Dorothy and I will be staying home. I'm on call for the fire dept. In case of an accident on the highways near us, some of us are standing by to be first responders and using our emergency equipment to provide warning lights, communication, and first aid until the professionals arrive. I you go out, be careful. Stay out of the way of the crazies. 

quote of the day

"If the solar system was brought about by an accidental collision, then the appearance of organic life on this planet was also an accident, and the whole evolution of Man was an accident too. If so, then all our present thoughts are mere accidents - the accidental by-product of the movement of atoms. And this holds for the thoughts of the materialists and astronomers as well as for anyone else's. But if their thoughts - i.e., of Materialism and Astronomy - are merely accidental by-products, why should we believe them to be true? I see no reason for believing that one accident should be able to give me a correct account of all the other accidents. It's like expecting that the accidental shape taken by the splash when you upset a milk-jug should give you a correct account of how the jug was made and why it was upset."
--C.S. Lewis

quote of the day

One of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our Founding Fathers used in the struggle for independence.
Charles Austin Beard

an accomplishment

Today I managed to do something that I haven't done in many years (if ever). I took down the exterior Christmas lights. In the past I would keep them up all year because by the time Christmas was over it was too cold, and after delivering mail in the winter weather all day I sure wasn't going to go back outside and take down lights. So years would go by and the colored lights would fade to clear and I would buy new ones. Then I got the ingenious idea to simply buy clear ones and keep them up all year. Well, this time I put up colored lights and today, being retired, I had the time, and we're having unseasonally warm weather, so down they came. Dorothy couldn't believe it. There's no telling what I'm going to accomplish in retirement. The sky is the limit.

Don't mess with these two desperados 

attack of the ragmuffins

This afternoon I got into a fight with Hunter (3), and Marley (6). They came at me one at a time pummeling and pounding on me. I managed to repel them with a few of my own well placed pummels, until Marley let me have it with a karate kick. (She had warned me earlier that she knew karate but I didn't pay attention) The kick would have had no effect on me had I been wearing an athletic cup, but since I wasn't I doubled over in pain. I grabbed Marley and hugged her because I didn't want her to think she had permanently injured her grandpa (although she probably did).

Have you heard that saying, "old age is not for sissies"? Believe it. I urge all you younger readers to start now: jog, lift weights, take up the martial arts, just to be in shape to play with your grand children. We were playing. Lord help me if those two ever turn on me.

fire call

I got called out on a fire this evening. I grabbed my radio and went to my pick up; by the time I opened the door Mike, my neighbor and fellow firefighter, drove up. I grabbed my equipment and jumped in with him and off to the fire station we went. At the station we mounted up in our big truck and off we went, red lights and siren. This is the first call where I rode in the fire truck. It's pretty cool rolling down the highway and all the other cars pulling over to give us the right of way. We went a couple miles down highway 62 and then 2 miles up Crazy Hollow Rd, where a shed was on fire. The Westville department beat us there with 3 trucks, so we eased on up to the fire and went to work. Mike manned the hose, while I fed it to him, kept it kink free and made sure it didn't catch on anything. It didn't take long to knock the fire down. During the fire it seems you have all the energy you need, but as soon as it's over and the adrenalin backs off, you realize how tired and thirsty you are. We were fortunate that we're not having a normal winter. Normally it would be below freezing and a lot of the water would have frozen on the ground making it very slippery. Instead we had a high today of 70 degrees and it got hot under that heavy coat. After the fire we returned the truck to the station and refilled it with water. Just another day in the life of a firefighter.

paintings

Here are two paintings by our daughter Rachel. We recieved as Christmas gifts.

what i'm reading now

I received this book as a Christmas gift from Kelly. Jimmy Carter talks about separation of church and state and the danger of having the lines between politics and rigid religious fundamentalism blurred. Every American should read this book.

after christmas

The unlit tree stand alone, no gifts beneath it; we continue to find scraps of wrapping paper here and there and odd little pieces of games and toys. Yesterday, after a breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, biscuits, and gravy (white and chocolate), Kelly and her family left for Little Rock to spend some time with Burks parents, Carl and Carol Keys. For the rest of us it was a lazy Christmas day with a lunch consisting of turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, crescent rolls, green beans. I ate too much which is normal for me on the holidays.

After Rachel and the girls left, Dorothy and I were alone in a hollow, post holiday house. Such a contrast from the busy, noisy, brightly lit home of the weekend to a quiet place.

any lumps of coal?

I see Santa found all the stocking laid out in a row.

christmas crafts

Here is a book case I made for Hunter, and some jewelry boxes for Sami, Marley, and Tara.

christmas pajamas

All the girls (and hunter) pose in their new jammies. Everyone's staying over Christmas Eve. Tara, Dorothy, Hunter in his Batman pajamas, Kelly, Marley (front), Sami, Megan, Rachel.

Christmas Eve

Last night Dorothy made divinity and I made fudge. I worked on the girls home made presents and I still have some to do today. Tonight all the kids will be here and they're all staying the night! We'll make our selves sick on pizza, taquitos, chips and dip, cookies, and candy. We'll probably watch the movie "A Christmas Story", the one where the little boy wants Santa to bring him a Daisy Red Ryder bb gun. We'll open some presents tonight and then the little ones will open what Santa brings in the morning. Tomorrow were having a big breakfast of biscuits, eggs, bacon, chocolate gravy, and even some cinnamon rolls. As you can see, food plays a big part in our holiday festivities. After New Years it back to the diet and walking.

i'll be home for christmas

I'm looking forward to Christmas, aren't you? This will be the best Christmas for me in a long time because I won't be out in the cold all day every day, and most importantly, I won't be working late Christmas Eve delivering mail. So, now I can enjoy the grand kids without fatigue. I have time to finish the gifts for them that I'm making from wood. I can visit with my daughters and laugh without having the thought of going back to work lurking in the back of my mind. Now, if I can just resist the temptation to stuff myself with all those Christmas goodies, I'll do fine.