This is why I enjoy my job.

Today, I was reminded about why I love what I do. I continue to be stretched and challenged in all kinds of way. Every other month I find myself learning to do something I never thought I would ever be doing. Today was no exception, I opened up an email from a "program" team that is coming to SharpTop Cove this summer with an idea about something they wanted to know if I would build. I open up the email and it is a Michael Jackson like Billy Jean light up dance floor looking thing. A dance floor that lights up, this is now a work in progress. The brainstorm period has begun and the crafty version of a light up dance floor is in the early stages of production. I will post some pictures and let you see how this comes along.

The Last Catch Sound Installation

Well I am going to be short tonight. I just got home and am rather tired... long day. But, I did install a sound system for a local restaurant here in Jasper, Ga. It was pretty cool to get it all set up and good to go and when it was all said and done, man o man... it sounded awesome. Not to toot my own horn, but it was cool to accomplish it.

Hercules

Let me introduce you to Hercules, he is my neighbors dog. He also weighs about I don't know 2 pounds, but is confused and he thinks he is a lion, although with a little twist. He will only pretend he is a lion when you are not giving him any attention. Once you walk up to him, he hauls ass away from you as quickly as he can till he gets to the end of his little rope. The other day, I decided that I was going to pet Hercules at no matter what the cost may be. I approached him very gingerly, as my attention turned to him, he took off quickly to the end of his rope. He is extremely quick, I mean lightning quick. I decided the best thing for me to do was to step on the rope at the farthest point and slowly keep stepping on the rope till I got close enough to grab him. As I got closer and the rope got shorter, he got quicker and more squirrely. Finally he had no more room to go and all he could do was stretch his little head as far from me as he could. I grabbed him and picked him up. He conceded and now we are friends. Still pretends he is a lion but he breaks quicker now and lets me pet him after a little coaxing.

First Day of the rest of your life.

I was thinking about this saying today and I have to say, as great as it is... I find it to be somewhat a self fulfilled prophecy to those who will not carry out whatever there new life is. Yikes, I know that is somewhat of a punk statement to make and I also know that a lot of people do carryout those things, especially speaking to the huge life altering events. But lets take a few steps back to the medium size life changes if you will. I feel like the majority of the time when some one decides they are going to make a change in life and think, "I am going to start ..... fill in blank... tomorrow," it is rarely carried out. I must confess, I am very much guilty of this sort of thing at many different points in life. I just have been pondering the very idea of this new beginning idea throughout the day. It causes such a new birth of excitement for most who conceive the notion to change this or that and what kind of domino effect it will bring, but three days in... baa'm done. Just a thought.

Hall of fame putt putter

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The Cart and Hall of Fame Putt Putter

I am going to share two stories tonight, one from yesterday and one from tonight. When I was in Walmart yesterday, I experienced what being "that guy" felt like. I walked in, said hello to the greeter and took my cart. Ten seconds in to my journey in walmart, the front right wheel freaked out and started to get the shakes and make loud noises. This continued for the rest of my trip, no matter the speed of travel, where I put pressure on the cart, nothing loud noise every tens seconds.


As for tonight, it is very simple, I will let the picture speak for itself. I am currentlly on the Hall of Fame board at the local putt putt place that just opened up in Ellijay, Ga. Sarah, my friend Joe and myself all scored good enough to get to sign the board, it was a great occasion. Although, I would like to mention an oddity in my family. Sarah is normally right handed, but when it comes to putt putt she goes left handed and is great. It is very puzzling. I am not sure how to understand it, but it works.

The cart

"The cart" coming in the morning. Because my body has revolted against me and I cAnnot move but to sleep.

The cart

Twilight Zone

This was the view from our house today at 825pm. It should have been almost dark at this point, but a freaky storm came in and make this picture. The picture does not give it complete justice, it was pretty much a yellow easter looking color all over the sky. This is what it looked like right before it stormed. It was intense and wonderful looking. I am going to cut this one short because I have to be on the road to work by 6 or so. Night to all.

