Stand or Kneel?

It occurs to me as I ponder my own family's contributions to our nation's security through the armed services that we owe a great debt to them.

First, I think of my father who was in the air force during the Korean War. My uncle who was in the Navy during WWII. And my other uncle who was an army ranger during WWII who earlier this year was named a "Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in France" by the president of France - a title roughly equivalent to English knighthood.

There are so many others in so many different conflicts and during the times between conflicts. Men and women who stand and fight for freedom, for justice, and for selfless ideals for the betterment of others. Most people are not so noble, not so courageous, and not so selfless as to risk it all for the sake of nameless and faceless neighbors and fellow Americans, many of whom are not even grateful anymore.

And I try to not think about the countless ignorant masses that stand in the shelter of the blood of others and yell obscenities at them for spilling blood. Our soldiers are there doing their job not because they are war-mongers, but because there are war-mongers out there that have no intention of compromising or negotiating. Some people never understand this. They still live in the kindergarten of life and cannot conceive that someone may actually not relent when told to.

I just hope that the youth of today learn to understand that if you do not stand and fight, you will fall and kneel. Freedom was not given. It was fought for and taken. Let us not be so willing to give it up merely for comfort of body or pretense of conscience.

Americans must either stand now, or kneel later. There are no alternatives to these paths. Choose wisely. 

Copyright 2009, Kevin Farley (a.k.a. sixdrift, a.k.a. neuronstatic)

 

Looking Ahead by Looking Back

As I look ahead toward my next birthday, I can't help but look back over my shoulder at how I got here and stand in awe of how God has been the orchestrator of so many amazing events in my life. Not all of these have been joyful during the time I have experienced them. But they were amazing in looking back. Seeing how those events shaped my life and have brought me to the place I am today, or rather the man I am today, I can lift my head up and say "I am truly thankful."

None should live in the past and that is not what I am suggesting. Rather, I am simply looking ahead by looking back. Mere rhetoric? Not hardly. It is by experience we are prepared for the future. And it was the the collection of our life experiences that has us where we are today. If we don't understand those experiences, we may have to suffer subsequent repeats of them.

Looking back on my own life, there are many wonderful and exciting experiences that perhaps would not be so bad to repeat. But also, there are many, many terrible experiences I wish I could completely erase. But I cannot blot out those things from my mind. Perhaps that is a good thing. I dislike even the memory of them so much, I would go to the greatest lengths to never repeat them.

Over the years I have experienced the death of relatives, grand-parents, my father, loved ones, and even the death of a marriage. None of those experiences are something I desire to repeat again. But each of them formed in me a new will, a new understanding, and a new commitment to love the family I have and be the best son, husband, and father I can be.

Having experienced the utter betrayal of a spouse and then having the experience of handling the fallout of that event in the lives of my own children, I can attest that kind of experience will definitely cause your knees to buckle. But the experience with my children as we redefined and reshaped our family was something I hold dear. It was a mysteriously good time for us, despite how we got there.

Even then, in the aftermath of that turbulent time, I also endured the experience of losing a close friend, for reasons I still don't know. In fact, the death of my marriage spilled over to impact nearly all my friends to one degree or another. I am still finding evidence of the fallout now several years later. In some cases it is the result of misinformation, but in some cases, it is purely the result of lies spread by others, for whatever reasons they purposed in their heart.

In the midst of such complexity to my life at times like that, I was often the recipient of amazing blessings, though I must admit, I did not always realize at the moment. As an example, even when I was not looking for a wife, God led one right to me. But that was one of those times I recognized a blessing. There are moments in a person's life when there is a defining choice to make: to trust God, or trust others. I chose to trust God and ask that woman to be my wife. And since she was trusting God as well, she said yes. And she has been a blessing to me in many ways.

As I look back over all such experiences, good and bad, I see many of those defining moments. A decision was to be made. And time and time again I have seen the best choice was to seek God first. He has never led me astray. I am led to believe, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that no matter what the situation, He really does cause all things for my "good". Sometimes I just don't understand it at the moment, but once again, looking back, I can see it.

And now, as I look at some of my most recent experiences, I am simply in awe at how good God has been to me. In the past four years following the betrayal and abandonment by my first wife, I have gotten married to a wonderful woman, received her three wonderful daughters to raise as my own, watched my oldest two children reach an age some may call "adult", and was there for the birth of my youngest daughter. I count all my children as blessings - though at times they may cause some cursing, such is the nature of children.

So what have I learned from this little look back? Mostly that I cannot even begin to predict what is in store for me and what is yet to come. But I can say this, I know that no matter what it is, ultimately, God is good to me. That much I can definitely look ahead to.

Copyright 2009, Kevin Farley (a.k.a. sixdrift, a.k.a. neuronstatic)

Need A Sweater?

With all the talk of global warming... oops, I forgot, they are calling it climate change now... anyway, we all need to get ready for the global heat wave that will melt ice, raise oceans, and otherwise change things up a bit.

