He Likes It - Hey Mikey

Hello all. Here I type in my previous post that nobody is blogging, and I haven’t posted anything since then.

So what did I do today? Headed out to the semi-new IKEA store in Frisco, Texas. It has actually been around for about a year or so, but I have already been to the one in Chicago, so it was no big deal. My wife, on the other hand, had never been to one. So off we went on the 20 mile trek to the 310,000 sq. ft. behemoth.

For those that have never heard of or have never been to an IKEA, it is a home “stuff” megastore. They sell everything from self assembly furniture, to kitchenware, to bathware, to bedware, to livingroomware….are those last two even words? Well, you get the idea. Not only that, but they also have a free daycare center with a lot of jungle gyms and such to keep the little ones busy. Finally, they have a nice little cafeteria style restaurant that sells everything from salmon and swedish meatballs, to a Texas favorite; chicken fried steak.

In a word…or three…I was bored. I really don’t like shopping at all, especially if I don’t have the money to buy anything. I’ll have to admit, though, that they do have a HUGE selection of everything you can think of for the house. And VERY reasonable prices. They are like the Walmart of the “furniture/Bed Bath & Beyond/Pier 1 Imports/Luby’s Cafeteria” world. Now, if I did have a Mastercard with an open credit line of 10,000 dollars or more, I would probably have had a heyday there. Definitely the place to go if you are looking to make some changes to your home.

As it was (see no Mastercard with 10,000 dollars) I would have rather sat at home staring at the latest installment of “Dog the Bounty Hunter.” And I hate that show. Sure, it’s a nice store, but it’s like going to Starbucks and realizing they raised the price of their Cafe Latte Grande to 50 dollars. Not enough of the green stuff.

My wife actually bought a couple items that she needed, but all told, she spent just under 40 dollars. With that, she was able to nab a rolling aluminum type clothes hanging thing, 2 different sized frying pans, 5 dish towels, and a nice kettle for the stove. Not too bad of a deal. By the way, they sell the best drinking glasses if you ever need some. Solid heavy base; just the right size, and very cheap. It sounds like I am a walking commercial, doesn’t it.

In closing, IKEA is a cool store and as I said before, the selection is huge and the prices are good, though I think I will stick to Super Target for most of my multiple shopping needs. They have all the “special” items I need, and groceries on the side. As a plus, they have that nice red bullseye decor, and that goofy looking dog.

Well, that’s my post for probably the whole week, so I hope all 3 of my regular readers enjoyed it. :-) I will be quite busy for the next 3 to 5 days. I won’t get into the details, because it’s a personal matter. I will try to sneak something in if I can find the time. If not, you can always count down the final hours on my Superman clock. I won’t be on to see it count down the final seconds, so maybe somebody can let me know if it explodes or something exciting like that. :-)

Everyone have a great week!!

So hey, where is everyone? I first started this blog back in March. When I started, and when I started reading blogs, people were posting daily. What happened? People that used to post daily now post every other day or sometimes longer. My brother Joe? He hasn’t posted anything since May 30th. I worry about that a little bit, because when he used to own the domain playoneontv.com, he started slowing down and eventually quit for awhile. Long enough, anyway, to lose the domain.

I know it’s summer and people are busy, but is that really the reason why? Is it from lack of anything interesting to say? That seems to be my problem. I have a lot going on in my life, and I am very preoccupied at the moment. I look back at some of my recent posts, and then view some of my posts when I first started, and it’s like I’m reading two different blogs. I use preoccupatioin as my excuse anyway. :-)

All I know is I used to scan a good many blogs on a regular basis, and for some reason, everyone has slowed down. Listen people, I know you have to eat and take care of the family and all, but priorities here. First blog, then change the babies diaper. Constipated? Blog, then take the Exlax. Late for work? Call in sick and blog. House on fire? Take the laptop outside, wait for the fire department, and blog. The antichrist knocks on your door? Tell Damien to take a number (not 666) and you’ll be with him as soon as you blog. You get the idea. :-)

Of course, this is all in jest, and I know that many of you are involved in spending quality time with your friends and families. And yes, some of you have jobs where you work all day and may be just too tired to write anything. I just miss you all. :-( But I do understand.

