Finally...the end to a Forgettable Season and Other Stuff

Chester Frazier, Rich McBride, Warren Carter, Shaun Pruitt, and Brian Randle. Anyone other than those living in a 75 mile radius of Champaign-Urbana know who these 5 are?

Didn't think so.

But these were the players leading the Fighting Illini to one of the most forgettable seasons in recent memory. No pro talents. No incredible athletes or phenoms. No great stories (such as walk-on to team captain, star graduating in 3 years but staying for championship run, etc.). Just a group of B-grade talent that journeyed themselves to the middle of the Big Ten standings (which outside of Ohio State and Wisconsin, was mediocre at best). Many said that 2 wins in the Big Ten tournament would guarantee them a spot in the Big Dance. They did just that, then fell incredibly flat against Wisconsin. The experts classified them as a bubble team that got lucky theirs didn't burst. This angered some in Illini nation. "We play in the Big Ten! We played the #1 and #2 teams in the nation pretty tight! We beat Indiana twice! Blah, blah, blah..." I've never heard such "homer" talk from this group. Didn't they see them play this year? Sure, they could play tenacious D (speaking of which, did anyone see this movie?), but holding opponents to 40% shooting only works when you shoot much better than they do. They had no ball handling skills and gave up possessions like a politician handing out handshakes. Their decision-making on the court was brutal (I remember during the first meeting with Indiana Bruce Weber yelling at Chester not to foul as Chester body-checked one of the Indiana guards into the scorer's bench.) And I haven't even touched on free throw shooting, but no one works on their free throws anymore. No, this team was NIT worthy at best. But someone fell in love with their RPI rating and the idea that a Illinois-Southern Illinois (Weber's old school coached by one of his former assistants) could be a great story if it happened. It got many worked up into a lather - especially when they had a 13 point lead with 8 minutes left against #5 seed Virginia Tech. Even I couldn't believe it. Had they been saving themselves for this moment? But then as I watched them score only 5 points in the last fifth of the game and turn the ball over 10 times, I remembered why I guarded my heart with this group. Final score: Virginia Tech 54, Illinois 52. Was I pissed? You bet! Did it last long. Nope.

Unfortunately, Illini fans have nothing to look forward to. No talent sitting on the bench and no blue chippers coming our way (but I DO have a new reason to hate Indiana: Kelvin Sampson and his theft of Eric Gordon). Bruce Webber is a great coach. He knows his X's and O's. But he's not shown himself to be a great recruiter. No matter how well he can manage the court, he'll still be taking his Marcus Arnolds up against the Greg Odens of the world.

And it started out to be such a great decade...

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Thanks to all the folks who have still been checking in over the last month. You guys are great! I've been trying to stay current with your when I can, but this blogging thing is tough for me. First of all, I am a painfully slow writer. Oh, I have ideas running thru my head all the time, but corralling them into a coherent thought takes me hours. Would you believe that I've been sitting here typing this for 2+ hours? 2 hours for this dribble? Makes you wonder why I even began this endeavor. Have you ever wondered why I don't comment very often? You wouldn't believe how clever I think I need to be in the 2-3 sentences I'd like to leave on your sites - especially when you folks write such great stuff! I wish I were as fluent here as most of you are. You write like you speak and converse. That doesn't come easy for me. Like a lot of things in my life, I need to work extra hard to not sound like the idiot I am.

Secondly, because it takes me so long for an entry, I need to write when everyone is either out of the house or in bed. This is still a problem. When I was at the "top" of my blogging game, I was writing after work or after supper - during prime family times. It became a source of contention between me and my family. So I scaled back to blogging late at night. That worked for a while. Then the sleep issues came and I had to step out. I thought the CPAP machine had corrected this (I am sleeping better), but I didn't realize how dependent my nights had become on caffeine. Over the last 2-3 months, I've tried to limit caffeine intake to 2 cans of pop in the morning. The rest of the day I drink either Diet Rite Pure Zero or water. What this means is that come about 10pm or so, I'm ready for bed, in a good kind of tired way. But that means my blog output (writing, reading, and commenting) is for squat. I try to get thru what I can before I go to work, but that isn't always much.

