I read a quote yesterday, “Stop analyzing life and start living it.” That spoke to me. I just wish I knew how to do both the former and the latter. Perhaps if I can master one I will master the other.
I saw an orthopedic yesterday about an ongoing knee problem. I’ll be fine. The exam room I waited in had two televisions, both showing medical ads. That felt weird. But, upon further inspection, one of the screens was interactive and allowed me to look up diagrams of the knee and different conditions and remedies. It was actually kinda cool. When the doctor came in, he used the larger screen to display my x-rays, which was also cool.
Matthew 6:6 has always meant a lot to me. It says, per the NIV, “But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” It’s one reason I’m uncomfortable with that coach who prayed on the field and recently had a Supreme Court go in his favor. To sound like an old man, when I played football in junior high and high school, we always prayed in the locker room, in private, and didn’t make a spectacle about it. If praying on the field is the best way for you to evangelize, then you have bigger issues.
I was reading about Robert Wadlow, the tallest person in recorded history for whom there is irrefutable evidence. Wadlow’s height was 8 ft 11 in while his weight reached 439 lb at his death at age 22. I was curious what he sounded like and was lucky to find this recorded voice interview. In it, he talks about playing basketball. While he wasn’t a good at shooting the ball, he said he was good at getting close to the basket and literally dropping it in.
My older brother of seven years was a great high school football running back. I attended all his games. Before every Friday night home game, a local pastor would say a prayer either before or after the national anthem was played. I remember asking Dad how to pray when I hear someone lead us in prayer, should I repeat all the words in my head and also make it an additional prayer, or should I just listen and let his one prayer represent all of us?
Just writing about that brings back lots of memories, and right now I can remember the special aroma of a Friday night in Miller Stadium.
I haven’t spoken or heard from my brother since our mother’s death back in 2006. The last thing he ever communicated to me was a comment on this blog which ended with, “You’re dead to me.” As far as I know, he and my adopted sister still haven’t spoken to each other either. I think Dad wouldn’t be surprised at this, but I think my mother would weep, though she saw it all coming.
Uncle Buck was on television on Saturday night. I noticed the mother and daughter from Field of Dreams were both in the film, though, not as mother and daughter. Interestingly enough, both films were released in 1989. Field of Dreams was released May 5, 1989 (filming began on May 25, 1988) and Uncle Buck on August 16, 1989 (filming began on January 4, 1989). The child actress can now be seen on HBO’s Winning Time and the older actress has been married to the great Ed Harris since 1983. For the heck of it, I entertained the thought of Kevin Costner and John Candy switching roles for both films.
I finally pulled the band-aid off and looked at my 401k since half of it went to my ex. I was anticipating it shocking me, but not so much because of the money she got, but its rate of return for the year is down 27.82%.
Someone after church asked me why I don’t allow my kids to sit with their mother during church. I had to explain it’s not like that. When we first separated, we all sat together on the same row, but the kids sat between us. Later, she asked I no longer sit with them and stated the children will choose who they want to sit by. After a while, she said if they were with her during her possession schedule, they must sit with her. I tell the kids I’ll never keep them from sitting with their mother, and they always have a choice when they are in my possession.
When I was married, I felt I was more concerned about saving for retirement than my wife. When she was ready to go back to work after helping to raise our children, she wanted to work either part time and/or for institutions that wouldn’t benefit her Texas teacher retirement plan. I encouraged her to go back to public school to teach so we could better prepare for retirement. Little did I know she had this plan just to take half of mine and get a head start. She was more financially minded than what I took her for.
I’ve mentioned how I often think of myself as Luke and my ex as Darth Vader, minus the father/son relationship. Luke believed Anakin was still alive and good was in Vader, and I have similar feelings towards my ex. I’m not seeking reconciliation, but I hope there’s enough good we can at least have a cordial parenting relationship. I thought of that recently as I watched the final episode of the Obi-Wan Kenobi series, especially the last sentences Vader and Kenobi said to each other. Vader told Kenobi that it wasn’t Kenobi who killed Vader, it was Anakin. Likewise, I didn’t change my ex’s way of thinking, she chose to change it herself. And like Kenobi, I have to accept the change, move on, and focus on myself. There’s nothing like Star Wars to teach a life lesson.
Sometimes I tell BoyGeeding and DaughterGeeding things I wish my parents told me, or things I wish I could remember they told me. Recently, I told them that no matter what they do in life, I will never be disappointed in them. I may become disappointed in some actions they chose, but I will always be proud of them.
In case you ever what CAPTCHA stood for, it’s “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart”.
I bet there was a buzz in Evangelical churches yesterday with the Supreme Court’s decision to reverse Roe vs. Wade. I bet many want to take this momentum and overturn gay marriage and who knows what else..
