I Need A Bird

I heard a story that I just couldn’t help but share. Today is the day after the 2008 Presidential Election and I didn’t sleep well last night because I can’t say I’m happy about the results. I’ve been fretting over this for several months but two weeks ago at the Sunday morning service at my church (Lauderdale United Methodist) my pastor, Rev. Davey Wilkinson used the following verse for his sermon: (more…)

Spots In My Eyes & Ringing in My Ears…

Sometimes life walks up and hands me a soapbox onto which I can’t help but climb. There are those who tell me that the number of soapboxes you find increases exponentially the older you get. But I really don’t think this particular issue is just me. In fact, I believe this is one of those few cases, where I am not alone in my frustration because deep down many of you out there agree with what I’m about to say. You haven’t said anything because your mama raised you to say nothing if you couldn’t say something good. Well, my mama will just have to get over it, because this ain’t pretty and I’m still going to say it. My apologies, Mom. (more…)

Ambassadors At Large

About fifteen years ago when I started my own business, I got the opportunity to write custom programs for clients of a company named Automatic Data Processing (ADP). ADP does a lot of different things including providing payroll-processing services to thousands of companies of all shapes and sizes across the world. Often, they run across a company that likes to color outside the lines and do things a little out of the ordinary and when they need some specialized programming or custom reporting that can’t be handled by the regular ADP computer system, I sometimes get the call to work as a third-party software consultant, which is just a fancy way of saying that I get to help the customer and ADP fit together better. (more…)

BOLO Means “Bad Boy”

Have you ever been BOLO’d? Neither had I until last Saturday, and I have to say that it is doing wonders for my image. I’ve always been sort of squeakly, clean, geeky kinda guy. But now I have formally joined the ranks of the “Bad Boys!” (more…)

Godspeed, Sonny.

Congressman G.V. "Sonny" Montgomery

In 1982, I met a man who would remain in my life for twenty-four years. I am proud to say that he was my friend, my congressman, and my Optimist Brother for over half of those years. Today, I watched his funeral on television and in my own way grieved that he is gone, and celebrated that I had the opportunity to get to know him at all.

When I was a junior in high school, I was part of a group of history students who took a trip to Washington, DC, by way of Williamsburg & Appomattox, Virginia. On our trip we saw many of the places we had read about in our Pearl, Mississippi classroom. In learning how people lived in the late 1700’s and seeing where General Robert E. Lee surrendered with grace and honor to General Ulysses S. Grant, we came face to face with giants of history. (more…)

It’s Cold Up Here

The Barn

As I sit in my father-in-law’s den looking out of the window covered with thick plastic wrap used to lock out the cold, I can barely make out the blurry shapes of trees and the iced over driveway. What is unmistakable are the blobs of white covering everything and they look the same from behind the plastic as they do from in front of the plastic. Without a doubt after seven or eight years of traveling to upstate New York for Christmas this is the most snow I have seen for the longest period of time ever. (more…)

101 Things To Do For Yourself

On a service call to a client’s office, I was waiting for their computer to finish scanning for spyware when I began to look around the room and notice a few things. My wife is pretty accurate when she says that she could rearrange the furniture in our house and I wouldn’t notice for three months. Of course, that is assuming that she left my recliner in the same place so I didn’t fall on the ground when I try to sit oh, and that she didn’t move the television.  (more…)

Katrina: The Making & Breaking of News

My wife and I have seen enough news reports about the devastation in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana to reach a conclusion: we have a story to tell and now it the time to tell it. I’ve spent the better part of a week now dealing with the effects (however slight compared to others who are far worse off than my family) of this hurricane and I believe that we now have the right to say a few things about this storm and how it has affected our fellow human beings. (more…)

Mowing For Peace

Mowing grass has become my preferred way to relax. Some people think that mowing grass is a boring, tiring and sweat-laden chore, but I have come to see that mowing grass can be a great way to connect to life in a number of ways. (more…)

Christmas, Love & Cookies

There are Christmas gifts that transcend the time, place, and people who receive them. Sometimes, these gifts do not immediately appear to reach that height. And yet, when one scratches beneath the surface, one finds that it is these gifts, however mundane, that aspire to greatness and succeed. Such is the case with my Grandma’s cookies. (more…)