Lastly (you know, it had to be in threes - it's the perfect writing number), I've been in a writing funk for about a month. Ideas come to me, but if I don't deal with them when they show up on my brain's front door, they lose meaning. And I can't write without a passion for something. And instead of the passion being like a wildfire I need to put out, it's been more like a matchstick that I can't hold on to very long. The only reason I can write this now is because I really feel it now. If I waited until morning, it'd probably be gone and there I'd be: another day without an entry. In the last month, I've let the following opportunities go by:

• The passing of one of our tenants. Melvin died February 6th in his sleep at the age of 91. The night before he'd played cards with some friends and won every hand. Then he kissed his wife of 60+ years good night and said "I'll see you in the morning".
• The passing of Anna Nicole Smith during the same week. The contrast between her life and that of Melvin's could take weeks to chronicle.
• Two snow days from work. The pile I created with the snow blower melted just last weekend.
• Driving 30 miles to sled down a hill that would barely read on a protractor.
• Numerous lunches with the guys. In one, I had Pik driving around a building to 3 different entrances to pick up Rudiger, who was at a completely different place. The sad thing is that Rudiger told me where he was numerous times on the phone, and I just didn't get it. I'm no longer in charge of picking people up.
• A special surprise I'm saving until the end of this post.
• The special surprise turned me into a germaphobe for the past 4 weeks - to the point I wore a mask and rubber gloves to visit my dad and self-medicated myself with echinacea and amoxicillin from Mexico.
• The Boy's birthday dinner at BWW.
• Heroes!

I don't know where all this is going, except to let you know that I'm still here and I'm still reading. I'm not hanging it up or anything. I'll probably show up here and there when I can. Just like the Great Pumpkin traveling from blog patch to blog patch, I'll be looking for those entries that are the most sincere :)

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On February 13th, central Illinois was hit with one of the biggest snow storms we've seen in years. 12-14" landed in my neighborhood. We sat in the house all day and watched it pile up in the driveway. And we smiled and smiled. Why? Because earlier that morning we received news that on March 20th we would be on a plane to Hawaii!!!

My inlaws celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary last year and wanted to do something special with the entire family. They put away some money from a couple of real estate sales so that they could take everyone on a special vacation to make some memories. Various destinations were tossed around until they decided on Hawaii. The initial plan was to go sometime in the November/December timeframe, but a deal came up on Expedia that they just couldn't pass up. So here we are, mere days away from Paradise! We'll be back on the mainland (just had to use that term) March 31st. Look for a Flickr album shortly thereafter.

I'd love to take each and every one of you with, but I'm only allowed one carry on and one personal item. If you can blow air up my nose for 6-7 hours a night, read the novel "1776" (unabridged) or sing/play the Beatles or Steely Dan in my headphones, you're welcome to come. But be prepared to be flung over my shoulders or stuffed in an overhead compartment.

Have a great weekend all! Go Heels! Sorry, Sue, but I just can't bring myself to root for Bill Self :)

Weekend Roundup

Not much time to blog what's really on my mind tonight (and I'm alternating between writing and watching Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid on the Sleuth network - yes, Librarian, I missed recording Heroes again this week), so I thought I'd share a little update on the weekend's festivities:

