Pee-cicles

It has been colder than....well, cold this past week. Temperatures have seldom made it above 0 these past few days. This is Iowa so we should kind of be used to it. It's just that we haven't dipped this low for the last ten years.

What is hard to fathom for me are the folks who live in Alaska that are used to it. When their cars or buses don't run they just hop on the snow mobiles. Kids put on their tennis racket-like shoes and head off to school.

Things I like to do when it is this cold-

Spit waaaaay up in the air. I know that it is juvenile but it is still fascinating.
Start my car and let it run for a long time before I get in. I like it toasty warm, but it kills my gas mileage.
Take a pan of hot water outside just to watch it get extra steamy.
Pee outside when I'm not close to a public bathroom. Yeah, probably illegal in many places but when you gotta go, you gotta go; and if it is cold enough you can see it steam and freeze before it hits the ground.

With that said, spring still can't come soon enough. I don't like wearing coats.

Next week it is supposed to soar into the upper mid 30's. I'll be at the beach....not really, but these goofballs decided to go-



I'm going to go find my electric blanket.

Another Chapter Being Written

Hello bloggereaders.

In today's installment we will talk about a few happenings.

Today after church we went to a Taco Bell/KFC. If we would have known beforehand what we were in for we would have opted for plan C. That's right, plan A had already failed and plan B was almost just as bad.

Upon entering the establishment we could already see that the patrons there looked like they were standing in line at the DMV. Apparently service was really slow and when the folks did get their food the orders were wrong. We, I later came to find out, were no exception.

I typically like to be as laid back about fast food as I can because I know that both the food and the pay are generally of low quality. Any given day could be either the cashier's best or worst day of the week. Apparently today was the worst day for ours. That's really too bad though, given that today is the first day of the week.

So I step up and give the lady my order. It was going to be quite simple- 1 meal that was some taco crispy wrap thing [the name escapes me now] and 2 SOFT shell tacos; one with meat, cheese and lettuce, and the other with just meat and cheese. And then I ordered a Teryaki buffalo wing meal. They got my order right but the wrap thing didn't have all of the ingredients, and both tacos were HARD shell with meat, cheese, and sour cream. NOT what we ordered, but I had a feeling that the lady behind the counter may have had a gun....and I didn't want to find out. The up-side was that we got 5 drinks out of the deal somehow.

Then after we got home I needed to mow the lawn because it looks like this might be a week full of rain; we'll see. I don't trust weather people any farther than I can throw them; and with my bad knees I don't really feel like giving it a whirl any time soon. I found out that I should start thinking about replacing my riding mower. It has been a good mower but I had to jump start it with my car today and I found some "additional" parts to it laying in my driveway. I have no idea what they are or where they go.

I also found out that my son has a temp of 103.2. No wonder he has been being a turd.

In other news- I've decided to write a book about my pseudo memoirs from college. It will be fiction based on what may or may not be true stories. I will change some of the names to protect the whatever. I just felt that the world needed at least one more book in the library. I'm currently working on Chapter 1.

That will have to be all for now. I'm hot and sweaty from mowing; yes even after riding a mow...and I am in charge of supper tonight.

I'll catch you all on the other....

Good Idea/Bad Idea?

Interesting excursions.

Tonight we decided that we would use some tickets that my daughter won in something to take the family to see the Iowa Cubs play baseball against some team from Tuscon; good idea.

To make things interesting, as my wife was watching the noon news today she saw that tonight was "take your dog to the ballpark" night at Principal Park where the aforementioned game would take place.

I wish I could say that everything went according to plan, but I can't. If it were a little league game that would be one thing, but when you get that many people in one place with that many dogs it is just less than ideal. We were all put in seats out on the sidelines along right field where it was hard enough to really get a good look at the game. Then factor in a dog who is always moving around due to being in an uncomfortable situation, and 2 kids who don't really understand baseball. (Well, the irony is that my 2 year old son was more into it than my 4 year old daughter) Instead of being into the game, the kids were into the dogs. Not really bad in and of itself, but I think that we've learned a pretty good lesson from tonight- [say it with me, class] if the kids want animals take them to a petting zoo one night, then do baseball another.

What I do know is that what little bit of the game I did catch didn't really seem to be much. Minor league baseball just doesn't seem to have the zeal that it used to. These guys didn't really seem like they were trying all that hard. Perhaps I'm wrong. Maybe I would have a different angle if it were me playing.

The moral of the story is....there is no moral; but we did get to spend some time together as a family and it didn't cost us anything to get in.

My New Blog

I started this new blog because I needed a bit of a break from what The Reluctant Disciple was bringing forth. I hope that this new format will be better than the last.

I don't even really know what the point of the last blog was, but I think that I am more in tune with what I want to accomplish here in this one. It seemed as though the last one came off as only showing 1 of the 2 extreme sides of the pendelum swing in my life. I hope that this one covers all.

In response to a comment from Travis though...I respect your option and value it, but I must say that I can't guarantee that this one won't have tension either. I plan to hit everything here, so if it gets too serious for comfort then just wait a while and we'll get back to something else shortly.

That is the tension in life though. Not everything can be serious, but not everything can be overlooked. If there is anything that I have learned in my life lately it is that I must examine absolutely everything without leaving any stones unturned.