A Slower Pace

When I was a boy and as I grew up in my formative work ethic years of 10-16 years of age, one of the chores I had to do the most was mowing the lawn. It started with our own lawn. My dad one day just showed me how to use the electric mower, edge, trim and not run over the cord. Clippings would go over here and the mower would get put away over there and so on. It became my weekly chore and I earned something on the order of $2. I think towards the end of my lawn career at 17 years old I was making $5.

I also learned that other people would pay more than my dad. At the height of my lawnmowing career my kingdom peaked at 7 lawns — not including ours. At $7 per lawn when you are 13 years old that’s quite a business to run and pretty damn cool. It buys lots of baseball cards, anodized bike parts and candy. Too bad I was just a normal kid and bought that kind of crap instead of investing in little heard of companies like Apple Computer, Microsoft and Amgen. I was destined to continue working.

Now fast forward to today. As you all know, my back is still recuperating. As you all also know, my folks are in town staying with us. And as you all know (from here), in April I picked up a pretty cool zero turn mower. Combine all those and you get a kid’s ultimate revenge — your dad mowing your lawn!

I got such a kick out of watching Dad zip down the driveway, along the treeline, up the neighbor’s easement, around the back creek and up again. He picked up really quick and was soon haulin’ a$$. I turned to my wife and said “Look how fast he’s goin’. He’s bookin’!”. She replied by saying “That’s how you look”. I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. He ended up enjoying mowing the lawn as much as I do. Which is easy to do if you have the right mower.

After my dad was finished and pulled the mower onto the driveway and got off, I pulled out my wallet and gave him 5 bucks. It was the best 5 bucks I’ve ever spent. 🙂

And it turns out he needed it. When careening in the front yard where it’s really bumpy, it seems that he didn’t have his cellphone on his hip anymore. We had lots of ground to cover to try and find it. We tried to call it, hoping the ring would lead us to it. But that didn’t work. Luckily, it didn’t take long for us to find the shredded leather case. And then the flip part ear piece. And then I saw the LCD display reflecting the afternoon sun. Oh, and here’s a circuit board here. Hey, the main part of the phone with the keypad is still intact. And the battery light is on. We were busting up laughing so hard. I tried to call it hoping it would grumble out a pathetic ring which would’ve put me on the ground in laughter. But it just sat there.

Piece by piece we found the phone in between laughing fits. My dad pretty much mulched his cellphone in his careening down the yard on the mower. We’ll be headed to the Verizon store tomorrow with the ziploc bag full of remaining parts.

I wonder if anyone has ever mowed their phone.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

This morning I woke up early so I could make breakfast for my wife. I have the next few days off work to enjoy our company, my wife’s birthday, and Father’s Day. I stayed up late last night to make a vacation picture collage as a present (along with the stuff the kids and I bought her). We have a wall with picture collages of all of our family vacations. We still hadn’t done one for our 2004 vacation which so far has been our favorite. I wish I could have done it with the kids but with me working I never have time alone with them without my wife being around. So a late night creative arrangement was the answer — without kids unfortunately.

My son had his second T-ball practice last night. He did much better than his first practice but I will need to get out in the yard to practice with him. I am just waiting for my back to get better before I get into full speed mode again.

With my folks here, I spent some time with my dad last night showing him how to use the zero turn riding mower. It really is fun once you pick up the hang of it. And after a few minutes of him learning not to correct his overcorrections, he began to get the gist of it. It was cool to see the engineer side of him slowly pick up the operations of how it maneuvered and operated.

A Cincinnati trip for birthday lunch at the Cheesecake Factory is on order today. It is my wife’s favorite restaurant and grandma and grandpa will be babysitting. An then this evening, the electrician is showing up to finalize the electrical for the pool pump and motor. Then all I have to do is the chemicals and we are ready to swim. The kids are chomping at the bit since it was installed early last week. Patience, young Jedi warrior. Patience.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

The Michael Jackson news just flabbergasted me. OJ, Robert Blake, Michael Jackson. Kill your ex, kill your wife, molest little boys. What does a celebrity have to do to get put away? Oh, excuse me…..Pam Anderson is safer because Tommy Lee spent a few months in the slammer. Guess he didn’t have enough money to evade jail. Anyway, if this world wasn’t going to hell in a handbasket before, I am officially putting us on notice that we are now.

On the bright side, since I am no longer a California resident, I didn’t have to pay for that trial. Woohoo!!!!!

Nothing else I put in this post can make up for the hopelessness of the above statement so I am stopping now.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

I have been taking it easy this weekend to give my back a chance to heal up and feel better. It was a perfect excuse to play some Xbox with my son and sit back to enjoy the NASCAR race at Pocono. To enjoy the race, I made some of my homemade salsa — actually, it’s more like pico de gallo. And I was able to use some of our own home grown cilantro. It’s my goal to make my homemade salsa with everything from our garden, but most of it isn’t ready yet. However, the cilantro has been growing great so I cut some. It is very exciting for me to grow some of our own food and I look forward to much more of it this year and in the coming years when our garden and mini-orchards mature.

