Deja vu all over again!

Posted on 12/25/2009 by RLW3

Is there a pattern developing?

In my last post, I told you about the similarities of Kimba’s departure last Christmas and her  arrival this year. Well, we aren’t quite finished.

I was supposed to pick up my oldest daughter, Bean, from the airport last night. She was scheduled to take off from Dallas at 9:30 P.M and land here in Kansas City at 11:00.

The drive home from the airport with Kimba was pretty challenging. Snow was still falling so I imagined that the conditions would only get more difficult when I went back to pick Bean up. I decided to take a nap in order to be fully awake and alert.

So I laid down at 8:15. At 8:30, just as I drifted off to sleep, Bean called to tell me that her flight was delayed. She wouldn’t be getting in until 12:30 A.M.

I thought, “Fine. I will just be that much more rested when I go to pick her up.”

At 11:00, she called again. She wouldn’t be taking off until 12:30…

At 12:30, she called to tell us that her flight had been cancelled…after 9 hours at the airport!

That seemed very familiar to me…

Yes…I remember now. Something similar happened to her when she left KC to go home last Christmas.

Kind of weird…

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She’s back!

Posted on 12/24/2009 by RLW3

Let’s see…

I’m driving to the airport in the middle of a wind/hail/rain/snow storm…

Kimba must be coming into town!

When I took her to the airport after last Christmas, it was exactly the same type of weather.

It is pretty hairy trying to drive in this kind of weather. As I tried to finish up my Christmas shopping, I tried to negotiate a turn in a parking lot at a very slow rate of speed and continued to go straight ahead.

Anyway, with many heavy sighs to bleed off the pressure, we made the 35 minute drive home from the airport safely in about an hour.

And, to cap off a challenging Christmas Eve, I get to do it all over again in a little over four hours because Bean is coming in from Dallas!

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It’s not on “E” yet!

Posted on 12/23/2009 by RLW3

I still don’t know what I am going to buy for my wife! I am running out of time!

But, then again, I am a man. Men are supposed to wait until the last minute.

If I bought her gift early, I could be found guilty of “shopping”! Not good! I don’t like shopping. Shopping is not good for men. It is S-O-O-O feminine!

However, with each tick of the clock, the nature of the event changes…a little more estrogen is drained out and a little more testosterone is injected in. Experience tells me that if I wait long enough, it won’t even be shopping at all!

Two days ago, finding something for my wife transformed from an obligation into a challenge.

Yesterday, I began to feel the first pangs of the fear of failure. The thought that ‘I HAVE to come through’ began to fill my consciousness.

Today, I am starting to feel pressure. Breathing is becoming slightly more difficult. But…

I can’t do anything tonight. Immediately after work, I will be with Grammy, Grandpa and my two youngun’s.

Tomorrow, finding a Christmas gift for my wife will require a MAN!

Shoot, if I wait until tomorrow afternoon, I will end up being a HERO!

Yeah, not today…

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They’re not Canadian!

Posted on 12/21/2009 by RLW3

I have a built in desire to explore.

When we lived in Los Angeles, I was always amazed when, after living there for 30 years, I would drive on a road for the very first time. I was like a little kid.

“I have lived here for (fill in the blank) years and I have never been on this road before.”

Now that I live in Kansas. Everywhere I go is new. However, I do find myself saying “I have never seen that before” fairly frequently.

That happened again yesterday.

After church, I decided to take the family to a certain barbecue restaurant that I had been wanting to visit for the past six months. When we arrived, we learned that they are closed on Sunday!

We ended up eating at a nice Italian restaurant instead.

When we got into the truck to go home, the thought of driving the usual streets seemed so disagreeable that I decided to head south a few miles and then drive the 7 miles east to out apartment through the country.

What a trip!

As we drove, we saw 11 white tail deer in one location, 9 more white tail deer in another and 8 or 9 longhorn cattle.

But we then stumbled upon a huge, beautiful park. In that park was a lake with Canadian geese on the water. First of all, I am starting to think that someone made a mistake when they named them. I think that they met Kansasian geese instead of Canadian geese. They are here all year round!

Last weekend, we stopped next to a field with well over 100 birds in it. That was the most that I had ever seen…

Until yesterday!

When we first parked the truck at the lake, there were over 200 geese on the lake!

My son and I got out of the car and walked out to the waters edge. It was then that we realized that these were CHRISTIAN geese!

Yes, you read right!

No, I am not crazy!

Double click on the picture and look closely…

Those geese were walking on water!!!!!!!

Of course, the water WAS frozen!

After watching for 15 minutes, there were 400-500 Kansasian geese walking on the water! And that is after 100-200 took off! And I am being conservative! They would land in groups of 30-100 at a time.

I am 50 years old and I have never seen that before. It was pretty, darn cool!

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Stepping into a parallel universe

Posted on 12/18/2009 by RLW3

I had my latest “humility sandwich” handed to me today.

After work, I hustled over to the police supply store. As I waited for them to look at my flashlight, I perused the store. It was like entering a parallel universe!

About 50 different handguns at the counter…

fully automatic weapons behind it…

displays of various knives, batons…

a complete shoe store with row after row of different styles of black or tan boots…

gloves for the hands with different “slash ratings”, etc, etc.

