What's Your Opinion?

I friend of mine asked me to post a question on my blog and see what others out there think of his current situation. I haven't gotten a comment on my blog for a while, and so I don't know if anyone is even reading anymore, but here goes anyway.

He is a newly wed of about five months. About a year ago his wife bumped into her old high school boy friend. They were a couple for about two years, and were sexually active with each other. She broke up with him their senior year, because he was making her uncomfortable. Basically stalking her. They've had no contact until running into each other accidently a year ago.

I guess the boy friend is married now with kids.

Well, he immediately starts calling her all the time, and sending her text messages on her cell phone, and by her own admission has said a couple of things that she said were inappropriate for a married man to say to another woman.

Here's where it gets wierd. The four of them, ex-boy friend and his wife, my friend and his wife, all get together and do stuff as friends. They will have dinner together, or whatever, and sit around talking about the good ole' days of high school and stuff. Everyone but my friend who didn't go to school with them.

This whole situation makes my buddy very uncomfortable, and he hates going over there, and doing that. He thinks it's dangerous for their marriage, and that x-boy friend has more on his mind than just being friends. He's tried to talk to her, but she is VERY stubborn and determined to keep up this so-called frienship. He asked me to blog about it, and see what the opinions of others might be out there on the situation. He'll be checking in to read your posts, and he'll probably eventually show them to his wife.

Your help is appreciated

Scatter Brained

Well, what can I say. It's been a while since my last post, and that's mostly because nothing worth mentioning has really happened of late. I actually have a lot of thoughts swirling through my brain right now, and I think I will randomely just jot them down until I get tired. So, here goes.

That lady down in Texas protesting the war is dishonering the memory of her son. He volunteered. He made the ultimate sacrifice, but she detracts from what he did for us with her little tantrum. On the same note, he did die to give her the right to protest. So there you have it.

I'm tired of the Natalie Halloway story. People go missing every day. Why all the attention just to her?

I'm starting to think that buying and caring for a horse might be cheaper than filling my cars with gas anymore. But, I'm not blaming the president for prices. It's the market, and the market - they say - will correct itself if left alone. At least cars don't run on Nyquil.

Cinderalla Man starring Russel Crowe is an excellent movie that everyone should see. It meant a lot to me, because my late grandfather was a Golden Gloves boxer during the same era. Chalk it up there with movies like Hoosiers, Iron Will, Rudy, and Remember the Titans.

Never pay anyone to hydroseed your land. Especially some twenty year old high school drop out with a mohawk and pierced nipples. Pay them to level it, and then plant the grass yourself, or you might end up all pissed off like me.

I love this time of year. The temperature starts cooling off, and you can tell Fall is right around the corner. Fall is the best.

Well, those are some random thoughts that tend to cross my mind about every day lately. Maybe next time I will be a little more focused on one particular topic.

Out.

Maybe a small thanks can go a long way

The other day I had to come into work on my day off for some extra training. What a day it was! For anyone new here, I work as a security officer at a nuclear complex.

Anyway, we got trained on the HK 69 grenade launcher. Yep, I got to shoot real grenades. It was pretty cool. I got a real "bang" out of it. = )

I also got to be trained on the FM 240 Bravo. For those of you who don't know, the 240 is a machine gun kinda of akin to the famous M60 that you see in all the movies. What a weapon. This is the swivel-mounted gun that you see on TV, mounted on the turrets of Humvees in all that Iraq war footage. After shooting of a belt of ammo, I actually almost felt pitty for Al Qaeda. I can't imagine squatting behind a mud wall while someone fires off bursts at you from that gun! What a nightmare that would be! At least it would be a short nightmare. But, also a HOOT to shoot. Everyone should have one!

But now the point of my whole post today. At the end of the day we did a combat scenario exercise with equipment that we call Miles Gear. Miles Gear ( and I may be spelling it wrong ) is basically a high-tech Laser Tag system that allows you to use basically a real gun, but shooting blanks.

The scenario pitted four of us against two snipers in the sage brush approx. 500 yards down range. It was a moving and tactics exercise. I partnered up with a guy named Chris and off we went leapfrogging through the sage brush desert. After about ten minutes of running, diving, shooting, crawling, and picking cactus needles out of our skin, I was exhausted! Suddenly I realized I had gained a new appreciation for our guys over there in Iraq. It was around 101 degrees for us, and I thought I was going to die from the exertion. My throat was parched, and my legs felt like rubber. I thought to myself while catching my breath behind some cover, " Man, those guys in Iraq have to do this in heat and conditions waaaay worse than this, and on top of that. . .IT'S REAL!

