Life

I needed that

/ hsoi

My day job sucks.

Yeah yeah, happy to have a job, good pay, work from home. I know all that. But that doesn’t change the fact that it sucks.

You suck it up, you do your job. That’s how it goes. I have a family to provide for, and I know there’s little out there that can help me manage like this job does. So I know all the good, I know the advantages, I know the blessings. But I’m still miserable.

The past couple weeks have been especially demoralizing and destructive.

But something happened.

Sure, I look at my blog stats to see what’s going on, and sometimes I wonder where all the hits to a certain page have come from. One such page is this one, about Mental Toughness. I write a lot, don’t always remember what I write, so I went back to read it.

It is not easy getting over any shattering experiences, but with guts and determination, you can get over any painful ordeal. Life is full of disappointments and letdowns. When we don’t get what we want, the consolation is that we gain experience. This doesn’t seem like a worthwhile prize, but see how the adversity can enlighten you. If may not be obvious, but look hard at any opportunity for personal growth. Take in the life lesson and move on.

So allow me to rephrase…

I’m presently gaining a lot of experience, enlightenment, and undergoing massive amounts of personal growth. 🙂

Oddly tho, when I step back to look at things, I see it… and I see the growth in more ways than the obvious. Question is… what am I going to do with it?

We shall see.

But at least, after a long crappy couple of weeks… reading the above was a needed reminder.

We’re Pro Choice, when it serves us

/ hsoi

Generally speaking, those of the “Liberal” or “Democrat” ilk claim to be “of the people”, and all about “choice”.

It’s my body, let me do what I want with it. It’s my life, stay out of our bedrooms. And so on. Choice choice choice.

So if they’re so pro choice, why aren’t the consistently pro choice?

They tend to be anti-gun. Why do they deny a woman the ability to choose how to defend herself? If you want to choose to defend yourself with a knee to the crotch and yelling “NO!” that’s your choice. I think a serving of lead is a lot more effective, but hey… it’s your choice.

They want to choose what we can and cannot see for advertising, because it could “harm the children”. We can’t choose what to see, what to watch, what to be exposed to, and how to raise our own children. No choice, they know better.

We can’t choose to raise food for ourselves, nor to consume the food we raise.

We can’t choose what to put in our own bodies. Even those things well-established to be good for us. Seems to be rather contradictory, when they clamor about health and obesity, then people want to do things to help their health, no no… can’t do that.

Even if it’s something that could be harmful, aren’t I an adult that’s allowed to make my own choices?

I just don’t get it.

If you’re so “pro choice” why aren’t you consistently pro choice?

(The “Conservatives”/Republicans are well out to control you too, but at least they don’t claim to be pro choice). And if you don’t know, I don’t affiliate myself with either of these goon parties.

Driving to the bus stop?

/ hsoi / 15 Comments

When I walk home from the gym in the morning, if I hit it at just the right time I walk by a school bus stop. I’ve been seeing something at the bus stop that I find curious:

Why are parents driving their kid to the bus stop and dropping them off?

I’ve seen it enough, and by the same cars/parents, that I know this isn’t some one-time fluke such as Junior running late. As someone who went to public school for K-12 and either walked or took the bus, I do know what a pain it can be for parents if Junior misses the bus.

But that’s not what I see.

Are these children living so far away from the bus stop they can’t walk? Perhaps, but most school systems make the bus routes and stops within reasonable walking distance. From the looks of it, I’d say these are junior-high school kids, so they certainly have the physical ability to walk a little ways.

Heck, the other morning as I was walking home, I saw a minivan pull out of a driveway… drive 2 blocks to the bus stop… drop off the child… then the mother drove back home.

WTF?

Two blocks.

Your child couldn’t walk two blocks?

I’m dying to ask that parent just why they drive their child to the bus stop, especially when this is a vehicle I’ve seen do this on numerous occasions.

Is it a matter of being late to the bus? Well, every parent seems to be arriving well on time and if in fact you do miss the bus it teaches you two things: 1. how to run (faster), 2. how not to be late so you don’t miss the bus again. They can also teach you the value of “hustle”, which seems to have a different meaning to kids these days.

Yeah, I sound like a grumpy old man now… uphill both ways in the snow.

Nevertheless, I find it most curious and perhaps a little bothersome. Maybe it’s because I’m walking home from the gym, which is not just that I’m in a post-exercise frame of mind but because I intentionally chose to walk to/from the gym because I think it’s kinda silly to drive half a mile when the whole purpose is to exercise… it’s like that famous picture of the escalators outside a 24 Hour Fitness. And we go on and on about kids not getting enough exercise, when walking a few blocks every day would certainly do them good.

