HOLIDAY ROAD ........

The American Family Truckster !!!!!!!!

So.........

We made it to DC....WHEW!! It is a long long drive but we had a blast on the way up ......We LAUGHED alot about different things ....Talked about those not with us anymore and how much they would have enjoyed this trip.

Tomorrow we head to Ford's Theater and Peterson House and then we are riding out to George and Martha's place ....Never been to Mt Vernon so am really looking forward to that one.....

Happy 4th (although, technically its still the 3rd) of July !!

"As mankind becomes more liberal, they will be more apt to allow that all those who conduct themselves as worthy members of the community are equally entitled to the protections of civil government . I hope ever to see America among the formost nations of Justice and liberality."

President George Washington.

So as has been my custom the past few years I like to post some fun facts about our great nation on or near the Fourth Of July!!

Hope there are not many repeats ...

Happy Independence Day everyone

1. Independence Day commemorates the formal adoption of the Declaration Of Independence on July 4, 1776. However, it was not declared a legal holiday until 1941.

2. Fireworks were made in China as early as the 11th century. The Chinese used their pyrotechnic mixtures for war rockets and explosives.

3. Uncle Sam was first popularized during the War of 1812, when the term appeared on supply containers. Believe it or not, the U. S. Congress didn't adopt him as a national symbol until 1961.

4. There are many precise rules for taking care of the American Flag. And speaking of flag traditions, we're sorry to report that contrary to legend, historical research has failed to confirm that Betsy Ross sewed the first flag.

5. Not all members of the first continental congress supported a formal Declaration of Independence, but those who did were passionate about it. One representative rode 80 miles by horseback to reach Philadelphia and break a tie in support of independence

6. The first two versions of the Liberty Bell were defective and had to be melted down and recast. The third version rang every Fourth of July from 1778 to 1835, when, according to tradition, it cracked as it was being tolled for the death of Chief Justice John Marshall.

7. The American national anthem, the " The Star Spangled Banner ," is set to the tune of an English drinking song ("To Anacreon in Heaven").

8. The iron framework of the Statue of Liberty was devised by French engineer Pierre Gustave Eiffel.

9. The patriotic poem "America the Beautiful" was published on July 4, 1895 by Wellesley College professor Katherine Lee Bates.

10. Father of the country and architect of independence George Washington held his first public office at the tender age of 17. He continued in public service until his death in 1799.

11. It was once asked if July the Fourth is celebrated in Great Britain. Of course not but for years they celebrated the day as "Good Riddence" day... so no...the fourth of July is just another day across the pond.

Blurring The Lines of Reality

So..........

I had a thing happen Tuesday that scared me ....We have had VBS at DUMC this week and thats an "all hands on deck " so late Tuesday afternoon I run home to sit down for a few before being back at 5:30.

I lay down ...take a quick 30 minute nap and when I wake up I have some intense blurred vision in my left eye. It lasts about 20-25 minutes but once the blurred vision clears up I am left with a pretty decent headache....and by decent I mean BLECH.

Long story short ....today I went to my eye doctor for a checkup on that situation specially since the same thing happened again this morning.

His verdict? Not sure what it is ....My eyes looked ok he said besides my usual little stuff ...

He said it could very possibly be a mild migraine.... Possibly stress related....lot of stuff maybe .

Here is where my stress is and my problem...I have a hard time letting things go.

As I mentioned we had our VBS this week and it was the first time in 4 years that I was not " in charge" of anything with the overall planning. I was there each night to watch and answer questions etc....I am technically over the new Childrens Director but ....I mainly sat back and watched this year

I was worried and stressed all week that things would go ok. That everything would be good for the kids ...Guess what ? It was great!!!

I know our Children's Director is very qualified to handle this job ....but after doing it myself for 4 years it was a bit hard to let it all go....Does that even make sense?

I am not one of these folks that looks for someone to say "Great job Jay, really nice VBS, you did so much hard work and we appreciate it" I dont seek out praise...thats not me .... I dont think it is anyway ....I am a behind the scenes kinda person ...Give the praise to the folks who took off work to help out...or to the grandmothers who made food all week....or the youth who gave up their summer time off to be there each night.

My thing is I just have a hard time letting things go and allowing othersto do things.....So my stress level was high....LET ME STRESS HERE ...I was very pleased with VBS and how things went ...our Childrens person is AMAZING !! We are so very blessed to have her

Add to that I have managed to get behind on final planning on our mission trip that we leave for on Sunday morning. ......

So yeah ....a stress headache/blurred vision thing was very possible and DID happen.

Caroling Out In The Snow.......

So.....

I once again would like to say for everyone who reads this little blog o mine.....I hate, detest,despise,loath the summer months. And of course our summer months are sometimes April -October.

It was 96 here in Montgomery today ....How in all of God's creation could you possibly find any sliver of joy from being out in 96 degree heat?

Laying out in the sun by the pool....Blech.

Going to the beach...when its up near 100...Blech.

Spend any amount of time outside that you dont have to ....Blech.

I like it cool...rainy...damp..overcast...cloudy...I have said it before but it fits my mood.

96 degrees makes me angry and bitter. It makes me want to get into fights with strangers at the grocery store. It makes me want to run over squirrels because they wear such heavy coats in the summer.

So heres the deal ....I will count each day of summer being gone as another day closer to Fall and Winter being closer....

I leave Sunday for Asheville NC for a week ...gotta be better there ...

Beating A Dead Horse....Perhaps??

So.....
There is something on my mind here ....Something big.
I go to church .....I have a passion for church. I don't mean the building where I go... I mean the Church. I enjoy the whole process. Communion,hymns,sermons, the people you meet as a result of being in a church. I know there are many folks who are turned off by the church. Those who search out the new and fun when they are looking for a church. Whats exciting at this church might be old news at the next one down the street.

Here is my problem....I dont know if I can continue to go to church anymore ....At least not at a UMC church.
I am disappointed in the UMC church ....I am extremly let down by the church.
For a long time now the UMC church has had a policy of not allowing gays and lesbians to be full members of its church. The policy states that if you are a practicing homosexual then you are in sin and therefore are not welcome in the UMC.
Well...You are welcome BUT you cant be a member. A little of the 'love the sinner, hate the sin' going on there I guess.
This year churches are being asked in the UMC to change the wording in their Discipline to allow ANYONE to be a member of the UMC, regardless of who,what ,when or where you are in life.
Problem is this ....Thats not going to happen.
Opponents of the change say that to do this would go against the social and moral fabric of the church....
My thing is this..The fabric of the church is tested daily by the tens of millions of open sinners who already worship freely in the church.
As Dr Billy Graham said " when did one sin become worse than any other "

How do you honestly let ANYONE become a member of said church if you are following this doctrine ....

