I am really sad to see the bombing of the Boston marathon today. I pray for those who were hurt and killed and I mourn for what will inevitably come from it. Politicians will run around making wild suggestions and put forth bills that will do nothing to keep us safe and will probably make matters worse. College professors will say it is our fault and the news will run stories of how it was a conspiracy. Instead of a calm well thought out response we will end up with knee jerk reactions and little to fix the problem. The dead will be used for ratings and agenda pushing instead of mourned for the senseless and tragic loss. I pray I am wrong, but the odds are not good! God help us!

How is it I can tear apart a computer fix it and put it back together with only an extra screw or two left over but I can’t figure out a Rubik’s Cube? I am smart, well at least I think I am! Those darn things just kill me! I fixed the brakes on my car and did a complete tune up on it as well, so why does a 1000 piece puzzle make me cringe? I don’t know why but things I think I should be able to master are sometimes more than I can grasp. Is it a left brain right brain kind of thing? I don’t know, but sitting in Starbucks watching the coffee snob, or barista as they are known making some fooiechino I can’t even pronounce looks like rocket science. How can this possible college student, possible low life goal person make a coffee drink which the Mercedes driving, middle-aged woman just ordered so quickly and not get it wrong. If I made it, it would probably be returned with that look I get when I burn the hamburgers on the barbecue. Then again, I can cook a mean frozen patty on my Walmart grill. Take that, soul patch barista kid!

My oldest who is off in college was having problems with his computer. So I told him to mail it to me and I would fix it. I told him to make sure he insured it so if it was lost we could get it replaced. It arrived and I went through it cleaned it all up and put it back in the box and mailed it to him. I also insured the computer. Well it made it to Aurora, Colorado according to the tracking but no further. So I call the post office number, which then send me to another number. I call that number which rings at least twenty times before I hang up. I look up the local post office number, call that number which rings twenty to thirty times before I hang up. My wife goes to the post office who then give her another number which finally picks up and sends an email to the destination post office for inquiry into the computers whereabouts which is never answered. In the mean time I have to wait twenty-one days before I can make a claim of loss. After the twenty-one days I have to register for the USPS website and fill out the form. The form says I must proved proof of the items worth to them for a claim to be made? Really? I don’t care if I put a dog dropping in the box! If I insured the item and they lost it, why do I have to prove anything? You lost it! I paid to insure it! If you can’t tell me it even reached the post office in Virginia and your people won’t respond, it is ether time to fire your post master in Colorado and Virginia or find someone who will! No wonder the post office is in the shape it is in. I have more hope in a carrier pigeon than I can in our semi-government USPS. Too bad the computer was too heavy for air pigeon delivery!

Ok, I know I shouldn’t laugh, but this was just too funny! Apparently a gentleman was given $8000 from Disney after he was stuck on the “It’s a small world” ride for over a half an hour. The ride broke down and he had to listen to the that obnoxious song over and over until they got him out. I can think of no worse torture than to have to listen to that song. If they are not using it at Guantanamo Bay on detainees they should be! We would have gotten all the info we needed out of those guys just by playing it over and over till they give in. Even worse would be being stuck on one of those boats in an endless loop around the miniature culturally correct world of puppets! It is so obnoxiously sweet that diabetics are cautioned to not ride directly after lunch! Any ride on that should come with a cup of coffee or a mp3 player loaded with Ozzy Osbourne or Stevie Ray Vaughan to counter act the effects. Thank goodness my children are now older where I don’t have to be subject to it anymore. In my mind Disney got off cheap!

My cousin and I were conversing about what is all messed up about our bodies when he said something that really made me smile. He said “stupid meat suit!” That makes me smile for several reasons. One, it really is just a meat suit. it isn’t who we are! I work with kids at church who are stuck in uncooperative bodies. It isn’t who they are, some I have known since they were little and are now adults and I have seen them become who God wants them to be and it isn’t the body that makes them shine. Too bad many of us see ourselves that way. Just we see in the mirror, after high school I spent a few years heading in the wrong direction and I didn’t like what I saw in the mirror and it had nothing to do with my looks. Ok maybe a little. Second, what hurts today will probably fall off tomorrow! I’m glad that when I am finished with this earth, I will get to leave it behind. None of this will matter anymore, the only things that will remain will be the promises we have been given in Gods word. See Revelations 21! That is why it makes me smile!

