On a Similar Note

Last week I blogged a little about my feelings toward the military, and my appreciation for those that serve our country. I mentioned that my nephew was in serving with the USMC in Iraq right now. He just re-enlisted while he was over there. Apparently, they take pictures of that, so I thought I would just share a couple of them with you.

We're very proud of him.

Another-nother Update

Those of you that have been with me a while, may remember that my sister had been diagnosed with lung cancer and was undergoing treatment. If you need to catch up, click here and you can see all the previous posts. That being said, here is the most recent update:

Today Neal & I went to see Dr. Pant (my oncologist) for my first “after Keemo” visit. I’m doing great! My hair is growing back. The style which I refer to as a "No Maintenance Bob" is just FULL of "silver highlights". She said…”Go on with your normal life. Follow the 2-week rule…if something "normal" like a cold doesn’t go away after 2 weeks….come see me! You will have "stuff" like a normal person and it doesn’t necessarily mean the cancer is back. Just get over it and live."

Easy for her to say! I had a cold/allergies a couple weeks ago and the cough kinda freaked me out. I had a bit of anxiety about going today which I think is normal...so I had a long walk before my appointment this morning and a talk with God. He heard me and comforted me. I suppose I will get used to going to have a check-up every two months. I am blessed. Prayers are answered…we only have to ask. I feel stronger everyday as the Keemo drugs leave my body.

How's that for awesome! Wahoo! Check out those silver highlights!

A Humbling Experience

The other day, I attended the funeral of the grandfather of one of our close friends. He was himself a dear friend of ours, and a wonderful man. He had served in the United States Marine Corps when he was a young man, so he received a military funeral. There was a team of young Marines there that carried the casket, folded the flag, presented it to his wife, etc.

George Tyler, one of the elder statesmen of our church, was also at the funeral. He was in his mid-eighties, but still pretty spry. In the hallway after the service, he walked up to one of the young marines and told him that he had served in the Marines, what division he had served in, and in what theater of war.

I didn't know that George had served in the Marines, and I thought to myself, "Hey, that's cool. Very interesting, George."

I expected the young Marine (he was probably 20, or 21 years old at the most) would say something along the same lines. Instead, he reached out, shook George's hand, looked him in the eye and said, "Thank you."

I was humbled. He got it. He understood the sacrifice that every person that joins our military makes. My nephew Travis is serving with the USMC in Iraq right now. So, even though it's not Veteran's Day or Memorial Day, I would just like to take this opportunity to say thanks.

To everyone that has served our country in the military, past or present, thank you.

Economic Crisis Not So Bad

So, as most of you know, I'm a comic book fan, and have been for years. I have lots of comics, and several comics that are worth well over $100 apiece.

Today I heard that a copy of Action Comics #1 just sold at auction for $317,200 dollars. You read that correctly, I didn't put the comma in the wrong place or leave out a decimal. That's 312 THOUSAND dollars. Apparently, the current "economic crisis" hasn't reached everyone.

Do you know what's special about Action Comics #1? A bet a lot of you do. If you don't, and you want to find out, here's a link to an article about the sale. There's a couple of other interesting tidbits about this particular sale that are also in the article.

Do you collect anything? Are they valuable?

Shifting Gears

When I was about 4, I used to ride on our John Deere lawn mower with my older sister while she mowed the yard.

On a side note, people make me laugh when they call their lawn mowers "lawn tractors". I don't know...I guess it's because I've driven lots of tractors, and anything you can load in the back of a pickup is not a tractor.

On another side note, I always say that I "mowed the yard". I never "cut the grass" or "mow the lawn". I always mow the yard.

Back to the story...

On one particular day, my sister and I were mowing the yard (not cutting the grass), and she pulled up by the house and parked. We got off the lawn mower (not tractor) and went inside for something to drink. We stayed inside for a few minutes, and I was ready to get back to work. So I got the key off of the hook and went back outside.

You see, I thought I knew how to drive the lawn mower. It was simple. You pressed down the pedal, cranked the engine, let out the pedal and drove. There was another pedal you held down to start the blades spinning. If you wanted to go backward, you pressed down the pedal, looked backwards, let the pedal out and started going backwards.

Of course, all this time what I HADN'T seen was my sister reaching down on the side and changing the gear from forward to reverse. One small, but vital, piece of info.

