Patriotism - - - Over Patriotism...

Maybe it is just me but does this craze come over me every 2 years. I really didn't realize how much I miss the Olympic games whether they are the summer or winter games. My kids at some later date are really going to hate this time every other year, I have tried to put them to bed early every night for the last couple of nights so that I can veg out in front of the television and watch some really amazing sporting events.

There are some things that Americans just do better than other nations. I don't think that I am overly patriotic either, this is what I am sometimes told by some of my friends from other countries. Hey if your country sucks to bad to have any athletes that can actually do anything that is not my problem, but my country just kicks your countries ....... Ok maybe I get a little crazy, but really to be the 5th team in a race to beat a world record time and not even get a medal (this is some amazing stuff) Yes the guy has the chance to win somewhere around 15 gold medals and this being only his second olympic games (that to me is just so much better than any "futbol" game that you can see anywhere in the world)

I guess that the United States isn't better than everyone else it just goes to show how diversified that we are here in this wonderful country. Seems like while most of the worlds countries are worried about winning that medal or the stupid world cup, our great country is out there winning and competing in all the other sports that this Olympics has to offer. Ok the Chinese divers today were pretty amazing, but that relay team last night was simply awe inspiring.

I get the same way during the winter olympics, maybe what I like so much is the pure competition that is being displayed here. Simple if you dope you are out, do this on your own ability not some man-made substance that will only get you there this one time. If you were a true athlete you would be tried and tried again and succeed at every turn of the head. Ya so we might send our very best from the NBA to these games, our REDEEM Team, so what if we had the one and only DREAM Team. The other teams are using professionals from their leagues in their countries our athletes just make more money and people around the world over just like to watch all things American. Way to beat the home team by 31 points in their capital city. You come you play and if you can't keep up then go home. This is not being overly Patriotic, this is what patriotism is all about. We love where we are from and we know when we are the best. So what if President Bush being there was publicized way out of proportion, he has every right to be there among other heads-of-states. Though you might not like it he is the head of this state and is deserving of every privilege and right that all the other 200+ heads of state deserve. Lay off the guy for a while he only spent 3 days at the Olympics.

Back to the Olympics, would really love to stay and blog about the amazingness of my country and the whole Olympic experience but I am probably missing some really important butt-kicking by the United States right now as I blog.

Family Bloggers

It is 2:30 in the morning on a Monday morning in August. I have to be to work in about 4 hours and don't know what the HE.. that I am doing awake. Must not be such a good thing to go to bed with the kids at 10:00 p.m. It is a sad realization when you get 4 hours of sleep and realize that might be all that you will be getting. The alarm isn't supposed to go off until 6:00 a.m. but I don't know if I will get another wink of sleep, and here I am sitting at the computer blogging. (Almost as much of a junkie as my older sister Sarah) I just realized also that almost all of my siblings are connected to blogger.com.
There is Sarah who started the whole mess with her blog, possibly the funniest place that I have ever been on the internet. SevenVillageIdiarts is her blogs name and really I'm not kidding when I say that there is some real comic genius there. Sometimes maybe at your expense but mostly at her own and different things that have happened in her life. She has a really strong sense of remembrance and can make any situation funny. Love her blog and wouldn't give checking it out everyday for anything.
Michael, next in line from me, blogs with his girlfriend Becca, a very very nice girl that someday I hope to be able to call sister also. Their blog is Beccaandmike, also another great place to catch up on their lives and what is happening down in St. George. Those two lead a very interesting and fun life together. Never sure where they might be whether in Southern California or just down in the parents basement playing XBox 360. Love them both and have to also check their blog everyday.
I have this place on the internet that I like to call home, and if you are reading this you probably know that this is GooldisGood. Maybe not as exciting as Sarah but do like to poke fun at the world in my own kind of way. Don't ever blog about your parents, I think one of my blogs, intended for fun, ran my own mother off. Mom it was just for fun.
Tonight, or should I say this morning, while checking some e-mails I realized that 2 more of the seven have blogger identities. Hopefully to expound here really soon, the baby Eric and the only other sister Briana. It might be harder for these two to blog but I am excited to see how their blogger identities turn out and how much fun it will be to check up on their lives.
There are only two other siblings who need blogger identities and then all seven will be connected through blogger.com. Jonathan who is living in Alaska, how do we get him to become connected? What special insights can we use to embarrass him enough that he has to answer back to all of us here on blogger.com. Once we get him started I know that there will be no turning back. I wrote a life story compilation called The misadventures with Jonathan. So I know that he has the comicness to come and write some great info. Then there is Daniel and I can realize why he hasn't connected yet. I am waiting patiently until after December when he comes home from Panama to see all the other kids connected on blogger and realize that he too must become one of us.
So brothers and sisters keep it up it is wonderful to be able to catch up with everyone this way. Please keep blogging and letting the rest of us know how your lives are treating you.