I just want to say, hats off to the American Military. They really are sacrificing over there for us and deserve our honor and respect. I don't care what end of the political spectrum you fall on, or if you agree or disagree with the war. These men and women deserve your respect, and your support. I can't imagine if I was there putting my life on the line, and hearing some of the crap coming out of people's mouths over here. So, here's my small and insignificant way of saying thanks to the troops. A lot of us believe in you.

Just for the fun of it

I never thought I'd say this, but running can be fun. Yeah, seriously! All it took for me was to get off the treadmill, and go for a run outside.

For the last several days during my alotted workout time at work, I've been finishing up with a two mile run down a dirt road that winds through the sage brush out here.

Tonight I ran as the sun sank below the Lemhi Mountains to my left. It's at this time of night the desert comes to life. I saw rabbits scurrying out of my path, and a huge desert owl of some kind gliding gently in the evening breeze on huge wings. I noticed that even the desert is beautiful in its own rugged sort of way. My lungs were engorged on sage scented air, and for the twenty minutes I ran, it was just me, and the desert, and the mountains in the distance.

I am realizing some things lately about fitness and staying in shape. If you can find something new, different, or enjoyable, then it goes from being "excercise" to a hobby or an activity. For example. I have fallen in love with mountain biking lately. As I pedal along the rutted paths, steering around and over different technical obstacles, I don't even notice my own heavy breathing, or pounding heart because I'm having a killer time!

The new goal is to continue to explore ways to make fitness fun, fresh, and enjoyable.

Shadow Spawn gets censored!

Today, I got up and first off mowed my 3/4 acre lawn. Then I hacked some brush on my property with a machete until I was a glistening sheen of sweat. After that I came inside, and hit the weights on my new olympic weight set. Did some back, biceps, and triceps. After that we packed up the kids and went to the lake. I swam for a while. . . nothing tremendous. Then we came home and I went on about a ten mile bike ride through the surrounding hills of my home.

Whew! What an active day, and I feel great! I think I ate pretty sensibly all day too. Just got to maintain this level of activity and I’’m bound to lose some weight.

Now for my topic of the day.

All this week, I have been engaging in political debate on another blog named americablog.blogspot.com These guys are extremely on the fringe of the left. Very liberal. It has been fun to take them on in the arena of words. While doing this I have been called a Nazi among other unmentionable names in the comments section. Our views are so different, that many of them think I am kidding and just trying to generate rage to attract attention to myself. By the way, if you are thinking about going there, be fore warned that it is a site laced with profanity and very adult topics sometimes, so be careful.

Anyway, I was involved in a debate over homosexuality yesterday that earned myself tons of criticism, and not to mention attacks from the creator of the blog John Aravosis, who supposedly has a law degree, been a guest on several talk shows such as O’Reilly Factor, and claims to speak five languages. Anyway, I posted a comment stating a belief I held about homosexuality that I won’t get into here, and boy did they all get angry with me. They all called me names and bashed me on a personal level, but nobody would counter what I had said. I even challenged them. I asked them to counter my point. All I got in reply was, “ You have no point.” I must have really gotten to them, because I little while later when I went back to continue my argument, I found to my shock and amazement that my comments on that post had all been deleted from the web site. Everyone else’s was still there, but mine were gone.

This is the final point I want to make. They continually rage on that web site about the freedom of speech, and the right to express yourself. Well, I just want to make this observation. They sure love the freedom of speech all right. . .unless you say something they don’t like. Then you get censored, and erased. Can you imagine how they’d behave if the tables were reversed?

Daddy, are there such things as monsters?

Last night my four year old girl got out of bed and came to me because she was afraid. I asked her what she was afraid of. " What if the orcs come?" She asked, her big blue eyes glistening, and wide expecting an answer.

"Don't worry about orcs ( it's pointless to tell her they don't exist ) Daddy can kill any orcs that try to come in here."

"What if they have swords?"

"Daddy has guns. Now off to bed."