I used to post daily. Now I am lucky to post once every 3 or 4 days. Again, a lot going on here, but it seems I spend more time looking at other blogs and commenting than I do working on my own. Soon, as you know Diane J, I’ll have lots of time to blog. Too much time probably. I’ll be a posting fool soon. :-) Until then, I’ll put up with everyones lack of posting if you’ll put up with mine.

Just don’t stay gone too long. Daddy worries about his little blogger kids. :-)

Welcome to June 21st; better known as the summer solstice. Today is the official start of summer time, and it’s also the longest day of the year.

As far as I am concerned, summer has been here for quite awhile, having spent this past month or so with highs mostly in the upper 90s and even a few low 100s. It kind of makes me wonder what is in store for the rest of the summer. In August, our average highs are around 98 degrees, so does that mean we are in for an August of triple digit heat?

Let’s face it…it’s going to be hot and miserable for most of us. Well, at least for most of us who live from Kansas on south. So what can we do to beat the heat? You can’t very well walk around naked. Well, you can, if you enjoy sharing a jail cell with a big biker gang type guy who thinks you have a pretty face. The experts say the usual; drink plenty of fluids, avoid long periods in the sun, try to stay in an air conditioned environment, etc.

I have an idea. Why doesn’t someone come up with a portable air conditioning system? I’m not talking about some gizmo from the Sharper Image that claims to lower the surrounding air by as much as 15 degrees. I’m talking an actual portable lightweight condenser that you can wear casually, just as you would wear your favorite pair of Crocs.

In this day and age of high tech, you would think someone would have come up with something like that. We have IPods and cellphones, both of which will let you play your favorite ABBA song. We have bluetooth headsets to go along with said cellphones, which make you appear to be some lunitic that enjoys talking to yourself. We have cars with onboard computers that give you audible directions to your favorite strip club. We even have GPS devices that will let you know exactly what lattitude and longitude you are at. (strictly for geeks.) Yet nobody has come up with a portable air conditioner?

Think of how an invention like that will make life so much easier. Road construction will be completed that much sooner, for example. No more sitting there in your car, complaining because they have 2 miles of the left lane closed while every single worker you see is sitting under a tree. No more having to see the unsightly 350 lb. man mowing his lawn shirtless with sweat dripping out of every pore of his being. People that transfer your luggage at the airport for a living will actually make an attempt to accomplish that task in a timely manner. :-)

So that’s my next major project. If no one else will do it, then I will give it a shot. Not only will such a device make me cooler, but it will make me rich. And if anyone has an idea on how to even start to make such a device, I will go 70/30 in with you. Okay….60/40. Hey, it was my idea.

I know such a device sounds interesting to many of you. If you feel you could use something like that now, you can always strap a Trane or a Carrier to a wagon, carry around a portable generator, and of course strap a blower to your waist to keep the cool air coming. If that sounds like too much, just give me a couple of decades. I am sure I will come up with something. Even if it means hiring someone to follow you around all day and blow on you.

So, here was my predicament. The mission? To fly Anthony to San Antonio this morning, and be able to return on the same day. Not an easy thing to do, especially as a non revenue, standby employee. My first choice would be to fly him out of Dallas/Ft. Worth International Airport, being I live only 4 miles away from there, and I can also park in employee parking and save a little money. The problem was that with everyone flying these day, every single San Antonio trip going out of DFW was full. Looking back, we couldn’t have made it out on the first flight, but could have made it on the second. The trip home would have had me wait out for two trips before I could have made it back out.

Anthony had this wonderful idea. Why not drive to Dallas Love Field Airport and catch a flight out of there. Being the airline/airport aficionado that he is, he was more aware than I was of what AA flights actually fly out of Love Field.

A little history here, since there are a few of you who may not know about how American ended up having flights at two city airports. It’s called the Wright Amendment. Without going into great detail, it was inacted by congress years ago to push the development of the then new DFW airport, without losing service to passengers wishing to travel out of Love Field. Since then, Southwest Airlines has been pushing to have the Wright Amendment restrictions lifted, where as American Airlines and the DFW Airport have been looking to keep the amendment in place. There was recently an agreement hammered out between Southwest, AA, Dallas, and Fort Worth on what to do with Wright. The plan does have to be repealed by Congress, and the way Congress moves on important matters, it might take awhile. Some people are happy with the new agreement, and some aren’t. That’s life, though.

