Liebster award

Kayla over at mamaunrated nominated me for the Liebster award this week.  I am grateful that my scribblings are enjoyed by my community of friends, fellow bloggers, and people who do not mind a little a lot  dog hair in their daily lives.  As I have learned over the past year, there are  more talented people than me who deserve recognition.  I am learning from others who are overcomers (insert life challenge here), or have fashion sense, wit, skills with yarn, food, gardening, art, photography and farming – and blog about it.  Perhaps Comet or Dexter are more deserving of the Liebster award description that Kayla wrote on her blog post:

“ Liebster means sweetest, kindest, dearest, beloved, lovely, valued, cute, endearing, and welcome. It was created by a blogger, The Global Aussie, to honor other bloggers that fit this description.“

 I was halfway through a long and thoughtful response to her eleven questions  when I realized that Kayla has asked me different questions.   I will try to recapture the gist of what I wrote:

What was one event in your life that you would describe as a turning point for yourself, and why?  When I was in San Diego about a year,  I was invited by a couple on a date,  to attend services at their church.  It soon became my church, and the single mom who had invited me, two years later became my wife.  Many situations, including health issues,  career, troubled relationships,  personal insecurities and the muck of nearly four decades lead me to seek spiritual answers and security.  I now have a completely different outlook on the whole of life because of an active faith/follower in Jesus

What led you to start blogging? I started blogging originally to record memories and funny observations of my past military career to give my kids some clue about why I was the way I was. That blog gave an old crusty sailor an outlet to opine to an audience that was not solely my suffering wife.  But I started a new – this blog – to blog about the dogs. You see, when I married my wife, I brought two dogs into the family; she brought three pre-teen boys.  Where I missed the early child-rearing years I now have two dogs who are perennial five-year olds underfoot. What better inspiration? 

What is one short term goal that you have set for yourself?  I want to retire in the next couple years and start traveling again with my wife- to the places I recall and new places I see from the blogging community.

What is one long term goal that you have set for yourself?  I want to rediscover the language skill I had in my twenties, when I spoke Spanish, French and Russian almost fluently.  Since I am conversant still in Spanish, perhaps I will dust off the Russian.  

And do they coincide with one another?  Yes. My past career in the Navy afforded me travel and meeting people in the service and from around the world.   

What is one of your favorite memories from when you were a kid? I worked on a dude ranch in Arizona during high school.  I learned first how to drive a stick shift, in a farm jeep and a tractor. But I also learned to ride horses and care for 80 of them.  One of the most vivid memories is getting warned by my ranch hand mentor- not to pop the tractor clutch.  It was my first time driving the tractor & hay wagon while he stood in the back tossing hay to the horses.    I unfortunately did – and he fell off the hay wagon into the mud.  But only once.  

Looking back, what advice would you give your kid self if you could go back in time?  Focus on who I am not who I thought I should be.  Have confidence in my abilities and don’t live up to the expectations of others.  Life is what you make it to be.

What is one thing you wish you could change about your parents or the way you were raised, if anything?  I probably would have wished to grow up in the same town for all my growing years.  My now-grown sons have a circle of friends they grew up with.  I moved constantly.

What is the one thing on your bucket list you absolutely have to do?  drive a race car.

If you could have a conversation with anyone in the world, living or dead, who would it be and why? Sir Richard Francis Burton, explorer, spy, polyglot and soldier. It was his biography I read in my teens that captured my imagination and career ambitions.

What is the most important thing you’ve learned in your lifetime, up to this point?  Don’t let the limitations you are born with – or life-events impose upon you – make you;  you make the decision to  become what you dream to be.  

11 questions answered.

 Whew!