He Was My Dog

I am struggling to find the right way to tell people that my dog, Jack, died yesterday. You may be asking why do you need to tell people? Well, I don't really know that either. We had someone coming by to feed him and give him water while we were out of town. Yesterday, they came over and the gate was open. It was a rickety gate that I had been meaning to work on. We think the big winds blew it open. Jack got out and excitedly hit the alleys. He got into the backyard of a nearby house. There were dogs in the neighboring yard and Jack probably ran back and forth until he got too hot. He laid down there in the yard and didn't get up.

*Disclaimer* If you can't understand how someone can be sad over the loss of a pet, stop reading here.

I feel like there are a lot of people that would like to know. Jack had a way of winning people over. I can think of several kids and adults that were a bit apprehensive about dogs in general and in spite of his snorting and panting he was able to win them over. If you hadn't met Jack, but you friends with me then you are probably aware of how much I loved that dog.

Again, some people may not understand the greatness that was my English bulldog, Jack. Many people see a dog that couldn't handle the exertion of a walk around the block. He didn't fetch, he didn't bark, and he didn't roll over. In another words, he was no 'Skid Boot' (google it).

When I was five, my uncle Jay returned from Marine boot camp to live with us. He brought me a t-shirt with that had a bulldog on the front wearing a red Marine shirt and a green helmet. The caption going across was "Little Marine". I immediately wanted an English bulldog. I remember seeing bulldogs in the cartoons and always felt that it was the coolest dog ever. When I had a chance to ask for one for a graduation present from my in-laws I went for it. I don't think Janice thought it was the best thing I could ask for, but she obliged. After they had the chance to keep Jack for a weekend they were fans too. We got Jack just weeks after moving into our current home, five and half years ago.

People saw this lazy dog that seemed to sleep more than he did anything else. While sleeping he often passed gas. While sleeping, he would often whimper and move his feet as if he was running. Alison often wondered if he was dreaming that he was a fast dog. Yes, Jack would lay around most of the time, but he always wanted to be in whatever room I was in. When I ate dinner he would come and lay down behind my chair. If I was in the living room he would lay under the coffee table, inching closer and closer to my bare feet. His favorite place though, was on the cool tile in the den at the step into the kitchen. This step was also "time-out" for our children. Jack had to listen to a lot of crying and angry kids. Jack would just get up and stand at the back door to be let out. Jack loved kids and he loved James and Maya in spite of their pestering. Proof of this was in spite of Maya often yelling at Jack to "stay away", "move!", or just simply "No, Jack!" she balled for 15 minutes when we told her about Jack. She doesn't quite understand yet, but she was quite upset. She repeatedly said, "Not my bulldog." James has been very sweet to me.

I am going to miss the company that Jack provided me when everyone else went to bed. I am going to miss him knocking on the back door to be let in. I will miss him standing motionlessly while 'Salty', James's lab puppy, bounced around him trying to play. I will miss watching Alison pet Jack with her foot (he was often in need of a bath).

I am going to miss him because he was my dog.

Jack does not like the dog door.

John and Kate + Eight = Disgust

Or at least it should.
My wife has written a blog about this today. I am pretty sure you can find a link to it somewhere on my blog. I just finished reading it and I was inspired to write a word or two. I agree with everything she said and wanted to share my take on it. Like Alison said, we don't watch this show. I too have only seen what "The Soup" has show.

I have heard people say that it is "sad" in regards to their marriage falling apart. I'm sorry, but I don't think it is sad. I think it is disgusting. I think it is disgusting that a woman can be so unfazed by her husband cheating on her and ultimately ditching her that she can continue to invite video cameras in to film the debacle. I think it is disgusting that a man can say to world that he that he is excited about leaving his children. That is essentially what he is doing. Sure, there will be visitation, but only enough to keep his face on the television show. I am sure people will say, "Yeah, he cheated, but who could blame him? His wife was a !" However, from what I have see of him, he is a pathetic little man. If things were so terrible, he should have grown a pair and fought for his marriage. He should have fought for his children.

There are now 8 innocent children who will be raised by a neurotic ego-maniac mother and occasionally visited by a pathetically weak man. In my short adult life I have seen many marriages just "suddenly" fall apart. There seems to be one of two factors or both that are present.

One is a hurried up time table. People in the first decade of their marriage want now what their parents worked 30 years for. They can't afford it now so they will either work themselves into the ground neglecting themselves and their families or they will charge it. After all, "their good for it." Our current economy is evidence of how well this plan works. "I know that I can't currently afford this size of a home loan, but they wouldn't approve this much if they didn't think I would be able to within the 50 years I will be paying it. Right?" This addiction to accumulation puts unneeded pressure on anyone in the marriage who is working. They begin to feel that the other can't be happy unless they make more money. They can't make more unless they work more. Working more just adds more stress and takes away time that should be invested into their family and marriage. John and Kate wanted the big house, fame, dance lessons for the kids, new cars, the play ground equipment for the kids, and all the other things that they "need", so they said "let's film it."

The second factor that is so often present is a weak man. A weak man is any guy who let's his wife or anyone else verbally and mentally abuse their children. A weak man is any guy who sees his family going down the crapper and sits quietly. A weak man is any guy who doesn't stand up and say, "You are taking my kids out of under my roof and my protection over my dead body." It's any man who can't keep his man parts in his pants because he is so unhappy. He's unhappy because he's too weak to tell his wife how miserable and unhappy he is.

These two people love having their names in the title of a TV show. As they focused on how to keep it there, they forgot all about the only part of that title that makes their lives the least bit interesting, the "eight" children. Of course, it will all be filmed for the world to see. Actually, it will only continue to be filmed as long as people tune in to watch the carnage.

People don't realize how awesome my wife really is.

It is a well known fact that I have an amazingly awesome wife, but people don't how awesome she really is. People see the lunches she prepares for me, the meet our amazing kids (which she deserves much of the credit for), and they hear about her running.

She does some really awesome things that go unseen.

James has been really interested in knights lately. He has recently spent his allowance on some little knight toys (like little green army men, but knights). I was sitting there remembering about a really awesome cardboard castle and plastic knight set that my brother Jason and I had. I was telling James about it when Alison said, "I bet we could make a castle out of cardboard."

It took Alison less than 24 hours to build that castle. I typically get credit for being the artist, but Alison is a pretty talented artist in her own right. You have probably seen the pinatas that she has made for birthdays or the Halloween costumes she has made.

Alison takes being a mom very seriously. You will not hear her making excuses for not doing what her family needs her to do. You won't hear complaining about what SHE feels that she should be doing. This castle took her hours to make. She had other things that she could have been doing and things she probably would have enjoyed a lot more. The amazing thing is that she does this kind of thing all the time and trust me no matter how sweet and great they are 5 year olds and 2 year olds are very good at being grateful. Alison knows that she won't get the praise and thanks that she deserves, but that is not why she does any of it.

I am so thankful for all that she does for me and our two children. God has blessed me in many ways (great job, great house, great friends, health, healthy children), but he has given me no greater blessing than my beautiful and talented wife.

My Weekend: 1.5 mile run, 48 mile Steam-N-Wheels, leg cramps, a flat tire, bike crashes, and puking...twice.

I finished the 2009 Steam-N-Wheels bike race yesterday. It was a tough 48 miles, but eventful. Typically, I like to write about these things the day they occurred, but I was so exhausted after yesterday I was having trouble keeping my eyes open. I was so tired I actually took a nap in the middle of the afternoon. This is a rare occasion for me. I hate naps.

I started my day by going to the Abilene Family Fitness 5k fun run thing. Us Wellborns put the 'Family' in Abilene Family Fitness yesterday. Alison ran the 5k with her dad, Joe Cannon. It was his first running event and I think it was a thrill for. I know Alison really enjoyed getting to share the experience of competitive running with him. I think he is hooked. James was running in the 1.5 mile kids run and walk event. What is that, a 2.3k or something like? I let you do the math. Divide 1.5 miles by 0.6 and that was how many k's it was. Anyway, I agreed to push Maya in the stroller and follow James. Typically, with my longer stride I am able to walk at a moderate pace and keep up with James, but James was feeling it that day or something. He took off so fast I thought there was no way he was going to be able to keep running. I was wrong. I bet I had to jog with him for 90% of the way. He finished his race in roughly 20 minutes. I was impressed.

I left there in time to get to Nelson Park for the Steam-N-Wheels at around 9:00 am. This was plenty of time to do all the things I needed to do. What I didn't realize was the 1.5 mile "fun" run was more of a workout than I bargained for and I should have drank more water during and after it. In my mile 2 of my race my legs starting cramping. They continued cramping for the next 46 miles. I was proud of myself for riding through the pain. They were the worst leg cramps I have ever experienced. I also had a flat tire about an hour into the race. I passed a kid who had not eaten any breakfast and didn't have food with him. I gave him a bag of trail mix. Shortly there after that a couple of riders got tangled up and went down kind of hard about 100 yards in front of me. I stopped to see if everone was all right and to stop any cars that might be coming. I loaned them my Leatherman tool to un-jam a bike chain. The starving kid passed my while I was standing there. I started off again and was catching up to him when I passed a guy who looked to be in some pain. I asked if he needed anything and he quickly said he needed an allen wrench to lower his seat. I just so happen to have an allen wrench. I stopped to let him use the wrench. While standing there, the starving kid got tangled up with another rider and they both hit the pavement pretty hard. He did not have clips on his shoes and I guess his feet came off the pedals while crashing and he hurt the most sensitive of sensitive places. I checked to see if they needed anything and since I did not have an extra handle bar to replace his crushed ones, I continued on. This all happened in a 5 mile stretch. It was crazy.

