So it goes...

Summer came in at about 120 decibels today, pretty much from sunup to sundown. It started with my neighbor's son re-roofing a small portion of their roof for the second time in less than 3 years. It seems he's a country music fan and like most people working on the outside of their house, he likes his music on the loud side. Now I don't want to sound like Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino, but you see I have a thing about country music. I'm just not a fan. Never have been. Can't be. Won't be. Tried it. Don't like it. Never will probably. Keep thinkin' it might grow on me. Doesn't. Just grates on me. So I am likely to be accused of being labelled as un-American, or perhaps a socialist for saying such a thing, but hey, it's a free country. If it could be a country-free country, well, that would be even better. Don't get me wrong, I don't have a grudge against people who love country music. I don't understand their allegiance, but the...

There's a little piece of me on an Island far out in the Caribbean She's got my DNA my long legs and some say my face But she's on an island in the Caribbean and I can't even call her I wonder if this piece of me has any idea how much I missed her today? I have a picture of the piece on my desk and it helps to look at it But the island thing in the Caribbean makes the rest of me sad again I know she's probably doing fine so far away but me...not so much In four days she'll leave the Caribbean island and return to me my peace

My daughter is gone. She's a couple thousand miles away and I miss her. It is amazing how quiet a house becomes when it goes from 4 down to 3. She's a pretty quiet girl anyway for the most part, but I really miss her presence. It's spooky quiet most of the time, even with Ben and his friends over. It's like the house is missing it's furnace or something. Something major like that. There are moments you forget it's there, but without it, the house just isn't complete. She is in the Dominican Republic in Jarabacoa on a mission trip for church. She wanted to go of her own accord, and we weren't about to stop that. Anytime one of our kids wants to do a church event, especially of this magnitude, we aren't going to do anything but get behind it fully and completely. I think it's important for her to see what real poverty and need is like, even though I think she has a much better understanding of it than most 15 year old girls, and I'm not ju...