Monthly Archives: July 2008

“Strange days have found us, strange days have tracked us down. . .”

~Jim Morrison~

The past several days have just been freaky!  First, Gaylon’s uncle, Charles, passed away last Tuesday.  His funeral was held Friday morning in Abilene.  So, of course Gaylon tried to get there.  The plan was that he would fly into Dallas, then rent a car and drive to Abilene and come home on Sunday.  Well, he got to Dallas.  And that’s where the trouble started.  He was unable to rent a car, because the credit card was in my name, not his.  Period.  We spent a lot of time on the phone trying to make arrangements, but nobody would budge.  So, he called his mom, who was already in Abilene, and she said well, at least he’d tried, and he might as well catch the next flight back  home.  Only by this point, the main terminal was closed, and Gaylon couldn’t get back in.  We called all the friends and family we know who live reasonably close to DFW.  Nobody answered their phone!  The hotel Gaylon tried to call also didn’t answer their phone!  So, he ended up sleeping on a bench outside of the main terminal, and catching a 6:40 a.m. flight back home!  It was a night from hell for all of us.

Then I got an ambiguous email from my cousin telling me that our aunt is in the hospital, and she’d tell me all about it when she called me later.  I called her first.  Get ready for the weirdest story.  Ever.  First some background:  My Aunt Bobbie is the most amazing woman ever.  She has been my hero for as long as I can remember!  She drove a hippie van around during the ’70s and she has travelled to the four corners of the earth.  I’ve never heard her utter an ill word about anyone.  She is a teacher/librarian by trade.  That is how she has travelled to a lot of exotic places, to teach English.  She also went to the Bahamas four years ago to take care of my dad when he was dying of cancer, and endured a thrashing from a Category 3 Hurricane while they were there.  (Let me assure you that if you’ve never experienced a hurricane in a Third World country, you’ve got a lot to be grateful for!)

Anyway, she is truly amazing.  She is also 82 years old.  And she decided to go with her daughter-in-law, Jane, to Russia a few weeks ago.  I am still unclear as to why they were going to Russia, but that is not really important at this point.  Bobbie fell on the boat on the way to Moscow, and gashed her leg open (to the bone, I’m told) from her knee to her ankle.  Well, this injury was more than the ship’s doctor was prepared to deal with so when they got to Moscow, Jane checked her into the hospital.  Apparently, Bobbie insisted that she go on without her.  So, Jane did.  No sooner had Jane left, Bobbie fell again, in the hospital, in Moscow, in Russia, only this time she broke her wrist!  Within a few more days, she fell yet again (still in the hospital in Moscow, in Russia!!!) and gashed her head open.  (I don’t know how/why she kept falling, btw.)

At this point, her son decided to take action, and he hired a nurse to fly with her and get her back to the States.  He met her at the airport in Midland, Texas, and they checked her into the hospital there.  My cousin, Pattye, met them, and was shocked and horrified. (I am sure her son was, as well, although he didn’t express it in quite those terms.)  Bobbie didn’t know where she was or how she got there.  She didn’t remember the trip from Russia at all!  Well, upon testing, they discovered her sodium levels were rock bottom, and her potassium was low, as well.  So, they gave her a saline IV, and she perked up right away. But she is still beyond exhausted, and in a tremendous amount of pain.  They moved her two days ago to the Rehabilitation Hospital, to begin physical therapy.  Pattye told me that in this case, PT means helping her to sit in a chair.

I called her last night, but she was already sleeping and couldn’t really talk.  I wasn’t even completely sure she knew who I was, or would remember me calling.  But apparently she did, because she called the house today and talked to Mom.  Unfortunately, I was out, but am just so glad she called.  She told Mom that she is just so TIRED.  Well, I imagine so! Just one of the things that has happened to her would be enough to shake anyone up! Let alone that whole nightmarish chain of events!

So, Mom, Alex, Faith and I are headed for Texas on Monday.  We had to stay here long enough to get things in order before leaving town.  But honestly, my knee-jerk reaction was to throw some clothes in my car and head west as soon as I got off the phone with Pattye that first night!  Logic and Reason slowly sunk in and prevailed, but I’m still getting out there as soon as I can.  I love my Aunt Bobbie. . . did I mention that she is absolutely amazing??

