crazy day

Yesterday was a perfect illustration of a day that thankfully does not happen very often, but when it does you are glad it is over by the end of the day. I woke up at 5:20 AM to a sound in the kitchen below us. When I reached downstairs I saw my oldest son finishing off his cooking of eggs for breakfast and was sitting down to eat them. He told me he wanted to get back to his Army schedule. I went back upstairs and fell back asleep. I got up at 7:30 and started working on my autobiography, which continued all morning long. I am now writing about my experiences while in Belgium before I went to India. My writing has slowed down the past couple of days as I kept a detailed journal while in Belgium, so I am trying to summarize a few stories from my journal instead of writing from memory or duplicating my journal. My oldest son decided to go back to sleep so besides my wife I did not see any children all morning long.

For a couple of days our refrigerator was not working properly. The freezer part was as cold as the non-freezer part normally should be. We took it as an opportunity to clean the inside of the refrigerator and threw about half of the contents away. The very first thing on Monday, I called M & H Appliance which had helped us in the past with our dryer. The technician finally showed up yesterday around noon. He took off the inside wall of the freezer to reveal the coils which were completely covered with ice crystals. He got out his trusty commercial hair dryer and after fifteen minutes had the coils completely deiced. He popped off the heater part under the coils and found it was broken. Since he had a spare part in his truck, we had a working refrigerator in under an hour and it only cost me $150.

Then the children all started waking up around noon. Our oldest came down and complained about his throat being sore and his ear hurting. He asked me what he should do about it. Then after my great advice of taking proper rest with plenty of fluids, he wanted to know where his mother was as he wanted a ride to his friends to celebrate New Years's Day. He repeated the same set of questions about his sickness and needing a ride, which to both of us parents were mutually exclusive requests. Kids.

Then I get a call from a friend of one of our sons who was suspecting pot smoking and wanted to know if we suspected the same thing. Of course you want to believe the best of your kids but having lived through many teenagers, we knew that could hazardous to our mental health to completely trust teenagers in this day and time. I went to search the music shed for a missing cell phone and I found a glass bong hidden in one of the guitar amps! My day was not getting better over time. When I approached one of my other son's about it as I told him I was going to break it, he told me not to as it was his friend's. Kids.

On Monday I had taken my middle son to get his driver's license as he had lost it due to his poor grades in school. That is a good thing about the North Carolina under eighteen driver policies that if you fail any classes in school you loose your driver privileges. As a parent you don't have to argue with your children, it is the law. Well your kids can still argue of course, but we have the written law in our favor. We went to the local DMV and found out that to get your driver's license you have to have proof of insurance. I called our car insurance and of course they took him of our policy since he lost his license. I had him reinstated so we could get his license only to learn that by doing so he double our existing cost of car insurance by $100 per month. My wife and I decided that he would have to pay for that in order to get his license. Without a job he cannot pay for it. Without a license it may be hard to get a job. Round and round it goes. Then I told my son all of this and he said he needed a cell phone before he could get a job to pay his part of the insurance in order to get his driver's license. At least he had Christmas money to pay for his own cell phone. Kids.

The only good news for the day was that during this week for the first time in many years all of the kids have been in our bonus room playing Guitar Hero, Rock Band and lifting weights together. It was a shock to see them all together, but definitely a good thing. SO they can enjoy each other after all.

My wife and I ended the day trying to watch an Indian movie that was pretty bad so we shut of the movie after thirty minutes and called it a day. Life in the fast lane with kids can be tiring!

18th Greek birthday

Yesterday was our middle son's 18th birthday. We try to eat out so my wife does not have to cook a special meal for both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We have eaten in several different places. One year while in Arizona visiting my mother in Tucson, we searched everywhere to find some place open where we could eat. We finally found an authentic Mexican restaurant that was open and enjoyed the food a lot. One year while in San Antonio we ate at the best Thai restaurant in the whole city. It is the best Thai food I have ever eaten. This year, our son wanted to eat traditional southern cooking, but we could not find a place that was open. We decided at the last minute to eat Greek food. I had heard people at work talk about two of the best Greek places to eat. The one closest to work was not open so we picked the other one. We were a bit sceptical when we arrived at the restaurant as no one else was there, but we were early since we wanted to attend the Christmas Eve service at church later in the evening. It was fun eating something none of us had had in an authentic restaurant. We topped off the meal with one of the best desserts any of us had eaten, which was a raspberry cream cake. It came with a single candle on it. The name of the place was Mythos Mediterranian Bistro.

Aradhna in Raleigh NC

love & movies

In the past week we have watched two Indian movies. Last night we saw Rab ne bana di Jodi. I have been looking forward to seeing it since my birthday in the middle of November. On that day we were in the shop where we rent Indian movies for home viewing. The $1 rental fee for each movie has to be the best entertainment value of anything you can possibly do for that amount of money. On the end of the counter was a holographic poster for the movie was saw last night. It was advertising the soundtrack for the movie. I asked the owner if I could have it and of course he gave it to me, since we are friends. The next day I put the poster on my office door at work. I typically don't close my door as I want people to feel free to come in and see me at any time, but for the last month I have closed my door so everyone walking by could be amazed at my poster. If move your head slowly side to side you can see the actor and actress change from traditional dress to modern bollywood style clothes. I was wondering as we waited for the movie to begin if I would have to remove the poster from my door, which would have to happen if the movie was bad. We were not disappointed as the movie was great. That is why I love Indian movies as there is always a clear point and both love and GOD has to be mentioned. I have to add this movie to my favorite list near the top. The other thing I wish I had done over the last few years was to record all of my favorite quotes from the movies we had watched.

The movie we watched last week was Slum Dog Millionaire. It was about love as well but the movie was actually rated "R" because of some of the violent content that was not appropriate for children. For me this was about the "real" India and not the fairy tell world of Bollywood that sometimes illustrates the ideal that people can hold onto in order to escape from this "real" world. Plus I got to see Mumbai and India like I remember it. I like movies that show choices we all have to make and the results of those choices. Some choose a dark path and reap what they sow. Others want to choose the right path that actually helps people, but sometimes it is just too hard to do. Even though both of these movies had love as the foundation, they were very different in content. The best thing I like about watching Indian movies is that it makes me think about my life and what is important as well as talk to my wife about what love really means.

food in Army

On the first night that our oldest son was home for the Christmas holidays, my wife fixed meat pot pie, which was always our son's favorite. I was really very tasty and nearly perfect in every way. As we sat at the table, he asked if this was all we were having. This was kind of odd since we have always eaten like this with simple but nutritious meals. Last year at this time, when he came home, he was starving from living on his own and a home cooked meal was all he dreamed about. So I asked him why he spoke like this about his mother's wonderful cooking and what the food was like in the Army. He told us of their multiple course meals three times a day. There were many varieties of everything to choose from at every meal. He did not overeat but always looked forward to each meal and made the decision at that time as to what he fill his plate with. He was select a meat, a couple of vegetable sides, always dessert. He was describing a super buffet selection for every meal. No wonder our single dish meal was a bit too simple for him.

finals week

This week has been the week of finals.

I finally finished my Hindi class after almost two years of studying and attending weekly classes with a co-worker who taught the class using Rupert Snell's book called "Teach Yourself Hindi". Now I can read and write the Devanagari script used for Hindi. This next year I want to practice my talking skills, which means I need to start working on extending my vocabulary also.

I finally completed the season in the competitive volleyball league at work during lunch time. We lost the very last game in the finals to come in second place. It was fun playing with such great volleyball players and I learned a lot and am now a better player because of it. That is true in most sports, in that if you play with people better than you then you will improve over time. Every time I enjoyed watching my teammates set the ball perfectly and then watch as one of the other players would spike it with so much power. It is just fun to watch good people play.

This is my final week of work for 2008. The company I work for closes their office the last week of December, which really means every one gets an extra week of vacation every year, which is very nice! I plan on finishing the first section of my new book and hopefully finish all of the sections up until I went to India. I need to find the journals that I kept during that time and review them to figure out what I need to say. That was the most important time of my life so it may be hard to condense it down to something reasonable - it may be a book in itself!

van pool

Several years ago I started carpooling when a neighbor invited me to join an existing carpool. Because all three of us lived in the same small community, it was very easy and convenient to share a ride. After riding for two months, I left the company that I worked for to pursue other opportunities in another state.

