A Halloween Tale

Well, being that it's Halloween, I guess I'll go ahead and post a spooky story I've had out on the web for a few years now. I still get some interesting emails regarding the story from people who visit the page. Some day I'm going to record my Dad telling the story, and then upload it to my web page in MP3 format for all to hear, because he's the one who actually lived through it and no one can tell it like he can.

Well, enough chatter. Here's the story of "700 Elm".

The Thunderbirds

I've seen them (The Thunderbirds) several times and they never cease to amaze me! This is my dream - to hitch a ride in a fighter aircraft someday.

Victorians

I went for an early-morning walk around the old residential section of my hometown this morning with my camera in hand. The crisp, fall weather was just perfect and I took the opportunity to snap some pics of some old Victorians in town, two of which used to belong to my Grandparents. It's a shame that no one in the family currently owns them. Maybe someday one of us will again.



The one above used to belong to my Grandparents and has now been turned into a very nice Bed & Breakfast. My wife and I have actually stayed here since it was made into a B&B and the current owners have done a fantastic job of renovation. It's called the "Carriage House" because of the little house on the side that used to actually be a carriage house back in the old days, horses, buggies and all. If you're ever in town, it's well worth a stay.

I can remember spending many a Merry Christmas here as youngsters together with our cousins, aunts, uncles and friends of the family. We had a close-knit extended family back then. I miss that.

This is an old Victorian that has also been renovated and is currently for sale. This wasn't a family home of ours and I'm not sure about the history of it, but it's a beautiful, spacious home just looking for a lucky owner. (and no, I'm not a real estate agent)

And this old Victorian was built by my Great Grandfather. A cousin of mine actually owned it for a while after my Grandparents passed away, before he finally sold to someone else. As with the "Carriage House" above, the current owners of this home have done a great job of restoration. When my cousin owned it he also did some restoration. It's a sturdy, well-built home with a garage apartment in back. It used to have a slate roof but that was discarded in favor of regular shingles at some point.

More sights and sounds of my hometown later...

The Ads

I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who has problems with composition from time to time. :)

The Entertainer

Another clip from our recent KC trip. This is Hannah's Uncle Christian, my little brotha' from anotha' motha'. As you can see he's quite entertaining, and from the laughter you hear in the background, has my daughter Hannah in stitches.

All in all we had a great time and the food was super. We ate at a restaurant called "Granite City Food and Brewery". I had the "Four Cheese Rigatoni" which was scrumptious. The beer I chose was the "Two Pull", which was a mix of two different beers. I don't remember which ones now but it was very smooth, not bitter at all and went well with the meal.

The Conversation

My daughter talking to my Dad on the cell phone. As you can see from her expression, she still doesn't know quite what to make of him.

The Coin Toss

On a recent trip to a water park in Kansas City, KS, watch as my wife has to flip a coin to settle a dispute between our 10-year-old daughter and her 9-year-old uncle (don't ask) as to which one will get the top bunk in our room. My daughter may look like me, but she has her mother's Irish temper!!

Nickelback- Savin' Me

Yes, I'm a fan of Nickelback.

A Survey

A survey a couple of classmates sent me recently.

Instructions:
Try this. It is very interesting, especially if it returns to you. Copy to a new email, place an X by all the things you've done,
or remove the x from the ones you have not, and send it to all of your friends, including me.

This is for your entire life:


(x) Smoked a cigarette
(x) Drank so much you threw up
( ) Crashed a friend's car (or a family members)
( ) Stolen a car
(x) Been in love
(x) Been dumped
( ) Shoplifted candy
(x) Quit your job
(x) Been in a fist fight
( ) Snuck out of your parent's house
(x) Had feelings for someone who didn't have them back
( ) Been arrested
(x) Gone on a blind date
(x) Lied to a friend
(x ) Skipped school
(x ) Seen someone die
() Been to Canada
() Been to Mexico
(x) Been on a plane
(x) Been lost
(x) Been on the opposite side of the country
( ) Gone to Washington, DC
(x) Swam in the ocean
(x) Felt like dying
(x) Cried yourself to sleep
(x ) Played cops and robbers
( ) Recently colored with crayons
( ) Sang karaoke?
(x) Paid for a meal with only coins
(x) Done something you told yourself you wouldn't
(x) Made prank phone calls... this is the new guy from K-hits...anyone?
(x) Laughed until some kind of beverage came out of your nose
(x) Caught a snowflake on your tongue and made snow angels
( ) Danced in the rain
(x) Written a letter to Santa Claus
(x) Been kissed under the mistletoe
(x ) Watched the sun rise with someone you care about
(x) Blown bubbles


