Joey? He’s Just Faaaabulous!

There is a fantastic article over at the Detroit Free Press website about former Lions quarterback Joey Harrington. I think many Lions fans have not forgiven Joey for his crap-tacular performance a few years back. Oh well, here’s to Jon Kitna-the only NFL quarterback to take every single snap for his team last season. I can’t think of another quarterback that has done that in recent history. I swear there is a clause in his contract that says he can’t be pulled from a game no matter how bad he is playing, or how many interceptions he throws, or how bad the team is losing.

Nomenclature? No Thanks!

There was a very heated discussion yesterday going on in the blogosphere. One that took place on a variety of sites, no doubt. The problem stemmed from a post at RadicalMama on teen pregnancy (one teen pregnancy in particular). The debate is not one that I would like to tackle here, or ever if possible. I find that arguing with somebody about a topic that loaded with emotion is not exactly a fruitful endeavor.

The issue at hand here is nomenclature, or simply put, words. Words were created centuries ago to convey a meaning, a thought, an emotion. The problem is that words have changed meaning over the past several hundred years, and so have people. Certain feelings, thoughts, and emotions can not be expressed by a single word, or even a whole page of them. Loaded topics are never going to be solved by two people who feel differently than one other using words that don’t really convey the point they are trying to make.

I am not going to use the topic discussed yesterday as my example, for that might destroy my blog and all that it stands for (mostly, for not being a blog!). Instead I will use a topic near and dear to me-one that I have studied intensely personally and professionally. The topic of timber harvesting.

People love to hate timber harvesting (and I use the term “harvest” literally-trees are an agricultural commodity like corn). Most have a knee-jerk reaction to the thought of trees being cut down because they envision a giant redwood (Sequoiadendron giganteum) being felled whilst an endangered owl goes splat! I can use a term like clear-cut in an everyday sentence and not flinch for I know the importance of the act. But, like abortion, clear-cut is a loaded term, filled with emotion (and, no, I am not comparing the two philosophically so don’t bother yelling at me). Both terms have a scientific basis and both refer to a specific act being done. That doesn’t stop people from attaching an emotion to a term based on sound scientific research and practice.

So, I guess the point I am trying to make, and have been trying to make for several years now is that we can never truly evolve as a species if we are to continue to place so much importance on things as trivial as words. Words are only tools that we use to communicate a feeling or a need or an emotion. If we didn’t continue to evolve other tool technology, we would still be using a rock tied to a stick as a hammer. Evolution is unavoidable and necessary. Why do we fight it when it comes down to the most important topic? If we can’t communicate effectively, we are doomed to repeat our past. It seems that we are already doing that on some level (look at the so-called “war” in Iraq). That situation, as much as any other, is loaded with emotion that can not be expressed by outdated words. It is time we stop attaching so much importance on something that can’t even do what it is meant to do. The Chevrolet Corvair failed as an automobile because it didn’t do what it was supposed to do-which is function as a safe vehicle of transport. If our words are going to continue to fail, why do we continue to throw them at each other like some kind of obsolete weapon?

Sometimes I wish I couldn’t remember too…

I was reading at StuntMother this morning, trying to help out with a pesky plant problem, when I stumbled across a very familiar pain. The pain of losing someone close to you when they don’t even know they are going away.

Alzheimer’s and dementia are possibly the worst way to lose someone. They both run rampant in my father’s family, and I know that someday, it will happen to my father as well. The thought of having to go through that again is unbearable. I watched as my grandmother, my grandfather, and my great-aunt progressed (or regressed, as it were) for several years. It is really hard to explain to a child why their grandparents no longer know them. Even as a teenager, it didn’t make much sense to me. But there they went.

This is all I can stand to say right now. I may have to revisit this topic again in the future, now that I realize how much it means to me. It’s strange how we can repress things to the point of not even recognizing them as important. Until this morning, I had not thought much about this issue in several years. I will probably not forget about it for a while now.

Here’s to you Dad. While you are still here.

Another One Bites the Dust!

I just learned of another case of a tree falling on and killing someone. This time it was at a garden party in Toronto. Apparently, even the wealthy aren’t immune to being squashed by large trees. Go figure!

