Good News Update...

...to the Here's Another Little Something post about one of my co-workers, albeit living in a different state than I do, that I wrote a couple days ago.

Bob Sumrall was found! After seven days!!! Here's an article regarding him being found by a couple of ranchers, and here's another how he managed to stay alive. Apparently, he was lying face down fifteen miles from where his car had been found, and his dog, Zulu, a black labrador retriever, was sitting atop him, and that warmth saved his life. When the ranchers approached, the dog ran away, which is an ongoing story in this whole episode. As the matter of fact, a $2,600 reward has been posted for anyone that finds the dog. Hopefully, they find Zulu!!!

At first, Bob was unconscious, in critical condition, and treated for hypothermia. from another co-worker that he might lose some toes because of the frostbite he endured. He's since come around, and I think is in somewhat better condition.

So praises for that. Thanks to everyone who prayed. And we'll keep our fingers crossed for Zulu!

Bests and Worsts # 1

Name your best and worst of the following:

The Best Kevin Costner Movie:

The Worst Kevin Costner Movie:

The Best Stephen King Novel/Story:

The Best Worst Stephen King Novel/Story:

The Best Seinfeld Episode:

The Worst Seinfeld Episode:

The Best Rolling Stones Song:

The Worst Rolling Stones Song:

The Best Saturday Morning Cartoon Character:

The Worst Saturday Morning Cartoon Character:

The Best Holiday Dessert:

The Worst Holiday Dessert:

The Best Movie/TV Cowboy:

The Worst Movie/TV Cowboy:

The Best of the Newspaper Comic Strips:

The Worst of the Newspaper Comic Strips:

The Best of Superman's foes:

The Worst of Superman's foes:

The Best Christmas Gift You Ever Received:

The Worst Christmas Gift You Ever Received:

That's ten and enough for this round. Feel free, if you want, to add the whys and whatfors regarding your choices. Those tidbits are generally fun to hear.

Go Ode Yourself

Let's see if I have this correctly. The last post crafted up by the Diabolical Genius sounded something a little, a little something, almost exactamentally, close to word-for-word, and something a lot like this. It reads similarly to this:

Where, O where, has my little Rich gone,
Where, O where, can he be,
Not in the parlor, not on the lawn,
Not in the loo to wee.
Poor Richard does not an almanac write,
Young Dick, he nevermore posts,
No clacking of keys and no scrawl of the pen.
The virus has swallowed his byte,
The Trojan has given the Realm up to ghosts,
But the worm cannot shut up ol’ Ken.

Is anyone else catching the irony here? "Irony" is a big word and sometimes misunderstood. Let me e'splain. By my count, since this frolicking, self-serving little poetic injustice here, sixteen posts, including this one, have been penned by the the selfsame victim of this verse. The sum total written at the hand of the author of this "Ode to a Madman" post is a grand, whopping total of negative one (plus one). Zero.

Again, back to the irony. The DG scribes: But the worm cannot shut up ol' Ken.

Apparently, something other than a worm has busted ol' Ken in the proverbial chops. And just on a little bit different tack, all the "Young Dick", "wee" and "Trojan" references...

...please Kenneth. This is a family blog. And we're children's book writers.

Back on point, where is this Lord-O'-Limerick now? Where can be found the Viceroy of Verse? The Sultan of the Sonnet? Or should I say, the Queen of the Quatraine?

Anyhow, I love the irony. Don't you?

Here's Another Little Something

Over the years, on news telecasts and such, I've heard about people getting lost in mountains or when volcanoes blow or in rockslides, etc. I've heard about them. Heard. On the other hand, I've never really known or spoken with those people.

Well, for an unwelcome change, that's not the case anymore. Here's a news clipping on someone that works for one of my business' sister companies that went hiking with his dog out in the mountains of New Mexico. He didn't make it home on time, and then a blizzard hit dropping over ten inches of snow. His wife called him missing the morning after the evening he should have returned home, and the search teams started Sunday afternoon. To this point, no luck. In fact, the latest article here states that the search has failed.

Now, I don't know Bob very well, really don't know him-know him at all, but I have spoken to him on occasion for business-related subjects. I met him when he came to Huntsville once. Now, he's been missing for five days.

Just an odd, odd story. Familiar by other stories of this nature, but nontheless weird. Because it hits a little closer to home, I feel for the family. Prayers for him and his family would be welcome, I'm pretty sure.

Silent Monks Singing Halleluia Chorus

Let's start off the Advent Season here at the blog with this YouTube. A good friend sent it to me, and it's worth a look:



Whattaya think?

Christmas is coming!!!

In Addition...

...and while maybe I shouldn't apologize, I've felt guilty about not posting or doing any other writing lately, so I'm sorry for the blog neglect. Hopefully, I'll be a little more prolific in December. This blog hasn't been fun lately (really, it hasn't been a blog lately; it hasn't been anything lately). Of course, it'll be more fun when Ken writes as he's more funnier.

