One of my favorite shows is coming back for a 2nd season on January 18th and this is the last song from the first episode, which you just so happen to be able to watch in its fullness online at joost.com. Hope you enjoy, the last 30 seconds of the video had me rolling.

Alright I know I haven’t blogged in a while and it’s high time I climbed back up on that horse and started participating in this thing called the internet again. Honestly I haven’t missed it to much, I don’t know what that says. It’s good to take a break every once and a while, and in my defense I have stepped up my twittering. I got back from our annual trip to Alabama this past Friday, and let me tell you I had a blast. I love getting out of Florida. I never expected to live here as long as I have. When I was younger I told everyone I was going to move to Alaska or North Carolina, or Tennessee, pretty much anywhere but here. I don’t know what it was, I just didn’t feel like I was supposed to live here. But in the last few years I have started to appreciate Florida more and more. Still, every chance I get to leave the state I take it. As you know from my early posts I am an avid outdoors men I love to deer hunt, and this last Wednesday God blessed me with the best deer I have ever harvested. It was a six point buck and weighed about 180 lbs. It was an awesome experience. It was a very windy morning and after climbing down out of a tree stand at about 0930 I decided to follow a game trail back into the woods. After hiking for about half an hour I came to a valley where the trees thinned out and a creek marked the edge of the property I had permission to hunt. I walked down to edge of the water and marveled at the His creativeness for a few minutes before heading back the way I came. When I looked back for the trail that I been following I saw him. He had literally followed me in to the clearing, not more then five minutes behind me. I knew at a glance that this was a nice buck and quickly crawled out of the creek bed onto a small embankment to get in a better position. I found a clean shot through the scope and squeezed the trigger. I don’t remember feeling the recoil of the gun despite it’s large caliber, I must have been really focused. Still looking through the scope I saw him hit the ground, it was a quick humane kill, the kind you hope for. The fist thing I did was stop and pray, thanking God for blessing me, something my dad taught me to do. I spent the rest of the morning dragging my prize out of the woods and cleaning every scrap of meat leaving nothing to waste. When all was said and done I had a 100 quart cooler 3/4 of the way full with meat, and more of an understanding for the way God honors his promise to bless those who are faithful stewards.

   I have a very complex job. Not complex in that only a select few could do it, but more like in the way a recipe is complex. Comprised of many ingredients and specific ways to handle them in order to make the dish come out right. There are cramped living quarters and the tolerance required to live with people having such different personalities is a big challenge. We go from dead asleep to 80mph screaming down the highway with lights and sirens, on your way to god knows what. Or maybe we are just taking an old ladies blood pressure and having one of the only conversations she will have with anyone all week. We sweep and mop and scrub and dust and cook and wash and shammy and come back in 3 days and do it all over again. Everyones different ways of handling these situations and tasks are interesting to watch and can often be analyzed to discover things about human nature and my own nature. But one of my favorite things to sit back and observe is conversation. It is, however a specific kind of conversation that is most Intresting to me. Often comprised of no more then 3 people and is by invitation only, which means if I want to observe I have to be an active participant. It is usually held outside (regardless of the weather) and is accompanied by some form of stimulant ending in -eine. (caffeine or the other kind of -eine we won’t mention for fear of glamorizing it to all the little kids who read this blog) These dialogs are political in nature (local government and fire dept politics, not federal government) and when observed from the outside look akin to dramatized historical accounts of the patriots discussing the revolution in a dark pub corner. This is never more so then when the parties involved are from two different shifts. Each shift has it’s own way of looking at things and bringing someone from another shift into the discussion is usually done to get a feel for how that shift as a whole will side on a certain topic. Key phrases like “it’s going to be interesting” replace personal opinions. This phrase “It’s going to be interesting” is repeated over and over, where as when observing from the outside it would almost become comical like the punch line in a Saturday Night Live skit. Ideas and viewpoints are closely guarded and only offered when asked, with great care given to the choice of words so as not to show too much passion for the subject. It is very much like a game of poker. Everyone is keeping their cards real close, looking for the the other guys signature “tell”, feeling out the table and trying to decide if you have a good enough hand to play. The colloquies can last hours or minutes depending on the subject and who tries to join in. However they almost always end the same way, “It’s going to be interesting”.

