Power to the Pig People!

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…

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Something About Beauty

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…

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Adventures on the Patch

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…

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Call of Duty

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…

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Low Key V-Day

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…

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Pop Pop, Fizz Fizz

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…

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On High

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….

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Changing of the Guard

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,…

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The Infinity Cube

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…

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Christmagiving 2014

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,…

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Into Hiding

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…

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Nonado for Us

The sky broods above our back yard last week as a weather system prepares to deliver four and a half inches of rain.

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…

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New Muscles and New Life

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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