Could it be they don’t feel the kids are safe? I grant the world may have some ugly people in it, but if you won’t let your child walk 2 blocks away from your own house then perhaps you should reconsider where you live in the first place. Or maybe consider not letting your child out of your sight, ever.

Or maybe this is just that day of helicopter parenting, when parents give all for their children… everything except the ability, confidence, and wherewithal to do things for themselves. Not sure how kids are going to survive because someday they will have to be allowed out from under their parent’s wings.

I’m sure I’m filling in the informational gaps with my own biases. I don’t know why these parents keep driving their kids a few blocks to the bus stop. Still, I find it curious. Maybe one morning I’ll ask.

Wildfire help from Hank Fleming

/ hsoi

Were you or someone you know directly affected by the recent Texas wildfires (Bastrop, Cedar Creek, Spicewood, Steiner Ranch, etc.)?

Hank Fleming, one of Austin’s finest gunsmiths, posted the following to the TXIPSC mailing list. I asked Hank if I could repost to spread the word, and he said yes. So, here I repost:

Hank Fleming, Gunsmith, Austin TX offers to the fire victims of the Bastrop
fires

New guns @ my cost plus 5% (the 5% will pay my expenses, not a profit)

Internet transfers…$10.00 per transfer.

Please allow me to help in this way.

Having a house burn when I was a teen ager, I understand your loss.

Regards,

Hank Fleming

Very kind of him, to help in the way that he can.

Please help spread the word.

Parenting: you’re doing it wrong, tale #85992592968290

/ hsoi / 5 Comments

Dear Parent of the whiny child at the music store last night:

When your husband went into the cymbal room and the door closed behind him, then myself and the clerk heard this shriek of a small child, we both wheeled around thinking the child got its fingers caught in the closing door.

That was not the case. No… the child was just upset that it wasn’t allowed to go into the cymbal room. Sure, you tried to explain to the 2-3 year old that it was in their best interest to not go into that room, and for their sensitive ears that’s a good decision.

If you had stuck to your guns, if you had remained the parent — you know, the one in control of the situation — things would have been better.

Alas, you did as too many “parents” today do, you gave into the child. In fact, you said something like “Well, if you’re just going to keep whining about it, then ok, you can go in.” And proceeded to open the door for the child and let her/him into the cymbal room.

And now the child knows… if I am not getting what I want, whine and cry, pitch a fit, and eventually they will give in. It doesn’t matter if the thing is bad for me or not, and chances are I, being a small child, don’t know that it’s bad for me… but my “parents” will give it to me anyways.

*sigh*

 

Being prepared – bug out bag

/ hsoi / 7 Comments

If there’s anything this wildfire situation has demonstrated, it’s that I’m not as prepared as I thought I was.

Sure, we have some preparations in place for sitting tight, like if bad weather rolled through, could we sit tight on the homefront with extra water, food and so on. There are certainly some areas here where we could tighten things up, but we’re alright.

But we’re just not as prepared to bail if we have to. We thought we were, we’re not.

Oh sure, we can get it together, but consider the fires. Here’s raw footage from the Bastrop fires showing how fast a fire can spread:

If a fire broke out in the greenbelt behind our house, we have to leave NOW. Can we do that? Well, we can leave, but we’d be almost empty-handed.

I’ve looked into the concept of “bug-out-bags” for a while, but it was something that always got pushed down the priority list because other things took greater priority. But now? No… it can’t be a lower priority any more: it has to be up at the top.

The helpful thing? Wife has bought into the concept. I have to admit, that it’s sometimes hard to get things going in the household when I’m the only one that buys into it. But if Wife buys into it too, that helps the Kiddos buy into it, and so when everyone’s behind it, things have a better chance of getting done and staying a priority. Plus I think the reality of the fires made things more concrete for the kids, because well… they’re kids, they just don’t have the life experience to put things into perspective, but this sure gave them that perspective.

So, we’re going to be picking up our prep efforts in this area. Building bug-out-bags, and just being prepared. Because well… we hope to never need them, but we’ll be so thankful to have them if we do. It’s just like anything in life: the better prepared you are for when something happens — especially something that catches you by surprise — the better off you’ll be.

the fires burn on…

/ hsoi / 5 Comments

The fires presently consuming central Texas have naturally been on my mind the past 48 hours.

