What Would Jimmy Do?

2015 — new year, new day, new beginning….

That’s probably the goal of most of us today. When the calendar clicks over to a new year, it’s a cause for hope and a lot of us at least make an effort to implement some sort of change. People in all parts of the world go through the same process and lots of them have new year traditions….
In the Philippines, to ensure a prosperous new year, it’s customary to wear polka dots and eat round fruits. A tradition that originated in Spain is gaining popularity in the United States, at least according to an article I read a few days ago. It appears that the color of underwear that you begin the new year with influences your course for the year. Who Knew? In case you want to give it a try, here’s the guidelines for choosing the right color.
Red — you’ll have a year full of passion and romance.
Pink — a year of luck in love
Yellow — a year of prosperity, wealth, and success
White — a year of peace, harmony and happiness
Blue — a year of good health
Green — a year of better luck (in general, not just love)
I’m not sure what happens if you wear superhero underwear or something  with stripes, or flowers, or some other pattern….

But no matter what color underwear you choose, the new year brings with it the thought of a fresh start. The New Year Baby symbolizes just that – the rebirth of the new year. The baby symbol for the new year began in ancient Greece and Egypt. Some cultures tried to stop the use of the baby to symbolize the new year, but the symbol survived and even today is printed on cards, signs, banners, etc. year after year. The symbol was brought to the United States by the Germans.

I’m thinking a good tradition to get started here in West Virginia is to have a bottle of wine, but one that we’ve never tried before — if we like the wine, it’ll be a good year, if we don’t, maybe not so good. Now you may think this would be stacking the cards, but I don’t think so. All years are good, some are just better than others.

All this talk of new beginnings brings to mind something Mother Teresa once said — not sure she said it on New Years, but she might have: “Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.”

Here’s to 2015 being the best year ever!!
— 30 —

Well here it is that time of year when we all resolve to do better, do more, stop doing, do differently, or something else. It’s New Year’s Resolution time. Most years I’ve listed some or all of my resolutions here and some years I’ve reported on how successful I was, or how and why I failed…
Seems like the same thing over and over – only the year changes.

The fact(s) are that of the approximately 317 million adults in the US, only one in every 2.2 makes a New Year’s resolution. Of that number 1 in 8 will possibly keep it for a year. Those that don’t stick to their resolutions usually abandon them after just about a week.

The practice of making resolutions dates back to ancient Babylon when promises for the New year were made to their gods. Those promises usually involved easily achievable tasks like vowing to return borrowed farm equipment. Today we make promises to ourselves and they’re usually psychological and/or behavioral changing in nature.

So — given this bleak set of circumstances, I have a plan. Instead of making New Year’s resolutions, I’m going to make New Month’s resolutions. Here’s why: If I tie my resolution, which is usually a behavioral change, to a specific date, and I fail early on, I’ve deprived myself of an opportunity to fail and recover (until next year.) The New Year’s resolution message to myself is that when the new year arrives, I’ll change and be different – failure means I’ll have to wait a whole year to get another shot.

I figure if I make my resolutions on a monthly basis, and fail, I only have to wait until the next month to try again. We all know that failure and recovery is part of just about any process, so not tying my resolutions to the new year, I can try again in only a few weeks when I mess up.

I’m looking forward to implementing my new methodology — I expect it’s going to catch on big-time. I won’t reveal all my resolutions just yet, but I can tell you, if I’ve borrowed any farm equipment from you, it will be returned….

Happy New Year to everyone!
— 30 —

Hope everyone had a nice Christmas – we certainly did. Emily got an Elsa doll and of course it has batteries. It needs the batteries to talk and sing. If you think too many toys require batteries these days, you might just as well “let it go.”

I remember when most dolls didn’t “do” anything — they were just dolls. I suppose girls just pretended they were little people. The first talking doll that I remember seeing was one that Kelly had that spoke Spanish. You’d pull the pacifier out of her mouth and she’d talk. The doll had a miniature tape playback machine embedded in her body. I know, because Kelly must have taken that doll apart at least 100 times (it wasn’t made to come apart.) Turns out she was more interested in how it worked than the doll itself.

