Day O' Bob

(This ran originally in 2007 and is re-posted today to celebrate the man's birthday. It is not known if happenin' britches are widely available today. - Ed.)

No doubt the skies over Independence, Mo. are ablaze with fireworks as the daylong festivities commemorating the birth of key citizen Robert K. Wingate are reaching their appointed climax. Even at this hour, you'll probably still be able to pick up pieces of candy strewn along Noland Road, flung there by the various fire departments and ambulance brigades during the parade. That is, if you can pick it out amongst all the confetti and twenty dollar bills shot from cannons or launched from those rubber-band sling things by exuberant cheerleaders. Kansas City loves a parade, yessiree, Bob.

Pictured here is the man of the hour in an earlier time, probably about 9:30 a.m. He's in the foreground on the swing. That's me on the glider with the happenin' britches on. Probably he had spent the night at my house and we would all wind up down at Poppy's later on. The girl is my big sister, but enough about her.

Time flies and Bob and I have a married daughter each. He's a grandpa now. Happily, though, we've not traversed too far from laughing our fool heads off at cartoons, ours or someone else's, giddiness fueled by hot dogs, Shasta and not nearly enough sleep.

So, get your happenin' britches on! It's the birthday of Independence's own Bob Wingate! Happy Birthday, cousin!

Yessiree, Bob.

The Evening Rambler for 11-11-11 (Six digits...all ones!)

I don't really have a plan for this, and I don't know where I'll end up when I'm done writing. This will be an Evening Rambler in the truest sense of the words.

In fact, I fully expect I'll go away...and then come back and write more. It's like some kind of law of nature...

The sun rises in the east - then sets in the west.
What goes up - must come down.
Bob goes away - then he comes back.

Before I forget, thank you Mike for the last two posts while I was having writer's block. The color wheel for all the Crayola crayons was really nice to look at. I did notice a bit of history revisionism on their part, one of the colors (I think it was Peach), used to be called Flesh. Somewhere in the 80s I think it was, they had collected enough complaints that they decided to change the name. In fact, I think they released new colors at that time in other flesh tones, but none of them named Flesh.

Day to day family life here at the northern annex to The Porch has been in upheaval lately. My wife's dad has inoperable terminal cancer along with other medical conditions. He has been in a hospice house for a week or thereabouts, and he is receiving good care. So my wife is staying with her mom for a while, a truly good deed which I fully support.

Of course, that means someone else has to cook dinner here, as the budget won't allow fast food every night. Daughter number two cooked chicken alfredo two nights ago, and it was very tasty.

Tonight was my turn, so we activated a test of the Emergency Food Warning System..."Dad is cooking...should this become an actual emergency, you will be instructed to seek aid..."

That kind of thing. I followed the directions on the box of fish fillets. I also got a few potatoes out of the bag to bake in the microwave. They'd been in the bag for a while and had kind of an earthy smell to them, even after a good washing. So I went ahead and baked them, then peeled off the skin, cut them up and fried them. Surprisingly, everything turned out good. Along with some baby carrots and some apple slices, we did all right.

Back after Fringe...

...And I came back. Told ya.

That Fringe episode was easily the best so far of Season Four. I've got an idea of one thing they could do from here on, but I won't say; especially since I know most of my readers are not regular fans of the show. The writers will probably take it in some other direction anyway.

Why do I like Fringe so much? Well for starters, it has a mad scientist! And at least one alternate universe! Not to mention some great acting and characters you grow to care about. What more could you want in a strange TV show?

Before the day gets any older, I'll wish all veterans a Happy Veterans' Day! I'm not sure if I have any readers who are veterans, but I always like to thank those in uniform, and those who used to wear the uniform, for our freedoms. Really, any day is a good day to do that.

Six days ago there was an earthquake in Oklahome. I forget the magnitude - somewhere around 5 - but strong enough to be felt across several states, including Missouri. I talked to some people at church who said they felt it here in Independence. I didn't notice it, and neither did anyone in my family.

And something like a week before that, there was a large solar Coronal Mass Ejection and geomagnetic storm which gave rise to the best auroral display seen in the USA in years. The northern lights were seen as far south as Arkansas. I heard about it while they were visible, so I grabbed my wallet and keys, jumped in my car, and drove out beyond the city lights.

See, you should know something about me. I've wanted to see the northern lights ever since I learned about them in grade school...and I never have. It's still one of the top things on my "bucket list"...and I say still, because by the time I got beyond the light pollution and got out of my car, the northern lights had subsided. I stood in the dark for a good ten minutes anyway, long enough for my eyes to adjust. No joy.

Sometimes I just get the feeling that I miss out on things.