It made me recognize the “world” that policeman inhabit is a violent one. I guess that should be obvious with all of the reality cop shows on TV. However, seeing it from this perspective changed it for me.

Then I thought that this was just someone’s job! When they put on all of their gear, they are the cop that is fighting the bad guys to preserve law and order in our society. When they take it off, they are just like me…guys with wives and kids! Wow!

I reached into my pocket just to make sure that my “man” card was still there…

“Still there! Whew!…There must be different grades of cards…They must have a higher grade card than I am authorized to carry!”

After 15 minutes, the guy returned with my flashlight…

“The bulb is bad.”

“But…but…but…”

“I put a new bulb in and it works just fine.”

I could have fixed that! Duh!!!

I thanked him, apologized for taking his time, bought two bulbs and got out of there before he asked me to turn in my “regular Joe” card!

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See, it’s not just me!

Posted on 12/16/2009 by RLW3

Since I can’t figure out what is wrong with my two police style flashlights, I decided to expose my ignorance and ask for help.

I took them to work and asked a friend to look at it.

He couldn’t figure it out. The bulb was good…

He put it in his own new batteries…still nothing.

While that is not good news, it did help to assuage my bruised ego.

“It’s not just me! He can’t figure it out either. I am still worthy to carry my ‘man’ card!”

He mentioned that he thought there might be a repair shop that would repair it for free.

I did a quick Internet search and sure enough…a police supply store.

Since they close at 4:30, I will have to wait until Friday to take it over.

Stay tuned!

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I guess I should have thought of that

Posted on 12/15/2009 by RLW3

Last weekend, I discovered that I had, not one, but three flashlights that didn’t work.

I have two that are police type flashlights powered by regular “D” batteries and a third that is powered by a rechargeable battery used for cordless tools.

The first two are mysteries to me. I can’t figure out why they don’t work. I put new batteries in and got nothing. The bulb doesn’t look like it is burnt out.

The rechargeable one bugs me. This came with a set of cordless tools that I bought a few years ago. At that time, I bought an extra battery…and they aren’t cheap!

Now, neither battery will hold a charge!

After seeing the $40 price tag for a new rechargeable battery, I decided to check out the cost of a new police type flashlight…$20.

Then I realized, that I would still have to buy the cordless battery because none of my tools will work without it!

When I got home, I decided to do a very unmanly thing…

I read the instruction sheet that came with it!

As I started to unfold the paper, doubts begin to fill my brain…

“Why are you doing this?”

Then…

“I knew I shouldn’t have done this”

It was as if the writer of the document had it out for me. In so many words, he (or she) said, “Hey, dummy, this is why you had to buy a new battery.”

“Store in an area between 50º and 100º.”

My righteous consumer anger at having to buy a replacement for a faulty product began to dissipate. I began to recognize the familiar dry, chalky taste of humble pie as the realization that my own ignorance caused my problem began to register in my cerebral cortex.

“Huh, I guess all of those nights in our storage closet in freezing temperatures wasn’t good for them…”

Thankfully, my wife and children weren’t there to actually witness the entire scene!

When they came home, I was able to “inform” them about the cause of the batteries failure. My masculine dignity was restored…

And then I quickly changed the subject!

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My son, the movie star

Posted on 12/14/2009 by RLW3

In my last post, I talked about looking for changes in my son…

Well, there is one change that I didn’t have to look too hard to find…

His nose is huge!

He SAYS that he looks like the Avatar!avatar

He really does!

One of his new Drexel teammates got upset at him during practice and punched him!

I told him that it was fine that he didn’t retaliate…this time!

However, when he gets back, he needs to look the kid in the eye and inform him that if he tries that again, he will be the one that gets hurt!

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He’s back!

Posted on 12/13/2009 by RLW3

I picked my son up from the airport yesterday morning. It is like he never left!

He is back to mauling everyone. Either he has gotten stronger or Cakes has lost a little. She can’t quite handle him like she did a few months ago. However, he has already earned a few slugs from her!

He and Mom are back to watching movies at night.

As a parent, it is great to see him. I find myself watching him…looking to see if he has changed…how he has changed.

He seems to have a very good grasp on who he is. He is still our son yet he is becoming his own man.

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Peek-a-boo!

Posted on 12/12/2009 by RLW3

I wonder if I am a little developmentally disabled.

I say that because I am so easily impressed. I am so easily surprised…

by things that I really shouldn’t be surprised about or all that impressed with.

I wish I were more sophisticated but it just seems like SO much work.

My latest pleasant surprise came when I replaced the windshield wiper stick in my Toyota Paseo.

But that really shouldn’t surprise me.

It’s true that I had to take the steering wheel off, disassemble the steering column, take two switches apart and reassemble them into one working unit. That may sound difficult but when I compare it to building two cars from scratch, it really is a relatively simple thing. What’s the big deal?

Yet, when I put the re-assembled unit back into the car, hooked up the wires and pushed the windshield washer button, I was actually surprised and delighted when fluid shot out onto the windshield. I was like a two year old playing peek-a-boo!

Call me a simpleton if you want…

I fixed my car!

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