As I tucked her into bed and gave her a kiss I thought to myself what an innocent time childhood is, when fictitious orcs are your biggest fear. Monsters aren't real, yet to her they are. Then a darker thought clouded my mind as I remembered the eighteen Iraqi children killed by a homicidal bomber on wednesday, and the score of kids that have been in recent news as victims of murderous predators. I grimmaced and thought to myself, monsters are real. And they are more terrible in real life than any imaginary orc.

The real monsters come in the form of terrorists, murderers, molesters, abusers, drug dealers, the porn industry, and many other nameless forms. As a father I wondered how to protect her from the real monsters. If she could only just stay afraid of orcs for the rest of her life.

Today I sit in fatherly indignation at the evils lurking in the world. Who would plow through a gathering of children and blow up themselves in a vehicle, killing all the kids, just for the chance to get at two Americans handing out candy? What monster is capable of such evil? I think of the sicko, Joseph Duncan, who kidnapped Shasta Groene, and while repeatedly assaulting her sexually over the next several days bragged to her about murdering her family. The real monsters are out there. The evil is real, and for crying out loud, the fight needs to start getting REAL.

I for one am sick of hearing that 9/11 was our fault. That we need to see what we did to make the terrorists mad at us. I am sick of hearing all the crying and weeping over the so-called poor conditions at GTMO! I am REALLY REALLY tired of finding out every time a child is murdered that it turns out to be a repeat offender, who should have been in jail!

This isn't about republicans, democrats, liberals or conservatives. I'm just a father, husband, and American and I know I'm not alone in my desire to protect my family, and my freedom. I see evil at the doorstep. I see the monsters in the dark, for who they really are. . .Monsters, and they should be treated as such.

It's All About Lifestyle

Wahhhh! The vacation is on its last gasp now. Only three of the twelve days left! And I didn’t get to do half the cool stuff I was hoping to do. The white water trip got postponed, and the paintball game fell through. Jeeze! I did make it up to Mesa Falls for a day with the family. Mesa Falls is a gorgeous waterfall up in the mountains of Idaho that border Yellowstone, and Grand Teton National Parks. Took some pics and amazed the kids, and realized it’s been way too long since I’ve been out in the mountains. Gonna have to start planning some backpacking, and camping trips. Right now though the temps are in the high nineties, and so we’ll most likely wait for things to cool off.

I’ve got a new diet and exercise program I’ve been trying out for the last couple weeks. It’s called the JUST WATCH WHAT YOUR EATING, AND BE A LOT MORE PHYSICALLY ACTIVE program. So far it’s been great! I have started biking every day now. I started with a six mile ride into the rolling hills near my home. that’s been now increased to ten miles and includes spontaneous excursions onto dirt paths that wind away mysteriously into the hills. I have been trying to include the whole family in my new program, so my wife accompanies me on many of these rides, and the kids follow behind in a bike trailer. We also go to the pool as a family now about every other day or so, and swim. My wife spends time with the kids in the kiddy pool at the beginning, while I head to the lap pool and swim laps for fifteen or twenty minutes. The other day started with a swim, then got home and went on a bike ride, and then later walked the dog for two miles. I figure hey! you gotta notice a change if you start having days like that. Right?

On top of all that, I bought a three hundred pound olympic barbell set on Saturday. I am still shopping around for a bench though. But, once that’s all set up, my days will also include quick, high intensity weight lifting routines. I got a mega deal on the weights, and the sale was ending that day, so I just bought em.

Last and finally on my list of ridiculousness is I have been itching for a kayak lately. Once the white water rafting trip got postponed, I realized how much I was really looking forward to doing it. Now I unexplainably find myself on the internet reading articles and blogs dealing with white water kayaking. I don’t have a lot of “river” experience, or boating experience at all, so the thought is a little daunting. Am I going to get myself killed? Luckily I have a neighbor who is an avid river runner, and former guide. At least I have his brain to pick. And maybe, just maybe he’ll agree to take me along some time to show me the ropes.

Final thought: My prayers go out to the people of London. They deserve our honor. They stepped up in our defense when we needed them, while others turned their backs to us in fear. I hope they catch the cowards responsible.

The Lettermen Leave an Impression on Gen X

Last night my parents took my wife and I to a Lettermen concert that was held here at our civic auditorium. Yep, that’s right. . . The Lettermen, as in “ Put your head on my shoulder”, and “When I Fall In Love” Lettermen.

