Category → Events
Happy New Year 2010
I just want to wish everyone a happy New Year as the clock strikes midnight.
Never Reboot While Blogging
I had a blog post typed up and was within a sentence or two of being ready to post when I decided to click “YES” on a request to reboot to complete a security update installation. Wow! That was not very smart because just as you probably guessed, the post was lost. This should be common sense and I must be lacking any. 
Well to sum up the post that was lost, it was just a year in review post. I was telling how 2009 was a year of milestones in our family. Many things happened that made it a very memorable year. For example my wife and I celebrated our 20th anniversary. I graduate the University of Oklahoma. I completed ten years of service at my current employer. My oldest son turned 18 years old. My family and I was able to visit my mom’s side of the family in New Mexico for the first time since 1989. My wife and kids had never met them and so this was a huge moment for us. I lost my mom in 2005 and as much as I miss her, I do not want to lose touch with her side of the family. Also my sister moved back to Oklahoma for the first time in 31 years. This was a rough transition but things are going very well for her as well. On a sad note, I lost my grandmother in March when she died at 90 years old. This was the last grandparent that I had.
Two of these events, namely my graduation and our trip to New Mexico was a little tainted because I was suffering from the worst case of poison ivy that I have ever had. I helped my dad clean up some vines and brush that was growing on his fence line and three days later I found myself itching out of control. Five weeks, three trips to my doctor and one visit to the emergency room later and I finally overcame this breakout. My doctor gave me some medication that I was allergic to that made it even worse eventually resulting in my going to the emergency room in Las Cruces, New Mexico. This was in May and June when this happened and to this day I still have some discoloration on my legs. For this reason my wife ordered me to never go into my dad’s backyard again . My graduation was supposed to be a glorious event though I could not enjoy it at the moment.
The National Weather Service reported that we had 14.1 inches of snow, later revised to 13.5 inches on Christmas eve. Even after the estimated snow fall was scaled back it was the most snow we have ever recorded in Oklahoma City. Here it is eight days later and we still have some snow on the ground. This year has been very eventful and happy for the most part. This year we have decided that we want to move away from my childhood neighborhood because the crime has reached a point that we want to have a restart. We will not be moving until 2011 but we are currently restoring the house to make it sellable. We are trying to go the extra mile so that we can get the most from our home when the time comes. We are hopeful for 2010 to be a wonderful year for our family. It will be difficult to match 2009 as far as impacting our family in a dramatic way. I will keep you up to date and see if it lives up to the previous year. I would like to thank all of you for your making my blog a place to stop. I really enjoy sharing our lives with the rest of you. I wish you all a very happy 2010.
Christmas Eve Snowstorm
Wow! We often complain about never having snow here in Oklahoma City. Most of the time if we do have winter weather, it ends up being sleet or freezing rain. Yesterday it was a nice 65 degrees and we were really enjoying it. This morning I woke up at 6:00 AM and it was raining. By 7:15 it had turned to sleet. The sleet fell for nearly four hours before turning to snow. By noon the National Weather Service had issued a blizzard warning for most of Oklahoma including Oklahoma City. In my 43 years I cannot remember ever having a blizzard warning here. The picture above shows looking behind my house toward the North. The picture below shows a view looking across the street. I was having a difficult time taking this picture because I the snow was blowing in my face even though the wind was from behind the house and I was on the front porch.
To be honest, I was very skeptical of this being much of a winter weather event because we have been promised these storms before and ended up with rain. When these pictures were taken, the wind was blowing 50+ miles per hour (MPH). Although we received 14.1 inches of snow, the drifts were pretty high. We had to shovel a huge drift from behind the car just so we could back out of the drive way to pick up my son from work.
