Hope's Rube Goldberg

My daughter uses a Rube Goldberg device to get a snack!

My daughter wants 5 rabbits, 5 ducks, 5 fruit trees and a fishing pond for Christmas

The really cool thing is, she doesn't want these things for herself.  You see, we received the World Vision Gift Catalog in the mail the other day and my 8 year old started paging through it.  Sitting at the kitchen table, she turned over a paper plate that was sitting next to her, grabbed a pencil, and started writing on the back of the plate. I used to do the same thing as a child when the JCPenny catalog arrived.  I would look through it and write down all the toys that I wanted.  My daughter, however, is a much better person than I am.

Hope, my daughter, wrote down -

      5 ducks $35
      5 rabbits $95
      family fishing kit $50
      fishing pond $200
      5 fruit trees $30

That is her list.  That is what she wants to GIVE other people, kids around the world, so they may have a better life. The next thing she did astonished me.  I was waiting for Hope to ask me for money to buy these items, but instead she informed me that she is starting a "Booster" campaign.

"What's a booster campaign?" I asked.

"Dad, you go to Booster.com and design a t-shirt that people buy and then booster gives you money. I saw it on a commercial."

And that's exactly what she did.  Here is Hope's Booster page. She did it all: the t-shirt design, the description of her campaign, everything. The only thing her dad did, was to hold the camera as she made this video.

I love her so much. She has a great heart and I feel so blessed that she calls me daddy.  Check out the page and buy a t-shirt.  It's the giving season.

Phil Loves Irene and Chris Loves Shannan

My dad was one of those men that taught life lessons through the example he set in his own life. He was a hard worker, laughed off a lot of pain, and he loved his wife. One of the coolest things about growing up in my family was having parents that loved each other. My father not only loved my mom, he was IN LOVE with my mom my entire life.

One day, a teller from our local bank went out of her way to share with me that she had noticed how much my dad loved my mom. She said "I've never met anyone who loves their wife more than Phil loves Irene." The teller relayed a story about how Phil made a special trip to the bank so he could buy a raffle ticket. A raffle ticket for a quilt made by one of the local artisans in Lodi. "Irene would love that quilt" he told the teller with a twinkle in his eye. Did his ticket win? I don't think so, but the fact he made a special trip to the bank to buy a raffle ticket just for the chance of making his wife more happy was a win in my book. That was so neat to hear that about my father. It was really nice of the bank teller lady to tell me that story. It helped me to learn what love was. A true love that a husband should have and share with his wife. A true love that I am fortunate to share with my wife.

B-F-H Hollywood style

You know who else uses a Big Friggin Hammer?



THOR. I'll have to check this out come May.

Droppin The Hammer Down Part II

I have been wondering how to post this video since the tragedy that has happened at this ride.  You can read about it and see video here.  You see, a 12 year-old girl nearly died doing this ride I'm about to show you.  However, through the grace of God, she is doing remarkably well!  My friend owns Extreme World, and his first concern has been and always will be, for that girl who fell to the ground.

Since God is working a miracle in this girl's life and recovery, I feel comfortable showing this video.  Plus, as you will see, my cousin Peter gets razzed quite a bit in this video, but obviously his concerns are valid ones.  Also, to be clear, no one in this video (i.e. the jump master and grounds crew) was involved in the tragedy.  This is an awesome ride!

Droppin the Hammer Down - Part I

Apologies if you are expecting "Crash Part II", but I've been so busy.  Just cannot find the time to blog.  What is taking up all my time, you ask?  Watch this video of my cousin Peter and I and you'll find out.

I promise "Droppin The Hammer - Part II" will be even more exciting.  By the way, while my father was a wildman behind the wheel of a vehicle, there is no amount of money that would've gotten him on this ride.

My Dad's Nickname Could've Been "Crash" Part 1

I think I know why my father was such a great mechanic.  It was out of necessity.  It would've cost my father way too much money to have someone else fix what he had broken.  He drove his cars hard, fast and loose.  If he would've been born in the South, his name might be mentioned in the same breath as Buddy Baker, Cale Yarborough, or Richard Petty.  He shared that same mentality of the Nascar legends.  The "I can make a car do anything I want it too" mentality.  However, just like those Nascar legends he also totaled his fair share of vehicles throughout his lifetime.

Frank Lloyd Wright....naked?

Along with being a great mechanic, my father was also the king of B.S.  You know, that fertilizer that comes from a male bovine.  Yeah, my dad could sling it with the best of them.  One story my father would always "B.S." about involved a certain famous American architect and a tractor.