As a member of the much misaligned generation X, I must admit, that I wasn’t sure what to expect as my wife and I took our seats on the sixth row back from the front of the stage. Oh, I’m no complete stranger to the works of the Lettermen. I remember hearing those unforgettable ballads on my Dad’s vinyl records while growing up. I have to admit, I was almost frightened on their behalf, as I waited for the concert to begin. Yes, I was doing the math. “ Let’s see. Not sure when they hit it big, but let’s say maybe 1965 they were maybe 20 - 25 years old? That would put them somewhere in their sixties? Maybe getting close to seventy? Can they do this?”

Suddenly they were announced, the music started, and my fears seemed on the verge of realization when I saw three bent-over, bald, or gray-haired old men walk out on to the stage in tuxedos. But. . .Then they started to sing. I was astounded and amazed. The same melodious, harmonizing voices from my childhood filled my ears. My eyes refused to see the truth for what it was at first. I leaned in towards my wife and whispered, “ Those voices don’t even match. I can’t believe those voices are coming from those bodies.”

For the next two hours I sat enthralled with the music, a stupefying grin plastered on my face. They sang a mixture of patriotic tunes, and some of their hits from the sixties and seventies. When it was over, they got a standing “O” from the audience. I rushed home to bu y a CD from Amazon. Yeah, I’m a sucker for music.

What has happened to that kind of talent? Yes, there are a lot of talented contemporary musicians out there, don’t get me wrong. But still, after seeing this show I was left with a feeling that there is a void in today’s world of entertainment. A feeling of longing and nostalgia gripped me as I drove home, the dial on the radio tuned to KUPI 98 Gold. I laughed to myself as I thought that maybe someday I’d be taking my kids to see a bent over, balding, gray-haired Jon Bon Jovi perform at the local auditorium, and my kids would be wondering, “ What’s happened to the music? “

A Much Needed Break

ahhhh. Two more hours and my vacation officially begins. I'll have the next 12 days off. I can't wait. Gonna do some paintballing, some camping, some swimming, and even some white water rafting. I also am hoping to use these next 12 days without the interuption of work to try to get ingrained back into a solid work out routine. I won't have my job to contend with, so getting out there to the gym, or on the bike, or hitting the trail head should be a lot easier to do.

Biking has been my latest thing to do. I live in a quite hilly area, and have been trying my best to get in about six miles a day so far. I can already feel my endurance building and am getting ready to up it to eight miles. I know this doesn't seem like a lot, but try pulling sixty extra pounds worth of kids in a bike trailer behind you up steep hills. It gets my heart beating sufficiently.

Final thought today is on the 4th of July celebration. God Bless America, and all who defend her.

-Out

Feel The Rush

Fervently I scan the dense foliage around me, though I know it’s in vain. Trying to be as quiet as possible I will myself to take another step. This is crazy. They are hidden and hidden well. Yet I continue to scan, hoping that perhaps I’ll catch a slight movement, a darker than usual shadow, or the sun reflecting off of equipment. Nothing. Another agonizing, twig-snapping step forward. My heart’s racing in anticipation. I know they are in these woods somewhere, just waiting, most likely drawing aim on my chest. I take a quick inventory of my teammates. The line is staying together as we comb through the woods. I finger the safety on my Tippmann A-5, yep, still good to go. Combing the woods in a skirmish line guarantees two things. One: eventually you will find your opponents. Two: You’ll know you’ve found them when they open fire on you, or a teammate, depending on who stumbled across them. Everyone in the line knows that someone is going to get it, you know that whoever it is has no ability to do anything about it either. I crouch under a branch, then step over a log. Every foot step echoes like a rock concert. Surely they can hear all of us crashing along. I draw quick aim on a shadow. . . No just a tree stump.

Suddenly, the waiting and the silence are shattered by a burst of automatic fire about one hundred yards off to my left. Someone returns fire. As I run towards the sound, I can hear paint balls impacting on trees by the dozens. SMACK SMACK SMACK. Before I arrive I hear my teammate call out “hit!” He’s out. Worse than out. He’s now on the other team! We lose one, while they gain a player! As I run up, I see my team mate, Clay pinned behind a tree, doing his best to return fire. Little splatters of paint are flecked across his goggles from a near hit. By this time it’s a full on fire fight. Dozens of rounds are exchanged by the second.

