A Little Luv Goes A Long Way

I saw this truck one day in Baxter Springs, KS (the boyhood home of Hale Irwin, for all you golf fans out there) and had to take a picture of it.  Apparently, it’s a Chevy Luv…or at least that’s what I gathered from the markings.  Has to be one of the strangest little trucks I’ve seen.  You can’t see it real well in the photo, but the words above the back tire say “A Little Luv Goes A Loooong Ways.”  I think you could probably just go ahead and load the camper in the bed of the truck and haul it around instead of towing it behind the truck.  It would also be a pretty sweet truck to have if you were moving across town.  You would make 37%* less trips hauling stuff across town with this truck as opposed to a standard sized pickup bed.

*This number is completely fabricated.  To my knowledge no one has ever figured up how many trips it would take to move across town using a pickup with a standard sized bed and this truck.

Lion Chasers Manifesto

Mark Batterson, pastor of National Community Church in Washington, DC wrote a book called In A Pit With A Lion On A Snowy Day.  It’s an amazing book and definitely worth a read.  Here is what he calls the “Lion Chasers Manifesto”:

Quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death. Grab life by the mane. Set God-sized goals. Pursue God-ordained passions. Go after a dream that is destined to fail without divine intervention. Keep asking questions. Keep making mistakes. Keep seeking God. Stop pointing out problems and become part of the solution. Stop repeating the past and start creating the future. Stop playing it safe and start taking risks. Expand your horizons. Accumulate experiences. Consider the lilies. Enjoy the journey. Find every excuse you can to celebrate everything you can. Live like today is the first day and last day of your life. Don’t let what’s wrong with you keep you from worshipping what’s right with God. Burn sinful bridges. Blaze a new trail. Criticize by creating. Worry less about what people think and more about what God thinks. Don’t try to be who you’re not. Be yourself. Laugh at yourself. Quit holding out. Quit holding back. Quit running away.

Chase the lion.

Awesome stuff.  If you don’t have the book, I would definitely recommend you pick it up.  Here are a couple places that you can get it online.

Amazon

Books Christian

18 Things I Would Like To Try

1.  Drive A Vehicle Through A Closed Gate
Could be either a chain link fence or one of those mechanical arms that goes up and down

2.  Ramp A Golf Cart Off A Big Tee Box
The landing may be a little rough, and the cart probably wouldn’t fly that far, but still something I’ve always wanted to do

3.  Kick Down A Door
It would probably have to be a pretty flimsy door, but no doubt it would make me feel studly

4.  Drive A Go-Cart Around Inside A Building
Preferably a building with ramps like at the mall, hospital, or schools

5.  See How Long I Can Stay On An Escalator
Either walking up the down escalator or down the up escalator

6.  Ramp A Car Off A Dock Onto A Boat
The hardest part would probably be not landing in the pool on the boat

7.  Drive Cars On A Test Track/Obstacle Course
One of the real icy ones would probably be the most fun

8.  Pull The E-Brake At 70 MPH
Always wanted to see what would happen

9.  Jump A Bike Off A Ramp Into A Foam Pit
Even landing on foam, I would probably manage to hurt myself

10.  Jump Off A Building Into A Stunt Bag
Preferably on a non-windy day

11.  Slide Down A Bowling Lane And Knock Down The Pins With My Body
Have considered doing this, but was afraid I’d get sucked into the ball return sent all the way back up

12.  Have A Low-Jump Contest On The Moon
Anyone can jump high on the moon, but a low jump contest would be a challenge

13.  Have A Long-Jump Contest On The Moon
May be a tad unrealistic, but would definitely be a blast

14.  Hop A Train And Go Wherever It Goes
Not sure how I would get back, but I’ll figure that out when I get there

15.  Go To The Airport And Take The First Standby Flight
As long as I remember to buy a round-trip ticket

16.  Try To Live Blind Or Deaf For One Week
I have a feeling I wouldn’t make it through the first day

17.  Climb Up A Rope Ladder Suspended From A Helicopter
Probably tougher than you would think, but looks like fun in the movies

18.  Swap All The Products On One Aisle At The Store With All The Products On A Different Aisle
High difficulty level, would take planning and stealthy quickness

Is there anything that you have always wanted to try or thought would be fun to do?

World’s Largest or World’s Only?

If you ever want to spend some time looking at small electric appliances, this is probably the place you want to go.  It’s just off I-44, on the way to Diamond, MO and conveniently connected to a boot store.  What better way to spend your day than buying a pair of cowboy boots and then breaking them in by browsing around the world’s largest small electric appliance museum?

Grass, Fingernails, and Perpetually Growing Things

Well, it’s that time of the year again.  Every year I hope it will be different.  I put it off as long as I can, but eventually it has to be done.  Eventually I have to mow the yard.  I realize that it has to be done and once it’s done it looks and feels much better, but I wish there was a way to pick what length you would like the grass to be and set it on that length permanently.  The only way I can think of is to have the whole yard ripped up and have field turf installed in its place.  As sweet as that would be, I doubt I have anywhere near enough money to pull it off.

