I took that picture about a month ago. I was about to go to bed but I couldn’t find OtherDogGeedingII but needed to turn the light off in DaughterGeeding’s room. I suppose he was guarding her from bad dreams.
I watch the last period and overtime of the Dallas Stars game last night. I don’t watch much hockey but this was a local team in a game seven. For some reason, John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” was being played. The crowd was really into it singing along with a lot of gusto. It’s a fun crowd song, I get that, but it’s about West Virginia and the game was in St. Louis. This reminds of the period when the Dallas Cowboys would play “Sweet Home Alabama” before kickoffs which annoyed the heck out of me.
Drywall is one of the toughest things to repair. Years ago GeedingManor had some foundation issues and I’m trying to repair some cracks in our walls. The process is pretty easy, it’s matching the texture, that orange peel pattern that’s the challenge. I can never get those aerosol cans to work right. I think in many ways, drywall is an art form which has to be mastered.
I have a close friend, someone I grew up and attended college with, recently turned down an opportunity to pastor a church in Hawaii. Funny thing, but not only is my friend from Mineral Wells but the representative of the prospective church also grew up there.
I have another close friend who is also a Baptist preacher. He mentioned his teenage son goes to a public school and it provides parents the option of whether they want their children to participate in a sex education class. He explained he and his wife chose not to have their son participate, that they would prefer to have that sort of stuff taught by them based on biblical and Christian principles. Several times he stated he was concerned about how “the world” teaches sex. None of this was surprising and it’s especially common where I grew up. I asked if he and his wife had the talk before the school’s scheduled sex education class and he seemed surprised by the question. I explained I wasn’t judging his parenting, I simply thought the students who attended the class would talk a lot about it afterward and that was an opportunity to have his son prepared to respond to a sensitive subject matter. For the most part, I don’t have an issue of parents opting to have their children not attend a sex education class. I also recognize each child is different. But I think a good approach for conservative Christian parents would be to have their children take the class, but before doing so, teach them how you would prefer it be taught and then after they take the class talk to them about what was taught and let them know what areas you support and don’t support – have a conversation about it. Eventually, they will be faced with what was taught one way or another, either by friends, personal experience, social media, or an entertainment median. As a parent, you have to make the most of the opportunities which come about. I’m now reminded of a sex education booklet I had for a “Sociology of Marriage” class I took in college. The front cover had the words of John 8:32 – Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
TheRoot.com is an online African-American news magazine focused on black culture. If you are familiar with black culture, then you are well aware of how significant the barbershop is, it’s a place in the community where people hang out for hours playing games and conversing. I recently discovered TheRoot.com has a weekly tongue in cheek (Oh, stewardess! I speak jive.) ‘Game of Thrones’ recap which I found pretty funny – A Game of Thrones Recap From the Westeros Barbershop
I know y’all heard they killed that black girl down in King’s Landing yesterday. I’ve seen the video. She was unarmed, not bothering anybody, and they cut her head clean off in front of her boyfriend while he just stood there like he didn’t even have any balls or anything.
I haven’t watched this so I have no idea what to expect but thought some of you might find this interesting – People Try To Guess The Religion Of Strangers In A Line-Up
This past weekend I heard a guy start a conversation with, “I first met my ex-wife as she was leaving her exam with her gynecologist, who was my father.”
Random high school and college memory – Math books provided the answers to all even-numbered problems in the back.
I’ve hired a carpet cleaner maybe four or five times over the years. The price is never the same as what I initially booked it for.
Billy Joel’s We Didn’t Start the Fire was the No. 1 song in the U.S. back in December of 1989. The first words of the song are, “Harry Truman”. I wonder if Mr. Truman ever imagined his name would be at the beginning of a popular rock song.
Norah O’Donnell has been named the 8th anchor in the history of the ‘CBS Evening News’ and will begin her tenure this summer replacing Jeff Glor who has only been in the lead anchor chair since December 2017. From what I read, it has more to do with the new CBS News president promoting her than it was of him not reaching expectations. I always felt O’Donnell came across as a little smug, a lot like Brian Williams, but I suppose that’s not a valid criticism. However, she annoys the heck out of me on Twitter whenever the State of the Union is on because all she does is copy and paste the speech from a version released early to the press as it’s happening. I’m not looking for commentary, but maybe a bit of insight and analysis. I do like the work of John Dickerson, even though he’s pretty vanilla but the guy knows his history. He’s got a great podcast on presidential history and trivia.