Mother's name Barbara
What is your favorite drink? Non-alcoholic: Tea. Alcoholic: Merlot
Soda: Coke
Tattoos? none
Body piercing/ears? None
How much do you love your job? Okay
What day is it? Thursday
Current home? Claremore
Favorite vacation spot? Montana, Ohio.
Ever been to Africa? NoEver steal any traffic signs? No
Ever been in a car accident? YesSalad dressing? Ranch
Favorite pie? Pecan
Favorite number? 7
Favorite movies: The Ten Commandments, The Gladiator, The Patriot, Signs, Star Wars, The Quiet Man.
Favorite holiday? Christmas
Favorite food? Too many to list
Favorite day of the week? Sunday
Favorite brand of body soap? Whatever
Favorite toothpaste? Crest
Favorite smell? Freshly cut green grass
What do you do to relax? Sitting on my front porch swing in the morning drinking coffee, with my German Shepherd, Jewel, as company. Driving my Jeep with the top off. Listening to music. Prayer.
Message to your friends reading this: (Mar 8:36) For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
What do you do when you are bored? Computer, what else?

Cheesecake Recipe

Here's an old family cheesecake recipe that you will surely enjoy. It came from my wife's side of the family, passed down from her grandmother who used to live in Ohio. With the holidays soon upon us, I thought I'd post it for others to enjoy.

Cheesecake is my favorite dessert, the only one I think I could over-dose on! :)

Bush Bloopers

Pass your mouse pointer over the screen to start the video.

The Good Old Days

Some pics of me and my hot rod an old friend sent me recently. The good old days.

In the pic at the drive-in, I'm the one kneeling and talking to my brother in the other T/A. My wife (then girlfriend) is sitting in my car, the one in the front of the picture.

The big guy is someone nobody wanted to mess with. It's good to have friends!

In some of the other pics, the guy in the overalls is me.

Crack in the door

Some undercover footage my wife shot of our daughter in her room. Pass your mouse pointer over the middle of the screen to start the video.

Momma and baby

Some footage I captured this past weekend of a momma and her baby.

Vacation

We just recently got back from vacation in the Smokey Mountains.

Altogether we traveled through, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee before arriving back in OK. If you've never traveled the Blueridege Parkway, I very much recommend it.

On our way through North Carolina we stopped at a little place called Barney's Cafe, which is in Andy Griffith's hometown -- Mount Airy. All I've got to say is that the food, even though it consisted of only Cheeseburgers and other fast food items, was fantastic! My Mother-in-law said she had never had a better cheeseburger, and when the waitress asked me what I wanted to drink, I'm glad I told her sweet tea instead of unsweetened. Unsweetened tea is what I usually drink. There's just something about how they do sweet tea in the south!!! I've never had tea that good before.

Anyway, I'll post some more pics soon.

Vacation

Here is video from our recent Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee vacation.

If you need more volume, click and drag the volume bar all the way to the right.

Video Safari

You're invited to join us on our video safari.

Here's a compilation of video shots over the course of a couple of weeks. My daughter and I have come to love these little "Video Safari's" we go on. This morning she saw a wild turkey but I didn't have the camera on "Record" when I thought it was. Bummer.

We are trying to get a clip of a poisonous snake but so far no luck. Maybe next time.

Stay tuned.

This Morning's Jeep Adventure

I just got back from an early-morning Jeep ride with my German Shepherd, Jewel. The cool morning air was just perfect -- unusual for Oklahoma this time of year.

We encountered some unexpected wildlife, as you can see from the photos. I'm guessing it was because of the mild temperatures.



This bad boy is a cottonmouth snake (also known as a water moccasin) we caught right in the middle of the road. I wish I'd had my video camera for this one, for some live-action shots. Maybe next time. They have very nasty temperments, are poisonous, and are prone to stay and fight rather than slither away to safety.

Montana

In 1985 my brother,Dad, a family friend and myself all took a trip up to Montana for a “guy’s” vacation, mostly to Trout fish, hike and campout. It was an incredible vacation; one that I’ll never forget.

