My Ramblings

Last night, Linda told me, “I want to go see Daniel tomorrow.” It surprised me because her announcement was sudden and unexpected. I asked why to which she replied, “Every Easter when the kids were little, I’d buy them some of those nasty Cadbury candy eggs. Daniel just loved them. I want to take him some for Easter. ” So, this morning she got up and drove the 40 miles to the San Joaquin Valley National Cemetery. She wanted to go alone and I did not object. Before leaving town, she stopped and bought the eggs. She sent me the photo below and it made me cry. The cap he wore while he served our country in the Persian Gulf is included in the photo, but she brought ot home with her. She called me to say she was leaving the cemetery to head home and I could hear that she was crying. She later thanked me for letting her go alone and said she needed it. She said she has not cried that hard in several months. I relate very well with her need to be alone with her son and her grief. Sometim...

Most young people these days have not and will not ever be able to experience one of the greatest inventions ever- the drive-in theater. The thought is very sad to this old man because going to the drive-in since I was four or five years old is such a fond memory. I checked Wikipedia and found some historical information about drive-in theaters: A drive-in theater is a form of cinema structure consisting of a large outdoor movie screen, a projection booth, a concession stand and a large parking area for automobiles. Within this enclosed area, customers can view movies from the privacy and comfort of their cars. The screen can be as simple as a wall that is painted white, or it can be a steel truss structure with a complex finish. Originally, a movie's sound was provided by speakers on the screen and later by an individual speaker hung from the window of each car, which would be attached by a wire. This system was superseded by the more economical and less damage-prone method...

A game that kids like to play is “House.” This is the game where young children pretend that they are grownups, set up a pretend household and assume the roles of the father, mother, the children, uncles and aunts, etc. Sometimes the kids like to pretend they are the family dog or cat. Allow me to take a rabbit trail here and relate a story my daughter, Heather told me about my grandson, Logan who is six years old… As she drove him to school Friday morning, Logan said, “Mom I have a lot of friends that are girls.” Heather then said, “Yup. That's okay; just remember to treat them like ladies.” He replied, “Right. I should treat them like they are my wife.” When Heather asked him how he would do that, he said, “Treat them kindly and make sure they have enough food to eat.” That’s my boy! Today, I will admit to you all that, for most of my life, much like children playing “house,” I have played “Christian.” I have not done my best all the time to follow the teachings of God’s Wor...

The following is a rewrite of a story about the life and death of one of our family’s pets which I wrote a couple of days after he passed away: Our family’s beautiful, good, and kind dog, Duke, had to be put to sleep on June 1, 2010. His hips just gave out on him due to arthritis, in spite of the fact he was only about five years old. Duke was the best dog we could ever have asked for. He was friendly to all (except cats, squirrels and the cocky bulldog, Hank, who lived down the street). Duke patrolled his domain (our backyard), ever watching to protect us. Not even low-flying aircraft were safe from him. Police helicopters and airplanes fled his barking. Duke fully believed he was the protector of our family and was always eager to prove it (especially if he thought one of us was watching). He would run out to bark at enemies real or imagined. Duke greatly loved us and we loved him. He was a big, 100+ lb., slobbery red-nosed pit bull who thought he was a seven lb. lap dog. Some...

I mentioned in a previous post that I have done some traveling. When I was younger, I loved the thought of visiting certain places in the world, something I never dreamed I would do because of the cost, that no one in my family had ever traveld outside the US and my general ignorance about the process. I took my first trip overseas after I was married to Linda and it was  somewhat of a surprise how it came about. In 1985, Linda and I, along with our toddler, Daniel, drove up to Oregon to visit various friends we had met in our college days. One stop was in Cottage Grove to see Debbie and Gary Williams and their son Jesse who was close to Daniel's age. Gary and I had been roommates at San Jose Bible College and I recall he sometimes spoke about his travels to Aruba and Tahiti. One afternoon, Gary and I were sitting in his study and our talk turned to Tahiti and how fun it would be for us to go there together. On the spur of the moment we decided to each go and ask the o...

February 19, 2013, will mark the one year anniversary of the death of a good friend of mine, Tim Crownover. Tim died. I’ve been told, from a heart attack; however, I do not know the details. Late on the night of February 19, 2012, I was called to the hospital he had been taken to, but he was gone from this life already. I was allowed into the ER where his body lay on a gurney. He did not look dead, only asleep. I held his strong, rough hand and momentarily stroked his hair. It broke my heart that he was gone. I wrote the following words and read them to the packed house at his memorial service: Every person in this room has one or more Tim stories. I have many so here a just a few of mine: I met Tim when we were 10 years old. I moved into the side of town he lived in during the summer of 1966. One day I was walking home from Richland Market down Ninth Street when I passed by his house. Tim and Ron Megee were shooting pool in Tim’s garage. As I walked by, they said hello to me and ...

It began again last week; missing my son very deeply. I was listening to a song on my iPhone; “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother” by the Hollies.” Now, the song does not particularly make me think of Daniel, at least not before that day. In fact, the song reminds me of high school because the phrase, “he ain’t heavy, he’s my brother” was used in my Senior yearbook and I almost always think of that when I hear the song. However, it hit me in a different way last week. I had to sit down on my bed and cry as I listened to it. Other music also causes me to think of him including the Black Keys and Mumford and Sons because Daniel was the first one to tell me about these two groups. He was repaying the favor because when he was a kid I introduced him and all three of the girls to the music of Roy Orbison, The Traveling Wilburys and Percy Sledge. All our kids loved Percy’s “When a Man Loves a Woman” even though they didn’t get the lyrics right. Somehow, the phrase, “trying to hold on to your hi...