Man, it was a very busy weekend, and there’s a lot I’d like to share, but I’m swamped for time so I’m just throwing together what I can right now.
On certain windy days when the temperature is a bit crisp and the wind blocks out all background noise, time feels like it stops and freezes for a few moments.
I’ve followed Rachel Held Evans for many years and became a big fan. Not so much that I bought any of her books, but I certainly read every article she wrote and followed her on Twitter. She may have been a woman, but she had a pair of brass balls. The non-traditional and non-conformist Christian author died at the age of 37. She had the flu and ended up having seizures after an allergic reaction to antibiotics and was put in a medical coma. People like her made me feel comfortable questioning the Christian establishment, consider different perspectives and how to go about looking at things from those perspectives, and learn that you don’t have to feel like you have all the answers, not everything is as black and white as it seems, that there’s beauty in the shades of grays. Hell, I think if grace had a color, it would be gray. But not only did she question the establishment and cause them to look at themselves, but she also did it with tact and grace and never abandoned her faith. It’s one thing for me to have a silly little blog, but she would discuss these sharp-edged issues in person and there’s no doubt a plethora of trolls flexed their internet muscles at her. Yet, she was resolute, absolutely resilient. As Lent started I’m sure she thought she’d live through it, we all did. Life will take that unexpected turn, sometimes much sharper than we can ever imagine. Death, the great equalizer, it will humble the shit out of us quickly.
I’m not planning on dying soon and not going through any more depression than usual, but I enjoy thinking about my funeral and planning things out. I haven’t made any formal plans. As an introvert and someone who feels uncomfortable when given any attention, funeral planning is like throwing a party you always wanted for yourself but know you can never attend, and that’s really freeing. A lot of these thoughts came to mind thinking of Rachel Held Evans and then watching Adam Sandler’s tribute to his late friend Chris Farley. I’ve mentioned I’m a sucker for watching the end of the show in which the guest host stands on stage with all the cast members and thanks the audience as the band starts playing and the credit rolls. I think it would be neat to have that song played at the very end of my funeral as everyone is exiting into the foyer where some sort of buffet (most likely catered by Hutchins BBQ and Babe’s Chicken Diner) will be served.
Typically, I prefer not to buy clothing online because I’m so particular about how it fits I like to try them on first. However, I saw an Amazon Basics shirt on Amazon at the right price point I decided to give it a try. The shirt (a package of two shirts, actually) was too large and I attempted to return the item. Amazon provided the full refund but told me not to return the product. They make so much money it’s probably cost-effective for them not to process a return.
I rarely pay with cash anymore so I don’t get to root through coins often. It’s fun looking at dates and it’s especially fun when a foreign coin makes an unexpected appearance. I thought I had a normal U.S. penny but to my surprise, it was a once cent Greek Euro. The ship is an Athenian trireme:
A trireme (/ˈtraɪriːm/; derived from Latin: trirēmis “with three banks of oars”; Ancient Greek: τριήρης triērēs, literally “three-rower”) was an ancient vessel and a type of galley that was used by the ancient maritime civilizations of the Mediterranean, especially the Phoenicians, ancient Greeks and Romans.
Engadget – From today, you can use Google’s AI to create a unique “poem portrait,” an ethereal image of your self-portrait overlaid with an exclusive poem generated from a word of your choice
LiberallyLean posted a very old picture of the Cotton Bowl yesterday when inspired me to dig into the stadium’s past and look up stuff about the Alamo.
One of the items on that map was a replica of the Alamo (left, center). I had no idea North Texas had any Alamo replicas, which inspired me to dig a bit deeper.
Here are several pictures of Dallas area Alamo replicas with a few photos. Both were in Fair Park. As far as I know, neither had a basement.
The first one was a gift to the city by G. B. Dealey and the Dallas Morning News — it stood stoically at the entrance to the fairgrounds from 1909 until 1935 — and the second one was a rebuilding of the first which was torn down to make way for the splendor of the Art Deco Centennial extravaganza and lasted from 1936 until 1951.
