Sometime in the life of a parent, you have to let your little ones go out on their own. For the most part I am very good at that. There are time, however, that I just want to be by their side. I have two daughters living at home, and one about an hour away. I can, if needed, drop just about everything to be with them. I can see them face to face at almost any time. It is both a blessing and a curse. After they are out of my house, I want them to grow and thrive on their own. I think that is very important.

There is my other daughter. She got married just 1 year ago. In this marriage, there are also two wonderful children of my son-in-law. I know my little girl loves them as she would her own (even though she did not know it at the time, she saw this kind of thing every day see here). Tonight I want to be with my daughter. She was and always will be my little girl, and I have a feeling she would like me there. “There” is many states away. I can’t just hop in my car and drive there overnight. It just isn’t possible to go visit whenever I would like, things like one minor child still at home, work, finances get in the way of traveling. I wish I could, but wishing seems to be all I can do. Don’t believe the phone commercials, a phone call isn’t like being there, as much as I wish it was.

Sometimes, parents just can’t let go…

In the State of Utah, a rock arch in Utah’s Arches National Park collapsed. Now I never have been to the state of Utah, and therefor have never been to this park. From pictures I have seen, it looks like a place I would like to visit. The pictures made me think of one of my favorite places that I’ve ever been is in South East Ohio. A wonderful State Park area called Hocking Hills. As a family we’ve had many great vacations there.

The story of the collapsing arch, made me remember the rock falls around the hiking trails of Hocking Hills. Going back time after time, you can see how the rock falls change the area. Trails are closed or rerouted and each trip can be different than the last.

The thing is that even with this arch fall, people didn’t see it happen. With all the times at Hocking, I never saw a rock fall but have seen the results. I know people do occasionally see them, most of the time they fall unnoticed. I would like to talk to someone who saw a large rock fall.

One thing I just thought about was the fact that these rock falls occur quite often, but people will go right to the edge of the cliffs, even if they don’t know what is or what isn’t under them. Oh well, I guess if they haven’t seen a rock fall, they don’t know the danger the could be in. And I guess I never saw anyone fall off either.

Last night somebody mentioned something about guys wearing pantyhose. Well, being me, I thought they were talking about Mel Brook’s Men in Tights. Little did I know that it is a new fashion statement for men.

Sometimes enough is enough. Most guys, myself included, have no fashion sense at all. Now people are trying to throw in another accessory for men to wear? I can see it now…. When do we wear our pantyhose? What color is best for my outfit or legs???? I don’t see that happening in NW Ohio anytime soon.

I’ll stick to my kilt thank you very much…..

Yes, this is a picture of me in a kilt on the occasion of my eldest daughter’s wedding. It was a wonderful affair, but that kilt was extremely warm on that 80+ degree May day.
The things that fathers will do for their daughters…., but I draw the line at pantyhose…

I’m not one to drink to excess very often, but when I do, I try to make sure I am in secure surroundings. I am one of those who will make sure I have a designated driver, or a place to stay if I will be having more than 1 drink. Even then, I have the drink finished early. It has been more than a few years since I’ve been intoxicated.

Now I come to the point. Seems like a bunch of kids in England found themselves someplace that wasn’t so secure, and they were too drunk to be rescued. I wonder how that story would have been reported here in the states. Would the rescuers have had that option? My guess is that the story would have been reported that “the conditions were just too hazardous to make further rescue attempts”. I don’t think much would have been made about the condition of the teenagers. Too many times have the rescuers been sued in cases just like this.

I really think it may have done those kids a lot of good sitting on a ledge waiting until morning to be taken out. But should someone be billed for the expense of the rescue? I didn’t see anything in the story about this, but I have heard that is happening more often. The rescued party is sometimes charged with the cost of the rescue operation. Hmm, going to have to find a link for that…

Now I fathered my last child when I was early thirties, and I remember being a bit more tired with her than all the rest. Now she did have some special needs being born 8 weeks too early, but even running around after her when she was older seemed to tire me out a bit quicker. I couldn’t imagine trying for more children after my thirties, and I don’t even carry them for 9 months. But I just read about a 110 year old that may have fathered quite a few little ones, after going years with no interest at all. He had a tumor removed and was again interested. Hmmm.