When I returned to that same company, I had forgotten about that first carpool. But after I bumped into the same person later in the building where I work, we decided to start carpooling again - just the two of us. This time I was motivated more by the price of gas and the rising cost of my auto maintenance bills. After I had commuted to work alone for over a year, it was getting boring, even though I listened to all kinds of music, occasional audio books, or language-learning lessons. I thought I’d miss these if I started riding with someone else, but I was willing to give it up to save money on gas. Because I was an early-morning person, finding a parking spot at my building at work wasn’t a problem. But it crossed my mind that I might have to walk further each day if I arrived at work later! Another motivating factor: I had worked for the Saudi Arabian national oil company for a couple of years. Seeing money flow freely from the U.S. to the Middle East due to our oil dependency just seemed so unnecessary. I had seen first-hand the amazing wealth it was creating, so I thought I could do my small part by joining a carpool and maybe one day helping others do it too.

Once we started carpooling, we found others interested in joining us who had carpooled previously. Through word of mouth, we found a few more people each month. Initially, some rode only a few times each week, while the rest of us faithfully rode to and from work every day.

An early concern we each had was how to run errands during the week at lunch when we each drove only about one day a week. This required a bit of advance planning because we had to condense everything into a single day. But within a month after deciding to alternate driving, we had a good working system. Anyone having to stay late or go in early simply didn’t carpool. Anyone needing to drive on a certain day to service her or his car or to see the doctor simply volunteered to be the designated driver. To be fair, we devised a simple spreadsheet to record drivers and riders each day and week. Each day on the way home we’d talk and determine who wasn’t riding and who would drive the next day. After a couple of months of alternating drivers during the week, I was driving only once a week. So, instead of spending $65 per week on gas, I was now paying only $65 per month. My only challenge was convincing my wife to get up 30 minutes earlier to take our kids to school, which used to be my daily duty and privilege.

From the very start we considered getting a Triangle Transit Authority (TTA) van because that would mean even less car maintenance for each driver. Many months later, we had more people than would fit into a single vehicle. As the number of people increased, it became harder to balance and maintain fair driving arrangements. But as it turned out, that was actually a nice problem to have. Once we reached six regular carpoolers, we figured it should be pretty simple to find more riders. We had all seen the benefits of ride-sharing, so it seemed obvious that others would jump at the chance to save money on gas. Because TTA paid for all gas and maintenance, we need only to find enough riders to fill a 12-passenger van. The more who joined, the lower our individual cost. We posted flyers in break rooms at work to get the word out about our vanpool and asked those we knew who lived along our route if they’d like to join. At that point a fellow carpooler showed me how to create a list of company employees who lived nearby by using a utility to locate people by town name. Using this, I could find potential riders who lived as far from work as I did who might want to join us. As a result of our efforts, we now have nine people in our vanpool, and we thought this article might entice others to start their own carpools.

Some of the real benefits I have seen can be understood from something that happened to me early on. After entering my car one rainy afternoon, I found I couldn’t start my car. I didn’t have a cell phone, but my fellow carpooler did, so he called security at work. Literally, within minutes, security arrived and jump-started my car so that we could pick up other riders at other buildings at work. Not only did I find a new friend to help me in a time of need, I never knew that security could do such things. Now that we have our preferred vanpool parking spot at our building, I never worry about my car not starting. I also have plenty of new friends on whom I know I can count when I need them. My 30-45 minute commute now goes by so quickly every day as we talk about each other's life experiences and learn all kinds of things in general. I think one of the best lessons I’ve learned is how kind and considerate people are at work, which is not something I can say about other places I’ve worked. Instead of being totally immersed in my current project and the technical abilities of those I work with, from our rides together to and from work I’ve learned that people have lived though and survived personal experiences similar to mine. I feel like I learn something new every ride, so that’s pretty good too. After seven months of ride-sharing, I now miss the days that I don’t vanpool.

Rajastan

There is something that is alluring about Rajastan. I have driven through most of that state in northern India. On the surface it is just one big dry hot desert, which is very dusty. Even after 30 years I can still remember things about it as it is so unique in all of India. I recall driving through the villages and you could easily tell when you have left one and entered another. In one village all of the men would be wearing yellow turbans, in the next they would all be wearing bring red ones and in the next they would be wearing green. The buildings everywhere matched the drab yellow brown sand with few trees in sight, but then you would see the women wearing the most bright colored saris and the men with their colored turbans. An occasional camel would be seen pulling a two wheeled cart. Every now and then you would see an amazing castle on a rocky hill that is centuries old. The hills are nothing more than huge boulders. I have spent the night with friends in the pink city of Jaipur and the blue city of Jodhpur. Driven past the Jal Mahal outside Jaipur, the Mehrangarh Fort on the hill outside of Jodhpur and the Taj Lake Palace on a lake outside Udaipur. So many fascinating and enchanting places to see, so it is no wonder that foreign tourists want to go there.



That is not want I had originally intended to write about today, but the origin of my thoughts was a movie was saw last night called Nanhe Jaisalmer. I have been watching Indian movies since we lived in Saudi in the late '80s, where the local Qatar TV station showed the weekly Thursday night Indian movie. Since the weekend was Thursday and Friday, this was the equivalent on our Saturday night, so I stayed up late watching the movie which ended around midnight. Now we rent Indian movies at a local Indian store. In all of those years and the unknown number of movies I have seen, it still amazes me at now uplifting they are and a true learning experience for me. Of course it really helps that I have lived to see many of the places in India where they shoot the films, but still the culture is so fascinating to me that I learn something new about the culture with every movie I see. I enjoyed the music in "Nanhe" and there were so many wonderful one liners. Just a great family movie with a good story and wholesome point. Who can complain about that?

Army II

Since our son could not leave the Army base without us signing him out, we ventured back to South Carolina for our Thanksgiving break this year. On the first night we stayed at a very nice Homewood Suites Hotel on the west side of Columbia. It was a pretty long drive from the Army base which was on the east side of Columbia, but it was a much nicer part of town to be staying in. Our son wanted to shop for civilian clothes, so we found a mall on the northwest part of Columbia where we joined the masses of people shopping on Black Friday. I have no idea about the rest of the county, but at this mall on this day it was wall to wall people. So many people, in fact, it was hard to get around inside the mall in some places. The mall was very nice and fairly new and our son quickly found a store called Buckle that willingly took his $200 and gave him little in return. I have never enjoyed shopping and the only good thing this time was that I did not have to spend money. We even went into the really high end store Abercrombie & Finch just for looking around as we suffered from sticker shock and quickly left, besides the fact that the store was so dark you could hardly see the prices and the music so loud you could not hear yourself think.

On the second night, we went back to the location where we stayed the last time for his boot camp graduation ceremonies. It is right next to the Army base, but the area is not very nice. When we got to the hotel, our son told us that his sergeant told them to all stay away from the Waffle House next to our hotel. That was odd orders, but then we heard the details on why this was so. Apparently the Army had tracked found the location where some of the soldiers had bought cocaine and it was at this very same Waffle House. We have eaten in one of them and decided not to make this a first time for us!

On the last day in Columbia we had a mission to find a phone that could be used no matter where he would be stationed. He is listed as going to South Korea, but we learned that it could change many times between now and when he ships out on March 1st. For South Korea and Japan they use very high frequencies, so basically the only phones that would work with local service in those countries are the high end PDA phones. The Apple iPhone will not work there on local service, but he really liked the touch screen phones in the AT&T store. After playing with every phone in the store for over an hour, he finally found a phone he liked, but it turned out to be one that would not work in Asia. He finally decided on the LG Incite 3g phone. He enjoyed playing with it the rest of the day, in taking photos of everything and finding wireless networks and chatting. Sounds like a mobile computer to me!

family and food

Yesterday was the first time we have not had our whole family together for our traditional Thanksgiving Day meal. Our oldest son could not get off the Army base so we are going down there to see him today. For the last week we had hoped he would be able to come home, but on Tuesday night we learned that no one was able to leave. Our next to oldest son is in California and everyone left in the house talked to him by phone yesterday. He was going to try to have a meal with those in the school who remained, one from Pennsylvania and one from Michigan. He is so out-going that life is an adventure for him, of which this is yet another one.