I just got back from an event where all the graduating high school seniors had a capping event! Each one got to have someone put a cap on them as someone read out loud why that person was who they chose to cap them. There were the odd choices of a teacher or brother or sister and even a few friends and grandparents but overwhelmingly the choice was Mom. I know, mom gets the credit. Rightfully so! Mom, is the soft one. mom is the one who kisses your knee when you skin it or tells you it’s going to be ok. But as a Dad I would like to say a word on our behalf. We are the ones who tell you to dust it off and get up when your knee isn’t really that bad. We are the ones who yell the loudest when you screw up because we know you can do it better. We have to tell you to suck it up because once you are out in the world on your own no one else is gonna kiss it and make it better. While we don’t squeeze ya or tell you its OK, we think we are prepare you for the world you will soon be entering. My greatest reward will be seeing my children succeed when every thing is against them. When they get knocked down and they get back up over and over, I am going to smile and know I did my job! That will be my reward, and I will be happy to see it. Even if it doesn’t get me a hug!

I’m no fan of being told what I can and can’t do! The nanny state of New York for example,  telling people they can’t drink giant sodas comes to mind. If I am stupid enough to drink a 58oz soda, it is my problem not the governments. Of course the other side of this is they have not allowed health insurance companies to charge by the pound! They say it is discriminatory to charge us, over weight people more. I’m not saying it should be a wild west kind of thing, and as a parent of a kid with cerebral palsy, every time we have tried to get our own insurance we are turned down without even a blink of an eye. But should it be mandatory for the companies to give me insurance? Every time the government try to make things better, they seem to do the opposite. More regulations have rarely made a difference for the better. I think the government can encourage good behavior much like the new McDonald’s menu. Have you seen the menu? It has all the calorie numbers right next to the item, so when I am ordering I know what I am doing and I m not fooled that the double quarter pounder meal is going to lead to “big butt” syndrome! All of the health care options should have a cost next to them. If I want to be 100lbs over weight this is what it will cost me! If I want to ride a motorcycle here is the cost. I know not everything could be monitored and people would lie and then go do it anyway, but looking at the driving record or requiring a yearly physical would be less invasive than what we have now. Maybe if we hired McDonald’s to run our national health care, we could get it with more choices, it would certainly be faster, and it might come with a prize!

North Korea, a country we could wipe off the map over a weekend, has decided it is time to play chicken with us. Either the new Kim-gone-wrong has more than a screw loose or he knows if he doesn’t do something he will be found floating out at sea. This guy is the supreme leader of a group so repressed they are digging their way out with spoons! His Dad was a loon but he knew to push a little then back off, this kid doesn’t have the brains to see his little dance is gonna get someone in trouble. And for what? So he can remain in power? The problem here is that eventually they all lose power. They fight, they scratch and claw but even the great beasts of our time eventually end up in front of their maker coming up with reasons why they treated people the way they did. Can you imagine Hugo Chavez trying to explain how he lined his pockets with billions of dollars while his country and people starved? The saddest part is the people left trying to immortalize these people, putting Chaves in a glass box for all times, is as equally creepy as his presidency. All show, no go!

There are certain situations that I never know what to say. Some are more serious like the death of a loved one, others are not as serious but just awkward.

1. People moving on to another job. Good luck to you! That sounds so goofy. What do you say, that we wish we could go with them or that we wish they would stay? That one always seems to be awkward.

2. Living together breakup. This one is just terrible, will they get back together? Who knows. If they do and you said something mean, you are on the no longer friend list. If they don’t and your friend keeps whining about it, you have to listen to it. What if you like them both as friends? Then you have to pick one. And who gets the pets.

3. Children Graduation. All they really want is money. They don’t want to hear the story of your graduation or what you did after graduation. They don’t want to tell the story of where they are going next, every time someone comes in. Their parents are making them have the party, just like I am doing to my kids. I don’t care if it is wanted or not I am just glad they made it!

My Tuesday has been a lot like a Monday. I hate days when one day acts like it is another. sometimes a Thursday will fool me into thinking it is a Friday. I hate that because when you realize that it isn’t you have a whole other day you have to get through to get to the day you thought it was! Or on a Sunday when you think it is Saturday and then you forget to go to church then you realize it was the wrong day and you have to go to work tomorrow! Man, I hate that! Or when Wednesday is over and you realize that you still have two more days until the weekend. I think I need an app to keep my days straight so I don’t keep having these issues. The problem is my phone seems to have the same problem I do, it can’t remember my wireless network let alone what day it is. I hate that!