Meme???

Daughter April "meme'd" me. At first I thought the word had something to do with warming up to sing (just kidding). According to my computer dictionary.....
Meme (mēm): an element of a culture or system of behavior that may be considered to be passed from one individual to another by nongenetic means or imitation.
I think the idea is to have others learn by observing things we share.

April listed some rules, but I'm not necessarily going to pass them on cuz she meme'd almost everyone I know in the family already. So I'll spare you the rules except to say I am suppose to list seven things about myself generally unknown to others.

1. I cut my own hair. I think I've been to the barber only a half dozen times in the last 10-15 years. (no latent jokes please). I've learned that the difference between a good haircut and a bad haircut (If I goof doing the chore backwards while looking in the mirror) is about five days.

2. I love riding motorcycles. I have had several. My first at 15 ½ years of age (one could legally drive one on the street back then with only a learners permit) was a Triumph, then came a Velocette, next a Harley Davidson when I got back from Vietnam, and finally a Kawasaki I traded for when the kids were young. I quit because I saw too many people get maimed or disabled in motorcycle accidents and Paulette wasn't comfortable with me riding, and didn't like riding with me. I have a few scars yet to prove they can be dangerous. My Mom (GG) wrote once that something she always wanted to do was ride a motorcycle. So I took the Kawasaki over one afternoon when she was in her late 60s and took her for a ride!

3. I eat most anything set before me. That includes Zebra in Africa, or fish innards in Asia.

4. I can fix most anything (not news to some of you). We haven't called a repairman in perhaps three to four decades, except one time when an item was under warranty. (though on very rare occasions I do take a car in for repair.) I change my own oil. If an appliance breaks I fix it. If I can't fix it I replace it. Kids call and ask me how to fix this or that or stop a toilet that won't quit running. Elisabeth and Jo asked me to look at ovens when they wouldn't light. I went to get a part for our washing machine and the parts counter rep told me parts were no longer available because the machine was 25 years old. I had been repairing it that long.

5. I tried to fix broken clocks as a kid. I enjoy intricate mechanical details and trying to figure out how things work.

6. I have been carrying a pocket knife since I was in sixth grade. I earned it in a contest at school (how things have changed). It never got me in trouble at school back then. Several times since 9-11 I have had problems related to carrying a knife. Once I actually got it on an airplane when I forgot it was in my pocket. I made it through the metal detector and past the random screener. Several times I had to bring the knife back to the car before a Marshall would let me into a courthouse. It's a tool, not a weapon.

7. When writing stories, thesis, etc., I have to redact twelve or more times before I like what I have written. I'm jealous of someone who can write once and be done.

This exercise is neat. At the risk of sounding conceited allow me to add a few more for the benefit of other generations
• I enjoy a project (as long as it doesn't take toooo long). I like the sense of accomplishment when the project is finished. Then I stand back and think, "I did that and it is good." That is part of imago dei in me.

• I have a strong bent toward horizons, and I like bringing them close until I can see over them. I have seen things and done things few people on this earth have been able to see or do. (Mom and April have urged me to write them some day for the benefit of the grandkids. Perhaps when all the horizons I see are gone.... but there is always another.) Getting down to the level of the people in a different culture is often difficult on the body but opens fantastic doors. Without it I would never have seen the Salt Cathedral in Columbia, or tramped the footpaths of equatorial Africa, or met a boy raised from the dead. I've heard it said, "Man knows not his time." Me either. I wonder if I would have been an explorer or an aviation pioneer in another era.

• I love teaching and seeing people transfigured by what they are learning. I have come to see the best teaching is not lecture. I relish being a peripatetic teacher.