This post isn’t meant to be a debate. Besides, being that I work for American Airlines, you probably would say I am biased regardless of what my opinion is. :-)

American has 13 AA MD-80s flying from DFW to San Antonio.

Southwest also has numerous 737’s flying out from Love Field to San Antonio.

And then little ol’ American Eagle has 4 50 seater RJs flying out of Love Field.

Given the choice, people are going to want to fly the larger jets. And they obviously do. I can’t speak for Southwest, but it is near to impossible to catch a flight out of DFW to San Antonio. I am sure it is the same way for Southwest. So that leaves me with Eagle. The only reason we have any presence there at Love is for competition reasons, ever since Southwest was allowed to fly to St. Louis and Kansas City.

Indirectly, this little spat between the airlines and the two major cities there greatly assisted me in getting to San Antonio. The Eagle flights were WIDE open. I didn’t relish the fact of having to drive to Love Field, which is 18 miles from where I live, especially during rush hour. So, my son suggested we do what any excited 15 year old airport/airplane lover would do. “Let’s leave here at 5:15 am for our 7:45 flight. It actually didn’t sound like a bad idea, being that anytime after 6:00am, it can become bumper to bumper just trying to get to that airport, since it is in such close proximately to downtown Dallas. We arrived there with a good 2 hours before our flight left. I also didn’t relish not only paying for parking, but knowing I had a 3 hour layover once I got to San Antonio.

Once there this morning, I just sat, thinking about how long my day was going to be, and how it would have taken just as long just to drive, with the advantage of having my Barry CD’s with me. :-) Then I call Anthony’s grandma, who was picking him up. It turns out she was already waiting at the airport in San Antonio. I said, “you do know we are still here in Dallas and our flight doesn’t leave for another 30 minutes.” It turns out she has the same “hate” of driving through rush hour traffic too, so she left early for the airport.

That all made it work out well. We got off the plane, I walked over to security, where his grandma was waiting, I said goodbye, have fun, don’t give your relatives any trouble, and I turned right back around and caught the immediate return trip which left in 25 minutes.

In fact, the worse part of the whole trip was having to maneuver the highway traffic on my way home. Nothing like taxi cab vans with report my driving bumper stickers weaving in and out of traffic at 90 miles an hour. When all was said and done, I spent a total of 6 hours going from leaving my front door to entering my front door; a savings of about 4 hours if I would have driven, not to mention the 65 dollars in gas it would have cost me.

Although this Wright Amendment arguement has been going on for some time, it sure worked to my advantage. I had the reassurance that I would have no problem getting there or coming back, and Anthony had the joy of being able to fly out of an airport he has never flown out of before.

There was a little interesting note that happened on the plane. I just happened to notice a gentleman sitting on the plane a couple of seats ahead of us. It turns out that while I was going to San Antonio to drop off my son Anthony, he was a nonrev flying to pick up HIS son Anthony to bring back to Dallas. A weird coincidence.

All in all, it was a short and not too stressful day. In fact, it seems I spent more time today driving around trying to find a liquor store that sold Bailey’s Irish Creme. For sinful cities like DFW, they sure do lack any places that don’t sell anything other than beer and wine coolers. Too many dry counties here. I gave up after driving around for 45 minutes. I guess I have to make a trip to Dallas or Fort Worth city limits. Those are the only places you can get it. Another option, I guess, is I could have called one of those “how’s my driving” bumper stickers on the back of the cabs, complained, and then asked, “where can a guy get a drink around here?” :-)

I received a card from Anthony about 1 week ago. He was so excited about buying it, that he had to give it to me that night. It was a Superman Card. He obviously reads my blog. :-)

Then, my wife Judy said she had a special card for me tonight. Let’s just say, it was a pleasant surprise. The following picture was inside the card.

And here is the actual outside and inside of the card.

Sorry the inside of the card is cut off, but you get the gist of it. That is Miko’s paw print that Judy did. I thought it was such a unique idea. I never thought of that as a Father’s Day gift. It felt just as good receiving this one as the one I received from my son. This is the one that Anthony gave me.

