Still More Manliness!

Hi Y'all!



Well, I just did something that, I must admit - is very unusual, not to mention really, really rare. So rare in fact that I called all my kids over just to witness this rare event. I actually used duct tape to tape ducts. Oh yes, my friends, I did! I know you probably find it hard to believe, but I even have photographic proof: Viola!


Duct tape as we all know is very useful for many things. Just as a "fabric substitute" alone you can find a million and one uses. I know a young man who went to prom in an indestructable duct-tape tuxedo! I also own a few wallets made of the stuff, and I even had a friend make me a most wonderful pair of duct-tape slippers. You can also do a lot of other things with it. But what was it actually meant to do? Just look at the picture above. Pretty neat huh?????



So, the next time you find yourself "fixing" a window, re-attaching a bumper to your truck, mending a broken vase, or "repairing" an old pair of jeans - just remember that your old pal Steve Oberg actually taped ducts with this most magical of all household items. You witnessed it here!

Busy days off...

Soo... this is my weekend off. Yep. Yesterday went down like this. I get up VERY early these days (more on that later). I was in the shower by 6am. At 7 I dropped Beth off at work, then went with Austin and Bryce to their school for "Donuts with Dad" - cool! Of course, they were having a book fair in the computer center right next to the donuts and coffee - ($$$$$$$).



At 8 I came back and picked up Darian and Cameron to take them to the dentist - in Springfield. No cavities or other surprises ($$$$$$) thank you Lord! Since they were missing school and their regular lunch period, we stopped and got double bacon burger combos from Wendy's. (If you can find a greasier sandwich, you're in Mexico!) This is a picture of Cameron at Wendy's - "Look ma, no cavities!"
I then got to spend money on a new big fat knobby tire for my Jeep ($$$$$$$) - we had a flat Thursday. I am also changing the brakes - so I went and bought them too ($$$$$$). I then went to Home depot and a couple of other hardware stores to get more stuff for our basement project. (more $$$$$$$$). All told I was home for just a few minutes to walk the dog before I went back out and picked Beth up from work. Whew!!!! What a long - busy tedious EXPENSIVE day!

Today - (Saturday) it is cold and drizzly (kind of a spitty rain). I was up early again - then napped - then rushed out for Austin's final soccer game. Because of the rain - and a short roster for both teams (due to the cold rain I'm sure) they played short halves. Austin's team went scoreless, but gave up three. For that reason, we were glad it was short. Kind of a bummer to have the final game in the cold rain - and with a loss. Too bad for our team - but perhaps they will do better this spring.

Austin saw quite a bit of action today. He does a great job as defender and is great at tackling the ball from other players. He is also very good at passing the ball to his teammates. We are very proud of him.


I am now off to work on our basement - the plan is to finish up with the drywall and taping this weekend. This includes some duct work and more (minor) electrical. I also need to change the brakes on the jeep - maybe it will warm up some later.

Senior Night...

We just got back from a very brutal, very chilly soccer game. It was senior night - a night in which they honor the seniors and their parental units (us).

We played a brutal game against Lanphier HS (Northeast Springfield). It wasn't a very good game, kinda one-sided. We won 7 - 0. Darian scored TWO - the first one was a quick header on a cross. The second (just two minutes later) was a beautiful bend from the right side of the goal - we where like - did it go in?????? Wow!

The other team barely had the ball the whole night. Like I said - brutal. Not a great game, but beautiful goals. It got to be embarrassing. The IHSA rules specify when the point spread is 7 or more leading into the second half, they cut the time from 40 to 20 minutes. Needless to say, they shortened the game - and then we brought in our junior varsity team for most of the 2nd half play. Like I said, brutal. We had a scoreless second half - but so did Lanphier - (against our freshmen and sophomores.)

Hey, at least we won our last home game! I'll have pics to share soon!

It's about stinkin' time!!!!!

Well, go tell it on the mountain - Fall is finally here. Officially, "fall" began with the Autumnal Equinox on September 23rd - but weather-wise, we've been short-changed. It's just been too darn hot lately. Hopefully winter comes late and spring comes early this year.

Because I promised...

Here's a couple of quick pix from Homecoming...enjoy!

