Tagged By PossumMomma!

PossumMamma got me. Arghh!

1. All right, here are the rules.
2. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
3. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
4. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
5. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names. Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they're tagged, and to read your blog.

Ok, well, here we go...

More beneath the fold...

1. I own two English Mastiffs. Our old Mama female is about 140lbs, but she topped out at 165 in her prime. Her son weighs in at a healthy 220lbs. Invariably, upon meeting our dogs for the first time, our friends and aqaintances say something like, "Holy shit those are big dogs!" Our dogs looooove people - that we accept. They'll roll over and solicit belly rubs, stick their watermelon-sized heads in your lap for a pat, and play gently with children. Heck, Otis, our male, thinks he's a damned teacup poddle lap-dog, most of the time, and will crawl up in your lap if you encourage him at all. However, they get really - upset - with folks who jump into their (our) yard un-announced. They will corner the intruder and not let them leave until we come home and assess the situation. They won't bite, but they will not let the intruder leave. Our one and only would-be burglar found this out the hard way. Apparently word gets around because we have never had another attempt at theft at our house. I love my two itty-bitty pups!
2. I was an aircraft structures engineer for almost 16 years working at third-party maintenance facilities. I worked for 22 different employers in 16 years on short-term contracts. The entire third-party aircraft maintenance industry tanked after 9-11, and I got the hell out. The third-party aircraft maintenance industry can kiss my ass.
3. I started arguing with religious folks on the "Crossover Network", which was a local Phoenix BBS "echo network", and on the old Prodigy message boards in 1989. I then added the Fidonet Holysmoke Echo, then eventually Usenet, and finally the web. It floors me to think that I've got nearly 20 years of experience arguing with religious folks - and how little their arguments have changed. I sometimes get tired of going through them all over again with a new, earnest apologetics practitioner - but somehow I seem to rise to the challenge again and again. But sometimes I also wonder whether it is worth it.
4. I have been married three times, I have five kids, and a grandchild. Subsequently, I am unworried about my genetic legacy being passed along. It is a surprisingly comforting thought.
5. When I was a small child, in 1st or 2nd grade, a new family moved into our neighborhood. We were Mormons at the time, and most of our neighbors were also Mormons. This new family was Mormon too, but they were whispered to be (say it softly lest the Bishop hears) "Jack Mormons". This was delicious gossip for a bunch of six year olds, even though we didn't have a clue what "Jack Mormon" meant. We assumed that since this new family's house was smaller and more run-down than ours, that it just meant that they were poor. Danny, the boy in the family that was our age, started attending the small elementary school down the street with us, and he was a bona-fide badass. He would cuss at the teacher, wore ratty, dirty clothing, and eventually grew up to be a teen aged truant of the first order. We interacted minimally because he never wanted to make friends with us "rich Mormons" (we weren't really - more like lower middle-class), and we frankly found him to be a pain in the ass. I remember one Easter at the Egg hunt, he was forced there by his parents. He had broken his leg a couple of weeks earlier jumping off the roof of his house, and was hobbling along on his crutches with an empty basket because he couldn't bend down to pick up any eggs. I felt sorry for him, and went over and offered to help him pick up some eggs. The look of gratitude was unmistakable even to a youngster like me. So, I helped him pick up eggs, and he said "thanks" afterwards. I didn't talk to him for years, but when he and I were sixteen, Danny crashed his Camaro while drag racing on a closed part of the freeway that was still being constructed. I watched it happen, was one of the first ones to reach the car afterwards, and held his hand while he cried and asked me not to let him die. Then he died. I still think about Danny a lot, even after all these years.
6. I considered my grandfather to be a god when I was younger. He knew everything, had done everything, could build anything, and he let me drive him around the farm when I was 10 years old. Then, I read his biography and realized that he was just a man like all the rest of us. Petty, brilliant, caring, cruel, intelligent, banal, knowledgeable, and fallible. It made me sad, and it made me miss my childhood.
7. Sometimes I eat ice cream for lunch. I know it's bad for me, and I don't do it all the time, but I'm an adult, dammit!
8. I feel at 41 like I am exactly the same person that I was at 31, at 21, and at 11. Intellectually I know I'm not, but I feel exactly the same. I have to consciously stop myself from acting like a silly-ass teenager sometimes and dancing around like an idiot, or making a complete fool out of myself to make someone laugh. Mostly I'm successful. The times I'm not are the best. Heheh...

And now, for the great honored tagged ones!

1. Andy from The World Wide Rant
2. Les from Stupid Evil Bastard
3. My blog-mama Anathea from Zen-Lunatic
4. Shnakepup from Salt On Everything
5. Brendan from Brendan Calling
6. The Pastor's Husband
7. John from Stranger Fruit
8. Sherry from The Litter Box

Whew!