Car Repair

I decided sometime in 1994 to start working on my own cars. I enjoy the work. It's a type of therapy. It allows me to do something with my hands other than dial a phone. ...And I can swear and no one will hear me.

Yesterday I tackled the water pump. The power steering pump went out all of a sudden and I had suffered long enough with a weak water pump so I decided to go for a "two-fer". I could invest a day and $150 or pay Pep Boys $500 and not worry about it. "Which would you prefer...?"

I elected the do-it-yourself approach. I don't take that much time off and besides it was a Thursday I probably wouldn't have made $350 so I decided to save it instead. I realize that a mechanical engineer of most auto designs was never a mechanic. Knowing how to draw it up and build it does not necessarily mean you can repair it. I cussed these engineers all day long. I wanted them to figure it out. I wanted them to be there busting their knuckles and bruising their forearms and experiencing those "wtf" moments with me. All of you ass-pocket mechanics and my sons will understand what I'm talking about.

Here is a picture of the water pump I replaced. What you don't see is the alternator, power-steering pump, pump-bracket, coolant reservoir, 3 pulleys and a serpentine belt the size of a hula-hoop I removed to get to this. The picture makes it look like a cake-walk; other than the 12, yes 12 bolts that hold on the water pump. The water-pump gasket instructions say, "clean old gasket material off mounting flange to assure good seal." Sounds simple enough. An hour of scraping with a razor blade, chisel and grinding with a wire brush disc on my drill assured the "good seal". I wanted to take the designer of this car and the writer of those instruction and spend an hour grinding their butts flat with a razor, a chisel and a wire brush on a drill to assure a good seal to the STUPID CHAIR!

End of day...Water Pump replaced. Power Steering pump replaced. Car works fine. Saved $350 and got the day off work and off the phone. ArrrArrrArrrr...... I proved once again I am a manly man!

15 BOOKS

My daughters "Tagged me" on Facebook and shared their list of 15 with me. So I responded in kind and am including the list on my blog. I realize I could add 10 or 20 or take any of these off but I'll stick with my guns.

Here are 15 books that I read that will always stick with me. Not in any order or degree of importance or with any explanation. Grisham didn't make the list and I have read most of his. Creighton could have had 3-4 on here. And do you remember reading JAWS by Peter Benchley when it came out! Talk about a page turner. These are books I own in hardback - because that is a true commitment. And books I would recommend to my friends. I wonder what a list like this really says about a person?

1. Centennial - James Michener
2. Hawaii - James Michener
3. Winds of War - Herman Wouk
4. War and Remembrance - Herman Wouk
5. Hunt for Red October - Tom Clancey
6. In Cold Blood - Truman Capote
7. The Horse Whisperer - Nicholas Sparks
8. Sphere - Michael Creighton (Creighton rocks!)
9. Snow Falling on Cedars - David Guterson
10. Jesus The Christ - James Talmage
11. The Discoverers - Daniel Boorstin
12. Contact - Carl Sagan
13. Shogun - James Clavell
14. Noble House - James Clavell
15. The Eye of the Needle - Ken Follet

OK...

I'm tired of this...
No, I'm sick and tired of this!...
NO! I'M *#$%^@* SICK AND TIRED OF THIS!...

I want to play the drums in a rock band!
I want to play the guitar like Jimmy Page!
I want to ride a bike across the country!
I want to get a ticket for going a 120 in my new, fast, hot, black car!
I want to swim in big surf again!
I want to pull my kids and grand kids up skiing behind my 21 foot speed boat.
I really do want a Harley!
I want to roll 7 or 11 - 5 times in a row at the craps table in Vegas, draw a crowd, pump my fist in the air and yell HELL YES! at the top of my lungs as I walk away with an armful of chips.
I want to finish my funny, freakin' book about "Mikey" and have someone call me and beg to pay me millions for the movie rights!
I want to say on the phone to people exactly what I think, not what is politically correct.
-If you suck, you suck.
-If you lie you are a liar.
-If you are Chicken-S#^* then I want to call you out.
-If you can't make a decision I want to tell you that you are spineless, indecisive toothless 3rd cousin of a jellyfish!
If I order a #3 combo and you give me a #5 I want to walk in the restaurant throw it back at you and shout,"WHAT'S SO HARD ABOUT PUTTING 3 TACOS AND A CHALUPA IN THIS LITTLE BAG WHEN I ASK YOU FOR 3 TACOS AND A CHALUPA!
I want to tell people to SPEAK UP and SPEAK ENGLISH!
I want people to understand there is a difference between RIGHTS, and RIGHT and WRONG!
I want the Lakers and all their smug fans to lose!
I'm tired of people half my age with half my experience telling me how many blocks they've been around!
I want to tell Doctors that if I have an appointment at 1PM then dammit it's at 1PM. I'm as busy and important as whoever they think they are!
I want to tell all celebrities to keep their screwed-up political opinions to themselves. THEY'RE ACTORS FOR HELL SAKE!
What part of "Abraham" do the Jews and the Muslims not understand! HOLY CRAP!
I want a Navy Seal to use a 50mm bullet as a Q-tip on Osama bin-Laden left ear.
YES. SAVE THE WHALES! HUG THE TREES! SAVE THE RAIN FORESTS! GO GREEN! AND KISS MY A** IF YOU CAN THINK OF A REALLY GOOD REASON WHY WE SHOULDN'T!
I want to be a disc jockey and have my own radio show. What's the downside? A Talk show!? HELL NO! A DO SHOW!
Turn up the Rock n' Roll! It makes you think clearer!