Yes, I have a unique and loving family. Father’s Day cards with my two favorite things; Superman, and my dog, Miko. :-)

Another Father’s Day is upon us. I would like to tell you about the most wonderful Dad a person could ask for. (No, I’m not talking about myself.) :-) That’s my Dad to the right, with my Mom, in a picture taken in Las Vegas.

My Dad’s name is Sidney Malcolm Goodwin. Depending on who you are, would depend on what you would call him. To my Mom, his family, and her family, he is Mac. To all his friends, for the most part, he is Sid. He has always been a good Dad, and that transfered over to him being a wonderful grandpa.

My Dad has had a life of ups and downs. To him, it wouldn’t really appear that way, but we see it when we look at his past. His family grew up very poor. When he was a young child, there was a time that they had to live in a bus that was parked on a friend’s farm. He, being young, didn’t view it that way, but can see it now. He did have his moments, though. There was a day when he was playing around on the bus. He released the emergency brake, and it started rolling down the hill. He recounts how my Grandpa had to run barefoot through a field of stickers and burrs to catch up to the bus and stop it. Scary back then, but a funny story to hear it now. Eventually, they moved into a small house, and things got better.

Dad grew up as normal as any child could. He learned to play the drums in school, and eventually became a drummer in the navy. He had the honor of playing for John F. Kennedy at the dedication of OHare International Airport in Chicago. While also in the Navy, he met my Mom while stationed on Guam. A letter writing campaign began, and they married in the early 60s. He moved with my Mom to St. Louis where yours truly, my brother Joe, and my sister Nancy were born. We lived there two years, and eventually ended up in Oklahoma City, where my sister Jane was born, and where he got a job as an accountant for Kerr McGee Corporation.

His career took him far, but his drum career was always a staple in his life. He played for a local bad called the Red Rice Band, and later for a band called The Al Goode Orchestra. He can play just about any type of music, but jazz is his favorite. He has played for Jerry Van Dyke, and in one of his proudest moments, got a chance to play with Gladys Knight and the Pips. They were in town for a concert, and their drummer got sick. Somehow, word got out on how good Dad was, and they asked him to fill in for the concert. He was great, I hear, and that was only with one rehearsal. He was not a big Gladys Knight fan, but that was how good of a drummer he was. He can pick up the beat of a song like it was nothing.

After retiring from Kerr Mcgee, he went to work as an accountant for Sonic Drive Thru’s corporate headquarters. He jokes that he was hired when they found out he was a drummer. The corporate band, led by the CEO, was in need of a drummer. He may have been right. :-) That “gig” has taken him to Las Vegas and to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, for a battle of the corporate bands competition.

These days he spends watching all the young grandkids during the week. My sisters pay him for it, but less than what they would pay for regular daycare. He does it to help them out and because he enjoys it. They have someone they trust watching the kids, and someone who really enjoys spending his days with the grandkids. He still plays the drums on Saturdays. He has a little thing at a place called Ingrid’s Kitchen in Oklahoma City. He has done it for years, and enjoys all the older couples coming in to dance to the old jazzy tunes. :-) He also still plays occasionally for the Al Goode Orchestra.

My Dad is the most caring person, and just loves his family. He would do anything for anyone. Both he and my Mom live for their kids and grandkids. They were never the type that “couldn’t wait” for the kids to move out. We all talk almost every night, to this day. You could never find more loving people if you searched the world twice over.

As usual, this post is a little early, because of my work schedule and all, but it doesn’t make it any less important or meaningful to me.

So, this post is for you Dad. You have helped me become the man I am today, and I thank you for it. I only hope I can continue to be the kind of Dad to Anthony that you are to me. And don’t worry. I am not including any poems or anything like that like I did for Mother’s Day. Just a simple, “I love you” and “Happy Father’s Day.”

I am off for yet another 210 mile drive back to Oklahoma City. Time to pick up Anthony. This week, OKC. Next week, San Antonio. As usual, the flights are full, so driving I must do. It kind of stinks to have free flight benefits at work and you can’t even use them because the planes are so full. Then again, it’s good for business, so I’ll have a job to come home to. :-)

Anyway, this blog will be inactive for a couple of days, in case anyone is interested. This will give me a chance to ask my brother why he hasn’t posted anything in his blog since May 30th. :-) He is actually a very busy and active person, and I’m surprised he has any time to post anything. I just have to keep him from getting too busy. That happened long ago when he owned the actual domain “playoneontv.com.” He let it go and lost it to some company holding it for an 80 dollar ransom. Not to mention, my blog runs on his server, and I would hate to try to find another one to transfer all this over to. I’m so selfish. :-)

Everyone have a good couple of days, and I will see you all soon……..