Dolls over the years have become more and more realistic and, of course, if they can talk, they’re even more realistic. The first dolls that “talked” invariably said “mama.” Most, if not all them used a bellows or some kind of weighted mechanism to create the sound of “mama.” These mama sounds weren’t anywhere close to sounding like a human voice. The advances in electronics now make it possible to create realistic sounds, including the human voice in a very small, low power package, but it’s been a long road to get to this point for dollmakers.

Most of the early talking dolls were produced using some form of a phonograph mechanism and as we all know, the phonograph was invented by Thomas Edison. He’s noted for inventing, or making significant contributions to, many great inventions. However, not many people know that he invented the “must-have” Christmas toy in 1890 — a talking doll. Edison never wanted his phonograph to be used for frivolous purposes, like music. But for some reason, he was receptive to using it for children’s toys. In 1887 Edison formed a new company called the Edison Phonograph Toy Manufacturing Company. His business partners came up with the idea of putting the phonograph into a doll, and Edison licensed the idea from them and lent his name to the new toy. Edison’s Talking Doll used a small version of his hand-cranked phonograph to recite a nursery rhyme. When news of this doll leaked out, many people placed orders before any dolls were produced. Apparently the company employed an “army” of girls to record the voices of the dolls — each doll had a unique recorded voice because there was no way to reproduce the recording without doing each one individually. It turns out that all the dolls worked just fine in the factory, but the phonographs were extremely delicate and almost all of them were damaged in shipping. By the time they reached the customers and appeared under the Christmas trees, just about every doll’s “voice” sounded like a shrill, garbled mess. But the toy had been hyped so much it didn’t make much difference whether it worked or not. It was one of those “must-have” gifts that (spoiled?) little rugrats just needed/wanted.
So even back in 1890, kids wanted the latest and greatest. If you run out of batteries keeping all the toys going this year, I’m thinking Thomas Edison may be to blame….
— 30 —

Claire just finished setting and decorating the table for Christmas dinner. As always, we have candles on the table. We have candles at other times, but I don’t ever remember a Christmas that we didn’t have candles. It’s not necessarily a tradition, but we always have them. Candles are associated with many things, especially religion and they are certainly associated with Christmas.

No one seems to know exactly why, or even when they first became connected. They were used during the ancient celebrations of the winter solstice as a way of remembering that spring would soon come. One of the earliest records of candles being used at Christmas is from the middle ages, when a large candle was used to represent the star of Bethlehem.

Jesus is often referred to as the ‘Light of the World’ by many Christian religions. This may have started the custom of the Advent Candles. Of course candles are also a part of the celebrations of Hanukkah and even Kwanzaa…

Often Christmas carols are sung by candlelight and candles were almost exclusively used to decorate and light Christmas trees before electricity came along. In some parts of Ireland, they have a traditional Yule candle rather than a Yule Log.

There’s no point to be made here. I like candles. I like Christmas. What could be better than having them both on the same day?
Once again — Merry Christmas to Everyone…..
— 30 —

I’m sure somewhere along the way, I’ve managed to bash the United States Postal  Service in this blog. But today, they delivered a couple of pieces of mail that were very special.
We received two Christmas cards; enclosed in one was a picture of our granddaughter and in the other was a picture of our grandson.

I’m sure both you faithful readers are wondering what’s so special about that? Well, of course, I’m going to tell you. Over the years, I’ve gotten Christmas cards from lots of people and often times from my kids. The past couple of years, we’ve gotten one from our granddaughter. But this is the first time we received Christmas cards from our grandchildren!!

Merry Christmas to everyone!

— 30 —

I was helping a friend with a woodworking project a few days ago and we started talking about a recent experience we had both had with an individual from our church. We both agreed that we had both been fortunate, or just plain lucky, not to have had to deal with someone like him during our working years. Of course, one thing led to another and we finally wound up discussing the state of the work force today and even the state of the United States.

Both the President and Congress suffer from overwhelming public disapproval. Our foreign policy is muddled at best. If I remember correctly, the last three or four defense secretaries have resigned, for one reason or another. A couple of them have written memoirs blasting the administration. The racial situation seems to have regressed to at least as bad as it was in the 50s and 60s….
But despite all this, most of the people I know, including our family is doing “pretty good.”
Given the state of our government, how can this be?

