I had a dream last night that my mother went through my shed, and cleared it out, throwing out all of my stuff. I believe she did the same to my old home office. This obviously freaked me out, and I had to check my shed to make sure it was still a mess this morning. Of course, instead of just leaving it like that, I have decided to start cleaning it up. I’ll take before and after pictures. But I will not post the befores. You don’t need to see those. The process will be slow and painful. I will also start transferring things to my newish bigger shop. Time to start taking apart old buildings for lumber!

Let me start off by saying: “Parenting is hard.”

So as some of you know, I am dating a “single mom”. She is recently divorced. She has two children, a boy 4, and a girl 19 months. Some might wonder why I would date someone with “baggage.” But I say, “Why wouldn’t I?” My father said something interesting when I first told him about Danielle. He said “Who doesn’t have baggage these days?”. I view the “baggage” as real life experiences and it makes the person more real. I’ve known some real artificial people in my life, and I thank God that I’ve found some thing real.

I have three sisters so my parents went through a lot with four kids. After seeing Danielle being a “parent” I have gained a lot more respect for my parents. I never realized all of the responsibility that takes place having kids. As me and Danielle continue our relationship further I am becoming more and more a part of her and her family’s life. My life is going through a change right now. I’ve been saying for the last year that I want to separate my personal life from my business. My first step was moving my office out of my house. I feel as if Danielle is the next step. I consider myself a stable person. Not much changes. This could make me a boring person, but I feel it makes me a better person, because it makes me dependable. In the last few weeks, my week has become routine. It consists of working like crazy Monday through Friday. I spend Wednesday through Friday nights with Danielle. Saturday afternoon I spend time with Danielle and her children. Sunday, we all go to church in the morning, and find something fun to do for the afternoon.

Parenting teaches patience: As you can guess, this is all making me a part of Danielle’s children’s lives. I am not the fly by night type, and don’t plan to be. As we grow however, I have to learn more and more how to be parental so I am not just “some guy” and take my role. This is where “Parenting is hard” comes into play. I love to learn, and I am learning all kinds of new things being around Danielle and her children. I see things that my parents did, and I see things that I want to do when it comes to things such as teaching and discipline. Danielle commented to me how we have our own sets of rules. For example, I say “Don’t play with doors” (thanks Mom and Dad), and “Don’t eat with your mouth full”, which she makes no mention of. Danielle also likes that I “back her up” when she is disciplining. If she points at her children to go back to bed, and they look at me for some reason (looking for a way out of it), I point too. I have yet to find a way to deal with the simple phrase “No” however. Danielle spanks, and obviously, I am not allowed to do that, they are not my children. However, if Noah (her son) is hanging on my leg and I want him off and tell him to get off, I have not yet found a way to give them a consequence to not doing what they are told. I’m finding creative ways, such as turning off a movie that they might have been in the middle of watching. And because of all of this, I have learned to block out the whining and not let it bother me.

Parenting teaches responsibility: A big responsibility, making sure they haven’t ran away, is a hard one. I kinda “lost” Nora one day when she started to walk away and out of sight. They like to wander! They are also little people who can not feed themselves. They require a lot of “work” to feed them and cloth them and get them ready. It is amazing what parents have to go through. I have a lot of respect for Danielle to do what she does to do it every day and to put her kids at number one. Parents also need to spend time with their children. They can’t just be ignored. They crave attention, and I am not talking about the whining. They are growing and learning, and need positive influences, whether it be via teaching them something, or even just playing with them. Danielle made a comment the other day in the park about me getting extra points. I was playing with Nora on a bar letting her hang and pushing her around. She was having a ball. After we walked away, a little boy got on it, and told his father to join him telling him how to do it. The father refused.

I have a lot of fun with Danielle and her family, and wouldn’t change it. When it comes time to produce my own offspring (whether it be with Danielle if that is what our future holds, or someone else), I feel as if I will be a better parent because of my time now with Danielle and her family. Danielle did say something to me the other night that was very touching. She said that I’ll make a great father. Words can not express how I felt. That night I had been playing with Nora and a blanket. I’d wrap her up in it, then unroll her, and tickle her. She LOVED it. Then she’d grab the blanket and say “ay don”, which was “lay down” in Nora speak. So I’d lay down, and she’d try and wrap me up (I didn’t fit very well in the small blanket). Then she’d try and pick me up.

