Happy memorial day weekend

I'm headed to the lake. Be sure to take a moment to remember those who have died on foreign shores not only for our freedoms but in an attempts to give others a taste of the blessings we have. Say a prayer for them and their families. God bless, Tom

Seasons and life part 1: Spring

A dear friend saw this in it's original form. I'm going to try to recreate it as I thought it was one of the better pieces I have written in awhile. Spring time is a time of rebirth. Plants reemerge from a long winters slumber buried in the ground. They derive nutrients from the soil and the decaying matter. The warmth of the sun and the nourishing rains bring them back to their full beauty and glory. I take this as an analogy to our own lives and God's love for us. We can take the decaying matter of our past and the mistakes that we have made and use them to nourish ourselves as we learn. We can reach up with our hearts and soul and feel the warmth of his love. It is as sure as the sun rising each morning of each day. Throughout our lives we grow and develop. There may be the scars of extended droughts or fires or careless words of loved ones that cut as deep as an axe. But the tree that we each represent can grow beyond those scars. God is the master gardener. He is the master architect of the garden in which we all live. Spring reminds us to continue to come out of dormancy, reach up to his to feel his love and forgiveness. And through that love and forgiveness we become fruitful and thrive.

Tales from the field part 5

I don't know if it's really part 5 but that sounds like a good number. The other parts are on my facebook page. One challenge (among many) in my job is homemade food. It is not legal by local, state, or federal food code to commercially sell homemade food. I learned to recognise food with "source" issues by the labeling or commonly lack there of. A couple years ago Texas was having issues with white mexican cheese or Queso Blanco which does come in several forms ranging from creamy to semi-hard. ( a little harder than a cheddar) Parmesan is a hard cheese. To make a long story shorter, I pulled about 40 pounds of improperly labeled mexican cheese from a shelf and took it back to the office for pictures and disposal. OOOpppsssss. Office not happy. That stuff REEEEKS! Anyway, I was in a new grocery of non-North American origin and found some poorly labeled bread. Conversation ensues... Me:" Where did this come from?" Proprietor: " I don't know" I am asking questions I already know or think I know the answer to. I just want to get him to admit to it. "Not a good answer... try again. This bread is warm. It was made this morning. Where did it come from?" " A woman brings it by every morning." "Where does she get it?" "I don't know" "You buy food to sell to your customers that you don't know where it comes from?" At this point he realizes he's stuck "Well, she makes it in her home." "That's what I thought. Let's throw it out." I really actually got lucky on that. It was still warm. That was a big tip for me. It will probably appear again. With better labeling. A fake invoice to some "bakery" in Dallas. Mobile food vendors are still the worst about this. It's pool season. An inspector friend has already shattered my highest chlorine reading in an open pool. Mine was set last summer at 52ppm. This pool, not in my city, was over 200ppm chlorine. I hope this isn't a harbinger of the season to come. Tom

Notes from scuba class

I jast had one of the best groups of six that I have ever had. No mask issues. No panic issues. No excesive whining. A little much parental assistance for an almost 20 y/o girl but hey, it's daddy. A 17 y/o girl who gets bouyancy control on her own. Truely fantastic. No one failed any of the quizes or exams. I wish these classes were more common. We are headed out to the lake next weekend. It should be a fun time. I've got a bunch of blog topics rattling around in my head. Ponderable questions, more rants, brings to mind a line from Jimmy Buffet... He went to Paris Looking for answers To questions that bothered him so... I wouldn't go to Paris. I'd head south first. But I still understand the feeling. Tom