As long as we are on the subject, there are a couple other things that I wish were easily adjustable.  As with the grass, it’s not that they are difficult to keep trimmed, but rather they are what I consider a necessary nuisance.  The first is hair.  It’s like having weeds on your head.  No matter how often or how short you cut it, it just starts growing again as soon as you finish.  That’s all well and good if you want long hair, but can be terribly frustrating for those with short hair or shaved heads.  Now if only someone could come up with a way to make hair instantly adjustable to any desired length.  A device that gives you the option to change the length of your hair based on your mood – now that is something I would buy!

The final necessary nuisance, and the one that absolutely drives me bonkers is fingernails.  First of all, how weird is it that we have little clear things on the ends of all our fingers that never stop growing?  I guess that’s fine for girls and weird boys that want to have long fingernails, but that is definitely not me.  For those who want their fingernails to grow faster, they make stuff that you can put on them to give them a growth spurt, but to my knowledge there is nothing that makes them stop growing.  Fingernail discrimination?  I think so!  I wonder if there is a way to surgically remove whatever it is that causes fingernails to grow?  That might be worth looking into.

Not only is clipping fingernails a nuisance, but what a waste of time!  For a person who lives 80 years and clips their fingernails once every 2 weeks, that comes to a total of 2085 times over their lifetime.  If that person spent an average of 5 minutes clipping their nails each time, that person would spend roughly one week of their life clipping their fingernails.  Doesn’t seem quite so insignificant now does it?

The other thing that drives me nuts about clipping my fingernails is that even after clipping my fingernails as many times as I have over my lifetime, I still somehow manage to cut them way too short every time.  Then, for at least the next couple post-nailclipping days my fingernails hurt and cause me to be unable to do simple tasks that I normally take for granted.  Things like opening a can of pop, taking outlet protectors out of the outlets, scraping stickers off of things, and putting keys on keychains.  All of these seemingly routine tasks become significantly less routine when you are unable to do them without being in pain.

Someone needs to come up with a way to fix these problems.  Surely I can’t be the only one who feels this way.  I am definitely not smart enough or talented enough to come up with a fix to the problem on my own.  However, if we all work together in this endeavor I truly believe we can develop a solution.  Will you stand with me in the fight against Things-That-Keep-Growing-No-Matter-How-Short-Or-How-Often-You-Cut-Them-Whether-You-Like-It-Or-Not?  Can’t say I blame you if your answer is no…it’s really a pretty stupid thing to fight against.

Daycare & Drinks

What better place for a daycare (Dinosaur Academy) than right next to a bar (Frank’s Lounge)?

I drive past this place all the time and I am still trying to figure it out.  Is Dinosaur Academy where parents drop their kids off when they want to go drink at Frank’s Lounge or is Frank’s Lounge the place where all the workers from Dinosaur Academy go after they get off work because the kids are so bad?

Pokey Little Pokers

I have a confession to make.  It involves something that I have been doing for years.  In fact, I have been doing it almost every single day for the last several years.  Most days I do it multiple times and there have even been days where I do it 20 times or more.

I’m talking about texting.  More specifically, I am talking about the speed at which I text.  I am an extremely slow texter.  I have pokey little pokers.  I don’t know why I am so slow, but I do know that it presents some fairly confusing and awkward situations from time to time.  For example:

A lot of times when I am responding to someone’s text I will get another text from the same person and then I don’t know what to do.  Do I go ahead and finish what I am working on and send it to them or should I just exit out of my current text and see what the new one says?  If I go ahead and send the text that I am in the middle of typing, it can cause major confusion if they texted me another question.  Then you spend the next few texts back and forth clearing up the confusion before you can get back to the original topic.

Who knew texting could be so confusing?  I guess a positive way of looking at it is that at least with texting the confusion can be cleared up pretty quickly.  Much better than getting letters crossed in the mail and having to live in a state of confusion for days or even weeks.  What would be even better is if you could find a way to communicate where you are able to actually hear what the other person is wanting to say, when they want to say it and they could do the same with your thoughts.  Maybe someone should look into that…

One Bad Dude

This is one of my favorite pictures of all time.  Saw this guy zipping down the highway one day and we had to get a picture.  I think this may be the only time I have ever seen training wheels on a scooter.  Absolutely amazing!  This guy is my hero.

Wait…what?

Is it just me or does this not seem quite right?  Of all the things you could cartoonize (is that a word?) is a pill bottle really the best choice?  “Hey kids, Percy the Pill Bottle here!  We can be best friends!  Just twist off my lid and see all the goodies I have inside!”  Yeah…for some reason I don’t think this was thought through real well.

One Dangerous Toy

Is it just me or does the Etch-A-Sketch seem like a pretty dangerous toy?

I wonder how many people (kids especially) go to the emergency room each year with Etch-A-Sketch related injuries.  Sure, it seems like an innocent enough toy, but I’m sure there have been more people than you think wind up with busted lips, broken teeth, bloody noses, and black eyes from hitting themselves in the face with the Etch-A-Sketch while clearing the screen.  I know I have had more than a few close calls over the years.  Maybe I should just stick with a safer toy like the Magna Doodle.