Shallow Thinker

This past weekend, Kelley and I took the girls to spend a little time with my dad’s parents.  During the visit, I watched my girls play with and enjoy some of the same toys that I played with as a child.  (I had to fight the urge to squeal like a middle school girl every time they pulled out a new one.  I wanted to shriek “I remember that train!  It was my favorite!”)

For lunch, Pop and I went down the the local barbecue shop and rustled up some chicken and pork.  On the ride, we talked about changes around their neighborhood, across the country, and within our family.  He told me a couple of stories about growing-up and about my dad when he was younger.

In a few of the quite moments that I’ve had since our visit, I have though more about what Pop didn’t tell me than what he did.  I realize that there is so much about his life that I’ll never know.  His days in the service, what his father was like, what it was like growing up when he did, fathering three boys….the list goes on.

When my grandfather passes on, so will the memory of most of his life.  A part of me is deeply saddened by that.  He lived so much and did so many things and I only know a small drop in the bucket.  Most likely, I’ll never know much about the young man serving his country on a ship or about an electrical guru helping to power a major production facility. I realize that I am fortunate for the parts that I do know.  I know about a gentle giant who loves his wife. I know about a man that understands he’s getting older, but enjoys the freedom of his own house too much to move on.  I know a man who always gives us a jar of honey because his great-granddaughter likes it.

I’m a bit ashamed to look around and realize how many others there are like Pop.  Each day, I interact with people that carry hidden stories that I may never unlock.  There are deep lives that I may never wade into.  I can blame some of that on the fact that people are guarded.  Some I can blame on being too focused on some random task.  Either way, I’m missing out on all these beautiful people with amazing lives.

Is there a way to remedy this or is it just the way life is?

I hope that your attempts to stomach your family that you don’t want to see are as successful as mine.  I kid, I kid…..well….

Happy Thanksgiving!

I always get the messed-up cart at stores. You know the one. It pulls hard to the left, or it’s slightly off balance. Even worse, the one that the wheel rattles worse than a jet engine.  Perhaps this is why…

Drinks for everyone!  This one’s on me… you just have to wait 4-6 weeks for your coupon:

http://www.drpepper.com/text/

That's a $9 hot dog!

Today, my wonderful wife allowed me the opportunity to slip away to spend some time with a few of my friends.  Lance, Andy, Rob and I went to watch the Mercer vs. Ga Tech basketball game.  It was Mercer’s homecoming game and Tech is pretty well represented in the Macon area, so the event was sold out.  Luckily, my employer has an inside connection and scored us some tickets.

We met-up at my house and drove to campus, arriving about an hour early.  We really wanted to channel that old-time Mercer spirit, so we grabbed some grub at the cafeteria.  $8.45 seemed about average for the variety and amount of food that we might be able to eat.  Lance had the right attitude going in, though.  He calculated that Mercer had taken a lot of money from us during undergrad, so this was our opportunity to make some of it back.

The old studs return to their breeding grounds.

After stuffing ourselves, we headed over to the University Center to take in the game.  Our seats were pretty good…but when 3,304 people makes a venue “Standing room only”, there really aren’t bad seats.  At any rate, we settled in and watched the Bears take an early lead of 11 only to be up by 1 at halftime.  Then the roared back and went up by 14 in the second half…only to hibernate and be tied at the end of regulation.  I don’t think that they were aware that overtime means “you can still play” so Tech walked out with an 82-76 victory.

Even though the outcome wasn’t what we cheered for, it was still a great experience.  I think we’ll do it a few more times this season.  Well, we’ll probably skip the cafeteria…I think they made a little more money on me today.  Here are a few more pictures from our journey:

Rob was eating so fast that he looked like the flash.  Slow down, dude, the lunch lady will make sure that you are well-fed…and well-loved.

Speaking of flashes…Here Lance is taking a picture of someone that was two tables across from us.  I’m pretty sure that’s illegal nowadays.

Here Stands Tarver Library.  I spent as much time in there today as I spent during my undergrad days.

Warm-ups with high expectations.  Poor guys…

Mercer leads 34-35 at halftime.  I think someone opened a door at halftime and started letting all of the hope out of the room.

Hey, look, there’s Paul Hewitt.  I wonder if he wants me to play for Tech…

Lance has successfully performed the yawn-stretch trick to get his arms around Andy and Rob.  What a smooth operator.

Just before the end of regulation.

Packed house with folks standing to see the end of the game.  A rare site on Mercer’s campus, but I hope that it occurs more often.

My yearly cough did not fail to show up this year.  On the contrary, it not only visited, but has stayed much longer than previous years.  It really is a strange phenomenon.  For 5 years in a row (that I can remember), I’ve developed unshakeable cough during late October or mid November.  Thinking back, I even remember having it one winter in college.