This year we decided to deep fry a turkey. We first tried doing it ourselves two years ago and it was the best turkey we ever had. It is messy and a bit expensive but the oldest son in house suggested we do it again. Last time we followed Alton Brown's recipe and it worked out for us. It is really very easy to do as it just takes some patience. We even followed his directions on how to build a turkey derrick. But this time the turkey derrick did not fly as my son told me "that is for 60 year olds". I guess after being two years older he had not gained wisdom but had become more daring. All went well without the turkey derrick as we did not have any exploding turkeys to report or old burns. We have read stories of people trying to deep fry turkeys that were still frozen and they shoot out of the fryer, literally exploding. This year after the 35 minute frying had been completed, we decided to do a couple of tests after turning off the propane flames. We threw a frozen chicken nugget in the 350 degree peanut oil. When it did not shoot out, we tried throwing in a frozen bread biscuit. The chicken nugget and biscuit popped up to the top of the oil after a couple of minutes. When we still did not get the affect, we threw in 5 ice cubes. Suddenly things got really interesting. Previously the oil surface was quite calm but now it starting bubbling profusely. So ice definitely is a bad idea with hot boiling oil. Our last experiment was putting in ice cream as we had heard that at the NC State Fair they offer fried ice cream. Apparently there is a science in getting that to work as throwing it n just made the ice cream melt right away. This sounds like we wasted a lot of time playing around, but after removing the turkey from the hot oil, you have to let it sit for 30 minutes to finish cooking and that is when we messed around with the oil.

A final word about our meal. In the morning my wife spent hours preparing the food. She did comment that it did seem odd to spend so much time on food that is finished off in minutes. I told her that some people actually enjoy the act of cooking in itself. I just like how our family gets together around the table and sits and talks. Something that is not natural for teenagers! My wife took hours to make from scratch the following foods : bread stuffing, cream corn, sweet potatoes, cranberry relish, baked apples, pumpkin pie and sweet potato pie. What a wonderful cook I married. All of that and she did not feel very good as she had a cold. It never fails to amaze me how she can cook when not feeling good and it always tastes perfect.

Mumbai mess

Having watched hours of news coverage on the Mumbai 9/11 terrorist attacks in the past couple of days, it is so sad to see how a few crazy people can cause such pain and grief. I don't like my idealist view of India being manipulated by people with no brains. We recently watched several Bollywood movies on terrorists in India as it is a hot topic even before this disaster. I still think the best way to deal with such horrible situations is to not allow terrorists to force us to change our lives as that makes them win.

stationed in South Korea

We found out this morning that our oldest son will be stationed in north of Seoul, South Korea for his first year after his training completes in January, 2009. This is really interesting news since my wife grew up her whole life in South Korea! We would have never imagined that our son would go there to live. Here are some links to Dongducheon, South Korea for Camp Casey, where he will be living:



Map of Army bases in South Korea
Map of Army bases near Camp Casey
West map of Camp Casey
East map of Camp Casey
Bridge outside Camp Casey
Weather at Camp Caasey
Map of Dongducheon
Details on the area
Subway to Seoul

wallyball

Yesterday during lunch I ventured into the exciting world of wallyball. That sounds very close to volleyball when you speak it in public conversation. I had heard about it for several years and finally found someone who would let me play. We played two-on-two inside a racquetball court with the next tied to the walls at the half way point within the court. At first I had no idea what to expect after I had the rules explained to me. Besides the fact that a racquetball court echoes like crazy, I was not sure I heard the rules correctly. Once we started playing it was pretty obvious how I should be playing, but it was another thing all together on how to actually do it. The ball has a rubber outside and is slightly smaller than a volleyball and bounces like a huge racquetball. I quickly learned that I should not try to block shots at the net as that left the court wide open for my teammate, which was too large an area to cover for one person. It was hard hitting the ball just right so it bounced off our opponent's side walls but not our opponent's back wall. This was especially true of serving. The surprising thing to me was how quickly I was sweating and I got a great work out. This is an interesting video that shows how the best people play wallyball.

what "Knopp" means to me

Some events in your life are memorable for a very long time and some you want to forget as soon as they happen. For me, the recent passing away of the patriarch of the Knopp family helped bring back so many wonderful memories. I can honestly say that my whole life would not be what it is today without knowing the Knopp family.

My life was a constant downward spiral for many years after my parents got divorced at my young ripe age of 14. When I had no where else to turn, I forced myself on a couple who attended church at the Knopp's house. At the lowest point of my life, I decided to take a chance and attend the Knopp home church. I had very long hair, which for me was definitely a sign of rebellion that I wanted to portrait to others. I had no idea what to wear to their church or whether I would be accepted with my long hair, but I was desperate enough to try and see what happened. I mainly went because I had just finished reading a book by Haralan Popov and he was speaking at the church that day. The primary reason Popov appealed to me was I had recently read The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski and was fascinated with how communism destroyed people. It is interesting how events just seem ordained to happen sometimes. It felt pretty strange attending a church in someone's home and even more odd that I did not know them at all, but desperate times lead to desperate measures. That very afternoon I decided that the way I was running my life was not working out very good for me and that I needed divine intervention. I really had nothing to loose as I was pretty miserable, so I was willing to take a chance. It is the best decision I have ever made and it changed my life forever. For me it was a miracle.

For that entire summer I attended church either at the Knopp's or with my mother. I quickly felt like the Knopps were a family I had always wanted to have but never had. I remember eating lunch at the Knopp home on several Sundays and observing the family interactions. People were always more important than possessions or time. It seemed like I could stay as long as I needed to - just like a home. Before I left to go at VaTech I had a bond that is hard for me to put into words with my adopted Knopp family. To be accepted for who you are instead of what comes out of your mouth or what you look like is such a great thing. I had no reason to be loved by this family as I had nothing useful to offer them. Sounds like the definition of true love to me. After completing my first full year at VaTech, I wanted to actually do something with my life to help others instead of how I had lived my first 20 years only for myself. The Knopps helped support me the whole two years I was in India, which is yet another reason I am eternally grateful.

When I returned from India, I had no idea where I would stay upon returning to VaTech. Yet again the Knopps came to my rescue. At VaTech, I roomed with two of the Knopp sons where we shared an apartment together. I could not have asked for better roommates as we had a great time together. We had a common hobby in playing basketball and we spent many fun hours every week enjoying ourselves and getting exercise. I met my wife to-be early in that school year and when we secretly got married in February, my perfect roommates graciously allowed us to live with them temporarily. They also helped force us to find our own place to live, which was the best advice they could have given us.

The best memory I have of Papa Knopp was on a visit to their home after we got married. Over lunch I asked Papa what his secret was to raising such great children as I needed advice before we had our own kids. He looked at me and said it was the only the grace of GOD. At the time I was really disappointed as I wanted "the" secret. After having five children and two of them already gone from our house, I fully understand what he meant. Some people who seem to have it all together have all kinds of problems with their kids. Other who have terrible families, somehow the kids rise above the horrible conditions and make something out of their lives for the good of others.

The second best memory I have of Papa Knopp was told by his sons, my college roommates. When I asked them what they thought made him a great father, they told me of a time when Papa lost his temper as the nine sons were getting a bit wild on a long road trip. He pulled over the car and apologized to them all immediately afterwards. Just two weeks ago when I talked to Papa Knopp one final time, he told me that so many good things had happened in his home but he could only attribute it to him being a willing servant and nothing more.

The most lasting impression I have of the Knopp family is how every time I visit their home I feel more encouraged upon leaving than when I arrived. Some people become old and crusty with age, but Mama and Papa just seemed to get better over time. I have to attribute it to their positive attitude of finding the good things that GOD has done for us. If only I could do the same.

