Incomprehensible

You know how I love football. It's a Texas thing, I guess.

But today my love for it is a little less. Not because I still don't think the game is great, but because of Michael Vick.

You may or may not be aware of him. He's a quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons. And a terrible human being.

A few weeks back a story broke about him being involved in dogfighting. Since then, he has been indicted by the federal government on several charges of promoting and sponsoring dogfighting. I don't know how much, if anything, you know about this. I'd like to think that you're still young enough to be innocent of knowing the horrible things that people can do. But I guess if you don't know about it, I'm going to be the one to tell you about it.

People train dogs to fight. The breed them based upon how mean and aggressive they can be. When they fight, it's usually to the death.

That's right. Some people train dogs to kill other dogs. This is so sick that it just makes me want to vomit. Today it made me cry like a baby. Some of the networks have shown short clips of dogfights. It's just completely horrible.

So I sat here earlier, reading about the Vick case, and I saw Moose and just lost it. I thought of someone hurting Moose and it made me really sad, but it also makes me angry. How can someone be so evil and cruel as to intentionally hurt an animal or to train animals to hurt and kill other animals?

To me, that person is worse than an animal. So I hope Michael Vick gets sent to jail forever.

It's going to hurt my love of football. Because it's hard for me to support something that gives these kinds of people a job. I hope football shuns this person and he's never allowed to play again. Of course, if he is in jail, that won't be an issue.

You've talked about some of the things you might do with your life when you get older. Justin's already involved with protecting and studying animals. If you do the same, it would be great. When you think about all the mistreatment humans inflict on the world... polluting it; stripping it of trees, oil, whatever; killing people in wars; allowing people to suffer from hunger or lack of accessibility to health care; or killing animals for "sport"... anything any of us can do to reverse that, to make the world a little better... that's our only hope.

Big hugs to you. Now I'm gonna go play with my doofy dog...

Beantown

I mean, of course, there's the "Boston Baked Beans" thing, so it's called Beantown, right? But...were baked beans really invented there? I somehow doubt it.

Yet you're off to Boston. Why don't they call it "Tea Town" or "Attucks Attack Town" or something else? Maybe you can ask while you are there.

It's cool that you're getting to travel. It's one of the best things to do and I hope to do more. My stepfather worked for an airline when I was a kid so we got to travel a lot, and cheaply. I think it cost us $10 per flight. Amazing. We got to see Denver, Seattle, Florida. There were a lot of places I wish I had gotten to earlier, but...still.

So immerse yourself in the culture. Try some clam chowder. Heck, try the stupid beans.

Frustration, Pt. II

More struggles on the algebra front. It's really hard for me.

I'm not completely sure why. Some of it is just the material itself: I've never really embraced math. Then there's the fact that it has been so long since I really studied it. Jimmy Carter was the president the last time I was working hard on algebra, so that should tell you something. Maybe if I wore ridiculous-looking 70s clothes it would help.

But I'm trying really, really hard. That's the lesson I am trying to build myself up with -- that the effort is being made and that's got to be worth something.

This may be reiterating what I said earlier, but it's worth repeating: Don't give up. There are times when you will want to; and there will be times when you should. But make sure that it doesn't come too soon. Do everything you can to succeed. If there's still a chance you can, then you should keep fighting for it.

You know how I love football, and sports in general. But this is one lesson that sports can teach ... that as long as there is time, you can win. But you have to really want it, and you have to never let up.

So that's what I'm doing with this. I'm fighting to win.

Because if you can't defeat algebra in the classroom, then algebra will fight you over here.

That's "W" logic. It looks even stupider in this context...

Archive

BTW, there's a lot of things I wrote some time back about general observations. I've saved them ...somewhere. Next time you visit, if you want, I'll show 'em to you. Some of them are about things that you might find boring. Sports. Politics. And some are just flat wrong, like the time I guessed that Christina Aguilera and her husband would break up. I was way off on that one. She's really earned my respect as a person and an artist.

Yeah, kinda random...

Testing...

So today I had my first algebra test. It could have gone better.

But, what has been interesting is that all week it has been a roller coaster. Monday I felt lost; Tuesday I was despondent, but felt that I wasn't a complete idiot. Wednesday I couldn't go to school because of the holiday; Thursday I felt like I had finally started to get it and found it challenging and even fun. Today I was stressed beforehand but felt like I was sort of ready. Then the test came and parts of it seemed easy, other parts ridiculously hard.

So my point?

Life sometimes generates these crazy ups-and-downs. Frank Sinatra had a song about it called "That's Life." I doubt he wrote it. But the sentiment is good. Listen to it. (Go ahead, humor me. Bet you can find it on Napster.) The bad days are generally offset at some point by the good ones, so try and remember that things will get better. Even if you make a 62 on your algebra test.

