A Slower Pace

I’ve done quite a few of these that I’m gonna start putting numbers to them. I’m starting out with 13 because it’s a prime number.

“You’re not too good to stay out and you’re not so bad that you can’t come in.”

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot com

Well, my special day is done and past. Thanksgiving is a day where I not only give thanks, but my wife slaves for me making my favorite meal. The smells of the meal wake me up, I get to hang and play with the kids, maybe take a nap, watch some football and pig out eating. Basically I am king for the day.

However, the next day the tables turn. While Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, the whole Christmas season is my wife’s favorite. And a tradition has developed in our family where the day after Thanksgiving all of our Christmas decorations go up. Actually it’s more like a Christmas bomb went off leaving decoration shrapnel EVERYWHERE! And yours truly is the slave to the wife. I hauled something like 20 or 30 boxes — and those were just from the attic. I didn’t count the ones in the basement. Anyway, I was my wife’s Christmas bitch today. And there was so much stuff (and I snuck in a couple of games of MechAssault on the basement Xbox) that the outside lights and stuff get pushed to tomorrow when it’ll be warmer — a high of 50!!! Woohoo!

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot com

Here is a prayer from Mrs. A Slower Pace this evening,

On this day of thanks, we pray that those less fortunate than us won’t go hungry. We pray for the men and women serving our country that they come home safely. We thank you Lord for all of our many blessings; that we have each other, we have good health, a safe and warm home, and clean clothes to wear. Thank you for Dan’s job and that he can provide for us. Thank you for our friends and watch over our families — we pray for their health and happiness. Most of all, thank you that we have each other and that you send us our special angels to watch over us.

Amen.

After having watched the Kenny Chesney concert from 8 to 9pm, I figured I’d push my luck and flip the channel over to the Faith Hill concert from 9 to 10pm. Some more country music entertainment with the wife and kids is worth bending the bedtime rule, right? I was disappointed that the broadcast wasn’t in HD and the concert lacked a little….. something. Being a male, Faith was sure easier on the eyes (my eyes) than Kenny. However, she is not the entertainer he has come to be. She might have the voice, the pop image and the multi-piece band backing her up, but she is no longer country and does not necessarily put on a great show. My wife even made the comment that she needed to stop doing the “bad white man dancing” and just stand behind the microphone and belt out the pop music. We made it through 1 1/2 songs until we all lost interest. The kids ran upstairs to read before bed, my wife left to prep the kitchen for tomorrow and I began watching the recording of “Lost” already going on the ReplayTV.

That’s what I get for pushing my luck.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot com

With DVRs (digital video recorders) in the house, I rarely watch live TV. About the only thing I’ll watch live is sporting events like football and NASCAR. And when I watch those I will make a point to view them in HDTV. If they aren’t in HiDef, I’ll route them through the ReplayTV so I can buffer them allowing me to refill my Dr Pepper, play with (or discipline) the kids and hit the bathroom without missing anything.

So tonight I sat down to watch a recorded show and stumbled upon the Kenny Chesney concert on ABC. It was in HD so I called the kids down, grabbed some leftover chips and salsa I had made for the last NASCAR race last Sunday, and plopped us all down for some good ol’ country music entertainment. My wife even strolled down to complete the group. It was very nice to just sit back, watch the concert and enjoy the music without having to plop some serious coin for tickets, or to have to fight the screaming crowds. And Kenny Chesney not only has some great music, lyrics and storytelling, but he is a great entertainer to boot (pun not intended). I thoroughly enjoyed the time with my family watching that concert. I’d like to take the next step and take ’em for real but I think we’ve hit on a great formula watching it at home. With high definition TV and a great sound system, it’s tough to beat it in real life. I’m saying that because unless you get some close to front row tix, you can’t get a better view than the pre-positioned cameras with multiple angles and zoom capabilities.

