good morning...

I haven't been as active on blog as I thought I would. I love to talk....I just hate sitting in front of a computer. I would much rather sit down with a cup of coffee and maybe a dozen donuts or so and visit face to face. We have had a lot of little visitors here over the summer. There's a grandchild sitting on the floor real often when I get home from work. I've loved every minute of it and hope it lasts forever. Of course it won't. Nothing ever does so I plan to soak up every visit from one of these special little souls. Last week Gracie was spending a couple of days. She asked me one night to make sure I never, ever change anything about this house. It's just perfect the way it is. What a sweetheart....of course she may have other reasons for not wanting drastic changes. She thinks she's going to inherit the place someday. Our latest visitor was Andy. Andy doesn't think of it as visiting when he comes here. This is just another of his homes. He knows what's his...everything! He and Gracie may have words over the final disposition of this place when we're gone. Y'all have a great day.

Payback...

I'm about to leave to have an all night study done of my sleep habits. Can you imagine a more boring job?? I feel like I'm a bit of an expert when it comes to sleep. I guess others want to study me to see how it's done properly. Before I go I wanted to tell you about how my cousin Mike paid me back for the double date I fixed up for him in the last story. Later in the week I want to brag about my grandchildren so don't let me forget.

Here's what happened...


There were so many times growing up when I wished I could just close my eyes for a minute and when I opened them everything would be okay. It never happened of course but there were situations when I squeezed my eyes shut so tight I gave myself a headache. One of those situations came along at a Friday night football game in 1967.
When the Hurst-Euless-Bedford School District was still growing larger and the Castleberry School District was beginning to shrink there were a few years where Bell High School, my alma mater, was in direct football competition with Castleberry High School, where my cousin Mike graced the halls.
On one football night, Bell was the visitor to Castleberry’s Homecoming game. Mike had called earlier and asked if I wanted to stay over and go out with a couple of girls after the game. Just because I’m a nice guy I agreed to sacrifice in such a way. I sat with my friends on the visitor’s side and watched Bell beat the heck out of Castleberry during the first half. Then the halftime show came on and I have to say right here and now there is nothing worse to a visitor than watching the backs of everyone on the field during a homecoming halftime show. Well, I take it back. There is one thing worse. Watching said show without the benefit of glasses is worse. All I could see were the fuzzy backs of the people on the field.
After halftime we figured the crowd had thinned around the concession stand so we wandered down for cokes and popcorn. I ran into Mike with his band buddies. He was all excited because the girl he had fixed me up with for the night had won band sweetheart! I got all excited too and thought about how great it would have been if I had actually seen her instead of something fuzzy wandering around out there.
When the game was over I started looking for Mike and my date! I found him easy enough because there were about forty band members standing around with Mike in the middle. As I walked up the crowd opened up just like they were expecting me. I should have run for Hurst as fast as I could because it was an obvious ambush I was walking into. Mike saw me and grabbed me by the arm. He reminded me I had a date with the Castleberry band sweetheart and then he grinned so big I got scared. Before I had a chance to bolt and run this husky young lady walked up and Mike introduced her. “I would LOVE for you to meet Thelma Thunderthighs, Band Sweetheart for 1967.” This girl was big. She was surpassed in her hugeness by genuine ugly. She made Fido from a few months before seem pretty darn good-looking. As I stared in amazement at Bertha and tried to formulate a reason why she would be the band sweetheart Mike came to my aid. He told me everyone had stuffed the ballot box. Thelma bragged that she had helped. I did not doubt her for a moment.
I have to say I took it like a man. I asked Thelma where she preferred to graze and she picked a pizza hangout in River Oaks. It seems this was pre-planned too because we got a standing ovation when we walked in. Thelma knew how to put that pizza away. I think I got one slice that night but to be honest, I didn’t have much of an appetite. We hung around the dark pizza place all evening with the band crowd (thank goodness) and then I offered to haul her home. When we got to her house I walked her to the door just like my dad had taught me and waited for her to unlock the door. Then she turned to me and said, “how’s about a little goodnight kiss?” I ran.

Double dates....

Well, I apolgize for last week's depressing outburst. It must have had something to do with that five dollar pizza I ate for a snack that night. Anyway, Debbie told me if I couldn't play nice I couldn't play. She grounded me from the computer for a week. I feel much better now and will get back to remembering the good stuff. My cousin Mike and I helped each other out through our formative years. The following story is true. I didn't have to color it up at all...

     I like to sit. I know it’s not a great hobby but I can’t help myself. I found something I’m good at so I work at it every chance I get. Used to be I couldn’t stand sitting. I had to be busy doing something but now I find sitting to be very satisfying.