So, I climbed up in the seat and pushed down the pedal. I stuck the key in ignition and cranked it up. I turned and looked back behind me, let out the pedal...and promptly ran the lawn mower into the side of the house.

Blogging

Due to the length of my last post, I thought it important to let everyone know that, generally speaking, blog posts shouldn't be overly long.

The Soundtrack of My Life

As I was driving around Saturday night, delivering pizza, I had it on an "oldies" station. A particular song came on (to be honest, I can't remember which one), and it instantly took me back to a particular time and place in my life.

This got me thinking about the songs in my life that did that to me. These are the milestone songs that are irrevocably tied to an era in my life. So here it is: the soundtrack of my life. Sorry it is somewhat long...but I am 40 now.

-----

up to 8
Whatever Happened to Randolph Scott (The Statler Brothers)
Saturday Night (The Bay City Rollers)
When I hear these songs I'm taken back to the home of my childhood. I would listen to these songs (and others) on 8-track (click here if you don't know what an 8-track is), and play pool in our little gameroom. Sometimes we would use the pool table to have a place to play with all my army men.

3rd - 4th Grade
Summer Nights (Grease Soundtrack)
This song takes me back to 3rd/4th grade. The first time I remember hearing it was at Shari Morris' house on their 8-track. For some reason, I also always associate this song with my first girlfriend, Kelly McGraw (other than Luann Teboe in kindergarten...I broke up with her because she got the mumps). She lived right down the road from Shari...maybe that's why. I wonder if Kelly ever knew she was my girlfriend?

5th - 6th Grade
Tommy Soundtrack (Various Artists)
By this time, we had moved into the "new house". We had a gameroom there as well. I had left behind the Statler Brothers, and now liked to listen to Tommy while playing pool, and, you guessed it, pinball. I fancied myself a pinball wizard. Of course, this was on 8-track as well.

Summer Before 9th Grade
Friday Night Videos (Various Artists)
Ahhh...1983...the year Friday Night Videos made its debut. I'll never forget that night. It opened with Billie Jean (Michael Jackson, of course). Also that night: Hungry Like the Wolf (Duran, Duran), Let's Dance (David Bowie). I want to say that Come on Eileen, Our Love's In Jeopardy, Safety Dance, and Our House were also on that same episode, but it may have been later. Regardless, any of those songs takes me back 25 years instantly.

9th Grade
More Than a Feeling (Boston)
Being in 9th grade to me meant a lot of changes. I was in high school now, and I had friends that could drive. One of my best friends from my freshman year was Tyree Collier (he used to give his name as George when we would eat somewhere that put your name on the ticket...I always thought that was funny). Tyree was a senior. We fought back and forth that year for trumpet section leader, and became good friends while doing so. One thing I learned from Tyree has had a lasting impact on my life: the guitar. Tyree played guitar, and since he was a senior, and extremely cool, I thought playing the guitar would be cool. He introduced me to Boston, and one of the first songs he played for me was More Than a Feeling. So, years later, after all the bass and guitar gigs I've played, in church and out of church, in cover bands and original bands, it can all be traced be traced back to Tyree and Boston.

10th Grade
Eliminator (ZZ Top)
When I turned 16, my parents gave me a 1977 Camaro. I know, cool, huh? It rocked. I used to drive around town, listening to my ZZ Top cassette on my 8-track adapter. That's right. It had an 8-track AM/FM radio...and I had an adapter. Like I said...it rocked.

High School in General
Anything from any John Hughes movie or Back to the Future(1985)
Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Back to the Future...play a song from any of these and I am in high school again.

Freshman Year College
Sweet Child O' Mine (Guns n' Roses)
My freshman year in college, I was in a cover band called Shattered Image. I know, cool name, huh? We played pretty regularly, had the worst sound equipment ever, had no idea what we were doing, and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. Tim Moss, Keith McLeod, and Bryan Armstrong were the other members of the band. Sweet Child O' Mine is indelibly linked to that time in my life.

Sophomore Year College
Lead Me On (Amy Grant)
For you Christian types out there (you know who you are), you may recognize that this is the first song by a Christian artist on this list. It's true. I didn't even know that "Christian music" was a genre until then. This was the time of my personal spiritual awakening, when I started reading the Bible and trying to figure out what I really believed.

