Strength...

We were watching Dog The Bounty Hunter last night (yes we watch it as a family, the boy loves it!) and saw an incredible show of strength and love that I thought was gone from this world. In a nut shell a woman (addicted to drugs) had her bond revoked by her boyfriend. That means he signed as the responsible party for here bail/bond and now wanted her back in jail. That means Dog and his crew had to bring her in and put her back in jail. When they called the woman they found that her boyfriend had hung himself. He had tried to change her and help her and could not, so he did the only thing he thought he could, send her back to jail to get clean, and then he killed himself. The woman came in and surrendered.
While she is in the office awaiting the ride to jail, the mother and brother of the boyfriend show up and want to see the woman. This old lady then gets on her knees weeping with the woman and tells her she forgives her and that she needs to get clean, get better and live a good life and that when she gets out of jail she would be there waiting for her and welcome her and love her like a daughter-in-law. She says, As I loved him, I will love you. It turns out that day was also his birthday.

Absolutely incredible, the strength of heart and faith that this mother had to embrace this woman for whom her son killed himself. We were all moved to tears. If only there were more of this mother, the world would be a better place.

Simple Times...

Last night we (the boy and I) stayed up all night working security at a local festival with the Boy Scouts. It is an annual event and the Scouts enjoy an UP ALL NIGHT project where they walk the perimeter with a police officer to "protect" the food booths. As with all Scout activities there were at least 2 adults there. One happened to be me and the other our Scoutmaster.

Well we talked and hung with the boys well into the early morning. When they went out on patrol we just sat and talked about life and growing up and baseball. See the Scoutmaster loves baseball and grew up in Minnesota during the 50's and 60's. He worked at the stadium there as a kid selling pennants and got to see his heroes up close. He told a story of a double header with the Yankees. In between games the staff and team would run across the street to this hotel to have lunch (stadium food not so good). So he was sitting at the counter eating a burger and fries when in walks Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris and some other Yankees. The place was pretty full so the M&M boys sit on either side of the 14 year old kid (our Scoutmaster) and proceed to eat lunch and talk to him about life, the universe and baseball. He got up to leave and there was Yogi Berra, and he loved Yogi and asked for an autograph. When Yogi asked for a pen and some paper he told him he didn't have any, so Yogi pulled out a dollar bill and signed it for him. He has since spent that dollar and is kicking himself. The best thing he said was that Maris and Mantle were just regular nice guys, oh and the year was 1961. Roger would go on to beat Babe Ruth's Home Run record that year.

Think you would run into Barry Bonds at a local burger joint...

YES!!!

Quotables

Welcome to a new section in this blog. I have, over the years, heard, used, made up many "quotables". That is to say life lessons, or words to live by. From time to time I will post some here, run them up the flag as they say, and see how they work...enjoy.

"Life is a shit sandwich and every day you take a bigger bite."

Heard that one yesterday from a co-worker who's late father used it all the time. Life is NOT easy, it is hard to get what you want and keep it. That is NOT a bad thing. That is a good thing. You must work hard and EARN your keep. Yes sometimes things are handed to people but most of the time it is a struggle and I think that makes one appreciate it even more. But once you get there to the place you want to be you have to hold on with both hands to keep it. Life is tough but worth living. The rewards of a good life are huge. I am not talking riches and material goods. I am talking love and family and friendship and respect. With those things comes the riches, comes the Ipods and cars. You can tell those who have never tasted the "shit sandwich", they are the ones with 15 cars, a mansion and still gets busted for a bag of weed; the ones who marry one but have children with 5 other women; the ones who think life is nothing but endless parties and binges and then end up in jail for violation of probation for 45 days and thinks it is cruel and unusual.

Pass the sandwich, I am hungry.

Open Letters of Frustration...

Dear Hollywood,
Come up with an original idea please. STOP REMAKING MOVIES. I can understand a new vision on a theme but for the love of God people some of these remakes were in the theater when I SAW THEM. For example, The Hitcher, was only 15 something years ago. IF you have nothing new to make, do not make anything...