Twilight Zone

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Aesop Speaks

"Men often mistake notoriety for fame"

I got a book of Aesop's Fables out of the attic last time I went home to visit my folks. I have been reading one here and there. They have tended to be pretty interesting, each having a piece of truth to go along with the story. This I was aware of ahead of time and assumed the lessons learned would be that of childlike ideals. I have been wrong the whole time, I guess I did not pay much attention to these stories when I was younger because each one carries it's own weight. For example the quote listed above. Think about that in the terms we live into today, and the culture and people who fill that idea. I think of some movie stars and some attention "whores" on television who will do anything to get their face on the news or E network, something is better than nothing right. I am excited to continue through the book and to see how Aesop will continue to kick my butt with each new lesson.

Tooth Ache...

The past few weeks, well maybe months I have known I needed to go the dentist. I was suppose to go a few months back and get a old cavity sealed or something like that but they called and canceled on me. That tooth has never bothered me that much. But a different one has come along to take its' place. A few weeks ago I noticed sometimes when I would breathe in deep, I would have a really sensitive shooting pain in one of my molars. It would come and go here and there, not enough to keep my mind on it. Not until today, when a piece of my old filling decided to secede from the rest of my mouth and fall out. It got my attention a little quicker this time, seeing that I can no longer chew with that side of my mouth. I am looking forward to the dentist tomorrow, I would like some drugs and ice cream about right now to make my world a little better, drugs so I could not feel how cold the ice cream is, and the ice cream because who doesn't love ice cream. Do you think it I mailed in my old piece of filling to one of those commercials that promise you money they would give me something for it... hmmmmmmm. cha ching.

And it begins.

I know I am 26 going on 27. This is not the first rouge hair that I have found on my neck that has broke away from the pack. Then why such a big deal??? I will tell you why, lets talk about the position of this little bad boy... directly above the middle of the colar. This is the precursor to the over the shirt old man neck/chest invader hair, which comes over the shirt to say hello to all those who grace your presence. It was somewhat of a reminder, another wake up call that I need to be on my toes and aware of these little bastards because if I am not pro active before I know it, I will have the crazy flow over of chest/neck hair that is giving people the heeby geebies right and left and while I am worried about that... my beard will start to make a break for my neck hair to join those forces up and all the while the ear hair is saying hey hey hey looks like it's time for me to join the party, then the gray hair gets jealous and turns up its already to plenty order and baaam' I will be 28 and scaring little children as a past time. wheeeewww, one little rouge hair, you have been warned my friend, I suggest you do not come back, lets give it another five years or so, I have enough to deal with already, going grey at the age of 26 is a good enough start.

The final showdown

I could not resist to post about Maple and the vacuum again today. Sarah and I were cleaning today and I was vacuuming the house, Maple was not to pumped about it. I started in one corner and worked my way across the house. Maple would keep a keen eye on me and "the machine" as we worked our way through the house. As I would move forward, she would keep right in front of us. I would stop to move some chairs and she would lay down right in our path as if to say, "you shall not pass!!". When all was said and done I was in the last corner of the house, that backed up to the corner, Maple decided to stand her ground. It was pretty funny to watch her get in front of the vacuum and stand there like she was ready to go to battle and save the last part of the house from the evil machine. I could not resist to mess with her a little bit and keep the vacuum looming in the same spot for a while. She stood there, solemnly keeping her eyes fixed on the "oreck". I made a move slowly towards her and she back up a little more towards the night stand... soon after Maple decided that she had made her point and this was enough, she took off and let the vacuum win. Oreck 5 Maple 0

The Rose Pedal

This morning I rode in a bike ride called the "Rose Pedal". I did the 65 mile route, so I got to experience all this ride has to offer including all the people, cars and dogs I need to fill the quota for the day. As I sit here I can not think of one story that stood out really blatantly as the winner, I have a few that were pretty fun. I was riding along one road and to my left I noticed something moving, about that time a golden retriever jumped up and pounced towards me like a cat... got about one foot from my ankle and then backed off due to my booming and scary yell. I think it was confused and thought it was a cat from how it acted. I also meet a lady who was riding her bike to build confidence in herself. She was kind of scared of the down hills and cars made her a little nervous. It was interesting to listen to her story and how she put herself in the line of fire to conquer her fears and move forward. It was pretty cool to share that part of the ride with her and help her go down hills a little faster than she was used to. I rode with her for 8 miles or so, it was a neat exchange. It was also pretty cool to have my own personal fans, Sarah and Maple to pass me in the car here and there and meet me at a few rest stops to chat and give me some encouragement. Way to go to my wife, very wonderful and thoughtful woman.

