Brian Miller's Blog

2009-07-16T16:36:00.000-07:00

About the above.

Recently, the family travelled to Thibodaux, Louisiana, to take Caleb to the Manning Passing Academy held on the campus of Nicholls State University. We joined two other families there. Between our hotel and the camp, we drove through Des Allemandes, Louisiana, noticing that they proclaimed that the town was the Catfish Capital of the Universe. I love catfish so we stopped looking for some Catfish at the Louisiana Catfish Festival which just so happened coincided with our visit.

Our athletic director, Scott Smiley, also loves catfish and wanted to compare his catfish to what one could get at the universal headquarters for Catfish and at a festival dedicated to the species.

During our stop, we took the opportunity to have our picture taken with the Catfish Queen.

Sadly and surprisingly this happened. I had to buy tickets to purchase food so I went to the booth and asked how many tickets would it take to get a catfish platter or some such plate. I was informed that there was no such plate. In fact, there was little to no catfish available. There was a catfish po-boy. But no catfish, hushpuppies, fries.

They did have a Catfish Boulette which you can see in the picture above - the round things. Wanting some sort of catfish from the headquarters for catfish and at a festival celebrating the fish, we purchased the above Boulettes. It consisted, we were told, of catfish, spices, meal, and "other stuff."

You will notice, in the above picture, that a bite has been taken out of one of the Boulettes. That was the only bite.

On another food note, our hotel was in close proximity to New Orleans. The Smileys had never visited the city so one evening we drove into the French Quarter, onto Decatur Street, and sat down at Cafe Du Monde for beignets and Cafe Au' Lait. Pictured above as delivered with the necessary powdered sugar.

2009-07-07T18:51:00.000-07:00

Drink of the summer - Orange Fanta

TV Show of the summer - Deadliest Catch

Lunch of the summer - Ouiznos

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Some afterthoughts from our trip:

1. National Parks visited include Yellowstone, Zion, Rocky Mountain, Grand Teton, Great Smoky Mountain, Big Bend, Sequoia, Hot Springs, Yosemite, Badlands, Grand Canyon. Ranking the parks, in my opinion, starts with Yellowstone. It is my favorite. Yosemite is number two. Third place is hard. Grand Canyon, Zion, Grand Tetons. Can't call it.

2. National Park that I should have gone to but haven't - Guadalupe Mountains. It is in Texas and would be a great destination for this fall. McKittrick Canyon in the fall would be great.

3. No excuse really parks - Joshua Tree and Death Valley. I went right past both on this last trip but didn't turn in.

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Colorado City, Arizona. Made famous somewhat by the book "Under The Banner of Heaven" by Jon Krakauer about fundamentalist Mormons. Eerie drive through the city with most everybody scoping us out when we drove by their house. Stopped by a convenience store/cafe called Merry Wives.

Trip Photos

2009-07-05T16:58:00.001-07:00

The Narrows hike

50 degree water... glorious.

Emerald Pool trail, Zion National Park

Sequoia National Park, above and below

San Diego Zoo

Hoops on the cruise ship

Ensenada, Mexico

Watching the ship leave port of San Diego.

Good times.

Trip Summary

2009-07-04T21:27:00.001-07:00

Thursday, June 18th - Left in afternoon. Drove to Midland. Stayed in Motel 6.

Friday, 19th - Drove to Tucson, Arizona. Ate at a pizza place called "Sauce." Best I have had. Motel 6.

Saturday, 20th - Drove to San Diego. Met Huddlestons and Roberts. Ate seafood on harbor. Hampton Inn.

Sunday, 21st - Boarded Carnival Cruise ship "Elation." Set sail.

Monday, 22nd - Visited Catalina Island. All three families snorkeled in Lover's Cove.

Tuesday, 23rd - Visited Ensenada, Mexico. Ate in town. Took taxis to market.

Wednesday, 24th - On ship.

Thursday, 25th - Back in San Diego. All three families visited San Diego Zoo. Hampton Inn.

Friday, 26th - Millers and Huddlestons take Whale/Dolphin watching boat. Roberts return home. Later same day, Huddlestons return home. Millers drive north of Los Angeles. Rodeway Inn.

Saturday, 27th - Six Flags Magic Mountain. Afterwards head north to Lindsey, CA.

Sunday, 28th - Sequoia National Park. Leave headed back east. Stay at Circus Circus in Las Vegas for $24.00.

Monday, 29th - Drive to St. George, Utah. Arrive early at Days Inn so kids can swim.

Tuesday, 30th - First drive into Colorado City, Arizona. Weird place. Drive into Zion National Park. Stay at Zion Lodge.

Wednesday, July 1st - Still in Zion NP. Hike the Narrows.

Thursday, July 2nd - Start home. Decide to go all the way.

Friday, July 3rd - Arrive home at approximately 5:30 am.

Presidential Libraries

2009-07-04T13:02:00.000-07:00

Atrium area of the JFK library

JFK hallway

This is a driveway that runs from FDR's house to what was the main road. After the onset of polio, he would set goals to walk from his house to the end of this driveway.

Graves of FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt. The actual, very plain graves are in the foreground.

Krista asked for a list, so here it is: We, or some of us have visited:

Richard Nixon - Located in Yorba Linda, California, this library actually took us by surprise. I guess that we were not expecting much perhaps, but there was much to learn about this man, and the library did a good job of presenting all that Nixon had done. There was no attempt, it seemed, to gloss over Watergate. They had moved his boyhood home to the library site, the home was built by his father from a kit.

LBJ - Repeated visits to this library on the campus of the University of Texas. It is my least favorite of the libraries though, from a building standpoint, it is interesting made more so by glass wall encompassing several stories where a visitor can see all of the archives not open to the public.

Harry Truman - Leslie is the only one of us to have visited this library located in Independence, Missouri. The library site is the place where he returned, lived, and worked after his presidency. Leslie was impressed and left wanting to know more about him.

Kennedy - Cold is the word that describes this library. While laid out well making it easy for the visitor not to miss anything, the information is partial and seems to be a lot of marketing. Interestingly, a very small portion is devoted to the assassination. There is a good slice of it dedicated to the family accomplishments and to the First Lady.

George Bush ( 41) - A great library in College Station that has visiting exhibits on a regular basis that are outstanding. Leslie ran into the former president at the library once when he introduced author David McCullough, who was there to speak about "Fathers and Sons". A great part of this library is all of the letters that the president wrote, he was a prolific letter writer, to his children and friends. They show an intimate, thoughtful side of the man.

FDR - This is located in Hyde Park, New York. The most intersesting thing about this library is the home that he lived in that is located there so it has a personal flair. His desk is there and it is left as it was on the day he died. Most of the items were simple gifts from friends. The library itself was smaller that many of the others. It was the first one built. It was built and running while FDR was still president.

Ronald Reagan - My personal favorite partly because he is a favorite of mine. There was so much to learn. This one is located in sort of desert region in California. The exhibits were excellent.

Abraham Lincoln - Located in Springfield, Illinois. Recently built from private donations and an outstanding spot for a vacation stop. The National Park Service has a museum about him located there, as well, since he lived in Springfield. Very interactive.

2009-03-30T19:48:00.000-07:00

Introduction to Robert Frost poetry needed? Try these.

"The Pasture"

"Mending Wall"

"Two Tramps in Mud Time"

Only poet to win the Pulitzer Prize four times.

Liked to be known as a farmer and teacher.

Father died when he was young. Wife died before him. Younger sister died before him after he had to commit her to a hospital for mental illness. Had two children die in infancy. Another one died as an adult.

Only poet to speak at an inauguration. Kennedy's.

"Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening" has been done really well in a children's book with illustrations by Susan Jeffers.

He had a habit of sleeping late after staying up late chatting with friends.

He was sloppy in dress.

"I had a lover's quarrel with the world" is on his tombstone.

2009-03-21T14:40:00.001-07:00

While in Lake Placid, we stayed at Whiteface Lodge. I waited for awhile to book our place to stay searching for the best deal. One of my anxieties is manifested in booking a place that looks great on the internet only to get there and find that it is a run-down trailer in a trailer park behind a landfill.

This did not happen.

When I first began looking, I noticed Whiteface Lodge because it was rustic in an Old Faithful Inn way, like a huge log cabin. That is what we like, but the price put me off immediately. Then, because I took some time to book lodging, I looked back at sidestep.com, the site that I use to book most trip plans, and saw that the lodge was running their own "March Madness" special which meant greatly reduced rates for Sundays through Thursdays in the month of March. So, for those days, I booked it and was not disappointed. I want Leslie to love the places we stay, and she loved this one.

It was an all suite place with a fireplace, a deck, and a bunch of other things that made us conclude that it is the nicest place we have ever stayed which isn't saying tons because we typically, especially when all of us travel, don't stay at nice places. This place was a treat.

2009-03-20T19:05:00.000-07:00

March 11, 1989. Leslie and I were married at the Pipeline Road Church of Christ, it the evening, ceremony performed by my dad. We went to Vermont.

We just celebrated our 20th anniversary though on the 11th we actually did not officially have any special celebration. On the 13th, this past Friday, we flew to Boston. Below, I summarize the trip with a few observations to follow in the next couple of days.

First, before the anniversary trip, on the 10th, I returned from Orlando, Florida, as a sponsor for our seniors who visited DisneyWorld for their senior trip. We stayed at All Star Movies and had four days of hopping parks. The students were great. I spent most of my time at Epcot though I visited all of the parks and most of them alone, walking and watching, thinking. I spent the least amount of time at Magic Kingdom. Riding just a few rides, I primarily enjoyed the slow pace of going where I wanted to go, when I wanted to go there and leaving when I wanted to leave. Due to the sponsor make-up, I had a room to myself, and that was nice.

Landed on the evening of the 10th, but Leslie and the kids were not there. She had packed the kids for the night and headed to College Station to watch Cal State Fullerton visit Olsen field and to play the Aggies. Though the game was won by the Titans, the visiting with friend was a treat.

Took off with Leslie on the 13th landing in Boston at 12:40 am, rented a car, headed west on I-90 toward New York state. Our three children stayed with the Waldrons for the first couple of days before my parents arrived to finish out the supervision.

In deciding where we were to visit, Leslie and I typically enjoy going to places that we have not visited. We have long wanted to go to the Adirondack Mountains in northern New York. Lake Placid, home to two winter Olympics, most notably the miracle on ice when the U.S.A. won Olympic gold in hockey, was our destination.

We had one stop before Lake Placid.

Leaving Boston, we found an Econolodge in Worcester, Mass, and got a few hours of sleep before picking up our journey. Into New York, we travelled south to Hyde Park for the purpose of visiting Franklin Roosevelt's presidential museum.

After that we completed, we headed north through Albany, the capital, into Adirondack Park and Lake Placid. Stayed in the Pines Inn the first night before three night in Whiteface Lodge. A treat.

We left on the morning of the 18th at 6 am headed back to Boston arriving early enough to visit JFK's presidential library. Loaded the place at 4:09 and landed back at DFW four hours later.

There is the summary. Now just a few observations before I close tonight only to pick up tomorrow.

Some of you know that I have loathed flying forever. I no longer mind it = modern medicine. Approximately 45 minutes prior to take off, I open bottle, walk to water fountain, down a couple, and take in all of the wonders of leaving the surface of the earth.

A couple of quick observations about the presidential libraries.

FDR's was very enjoyable. Personal. A great tour guide. A lot of insights into the man, his family. He and his wife a buried in the rose garden there in little sunken places in the ground.
JFK's was ok. Not personal. Set up nicely in a sterile, organized fashion which I liked the same way that I like zoos that are laid out logically because it makes the anxiety about missing something go away. Unusual presentation about the assassination.
Both men had affairs, and neither library had any mention of these indiscretions. Just a notice.

About Boston.

I love Boston because of the history, the accents, the neighborhoods that are glued together but are completely separate but make the whole fascinating. There is an earthiness to Boston. And the history is everywhere and not just the ones you know. Look on a detailed map. Tons. Leslie likes the history but not the city so much.

Vermont

We drove to Vermont because we were close enough. Drove into Middlebury home of Middlebury College and a great Vermont town, not a village in the New England postcard or calendar sort of way. Robert Frost taught his craft at Middlebury College at the
Bread Loaf writing conference. I bought a new book on Frost at the Old Vermont Book Store in town.

Enough for tonight.

2008-12-27T10:06:00.000-08:00

2008-11-17T17:46:00.000-08:00

I just measured the length of my receipt that I got from Albertson's grocery store. I bought eleven items. About 5 inches of the receipt is dedicated to what I purchased including the subtotal, tax and total.

The receipt in its entirety measured 20 inches.

Twenty inches.

Over a foot of a strip of paper.

On this receipt is a wealth of information besides what I purchased including:

My "Great Deal Savings" amount.

The store director's name.

My eligibility to win two tickets to a Dallas Cowboys game complete with entry form blanks to fill out with instructions about where to place the completed form.

Albertson's website info.

Albertson's motto - "It means a great deal."

The number to call for questions.

Albertson's address.

A note encouraging me to sign up for an "Rx-tra Savings Card" because I can "save on branded and generic prescription medications. See pharmacy for details."

The date and time of my transaction.

Information about what each item did cost compared to what it cost me on this night at this time.

This particular store's identification number which in this case is #04193.

2008-11-15T18:27:00.000-08:00

Peggy Noonan, I think I have mentioned her here before, writes a regular opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal. She was also a speech writer for Ronald Reagan and has authored some books. I attempt to read her articles regularly because she is one of the best wordsmiths and consistently shows uncommon insight, a twist from the normal reactions and observations.

Her new book, "Patriotic Grace", I recommend. It is a small book, a political book, but don't let the politics put you off. It is mostly an American book. Give it a read and hear in your head what just the right words put in just the right order sound like. Thoughtful. Cogent.
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Leslie suggested a list edition to this blog. Maybe a restaurant list.

If I were going out to eat tonight, which I am not, these are the places I would go in order from first to fifth choice.

1. Baja Grill. Don't know if it is a chain. Sort of don't think so. Great fish tacos that I am craving.

2. Babe's. Fried chicken on a Saturday night with corn, mashed potatoes, salad, bread. If you don't like this, then I don't understand you.

3. Red Lobster. It is an old favorite. When Leslie and I were first married and living in College Station, if we really wanted to eat nice, and it was payday and we had some money, we would head to Red Lobster. Sometimes we would eat before pay day but close enough to pay day so that the check wouldn't clear before we got paid. Each would get a salad, share an entree. By the way, they have great bread, and I think it is sort of a secret. Those days were good days. When you had to share and eating at Red Lobster was considered the nicest place possible that we could eat. We didn't know that there were other places nicer than that. By the way, this is Saturday, but the best eating out night, I think, is Thursday.

4. Taco Diner. Part of the "Mi Cocina Family of Restaurants." Only one I know is in in Southlake. I order something called "Bistec."

5. I can't think of five.
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Mooresville, North Carolina. Who are you?

2008-11-13T18:15:00.001-08:00

The football season is over, and there was something great about the boys playing. Caleb, a 9th grader, played on our JV team which was made up of all freshman. There is quite a bit of anticipation as these guys grow together to see what they are like on the field in another couple of years.

Jeb played Upwards. We are sort of stunned by his ability. Yes, I know he is only eight, but I was eight once and not any good.

Caleb played defensive end and tight end, both ways all of the time. Jeb played quarterback, and they usually do not throw the ball in 2nd grade Upwards but our team threw the ball and threw it a lot. Scored a lot. Jeb is left-handed but does a lot right- handed. In baseball, he throws left, bats right. Basketball, he dribbles just as well left and right. I think that the right-handedness comes from just watching and wanting to do exactly what his older, right-handed brother did.

Caleb shined defensively and offensively. Great, beautiful catches. He and I would talk about how good receivers catch all of the balls they are supposed to catch and some they are not supposed to. He did this. We talked about how good players do not complain because it gets the attention of the coaches because coaches don't like whiners. He doesn't whine. Coaches like kids that look them in the eye and can take a good chewing, in other words can take instruction sometimes harshly given. This is Caleb.

It is a little sad that football season is over. He has chosen not to play basketball. His decision. And it was a good one. He wanted to not be as busy and he is sort of a homebody. The pace of our lives is slower already and that is a good thing as the holidays start. This week, we have all come home from school together and been around the house together.

2008-11-11T16:17:00.000-08:00

Harvard

The teachers were incredible. You think they should be because of the expense of the conference, but often college professors are not that interesting, though of great intelligence not necessarily able to communicate effectively. That was not the case with these. Even in a couple of presentations where the actual topic was not terribly applicable to my particular situation, the teacher made it interesting, and they worked to make it applicable. These are teachers of teachers so I guess I shouldn't be surprised that they are good at their craft. They were engaging, entertaining, knowledgeable but not to a "nerdy" level, and stayed to talk and visit casually during breaks and our receptions.

Harvard itself was beautiful. There is the old part that circles Harvard's "Old Yard" which is a big lawn crisscrossed by intersecting sidewalks, and there is the "New Yard" which is simply newer but with the same look. The "New" one I think was established, or built up, during the 1700's. Harvard started in 1636, I think.
The architecture was consistent and stately. All of the freshman dorms circle the Old Yard area.

Though November, many of the trees still clung to their colored leaves, a lot of reds. The weather was not particular cool, sort of rainy, until the last day when it was perfectly crisp. What I wanted in a fall day, that was the last day.

