Today is Free Iced Tea Day at your local McAlister’s Deli. It’s all part of their Tea Town USA promotion. The winning town gets $5000 worth of shade trees or other “improvements” for their park(s). Go get yourself a big ol’ cup of tea – its only the best tea in the whole wide world – and drink it gone up underneath a shade tree at your local park…a shade tree that hopes for more family to come plant roots next to her real soon. Continue reading I’m Parched
Facebooking for advice, my OFAIL (that’s One Favorite Aunt In Law, not literally “O-FAIL”…I maybe should think up another acronym huh?) has a recently built, do-it-yourself fish pond at her rural home. And now she has, yup, the dreaded algae.
Sight unseen, I think she has two issues here. One is her new fish pond has algae and the other is her new fish pond gets algae. Algae needs but 2 things to grow: sunlight and nutrients.
Those that frequent this blog know of my unquestionable loyalty to Kansas State University, both academically and athletically (let’s not mention the thousands of dollars they got from me here). Because of that, a reluctance to give “press” to the rival college(s) is stubbornly applied, i.e. just about anything to do with the University of Kansas or the rest of the Big 3+7 (another post yet to come). But with this post, I make a proud exception!
My of my, we spent a 5 day weekend in Kansas this past week. What great family time spent together, golfing and BBQing…talking and celebrating!
At the May’s, it was golf. At the McRae’s, it was being at the farm.
This is a story without the bickering of politics, rumor-izing, sharp-tongued disagreements, and doom and gloom predictions…isn’t that what Christianity is all about? I trust this will put all our daily lives into some kind of perspective, and affords an appropriate reminder of one of my favorite Bible verses and songs: This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it! (Psalm 118:24).
Email Inspiration Received (EIR) and checked out on snopes.com and truthorfiction.com…my kind of story for sure despite the discrepancy between Buzz Aldrin being Presbyterian or Esipcopal – he’s a Christian regardless of the church doors he walks through!
This from an email received from my friend David S. – the pictures are from my personal photo library.
Continue reading “EIR: Communion”
If this doesn’t make you smile, laugh, and appreciate life, you’re probably already dead.
Email Humor Received (EHR) and Email Inspiration Received (EIR) from OFGaP Jayne…thanks lady! This made my day, week, and month!
Road travels and remodeling has done an outstanding job in keeping me from my good ol’ op-ed blog (hope I didn’t lose too many folks). Nearly 5 weeks and many allergic reactions to sheet rock dust ago we started our master bedroom/master bathroom remodel. That should wrap up early next week and then we can finally shower (eeeewwwww) and get some sleep….But what does any of that have to do with the post title you ask? Not too much.
Almost 2 weeks ago we traveled to Kansas to visit parents (mostly) and pick up a new Scottie dog for our family. Zoey is our new 3-year old female that is full of life, energy, and laughter-induced antics…and yes, the hormonal balance remains out of kilter in our home (as it has for many years).
Instead of fueling the fear for what tomorrow may bring, I will first read this book.
Instead of the incessant spread of political hate, lies, half-truths, and sarcasms, I will first read this book.
Instead of stirring the never-ending sports smack pot between differing fans of favorite universities and pro teams, I will first read this book.
Instead of losing my health over national healthcare, I will first read this book.
Atta boy Mick! There’s not a whole lot more we could ask for of the past weekend than spending time with you, the day after your birthday, and your Mom and Dad.
Hey y’all. Mick had his 2nd birthday celebration at Christina and Tom’s house. Finger food and presents, lots of laughs and conversations. He had grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles, and family friends over to witness, eat, and partake in all the birthday fun.
Way too exciting news y’all!
We will soon be the new care providers of 3-year old Scottie (I would say “owners” but it is a Scottie after all and we humans in the same house with one are merely there for a Scottie’s pleasure and convenience :) ).
Her name is Zoey and she comes from an already loving home in Kansas. We are so thankful to her current owner Leah for reaching out for a caring home for Zoey as her life goals are changing and she unfortunately needs to surrender her pal and companion.
St. Patrick’s Day proved to have some luck for me – ya know, I’m really beginning to believe in this fate stuff lately. You see I am a wee bit Irish there laddie, which may explain my likening to have a listen (and sing along) with U2, Mary Black, Celtic Woman, and a tendency to take down a mess potatoes like no one’s business. But if you ask me about Notre Dame, I will tell you my two favorite teams on game day are K-State and whoever is playing ND.