Random Thoughts About Family Vacations

After a wonderful (almost) long weekend of cabin-camping with my entire immediate family, and then some, I am reminded of why we don’t do it more often. It’s not that we didn’t have a good time, because we did. It’s just that my wife and I really hate being on anybody else’s schedule. When we are on vacation, we make the rules (or lack thereof). When we are on vacation with 10 other people, the rules are made be random committees, or sometimes they appear out of nowhere (“Well, I heard that dinner is at 5, and so-and-so said this, and…). This can be very frustrating, especially when you are sharing a cabin with your parents, and your brother.

When you only have 3 days to cram a whole lot of visiting in with people you only see every few months, things can be hectic. Everybody wants to do something, and trying to fit it all in can make you crazy. Everybody else that was there was staying for a whole week, so they had plenty of time after we left to just relax and enjoy the beautiful scenery and the wonderful weather. Again, I am not complaining, just thinking out-loud about how to enjoy this better next year (and, yes, this trip happens every year for the last few years-this was just the first time we have been able to join them).

My wife and kids got to see all my favorite spots of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, while I stayed home and worked to fund their little jaunt through nature. Lucky little ungrateful snots. I merely joined them for the aforementioned 3-day trip to the lovely Curtis, MI.

The highlights of the trip? Getting to canoe the Two-Hearted River (Not the Big Two-Hearted, for that is just a fictional representation of some river in the U.P. Many think it was actually the Fox River, some say it was the Two-Hearted River, but it really doesn’t matter). Although 6 hours on the river without a shirt lead to second-degree burns on my back that are now peeling and generally feeling icky. Also, we got to see where the wildfire had swept through just recently. And we got to see planes from Minnesota’s DNR scoop water out of the lake we were camping on. Very cool!

So, what is the final culmination of my incoherent ramblings about family vacations? I don’t know. I just needed some time to babble incoherently. If you read this post, I am very sorry for your luck. Please see Marge on your way out the door. She will refund your entry fee and give you back the five minutes you wasted here today. Thank you and Come Again!

Ouch!

As I have stated before, I am a forester. Part of my job entails performing hazard tree evaluations to make sure trees don’t fall on people and kill them. Every week I get at least one Google Alert about a tree falling on some poor soul. This week, I have received alerts about 3 separate instances in which people have been either killed or seriously injured by a tree as they were camping, or simply driving by at the wrong time.

I have personally been involved with some of these types of cases involving serious injury and, more often, death. It takes some seriously bad luck to be the person near one of these huge trees when they decide they have had it with fighting gravity.

I am a Lazy Slob

This past week, the wife and kids have been on a camping trip in the lovely Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I was left with a list of things to accomplish whilst they frolicked in the woods (my favorite woods, BTW). I actually had high hopes for maximizing my time while they were away. WRONG!

I woke up last Saturday with the world in the palm of my hand, ready to take it all on, check things off my “Honey-Do” list. Fat chance. I did get some of my new picket fence painted that day. Then it was off to visit with family in another part of the state and not get home until dinner time the next day. The whole weekend was shot at that point. And then came Monday. Have you ever tried to be productive in the evenings after work? It rarely happens. I would come home, open a beer, start dinner, and eat while watching TV. Then what? Usually another beer and the realization that it is getting close to bed time and I haven’t accomplished shit. Ensue Monty Python themed scrambling with “Yakkity Sax” playing in the background while I tried to get laundry done, clean up the massive mess that my wife left the house in as she emptied every closet and storage bin in the house trying to locate every necessary piece of equipment for camping in the Michigan wilderness with 3 kids aged 6 and under. It looked like a tornado went through the main level or our house. I don’t even recall owning this much stuff, let alone finding enough storage space to keep it all hidden!

So, it’s now Friday. I am leaving to meet them in the U.P. tomorrow for a short stay at Manistique Lakes with my entire family. My wife hates staying with anybody while on vacation, so it should be fun. I have to admit, I don’t really like staying with other people either, so I can’t really fault her. Anyway, my list is about half done as of now, and I have about 8 hours to finish the rest. To make matters worse, I scheduled a small guys’-night-out for later this evening. I really am a lazy slob.

