The Thunder managed to put a Country-A$$-Whoopin’ (CAW) on the Lakers on Saturday night, but they have a big one tonight in L.A. The game starts late for us at 9:30 P.M. Lets hope we can pull off a big “W”, and let me hope that I can stay awake. I am so excited! It would be great if we could steal a win out there this game, and finish the Lakers off here in OKC on friday! Lets do it, guys! Thunder up!
You watchin’?
If you hadn’t heard already. Simon came down with the flu mid last week. He probably had the worst night on Friday night. We probably used every single towel and rag in the house trying to clean up after the poor kid. Candy and I may have had a total of six or seven hours of actual sleep on Friday night. So Saturday was nutzo around our house. We had a sick boy all day who kept Candy and I both on our toes. We were giving Simon medicine, trying to get him to eat, hoping he didn’t cough up what he had eaten, and taking care of the little baby. I had also discovered on Wednesday that I have allergies because although I felt like crap all weekend, I in fact, did not have the flu. And on top of all of that, we were getting some stuff ready for a garage sale that we plan to have next weekend.
Somehow, I managed to keep in mind that my beloved Thunder were going to be playing the Lakers that evening, and made sure to tune in when the game started. The game stated off awesome, and the Thunder jumped out to a huge lead that they were able to maintain for the rest of the night, which was a good thing because there was no way that I could maintain focus on anything but the chaos that was surrounding me.
About 9:30 Candy started to notice that our easy-going 6-month-old, Isaac, was starting to act a bit cranky, and seemed to be running a temperature, and since Simon had the flu, we figured that it was time to call the pediatrician and get a tamaflu prescription for little bubba as well, so we did. An hour later, Simon and I are hanging out at the 24-hour Walgreens (Simon loves to go our, he behaves well, and his feelings get hurt if I go without him. He also seemed to be feeling a lot better). I somehow managed to rack up $60 worth of crap and a few treats from the McDonalds before we made it home. Simon enjoyed some French fries on the ride home which was good because he wouldn’t hardly eat anything all day.
After arriving home, we managed to get the big boy in bed by 11, and we were down to dealing with the little one who had already received his dose of medicine, and was most likely ready to go to sleep as well, right? WRONG! Lo and behold he managed to quickly develop a 101.6 fever that we had a heck of a time breaking. Candy and I spent the next 3 hours cleaning up vomit and trying to cool the kid off. We stripped him down to his diaper and gave him sponge baths hoping to cool him off. Both of us were half asleep. Well, long story short we managed to finally get the boy cooled off enough and properly dosed with infant’s Tylenol and he went to sleep. The two of us were so wound up from all the excitement that we had a hard time going to sleep, and once again, spent the next day running on fumes. Lets hope next weekend is less eventful.
How was your weekend?
So, it’s Earth Day. Okay. So, um it’s not like democrats, environmentalists, and Hollywood stars don’t try to push the conservation/recycling bit on my every other day of the year. Are my kids not subject to politically correct environmental reprogramming on all of their favorite shows on a daily basis? It’s almost like some sort of crazy environmental cult has established itself as the new hip religion. I personally think it’s more difficult to have faith in the doomsday claims brought about by scientists who study climate change than it is to have faith in Christ. But the fact still remains, being “green” is the one thing you can believe in and not get ridiculed by the mainstream media. As a matter of fact, it seems almost as if you are ridiculed for not being “green”. Yuck there’s that word. The word that makes me think of not the environment, but money wasted.
Don’t get me wrong. I think the Earth is great and all, and I want it to be a good place to live when my grandkids’ grandkids are around, but I don’t really see the point in being a martyr for the environment. I can see that it is important to reduce waste. I think that is something I can really believe in. I, for one, think it would be great if we invested more energy into reducing the amounts of plastics used, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to go buy one of those $1 re-usable grocery bags! Every time I see somebody with one of those, I automatically assume that their elevator doesn’t quite reach the top floor. If I was to use those for our groceries when I went shopping for my family of 4, I would have to carry with me about $20 worth of those crappy little bags. Bags with handles that you can’t tie, bags that you have to wash, bags that you have to keep up with. I’m sorry, but it’s just not worth it to me. I recycle. I use those little plastic bags to put trash in sometimes. So in a way, I’m reusing them, right?
Moving on, I don’t understand why somebody would pay a premium for an electric car for any reason but to save money on gas. And from what I’ve seen, you’d have to save a hefty chunk on gas to really make it worth your while. I don’t like people who think they can tell me that I should walk or ride bike to work. If they want to walk or ride a bike to work, be my guest, but I live in Oklahoma, I am 12 miles away form work, and there isn’t a bus that stops anywhere near my place of business. Not to mention, if one did, it would probably take me a couple of hours to commute compared to my nice 20 minute drive. I personally like owning and driving my full-size pickup, and my classic Chevy. Both are V8’s and both are a heck of a lot of fun to drive. I’m not looking forward to the day when some politician decides he wants to tell people like me that we can’t operate our vehicles that we choose because it’s not good for the environment. This is America, and we have rights!
