Olivia 2 months

Cars 2

This is not a review of the new animated work from Pixar, but a tale of the family garage ...

Kim is supposedly a "stay-at-home" spouse. I work 5 days a week with frequent travel. So, explain this to me ...

Her 2008 vehicle registers 101,000 miles, better than 25,000 annually. Mine, which has been driven over 6 years, has accumulated 62,000 miles, or 10,000 miles per year. During part of that time, I was commuting 50 miles daily.

I suspect we generally spend money per similar ratios.

Any ideas?

Olivia

Uncle Tommy and Olivia.

stretching...

I always say all my grandkids look like me. This one does especially. See all her chins?

Music Man

I don't consider myself musically inclined, and marvel at the skills of my offspring in this area. But it's clear to me that music has powerful mood-altering attributes.

Louis Armstrong's "It's a Wonderful World" moves me, as does Aerosmith's "Dream On". This eclectic combination of songs both put me in a great mood.

I also have an affinity for songs about rain with "Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head" chief among them. The Beatles "Fixin' a Hole" is in the top rungs of this category. A special nod goes to Dylan's "Rainy Day Women" which has nothing at all to do with inclement weather, so a better choice would be his "Buckets of Rain" ditty. There's also "Bring on the Rain" by Eddie Money, "Riders of the Storm" by the Doors, and CCR's classic "Who'll Stop the Rain?".

Songs about doing absolutely nothing fascinate me. "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay" (watching the tide roll away) makes one take pause from busyness. Again, Dylan scores in this category with "Watching the River Flow". Nice.

As I contemplate a retirement a few years out, it's hard not to react to the lyrics in yet another Dylan song, "Maggie's Farm":

I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more
No, I aint gonna work on Maggie's farm no more
Well, I wake up in the morning
Fold my hands and pray for rain
I got a head full of ideas
That are drivin' me insane
It's a shame the way she makes me scrub the floor
I ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more.

I ain't gonna work for Maggie's brother no more
No, I aint gonna work for Maggie's brother no more
Well, he hands you a nickel
He hands you a dime
He asks you with a grin
If you're havin' a good time
Then he fines you every time you slam the door
I ain't gonna work for Maggie's brother more.

It's OK if you're humming now.

Grand Canyon

Had a quick stop at the Grand Canyon. While there a California Condor flew overhead and stopped on a ledge. Condors are an endangered species and it was very exciting to see.

Questioning Foreign Aid

The US seems to fund the world, and it seems to merit us little love. The aid takes many forms ...

We serve as the "Global Police Force", and are engaged in sveral concurrent wars at the moment, most of which have fulfilled their objective (i.e. terminate Osama bin Laden) or which should never have started (i.e. Libya). We've strayed far from the wise doctrine established by our first and foremost president to "avoid foreign entanglements". (See Washington's Farewell Speech ). We must remain strong and free, but don't need to flaunt that strength as much on unnecessary engagements.

Also on the military front, it seems to me as if the concept of NATO is suffering from the law of unintended consequences. Instead of forming a strong alliance of equals, all of the non-US participants have dropped or slashed their military budgets, knowing the US is obligated to protect them. So, instead of growing stronger, the whole has actually grown weaker. Meanwhile, our own borders are inadequately protected.

There is much aid in the form on non-military exports as well. I don't have a problem with humanitarian aid at all, though I also believe Americans would be better served and more engaged in actual human relationships if this were managed mostly via private channels. If you think about it, outsourcing US jobs to other countries is a form of foreign aid because those transactions are free of the usual fees such as employer payroll taxes.

One form of aid which galls me is our exporting of abortion. In a land founded on the pursuit of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness", we should suffer with our own mistakes internally, and not inflict them on others.

Personally, I'm looking for leadership which exports less death, more person-to-person assistance, wields military strength for the defense of its' cotizens, creates a level playing field in the global economy, and considers the wisdom of fewer one-sided alliances.

Painted Desert and Petrified Forest

Along the way to LA, you pass through the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest so we stopped and took the tour.

Old Route 66 passes through the Painted Desert and they have a place commemorating it.

Then onto the Petrified Forest side. These are petroglyphs that are abundant in the park.

Some petrified wood.

I tried to get mom to lay up on the hood of the car, but she said it was too hot! I don't know if she meant the hood of the car or the pose would have been too hot!

Like Riding a Bike

As a kid growing up in the 60's (such an innocent time in America!), our daily pastimes varied greatly from what I observe of kids today. We threw dirt clods at one another, pushed toy metal trucks through elaborately constructed towns of dirt, built forts made of sticks, shot toy guns at one another, and played long lazy games of sandlot baseball.

But one pastime has stuck with me through six decades now: riding a bicycle. Interestingly enough, my first bike was the same size as the bike I ride today. My parents were big believers in buying things big to allow me "to grow into them". Mounting my first bike required leaning it against a fence, climbing the fence, transferring to the seat, pushing off, and hoping for the best. Dismounts were essentially a controlled wreck.