Since my wife has returned from her trip to CA, we have been easing into the homeschooling routine. Since learning is an on-going process (for all of us) we have decided to homeschool year round. It will be a little less formal during the summer. But we want to keep the momentum and discipline throughout the year, not just the calendar school year. So my wife and I got a kick last night when we got the kids on a learning kick last night for about 3 hours. Here we were on a Saturday night and my girls were studying spelling words while my wife read and worked on numbers with my pre-school son. It was even more gratifying when, in church this morning, the pastor used one of my daughter’s spelling words in the sermon and she picked up on it and smiled at my wife. #1 – that means she is learning and #2 that means she is listening to the sermon. My wife and I were both very proud of this new venture in learning for us. It will continue to be an adventure with some peaks and some valleys. But all in all we believe it is worth it.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

OK, I’m a bit behind on posting. I basically took a week off. No reason. Cool stuff was going on too but it just wasn’t posted. Nobody emailed or complained so no harm, no foul. I will do my best to catch you up.

Friday, May 27, 2005
I went into work late on Friday because of all the long days I had been pulling the rest of the week. I took the opportunity in the morning to plant 6 fruit trees and really put a good start to our mini-orchard. Remember, a while back I planted our first fruit trees with the kids. Well, I caught a great sale at Lowe’s — they were clearing out their fruit trees. The first time I went there, I picked up 8 that were normally $30 to $40 each. They rang up at $9.48 each! When I went back, they had a whole pallet marked for $5 each! I grabbed every last one and barely squeezed almost a dozen into my Suburban. I looked like George of the Jungle driving down the street. These were 7-9 foot tall fruit trees — peach, apple, pear and nectarine. My mini-orchard was now well on it’s way to being well stocked. But I had to start getting these trees into the ground and Friday was a good start.

Since Thursday was my middle daughter’s birthday and she wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese (for the fun, not the food), we went Friday afternoon. One of my wife’s friends went with her three kids too so we had an energetic and fun time.

Saturday, May 28, 2005
Since this was the long Memorial Day weekend (and official kick off of summer), I had three goals to complete before the weekend ended — to plant all the trees I bought for the mini-orchard, to finish putting together the swingset/activity center I started 2 weeks ago and to plant our garden which was finally prepped. In the morning, I planted a few trees while the soil was still moist. The rest of the day I focused on the swingset. I finished it in the afternoon and began the long process of putting away all my dangerous tools since my kids and a few of the neighborhood kids were swarming around the completed structure in test mode making sure everything worked and was safe.

This was also the day I got into some poison ivy. I was great in California at being able to spot a poison oak plant from 100 yards away. This was a valued skill for someone like me that gets a rash from the plant oil just by looking at a picture of it. Well, I’m not that good at poison ivy — yet. However, I know I didn’t touch the plant directly. I believe that my shoe collected some of the oil from a recently mowed trail down by the creek. I was using the trail with the wheelbarrow to dump excess dirt from the planted trees. I walked on a cut plant, got the urushiol oil on my shoe and then kneeled down to plant the trees and spread mulch. My shorts touched the shoe and transferred it to my knee and leg. Luckily, Dr Scott in Texas (the best man in my wedding) saved the day with some recommendations. Combine that with some local stuff from one of my neighbors and we have the best case of poison ivy rash I’ve ever had. Very little itching and discomfort. I also learned to wear long pants while doing yard work.

Sunday, May 29, 2005
Before church, I headed out to plant the last remaining three trees. That done, I jumped in the shower and we made it with lots of time to spare. This was another weekend where my wife was volunteering in the nursery.

While planting the trees, I got on a roll and was very tempted to just let my wife go to volunteer while I stayed at home with the kids to “get more stuff done”. I’ve been guilty of doing that in the past. It’s so easy in life to just let momentum run your course instead of doing the right thing and making the right choice. For our family and especially for the kids in their development, I know that church and the consistency of attending church is a vital part of our spiritual lives and fulfillment. However, it is just a piece of our total puzzle, not just one thing to do one day out of the week and then check off our Christian accomplishment for that week. Combine church attendance and involvement with daily prayer and thanks, time and monetary donations, giving back to the community, having a positive impact, and consistent living of values and I believe that is a good start to being a disciple of example — to myself, to my spouse, to my kids and to others. Now don’t get me wrong — I fall short on all of these quite often. But it is a constant beacon to set the course of my life to. I might get off track or blown off course but I make adjustments and continue on resetting the course all the while being led by that steadfast beacon.

