Vibram Five Fingers

Since I got into running about 10 years ago, I've always enjoyed it. Training for endurance races in particular is my cup of tea. The problem I've had is that running consistently long distances just wrecks my lower body. You've no doubt seen the people who have run their whole lives and look like they should be in a wheelchair.

We'll ever since reading Born To Run by by Christopher McDougal, I've been intrigued by the biomechanics of barefoot running. I researched a number of different options for minimalist running footwear, and have had a pair of Nike Frees for several years. I landed on the Vibram Five Fingers, but of course haven't pulled the trigger and purchased them.

Well thanks to wonderful wife and little girls, I got a pair for Father's Day. So far they are awesome. A big caveat to that is I haven't run in them yet. The guy at Scheels suggested I wear them as street shoes for a while to get used to having my toes splayed apart. Although it took some getting used to, they are extremely comfortable.

I know Marc thinks they are ugly, a rare departure from his "I don't care what people think/function over form" mentality. But I encourage you to do some research, read the book, and if you have ever had leg pain associated with running, then give them a try!

Marc's not-so-rapid-fire Father's Day list

Not in any particular order…

1. If you make a commitment, then keep it. I wanted to work at the strawberry patch, and very quickly wanted to quit, but since I had agreed to do the job, I had to finish it out.

2. There is nothing more vile in all of God's creation than rap music.

3. It doesn't really matter whether or not you're the best, but it's important that you put in the best effort in doing it.

4. "Did I ever tell you the story about this gym bag?"

5. Dad was as enthusiastic about my music endeavors as sport endeavors. It probably wasn't his forte, but you would never know it by his enthusiasm for my participation in music. He always made faces at me during the concerts.

6. Summers were the best because Dad cooked a lot. I just remember coming home from family hour starving and anxiously awaiting the burgers to come off the grill.

7. My memory of mowing was how quickly I was relieved of duty when Dad came home from work. Mom would ask us to start the mowing so Dad wouldn't have to do it all. I can still see it in my mind: Dad coming across the alley from work, walking over and setting his lunch box on the deck, and then taking over behind one of the mowers. He couldn't bear watching us mow the lawn as a bystander.

8. Considering how many times that Dad got in the old pickup to find it with only fumes in the gas tank, I'm amazed that he ever let us drive it. But oddly enough, I don't have much recollection of him getting on us about it.

9. Dad is incredibly loyal. Loyal to his family, loyal to his friends, loyal to his employer, etc. I'm not sure I've ever met a more loyal or reliable person than he is.

10. Dad was never mad for very long. When something upsets him, he thinks on it, works it out in his head, and then he's okay. He never held a grudge against us. If we needed to be punished, it happened and then it was done and over with. I don't know if I've ever even told him this, but when we called Mom and Dad from Spain to tell them that we were engaged, Dad basically said that he wouldn't come to the wedding and hung up the phone because he wasn't happy. Jennifer was devastated. But when the phone call was over, I said to Jennifer, "Don't worry about it. He'll think it over for a few days at work and then he'll be fine." Sure enough, about a week later they were making plans to come to the wedding.

Ultimately, Dad only ever had our best interest in mind. Whether it was the way we spent our money, the way we dressed, the people we hung out with… he only ever cared about it because he wanted us to be the best human beings that we could be. In his mind, he probably pushed us in school because he didn't want us to be like him, but for me, every day I hope that I can be even half the man that our Dad is! Love you Dad… Happy Father's Day!

Marc on the First Pitch

The Dad list is coming, but this will be a quick comment. Okay, I'm going to throw all those atrocious "first pitchers" a bone.

I think the problem is the mound. Even if you do your practicing making that first pitch, I don't think most people realize how steep the incline is on a professional pitchers mound, and that throws everything off.

Having said all that, there is NO excuse for a professional athlete like John Wall throwing such a pathetic first pitch. I'll give Mariah Carey a pass, but not John.

