, it was still a clean shot and puts some meat on the table.

It could have been a little bit bigger though…

Boo's trying his hardest...

2006-12-16T20:11:00.000-05:00

As some may already know, my son signed up for wrestling this year. Some say he is built for it, and weighing in at 90+ pounds at the age of seven, it would seem that Boo is. The trouble is, my son’s size has always kept him from being as fast as other kids his age. He’s the second to largest on the team. Taking this into consideration, he’s getting better. I see improvement during and after every practice. Plus, just like most first year kids in any sport, there is a learning curve to overcome. The other kids on the team all seem to love him and support him all the way. I believe this is mostly due his attitude. He’s always laughing and smiling, no matter what happens. He always has his head up, just glad to be there with his ‘friends’. Hell, during the first week of practice, a teammate took him down hard. Boo was laughing all the way, just having a blast!

Tonight was Boo’s very first match. I could tell he was just a little bit nervous, yea he wanted to get right in there and join the fun. I did not wrestle in high school and this was the first wrestling match I was to since I was in 10th grade. Sadly, I couldn’t even tell my son what to expect, I had no idea what today’s protocol was. Never the less, again my kid just fell into place, as he always seems to do. The coaching staff on his team are also very friendly and helpful, the best as far as I am concerned.

If you want to watch something totally cute and funny as hell, come to a match and watch the little ones go at it, kindergarteners weighing in at less than 40 pounds. If you look up cute in the dictionary, there is a picture of this beside it (For those of you from Alabama, a dictionary is a book).

Finally the time came. Knowing his weight would cause this, Boo ended up wrestling a 4th grader who was faster, stronger and smarter. I knew this a few days before but never told him. I didn’t want to scare him. The two boys shook hands and took to there positions. The referee blew the whistle. The other boy quickly shot at Boo’s legs.
Boo was flipped on his back, fighting to keep his shoulders off the mat. Then, in less than 30 seconds, Boo was pinned.The kid he was up against was tough. He was put in an almost unfair situation. Yet, he got up, shook the kid’s hand, and walked back to his team smiling! He had just wrestled his first match, and win or loose, THAT was really mattered, his first match! Upon exiting the mat Coach John, my favorite coach of the bunch, gave him some big high fives and some words of encouragement. Boo got his ass kicked, but he’s standing proud!

Normal life resumes for a little while.

2007-02-16T23:35:00.000-05:00

It’s finally over. The road was a long and rough one, full of challenges and hurtles. There were some says that I didn’t think he was going to make it. Constantly feeling defeated and loosing over and over again is hard on any person, regardless who you are yet, tonight he stands proud. Proud to finish what he started, proud to finally get mad and try his hardest, proud to finally find out what strength he has, proud to go up against a 3rd generation all-star without backing down.

Finally, Boo’s first year of wrestling is over. It’s a great relief to him, and even more so to my schedule. I just might get some stuff done!

My cell really takes shitty pictures!

Fishing in reverse

2007-03-21T13:40:00.000-05:00

I’ve been hunting and fishing since I was about 12 or so, but something I have never done was help the fish commission stock the adult trout before the seasons starts. Well, now I can check that off my list of things to do. My son and I went out this morning, out west to where our cabin sits along Penns Creek. We met up with the local crowd of guys, all in their late 50’s or early 60’s. My son was the only child there.

Once we finally left for our first drop point, I was hoping that these old-timers would not consider my 8-year old to be a hindrance. Once we got there I was quickly surprised to find it was quite the opposite. We heard people say things like “let the little guy get this bucket” and “this day is just for him”. These people went out of there way to make sure my son got as close to the action as possible.

Each bucket we carried had approximately 15 to 20 fish in it. Once the bucket was filled with fish, it was a race to the creek to get them into the water, minimizing the stress on the fish. We learned some facts about fish that I didn’t even know. The event only lasted maybe 2 hours, but my son had a blast.

Rather than bore you with any more details, here are the pictures.

A Good Day.

