Suspended

I have noticed that when children travel or are having fun, they tend to believe that natural laws are suspended.

For instance, they seem to think that no matter how far out they go in the water from the shore and no matter how strong the tides are, there is no way they could be swept out to sea.

They also think the Law of Gravity is suspended just for them. I am sure that they think that they can't possibly fall off the edge of the steep precipices they run up to, and if they do fall, they seem to believe they will just float back onto solid ground or something.

I used to ridicule children for being this dumb, but I just discovered that I have the same tendencies.

If I haven't shared, we have been trying to eat better and be a bit more healthy, trying to take in the kinds of foods that we were designed to eat, not the kinds that were designed to cheaply feed the masses and make someone somewhere their fortune(and no, I am not opposed to cheap food. Or even free food. And I am certainly not opposed to people getting rich from selling stuff. I just am trying to eat better.).

I have discovered that when I eat better, I feel better, have a better outlook, and more energy, etc., etc. All the cliche things you hear about why you should eat better.

Based on this last weekend, it seems that, when I travel, I think that the cause and effect of eating well goes out the window. Since I was out of town for the weekend, I loaded up on pizza, ice cream, soda and more. No, I didn't load up as much as have might have in days gone by, but it was still enough to make me feel absolutely awful most of yesterday morning.

It seems that my belief that certain natural laws were suspended were no more true for me than it is for all those thoughtless little children. I have another trip to California coming up soon. Someone make sure that I do better on that trip.

I saw Stu Grant

I seem to have an uncanny ability to do two things. The first is to win drawings. This might sound exciting, and it can be, but it gets annoying for my friends and family.

When they called to let us to know that we won a big American Girls jewelry box in a drawing, the caller was sure to let my wife know that it was my one entry, not hers or the girls numerous entries, that won the grand prize. When I won a trip to India in a drawing, my wife (the same one) let me know that I was not to enter the drawing to Columbia the following year.

Our youngest son is constantly irritated when he does not win drawings. I think he figures he should have inherited that trait. Perhaps he has to wait until my death and then argue with the others about who gets that.

The second super power I have is to see people I know in random places. A couple of examples: When we were driving through Idaho, we stopped for sandwiches and ran into some friends from Sacramento. In Saudi Arabia, I happened across my recruiter. He looked like it was his worst nightmare to see one of the troops he recruited in a full combat kit. Maybe I shouldn't have called him out as my recruiter in front of everyone.

I have numerous other examples of these, my only super powers, in action. But I am far too modest. Plus, the title of this post is, "I saw Stu Grant". So I will stick to that.

Last summer, I was hanging out on Coronado Island with the kids. After a brief pit stop in the bathroom, I looked over and saw Stu Grant with his boys looking just like Stu Grant.

This is unusual because I hadn't seen Stu Grant since the day we graduated High School in 1988. That makes for a 24 year gap. And, since neither one of us live anywhere near there, it seemed uncannily random, although hardly surprising, since that sort of thing happens to me fairly regular. That and winning drawings.

In any case, tomorrow is Stu's Birthday, and I am in the San Diego area for the day, so I thought of him and his family. If you get a chance, tell him Happy Birthday.

And here's one from me: Happy Birthday Stu! Glad I got to see you and I really do hope you had a good one!

Something to do.

As some of you may know, I grew up in the quaint little town of McCook in Nebraska.  As others of you may know, the word quaint, when you are too young to drive, often means having nothing to do.

As ingenious as I was, I was often able to come up with remedies for this condition.

Tonight, since it was Father's Day, I thought it would be appropriate to inflict some memories of my younger days in this quaint little town on my children.

I told them how I used to ride my brother's motorcycle around town from time to time, during this pre-car, pre-drivers license stage and how I was threatened by the 20's plus year old boy friend of a girl I knew when I was maybe 13 or 14. Yes, he was a loser. But at least he had his own motorcycle and motorcycle license.

And, I told them about when Russ' Dad lived in the second floor apartment across the street from the Ben Franklin store. The Ben Franklin side of the street also had a phone booth with a pay phone. Remember those things!

I think one of the best forms of entertainment we found in that town was to go find the number to that phone, then wait for unsuspecting locals to walk by and call them up. I really don't think anyone ever figured out we were right across the street from them.

Yes, this counted as entertainment for 13 year old boys in a small town.

And yes, if you are lucky I will tell you about the haunted mansion that ended up causing two consecutive owners to kill themselves. It is currently for sale, if you are interested. Over 5,000 square feet, and all of them guaranteed to be haunted.

Happy Fathers Day!

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Out of Control

There seem to be very few things that we are able to control in our life.

At home, things are prone to breaking and finding other ways of demanding our attention. Things at work go in directions that we may or may not like, often without the benefit of our input. When we drive ourselves around town, other people drive in ways they should not. Political races often turn out a victory for the other candidate, the other party, the other cause.

Our world is out of control. At least out of your control.

I stole this, and I'll give my source credit -

There is so little in this life that we can actually control. But, one thing you can control is your level of fitness.

Taking care of the bodies we were given will help you feel better, look better, think clearer, work harder, have a better attitude. Why not take care of yourself?

And here is who I stole this idea from: Andy McDermott.
Find him at: about.me/Andymcd23 

June 6, 1944: Images