Here’s How to Grill Your Daughter’s Date With Tips From FBI Profilers

 

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I’m going to have to remember this in a few years when my daughters start dating.  These are five tips for ‘profiling’ you daughter’s date.

June 26, 1980

I’ve been thinking about this posting for weeks now.  I’m not quite sure how to start or exactly what I want to write.  I just know I have to write today.

Today is Thursday, June 26, 2008, and I can tell you what I had for lunch on this day 28 years ago. 

In the summer of 1980 I was 12, and I was enjoying that period of time between elementary school and Junior High.  My bike was my best friend, and in the few short weeks since school had been out, I was riding all over town.  I had set a goal for myself that summer: I wanted to read every single Hardy Boys book that our local library had.  It seemed like I was riding to the library almost every single day to get a new book.  I was pouring through that series!  Reading and riding were my pastime that summer mostly because there really wasn’t anything else to do.

It was shortly after 1 o’clock in the afternoon on Thursday, June 26, 1980, and my mom and I had just finished our lunch (liver sausage) when the phone rang.  My brother Steve had been in an accident at work.  Before I knew it, Steve’s boss was at our house in his green Dodge van to pick my mother up, and I was left home alone to wonder and worry.  I sat looking out our window at the cars going by on the highway.  Soon there was an ambulance, and then I saw our pastor and my mom in the church van go by.  She looked worried like I had never seen her before.  That’s when the seriousness of the day hit me.  My thoughts immediately went to the previous night:  It was bedtime, and I was being sent upstairs for the night.  Steve and I had been playing a hand-held electronic game together earlier that evening.  It was pretty unusual for my 17 year old brother to spend an evening with me like that.  As I headed up the stairs for bed, I distinctly remember turning to look for Steve to say goodnight.  To this day, I do not know what caused me to do something so out of character like that.  Steve was in the bathroom, so I just went to bed.  I wish I had that moment back even to this day.

Since I was left home alone, the pastor’s wife was sent to look after me.  She kept me busy for the afternoon as she took care of the errands on her schedule.  In the early evening I was left with her son at the local park to watch his baseball game.  Half way through the game, she came back to get me.  My parents were home from the hospital, and they wanted to see me.

The mood was very somber when I got home.  My parents, brother, the pastor, and his wife were all in the living room.  I knew what was coming before it was said.  I sat next to my father on the couch.  He put his arm around me and told me that Steve was in Heaven now.

My life changed that day is so many ways.  Reading and riding had no joy in them the rest of the summer.  In fact since that day, I’ve never read another Hardy Boy’s book. 

Twenty-eight years later the hole that was created that day in our family and in each of our hearts remain.  Grief is not something you ever get over.  Your loss is just incorporated into the fabric of your life.  As I write this, the emotions of that day are closer than usual, but they are never more than just an arms length away.

I still miss my big brother.

More on Swedish Days

Yesterday I wrote about Becky’s participation in the annual Swedish Days Rosemaling Competition.  One of the other things she usually participates in each year at Swedish Days is the Rosemaling demonstration.  This year she’s spending three days educating the public about Rosemaling, and demonstrating her technique. 

This year her efforts caught the attention of Kelly over at the Geneva Daily Photo blog.  Kelly watched Becky demonstrate, and posted a photo of one of the demonstration pieces.  She had some nice things to say about Becky, and was kind enough to include a link to Folk Art by Rebecca as well.

Check out Geneva Daily Photo’s Rosemaling Show entry!

 

Thanks Kelly!

My Awesome and Talented Wife

As I wrote earlier, it’s Swedish Days in Geneva, IL.  Every year Becky paints a ton of beautiful items and enters a piece or two into the competition.  This year she entered three pieces in the Advanced category, and walked away with two ribbons.  I am so very proud of her.

Way to go, sweetheart!!

Father’s Day 2008

I think this year’s Father’s Day was the best so far.  No, we didn’t go to the Botanical gardens.  Instead, I was treated to a great breakfast in bed.  Eggs the way I like them (over easy), bacon, and hash browns.  And don’t forget the Diet Mt. Dew!