The campus has spread out considerably from the "yard's" but there are now many more of these green spaces between buildings and in the center of squares.

Encircling the older parts of campus is a wall with several gated entrances. The gates are named after famous people who attended HU. There are quotes engraved into walls, doors, gates, sidewalks.

Harvard Square is the hub of the area and also a convenient stop on the subway line. The "square" is a convergence of several roads into one large area in front of the campus and it contains restaurants, most with seating outside, the aforementioned bookstores, a couple of unique shops that just sell magazines and daily editions of many, many newspapers including newspapers from other countries. They both also sell Diet Coke. There was a stationary store, the Harvard Coop which sold all things Harvard, a store that sold beads, an old timey movie theatre, coffee shops, and other places enticing one to linger.

From the square center, the roads lead to other quaint parts of the university and historical sights like a cemetery with gravestones from the 1600's and the church attended by Washington at the start of the revolution and the tree, an elm, under which he assumed command and surveyed his troops, at this time a tattered bunch.

It was a great place to walk, and I did much of that at night since the Inn at Harvard, where I stayed was adjacent to the Harvard Square. I didn't have to waste time getting to the school since I was there and could explore.

For the most part I ate at one of a kind, unique places except one late evening the smell of pancakes and maple syrup drug me into an IHOP as I walked past the Charles River, a bus stop, and a house-turned-computer shop. There, I sat next to five college girls talking about guys and food and the football game against Columbia and the volleyball game against Princeton and a girl who dressed cute but was otherwise not very popular, apparently. I am sure I appeared to them just what I was, a tourist, since I had three maps out, my Harvard Square map, the subway map, and my plastic fold up map of Boston and vicinity. I am a map nerd.

M.I.T - Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Sits on Massachusetts Avenue about two miles north of Harvard. Architecture is imposing granite with a lot of columns. OK, so I only drove past MIT and didn't walk it, but the one drive through the campus provided my best view of beautiful trees of yellow with an understory of smaller trees with red leaves. This I saw on the last day, the best fall day, so that magnified the beauty of it - leaves blowing, people sitting on the lawns, riding bikes, working on their graphing calculators.

That is enough for tonight.

2008-11-10T18:56:00.000-08:00

Boston

Last Wednesday, I flew to Boston for a conference that was being held at Harvard. It was a joint presentation of the National Association of Independent Schools and Harvard's Graduate School of Education. It is rather expensive - conference, hotel, flight -so FWC, so far, has sent one person a year for the last three years. It was my year. So, with the help of some meds, I enjoyed the flight immensely. In fact, I slept and remember very little of it.

The conference started on Thursday, but I arrived Wednesday, at noon, by design. With a little bit of time, I could stop by some sights that I wanted to see or revisit.

I wished I had taken my computer with me so that this would be easier, but I didn't so I am writing in hindsight since I arrived back home last night close to midnight, more drugs and more sleep.

Places I Went/Saw:

Portsmouth, New Hampshire. I had heard it was pretty and it was just an hours drive north. Got there and will go back. In fact, L and I are planning a trip to this area in March to celebrate our 20th anniversary. We went to Vermont on our honeymoon.

I saw a bridge in Portsmouth. I crossed it and a sign tells me that I am entering Maine. That is a highlight because I had never been to ME. I drove through town, Kittery(?), and decided to visit Maine means that I must do something other than drive across a bridge and meander through a city. So, I stopped at Chef's Cove Cafe and ate a sandwich, some chips, and a Diet Coke.

Exeter, New Hampshire. After leaving ME, I drove west through New Hampshire to Exeter. A town known, if it is known, by Philips Exeter School. They themselves, and many others, consider them to be the elitist of the elite independent, private, boarding high schools. Nice campus, like a college.

Then. Then. Then, to Derry, New Hampshire. This was a great treat for me. Derry, NH, is where Robert Frost spent several years farming, writing poetry - some of the best known of his, and teaching at Pinkerton Academy. His house is there and while it and the barn were closed that didn't keep me from parking and walking through the farm. There were trails leading through the woods and next to a stream that I believe was partly the basis for the poem "Hyla Brook." There was a perfect rock wall circling a meadow in the farm, a wall that he partly built. There was a marker for a tree that he referred to a couple of times because he looked out a window in his home and could see it.

Concord, NH. This is where I spent the night after finding a hotel and going into town to eat at Helen's. Another sandwich. Best Western was the hotel. I found it in the rain after getting lost in the blackness of country roads that were made darker by the trees hanging over the asphalt. The next morning I visited the Old North Bridge, where "the shot heard round the world" was fired. "Old Manse" which was a house built by Ralph Waldo Emerson's parents, lived in by RWE and Henry David Thoreau at different times and then given to Nathaniel Hawthorne and his new bride along with a garden planted by Thoreau as a wedding gift, is right next to the bridge and part of the Minuteman National Historical Park and maintained by the National Park Service. Then, I stopped by Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, the cemetery mentioned in the "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving. There on "author's ridge", Thoreau, Emerson, Hawthorne, and Louisa May Alcott, who wrote Little Women, are buried.

Walden Pond. Another treat. Walden is where H.D.Thoreau spent several years in a small cabin that he built himself. Though the cabin isn't there, an exact replica is. They can build an exact replica because he was exact in his description in "Walden Pond". The pond is there with the location of his house near a small sandbar that was there when he lived, and is still there. It was very rainy here so I will have to go back when I can spend a little more time.

I walked the Freedom Trail on the last day. There are 15, 16 or so sites on this 2.5 walking trail through the Boston. Boston Massacre sight, Old North Church, couple of cemeteries, churches, Paul Revere's home, Boston Commons, other places.

Rode the subway into Boston a couple of times. Got wonderfully lost. Started to take the subway to the Boston College/Notre Dame game but decided on a bookstore instead. Oh, in Cambridge, where Harvard is, there are many bookstores. Stores for popular books, just poetry, just banned books, just almost banned books. just used books or "experienced" books as they would say. I came back with a lot of books.

Had a Cambridge police officer pull up next to me. We rolled our windows down in unison. He says, "Whad is tha matta wid ya? Do ya know how to use ya directionals?" At this, I had a slight moment of panic because I thought I was going to have to have him repeat himself and he looked the type to make a southerner just sort of disappear into the Charles River. I didn't get the "directionals" part. But, then I thought of the blinkers and apologized. He sped off.

Fenway Park close up (when I was lost) and Gillette Stadium from far away when I was walking on a cobble stone street near Revere's house.

Harvard and M.I.T. Saw them both but will write about that tomorrow.

One disappointment. The Globe Corner Bookstore was, and is, a stop on the Freedom Trail. It was a gathering place of sort during the revolution. When Leslie and I flew here on our way to Vermont twenty years ago, we walked the trail, stopped into the store, made a purchase, a couple of small books that I still have. I hoped to do the same thing. I almost missed it this time but then sadly realized that the building was right, I was looking at it, and the historical marker was there, but now it was a gaudy jewelry store. I don't get that. Another example from the trail. The first City Hall for Boston is a pretty building. On the trail it sits next to the sight of the first public school in America, the school is simply a marker. The City Hall building, though, an old building, historical, stately, now has a Ruths(sp) Chris Steakhouse in the lower level. I don't get that either.

2008-10-22T19:09:00.000-07:00

Update.

Still no ticket and still no current inspection sticker though I know the trick to get the engine light off.

I did get stopped for speeding. The trained officer noticed the inspection sticker on our other vehicle was expired. This I did not know. However, he gave me a warning for the speeding and a warning for the inspection sticker.

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Leslie asked me to write. She says it is part of being disciplined. So, I am relegated to writing random thoughts which seems to be my genre anyway.

It is hard to beat Double Stuff Oreos.

Phillies.

George Bush seems to get pummeled by everyone. Does he not get some credit for no terrorists attacks since September 11th? I think so.

Seriously, the economy is that big of an issue? It seems to me that my memory of what I did and was thinking on September 11th had very little to do with $$$. Yea, I'm sure. Wasn't a big deal.

Leadership Training for Christ. Book of John. Our two oldest, old enough to compete, love it.

Jeb will beat you up.

Job around the house that is a big pain = folding fitted sheets. It is best just to wrap them in a big ball. I'm sure that is why cheap hotels don't use them anymore.

It must be a motel, not a hotel, if it is cheap.

Largest to smallest: Tree, log, limb, branch, stick, twig.

2008-10-05T20:08:00.000-07:00

Kevin Wasner, elder at Lake Cities Church of Christ and CIA operative, relayed to me this technique:

Detach the cables from your car battery. Re-attach. Your car's computer, whatever, will take a couple of days to get all jiggy with it and re-shine the bright check engine light of despair.

Ha!!!!

2008-09-29T20:06:00.000-07:00

It is September 29th. About twenty-five days since I last wrote anything on this blog.

I am going to Boston on November 5th. Boston, a great city, though it is in Massachusetts.

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Inspection stickers are a good example of a government racket. I can't get my inspection sticker because my "check engine" light is on, even though it has been on over a year and obviously whatever it is I need to check isn't inhibiting the working of the car. I can't get the "check engine" light off until I have a diagnostic test run. After the diagnostic test, which I succumb to in a moment of weakness, I find out that my EGR valve might be bad or my catalytic converter might be bad - those things MIGHT be the cause of my lit up "check engine" light that has to go off before I can get my inspection sticker.

I ask if they can just turn off the light now that I know what it MIGHT be and that EGR thingy is obviously not hampering the proper functioning of my car - that proper functioning being to get me from place to place.

I get the big negatory. Got to be fixed just in case it is the cause. IF NOT, then another diagnostic test.

Cost of EGR - "oooooooooooohhhhh, somewhere around $300.00." Cost of the catalytic converter - "ohhhhhhh, anywhere from $500 to $800. We want know until we get in there."

This is how I figure it. About $300 + about $500 to $800 is about $800 to $1,000. The cost of a ticket for an expired inspection sticker is about $140.00, depending on the city in which one is ticketed. I can realistically afford to get anywhere from six to eight tickets before I will get to the amount of money I would have to spend to POSSIBLY get the light off. I don't personally think I could get six tickets in the remaining time that I have this car. And, tickets for expired inspection stickers are not driving violations so they are not reported to the insurance companies. I even believe I could tell one, maybe two officers, this whole story and conceivably be let off with a warning just out of sheer mercy for me having to deal with such idiocy. That means I could get stopped up to 10 times before reaching the cost of the repairs. Brilliant.

My current inspection sticker expired 12/07.
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My wife does not support this reasoning. However, it is what I am sticking with.

2008-09-04T13:21:00.000-07:00

Jeb was born on August 14, 2000. He just turned 8.

Some things about him.

Last night in his class at church, his teacher talked about the Bible. So, he came home and gathered up many of our Bibles. This morning, while eating a bowl of Apple Jacks for breakfast before school, he sat at our table reading Matthew.

He has the biggest, widest, shiniest grin.

Jeb still loves to snuggle and is particularly fond of it at bedtime after he we have the required two prayers, both of which must include the mention of "no bad dreams."

Although it might be overshadowed by the fact that Jeb will hit you with a vengeance, he is our most tender-hearted child, naturally empathetic. And yearns to be helpful.

He enjoys dressing up in his brother's old football pads and changes the jersey every few minutes.

He can eat bowls of pasta at one sitting and as many scrambled eggs as his parent is willing to fix.

He is a second-grader and looks much too grown up ambling down the hallway with his blue backpack slung over one shoulder.

Though he doesn't cry much, he does easily if he thinks he has disappointed you.

He is a great friend to his buddies.

He is a delight to us.

Sky

2008-08-10T21:30:00.001-07:00

Today, Erin wrote a poem. She presented it to me this afternoon. I read it and immediately asked for my own copy to frame and put in my office.

Here it is:

Sky

The sky is blue,
but that is not its only mood.
When it is glad
the sun shines through the clouds.
It is angry when
the clouds turn gray,
and nothing will go its way.
It falls asleep to dark blue.
When the sky is filled with pink and orange,
it is quiet and thoughtful.
When it is sad,
drops of rain will fall.
But I think my favorite mood of all
is when it is blue.

More pictures from our trip to Illinois.

2008-07-27T21:27:00.000-07:00

2008-07-25T20:15:00.000-07:00

Notes from the rest of the trip up until the conclusion which just happened a few minutes ago since we arrived home. Notes in no particular order, no rhyme and no reason.

A lot of fun can be had standing next to you sons while you all dry your hands in the hand-dryer - blowers in restrooms. They have some really powerful dryers these days.

Six Flags St. Louis is superior to Six Flags Over Texas in these ways:

It was much cleaner.
Better organized so that getting from one area to the next is simpler. At least, for me.
Very clean restrooms that did not stink, and this is my last restroom comment.

The rides were similar in many ways. Both have Superman and Batman and Mr. Freeze and a mine train. St. Louis had more rollercoasters. But it had more performers that roamed around the park doing their thing. They did have, like the one in Texas, some singer from High
School Musical who I have never heard of singing to a bunch screaming pre-teen girls.

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We stayed at a Days Inn in Eureka, Missouri, because it was close to the park, cheap ($53), and had a pool. The pool was indoors in what they called a Fundome. In our family ranking, Leslie gave it a four, that high only because it was cheap. I gave it about a six because I know what I should get for $53. There is a difference. Marks against the Days Inn because it was not that clean, the pool/Fundome made everything smell like mold, the motel is one where they do not have fitted sheets so they try to stretch a sheet that I think is too small over a bed a little bit bigger the result being that the sheet never stays on meaning that one is sleeping on the bare mattress by 1:00 am.

Central Missouri advertises itself as the a World Famous Pan Fried Chicken area.

There are three universities in Springfield, Missouri and the original Bass Pro Shop.

I have been to New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Houston, Philadelphia, Denver, Detroit, Boston, Chicago, San Diego, and a lot of other larger cities. Chicago, as a city, was the prettiest. Great location - on a lake, great parks, great architecture that even an architecture idiot like me could appreciate. It was easy to navigate, even to drive around the busiest sections of the city. By the way, in any category, Houston is last.

It is a little strange arriving home from trips. Everyone has been together for several days, sleeping in the same room, visiting everywhere together, and then when home everyone sort of feels weird not being in the same room.

2008-07-21T20:30:00.000-07:00

Things Learned Today:

1. The Field Museum of Natural History is huge. We spent five hours there today and saw every area but admittedly passed through a couple of exhibits quickly. Favorites were the dinosaurs and the American Indian exhibits.

2. Taxis run up $ quickly. A short ride, under a mile, cost us about $11.00 + tip.

3. When waiting on, depending on, a free trolley to get back to your hotel, it is important to know when the trolleys quit running.

4. There are dangerous areas of Chicago.

5. Chicago is strongly Obama territory.

6. Lincoln Park is a great area of Chicago that runs along Lake Michigan. Tons of runners, boats anchored in the lake, hundreds, I mean hundreds, playing volleyball on the beach there.

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On the agenda tomorrow is the Shedd Museum.

We drove around a little this evening, actually getting rather wonderfully lost, and have started considering the Lincoln Park Zoo. It is free and in a beautiful area. Tomorrow, due to a great friend in Keller, we will have our season passes to Six Flags. She sent them Fedex today. It is an amazing thing that someone can mail something in Texas on Monday, and it can be delivered to this hotel the next day. So, Six Flags Over Great America is now an option for fun before we leave.

2008-07-20T20:20:00.000-07:00

Chicago.

We awoke and visited the Parkview Church of Christ. Usually, we meet someone we know or someone who knows someone we know. Not this time.

Afterwards, we headed the 2.5 hours or so to Chicago. I was a little anxious about navigating Chicago, finding the hotel, finding a parking spot, etc. Arriving, we drove down Lake Shore Drive for a little so that I could show the family a couple of spots that we will visit. Found those easily. Then good fortune. Found the hotel and the hotel had parking, for a price, but convenient. The hotel has a great roof-top swimming pool, and we are located on Michigan Avenue right across from Grant Park.

Tonight we ate at Giardano's Pizza. Really good thin pizza. Famous, they say.

Tomorrow, we will visit the Field Museum of Natural History. After that, who knows?

2008-07-19T19:28:00.000-07:00

For anyone interested in presidential history, A. Lincoln, or simply U.S. history, Springfield should be high on your list of stops.

The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum and Library opened in 2005, and it was a great day at a great place. There were two superb video presentations, a gallery of objects that belonged to the Lincolns, a large area with voice presentations and displays of how Lincoln was depicted in the media of the day, a picture gallery of the Civil War along with a multi-media presentation on the Civil War that showed the whole war in four minutes which was just long enough for the kids to be pay really close attention. There was information on his assassination and long goodbye which included ten funerals in ten different cities. And much more including the necessary store.

We also visited his home, the only one he owned, in a neighborhood which is preserved just as it was as is his house. There was a great visitor center operated by the National Park Service which made me wonder if graduates when applying for employment with the NPS can designate whether they would like to work at a historical site or a natural site. The people working at a historical site might not want to hike into the Grand Canyon everyday looking for fat hikers nor perhaps would the Grand Canyon worker want to talk about the parlor of a president's house.

Also visited his tomb in Oak Ridge Cemetary where he is buried with his wife and three of his four sons. One is buried in Arlington cemetery, and he is the only one to live to adulthood.

