Red Light Special

It's scary that the entire tone of my day at work can be determined by a red light. Allow me to explain.

My job is not a 9-to-5, check in and check out kind of thing. I support enterprise-wide systems that have to be up and running 24x7x365, and no one hesitates to call you in the middle of the night if something isn't working. In addition to this lovely support time, I also have new development in the pipeline. And, you guessed it, it's always something of a critical nature.

So if I come in to the office and see the little red light on my phone indicating that I have a voice mail, a chill goes down my spine. I know that whoever left that message for me may have changed the entire plan that I had for myself that day. And that's just the way this job works.

But, hey, I have two young boys, so I'm used to having my plans changed for me.

Snow!

I can't believe it. It's April, and it's snowing here. This is definitely not what I had in mind when I agreed to move up to Green Bay two and a half years ago. Sure, I knew I'd see snow every year; that is unavoidable in the Frozen Tundra. But in April?!

The funny thing is that I didn't even know it had snowed. I'm in the middle of a large windowless room containing a giant cube farm, so I was working along oblivious to what was happening around me. I guess that's supposed to make me more productive.

But the good thing is that the snow was gone by evening. In that sense, it reminded me of those good old Texas snowfalls. But there's more snow in the forecast for Wednesday and again over the weekend. Will it ever stop?

And where's that global warming when you really need it?

Lefties

I was surfing the web tonight, in a very successful attempt to avoid doing the self-assessment portion of my performance evaluation, and I found a blog that someone I used to work with publishes. I won't bother mentioning it, mainly because it was filled with lots of stuff that was incredibly hateful and offensive to me. As a Christian, I have certain beliefs about God and Jesus Christ that mean everything to me. This blog belittles those beliefs and considers me to be just another right-wing fundamentalist Christian freak. The funny thing about all of this is that I worked with this guy for years. We hung out together after hours, had some good times, and shared a lot of common interests. But for some strange reason, the topics of religion and politics never came up. I guess it was good that they didn't, because we definitely would have had a major debate. People often assume that I must be a Democrat or a liberal. They look at my last name and assume quite a bit. I wonder how many people would be surprised to know the following things about me:

• I never have had alcohol. (Unless you count communion wine.)
• I go to church (almost) every Sunday.
• I believe in the Bible 100 percent.
• I don't believe that humans are causing global warming.
• I am against illegal immigration, even though I am part Hispanic.
• I believe that parents should have the right to use vouchers to go to a school of their choice, even though I used to be a public school teacher.
• I don't believe in affirmative action, even though I probably have benefited from it.
• I think abortion is absolutely wrong.
• I don't believe in evolution.
• I think the government should be doing only about 10 percent of what it currently does.
• I believe Christianity is the way to heaven.
• I could see myself as a pastor.
• I think English should be the national language of the United States.
• I agree with most of the views of Michael Savage.
• I believe Jesus will return during my children's lifetime.

So does that make me some NASCAR-loving, backwoods redneck? Am I somehow stupid and unenlightened? (I would hope that my Yale degree would say otherwise.) And what would those people who worked with me back in Austin for so long say if they saw this list?

I pray for people who have hardened their heart to the Gospel. By subscribing to the idea that moral relativism is cool, they've made it easier to promote all sorts of things that clearly are against what God has told us for thousands of years is wrong. (Oh yeah-- I didn't mention that one: I think there actually is an absolute standard for what is right and what is wrong. God has written that on our hearts.)

Now, does any of this mean I'm perfect? Far from it. Because I believe all of these things, it helps me to know that I have a spot in heaven because of Jesus and not because of what I've done or not done. Is it logical? Can it be explained? Not in any way except through faith. There is that voice in me that tells me to be still and know that Jesus is Lord. And I do. It's as simple as that.

So, all you liberal, hating ex-coworkers of mine-- now you know. Hate me if you will; it's not like we're that close anymore anyway.

Interactive Mike

I had a great experience with my younger son, Michael, today. We actually had some time together where it was just the two of us, and we were able to connect and interact without anyone or anything else getting in the way. It was pretty cool.

Cindy was busy in the other room doing chores or something, and Erik was using my laptop on the dining room table to make sure he had seen every ounce of content on The Wiggles' Web site. Mike and I had the "play room" (the family room that has no actual furniture in it, instead having most of the boys' larger toys) all to ourselves.

I was able to chase Mike around the room. He darted into the "tunnel," a birthday present we got for both boys to learn to play together with things. I looked at him in the tent connected to the tunnel, and he smiled at me. That smile definitely was telling me that he wanted to continue the game, so I went around the other side and surprised him. He let out a little yell, smiled, and then crawled off into the Pooh Tent (a Winnie The Pooh toy tent connected to this other tent/tunnel combo) and then looked back at me with another great smile.

