Anyone else this happy about the 4th? This is Nate’s first “4th of July” in his young life, and he’s gonna be spending it in Asia with his family and a group of friends from Kansas! I hope he grows up to love and appreciate the USA like I do.
I think there is something about living abroad that makes you appreciate America even more than you would have if you had never left. I know it’s certainly true for me. There are many things (a couple of REALLY BIG ONES) that I have totally come to appreciate about America now that I don’t live there anymore.
As many of you know, I am just coming off of a 10 month stay in America where one of my observations was how much everyone - particularly politicians and journalist and those who listen to politicians and journalist without thinking for themselves - would go on and on about how TERRIBLE things were in America today. Excuse me, ‘terrible’?! Really? Is your perspective really that microscopic that you cannot see beyond $4 gas? Shame on you. Go get a passport immediately. Travel to ANY other country. Live there (as opposed to being a ‘tourist’ there.) Then come back and tell me how terrible Americans have it.
OK, I’m getting off my soap-box before I get in trouble (translation = before Erica gets upset with me.)
Happy 4th of July everyone! Go have a burger, a Dr. Pepper and some yummy ice cream… I’ll be having rice… and I will appreciate every bite.
Red and blue strobes explode in your mirrors. You pull to the side of the road and madly begin fishing through the glove box for your registration and insurance. Then you tear off the seatbelt so you can jam a hand down your pants to locate your wallet. Just trying to be courteous, right? You know, have all your documents ready when The Man strolls up to your window.
Turns out, most cops don’t want you to do anything except rest your hands on top of the steering wheel until directed otherwise.
Didn’t know that, did you? Neither did we.
FIVE BEST THINGS TO DO
1. Pull to the right at the first safe opportunity, then turn off your engine.
If it’s not a safe place to stop, Oregon’s Lt. Gregg Hastings wants you to activate your right-turn signal, then drive slowly to a safer place. “A safer place, by the way, isn’t a considerable distance down a dark side road, driveway, or alley,” he says. “Keep in mind that traffic-related officer deaths jumped 16 percent in 2006,” Hastings adds.
Continue reading ‘Busted! What Should I Do Now?’
We drove to “The” Bluebonnet festival in Ennis, Texas yesterday.
The website for the festival claimed that this was the only ‘official’ bluebonnet festival and it used alot of language to suggest this was THE place for Texas Bluebonnets.
Ennis was designated by the 1997 State Legislature as the home of the“Official Texas Bluebonnet Trail” and was designated the “Official Bluebonnet City of Texas.”
Remember to stop by the Ennis Visitor Center to pick up your highlighted Bluebonnet Trail Map. The staff and volunteers at the Ennis Visitor Center will highlight the best trails on this map on the day of your visit.
So, we drove down there (about an hour drive from Arlington, TX) with somewhat high expectations. After all, the bluebonnets around here are pretty impressive, so the bluebonnets in the “Official Bluebonnet City” ought to be out of this world!
We did find some bluebonnets in one small section of a park at the beginning of the ‘bluebonnet trail’ and took some photos. We were pretty disappointed by the amount of bluebonnets at the park, but thought we were likely to see some fantastic fields of bluebonnets as we drove along the trail, so we moved on.
However, for the next hour or so, we traveled along the trail and saw almost NO more bluebonnets! It seems the ‘Offical Bluebonnet City’ does not have many bluebonnets this year or our friendly volunteer highlighted the wrong trail(s) when I picked up the trail map!
It worked out okay, we had fun driving in the country (sans bluebonnets), we had a nice picnic outside and everyone stayed relatively happy for the entire outing.
We did see some really beautiful bluebonnets on our drive back home (between Dallas and Arlington) so we did get to enjoy some bluebonnets after all.
Just be warned - if you are going to Ennis for the Bluebonnet Festival - don’t get your hopes up that your going to be seeing very many bluebonnets!
I was checking my blog stats, and a blog post I wrote back in January about Chuck Norris seemed to be getting an unusual amount of traffic, so I had to investigate why.
Turns out, a couple of high school kids in New Jersey put Chuck Norris’ name on a ‘hit list.’
Chuck Norris, being a class act, put out this thoughtful statement when he heard about the arrests:
“When I learned yesterday [Wednesday] of the story about a high school student in New Jersey faced with expulsion from school and possible other problems after being charged with compiling a ‘hit list’ that contained my name, my first instinct was to say nothing. Not to risk making something out to be bigger than it is.
“But I realize that this is not the best course, for such behaviors are exactly the warning signs we have ignored for far too long, emanating from a growing at-risk population of young people in this country.
“In today’s world, we must always be vigilant, not just in stepping up protection and emergency preparedness in schools, but in reaching out to those lost souls who feel marginalized and disenfranchised by the world around them.
“It is what I have been doing for more than a decade with my ‘KickStart’ program, which began in Houston, Texas, teaching 150 at-risk children martial arts as part of the PE curriculum. Since that time, our program, which instills discipline and respect and raises self-esteem, has grown to serve more than 6,000 youngsters year round at 37 schools in Dallas and Houston, Texas. To date, KickStart has graduated more than 40,000 students with many going on to college and becoming successful in their own right.
