The Summer of Antennas has given way to the Autumn of Construction. As I put the finishing touches on our new front porch and deck and begin work to restore the back deck, sand and paint the various accessories, and ponder building target stands with the remaining lumber, I find myself examining my skill sets….
Continue reading →Abby and I had a short but very welcome visit from R. E. Stinson and his road trip friend Sarah yesterday. We took a little target practice down at the pond (which is now completely dry), talked about photography, and went to dinner. We all had a great time.
Continue reading →We have all dealt with the insincerity, shallowness, and selfishness of people around us. Often this manifests as false faces, people who pretend to like or appreciate you but behind your back gossip about you. This situation is particularly egregious when we have behaved respectfully and positively about these people, and even gone to bat…
Continue reading →Nine years ago I inherited a small Karcher power washer. I used it for a few years after that, but it eventually died. (If you need a good Briggs and Stratton engine, email me.) You can read about my previous power washing adventures here, here, and here (links). I bemoaned its absence to my wife Abby last month, explaining to…
Continue reading →My wife Abby and I live on a very nice seven-acre patch in a very small town called Byng, Oklahoma. We are fortunate to experience all seasons here, from sunny, hot summers to cold Christmastimes, stormy springs, and chilly nights at Halloween. In all these seasons, the place where we live is beautiful. There are…
Continue reading →As my non-bookwormy friends know, it is springtime, and that means that I am working outside a lot. Abby and I live on seven acres, and that is considerably larger than a suburban yard. I was attempting to get some of my outside chores done last night in advance of a line of thunderstorms, which were…
Continue reading →A long-ago friend of mine once described my job as a news photographer as “glamorous.” Like all jobs that involve elements of chance, risk, and adventure, it is true that mine can be a bit glamorous at time. Last night was one of those times: covering a shooting and subsequent manhunt not far from where…
Continue reading →Yesterday I took our chain saw and our power washer to the small engine place. The guy there told me he could fix the power washer, but the chain saw, a Homelite, was out of production because the company who made it was bought and sold several times, and he couldn’t get parts. (Sidebar: this…
Continue reading →After a nice period of rain, the sun is out. So, some notes I’ve kept in my phone… Snifter? Damn near kilter! Little Fudgies Diabetic in training Least-liked Roman dictator: Doucheous Chop suet Chopped sewage Girl names: Irony, Sarcasta, and Filtha Looking at a woman’s cart ahead of me in line at Wal Mart,…
Continue reading →The scene is a barn more than 2000 years ago. A newborn baby sits in a manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes. Next to him is his glowing mother, Mary. His nervous father, Joseph, paces nervously back and forth. As he paces, his accidentally steps on the tines of a rake, which flips up and smacks…
Continue reading →Abby and I aren’t huge Valentine’s Day people, but we always try to spend it together, and I always like to get her something nice. In recent years, she’s been collecting Pandora charms. Pandora is a modular bracelet system that allows you to mix and match the charms for the desired look. Our jeweler, The…
Continue reading →This story starts in the summer of 2009 right after Mom died. Abby and I arrive at home in Mom’s car, which Abby and I packed so tight with Mom’s stuff that, according to Abby when we left Florida, “You couldn’t get a dime in that back seat.” We spent three days on the road…
Continue reading →Abby’s aunt Judy and her son Donald came to visit us yesterday, with the purpose of visiting, bringing Abby some deer steaks from a buck he recently shot, and giving Abby’s 30-year-old Toyota MR-2 to Donald. The car is a classic mid-engine roadster, and the first new car Abby ever bought. Toyota only made this…
Continue reading →Abby and I visited her father’s widow Ethel in Ryan, Oklahoma, last weekend. As is our routine, we stopped in Ardmore and got Chinese take-out, which lasted three meals. Our last meal came from the Circle D Café in Ryan, the walls of which were poster after poster eschewing guns. We brought the dogs and…
Continue reading →With much of the day off yesterday, I decided to continue a multi-stage chore I started earlier in the week: cleaning and reorganizing the garage. Years ago I accomplished this task quite impressively, but in the years that followed, my parents both passed away, Abby’s father died, and our adoptive mother-in-law Dorothy moved into assisted…
Continue reading →I wanted to work outside today, since this summer I’ve been so busy mowing and trimming that other projects have been sidelined. Tonight I wanted to re-hang a couple of pieces of siding that blew off in a thunderstorm, and nail up two pieces of flashing that came off the peak of the roof gable….
