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Post by The Captain on Aug 24, 2014 21:11:57 GMT -5
Got to see my daughters do something completely selfless and awesome today. Their school has a program that provides free backpacks to kids in the town that can't afford them, but they also provide food for the kids to take home on Fridays to make sure that they have something to eat over the weekend (these are the kids that are on the free or reduced-cost lunch programs). My kids, on the other hand, don't want for anything and have never gone to bed hungry (unless they refused to eat dinner), and while we don't live extravagantly, they really have no idea how much God has blessed us with material things.
Anyway, my girls gave up their entire afternoon today to put up a lemonade stand at the end of our driveway so they could raise their own money to give to this program. They could have gone to the pool (it was low 80's here) or stayed in the house in the A/C, but they sat in the sun at a little table selling drinks and these little Magic Band bracelets they've been making along with some small toys they've gotten from various birthday parties they've been to. My older daughter (she's almost 9) manned the table, while the younger one (a little over 6) walked door to door to invite people to come down to it; the little one even went to the field at the end of the street where all of the neighborhood boys were playing wiffle ball and asked if they would come up.
Overall, they raised about $16 toward the cause, and they want to go out tomorrow right after school because their friends were talking about wanting to come down again. Gives me hope that maybe, just maybe, my wife and I are doing something right with them.
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Post by Jesse on Aug 24, 2014 21:26:10 GMT -5
Has there been any other process in food making that has turned an otherwise undesirable food into something as glorious as dill pickles? I think not. I like dill pickles but I also like cucumber on a salad or sometimes a sandwich. The biggest improvement for me would probably be spicy cauliflower.
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Post by hondobrode on Aug 24, 2014 21:41:57 GMT -5
Went out to lunch today and found something surprising about my grandpa. He's a hard man. The hardest man I know. He's not cruel, I love him to death. But he's very Clint Eastwood. He worked hard his whole life to pay bills to feed a wife and kids. He's a child of the depression, the son of immigrants, the first born American of his family. He had a simple childhood and then went straight away into union labor, which he did until he was 65 and retired. He's been a tough guy his whole life, toughest guy I've ever known, and when he was well into his 70's he wrecked his bike, left the hospital against doctors recommendations with freshly broken ribs so he could attend a biker hotel party. I always thought about that when thinking of myself. It made me self conscious about being an adult comic book collector. I'm not as hard a man as my grandpa is. I'm no Clint Eastwood. Well, today I was having lunch with my mom and we were talking about my grandma. Grandma worked too, and she also worked the kind of tough union job you'd expect a man to do, especially back then, but still today. The thing is though, grandpa paid all the bills and grandma's check was 100% mad money. Vacations, birthdays, holidays, casino nights, and just plain spoiling the kids and grandkids. She went all out, and for every single holiday her house was decorated to the max. You see that amazing house on Christmas? Hers was like that on Easter and Thanksgiving too. Inside and out. So eventually mom says "You don't know the half of it, when I was little she worked at Mattel!" I never knew that, I could only imagine how per paychecks were spent. Mom said her and her sisters had all the Barbie accessories. Then she said Grandpa had a gigantic Hotwheels collection. That shocked me. He's never been a collector, never seemed like a man who would be into kid stuff. He has a hand forged knife, a leather jacket, and the most beautiful Road King I've ever laid eyes on, but his possessions are actually few. His room is simple. A sheet, a blanket, a pillow, a twin mattress set, box spring on the floor, and a real samurai sword that was brought back from WW2 as spoils of war that he bought off a kid for a quarter when he was a child. His place looks military clean and completely void of personal effects, besides the photographs of his wife, kids, and grandkids hanging in the living room, and grandma's doll collection he never moved after she passed away. So to think when he was in his 20's he liked to relax and look at his little toy cars gave me an entirely new perspective of who my grandpa is. I wonder what he did with them? The two sides of my family couldn't be more different. My dad's side invented the first ice box and had the biggest general store in the Midwest 100 years ago. They were very wealthy. My mother's side were tenant farmers and my mother's family grew up poor as my grandfather was misdiagnosed by a small town doctor and died leaving my farm wife grandmother and 9 kids. She'd never even driven a car. To get money, she had my uncle drive her to town and sell eggs. My great grandfather Barney, the rich one, apparently, was a huge fan of comic strips and books as well. The house I grew up in has been in the family now for around 130 years or so. Huge and beautiful on an 80 acre estate. 2 stories with a full furnished basement and an attached 4 and a half car garage from the mid 70's when they were driving big old Cadillacs and Buicks. Anyway, one room we've always had is the library, and it's always been used as a library. Apparently, it goes clear back to when my great grandfather built the house, and that entire library was filled was Platinum Age and Golden Age comics and strips. The uncle that drove my grandmother into town to sell eggs, went on to be one of the most successful in the family, and established the family beverage distribution business, now sold and gone, but clear back in the early days staking out territory and sales for 7-Up, Royal Crown Cola, Dr Pepper, Squirt, A&W, Crush, Nehi, Canada Dry, Lipton Tea, and others. Both of them were huge fans of comics and strips. The rest of my family, pretty much all of them have no interest, but both of these relatives surprised me by having a strong interest in The Funnies, much like your grandfather and his Hot Wheels. Barney died years before I was born, but it kind of gave me an extra special connection with my uncle and I like that.
