GG teaches Eli New Words

Just got back from an Eli visit. This time I brought my mother along to see Kelsey and Brian's new house and to share the visit. Eli is starting to really jabber and in the course of conversation, my mother taught him a new word, in between hiccups!

Mover, Shaker and Now a Baker

I'm a baker. I bake. On my very first try, I baked. The trick is to just sit there and let the bread machine do all the work. But I am a baker.

Before the bread machine the thought of baking made my lips numb. But with a quality bread machine, a solid crew and simple ingredients, viola I am a baker.

My first attempt was some wheat bread. This was a concession to Peggy. The one downside to the bread machine is its size. It is rather big and our kitchen does not have that much counter room. I had to sneak the machine into the house, put on a real sad face and explain that it followed me home and could I keep it. She finally consented but told me not to be making that white bread crap. So I made wheat bread. It is okay, but I cannot wait to make the white bread crap.

My second project was pizza dough (the real reason for the purchase). It was excellent. I am now in business. I now control my world. With last summer's lesson on how to make the world's best marinara, my new found ability to make pizza dough and my unique knowlege of all things sausage related I can now work on making perfect food.

Now if I only knew where cheese came from........

See the Trees, How Big They've Grown

His Obit:

Cleo Hughes died at the age of 85 in Water Valley, Mississippi on July 31, 2006. His funeral was held at 10:30, Thursday August 3, 2006 at the First Baptist Church in Water Valley, with a military funeral at Oak Hill Cemetery in Water Valley. Affectionately known as Mr. Cleo around town, he was a member of the "Flying Tigers" during World War II. He was born a twin ( Cleo & Theo) and raised in Water Valley. He was a principal of Westwood Elementary School and retired from teaching in 1982. He returned to Water Valley, built a new home and began his new life as a helper and a friend to all. Mr. Cleo was always helping others, loved by everyone and he will be greatly missed.

Mr. Hughes was a HUGE man. And he did look just like his pictures, and the last one of him smiling is a rare shot. A big influence in my life. In November of 1967 I moved to Memphis from Chicago. I did not speak the language. And the language was a meaner one than Chicago. The male teachers walked around with paddles, and if you did not answer correctly or were not "in-line" you got a whoopin. I met Mr. Hughes for the first time in the hall. Not recognising me (and he knew all the students) he said Come 'heeya boy. I did not understand the command which was repeated several times before he walked up to me, bent me over and swatted me good. This happened several times the first week I was in this new school before some boy said to me "man, when asked to come see him, why don't you go see him?" I did not know that "come heeya boy" was "come here boy".

After our miscue in communication, Mr. Hughes took a shining to me, talked with me often and seemed to know more about me than anyone else. Perhaps he knew my loneliness and my trouble fitting in. Anyway he asked me to work on the school over several weekends with other boys he recruited. We planted trees and cleaned the place up. He would often come talk to me early in the morning as I sat alone in the cafeteria, doing homework and waiting for school to start. I got to school each day an hour early because my brother and the other Coast Guard kids were in high school which started earlier, and I guess I was not worth a special trip.

I wished I had known he was a member of the Flying Tigers. They were my favorite story from WW II.

Here are those trees today. When we planted them they were saplings.

Someone's Gonna Have to 'Splain it to Me

Someday I sure hope they actually invent the portable hole:

Cartoon Synopsis:
Mousey little Prof. Calvin Q. Calculus introduces his latest invention, the "portable hole." It changes the world, and much of the cartoon shows examples of its many uses and abuses. A criminal steals it for evil purposes. The professor's wonderful invention fails to impress his horrible, nagging wife, though. She endlessly browbeats and insults him about everything. Eventually, the man calmly creates a hole, places it underneath his wife as she continues to tell him just how worthless he and his inventions are, and allows her to fall through the hole and into the Earth's crust. Moments later, the wife is chucked back up the hole, and a distraught devil climbs out and says, "Don't you think I have enough problems down there without her?"

And someday I want to know the meaning of the word - whole.

And just how can you fix a hole in the ground?

FIXING A HOLE

I'm fixing a hole where the rain gets in

And stops my mind from wandering

Where it will go

I'm filling the cracks that ran through the door

And kept my mind from wandering

Where it will go

And it really doesn't matter if I'm wrong

I'm right

Where I belong I'm right

Where I belong

See the people standing there who disagree and never win

And wonder why they don't get in my door

I'm painting my room in a colourful way

And when my mind is wandering

There I will go

And it really doesn't matter if I'm wrong

I'm right

Where I belong I'm right

Where I belong

Silly people run around, they worry me

And never ask me why they don't get past my door

I'm taking the time for a number of things

That weren't important yesterday

And I still go

Fixing a hole where the rain gets in

Stops my mind from wandering

Where it will go.

Ringo - Mania

Ringo. My apologies. I have spent my life time underating you. You were, you are a bigger guy than I have given you credit for. Lately some of your songs have caught my ear. I have re-defined my opinon of you and think you were more vital to the Beatles than ever. Live long and rejoice, ....and stay as cool as you are.