Is there anyone out there?

a very good friend of mine challenged me to reconsider blogging-i wonder if there is anyone else out there who gives a darn?
let me know...

I apologize to all grandparents!

Dear Grandparent friends,

I am so very sorry! Prior to March 10 I would listen (politely)to you talk about your grandkids with a moderate level of interest - and then go about my way. No more - now that I have joined the ranks blessed to be a grandparent i pledge i will listen to your every word. I will stand patiently and look at every photo of dance recitals and soccer games and first birthdays. I get it - really! Our grandkids are not just that tug in our heart they are also our hope for the future.

For them we must do all we can NOW - to make this world a better place. Shame on us for making such a mess - from the air and water, to the economy, to prejudice and ignorance.Lets get our act together - for Audrey, and Allison, and Matt and Noah etc, etc.

Life changing event!

I am in day 8 of a life changing, future altering, perspective defining moment! Starting March 8 our daughter and her husband went in to the hospital to deliver their first child-our first grandchild. On Tuesday morning at 12:11 AM we joyously welcomed Audrey Jane into our lives - and the world has looked different ever since then!

I don't have the vocabulary to adequately describe the various waves of emotion I have experienced over the last couple of days.

In the days leading up to Audrey's birth I could not describe my feelings without choking up. As I thought about my "little girl" giving birth I just melted. She has been through so much, including some very serious health challenges, there were days we thought this experience might not come her way. I wanted to do what I could so she would not have to go through that pain.

I am so very proud of my daughter - she labored long and hard to deliver a robust 9 lb 3oz daughter. Even when it looked like a c-section was required she and her great Dr worked some amazing mid-wife miracles enabling a c-section to be avoided and our granddaughter to be delivered swiftly. Her husband was by her side the entire time, offering words of encouragment and love -he never waivered in his focus and support.

amazing-life altering-indescribable!

how do you feel when your daughter is about to have a baby!

it is an interesting place to be...waiting for your daughter to have a baby...
some days I am scared for her...i want to be able to take the pain away...i want to carry some of it myself..to lessen it for her.

Some days i get a little worried about the baby - will he/she be healthy? I realize we will face that fact soon enough - so i tend to not dwell on that for long.

Then there are days i that i feel overwhelmed with this renewed sense of urgency for our world...I want us to get things straightened out so these kids will have fresh air to breathe and clean water to drink, and I want wars to stop and ...and...

and some days i just tear up...

How do babies get here?

It is about to happen - the stork is about to deliver our very first grandchild!

Even though they look frail and delicate - rumor has it the stork is known to deliver babies all the way up to 10+ lbs! Amazing!

Anyone know how in the world the stork delivery story got started? Did some parent long ago just panic?

From Wikipedia:

In Western culture the White Stork is a symbol of childbirth. In Victorian times the details of human reproduction were difficult to approach, especially in reply to a younger child's query of "Where did I come from?"; "The stork brought you to us" was the tactic used to avoid discussion of sex.[citation needed] This habit was derived from the once popular superstition that storks were the harbingers of happiness and prosperity, and possibly from the habit of some storks of nesting atop chimneys, down which the new baby could be imagined as entering the house.

The image of a stork bearing an infant wrapped in a sling held in its beak is common in popular culture. The small pink or reddish patches often found on a newborn child's eyelids, between the eyes, on the upper lip, and on the nape of the neck are sometimes still called "stork bites". In fact they are clusters of developing veins that often soon fade.

The stork's folkloric role as a bringer of babies and harbinger of luck and prosperity may originate from the Netherlands and Northern Germany, where it is common in children's nursery stories.

in a split second!

I've been listening to Nightline, they are talking about the tragic airplane crash yesterday in Buffalo, NY. Seems as though the investigators are suspecting ice build up on the wings.

The experts say the plane likely lost control and crashed in seconds. Imagine that - one moment you are finishing your diet coke - the next second you are dead. I hope the people on the plane never even realized what was happening -after reading the paper today I am afraid their last seconds were terrifying!

Another reminder - cherish every moment - live with no regrets!

I survived this tornado!

On June 13 my family was in Tracy, Minnesota. We had driven there from Houston for my Grandmas funeral.

We were packing the car toreturn to Houston when the severe storm sirens sounded. My dad rounded us up and we headed for the basement. For the next 15 minutes we huddled under the pingpong table, wrpped ourselves in throw rugs and my mom had us sing Jesus loves me. My older sister said she was going to throw up. My grandma refused to come down to the basement until the last second at which time my dad picked her up and shoved her under the table.

The sound was deafening!

As we huddled together - we heard all the windows of the house explode, the kitchen cupboards pull off the walls, the chimney snap off the house.

