Thankfully, I posted a ton of stuff over at the "Well", so you can't say I didn't blog during the Month of August. However, I didn't exactly drop by my own blog that often and drop a few lines.
Ohh and there was that issue of new kids in the house....thankfully it is going pretty darn well.
I have survived a week as an instant parent of two toddlers.
How? I do not know. The Lord had a lot to do with it.
We were blessed to get a fairly well adjusted pair, given their journey to our home. They sleep through the night and on par are like most toddlers I have ever been around.
As a bonus they have absolutely no fear of our dogs and save all the sniffing and licking and general "who are these new dogs in our pack" going on, everyone seems to be getting on great. Though, our younger dog, Buddy, has had to learn the meaning of "no jumping up" and "gentle play" since, he normally likes to be a bit rambunctious.
The only thing that worries me is that many people have said that getting foster kids involves a "honeymoon" period, and that makes me think the other shoe may drop in a few weeks......I'll keep my prayers current just in case.
Tomorrow, July 17, 2007, I will become a Father. Well a Foster Father of two toddlers. A boy and a girl. There is a very good chance we will get to adopt these little ones, but for a while to come we will keep them on behalf of the great State of Texas.
Lets say I will soon lean more than I wanted to know about children, the foster care system, my wife and myself.
UGH!
P.S. I haven't told the dogs yet.
I love the rain. It keeps my water bills lower, my grass greener, my weeds taller, but it makes one of my dogs muddier. I don't know what it is with one of my dogs, but she loves to lay in the cool mud, the other one, not so much.
Since our dogs are only outside during the day, it means very frequent trips to the tub to rinse her off.
Hmmm...about all that water I was saving?
You know my personal blog is a bit neglected. I have much more fun writing for Jessica's Well. Go see me over there.
So far I have managed to post at least one blog posting a month. Not too bad, considering I don't really run a blog for blogging sake. I have actually tried to stay up with most internet trends, but I think I have drawn the line with MySpace and the whole social networking sites. Besides most of the pages on these sites make me hurl and think the author is on crack.
JimmyP had an article in the MRT recently that basically said "The Blog is Dead...long live the (*insert next internet phenom here)"
My Dad and I have this ritual we started about 3 years ago....basically, we go and buy stuff to upgrade his computer every "Black Friday." Last year, we picked our store (NOT Best Buy) and were rewarded with a nice 19" LCD monitor for an obscene price. This year we picked our store and the goal was wireless keyboards. Again we prevailed.
It doesn't hurt that we picked a 2nd tier store and arrived by 5:15 am for a 6:00 am open. I was surprised to learn there were people in line with us that had come from Kohls and their 5:00 am opening. Then as 5:30 rolled around, all those poor saps who couldn't do some simple math from the Best Buy ads (minimum 10 per store, with 50 people already in line on Wednesday morning) start showing up after they realized about all they would get is 1/2 price CD's and DVD's.
We also hit Sears and picked up some 1/2 price tools with an extra 10% off, but this was after the mad ruch for a $10 gift card and someone sale TV's, we didn't even have to wait for a cashier.
Then we went to breakfast.....not at Ihop, like the folks who thought it wouldn't be crowded because of all the shopping.(HA) We drove out to the Warfield Truck Stop fro the Trucker's Breakfast (ok, it's marginal) but there was no crowd and we could talk.
I like doing things with my Dad.....and as I hear of those who have lost theirs, I cherish it more and more.
I find it hard to believe that I have had my own domain and blog for 10 months now. Not really a long time in the world of blogging, but considering most people let them go after a few months, not too bad.
In reality, I never really wanted a blog for the purpose of contributing my own vision of my life and thoughts to the world (or the three people that actually read this thing). No, I did it because I read political blogs, and I have almost from their inception. I also comment on blogs, alot. I needed a place to sitck stuff.
I currently contribute to a dying blog project (The Deadpool) and a "respectable" local blog (Jessicas Well). Not to mention my frequent visits to the Midland Reporter Telegram's Open Forum. I actually owe my comments in MOF and Jessicas Well to getting the offer to be on the JW masthead.
This medium seems like my place...perfect for one who has almost never known a day without a computer and an adulthood without the internet. Born square in the middle of what most consider to be Genereation X, so I'm not young anymore, but nor am I old.
Often I ponder, why don't I blog more?
I had a last minute meeting come up in Austin this week, and it was too late to get a flight that would get me there on time, so I had to drive. I don't mind the drive to Austin, yeah it's about 5 hours in the car, but for the most part driving relaxes me.
Around 11:00 PM I'm making my way through Brady. There is some road construction going on and the speed limit was dropped in several places. The streets are pretty empty and all of the sudden I get red and blue lights flashing in my rear view mirror.
So, I pull over pretty immediately in an empty parking lot and wait for the officer. The McCulloch County Sheriff Deputy asks me for my License and Insurance and asks if I know why I was pulled over. I say, "No", and he informs me I was going 6 miles over the speed limit. (I later determine this was a lie. On my way back through the next day, I observed that I was doing 36 in a 35 and my law enforcement friends tell me it is highly unusual for a deputy to be running traffic IN the City Limits).
He then asks "Have you been smoking Marijuana?"
What did you just ask me?
"I'm detecting an odor and your eyes look a little glassy, which indicates you may have been smoking Marijuana."
No, I haven't been smoking Marijuana.
"Well, 9 times out of 10 I'm right. Have you ever been arrested or are you on probation?"
