BagOfNothing.com

Hello all!  This is Jimi, Keith’s friend from 1st grade to now.  Keith is out of the office today, so I thought I’d share some things to help you all along your day.  FYI, I may use terms that may seem slightly disrespectful, but after putting up with Keith for roughly 35 years, I think I have built some credit!

So I have been in the Chicago area for a month now.  Great weather comparatively, but still humid.  My golf clubs have been in corporate storage, and I get them tomorrow.  You have no idea how much this means to me!  I also believe it has a direct correlation to my singleness.  I moved up here for a job.  I am hoping that the move will help me create ambition, which I have lacked for a long, long time.  I’m pretty content in hanging out with my friends, playing golf and poker, and cheering for my favorite sports teams (Rangers, Stars, Mavs and Redskins).  What I have found so far is that most cannot believe I moved FROM TX TO ILLINOIS.  I also, without prompting, get to hear about taxes and corruption everyday!  I’m about as politically-minded as a 3-toed sloth.  I’m not some whine-bag, freedom-hating Democrat like Keith!!! (see how I said I’m not one way, then immediately follow with a completely contradictory statement that seems to prove otherwise?  That’s why it’s funny!)  Little things are starting to be noticed here.  You can buy liquor at CVS, and on Sundays too!  Perfect for those looking to hastily forget all they just heard in church!  There are taxes on everything here, even normal groceries.  I believe it is 7% in my county.  If you are going to the city, go the old-school route of printing off MapQuest directions.  GPS does not work in the city, especially when you get on Lower Wacker (where they filmed the scene in The Fugitive when HF washes the window of his friend’s BMW that turns out to be the mastermind of the crime that ends up with a dead wife.  Sorry, spoiler alert?).  Bars in the River North area are really friendly when the weather is like this.  Lake Michigan looks like an ocean.  I have seen more Ferrari and Lambourgini douchers in one weekend to serve me for the rest of my life.  The suburbs are just like the ones in DFW, except for all the corn and beans growing.  I’m living in Naperville, and I may be the only single person out of college in the whole city.  But enough about me.  If you want to know more, find the posting from about a month ago with a picture of me in 9th grade.

As a lot of you have read, a group of us get together each Spring to evaluate and determine a recipient of a scholarship in memory of our beloved friend Micah Lindstrom.  Today would have been Micah’s 40th birthday.  To think he would be 40 today, it really does create an introspective mindset.  If you have read anything about him, you know he was quite child-like.  By no means to I mean immature, as he was one of the most logical thinkers I can remember meeting. We have been meeting like that for 13 years.  I would have expected Micah to remain simplistic, but I really like to think he would have brought a gaggle of kids into this world.  John and Tim, two others on our committee, have combined to produce 8 children.  I understand to “be fruitful and multiply”, but this is overkill!  Oh, but to see Micah with 5+ kids right now, as annoying as hearing about them constantly would be, I would give up my horrible impressions and flat-falling jokes!  Micah was incredibly fit, but he falls into a category of Chris Farley, John Candy and John Belushi to me—his time here was much too short!  But, the fruit they all bore in their respective ways—priceless!  I will quote Banksy, the noted graffiti artist.  He said of death: “They say you die twice—one time when you stop breathing, and a second time, a bit later on, when somebody says your name for the last time.”

Keith talks about his dad.  I knew Keith’s dad.  Knowing Walter and Kim, Keith’s parents, was weird for me.  I never knew Walter to be anything but old.  Look at me, calling him “Walter”.  They were always Mr. and Mrs. Geeding.  My apologies.  But, my gosh, how was a 6 year old supposed to react to his first interracial couple???  There are many adjectives I can use to describe each.  He was old, stern, outspoken, hard-working, and resolute.  She was Vietnamese, short, soft-spoken, hands-on, and giving.  Together, they were loving!  Keith still speaks of them, so they haven’t gone thru the second death.  And, I know they never will while Keith is around.

Isn’t it funny how Keith takes a day off, and there are some of you who, for a however-brief moment, felt sad.  For some, it’s to look for his grammar errors (and there are many).  Some like the links he posts to satisfy their needs for entertainment without the work to do it.  And others genuinely see parts of their own lives lived out in the written word from Keith’s family and life.

That last one, do you see the treasure of life in that?  There is truth to everyone in that.  Some of you who read this are rolling deep in Jesus.  You guys get to see someone who has genuinely struggled openly about how you marry a love of Christ with the suburban lifestyle.  As someone who seeks a truth about Jesus that doesn’t come by way of the pseudo-hipster, perfectly-coiffed and bearded, ultra pretty 20-something that has never actually know what boredom or struggle is—I strongly admire Keith in his search.  Some of you are merely looking others that share in the same BS of life that we all feel sets us out in a weird way!  Whether you are a strong Christian (and I still don’t know what that means) or firm in your Humanistic modalities, you can find bits and pieces of your own life in Keith’s milieu.

Also, you should know that Keith sent me a housewarming gift.  It is a plastic fishbowl of 144 condoms.  Feel free to process that!