How can we proclaim ourselves followers of a wonderful and loving Christ and yet turn our backs on someone ?
How can we proclaim ourselves followers of a wonderful and loving Christ and yet still find it within ourselves to proclaim ourselves better then someone else?
How can we proclaim ourselves followers of a wonderful and loving Christ, a man who openly welcomed SINNERS of all nature into his presence , and yet we still sit by and do nothing when "the least of these " are turned away?

I have amazing, loving friends. They are spiritual and caring. They would carry you to the top of a mountain. They have gone to church, they have helped with programs,they have gone on trips, they have taught Sunday School, they have served on church boards, they have prepared meals, they have laughed with everyone, they have cried real tears in times of sorrow, they have brought flowers when a child is born, they have brought a casserold when a loved one died, they have been there through thick and thin. Flush times and bust times.
But if they made the choice to be honest and live their lives as who they are ....Then they are not welcome in the UMC.
How and why do we do this ??
This makes me sad.

Someone said a few weeks back that "we throw open the church doors and start living the life of Christ. Live it in a full and total way. Invite the beggers, homeless,gays, straights,prostitutes ALL sinners into our lives. Imgaine being known around town as THAT CHURCH THAT ACTS JUST LIKE JESUS"

How can we proclaim ourselves followers of a wonderful and loving Christ and yet close our doors to anyone who is searching for the same Jesus that we follow, but they just happen to be gay?

Better yet, how do we have the nerve to show our faces after closing that door??

To Borrow A Term From a Dear Friend ....MEH !!

So.......
It's Tuesday morning at 12:54am and I am up when I really should be making every effort to be getting sleep since I have to be up at 6am.

I got this idea for a blog post kicking around in my head ...But I honest to goodness dont have it in me tonight to post ..
Perhaps tomorrow ...anyway thats it

$38.00 Is Alot Of Money To Me ....

So.......
I dont do the bullet points but this will be a mix of stuff...enjoy

Let me say first of all ...I have been fairly busy at work. For those of you out there who work at or have worked at churches you know that there are times when you are in a moment of down times. Not alot going on, laid back ...then BOOM its crazy intense with stuff going on...Thats been me since Tuesday of last week. I promised myself I would not go into any long details BUT since Wednesday I have cooked or prepared three different meals for the following numbers of people ..80 on Wednesday, 51 on Saturday night and 104 on Sunday at lunch.
I am sick of food shopping,chopping,cooking,serving,washing dishes,putting dishes and pans up, taking pans back out...Bah! Needless to say I am taking a day off tomorrow...

Many many thanks to all who sent me birthday messages and wishes on Thursday ...It was a nice day.

I got a notice this week that my health insurance has gone up $38.00 dollars since last month. I have had this insurance since the fall of 2000 and in that time its gone up $53.00 dollars. $53.00 over the past almost 9 years was all it went up ....pretty good I think. Then BOOM over the course of a month it goes up nearly forty bucks. Sucks

I have had some pretty good political talks with close friends from church. Civil, polite converstations ...very enjoyable. Shame they cant all be that way

On Saturday night someone called me his "favorite liberal". This coming from a big republican ...Fun.

Some thoughts(not all my own but interesting)
Ever been in a parking deck and looked up and thought how much weight is sitting above your head?
Why do so many folks(myself included) get so attached to their personnal items?
What ever happened to size A batteries?
Ever sit at a stop light and think how much trust we put into those lights? Trusting that they are not all green when we drive through and intersection.

I have said this before and if it makes me weird then so be it ...but I love Christmas music. Its almost to the point that I listen at most any time of the year. It just relaxes me....Christmas is a fun time for me ...I enjoy it and the music makes me think to that time of the year and then I get relaxed.

I saw the teaser trailer for Toy Story 3 and it looks pretty fun....

Summer Mission trip to the Asheville area is in three short week. I am excited.

Alright ..Thats it for me ...Goodnight all

Sum...Sum....Summertime!!!

So....

As we all know I am not that fond of the summer but with summer comes the urge to hit the road...load up the car and head on a the great American roadtrip...buy a plane ticket and fly somewhere....jump on the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe and see the country. I was reading Mr Lucas' blog and decided I would share my plans for the upcoming summer months.

As usual, youth stuff will keep me pretty busy with some added day trips this summer but the two big things I have coming up are ...

I am going back to Washington DC in July. In less than two months actually...

Taking my mother, my brother and his family My aunt and uncle in Georgia are going also...

We are driving up and will be spending 8 days. I am excited. They are excited.

One reason for my excitment is the fact that I know a little about the DC area after having spent a couple of weeks up there with the youth on mission trips.

I know the METRO lines pretty good....I know the roads moderatly well....I am looking forward to playing tourguide and not having to keep up kids from the youth group.

Washington DC is a great city ....

The other trip is in the planning stages...I have a good friend from high school that lives outside Philadelphia Pennsylvania. She has been on me to come visit for over a year now and finally I am working towards taking up up on the offer.

Our initial plans call for me to fly into Philly and spend some time with them seeing the area...Amish Country, Valley Forge etc. Then spend one day driving up to NYC and seeing some stuff in that area....

Looking at sometime in August for this trip.

Plane tickets are really cheap right now and I need to strike while the iron is hot....It will be nice to see her and her family.

Should be a fun summer ...
What are you doing ?

COLD WINDY WET COLDPLAY!!!

The above picture is from the concert and the best I could do with a $170.00 camera...but this is indeed COLDPLAY up there ....

So.....

After a 15 year break from concerts I made the trek over to Atlanta on Sunday afternoon to see the greatest rock band in modern history....COLDPLAY!!! For me to go to a concert that did not include some type of big band music or a type of salute to the old standards of the 1930s and 40s was a BIG DEAL. Yall know me ...I am a dork when it comes to music.

Here's the deal though ...It rained ...ALOT. I mean SOGGY SOGGY ground and grass. I am usually prepared and for this I was ...I took a chair. We get to the gates and they are telling everyone to take their chairs back because for tonight only ...chairs are not allowed. HUH?

Anyway ...sitting on the ground for a couple of hours getting wet was not fun but seeing COLDPLAY in concert more than made up for it ...

For me to stand in rain...sit in wet grass....get really cold from the wind blowing ...that was a big deal...

As I mentioned we had lawn seats and although we were not down front we had really good spots and could see the band pretty dang good.

So as of today I have seen The Drifters,Janet Jackson, The Eagles and Coldplay in concert....

LOST

I have made no secret of the fact that this past season did not do it for me ...but the season ender was really good. I am looking forward to the end of the show next year.

I am reading a really good book right now called The Maker's Diet by Jordan Rubin. This guy had so many health and digestive problems and was literally wasting away from poor health. He then turned to the Bible and some friends and started looking into how folks ate YEARS ago ....going organic, living off fresh items, getting back to the basics. His changes in his lifestyle were amazing and clearly seen in his photos. I bought this book last year but am just now reading it ...I am very impressed so far.

http://www.yubz.com/

Go to that link and then follow into the US area.....I think i would enjoy having one of these little gadgets. ....again because I am a nerd

SINATRA

Martin Scorcese has been tapped to direct a big screen bio about The Voice. All the legal stuff has been finalized and now casting has started. Tina Sinatra has said that she wants this to be done on the same level as RAY and WALK THE LINE. Release should be sometime next year....

