Personality Type: Squirrel

We went to the Grand Canyon last week for a few days off, and I'd already started the basic outline for this blog.  When I saw this squirrel, my immediate thought was to photo it, as it was my idea of a perfect open for this blog.

As you probably know, according to Psychology Today, over 97% of personality types come primarily from these 4 categories, and broken down with these primary tendencies from the psychology textbook:

Type A: Leader, bossy, competitive, task-obsessed, verbally aggressive, prone to rudeness, impatient, task-driven, goal-oriented, time-manager, administratively organized, perfectionist, easily angered, ambitious, energetic, inflexible, rigid, risk taker, entrepreneurial, hates delays, hates laziness, easily irritated, hates stupidity, few friends, dedicated, punctual, haughty, gregarious, hard charging, intense, governing, politically incorrect speech, loyal, adventurous, dependable, honest, factual, giving, generous, trustworthy, adaptable to change, tends to be anal-retentive.

Type A/B:  Up to 80% of the A characteristics, and up to 20% of the B characteristics.

Type B: Follower, unable to make a decision, easy-going, free-flowing thoughts, care-free, artistic, creative, emotionally volatile, warm, loving, outgoing, friendly, tender-hearted, gullible, lacks trust, prone to rebellion, lives for fun times, flexible, dramatic, theatrical, unorganized, calm, lovable, non-competitive, moody, reflective, caring, sensitive, pet lover, prone to counter-culture, emotional, expressive, indecisive, hates change, hates instability, prone to be selfish, prone to laziness, prone to procrastination, prone to be a do-gooder.  **** And I am adding one more to the textbook of characteristics: Prone to be a squirrel.    

Type B/A:  Up to 80% of the B characteristics, and up to 20% of the A characteristics. 

There is a personality type C, and a type D, but they are so rare that I need not spend time on them.

~

The world is run by type A's.  I wonder which type I am?  Hmm, that's a tough one.

Type A personalities will never be a Type B.  And vice-versa.  You are born that way.  But, even though it might not be my natural characteristic to be fun-loving 24/7/365.25, I can guarantee you that I will love a vacation or weekend off as much as anyone (even if I have to run my vacation with a clipboard, checklist, stop watch, and calendar).

The funniest thing I have seen this year is the post from my daughter Angela when she posted: "My decision making skills rival that of a squirrel crossing the road."

Ever since that post, I smile, sometimes outwardly laugh (frequently gregariously) when I see the indecisiveness of a road-side squirrel trying to decide to start, stop, turn around, or bolt and be squashed under my truck tire.  But no, I do not feel sorry for the squirrel if it made the wrong decision.  That part is reserved for the Type B.


Unfortunately for Type A's, they historically don't live as long as Type B's, being more drawn to alcohol, drugs, and poor diet; which leads to more heart disease, more heart attacks, and shorter lives.  Fortunately for me, I will be one of those rare type A's that is going to live to be 111.

Because . . . I am a blessed man :-)

Boys Will Be Boys

My g'girls both look great in virtually 100% of pictures taken of them.  They are both photogenic, have awesome smiles, and don't mind the camera.

The boys however....

This is the typical outcome after 10 pic attempts (I deleted the other 7) to get a group picture of my g'sons, and these are the best 3 pictures.  The net result:  1 good pic of Jack, 2 good pics of Owen, 0 good pics of Will, and 1 good pic of Jared (though he is not looking at the camera).  Oh my boys.

The best pictures of them usually come when they are in their wheelhouses; either glued to the screen on their gameboys, or participating in group sports.  Being silly with sandwiches is not their wheelhouse . . .

I love you boys!  Maybe my attempts to get pics of you at your football games this morning will have something better to show.

I am a blessed man.

Cheerleading

My heart is easily stolen.  My wife stole my heart when she was a teenager, my daughters each stole my heart when they were born, as did each of my grandchildren when they were born too.

I am a sap.  I wouldn't want it any other way though, as I love being unashamed to show affection; to shower the loves of my life with hugs and kisses.  It embarrasses them, but not me.  That's what I do, that's how I am; an affection shower.  They tell me it's over the top; yet I can never get enough, so how can it possibly be over the top?

A single case in point; this little spitfire Italian.  Oh my gosh did this little girl light up my life 9 years ago when she was born; and to watch her and all of my grandkids grow up has been the pinnacle of my life.

Ava Corinne, a mini-me twin of her Momma Angela Corinne.  They are both just all kinds of in-your-face gorgeous, sweet, precious, kind, and merciful.  But, not good at math . . ., so we won't go there today.

I love-love-love to watch Ava cheer.  Enjoying cheering started with my other daughter Jackie, and I think? it was 6th grade for her; and she was sure fun to watch ~ especially in high school with her toe touches, herkies, and her pre-cheer routine of 100+ reverse sit ups on my hips when her muscles were so taught you could bounce a coin off off her belly.

But Ava started I think? at age 6, and this year began her 3rd year to cheer for BA.  She also does dance and tumbling.  She showed me her dance routine to music that she created herself; and I'm telling you, it was great.  Very imaginative, and well choreographed.  Plus, her back handspring is really good for just learning it, and she has the strength to eventually be one of those girls you see reeling off 3-4 in a row.

At last Saturday's game (which I didn't watch), as my eyes were glued to Ava.  I was literally 10' away from her on the sidelines, and hoped my presence did not intimidate or bother her.  It didn't, she did incredible.  Always smiling, jumping, yelling, waving her arms, and 'nailing' the cheer routines.