Am I the only one who analyzes things like this. If you do it  too, tell me something you’ve noticed and dissected in the comments.

Moss hangs, sways from the weathered trees; oaks, cypress and imported maples, like grey beards. How appropriate does it show there age, even better than there rings. There heritage and history presented proudly. Firmly standing, stretching, showing there territory earned by seniority along small lakes in small towns. These gardians of the lake spaced ever so slightly just enough to allow strangers a glimpse of the shimmering blues and greens. The ancient arboreal have endured hurricanes, tornadoes, hail and chain saws. They’ve seen there grandfathers cut down, cousins blown over, even a distant relative who suffered lightning, splitting him from the highest branch to the lowest root. Baring witness to the coldest winters and the hottest summers, torrential rains and torturous droughts. This history only reviled when one is laid to rest. They have endured and outlived us, peacefully coexisting offering shade and sharing the breeze, providing the exchange required for us to stay alive and in return receiving only our short company. How one-sided this relationship is that He has established. We are truly favored among His creations.

Elizabeth: Dad what’s your favorite holiday?
Me: Uhhhh St. Patrick’s Day
Elizabeth: because you want to find the leprechaun, and the pot of gold?
Me: yes
Elizabeth: my favorite holiday is Christmas
Me: Why
Elizabeth: because you get to buy gifts and give them to people and you get to bake christmas cookies, and leave them for santa.
Me: (thinking…..? how….?…. I suck)
Elizabeth: Im gonna ask santa how to find St. Patrick the leprechaun’s gold for you
Me: awesome.

What’s your favorite holiday and why?

This past weekend hunting season for general gun started. Hunting is my thing. I love being in the woods. I know it doesn’t seem possible, computer nerd that likes to hunt, but what can I say? Im a well rounded guy. I enjoy all sorts of outdoor activities; camping, fishing, hiking. I hunt hogs with dogs year around and fish whenever I get invited (I don’t have a boat), but I generally try to have my self in the woods or on the water a few times a month, with one exception. From November 8th-January 18th I am frantic to get to the woods every chance I get. Some people like going to the beach, for some people its visiting big cities, but my Idea of a great vacation is walking trough the woods searching for the perfect little spot to sit and wait.  Im excited to get up early, (read: butt-crack of dawn) sneak out to a pre-scouted locale in freezing temperatures and wait for the sun to come up. It’s awesome. It reminds me how creative God is, and also that He has a since of humor. He has to when he sees me sitting, shivering, smiling, and praying for a chance to see bambi a nice mature buck, walk out in a clear shooting lane. I have harvested four deer in my life and with each one, before it was moved I knelt beside the animal and thanked God for allowing me to take it. That was taught to me by my dad and is a tradition I plan to pass on to my children and grandchildren.

  So my blogging will be few and far between for the next couple of months. I know…I know, what will you ever do, but trust me you’ll be fine, there are plenty of other…better blogs out there, just check out my blog roll. And If you’ve never tried hunting, or your really offend by the idea, then take a look at this. It may give you a different point of view, or at least a more educated one. If you would like me to answer any questions about hunting leave a comment and I’ll do my best to steer you in the right direction.  For all my fellow hunters out there, leave a comment on a memorable hunting experience, or your favorite hunting season.

I havent wrote in a really long time. I’ve been busy with work…bla, bla, bla. Since I decided to use that excuse Im going to share with you, the tax payers, (the ones who sign my checks) what it is I’ve been so busy doing on your time.

Monday 8am

got to work ate breakfast
spent an hour discussing where to hide fake roaches
half hour hiding roaches
half an hour waiting and giggling while people discovered roaches

10am

one hour checking vehicle (ie. ladder truck and all equipment)
half hour cleaning the station
half hour discussing what we did on our two days off. (this included hang over stories, puking stories and girl stories)

11am to 1pm

ate lunch, found a place to hide quiet place, slipped into a comma trained by imagining fire situations.