Right about now my kids are thinking to themselves.... "Something's wrong with Dad."

Yes! Something's wrong with Dad.

Maybe this was caused by the guy in Burger King the other day who's hand I wanted to shake but didn't. A well-worn USS IOWA hat welded to his grey hair. Lot's of pins on it including a small purple heart. Mid 80's. Short. Grizzled. In need of a shave. A limp. And eyes that have seen around blocks I will never travel....thanks to him. After lunch he and his wife climbed into a Ford parked in a handicap stall and slowly drove off. He played the drums in a rock band!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! I hope it's a fine '09. No, I'm not going to spend the next few minutes telling you all my resolutions and all the crap I think I'll do this year. Who am I kidding. They are the same one's I failed at last year. You can read last year's if you're curious. If I do them, I do them, If I don't, I don't. It's as simple as that. There's nothing magical or special about January ONE... oh, we do begin a new tax year, that's about the only certainty.

I don't want to sound fatalistic but I don't want to strap myself with unreasonable expectations, fail, then carry guilt around for the rest of the year. I'll tell you what, I'll do my best, That's it. That may not be good enough for some people but it will have to do. I'll do my best. I'm a good guy, I'm friendly, I work hard and I am attentive to those I love. Those things won't change.

I'll do my best

Gratitude

OK - Here's the annual "what I'm thankful for blog". Yes, all of the normal things; wife, children, job, church, health...... But this year maybe something different. Something that only comes to one after fighting a tough battle for a season. Maybe that's why occasionally we are placed in the front lines of battles we would prefer not to fight....to learn wisdom. There's a couple of ways to gain wisdom; Passively by study, meditation and prayer learning from the experiences of others or aggressively by our choices and actions and the consequences that result.

The Lord in his wisdom tells us... "But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words" Alma 32:27. Trust and believe me - obey. Or, go find out for yourself - disobey. Life is a combination of the two. Either way, if we are honest with ourselves about the outcome we will gain wisdom.

This Thanksgiving I am particularly grateful for the knowledge that I am truly a child of a living God. That He, as proof of his infinite wisdom, has given me freedom of choice.

If I am a truly a child of a living, loving God, what are my innate abilities and what should I be able to accomplish? The possibilities are unlimited. Unlimited if we view our lives in the eternal perspective. If we view ourselves strictly from a temporal perspective (the perspective that the adversary wants us to adopt) then we confront all sorts of limitations. A short person probably won't excel at basketball. A school teacher probably won't live in a mansion on the hill. Not all of us will be rich and famous. Not all of us will drive a luxury car, sport a 3 carat diamond ring or vacation on the French Riviera. The adversary would have us believe those things are the definition of heaven, Oh, I almost forgot... and looking "tight" in those True Religion jeans. Wow, that's a heaven reserved for less than a speck of humanity if that is the criteria for membership in the kingdom.

As a child of God I am only limited by my ability to make good choices. I have infinite power to do what is in my sphere to control. If I want to be thin I can choose to be thin. If I want to write a book, I can choose to write a book. If I want to be happy and make people around me feel better, I can choose to do so. I may never be a great basketball player..... but does it really matter?

I choose to be better and do better. "Now ye may suppose that this is a foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass;..." Alma 37:6

So I'll start small today.

The Burden of Men

It’s been awhile friends. I don’t suspect there are that many people that regularly check this blog other than my family, and my family is well aware of the what’s been happening since my last entry. But it does have a name; The Burden of Men. Sounds more like a title of a book. Maybe instead of a blog I should write a book.

