One of My Favorite Things

Something exciting happened in Baytown this past week. The Blood Center opened a permanent blood donation location on Garth Road. I was excited to be one of the first to give. I've been driving to Houston to give for...well probably going on 20 years. I used to wait for a coach or blood drive here in town, at the church or somewhere, then I started giving platelets and have been doing that for at least 10 years or more. I don't keep all that in my head. There's enough clutter in there already. Anyway, I used to call the Blood center main office and talk to someone every few months about putting a location in Baytown. I even kept an eye out for a good location and communicated that a few times. Guess I just gave up, then, I'm driving down Garth Road and there it is on the building. They opened Dec 22 and I was the first one through the door. First time I was able to give since going to India more than a year ago. India knocks you out for a year.

Anyway, here's the link for the article from the Lake Houston Sentinel.

And a pic. Not all that flattering. But, if you haven't donated lately, why not start? Maybe I'll see you there. I'm going for 25 gallons now that I can give maybe once a week.

de

200th Post...29th Anniversary

Congratulations to me...or maybe a medal to my bride...or probably thanks be to God. NO, not because I reached my 200th post on blogspot, although that is an accomplishment. It probably seems like nothing to those who have been doing it a long time but to me...200 is a milestone. A milestone of rambling you say...I heard that but yeah, that is pretty much what it is most days. A much bigger more important day is that today is the bride and I's 29th anniversary...for real...today's the day. Way back in the day...the late 70's...79 to be exact...on the 22nd of December we got married in Muskogee OK, USA...my folks rejoiced (they'd gotten a terrific daughter in law who might be able to straighten me up some)...Kim's folks mourned, (for just the opposite reason) but that's another blog. It was certainly memorable. Friends and family gathered, I sang, Kim walked down the aisle and my dad performed the ceremony. Nice job dad, it stuck! We headed south after the ceremony and stayed the night in Okmulgee at the Hiway Lodge, thanks to my father-in-law. No, we weren't headed for the airport and Hawaii but to Dallas where we stayed with some of my sisters relatives for a couple of days for our honeymoon. Then back through Duncan, more "family" vacations, back to OKC to pickup some of my stuff, and finally back to Muskogee. Sorry, honey. The economy was suffering. I had no job yet in Muskogee. Kim did have a teaching job. It was one cold winter as I recall. But...we had each other and thank the Lord above, we still do. Congrats for putting up with me for 29 years. Here's to another 29 or 200...one at a time.

Happy Anniversary baby, got you on my mind!
Happy Anniversary baby, got you on my mind!

de

Let the Moving and Cleaning Begin

We're finally done, well almost. I'd say we're 99% done with our remodeling from the storm after just over 3 months. Doug came today and we finally finished the floor and the trim around the whole floor. Yeah!! There's still a few minor odds and ends, some grouting, some outside trim and siding but that can wait a few more days. With that we can now begin to push the furniture back to where it goes and get the house back to normal. Along with that goes a good cleaning of everything because there's a layer of construction dust on everything and I mean everything.

Just about the time I got to feeling like we'd never get through I just have to drive through the neighborhood and see all the blue tarps still on peoples roofs. One neighbor just started rebuilding a corner of their house that took a big tree through the roof and I'm 99% done, so all in all we're really blessed by being this far along. Just in time for Christmas. We've not decorated for Christmas yet and probably won't do our normal thing but we are grateful we got done by now. So many others have not finished or are not even ready to start yet. It makes me count my blessings each and every day and be thankful. Gotta go now. Time to get the moving and cleaning going!

Merry Christmas everyone!
de

Hey, I Found My Sleep!

I know the title sounds pretty weird but truth is its not. In the days following hurricane Ike, I lost my normal sleep pattern, or it was rudely interrupted. I don't know what to call it, post traumatic stress or what. Something that big qualifies to cause some like that if you ask me. After the hurricane, until just recently I woke up around 5:15 am no matter what, there was no going back to sleep.

Here's the story, which I've told before, I think. The night of the storm Jared and I had finally fallen asleep around 2-3 am. (Kim was still awake) It had been a terribly long day leading up to that point. The power had gone out by 5 pm, much earlier than most folks lost their power. But we had a generator, a light, a radio and were making out pretty well and were dog tired. About 4:30 am Mike called to inform me that the "eye" was right over us and we had to see, so we did. In that eiree stillness I got out in my truck and drove around to see some of the damage and came back home. And we waited. Sometime around 5 or 5:15 am the back side of the storm came through and took part of our roof, let the rain in, and well, we're still not completely through with the work that needs to be done remodeling. I wish I could say we were.