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Obviously, we visited the Chatham Jaycess Sweet Corn Festival.

2008-07-18T18:39:00.000-07:00

It is July 18th. 8:42 pm as I sit in the lobby of the Howard Johnson's motel in Springfield, Illinois. We left Keller, Texas, this morning at 5:39 headed here for a little vacation. Originally this was to be a two week affair, but I have shortened it for a confluence of reasons.

Here in Springfield we will visit Lincoln stuff - his grave, his home, his office, and his library and presidential museum. Might stop by the corn festival taking place in Chatham, about 10 miles from here. Good sweet corn cooked on a grill sounds good.

Here is a good motel description: find a motel on sidestep.com for 53.00 a night with two double beds, no smoking room, on the first floor, right next to the pool, that is secluded so our three kids are the only ones in the pool. Already struck up a conversation with the housekeeping lady, a delightful lady who already offered multiple towels and little bottles of shampoo. Yes, the door to the bathroom sticks and the toilet sounds as if the air around it is being sucked into a vortex or something similar to that whirlpool thing on Land of the Lost, but it is $53.00.

After Springfield tomorrow, and maybe the corn festival, we will find a church for Sunday and then head to Chicago. Didn't quite find as good a deal in the city, but we are on Michigan Avenue across from Grant Park.

Will let you know about the Lincoln and corn experience tomorrow.

Pictures from our visit to Daingerfield to see my parents.

2008-07-13T18:40:00.000-07:00

2008-07-11T22:07:00.001-07:00

Teach children to take the smallest piece of pie, the smallest portion of any food served. If serving themselves, take a small spoonful. And that girls go first.

2008-07-10T21:47:00.000-07:00

Tonight, four couples sat around a table in an Italian restaurant and had pizza, pasta, and dessert. We were blessed to be one of the couples.

I sat there rather quiet for the most part thinking to myself that it was a strange set of events that preceded this evening's gathering.

First, one couple moves to Keller, Texas, due to a change, an opportunity, for different work.
The second couple, us, move to Keller, Texas, due to an opportunity for different work.
The third couple moves to Keller, Texas, due to work.

Once there was a time when I didn't know where Keller was.

All friends before. All from the same town, the same church, some affiliation to the same university. Each family has children approximately the same age. In fact, the three women were pregnant at the same time, the spring of the year 1994.

I just stared at the faces and heard the laughter and listened to the stories. Wonderful.

2008-07-09T21:26:00.000-07:00

I promised Leslie that I would write on this blog everyday until this coming Saturday.

The letter of the law.

2008-07-08T21:15:00.000-07:00

Sharing meals with friends is one of the best things about this world.

Tonight, three families met at one of the homes and had spaghetti, green beans, great bread, salad with toasted almonds, strawberries, and spinach. Homemade sugar cookies.

We laughed. Talked of past things, or sad things that seem to have been amongst common friends at a place that is common to all of us. And we talked of wonderful things.

Our children - 8 of the 10 - ran through the house hiding from each other, played in the water form the hose on the trampoline. They ate, but barely, because they so wanted to get to playing, and that was just fine.

What was interesting to me tonight was that three of the children stayed at the table and listened to the adults talk. It is strange to me that our oldest, along with two of the oldest from another family, want to sit and listen. I wonder if long years from now they will remember sitting around the table as their parents visited late into the night. I want them to see the amazing relief and joy that is found within close, long-time friendships.

2008-07-07T20:46:00.001-07:00

We are watching the original HBO series on John Adams. We made a rash purchase of the DVD set and are "requiring" all of the family to watch it. Leslie and I are pumped about it due to a natural and shared interest in things historical particularly United States presidential history and because both of us read the book about Adams by David McCullough.

Jeb and Erin have to some things explained to them since the language is a little different than what is commonly used in our household. Stupendously different.

Caleb watches silently. Possibly just bearing it until the conclusion of the required viewing. However, perhaps he will remember the learned history when he is older and a professor of history at some university. Although, he might equally be put off by early American history due totally to our persisting in such a practice.

Before the reading of the book, I viewed John Adams and an "intermission" in the presidency between George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, a sort of Jimmy Carter between Jerry Ford and Ronald Reagan. Through McCullough's writing and some reading hence, it is clearer now of his part in our country's beginning.

An interesting note in history is that he and Jefferson both died the same day, July 4th, each thinking that the cause of liberty was in good hands since the other still lived not knowing that the other had, in fact, died that very day.

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Chess has no appeal.

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2008-07-06T18:46:00.000-07:00

We are pondering a trip toward Illinois later this summer. Many of you know that we like to take trips. Car trips. Not on interstates. Stopping when we see something that we want to check out.

We have gone west most often although there have been trips to the east. As a family, we have never headed north past southern Missouri, Nebraska, and South Dakota which I say is in the west anyway.

North would get us a couple of new states. Iowa and Illinois. It would also get us a couple of more presidential museums/libraries. There is Herbert Hoover's in Iowa, some small town. There is also Abraham Lincoln's in Springfield, Illinois, along with where he lived, where he had an office.

Then on to Chicago. I checked a book out of the library about Chicago, and it seems that there are many things to see and do. A big city would be a new destination for us. Navy Pier, Wrigley Field, Magnificent Mile, Lake Michigan, University of Chicago, Sears Tower, John Hancock Observation Deck, some ethnic neighborhoods to explore.

In the meantime, above is a picture from the Grand Canyon.

2008-07-05T13:27:00.000-07:00

Pictures from Sedona.

2008-07-05T07:24:00.001-07:00

Sedona, Arizona.

This past week, we spent four nights in Sedona with our friends the Auvermanns from Amarillo, Texas - Brent, Jennifer, Samuel, Silas, and Isaac.

I wanted to go there because I had heard that it was a beautiful spot, it was close enough for a visit, and because I had never been. And there is something refreshing about going west in the summer.

We found that Sedona was beautiful. Sedona, the town, is a much smaller Santa Fe having a strong tilt to the arts, expensive art, and the new age thinking exhibited in crystals and psychics and indian flute music playing everywhere and palm readers and mind readers and all natural everything and....

what is referred to as the Vortex. Here is what I can tell you about the Vortex. The reasoning is that all of us are obviously living things and the earth is a living thing as is all of nature. Subsequently, just as some humans are healthier than others, some trees are healthier than others, some rivers are healthier than others, then some areas of the earth are healthier than others. According to some of the locals, Sedona is a very healthy place on earth. However, it seemed taking advantage of the Vortex involved more than just being in Sedona since there were certain individuals who were enterprising enough and needed to help you get in touch with the Vortex, intercept the Vortex, channel it, speak to it, have it speak to you, just be in the Vortex.

We visited Slide Rock State Park which was located on a very scenic byway known on the map as Hwy 89A but in name as the Oak Creek Canyon road. It was absolutely scenic.

The park is located along Oak Creek which tumbles over rocks in the park creating several "slides" for people to enjoy and many smaller waterfalls. We were there with several hundred other folks but it didn't seem crowded because there were so many places to sit, play and from which to jump into the water.

Near our first stop, there was a 12 foot jump off of a cliff and all of us took the jump into water that literally took one's breath away due to the cold. The kids took several jumps loving the feeling and the conquering of a fear.

On our way out, we decided to see the creek and canyon on the other side of the bridge. Walking under it, we found several teenagers and college students jumping off a cliff that Brent and I estimated to be - too high. But there was a 30 foot cliff just a few steps away where others were jumping from. We all sat and watched people approach both sites, some getting the courage to jump and others backing away.

I motioned to Jeb, our 7 year old, asking him, jokingly, if he wanted to jump in from there. He smiled hugely and with his face asked if I was serious. I said that I wasn't. But then I climbed down a back way and got in the water at the bottom of the cliff just to see what the water and depth was like. It was good.

In short time, Jeb had his shirt off and sprinted off of the cliff with a terrified and thrilled look on his face. He was followed by all of the kids although some needed more preparation time than others.

Our second day was spent at the Grand Canyon. We hiked the rim trail, ate a picnic lunch under some trees, had some ice cream from near the Bright Angel Lodge and were awed by it again.
That night we spent a couple of hours at the heated pool. The kids loved the pool, splashing from the pool to the hottub and back. They were worn out at the end of this and all days due to our ending all of our days diving for little torpedoes thrown by the adults.

Our last day there was spent relaxing and visiting and making some runs to Circle K for 44 oz Diet Cokes, tea, and diet Dr. Pepper. We also visited some local shops.

We started the last morning at 5:30 local time and arrived back in Amarillo, at the home of the Auvermanns, at about 6:00 pm for more visiting and so Leslie and Jennifer could work on making glass pendants made with soldering irons. The guys watched some baseball and Mythbusters on the Discovery channel.

Now, we are home. We love home. Photos to come. We currently are unable to locate the appropriate cord.
Peace Out.

2008-06-22T20:47:00.000-07:00

CSpan, at this time of year, schedules several commencement addresses.

A couple of weekends ago, Barry Jackson, Caleb, Hunter Huddleston, and I drove to Omaha, Nebraska, and for the third year, watched the opening weekend of the College World Series.

During the late evening in the Ulysses S. Grant room of the White House Best Western in Bellevue, Nebraska, we caught the last moments of the commencement address delivered to the graduating class of Boston College by David McCullough, author of several books primarily of history including John Adams.

It was a wonderful address, the part I heard, which implored the graduates to continue and find a love for learning.

Upon my return here, I located the video and the text of the address and required Erin and Caleb to watch with Leslie and me. You should watch it.

Google John Adams Boston College and you should find the msn video link.
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This week, Erin and Jeb head to Camp Copass near Lake Lewisville with our church, Lake Cities Church of Christ. They will be there for a week. Erin has already been and loved Blue Haven. Caleb has been on a mission trip and continues is Velocity training camp. Got to get faster, quicker, stronger.
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Friday, our family heads to Amarillo and then on to Sedona, Arizona. Why? Because we have never been. Hear it is pretty there.

2008-06-11T20:12:00.000-07:00

I don't understand why Mexican food places give you so few tortillas. This happens regularly to us. Last night, three of us, after finishing an afternoon at Six Flags Over Texas stopped at the nearby Pappasitos because we were hungry, we were very hungry, we like their fajitas, and we like that garlic/butter stuff they bring to slather on your food.

The three of us were to share an order for two, chicken and beef. They bring the food and three tortillas. What is that about? There are three of us. There is a good bit of meat on the plate plus rice, plus cheese, plus beans. Immediately each of us grabbed a tortilla and the three were gone. As hungry as we were the first fajita for each of us was quickly eaten and already we were asking the waitress for tortillas. We did that and she brought another batch of three. We each ate another fajita and asked for more.

Is the price of dough so high that these need to be rationed?

And this happens at other places. Cristina's in Trophy Club. Chili's. It does NOT happen at Rosa's.
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Erin is at Camp Blue Haven near Las Vegas, New Mexico. I, along with my mother and father, drove her there this past weekend. She returns Saturday. Got to visit with Sid, Amy, Will and Wes Walker who are spending the first session there, also.
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Caleb is on a mission trip to Little Rock, Arkansas, and he returns tomorrow afternoon. Tomorrow evening, he, his friend Hunter Huddleston, Barry Jackson, and myself are headed in the direction of Omaha, Nebraska, for the College World Series. It is a great event, and mine and Caleb's third trip there with Barry. The games start Saturday, and I think that we will return sometime Tuesday.
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Headed to Sedona, Arizona, with Brent and Jennifer Auvermann and their three children for some of the week of July 4th. Sedona because we haven't been there, and I hear it is beautiful, especially Oak Creek Canyon and Slide Rock State Park.

2008-05-22T20:12:00.000-07:00

So...since March 31st which seems to be my last time here...

Went to DC and New York for a week with the 8th grade trip. Our school takes the 8th graders to the two places and sees most of the things one is supposed to see when in those locales. Been to both before but only drove through NY with Leslie, accidentally, back in the '80's. We were on our way to Conn. and chose to drive through Manhattan. Another story for another time.

This trip to DC we visited two new sights for me - the National Cathedral and the Holocaust Museum. Great stops.

New York was all new to me because, again, the previous trip was just a lengthy car ride through the city. We saw a play, Little Mermaid, on Broadway, Times Square, Central Park, rode the Staten Island ferry by the Statue of Liberty, ate at some "famous" local joints, visited Chinatown, rode the subway, bunch of other things.

I went on the trip as a chaperone. Caleb is in 8th grade and being on the trip with him was wonderful.

Power-washed the fence. This is outstanding in no way other than I sort of enjoyed watching the black grime come of and seeing the clean wood underneath.

Teaching a Sunday morning class at Richland Hills Church of Christ for the month of May. Sort of a visiting teacher thing going on.

At school...

The "senior prank" is over and was rather uncreative. Moved the furniture and put stinky stuff around. Extraordinary only in that the stink was worse than normal.

Some kids lovingly put fruit loops, toilet paper, flour, and q-tips all over the front yard. Oh, to catch them in the act one time.

A kid told me the other day that she had decided her own consequence for an issue at school, had completed the consequence which was to write 50 sentences (which is absurd on so many levels), and then told me I could not punish her because that would be double jeopardy. I told her she better walk out and come back and try again.

Tomorrow, we ride. Going to Oklahoma City for some Big XII baseball.

2008-03-31T19:39:00.000-07:00

I think the three judges for Dancing With The Stars should have a grudge match against the three judges for American Idol. American Idol would win because of the big guy named Randy. Unless you had a match between the girl on each, then I go with Dancing.

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There is something about the weather that makes people talk. Today, we had a phone call from an employee's spouse saying that we were in a tornado warning. We weren't. But the call sent everyone to their favorite weather site. Discussions abounded. Animated radars were dialed up. Phone calls were made to friends and loved ones in out-lying areas. People were sent home early.

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L.T.C. or Leadership Training For Christ was this past Easter weekend. Caleb and Erin competed. Both in Bible Quiz and and puppets and Erin also in Bible teaching. Two golds for Bible Quiz and Erin's teaching, and a silver in puppets. We compete at the Hilton Anatole, and it is inspiring to see the young people seated in groups testing their knowledge of 1 Samuel. Next year, it is John.

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Perfect camping sandwich = two saltine crackers, slice of cheddar cheese the size of the cracker placed in between the two and finished with a appropriate sized piece of cooked-over-the-fire Spam.

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525,600 minutes. How do you measure a year?

2008-03-24T19:18:00.000-07:00

Some of the good things about today...

I had the gumption to get up and run/walk this morning. I rose at 5:22 and was out the door at5:25. Felt better all day. Now, there is tomorrow morning.

I talked to two friends on the phone today. Long time friends. Barry Jackson has been a friend of ours since before our children were born. The three of them, Caleb, Erin, and Jeb, call him "Uncle Barry" because they love him. They love seeing him, going to his house, and love when he comes for a visit. Many memories have been made with Barry.

I also talked to Sid Walker. I first met him in 1983. He recently sent me an email that was a list of memories we made together. It was a long list and could have been much longer. When getting off of the phone with him, I am always thankful.

I laid on Jeb and Erin's beds and scratched their backs for several minutes. Jeb mostly laid there because he was tired. Erin talked about her room, about her science class dissecting owl pellets, art, among other things.

Leslie and I laid down in the big red chair and watched a talk show with Billy Joel on it. The first concert I went to was to see Billy Joel in Jackson, Mississippi.

I bought a suit. Not a big deal except that I have probably bought three suits my whole life, and I needed one for a couple of upcoming things since I threw my only other suit away. It was on sale, and it is done, over.

I ate lunch with Leslie. Subway. Subway club, cheddar, not toasted, with bell peppers, spinach, cucumbers, little bit of red onion, dab of mayo and dab of mustard. 6 inch. Baked Lays BBQ chips with unsweet tea.

2008-03-15T18:40:00.000-07:00

March 11, 1989, Leslie and I were married. Tuesday, we celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary.

A few months back I decided that she and I would travel somewhere, just the two of us. I chose Key West, Florida. The pictures you see on this post are from that trip. We left from Houston on Saturday, the 8th, and returned on the 12th.

I chose Key West for the following reasons:

1. It was a warm place. It seemed to me that a place advertised as the "Southernmost point of the United States" would be warm. By the way, I was wrong about this. Seems they were experiencing an unprecedented cooling spell. The warm place was an important criteria because Leslie is cold - all of the time - everywhere.

2. We had never been there. This is a consideration in all trips as far as I am concerned. There are so many places to see, things to do.

3. Key West has some history. Truman spent many of his days as president at the "southern White House." We visited there and found that many other presidents spent time there.

4. Tied to literary figures. Robert Frost, a favorite, spent most of the winters from 1945 until 1960 there. Ernest Hemingway lived there and is everywhere - they make a big deal of it. Others like Tennessee Williams and Shel Silverstein lived there.

5. It wouldn't tax my travel expertise.

6. I didn't need a passport.

7. There were many things to do there. Sights to see, snorkeling, beach, etc.

Now to the grading of the above mentioned criteria:

1. D-. It was cooler than expected. We didn't pack for that. It rained most of our last day there. The weather on our snorkeling day was rough. Cold with a storm blowing in.

2. A. We hadn't been there before so this was an easy criteria item to fulfill.

3. B. History was good, but it gets a 'B' because some of the history lies still 70 miles west of Key West at Fort Jefferson, at the Dry Tortugas. We didn't get there.