I can’t detect any fire coming directly at me, so I continue in my flanking maneuver. Suddenly I hear another of my team yell out “hit”! And run over to join the opponent. This is not going well for us. The odds have now been turned. Instead of five humans hunting down two aliens, it is now three humans vs. four aliens. Clay and Josh are both pinned down, but the good news is that I’ve just saved a bunch of money by switching to Geico! And, they haven’t seen me, and have no idea where I’m at. . .yet. I hand-signal Clay to keep them busy. He does his best to draw their fire. Every time they have an exchange I take advantage of the noise and move in closer. I still haven’t even seen an alien. Just moving towards the sound of their guns.

Then, just like a ghost one of them steps from behind a bush to try to get an angle on Clay, completely oblivious to me standing twenty feet behind him. My response is automatic as I raise my Tippmann place my red-dot sight on his back and squeeze off a quick 3 round burst. Three perfect splats appear on his back, and his hands go up. One down. I move in closer, see another one crouched behind a tree and open fire on his exposed back. Two down. They know about me now. As another one tries to adjust to my presence, he gets eliminated by Clay. The remaining Alien bolts in a dead run. He’s kinda far away by the time I get a clear shot, but not too far for my new Flat Line barrel. I let off a stream of rounds in his direction. He trips and falls, inadvertently saving himself. . .for a moment. I aim into the grass where I saw him go down, and send off another burst. His hands come up. He’s out. He sits up, my blue paint coating his forehead.

As friends we all walk back to the staging area. Pair up new teams. and spend the next three hours doing it over and over again. This is paint ball. This was Saturday night for me. Can’t wait until next time. Hope my welts are gone by then.

The weather is driving me mad

I can't believe the weather around here this spring. We are technically in a drought here in south eastern Idaho for the past seven years or so, but this spring you wouldn't know it. Last month we got four times our average precipitation! Although I am happy to see everything so nice and green, and it's been nice to not have to water the lawn, the rain sure is interfering with my paintballing. The cycle of stormy weather has been perfectly coinciding with my days off! While I'm working we have pretty decent weather- low eighties to mid seventies - but, by the time I get off for a few days, the temperatures drop into the mid fifties and it starts raining and blowing. Back in my youth, we still played no matter what. Maybe I just need to toughen up.

Ok, so this week is the week to hopefully kick off and restart a workout habbit, even though I am leaving town for a couple of days. We shall see how that goes. Just for kicks I started back on the Atkins diet a month ago to hopefully jump-start some wieght loss. I haven't been overly strict, and have cheated quite a bit. To my dismay my wieght loss hasn't been as dramatic as I experienced the first time on Atkins. Two reasons I can think of. #1 I am twenty pounds lighter now than I was the first time I started it. I think that the more you need to lose the faster it comes off at first. And #2 the first time I did it I was extremely strict, and this time I haven't been near as strict. I am on the verge of tossing in the towel and just going on a calorie watch, and increase my physical activity. I guess I have about two weeks worth of grilled hamburger patties still in the fridge I need to eat. So, we'll see where I'm at then.

Blogging myself out of the blogosphere

I have to laugh. When I began writing this blog, my original intent was to get on here daily, or at least weekly and jot down the daily wanderings of my mind. I never expected my blog to recieve any comments from others. Once others began commenting on my blog, I suddently felt a burden of responsibility to come up with profound, and thought-provoking topics to write about. I puzzled all day long, "what to write?...what to write?" Sometimes I was albe to scrape up something from the daily headlines. Other times, I would dig into my brain and just toss out a personal belief I hold, that might be slightly controversial. Unitl I just realized why I haven't written anything for over a week now, and the thought was like a chore in my brain. " need to blog about something....but what?" Somewhat similar to " I really need to start getting back into the gym."

Well today's blog is to remind myself why I started this in the first place. #1 I enjoy writing, and welcome the opportunity to have others be able to comment on my rantings. #2 I like the opportunity to meet all kinds of different people with different lives through this blog. What an adventure.

Well, back to it. For now on I will write in my blog without being so dang conscience of what others are going to think when they read my post. I still love the comments and hope they continue, but my blog won't be dominated by trying to attract comments, or satisfy those who may be reading anymore. Back to doing it for myself.

