I pledge allegiance... or do I?

I recall citing the Pledge of Allegiance every morning in school at the beginning of the day. I can't recall exactly when we stopped doing it, though. I am certain that I was in elementary school when the cease took place but the exact time alludes me. Over the years since, I have heard many discussions concerning the Pledge and many opinions stated about how we were better off as a nation when we did it. Many people talk about how different our youth are today and speculate that the lack of citing the Pledge has much to do with these changes.  I don't know how many times I've seen something on Facebook about it, but certainly enough. I...

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Rounded Deck Stairs

I saw these photos on my news feed on Facebook last week.  They showed up there since the person unknown to me tagged a friend of mine.  I suppose that they had been in a previous conversation about them and the person posting the photos was trying to show them as an example.  Just speculating. I really like the rounded steps and it has me reconsidering my planned deck design.  As you can see in my mock-up below, I was planning on having a set of long deck stairs, but with two 45 degree angles in them to get them to wrap around and make the corner.  I think what I'll do different is replace these stairs with one set...

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Hot Off The Press!

While in Virginia, we stayed with our good friends, the Andersons.  We're coffee drinkers and they evidently aren't.  But, they are great hosts!  They didn't have a drip coffee maker but what they did have was infinitely better:  a french press. I didn't actually have any experience with a french press so to make some coffee I had to resort to the wisdom of YouTube.  Within minutes, though, I was well on my way to making some of the tastiest coffee I have had in a long while.  Why has someone not turned me on to these before?! It was pretty much just as easy to make coffee with this thing than a standard drip...

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The Moral Argument

"...I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts..." - Hebrews 8:10 The moral argument is a logical argument that goes something like this: If objective morality exists, then God must exist. Objective morality exists. Therefore, God exists. I love the moral argument for its simplicity and ease of use in conversation.  Intuitively, we all agree, atheists and theists alike, that there is such a thing as objective morality.  However, some atheists do try to deny it for the sake of argument despite the fact that they secretly live by it.  Their attempts to argue it usually miss the point by circumventing it. A...

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Matching Travel Trailer

I created this Mazda5 trailer digitally with GIMP today but someday I think that it would be pretty awesome to create one for real. On my way down to pick up Jacob from Louisiana, I managed to get 28.75 mpg in the car.  Almost all of that driving was on flat stretches of highway on a beautiful, still day with the car fully cleaned out in preparation for our road trip the following day. Coming back from Virginia, I was checking our fuel consumption with every fill up.  And, at one point it actually got down to 14.5 mpg.  The difference was that we were driving east to west (into the wind), we had 5 passengers, we were traveling...

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Parking Ticket Extortion

Extortion is defined by Wikipedia as: Extortion (also called shakedown, outwresting, and exaction) is a criminal offense of unlawfully obtaining money, property, or services from a person, entity, or institution, through coercion. Refraining from doing harm is sometimes euphemistically called protection. Extortion is commonly practiced by organized crime groups. The actual obtainment of money or property is not required to commit the offense. Making a threat of violence which refers to a requirement of a payment of money or property to halt future violence is sufficient to commit the offense. Exaction refers not only to extortion or the...

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Secret Vacation

I love going on vacation.  But, then again, who doesn't?  It's seriously hard to contain myself.  As I write this it's the Wednesday before we leave for our trip.  Only I can't post this blog.  Why not?  Because I'd rather not announce to the world that I'm not going to be home for a week.  I'd like to come home to a house that's in the same condition we left it. And this is my dilemma.  I might as well already be on vacation since my mind is already there.  But, I can't talk about it at all with anyone except my wife. And, this I have done quite a bit.  She's very excited, too. The excitement...

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DIY Auto Roof Rack

One of the things that we lost when we sold the 7-passenger Ford E-150 van and bought the 6-passenger Mazda 5 was space.  Not that I'm regretting the transaction, I'm not.  But, the space was pretty nice.  Too bad we paid for that space with every trip.  The van got about 14 mpg versus the Mazda getting about 26.  I could go on at great length why I prefer the Mazda over the Ford, but there's no need for that. With three children, we needed a third row.  Yes, some families pull it off with only two, but I am willing to bet that those families would love the extra row and the extra personal space that goes along...

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Restored Headlights

I bought some headlight restorer compound this week.  I thought that I'd give it a try.  I had heard some really good reports about the stuff and knew that our car was in desperate need for it.  Our car is 7 years old and the plastic headlights had become pretty yellowed and clouded. I have to say that I wasn't all that impressed with the way that it turned out.  I mean, yeah, it looks a lot better.  But, I was sort of expecting to have my expectations blown away with the results.  Wait... does that sentence even make sense?  How could I be expecting the result to exceed my expectations?  My head just...

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