Not A Bad Weekend

It's always great to have my kids up over the weekend and this weekend was no exception. We went to see the new Star Wars movie, which was good. We had root beer floats. We grilled outside. We did laundry and dishes. We watched a few episides from Season 2 of The Greatest American Hero. We attended church. We played ball tag outside. We played some Uno. It was really fun!

I didn't get to keep the girls an extra day due to Memorial Day, but I did get some overtime at work that day. I have so much fun with my kids. I hope that they are equally having a good time. My roommate Derek did the grilling out for us and Uno followed the game. We have a picnic table that was in our shed and I hosed it off and it has come in handy twice already. The evenings have been wonderful. The girls were even catching and releaseing lightening bugs.

My oldest daughter just shocks me sometimes. She really likes watching The Greatest American Hero! Really! When she found out that I had season 2 she wanted to start watching right away. I think we made it through 3 episodes this weekend. I like doing it a little at a time so that we do plenty of other things.

We have had so much fun playing outdoors. Paige tries to get us to do it more often and sometimes we just run out of time. She has so much energy! Brittany is really getting more and more energy with her weight loss. I bought her some size 14 jeans for her birthday, which was down two sizes and they seemed a tad loose on her this weekend.

My other roommate has a new girlfriend. I make sure that we don't have "guests" over when my kids are here. He's been fairly good about it, but he's had parking issues with letting friends park in the driveway that we pay for and he has tried sneaking girls in and out during the night while my kids are sleeping. This just doesn't fly and it's just not cool when you agree to certain things in your living arrangements. He will get better, though.

This new girlfriend reminds me of Chrissy Snow from Three's Company. She is young, flighty, and funny. The young part of her gets a tad emotional very quick, but she's funny and really tries to put on a good face. There have been a couple of things that have put me off a bit, though. She asked me if I wanted anything when she went to our basement to get something to drink for herself and my roommate. I wasn't sure she was talking to me since I live with two guys and we don't necessarily ask those types of things. I made a joke about it and she half-jokingly replied that it was the reason she should be a roommate. That just hit me the wrong way. I'm glad he finally found someone that he seems pretty serious about, although not totally, but I don't like the way she is coming into our lives.

I mentioned early last weekend when talking to Derek that we should all go bowling again since we had fun the previous week doing that as roommates. When I brought it up, she overheard and said that she thought that was a great idea. Well, I apparently didn't make it clear that I just meant us 3 guys. When we went bowling last week, we were joined by her.

Now don't get me wrong. She's a nice girl and is pretty funny, but it's just weird how she is suddenly becoming a part of my life and Derek's in more a more personal way. I'm used to our other roommate bringing over girls, sometimes 3-4 at a time, but he entertains them in the basement as we are to do and we may only see them a couple of times or less in a month. We don't do anything with them but clown around in the basement and then send them on their way. Of course, the other roommate does a little more with them at various times. I'm just not sure I like this and since she is coming upstairs and staying overnight often, it's bothering me. I'm used to the upstairs being our personal space and I don't like it invaded. We will see how this goes, I guess.

GOOD NEWS!! I finally have my main computer back up and running. It has been down since before Christmas. I had to fight with the company I purchased it from to finally get it replaced. They claimed to do it last time, but their paperwork shows otherwise. Now that the motherboard has finally been replaced I have a running computer!

In case I haven't mentioned it before, my main PC is a monster. I have an Athlon XP 3200+ with 1.5GB RAM, 6 Hard Drives totalling aver 800GB in space, Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum, ATI All-In-Wonder with 128MB RAM and dual monitor support, an ATI PCI 7500 dual monitor card, 4 19" monitors, DVD Dual Layer burner and DVD player, all hooked up to two TV's, two VCR's, an external DVD player, and our cable box. I will also soon have it hooked up to the cable box in a way to record off the DVR stuff onto DVD. I have a digital camera, a live camera, remotes for the AIW and Audigy, and a headset with mic for voice. Oh, and two subwoofers in the speaker setup.

Oh, and I have another computer under that desk. It's an AMD 1900+ with 768MB RAM and over 200GB of hard drive space. It's got 3 19" monitors hooked up to it, but one is part of a KVM setup so that I can work on the small desk that the third monitor is on with another PC if needed. It's pretty intimidating to some people to see 7 - 19" monitors on my desk in a moon shape and then 2 - 27" TV's hanging on the wall above it.

I have most everything loaded, but need to get the USB devices connected and then start on some projects. It's so nice to have this about done.

Not a bad weekend overall, eh?

Thorogood in Des Moines, IA

Born To Be Bad, Who Do You Love, The Fixxer... What a start to a great show! This was like a souped up 50's revue. Two guitar attack, a frontman with the attitude of The Fonz, simple tight rhythms, and a sax player who can blow! George led this show with swagger and humor. Favorites like Bad To The Bone, Get A Hair Cut, and Move It On Over had their own feel live in spite of having a similar sound. George was truly the "bad" one.

I am so glad I went to this show. In spite of most of the crowd being a generation older than me, I had a blast! George and the Destroyers sounded so good that I'm sorry I have missed them in the past. You have to see this band!

The opener was Todd Cambrige, I think. He writes for artists like Johnny Winter and Lynyrd Skynyrd. He had some good tunes, but they sounded much the same. This wouldn't be so bad if he were able to give them each their own feel like George did. Todd did play a snare drum and had a guitar player and that was sort of unique. They played well together, but there were times that it felt as though something was missing instrumentally. He was decent and would be great in a hotel bar.

Go see George Thorogood and the Destroyers. You deserve it!

We WON!

My church softball team almost got rained out last night. If there were a way I could tell you about my day yesterday, you would understand why I prayed that the rain would go away so that we could play. I prayed hard. God heard me and we played our two games without any rain. There were spots in the field that were wet, but not bad enough to call the games. The sun came out.

I needed last night bad. I had to get some nervousness out of my system and playing softball did the trick. In fact, I only played the first game and umpired the second.

Our first two hitters set up how our night was going to go. Our first baseman started off with a single and her husband followed with a home run. Two batters, first two runs scored. We won that game 8-5. I pitched, scored two runs, caught 3 hits, and threw two runners out at first.
The second game, we won 14-10. We played well defensively in both games and started hitting the ball. Our other pitcher pitches a little different than I do. He claims that opponents are having more trouble hitting me with my pitching style, but he did pitch a good game. I sat out because I wanted our starters to get some playing time and I also needed to rotate in some players to make sure everyone got to play. It's a tough balancing act, but we pulled it off in both games for the win.

I have to admit it was nice that the first night I'm the coach, we won both of our games. That felt very good.

I may post more about yesterday, but you may have to use your imagination. Here is a brief summary, though. I had a computer customer who became a sort of friend. He would call if he needed something, but otherwise I wouldn't hear from him. I was able to get ahold of him a couple of times to borrow a car when mine wasn't running. I also bought a car from him for a few hundred dollars. I haven't seen or heard from this person in over a year, but had heard a couple of rumors about him being in the area and that he did a bad thing. Yesterday I had a visit to my work from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms asking about this person. Well, when a Federal agency is investigating someone, it must be pretty serious. Needless to say, I was a bit freaked out and needed something to do. Softball did the trick. I don't think I should really say more.

I will post my review of the George Thorogood show from Wednesday. It was awesome and sold out. If you have a chance to catch one of his shows, you'd be a fool to miss it. More later!

