Water we doing?

My brother was in town a few weeks ago and we were reminiscing of olden times. It seemed as if one of the common denominators of childhood pasttimes included water. Sure we had a pool, and we made plenty of beach trips but more still were the slip 'n slides, sprinklers, and the simplest and never tiring version of water fun was the garden hose. Yes, simply pull it out, turn it on and you have a sword, a 'London Bridge', a limbo stick, a water ribbon, and of course, if you put your thumb over the end and you can make your own rainbow!
So last Saturday after the yards were done I was hosing down the porch, and who came out to help? My buddy Calvin. Fresh in my remembrance was all of those childhood memories and so I let my little helper finish the job, we spent about forty-five minutes playing 'hose'. He was not done so I let him play a little longer:

way cute boy!

water ribbons never get old

soggy, saggy shorts!

I will not do this again

So as not to offend my sister who 'tagged' me. (I cringed when I typed that blogish word.) I will submit my answers to the following request:

"List 3 joys, 3 fears, 3 collections/obsessions, surprising facts."

3 joys

1. hanging out with Rachel.

2. kiddos

3. problem solving.

3 fears

1. not being able to formulate answers to basic questions, like "What are three fears you have?"

2. fear itself?

3. I think this is a bit gay.

3 obsessions/collections

1. State Quarters, I started this when the kids were little, so I thought I'd do them the service of collecting for them, I started five collections in 1999. Each time we added a kid, I've had to add another set. Now, obviously, I have eight sets.

2. When I traveled and when I was younger, I collected matchbooks. We had a tall vase full of matchbooks. Lame.

3. stumped again. I'm not much of a sharer.

3 surprising facts

1. I know alot of Barry Manilow songs. I blame my mom and sisters, but I know the songs.

1A. Barry Manilow was a song writer first, he wrote most of his songs, but one he didn't write was "I Write the Songs." Surprising and ironic!!

2. I have lived in Arizona for more of my adult life than California. (I am shrugging my shoulders with a 'that's the breaks' look on my face.)

3. I never want to be on t.v. or quoted in the paper. Every so often as we start a new job in a high profile place, the newsies will set up and want to film one of their one minute spots where they interview 'Joe six-pack construction-worker' and manipulate what ever the poor sod says to fit their view point. I find great pleasure in shooing them away. As the wannabe Geraldo is walking away he'll spout off a, "you could have been on T.V.!" Yeah, what a drag to blow my big chance.
Once, I was caught in a quasi bomb scare situation were a newspaper reporter was asking me questions. She was nice, so I obliged. After her Barbra Walter-esque line of questions she asked me for my name, I declined. She asked me why not and I told her to "call me the concerned community member". She looked at me funny then I told her I didn't want my name in her stupid liberal propaganda publication. She walked away and I don't think she used my comments.

Teach Your Children Well.

If your state flag awareness is less than sharp you my not notice that the flag flying underneath Old Glory is the Arizona state flag, upside-down. This caught my eye last week as I was going to Meet the Teacher Night at our children's elementary school. I gave the flag hoisters a 'pass' figuring that it was new school year jitters or something. Well it's been a week now. I thought that maybe it was done by a helpful student who just got a little confused. When I got home I asked my sixth grade son who is on the student council if he might know who raises the flag each day, (silently praying that it was not him), he said he was not sure who does it. I'm pretty sure if it was a student, he'd know.

So, What could it be? I know that the U.S. flag flown upside-down is a sign of distress or protest. Could that be a political statement made by the school? I'm being facetious now, but it looks less than stellar, to say the least.

I may be taking this a little far but I'm somewhere between finding humor and being concerned. It's tough when I see a flag flying upside-down coupled with marquee with phrases like,"Have a Great Sumer" or "Pizza Nite", ('Nite' kills me. It's just one more letter to spell it right. I'd like the marquee at the place where my kids are learning how to spell to be spelled rite, er, uh, I mean right.). What is a dad to think?

I like the school, but the devil is in the details. It looks like I'll be making a courtesy call to the school in the morning.

Love Makes You Do Crazy Things

One year ago, I rekindled an old flame. This love was dormant for many years. Every so often I'd come in contact, or have a flashback, but nothing that I acted upon. Nothing until last August after my doctor told me that if I didn't drop at least 50lbs I'd die. So I sought after this old love of mine, hoping that she'd take me back after years of neglect.