At any rate, I finally broke down and went to the doctor yesterday.  I tried a new guy because I was tired of the same ‘ole thing from my other doctor.  His response to some of my ailments were along the lines of “yep”.  Not to mention that he had nothing really helpful for the cough.

The new doctor, on the other hand, seemed very intreagued that this happened every year.  His current leading theory is that it’s some type of allergy.  Sound plausible to me because I’m allergic to about 97% of the things on this planet.  I guess my body gets tired of watery eyes and a runny nose and decides to use a cough during the fall/winter.

So, now I have some codeine to treag the cough and some nasal spray to try to help with the allergies.  Let’s hope that both work!

In keeping with my rant against the way things are vs. the way they should be -

I worked out Monday night and last night.  I would pat myself on the back, but my boobs are too sore.  Yes, I said “boobs” - it will drive up the website traffic!  I’m assuming that no one wants to see pictures, though.

Editor’s Note: I’ll be the first to admit that I’m cynical.  One of my friends phrased it nicely when she said that my true talent in life is to “point out absurdities in absolutely everything.”  So yes, I’m a bad person, and I’m aware of that…but that has never stopped me before.

Why in the world do church’s put up those “cute” sayings on their signs?  For instance “God answers knee-mail”.  Is the intent to bring people into the church based on the cleverness of the pun?  I want to know how many people have been driving down the road, looked over at one of these signs and said “Oh my goodness, what wit and charm!  I shall attend here on Sunday morning at 10:00 for Sunday School, 11:00 for Worship Service and again at 7:00 for Evening Services.”

Aren’t these signs really “inside” jokes.  If you’re in the church, you get it.  If you’re not, then it’s not going to impact you.  To me, it’s kind of like a bunch of computer programmers inviting people to learn the benefits of programming, but sending out the invitations in C++.  If the invitation doesn’t make much sense, why would I attend?

Maybe we should do something completely crazy and attract people into churches by our actions instead of our silly puns.  NAh, that won’t work.  Let’s stick with “knee-mail”…that’ll bring ‘em in by the thousands.

Think the people in your office are nerds?  Think again.  Our company had some people participate in a “plane pull” this past weekend.  (About 20 people grab a rope and pull a 737 about 12 feet as quick as they can.  The fastest team wins.)  The event was a fundraiser for the Ronald McDonald house, so the whole company was involved in different efforts to try to put some money in .

Our office’s organizer sent out an e-mail this morning to report the results and thank everyone for their help in raising money.  Here’s the first response to hit the inbox:

Pulling something 12 ft in 9.1 sec from a dead stop means the average acceleration was 0.29 ft/sec^2. The newspaper said the 727 weighed 175,000 lb, so mass and acceleration gives 1,580 lb force to accelerate it. But the guys also would have had to overcome rolling resistance of the tires. That’s roughly 0.5% of the load they carry, and 0.5% of 175,000 lb is 875 lb. So the total force exerted must have been about 2,450 lb, or about 200 lb each.

2,450 lb over 12 ft is 40 kilojoules of energy expended in 9.1 secs, and that works out to about 4,400 watts of power, enough to power about 3 hair dryers!

Not bad enough, you say?  How about the fact that since then, there have been at least 10 more e-mails discussing the initial assumptions and other factors such as ergonomics and the effects it has on force applied.

Some days I leave work just happy to be going home.  Today I leave work happy that I’m not that bad.

In this pas election, some voters declared Barak Obama to be the antichrist.  This is categorically untrue.  Google is the antichrist.  Someday, I’ll devote a post to help give ammunition to my theory.  Until then, here’s just another example of how Google is slowly taking over the world:

http://www.google.org/flutrends/

See what I mean?  They know a lot more about you than you think.  Think I’m wrong?  Google it and see what you find.

According to my calendar, I last worked out a little over 2 weeks ago.  Before that, it was 3 weeks.  (I’ll betthat my gym loves having me as a member!)  The excuses are getting easier and easier to come by these days.  So are the cookies and the sweets.  Some nights I put the girls to bed and I know that I should go to the gym and then come home and get some work done, but an hour or two later, I’m there on the couch watching football or playing a video game.

What I need is some motivation.  What I don’t have is a good idea of what kind of motivation I need.  Arby’s or Moe’s would certainly get me off the couch, but they would defeat the purpose.  Maybe a work-out partner…any takers?  No?  Maybe I should just face the facts that engineers aren’t ever known for their muscular physiques, just their intelligent minds.  Looks like I lose either way. *sigh*  At least my Halo friends appreciate me!