Softball Record

I just got a call last night from our coach for the church softball team. She asked if I would mind taking over as coach for the remainder of the season due to her schedule and trying to sell her home. Of course, I said YES! I love playing softball and I had secretly hoped that I could have some say in how things went. The other assistant coach and I had some ideas on how we ought to structure the lineup and we want to get these ideas implemented. Now we can. Here is our record so far:

Lost to Carlisle United Methodist 24-1.
Tied with Indianola Christian Union 8-8.
Lost to TRYM 15-1.
Lost to Lighthouse Community 20-6.

That makes us 0-3-1. We definitely were not up to par in the first game and they are a really good team. We probably would have gotten beat at our best. The tie was simply a matter of running out of time, but they were a team we could have beaten if we had a little offense. Todd threw 3 people out to me at home as they tried to score and he threw one to me to tag out at 3rd Base that game. Our defense did a really tight job most of that game, but we just weren't hitting. These two games were our first night out.

The last two teams we played we could have beat if our starters were there. We have 4 big guns that didn't play either game and they weren't really good teams. I think we could have beat them. TRYM did have a couple of really great players and would have given us a good game. I don't think the rest of the team was anywhere in their league.

I have a lineup ready to go and hope that since we should have all 4 big guns there tomorrow evening that we will finally have a couple of wins to chalk up. We shall see!

Political Logic 101

I am so tired of lies and distortion in politics. It happens on both sides, but primarily on the Democrat side. (They are the Democrat party. They are not the democratic party. Words mean things.) I watch Fox News Sunday and Meet The Press. I read the Des Moines Register. I listen to Rush Limbaugh. I watch both CNN and Fox News. I occasionally watch CNBC. I do lots of reading online. It's really very simple to get the truth just by listening and doing your own research. You have to be an idiot to take all of your news from one source. You have to be an idiot to be a sheep when it comes to how the world works and how your leaders act. If you don't vote, if you don't take active participation in your community, if you don't do your own research instead of just taking the newspaper or TV reporter's word for it, you are an idiot and you have no right to comment on political and world events. It's that simple.

That doesn't mean you have to agree. I have friends that I disagree with about most everything, but we can agree to disagree and still be friends. It's not hard to do. You just have to understand that you can't change others. You can only change yourself. We can all still find common ground.

There are some very simple things that we can all understand. We elect our leaders. If we lose, we try again at the next election cycle. When we lose, we have to realize that the majority will get their way. There are only so many ways to gum up the works, but it comes down to the majority to lead as they see fit while they are in the majority. We had over 40 years that Democrats were the majority and now they are the minority. Logic dictates that they had their time in the sun and now the people have spoken and want the Republicans to have their day in the sun. Is it an overwhelming majority? No, but it is the majority. If you don't like it, change it in the next election. Take your ideas to others in your community and try to build those ideas from the ground up. Logic 101.

First of all, give the judges an up or down vote when they reach the Senate floor. If they can't make it out of committee, tough. Once they do make it out of committee, give them a vote. There has never been a filibuster of judges on the Senate floor before. It has been attempted, but defeated. The Constitution charges the Senate to advise and consent. In reality, no vote is needed. The President just needs 51 letters of consent from the Senate and then the judge takes their position. It's really that simple and there isn't anything left to debate about it. I know Howard Dean would like to think that the parties should share power or that there should be some sort of minority rights, but that isn't the way our government is set up. If you want it changed, then get a grassroots effort together and work at changing it. Otherwise, shut up already.

I don't know how anyone can't see that Social Security doesn't need fixing. Since when did it become government's job to provide for our retirement? This isn't a right listed in the Constitution. It's a hand out. It doesn't work like people think. The idea would be that you pay into it, it gains interest, when you retire you get what was set aside plus the interest. If you didn't put anything into it, why should you get anything out of it? If you didn't put much into it, why should you get more out of it than you put into it? If you put a lot into it, shouldn't you get it all back? Oh, I'm sorry. That sounds like it's your money to begin with! Gee, what a concept! You work. You make money. Oh, and then someone else tells you how it needs to be spent or saved. Are we such idiots that we can't figure that out for ourselves? Oh, and if you don't mind and you aren't the idiot, what gives you the right to say others are idiots and have to have it taken from them so someone supposedly smarter can tell them how to spend it? How arrogant! Why don't we make sure we are teaching economics in school instead of how to put a condom on a cucumber and make sure that people are equipped to make their own decisions? Oh, more logic 101.

Since when did America become the bad guy? We go over and liberate Afghanistan and Iraq and then the media portrays us as people that flush pages of the Koran down the toilet or let a woman soldier put an Iraqi man on a leash. I'm sorry that bad things happen in war, but isnt' that what war is? It's a bad thing. It's sometimes a necessary thing. We teach our soldiers to kill people and break things. That is what an army is for. America has spread democracy to more nations than any other. America gives more than any other. Americans give more than others. We are the most charitable nation. We are the only nation with the ability to assist others such as Iraq and Afghanistan. We bring in other nations to assist us in accomplishing these goals. So why are we the bad guy? Why aren't our allies portrayed as bad guys with us? If we are so bad, why are so many people trying to get into our country and enjoy our freedoms? Simply put, we are a great nation and a great country. We are not the bad guy. Those who oppress their own people are bad guys. They must be taken out and their people freed. Logic 101.

I know not everyone agrees and that's ok. It's really ok that we don't all agree. It doesn't mean we can't be friends and find other common ground. I'm glad I enjoy the freedoms I have and I hope that others around the world are able to enjoy freedom. Freedom to speak your mind. Freedom to spend your money how you see fit. Freedom to have ideas and enter them into the realm of ideas. Freedom to worship. Freedom to carry a Bible with you in a school. Freedom to pray at any time anywhere. Freedom to let your communities, instead of some governmental body many states away, decide what is best in your area. Freedom to listen to the music you want. Freedom to own property. Freedom to vote for your leaders. Freedom is a great thing. Pass it on!

Brittany's Birthday

Today is my oldest daughter's birthday. I'm not able to share it with her today. I did get to do that last week. When her mother was pregnant with her, I couldn't imagine what it would be like to raise a child. I was terrified, excited, and hoping we'd have a boy. When Brittany was born, my world changed, as does everyone's when a child comes into the world. I was faced with raising a daughter and I was even more terrified and excited. I suddenly forgot what life was like without her. It wasn't an easy transition due to how scared I was, but I never wished that she didn't exist. She became my world.

When Brittany was born, she came out head first with a little help. She was our coneheaded baby for a while. She had a head full of hair. We were finally able to take her home, only to have to bring her right back to the hospital due to some jaundice. It wasn't anything major, but to first time parents, it's really hard to have to take your child right back. I worked nights at the donut shop and slept the day in the hospital until we were able to take her home the second time.

Brittany was a real crier. It seemed to me that she cried constantly. I had to leave the room sometimes after doing everything I knew how to do and I would end up crying, too, sometimes. At first, I mostly got angry. I couldn't figure out why this little girl was crying so much. When you aren't used to the sound, it's maddening. It truly is the most annoying sound in the world.