I am excited

and Congrats

.... to Mary D for graduating this past weekend from law school!!! Mary has become my sounding board about a subject near and dear to my heart. We have a shared passion for one BIG topic....Glad to see her done with school.

BLECH

So.......
Just right quick ...Former Veep Dick Cheney makes me sick to my stomach....
Just wanted to share

The Only Hell Mama Raised Was Me ..........

So.......
I would seem that it has been a few weeks since my last blog post....I have come here a couple of times during that span of time and thought "I should write something" but nothing ever comes .
I really dont have much tonight either but here goes.....

Gay Marriage
Love it ...Hate it....Support it or protest against it ....Its gonna happen folks. In a few years with the help of state legislatures and state supreme courts this will not just be a regional thing (thank you New England) it will be nationwide. I always go back to my original argument- How can one section of the population be denied something that another section is granted.
The US Constitution is VERY clear on things such as this ....
I read today an article saying that we are removing God from the rite of marriage. Marriage is a legal bond ...recognized by states as such. By saying that a state will recognize gay marriage does not force ANY church to perform ANY ceremony. If a church wants to allow gay marriages to take place then that is up to each church.
But if someone wants to go to the courthouse and LEGALLY become a married couple ...then that should be allowed.
If I had lived 40-50 years ago I would like to think that I would have come down on the right side of intergration....I would ahve been so proud to tell my family and friends that I helped make a difference in some lives by doing what was right.
In 40-50 years I plan on telling my family and friends that I was on the right side of history...

Swine Flu
Do you have it yet ? Have you had it ? I dont mean to make light of something that has already taken the lives of ....well, taken the life of one person.....but this has really gotten out of control in my opinion.
Sunday at church we wore gloves AFTER cleaning up with hand sanitizer to serve communion. In all the years of being at DUMC we have NEVER done this ...not even at the height of "regular" cold and flu season....Its crazy to me .
I am one of the most germaphobic people you will ever meet(not a fan of hugging and shaking hands, whether or not there is a global crisis that could end with us all dead from the swine flu)
but I think this is all overkill.
A friend of mine made a point the other night ...he said he had read that on average 106 people die everyday in the USA from traffic accidents....and yet we hardly hear about that one .... Swine Flu is sexy, its dramatic, it gets us worked up and it sells !!
Perhaps, if this strain is still around come fall and winter we should worry but for now I say lets enjoy the summer.

Star Trek
I am excited about seeing this movie but am also a bit worried about the direction it will take....The guys behind the rebooting are the same guys who bring us LOST...Sooooo we will see...I am there tomorrow night at 10pm.

Health
My work out sessions are going good although I have allowed my work to creep into them a bit ...Its hard to find the right balance but overall its good for me .
I have started including a lot more fiber and organic foods in my diet. I am also coming up on one month of not drinking sodas. I will admit to having one the other day ...a diet coke and it was just ok. Mainly been water,coffee and juices for me.
I go back next week to the heart doctor for some follow up tests. We shall see how that goes....

Personal
I am still tired of being single. Saying that i am tired sounds stupid but thats what it is .....I want something but have a hard time going about finding it and making it happen. One day .

and finally ...I have decided that my next phone will be an iPhone. I am going to bite the bullet and get one ....they are cool, my cool friends have them (looking at you Mr Lucas and Bill)
but Twitter still sucks

Its late and I have breakfast at 6:30 at Chappys ....
Peace to you

Contained Therein.......

So......

I have wanted a garden for a long time. A LOOOOONG time....but the backyard is really shady and not really a good spot for growing veggies. I have been reading so much about folks who are planting gardens for the first time and I really wanted to get something going on my end.

When I was growing up we had huge gardens....tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, peas, beans, watermelons and potatoes. It was great.

So after much research and looking around my house for the most sunlight during the day I have decided that I will plant a container garden outside the kitchen door.

It will be small in size but MIGHTY in what it yeilds. I am going to plant tomatoes, cucumbers, pole beans and maybe squash. I am also going to do a small herb garden with basil, parsley,oregano and coriander. Did you know that coriander grows into Cilantro??? Who knew....

I am excited about this ....if I can keep the damned squirrels away (already been reading about what to do about these little pests) and if everything gets at least 6 hours of good sun , then I think we will be ok.

Going...Going ...Gone.......

So.......

In my attempts to get into better shape I decided about two weeks ago to give up sodas. I quit cold turkey on a Wednesday and have to date had only three Diet Cokes since...

I had a slight nagging headache the first few days but since then its gone really really good.

I have been drinking alot of juices mainly cranberry juice. I recently read that its a good idea to mix water with the juices since many juices have their own natual sugars.

I have also been drinking more water of course.

I have kept a container of Crystal Light in the fridge and while I know this stuff is also not the best for you its better than a Coke.

Soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages add unneeded calories to our diet without providing any beneficial nutrients. One 12-ounce can of soda has 41 grams of sugar, which is equivalent to about 10 teaspoons! The daily guidelines for sugar call for limiting sugar to no more than 12 teaspoons per day for a 2,000 calorie diet. Yet the average American drinks 576 cans of soda per year – that’s almost two a day!

Its nuts when you really think about it....

Dont get me wrong ...I love a cold cold Coke. It is great on a summer day or at a cook out and I am not saying that I will NEVER again have one but it was time to cut them out of my daily diet.

But ...this is a positive step for me

STUFF.....

So.....

Stephanies blog post the other day got me to thinking ....so here goes

Stuff....We all got it. We all buy it. We all (be honest) covet what others have sometimes. Here's the thing....We dont need it all. And I really think that goes without saying ....

Do I need a small digital video camera when my regular digital camera will make videos? No

Do I need an iPod? No....I listen to mine here and there. I have started using it more since I started working out...but I rarely use it in my car or at home.

I have a ton of books....tons. But why do I keep them?? They gather so much dust ....I used to collect Gone With the Wind stuff until it almost took over my life and now that stuff is sitting in the attic gathering LOTS of dust.

I think about my Nana who lived the last two years of her life in a shared room at a nursing home. The entire contents of her 88 years filled one medium sized box when she died.....

88 years -One box of stuff.

I have a closet full of clothes and really I maybe wear 1/3 of whats in there ....I have some regular pants and shirts that I wear but everything else for the most part just hangs there...Never used.

What I need are stronger relationships with people.....What I need is to get to bed early and get good rest at night .....What I need is to be a better brother, son and friend.....What I need is to strengthen my bond with God.....

What I dont need is more stuff...

To Tweet Or Not To Tweet.....

So..........

