We SURVIVED an AMAZING trip

Sometimes my life is like reality tv. Or is it that reality tv is sometimes like my life?

We just got back from a camping trip at Stone Mountain, GA.

Before we left, Cari and I ran to Wal-mart to get some last minute supplies. We got what we needed and on the way out of sporting goods saw a clearanced tent. We don't really need a tent. The one we use is probably close to ten years old but still works fine. This one on the shelf is bigger and better and it was now only $25. We got our new tent and headed out.

We got to Stone Mountain after fighting traffic for two hours. There were two times near Atlanta that these people would not let me in to switch lanes. One time I stopped in the right turn lane and flipped on my blinker to get over. Everyone behind me was pissed. They went around me on the shoulder telling me what a moron I am. Even with all that, two more cars went by in the left lane I was trying to squeeze into. Nobody let me in, so I just went. Back home, people will let you in when you are trying to switch lanes or merge into traffic.

Setting up camp was easy. We made our fire and cooked some hotdogs. This was the first camping trip Cari and I have ever taken without it raining. After eating a bag full of marshmallows and eating smores, the kids went to bed.While I was building the fire, Randy and Meredith really wanted to have poking sticks to poke at the fire. What is the obsession with poking fire?

After the kids went to bed, Cari and I sat next to the fire and poked at it.

It was colder than we had prepared for, so at three in the morning we all woke up and squished together on the air mattress. Every sleeping bag and blanket we had was piled on top of us.

I felt like I was living an episode of Survivor.

More details about our trip is coming this week. You will read about; how to fight with a goose, climbing a mountain with a four year old, and being a tough guy on the skylift.

Hand me downs

Go back and read this blog about Shampoo. I think it is related to this story.

When Cari got home from Walmart yesterday, (a lot of my blogs start that way, don't they?), I went out to help her unload the mountains of merchandise from my car. Among the items was a new pillow.

Previous to this trip there were about five to seven pillows on my bed. Only two of us sleep there.
I asked, "What did you get a new pillow for?". As she watched me squeezing this new pillow in its plastic sleeve, she replied, "My old one isn't soft anymore. All the feathers are stuck together.

I'm not sure how she knows all the feathers are stuck together. She owns the softest pillow I have ever felt. Cari has never let me use it. "You need another soft pillow? What are you going to do with the old one?", I asked her.

Without hesitating, generosity entered into her heart, "You can have the old one."

I CAN HAVE THE OLD ONE! Oh! Praise GOD! I WILL SLEEP GOOD TONIGHT! With the OLD pillow! The one with the feathers all stuck together.

I started to tell her I felt like a little Chinese kid that works in a factory all day. The kid doesn't know any different. He doesn't know what life as a child could be like. He only knows the factory, and is content with that.
I only know the feel of putting my head on a used pillow. I'm happy with that because I don't know what a NEW fluffy pillow would be like.

As I started into that rant, Cari told me she would go out today and buy me my OWN new pillow.
Of course, I told her not to. I kinda like the one with the feathers glued together with drool.

I'm so popular!

I took a shower this morning with four naked women. I'm not a complainer, so I didn't say anything. As I stood there standing on one of their feet I wondered why they didn't use the upstairs shower. For a few minutes I considered using the upstairs shower myself. If I started doing that, it wouldn't be long until the four naked girls were waiting for me up there. Maybe I'm just that popular.

Cari has a similar problem. She said she tried to take a bath last night and a troop of Care Bears were there to greet her.

Barbies and Care Bears galore in my bathroom! How many toys do you think live in the bathroom upstairs? Zero!

The only way to change that trend is to tell the kids that children aren't allowed in the upstairs bathroom. Then it'll be the only one they use.
Maybe this mornings exercise of throwing women out of my shower by their long blond hair will be my last.

By the way, camera restrictions in the house have been increased after I snapped the above picture "for the blog."

Hidden in the picture

Do you see it?

