Monday, March 9, 2009

Spring

It's almost here, can you feel it?

Birds are starting to come back, home and garden shows are starting up, Lowes, Menards, and Home Depot are setting up their outdoor sections.
Getting that 30's one day, 60's the next sorta days, can't wait for it to get here now. Been a long, cold winter, ready for some color and warmth...

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Snow rocks!

Call me crazy, but I love winter. Cold and snowy, hard combination to beat. Makes the commute to and from work rough at times, granted, but I still can't help loving it! If I can see my breath, I'm a happy guy (or, maybe I've eaten too much garlic, usually it's because of the cold, though... )!

I love the way the snow looks as it falls and on the ground. How small towns look after a snowfal:
Photobucket

Photobucket

Bridges and snow go nicely together (especially if the snow is alongside the bridge, rather than on the bridge...)
Photobucket

I love the crisp air, the grey skies, the frozen lakes and ponds.
Photobucket

Hard to be prettier than a snow and ice lined river:
Photobucket


Snow just looks right in the woods after all the green is gone
Photobucket

Trudging in snow can be peaceful and serene:
Photobucket

Camping in it with friends is a way of bonding unlike any other:
Photobucket

I like to see it on mountians:
Photobucket

I even like to shovel it:
Photobucket

Saturday, January 10, 2009

So...

So, this is how it starts, eh?

About me: I'm just a regular guy, for the most part. Indiana born and bred, although slightly different from most of my Hoosier brethren. I wear flannel when I can get away with it, my winter coat is a Carhartt, a ball cap is part of my wardrobe, work boots and bluejeans.

I don't like NASCAR, tried it but to no avail. No connection, would rather watch the fizz run out of a glass of Coke. Same with WWF, WFF, WFW, FOW, or anything involving noisey, large sweaty guys in goofy colorful speedos pretending to throw each other around a boxing ring while taunting the crowd into a beer and Mountian Dew fueled frenzy. Not by cup-o-tea...
I don't like wings, breaded tenderloins, or deep fried anything (Hoosiers will deep-fry anything they can get their hands on, animal, mineral or vegetable. I'm suprised I haven't seen deep-fried beer around these parts yet...). I can't seem to get my belly to pop out yet, either, makes my cloths fit rather un-Hoosierly...

I do like Star Trek, Tolkien, Stephen King, Basketball, Football, the outdoors, and science. Primitive history too, facinating to see where we came from.

I have a job, of course, as an electronics technician. Gotta pay the bills, like it or not. Work for a good company, the leader in their field. I have been a soldier (still in the Guard) and a police officer as well, but I seem to be a pretty good tech. Amateur artist, sketching and writing when I can.

What I am, first and formost, is a family man. Haven't always been, at heart, but I have recently re-found my path after being lost in the wilderness of "Work achievement and ladder climbing". Nearly lost myself and my family, although now I am on track once again.

I have the most beautiful of wives, special in every way. I can't put into words how much she means to me. Graceful, elegant, intelligant, a great cook, wonderful mother, what more could a guy want? She's creative, spooky, bewitching, and mildly famous too, much more interesting than I am...
I want to grow old with her, spend our days sitting on our porch swing sipping iced tea and listening to the birds sing in the evenings, smelling the fresh cut grass and watching our grandkids (when we get them, of course) laugh and tumble about in the yard.

We have four wonderful sons of assorted ages and sizes, although most of them are either taller than me or are going to be (sad, really, since I'm 6'2...). Oldest two are in college and are on their ways to fantastic futures, youngest two are still at home waiting their turns to be grownups. Hard to describe raising four boys, a mix of wonder and angst. Boys really challange you growing up, the things they break, or dismantle and can't put back together. The things that they just out of the blue manage to say, at just the right times to pull on your heart strings (survival instict on their parts, possibly?). Girlfriends, broken bones, constant need for $5.00...

As babies, so sweet and innocent, warm and precious. You sit and watch them in their mother's arms, and you just about cry (manly tears, of course...) at the utter beauty, peace and serenity of the moment. You, in those moments, know that you'll do everything to keep them safe, to protect them. Your heart skips beats as you watch and listen to her coo at him, his little fingers wrapped around hers and tangled in her beautiful hair. Precious, pure love.

When they are young, helping you around the house, their little fingers clenching your crescent wrenches and screwdrivers, big eyes waiting eagerly to hand it to you just when you need it...

When they're tweens and learning how to fish, how to throw a football, all input and energy, blury from constant motion. Daddys boys at their peak...

When they're teens, becoming men, finding their own way and trying to achieve independance.
Frustrating, at times, but all part of the process, part of their trail in life. Grin and bear it, they still love their parents, just don't want anybody to know it...

When they grow up, become young men. Still your sons, but more now. They've gotten through their teens safely, they are friends now, confidants, comrades. Life-long companions, always there for you, filling your heart with pride every day as they grow and make new families for themselves. You get to see all you and your wife's hard work and love pay off. Cherry on top of life!

This is my blog, Drivetech because I used to repair electronic motor drives, and used the name on several knife collecting related forums I participate in. I'll likely talk about everything from electronics, the military, and music, to spirituality and history. Probably talk about nature too, I like nature...