The Sportsman's Expo

I had the opportunity to take Kylan out for a day of guy stuff at the Sportsman's Expo. I believe it is never too early to teach kids to love the outdoors - camping, fishing, hunting, and vacationing in Alaska were always exciting to me as a kid.

There were a lot of cool booths with some pretty fun things to look at. One booth had a baby bear cub that you could take pictures with; another had a baby owl and falcons. Then there was this big dog retrieval show. The trainer would throw a fetch toy down a runway into a large swimming pool. Somehow nothing could top Kylan's favorite attraction this year ... the large industrial sized vacuum that they used to vacuum the water that spilled out of the pool. I tried a number of times to pull his attention away from the vacuum, but the noise the vacuum made was just too exciting. He's always had a fascination with vacuums, and this was the vacuum of vacuums.

We stopped at a California Redwoods booth and took a picture.

Oh ... that hair! Part 2

So hair is no longer a novel thing in my life. As my chia-head clearly demonstrates, with a little water, sunlight, fertilizer, and healthy rest ... hair grows nicely!

I find it comforting fitting in with the norm enough now that I don't need to explain my hair loss. When I first began losing my hair and had shaved my head bald, I took my car in to have the transmission serviced. While waiting to pick my car up, the shop owner's mother was waiting in the lobby also. "What did you do with all your hair?" she candidly asked. Although I appreciated her directness, I reluctantly gave her the grim truth about my treatments. Looking back I wish I would have made something up like "I just had a bad haircut." I've always liked being the light-hearted, happy-go-lucky guy that makes people laugh.

So I'm feeling much more at ease these days meeting new people with nothing to explain. Don't get me wrong; For those of you who know me, I enjoy sharing my experience with the beating the disease, and my testimony of the divine intervention that brought me to where I am today. But very few people care to get into a conversation on such a deep topic having just met me. And with a sign as apparent as total hair loss, it can be a bit like social leprosy. So here's to social normalcy and to not having awkward conversations out of obligation. Life is great! Life is fun! Live hard and die when you're good and ready. I'm planning on being around awhile.

Greg