Tuesday, February 14, 2012

I am so proud of my big KK!



Wood Box Wisdom


Born in Alabama to a alcoholic factory worker father and a whitewash southern

baptists
mother, poor, older brother with older sisters. He graduated high school early and wanted to be a Marine and fight in the war but was too young so he rode banana boats up and down the Panama Canal as a Merchant Marine with a rifle where the spiders were as big as your outstretched hand and you'd wake up with them on your face for two years until he turned eighteen. He became a Marine and served in the Pacific. He boxed in the Marines on ships and was the only one who could type. He made Sargent. He earned a football scholarship to the University of Maryland. In his sophomore year he married my Mom. His senior year he had an interception against Michigan in Ann Arbor in the last game of the year to win the game and send them to the Sugar Bowl. In 1953 he was a member of the National Champion Maryland Terrapins. He was an ATO. He was in the Air Force as a crrnal and worked at the Pentagon. He graduated from George Washington Law School. He was Executive Director of the American Metal Stamping Association. He was Chairman of the Board for the American Society of Association Executives. He married the only woman he ever loved. With her he had two daughters and two sons and lived happily ever after. At his funeral his fraternity little brother said, "Jeff's agenda was life!"
My Dad filled a huge barrel of life. There is some serious wisdom in that little wood box clipping.



It's Hard

 Shortly after posting the it's not easy scrap from the Wood Box this sign appears on my wall. I believe in signs. There all around us if you look. Better yet, if I ask for signs they seem to slap me in the face. Usually with the opposite answer I was looking for. This all helped remember a daddyoism. Whenever I would whine or complain about how hard something was he always say,
"If it ain't hard it probably ain't worth doing!" Whatever dad.

What's been hard lately?: Parenting, work, school, church, ageing, exercising, loosing weight, controlling my temper, being optimistic and did I say work?
I don't think I ever heard my dad say I couldn't do anything. It was always you can do it biddy buddy, you can do it. My mom and dad told me I could do anything I could put my mind to and for a long while there everything I did was evidence of the contrary (like reading and writing and taking tests and emergency room visits and bed wetting and paying attention and being emotional). Through them I learned early I could do hard things and that they were worth doing. This list of things that are not easy, classic wood box wisdom and a reality check I sorely needed.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Proverbs 15:5


"A fool despises his father's instruction, but he who recieves correction is prudent."
Proverbs 15:5

I was led to this passage. I think it prudent to return to the Wood Box and recieve some correction and advice from my dumbdumbdaddyo. I was so foolish when I was young you couldn't tell me anything and now when I am finally willing to listen its too late.

I felt sorry for myself for a lot of years and he wasn't up for giving me this Rocky talk, but he didn't have too. My Dad took more hits and kept moving forward than anyone I have ever met. He knew life wasn't all sun shine and rainbows!

When I was in the sixth grade I couldn't read. My Dad gave me a paperback of Rocky because he knew how much I loved the movie. He said, "Read this, the book is always better than the movie." First book I ever read cover to cover. He would have loved Rocky Balboa. I dedicate this clip to my DDD>




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaaVs5W6T6s&feature=fvwrel  Lessons from Mick!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPnudujlBZI&feature=related  You want something go get it. Period.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCq7eGKcs-w&feature=related  Happiness.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVVsDIv98TA&feature=related  Do not do that thing!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zle0ZgkH4dw&feature=related  You are evil like a Hobbit.

Tyler and Emma, Our latest boy and girl.

Tyler and Emma 2012. So blessed to be dog parents of these two!

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Henry and Gracie, Our First Boy and Girl


Henry and Gracie in 2000. Back when we used to roll in a Lexus!

Sammy D, My First Boy!


My roommate Scott brought home Sam as a puppy and asked if I wanted to share ownership of him. Co- mastership of his new puppy so to speak and he said I think he likes you better anyway. Sam our new puppy proceeded to chew up every one of Scott’s valued possessions and left everything of mine untouched. Sam was a Chow Lab and was unlike any other dog I have ever met. We lived in Maryland for two years and then I moved to Colorado. Sam loved Colorado. He blossomed into super-dog when we moved to the base of Basalt Mountain. He loved the snow. Loved it. Every day for seven years he thanked me over and over again for leaving Baltimore and moving to Aspen. A friend once told me if you always have a dog you will find yourself living in better places. I find that to be true. This picture of Sammy D is from some random bush-whacking hike with TVA and Wild Bill overlooking Old Snowmass and Elk Camp. We hiked Mount Elbert twice Sam and I! 14.4K tallest in Colorado and camped on Mount Sopris many times. Sam was the most human dog I’ve ever known. For nine years he was my Yoda. He was my home. He would have loved Emma and had his hands full with Tyler, but back in the day he had Kind Dog to raise and Stinky Moe to love. Because of Stinky Moe Suzy liked me. Morgan was Torre’s red haired Golden Retriever and Kind Dog and Lukey were here pups. Sam was the Alpha Male in a six dog house. Sam knew things other dogs didn’t know like karate. Chow Karate. Whenever a really big dog would bear down on him he would always somehow flip them on their backs dive into the dog’s jugular and hold on for the ride and they always submit whining and whimpering. Not just a few dogs, but all dogs over nine years of rarely wearing a leash. I think it was because his neck was bigger than his head and early on he became an escape artist with even the tightest collars the leash became useless. But he never wanted to be anywhere but by my side anyways so that didn’t matter unless there was a porcupine nearby. He tangled with four killed one. Prairie Dogs didn’t stand a chance when he was ninja stealth mode. Oh and UPS guys. He had gotten maised by a UPS guy back in Baltimore and he never forgot it. The drivers pulled up to one of our trucks and delivered on the roof without ever getting out of their trucks. The Fed Ex guy and mail man fine, but Sam would never again tolerate a man in brown.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

I got to go black tie a couple of times with my DDD.





My senior year of high school the Washington Touchdown Club had their annual awards dinner and were awarding my teammate Anthony Dilweg the high school offensive player of the year. My Dad bought us tickets at a table close to the front in a huge ballroom downtown. I remember him saying that it was special opportunity for him to show me what really good looked like. We had been to other events, one where I sat with and had pictures taken with Joe Thiesman and Sunny Jerginson. This night was different. The MCs were Johnny Carson and Don Rickles and they would do each other doing each other together and it was hilarious. It was as tho my Dad knew everyone. He was in his element and I wish I remembered more. Once during the night he saw me go into a serious ADHD over stimulated coma and said to me, "Don't worry about it, you don't need to know any of these people, but look into the faces of each of these award winners because this is a special bunch athletes! Your gonna wanna remember this one for ever." Cal Ripken Jr. was awarded Rockie of the Year and I got to shake his hand. Joe Jacoby and Dave Butts won offensive and defensive lineman of the year. Joe Theisman and John Riggins won awards and had just won a super bowl. My friend Anthony called me over to the head table and introduced me to Butts and Jacoby and we snapped some pictures. Anthony had thrown for 3,900 during our high school football season and this night made me realize how special that really was. I was defensive captain and he was offensive captain and we would walk out early for coin tosses and I really wish I remembered more of back then. I had a bunch of concussions and I remember after one half time when we were heading back up to the field and I asked him, "Are we winning? And he looked at me like I was joking so I laughed it off." But I digress. My Dad introduced me to some pretty remarkable individuals and he always pointed out who he taught special. Anthony was one of those people and that is why we were there.