Whew! I feel better already. Can't wait until my next post.

Is it really about the Koran?

I just want to make a short point on this whole desecration of the Koran thing.

They are all up in arms and killing people over unconfirmed stories of alleged Koran abuse. For example, the US has had to close down the embassy in Indonesia because of threats.

My question is this: Where's all the freakn' outrage by the Muslim community when one of their fellow Muslims blows up a bomb, at a mosque killing people, and most likely damaging many Korans, Where's the demonstrations and outrage? What? It's ok to blow up your holy book, as long as you don't set it next to a toilet?

My other question is, what other country in the world would be even allowing these suspects to have a Koran besides the USA?

In my point of view, these people will use any excuse at all to be violent and malicious towards us. This places and extra burden of responsibility on our media at home, and they need to recognize it. The free ride for them is over.

Common Sense Prevails

Well, I am happy to report that the Union met and voted on Tuesday morning, and we will not be striking. We voted to ratify the new contract in a landslide. This was a good contract, and I am glad to see most union members had their heads screwed on straight despite the fanatical rantings of some of the members. The Union President told us that some PACE national representative actually saw our figures and said that it was an astounding raise in pay, one of the best he's ever seen, and it should be an automatic ratification. Without going into actual numbers, I can say that over the next five years, my pay will be 28% higher than it is now. That's incredible!

It completely blows my mind that there were members campaigning for a strike! I am sure they would give their reasons, but jeeze la wheeze! When is enough, enough for some people? This is one of my problems I have with unions. Some members get really greedy and think they can strike and get whatever they want.

Anyway, it's all good now. Now we all have some healing to do. A lot of ugly things were said throughout the whole ordeal.

I must be sick

I am referring to the video to come out recently of a sixty six year old substitute school bus driver getting into a physical altercation with some teens on his school bus. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,157351,00.html

I was just getting ready for work yesterday afternoon and turned the TV on to Fox News just in time to see the video and a "panel of experts" discussing what had happened. In the video you basically see the bus driver in an attempt to control two boys, who happen to be brothers, basically flip out. He turns and slaps one brother who yells an obsenity at his back, and then grabs him by the neck and walks him back to his seat by the neck. Then he proceeds to go to the back of the bus and pushes the other brother against the window, and I think he puts a seatbelt on the kid.

I know it's probably wrong to sit here and try to justify what this driver did. Yes, he should have remained calm despite the outrageous desrespect these boys were dishing out to him. But, as someone who has had my share of dealing with little spoiled brats like that, I secretly took much gratification watching this driver dish out to these kids what they needed. The look on the little snot's face when that driver grabs him by the throat was priceless.

Anyway, it just kinda goes to show you how things in this world are changing. If this had happened to me when I was a kid, my parents would be more ticked off at me for being a little shi# than they would at the bus driver. My parents would have probably made me go mow the guy's lawn for a summer as an apology.

Kids these days don't have to worry about getting what's coming to them, and they know it. This is a problem. I can't imagine being a school teacher these days with no disciplinary options available.

If you're that desperate, I have some good ideas...

Watching the last episode of Everybody Loves Raymond last night, I saw a trailer for the new Tom Cruise movie coming out, War of The Worlds. I now have to ask what in the heck is going on? Has Hollywood lost all of its creative talent and ability? I can’t believe all the remakes going on recently. A list just from off the top of my head.

War of The Worlds
Dukes of Hazard
Starsky and Hutch
Amityville Horror
The Haunting (not so recent but still...)
Flight of The Phoenix
The Longest Yard
The Incredible Hulk
The Exorcist
The Stepford Wives
Dawn of The Dead
Magnificent Seven

I am sure there are a ton more that I’m not aware of. So, what’s the deal here? Has Hollywood lost its ability to create something new and imaginative? Or are they just unwilling to take a risk or gamble on something new and imaginative? Surely there are screenplays out there being written that are brilliant. I can’t imagine all the ideas are used up.

It seems the trend here is to either remake an old classic, make a movie stemming from an old 70s era TV show, or make a movie out of a Comic book hero. Is anyone out there having any original ideas? Even George Lucas has fallen prey to cashing in on previous success with his new Star Wars movies.