• My birthday was great. After getting up to feed Lance, let him out to do his business and quickly post some pictures, I went back to bed. Friday was my day off (I work 9 x80 with every other Friday off). The family allowed me to sleep until 9:15am (a rarity around here). It worked to both our advantages as they wanted to finish wrapping my gifts and decorating cards. When Prudence woke me, I was in the middle of deep REM sleep. Didn't really know where I was. After a few minutes I recovered enough cognitive ability to drag myself out of bed and make it to the dining room table. Remember this nugget when you see my picture below. Prudence baked my favorite cake - a sour cream coffee cake. That was breakfast for us all. After a round of blowing out trick candles - The Boy and Em couldn't wait to see me blow them out - they gave me my gifts: Band on the Run by Paul McCartney & Wings from Em; A DVD recap of the 2006 World Series from The Boy; Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player by Elton John from Panda; and Captain Fantastic & The Brown Dirt Cowboy by Elton John from Prudence. What a haul! Do I have the coolest family or what? After the kids did some school and went to gym & swim, we made the trek to Champaign for Zorbas! The weather was bitterly cold, but the gyros were hot and garlicky! We can't quite get the kids to try them. They eat a Chicago style all-beef hot dog on a pita, so we're working them up to gyros. The Boy even said he wanted Zorba's for his birthday, so we may be back in a month. Excellent.
• Saturday started out as a lazy day. Prudence and I alternated being up with the kids and dog and then back to bed. We didn't really get going until lunch. Then Prudence and Panda went shopping for ski/snow pants for Panda's first ski trip to Wisconsin next weekend. It'll be her first trip any significant distance from us without family. Naturally she's excited and we're a little nervous. But she'll be with a trusted group of people and 3 of her best friends. She'll be fine, but her mom will probably be a bundle of nerves. Anyway, with them shopping and a Saturday afternoon Denise the Menace marathon on Boomerang, I was set to do some blog customization. This place hasn't really felt like home since the move. Kinda like not having pictures on the walls. First, I was missing the Spaces banner DrCara worked up for me (Cara, we miss you!), so I needed to get that posted. Then there was the issue of fonts, colors and layout. Spent the better part of 2 hours making CSS/HTML changes to the template I'd chosen. Can you believe they didn't have styles for bulleted lists? I had to add the disc and circle statements all over the place. I'm still not completely happy with it, but I'd probably have to come up with my own template in order to be totally satisfied. That's too much work for now, so what you see here will probably still be here a year from now.
• Sunday brought church, adult bible fellowship, some maintenance work at the duplex, and of course the Super Bowl! Our church had planned to show the game on 2 screens using projectors from different parts of the building. Then we read about the church in Indianapolis that was banned from having a Super Bowl party. While we didn't really agree with the application of the ruling, we didn't want to be in violation of the copyright law. So Friday our minister rented a 50" TV and we changed the layout of our fellowship hall. It turned out pretty well, and 50-75 people had a great time watching the game. Lots of good food, fun, and fellowship. About 90% of the attendees were Bear fans, so a number of folks went home full but disappointed. Because I don't have a true allegiance to any NFL team, I was just looking for a good game. Won't say it was the best game played, but there were plenty of exciting moments in the first half, and my buddy Bill finally got a professional championship from one of his teams (sorry, Bill, but I probably won't be rooting for the Northsiders anytime soon).

That's it in a nutshell. Hopefully I'll be back later this week what I really should have blogged about. But I'll have slept since then, so don't bank on it. Until then, stay warm!

Could Really Use One of These Today...

The temp is -6. Thankfully there's not much wind, so the wind chill is only -9. But the dog demands his walk - even if it's only around the block. Hope I'm not a Chris-sicle by the time I get back. Just who IS the master around here anyway?

More life imitating TV, I guess...

I Didn't See My Shadow...

...but judging by the frost on my nose, I'm guessing we still have a lot of winter left around here.

Yep, it's my Birthday.  43 years ago my mom gave birth to a 19" long, 10lb 9oz cinder block.  Not much has changed - just a bigger brick.  Unfortunately, the hair is almost the same.

To celebrate, I've uploaded some pictures to Flickr of me from my dad's house.  You'll see a lot of bad red hair on a big head.  Play close attention to the shirts.  Wide collars, psuedo-turtlenecks, and ring zippers.   Most (if not all) were either hand-me-downs or homemade.  Feel free to comment.  No shot is too low.  It was the 70s, remember?

After The Boy and Em's gym & swim session at the YMCA, we'll make a trip to Zorba's in Champaign - home of the best gyro on the planet!  I can't wait!

And be sure to stop by and give some love to my sister in the Ground Hog Order: Weimiegirl!  She's promised to show off some technocolor clothes that would make Joseph jealous!

Have a great weekend, all!

For The Record...