But let's not be too hasty to believe something merely because some politician pushes an agenda to take away your money. Instead, let's sit back, think a moment, look at the real data, and think some more.

So if things are heating up, why have the four major global temperature tracking outlets (Hadley, NASA's GISS, UAH, RSS) all released data showing that over the past year, global temperatures have gone down, not up.

Oh yeah, and another thing. All that ice that is melting and making headlines... apparently those are just local phenomena. In fact, in 2008 the antarctic ice actually increased overall.

In addition, from 1940 until 1980, recorded temperature measurements of the earth show cooling. The argument is that there has been warming since then but, in fact, almost all of that is due to what is called the "urban heat island" effect – that is, that the weather stations are around the edge of cities and the cities expanded out and distorted the record. When you look at rural stations – if you look at the Antarctic, for example – the South Pole shows cooling since 1957 and the satellite data which has been up since 1978 shows a slight cooling trend as well.

So let's think about it. Why would politicians hype up a "global emergency" of global warming as they called it, especially leading up to an election year? After all, it would be irresponsible and unethical to tell people that there was a global emergency when really they were just pushing a liberal agenda to expand government and taxes.

So... if they all clamored about global warming, and yet the data does not support a warming trend, and it is unethical to stir up people with a lie like that...

What does that say about the current administration?

I wonder.

Copyright 2009, Kevin Farley (a.k.a. sixdrift, a.k.a. neuronstatic)

The Dark Ages

According to Wikipedia, the Dark Ages is a term referring to a period of cultural decline or societal collapse that took place in Western Europe between the fall of Rome and the eventual recovery of learning. The concept of a Dark Age was created by the Italian scholar Petrarch (Francesco Petrarca) in the 1330s and was originally intended as a sweeping criticism of the character of Late Latin literature.

But did you also know that it really was dark?

The sun's brightness hasn't changed much over the last 20 years. But it has been brighter for the last 60 years than it has been at any time in the last 1,150 years. Consider the following:

According to scientists, the Sun's radiance has changed little during this period [60 years]. But looking back over 1,150 years, Sami Solanki [Professor at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich Switzerland] found the Sun had never been as bright as in the past 60 years.
The team studied sunspot data going back several hundred years. They found that a dearth of sunspots signaled a cold period - which could last up to 50 years - but that over the past century their numbers had increased as the Earth's climate grew steadily warmer. The scientists also compared data from ice samples collected during an expedition to Greenland in 1991. The most recent samples contained the lowest recorded levels of beryllium 10 for more than 1,000 years. Beryllium 10 is a particle created by cosmic rays that decreases in the Earth's atmosphere as the magnetic energy from the Sun increases. Scientists can currently trace beryllium 10 levels back 1,150 years.

During the Medieval maximum of 1000-1300 there was an extremely large Sunspot which is believed to have warmed the Earth higher than normal. There were no accurate measurements of the weather to call upon during this time but the discovery and colonization of Greenland by Eric the Red supports this hypothesis. Eric was exiled from Iceland for manslaughter and sailed west discovering Greenland. He then led many ships, filled with people who wanted to make a fresh start, to this new land. For 300 years Greenland flourished, new communities settled, trade with other countries grew, and the population increased. Around 1325 the climate cooled down considerably, people started to abandon the northern settlements. By 1350 glaciers covered the northern settlements, and the southern most settlements were dying out as well.
The Sporer minimum of 1400-1510 and the Maunder minimum of 1645-1715 were each known as a "little ice age." They were both droughts in Sunspot activity, and a link to a time of abnormally cold weather on Earth. In addition to finishing off the Greenland colonies, the Sporer minimum showed increased rates of famine in the world, and the Baltic Sea froze solid in the winter of 1422-23. Some of the more notable effects of the Maunder minimum included the appearance of glaciers in the Alps advancing farther southward, the north sea froze, and in London there was the famous year without a summer where it remained cold for 21 consecutive months.

The history of our planet is one of thawing and freezing and thawing again. The planet itself records the fact that for most of its existence demonstrates this kind of cycle. And although our blue planet is warm and comfy most of the time, it has spent an enormous amount of time in some form of an ice age.

And if one were to look at sunspot cycles, it is apparent that increased solar activity warms the Earth and decreased solar activity allows the Earth to cool. These are simple and demonstrated truths.

If you were to take this to its logical end, the higher solar activity in the last 60 years is a "peak" of the sun over a 1,000 year period. This means that there should be an expected natural warming of the planet with a subsequent cooling cycle. Since sunspots and solar surface activity eludes predictive methodologies, it is unclear at any time what may happen 60 or 100 or 1000 years from now.

But what should be obvious is that the sun is expected to start a downward trend of solar activity at any time, or already has. Once the downward trend begins, we will have a new minimum similar to the Maunder Minimum with decades of much colder weather.

Or conversely, the sun could crank up the surface activity and solar flares and sunspots increase dramatically. In the event solar activity increases further, the Earth will see temperatures rise more than what models predict for consequences of greenhouse gases.

