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Sweet 16!

First of all, I am amazed that I have helped create a human being and have gone through sixteen years with him.  His mom and I are excited for him and we truly hope he is enjoying his high school years since we don’t have much time left with him.  Before the blink of an eye he will be a man and off living his life. It seems like a lot of parents and the government are completely paranoid about their teens getting a driver’s license.  Karen and I can’t wait.  I wish he could have gotten his license on his birthday, but with his broken leg and all, he’s a little behind schedule.  However, in a couple of weeks, we should have a new driver in the house. I am looking forward to this for mainly selfish reasons.  When you have three children, a lot of your life is spent in the car.  Almost every night of the week, either Karen or I are driving around for dance, soccer, swim, surfing and whatever else you can think of.  We believe the kids need to work hard in school, but we also believe they should have an athletic endeavor to keep fit, so it is all brought upon ourselves. About three years ago, I had a melt down in the car.  It was Labor Day weekend and there was a soccer tournament.  Why do these morons schedule games at seven in the morning on Saturdays and Sundays?  After a long week at work and spending the entire weekend at a soccer tournament in one hundred degree... [Read more]

End of a Decade

It’s not just the end of the year, it’s the end of a decade.  Puts things in a different light if you think of it that way.  Do you feel worn out at the end of a year?  I sure do.  I think it has more to do with the frenetics of Christmas than the conclusion of a year.  December is busy in so many ways that it’s the most exhaust ing month of the year.  It is also a good time to reflect because it is the ending and a new beginning all in one.  We measure so many things by the year like birthdays, graduations, weddings, births and deaths.  If you’ve had a rough year, then you put your hopes on better times to come.  If you’ve had a great year, you wonder if it can continue? Ten years ago the media was abound with Y2K.  The end of the world will happen at the end of the millenia.  A computer glitch will bring the whole world to a stand still.  What a load of crap.  This decade we have a whole lot more important things to worry about like when is my damn sales revenue going to go up?  Ten years ago, I was 32 years old with two children, just moved into a house, vice president at the business and going a million miles an hour.  Present day, I’m still in the house, three children and now the president of the company.  You know those optical illusions, when you look at it one way you see a certain object and then you blink your eyes and see something... [Read more]

Flu This

The Hooks family just completed one week of barf-o-rama.  So far, I am the lucky one that seems to have eluded the illness but I do have an impending sense of doom that something bad is going to happen at any moment.  It all started eight days ago when we got the call from school that Jacqueline was vomiting and needed to be picked up.  Karen leaves work early and then has to stay home on Tuesday while our little one just lays on the couch and watches television and sleeps.  It’s not too bad staying home from school for the kids when you have three hundred channels to choose from.  I remember when the choices were “The Courtship of Eddie’s Father,” or “That Girl” and you were dying to go back to school just to get away from the bad television and the boredom. Of course, Karen had planned on taking Veteran’s Day off but had to work after missing the day before, so I decided to stay home last Wednesday.  It was a good day.  I had the kids work like slaves and we cleaned the place up nice and neat.  We decided to go to the new Sonic that opened up that all the kids are talking about.  Crazy, the line of cars was an hour long for food.  It’s sad that the most exciting thing to happen in Vista in the last twenty years is a Sonic opening up, but who am I to pass judgement on this little town.  Anyways, all was good until Jennifer walked in the... [Read more]

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