Well, does it taste like chicken?

     In my life I have had a few strange things come out of an egg. This is of course not counting all those plastic eggs that people put things in; I am talking the real deal fresh from the chicken eggs.
    I remember the first double yoke. And my true dream of an egg that was nothing but a yoke. But what I found last night has left me puzzled all day.
     I decided to scramble some eggs for a part of my diner. After I had three eggs in the pan I noticed a strange looking gray thingy. It was about a quarter inch round and floating in the middle of the yoke of one of the eggs.
     Now, things happen, I get this. But what bothers me is my reaction to it. A sane, normal human would say gross and dump the whole thing. Heck, for safety sake dump the whole package of eggs in the garbage.
     Oh, but not Ben. I stood there, took a long and steady look at it, and said to myself. “I wonder if it tastes like chicken or an egg”?
     I ended up getting a spoon and removing the object of my thoughts from my diner, scrambled the eggs, and had a decent diner. And the rest of the eggs are still safe in the fridge. I played with the gray thing for a moment before tossing it out, and would say that it closely resembled liver. It was rubbery in texture, and didn’t smell bad.
     But it really bothers me that my first reaction wasn’t of disgust, but of curiosity of what it would taste like.

My vacation.

I wrote a particular dream down that I had a few weeks ago. The dream itself was pretty bad. In fact, I would just call it a nightmare, a bad one. It however left me thinking, and that normally is not a good thing. I will not share the dream with the world, but my thoughts about it I will.

The thing is I reminded myself about the good in my life. I walked away from a very good job on the first of this year. I refused to start another year without making some changes in my life. So, I did. I hated what I was, and where I was. Going through a divorce, never seeing my kids. Feeling like a slum lord. I was losing everything, and getting nothing in return. Some will say because I walked away, that I was running.

The thing was, I was running. I was running towards my target. I haven’t hit it yet, that may be years in the making. But for the first time in a long time I feel like I am making it.

This year is half over. So far, I have visited all of my siblings in their homes. I have hiked about 25 miles in the Columbia River. I made the drive from Carson to Cougar. I have attended a field trip with each of my kids. I am literally scratching the paint off on this. And that is so far amazing. I have lost weight, and feel better than I have felt in a long time.

I feel that I need to keep things like this on my mind. I am thankful to God, my friends, and my family.

I feel blessed, watched over. I am confident that I am going to be happy some day. Something that I will need to remember in the dark days to come.

little yellow energy

I would like to draw a simple comparison between my son, and Rock star energy drinks.  Over the last... Well I hate to say it, decade, I have become a connoisseur of energy drinks.  Over the last few months I have discovered the Hydration Rock star.  I love lemon aid, and this is lemon aid flavor.

The thing is, they really fail to capture the “essence” of energy.  I however think there should be some way to inspire it into people, instead of drinking it in a can.  And I think I found it...

Today, I went with Shea, his class of Kindergartners, and the kindergartners of 17 buses from 10 schools.  at 35 people a bus that is a whole lot of energy packed up in little spaces.  I ran the whole Zoo, and had a lot of fun.  And after that, I decided to take Shea to Multnomah Falls for a hike.  After the Zoo, Shea fell asleep in the car.  And when he woke up at the falls he literally exploded out of the car saying “Where is it, where is it”. 

He spent all day at the Zoo, and then ran up the falls.  I mean RAN.. My fatness couldn’t keep up with him.  Darn near killed me that kid.  The worst part was, I figured he was tiered.  So I kindly explained to him.  “You know Shea, I know your tired, so we will go up tell you get tired, and then we will head back down OK” 

He replied, “Ok Dad, when I get tired, we will come back down”.  Now, if it stopped there, that would be OK.  But he then turned to me, and with that sweet six year old voice said, “and dad, if you get tired we can turn back to”.. I laughed, and told him I have climbed it before, and am sure I can make it. 

Well, about half way up I was struggling to keep up with him.  I have been getting into shape, but apparently not fast enough.  Half way up I said “Shea, we need to stop, I need a rest” 

This was the first of the four brakes that he allowed me to take.  And, I would like to point out that he asked me how long I needed, and I said just one minuet.  He then started counting.  One time I said, alright lets go, and he said I still had ten seconds left. 

He was thrilled to go all the way to the top.  We looked around, walked up the trail a little farther, and then he ran all the way down.  But he was nice, he stopped at every tree to wait for me to catch up. 

My lesson learned today, energy cannot come in a can, it comes in having kids.  They are a hoot, and the fun never stops.  In my effort to be a good long distance father, I have been trying to do special activity's with each of them one on one.  It isn’t the reason that I am getting into shape, but getting to climb Multnomah Falls with my six year old is a blast. 

I would like to point out the similarity between Rock star, and my son.  Just look, it’s there...

Need a hint.  There both yellow, and in my case get your heart pumping, and the Adrenalin flowing.  I simply love my kids.