     When I was a teenager with no place to go on a Friday or Saturday night I was miserable. The thought of sitting home with the family and watching television was as bad as the thought of getting drafted. I generally had my plans for the weekend made by Monday night at the latest.
     I have to admit I never had trouble finding a date. I learned early in life that Karen M. was never going to acknowledge my existence so I moved on. It seems a good portion of the female population at Bell High School found me to be acceptable, or maybe they were all half blind. I don’t know and I don’t care. If they said they were willing to go out with me that was okay. I did worry though if they actually said yes that there must be some type of problem with them. I generally went out with girls who would go out with me only one time. I figured they must be losers to date me….until I met Debbie anyway. I figured she was just too young to know better.
     I had a date with Susan S. one Friday night…planned a week in advance of course. This girl called me around Thursday to see if I could find a date for her dearest friend, Attila the Hun. I didn’t want to not go out because of this. After all, Susan was pretty darn good looking. Because of this I decided to ask my cousin Mike if he would go with Susan, me, and Fido to the bowling alley the next night. He agreed because he didn’t have anything going on that particular night.
     Mike arrived early on Friday afternoon and we changed into our killer date clothes, blue jeans, plaid shirts, and brown loafers. We hopped into my 1959 Chevy Impala and drove to Susan’s house. When Mike saw Susan he got pretty excited. Did I mention she was darn good looking? We walked part ways through the front door when Lassie came into the room. Mike actually tried to run. I had to grab him by the arm to keep him from running all the way back to River Oaks. We made our introductions and wiped the slobber off Rover’s chin then headed out to the car. I whispered to Susan that her friend kind of scared me. I wanted to make sure she had gotten all her shots at the vet before wandering around without a leash. That particular comment did nothing to improve the situation. By the time we got to the bowling alley Mike was staring at me with thoughts of revenge. He said staring at me was easier than looking at Rin Tin Tin but I knew he was planning on a serious reprisal. After we got our rented bowling shoes on Mike managed to throw up all over the place. I don’t know how he worked up such a good barf but he did a marvelous job. The evening was officially over. We loaded Mike up in the back seat while Susan and Elsie the cow rode in front with me. I walked them to the door apologizing as hard as I could. Then I went back to the car and headed for my house. A few seconds into the drive I looked in my rearview mirror to see Mike sitting up and smiling. He said, “Hey, you wanna go see Rosanna?”*.
    
*One of my former dates, which Mike had highly approved of.

Holiday??

Is it just me? I didn't feel like we celebrated the birth of our nation much yesterday. I personally took a nap and thought about taking a second one (depression always makes me sleepy)...Debbie changed my mind on that second nap. I worry that if there aren't some severe personnel changes in our nation's capitol during the next round of elections there won't be much to celebrate on the 4th of July anymore. Seriously, it's almost over here in the United States. 'Doom and gloom' wasn't supposed to be a part of this blog but I can't seem to get it off my mind. Please start preaching to your friends and neighbors about the need to look closely at our nation's leaders. Stop thinking "Republican" or "Democrat" and start looking at the person behind the party button. There are some real dumb people running our country. There are also some really bad people running our country. The Constitution is still the will of the majority of the people. Congress, and others, are trying to take that Constitution away from us. Why are we letting them do that?? I cry when I see old news reels of the men hitting the beaches of Normandy. I cry when I see the thousands of headstones for fallen soldiers...those who fought and gave their lives for our freedom...freedom we are lazily watching disappear by the hands of selfish, uneducated, or downright immoral "leaders".

Sorry to be so negative....on a more positive note, the Lord God is in control now and forever. Praise God!

Suit up and Shut up...

This is a phrase I learned in a Lifeline Chaplaincy training seminar I took awhile back. The idea is to take our visits to the sick and hurting seriously enough to dress up for the occasion and while there to listen to them instead of talking the whole time. I broke both of those rules on Tuesday night but I felt justified because of the situation. I was going to visit an old friend whom Debbie and I love dearly. He is in an extended care facility due to advanced Alzheimers (wild guess on that spelling). I called his wife in advance to see if there was anything in particular I could do for him. She recommended a gift of ice cream, the only thing he will eat, and the gift of gab....'just talk to him about anything even though he probably won't respond'. Since this was my only visit for the night I left the house dressed as I was, which is sloppy. I stopped at a drive-through for a milk shake and made my way to see my friend. I found this dear old man sitting on the edge of his bed with his hands folded in his lap staring at the floor. He looked up and grabbed my hand as if he had been waiting for me! This encouraged me since I didn't know what to expect....then he told me how sorry he was to hear of the death of my wife....to any who don't know, my wife is alive, well, and currently softly snoring in our bed. After he gave his condolences, he folded his hands in his lap and resumed looking at the floor. I tried everything I learned during my pastoral training to get through to him but nothing I did caused eye contact. He never looked up, even when I offered to sing!!! Finally, I thought of the only thing I know how to do somewhat effectively. I told him a story. It was a good story too. I laughed at it myself....I was the only one laughing. There was no response from my friend. After a while I shut up and just sat with him. I love this man and his wife and all I could do for them was to sit quietly. Ten minutes or so passed when there was a scream from the room across the hall. The patient decided she didn't want any care from her nurse and told her in no uncertain terms to "GET THE XXXX OUT OF MY ROOM AND LEAVE ME ALONE!". My friend slowly looked up, pointed across the hall, then pointed at me....I got the message....hey, at least we communicated.