The fact is that a lot of people get up every morning, go to work and do their job. And as much as I sometimes complain about people, most do their jobs very well. These people have simply tuned out the corruption and incompetence of government. They’ve lost confidence and pride in the government in general and the President and Congress in particular. They have no choice — they use their own particular skills and talents and do what they must to take care of their families.

Even with the top levels of government in disarray, ordinary Americans still have been able to keep the US, if not ahead of the game, certainly in it. At least 15 or 20 years before I retired,  I sat through a number of meetings that concluded that the United States would run out of oil in less than 20 years.
Guess what? I just read that the United States is now the largest gas and oil producer in the world. Can we credit the government for this achievement? Nope — how about we give credit to a few thousand, or probably more, scientists, engineers and others in the oil industry for re-inventing and refining the oil exploration and producing process….
Even with droughts, government regulations, all sorts of unfair trade practices, the US continues to produce enough food to feed everyone here and also most of the rest of the world. Thank the government? Think again….

This blog wasn’t and isn’t intended to be a “bash the government” tirade, but I, like most Americans, am getting tired of spending a lot of money for nothing in Washington. Thank goodness a good portion of the American population has taken it upon themselves to not only “stay calm and carry on” but through their efforts given the entire country a standard of living that’s still out in front of everyone else. I can’t think of another country that just carries on when their government gets all screwed up.
Only in America….
— 30 —

I had intended to write this blog on National Grandparents Day – September 8th. Since I had just become a new grandparent, I figured it would be appropriate. I realize that Locke probably won’t look to his grandparents as his first or best source for advice. I’m guessing he’ll turn to Google, or whatever has replaced Google by the time he’s old enough to seek advice.

Even though it’s a little later than I intended, both you faith readers are welcome to continue reading, but this is for Locke.

Dear Locke,
Welcome to this world – I’m afraid we haven’t gotten it in the best condition for you, but it’s still a pretty good place. You’ve already started to look around with fresh eyes and a sense of wonder. Hopefully, you’ll never lose that sense of wonder and fascination.

So what should you do? Whatever you want. Even though it’s not a perfect world, the list of possible experiences open to you is virtually endless. Years from now, you’ll probably hear from your parents and others that I was a great one to give advice – never took much of it myself, but boy could I dish it out. Just so you don’t feel left out, here’s some advice for my favorite grandson….

• Always do the best you can.
• Don’t be afraid to try new things.
• Be honest.
• Don’t be judgmental.
• Don’t try to be someone else or live up someone else’s expectations.
• But, just always try your best…

Figure out what you are passionate about — throughout your life. Trust me, this will change over time. Recognize your passion, pursue it and see how far you can go in life with it. Never – never – let other people tell you what is important to you. You’ll get a lot of advice (some of it good, like this blog) but never answers.

You will make mistakes — some of these “mistakes” will be so deemed by society, family or even yourself. They are going to happen, but life is an adventure — try to learn from mistakes and not make them again. Just never forget — always try your best.

Love you lots,
Grampy
(or whatever name you choose for me.)
— 30 —

The big news is that we have a new addition to the family. I realize that John’s going to disappointed again that it’s not a puppy, but once again —it’s even better. Locke Archer Williamson now resides with Dave and Chassie, and of course Bella and Draco. He arrived on November the sixth and weighed in at seven and a half pounds. That makes him one month old today!! Happy Birthday, Locke!

A couple of people have questioned his name and inferred that it was unusual. I don’t think it’s unusual – it’s not “common,” but then Locke isn’t a “common” baby.
When you think of a lock/locke you often think of a fastener on a door or box or some kind of a container. It’s often used to indicate that something is in a fixed position, or maybe to stop the movement of something. Of course it’s also used to indicate an enclosed stretch of a canal or river where the water can be raised or lowered by use of gates. Or, maybe even a piece of hair.
John Locke was a famous English philosopher and physician regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers. The character on the TV series Lost, also named John Locke, was named after the Englishman.

