Volcanic Tales and Unexpected Twists

The saying of the day is to never be limited by other people's limited imagination. If they limit their own imagination, they're not thinking big enough.

Iceland

In Iceland they've had over 1500 earthquakes in the last 72 hours, with 2 of them above a 5.0. So they closed the Blue Lagoon, which is usually full of people swimming in the warm sulfur waters. They say it's good for you, I don't know about that but it's warm and fun. They also evacuated a town of 4000 people not far from the Reykjavik airport.

Volcanic eruptions are a serious threat in Iceland. I recall when I visited last year we got close to some volcanoes. At night they look beautiful with streams of red molten lava coming down the mountain. But in the daytime when they erupt, the molten rock can go 450 miles per hour down the mountain destroying anything in its path. You don't want to get in a fight with Mother Nature, she'll probably win.

Dan Patrick

Recently on the podcast, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick shared about his background growing up in a middle class family. We were never poor, just middle class he said, but had to watch our pennies. Spam was a one day a week meal, and hot dogs and beans were fine. But he was happy with all that, although he doesn't care for spam anymore.

Patrick says we all need a mentor, and can rise above where we came from with hard work. He sure made a lot of mistakes but thank God he learned from them. Patrick almost became the weather man at the top TV station in Washington DC but lost out to Al Roker. He later got a job doing sports at a small station in Scranton which led to Houston where he got friendly with some of the Houston Oilers.

Randy Mahomes

Patrick Mahomes' mother Randy told how he almost quit football in high school before she talked him into staying in 11th grade. She knew he'd just be bored watching games in the stands. Randy recognized Patrick's talent at a real young age. When he was 5 years old he played soccer with 7-year-olds and afterwards told her they won 7-0 and he scored all 7 goals. Right then she knew he was not only good, but confident in his abilities.

I asked Randy after in interview when she first realized Patrick would be a super athlete. She said around age 5. Even at that young age, he had the confidence to know he was good, not just the skill. Randy admitted there are times now seeing his success in the NFL that she wonders if she should've let him quit football. But then she sees him living his dream and knows it was priceless. Even the best need encouragement at times.

Stories from the News

There was a funny story about a stupid criminal trying to rob people coming out of McDonald's. He had 3 parrots - one on each shoulder and two on the brim of his big cowboy hat. The cops said it'll be pretty easy to identify the suspect with his unique appearance.

Reminds me of my one-armed cousin Jimmy. A friend of mine said he met my cousin playing poker up in Olton. He started describing him as being about 5'10", wearing boots and a cowboy hat. I stopped him and said, if you just told me he had one arm, I'd have known it was my cousin Jimmy right off the bat.

A while back his nephew knocked the left arm off Jimmy's golden gloves boxing trophy. Then a week later Jimmy lost his left arm in a car wreck in the exact same spot. But that's my family - when he first came to, my uncle Dub joked, "Just be glad he didn't knock the head off that trophy!"

There was a story about a bowling fundraiser in Scranton, Pennsylvania where people could bowl with a frozen turkey for $5 and the turkeys would be donated to a food bank for the homeless. If you get a strike with the frozen turkey, they give you $5 back. I kind of wondered about that guy who came up with it, but it takes some imagination to raise money like that around the holidays.

According to a study of wealthy nations, the U.S. ranks 10th globally for binge drinking overall, but 4th among women specifically. They defined binge drinking as 6 drinks or more. If the average person is having 2 drinks a day and spending $50 a month on coffee, well then somebody's drinking 4 drinks because I don't drink any. But 6 drinks ain't social drinking, not under anyone's definition.

A guy named Paul Mendell has worked at McDonald's ever since he was 16 years old starting by flipping burgers. He worked his way up to be a manager and eventually started getting franchises. Now he owns 31 McDonald's franchises. You don't have to wonder if he's rich or not with 31 McDonald's. If you can't make money on that you won't make money on anything. He started small but had the drive to work his way up the company.