I guess the biggest news is that I changed jobs. Breaking down reluctant people on the phone seems to be my lot in life. At least this time around they are less reluctant, more interested and better prepared for “the pitch”. It makes my life a lot easier and the days go faster. The happy part of thehappyrick.com is coming back. The purpose for work is finally being fulfilled …making money. We would all like to be doing something that fulfills our nature but the fact of the matter is 99% don’t live in that Utopia yet, so we simply work for money. I’m finally making money so all’s good.

Money can’t buy happiness but it sure as hell can buy a lot of things. I have proven one thing: Lack of money causes a chain reaction that brings nothing but stress and unhappiness. So in a real sense money does buy a certain kind of happiness despite what the PMA (Positive Mental Attitude) people would like us to believe. I am all over having a positive mental attitude. But maintaining a positive mental attitude is a little tough when you can’t feed the family, make the mortgage and the utilities go off and on with the flow of paychecks. That’s not a recipe for happiness. Which brings us to the burden of men.

“In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread” …. Some of us seem to sweat more than others. Choices, culture, family, genetics or simple luck; call it anything you want. It’s the Burden of Men. Father, Husband, Provider, tough titles with tough tasks. I’m not complaining, that’s just the way it is. Marian could write an equally compelling book called The Burden of Women. All of this rhetoric is to explain why I haven’t written in my blog since May. The Burden of Rick has weighed me heavily down, which is the burden of men in my world.

This is supposed to be a fun forum with humorous anecdotes. But this is also a verbal reality show. Occasionally reality isn’t very humorous. One thing about my new job; my natural sense of humor is returning. Seems like the last three years the burden crushed my sense of humor, my personality, and my hope for the future. I felt as if my dreams had been run through a rock crusher. No more! I feel the light coming back. I feel the ambition coming back. Perhaps some other things that are really important to me will come back as well.

Money can’t buy happiness… but life can REALLY suck without it.

The Samoan Prince is Home

I can't describe the feeling of seeing Brandon again last night. He has been gone for 2 years serving an LDS mission in Samoa. Our entire family anxiously awaited his arrival. We stood in the baggage claim area looking up at the escalator as all the arriving passengers descended toward us hoping to catch the first glimpse of him in the crowd. Finally, there he was. My son! I saw his face then his smile. I immediately noticed the change in him. I thrust both my fists in the air and grinned from ear to ear as tears streamed down my cheeks. He was wearing a gray suit coat, white shirt and a light green tie. You could barely see the tie for the multiple shell lei's around his neck. Then I noticed the matching gray lava lava, bare legs and black sandals and ukulele. He held his head high and flashed a toothy white grin. He carried himself like the royal Samoan Prince he had become.

Mom, of course, was the first to run out with her arms open. What a sweet, tender moment to see that embrace. Brandon took off one of the larger shell lei's and placed it over her head and hugged her again. As he progressed to me and then through each member of the family; a hug, a shell lei and another hug. The lei was placed on each of us like a blessing. A coronation of love and respect.

I was so impressed with the love and affection he displayed to a large Samoan family that was picking up their son. I can only explain it as his royal demeanor as I saw former strangers each approach him, give him a warm embrace and kiss on the cheek. He had become a brother and fellow member of the Samoan family. He engaged in easy conversation in the native language he had learned. He spoke so fluently and powerfully. It rolled off his tongue like honey. Laughter, affection, tears. He treated them like family they now were. What a transformation.

I hate to see that aura diminish over the next few weeks and months. He is no longer a missionary. He is faced with new challenges of life. But I will always have that picture of him descending the escalator as the royal Samoan Prince. The smile, the lei's around his neck, the green tie, the lava lava, the sandals, the stand-tall demeanor.

We were all hungry and wanted to be gone from the airport. The move to the parking structure was a slow one. Brandon had to seek out each of the 6 Elders he had come home with. That lead to more hugs, and more pictures. His last stop was the Samoan Elder. I witnessed a long embrace of true brotherhood and love. They held each other by the shoulders and looked into each others eyes. I was too far away to hear what they were saying. I know they were speaking their native tongue - Samoan. I know it was words of love and respect. Things only returned missionaries can say to each other. Small words that hold two years of experience and meaning.

We look forward to integrating Brandon back into the home and family. Supporting him as he faces new challenges. Welcome Home Elder Black! - PICTURES TO FOLLOW