Ed on Iron Heart

At the risk of turning this blog into an inventory of book reports, this books sounds similar to the book I'm reading right now, "It's not about the bike". It's one of the early books on Lance Armstrong and relates mostly to his fighting cancer, not his Tour triumphs. It's incredible how much of his body was engulfed in cancer and how important attitude and optimism is to physical healing. I agree with you Marc in saying that the physiological importance of mental state cannot be explained rationally but truly it is "mind over matter".

First Pitch Follies

Oh, Josh Wall did as poorly as any professional athlete, excepting perhaps Carl Lewis. For any women who doesn't know what "throwing like a girl looks like", check out those two yahoos. I'm confident I could sling it. Even if I didn't I could promise you I wouldn't have made the top ten worst list. They hadn't just not thrown in years, they probably hadn't thrown in a lifetime! Hilarious.

P.S. Hey, is that Dad's shorts Mariah is wearing? Oh no, they're not - not holy enough, not short enough and not old enough!!!

Brad’s Father’s Day Rapid Fire

Ed, love the idea and what a better way to thank Dad / roast him by providing our top 10. We should all be fearful, these descriptors are quickly becoming reflections of ourselves! Most by way of anecdote or story include:

10. Our Dad was a very competitive person…like way competitive. I can still see him unable to sit still in the stands and cheering us on like a wild man when we were kids. No wonder we are all competitive!

9. Depending on the vintage of his mowing shorts, they are either mildly revealing or look like they are straight out of a Christina Aguilera concert. I’ll never forget the first time Sheila saw my Dad with half his junk hanging out of his shorts. He doesn’t get why it’s a big deal. And it isn’t like its helping his tan on those stark white legs of his!

8. “A farting horse will never tire; a farting man is a man to hire.” One of Dad’s favorite phrases, in part to justify his flatulence and partly to comment on work ethic.

7. Extreme Behaviors: Worrier Edition. If you look under the dictionary under worrier, there may be a picture of Dad. I think he got that from his Mom. Thank goodness she’s 96 and probably not surfing the world wide web, otherwise I would get a scolding in the next note I get from her!

6. Loyalty and commitment to family. Probably my fondest memory of my childhood is that I don’t think Dad ever turned down an invite to play catch. He would always come walking down the alley after a long hard day in a hot factory and there I would be waiting for someone to throw the baseball with. He may have said not until after dinner, and maybe only for 5 or 10 minutes, but I can never remember him saying no. Now that’s a lesson every father can take from ours.

5. Dad has an irrational need to mow the lawn way more than necessary. If there is a threat of rain within 3 days, or if someone may stop by the house, or if he may need to do something else on Sunday he’s out there mowing. OK right? I mean it is his lawn. But what about Grandma’s lawn. We are talking about a 96 year old woman who complains every time he is out there mowing and she could care less what it looks like. But he is out there every 4-6 days mowing the creeping charlie field. And what’s worse, he trims around the 150 things in that yard every single time. Uugghh!!

4. We used to be able to say that Dad was in a rut that he wasn’t interested in getting out of. His retirement and easing into his older years has surprisingly lessened this behavior. He eats more foods and is more open to ideas and places than I have ever seen or remember from the past. There are of course exceptions, like his statement that “I’m going to die in this house” at the casual mention of them living somewhere else down the road. And of course Dennis Rodman…

3. Dad has great disdain for many things a younger generation accepts as normal. Such as tattoes. And the source of all that is wrong with “kids these days” is of course Dennis Rodman. Because you know that half of his friends in the Navy didn’t get a tattoo right?!?!

2. Dad will help anyone at anytime for any reason. I think if you walked around Oelwein and asked people about him, this is the number one thing people would say about him. We all could be known for a lot worse than being overly generous in helping others.

1. Dad is proud of his kids and grandkids. Everything to his walls of fame around the house to him hopping around like a 4 year old who has to go to the bathroom, Dad gets pretty amped up when the opportunity presents itself to brag on or show off his kids and grandkids to others. While we joke and it is annoying at times, if the worst thing my father does is embarrass me because he’s so proud of me than I’ll be just fine.

