Family

The 17 long time readers know I march to the beat of a drummer who is blind and has no rhythm.

Ask them and they’ll tell you if you ask me to pull a card from your deck I will always find the joker and that guy is wild.

Some call it a curse, but I call it a gift, just one that takes a special kind of person to handle…me.

It’s Not My Fault She’s Crazy & Hysterical.

Anyway, when I started blogging in May of 2004 it never occurred to me that one-day blogging would be the reason why I would agonize whether to drive a Ferrari 458 Italia,

or a silver Porsche Cayman,

or a red Lamborghini Huracan.

and that is just a partial list of the cars I could have taken out.

Those of you who aren’t into cars might not appreciate just how cool this was but I am here to tell you that I can’t properly express how much it meant to me other than to say that I am a memory collector.

The Memory Collector

I don’t blog solely because I am compelled to write. I blog because memories are of paramount importance to me.

People and things can be taken from you, but not memories. Memories and education are yours for eternity, at least in theory.

I suppose you could make a case to suggest my premise is flawed, but that is not what this post is about.

It is about what happens when someone offers you the opportunity to give/receive extraordinary gifts and why I didn’t hesitate to say yes when I learned what was possible.

It’s too bad my high school English teacher isn’t around anymore. I’d like to point out how I embedded that Emily Dickinson quote in a picture of the interior of a Lamborghini.

She’d appreciate knowing that I am still finding ways to make poetry and the poets relevant to me now. And I think she’d appreciate that I am still looking for ways to make ordinary into something extraordinary.

But the real difference between then and now is I am keenly aware of how tenuous our grip on life can be and why it is important to do more than just develop a bucket list of experiences we hope to have someday.

There are more than 100 items on my list. Some of them fall into the probable and possible and others are tagged as less so, but they all hold some kind of importance to me.

So it is with significant gratitude and transparency that I share these thoughts with you. This opportunity to drive a car like the Ferrari 458 Italia came because of a sponsored post.

It came because Cloud 9 Living asked if I was interested in writing a post about their company and how they provide gift-giving experiences.

I did it because when opportunity knocks you need to answer. I did it because I have very few regrets but the ones I do are massive and are there because I didn’t answer the damn knock.

I did it because wrestling about whether I should drive an exotic car, go zip lining, hang gliding, jetpacking, learn how to fly or be a fighter pilot for a day was the kind of mental gymnastics that are fun to engage in.

I  settled for the driving experience for practical reasons.

It was something that I have always wanted to do but also something I wasn’t likely to do anytime soon. That wasn’t something I could say about the other experiences.

Don’t mistake that for me bad-mouthing the other stuff because I certainly am not but the reality I live in says that there is a good chance that on a family trip we’ll all choose to go zip lining.

There is a good chance that we might go on one of the weekend adventures but driving the car, well that was one that I wanted and wasn’t sure I could make it happen anytime soon.

Between the normal expenses of family life and all that comes with it, well it seemed more challenging.

I liked the idea of learning how to fly a plane or helicopter but set those aside because the opportunity was for a lesson and I figured if I really liked it I would be upset if I couldn’t keep going so the car seemed both fun and practical.

Personalized Instruction

One of the things I appreciated most about this experience was the personalized instruction that came with it.

I kid around about being 200 some odd pounds of five-year-old but at 46 I am smart enough to recognize this car is more powerful than anything else I have ever driven, including the Camaro I drove in college.

And hell, it is substantially more car than the minivan and or small SUV I use in daily life.

So I was more than pleased to learn that the experience came with a technical briefing about the car, a couple of laps around the track, and a professional driver who would be along to advise and guide me.

Did I mention that I drove that beautiful car on a track?

That was another part of what caught my eye about this experience. There are car rental companies that provide exotic cars that you can rent but that is for normal driving and I didn’t want to take one for a spin in traffic.

I wanted to have a chance to see what they could do. I wanted to see what it means to push towards 200 miles per hour in a safe environment where I wouldn’t be concerned with police interference.

That wouldn’t be possible through the normal rental experience, but it was here.

Confession

After five laps I don’t think I can say I pushed it any faster than about 130 or so. Might have been a bit slower even, but it didn’t diminish the fun.

I wanted to go faster. I wanted to push harder and really make that car move for me, but this was my first time driving something so powerful and it was on a track that involved a few curves.

So I was cautious and a bit conservative at times.

My instructor pushed and encouraged me to move beyond my comfort zone. He was fantastic, but I just wasn’t ready to do more than I did.

But like I said it was incredibly fun and when it ended I wrestled with whether to buy more laps because I knew that each time around the track would lead to more comfort and a willingness to go faster.

I might go back and drive it again just to see what it is like a second time or I might go back and drive something else. I don’t know.

What I am certain of is that I have no problem recommending Cloud 9 Living and their services. They aren’t limited to the Los Angeles area either. Check out their website and you’ll find experiences are offered in cities throughout the United States.

