Category: Family

Family6 Comments

Thanksgiving enjoyed, a belated tale

Tim May

It was a grand time had with nearly all of us and the families over Thanksgiving (except for mine – they were scattered across 4 states this year). Nephews and nieces were discovered as being neater and funner to be around from what I last remembered. I know we all are so proud and live the many daily blessing of family, and rightfully so.

One regret I continue to struggle with in moving away from Kansas many years ago is that our families know of each other only by a brief time spent together over a few days each year. It remains a tough pill for me to swallow that my FD and FS  didn’t/don’t know their Grandparents, uncles and aunts, and cousins better, and vice versa. Fortunately the solice I take in that personal decision (to move) is apparent when I look at our family’s careers, experiences, opportunities and successes, realizing it was the best and right thing for us to do, knowing we had the unconditional support of everyone back “home”. Then my regrets quickly fade.

Continue reading “Thanksgiving enjoyed, a belated tale”

Education, Family, Health, Humor, Life6 Comments

I shake my head and drop trough

Tim May

It has been a while since I posted about Raving Fan service. Maybe too long. Today was good in that it provided me reason to shake my head. Shaking in disbelief? Yes. Shaking in “tell me I didn’t just hear that”. Yes. Shaking in “I got something in my ear”? Yes.

Here’s my shaking story: I’ve been home-medicating a sinus cough all week. After a couple idle threats and a plea or two (all from Deb and FD), I called my 25-year+ doctor to schedule an appointment – it was 12:45 p.m. I got the ever-pleasant phone recorder saying “our office hours are…we take lunch from 12:00-1:00”. I hung up thinking I really needed to run a business like that – don’t take phone calls over lunch. I called back after 1pm and a young lady answered. I asked to see “Jack” for a coughing aliment (I really don’t like to see anyone else but Jack). Continue reading “I shake my head and drop trough”

Entertainment, Family, Life, Television, TV3 Comments

Life Lesson No. ???

Tim May

There have been only a few television shows that strike at my core. As my family will attest, one of them (actually multiple series) has been annoying to the entire family – Star Trek (Kirk, Picard, Sisko, Janeway, Archer) – but then they only needed to get beyond the amateurness of acting and become one with the story line to truly appreciate the brilliance of the series.

Another favorite of mine is All in the Family. I love Archie. He reminds me of today’s right-wing Republicans that can never say a good or positive thing about…well, anything unless it deals with the increasing size of their wallet. One can only laugh in agreement or at the absurdity of the claims – there’s no middle ground with Archie.

But perhaps my all time favorite is The Andy Griffith Show. Even though I much-prefer the black & white, Don Knotts shows, never was an episode (black & white or color) aired that didn’t tell a life story or give a life lesson. And when Andy was doing the talking, it was golden…espicially if a very young Opie was at the receiving end of his lessons. Andy, the pillar of the community, the rock of reason, the class of the class, the good ‘ol boy that can relate to the bubba, is always bringing common-sense justice to the lives and purpose to the day’s events of Mayberry citizens .

See if you agree. Andy makes quick explanation and sense of a convoluted play, and re-tells a story of human nature and suggests a reasonable alternative to the problem. (probably not exactly what the playwright had in mind)  Continue reading “Life Lesson No. ???”

Family, Friendship, Fun, Health, Life, Photos, Weather3 Comments

October is the best

Tim May

IMG_5005My personal favorite month is just about over. It has found me taking 856 photos so far this month (as of this day and time of morning).

It is a time of year when nature starts preparing for winter. Animals fatten up (including me), the sugars in leaves make for admirable fall colors, kids seem to get more energetic with cool days and chilly nights. You gotta love it. Continue reading “October is the best”

Email Inspiration Received (EIR), Family, Friendship, Health, Humor, LifeLeave a comment

EIR: This explains why I forward jokes…

Tim May

Email Inspiration Received (EIR) today from my good friend David (Stapp), whom I haven’t spoken face-to-face with in probably 8 years, but have recently been forwarding emails to each other. Here’s how this message goes today:

_____________________________________________

A man and his dog were walking along a road. The man was enjoying the scenery, when it suddenly occurred to him that he was dead.

He remembered dying, and that the dog walking beside him had been dead for years. He wondered where the road was leading them.