The long and short of it is that Sun has just peaked. It is little wonder that there has been a 4 degree increase in temperatures over the last 100 years. My bet is the next 100 years will see the cycle begin again and the Earth will begin to cool, just as it has done for eons without any help at all from us.

Copyright 2009, Kevin Farley (a.k.a. sixdrift, a.k.a. neuronstatic)

He Said What?

Al Gore has said that the polar bears are drowning because of melting sea ice. I quote:

"That's not good for creatures like polar bears that depend on the ice. A new scientific study shows that for the first time they're finding polar bears that have actually drowned, swimming long distances up to 60 miles to find the ice. They did not find that before."

However, Al was wrong. The real inconvenient truth:

There have been no studies, scientific or otherwise, that indicate any such thing is happening. What did happen was that four polar bears were found drowned because of a storm.

Amazing. How could the Nobel Prize winner have messed that up?

Politics suck.

Copyright 2009, Kevin Farley (a.k.a. sixdrift, a.k.a. neuronstatic)

Time Passes Quickly

It has been months since I last posted in my blog. Why the delay? Why the absence from sage and sound pronouncements and potent musings on the state of life, living, and all?


I don't know.


I think mostly because there is simply too much going on and I could never sit down and sift through life and pull out something that stood out above the others enough to warrant its own entry. Perhaps its the ennui of winter dragging out into slow spring. Or maybe I really am that ADD.

So many things have happened and so much has changed. Too much to really cover in a few pages and I would not want to bore others to the point of self-mutilation. So maybe a spring recap is in order and then perhaps I will be on track going forward.

The first thing I have to say is that being an old dad ain't so bad after all. When I first learned that I was going to be a father yet again at 42, I was "concerned" to say the least. After the shock, I added up all the kids including the one coming and my legs buckled under the weight of six kids counted on my fingers.

And yet, here I am with what has to be one of the most wonderful little girls any dad could ever hope for. Having four other girls I have to be careful with comparisons because I have learned over time that females (young and old) can get their feelings hurt pretty easy. But I also know that even her sisters would have to say that our little bundle of joy is the "most awesomest baby ever". They said so. That proves it.

So life with a 5 month old is not much different than life with a teenager with the obvious exception of the diapers. And I think my experiences and even my age have qualified me to better appreciate the joys of a new baby. The first time around I was a complete amateur. But this is my third baby and sixth child, I have been able to apply some mellow to my attitude this time around far easier than before.

I mean really, its not the end of the world for a baby to smear food on their head, or a pacifier to drop to the floor. Wipe the head down, brush the pacifier across your jeans a couple of times and press on. And for any that would say "oh my, you let your baby have a pacifier that has dared touch the dirty floor" to that I would say "yeah, and I remember seeing my pre-toddler son eat a dead spider before I could stop him." Really, babies are not as fragile as you think. Mine survived. That has to count for something.

So I have the most awesomest baby that smiles most of the time. What else could stir me so?

I have the most awesomest wife. She is the most awesomest mother. I have five other kids that are sometimes the most awesomest and sometimes the worstest - well, not really but they are kids. Those things stir me too.

I also have to say that there have been some down times this winter as well. My wife's father passed away unexpectedly. And now her mother has moved to Florida, a few states away. It also seems like it is the time in my life for those adults I remember from childhood to pass on also. There have been so many. I think back and its saddening to think of all those people that I once knew in various capacities growing up that are now gone.

But let us not dwell there. I also remember all the fun times that involved those people. I remember their kindness, their smiles, their laughs, and their presence in my life. It made my life better and from my perspective their lives were not in vain. They brought much into this world with all they did, even when they did not know they were doing anything special because sometimes, it was only special to me.

I have been blessed with the ability to recall memories in exquisite detail - with the exception of calculus, no memories there - and I can easily think back and picture those now gone. I see them from my youth and later. I can see their mannerisms and their peculiarities. Sometimes I recall events and I see them smiling, laughing, helping, caring, and just doing what they always did.

I guess the other big item that stirs me now is stress.

Anyone feeling stress from the economy? Well I am. I am stressed over my job, stressed over my work situation and the insane work distance arrangement I have. And I am stressed as a husband and dad just trying to keep it all going.

Its a good thing God is there with me because really, no man can do this on his own. Anyone is a fool to think otherwise.

And in the midst of all this what happens? Hernia surgery. Not the regular kind. Oh no. I have to have umbilical hernia surgery, something normally corrected in childhood. I remember seeing my first two kids both have this surgery and they were bouncing off the walls in about 2-3 days. For me, two weeks later I was still feeling it.

Oh well. I at least gave my family something to laugh at when they came into the living room where I camped out and would ask me questions just to hear my vicodin-induced answers. I did catch on when the 11 year old asked if she could take the tractor out for a drive. After initially nodding and muttering "sure" I quickly come to with a "what? no!".

So there it is. I reduced five months of living to just a few pages.