Perception is reality

Tonight my friend Dave and I drove to Lumpkin, Ga to pick up a coffee roaster. On the way to go pick it up we got into a great conversation about the title above. This is a tricky one because as Dave and I began to dive into the idea, we talked about the self destruction it brings along. Perception being realty to some introduces the idea that truth can be relative to some as well. In this people's distinguish truth from their perception of reality. In all of this people outside of the individual "realities" can be living different perceptions, which in turn destroys the ideas of others across the board. This raises the question of relative truth and absolute truth and how they relate and how they battle. I believe absolute truth is real which trumps all perception due to the fact that "absolute truth" is... I love topics like these because they get those wheels a spinning and hamsters turning the wheels. Anyone have any thoughts?

Sarah's Bday.

The next few days might be alittle shorter than usual as I walk around the yard searching for a signal. I was driving late two nights ago and I noticed a bunny in the middle of the road. It looked at me and instead of running quickly, it decided to show me how good It was at slow motion or the robot. Needless to say, it was to late for peter and he got tagged at 80mph. That is my story for the day. It sounds worse when you say bunny instead of rabbit. I said I ran over a rabbit, I think of a stupid dirty rabbit that steals credit cards and identities, but bunny, that conjures up thoughts of free chocolate and goodies.

Sarah's Bday.

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I am reminded of the "stupid"

Tonight, Sarah and I went down to Atlanta to go out to dinner for her birthday of which I will post some pictures after this post so you all can see what it was like later. But tonight I was reminded of one of the dumbest people I have ever seen in my life. We went through a toll booth in the Buckhead area that cost .50 to pass through. As you can imagine, you can add up the amount of .50 in many different ways... 2 quaters, a few dimes, some nickels, crap ton of pennies, I mean there are a lot of ways that you can create the number .50 in change to deposit into the toll bin to collect, count and let you pass. But on this night a few years ago, something special was in the air, someone special was in the air. I pulled up to the toll right behind a small sedan, figuring I would only have a short wait till I could pass... not at all. I watched something that I will hold dear forever... this person took out a one dollar BILL and threw it into the bin. Lets think for a moment... okay now that you had that moment to think you can realize how stupid this person was. They sat there and look at the bin as if it was going to suck down the dollar make some change, spit it back out and wala the gate would open and magic time would be over. Nope, they put a dollar in the change bin... I say again they put a dollar in the change bin. Darwin Award?

Sarah

Operation Sarah's Birthday in full swing.

Damn Pound Puppies

I have decided that if you have a dog that chases people, cars, cyclists, speed walkers etc. you should be fined, jailed and or put in a dunk tank. Jasper, Ga has the largest population of stray, mean, starved for attention dogs in the entire world. Yesterday, I was riding my bike through Jasper and just crested the top of a hill just in time to wake up the dog in someones yard who was sleeping. He/She decided that the best thing to do after a nap was to chase me down a hill and try to kill me or bite off my ankles and or legs. This pup was behind me for about 50 feet or so just ready to pounce. Just about the time I was getting out the pepper spray from my back pocket to make the dog wish it had never messed with me it pulled back and stopped. It looked up at me as if to say, "yeah that's right, don't you ever come back to my neighborhood." After a year of riding my bike and battling the dogs of this county I think I should be aloud to start "capping" some doggy asses... maybe there is a bylaw in the stimulus bill that gives me permission to shoot some dogs... I will have to check.

Easter Sunday Fun.

