Category: Personal

Items of personal interest to me, my family and my friends.

I’m going to California (Part I)

Bobby

Nearly a year ago my friend Kara, formerly of Loveland Colorado and now living in beautiful San Diego, got married. My sister and I (Kara’s actually Lindsey’s friend) were going to go. We bought tickets, had our bags packed and were headed for an early flight out of DIA (which incidentally I was in trouble for scheduling. Appearantly Lindsey thinks all vacations should start at 4pm).

The night prior to our depature I recieved a phone call from my sister. Her husband, Bob (yeah, we have the same first name – It’s not THAT strange), had fallen off a bicycle and hurt his knee. We might have to cancel the trip. I waited on pins and needles for her next phone call. When she called she had bad news. Bob had broken his knee and was going to have to surgery – she couldn’t go to San Diego. I could have went by myself, but it didn’t sound like fun, so after multiple cursing, hitting walls and yelling at the dogs I called the airlines and changed our tickets.

Later I found out the actual situation. Bob had been working late and Lindsey, as the wonderful wife she is, had taken him some food. The plant where he works is gated and one of his co-workers suggested Bob ride his bicycle out to the gate. Bob rode out to the gate and attempted to balance his supper on the handlebars of the bicycle. His balancing attempt failed and he planted his foot to regain his balance. Unfortunately, he lost more than his balance, his knee shattered, an ambulance was called, surgery was performed with multiple pins and our trip was cancelled. All this for a personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut.

Now fast forward 11 months. Kara’s wedding is (obviously) over, but we still have tickets for San Diego. We are finally going to see her. Booked the tickets this weekend and requested the time off work. I’ve never been to California, so I am excited. Pray that there are no more freak accidents this time.

Stupid Global Warming

Bobby

Global Warming. It’s the hot buzzword these days. Between Al Gore’s movie, the price of gas and the scientists testifying in Congress it’s all you hear.

Funny thing though, wouldn’t have thought Global Warming would make it COLDER. Yet here I am, on the 8th of July 2006, in a Colorado summer and it’s 69 degrees and raining. Not even the afternoon thunderstorm raining we typically get, no, it’s a November drizzle. If it was 20 degrees colder it would be snowing.

Anyone who has ever spent any time on the Colorado Front Range could tell you we have two kinds of weather. Warm and dry in the summer, cold and dry in the winter. A normal summer day consists of beautiful morning, temperatures rising into the 90s in the after noon and a thunderstorm about 4:00pm. I heard somewhere that we have more sunny days in Colorado than they do in Florida, The Sunshine State.

This summer, has not quite been so predictable. We started out in April and May with scorching temperatures (for the time of year), but by mid June it started cooling off. The 4th of July sky looked like a December snowstorm. I’m sure my localized observations are not indicative of planet wide climate change, but I definitely don’t think the whole global warming bit is living up to it’s name.

Risk Management

Bobby

In the wake of Ben Roethlisberger’s motorcycle accident I have been getting more static than usual about riding my bike. My sister and I had a heated discussion today on the topic. I like to ride, but she thinks I shouldn’t because it’s dangerous.

This discussion brings up some interesting (at least for me) philisophical issues. The first concerns risk management. How do we, as semi-rational people, come to a concensus on what is safe and what is dangerous. As a motorcycle rider, I believe the problem is with the traffic. Perhaps motorcycles would be safer if there was better awareness, better training and perhaps stiffer penalties on people that cause accidents with their 3000+ lbs automobiles. My sister believes that anyone that engages in what she believes is the high risk behavior of motorcycle riding is at fault for participating in an activity that exceeds her acceptable risk threshold. My question is, where do we draw the line? Is motorcycle riding an acceptable risk? If not, is bicycle riding? Should we get up every morning, slather ourselves with sunscreen and strap on a helmet just in case we go out in the sun or fall down? Should we eat only organic food? Should we lysol bomb our whole house so we don’t get infections? Should we, like Ben Stiller’s character in Along Came Polly, enter every activity we engage in into a computer and live based on the results?

It definitely seems like we all live in a world of our own little construction when it comes to managing risk. One of the largest areas where this is evident is in parenting. I am at the age that, while I don’t have children myself, many of my friends and family are having babies. Nearly everyone seems to rationalize decisions they make for their children based on some kind of internal risk calculation. I won’t go into any specific details right here, but I’m guessing you know what I mean. Things like the amount of supervision they are given, car seats, food they eat, vaccines, where they are allowed to play etc… ect… One parent might be fanatical about having they latest and greatest car seats and helmets while another is ridiculous about only eating certain types of foods? Who is right? Who is wrong? How do we make this judgement?

