Lentor

I grew up Baptist and the idea of Lent was foreign to me. Carrie grew up Methodist and traditionally denies herself something for Lent each year. This year, I was with a crew of folks that had all decided to give something up. This is where I got the title of "Lentor" Patrick summed it up best so I will steal his words:

"As an aside, the term Lentor was coined at a birthday dinner when a friend had a question about not swearing. A different friend quickly intervened, heading off any moral quandary and designating himself as a Lentor, one who can determine the applicable boundaries of a Lenten sacrifice. I’m sure a priest could have served the role, but what lay person wouldn’t want to help set some tangible, real world spiritual chalk lines?"

It was fun having spirited discussion on whether or not it was permissible for someone giving up fried foods to have pan fried chicken (I ruled that it was not OK to have pan fried foods). I like having the power to make decisions over the lives of others. I think I am going to start arbitrarily judging others.

For example, effective immediately, I will begin to judge who has the best comment on Facebook statuses. I will also rule as to who has the worst! The winners/losers will only come from those that are on my friends list, and I may choose not to issues a ruling if there aren't enough comments. I will also be keeping score. There are rules to. Any LOL or other dumb acronyms or happy faces made with colons will automatically be up for worst comment and can never win best comment. I'll be keeping score folks, so choose your words carefully!

Here is a list of my Lentor rulings:

1. For someone who gave up cussing - Could not flip people off, can not say "BS" or "SOB", Shoot/Dang were permitted.
2. For someone who gave up fried foods - Could not eat pan fried foods. Any time that oil was added, it became illegal. Bacon, even though fried in a pan is OK, because oil wasn't added.
3. For someone who gave up deserts - Milkshake with a meal are OK. Milkshakes after the meal are no OK, they become a desert.
4. For someone who gave up Facebook - You can't update your status, even if you break up with your boyfriend and Facebook has you in a relationship
5. I ruled against the "it is OK on Sundays deal" Lent loses its power if you can "cheat" every seventh day. I say you maintain it the whole time.


BW

Second Chance

Don't you always wonder how many chances SHOULD someone get? Does everyone deserve a second chance? What about a third? This is one issue with this country. We keep giving people more chances. At some point, we have to identify people as the kind of guy/girl that cannot play by society's rules. For example, Charles Manson was in jail multiple times, twice for rape, and several times for theft, yet he kept being released. You probably know the rest, he led a group that went on a killing rampage. What if they would have kept him in jail after his third or fourth arrest. They didn't, and a bunch of folks died.

Here is what brings me to this.....Last week, someone entered a local church beat up a 60 yr. old lady almost to death, then killed the preacher. This idiot robbed a church. Here is the guy they arrested:

Oct. 2010 - aggravated assault with a deadly weapon
May 2010 - aggravated assault with a deadly weapon
2008 - Theft (note, there were no crimes between 2008-2010, he was in jail)
2007 - Theft (note, there wasn't much activity in 2006, he spent most of that time in jail)
2005 - unauthorized use of a vehicle

This guy committed five major crimes in 6 years, and he was in jail about half of that time. My question is why do we keep letting him out? Now he is again in jail for capital murder. He is accused of killing a preacher and almost killing a 60 yr. old lady in a church! This just makes me nuts. If only we would have locked him up for more than 4 months following his second conviction for assault with a deadly weapon, these two victims would be alive today. By the way, following his second conviction in less than a year for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, he got 8 months probation. 8 months probation.........wow! Gotta love our "justice" system. Maybe this time, he will get a stiff fine and have to pick up trash for a couple weeks!

2011

I looked back at many of my old posts and realize that too many of them begin with comments on how long it has been between posts. No now, I say, forget you, no more apologies. If it takes a while, then so be it.

As I read my last post, I was a contract employee. That has changed. One day the VP showed up on a scheduled visit. He barely said hello, before he had a job offer for me. The money was right and I already know the company, so it was easy. I am still working on that huge project that I started in October, so I got my fingers crossed on that one. If it goes through, it will be a 10 year government contract supporting our military folks overseas.

