I have a child ...

and he's more than a year old. Weird.

health

There are just so many things you don't appreciate until you don't have them. Our son fell ill over this past week, and it was scary. He ended up in the ER then in the hospital for two days.

It's so easy to go on in life without spending a moment thinking about the things we have, and because of that, it's easy to fail to think of things others never had in the first place, things like health.

I can't imagine losing a child to something as simple as a common cold virus. How horrible would that be?

At the same time, I find myself wondering what it would be like if we were truly a global community. What if the people in 3rd world countries, who still have children that die from the common cold, lived next door to us? I wonder if it would be as easy to ignore them then as it is to ignore them now.

I thank God that my son is recovering. I thank God for the doctors, and I wonder what it must be like to be born in a place where you don't have such resources. I wonder how I really spend the coins that God has entrusted me with. I wonder if I am selfish eve in my thanks.

Regardless ... I am thankful.

Imposter?

Am I the only one that thinks Henry Paulson and Super Dave Osborn sound amazingly similar?

Great Day

So, our lab has been getting into the garbage outside a lot recently, and we couldn't get him to stop. We tried scaring him, we tried bribing him. Nothing worked. So, I called up the neighbor who used to keep a few cattle. He no longer has the cattle, but he does still have the electric fence.

I borrowed the power converter and wired up the two plastic garbage cans and sat back to watch. It was classic.

Today

Planted a tree today.

Then I split some wood and made a fire.

Pretty much left the environment at par for the day.

Work? Sure is ...

Well, we're sort of settled now, at least for a bit. Right now I'm a stay at home dad, which is weird. I had all these fantastic ideas about how I'd take over the world via the internet, or at least find some way to make a buck. Oddly enough, this whole parenting thing takes a TON of time, and our child isn't even mobile yet. (insert laughter from EVERY generation of parents before me) I want to believe that once he's mobile it will be just a bit easier because he'll be able to entertain himself, but somehow I'm a bit doubtful (insert more laughter from generations of parents that have gone before).

In the end, Chi is worth every minute. I'm sure I'm just beginning to understand the joys and pains of this whole thing. It shall be interesting ... maybe I'll write a book?

New Chapter

We finally made the move out of California. It was REALLY difficult to leave, but it's done. We've moved back to the Pacific NW and are ready to begin our next adventure. First, however, we'll be heading to Cape Cod. It's a hard life, but I guess we'll have to live it.