I guess I am not really complaining all that much. In a lot of cases the remake is awesome and definitely needed to be done. But, in so many other cases it drives me nuts when the new remake isn’t as good as the original, or even worse, it is EXACTLY IDENTICAL to the original and you walk away wondering, why did they even bother?

I am sure it’s all about the money. Capitalizing on the success of the original will always be too much of a temptation for Hollywood I guess. For some of us these remakes are blasphemy, like the Muppet version of the Wizard of Oz. For others it’s an exciting opportunity to see their old favorites with better special effects, and newer, hipper actors and scripting.

For me. I’d rather see something new and fresh. Leave the originals alone. And don’t even get me going on the remaking of SONGS!

The Forger's Fire

The union and the company have negotiated an agreement. We aren’t out of the woods yet, but it’s nice, at least for me, to see both sides talking and agreeing on something.

The company wanted a fifteen day extension to the contract really bad. We weren’t going to give it to them. The company is not ready for a strike. They don’t have what they call a contingency force ready yet to take over in the event of a strike. You have to understand that this is national security. If we strike, the plant still must be protected. So, what the company does is send out an “all call” to other DOE sites across the country hoping they will send extra security officers they can spare, to make up part of the contingency. Well, I guess they haven’t gotten much of a response this time. Probably because everyone is already taxed trying to meet post 9/11 standards.

So you can see that we had pretty good leverage. Giving them fifteen days was basically almost giving them everything. But, we gave it to them. In exchange we got, what I would call a pretty decent pay raise. Also, they agreed to change the wording of our official job category. I wasn’t aware of this, but for ever we have been officially described as “unskilled labor”! This is unbelievable to me. It’s not like they hand me a shovel and ask me to dig a ditch! I have more qualifications to keep up than most people out there. Everything from pistol, rifle, hand to hand combat, first aid, CPR, to working in radiological environments, and wearing a gas mask. That isn’t even the half of it. So, I am glad to see that we are now described as “skilled workers” which will justify more pay down the road.

A lot of security guys - guys who’ve been there for twenty years - are ticked off at our union for giving in. I think these guys don’t realize that this is how things are done. Both sides must give a little. That’s why it’s a negotiation instead of a gang rape. Who wants to see a strike? Anyway, I hope this is the end of all the talk of striking. Who knows though. A lot can still happen by the 30th.

Thought of the day:

I was just thinking the other day about that old commercial for the USMC. (Marines) It starts out showing a black smith hammering away on a red hot lump of metal. Huge molten sparks fly through the air as the hammer smashes away. A voice comes over, saying something like; “ You begin with raw steel. You shape it. You form it “. At this point you can see the steel taking on the shape of a sword. The voice continues on about the pounding required to form this sword. The transition from fire to water over and over, and the constant smashing of the hammer. At the end you see a Marine Corps officer holding the sword, and the voice tells us how it’s now polished to a fine perfection, and razor sharp.

I have always loved this analogy. I like to think that we are “raw lumps of steel”. If we are to realize our true potential, and become what we were meant to be, we have to endure a certain amount of time in the forger’s fire, and put up with his constant pounding. It is life’s trials and difficulties that shapes us and makes us stronger. Personally I take it further, and like to imagine God as the forger. We don’t often see the reasoning or purpose for our hardships or difficulties in life. Perhaps, we are being forged. Perhaps we are being polished and prepared for greater things to come. Perhaps, this particular moment in our life that we find so hard, is just exactly what we need. The difference between real steel and us, is we have a choice on how we will react and respond to the forger’s attempts at shaping us. I like to hope that some day I will be that razor sharp, finely polished sword. But, I am kind of afraid of the process.

The Big Face Off

Well, it's down to the wire now. Looks like my union is most likely going to strike soon. Negotiations with the new contractor are not going well at all. All the other security officers that I talk to are grumbling and rumbling about striking. We've never striked before. The company doesn't believe we'll do it. I think they are in for a major surprise.

I don't want to strike. In fact, I am pretty content with my pay and benefits as they stand now. But, it seems I am alone in this thinking. I hear stories from both sides, and in my opinion both sides are being stubborn and stupid. But, I have to lay most of the blame on this new company. They could have pacified us by doing very little, and we would have settled for not much at all. But, they showed up ready for a fight, and have seemed to go out of their way to antagonize the union.

This sucks! I can't afford to go without pay for very long. This is the best job I've ever had, and I can't stand the thought of it being jeapordized by something this stupid!

