Month: September 2007

The Green Machine

Kim was organizing boxes full of photos this weekend and came across a picture of me on my Green Machine during the summer of ’78. A couple of weeks ago I took a picture of my son, Lincoln, on his Kett Car for comparison.

The Green Machine was ahead of it’s time. It was the ideal three wheeler if you liked to drift into traffic. The wheels were made of thin plastic and it didn’t take long before I’d worn a hole in the front wheel, making it even less stable which is really saying something.

My parent’s house was next door to a large apartment complex. There was a decent sized hill that cars would use to get to the 2nd level of apartment homes. It was a dog-leg left formation that I’d use to pick up speed before drifting out into oncoming traffic along our street. It’s a miracle I never got run over since the Green Machine was so low to the ground.

Lincoln’s Kett Car is much more nimble and safer to drive. It has a hand break you can see on the right and it’s wheels are much larger and provide at least some level of grip, unlike the skinny ones on the Green Machine.

I sure had fun terrorizing the neighborhood on my green machine. My Spiderman tank provides a nice and classy tribute to the times.

boystoys

 

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Obvious Survivor tip #2

Learn to fish.

Even if you’re terrible in the challenges, those first few weeks means near starvation for most of your tribe. By providing even the ugliest, sand covered fish, you’ll be seen as a saint.

It takes a bit of luck to win the reward challenge where Jeff trots out the fishing gear. But if you have the gear and can catch fish you’ll be safe for a while since nobody wants to go hungry. You don’t need to call out your fishing prowess to anyone either. Everyone knows you’re someone they need to keep around.

Just make sure you don’t break any of the fishing gear like the gal that broke the spear did.

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This Woman’s Work

I saw the movie, She’s Having a Baby, back in the early 90’s. It was released in 1988 but I was in Germany during that time and didn’t know much about the movie until I picked it up off the rack full of VHS films a few years later. Most of the movie is a light comedy until the scene below. It had such an impact on me that I’d watch it over and over. The lyrics fit the scene perfectly and Kate Bush’s voice is so haunting it still gives me chills today. Especially the part where a tear falls and turns to blood. I wasn’t expecting such a powerful and intense scene from a John Hughes movie.

Now that we’ve had three children with another one on the way in November, watching this scene is even more powerful. It accurately shows how helpless the father feels. He’s certainly not going through what his wife is, but his lonely and dazed feeling is something I can relate to.

Like many experiences in life, it’s nearly impossible to explain to someone what watching a birth is like. Words don’t do it justice. It’s intense, it’s hectic, and very confusing at times. But it’s magical too. It’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.

By a wide margin.