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As a father, there are sometimes questions you get from the kids for which you have no answer. There’s nothing wrong with not knowing, but sometimes it’s fun to make up an answer on the fly. “Why is the sky blue?” Because it’s reflecting water, of course… “Why can’t we fly?” Well, we were able to before we lost our feathers… “Where do babies come from?” When it comes up, I plan to say “Wal-mart” ( though one can’t go wrong with the old “Stork” story, either).

But sometimes the question is more serious, and catches you off gaurd. When your child poses a philosophical or religious question, how do you answer? You want/need to give an answer that satisfies their curiosity, without scaring them or making them feel insignificant.

That was the case for me on none other than Father’s Day. At the end of a great day, I was tucking my son into bed and was laying next to him, tickling and talking like we often do. That’s when we had the following exchange:

Him: “Dad?”
Me: “Yes?”
Him: “Can we live forever?”
Me: “Ummm… that’s a really big question…”
Him: ”I hope I’m really old when I die, and not young… I want to live a long time.”
Me: “I want you to live a long time and grow old, too…”
Him: “Maybe I’ll even live longer than you and mommy.”
Me: “I hope that’s the case…”
Him: “So can I live forever?” (and I thought I’d side-tracked him)
Me: “Well… your body can’t live forever, but your soul can. God promised that if we believe in Him, we can live forever with him in Heaven.”
Him: “So I won’t have my body?”
Me: “Not after you die, but that’s just your body, not your soul.” (*thinking*… please don’t ask me what the soul is!)
Him: “So I’ll be able to talk to people?”
Me: “I think so, but I don’t know… But I hope so.”
Him: “So what’s it like in Heaven?”
Me: “I have no idea… I’ve never been there. But you’ll live there with God, and I imagine it’s a nice place.”

And that was pretty much the end of the conversation. Such a big question for a 5-year-old, and one that really caught me off guard. I think the answer I gave was good… at least it seemed to satisfy his curiosity. But in those moments, you realize you don’t really have all the answers this kid is seeking, and only hope you can lead them in the right direction. We are essentially a steering wheel, but it’s manual steering. The answers don’t come easy, and there will be tough questions and bumps in the road.

Looking to turn the tables, I figured I’d ask him a tough question, too. So last night before bed, I questioned him:

Me: “If I have 4 down linemen - 2 tackles and 2 guards - one middle linebacker, and two outside linebackers, what defense do I have?”
Him: “A 4-3!!”
Me: “And if you have 5 linemen - 2 tackles, 2 guards, and a linebacker on the line - and drop two linebackers, what defense do you have?
Him: “A 5-2!!”

I’m so proud… =)

So it’s been a little bit since I posted. Some of you who follow this blog may recall my “Twenty-five in 105” plan, which was to lose 25 pounds in 105 days. I started at 225, and my plan was to be at 200lbs by the end of May.

Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men. The truth is, apparently I bit off more than I could chew, and I wasn’t totally committed. I’m not even going to blame the fact that I had to wear a “boot cast” on my fractured left foot for six weeks during the 4-month period of time leading up to my goal date. The truth is, it just didn’t happen.

There are lots of reasons I didn’t hit my goal. Foremost, aside from the injury, was a lack of commitment to eating better. I have FAITHFULLY worked out at least 4-5 days per week, on both weights and the bike. And I have actually put on quite a bit of muscle, which I’ll attribute to my 4lb GAIN during that span. Muscularly, I’m probably as fit as I’ve ever been since college. But the truth is, I can’t lose weight eating cake and ice cream and chips and other junk foods.

So what does the future hold? I still have my goal of 200lbs, and hope to attain it this year. Starting July 9th, my team at work is going to begin another weight-loss challenge, so I’ll have some extra motivation. Wish me luck, and stick around to see how I do!

I like beer… It makes me a jolly good fellow… I like beer… It helps me unwind and sometime it makes me feel mellow… ~ Tom T. Hall

As most of my friends and family know, I like beer. Not so much that I drink too much of it… I just enjoy having a cold one on a hot day or when I’m relaxing. I might have one or two every few days. Back in college I was a “Miller-Lite man”, but for some reason that beer now bloats my stomach something crazy. I can barely stand it. As I went through my 20s, I worked part time for an upscale liquor store and got into “boutique” and “craft” beers. I enjoyed them, but they are pricey and full of calories. I even attempted to brew my own beer for a while, but mainly just managed to produce vinegar. Later I switched to “less complicated” beers like Michelob Ultra Light and Bud Select, figuring I would save the calories, but it I wasn’t drinking enough to make it worth the difference. 