I'll admit that, for just about all of his 12 months and 3 weeks "on the outside," I really haven't seen him as his own person. He's just been this thing that we take care of-- feed, change diapers, and wash occasionally. Erik, my 3-year-old, has been way more fun to play with. Maybe I'm just not a baby kind of person. Nevertheless, tonight was fun. I'm looking forward to more of it. Maybe I should start going to work earlier so that I can get home sooner to have more time with my littlest little guy.

Company Holiday Party

I went to my company holiday party last night. Due to a lack of babysitting options, Cindy took care of the boys all on her own, leaving me free to work my business connections.

These parties are a strange thing to behold, sociologically speaking. It's a very interesting thing to see people that you work with suddenly become a social creature, complete with alcohol. It's usually during these events where I realize that, were it not for us working at the same place, I probably would not want anything to do with many of these people.

One bonus, though, is that I got to meet Scott's girlfriend. She's a very sweet gal, and I definitely could see them getting married in the next year or so. You heard it here first!

Our party theme was "A Night in New York." If I didn't know that beforehand, I never would have guessed it, as there really was nothing to indicate anything Big Apple-ish. But I assume most of the people in the room haven't been to the City anyway, so no harm, no foul, I guess.

James Kim

James Kim is dead. I just read the news on CNN.com.

For those of you who may not know, Kim was the man who left his wife and two young daughters in their stranded car in the Oregon wilderness in order to look for help. They had been trapped for nine days in their car, surviving on berries and melted snow.

Obviously, after so long of a wait, they must have thought they weren't going to be found where they were. They were going to have to do something. So James Kim did the only thing that he could do: he decided to leave the relative comfort and safety of their vehicle in order to find help.

I can't imagine being in that situation. I'm sure both adults felt like it could be the last time they ever saw each other in this world, and both kids probably had no idea of the gravity of that moment.

Ephesians 5 talks about how a man should sacrifice himself for his wife (and, by extension, his family) just as Christ sacrifices himself for the Church. There is no more clear embodiment of that sacrifice than James Kim. It just breaks my heart. I hope that his daughters will, one day, realize just what their dad did to help them. May God comfort them all.

Reintroduction

Well, it's been such a long time since my last post that I think I should just consider starting over. With that said, allow me to reintroduce myself and this blog.

I'm Jay. I'm a Texan now living up in the Land of the Frozen Tundra. I have been married for six and a half years. My wife's name (as well as my mother's) is Cindy. (They are two separate people-- I told you I was from Texas, not Appalachia.) Cindy and I have two wonderful little boys: Erik (age 3) and Michael (age 1). I work at Schneider National as an application developer, and Cindy stays at home with the boys.

Of course, all of these facts are only part of the story. If you've read The Little Prince, which you should do immediately if you have not, you know that grown-ups often think they know a person based on these facts. You've probably already gotten some kind of mental picture of me and my life based on these few sentences. Maybe you're spot-on, but you're probably not. Over the lifetime of this blog, you'll learn more and more about me and how I see the world.

You'll find out more of these facts, of course, but you'll also discover my philosophy of life, the types of people I like to have close to me, the things in the news and elsewhere that interest me, and just how random one person's mind can be. Fasten those seat belts; it's going to be a bumpy ride!

A Little Housecleaning

If there's actually anyone out there reading this blog, you may have noticed a couple of things. Number one, I haven't posted in a really long time. It's not that there isn't anything to write; it's that there's too much to do. Number two, you may notice there's no formatting right now. I'm working on that, so you may just have to wait. And, if you have been reading this blog, you definitely should be used to waiting.

Geneology

My mom called me today with some cool news. Apparently, someone from her mom's side of the family found her while doing geneology research. She talked to him and found out lots of cool stuff about a side of the family she never really knew about. (Her mom died when she was very young.)

This guy has traced her ancestry back to the 17th century in Finland! How cool is that? I'm going to send him an email tonight and see if he can hook me up with some of those names so that I'll be able to help my two boys see their family tree.

Do Nothing!

Last night, my youngest son, Michael, just had a hard time getting to sleep. He's been battling a cold lately, and laying down was hard on his breathing. So I went over to pick him up and hold him upright. He liked that, and he was asleep again in no time.

Then I tried putting him back down. No dice. He didn't like that. He woke up again. I held him a while longer, but a twenty-pound kid really starts to weigh on you (literally). I decided to sit down and hold on to him.

As soon as I sat down, he woke up again. Now I was stuck. I had to hold him, but I couldn't sit down and do it. Oh well. That's what you sign on for when you're a dad, I guess. So I did it for about 30 minutes, until my back and legs really started to ache. I couldn't really feel my arms much, so they weren't too bad.

Finally, I had an epiphany. What if he wasn't complaining about his nose after all? I checked his diaper, and he needed it to be changed. Once I did that, I put him down and he was out in ten seconds.

And I'm supposed to be an old pro at this, huh? It just goes to show you that you never know anything when it comes to raising kids. You just try not to make the same mistakes too often.