The good thing about this snow is that tomorrow is Christmas and we have not had a white Christmas in 20 years. As of the time I am posting this, it is still snowing pretty hard. The radar shows that it is almost over. It looks like the snow will not last more than a couple more hours. Tomorrow should be a nice clear day for Christmas although we will have a nice snow covered day. While it is nice to have the snow, I have been watching the weather coverage all day and it has been telling us about one car accident in Midwest City that involved 50 cars. Another accident in El Reno involved 20+ cars. I know there have been many others but these two are the ones that really stood out to me. Let’s hope no one was seriously injured. It would be tragic for someone to have injuries on Christmas eve. I did drive to the store just outside my residential area about an hour ago and it was tough but manageable. As long as you don’t stop in a deep snow drift you are okay. We had to help push another car so they could get moving.
For us, it has been a nice day. Our white Christmas is a welcome site and we are happy to see it despite having nearly zero visibility.
Happy Thanksgiving
This is a day that we all look forward to and it has finally arrived. We are up bright and early this morning so we can go see some relatives on this Thanksgiving Day. I wish my oldest son could go with us but he has to work today. I will take many pictures and post them on Flickr while we are there. It is a very chilly 32 degrees this morning at 6:00 AM. Yesterday my son and I worked on painting the East side of the house as well as taking down my high frequency (HF) antenna from the tower. It was sort of sad taking the antennas down but it is a price to pay to move. I cannot sell a house with 400 cables coming out of the house. Just kidding, it was really 401 . Soon I am going to have to take the 443.3 MHz repeater down as well for the same reason. This repeater will likely be relocated to my dad’s house though the WIN System may be down for a considerable time because I will have to transmit the signal to his house. You can only have one IRLP node per external IP address and he cannot have both of them at his house though he can have both repeaters there.
My beautiful wife Sunday worked all day long cooking for today’s event. I just hope we can fit it all in the car. I gained 100 pounds just smelling the food cooking yesterday. This morning we are trying to clean up the house, shower, and get the food to the car without dropping any of it. This should be a challenge but I think we can do it.
I will post updates to Twitter/Facebook from my phone while I am with the family. These updates also show up to the right side of this page. It looks like it is going to be a great weather day at 60 degrees and tomorrow is going to be 70. We could not ask for better weather.
You may remember my rant about Google Wave a few day ago. My complaint was that after a month, I had no one to try it on because I could not invite my own family and friends. Well this week, they sent me eight invites, and then by the time, I got down to two, it went back up to 10. I have now sent them out to people that I thought would actually sign up and use it. Hopefully over time, they will send out more but for now I am satisfied and I take back all the horrible things I said earlier. It does work pretty good but there is one glitch that I have notice. Keep in mind that it is a beta release but my friend Kevin Davis, has been added to my contacts at least 10 times and every time I come back, he is gone. It is only him that is doing it. Maybe I should talk to him and ask if he is deleting me . Just kidding. He and used Google Wave for over an hour a couple days ago.
Remember to be thankful to God for all the blessings you have on this day. I can honestly say that we have been very blessed. It looks like I am holding up the family’s progress this morning so I better get this posted.
Many Names
This Independence Day 2009 my cousin Larry Cline asked me to go to the mobile Vietnam Memorial that was stopping through town. It was amazing how many people showed up to see this. I was only nine years old when this war was over but it seems as though it has been a shadow in the background my entire life. It was a somber place to see because many people were clearly moved when looking at the names on this wall. They had a ceremony where they called all the names of those from Oklahoma that were killed during this war. You could hardly help being moved by it all even if you were not directly involved in the conflict. It has always been a dream to go to Washington D.C. to see the real one among other things. I thought this was worthy of sharing.
Happy Birthday Dad!
Today is my dad’s birthday and I just wanted to wish him a wonderful 72nd birthday. He is really a great father and I would not trade him We are all going to go out to the Golden Corral in Midwest City this afternoon to celebrate with him. We are grateful for his good health and being there for us during hard times. I just wanted to wish my dad Happy Birthday!
