Category Archives: Becky

Matthew 25:40

I began this Saturday morning (12-20-2008) by rising out of bed around 5:45 in the morning. I often don’t sleep that well, but on this night I purposely slept on the couch so that I wouldn’t sleep well and I would get up in time.

I was getting up at this awful time of day because I had to be at the Senior Citizen’s Center in Ames by 6:30 to participate in the Jaycee project known as Holiday Food Baskets.

Despite my body’s best effort to stop me from getting up, I did manage to fall out off the couch and stumble to the basement and take a shower. I hit the road and made it to Ames at nearly the right time.

The process of Holiday Food Baskets isn’t really worth mentioning, but there are aspects of the day that are worth noting.

But before getting to those aspects I should make a confession. Deflation and the rapid falling of gas prices has put more coin in this guy’s bank account. I have often noted that deflation is great, if you still have a job.

It is a poor joke and I do have more than a basic understanding of economics to know that deflation and hard economic times for other people could eventually lead to my not having a job. I do work in what is essentially a luxury industry. Nobody’s job is safe, especially people that work’s for a company thats services are hardly essential.

The Pastors at my church have made doing something about the homeless situation in Boone a priority for our church. As hard is it may seem to believe, Boone County has the 5th highest rate of homelessness in the state of Iowa. What makes the situation worse is that Boone does not have a homeless shelter.

There was one briefly, but the finances were mismanaged and it is no longer in existence. Now the best that Boone has to help its homeless is the Boone Biblical College, but they only take men.

I write these things because these are things that I think about lately and it can really happen to almost anybody.

The need in Story County for Holiday Food Baskets tripled from 2007 to 2008.

Andrea told us a story about a family that seemed financially secure. In 2007 they were teaching their children to buy presents for other children through the Angel Tree program. In 2008, their children were on the Angel Tree.

The first 2-3 hours of Holiday Food Baskets is basically grunt work. It is essential, but hardly rewarding. You do a lot of moving food from place A to place B to place C. After everything is organized, then people start coming in to pick up their Food Baskets.

This is the part of the project that is rewarding and I think it is slightly unfortunate that only a handful of us that participated got to take part in this one aspect of the project.

This aspect was carrying the basket of food from the Senior Center to the person’s car. It is important to put a bag or rolls or some apples in a cardboard box, but I don’t think you get a sense of what all of this really means or amounts to and why it is important unless you get a chance to interact with the people that are getting the food.

It can also break your heart.

While I was carrying a cardboard box of food across a street to an SUV for a young woman she told me that this box of food was really going to help her family. They had 8 people living in the same house.

It made me feel completely inadequate and helpless at the same time. I couldn’t help but look into the cardboard box. Just a few moments ago it seemed like a lot of food.

A handful of apples and oranges.
A bag of celery.
A bag of potatoes.
A bag of carrots.
A ham.
2 cans of something.
A bag of rolls.

All of a sudden I felt that I should have run in and gotten them a second box. I should have gotten them a third box. The ham was nothing to sniff at, but I would be lying if I didn’t say that the ham that we had on our Christmas table that fed 9 people was at least 4 times larger than the ham we gave out. I didn’t do this though. The bureaucracy of such things precluded that people had to sign in with MICA and people were designated so much food.

I just wished the young woman a “Merry Christmas” and walked back inside. It is my regret that I didn’t just go grab another box for this family. It was a regret that would be doubled and then doubled again.

We had made up 200 Holiday Food Baskets. At the end of the event around 50 remained. Here is where my regret doubled the first time.

We loaded up the excess food and took it to MICA. As it turns out, MICA doesn’t really have that much capacity for storing frozen hams. Their freezer was already full and they needed to make room. To do this they gave each of us a turkey.

My regret doubled again.

So now I have this turkey weighing on my conscience, but I throw it in the trunk of my car and drive off.

My first stop is Becky’s. I’m supposed to stop at her place to pick up some Christmas gifts. Some for me and some for Teresa. What I learn on this stop is that Becky thinks I’m going to end up in a ditch some time in the near future.

I know she has had this fear for quite some time. When Shannon and I went up to Cedar Falls she gave me an extensive quiz on what kind of safety equipment I had in the car in case we went in a ditch. It basically boiled down to a thermos of hot chocolate. This didn’t seem to satisfy her.

She packed a gift bag full of food. Every time I would pull a new tin of food out she would tell me to “keep that in my car in case you go in a ditch.”