4. A. Leslie and I like books. We left thinking that we need to read more Hemingway and maybe a biography. Seems like an interesting guy.

5. A+. Easy to navigate. The plane flight, rental car, car travel, booking of the place to stay all went very well.

6. A. Didn't need a passport. However, there were many foreigners there. Seems to be a favorite of the European crowd.

7. A. Snorkeling, biking, history tours, ghost tours, relaxing, great eating places, walking, visiting museums, strolling on the beaches or on waterfront, seeing interesting characters - these things and more made it a great locale in our opinion.

Other things:

1. There are roosters roaming wild everywhere. No one has a real explanation.

2. Charles Kuralt in his book titled "America" spent the month of February in Key West. The premise of the book is that he took a year and spent one whole month of the year in twelve different places and chose the month for each based on what he thought would be the best month to be there. He mentioned in his book a place to eat called....

3. Blue Heaven. We ate there on the night of the 11th. Usually, food doesn't play a big part in our trips. We aren't food people and usually don't spend much time thinking of where to eat or spend much time at any one place, but this trip was different. We relaxed and took our time and visited. Blue Heaven was great, but not as great as....

4. Cafe Sole'. I had a grouper sandwich and some salad. Leslie had something different. This was our lunch on the 11th. It was raining and we hung out there about 1 1/2 hours talking. We had a desert here - something we rarely do, and it was made up of small portions of four different things. A sampler. We sampled it. I think Leslie licked the final contents of three of the four.

2008-02-11T19:17:00.000-08:00

Catch up.

I am reading "Twelve Mighty Orphans" which recounts the story of the Fort Worth Masonic Home Mighty Mites that contended regularly for the Texas state football championship consistently in the 1930's and 40's. An astounding feat given that they competed with the largest class of Texas public high schools but being much smaller than the others.

Next up. "Soul Cravings" by Erwin McManus, I think.

Found out that Kleenex makes tissues that smell like Mentholatum or Vick's Vapor Rub. Until I was married, I don't believe I knew Mentholatum, but now it is a staple next to the bed. Nothing better for chapped lips.

It is hard for me to know when chicken is done cooking. I tend to let it go too long.

Elliptical machine or treadmill or stationary bike? Any? None? I am at an stalemate.

Real butter is the way to go.

Real butter might have a little to do with me thinking about exercise equipment.

I don't get Algebra. I didn't get it in high school.

I had a flat tire yesterday. The first time I changed a flat tire was in high school. I changed the flat of the spanish teacher at our school because he asked me to stop by and help out. This was in about 1977. He paid me a $20.00 bill.

2008-01-10T20:32:00.000-08:00

Things of late:

1. Thought to myself that if I am the first person in a line of cars waiting at a stop light, particularly if I'm in a turn lane when there is only one turn lane, that I must speed off so as not to make anyone miss the light and get caught because of my tardiness. So many others depend on me. I like separating myself from the other cars so that the drivers behind know that I did my part.

2. Definitively decided that Krispy Kreme is overrated and the best donut is a glazed one from Shipley's.

3. Read "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens. Great read. Short at about 80 pages.

4. Kept reading. Read "Fraternity" by some dude, a book about Nixon, Ford, Carter, Bush I, and Reagan. Reading "The Kite Runner" and "Twelve Mighty Orphans" now.

5. Decided to jump on our trampoline with the kids more. They love it. I like it once I have done it. Last year or so, we made a good memory by spending the night sleeping on the trampoline. It seems that is in my future again come warmer weather. Jeb and Erin have mentioned it.

6. Affirmed that John Denver songs are really good. Rocky Mountain High.

7. Ate too many Egg McMuffins. They could be improved if the McMuffin wasn't so crumbly, dry. Too often, I am not sure the egg part of it is done.

8. Wondered to myself concerning the characteristics of the perfect t-shirt. Not the logo kind you wear with jeans or shorts on days that you don't work. I am talking about the basic white ones worn under dress shirts or other shirts. Time was that I didn't wear these. Now, I don't not wear them.

2007-12-21T20:00:00.000-08:00

My first introduction to Dan Fogelberg was during high school. Some good friends of mine starting listening to songs from the albums Home Free and Captured Angel. I liked them.

I, we (Leslie and I) purchased each album. We didn't wait in longing expectation for a release, but once we heard there was one we stopped by somewhere and bought it.

My first of several Fogelberg concerts was at Mud Island in Memphis, Tennessee. A bunch of us from Harding traveled over for a concert right after he put our a country album called "High Country Snows."

Other concerts. Leslie and I saw him at Starplex in Dallas with Matt and Laura Waldron. At the Majestic Theatre, also in Dallas. At the Woodlands Pavillion near Houston. At some other smaller venue in Houston with Barry Jackson, I think, and some others. Maybe Ron Curtis.
We saw him alone and with a band.

Little opinions:

A great song that I heard only once live and never on the radio was "Joy At The Start." This was later sung by Susan Ashton and a couple of other Christian singers.

Another was "Sweet Magnolia Bell."

Best popular song, one that got some play, was "Make Love Stay."

The most haunting one was "Tucson, Arizona."

Overall favorite and never a hit, "Souvenirs."

Best album - "Souvenirs" 2nd Best - "Innocent Age."

2007-12-04T17:32:00.001-08:00

The images above were taken at DisneyWorld. One was with the 3-D glasses from one of the shows. The other is from Expedition Everest, the most recent attraction added at Animal Kingdom.

This trip was somewhat atypical for us since our usual travel pattern contains multiple locations with one or two nights stay. For example, our trip to California a couple of summers was:

One night in Midland.
One night in Tucson.
Two nights in San Diego.
One night at Venice Beach.
One night in near Ventura.
One night at Big Sur State Park.
One night east of Monterey.
Two nights in Yosemite.
One night in Las Vegas.
One night in Flagstaff.
One night in Amarillo.

Sort of like the commercial - Midsondiegoreygasstaff.

So this was:

One night in Mobile
Five nights in Orlando.
One night in Vicksburg.

Or Molanburg.

We will not visit again soon though it was a blessing to go and thoroughly enjoyable.

On to the next place.

2007-12-02T15:43:00.001-08:00

Top Ten Things To Do In No Particular Order With Comments

1. EPCOT, which started out as an acronym for something, has the World Showcase area. We visited twice, once and night and once during the day so as to see better. Italy was our favorite.

2. Expedition Everest. A rollercoaster. However, the rides at Disney are not scary, thrill scary. There are big on show and drama. This was hailed as a great ride and it was very enjoyable. The Abominable Snowman makes an appearance.

3. Kilimanjaro Safari. A ride through a zoo. We liked it. Animal Kingdom was very crowded the day we went. The Kingdom really should be enjoyed with a slow walk and it was hard to walk slow because the few attractions that we wanted to do were in such demand that a frenetic pace was kept just to try to do them without a two hour wait.

4. FastPass. Visit the FastPass tickets dispensers. It was crucial to our enjoyment. Essentially, you get a ticket to show back up at a predetermined time and can avoid the long lines, for the most part.

5. Go back to your hotel room. We made it a point to leave rather early and then came back to the hotel everyday at noonish. Stayed for a couple of hours. Swam. Napped. Then headed back out. This made the day and evening so much more enjoyable.

6. Test Track. This was Jeb's favorite ride. It is at EPCOT.

7. Tower of Terror. Essentially a drop machine thingy from 13, 14 stories. The set-up/drama is a lot of the ride. Jeb, our 7 year old rode it, so it wasn't that scary though he screamed during it constantly and refused to get back on it. However, I think that was because that was as much about the scary setting as it was the ride itself. Again, Disney does drama/set-up/special effects very well.

8. Any light shows. Fantasmic at MGM and Illuminations at EPCOT. We ended two separate days with these shows. Illuminations is the better one.

9. Eat a big, warm, salty pretzel. This isn't specific to Disney though they had them. You should get one of these whenever, wherever, you can.

10. Space Mountain. We rode it twice. It is in the dark. Was my favorite ride. All of us rode it. All of us rode everything that was ridden.

Bonus Thing Not To Do

Stitch's Great Escape. Essentially they lock you in these seats to hear and see a gross show with Stitch spitting into the audience. There was a lady taking feedback about the ride when we exited. I was hoping that she would ask me, but she didn't.

Walt Disney World #1

2007-11-25T17:39:00.000-08:00

or "The Happiest Place on Earth" or "Where Dreams Come True" or the place celebrating "The Year of a Million Dreams."

We spent a generous portion of our Thanksgiving holiday allotment at Walt Disney World, Orlando, Florida.

We left Friday following our Grandparent's Day program at Fort Worth Christian. The goal was to drive all night since our first day of Disney playing and staying was Saturday. We would drive and get there to enjoy as much of the day as possible. That didn't work. We made it to Mobile, Alabama, when Leslie and I decided driving all night was not an option this time. We stopped about midnight, rose at 6:00, had some McMuffins and drove arriving at approximately 3:30. We were at Disney-MGM by5:00.

A couple of things here.

1. We have never been to DisneyWorld.
2. We chose not to fly to save money and because we enjoy the driving.
3. We chose to stay at one of the resort's hotels.
4. We used, for the first time, a travel agent.
5. We did not get a meal ticket or whatever it is called.
6. The initial plan was to visit Epcot, Animal Kingdom, the Magic Kingdom - in that order forsaking the MGM park because it didn't seem to hold much attraction. We decided to go to MGM on our first day since it wasn't a whole day and because they were open later.
7. I read. I read this book about Disney. A lot.

Things Disney does well:

1. Service. Although we didn't experience an extraordinary event in the service arena, there was that feeling around. We witnessed kind treatment of many. This is not Six Flags.

2. Convenience. I am convinced that this is why so many go, so often. It is all inclusive. All located right there. Transportation is easy. Swimming pools everywhere.

3. Cleanliness. This is not Six Flags.

4. Light Show/Fireworks. Three of the parks have some sort of light show/fireworks display. This is not your typical fireworks/laser/light show.

5. Parades. We didn't care for them, but as parades go they were good.

6. What I call "free enterprise zones." After every major ride, you are dumped off into a gift shop based on the theme of the ride. For example, after Star Tours, which is based on Star Wars, to exit the ride you have to walk through a gift shop of Star Wars stuff. I'm not saying I like this. I am saying they do it well.

The next post will present more specific thoughts about the place.

2007-11-06T18:07:00.000-08:00

Today:

I went to the Ipod store with a problem. They just gave me a new one and some extra doodad for free.

I walked through a parking garage. They give me the heebie-jeebies.

It is my mother's birthday. She is wonderful.

I bought Leslie a #5 thingy at Anthropologie. It was actually the number 5. There are five in our family.

We started a fire in our fireplace. Drank hot chocolate.

I saw that James Taylor has a new album coming out November 13th. Get it only at Starbucks, a place I do not go. Normally.

I saw a website called randomshirts.com. Funny shirts, and oddly enough posters of buildings from Navasota, Texas.

2007-11-05T18:36:00.000-08:00

Quick Hits From the Absent Weeks

I went to Philadelphia for a conference. Visited the historic areas and I will take the family back. American history, which I enjoy, is as much Philadelphia as it is anywhere. More than Boston. Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, B. Franklin's home, businesses, and gravesite, place where the Declaration of Independence was written, adopted, and read aloud for the first time to the people crowded in the square, City Tavern where Washingon, Franklin, Adams, and Jefferson would spend the evening hours chatting up some historical documents, and the sight where the first two presidents presided over the country since Washington, D.C. was still a swamp - all in Philadelphia.-

While there, I actually stayed a little to the west of the city near Concordville, and this was beautiful countryside with covered bridges and white farmhouses and splendid little meadows laced with trails that led into the leaf-changing woods.

I was there for six days and with a lot of time on my hands I drove the back roads and saw:

1. Amish buggies all over
2. Quaker Meetinghouses as old as 1676.
3. Wilmington, Delaware. I asked a lady at the hotel what there was to see in Wilmington. She said nothing. I agree.
4. Route 100 runs roughly north and south from Hwy 1 to Hwy 141. One of, if not the best, road I have been on.
5. No street lights anywhere. After dark, it is difficult to get around.

In Philadelphia again before my return flight, I visited the Italian Market made famous primarily by the movie Rocky. You remember the scene where he is running in the gray sweats through the streets of Philley where people are cheering him on, huddled around barrels with fires built in them for warmth, people selling fruit and dried meat? I was there, but I didn't run or yell "Adrian." I was already attracting some attention anyway. I left before dark.

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Halloween. Erin was Princess Leah(?) from Star Wars. Jeb was a young Obe-wan-kenobee(?). Caleb helped supervise. Our street does Halloween well. Alot of decorations and adults dressed up to scare. It seems that our street gathers alot of visitors because of all of the good candy.
And speaking of candy. The best Halloween candy is Nerds. It's small, fitting in a box, weighty enough to chunk, tasty, not chocolate so there is no melt factor, and it is difficult to sabotage.

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Caleb had to take care of the Home Economics Robotic Baby this past weekend. He named it "it. " He also punched it in the head. Several times in the night he had to rise and take care of it to keep it from crying. It cries at different times and has a computer chip that records what happens. For example, it would record how long it cried before it was taken care of. With Erin's help, Caleb has the potential to get a good grade. Unless the computer chip discerns head trauma. On the last evening, our preacher, one Joel Quile, dropped the baby and it wailed.

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Upcoming. We are headed to DisneyWorld. Our family has never been and it is a trip that is atypical for us. However, we are looking forward to it. We leave Friday, the 16th and start home on Thanksgiving Day. Thanksgiving night we will be in a hotel somewhere, probably Louisiana, eating chicken tenders from Popeyes.

2007-09-26T19:54:00.000-07:00

For kids, the car windows are a place for delight.

Tonight, on the way home from church, our family was divided between two cars. Guys with me. Girls together. We left after Leslie but soon were within eyesight of her. I pointed this out to Jeb who already had the car window down and his hair blowing in the wind.

We pulled up beside Leslie and Erin surprising them. Jeb screamed with delight waving his arm wildly excited that we caught them off guard. Then Jeb and Leslie yelled some gurgling words that were lost in the wind as we drove in tandem down Highway 377.

Jeb, Erin, and Caleb love to drive with the windows down. For a long time, we had a van that didn't allow this pleasure.

The other afternoon, Leslie was driving the children home from school and Jeb fell asleep with his head hanging out of the window.

There is a lot of fun to be had with a window that is rolled down.

2007-09-22T20:16:00.000-07:00

Just an bit about our meal time routine of late.

At Jeb's bidding, this is it.

We stand and pledge allegiance to the flag, but there is not a flag. So, Jeb finds something red, white, and blue or just red. A recent evening meal found the five of us with our hands over our hearts reciting the pledge as we looked at the lid of some food product. I can't remember now if it was "Spreadable Butter" or what. I think it was an apple on another evening. This evening, we simply did the pledge without an object for us to pledge to or toward. The chicken, bread, broccoli, and corn on the cob provided no red, blue, and just a little white.

After the pledge, Jeb leads us in a rendition of "God Bless America" replete with Jeb adding some "Oh baby" type sayings between phrases.

2007-09-09T19:26:00.000-07:00

This weekend, my oldest son, Caleb, and I drove to College Station, Texas, to visit friends and attend the Texas A&M vs. Fresno State game at Kyle Field beginning at 2:30.

About the game:

It was hot, and we were in the shade.
Slovacek sausage in a sesame seed bun shaped like the traditional hot dog bun did wonders.
The pre-game festivities were better than the game including a video that made me proud.
It was hot, and we were in the shade.
We are not that good of a football team.
The forward pass has not made it to College Station, yet.
It was my first triple overtime game, I think.
Really hot.
The concession stand staff cheered in exultation whenever one of the staff yelled "exact change."
I am not sure if I like or dislike the drum line leading the team out of the football complex toward the field.

Other things. We ate at Koppe Bridge on Friday evening, Whataburger for Saturday breakfast, and Rosas for Sunday lunch, but the best meal was at the home of Mike and Ingrid Huddleston on Saturday evening. Consistently good food, plenty of choices, and large portions available there.

Attended church at A&M Church of Christ, and I loved it because I love the people there. However, there excitement in seeing me was more than cut in half, considerably diminished, when I told them that Leslie was not with me. According to one, she is the "rock star."

Caleb and I left this afternoon at about 3:30 for our return trip stopping only for gas and kolaches at the Czech Stop in West for Apricot, Apple, and Peach filled ones.

Again, as so many times before, we stayed at the home of Barry Jackson - a true, abiding friend.

2007-08-09T21:47:00.000-07:00

The Pasture

by Robert Frost

I'm going out to clean the pasture spring;

I'll only stop to rake the leaves away

(And wait to watch the water clear, I may):

I sha'n't be gone long.—You come too.

I'm going out to fetch the little calf

That's standing by the mother. It's so young,

It totters when she licks it with her tongue.

I sha'n't be gone long.—You come too.

2007-08-08T20:40:00.001-07:00

The best business to be in come fall is the school business.

Amidst many lists of people's favorites about fall, I offer my own abbreviated version by theme, all having to do with school.

When I get out of my car in our driveway in the early evening, in the distance, I hear the faint pounding of drums and blowing of horns as a nearby high school's band practices.

New notebooks. And pens.

