Boys need dads

While driving home day-before-yesterday I received an interesting text message from my wife. It went something like this, "Matthew decided to shave his mustache... side to side. Lots of blood. Love you more!" The phrase 'lots of blood' piqued my curiosity. Of course I called my wife back ready to be directed to the emergency room where my third son would be having his face reattached. Of course it was a very minor, superficial cut that bled a lot. No big deal.

This got me thinking, however, that Matthew (5) knew I shaved my face every day and wanted to be like me. The problem? I have never shown Matthew how to shave, or any of my boys for that matter. How many other things have I not taught my children that they will one day have to know how to do? Hundreds probably. Boys definitely need dads.

I find it interesting that this stems from our need, as men, for our heavenly father. God is the ultimate Dad and the One we look to to learn how we are supposed to "shave" without cutting ourselves. As far as teaching my boys, I must admit, I have been lax. It is hard, with 5 boys, to teach each one of them what they need to know to be a young man and, eventually, a father. I don't want pity and I am not making excuses. I just need to focus and do better. I, along with all other men, need to take the time, expend the effort, and get off our butts to educate the next generation of men. I am always amazed at how closely my boys watch what I do... all the time. They want to do what I do, say what I say, and act how I act. Every minute I need to be aware that I am teaching them how to be men.

I challenge myself, and all who read this post, buck up. Become aware of the example you set. Take the time to teach your son, or sons, that shaving side to side is stupid.

Vacation is over!

So I finished IFS (Introductory Flight Screening) last week. This is the first part of flight school the Navy puts you through to see if you have the monkey skills required to fly. Turns out I have a knack for it, like a born natural, like someone else who wears red and blue tights (see previous post).

While in IFS, my life was pretty much a vacation. Flying almost every day and only working 3-4 hours a day, all the while getting paid, seemed almost too good to be true... and it was. So now I start API (Aviation Pre-Indoctrination) on Thursday. It is six weeks long and lots of intense studying and book work, yipee.

While in IFS, I took some short videos on two of my solos and put some music to it. It is very exciting and I hope you enjoy my video editing genius. That's all for now. Tune in next time for some more extra-super cool blog business.

Fulfilling my dream

Ever since I was a little guy I have wanted to be Superman. Up until I was... hmm... 27 or 28, I was waiting for the day I would discover I could fly, get my X-ray and laser vision, and be mostly invincible.

My loving wife (Mel over at frugal heart) reminded me that over the last few years, I am becoming more and more like Superman. Let me explain. In August of last year, I had surgery on my eyes so I could become a military pilot. The procedure is called PRK and is similar to LASIK but is an acceptable vision correction procedure for the military. After I healed, the eye doctor told me that my vision was at least 20/10... AT LEAST? He said they didn't have smaller numbers to test for better than 20/10. Going from 20/200, that is a huge difference. Sound like super-human? I think so.

Yesterday I flew by myself for the first time. It was pretty exciting having the wind rushing through your hair, wondering if the powers that allow you to fly would suddenly fail, and wondering how blue and red tights could be so comfortable. Just kidding. I did fly by myself albeit in an airplane. I have a few more kinks to work out before I attempt unassisted flight. However, since flying is a prerequisite, I am getting closer.

I eat lots of fiber and vitamins every day in an effort to strengthen my skin enough to stop a bullet. I think I am ready but my wife refuses to test my theory. Shucks. I am also trying to be vulnerable to Kryptonite. I eat about 10 servings a day and, so far, it just makes me regular. No sweats or weakness or near death experience.

So, as you can see, I am closer than ever to achieving my lifelong dream of becoming Superman. I'll let you know when those other, minor issues are taken care of (I will, of course, have to post anonymously so you won't know my true identity).

Terrorist cat

Some of you might see the title of this post and chuckle inside. Why? Because we have all seen or heard of the wily cat that would strike from nowhere and vanish as quickly. Most of the time this makes me laugh because our cat freaks out and hops all over the place when he does his little sniper attack. Today, however, I realized that our cat is a terrorist bent on the destruction of America. You might be asking yourself how I determined this fact and to put your curiosity at ease, I will explain. The first sign of terrorist ties our feline shows is a black mask. Most terrorists wear a black mask to hide their faces. Our cat was born with a black mask, definitely bred for terrorism. The most obvious way to tell our cat is a terrorist is his apparent disdain for America. This morning, as our children were learning geography, the cat came out of nowhere and started attacking the west coast. This was an obvious planned assault. As the country was regrouping, after the terrorist cat moved off into the Pacific somewhere, I thought to myself, "I can't believe I own a cat who hates the U.S." Just then, the cat strikes again out of thin air. I feel bad for California and Oregon. It must be rough being devoured by a giant, terrorist cat.

Tropical what?... Nothin'

So I was waiting all day for this super cool tropical storm to blow in. I have never seen 15"+ of rain in under three years so my curiosity and excitement was piqued and I couldn't wait to see the downpour. Well, I would be surprised if we got 1" of rain all day. BUMMER. It is supposed to be here tonight and tomorrow. We will see. I say "Fay, bring it on. Show us yankees what you got."

I am a WINNER!

Kim and Jason have done it again. They often have cool giveaways to keep us young. Not that I need much help in that area but I like to play anyway. We were asked what our least favorite superhero was. Most of the comments were drab and lacked the creative spin required for greatness. After much thought, I posted a comment that was sure to blow the socks of the blogging world. Sure enough, I won the contest and not only won the book "Its Superman" by Tom De Haven, but will go down in blogging history as the greatest-tell-us-about-your-least-favorite-superhero poster of all time. Thanks Kim and Jason. Peace out.