Posting has been quiet here lately for a couple of reasons.  It's not that I don't have anything to say but rather what I have wanted to say is coming from deep concerns and pain.  I have been a pretty negative person over the last couple of weeks and I think my posts would have been venomous so I refrained from writing - or actually posting my thoughts. I'll share some of these concerns soon because now I feel I can do so in a way that isn't hateful.

On the flip side, I just returned from four awesome days in Dallas celebrating my 17th anniversary with my beautiful wife!  We stayed at a hotel and just spent time hanging out with each other with no agenda or plans and had one of the best times of our lives!  We wondered why we hadn't done that more often.  I recommend that married couples go take off and spend a few days away from home and their responsibilities and just enjoy doing nothing in particular.  It works wonders and you won't regret it.

OK...I gotta get back to reality and get my "to-do" list done!

I read this quote in Quiet Strength - The Principles, Practices, and Priorities of a Winning Life by Tony Dungy last night.

"Champions are champions not because they do anything extraordinary but because they do the ordinary things better than anyone else."  - Chuck Noll 

Are you doing the ordinary things better than anyone else?

About 5 p.m. today I looked out my front window at a very distinct spinning and rotating cloud that looked like it was reaching for the ground but I dismissed it as "scuttle" - the sometimes observed finger-looking clouds that accompany severe thunderstorms. Ten minutes later my wife and I heard the distinct sound of a tornado siren and turned the TV on to find that there was some rotation being watched.  Of course I have been glued to the weather reports and it is now confirmed that a tornado did touch down very briefly about a couple miles from my house!  So I did get to see my first "official" funnel cloud in quite a while.

For those of you who don't live in Oklahoma, we are the crazy kind of people who grab video cameras and go outside when it's best to go in your shelter.  That is totally me!  I have been fascinated with tornadoes since I was a child and can still vividly remember seeing several as a kid.  Once I was looking up through our storm cellar door as we were closing it to see the center of some rotation much like the eye of a hurricane.  It's weird, I know, but it is totally exciting to me.

If you are ever in Oklahoma during the spring or early summer, let me know and maybe with a little luck I'll be able to take you tornado chasing!