BACK OFF

I know her father. He and she are Christians.

A popular college girl, she didn't date much at Baylor University. She graduated, found a job in Kansas City, and fell in love.

He, too, was a Christian, age 28 or so. He took her to a fountain. They're pretty easy to find in KC, to propose. Out of his backpack, he produced a wash basin and told her he loved her and he wanted to serve her. He wanted to wash her feet.

She allowed him, but only under the condition that she wash his feet as well in an act of submission and service. Wedding plans were made. But broken off.

When he decided he couldn't go through with the marriage. He just wasn't ready. There was no one else. He loved her. She had done nothing wrong. He just didn't want to be married.

She moved. She moved on. She still loves him. But she's thrown herself into service for the Lord and has many friends to guide her. As well as loving parents.

What's the point of this story? It's sad but true. The happy ending is in the making. When it happens and her father shares it, I will, too.

I'M SO YESTERDAY

I love to watch the old reels of World Series spectators from the 50's. They wore suits and hats to the games. Not team logos, but wide brims, fedoras, bolers, old men hats. They wore ties to the games.

Same way on airplanes. In the olden times, people actually dressed up when they flew.

Not that I go to a lot of games, but I have and only once do I remember wearing a suit to a game. Believe it or not, Stan The Man Musial got us tickets to a 1982 World Series game. We had dinner with him as well at The Stadium Club in Old Busch Stadium. Well, there were several there, but I was forced to wear a burgundy colored corduroy suit and tie. I know, straight out of a Will Farrell movie by the same name.

Hey, anything for The Man who had ventured into a business deal with my wife's boss. So there's the connect.

Most other games I show my support for the team with a tee shirt, golf shirt logo, or jersey. But, I'm so old school, never would I paint my face; it would remind me of pimples that dotted that canvas for too much of my early life. Nor would I wear anything like the Raider fan. If I were in charge, I wouldn't even let him in the gate looking like that.

Oh well. Cheeseheads? Never. Wearing a helmet to a game? No chance--I'd want to see the game after all. But then I may have just hit on something. Some go to the games to be seen and some go to see.

IT SNOWED ON MARS

The temp was 130 below. No wonder it snowed. Though they used to tell me it was too cold to snow. I never understood that.

It seems we have a weather tracker on Mars to report the meteorological findings. Maybe that's the way we should do it on earth. No forecasting; just reporting expos facto. That way they get it right. Except at Sky Harbor Airport where there's a quark or something that leads to erroneous reporting.

Trying to avoid the killer science lab classes in college, I took Botany, Zoology, Climate, Weather, Conservation, and an Independent Study Life Science class for my GSC requirements to get a BS instead of a BA. What for? I still don't know.

But when there are questions about occluded fronts or water tables, I still get asked to delve into my memory bank for scientific answers. Having achieved my last A in a science class in Mrs Anderson's 7th grade, I often times have to wing it. (I tried to earn an A in Conservation by selling out and answering a final exam question about the most important class SIU offered: I kissed up and said Conservation, but I still think I only got a B.) Which still kept me alive and out of Nam, which was the main objective for my going to college anyway.

So, I say, let it snow on Mars. There's no one there to declare Snow Days, no tips of ears to freeze, no snow angels waiting to be made, no streets to clear or driveways to shovel. And no one to see the beauty.

I DON'T GOT DIRECT TV

So I don't get to watch Friday Night Lights until January when it's shown on NBC. What's up with that? I only watch a very few tv shows at all besides sports, and now I have to wait half a year to see it.

Oh well. I guess that's just one of the changes I'll have to deal with in 2009. It's still a scary thought to me that our country will have a new President. Named McCain (please) or Obama (please not).

So change is coming one way or another. By then we'll have a new World Series Champ (again, please). The NFL playoffs will have begun. Another BCS College Football champ will be politiced in (again, no playoff to determine the real champ). Winter will have her claws dug in. It will cost more money to play golf than to fill up my tank (again, please) (please not). Yeah, I'm ambivalent about that one.

We will have, Lord willing, another grandchild (definite please). So not all change is bad. We'll be counting down the days till Spring Training begins and baseball will return with better results and fewer injuries for the Cardinals, a couple of Rams' victories, and the Suns whoopin' up on everybody (another please).

And to think, it all started because I don't have Direct TV, a Tivo, a Palm Pilot (does anyone?), a DVR, an Ipod, I-Tunes, Wii, or an eight track stereo system. Have a good 2009.

BUCK JONES FOR PRESIDENT

I never saw a Buck Jones movie that I know of. But I like the title Straight from the Shoulder. And I'd love to see that in politicians.

I'm so tired of half truths, spins, slanted reports, and blatant outright lies that I'm starting to believe that the US does get the leaders we deserve.

I'm convinced that either party would rather injure the country than hurt their own party. Or worded perhaps better, they'd wreck the country to assure that their party got in office. That's just not right.

To criticize, lambaste, denigrate the other candidate for their own political gain just doesn't appeal to me. In an election that was dearest to my heart, when our son ran closely but unsuccessfully for State's Attorney in 2004, there was plenty of opportunity for both sides to sling mud. Neither did, in one of the cleanest run campaigns I've witnessed at the local, state or national level.

Why politics has to be so underhanded, so negative, well there's no wonder we don't have any better candidates than we do running for the top office in the land

Give me Buck Jones. I don't care what party he represents. If he's a straight shooter, then he has my vote.

LEAVES OR BLOOMS

It doesn't mean you don't love both seasons. But it seems to me, more people love to see the leaves turn than when new buds sprout.

Granted, this sheer coverage of Autumn's display outshines the Spring kaleidoscope, but it still surprises me. I guess kids (and at least one dog) love to play in the leaves. After sitting inside on a beautiful sunny Summer day, kids will put down their Wii guitars and head out to play in the not so fresh air. Ruined by neighbors' burning of leaves, limbs, and logs long lain lingering untouched but soaked and wet and soupy. Thus the bad air.

And you can't play with blooms. Oh later in the Summer when dandelions offer their umbrella seeds to be spread by blowing by little kids. So, I guess Round Two also goes to Autumn. No matter how many dandelions, you can't rake them and jump on them.

Blooms offer no chance to make kid money either. Grass mowing later, but leaves offer the opportunity to rake, sack, and/or burn. Lots of neighbors are eager for that kind of kid help. Plus, you can never guess what you might unearth when you reach into a pile of yellow leaves packed by rain earlier in the week. A spider, and they're always bigger after Summer, a leach or two, maybe a snail, if you're lucky a snake. The possibilities are endless. Blooms may reveal a bee, but they're no fun.

So the jury returns its verdict. Fall is funner. But Spring has Summer to follow.