Dear Network TV,
Leave the program on the air. Yes I am asking you to take a shot and leave a new show on the air for more than 2 episodes. The show was made so why not just air them. You will garner a lot of favor by doing this. You must realize that even a low, "terrible' rating is still MILLIONS of people. What are you going to put in there anyway, another stupid reality show or another rip off of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? While we are at it, NO MORE Law & Order or CSI shows OR rip offs, period. Enough is enough. A well written, well acted show like Scrubs cannot find a regular home but someone says CSI: Nebraska and you sign a 3 year contract, shame on you...

Dear Stereotype,
Yes I am talking to you Asian woman driver, black gansta rapper/athlete, lazy fat guy. Stop perpetrating the stereotype!!! Ms. Asian Woman Driver that I see everyday...learn the rules of the road!!!! There is a maximum AND a minimum speed limit. If you are more comfortable driving at or below the speed limit, fine BUT GET OUT OF THE LEFT HAND LANE, and the Center lane. Go to the right and stay there!!!! The reason you are white knuckled and wide eyed is because you are in the left hand lane of a 3 lane highway doing 45mph and everyone is passing you doing 65 (posted speed limit) and beyond. I would laugh if I saw you once but we take the same route EVERYDAY!!!! Mr. Black Gangsta Rapper/Athlete, you do realize you are in the spotlight. You do realize that right or wrong what you do reflects on the people around you and your color. It is sadly a fact of life. Mr. Akon, Mr. Vick, Mr. Stephen Jackson get a clue and step up. Nothing says I am a good person like tossing a fan off stage, running a dog fighting place on your property or getting into a guy fight outside a strip club at 3am. And do not get me started on Pac Man Jones. Man up one and all, do the right thing. You are obviously intelligent enough to be proficient in your job to make MILLIONS at it. Put some of those smarts into your daily life and stop acting like asses. Mr. Lazy Fat Guy, get up and get off your ass, period. DO NOT SEND A TAPE INTO JERRY SPRINGER, try not to wear a stained T-shirt to church and for the love of God stop ordering an 8pc Bucket for yourself and then order the "diet coke". MOVE!!! One and all stop perpetuating the myth, break the cycle, STOP THE INSANITY!!!

Tuesday's With Bryan

Me so tired. Got home at Midnight last night and then asleep at 1am. Now I am getting ready for work at 10am. All in a weeks work I guess...

Nothing new or exciting this week so far. No rants or raves, just living life. And sometimes that is all one needs. Once in a while I enjoy the simplicity of waking up, working out, going to work, driving home, watching TV and going to sleep. Yes one hates to be stuck in a rut but then again, the comfort of repetition is just that, comforting.

Late Night...

Suffered from Heat exhaustion this weekend. We were out and about in the hot sun all day Saturday and come Saturday night we all had wicked headaches and no appetite! Needless to say a lot of TV and AC was in store for Sunday.

Father's Day was spent sleeping in and then an awesome meal at the local Irish Pub with the whole family. We spent the afternoon there and then back home to NOTHING! I sat and watched some TV, spent some time with the family, wrote some letters to ballplayers with the boy and sent them cards to autograph for us. It was a nice relaxing Father's Day!!

Today is one of my late days. I have to work nights this week (sucks) for a vacationing Director. I do not complain much at work about it as I have a nice schedule normally so this shift a few times a year (the boss also uses me on the AM shift as well) is fine. The less waves you try to make the better it is when you really need something. For example, I asked for a few days off in July, someone had already picked them (and she has seniority) but the boss felt bad she could not give them to me. She told me to a) pick some other days and b) she was changing the schedule to have me work that weekend but now will call in someone else to do it so I can have some time off that week that I wanted. It works out for me as it was not an important event I was taking off for and I did want that weekend for travel and now I have it.