OK, there is a leprechaun’s pot of gold to this post. St. Patty’s night, about 11:30 pm, marked the 10,000th hit to the blog! Continue reading “mileSTONED again”
At first I tried to record this MILEstone while rolling down the highway this evening…then I thought better of that little trick (I couldn’t get a good focus on the dash, but rest assured I am better at picture taking while driveing than texting – juuuuuust kidding). Continue reading “MILEstoned”
Guys, this is the kind of stuff where you either re-introduce yourself to all the single malts in the house, or you go to church.
If you recall, a couple weeks ago I did a quick post on Erma Bombeck. It was about how, after watching a PBS program of her life, it spoke in such a way as for me to better understand the attraction my mom had for the lady. So here I sit again tonight, moved to sniffles and teared eyes (damn you PBS) watching yet another favorite of mom’s, Chet Atkins, and coming to very similar conclusions with this man as I did with Erma.
Something is going on here gang and I’m not sure how to go about wrapping my arms around it. I could use some help, but if I’m drowning here, don’t be tossing me rocks….
Looky here – we got to see OFGrNi (Madison) and OFGrNe (Mick) today. It is always so much fun, and a treat to see these kids.
It’s easy to see why I can take 100 pictures of these two – which I did this afternoon – in a matter of 1 hour.
As I sat down last night to catch a few minutes of PBS before the 10pm news, I picked up on a show “already in progress”. It was a 30-minute filler mini-documentary on the late humorist and journalist Erma Bombeck. This show caught my attention in particular because my Mom adored Erma’s writings and humor.
Please understand, Mom would speak often about an Erma story read from the local newspaper…and occasionally clip a column that somehow spoke to her, only to give us boys and dad something to ponder the “why this article” as we went through Mom’s personal items months after she died.
I thought, what better way to gain some insight into the mindset of both Erma and Mom than to give a listen to this short television program.
I got up this morning, put a couple eye drops in each eye, dressed for a Saturday, sat down with the iPhone and texted the FD. Within 1 minute of the event, her actual birthday anniversary, best wishes from a proud ‘pops” was sent.
It was a morning routine not much different than in 1980 except I had a much smaller girth then and I have a much better job now.
The FD was born on a Wednesday, 30 years ago today…at 6:57 a.m.. She has been Sunshine in my life ever since.
So the price of new Scottie dogs and puppies is going up. The newest celebrity in the dog world is a Scottie named Sadie. Step back Barney and Ms. Beasley. “Sit!” Sadie. You guys have nothing on my Mackie Queen of Scots.
I ask you this:
Who would you want as your everyday pal?
Continue reading “I’ll see your Sadie, and raise you Mackie”
I’ve enjoyed a little back-scratching fun the past couple days with “Doppelgänger” week on Facebook…the week you change you profile picture to a famous person who’ve been told you look like. Thanks be to FD’s high school chum Nicole, as it was her “status” posting of the event that got this all started with me. So I now have a new and temporary Facebook profile picture….
Well here’s the biggest reason why my picture-pick is so animated: since I was told many years ago when FD and FS gave back to me, the teasing I dished out to them, Disney’s ol’ Baloo the Bear (from Jungle Book…sorry for the “duh” moment guys) came first to mind. FD and FS said I was Baloo the Bear, maybe because of my shape, size, personality, singing talent, and/or back-scratching techniques, I guess. So now the teasing has started up again, this time with the Facebook “Friends”…I probably had it coming alright. No word yet from FD or FS….
Happy Belated New Year y’all!
So much – sometimes too much – going on, but then so much went on last year…that was documented.
One thing for 2009 for sure: I’m done! That is last year’s New Year’s resolution to take one picture a day is done. What fun I had and thoroughly enjoyed the challenge. It brought me more familiar with photography, a decent and knowledgeable understanding of digital cameras (I now have 6 within arm’s reach at any time day or night), a better eye for detail, color, repeating forms, and a favorite…people. Continue reading “365-2009”
Tis the season of Christmas…it has always stirred emotions in me. Not just for the religious joy it brings, but also for family traditions, memories, anticipations, sadness, and pride; they all swell from my withins and give a unique reflection on Christmas each year. It was some 12 years ago – December 14, 1997 – when this family lost a daughter, sister, wife, mother, mother-in-law, grandmother, and friend – Mom was all one in the same person, our life-long Santa Claus that brought joy to us all. Christmas will forever be her time in my heart.
Without permission, I boldly speak for my family in saying we have learned to cope, heal, and continue our lives over those 12 years. Our loss was made even more difficult in knowing Christmas time was an incredibly special time with our family. We’ve had our share of sadness as we have also reaped blessings of joy since her death. Many times we don’t realize either of those emotions until they confront us, with all the bluntness and suddenness a life changing event can muster. When that happens, we have learned to celebrate a life shared, a life lived, a life blessed, a life remembered. Continue reading “A Christmas Made More Difficult, but We Celebrate”
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