2007-04-14T19:57:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago I wrote a post about my son and I stocking Trout. Today was opening day and we finally got a chance to catch some of these, in my son’s own words, “slippery suckers”. Although the official start time was 8am, we did not arrive until just after 9, mostly due to the fact that we slept in. Once we pulled up to the cabin, we noticed a few vehicles parked on our property. Only being slightly concerned about it, we opened the cabin and went in. It wasn’t until exiting the cabin to get our gear that we realized the vehicles were driven by some old friends of the family I have not seen and years, whom have a lifetime of welcome to park there. After a brief conversation that was broken by my son’s anticipation to go fishing, we walked the 40 or so steps to the creek.

My spinner caught an 11-inch Brook Trout in less than 20 casts. My son was so exited, saying “I am so happy for you daddy.” Unfortunately, he was too far away from me when I caught the 13-inch rainbow to help. It was about then that he yelled for me. “Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, HELP, my rod, my rod, my rod…”. Little Boo had casted his line out, and the rod too. We had taken 4 rods along for the trip but his little Sponge-Bob rod was his favorite, and it was now floating, very quickly, down stream. So I did what any good dad would do, I went in after it.

Shortly after, an unknown man, in his 70’s, walked up to us. On his third or fourth cast, he caught one, but did not reel it in, yelling “hey little man, I need help with this one”. The guy who did not know us from bob had called my son to reel in his fish. Then, this old man told my son that he had caught the fish and it was his fair and square. Boo help me add it to the creel and was happy to reel one in.

Overall we had a great time, yet I could tell my son was disappointed that he did not catch one by himself, on his rod. I have enclosed a few images. The last one is of my son actually cutting the fish himself, while I hold it for him. That made his day!

Opening Day

2007-05-19T19:43:00.000-05:00

We were 10-2 over the Orioles

Tensile stress

2007-06-21T20:00:00.000-05:00

The past few weeks have been the toughest I have encountered in years. I feel more stressed than when I was pulling 14 hour watches during the first Gulf War. It’s all mostly bad timing. My house has been on the market for almost 2 years now, yet the grandest of offers had to come at my busiest time of year. My work schedule is out of control, I’m moving into an unfinished home, and it’s baseball season. I go from designing piping and supporting, to trying my hand at drywall (and finding out I suck at it), to coaching a team with the second worst parent in the world, to trying to slow down enough to sleep at night without a constant racing mind.

Coaching used to be my therapy, my time to relieve the stresses of life. Not so this year as I have been dealt a bad hand. The second worst parent in the world’s kid is on my team. Plus, my best fielder was sent 120 miles south, to his Father’s home, for the summer. This leaves the team with 9 players, and if you know baseball, this makes things tough, especially when the second worst parent in the world has absolutely zero courtesy for anyone else.

I hope next year is better. Having said that, I love these kids to death!!!!

A moment in time.

2007-09-27T20:07:00.000-05:00

As some know, I have moved into a different home. I carefully steer away from using the word new because this house has nothing new about it, in fact, it was built in the early 1900’s and has been renovated numerous times. To make a long story short, I have temporally transplanted my family from one home to another for finical reasons. Although our transplanted home has over twice as much living space, it needed, and still needs a lot of work.

This evening, after a period of “non-renovation”, if you will, I began taking on the largest project this home needs. We’re talking about taking walls out that have been there for god knows how long, to make this home not only better for us, but moreover, a better selling point in the hopeful near future.

I was hacking at a wall this evening and came across a bundled piece of paper, stuck within a former hole in a wall. I could tell it was an old piece of newspaper. From the backside of the wall, I carefully pulled away this piece of history that, at the time of its instillation, was just another piece of paper to its user. The paper had been used to help fill a 1” diameter hole, just before putting a coat of mud on the wall. I put it aside for a later inspection, and continued with my work.

