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My daughter hit a patch of ice last weekend and it cost me $500. Just a little patch of ice….that was it. Ice….followed by a little 4” curb, and that was all it took to break the right front strut and render the car immobile. Tow truck….auto mechanic…..$500. Aargh!      That’s the trouble with ice, it takes you out of control. I once was leaving Wal-Mart’s parking lot at about 3 mph. As I slowly rolled down the parking apron on to the street, the car in front of me braked, so

In my last blog, I talked about growing up and loving to fish as a child. My dad instilled in me a love for the outdoors in general. But I would have to say that even more than fishing, I loved to hunt. I began traipsing through the woods and into duck blinds carrying just a BB gun when I was barely of school age. I still remember arguing with Dad over who actually killed the duck. I was honestly convinced that the one BB that came out of my spring-loaded Daisy was the lethal

I did a lot of fishing as a kid. My dad started me off at a very young age. I still remember how after my sister had caught a blue gill, I exclaimed, “Hey Dad, throw one in for me now!” I was only four and thought that dad must have had something to do with the fish getting on that hook.      From my dad’s love of the outdoors and the water in particular, I began to pick up the hobby as my own. A friend and I were so into it that we used to get up before dark and ride our bik

My wife and two sons are on vacation this week (Erica wasn’t able to get away). We are in Hawaii, and it is beautiful!      It’s been quite an ordeal getting here. With two kids in college, we wouldn’t have been able to afford the trip except that my wife works for United Airlines and we took advantage of her flying benefits. But that means we fly stand-by. Flying stand-by as an employee means that you can get on a plane once everyone else does and only if there are seats ope

I get all the email forwards that you probably get and I delete most of them without reading. I think I have forwarded only a couple in my lifetime! But I read one this week that was worth sharing. So rather than forwarding it, I'm posting it :). I have no idea who the original author is, but it is a supposed letter from Jesus to Christians about Christmas:

I turned the news on the other night to hear Geraldo and a panel of pundits talking about the Tiger Woods sex scandal. I was shocked and appalled. Not by the behavior of Tiger, I had already heard about that. What blew me away were the comments by this news panel. One woman said, “Where Tiger went wrong was in mixing professionals (as in prostitutes) with amateurs. If he would have just stuck with professionals, his behavior would have been kept private.” One of the men on th

It was the day before Christmas Eve and she was trying to finish up some last minute shopping at the mall. The kids tugged her towards the line to make requests from Santa. After a 25 minute wait, they were finally able to sit on his lap and tell him their dream gifts for the year. Mom smiled knowingly, as she had already wrapped most of those items. On the way out of the mall, they passed an elderly woman who was gently ringing a red-handled silver bell standing beside the S

The Christmas decorations are up. Christmas music is playing. In fact, we will be singing some carols already this morning! As a family, the Zieglers start celebrating Christmas as soon as Thanksgiving is over (we normally get our tree and put it up the day after, when everyone else is out loading up their credit cards). I’ve never understood those who are so critical of Christmas starting early. They know little of Christmas tradition. Historically, Christmas started at the

With Thanksgiving behind us, Christmas is coming! Every year around this time I get questions from moms and dads asking for my opinion on Santa Claus: “Did you tell your kids there is a Santa?” Some are very adamant: “Santa Claus is a replacement of Jesus in this secularized society and just another way of spreading the materialism of this age.” Others see the fable as harmless delightful fantasy: “I believed in Santa when I was a kid and it didn’t hurt me! It’s just a fun wa