A Fun Day for US!

We ditched church today and went instead to a good ol' fashioned corn maze!
For my west coast friends - yep' - it's a big ol' maze cut into a cornfield. You get to pay big money to go through it too! But hey - we had fun! Here's some pics.

Random musings on the state of our society, and other stuff....

This one has been cooking for awhile, so look out!

The other night (a couple of weeks ago, during my latest spree of self-inflicted, painful busyness) me and Beth were sitting back musing. Let me 'splain. Some people "chat", others "share" - not us, we "muse" about stuff. This particular evening our musings took on the usual philosophical tone and I had a (rare) moment of lucidity. Bingo! By way of background, may I add that I am little more than a casual observer of human behavior - most things take me by complete surprise - however, lately I have been frustrated with the state of the world in general. The main case in point - it is no longer right to be right. That was the brilliant thought about which we mused that evening. In our world today - you can no longer be "right" about anything. Everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) is subjective.

This leads me to think... is it o.k. to be wrong? It must be. If I am wrong, you don't dare tell me I'm wrong - you don't have the right to do so. (So long as there is no current law against what I am "wrong" about).



This led to an even further digression. If (big If) there is no moral standard - no definite "right" any more (I disagree), then we (subjectively) can determine our own path and our own moral standards. This is exactly where we are in society - those in the know call it "Post-modernism" - which is arguably very difficult to clearly define. (If you are still with me, I'll be shocked).
The larger topic of moral absolutes (and their basic proofs) is deep fodder wich I will probably never ever get to and if I should, it will be on my other blog - http://theologylite.blogspot.com/
The sign of our times is currently a guy (or gal) with their hands out in a "back-off" gesture - as if to say, "Hey, stay out of my space." We often hear the phrase - "If it works for you, great!" and "Whatever gets you through the day." Many of my friends now refuse to discuss "religion & politics" in mixed company for fear of being labeled "intolerant" or worse yet "closed-minded."


This is where things get interesting. If it is "wrong" to be "right" about something - or if believing that you are in fact "right" about something - specifically your core moral beliefs - your faith for instance - you believe deep in your soul that this is the truth - if being "right" makes you "wrong" because other people disagree, isn't it "wrong" for them to tell you that you are "wrong" for believing that you are "right" about your beliefs??????? Aren't they being equally closed-minded? That would be wrong wouldn't it?

Well, you don't dare tell them that they are "wrong" to say that you are "wrong" for believing you are "right" - that would be "wrong!"

Yes, it has been awhile....

O.K. - to catch everyone up - life has been EXTREMELY busy for our family. Aside from a few personal things that have demanded more time, I just came off of almost 3 weeks straight of being busy every night. I was asked to play bass for High School Musical. It ended up being a GREAT show - every night sold out in advance - even after adding an extra show! I was really proud of the kids. So, I've spent the last few days in recovery. My personal schedule gets me up VERY early in the morning these days - I was rather wiped out.

In other news, my two oldest sons are both getting dressed up tonight to go to their H.S. homecoming thingy. (No, they're not going "together" - Darian is going with Rachel, Cameron is joining a group of friends.) Can't wait to get some pictures - I'll share them with you all later.

Soccer has been eventful. Tuesday night (10/2) we played a tough private school team from Springfield - fortunately it was called due to a thunderstorm while we were down 4 to 0 (with more than 20 minutes left to play) God had mercy on us and stopped the bleeding. However, we did win last night - after two overtime sessions during the Penalty Kick round. Darian had the final goal. Hurray for our side! (Beth and I now both have very short fingernails.)
Austin's team isn't doing so well, they lost 13-0 last Saturday (Boy was that fun to watch!).

Let me say, good for them - they were a better team, with better coaching, more training- and hey, they actually got the ball into the net. (Unlike our kids) They clearly deserved to win. This world needs winners.

BUT.......as a former pee-wee coach, I must say that our opposing coach from last week should have at least shown some restraint!!!!! When a team is up by that much, make a rule that only the goalie can score - or something - don't just stomp on the other guys until they hang their heads! They're just kids for crying out loud! As for our coach - sigh! Hopefully this weeks game isn't so lopsided.

Bye for now.