"The Resemblance Is Uncanny!"

I don't know about you, but if I was this guy, I would start preparing my copyright infrongement lawsuit. This of course is dear old Dad and while I agree the picture was taken quite unexpectedly, to capture his likeness that perfectly was one in a million.

Letting go of the past...

All part of life I guess. Sometimes we accept it, other times we ponder it to the point of distraction. Before I became Mr. Dad I had quite a network of friends across America and abroad thanks to that marketing superfreak AOL. Now granted, most of them were chicks. I'm only human, ya know. Actually, there was only one guy, and his name was Navid. For me, I was happy just staying at home and not worrying so much about what there was to do in the outside world. But Navid always managed to get me out of the house and as it turns out, there was a lot to do if you just knew where to look, and he always knew. In turn, this helped make me a better pop because now when I have a free moment with my kid (soon to be kids), I always plan something fun for us to do so that years later they don't come up to me and say "Hey man, you never took us anywhere when we were kids!" and I'll be all "Oh yes I did! And I have proof!!"
Once I found out I was going to be a dad, my free time dwindled to almost nothing. Did you know having a kid takes up a lot of time? Blew my mind too! My chances to hang out with Navid became less and less and as it turned out, November of 2000 was the last time I would ever see him. I spoke to him via AOL in March 2001 as he was going to come by and see our new house, but I told him I was light-headed that night so maybe another time. That other time never came.
I didn't give it much thought over the next 3 years simply because a wife and a daughter are a full-time job. Then it happened. A dream. A dream about Navid. Don't ask me what it was about but there it was. When I woke up I started thinking back to when we used to hang out so I searched the net for his address/phone number but as luck would have it there was nothing I could use. So I tried e-mailing his AOL name. And he actually responded. He didn't know who I was or had forgotten so I wrote him back and told him exactly who I was and how I knew him. Never heard back.
Over the next year I sent him e-mails asking if he was mad at me, what he had been up to, etc., but he never answered. Then I sent something to him and either he cancelled that name or blocked me. Either way there was no getting through to him. As I type this I am going to try one more time to send something to him...be right back...

(some time passes)

As it turns out, he didn't get what I just sent (bad e-mail address), and I have become much too tired to continue this quest. So as of right now (you can see the date and time), I am officially giving up trying to rebuild any bridge that was ever there to begin with. I have thought a lot about Navid over the last year to the point of remorse, and life is too short to do that. As an official farewell, I will say that the times we had together have truly helped make me a better person and I wouldn't trade any of them in. However, I have to live my own life and dwelling on the past instead of remembering it fondly will do me no good.

Rest In Peace Navid Yar

Somewhere...Over The Rainbow...

Did you know the end of the rainbow is 7-11? Blew my mind too! We had some nasty storms the night before and Friday evening the brightest rainbow came out. Unfortunately the wall of clouds moved in on it before I could get a decent picture so I wound up with this one. Click on the picture to see it a little better. Something about rainbows is always cool. I guess it's because you hardly ever see them. Click here to see what I saw. At least they had a camera when it counted.

I'm looking over...a four-leaf clover...

...that I've overlooked before...which is actually the truth and not just a goofy song from the Stone Age. As I was perusing my garden looking for weeds and the stray grass blade, I thought I'd look at the renegade clover strain that had popped up. Lo and behold, what did I see. Now all I have to do is sit back and wait for the good luck to roll in, right? Isn't that how it works? It better. For as the song says..."If I didn't have bad luck...I'd have no luck at all". Click on the picture to see more detail.

Today We Celebrate Our Independence

You know...something tells me if we were still under British rule in this day and age...it might not make much of a difference. What they would have to do is have literally millions and million of "patrollers" making sure we didn't do anything differently from how they do it. Of course this could never happen because many Americans much braver then myself did what they had to do so that we never had to kowtow to anyone. On this day, we salute them.