Reflections

It's been a while again. Two or three times a week I have these thoughts where I think, "man, I should really write about this". When I sit down to do so, I end up looking at other things, and deciding it's not really worth my jotting it down.

Since the last time I wrote, I've gained another year. It's hard for me to believe that I'm aging like this. 26 years old was once unfathomable. I didn't figure I'd ever hit it. Well, I figured I'd hit it eventually, but not for like 100 years. I don't really feel 26. I can't be sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing.

I know last year on my birthday I wrote a long blog on where I was in my life, and what I hope to accomplish in the upcoming (presently the past) year. The theme was pretty much, I'm 25 and haven't done a thing in my life to distinguish myself as a big part of society.

A year later, I could still say the same thing. I have a bit of a different outlook now. I still haven't done many of the things I was hoping to accomplish, but they'll happen, I have no doubt. In my 25th year I have many things to be proud of. I won't go into listing them all, but there's a lot. I graduated school, had a great job, went to Costa Rica for a month, and also have a new best friend (or should I say Man's best friend).

I'm still a good son, and I'd like to say I'm a good friend. I realize that I have my differences and that's what makes me unique. Would I change anything about myself? Hell yes. Not too terribly much though. I wish I was a bit more of an extrovert. I think I do a good job of talking with others, but I don't like being in unfamiliar situations where there are a bunch of new people. Once I meet everyone, it's all good, but those moments leading up to that turn my temperature up a bit. It may be nerves, or may just be something else. I can't say for sure.

Other situations, like when I was working at camp, when I'd meet new people and get to answer questions for them that didn't bother me at all. Perhaps my problem is just that I hate the feeling of not being prepared, or being stuck in a situation where there is too much spontaneity. That doesn't really sound right, I like being spontaneous, I'm not completely boring. Just in certain situations I prefer knowing what's going on, or being a part of the happenings.

I'm pretty much just babbling now, but it's a subject that I've put a lot of thought into. I know there are people out there that feel the same way. I go into this next year knowing the changes I want to make, and the changes I need to make. There isn't too much differentiation between the two. I hope I can make it happen. I imagine so.

Paths...

So I wasn't really planning on posting tonight. So if this blog sucks, chalk it up to the new version of blogger that I just switched to. Y'all probably won't see any difference, but it's supposed to be way different on this end. All the other ones usually are far from entertaining anyway...

I've been thinking a lot how with no matter how different a lot of us are in our lives, we all pretty much hit the same things throughout our time here. The last year has been pretty crazy because all of my friends are getting married. I like to say they're dropping like flies, which they are, but that's not really a good way of explaining it. They're all very lucky to have found that one that they love and God willing will be with for the rest of their lives. I'm not writing this to say I'm so lonely, because that's not my point, it's totally different. (I'm not lonely by the way, I'm perfectly content) My point here is that our lives all follow pretty much the same paths. No matter how far our paths drift from each other, we'll all experience a lot of the same events. Those being fortune, luck, and lack there of.

I use the friends getting married thing, but that's just one of many. A lot are things that we come to expect, much like getting married eventually. There's graduation, which hopefully happens for most of us. Then there's college for some, work for others. Graduations and promotions thereafter. Most of the time, relationships, marriages, children. My clique is in the middle of that one. Not too many have the kiddos yet. One of the expected things that sometimes comes completely unexpectedly is the last part of our lives.

When thinking of these paths I've only really used my own life for an example. The last day though I've seen my Dad having to deal with a friend of his passing away. Like I said it's something that is inevitable, it's going to happen sooner of later for all of us. This one wasn't quite expected. Regardless of knowing that its coming or not, there's no real way of not being hurt by it.

This guy was one of the good guys. He and my Dad met in college at Schreiner, then moved on to A&M together afterwards. They had a big group of friends that they called "the family". Everyone had a nickname, some were brother/sister, things like that. My Dad's nickname was B.I.L. (brother in law). Others were Sister in law, gravedigger, possum, Alabama, fun names like that which still stick with them today. After college they all went their own ways but if one was going anywhere near the other's hometown, they'd stop, visit, spend the night. It's a friendship that even though you don't talk all that often, you always know the other is there regardless of how long it's been or what time of the day it is. I know I have friends like that, and I hope a lot of folks think of me the same way.

