Lord of the Castle

We went to a concert last night…

a dance concert…featuring the Groovaloos.

You may not know it but you’ve seen them, whether in a music video, movie or commercial. Their website is here.

I am not a big fan of hip-hop, rap, and the like. In fact, if my friend wasn’t the founder of the group, I would not have gone.

And I would have missed a night of great entertainment! The dancers, particularly the men, were electrifying! The story was really well done.

I am SO glad that we went. Fun, fun, fun. If you can see them perform, you will not be disappointed.

About two weeks ago, Lane, the guy who is going to do the paint and body work on my project car, gave me an ultimatum…

“Am I going to start working on your car or are you going to move it out of my driveway?”

I don’t want to paint him (pun unintended but it is a good one!) as the bad guy. After all, the car has been sitting in his driveway for a year and a half. He let me store the car there for free, IF I we gave him the go ahead to work on the car.

We have delayed it as long as possible because the price to finish the car is pretty steep.

My wife has repeatedly questioned me about it.

“Can’t someone else do it?”

“Honey, it’s a custom car. It’s not just throwing some paint on it.”

My wife has repeatedly questioned me about it.

“Can’t a regular shop do it?”

“Honey, it’s a custom car. It’s not just throwing some paint on it.”

But, since she suggested it several times, I decided to check just to “make sure”. I would hate to find out after the fact that I could have gotten it done much cheaper.

The shop across from the place where I work has a pretty good reputation so I took pictures of the car and took them in for a quote. After checking a few times, I realized that he didn’t really want to even quote it!

So, when Lane called, I had a choice: let him start working on the car or pay for a year and a half of storage, sell the car and lose all the time and money that I have invested over the past 13 years!

I chose the former.

 I cringed a little inside when he called me today. I hoped that he didn’t want money already…

He needed me to remove all of the stuff that I jammed inside of the car before I left California.

As I removed, box after box, I was once again struck by the enormity of this project! I can’t believe that I actually tackled this! What was I thinking?

I am not one of those guys who always dreamed of building my own car. It just kind of happened…

When I pulled out the magnetic tail lights that I bought to tow the car from California, memories of “The Trip” came back to me. That was the signature event that really got this blog going.

Lane already has about 15% of the car down to bare metal. As I looked at it, I was really impressed with what I have done. I REALLY like the design!

While I don’t have a burning desire to finish the car, I have a feeling that I will glad that I did once I start driving it. I certainly have a lot of life invested in it!

I picked the Toyota up from the mechanic today.

The smell of fear is in the air…the fear of having made the wrong decision in rebuilding it.

My senses are working overtime.

“Was that noise there before?”

How should I know?

I wasn’t listening! I bought this car for $1,150! If it was there, it was NOT a problem!

However, now that I have spent another $1,700 to replace the engine and transmission, I wonder if this little noise or that little noise is a prelude to potential disaster.

I ask my mechanic, “Do you hear that belt turning?”

“No, not really.”

“What does that small tapping sound mean?”

The engine is warrantied for 6 months. That means that I must identify any significant problems fairly quickly.

My mechanic thinks it sounds great. I probably should take his word for it. But then the voice of paranoia starts whispering…

“What if he’s just saying that because those small sounds mean future income for him?”

Whoa, horsey, whoa!

Been a busy week…

Monday, anniversary date…

Last night, midweek meeting at church…

Tonight, my wife and I attended our weekly Bible study.

Typically, the Bible study is started with a generic question to break the ice and get people talking. This week’s topic was “Name one thing that is (or was) hard for you to do.”

The answers were pretty typical…speak in public, wait in lines (me), stay on topic in a Bible study (my wife), lose weight, etc.

Eventually, we came to a woman who visited the church for the first time on Sunday. All I can say was that she picked a good day. The presence of God was incredible!

This was also her first time at Bible study. She started to weep…

“To come to church…”

She then explained that nearly 13 years ago, she woke up in the middle of the night with her son on her mind who lived 11 miles away. That very night, his girlfriend shot him and killed him. She had been blaming herself for not driving over to his house to protect him for nearly 13 years!

Talk about changing the atmosphere of the Bible study…

The facilitator then started comforting her by saying that he could relate to her. He then shared how he had married his high school sweetheart and came home one day to find that she had killed their 3 year old son and then committed suicide! That incident is what started turning his heart to God.

I just sat there dumbfounded…What do you say?

The last item for the night was to tell of something good that came out of your adversity. The another woman shared how God had taken care of her and her children through the years. When she was a young wife with three young children, ages 2, 5 and 7, her husband, the pastor of the church, was diagnosed with leukemia. He died three weeks later! He had been given a clean bill of health by a life insurance company just a few months earlier!

Folks, I try to write about the difficulties that I encounter in life in a humorous or insightful manner, but, let me be clear, after listening to these people’s stories, I have not had ANY problems! NONE!

Did you know that today is New Year’s Day?

March 1st was celebrated as the beginning of the new year in the United States and Great Britain until 1752!

Think about it…

Septem-ber (Latin for 7), Octo-ber (eighth), Novem-ber (ninth), Decem-ber (tenth). January and February were added later.

I think it makes much more sense. March 1st unofficially marks the end of winter. Here in Kansas City, the cardinals have just started to sing.

Why am I writing all of this?

Because March 1st also happens to be our anniversary!

24 years…and we still like each other a bunch!

We celebrated with dinner at The Longhorn Steakhouse. I chose that because my wife’s diet allows her to eat steak!

And speaking of her diet, she is looking pretty fine. She wore a pair of her daughter’s jeans on our date! Yahoo!

I realize that I have not written very much this week, but…

I doing quite a bit of work behind the scenes on this blog.