Oh, one thing to add. Just in the last week or so the baby has started the "da-da-da-da" phase. And when I look down at her smiling - and sometimes not smiling - face, and she says "da-da", stress is forgotten, bad memories fade, and she melts my heart. Yes, this old crusted bonehead has turned into a soft mush over the years. So I pick her up and hold her close. All is good.


Copyright 2009, Kevin Farley (a.k.a. sixdrift, a.k.a. neuronstatic)

Stressing Over Blessing

A thin sheen of frost lay over the windshield in the deep dark of pre-dawn. The chill of fall hung heavy in the air. Walking across the countless fallen acorns on the gravel driveway, each stop evoked a crunch that broke the quiet of morning.

My car sat cold in the driveway matching the 38 degree chill. Hopping in the driver's seat, the vinyl seats immediately chilled my back and legs. As my very pregnant wife sat down in the passenger seat, she immediately broke into shivers.

The cold was chasing away the sleepiness as I started the car. We sat for a few minutes waiting for the windshield to clear. Between her shivers we talked about how cold it was and how cloth seats would have been welcomed about then.

After the window had sufficiently cleared I looked over at my wife.

"Let's do this thing", I said.

"Well, its not like we really can stop now. Let's go have this baby," came the reply.

And so our day began...

Looking like she was about to pop and still a couple weeks away from her due date, we were on our way to have labor induced. Regular labor can be challenging and is often painful. Induced labor can be quite difficult and is usually excruciating, as my wife knew from experience.

There were few cars on the road as I drove through the darkness, arriving at the hospital early. Its buildings seemed menacing to me. Perhaps even sinister. I shook it off and continued on.

Hospitals always have that affect on me. So many years of hospitals. So many years of waiting and receiving both bad and good news. It seems like the bad so often outweighs the good.

Walking the labyrinth from outpatient entry to the maternity unit gave us time for small talk about what lay in store this day. Not wanting to allow the stress to win out, I prayed and walked on, laughing and talking about what our new baby may look like.

We were soon checked in and after donning a revealing hospital gown, my wife climbed into the first of many hospital beds today. Soon, they started the medicine that would coax her body along the path to labor. It was time to hurry up and wait.

Walking speeds labor. So we walked. And we walked.

We walked the same four corridors for hours, a mind numbing experience. I soon grew bored and found ways to entertain myself and my wife. Walking silly, pondering technology, and varying the path were some of the ways I passed the time. It served us well to distract us from what lay in store for us both.

And those hours of walking did help. With dilation now starting, it was time to break her water. This still would be an event. With excessive amniotic fluid - nearly 3 times the normal amount - breaking my wife's water came as a bit of a shock to the nurse who did not have enough towels and pads ready to handle it all.

This brought on real contractions. Labor was now officially underway.

But when the doctor came to check on my wife and pre-born baby, he had a scowl and I knew something was a little off kilter. He immediately called for an ultra-sound machine and started probing for our baby.

"She's shoulder first. You can't have a baby shoulder first. The baby can't come out."

He looked at the heart rate monitor strip charts and frowned some more.

"The baby is stressing. Her heart rate is dropping too low during contractions."

I am fully aware of the implications of what all can go wrong in this situation. So was my wife. We were both actually relieved to hear what came next.

"We need to do a class 1 C-section now."

The next 10 minutes went by in a blur as my wife was whisked away down the hall.

"Lord, I leave her in your hands. Take care of my wife and my baby."

There really was nothing else to say.

I called my wife's mother to let her know what was going on. None of us expected induction to go fast. We all expected it to last all day. But she immediately got in the car and headed up to the hospital.

I made a few other calls, but before I knew it, here she came. My baby was here. Kara was already out and looking absolutely beautiful.

Told my wife was doing fine and would be going to a short recovery room, I followed Kara to the nursery where I got to hold my daughter for the first time.

She was warm, wiggly, and captivating. Words fail to capture the feeling of a father holding his child for the first time. Its moving, touching, enriching, and emboldens you to think you are something special to hold such a gift and you feel 10 feet tall. It also can make you feel the burden of responsibility and drop you to your knees.


But its wonderful. Three times I have done it. Each as wondrous and amazing as the others.

I have six kids in all now. All living at home with me. A boy and a girl from my first marriage. Three girls from my wife's first marriage. And now a beautiful new girl from the two of us.

Married just three years ago, we have been blessed over and over. I am thankful God has been so good to us and so amazing in the work He has done in our lives.

The day has been long. I have tried to be the husband my wife needed today. I have shuttled siblings back and forth to see their sister. I have tried to contact as many people as I could think of at the time to spread the good news. Some I even called twice because I forgot.

I love my wife. I love my family. I truly hope all six of my children know that another child does not diminish my love for them. It just keeps adding more in.

That is what it is to be a daddy. A daddy loves each child immensely, and uniquely. And with each new child, he just adds in more love.

It has been a long day, but it has been a good day.

Today I just became richer. Not richer in money. Richer in my family. And of the two, I count family of higher value any day.

