Kids Wearing Hats

When I was a kid I always wore a hat. People said it would make me go bald, but that didn't deter me. We couldn't wear hats at school. I didn't wear a hat to church or the dinner table. Any other time I was wearing a hat. When I say hat I mean what some people call a ball cap. I didn't wear fedoras or any other type of hat with a funny name.

I guess I got this from my dad. He always wore a hat too. Growing up in a farming community hats were as much a part of the male wardrobe as blue jeans or underwear. Farmers are notorious hat wearing people. They get them free from John Deere or the seed company or the rice mill or somewhere else. I say they are free. Last I checked a big John Deer combine cost a few hundred thousand dollars so free is a relative term.

I started collecting hats for some reason. It seemed like as good a thing as any to collect. Why are stamps and coins any better than hats. I got a hat from everywhere I went. I bought twenty different hats to wear. I was like a woman with her shoes. I had a hat for every mood. It was out of control. I never counted my hats, but surely I had 100. Eventually I threw them out and got my addiction under control.

I still wear a hat a lot of the time. This summer I am playing softball. I play co-ed church league which is not exactly at the top of the competitive ladder. It's still a lot of fun to get out and play. Of course for softball games I must wear a hat. After all it is called a ball cap. To be like his daddy Braden got his first ball cap last week. He wore it to my softball game this weekend. Surprisingly he didn't seem to mind the hat. He wasn't always trying to take it off and cast it away. He looked good in a hat, and I am sure he will wear them right along with me through his youth.

I only hope this early affinity for hats doesn't mean he will have an unhealthy obsession with them like his old man.

Summertime is Awesome

Arica likes to tease me about my use of the word awesome. It's not so much the word but the vigor with which I espouse it. It's not awesome, but AWE-some! No matter how it sounds summertime truly is AWE-some!

When I was a kid I lived for the summer. Every day of school was just one more obstacle standing in my way. The countdown started on the first day of class. I always dreamed of the day that final bell would ring, and we could all dance out the doors singing "School's out for summer!" Of course as a child I didn't know any Alice Cooper songs, but I was probably singing something.

In the Summer I spent a lot of my time at the country club pool and playing baseball. Of course you couldn't do both in the same day. Swimming was not allowed on game days. It might tire you out, and everyone knows that baseball games are more important than practicing your cannonballs.

Once I finished school summer lost some of its pizazz. I still like the lake, and the warm weather, but I have to work every day. I think we should adopt the August is vacation for everyone plan like several European countries. I can tell you from personal experience that it is futile to try to get any work done during August in Italy.

This summer should be different for our family. It is our first time enjoying summer with a child. Just this week Braden took his first trip to the pool. We don't have a pool unless you count that blue plastic thing the dogs wallow in to escape the summer heat. None of our relatives have a pool either, but we are resourceful. We know someone with a pool, and who is going to tell this guy he can't swim in their pool.



Braden loved the pool. At first he sat on the steps in the water. He splashed the water repeatedly with his hands. When he got some water on his face he gasped and and made a hilarious grimace. It didn't stop him though. Without even waiting for Mom to wipe him off he started splashing again.

Then he transferred to the inflatable crab. It's a floaty he can sit in with his legs in the water. There is a tray in front that fills with water so he can splash. Of course there is also the ever important canopy to protect the little man from the evil sun. Truthfully the sun had no chance. Between the canopy, his big green hat, and the SPF 75 sunblock he stayed nice and white.

Summertime at our house also means going to the lake. Arica and I love to take my little fishing boat out on the weekends. We anchor on some island all alone. Actually we aren't all alone because our wild dogs are running everywhere. This is their favorite pastime as well. Otter fetches sticks until he nearly drowns. Abbey sits in the water but prefers not to swim. Arica and I enjoy a little relaxation, swimming, and usually a picnic lunch.

We aren't comfortable bringing Braden to the lake in my tiny boat. Maybe sometime this summer we will get together with friends and take him out on a party barge. Either way he has a long future of lake visits ahead of him. Living in a town with a lake makes the whole experience more relaxing. You don't have to hurry. You don't have to go on the busiest days. You don't have to find a hotel. All you do is have fun.

This is what I want to teach Braden. I want to teach him how to live a life of summertime fun. I never pictured myself as a local in a tourist town. Now that this is a reality I feel the need to pass on the lifestyle to my son. I have the Jimmy Buffet CD in the stereo. I have my assorted flip flops lined up for action. The swimming trunks and various shades of khaki shorts are washed and ready. All we need now is the care free attitude.

Braden, It's time to enjoy the summer, and you can bring your green hat.

Life Before Computers

I long ago wrote a post called Life before the Internet. Most of you haven't read it so feel free to check it out now. In the post I offer the idea that the Internet has changed our life more than any other invention. It has touched all walks of life, but where would the Internet be without its old friend the computer. Sure you can get online on anything from PlayStations to cell phones these days, but the personal computer is still the main device for accessing the Internet.

Braden's fascination with our laptop is endless. He always wants to watch it when it is on. Lately he has become much more aggressive. Arica says he will literally climb on top of the keyboard if he gets the chance.

How can I explain to someone who was introduced to the computer in the first few months of life that we used to live without these magical machines. Certainly Braden will look at me like I sprouted a second head, but he will hear the story nonetheless.

I still remember when we got our first "computer" at my parents house. We were all stunned by the massive computing power of the Commodore 64. I had a baseball game that I played over and over again. The only thing you did was tell the hitters to hit or run and the computer created the rest. It was not a very good game but I loved it. It had the names of all the 1982 Cardinals making it the first sports game I ever played that had real players names and stats. I guess that was a window into the sports gaming world that I grew to love.