Analog

While talking to someone at work about her vacation, she mentioned that she used her new digital camera. She said this was the first digital camera she used.

Do you realize what that means? It means she was using a film camera up to that point! She must have noticed my snickering because she mentioned that she is the last person on Earth to switch to digital.

This woman said she took over 80 pictures while on vacation. There is about $20 of expense in buying the film and having it developed.

--While trying to find pricing to write this I learned that processing costs have come down a lot. I Guess they are trying to compete with digital a bit more. It seems like I used to spend $10 a roll just to develop.

After you spend that money to develop, you start flipping through all your pictures to see that you only took ten great ones. You had twenty blurry ones that go straight to the garbage.

With digital you will know instantly if you have a blurry picture. You also will only print the few that are really great. In most cases you will never need more than one memory card.

Have you ever read those e-mails that talk about "back in my day" written for my generation? Things such as "back in my day we had to go to the library. We didn't have the internet." or "if I wanted to hear a song I had to wait for it to be played on the radio (my hand on the record button), I couldn't just download it from the internet." My kids will never have used a film camera. I will be an old man sitting in my rocker saying, "back in my day we had to load film into a camera to take pictures."

"Dad, what's film?", they will ask. We'll sit down together to look up the answer on the internet.

Before you go, just hang out for a minute while I load another roll of film into my camera. I want to get one more picture of you.

Only 24 hours a day?

For the past few days I have had several things I wanted to do and I haven't done any of them. One of the things on my list was to write on the blog. So, I guess I can check that off now.

I was going to tell you a little about Easter in our house. There are a few key elements to our Easter.

First is the coloring of eggs. This is done before Easter Sunday. One of the favorite things to do is take a crayon and draw something before dunking it in color. You also have to get a picture of someone pretending to eat an egg.

I think I have a picture like that for every year.

The next thing that is going to happen EVERY Easter is the egg hunt. This requires Cari and I sitting up Saturday night filling plastic eggs with candy and money. Randy and Meredith are not quite the egg hunters yet. Hiding only takes five minutes because they have to remain in plain view. Even then, the kids are more likely to step on one before they find it.

Ok, well, it may not be that bad. Randy this year is just getting the idea that eggs may be under something or may be up in a tree where you may not see it right away. Next year I'll actually have to hide some.

Finally, we get dressed in our mostly new outfits. Mostly new doesn't mean the clothes had been worn previously. It means that not ALL of us may have new clothes. In our new Easter clothes we head off to church.

Even thou I had to work in the afternoon, we had a great time.

Oh, and as full as those Easter baskets were Sunday morning, you would think that Santa was filling in for the Easter bunny.

The real story

Easter Story coming tonight (if all goes as planned).

Can't we all just get along?

The battles rage on daily. The war that never ends. That's right, something broke in my head and I decided to share my house with a cat, actually two, and a dog.

The dog is very curious about cats. She will get just out of claw reach and whine while she wags her tail. The cat is not as friendly. The cat wants to scratch the dogs eyes out.

When we first moved in the cats lived upstairs and the dog never left the first floor. Now days, the dog still remains downstairs but one of the cats decided she needs more attention. The cat comes down to sit in your lap and get petted. She will sit on the corner of the computer desk while I am there. When the dog comes in, the cat claws come out and the hissing begins. All this while still sitting in my lap. I'm smarter than the dog and know I don't want to be around a hissing kitty full of claw.

All of this is quite frustrating while you are trying to relax and watch television. The dogs nails clicking on the floor, the whining, the wagging tail hitting your legs, and the cat hissing, all cause my muscles to tense.

To help cure the tension, I made a decision to favor the dog in these situations. The dog ranks higher in the household for me. The biggest problem that remains is that Cari favors the cat.

While watching TV the other night the cat sat behind my head growling and hissing at the dog. Cari yelled at the dog to leave the room. After I told Cari not to yell at my dog, I threw the cat to the floor and watched her run up the stairs before the dog could get a taste. This move was not looked upon very favorably by the wife. That's the night I found out Cari prefers the cat.