School supply lists for Erin and Jeb. Yes, Caleb has a list, too, but he's thirteen and doesn't care about it. Erin is enthralled. Jeb cares because he wants his folders to have Spiderman or some other super hero on them.

By the way, we purchased a t-shirt tonight for Jeb's birthday on the 14th. On it are these words, "I do all of my own stunts." Perfect.

Students showing up at school before the start for volleyball practice, football two-a-days, and cheerleader sign painting. The kids are all bigger, more grown up, and the boys are sporting long hair for just a little longer.

Boxes filling the foyer of the school all filled with new things.

High school football previews in the city newspaper.

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Today is Leslie's birthday. She is thirty-ten. We have had a wonderful day.

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The Bourne Ultimatum.

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Gigi Mason - Thanks for the letter.

2007-08-05T18:40:00.000-07:00

Observations at the close of summer.

On vacations, those traveling should eat only in local restaurants. No chains.

The "continental breakfast" phenomenon is strange to me, but I take advantage of it when available. I do not, however, choose a motel based on the availability of it. Most often, I choose a hotel based on price, pool, proximity to where I am headed come morning and proximity to Sonic (For Leslie) in that order. Cleanliness is assumed but the lack thereof or a smoking room advertised as non-smoking one will make me balk on the deal.

Stay off major roads. Interstates are antiseptic, mundane, filled with people in a hurry, "nice", and lukewarm.

Whenever I see country roads, park roads, dirt roads, I have to force myself not to travel them. I want to see what great places they lead to.

A 6-year old should grow his hair long in the summer.

Fall is tingly. Fall is great at a school.

Whenever I visit another place, I imagine living there and all of the wonderful things that can be experienced only there.

I will go to Lost Maples State Park this fall.

I am not kidding. I want to be a park ranger.

Outlet Malls are terrorist attacks.

I like people who do things though most think it stupid. Carhenge, for example, a place near Alliance, Nebraska, where a man stuck cars in the ground modeled after Stonehenge. See picture.

Don't pass up the opportunity to go to church when on vacation. We love visiting churches on Sunday when traveling. We plan around it. We have great memories of churches in San Luis Obispo, Pagosa Springs, some little town in Arkansas, Fort Davis, Ruidoso, some town in Nebraska near Offult Air Force Base, Savannah, and Covington. Just as much, though, we love having church with just the five of us gathered.

I think Christians should leave hotel rooms nicer when they leave. Stack the towels. Flush the toilet. Put trash away. Make it as easy as we can for the maid.

Alan Jackson's CD called "Precious Memories" was enjoyed by us this summer. Track 7 - "Are You Washed In The Blood Of The Lamb" was our favorite. We played it on the Alpine Loop in a rented 4X4 jeep. Track 7 sparked conversation about garments that are spotless and white as snow.

Riding in a boat in the summer at the close of day on calm water with a tinge of sunburn and a meal of pork chops, green beans, garlic bread, homemade ice cream, peach cobbler and Diet Coke waiting for you back at the house is a good thing.

Sea World with one child at a time so that he gets all of the attention is a good thing.

Singing "Abide With Me" with extended family as the sun sets over Possum Kingdom Lake out of song books is a good thing.

Enough

2007-08-04T06:48:00.000-07:00

Custer State Park is 71,000 acres of beautiful land. It has the facilities more of a national park and the scenery, as well.

We entered the park driving their Wildlife Loop. The "guarantee" is that you will see some wildlife. We have driven it twice about 15 or so years apart, and the guarantee has held true. How about that statistical data?

There is a large herd of Bison, and we drove through the herd after pulling off for some gazing and pictures and waiting for some very large animals to decide to walk out of the middle of the road. We saw Mule Deer, Pronghorn Antelope aplenty, and Prarie Dogs barking.

The park has four lodges that are centers of activity, services, and accommodations. Blue Bell Lodge, Sylvan Lake Lodge, Legion Lake Lodge, and the State Game Lodge. Two are by picturesque lakes circled by granite walls.

After the loop, we were in for a bite. First, we stopped at the State Game Lodge because we had heard a little about it, it was the first we came to, and it was a building that invited a walk through. Well, we walked through the restaurant and decided that the food and service there were for the well-dressed, well-heeled. The buildng, though, would be a great get-a-way with a big porch and a lobby with a fireplace and surrounded by a meadow and forest.

We headed on to Legion Lake Lodge and grabbed a substantial bite there before heading back around to the western exit headed to Custer, South Dakota.

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We are still at the lake. Yesterday, we each took rides on Leslie's father's boat. The boat could be driven to the bottom of the cliff located behind the house we are staying at. Some of us yelled down at those in the boat, and the kids loved that. We ate more homemade ice cream, sandwiches, peach cobbler, some kind of chocolate cake. This morning the traditional bacon and eggs.

Last night, we also watched the deer eat the corn and watched a Brian Regan comedy routine on DVD.

Today, I don't know what the activities will be, and that is a good feeling.

2007-08-02T20:26:00.000-07:00

I know. The Needles Highway and Custer State Park. But this is where we are tonight.

Through the generosity of a family at FWC, we are sitting on a covered porch, fire pit providing most of the light, at the top of a ninety foot cliff overlooking Possum Kingdom Lake. We are here for three, four nights with Leslie's parents and her brother's family.

Highlights of the evening have been:

Homemade vanilla ice cream. Recipe from Zora Mae Kendrick, my grandmother.
Cousins playing Twister.
Quiet. Quiet enough so that on the lake way away a boat passes by following the beacon lights leading them through the deepest stretches of the lake, and on the boat people talk. We hear them as whispers over the water.
Citronella candles.
Soft furniture beneath the fans on top of the rock porch.
Deer. Turkey. A lot of deer.

Right now, I hear talking from others with me and bugs.

2007-08-01T19:53:00.001-07:00

Pictures are from The Needles Highway. The highway leads into Custer State Park from the northwest. This was a favorite place. A place where we could spend a long time climbing and exploring.

2007-07-31T19:49:00.000-07:00

I find it difficult to verbally explain the Badlands. It seems silly to simply say they are "bad", but that would be an acceptable word if one were driving a mule team or a wagon across the prairie and came upon them. Such an excursion into the west would promptly come to a halt.

They aren't mountains, but they are up and down and steep and rugged. There are peaks and valleys and crevices and colors in the rock. There is not much vegetation though they say that they come alive at dusk and dawn, the cooler hours.

We entered and drove the loop. Much of the national park is not accessible by road, but the road, like most of our national parks, is where the people stay. There were numerous overlooks and the loop ended, for us, at the visitor center. There was lodging of some sort near the visitor center and a store and expensive gas and a video at the visitor center telling about the park and a ranger lady that I talked to for awhile because I want to be a park ranger at a national park. It seems rather unlikely though being a campground host is attainable.

Leslie, the kids, and I walked out some into the Badlands. There are many places to sit and contemplate alot of things.

While in the park at the first stop, the Pinnacles Overlook, I met a young man and struck up a word with him because he rode up on a bike.

"How long have you been riding?"

"What day is it?"

"Tuesday."

" Then, we have been riding four weeks yesterday."

Silence.

They started from New York City. Three friends, attending three different New York colleges, all turning twenty years old, and they thought, "If we are going to do it then now is the time."
They were headed to Seattle by way of Glacier National Park. They camped everywhere though they made a stop in Chicago and somewhere else I don't recall.

After the park, we headed back the way we came, Interstate 90.

Next, the Needles Highway and Custer State Park.

2007-07-29T16:45:00.001-07:00

Wall Drug.

Located in Wall, South Dakota, the "drug" store is actually a large mall. Part Golden Corral, Stuckeys, First Monday Trade Days in Canton, and amusement park, Wall Drug began, according to their story, as a stopping place for people traveling the highway. Things weren't going well so they began offering water for 5 cents. People stopped and have kept stopping.

We stopped on our way to Badlands. We explained the place to the other members of our family, who have not been to South Dakota before, as a place not worth it's own visit but worth a stop if traveling somewhere else. The exit for Wall also is the same for the western entrance to Badlands National Park.

We timed our stop to coincide with lunch so we ate and walked around for awhile. There was one of those areas in the rear of the store where there are holes in the concrete and water shoots out of the holes in an unpredictable manner. Jeb and Erin "dodged" the water. After we ate, we allowed them to get as wet as they wanted.

Leslie and I first visited Wall Drug over thirteen years ago on our first trip to South Dakota. We, then as now, were traveling to the Badlands. We knew nothing of the place but were pelted with signs on Interstate 90 advertising the place to such a frenzy that it became a must stop.

Next, Badlands. I would write more, but we are on our way to Babe's Chicken House.

2007-07-27T17:18:00.000-07:00

While in South Dakota, the one place we all knew we would visit was Mount Rushmore. We arrived in Custer, SD, on Saturday evening. We went to church at the Black Hills Church of Christ Sunday morning and then went first to see the Crazy Horse Memorial.

This is a large carving in rock similar to Mt. Rushmore except that it is:

1. Of Crazy Horse
2. To be larger than Rushmore
3. Not finished
4. Not nearly finished

The memorial was started years ago by a man now deceased at the invitation of some elder indians of the Lakota tribe. The project has been a continued endeavor of his wife and children, 7 of his 10 children. The project accepts no public/government funds, only private, so the pace of completion is staggeringly slow, but this seems to be no big deal to the family. Being true to the initial vision and purpose are more important, and the family seems to recognize that they will not finish this in their lifetime. The assumption is that future descendants will carry on the carving to completion.

The sight provided more than I anticipated it would. There was a large visitor center, a sculpting studio, a nice museum of indian artifacts, and a place where local indians sold their art work. The plan is to have a school of indian studies among other things.

We left and drove through the Black Hills and Keystone, SD, to Mount Rushmore. We timed our arrival so that we could stay until a ceremony that occurs nightly at 9:00. The ceremony includes a ranger program, a patriotic video, a call to all veterans to the stage, a singing of the national anthem by all in attendance, a lowering of the flag, and the folding of the flag by all of the veterans gathered on stage. During the video portion, gradually, the faces of Rushmore are illuminated. This is referred to generally as the "lighting ceremony."

Prior to this ceremony, we watched a video about the construction/carving, walked through some exhibits, visited the memorial store, bought some ice cream to share, and walked a trail that runs below and closer to the memorial and has some great views. A popular stop in the exhibit area is a mechanism where the patron pushes down on a explosion thing and simulated on the screen of the monitor is an explosion of dynamite blowing off some of the rock. Very popular.

Tomorrow, Wall Drug and Badlands National Park.

2007-07-26T19:06:00.000-07:00

Corn syrup, corn meal, corn starch, cereals with corn, corn itself, popcon, ethanol. That is our list of uses of- corn. On the Sandhills Scenic Byway and for many more miles elsewhere, fields of corn. More than I would have imagined had I been asked previous to the trip to imagine the most corn I could.

One interesting tidbit. Gasoline, in some spots in Nebraska, was cheaper for the mid-level grade than for the cheapo regular unleaded because the premium, mid-grade, had 10% ethanol. Obviously trying to increase the demand for ethanol/corn in children of the corn country. Naming the Nebraska football team "cornhuskers" is no longer a mystery to me. And, by the way, this trip was the first time in years I bought anything other than the cheapest gasoline.

Through with our travel of the byway in the town of Alliance, we ate at an Arby's before heading north through Chadron and into the Black Hills through a torrential wind/rain storm pulling into the Rodeway Inn in Rapid City, South Dakota, at about 7:30ish. Sustenance was at a Perkin's Family Restaurant across the road from the Rodeway, and Sonic not 50 yards down the road.

Now, I am tired since it is 9:15 and we just arrived home in Keller from this trip that I am telling about. We started home this morning at 8:34 from the Motel 6 in North Platte, Nebraska.

Tomorrow, I will share our Black Hills stops.

When was the last time you saw a "Weigh Station" on the highway that was open?

2007-07-24T07:16:00.001-07:00

South Dakota

Awhile back, my side of the family planned a trip to South Dakota. Discussions started taking place in the fall about visiting Mount Rushmore and the area around.

We left on Friday, July 20th, and we all met in Oklahoma City since we were all travelling from different starting points. There we ate at a Cracker Barrel.

Our three car caravan had plans to make it to Grand Island, Nebraska, but we fell 41 miles short and holed up in a Holiday Inn in York, Nebraska. I know of York only from my Harding days when some would speak of a Christian college in York and from Jack Graham, a science teacher at Fort Worth Christian who has some family connection to it. The Holiday Inn gets 4 out of 5 stars.

I had my eyes set on a scenic road. The Sandhills Scenic Byway, otherwise known as Highway 2 heads northwest out of Grand Island. I shun interstates when possible and since there was not an interstate going where we were going, the byway seemed a good choice. After a stop, the first of several at Sonic locations and a Wal-mart/Subway breakfast sandwich stop, we left out of Grand Island (no idea on the island in Nebraska thing althought I guess it has something to do with the Platte River that runs through it) at approximately 10:00ish.

Corn in the next post. A lot of corn.

2007-07-23T19:47:00.000-07:00

I was to post more on the Alpine Loop. However, as of this moment, I am sitting next to a heated pool where my children are swimming, and the pool is at the Bavarian Inn which is located in Custer, South Dakota, Black Hills region. The southwestern corner nestled by Nebraska on the south, Wyoming to the west.

We are on another trip.

So...the Alpine Loop. It was a fantastic trip full of memories. To expedite this portion I will sum up.

The town of Animas Forks located about at the half-way point on the loop is a ghost/mining town of several buildings. This was a popular junction on the loop since it can be accessed by many mining/four-wheel roads. The town's homes and other buildings are in great condition.

We also passed a house that is advertised in some literature as a house one time belonging to Henry David Thoreau. I doubt this greatly due to the newness of the house.

Cinnamon Pass and Engineer Pass are about 12,000 feet. The tundra terrain is stark and all three jumped, crawled, scaled the rocks all around. The wind was stiff, but they all leaned into it and played.

We visited the American Basin which was still splattered with snow that the kids played in and threw. The Basin is a jumping off point for hikers headed up Handies Peak, a 14'er. The basin was beginning to be dotted with wild flowers.

Grizzly Gulch, I think, or Wager Gulch was an area that also led to a ghost town called Crystal City. This town isn't in as good of condition as Animas Forks but the location was exceptional and we had it to ourselves.

Off of the loop, we ate at a soda shop recommended by the kid's orthodontist, Dr. David McReynolds.

Lets finish this trip here with just a little more.

After leaving Lake City, we stopped in Creede for a bite and a purchase and made it to near Alamosa when we decided to turn north to the Great Sand Dunes. The dunes stand in the shadow of Blanca Peak which is the sight of my first and failed attempt to climb a 14'er. A little about that. I attempted this climb with Brent Auvermann and Bill Walker. We met in Walsenburg, drove to the trail head, slept in the vehicles, started early up a ridiculous road, got to Lake Como, kept climbing, were not going to make it, started back down, exhausted, got in truck, drove to Walsenburg, ate a steak, drove back to Amarillo that night with B. Auvermann as we took turns sleeping in the back of his truck.

The sand dunes were a big hit. Not a location for a long stay but just right for us then. The kids climbed a large dune that they should have, did, feel proud about tackling.

Stayed in a Comfort Inn with a pool in Raton. The pool was the thing. Awoke and drove to Amarillo to visit with the Auvermanns.

I walked that afternoon around their house. We all walked to a park and talked in the early evening. The next day we were home.

That was a bit quick.

Out

2007-07-16T19:13:00.000-07:00

The Alpine Loop is an advertised adventure. You can read about it on the web and print literature.

My first acquaintance with the loop happened in the mid 1980's on a late night drive in my white, Toyota Tercel with a friend, David Faltys, now superintendent of Carroll I.S.D., up one side of the loop toward Engineer Pass. We drove long and until dark until arriving at a farmhouse where the road became too much for the car. We headed back and began to creep ourselves out because of the ghost/mining towns that we passed and the sound of the rushing creek and then the silence and the absence of any light and no moon.

This trip was the only "for sure" thing on this vacation. Most of the time, we play it casual with little specific planning of activities. I have wanted to rent a jeep and drive down roads that most don't travel. We rented the jeep from Pleasant Valley Rentals for an acceptable sum and drove.

The loop is approximately 35 miles or so according to my memory. It is, as the names suggests, a loop. So starting in Lake City, we returned to Lake City.

Cinnamon Pass is on one side of the loop and Engineer Pass on the other. At least, generally speaking. There are sights on the way: American Basin which is a valley of wildflowers, Animas Forks ghost town, other ghost towns and abandoned cabins some with names and some without, a souvenir shop near Lake City built into an old mine selling core samples and polished rocks.

Many loop drivers plan their 6+ hour trip around a side trip to Silverton for lunch, snacks, or to buy some trinket. We packed our lunch and stayed on the loop all day.

Tomorrow more specifics.

$140.oo if you were wondering.

2007-07-14T08:57:00.000-07:00

Cabin #3 located at Vicker's Ranch was situated next to a river and two stocked fishing ponds. Kids fishing only in the ponds. I am not much of a fisherman, but the kids wanted to try so we purchased a Zebco 33 at the Wal-mart in Durango and did some casting each day in the early evening hours. They became quite proficient at the casting, but we caught no fish which seemed to be no big deal. They enjoyed the weather and the scenery and throwing rocks into the lake while their sibling was doing the casting. The exploding of the small boulders in the vicinity of the pond in which we were "fishing" might have had something to do with the lack of fish catching.