Shifting Gears

As most people probably know, I am a proud Auburn alum. I live to watch Auburn football. Needless to say, I am on top of the world after the game last week. NATIONAL CHAMPS! I've done a real good job soaking it all in, reading everything and enjoying every second. It was 53 years since the last championship, so I may not live to see the next one, but the good news is this: I GOT TO SEE THIS ONE. THIS YEAR. 2010 PERFECT SEASON!

As many read the previous paragraph, they are already forming an insult directed at Auburn, or Cam Newton. I don't really get these people. They see happiness in others, and instead of sharing the happiness, they try to bring them down. I said recently, that I was on top of the world after the game. The first response I got was, "what are you going to do when they take the national championship away?" What is going on a person's life where they have to be the one to rain on a parade.

Hey look there is a happy person, let's go punch him in the gut and bring him down to our miserable level. Let's go to the women's hospital and talk to the women that just gave birth and tell them how many kids die young! There is no way we can let others enjoy life. Go sit outside a wedding chapel and talk about how many marriages end in divorce, OR you can just be happy.

So once again, forget you, my team one and you can't take that away from me!

Been Too Long

Well, sounds weird, but I've deliberately avoiding the blog. In some small way, I feel like I am narrating my life, while keeping everyone up to date. Not that people care, but I also like to look back in time to see what my thought were as things happened.

I've been avoiding this, because I had to reveal that I lost my job recently. I really didn't tell anyone because I hate the look people give you, and I hate that every conversation thereafter begins with, "so how's the job search?" I know people are asking because they are concerned, but when it is going bad, you get taken down a notch every time they ask. If you get asked multiple times, that's multiple notches, and I like the notch I'm on now and would prefer to get to a previous notch up not the other way.

Before you clowns all call and ask, I am working now and have been for a couple weeks. I took a contract job. It pays OK, but there may or may not be long term opportunity. I'm working on a big project (several hundred million $$$$$). If it goes well, there will most likely be opportunity, especially to those that contributed. If not, then I will probably be let got.

Other Stuff:

Emily had her first ER visit this weekend. That is a horrible experience. Carrie and I talked and strangely, the 7 hour visit didn't seem that long. Clearly the hard part is watching your baby hurt. Turns out that she had a Urinary Tract Infection (UTI). I'm told that this is not uncommon amongst girls. I've never had one, so I don't have any perspective on the discomfort, but I can't imagine that it isn't fun.

I'll post about the whole ordeal once it is over. Today, she is still upset and doesn't stray too far from mom.

Helmets Continued

Shortly after my fall, I took about two minutes to figure out where I was. I don't think that I was fully concussed, but my bell was definitely rung. Then, I jumped back on the bike and continued. Every few minutes, the whole crew would stop and make sure that everyone was still on track. When they saw me, they had quite a laugh.

In all, the trail is about 10 miles. I made it five miles in and our group of seven turned into a group of four. Three others turned around early. About half way back to the start, I look down to see that my front tire was flat, and it was starting to get dark. Great!

I walked it in and took some more clever insults from my buddies. All this said, I think I am going back in two weeks. With a helmet.

Once I got home, my ear was in need of cleaning. I jumped into the shower and rinsed off as much as I could. Then I asked Carrie to clean my ear with peroxide. She did a great job, but there was one area she didn't clean. A small chunk of my ear had dirt underneath it. She just couldn't do it. By the way, I hope you don't have to feel the pain of someone rubbing a Q-Tip on a messed up ear...it hurts.

Then, I had to call my mom. Mom can do anything. She came over with a whole kit of first aid supplies. She laid me down on the couch and went to work. She pulled back the chunk of my ear and cleaned inside. By the way, that hurts. All this said, I am very thankful to have friends that think enough of me to invite me mountain biking. I am thankful for a wife that watched my baby and let me go, and did as much first aid as she could handle. Finally, I am thankful that my mom drops everything to come over at 9:00 at night to fix me up.

