Two birthdays in March!

My mother had 3 children born in February, that is a lot of birthdays in one month. Mine was first so I think I got all the good stuff and the other two got the short end of the stick. Adam and Troy's birthday are 6 days apart. Adam on the 20th and Troy on the 26th. Both of their births stick out to me.

Adam was born after my Dad died. I was playing on the floor with Kenneth a little while before Adam was born and I had a thought that my Dad was not going to get to know Kenneth. I then thought of Adam and how he and any children after him would have never had the chance to have met him. This was a sad moment for me and I thought about it for several days and was rather downcast about it. When Adam first popped out, and let me tell you he shot out and the Doctor had to catch him, I was excited to see him. He was a hairy little guy and had a set of lungs on him. I was standing there all excited about him and suddenly I felt bad that my dad would not be able to get to know him. At that very moment I felt my fathers presence next to me. It was so strong I turned and looked to find nobody there. It was amazing. I knew then that although he would not be there in body he would always know all of my kids and be aware of and love them. Every year on Adam's birthday I think about that.

On a lighter note, Troy's birthday though no less memorable, was quite an experience. Troy did not seem to want to come into the cold cruel world so the doctor scheduled Lisa to be induced on Monday the 27th of March 2002. Lisa wanted to have everything clean and done so her mom would not have to do anything after the baby was born. She started a load of laundry and the washing machine broke. The belt on the washer that turns the bucket had worn out and finally broken. I pulled the entire machine apart. The tub was full of clothes and out in the carport, the motor was pulled out and cleaned up, all that was left was 3 sides of the casing. It was 9:00 at night so no appliance stores were open for parts so I went to the auto part store and sized up the belt with one they had that looked to be close enough. I walked in the door and Lisa was vacuuming. The ironing was done, the dishes clean and the floor waiting to be mopped when I was done. Yes, those of you who know Lisa, that is what she does. Just as I sat down and started to put the belt on Lisa started having contractions and they were close together. I was in a panic! I needed to run her to the hospital and I had the entire washing machine in parts strewn all over the place. She insisted on a quick shower and some makeup. Again, those of you who know Lisa, that is what she does. So in 15 minutes I put that entire washing machine together. Yes folks that is a world record. It worked for several years after that and when we got a new one it was still working. Be sure to congratulate me on that some time.

We took off for the hospital and I ran a red light on the way there. It was 11:30 at night so no danger. I wish I could have got caught so that I could get a police escort but hey where are the cops when you really need them? I digress. I wanted to drop Lisa off at the doors of the emergency room as her contractions were really close. I told her that I did not want her to have the baby in the parking lot. She veminantly refused and told me to park and she would just walk over. Half way across the parking lot she had a big one hit her. I sprinted to the ER and grabbed a wheelchair amid all kinds of looks. I put lisa in the chair and when I got there they figured something like that was up so they were ready and whisked us up to labor and delivery. They put in an epidural but before it took effect out popped Troy. His ears were stuck to the side of his head. Finally after all of that the epidural kicked in. What an ordeal! Most exhausting child birth I have ever had.

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!

So we had an interesting discussion the other day in the locker room at the gym. We were talking about the news coverage on the bonuses of AIG executives. In a nut shell there were about 70 executives who got a total bonus payout of $160 million or so. That is roughly $228,000 for each one. Now, I am willing to agree that for a company going under bonuses are bad business but in the grand scheme this is not unusual and there is nothing criminal about it. Bad business yes, criminal no. Executives all over the country get paid way to much for doing way to little. So lets look at the truth, shall we?

The AIG guys have a legal right to that bonus as the company has contracts with them and they get paid. Don't get lost in the fact that it doesn't make sense to write that into the contract, it is there and that is all there is to it. Most large corporations are like that so this is nothing new. The only difference is that this tax payer money verses shareholders.

The real issue is not being addressed. All the media coverage and attention is focused on AIG so that we won't examine the bigger issue. Remember folks Congress just passed a $1 trillion bail out for companies that have been doing dumb things for years. So lets look at this in a way we can all understand. All these companies that are getting bailed out made really bad choices and did stupid things so Congress bails them out. AIG does something stupid, again, and all of a sudden there is outrage. The stupid thing was to bail them out to begin with. They were not responsible with money before the bail out what makes congress think they will be responsible with money after the bailout? The real idiots here are the ones in Washington DC and then ones who put them there.

What the media should be reporting on is that we just had a trillion dollars spent, with one of the narrowest margins possible, that will be paid off by my grand children and great grand children. Lets look at that number. When you wright it out it looks like this, $1,000,000,000,000! that is a lot of Zeros. There are 525,600 seconds in a year. If you divide one trillion by 525,600 that is 1.9 million years! A trillion seconds ago was 1.9 million years ago. Did T-REX count seconds? Now where should the outrage be $1 trillion or $160 million. Lets look at that in my world shall we. It would be like me going out and mortgaging the house to buy a $30,000 fishing boat and then scream at Lisa for giving $5.oo to one of the kids when they did not earn it. That 160 million is .00016 of the trillion they gave out. If this kind of outcry is launched aver the 160 million there should be a run on Washington right now with pitchforks and hatchets! The Capital building and White House should be in flames and a complete and total revolt going on in America!

George Bush spent more money then all the presidents before him combined. Obama is on track to double Bush. But hey, those damn AIG executives are stealing us blind!

No folks the truth is that as long as the attention can be put on the $5 the rest gets brushed aside like it just does not even exist. Just pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. Keep an eye on the smoke and mirrors so you don't see what is really going on.

A special thanks.

I served in the young men's program for almost 8 years and had a great deal of fun doing so. I grew to love the boys and even still hear from some of them when they go on missions. I just thought I would put up a post in tribute to the leaders that take my boys on scout camp outs. This last weekend they went down to Moab and hiked to several arches. It was a blast for my boys and Kenneth got some great pictures. Keep checking his blog and you will be able to see some of them.

Having been a scout leader and knowing the kind of time that is required and some of the crap you have to put up with I appreciate these guys a lot. I am sure their wives would have appreciated having them home or there projects might have gotten done instead. Not to mention the packs they end up carrying for a boy or feeding one who either burnt his dinner or forgot to pack one. I am truly grateful to them for all that they do. I was watching the movie "Follow Me Boys", which if you have not seen you need to, and the main character, Lem Siddons, exemplifies the impact a scout leader can have on a boys life. Keep up the great work guys!

I love pictures.

So the Leths are good friends of our family. We have fun together and the kids all seem to get along. I went on Janet's blog and found some less then flatering pictures of Kelly. Now I like to have fun teasing Kelly as much as anyone but we guys have to stick together. After seeing my pictures as well as his on her blog I decided to take action. I have two lovely shots of Janet below. The first is a nice photo of Janet on her old lady scooter and the other is her trip to the swiss alps.

I suppose my last comment was a little deep so how about some lighter subject matter. Lets talk about Daniel. Krislyn loves all her brothers and they love her, however, the boys take a great deal of delight in teasing her. Normally she has fun with it and they all have a good time but they are learning that she can get to the point where she has had enough.

Lisa told me that the other day Daniel was teasing Krislyn and she had finally had enough so she cocked back her fist and let him have it! She planted the perfect shot right on his nose and it started bleeding. So the lesson learned, don't get Krislyn riled up cause you just might end up getting hurt. I suppose Daniel will never live that one down. Krislyn will be 25 years old at some family reunion and Daniel will be getting mouthy with her and someone is going to say "You better watch it or she is going to give you a bloody nose again."