Patience

I can't believe how much we have become a number society. It seems everywhere that you go everything is a number. Go to eat and you have to take a number. Go to the hardware store and the counter help wants you to take a number. Why not just brand us with some number and that would solve all the problems. Where did the personal help go? Why can't we take time out of our so busy life styles to actually enjoy life?

A man let me go ahead of him in the movie store because he realized that I had two kids with me and he was all alone. I really appreciated his gesture and couldn't pass it up the second time that he had to offer. I think he realized his huge mistake after I got to the counter and started checking out. The counter help just wanted to confirm that I had a "Blue-ray player", "what I asked? Do I have what?" "well you are renting only one blue ray disc." So we had to go back and find another movie for Ariana but she couldn't figure out why we could not rent the movie that she wanted to. This whole time the man at the counter is patiently waiting, while the younger man by himself is also waiting. I feel sorry for people that have any patience in this world and are nice enough to let a father and his two kids jump in line because they are already cranky. I just can't be so nice, because once I get them into the car all that I have to do to drown them out is turn the radio up a little louder so that I can't hear them. Then I start singing really loud, kids really hate when their parents sing extremely loud, must be that whole parents are nerds. My four year old once asked me to be quiet while the two year old was making the universal shhhhh sign for some peace. I do love the kids but sorry babes when I am driving I am in full control and I will enjoy the music rather than the screaming that is usually going on in the back seat. Soon enough I will be able to tell you live with it or walk home.

Kids...Fireworks...Boy Scouts

Tried to teach my kids something new today. You can't point lit fireworks, sparklers or those morning glory things at people. There really are some important lessons in life that will take a long time for them to learn. I still remember a river rafting trip in Alaska, the infamous Gulkana week-long rafting trip. Possibly one of the very funnest and most exciting scout outings that I have ever been on. One of the kids parents didn't ever have this so important life lesson with him prior to going on this trip. Roman candles (very sweet fireworks) are much more dangerous than the stuff you can buy in Utah. They, roman candles, are not made for pointing at people, but then again why would someone buy a firework that you have to hold and shoots out projectiles other than to point it at someone. I can hear the voice of reason coming from some of "other" parents saying Paul you were supposed to be teaching those two not to do this sort of thing. Well the good thing is they will not be old enough to read this blog for a very long time and by then they will understand why their father was having second thoughts about the whole pointing fireworks at other humans. In close proximity it is not a very intelligent or good thing at all, but going from one river raft to another is not that bad of an idea. I honestly believe that if the scouting officials actually knew what went down on scouting outings in our Alaska troop our sponsorship would have been pulled faster than ... well lets just say that I don't think we ever followed any scouting protocol on any scout outings. I don't think that the scouts condone; R-rated movies (or even the fact of taking a troop of boy scouts away from scout camp to go to the movies), fireworks (you can do a lot of dangerous things with fireworks). They are more into the whole torture young men with any form of torture they can come up with and we can turn it into a "merit badge". Don't get me wrong I love the boy scout program, they do teach many life supporting attributes, but come on swimming in an Alaskan lake that only unfroze weeks prior to scout camp that is just wrong. Why at scout camp are the only heated showers those of the leaders/adults? If I ever have to tie my kids down for any reason I actually now probably 23 different knots that I could use but I still can't figure out how to connect those really intricate seat belts that hold the kids down in their car seats. Boy Scouts is one of the greatest institutions in the world, roman candles really are no fun unless they are being shot across a freezing Alaskan lake from one inflatable river raft to another inflatable river raft, and a 4-year-old running around the yard with a "morning glory" firework isn't and never will be a safe parenting practice.

Funniest projectile

Today probably the funniest thing happened, that I have seen, in a very long time. The kids are old enough, almost, that taking them to the park is relaxing. I say almost because I still have to watch them but not like a hawk, I can actually enjoy the heat and sweatiness that the 100+ degree weather brings. So back to the funniest thing, we went to the grocery store prior to the park to buy some popsicles, because it really is deathly hot in Utah right now. Anyways once at the park I let the monsters loose with their popsicles. At first they were very timid to go on any of the jungle gym equipment but that only lasted about 2 or 3 licks. Not sure which was more appealing the popsicles or the fact that they were at the park and could just let of some of that pent up energy. So I am sitting down sort of watching both of them from afar, relaxing on the parkbench. I notice Matthew, the two year old, going up to the upper part of the jungle gym to the very highest slide that there is. He has only finished like 1% of his popsicle because he is two and has the attention span of a well two year old. Sometimes a couple of hours after we finish eating you will find him playing somewhere and he honestly looks like a chipmunk, cheeks full of food that he has calmly been holding in his cheeks since he got down from the dinner table not willing to part with those last few bites. Hilarious, he actually was choking once on food that had he had been holding in his mouth for at least 4 hours, was very hard for him to willingly spit it out into the toilet.
Back to the park, so he is on the highest part of the gym with his Popsicle and I so happen to see him go down the slide, that the last child must have left extremely well lubricated because he pretty much shot out of the end like a missile. I was very quick to get up when I saw him flying through the air. Well as you can imagine he lost control of the Popsicle and was sort of spread eagled on the wood chips with the Popsicle laying a few feet away perfectly intact. I was sure that this was going to be the end of a very short trip to the park. He calmly arose, got his bearings back, looked around a little until he located his Popsicle, looked it over calmly, picked it up blew the dirt off and quietly started sucking on the Popsicle again.
I couldn't stop laughing, he and his older sister really are the most extraordinary things in the world. They are so shy at times but at other times really are the most off the wall creatures that you can imagine.

