Say What?

We headed up north to Babbitt for the weekend to be together with some of Tammy's family. We got an early start leaving home at 6:15am Thursday. Rachel and I drove together following Tammy. We stopped along the way in Virginia to pick up her father, Morey, at the retirement home where he's been living for the past 8 months. It was an icy drive and the further north we got the more cars we saw in the ditch. I enjoy my road trips with Rachel as it gives us time to really catch up with each other. You would think that we'd run out of things to talk about but we don't. We kick around all sorts of things from silly thoughts to the more complex social issues of our world. And there's always plenty to laugh at. We were just south of Hinkley when I spotted a billboard up in the distance with what looked to be a bird on top of it. I knew it was fake but I said "hey, look at the size of the bird on that sign" Her response was something like, "wow, is that rea...

In one of our Christmas cards, we received there was a small pamphlet titled, Unwrapping the Truth about Christmas. The pamphlet details some interesting facts about the bible and the life of Christ. One item which stood out for me was this... Jesus: The Focus and Fulfillment of Prophecy There are at least 456 Old Testament prophetic references that pertain to a future person that all were fulfilled in the life of Jesus. The most common objection is that the fulfillment of these prophecies was by chance. Science and mathematics professor Peter Stoner estimated a reasonable probability that one man might have fulfilled just 8 of these 456 prophecies at one chance in 10 to the 17th power. 1 chance in 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 Take that amount of silver dollars and cover the state of Texas two feet deep. Mark one and stir the whole mass thoroughly. Blindfold a man and have him pick up only one silver dollar and have it be the right one. what chance would he have of getting the...

I was talking with Ron S and mr Mark at the front desk yesterday. The three of us were joking about playing hockey a dozen years earlier. I reminded Ron how I'd kicked his ass in a race on the ice back in the day but he said I had it all wrong. We were both a couple of hacks but In closing our conversation I replied that there was a labor/management war going on around here and that I couldn't be seen talking with them. A totally tongue-in-cheek remark. I didn't think anything else of it. I was sitting in the area a couple hours later waiting to go home when mr M came up to me, leaned in and said softly, "I have never disrespected you as a controller." I didn't know what to think as I wasn't sure where he was coming from. A couple minutes later he came up to me once again and repeated what he'd just said. I asked him what he was referring to. He said that I was disrespectful when I was talking with Ron and him. He said that if I had a problem ...

I was saddened to hear of the death of Dan Fogelberg on Sunday. It's been many years since I've purchased any of his music but one CD of his is in my top ten: Netherlands. I have one memory in particular of being in Hong Kong while in port during my Navy days and having his song, Netherlands, run through my head. It's odd how some memories remain with us all these years later. Our family plan with Sprint expired this week and we took the opportunity to move over to Verizon. No particular reason other than Rachel said that most of her friends were using it and that they like it. The 3 of us also upgraded our phones to the LG Env. It's larger than I'm used to but I like it. The 2mp camera will actually get some use, unlike other phone cameras I've had. We weren't sure which text plan to have for Rachel so I looked at our history with Sprint to get an idea what she would need. This past month she had over 1400 text messages...and that's without a boyfr...

We had our neighborhood house-hop last weekend with about 12 couples joining in. It's always a fun time and usually a late night. The hit of the party was without question, Guitar Hero, at Tom and Mary Wignall's home. Neither Tammy nor I had ever played it before but that didn't stop Tammy from trying the classic over the head and behind the back position with the guitar once she got it strapped on. We both really sucked but had a great time trying. Little does Tammy know that I went out and purchased a Play Station 2 the other night with intentions of buying Rock Band when it arrives in stores on Wednesday. A family Christmas gift. I can see Tammy and I entertaining ourselves for hours while Rachel looks on and wonders what's becoming of us. I think the three of us could put together a tight little band with just a bit of work. I'll be on the skins. Rachel came home from school on Thursday and wondered if we could head into Minneapolis that night for the Holida...

Have you looked on Google Maps Street View, to see if you were out and about when the Google van taking street-view photos came by? It looks as though I was just finishing mowing our yard. Either that or I'm just getting started.

Fall riding weather is nothing more than a distant memory since we got dumped on with nearly ten inches of snow in the last week. The roads out of our neighborhood are still quite snow-packed but the main roads are fine. The last few winters I've shunned my indoor trainer for whatever clear roads I could find, sometimes riding in temps as cold as zero. Winter riding in Minnesota is doable but there are two big obstacles: frozen toes and the lack of daylight. Up until a little over a week ago, I was searching for some warmer shoes for winter riding with plans of once again riding outdoors through the winter months. That approach changed when I came across a thread on the Serotta forum and some input from a respected poster who couldn't say enough good things about TruTrainer rollers. I very much respect what this poster (who goes by the name of 11.4) has to say. I'd been kicking around the idea of bringing my training back indoors and 11.4's recommendation of these ro...

It is truly better to give than to receive. Tammy turned 50 today. I was ahead of the game with her birthday this year having ordered her a Dell laptop a couple weeks ago and getting all the accessories during the past week.  Rachel and I gave it to her today and she was so happy that she cried. I honestly wasn't expecting that reaction but her tears brought tears to my eyes as well. She is so thankful and I'm very happy for her. The laptop she's been using is our 7-year-old Sony Viao and while it still works fine and has plenty of hard drive space it was beginning to hang up much more often as the processor wasn't keeping up with some of her programs. Reformatting wasn't the answer. I just spent the last couple hours getting it set up for her. It's a nice little machine. I hooked up some Creative speakers to it and they have a very nice sound. She's upstairs getting familiar with it as I blog. Whereas I had a difficult time accepting 50, Tammy is per...

Please excuse me while I give my blog a facelift over the next couple days.

I began working on a post for today but then I was reading a blog I check in on daily and came across something written by my union's former president, John Carr. It's not often you see someone put themselves out there as John does with this post but when they do it's impossible not to take notice. I've never met John but I've admired his ability to convey his passion through his pen for some time. Whatever it was I had to say today can wait. Very Important, PLEASE Read And Forward I cannot get the thought of her out of my mind. I cannot sleep when I think of her. Which is why I am up now, typing this. What? What must have happened to cause two parents to beat their adorable, blond haired, blue eyed TWO YEAR OLD daughter with leather belts, hold her head under water, fling her across the room in a rage that fractured her skull in three places, place her in plastic bags and a Sterlite box, leave it in the garage for two months, then toss it into Galveston Ba...