I have a confession to make. One day I got so angry that I lightly shook her car seat/carrier. It wasn't violent, but I did feel as though my head was going to explode and it took great self restraint to make it a light shake. My wife spoke to me in the harshest tone I had ever heard from her and told me to cut it out. Something in my head went calm when she spoke and I never did it again. I had never done it before. It freaked me out that I could have suddenly become "that guy". I hated myself for it. I hated the crying. It's one thing when you know how to stop it, but I didn't. It terrified me. I really wasn't as ready as I hoped I'd be.

Brittany doesn't cry so much anymore. She is still very sensitive and I have grown to love that about her, even if I have to tell her not to get carried away by it. In many ways, we share that same sensitive spirit. There are days I still cry, too.

I love Brittany so much. I remember her first birthday in her little pink swimsuit and how we had her eat her cake while wearing it in her high chair. She had her own little white cake with frosting and made such a wonderful mess of it. I remember her first day of school, too. She was a bit nervous about it, but did very well. She excelled in school and during pre-school got a "computer license". As a computer technician, I am so proud of that. Brittany has grown into such a wonderful young lady over the last 10 years.

I know that the divorce was very hard on Brittany. After Paige was born, Brittany and I probably grew a bit apart. There was a new baby that needed attention and I honestly didn't have a lot of patience for many of the things kids do. Since I was the one home during the day, I'm sure Brittany grew to see me as the discipline dad. She didn't need a lot of it, but when you have little sleep and there is a new baby in the house on a schedule, it can make you a bit short. Patience has never been one of my strong points, but it is something I have learned over recent years.

When the divorce was going on, I saw the girls about as often as I do now; every other week. We had a lot of fun on our weekends, but when I took them to the sitter's house for their mother to pick them up the next morning, it was very difficult. Brittany, Paige, and I would cry like babies. I tried not to, but it was hard. It would have been easier if I was able to take them directly to their mother, but her schedule was not a good one then. After the divorce was final, I had a friend that would make the ride with me and she would make sure to let me get things out of my system most of the hour and a half ride back. I used that time to cry like a baby some more and spent a lot of time in prayer. I hate only being able to see my kids every other weekend.

It's hard when you don't get to be there through the day to day things. It's hard to miss all the little things that my parents were there for me through. I just want to get better seats in watching them grow up and I want to have more influence.
I can't imagine life without my children. I love Brittany and Paige and they are the reason I live. Brittany is a decade old and Paige turns lucky number 7 next month. As long as I have their love, I have all I need.

Off To A Great Start...NOT!

I had hoped to have this weekend free to get a lot of things done. I guess I still will, but with less time to be lazy. I had volunteered to work a Saturday shift a couple weeks ago and totally forgot it was today until about 45 minutes after I was to be there. I got there an hour late with some real hustle. What a way to start a weekend!

I had a great night last night. Anne called and said there was an extra ticket to the Iowa Cubs game against the Fresno Grizzlies. I was originally going to see Kip Winger, then was asked to go to Bike Night in Indianola, and then this came along. You know, it's always great to go to a ballpark, enjoy a game, have some hot dogs, and even see fireworks. Anne had a friend there who brought her daughter. That little girl was a real character and we had a great time goofing off. At the end of the game, one of the Grizzlie players tossed me a baseball to give to her. That was awfully nice and she was showing it off to a friend as we left the ballpark. It was a better evening than either of the other two plans, considering I've already seen Kip solo. I need to get out to the ballgames more often. I need to go see the Royals when the Yankees are in town, too!
I have more to post and will do so tonight. There are so many things I want to rant and rave about...

So far...

Well, what do you think of this design so far? There is tons that I would like to have up on here like the MSN site. http://spaces.msn.com/members/sonofapreacher I've been able to get the picture in the profile, but it's not the picture I will have there eventually.

Steph has done a great job getting the posts and a couple portions of links put up on here. She's wonderful at this type of thing. I do hope to eventually have everything put over here and I hope it gets easier to do once it's in shape. If you haven't seen her site, please check out the link to it on the left. She's the best!

Lex, flickr was the place to go to get the picture in for the profile. I also used that to upload some photos of my kids so my parents were able to view them. Lex, I do hope you grow your hair back out, too! You look so good with long hair. Doesn't everyone?

I have the coming weekend open to try to get a few more things on here. There is so much to rant about lately that there may be several posts made at once, so please take your time to peruse them and comment. There will be more about softball since I'm playing again tonight. You will hear about my first love who I thought I was going to marry. I have some rants about politics. I may even go off about my ex-wife, but I will have to be careful about that one. Enjoy and provide your feedback!

Petra

My favorite Christian rock band is retiring at the end of this year. They better hit Des Moines before they shut this band down! Petra means rock. Petra is rock. I grew up with this band. I used to strut around my neighborhood and on my paper route with a mono tape deck that I cranked as loud as I could.

More Power To Ya was the first tape I ever heard and it blew me away. Second Wind, Run For The Prize, Stand Up. Those songs just captured me and rocked me. Three days later I grabbed their previous tape, Never Say Die. Soon I caught them live near St. Louis on the Not Of This World tour. The band September opened and then Petra came out with small chest plates that had little red lights on them in the shape of a sword. This was just too much! I was sitting down front and couldn't believe that Christians could get away with playing loud music like this.

Soon I had the whole tape collection and knew most every song by heart. I followed the band with every tape and CD and was able to catch them opening night of the This Means War tour in Jefferson City, MO. The band Xara opened and we had a meet and greet at a local arcade afterwards where I got all of their autographs. I saw them several more times over the years and even met John Schlitt before a show asking him if they would do Bema Seat, which was one of their most rockin' tunes. He said to just watch and see because they had a surprise. They did a medley of many of the old tunes. I was on the front row and he just smiled and nodded at me when they started up. I gave him a big thumbs up.

I was visiting Illinois for my Grandma Sites' birthday and my Uncle Jerry came and sat near me. He asked me about this Petra poster on the church wall and asked who one of the guys was. I said that it was John Schlitt. He said that he thought he looked familiar because the Schlitt kids and other neighborhood kids came to his house when they were young and played around his big oak tree that had a swing on it. My jaw dropped. All this time my Uncle knew who the Schlitt family was? WOW! I didn't grow up around my uncle so this was huge news and was probably the longest conversation we ever had.

Bob Hartman is really the guy who started Petra and defined Petra. They started as a four piece in Indiana in the early 70's and then hired a guy named Greg X. Volz who turned down REO Speedwagon. Greg quickly became the voice of Petra and recorded several albums with them before he went solo. Instead of breaking up the band in the 80's, Bob got ahold of John Schlitt who used to sing for Head East. Remember Never Been Any Reason? That's John! This band has been through more changes than any band I've ever heard of, but they have always had a core and have always sounded like Petra. They have a distinct sound and I just love them.

I'm sorry to see them go after over 30 years, but that's life. I hope they hit Des Moines this year as I have to see them one more time. If you get a chance, pick up their last release, Jekyll & Hyde. It's a return to the rock sound that grabbed me when I was a pre-teen. Petra rocks!

Trying this out in comparison to MSN Spaces!

I've been keeping a blog at http://spaces.msn.com/members/sonofapreacher and have heard that I ought to consider moving over here. I will be looking into this and try to set it up as best as possible here so that it may be easier to comment. In the meantime, please view the other site and get an MSN passport so that you can comment there, too.

Softball season is underway!

