I believe....
....No matter how old you are, your kids can make your imagination younger.
....No one can can bring you down unless you let them.
....Blue skys can change my mood as fast as recieving a unexpected check in the mail.
....No matter what you do you can allways improve on allmost anything.
.....Art comes in many forms and is an extention of our selfs.


I believe art is a way of expression, and that every one has it in them in one way or another, either with color black n white, well pretty much any medium. and or form.
It may not be expressed as others expect it should be.
Art could be the the way you play or write music, the way you write interact, paint, draw, anything you can create.

Jobs and paint,   Where do I start, will there be options for me or am a running down the wrong road?
My instructer keeps talking about body shops changing over to water born paints, I wonder how this will effect me as I look for a job being's we have been trained to use solvent based products.
He says most car copany's are painting there cars with water born products....Hmmmm.

My Credo

I believe that there is nothing more important than being a parent.  I believe that your parents have the ultimate influence over your life, whether it is for the better or the worst.  I think that you learn from your parents what to do and what not to do with your own kids, and I think that as a parent, you have no more important job than to be a good parent and take care of your kids.  There is no greater responsibility than to teach your kids to be good people, and keep them safe.  I have never been happier than I was when I became a father.  Everything I do is for my children, and that is the way it should be.  I am going back to school for my daughters, so that I can make my life better, so that theirs will be better.  Whenever I make a decision, I always take into my mind how the choice I make will effect them.  I encourage them to do their best, and call them on it when they don't.  I reward them for good behavior, and give them consequences for bad behavior.  I love to have fun with them, taking them camping, fishing, bike riding, teaching them to air brush, but I am not their friend.  When they grow up, I will be their friend.  Right now, the important thing is to teach them what is acceptable and what is not.  To teach them right from wrong, to teach them to work hard to get what they want and not just sit around and wait for someone to give them things.   This doesn't mean I can't be fun and funny, and enjoy how crazy and silly they can be.  This just means that sometimes they won't like me, sometimes they will tell me I am not fair.  But I know that if I do my job right, they will be good parents someday, and they will understand that what I did, I did for them.  Then I can relax a bit, and enjoy their company, and the company of my grand kids.

Car Guy

I am a car guy.  I guess that is pretty obvious by the way I dress, my tattoos, the classes I am taking...  I was raised as a car guy.  My dad was and is a car guy, and he has always had friends that were car guys.  He made sure that he taught me everything that he could about cars.  How to work on them.  What looks good.  What cars are more difficult to own and work on.  So not only am I a car guy, I have a pretty specific taste in cars.  I love old cars.  The car I am driving now is a 1968 Ford Galaxie 500.  It is the oldest car I have ever owned, and even with the repairs here and there, I am glad I bought it.  The thing is, the reactions that people have toward me and my car are amazing.  Total strangers wave at me as I drive through town.  People will roll down their windows at stop lights to ask what year it is.  I have to try to be polite at gas stations because old car guys will follow me through the store and then outside wanting to discuss the Galaxie they owned when they were my age.  But I don't always get nice conversation or compliments about my taste in cars.  A few days ago I stopped at a convenience store, and as I was headed out, I saw that a lady in a Smart car had parked right next to me.  

Now if you have ever seen a Smart car, then I am sure you can imagine how ridiculously small and doofy the thing looked next to my enormous beast of a car.  I thought it looked hilarious, and started grinning right away.  The lady got out of her "car", and since she was looking at me, I nodded at her to be polite.  The next thing I knew, she looked me up and down, and then started telling me off.  "Do you have any idea what you are doing to the environment with that horrible car?"  I was so surprised at how hateful she was, that I said the first thing that popped into my head.  "Ummm, I am pretty sure I am making the environment cooler."  For some reason, that made her mad.  She said "That car uses too much gas, and who really needs a car that big?  Even with those of us who care about the environment doing our part, it will never work with people like you.  Cars like yours should be outlawed."  Now that kind of got on my nerves.  So I decided to be honest.  "Lady, I wouldn't be caught dead in a car that is smaller than my daughter's Power Wheel, and has less horsepower than a golf cart.  I could pick up your car and put it in my trunk and still have space for a gas can.  I will be driving this car, or cars like it, until I can't see well enough to pass a driver's test.  I don't care if gas ends up at 10.00 bucks a gallon."  She stomped off into the store, and I got into my real car, and left, half way between annoyed, and amused.

Over the weekend, gas went up to 3 dollars and 4 cents a gallon.  The convenience store lady said that her boss told her to expect 4 dollars a gallon by summer.  You know, my neighbor has a Honda for sale...

Nothing

Trying to write about something, and coming up with nothing, seems to be my problem this evening.  Well, just about every evening. After classes I'm usually off to run a hand full of errands,  then off to pick up my two awesome girls, which makes up for having to meet with their awful mother who usually has something negative to say or complains about something that she expects me to react to. (You know it's weird. After sixteen years of being with some one and thinking you know them only to find out  you don't is really unnerving...  Just saying.) Back to my girls, they are awesome.  I'd say they're the foundation of my sanity. We usually start a school night evening out with them asking "Whats for dinner?" Then I proceed with the rest of our usual driving home conversations. If they have home work, how was their day, did anything exciting happen today, only to find out our trip home is too short. By the time everything that needs to be done is done, I find the day itself is actually too short. And then there is homework.  I haven't had homework assignments since 1996, and that's about fifteen years ago. If you would have told me in '96 how things would be in fifteen years, I might have chosen different paths.  (Where were you?!)  Then again, if things were different, I would not have learned the lessons and found the opportunities that made me the dad, friend, and type of person I am today.  Not to mention the teachers, arts, and people I would not have had the chance to experience if not for the path I chose. As much as I hate to say it, things do seem to happen for a reason.  I used to hate it when friends would let those words run out of their mouths. Now I find myself saying it to them. (Ha, ha, back at them.) Well I think that's about all I've got for my rambling on about nothing, which surprisingly turned out to be a bit of something. Now that I look back at what I wrote, there are a few things I probably could rant on about a bit more another day.