Happy Birthday Sunday
Today is my wife’s birthday and if there has ever been someone that deserves good things it is her. Next month we will be married for 20 years and I have been so blessed because of her. She is a giver and the pure example of a Proverbs 31 wife. In the history of the world there has never been anyone as blessed as I am. Each day I try to remember to thank God for what a wonderful wife I have. She is always looking out for someone else. Any time she gets a bonus or tax refund or anything that she could just spend on herself, she spends it on the family. Sunday is a very selfless person and deserves a special place in heaven. There are not enough words in the English language to tell you just how good she is.
After all these years I can still say we have never had a serious argument. I still love being around her all the time. After 20 years we still have lunch together when we are at work. After 20 years I still have that feeling I had back in the very beginning. She lights up a room and blesses all the occupants when she comes in. All I can say is I love you Sunday!
Family Could Use Prayers
This has been a very eventful week for my family and extended family in a “not so good” way. I cannot divulge these issues on here because some of it is still going on and I would not want to embarrass any of them. These family members could really use your prayers if you could give them. I believe God knows the situation and knows what needs to be done. There is another situation with another family member that is going on that also needs prayers. These two people are very important to me and they are under a lot of stress. Please pray for them if you can.
Summer in Oklahoma City
I guess it is that time again. The photo above shows the temperature as 109 degrees while the National Weather Service only listed the high as 105. Oklahoma gets a little of both cold and hot. This is fairly common temperatures to get in summer though it only happens about two weeks each year. The average high on the hottest day of the year is 94 degrees though we have periods of much warmer like this. Just thought I would share this.
Sad Eventful Day
June 25th 2009 was meant to be an exciting day with the first ever NBA draft for the Oklahoma City Thunder. With the Thunder getting the third draft pick it was sure to be a great day. It was a Thursday that was going to be a Friday for me because I was taking off work on Friday. What a sad day yesterday with the loss of two famous people in our country yesterday and three in the last week. Those who have read this blog know that I am anything but a celebrity worshiper. In fact, I often chastise others that do engage in celebrity worship. With that said, I have to admit that Michael Jackson was a huge part of my teenage years. When his Thriller album came out, I was in 10th grade and I will never forget the impact he had on my teenage years. For the tough guys that I tried to emulate, it was not cool to listen to his music though we were all closet Michael Jackson fans. I remember no one would admit to listening to his music yet he sold more albums than anyone in history. Someone was buying them. I remember listening to his music and then when my friends would come over I would quickly switch the radio back over to the classic rock station so my friends would think I was cool. Looking back I would never choose that life style again where I could not be myself. For that reason to this day I cannot stand classic rock music. I sometimes forget with my own kids the pressure that people put on you as a teenager. The pressure they put on themselves to fit into the group.
Though he made some mistakes, I cannot deny his impact on my own life. In fact here I am at 43 years old and I have more than 20 mp3’s of his songs on this very computer I am typing on. He made some terrible choices that I would hope that he regretted afterward. I know I have made some huge mistakes in my own life that I would change if I could do them again.
Farrah Fawcett was a part of my younger years with her role in Charlie’s Angels. Later she was in several movies including the Burning Bed. That movie was a wake up call to anyone that considered being a spouse abuser for sure. I remember all my friends had that famous bathing suit poster on their walls. I never had one myself because my parents would not allow that at the time. I often wondered what makes people act so crazy with celebrities and I still do. In this case however, I lose any sense of rationale. No one can deny that Michael Jackson was unusual and in some cases lacked some common sense. Nevertheless his existence brought back my teenage years. When I say he lacked some common sense, I refer to his continued exposure to children even after being accused of child molestation. Most people would take that first accusation as a lesson to not put themselves in that situation again.
In all fairness, if this had been anyone else I would be less likely to give him a second chance in the same situation. That double standard goes back to the nostalgia that he brought back to me. This amazing news was just hours after hearing of the death of Farrah Fawcett and just two days after Ed McMahon. Farrah’s fight with cancer was such an opportunity to shine the light on this disease to get people involved in finding a cure. This opportunity was cut short with the loss of Michael Jackson, ironically by a heart attack. Both heart trouble and cancer are the two largest causes of death in the United States. I know it sounds like I am speaking in a way that Michael Jackson’s death was unfair to Farrah. It may seem that way because I do have an emotional connection to both of these diseases.