Lately I’ve enjoyed drinking Bud Light Lime (thanks to T-bone), which is great on a hot day after riding. But to be honest, I’m tired of paying $10-12 for a 12-pack of beer! Ironically I enjoy it less often because the cost adds up pretty fast! So with that in mind, I’ve decided to SIMPLIFY. I have chosen six “cheap” beers that cost under $15 for a 30-pack. Most of these have actually been brewed for quite a long time. The way I see it, people have enjoyed them for years, so why should my tastes be any more refined?

That said, I have completed ROUND 1 of the “Cheap Beer Playoffs“. Generally, I consider a beer to be the ‘winner’ if I either find myself NOT drinking it because I want to get the other one “out of the way” first, OR if I find myself drinking it because I enjoy it more than the other one. The winner is in blue. The ultimate goal is to choose ONE beer that I can keep “stocked” in my fridge and enjoy when I want. A secondary point was to switch to canned beer, because I can recycle the cans for money as opposed to getting nothing for bottles. I also don’t have to worry about knocking over cans in the garage and having one break.

The contenders and results are as follows:

Pabst Blue Ribbon (PBR) vs. Strohs
These were the only two beers that I tried that were not “light” beers. However, I actually (and even surprisingly) enjoyed the PBR. It has just the right amount of “malt” flavor I enjoy. It can be a tad bit bitter, but it didn’t bother me. I was disappointed by the Strohs, which is a beer I often drank in college (after I turned 21, of course!). Apparently my memories of the beer were better than the beer itself. I found it to be too sweet, and kind of flat tasting. Perhaps it was flat or skunked… not many places carry it, so who knows how old it was. But I didn’t care much for it, and probably won’t buy it again.

Keystone Light vs. Busch Light
Hands down the Keystone won this contest. I enjoyed it quite a bit. I actually used to drink Keystone “back in the day”, and it’s similar to Coors Light in taste. Like the PBR, it had a nice “malty” taste, though more “full bodied”. I found the Busch Light to be WAY too “sugary” and watery for my taste… it actually soured my stomach! I can drink it if it’s super-cold, but outside of that I didn’t really enjoy it.

Miller High Life Light vs. Old Milwaukee Light
The competition was originally going to be between the four beers listed above. However, these were last second “entries” and it turned out to be perhaps the closest contest of the bunch. The Old Mil Light actually wasn’t bad — better than I anticipated. But it has kind of a sharper, more “alcohol” taste than I usually enjoy, which makes it a bit inconsistent when drinking (it wavers between malty and sharp). I still found it drinkable, but not as enjoyable as the High Life Light. Honestly, I didn’t even know they MADE the HLL, but it turned out to have a nice malty flavor. The HLL is a tid-bit flat tasting, though, so this contest was close to being a draw. I found them both “drinkable”, but the HLL won out based on consistency. It is probably one of the more expensive of the six I sampled.

So that completes round one!! I’ll keep you posted as I begin Round 2! =)

It’s time for the 135th running of the Kentucky Derby! Tomorrow is the day, and I’ll be honest and admit I haven’t really payed much attention this year. I’ve just been way too busy to follow which horses are in and out, etc. In fact, about the ONLY way I’ve celebrated this year was to eat a bunch of fried stuff at the chow wagon. But I ate a lot of fried vegetables (which were awesome!), so that has to count for something, right?

Anyhow, I took a quick gander at the field this morning so I could at least make my annual pick. Not much time for any real data crunching, so I’m going to make this years picks from 5,000 feet. The field is large this year with 20 horses, so it wasn’t easy to choose one. That said, here’s what I came up with:

Win (1): Dunkirk
Place (2): I Want Revenge Papa Clem
Show (3): Musket Man

I usually heavily favor the winner of the Florida Derby to run well in the Kentucky Derby. This year, that horse was “Quality Road”, but that horse was unfortunately scratched from the Derby with foot problems. Dunkirk, a really pretty gray colt, finished 2nd in the Florida Derby, but did not race as a 2yr-old. That makes him a stretch pick, though he does have an experienced jockey. He’s a “come from behind” horse which usually plays well in the Derby, but I think the track conditions will have a big impact. I Want Revenge is likely to be one of the favorites at post time. He has a lot of speed and has run well on dirt (most of these horses are raced on synthetic track now), so he should be at least pushing the field at the end if not perhaps even leading it. Faviorites don’t always do that well, though. Musket Man is going off at long odds right now (20-1 as of this post), but has won a few races pretty solidly. His biggest knock is that his breeding isn’t known for distance runners, but that’s been overcome before. 

Unless it’s pouring rain, I expect this to be a pretty fast race with Regal Ransom and Papa Clem setting the pace. If it’s sloppy wet, then anything can happen!