I was a defensive superstar last night! We played two games and I did decent in the first and very well in the second. We got creamed in the first game 22-1. Great team and we were just off our game. I pitched the first couple of innings and did fine until one point where I just couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. I called out to Danny in right field to trade me spots so he could pitch. I know when I'm through and I took myself out. I was 0 for 2 hitting as I grounded out to the Shortstop both times. We need to rework the lineup a bit and need to get our heads into the game better.

The second game was a tie. Our team started to step up in the hitting department and we rocked on defense. I pitched the entire second game. I changed techniques and was much more accurate and even struck two batters out while only walking two. I've never pitched slow pitch before, but had a great game. I went from pitching with my hand under the ball to pitching it with my hand on top of the ball, creating backspin. This kept my elbow close to my hip so that I pitched more accurately.

I also had to cover home. I took three hard throws from our shortstop at home plate and made three tags for outs. The 3 runners were bigger than me and they didn't slide. Fortunately, I stood my ground and they lost theirs. I also made a tag out at third. I caught a couple of infield flies and threw a few out at first on slow grounders. I was a pitching and defensive machine! :) It was fun and it was nice not to lose in the second game.

We have games for the next several Thursday nights so I hope it keeps getting better. I hope to get some pictures, too.

Fortunate Son

I'm blessed. Very blessed. I have troubles like everyone else, but I do realize that I'm blessed. I read about Steph's trouble with her mother. I've heard this sort of story before. It seems that most everyone I know comes from a broken home or a troubled home. I had a roommate who experienced various forms of abuse in the past. I've had a roommate who had a past experience with drugs due to being raised loosely. I've known a young lady whose father turned out to be bi-sexual and divorced his obese wife. Her parents have rarely ever held a job and put their various utilities in other people's names, including their kids' names. She has no idea what a real relationship is other than to use people and she won't keep a job. I've got tons of friends with divorced parents, step-parents, half-parents, adoptive parents, and single parents.

I'm blessed with great parents and I had a great childhood. I don't say this to brag because I honestly didn't feel that way much when growing up. I was the oldest son so I was the rebellious son. I was raised so well that my rebellion was wanting long hair and to stay out as late as I wanted. I sang so I couldn't and didn't have a desire to smoke. I couldn't stand the smell of beer so I had no desire to drink. Getting in trouble might involve something as minor as being 10-15 minutes late from when I agreed to be home. I even got on my dad's bad side by performing a Christian rock song I wrote in front of my school.

My dad is a preacher and in many ways very old fashioned. We were raised that we wouldn't attend school dances, except our senior prom (I didn't attend mine of my own accord.) and ones that were chaperoned by parents that we trusted. We couldn't wear shirts that didn't have collars to school or church. We couldn't have holes in our jeans. Our hair had to be off the ears and collar. We didn't listen to rock music unless it was Christian and even then some of it didn't pass my father's muster. We weren't allowed to stay at a friend's house if my parents didn't know their parents or if we would be without supervision.

I'm sure there are some that see that and insist that it is abusive. They would be wrong. We were not abused. We were encouraged to pursue sports and music. We grew up playing baseball, being in musicals and plays, involved in our church youth group, and working jobs such as mowing and grocery. We kept busy and really didn't miss most of the things we couldn't be a part of. Many of the trappings of school weren't appealing to me. I knew there was life after high school as opposed to those that are still treating their lives like high school.

I'm not sure my parents knew this when they were raising 3 boys, but it seems that they drew a line in the sand. They would have used this line as the type of adults they wanted us to grow up to be. Knowing that we would push any line they put in front of us, they pulled that line back a bit so that when we pushed, it would put us about where they hoped we would be.

My parents made a committment to each other and they have stuck it out and enjoyed most moments of it. They have kept their wedding vows and truly love each other. They raised us in a house of love. They were there when we got home from school. They made sure that we had as many meals as a family as possible, which meant most every night. Even when we started to eat in the living room, we ate together. We watched TV together. Dad had my brothers and I help him wash the car together. Dad coached some of our baseball teams. Mom made sure we learned how to play the piano and then let us branch out to voice or guitar lessons. We were encouraged to sing together at church and to encourage our friends to attend youth functions.

Does it sound very vanilla? Sure it does. There wasn't much that would be controversial in our house. Were we sheltered too much? Not at all. We weren't raised to be stupid. We've all followed our own paths as adults, but at one point or another those paths lead back to the way we were raised.

I have many friends who are parents and they could use lessons from my parents. I'm a single parent and I've used those lessons to gain every advantage to raising my children that I can. I'm not a single parent by choice so it's been a rough time on occasion. I will tell you, though, that my two beautiful daughters are better behaved that any other children I have seen their age. It's true. Love, discipline, understanding, fun, and lots of time together go a long way.

I was raised well. My parents are awesome and I love them very much. If I can be half the parent, I will do well with my children.

Pro Innocent Life

Iowa is debating the issue of bringing back the death penalty. Due to the recent increase in attention of sexual predator crimes, they are talking about bringing this back after 40 years without.

I'm all for it. I'm pro innocent life all the way, but I firmly believe in punishment for the guilty. Sometimes that punishment means the loss of your earthly body. I've heard the argument that a life long prison sentence is a better punishment, but I disagree. I've read what the description of Hell is and I firmly believe that people who commit heinous, violent crimes need to meet their maker fast and receive their eternal punishment. Hell is much worse than anything we can do on earth.

Yes, I believe in Heaven and Hell. I believe that we are eternal creatures and that our obedience to Our Maker is what determines which eternal destination we take. I believe the the oldest records of man's history all point to The Creator and that science ends up pointing this out. You may disagree and that is your right. I would rather err on the side of The Creator to be safe. Well, there are more reasons than that, but the fear of eternal damnation is a good driver. So what if evolutionists turn out to be right. What prize do you get? Look at the rewards and punishments of the various belief systems. What would you rather err on the side of? Of course, how many people really research these things for themselves and develop their own set of beliefs? Oh, we, like sheep have...

Let the punishment fit the crime while we are on this planet. If you take the life of someone, you should lose yours. Don't give anyone more than one appeal and then put them to death the minute the appeal is denied. Don't wait a few years and cost the taxpayers a bunch of money. Do it quick and cheap.

Do I sound heartless? Oh, you may be asking "what if they turn out to be innocent"? So? Then let The Creator judge them eternally. We are just taking the earthly body of someone who was convicted of a crime we deem punishable by death. Will we make mistakes? Certainly. Do we get it right far more often than we get it wrong? Absolutely. We aren't perfect, but Our Creator is. That is the true scale of justice.

Just a long haired guy's opinion.

Runaway Bride

Throw 3/4's of the book at her. Now that the story is out, it seems like she had planned this pretty well, but she didn't realize the attention or reaction would get as crazy as it was. First of all, it was stupid. Secondly, everyone gets stressed due to an impending marriage. Thirdly, she broke the law in giving false reports. Sure everyone can relate so don't be extreme in punishing her, but make sure that the punishment also deters other idiots from doing the same thing.

I have some very traditional views on marriage. I don't believe in divorce except in the case of infidelity. I don't believe in remarriage, either, due to the vows that were made the first time. Even if your spouse does all the filing for divorce and you have no control over it, you must still do your best to keep your vow, even if in another city or state. I also don't agree with current "no-fault" divorce laws. It takes two to make the vows and should take two to have the contract broken according to law. In the old days divorce was taboo and that was a good thing.