Tribute to Papa Knopp: http://sites.google.com/site/papaknopp/

Josh Hamilton

Last night my wife and I went to see Josh Hamilton and his wife speak at Hope Community Church. It was really more like an interview than him speaking the whole time. He was not feeling well so his wife spoke more than half of the time. It was pretty amazing to hear of his wife standing behind him through all of his drug addiction problems, which he finally overcame two years ago. My wife bought me his autobiography Beyond Belief: Finding the Strength to Come Back. I opened it at 10am this morning and read it straight through, until I finished it at 4pm this afternoon. Having read a couple of books by ex-drug addicts, I must say that this is my favorite one. It is one thing to overcome addictions and it is another to thrive and do something useful with your life.

I am not really a huge fan of baseball as it was my least favorite sport when I was growing up. In my first job out of college, my best friend was a huge Houston Astros fan, so I would often watch games with him when they were on TV. Other than that I seldom watch baseball on TV now or even read about it in the newspaper. A couple of years ago when the Astros made it to the playoffs, I watched with my youngest son just for old times sake. The real reason I wanted to go see Josh Hamilton was that I had read parts of his story in the local newspaper. Also one of his early little league coaches worked with me by testing the code I wrote for work purposes. He would tell me stories of Josh's greatness as he saw him in his youth. Another reason to see him was that I had heard he had fallen for a drug addiction for many years and finally gotten out of it the last couple of years. During lunch at work one day, I heard about his great home run derby feat during all star weekend this year, so it was a great transformation that had taken place.

family matters

We saw an Indian movie that we really liked last night called Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham, which means "Sometimes happy, sometimes sad". It is about how a family interacts with each other. A son obeying his parents and when he does not, how the consequences affect everyone for many years. His father setup a marriage for him and he decided to follow his feelings of love for a "common" woman that broke up the family. Such great family values that apply half way around the world to our family. It never ceases to amaze me how such a different culture has so many applicable wonderful traits that are valuable for us as a family. I don't even have to try hard to favor Indian culture as it just comes naturally somehow to a Virginia country boy like me.

diwali #2

Last night we attended our company wide Diwali festivities at the local Hindu temple. In past years it was held in the temple hall, but this year because of a scheduling conflict it was held in the main hall that could hold at least 1000 people. The sound system was absolutely amazing and the Indian music sounded wonderful. The event started at 6:30pm and we arrived early at 6:20pm. For all of the times I have been in India and knew better, still for some odd reason I forgot Indian Standard Time. When we got there, a good friend of mine who was the master of ceremonies for the evening was the only one there! At least I got to talk to him for a good 20 minutes as we are always too busy at work for a relaxing conversation like that. At 7:15pm there was but a hand full of people present, a couple of them I knew so there was plenty of time to talk. This event for me is all about talking to friends from work, some of which I never get the chance to talk to about non-work related things. Two of the people I talked to are in my own group and I seldom get any time to talk to them. That is sad, but I took advantage of the time last night and had a great time.

teenager notice

TEENAGERS!
Are you tired of being harassed by your parents?
ACT NOW!

Move out,
get a paid job,
& pay your own way
while you still know everything!

it's all about family

This has been one constant driving trip for me this weekend. First we all drove to Columbia, SC as a family and then I drove to Dayton, VA to pick up my mother who was visiting my sister. On the way to Dayton I stopped in Staunton, VA to see the family of my roommates from the good old days at VaTech. Driving through the orange colored Blue Ridge mountains, I wondered if anyone would be home at the Knopps or if anyone would remember me. I feel like they are my family for many reasons. There are nine boys in the family and two of them were my roommates. These roommates saw my wife and I get married and helped us so much those first three months. We had so much in common as we loved to play basketball for hours at the VaTech gym and at home when we were together in Staunton. They were the rock strong family when my family was falling apart at the cracks. When I needed support, they were always there for me. With Mama Knopp close to 89 and Papa Knopp close to 95 and it is hard to tell how much longer they will grace the earth with their presence. I mean "grace" as that is the absolutely best word for them. You just want to be around them in hopes that something will rub off! Mama's body may be falling apart but her mind is simply amazing. If I had just half of her memory at 70 I would be a happy camper. Lastly, it is not that the whole family of 9 boys, 20+ grandchildren, 20+ great-grandchildren are perfect, it is how they are constantly learning how to be more like Jesus Christ as a family. Simply amazing to me.

On my way up the Shenadoah valley to see my sister, I saw the Mennonite region of Virgina as that is where my sister lives. Huge dairy farms with black horse and buggy's outside each home with some homes having many bicycles park along the barns. You could see horse dung on the road as I weaved along the curvy country road. Occasionally I would see someone on a bicycle. These are not racing bikes but simple bicycles with baskets on both sides of the back to hold groceries. As a kid I could remember going through the country side around Harrisonburg and seeing the mennonite people, so I got used to seeing them, but after many years it was odd but brought back good memories.


On the way back home with my mother, we stopped to see a childhood friend of hers who had been her playmate since being in the same crib. She had just turned 80 and mom wanted to see her. That is amazing to see someone remain friends for 80 years. They did not dwell so much on the past as just wanted to talk about each other's family and what was going on now. They had both been through much adversity and had the battle wounds to show for it, but knew they would be friends to the end of their life on earth.

On the 5 hour drive home, one of the conversations between my mother and I was about her brother Claude, since he had served in the military for 30 years. He had joined the Marines when he was 16 years old and served in WWII, Korean War and Vietnam. He retired after 30 years of service, most of the latter years as a chef for officers. I remember visiting him many times as I liked to spend the night with them and eat some of the best food that ever entered my stomach. He smoked like crazy and drank tons as well, but was the nicest uncle I could ask for. The last time I saw him, he was on the verge dying of cancer and was really a skeleton with skin draped over his bones. It was a very sad time for me. I remember going to his funeral and crying for a very long time. It is the only funeral I have attended so far.

proud Army parents

It certainly was an emotional two days watching our boy become a man. Maybe he should have become a man sooner or learned lessons the easy way, but for now all we can say is that we are proud parents of our new man. Sometimes it is just too hard to put into words how we feel and this is just such a case. We told him how proud we were of him and he said that we were not as proud of him as he was of himself. He said he did things he never imagined he was capable of completing. His master drill sergeant told him they could quit any time and the final night before his graduation, he told them he was on a mission to make someone not graduate. One of the fellows completed his physical training on the morning of family day (our son told us this fellow's first two mile run on entering camp was in 29 minutes and he had to complete it in 16 minutes to graduate) and if he had not completed it he would have not graduated and would have had to tell his parents to not come. He did graduate by the way! There were people from all over the USA there to see this manly sons. I knew almost nothing about the military when we went to Columbia, SC this weekend. I dislike war and cannot imagine having to kill someone, but I have to say that having seen my son turn into a man was the highlight of my life as a father so far. I really like the Army values and creed as they are great values for anyone to have. The regiment commander read these out loud at the graduation ceremonies and all 460 of the graduates yelled the creed in unison at the end before parading off the field - also quite and emotional experience. Our son is part of the 165th infantry brigade, 3rd battalion, 34th infantry regiment, company "B". The regiment is called "Rock Force" and his company is called the "Hell Hounds".

Army Values

Loyalty - Bear true faith and allegiance to the U.S. Constitution, the Army, your unit, and other Soldiers
Duty - Fulfill your obligations
Respect - Treat people as they should be treated
Selfless Service - Put the welfare of the nation, the Army, and your subordinates before your own
Honor - Live up to all of the Army values
Integrity - Do what's right, legally and morally
Personal Courage - Face fear, danger, or adversity (Physical or Moral)

The Soldier's Creed

I am an American Soldier.
I am a Warrior and a member of a team.
I serve the people of the United States and live the Army Values.
I will always place the mission first.
I will never accept defeat.
I will never quit.
I will never leave a fallen comrade.
I am disciplined, physically and mentally tough,
trained and proficient in my warrior tasks and drills.
I always maintain my arms, my equipment and myself.
I am an expert and I am a professional.
I stand ready to deploy, engage and destroy the enemies of
the United States of America in close combat.
I am a guardian of freedom and the American way of life.

I am an American Soldier.