Helmets Are For Wimps

Tonight some friends from work invited me out to go mountain biking. I've never been mountain biking, but it sounded fun. By the way, I haven't been on my bicycle in around 10 years. Again, sounds like fun. Riding a bike is like, well, riding a bike.

As we all meet up at the trails, I notice that everyone has two things that I don't. Helmets and water. I understand the water, and I just forgot. Next time I will surely bring a water bottle. I grew up riding bikes. My brother and I probably logged 1000 miles on our bikes as children. Mom and dad would give us a ride to some places but the majority of our travel to school, the pool, the park, or to friends houses was on our bikes. All of this riding, and I never wore a helmet. Helmets are for wimps. Also, I consider myself a bicycle expert - mostly based on my experience as a child.

The trail started kinda rough. It took me a while to get used to the gears and the braking, but I quickly got into form. There are a couple of accomplished riders and they take off and get way ahead of us. I settled into the middle of the pack. I wasn't the slowest nor the fastest. About 10 minutes into the ride, DK, the guy that organized this ride, wiped out right in front of me. I made sure he was OK, then I pointed and laughed. Apparently, when mountain biking, wipeouts are very common. We stopped and (they) got some water. We chatted and laughed at DK for a moment, then took off again.

Right when we took off, there was a giant downhill slope that was all gravel. The slope was so steep that I had to lean back in my seat and ride low to avoid flipping over the handle bars and I zoomed up the other side. All of the fast riders were on top of the hill to see who had the guts to attempt to ride down this hill. This guy did!

A couple minutes later, there was another steep hill and I again zoomed down it...no problem. Then with all of my accumulated speed, I climbed up the other side...problem. Right at the top of the incline, there was a large tree root, so I was just going to jump it! Well, that didn't happen. My front tire hit the root and stopped. Problem is, I was still moving. I flipped over my handle bars. When you ride, most of your upper body weight is on your hands, so when you flip over, your hands are under you and there is nothing to break the fall. Well, nothing except the top your head. The first part of my body to hit the ground was my head, just over my right eyebrow. Then my right knee, right shoulder and finally right ear. That's right, my right ear:




Be sure to check out the ol' blog tomorrow to read the rest.

Father's Day

As Father's Day approaches, I took a second to reflect on being a dad.

I know it is impossible to believe, but there was a time in my life when I wasn't the best athlete around. My freshman year of high school, I went out for the freshman basketball team at Southwest High School. I made the B team. The B team is for the the 13th-24th best players. Unfortunately, the B team only plays a few games each season. After our B season, ended, I was good enough to be called up the to show! I was put on the A team. (not he cool one with the van). My dad went to every game. (back info, my Dad hates basketball). While on the A team, I never got to play. Literally, there was a stretch of several games that I never played a minute but my dad was always in the stands.

One time I told my dad not to come to the game that night. The game was an hour away and I hadn't been playing. I remember it like it was yesterday, he told me that he was going to be at every game because he wouldn't miss me getting on the floor. Well, that night, I didn't get a chance to play and my dad was up in the stands. He paid the two bucks to enter the gym, drove an hour away and watched me sit on the bench hoping to play, but he was there. By the end of my freshman year, I played a few games and became a capable backup post player, and he was there.

Just to feed my ego, I want to tell you that I worked my way to a starter by the end of my sophmore year on the JV team at Southwest then ultimately made the all district team at Crowley High.

Whenever I think back at all the thousands of things my dad did for me, the top of the list is always his attendance to a sport that he doesn't like, to watch me sit on the bench just in case I got a chance to play. I know that no matter what Emily does for fun, I won't miss a game, match or meet. Let's just hope she plays a sport that I understand. Swimming, Volleyball, or Basketball.

Thanks Dad,

BW