"Go on and write me up for 125 Post my face Wanted dead or alive Take my license and all that jive I can't drive 55!" Sammy Hagar from 'I Can't Drive 55'

Yeah, I saw your head bobbin', mouthin' the words with an angry Red Rocker look on your face, maybe even pumpin' your hand in the air at the make believe judge. Don't deny it. It's one of those tunes that just gets into your head and won't let go. Sammy at his best!

You've probably guessed it, but I can't drive 55. It was more like 70. Or so the local police tell me...

I was running late Monday morning, thinking about the various things I needed to get done that day, kinda in my own world. The road from my house into work starts off with a 5 mile stretch of country road - your standard Illinois rock-chip and oil variety. The rest is about 11-12 miles of nicely paved road. There are very few dips, twists, turns and trees as well. It's pretty straight and flat - another central Illinois fixture. So it's extremely easy to get ramped up for the ride into work - especially if you have a lead foot like mine. It also means there are not many places a police car can hide. Quite a combination. Almost makes you feel untouchable. Almost.

About 1 minute into my drive (which means about 1 mile from my house - how stupid am I?) I notice a pickup that I normally encounter headed the other way flashing his lights. This should have tipped me off right away that a smokey lay in wait up ahead. But I was so deep into my own head that it took a moment to "get" his signal. By then it was too late. The cop was sitting in the only green spot along the road. And he had me dead to rights. His lights went on and I pulled over. He asked if I knew how fast I was going. I knew I was going 70 (I glanced at speedometer right when I saw him - but until then, I had no idea), but felt I should give him a range - just in case his gun was running slow. So I told him 65-70. "Yeah, you were doing 70", he said. So if I don't learn anything else from this experience, I know that my speedometer is accurate. I was as polite as I could be, and he was friendly and nice in return. If it wasn't that I was $75 lighter, I'd say it was a pleasant transaction. For some strange reason, that wasn't enough. I had to share the story with the boys at work. During the rest of the day Rudiger, Ed and Pik made sure the wound wouldn't heal. Can't say I blame them. I'd have done the same.

After 7 tickets in 27 years, I think I've finally learned my lesson. But just in case, check back in 6 months and see what my top speed for the day was...

I Can't Drive 55 - Sammy Hagar

I think my favorite thing about this video is the dialog between Sammy and Claudio.

Sammy: "Ooowww! This thing is running great! Its running great. Runnin' smooth into the the curves! What did you do, Claudio?" Claudio (in his best Italian Kermit the Frog voice): " I just adjusted the cassidy cavern and the tire pressure."

No idea if he actually said "cassidy cavern", but it works for me.

Now to end this on a musical note (sorry, the bad pun came out before I could stop it). Which do you prefer?

• Sammy Hagar as a solo act
• Sammy with Van Halen
• Diamond Dave with Van Halen
• None of the above

I Though It Was Conditioner!

Everyone showers in the shower in the master bathroom.  Prudence, Panda, and me in the mornings.  The Boy and Em of an evening.  It cuts down on the number of baths we need to keep clean...and I'm too cheap to have a plumber come take a look at what makes the main bath shower leak to the basement when we use it.  I'll eventually need to take care of #2, but until then, we shower in our shower.

Other than bar soap, we keep all bath products the ledge above the glass door to the shower.  That is, until The Boy and Em were able to take showers by themselves (one of those magical milestones that parents long to see reached - much like walking, potty training, reading, etc.).  Now we keep smaller bottles of shampoo and conditioner on the "seat" built into the shower just for them.  When they were smaller (just a few months ago), the bottles would run out and they would come out of the shower - soppin' wet to the bone - into the hallway and yell "I'm out of shampoo!!!".  We would come running, yelling at them to either call from the shower or dry off and then call for us, refill their containers from the containers on the ledge, and finish their shower.  But they observed what we did and began plotting ways to help themselves.  Mind you, they would need to stand on the built in seat and lean across the shower, lean on the glass door while they reached to the ledge above - while wet.  All very safe ***insert eyeroll here***.  So for the past few months, they've (scratch that - he's) been refilling the containers when they've run out.  At least that's my interpretation, since I haven't been called to refill a container for a while.  Until last Thursday, my/our ignorance has been bliss.