Today was a great day, a little of this and a little of that. Went to church, road my bike, and ate dinner with a bunch of friends. We went to church this morning and saw the Easter service. I have a rather unusual observation to blog about today. This morning the adult choir sung a bunch of songs for the program. During one song this guy basically did a solo for most of the song, he could not sing very well at all, I mean tone was not his friend. But... he was into it. It was a really neat thing to watch, on one hand it was kind of comical because he was not on the right key for the majority of the song so that was kind of silly, but on the more serious side of things it was really neat to watch him sing the song with all that he had. He was in it 110%, not worrying about anything around him, he was worshiping God and that is what mattered to him, not he sounded but yet how he connected. It was interested and very neat to watch. Talk about someone being themselves and know what is important to them, it was pretty awesome.

Yesterday.

Sorry for the no post yesterday, but we did not have power for the past 36 hours so I was without the ability to get on the internet to update. I thought I would share two pictures. The first one is of Maple, I decided to put a helmet on her as a joke about thirty minutes before the storm got here, I teased nature and it took note. The other one is a picture of the sky after the storm had come through, that was it on the way out of town, it was nutz. Two tornadoes hit Jasper, one was three miles away and the other was about four miles away, it really was pretty intense. I had the bathroom all set up with blankets and cushions and flashlights etc to get ready for everything. It got pretty nuts and I told Sarah to go ahead and go to the bathroom and get tucked in. I was a little to curious to go just yet. It was really crazy to see what was going on, the wind had been going pretty good already but it started to kick up pretty crazy like. Enough to by the end get the trees going sideways. The temperature dropped 10-20 degrees, the sky went yellow and then the hail hit, about the time where I thought the window was going to break, I peaced out and joined Sarah in the bathroom, and can I add as Sarah was walking to the bathroom the power went out. When I went out later that night it was crazy to see how many trees were down and the damage. Oh Mrs. Nature, you can be quite a bitch. :)

Maple gets prepared.

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Sky yesterday.

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The Crazy Skunk

Yes, today I saw a skunk, a friend got sprayed and I almost threw up. This morning Jacob and I were riding to a building and while we were going by the office, we saw a skunk. It was a funny looking skunk, mostly white. About that time we were laughing about it and Dan starts to walk towards the skunk and in return we screamed, "Skunk, Dan!!! Skunk", he heeded our warning and retreated to the office. We returned to the office a second later and noticed that the skunk was walking around on the side of the road a little funny. I, being the camp rabies expert noticed some signs that led us to believe he was not normal. It looked like he was walking down the side of the road all shaky, and zig zaggy like. He was injured to some degree and not right in the head from what we decided. He was also headed towards the hill that leads into camp, of which there were 400 kids waiting to get sprayed by the crazy skunk. Well, pickens county does not have animal control and in which case, we are animal control. As we were trying to decide what to do, we figured that to put this guy out of his pain and misery would be a good deed to some degree. This is where the mini truck came into play. Run em over, that seems like a quick execution. So the mini truck went into hot pursuit of this albino skunk, all ziggy and zaggy, just a little quicker now. Imagine Indiana Jones and the boulder chasing Indi, but change Indi into the skunk and the boulder into the mini truck. About the time the mini truck came close to contact with mr. skunk he decided to defend himself... spray time baby. It coated the truck and it ended up making a very stinky smell. Mr. Skunked ended up escaping only having his tail get a little brushing by the tire and he ran off into one of our barns and took to hiding. About this time I was two hurndred feet away I caught a wiff of this smell and started to dry heave a bunch, luckily I did not puke. It was really a crazy morning.

The Conversation

I am going to be a little more brief than I would like to be on this topic, but I was again reminded tonight about the art of great conversation. I was hanging out with a buddy of mine, Kevin, and we just always have great conversation. It is a true gift when you just sit down at a table and start to share with each other about whatever and have vulnerability to be open and honest with life. I, again am led to the desire to share this with others. Not, to talk about myself, but to encourage others to put themselves in a position to talk to other people, to share about themselves and learn from those who are around them. This again is a gift that is constantly swirling around us that we refuse to embrace. I hope for myself that I would continue to learn to put fear and self consciousness aside and dive into real conversations when given the opportunity.