Later, this little artifact was my only focus. I carefully unfolded the newspaper, hoping to reveal it’s age. Long behold, it was from a time long ago, a time when life was simpler, or so I am told, considering I was not born yet. The price of gas was $0.31/gallon; the average new home cost $21,500; you could buy a dozen eggs for $0.53; and the population was only 194,302,963. The year was 1965. The month was either January or February, as I can tell. That doesn’t seem so long ago, but yet it is 42 years, or if you live day by day, about 15600 days ago.

I almost want to go back to that time, a time where things were hard, yet simple: or so I’m told.

trying times

2007-10-30T20:24:00.000-05:00

Things have been extremely busy here. I’m in full construction mode, and it’s slow going because, for one, we have to live here so cleaning up every night is mandatory, and second, I’m doing this completely on my own, without the help that would have had if my schedule hadn’t changed due to major events in my life. When I walk upstairs, I can see clearly to the back bedroom through the skeleton or what were walls.

As it seems like this renovation is never-ending, yet another setback has occurred. A valve in the heating system that I have been tightening and watching closely, failed last night. Although the failure was not catastrophic, I did have to cut a hole in the floorboards around the supply pipe, letting the water drain down into the crawlspace, bellow the kids’ playroom.

Today, I left work early. From 11:45 to 19:00, I worked non-stop on our heating system. Although replacing the valve was the primary goal, many modifications needed to be made to the system renovation purposes, including, but surely not limited to the register that once was in the corner of the upstairs bathroom, that was until today, in the middle of the new hallway.

By 19:45, the system was refilled and fully operational. Although I have accomplished many items needed for the renovation, these items were not on my self-written “to-do” list for today, leaving me feel like I’m a day behind. But, all is well and the light at the end of the tunnel can be seen, even if it’s just a tiny flicker in the darkness.

A damaging loss

2008-03-19T20:31:00.003-05:00

In loving Memory...
May 2003 - March 2008...

I am saddened to say goodbye to a loving family member. River died this afternoon, after suffering from a miss-diagnosed case of Cushing's Syndrome, that developed into cancer. Although I suspect his medical condition started long ago, it took less then three months to turn our loving, energetic, butt magnet, into a lethargic, confused, and quickly dieing dog. This seemingly sudden loss has hit this family hard. We are not the type of people that take a dog in, only to tie it up to a short leash, connected to a dog house, at the end of the yard. He had free roam of the house and was part of our daily lives. This dog was my son’s little brother. They played and slept together, so loosing him is like loosing a sibling.

I cleaned out his food dish and plan to pack it away. His bed is still upstairs and I can’t get bring myself to look at it just yet. Maybe tomorrow.

Echoes, Silence, Patience And Grace

2008-07-18T19:31:00.009-05:00

Every year, around the same time, I’m given a gift. A chance to make a positive influence on a bunch of little kids, some who have very little positive in there lives at all. The 2008 Baseball Season is now over for us. For the 5th year in a row, I have been coaching my son’s team, and I have to say this year was the most challenging, yet the most fun. In fact, this year, I may have actually been a positive influence on some of the parents as well. I’ve earned some respect from some people who I never thought were capable, and this once “thankless job”, has become quite the opposite.

The ride though the ranks of our league has been long and, at times, hard. I’ve always said that once this stops feeling fun, I would quit forever. I know that nothing in life is perfect, and there is ups and downs with anything we do. This is no exception. That feeling of not having fun and walking away almost came about half way through this season. Things were down and I started to question myself. Thoughts like “maybe this isn’t for me”, and “I must suck at this” entered my mind. Knowing that I would never quit mid-season, for obvious reasons, I pressed on. Almost subconsciously, I just went about my schedule from work, to the fields, to home.

Then, in one swift moment, I was snapped out of my low. Like a splash of ice cold water on a hot day, I was revived and reminded of why I continue to do this. No pictures were taken of that moment, and I need none. The moment was burnt into my memory more vividly than any image could do. From that very moment, things improved and the season went out with a bang!

My son moves up to the Majors next year. If he continues to play, and nothing else changes until then, I will take the offer I was given to take over the team. I will have huge footsteps to fill, as the man leaving is one hell of a coach.