"Would she even recognize me?"

"Am I even worthy to see and be with her again?"

"Could we ever have what we once had?"

"How can I let her know that this is not just a phase I'm going through?"

I was full of apprehension, but I had to go through with it. I decided to make three mornings a week my basketball commitment. The Goddess of Basketball accepted me back. It worked for about 8 months, I felt like I was 17 again, I was good to the game and she was good to me too. Then the summer months came, my crews started earlier, and in turn, so did I. I missed almost the whole month of July but figured August would be a good time to get back together with her. She had to know that a man's got work right? Sure enough Monday I made it out, and I thought she took me back, until the forth or fifth time up the court I stepped on another guys foot and rolled my left ankle. Noooooooooo! "I didn't mean to leave you for that long, please don't do this to me!" The basketball goddess knows my one weakness, my left ankle. Let me expound:

A textbook stance to defend the inbound pass.

• It was my sophomore year when I first injured it, I tore ligaments and tendons enough to require season ending surgery. I still contend that this injury kept me out of the NBA, no question about it. I think the goddess was testing my love for her.





• Then my senior year I re-injured it in a church basketball game. I sprained it, and it had to go back in a cast.





• Two years ago, same ankle, I had a sore that wouldn't go away, it got so bad that I was forced to see a doctor. Turned out to be a staph infection. I got proper treatment but it left a new nasty scar on my 'action ankle'. I haven't found a good link betwwen this and the basketball goddess, but I have not ruled her out either.





• Now I've strained or sprained, (the doctor mumbled), the ligaments again. I'm in a boot for two weeks.

Man, I was just getting my game tuned up for the NBA season this fall, this will definitely set me back a little. My love for her game does not fade. I will be back and stronger because of it.

"Love Hurts"

Angels among us.

I am an appreciator of music. There is seldom a time when I don't have some form of music on or in my head ("...and I can't get it out of my head."-E.L.O.). The kids tease Rachel and I because nearly every word they utter we can find a song to match or a word to trigger another song. Most of that is just superfluous fun.

I also use music to tap in to more solemn and spiritual things too. I love the hymns, I have all the Tabernacle Choir CD's, and play them frequently. A few years ago we acquired the family piano. This has brought a new type of appreciation, not only does it fill our home with good music, but it is being crafted by the hands of my own children! It would seem hard to find something better than that, but there is.

About once a week, Rachel has Chip practice different arrangements of hymns, she sits on the bench with him and sings to help him get better at accompanying vocals. Rachel doesn't think she is a soloist but in reality she hides her beautiful lead vocal voice behind her perfect pitched alto voice. I guess that's okay, because I get to relish in this angelic presentation from time to time. Every so often Hannah will join in and I feel like this is as close to Heaven that our home can get. What a blessing.

Like I just invented the wheel.

I try not to be wasteful. When it rains out here I will usually go outside and hose down my driveway and walkways. Most people don't know what to make of this but I just like to take advantage of the free pre-wet, and the dirt runs all the way down the street aided by natural water, not my water.

My kids are funny because they think if a box is almost empty that gives them the right to open a fresh box. The cupboard is full of almost empty boxes of cereal! Well the way I see it is, if it's a full box they want then I will give it to them by doing what I call 'cereal consolidation'. All of the partials go into one box. No waste. The same thing goes for ketchup and barbecue sauce too. Maybe it's a weird quirk, but I could think of worse quirks.

Monday I had a breakthrough in shower thriftiness. I hate when the soap gets too thin and small that it fits into the natural kerf of my palm and still does not touch my skin. What to do with this little sliver of cleanliness? Throw it away? Never! Set it in the shower and eventually Rachel will throw it away? Inconsiderate, and never! Drop it on the drain and mash it through the grates with my foot? It never really goes down, it plugs the drain until it's dissolved, and still never! All these options seemed wasteful! So as I said, the other day I was up against this dilemma, I set the sliver in the soap holder and got a new bar, when I was done I set the new bar in the soap holder on top of the old one. Then it came to me: press the new soap onto the old soap. Eureka!!! No more wasted soap slivers! What a relief!

Passing through town...

...I saw this restaurant. I am sure I would not recommend this to anyone.

If one were to go despite my warnings, I would strongly suggest something other than the "#2 combination plate".

I would also recommend steering clear of the Pu Pu platter.