And now to share a little sample of my new daughter's first day: follow me to the pictures of Kara!

It has been months since I last posted in my blog. Why the delay? Why the absence from sage and sound pronouncements and potent musings on the state of life, living, and all?


I don't know.


I think mostly because there is simply too much going on and I could never sit down and sift through life and pull out something that stood out above the others enough to warrant its own entry. Perhaps its the ennui of winter dragging out into slow spring. Or maybe I really am that ADD.

So many things have happened and so much has changed. Too much to really cover in a few pages and I would not want to bore others to the point of self-mutilation. So maybe a spring recap is in order and then perhaps I will be on track going forward.

The first thing I have to say is that being an old dad ain't so bad after all. When I first learned that I was going to be a father yet again at 42, I was "concerned" to say the least. After the shock, I added up all the kids including the one coming and my legs buckled under the weight of six kids counted on my fingers.

And yet, here I am with what has to be one of the most wonderful little girls any dad could ever hope for. Having four other girls I have to be careful with comparisons because I have learned over time that females (young and old) can get their feelings hurt pretty easy. But I also know that even her sisters would have to say that our little bundle of joy is the "most awesomest baby ever". They said so. That proves it.

So life with a 5 month old is not much different than life with a teenager with the obvious exception of the diapers. And I think my experiences and even my age have qualified me to better appreciate the joys of a new baby. The first time around I was a complete amateur. But this is my third baby and sixth child, I have been able to apply some mellow to my attitude this time around far easier than before.

I mean really, its not the end of the world for a baby to smear food on their head, or a pacifier to drop to the floor. Wipe the head down, brush the pacifier across your jeans a couple of times and press on. And for any that would say "oh my, you let your baby have a pacifier that has dared touch the dirty floor" to that I would say "yeah, and I remember seeing my pre-toddler son eat a dead spider before I could stop him." Really, babies are not as fragile as you think. Mine survived. That has to count for something.

So I have the most awesomest baby that smiles most of the time. What else could stir me so?

I have the most awesomest wife. She is the most awesomest mother. I have five other kids that are sometimes the most awesomest and sometimes the worstest - well, not really but they are kids. Those things stir me too.

I also have to say that there have been some down times this winter as well. My wife's father passed away unexpectedly. And now her mother has moved to Florida, a few states away. It also seems like it is the time in my life for those adults I remember from childhood to pass on also. There have been so many. I think back and its saddening to think of all those people that I once knew in various capacities growing up that are now gone.

But let us not dwell there. I also remember all the fun times that involved those people. I remember their kindness, their smiles, their laughs, and their presence in my life. It made my life better and from my perspective their lives were not in vain. They brought much into this world with all they did, even when they did not know they were doing anything special because sometimes, it was only special to me.

I have been blessed with the ability to recall memories in exquisite detail - with the exception of calculus, no memories there - and I can easily think back and picture those now gone. I see them from my youth and later. I can see their mannerisms and their peculiarities. Sometimes I recall events and I see them smiling, laughing, helping, caring, and just doing what they always did.

I guess the other big item that stirs me now is stress.

Anyone feeling stress from the economy? Well I am. I am stressed over my job, stressed over my work situation and the insane work distance arrangement I have. And I am stressed as a husband and dad just trying to keep it all going.

Its a good thing God is there with me because really, no man can do this on his own. Anyone is a fool to think otherwise.

And in the midst of all this what happens? Hernia surgery. Not the regular kind. Oh no. I have to have umbilical hernia surgery, something normally corrected in childhood. I remember seeing my first two kids both have this surgery and they were bouncing off the walls in about 2-3 days. For me, two weeks later I was still feeling it.

Oh well. I at least gave my family something to laugh at when they came into the living room where I camped out and would ask me questions just to hear my vicodin-induced answers. I did catch on when the 11 year old asked if she could take the tractor out for a drive. After initially nodding and muttering "sure" I quickly come to with a "what? no!".

So there it is. I reduced five months of living to just a few pages.

Oh, one thing to add. Just in the last week or so the baby has started the "da-da-da-da" phase. And when I look down at her smiling - and sometimes not smiling - face, and she says "da-da", stress is forgotten, bad memories fade, and she melts my heart. Yes, this old crusted bonehead has turned into a soft mush over the years. So I pick her up and hold her close. All is good.


Copyright 2008, Kevin Farley (a.k.a. sixdrift, a.k.a. neuronstatic)
 

It Doesn't Take Much

So often we find ourselves unsatisfied and in discontent. We see all this "stuff" out there and think that somehow if we had more stuff, we would be happier. Television, radio, newspapers, magazines, and internet ads tell us all we need to really be happy. They tell us daily of the things we need, the stuff that they sell. And if we just bought enough stuff, our hair would grow back, always be perfectly styled, our skin would look younger, we would feel better, look better, be better, and somehow rise above the human condition.

Of course that is until they release their next product and then tell us how the last one was good, but this one is new and improved. That makes the first one old and inferior. And who wants inferior?

