In our last episode

The website went down a week ago and we have been unable to keep you updated via this site. So much has happened that I decided to put this update in the form of an old movie serial… First of all we must update you on the previous episodes. When last we left you we were poring over Joni’s white blood cell count after the last round of the very difficult A/C chemotherapy. The counts were low but good enough for us to venture on a little R&R adventure to a lake cabin in Arkansas. We left on July 10th and headed to the hills of Ouchita National Forest. All was going well until late in the week when Joni began to have some pain in her right arm. A late night call on Friday to our doctors in Dallas was a little unnerving. They were afraid Joni had developed blood clots and they advised us to find an emergency room right away. That was not an
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Panic at 36,000 feet

I am taking a week off to spend with my bride. I am posting “gently read” articles from the very early days of this blog. Some of these posts are like new…only read by little old ladies on Sunday afternoons. Seriously, many of you missed these offerings. I hope you find something to enjoy. Blessings, Dave   First I must apologize to the three or four readers who eagerly show up each weekday to read these ramblings. I was stuck on the road with a defective power pack and no other computer access. So I have to admit that I “blogged” down for a couple of days. Sorry. I am now powered up and ready to ramble. Last night I was returning from a corporate meeting being held at a casino in Uncasville, Connecticut. Your reaction was likely the same as mine. Unca – where? Turns out it is about an hour from Hartford. But that is a future blog. My panic happened during
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Looks Like Your Hope is a Quart Low

I am taking a week off to spend with my bride. I am posting “gently read” articles from the very early days of this blog. Some of these posts are like new…only read by little old ladies on Sunday afternoons. Seriously, many of you missed these offerings. I hope you find something to enjoy. Blessings, Dave   This little planet can be depressing at times. I picked up a magazine this week and came across three quotes that made me realize how desperate we are for a little hope. The first quote was an odd mix of funny and sad. Country singer Kenny Chesney had a very short lived and well publicized marriage to actress Renee Zellweger. His description of the pain he was feeling was like a parody of a bad country song. You know what I am talking about. Songs like My Girl Ran Off With My Best Friend and I Sure Do Miss Him. Chesney compared the
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I Fought the Law

I am taking a week off to spend with my bride. I am posting “gently read” articles from the very early days of this blog. Some of these posts are like new…only read by little old ladies on Sunday afternoons. Seriously, many of you missed these offerings. I hope you find something to enjoy. Blessings, Dave   I hope you read my blog about going to Homecoming last weekend at Baylor University. It was a wonderful weekend spent with family and friends. But I want these ramblings to be authentic and real. I have an embarrassing admission to make. I drove and parked carefully in Waco last weekend because I feared I was a wanted man. Let me explain. October 22nd dawned sunny and pleasant in scenic Garland, Texas. I blissfully strode to the mailbox to retrieve my daily dose of catalogues, junk mail, and bills. I sorted through the stack. “No annual fee for 12 months” – Correct. I
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You can’t make this stuff up!

I am taking a week off to spend with my bride. I am posting “gently read” articles from the very early days of this blog. Some of these posts are like new…only read by little old ladies on Sunday afternoons. Seriously, many of you missed these offerings. I hope you find something to enjoy. Blessings, Dave   If you read When Bad Christians Happen to Good People you know that I am not a fan of “Jesus Junk”. That is a term for the often tacky, sometimes offensive, and generally puzzling ways that we try to merge Christianity and our culture. The products range from the Jesus bobble head dolls to Christian breath mints. I had never considered bad breath to be a spiritual issue but I am still learning in my journey.   People now send me links to this stuff just to annoy me. Today I found out about  the new Talking Jesus action figure and it arrived just in time
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Who is the bird brain in this story?

Two summers ago Joni and I did not have to turn on the morning news shows for visual entertainment. Every morning as we got ready for the day we would hear a familiar THUMP! That was the sound of crazy bird returning for his morning concussion. Our bathroom has a large half-moon shaped window near the ceiling. Every morning this bird would fly to the window sill, sit there for awhile, plan his attack, fly back a ways and hit the window full on. THUMP! He would do this over and over. Day after day. (This is a stunt double bird…not the actual bird)      Photo Courtesy Janesville Gazette Because I like to think I am smarter than that bird I would laugh and make fun of him…mindlessly hitting the same window day after day after day. Stupid bird. Then I would go out and imitate this poor creature with my own daily behaviors as a Christian. Day after day I would go out and slam
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The meaning of Kemosabe…

I never missed the Lone Ranger television show when I was growing up. I suppose the portrayal of Tonto would not be politically correct today but what a young boy in Ohio saw was not stereotypes or politically incorrect images.  What I saw were men who cared about each other and had each other’s backs. I saw men who valued law and justice above personal vengeance. I saw two loyal friends. I was remembering those “thrilling days of yesteryear” recently as my bride was going through another round of chemotherapy. I began to consider my role as Joni’s sidekick in this brutal journey. I was thinking how I could be her Tonto to ride alongside her. Remember Tonto’s greeting to the Lone Ranger? Tonto always greeted the Lone Ranger with the expression “kemosabe”. Wikipedia reports that the origin of this expression is somewhat unclear, but James Jewell, an early director of the radio series, said the name comes from a boy’s
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