As I sit here and watch history...

As I type this, I am watching CNN report that Barack Obama has won the Democratic Presidential Nomination. This is obviously a huge story because of the historical implications and this got me thinking about the events that I have seen in my lifetime and what their place in history will be. Of course, this moment will be big and will be talked about for a long time. If he wins the presidency it will never be forgotten. 9/11 will always be remembered. I wish this event would have never taken place, but it did and it will never be forgotten. We have the two wars in Iraq that will be talked about for ages even if you do not agree with the them. These are a few events that I can recall and I am sure that there are more. How will I remember these moments 10, 15, or 20 years from now? If you sit and think about how your parents talk about major events happened in their lives, I am sure you will see how they put their own spin on it. I hope I can one day share my memories with someone down the road and I hope that I will remember them as they were.

Life is too short to worry about the little things!

I have not posted in almost a week because there has been a lot going on with my family. My wife and I have been driving to Dallas the past couple of weeks and have been spending our time at Baylor Medical in Irving. When you get home late, you really are not in the mood to blog. This past weekend we did not leave Dallas till Monday. We arrived in Austin around 10:45 in the evening to a big surprise. We entered our apartment and found 4 commercial blowers throughout the apartment. There was also a huge commercial humidifier in the middle of our living room. We were not happy to say the least. With it being so late there was nobody to call to find out what happened. I headed to our business center on the ground floor to see if there was anybody in there that might know something and there was. I was told that the 19th floor flooded. There was a pipe releasing 900 gallons of water a minute. The water made its way down the floors through the elevator shaft and stairwells. We had about two inches of water on our floor. We were lucky that nothing was ruined. The only problem was that we had all this equipment in our apartment. It was a nuisance! After I cooled down, I got to thinking about how I was making a big deal out of nothing. All our possessions were okay and we still had a home. In light of all that has been going on in my life and my wife's life, it really is silly to let such a little thing get under our skin. Life is too short for us to worry about things that we have no control over, especially when we are okay. My wife and I have a lot to be thankful for and I am going to try to not let the little things bother me anymore. I should enjoy all that life gives me and I suggest you do too!

What job would you do if you could do anything .

This morning as I was waiting for the bus, I was watching two crane operators maneuver their cranes into position to lift items up to the upper levels of a building that they were working on. I starting thinking about what it takes to become a crane operator and if this was a field that the operators wanted to get into when they were younger. I am not sure if I could be a crane operator because I have an issue with heights, but I am sure that it is real interesting working at the top of the crane. I know that I am not currently doing what I had hoped to being doing at this point in my life, but I am still young and hope that I will be able to fulfill that dream one day. Are you doing what you thought you would be doing 20 years ago? I am sure that some of us are and some of us aren't. The good thing is that we all still have time to do what we want to do. We might end up being the oldest person in the field, but at least you will be able to do what you always wanted to do. Never give up on chasing your dreams. Sometimes it just takes us a little longer to achieve our dreams than others. These thoughts are deep considering it all started with two cranes that I saw this morning waiting for the bus.

Severe weather and television.

My wife and I did take out for dinner tonight and stayed in and watched television. Here in central Texas we are experiencing some rough weather. We all know that when this is going on in your area, you will most likely see a little map in the corner of your television screen that will show you where the weather is heading and how severe. I understand the importance of doing this, but must it be a constant fixture on the television. Although this annoys me, it got me thinking about whether or not this feature is beneficial or more of a nuisance? With all the technology that we have, it is easy to get weather updates. I know I am complaining, but after 2 hours of looking at this little map I am annoyed. I wish there was a way I could control it or maybe they could just show it during commercial breaks. Does this annoy you as much as me?

Great Concept! I hope it works.

Today, as I was walking to the gym, I noticed that a new bike shop opened next to our apartment. The name of the shop is Mellow Johnny's. I believe Lance Armstrong is part owner of the shop and it was a vision of his that he has been wanting to bring to Austin. It is a bike shop with a cafe, but the cool part is that it has locker rooms. The goal of the shop is to serve all their customers, but they are encouraging people who work downtown town to bike to work instead of driving. That is why they have locker rooms. They want you to bike and park at their shop and then use their showers. When you are all cleaned up you can then walk to work. Lance picked up on this idea after seeing something similar in Portland. I really think it is a great idea. If I were going to ride my bike to work, I would definitely want to get cleaned up before going into the office. I will be watching this shop closely in the coming months to see how things are working out. I hope it works because I think this concept is great. I think if we can make it work here in Austin, then maybe it can spread to other major cities and we can make an impact on the environment.

