Shallow Thinker

While pundits argue if the United States is in a recession or not, the reality is that families are beginning to feel the pinch. As gas prices increase, so do the goods that require transportation (such as groceries.) Coupled with that, the US dollar gets a little weaker causing prices to increase…and the cycle repeats itself. Then politicians want to mess with the process and they end up just making things worse.

Up until now, our family hasn’t made any drastic changes in our behavior. Some forecasts put gas above $4 for the remainder of the year and into next year. Even if fuel stays steady, the food price increases lag behind a bit, so we can expect to see them increase a bit. I’m beginning to wonder if we should start trying to make some changes that can help us reduce costs.

Perhaps the biggest expense that we have is food. So, by my keen sense of deduction, I have determined that we could save some money if we found ways to pay less. For instance, we could plant a garden. We’re thinking that next spring will be an excellent opportunity to get Butterfly involved with crop raising. So, that’s one idea that we’ll work on for next year. What about now?

A lot of people are buying in bulk and storing food in a freezer. The problem with this concept is that we don’t have a freezer. So is it worth dropping $300-$400 on a freezer so that we can buy 10 pounds of chicken and save $10? Not to mention that buying in bulk usually requires a membership to somewhere else ($40). Granted, not all bulk items are frozen, but we’d also have to fight the mentality of “hey, I’ve got 23 gallons of peanut butter…let’s eat it all tonight!”.

Everywhere I look, it seems like you have to spend money to save money. I really can’t decide what’s worth it. Do you have any ideas?

A friend of mine from my high school years recently made the move from New York to Montreal. In doing so, she penned a break-up letter so that New York would know how she felt. Now, I realize that I must say goodbye to something, as well. In that vein, I present to you, my own letter:

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Dear Running,

It was good to see you again last night. I know that it had been a while, but I needed to get out of the house and there you were. I know that it was a bit awkward for us at first, but we made the most of it. You always manage to take my breath away.

How long have we been seeing each other? Seriously?! Over 15 years. Wow! I sure have learned a lot from you in that time. And really, I’ve learned a lot about myself, too. You’ve always pushed me further than I thought I could go… and I appreciate that. A lot of times, I got to where I was because of you…and most of those times, “where I was” was the same place that I had started. Isn’t it crazy the way our relationship continues to come full circle?

So here’s the thing….I don’t think I can see you any more. I know it sounds like a cliche’ but you need to know that it’s not you, it’s me. Seriously, you just don’t know how much it hurts me every time we meet. And it’s not just when we meet…I’m left with this deep aching for days after our encounters.

When I was young and wild, I could handle our blitzing pace. I enjoyed the ups and downs along our journey. But, alas, I’m not young anymore. You beckon me to follow at a pace that I can no longer reach. The “ups” in our relationship break me so that I can no longer enjoy the “downs”.

And let’s be honest. We both have others that we’re seeing. I’ve never said anything about your friends because I was afraid that you’d notice mine. But now we can admit it. I’ve become reliant upon another to give me strength. The elliptical machine is kind, gentle, and smooth. That’s what my old body needs. And there are lots of young, vivacious runners out there that can meet your needs. I know that you’ll bounce back.

I’ll never forget the good times we had together. There was that time that you helped me finish 4th in my region in the 800m run. (Which made me the second alternate to the state track meet. ) And that time at the Run4 Missions when I finished first in my age group. I’ll always remember that time we strolled along the beach during our vacation. Those times memories will live on.

Don’t think of this so much as “goodbye”, but more of “see you later”. I’ll still drop in from time-to-time, but we both know that we could never go back to the way it was.

I’ll miss you deeply,

My high school has an alumni website where you can find and communicate with people that you knew from high school. Thus far, the site has netted me a grand total of one (1) e-mail. It was from my sister. I don’t know what the deal is. I filled out the information sheet just like they asked. Maybe people think I’m too successful to bother me with such silliness. Yeah, I’ll bet that’s it. People are intimidated by my success. Read my profile and see what you think:

I was scared to click on the video…

Sometimes you look around and realize how much of an old fuddy-dud you’re becoming. I had this revelation Saturday night. It wasn’t anything as ludicrous as bird watching, but it was close. Kelley and I had put the girls to bed and were settling down to just relax. We couldn’t decide on a movie to watch or a game to play, so I started rifling through our vast DVD collection. After eliminating the Harry Potter and Johnny Depp movies, we were left with 4 selections. The only one we hadn’t seen yet was March of the Penguins. So what does an old couple do on Saturday night? They watch it….and they like it. This movie is simply a narrated view at the mating season of the penguins. You’d think that this would be boring…and it probably is, but that didn’t stop us from enjoying it.