Divorce is also a form of child abuse. How can both parents possibly raise the children if they live in different homes? How do decisions get made as to what is best for the children? It increases the likelihood that your kids will experience divorce. Who wants to wish that on their kids?

Marriage vows traditionally include the words "until death us do part". That used to mean something. Are we lying to the people we marry when we don't follow through on that? Doesn't it mean we are to do everything in our power to work things out with the person we love? That may include counseling. It may include forms of tough love.

Oh, and why do people think that love comes and goes? It isn't a feeling. Yes, feelings are experienced when you love someone. Love is a way of life. It is a way you choose to live and choose to treat other people. You may have mushy feelings one day and may be angry the next, but love is still the way you choose to live. When you are married, shouldn't you spend every day living a life of love with your spouse? That means you should be polite every day. You should listen every day. You may even have to agree to disagree on some days to keep the peace and show your spouse that you love them. How hard can this be if you truly work at living a life of love with the one you choose do live your life with?

There is also something I truly believe that I have read in the Bible and heard on Dr. Laura's show. Don't ever deny your spouse in "coming together" unless agreed upon and for only a short amount of time. You aren't in the mood? Do it anyway. You had a rough day and are too tired? Do it anyway. There is no excuse. Intimacy is important in a relationship and don't live the cliche that it disappears after marriage. Do it anyway.

I know that many times it is a one way street. I know that we all have made mistakes in choosing significant others. Just remember not to get caught up in the feelings. Don't let your heart lead you without consulting the brain. Marriage is, or at least should be, considered the ultimate in committment. Treat it that way. It is sacred. It is a lifestyle. Just live a life of love!

Short Note

Just a short note here. There are a couple of posts below that are new. The one immediately below this note is VERY long as it is about my history. I do have it divided up into sections if you would like to peruse it.

Right below that, though, is an update about Ken Whisler! If you want to skip the long post, go directly to the update on Ken. It's great news!

My History (WARNING!! This is long!)

FAMILY

I was born December 4, 1968, in Lafayette, IN, to Daniel and Gail Sites. My Grandparents were Lloyd and Dorothy Schwieger on my mom’s side and Forrest and Lillian Sites on my dad’s side.

My grandfather Forrest passed away 12 days before I was born, but I was able to grow up knowing my remaining grandparents into adulthood. My Grandma Sites lived long enough to see my daughter Brittany on a couple of occasions. In Grandma’s last few years I tried to write to her every so often just to see how she was doing and occasionally ask questions about Grandpa. I also tried to call every once in a while just to talk. I hadn’t done this before, but since I was married and Brittany was on the way, my family really took on new meaning.

My Grandpa Schwieger lived a long and wonderful life. He and his wife started the Bettendorf Christian Church in their home. He preceded Grandma to Heaven by just a few years. Grandma made her journey a couple of months ago. They were inseperable. My grandparents had 8 dates in 28 days and got married back in the mid 1940’s. They acted like teenagers in love until their passing. I grew up near them throughout most of my life and made sure they were around to visit any time I went to see my parents.

Each of my grandparents influenced me and I am grateful to have known them.

My parents were greatly influenced by them as well, as that is who raised them. There is more to it than just having them as parents, though. My parents were raised in the church. They grew to know God and made their own decisions to follow a Christian lifestyle. My parents met at Lincoln Christian College and got married in the summer of ’67. My father is a preacher and my mother has always had a large role in the church. My parents are still greatly in love and if you know them, you know they are truly one.

I find myself thinking more like them the older I get.

WHERE I'VE LIVED

I grew up in several different towns due to Dad’s calling as a preacher. My brother Brian was born in Iowa City, IA in 1970. My brother Brad was born in Murfreesboro, AR, in 1972. We also lived in Marceline, Sedalia, Middletown (2 different homes), and Mexico, MO (3 different homes).

I started Elementary school in Sedalia at Washington Elementary. In the middle of 2nd Grade I moved to Middletown and attended the Middletown/Wellsville schools. Halfway through 4th grade we moved to Mexico and I graduated high school there.

EXTRA CURRICULAR

While in high school I took part in the Mountain Top Experience with Central Christian College of the Bible. This was a trip to the Rocky Mountains in Colorado during the Autumn before my Freshman year. I was part of Highest Praise for 3 years through Ozark Christian College. This was a Summer music touring program.

In high school I took part in the musical Oklahoma as a Freshman and was the Pirate King in Pirates Of Penzance my Senior year. I was also in the play The Night Of January 16th my Senior year as well.

I took part in a community theater play of The Ugly Duckling as the stand in for the prince before my Senior year of high school.

WHERE I'VE LIVED Part 2

After high school I attended Ozark Christian College for one year. I was asked to move off campus after 8 months since I had quit attending classes after 7 months, except for my radio class. I performed in the Fall Fiesta in Joplin, MO, which is a 4 state talent show and received first place. I finished out 1988 and briefly brought in 1989 in Joplin, MO. I then moved back to Mexico for about a year and a half and then moved to Kansas City. I moved away from KC in September of 1995. I moved to Malloy, IA, on September 30, 1995. In the summer of 1996, I moved into Mt. Ayr, IA. I lived there until September of 2000 when I moved to Des Moines, IA.

While in KC I married Penny from Mt. Ayr in the Grandview Christian Church. This was November of 1994. We had Brittany in May of 1995, which spurred our move to Iowa. While living in Mt. Ayr, Penny gave birth to our second daughter, Paige, in June of 1998 at the Creston Hospital. Penny and I separated September of 2000 and the divorce was final in February of 2001.

In Des Moines, I have had 3 different residences. The first two were apartments with different roommates and now a house with two roommates.

FAITH

I was baptized in 1976. Brittany was baptized in 2004.

I grew up in the Christian churches that my father preached at and as an adult I have sporadically attended church at Grandview Christian Church, Blockton Christian Church, and now regularly attend Fort Des Moines Church Of Christ. I just started on with their church softball team, too.

MUSIC CAREER

I’ve been in several bands over the years, starting with a 4 piece band in high school that performed one song at the Spring Concert for my high school. The song was one I had written called “No, It’s Not Too Late”. The band consisted of my brother Brian playing an electric piano, Matt Penn on guitar, and Tracy Littrell on drums. We were the only group that received a standing ovation that night.

My second band was called The Boom in Joplin, MO. We played 2 gigs. The first one was in a club that got raided as we started our second set. There were apparently too many underage people there and there was a line waiting outside to get in. I lost a book of lyrics I had written while at this club. The second gig was just a small one in some downtown building. We had a guitarist, drummer, and a female bass player who also sang a couple of songs. Our songs were along the lines of classic rock with some REM, Poison, and U2 in the mix.

When I moved back to Mexico, MO, I auditioned for a band called Zombie Zoo. Those guys had played together in various bands before, but wanted to do something different. They were based out of Montgomery City, MO, so I would stay with my Grandma and Grandpa Schwieger in Middletown on the weekends this band practiced and played. This was my first steady gigging band. We played in Hawk Point, at a wet T-shirt contest, and even a New Year’s gig in Belleflower. The guitarist, Trey Teinter, and I became friends and enjoyed putting on a show since we were the younger two in the band. The name Zombie Zoo came from Tom Petty’s album of the same name. We did 4 songs off of that CD. The rest were a blend of old and newer rock. We did several Seger tunes as well as Poison. Our keyboard player, Gary, enjoyed R&B so we did a couple of songs that he sang as well as one that he wrote. We did a couple of my originals, too. This was a fun band to get started in because everyone knew their role and performed well. I still have video of that New Year’s gig.