Last night we discussed the benefits of each animal. What does each bring to the household? What purpose does each serve?

I still can't figure out what the cat provides except frustration.

Duck Hunter

I write a blog with "Duck" in the title. I write using the name, "Duck Hunter".

Knowing that, you'll understand what the boy is doing in this picture at the pond.

The Shame

There are so many great things about racing. There are even better things about local track racing. These guys know each other and it becomes very personal. When someone gets hit, it doesn't really matter if it was an accident. He's going to hit someone else to get even. This never results in anything but a great show. It's true. In the picture above cars are pointed in no less than three different directions.When a car crashes coming out of turn 4 and stops on the front stretch, the children coming running down. As that driver sits waiting for the tow truck he has about three minutes of torment. The children want to see a race car up close. Especially a broken one. Some of the children point off to the distance and scream, "You're tire is over there!"

You know what the other drivers are thinking?
"My kid is mocking him. That pays better than winning the race."

Where's the tree?

I almost killed a white bunny driving to work this morning. This got me thinking about Easter. Colorful eggs, pastel flags, chocolate bunnies, and a guy named Jesus.

Then it hit me that Christmas seems to be a much more celebrated holiday. Everyone runs out and decorates their houses, you get a Christmas tree, and you can go see a nativity. This is all very nice. As a Christian, shouldn't Easter be a more important time? Without Easter and the week leading up to it, we wouldn't even be Christians. Most retailers close on Christmas, but most are staying open on Easter Sunday now. This makes no sense to me. As I write this, I think it frustrates me more.

Jesus died on Friday. Some may say this is one of the most important days of Christianity forming. Jesus died for our sins. During the time that it happened it must have seemed like the world had come to an end for the disciples.

I tend to think that Easter is more important than Friday. Didn't the resurrection prove one more time to the disciples that Jesus was the son of God?

HE HAS RISEN!

Easter Sunday should surpass all other Christian holiday's by a mile. People should be celebrating.

Stores should be CLOSED (are you getting the picture they scheduled me to work on Easter?).

After re-reading this before posting, I'm not sure I have all my thoughts complete or all together. I think you'll get the general idea of what I'm trying to say. Others out there can say it more elegantly than I can.

Easter is under-celebrated.

videos

I have been working on my video situation a bit. I went with Rob's idea to use www.putfile.com
These are 5 videos that I have put together since writing the blog.

Let me know if this doesn't work or causes some kind of migraine for you. This was the cheapest way to share videos for me. It's free.

I'm working on a new video bit by bit right now. Hope to have it done before Christmas.

Click here to watch 'fly-hunter'

Click here to watch 'Hungry'

Click here to watch 'dirt-racing'

Click here to watch 'Speed'

Click here to watch 'Christmas2005'

The Doctor is : IN

We were going for a walk around the neighborhood last night. As we approached the half way mark, I asked Randy if he was getting tired. He replied, "my ribs hurt."
As I investigated why his ribs were hurting he said it was because his blood pressure was high.

I was amazed at the boy's medical knowledge. I didn't even pay for medical school.
We started talking about having a strong heart and I told him the exercise we were getting would help him.

"Dad, that's the problem, my heart is too strong.", he informed me. First grade biology is so advanced these days. Next week he'll be checking my cholesterol.

The solution to high blood pressure, according to a seven year old, is to be more lazy. You wouldn't want your heart pushing on your ribs.

We have come to the end.

Talkin' Hand is back! Being locked away and banned from the blog the past months has really helped me. It has helped me build up anger and prepare to take it out on you.

Duck Hunter has allowed me to write the final post on this blog. This blog has run its course. Everything that he had to say has been written. Nothing else interesting will ever happen here. The decision was made to shut it down. Use the time you would normally have checked this blog to reading something more entertaining. Maybe something with a bit more nudity.

I'll leave you by putting up this final picture of Duck Hunter. I think it's hella cool.

Talkin' Hand!