I do hope everyone had a GREAT THANKSGIVING!!!

Okay, I'm off to Asheville.

My Grandma Passed Away

She was the last of my grandparents, in her mid-nineties, and it's been awhile since she really "lived". My dad and his sister both have struggled with when the right time to let her go has been. God and Grandma helped with that decision, thankfully. Today, I'm heading to Asheville, NC for the funeral, which is tomorrow. I'm not sure what exactly I'm feeling, if anything, except that I want to be with my dad (and mom), his brother, and sister to share in their grief. And really that's more because that's how I'd want my kids to be for me rather than for any personal benevolence. Sometimes, I worry about my personhood. Well, many times.

As opposed to my mother's parents, I wasn't that close with my Dad's. They just weren't in our lives as much. Nonetheless, both Grandma and Papa were wonderful people, albeit a little quirky, from what I know, and for the times I saw them, they were good grandparents to me and, as Christians and decent human beings, they helped a lot of people. I used to love going out on Papa's fishing boat when we went down to Miami, and Grandma would cook up the perch we caught and make it taste like fried shrimp. I used to climb in their fig tree and stuff myself. They had a mini-farm and barn, and when I was a baby, they bought Gingerbread, a Shetland Pony, for me. I never got to see the pony much, although I rode him and their other horse when I was down there. They had lots of chickens as well - used to collect the eggs when I was down there... and cats and two or three poodles. Grandma made the best key lime pie, too. And then, I remember she told me a couple stories I almost had trouble believing. One was about her and Papa talking to and encouraging Billy Graham when he was young and had thoughts of abandoning preaching. I wonder if that really happened?

Whatever is in me, though, I just don't feel that much. I'd like to feel more, because I think that'd be more human. She was my grandmother. She loved my dad. She loved me. While I'd like to think it's grief, I'm fairly sure it's rather that my soul's just a little too numb, I don't love enough, and really, my heart's a little too hard.

Lord, soften it.

Stream of Consciousness

Times of wonder, those Summer, days gone by. Children climbing, hiding on the bluffs. The sounds of squirrels and rabbits, fleeing from footsteps of running boys. Sweet breezes that blow through hair and into eyes, and the twilight fades and the darkness sets in. The resilience of youth is but a facade and can be seen through like Saran wrap. The chickens always come to roost, so they say and nevermore true than now. And later. Life trods on like the hull of the battleship still gliding yet deeper through the seas neverminding the torpedo that ruptured its aft. Sparrows still sing. The harvest moon yet rises. Puffy clouds still find their merry paths below azure skies. All the regrets reflected in the tears of one man's eye forgetting not the passion and devotion and hopes and teaching and some of the prayers. Where to begin, where to end, and to perservere in between, so it is and so am I.

V - A Shout-out!!!

V, the TV series (the 2009 version), starts tonight at 8:00 EST/7:00 CST on ABC, and I've got my fingers crossed that this one's going to be good. It has, from one of my favorite series, Josh Whedon's Firefly, the beautiful Morena Baccarin as Anna, one of the aliens, and that's reason enough for me to watch it. Obviously, this is a re-making of the 1983 (mini-series) and 1984 (TV series) version of the show with the same name: V, which starred none other than The Beastmaster (Dar), Marc Singer. While the original V miniseries was mildly successful, spawning a year-long TV series the next year, I'm hoping for a more Battlestar Galactica-like re-envisioning here -- although I'll not set my expectations that high. Really, I'm just hopeful for a legitimate sci-fi drama that's cool to watch. And, of course, scary aliens.

However, the reason for this post is beside the point of all that. The REASON FOR THIS POST IS that it also stars Logan Huffman (pictured to the right), a friend of Shawn, who is one of our blog followers. Shawn (correct me if I have any of this wrong) home-schooled Logan, and her son and Logan are best friends from way back. SO! Give V a try, and keep a lookout for Logan.

The Visitors are here!

Post All Hallow's Post

Understanding that not all folks that come to this blog love the Halloween holiday, I'm still a big fan, so please indulge me for a few questions. Just wondering what trick-or-treating was like in all your neck o' the woods. How was it where you live? My neighborhood has a lot of kids, so we had a lot of traffic. However, by and large, I've heard that kids on the candy rampage was down this year for several reasons, not the least of which is the Swine Flu. So tell me:

What did you do for Halloween? Did you dress up? Did you hand out candy to passersby? Did your kids dress up? As what? Do you have any candy leftovers? Can you send them to me? What were the best costumes you saw? Did anyone have or go to any festive parties? Did your church have a fall carnival or a Reformation Day? Or was Halloween just another day that went by, not much different than any other day?

Also, are you ready for Thanksgiving? How about Christmas?