I lost my mom in 2005 to a heart attack and my mother in-law in 2002 to cancer. My mom had a serious heart attack when she was only 29 years old. This attack caused permanent damage to her heart and she suffered many heart attacks over the next 30 years. My incredibly supportive dad stood by her side stressing out for years. He was so stressed at times that he looked terrible. I really loved my mom and miss her so much. It has never been the same since she has been gone. My mother in-law had many illnesses over the years and one day we found out that she had cancer. By then it was too late to do anything. My mother in-law was a very good person and my wife is just like her. Ever since then my wife has been actively involved in the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life. This helps her feel like she is doing something for her mom because she never had time with her own mom.
This blog post may seem a little down but a death always brings this out in me. Michael Jackson was so big during my most influential years that it is difficult to believe that it is true. With such a big event, this will certainly go down as one of the biggest events that I will always remember…even bigger than Elvis Presley’s death. When these things happen it really makes me begin to think and put things into perspective. It makes me think about our purpose on this earth. Did we just simply land here by accident’? Was there an explosion one day and living creatures just evolved from no where? Is there purpose? It can make a person begin to think of their value in this world.
In my case it makes me thankful for what I have. I have Jesus who died for my sins so that I would have a chance to be forgiven for my mistakes, and bad choices. I for one believe we are not an accident and someone put us here for a reason. This person is God. Anyone that is honest with themselves and looks the creation of this world would have to admit that it is so well designed that it had to be done on purpose. Just look at a tree leaf and see the awesomeness of HIS creation. God is almighty and deserves a glory greater than all of man could give him. He is honest, just, powerful, forgiving, loving, and fair. I think he deserves our true worship. With all the emotional feelings that a singer can give us, it cannot compare to the glory that God deserves.
I truly wish the best for Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, and Ed McMahon and hope they were blessed enough to know that Jesus died for them and they had purpose. I have watched countless interviews over the last 24 hours about how Michael Jackson as much money and fame as he had still desired purpose. God loved him and that is the greatest purpose a person can have. If he could have ever realized this, deep down it would give him a sense of value that a trillion dollars could not compare. As bad as we all were at following the guidance that God has given us, he loved us enough to come to us in the form of a man to die in our place. If that ever gets into your spirit, it will bring tears to your eyes that anyone could really care for you that much. I feel blessed to have been able to know this revelation. I feel blessed to have such a wonderful wife for the last 20 years. God also blessed me with two incredible sons that I would never trade for anything on this earth.
It is interesting how a death can make you think about things that we actively try to avoid thinking about. I have never met any of these celebrities but their loss made me think about what is important. I hope I am not the only one that feels this way. I know I am not because I scrolled across the radio this morning and I heard many stations that spoke of the death of Michael Jackson as an event they will never forget. I heard those on the local sports station saying the same thing and they are famous for belittling celebrities all the time. I have heard them make fun of him many times though this morning I heard the same people discussing this event seriously as a moment they will never forget. In the end, this in my opinion is a good thing because death is something we all will face some day and many do not wish to think about it or their purpose. Events like this make people think of them and can make people think about what is really important in their lives.
Today I took off work so I could go to the doctor to get the results of a heart echo that I had last week. I often have these anxiety attacks where my heart starts racing and I feel short of breath. Since I lost my mom from a heart attack, I often worry about them. After talking to many of my family members I find that I am not the only one that has them. It is scary when they happen and it makes me feel like I am not able to breath. I found out later that the accelerated breathing makes it worse. My results came back this morning and my doctor said that it looked normal.
Well now that I have pretty much “bummed out” everyone with my blog post I guess I will get on with a great weekend. Remember to recognize what you have and be thankful for them. It is too easy to focus on the bad things and miss out on the great things and people you have around you.