Jman

This is number 2 in a series of relationship analysis… This one is on my son, Jman. I’ll never forget the day he was born, on Christmas Day in the middle of a snow storm. He was a blue baby, born with the umbilical cord around his neck but he didn’t let that deter him. He was the one baby that never stood still. You couldn’t keep a blanket on him and he was never full, constantly demanding food. He was the longest of the babies, 23 inches at birth and now in adulthood he is the tallest by far.

Things about Jman that make me go “wow!”
He reset the fonts in the main computer in the computer lab when he was just in kindergarten and had to show the teacher how to reset it. It was one of those moments you weren’t sure if you should be proud or angry but wow, it was our first insight to his intelligence.
He tested off the charts in his gifted and talented class. The teacher told me she wasn’t sure how to score him but he had definitely brought in the highest score to date.
He could intelligently talk about worm holes and such and ask me some hard questions about space, physics, etc. I was proud to look him in the eye and give him an equally intelligent reply of “I don’t know…”
I always thought he would grow up to be a lawyer as he was capable of disecting any “rule” and find the loophole while making some pretty convincing arguments.
His ability to teach himself to read Japanese.
His artistic talent. He is quite the artist.
From the word “go” he has been intuitive. He seemed to be able to judge people’s motives and personalities way before most adults could.
His skill in computers is amazing; software and hardware. He single handedly straightened out a huge mess at the Clubs and he seems to always know what the quickest fix is to any problem.
He has a tremendous survivor instinct. He can roll with the punches with the best of them.
He has enormous musical talent and can play the tuba or the piano. I always enjoyed listening to his compositions.

My regrets with Jman.
I will always regret I wasn’t more intuitive of his struggles in high school.
I think I should’ve checked into some sort of Montessori program for him as he was always so bored with the lack of challenges in high school.

I am extremely proud of Jman. He has so many challenges but he never evades them, but he does tackle them in his own way. He doesn’t mind saying he has made a mistake and is always eager to find solutions to problems. I think he was my “Bryan” in the sense my parents always spoke about how much my brother Bryan scared them because of his tremendous talents and they weren’t sure how to handle it. Jman had that in his intelligence and his talents. Perhaps that is why I wasn’t always sure what to give him during his childhood. No excuses, but just a simple admission that I wasn’t equipped to provide him with everything he needed.

Cryss

As the oldest child of four (six with the bonus children) Cryss has perhaps been the most driven. I believe she has been an overachiever from the word “go.” I have thought to myself many times that her abilities and talents were phenomenal and when you added her obvious passion to serve and make others’ lives better.

Things about Cryss that have made me go “WOW!”
Exceptional musician with the discipline to advance her talent.
Tremendous hunger for knowledge.
Being the Valedictorian of her class.
A fantastic writing talent.
A great sense of humor and wit.
An ability to discuss intelligently current issues. I appreciate her tact in the discussions but not at the expense of her principles.
Her tenacious defense of her beliefs.
Her kindness and heart for her siblings.
Having a piece published in a book.
Organizing a huge symposium at SUNY.
Joining the Peace Corps and working in Namibia.
Teaching college classes in Santiago.
Trekking across South America.

Things I’ve regretted with Cryss
Making too big of a deal of her dropping music as a major to pursue English. She has definitely bloomed in her chosen field and her writing is superb.
Not being more supportive of her husband.
Kicking her cats (okay, I haven’t done that, just seeing if people are paying attention)
Teasing her about being a vegetarian. I realize now that non-meat eaters are people too and probably have souls.

My own personal observations about Cryss is that at times I find her successes humbling and a little intimidating as they make me seem like such an underachiever. I am proud of her courage to tackle anything new and of her never ending pursuit of educating herself.

Relationship Analysis

Slvr is having to do the family genogram as part of her Master’s Degree work and having had to do one myself during my college days, I found the discussion interesting since now I was in the seat of the one being interviewed. If you don’t know what a genogram is, it is like a flow chart for family relationships that covers three generations, starting with your grandparents. You map out everything from divorce/remarriage, alcoholism, drug addictions, mental illnesses, family conflicts that lead to break in family ties, etc. If they are done right, they can be quite revealing.

Part of the interview is a bit of self analysis of how I view my relationship with my children. That is harder than you might think but after our phone conversation, it did spur on some deep thinking on my part (which can be painful at times as my brain isn’t normally so strained…). I think I will post a few of those thoughts during the next few days just for my own self searching.

Your bumper sticker offends me, brother

I was walking across the parking lot of Hobby Lobby when I saw a car with the bumper sticker that said “You can’t be both Christian and Pro-Choice.” I am sure it is in response to our local Planned Parenthood office applying for an abortion license. For the last 40 days religious groups have been picketing the place with signs that state their unhappiness with the this decision.

I have no problem with the protesting. I have no problem with them peacefully stating their opinion on pro-choice or how they believe in pro-life ideology. I do question their right to say if you don’t agree with me then you must not be Christian. It is either this way or the highway.

I want to make up my own bumper stickers and just walk around town and everywhere I see one of the above mentioned ones, place it right next beside it. Mine would say, “You can’t be both gracious and judgmental.”

Which I understand is a judgmental statement in itself… but hey, that seems to be the name of the game.

