I know we haven't heard from you in awhile but I still wanted to send some birthday wishes your way. So...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SPILLER

I hope these birthday wishes find you

healthy, wealthy and happy!

Per Darren

Darren posted a nice piece about bikes. He asked if anyone else had any stories about the bikes they had owned. While I can't think of any interesting stories, his post did bring back some memories. I can hardly think of my childhood without an image of me zipping through my neighbored on my bike. Good times.

Darren had the ability to remember most of the bikes he owned but I can not. Mostly because I rode a lot of my brothers hand-me downs. When we did get a new bike we took parts off of our old bike and mixed them together so they are all a blur to me. I did find this picture of me on my bike with a super cool banana seat. I'm the little guy.

My favorite bike story has to do with my brother. We lived next to a very small hill. We used the hill to gain speed to jump ramps we would build on our road in front of our house. I think I was about six years old when my brother built a ramp out of plywood and bricks and started jumping it. Of course I had to do it too.

Just like My brother I started at the top of the hill and got as much speed as I could. When I hit the ramp I yanked on my handle bars to get extra lift. Boy did I soar threw the air. What I didn't know was that my brother had loosened the nuts on the front wheel of my bike. So when I left the ground my front wheel stayed on the ground.

I can still remember looking down and not seeing the wheel under the fork of my bike. I also still remember the horror I felt knowing I was going to land on asphalt and I couldn't do anything about it. A crash, flip and few cuts and scrapes later I was chasing my brother around the yard trying to clobber him. Good times in deed.

A Sinking Feeling

Last year for Christmas my side of the family went on a Disney cruise. Everything went so well my parents wanted to take another one. I knew going in it was going to be a problem. Despite my best attempts to head off the feared situation, it unfolded the exact way I was afraid it would.

My sister is not going to be able to go. Fair enough, I counted on that. She says it's because of work but I know it's because of the married man she's been dating. Of course the rest of the family knows nothing about this. While I don't like it, at all, she is an adult and it is her life. So even though she has decided not to go, she expects and damn near demands we take her two children.

The Wife and I had anticipated this and requested that if she wasn't going that her children should not go as well. I know this sounds mean, cruel and nasty but we're not trying to be.

The reality...

If her children go The wife and I, and mainly The Wife, will have to shoulder most of the responsibility. That would be five children under the age of nine to watch, dress, feed and the other thousands of things children require.

My parents are just hitting their seventies and I seriously doubt they are a match for an eight and six year old on a seven day vacation.

My brother and his wife barely speak with my sister and can not be counted on for any help. They might but I doubt it. Their seventeen year old daughter will help but how much can you count on a teenager to do while on her own vacation?

We will be traveling out of the country to places with open water as well as other dangerous situations. Accidents happen even when you're doing everything right. I couldn't live with myself if something happen to my nieces under my care.

I think my sister is asking us to take on too much responsibility for no real purpose other than to get some alone time with her boyfriend. We did suggest her ex-husband could go, so it's not like we don't want her children with us. She shut that suggestion down immediately. Apparently she hates his guts and has for the past ten years. She doesn't want us to have any contact with him, ever. Funny I can still remember her telling me she was divorcing him because he deserved better and how fantastic he was.

So it's looking like the whole vacation idea is going to be scrapped. My parents say they can't face their grandchildren if they don't take them and my sister tells them it's their fault. Me, I could care less if we go but it does piss me off to have my sister ruin it for everyone else and that we turn out looking like the bastards, again.

Father's Way?

I mentioned in a comment that I had less than a pleasant Father's Day. It wasn't a big deal. I didn't get what I thought I deserved and threw a fit. Was it justified? I think it comes down to how you define Father's Day. At our house it's pretty well established that Mother's Day and Father's Day are weekends where the person being honored gets to set the agenda and have a weekend of getting to do what they want.

