If I were to add a few pieces of skin art...

I'm not into putting color on my skin, but if I were, this is what I would do, plus I'd have Jon over at Devotion on Broadway do it.

Thinking about my life, freedom, and other small matters today ;)

On my left arm I would put a symbol that represents "The Chief" CMSgt Lee G. Gaupp, Jr., my father. Now "Chief" was not a tall man, but he definitely left no one wondering who he was or what he was thinking. One time when I was just a small kid he was making his rounds on a weekend drill event and there was this guy there who had his hair a little long. My dad asked him nicely to go down to the Bx and get it cut. That was Saturday. Now come Sunday my dad walked up on the same guy and he had not cut his hair yet. My dad asked him politely why he had not done it. The guy responded kinda weakly about going back home, just a drill weekend, etc. My dad turned to some other guys and quietly had them hold this young buck down and my dad proceeded to buzz this guy completely bald. Another event I clearly remember is when my dad was entertaining a General at Duke Field (Eglin AFB) and he offered the officer (my dad was an E-9 NCO) some coffee or something and the General curtly said no. My dad responded "to hell with you them" and walked off. I saw many officers walk up to my dad and inquire what he thought.

I miss you dad. (17Feb36-02Apr02) Hope you are having a great time with Johnny Cash and others. It'll be a few years before I see you, but we will see each other again - that I'm sure of.

The next piece would be a Tamarisk/Palm tree over the left side of my chest representing my love, Tami. Nuff said if you know how a Palm tree can be tossed and bent, but NEVER breaks. They and her are tough!

On my right arm, the arm representing my strength, I would put something representing my 2 sons: Justice, Truth, Strength & Helper of Man, Given by God. Maybe an image of 2 young men with staffs or something...not sure at this point and since I'm just waxing on about it I have time to figure it out. So there you go my story, my "art" idea. Now back to work.

Almost November - what do you look forward to?

Not that I hate October, but I'm ready to move on to November. The month of my birth (the 24th in case you want to buy me a beer or coffee or ??), my mom's birthday, Thanksgiving... now I'm not trying to hurry things along to the cold days of winter, but November is the start of some very sweet eating times ;)

Many things in my family revolve around restaurants, big family get togethers with meals as our "breaking bread" time, or when on vacations making sure we hit the fav places we remember eating at in the past. I've even given directions around Boise with restaurants as the main points of interest; like Goldy's Pita Pit, Elmers, Fanci-Freeze, Mongolian BBQ (mmhmm). Friends and acquaintances sometimes wonder about me.

With all that I find important I want to focus myself on a few things that I find actually more important and hope you might share in these things: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. If you do a google search on the previous phrase you can find court references about it, thoughts and musings from our founding fathers, and wild adaptations of freedom using that as its basis. What I have taught my teenage boys some my call slightly libertarian, with a solid footing in my faith in Christ:
1) Jesus Christ and His word is absolute
2) as long as your pursuit of happiness does not interfere with my liberty or society's common liberty, and as long as your liberty does not interfere with my life or the lives of others, then all is good.
3) refer back to #1 and it can become a battle to figure out #2

There will be more posts as I attempt to apply this concept of freedom to as many things as I can and hopefully work through what real freedom means. For now, let us look forward to November 8th, spend less than 8 minutes of our life, and remember something that happened not too long ago, yet to some seems like another lifetime...

All that is Boise, good and bad

Where I live, where many want to live, and where too many who live here are abusing. What is up with the trash, the graffiti, the attitude. I love the way things are growing up in Boise, but I'm also missing some of the little-big town or big-little town.

What can we do? Take a moment and remind someone what is right. When I first moved to Boise from Florida (not California...Florida in 1991) one of the first persons I ran into in a downtown coffee shop firmly reminded me that the city's name is Boi-see, not Boy-zee; and do I remember that to this day.

I think we should all help our fellow residents know how things work around here. We have issues that can be resolved with simple nudges from each of us. I carry a bicycle code around with me, since I am an avid rider and I know a few of the rules by heart. Some of the bicycle riders do not have the same knowledge and know real well how to tick motorist off - usually by not following the same rules of the road they want to ride on.