It's the small things...

I would like to take a quick moment to talk about a few inventions that I love. These aren’t your typical inventions, however. It would be really easy to list things like light bulbs, cars, computers, microwaves, and things like that, but the inventions I want to discuss are of a smaller scale; things that I use often; things we probably take for granted.

Candles – I love things that smell good, and the ambiance that they provide is a plus as well. In my opinion, most candles don’t smell very good, but when you find good ones, they are awesome. Amber and I have different views on candles, however. I prefer to light them only when people are coming over to the house. That way, hopefully, people will walk in and think, “Wow, it smells good in here. I can’t even tell they have a ginormous dog living in the house.” Amber, on the other hand, wants candles lit any time she is home because they (and I quote) make her “soul feel good.” Probably to a fault, I try to keep things good for as long as possible. That means that I won’t want a candle lit because it will “waste” it if we are just using it for us. I know it’s a stupid way to view things, and I promise I’m getting better about it. Sometimes when I come home and Amber is sitting in the house with no candles lit, I will make a big fuss about how her soul is and then I’ll go light a candle.

WD40 – This little spray has numerous uses and, as stated above, I love things that smell good. I like how it smells. I have considered wearing it as a cologne, but I came to the conclusion that I would probably only attract men, so I vetoed that decision. I have used this stuff for a number of things though, from fixing squeaks to removing duct tape residue. Most people probably don’t know that the WD stands for “water displacement” and the 40 indicates the 40^th attempt by the creator to come up with a formula for the water displacing spray.

Delay Pedals – As a guitar player, my playing ability, style, and taste all changed when I got my first Electro-Harmonix Memory Man delay pedal. A whole new world was opened to me… much like when Aladdin and Jasmine went on their first magic carpet ride… with Steppenwolf. Anyway, the way I see it, Pink Floyd was the first band to make using delay popular, and then U2 took it to a whole new level. The Edge really made delay commercial and changed the way guitar was played. That’s how I see it at least. I might be wrong. I have owned a number of different delay pedals. Let’s see… 1…2…3…4…5…6…7…8…9…10…11… at least 11 different pedals. I currently own 3 and have my eye on another one. Gotta sell something first though.

Oven Mitts – Ok, this one is a little more obvious, I suppose. Everyone needs something to protect their hands from 350-degree metal cookie sheets and things like that… unless, of course, your name is Allan Evald (my father-in-law). He is a master welder and his hands can handle extreme heat. Whenever I am doing something in the Evald kitchen that requires handling hot stuff, I just have “Ol’ welder hands” come and do it for me. The Ove Glove is actually an attempt to recreate the hands of Allan. Amber did not inherit this trait.

So those are a few things that make my life better. Speaking of making my life better, I went to Seaside with my brother Andy, Kaed and Dash for Andy’s birthday a couple days ago. We stayed overnight and had a good time. Lots of swimming, snacking and snickering. I love those guys.