No and No.
"I'm still detecting this odor, it could be skunk, did you hit a skunk?"
No, but I passed over three pretty fresh roadkills.
"It could be that, none the less, you just look like you have been smoking Marijuana, and there is this odor, and I'm right 90% of the time, so can I search your vehicle?" "Ohhh, before you answer, since I am detecting an odor and your eyes are glassy, I can search your vehicle anyway."
Sure you can search my vehicle.
"Am I going to find anything? Any weapons or illegal drugs?"
No, No and No.
"Please step out of the vehicle and stand over here, let me pat you down and then can your empty your pockets?"
After seeing what I had on me, the officer proceeds to see my packed duffel bag with slacks, shirts, ties and underwear. My Christian CD collection, client files for the meeting in Austin tomorrow morning, toothpaste and toothbrush in the glove box and a Chick-Fil-A bag and a Whataburger Drink Cup.
About 1/2 through the search he gets the call back from his dispatch after they run my information and then he abruptly stops the search and makes a strange gesture like he's talking to dispatch (though he's not, I can hear the radio in his car)...he then closes up my car doors and states:
"I didn't find anything in what I have searched so far, but I have another call that I have to attend to. Please watch you speed AND, if YOU DID have illegal drugs or have been smoking Marijuana, you have gotten off and you are very lucky."
Thanks for wasting 15 minutes of my time and giving myself and all of my friends a hearty laugh.
Based on previous conversations with my law enforcement friends, most likely they had a tip about some drugs being run through town in a vehicle like mine and they were going to find some way to pull me over no matter what I was doing. Like I said before, it is highly unlikely a Sheriffs Deputy is going to be running traffic in the City Limits of a town with a PD. So I can't fault the deputy for that, but he could have been honest instead of making the snide comment that "I was lucky and he's 90% right." I guess he met his 10%.
Tomorrow, July 8, I will have been married to my lovely and beautiful wife for 6 years. Marriage is everything I thought it would be, lots of things I thought it wouldn't be and a whole bunch of surprises to boot.
As for my wife, I think I'll keep her!
After a decent spring softball season, it is now time to try our luck in the Summer League. This league is always a little different. Different teams, the heat, slightly different players.
Hopefully we will do well.
OK, so we lost the softball game. With one game left we are guaranteed second, and there is a slim chance at 1st. Basically, we would have to win our last game and then have the team that beat us lose two. That isn't gonna happen.
Tomorrow we will play for all the marbles in softball. Our team has one loss, the team we will play tomorrow has one loss. The winner will be crowned the softball champion of for the Spring Season.
Man I sure hop my pitching is up to snuff and my bat is hot.
I have now garnered the second comment on my Blog. My aren't I burning up the world. Maybe I can make 5 cents from some google ads.
I have decided I am getting a little older. What tells me this? My body. Playing softball is great, but I seem to ache a little more after each game. Not so much I am laid out on the couch for days, but enough to feel a tight for a day or two. I would suspect that being a bit overweight and out of shape would have something to do with it too.
By the way, we won again. 7 and 1.
I play softball. Specifically, I play Church League Softball. I've played every season pretty much since I got out of college, so that would be since 1994. In the beginning I played/managed a Co-Ed softball team. Those teams were fun to play on, but the best we ever did in an 8-team league was 3rd. Over the last 4 years I have played Men's Church League softball on a pretty competitive team. We have won the championship two years running and were undefeated for a pretty good stretch of that time.
Tonight that changed.
Tonight we suffered our first loss in almost two full seasons. It was a well played game, it was fun, it was exciting, the other team was fun and great sports, but we still got the L.
As the pitcher, I did alright, but it was tough tonight. The wind was blowing about 2-feet, meaning I started the ball 2-feet inside for a strike and I gave up two homeruns.
In the end, we lost by one run.
Ohh well, 5-1 to start of the season isn't bad.
The wife and I have two dogs (no kids). Our oldest, Sandy, is a 3 and a half year old catahoula / coon hound. Our youngest, Buddy, is almost 2 and is a longhaired, healer-type, mutt.
I got Sandy from a mountain lion and bobcat hunter who lives in a town near the Rio Grande. The hunter had bred a female catahoula and a male coon hound and only wanted to keep part of the litter. I happend to be working on a job in this small town and found out about the pups through the construction workers. I took some pictures, took them home to the wife, and two days later we had Sandy. She was a very hyper puppy, but with training and attention she has grown into being a great dog.
Buddy is a different story. My wife decided that Sandy needed a friend to play with while we were gone during the day. So, my wife started going to the pound to try and find a suitable playmate. Buddy was the cutest little black and tan fur-ball in the pound, and from his paws was going to grow up to be about the same size as Sandy. My wife kind of ignored the fact that he was the loudest dog in the pound and the most hyper. My wife was only half hearted about training Buddy, so he is not fully broken of his hyperactivity.
Regardless, they are our dogs and we love them...even if Sandy can be a bit protective of me and Buddy is a sock and paper eating Spaz.
I read quite a few blogs. Most of the bloggers are what I would call quasi-anonymous.
If you put your mind to it and looked at domain registrations, read through the archives for different posts, you could figure out who they are.
Then there are those who come right out and tell you exactly who they are.
I tend to admire the second group of bloggers, which is why I'm not exactly going to any great lenghts to be anonymous.
I figure if I can't say it in public and be comfortable with it, I won't say it here!