Happy Father’s Day Dad!

Rate yourself – throwing from a mound

I heard an absolutely hysterical snippet on the Jim Rome show talking today about Jon Wall's failed first pitch at the Nationals game yesterday. This comes from an illustrious line of first pitch failures, some of my favorites include – Carl Lewis, Mariah Carey, & the Mayor of Cincinnati.

So my question is how would you do? 35,000 people in the stands, standing on the mound, haven’t thrown a ball in years, and only one chance to get it right. Rate your first pitch, what would go right, and what would go wrong.

Fathers Day Rapid Fire

In the spirit of Fathers Day and in the interest of remaining topical, I thought it would be fun to rapid fire list 10 things that we would share with someone who doesn't know our father at all. They can be memories, things he's said, beliefs he holds, stuff he does, or whatever ... pretty much free form. Will be fun to capture and see our 30 descriptors of our father. No particular order but here are mine.

He's not quite "Sh*t My Dad Says" material, but he's close. Happy Fathers Day Dad, from all of us!

10. Mow, mow, mow ... it's off to work I go.
9. Hard work is good livin', and if you're lazy and unahappy there's probably a correlation there you need to consider.
8. Read the directions only when you get stuck. Heck, you can't ever find the English version even if you did want to read them first.
7. Family first, always.
6. Take care of what you have and maintain it diligently and most things will last at least twice as long as they are expected to. That goes for cars, shoes, blue jeans/shorts, mowers, grills and sweatshirts.
5. There's nothing like a good shine on a pair of shoes. The only thing shinier than your shoes should be your car.
4. Home is the most comfortable place on earth, and while visiting others is nice there truly is "no place like home".
3. Go Navy, Beat Army.
2. There's a proper way to do things and a proper way to wear things - failure to know and follow these rules means you are probably related to or friends with Dennis Rodman. "Turn your hat around you dirthead"
1. "I'm really getting to like chicken"

After making my list, I want to see yours and we may end up with way more than 30! The kidding aside (which I'm sure will follow), he's a great man that really did a lot to set up his boys for success. He knew the fundamentals of good parenting, and Mom and Dad made sure we learned them.

Happy Fathers Day Dad!

Iron Heart

This is the book that I read over the week on vacation.

It is an amazing story about the power of the human will. This kid should have been dead, but it was his will to live that kept him alive. Considering how close he was to death, it's a remarkable story of his amazing recovery, not just to healthy life, but to doing things way beyond what normal people can do (like the Ironman Triathlon).

It caused me to rethink the issue of "pulling the plug" when someone is on life support. It also made me reconsider how much of our ability to accomplish physical things with our bodies is limited simply by our minds and our will to push more.

It was an easy read, and I found the beginning to be the most interesting. I've never read anyone who was in that situation, writing from the perspective of being stuck in the hospital bed, drifting in and out of consciousness while at the same time having their full mental capacity.

Worth the time... a very encouraging story.

Marc on Generations in the Workforce

I have found myself, way too often it seems, telling the Sailors who I lead about the "old days". I am one of those guys that I thought I would never be. The other day I was talking with a group at work that was discussing the repeal of the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy. They were talking about how big of a change it was going to be and I said, "Yeah, we all were having the same conversation in 1992 when they started putting women on combat ships, and now nobody thinks twice about it." I've seen a lot of changes since I've been in, and the things that seemed like a big deal didn't turn out that way.

All that to say that when I look at the generations in the Navy, I'm close to being in the "oldest" group. There are still some very senior enlisted and officers that are "late boomers", but give it another 5-6 years and I'll be THE old guy.

I'm not sure that I can break out four distinct generations, but I can see a lot of differences between the generation that is joining the military now and my generation. The trick in this discussion is in figuring out whether or not it's appropriate to make value judgments on the differences.