I went on to high school many years later and the Commodore 64 was still part of my life. I actually took a computer literacy class using that ancient relic. The lessons learned were about as useful as dinosaur herding or Beta Max repair. As I am typing this I am still amazed.

I then went on to college to find that some people were already on this world wide web thing. I was quickly expected to use Microsoft Word and Excel. Before I knew it we were programming in Matlab and C++. The computer had become a integral part of my life as an engineering student. All this happened only a few short years after the Commodore era. That is how fast this technology thing happens. You get caught up and swept away.

As for Braden computers will always be as much a part of his life as me and Arica. They are as commonplace as electricity and running water. He loves to look at the screen already and no doubt will love the computer for years to come. When there are such wonderful blogs out there and pictures of such good looking babies, who can blame him?

Random Tuesday Thoughts: Favorite Post

Apparently I have been less than random for a few weeks. That must be why I haven't put together one of these posts. I don't like being orderly so let's get back to it with another Random Tuesday Thoughts.

• During the second game of a softball double header Friday night I heard an 18 year old kid complain that he was tired from playing his third straight game. Good thing I was too tired to punch him in the head. It is church league softball after all.
• Braden has nearly mastered crawling. Now the sound track of my life sounds something like this: "No don't grab that. Where are you going? Come back here. I told you you couldn't have that. Please be still. Arica Help!"
• I know the title is Random Tuesday Thoughts. I guess that's because Tuesday and Thoughts have a little alliteration thing going. I am much more random on Monday though. It is like my weekend mind is fighting with my rational work mind. Sometimes the fight goes the distance.
• Will Ferrell is going to be on Man vs. Wild tonight. The pairing of crazy adrenaline junky survivalist Bear Grylls and crazy insane comedian Will Ferrell is quite possibly a stroke of genius. I am beyond excited.
• I have a Dwight Schrute bobblehead on my desk. That makes me cool, right?
• My office ran out of post-it notes. That's like a river running out of fish or the ocean running out of salt. How can this happen?
• My elderly neighbor called us last week to share that a snake was in her yard heading our way. She doesn't miss anything.
• I watched some episodes of Nature's Most Amazing Events on the Discovery Channel this weekend. Based on the show about Salmon I am starting to get worried that we may run out of delicious Pacific Salmon one day. To help sustain the Salmon population I ask the local Eskimos, Canadians, and Alaskans to please start eating more Grizzly bears.

After all that randomness I have a request for my readers. A few mom bloggers have asked to feature me or at least spotlight my little blog on Father's Day. Some have asked for links to my favorite posts. I don't have any idea which ones to choose. If you have a favorite please leave it in the comments section. I am too lazy to create a poll so I hope you all have a good memory. If you need ideas just look at the posts listed on the left of the page under each month. I would love to know which of my efforts you find least repulsive. Thanks.

Travelling the Globe: St. Leonard de Noblat, France

Two Monday's ago I posted about experiencing new things. The main topic of this post was my travels to foreign countries. I received a lot of comments about that post, especially for a Monday. It was apparent to me that everyone either liked to travel or would like to travel. Based on that information I decided to post from time to time about some cities and countries I have visited.

My plan is for these posts to offer a few pros and cons from the places I've been. The pros and cons will be random things based on my experience. You won't read pros like the Eiffel Tower was cool or the Louvre had a lot of artwork. It will be much smaller off the wall things that I feel the rest of the world must know. The Travel channel will not tell you this stuff people. Somebody has to do it, and that somebody might as well be me.

Our first installment of travelling the globe will be about France. Specifically this post is about St. Leonard de Noblat, France. It is a small town located in the center of France near Limoges in case you need to look it up for visualization purposes. Without further ado here are my notes from France.

PRO: The best thing about the entire visit to France was ordering a Royale with Cheese from McDonald's.

CON: Every meal was a formal affair. The food was good but who wants to eat off fine china and drink from the crystal stemware every night. You may not know this but champagne, fine china, waiters with tuxes, bread crumb sweepers, and artistic looking food every night can have an adverse affect on your sanity. My boss and I had to skip out and go to a local pizza joint or McDonald's once or twice a week to get a break.

PRO: There was a grocery store across the street from the hotel. They sold tall boy cans of German beer for about 30 cents a can. I always kept a few in my room.

CON: There was no refrigerator for the German beer in my room.

PRO: It was really cold outside so I sat my beers on the window ledge to keep them cool. After work a cold one was always waiting.

CON: One of my trips required me to get off the plane in Paris after an overnight flight and about an hour of sleep and drive to the plant. That is a five hour drive on no sleep through Paris traffic in a stick shift. I drive a stick shift about once every two or three years whether I need to or not. This is not a recommended travel procedure.

PRO: I bought some french lip balm for the extremely chapped lips I inherited from working outside in the cold twelve hours a day. I used it for a few days before I left. Arica claimed it when I got home and said it was the best lip moisturizing product ever. She lost it and found it again not to long ago. She finally used it all, but it was definitely the chapstick that kept on giving.

CON: The crappy exchange rate of dollars to euros caused me to pay $6 for the aforementioned lip balm. The exchange rate made buying everything from cheeseburgers to gasoline painful.

PRO: I got paid to visit France. That may not be the best pro, but I am running out of things that you might find interesting. Let's just say I put this in here to keep things fair and balanced. I don't want any angry Frenchmen after me.

CON: French people have a certain reputation around the world. Although I made several friends while I was there I found that for the most part the reputation had been earned.