Now I guess I should mention that this 110 year old is a reptile, a tuatara to be exact. While the article headline calls it a lizard, and it looks something like a lizard, it belongs to its own little clan. They also have a life expectancy of around 200 years, so I guess this guy is really just middle age.

I’m going to have to do another internet search soon. This article got me wondering the latest ages that animals will generally conceive. I don’t want to know the rare oldest mothers/fathers, I more interested in the age of general last conception, and what percent this is of the normal life span. People are now normally having babies into their 40’s, and with the life expectancy somewhere in the late 70’s, this makes people clock in at conception at about 50% of the life expectancy. The tuatara, if the article is acurate, has a higher percentage. Not enough information to get a specific number, but it looks like it may be over 50% of life expectancy. Hmm.. I’ll need to keep digging.

The newest Batman movie
The Dark Knight has been breaking all kinds of earning records. The powers of the movie industry do not think that Batman will break the current $ record held by Titanic, a movie I never saw by the way (the boat sinks), but it has a good chance of catching up to the Original Star Wars movie.

But I did some searching, and found out that adjusted for inflation, The Dark Knight is currently in 58th place. The #1 show is Gone with the Wind. #2 is Star Wars.

Just some cool things I found out at Box Office Mojo. If your interested in box office takes at all, this is one very interesting site. They had breakdowns on the days of the week, time of the year and movie ratings. I may spend a little more time there looking for trivial information. (That may help in some games!!)

A dangerous pastime. I know…

My daughters would be able to tell you the whos, whats, whys and whens of the beginning words of this blog. Something we do quite often is quote movies that fit the situation we are in. It is amazing the number of really good movie quotes you can fit into a daily conversation.

Anyway, I’ve been thinking. It could be a good way to get me in trouble, or just a good way to keep me up all night. Actually I fell asleep much earlier this evening while reading a book. I guess the house was just too quiet. I had to get up to make sure my alarm was set for the morning, so here I am wide awake.

I’ve been thinking about this coming year. My youngest will be graduating High School. Sometimes it seems like yesterday I was meeting her when she got off the Kindergarten bus. So very many things have happened since then. Graduations, marriages, deaths, births, have happened. I guess life has happened. Not always what we like, but it is what we get.

Both daughters have been out of the house this week. The youngest left Sunday afternoon, and the older left early Monday morning. So I have had time to think. Many things have entered this head of mine and I am ruminating on them even as I write this. Maybe more thoughts will form, while others fade away. I’m never sure on this.

Good night..

At one time most people thought of clowns as those funny guys who somehow emerged by groups from very little cars at circuses. I realize that some small children were scared of the wild antics of clowns at circuses. This probably was the driving force of the dark turn that clowns took in movies. The latest clown prince was of course Heath Ledger’s “Joker” in “The Dark Knight”. But to keep your interest in clowns going, here is EW’s list of 18 TV/Movie Clowns.

I remember Bozo from my youth.  One not listed was a local clown, I remember seeing him as a kid in his clown suit and in normal person form.  He would always take time to talk to me in his clown voice, and he always had balloons to make balloon animals.  His clown name was Quacky the Clown.  I found a site listing for the for Quacky and a picture at the bottom of this page, but I don’t think it would be the same Quacky from my youth.

Something good has happened with my internet connection. For some reason, I am now getting a much better signal at home with my cell-modem. I can actually watch most YouTube videos in streaming mode (some longer ones I catch up with the stream). I can listen to streaming radio. And I can easily watch sport downloads from mlb.com. I’m hoping that this is a sign of good things to come and not just a temporary weather fluke.

I’ve been told that the towers in the area are getting some upgrades, so maybe my recent speed increase has something to do with that. I’m now averaging over 600 kbps. Earlier, I was averaging 150 to 200 kbps with bursts to 300 kbps. On the old dial up I had before this, I was averaging 15 kbps (yes, that slow). So, I am now accessing the internet 20 times faster than my old dial up…

Edited to add that I maxed out at over 1000 kbps this evening!! Something is up with the connection

Isn’t technology grand?

I was just doing a little late night surfing and found this in the “Odd News section”. Seems like fighting beetles is a big thing.

After you see the video can you imagine the size of those beetles? According to Wikipedia, the Rhinoceros Beetle are among the largest beetles in the world. I don’t think I want to see something that big crawling around in my house.

I’m not sure I like the idea of beetle fights, but then again we still have one or two frog jumping contests in the US. Probably much the same.