Continue reading →Everyone measures their lives by different benchmarks, large and small. Some people think of it in terms of their children: schools and band trips and summer vacations. Others think in terms of lovers come and gone, or Christmases and Thanksgivings. One way I mark time is by my shoes. Tonight is one of those benchmarks,…
Continue reading →Over the past week I have had what I think is probably a strep infection. Unlike the two head colds I nurtured last winter, my efforts to fight it off with Emergen-C and good intentions failed, and I caved last night and went to the after-hours clinic at my doctor’s office. I saw Sherry, one of…
Continue reading →Yesterday we heard a bunch of frantic calls from firefighters working on a large grass fire northwest of nearby Roff, Oklahoma. I headed that way, expecting to see a smoke plume to which I could navigate, but by the time I got down there, the fire was mostly contained. I called Pontotoc County Emergency Management Director…
Continue reading →We just spent a week with the “Kids,” my wife Abby’s daughter Dawna Michele “Chele” Reeves, her husband Tom Reeves, and their son, our grandson Paul, who is about to turn four. Each year they alternate when they visit, Christmas or Thanksgiving, and this year we hosted them for Thanksgiving. Since we share Christmas gifts,…
Continue reading →Long-time friend Scott Andersen came to visit this weekend. We hadn’t actually laid eyes on each other in nearly 20 years, but it seems like we picked up right where we left off. My wife Abby had never met Scott and wanted to take him to dinner, so we dined at Papa Gjorgjo, the Italian…
Continue reading →Or A Spy in the House of Toad Four years ago, my bathroom was occupied for a while with a tiny green frog. He was a welcome guest during my morning ablutions. Last night the noise from our pond was cacophonous with the sound of frogs, toads, and insects, since it has been a decently…
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There was a short piece on the Mesonet ticker recently that said Oklahoma hadn’t had a tornado warning in a record number of days… “The last tornado warning we issued was at 8:10pm on Friday, May 31, 2013. It expired at 9:00pm. As of April 8th, this will be day 312 without a tornado warning….
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… a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing… January: Our remaining goat, Buxton, passed away. (As of this writing, Abby and I are talking about getting baby goats in the spring.) February: I added six fruit trees to the orchard. March: The pilot beside whom I learned to fly,…
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The forecast was slightly different than the weather: the ice storm we dreaded was mostly snow. Anyone who drives in inclement weather knows how much easier it is to drive on snow than on ice. We ended up with about four inches of snow on top of some light sleet. Despite the weather, we still…
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Ten days ago, our corner of the world was on the edge of a potentially dangerous late autumn storm. Aside from a few cars sliding off the roadway, mostly because they were traveling too fast on bridges and overpasses, it was a non-event. Today we are experiencing the beginnings of what promises to be a…
Continue reading →After a long but understandable wait from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI), Abby and I recently received our handgun licenses. Once referred to as “concealed carry” permit, Oklahoma now allows citizens to carry firearms openly if properly licensed, thus the name change. I am not a proponent of open carry. I have actually…
Continue reading →I have always been interested in growing things. My first true tomato garden was in 1996, in two large pots on the balcony of my apartment in downtown Ada. One of the first things I wanted to do when I got married and moved to the country was plant a garden. Most years I have…
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The headlines last night and this morning talk of a devastating tornado striking Moore and Oklahoma City, approximately 75 miles north of our community in southeastern Oklahoma. Thanks to everyone who texted and emailed expressing concern for us. Just after the storm stuck the metro area, another storm, bearing eyewitness reports of a tornado on…
Continue reading →It was cool and dry out today, and I am over my flu-like illness from last week, so I decided to work outside. My work included… Mowing the front yard; the henbit and early grass was higher in patches than the Chihuahuas Digging out the garden in the south pasture, which led to… Firing up…
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