I did have the concern that her children might mistake me for “daddy” (which I have been called a few times, but Noah corrected himself). However, Noah knows who is father is, and that he is a separate entity. And Nora recognizes her father, as she was extremely excited to see him the other day when he stopped by to drop something off and cried when he left.

So in conclusion, my life is changing, but for the better. I am learning and growing. I am enjoying my time with Danielle and her family. I look forward to the weekends. I look forward for the new discoveries that I will make.

So I really want to play with solar power. I was playing around on the Internet, and found a website for creating a "Solar Power Generator". The idea is simple. Take a large rechargeable battery, hook it up to a solar panel and an inverter. My only issue is, how does it know when to stop charging the battery? But then again… it is solar power… I doubt it would ever go that far for the little bit of time during the day it would have sun-light. But anyway, I have several small items that I could power with this as a test. Mostly in my bedroom. Ceiling fan, electric shavers, alarm clocks, phone chargers, and my fish tank. I’d really like to be running the fish tank on solar. I am also looking at converting some of the old UPSs that I have laying around into these. They are already contained, and have multiple plugs. If anyone has an ideas, please let me know.

And before some of you say it, yes, I know it’s not a huge savings on energy costs. I am only toying with it. I know me running my alarm clock on solar is not “saving the world” and all. However, if it does work out, and the cost of solar keeps coming down, maybe one day, I could make it so that all I am reliant on the grid for is cooling (A.C., refrigerator, etc.) and heating (stoves, etc.).

Just a few things…

I visited Danielle’s church today, Oasis. It was quite interesting. Very “post-modern”. The opening music was a rockband. Three guitars, piano, drums, and several singers all on stage. I also saw someone there that I knew, Sarah Case. I have some interesting information that I need to pass along to my father, as he knows her.

After church, I was sitting in McDonalds eating lunch. CNN was on the television. Why is it that Hillary Clinton couldn’t figure out a coffee machine in a gas station is news-worthy? I mean, it was a 3 to 5 minute news clip about Hillary Clinton trying to operate a coffee machine, and her feelings on coffee. I mean, come on. Seriously?

And last but not least, I can watch TV on my phone! I can pick from a few different stations, and TV shows, and listen to music. So when I am waiting for a little bit in my truck on a customer, or eating lunch. I can watch TV on the little screen. Unfortunately, my phone does not support bluetooth headphones, so I will have to stick to wired headphones.

First off, I want to say this. Ford has a commercial out about one of their cars. They advertise it as being as good as a Toyota now. I hope that ad agency got fired.

Secondly, I am getting jet skis!! WOOT! My friend Marcus is moving to Dallas. He currently has three jet skis that he has been trying to sell. However, he said why sell them, when he can give them to me, and borrow them when he is in town. I totally agreed with him. Two run, one is parts. I even get trailers. So of course, it will take me a little time to fix them up and make them run well. And of course, as long as he doesn’t get someone throwing him a lot of money before I pick them up Friday next week. So if anyone wants to go to Miami for a night, let me know!

So I finally got the knife from my sister! And oh my, it’s ******* awesome!! I love the small open action, and I can flick it with my finger, so it’s practically a switchblade. It has a 4 inch blade, and two hooks on it. This serves several purposes: easy to open by just using your index finger, a sturdy place to grab and pull out from wherever you are hiding it, and I suppose if you actually had to use it for defense, to keep it from going in too far. But regardless, it is one awesome knife. Thank you Trisha!! I love you!

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Of course, now all I need is my carry permit. I called yesterday, and it’s still going through the processing phases. I have to call the 15th if I don’t have it by then, and they can give me a more definite “where is it”.