Then suddenly there was silence. We crept up the stairs to find 75% of my grandma and grandpas house gone. We looked out to what would have been the backyard and allwe could see was lumber from the house that used to be behind her. In the rubble lay her neighbor - she was dead!

Here is an article from Wikipedia about the tornado:

The 1968 Tracy tornado was an F5. It struck Tracy, Minnesota on June 13, 1968. The tornado killed nine people and injured 150 others as it tracked 9 miles (14 km) through Murray, Lyon and Redwood counties in southwestern Minnesota.[1] It is one of only two official F5 tornadoes that have occurred in Minnesota, although several other tornadoes that occurred before 1950 are estimated to have been F5 strength.[2] The tornado destroyed 111 homes, caused major damage to 76, and minor damage to 114. Five businesses were destroyed and 15 damaged. The elementary school and 106 automobiles were also destroyed. A heavy boxcar was heaved more than a block in the storm. Winds were estimated at 261 to 318 mph.

Sirens sounded in Tracy at 6:55 p.m., just a few minutes before the twister struck. The siren was sounded thanks to a call to the authorities from Delpha (Mrs. Melvin) Koch, who saw the tornado from her rural Garvin home.[citation needed]

How to cope with messy Lives?

Seems like just about everybody I know is in the middle of a messy life cycle.

A messy life cycle is best described as those times - usually lasting weeks to months - during which junk happens that causes extra anxiety, heartache, confusion, and disappointment.

I am looking for survival pointers to pass on to my friends - any ideas?

I jumped in to Facebook - have you?

Where is all of this techno-chat heading? If you want to communicate with some one there is a wide menu of choices - we can IM or text or email or Twitter or skype. But in the end - really do we do anything more than just tell me what we either think they want to know or what we want them to know! Where is the value in that?

I confess, I jumped in to Facebook and now I am not sure I see the value - do you?

Random things about me leftover from Facebook.

These are in no particular order.
1. When I was 10 years old my family and I survived an F-4 tornado by hiding in my grandparents basement in Tracy, Minnesota.
2. My wife and I spent the night with Walker Railey, sleeping on the floor of his room at Presbyterian Hospital the night after his wife was attacked and left for dead.
3. I was a trumpet playing band nerd in High school, even made it to Asst. Drum Major!
4. 10 days after I got married I went with the Centenary College choir to Russia and Poland.
5. While we were in Russia - the Russian army invaded Afghanistan!
6. I went to my Sr. prom with a girl named Duchess - she wore a Southern Belle antebellum hoop skirt gown...interestingly we left the prom with different dates?
7. I met my wife while attending a High school weekend event at Centenary - she led my campus tour.
8. I got married on Christmas break of my Sr year in college - the next semester I had a 4.0!
9. We honeymooned in Northern Arkansas - while on a hike one day we were chased by a pack of wild dogs.
10. Sept 23, 2003 I had a radical prostatectomy for stage 3b prostate cancer - 5 years later I'm still kicking!
11.I have the most beautiful wife-friend-partner in the whole world!
12. When I was a Sr. in high school I thought I wanted to be a forest ranger.
13. I grew up in a little red-neck town outside of Houston called Channelview.
14. My college roomate was/is an opera singer in Germany - in 2001 he had the #1 CD in all of Germany!
15. In the 5th grade my friend Robert and I caught the woods behind our homes on fire.
16. We have 4 amazing adult kids - they are beautiful,bossy,fun-loving, thoughtful, caring and adventurous.
17. I was born in Minnesota.
18.I have to have a cup of coffee within 5 minutes of waking up in the morning.
19. I flew in a vintage 2 seater airplane over the glaciers and moose habitats of Alaska.
20. The first and last time I went snorkeling I threw up all over the boat.
21. When I was a Sr. in High school I kissed my girlfriend while standing on the outdoor observation platform of the World Trade Center in NYC.
22. My top-secret fantasy is to be a world famous, modern artist.
23. When I was in elementary school everyone called me Dougie Meyer.
24. I think one of the sweetest things in the world is puppy breath.
25. I have had a dog (not the same one) since I was 4 years old.

why are people mean from Oprah magazine

Someone insults you (and your little dog, too). You can retaliate, whimper—or exercise your own vast power. Martha Beck shows you how to rewrite your own character.Why Are People Mean?The first time I saw a T-shirt that said "mean people suck," I thought, Now, there is a heartfelt sentiment, succinctly expressed. I only wished I'd been the author. I mention this because recently I've encountered several mean people, and I've had to remind myself that the concept of authorship is key to surviving these experiences.I don't know about you, but my favorite ways of reacting to mean people are (1) getting mean right back or (2) lying down quietly to display the word welcome! written where my spine used to be. Annoyingly, my job constantly reminds me that there's a more responsible and effective way to live. That's how it is for us authors. I say "us" because you're an author, too. Not all of us write for publication, but every living person has the power of authorship when it comes to composing our lives.

