Fridays and Reality TV

Thanks for all the feedback that you all gave me concerning my video blog!  It was something that was fun to do but the end result is that A Dad And His Boy blog is going to remain a written blog.  There might be the occasion or two when a video blog entry seems appropriate but the written word just seems more elegant and appropriate in this case.  Furthermore one of the big outcomes of writing the blog is that I get a chance to write and write a lot.  One of my future dreams is to get good enough at writing that I can get something published.  Keeping up the practice of writing just about everyday will help me realize that dream.

I do think I am going to do a lot more with video however.  It won't necessarily end up here on the blog except for the interesting pieces.  When my back is finally fixed and I resume my hiking I will be taking my GoPro video camera with me.  My goal will be to edit that footage and put it into a nicely viewable format.  I did a bunch of that kind of work back in 2008 and 2009 when I used photos taken while hiking to create some really nice video montages.  I will be getting back to doing that.

In some ways I don't have a lot to say today, in other ways I do.  It's kind of an interesting dilemma as there are things that I would like to say but I just don't feel like taking the time to work through the right way to say them.  Part of my issue I guess is that I am really getting frustrated with my situation - not being able to do much of anything.  The overall pain level in my back has increased recently and the number of available pain pills I have continues to go down.  So my ability to take the number of pills I need does not match the number of pills I have!  I just need to be able to hold on for 10 more days!  I had all my pre-op work done today.  They took a bunch of blood and did and EKG.  It wasn't anything too amazing!

Besides the fact that it is a Friday evening one of the things I really look forward to on Fridays (or usually Saturday's until I watch it) is the TV show Gold Rush.  I religiously DVR this show and then either watch it very late on Friday night or sometime on Saturday.  It is one of the reality shows on the Discovery Channel.  The show follows the fortunes of 6 out of work guys from Oregon who head north to Alaska and then the Canadian Klondike to work gold claims.  The first season they worked an existing claim called Porcupine Creek which is in Alaska.  This season, the second they had to move further north into the Klondike because the first claim was bought out from underneath them as they were leasing it.  (They had to give the owner 20% of their take.)

So far their fortunes haven't been very good.  In the first season they invested something like $200,000 and only found 9 ounces of gold - worth about $20,000.  This season they are doing better but they still haven't hit the big pay streak for which they were looking.  On last week's show they mined and ran over 1000 yards (cubic yards) of dirty through their "wash plant" and they only found 5 ounces of gold.  That is a huge amount of work to do for 5 ounces of work.  Personally, I don't know how these guys survive other than the fact that they are being filmed for a reality TV show.  The show gets very good ratings so I am sure these guys must make a darn good bit of money off the TV rights in addition to their mining income.

I think Gold Rush is a pretty good show but some of the reality shows that they have come up with are just insane.  I didn't watch this one but I saw it advertised, it was called "Lady Hoggers" and it was about a company made up of women down in Texas that went out and hunted down wild hogs.  Umm...  that just doesn't sound like quality TV to me.  Even some of the more popular reality shows like Pawn Stars just seem so staged it is ridiculous.  I can't get into those shows at all.  At least Gold Rush doesn't seem to be as staged but I am sure it probably is.  What will they come up with for new reality shows next?

On a totally different note for this evening, I have to say that Finnegan is the most fun puppy ever!  This evening my back has been hurting a lot so I have been lying on the big couch in our family room playing with him.  He has this dumbbell like squeaky toy that he loves.  He will chase it any where in the house.  I throw it into the kitchen for him and he takes off running to get it.  As soon as he brings it back to me, he drops it right on my lap.  I then torment him with it by squeaking it in his face - it's really not a tormenting him as he loves the game - he tries to steal the toy from my hand.  If he gets a good grip on it we will have a tug of war for it.  When he is trying to bite at it I will hit it up against the side of his muzzle.  It makes a ton of noise and it gets him all excited.  I then throw it for him again and we will do the same thing.  I am not sure who has whom trained - do I have him trained to fetch it or does he have me trained to throw it for him?  Perhaps the pups are smarter than we think!

On last note about Finn.  He has continued to get bigger.  He is now almost as tall as Lex.  He is no where near as broad as Lex as he hasn't even began to fill out.  But he is still so darn cute.  I always call him our baby puppy, because he still seems so much like that little puppy that emerged from his kennel on Christmas Eve 2010!  We love this little dog!  Not that we don't love Lex because we definitely do, but Lex has his own unique personality and he is quite happy to spend his days snoozing on the dog bed in front of the fireplace or on my bed.  His muzzle is pretty much solid gray so he deserves his time to rest, sleep and relax.  Regardless Lex we still love you too!

Not a whole lot else to say for the day.  We don't have anything going on tonight but tomorrow I have a birthday celebration to go to for a friend of mine so that should make the evening a little more lively.  A bunch of us are getting together for drinks and dinner - so it should be good.

I also think that Zack and I are going to go out and look for a new car this weekend.  We currently have 2 cars that are both over 10 years old.  We have "The Beast" which is our 1998 Ford Explorer.  Despite it's age, this car is in very good shape except for the fact that Lex has ripped the carpet off the back cargo area.  The Explorer currently has 130,000 miles on it but it's engine is in great shape. This car seems to be a keeper as I believe I can get another 120,000 - 150,000 miles out of it.  Our other car is a 2001 Honda Civic.  It only has 92,000 miles on it, but I just haven't treated it well.  The body is a bit messed up and the inside took a beating from when Zack was a little kid.  I can't even begin to count the number of times he either puked in it or spilled the entire contents of a sippy cup in it.  Though it is a younger car and has fewer miles it just seems like it is much older than the Explorer.  I am giving serious thought to trading it in for whatever it is worth and getting another small sedan-like car.  It will only be another 3 years or so until Zack is driving and I would like to have a car that has the most modern safety gadgets in it and now just seems like a good time to do this.  Not that I am all about buying new things as I am not, but to be honest with the overall mood that I am in, a new car might just perk me up a bit.  I refinanced the house back in November so each month I am now saving enough money that I could take on a car payment without adding any financial stress to my life.

Oh my...  I wish, I wish....  I wish I had my best friend at my side.  Kind of funny as I was thinking about the evening back in January of 2010 when the two of us came close to burning my friends apartment down.  We didn't even realize it until there was a pillow fully engulfed in flame.  Gees...  those were the best of times.  I miss them a lot.  I'll never have a best friend like that again - you only ever have one like that in your life.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Thanks and peace to all! ~J.