So here it is almost noon and I will be taking a shower and then running some errands before I head to work. Seems nice to be able to watch a movie this morning and still have 4 hours to get stuff done...

Love Thy Neighbor...

Today I awoke to the sweet sound of silence. What makes that different from any other day you might ask. Well for the past 2 years we have lived across the street from the dog from hell. It was one of those small terrier, or poodle things. And every morning the neighbors would let the dog out and every morning it would continuously bark until let back in. The problem was they would not let it back in. It would be out there all morning and bark and bark. It would bark at the kids waiting for the bus, it would bark at the cars as they drove by, the joggers and the garbage men, it would bark at me when I left and then again when I came home. It drove us all crazy. When approached they said sorry and they would yell at the dog for awhile then back to normal. But then again the dog barking and then some guy yelling at it to shut up at 7am is still annoying.

Today I awoke to the sweet sound of silence. There was a moving van in front of the house the other day and this morning when I woke on my own I turned to the wife who was getting ready from work and said, Do you hear that? and she said Hear what? and I said Exactly!! And went back to sleep...

Summer Time Blues...

The boy is out of school and now sleeping in the next room. It will be a long summer for him so I figured he could use some rest.....

Some quick hits:

Lost our first playoff game last night. The boy caught the entire game and started us up with a 2 out 2rbi single to put us on the board. He also caught 4 stealing and tagged out 2 at home. When we got home he cried because his 2nd at bat was an out and if he got on base, he said, he could have scored on the next hit and helped start a rally. We had a good talk and he realized that he did his part and that is all one can ask...

The Sopranos made it's final case Sunday night. Good thing we watched it or else we would have been spoiled rotten as it was even on SportsCenter!!!!! I am still processing it. I was annoyed at first but have been really thinking on it. And then realized what a great show it was and that even after it is done it leaves one thinking...

Went to buy a sprinkler on Sunday and came back with a 50' Plasma TV. I do not know how it happened but there we were in the store looking at the TV's and then we were loading it into the car. WOW, now I need to contact our satellite people and get a High Def receiver in here. So far even with regular satellite AND a High Def antenna for local channels it is AWESOME!!! Can not wait for DiscoveryHD and ESPNHD and HBOHD...

Sunday Wrap Up

What a weekend so far:

The boy has finished the 8th grade and I am now the parent of a High Schooler. If that does not make you feel old I do not know what will!!!! He finished strong, aside from the Ipod incident, so we have hopes for high school. He has a very busy summer ahead of him and I am sure he will have tons of fun. I am very proud of him, we have some issues to work out but overall he is a good kid.

Hit the Sam*s Cl*b yesterday to get some stuff for a little party we are having today for the boy. Just family but we wanted to celebrate his graduating. While there we always stop at the DVD section to see what it out and cheap. To my great surprise there were the complete seasons of Babylon 5. Those not in the know will say so what, but those who know of it will say AWESOME!!!! I have been looking and looking for these for YEARS! They are available on ebay and such but at great expense, I got the first 2 seasons some time ago for 40 bucks each (a bargain down from 80) so I have been looking for the last 3 and there they were for 22 bucks each! I got them and then gave them to the wife and said, Happy Father's Day. She asked what?!?!?!? I said, get me nothing and just wrap these up next week...I am happy like a little girl!

Is It Friday Yet????

Well one more day left for school and one more day left in the work week. It has been the longest week for so many reasons.

I am getting lazy again. I have not worked out this week at all. I should be out there every morning but I cannot get up and do it. Maybe next week when the boy no longer has to get up I can just set the alarm and get out and go. Maybe I will even bring him with me. Get him ready for Philmont.

The wife was offered a new branch, which is sort of a promotion. While it is a lateral move title wise, it is a larger branch and a substantial raise. The new branch is also down the block which means a 5 minute commute and not a 25 minute commute. Less time = less gas, less gas = more money for us. So with the nice raise there is also the nice chunk of gas money gone!!! Win win in our book.

