Well, I was going to write about all the antelope around Claunch, but I went to Wikipedia and found out that they are not antelope, but they are pronghorns and they are sometimes called pronghorn antelope, but there are no real antelope in New Mexico….Well, excuse me….All this time I have been calling them antelope…Well, anyway, there are a bunch of those suckers down around Claunch. A couple of them were out on the road side of the barb wire fence and went to running as our car approached. They went through, not over, not under, but through that fence at full speed and if they broke stride it was not noticeable. Out in Arizona they are talking about taking the barb off the lowest fence to protect them….That might not be a bad idea..Wikipedia says them old dudes can run fast and are second only to the cheetah in land speed, but they can run longer than the cheetah…That’s good if the cheetah gave them a head start, I reckon..Really folks, they are a beautiful animal and there are a bunch of them down around Claunch, NM…You might want to drive down there just to see them….A good Sunday afternoon drive, just remember there ain’t no soda pop sold in Claunch nowadays…….
Sometimes it is better not to say anything when you are not the expert, right? Well, I have been an Alabama football fan since Harry Gilmer played the game. I watched Bart Starr play in Denny Statium. Leroy Jordan, Old Snake and Willie Joe and just tons of great players have made me sweat, shout and, yeah, almost cry. I got it honest as my Dad would be heart broken if they lost, to anybody. But the BCS is wrong…..The Mountain West is quality football…It is no fluke…Utah beat the crap out of Alabama and me and you saying we were not ready is crazy…The Utes beat us. It is time for the BCS to sit back and notice all of the conferences…It’s not about football, it’s about money and a few good old boys, if you ask me…..But then, you haven’t asked, huh….
Google or to google or googled or googling, a strange word, huh? Did you ever google yourself? There are a bunch of folks carrying the same name around, did you notice that? How do you know which one is you? Or better said, how do old friends and classmates know which ones are you, if any of them are? Maybe we should all have pictures…That would be good, I think at first thought, but at second thought, I think of my high school classmates and I don’t think any of them would recognize me now….I used to be this good looking guy with lots of hair and while I am still good looking, er, well, after all it is my blog……The hair is missing…of course that is caused from excessive brains pushing upward on the hair lobes squeezing them all out…Anyway, google yourself some time and see how many of you there are…You’ll see….I hope you reconize yourself…..
Our trip to Alabama is gonna be quick. We have so much already lined up to do. I wish I had time to show my grandsons how to muddy a slough. You can still do that, can’t you? Or has the State of Alabama changed it fishing rules? Surely not, thats unAmerican. That used to be my favorite way to fish. You know how, don’t you? Take some type of paddle and stir up the water in the slough until it is muddy as it can get. Pretty soon those old fish try to come up for some air, then you take your paddle and slap them out of the water. One of you go around gathering them up….Be careful and don’t stick your finger in an old jacks mouth ’cause some fingers look like a big fat worm… I’ll tell my boys, but that may be something to do on the next visit…I sure hope its still legal….
At 5 a.m. I do not miss work, not at all. I can roll over and finish that dream or start a completely new dream, or get up…. if I so desire. But when the honey do’s are done, and the things I want to do are completed for the day, then sometimes I miss my old job. I miss the people I used to work with. A couple of the guys and I went back to the eighties working together. Heck, that’s almost like family being around someone that long. One of them is a Cincinnati Bengals fan….forget him….no problem for me, I’m a Cowboy fan. The other guy, a Pittsburgh Steelers fan…..He is a real thorn in my bu…eh, where I sit…I have lost so much money to that guy that when I settled up with him for last year I had to go into my coin collection to pay him. Well, that’s not completely true. I owed him eight bucks and since I was retiring I wanted him to kind of remember me, so I did go into my collection and paid it all in coins. Now true, I did not give him the best of my coins, but several of them was worth more that face value. (Being a Steelers fan he probably did not even notice.) Both of those guys are kind of special to me and well, yeah….I do kind of miss them…..
The tickets are purchased, Braves and Giants…..four of them, so unless we do some ticket scalping, we will be seated behind the Braves dugout. I’m wondering……out here we go see the Isotopes at night and do not worry about mosquitoes…will that be ok in Atlanta, no mosquitoes there either, right?…..I don’t know, I just might take some Off, just in case a stray mosquito comes by…
Gosh, how special my children make me feel. I love every one of them so much. “Thank you Lord for allowing me to be a Dad to these guys.” What a blessing they are……
Here we are… A couple of them have passed away…I am in the photo and I will let you guess where for a few days. I’d guess 1945 or so on the date of this photo…. ok, back row, second from right… That’s what you guessed, right?..
For 2009 I decided to read the Bible, cover to cover. I discovered in 1 Kings and 2 Kings as the writer finished telling us about a King of Israel or Judah, he says “and he rested with his Fathers”. If we are going to “rest with our Fathers” seems to me like we need to know where they are. Since the Bible refers to Heaven as the destination of most Bibical characters, you would then think that is where they rested. Most of us want to go where our family went when they “rested with their Fathers.” In September, 1998, I recieved a call from my brother telling me that my Dad said to tell me that if I wanted to see him alive again I should come back to Alabama to visit him. And also, he was unsure of his salvation and wanted me to be prepared to talk with him about that. Tough for me at the time, not being trained in these type things, but I did it. I chose Ephesians Chapter Two, verse one through ten to discuss with Dad. Verse eight says “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God”. I did see him and share those scriptures with him. It was my last time to see him as he passed away in March, 1999 at the age of 94 and he “rested with his Fathers”. I miss my Dad, but I know where my Dad is and it is a comforting thought. This may be just a little more than you cared to think about this Fathers Day, but I have been thinking about my Dad and I just wanted to tell the story…..
Yeah, we did try to run away. This story is kind of true. That dad-gum marine belt for sure is true. Pop used it to sharpen his straight razor and to wear out my butt. He only shaved two or three times a week, so most of the usage was probably on my bottom. I’m sure I deserved every one I got. We had too many kin folks watching us to get away with much meanness. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the running away story……Cousins, Chapter Ten, Running Away
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