Say What?

The elections are coming, the elections are coming! And once again I find myself on the opposite end of the political spectrum from where I previously found shelter and comfort. I was a modern-day-right-wing-latte-sipping-SUV-driving-Christian-crusader, and I was right. I seldom if ever questioned the words of Limbaugh or Hannity and I fully bought into the left-wing media bias theory. Tax breaks for wealthy investors and growth of big-business was all that mattered because as Rush was often fond of saying, "no cab driver ever offered anybody a job".  I'm sure I too would be up in arms at the thought of a mosque anywhere near "ground zero" had I not changed. It's been four years since I put aside my blinders. I have the previous (Bush) administration and FAA management to thank for bringing me out of the darkness. I'm still very much pro-life but I'm no longer held hostage over that lone issue—I now understand that it's not always so simple a...

I began my blog with the idea that years from now I'd be able to look back on my life and relive experiences through photos and written details that maybe dropped from my internal hard-drive over the years. I want to be able to understand the road my life has traveled by observing how my thoughts have evolved over time. There's actually meaning and importance to me in those small details I muse about. I haven't done much contemplative writing for a while. It seems my main focus has been on stuff we've been doing as a family—activities and such. My blog gets a fair number of people perusing it now and I wonder if maybe I'm being less candid because of that. I don't want it to be that way. If I ever do begin writing from a what-will-people-think perspective, I'll have to stop. I've written nothing about the oil spill in the Gulf or the proposed Mosque near the site of the terror attacks on the Twin Towers in NYC. I've talked little if any about hea...

I was walking the pups several weeks ago when I stopped and chatted with a neighbor, Dave. We got to talking about the condition of the streets not only around our homes but of other nearby neighborhoods as well. A few years ago when Dave was president of our neighborhood association he phoned a city administrator to find out when we might see resurfacing begin in our area. Our streets are over 20 years old and in some areas they're  full of patches . He was told then that we can expect our roads to be resurfaced in the next few years, which would be about now. I phoned Chris Petree who works for the city to express my concerns about the condition of our roads and inquire about the timeline for repairs. He said what we're seeing is a flaking off of layers of a topcoating of small stones (chip-seal). He explained that as the chip-seal fails it begins to flake off and the streets erode from the top down rather than the bottom up. While there's certainly some of that going o...

We're officially empty-nesters. I was certain we were going to need both vehicles to get all of Rachel's stuff moved but we managed to get everything in Tammy's Forester; barely. We said goodbye to the pups and got on the road just after 10:00 AM Thursday with coffees in hand and The Beatles Anthology to accompany us . We arrived in Rochester with a half-hour to spare before Rachel's noon appointment with her freshman class and a scavenger hunt mixer they had planned. After checking in at the front desk we were shown to her apartment and went inside to have a look at her new digs. What a dump but I'm sure she'll manage:  study area ; living room left ; living room right ; kitchen ; bedroom and a  view of the city . While Rachel was off getting acquainted with her class, Tammy and I got busy moving her things  up to her room on the 6th floor. The University of Minnesota at Rochester (UMR) is unlike any other campus I'm familiar with (that's not ...

I'm leaving soon with Tammy to take Rachel to college at UMR. I am forever grateful for having been blessed to be in her life. Fly little birdie, fly!

I think I may have said this before: the thought of Rachel leaving for college (in just a few days) is bittersweet. Tammy and I are excited for her but it's happening all too quickly. Many of her friends have already departed so it's unusually quiet around our home. The upside is that we're getting more time with her before she leaves. In fact, the two of us spent the evening at Valley Fair together last night while Tammy was working in the office. We had fun reminiscing about coming to the park when she was younger and even before I was ever in her life. She told me about the time she fell out of one of the bumper boats when she was maybe six years old. I'd heard the story before but I didn't mind hearing it again. We laughed and wondered how that could've happened? My new favorite ride: the Renegade. Awesome, especially when it's dark and difficult to see the next bend in the track. The Extreme Swing is also a favorite and probably does the best job of t...

It's been a week of getting in touch with several people I worked with as a specialist at the Flight Service Station in Huron, SD early in my career with the FAA. It began a week ago when Scott and Judy stopped by. They're both specialists at the Flight Service Station in Princeton, MN about 75 miles to the north. Neither are employed with the FAA anymore since their jobs were contracted out to Lockheed Martin a few years ago. Scott and I worked together for a two years in Huron before I transfered to where I am today. Scott has had a love of Corvettes for the 28 years I've known him. His newest (2008) is by far nicer than any other he's owned. We used to golf a lot together. We were competitive with each other and usually enjoyed ourselves most when the other was duffing a shot. A typical remark was something along the line of, "oh, that's unfortunate" then a biting of the lip to keep from laughing knowing full well that the favor would be returned b...