John Burkholder

I took a few minutes after lunch today to check my Facebook. I found out...my Daughter Shae is married...over 2 weeks ago. I had NO idea. To my dismay, she didn't feel it was important enough to tell us she is married. I bought her dinner last weekend and she didn't tell us she was married. Yes, she IS 19 and old enough to make her own decisions. She has known the guy for 3 months and much like I did at 19, married quickly. No, she didn't invite us to the JP wedding much like the Queen and I didn't invite the kids. So I guess the logic behind it all...or the reasoning is not far from my own. However, the Queen and I always thought that we had an open communications with the kids. Something as important as a marraige would be one of those things we would expect to at least be told, not something we find out about on a social networking site with 250 of the closest friends. I guess from this point of view it is much like the Queen not telling HER mother that she married. ...

So, it HAS been a while since I actually wrote a blog entry. Fact is, I am a happy person and the need for my written form of therapy is not as necessary. There was a rough patch over Christmas, but after changing jobs yet again, and boosting my medication slightly, all is good. I have a new job. I like it tremendously. Multiple reasons, first...everything is a challenge. Second, I am building a new division in the company. Lastly, I am treated as a valuable person in the company. Moving on...Sydni has a Dean's scholarship at Aurora University in Illinois. For this I am extremely proud. She will be attending in the Fall. She never gives up and for this, she is rewarded. I coached Odyssey of the Mind for the first time this year. It was truly exhausting and rewarding all at the same time. I coached 5th and 6th graders in a Division II team against 6-8 grade kids. We placed 9th out of 12 which I think is excellent considering the team could not get the vehicle to actually function an...

At a meeting of the AARP (American Association of Retired People) they showed a video that was submitted in a contest by a 20 year old. The contest was Titled 'u @50'.So simple and yet so brilliant. Take a minute and watch it. Be sure to read along. I just had to post it. Creative out of the box thinking...true or not.

On November 1, I walked into a department store to help my daughter buy shoes for work and over the loud speakers I heard Christmas Songs. Did I mention it was November 1? I am not really a person to complain about Christmas songs as I am one of those people who will often stand in the middle of sporting goods singing at the top of my lungs "FIVE GOLDEN RINGS!!!" But when the songs start this early, by the time Christmas comes around, I will certainly be ready to throw every piece of sporting equipment in the store at the speakers. Of course, it may be easier for everyone if they played Thanksgiving music...oh wait...no Thanksgiving songs. Mother's day, Father's day, Valentine's day, Christmas and Halloween all have songs appropriate for it. But Thanksgiving (and black Friday) get chumped by not having music appropriate for the holiday. Let's think about this though, the Natives provided the unfortunate Pilgrims food and showed them how to harvest it. They all...

Today is voting day. The candidates are still fighting for votes and most people believe the fight is between Democrats and Republicans. In my opinion, the vote is about the issues. The publicity of the Presidential race has made me come to a rapid realization... Who I vote for is my business. With all of the polling, marketing and emails I have received as of late, I feel the forced misrepresentation of both parties are really not in anyone's interest but the candidates. It is the continuous bashing I think. So, I am going to make this as short as I can... Go vote. I don't care for who...just vote for the person that best fits within your personal beliefs and qualifications. Tomorrow, this will all be over.

A longer rant about another topic that I rarely talk about...but needed to be said. The stock market has been wildly erratic and dropping. To most of the populous, this really has not meaning unless it starts affecting them directly. What means something to everyone is how much they pay in taxes, how much the bread, milk, toilet paper and gas costs, and how much money they make personally. With unemployment rising, local and state governments running out of money, and the continued dollar falling, the citizen is beginning to feel the affects. Credit is harder to get. Houses are plentiful. Construction is down. Energy prices are rising. People are stopping investing in the 401K plans and are sinking it into keeping the status quo, status quo. The holiday season is expected to see huge shortfalls thereby continuing the downward spiral. In a futile effort to regain consumer confidence and restore some political sponsors, the government is going to bail out the banks thereby inserting them...

Even though the song read "Our house is a very, very, very fine house", our house is rapidly shrinking. If you have read any previous blog entries, you may know that my 20 year old daughter joined us here in Virginia after being away from us for 3 weeks. Since then, we have been joined by the 18 year old waiting to enter the Navy. Our last house was 2600 square feet not counting the full basement. We now live in 1400 square feet total. When we moved here, we figured this was more than enough room for me, the Queen and the 5 year old. We even have swing space for a child to come visit. Soon, the last of the "out of the house" children will be arriving here to stay with us until she and her boyfriend move into their own place. In the meantime, we are going to move into a slightly larger but better carved up townhouse in the community. It has a garage included. Soon after moving, the eldest will be moving out on her own again. The 18 year old is here until March. Needl...