On Friday nights, the Vickers host a complimentary meal for all of the people staying at their ranch. At 7:00, all gather in the barn appropriately decorated with animal heads, mounted fish, picnic tables, old juke box, pictures of great memories, a fireplace, and a food serving bar made of gigantic trees. Through conversation it became apparent that many of the people there that night have been regulars at the ranch for years. Several rent a cabin for weeks, months, and one lady said they usually rent one for a year. We met a couple from Texas who asked how we had heard of Lake City, and we explained. It seems that, while they are not suspicious of new comers, they are interested in how their hamlet came to anyone's attention.

The meal that night consisted of hamburgers and hotdogs cooked on a very large outdoor grill with young cowboys in slickers and cowboy hats operating as cooks. On the bar when we arrived, there were beans, cole slaw, jalapeno peppers, some other very good salad like items, green beans with Feta cheese and walnuts (tasty), onions, and a dessert table where many of the regulars brought their best dish. It was bring your own drinks though they had water coolers available.

Sometime past 7:00, Larry Vickers, who seems to be the head man now and the man who I spoke to about arrangements, walked out of the kitchen banging a spoon on a metal pan. He walks to a piano straight out of Gunsmoke, and people gather around instinctively. He welcomed all and said that they had been doing this for quite some time and that everyone had to gather and sing two verses of Amazing Grace before eating. He started it. A lady accompanied him on the piano. The first and last verse. Then people gathered up their plates walked out to the cowboy cooks and pointed to what they wanted.

There was plenty. All was good.

We walked back for some fishing/rock throwing and then played a game with dominoes called ChickenFoot by the fire built with Aspen Wood. After that, the game was Greenie Weenie. Erin was the Greenie Wienie. You might be able to decipher from the name that one might not want to be the Wienie.

About the arrangements with Larry. On our first day, I walked in and introduced myself. We shook hands. He told me we were in #3, and their was no key. "Have a great time."

The next post = The Alpine Loop.

2007-07-12T19:45:00.000-07:00

Taco Bell.

It has been my experience that this eatery is the worst at getting an order incorrect. It matters not whether one is dining in or going through the drive-thru.

I don't believe it is the fault of the food technicians. The counter associates. The food handlers. It is the fault of Taco Bell, Inc.

Here's why. They have too many items on their menu. They are introducing new items constantly. Just recently they introduced the chicken taquito with a steak option. Remember the thingy with the hard taco inside of the soft taco?

The counter people are confused. They hear someone order a chimmiquitolupa grande and their brain freezes. Is that the one with the hard and soft shell combo? The one with just bean dip spread on a hard shell? The soft wrap dipped in cheese? What is a person to do?

When was the last time you heard a campaign by McDonalds introducing a new item. Burger King? Now, tonight Wendy introduced the Baconimter or Baconsomething. They will run it out there for a while, and if it is a hit then they will keep it otherwise it will fall by the wayside.
Sonic keeps a pretty stable menu. They did introduce flavored tea not too long ago, but Sonic specializes in drinks.

Anyway...

We left Durango the morning of the 5th of July headed through Pagosa Springs, Wolf Creek Pass, Southfork, Creede, and into Lake City. We had reservations at Vickers Ranch.

I first heard of Vickers when I was reading a book in the late 1970's. A guy named Peter Jenkins wrote a book about walking across america called A Walk Across America which chronicled his walk from New York to New Orleans, I think. The next book, A Walk West, took him from New Orleans to the Oregon coast. It was in this book that I heard of Vickers Ranch. Mr. Jenkins stayed there while he was walking through Colorado. I had forgotten about it until I started trying to make reservations in Lake City for this trip. I hit upon it on a website for lodging.

I first came into contact with Lake City when I ventured west by Toyota Tercel, Team Toyota, with David Faltys, a friend from Texas A&M, in the summer of 1986, I think.

Vickers and Lake City. Neither disappointed.

2007-07-11T19:14:00.000-07:00

Ouray was the destination, but Durango was the final resting place. We previously booked a night at a establishment called The Iron Horse Inn in Durango because of the lack of space in Ouray. By the time we reached Durango, we were wanting a stop. This hotel proved to be a nice purchase. One bed upstairs. One bed downstairs. Little kitchen. Fireplace. Friendly people. Free breakfast. In town. Clean. Plenty of free soap, shampoo, lotion. But no shower cap.

That evening, this is the evening of the 4th, we watched the parade through Main street which began at 6:00 and had cyclists, the Shriners, the mayor, people in old cars throwing Tootsie Rolls, and old gentlemen carrying the American flag. What else does a parade need?

9:15 was the start time for what was a tremendous firework display. A display that was good enough that we several times thought to ourselves, "What a finale!!!"

We ate between the two events at a pizza place recommended by a local lady. I stopped her on the road and asked about a great local pizza joint. She said "Her kitchen." We settled on a place that her son frequented, and it was a fine meal. Plenty of pizza. Enough to take some with us out the door which I ate in route to Lake City, Colorado. Our primary destination.

Have I mentioned that of all the fast food restaurants in the world one consistently gets the most orders wrong?

2007-07-10T18:26:00.000-07:00

This afternoon, we returned from Colorado.

July 3. We left thinking that we would possibly reach Clayton, New Mexico, for our overnight stay. However, due to a little late start because of a QuikTrip gas up, a return home for a forgotten item, and thunderstorms, we recognized early on that Clayton was a dream.

Just before we left we received a call from the Waldrons. They were returning from Colorado where second daughter, Emily, was playing in a softball tournament. We maintained some contact with them as we headed for each other. Somewhere before our arrival in Amarillo, but after Clarendon, and they were in Raton, New Mexico, the two travel groups settled on Dalhart as a hook-up locale. The Comfort Inn was chosen and we secured room #43 and they, # 42. I had no idea how to punctuate that last sentence.

We visited late. We hit Sonic late as they turned out the lights for the night just before delivering our route 44's. Their children and ours gathered in #43 for t.v. and talking and jumping. The older crowd, including their oldest daughter, Abbie, lingered in #42. We decided to visit McDonalds in the morning together before we took it north and they, home. Again, a punctuation problem.

I believe that we visited the McDonalds in Dalhart during a trial combination psychology/nutrition exercise. About thirty patrons, including the eleven of us, were subjected to a thirty minute sausage biscuit/egg mcmuffin/hotcakes test of the wills. Would they give in and give us our food before we succumbed and blew up the place? We won. We outlasted them so they were forced to hand over the order.

Our goal for the evening of the 4th was to hit Ouray, Colorado, to see the downhill jeep parade. Leslie and I, along with a young Caleb, caught this spectacle by surprise several years ago.

We didn't make it.

2007-06-03T16:33:00.000-07:00

Things about summer.

College World Series.

Playing wiffle ball in the cul-de-sac with Jeb, Erin, and cousin, Sarah. Swing it till you hit it. Try for home every time. Get red in the face.

Buy Bubble gum snow cones and strawberry crunch things from the hispanic lady who drives the old and yellow ice cream truck around and around and around the neighborhood with that same song playing.

Going to the swimming pool. The lazy river one.

Driving the van to pick up wheat samples in Vernon and Wichita Falls, Texas. Meeting the firemen and coaches who gather the samples on that end so that Paul Mann, our head football coach, and I can pick them up and bring them in. Afterall, you need bread on your table. Driving to get the wheat is about 2 & 1/2 hours one way. Splendid time for thinking and looking at what I can see along the way. In the dusk hours, I can see the combines working the fields in the distance. After dark, I can see their lights bright in the fields driving in a staggered orderly fashion making their way up and down the aisles. I learned from an article that the combines start in south Texas in May and work their way north hiring their services out to the farmers. Many of the combine owners are from a line of combine drivers who established hard ties to certain farms and farmers. Those driving now continue that tradition. Another "wheat run" revelation = rest areas are scary places. Tip: Keep driving.

Trips. Anywhere.

Staying up a little later. Sleeping a little later.

Rooster Booster, 1/2 diet & 1/2 real, from QuikTrip.

The Moores - Terri, Megan, Thomas, Jonathan - from Navasota come for a visit.

Peaches. Hill country peaches. And preserves. From Vogl's orchard just outside of Fredericksburg, Texas. Maybe we will get there this summer.

T-shirts. A new t-shirt is always a nice thing. Even if it is new to me, from Goodwill, or some other thrift store and cost $1. Not specific to summer necessarily but a new pen and new pad of paper is hard to beat. I almost stopped to buy one last night in Vernon, Texas, just to check the quality of paper in the north country. And, after all, I might need to write something down on the drive back.

Kids making brownies.

Leslie making banana pudding.

I'm done now.

2007-05-22T19:28:00.000-07:00

Tonight we gathered at the College Hill Church of Christ for Fort Worth Christian School's kindergarten graduation.

Jeb, our six year old, graduated after a wonderful year in Mrs. Whaley's classroom.

The program tonight included songs sung by all of the kindergarten children. Songs like "Blue Skies and Rainbows", "The Crayon Song", "Apple Red Happiness", "1 John 3:16", and the Fort Worth Christian School song.

When Jeb's name was called, he walked up to the principal, Dr. Sarah Schecter, and she said that his fruit of the Spirit was goodness, as chosen by Mrs. Whaley. Then Dr. Schecter told what each child wanted to be when he/she grew up. To laughter and applause, she said that Jeb wanted to be the president of the United States.

Besides our immediate family, Leslies parents were in attendance and Barry Jackson, a great friend of ours from College Station who stopped by on his way to Oklahoma City to see the Aggies play in the Big XII baseball tournament.

On the way home, all of us stopped at the nation's number one convenience store - QuikTrip - to get a celebratory drink. QuikTrip is superior to all others because of the drink selection including Rooster Booster, its quick service, the lack of problems with the pumps, and the cheapest gas.

Jeb says that as president the first two things he would do would be to "ask questions" and "help people."

Sounds like a good plan.

2007-05-13T19:54:00.000-07:00

We have pears on a tree in the backyard. I bought and planted the tree two years back not knowing that pears would grow. Fruitless, I thought. I wonder now if they are edible. I could try and eat one. Be like the pioneers who would eat some food not knowing whether it would taste good or not, nourish or make sick.

Huey Lewis was born in 1950. Sometime this year he will be fifty-seven. On television, we watched him last night sing "I Want A New Drug." I think he is in the minority of fifty-seven year olds. Singing. On stage. A song with the word "drug" in it.

This summer we are going to South Dakota with my family. Mount Rushmore. Maybe Wind Cave, Jewel Cave, Wall Drug Store, the Badlands. Also, Leslie, the kids, and I will go to Austin for a long weekend. Caleb will go to Little Rock on a mission trip. Erin and Caleb will go to E - Camp near Tyler, Texas, and while C and E are there Leslie and I will take Jeb to San Antonio's Sea World and zoo for some time just with Jeb, our youngest. Caleb and I, with some friends, will go to Omaha, Nebraska, for a portion of the College World Series. It would be an extra sweet trip if the Aggies were there but a great event nonetheless. Come November it is Walt Disney World to which we have never been.

About one week left for the senior prank to take place. Crunch time. They have to be feeling the pressure to get it accomplished.

Two Tramps In Mud Time. Robert Frost.

As Garrison Keillor says, "Be well. Do good work, and keep in touch."

2007-05-05T18:39:00.000-07:00

I have mentioned Peggy Noonan here before. She wrote a piece for the Wall Street Journal dated Friday, April 27th, that is a worthy read about how we are scaring our children. You will have to look at the author archive to get it. The Drudge Report has a link to Peggy Noonan in the lower portion of the webpage.

On godtube.com search for "That's My King." Watch the video.

I know. If I learned to do links then this would all be easier.

No successful senior prank, so far. Though one of the seniors tried to hide out in the library after hours with the idea, a good idea, that it would be easier to open the doors to the school from the inside than from the outside. Another thwarted plan thanks to another student and to the inability of the hiding student to stay hidden.

2007-04-29T19:59:00.000-07:00

Below is a list of those articles catalogued by a NRH police officer after stopping our school seniors trying to pull of a "senior prank."

-Bucket of Quickrete Concrete Mix

-Truck bed full of building bricks

-Trampoline

-Trailer full of yard debris

-Several packages of raw Fish Filet's

-Several containers of Night Crawler Fishing Worms

-A large amount of live goldfish

-Plastic Wrap

-Hot Dogs and Buns

-Whipped Cream

-Four life size blow up female dolls in various stages of dress

2007-04-27T16:45:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I watched Oprah. We had it on our DVR. That is an unusual occurence.

But, I don't have time to write about Dr. Oz, the water through the nose, rolfing, etc.

Tonight, we go to home of the Waldrons. Dear friends. Dear. We will eat together. Our children will play together. We might play games together.

That's good.

Leslie, Jeb, and I went to the mall today for a short trip. I can report that no one was harmed.

That's good.

2007-04-25T19:50:00.000-07:00

Between the hours of 2:30 a.m. and 3:30 a.m. this morning I was in camo and exhibiting clandestine behavior in an attempt to thwart what I was certain would happen. A senior prank.

I was correct. However, through the combined efforts of an able security guard, the North Richland Hills police department and my own efforts, the school was safe and protected from intrusion and violation for the night.

I will go into more detail in a future post. Tonight, I am sleepy.

2007-04-24T19:57:00.000-07:00

So, tonight it is storming. I was thinking that it is quite a technological step, in my feeble techno mind, that the dude on the tv can show me a picture of tonight's storm and then with a little line segment draw me a path. Even tell me that it will be in Keller, where we live, at 9:13 p.m., and the tv dude was right.

It seems that the electricity goes out less often now than it did when I was a kid. Nevertheless, I secured a flashlight, a lighting thingy, and a couple of candles. Told the kids to stay in bed if the lights went out, and I would come for them. I thought that one or more of our offspring would make their way to us and ask to sleep in our bed until the storm passed by. After all, is there a better place to be when scared? However, none did. But Erin called out to me. She was scared from the thunder and the flashes. I hugged her and rubbed her back and told her that I was already lying on the couch reading, and I surely wouldn't be doing that if it was bad outside. That seemed to satisfy although there are still some big bangs.

Another thing that seems to have diminished since I was a child - the number of cars that break down on the side of the road.

Tonight, rather in the early hours of tomorrow, I suspect that the seniors at school will attempt to pull off a "senior prank." I believe steps are in place to thwart any shot at success.

I will keep you posted.

2007-04-20T17:51:00.000-07:00

The day.

This morning I welcomed Friday. Some Fridays are more anticipated than others. For different reasons.

Two events were on my agenda today that I was anticpating with some enjoyment.

A little history. Occasionally as a principal, I am requested to testify in court in certain types of cases involving family disputes. It has been very rare while at my current job, but there was an occasion a year ago. Then, I witnessed a judge who possessed what I thought was a wonderful mix of mercy and justice. At the time, I thought that it would be a good idea for some of our students to see her in action but also the see the result of relationships gone bad.

Today, really at the behest of one of our teachers, our seniors visited her courtroom. It was a sad and enlightening display of pain in marriage and in homes. Of bad choices. Of consequences that don't go away. Of consequences that reach beyond those directly involved.

The second event was more pleasant. For a couple of years now I, along with others, have been asked to read a book to an elementary class. Today, I read to two classes one of which was my daughter's fourth grade class. With staring eyes, they watched intently and listened to what was a great story. They were disappointed when I came to my stopping point, and honestly, I was disappointed, too. Disappointed because my time of reading was done and because I did not know how the story would end. The title of the book was "Dear Napoleon, I know you are dead, but..." by someone with the first name of Elvira. The last name might have been Woodruff.

On a totally different note. Peggy Noonan writes regularly for the Wall Street Journal. Her latest is worth your read. You might consider adding her to your regular reading digestion.

2007-04-01T17:12:00.000-07:00

"Bumper crop"

That's what is coming out of north Texas this year regarding the upcoming wheat crop. It is still about eight weeks away, but it was green today. Green and prolific.

A friend and I drive an extended Chevy van to Wichita Falls, Vernon and Quanah, Texas, to pick up wheat samples during the wheat harvest, and this afternoon I was on Hwy 287 picking up about 28 samples.

The past two years there has been little wheat to pick up. Drought and hail took a heavy toll. This year, there has been plenty of rain so the hope now is that the rain will not be accompanied by hail.

-----

Two weeks ago I was on our school's senior trip to ski in Keystone, Colorado. 50+ seniors, five sponsors, and the end of the ski season with good snow still on the ground with nine or so new inches the last day, temperatures in the 40's, and slim crowds make for good times. The days and nights, Keystone has great night-skiing, were spent skiing and lazing around reading with most nights spent at a pizzeria and deli located across the street from our hotel. There we could while away some time since there were few people working the joint and watch NCAA basketball while eating pizza or a sub sandwich.

The students and two sponsors flew. Our athletic director, campus minister, and I drove a van so that we would have some sort of way to get around while we were up there. Going through Texas, New Mexico, into Colorado. Coming = Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, into Texas. Nearing home we entertained our weary minds with the "would you rather ______ or ______. For example, would you rather lose a finger or a toe? It wasn't intellectual or invigorating, but it helped the last miles go away.