After almost two weeks of trying out Twitter I have come to this conclusion....Its not for me.

I have been getting feeds on my phone and have been updating as much as I thought was necessary....I have read folks updates as they have come across the feed....I have heard and read the pros and cons of this little treasure known as "tweet tweet" and have decided that its just not my bag . Here is why I dont think its a good fit for me ...

I dont need to know what folks are doing every second of their lives. I dont need to be a part of converstations being held between two folks.....Converstations that have nothing to do with me.

And I cannot for the life of me understand why anyone would want to follow what I am doing

-jason is taking out the trash then reading.

-jason is updating Facebook then headed to Target.

-jason is about to have his teeth cleaned.

-jason is working, at work, working, blah!

Really? This makes for a really boring day if thats all folks read.

I am not calling anyone ANYONE boring....am just saying that it would be boring to me to have only that type thing to read on Twitter. Why does anyone care what I am doing ? Every time I turn around

Twitter will not change my life...Facebook has not changed my life....They are just a small part of my daily life..... And now Twitter has gone the way of the DoDo Bird in my life...its gone.

I with everyone the best with Twitter. Some of yall love it ..some of yall are on the fence.

If any of yall want to let me know what you are doing .....Give me a call anytime!

Y Not ...

So ......

After much talk and discussion with friends and family I joined the Montgomery YMCA on Thursday. My primary reason is to get into a regular workout/excercise program. The thing that propelled me to do this was what happened last weekend in North Carolina.

After arriving at Mt Mitchell Park we decided to take a very short hike to the peak.....That turned out to be a bad idea for me. While it was not a long hike it was a steep hike and I tell ya folks ...I just about got me.

I was incredibly out of breath...heart was pounding....sweat pouring. It was a sad sight and of course I was trying to laugh it off.

But the main thing is this ....it scared the CRAP out of me.

So ...I joined the Y. Its a good step in the right direction.

Its Right Across the Street

So......

I just wanted to post a quick rant before I get on the road headed for home ...

I arrived in Asheville about 9pm on Thursday night and went to check into the Haymont Inn. The guy at the desk does not have my reservation !?!?! Huh ?

Guy nope sorry , no reservation.

Me-Ok, do you have a room ?

Guy- Sure , a king room , no problem. One night?

Me-Noooo, actually I need a room for three nights... like my orginal reservation said.

Guy-Ohhhhhhh sorry that room has already been booked for the weekend!?!?!?

Me-What? Really? That quick?

So here is what happened...a couple of weeks ago there was some type of security breach on my account and the bank sent me new cards. THe card i had used to make the reservation was used to "hold" the room and by the time i was set to head to NC that card had been cancelled since I had received a new one...

If you dont show up to the Haymont Inn by 8pm on the night of your reservation they automatically bill your room for the amount. When they went to do that my card was declined since it had been cancelled anyway.

The guy at the hotel showed me the paper where my stuff was declined and I noticed that someone had written on it "RESERVATION CANCELLED 8:31".....

I am not upset about their policy of cancelling things ....i was a little put out that they rented the room in less than 30 minutes and seemed to care less about what I was going to do ...

I called Howard Johnsons next door and got in for the rest of the weekend at a cheaper rate no less....

As Stephanie said in her blog ....The customer service industry is geared to be good for the industry not the customer it seems. Sad

This Howard Johnsons needs some work BAD....but the rooms are HUGE and CLEAN. Beds are very comfortable and overall its a nice place to stay ....

Hey Haymont....Learn a few things from your neighbors!

Hope Springs Eternal ....

Hope springs eternal in the human breast;Man never Is, but always To be blest:The soul, uneasy and confin'd from home,Rests and expatiates in a life to come.

-Alexander Pope,An Essay on Man, Epistle I, 1733

So.....

Spring time in the Southland !!!!

I am going to go on and say it ....it is the absolute best of anywhere in the country! Many of you know that I am very partial to the Winter time...I love the short days and the cool nights. I love it...but a very close second is Spring.

In just a few short days around here the landscape just comes alive....almost overnight it seems.

Literally OVERNIGHT....I was outside yesterday and did not notice any buds on the oak trees in my front yard and today when I came home in the late afternoon, I swear to you there were little buds everywhere!!

Azaleas, bradford pear trees, dogwoods....the list goes on and on. For just a few short weeks everything is alive with color .....before fading to the dull greens of late spring and summer. I like to think of it as Gods way of saying "I know its gonna be hot in a few short weeks but I am giving you this wonderful treasure now to enjoy"

One of my favorite movies is Driving Miss Daisy....There is a scene that begins with nothing but shots of everything blooming in the springtime of Druid Hills in Atlanta....Its my favorite part of that movie ...Miss Daisy is sitting on her porch listening to Song to the Moon from the Opera Rusalka, with all this images of Gods wonder being shown. Beautiful!

For just a few short weeks you can feel the Earth growing ....and you feel young again ....

As Mayor......

So ....

We elect a new mayor tomorrow.....and I am voting for Todd Strange. After looking at all the candidates I decided that Mr Strange has the experience level needed to take Montgomery forward.

His closest challenger is Michael Briddell. The main argument I have heard from folks about Mr Briddell is that he worked closely with Mayor Bright and has what it takes to step into the mayors office. I aint buying that one ....

I have also had alot of folks tell me that Todd Strange is a Republican ...and how can I vote for a republican ??? Please....

Todd Strange has had years of experiances being a big business owner. He has held various jobs on county levels and has worked hard to bring more business to the city of Montgomery as well as the county. I like that he has the heart of a businessman . He knows we need more industry and more stores and more restaurants to provide jobs for people.

He can see what Montgomery needs to continue to grow ....

Michael Briddell will someday make a great mayor perhaps but just not now.

Snow Job ....

So.....

As we all know it snowed here on Sunday. I loved it...my nephews loved it ...my youth loved it ...a few of my friends loved it. I had my first snowball fight since 1993!!

Here is the thing...the overwhelming talk I heard all day Sunday was

• This is Alabama ...it DOES NOT SNOW in Alabama



• I hate this stuff...why does it have to snow.

I can understand if you dont like snow because you grew up in Ohio River Valley. Or perhaps you spent your childhood in Wisconson or Upstate New York. These are places where it snows...ALOT.

But....in Alabama we hardly ever get accumulated amounts of snow. I mean we might get flurries every now and then but its rare to get enough to build a snow man or have a snowball fight. We go YEARS withouth anything and then we get what we got on Sunday. At one point Sunday it was snowing hard enough that you could not see across the street from the church. On Sunday, to hear it from some folks, you would think that it snows weekly around here...that we typically have to dig out from massive amounts of snow.

Last year we had snow in January and that was the first time we had more than a dusting in about 6 years.