My dissatisfaction with this blog after looking at my oldest daughter’s blog continues. I had to ask myself, “Do I really want to continue to write what amounts to short stories for the rest of my life?”

That is not what motivated me to start blogging. My original inspiration was to write my political/cultural/social thoughts on Counter Culture².com.

Then, several people expressed interest in hearing my thoughts on the Bible. So, I started “Crumbs Under the Table”.

If the truth be told, this blog was more of an afterthought than anything. But, our family seems to have been especially blessed. I wanted to share that with others. Perhaps someone might read something on these pages that would help them in their own family.

Then, “The Trip” and “The Beautiful Letdown” happened, I started writing on this blog and have never really stopped.

But, back to today’s subject matter…

I have been working on this blog for the past week, figuring out what code to change, learning through much trial and error, trying to make it more congruent with my original intentions.

When the changes are complete, you will definitely see them. I’m close, but not quite there.

My wife loves watching movies. Me…not so much.

Well, that’s not entirely true. I like watching GOOD movies. But so many of them aren’t very good…

In my opinion…

And while I am watching one of those “it’s oh-kay” movies, my preoccupation with time starts rearing its ugly head and I get restless. I try, but it is hard work!

Fairly early in our marriage, my wife and I watched the movie adaptation of Shakespeare’s play, “The Taming of the Shrew”. For my younger readers, it was made in 1967, long before you were even thought of! You can read all about the play here.

Elizabeth Taylor, one of the beauties of her era, plays Katerina, “an ill tempered, scolding woman.” Richard Burton plays Petruchio, the young man who agrees to take her off of her father’s hands (for a tidy sum, of course) by marrying her. He then sets out to tame her!

I honestly can’t remember how we learned of this movie but I know that I probably suggested that we watch it together. Why?

Well, there was a time in our marriage (certainly not now!) when my wife…

umm…

how can I put this…

shared some of Katerina’s emotional traits!

And since she likes to watch movies…

and she likes it even more when I watch with her…

and it was, after all, written by Lord William Shakespeare…

But that was a long time ago.

Now, I think she must be getting desperate. Why do I say that?

Guess what DVD showed up in our house recently?

That’s right…and I didn’t buy it!

We watched it last night. It was interesting that both of us forgot most of the first half of the movie. It seems that all we could remember was the taming part. Great minds think alike.

Things were going great but, alas, my Kate fell asleep just before the former shrew Kate gave the greatest speech that any female has ever delivered in the history of movies!

Aahh, yes…Here is a woman who really “gets it”!

It may sound strange, coming from a blogger, but I have not been a huge fan of technology.

We went several years without a television in our home. When we did get one, TV time was strictly limited. Basically, for most of my children’s lives, we used the television to watch videos.

During his childhood, most of my son’s friends had Nintendos, game boys, o whatever they were called. He didn’t. Why? Because I thought that there were more important things for him to learn than how to get to the 32nd level of whatever game was hot at the moment.

I never had anything but the simplest games on our computers for the same reason.

Our children were some of the last to get cell phones and when they did, their minutes were strictly limited.

I do not regret any of those decisions. In fact, if faced with the same situation, I would make them all again.

But today, I really appreciated the technology that I have available to me.

My son had an important meeting in Philadephia this morning. Shortly after it was over, I not only learned that he was cleared and but quite a few of the details of the meeting via text message.

I then wrote him a e-mail at lunch.

While I wrote that e-mail, I pictured how isolated parents were from their children when they sent them off to college in previous generations. I am thankful that technology has made it so much easier to stay connected.

This may come as a shock to some of you, but I have been having a long distance relationship for more than two years.

Actually, I am in several simultaneously.

It so much more difficult to communicate. I tell you that it is SO much better when you are face to face…

But, what other choice do I have? End the relationship? After all of this time?

I just can’t do it…

So, I continue being a long distance father to my three oldest children!

This weekend, I learned through the family grapevine that my son had been written up for violating the school’s behavior policy!

Whoaa!

I called him…

“For what?”

“Drinking…”

What do I say to that?…

I had no idea so I said nothing…

“But I wasn’t drinking. Everyone knows that I don’t drink or mess around or anything. So, when the other guys involved vouch for me, my record will be cleared.”

I have written about the moral climate in the dorms where he resides. It turns out that his roommate and a friend were drinking in is dorm room while he was present.

I then introduced a possibility that he had not  thought much about…

“What if they don’t?”

I then tried to open his eyes to how exposed he was in his present situation. He is completely dependent on other people to clear his name, people who clearly have little regard for rules and what is right.

I also showed him how easy it would be for the “judge” to find him guilty. After all, he knew the drinking was against the rules and yet he gave tacit consent to people who broke them.

His meeting is tomorrow.

This stage of being a parent is…how shall I put this, challenging.

When my children were younger, they had to listen to me…or else!

Now that they are launching out on their own, I have to watch them make mistakes. Let me tell you, it is highly overrated! I get no pleasure out of it, no sense of “S-e-e-e-e-e-e-e, I told you so!”

I generally just bite my tongue, all the while hoping that they will ask me for my thoughts on the situation.

Take my son and his wrestling, for instance.

He has developed a counterproductive habit…

He eats like there is no tomorrow and then cuts a bunch the day before a tournament. He started his senior season in high school that way, continued through the season all the way through freestyle season.

He tried it again this weekend.

Since he has been “watching his weight”, he ONLY had to lose 8-9 pounds AFTER Friday morning’s practice for today’s tournament! He ended up going 2-2 for the tournament with his elimination loss coming to a fellow Drexel teammate!

I wonder what might have happened if he didn’t have to run 4 miles last night to make weight?

Oh well…I will have to wonder. He finished his redshirt freshman season with a record of 4-6.