Well he'd been fighting cancer for 5 or 6 years and everyone was optimistic that the worse was behind him. When my Dad got the call yesterday, I could tell the automatic change. The wife (who was actually Sister-in-Law in "the family"), broke the news, and asked my Dad to let the rest of "the family" know. I think it was the combination of the horrible news, and the fact that he had to call and report to those life long friends that hit him the hardest. He's better now, but I feel bad for him. I wonder if he's getting to that point in life where this'll start happening more often. Let's hope not.

I've always looked at these things happening and never really envisioned the only one that is 100% inevitable, death...

I don't so much want to be a downer, or gloomy, just wanted to put some thoughts on the computer and see if anyone ever thinks the same...

It actually makes me think of an old riddle.

What starts it's life on 4 legs
Then moves to 2 legs
Then towards the last part of life uses 3 legs

Figure that one out...

Paz friends...

Bad day for the state...

It's Sunday morning, and what was supposed to be a great weekend for Texas College football turned out to be just the opposite. None of the Texan Big XII teams won, and to make matters worse (other than Baylor) all lost in nail biters.

It all started with A&M. Like I've said on here before I'm not the biggest Aggie fan. However, I don't know if it's because my love for the state of Texas, or the fact that I was raised to be an Aggie (that one didn't work out), I was rooting for them yesterday. It was tough though. The traditions at the school are top notch. I wish Tech had a 10th of the tradition that A&M has. Just a 10th though, no more than that because anything on top of that is overkill. I'll probably be stoned to death next time I run into an aggie (if anyone cares what I think) for saying some of these things, but that'll just prove my point. I understand that the core is good in its own ways. It helps pay for a lot of kids colleges, but like Mike Leach says, why do they get to have a fake army. He said several years ago that if A&M can have a fake army, then he wants to open his own pirate school. I'll be one of the first in line for that one...

Anyway, while watching the game there were 2 things that made me very thankful I'm not an Aggie. First off, the core? Why do those guys get to go on the field with the swords and their little hats? Again, I'm not ditching the idea of the core, just some of the members. By the time they'd showed the 50th pimple faced core turd acting a fool for the camera, I knew I had to say something about it. My Dad, being the Aggie he is, didn't like what I had to say. Oh well. Secondly, a Collie? I know there is all kinds of traditions involved with Revelie, but why didn't they pick a meaner looking dog. Collies are pretty, and extremely intelligent, but they don't really strike fear into the heart of other schools. Get a pit bull, and call it Killer. Sick it on any Red Raider or Longhorn that gets to close. That'd be a good mascot.

Speaking of the Red Raiders. We have no shortage of the same kind of people that A&M has, they just don't dress up in their army regalia. They just bring tortillas and sock people in the face with them. That was such a neat thing the first time I saw it. Until I got hit by one of the things. I remember one time against Texas, I was sitting right behind Cory Redding's dad and he got clocked by one of the flying saucers. He turned around and looked at me and I wasn't real sure what to do. I had my Tech gear on, so I just turned around and looked back where the tortilla came from. I think he got the message that it wasn't me, and I felt like walking out of there alive...

Tech lost to Oklahoma yesterday. The offense decided to take the 2nd half off. Actually if it weren't for the defense it wouldn't have been anywhere as close as it was. Who would have thought that the defense would be the high point? Oh well, here we come Houston bowl, or some other big bowl like that. I guess I should be grateful though. There are those teams that would give their right eye to go to a bowl. I just expected more.

Then there was Texas. I was raised to hate Texas. I was supposed to bleed maroon. I saw the light eventually though, and while I can't claim to be a huge fan I cheer for them when they aren't playing Tech. A lot of that is due to being a Texas team, and a lot is due to Cullen playing for them for 5 years. Texas had their shot at a second national title taken from them by Kansas State. I was already a little footballed out by the time that game came on, but I still watched a good deal of it. They just got outplayed. I hope we don't have K-State next year.

