Red Rooster

The Red Rooster restaurant and bar just off of Beale Street in Memphis.

Gibson Guitars- Memphis, TN

Jim at Gibson Guitar in Memphis, TN. We took the tour at 3PM and our tour guide was very informative. What a wonderful place.

Arkansas!

We left for Arkansas and the Flora household on Sunday evening around 9:45 PM we arrived in Paragould, AR around 4AM Monday. Waking John and Maria from a sound sleep. They had anticipated having at least another hour before our arrival. Surprise!
So far we have gone to the nature center, Craighead Forrest Park, and to Sam's club where we picked up the makings for an AWESOME dinner of cajun grilled shrimp, Jim's hommade alfredo sauce with AlDente fettucini. Along with Maria's fresh tomato, basil salad. MMMmmm! the 2.5 bottles of wine we had finished the meal nicely.

We had biscuits and sausage gravy this morning, prepared by by myself. This to make up for the lack of flavor of the local Cracker barrel's 'sawmill' gravy yesterday. I did enjoy the rest of the meal there, but the gravy was pretty dismal. Jacob wouldn't eat it and he ordered only that and a side of bacon. So, I made my special sausage gravy, enjoyed by all.

More updates as the trip progresses. We are currently off to the local mall to pester the kids into shopping for shirts (gasp) and maybe pants.

the NON meeting

We found out that Jim's meeting on Thursday turned out to be a non event- sort of. They reported that business was slow, and the East plant on elmore would be downsized marginally. They eliminated 4-5 salaried positions and reduced the maintenance staff by around 4. Jim's position is secure as an electrition. Jim feels that the stability of the company is not good at this time, but we will stick it out until something better comes along.

CSI- not the cop show

We were sitting down to a fabulous dinner of left-over PIzza Hut carry-out last eve when the phone rings.
Surprise! It's not my work, but my spouse's. They were phoning to let him know that there was a mandatory meeting on Thursday the 24th of July for all employees of the newly (in the last year) created Closure Systems International ((CSI)). A subsidiary/renaming of the RANK corporation who purchased the closure division of Alcoa last fall.

Hmm, A meeting you say, for the whole plant? At the Holiday Inn? They're shutting down the plant for the morning for the meeting you say?
Hmmmm...

I think Jim's getting ready to collect un-employment. I tend to be a dark Soothsayer, however.

I've been gearing up for vacation. I plan on going to arkansas to see maria on the 26th. I can hardly wait

Indiana Beach

We spend the better part of the day on Sunday at Indiana Beach in sunny Monticello, Indiana Located on the banks of Lake Shafer.
Jim and I argued about the merits of what path to take, 25 North through Delphi, or 43 up through Brookston and over from there. Jim hates going 'My Way' which is 25 up through Delphi.. and prefers the boring, straight route with no scenery to speak of.... Of course, I can't give him directions because he second guesses me and my navigating skills. So, he turns merily onto 25 N with full intentions of going under I-65 and magically being on 43. I ask him... "so, are you going to take 65 over to 43?".
His reply, "I'm on 43".
A minute passes while I digest this....
I ask him, "Do you want to turn up here, heading back to 43?" (Meaning go back to where we started)
I of course could never tell him that he had actually done something wrong. God forbid I correct him. He might take offense at that. So, I let him drive until he sees the sign stating: State Road 25.
He mutters a choice explative and says, "F*&^% it, too late to turn back now..." Getting pretty steamed up at himself for not listening to me.
I rescued the day by making him laugh at himself... "So. While were on 43, looking at all the NON scenery... You want to just keep on 43, not turning around to get on 43 at all?"

Smiling and a little red around the collar, he mutters and keeps on 25.

Jacob on safari at Indiana Beach. I was amazed that the camera on my motorola Rzr would take this picture: Tracking the camera with the subject, keeping subject in foucs, while blurring the scenery.

Round and Round

Judd on the merry-go-round at Indiana Beach.
I think this is one of my favorite pictures of Judd so far. He is often like this, staring off into his own contemplative enormous world.

the angry beaver semi-conclusion and Q's.

I arrived at the Dr's office 20 minutes late due to construction on 465 between I-74 and 86th street. The doctor was not upset however and would see me shortly. Only a bit of a wait and into the exam room I was ushered.

Super specialist was still unsure as to how to proceed with my surgury. She would like to approach my urethral diverticulum
(1.)vaginally, but is not sure she can reach it as it is 'so far back there'. Next she would approach it
(2.) laproscopically via my abdomen... Unless there is too much scar tissue, or she can't find it.. then she would approach it
(3.) via the c-section opening creating a larger insicion and longer healing time....

Each option is a different time off from work.
(1.) about 2 weeks
(2.) about 3-4 weeks
(3.) about 6 weeks

So... She plans to get me in the stirrups and approach it in that order.

AM I the only one who thinks I am going to end up with 3 different surgical openings/scars?
Should I get a second opinion?

I realize that I might be a freak of nature and my case is a bit unusual, however, I think she should have a more clear idea of how to cut me up!
Your opinions and thoughts on this are appreciated.

July 10, 2008 sunrise

Sunrise today in west central Indiana

Angry Beavers update

I get to visit with the Super Specialist tomorrow at 8 a.m.
We will discuss surgery options for my Urethral Diverticulum and when/where we will go from here.
At my last visit, She had finally discovered the mystery diverticulum. She had her hands, a long curved blunt surgical probe and a cytoscope involved in the discovery. I would hope that she would find it. I know it felt like she discovered a missing bowling ball when she was finished.
She was a little concerned as the diverticulum seemed to be located beyond the pubic bone and she would not be able to operate vaginally. She speculated that we would operate abdominally, similar to a c-section which I have had twice before.

She would need to consult with her partners in the fellowship and gather sage advice from her mentor and teacher from the university of North Carolina to discuss options on how to proceed from here.
I will know the results of that information gathering in the a.m.
I will try to update here tomorrow with more information as I get it.

Wish me luck

The Narrows in Indiana

The narrows

Fireworks warehouse in Covington, IN

At the walmart of fireworks in covington indiana

Graphic Signs from Fireworks companies

Cool signs @ fireworks shop

Save me from web changes!

We are currently undergoing a web size change at my newspaper and the small details are driving me absolutely nuts. What pica? What gutter? what size classified classification heading?? well. I suppose I could just hand type each page and it will be faster.

________________________

After hammering out all the kinks in our classified section, I left the paper with instructions to call our wonderful tech support folks at Point Click & Drag- More specifically - Tim Harmon. He is staying overnight at a local hotel, hoping no one calls. I expect the newsroom to flip out over all of the changes to their neat organized world. Well, I can't do it all for goodness sake! I did add some very nice touches to our front page, deleting a lot of extra crap and improving the masthead. I hope they don't tear it up too badly.