Like, Love and Don't Like

This week, I like my “dad” shoes. Since my last post, I enjoyed my very first Father’s Day. My beautiful bride made me a wonderful breakfast and my son gave me a new pair of boat shoes. They’re kinda like the shoes all the popular kids are wearing these days. I refer to them as my “Dad shoes” because they’re almost exactly like the shoes my dad has been sporting on lazy Sunday afternoons for the last 20+ years. Yes, the same pair. I was surprised how comfortable these shoes are and I’m breaking them in more each day. Thanks Graham!

This week, I love a good garden hose. It has been extremely hot and dry over the past few weeks in our neck of the woods. While I feel watering the lawn is wasteful (money, not water), there was no getting around the unsightly dirt patches in front of our home. Our yard does not feature an irrigation system but fortunately, it’s not so big that I can’t keep things wet with a regular sprinkler and a garden hose. Julie and I have two hoses. One is very cheap and the other is one of the more prices “no kink” hoses. Guess which one I like more? I swear that cheap hose gains a new crease for a kink every time I roll it up!

This week, I don’t like the modern-day version of showing political allegiance. There’s a great scene in O Brother, Where Art Thou that depicts what it was like to see politicians of the era campaigning on the courthouse square amongst their supporters. People still show support by going to political rallies but in this new age, many people take to the Internet to voice their allegiance. And by voicing their allegiance, I mean “point out the flaws of the other side”. That’s all it’s about these days: bashing the other side without really knowing what your side is about. And the non-personal aspect of the Internet gives people a false confidence in their views and eliminates the fair consideration of the other side’s good qualities. One of my Facebook friends (who is known for his sarcastic sense of humor) said it best the other day after the Supreme Court’s ruling on President Obama’s healthcare plan: “Man, I wish folks would just open up and share more of their political opinions on Facebook.”

This is the kind of stuff I’m talking about from both sides:

And there's this...

I mean, would you really say this kind of stuff to someone's face?