She called my favorite too (at my request).  "1 2 3 4, what do you think these cleats are for? To stomp them, yeah, to stomp them!  1 2 3 4, what do you think these cleats are for? To stomp them, yeah to stomp them!"

I love you Ava Corinne; I am so proud of you!

I am a blessed man.      

Brute Force Trauma: Reborn

And this is why we say that o'Mike has the power of a Gorilla (like his Pappy).

This is a transcript of our text thread from last night around 8:30, as he was at his parents latest flip home, helping with the demo work.

"Owen has been at this for a good 20 minutes. This is right up his alley!"

"What I noticed is Owen is the most powerful with overhand hitting and Will is hitting from the side, and the rest of them are too scared to try. Guess that wall is coming down tonight."

"Dad watched it and never stopped laughing. Owen was made for that."

The dialogue continues, but without a 2nd video:

"Oh my gosh!  It is going on 45 minutes now.  Owen is the ONLY child still doing it. He almost has half of the entire wall down.  He is sweating through his shirt, he has sweat rolling down his face, and he doesn't want to stop!"

"He is tearing up because we told him it is time to go."

"What a gorilla.  He loves that stuff.  Maybe he can finish the wall later."

"He was using the huge sledgehammer that not ONE child could even lift, and he was hammering it into the wall over and over.  The sledgehammer probably weighed more than he does."

"He is hands down so much stronger than his 9 year old brother."

"No question about it.  Once again, brute force; he's got it."

~

And this is why I wrote the blog a few months ago called "Brute Force Trauma".  Here it is: reborn.

I love you Owen Michael; glad you enjoyed that!  I know I sure did, and I was just the one watching!

Boomer! . . . .

Natural Pose

Jackie and her family recently completed a trip to the great NW.  I asked her to send me a picture of the boys, and this is what I got.  I had been missing them terribly, and was hoping for big happy smiles picture like I get from my girls when they send me a picture every morning.

But nope, I can sure tell they enjoyed this picture . . . 100% completely normal.

o'Mike, doing his Casper imitation lives a great deal of his life under wraps as he does not like the sun glaring on his playstation while he is building a bunker in Minecraft.  Or perhaps he has found a way to hack into the internet and is gawking at swimsuit models; and doesn't want the parents to know . . .  Remember, this is the Romeo that at age 3 asked me the question "I like boobies, do you like boobies?"  And at age 4, was trying to 'hit on' the pretty teen Elf at Bass Pro by asking me "what's her name Pappy?" 

WP, on the other side of the minivan is looking pathetically bored, but is laser focused on his own playstation, and I'm not sure if he is on Minecraft too, or if he is solving math puzzles (like I would have probably been doing).

I love you boys ~ thanks for such an awesome picture!  :-)

I Am A Blessed Man

If I needed proof (which I don't!) that I am a blessed man; this 26 second video is all the proof I need.

I love word pictures, and in the day before selfies and camera phones; whenever I would talk to either of my daughters on the phone, I would always ask them to describe to me what they were wearing, and how they had done their make up, and how they had fixed their hair.  It helped me to see them in my mind.

The tradition continues with my grand-girls.  The boys would say "I have on a t-shirt."  Or, "I have on my shorts".  Short, non-descript, and they could care less.  It was always a hard conversation that I could not get started with them.  But, I stopped asking my grand-sons completely after Romeo answered me one day "I'm sitting here naked playing with my peanut" (and you can guess what his peanut is).  That was a word picture I didn't need to see....

Anyway, both of my grand girls are into fashion, drama, clothes, style, and being total girly-girls, and they always do a great job of explaining their ensemble for the day.

Occasionally, they have Mom take a phone video and send it to me.  This is their answer to my request from yesterday. 

I love you girls!  I am indeed a blessed man!

Mornings

I love mornings; especially early mornings; which is something I must have inherited from my Mom.  Pam (my wife) calls it the middle of the night; but I call it early morning.  I normally rise anywhere from 230a to 530a.  Pam is still up most nights till 11p to midnight; but I've usually been asleep for 2 to 2.5 hours by then.  After 8p, I struggle for the last 1 to 1.5 hours to stay awake till bedtime.  She thinks (probably rightfully so) that I will one day be one of those old people that goes to bed at 8p.    

Unless I have been dosed with Benedryl, I am up early of a morning (other than in winter when I tend  to hibernate, and can easily sleep to 7a).  A normal week for me is usually 1 day a week by 3a, 1 day a week by 4a, 3 days a week by 5a, 1 day a week by 6a, and 1 day a week by 7a (the Benedryl day).

This picture was taken at 530a on June 22nd as I was headed to breakfast.  I thought it was a beautiful sunrise.  I have seen lots of beautiful sunrises.

I love to be at QT early of a morning watching the lemmings.  It is enjoyable to watch the routine of some people.  I will never be called a people-person or be gifted with the ability to read people (like Pam can), but morning observation of people at QT is fascinating to me.

I love to leave early on trips.  When my girls were growing up; I wanted to be on the road by 3a, or 4a at the latest if we were driving somewhere on vacation.  Still to this day, if I am leaving for a weekend getaway with Pam, I want to be on the road early.  She is fine with leaving home by Noon; but I want to be at my new destination by Noon!  Unless we are flying somewhere, we usually compromise on the time; and leave by 10a; (which is the middle of the day for me).

I love the solitude of morning.  I can think, pray, concentrate, write; and enjoy life without distractions.  The most productive part of my day is usually before 8a.

Thank you Jesus for the beauty of morning.