Hanging on to the bumper

Just heard an interesting relationship metaphor. Lorelai Gilmore says that Luke Danes is the driver of the car and she just wants to come along for the ride, but he won't let her in the car so instead of riding in the car, she is hanging on to the bumper. She says that she doesn't even want him to open the door for her, she would just like him to leave the passenger door unlocked. My wife and I have been watching the Gilmore Girls since the beginning and I'm thoroughly entertained by the lightning quick wit, and thoroughly convinced that noone thinks that fast.

Trusting those who've gone before us

Emily is spending time with her two college roomates today. One of them is pregnant and the other is getting married in November, so with all the life changes coming, they are trying to catch up a little. Not really like a last hurrah or anything, but perhaps more of a time to remember before both of them move on to these significant next stages...but that is not what I'm really thinking about.
I've been reading Don Miller's newest book To Own a Dragon, Reflections on Growing Up Without a Father over the last few days. He has a chapter in this book called The thing about choppy air which has just put me in a different place. The chapter is basically about how pilots flying routes across the US will check in with pilots ahead of them on the same flight path to see how the weather is and then they will pass on information about what sort of turbulence and stuff they are currently flying thru. I've never really considered things this way, but it really hits home with me. When i think of the men that I know, I'm really forced into the reality that most of us are out of touch with the generations of men before and after us. Don talks about it being an issue with authority and I agree as I see very clearly in myself the same stuff and I grew up with a dad. I think it is an indicator that this has become a part of our culture and I find it both confortably part of my identity and heartbreaking at the same time. Confortable when it is me and heartbreaking when it is some other guy I've come into contact with.
Maybe what seems important for me in this is the realization that I don't want to be the sort of guy that is out of touch with the rest of the world. I would like to avoid being a 40 year old teenager sitting in a coffeeshop with his giant techno phone, Five hundred dollar Italian shoes and "product" induced Fauxhawk scoffing at my parent's generation's mistakes.
I also don't want to get cynical towards the youger guys out there that seem so lacking in responsibility and drive. Don's book is a good shot of humility for me and is forcing me to be less judgemental, but it goes deeper than that. It is not enough to just tolerate. I also need to reach out in a non-condescending way to younger guys that are trying to figure things out and in the next few years try my hardest to stay in touch with what my boys are experiencing.
If you are reading this and thinking that my words aren't very profound, that is A-OK. You'd be better off reading Don's book anyway. I'll be doing just that and will fill in more as I figure it out.

dumb thirsty cat

Let me tell a brief story about a change in my cat. His name is Heathcliff and we did not choose to call him that. We adopted him when he was already 5 years old. He is very large and orange. He weighs around 18 pounds. When Emily picked him out, the decision was made because he was a big sleeping ball of hair and she thought that perhaps this was a good indicator of what type of behavior we could expect from him going forward. This assumption was correct.

We've now moved twice since rescuing him from the shelter and he's done quite well both times. Consistent is the best way to describe his whole vibe until recently. When we moved into our house 18ish months ago, Emily said, "Lets put in a cat door to the garage" to which I said, "Sure". Well, we bought the little plastic door contraption that day and I just put it in about a month ago with a sawzall that we rented from Home Depot.

This door has revealed that my cat is indeed stupid. I'd always sort of thought that he might be, but I didn't have conclusive evidence until now.

When we put the door in, that meant that the cat box and his food and water moved into the garage. Of course he is able to find those things, but he has a heck of a time remembering in the middle of the night that his water is no longer in the house. He will hover in the bathroom, waiting for someone to use the toilet and accidentally leave the lid up so he can be disgusting and quench his thirst in the most unappetizing place in the house.

The reason that i'm recording this little recurring incident is that I'm tired of getting up in the night to carry Heathcliff to the garage after yanking him off the toilet where he is defiling himself. He hangs on for dear life and shakes his tail at me before sauntering off into the far reaches of the garage. This is the same shaking-of-the-tail that happens if he walks into the bathroom and sees someone actually using the toilet for it's intended purpose.

The other thing is that all this hording of water is causing Heathcliff to piss nonstop. I'm cleaning out the catbox twoce as much lately.

So, my cat is dumb and my wife is tired of hearing me complain about it and that is why I'm posting it for you.

chuck norris

A friend recently showed me a great site that kept me laughing for hours. I've placed it into the links area so you can go back again and again.
www.Chucknorrisfacts.com

The boys

Here is a picture of me and my boys at the beach in July. I like these boys a lot!