When Zombie Zoo ended due to our drummer’s health problems, he recommended me to some friends with a band called Third Degree. This band was similar in style, but had no keyboards. We only played a few gigs and the drummer just didn’t like me for some reason. I kept in touch with the guitarist even after I moved to KC, but the gig in Third Degree didn’t last but about 3 gigs.

After Zombie Zoo and Third Degree, I started a band in the garage of a keyboard player named Dennis. We had Sam on guitar, Brett Anderson on drums, and Mike Goslin on bass. We moved to a rehearsal space in Centralia, MO, and used the name Stiff Kitti. We played gigs at the Villa Inn in Mexico and a New Year’s Eve party in Centralia. We also opened our rehearsal doors to anyone who wanted to stop in and listen.

After Stiff Kitti, I tried putting together a couple of projects with another guitarist and keyboard player, but then moved away to KC.

In KC I first heard about Karaoke and entered several contests. I won almost every time at Hollywood’s and Tavern On The Grand in Grandview. I would then perform at Manhattan’s in KC, but never got beyond third place there as it was more pop oriented and I always performed rock tunes.

While perusing local newspapers, I found an ad for a singer. It was Ken Whisler’s ad. He was putting together a band and was waiting to find the right players to determine the direction. I asked him to come see me sing Karaoke at Hollywood’s. He and his wife Mary arrived and saw me perform Signs and Wanted Dead Or Alive. I had a slightly sore throat that night, but hit all the notes. My tone just sounded a little different due to the scratchiness I felt. Ken said he would keep me in mind, but wanted to look further. I believe that he hired a female singer, but Mary soon vetoed that after hearing about this singer’s reputation. Mary suggested that Ken have me over for another audition with the band. I went to his house and we jammed with Jon on drums and a bass player whose name escapes me. I have pictures of him and he looks like Father Time. The audition went very well and this was the beginning of Brett And The Hitmen. This took place at the beginning of 1991. We started performing Labor Day weekend of 1991.

We lost our bass player when it came time to perform for New Year’s eve 1991. Father Time asked for more money than we knew we would get to play. We then started auditions for another bass player. We chose Addison, but he decided to play for another band. We hired the former bass player for the band Missouri. He played a 4 night stand at The Flamingo in Raytown, MO. During this stint, Addison showed up and told us that he wished he would have chosen our band. After that week was over, we hired Addison. Since Addison’s addition changed our sound to a more hard rock vibe, we changed the name to Rat Race.

Rat Race performed in Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, and Nebraska until September of 1995 when Addison and I called it quits. By that time, we had a female guitarist named Sara who had been in Bandit out in LA. Our drummer was a young kid who had trouble coming out of fills into the same rhythm he had started. It wasn’t real obvious, but it did make things more work than play. We had several guitar players fill in at various gigs. We also hired two other guitarists along the way, but one had tone problems (too reliant on effects) and the other had drinking problems at our second gig with him and was arrested in Hutchinson, KS. We fired him the day we returned to KC after we had him help us unload the equipment in Addison’s house. Since I was moving to Iowa anyway, it just seemed like a good time to call it quits. We had gigs booked through December of 1995, but cancelled everything from September on.

After I had moved to Iowa, I received a call from a band called Weatherhead, based in KC. They were going to be performing in Trenton, MO, for a Halloween gig and asked me to sing. I performed this and two other gigs as a fill in singer for them.

EARLY JOBS

I’ve had several diverse jobs in my life. I started out as a paper boy for the Mexico Ledger. I believe I was in 6th grade when I started this job. I would deliver papers on the north end of Jefferson street and the last division off of it to the east. During this job I handed out business cards for mowing lawns. I took on several yards and my dad taught me basic accounting for this business. One of these mowing jobs led to my employment at Hickman’s Foodliner when I was 16. I worked there throughout high school.

When I went to OCC, I worked briefly as a janitor in my dorm. After only a couple of weeks, I bent over to clean a toilet and could not stand back up. It turned out that I had some muscular problems in my back for a few days, but my chiropractor recommended that I not return too quickly. This was the first back problem I had ever experienced and it was just due to not bending over correctly. I did not return to this job. I tried working at Taco Bell for a few hours, but that didn’t work for me. My hair was like wire when I got home from my first day. After I moved off campus I went to work for Murphy’s IGA on Main Street. I was promoted to Frozen Foods/Dairy Manager after the retirement of a long time employee. This only lasted a couple of weeks and I was fired without reason given. I was under the impression that it was due to the owner’s son not being able to take on the responsibilities of the individual who retired and he wanted his old job back.

After Murphy’s IGA, I got my favorite job in the world! I worked for Camelot Music in the mall on Rangeline. I loved that job and even put in time off the clock sorting albums, cassettes, and some new form of media called Compact Discs. I spent a huge chunk of my paycheck’s on music. The manager was a bit intimidated by my work ethic and thought I was after his job. Before my 90 day probationary period was up he decided to fire me. When I asked for a reason, he said that since my 90 days hadn’t been completed that he didn’t need to give me a reason. I heard later about him being worried about my aiming for his job (he was just a few months older than me) and that the Regional Manager told him it wasn’t a good decision to let me go.

I worked for Star Mart for a couple of weeks and then decided to move back to Mexico, MO. My dad came to pick me up since I didn’t have a car and took me back to Mexico.

I soon got a job at the Mexico-Audrain County Library and soon after took a full time job as a delivery driver for O’Reilly Automotive. I know nothing about cars, but all I had to do was drive a truck and deliver parts. When I started having to work the front desk, I got lost and hoped to find other work. I had the library job and would go straight from O’Reilly’s to work at the library in the evening. When I left O’Reilly’s, I kept the job at the library, but not for long.

I became the Produce Assistant at Hickman’s Foodliner. They were constantly on my case to cut my hair or wear a hair net, which I never did. I inadvertently hooked my Produce Manager up with a married woman in the bakery, too. It turned out that her husband had been cheating on her with her sister. My Produce Manager ended up getting married to this woman last I knew and he had previously sworn that he would never get married again. I left that job after about 6 months and took a paycut to go back to work at the Mexico-Audrain County Library. I then started at Aardvark Video and worked there for a month or so before moving to KC.

JOBS IN KC

Moving to KC was a fluke. I took a short trip up for a couple of days with a couple of friends to see what the city was like. While there, we each had job interviews. We each had interviews at JC Penney and KC Design. Bryan got offered a job at JC Penney, while I got offered one at KC Design. Jason didn’t get any job offers and was pretty dejected. Bryan and I were asked to start work the next week so we went back to Mexico and made plans to move to KC right away. We stayed at a friend’s home in KC for a couple weeks and then got an apartment on 87th and Blue Ridge in KC.

I didn’t realize the gravity of my situation until I started work and was working on commission. KC Design sold perfume knockoffs. They were very good knockoffs and I was very good at selling, but it was hard to make a living off of the commission and I spent weeks in other towns doing my selling. I did pretty good for a while. We had a third roommate move in and he ended up not paying rent. I couldn’t afford to cover him so I moved out. This left Bryan holding the ball and I ruined that friendship. He took my entire CD collection that I had at the time and a bunch of cassettes in order to sell them to make up some money. I’m not sure whatever became of them or Bryan. I do know that Bryan went to DeVry for a while, though.