Anyway, I was in algebra lab for multiple hours again today, so I am running behind. Late for work. But at least no algebra until Monday.

Love,

Dad

July 4

It's kind of tough to be excited about July 4 given some of the things that are happening politically right now. I was really glad to talk to you about these things when you were here. It's really exciting to me to see you growing up, and to know your brain is becoming so big!

It took me a long time to gain political awareness, world awareness. M has this already because of her background. My white-bread upbringing was great in most ways, but it stunted me a little from the realities of the world. In some ways it's good that children don't have to think about those/these things, but...it's not bad to be aware, either. We'll strike a balance somehow.

Today you are on the beach; I am going to work. I will recall some previous July 4s for you as best I can. Part of this blog is meant to serve as a living history of our family....

The earliest July 4 I remember would have been around 1973 or 1974. Maybe 1973. My marker is my brother's age. Curtis had to be at least 11, which would have made it 1973. And I don't think I was driving yet, which would preclude it being 1975 or later. We were in Arkansas. My grandfather (G-Ma's dad) had a small farm just over the Arkansas border in Oklahoma. All I remember is that it was near a place called Uniontown, which I thought would have been more amusing had it been called Oniontown.

All of my mother's family was there. On the farm, which could only be reached by a dirt road, he had a pond to the east, a large garden in front of his small, one-bedroom house to the south, and a big open field with some cattle to the north.

The "house" was nothing special, but he kept a refrigerator full of soft drinks that always seemed as cold as cold could be. We used to raid it for Orange and Grape Nehis (pronounced Knee-Highs). Curtis had a minibike, kind of like a moped/scooter/small motorcycle. You may have seen pictures of him or your great-grandfather J-Bob on it. The picture of J-Bob (yes, that was what everyone called him) was taken during this visit, probably on July 4.

On the afternoon of July 4, a bunch of us went into the cow pasture to play softball. We used whatever we could as bases; I think a tree stump served as second base. It was a great day.

Somewhere in these years, I remember a big get-together in our back yard. I used to love to build model airplanes when I was a kid. I took some model airplanes, put some firecrackers in them, let them then threw them into the air and watched them explode. Kinda stupid; now I don't have the models, and I could easily have blown off a finger or had exploding shrapnel blind me. I am not a big fan of fireworks except from a distance.

Another cautionary tale follows: In 1975, I had just gotten my driver's license. Me, my brother, my best friend and some other guy (I think it was Meiseneggs) went to Lake Ray Hubbard to buy some fireworks. We were driving down a somewhat deserted road just after having been there, and my friend Steve decided to light a firecracker and throw it out the window. One problem: he hadn't bothered to roll down his window. Power windows used to be rarer; I had a car where you had to hand-crank the window to get it down or up. Steve, lit firecracker in hand, realizes his dilemma. He looks in my direction and notices my window is about half-way down. So he throws the firecracker in front of my face to try and get it out the window. Of course all of this is happening in milliseconds of time but very hard to forget. His firecracker, fortunately, does not blow up in my face, but hits the window glass and drops into my lap. I quickly swat it into the floorboard before it explodes.

Then I screamed at him for about five minutes.

Scary, but a lot funnier 32 years later...

In 1976 the U.S. was marking the Bicentennial, 200 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It was a big deal. Curtis and I were in Arkansas then. I was about to be a senior in high school. I don't remember much about it; but I remember some. I remember watching the Boston Pops under Arthur Fielder, a very famous conductor, on TV. There was a big concert in Boston Harbor and I vividly remember hearing them play "Stars And Stripes Forever" while fireworks exploded over the harbor. It was pretty neat. Me, your uncle and my cousin Chip were going to the movies with some girls or something. Typical teenage stuff.

In 1980 Curtis had just begin taking college courses and we were living together. We went to a big July 4 party at a judge's home in Bentonville. He was the father of a friend. I got very very sick that night; I couldn't even ride in Curtis' truck because I felt so bad. I rode in the back of his truck. I would pound on the side of the truck when I got so sick I had to stop moving. I remember a huge full moon and a vow never to get sick again.

I remember the July 4 when you were very small and Millo was born, 1997. We had a bunch of people over to the house and your uncle couldn't make it because he and his wife were having a baby! I'm pretty sure that your little pool was set up that day. You always loved to swim.

Anyway...I have to go to work soon. I hope you're having a great day. I love you...

Dad

No. 1

Not like there isn't plenty on the plate, but it's time I followed through on this. This will be a place where I write letters to my beautiful daughter. Being hundreds of miles away right now means there is not enough time together; this won't fix that but it will give us a place to meet at any time.

ilu baylo