I eventually finished the race. I am not real sure of my time because my computer keeps track of the time that I am actually moving and since I had to stop so many times I don't know what my official time was. When I was done, Alison was waiting for me with lunch. The food didn't really settle quite right and I threw up shortly after getting home. I tried to eat some crackers or something and to my surprise I threw up again, a lot. This is note worthy because these were only the third and fourth times that I have thrown up since middle school. The second time was after I over did it on a ride last summer. So that makes 3 times in less than a year. I sort of feel like I should count yesterday's as one time though. There was like 5 minutes in between them.

So there is my eventful March 21, 2009.

Communism is Bad for Baseball

I was watching the World Baseball Classic today. It was Japan vs Cuba. Japan being a capitalist country and Cuba being a communist country made for some interesting comparisons.

First off, Japans best players leave Japan to play in American and make millions upon millions of dollars. In my opinion Japan's 5 best players are not as good as good as Cuba's 5 best players. Ichiro Suzuki is probably the greatest player to come from Japan. He recently signed a deal that will pay him around 12 million per year until 2012.

Cuba's national team's (their best players) average salary is $550 a month. That comes out to be about $6,000. They also get other perks of course. They have the opportunity to purchase a car and a home. They also get to by other imports and such. Really?? It is a perk to buy a car in Cuba!!!

The rest of the Cuban players get about $250 a month. In Japan, the average salary is $500,000. That's the players that are not good enough to play in the US.

US teams bid millions of dollars to just negotiate with Japan's best players. In order to sign a Cuban player a US team has to wait for him to risk his life escaping his country. He must leave his family behind and take the largest source of income the family has with him. Then he has to hope a team will sign him.

ARC - Abilene Road Cycling

I have started a Facebook group. It is called ARC - Abilene Road Cycling. Yes, I came up with that on my own. I even designed a logo. The idea is to connect the Abilene road cycling community. There seems to be a lot of runners and they get information out pretty easily. As a fairly new cyclist I have found very difficult to get connected to the road cycling scene here in Abilene. I also want to use the group to promote road cycling and its events in and around Abilene.

I also want to use it to give a shout out to our local bike shops. We have two of the best around.

My Road Rage

I have never been one to have "road rage". I have never been one to cuss at other cars or throw them the bird. It is just not a temptation that I have ever had. At least not until I started riding a bike. Why is it that people feel that people riding a bike are some how not worthy of their respect.

I have been riding for less than a year and I have been yelled at. I have been honked at, a few times for riding in a lane instead of that little 6 inch wide space next to the curb and a few times for no reason than to try to startle me. I have nearly been hit by a pick up's side mirror because he decided to share the lane with me. I have had punk high school age kids swerve their trucks at me and act like they were going to swing their door out to hit me.

I am going to be really honest here. I have had some awful words run through my head in a few of these cases. My wife will probably kill me for saying this, but I flipped-off the punks that swerved at me. I can't remember the last time I flipped someone off and I felt bad for doing it, but I have a wife and kids and your going to swerve your two ton pick up at me as a joke? I really honestly wanted them to turn around and get out of that pick up. They deserved to get the snot kicked out of them by a guy in bike shorts.

I was riding my bike Saturday. It was cold and I was riding by myself. In one 10 mile stretch I had the flipping off incident and some punks honked at me from behind to startle me. I was riding on the shoulder of the road when this happened.

I try to avoid the big busy streets, definitely if they do not have a shoulder to ride on. I used to love the fact that I didn't have to pay for gas to go get some exercise in, but the jerks on 14th have caused me to load my bike and drive 6 miles before riding. When there is a shoulder I will almost always ride on it. If there isn't much shoulder or it is a small quiet road, I will ride in the right side of the lane and move over anytime I hear a car coming. Now, by law I can hold my ground and cars can either drive behind me or pass in the other lane, but I don't count on people knowing the law so I move over.