I for one do not plan to sacrifice my own happiness for the sake of the environment, especially when the whole Global Warming crisis is nothing more than a ploy to get more of our hard earned tax dollars for research. If you haven’t noticed, it seems that the temperatures world wide seem to be reaching record lows a lot of the time. This phenomena has occurred so many time that you will no longer hear Global Warming mentioned. No, the smoke-and-mirrors scientist are now calling it “Climatage”. This stuff is all a bunch of bull. I will recycle and conserve, when it makes fiscal sense for me to do so. Make it easier for me, and I might just cooperate, but until then you can forget it. I am sick and tired of seeing my favorite color green being mistreated. Most of the time when I get a magazine, or an advertisement with the word “green” on it, I will promptly file it in the circular file, and maybe even in the one with the recycle symbol on it, if it happens to be the closest one.
So, just in case you weren’t paying attention, today has been a big day for Oklahoma Sports. The NFL draft round one took place today, and there were 3 Sooners taken in the first 4 picks. That has not happened in the draft since Nortre Dame in 1946! Sam Bradford went #1 overall (can you say big, big, big, big paycheck?) to the Saint Louis Rams who were in desperate need of a quarterback. Ndamukong Suh from Nebraska was taken #2 overall by the Detroit Lions. As a Sooner fan, I must say, I am really glad to see this guy go on to the NFL. He pretty much played the entire Defensive Line for Nebraska. At #3, Gerald McCoy was taken by the Buccaneers, and Trent Williams was drafted by Washington. Jermain Gresham from OU was taken by Cincinnati at #21. Former Oklahoma State wide receiver Dez Bryant was drafter 24th overall by the Dallas Cowboys. So, needless to say Oklahoma will be well represented in the NFL next season.
Secondly, The Thunder hosted the Lakers tonight in a history making event. The First ever home NBA playoffs game in Oklahoma City. The thunder have lost 2 games to the defending champs from L.A., but you can see that they’ve got a lot of heart, and they are young so that spells lots of future goodness for our local NBA franchise. Currently the Lakers lead 66 to 62 in the 3rd. GO THUNDER, and congratulations Oklahoma the country is finally seeing just how great this state really is!!!
[Written 4-19-2010 at 11:30 PM]
Well, my father-in-law came over this evening and helped me get the Impala moving again (literally). It turns out that the rear passenger side drum break was stuck. As best we can tell, it was tightened up way too much from all the times Candy and I backed it out of the garage while braking. For those of you who aren’t car savvy, when you brake while backing up your car, it causes your brakes to tighten up. At least that’s the case with drum brakes.
Lessons learned:
1 – make sure you don’t go a long period of time without driving your car. This is difficult when said automobile is without seats!
2 – though 18″ DUB wheels look nice, those babies are dang heavy to lift up and align with the bolts.
Time 4 sleep!
So, as you could see from one of my previous posts, I had some big plans for the weekend. I had planned to get some stuff done on the hoopty (my Impala) and maybe do some yard work, but that didn’t happen. No, it decided to rain all weekend. So, what did we end up doing? Absolutely nothing.
I wouldn’t say that the weekend was a waste, I think it was actually pretty good. On Saturday, Simon and I went to the grocery store, it was kinda’ fun even though the rain was beating down on us, and we practically had to swim to the door at the Homeland, we made it in and managed to grab all the fresh, healthy foods that we require to keep up daddy’s new healthy eating initiative.
Candy had some encouraging news from her brother. It seems that a co-worker of his would like for her to take pictures of her family. Candy has never really decided to do photography professionally, but I think she does a great job. I know she doesn’t think that she’s good enough to charge, but I will encourage her to do it professionally. I think it would be a great idea! Her photographs are so good that Walgreens made my sister-in-law sign a release that she actually had the rights to print her pictures that Candy had taken. That’s the sort of thing they do to prevent people from copying their JcPenney’s portraits. She’s a big timer, and I’m proud of her.
I managed to do something this weekend. Something that I’ve been needing to do for a long time. I dusted off the old Wacom tablet and got to drawing. Well, I did some practice sketches. I’m not too comfortable with Adobe Illustrator just yet, but I’m learning. I think that drawing on the tablet is great. It’s better than paper. I have always had an interest in graphic design, but decided on let my programming skills pay the bills. I am hoping that someday, maybe I can do some logo and web design on the side as a paying hobby. Who knows, maybe my first job will be crating a logo for Candy’s new photography business…
A few weeks ago I had a real life-changing, scary experience. As I sat at my desk doing my sedentary programming job, and I realized that the pain and tightness that I was feeling in my chest might be more than just heartburn. I started to research what I was feeling online, and I ran across multiple sites advising me to call 911 because it could be a heart attack. So, being the bull-headed, stupid guy that I am, I decided to DRIVE MYSELF to the hospital (Please, do as I say and not as I do: If you are feeling chest pain, call 911 or have someone else drive you to the hospital!).