Anyway, since then, I would wake up, wide awake, at 5:15, no matter what time I went to bed or what I did or drank or ate or didn't, just wide awake. Sometime in the past couple of week, I found my sleep again. I've going to sleep at my normal time 11-12 and waking up again at my normal time, 7 or even later. Yeah! Boy that feels good. No more waking up and knowing I might as well get up because I wasn't going back to sleep. I sleep right through. Hey, I found my sleep! It's a good thing.

de

Kami home, Kim gone

Kami made it home yesterday afternoon from her 24+ hr stay in the hospital. Surgery went as expected. James took her home later in the afternoon with her mother close behind. Kim made it in by mid-afternoon and will be staying a few days to help out. Thanks to all who prayed. Thanks to God that it was not more serious than it was, it certainly can be. Guess its just me and Jared for the next few days. He's working like crazy at Best Buy. Going into town is nothing short of crazy. The closer to Christmas the crazier it gets. Think I'll just stay home. Hopefully we'll get the rest of the flooring in by Christmas.

Eventful 24 Hours

James calls me yesterday morning to let me know that he has taken Kami to the ER. She had called him feeling ill, weak, in pain, etc so off they go. Before the afternoon is in full swing they find out that her pregnancy, yeah I know no one said anything, was ectopic. (tubal) Not good. At some point the little one had not made its way to where its supposed to be, set up shop, and then caused problems. Again, not good. Before yesterday was over they had to take her into surgery and operate to repair the rupture, or break or problem. All that was successful and made for an eventful day. The good news is she's ok. This kind of thing can be potentially life threatening to the mom, it was not. She did not need a blood transfusion, which is not uncommon. They did have to remove the one tube, but the other is still good. I know this is a lot of detail but I don't get any readers that I really don't know anyway. The other bit of good news is that by about 1 pm I had already gotten Kim on a plane for this morning (on airmiles) to Albany. She should be there in about an hour from now and then an hour & 1/2 more to Cooperstown to spend the next few days with her girl (and James.) Kim, 3 hours late home yesterday from Corpus, had to do laundry, pack, some work stuff, answer the alarm at 3:45 am in time to get to the airport for a 6:30 am flight. The price of still being able to fly on points, 6:30 am was the flight time. We both slept in small bits last night and this morning.

Thanks for praying if you knew. If you didn't, give God thanks for watching over them all.

Minor side bit of news. The National Championship tickets came yesterday. It was an eventful 24 hours.

de

Recent Pics

Thought for today I'd just post a few recent pics of our NY trip and of the 4" of snow that fell in Baytown Wednesday evening. Unfortunately it fell at night and by morning a fair amount of it had already melted. But it was a sight to see. Very rare for Baytown.


On the Subway towards the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island

Toy shopping at FAO Swartz, Liberty Island looking back at Manhattan



Rockefeller Center up top and on the ground


snow in Baytown!

Back from the Big Apple!

Sorry I haven't blogged for several days. The family and I spent the past several days in New York City, that's right, the Big Apple. I performed a wedding on Saturday at the Roosevelt Hotel for a couple whose parents are friends of Kim and I. We became friends when the brides mom, Diane, came to Baytown to run a Red Cross shelter after hurricane Katrina. You all remember Katrina, the storm you still hear about, the storm that brought so many NO residents to Houston, many of whom are still living hear on the Gov't dole. Yeah, that's the one, sorry, can't help it after going through Ike which lasted all of about 3 days on the national media front page but was every bit as devastating as Katrina. Sorry, I digress.

Anyway, Diane came and set up a shelter at Wooster Baptist church. Jason and I went down there to see how we could help and a friendship was struck. I performed her oldest daughters wedding in DC last summer and their next daughter got married Saturday. So, we invited A,& Noah, J&K, and Jared to join us for a few days and have a family Christmas gathering in NYC. So, that's where we've been the past few days, at 45th & Madison in downtown NY, about 4 blocks from Rockefeller Center and Times Square, two blocks from Grand Central Station. I may post some pictures but not sure I took very many. Kami took tons of pics.

All in all we had a great time, saw some of the famous sites and enjoyed NYC at Christmas. Boy it was good to get back home though.

de

Oh yeah, Boomer Sooner!