Thanksgiving 2008

A Good Time Was Had By All

From 2008 Thanksgiving

My sister, Millie, and her husband, Drew, had us all to their house in Charlotte, NC.

My brother John and I drove up from Atlanta on Wednesday afternoon. So did half of Atlanta try to leave at the same time. A normal three hour drive became a five and a half hour drive. Lewis, Avery and Gracie drove over from Durham on Thursday.

Millie, Drew, and John worked all day Thursday cooking. The turkey went in the oven about 11 AM. The "cooked-to-death" green beans started about the same time. There was potato salad, dressing, sweet potato cassarole, cranberry relish, rolls and an apple pie to end off with.

I had a good time with Gracie. She is still in her terrible-twos stage but was pretty well behaved for the weekend.

We finished off the day with a rousing game of "Mexican Train" dominoes. I lost badly.

On Friday, Lewis, Avery, and Gracie drove back to their house. Andy and John did a minor house repair. Millie and I worked on her computers. She had a program on her laptop that would peg her CPU utilization at 100%. I found the offending process and looked it up on Google. Changing the service to start Manual instead of Auto fixed that. Avery was very grateful.

John and I drove back today.

E-mail error ends up on road sign

From the "I hate when that happens" department

The English is clear enough to lorry drivers - but the Welsh reads "I am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be translated."

Be careful of the e-mail responses you get from your translation department. Make sure they are translating what you want properly.

Read the story at BBC.

Technology is great - when it works.

Anniversary Comes - Anniversary Goes

At the Grave Side

Here are the pictures of the grave.

The grass right on her grave is having a problem. The replacement sod is not doing well.

I think it is because, while Trudie was an avid gardener, a South Carolina and then Georgia Master Gardener, and she loved most all growing things, she greatly preferred flowers. In fact, she on more than one occasion stated that "She HATED grass." She thought grass was just boring.

So I think it more than poetic that the grass on her "final resting place" is not doing so well.

Of course, Trudie is not there and where she is I believe she has made her peace with all of God's creation, including grass.

How am I doing?

I'm doing well. I'm grieving and know that "this too shall pass."

Thank you so much to everyone who have been praying! I have needed and have felt your prayers. I'm at peace about where I'm at today and I'm looking forward to what God has in store for me in the future.

Holidays

I'm spending the holidays with my family. We will be all together and that will be a good time. I'm looking forward to having quality time with Gracie!

Single Guys Exhortation (to say the least)

Perry Noble - New Spring Church

This "aside" was made by a megachurch pastor in Anderson, SC.

Watch and see what you think.



Beautiful_02- Single Guys Outtake from NewSpring Media on Vimeo.

Where I agree

Us single guys need to be the initiators. We need to be the ones doing the asking out. We need to hold the door open for our dates. We need to be the ones purposely searching for a woman of noble character.

Where I disagree

I don't think you can just tell a guy "grow a pair!" John Eldredge states, "Remember—masculinity is bestowed by masculinity." We need a father-figure to help us in growing a pair. We just can't grow them on our own.

This is an outtake from a series he did for women titled "Beautiful!" For the rest of this message visit newspring.cc/series/beautiful.

First Major Anniversary

Our Wedding Anniversary

Yesterday (11/2) was our wedding anniversary. We would have been married 18 years. This is the first of the major anniversaries that I will get to grieve through this season.

I didn't grieve much yesterday. I was not feeling any emotions because I was sick. It's interesting how feeling physically badly will trump feeling emotionally badly.

Today, I wasn't feeling much better but I went into work anyway. I worked most of the day and my boss let me come home a couple of hours early. I'm glad because I will get to get to bed at a decent time tonight. I hope I'm on the mend from my cold. It's been hard the last few days.

Election Tomorrow

I asked to be able to telecommute tomorrow. My boss also approved that and I will be able to go to the polls and vote some time during the day. Tomorrow will be a very interesting day indeed.

Being Sick is no Fun

It started light

I first came down with what I thought was a cold last Tuesday. I stayed home from work Tue & Wed and felt better and went back to work on Thursday. But the 10 hour day was probably beyond my energy level and then Friday I was wiped out. I did meet with a friend for lunch but I didn't sleep good.

Then it REALLY Hit

Saturday I was on the couch all day. I was able to get up to heat soup and that was about it. I called the church and let them know that they probably needed to find a substitute for me for today. I was scheduled to serve and I hated to give up my spot, but I'm glad today I did.

This Too Shall Pass

I know I'll feel better in a few more days. I've called a few friends to cheer myself up. When I was a kid and got sick, Mom would always get me a plastic model plane or boat to put together. I had a lot of fun assembling and painting those plastic models.

What do you do to cheer yourself up when you get sick?

Facebook Rocks!

Researcher: social networking trumps porn in web searches

That Ars Technica article headline caught my eye! There is now more Internet traffic for social networking than for porn. I can believe it.

This year, I joined Facebook and now have 38 "friends" that I keep up with. I must admit it is addicting. I find that I login at least once a day and see what my friends are doing. I don't update my status that often. I change it every week or so. I am a firm believer that one can put out TMI (too much information).

Is social networking replacing old-fashioned person-to-person socializing? Or is it using technology to do better socializing? Opinions?

Tommie Powell

Tommie the Mommy

Born January 3, 1920 Died October 16, 2008

My mother-in-law passed to Glory recently. She was an awesome lady.

She was very active in her church and the choir. They had a group of like-aged folks that called themselves the "XYZ" and was the life of the party whenever they went on trips. She was an expert in Scrabble and practically unbeatable. She also was know to reprimand an AJC columnist if they violated a grammar rule.

When my wife and her sister were growing up, all their friends called her "Tommie the Mommy." She was much beloved by all.

You can read the obituary here.

Mossy Creek Barnyard Festival

Great Weekend Weather

This was the 29th annual fall Mossy Creek Barnyard Festival. Trudie had done this show since the first year it was held. It was good to go back and spend time with Avery, Lewis, & Gracie. Avery has been an exhibitor for a number of years. Now, the promoters have given Avery the spot that Trudie used to be in. It was great weather all weekend and it was fun to see some of our friends.

It's a Tough Job but Somebody Has to Do It


That is being a grandPop to Gracie. She is now 2 3/4 years old and very much in the throws of the terrible-twos. The screaming show she put forth when she DID NOT WANT to take a nap yesterday was truly three-booths-down head-turning. I did take Gracie to the petting zoo. We had lots of fun together.

I'm Having Way Too Much Fun

People can't believe it!

I am totally enjoying the reaction that I'm getting when people first seem we without my mustache and beard. It is total shock and awe. I look SO different now. At church last Sunday, they introduced me in the big volunteer meeting as the "new face" on the team. Most people say they like the change. Most people also remark on how much younger I now look. The minimum they have said is that I'm 10 years younger. Some have even said 15 years. I'll take even 10 years younger.

"Pictures Please!"

I've had a number of requests for digital pictures. I will be happy to meet you at your convenience and you can take all the pictures you want :-). I'm having way too much fun to spoil the surprise and I want to see your reactions.

Where's the video?

I had some friends shoot the whole beardectomy process. I have 35 minutes of raw video I will put into a story. It will take time. Please be patient.