Like lots of words and almost all names, there are variations in spellings and if you dig into almost any word, including names, there are usually multiple meanings. The word lock or locke probably comes from a German background. At any rate, its a very strong, masculine name.

The Locke in our family arrived a little bit black and blue, with various bruises, even including a black eye. So if that’s any indication, he’s already a fighter.
We’ve only seen him a few times, but he’s won us over already. Carl Sandberg is quoted as saying, “A baby is God’s opinion that the world should go on.” The first time I held him, I realized he is the future. And I’m pretty sure the world is going to be in good hands. We’ve all heard the phrase, “it’s a locke.” That means to have the situation well in hand or all ‘locked up.’ That certainly seems to be the case with our new grandson.
– 30 –

Once again, it’s been a long time since I updated this blog — as the old saying goes, life just got in the way. Lots has happened since the last update, but I guess maybe the most important and certainly the most exciting thing is that I’m going to have a grandson. Congratulations to Chassie and Dave — I’m completely confident that they’ll be great parents. I’m sure they’re both, understandably, a little apprehensive and while I can’t know what Chassie is thinking, I’ve been in Dave’s shoes before.
So to both you faithful readers, you’re welcome to continue, but this blog is to my son as he’s getting ready for one of the greatest experiences in his life — becoming a dad.

My philosophy is to not give advice — unless people ask for it. Of course, if I followed my own philosophy, this blog would end right here. So — even though you haven’t asked, here’s my advice to you about becoming a new father. It’s based on my experience and means absolutely nothing. The fact is that I didn’t follow much of the advice I’m about to jot down here. Remember, it’s a lot easier to look back and talk about what should have been done, than to do it in the heat of battle.
I know you’ve heard me say many times that the job of being a dad doesn’t come with a manual. If ever there was a job that needed a manual, it’s being a dad. This blog isn’t intended to be a manual. It won’t solve all, or probably any, of your problems. It’s just a few “tips” that I wish I’d heard (and paid attention to) before I became a dad. I pass them along with no guarantee — with or without them, you will be an absolutely awesome dad.

Becoming a father is possibly the best thing that can happen to a guy. Of course you’ve got all the gross stuff like diapers, and more stress than you ever thought possible, pretty much a complete loss of privacy, constant worry about expenses, education, accidents, drugs, and all the possible ways you can screw things up — but — other than that, being a dad is wonderful.
Every guy has worries that he won’t be a great dad, that he’ll mess up or be a failure. Dude — that’s part of the deal — it comes with the job.

For me, the first couple of months of being a dad are the most difficult. Babies cry all the time — sometimes they hurt, sometimes they just cry… Moms seem to have a built-in system to know if they’re crying for a reason or just crying. I never did. I felt so much better when you guys were able to tell us what was wrong. New babies want to be fed at all hours of the night and lots of nights are pretty much sleepless and you walk around like a zombie all day. It gets easier as they fall into a somewhat regular sleeping pattern. I found the first couple of years the hardest (but maybe also the most fun.) It does get easier — trust me.
The thing that may amaze you the most is how quickly the years fly by. It’s still hard for me to believe you’re married and going to be a dad — and me a granddad! The time you’ll have with your son is short — and precious. Spend as much time as you can with him, and try to make it quality time. Watch and listen to him — he knows when your mind has drifted off to mundane things like work… Make the most of your time with him — there’s not enough of it.
This one was a hard one for me, hopefully you’ll do better. There aren’t any mom and dad responsibilities. Be involved with everything in raising your son — share the load with Chassie. Guys can change diapers, too — and all the other activities that seem non-stop when the baby arrives. Don’t be one of those dads that distinguish between mom and dad parenting duties.
You may think you know now, but you don’t — just how much patience you’re going to need. Your son is going to test your patience in ways you can’t even imagine. Try not to get angry or frustrated — that’s not the best for your son and its not the best for you. Count to ten, take a deep breath or take a walk… I certainly never accomplished this to my satisfaction, and you probably won’t either, but practice being patient — you’ll be glad you did.
There are going to be many times your son is going to do things that will make your head explode. It’ll start early and it’ll continue… your job is to teach him not to do those things, and that’s important, but remember to keep things in perspective. Most of the horrible things are really funny, so just try to find the humor in them —it’ll help you keep your sanity and besides, they make for great stories later on. While on the subject of teaching your son to do the right things, try not to teach or demand that he submit to orders no matter what. Teach him to make decisions — he’ll like that. Just be sure to limit those decisions to parameters that you set…. now that I’ve said that, there has to be limits. It’s not good to always say “yes.” Sometimes it’s easier, and sometimes you’ll really want to, but it’s important that he learn “no.” Of course, don’t over use no, either — set your boundaries and be consistent. It’s a tough area, but remember you can’t always be your son’s best friend — he’ll have lots of friends. Sometimes you have to be more than a dad, you have to be a parent.
One thing that I enjoyed and didn’t realize how much I enjoyed it until later, was reading to you guys. You should read to your son from the start — It’ll get him in the habit of reading and it gives you some special time together. Reading is important and so is playing… with all the structure we seem to put in kids lives today, playing is becoming a lost art. Give him as much free play as possible — just let him play — make things up — and have fun. And no matter how silly or far-fetched his “free play” seems, play with him — his imagination is developing and that’s a good thing. You playing with him will spark his imagination even more (and you’ll be surprised at how much fun you’ll have.)