When I jointed the Navy, we all wanted to go overseas. Most all of us joined to "see the world". Not today. The Sailors that are joining the Navy now fight tooth and nail to NOT go overseas, to NOT deploy at all. They want to be stationed somewhere, buy a house, and do an entire 20-year career in one place.

Is that good, bad, or just different? I don't know. Just recently I needed two people to do a ONE month deployment on a ship that was going to a very desirable part of the world with some great port visits. I have SIXTY people in my division… FOUR people volunteered to go. Only four. In the early 90's, we would have been clobbering each other for the chance to do a deployment like that. Everyone says that we are a global society now, but the new generation of Sailors just want to be homebodies. I don't understand it.

So from a leadership perspective, the challenge is finding ways to optimize and motivate the different generations. If we truly value diversity (the Navy is big on that) then we should welcome the differences and find ways to benefit from the broad spectrum of people that we have, including generations. One of my favorite leadership theories is Vroom's Expectancy theory of motivation. Simply put, a person has to feel that they will be rewarded for their work, and the reward has to be something that they want. That part is what I find the most challenging but most beneficial as a leader: figuring out what people WANT. Referring to my previous example, in "my day" people wanted to be rewarded with good deployments, but these days most Sailors want to be rewarded by avoiding deployments. Some people like time off from work, some people want more work because they love it, and some people want some kind of certificate that they can hang on their wall. There is no "one size fits all" when it comes to motivating people.

So from an HR perspective, how do you get the generations to respect each other, understand each other, rather than disdain each other? How do you keep the different generations motivated, while at the same time helping them understand that the other generations aren't "wrong"? Would you make a value judgment on which generation is "better" than another?

Generations in the Workforce, not just talk anymore

It's finally happening to me. For the past 10 years I've been hearing and learning about the impact of having four generations in the workplace at the same time. Recognizing the generational differences, and being told what can be done to accommodate each and help them all work in harmony. Good stuff, but all book work, talk and little application - well, up to now.

For the first time in my professional career I'm actually experiencing the following things in the workplace. (1) many of the most senior leaders in the company I work for are contemplating retirement (most are boomers, some traditionalists), or at least a significant change in work status. But for many reasons (next generation not ready, economic downturn, professional withdrawal) many are re-thinking their traditional views of what retirement actually means. (2) Many of the up-and-coming leaders (most are generation X) are eager to step into top leadership posts. Some have "arrived" but most are still searching and waiting in the wings for the right opportunity to present itself - in effect, for the old person to retire. And for some of the most reflective and insightful of these Xers there is a real and true appreciation for how overwhelming top leadership can be - and lonely and unforgiving. It's a big ask and there are people, thousands of them in some cases, that are impacted positively or negatively by your decisions. Daunting. (3) I'm seeing the new generations (mostly Y) entering the workforce en mass. They have completely different expectations of "work" and are now forging changes to the workplace that before was only being talked about or implemented in the most innovative companies, like Google, Facebook, or others in silicon valley. But now, based on their sheer numbers the impact they are having is being seen wide spread across global companies large and small. It's becoming a virtual world.

So my viewpoint is as a middle manager, HR Director, and member of Generation X with some boomer tendencies - and being amidst this change, chaos, and conflict has sure been interesting. I have spoken to senior colleagues whose sentiment is "the younger generation is in for a rude awakening" and I have also spoken with junior colleagues who suggest "ah, the world will be a better place when the old guys get out of the way". And finally the newest generation to enter the workforce doesn't even seem to care who's running the place - they are re-writing the place without any formal authority at all.

Well, I can't predict the future but I don't believe the world will come to a crashing end, but the journey of change will be a rocky road as the Xers become the top leaders in companies and the newest generations collect (not earn) their stripes. The traditionalists are all but gone, reminiscing about "the good ole days". The boomers will soon be there with them. And the Xers will learn through mistakes, failure and misjudgment, just as the previous generations did. What works and what doesn't.