I do not discount the possibility that I might someday go in a ditch, but the closest I’ve ever come to going into a ditch was in the middle of the summer and the reason why is because I was reading the newspaper while I was driving to work.*

If the weather is bad, I don’t read the newspaper.

After I left Becky’s I stopped at Shannon’s to watch her make Christmas candy. She also bound my calendars for me.

Somewhere in between the “pink stuff” and the experimental caramel (which involved the use of a candy thermometer – who invented the candy thermometer??) the lack of quality sleep on the couch began to catch up to me in a massive way.

I bid my adieu since I was going to Des Moines for supper with Jeff and Yin and I was hoping to get a nap of Wentworthian proportions in before I hit the road.

Then on Sunday morning in church, Phil announced that a new family in Boone was homeless.

And I still have this turkey on my conscience.

*Not counting the skunk story.

The Shannon After

Shannon had over a foot of hair cut off her head last Thursday. On Sunday I was able to document this joyous hair loss, but the day was not completely happy.


Shannon After

In the picture above you should try to look past Shannon. You may notice something. Shannon appears to be standing on an abandoned railroad bridge.

My favorite park in Ames is Brookside Park. I don’t believe I would be talking out of turn if I were to guess that it is also Shannon’s favorite park. We met at the park and walked to this bridge despite the cold temperatures.

The previous Saturday we met there to take her before pictures. We talked about going to this bridge on that day because she was curious about it. She had heard a wildly inaccurate characterization of the bridge from Becky. Becky and I had walked across the bridge one night after a Jaycees meeting.

On that Saturday there must have been about 20 people just hanging out on the bridge. I thought we should give the bridge another try, but it did not end up to be one of my better ideas.


Shannon After

If you take you gaze downward you might notice a few things about Shannon. I mentioned it was cold. The proof can be found in the coat/scarf combination that she was wearing. Although it is stylish, the gloves she is wearing are not for fashion purposes. Shannon was cold.

The particularly observant might notice a couple of other things. In her gloved hands Shannon appears to be holding a bag. The bag contains the hair that Shannon parted with so that she could make a donation to Locks of Love.

If you know this bridge very well, you might be able to gather from the trees behind Shannon, she is standing over water.

I’m sure you can see what is coming, but on this day I did not. When Shannon reached into the bag to pull out her former hair to pose for a picture with it, one of the 8 braids (I have no clue if that is the right word) escaped her stylishly gloved, but frozen hands.

It fell between two railroad ties and into the ice cold stream below.


Shannon After
The lost hair.

It was a heart breaker. I didn’t think Shannon would want this to be documented, but she insisted that it be documented.

We managed to get the rest of her former hair put away and left that cursed bridge.

Once we got to dryish land we took some pictures of the her and her former hair.


Shannon After
That is lots of hair.

Shannon After
I repeat. That is lots of hair.

The lost hair didn’t take off down the stream immediately. There was some time where it seemed like it might possibly wash near enough to the bank that we could get to it with out descending deep into the near freezing water.


Shannon After
Shannon watching the hair float away.

But it was not to be.

The day was not a complete loss though. There are still 7 locks to be sent to Locks of Love. A wonderful donation.


Shannon After
Plus, Shannon does have a great new hair cut!

I also gave this beanie to Shannon. I hate to part with anything that Teresa makes, but I don’t think the colors are for me. Everybody seems to say that the hat looks better on her than me any way. It is probably because it is hard for me to give the badass vibe that I normally emanate when I’m wearing that beanie.

After the photo shoot Shannon helped me to write a CPG for the Ames Jaycee website that I redesigned. I won’t bore you with the details, if you aren’t a Jaycee you really wouldn’t be that interested.

Then we joined my Mom, Carla and Teresa for supper at Jeff’s Pizza. If I haven’t written about it before, I love Jeff’s Pizza. I’m a particularly large fan of their Gyro Guy pizza and their Clones. Clones are pizza rolls and they are fantastic. Better than Gumby’s used to make before Gumby’s went terribly downhill.

The meal was pleasant despite the fact that the large amount of females at the table insisted on ordering a Chicken Alfredo pizza. I’m going to tell you flat out, chicken does not belong on a pizza. Even the gourmet pizza wizards at Jeff’s Pizza could not sway my opinion. I will freely confess that their Chicken Alfredo pizza was the best chicken pizza I have had to date, but it still wasn’t a pizza I would want to sit down and take to town.

Thankfully, we ordered a Gyro Guy pizza as well, so I didn’t wither away.