Then Baylor got rolled by Okie State. Just a bad all around day for the Texas Big XII teams. There's always next year I guess. I think I'm cheering for Arkansas now to win it all. They're impressive. Now that I jump on that bandwagon, I'm sure they'll lose too.

Have a good Sunday, hopefully the Vikings can make this weekend a tad better...

Clueless

Growing up, when people asked me what I wanted to be in the future I told them several different things. I wanted to be a baseball player, I was going to hit home runs for the Astros. I wanted to be a vet also, I loved (still do) animals, and wanted to do my best at helping them. I wanted to be a lawyer, I don't remember exactly what I wanted to do with this one, but it had to do with following the in the footsteps of the Father.

The baseball dream faded when I realized that at the age of 14 I hit a plateau and probably wasn't going to get all that much better. The vet dream hit the skids when I realized there was so much more to it than just fixing the animals up. It involves shots, amputations, and sometimes even putting them out of their misery. The lawyer dream, well it cast aside after the 1,000,000th lawyer joke I heard, and all the crud my Dad has to put up with from time to time.

Another thing that I sometimes said I wanted to be was a judge. This again was following in the footsteps of my Dad. He was County judge for 4 years, and I always saw it as a neat job to have. I actually thought about this one for a long while, even the first year or so I was in college. I didn't want to go and get a law degree though. Seeing as how most judges are, or were lawyers before they take the bench.

To get to my point here, in the last few years I've realized how little I know about politics. I'm sure local politics are a bit different but, on a more grand stage, I'm clueless in a lot of the topics that are at issue. That probably hasn't stopped some people from running for office anyway, but I just know a cog would be thrown into my gears when someone asks me a question that I have no idea about.

I've been watching this election pretty close. Not because I know a lot about it, or not because I think it'll be the end of the world if the democrats take control of the house and the senate. Mostly because little by little I'd like to learn a lot more about it. Local races interest me because I know the majority of the candidates from around here. A few of the US Representative races interest me because of all the redistricting, and also I have a friend working for one of the campaigns.

While watching the San Antonio news tonight, they had a lady on who was running for some office, I wasn't really paying all that much attention. Anyway, they asked her a question, and all she said was, I'm for education. She didn't back it up, she didn't say what new education policies she supported, I'm for education was it. I hope she doesn't get elected. That may sound hateful, and it may of been a bad soundbyte that the news picked, but my goodness, say something better than just that! Sheesh...I'm for education too though I guess...

Clueless, that just proves my title. I say I'm for education, but couldn't tell you what I think would improve the system. Sure I have ideas, but they are probably stone aged, and have already been tried. Maybe someday though.

Changing the subject, kind of, I had an interesting conversation on the way to a camp showing the other day. It was over the current students in one of our high schools and their lifestyles. It blows my mind what these kids say and do now. I know when my class graduated in '99 we were by no means perfect, but we had respect for our elders, and knew the importance of a good education and staying out of trouble. Kids these days don't though. I wonder if things will continue getting worse, or if it's a cycle and eventually things will get back to the way they were.


Changing the subject once again. I had a good afternoon. I went out to the ranch with my Dad and Chuck to meet our hunters and shoot some clays. I hadn't been out there in months, probably in 6 months or so. Shooting clays was fun. I did decent, I didn't miss with the over unders, but had some misses with the single shot 20 gauge. I took Gus out there with me. It was only the 3rd time he's been shot around, and I was afraid he'd be gun shy since it'd been so long. Instead of that though, he decided he would go out and retrieve the clay pidgeons for us. It was funny the first few times. We stopped him though, because surely having those things in his mouth aren't good for him.

When we were leaving though, we got out of the truck and walked to the spot where my Dad wants to build the house. I was pleasantly surprised that he pretty much had the layout all planned out in his mind. I would rather the house be in a different location, not that his is bad, I just think this other place is pretty sweet. I can't argue with his justification of his spot though. Where I want it, there's a chance we could get flooded in. So it's not the best idea. It was nice to stand out there and talk about it, and somewhat have a self vision of what might be one day. I'm sure with the three of us there, we all had a different picture in our heads, but the layout was the same. I'm just ready for it to happen!

That's all for now. Not too terribly much to update with lately! Hope all is well with everyone!