A Birthday present from the Birthday Girl

Fourteen years ago, we were blessed with Megan.  Having already been given one sweet little girl, we now had two... and both of them have changed our lives in ways that have been nothing but good.

For her birthday, Megs wanted us to eat Chinese food and watch a sappy chick flick that she had picked out.  I somewhat reluctantly agreed (what am I going to do?  I was outnumbered and it was her birthday) and am I ever glad I did!

In the movie, a Dad who was estranged from his daughter gets to spend the summer with her... she is mad and predictably pouty.... then she meets a boy (who is "dreamy" apparently)... she opens up... starts to live and love.... blah blah blah (you can fill in the "Chick flick standard form" here).

Anyway - at the end of the summer (and the movie) the Dad gets cancer and dies (Nothing says "Happy Birthday" like a good funeral film.... am I right?).

The good part:  watching this Dad and his daughter say "good-bye" made me think about my life and how blessed I am..... a beautiful and wonderful wife.... two lovely, funny young ladies for daughters.... I have a job that I love (99 days out of 100).... I have good friends.... I am close to my family (on both sides).... I live 5 miles from a stock car track (A strange thing to include on this list I know, but a little perk in my book .... and if it ever stops raining I may even get to see them race this year).... I am going on a week long motorcycle trip with my brother and then when I get home - a week later - I get to go on vacation with my family (Even when we had very little money... every summer of our marriage we have gone somewhere and done something for at least a few weeks.  Some of the cheapest trips have been some of the most fun).... I could go on and on and on.

I guess watching this on screen Dad have to say good-bye and leave all the stuff he loved made me think (once again) about living in and loving all the blessing that I have right now - because I will not have them forever.

Surprisingly, the movie did not make me cry (one of the reasons I don't watch many movies is that I am a "soft soap sap head" that cries when (a) someone has to say good-bye to someone they love and (b) music is playing (music is the Kryptonite.... I can't take the two in combination)

Anyway - long story short.... I love my life.... I love my family (both immediate and extended)... I love being in Estevan (I had a dream a few weeks ago that I was forced to leave Estevan and I was really sad about it.... Imagine my joy when I woke up and realized I was still here.... I may have been the first person ever to be happy to wake up in Estevan).... I have more than I need (in every way you can honestly think about it)..... life is good and I was reminded to enjoy every blessing in it.

So, in the end - on this her birthday - it was Megan that gave me the present!

Hannah the Honda :(

So I finally did it.... I put "Hannah the Honda" up for sale. It is a sad, sad day!  :(

I remember the first time I met her..... she started up without a hiccup and that first ride round the block.... well, it was heavenly!  I had never ridden a bike so nice and comfortable and cheap (that last part was the best part). 

We had lots of good times like....

- Riding to Newtown, North Dakota with Paul (and whatever he calls his bike) twice
 - Going to Moose Jaw to meet my brother and sister to go to a NHL game (It was in the fall not in the middle of winter.... Hannah was amazing but not that amazing)
- Coming home on that same trip and seeing the speedometer at 100 mph (I am not sure how that happened - just in case any policemen are reading - but let me tell you, it feels A LOT faster than that when you are on a 30 year old motorcycle that could fall apart at any minute)
- Lots of nights cruising around the streets of Estevan just enjoying the evening.

I AM GOING TO MISS HER!!!!  (sniff, sniff)   But we do not have room to keep her and owning two motorcycles is just a little silly (nice - but sort of silly).

So if you know anyone who would like to get into biking - give me a call.

The fortunate thing:  My wife told me to price it so high that I may get to keep her anyway!  :)

A Fun Fundraiser

Our church hosted a fundraiser for Clearview Christian Camp tonight and it was a good time.  We did a "Loonie Auction" and thanks to a bunch of stuff donated by church people and by local businesses, as well as the generous ticket buying of those who attended, we raised over $2000.