I added the image bellow last minute. Little “enter girl name here”. One of two girls on the teem this year. Holding her own with the tough boys for years now, but just a little sweaty inside. Crying to me about facing the faster pitchers, but taking on the slower ones like she’s out for blood!

This image is after she was hit by a pitched ball. Her family is going through some tough times these days. I’ve stayed close to the family and am currently helping as much as I can. Another situation where coaching goes far beyond the field of play.

Just for fun...

2008-08-17T21:52:00.010-05:00

2008-07-25T23:46:00.003-05:00

This video was from a time that seems so long ago. Although it was only a few short years ago, it was during a time when I was not a boss, but simply a leader, of sorts. We were one shop. A family that stuck together. The men you see here were not so much under my direction, but more working with me, to achieve a common goal. In many construction companies, I would have been their superintendent, and the project leader as well.

Things have since changed. Having full responsibility of the main production facility, and co-managing the others leaves me little time to ’play’ with the fellows. It’s too bad, as it is times like these when I gained the most respect from them.

A story to warm the heart.

2008-05-01T19:50:00.003-05:00

Every year at this time I’m generally going crazy, and this year is no exception. Our baseball league has a huge event planned for Saturday and my team is not quite ready. Work is once again in controlled crisis mode, witch I have to manage daily. Work on the house is falling behind with everything else going on. Yet, I have found a story that makes even me, stop and smell the roses, so to speak. A story that will warm the hearts of anyone who has one, but will hit most at home with the people like myself who deal with issues like competition, personality differences, and selfishness, daily. Bellow is the link:

Click me please!

Gun control is at home

2008-02-21T21:37:00.000-05:00

I realize this is old news, and an even older saying, but I feel I need to express it, quickly.

“Guns do not kill people. People kill people.”

“If guns were outlawed, only outlaws would have guns.”

The preceding quotes are the most accurate of my view on gun laws and gun control. Every year, at least once, some idiot decides to waltz into a public location and start shooting like he was in a Clint Eastwood western movie, ending the violent act by shooting himself. Gun control is not the answer to controlling these idiots. If there were no guns then they would find another weapon. If you recall, according to official reports, 4 commercial airplanes were brought down, using little more than knives, box cutters, skill, and training, killing nearly 3,000 people (number derived from Wikipedia).

You may or may not know that I am not in favor of any gun control above and beyond the what is current. I own many guns myself, but none are for self protection. I drill into my kid’s heads about gun safety and allow them to shoot safely in a controlled environment. My kids are well informed of the damage that a gun will cause if misused. Personally, I believe this very action will deter them from ever using a gun in such a manner. If one of my kids were to ‘snap’ when they get older, I believe I have installed in them well enough, the facts about when really happens to everyone else when people go ballistic. That’s gun control.

Technology is still growing…

2008-02-04T20:15:00.000-05:00

The technology of the computers and electronics in general never seem to stop growing. This article proves to be another ‘up and coming’ growth spurt, and is something I plan to watch in the coming years. Let’s hope that we can fix all of our other, real world problems, so we can be here long enough to enjoy it.

They don't make them like they used to...

2008-01-27T11:32:00.000-05:00

As almost everyone knows, I have been remodeling my home since we have moved into it months ago. Actually, remodeling is not the accurate; it more like reconstructing. I’ve purchased many items at many stores and have come to a conclusion: The quality of the products sold at Lowes Home Improvement stores sucks! Case and point:

1) I purchased 7 copper sweat in gate valves to make cold and hot water manifolds. When I was building these manifolds, these copper valves took much more heat to sweat in then expected. No thinking much of it, I preceded with the project and installed them. About 2 weeks after they were in place, above my dinning room ceiling, one of the valves developed a crack in it. Thankfully, I was awake and in the next room when the valve failed, allowing me to quickly secure the water system, no doughtily saving my brand new $600 floor. When I was replacing the valve with one purchased at my local hardware store, a second valve failed and started to leak.

