Well, Cali really is the home to the stars! But who would’ve thought we’d see a couple of eighties icons, all before lunchtime on a Sunday morning?

Weird Al

We saw Weird Al window shopping on Main Street in Ventura. I’ll tell you about the embarrassing thing I said, but I’ll wait ’til I’m back on air next week. It’s that bad!

Kathy Ireland

Also, earlier in the morning, we attended my brother’s church, and walked out with 80’s supermodel, Kathy Ireland! The former SI cover model is now a supermom and online entrepreneur.

It’s funny to see how cool people here are when it comes to seeing stars out in public. Kathy Ireland, Weird Al, and some radio guy from Upstate South Carolina and nobody was snapping pictures or asking for autographs. Amazing.

Not a lot of time, but, really, the pictures will say more than I could anyway.

Four of us went back-country camping for a couple of days. It was my son (Tyler), my brother (Keith) and a friend of his (Randy) and me in a rugged canyon in the hills of southern California. It was beautiful. We scrambled up rock faces and over boulders for almost five miles, and then, among the desert sage and cactus (cacti?), we found this oasis of countless waterfalls and deep green pools. It was completely unexpected, and one of the most refreshing and incredible sights I’ve ever seen.

We made it! Tammy, me, three kids (or Tyler and two kids, as he would prefer) traveling for 13 hours. We’re exhausted, but I promised Monnie I would try and update this daily, so a couple of quick things:

Thank God for Continental’s new video-on-demand system! Each seat has a small LCD display mounted on the back of the headrest of the seat in front of you. A passenger is able to choose from about 15 different current and classic movies, TV shows or games. I don’t know how families ever made 6-hour flights without it!

It’s been all over the news how airlines are “being forced” to charge extra for luggage, charge for the in-flight snack, etc. to make up for increases in fuel costs. Here’s an idea- and airlines are free to use this without any consultation fee- stop flying passengers to New York if their ultimate destination is Los Angeles! We flew 2 hours to New York from Charlotte and then flew right over Charlotte again on our way to the west coast. That’s almost 4 hours of fuel to get us right back where we started from. How many $5 in-flight “snacks” do they have to sell to pay for that, I wonder…?

Finally, Tammy and I were a little annoyed by a passenger while waiting to board the plane in New York. She was talking loudly (do New Yorkers ever talk softly?) on her phone, using profanity in every breath. We noticed her a few rows in front of us later, reading a book. The name of the book; “30 Days to Taming Your Tongue“.

I wouldn’t tell you if it weren’t true…

I love my role as father.  I don’t always feel adequate to the task of course, but ever so often-let’s say, once in a blue moon, I’m able to lean back, clasp my fingers behind my head, and enjoy the feeling that I’ve imparted some pearl of wisdom to my children.

How about an example? 

Yesterday, while my son was packing for our upcoming vacation trip, we had this conversation:

Tyler:  Dad?  (they always start this way.  We can be the only two people within a nautical mile and still, every sentence starts with, “Dad?”)

Me:  Yes son.

Tyler:  Dad, you know how underwear starts to get all worn and holey after you’ve had them for a while?

Me:  Sure.

Tyler:  Well, I was wondering.  At what point do you throw them away?

Now, this is where I felt like I really hit the paternal homer.  I mean, I don’t want to brag (much), but after almost 23 years of marriage (and nearly that many years of marital bliss) I believe I’ve come to understand a thing or two about our role as men.

Me:  Well son… that’s not your decision to make.

Tyler:  Pardon me? (he’s very polite, my son)

Me:  Nope.  As a guy, you just don’t have the authority.  One day, you’ll have a wife and she’ll decide for you.  Periodically, your wife will see you wearing perfectly good underwear and she’ll say something like, “…down to your last pair, or did you just decide you needed some ventilation down there?”  Then, that comfortable old friend will just disappear from your life.  You may see them the next time you need a rag to wipe up the motor oil in the garage, but forget about ever wearing them again.  The decision is final. 

My son took some time to think about the gem of knowledge that he had just gleaned, and (I’m quite sure) how lucky he was to have such a sage for a dad.

 Tyler: So, it’s the woman who decides which pants we wear in this famliy?

Me: Yup.

[Before and After pictures of the Mobile Home we helped prepare for a needy family.]

We talked about this a little on the show this week- Entercom Greenville’s “Make a Difference Day”.   One day out of each year dedicated to improving our community.  Out of the countless hours that my co-workers spend each year helping others (Please forgive me for bragging on the folks that I work with, but they really are extraordinary), it doesn’t seem like such a mind-blowing thing, does it?  And yet it was.

Just a few hours out of my day, to help prepare a donated mobile home for a family who needs one, and still it touched me.  Mostly because of the testimony of one man: 

I won’t mention his name, because I haven’t asked his permission, and I won’t give the specifics of his story for the same reason.  Still, this man shared with us a story of youthful arrogance, wrong choices and consequences, so honest and powerful, that it provoked a thought in me.  How many of the wrong choices of my youth could have led me down the same path?  That path ended, for this man, in addiction and homelessness.  How does the phrase go; “There, but for the grace of God, go I?”  It’s a question that softens your heart a little, I think, to those trapped by those evils.

So, on paper, it was a few hours spent with friends, putting up vinyl siding, painting and joking around.  But because of one man’s story, today was  a day that gave me a little more insight into redemption.  And maybe a little more compassion, too…

P.S. If you’d like to get your business involved in a project like this, contact HOMES OF HOPE.

Okay, so we’re better off than last summer.  I’m grateful for that.  If I remember right, out here at my place, we went the entire months of May and June last year without any significant rain.  Now, here we are again with another drought on our hands, and the little man inside my head is once again screaming… GRASS ISN’T SUPPOSED TO CRUNCH! 

It’s not the same for my wife, for some reason.  It doesn’t seem to effect her in the least that we have brown clumps of fescue all over our yard.  If it weren’t for the bermuda, our lawn would be as brown as the infield at Flour Field.  But she goes on living her life like it doesn’t even matter!

Last year I was able to water the lawn.  Then Tammy heard Monnie talking about how Atlanta was just a few months from running out of water and she shamed me into stopping.  I’ve never seen anyone quit drugs cold-turkey, but it couldn’t be any worse than watching my lawn out there in the hot sun, day after day, waiting for those sprinklers to come on! 

So here I sit, again this year watching my lawn wither and turn brown.  What’s worse is that my wife doesn’t care about the looks I get from the other men in the neighborhood.  Those men with their green lawns and smug faces.

I’ll bet someone in Atlanta is watering THEIR lawn right now…