On our way to Montana we also drove through Yellowstone National Park, which, if memory serves me, is mostly in the state of Wyoming. Yellowstone is an incredible national treasure that everyone should see. We saw “Old Faithful” while we were there. We also saw lots of Elk and Buffalo just grazing along-side the road, completely oblivious to our presence.

And yes it’s true about there being no speed limits on parts of the Wyoming and Montana backcountry roads. If you’ve ever been driving along a lonely expanse of backcountry highway in either of those states, you’ll understand why. There’s very little traffic on those roads, and because of the vast size of those states it would take a long time to putt through them at what we southerners would consider normal speed limits. Hence the reason for our 90-mile per hour cruising speed.

Once I saw the Montana countryside for the first time, I immediately recognized the landscapes in several western films I’d seen over the years -- films in which you would expect to see stars like John Wayne, Randolph Scott, Robert Duvall, etc. It was all very exciting! “Big Sky Country” they call it. Now I know why.

This was truly Jeremiah Johnson’s country and it sparked my imagination. I imagined seeing Jeremiah being pursued by an angry mob of Crow or Blackfoot Indians, or just as likely the other way around if you’ve ever read his story. A giant of a man he was, standing 6’2’ and weighing in at 250 lbs, which was extremely large for his day. No wonder the Crow and other nearby tribes had fear and respect for him.

Wild and beautiful, the mountains, plains, and valleys of Montana all had that lost-in-time look, as if nothing there had changed since the 1800’s. Along a trail leading up to one mountain-top lake in particular, we came upon an abandoned log cabin settlement, which looked as though it had only been abandoned a short time because of the well-preserved look the cabins had. The mountain air I suppose. We guessed it had once been a mining community because of the kind of tools left behind. There were pick-axes, shovels, and a few of those gold-sifting pans you’ve seen in the movies.

We camped out under the stars at night, eating Elk meat over a roaring campfire while we recalled the day’s adventures before retiring to bed. There’s nothing like eating Elk over a campfire out in the wilds of the Montana countryside, a dream come true if you like the outdoors and are not particularly fond of tourist-trap vacations, though they too have their place.

In the mornings we would bathe in a nearby mountain stream. We could only stay in a short while because of its bone chilling temperature. Wow, was it ever cold! I remember dunking my head underneath the water to wash my hair, only to feel instant pain, which then made my head feel numb after a minute or two.

Though diminished in numbers, the Grizzly Bear and Wolf still roam the landscape of Montana. I guess that’s one reason places like Montana still hold that mystical appeal to many an outdoorsman. At one point during our stay in Montana, we even saw bear tracks along the banks of another mountaintop lake, where we were fishing for Trout. Needless to say we stayed keenly aware of our surroundings, just in case.

That night, because I had seen the bear tracks earlier that day, I’ll have to admit it was a little hard getting to sleep. Every little forest noise I heard - twigs snapping, leaves rustling - seemed to invoke images of a killer Grizzly bear or Mountain Lion. You know the stories, the ones in Reader’s Digest where a Grizzly tears the unsuspecting hikers or campers to pieces. Gulp!

That never happened thankfully. And each succeeding night it got easier for me to sleep.

All I could think about for the next ten or so years was going back to Montana. I haven’t yet, but maybe someday.

You never know who might be filming

A video clip of my wife being caught off guard. It was all my daughter's idea to bait my wife to groove to the music, not realizing she was being filmed in the process.

My daughter is just a chip off the old block (me). I was so proud of her little practical joke!

Oh, and did I mention that we have a toe sucker in the family? This is Emma, my niece, the newest member of our family.

A video clip from this past Christmas

My brother-in-law's dog, Molly, doesn't quite know what to do with a T-Rex.

Christmas Video

Pachelbel

Pachelbel Johann 1653 -1706
Canon and Gigue in D

One of my favorite classical pieces. We requested they play this piece at my grandmother's funeral. It was beautiful. I know she would have approved because in her earlier years she played classical music on the piano and was a very accomplished pianist.

The Intruder

It was in mid-fall, probably around 1978 or 79, between 2:00 and 3:00 a.m. in the morning. For some reason I was having trouble sleeping that night, which was unusual for me because I was a teenager and nearly always slept soundly at night. In those days we used to sleep with the windows open at night when the weather was nice, as it was that particular night.