2) I purchased a $500 shower stall from Lowes for the upstairs bathroom. After opening the item for installation, I noticed that one of the wall panels was cracked. I quickly called the store to complain and returning the item. Thankfully, the store clerks went out of their way to resolve the problem. Kudos to the employees, but proving to me that the real issue here is the buyers at Lowes and their choice of vendors.

3) During one of my many trips to our local Lowes store, I ran into a old friend. The first thing out of his mouth was a complaint about the store. He had purchased an item that was welded backwards from factory. Another dissatisfied customer.

If your planning a remodeling job of your own, think twice about buying your needs at Lowes. You just might end up remodeling twice.

Postage Paid is only a theory

2008-01-07T19:50:00.001-05:00

The other day I pulled up to the post office to get stamps and mail some bills. When I went inside, I seen someone I knew and began a short conversation. During this little disruption, I mistakenly mailed 4 bills without the postage I was there to buy, for the very same bills. I didn’t realize I had pulled this total retard move until I had gotten home.

I was a bit concerned about the bills getting “lost in the mail”, but waited it out in the hope that all would be returned to me before they were passed due. As it turned out, only one was sent back to me, in fact, it was returned the following day. The other three made it to their destination without a glitch.

Considering the rising cost of living, I’m considering sending 10% of my mail out without stamps and taking the chance. The odds seem good from here.

Happy 2008

2008-01-01T11:13:00.000-05:00

Happy new year everyone. Let's make this a good year. (3 quarters,man... 3 quarters)

Taking a break

2007-12-05T19:37:00.000-05:00

Things have been a bit crazy here as of late. But, finally, a project of mine has been completed. Finally, a sense of satisfaction comes my way. Having your schedule booked so full that you feel like your head is barely above water is not fun.

Anyhow, for those who know the situation, I have sold the other house and things are good here at home.
I posted a video of my work in the dining room, but, take all the pictures I want, but I never seem to capture the ones that I want after the fact.

Rev, I’m here now and will be until Christmas.

2007-11-01T19:03:00.000-05:00

A friend just emailed the following to me just today. Although I don’t usually like using other people’s material, I thought it was the best analogy of the “No Child Left Behind” act I have ever heard. I have no idea who the author is, but he or she is a genius. Here goes:

NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND ---The Football Version

1. All teams must make the state playoffs and all MUST win the championship.
If a team does not win the championship, they will be on probation until they are the champions, and coaches will be held accountable. If after two years they have not won the championship their footballs and equipment will be taken away UNTIL they do win the championship.

2. All kids will be expected to have the same football skills at the same time even if they do not have the same conditions or opportunities to practice on their own. NO exceptions will be made for lack of interest in football, a desire to perform athletically, or genetic abilities or disabilities of themselves or their parents.
ALL KIDS WILL PLAY FOOTBALL AT A PROFICIENT LEVEL!

3. Talented players will be asked to workout on their own, without instruction. This is beca use the coaches will be using all their instructional time with the athletes who aren't interested in football, have limited athletic ability, or whose parents don't like football.

4. Games will be played year round, but statistics will only be kept in the 4th, 8th, 6th and 10th games. It will create a New Age of Sports where every school is expected to have the same level of talent and all teams will reach the same minimum goals. If no child gets ahead, then no child gets left behind. If parents do not like this new law, they are encouraged to vote for vouchers and support private schools that can screen out the non-athletes and prevent their children from having to go to school with bad football players.

Damn things!

2007-09-16T20:11:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we took my son to what was intended to be a hot air balloon show. Unfortunately the weather kept the balloons from flying, but many aircraft were there. I took many pictures and video with my new camera, and was very much looking forward to looking at them when I got home.

When I got home, I pulled the memory card out of the camera and placed it into my new card reader. I noticed the light starting to blink, but thought nothing of it. When I tried to explore the drive, my computer froze up and I had to reboot. Open rebooting and looking at the drive, the entire memory card was empty. All the images and video from the show was gone.