Now I know what some of you are thinking. You’re probably old school folks who like the ambience of a venue, the resonance of the live music and the intimacy of 62,000 of your closest drunk friends. You are also the same folks who argue for the “warmness” of vinyl records. While I still have all my old “albums”, they sure don’t play well on an iPod nor are they very transportable nor do they zip over my home music network with lossless quality. Some things are just plain flat out better. Either that or I’m just getting old with the kids sitting in front of the TV watching Kenny Chesney beautifully perform “Who You’d Be Today” and then explaining the song’s meaning to the kids. Whatever it is, I’ll take a night like tonight with the family any time.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot com

Here is a prayer from Mrs. A Slower Pace this evening:

On this day of thanks, we pray that those less fortunate than us won’t go hungry. We pray for the men and women serving our country that they come home safely. We thank you Lord for all of our many blessings; that we have each other, we have good health, a safe and warm home, and clean clothes to wear. Thank you for Dan’s job and that he can provide for us. Thank you for our friends and watch over our families — we pray for their health and happiness. Most of all, thank you that we have each other and that you send us our special angels to watch over us.

In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Today is the busiest travel day of the year. In my last post, I highlighted the power of prayer. I’d like for everyone reading this take a moment and say a prayer for all those traveling today. Pray for their safe arrival to their destination. Pray for their patience because they are going to need it on a day like today.

Here is something I find interesting. Every day throughout the USA there are any number of people traveling here and going there. They travel for many reasons — business, vacation, adventure, fun, etc. But today is like no other day of the year. Because of the Thanksgiving holiday most people who will be traveling today are traveling for one sole purpose — to either return home to loved ones or to go and visit loved ones. I pray, not only for their safe arrival to their destination, but that they are inwardly focused on their loved ones and all that they have to be thankful for.

If you are traveling today or have loved ones you are waiting for, I pray for a safe arrival and that your time together is precious and treasured.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot com

Today is the busiest travel day of the year. In my last post, I highlighted the power of prayer. I’d like for everyone reading this take a moment and say a prayer for all those traveling today. Pray for their safe arrival to their destination. Pray for their patience because they are going to need it on a day like today.

Here is something I find interesting. Every day throughout the USA there are any number of people traveling here and going there. They travel for many reasons — business, vacation, adventure, fun, etc. But today is like no other day of the year. Because of the Thanksgiving holiday most people who will be traveling today are traveling for one sole purpose — to either return home to loved ones or to go and visit loved ones. I pray, not only for their safe arrival to their destination, but that they are inwardly focused on their loved ones and all that they have to be thankful for.

If you are traveling today or have loved ones you are waiting for, I pray for a safe arrival and that your time together is precious and treasured.

…..Dan at aslowerpace

Things have been quite busy at work having to cram one week’s worth of pharmaceutical deliveries into two days. I have had some posts bouncing around in my brain but they wisp away before I’ve had time to actually sit down at a keyboard.

One church sign that I saw late last week stuck with me and I really wanted to share it. However, it too, got lost in the busy-ness. However, my brain actually retained it. I shared it with my wife last night in a deep conversation we were having. At dinner tonight she said it really impacted her — enough to make a positive change in her. It was funny because after she told me of the positive impact it had on her, I told her that I had meant it to be a post. She insisted that I post about it because she said if it had that good of an impact on her, it might also similarly impact someone else. Hence this post and below is the long, lost church sign.

“It’s funny that we use prayer as a last resort instead of our first resource.”

…..Dan at aslowerpace

Tonight was a nice night for me. I was able to come home at a semi-reasonable hour even with all the stuff going on at work. My oldest daughter greeted me in the garage for my “different kid first every night” hug. I deposited my array of business geek gear in it’s home which is a basket on this granite telephone table in the entryway — wallet, cellphone, PalmPilot (old school man!), nice pen and access badge. Awaiting me around the corner was a wonderful candlelit meal created by my wonderful wife along side a nice chilled bottle of 2003 Hogue late harvest Riesling. Everyone had already eaten so the kids played upstairs nice while my wife and I had about a half hour to ourselves to talk. After that, carmel chocolates for the kids and some inside rough-house games of “tackle” — all the kids and the dog against Daddy. Then a round of some family video games followed by some decompression time — jammies, hugs and prayers. I don’t care what you do for a vocation or how hard a day you had a work; when you come home to that, things just seem alright. I sure needed this evening. I gotta go check the calendar to see if it’s my birthday or Father’s Day or something because I don’t deserve this just because.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot com