The Gardener

I spent alot of time outside toady. From the early morning when the air was cool and the sky overcast until the sun came up and the temperature boiled up to 80-something. Anyway, I was just shredding leaves and hacking vines only paying attention to what was dead and needed to be removed and what was alive and could stay. I also had a radio on the play the St. Louis Cardinals game (2-1 over the Pittsburgh Pirates). Then a neighbor came over; she started talking about how the house used to look and the woman who had planted most of what I have over the past few years dug out. She told me about how she had helped the woman when she became too old to do some of the manual labor. My neighbor then went into detail talking about some of the flowers that have yet to feel the snip of my loppers. Telling me how to care for them and what to expect from each plant over the next few months. She told me a little of what was going on in her garden and some of her plans for future growing. After she left I put away all my tools and bagged the trash. Then in typical Oklahoma fashion clouds rolled in, thunder, lightening, rain and hail fell long enough to cancel baseball practice and then proceeded quickly in the opposite direction that it came from. When I came back from an errand I sat in the van and look at the rain soaked yard, and thought about how her plants are probably happy (as happy a plant can be). Having someone dote on your color, size, and shape; noticing all the minute intricacies seeking out the best traits and paring off those that are flawed or harmful. I have been kicking around some song lyrics I heard one Sunday morning and they came to me as looked at my yard. “Knowing I am your desire.” I have been trying to sort out what it means to me to be desired by God, and how my life (would/should/could) reflects that knowledge. I think my gardener neighbor helped me imagine that today.

NCRR Bracket

Here is a link that is fun for people who like rock 'n' roll as well as college basketball. To find the information you will have to scroll down through the entries to 23 March 2009. Enjoy.

I am thinking about blogging again.

but I am not really sure what I want to say. I think I will close this whole blog down and start over with a new one . . . Everything I like to do takes so much time.

Dear Terry

I couldn't find a way to post a comment on your Sept. 11 blog, but I wanted to say that it is great. Last year on Sept. 11 I can remember dragging people into the MWR (Morale, Welfare, and Recreation) Computer Room, navigating them to your site and telling them to read the blog. Thanks.

family tree part two.

So I am really feeling a connection from my past. My kin folk really got around. Dad's family moved in and around every state that connects to Oklahoma. Mom's folks did too. Although Mom could not trace our family back as far as Dad did I still get a strong connection to them. Through their love of story telling, and traveling. My Grandpa Ray had to ride the rails during the Depression to find work. Sleeping at strangers houses, living day by day and moving on when work dried up. There are also several stories to tell right here in Tulsa. My grandad helped build the Golden Driller, worked in the Gilcrease home and museum and some of the buildings down town. I took a walk on a break today and tried to imagine the hustle of Tulsa during those days.


I regret that my grand dad's both passed before I could appreciate their love and the wealth of knowledge they could have passed on but hearing tales from my parents has drawn me closer and made me more curious.

When I asked what mom thought her dad would like to share with my son she told me how insistent he was on safety. "Hit the metal nail, not the thumb nail."

Family tree.

Nine generations ago a man named William sailed from Scotland to America. While here in America he and his wife settled down and had a son named John. John and his wife had Samuel, who also named his son Samuel. Samuel and his wife gave birth George who in time had a son named Samuel. This latest Samuel married Lydia Rose. Samuel and Rose adopted one son and gave birth to 4 others. The youngest son was named John. That John married Nina and their oldest son was John. When their son John was old enough to marry he chose a young woman named Laura, the fairest of her kind. Shortly after they were wed they had a son who was named the third John. Although the family was not real creative when naming boys they also had daughters who were each beautiful and named really original names.

William
John
Samuel
Samuel Bigger
George William
Samuel Henry
John R.
John R. Jr
John R. 3

Mommy, the tooth fairy didn’t come!

A steady stream of terror flowed in through all the doors and windows of our tiny house. How could the tooth fairy NOT have come? My smart, quick thinking wife retorted, “It’s still night-night time.” Problem solved, almost. It was already ten-till-seven and chances are any sleep he caught would be brief and light. Not to fear, even as we speak, my son is quickly assembling the Bionicle that timely little fairy awarded him for loosing his first molar.