Another thing that’s easier said than done is to let your son be himself. It’s a natural tendency to try to mold him into the person you want him to be. Try to instill good behavior and teach him good values, but let him be himself. Just like every human on earth, your son will have quirks and and a personality unique only to him. Let that personality flourish — you never know how good those quirks may turn out to be and what they may allow him to accomplish.
Let him be independent — no, teach him to be independent. There’s going to be lots of times you’ll find it much easier, and faster, to just do something for him rather than letting him do it. Let him do it, and encourage him to do it — it’ll build his self-confidence and responsibility and it might even save you some time and work later on….
It’s easy to tell your son what he should do (and not do.) But the fact is, he’s going to learn from what you do. Don’t forget that he’s always going to be watching you and your behavior in various situations. All or a lot of these behavior characteristics will rub off on him, so try to behave like you’d like your son to….
Probably the biggest mistake I made was not being there for you. Your job and other things in life are important, but not as important as your son. Always set aside time every day for him. Don’t let anything get in the way of this special time. And those big moments in his life – baseball or soccer games, birthdays, science fairs or any of the many activities he’ll be involved in — try your best to be there.
It’s not good to have one parent say one thing, just to have the other contradict that parent. You and Chassie should be working together as a team, and should stand by each other’s decisions. Something that’s important is that you both discuss these decisions beforehand and try to get on the same page — so you don’t have to support a decision you disagree with. Along these same lines, always treat Chassie with love and respect — that’s not being a good dad, that’s being a good person. Just keep in mind that your son will learn from your behavior — so treat his mom like you’d like to be treated. It’s hard enough to grow up — it’s even harder growing up in a household where the parents are disrespectful  of each other….

So… after all this rambling, what’s the bottom line? Honestly, I don’t know. I’ve been sitting here staring at the computer screen for a few minutes, wondering what should I say to you that someday you can say, “Before I became a dad, the best advice I ever got from my dad was…..” And — – I got nothing. So just be a better dad than your dad. Love you guys and the new baby W lots!!!!
— 30 —

Well, I think it’ll be warm tomorrow, but it may be on the cold side — I don’t think it will rain or snow, but it might. I think I’ve found the profession for me if I decide to not be a Pirate or Brain Surgeon. I think weather forecasting is a no-lose, no-brainer occupation. Most weather forecasters on TV in the Washington area come on at 11:00 pm and tell you what the weather is going to be for tomorrow. For example, they say, “looks like tomorrow will be mostly cloudy with a possible snow flurry.” If overnight we get 8 inches of snow, they come on the next night and say, “well, just like we predicted, we got snow amounts ranging from 6 to 8 inches….”

I know of no other profession that you don’t have to even be competent to keep your job — apparently if you look good on TV and can speak a coherent sentence, then you can be at the top of your profession. Even Pirates are held accountable — I don’t see many weather people walking the plank….

So if this Pirate or Surgeon thing doesn’t work out, look for me on the local TV channel….— 30 —