We went to the North Carolina 4-H State Congress in Raleigh this past Monday and Tuesday.  The Congress actually lasted all week, but we only needed to be there for those two days.  Alex and Faith both earned Silver Medals for their presentations! Since it was their first time to go to Congress, I think that’s really amazing!

Alex’s presentation was on “Oil In Our World”.  He explained what oil is, discussed some of its many, many uses (did you know that aspirin, heart valves and artificial limbs are all petroleum products??) and finally the concerns of oil, environmentally speaking.  Sadly, folks out here know absolutely nothing about oil or the oil industry, except what the liberal media tells them, so I don’t think the judges fully understood everything he said.  (Which is not to say he should have gotten a gold medal.  The girl who won that absolutely deserved it!  Her presentation was on debunking the global warming myth.  We loved it!)

Faith’s presentation was on Fireflies.  She did an awesome job discussing their habitat and range, their body parts, lifecycle and behaviors and even did a little section on “Fun with Fireflies” on how to attract them to your own yard and then study them.  Her presentation was called “Magical Fireflies”.

Both kids already have topics they plan to do for next year.  Alex wants to do Public Speaking, and speak on the Death Penalty.  Faith wants to discuss Global Warming vs. natural climatic changes, and she plans to learn how to create a Power Point presentation to use in lieu of posters.  To say that I am proud of them is an amazing understatement!

As a side note:  It was 105 degrees while we were in Raleigh!!!!!  It was awesome to get back here to the mountains and enjoy our 68 degree evenings and 83 degree afternoons.

I felt compelled to actually write a letter to the editor of our local paper.  I thought I’d go ahead and post it here, too:

To the Editor:

The front page of Monday’s Times-News featured a campaign article entitled “The Hispanic Vote”.  I am baffled by the descriptions of Senators Obama and McCain!  The writer refers to them as “the African-American Obama and the white Anglo McCain”.  Wow.  That not only negates the rich and varied ethnic backgrounds of both men, it highlights the media’s propensity to exaggerate and intensify racial division in our nation.  Let’s get the facts straight:  Senator Obama is only HALF “African-American”.  The other half of him is WHITE.  However, at least he was referred to as American.  Poor Senator McCain is merely a white Anglo.  Never mind the fact that both of his parents were United States citizens by birth, and Obama’s father was Kenyan, not American!  Perhaps it would be more accurate to refer to McCain as “Scottish-American”.  Or to keep matters simple, maybe just call one black and the other white.  It is precisely this sort of subversive labeling that fans the flames of racism and division.  Oh, and the Hispanic vote?  What about it?  We are ALL Americans, and unless we are NATIVE Americans, all of our ancestors came to this great country from another country.  Racism will never be put to rest as long as the media continues its relentless pursuit to keep it alive by labeling us and categorizing people in little ethnic boxes.

I’ll try to remember to mention if it gets published.

I was not surprised to read that the Reverend Jesse Jackson has some ‘issues’ with Senator Obama!  Apparently, the good Reverend thinks that Barack seems to be “speaking down” to blacks in his recent visits to African-American churches.  Jesse called the speeches “lectures”, explaining later that “I said it can come off as speaking down to black people. The moral message must be a much broader message.”

Hmm.  I have so many thoughts about that comment that I’m not sure where to begin!  So here goes:

1) “Speaking down to black people” . . . does that mean that Jesse thinks the average black person is not intelligent?  Or is he accusing Obama of being such a brilliant orator that only white people can understand him?  Oh, wait, that’s sort of the same thing as saying black people are not intelligent!  Problem must be that Obama is half white.

2) “The moral message must be a much broader message” . . . wow.  I never dreamed I’d hear a preacher say that!!  I have read in the Bible something about the road to Hell being broad!!  And I am sure it said something along the lines of the gateway to Heaven being narrow, and only a ‘few’ would pass through.  (Matthew 7:13-14) I guess those Scriptures don’t apply in the Reverend Jackson’s church!!  But what does he mean by that, in regard to Obama?  Does he mean that Obama’s morals are too strict?  Does he mean that the average black person is such a bad sinner that the rules need to be softened to accommodate him/her?  I don’t know how black people perceive Jackson’s comments, but I would be insulted!  Black people are not only, according to Jackson, unintelligent, but incapable of following a strict moral code.