The conversation was relatively polite until it inevitably turned into gossip hour about my friends. I was able to put the smack down on that though. We gossiped about Teresa’s friends instead.

Truth be known, I don’t gossip.

After dinner Shannon and I went to Stephens to see the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra. It was the first professional symphony orchestra concert I have ever attended. They played 3 pieces of music including a piece by Bernstein and a piece by Copland.

The lights never fully dimmed. This was something I wasn’t expecting. Another thing I found odd was that they opened the show by playing the Star Spangled Banner. I’ve gotten to the point where I only hear the National Anthem at sporting events, so that was a nice little surprise. They followed the Star Spangled Banner with the playing of what I’m going to assume was the Israeli National Anthem.

They concluded the show by playing two encores. Before the encores the conductor of the Symphony Orchestra spoke to the crowd and praised people from Iowa. I guess that was the classical music equivalent of “You rock Ames, Iowa! We wish we could take you with us.”

It was a very enjoyable show. I will gladly go see a Symphony Orchestra concert again in the future.

So the night ended on a high after the low of losing the hair. An excellent day at the aggregate level!

Happy Birthday Becky!

While I was going through the long process of changing this website over to a different server, I fell behind in my duties.

That isn’t too big of a deal, except one of the days that I missed a post on was Thursday, October 16, 2008. So I beseech you to read this posting as if today was that day.

Happy Birthday Becky!


Family Night - 06-06-08

If you don’t know Becky, she is the one not drinking from the cup.

Euphonious

Friday was an interesting day.

Of course there was the high of it being Free Gyro Day, but the rest of the work day went rather uneventful.

It was near 5:30, the time I was going to run out of hours and check out for the week, when my phone rang. This was a bit of a surprise and it caused my dart throw to completely miss the paper with the raccoon on it that has been put up as a makeshift dartboard in the hardware area.

I answered the phone and it was Shannon.

She asked if I was interested in taking a ride in the Ames Party Bus.

This was an interesting development because I had engaged in a few conversations with Becky earlier in the day about how she could put the rebuilt starter in the bus by herself. She had asked me what she should use as a jack to hold the starter in place while she tightened the bolts.

My answer had been simple: “Shannon.”

“Really.”

“She tells me how tough she is all the time.”

I don’t know if it was really my advice that she followed, but after Shannon got off work they managed to put the starter in and the bus started.

Below are some pictures of the adventure.


Ames Party Bus

Ames Party Bus

Ames Party Bus

Ames Party Bus

Ames Party Bus

Ames Party Bus

Ames Party Bus

Ames Party Bus

Ames Party Bus

Ames Party Bus

Ames Party Bus

After the cruise around town, I headed to a special FNSC. It was special because Jay had made caramel apples.


FNSC

It was also special because it was a perfect night for sitting around the fire bowl until 1:30 in the morning.


FNSC

Unfortunately that left me a bit tired for the trip to Kalona the next day.

Volt-face

Last Sunday I had some unexpected free time when I got fired from a friend’s photo project.

That is right I got:

  • A career change opportunity
  • Discharged
  • The Pink Slip
  • Dehired
  • Canned
  • Downsized
  • Let Go
  • Outsourced
  • Made Redundant
  • Skill-mix Adjustment
  • Released
  • Walking Papers
  • Shown the Door
  • The Ax
  • Terminated
  • Sacked

On the positive side, this freed up my Sunday afternoon.

I made the use of my time by taking some flower pictures.


Mums

Flower

Flower

Mums

Mums

Asters

Asters

Asters

Asters

Asters

Asters

Asters

Miums

Miums

Moonflower

I also was able to witness some Ames Party Bus painting. I have more pictures of this, but even posting the one picture that I’m posting is kind of violating an agreement I made.


Ames Party Bus

I made use of my unexpected freed up future.

New Sales Record

On Sunday I went down to Hy-Vee Hall to help man the Little White Lye Soap booth at The Women’s Life Expo.


Women's Life Expo>
The Women’s Life Expo

Women's Life Expo
Little White Lye Soap Booth

Before Sunday I had helped Shannon set her 1 day sales record at the Webster City Farmer’s Market.

After 1 day of the Expo, the record still stood.

Then came Sunday. We managed to shatter the record into a trillion pieces. Now I can’t take full credit for the record being shattered. I only talked to a handful of customer’s and none of them actually bought any soap, but I must be bringing something to the team. I have helped break the record twice. It must be something intangible. Something that you can’t quite place a finger on. Because of its ethereal nature, it can’t be replicated. I wish there was a word for it.