Army

So last night we left our home to spend the night in Columbia, SC so we could get up bright and early to attend the family day presentation at 9am this morning. We got there early to avoid the traffic, but just as we arrived at the Fort Jackson exit we could see a huge accident on the other side of the freeway. We found the Hilton field where the event started and I was not able to sit on the metal bleachers as they were so cold and I decided to stand. We got there at 8am as it was to begin at 9am. At 8:30 they announced that due to the accident they would start at 9:30 instead. At 9:30 they announced it would start at 10am and that there was a fatality and 6 cars involved in the accident. As the sun rose it did get warm enough to actually sit on the bench finally. After a couple of people spoke to open the festivities, we started clapping as we were prompted to do. There were around 15 colored smoke bombs set off in the woods across from the stands. Then all of the sudden all of the soldiers ran across the field into position on the field in front of the stands. We sat in front of the "B" company which was the platoon our son was a part of. It was pretty emotional for my wife and I so of course we had to cry, even though we could not even figure out which one was our son. We were all dismissed and allowed to go onto the field to find our son. Quite the emotional experience as it had been 10 weeks since he left the house a boy and today we saw a man in front of us!

Some of the things we heard from talking to him are:

• He craved M&Ms, ice cream and Starbucks coffee


• First cup of coffee was really special for him


• Listening to his iPod was the highlight of his day


• He bought a cross to wear


• Toughest thing for him was dealing with people - he hated every one in his platoon and it was mutual for everyone


• Second hardest thing was camping for seven days in cold


• Third hardest thing was crawling in huge field with 1000's of soldiers while live fire was being shot over his head


• Fourth hardest thing was having to go through gas mask tests


• Fifth hardest thing was to throw live grenades


• He appreciates the small things in life a whole lot more now

Some other interesting tidbits of his life over the past couple of months. Out of the 52 total people in his platoon, 12 are women. When he left our house he could not run 100 yards without getting winded and having to stop for breath as he smoked heavily for many years. For his physical training, he was able to run two miles in 13:40, which is totally amazing to me - I am not sure I could run two miles that fast! The longest march they did was 12 miles in 3 hours with 85 pound backpacks. Training constantly changes every time they do boot camp. Now the drill sargents are not allow to hit or touch new recruits and cannot get up into their face except for specific reasons. If you fight you get sent off the base for good. If you disobey orders three times for the same thing you go home. Of the 512 people who started only 460 finished and are graduating tomorrow. Our son is so glad he has completed the boot camp and admitted this evening that he is so much better off for doing so. He also told us he felt strange being among civilians, not marching in a line, and talking about common things.

cricket tournament

Today was the end of the cricket season for me as I play all summer long to get ready for the local annual AID cricket tournament. This year I was on a different team from last year. Two of the same players from last years's team were on this year's team but all of the other were new. I found out this morning that all of them but one were from Gujarat. My Hindi lessons don't do much good in that situation I am afraid. We had fun playing cricket and talking on the side lines in between and during games. We lost pretty bad, but it was not about winning for us. Last year I got involved as my previous team got very serious during play and I definitely did not want to do that again. I bowled the last game today and that was definitely fun as two of their best hitters hit balls that were caught in the field and thus were out of the game. In that same game when I batted I stayed in longer than I normally do and actually go a hold of one ball and hit it over the fence into the field next to ours for a 6. It was good to end on that note as I got to know more Indians that I enjoy being around and having fun playing cricket.

These are photos from the AID cricket tournament. There are a couple of them of our team members:

Diwali

Today was the local Diwali Festival. We have attended this celebration around many times previously. In the past few years our daughter accompanied us, but this year my wife and I went by ourselves as are not cool any more I suppose. At the Diwali last year, our oldest son went with us also as he had just moved into his own house down the road from where they have the festival. What a difference a year makes as that was the beginning of all kinds of trouble for us. This year he is nearly at the end of his Army boot camp and a totally different person from last year, which is a great thing.


For me, this year was the best Diwali ever as we met and talked to several Indian friends the five hours we were there. We went early so we could see the younger kids dance as they are he cutest things ever in their Indian saris. I talked to a co-worker who designed all of the backdrops for the stage and the main logo when we first arrived. I had been wanting to talk to him outside of work for some time. Of course I had to stop by and see the man who we rent all of our Indian videos from as he always recognizes me. It was not that hard in past Diwali ceremonies, but this year there seemed to be many more white faces in the crowd. Next I met the husband of a co-worker who I had met last year at a company Diwali party. As I was talking to him I spotted a next door neighbor of ours when we first moved to this area. I watched where he sat with his wife and without being too rude, quickly went over and started talking to him. We saw him a couple of years ago with his family at another local Indian event but had not seen him since. Right as we were leaving I saw another co-worker who I play cricket with and of course had to stop and talk to him for an extended period of time. For me this is a perfect way to spend an afternoon, talking with Indian friends and getting to know them better. Makes me want to go back to India!

best 3D Flash sites

While I am working on lists, I have to give my top 10 list of 3D graphics sites I have seen:

1. eco da zoo


2. Roxik Max2007


3. Roxik toy


4. Barcinski-JeanJean


5. Fat Man Collective


6. Cheatham Lane


7. Lamberta


8. Cristof Echard


9. Orange 8


10. Mr. Doob depth-of-field

sports day

Yesterday was one of the most athletic days of my life. I played volleyball on my company team during lunch and since we lost the match and I did not do very good, I decided to go for a 3 mile run to "cool" off. When I got home my youngest son wanted to play tennis so we took off for the courts and played for over an hour. On arriving at the tennis court, he noticed the Indian cricket equipment I had in my trunk, so I had to show him how to play after we finished playing tennis. I decided to take off today and not do any exercise as my old body needed a break.

favorite Indian movies

This is the list of my wife and my favorite Indian movies that we have watched over the last couple of years. I still think watching Indian movies are the cheapest and best forms of entertainment on the planet today. We can rent these at the local Indian movie store for $1 each.

Taara Zameen Par
Vivah
Jodhaa Akbar
Bride and Prejudice
Black
Provoked
Eklavya
Guru
Bend it like Beckham
Chak ed India
Dor
Paheli
Veer Zaara
Iqbal
Lagaan
Pinjar
Hum Tumhara Hain Sanam
Swades
Dil se
Pardes
Hum Dil de Chuke Sanam
Fanaa
Dilwale Dulhania le Jayenge
Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham
Nanhe Jaisalmer
Rab ne bana di Jodi

A really good set of links on Indian movies can be found here: Highest Grossing Bollwood movies

beach

It seems like an odd time of the year to go to the beach since it is almost October, but the water temperature was very pleasant yesterday. The two youngest children went with us to attend their mother's sister's birthday party at their grandmother's which is at the beach. That sounds much more complicated than it really is. The kids and I went to the beach yesterday afternoon as it was a perfect day for such activity. When we reached the crest of the sand dunes and looked at the Atlantic ocean, we saw some very large waves. Of course my youngest son was very excited to see such huge waves as he had never seen waves of this size in person. My daughter was a bit apprehensive at the size of the waves. I stood on the sandy shore watching them for around 15 minutes before they came out of the water and insisted I come in with them. I don't recall the last time I had been in the ocean with waves that were way over my head. I think most of the waves had to be over 8' tall. With the powerful rip currents and undertow we lasted 30 minutes before calling it a day. The fight with the waves was a loosing battle. I tried body surfing a couple of times and that was a huge mistake as the waves were so strong that they just tossed me around flipping me over and over several times. The deciding factor on us leaving, beside the fact that we were tired from the fights with the waves, was that my daughter had a huge wave hit her, flipping her several times and making her sea sick. She says she blacked out and felt pretty sick, so we called it a day. Although on leaving my son said he hoped the waves were still big today as he wanted to go back. When we got back to his grand mother's house, we heard that the huge waves were being caused by a tropical depression in the Atlantic ocean. I was kind of wandering why so much of the beach sand had been eroded as it was the very same place my wife and I had been a month ago and yet the beach looked very narrow with a small cliff going down into the water.

virus

Although my middle son had a virus the last couple of days and still does not feel well, a much worse kind of Trojan virus landed on our Windows Vista laptop. It just makes me want to throw it away and get an Apple MacBook. We just don't have the money to buy a new one since most of our money went with my next to oldest son to school in California. I just upgraded my Norton Anti-Virus two weekends ago and somehow it got on the laptop anyway. What made it even more painful was that Norton could not remove it. I clicked the "Get Help" button and put into an on-line chat program. From there, the Norton support person was able to take control of our laptop from who knows where. He deleted all of the temporary files and then rebooted my laptop. When the laptop came back up, it then reconnected him using chat to my computer. Then the virus attached itself to a movie I had made with Window Movie Maker, which I found and deleted it. Then after two more reboots, the virus was gone. I had several tracking cookies that also were deleted that had been plaguing me for a while also. In all I lost two hours of my day dealing with a virus I have no idea how it got on the laptop.

tennis and cricket

The title for this blog entry is a play on words.

