The odds.

So before we get to the main event I wanna take a few minutes to vent. First of all as much as it pains me to say this, I am needing to find a new home for my boy, Toby. Poor guy just doesnt have enough room and I dont have the time to work him like he needs. So I put him up on a pets classifieds and got many responses. After terrorizing the first families cat to the point of not leaving the top of the dryer for 3 days they decided he wouldnt work out for them. Number 2 in the queue was a 14 year old kid who lived on a 100 acres and who's extended family owned the 1000 surrounding their place. Sounded pretty great so I decided that it would be worth the million mile trek out to flippin La Vernia...yeah.

Mile after mile of Texas boonies and finally i find the address im looking for. I drive up to white double-wide with a few rusted John Deers in the back along with old tires and a satellite that probably only gets the hunting channel as long that large piece of foil is wrapped just right.

I turn the car off and sure enough Tom and Huck come hopin out of the back door hootin and hollerin their delight at the site of Toby. I almost leave right away but hey, no judging and these kids could be the greatest thing to happen to this crazy hound.

Folks, no sooner do i shake this 14 year old's hand when he smiles and not only see 3 rather important teeth missing but he has got a fresh pinch of dip shoved down that bottom lip. I wanted to turn around and ask if anyone else had a problem with this but..no such luck...the 11 year old had prolly ust spit his out. So after watching the dog walk around we start to talk price...I name my price and he says this. "Im broke...you wanna look at what i have to barter?"...not really...."its over here". We walk to the AC unit where there is a stone grinder for grinding all those machetes and swords that i deal with all the time. right....and then he pulls out a sony PDA that doesnt look like its been turned on since 1925...and it doesnt have chrarger. If any of yall have ever seen a cartoon where the dog puts his face on the ground and covers it with his paws cuz he's scared out of his mind....that was Toby. We took off...fast...and of course as I get to the end of the driveway the kid texts and asks me if he throws another $20 in will I turn around....yeah...not happenin. And ust so everyone knows it wasnt ust because if them...They had 3 other dogs that were obviously not getting along with Toby..it was gonna be to much. SO yes...thank you for allowing me to get that off me chest.

Now.  For the super cool story of an AC repair guy from Utah who is racing for 100 grand. The spartan races are pretty difficult, cousins of the tough mudder, warrior dash and the like. The owners the spartan races threw out a challenge that if anyone could win all 14 spartan races in the year 2011 that they would award them $100,000. They didn't expect to have to worry about this for more then 2 or 3 races but 6 races later Mr. Call has taken all of them and is now setting his sights on the toughest one of them all.

Vermont will be the setting for the 24 hour monster race. Not only does Hobie need to finish this (which only about 10 of the 200 will) but the owners of the spartan race have put out a $20,000 reward to anyone who can beat him. sO now the competition gets stiffer but Hobie isn't so worried. As far as he's concerned he's got his 5 kids and best friend behind him, screaming their heads off, hopefully giving him that little extra burst he needs to get to the finish line....first.

I think this is an awesome story and there are great videos all over the place. This Saturday Hobie sets out to win something that seems next to impossible.  Watch the videos and hope that this blue collar guy who sold his TV and a few remote control cars so that he could have the gas to put in his van and drive to different states and race. Race for his family...$100,000.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304657804576402520106391408.html

http://connect2utah.com/news-story?nxd_id=152197&watch=1

GO HOBIE!!!

Love y'all

CO Trip 2011!

Where I'm at.

It's Sunday. I'm at work chillin out with no headphones and the city of San Antonio resting peacefully. No headphones means no music, no Sunday sermon...nada. Oh well. worse things have happened and in all reality it gives me a chance to go to a quiet corner of the station and dig into my bible and get some answers to things that if i try and answer myself not only will I hurt myself but more importantly the ppl around me. =/

Sorry, I dont have any funny stories or pictures today. Im really just being random and writing down thoughts that are racing though my head so bear with me. It's a hard thing to figure out. This whole Christian bit. Believing in a God who can't be touched, cant be seen, cant really be heard. We have lots of "testimonies" of ppl turning their lives around and families receiving random checks the day before they were gonna get evicted. And its God...

But whats to say it's Him? What's to say this whole time this idea hasn't been passed down from generation to generation. I mean while some of the most wonderful things have been done in the "name of Jesus" some of the most heinous acts have been committed in the same name. Is it ust one big mind game? People find comfort in so many things. Is it ust that somehow we found peace in this idea and for some of us its bigger than others. 

I have lots of christian friends and lots of non-christian friends. Some of the non-christian friends act more like a "christian" as the world sees it then some of the professing Christians in my life. So why? Why in the end will the nice guy go to the fire forever and the other guy get a mansion? Why will the judgmental legalist who sits at home and reads his bible all day but does nothing for anyone outside of his family get all these rubies but the one who opens 15 orphanages but denies this idea of God gets the cold torturing dungeon? These are legit questions right? 

These are questions I've had my entire life. Growing up I was taught a certain thing and it sounded right so I believed it. BTW, I don't want anyone thinking this is a slam against my parents. Every parent will teach there children as well as they can and my parents did just that. No brainwashing involved. We don't agree on everything. They taught what they believed and prayed that I would see that i wasn't just a random blob of nothing but that i was indeed created for something. We are all in some way, to different degrees "products of our environment". 

So now the question is asked. If this is what I was born into then am I held to a different set of standards than anyone else? What are standards? What are morals? 

To answer the questions of who goes here and who goes there after you die you have to set some foundations. So we have to ask more questions....aint that the way it goes. 

What I can never get past is this. Why am I here? Where did I come from? Am i just a mass? What about that thing we call a soul? Where did it come from and where is it going? 

If I came from nothing then in all reality am I meant for anything? If I'm not meant for anything then why the hell would I ever do anything for anyone else? I only have 60 years left...if im lucky. So why not make sure this whole thing works out for one person.....me.

If this conclusion is wrong then please tell me. If we have weren't created and this whole thing is just random then why morals? where did those come from? All the sudden as our monkey brains turned into human brains we started to think that certain things were wrong? Did a few monkey men get together and finally put and end to killing so that to this day we follow that undeniable law that killing someone is "immoral". Doesn't there have to be someone or something that not only created us but also created moral law? Why would I feel bad about anything? why wouldn't I steal? why wouldn't I sleep around? You can go deep and dark and without a moral law giver there is no line. Everyone makes their own and if the majority of the populous says it ok well then....its ok?

There has to be something bigger. There has to be creator. The bible does have an answer that we were created by a God who does indeed love his creation. He gave us the choice and we chose to rebel. He didn't make us. We chose it. He gives us the choice every day to make the right or wrong decision. He tells us for the most part what right and wrong is. That's the basic answer and it goes a million times deeper than that but even with that....doesn't it make sense?

I don't know who is going to heaven and who is going to hell. If you don't have any relationship with Him and think that you'll take care of eternity yourself I would bet your chances of the pearly gates are slim to none. He is perfect...He knows.  

The tough questions are still there at times and I think everyone knows its healthy to know why you believe what you  believe. Ask those Q's. Challenge your heart. It's certainly clear that to me that I am, for sure, created. Im not a random thing that's gonna die and decompose. My soul is real and it has an eternal future. I feel like I could go on and on. 

I'm so grateful that he does accept me where I'm at. It sucks to have serious struggles that you never used to deal with. The great thing is that when your relationship with Him is real He pushes you to get past your current state into bigger and better things. It's sweet.

This is a cool vid that if you have 5 more minutes you should watch.

Love y'all