Burn Baby, Burn

As long as I can remember I have had a fascination with fire. Growing up in suburban Southern California we didn't have much need for open fires, but when the chance was available I took it.

When I was 12 0r 13 it got worse. I can remember once I stayed the night at my best friends house and we scoured the house gathering up all the chemicals, cleaning and lubricating agents and went on trying to figure out which one would give us the best flame. Not too safe or smart, but fun for a boy. Then our family took a trip to Mexico, the land of fireworks. Can you say pyromania? Three months of paper route money plus some spending money from my dad all went up in a shower of sparks and exploded. What a rush. We returned to Mexico a few more times through my adolescence and I never grew tired of the fireworks.

Many years have passed and marriage, kids, career, callings, and the like seem to be more important than playing with fire. Maybe I'm more mature. Perhaps more wise, or like the Apostle Paul said, "I put away childish things". Maybe I could have believed that before a recent a stop in Evanston, Wyoming, but not anymore.

I thought it would a nice thing for a Dad to do to pick up a few fireworks for the kids for the fourth of July. As we exited I-80 there were three warehouse sized stores selling fireworks. Which one? PyroCity seemed like the one who's name suited me the best. As I walked in I got real giddy. The saying, A kid in a candy store comes to mind. Difference was I was not a kid and I was not playing with kid type funds. I could buy everything in that store if I wanted. I was numb with glee, I don't even think my feet were touching the ground! My kite 0f excitement was tethered to the spool of string that I call Rachel. She did indulge me; she was fine with me buying a heaping shopping cart full, but she had to stop me when I was considering trading the Excursion and all the kids for more. It was alot of fun.

The Fourth of July fireworks show is another story, but the giddy childlike anticipation was something I didn't know I still had it in me. I guess I'm glad I still do.

Two of my biggest fans, both nephews.

1/4 milestone

Last month I decided to swim again. I decided to swim a quarter mile every day, save Sundays. I kept to my goal except for the last day of the month. My month end total was 7 miles, I love swimming.

2,294

We just returned from our family summer vacation. We spent one week with the Hixon family and one week with the Poppletons. Lady luck was smiling on us as both 'reunions' were about 30 minutes apart from each other. From our home to our furthest destination was 1,602 miles round trip. When I pulled into the garage late last night/early this morning my trip meter read 2,294. I started going through my mind making an account for the 600+ miles. It was fun to think of the highways, byways, scenic routes, detours and whims along the way. It seemed like we were able to do all the things that we wanted to do and then some. It was a good two weeks. I am very thankful for the opportunity to do this kind of stuff, and spend time with all of my most favorite people.

Onward Chrisitan Solider

You know what I like about this? This guy is for real. I don't have any doubt he is buying what he is selling. It was refreshing to see this guy on my commute the other day. This was not just a tailgate message, he had these warnings on both sides of the truck and on the hood! What passion.

Three Strikes.

I am not a fan of movies. I don't like most T.V. shows either, but I'll save that for another day. Most people can, as Shakespeare put it, "suspend reality" long enough to enjoy stuff like that, but I just find myself frustrated with how dumb, or far fetched things on the screen seem to be. I am just not a fan of fake.

With the kids being out of school, Rachel and I are trying to find ways to entertain them. The other night we went to the video store to see what we could muster up...not much. Sure there were lots to choose from, but at the same time nothing to choose from. I had to suspend my own reality as Rachel would ask me if I'd like this or that movie. They all seemed bad, Yuck!

We combed to whole store and came home with three movies; The Tale of Despero, Mall Cop, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I don't want to clutter this entry with lame details or commentary of movies that should have never been made so I will just say, they were terrible. In fairness, I fell asleep during The Tale of Despero. So maybe after the first twenty minutesthat one turns into a smash. Just after that same twenty minutes that seemed to lull me to sleep. Strike one! Mall Cop scored a zero. Strike two! The only good thing about the Benjamin Button movie was the fact that I got to sit on the couch and cuddle my sweetheart for three hours, but we didn't need a movie for that. Strike three, yer out!

The Mile Swim and the Heart of a Champion

My camp memoirs were long, so I pulled this out because it could stand alone.

"I love to swim. I always have. When I saw that there were two swimming activities offered at camp I could not pass them up. One was the Polar Bear Swim the other was the Mile Swim. First was a little hokey, it was more refreshing than cold, the latter was a pretty decent chore. I talked up the mile swim to my boys and actually got three of them to go with me. One of them was my son. The other two didn't strike me as swimmers. There are three days of mandatory conditioning. Starting at 1/8 mile and doubling each day until the full mile. So long as I was doing it, I knew that Chip was not going to give up. I felt like the other boys would lose interest after a day or two. I was wrong. Those boys stuck with it. On the day of the 1/2 mile swim, one of the boys admitted that he really wanted to do other things, but he had committed to this and he was going to stick with it. Citing the 50 mile hike the troop did last year he said, "I hiked fifty miles, I can swim one."

Friday was the day of reckoning, they all did it. It was not easy but they did it. There was one thing that made it easy for me, that was my swim buddy Chip. I was swimming at a steady pace and he stayed right with me. A few times he got a little behind, but with some quick recovery strokes, he was right back even with me. I wanted to tell him that he didn't have to keep up with me. After all, it was not a race we just needed to finish. But I knew that I couldn't stop swimming so I let him do what he thought was right. It took about 45 minutes to complete, it was tiring. I watched as he pulled his long skinny body out of the pool and totally exhausted he lay on the deck. I asked him how he felt and very quickly and confidently he said, "Good." He started to shake, so I got him his towel, that helped a little. I gave him some peanuts and a Gatorade and that helped. After a few minutes he was back to normal.

I was in awe as I witnessed one whose will exceeded his own physical abilities. I was so proud of him."

"Chip off the old block"

"The old block"