The day started wonderfully with me getting breakfast in bed. Then down stairs for cards and some nice gifts. One of the gifts was a old fashion record player with a built in CD player. I also received some Dean Martin Cd's, so we spent a lot of the morning listening to Dean and dancing silly around the living room. Perfect! Since my finger was now usable, I was anxious to get back to the tree house. While I worked on it the kids played near by. I took a break to go swimming with them after a few hours. I couldn't have planned it any better.

Then my Mom called to see if we wanted to go to an early dinner. I know I've mentioned this before but anyone who knows me knows going to dinner 'ain't my thing'. It's at least a three hour event just to put some food in your belly. Don't get me wrong, I go often because "that's what you have to do to be part of a group or family" but I was expecting Father's Day to be more about what I liked. Selfish I know.

I knew at the time this was petty thinking, so I agreed to go because it was my Dad's day as well. I was instantly irritated because just the day before The Wife and I had gotten into an argument about going out for dinner when we went to run some errands. This is a constant battle between us. So I asked The Wife to call my parents back and decide the details since they were the three that wanted to go. When I came back from putting up my tools The Wife informed me that they had decided since it was Father's Day I would get to decide when and where we went. WTF?! I didn't even want to go, which The Wife was well aware of, and now I have to decide where I don't want to go? My irritation was quickly turning to anger. So I called my Dad to ask him to pick but he wouldn't. As ridiculous as it sounds it felt like the executioner asking me to pick the weapon he was going to kill me with. (a little too dramatic huh?)

So I was very aggravated and vented it in rather unpleasant way at The Wife. I fell short of throwing myself on the floor and banging my fist but I came close. Half my day was wasted on going to dinner. Plus after I showed my ass The Wife had no interest in me having a special day anymore. After we got back home and put the kids to bed The Wife asked if I enjoyed my Father's Day. I was a more than a little shocked at the question. I mumbled it was fine but instead of dropping it there, she proceeded to interrogate what I meant by "it was fine". Finally I told her it started well but it wasn't the day I had envisioned or expected. This of course hurt her feelings because she had made a huge effort to make it nice. It was rather cool in the house after that.

So there it is. All day I had people who were just trying to be nice to me and I showed my ass. It wasn't because I didn't see the big picture at the time, I did. It was petty, immature and uncalled for. But it was also Father's Day and something in the back of my mind kept telling me, "Today is a day that your feelings are suppose to count." So I was a big ass over nothing and I'm not that sorry about it and I guess that makes me a jerk too.

Confession # 5

I have a customer that constantly refers to me as 'Super Dave'. While I never acknowledge he says it, I secretly like that he does...



dunt dun dun!

Tim Russert

R.I.P.

Tim Russert

1950 - 2008

Although your political coverage always had a bit of a left lean to it, I always had the feeling you thought it was balanced. You were a professional with class and totally committed to informing the public about politics. Your passion was contagious and always made me think. I will always respect you for that. The world will miss you.

Just for fun

This clip makes me feel better about some of the things I do.

(Ahem.. and have done)

It's clean. The picture showing is about as bad as it gets.

Making the Turn

Turning 40 was no big deal. Yeah the wife had been ragging me about it for months but it was all in good fun. While I don't care much for the aging process, getting older never bothered me. It's natural, it's normal and honestly, what choice do we have?

So it came as bit of a surprise when I found myself laying in bed the morning of the last day of my thirties, thinking about time. The thought that got me started was thinking that ten years ago, the same day, I was saying goodbye to my twenties.

I was thinking about how much had happened in the last ten years. Ten years ago the wife and I were still living in the city in our first house. She was working as an x-ray tech/nurse for a small doctor's office. I had not long moved into sales at my job. We had been trying unsuccessfully for five years to have a child. Our weekends consisted of dinners, movies and whatever just popped into our heads. My parents were about to move into their sixties and were looking forward to retirement and enjoying their golden years. Looking back, life seemed simple.