First, the whole thing is narrated by Morgan Freeman. I listened intently to every word in hopes that he’d slip in some line about Andy Dufresne. He didn’t. It would have been cool if he did, though.

Next, these things are hilarious. I knew about their silly little waddle, but I had no idea that they had a funny honk, too. Who knew that Pingu was so well based on fact?! (he’s starting to make a comeback, by the way.) At any rate, whoever thinks that God doesn’t have a sense of humor has clearly never watched penguins. Of course, Kelley and I spent most of the movie adding in our own dialogue for what the penguins were saying to each other. We’re cool like that.

And finally, we got a little education. There’s a lot about penguins that we didn’t know. Morgan did a great job of informing us. When he plays a character, you just don’t get the sense that he’s well educated on the movements of non-flight birds. He’ll surprise you.

To summarize the movie, these birds slowly waddle over 70 miles and congregate into a huge group. There they mingle with lots of other penguins until they find just the right mate…which is easy to do when everyone looks the exact same. Then they go through this elaborate courtship, birthing, and chick-raising process that involves more long walks and a lot of missed meals. The parents lose a lot of sleep and a lot of weight caring for their chicks. They only survive the elements by huddling together.

Wait a minute, that stuff doesn’t sound amusing at all. It sounds like college and parenthood. I think maybe Morgan Freeman has pulled one over on us.

Recently, I posted a funny picture of some Air Force personnel. Now I present to you the other side of the coin. This only shows a small portion of the dedication and the honor of those who serve and have served in our armed forces. This video was posted was recorded by “Dan W” and posted on CNN. Here’s the description given:

I was standing in Arlington Cemetery in VA when a huge storm was rolling in. I noticed these Air force soldiers standing so perfectly still. As the weather took a turn for the worse, these magnificent soldiers stood there ground. I was truly amazing to see them just standing there as the winds and rain were blowing tress and power lines over. WOW..

Originally posted here - http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-31270

My wife has recently turned into an old retired lady. She can be carrying a handful of fragile, valuable items and all I have to do is say “Is that a double-breasted, swallow-tailed, red-hooded, flight finch?” and she’ll immediately drop what she’s carrying to run to look out the window…usually with binoculars and reference book in hand.

I’ll admit, it’s a bit relaxing to be able to watch the birds enjoy a meal while we enjoy ours. Last Sunday afternoon, Butterfly giggled when I told her that the male and female cardinal were eating their after-church lunch just like we were. Bird Church…who comes up with this stuff?

We recently decided to move the feeders. Apparently, a hungry squirrel realized that he could utilize these seeds to meet his nutritional requirements. All he had to do was climb a nearby tree, jump the 50 feet to the feeder, balance upon the teetering house, and viola! A meal fit for a king…finch. (I will allow the Queen to interject in the comments section to tell you all if there is a such thing as a King Finch and what it’s feeding habits are.)

The logical thing to do would be to move the feeder where the squirrel couldn’t get to it. But we’re not logical people. We moved it to where squirrel doesn’t have to try very hard. The new location also has the benefit of allowing Butterfly to watch all of the feeders from her seat at the table. Unfortunately, I think this squirrel is afraid that we made it too easy for him, so he’s a bit timid in his quest now. The photographs below show how the little rascal finds his meal. You’ll have to look really hard to find him in the last one (click for larger pictures), but don’t worry…he’s hiding in there somewhere. He’s like the James Bond of furry-tailed rodents.

My friends who are in the Air Force should appreciate this news clip that I found - Especially DruU. This picture is published by the US Air Force and was reprinted in a local newspaper. (Click the picture for the full-size version). The photograph details the state of care taken by maintenance personnel to keep our high-precision, military aircraft fully operational. If you can’t read the text, the caption says:

Tech Sgt. Somebody observes as Tech Sgt. SomebodyElse carefully lowers the main landing gear strut on a KC-135 Stratotanker to full extension using a 11.5 pound dead blow hammer…

For those of you who are not familiar with maintenance, if you’re using a sledge hammer, the word “carefully” is probably not the best descriptor available.

Before I start this post, I should give a quick vocabulary lesson. If something is shaped like a circle, it’s “circular”. Like a rectangle? Rectangular. Like a triangle? Triangular. What about if it is shaped like an oval? Ovular? Incorrect! That word nothing to do with geometry and a great deal to do with reproduction. I found this out when I submitted a formal report for my bosses to review…that was an interesting e-mail to read. The correct word is “elliptical.”

So, with that said, our bedroom has an elliptical window that sits directly above our bed and looks out over the front yard. While this is a neat little window, it lets in too much light when the sun rises. (Normally, we’re up before the sun, but the girls have spoiled us recently and let us stay in bed past 6:15!) And, since our neighbors are odd folk, they like to keep their flood lights on at night and pointed directly at this window. We need some method of blocking out light. As an interim solution, we have been stuffing a pillow into the window. While effective, it sure does look funny when you drive past the house. Butterfly has also learned that removing this pillow tweaks her mother a bit, so each morning she climbs up and removes the pillow with a wry grin. We need a better solution.

