My wife suggested a book for me to read to enhance our relationship. It's titled: 'Women are from Venus, Men are Wrong.'

Misjudged

I've come down with a cold and feel cruddy. I shouldn't be surprised; in the last week I've been to the hospital to see Pam and to the doctor's office for an appointment, two of the most infectious places a person can go. I just need to be OK by Sunday morning.

Here's a part of the Jeremy Lin story you may not have heard.

I grew up in the 50's and 60's. That was good; it taught lessons that have served me well. 

Dad was a civil servant, rising to the level of Chief in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, but even at that grade he was paid modestly, as all civil servants were back in the day. We lived in a solid blue collar, working class neighborhood in Seattle surrounded by people of similar means. We had one car, one TV (black and white), one phone, and spent one week each summer in a rented cabin on Lake Chelan. We wore hand-me-downs and mom fixed casseroles, except for Sunday dinner when she did a pot roast that took us through Tuesday. During the summer we rode our bikes and played a variety of made-up games with the other neighborhood kids. When I was in High School I got a clock radio to put beside my bed, in a bedroom that, for the first time, I had to myself because our older brother had moved out. 

As soon as I was old enough, I got a job. After the requisite paper route I worked on a janitorial crew cleaning public bathrooms, in a warehouse, and on a groundskeeping crew that cleaned up around various Seattle public schools. I put my money in a savings account and used it when I went to college. I think I had enough saved to pay for part of a textbook. 

I'm thankful for my childhood/youth, which has served me well as an adult. 

I think we may have learned a resourcefulness that is less likely to be a part of growing up today. We made our own toys - hydroplanes out of scrap wood to pull behind our bikes (you gotta be from Seattle to understand), and made up our own games - a strange version of baseball suited to an alley all of 10' wide, and bicycle herding on the elementary school playground. In the absence of entertainment devices we devised some way to entertain ourselves. 

All of this came to mind today as I got to thinking about my next project. Something I've never tried before. But why not? We grew up doing stuff, not watching stuff.