I hope to have the chance to succeed (and fail) in a top leadership role sometime soon. And daily I'm gaining a larger and larger appreciation for the leadership challenge that our four generation working world will bring. It will be humbling I'm sure ...

Media blah blah A.D.D.

My apologies for slacking.

The media is totally ADD. What's more interesting to me is whether or not there is a way, ANY kind of outlet, that you could avoid the ADD of the press. It seems that it affects all of them, whether it's FOX news or the Wall Street Journal.

Sometimes I've wondered how much stress in the average person's life is based on a simple overabundance of information. In WWII, for example, people's knowledge of world events was limited to radio news broadcasts and newspapers. And when I say newspapers and radio stations, I mean probably one or two that a person had access to. I think we're just overloaded with information. Maybe my argument is that ignorance is bliss. But the way the world communicates today, we know the intimate details of every tragedy, every disaster, every crisis… people can get overwhelmed by the knowledge of that kind of suffering. For me personally, I pick the limited number of things that I can make positive impact on and focus my efforts there. It may sound a bit cold, but for my own stress level I have to kind of block out much of the other stuff.

Weiner is a putz. I'm constantly amazed that there are people at that level of society that don't understand electronic media, its lasting effects, and its traceability. Why, o why, would you text a picture of your junk? Even if you delete it off your own phone, the person who you sent it to has all that is required to make your life miserable in the press!

My question for you guys is this: how do you think the media could portray you if they were privy to ALL of your emails, texts, Facebook messages, etc? It's kind of a scary thought. When the ADD media latches onto something that appears juicy, any explanation of context just looks like you're trying to cover your tracks. So the context is useless. I've often joked that I can never run for political office because I was arrested for trespassing in high school and was charged with underage drinking (twice) my first year in the Navy. That may sound silly, but with the way the media is these days, just think of how they could make it look in a juicy (insert news channel of choice here) news spot. They could interview John McCarty, and he could make it sound like I was a complete alcoholic. They could start digging for the records of my underage drinking arrest in Texas and find that I only completed six hours of my assigned 12 hours of community service. Think about some of the events in your own lives and how the media could reconstruct them if they decided to make it a sensational story.

I think that the press is the most powerful organization in America, and I'm not even kidding. I don't think it's much of a stretch to say that they've played the biggest role in deciding who is our president for the last 20-30 years. What worries the major media outlet moguls is that independent media and "personal" media (like blogs) are taking some of that power as well. Did you see the article about how someone posted a bogus McDonald's sign saying that African-American customers would be charged a $1.50 fee because of higher crime rates? Totally bogus, but it caused a shit storm, and who knows how much money McDonald's has already had to spend to quell a totally bogus event. But hey, the media got a ahold of it.

Now for my usual random thoughts…

Tracy Morgan: Whether or not he's an idiot, he's a comedian. How in the HELL do you figure out what you can or cannot joke about in America?? From what I can tell, as a comedian, you can go on a rant about absolutely anything EXCEPT for these few items, which have designated, super vigilant police ready to write tickets at a moment's notice: (Let me start by saying that even as I'm getting ready to list these items, I have to think about how to "properly" say them) African-Americans, homosexuals, and Jews. Joke about any of those, and you're toast. Mexicans are getting close to the untouchable list, but they aren't quite there yet.

There was a guy walking up and down the street where I work wearing a billboard thing with something about how Asians were stealing all of America's tech jobs. I thought it was funny. Almost every building on the road, with the exception of a hotel, is either 1) an NSA building, or 2) a contractor building for companies that do work for NSA. So the funny thing about it is that almost without exception, everyone who works in those buildings has a Special Intelligence clearance, and in order to get one of those, you have to be an American BORN citizen. So even if they happen to be Asian by ethnicity, they are Americans!! What an idiot.