That great red stuff

Bobby

Growing up my culinary experiences were limited. Part of this was due to our financial situation. Farming in Colorado during the 70's and early 80's wasn't the most lucrative profession. My mother didn't work when I was young, so we survived on the farm income. With six mouths to feed eating out was pretty much limited to the occasional Friday night pizza and McDonalds after church on Sundays. Being on a tight budget also doesn't give much latitude for experimentation. The other major reason for our standardized menu was my father's tastes. Dad was a meat and potatoes kind of guy (he has advanced somewhat as he's aged), and by meat I mean ground beef. He didn't care much for pasta, chicken or even cheese.

One of the results of this sheltered existence was a lack of exposure to Chinese cuisine. My idea of Chinese food was ground beef mixed with LaChoy Bean Sprouts La Choy Bean Sprouts, topped with La Choy Chow Mein noodles and covered with soy sauce. It's not that this wasn't good, but it wasn't my favorite dish, and based on this I wasn't keen on trying additional Chinese recipes. As a result, I ended up being 20 years old and hadn't really eaten at a good Chinese buffet.

One day I was going to meet a friend for lunch, he suggested Chinese. Due to some problems with my bike, I ended up being late. My friend had to leave, but he had already paid for my lunch. I thought, “what the heck, I can eat some bean sprouts”, so I stayed and ate lunch alone. The food was excellent, and at the end of the meal I started looking for something to finish off the experience. I noticed a pan full of some kind of red stuff at the beginning of the line, next to the soup, so I tasted it. Having never been introduced to sweet and sour sauce I made the logical assumption – this must be a Chinese dessert. I'm sure everyone else at the restaurant thought I was insane, but I went and got a bowl me a bowl of sweet and sour. It wasn't until I later related this story to some friends that I realized Sweet and Sour wasn't normally eaten from a bowl…

Last Friday I had lunch at a Chinese place with my sister and nephew. John, who just turned two, makes a total disaster out of Chinese food – rice and noodles go EVERYWHERE. The thing I found funny was his love for sweet and sour. He started using his fork (Chinese restaurants don't seem to like to give you spoons) to eat the Sweet and Sour all by itself. I'm not sure if I should be proud that my nephew and I share the same good taste in food, or be embarrassed that as an adult I behaved like a two year old.

Going to the Dogs

Bobby

My nephew John is going to be 2 in one week. For his birthday my sister said I could get him a dog. I know, many of you are probably thinking ‘why would you get a two year old a dog’? Well, here’s the thing. They have a dog, but she’s a pekingese and isn’t fond of kids. Not much fun to play with. I have two dogs, a beagle and a basset (Lucy and Ethel) and John LOVES to play with these dogs. They are planning on having more children, so I’m not sure when there will be a better time to get him a dog and my sister would like to not have a puppy and a baby to deal with at the same time.

Sounds simple, doesn’t it? You are probably thinking ‘Just buy the kid a dog – why are you writing about this???’ Here’s the problem. We can’t settle on a breed. I have researched every site I can find and the more I read the more complicated it gets. My sister wants a small dog (ideally around 15 lbs) that will be well behaved, but sturdy enough to play with John. I want to get him a boy’s dog. No Lhasa Ahpsos, Pomeranians, etc… I would love to get him a beagle, but my brother-in-law vetoed that idea – doesn’t care for Lucy’s baying. I thought I had settled on a Sheltie. At least on site I read said they are good with kids and a good family dog. They are a working breed so should be fairly sturdy. Unfortunately my sister visited a family member this week that told her they are terrible with children, plus she didn’t think a puppy for any child under 5 was a good idea, so I’m back at square one. As I said, I have 7 days to find a suitable pet (actually I’m not really that worried about any deadlines).

So, now I have a decision to make. My latest plan is to visit the local humane society(s) and rescue shelters. Perhaps we would be better with a young dog (2 years) rather than a puppy. My concern is some rescued dogs have been abused and are more neurotic than usual. I want to find them a good dog – mostly because it will probably end up at my house if it’s not good. If anyone out there has suggestions or ideas, please let me know.

I’m bit

Bobby

So, turns out I'm really bit by the blogging bug. If you haven't visited my other blog yet I encourage you to visit Greeley Elections.

This is my personal blog – an extension of my alltheinfo.org website. I will be discussing personal matters, opinions and general topics about all my websites. Please enjoy!