Last weekend, I sold my Trek hybrid (a bike which transported me across the state once) ...

... and dragged my 20-year old road bike out of storage.

My aim is to fix it up, ride it as long as it pleases me, and eventually sell it in favor of a new bike. Two bikes for one.

Loyalty runs deep, however, so it could be a while! The old bike is still light and fast, and fits me perfectly. Some habits die hard.

A Convention of Fathers

Father's Day 2011 was very relaxing. We had lunch at a small pizzeria. Those who couldn't attend, called in with well wishes.



However, the waitress seemed a bit inexperienced ...


The day also included the Sunday paper, coffee, watching the US Open, taking a nap, grilling, and taking in a new science fiction series.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: other than having a great Dad, there's nothing better than being a father yourself. It's life's greatest honor.

Of course, it takes a great partner ...

Meeting for the first time

Olivia meeting her Great Grandma Callaway.

New Mexico

A trip was taken recently to LA to deliver some items to Tommy who is spending the summer in LA and to see the new granddaughter. As we blazed our way through the southern states, we encountered 100 degree temps in New Mexico. We almost always stop in Old Town Albuquerqee. I really enjoy the architecture. It is such a pleasant area in the middle of the desert.

I also spotted some ponies that were being held captive!

Thinking about Smartphones

I'm embarassed to hype a small electronic device in an age which begs for people to get outside, talk to people, and stop looking at screens ... but face it, smartphones are uber-cool.

Think of the Star Trek tricorder without the ability to scan your vital functions. Email. Calendar. Internet. Media. GPS. Texting. Calls. Camera. Video recorder. Apps. All in a small mobile package with no wires!

I recently exchanged my Blackberry for an iPhone with some trepidation as I'm not an Apple fan. For example, iTunes just nags the daylights out of me. But the iPhone is an impressive device. Compared to the Blackberry, it's simpler to use, more reliable, and far more functional.

The new 4G-based phones promise to dethrone the iPhone, but I'll stick with my model for a while.

City Garden

Amber, Jena and I took the kids to the City Garden last week. I think we all enjoyed it. The kids had fun in the water and running around inside giant sculpture heads. While Amber and Jena were taking photos of the kids, I was standing behind Amber dancing and making faces so they would smile. You can tell how that worked out! They thought I was crazy! Amber told me later that the kids all took 2 hour naps after the trip.

Monday Night TV

Monday night TV in the summer sucks.

Jena and her friend settled on the Bachelorette 7 which promised too much generation X angst for me. My viewing choice seemed to be no better (and slightly similar to) the adventures of the last bachelorette ...

... Yes, the Republican presidential debate ...


The format devised by the media was annoying. It consisted of sophomoric questions posed by a CNN moderator who, after taking much time to deliver the question, immediately initiated a series of off-stage yapping noises such that one could barely hear the candidate speak. I marveled that no candidate asked him to stick a sock or two in his mouth.

The questions were composed as one would expect in a Philosophy 101 class, such as "would you rather grant amnesty to illedgal aliens or forklift them into trucks and ship them back?". And so on.

The performance of the candidates was outstanding. All seemed well-prepared and articulate. No questions were ducked.

Mitt Romney presented himself very well, but to me, the real standout was Michelle Bachman who always delivered sincere and intelligent answers even though the more difficult questions were aimed in her direction.

Joplin and the farm

Jena and I made a quick trip to her parents farm and to Joplin for a workday. Seeing the pictures of Joplin doesn't compare to seeing it in person. While there we also saw my cousin Terry and his son Taylor. They had driven up from Dallas to help out in the recovery effort.

We stopped by and looked at Paul's wheat.

Hannanh and Ali went with us to Joplin. On the way back to the farm we stopped in for a piece of pie. The girls assured me this was THE best pie. It was!

This is how Lyla rode in the car on the way home.

Germany! But this time it's Steve!

It's a weird coincidence with Jena's blog, I was recently blessed with a trip to Germany to take care of some business matters. We stayed in Stuttgart (headquarters of Mercedes and Porsche) and were able to sample the culture briefly. This included ...

... fine German food ...

... pastoral lodgings ...

... and a tour of the Mercedes museum ...

Hot Time At The Old Zoo

I took the grandkids to the zoo on Friday. Can anyone say hot! We tried to counteract the heat by riding on the train. Michael was particularly impressed.

The elephants were quite entertaining. One kept squirting himself with water and 3 smaller ones chased each other around in a small water area - like a pool.

Then this little monkey showed us how to eat spaghetti.

Not many photos. It's kind of hard to wrangle 3 kids by yourself at the zoo in the heat with 1/2 of St. Louis also in attendance.