For reasons that are not clear to me, this new sales record is also shared with Becky. She wasn’t even in the building. Something to do with merchandising. That is okay, I guess, I can share the glory. As long as my name goes on the Sales Record Plaque first.

Don’t forget that if you are running low on Little White Lye Soap, you can pick some up at the Ames Downtown Farmer’s Market this Saturday. My understanding is that there will be a soapmaking demonstration going on. You’ll regret missing that.

Exercise Your Enfranchisement

You see, boys forget what their country means by just reading The Land of the Free in history books. Then they get to be men they forget even more. Liberty’s too precious a thing to be buried in books, Miss Saunders. Men should hold it up in front of them every single day of their lives and say: I’m free to think and to speak. My ancestors couldn’t, I can, and my children will. Boys ought to grow up remembering that.

– Jefferson Smith; Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)

As you all know, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is one of my favorite movies. This little bit from that movie reminds me of how important it is to vote.

Now I’m not urging you to go out and vote this November. That is an awful log time to wait to express one’s opinion. What I’m urging you to do is go to the following website:

LINK NO LONGER EXISTS

Once you are there you should see something like the picture below:




That is a picture of Becky’s rabbit Maude. Once there you should exercise your ability to think for yourself and do what I’m about to tell you to do. Vote for Maude as the “Cutest Pet”.

Maude thanks you for your support.

Images from a Saturday

I had a rare busy Saturday. Although admittedly a lot of my Saturday was spent watching other people do stuff or sleeping on a wet lounger. Perhaps the highlight of my Saturday was trying the taco dip that spawned Monica’s world famous taco dip. I should have gotten a picture of that.

The first batch of pictures is from Willy running the 4K at the Iowa Games. Willy also ran the 8K. Then for fun, he ran 18 miles when he got home.


Iowa Games - 2008

Iowa Games - 2008

Iowa Games - 2008

Iowa Games - 2008

Iowa Games - 2008

Iowa Games - 2008

The next batch of pictures are from the Minor Girls State Tournament in beautiful Huxley, Iowa. I used to have a friend that lived in Huxley, Iowa. Maybe that guy will return a phone call some day…


Boone vs. Madrid - 2008

Boone vs. Madrid - 2008

Boone vs. Madrid - 2008

Kalista’s team beat Madrid in the game that I witnessed, before falling to Grand View in their next game. Their game against Madrid was an excellent example of how positive energy overcomes negative energy.

Boone won the game. The deciding factor in the outcome of the game was positive energy. I do not think that Boone had the more talented players. I do not think that Boone had the superior strategy. I think the entire difference in the games was that positive energy was flowing from the Boone coaches and negative energy was flowing from the Madrid bench.

As many of you know I despise Little League. This comes from 10 years of coaching and many more years sitting in the stands. Little League is a shining example of how adults go out of their way to ruin children’s activities. There is some good, but it is usually outweighed by the bad.

An example: While the outcome of the game was still in the balance, the Madrid coach began yelling at her daughter as she was coming off the field for what she perceived to be a couple of mental errors on her daughter’s part. At about second #15 of the tirade, the 8 or 9 year old girl began crying. The Madrid coach’s response: “Don’t you cry. This is YOUR fault.” Another timeless childhood memory provided by Little League.

I won’t even get into the sequence where the Madrid coach began yelling at the Madrid fans.

The next batch of images comes from my trip to the Boone County Fair to visit Becky.


Boone County Fair - 2008

Boone County Fair - 2008

Boone County Fair - 2008

Boone County Fair - 2008

Boone County Fair - 2008

Boone County Fair - 2008

Boone County Fair - 2008

Boone County Fair - 2008

Boone County Fair - 2008

Boone County Fair - 2008

Boone County Fair - 2008

Boone County Fair - 2008

Boone County Fair - 2008

Boone County Fair - 2008

My favorite part about the Boone County Fair (besides getting the World’s Best Funnel Cake!) is the fact that the Boone County Democrats were giving away free gun locks.

The Fair was followed by a trip to the Henning household in Ogden. Christopher and Robert were both back in town. Christopher from Iraq. Robert from Wyoming. I wish I had taken some pictures, but I didn’t.

This was followed by a trip to Lone Wolf State Park AKA the McAlpine Lair to do some barbecuing. No pictures of this either, so you’ll have to take my word that it was a good time.