Last Post a Day in May Post

This is the last post for the Post a Day in May challenge. It has been a really fun experiment and who knows, I might try it again sometime. The hardest part was trying to figure out what to write about some days. Thanks for the encouragement and for reading all the posts over the last month.

I am not going to be posting as often as I have been over the last month. I am planing on taking a break for a few days and then hopefully start posting about 3 times a week. There is still a lot to share about Isabel’s birth and I think this is a great way to keep people posted on her progress. Thanks again for putting up with all the post over the last month!

Happy Friday! – Pictures

It's another fun day Friday. I wrote something really long so I don't mind throwing up some pictures for you guys today. Here are some of the pictures Jen and I have been taking with the new camera.

It’s another fun day Friday. Yesterday, I wrote something really long so I don’t mind throwing up some pictures for you guys today. Here are some of the pictures Jen and I have been taking with the new camera. Also, I started using my flickr account again to have a place to throw photos I have taken. There isn’t much there yet but go check it out anyway.

If you click on the images it will take you to a larger version. If you click on that larger version it will take you to the next one in the gallery.

A Dad’s Response To #YesAllWomen

As a dad there are certain things that I need to teach my daughters before they are old enough to be on their own.

For those of you that don’t follow the crazy Internet news, there is a new hashtag trending called #YesAllWomen.

To quickly explain, #YesAllWomen is a way for women to tag their posts, updates, tweets letting people know what all women have to deal with. It started in response to Elliot Rodger’s killing spree where he posted a YouTube video blaming the “cruelness of women” for his actions. He basically said that because girls wouldn’t give him a chance he was a going to have a “day of retribution”. You can read more about it on this CNN article.

As a dad there are certain things that I need to teach my daughters before they are old enough to be on their own. I use the word daughters because the only children I have are girls but this would apply to any boy as well.

Respect

There are many things that can be solved by showing everyone the level of respect that you demand back. Always say yes ma’am and yes sir. Always look a person in the eyes when you shake their hand. It doesn’t matter if they are twice your age or half your age.

Be Aware of What Around You.

Bad things happen in bad places. That is just how the world works. That doesn’t mean they can’t happen in good places but statically the chances are smaller. I will always drop everything to come get you no matter where you are.

Trust Your Gut

If you get a bad feeling about somebody, get away from that person. If you have a bad feeling about a situation, get out of the situation.

Never Leave Your Drink

It doesn’t matter if you are at a Bar, Frat Party or hanging out with friends. If you set your drink down and walk away from it, get a new one.

Stereotypes Exist For A Reason

You will be judged based upon how the world sees you. It sucks I know but it is how the world works. If a girl walks around dressed like a Hooker, people are going to say she’s a hooker. If a guy works out all the time and makes himself look like he does steroids people are going to say you are on steroids. That is how the world works. Deal with it.

Always Have an Exit

The very few people that know I do this make fun of me for it. When I am somewhere I have never been before I am always scanning the area for the exits. When I get to a restaurant I have never been to the first thing I do after getting seated is go to the bathroom. When I walk to the bathroom I scan the area. I see what food looks good. I notice where the two or three extra emergency exits are. I know this sounds silly but it has saved me multiple times and not just from ordering garbage. This doesn’t apply just to physical exits either. On a first date, have a polite way to leave if you are uncomfortable.

I think #YesAllWomen is a great way for women to bring to focus what they have to go through. I don’t want my daughters to have to deal with any of the things I have read on Twitter or Facebook. I also would’t want my son to have to put up with a lot of the things guys do on an everyday basis either. #YesAllWomen brings both of these out into the open and if it can even help make a single person rethink what they say or do in the future then I am all for it.

Some people suck, some people were not raised based off the “Golden Rule”. It is something we have to deal with as a society. Just because one guy treated a girl like trash doesn’t mean all guys are that way. Just because one girl treated a guy like trash doesn’t mean that all girls are that way. That is just the way the world works.

The Road Less Traveled

Pinpoint a moment in your past where you had to make a big decision. Write about that other alternate life that could have unfolded.

I have been having trouble figuring out what to write about. I found a site that lists out a bunch of topics for posts. As soon as I saw this one I knew it was the one I needed to write about. I may not follow it exactly but it will give me a good start.

Pinpoint a moment in your past where you had to make a big decision. Write about that other alternate life that could have unfolded.

One of the hardest decisions I ever made in my life was when I decided to leave the Navel Academy Prep School. I loved the military side of things but I wasn’t mature enough at that point in my life to make the grades that I needed. The worst part about it was that about half of the school was failing. I was doing fairly well in most of my classes except for one. The teacher was failing everybody. I learned later that at the end of the trimester the teacher ended up curving the entire course almost 40 points. When I found that out it really pissed me off. One of the things I had wanted to do since I was a little kid was fly planes and I let something like that teacher get in the way of that dream.

I have had 2 extremely difficult phone calls to my parents in my life. The first one was calling them sitting in my Explorer Sport, at the pier on the Newport, Rhode Island Navel Base staring at the bridge home (header picture, sorry it’s so grainy). The second one was trying to tell my mom that Isabel was having to be life-flighted to Denver because they were not sure if she would make it if she stayed in Gunnison.

Crazy Cell Phone Drivers!

I am kind of pissed this morning. I was driving to the office this morning and almost had a lady hit me pulling out of our neighborhood. She was talking on her cell phone and didn’t even look to see if there was a car coming before pulling out. I can’t imagine that her conversation was so important that it was worth wrecking her brand new Outback. The worst part is that I live in an area that has very bad cell service. She was going to have the conversation drop as soon as she got 2 miles down the road. She was most likely going to spend the next 10 minutes asking “Are you there, How bout now?”, and eventually start looking at her phone hitting the redial button a dozen times.

I am not saying that I have never talked on the phone while driving. I have an Jawbone, and it is great as a hand free device letting me talk without having to hold a phone up to my ear. I still don’t even like doing that. It does decreases the odds of getting in an accident but it isn’t better than not talking on the phone at all.

I have to commend most of the drivers I see around Crested Butte. I tend to see a lot of them pull off the road if they need to make a call. I am not sure if that is just because they will lose signal if they keep driving or not but it doesn’t matter to me. They are doing the right thing either way. I know this has been a problem for a while but I can’t even imagine how bad it is in larger cities now.