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Post by hondobrode on Aug 24, 2014 21:45:11 GMT -5
Got to see my daughters do something completely selfless and awesome today. Their school has a program that provides free backpacks to kids in the town that can't afford them, but they also provide food for the kids to take home on Fridays to make sure that they have something to eat over the weekend (these are the kids that are on the free or reduced-cost lunch programs). My kids, on the other hand, don't want for anything and have never gone to bed hungry (unless they refused to eat dinner), and while we don't live extravagantly, they really have no idea how much God has blessed us with material things. Anyway, my girls gave up their entire afternoon today to put up a lemonade stand at the end of our driveway so they could raise their own money to give to this program. They could have gone to the pool (it was low 80's here) or stayed in the house in the A/C, but they sat in the sun at a little table selling drinks and these little Magic Band bracelets they've been making along with some small toys they've gotten from various birthday parties they've been to. My older daughter (she's almost 9) manned the table, while the younger one (a little over 6) walked door to door to invite people to come down to it; the little one even went to the field at the end of the street where all of the neighborhood boys were playing wiffle ball and asked if they would come up. Overall, they raised about $16 toward the cause, and they want to go out tomorrow right after school because their friends were talking about wanting to come down again. Gives me hope that maybe, just maybe, my wife and I are doing something right with them. That's great Richard ! I'm jealous of my brother Ryan, who along with his wife and their two kids, used to go to the homeless shelter every Thanksgiving and help serve dinners. I thought that was really great of them. My wife and I are on a plane to Phoenix to see her brother and family we only see once, maybe twice if we're lucky, in a year.
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Post by zryson on Aug 24, 2014 23:57:39 GMT -5
I'm having one of those days where its hard to concentrate. I think the lack of sleep in the previous week has been catching up with me, and my thought process feels considerably slowed down as a result. I want to sleep but at the same time I dont want to do that. I think life is often like that. A see-saw of decision and indecision.
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Post by BigPapaJoe on Aug 25, 2014 4:42:46 GMT -5
Could you folks name the time you've been the most frightened in your life? If you have one that is. An experience that petrified you? I can't think of any one particular experience where I was so scared in a specific moment that I couldn't think straight or move. There were times when I was "nervous" because maybe someone was sick like a friend or something. But I'm talking about petrifying fear.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Aug 25, 2014 4:52:58 GMT -5
Could you folks name the time you've been the most frightened in your life? If you have one that is. An experience that petrified you? I can't think of any one particular experience where I was so scared in a specific moment that I couldn't think straight or move. There were times when I was "nervous" because maybe someone was sick like a friend or something. But I'm talking about petrifying fear. I was managing an after hours club one night when a group of men entered.One of them pulls out a 357 Magnum and aims it at my forehead while announcing a robbery.I could see the bullet in the chamber. I had to bring him to a back office where the cash was kept in the safe.As I was dialing the combination he was behind me and asked if I wanted to turn around and look at him. I said I rather not and opened the safe door. Any stupid move on my part and I wouldn't be here to tell you about it
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Post by zryson on Aug 25, 2014 5:10:36 GMT -5
Real palpable fear? I will talk about one experience. I would ride to and from school. By the time I finished it would be late, so I would unchain my bike, and make my way along the bike path and through the forests. At this time there had been some murders in the area. Bodies discovered around the lake. Anyway, there I was. Riding through the forest all alone. Its so remote and dark. My chest was heaving up and down, my heart beating wildly. It occurred to me that you could die out there... that you could scream but nobody would hear you. I thought of the people who had died. Laying there, covered in blood, waiting to be discovered. Bodies scattered throughout the forest.
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Post by adamwarlock2099 on Aug 25, 2014 9:40:15 GMT -5
Could you folks name the time you've been the most frightened in your life? If you have one that is. An experience that petrified you? I can't think of any one particular experience where I was so scared in a specific moment that I couldn't think straight or move. There were times when I was "nervous" because maybe someone was sick like a friend or something. But I'm talking about petrifying fear. The only time I think that has ever happened to me, is when seconds after they took my pregnant wife (then with our firstborn) back for an emergency cesarean, a doc came to me, and told me that due to my wife health issues, and that our son was trying to get out 14 weeks early, that there may come a time when I would have to make a choice, as my wife would be unconscious. I knew what choice I should make, but I also knew what choice I wanted to make. Thankfully it never came to that. But in that time between him telling me that and hearing that they were both ok, was a fear I had never felt before. Real dread.
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Daryl
Junior Member
Not NOT Brand Echh
Posts: 72
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Post by Daryl on Aug 25, 2014 9:42:48 GMT -5
When I was 11, I was in an arcade and a teenager held something in my back, he said it was a gun, but who knows? and took the whole $1.50 I had. That was probably the scariest. I know there have probably been a couple of auto related close calls, but I just don't remember enough details to think they really happened. The robbery one is still clear as day.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 25, 2014 9:50:52 GMT -5
Petrifying fear? Probably the time I was about 13 & was awakened in the middle of the night by a thunderous knocking on the heavy wooden door to my bedroom. Wasn't the outside door, but the one to the kitchen. Almost certainly wasn't my mother, because I'd have heard her walking back to her bedroom, given how old & creaky the house was. Could've been a dream, of course (lord knows, I'm one of those people who has really weird, vivid dreams), but sure as hell didn't seem like it.
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Post by the4thpip on Aug 25, 2014 11:10:32 GMT -5
I had a couple of those "sleep paralysis" situations where I had my eyes open, was still partly dreaming yet completely unable to move. Those were pretty scary.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 25, 2014 11:32:45 GMT -5
Yeah -- I've experienced those a few times as well. Evidently, they're seen as a (& possibly the) source of the old legends of incubi & succubi & the like, & much more recently all sorts of alien abduction accounts.
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Post by adamwarlock2099 on Aug 25, 2014 12:16:13 GMT -5
Unless they really are trying to abduct me.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 25, 2014 12:20:23 GMT -5
Unless they really are trying to abduct me. We ... uh, I mean they ... are still weighing the pluses & minuses of what you'd bring to the table.
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