Even though the torch of bathing has been passed, hair styling is still left up to me.  Yes, the man with no hairdo (should that be a hairdon't) does the hair of the little ones.  Don't worry, it's primarily a part and either combed back (The Boy) or brushed straight (Em).  When they're old enough to do their own, I'll step out and let them work on a something that helps define themselves, other than mohawks, blue/orange hair, etc!  But I digress...

So last Thursday, Em comes out of the shower and I start brushing her hair.  Its a gnarly mess!  I ask her if she used conditioner.  She tells me that The Boy told her they were out and that he found something else that would work.  I asked her to show me and she said it was the pink vitamin E stuff.  Huh?  Never seen that in our shower before, so we went back in.  There, sitting on the seat was Prudence and Panda's Skintastic Shaving Cream!  Prudence ushers her back into the shower with explicit instructions about what NOT to use on her hair.  After setting her straight and refilling their bottle with more conditioner from the cabinet, Prudence comes back to me and says, "I'm sooooo glad we don't use Nair!"

Six Weird Things

Yeah, I know this is an old meme (and I've already things documented a number of weird rules here), but I told the some people I would do it, and I try to be a man of my word.  Plus it saves you from hearing about a boring weekend - cleaning out my computer workshop (7 computer carcasses, 3 14" monitors, and 3 printers went to an electronic recycling center), 3 sick family members (Em - for almost a week - Panda and Prudence since Saturday), a busy day at church (running the computer for worship and leading my adult bible fellowship class), and 2 great football games (don't know who to root for now - I just want a good game!).  Well, I guess it didn't save you from it after all.  Some man of his word, huh?  Let's just forget that happenend move on to the meme:

1. When I get napkins from a dispenser for myself, I always get 3.  One at a time.  And I count them in my head. "One, two, three".
    
2. Complete silence scares me.  I can't sit in a room or ride in a car without turning on a radio or TV.  Maybe I'm scared to be alone with my own thoughts...
    
3. I struggle to download only a song or 2 from an album.  I always feel as tho I'll be missing something.  Sure, there's always at least one cut that absolutely sucks (except for Sgt Peppers, Abbey Road, and Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs), but if I don't have the whole album, I don't have the whole album!
    
4. I watch "League of Their Own" every time it's on.  I own copies on VHS and DVD and can watch it any time I want.  But if I see that its on at 11pm before I shut off the TV before I go to bed, I tell myself "I'll just watch until the 'no crying in baseball' part."  Next thing I know, Madonna's singing "This used to be my playground"...
    
5. I love to eat salt and butter on Zesty Saltine crackers.  To save time (because the way I eat, I don't have much of it) and dirtying a knife, I dip the cracker in "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter", then spread the butter over the cracker with my tongue.  Then I salt the cracker with a salt shaker.  Did I mention these were SALTine crackers?  I like salt.
    
6. I can't stand to pay for stuff I can usually get free or relatively cheap.  Like bottled water, for instance.  Pop, coffee, and other drinks take work to make.  Water is already here, and water fountains abound!  I'm probably just bitter that I didn't think of it first.  Tacos also come to mind.  It takes about $.25 worth of materials for a taco, and you get charged almost a $1 for one.  This one probably boils down to the fact that it takes 5+ tacos to fill me up, which adds up to too many pesos for that meal!  I feel like I'm getting swindled or something...

There you have it.  More than you probably wanted to know.  Just tell me when you want me to stop.

Musical Confessions

Today is my 1st blogiversary.  I actually owned a blog before January 18th, 2006, but did nothing with it until that date.  I spent months reading other blogs while trying to figure out what I wanted it to be.  I'm not sure it ever became what was stated here,  but I never expected to be where I am now - with a whole host of people I've never met that I consider great friends.  And for that I'm most thankful!  So I dedicate today's blog to you - my blog buddies - who made this last year sooooo much fun!