I am not condoning cussing and the like just because someone else does something crappy to you. I would like to think I can rise above such behavior, but I can't rise above the bumper of a pick-up driven by a careless or impatient driver. I read stories on the cycling blogs of riders dieing all the time because someone was being careless.

Please, please, please, give us cyclists a break. I have a wife and kids.

Don't Give Up On Baseball

You can't give up on baseball because of AFraud. I am no longer surprised when learn of new users. Think about it, there were 104 guys that tested positive. There are 30 teams with 25 guys on each, that's 750 players. So approximately 14% of the players tested positive. I have to think that number has gone down since then. Granted, they still do not test for HGH so who knows.

We owe it to the next generation of baseball fans to teach the game the way it was suppose to be played. Teach kids to play like Roberto Clemente, Cal Ripken Jr, Ozzie Smith, Tony Gwynn and others that didn't live and die off the homerun. We can do this as little league coaches, as parents (both moms and dads), teachers, an in any chance we have to talk baseball. Let's stop telling stories about the farthest homerun you ever saw. Tell the story of the amazing game saving catch or the all hustle infield single that turned the World Series. Tell about the skinny no-power shortstop that wins a playoff game with an unlikely homerun that squeeked over the right field fence. Talk about the purest hitter you ever watched play. We are the ones that have allowed this beast to live and grow to the ungly monster that it is today. We have to move away from "Chicks Dig the Long Ball" to "Chicks Dig the Guy Who Plays Hard". It doesn't have the same ring to it I know.

There have been other times that people could have given up on baseball. I'm glad African Americans didn't give up on the game when they saw the way Jackie Robinson was treated. I am glad the purest stayed around even after Pete Rose sullied the game with his gambling habits. Could you imagine the tempation to give up on Baseball after news of the Chicago Whitesox throwing the World Series? Talk about wondering if you were watching a true contest or watching wrestling.

Baseball will recover from this too. Don't think I am giving Major League Baseball a free pass. They need to do something about the use of steroids in their game or they really will end up like "Professional" Wrestling. It is bad enough that baseball seems to want to widdle itself down to two stacked teams that play on Primetime TV. They promote their Wednesday Night Baseball as a battle royale of good (Redsox) versus evil (Yankees). It sounds a lot like Wrestling doesn't it? If they don't put a stop to the use of performance enhancing drugs we will see the players coming out to pyro-techniques, yelling trash talk into a microphone held by a shrimpy tuxedo wearing mustached dweeb, and then going to the plate and smashing 55. Don't give up on 700 foot homeruns. I say no more homerun highlights, homerun bonuses, no more Homerun Derby, and no more homerun celebrations. Umpires should start giving outs for excessive celebration.

Baseball needs change, but throughout history permanent change is a slow change. We need to start seeing some movement in that direction.

Slum'blog' Millionaire

Forgive the title. I thought of it last night on the way home from the movie. This movie is one of my new favorites of all time. It is surprising that such an inoffensive movie has been nominated for some many awards, but it is well deserve. Benjamin Button is no where near as good.

If you have not seen the Oscar Nominated movie, Slumdog Millionaire, then you need to go see it. Right up front I have to tell you that the movie is rated R, but both my wife and I were surprised after seeing it. We gone to our usual movie screening website, http://christiananswers.net/spotlight/movies/2008/slumdogmillionaire2008.html?zoom_highlight=slumdog+millionaire. It was rated R for "for some violence, disturbing images and language." Basically if you show video footage of what life is like for orphans living on the streets of India, it is going to be rated R. The things in this movie that make it R are real and Alison and I were very pleased that they were tastefully shown. There were times that they could have made it gory for the sake of being gory. There was nothing gratuitous and it all serves the purpose of telling the story.

The movie is about a 19 year old former street orphan (aka a "Slumdog") who ends up on India's version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" in order find the girl that was taken from him from the local drug lord. His life has prepared him for the questions that he draws and he is one question away from winning it all when the authorities take him on suspicion of cheating.

If you want to see a wonderful story of hope, redemption, and good triumphing over evil then you should see this movie. If you want to see what Sanctuary Home is trying to save the lost children of India from then you will see it in this movie. Some of the stories of the children currently living in Sanctuary Home are very similar to the life the star of this movie is escaping from.

Do you want them?

Ok, so Obama is closing Guantanamo Bay Prison. I don't agree with this decision, but whatever I can see the debate. The question that many people are now asking is the same question Barry Obama DIDN'T ask, "Where do we put these alleged terrorist when we close Gitmo?" I want you to weigh in.

Would you be willing to have these alleged terrorists moved to the prison nearest to you?