Question

So I was thinking, Catholics believe in heaven, but they don't believe in past lives. So if when you die and go to heaven, do they consider this life a past life? If so, does that mean that this life doesn't exist?

I'm willing to listen to points of view.

Joyous Reunion

This morning is a little slow, I couldn't sleep so I came into work a LOT early. I was trying to figure out what it was. It's the season. I've always really liked the beginning of the Holiday season, the costumes of Halloween, with the little kids coming up and trying to say Trick or Treat as their first real sentence, and the turning of the trees through their fall colors.

I remember the big pot of "home made" chili and corn bread before going out trick or treating, I also remember really wanting to be a robot one year because I saw this really cool costume at the store, but ending up with a box with a bunch of buttons penciled on the front, holes cut in the top and sides for my head and arms, my uncle giving me some dryer hose to go over my arms, smaller boxes to go over my shoes and an aluminum foil helmet. POOF! I was a robot. Or the torn up jeans and shirt and a whole body of green body paint to make a 2nd grade Incredible"ly small" Hulk.

I also remember my parents walking around with us, holding hands and exuding love, even though they never really had a whole lot, they had each other, and that was enough to get through.

One of the great things about having kids is that you get to relive all of the great memories from your childhood.

The other thing that I realized this morning is that this is the 9th anniversary of our Mom passing away. Some people would be sad that they lost their mom, but for us, it was a joyous reunion for our mom and dad. We wept, of course, but we also realized that she was much happier now that our parents were together again.

Love you mom, see you in about 50 years...

Death and disassociative writing

Monday night I got a terrible shock, it was one of my best friends birthday. He's only about 6 months older than I am, but that's not the shocker. One of the guys that we went to high school with had died suddenly due to a heart attack or something. I'm not sure, I was getting the information 2nd hand.

Here is a guy who almost always seemed to be in good health in most respects. Dead of a heart attack at 36. My friend the Plumper, had known Rich fairly well because he had been dating Plumpers little sister for a while.

Death has a funny way of rearing it's ugly little head now and again to remind me that, yes, I am still alive, but am I living? I tend to not dwell on death too awfully long, but more on things that I could be doing to be living. I could tell people that I love that I love them. I never miss a chance to tell MG that I love her, if I don't tell her in the morning when I wake her up to let her know that I'm leaving and that I love her, than at night just before she goes to bed. I've been trying to tell Mie more on a regular basis, and to tell her how much I really appreciate her. Sometimes I think that she just thinks that I'm being goofy, but I do.

Then there are the times when I'm being too serious, life is too vibrant to walk around being serious, especially with floppy eared hats. Mie has pictures to prove that point. :)

I've done some things in life that I had on my to do list. Things like playing with a Bengal Tiger cub, take flying lessons, go back to school, raise a child who would make my parents proud to have as their smart assed teen granddaughter. Some I've done more than once, like owning a classic Mustang, and some I don't think will come to fruition within my life time like living in a nice little subdivision in Serenity Lake with a nice little view over looking the Earth. Flying a Hillard's Flying platform would have been fun too, but not going to happen in the next 3 years, maybe after that though.

I have stories to write, a daughter to walk down the aisle after I watch her graduate from a prestiges school with a degree in something that she loves to do. I have grand babies to hold and a son-in-law to get use to. I still have a lot to do here, so I'm not any where near finished here.
I say that more for the fact that I don't get into that mindset of "Oh crap" and just get back to the business of living a happy fulfilled life.

So excuse me, but I've got things that I need to be doing, instead of sitting here in front of a computer monitor. I like you all, but I've got to go live.

Family Pride

I received a call today from an Officer JT Freeze from the Arizona Highway Patrol. He's calling about my brother, wanting to ask questions, not for the purpose of finding him or his being in trouble, but because he's applied for, tested through, and has been accepted (tentatively) into the Arizona Department of Public Safety, and the answers I give will help determine if he'll be fully accepted. I had to fight against telling the officer that my brother use to run naked through laundry mats with gerbils taped to his thighs, or that he had an affinity for plywood, or some other wild story as a joke. This is a person who has been chasing the dream of being an officer for a little over 20 years, since being in his late teens, early 20's and it looks to be finally coming true for him.

Officer Freeze asked me a question about what advice I would give my brother when he gets this job. My response: "Just keep doing what you're doing". Officer Freeze told me that when he interviewed our sister, he asked her that question, and she gave almost the same exact answer, word for word. Plus she added "... and keep your head down" :)

I don't think that I've ever said this to him or my sister, but I'm proud of them, both. He has been chasing his dream after 20 years without wavering. He has made some detours along the way, but he's always had the vision of what he wanted to do. He's built himself up to a point that he went through the Coca-Cola company starting as a "Merchandiser" and worked his way up to a manager within the company coordinating drivers for the entire Phoenix area. He's ran businesses for some and owned businesses of his own, and all the while being a great father, being the father that our parents would be proud to have raising their grand babies. Now is his time to fulfill his dreams.

