Fatherhood

The strength of a small town was hammered home yesterday. I just spent the day away from my wife and son, helping out at a golf-scramble in memory of a tremendous young man that I worked with. His loss was a terrible accident. He came into my life for a short time, but was a part of this community. There were people in pain, but coming together to help each other come to grips with what has happened and make it into something positive ... there was so much raised for his fiance and son-to-be ... and it wasn't about the money; at the core, this was about helping each other. I spent a few hours talking to his grandfather ... every topic under the sun.  The biggest thing that ran through the conversations was the value in living in a small town ... a tight-knit community. As I sat thinking about all this last night, I realized that these are the same values that I was raised with as a "military brat." My parents were from this same type of town and had instilled th...

Well, there it is ... Patrick was introduced to the "Italian: Money, Money ..." with the hand gestures and all. It started a few days ago and has become a regular part of our play with him during the day. Not much of a blog, but IT IS HILARIOUS ... There is definitely Italian blood in my son, from both sides of the family ... and it gets us laughing!

This is advice that Bill Gates gave at a high school about things they did not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teaching has created a generation of children with no concept of reality and how this concept sets them up for failure in real life. RULE 1 Life is not fair ... get used to it. RULE 2 The world will not care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself. RULE 3 You will NOT make 40 thousand dollars a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice president with a car phone, until you earn both. RULE 4 If you think your teacher is tough, wait until you get a boss. He doesn't have tenure. RULE 5 Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping they called it Opportunity. RULE 6 If you mess up...