Well today I was tired of being in the house and decided to cut the grass. I have a very large yard and a riding lawn mower. It is needed, its not just stuff.

So there I was riding around the front yard, avoiding the bushes, the fire pit, the trees, and the trampoline. I looked over and saw our coon hound just loping around in the shade. One of the kids came out to pick up sticks so I could mow unhindered by such obstacles and I had to pause and be thankful for this moment. Here I was, stuff-deficient, and yet I was satisfied with what I have. Not only satisfied, but thankful to have it.

After 300 pulls to get the string trimmer started, I trimmed the weeds around the horse enclosure so the equine occupant would not be tempted to lean over the fence and eat the oh-so-much-greener grass on the other side. After running from the wasps and finally finishing, we headed off to pick up the two youngest ones who were at their grandmother's house for the weekend.

When we got back, I started up the tractor and fixed the hump in the gravel driveway that formed last winter. I really don't mind the smell of diesel exhaust, as long as I am seated on the tractor.

After removing a dead bush and a dead tree, I took the two youngest girls for a slow ride around the house on the tractor. The 10 year old was thrilled to be able to steer it. Of course my hand was only inches from the wheel at all times. I take no chances with my kids.

After putting the tractor away, the six year old asked if we could build a fire in the fire pit. Last year was horribly dry. This year has been nominally better. So we built a fire, but kept it small enough to be controlled easily.

Sitting out by the fire with my wife and at one point all my daughters (my son had no intention of coming out into the bug-laden evening), I had a lime flavored popsicle, a cup of water, and we sat and listened to the fire, the crickets, the tree frogs, and the coyotes.

Yes, I am happy, satisfied, and content in this scene.

You know, it really doesn't take much.

Or at least, it shouldn't.



Copyright 2008, Kevin Farley (a.k.a. sixdrift, a.k.a. neuronstatic)

Gynecic Familial Accession

To the more astute reader among you, it is already apparent that I have just announced that we are having a baby girl!

It has been about 17 years since I last viewed a baby in the womb via ultrasound. The quality has greatly improved in that time. There were several moments of "oh that is so cool!" and I was completely amazed even though I am something of an old hand at this father thing.

Possibly the coolest part was when the technician held the probe over the baby's heart and you could watch all four chambers of the baby's heart beating in rhythm. It was simply spectacular.

Seeing all the anatomical features of the living baby still inside the womb, moving, wiggling, and doing baby things, one has to pause and marvel at the amazing creation that has taken place and is finalizing form in the mother. It is a miracle of life.

Once while trying to get a better shot of the baby's facial features, she was holding her little arm over her face, as if covering her face in modesty. Wiggling the probe a few times, she finally moved her arm and we could see her face.

During the ultrasound the technician pointed out all the major features. We saw the internal organs, 2 arms, 2 legs, 2 hands, 2 feet, 2 eyes, 1 nose, 2 nostrils, 2 lips, etc., etc., etc.

Simply awesome.

Finally, the technician started looking for the "boy parts" or "girl parts". She said "Do you see those 3 lines there? You are having a baby girl!"

That was a mixed feeling. We have 4 daughters in the house already, and only 1 son. We both kind of wanted a son. But seeing her little hands and feet moving around, you could not help but simply fall in love with her.

I am glad to be having another daughter.

So its "hers, mine, and ours" now. Errrrr... it will be sometime late October once she finally arrives. Until then, we keep praying for her and we keep loving her even though I have never seen her directly.

I like being a father. But I really love being a daddy.

I hope she loves this daddy, because I already love her.


Copyright 2008, Kevin Farley (a.k.a. sixdrift, a.k.a. neuronstatic)

And Then There Were Six

Here's a story, of a lovely lady.
Who was bringing up three very lovely girls...

I won't even try to finish out the Brady bunch song for you. I can't make it work with our situation easily. Too many hair colors on the girls. Anyway, what we have here is a situation where boy meets girl over Internet, boy proposes to girl over Internet, boy marries girl, girl has 3 girls, boy has 1 girl and 1 boy, and now boy and girl are having 1 of their own.

Confused? Let me 'splain.

Now wait, there is too much. Let me sum up.

She had 3, I had 2, we are having 1.

Now using an advanced mathematical formula, graph theory, and a slightly used slide rule we have the following equation:

3 + 2 + 1 = 6

Yes people. My wife is pregnant and I am going to be a father again. Woot! Woot!

Wait, my math is off...

3 + 2 + 1 + 2 parents = 8 total

Dang! I need to apply for government funding. Or sell some kids for scientific research.... not!

Joyfully terrified.



Copyright 2008, Kevin Farley (a.k.a. sixdrift, a.k.a. neuronstatic)

Things You Don't See Anymore, Or At Least Not Much

I was thinking the other day about phone booths. Not the phone stands, but an actual public phone booth out on the street. You know, a Super Man dressing room complete with phone, phone book, and that horrid folding door. You just don't see many of them any more. But once upon a time, you did not have to go far to see several. They were located all over cities and small towns.