Now fast forward to the afternoon and our garden preparation. Given that last philosophical paragraph above, the garden is a very nice metaphor for our lives. We are at the very beginning stages of it and will be involving the kids heavily in it. There are so many lessons that a garden can teach the kids…..and all of us. Delayed gratification, hard work equals benefits to be enjoyed, problems to be overcome, what you put into the garden (life) is what you will get out of it. So many different lessons to be drawn from this summer’s outdoor classroom. It will be fun, interesting and educational.

More to come.

…..Dan at aslowerpace

Today was my middle daughter’s birthday. We woke her up with breakfast decorations and a candle in her cinnamon roll. At lunch, the whole family came down to meet me. We went to our good ol’ family favorite — Smokey Bones. We had a nice birthday lunch meal and I enjoyed spending a weekday lunch together. Back in Thousand Oaks I used to see all of the family for lunch everyday when I came home. I sure miss that. However, now that it is summer I am hoping we can take advantage of the opportunities when my wife can bring everyone down for lunch.

Pizza Hut, my daughter’s favorite, was on order for dinner. After that, we all killed time until the fireflies came out. At that point we all got together on the front porch for about 45 minutes. My son ran into his room to get his bug catcher net and my wife grabber a clear jar. The kids all took turns “catch and releasing” fireflies. It was very relaxing and entertaining as my wife and I sat next to each other watching the kids and their excitement. Another country memory filed away in my memory banks.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

Wow! I don’t know where to start. It is late — I just finished watching the NASCAR All-Star race and am reflecting on the day. For me, it was picture perfect.

It started with our last soccer game. I picked up my son’s soccer pictures and they looked great. I ordered some of those trading cards to send to family along with a button to match all the ones of my daughters that we have on the sun visor in my wife’s truck. The kids played a great game…..and we didn’t lose! We didn’t win either but I’ll take a tie over the losses we’ve had this year. I’m kinda bummed because they were just getting the hang of it — scoring goals, playing defense, attacking the ball. At least we ended on a high note and were getting better.

With that checked off our busy day list, my son and I ran into town to pick up some wine for tonight’s company. While driving down the freeway, I spotted a truck on the side of the road with a father and daughter waiting for something. I was in the slow lane and in a position to quickly pull over and stop. I offered help. They told me that she had a soccer game 30 minutes away that they were late for. Their wife/mom had surgery the night before and they spent a little too much time at the hospital this morning. They were running late and pushed their gas too far and had run out. But they had called someone on the team who was on their way. Within that time, that person showed up with the needed fuel and we left them in good hands.

A quick trip to the store for some nice wine and we were back home to help get everything ready for tonight’s dinner. I started the coals for the smoker and began prepping the two chickens. Once they were happy together with the hot coals and wet hickory wood smoking away, I was able to begin straightening up the back yard and garage. My wife already had the house clean and the kids were being good staying out of the way and not undoing all of our hard work. We were ahead of the curve with everything ready and the meal on it’s way to being enjoyed so my wife and I sat on the back patio for a while and just relaxed and talked. The weather was perfect today and we soaked it all in.

Our company arrived and we truly had a great time. Good food, good company and good chatting. We were able to visit, eat some good food and share some stories. We took a little hike around the property and my kids loved playing with their older daughter. I’m sure glad we could reciprocate and say thank you to them for all they had done.

After dinner and after our company had left, my son ran over to the neighbor’s house to play with his little buddy. Upon retrieving him later in the evening, I brought my neighbor’s favorite beer to him and we chatted for about 1/2 hour while the boys continued to play. The fireflies coming out was my cue to head home and say goodbye. Later that night, I actually caught one in my hands. I put it in a glass jar and took it inside to show they kids…..but they were all asleep. And so ends our great day.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

Last night was a very enjoyable evening. My wife looked beautiful and I actually cleaned up nice. The country club was swanky — it was originally a huge mansion from the 1880’s or something like that. A very long two lane drive flanked by two rows of trees 60 ft tall ushered us into the golf course area, across an aged stone bridge with lots of character and to the parking area by the club house.

Right off the bat I could begin introducing my wife to people from work she had heard about but only had a name of. Now she could put names to faces. The drinks and chat time before the dinner flew by and we enjoyed talking with some of the better halves of all the people I work with (I brought my better half and I am assuming they all did too).

The awards presentation was nice too. I really like that my company believes in their values and walks the talk. Programs like this that give back to the community are great examples of that. I found out that in the 14 years they have been doing this program, they have given over $1 million dollars in money to teachers. In the last 9 years of doing the program in Kentucky, they have given over $100,000 in money to Kentucky teachers. I am proud to be a part of a company that not only improves patients’ lives but also improves the communities I work in.

