Various thoughts have been attributed to many comedians and authors. But a did a random google search for some odd thoughts. Like:

Why to we drive on Parkways and park on Driveways?
Why do they put braille on drive up cash machines?
Do man-eating sharks eat women too?
Why do irons have a setting for permanent press?
If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
Why do we call something sent by car a shipment and something sent by ship a cargo?
Why do we sing “Take me out to the ball game,” when we are already there?
Why is it that doctors call what they do “practice”?
Why was Evelyn Wood in such a hurry?
If 7-11 is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, why are there locks on the doors?

Now why just cut and paste these from various web sites? Well, just the way I was thinking today. It started when someone brought of the Parkways/driveways on the radio this morning. I remember reading/hearing a lot of these. I found a lot more, but most didn’t seem funny today. These were the best of the lot in my opinion.

Look here for others.
Dumb Questions
Things—Hmm.
And a Song?
More Hmmm
More serious Hmms

And of course there are 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary, and those that don’t.

My youngest just heard that she was selected to be in our local High Schools Singing/Dance Troop. Since the mascot of the school is a Locomotive, they call the troop Locomotion. Over the years this has been an award winning group of young singer/dancers. The competition for spots is almost fierce. I always thought she had the voice to be in it, but I wasn’t sure of the dance moves. She gets none of that talent from me, I know very little about singing or dancing (and I couldn’t care less). I am proud of this wonderful young lady who tried out year after year, finally making it in for her Senior year.

This will give me one more thing to write about, as she travels to dance competitions, and does local performances. I know I’m in for an interesting year, and so is she.

I rented two movies for this evening, the first was “Alvin and the Chipmunks”. From my childhood days I remember listening to The Chipmunks Christmas Song and Alvin’s Harmonica Song. I didn’t think I would like the Chipmunk movie. It was cute, not at all what I thought it would be. Great kids movie, and entertaining enough to keep the parents amused. The did play the Chipmunk song during the movie, but I didn’t here the Harmonica song. Just a little disappointed in that. Can’t have everything.

Now the movie “August Rush”. Much different than I thought it would be. I saw the previews and theatrical trailers for this movie, and the didn’t do it justice at all. This is one I may end up purchasing for my collection. I’m not exactly sure where it would fit in. Not my normal movie choice. It’s not exactly a music movie, not exactly a love story, not exactly anything but what it is. I found that Robin Williams can be a bad guy. His character was played to perfection. Since he was the only actor whose name I recognized, it wasn’t hard for me to put and keep everyone in their own character. The movie flowed around the story, and the characters made the story. I can give no better compliment to a movie. I was entertained through the whole thing

The latest news I heard was that Harvey Korman died. One of the best comedy actors in his day, he starred on the “Carol Burnett Show” for years, and was in many of my favorite Mel Brooks Comedies.

Dick Martin from Laugh-In died on the 24th of May.

And finally on my list was the man who made America whistle. Earl Hagen the composer of the Andy Griffith Show theme, died this week.

So for all of these and other entertainers that recently died, have a laugh or just give a little whistle.

My early child was my last child. She came into this world 7 weeks early. She weighed in at 4 lbs 11 oz. She spent some time on a breathing monitor at home. She was dressed in doll clothes for the first month of her life. But she was born a fighter. She would kick and scream while fighting the nurses trying to get an IV in. As she grew older she would use her skills to battle with her older sisters.

Even though her early entry into life is part of who she is, it really is a small part of who she is turning out to be. I’ve learned through the years, and in the choices other daughters have made, not to plan the future for my daughters. What I saw happening for each one hasn’t occurred at all. So I will make no plans for the youngest either. Those plans (if any) are entirely hers. But I will say this, of all my daughters, the youngest may already have her plans laid out. This is by her choices, her questions, and her ability. Will that path be what either of us thinks right now, maybe not, but some groundwork is being laid.

My youngest is a singer, actress, scholar, pet lover and all around wonderful young lady (All my daughters have been wonderful young ladies at one point or another). I’m enjoying her time of growing to adulthood. I can’t think of any better thing to say about this young lady other than “She is loved by me and reflects that love back.” A very special girl entered my life a few weeks too early, but that only made for more love and joy.

Number 3 out of four.  What can I say about this one…  The first things that pop in my head are peanut butter, chocolate, frogs and of course Star Wars.

While she still lives at home, I tend to see her only on rare occasions.  She is in college and has a boyfriend.  Those two things put together seem to negate any family time.  For years, I was able to spend a lot of time with this daughter.  I was a coach on most of her softball teams.  When I wasn’t a coach, I was always helping out.  Then after she turned 14 she played a couple of years with me on the Church Softball team.  And at barely 5 feet even and under 100 lbs, her favorite position was catcher.  She was a good one too.  Never showed any fear waiting for that ball to come on close plays at the plate.  In part I was afraid she’d get run  over, but I was also proud of the way she played the game.

My greatest joy were those few times we have been on stage together.  I’m hoping that we will be able to do more in future shows, but the few times she has been on stage with me, are very special to me.

And let’s not forget the Star Wars.  My very first date with my future wife was a dinner at a Chinese restaurant, Star Wars – Return of the Jedi, and then a stop at Dunkin Donuts.   This young lady definitely likes Star Wars, and donuts, so 2/3rds of the time she reminds me of a wonderful first date I had with her mother… 😉

During the past couple of days, I’ve again been amazed at the pictures current space missions have been sending back to earth. The first pictures from the latest lander are back.  Just cool stuff.   I saw one yesterday where one of the orbiters got a picture of the lander underneath the parachutes.

