Thursday, July 05, 2007

Eight More Things About Me

Dana of Principled Discovery tagged me; guess that means “I’m it”, actually it means “You’re it” because I don’t plan to let this end. The idea is to explain a bit more about your personality, a little deeper than the fill in the blank questionnaires that float around.
If you want the rules to this you’ll have to go read Dana’s article; why should I do all the work? ( linked via title bar )

This is going to be tougher than I thought; having explained my feelings on a wide range of subjects it would hardly be new information to those who’ve read my blog. I’ll go have breakfast, a bowl of maple and brown sugar oatmeal, and let this work in my head for a bit. I used to have peanut butter and jelly with chocolate milk for breakfast until a few years ago when I became more health conscious. Both are quick and require almost no preparation time or effort; I’m not about spending time in the kitchen, that counts for one of the eight.

I enjoy a good Gospel discussion as long as those involved are sincere in their efforts to elicit information. I’ve no use for those who claim to be interested in a serious exchange; all the while digging for some weakness in my scholastic or biblical knowledge which has little if anything to do with spirituality, that’s two.

On airplanes, something I do infrequently, I used to draw on the library selections stored in my head to get through turbulent weather; but that was before I obtained an iPod. If I eventually go completely deaf I would always have the music that I’ve stored away in my head. This permits me enjoy anything anytime regardless of having access to my stereo, my iPod or a radio; three.

Most folks would have a hard time believing I was into gymnastics way back when I was in college. I was flexible and didn’t have an ounce of fat on my lean mean fighting machine of a body. We used to have races to see how fast we could get from the floor to the top of the rafter beams, all the while our legs at “L-seat”, using only our arms to hoist ourselves up the rope. We would take full extension pulls as if we were monkeys both on the way up and back down. If I tried that today they’d have to call an ambulance; or would that be a “flatulence” since I’m already an old fart? That’s four.

A friend had business cards printed when I was a young cop working in the Traffic Division for the Houston Police Department that read, “T. F. Stern – Traffic Control Artist”. He’d enjoyed watching the way I “danced” among the moving cars during rush hour while helping folks make it out of town in the evening. One of my supervisors wasn’t quite as impressed and instructed me to quit dancing in the street; but was over heard by his boss, my Lieutenant, and I was told to continue doing whatever it was that made folks a little happier on their drive home, it made for some friction between us from then on, that’s five.

I used to work at the Astrodome as an off duty police officer at nearly all the events; baseball, football, bull fights, boxing, Ringling Brother’s Circus, the rodeo, motorcycle races and anything else. My favorite was baseball; go figure. They paid me tow watch every home game and after the game if anyone had lost a set of car keys they’d stop by the security office to see if anyone had turned them in. I’d make even more before going home since I had my locksmith truck where ever I went, talk about having a captive audience, six.

I tried to learn Kung-fu at one time. I was so uncoordinated that I nearly broke my foot while doing a round house kick, striking just below the padded section which put me on the ground. I’d been nursing an injury from working out with riot sticks at the PD and when I drew my elbows in from the pain of striking the wooden post with my foot it re-injured my ribs where the riot stick had bruised me. The Black belt instructor thought I was laughing or not taking the training seriously; fact was I was in so much pain I was doing my best to keep from crying, blowing air out as I rolled on the floor, seven.

I am a fairly good locksmith and know how to get the job done by the book; however, I also know how to “get by” with less than “by the book” depending on the circumstances. When a customer owns a “beater” and can’t afford to replace a worn out ignition switch I know how to toss out the offending worn out parts in such a way as to make the vehicle operate with “diminished security” in order to accommodate the customer rather than get bogged down with “by the book” in order to satisfy the requirements of the industry. At a certain point the “book” means squat since national security isn’t being compromised, it’s a twenty five year old Ford ignition for goodness sakes. That ought to make it eight.


I almost forgot to tag anyone as I started to post;

Teflonman
Ron at Starsplash
Al the Old Whig’s Brain Dump
Probligo from NZ
Mary A. at By Study and also by Faith
TigerSue at TigerSue’s Jungle
David B at the Whole Note
Cold Pizza

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