Since my oldest son left for the Army all tennis activity has stopped. This weekend all of the sudden my daughter and youngest son and I started playing table tennis again. When we lived in San Antonio we bought a cheap set of paddles and a foam and plastic net. We lost most of the pieces so we temporarily put a piece of wood molding through the foam holders to make a net. We used the dining room table with the extra leaf and even though the corners are rounded we still have fun. It has been over two years since any of us have played but we picked it up quickly again. Of course I have the advantage of having wasted many hours while at VaTech playing table tennis with my best Indian friend. Then when my wife and I met and eventually got married we were either playing tennis or table tennis daily. All of those hours of practice have come back to help me beat my son constantly.

Every Sunday recently I have been practicing my bowling skills in cricket with my Indian friends. Last year I learned how to bat and this summer I am learning how to bowl. Maybe next year I will be able to do both in the same game. Not that I will be anywhere close to doing it the correct Indian way as I spent too many years playing baseball and softball to unlearn those skills. That is not actually the cricket I meant in the title. This morning when I woke up and went downstairs I heard a very loud chirping noise from behind the refrigerator. I hit the refrigerator a couple of time and it stopped but always resumed. I then rolled it out and the noise stopped immediately. I sprayed insect killer around the back wall and the noise stopped, so I went to work thinking the job was over. When I got home from work in the evening the noisy cricket was again rubbing his legs behind the refrigerator. After a rousing game of table tennis my youngest son helped me search underneath the refrigerator and still no noisy cricket was found. I caulked around the back wall where I sprayed in the morning and had finally given up. I took off the back and front of the refrigerator looking for Mr. cricket and was putting the back on, when right on the floor in front of me was a green cricket! The cricket did not survive, but now we have peace and quiet in the kitchen. No more cricket until Sunday when I play my next match.

volleyball

Yesterday I participated in my first volleyball game in the competitive league at work and had so much fun. Of course is helps when you are on a really good team. Two people are really great setters and make it easy for me to spike the ball. Two of the other people on the team are great at spiking and in general excellent players. Most points I just enjoy watching them make great shots. It is more fun for me than playing basketball or football as it is not a contact sport! It seems like I get injured when colliding with others is involved, so this is a safe sport for me that can enjoy and get exercise. Of course today I have to return to running as I cannot give that up and on Sundays I have to play cricket.

internet connection

So my next to oldest son calls last night and wants me to help him find a way to get internet in his apartment. The first task at hand was finding any place close to him where he could get free internet access. He tried Starbucks since they are every where in that part of the land, but they only provide it if you buy something. That is also a mini story as he tried to buy something and his debit card was rejected, but more on that later. Since we have wonderful internet access, I quickly used Google Chrome to search for "wireless hotspots emeryville ca" and 3rd link had exactly what I was looking for wi-fihotspotlist.com. It showed that a Borders bookstore was right around the corner from his apartment and they had free wifi. He mentioned that a couple of people used ComCast in their apartments, so I went to their web site which he went off to Borders. The ComCast web site looks nice and clean and I quickly found the selections available. All was well until I hit the last step, except it was odd that I was never asked for a credit card or any form of payment. I was put into an on-line chat program for the final step. It did not work as I needed a new version of Java to support the chat plug-in on Vista. The download itself took several minutes and then I had to refresh the browser twice and finally I saw I was next in line for a chat person to talk to me. Once she arrived at the chat window she asked me to re-confirm what I entered and the last 4 digits of social security number to verify something or the other. Then the selections I had made we for existing customers, so everything changed when she found out this was a brand new service. Pretty good prices as just for internet access was $25 initial fee and then $25 a month for the first 6 months, for service that is slightly faster than Time Warner, which is what we use here. At the last step she gives me the account number and order number. I try to copy-n-paste it from the chat window but it does not support any type of selections. I asked her to email it to me and she said she was not allowed. So I wrote down the information and then emailed it to my son. The whole process started off nicely, but was a bit rough at the end. At least no up-front payment and no payment at install time, so that was a nice bonus.

road trip photos

Photos from my son's road trip across the USA.

busy weekend

Friday when I got home from work, my wife started mowing the yard. This means that I have to finish since it takes too long for her to complete the whole yard. No problem as I think of mowing as walking exercise.

Most of the remaining weekend was spent cleaning the garage and fixing stuff around the house. My day started off removing the downstairs toilet as one of my next to oldest son's friend's dropped his cell phone into the toilet and flushed the toilet thinking the phone would remain in the bowl. All his friends had fun trying to get the phone out by using a clothes hanger and finally after a couple of hours gave up. I was neglecting it hoping it would fix itself, which never happened. I removed the toilet and went to Home Depot to get a new one. Once I got home and took it out of the box, I saw the toilet was cracked, so I returned to Home Depot. Not a good start to my Saturday morning I must say. I got the next better model for $99 and with a little effort had the new one working. While feeling handy, I started working on the downstairs bathroom as the ceiling looked pretty bad. This is a mini story in itself as last year one of the kids broke the upstairs toilet by accident and the water leaked downstairs through the ceiling. I did not complete the ceiling repairs as I should have, so I spackled the ceiling and then repainted it.

The next task was to help my youngest son as he is switching rooms. He decided to paint the walls VaTech orange and maroon colors with two walls maroon and the other two orange. The clothes dresser, which used to be in the room, covered up my handy work, where I ran a TV cable from the adjoining room and left a hole in the wall. I had to repair that hole with drywall and spackling and then repaint it. For once I left the painting to other members in the family. Just as I finished my handy man tasks, I had to quickly clean up and be preentable.

It was time to attend a very good friend's graduation ceremony at the Dean Smith Center at UNC (my affectionately known as the Dean Dome). I remember watching so many Tar Heel basketball games when I was a kid, but have only once been on the UNC campus. To actually be inside the Dean Dome was like holy ground for a UNC graduate. They had photos of every UNC basketball team since the late 1970's in the area where you walk inside the dome. Inside the dome itself there were tons of jersey's hanging from the rafters as well as conference titles and championships.

Today I took some rest and walked with my wife and then took off to play cricket with some Indian friends. Last season I practiced my batting skills, but this year I am practicing my bowling skills. I had fun today as I really bowled well. Once I got home I had to finish working on the downstairs bathroom and take some stuff to the local thrift store in order the finish the garage cleaning ceremony. After so much activity I had to take the Sunday afternoon ritual nap to round out an active weekend.

road trip is over

Well, it is official, the next to oldest son's road trip is over. He arrived in Emeryville today after seeing the beach in Morro Bay and then traveling up Highway 1 for a while and then looking all around San Francisco. Tomorrow he has his orientation at school and moves into his apartment.