Seems to me that it’s Jesse Jackson, not Barack Obama, who is “speaking down to black people”

But that’s not all!  When the dear Reverend Jackson was on Fox News last week, he said something, out loud, over a live microphone, that should have never been said.  Especially not by Jesse, whose son is the co-chair of Obama’s national campaign.  Now, Jesse has apologized profusely, since saying “I want to cut his n*ts out” over a live microphone last week, in reference to Barack.  Senator Obama, has of course graciously forgiven him. What else is he going to do? Stoop to Jesse’s level?

It is my personal opinion that the Reverend is jealous of Obama.  And I seriously doubt that Jackson has enough of a following to sway the vote, especially since he is going out of his way, since his off-color remark last week, to vow undying support for Obama.

(If you would like to hear the Reverend’s comments (and apology) for yourself, click HERE.)

I have Yahoo! set up for my homepage.  Mainly because I can set it up with my favorite comic strips, so I can read them first thing every morning, while I drink my coffee and try to reconnect my brain. I also have Headline News on there, and other various stuff.

So, I fire up the ol’ internet today to be greeted with the information that Iran is testing missiles, which, amazingly, is ‘heightening tension in the West’. (I think the term Dave Barry used a couple of years ago to describe the usual state of mind for the average American was not “tense” but “butt-puckering terror”.) The news blurb went on to explain that Iranian officials are only playing “war games”, in response to actions taken, apparently, by the U.S. and Israel.  In other news, Police and gunmen were killed in Istanbul, and Russia and Poland are both discussing (albeit from different ends of the spectrum) a U.S. missile defense shield.  But none of this is really “news” to me.  For as long as I can remember there have been “wars and rumors of wars”. The news headline that blows my mind is this:  ”Fashion bug: Teens turn dead cicadas into jewelry“.

Wow.  Now there are some teenagers who really have their heads on straight!  Apparently Sandwich, Massachusetts, was swarmed with cicadas, and they are using these free resources wisely.  For only $10.00, you too could own a set of earrings or a necklace crafted with a dead bug!!

And to think I was disturbed by the thought of crazy middle-eastern fanatics wielding missiles.

Roughly 21 years ago I bought my first computer.  It was a Franklin, and I loved it!  Back in those days, you had four types of Personal Computers: 1. Apples 2. Apple-compatible computers 3. IBMs 4. IBM-compatible computers.  Unless you worked for the Government, in which case you had some monster-looking thing off of the X-Files.  Anyway, a Franklin was an “Apple-compatible” computer. I ordered it from the Sears catalog, because it was a couple hundred dollars cheaper than a ‘real’ Apple, and I had a Sears Card.  A few years later, I had a bit more money, and I went out and got myself a real, live Apple IIe.  And, I loved it.  With all my little computer-obsessed heart.  It was big, bulky and ugly, especially by today’s standards, but I was totally enamored.

But, alas!  A couple years more, and Microsoft Released it’s first version of Windows.  I think it was “Windows Neolithic” or something along those lines!!  Anyway, Gaylon got one at work, and he convinced me that I should get one, too.  I hated to give up on my trusty little Apple, but Windows did, indeed, look promising.

Fast-forward to, oh, any time after 2000, A.D. It slowly began to dawn on me (yes, I am a very, very slow learner!) that I’d been had.  Windows is a Microsoft product, and as such, it can do nothing but dig ever deeper into your pockets to suck you dry right before it crashes.  You have to buy endless anti-virus programs and anti-spyware programs and they never completely work, anyway.  And you have to update them every year. I’m not going to get on my soapbox right now about how much I dislike Microsoft, but suffice it to say that for about 3 years now, I have been secretly lusting after a Macintosh computer.  Well, maybe not so secretly, but definitely lusting!

Macintosh computers are stable.  You don’t need software for viruses and spyware.  They don’t crash for reasons unknown to everyone in the known universe except for Microsoft and “The Mother Ship”. So, today, I finally got a MacBook!  I have finally gone back to my first love, and I am thrilled.  I am having to learn so many new things, but I don’t mind.  I probably shouldn’t mention this, but it made me laugh, so I will:  the last time I owned an Apple Computer, nobody had Internet!!!  (Except the Pentagon).  Seriously, it’s been that long, and I guess that means that I’m that old!  Now, I have so many new toys to play with on my new computer!  I’m going to be very busy for a while. . . .

Yeah. . . sweet!  I got the black one.