Personally, I’m fine. My home and family are not in any direct danger from the major fires occurring in the area. There are lots of small fires popping up, including one that burned a couple acres of woods that bordered the north side of our church just a few miles from my home. I back up to a small greenbelt which connects to hundreds of acres of dry trees and grass. I used to love looking around Austin because it was full of greenery and was not a concrete jungle like so many cities… but now all I see is a tinderbox.

As least the winds have died down.

Last night we saw our mother muscovy duck and her 14… no.. 15?? ducklings? Suddenly there was a newcomer, but we could tell it was a mallard duckling. Strange. Haven’t seen any mallard mother/baby groups around here, but since the mallard was being aggressively rejected by the muscovy’s we scooped up the mallard and went to the pond to go look. Ran into a couple kids there that claimed the duckling was theirs, that they had released. They are evacuees from Bastrop, came to stay at a friend’s house and of course they brought what critters they could. Apparently there were other ducklings but didn’t make it (unclear as to why) and I guess then they figured seeing the one mother and babies that they’d adopt this one… alas, that wasn’t the case. We encouraged them to take the duckling back since he’d for sure not make it on his own right now, but I suspect the duckling will be released again because if this family lost their home… what can they do with and for the duckling?

I wanted to reach out and hug those kids last night, tho social properness told me not to. I just didn’t know what to say to the kids so I just let them talk and tell their story. One boy… all he has is the clothes on his back, his skateboard, his fishing pole, and his Bible. He said those were the most important things to him and so that’s what he grabbed as they hurried to leave.

I’ve seen scenes that horrify me, like pictures of the burning homes. Or I can just look up in the sky and see the thick haze of smoke that literally surrounds Austin.

I’ve seen scenes that anger me. TXGunGeek recounts some jackass opting to burn things! Wife told me she read a friend’s Facebook posting where their neighbor was grilling; was confronted and told to stop and he flat out refused. So they called the police and 4 boys in blue came to persuade him to stop grilling. Good. With all that’s going on around us, people continue to engage in behavior that feeds these very situations. People are still flicking their cigarette butts onto the ground. Why they do it is a mystery to me, but I’d be happy to educate them with a size 12 boot up their ass.

But I’ve also seen scenes that make me smile. Local morning DJ Dale Dudley was displaced by the fires but instead of sitting on his butt he got to work to do something about it. While not formally organized, he kept active on Twitter calling for help, working to get with some groups, and organize something to gather donations and get them out to people who needed it. The entire show this morning was talking about the fires, getting information out, taking calls, and so on. Seeing people wanting to help, people setting aside problems and matters of less importance and trying to do what they can to help…. that’s great.

It’s going to take months to recover from this… maybe years. I’m supposed to head out Bastrop way on Saturday and I’m sure the entire drive is going to be done with mouth agape and lots of somber headshaking. Things are going to be mighty different.

 

It’s hard to get on with my life when I can only think about all the people around me whose lives are so radically disrupted. We are packed and ready to go out the door if we have to, and I even think about that and what that would be like. Frankly, it’s nothing I want to think about. Look forward, help those affected, continue onward.

Fires

/ hsoi / 6 Comments

The greater Austin area is burning. Many fires are breaking out. Some 16,000+ acres in Bastrop (east of Austin), 300-400 homes estimated destroyed. Lots of evacuations, other things. The increased winds not only are fanning the flames but taking humidity out of the air.

What gets me?

Much of this could have been prevented. Just about every fire I’ve heard about (these new ones or ones throughout this past summer) were started by something that could have been avoided. I know one up north of us yesterday was started because someone left their grill unattended. I read this morning another was started because some girl was burning love letters.

Yes people… it can happen to you. You are not so safe in your practices that somehow you are the exception to the rules of nature and physics.

I know it’s Labor Day. I know we’re all excited because the temperatures are cooler. But we’re still in the worst drought ever. We’re in conditions just ripe for fires — witness what’s burning this morning! I know that burgers taste better cooked over an open flame, but uh… these aren’t the sort of open flames we want. Folks, your burger isn’t that important.

Please, don’t have outdoor fires, even in bbq pits because embers can and do escape.

Please, don’t throw your cigarette butts on the ground or out your car window. Many fires start that way.

We were going to go shopping for clothing for the kiddos today, but instead we’re going to prep some things around the homefront, just in case.

Stay safe.

New laws in effect

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

It’s September 1, and that means new laws are in effect for Texas.

Take a look here for a summary and rundown.

And remember, regarding speed limits, just because the law might say one thing doesn’t mean you can go zipping around at the faster speeds… yet. It’s a matter of what’s POSTED. Of course, this all implies you adhere to posted limits in the first place….