Even though I was all the way across the USA, my day was pretty exciting in a bad way. My car has not been starting very well since Saturday and then today as I was leaving work my car would not start. Fortunately the person who was car pooling with me knew the number to call for our company's security desk. He showed up within a couple of minutes as he was just driving our way when he was paged. He jumped my car even though it was raining lightly. Instead of going home I stopped by my favorite mechanic. It turns out that my car had a good battery but the starter died. After a two hour wait, I finally made it home. Not exactly what I needed was an extra expense with the road trip, but better this happen to me than my son on his road trip!

road trip : almost there

I talked to our road warrior son this evening and he has made it to Bakersfield, CA. They decided not to go to Roswell on the southern route and instead stayed on I-40 on the northern route. They stopped in Albuquerque for the night and then got up late before setting off to see Meteor Crater which I thought was a bit of a tourist trap when we saw it several years back. They spent several hours at the Grand Canyon, which on the other hand is worth every minute you spend marveling over the beauty and majestic of it all. They spent the night in Williams, AZ which is where we spent the night the last time we visited the canyon as it right on I-40 as you exit the park. They were running out of time so did not see my mother in Tucson, but instead continued to California. They want to see the beach and the large redwoods before our son's best friend leaves by airplane to return home on Thursday morning. The great road trip is coming to a close already...

road trip plus family life

It is official, our next to oldest son has traveled half way across the USA. I talked to him this morning as he was at a rest stop in Amarillo, Texas. After stopping in Nashville, TN the first night and Fort Smith, Arkansas the second night, they now hope to reach Carlsbad, New Mexico this evening after passing through Roswell, NM. I convinced him to forget about the alien's tourist trap in Roswell and go Carlsbad Caves. Plus I told him to go to White Sands National Monument as these are places we have never visited as a family. Hopefully he will make the right decision. As I spoke to him on the phone while at the rest stop, he saw a road runner and was trying to get his friend to look at it. I think sights like these are helping him appreciate the life he has had as we have seen so many things as a family together. Once he arrives in Arizona, then the sight seeing will really begin as he is planning on seeing my mother in Tucson, then drive through Phoenix on the way to Flagstaff to see the Grand Canyon.

While holding down the fort at home, my daughter helped me paint his old room in our house and it is looking very nice indeed. This morning I took a break and played cricket with a couple of friends. On the way back home I stopped by a lake near our home and ran around it for some more physical activity. I visited Home Depot to get ceiling paint to touch up the mistakes we made yesterday and when I got out to my car it would not start. I called home twice but no one answered the phone, so I made an executive decision and went back into Home Depot to get a socket set. I took out my battery and in a Home Depot cart I took the battery to Wal-Mart which is in the same shopping center. They tested the battery and said it was fine. When I got back to my car I took a cloth I had in my car and cleaned the battery terminals and my car started. When I got home I used my battery cleaning tool and finished the job the right way. Hopefully I will have no problems tomorrow morning to go to work.

news from the Army and the road

We received news from our oldest son from Ft. Jackson Army base yesterday. He is doing well, which is very encouraging for all of us. He says he is forced to wake up at 4am and goes to bed around 9pm each day. He actually gets off every Sunday, which is definitely surprising, but we don't know what that means exactly. He really looks forward to the evening meal as he says he likes the food a lot; also a bit shocking to me. He has learned to repel and use a gun so far. He likes learning new things and how you have to work as a team, giving him a sense of accomplishing something together. All in all this is great news.

We heard from next to oldest son last night as he made it to Nashville. I hope he doesn't want to stay and become a country singer! I remember stopping at the McDonald's next to the Grand Ole Opry on our trip back to NC, as it is quite hilly and nice in that part of Tennessee. His next stop should be on the western part of Arkansas in the Ozark Mountains. I don't ever remember going there, but I must have been there at least once.

let the adventure begin...

So my next to oldest son left this morning at 5am sharp for his 3000 mile driving adventure to California to attend school. One of his best friends is going with him so that makes us feel a whole lot better than when he was talking to driving the whole way by himself. They are planning on sleeping in camp grounds all along the way. The last plan we heard, which is definitely subject to change, was for an over night visit in Nashville TN, Little Rock AR, somewhere in the heart of Texas, Flagstaff AZ (where they will make a side trip to see the Grand Canyon), Tucson AZ (to see my mother), then up through eastern CA so they can see Yosemite with a potential side trip through Las Vegas (which I suggested they didn't attempt). Sounds like a wonderfully exciting adventure for a 20 year old to take on a cross country road trip. Especially with a really god friend, who just so happens to have never been further west than the middle of North Carolina. Of course all of this depends on his car, which hopefully will make the journey without giving them problems. We had the whole car checked by my mechanic friend last week and he has extra oil and engine coolant in the car just in case. I emphatically told him that if he goes to Las Vegas just to see it, then he cannot go through Death Valley on the way to California. Just the name alone should scare him, but at 20 of course it does not.

As I was bidding him goodbye this morning, I realized that I was 20 when I went to Europe and then onto India where I spend two years on my grand adventure. Now I am beginning to understand how my mother felt...

raccoons

This weekend my sister visited us and stayed in the local Holiday Inn Express. In the evening our two youngest kids wanted to swim in the hotel pool, so we went after it turned dark. As they were jumping around in the pool and having a good time under the glow of a big flood light, we noticed under the chairs at the opposite end of the pool there were three raccoons entering through the fence. For a couple of minutes they huddled in the darkness, but they got brave and came out in the light. When they saw our kids, who were playing at that end of the pool about ten feet from them, they quickly went back under the lawn chairs. After a couple of minutes, they all went back through the fence, but that was not the end of them. One was the mother as she was larger in size and the two kits were about half her size. We did not see the mother any more on the cement area around the pool as she stayed on the other side of the fence. The two kits then came out to eat bugs that were flying around or crawling on the floor due to the flood light. They saw our children, but ignored them as they played with the bugs with their paws just like cats do. We watched in amazement for about 10-15 minutes as they were intent on bug feeding no matter who was taking over their normal space. After they got their fill in bugs they left through the fence and we left soon after that. That was kind of fun watching them, but it reminds me of another encounter we had with raccoons.

While living in San Antonio, we had a pool in our backyard. There was a huge farm behind us, so we often had wild animals come drink our crystal clear pool water. I often wondered if the animals liked the chlorine taste! We frequently had opossums come, which I learned really smell quite horrible. Sometimes we forgot and left our cat food plates right outside the back door, which was right next to the pool. The wild animals would come to clean the plates of left overs. One time we had an armadillo fall into our pool and could not get out. I got a call a work on that day as some days I would not check out the pool before going to work if it was still dark outside. One time we had a white stray cat come into the back yard and it started fighting with our cats and somehow fell into the pool. I had to fish it out the angry feline and then escort it out of the backyard without getting scratched. The most exciting event of all was one evening when we looked out towards the pool and saw a mother raccoon with three small baby kits. What was so amusing about it was that they were in the hot tub peaking out over the edge at us! I guess they needed a bath, so at least they did not know how to turn on the hot tube bubbles or they might have gotten over heated. I wish we had a camera to take a photo of what we saw as three little raccoon heads staring at us from inside the hot tub was so cute. Those were the days...

B & B

That title could be interpreted in many ways. It could mean Bed & Breakfast, or Balled & Burlap, but for this me now it means Beach & Basketball. Every time we go to see my wife's parents at their house near the beach we pass Kenansville as an exit off the interstate highway. For everyone else that means nothing, but for me it always reminds me of visiting them when they lived in that small rural eastern NC town. I played basketball every time we visited them as they opened up a local high school for free play on the weekends. I would show up as the only white guy to play and they would make fun of me until they saw me play as I was very fast on the court from my endless days of running. I would just blow right by them and then they would understand that I was not the typical slow white guy that knew and hated from rural NC. Oh the good old days. I would also meet a bunch of doctors who played at a local middle school and they were fun also but in a different way. They were pleasant to talk to and get to know while playing with them. After playing basketball for over 30 years I gave it up, but that story has already been shared. Now I run to keep fit like I did this morning. It was very nice out this morning as I ran to the sunrise. I would like to play basketball but at the company where I work I tried playing with a team and got hurt the first game. I tried playing in the company football league last year and got hurt they first game there as well. This year I am going to try volleyball, hoping for a different end result.

home repairs

One of the nice things about having a home is that you have a yard and some land that you can call yours, or in our case we like to think it is ours but actually the bank owns it for us. One the other side is it means you have extra headaches when things break down.

Last weekend our upstairs A/C broke as the water pipe got clogged and when that happens an automatic switch turns off the A/C, which is a good thing as you don't want water running through your ceiling. I called my favorite repair man at Bar-Co mechanical, who happens to be a close friend who I can trust with my $200 that I handed over to him. While we were amusing ourselves at King's Dominion, he fixed our A/C for us so the house was back to the normal coolness when we returned. It always seems like something is in need of repair.