View From Our 8th Floor Balcony

Gaylon and I had an amazing weekend in Gatlinburg!  We stayed at the Edgewater Hotel, which was okay.  The elevators were agonizingly s-l-o-w.  But the view from our 8th floor room was awesome! The staff was very nice, friendly and helpful, and the rooms were nice and clean.  Their “bountiful free Continental Breakfast” was, in a word, horrible!  Especially the coffee and the gravy.  After trying it the first morning, we gave it up and went to Shoney’s which was pretty good.  (Still weak and flavorless coffee, though.)

We ate dinner at Linebergers Seafood the first night.  We both had steak and lobster, since we had a $30 gift card from the hotel for that establishment.  The lobster was great, but the steak was a tad on the dry side.  It did have great flavor, though!  And, happily, the coffee was good!  Then we wandered around town until it was time for Gatlinburg’s 33rd Annual 4th of July Midnight Parade.  People had started setting chairs up all along the main street early the morning of the 3rd, and so we didn’t really think we would get a decent spot to see the parade.  But amazingly, we managed to find a perch on top of a barricade and got a great view of the

City of Gatlinburg Float

entire thing!  Right before the parade started, they closed the street to traffic, and we started noticing that coins (real money) were falling into the street, seemingly from nowhere.  All up and down the street, children were running around like crazy chasing these mysterious coins!  After several minutes, we were able to figure out that various shops were throwing their tip jars into the street for the children!  It was absolute pandemonium, and the kids had a blast!!  The parade itself was excellent, with some really amazing floats. My favorite part was the bagpipes!!

We spent the next day (Friday) at Dollywood.  That was nice, and we took in a show, which was a lot of fun.  After leaving Dollywood, we headed back into Gatlinburg for dinner.  We got an amazing deal on some Mexican food at No Way Jose’s Cantina, and finished out dinner in perfect time to walk out into the parking lot and just stand there with several hundred other folks and look up into the sky to witness the most magnificent fireworks display I’ve ever seen!  It was right over the restaraunt, and we could physically feel the mortars going off, we were so close!  The grand finale lasted probably 3 or 4 minutes, and we could hear the most amazing roar echoing off of the mountains!  It was so incredible, I really don’t have the words to describe it!  When it was over, a woman next to us shouted “God Bless the USA!” and a lot of people started shouting “USA! USA! USA!”  It was fantastic!

Grotto Falls

Yesterday we woke up to rain.  But, rather than be discouraged, we thought maybe the Pancake Pantry we had been wanting to eat at might not have such a long line!  So we rushed over there (about a 3 block walk from our hotel) and sure enough: the rain had chased everyone away!  So we got right in and had an awesome breakfast.  Their coffee wasn’t very good, but the pancakes made up for it.  After breakfast, we drove over to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and went hiking.  We hiked up to Grotto Falls, which is about a two and a half mile hike, usually, but we had to park quite a ways from the trail head, so we figure we hiked right at 3 miles.  The falls were really beautiful!  And the weather was awesome, too!  It threatened to rain again all day, but never did, and we had some really nice breezes going up the mountain, which was great!

Last night, we made it to Mass at St. Mary’s, managing to get the absolute last parking spot available at the church!  After Mass, we randomly picked The Park Grill restaurant because it looked really nice, and actually got front-row parking and walked right in!  The steak was melt-in-your-mouth perfect, and their coffee was divine!! (Can you tell that coffee is what really matters to me?)

This morning we knew we’d never have time to wait in line again at the Pancake Pantry, so we thought we’d try out Flapjacks on our way out of town.  Well, the eggs, biscuits and gravy were really good!  But the pancakes, ah, tasted like they had added cake batter to them!  NOT the taste I want in pancakes. . . it was really weird.  And the coffee, well, not so great.  But it was hot and caffeinated, so we were happy!

Our drive home was mostly uneventful.  Just 3/4 of a mile from our exit in Asheville, traffic inexplicably went from 70mph to PARKED.  I had just enough time to lock down the brakes and avoid hitting the truck in front of me, and the poor guy behind me had to swerve into the shoulder toward the retaining wall (is there a law that states that I-40 MUST be under construction at all times, coast-to-coast?) and narrowly avoided plowing right into us!  If we’d been literally 20 feet farther up the road, there was no shoulder, and he would have had to hit me and the wall.  Which brings me to my main point:  God is so good!!  Gaylon and I had an awesome time all weekend long, and the whole time we could see God’s blessings all around us.  It was terrific, and I really hope we get to get away again soon!

