Welcome to The Captain's Lounge....pull up a stool, grab a drink, and read about what is going on in my world. Feel free to comment, or don't and just let me ramble on.
Saw this today and couldn't help but feel this is spot on...
Well, Marlina had her annual "I don't think we have enough gifts for the kids" moment last night. That means today I get to have my annual, "Fuck it, just buy more stuff" moment. I usually go out and spend another $200-$300 today and royally manage to screw up our budget. Or, in reality, my budget that I only kept in my head and didn't share with her but I still manage to get pissed when she goes over the amount that I didn't tell her about.
Anyways, Merry Christmas everybody!! As much as I bitch about the money part, these are some of the best days of the year because it causes me to think of others more than myself. I enjoy shopping part of the Christmas season. I think I give good gifts. I could be way off base; it is possible. But I think I give pretty good presents.
When I was a kid, I remember going to church on Christmas Eve, lighting the candle and singing, then heading home to race into bed so that Santa would come. Well, it came as a shock to me that my wife said Christmas Eve was a huge party when she was growing up. She and her family would go to church, complete with the Catholic 500 (a nickname I gave to the practice of getting up for communion, receiving the gifts, then instead of returning to your seat, you hit the exit door), then she would return to her house where upon all the family friends would appear and the party would last into the night complete with lots of food, booze, and merriment. The kids would eventually be put to bed, but the party wouldn't stop.
Fast forward a bunch of years. When Marlina and I got together and we were preparing to spend our first Christmas together, of course there was some culture shock on my part when she would describe the annual Christmas Eve bash. We were both living in the city then, surrounded by friends who never needed a reason for a party. I was in. If it made my future wife happy, I did it. And, of course, I am the guy who has been know to say that "Tuesday only happens once a week; you had better celebrate it."
We threw our first annual Christmas Eve party on 12/24/2003. We have been going strong ever since Some years the attendance is larger than others, but we decided that it is pretty nice to gather with family and friends before Santa comes down the chimney. Ours may not last as long as the ones that Marlina grew up with, but they do seem to give her a memory of her past that she cherishes. And what an important part of the Christmas holidays that is.
And besides, Christmas Eve only comes once a year, you had better celebrate it!!
The Periscope App is amazing. It is a live streaming service that lets users film events and stream them to others. You could just use the video on your phone, but then you are left with a gigantic video file that you usually cannot email to others due to the size. You could post them to YouTube, but they too have file size restrictions. Periscope allows you to film the events, and stream them to anyone in real time. In the past year, I have watched my kids at various sporting events and school events because Marlina used Periscope. I can be in my office working and she is at the Spelling Bee. I was able to watch Luke spell his word correctly, then get back to work. I also watched his first basketball practice this way last night. Of course, me overthinking things, leads me to ask the question, "Is this good?"
I mean, I am able to watch these events, but I am not present when they are taking place. I can discuss the events with him when I get home in the evening, but he cannot look over and see my face. As long as I am present for the mega important events I think I am fine, but at what point does technology make it too easy for me to say, just Periscope it and I can both work and be a good father?
But besides my trivial bull shit, just imagine what an app like this does for people in the military who are away in another country. They can now watch their kids even while away. They can take part in the events, and at least feel like they were somewhat present. It truly is amazing. I know there are probably different apps that do the same thing, but I use Periscope and am pretty happy with it.
Ok, enough of a commercial for a product that I don't even have any stock in.
BTW, we picked up the new golf cart on Saturday. It is pretty sweet.
Well, I am about to pull the trigger on a new golf cart. I usually am a slow and methodical person when it comes to making large purchases except when surfing the interwebs while drinking. A while back Marlina and I had some company in and wanted to take them for a cruise around the island. We had to take turns because the kids are too young to be left alone so they had to come with us. Marlina would take the visiting lady and give her a tour of the island, then I took my friend around. This would be a lot better if we could all go at the same time, we agreed. Seeing as how we don't want to wait a few more years till the kids are old enough to stay home alone, we decided we would "look into" selling our golf cart and upsizing.
Usually this means that we will discuss it for a bit, then decide that I don't want to spend the money and we would revisit it again after I get pissed off about not having enough room on cart. However, this time, I found a buyer for our blue golf cart, which was a necessary first step. I am adamant about doing things in order and selling the old one before purchasing the new one is imperative. Step one, complete. Now finding the new one and making it have everything we want should be fun. Stay tuned for the adventure (and pictures).
But for now, we say good bye to Bluefoot, or Old Blue (we could never really decide on a good nickname).