During dinner the lights flickered a few times. The banquet room reminded me of the Disneyland Haunted Mansion entrance. It was a much larger room, but had dark wood paneling, fresco-ed ceiling and the electric candelabras on the walls. The booms resonating from outside informed us that the 2nd of 3 storms had arrived. The first blew through around 3pm. This one was making it’s presence felt. It looked even more like the Disneyland Haunted Mansion when the lightning flashes came through the window.

After about three hours things started winding down and we said our goodbyes. We had our kids to return to and the storm was getting quite nasty. Many people had the same idea but were bottlenecked at the front entrance canopy. It seems not many people brought an umbrella and the sheets of rain were flooding the parking lot. In fact, I don’t think an umbrella would even help in this situation. I guess I’m a gentleman seeing as I was one of the first to dash to the truck so I could bring it around for my wife. I ran the 50 yards or so but might have well had walked. I could not have gotten wetter if I had stood in the shower with all my clothes on. I swung the truck around and my wife jumped in making a statement about how wet she got in the 2 feet she had to travel from the overhang. Then she looked over at me, soaking like a drenched poodle. She was half in amazement, half laughing. I pulled to the side of the parking lot and took my shirt off.

I switched the wipers to warp speed mode which allowed me a full 1/4 second of good visibility for driving. As we crossed the aged stone bridge with character, I caught a glimpse of the small brook below. It had transformed to a massive watershed bulging with white water. It reminded me of a time I was caught 4x4ing in the Mojave desert and got caught in a flash flood. The power of that surging water was incredible and I was wondering if in a few minutes people were gonna have to stay at the club house because the stone bridge would become impassable.

Between the 1/4 second clear windshield I got from the wipers and the 1/2 second of quick, random daylight I got from the lightning, I was able to slowly make our way home. You couldn’t count one one thousand, two one thou—-BOOM!—–between lightning strikes. I hadn’t ever seen this much lightning activity. In fact, while driving down one of the main roads, we had a clear view forward for about a mile because of the city lights and BAM!, down came a lightning bolt immediately followed by a explosion crackboom sound. It scared the crap outta my wife and she actually jumped in the truck. The touchdown point was probably only 1/2 mile up ahead. We both happened to mention that the strike was the most intense one we had ever seen. Then, while waiting for a red light to change, another one hit about 300 yards away. We saw the strike point and the explosion sparks from it as the energy was dissipated to the ground. WOW!!! That was incredible! Now, that lightning bolt was the most intense one we had ever seen. I sure hope we don’t keep upping the stakes.

Hundreds of lightning flashes more, buckets of rain, a few washed out creeks and bridges later, we were finally home safe. I put on a shirt (remember, I took the soaking thing off after we got in the truck) and I went over to pick up the kids. They had a good time but were glad we were home. With the flashes and thunder it took a while to calm them down and get them to bed but we finally did it.

What an exciting evening all the way around.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

All of us have them — old friends that are out of touch. No matter the reason, whether it was distance or a job change or family responsibilities or just plain ol’ laziness, they meant something to you at one time in life. Drop them a note and let them know you’re thinking of them. You might just be surprised at what transpires.

I recently did just that and have a lot of catching up to do with someone I haven’t seen in many years. Lots has changed and I am looking forward to seeing all the exciting things that have happened in our lives.

And while you’re at it, let someone that is your friend right now know that you are thinking of them. We all have these thoughts — a past memory that visits us as we drive down the road, or a distant feeling that is triggered by something we used to do with someone else. Give that person a call or email and let them know. This world would be a better place if we all did that more often. I’ve been OK at doing that but pledge to get even better at it.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

Last night after dinner, after the soccer game, after getting the kids ready for bed and during a little snack, I turned on the Academy of Country Music Awards. The kids jumped on my lap (remember this recent post? Good ol’ fashioned music with lyrics you can understand that you can listen to in front of the kids) and we watched some of our favorite country music singers perform — Kenny Chesney, Sara Evans, Keith Urban.

Now if you AREN’T a country music fan, you probably won’t get all this so go ahead and close your browser and pick back up tomorrow. If you ARE a country music fan, you probably missed a group that, for a while, had a big impact on country music.

All I have to say is: I saw Toby Keith. But I didn’t see the Ditsy Chicks! I’ll leave it at that.

Or maybe not. Toby Keith has had a quite a few banner years and continues to rise in popularity even after the Ditsy Chicks criticized him back in 2002 which began an ugly spat. But since then the Ditsy Chicks have fallen flat on their faces. They dropped country music fans like a hot potato embracing the “pop” music scene thinking that the fickle teeny bops that make up that fan base would pick up the slack and buy their albums. But, just like they underestimated their country music fans, they overestimated their popularity outside country music. Consequently, they have pretty much gone no where in the last few years. They have been deleted from country music radio just like I deleted them from my networked MP3 server.

For some background history, check out http://www.celiberal.com/linkcache/2a/240.html

Good riddance!

Ok, rant off. I’m off my soapbox…..for now.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net