I’m so vain…I probably think this post is about me

Posted on 07/30/2009 by RLW3

I am a little embarrassed about this one…

but, just a little.

I am going to turn 50 in a few weeks. That’s not bad. I look and feel pretty good “for my age.” I still have a full head of hair. However, it is starting to get pretty thin in some spots.

One of the last things that I did before I left Los Angeles last year was to visit the Regenix office. I had heard their ads on Dennis Prager’s radio show. I liked the fact that they didn’t promise you the moon.”If your bald, your bald.”

I’m not! And, I knew that their product worked for Matthew Mcconaughey. Who knows? Maybe it will work for me and I will look just as good as him!

When I showed up for my appointment, they pulled hair our of four quadrants of my head and examined the hair follicle to see if they could help me. Fortunately, they could. I bought a one month supply ($153! OUCH!) and boarded the plane for KC.

There was no way that I could, in good conscience, start using their product while I was unemployed. That would be more than a little self-indulgent to spend that much money to revive my hair when I didn’t have a job! I would like to save my hair but, let’s be honest…I was never an oil painting to begin with!

Then, when I started working, we had to start rebuilding our savings account. So, the product sat in its original bag in a closet for over a year.

I finally got it out two weeks ago. I still couldn’t justify spending that much money for this so I modified their application instructions. I am only applying it to the place where I am thinning, the top 1/3rd of my head. I can make a one month supply last for three months. That lowers the cost to about $60/month.

If I see results in six months, I will continue using the product. If it doesn’t work, I will have a front row seat at my bathroom mirror to watch my slow but steady transformation into an old man!

That was a tough sentence to write…

I HOPE it works!

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And you thought you were finished with word problems

Posted on 07/28/2009 by RLW3

Every so often, our family runs into logistical challenges that strongly resemble the word problems we had in high school algebra…

We have three vehicles here at the Castle: a 1998 Honda Accord, a 2001 Ford F-150 Super Crew and a 1979 F150 that gets 13 MPG!

The Lord’s wife had to catch a plane this morning in order to go visit friends and family in California. The airport is 35 minutes north and west of our apartment.

The Lord’s son wanted to make the 9 hour drive to Franklin, Tennessee visit his older sister before he leaves for college in a few weeks.

The Lord’s youngest daughter needed to be at the airport at 5:45 P.M. to catch her flight to visit friends and family in California.

The Lord had to go to work in Blue Springs, MO as usual. Work is 30+ miles northeast of our apartment and 30+ miles southeast of the airport.

The Lord doesn’t want to drive the old truck to work because of the gas mileage and he doesn’t want to pay to park all of his cars at the airport all week.

Solve for x.

Answer: Load the Lord, his wife and his son into the Honda. Drop the wife off at the airport. Lord then drives to work. Son will then drive the remaining 8 1/2 hours to Tennessee in the Honda, which means that he will be getting good mileage in a reliable vehicle which gives the Lord of the Castle warm fuzzies all over!

In the evening, have Lord’s youngest daughter pick him up at work in the Super Crew. Lord will then drop her off at the airport to catch her plane. Lord will pay for exactly zero days of parking at the airport which makes him happy.

Lord will then drive the Super Crew to work all week. While the Lord will not be thrilled with the mileage he will get this week, he we quickly appreciate that he is getting better mileage than if he drove Wild Bill. He also will realize that he is driving in much more comfort and style!

An additional benefit is that he will have spent time with each member of his family…

before they deserted him for more entertaining venues!

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She earned every bit

Posted on 07/24/2009 by RLW3

My youngest daughter is turning into quite the little “go-getter.” As soon as school ended, she realized that she would have to take start taking all of the standardized college tests (SAT, ACT) in the Fall.

If she wanted to do well on them, she would have to know Algebra and Chemistry. The problem is that she was scheduled to take them during her Senior year.

She grabbed the bull by the horns and signed up for an Algebra 2 class in summer school AND a dual credit (high school and college) Chemistry class at the junior college.

The Algebra 2 class has been meeting 5 hours per day, 5 days per week; the Chemistry class 3 hours per day, 4 days per week.

On top of that, she has not one, but TWO jobs. She works at an animal hospital on Saturday mornings and at a nice restaurant two to four nights per week! She has been one busy little beaver this summer!

