a good day...

About two years ago, I got a call around 8:00 at night. It was my son, Alex's music teacher telling me he was being taken to a hospital in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, 200 miles from home. He had consumed enough vodka and smoked enough pot to almost kill him.

I drove the 200 miles half expecting him to be dead when I got there. Thoughts raced through my mind, maybe the kind of things you think when your plane is going to crash. My son was lost, and now, maybe, he was dead.

When I arrived at the hospital, he was alive, but totally out of it. So, there I was, thanking God that my son was a live drug addict, alcoholic, and now expelled student.

A lot has happened since that day, some of it very bad, some of it good, some of it confusing, some of it frustrating.

Alex has struggled and worked. He's spent time in jail. It's been uphill. But, he's perservered.

And now, today, I picked up Alex to take him out for dinner. This is something we've done at least once a week for the last year or so. And now today, my son Alex, is a Dean' List student.

He's battled his demons. He's slayed his dragons. He's clean. He's in school. And, I'm proud of him.

time to reflect.....

nothing ordinary about this....

The sofa you're looking at in this photo is pretty ordinary, basic color, basic pillow, basic shape. By looking at it, you would think it is like any other sofa made in the marketplace. Even it's selling price at $499 speaks to basic.

Most people wouldn't aspire to be ordinary or basic in appearance. But, for the past 14 months, that's been our goal.

Why, you ask, is basic our goal? Here's the answer. This sofa comes compressed in a box and takes up 73% less room in a truck and warehouse. It uses less fossil fuel in delivery. And, at the end of its useful life, is almost completely recyclable.

Today, this sofa is a real product, and it's available on Overstock.com. We're very proud of this basic and ordinary sofa. In the first two weeks, it's now the sixth best selling sofa (out of 130). Not too shabby.

http://www.overstock.com/Home-Garden/Dexter-Modern-Mocha-Brown-Microfiber-Sofa/4417937/product.html

Happy Birthday Mom!

Happy Birthday Mom! Although she's loathe to admit it, my mother just turned 86. It's been a rough year for her, especially lately, not so much by age consuming her, but her friends.

Thursday was my 52nd birthday and I didn't get a call from her, something she's done for years and years. I knew something was wrong.

Her best friend, Flossy, 86 herself, died unexpectedly. A couple of weeks earlier, her son, Ronny, died unexpectedly. And a couple of weeks prior to that, Flossy's brother died. I saw Flossy at Ronny's wake. She's been battling cancer for a couple of years, but she looked good. Cancer didn't get her. A broken heart did.

Mom and Dad have been married for 63 years. And, for most of those years, they've had a circle of friends, people I've known most of my life. And now, they're watching them die, one by one, I'm sure wondering when one of them will be next. It's a lottery that nobody wants to play.

So, I want to take this time to tell you, Mom, that I love you, that I feel your heartache, that anytime something hurts you, it hurts me. I'm not going to say how it will be better and all of that. Those are just words. But, I will stand by you and so will anyone who knows you. It's your birthday, I wish it was happier.

changing times…..

In 1970, my parents made a decision to buy a color TV.  I think it was a 19” “portable” and it cost something like $700.  That same year, my dad bought an Olds 88 for $5200 and I think my dad was making something like $6 an hour at the time.  So, that TV represented a major purchase for our family.

In 1976, the year I went off to college, I spent $299 for a color TV from a guy by the name of Moose Lueder.  He owned a TV sales and repair shop in my home town.  I shopped everywhere and that thing was a great buy.  I think I was making something like $2 an hour at the time, a major purchase for me.

Today, I heard about a 32” flat screen TV being sold by Wal-Mart for $248 on Black Friday, and a 50” TV being sold for $498.

The amazing thing is I’ve got color TV’s coming out of my ears.  My TV’s have TV’s.    And, I still want another one, bigger, brighter, crisper, better.  To think just a generation ago, we would have to work for over 100 hours to get a TV that we wouldn’t even look at today. 

Things have changed.

let the wild rumpus begin!

Those words have been with me for 27 years, since the birth of my first son, Nick, as well as Cortney and Alex.  My book of choice to read to my kids was “Where the Wild Things Are” by Maurice Sendak, which has been made into a movie by Spike Jonze and Dave Eggars. 

When I heard this book was being made into a movie, I worried the joy, the danger, the curiosity, the explorative nature of young Max would be harnessed, that it would be sanitized to something less powerful and less meaningful.

Instead, they used the book as a jumping off place, a point of reference, but staying true to the real heart of the book, while exploring very adult themes of anger, compassion, jealousy, cynicism, loss, and love.

Very similar to Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz”, Max takes us through his mystical world with characters only seen in Max’s mind doing things only Max could think.  Where Dorothy’s journey comes through a dream sequence from a bump on the head, Max’s happens after biting his mother in a temper tantrum and running off to this secret world in his mind.

And, both stories end with both being drawn home, and to the love of family. After all, there is no place like home.    

BOO!

My youngest son, Alex, had an idea for Halloween.

He decided he was going to be a scarecrow, sitting on the front porch with a plastic pumpkin on his head.  He wore gloves, exposed no skin and wore ratty clothes.

The idea was that as soon as he was alerted there were some trick or treaters coming by, he would sit motionless on a bench, as if he was part of the Halloween decorations.

When the unsuspecting would ring the doorbell, he would yell, BOO!!  Apparently, this worked very effectively, scaring the bejeezes out of almost everyone who came by.

Yup, that’s my son.