Movies and Parents

One of the weirdest things happened at our house last time that my parents came to visit. Andrea your little comment reminded me that I probably out to share another sad part of what I see of growing older. As I was thinking about your comment I thought that probably my parents were to proud to listen to the tv at a very loud and uncomfortable volume. Then I thought, as anyone who knows them, they have always listened at an uncomfortably loud level.
We recently bought a surround sound for the living room and both mom and dad were up for a few days and after the kids go to be we sometimes have a movie or two to watch while we relax in the evening. I thought that they might just not know which setting on the surround sound to set while watching movies. But they did the weirdest thing, they wouldn't start the movie without subtitles, in English. They said it is to loud we can not hear what they are saying. My parents have reverted to reading entire movies instead of listening to them. I thought that it was an anomaly with the surround sound until a few weeks later we were in St. George and they were doing the same thing there. I always viewed movies as a tool for relaxation, reading the entire movie is no form of relaxation but rather 1 1/2 to 2 hours of mind draining reading.
I don't know if I am the only one but I can't concentrate on the action of the movie I always end up reading the entire subtitle if they are on. I pretty much miss the whole movie and just end up reading it.
Hope that this does not sound mean but I will not rent movies if I know that my parents are coming because I don't and almost will not subject myself to 2 hours of reading when what I am looking for is that escape from where reality where I don't have to do any work and almost fall completely unconscious.

Sad Realization

It has been a few days since my last blog. It isn't that I haven't wanted to just haven't been able to find the time. I don't really believe that everyone has the same amount of hours in their day, 24 just doesn't seem like enough.
We have been working hard at the plant and seems like every night we have had occupied with something or other at the apartments. So time for blogging has been put on the back burner until I can squeeze in that extra few minutes a night to actually sit down without passing out. The sad realization that I have come to is that old age sucks. I don't try and claim old age yet, I am seeing it and feeling it first hand through my poor father. I love the guy a ton, probably don't have a better friend in the whole world then him. Love and adore he really is a great guy for those that don't know him, and for those that do know him you know what I am talking about. He has this aura of being very rough and tough around the edges but really is a loving and caring dude.
He is getting older and it is a pretty sad thing. The way that I see it is only slightly but affecting him considerably. We have been tiling a floor for the last couple of days. He has had to do all of the laying of the tile while I have the "cush" job of measuring cuts and then cutting the tiles. I couldn't figure out why he always wants to take the harder of the two man job but then I started to realize the other day that without his glasses (that he can never find) he can't see the tape measure. So because of his bad sight he just has to do the job the requires not a lot of use from the eyes. So he is getting more worn out because of this fact, but we were able to finish a 200 sq. foot area in two days. We allow the tile glue to dry for at least 24 hours before going to the next and final step of the process, grouting the tile. This is the step that led me to realize that old age sucks and that he is getting older.
The tile looked perfectly laid and was going to turn out awesome when we started grouting this afternoon. Everything was going smoothly I was down on my hands and knees this time grouting the whole floor, really everything was going very smoothly and was actually turning out to be a very fast and well liked stop to the tiling process. Then all H ---- E ---- double hockey sticks broke loose when we realized that we had just grouted our beautiful 200 sq. foot floor with quickset mortar. Dad was in charge of getting all the supplies this time from the hardware store and didn't realize that the cement mortar bags that were right next to the grout. Because he didn't take his glasses with him shopping on Wednesday he didn't even know, and I had put all faith in his ability to buy the necessary supplies (I still have total faith in him not speaking bad about him at all) because I guess we either both go to buy them or I just pick them up before he comes up to Salt Lake.
So the sad realization is that old age sucks, and worse than that is that my father that is my best friend in the whole world is getting old and really needs glasses to do anything that has any importance in the world.
We are good, near professional, tile layers but this one time we just happened to use the wrong materials. Thanks old age.