2pm
started detailing the ladder truck. This includes taking the old grease off and applying new grease. Its a real important job that……. Im sorry, you can’t read sarcasm.
While in the process of detailing, it is custom to tell stories and have cultural, classy discussions. Today’s discussion was comprised of a rousing story of an out of order gas station bathroom and a guy that was forced to #2 on lots of assorted backed up #2s. This led, as it often does to the guy with the weakest stomach gaging and having to walk away as everyone else makes puking sounds in an attempt to witness the “holy grail” of guy humor, watching your buddy throw-up. We were not so fortunate this time.

3-5pm
Washing trucks, planning pranks, and complaining about other shifts, also generally staying off “white shirt” radar.

At this time most people would be going home, however my day isn’t even halfway over. I will spare you the rest of the shift and just let you know that if we plan pranks we carry them out. The later part of the shift is also taken up with eating dinner catching up on my hulu queue, and hopefully sawing some serious logs. But unfourtunatley this is also the time the impoverished part of the city comes alive and needs to get there percocet fix has medical emergencies.

Tuesday 7am

wake up clean station for on-coming crew and wait for the clock to strike 8

Thats it, tough job but somebody has to do it.

ps I also worked tuesday, yep 48 hours straight.

   This is constantly happening to me. Im driving along listening to the Ipod on shuffle, when a song will come on I’ve heard a dozen times or more, but this time it becomes something totally different to me. It makes me think of someone or sometime, and then bam, that song is forever changed for me. It was this song today.

   Now this song could mean alot of things to different people, but when I listened to it today, it took me back to one person and one time. This is probably the single most influencial person that has ever come into my life, and I haven’t seen him since I was 10. This was a man among men, so much so that I seriously considered not writing this, for fear of not doing him justice. I’m sure there is someone out there who knew him longer than I did, and would say I’m romanticizing him or he was just a good guy. But that doesn’t matter, because he was huge to me. For the 10 years I had the opportunity of knowing him, he showed me the best example of how “Christ-like” a regular person could be, and I believe this is in integral part of understanding Christ’s love. Seeing an example of it in a personal, tangible way. I pray for his peace, his since of humor, his patience. I strive to be the husband and father he was.

   Luckily he is not completely gone from my life. I get to see little parts of him all the time through other people he touched. Like this person’s creativeness and love for God.

Here is a great example of how he shared those two things.

  When I was young I wanted to go to the rain forest and collect poison arrow frogs. When I was young I wrote poetry. I even won a mothers day contest and got published in the Ledger. When I was young I use to sing. I had long hair, was a skateboarder, and was in a christian punk-rock band.  When I was young I had pet snakes, turtles, frogs, owls, crows, dogs, iguanas, cockatiel, and a hedgehog. The first CD I ever bought was The Presidents of the United States of America, self titled album. When I was young I was afraid to tell the truth. I was even more afraid to tell a lie. I have snuck out and toilet papered houses, drank before I was 21, before i was 15, and went to peoples houses that I should not have gone to. Once I left the Orange festival walked to the christian book store got a ride from a perfect stranger to a venue, then took a ride from another, more scary stranger back to the orange festival. I have broke my arm and chopped my toe off with a hatchet. I have been partially electrocuted, shot, drowned, run-over, burned and poisoned. I got married, had kids, bought a house, and started a career. Just not in that order.

The word Colorful comes to mind.

   This morning on my way home with the girls, I did something I haven’t done in a while. I looked up. Now this seems simple, but the perspective is one I haven’t enjoyed in a long time. I was on the same road looking up at the same treetops I used to look at when I was a child, on my way to “gram’s” house. This brought back a flood of memories and at the same time made me think of my family. Then my brain, combining the image of the trees and the thoughts of family, turned to the idea of genealogy.(my brain is just weird like that i cant help it) My family tree is full of interesting people and stories, not to much unlike yours, Im sure. I’ve been told Im part Cherokee(me and every other tan floridian), and Im sure Im part Irish, on my moms side. (my great grandmother was a leprechaun… no literally) I have even been told that a great great… uncle cut out his own appendix,(this I can believe, only because of the amount of alcohol one would have to be able to drink to do something like that) but I’ve never gotten any true family history. So I have decided to try and get as much information about my family as possible. That some day when one of my children are writing on their “holoblog”  and start contemplating their heritage, they will have something more exciting to tell then their old man did.

What’s your family tree like? Tell me about your heritage or any historically famous/infamous persons you have the pleasure of sharing genes with.