Since we moved into the house, we’ve had great plans for this window. First, we were going to have a stained glass window made. Time passed and that never happened. Then, we decided that hanging a curtain in front of the window would be cheaper. We even bought a little curtain rod to put above it. More time passed, fewer things got done. Then we decided that stained glass was the best route to take again. Nothing happened.

This weekend I decided that if something was going to be done, I’d have to take matters into my own hands (because they weren’t in my hands before?) I have some spare wood and a pencil. I think I can work up a temporary solution that looks a little better than having a Goofy pillowcase staring out of our window.

I measured and calculated. I drew out a bunch of lines on my board, and sketched out the shape…which reminded me how much I miss football. I toiled away with my trusty scroll saw under the hot sun (shade wasn’t available until another 2 hours into the project - foreshadowing) and eventually my shape was cut.

I put my board into the window and….ah man! how can it be that short on the sides. I remeasured, went back outside and sure enough. I’d written down 28.75″ instead of 29.75″. But, I could still salvage the project…So, from the big football, I cut a slightly smaller football. I traipsed back upstairs, installed the smaller board and…too big. I marked the places to sand, back downstairs, sanded, upstairs, mark, downstairs, sand, upstairs, mark, downstairs, sand….eventually my creation was small enough to be jammed into the window. See for yourself.

Currently, this thing isn’t very pretty. It’s just a piece of wood shoved into an oblong window. The goal, however is that I’ll put handles on it (for easy installation and removal). Then, I’ll paint it white to match the rest of the window. The wife and I have toyed around with the idea of letting the girls paint on the board or put their handprints on it. Realistically, it’s taken us 7 years just to get the piece of wood into the window. I expect it will be another 7 before we remove it and do anything with it. Besides, nothing brings out the Redneck Motif like a piece of board in the window. Our neighbors are proud.

I usually try to post about once each week day and then, if possible, once during the weekend. It’s that weekend one that varies the most. On some occasions, I have a bit of leisure time and I’ll think of something to help you waste your time. But then there are times like this past weekend. I felt like I was constantly going and as soon as night fell, so did I. There’s so much that needs to be done around the house and the yard that I’ll probably never be comfortable with the state of our property.

This past weekend, I had numerous projects going on. Some were more evident than others. Let’s take, for instance, cleaning out the gutters. The job was long, hot, tedious, and dirty. When I got done and looked at the house, did it look any different? Negative. Would any visitors be able to tell that I’d done it? No. Is there really much evidence that I’d spent so much time on this? Not that I can see. But, this was a task that had to be done…so I did it.

There were, however, a couple of very evident tasks and a couple that were very rewarding. This post is about one of the latter. (As opposed to one of “the ladder” which is what was used to clean out the gutters.)

After supper on Friday evening, Butterfly whispered to me “Daddy, I have a secret.” This is her new way of asking for something that she either knows she probably won’t get or doesn’t want her mother to hear because that would greatly decrease her chances of getting it. So, I readied myself to say “no” and leaned in close. “Why don’t we go build pillow houses!”

Upstairs we went to venture into imaginary realms which are supported by cloth and down. In this case, I was instructed to be Pocahontas. It was a bit of a stretch, but I managed to sound a bit more feminine than usual. I asked Butterfly who she was going to be and she said “I’m just going to be me, silly Daddy.” Good enough.

I summoned all of my engineering insight and judgment to construct another pillow house. This one came in the shape of a long tunnel. Butterfly immediately dubbed this creation a “hidey hole” (definition: a hole in which one hides.) I knew immediately that my creation was appreciated when Butterfly screamed at the top of her lungs for her mother to come and watch her play in it. In and out she went while “Pocahontas” called to her from various locations. Ladybug was curious enough to peek into the hole, but not brave enough to venture inside. She liked her chances much better where Pocahontas could keep an eye on her.

But, all good things must come to an end. Butterfly said “Daddy, you crawl in the hidey hole!” So I slowly ventured my way into the dark corridor. The only way for me to fit was to simply lay onto the floor. Immediately after my arrival, I felt the weight of a 3 yr. old on my chest and heard that deep, infectious belly laugh.

Once again, my hard work was erased in a matter of seconds. Most likely, Butterfly will never remember stories of clean gutters or trimmed hedges, but she’ll definitely remember the pillow houses. I know this because every evening since, she’s pulled close to my ear and whispered “Daddy, let’s go build pillow houses.” It’s good to have someone recognize a quality project when they see it.