I'm gonna start all this with a story. It's an old story. But only a small amount of people have heard it before. And the majority of those people were there. Here goes nothin:
When I was kid, my family had moved down to Lehi. Which is considered the northernmost area of central Mesa. In all actuality, Mesa grew from Lehi. But that's irrelevant to the story. Anyways, our family was on a camping trip, which we did as often as possible. It wasn't as often as we wanted, but that was because Dad ran his own business and had to bust his ass all the time to provide for his wife and kids. Sorry, I run out on tangents all the time. OK, so we're on this camping trip, sitting around the campfire and Dad thinks he has this brilliant idea. He knows that his boys hate chopping weeds around the house, and figures he can scam them into actually agreeing to do it. ( A little background on Dad: He was a Scout Leader for about 7 yrs, but he would've been better suited as a Drill Sergeant. And absolutely wickedly good at playing Capture-The-Flag.) So he comes up with this plan to trick us. He tells me and my brother that if we stand in the same spot, without moving or speaking, and he walks completely around either of us 3 times, he'll do our weed chopping for 3 hours. He immediately walked aroud us twice, out of arrogance I think. And proceeded to stay just out of failing range, all the while talking to us, asking questions, basically trying to get us to give up. He was good at it too, playing the psychological bit, but not good enough, 'cause we never spoke. But then out of nowhere, completely unexpected, Dad messed up. He stepped across my centerline. And as he did, he realized his mistake. It may have been me jumping and hollering, but I think he caught it on his own. When I called him on it, Mom had to confirm it, he told me "I guess I owe you 3 hours." It was the highlight of my life. Me vs. Dad, and I won. Every adolescent boy's dream. Finally beating his dad at something.
I love telling that story, even though I rarely tell it. I think I probably like that situation so much because it was a strategic battle of sorts. A battle of skills, not knowledge. In the years(many of them) since, I guess I've had several victories over him, such as: "My computer isnt working, can you fix it?"(which never happens anymore 'cause my big-little brother is a computer genius) and the time their HD plasma tv didn't have any better picture than their regular tv (I showed them how to switch the regular analog signal to digital.)
Now that I've rambled on for enough time, I want to get to the whole point of this whole adventure in hack literature.
Yesterday is gone. As are the 11,200+ days of my life before that. As we get older, our lives may get tougher. Some people have smaller issues, some have massive issues. And the rare few flow though life without any hitches. All that matters now is how you handle today. And tomorrow. If you have kids, think back to your favorite childhood memory, even if there was only one, and remember how you felt at that time. Then try to make sure they enjoy that feeling as often as possible. If you don't have kids, then try to do the same as an uncle or aunt, like I do. If you are an only child, dump it on a friend's kid. Trust me, when that little whippersnapper comes running up to you with a big smile and a light in their eye, it makes all the daily crap you put up with worthwhile. And when they do what most kids do, get cranky and argumentative, send em out to chop weeds. Wait, now that I think about it....
Dad still owes me those 3 hours....
I'm done. Goodnight.
-B-
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