Welcome Home.

I meant to share this story a few days ago when I came home from Texas. Have you ever heard the joke about the gold fish who forgets every two seconds and says while he is swimming around in his bowl, "oooooo look there's a castle" and then two seconds later says, "oooooo look there's a castle." Well I think that Maple either has that problem or really enjoys when I come home from work. Everyday when I come home, she freaks out like crazy and is so excited to see me which makes me feel like a million bucks. The othe day when I got in the car from the airport, Maple lost her mind with excitement to welcome me home. I petted her head and scratched her belly to say hello and show that I was excited to she her as well. This was not sufficient for Maple, she decided to come up in the front seat with me to show me her love. Then instead of going to the back when she was done, she laid down in the floor board and just looked at me for the hour ride home, every once in a while, she would nudge my knee to make sure she had my attention.

National Champs

I root for my wife, but it is always hard to see the Tarheels win. Agh.

National Champs.

I root for my wife, but it is always hard to see the Tarheels win. Agh.

Ahh you likea da sauce?

Tonight, I began an adventure to find a good BBQ sauce. Sarah and I are going to rent a spot in at the flea market here locally in Jasper soon and I figured I would give the sauce making world a try. Although, I am not sure if these will be good, I thought I would give it a whirl. So we have four different kinds of vinegar based sauces with anywhere from creole to old bay hidden in them, to one mustard based, and three tomato based. They are currently spending the night soaking in the goodness and I am looking forward to trying them tomorrow. I have two more sauces that I need to make before the final elimination will happen, I ran out of ingredients tonight that slowed me down for the last two. Hope you are all getting a little hungry as your read this thinking about good bbq chicken and what not. Okay bye.

BBQ.

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Deal Maker

I was hanging out with a buddy of mine tonight, Anthony. He is a great buddy of mine and we tend to always have great conversation when we hang out. Tonight as we were eating dinner, we were talking about life and the shifts that we experience as we reach different "stages" of life. We were talking about deal makers tonight when it comes to decisions that we make as people. We talked about different times in life and what we had based those decisions on. God tends to refrain from sending us letters personally that we can read in hand, so I think that we are led to have our own personal "deal makers" that influence each choice that we make. I think that it is interesting to look over the course of our own history and see what "deal makers" influenced what we did and what "deal makers" that we ignore and choose what we think is the correct decision. So my challenge to you, is, what are your "deal makers" when it comes to you. What are the top three things that have to be present to make a decision and feel good about it.

Sarah tried to kill me

I was cutting my hair today in the bathroom, which consists of a buzzer with a guard.  This is the usual process which takes a little while to make sure I get all the hair even.  Sarah will come in late in the game and buzz over my ears and my neck.  Today, she decided to try something new with the hair buzzer.  She started to cut behind my left ear and ba'am it happened, I guess she did not know that I had taken the guard off and straight up buzzed me behind the ear and took a chunk out of my head.  But this turned out to play to my favor.  Sarah is not a fan of the shaved head, but I tend to like it.  This gave me an edge to go ahead and shave my head.  It was nice, very much cooler now, and the head shall get a tan.  

Also, I would like to invite all others who would like to take a stab at Texas to feel free to go ahead and let it flow, their state is big enough it can take it. 

Texas

Well folks, I am sorry that I have not been blogging the past few days, but I was without connection to the world outside of Texas. It was a good trip for the most part, a little delay at the airport but no big deal because... I flew home in a plane instead of drove home in a car, saved a bunch of time. I just got home a few hours ago so I am going to be short tonight. I have a few good blogs to post soon that I experienced over the time away. I have one thing to share about Texas that I do not understand, so consider this opening the "can of worms" on Texas. I know a few people who claim Tx as their home, they always talk about how everything is bigger and better in Tx. I would like to say that is a load of poop. I was driving around this week and thought of all the states for people to lay down and die for and claim is the best ever... why pick this one. Pick any of the other 49 states and it would work out a little better for you.