Bad Ass Hats

One of the things I like about being a guy is hats.  More often than not, when I wake up in the morning my hair seems to have migrated to the top of my head (no, I will NOT post a pic).  Being a guy, and with my job also requiring some field work, all I need to do is throw on a hat and call it good.  No time to brush it?  Pull out a hat.

The question arises though what to do when a bit more class is required and my hair has that "just out of bed" look (get your mind out of the gutter).  That is where the "bad-ass hat" comes in (or drivers cap as most call it).  A baseball cap just doesn't cut it for a casual night out.  They need to be reserved for the ball field or yard work.  And anyone who wears one backward needs to have their head slapped around to fit it on straight.

Posted here are pics of me and my sons two kids (Bryson and Jack).  They both look just like him!  Maybe I can get my son to get rid of that old tattered ball cap and wear one.  =)  It'd be nice at a family reunion to get photo of me, my son, and all three of my g'sons in a hat like this...but we'll leave Jack out...maybe.  The last photo is my oldest daughter at about Bryson's age...in the baddest-ass hat of all.

Papa Ron and Bryson

Papa Ron and Jack

Leilani...now this is one bad-ass hat

Dad Humor

One of the best parts in the beginning of our relationship with our kids is when they cuddle up in our laps and want us to tell them a story.  For the first few years they believe that we almost walk on water.  We get the coffee mugs, t-shirts, b-day cards with glue and glitter, plaster of paris hand prints, and everything you can image that has "World's Best (or Greatest) Dad" embossed on it.  Not just as mementos, but because those mini-humans that started out as just a twinkle in our eye, actually believed it.

Then it happens...our clever and funny jokes, the ones that would get them to laugh for hour upon hour...the ones they'd ask us to tell over and over...now become spoken words where the only response is a deep groan.  Our on-stage monologue of funnies has now become "dad humor."

I think I first cataloged in my mind that I had reached the honorable level of "dad humor" one afternoon when I made a joke in a department store (a really funny joke I might add) and my daughters' first reaction was to look around to see if anyone heard me, or to her, if she needed to be embarrassed.  From then on it was a toss of the coin on whether my jokes would illicit a laugh or a groan.

How is it I can think I am soooo funny that I could financially support a small third-world country if only I took my humor on the road, yet those rug-rats turned soon to be tweeners can only roll their eyes?  And now,  with those youngin's ranging from mid-30's to 21...I thought I could over come them with my wit via Facebook.  Didn't happen.

My sweetie and I frequently view their "Walls."  We've been informed now that it is better known as "creeping" on them.  I'll view a post, a pic, a link...and without even giving myself a moment to reflect I find myself commenting with the first thing that comes into my mind (which is a scary place to begin with).  "Oh My God" I exclaim.  They are going to think I am so clever and funny!  But soon, after those comments of wit are met with "huh?", "you are so weird", "what are you talking about?", or even worse they hit the little "x" and delete it all together! I guess that third-world country will have to wait for indoor plumbing.

There will be a day when their kids, grandkids, nieces and nephews will do the same thing to them.  It is then, after my ashes have been returned to the earth, that they will finally laugh at my jokes and realize how funny I was.  But that is okay, somehow I'll know it, and it will be enough.

Don't Wait...

"One day", you said to me, "I saw the sunset forty-four times!"
And a little later you added:
"You know - one loves the sunset, when one is so sad..."

(Riverton, Utah)

Were you so sad, then?", I asked, "on the day of the forty-four sunsets?"

(Fish Lake, Utah) 

But the little prince made no reply.

(Phoenix, Arizona)

Sunsets do have a calming effect when we are sad.  I've wondered for years what made the little prince so sad that he'd sit through forty-four sunsets (albeit his planet is only the size of a house).

For me and Lizzie...we love sunsets when we are happy and in love too.  Why wait to be sad to enjoy a sunset?

Standard of Saving, Pt. 1

I am quite curious, 1) how many people know they got a 2% raise on their paycheck starting January 1, and 2) what the people that did figure it out did with the extra cash.