I moved in with some co-workers who didn’t last long at KC Design, but while there I quickly moved up to be Mr. Zimmerman’s Vice President at KC Design. This meant I got a greater commission on my sales and also got a cut from every bottle that was sold through that office. I really did have a great time training sales people and taking trips to college towns to sell perfume and cologne. I met a bunch of great people and worked my tail off making what I could. I did lose my car while on one of the trips. I left it in the parking lot at the apartment complex and they towed it since it hadn’t been moved in a while. It had a water pump that went out and would have been cheap to repair, but I was out of town so much I didn’t have time. What a waste of a perfectly good car.

Our office did so well that Mr. Z wanted to retire early. He had two people from Chicago come down to take a look at our business model and they ended up buying in or buying the company. I didn’t know all of this was occurring at the time. I was just under the impression that these guys were only there temporarily. One morning, the younger one called himself the Vice President of KC Design in front of my sales staff. They were as shocked as I was. That morning meeting just proceded to get worse. They made my sales staff come up to the front and read from Penthouse Letters with their mouths stuffed with Hershey’s Kisses. It caused one of my guys to cry and my ex-girlfriend (she was in charge of hotel promotions) tried to laugh it off, but was obviously peeved. I went in to talk to Mr. Z about it and he mumbled something about those guys taking over. I went into a nearby office, placed a phone call to a girl who wanted to date me, and asked her to pick me up ASAP and take me back to my apartment. When she got there, I just left my work related materials and hopped in her car. I didn’t look back and didn’t care less what went on there anymore. I heard that the very next day the entire sales staff walked out.

I was applying for other jobs after that and found another perfume company very similar to KC Design. This woman hadn’t been with the company for a month and was already opening up her own office. She hired me to act as a sales trainer. My second week there we planned a trip for the sales staff to head to Dallas. They had a huge office in Dallas that was supposed to provide some great training. I never made it to Dallas.

Our first day was supposed to be spent in Joplin so we left early. We were to work a territory there to make some more cash for the trip. I was in charge with a kid from KC Design that had started there, too. We split into 3 groups and worked various areas of Joplin. While there, I just had one girl training with me and I told her that I needed to get some laundry done while we were out. We stopped at the Laundromat and started my stuff and then went to work apartments and stores in the area. We stopped in a beauty shop and I made one sale there. That was the only sale since they came to pick us up early. Apparently, everyone else chickened out or decided it was just too hard to stay in their area and work it. With sales, you have to talk to everyone and you have to keep at it. You can’t give up. I had made the only sale of the day.

We left Joplin after I chewed them out for not staying in their area and working. Apparently, a few of them were upset that I was doing my laundry and they couldn’t find me when they were looking for us. I didn’t think it was a big deal since I had made a few bucks so we hit the road. We got to the intersection of Highway 69 and Interstate 44 and all that was there was a truckstop. Brian, the other guy in charge, went in to call the girl who ran this perfume company. He came out and said that she wanted to talk to me and that she was upset. I went in and grabbed the phone to see what was going on. She started yelling at me that I should have been in plain site for the others to find and that I shouldn’t have been doing my laundry. I explained to her that I was the only one to make a sale and that in sales you have to stick with and work your territory. We had an agreed time and place to meet and I expected the others to keep that agreement and work as planned. She yelled that I could have my friends come pick me up and hung up on me. I went out side and found my bags alone in the parking lot and everyone gone. What a stupid woman.

I grabbed my bags and started to walk north on 69. I got a couple of rides and made it to the border of Kansas and Oklahoma. At the border was a factory and there were a few people heading to work there. I sat down on my suitcase frustrated knowing that it was dusk and would soon be dark. I was drained.

Suddenly, a car went by and then stopped. The guy backed up and stopped to let me in. He explained that he had suddenly been questioned with “what if it was my son?” and felt it was God telling him that. I accepted the ride to his parent’s home, which turned out to be about 30 minutes from Fort Scott. In Ft. Scott lived my youngest brother’s girlfriend and future wife, Brenda. I was able to reach her mother and they came and got me and took me to their home. I slept on their couch and the next morning started walking Highway 69 again. I got pulled over (imagine that when you are just walking along the highway in a pair of nice slacks, dress shirt, and carrying a suitcase, carry bag, and hanging clothes) by the local police. They were just making sure I wasn’t a vagrant or hitchhiker and I explained my situation. Another officer pulled up and then left. The first officer waited until the other left so that he could offer me a ride to the edge of Ft. Scott. When I got in the car, he asked more about me and I mentioned where I had stayed the night before. He said he knew Brenda’s mom and went to church with her. It was very kind of him to take me further down the road.

It took a total of 9 rides in 24 hours and I was back at my apartment. Now you would think that the story stops there, but nobody was home and since I was living with friends, I didn’t have a key. They weren’t going to be back until the next day, Sunday. I was just going to sit on the step and wait until the next day. This wasn’t a great neighborhood, but I thought I’d be safe. It was quite chilly outside, though, and I didn’t have a coat. Fortunately, a guy that lived below us happened to see me there and offered me his couch. The next thing I remember was waking up to my friends telling me they were home.

Needless to say, that job didn’t last long. I then tried to find something else. I worked for a mowing business for a while, but it was tough to get back and forth so I left it. I then was able to find work for a dry cleaner on State Line Road. That was the best dry cleaning business I have every seen. They were picky and worked very well. Their customers included a couple of different Royals 3rd basemen (Kevin Seitzer and Keith Miller), the President of Firestone, a woman who could afford Barbara Streisand tickets in Las Vegas and then walk out of the show (she had us press her sheets every week), and some locals that were very important to the community.

A NEW JOB

This job was a good one and I was working my way to more important duties, but then came an offer I couldn’t refuse. Mary Whisler knew that I had no car and that I could use more money. She is the wife of Ken, my guitarist in Rat Race. Mary told me that if I came to work for her the next Sunday night that I would be taken to shop for a car after work. Mary owned Weaver’s Donuts. She needed a baker to make the donuts. I had never done this before and she was sure that she would be able to train me to do this. I had my doubts, but jumped at it feet first. I started the following Sunday, went car shopping on Monday, and Mary just took my car payment and insurance directly out of what I got paid.

This was great for me…until that car broke down on me after just a few weeks. It turns out that the car had previously been in a big accident and someone welded the axle back together. We were sold a lemon. We didn’t have much recourse, but Mary paid to have a few repairs done and we traded it in for the best car I ever owned. It was a little red, four door, 3 cylinder Geo Metro. I could go for a couple weeks without buying gas. It rocked! I kept that job until I moved to KC. I would work 6 nights a week at the donut shop and if the band played Friday night, Mary would work that for me. She also covered other nights during the week when the band played.

It was sometimes rough, but it paid well working nights. There was a two week stretch when I tried working another full time job at a bagel company. I just did that to earn extra money after I got married, but that was too much.

JOBS IN IOWA

After I moved away from KC, the plan was that my wife would work and I would be the stay at home dad. This would just be a role reversal since we were moving to her home town and it was easy for her to find work. The deal was that in order to move, she had to make as much money as I made in KC. That meant including the car payment and insurance that were deducted from my check as well as the money I made in my band. Well, I got suckered and it didn’t work out that way so I had to find more work.