If you do decide to use them don’t forget to use this promo code so that you can get a discounted rate on your experience.

XMASJACK15

BTW, if you are want to know about the car I drove feel free to check out the Ferrari 458 Italia Test Drive and Review.

Disclosure: If it wasn’t clear before let me remind you that I was compensated for my services on this post but all opinions are mine.

See you in the comments.

I picked up The Dance by Fleetwood Mac on iTunes, It is a live performance and I love it. Played it loud enough that the kids came to my room to ask me to turn it down.

Played three songs all the way through for them to hear and then agreed to put something else on.

1. Tusk
2. Go Your Own Way
3. The Chain

They asked me what I wanted to hear and I told them I was in the mood for music that told a story because sometimes that helps with my writing.

1. I Was Wrong– Social Distortion
2. Babe I’m Gonna Leave You – Led Zeppelin
3. Whiskey Lullaby- Brad Paisley, Alison Krauss
4. W.O.L.D.- Harry Chapin

Reciprocity In The Blogosphere

My son asks me to tell him about how I come up with ideas based upon music and I talk about the lyrics in some of the songs I linked to and how it is easy for people to relate to those.

When he asks me if that includes me I nod my head and I tell him it absolutely does and talk about how we could spend hours going through the 10,000 or so songs I have loaded on iTunes not to mention the hundreds of cassettes, records and CDs that are here too.

“Write about what you know and be honest when you do it because that will make it easier for people to buy into what you are sharing.”

“So if you write about what you know everyone will find your blog and come read it?”

I laugh and tell him that it doesn’t work that way, especially because reciprocity is a big deal to people.

“What do you mean dad?”

“Some bloggers won’t comment on your blog if you don’t comment on theirs. Some might not ever visit if they think you don’t come by their blogs.”

“Dad, that is just sad.”

99 Problems & Blogging Isn’t One Of Them

We talk about summer break and the camp he is working at and he tells me how he doesn’t want to go to high school.

He cares less about the location and more about being nervous about going into high school in general.

I tell him to watch some of the Fleetwood Mac videos with me and give him a brief explanation about the relationships among the band members and how they were singing about their lives and talking to each other.

He asks me a few questions and I tell him to think about how hard it must have been to be in the band and how people appreciate how the band somehow made it work and still plays together to this day.

“Dad, I don’t know why you are telling me this. I am never going to have girlfriend and you are going to lose the bet.”

I laugh and tell him that nature makes me think I have already won. The bet he refers to is the $20 I put up that says he’ll kiss a girl by the time he is 20.

“My sister makes me crazy why would I let some other girl do that too.”

I look him in the eye and tell him it is not a good comparison.

“I don’t care who you are with as long as you treat each other well but I’m telling you some of this isn’t so easily controlled. Sure, you are always in control of your own behavior but nature has made us in a way that makes it far more challenging to ignore girls.

I might tease you about it occasionally, but there is no rush. You’ll find a girl when you are ready or maybe when one decides she is  ready for you.”

“Dad. I don’t like that smile and no girl is going to be able to catch me.”

I laugh and tell him to add that to the list of famous last words.

The conversation moves back to high school and we talk in general terms about the future.

“If you do what you have always done you will get what you have always gotten. That is why when you find yourself slamming into the same wall you need to change your approach.”

The Layers Of Life

I play the Harry Chapin song for him and when it is done talk a bit about how I expect he won’t relate to it as well now as he might when he is older.

We don’t talk about how I wonder if he’ll ever really appreciate the lines about FM and AM rock and for a moment I feel really old.

“Sometimes when you are writing you want a very simple story that has a beginning, middle and an end. Make it easy for the reader to follow what you are talking about. But sometimes you’ll want to add layers and depth to it. Sometimes you want to give them something meaty to chew on, the layers of life.”

“But dad doesn’t that make it harder for the reader to follow. They might misunderstand.”

I tell him there will always be people who misunderstand and or misinterpret what we say, do or write.

“People like to see what they want and what they expect. They aren’t always willing to look for more than they anticipate or consider they could be wrong.”

He nods his head and a short time later wanders off to bed.

Midnight Passes

I have Springsteen’s greatest hits playing on my headphones and my memory wanders backwards and forwards in time.

Thirty years ago I was wandering around Jerusalem with my friends but then I was the teenager who was trying to figure out what I was supposed to do with myself.

It seems impossible that so much time could have passed and yet as the Boss sings different songs my memory is jogged in different directions.

If I could go back in time what would I say to that kid. If we listened to Born To Run would we smile at the same lines or would we stare at each other in disbelief, not understanding how the other guy could have missed the message that we so clearly heard.

People hear and see what they want to hear and see.

Sometimes it is a problem and sometimes it is a good thing, all depends on what side of the street you are standing on.