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It seems about once every so often, I remember “hey, I have a blog!” Then I think “I’ll update that blog… tomorrow!” Then tomorrow comes and, well, as Paul Harvey used to say, you know the rest of the story.

It had been so long this time, I actually forgot my password! lol!

Anyhow, hope to post more soon. For now, if you haven’t seen the pix from my 2011 4-wheeling adventures in West Virginia, here’s a link:

http://wildhogs.zapd.net/?odczot

As always, we had a great time! I wish I could ride more often… I really enjoy it.

More later!

Mike

So there I was, Saturday morning, sitting at the table with the kids eating my bowl of frosted Special K (it was a hybrid). Emily had gone upstairs to set out clothes for the kids so we could take them sledding. She was also going to change the water for “Mr. Fish”, my son’s (roughly) 2yr old betta.

Then I heard a somber voice… “Mike, can you come upstairs?”
“Sure, can I finish my cereal?”
“Yes…”

Maybe 5 minutes went by, and she called down again.
Me (wondering what’s the deal): “I’ll be up in just a minute…”

By this time the kids had gotten up from the table and moved on to other things, and Emily came downstairs. Quietly she whispered “I think Mr. Fish is dead… he’s been on his side for like 15 minutes and didn’t move when I knocked on the bowl! He’s not moving at all.”

Great. I headed upstairs to see for myself, and confirmed. “Mr. Fish” was most definitely dead. He was laying on his side, and did not move a fin. His fins (we assume it’s a he) were all compressed. The only thing short of proof was that he was not floating.

After a few moments of discussion, we called my son upstairs. Emily called him over to her, and broke the news as gently as possible. Honestly, I didn’t think he would be as upset as he was. He probably cried for a solid 5 minutes before we segued into discussion about whether to flush (no!) or bury him (yes!). Then he asked if he could go look at Mr. Fish. Well, sure…

We watched as he tearfully tread over to his dresser. He pecked on the bowl once. Then we watched as his eyes moved upwards and around. “What’s he doing?”, my son asked.

“What do you mean?” we countered.

“What’s he doing? He’s swimming…”

And just like that, the fish that played ‘possum’ for nearly 20-25 minutes had stepped back into the world of the living. Needless to say, we were astounded and my son was a much happier boy. I only hope we didn’t suffer him any mental anguish that he’ll use against us someday (”Remember when you told me my fish had died…”).

Of course, I had to do a little research today. According to ebetta.com, “Many Fish will slow down, float or hover in one spot. But Bettas seem to lounge. Many of them will lay down in a “L-Shaped” position (head up, body to the side). Some will look like they are dead. And others will just stay at the top of the water.” Interesting information that sure would have been nice to have known before Saturday!

As I mentioned in my last entry, I recently sold “old blue” — which for those in the dark was my 1967 Ford F100 pickup that I had acquired at the beginning of 2007.

Honestly, I can’t say that I was “happy” to let the truck go. I had big plans, and had poured countless hours into researching, troubleshooting, and fixing issues – not to mention cleaning! But then again, this truck was never really intended to be a long-term driver. The original idea was that it would be a “weekend” truck that could be pressed into service if necessary. Little did we anticipate at the time that “if necessary” would come sooner than later. But the time finally came when it just wasn’t cutting it for our family, and practicality set in. Emily couldn’t drive it, the kids had to ride in the front, it only had one seatbelt for a passenger, and it lately had presented one little issue after another that despite being easy to fix, was at least perturbing. And certainly the record heat we had this past summer didn’t endear me to the lack of air conditioning. I enjoyed the simplicity and “2-40″ air (two windows down, 40mph), but I also appreciate arriving to work not looking like I just ran a marathon in my slacks.

So back in mid-August, it went up for sale. I was nervous at first, as I was asking DOUBLE what I paid for the actual truck. Of course, I paid to ship it here, which wasn’t cheap. And then I paid for a new transmission, new brakes, new tires, and a slew of other new stuff that you can read about in my previous entries if you so desire. But I realize that you can’t really expect a return on “routine” repairs, so I figured I’d take my chances. At first I had several people “kick the tires” and a few low-ball offers, but no real interest. We really started sweating it a bit when we purchased a “new” (to us) 2006 F150. After a few weeks, we finally got a bite! The guy offered to pay me cash on the spot, full asking price. All he had to do was test-drive it. He did, and returned to say that he could not handle the truck. Apparently a medical condition made it difficult to handle the lack of power steering. It was another couple of weeks (during which time the radio decided to quit working) before we got another interested buyer. By then we were really getting nervous, but it worked out. And pretty much for what we wanted/needed to get from it. SOLD! It was a sad but relief-filled day.

Big dreams are funny things. It was nice to look at the old truck and think that someday we would make it look shiny and new again. It was fun to drive it around and reminisce about the days driving my grandparent’s (nearly identical) truck around the farm. And it was a total blast having my little boy sit next to me on the way to the barber shop, playing hand-slap and singing along to George Strait songs on the radio. Aside from what we paid for the truck, the knowledge that I got from working on it and the memories gathered in driving it and watching the kids play in the back were worth every penny. I only hope the new owner (who already informed me he had to replace the brake cylinders) gets as much value for his money.