When To Let Go...

The boy is 14 and entering High School this fall. He is at the age where he is too old to coddle yet too young to be left on his own. I look at him now and look at myself at the same age. At 14 I had been drunk once, kissed a girl, took my bike out after school and did not come home until the street lights came on. We would sneak our Dad's Playboys out and once found a Hustler in the park and kept it hid for weeks always going back and checking it out. I wandered far from home on bike or foot.

I was also a good student, Boy Scout, Alter Boy and on the Baseball team, Basketball team, Swim team, and Soccer team.

How much freedom does he get? Currently he always asks to do things and yet sometimes I feel we are suffocating him as his friends seem much freer then he. The teens are not only confusing for the child just entering them, they are confusing for the first time parents......

Long Weekend...

What was supposed to be a nice relaxing weekend took a turn for the worse when I got a call on Friday afternoon from the school nurse. "You child threw up, he needs to be picked up." Gee thanks. So the boy was sick all weekend. We did some housework around his sleeping, saw my brother and his wife when they came down for a BBQ and generally stayed home and did nothing. The kicker is that once again the boy has "lost" his Ipod. We are so PISSED right now but he is really sick so it is hard to deal with this while he is in a drug stupor (Tylenol Flu) and puking and coughing all night.

He is at the docs right now, the kicker is there are 5 days left in school and he had perfect attendance until today......

Saturday Morning Bored...

The boy is sick so I have been up since the crack of dawn....a little something to bide the time between picking up puke....

The iPod Meme

(I'll call it the Mp3 shuffle)

Instructions:
1. Put your music player on shuffle.
2. Press forward for each question.
3. Use the song title as the answer to the question even if it doesn’t make sense. NO CHEATING!

How do you feel today?
Privelege - Incubus

What’s your outlook on life?
Mofo - U2

What does your family think of you?
Working In The Coal Mine - Devo

What do your friends think of you?
Long As I can See The Light - CCR

What do your exes think of you?
Marathon - Rush

How’s your love life?
In The Evening - Led Zeppelin

How will your love life be in the future?
Pulling Teeth - Green Day

Will you get married?
It's Not My Place - The Ramones

Are you good at school?
And I Love Her - The Beatles

Will you be successful?
We've Got Tonight - Bob Seger

What song should they play on your birthday?
Respect - Train

What song should they play at your graduation?
Move It On Over - George Thorogood

The Soundtrack of your life?
I Can See For Miles - The Who

You and your best friends are?
It Don't Matter To Me - Phil Collins

Happy times:
Lovin' You - Kristine W.

Sad times:
Against All Odds - Phil Collins

Every day:
Knockin' On Heaven's Door - Eric Clapton

For tomorrow:
Echoes - Pink Floyd

For you:
Bicycle Race - Queen

What does next year have in store for me?
So Like Candy - Elvis Costello

What do I say when life gets too hard?
Born In The USA - Bruce Springsteen

What song will I dance to at my wedding?
Hey Bartender - The Blues Brothers

What do you want as your career?
Pump Up The Volumes - MARRS

Your favorite saying?
Head Over Feet - Alanis Morissette

How will I die?
Buona Sera - Louis Prima

End Game

This was the longest week all year. With the 500 starting Sunday (I was at the track at 4am) and the end of ratings it has been a long haul and I cannot wait for tomorrow!!! It will be nice to put May in the rear view mirror. My work is crazy all month. Not only it is the final ratings period that matters (all the shows do their season finale's) but here in Indiana we have Race Month. Cars show up at the end of April and go all month till the race. We also broadcast the largest mini-marathon in the nation, the Indy 500 parade, the celebrity ball and then of course the morning of the race. Add into that sweep stories, breaking news and weather alerts and you have a month to tear out the hair!!!!! It is officially over and now we can go back to normal a bit.