On January 1 all tax payers got a 2% reduction in their social security tax.  That would mean your net pay increased by about 1.5%...since Uncle Sam will tax a bit of that 2%.  I'm figuring that most people said to themselves, "Cool, more money to spend"...on stuff.  I even have one coworker that said they were not going to tell their spouse so they could have a little more "fun money."  Spending it would be fine if it was spent putting extra money on paying down the debt most people have amassed.  But most little birds I've exchanged songs with lately tell me differently.  They've gone and raised their standard of living, albeit for one year, just a little bit more.  Then when 2012 arrives and the extra "fun money" is gone, it will be difficult to reduce that increased standard of living and then they go deeper in debt.  Why not raise your Standard of Saving instead!!!

Lizzie and I are on a quest to pay our house off in 26 more months...quite aggressive, but we have a plan.  Part of that plan is putting 15% into our individual 401k's first, with the remainder going toward our mortgage.  So when this "raise" came about, rather than spend it we decided to put it into our "plan."  At 15% my 401k is not max'ed out, especially since being over 50 I can also contribute an additional Catch-Up amount.  So I decided to simply raise my 401k by 2% for this year...a total of 17%!  No big deal?  Let's do some math...

Let's say you make $75,000 a year.  That 2% would be an additional $58 (pre-tax), or about $43 more on your check if you are paid every two weeks...$1125 for the year (while giving the government $375 of it).  Now, if you took that 2% and put that into your 401k, now it is pre-tax money.  To mantain the same net bring home, the same standard of living, you could actually contribute almost $75, because it is pre-tax.  You would have increased your 401k by about $1950 for the year.  If it was added to your mutual funds at an 8% annual return it would total about $2027 for the year.  So, instead of blowing $1125, you've just made $2027!!!  If you are not currently contributing to your 401k and your company has a match, you could actually make over $4000 for the year in your retirement account...all while maintaining the same standard of living (SOL), because you applied your new Standard of Saving!!!

Let me encourage all of you to find peace in your current SOL (funny how it is the same acronym as Shit Outta Luck), or reduce it, and increase your Standard of Saving!!!

Purging the Well

I love it when parts of my job/profession translate into real situations.  Even more so, when it is something that I can carry with me and utilize my entire life.  Part of my job has been to characterize the potential for groundwater contamination.  Initially that would require the installation of a well to monitor the quality and depth to groundwater.  A well has a section of pipe that is slotted so that water can enter the well to be withdrawn.  When water is not being pulled out you can see from the illustration below that the water above the screen and inside the well will eventually stagnate.

I learned how to apply this to my life with the "help" of one of my daughters.  We've always gotten along very well, but she has, on occasion, had this thread where she felt she needed to...shall we say...express herself.  By the time my mind finally registered what she was "expressing" she was well underway, and I just be on the verge of getting upset myself.  It would have been very easy to pinch off what she was saying, turn the table around, get defensive, or over power the conversation...but truth be known, I actually found it easier to just be quiet.  This was the stagnant water being purged from her well.  Not to say that there wasn't a knot or two in my stomach the first time or two, but it took so much less energy to just listen.

The purging always took less than a couple of minutes; had I let my feelings get in the way the purging would have never been completed, the well would have remained stagnant, and both of us would have a thread of bitterness in us.  As with the well example, as the stagnant, smelly water is pulled out of the well, it is replaced by cool, fresh water entering the well from the formation.  Eventually it is that pure water that begins to leave the well.  That is exactly what would happen with my daughter.  After a minute or two, as she purged and was actually able to hear the words of her heart belching out of her mouth, she would suddenly stop.  Every time, and I mean every time, she would lock eyes with me, shake her head and tell me "Dad, I don't really believe what I just said."  She needed to hear the stagnant water that had developed within her.  As soon as the fresh water reached the surface she was able to taste the difference.  That fresh water was my little girl.  Allowing her to purge that water is what made it possible to come to resolution on whatever the issue might have been.

The question each of us have to ask ourselves is what happened to allow that water to become stagnant.  What could we have done to keep the well purged, the water fresh, the taste sweet.  Purging is not carte blanche for the "well" to say whatever it wants.  But can be an occasional necessity when the well sits unused for too long.  The groundwater well is an example of giving grace and understanding when a well needs to purge.  As a dad, I learned that I could mitigate these situation by being more aware of simple "well maintenance" and purging the well more often under lighter condition to keep the water from becoming stagnant in the first place.  I learned that this was an issue of how we communicated in those between times.  When a well needed purging, in either direction, it was usually because we ignored something in the interim.

Here is to all of us that enjoy the taste of fresh, sweet water.