Personally I am pro-life. There are too many couples wanting babies and I can’t figure out killing a living being would be anything but murder, but still, does that give me the right to go out and tell people you are Christian… you are not? I grew up in religious sect that did a lot of that and it is not a pleasant business. Luckily, they have moved away from such thinking but still, I can remember what it used to be like.

Maybe I should take their stance for all of my opinions. That might work…

You can’t be both Christian and Anti-gun…

You can’t be both Christian and a left-wing frothing at the mouth liberal…

You can’t be both Christian and an Aggie, Texas Tech, or Oklahoma fan…

Nope it doesn’t work… I might can say “You must be crazy… with any of the above because those are my opinions but I can’t be judge, juror, and hangman on my opinions.

I wonder how much it cost to make a bumper sticker.

Cameras

A couple of years ago I purchased a Sony DSC-V3 which is 7.2 megapixels and has a ton of features. I love the camera because as I get older, I find this style of body allows me to steady my shots better. I still love this camera and find it my definite favorite of all the digital cameras I have owned.

When our local Circuit City went out of business, Twyla purchased a Canon Power Shot, SD1100 IS, an ELPH, which now has the stabilizing feature inside and her 8.0 megapixels are just as sharp and the pictures are as good and maybe even better than the Sony. It is definitely easier to carry around and once again I am thinking that technology has taken us another step forward to eliminate the need for the bigger camera body because now, the little ones take out the shaking.

I guess the issue will still be whether or not you can attach additional lenses. I can with the Sony, although they are hard to find and expensive, but you definitely cannot with the ELPH. Not that I need a good zoom, but when planning a family vacation you tend to start thinking…”hmm, I could go for a really good zoom for those way out there hard to reach shots…”. In reality, I think what we have now is more than adequate but still, a fella gots to dream.

Gutter Ball

I am quickly thinking the President for change might’ve been a huge gutter ball. He can’t seem to nominate any staff members who aren’t tainted in some way or incompetent in another and my oh my, who seems to love to stick his foot in his mouth and then thinks it is okay to laugh it off.

We haven’t gotten past his 100 days yet and already I am ready for a change.

Plumbing

Man, talk about fun… I did plumbing this past weekend! Replaced the faucets in both bathrooms and as always, plumbing put me in a growling mood. No reason really, everything went fairly well with the only “unknown” element being replacing the P trap under the kids sink to get away from a fragile and rotting chrome piece.

I walked into both bathrooms this morning and there is a sense of accomplishment since the kids’ sink hasn’t had cold water forever because of a frozen valve. Now everything works and there is something to be said for functioning bathrooms.

The only down side was when I was putting up my tools. I was sitting on the edge of the bathtub when I lost my balance. My tray of “catch alls” (that would be those extra nuts, washers, and bolts you always seem to have after a project but you can’t seem to bring yourself to throw them away because you might need them sometime during the next half century) went flying everywhere, I fell into the tub and smacked my head into the tiled wall and my back into the edge of the tub and for some reason, my attitude went south from there.

Fortunately, my lovely wife is a patient woman who doesn’t laugh at my awkward moments until at least the bear in me has stopped growling. I don’t mind the projects but for some reason plumbing always brings the bear out… which is strange because it is one area of house maintenance that is truly appreciated by everyone. Maybe it is because we live in fear of having to call a plumber if we screw it all up…

March Madness

Well both of my teams are out of the tournament but I still love to watch the March Madness games. One and your done if you lose… such a great concept. 65 teams to start… one eventual national champion…

Okay, I just have to say it… LISTEN UP YOU BCS MORONS! IT WORKS FOR COLLEGE BASKETBALL, IT WORKS FOR DIVISION II AND DIVISION III FOOTBALL, IT WILL WORK FOR YOU TOO!

Sigh.

I love March Madness. My brackets aren’t going great but I did get 14/16 of the Sweet 16 teams which is better than I normally do as I always try to sniff out the upset team.

I loves me some basketball!

Maybe we need a bigger bucket

A song for the times…

Economy’s a failin’
The ‘Street is ailing too
Obama is a bailin’
Out everyone but you

Which makes us all feel good
Makes us mighty proud
To know the “Man that could”
Is comin’ out of the clouds.

He bailed out the auto man
He bailed out the banks
He bailed everyone he can
But he still gave you the shank

Which makes us all feel good
Makes us mighty proud
To know the “Man that Could”
Is fallin’ from the clouds.

Maybe someone should tell the Guy
The cash cow is looking pale
And money doesn’t fall from the sky
So these bailouts are gonna fail.

Which makes us feel the good
It makes us mighty proud
To know the “Man that Could”
Keeps his head up in the clouds.

Started to work out again

The family has a membership at the Y now and we’ve started to get back into the routine of walking, doing weights, working the treadmill… just trying to get back into some sort of shape.

I think I am so looking forward to doing all of this because I haven’t felt the greatest of late and I’m sure carrying an extra 25 pounds isn’t helping. I always feel much better after walking and lifting so there must be something to all of this exercise fad.

I do think there are some better ways to promote exercise. How about leaving the floor to ceiling mirrors out of the locker rooms? Life is discouraging enough…