Saturday, May 7, 2016

Owen Michael: My Gentle Giant


When most people (including myself) think of a child in kindergarten, they think of a small young child barely out of diapers, and not of a child that can pass as a 3rd grader.

On the left is my precious Owen Michael (aka Caveman, Romeo, Casanova, o'Mike, and now also the Gentle Giant), as he is enjoying his outside field day.  His friend on the right is our typical normal sized kindergartner.


Yesterday, Romeo celebrated with Jackie at their special Mother's Day celebration at school.  Jackie is 5'3" tall.  Kind of odd to see her youngest son just shy of her shoulders, and Jackie is in boots which makes her 5'5" in this picture.


This is one of killer Casanova's many young girl friends.  I forget her name, but at ball games, they are virtually inseparable, and she is gorgeous.  Football, basketball, baseball; he could care less about the games, as his focus is "off the field".  If you want to find Owen, just look for the prettiest little girls.  They will be next to him.  Guaranteed.


With another young friend from his class, playing some kind of game.  Owen is the life of the party.  It starts when he enters the room.  Standing a full head taller than all of his classmates, our clown prince has the charm to engage everyone around him.  He has such an awesome personality to go with his great looks.


And here is Owen with his big brother 3rd grader Will Parker, whom is not a shortie either, but hard to believe that there is 2.5 years separating them in age.  Owen is as tall or taller than half of WP's 3rd grade classmates.


I love you Owen Michael.  You make me laugh and smile whenever I am with you.  I love your personality.  Since you were 2, I have predicted (as numerous blogs will attest), that you will be 6'5" tall, which is 2" taller than your Uncle Daniel.

However, after now seeing these pictures, I might have to rethink that, as you could very easily end up at 6'8".  And if I can convince you to play baseball, wow, I would love to be your Agent to help you negotiate your $50 million dollar pitching deal for the KC Royals. :-)

I am a blessed man.

Friday, May 6, 2016

McDonald's Breakfast


I enjoy McDonald's breakfast sandwiches 3-4 mornings a week.  Their hash brown though (they stole the idea from Arby's) is crap; and I have no idea why a mega-trillion dollar company would not have upgraded that poc by now.

Of course, these are their world famous French fries.  Just recently, I went in for breakfast really late at 10:35 in the morning.  They serve fries at 10:30.  Not at 10:29, as then you can only get the poc hash brown with your breakfast sandwich.

I read in the WSJ that McD sales are way up from adding all day breakfast.  Seems a simple fix to me that their sales would go up even more if they sold fries all day too, and got rid of their Arby's potato wedge.

This is the way breakfast should be; with french fries, and not that hash brown thing. :-)



Thursday, May 5, 2016

Emma Jo (Spaz)


This is Emma Jo, my youngest granddaughter.  She told me that she wore boots for this photo because "I like your boots Pappy", and then when I told her how pretty she looked in blue, she said "I wore blue for you Pappy because blue is your favorite color."

With comments like that, how can any Pappy worth his salt not just melt under her spell?

My oh my, my grandchildren know how to steal my heart!  And I love it . . .


As you probably remember, I love to cook; the more fancy and complicated the better.  For the last 2 years though, I have been so overly busy in my life, that I am lucky to cook one fancy meal a month (not counting grilling).

Last Sunday night, we had the girls over for dinner, and Emma Jo took the opportunity to decorate my unused menu board.  Emma loves art, to draw, to color, to be creative.  But, she also loves math (and appears to be great at it), which is a true dichotomy to loving art and creativity as the two of those rarely mix and are in great contrast to each other.

Upon seeing her art board, my 'hart' leapt, and it was time again to lavish multiple kisses upon those precious little lips and cheeks. (Emma Jo loves to kiss me too), and don't you know that that is just pure torture for me . . . :-)

She was laying on the floor coloring, and I made the comment to Nini "she is almost 42", and without missing a beat, Emma Jo said "so she's 41", and I didn't even know she was listening. 

Then later on, she was sitting in my lap and I was teaching her how to play WWF; which is a fun and highly analytical game of letters.  In less than 5 minutes, she had found 10 word combos on the board, and then when she saw this line up in this order:  K U L Y, she said "we only need a C, and we could spell LUCKY", to which I said "Wow Spaz, you saw that! That's great, you are absolutely correct."