Senior Year(s) College
Out of the Silent Planet (King's X)
Fast forward a few years, and you'll find me in college in a Christian band called Reckless Abandon (or Restless Ambition, as we were introduced one time). I roomed with several guys from the band (and some guys not from the band). Me, Mark, Coe, Russ, Tornado Tommy, Randy, Kenny (unofficially Seth...it just seemed like he lived there) all live at one time or another in what we called the Reckless Abode. We had quite the time. At one point, there were 6 of us living there. Tommy, who is worthy of his own blog post, introduced me to King's X. To this day one of my favorite bands (at least their first 4 albums). When I hear Goldilox from their Out of the Silent Planet album, it's like I'm back in the Abode again, fighting over who should have to wash the dirty dishes.

Circa 2000
Mezzamorphis (Delirious?)
This is one of my favorite albums of all time of all time. Also, King of Fools, another album by Delirious? is one of my other favorite albums of all time of all time. One reason I think this album, and two songs in particular off of it, My Glorious and Mezzanine Floor, evoke such strong memories is that I used them in a video I made about the youth ministry I was leading at the time.

-----

Well, there you have it. These things are, of course, always in retrospect. I'm interested to see in 10 years what songs make me think about moving to Atlanta. If I'm still blogging then, I'll let you know.

Care to share any songs from your soundtrack?

Wild Things

I'm reading a book right now called "Wild Things: the Art of Nurturing Boys". It's very interesting. It breaks boys down by age, explaining how best to interact with them, the ways they think (or don't), and some strategies for helping them grow. It's been a great book.

(If you're reading this on my actual blog (as opposed to Facebook), there's an Amazon ad on the left with a link to it and a couple of other books, too.)

The author was talking about how certain boys, especially in their pre-teens, can get very focused when playing a video game, working a task, etc. That reminded me of a story.

I had a lawn business for a little while, and sometimes I would get some youth from the church to help out on larger jobs. I had this big yard to do with flower beds all around a pool. They were very jungle like, and looked as if they hadn't been cleaned up in months.

I was trimming hedges, and Josh (a 12 year-old that was the son of a friend and a great kid) was pulling weeds and throwing them in a garbage can. Josh is a VERY smart kid. He now attends Stephen F. Austin State University, in Nacogdoches, Texas.

Me: "Josh, could you run around to the front and get the shovel and the rake out of the pickup."

Josh: "Okay."

Josh took about 4 steps and I stopped him.

Me: "Josh?"

Josh: "Yes?" he said, turning around.

Me: "What are you getting from the truck?"

Josh: "Uhh...the rake?"

Me: "And..."

Josh: "Uhh..."

Me: "The shovel."

Josh: "Right! The shovel!"

Josh turned and started trotting toward the front of the house.

Me: "Josh!"

Josh: "Yes?"

Me: "If you want, you can go ahead and throw those weeds in the garbage can."

He looked down at his hands and the two fistfuls of weeds he was still carrying.

Me: "Oh yeah."

Life on the Hut Line Part III

Another of my favorite calls. Check out the rest of my Hut themed posts here. This one is almost word for word how it actually happened.

Me: Thanks for calling Pizza Hut/Wing Street. This is Aaron, will this be for delivery or carryout?

Caller: Yeah...uhh...what's your best special?

Me: We have our Pizza Mia Deal. That's 3 or more single topping medium hand-tossed pizzas with our special Old World sauce and two types of cheese for only $5 each.

Caller: That sounds good. I'll have two Pizza Mias...

Me: I'm sorry, sir...you have to order 3 or more to get the special rate. Otherwise they are $6.99 regular price.

Caller: Oh...in that case, give me 3 Pizza Mias.

Me: Okay, great! What would you like on the first one?

Caller: Uhh...make the first one pan crust...

Me: I apologize, sir...the Mia only comes on a hand-tossed crust.

Caller: Oh...yeah...okay.

Me: What topping would you like on the first one?

Caller: Uhh...pepperoni.

Me: And your second one?

Caller: Hamburger...can you make that one a large?

Me: Sorry sir...

It's Just Some Comic Books

When I was 9 years old, my family became friends with a family named the Sweets. They had a son named Woody who was a couple of years older than me. He collected comic books, so I started collecting comic books.

I loved to read, and I already had quite a few comics, but the idea of collecting them was new to me. Woody introduced me to price guides, correct storage and handling, etc. I wanted to collect everything, but that of course was impossible, so I decided to focus on my favorite: The Avengers.