Ten years later we have three children. We live out in the country in the woods. The wife is a stay at home mom and I've already put twenty years into the family business. Our weekends are filled with child activities and home projects. I haven't been to the movies in a very long time. My parents are now starting to worry about their health as they enter their seventies. A different life indeed.

As my mind considered each change, I let it slip into the future. Where would I be ten years from this day as I say goodbye to my forties and hello to my fifties?!! While there is much I don't know, the things I did think of shook me. Quite frankly they blew my mind.

In ten short years I may be in that very same bed but life will be far from the same. My oldest son will be turning eighteen the next day. A legal adult of voting age, driving and hopefully, about to leave the house to go off to college. All my children will be teenagers. I'll be five years and a day away from being a senior citizen. The wife will be working again. All the pets I have now will have passed. My parents, if they are still with us, will surely be wrapping up their lives by then as they start their eighties.

Looking at the future this way, it seems like a lifetime away but based on how fast the last ten years just went, it's just around the corner. I don't mind admitting change doesn't sit well with me. These thoughts did not make me happy. Finally, I was able to stop this thought process and get out of bed to face the day. Although I was able to push these revelations to the back of my mind, an old silly phrase kept running through my head but had now taken on a new meaning.

"Jane! Stop this crazy thing!"

- George Jetson

Confession # 4

The wife caught me watching "You've Got Mail" and I told her I was just flipping through the channels.

But I really was watching it... again.

Wreckless Future?

A newly hired parts runner for our shop caused a car wreck last Friday totaling a company vehicle. I wasn't happy about the situation but accidents do happen. So after the weekend, MONDAY, the same employee took another company vehicle home for lunch , without permission (WTF?!!) and wrecked it.

Worse than being somewhere he wasn't suppose to be was the fact that he didn't even mention that he had been in an accident when he called me. He only told me he was being held for no proof of insurance. The wreck only came to light as I was talking with the on scene police officer. I was trying to explain to her that it wasn't a big deal and I would have the correct insurance information to her shortly. She must have thought I was an ass for acting so nonchalant about a wreck but she soon realized I had no idea there had been one.

Of course after I went to the scene and straightened it out I followed the employee back to work and promptly fired him, not for the wrecks but for the lying and the other. Much to my surprise, he seemed surprised. Holy shit!!! How could you possible think you wouldn't get the axe after that? Isn't there some kind of two weeks of driving-under-the-speed-limit-rule after a wreck? Apparently not.

I wouldn't even mention this but the guy is nineteen years old with a wife and a baby on the way. He needs a job. HIS BABY TO BE NEEDS HIM TO HAVE A JOB! I'm just baffled and upset by the whole thing. Yes, I don't like our equipment being used like we run a demolition derby but more importantly I see a pattern of this type of behavior from this generation.

I know it's not fair to paint a whole generation with the same brush. I'm also very aware that I sound like an old man complaining about today's youth when my generations certainly had and has its share of flaws but this has me concerned. We have three or four entry level jobs open we can't fill. Either the people who apply can't pass a drug test, don't have a drivers license or have so much personal drama going on they can't make half a week let alone the forty plus hours we need. Even worse a lot of the people who should be happy to get a job that can teach them a skill such as becoming a mechanic have opted to go flip burgers in the air-conditioning for half the money and no benefits.

So unlike the other day when I saw some humor in being to old to "cut the fool" with some immature teenagers I see nothing funny about this situation. I couldn't give a rip about the young man I let go. He's capable of making his own way if he would accept his responsibility and man up. What bothers me here, what I can't stop myself from thinking about is his unborn child and its future.

It breaks my heart.

Happy Birthday

Daughter!!!

“Hope your Birthday gently breezes into your life all the choicest
of things and all that your heart holds dear
Have A Fun-Filled Day.”

Confession #3

A business friend sends me very inappropriate emails at work.

I have never ask him to stop sending them.

Worse... I get disappointed if he doesn't send them often enough.

Happy Birthday

Darren !!!

(you tit! :D)

I'll make sure I drink one to you today. It's the least I can do ;)