Just wanted to post a quick note to let everyone know I have not “written off” this blog… I’ve just been wrapped up in some other projects. I have another site I’ve been working on, and have also been taking care of the farm for the last year. I get so wrapped up in stuff and just lose track of how long it has been since I last posted. A couple of updates…

Recently the boys and I took our annual 4-wheeling trip to West Virginia… good times, as always! My new ATV held up great and I probably had more fun this year than we’ve ever had. If only we could talk our friend Danny into buying his own ATV, we’d be set. I’m ready to go again.

The kids are both in school now, and doing great. I’m so proud of them! I give a lot of credit to Emily for getting them academically ready for school. Sure, pre-school helped, but there is no substitute for trips to the library, art museum, zoo, practicing letters and numbers at home, etc. Both of the kids have a love for reading, which is just awesome. And they both say they like math, which means they got that from someone other than me. lol!

As noted before, I’ve been taking care of boarding horses at my grandparent’s farm since my grandpa died last Thanksgiving. It’s hard to believe it has been a year now. Overall it’s going well. I’ve learned so much about electric fence, I could probably start a business. But it’s been very educational and has been “good medicine” for the heart.

Oh, and I sold “old blue”… I’ll try to follow up on that soon!

I hope everyone who stumbles across this (and the 3 people who subscribe) has a great Thanksgiving!

Mike

Last weekend, Emily and the kids travelled to Evansville and left me at home to fend for myself. I was on-call for work, which is why I couldn’t join them. I also had to get some things done around the farm and the house, such as dismantling the kids old swingset in preparation for the new one to be installed.

Honestly, I don’t usually handle this well. When left home alone, I tend to stay up way too late, eat too much, and accomplish little. However, I did pretty well this time! I generally went to bed around 12:30 each night. On Saturday I went riding (horse), and then spent about 4 hours moving hay and cleaning up stuff around the farm. Sunday I spent most of the day taking apart the swing set, cleaning up the litter box, and doing some laundry. I also managed to watch three movies I have wanted to see but Emily did not… they were “2012″, “Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanomo Bay”, “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider”. As for eating too much, well, we won’t discuss that…

Fortunately I watched 2012 first, because it was fairly depressing. This is not a movie I would recommend to anyone who has fears about the “end of the world”, but the effects were pretty cool. Tomb Raider was much better than I anticipated, even though I’m not a big Angelina Jolie fan. It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t bad. Think “Raiders of the Lost Ark” meets “National Treasure”. Finally, Harold and Kumar did not disappoint! Yes, the movie is lewd and crude, but I was still laughing. And I even discovered a “math poem” in it that I had never heard. Perhaps had math been like this when I was a kid, I would have enjoyed it more…

The Square Root of 3
by Dave Feinberg

I’m sure that I will always be
A lonely number like root three

The three is all that’s good and right,
Why must my three keep out of sight
Beneath the vicious square root sign,
I wish instead I were a nine

For nine could thwart this evil trick,
with just some quick arithmetic

I know I’ll never see the sun, as 1.7321
Such is my reality, a sad irrationality

When hark! What is this I see,
Another square root of a three

As quietly co-waltzing by,
Together now we multiply
To form a number we prefer,
Rejoicing as an integer

We break free from our mortal bonds
With the wave of magic wands

Our square root signs become unglued
Your love for me has been renewed

Recently it hit the news that the very first Superman comic book, Action Comics No. 1 (1938), sold for a record-setting $1 Million. At least, that was the record — for less than a week. Four days later, the first Batman comic (1939) sold for $1,075,000. 

Comics are neat, and they bring a certain feeling of nostalgia when you pick up a really old issue and reflect on them from the perspective of the time in which they were created. But honestly… a million bucks?! For something that you probably won’t let people even touch?

They say a fool and his money are soon parted. And perhaps this is the case, or perhaps this is a sound ”investment” that will pay double dividends in a few years. But for now, all I can think of is, wow… this person could have REALLY made a difference in someone’s life (or the lives of many) with that kind of money. And aside from the usual “what would you do with a million bucks” question, or the requisite “we could feed 1000 homeless people with that” angle, I’m thinking… how much of would it take for me (and my family) to be really “comfortable” in this life? And I’ve come up with some numbers…

Read the rest of this entry »

When I bought my truck, I asked the guy I got it from a LOT of questions. Since it was just outside Seattle and I was in Indiana, I clearly couldn’t see it. So I had to rely on his word. He was a nice guy, but he wasn’t overly descriptive. And once I received the truck, that quickly became clear. For example, I asked “does it have any rust? His response? “Just a little here and there, but nothing major….” To clarify, I asked “So the drip rails and floor pans are all solid?” That got me a “yeah, they are….”. Well, it turned out that the drip rails have a lot of rust, the driver’s side door has a lot of rust, and the driver’s side floor pan is half missing. But, I honestly don’t think he misled me on purpose. We just had different standards.

Warning…. what follows is a long, truck-related update on some recent work I did. If you don’t want the specifics, you can just click on the before and after pictures and get an idea of what I did. =)  Read the rest of this entry »