After a while, they came to a high, white stone wall along one side of the road. It looked like fine marble. At the top of a long hill, it was broken by a tall arch that glowed in the sunlight. Continue reading “EIR: This explains why I forward jokes…”

Family, Fun, Photography, Photos, Travel2 Comments

Return from a Paradise

Tim May

So the Blog has suffered some neglect of late. I’ve missed two weekends of college football – ughhhhhhh; one week’s worth of sarcasm opportunities have escaped these pages; Mackie Queen of Scots still lays across my lap in an effort to not let me go anywhere again without her.

But it was worth enduring all those daily-grind withdrawals. My co-workers, my heart, soul and sanity, and most importantly my family needed me to go away for a while on a trip to Canada…with Dad and OFB Terry.IMG_3951 I’m so glad we did just that.

This vacation was bought and planned for nearly a year by the sons (brothers). It was a combination Christmas, Birthday, and Thanks-for-being-our-Dad gift for a 75th birthday and milestone celebration of 50+ years of fatherhood. So we went fishing, damn it! Continue reading “Return from a Paradise”

Education, Family, Government, Life, Money, politics, ReligionLeave a comment

ERR: “You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.”

Tim May

I get, on nearly a daily basis, emails proclaiming the sky is falling and life is seemingly not worth living with the current political forces in play. Some exclamations are quite humorous, some are shameful, some will make you sick that civil people would actually forward such nonsense, some are good, some are worthy of my commentary. This one came today:

This is probably the 5 best sentences you’ll ever read. This is one paragraph that should be in every book in every school room in every city in every state in our great Union . Our educators should make a lesson plan on this one statement and beat these words into every head in every class in every state in these United States of America .

Profound short paragraph:  “You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.  When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.”   Adrian Rogers, 1931-2005

Continue reading “ERR: “You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.””

Entertainment, Family, Photography, Photos2 Comments

This Year’s Fireworks

Tim May

DSCF3810

Each year for the past 8 years or so the Lake Dallas Parks and Special Events departments puts on a 4th of July fireworks show. For a small community, it’s an admirable display that brings out  a number of Lake Cities folks. For 30 minutes, everyone seems to sit back and enjoy the show, and each other…with little regard for miserable humidity and mosquitoes. The beer-influenced social skills of the patrons oddly turn polite (for the most part) once the show starts, but before and after…well that storytelling would require a koozie holder for another lawn chair in the Bubba truck.

Continue reading “This Year’s Fireworks”

Family, Fun, Travel3 Comments

The FD has checked in

Tim May

Who remembered, or knew of FD’s 3 week trip to Ecuador? I did, and it’s about time I heard from her!

FD (aka, T) left out a week ago last Sunday. We had an email from her on that next Monday following, saying she made it to Quito. 

The second email followed on Wednesday expressing concern with the group of noisy, obnoxiously-loud college kids. She was headed up the Andes to a remote community for a week of no outside world communication, teaching English and acting to the village youth, and a noticable lack of personal hygiene luxuries. Don’t we all wish we were with her on this trip :)

From the second FD email: Continue reading “The FD has checked in”

Entertainment, Family, Humor, Religion3 Comments

Bubba likes Sunday too

Tim May

In my personal (mental) series of “only in Texas” oddities, I have been inclined of late to rename it “ya jus’ gotta love Texas”….

Yesterday at my religion history lesson (a particular church sermon heavily laden with all sorts of old Egypt-Israel-Jordan geographic references) – before, during, and after the service – I noticed several unique characteristics of the congregation. Please know, I have always been one that prefers at least a casual (not even dressy-casual) wardrobe when attending Sunday service, and think everyone should wear the same (OK, call me a bit pretentious).

Continue reading “Bubba likes Sunday too”

Family, Photos, TravelLeave a comment

History Blogging #1

Tim May

Yup, history blogging for at least the next week. History blogging is simply updates on what has been going on instead of offering up advice and opinions, which in my case demands thought, typing, and editing. And not until after my “test” next week do I want to do any extracurricular thinking. So throw in a few photos, list what happened and when, and call this “Easy Blogging” if you want…. Continue reading “History Blogging #1”

Family, Life, Photography, Photos, Professional, Travel1 Comment

What Say Me

Tim May

Needless to say, I’ve taken several days and stayed away from the ol’ Blog scene (and Facebook too). But I just can’t stay gone for long. So busy was I over the past several weeks, both professionally and personally, I actually slept when I would typically write a thing or two. But now I’ve caught up on some sleep (and work)…let me tell you all about it:

Picture-a-day (aka 365) has continued to “shutter”. Check out my Flickr site – the 2009-365 gallery kind of tells a story of the day-to-day experiences. It gets updated weekly (ususually on the weekend)….

