The best part is the people.
This morning we had b'fast with a new family at Pathway. We left their home three hours later and agreed we had a great time! The food was delicious. We spent two hours talking about the Bible. Then we took a tour of their place. They live in Waddell, a suburb west of here. It's what in AZ they call horse country - lots of an acre or more in a rural area with a combination of ranches built in the 60's and newer homes. They have goats, two horses, a rabbit, a dog and a water lily pond (WAY cool!). Dad and son are also doing a frame-off restoration of a mid-70's Firebird.
It all made me really miss having animals and the kind of elbow room that comes with a rural setting.
We had dinner tonight at Baja Fresh with Steve & Michelle. They got back yesterday from their 3-week vacation along the west coast. We missed them.
Yesterday I finished one of the three books Pam got me for Father's Day - "Why My Wife Thinks I'm an Idiot - the Life and Times of a Sportscaster Dad" by Mike Greenberg (of ESPN). It's a series of journal entries written over the period of several years that reflect on his personal and family life.
Interesting book.
It was entertaining, and in places thought provoking. And of course I enjoyed the sports angle in many of the entries. But in ways similar to my recent post about liars, I found some of the book troubling.
I don't understand adults, especially professionals, who drink with the intent of getting drunk, or at least seriously buzzed. And who do that as a means of coping with difficult social settings like bad wedding receptions.
I accept that many adults use the F word, but my naivete strikes again; I don't expect it from professionals. Especially professional women. And if you do use that word as a matter of course, wouldn't you omit it from a manuscript for publication?
In many sections of the book Greenberg presents himself as Mr. Everyman, just like the rest of us males. He likes sports, we like sports. He roots for the (losing) Jets despite the annual grief of dashed hopes, just like we root for our losing teams. His wife thinks he's clueless, he feels inadequate for fatherhood and he still struggles with the same insecurities that plagued all males from Jr. High on.
But he is not Mr. Everyman. He wears Italian shoes, cashmere coats and neckties that cost more than any suit I've ever owned. He shops at one-off clothing stores with names I can't pronounce. The have two children, a live-in nanny, and a gardener. When he travels a limo takes him to the airport and he always flies first class. When he get there he stays in 5-star hotels and eats at restaurants where I wouldn't be allowed to bus tables.
I think there may be two kinds of conceit. The first and most common form is the guy who thinks he's better than everyone else because he's got more money, more talent, more pull, more whatever. Then there's the guy who has all of that and more, and engages in the self-deceit that he's really no different from the rest of us. He's ordinary. They're both wrong.
I'll start the book that Greenberg and Golic wrote next. I'm curious to see if the three or four years in between these books has changed Greeny or his outlook.
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