Everything seemed to be going perfectly until this week.

On Wednesday night, she calculated that she had 30 hours of algebra to do by Friday morning! She also had to study for Chemistry because the final was Thursday afternoon! To further complicate things, she could not find ANYONE  to take her shift at the restaurant that night!

I gave her the same advice I have given to everyone who faces “impossible” circumstances: Don’t worry about how you are going to accomplish this. JUST DO THE NEXT THING!

She did…studying 16 hours the next day.

She went into the Chemistry final with a low B average and the Algebra 2 final with a high B/low A. Through a delightful series of unexpected changes in circumstances, she ended up with an A’s in both classes! Yahoo!!!

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Tickets, get your tickets

Posted on 07/22/2009 by RLW3

When I got home from work, my son informed me that the California Angels were playing their last game of the season against the Royals here in Kansas City.

Ten minutes later, we were on the road.

We pulled into the stadium to discover that they were charging $9 for parking!

Oh well…

When we got up to the ticket window, a man asked me if I needed tickets.

“Yes.”

He then GAVE me a $26 lower level ticket.

We then bought a $5 General Admission, went in, had a great time together and watched the Angels come from behind and win!

For $14!

Nice!

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Getting old might not be all that bad!

Posted on 07/21/2009 by RLW3

Last night, after my friend from CA called, I got out of bed and wandered into the living room to see if I could figure out what day it was. My youngest daughter was studying in the living room.

To quote Celine Dionne, it all started coming back to me…

Mom told her that she could visit her friend for a few hours as long as it didn’t interfere with her schooling. She had not come home by the time I fell asleep.

I asked her how she was doing in class.

She is two days behind in her Algebra 2 class with just four days to go!

“Then why did you spend two hours at your friend’s house?”

She said something about a stressful day…needing a break…

Let’s just say that I “addressed the issue” and went back to bed.

This morning, I woke up and again went out to find her studying in the living room. I gave her a hug and a kiss and told her that I hated to bust her chops last night…

but I had to…

It is my responsibility to train my children, not convince them to like me. I have been doing it for 22 years and I have never enjoyed it.

Then, it then dawned on me for the first time…

Being a grandparent is going to be fun! They don’t do much correcting, reproving or rebuking. They mostly just play and teach.  I like both of those much better!

Yeah, this could be fun!!!

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You mean I have to go to work?

Posted on 07/20/2009 by RLW3

My body must be fighting something.

I say that because I was so tired tonight that I fell asleep at 6:30.

At 9:00, my phone rang. A friend from CA called to see how everything was going. He must not read the blog!

Since I was still asleep, I dove right in, giving him bullet points about Cakes not making the cut on American Idol and Big A tearing his knee ligament.

I guess that the sound of my voice caused him some concern because he interrupted me to ask if I was all right. When I told him that I was sleeping, he said he would call tomorrow after work.

I thought for a moment, “I don’t work tomorrow.”

He laughed and said, “You only work one day a week now?”

Huh? What is he talking about?

“It’s only Monday!”

I thought for a few moments and still couldn’t make sense of what he said. Now I was really confused.

“O.K., that sounds fine…”

Maybe by tomorrow I’ll know what day it is!

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A nice, tidy ending

Posted on 07/17/2009 by RLW3

When the tire shop told me that the differential was bad in our F150 Super Crew, I didn’t know what to do. I had no idea who to take it to.

My co-worker, The Steel Trap, came to the rescue.

He called and got a rough estimate of the cost to rebuild the rear end from a shop that he had dealt with several times in the past.

They think they can replace all of the bearings (the things that are making the noise) for only $630!

ONLY!?!?…

I say only because it was initially looking like $1,300-1,500.

I took the truck over Wednesday night after work. I told them that this was one of our family’s main vehicles.

Right before I left work last night, just one full day later, the shop called me…

THE TRUCK IS DONE!

They rebuilt my truck’s rear end in one day!!! You just don’t hear of that type of service any more.

We actually needed that type of service.

I dropped my wife off at the shop this morning and then headed to work in Wild Bill. She then met my daughter at her summer school, traded the Super Crew for the Honda (much better mileage!) and then drove 3 1/2 hours out to McPherson, KS to pick up our injured son up before the team boarded the bus and headed to Fargo.