For the last three weeks we have done without a clothes dryer. The button to turn on the dryer did nothing at all. I searched on-line for a timer as that was the indication a bunch of self-repair web sites noted could be the problem. I bought a timer as I could not locate one locally. We waited for it to come and last weekend while we were away, my eldest son took it upon himself to try to install the new timer. When we got home, although we were glad to find a cool house, my bubble quickly burst when he told me he could not get the dryer back together. I was pretty angry as we had waited two weeks already for the timer and now it looked like I would have to call the local appliance repair man. After putting the dryer back together as best I could, I finally gave up and called M&H Appliance. They came out at the first of the week and told me the motor had failed and we had put the timer together correctly. At least we had one thing going for us. I then tried to locate a motor for our dryer. I called Maytag to find the part number, but they would not give it to me, even though I had just the week before called them to get the part number for the timer! I called a local parts distributer, who gladly gave me the part number even though I did not buy it from them. I searched the web and found a new one for $75, whereas from Maytag or locally the same part was $150. The motor arrived yesterday and was waiting for me as my wife announced when I got home. I think she was tired of taking the laundry to the nearby laundry mat every day! I called the man who had come to our house from M&H and he told me how to take the dryer apart to get to the motor, which was nice of him as I had paid him $50 to diagnose the problem, but this was free advice. After a couple of hours, a couple trips to Home Depot and my daughters help for a couple of hours, we got it back together and working by 8:30pm. I already have the next problem waiting for me.

As I crawled under the house to check on the dryer exhaust vent I saw water standing under the house. I wanted to finish the dryer so continued on that task, but after we were done I went back under the house. The downstairs A/C is leaking under the house, so I have to call Bar-Co back today and tell them I have a new emergency for them to take care for me.

Such things remind me of other long term problems we have suffered as home buyers:

1) When hurricane Fran hit this area in 1996, we lost our power for one week. That was not much fun as it was in the first week of September and it was pretty hot at the time. There was nothing we could do except wait for the power company to fix the electricity. After a week of being hot, we went to Greensboro for a night to get a good night's sleep in A/C.

2) We bought a new refrigerator when we switched to a larger house and then it failed within a couple of months. We called for a replacement and it took two weeks to get another one. We used a large cooler packed with ice instead of a refrigerator. They did give us $100 to buy a small refrigerator but that can only hold so much as it was the size most college dorm students use.

3) During the last drought in NC our large-bore shallow water well went dry. That was a pretty big deal, so I called a well driller and forked out $4500 to drill a 400 foot deep well. It only took a couple of days for him to complete the work.

4) Our heat pumps went bad in that same house and since they were 25 years old, there was no hope in repairing them. That little inconvenience cost me almost $10,000 as the whole heat and A/C systems for upstairs and downstairs had to be replaced. Although done quickly the lost of that much money hurt.

There are many, many more house repairs over the years, but those are all of the major ones I can think of that had a lasting impression on the family and myself.

he's off

On Monday after I got home from work, we did our usual episode of going to play tennis. After a few minutes a bunch of teenagers from the local high school came and played next to us. They believed they were a lot better than they really were. Such arrogance really bothers me big time. I tried to ignore them and pretend they were not there, but my youngest son was intimidated by them and sat down and watched us play. We had a good time once we go into a zone and ignored them and their stupid behavior.

The day before our oldest son re-hurt his hand when he drove on the tennis court for a ball. I had never seen do this before, so it was kind of odd. My next to oldest son was with us and was full of energy running all over the court. Maybe this motivated my oldest to expend too much energy and thus hurt himself. His first remark was he would not be able to go in the Army as his hand hurt so much and he could not do push ups! His recruiter was due to come to our house on Monday to check his physical fitness abilities. He was very discouraged and I was kind of shocked he wanted to play tennis on Monday with his hand tapped, but it is a stress reliever for him.

Yesterday we learned that his recruiter was coming to take him to an Army doctor to check his hand. Since he is over 18 and not full time in school, our medical insurance for him expired, so this was nice news to hear. We heard in the afternoon that his recruiter was taking him to the military hotel to wait for deployment to boot camp! That was interesting change of events. He went to get his hand checked so it must have been good enough as to not prevent him from going to boot camp. We got a phone call around 9pm last night that we would find out today if he was of to boot camp.

Today we heard from his recruiter that it would not be final until around 12:30pm as to whether he was off to boot camp or not. We never heard and he never came home to we assume he is in South Carolina at boot camp. We heard they pay them $250 to buy stuff they need as he really took stuff only for Tuesday appointment at the Army doctor, so that is good. He finally has started a new phase in his life. His recruiter told us we should get a phone call in a week. After nine weeks he will be done with boot camp and have a day off to see us. He will them go to Maryland to train as a tank and heavy machine mechanic. We hope this will be best for him!

amusement parks

We went to King's Dominion amusement park this weekend with our two youngest children. My wife and I went there 25 years ago during the first summer after we got married. I don't remember much, but there were a couple of things I do remember. There was a geodesic dome as you entered the park, where we laid down on the carpeted floor and looked up. A movie was shown flying through the Grand Canyon and that was pretty sickening, even though it did look amazing. The other sickening thing we did was near the back of the park they had a ride where you entered a huge hallow metal drum through a door in the side. You look up and you see the sky as it had no top. You look down and you see a metal floor. There were small seats all around the edge of the drum with seat belts. As you sit down and strap yourself in the music begins, which was Michael Jackson's Thriller. The music gets louder and the drum begins to rotate faster and then the floor drops and you are spinning in a huge centrifuge with your body pinned to the side of the drum. This lasts a couple of minutes until you are so sick you want to vomit. Now that is good times! Actually that is one of the times I have felt the most motion sick in my life. Both of these rides have long been replaced.

Now the "in" thing is very fast metal roller coasters, which the kids really enjoy, but they go so fast it kind of messes up your internal system. While waiting for one ride, the man in front of us had three daughters. We had been waiting for almost one hour, when his daughter started having an epileptic seizure. The man in front of them was right there so he helped the girl's father take the girl downstairs. Somehow they made it through the crowd as it was a very crowded area they had to go through. By the time we got down to the ride, the girl had recovered and walked away on her own, so that is a good thing. I then started talking to the man who had helped carry her down as he looked Indian. The kids had commented about his t-shirt earlier as he had a funny saying on it about pirates and rum. He was upset at me for assuming he was from India as he was from Antigua and Barbuda. He had been in the USA since 1968 and he had no accent at all. Obviously his family hundreds of years ago had moved to the small Caribbean group of islands from India. Trying to insult me, he asked if I were British since my ancestors had come to USA a long time ago, so I understood his point immediately! All of the memorable events happened while waiting forever for this one ride.

soon to go

We received the final word today on where our oldest son will be going with the Army. He is joining next Wednesday and will doing his basic training in Fort Jackson, South Carolina. Because he scored well on the military tests today, he will receive $8000 bonus if he completes boot camp, so that is good news. After that he will be stationed in Maryland as a mechanic. He will go in one rank above the lowest rank if he completes 40 push-ups within 2 minutes and 50 sit-ups within 2 minutes and runs a mile under 8 1/2 minutes within the next week before leaving for boot camp. He also has to memorize a bunch of Army jargon. This is all wonderful news as this will keep him busy and has a real goal for the next couple of months!

almost in

We heard late Friday afternoon that our oldest son was leaving for Army boot camp this evening, well actually at 3:30am Monday morning. His recruiter came to pick him up around 4pm today, after a whole day of restless family members wondering what was going to happen. We had a bit of a scare when he called Saturday morning for me to come pick him up as he had cut his hand. In his drunken state he was showing off for his friends and jumped off the porch and landed on bike in the yard and cut his right hand. He thought he may need stitches. Immediately I thought it was not really an accident but a ploy to get out of joining the Army for another week or two. Turns out the cut was not that bad and on the way home we bought butterfly bandages to seal the wound. He messed with his cut most of yesterday and today. He woke up at the last minute and wanted to go to church with us and then the rest of the day laid on the couch watched the Beijing Olympics with me. Nothing much exciting on, just hanging out doing nothing waiting for his recruiter. At 6pm I received a call from his recruiter that he had dropped him off, but that he only had to choose his Army career tomorrow and that would determine his boot camp location and start date and completion date of boot camp and length of his service. If we can just keep him home for the week, then all will be well by next Sunday night when he really leaves for boot camp. Just another step closer to him getting out on his own. I think he really wants to go now and will do just fine.