2007-03-01T16:46:00.000-08:00

February 24th is our oldest son's birthday. He turned 13 this year. For the past four years, Caleb has wanted to travel to College Station for his birthday. While we are there, we see friends and go to Aggie baseball and basketball games. It was the same with this visit.

This time there was an added event.

A couple of weeks ago now Caleb said that he wanted to be baptized, and he wanted to be baptized while in College Station for his birthday. He asked that there just be some friends around.

Friends gathered after services at the baptistry of the A&M Church of Christ building. There was a song. A few words spoken by Matt Waldron, some others spoken by me, and a prayer by Barry Jackson. Afterwards, all of us gathered at the home of Mike and Ingrid Huddleston for tons of food and visiting going late into the afternoon. Great banana pudding. Great dip. Great chicken spaghetti and much more. Mike and Ingrid have a son, Hunter, who is one of Caleb's peeps.

On a side note, the early morning hours of the 25th, about 2:38 a.m., I rose and went downstairs in the Huddleston home to get a drink. I looked out there kitchen window into their driveway and slowly came to the realization that there was a criminal rummaging through our 1998 Toyota Sienna. He was looking around, pulling the visor down, searching for something of value. I decided to confront the hoodlum and sprang onto the driveway in my boxer shorts and yelled at the miscreant. He turned to face me, froze, and then darted up the street with me doing some more yelling.

I did hastily put on some clothes, followed in my Sienna, and notified the authorities of the gangster. Maybe the sight of a 44-year old male in his boxers in the wee hours of a Sunday morning will set him on the right path.

2006-10-17T19:43:00.000-07:00

We are home now. Last night, we were with friends in Amarillo.

First, there must be dozens of different Colorado license plates. It is like residents can just design their own.

Sunday, we hiked again. This time to a waterfall of which I cannot remember the name. Also, again, we looked for and found elk. However, one cannot conclude this to be a phenomenal feat of wildlife acumen. Elk are everywhere and certainly not wary of people.

Sunday evening was spent at the cabin reading, relaxing, and more span, cheese, crackers, and marshmallows.

Monday, we left at about 9:18 Texas time just ahead of a good snow storm and travelled arriving at Amarillo at about 6:00ish.

We visited into the night with our dear friends eating some mexican food and sipping soft drinks.

Today, we made the fateful journey through the cities of "C". Claude, Clarendon, Childress, Chilicothe. Hwy 287 from Amarillo to Fort Worth I have travelled many times. Other cities, Memphis, Hedley, Vernon, Quanah, Wichita Falls.

We got home about 3:15 this afternoon. Tomorrow morning Caleb will be at football practice at 6:30. Caleb has a orthodontist appointment at 9:00. We have a parent conference with Jeb's teacher in the afternoon. Some new flooring will be delivered in the afternoon, also. I will take the car in for some brake work. Brake work that held off just long enough.

There.

Estes Park, Day Two

2006-10-14T17:38:00.000-07:00

The kids were rustling at about 7:30, but Leslie and I camped out in bed until a little after nine.

After a breakfast of scrambled eggs on toast, we make peanut butter sandwiches and Goldfish and juice bags and headed to the Bear Lake area of RMNP. If you have been here before, then you know it is a popular area of the park due to little effort = great views. However, we avoided Bear Lake and took the road less travelled, but not that less travelled on a cool morning, and headed toward our destinations of Nymph Lake, Dream Lake, and Emerald Lake.

The hike in the beginning was steep noticeably. We welcomed Jeb's desire to climb the rocks because those stops afforded us breath catching opportunities.

Nymph Lake is small, my guess is about five acres. Snow was clinging in patches big enough for the kids to throw snowballs at us and for Jeb to eat a snowball avoiding dirt and straw, we think. Nymph Lake was beautiful, but my reading indicated that Dream Lake is appropriately named so we tarried not.

About .7 tenths of a mile up from Nymph, we crossed a small log bridge and came to Dream Lake situated at 10,080 feet with Hallett's Peak in the background. Soon, we hope to post pictures. It was an outstanding location with boulders and aspens and lodgepole pines nestled against the lake enough for beauty but little enough to make exploring the water's edge easy. We did.

At this point, we made a family decision that Dream Lake would be it for this hike. This was due to the falling temps, the cloudy skies, and the sustained winds. Caleb, Leslie, and Erin headed back while Jeb and I lingered and walked to the far edge of Dream Lake for some throwing and kicking of rocks.

We ate our sandwiches and such in the Bear Lake parking lot. Sometime, I want to write about the dominance of the Goldfish cracker. They have taken over families.

On our return we made a quick cabin stop for some crucial meds and then walked the town. Here, we noticed two things interesting to us. People take their dogs everywhere and, here in Colorado, the heart of Colorado, we found two, not one, two Nebraska Cornhusker spirit/fan shops. These were permanent business establishments.

While in one arts/crafts/knife/pottery/fleece establishment, Caleb noticed a t.v. in the back with the A&M game on. It was the third quarter and close. We finished our looking and made it back to the cabin. Remember, we have two working channels. One is ESPN, just the one with the A&M game. Ch-ching.

We watched. We won. We rested about 30 minutes and have just returned from a trip in the park looking for and finding many elk and deer. Caleb and I got out for a brief jaunt to the Alluvial Fan area and heard the elk bugling which takes on an eerie quality in the twilight, in the mist, in nature, alone.

Tomorrow, we will have our own church service, hike to some falls, drive Trail Ridge Road and see what else happens.

Tonight's meal = Spam cooked over an open fire served with saltines and cheddar cheese. We would have Chips Ahoy cookies for desert but the boys ate all of them during the game. Most likely, the girls will eat left over spaghetti.

After supper, a family game of Chickenfoot.

Gone from Kind Coffee.

Wichita, Kansas to Estes Park, Colorado

2006-10-13T18:31:00.000-07:00

Tuesday I was in California for the day. Myself along with some interested parties visited New Technology High School in Napa, California. Then, we visited the Tiger Woods Learning Center in Anahiem. Two very nice, innovative environments.

Anyway, Wednesday, after school, me and the family started out for our fall break trip. We have Friday and Monday off, but we added Thursday and Tuesday. Leaving at about 6:00, we drove Interstate 35 to Wichita, Kansas. This driving portion of the trip was mostly non-eventful other than Jeb sang a bunch of songs, we listened to favorite music selections, Leslie and Erin read, Caleb vegged. We arrived in Wichita, Kansas, after unsuccessfully locating a hotel in Wellington, Kansas. The hotel was $54.00 a night. Four of us in a beds and Jeb on the floor.

Arising the next morning, after an early morning walk and a nice breakfast continental, we left Wichita. We had the option to stick to the interstate or to take back roads. Concrete, trucks, exit signs, and speed or farms, pumpkin patches, local eateries, minnow shops and a slow jaunt. We took the latter. We have now seen Hutchinson, Great Bend, and myriad other small towns in the heart of Kansas including Russell, the home of Bob Dole.

We hooked back up to Interstate 70 travelling on fumes for quite awhile with me fearing that I had made a crucial planning mistake only to be saved by a Phillips 66. I celebrated with a Diet Coke. Caffiene Free.

Driving through eastern Colorado the one thing that was clear was that it was vastly different than the mountains. Rolling plains reminiscent of northeastern New Mexico.

We were lucky enough to hit Denver at rush hour, but we made it through unharmed and on to Boulder. Caleb was reminded of his last visit to Boulder which was at last year's Aggie football game. Well, the campus was nice.

We stopped at a place Leslie and I had visited before. The Pearl Street Mall. Got out. Dropped some change in the meter. And walked. Stretched our legs. Found a great shop called "Into The Wind" and ate at Old Chicago Pizza.

We didn't have a place to stay so we started asking around and found that there were no beds available or they wanted $100 for us to sleep. That ain't happening. We called Motel 6's 800 number and located one of their enterprises on Federal Avenue in Denver. It was a rather seedy part of town but the room was $45.00. We slept just as good. The ESPN was just as good. We woke up and wrestled on the beds, packed, and headed north to Estes Park.

We immediately went to the Beaver Meadows Visitors Center and asked some critical questions. Where could we see Elk? What were the best hikes for our needs (kids, animals, scenery, not too long)? What else should we see? We got our info, bought a book, watched a 30 minute film on the park, and went to find our cabin.

Located via the internet, I had settled on Whispering Pines Cottages partly due to the price, $110 a night, and because they had an opening that would accommodate five people. One never knows exactly what one is getting from internet pictures. We drove past Lake Estes, Mall Road, bunches of motels and bears carved from logs and drove up on our place. The owners are very nice, the cabin has a deck, is modestly decorated and is nestled on the Big Thompson River which, by the way, is a great name for a river.

After unloading we were off to the Fern Lake Trailhead off of Bear Lake Road near Moraine Park. The intention was not to get to the lake but to get a series of rocks and caves to explore and to get to The Pool, a rather interesting section of the Big Thompson. We accomplished our purpose with wild abandon. Jumping rivers, skipping rocks, exploring little holes in the walls, and Jeb falling into the river - twice. Juice bags was the reward at The Pool, our furthermost destination and peanut butter crackers when we arrived back at the car.

In the car, we looked for elk and found some within a mile or so. We got out and left the road and everyone else and walked through the meadow for a closer look. Leslie and Erin turned back after a little while. Me and the boys ventured on jumping two little creeks. We had great views of bulls and cows.

Other Eld were seen in Upper Beaver Meadows and in town.

Tonight it was spaghetti we made, peaches we brought, raspberry tea we mixed, and marshmallows roasted over a fire pit next to the cabin.

We have a t.v. in the cabin. No cable. It gets four channels, Mrs Owner said. Two are fuzzy enough not to make out. One is CBS. The other is ESPN. Sweet. College Game Day next to the Big Thompson in freezing weather.

Tomorrow it is Bierstadt, Nymph, Dream, and Emerald Lakes, I think.

I do not have time to check this for grammar and spelling. Gotta go.

2006-10-02T18:14:00.000-07:00

Windham Hill is a music company, label, specializing in what is commonly known as New Age. I'm not sure about the New Age tag. Artists are William Ackerman (last post), George Winston, Michael Hedges, Scott Cossu, some others. Ackerman started the label. He and the others mentioned have moved on. They are the old guys.

Ackerman is a guitarist, carpenter, apple grower near Middlebury, Vermont, in a small township name Windham. I imagine there is a hill nearby.

We were in that area once. There is a store there that was the "model" for a Norman Rockwell painting called "Shuffleton's Barbershop." A painting given as a gift to Leslie by her brother Barry and hanging tonight over our fireplace. We found the store front.

We also found a sign to what once was a home of Robert Frost. We stopped, walked back in a direction on a trail and came upon a house, at that time in some disrepair but lately resurrected by some writer's group and The National Park Service. We walked around the house through tall grass. Saw a screened in porch that surely was used as a writing area.

George Winston's best album is one called "December" and the best song on it is "Thanksgiving." Other albums are Forest, Winter into Spring, Autumn. For Scott Cossu stuff, he teamed up with a gentleman by the name of Eugene Friesen for an album titled "Reunion."

A Robert Frost poem you should read: Two Tramps in Mud Time.

2006-10-01T19:29:00.000-07:00

I wrote last on September 10th, I think.

So, a catch-up.

I painted myself red and black for FWC's first annual homecoming parade.

Caleb is now as tall as I am.

Jeb likes to sing church songs. "I am not afraid of 10,000's of people..."

Chainsaw's are magnificent tools.

We have two field mice in an aquarium. We found the field mice underneath a woodpile. They do eat cheese.

We are going to Iowa for our fall break. What is in Iowa? We don't know, yet. We have never been so we will go. What I know is there? Covered bridges, a town named Pella, Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum, some Lewis & Clark stuff. If we get really ambitious, and bored with Herbert, etc., we might travel over into Minnesota just to say we did.

We have dismantled the sandbox in the backyard. Time goes by. No one was interested any longer in sand play.

Fresca deserves a second try.

Teaching Hebrews Wednesday evenings. Better. Nearness. Counterfeit. Access. New.

William Ackerman albums in order of preference based on how the album title sounds and the best sounding corresponding song title on each:

1. Conferring With The Moon/Conferring with the Moon

2. Sound Of Wind Driven Rain/Mr. Jackson's Hat

3. Imaginary Roads/The Moment in Which You Must Finally Let Go of the Tether Which Has Held Your Hope Airborne or The Prospect of Darrow's Barn and The Blossoms of an Apple Spring on Imaginary Road

4. The Opening of Doors/A Movie of a Placid Lake on a Moonless Night in September

5. It Takes A Year/The Bricklayer's Beautiful Daughter

Yo. A-town down.

2006-09-10T14:36:00.000-07:00

I am trying to learn to post photos. This is from our trip to New Orleans. We are aboard the Whisper on Lake Pontchartrain.

2006-09-09T21:00:00.000-07:00

I counted 11 nails shops between home and work today, a span of less than five miles.

Tonight, dinner with in-laws due to the father-in-law's birthday and with Leslie's brother and his family. Menu = chicken bundles, green beans wrapped in bacon and baked in brown sugar, red potatoes cooked in a mixture of olive oil, butter, thyme, pepper, and a bunch of other stuff I threw in there when Leslie wasn't watching, some wonderful red, strawberry cake, homemade vanilla, and moo-linium crunch. Then watched Ohio State vs. Texas.

Got a new-to-us fridge today simply due to the ice maker, crushed ice maker to be exact. Leslie has a thing for crushed ice, a serious thing.

Jeb walked around all day, I mean all day, with football shoulder pads. Into the stores, into other people's homes. He fell asleep with the shoulder pads on. He can't wait for Monday night football because of the song. We dance to the song here in the Miller home.

2006-09-07T20:01:00.000-07:00

It was about a twenty yard pass. The play called for the quarterback, Cade Stone, to roll to his left or that is at least where he went and what he did. Upfield two receivers were running out patterns, the wide-out a shorter 10 and out, the tight-end a longer 20 and out. The players from the other team, the dreaded Chargers, rushed ferociously and were quickly about to pass up being a nuisance to the quarterback and become a serious danger to him.

The wide-out was covered, double-teamed even although I don't believe that was intentional on the defense's part. In the vicinity of the tight end, there was one defender. However, as the quarterback took on the pressure rolling precariously closer to out of bounds, the tight end broke further up field and further free from the defender.

Cade, the quarterback, saw the opening and lofted a pass that drifted softly into the hands of the tight end. He ran toward the endzone stiff-arming one Charger causing him to collapse to the rough turf in the warm night of this east Texas town.

He ran for the goal, a forty yard foot race he won.

There isn't a much better night in the life of a 7th grader than to catch a pass, his first pass of the year, in the first game of the year, and take it for a touchdown with his teammates running to join him there jumping and slapping on helmets.

He couldn't help but grin as he stood for pictures for mothers who clamored for space to get a snapshot of the buddies.

Cade Stone to Caleb Miller. Touchdown.

It was a fine night. He played cornerback on defense and tight-end on offense.

After the game, the Millers ate at Jason's Deli. Three grilled cheese sandwiches, one Deli Club, and one chicken wrap. Five Ice Creams. Six if you count both of mine.

2006-08-31T19:29:00.000-07:00

So I am driving home from Kumon, a tutoring establishment of foreign origins, and Jeb and Erin are smelling each others feet. They attempted to get their oldest sibling, Caleb, to smell each of theirs. He refrained emphatically. Although in his most honest of moments, he will admit to having the smelliest of them all. Of course, they are size 11's and more surface area produces more stink.

I am stuck in traffic at the corner of Keller-Hicks and Hwy.377. I sit through five, that is 5, light cycles. I begin to watch the people in the cars drive by partly as a diversion from the smelly conversation going on around me. I count 18 people talking on their cell phones and one other either a)talking to herself, b) singing along with some music, c) talking on her phone but it is one of those cyborg contraptions that fit inside of one's ear. Those things look like one of those characters, I cannot remember who, from a late Star Wars spin-off who had metal stuck to his face.

When we are riding in our cars, our phones make noise right before they ring. Just a little tidbit.

Leslie is doing Pilates on the kitchen floor. It hurts me. It is possible that one's body shouldn't do all that we make it do.

I here again question the value of assigning students the task of putting together an insect collection.

I am perplexed by the number of places that do nails, fingernails and toenails. Tomorrow, I will count them from home to work and report back to you. I predict thirteen.

2006-08-27T20:26:00.000-07:00

Wonder over success
Home Depot over Lowes
McDonald's fries over all others
College over pro
Moo-linium Crunch over all other Blue Bell offerings
Pizza Hut over all others
Thin & crispy over thick crust
Coke over Pepsi
Fall over Summer,Spring, & Winter
Married over single. Good thing.
Country over city
Mountains big-time over beach
Cheddar over american or any other cheese
Whole over 2,1, or 1/2%. But I rarely have it. Take Lucky Charms, which definitely have more charms than when I was a kid, and have a bowl with whole milk. Captain Crunch also but take care of the roof of your mouth.
Maroon over any shade of halloween orange
Dog over a masked dude riding a black horse with his index finger and thumb protruding like he was playing toy guns with a friend as a child but never grew up.
Vermont over Colorado, but Colorado is closer.
Depositing your own check over direct deposit
Cnnsi.com or espn.com
Old house over new house
I am now tired of writing.
Goodnight.