It goes the same for my sister, except in a slightly different way. To be completely honest, I don't remember what it was that she wanted to be when she grew up, but she's a loving mother and wife to her family. They get her all when she's awake, this is a woman who is extremely strong mentally, emotionally, and physically, me being 6'1" and 230lbs, I'm still afraid of her 5' nothing and maybe 120lbs sopping wet while holding bricks in both hands.

She has the tenacity to do pretty much anything or to become what ever it was that her heart desires, and she's done that by being a phenomenal mom and wife. Her daughters are all great people, who are also smarter than we were at their age, and when they make relatively stupid mistakes, she doesn't get truly mad, she just says to them "It's a good thing you're pretty" all the while being someone that our parents would beam about with pride.

Our parents are both gone and I know that there have been times when we had questions for them about being a parent, and not having them physically there, we have had to figure things out, but I think that our parents gave us the tools we needed to be the people that we are,and needed to be, which includes creating a strong cohesion within our family, no matter the distance between us or the length of time it's been since we've seen each other or have spoken on the phone. That is my family unit, it maybe small and at times it maybe broken, but it's mine and I'm proud to lay claim to it.

I'm Proud of my Brother for his unwavering focus to follow his dreams, and I'm proud of my sister for making the life choices that she wanted to make to raise their girls and to make their family stronger. We aren't rich by any stretch of the imagination, we're not world famous, what we are is liked by those who meet us, and loved by those who we let get to know us... I'm proud of us...

Drinks

I have this affinity for finding fun and exciting things to eat or drink, you know, Buffalo, Bison, Ostrich, Bear, elk, cat(don't ask, it was a Chinese food restaurant that is now closed, but it does taste like chicken). Things that you don't see at the usual grocery marts. And there's a place around the corner from where I work, which at one time was a rather large regional "Italian Deli" chain, called Corti Bros. They have a great selection of exotic foods and drinks in there, some of stuff in there I haven't even heard of, or I have only heard as rumors.

I found such a drink this afternoon. When I was growing up and Little Big Sis and Darth Older Brother and I would be acting up, our parents would ask us if we had been drinking the Kickapoo Joy Juice... I thought that it was just a funny saying, not so much any more. This afternoon, I have found a bottle of said Joy Juice so I had to buy it, guess what? It tastes just like Mt Dew, but made with pure cane sugar. So now when someone asks if I'm all hopped up on Kickapoo Joy Juice, I can say AB-solutely.

I also found a drink called Moxie, I'm not sure what it's suppose to taste like, but it was good, and it wasn't carbonated. I've noticed that there is something lost in Fructose Corn Syrup, it just doesn't taste as good as pure cane sugar.

I did however find something that tastes surprisingly like honey, it's Agave Nectar... yes, that's right, the same Agave that Te-kill-ya is made from, it's sweet like honey. I was told about it from a friend at work, apparently there's a Te-kill-ya bar here in Cowtown where I work and they make an Agave Nectar Margarita. Always the curious kid that I am, I had to search out this Nectar and give it a try. After searching the interweb thingy for a recipe for Agave Nectar Margarita's, I found one which looked like it was easy enough that my pea sized, swiss cheese brain could remember. I got the ingredients and made a Margarita...

The thing was pretty good, and about 10 minutes later, I was stumbling. I already know that I'm a relative light weight, I can only do 12 shots of tequila before I get a decent buzz going. So I had to make one when Mie was home and not on-call. So I did, and I was happy to see that I wasn't the only one who got knocked on their butt. If you like Margarita's, I'd like to offer up this recipe for you, enjoy:

1 oz, Partida Agave Nectar
(I was told by a friend who tried at least 4 different brands that this was the best one)

1 oz, filtered water

1 fresh squeezed lime

1.5 - 2 oz 100% Blue agave Tequila
(I used the Cabo Wabo Anejo, expensive, but worth it)

Shake and serve over ice, do not use salt, that's only used to kill the taste of bad tequila, in my humble opinion...

Mullets

So I got to reading Sybil's blog today and the very first paragraph of the top blog post was about how her father-in-law was going to start growing a mullet.

Well what's wrong with Mullets? I mean if you have a mullet, all you need to do is get a trans am, some gold chains, skin tight acid washed jeans complete with acid washed jean jacket, a torn shirt to resemble a tank top and some white shoes with the velcro strap at the top, and you're set.

The early 90's weren't good to me, I'm not going to be doing anything to resemble myself 18 years ago. If her father-in-law goes to a concert, then he would be the creepy old guy at the concert who should be home eating top ramon rather than being out at a show.

I had to go out onto the interweb thingy and look for websites dedicated to mullets, because, well they're funny...

here's just one that I found

and another
and yet another but unfortunately the one that I really liked won't come up but I'll give that one too, here ya go

Special

Yes you're special..
Wearing a helmet walking down the street, licking the windows of the short bus special....

I love people.