John’s thoughts, rants, and crazy ideas
A couple of months ago, I dropped Suzanne off at a Hobby Lobby as I ran over to Menards in Champaign. Back to pick her up, she looked puzzled, so I asked the reason. She said, “I ask a clerk where I could find a sex book, but she didn’t seem to understand”. Looking at her with excitement in my eyes, I shared that I didn’t think Hobby Lobby was the right place to look for that item, then repeated…
Some Christmas card letters are epic novels, some Christmas cards are just signed, some with photos, a piece of candy, or just a brief note about the year a loved one had. I told myself that this year, I was going to start to send Christmas Cards out again. Obviously, I told myself that too late as my bout with influenza took over the past few weeks and it appears, this is going to be the best I can do….
The Christmas season brings out cherished memories with friends and family. One of the most cherished periods of my life was publishing my dad’s WWII diary back in 2012-15. As a tribute to him, I put together a video of how he spent Christmas each year he was overseas. Now, watching this video every year brings a smile to my face as I remember him and our journey together. So here is my annual posting of Christmas for a WWII…
Sometimes you get to the point where you hate to answer the phone. Someone raising money, and another to sell you something. But the call Suzanne is really tired of is from a friend or family member who says they have cancer. That call came in again this week from Suzanne’s oldest and dearest Cissna Park friend. This friend accepted her into her life when Suzanne was new to the community; shared her family with ours; traveled to quilting events…
To all our friends & family, Happy Thanksgiving. It’s hard to put into words how grateful we are to still be together for Thanksgiving this year. It seems so long ago that Suzanne was diagnosed, and now we think we have figured out how we will share this life from here on. Since we got married, Thanksgiving has usually been a day we celebrate with Suzanne’s side of the family. Big dinner at Suzanne’s dad’s; both of her brothers &…
Back when Suzanne changed her eating habits, I had no idea what bisque was. I thought maybe it was what you used when you played frisbee, or an abbreviated name for a breakfast bread item, maybe even what a farmer with a speech impediment calls one of his implements. Now I know and if you’re not sure, Bisque is a style of soup. From what I can read, it is of French origin although modern bisque is far different than…
The number 2000 is probably best know as a year. It’s hard to believe that it was twenty-two years ago when we moved into the year 2000. Getting there was a challenge as the whole world was in a computer tizzy. The fear that all the computers in the world would crash as we moved from 1999 to 2000 made everyone crazy. Banks wouldn’t be able to complete transactions, phone systems would be disabled, and electric grids would collapse. As…
Have you ever taken: A 5-year-old to the playground A ten-year-old to a baseball game Any age child to Disneyland In every case, you’d have an easier time controlling the weather than containing the excitement all these kids have when provided these opportunities. That’s what it’s like taking Suzanne to a draft horse show and I had that opportunity this past week at the Illinois State Fair. There is no such thing as getting there too early; no chance for…
Last January first, the world moved into a new year, the year of A.D. 2022. The number proceeds with A.D. or Anno Domini, which is Latin for “in the year of the Lord”. Standardized under the Julian and Gregorian calendars, days and years have been calculated based on the birth of Christ (give or take a year or two) New Year’s Eve and Day are always celebrated with anticipation and hope; Anticipation of the new as we leave the old…
Bless us, Oh Lord,and these thy gifts whichwe are about to receive from thy bounty,through Christ, Our Lord.Amen. Grace was the prayer my childhood family recited every evening before supper. It’s one of the most common prayers growing up in the Catholic Church that I said. It ranked right up there with The Lord’s Prayer and the Hail Mary, but Grace, at my peak, I’ll bet I could have ripped through that one in about 4 seconds. . . ….