I watched game six of the Stanley Cup finals and I've been watching game seven tonight. Not sure why I don't watch hockey more… I'm having a blast! Unless Vancouver makes something happen really quickly, the Cup is going to be in Boston.

Ocean City, Maryland, has been okay, but not the best. It's huge, and it's a party town. Not really my speed anymore. We've spent as much time this week at other places like Bethany, Delaware, and Rehoboth Beach, Delaware (just 15 minutes up the road). They have the same beautiful beaches, but they are a lot smaller and feel a lot more family oriented. Also, as big as Ocean City is, you would think there would be a million options for places to eat or things to do, but all of the 130+ blocks look the same. Same restaurants, same stores, etc. The entire city is monopolized. Kind of sad.

My mountain bike looks funny with $10 platform pedals on it, but they are a lot more comfortable when you're riding in flip flops! Have been watching some Tour de Suisse this week and I can't wait to get back on my road bike.

Okay, take a break. I'm sure your eyes hurt.

Good PR is Essential

I agree entirely with Brad in saying that the average Joe would be in deep do-do if they were cast to the media wolves without guidance and counsel. But that's where the differences are clear - almost all of these famous people have staff that they pay to ensure that their personal brand is unblemished. These paid staff review and edit anything that will go public and could impact that personal brand. So what the hell are those people who work for Weiner doing? Obviously not governing that iPhone he has in his pocket that provides an uninhibited, uncensored, and raw form of who he really is. Same goes for Favre and the cast of other famous people who pulled an "oops" and ended up paying for it.

Here's a simple message for all PR staff of famous people. NOTHING a person does on that phone they keep is personal - and it all can be retrieved and reproduced. If you work for someone who has a smart phone (funny, the device often is brighter than the user) they should be told that explicitly and their failure to consult their own paid staff before using that convenient device is a first step in their own demise if they would be embarrassed to see it as a headline on tomorrow's news.

For the average Joe, our lives just aren't news worthy because to Brad's point, Joe Public doesn't care about what we are doing and saying. If you need proof of that just look at the long list of our blog followers!

Instant infamy for all

Responding to Ed’s comments about so many being unaware of how sites like Facebook and Twitter work, I agree it is amazing that people forget that what they put on the internet is instantly archived in the public domain. Weiner seems more like a boob to me (sorry that was too easy), but he is not the first nor is he the last to make this mistake. Mistakes range from egregious - like sexting your wanker to Jenn Sterger (courtesy my all time favorite athlete POS Brett Favre), to just plain stupid – like tweeting your homophobic rant to followers (you stay classy Tracy Morgan).
It proves that when you shove a “mic” into someone’s face, whether it is Terrell Owens doing situps in his driveway or the “mic” of twitter on someone’s phone, it is the perfect storm of stupid behavior.
Because I have no shortage of opinions and a brain/mouth filter that sometimes doesn’t work, it’s a good thing I’m not on Facebook or Twitter or famous so that people with microphones and cameras follow me around. This blog is dangerous enough of a weapon for me!
How long would you last if you were constantly hounded by “fans”, reporters, and people just waiting to hear you say the wrong thing so they could post it on the internet?

Brad on press coverage

Sad isn’t it that Weiner’s weiner is getting more attention than our President’s health and economic policy plummeting our country into further debt and threatening yet another recession! A phenomena that I heard quoted in the context of the Katrina tragedy was compassion fatigue. Basically, the American public lost interest in the Katrina tragedy even though the crisis hadn’t passed, so press coverage moved on to something that would gain John Q Public’s attention again.
The examples of this concept in the media are endless, from a tragedy perspective (9/11, Katrina, Haiti, Japan) and otherwise. What was the best thing to happen to Toyota after their “unintended acceleration” problems? The answer of course is the BP explosion in the gulf. The American public all the sudden had a new villain so worrying about Toyota was no longer front page news. Is the Japan earthquake tragedy done, hardly. But it doesn’t sell newspapers anymore so the press has moved on.
So the best thing that happened to The Governator was Weinergate. Who will be next in line to take the pressure off of Weiner? Who knows, but rest assured there will be someone.