Enjoy the race, and feel free to post your pick here in the comments section!

Update: As of this morning, ”I Want Revenge” has been scratched! I’ll move Papa Clem into the top three, as I don’t have any time to look back over the whole field.
 

If you’ve picked up a newspaper, turned on the t.v., or browsed the ‘net at any point in the past week, then the odds are that you’ve read or heard something about the “Swine Flu“. Now, amid the myriad of stores, headlines such as “Many hundreds’ of kids may have swine flu“. For you parents, if that’s not enough to make you want to lock your kids in the basement and seal the doors, what is?

The truth of the matter is that the media has been bubbling for a pandemic for a few years now. First it was SARS, then the avian flu, then the possibility of TB or polio or some other threat to public health emerging. So why the sudden panic and attention to this outbreak? Foremost, I believe, it’s because the epicenter (Mexico) is close to home. Secondly, there is a LOT of travel in and out of Mexico by US citizens. And third, there have been a high number of deaths relative to the virus in Mexico.

So is it time to panic? Time to batten the hatches and bar the doors? Personally, I don’t think so. Much is still very unknown about this strain of the flu, and it IS unrelated to the “annual” strain that has usually made its rounds by now. However, thus far the information being provided by public health officials seems to indicate that for the most part, the symptoms and course are much like any other bout with the flu.

So why ARE people fretting so much over this? Aside from the constant reminders that the virus is “mutating” (that alone conjures some scary imagery), I think the deaths in Mexico are what have people rattled. And the media is constantly telling us that “no-one knows why” so many people there are so heavily impacted. If I had to guess, I think it has more to do with a high number of people, living in close quarters, with lower overall nutrition and a general lack of good public health. That has allowed the virus to go from being “just another strain” to being something much more threatening.

Certainly everyone should stay tuned, and follow the guidelines for good health and common courtesy (cover your mouth, wash your hands, etc.). It’s possible this could get really bad, or it’s just AS possible that a lot of people could just end up with the flu. I’m sure it will have a bigger impact on those with weakened immune systems, though, so everyone should pay attention to their bodies and seek help if they think they’ve come down with something.

In fact, I hear someone coughing now. I think I’m turning him in… =)

After working in the yard most of Saturday, Emily and I decided to watch a movie that evening. I was at Lowes trying to decide which stones would make a better edging for a miniature “garden”, and Emily was taking care of the kids and other errands, so she picked it up. Her movie of choice was “7 Pounds“, featuring Will Smith. This was a movie which we knew little about, but both wanted to see based upon previews we had seen.

At first I thought this was going to be a movie about how much weight I gained over the Easter holiday, but I was wrong. Instead, it was a very “deep” movie about a man who sets out to change the lives of seven people, perhaps at the expense of his own. The movie is NOT an “action” movie or a love story, per se, but really about a man’s struggle with the actions of his past. In reflecting on it, I highly recommend it as it will make you think about certain things, even if it was not “critically acclaimed”. It’s maybe a tiny bit slow in some parts, but Smith is awesome as usual. This may be one of his better acting jobs, in fact. The title reportedly refers to  Shakespeare’s The Merchant Of Venice, in which a debtor must pay a pound of flesh.

I’ve never been the most mechanically inclined person. Sure, with my grandpa looking over my shoulder and “instructing” me on what to do, I did some things back in the days on the farm. But I haven’t done much on the farm in several years, and any “skills” I had are rustier than that car they unburied in Oklahoma. So naturally, when I bought my truck with the proclamation that I intended to work on it myself as much as possible, I raised a few eyebrows.

Well, to anyone who doubted me, this post is to let you know that while I’ll probably never be mistaken as the prodigy of the Car-Talk brothers, I have made progress! With some late-night study sessions and a very helpful message board, I completed a complete tune-up last Thursday and Saturday! This included:

* replacement of old mechanical “points” ignition with Pertronix Ignitor II electronic ignition
* replacement of old ignition coil with Pertronix Flamethrower II 45,000v coil (low resistance)
* splicing and running new wire from ignition to coil to bypass stock ballast resistor wire
* gapping and installing new platinum spark plugs
* replacement of old spark plug wires with new Pertronix Flamethrower “stock look” wires
* replacement of distributer cap and rotor
* oil change

Let me tell you… after all of this, the truck fired right up and runs like a top!! No doubt, I learned some lessons. I still have some learning to do, and still need to get a grease gun and other tools to do this more effectively, but I did it all myself, in the confines of my own garage! A far cry from when I got the ‘ol truck in 2007 and paid a dude $50 to replace my spark plugs!

After all, one man’s molehill is another man’s mountain! =)