I am always impressed with the generosity of our church.  Not just in the way they support the camp (both tonight and all year long) but in little things too.  Many of the prizes that were won ended up being carried out of the building by someone else.  A older guy would win a toy car and give it to a little kid who was really hoping to get it.... or one of the kids would win something and then realize that one of their friends really liked it, so they would give it away.... necklaces were won and then passed on.... some people kept what they won, but much of it (including a lot of the baking - cookies, pies, etc) was shared around between friends.

It was a fun and entertaining night that raised some money for a good cause, but it was also a good "family night" - a church family night.

Anyone have a safe they want opened?

So those of you who read this thing once in a while will remember my heartbreaking story about the bike lock that I was going to use to lock my motorcycle helmet to the bike (if you don't know the tragic details, stop, read the post below and come back).

Anyway - tonight I went and got the lock and in less than 5 minutes I picked it..... and guess what???!!!   The word that I was trying to use and thought was right.... wasn't even close!!   Not one letter was right.  Not one!!!

I think what happened is that I was going to buy a lock with a certain word as the combination and then I ended up leaving it there.  When I went back, it was gone and so I was stuck with a different word... but I still remembered the first word (Is this all making sense???  Do you even care????)

All that to say this.....

   1.  I saved myself $8 (because I do not have to buy a new lock).... EIGHT BUCKS!!!

   2.  I am now 2 for 2 picking bike locks (the one from when I was a kid and now this one)

Apparently it is good to have some criminal genes in your past after all.  :)

PS. I know what you are thinking.... if YOU picked the lock in 5 minutes how secure is anything that you lock to your bike (like a helmet or a coat) going to be????   Well, I figure most people aren't going to stand there trying to pick a lock in broad daylight with a bunch of people watching them.... and if they do, well... meh.... you can have it.

PPS.  There are actual important and maybe even interesting things happening in our lives (beyond motorcycle related bike locks).... I promise I will report some of those thing soon.... stay tuned!

A bike lock and a four letter word

When I put saddlebags on my motorcycle last year, it created one little problem... my helmet lock is now inaccessible.  Most of the time, this does not matter because I just leave my helmet hanging on the handlebars, but I got thinking about what I would do if I wanted to lock the helmet to the bike so that no one could steal it.

My solution: a simple bike lock.  Wrap it around a bar of my bike, around the helmet and "Tada" - problem solved - so I went in search of a lock.

When I got to Canadian Tire I realized that one of my options was a "word lock" (Like the combination lock above but with words rather than numbers).  I thought, "Well a word must be easier to remember than a number" so I purchased a "word lock".  That was last summer. 

I did not use the lock all summer, but in the fall I dug it out and tried it - just to make sure I still remembered the word.  Then (in my brilliant thinking) I left it unlocked so that I would have to have the proper word in order to lock it... or, if I somehow forgot the word, I could simply look down the empty barrel, spin the letters until it was unlocked and then read the word that the letters spelled.  Perfect!  Brilliant!  Foolproof!

That is until some pinhead (me) locked the lock last fall because he was sure that he knew the word.  I tried that word today.... nothing!  I spun the dial and tried it again.... nothing!   I tried similar words... nothing!  I asked Katelyn what my word was because she was with me when I bought the lock.... nothing!  I looked for the little word tag.... nothing!

So I tried for an hour to pick the lock (I actually did that with a bike lock when I was a kid.... I found one at the bike racks at our swimming pool.... a 5 digit combination and I cracked it and used the lock forever).... nothing!

So I am down now to a few choices.....
    a.  Continue trying the word that I am sure is right but is not working
    b.  Spend hours and hours trying to pick the lock
    c.  Blame Katelyn because she does not remember the word - take the money for a new one out of her allowance (if we gave her an allowance)
     d.  Do surgery on the lock just to see if I have the right word but it is just malfunctioning for some reason (This will destroy the lock but it will give me the peace of mind of knowing what the word was supposed to be)

I think I am going to go with "b" for a while... then "a" again.... then "c" just to make myself feel better... and then I will definitely have to do "d" just to satisfy my curiosity. 