Meanness emerges when we believe that we have no such power, that we're passive receptors of life's vagaries. Inner peace follows when we begin responding to cruelty—our own and other people's—with the authority we've possessed all along.

Why are people mean?
Here's the short answer: They're hurt. Here's the long answer: They're really hurt. At some point, somebody—their parents, their lovers, Lady Luck—did them dirty. They were crushed. And they're still afraid the pain will never stop, or that it will happen again.There. I've just described every single person living on planet Earth.
The fact is that we've all been hurt, and we're all wounded, but not all of us are mean. Why not? Because some people realize that their history of suffering can be a hero's saga rather than a victim's whine, depending on how they "write" it.

The moment we begin tolerating meanness, in ourselves or others, we are using our authorial power in the service of wrongdoing. We have both the capacity and the obligation to do better

I don't understand mean people!

I can kinda understand mean kids, maybe even mean old people, and really poor people who are mean, - but certainly not mean middle aged people. People who are supposed to know better, people who go to church, people who are better off than so many other people.

Why are they mean? What's that about?

Is it a wiring problem? Has something come loose in the little wires up in their grey matter, wires that influence their ability to keep their mouth shut if they can not say something nice, wires that help them realize the world does not rotate around them, wires that help them get over whatever crap has happened in their life and not to blame the rest of us for their unhappiness?

What does a person get out of being mean? Does it help them sleep better at night?

anyone with ideas? Please advise me asap!

hooray - it happened - Ice Day 2009!

If you live in the DFW area you know what I am talking about - the weather people got this one right! We had a respectable ice storm blow thru here Tuesday afternoon hanging around til Wednesday morning - resulting in a much enjoyed day off from school and work!

hoorah!

Last night about 10:00 o'clock Nick and I took Lyra and Blu for a walk. It was great - the freezing rain was coming down and the trees were all coated in a beautiful layer of silver ice. It was a nice. We walked throguh our neighborhood up to a local grocery store...crossing what is normally a very busy street. The streets were empty. We had the entire grocery store to ourselves as we looked for hot chocolate, microwave popcorn and Thera-flu!

The ice hung around most of the morning - glittering in the sun. Then almost as if on cue - all at once - the icicles began their graceful exit. This is the perfect kind of ice day: contained to one day, not bitterly cold, nice enough in the afternoon that all the roads cleared off and those who had to commute home had an effortless journey.

until next year!

I get a rush from a potential ice storm - do you?

You know exactly what I am talking about...our Dallas weather people get all worked up and in turn we get all worked up about the prospect of an "ice-event" here in our DFW area.
Why do so many of us get reved up!

Does it bring back those emotions we had as kids as we headed off to bed hoping and dreaming and praying that we would wake up to ice covered trees and streets? What is it? Our thrill at the prospect of an adventure? the prospect of no school or no work? I want it to be true - but I am so afraid they will be wrong - again! I don't thing my heart can handle being broken again!

Maybe-just maybe the weather will turn extra nasty during the day and all across Dallas the cry will go out for all school children to be dismissed early and for all moms and dads to head straight to get their kids, then home to hot chocolate and rented movies and grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup and Fritos.

Please let it be so!

what happens when two male dogs want to date the same female dog in heat?

I can tell you what happens - the alpha dog wins! especially when the alpha dog is a 40 lb. blue heeler and the wanta-be dog is a 6 lb. chihuahua.

Our son Nick is living with us while he looks for a new job. That means we have also opened up our home to Nick's dogs - Lyra - a beautiful white Syberian huskie and Blu -a very energetic blue heeler. Already residing in our home is a spoiled 6 lb. chihuahua named Max.

Last night all 3 dogs were in the same place at the same time when BOOM! Blu chomped into Max's little neck. Before you panic let me assure you ....Max will be fine!

He spent the afternoon at the 24 hr Pet ER. - diagnosis - bruised throat, minor cut, and a heart murmur. He had the heart murmur - it is not the result of getting mugged by Blu.

in the end, this is really for me

I've gone back and forth with the idea of starting to blog again. One day I'm all for it, the next day I don't think it is worth the hassle. Today just happens to be one of those days when I think it is worth it so...I am going to give it another shot.

I have missed the opportunity to post the stuff that is going on in my life, the happy stuff, the crappy stuff, the scary stuff, and all the other events of my life -some days messy other days exhausting life. I promise to be as honest as I possibly can. I will never mention names unless I have their permission.

In part I stopped blogging last time cuz no one ever blogged back -this time I am going to keep writing regardless if any of you folks write back.

If you read something and feel the need to share a thought I hope you will do so.