The Avengers had all the greatest heroes: Iron Man, Captain America, Ant Man, Thor, The Wasp, and more. Of course, the Avengers also included The Vision, who was my favorite.

After I had been collecting for a year or two, my family took a trip to a large flea market/trade day/swap meet in Pearland, Texas. It just so happened, one of the permanent stores at this location was a comic shop! Wahoo!! Comic books!

In this comic shop, like most, comics were organized alphabetically by title, starting from the lowest numbered issue and going forward. When we entered the store, I went straight for the Avengers, and started looking through the most recent issues. I only had a few dollars with me, and I knew I could get more book for my buck by buying the newer issues, which are usually the least expensive.

So, as I was looking through the 150's and 160's, my dad walked up and started looking through the box to my left. He pulled out a comic and laid it on the box.

"Do you have this one?"

I glanced over, it was Avengers issue number 23!

"No sir," I said, thinking to myself, "Of course not, Dad, that's number 23!" At that time, my oldest issue was number 127. I went back to sorting through the 150s: 152...need it...153...got it.

"Do you have this one?" He had laid issue 24 on top of 23.

"No sir."

Okay...154...got it...155...got it.

"How about this one?"

Issue 26. Now I started to get suspicious.

"No sir."

Issue 27 joined the pile. "This one?"

I just shook my head.

"These the other ones you need?" he asked, picking up the stack I had created.

I just nodded.

Dad walked up to the counter and purchased them. I was now the owner of issues 23, 24, 26, and 27!! No way!!

Almost 30 years later, I can still tell you the numbers of those four issues. It wasn't the fact that my dad spent some money on me and bought me some comics. It was that he participated. Even though it was only for a few minutes and in a small degree, he demonstrated that he knew something about what I was interested in. My dad was not a "comic book kind of guy". In fact, in his life, I don't know that he ever read a single comic.

Of course, this wasn't the only time my dad ever participated in the things I liked. He was my t-ball coach, and came to see me play the trumpet every time I played. But there was something about that day, that moment, that has always stuck with me.

I think it is for two reasons. One, he surprised me! I had no idea he was going to do what he did. And two, I didn't ask him to do it. Not only was he willing, he initiated it. Oh yeah, there's a third reason...it involved the Avengers!

A Simple Failure to Communicate

When we moved to Atlanta, we left all of our friends and family back in Texas. A few months after we had settled in, I struck up a conversation with a guy who had recently relocated from Long Island to Atlanta.

After talking a bit, I found out that his family was still in New York and that he worked right across the street from me at the Home Depot corporate office. To top it off, we had several common interests. I could only imagine how tough it would have been if I would have had to move to Atlanta ahead of my family, so I decided on a whim to give him one of my business cards and an open invitation for lunch or dinner. I was pleasantly surprised when he contacted me a couple of days later about dinner.

We exchanged a couple of emails, and that's where it happened. Here's a segment of the conversation.

Me: ...we'll see you about 6:00 then.

Him: Would you like me to bring a pie? I can pick one up at Costco's after work.

Me: Sure, a pie would be great!

Him: What kind of pie do you guys like?

Me: I like chocolate, but I'm not a fan of pecan. Cheryl likes anything.

Him: Uhhh...I usually prefer pepperoni...

So, apparently, "up there" in New York, pie can mean pizza. If that's true, what do they call "real" pie?

Have you ever had a "regional translation error"?

Answer: T = 2Q * (P/12)

Question: How much should you tip a pizza delivery guy?

As most of you know, I deliver pizza part-time. In fact, it has been the subject of a few posts, so I made its own label in my blog: The Hut.

I've been asked several times what the appropriate tip for a pizza delivery driver is. The answer is simple. You just take the average price of the pizza, divide it by twelve, multiply by a factor of two, then multiple that result times the number of pizzas you ordered. Simple, right? You can even express it as a formula:

T = 2Q * (P/12)

Where T = tip, Q = quantity of pizzas, P = average price of pizzas.

For example, if you order 2 medium pizzas that cost an average of $11 dollars each the tip would be $3.67. The simple application of this formula will always result in the correct tip. I suggest you write this down on a post-it note and put it by the front door. There it will always be handy for the when the delivery man arrives.

Or, another option is...you could just tip 15%.