Anyone know any good four letter words?????

On second thought, never mind!  :)

PS.  I told this whole thing to Sari and concluded it by saying, "Now I have to go spend another $8 to buy another lock"...... she just about came across the room at me.  "I thought you were talking about some specialty motorcycle lock that you spent a fortune on.... not some dumb kid's lock for $8.   Why would you even waste your time, or mine for that matter in telling me this story, for $8??????"

Girls.... go figure!  :)

A Birthday rainout

Have you ever had your birthday rained out? 

Well, more specifically, have you ever had the one present that you wanted for your birthday rained out?

All week long I have been watching the weather forecast because I have been looking forward to going to the stock car races tonight.   It did not rain on Wednesday when it was supposed to.... or on Thursday... we missed the big downpour that was threatened for this morning and then again this afternoon..... so things were looking good as we headed out to the track tonight and then.......

We ended up at Tim Horton's an hour later - soaked and cold - not having seen any racing at all.

I hope that this is not an indication of how my year is going to go.

Maybe a rained out birthday present is like rain on your wedding day..... it is supposed to be good luck right?

Ya - I don't believe that either.  :(

D'oh (times 2)

So, after less than a week of "new to us" vehicle ownership, our Acadia is headed to the Car Hospital because it is hemorrhaging anti-freeze.

I think the technical term for it is that it has "puked a water pump".

The good news is that the dudes who sold it to us said, "Get it fixed and send us the bill" so she goes in tomorrow morning. 

That is d'oh #1.
_______
D'oh #2.......

I was sitting in my office today when the phone rang (shaking me into a state of consciousness so suddenly that I almost fell out of my chair).  The voice on the other end of the line got my attention very quickly.

"Hey Tim, this is Tammy from Dr. Blischak's office" (my dentist).

"Aaaaacccckkkkkkk!" I screamed, but she did not react, so I asked, "Did I just scream 'Aaaaaackkkk' in your ear?"

"No"

"Whew!"  Then I thought, "What is the deal here?????  My dentist is tracking me down at my office????  What sort of crazy, psycho, bird dog tracking guy is this?????   Is he gonna start following me around???? Am I going to have to check behind the shower curtain to make sure he is not hiding in there waiting to jump out, grab me and drag me off for my yearly check-up???????  IF I WANT TO HIDE FROM YOU PAIN INDUCING, DRILL-WIELDING CRAZY PEOPLE.... I SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO!!!!!!"  (Fortunately, most of that I kept to myself).

"Tim, could you guys at your church use a big box of toothpaste?", Tammy asked.

I was wondering where this was going..... and who in the congregation had bad enough breath that the local dentist was offering to send free toothpaste over (Though I had a few guesses).  "Maybe I should see if they have any free deodorant too", I thought (but that is a completely different rant having nothing to do with the church).

"I was told that you guys give stuff away at your church and I was wondering if you would be interested in giving away free toothpaste.  If you want some, come by the office and I will give you a big box full".

So, in the end it turned out that the dentist was being super nice and he was not out to hurt me, make me cry or terrify me.   Imagine that!  

But the words, "Hey Tim, this is Tammy from Dr. Blischak's office" still make me shudder.  :)

Hippie, Dippy or Cute?

 So it was "Would you still be my friend if I wore this?" day at school today and Sari went like this.....

The funny thing is that she had several people tell her that it was actually a really good look for her.  She got the same comment when they had "70's days" at the school (as in the 1970s not "act like a 70 year old".... that is a completely different look).  In fact, a local business owner came to the school today and when Sara finally said, "You have not commented once on my hair" his response was, "Well - what do I know? Women are always changing their hairstyles... it looks good".

So the question:  Should Sara go "Full-time hippie"?

And if so, what would her hippie name be?