I found a job at an Easter’s grocery store in Creston, IA. They hired me as a donut maker in their store. They had no idea how to make good donuts. A good cake donut is supposed to come together so that the middle looks like a belly button. They made cake donuts with huge holes in the middle like their glazed donuts. This was unacceptable. I had a small reputation since I had been bringing donuts up to the Mt. Ayr area and I wanted to maintain that as a good donut maker in case I found that line of work.

I tried several things for various amounts of time while living in Mt. Ayr. I also went back to work in Mary's shop in KC on the last two nights of the week for a few months. I worked for Bunn, a coffee machine maker, on their assembly line in Creston. That lasted all of 3 months and I just walked out one day. It was driving me nuts. I also worked on a hog farm for about a month or two. My wife was pregnant during that time and it drove her nuts. I just quit that one, too.

PAUSE FOR A FUNNY STORY

I do have a funny story from working at Bunn. Any time you get an injury, no matter how great or small, it is to be reported. Well, we worked with small things so getting a small cut was bound to happen to me. When I went to the nurse’s station to report it, I was given a small slip of paper to fill out. I had a few lines for allergies at the bottom of it. I put “dust, pollen, country music”. I did this as a joke, not really thinking of the consequences. The nurse looked at it and said that the slip had to be filled out as a serious document. With my best face, I told her that it was very true that I was allergic to country music. I told her that it was not just a preference, but that it had been scientifically proven. I explained that the steel guitar sound used by most country music is playing on a specific frequency. I asked her if she had seen studies about how animals behaved when certain music was playing. She said she had heard of that. I explained that my ears were sensitive to higher pitched frequencies and that it created a high level of stress. She asked why I hadn’t brought that to her attention before and I told her that since I was new, I thought someone would just laugh and not take me seriously. She said it was unusual, but that it did make perfect sense since we worked with such small materials and already had a higher level of stress at the assembly line in trying to turn out so many coffee makers a day. The next day there was no radio playing at all. Word got out about this, but nobody brought it up around me. They were all sure it was a joke and it made them very upset. Well, it was a joke and I didn’t have to hear any country music playing while I worked! I believe that nurse’s picture is next to the word gullible in the local dictionary.

MORE IOWA JOBS

While in Mt. Ayr I also worked at a hog farm. The first two days of the week I really enjoyed. I just went into a couple of rooms in overalls, goggles, and a hose and proceded to hose down the entire room. It was great! Nobody to bug you. You just cleaned the room and moved on to the next. Granted, it was hog crap, but I wasn't getting it on me. The next couple of days were the worst. I did things like inseminate sows, walk the boar while someone else did the thing with the tube, clean out the dead babies, run the sows from one place to the other, and clean out the rooms. Those rooms were horrible to clean. They had stall and curved feeding doors that would spray the water right back at you if you didn't aim just right. Fortunately, this job only lasted a couple of months.

It was while I was in Mt. Ayr that I also started using a computer. I couldn't stand computers growing up because we had a Commodore Vic 20 and I couldn't understand all the programming that went into it. When I took a Word Processing class in high school, we used an Apple and had to learn all the function keys. What a pain!

Since I still had my mixing board and some equipment from my band days, my brother Brad called to see what I would sell it for. In jest, I said that I would trade it for a decent computer. A month later he actually took me up on that deal. I started with a Windows 95b PC that was 120MHz and had 32MB RAM and a 1.2GB Hard Drive. He included a monitor and a printer, too. I told him that since I had made money with my sound equipment that I wanted to make money with a computer. Of course, I had in mind accounting style work and typing for people.

I took such an interest in it that I started learning the hardware. Brad even came up to visit and teach me a few things about the inner workings of the PC. He's great at putting it in terms I can understand and I caught on fast. Within the first year I started advertising myself for computer sales and service.

In such a small community, it doesn't matter how much you advertise. You only get business by word of mouth. It took a while, but pretty soon I could see a trail of customers and how they were referred. My business took off and I started getting customers that were previously customers of the only other computer place in town. I was even called out to fix their mistakes.

I called my business S&S COM, but I'm not sure why. It just sounded good. The S could have been for my last name. It could have been meant to include my ex-wife. I'm just not sure. It just sounded good and really didn't have any definition. I used the COM because it sounded like an internet thing. I would get mail all the time where they tried figuring it out. It was Computers, Communications, Company, and only occasionally, just COM.

As the computer business took off, I still had to hold other jobs. The best one I had in Mt. Ayr was at the local community owned grocery store. I was hired on when they first opened as the dairy and frozen foods manager. It took a while, but I got the hang of it. I was so picky as to how it would be set up when they were putting the store together that I got on a few nerves. Most of the original staff didn't last and even I was gone after several months. It just wasn't working out well for me. I eventually got hired back on as a night manager for a couple night a week and this worked out fine since my computer business was bringing home more money than my ex-wife at her full time job. I held that job until moving to Des Moines.

Best Buy was the first to call me back when I moved to Des Moines. They had a part time job at their tech bench open and I got right in. I loved that job. I was also the best at many aspects of this job. My main forte was customer service and sales. That bench quickly became the number one tech bench in the company due to our leader and the things I brought to the bench. I'm not saying it was all me, though. We had a great team and our supervisor made some good hiring decisions. It got to the point where he would train the business aspects and have the employees spend time with me learning the sales and customer service side. We used our strengths and those of the employees to make that a strong bench. Even today that bench ranks high in the company because our fearless leader is still there and making sure that all of the things we worked so hard for are still in place. He encourages teamwork and is good at getting the best out of people.

When I started at Best Buy, I was only part time. I soon went to work for Principal and worked nights for 3 months there. That job was nice, but it was difficult to stay awake and still work at Best Buy part time, too. It took such a toll that I only lasted 3 months at Principal. Best Buy then offered me a full time spot and I jumped at it. I stayed there for 3 and a half years and had some of the best times there. Best Buy didn't know it at the time, but I still did my S&S COM work on the side. It was a conflict of interest, but as a single father, you have to make ends meet.

Six weeks after Best Buy, I got my current job. I have a blast there and get my weekends free to spend with my children. I also have a set schedule so there are no surprises week to week. I love the job and don't have to take any of it home with me, so I'm grateful for that.

WRAP UP

Well, that is a general overview of who I am and where I've been. I may amend this later to include more, rephrase things, or add stories that I've left out. I'm thankful for where I've been and it's made me who I am. I'm also thankful to those who have influenced me. There are plenty more stories and I hope to make a book out of this when I get it all out here.

Ken Whisler Update

Just got the following e-mails the last couple of days from Ken's wife, Mary.

"Brett this is Mary! I just bought a Les Paul Classic!" Saturday, April 30th 6:26PM

I wrote back:

"YAHOO!! It's about time! Kick Ken's butt into gear and get him on it quick!"

Then this response tonight:

"Get him in gear HELL! When I came home from work today he had Kings X on the stereo and he was in his RUSH tshirt. That guitar will be in his hands before it leaves the postoffice truck. Oh yea he is growing his hair out too! I think he is regressing! Thats okay cause that is who I fell in love with. Talk more later, Mary."

Just got these pictures Monday morning.

OH, YEAH!! This is awesome news! Ken is just the best guitar player I have had the pleasure of knowing and this brought a tear to my eye!