You'll be missed Michael

Can you remember drinking from a hose?

Here is a forwarded email sent to me from my good friend, Justin. Instead of forwarding it on I liked the idea of blogging it. Pictures added by me because...I like pictures.

To Those of Us Born

1930 - 1979

At the end of this email is a quote of the month by Jay Leno.. If you don't read anything else, please read what he said.


Very well stated, Mr. Leno.


TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED THE

1930's, 40's, 50's,
60's and 70's!!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can and didn't get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered
with bright colored lead-base paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, locks on doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had baseball caps not helmets on our heads.

As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, no booster seats, no seat belts, no air bags, bald tires and sometimes no brakes.

Riding in the back of a pick- up truck on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle.
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and no one actually died from this.
We ate cupcakes, white bread, real butter and bacon. We drank Kool-Aid made with real white sugar. And, we weren't overweight.. WHY?
Because we were always outside playing...that's why!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on..

No one was able to reach us all day. And, we were OKAY.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps
and then ride them down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem


We did not have Play stations, Nintendo's and X-boxes. There were no video games, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound or CD's, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet and no chat rooms.


WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.
We would get spankings with wooden spoons, switches, ping pong paddles, or just a bare hand and no one would call child services to report abuse.

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.


We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them.

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team.
Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment.

Imagine that!!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever.

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.


If YOU are one of them, CONGRATULATIONS!

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good.

Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?
~
The quote of the month is by
Jay Leno:
'With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?'

Powder Baby

I'm sure almost any parent has experienced some variation or scenerio depicted above. This is Timo from a few years back but I'm pretty sure Eric is the only one of our boys I haven't seen covered head to toe in baby powder at some point. Even two year old Noah has done some friendly powder hazing to baby Mikey. It's a funny thing when this happens. First you smell the powder, then you see little powder mists floating around in the air(which is really distracting when you're watching reruns of Seinfeld). Then you may see the culprit who is unknowingly covered in powder because he powdered his younger brother. Finally, the victim emerges completely covered in white. You don't know whether to get really angry or laugh. Usually, it's both for me. I get mad, then I laugh...usually. To any new parents(Justin and Kjerstin) you must know that if you keep baby powder in the house, this experience at some point or another will happen just as sure as the sunrise. It's funny...almost every time.

Crazy Bat Swing

Balancing a bat on the palm of my hand just doesn't seem to be cool anymore. Check out what this guy can do.

Today was a good day

I did something today that has been rare to me lately. I was gone from home all day long. I even played basketball...twice. I haven't got that much sun in a long time. I felt like I was drawing energy from the sun, like Superman. The last several months have been very humbling and has changed me in a lot of ways. I look forward to a summer filled with days just like today.

Planes and Helicopters

A few days ago my lovely wife Becka blogged about one of our new favorite places to picnic in Boise. It's at the end of the runway at the Boise airport. You can read Becka's post here. In Becka's blog her main focus was the fighter jets flying around. I'm sort of continuing Becka's post by adding a few more pictures. I know, I know, here I am plugging away my own pictures, forcing them into your face. Not really, but I do love airplanes and helicopters so I thought I would share.




This Firehawk helicopter flew so close over head I almost got a kink in my neck trying to take the picture.



Being a former Horizon employee, I enjoy taking pictures of these crappy Q400 planes. I'm not saying flying on a Q400 is unsafe or anything but it's probably a good idea to make sure you have life insurance before you board the plane. Also, if you weigh over 125 pounds be prepared to travel like a sardine. On second thought, be prepared anyway.

These pictures look really good enlarged. When the planes approach from the west of the runway you can get really close making it easy to get good pictures.

Random (and mostly true) Short Story

A while back (16ish) I ate a large piece of cake. After finishing my cake I desired a large drink of milk to wash down the chocolatey goodness. I reached into the fridge and pulled out a new fresh jug of milk. I quickly tore off the seal, unscrewed the cap and started chugging straight from the jug. I was chugging hard like it was a contest. I must have drank somewhere between a quarter and a third of a gallon before I finally relented and pulled the milk away from my mouth. Instantly, it hit me. The milk was sour!! I ran to the sink to prepare for the worst. I composed myself and nothing came back up. Unfortunately, I was damaged mentally. I didn't drink milk for weeks after that. I would wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat because a giant sour jug of milk was chasing me. It was horrible.

Ron Burgundy would say...

"milk was a bad choice"

Call It: Satisfaction

Tonight my belly is satisified. Tonight I will sleep comfortably. Tonight I can't wipe the smile off my face. Tonight I had Pad Thai for dinner. Because of Pad Thai, maybe just for tonight, my world feels a little bit better.

Ohhh, you go around...

Is it possible that so many people were going right through the poop it was a necessity to post a sign for people to go AROUND the poop?

Eric "Knievel" Rigby, Part II

Eric was at it again on his bike. The older neighbor boys built somewhat of a big bike jump. However, none of the boys were willing to jump it. I told Eric it would be pretty cool if he was the first one to do it. I've given him better advice but he obliged anyway...twice. He didn't pull up on his handlebars so the wreck is a bit harsh. This time I put on some approriate music to go along with the video. The music is kinda loud so be sure to adjust your volume accordingly.

Eric "Knievel" Rigby

Welcome Back.

Recently, there was an old mattress left in the grassy lot that connects to our apartment complex. Some of the neighbor boys were riding their bikes straight into the mattress so they would wreck softly. A couple of the older boys (12ish) dared Eric to ride his bike into the mattress at full speed with no hands. Something, you have to understand about Eric is, he'll do almost anything, especially if challenged by someone else. Of course Eric agrees to do it. Actually, he did it three times but I only seen the last one, which is the one I captured on video. From what I've heard this is the best wreck of the three. You may notice, Eric didn't quite pull his other hand off the handlebar but he didn't need to. Take a peek.



That was a pretty hard landing. Don't be alarmed that Eric grabbed his head afterwards, he was completely okay. He told me it was the tire rubbing against his face that hurt the most. I was trying not to laugh too hard at first. This makes me wonder what stunt he'll do next.

Recent Pictures

As always, one way I keep busy is taking pictures. Lately we've been going to a lot of parks and doing bike rides and such. Yesterday, my seven year old Eric went on a 17 mile bike ride with me! We rode along part of the Boise Greenbelt. I kept asking him if he was sure he wanted to keep going. He adamantly said YES every time. He finally burned out the last mile or two. Anyway, here's some random pictures from the last few days:

Here comes Timo!!



Noah peeking around the corner.



On Eric's second to last day of school, he had his field day. He was very excited about this. Here he is clearing a hurdle on an obstacle course.



Mikey keeps busy at the park by examining things such as my water bottle.




I always encourage the boys to jump off of random things. It's something both Eric and Timo love to do now. So, here's two pictures of Timo jumping. I think the shadow looks pretty cool.



This is the hill, or the camels back, from camels back park in Boise. The steps don't look quite as intimidating as the steps at The Great Wall of China, but if you're on the husky side it can feel that way.


As you can see, we've been pretty busy the last week or so. I have many other pictures I could post but I figure I'll spread them out a little.


In Other News:

I shaved my goatee yesterday. My chin is completely bare. If you know me, this is almost as rare as a lunar eclipse. Becka tactfully informed me my chin hair was getting too long and "out of control." It's too bad because I was going for the world record. I could take a picture of my new round hairless chin and post it but I don't want to scare the women and children.