Of course, I’m disappointed in the Supreme Court’s decision on overturning Roe vs. Wade. But, I could see it coming when Mitch O’Connell refused to hear Obama’s nomination after Scalia’s death. I had a feeling that move encouraged conservative voters to show up and cast their ballot because they have fought hard over this one particular issue, even if that choice was Donald Trump. O’Connell is a shrewd and ruthless politician who gets results, no matter the consequence.
I always felt abortion was a symptom of a larger problem. The actual issue is dealing with unwanted pregnancies. And that’s part of even a larger issue, access to proper education. We can only solve the issue with proper sex education. But that won’t happen because conservatives are scared of how it’s taught and unwilling to compromise on making contraception accessible. When you curtail unwanted pregnacies, you curtial the number of abortions. But that’s all mute now.
I bet this will be the future of sports when their home team is playing in another venue, except you’ll see Star Wars like holograms.
The Lightning used tracking technology to simulate the #StanleyCup Final for their fans at their home arena 👀
I forgot to publish my blog entry I wrote for yesterday, sorry about that.
Just when I think things can’t get worst regarding Jan 6 or Uvalde, something else emerges.
I enjoyed the Obi Wan Kenobi series Disney+. As long as I get more Star Wars with characters George Lucas created, I’m happy. I tend to think about the three movies Disney created just like I do Rocky V, they never happened. One critique, I don’t like that they borrowed heavily from the Star Wars Rebels cartoon in regards to Vadar.
I met a Mormon earlier this week. He told me it was prophesied that one day only Mormon women will want to have babies.
I have a friend who lives at an apartment complex in Grapevine. They accidentally had his car towed. The towing company confused his car for another. I think it stinks the towing company is totally off the hook for any responsibility. I think at a minimum, they should have to bring his car back to him. But, he had to pay for an Uber to get to the tow lot and pay to get the car out himself. I hope the apartment complex will reimburse him for all expenses. It’s hard for me to understand how the tow company is off the hook for theft.
DPS Director Steve McCraw always wears his DPS uniform in public, but oddly he was wearing a civilian suit as he testified before the Texas Senate committee on the Uvalde shooting. I wonder if there’s some rule or regulation that prevents him from doing so, or if that was a passive way to deflect responsibility.
I bought the dogs a new dog bowl, but DogGeedingII is hesitant to drink from it. It’s one of those that has an upside down jug attached to it so you don’t have to fill it up so often. He approaches it slowly, then scratches at it, and then looks at me. I’ve never seen the jug do that gurgle thing bottled water dispenser towers do, so I don’t think that’s what is spooking him.
I’ve been watching some M. Night Shyamalan movies with my kids. We started with The 6th Sense and then watched Unbreakable. While watching the latter, a lot of memories of things in my life that happened at that time started to hit me. It was a very uncertain time in my life. My dad recently died, I graduated from college, moved to the big city, didn’t get a competitive enough score on a standardized test to become an Air Force officer (my dream job) after taking it two times, a cold relationship between me and my brother started, and I failed my Series 7 examination, which would have enabled me to trade stocks. That Series 7 one really hit me hard because I majored in finance and couldn’t pass the lowest qualifying test of my profession to start my career, when my roommates who didn’t major in finance passed the test on their first try. I felt like I was in the middle of a lake without a paddle, much like I do now. Sometime after watching that movie, things started to look up. Let’s hope it happens a second time.
I’m not sure how my dogs do it, but they know when I’m about to step away from my computer before I do. I think when I lock it there’s a certain way I hit the keyboard, and they have identified that as a time I can give them attention.
My ex consistently does a lot of small stuff I think violates our divorce decree, but I feel like pointing them out to her, no matter how polite or friendly, will only make things worst, so I just let her get away with it, though I will log the event. I’m sure she does the same thing. What I’m not sure about is if she does those things willfully to annoy me, to avoid any communication or conflict, or if they are simple oversights. It’s probably a combination, but it would be interesting to know the percentages of each. Could I contact my lawyer about it? Sure, but that costs money. In our legal system, justice mostly occurs only if you have the funds to cover it.
Two Big Additions to Dallas Skyline Planned – An 80-story building on North Field Street would become the city’s tallest building, taller than the Bank of America Plaza. The other project would occupy normally vacant surface parking lots south of Dallas City Hall.
I’m not a visionary, nor do I know much about real estate, but I’m thinking it’s a bad time to build. More companies are allowing their workers to work from home and construction costs are sky high. Also, it seems companies prefer to be in the suburbs, where traffic isn’t as congested as a downtown area.
I was thinking about taking the kids to go tubing down the Frio River at Concan, but I saw on the Texas Reddit thread that 5 of their 8 wells were inoperable and they started rationing water by turning it off intermittently.