Folks will say that snow is dangerous....people have accidents. Thats true and thats a sad fact about snow....but for the most part its a beautiful fun thing to be in and around. I stood outside on my porch Sunday morning for about 30 minutes ...before the Sun was up good...and enjoyed the silence. Snow tends to make things quiet ...it muffles things....it was great.

I talked to my youngest nephew on Sunday night ...he sounded so tired since he had played so much since 6am. He loved the snow and was so excited to see it ....I asked him how his day was and he said "Jay-c, it was the best day ever ". Kids are so innocent and find happiness in the simplest of things.

I wish we all still did......

BORED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So.....

I typically try to stay away from this stuff but it was a slow few minutes at DUMC and i went along with it ....

A new thing is going around where you go to Wikipedia Random and the first article you get is the name of your band. Then "Random Quotations" and the last four or five words of the last quote on the page is the album title.Then you go to Flickr and on the Explore Last Seven Days the third picture is your album cover.

Here is mine

Band Name -Organization in Europe

Album-As The Naked Truth

Album Cover-Three Lemons Picture

OSCAR!!

So.....
I used to be a big fan of award shows....Used to watch them all the time. The Grammy, The Emmys, The Oscars, The Tonys(yes that one too)....but then a few years back I just sorta stopped.
I think it was around the time that Saving Private Ryan lost best picture to Shakespeare in Love....but in the same year Steven Speilberg won best director for Saving Private Ryan??!?!? HUH?
Anyway....award shows do nothing for me. Dont get me wrong...There are some aspects that are enjoyable to watch. Like the part where they give an award to someone who has done alot for folks over the years.......Using your influence and name recognition to help others. This year they gave an honorary Oscar to Jerry Lewis for all his work with the MDA. That was a good thing....
Also, the late Heath Ledger won for his role in last years Batman movie....That was nice to see. He was a great talent.
But at the end of the day I typically dont decide to see a movie based on the fact that someone in that movie won an Oscar or the movie itself won.
Dont get me wrong I will still watch parts here and there ....As i said some parts are enjoyable .

But....Let the work stand for itself....Thats what Brando and George C Scott did ....they refused Oscars because they said they did the work....made the movie and it was over...
Move on.

Alone ....

"We need others. We need others to love and we need to be loved by them. There is no doubt that without it, we too, like the infant left alone, would cease to grow, cease to develop, choose madness and even death"

Leo Buscaqlia

So......

I am tired of being alone....

I have a wonderful family. I have the best friends(you know who you are ) but I am ready to come home to someone....So,I am ready .

I am ready to have someone in my life that is here....In Montgomery or whatever city we find ourselves in...

I am ready to go to a party with someone .....

I am ready to not just a date here and there but to have someone in my life that is a little more constant, LOST anyone ?

I am ready to be invited to a party or wedding or function and have the people who invited me know that I am not coming alone.....

I am tired of being a third wheel.....

I want someone in my life on a more constant basis that can get to know my wonderful friends and family.

A few of you know how I feel about these things and you also know what a struggle it has been for me in my life....I dont go into things very lightly. Especially regarding things like this ...but as I said ...I think its time.

I worry about alot of things ...I worry about who is going to take care of things for me one day when I no longer have the ability to do it for myself.

I worry about money....I worry about job futures....I worry. But you hardly would know it....

I also worry about being alone ....

Church Bells Are Ringing .....

So....
I posted the other day about my visit recent visit to Tuskegee and how incredibly sad it was to see the town now .....
Well last weekend I had a dream that involved a part of Tuskegee and wanted to post here about it to get folks opinions about the dream...

I was in my old home church in Tuskegee...First Presbyterian Church. It was packed with folks...the aisles were full of folks chatting and catching up ...the doors were open wide with people streaming in....

A little about my old church ....it was built in 1887ish ....is a classic looking white clapboard church with tall soaring stained glass windows and a tall steeple in the front.....brick front poarch area with tall white columns. Inside the front door is a set of steep stairs to your right that lead up to a small balcony that over looks the sanctuary. Off to the sides of the balcony are two small rooms that were never used when I grew up...there is a small center room, with glass front doors where you can go in and pull the cord that was attached to the bell.

Ok ....so I am there and notice folks from my current church are also there doing things here and there and someone tells me that my dad is upstairs in the room with bell rope.
I turn and head towards the stairs and get there and someone says I cant go up ....I say ok .
I again go back and try again ...again told no.
I keep trying different ways to get up there and no one will allow me up to see him ....I go out into the sanctuary and look up and can see a shadow of someone in the room .....
I go back to the stairs and then for some reason I am at the top of the stairs but not allowed onto the balcony.....I hear the choir singing and then I wake up ...

So what does it all mean ?

A Ghost Story

The above picture is from WAY above Tuskegee....really the best picture to show you ...

So.....

Last Sunday I had to travel to Tuskegee for a funeral. It seems the only reasons I ever really get back to my hometown are for funerals.

We got there a little early for the graveside service and we decided to take a few and ride around town ...What I found was distrubing.

Tuskegee is full of ghosts ....not the traditional ghosts of old Hollywood. The ones in old white sheets floating around ...Tuskegee is full of old memories of days and things long past.

We rode down north main street and headed around the town square...Still being protected by the young faced statue of the civil war solider. Facing north and ready to defend.

Turning onto south main street we rode slowly by the building that once held our old family business....Windows now boarded up and the building stripped of anything to denote that a family ran a good, decent business for nearly 60 years in this place ...

Grass growing high in the adjacent parking lot ....a parking lot where I fought many a battle against invading "bad guys". We never again have the imagination in our lives that we had when we were kids ....

Continuing south we saw what was left of the old high school gym ....it burned a few years back and has never been rebuilt. My parents attended dances here, they had ball games there , they enjoyed life there .....and its gone...dark and runied.

Empty lots here and there along south main street that once held beautiful old homes..Gone mainly from fire over the years or abandonment ..... families like the MacGregors,Allys,Segrest, Ensleys,Ramons and Filinggim ....family names that continue in other cities....but how many of those family members know where their roots used to run deep.

Turning onto Wallace drive and coming up the slight hill that seemed SOOO steep as a kid I see my Nana'd old house ....yard run down,vines growning up the side of the house,broken windows. It was 10 years ago that we were last in that house...So sad.

Going down Lake street headed towards the old city pool my mother started telling me stories about summers at the pool.

She said during the summer everyone would go there and take swim lessons or just hang out and over the Labor Day weekend there would be a Pool Dance. Teams of folks would showcase the stuff they had learned during the summer...folks would take to the high dive and attempt to look gracefull as they fell into the deep end of the pool. As they got older my mother said the teens would stay in the balcony on those warm nights and flirt with boys...letting the boys buy them Cokes and frozen Zero candy bars.

I have always hated the idea of seeing a ghost....being scared...Last Sunday I saw real ghosts and I was not scared ....I was sad.

Is It Live Or Is It Memorex??

So....

Its Friday and I decided to take a few moments and give my thoughts on the weeks events ....