Whew! What a week!

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He’s done!

Posted on 07/16/2009 by RLW3

Big A woke up this morning with his knee hurting pretty badly.

His visit to the hospital confirmed the pain. He tore his lower collateral ligament. On a scale of 1-3, the doctor thinks it is a 2-3 in severity.

Thankfully, this is not one of the two major ligaments (anterior cruciate [ACL] and medial collateral} that you are accustomed to hearing about it you follow sports at all.

His wrestling season is finished. He will not be competing in the Junior National Freestyle Championship in Fargo, ND next week. Instead, he will be wearing a pretty serious knee brace for the next 5-6 weeks while the ligament heals.

With the Super Crew out of commission, I just have to figure out how we are going to pick him up.

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I REALLY didn’t want to hear that!

Posted on 07/15/2009 by RLW3

After just 3 1/2 hours of sleep, I left for work this morning in our 1979 F150, Wild Bill.

If you have ever driven an old pickup, you know that the steering isn’t very tight. It’s more like steering a boat on the water…you just try to keep it going in the right direction. Given my sleep deprived state, it felt like a continuation of last night’s drive. Is it ever going to end?

I took Wild Bill because my wife took the Super Crew to get new tires put on first thing this morning. After we put 2 new tires on the rear, last night’s noise still persisted.

The mechanic did some further investigation and called me to relay the bad news…

The differential (rear end) is bad! OUCH!!! That is MAJOR surgery!!!

…well north of $1,000!

So much for getting new brakes this week!

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A long day gets even longer

Posted on 07/15/2009 by RLW3

By 9:00 P.M., the caffeine that I purchased from Starbucks had completely worn off and we still had 5 more hours of driving ahead of us. I was not going to stop and get an “energy” drink. That just feels like I would be crossing some imaginary line that shouldn’t be crossed.

When I told my daughter that I was going to have to pull off the road to sleep for awhile, she started volunteering to drive.

“Dad, I’m pretty fresh. I can drive for a little while.”

I wasn’t really all that thrilled with the idea of my 16 year old daughter driving at night while I slept.

After talking about it for a half an hour, I started to cave. I was thinking that if I could sleep for an hour, I would be refreshed enough to drive the final 3 hours home.

“You can’t take any chances. If you feel even slightly sleepy, you need to get off at the next off ramp.”

“Yes, sir. I will.”

As we pulled off the off ramp, a small, strange noise started coming from the back of the truck…almost like someone turned on a switch.

I filled the truck up with gas, switched seats with Cakes and we headed back out onto the road.

As soon as we got underway, the noise resumed.

My first thought was that it must be the tires. I knew I needed new tires but I didn’t think they were THAT bad!

“Pull off the freeway.”

The next off ramp had what looked like a 60 watt light bulb 40 feet above the road. Since I couldn’t see anything, I checked the the tires by hand and found nothing…no bubbles, no exposed metal core…just rubber.

As I stood up to clean my hands and wash the car, I realized that I could not let her drive. There is no way that she is experienced enough to handle an emergency if the noise did turn out to be a tire. Also, up ahead of us, the sky was flashing with lightning.

I gave her the bad news and climbed back into the driver’s seat. I was so, so tired but a man’s got to do what a man’s got to do.

It was white knuckle driving for the next 4 hours.

The noise didn’t really get worse. It just never stopped. Every time I passed a car, I made sure I had a good grip on the steering wheel, pulled as far to their left as I could and then drove as straight as I am capable of driving. Then, after passing them, I didn’t re-enter the slow lane until I was certain that we were far enough ahead of them that they would have enough time to react without crashing into us if our tire blew out,…that is, if I was able to bring the truck safely to a stop!

Second, the storm ended up being 200 miles long. The whole time I was concerned about the truck hydroplaning on my needing-to-be-replaced tires.

To top it all off, as I drove mile after mile, it occurred to me that my mind could be exaggerating the whole situation because I was so tired. However, the only way to change that would be to pull over and sleep so I just had to live with it.

We woke up at 3:45 A.M. We got in bed at 2:15 A.M. and a lot happened in between.

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