I love you  Emma Jo with all of my hart!

I am a blessed man.

Sunday, May 1, 2016

If I Were The Devil: Please Share


In 1965, Paul Harvey broadcast “If I Were The Devil.”  It is amazing that over 50 years ago how accurately he “prophesied” the future spiritual condition of the United States. 

Many of his statements were considered ridiculously outlandish at that time in history.  Yet, here is where we are and find ourselves today in 2016, with astonishing 100% accuracy of everything that has come true since his broadcast . . .

PAUL HARVEY’S ‘IF I WERE THE DEVIL’ 
 
"If I were the devil … If I were the Prince of Darkness, I’d want to engulf the whole world in darkness.  And I’d have a third of it’s real estate, and four-fifths of its population, but I wouldn’t be happy until I had seized the ripest apple on the tree — Thee.

So I’d set about however necessary to take over the United States.  I’d subvert the churches first — I’d begin with a campaign of whispers. With the wisdom of a serpent, I would whisper to you as I whispered to Eve: ‘Do as you please’, there are no rules, especially with sex and whom you have it with, or of which of the sexes you have it with, even if it is both.

To the young, I would whisper that ‘The Bible is a myth.’  I would convince them thru schools, cultural warping, rewriting the history of America's founders, and the media that man created God instead of the other way around.  I would confide that what’s bad is good, and that what’s good is ‘bad.’  And for the old and older, I would teach them to pray after me, ‘Our Father, which art in Washington, give me this day my daily bread…’

And then I’d get organized.  I’d educate authors in how to make lurid literature exciting, so that anything else would appear dull and uninteresting.  I’d spice up TV with dirty movies, 100's of unfiltered channels, and vice versa.  I’d pedal narcotics to whom I could.  I’d sell alcohol to ladies and gentlemen of distinction.  I’d tranquilize the rest with pills.

If I were the devil I’d soon have families at war with themselves with 2/3rd's of marriages ending in divorce, 4/5th's of children raised in broken homes and paid child care, and not stop until churches were at war with themselves, and nations were at war with themselves; until each in its turn was consumed by each other.  I would make sure that this would lead to the acceptance of 100's of millions of babies able to be legally murdered before they could be born.

I would wreck the economy by having politicians trap corporations with the need for higher profit, and I'd create runaway inflation, an uncountable national debt, and the inability of Dad to provide for his family financially without Mom also working full time.

And with promises of higher ratings I’d have mesmerizing media fanning the flames.  If I were the devil I would encourage schools to refine young intellects, but neglect to discipline emotions — no, just let those run wild, no more corporal punishment in school or at the home, until before you knew it, children would be shooting children, adults would be shooting children, and you’d have to have drug sniffing dogs and metal detectors at every schoolhouse door.

Within a decade I’d have prisons overflowing, I’d have judges promoting pornography — and then soon after I could evict God from the courthouse, then from the schoolhouse, and then from the houses of Congress.

And in His own churches I would substitute psychology for religion, and deify science.  I would lure priests and pastors into misusing boys and girls, and church money, and would have adultery running rampant between the pulpit and the pews.  I would make it look like the people that go to church are no different in life than the ones that don't.

If I were the devil I’d make the symbols of Easter an egg and the symbol of Christmas a fat man in a red suit, commercialized, and hated by the time it arrived each year.

If I were the devil I’d take from those who have, and give to those that want until I had killed the incentive of the ambitious to create a society of socialism.  And what do you bet that I could get whole states to promote gambling as the way to get rich by promising better schools?

I would caution against extremes and hard work and patriotism and moral conduct.  I would convince the young that marriage is old-fashioned, that swinging single from night to night is more fun, that what you see from women on magazines, in movies, and on the TV is the way to be.

I would promote multi-culturalism and alternative lifestyles as the norm, and would entice people to coexist and live in peace and harmony with drugs, mysticism, and to love the earth, and to listen to trees. 

And thus I could undress you in public, and I could lure you into bed each night with new diseases for which there is no cure.

In other words, if I were the devil I’d just keep right on doing on what he’s doing.

Paul Harvey, good day.”