On Tuesday of course history was made with Barack Obama becoming our 44th president....No news there right ??

I mean, I was sitting there watching the tv and I mentioned to Nick that I was kinda emotional....Silly ? Perhaps but all I could think about in that moment was how I had the chance to see this happen..and so many others did not ...why me and not Dr King ? Why me and not Viola Liuzzo? Why me and not Swerner,Cheney and Goodman? They were not there because they died for something they believed in ....they gave it all to help their fellow man or woman. They drove cars, they registered voters ,they marched, they boycotted buses so that one day a person of ANY color could vote without being harrassed. So that a person of ANY color could one day serve on the city council. So that one day a person of ANY color or background could just possibly be elected to the office of president of the United States of America.

I was emotional because I missed my Dad terribly on Tuesday. My dad loved politics and the whole process. He loved following the news cycles. I listen to NPR because my dad listened and said it was good stuff. He would have been so excited about last Tuesday....he loved the pomp and ceremony of events like inaugurations. He would have been thrilled last Tuesday.

I was emotional because my Nana was not here to witness history last Tuesday. A women who first taught me was it was to be a democrat. A women who said that discrimination in ANY FORM was and is wrong. A women who stood beside her husband at their house as a cross was burned in their yard in Tuskegee... all because they said that not allowing blacks into school with whites was wrong.

The last time I saw her last May she told me then she really liked "that Obama ".... She would have loved last Tuesday.

On a lighter note I heard on NPR Friday afternoon that the beautiful music played by cellist Yo-Yo Ma, violinist Izhak Perlman, pianist Gabriella Montero and clarinetist Anthony McGill, right before the presidential oath was actually not live.

YEAH ...THATS RIGHT ...NOT LIVE......

Yo Yo Ma said during an interview Friday afternoon that on Sunday they recorded a version of the piece just in case something happened and then went on Monday morning to rehearse at the Capitol. They soon realized that it would be MUCH MUCH too cold on Tuesday for them to perform anything that sounded worth a dang. He said that while playing the piano Gabriella Montero noticed that the keys were sticking down and the violin and cello were already sounding bad within a few minutes of being outside.

So what do you do???

They put soap on the bows ,the clarinetist pretended to play and the piano was rigged so that the keys could be played but no sound came out.

Who knew ??

On a much much lighter note ....LOST returned this week and as usual it was a VERY interesting show. I will not even begin to wade into the deep end of the WHAT IF pool but if I had to make one prediction I will say this ......Whatever is going on on the Island might be VERY VERY SIMPLE and easily explained. How bout that for a kick in the teeth. .....When its all said and done at the end of Season 6 we will all realize that the whole thing was made up in some austistic kids head as he looks into a snow globe or Jack Shepard will wake up in a bed with Suzanne Pleshette and Bob Newhart.

Go figure huh ??

180.....What Are You Doing This weekend?

So.....

I complain about my job .....I get frustrated with it from time to time ....I get down when I spend most of a day sitting with a man who has fairly advanced dementia trying to remember how long he has been married or in the house he lives in or what day it is.....I get upset when parents cause me headaches and kids cause even bigger headaches.

Then I sit back and remember that I have wonderful job that allows me to be home with my nephews when they are sick, to be off on a Tuesday to see Barack Obama sworn in, to take off early some days, to go in late some days, to have every Friday off, to travel all over ...

And speaking of travelling ....I will be headed here this weekend....

Lake Junaluska at sunrise .....

The youth group is headed to Western North Carolina for our first ski trip in 4 years and everyone is super excited about the trip. Should be a fun COLD weekend.....

Have a great weekend !!

Cold Feet......

So .....

My feet get cold at work sometimes....No big news there really...Nothing to really report but they do get cold but I cannot stand to run the heat in part of the building where I am located just to warm my sad little toes....

So I found a space heater just like the one pictured above in another office and "borrowed " it for a few days.....

I just wanted to share .....and speaking of sharing

I would also like Mr Lucas to share his English Breakfast menu with me ....I have heard mention of it being cooked twice and was just wondering ....

and speaking of all things english.....we are on quite the hot tea kick around DUMC....alot of mornings instead of coffee we have been having hot tea made right in my office with a tabletop kettle.....The tea makes for a nice change

Anyway... thats about it ....was a little bored here at work and decided to share .....

BARRACUDA.......

So....

Mr Lucas gave us a run down of things in his life and I thought I would do the same....

2009 has started pretty good as far as alot of the things I mentioned a few weeks back are concerned.

No smoking for me since Jan 1 around 4am.....I woke up and smoked two cigarettes and crushed the rest of the pack.

I started this week cooking each night. So far this has been really good and has also helped me with my goal to not be on the run so much. By the time the meal is done and ready for consumption, I am pretty much home for the night.

I have eaten out ONCE this week with a friend.....Usually by Friday I would have had upwards of three meals out with folks during the daytime and maybe one or two at night. That's crazy I know and I am trying to do my part of cutting back. Just gotta stick with it...

I am currently reading a great bio of Franklin D. Roosevelt. There is alot of new insights into the man and his family. Next up is a bio about Andrew Jackson and then one about Ben Franklin. Ahhhhhh...fun stuff.

I read a great article the other day about a guy who has written a book about how the size of things in the US has changed over the last 40-45 years.

He bought a house built in 1939 and went to place his dishes in the cabinets and found that the doors would not shut....his plates were a little too big for the shelves. He started researching and found that plates in the US started to get bigger in the 1970s....so cabinets got bigger! While not all cabinets were smaller he found that many were ...so he did some more digging and found that

• Fast food drink cups-Small is now Kids cup,what used to be medium is now small, what used to be large is now medium and two other catagories are usually used for the larger drinks. When McDonalds was just starting in California in the 1950s they had ONE size drink and it was about 12ozs.


• Most restaurant portion sizes are enough for three people. He did research from Chilis, Applebees, Macaroni Grill , Red Lobster etc.


• The largest beverage container at 7-11 will hold 64 ozs of soda. Many folks will have two of these in one day. WOW that's alot

He suggests that people at home use salad plates to eat off of ......ordering a to go container as soon as your food arrives at the table in a restaurant and placeing at least half in it to take home. Ordering water as soon as you sit down and start drinking it ....by the time your food comes you will be full and won't eat as much in one sitting.

Anyway these are some good ideas I think ......its all in our heads alot of the time and reminds me of the scene in JAWS where the mayor of Amity is talking to Chief Brody about trying not to cause a panic...

Mayor-" Martin its all psychological, you yell barracuda, folks go HUH?! WHAT?!, but you yell shark and you got a panic on your hands...it's psychological"

The same can be said for alot of our problems with eating ....it's all in our heads...we see a bigger plate so we want to PILE IT HIGH...we see a bigger cup and we say I WANT THAT ONE....Its about changing our habits and I am trying to do that ...