And now, the links:

www.divot.com—a daily, one-item golf deal
www.dealadaygolf.com—updated with a new deal each day, and you can still participate in past deals
www.woot.com—again, a great site for daily deals
deals.kinja.com—you know the drill

Random thoughts:

I have eaten at Chipotle for every lunch and dinner over the past 2 weeks.  I get the bowl with rice (don’t care which), mixed beans, chicken, hot salsa, a little corn, cheese and lettuce.  It has yet to be delicious!

There is a channel I have found call LAFF, and it shows four episodes of Night Court daily.  7-8 and 10-11pm.  The first 5 seasons were really good, and then it became slapstick till the end.  Why do shows have to derail?  Can they just not either be awesome or just go away?   Am I the only one who sees this???

Markie Post (who looked her Markie Post-est at that time) was insanely hot on that show!  INSANELY HOT!  For that reason alone should make people realize how much better Night Court was than Cheers.  Cheers was really funny, no doubt.  But Night Court is for people that truly appreciate the mullet on a woman done right!

• There was a hot air balloon crash in Lockhart, Texas on Saturday, killing sixteen. Yesterday I learned I have a bit, just a bit, of a personal connection with one of the victims. John Gore died along with his wife of three years, Stacee, and they leave behind four kids from a blended marriage. They used a Groupon for the hot air balloon ride to celebrate their third wedding anniversary.
• John’s father was our family doctor. We were one of his first patients when he started his practice in Mineral Wells, I probably wasn’t even knee-high. Our relationship with him started because my father developed some sort of lump on the outside of his chest, and his doctor said it was cancer and needed to be removed. Mom wanted a second opinion and that’s where Dr. Gore comes in. Dr. Gore examined the lump and then excused himself to get a book. It turns out the lump was an odd side effect of a medication. After about a month of changing medication, the lump was gone. My father didn’t admire a lot of people, but he certain held Dr. Gore in high regard. When my father spoke to me the last time on his deathbed in the hospital, he wanted me to tell Dr. Gore the admiration he had for him.
• I want to say for the last six months of my father’s life, he was hospitalized for four of them. During that time, SisterGeeding was still in elementary school, and Dr. Gore could see the strain on our family. His daughter was in the same grade as SisterGeeding (John wasn’t that much older) and as a distraction, invited her to stay the night at his house several times as a welcome distraction to a child and to allow our family to spend time with Dad in the hospital. Mom was never comfortable with the amount of time SisterGeeding spent in the hospital visiting, worrying the impression it may leave. So SisterGeeding knew John much better than I did.
• Dr. Gore later ran for the school board and won. He didn’t spend one dollar on advertising, he only by simply having his name on the ballot.
• Residents of Mineral Wells are aware of John’s troubled past, and if you read the article about the crash in the Mineral Wells Index, the local paper, you’ll see they are pissed his troubled past was mentioned, especially because he seemed to have turned his life around and have paid for his transgressions. I’m sorry his family and friends had to read this and  have it drummed back up at such a tragic time.
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• His sister took the high road with this comment, recognizing how upset other commenters were.
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• If I recall, Dr. Gore and his first wife, Mona, could not conceive a child and John was adopted. Mona was actually very sick and later died, cancer I believe.
• The article states, “Identification of the victims will be “a long process,” Caldwell County Sheriff Daniel Law quoted the NTSB and medical professionals as saying.” I guess that means after hitting a power line, the bodies were heavily damaged.
• I’m curious to know what’s going to happen with the four kids. Do you split them up, two and two, to the surviving biological parent? I don’t know the past, so I’m not sure if that’s an option. Or would it be best to keep all four of them together, but that would be one heck of an immediate “burden” for anyone, taking in four kids unexpectedly.
• I received an email from the significant other of one of my closest friends yesterday. He small intestines somehow became twisted and was rushed to the ER which resulted in surgery.
• Two strange Donald Trump stories yesterday. A baby was crying at a rally, which Trump said he didn’t mind, and then a little later asked for the baby to be removed. That was bad, but I don’t think all that bad. But his comments after being gifted a Purple Heart from a veteran was stranger than fiction. Seriously, if you read this in a novel or saw it in a movie, you wouldn’t believe anyone would say such a thing.
  • “I always wanted to get the Purple Heart. This was much easier.”
• I love thinking how former Speaker of the House John Boehner is enjoying retirement and not having to be in the middle of all this mess. I kinda feel for his successor, who is trying to back his party’s nominee but make a principled stand, and trying to unite his party.
• I bet if the scandal didn’t break, this would have been swept under the rug – Baylor football player arrested, charged with stalking
• I know he’s a sprinter, but still, this amazes me – Usain Bolt’s Agent Confirms the Sprinter Has Never Run a Mile
• Restaurant Creates 100-Pound Monstrosity Following Cries for “Bigger” Burgers
• Grapevine already has water parks at Great Wolf Lodge and the Gaylord Texan, now they will another just a few miles away? – Grapevine Green Lights $330M Resort And Water Park
• Buzzfeed – This Adorable Dog Got Prosthetic Legs And He’s So Damn Happy About It
• That helmet confuses Texas college football fans to no end – Mississippi High School Losing Longhorn, Keeping Aggie