After calling my wife and telling her what I was doing, I drove myself to the hospital. I began to think… I thought about how out of shape that I’d become. I thought, dang; I am only 30, I can’t be having this problem already. I wondered, Who will take care of my family if I were to die right now? I made a plan. I decided, that after I got some answers about what was wrong with me, I was going to change my life. I decided that I wanted to live.
I arrived at the ER within a few minutes, I was given a vitals check that was slightly abnormal, but not anything alarming, and I waited. I had a chest x-ray taken and an EKG, everything was normal. I was so happy, yet confused about why I felt the way that I did. The ER doctor diagnosed me with pleurisy and prescribed me some pain meds and Prevacid. I was on my way. I was not on my way back to life as usual, but on my way to something better.
I scheduled an appointment with my doctor as a follow-up to discuss what was wrong with me, and why I was not feeling well, and his news for me was as expected. He said that although I was healthy, I needed to consider losing weight, because he said that it was the only apparent risk to my health that I had. I agreed with him, and went home to start my new plan of eating healthy and living better.
I can say now that I have been eating healthier, lighter meals for 3 weeks and I feel great. With the help of my wife, Candy, I have had support and meal planning with healthy amounts of fruits and veggies and a controlled portion of other stuff. I do seem to have lost some weight, and I can tell my clothes fit better. The biggest change is my view of life. I have learned not to take people or moments in time for granted. My appreciation for my wife and kids has never been stronger. I am being sure to soak up every moment and seize every opportunity to spend quality time with them. I know that we only have one chance at life here, and we need to make the most of it. I know that my faith in Christ has secured my place in Heaven, but as Kenny Chesney says, “Everybody want to go to heaven, but nobody wants to go now”. I challenge everyone who reads this to take a look at your own life, and see if a change would do you some good as well.
Well, it’s playoff time here in Oklahoma City. Our NBA team has made it to the post season. In round one, we will have a David-and-Goliath-matchup between our boys in blue and the defending champs, the Los Angeles Lakers. I for one am really looking forward to this one because I have been a Laker-hater for most of my life. Not really sure why, but I was a Bulls fan as a kid, I loved Jordan, and I remember rooting against the Lakers a lot. I also always thought that the “LAKERS” moniker did not fit L.A. I understand that the team started out in the Great Lakes region of the U.S., but the name should have changed when the team moved.
It seems that the competition ball has already started rolling based on some comments by the Lakers head a-hole coach, Phil Jackson (Yes, I know he coached the Bulls back when I rooted for them, but that’s before I realized what a turd he is). He has claimed that Kevin Durant gets superstar treatment and thus, gets too many foul calls in his favor. Well, Mr. Jackson, no disrespect to you, but KD is in fact, an NBA SUPERSTAR! He is the youngest player ever to be the league scoring champion. Besides, what room do you have to talk? You have that prima donna Kobe Bryant on your roster. It seems that we have a case of the pot calling the kettle black here. I can only hope that the competition on the court is as amusing. I hope to see the Thunder win this series, but realistically, it would be great to see us force a 6 or 7 game series. Not that our team cannot win this, but they will have their work cut out for them. Regardless of the outcome, I am proud to have the Thunder here, I am proud to be an Oklahoman, and I am proud of out Big League City! GO THUNDER!!!
Game one is Sunday afternoon at 2:00!!!
Well, this weekend I plan to work on my car with my father-in-law, James. My 1964 Chevy Impala SS has been a work in progress since I purchased it from a relative of a relative back in 2003. Since I have purchased it, it has had the old points distributor changed over to HEI, it’s had a bit of body work, new wheels and tires, a paint job, new carpet, new interior (yet to be re-installed), and some suspension and light engine work. The car is ready for the rear seat belts and interior to be installed. I will then need to install a stereo, replace some old bushings and rods in the suspension, and then work on tidying up the engine. Oh, and I almost forgot, thanks to my run-in with the garage over last New Year’s weekend (NO, I wasn’t drinking!), I will need to have a paint touch up on the rear fender. That should be expensive.
I have to admit the project as a whole was going along pretty well until a couple years ago. What happened? Kids. We had 2 kids in two calendar years. I don’t think either Candy or I have had much free time over the last few years, and my car is just one of the many projects that took a backseat to parenting. Not that I regret having kids, I love being a daddy, it’s just part of the experience. In the end, I look forward to finishing this project and someday taking my family to car shows in my beautifully restored Impala.
Thanks go out to:
The Johns (Turner and Lohse) for the hosting – 
Jen for the WordPress suggestions/help -
One of Jen’s Sites:
If you like to rock, check out Lee’s TheNewReview.net – 