In our country, Independence Day has been reduced to barbeque and fireworks.  At least for those of us who were born and raised in the United States.  We have always had it so good that we don’t appreciate how very good we have it.  This year’s Presidential Campaign drives that point home painfully for me.

There are a lot of campaign ‘issues’.  Everyone wants to know where the candidates stand on things like abortion, same-sex marriage, the war in Iraq, the economy, and last but not least, immigration.  I personally believe that the government should stay out of legislating morality.  Obama’s slogan is “Change we can believe in!”.  Well, I’d like to talk about that a bit.

I’ve mentioned before that I’m not sure what change, exactly, he thinks we need, or how he’s going to pay for it.  That still really concerns me.  But here is what I really want to know:  if this country is in such bad shape, if we are in such dire need of a complete overhaul, then WHY IS IMMIGRATION AN ISSUE????

Think about it:  people from all over the world risk life and limb just to get into this country!  And once they are here, they are willing to live in conditions that most Americans would be appalled by.  Why are the Mexican people willing to cram themselves into dangerously hot and cramped car trunks and trucks just to get to the other side?  Why are they willing to risk their lives dashing across the freeways in San Diego during rush hour traffic?  Why do people in Cuba hop onto anything that looks like it might float just to try to get across the water to Florida?  Why do people from all over Europe spend every last dime to get here?

Let me give you a hint: it’s not because we are so screwed up!!!  It’s because the United States of America is STILL the greatest country on this planet.  We are STILL the land of opportunity and hopes and dreams!  My mom got to talk to a lady at our church last weekend who was born in Poland.  During the Russian occupation in WWII, her family was rounded up and taken to Siberia, to live in hideous conditions, and left to die. (This was the experience of thousands of Poles, btw.) Finally, they were rescued, and taken to the Middle East. Mom didn’t ask, but it was probably Jerusalem, where, for some reason, many of the Polish people were taken after they were able to get out of Siberia.  This woman, who is now 82  years old, has since lived in Egypt and all over Europe.  About 20 years ago, some friends convinced her and her husband to move to the United States.  She told my mother the same thing our own Polish Babcia used to tell us:  “This is the greatest country in the world!”

But it is so popular to be ungrateful today.  It is all the rage to complain about our world.  So, even when there is NOTHING to complain about, people still do.  And so we end up with wide-eyed liberal socialists as front-runners for the Presidency!  Perhaps we should listen to the voices of those all over Europe who are crying out for us to not follow in their footsteps.  Voices of those who understand exactly what our 4th of July celebrations are supposed to be about, and long for the Independence we scorn.

So we took the kids to camp last Saturday!  You would think it would be nice and quiet around here, but so far, that’s not really been the case.  We  had people here working on the rock on our front porch, we have a guy here painting Alex’s and Faith’s rooms (which will be a total suprise for them w hen they come home next weekend!), we’ve had a jewelry party.  We’ve been BUSY!

But finally, today, Gaylon and I are getting away.   We are headed for Gatlinburg, Tennessee for a weekend alone.  Tonight we are going to stay up late and watch their famous Midnight 4th of July Parade.  Tomorrow, we thought it would be a lot of fun to spend the 4th at Dollywood, where patriotism is still alive and thriving!  Saturday we are going hiking in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.  In fact, we may do a bit of that this afternoon and Sunday afternoon.  The rest of our time we are just going to chill.

Alex and Faith seem to be having a terrific time at camp.  Faith goes to Camp Merri-Mac for Girls, and Alex goes to Camp Timberlake for boys.  The two camps share the property, but all of their activities are seperate.  I’ve had a lot of people ask me if it’s ‘Bible Camp’.  No.  They do devotionals every morning, and on Sundays they have a service.  They also provide transportation for their Catholic campers to go to Mass.  But the best way to describe their camps is to say that they are like on ‘Parent Trap’.  They have lots of activites, like horseback riding, rock climbing, kayaking, archery, riflery, soccer, art, gymnastics, fencing, and Alex’s personal favorite: paintball!

They also have Indian tribes that all of the new campers are initiated into the first day of camp each year.  Alex and Faith are both Iroquois.  The other tribes are Seminole (for boys and girls) and Choctaw (girls only).  When I was a kid, I went to camp at Heart O’ The Hills Girls Camp down in Hunt, Texas.  It was really similar, except it was only girls on the property, and our Indian tribes were Pawnee and Shawnee.

So, I’m off to pack!