2006-08-24T19:40:00.000-07:00

So, I go to AutoZone to pick up my $171.00 new alternator. While there, a nice girl named Jamie, asks me I would like for them to check out my alternator, to test it. Sure, I say.

They test it and it passes twice. Seems that the local mechanic shop was not quite accurate in communicating to me that my alternator was bad.

Si, the great gentle-man from Laos, puts the alt. back into the Sienna van. He decides to check a couple cables. Seems one has some corrosion down deep, he cleans, car starts, car runs, I save $, and now, Leslie and Deanne Thomas are just about in Hearne, Texas, a few short miles of their College Station destination.

Tonight, FWC had our Open House/Parent Information Night. Nice night. Glad a long day is done.

At home with Caleb, Erin, and Jeb. Erin sleeping on our bedroom floor. Jeb sleeping in our bed.

Just got a hug from Jeb after he ran in here in his gray athletic pants for sleeping attire and a shark tooth necklace.

These are the days. Don't let them slip by.

2006-08-23T19:07:00.000-07:00

Today.

Toyota Sienna van, 148,000+ miles. "It is the alternator," the man says. A man from a local mechanic shop, a reputable one. $548.00+ to repair. I say, "wait." I give it some consideration. A gentle-man at school going by the name of Si because we couldn't pronounce his real name can fix anything. He is from Laos. I ask if he can fix an alternator, and he says he can. I call AutoZone and locate a new alternator for $171.00 if I bring the old alternator in. I will do this tomorrow.

The man at the local, reputable shop told me that the alternator would cost about $350.00. I have the satisfaction that I have had a small victory against the auto conspiracy establishment that takes advantage of autoidiots such as me.

Leslie and I go to the municipal court. A sort of errand date. She received a ticket about two weeks ago going about 8 miles over the speed limit. We can plead "No Contest" and request Deferred Adjudication, essentially probation. This we want to do, but we are prohibited from doing this because to qualify the offender must not have had another ticket within the last twelve months. Leslie misses it by about a week. We are told that we can appeal to the judge who will be arriving shortly. We ponder this and defensive driving with the help of Blockbuster but that seems just as costly, both in money and more so in time.

We wait.

She arrives and we are second on the docket behind a murder case.

Just kidding.

We are called in and it takes about 30 seconds to find out that, on this day, the law has extended some mercy. Deferred adjudication is her sentence which equals 90 days probation. Fine = $163.00.

School is running smoothly. Maybe I am becoming dispensable. I long for a fight.

Just kidding.

I visited with Jeb at lunch. He was excited to see me. Good stuff.

Some great words = When the kids say on their way to bed, "Are you coming to see me?"
Oh. Yes. I. Am.

Peace Up. A-Town Down.

2006-08-21T19:55:00.000-07:00

I posted last on July 8th.

Since then I have:

floated the Frio River in Concan, Texas with the Auvermann's from Amarillo

painted Fort Worth Christian High School and Middle School

hired five teachers

sent my youngest to kindergarten

attended my parents 50th wedding anniversary celebration in Daingerfield, Texas

seen friends from Australia

started reading a book called The Price of Privilege

thrown some footballs to Caleb

read some books to Erin

wrestled with Jeb

started a new school year, my fifth here

2006-07-08T05:33:00.000-07:00

I have mentioned Ted Jackson on this blog before. He is a photographer for the New Orleans local newspaper, The Times Picayune. It was at his house that our family spent the lion's share of Independence Day.

While there, he showed us slides of the pictures he took during Hurricane Katrina and the aftermath. Some of those, but not all, are on the website that I also referenced earlier on this blog.

One of the pictures is a close-up of a woman crying. Ted told us that the picture was taken at a Sunday worship service at a New Orleans church the Sunday after the hurricane. The words being sung at the time the photo was taken were:

"He gives and takes away. He gives and takes away. My heart will learn to say Lord blessed be your name."

A little different singing those words there and then.

2006-07-07T21:25:00.000-07:00

Other notes.

I believe taking vacations as a family is important. It seems to me to be important whatever the cost. The times we have spent in the car together, though certainly sometimes tiresome and frustrating, are invaluable. We talk. We ask questions. We read Bible stories and the Bible together. We talk of life lessons often without our three children knowing that we are talking about life lessons.

Outside of Cafe Du Monde late one evening with the family in bed and after I had walked down there I saw a gentleman lug a large case in front of the cafe and begin emptying it's contents. He stopped and unloaded his wares next to a homeless-looking man playing guitar amazingly well, in the classical style. So well, that I wished I had asked him his story. There certainly was a time in his past when he was taught and taught well. He captured the attention of many of the patrons. Anyway, the man next to the guitar man unloaded a large telescope, a stool, and a sign displaying his desire to sell you a look through the telescope into the night sky and him point out to you, the looker, certain heavenly bodies. He had a website scrawled on the side of his wooden case, and I left repeating it to myself because I did not want to forget it, but I forgot it. So, if you are there and see the telescope man write down the website and send it to me, please.

I don't know if New Orleans will recover, should recover, any of that. I do know from what I saw while there that it will be beyond all comprehesion if it does because the city has gone through what is beyond all comprehension for me. We drove along a levee, one that broke, I think it was the London Street levee. We drove during in the dusk of the evening and there was not a soul in sight, in sound. We drove deserted streets with deserted shops and stores, deserted and destroyed homes, many seemingly not touched by their owners since the storm. On most of them there were the scribbles and codes of the rescue crews as they searched from house to house. What they wrote I could not decipher for sure except when they wrote in mostly complete sentences. "Found one cat and one dog." They almost always put the date. I think the storm was the 29th, maybe the 27th of August. Most of these houses next to the levee were not searched until September. One had 9/29 written on the door.

I am painting the high school and middle school buildings. Some of you might know that I painted some in high school. Not art painting, house painting. Caleb helped me today. It was nice to take breaks with him, go pick up a hot dog and coke at the store with him, examine our work together. It was a great memory for me.

2006-07-06T19:39:00.000-07:00

We arrived home shortly ago. We began this morning in New Orleans at about 10:10. One side note on last evening - we had been paying $24 a night for parking at the hotel only because on the side streets in the French Quarter there were no spots. However, last night I found one on Royal St. and parked there, and the car made it. No break-in's, no tickets although we did receive a parking ticket later this morning when we left our car in what we thought was an "ok" area for about 15 minutes but returned to a pink-slip of paper on the car.

Anyway, we left and soon after leaving I noticed something awry with the car. My guess was that there was a tire problem. We had already had a tire problem upon leaving the zoo because we had run over a screw. Caleb and I changed the tire in the belly of a building yesterday afternoon while it stormed. So, I thought it was the spare or perhaps the other front tire giving me the grief. I had already purchased two new rear tires before leaving on the trip. The problem was characterized by a shaking of the steering wheel in my hands and rhythmic thumping as I traveled down the road to Baton Rouge. We could travel about 60 mph without my hands vibrating too much. At a Baton Rouge Walmart, the Express Lube and Tire told us that it would be a 3.5 hour wait. So on we traveled to Port Allen, right across the river from B.R. A very nice gentleman and his wife helped us at their local tire joint. He balanced a new front tire, fixed the one with the screw and sent us on our way. For awhile a little better, then worse but not bad enough to stop. We traveled about 60 mph the rest of the way home, approximately 9 hours worth.

On the way we stopped at Sonic twice, Subway, a Schlotzskys - however you spell it - for a bathroom break for Jeb, and a couple of other gas stops.

Good to be home. No bad mail. No bad phone messages. Grass green, plants and dog alive.

Wednesday we visited the Audubon Zoo, one of our favorites. For the most part, things there seemed to be back to normal though they were probably a little understaffed due to the absence of personnel at the snack/drink shops/carts. The animals, with no notable exceptions, were present and made them themselves quite visible. After the zoo, we changed the tire, rested in the hotel, and drove around N.O. some to get a feel for the hurricane damage. More on that in a later post.

We debated stopping along the way home and letting the kids swim one more time in a hotel pool and jump from bed to bed. Obviously, we did not. By the way, they did get Leslie to jump from bed to bed in the hotel. That was their big goal.

Zoos we have visited:

Aububon
Fort Worth
Dallas
Abilene
Waco
Caldwell Zoo in Tyler
Some small zoo in north Mississippi, maybe Starkville
Columbia, South Carolina
San Diego, California
Nashville, Tennessee
Washington, D.C.
San Antonio
Amarillo
Albuquerque
Oklahoma City

2006-07-04T16:51:00.000-07:00

Trip Day Two - Writing this on day three due to lack of internet access in New Orleans. We have found that some services are not quite up and running, yet. And that is understandable.

We woke up in Natchtoches and headed south on Interstate 49 to New Orleans. We went first to the Aquarium and enjoyed the visit exceedingly. Turns out most of the fish perished in the storm due to the unanticipated failure of the back-up generator which was supposed to keep the oxygen in the water tanks. The penguins and some other birds were shipped to other aquariums. The facility was mostly back to normal although there were some outdoor tanks that were not functioning.

Our entry into the city was in an area mostly unaffected, at least to our untrained eye. So, so far we have not seen the devastation. Wednesday, I will probably venture into the eastern areas to have a look.

Last night after a swim in the hotel pool. The kids went to sleep and I decided to walk the streets. I enjoy getting out and seeing the people. I walked to Cafe Du Monde and enjoyed beignets and Diet Coke. I didn't choose to partake of the Cafe Au Lait. Not a coffee drinker. I got somewhat disoriented on my return walk but made it safely after witnessing some nightlife that was disgusting.

This morning we rose and drove across the causeway over Lake Ponchartrain to the home of Ted and Nancy Jackson. Here we were joined by other Jackson family members from McComb, Mississippi, where I grew up, and a local family from Ted and Nancy's church. Lunch consisted of most excellent burgers, tender corn on the cob, and beans. After lunch we traveled to Ted's sailboat, Whisper, and took a short jaunt by motor then by sail on Lake Ponchartrain. Back to the house afterwards for watermelon and homemade vanilla ice cream.

Right now, Ted has just finished showing us a slideshow of his pictures during Katrina. Ted was in the city living on the go for the first week before hooking up with family members and then returning to the city for more coverage and rescues. He and the staff of the N.O. newspaper received two Pulitzer Prizes for their coverage. This is in addition to an earlier one won by Ted and a reporter for another story on the overfishing of the Gulf of Mexico. We have talked about old times, old friends, and the stories about the people of New Orleans during and after the hurricane, the stories no one knows. Unbelievable stories. Unbelievable pictures.

Some quick things:

1. Beignets are far, far superior to the donut. Even Shipley donuts.

2. There are albino alligators.

3. Male seahorses have the babies.

4. Maison Dupuy hotel in New Orleans was a very good buy at $70 a night even with some of the services, like internet access, still disabled.

5. People are looking for something so badly that they will look in putrid places to find it.

6. Hearing the local news in a disaster area is different. Here, for obvious reasons, the hurricane dominates everything.

Tomorrow, we will go to the Audubon Zoo and try to ride the St. Charles avenue streetcar if it is operational. We will spend tomorrow night and head back toward home on Thursday.

There is more to write but I need to log off and visit.

2006-07-02T20:19:00.000-07:00

Trip Chronicle #1 - We are headed to New Orleans. Leaving at about 2:30 today we have now made it to Natchitoches, Louisiana - pronounced Nakutish. After an investigation of the Hampton Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Comfort Inn, and Econo Lodge, we settled on the Econo because it was $64 bucks, an open pool, and breakfast of some type. The pool was warm, uncomfortably warm, like Ebola/Ecoli/Staff infection warm. So, I limited our time to about twenty minutes. We swam right after our arrival, Erin, Jeb, and I did. Leslie and Caleb hung out in room 127 watching Remember the Titans.

After the swim, we drove through the historic downtown of N. which we hardily recommend. For you movie buffs, Steel Magnolias, an early Julia Roberts movie, was set in this locale. The town is built along the Cane River and is quite picturesque(sp). We also stopped at Sonic and Burger King with all of us eating for $6.45.

We are headed to N.O. to see the Aquarium and the Aububon Zoo, both outstanding. We will also see some friends from Mississippi, Ted and Nancy Jackson. I wrote some about Ted in an earlier blog. He was photojounalist for the N.O. newspaper. We are scheduled to spend the 4th with them on Lake Ponchartrain with them in his sailboat.

Back to the Econo Lodge. This one is unique in that there is a window-seat/nook/bed/ where Erin is sleeping tonight.

One question regarding hotels is the absence of fitted sheets. Now, that is partly our experience because we stay in Econo Lodge's and other similar establishments. One Miller rule of travel is that the place we are staying needs a pool, which is easy to find, and that it is cheap, but safe. Where we stay isn't a big deal. We would rather spend money on something other than lodging, particularly lodging that we are in for less than twelve hours.

Tomorrow night, Tuesday, and Wednesday we are staying in the Maison Dupuy Hotel. A really good rate on hotels.com led me to this unknown establishment.

Other independent travel thoughts:

1. Interstate 20 is terribly boring even as interstate highways go.

2. I think everyone should take vacations.

3. Travel with one small bag per person. Keep stuff separate.

4. Children who cannot tie their own shoes must travel with shoes that velcro shut.

5. Scenic roads are almost everytime superior.

6. Anything but an interstate is scenic.

7. I do not understand what makes a breakfast continental.

8. Staying in a motel room with the curtains pulled tight and the air-conditioning cranked down low = good sleep. Especially when cleaning up is taken care of by someone else.

9. I think that there should be some sort of quick, disposable tooth brushing contraption.

10. All historical markers must be read.

It is now 10:47 p.m. Everyone is still up watching Remember the Titans or reading. In the morning, we rise and head south. First, through Alexandria, which I remember is mostly industrial blight, then Baton Rouge, home of the kittens, on to N.O.

2006-06-23T19:38:00.000-07:00

Homemade Ice Cream, of which we have devoured three batches so far, is best in the homemade vanilla variety.

Peach is a close second if made with fresh, Texas hill country peaches.

-----------------------------

Tonight, we stopped at QuikTrip, a local convenience store of immense popularity. We, alone, give them mighty support although primarily in the form of $.86 refills in a styrofoam route 44 Sonic cup.

Their slogan is "Every Trip Guaranteed." I proposed to Leslie that this is an inferior slogan because it is too vague. Certainly slogans require the customer to infer the meaning. An example of a clever, working, slogan is Cingular's "Raising the
Bar." Certainly, inference is needed but it is easier and "bar" has a dual meaning - the bars indicating the signal strength of a cell phone and excelling in your endeavor - again, raising the bar.

What does "Every Trip Guaranteed" mean? How does a place of business guarantee your trip? Or might it just be the same as saying, "Boy, you just made a trip." I mean is the guarantee simply found in that a trip was made, and, if so, why is that something to guarantee? Doesn't "guarantee" naturally refer to a product, a service, something guaranteeable? Guarantee that you will have more drink options than anyone else, guarantee low prices which by the way is Wal-Mart's (Everyday Low Prices. Guaranteed.), guarantee cheaper gas, guarantee clean restrooms. Don't guarantee the trip.

-----------------------------

Tonight, we also shopped at Target. Their slogan escapes me. We purchased Caleb, age 12, new shorts. Men's department. Size 30 waist. Again, age 12.

2006-06-21T14:45:00.000-07:00

Leslie and I wonder if flies communicate with one another because if they do then they need to communicate this:

"The people in that house will kill you if you go in there. Inside that abode there are fly-killing atrocities taking place."

Pass that along to your descendents, Mr. Fly. That seems to us to be critical information to the fly.

On another independent insect note. Why do roaches always seem to expire, be in their death throws, on their back? Die like a noble roach with your feet on the ground. Leslie, the Mrs., would like me to point out that said expired roaches have not been observed at our home. The roaches have been observed at my place of employment after the insect executioner made his summer visit.

Caleb has an insect project during the upcoming school year. We are to spend the summer collecting insects. I think there will be a fly and roach in our collection soon. That is the extent of it.

2006-06-21T06:20:00.000-07:00

As a gift for Father's Day, I received an MP3 player. More importantly, two cards made by my daughter and now sitting out where they are frequently viewed.

Back to the MP3 player.

On it I now have the following musical artists:

U2
One Rascal Flatts song at my wife's behest which I will be deleting soon,
Little Big Town - good group, new.
Michael Jackson. Yes, Michael Jackson.
Duran Duran
Abba - Go ahead admit it. When you are in your car driving alone and Abba's Dancing Queen comes on you bop your head and sing along.
Hoobastank - which I am afraid is a dirty word that I do not know.
Phil Collins
Annie Lennox
Earth, Wind, & Fire - several songs.
38 Special
Acappella
Ambrosia
America's Horse With No Name, Sister Golden Hair, and Ventura Highway which are all probably illicit drug references of which I am unaware.
Dan Fogelberg
Newsboys
Pablo Cruise
Gino Vannelli
The Commodores with Lionel Richie and without.
James Taylor
Susan Ashton
Gordon Lightfoot
Five For Fighting
John Mellencamp - Cougar and non-Cougar
Journey
Michael Buble
Vince Gill
Don Henley
Fleetwood Mac
William Ackerman - instrumental New Age Guitar
Mac McAnally
Jackson Browne

Yesterday, I asked Leslie if it was o.k. for a 44 year old to play air-guitar. I just got a look but played on anyway.