Late

Entry for Ilustration Friday

Unable to finish project...

I just read the characteristics of Adult Children of Alcoholic parents listed in the ACOP forums of Daily Strength. It wasn't the first time I had read these since I have read a couple of books on ACOP.

Have difficulty in following a project through from beginning to end.

I was in Borders years ago when I picked up a book in the self help section and found this statement in an ACOP book. GUILTY! It was as if lightening had struck me. WOW! My home growing up (a subject to be talked about at length later) had so many unfinished projects both inside and out. Many were still unfinished after my father passed.
Reading that statement years ago was when I first realized that I was affected by my father's drinking more than I had ever imagined! It wasn't over after he died! Heck, that was practically the beginning! This characteristic is by far the main one that haunts me. I am so GUILTY of this, I do it practically daily. I am constantly aware of this flaw and struggle to fight through it. From cleaning a room in the house to college, I very seldom get things done completely! I look at a project and I just think of the journey to get it finished, not the end result. I didn't even complete my counseling! You would think that thinking of the end result would motivate me to complete the project. Nope, doesn't work that way for me. I am defeated before I begin. What is most frustrating is that I know the weakness.
Oh boy, I do indeed need help!
C'est finis.

We interrupt this blog for a sports update!

I am a big sports fan, with college football being my favorite. Being from south Louisiana, I followed both USL and LSU football. I went to Arizona State so I definetly follow them as well.

My father was a graduate of LSU in the 40s, so I spent many a Saturday night listening to the Tigers play on our radio. I will write more about spending time with my father on Saturday night during football season at a later time.

Today I am excited about LSU being on ESPN again. I am just hoping that we play better than we did at Florida last week. That was tough.

C'est Finis

Ron

The Web Blows Me Away

My wife was trying to understand Facebook last night and asked if I could look. I said sure and thought the easiest would be to join and see what I could figure out for her. Well, as soon as I started to fill out a profile facts, which was the high school and year you graduated, two friends popped up in the find friends area. WOW! I haven't heard anything from them in over 20 plus years. I requested to be a friend of both and heard from them within the hour! CRAZY! Hopefully we stay in touch! This really brightened an already great day! Who knows who I will find next!

C'est Finis

Ron

Various obsessions

All my adult life I have gone through various obsessive behaviors or hobbies as I prefer to call them. I don't know why I go through these phases. Is this related to being an adult child or alcoholic parent? Currently, my obsession/hobby is collecting and reading about vintage bicycles. Some other hobbies have passed the test of time and I continue to do them on a regular (but limited) basis. These include geocaching and where's george. Some of these obsessions have taken time away from my family, though in recent years I have worked hard to not let myself take much time away from my family. The content of these are harmless. It is time away from the family where the harm lies. I wish someday that this obsession will be reading! Not that I hope to avoid the family, just that I would love to read more. Reading, or lack of, is a whole other topic that I could spend time writing about.
Currently I collect, on a very limited basis, vintage bicycles. I don't have money to really go all out in this hobby, but I enjoy seeing other collectors' collections! I currently own 3 vintage Schwinn bikes, including a cool 1969 Deluxe Twinn tandem. Enjoy the pics of the bikes...time to get the kids up and ready for school.
C'est finis!

Who am I today?

Who am I today? How did I get here? What am I doing here? Well, I am an only child from a little town in south Louisiana. My mother stayed at home and father was a foreman for St. Martin Parish, I think. Never understood what his title actually was to be honest. As a kid, I enjoyed hunting, fishing, football, and riding my little Honda motorcycle around the sugar cane fields where I lived. I graduated high school in 1982 and went on to one semester of college before joining the Marine Corps. Four years later, I was back home giving college a try again. I decided to take a summer job at Yellowstone National Park in 1988, which was the year of the big fire. There my life took a big turn. In 1989, I met my future wife while working another summer in YNP. So after the summer of '89, I moved to Mesa, AZ to join her at school at Arizona State. She finished college, I didn't. Big surprise, since most of my projects are incomplete (place sarcastic look here!). We have 3 wonderful children-two sons ages 13 and 5 and an 11 year old daughter. We currently live in Albuquerque, NM.

Ok, so it is very brief but that is me in a nutshell. I'll peel more layers off of me as I continue to write.

C'est fini

Wow, I have a Kid!

Wow, I have a kid! I have these revelations often. I am blessed to have 3 healthy kids and of course, a GREAT wife of 17 years. Every few months I will look at one of my kids and go WOW, that kid is mine. I can't have a kid. It is at that moment I think I am still that teenager back home in my little town in south Louisiana. Not the responsible adult I am supposed to be. It is a bizarre feeling when this hits. I don't know if this is common among parents or not? I remember dropping my daughter off at soccer and driving away thinking there is my kid! I just watched her make her way to the field, not knowing that her father was sitting there thinking how could it be. Some days it feels like I am stuck in high school. I am still that kid, waiting for Stu to come pick me up to go out on a Saturday night of drinking! Those days are long gone but it is sometimes fun to revisit those times in my mind.

C'est fini