In this age of personal mobile phones, there is a seriously declining need for public phones at all. And now, you only find a phone stand, unprotected from the weather, and they never have phone books. But there really is little reason for the phone companies to do much more than that. In reality, for most people a public phone stand is an emergency phone for when their cell phone dies while they are out and about. There simply is no demand for phone booths.

Well, there are phone booths in many bars. It is intended mainly as having a quiet place to talk on the phone and not have to shout above the noise. And some of these booths don't even have phones. It is merely a place for you to sit with your own cell phone away from the cacophony of a modern pub.

And it occurs to me, there are many other things I don't see any more. Thing that once were common. Things I remember from my childhood. Heck, some things I remember from just a decade ago have nearly vanished.

Many of these vanished items that were once common have been talked about at length in blogs, articles, and emails. Everyone knows that vinyl records and eight tracks went the way of the buggy whip, itself a vanished item I never remember being common. VHS and cassette tapes also are becoming near extinct as well. So in addition to phone booths, rotary phones, and full service gas stations, I have come up with my own list of things I don't see any more, but used to see. This is not to say I necessarily miss any of these things, just I don't see them.

And here they are, in no particular order, just random brain picking:

Leaded Gasoline

Do they really have to keep saying "unleaded" now? All of it is unleaded at the pumps, or its diesel.

Quart Oil Cans

Remember those round cardboard cans that required a special nozzle that punched a hole in the top?

Gas Pumps With 2 Digit Pricing

There was a time when it was unthinkable that gasoline would be more than 99 cents a gallon and these pumps simply did not register above 99.9 cents per gallon.

Typewriters

This used to be the main workhorse of offices, now they only exist in tiny numbers.

Carbon Papers

This goes along with typewriters, there is just little use for these in most offices today.

Orange Smelling "Model Airplane Glue"

Because if its stinky enough, people won't sniff it? Right.

Merthiolate/Mercurochrome/Merbromin

At one time, this was a standard item all mother's pulled out for skinned knees and scraped chins - and other assorted cuts.

Plastic Military Model Kits

These are becoming increasingly harder to find. Sure you can still find model military planes, but finding model tanks and jeeps and such is not so easy.

Hypodermic Needle Cleaners and Reusable Needles

Many times I remember seeing the doctor take out a needle from the needle cleaner and get it ready for my behind. Can you imagine reusing needles now?

Unpowered Lawnmowers

I actually had one of these when I had a tiny lawn in modern suburbia. I got a lot of stares at my engine-less mower.

Slide Rules

Admit it, most of you don't really know what a slide rule is for or how to use one. I will give you a hint, you don't measure with it.

Candy Cigarettes

Remember these? Most were simple stick candies colored to resemble cigarettes. I got some once that you could blow through and a little puff of powdered sugar would come out to resemble smoke. Now there's a message to kids.

Reusable Soda Bottles

I remember having to keep the soda bottles in their packs on the back porch after we drank them until we were ready to take them back to the store. Often I would pick up any I could find and take them back with ours to get the deposit refund to buy another bottle of soda (of course).

Glass Bottle Soda Vending Machines

Remember those vending machines where a stack of bottles were held between two rails and you put in your dime (later quarter) and pulled out a "little coke" - one of those awesome 8-ounce wonders of the finest cola put out by Coca-Cola. You can still get the "little cokes" but you pay through the nose for them.

Lawn Darts

Now I would like to have a set of these again. Why anyone thinks giving kids a huge dart that weighs about half a pound that they can hurl at their friends is a bad thing I will never know.

Fuse Plugs

Remember those little screw-in fuses that had a glass top that were used in "fuse boxes"? Their bottoms looked something like the base of a light bulb. We went through tons of these.

"Milkmen"

There once was a time when dairy companies had local milk delivery to your house. I remember the "milkman" coming by only on certain days. We used to save up money (sometimes from returning reusable soda bottles) and bought ice cream from him. Sometimes, he would come out and shoot hoops with us when we had a basketball out.

Fins on Cars

There was a time when most cars had fins. Why anyone thought it looked good, I will never know. This is definitely one I do not miss.

Floppy Disks

Computers originally had only floppy disks (once we passed the short-lived cassette storage). If you are saving a stack of old 5" disks, good luck getting them to read. Its now becoming rare to even find a floppy drive in modern computers. And really, with a max of 1.2 to 1.4 megabytes, they don't hold much. Often now, individual docs and presentations are too large for floppies.

Well, that is all I can think of at this time. If you have suggestions, leave a comment. I would like know what else is vanishing.



Copyright 2008, Kevin Farley (a.k.a. sixdrift, a.k.a. neuronstatic)

The Morning Rush

It was cold and dark in the early winter morning. The stars were brilliant in the clear crisp air as the headlights snapped on when the engine started in a muffled rumble. As the car eased around the unpaved driveway, the crunch of gravel broke what remained of the early morning quiet. Pausing only for a moment at the edge of the driveway, and taking a quick check in both directions, the car launched onto the asphalt and ramped up speed quickly. The long commute out of town began once again.