I’ve spent hours today researching and attempting to recover the files with absolutely no luck. Recovery software only recovered images that had been previously removed from the drive. Everything that was on the memory card at the time was simply gone.

After a day of research and beating myself about the head, my own little CSI has come up with a theory. My card reader has a direct transfer button on it, with software to automatically transfer files to a default directory. I must have pressed this button while I was placing the card into the reader. I’ve attempted to use this button/software before and found it was one of Sandisk’s worst attempts “push button” technologies.

Anyway, I’ve finally accepted the fact that the data is gone and I’m moving on. The software has been removed from my computer.

I shouldn’t blog about this but I just can’t stop myself

2007-09-12T17:05:00.000-05:00

There’s this kid who works for me that just drives me nuts. This kid is full of issues, but considering his upbringing, it’s almost understandable, but not quite. I don’t mean to be rude, but he is honestly the dumbest person I have ever met. I thought I had heard it all from him, but his latest story takes the cake.

Apparently he’s been having some sleeping problems so his doctor prescribed some Ambien CR. Saturday night, he takes one pill. His girlfriend goes up to bed and he sits in the living room on the couch playing video games, waiting to fall asleep. At some point, the kid nods off. A bit later, according to him, he begins to sleepwalk. He somehow makes his way to where ever the Ambien is and takes the entire bottle of pills. The overdose has a hallucinogenic effect on him, much like he’s tripping on acid. This makes him appear to see snow, and lots of it. He somehow makes it out to his truck, pulls out on the street and parks in the middle of the road, blocking traffic. The cops are called. The k-9 unit shows up and asked him what the problem is. He tells them that he’s stuck in 3 feet of snow and can’t move the truck, even in 4-wheel drive.

His girlfriend was awakened by the commotion and comes out to see what is going on. She explains to the cop that he is on a “new medication”. The cops asked her if he works, and she said yes and so does she. This fact alone was apparently enough to convince the cop to let his go without a fine. He simply said, “Get him out of my face and to the hospital.”

The doctors wanted to check him into the psyche ward, but he checked himself out.

My focus

2007-09-09T21:16:00.000-05:00

With my free time I am out and about with my camera, looking for those images that, before now, were just logged into my memory. I almost feel desperate at this point, knowing that I now have a decent camera and I’ve left so many photo opportunities go by. Plus, I have little free time. I’ve grown to feel comfortable with that fact.

I am not a photographer, nor do I plan on becoming one. I am not an artist as I lack the vision needed to be one. Having said that, I am learning the basics of this camera and plan to re-find the moments and images that are in my head, only to share them with the rest of the world. The phrase “A picture says a thousand words’ is quite literal. Besides rebuilding my marriage after a devastating event, this is my new mission.

My images can be found here. Please check back often as my schedule may soon allow me to focus on this.

righteous!!!

2007-09-07T20:38:00.001-05:00

Most everyone knows that I coach my son’s baseball team, or more accurately, youth baseball in general, because I am truly there for every child on every team. Most everyone also knows that I played baseball as a child. Tomorrow morning, I will take to the other side. I managed to get a fill in spot on a team for the All-Nighter, the local Mens Softball end of season tournament. Other than the charity softball game I played in, “Coaches Vs. 94KX Radio Station, a few months ago, it been a very long time since I have played the field.

This is something that I have been looking forward to for years. I cannot play in the mens softball league because of my coaching my kid’s team. Plus, this event is not as completive as the regular season. Let’s put it this way, most people will catch a buzz before they catch a ball.

Here’s the thing, it’s damn near a 24-hour event. The tournament starts tomorrow at 7am and continues until 8pm tomorrow night. At 8:30, there is a home run derby that lasts until about midnight, which is when the tournament resumes until 4am Sunday. More beer will be drank this weekend than during the entire softball season.

I have a case of water, a case of Gatorade, and a case of beer in a cooler, ready for Chris and I to have at. If I don’t pull a hamstring or something, we both have a baseball meeting on Sunday at 6pm. That’ll look just great: The league President and Safety Officer, hung over and sore as hell. Sweet!

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