Now, just to set the record straight, this is a story my father would tell every time Frank Lloyd Wright would be mentioned in some news story or in conversation. Mr. Wright's name would come up often because we live in Southern Wisconsin not very far from his Taliesin home in Spring Green Wisconsin.  Anytime my dad would hear the name "Frank Lloyd Wright" my father would pipe in  "You know, I saw Frank Lloyd Wright naked once!"

Plus, as far as truthfulness is concerned, I don't recall the story changing much every time he told it.  If there was embellishment involved in my father's Frank Lloyd Wright story, it must have been done when he first started telling his eyewitness account.  There is no "Dead Sea Scrolls" version of my father's story to verify its historicity.  And one more thing, I dont think my dad was the type of guy to make up a story about seeing another man naked. 

Eye Magnet? No Thanks

Life changing moments, you don't forget those.  Getting married, the birth of a child, starting a new career, when you set out on a new path for your life, those are pretty memorable moments.  However, there are also those moments that are just as important, but instead of starting down a new path you put a "Do Not Enter" sign on it.  That was the day I decided I was never going to be a mechanic.

I could've had a good life as a mechanic.  Learning from the best mechanic around, being able to take over the family business, it would've been easy.  My ten year old brain even went through the checklist of all the fun things that a mechanic gets to do everyday. 

Getting greasy and dirty? - check
Using tools everyday? - check
especially a tool like a B.F.H.? - check
working on many different types of cool cars? - check
Saying what a B.F.H. actually was? - check

Cool, right?  But then I noticed some other things about being a mechanic that weren't so great.

B.F.H = Warmth

After reading my earlier post "Get Me A B-F-H" my sister June shared with me another "Phil" story involving a big friggin hammer.   The reason I didn't know of this story was because this happened when I was very young (I am the youngest in my family by at least ten years, a fact I never let my siblings forget) and this story takes place in our old basement. 

I didn't go in the basement as a child, because I thought the very gates of Hades existed down there.  It was dark and musty.  Occasionally I would hear these low growls and moans emanating from that dark abyss.  I swear to God I once heard these moans say "Hammer Jr, I want to eat your braaaiiiinn".  However, after hearing my sister's story I now realize that it wasn't some zombie from Hades hungry for my brain, it was our old fuel oil furnace struggling to start up.

The house I grew up in was built in the 1920s-ish and the furnace was still the original one that came with the house.  So, it was old.  Since my father was really good at keeping mechanical things running, he felt no need to replace the old furnace when it was acting up.  His solution you ask?  Why, a BFH of course.

My sister told me that dad always had a big friggin hammer lying next to the furnace and when it wouldn't fire up he would give it a whack and then it would work for a while.  Nevermind the fact that HE WAS HITTING A FURNACE WITH A HAMMER!  A COMBUSTIBLE FUEL FURNACE!  My sister would hurry outside when she knew dad was going to whack the furnace just in case we needed someone to identify the bodies if something went wrong.  Very smart of her.  The funny thing is that years later, my sister and her husband moved into that house when we left for the farm.  The first thing they replaced?  The old fuel furnace.

Sometimes, You Just Have To Create The Right Tool For The Job.

My dad, Phil, must've enjoyed work, because my freshman year in high school we moved from town to a farm.  When most people get above 50 years old, they tend to slow down a bit; "Lighten the load" so to speak.  Not Phil. Although, he did sell the shop, he then converted a barn on the farm to his new shop.  A place where his customers could still bring their cars for Phil to fix,  when he wasn't out in the field.

All this extra work meant Phil needed to make sure that he had the right tools available so he could get the job done quickly.  And then there arose those times when the right tool wasn't available, but that didn't slow down Phil.  That just meant that Phil needed to CREATE the right tool.

"GET ME A B-F-H!"

If my dad had a mutant power, it was his ability to fix anything mechanical. Of course, my wife believes this is a mutant gene that I don’t possess and she would be correct (she’s always correct….its horrible for me). Anywho, my father was a mechanic working in a small shop that he built himself, earning a good living turning wrenches and getting dirty.

Phil (what other non-siblings called my dad) wasn’t just any run-of-the-mill mechanic. He was the best. He wasn’t just a Ford guy or a Chevy guy or a Studebaker guy, he was all of those. His experience and knowledge concerning cars was unmatched. My father’s shop was where you took your car when the other mechanic(s) failed. I wish I would’ve paid more attention to what my dad was doing underneath all those cars, because I’m terrible when it comes to fixing anything with four wheels. However, I still got quite the education from my dad, just not his mutant power.