Men and dogs

This is kinda a repost from my other blog... A couple years ago I lost a Lab that had been given to me. He was a good dog. He had authority/dominance issues. He wanted to be the boss and was pretty hard headed about it. He was the only one owner Lab I had ever met. He would not roll over for a belly rub which is submissive behavior in a dog. Par for me I picked up a handful of books for guidance on training him. He was a pretty good gun dog. He would fetch a dead bird. He really didn't like picking the bird up in his mouth so he was very tender mouthed. But, he would go get it and bring it back. He would NOT chase a wounded bird. He informed me (Lab owners would understand this) more than once; If you can't kill it I'm not going to chase it. At least he never chased a spent shotgun shell. Something that all the training books stressed though is you don't punish a dog for desirable behavior. While this seems like a "duh!" point, I'll expand. When we were training he would get hot take his dummy and run to the creek that run near the house. He would get a big drink, and cool off. if I was too slow, he would be half way back to me before I caught up to him. I can't punish him. He brought the dummy back. The end result was desirable, the means getting there had issues. When training animals the animal needs to understand what it is that has been done wrong. Training humans really isn't any different. Except it's called bahavior modification. I call it training men to keep it from my perspective, but it goes both ways. "I wish he would be more romatic." What does that mean? If he tries to be more romatic by his definition and that falls short is he recognised for his attempt or punished for falling short? If the behavior is desirable but the methods don't quite get there then maybe expectations need to be made more clear. You don't punish desirable behavior or the behavior is apt to cease all together. Now Drake, I want you to fetch the ball straight back to me. No going to the creek this time. I'll take you to the creek when I have the ball. Tom

Teaching again

I'll be back in the water teaching the next two weekends. Yes, that puts me at the lake memorial day weekend. I'm planning on taking Friday off and going out sometime on Friday. I may play some golf Friday morning and go out in the afternoon. I really enjoy teaching even though it can be stressful. I am splitting the class with another instructor. At the moment there are 6 in the pool and 8 at the lake. It would be nice if the weather would settle and warm up. I've heard the thermal is right at the training platform. I'll at least get to do some fun diving during summer vacation. That will be a nice break. I would like to get to spear some fish. Even if it's just flounder. Fresh fish, seafood, and relaxing at the beach. Looking forward to it. Tom

10 years

10 years ago (and a few days) my dad died of primary site lung cancer. He was a long time smoker. He was stage 4 before he was ever diagnosed and the main goal of therapy was to "keep him comfortable." I really don't know how you can give someone chemotherapy and keep that individual "comfortable". Even though we didn't always have the best relationship I miss him. Our relationship improved alot over the last couple years as I became an adult and settled down a little bit and I think he mellowed out a little too. But that may be just my perspective. I find it scary that the men in my family history have a bad habit of dying relatively young. The men in my family history have a bad habit of not going to the Dr. when they are not doing well too. It's easy to see a corelation here. I used to claim that our issues where that we were so different from each other, but I am starting to see how much alike we are too. I guess my fall back position and how I can forgive his parenting styles is that as parents we do the best we can with what we have. Looking back, No, I really don't agree with his styles on many things. I have sworn I will not be my father, and I think I've done pretty well in that vein. But the trade off here is I want to raise a child with the same respect for adults, those senior to her, and other people that I was instilled with. So, I get to blunder about trying my own paths and methods instead of the methods I was raised with. No, I really don't like shows like Super nanny and all that BS. It bothers me that I have to fight The Disney Channel for the proper ways to speak to an adult. I still pick and choose my battles, and I try to remain consistent. I'm still vying for the title of "Most unprepared dad" but in my years of observing people I think I have met others much more deserving. Ask me again when I have a gorgeous teen girl in the house. I keep trying but much like underwater photography I suck at it, but I keep trying. I miss you dad.

Trying again...

Well, I'm going to try this again. This is my second blog. I took down the first one, but I'll try to leave this one up. I'll even try to recreate one of the articles I wrote in my last blog simply because I thought it was pretty good. I write when the mood strikes me, or I think I have something to say. About the title... I do rant about things. Mostly work. I don't talk about the people I work with or work for. I think that's just not right. I will rant about the members of the general public that I work around. I try to be funny, but I do have a rather dry sense of humor. Sarcasm can be difficult to get across in writing too. Thoughts... I get introspective. My general thoughts on life, love, friendship, and how I am generally capable of screwing things up. I try to keep the language PG 13. I don't swear much when talking. Adventures... I am a very avid diver. I'll talk about dive trips, hunting trips, and fishing trips.