So I got my Palm Centro. The phone feels “sleeker”… I feel “cooler” using it. It is however, smaller. So I might be more prone to dropping it. Also, the screen seems like it might be crooked, and I am not sure if it is going to drive me nuts or not. We shall see…

Anyway, when I get a new device like this, I get interested in looking for programs for it. There are thousands upon thousands of Palm applications out there. One in particular I would like to find is an RSS reader. Unfortunately, they are all “ad-supported”. I’ve been thinking of writing applications for the Palm for a while now. I’m going to start looking into it. I don’t think it is incredibly hard. So here are a few ideas:

• RSS Reader
• Product Lookup Tool for my business
• Various calculators

Well, I want to do more than that, but I can’t think at the moment. Of course, the first two will involve something I have not messed with personally yet… XML. I guess I should actually crack a book (as I have several XML books) and learn something related to that. Once I get the project started, I’m going to start a section on my website for programming projects.

And I know some will probably say that Palm is going away, etc., but just because Palm might be leaning another way (Linux, which wouldn’t be a bad thing), doesn’t mean PRCs won’t continue to work, and that many thousands of people will still be using Palm for many years to come.

I am writing this while Bobby drives at a high rate of speed to the DC for a server crash and while on hold with the DC. I would normally not be functioning this early.

So my phone is about dead. Keys not working, data loss, etc. I got an error message on it the other day that it was low on memory, so I did a soft reboot. I was sure it was just a memory leak in some program. My phone reboots, but does it oddly. And then I get it. The stylus setup screen. Then I get the Tips screen. Finally, I realize my phone did a hard reset all on it’s own. Yay… not. So I setup my Exchange account to get back my Contacts and stuff, no major worry… yet. I stopped into the Sprint store the other night to look at the Palm Centro. I’ve been slowly researching this phone, reading reviews and such. I ask the woman in there if she can let me play with one. I can live with it. It’s smaller and “cooler” which I am not really all about. Anyway, I tell her I will be back Monday or Tuesday to get the phone. As I am walking out, I remember that I want to get some more information about the Everything plan they have now. So I walk back in to ask, and the conversation kind of goes like this:

Me: Oh hey, do you have anything on the Everything plan? I like to read the fine print, I’m weird like that.
Girl: Yeah. I remember, you used to come down to the old store.
Me: Yeah, another guy helped me a few times there. I think his name was Jason.
Girl: You mean Jeff?
Me: Yeah, the gay one. Well, I think he was gay anyway.
Girl: Yeah, he was gay. He liked you.
Me: Yeah, I thought so.

So yeah. Gay guys like me. Jeff gave me free Sprint stuff before. I thought it was just an offer from Sprint, but apparently not. And I just now realized that I had my friend Lowell with me at the time, who is very “metrosexual” and may have thought we were a couple. I guess he was the girl, and I was the guy. I asked Danielle about it, and she said I am a bit “fem”. Not sure if that is a good thing though. A few years back, I was also hit on by some 40-something gay guy that told me if I ever convert, to let him know.

Anyway, I am going back tonight to get the phone. I am going to tell her to tell Jeff I said hi, since they still talk (he moved to Atlanta).

Oh, and server is back up. Just needed a power cycle. That networked APC is looking better all the time.

So I pulled up to a business today, and there was a sign, “Yes, We’re Open”. This made me think. This is not a good sign to put up. The parking lot was empty in front of this business. And putting this sign up is like saying, “Yes, even though we have no customers right now or any other time you seem to pull up, we are still open for business, and haven’t folded yet, so come on in.” Of course, I walk up to the door, pull, and it’s locked. They weren’t open. They were gone for the morning or something.

In other news, my CWP has NOT come in the mail yet. I do not know why. Maybe the FBI found something with my fingerprints, and I am being tracked right now. They could just run up any second and grab me from *muffled*

End Transmission

So I’ve been resting at home today after my trip, and I’ve left CTN on. This channel is complete bull****. I am blown away that these people can even say these things. If you buy this guys book, God will make you wealthy. Give your “seed” gift of $200, and you will have a “harvest”. It only takes $200, and God will give you a harvest, and make you wealthy. Oh, check isn’t fast enough? They take credit cards. Put your donation to the ministry of God on credit!

And, if you buy these other ladies pills and drinks, you will prevent cancer and diabetes, through the power of God.

Ugh. This channel sickens me.