Continuing in the spirit of self-deprecating humor from my picture post ("If you can't laugh at yourself, you can't laugh at anyone else"), I'm gonna come clean on a number of items that I consider embarrassing concerning my musical tastes.  If you look at my Zen, you'll see about 12GB of solid music that appeals to most people my age.  I've got your standards (Beatles, Dylan, Springsteen, U2, Police, Motown and Top 40 hits from the 1960-1990) as well as some not-so-standards, but great none the less (The La's, Aztec Camera, Let's Active, Color Me Gone, The Specials).  But if you look hard, you'll find some "huh?", "you gotta be kidding me!" or "you pansy!" stuff.  Other things haven't made it to my Zen - either because they're locked into vinyl or too stupid for me to buy.  Without further ado, step into your priest's confessional (if you're Catholic) or try to talk me off the ledge, and let's get into the list:

• I love Hollywood showtunes and musicals!  The soundtrack to "The Music Man" may be in my top 5 favorite albums of all time.  As a kid, I used to line up chairs in our dining room like a train, play the opening song ("The Traveling Salesman") and try to sing all the parts.  I always wanted to be one of the Buffalo Bills ("Lida Rose, I'm home again Rose without a sweetheart to my name...").  Then there's "Oklahoma!"  Gordon McRae voice while singing "Oh What a Beautiful Mornin'" and "People Will Say We're In Love" is something I still try to emulate today...without much success.
• I can often be heard singing along to the following songs:
  • "My Eyes Adore You" by Frankie Valli
  • "Bad Blood" & "Laughter in the Rain" by Neil Sedaka
  • "Afternoon Delight" by The Starland Vocal Band
  • "Copacabana" by Barry Manilow (but don't call me a Fanilow!)
  • "Muskrat Love" & "Love Will Keep Us Together" by The Captain and Tennille
  • "Natural Woman" by Aretha Franklin (or Carole King)
• My favorite artist to sing along to is James Taylor.  My voice range matches his better than anyone else.  Now if I just SOUNDED like him.
• In addition, I love to sing in falsetto.  The Bee Gees are best for that.
• In grade school, shortly after I received my first tape recorder, I started making my own drumming tracks.  I would bring my record player into the kitchen, grab 2 tall drink stirring sticks that looked like drum sticks, grab a container of tubbed margarine, cue the music, and begin my jam sessions.  Unfortunately it was to songs like "The Night Chicago Died".  If you've ever seen the Gilligan's Island episode where the Mosquitoes come to the island, I resembled and sounded like Gilligan as the drummer.
• Speaking of "The Night Chicago Died", I think I owned 4 copies of that song - courtesy of K-Tel.
• Just a couple of weeks ago I downloaded Bread's "Anthology".  I'm currently listening to it a lot.  "Diary" may be one of the saddest love songs I've ever heard.
• I hate it when people get the lyrics wrong, but I've been wrong many times.  Here are a few:
  • Its "Love Train" (Spinners), not "Love Tree"
  • Its "Sweet Hitchhiker" (CCR), not "Swing into Hyper"
  • Its "Big Ol Jet Airliner" (Steve Miller Band), not "Big Ol Jet with the Light Off"
  • and its "Love is like Oxygen" (Sweet), not "Love is like Boxed chicken" (although I could make an case for that)
• For about a 1 year in college, I was into reggae big time.  I spent a majority of my free time at Record Swap, a local used record store, talking to guys like Ronnie Reggae (scrawny white guy who looked like Dick Cavet) and Rasta James (who looked just like his name - always on roller skates with a boombox on his shoulder) and searching the bins for Peter Tosh, Gregory Issacs, Steel Pulse, and of course Bob Marley.  I used terms like "I & I", "eyre'", "jah", and "spliff" like I grew up with them.  And I referred to the Rastafarians as "my people".  If I could, I would have looked like this:
   
• I'm currently searching for a good Partridge Family compilation, as well as one for the Jackson 5 and Neil Diamond.
• I enjoy listening to disco music.  The "Saturday Night Fever" soundtrack rules!
• "I'm Not in Love" by 10cc scares me to death.  "Be quiet, big boys don't cry" still haunts me today.
• Along with 45s of "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "Island Girl", I had copies of "The Streak", "Paper Roses", and "You Light Up My Life".
• I owned a copy of Peaches & Herb's hit album "2 Hot!".

