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Tuesday, November 13, 2007

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Three feet of snow! That was a weather record I didn't really want to participate in. But, sure enough, we woke up that cold New Jersey morning to three feet of snow that had literally buried the metropolitan New York area. Even New York, the city that never sleeps, had been effectively shut down by the storm. There were cross country skiers in Times Square! Our little guy really wanted to go out in the snow that blanketed our backyard. So we bundled him up and we watched as he ventured into that white stuff. And he promptly disappeared! I went out after him - and, as short as I am, I just about disappeared myself. I almost became the Abdominal - I mean, what's that? Abominable Snowman. It took quite a while for that snow to become manageable and for life to return to normal. And it wasn't the last snow dump of the winter. But for those of us who have lived through some pretty long and tough winters, there is this one word that sustains us through it all. You know the word - spring.

Monday, November 12, 2007

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When I was a kid, "Nautilus" was Captain Nemo's submarine in a Jules Verne novel. I knew that because Walt Disney put it on TV. Then "Nautilus" became the name of an early nuclear submarine launched by the United States. But I just recently saw a nautilus when we were at Ocean City, New Jersey. No, it wasn't a submarine. It was the original nautilus - the little sea creature with the fascinating shell. We actually saw a lot of nautilus shells in little shops. We bought one for our living room. It's real smooth on the outside with stripes on it, and it's bigger than my hand. To me, the nautilus shell is shaped sort of like a big, shiny human ear, or maybe like an unborn child in the womb, if you can picture that. The original inhabitant is gone, but his fascinating shell-house remains. When you cut a nautilus shell in half, it reveals the life story of the one-time inhabitant. At the center is this circular chamber with a wall around it. That was the original home of a little bitty nautilus. There are circular chambers all the way to the outer edge of the shell, and each chamber is a little larger than the previous one. That little sea creature kept outgrowing his shell, so he left it behind and moved on to the next chamber - and chapter - of his life.

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

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It's a very impressive new bridge. We saw it recently as we traveled near the Ohio River. As you look at it from the city where we were staying, it appears to be complete. But when you go a few blocks and you look at it from downriver, some additional information becomes apparent - important information. It's only partly completed. It will get you part way there - but then it will drop you in the river.

Monday, November 5, 2007

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Our three-year-old granddaughter has big eyes, a big smile, and a backpack to match. She's loaded her little red backpack with every book that she can jam in there. And being a firstborn, she must, of course, carry it all by herself - which she was trying to do the other day when it became clear to Daddy that she was really straining with that load. He saw again how determined she can be. (Determined actually is a grandparent's word. Parents call it stubborn.) He suggested she remove a few books and lighten the load, and that idea was a total non-starter. Then she tried taking another step. That's when she started to take off her backpack, and she said with a sigh, "Here, Daddy. I can't carry it anymore." Her Daddy gladly took it and asked, "How's that, honey?" Her answer melted her father's heart, "All better, Daddy. All better."

Friday, November 2, 2007

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When I'm on the road - which is a lot of the time - I really need my cell phone. For all the dropped calls and dead spots and interruptions, a cell phone really can be a tool to keep vital communication going. So every night I go into a motel, I faithfully take my cell phone and the power cord to recharge it from an AC outlet. Most days that little guy gets a workout and, just like the guy who uses him, he's pretty exhausted by the end of the day. Wouldn't be interesting if people had bars registering how much power they have left like a cell phone does? Not long ago, I got up and I turned on my phone, anticipating another day of needing it a lot. And it was virtually dead. OK, what's the deal? A power outage in the night? Nope. An owner who's a "dufus." Oh, I had the cord plugged into my phone, but I forgot to plug it into the wall!

Thursday, November 1, 2007

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On a visit to her home area in the Ozarks, my wife took me to a picturesque spot along the Buffalo River. When she was a little girl, she and her whole family went swimming there with the pastor of their church and his wife. That little patch of river became the scene of a dramatic rescue that afternoon. That pastor almost drowned and my father-in-law jumped in and literally saved his life. I learned recently that that pastor was one of four people my father-in-law saved from drowning in his life. He got very serious when he told me the reason why. He told me about a time when he was a boy, and he watched two young girls drown in a river before he even knew how to swim. Immediately after that he learned to swim - and to rescue drowning people. You know what motivated him? In his own words, "I saw someone I couldn't rescue and I decided right then that would never happen again."

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

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Okay, here's a quick sports quiz. How many men on a football team? Eleven? Yes, well, if it's the visiting team. If it's the home team with the support of their fans on their field, there are twelve players on the team. You won't find the twelfth man anywhere on the field, of course. He's all those noisy fans cheering for the home team and trying to demoralize the opponents. In sports, those fans are literally known as the twelfth man. They are one big reason why teams play to have the best season record, so they can play at home during the playoffs. The twelfth man is a big part of that home field advantage. Those supporters never go on the field, but their influence is felt by every man there.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

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A while back my wife took me to a county fair with her where I experienced another new world. It was a 4x4 pull, where people in all kinds of four-wheel drive vehicles were competing. The challenge: pulling this massive sledge as far as possible. The first event featured standard, unmodified pickup trucks. All the drivers were male, except one. The engines roared for about an hour as one truck after another revved, pulled, and finally slowed down until it could go no further. Do you want to guess who won the 4x4 pull? Uh-huh, the little blonde-haired girl in the blue pickup truck. And I think I know why she beat everybody. She studied every competitor ahead of her; especially that sandy spot in the arena where most of them seemed to bog down. And she skillfully maneuvered around that soft spot and went the farthest, at least partly because she avoided what had sunk others.

Monday, October 29, 2007

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Usually, the only way we know a musical artist we like is through listening to their CD or maybe watching their music video or DVD. We've come a long way from Grandma's old 78 RPM records. In fact, someone's listening and saying, "What's a 78 RPM?" Or maybe even, "What's a record!" But there's something much better than either the audio or video recording of a great musician. It's called going to their concert where you can actually see and hear them, live and in person. There's nothing like the live concert.

Friday, October 26, 2007

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It used to be a lot simpler. These days, it can really be embarrassing - helping your kids with their homework, that is. First of all, most of us have forgotten more than we remember from school - you know, if you don't use it, you lose it. Second of all, they're studying things we probably have no clue about! And they're learning things a lot sooner than we did. So here comes Junior, looking for answers. You can't just tell him you don't know - you're a parent! You're supposed to know everything, right? So you find some diversion - a sudden coughing seizure, a call you forgot to make, the business trip you forgot to leave for. I found - especially in some areas of learning like science or the humanities - you don't need to know all the answers. You do need to own a set of encyclopedias. No, you may not have the answers, but you have the source of the answers!

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