Category: Life

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Men are different from women

Photos of outfitsYou know that men are different from women. I know that too.

I’ve been married to Heather for more than 20 years. I love her and am always amazed that after all these years, we are still discovering new things about each other.

She started a new contract job recently at a large company that has a fairly formal corporate culture. She has to “dress up” to go to work. Some mornings involve a clothing crisis before the right outfit is found.

Now this is partly a personality thing, but it takes me about 5 seconds to choose what I’ll wear to an event or a work situation. Heather deliberates till she finds the perfect outfit. Since she has really good taste, she scores. (I don’t always score, but she often will warn me of impending mistakes.)

So I came up with an idea to save her time in the morning. What if I took photos of each of her outfit combinations and she could just flip through the set of photos to choose the outfit for a particular day?

No. She didn’t like that idea. Why? “You just wouldn’t understand.” (True.)

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Recapturing that lost childhood

Matchbox Mustang No. 8During the summer, I saw an amazing toy car collection worth thousands of dollars. It was not in a museum – but in a home office. Few people beyond the collector, his wife and daughter ever see these cars.

So why would he invest so many hours and and so much money in that? (One small set alone is worth about $1,000.) My theory is that he is trying to recapture some of his lost childhood. He remembers when he saved up and bought those cars when he was a kid. As a proportion of his income, the little cars might be similar in what they cost him today, maybe.

I collect little cars (in spite of my primary emphasis on collecting digitally). I don’t pay very much for them. I don’t collect very many. But to anyone who visits my home office, they will see probably 6 or 7 little cars lined up, looking at me. Am I trying to recapture some of my lost childhood? Maybe. Mostly I just like cars and it’s fun to see those little cars every day.

What’s the difference between the previously mentioned collector and me? He goes to great lengths to find specific models. He’s willing to pay a ton when he finds the pearl of great price. I just randomly pick up a Trabant when I see it at Walgreens. Or a friend will give me a Mini.

By the way, the model shown is from the amazing collection. (He very kindly let me take several pictures – which are in now my digital collection.) That white Matchbox Mustang is one that I owned when I was a boy. Today on eBay with the box it costs $100. Sadly it won’t regain a place of honor in my collection.

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Listen to that advice

Flooded basementA year ago, our friend Jack said our water heater was probably going to break soon – and he recommended getting it replaced.

We though, “Why spend the money today? It probably has 2-3 years left, and we’ll get a new one when we feel like we can afford it more.”

So Saturday morning, it broke and flooded our basement. Thankfully, recovering from the flood cost no more than a Saturday afternoon and a sore back. But I would have avoided both if I had listened to Jack’s advice.

So my advice to you is this: please listen to your plumber, your doctor or your car mechanic when they say it’s time to get that work done. They probably know more about the problem than you do. And it may cost you more than a Saturday and a sore back to fix that disaster.

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How do you stay healthy?

BicyclingThat’s a question. I’d love to hear what you do to stay healthy. Please leave a comment at the end of this post. Why? Your healthy activities and interests might inspire me and other readers in new and interesting directions.

Here’s what I do:

– Ride my bike. I try to ride it places instead of driving. This takes some planning. And it’s rarely possible with the whole family. (Those rides are usually for leisure.)

– Exercise my arms and shoulders. Last October, I pinched a nerve in my neck. A great physical therapist gave me a set of several exercises that have kept that pain away. I do this 3 to 5 mornings a week, using a very simple stretch device.

– Eat dinner with my whole family. With two teenage sons and a ten-year-old daughter, this is not easy, but we do manage to share our evening mealtime about five days a week. This allows us to stay closer and keep up with what we are all doing.

– Read the Bible. This keeps me focused on what’s important. (If you’d like to explore this one, start with the book of Mark or Luke.)

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We are connected

About the time you read this, I will have just left my European sister… we visited Amy and her family in their now native Belgium.

I love her. We get along well. We have had our times of differences, but for the most part now we truly enjoy each other. It is a bit heart-breaking that we live so far apart.

Anyhow, this artwork is from the outside of a package she sent. She re-used a package our mom sent her. (Mom died around two years ago.) Amy can make art out of almost anything.

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Thanksgiving

I know that it’s a long way from Thanksgiving. But I’m thankful today. Two years ago, My mom passed away. I am thankful for her life and the indelible influence she had on me.

(This was a letter to the editor of The Dallas Morning News that she got published on Thanksgiving Day, 2000. You can see that she shared my love of writing.)

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The loss of something

As life moves forward, we lose some things.

When I was a kid, my family had encyclopedias. I used to enjoy sitting down and reading them. Or skimming them to find interesting articles. Hours and hours of my childhood were spent learning that way.

Today, kids have Wikipedia and Google. Both offer huge advantages over encyclopedias. But some things are lost. I wonder how many kids spend hours combing Wikipedia for interesting articles.

I have a Kindle, and I love it. But it’s far from perfect.

Recently, I learned of a high school not far away that is “paperless.” No books, except eBooks. Again, some good things come with that – but some things are lost.

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Super encouragement

You never know when the past will meet the present.

Two weekends weeks ago, we attended the graduation ceremony for our dear friend Stefani. Little did I know, but that day the pastor from my junior high and high school years was being given an honorary doctorate. He also gave the commencement address (excellent).

After the ceremony, Heather, Rachel and I went to greet both him and his wife. They were super nice! I told them how their influence on my life so many years ago was still lasting to this day.

Moral of the story? You may be making an impact on someone today – and that impact may last a long time.

(The horrible photo is from my cel phone – but that is the couple, on stage.)

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