While I was just lying there in bed in our upstairs room (my brother and I shared a bedroom) contemplating what the next day would hold for me, I heard the sound of footsteps outside in the yard, trampling across the crackly dried up leaves (Thank God for Autumn).

At first, I thought nothing of it because we had always had cats while growing up, which is what I thought it was this time, too. But then as I began to pay closer attention to the actual sound of the footsteps as they came across the leaves, I realized to my surprise that whatever, or whoever, was making the footsteps was walking on two feet instead of four.

Alarmed, I very quietly rolled over to look out the window beside my bed. Though it was still early in the morning and dark, I could make out the faint silhouette of a person walking towards my mother’s bedroom window, which was on the first floor.

Chills went up my spine.

I then very quietly got out of bed and walked over to where my brother was sleeping. Not wanting to alert the intruder that I was aware of his presence, I moved my hand over my brother’s mouth in case he made a noise while waking up, quietly whispering in his ear that we had a peeping tom looking in Mom’s bedroom window. Amazingly he awakened from a deep sleep without making a sound. We then quietly made our way over to where our guns were stored, my 9mm pistol and his Winchester lever action .22 rifle. Once we had our weapons in hand, and were sure we were out of earshot of the intruder, we dashed downstairs, heading towards the backdoor as fast as two teenage boys in their prime could go. Quickly we opened and then ran through the backdoor, making our way along the north side of the house as fast as we could, not wanting the intruder to get away before we could put the fear of God into him.

In no time we arrived in front of the house, stopping just thirty or so yards from my mother’s bedroom window, which was on the south side of the house. I couldn’t see the intruder because it was dark. But I knew where my mother’s bedroom window was. I raised the 9mm pistol and yelled at the top of my voice: “Freeze”.

Not more than a second later, I lowered and then fired the formidable pistol into the ground, just short of where I pictured he would be. I fired it short because he was still outside the house and not inside; I didn’t feel justified in killing him and was worried that I might get into trouble with the law.

After the intruder heard that first big BOOM he was off and running. And I do mean off and running! I don’t think I’ve ever heard two feet moving quite as fast as his!

My crazy but courageous brother then decided to give chase to this very frightened peeping tom. Across streets, through backyards and alleyways my brother pursued this individual, all the while taking pot shots at him with his lever action .22 rifle as they were running.

The peeping tom finally managed to elude my brother, which at first was hard for me to believe because my brother was in very good shape back in those days. But my brother was carrying a fairly heavy rifle which undoubtedly slowed him down as they traversed fences and other obstacles. And then again I'm sure the intruder thought he was running for his life that autumn night, giving him that extra incentive to run like Carl Lewis! Hopefully it also broke him of his peeping tom habit, never to try it again.

A true story.

New Neighbor

We've got some new neighbors. Or I should say "a" new neighbor. He couldn't be more than 25 years old, if that. And he doesn't appear to be married.

When our previous neighbors lived in the house, they used to let my father-in-law, Glenn, park his little red car (occasionally he comes over to work out of our garage to work on family vehicles) on the southwest corner of their property, on a little patch of concrete not more than 15' x 25' in size, just opposite our garage.

Glenn, not realizing that we now had a new neighbor living in the house, recently parked his car on the same patch of concrete just like he always had. Not long after, our new neighbor came over to where Glenn was standing and said, "Just wanted to give you a heads up that I don't want you to park there anymore."

Glenn, being the nice guy that he is, said, "Sure, no problem".

The very next day Glenn asked me to come to the back of our house, near our garage and close to where our neighbor's patch of concrete is. He pointed to the patch of concrete. When I looked down at the concrete I noticed that there was debris scattered about the slab. There were branches, sticks, and several bricks laying on the slab. At first it didn't dawn on me what Glenn was wanting me to deduce.

Then, it hit me.

This kid had deliberately scattered the debris all over the slab himself to keep Glenn from parking there. As I pondered what our new neighbor had done, it became clear to me just how childish this individual must be. It wasn't good enough that Glenn had given him his word that he would no longer park there. No, he felt he had to create a barrier of some sort, and a silly looking one to boot.

Granted, the property is his to do with what he pleases, and he had every right to tell my father-in-law to move his car. But gee wizz, what the kid did was taking it a little too far and it really makes him look self-centered and childish.

Here's a picture I snapped of the concrete slab:



Now doesn't that look silly?

Millennium Bug