Anyway ...headed to Bham tomorrow for the day. Yall have a great weekend !!

My College Can Beat Up Your College......

So.....

The other night the topic of "cheaper" schools came up ....Cheaper, second rate, two year colleges, etc ....you get what I am saying.

The main discussion being had was that folks who go to these schools are not smart enough to go to another school. Perhaps they just took what they could. Maybe they did not have the money to go to a big school. Whatever the reason it was decided by some at the table that folks who attended "second rate" schools were failures.

My response to this is..... WTF??

First of all, for any of us to sit around and decide that someone is a failure because of where he or she went to school is CRAP. For us to decided that your school is not as good as my school is also CRAP. People should be applauded for going to school...for trying to better themselves. For looking past whatever has possibly held them back and to make the choice to move to a different place in their lives.

Someone at the table was really joking on Jones School of Law at Faulkner U in Montgomery. I have a couple of friends who went to Jones. My lawyer went to Jones and has done quite well for himself and his family. My mothers boss went to Jones and he is now a federal judge for the US Middle District of Alabama.

The main thing is this ....What does it really matter to you or me or that guy or this women where anyone goes to school?

Also, what if you dont go to school and decide that working with a city collecting trash is what you are going to do ....or maybe you become a fireman or a police officer. Maybe you join the military and go fight the wars and battles that MANY of us would just as soon forget about.

But perhaps, just maybe by my going to a two year school before I did anything else makes me less of a person....but something tells me it was ok. I am not the only one who did it and wont be the last.

What goes down....Must go back up.....

So.....
I got my passport today in the mail. It would appear that the log jam of applications has been taken care of at the State Department. It took them ONE WEEK to the day ....
So whats next? I think I am going to plan a big trip....It will be overseas.....It will be later in the spring, after Easter for sure. More details will be forthcoming but for now I am very excited about my prospects in the next few weeks.

I understand things...Or like to think I do. But for all that is holy I dont understand gas prices. I mean I get supply and demand. Thats the first thing you learn in economics.....but we have had a few months of gas prices going down....slowly but surely they have fallen. I paid $1.38 for a gallon of gas the other day in Auburn. $1.38!!!!!!!!!!! Then today at many stations around town I see gas literally jumped 10 cents over night. In some places around town this fall and winter it took a couple of days for the price to DROP 10 cents ...maybe a week and then over night the price goes up ...QUICK!?!?!? How does that work ? How do the gas companies and oil companies determine how to raise and lower prices?? Why do prices go up quicker and not down just as quick? I understand that supplies worldwide are down...I understand that the trouble in Israel and other places in the mid east affect the price....I get it. But I dont understand how prices JUMP up and then crawl back down .....I am stupid I guess but please someone explain it to me

I want to see ALOT of movies .....too many to mention really but I dont think I will have the time or the money to see them all. I will wait like I usually do and get them on Netflix.

Anyway ...thats all I got tonight

What Are You Doing New Years......

So.....

It's a few days before the official beginning of 2009 but I thought I might be kinda busy the next few days so I am posting some end of the year stuff now.

I love watching TV. No big suprise there ....so here is a listing of what I thought was the best stuff on TV this past year.

• LOST. This show just gets to me in so many ways, some good and some bad. But when LOST is bringing its A game there might be nothing better on TV. My favorite episode of the whole year was "The Constant ". Watching Desmond going back and forth in time with Penny made me cry...


• MAD MEN on AMC is another show that is so amazing to watch. Watching the lead Character of Don Draper played by Jon Hamm, come apart was breathtaking. Watching the character of Peggy Olsen, played by Elisabeth Moss, become a real character with real depth was wonderful.


• CHUCK on NBC is a smart, witty show that always entertains. Chuck easily plays the part of good guy trying to make it.


• The great comeday of 30ROCK. Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin are so natural together. If you are trying to decide between 30ROCK and The OFFICE...take 30ROCK any day of the week. And lets not forget all the guest shots on the show this year....my favorite was the cast of NIGHT COURT showing up ....priceless.


• JOHN ADAMS on HBO. History never looks so real as when HBO takes a stab at things. David Morse who plays Gen George Washington was fantastic.


• TRUE BLOOD on HBO. You want to watch a good show about vampires living among us ??? Skip TWILIGHT and watch this gem on HBO.


• The OLYMPICS on NBC. Specifically the swimming parts....I am an admitted Winter Olympics fan but I even got caught up in PHELPS mania this year. I was on the edge of my seat when he was going for a couple of those gold medals.


• The magic maps on CNN. John King enjoyed playing with those a tad bit too much but it sure was fun to watch at times.


• The Presidential Election coverage. Perhaps this type of election only comes once in a lifetime...I dont know but I am so glad I was a part of watching the great folks on CNN and NBC as they sat back after Obama was announced the winner. They let the visuals speak for themselves. Good reporters know when to shut up.

I did not see enough movies this year to really give a good reporting on anything. THE DARK KNIGHT was good though.

On a personal note 2008 was an up and down year in many regards. I deepened my friendships and made some new ones. I also lost some friends along the way ...That saddens me on a level that is hard to describe. I wish those folks the best in their lives and hope that one day we can have a beer or cup of coffee and laugh about the whole thing.

My Nana died in August of this year and it has really affected me more than I orginally thought ....This was my dads mother. Nana was really hard to describe if you did not know her but she was the first person I looked to and realized that "hey, shes a democrat and I like what she has to say about things". She cut my hair till I was 14 years old. She made the best chocolate cake, hands down. She put orange flavoring in her sweet potato casserole. She was stubborn. She was funny. If she liked you , she liked you. If she did not ...then you pretty much knew it. She endured alot. She never gave a wrapped gift. She smoked menthol cigarettes but never inhaled. She loved politics. She was on the city council in Tuskegee for 8 years. She would drink a beer or a glass of wine. She loved her family. She loved new houseshoes and Vicks Vaporub. She hated company to stay too long...it made her nervous. She put granny smith apples in her tuna fish salad....I gotta stop cause it makes me cry but goddamn I miss her.

I had the extreme pleasure of becoming a Godfather this year. My heart and thanks go to N and L for honoring me with this ....I cant wait to watch Harper and Lily grow over the years.

If you did not hear about it ....I went to Alaska this year and it was AMAZING.

So ....What does next year bring for me ?

I intend on stopping smoking, again. I quit for 8 months this year and then started back....its gross and stupid and I will be stopping for the new year.

I intend to finally get serious about my health and weight. No more excuses. I feel like crap and look it also....2009 will be a year of serious changes for me.

I intend to set reasonable sleep routines this year. Its been about 15 years since I had a good sleep pattern and I am sick of it. I vow by March to be going to bed by 11 each night. Goodbye late nights....it was nice knowin ya !