Interesting show.

After dinner and drinks this evening, my wife and I headed home and proceeded to watch this show on A&E. The show was called Intervention. If you have not watched this show, I would say it is at least worth DVRing. The concept of the show is that a family has a member who is dealing with a personal issue and they bond together to get the family member to go to a treatment center. It is a very interesting concept, but it got me thinking about how this could affect the individual needing the help. I really do not think that pressuring someone to go into treatment with cameras in their face is good. I also think that people who watch the show might think that they can rally their family members to convince someone in their family to go into treatment. Maybe I am reading to much into it, but I think this show benefits from people with problems. Not as bad as Dr. Phil, but it is ironic that they make money off other people's problems. I think it is a slippery slope and I can only imagine what we will be watching 15, 20, or 25 years down the road.

On another note, I have failed with my goal of staying off the Internet after 8 pm. Although, I did not use my computer all day. I will try starting tomorrow, but if today is any indication it is not looking good. Maybe I'll end up on Intervention.

How much is too much?

I spent the weekend in the DFW area visiting with family and I realized that I was spending quite a bit of time on the Internet. When I was visiting my mother-in-law at the hospital I was on the Internet. When I was at my parents house I was on the net. When I am at home, I am on the Internet. All this got me thinking about how much is too much? I work from home and spend a lot of my time on the Internet while I am making calls. I do hate that I do this because I think it can be a waste of time. I look at it as a time killer, but I find myself spending lots of time on the computer. I have told myself that I was going to schedule periods of time for myself to be on the web, but have not done so. I wonder if I could stick to a schedule? Would I be more productive with other things in my life? I think I will try it starting this week. My goal will be to not use my computer after 8 pm. I will start with baby steps and see how it will go. I'll update next Sunday.

We all need a little personal space.

I have been in Dallas visiting family since Thursday night. I have spent some time with my in-laws at the hospital and the rest of the time at my parents' house. I enjoy hanging out at my parents and really enjoy killing time in my father's office. It is more like his play room, but he does do some work out of it. When you walk into the room it is almost like entering a sports hall of fame. He has all kinds of items from sporting events that he or I have attended. Along with all this he has his flat screen tv, sofa, and other items for his enjoyment. The room is very laid back and a great place to hang out. This got me thinking about how in my new place I really do not have any personal space to call my own. My wife had a say in everything just like I did. Of course, this meant that I had to get rid of a lot of things that I had out at our old place. My dad was more than happy to hold on to them till we decide to get a bigger place. So how important is it to have personal space in your own home? I think it is important because that space defines you. Anyone who goes to my parents house will know that my dad is a sports fan. Anybody who comes to my apartment will think that I am some kind of yuppie. If you have the space in your house, I encourage you to find a small piece of it to turn into your own little domain. It can do wonders for your stress level and will probably make your significant other happy because they will know all your stuff is in one place.

Health care and insurance.

I have been sitting here with my wife at the hospital for the last 3 hours watching over my mother-in-law. She is going on day 15 at the hospital and appears to be getting better slowly. We are all staying positive! Early in the afternoon, a nurse came in to do some work on her and had a syringe that was filled with liquid. I asked her what the syringe cost, but she was not sure. She did imply that it was probably overpriced. This got me thinking about the cost of health care. Fortunately, for my family we have insurance and our costs will be kept down somewhat, but I can not even imagine what it would be like to not have insurance. The amount of stress that would add to your life while you were going through your ordeal would not be enjoyable. I understand that everybody has their own opinion on our health care system, but I have to believe that we all want everyone to be able to be cared for without worrying about the cost of the care they are receiving and need. Hopefully, one day we will find a system that will work and that our medical costs will come back under control. These are things you really don't think about until it affects your family. I am just thankful that we have insurance.

What is the best?

Every now and then I enjoy grabbing a burger from pretty much anywhere. Who doesn't like to grab a quick 1200 calories for dinner. Tonight my wife and I stopped at Whataburger for dinner and I brought up the question about who has the best burger. When I travel to California, everyone says In-n-Out is the best. You come to Texas people will say Whataburger. I am sure in other places people would have a different opinion. This got me thinking about what qualifies a burger to be considered the best? What do you look for in your burger? My personal opinion is that I enjoy a burger from P.Terry's over most. I am sure this could be debated for years to come, but it is good to always know where to go to get a good burger.