Few if any cars would be on the roads this early in the morning and the driver was going to take advantage of the situation. Coming to the stop sign just down the road from his house, he waited for one car to roll by and then punched it, giving a short squeal of tires as he headed up the main route. Knowing that 4 hours of driving lay in front of him, he was trying to shave minutes off the drive and was pushing the speed limits as he set off into the darkness.

A few turns and a couple of shortcuts later, the driver and car began a near hour long trek through the dark country side before the lights of the Interstate junction would break the monotony of the morning.

Knowing this route well, each turn, each pothole, and where the cops can hide, he hurtled through the darkness. Inside, the heater was blowing, the MP3 player was belting out deep bass on the car's sound system, and the GPS display matched each nuance of the road's path through the foot hills.

Speed limit 55, that's ridiculous...
The driver kept a watch on the road and his gauges. Looking for any sign of deer, road hazards, and cops, he pushed well past the speed limit.

79, that's enough, I don't want to be stupid about it, but its pointless to go 55 here.

Several minutes and quite a few miles pass as he pressed on. The engine of this former police cruiser was barely getting a workout. This engine and this car can handle speed. It holds to the road and it handles well.

Headlights? Coming up from behind?

At first only a single pair of headlights back in the distance could be seen. A few more minutes pass and a second set appeared right behind the first.

No one in their right mind would be gaining on me. Not at this speed.

Easing off the gas, the car rolled along, dropping speed slowly.

Dang! 59 and these guys are right on me. Maybe they will pass.

Keeping a close watch on the speed, hovering just above 55 but not too much, these three were the only cars on the road.

Why won't he just pass me? Oh crap...

The blue lights came on both cars running behind him as they neared a church. With a knot in the pit of his stomach, the driver pulled into the church parking lot, came round a median, and stopped with easy access back out onto the road. Both police cruisers rolled in behind him with their headlights filling his car interior and the side floods turn on as well.

She's gonna kill me, I know she's gonna kill me. She told me to not get a ticket.

As he turned off the MP3 player and fumbled for the registration from the glove box, the driver took a quick look in the side mirrors. The cops from the first car were already out of their vehicle. The driver was walking forward with one hand carrying what seemed to be an overly large flashlight in one hand, and his other hand on his holster. His partner lingered back on the other side of the car in similar form, again with one hand on his weapon.

Oh crap! This doesn't look right.
Finding the registration finally, he took another look in the mirrors. The cops from the second car had emerged from their vehicle, but were standing behind their doors.

What are they expecting? Are these guys really serious?.
As the cop approached the open window, he shone the flashlight all around the inside and outside of the car.

"You were going pretty fast back there mister."

Oh crap!
Blurting out "I'm sorry!" he handed his license and registration over to the policeman.

"So... do you have some reason that you need to be going so fast? Some place you need to be? Or not be?"

"No sir. I am so sorry."

"So, are you on your way to work then?"

"Yes sir. I have a long commute. I am headed over to Raleigh."

"Did you know your inspection sticker has expired?"

"What? Oh crap! No sir! I am so sorry."

I think I am so going to jail this morning.
"So you are just on your way to work. Tell me, did you pass any cars along the road? Specifically, did you pass any little silver cars? Possibly with the back window blown out of it?"

Dang. Window blown out? Like shot out?
"No sir, not that I recall. In fact, except for you guys, I haven't seen any other cars on the road."

"Do you realize how fast you were going back there?"

"Yes sir. And I am so sorry."

"Tell me... do you have a cell phone?"

What?
"A cell phone? Yes sir I do."

"Would you do us a favor then? If you see a little silver car somewhere along the road, would you call in and report it? Don't stop or go near it, but just call it in?"

"... Sure... do I just dial 911?"

"Yes, that will do. If you see a car like that, just call 911 and tell them about where you saw it. Will you do that for us?

"Absolutely."

"Ok then. Now listen... I want you to slow down. It is dangerous to drive that fast on this road. So get on to work and watch your speed. Ok?"

"Yes sir. I will."

As he fumbled putting the registration back in the glove box, he pondered these last few minutes.

Dang. They are looking for someone. And if they had not been looking for someone... oh crap.
Looking all around, he watched the officers get back in their vehicles. He looked up and down the road, and eased onto the asphalt once again. No squealing tires, no fast acceleration, no sudden moves of any kind. Just slow and easy. For the last 15 miles of this leg of the drive, his top speed was 55.

The morning had started with a rush. But this most recent delay to his commute was more of a rush than he anticipated or wanted. And fortunately, the remaining 3 hours of his trek were boring and uneventful and within all speed limits.

Arriving at the office half-way across the state, he was greeted with "You're a little late aren't you?"

"Oh well. Stuff happens."



Copyright 2008, Kevin Farley (a.k.a. sixdrift, a.k.a. neuronstatic)