I intend to get back right with my monthly budget. I got off track at the end of the summer and have felt it the last few weeks. Budgets are good things and I intend to make a better effort at it starting in January. Brown bagging, less beer and Jack Daniels, staying home more....it all adds up. Think of the travelling I could do at the end of the year with the money saved by being a little more conservative with what I have...

And speaking of staying home more....I intend to do just that, stay home more. I am getting more and more to the age of wanting to slow down and take it easy. I stay in the road. I am not becoming a prude or anything but I vow to slow down in 2009.

I intend to spend more time with my Brother this year.....We dont do enough together.

I am going to England and Scotland sometime this year. I got my passport ordered. In the planning stages right now but its looking like sometime in the spring.

I want to take a few here and mention a couple of yall by name...To Nick and Laura, WOW, there are no words to really express my love to you both. Yall are my heart and soul and I would be lost without yall....and to Nick thanks for being my brother and friend. To Jason, our travels, our stories, our fun together only gets better. Cant wait to see England with you buddy. To Luke,Jackie, John and Laura, our friendship only continues to grow and I love every minute of it...LOST is just around the corner....I love yall.

So that's it for me really .... I hope 2009 is a wonderful blessing to not only me but to all my friends and family. My best wishes to each of you for the NEW YEAR!!

Gee the Traffic is Terrific.....

So.....
A few things on my mind ....
On Saturday we celebrated our family Christmas with my WHOLE family. Aunts, uncles, cousins, yada yada yada ...This event was held at my Grannys house here in Montgomery and in a word it was ....stressfull.
Our family has grown to the point that when we do all manage to get together nothing seems to go right. One family is VERY late, one aunt is upset because the kids dont seem to want to eat, I am stressed because people around me are stressed. Christmas with my extended family is not fun....I hate to say it but its true. Gifts are given because people feel like they need to or have to give gifts...not because they want to give gifts. We decided this year to forgo drawing names and to just focus on my Grandmother. It was decided that the kids would get something but for the most part they get PLENTY at each of their own homes on Christmas and so we would cut back on that also....Yeah well it did not work out quite that way.
We tear through eating....we tear through gifts and then folks leave. Its maybe a few hours and thats it ...we are done....gotta move on to the next thing. I remember when I was younger we would literally spend the whole day at my grandparents on Christmas. I miss those days ....

I am also tired....I dont have a monopoly on being tired. Most of my few readers out there are tired also...we work, we play , some of us raise families.
I want to take it easy for the next few days .....I want to just sit and enjoy the tree, I want to read some.... I want to listen to my Christmas music. I want to go to Christmas Eve service and enjoy that...
I seem to go all the time....I am never at home at night during the week. I blame no one but myself because if any of you know me well enough then you know I sometimes have a hard time with saying no to things.

Anyway ...

So This Is Christmas .....

So ....

I decided it was about time I posted something new......Last year about this time I posted about things of Christmas that were special to me. It was good enough for then so I think its good enough for now also...

A few of my favorite things ..

• Watching my nephews in their Christmas play at school.




• Picking out my tree.




• Holiday movies. Watching with friends, drinking coffee, laughing, sharing.




• Going shopping. Yeah, I know many folks complain but for me its part of the season to get out there and be among all those people.




• The houses decorated with lights. From big displays to small, I always find enjoyment in riding around and looking.




• Making fudge. The peanut butter kind ...very tasty.




• Egg Nog.




• Reading A Christmas Carol.




• Going caroling with the youths from church.




• Finding new versions of old christmas songs to enjoy.




• Seeing the stockings I helped my Granny make when I was a little boy. They still hang on her fireplace mantle each year.

"There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare say," returned the nephew: "Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round -- apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that -- as a good time: a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!"

Fred Scrooge's Nephew from A Christmas Carol

And thats my tree up above ...The red ornament used to hang on my Nanas tree and the Santa CLaus is my favorite ornament.

Merry Christmas !

A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read.- MARK TWAIN

So.....

Mary Tyler sent up this assignment
Here's how it works:
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline (or make a different color) the books you LOVE - mine are in Orange! 4) Reprint this list in your blog so we can try and track down these people who’ve read 6 and force books upon them ;-)The premise of this exercise is that the National Endowment for the Arts apparently believes that the average American has only read 6 books from the list below:

I would like to add that The Adventures Of Huck Finn was not on this list ....BAD SLIGHT there against Mr Twain.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible(parts)
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare(parts)
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis(parts of the series)
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden (didn't finish it though)
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

A Change.....

So....
Coach Tuberville left today from AU. In a statement released to the press he said it had been a good run and he truly loved Auburn University and the city of Auburn.
So what does this all mean .....

• It means that you can have decent seasons and then miss the ring one year and you are out.
• It means that you can have your program clean and clear in the eyes of the NCAA but none of that really matters cause, well you lost 7 games this year.
• It means that folks will return next season to root for a team. No matter what ....
• It means that once again we find ourselves looking at the clock ...stroke of midnight and boom we are a pumpkin again....
• It means that the professors at Auburn will still be grossly underpaid, cutbacks will occur and programs will be lost. BUT due to football revenue new venues will be built, streets will be widened to accommodate more fans for Tiger Walk, concrete will be poured but you and I cant afford the $60-70 dollar ticket next year.

I am disgusted by the whole football thing actually ....the drama and suspense off the field. Not just at Auburn but at Notre Dame and Washington. The list goes on....

We live in a world where people are losing jobs, tensions are high all across the globe, the world AIDS crisis is entering its 4th decade and we are upset about Auburn football.

Dont get me wrong ...I listened to the radio Wednesday afternoon just like many of you ....I got upset at it all ....I was pissed off

Then I had a chance to speak with a women at church whos companion of 9 years is laying in a hospital bed dying ....He most likely wont live to see Christmas. It hit me that I was being nuts worrying about the coaching job at Auburn. It hit me that if Auburn never wins another game it wont matter to this guy in the hospital...it wont matter to me either. Some of us live and breath Auburn football...and thats fine. I dont want anyone to take what I am saying as passing judgement in any way...It's just, ..I dont know .

I have literally been an Auburn fan since I was born...Both parents were AU fans and me and my brother really had no choice in the matter. I remember the days of tailgating in front of Drake Infirmary right behind the north endzone scoreboard. Before they took all that space away and provided more parking for "donors".

I will be the first to admit that my fervor for Auburn Football has not been the same since my Dad died....but tonight was the first time that it dawned on me that football just does not matter to me anymore . Will I never watch another game ....of course not . I will watch games but I will never again watch with the interest and zeal of this past year. That chapter in my life ended today.

I am going to try to direct my passion to other things now ....being a better son and brother, being a better friend, being more passionate to causes that really matter, trying to repair friendships and relationships....as the Auburn Creed says ..I believe in the human touch, which cultivates sympathy with my fellow men and mutual helpfulness and brings happiness for all. If I put just half the the energy I put into watching Auburn play into these other things ....things will be better.

Just my thought.

Good luck to the new coach ....you're gonna need it!