I am interested in all things in the space program, and these landings are on the top of my list of news stories.

My oldest daughter and I have a different history. I met her when she was around 18 months old. I was a big Dungeons and Dragons player when I first met my future wife and her daughter. This charming little 18 month old helped me roll the dice so necessary in the game. I sat on the floor behind a ‘fortress’ of a coffee table with my books, and bags of dice. She sat with me, playing with whatever toys she had, and rolling the (according to her) color balls. Didn’t matter to her that they were pyramids, cubes and other solid shapes. She really made an impression on all the gaming folks. Somehow this got in her blood, because now she is in her own gaming group. They are good gamers, and they even allow the “Old Man” to pop in from time to time.

Now, because of the wishes of my late wife, my eldest did not know that I was not her bio dad until after my wife’s death. We were going to answer her, if and when she ever questioned her heredity. Things came up, when I thought that it was time to tell her. I’m not sure if my wife would have agreed, but I didn’t have her to ask. Apparently, I was as good a father to her as I was to her sisters. She thought I was kidding. Seeing that I’m a big prankster on the 1st of April, I guess I can understand where this comes from. She was a bit (maybe an understatement!!) shocked. I recall her wondering if this changed anything. My response to her was simple, “Our relationship will only change if you want it too, I’ve always known. I will treat you the same as always. I was the lucky one, when I got married, I not only added a wife, but a daughter at the same time. It wasn’t hard to love these two precious people.”

Now my eldest didn’t always follow the rules of the house. Her life was spent trying to push the limits. Not that she was ever a bad kid, but she did seem to want to push her parents as far as she could. I always thought she did this because she was super intelligent. I know she kept her mother and me on our toes.

Again I will say, I really don’t have a favorite daughter. They all stand out in many ways. I love them all dearly, but the eldest does hold a special place, she is the one I chose to make mine.

My second daughter is the one most like me. She wanted to do the things I did, and wanted a working tool set when she was younger. Somewhere between then and now, she grew up and became a young woman, wife and mother. She just had a birthday. She lives many states away. I couldn’t be with her.

I called her “my little girl” from the moment she was born. While her sisters wanted Mom, she wanted me. I was the one to put her to sleep when she was a cranky baby. I looked after her early cuts and bruises. I carried her on many outings. Her sisters think that she is my favorite child. In that they are mistaken. I really don’t have favorites (surprise girls!!). They are all very near and dear to me for reasons as unique as they are. The thing is, K will always be Daddy’s Little Girl, no matter how old she gets.

I hope she had a happy one.

I was planning on writing something about each daughter some time around a birthday. That would take until December to finally get to the last one. I think I’ll just pick a random daughter tomorrow and write again…. And then around each birthday, I can write something different. Maybe this can give them more insight as to how their old man thinks… If they read this at all

The first Indiana Jones movie was released 19 years ago. My wife and I didn’t go to movies often. At that time we had 3 daughters at home the youngest was 1 1/2 years old. Somehow we got to a movie theater to see this one. When we did go to movies, they were usually action movies. My wife was hard of hearing, and she felt she got more out of the action movies, because she didn’t need the dialog. On this movie, she said she was wrong. We waited for the movie to come to the cheaper theaters just to see it again, so she could watch the lips an pick up more dialog. Then when they came to video, we actually bought them to get the closed captioning. Except for the 2nd movie, we watched these shows over and over again. Our children grew to like them too (something about brainwashing could go in here, they were just repeatedly shown 2 of the Indiana Jones Movies).

Then came today. Since 1989 a lot has changed. My children grew up, the baby at that time is now 20. My youngest is 16. Two other daughters are married. I have grandkids. I am a widower… This was the first Indiana Jones Movie I did not see with my wife. There is a piece missing to the show. That after show conversation, trying to fill my wife into some of the dialog. Her squeezing my hand when something in the show startled her. Her say how good looking either Harrison Ford or eventually Sean Connery was. Complaining about all the new characters, the story, or just whatever. Who we liked, who we didn’t. And after the first two movies and the Alan Quartermain spoofs, watching the third, saying when will we see the new Alan Quartermain??? There never was a 3rd Alan Quartermain. By the time the last Indiana Jones rolled out, the lead in Alan Quartermain was looking like Indiana did in this last movie. No, there won’t be a spoof following this one, unless its by the same people who brought us Scary Movie and the Superhero Movie. That might be fun.

So today was a fun day, since I got to see the newest Indy, but at the same time there was a bit of a shadow over the whole thing.

I wore my Indy outfit (Brown slacks, beige shirt, boots and Fedora — too warm for the leather jacket) to the theater today, I’m not sure how many noticed. Funny thing, while I got an “Indiana Jones” Fedora a couple of Christmases ago, it was just one of the brown fedoras I’ve had. I started wearing one shortly after the first movie. My lovely wife said it looked good on me, and I needed something to keep the sun off my face during our summer vacations (usually hiking somewhere). I lost my first hat, but I still have the second (not as nice since we couldn’t afford a good one at the time). Now I have the hat my daughters bought me for Christmas. I can never thank them enough for that gift. As they can tell you, I wear that hat often. Most of the winter, and summer. I don’t tend to wear it in the spring or on windy days. In the spring, I’m looking for as much sun as possible, so all hats are off my head.

Strange what watching a movie will make you think…