Mikeylikey signing off and leaving……at 5:10 am, no less, and Anthony is not even with me to force me to go this early. :-)

I have always been a fan of the comics. In fact, my brother Joe and I had one of the most complete comic book collections in our neighboorhood. Heck, probably all of Oklahoma.

We kept separate collections, with some superdudes that he read, and the ones that I enjoyed. You would be surprised that as a child and young teen, I did not collect any Superman comics. Part of that is probably because Superman had already hit the big screen in 1978, and to me, it just blew comic books away. So I collected either the ones that I really enjoyed, or the ones that just had cheesy television versions.

My collection consisted of “The Amazing Spiderman,” “The Incredible Hulk,” “The Avengers,” “Thor,” and various “What if…” series of comics. I can’t recall all that Joe collected, but I know a big one of his was “The Fantastic Four.” Both of us collected mainly Marvel Comics, and very few, if any DC comics. I’m talking every single issue that hit the newsstands.

Then, tragedy struck. We were moving to Guam, so we shipped a lot of stuff ahead of time, including our comics. Unfortunately, our little cousins found them, read them, left them out, and a typhoon struck and ruined most of them. That was the blow and end to our comic book collecting.

Now, though, I get to see them in real life. :-) The big screen!! I’ve enjoyed all incarnations onto the big screen of all the heros so far, with the exception of the Hulk. I rather liked the old Bill Bixby, Lou Ferrigno television show much better. To see my old friend Spiderman come to life in 2 motion pictures with cool special effects was, well, amazing, for lack of a better word. Didn’t read the XMen, but did enjoy the first and second movie, and will probably enjoy the third. Liked the Fantastic Four, and of course Superman. Hence, I await 15 more days to see the man in blue tights. June 15th of next year? Fantastic Four 2. Spiderman 3? May 4th. Ghostrider? February 16th. My blog will be filled with countdown clocks next year. :-)

Yes, the movies are good, and with the special effects these days, it’s amazing how they bring the heros to life. Still, though, sometimes I miss the old comic books. Not because a lot of them were rare, or that my collection was so huge. I miss them because they told good stories. A comic book series can go so much more into a character than a 2 hour movie. The art was terrific, and it still left a little for the imagination. You would read a comic, and picture the action in your mind. Kind of like using your imagination to make it come to life. Sometimes what you see on the big screen is how you imagined it in your mind. Most of the time, not.

At my current age, I’ll settle for the movies now. I still sit there, though, dissappointed on how they drift away from how the characters were in the comics. i.e. The hulk grunting, instead of talking; Spidey actually shooting web out of his wrists as opposed to Peter Parker, science major in the comics, coming up with his own web formulation to use. Marvel movies tend to do this, while DC seems to stay true to form, at least in the movies. The television show Smallville has so many twists on the original, you don’t how how Clark made it out of Kansas.

So bring on the hero movies. It’s nice to escape into a fantasy world now and then. There is so much hatred and violence in the world, that it’s nice to see a movie about an unstoppable good guy.

Finally, it IS all fantasy. Real life does have its heros. They may not be Super, but some people still have the drive for Truth and Justice. They make the world a better place. I just wish I had the powers of just one of these characters. I would make the world I live in even THAT much better. :-)

My sister Jane just sent me these pictures tonight. Sorry they are kind of small. Her only connection to the internet is through her TMobile, so I am guessing she somehow sent them through it. She is always asking me when Anthony will be there, because she likes to take all the kids to the studio to get pictures taken. As some of you know, Anthony has been in OKC for 2 weeks visiting everyone. It surprised me when these showed up in my inbox. I’m not even sure when she had them taken. I’m really surprised that Anthony didn’t say anything to me about them. He has a hard time keeping secrets. :-) Anthony is only 15, and Matt is the second youngest. He’s about 3 years behind Anthony, but Anthony looks like such a young man compared to his little cousins. I just thought I would share them with everyone because I am so proud of all of them.