There will be no crossing the line. The company, for the sake of national security, will lock us all out in the event of a strike, despite this being a "right to work" state.

So here I sit wondering what my situation will be like in the next week or so.

= 0

It's all good

Well, life moves on. thanks for the sympathetic comments made by those who purused my last post. For those interested, the little tyke is just as good as ever. I worked on throwing and catching a football with him today. Funny, how I seemed to so much more appreciate that little moment now.

I must have bruised some of my ribs in the fall. I didn't workout yesterday, and will most likely skip tonight as well. My abs and left arm are tremendously sore after my incident. I feel like I've done a thousand one-armed pushups. I will probably give my body a few days to recover. Plus, the day after the accident I had to go to a hand-to-hand-combat class for work that lasted all day. It consisted of kicking and punching bags, and throwing each other around on a mat. So, I am actually pretty sore from all that too.

Can't wait to get back into the groove

Peace

Angels Among Us

I’ve always thought of myself as a pretty tough guy. I never cry. I’m a big weight lifting guy. I work as an armed security guard for the government. I’ve been trained to shoot to kill, to arm bar someone to the ground, apply pressure point compliance, and handcuff them. There are firearms in my home, and not far from reach. ( for me, NOT THE KIDS ).

Today, I found out I’m not as tough as I thought. Today, I discovered there is a chink in my armor, a breach in my fortifications.

I live in an old farm house out in the country, and when we moved in there was a lot of reminders around the place of the old farm, which for the last four years I have been slowly cleaning up, mainly fencing. Today, I was unbolting and old cattle gate from a post. My wife was trimming weeds nearby, as the kids played in the yard. I finally got all the nuts from the u-bolts and was attempting to yank the gate - which probably weighs around one hundred pounds - from off the u-bolts. It was sticking. I gave it one really good yank, and to my much surprise it slipped free with ease. This put me completely off balance. The corner of the gate dropped to the ground, causing me to take a stumble forward. Being off balance and the weight of the cattle gate pulling me forward, I completely lost my balance, and began to fall, holding onto the gate in front of me. To my absolute horror I saw my two year old son standing right in front of me, completely in the path of the gate and myself!

It all becomes a blur at this point. A blur in slow motion. The worst part is it took a couple of seconds to fall. An eternity to contemplate the worst of which was about to occur, and completely out of my control to stop it. I heard my wife screaming. I realized I too was yelling incoherently. It was like I wasn’t even in my body. I remember trying to reach through the bars of the gate as I fell, trying to grab my son and actually throw him out of the way in time. I think I managed to push him, but I can’t remember. My final thought was, This is going to kill him or really seriously injure him at the least.

The next thing I knew the cattle gate and I were both atop my son. the top bar was right across his throat. He was screaming. I can’t convey in words my horror. I couldn’t get off! I was sprawled on the stupid gate, and couldn’t get off! “ I can’t get off “! I yelled, as my son continued to struggle and scream beneath what must have been over three hundred pounds of weight. I distinctly remember a small bit of blood trickling from his lower lip. At this point my wife and I had one of those adrenaline moments. I just knew I needed to get the weight off of him..somehow! Holding on to the gate with my right hand and holding it close to my chest, I extended my left hand and basically did a one armed pushup, pulling the gate and myself off my son. My wife at this point did her best impersonation of Xena Warrior Princess, and lifted the full weight of the gate and myself even higher.

We got clear of the gate, and I scooped up my boy into my arms. I was so afraid I’d crushed his tiny rib cage, or collar bones. upon examination, I am glad and grateful to report he was perfectly ok except the bloody lip. He keeps trying to wrestle with me even as I type this.

I have always believed in God, and I think he was there with me today. Maybe it wasn’t adrenaline that allowed such an exertion of strength. Which I have to add must have been a major effort. My left triceps is as sore after that two three seconds as after any major workout. My abs feel like I did a thousand sit ups today.

I wanted to take this chance to thank the Big Guy Upstairs in as public a way as I know how. I think about what a disaster this could have been. I should have been rushing to the emergency room at the very least. To get off scott free like this...

What more can I say? I got a second chance. I hope that by posting this maybe I can reach out to some of those in the blogosphere in need of a little boost. As Alabama the country band once sang. “ I believe there are angels among us...”

Peace to all.