While not embarrassing, I need to get a few other things off my chest while still on the ledge:

• I hate Bob Seger!  Ever since he and Tom Cruise teamed up in "Risky Business".
• Even though I claim that The Beatles are my favorite group of all time, I listen to way more Steely Dan.
• More on The Beatles front:
  • I think John Lennon is overrated as a solo artist.  From his greatest hits compilation, I can listen to maybe 5 of the tracks and enjoy them.  I blame much of this on Yoko (as do most other people on the planet).
  • "Hey Jude" is my least favorite song of theirs.  And it may be on my top 20 overrated songs.
  • I have never listened to the entire "Yellow Submarine" soundtrack.
  • I have never seen "Help!"

Whew!  I feel better already!  At least until that first comment comes in.  Or maybe no comments come in.  Gulp!  Do I hear crickets???

How's about you?  Do you have a musical confession you need to make?

The Side I Never Knew

Today would have been my mom's 84th birthday.  She was taken home to be with her Lord almost 3 years ago after a long battle with Alzheimer's.  She was a great lady - the best I ever knew.  (Sorry Prudence, but she'll always be first.  But you know that you are 1A!)  Dad has told me often since she's been gone that her time home with me was the best she ever knew.  Not because I was a special child, but because she was never able to enjoy being a mom to my 3 older siblings.

Mom married her high school sweetheart right after her graduation in 1941.  She had 3 kids before 1948, and during that time her husband had a tour of duty in Europe during WWII.  When he returned, he came back as an alcoholic.  After he'd get paid for delivering eggs, he'd be gone for days on drinking binges.  In the early 1950s, he died of a brain aneurismal.  Throughout this time, Mom had to rely on family (she had 9 brothers and sisters) and work to make ends meet.  She (and I) grew up in a small town where everyone knew your name.  The local banker took pity on her and lent her hundreds of dollars over the years - which she diligently paid back.  She worked part-time as a waitress in her sister's cafe', but she spent most of her time at working for another sister in her printing business.  I'm not sure how many years she worked there, but she became very proficient at setting and proofing type.  Reading sentences backwards with letters and characters in reverse as well blows my mind!  But she did all this at the expense of being home with her children.  Like I said, she had plenty of family in the area to help with the rearing.  Minus a couple of detours, everyone turned out alright.  But she didn't get to enjoy them.

Things changed for her in 1961 when she met my dad.  They hit it off almost immediately and were married in March of 1962.  I was born in 1964 and she was determined to make up for lost opportunities.  She never worked an outside job again.  She was home when I left for school in the morning and was there when I got home.  She helped me with my homework.  I can't count the number of class projects and crafts she helped me make. In three months of hard work and eye excercises, she "cured" me of my lazy eye.  I didn't need glasses until my freshman year of college.  Dad traveled about 2-3 nights of the week, so she and I were left to eat meals by ourselves.  She always made my favorite foods, even though she'd sometimes just have cereal or a salad.  And she aways had time for me.

So when I ran across this picture this weekend, I started thinking about the side of Mom I never knew, and how fortunate I was to be born when I was.  Thanks God.  Thanks Mom.  And Happy Birthday.

Now THIS is embarrassing!

Sue, I believe this is the kind of picture that your little sister was looking for.

I don't know much more about the picture than what you see here. It's an 8-10 year old boy with a big belt and very tight t-shirt sitting under his mom's beauty shop style hairdryer with a cap on his noggin to protect his 'do. I see nothing wrong with it...other than it's me! Don't know why I was there or why Dad was there with the camera. But I think the expression says it all.

How about some of the other items on the back porch? The yellow pencil sharpener that seemed to always be filled with filings. The BB/pellet gun for shooting cans (never know when a can is going to jump out at you!). The technicolored pants (bottom left in the stack of clothes) that made me look like Bobby Brady . Ohhh, the memories...

Can anyone top this? I'd love to see you try :)