Old Bird Dog

It looks like this whole Blogger thing was a hit so I suppose I'll post more than once a month like I had planned.  Right now I'm sitting in some damp boardshorts on facebook chat while down loading Old Bird Dog by Crossing Dixon.  Thought I might just get onto my blogger and pump out another Tid Bit.

My last post I said I was going to go out for a run, I need to be honest with you all and tell you that was a lie, I did not run. I cleaned out, filled, emptied and re-filled my hot tub, which was fun, I miss having manual labor in my life where I can put on my boots, dirty jeans, and an old sweatshirt.  I hope I have a big yard when I'm older, not to picky about the house, just a big yard to sculpt and put my youngin's to work in.  Maybe even a ranch. Anyway, I digress.

This weekend was a great time of going to church and taking a break from my normal introverted nights.  Yesterday was a great end to the weekend, I know it was Monday but for those of us who don't have work it was just part of this really long lazy weekend of winter break.  Last night me and my Cholo hommies rolled up to a Ganster party in our gear, after the initial mean mugging and call-outs were over it continued to be a classic awkward gathering that typically results when white girls from Solidrock have a "Ganster" style Christmas dance party... The Trailblazer jerseys and flat billed ball caps were overwhelming.  But it was fun and I ate lots of sugar cookies and red vines, for sure a win in my book.  I also discovered that this blog has gained quite the popularity as some fellow "G's" told me that they peeped at my writings... I had no clue and still wonder how they found my blog, but this means people actually read what I am saying! So stoked! After many positive reactions I knew I had to make a sequel to "Just Like You".

Yesterday, before the party, I went to the mountain with some friends and taught myself to ski all morning, for only being the third time I ever had skis on my feet I think I was tackling the Blue Diamonds of Mt Hood Meadows like a pro (Meadows: I'll be expecting payment for that shout-out in my blog).  After lunch me and Thomas switched so I got to board the afternoon and he had a nice couple hours of burning thighs and awkward falls.  Came back, hit the tub then the party.  Today I was helping my brother and dad help clean our creek with a fire hose, once again in my manual labor outfit (love it!), when we found some large vines to swing from on a tree, after some Tarzan impersonations and dinosaur jokes after my brother ripped the vine on the tree trying it, we decided we were cold enough to get in the hot tub.  While in the tub my dads friends came by with a Ton of traeger (BBQ) pellets.  So we got out and helped unload 100 bags of pellets all the while making jokes about how this amount will probably be around long enough to cook the food we'll eat at my kids birthday party.  We also walked through a house being built near mine. One of a favorite things is walking through a house while its being framed with my dad and brother talking about the things we would have changed or what we like about the house.  Then someone showed up to the site so we Skedaddled out the back door back up to our lower yard.

Throughout this day my dad's ipod was playing and the song Old Bird Dog came on.  It's by crossing dixon and it is quite good.  It reminds me of our old bird dog Winston, he was a black lab and truly a part of the family.  We put him to sleep the day I graduated high school, but he was an absolute champ till the very end.  His collar still hangs on a set of elk antlers in our garage with the duck calls my dad would use when they hunted.  I have so many good memories with Winston and we all still miss him to this day.  My parents will probably never get another dog because it just wouldn't be the same.  Winston was a well trained bird dog.  He never barked at people walking by, he obeyed every command given to him, he was motionless while heeling but powerful when bounding through brush and into water.  He gave our family a standard of what a dog should be that I have yet to have seen.  From the day he knocked me down jumping out of the truck the day we got him there was always just something so comforting about being around him and just looking at him you knew he was proud to be apart of the family and knew is role, and played it well.  I just finished a book about the masculine journey and it defines the final years of a man's life as being a sage, a wise person that has grown through experiencing life with the Lord, they don't move to palm springs but actively mentor the young men around them.  When I think of Winston I'd like to picture him as a sage in his own way teaching me things about throwing sticks and faithfulness.  I hope I experience my life with the Lord by my side so that when society considers me worthless and tells me to step aside I will be telling young men about what life was like in 2010 and all the things I can't wait to be taught in the years to come.

Well that's all this Old Bird Dog can muster for now.

____
Brad

Just Like You

Well, here is to trying something new.  A friend of mine said she only uses blogs when she's feeling creative, that it's more of getting something off your mind than having the people actually read it kind of thing.  I can see that, and to think about how many blogs there are in the world I doubt many of them get read at all.  That being said I doubt I'll post to much on here, either because I'll forget about it and be to busy living my life than writing about it, or maybe I'll hate the thought of spending time on something that I know nobody will read,  that would be an inefficient way to spend my time and who knows, I might just be that shallow.  I'd like to think there is more to me than the engineer that Oregon State has so carefully groomed me to be.  I know there is but doubt he will have his coming out party via google blogs haha.

Right now I'm sitting in my living room debating going on a run and listening to Just Like You by Keb Mo, and of course writing my first blog.  With only one more term of school left there is sure going to be some change in my life in the next 6 months.  A year from now I'll probably have a job and a nice assortment of ties in my closet and I just can't think about that right now, so we'll stick to the six month horizon.  Wherever I may be in life 6 months from now I'm sure of only two things really,  I'll have grown and experienced some awesome things, but I'll also feel the same about life as I do right now.  Five years of college flew by and I sure have experienced some things and grown but I still have such a thirst for adventure and desire to be pursued by the Lord and live abandoned to His kingdom.  So future self, you may be the only person that reads this and I hope you made the most of your last term of college.  Keep growing your friendships cause you know some amazing people and you won't get to be around such a great group of people much longer or ever again in your life, seek His truth and stretch yourself.  I hope graduating school and traveling this summer satisfies some of this adventurous thirst you had and still will have.  I want to do so many things with my life and have so much more adventure than I currently do so I also hope you found some contentment, while still growing in optimism and passion in life.  Future self, I have a feeling I'll be just like you.

Well that's enough wasted time for now and it stopped raining, off for a run.

____
Brad