We spent the afternoon at Cabela’s in Hoffman Estates.  That place is so cool!  Not only is it a great store for outdoorsmen (I wish I was one!), but all of the animals on display, both living (fish) and dead (you name it) was really fun for the kids.   While we were there, we just happened to run into my brother and his family.  I was quite surprised when my nine year old nephew came up and hugged me.  Had a nice visit with them while the kids climbed all over the new boats.  I think they were collectively (7 of them) getting on the salesmen’s nerves.

The evening was capped off with a candlelight steak dinner on the deck.  The mosquitos shortened the dinner, but it was a blast while it lasted.

161616

Multimedia message

The picture looked better when I took it, but it’s blurry now.  Of course it was night and I was driving at the time.

It seems like it was only a few weeks ago that it read ‘151515′.  After seeing more suspicious fluids on my driveway, I wonder if it will see 171717.
Originally uploaded by Bradc314

Schaumburg Flyers Game

Very sunny out, and I couldn’t really see the composition of this photo at the time.  It would have been nice to include the polar bear’s head in the picture.

Multimedia message

Originally uploaded by Bradc314
Flyer game

"You could be dead"

As problems and stresses of life swirl around me, it’s good to keep perspective.  It seems that I have more than my share of problems lately.  They greet me every morning, they tuck me in each night.  Sometimes it feels like they will overtake me.  Then, like a cold slap to my face, my wife injects some perspective into my self-wallowing: “You could be dead”.

Boy, I needed that.

There are two people we know who both suddenly and unexpectedly died last week.  Both in their forties.  Both went to sleep, and just never woke up.  Their seemingly peaceful exit from this life has left a wake of despair and grief for their loved ones.  Loved ones who otherwise would have been planning baseball games and birthday parties, instead, found themselves picking out cemetery plots and planning services.

So, bring on the problems!  Bring on the bills, bring on the mechanical breakdowns, bring on the $5 per gallon of gas.   The stress I feel just helps remind me that I’m alive.

I’m alive, and I get to hug and kiss my wife and daughters every single day.  What else do I need?

Today’s passage at BibleGateway.com is so fitting.  Here’s the whole chapter:

Psalm 46

For the director of music. Of the Sons of Korah. According to Alamoth. A song. ^[a]

1 God is our refuge and strength,
       an ever-present help in trouble.

2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
       and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,

3 though its waters roar and foam
       and the mountains quake with their surging.
       Selah

4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
       the holy place where the Most High dwells.

5 God is within her, she will not fall;
       God will help her at break of day.

6 Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
       he lifts his voice, the earth melts.

7 The LORD Almighty is with us;
       the God of Jacob is our fortress.
       Selah

8 Come and see the works of the LORD,
       the desolations he has brought on the earth.

9 He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth;
       he breaks the bow and shatters the spear,
       he burns the shields ^[b] with fire.

10 “Be still, and know that I am God;
       I will be exalted among the nations,
       I will be exalted in the earth.”

11 The LORD Almighty is with us;
       the God of Jacob is our fortress.
       Selah

 

Thank you, God, for being with me.  Though my mountains are quaking, help me to be still and know that you are God, and you will be with me always.

I wonder if Rosemarie Andolino wishes she chose a different phrase…

 

Daily Herald | Would-be O’Hare designers get update

 

Rosemarie Andolino, the head of Chicago’s O’Hare Modernization Program, was quoted in the linked article talking about funding for the program and how the economy and the airline industry affect it:

“The one thing we know is that the airline industry goes up and down”

Wow.  Really?  Up and down?

Too funny.

Well, it’s official: My Daughter Has a Brain

I know this for a fact.  I saw pictures of it yesterday.

Haley fell off her bike the other day and hit her head on the pavement.  It scared me at first, but we decided to just ice it and let her rest.  She seemed no worse for the wear until yesterday when she felt faint.  Off to the ER we went.  A couple hours later we saw Haley’s brain, and no signs of a concussion.  Whew!

I think Haley is now reconsidering the idea of riding without a helmet.

The hospital offers free WiFi, so Haley was able to take her mind off of things by playing some internet games on daddy’s iPod.

Afterward we went to Culver’s for dinner, and found out they have Diet Mt. Dew on ‘tap’.  Woohoo!