Family Archives

February 21, 2015

Even Her Mug Shot Is Cute

Not everybody can look cute in a mug shot with a number under their chin.

Had Wife Lila elected a life of crime, the FBI would have had a tough time keeping her picture on the Post Office walls because teenage boys would have been snagging them to hang next to their Farrah Fawcett and Cheryl Tiegs posters.

Pre-politically correct SEMO

This Southeast Missouri State College ID was issued while the school still had a newspaper called The Capaha Arrow, a yearbook named The Sagamore, and Chief Sagamore was a fixture at all the football games.

I removed Lila’s Social Security number and birth year to thwart ID thieves. I don’t know what all the holes that are punched out signify. The top evidently refers to the school year, but I don’t what the 1 through 25 boxes are for.

Here’s what happened to Chief Sagamore.

Capaha Arrow turns 100 as The Arrow

February 17, 2015

We’re the Same Age

For 36 days a year (37 during Leap Year), Wife Lila and I are the same age.

I won’t tell you what that age is this year, but if we once believed that you couldn’t trust anyone over 30, we are more than twice as untrustworthy as we were when we said that.

One thing about it, she can sure blow out a candle quickly and leave not so much as a tendril of smoke behind. Neighbor Bill/Jacqie provided the cake; the boys took her out for dinner and gave her a Fitbit to document that she’s still moving, and I got her a coffee table art book on The Florida Highwaymen.

It was a good day.

February 12, 2015February 12, 2015

Mother’s Back in the Game

Mother’s been complaining that her get-up-and-go has got up and went. She hasn’t had a lot of pep and she’s been getting out of breath. Brother David has been in town from Tulsa doing a bunch of odd jobs, so he went with her to the heart doc to see what was causing it.

Without going into a lot of detail that I don’t really understand, he said she needed to get the top two muscles of her heart jump-started.

David suggested that he could do it in the parking lot if he could figure out where to hook up the red and black clamps, but the medical staff strongly discouraged such activity. “From what we know about her, if you hook them up backwards, she might blow out the battery in your car,” they warned him.

It turned out it only took one shock to get her heart back in rhythm and all synched up. She’s going to need to have the batteries in her pacemaker replaced soon, so she’d better hurry up before they close the Radio Shack in the mall.

“She’s a tough bird”

The doc said her shortness of breath should get much better now. “Overall, she’s a tough bird,” he added.

Boy, don’t WE know that.

On the way home, they stopped at a worried friend’s house to give a health and welfare report. She had been calling the hospital all day for an update. The finally told her at 4 o’clock that Mother had been released. “Was she still alive when she was released?” she asked.

So, Mother is back home in the glow of her iPad catching up on what she missed during the day. You may not be able to reach her by landline because she’s been having phone problems.An ATT tech is supposed to come check it out Thursday.

Thanks to David for being there and for taking this photo.

February 8, 2015

Birthdays 2 and 4

In another of an infrequent series of posts about how living in Florida in the wintertime isn’t bad, I invite you to a birthday party for Son Adam and Wife Carly’s boys this weekend. Both of them have birthdays in February – Graham is 4 and Elliot is 2 – so they have a combined party for now.

Back up to September: Wife Lila’s niece, Laurie Everett of Annie Laurie’s Antique Shop fame, had a toy tractor that had come in from an estate sale. Lila said I should pick it up for the boys and haul it 1100 miles back to West Palm Beach.

Tractor made it to Florida

We decided that Christmas had so much going on that we’d hold the tractor until Birthday Season. It was well received.

Is this a good idea?

Graham was all about the bounce house, but he wasn’t convinced that going down the slide was a good idea. I remember that feeling the first time I climbed onto the high dive at the Capaha Park Pool.

Dad comes to the rescue

Dad Adam was a little more sympathetic than the pool lifeguard who growled, “Kid, those are one-way steps. There’s only one way back, and that’s off the end of the board.”

Graham remained unconvinced. He’s going to be the conservative kid in the family. I remember him complaining at last year’s party “That music is too loud.”

I’m alive to see 5

THERE’S a kid who is limp with relief that the experience is over and there’s a chance he’ll be alive to see his fifth birthday.

Here’s trouble

Elliot is going to be the one who, like his dad, will try anything at least once. As soon as he figured out how to climb up to the top of the slide, he was beating feet to do it again and again.

A gift of love

Lila is a quilter. Not one of those machine quilters, but an real old-time hand quilter. She made a snowman quilt for Matt and Sarah’s Malcolm, and a similar one for Graham.

She presented Elliot’s to him today. When you are two, it’s probably not as cool as a tractor, but he’ll appreciate it over the years.

Graham and Elliot are expecting a brother to come along in a couple of months, so Lila better get busy.

Graham with his quilt

Graham knew right where to find his quilt in his bedroom. (You can click on the photos to make them larger.)