Words to Live By

In an article in the June 21, 2010 edition of Sports Illustrated on the subject of mental health in baseball, Ian Snell who is now in the Seattle Mariners' farm system says that he lives by this advice given to him by his family:

Life is short.
Enjoy it.
Do everything possible to make it better for other people.
Just try to laugh, have fun, and don't let anything negative bother you.

These are good words to live by.

It's That Little Man Again

Let's set the time and place: It's prime time on our couch as the Olympics are getting underway. For some reason, it's only Ryan and me watching.

Ryan: Who is that?

Dad: That's Bob Costas (he's reporting from Tiananmem Square)

Ryan: Why is he so small?

It's been said that Costas is not a tall guy. There was one on-line site that listed his height at 5' 7". Other references about him note him being no more than 5' 5". Do they pad heights for reporters like they do for athletes?

He did look small. Was it the expanse of Tiananmem Square? Or was it because of the camera angle (the camera seemed to be pointed down on him)? I thought that the camera angle was kind of strange. Aren't there rules against shooting downward on someone who is already short in stature?

So now when we are watching the Olympics and see Costas, Ryan always says, "There's that little man again!"

Wisdom Teeth

Just out of curiosity, do you still have your wisdom teeth? An informal survey of other adults at our dentist's office this weekend found that one person had three of four. Four others had none. My dentist asks me each time I see him if I'm ready to have my wisdom teeth removed. Maybe next time.

Blinders On - Gas Cap Not

A man is leaving a Chevron station in Kent, Washington with his gas cap on the trunk of his late model Japanese car. He's in a rush like the rest of us, having endured the gas attendant tell us, "it should be up in a couple of minutes" to "we're not sure when the pumps will be up again."

After taking note of the man's gas cap where it should not be, we tried to get his attention to no avail. It was hard to tell if he didn't see our waving from our minivan in the lane beside or if he just chose to ignore us. Nevertheless, when the signal turned green we were both off into the night, we to the left and he to the right.

But as we drove off, we could see the gas cap fly off the back of his car. We drove off talking that we should go back and rescue the cap in the hope that the man would return in search of his cap. So we u-turned and returned to where we parted ways.

As we turned down the street to park, who should walk by, but the man missing his gas cap. Apparently, he did not take note of our waving, but somehow did hear or see his black gas cap get yanked off into the night.

We parked and I started out to the intersection, but I did not get more than 20 feet when I heard the most awful plastic crushing sound. The man was cursing. He clearly was not happy. From what I saw it looked like he was just beaten to the cap by a very large SUV. I thought about talking to the man, but given his demeanor at the moment, I thought better of it and walked back to my family.

The intersection is now known to us as the "scene of the crime."