ONE TON GORILLA [Brian Smith Blog]

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April 21, 2005

Big Air Ball Tower

My son, Caleb, Age 5 got a Big Air Ball Tower for Christmas. It looks like a cool toy. You build this 3-5 foot tall contraption made out of K'nex (legos meets tinker toys) and when you are done it shoots balls out of a tube and down a track bouncing off a trampoline into a basket, and then back again. get the picture?

Well the BABT has sat on a shelf for the last few months waiting for my basement to be completed, there is really nowhere else in the house to put the thing. It is a pretty big tower and Ruth could easily smash it to pieces in a few seconds. So the basement has enough space for us to work on it and store it in a safe place. And now that the basement is mostly complete(there are still always a few detials) it is time for construction to begin.

Most websites that have reviews for the BABT say it can take 5-10 hours for 2 people to build properly. I am excited to build this with Caleb, he is a bit young, but he loves construction and building things. He has had other K'nex since Christmas and has built some pretty cool stuff, a motorcycle, car, surfboard boat thing. So even though this project as a whole is over Caleb's head it is still worth it and he is excited. So for the next week or for as long as it takes every free night we have we will spend and hour or two in the basement, just Caleb and I working on our project together.

I say all this to tell you that this is a big thing for me. Spending time with my family is not where it should be and needs to be in my life. I suppose in some ways you learn from example and without judging my father, I did not spend as much time with him growing up as I wish I would have. He had a hard job of farming which I have learned can be as time consuming as you would like it to be. Jobs around the farm could consume your whole life if you wanted them to. And now that I am older I have met farmers that control their work on the farm and others that allow it to consume them.

Actually I have also learned that farmers are not alone in this struggle. Any job if done right can consume you if you allow it. And for guys who don't have jobs that consume them, their hobbies can, and for some guys it is a mixture of both. So with this said, I crave a better relationship with my children than I had with my dad. But it is something i need to work on. It just doesn't come as natural to me as I would like.

I look to a few friends for role-models, not sure they know this. But one of them has a bigger busier job than me. But when I talk to him I can feel that his work is his work and his home time is his family time. And I feel when I talk to him that he can't wait to go home. I envy that. I also have another family I know who has more kids than mine with adult children and the respect and love they have for their parents is second to none. This obviously doesn't happen overnight. It takes years of time, love and relationship building and is a good example for me.

So pray for me and my efforts to be the Dad I want to be. To be able to break the generational curse that i believe has been in my family for decades of father and son relationships. It isn't easy for me and my job could easily consume my every last minute. I want all my children to feel like i had time to play with and snuggle them (not to mention my wife :) ) I want to be the Dad I wish I had and be the example for my children so they might not fall into the same rut that I struggle with.

Posted by smitty at April 21, 2005 12:43 AM

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Posted by: Trish at April 21, 2005 1:19 PM

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