Spent a weekend at Dad’s, along with brothers and family – I wrote about that on 5/22 but it is worthy of a repeat (in my biased opinion): Got in a partial round at least. That was fun but Dad was much too much on the puny side of health, but he’s good now (so he says). The real golf game is next Friday. Pride and beers are on the line….

Continue reading “What Say Me”

Blogs, Family, Humor, Travel1 Comment

On Down the Road(ways)

Tim May

Hey TMay82 Blogsters – when you get a minute, check out FD’s most recent posts from her Philippines trip earlier this year: Urdenata and Manila.  Her adventures can be the envy of the family on occasion.  And her unintentional antics (I think)…well, just watch her “George W. meets the locked door” impression in “Urdenata”…it makes me laugh out loud. Here’s the W “locked door” YouTube refresher just in case you’ve been too Obamulated of late and forgot, then see if you can find FD’s incident: Continue reading On Down the Road(ways)

Family, Humor5 Comments

Got in a partial round at least

Tim May

IMG_9900While back in Kansas for a long weekend, advantage was taken of an infrequent opportunity to golf with Dad and the two FBs. We typically only golf together one Friday per year – at the Ellis County Relay for Life Golf Tournament every June. We need the practice in order to beat Dad’s foursome of grandkids (FD does/has not played…and really doesn’t have a desire to play ever since she ever-so-bravely stood up to a 9-iron thump on the head at an early age, while at a driving range with dear ol’ dad…ruined to golf recreation for her, for life I think). Continue reading “Got in a partial round at least”

Family, Humor, Life, Money2 Comments

College town cribs

Tim May

As I often do, during the lunch hour I roam around town trying to find interesting, odd, or unusual photo opportunities. Those that I’m with, I sometimes (often times) make them stop and tolerate my picture taking. Either way, when working in a town with 2 major universities (accounting for about 40,000 students combined), you will find those opps without too much effort.

dscf2907
Where's the roof?

Today’s venture takes a student housing / architectural look at the town I grow to thoroughly enjoy more each day. Having one of the universities as my client, I was walking back to my off-campus parked car after an on-campus meeting. I looked across the street and asked a simple question to my fellow meeting attendees: “what happened to the roof of that building?”. All I got was a rather odd look of “why would you notice that?”, followed by some chuckling. Continue reading “College town cribs”

Blogs, Family, Photography, Photos3 Comments

The other side of the camera

Tim May

One issue I’ve realized over the past several months is a lack of pictures. It’s not so much that I don’t have pictures – I actually have 4,565 of them so far this year since I’ve started this 365 / Picture-a-day thing.  I just don’t have a decent one of myself for posting to the blog.  Mind you, I have 293 pictures of OFGNi Madison; 353 pics of OFGNe Mick; and I have 26 of me. That ratio really doesn’t bother me whatsoever.

So if I want a picture in the sidebar of this blog, I’m kind of forced to choose a goofy one from my library (the one uploaded now is looking like I have gas and I’m self-humored because of it). Please know, I extend my sincere apologies for the creepiness pose in the left column even though I look like I feel better…the gas thing and all ya know. Continue reading “The other side of the camera”

Blogs, Business, Entertainment, FamilyLeave a comment

Roadways

Tim May

Hey, hey, hey! Get on down the Roadway!

Have you seen the FD’s weblog lately? She and an Inca Trail buddy Suzanne are trying to establish themselves with YouTube “shorties” about town (NYC). I personally think they are about the best thing a traveler could listen to before going out on the town. Check out Roadways (I also have a permanent link off to the side, but y’all need to be using it). The girl they put in front of the camera is cute, funny, and will certainly bring a smile to your face. Continue reading “Roadways”

Blogs, Family, Friendship, Health1 Comment

Natalie, and Amy, and Trenton, and Landon

Tim May

OFBgrs: one of blog faithful could use a bit of healing thoughts and supportive prayers. Little Natalie had heart surgery on Thursday: see Amy’s Two under Two. A friend of Amy’s, Jenna, has updated her blog that Natalie’s surgery went well, but neither blog sites have since updated Natalie’s progress.

Amy, our OFGNe Eli’s heart surgery tugged heavily on all our hearts. With a successful surgery and recovery, he’s now more kiddo than can sometimes be handled…and we absolutely love it that way, as will you. Continue reading “Natalie, and Amy, and Trenton, and Landon”