“My hope is that, should there be substance to these charges, we will not distance ourselves from this young man, but embrace him and give him the help he needs to get on the right path.”
His statement just confirms what a great guy Chuck Norris is.
All I’ve got to say about those two kids, if they were serious, WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?!
Okay, there’s a bit of a ‘buzz’ going around about Vice President Dick Cheney and a photo on the White House’s website. The photo, taken by David Bohrer, is posted with a caption that says “Cheney is fly-fishing on the Snake River in Idaho.”
Seems innocent enough… but it’s what some people see in the reflection of his sunglasses that has everyone talking.
Some on the Internet and cable news shows (Fox News, CNN) believe the vice president is looking at a naked woman. Do you see it?
Some here at SteveWebel.com think people are looking a little too hard at reflections in sunglasses…
So what is the image? ”A hand casting a fishing rod,” according the the Vice President’s spokeswoman Meagan Mitchell.
The words “Dick Cheney, Sunglasses” were the No. 1 searched terms on Google today.
While visiting Erica’s parents in Italy, I experienced first hand why the “Smart Car” is so popular… the roads are VERY narrow and there is no parking anywhere. Not to mention, gas prices are super expensive all over Europe.
The Smart Car is perfect, it is 8-foot, 8-inches long, which can park nose-to-curb when others are parallel parking and it gets 40 miles to the gallon!
Smart, which reaches U.S. dealerships in January, has received $99 deposits from more than 30,000 customers to reserve the two-seater and about 9 in 10 are placing full orders, said Daimler AG Chief Executive Dieter Zetsche. More than 50,000 motorists have taken the tiny vehicle for a test drive at road shows around the country.
However, I don’t see the Smart Car catching on here in Texas - the land of the SUV. It seems that to get anywhere here, you have to drive on the highway. I just can’t see many people enjoying the experience of going down the highway, being passed left and right by SUVs and pickup trucks that are towering above your head. I can see how someone in a big city might like one of these, but then again, if I lived in a big city where a Smart Car was necessary, I think I might just take public transportation. I’ve grown fond of taking public transportation while living in Asia.
I didn’t even know there WAS a “U.S. Bowling Congress”, let alone that they were planning on moving to my new backyard! One thing’s for sure, there will be far less snow and cold weather for the 2oo employees to contend with down here in Texas!
Milwaukee’s heritage is on the line as it tries to keep Bowling Congress from moving to Texas
Within the year, the U.S. Bowling Congress, the sport’s national governing body, plans to pull up its stakes and move from Greendale to Arlington, Texas. The organization’s board of directors voted last month to start negotiations to move. Business leaders in Milwaukee say they’ll work aggressively to keep the organization here.
Yet this may be the sporting world’s version of Milwaukee’s old industrial firms closing factories and shipping jobs south or overseas. (’overseas’!? really! - Texas isn’t THAT far away!)
And make no mistake: This is a big deal in the bowling world and a pretty big deal for Milwaukee. If the USBC leaves Wisconsin - where its links stretch more than a century to the old American Bowling Congress - the Milwaukee area would lose a $50 million-a-year nonprofit that employs around 200 people.
“Having the Bowling Congress here has always made Milwaukee a flagship that everyone recognizes. If it goes, it’s like losing another part of our identity,” says Doug Schmidt, a local historian and author of “They Came to Bowl: How Milwaukee Became America’s Tenpin Capital.”
Jack Mordini, a Milwaukee native and a chief officer of the USBC, says that if the Bowling Congress leaves the area, local bowlers may not see much of a difference.
“They’ll just receive their materials from Arlington,” he says. “And if they dial our 800 telephone number, instead of the call being answered in Wisconsin, it will be answered in Texas.”
In 1863, while America was embroiled in the midst of a civil war that threatened to tear the country apart, Abraham Lincoln wrote the proclamation for a national day of Thanksgiving.
“No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the most high God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.” — October 3, 1863 - Thanksgiving Proclamation
Lincoln was a deeply devout and spiritual man. He believed in God, but his faith wasn’t cultural or philosophical. It was personal. There was always something in the way Lincoln lived and delved into politics that gave evidence of him treating faith as a way life not a political agenda. But, Lincoln brilliantly knew how to achieve politically what his faith dictated spiritually.
Just read what Lincoln wrote about to whom we were to give thanks:
“It has seemed to me fit and proper that they ['gracious gifts from God'] should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.” — October 3, 1863 - Thanksgiving Proclamation
Lincoln’s last proclamation for a national day of Thanksgiving would be April 11, 1865, four days before his assassination. But Lincoln had given this country a legacy of giving thanks to God.
There are those today that have created Thanksgiving in their own image - making the entire thing ego-centric / man-centered. However, we know from the facts of history that Thanksgiving has it’s roots in giving thanks to our Creator. I will do my best this Thanksgiving to look beyond man and seek to give thanks to Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior for all he’s given and done.
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Hi! I'm Steve Webel and this is my blog. Thanks for stopping by!
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