Here I Go Again…

So I submitted my resume for a job as a Forester with the State of Michigan this week. This was only 1 day after complaining about not being able to settle into a job! I blame my wife and kids for me looking for a job with benefits. How dare they expect to be taken care of! I could have coasted along aimlessly for another year or so in my job before I really had to make a move. But my wife always inspires me to grow professionally as well as personally. The Nerve!

So to make matter worse, I haven’t told my employer that I have applied for a job. What is the rule on this? Do I wait until I have an interview to tell him? Or should I wait until I have accepted a position with another company or a gov’t position? Should I give him a “heads-up” that I am shopping around? I know he can find somebody to fill my position in a relatively short time, but I have been here for almost 2 years now, and I would like to think I am an integral part of the company (mind you-I am the only employee in the company, so I have been working side-by-side with the owner for the entire time I have been here).

What is the etiquette here? I have never felt this way about leaving a job in the past. Maybe it’s because I really love my job, along with the flexibility it provides me as far as hours, location and so on. I make a good wage (better than other entry-level positions in my field), but I have no chance for benefits working for a small company. I have a certain amount of loyalty to my employer, but more to my wife and kids.

I guess I will have to wait until I at least know if I will get a interview before I start stressing out about informing my employer of my intentions. Or maybe not…Gaaahhhh! I really hate being a grown-up. It really sucks sometimes.

What do You Want to be When You Grow Up?

How many of us actually have the job that we said we wanted when we were in school? Is it possible to pick a career path at the age of 16 and stick with it until we retire?

In high school, I thought I wanted to be a computer engineer, or a programmer, or something else in the exciting world of computers. That was in the early- to mid-90’s when computers were just starting to gain mass popularity. I am not working with computers for a living now (except for the fact that every job now entails several hours per day at a computer, so I guess we all are in a way). Instead, I chose to go the opposite route. I am a forester. Most people don’t know what a forester is, and this is not the post to discuss the finer points of my choice of careers. The point is that I went from wanting to work with the highest technology possible to working in a field where my measurements are taken using centuries old methods.

This wasn’t even my second, or my third, or even my fourth choice of career paths. This pattern led to a very long college career as well. I heard a statistic a couple years back that said the average American would change careers 3-4 times in their lifetime. That amount of change must sometimes come along with a change of address and sometimes a new state or even a new country of residence.

So maybe I am not the only person who, at the age of 29 (I won’t say I am 30 until that fateful day actually arrives), is still trying to figure out what he wants to do with his life. I have a family to take care of and a mortgage and a car payment too. I can’t afford to just sit around trying to figure out what I want to do. I have to make a carefully-considered choice while planning for the months ahead and making sure there is food on the table for my little girls.

I see this pattern in my friends as well. Those with good jobs are still taking calls from head-hunters about different, better jobs which will supposedly be the one to fill the void in their lives. Is it possible to fill that void? I think that as a species, we have not been able to evolve as quickly as the technology we continue to invent has. We are bombarded by stimuli that our grandparents (only 50 years ago) would have thought was “The Devils Work.” We can’t process all of the new stuff as fast as it gets shoved in our faces.

I don’t think I will ever know the answer to the question in the title of this post. I am constantly exploring new options, hoping that the next job will be the one that makes me stop wondering about what it all means. Until then, I am off to crash through the woods and try to enjoy the time I have left in this position before I find the next big thing.

Into the Great (Un)Known

So, here’s the story. I am not a blogger. I actually despise blogging. I lurk occasionally at my wife’s blog to see if she has been bitching about me and I check one or two other blogs that my friends in other parts of the world author so that I can keep up with what is happening in their world. But I don’t particularly like blogging.

Maybe that is why I decided to give this a try. I have found in the past that many of the things I didn’t like were actually fun once I gave them a try. Or maybe it was something that I thought sounded really cool and I was jealous I didn’t think of it first. Whatever the reason, I acknowledge that sometimes my hatred is born of fear or ignorance.

So, that’s part of my crazy explanation of why I, the blog-hater, am now attempting to write a blog. Deep down I fear that my ramblings will go largely unnoticed, and that would hurt. Secretly I hope that I become one of the top blogs around so that I can brag about how I can do something that I hate better than those that love it. Kind of twisted huh?

Anyway, once I figure out how this world functions (and how to operate this stupid website) I will control you all. Now, what to write about…