2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog. Here’s an excerpt: A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 6,000 times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 5 trips to carry that many people. Click here to [...]

Read Full Post »

Staring down your dragons

On the left, a symbol of the ancient Chinese practice of “high tea”; on the right, the embodiment of Western Culture infringing on “Tea Boy’s” place in his world. He looks a little worried, if you ask me, and I certainly would feel the same staring into the eyes of a dragon like that. But, [...]

Read Full Post »

To the point of no (know) return

How long? Nine hours to life, I hear they say. Baby B boarded a bus this morning, destination Rome. And from there? Her life is open to new definitions. I believe we may have passed the point of know return. As our car continued south this morning, the chartered bus caravan carrying her local school [...]

Read Full Post »

Red Letter Day

Red letters, red ties, red sweaters… There was quite a bit of red on display at our church on Sunday. You see, Sunday was Christmas Day. Fitting that Christmas Day this year, and the celebration of His birth, fell on the day we celebrate His victory over death. People were out in force for the [...]

Read Full Post »

A Two Horse Race?

…and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this? Esther 4:14 For those who haven’t heard the news, the sitting president for old Alma Mater is retiring next year. Accordingly, those charged with our sacred trust have been diligently working to find the next appointed leader. After six [...]

Read Full Post »

Night and Day

Without a doubt, NBA basketball has been good for Oklahoma City. The game returns this next week, and I surmise that folks are ready for some gamers to hit the hardwood. What the NBA has not been kind to is College basketball in our fair but finite state. There are only so many fans, so [...]

Read Full Post »

Intense Situations

There’s a great exchange in the 1996 movie “Twister” between two characters, Beltzer and Dusty, while they are chasing a tornado. As the scene unfolds, they are barreling down a dirt road at a high rate of speed in old trucks, and are shouting to each other over a CB radio: Beltzer: Normal man spends [...]

Read Full Post »

Strata

Did I mention that Daughter-chan returned last week? If I did, let me add that she brought me some sand from various beaches on multiple Isles/continents. Why would she carry little bags of sand all around the world, you might ask? Well, maybe because her father is strange, and she knew he cared. You see, [...]

Read Full Post »

The nut does not fall far from the tree

Elder daughter walked into the kitchen tonight holding a large box. “Hey, Hank, what’s in the box?”, I wondered. Perhaps, a dead cat? Sorry, wrong story, and I digress. No, her box contains money and momentos from days now past spent on the other side of the world. It was great to see her unpack [...]

Read Full Post »

The Italian Job

There’s a repetitious musical line from the above referenced movie: “What comes around, it goes around”. That, from a movie about stealing, gold, and bad behavior in Europe: how ironic. Yes, friends, those are German Pfennig coins, and while technically not worth anything, they are apparently still in circulation today. In a possible “widow’s two [...]

Read Full Post »