Press Coverage Comparison - Weiner or Health Care?

Well I've been meaning to get this on the blog for a while now, and am just getting around to it. I'm stunned (not surprised because it has become the norm with media coverage) at how much network coverage is being given to the Weiner story. Yes he's a public elected official but is his not-so-personal life on twitter/facebook really as news worthy as the broader public issues of health care reform, social security, the war on terror, the national debt, lack of jobs, or the general economic forecast?! I could give a shit what Weiner does on his own time and if I were one of his constituents I would be most interested in what he's doing during his work day regarding the host of issues I mentioned above. How many of the protesters, bloggers, supporters could tell you how Weiner voted regarding health care reform? Or what his proposal is for funding social security? How about his stand on creating jobs? Do you hear the same deafening silence?

Another stunner regarding this story is how stupid and ignorant our "leaders" are regarding new technology. Weiner is one of a host of other celebrities, public figures or famous people who mistakenly took Facebook or Twitter as a private form of communication. Are you kidding me?! Now I'm no techno-genius but I'm certainly smart enough to know that if you take pictures of your junk and post them on any of these new communication media that millions (and I mean millions) of people will be aware of it almost instantaneously. A positive example of this was the soldiers who were screwed by Delta. They posted some stuff and within 2 hours had created a media storm that could never have been mustered through any other media form. Ah, the power of such tools. If you are smart enough (or rich enough) to be an elected public official then you ought to be smart enough to know that such tools are very powerful and very dangerous. No PR reviews, and extremely traceable and reproducible. These tools are like DNA testing in criminal cases - almost unarguable.

So rather than continuing the shit storm regarding Weiner and seeing every Tom, Dick and Harry give their opinions about whether he should resign or not ... I would suggest that we put each of those House and Senate members back to work on the real issues our country faces. And if Weiner's a no-show for those discussions and important work - fire him and bring in the next schmuck who actually might give a shit that you are unemployed, have no health insurance, have a brother in Afghanistan, aren't able to collect social security until you're 70, and spend 12 hours a day on the computer at the public library twitting and facebooking friends! Now that's a national crisis ...

Delta Airlines & the military

Obviously all in the family is aware of the issues Marc had with Delta airlines on his flight home. We'll Marc, don't feel bad. Apparently Delta doesn't give a crap about any military people, wearing a uniform or not, returning from a deployment or not.

Enjoy this article everyone, I'm sure it will lead to another communication tirade from Mom on facebook!

A Memorial Day Weekend to Remember!

The three of us brothers were home to Oelwein this past weekend, and of course we had a great time enjoying each others company. But I was particularly impressed by Marc's oratory skills during his speech at Woodlawn cemetery. The setting was beautiful, sunshine, breezy with 'Old Glory' flying everywhere you looked. And a fly by of F-16's (I think) following taps played by two trumpeters. Military men in full dress uniform addressing a crowd of normal American folk. Lots of family as well, which made it extra special for me.

Marc shared quotes, music lyrics, stories of his military life, and stories of his childhood, referencing family and friends and military heroes along the way. I was proud ... nothing more and nothing less ... very proud!

Marc, great work on the speech during the ceremony. And even greater work in achieving so much during your military career and professional life that your introduction was almost as long as the speech itself! Jen, you sure missed out. One of many very proud moments for Marc I'm sure.

Brad, thanks too for you and your family showing up. You had every reason not to - pink eye, cold, ear infections, fever, the whole shooting match. It was great to see you and your family.

And we also found time as brothers to play a little "three base" (patent pending), bike to and fro in good and bad weather, flat and hilly terrain, and just thoroughly enjoy time together.

Mom and Dad did a great job hosting as well, and the get together following the Memorial Day service was great because it gave me the opportunity to talk to and see our great family in its element.

Super weekend boys, thanks!