Really interesting (?) stuff right here....

My friend Ellen from Bad Word Mama! has been kind enough to pass on to me the Inspiring Blog Award.  While I never thought of myself as all that inspiring, I'll accept it with sincere appreciation.  The rules are I'm to share with everyone 7 interesting facts about myself, "interesting" being a relative term as you'll soon find out:

1.  I don't have a uvula.  That's the little dangly appendage that hangs down in the back of your throat that keeps food and drink from going up your nose when you swallow.  It was surgically removed to (help) cure me of sleep apnea.  So far I haven't actually shot food/drink out my nose, but I'm sure it's just a matter of time.

2.  When I was still in middle school I was on the Friday Night High School Football Roundup on WFAA radio in Dallas.  My part was a 2 minute synopsis of the Garland High School game that week.  I'd attend the game, take notes, then be on the radio about 20 minutes after the game was over.  It was all done over the telephone....they never knew I was only 13/14 years old.

3.   I was once invited by the US Navy to fly 60 miles out into the Gulf of Mexico and experience a landing and later a launch off the carrier USS Forrestal.  I'm officially a "tailhooker".  (I know....sounds kinda pornographic, huh?)

4.  While I built mega-big, mega-expensive homes, K and I live in a small apartment and love it. I'll probably build us another home some day, but it will be small....maybe 1200 sq ft max.  Anything more requires too much upkeep.  Truthfully, I'm just too lazy to take care of any more than that.

5.  I met my wife online. True!  Svetlana and I....no, wait....wrong website.  Kelly and I met on the now defunct JournalSpace.  She posted a question that I just happened by at that exact moment and answered for her.  A few seconds earlier or later and we would have been like two ships passing in the night.

6.  When I was at Texas Tech I read in a magazine that Vasser, then an all-girl school, was admitting a limited number of males on a trial basis.  I wanted to apply but didn't have the application fee they required, probably set high just to keep all us horny/poor guys away.  (They obviously wanted only horny/rich guys.)  I wound up taking a course in the School of Home Economics at Tech because the f/m ratio was 44-4.

7.  My brother did some family genealogy recently and traced our ancestors back to Scotland.  It seems we're descended from some guy who was an Earl or Baron or something like that back in the 1600's.  I'm pretty sure our branch of the family tree was pruned back to a knot centuries ago.

Hey....wake up!  Now I'm supposed to pass on the award to up to 15 others I find are interesting/inspiring in one way or another.  So TAG, you're it....inspire me:

Betina at Thoughts From My Corner of the Couch

Stephen at The Chubby Chatterbox

Dana at Bug's Eye View

PT at PT Dilloway

Jim at Suldog

Old Geezers Out to Lunch

Joe at Cranky Old Man

Bruce at Oddball Observations

Kelly at Delightfully Ludicrous

Lori at Simply Wizardress

Bethany at Bethany Illustrated

Dorrie at Westy's World

Fin at Fin Former Curmudgeon

Doug at The Voice Inside My Eye


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Me from A to Z

Shades of JournalSpace!  These sorts of personal expose's were common back "in the day", but I haven't seen one since JS permanently crashed.   This exercise was at the suggestion of my friend Suldog, and at his request I'll play along.  Here's me, from A to Z:

Age:  62 chronologically, much less emotionally.  K sometimes says I'm a "stick in the mud", and I'm sure I am at times, but most of the time I'm having too much fun to act my age.  That may be because I pretty much toed the line as a kid and now I'm making up for lost time.

Bed Size:  Queen.  To me a King is just too big.  They're so big you can stretch out and never even know you're in bed with anyone else.  I like to think snuggling in a Queen bed is the perfect way to promote world peace.  *I can't imagine why that line hasn't worked better?*

Chore I Hate:  Yard work, hands down.  I hate mowing, edging, weed-eating, trimming shrubs, raking leaves, fertilizing, spraying for various bugs and lawn diseases....all of it.  All so it can look good for maybe 3 days until it starts looking shaggy again?  Talk about an exercise in futility!

Dogs?  I love dogs, pretty much all dogs.  But I only want a small to medium sized dog for myself.  Big dogs have too much going in one end and coming out the other.  My love of dogs is odd since my parents didn't have dogs and therefore I was never around one as a kid.  Right now we have a Yorkshire Terrier (Luke), and before him we had a Miniature Schnauzer (Emma), a West Highland White Terrier (Tara), and many years ago (pre K) I had an American Eskimo (Tahsha).  Dogs bring me much happiness.  :)

Essential start to my day:  A cold beverage.  Right now I'm partial to Trader Joe's Latte's and Mocha Cappuccino's.

Favorite color:  I'm easy.  I like green, blue, red....there's no color in particular I plan my wardrobe or room furnishings around.  If it looks good in context, I like it.

Gold or Silver?  Silver.  It's less flashy than gold.  I'm not a flashy person.

House or Apartment?  For 35+ years I owned my own home(s), but for the last 4 years I've had an apartment and I LOVE IT!  In fairness, at certain times in my life, such as when I had small children and they needed a safe place to play, a house was perfect.  But I'm long past that now.   A house again someday?  Never say never. *wink*

Instruments played:  AM radio, FM radio, Quadraphonic stereo, 8-track, cassettes, CD's and iPods.  I'm accomplished in them all.  ;)

Job title:  Until last fall, President of Park Place Custom Homes.  That sounds impressive until you read my job description:  "Responsible for every shitty detail if no one else can be found to dump it on."  Now I'm semi-retarded.

Kids:  Three daughters; Kristan, Andrea, and Erica.  Today all are grown, well educated, and gainfully employed.  *happy dance*  They've also blessed me with four grandkids (Austin, Colby, Parker, and Blakely), with one more (Reese) on the way.

Live:  If that's a long "i", yes I am.  Otherwise, in Frisco, TX, a far-northern Dallas suburb.

Married:  Happily, to the lovely and talented "K".  Six years so far and counting.  :)

Never Again....will I ever sign my name to a mega-million dollar bank note.  Been there, done that, (successfully) escaped by the skin of my teeth.  I don't trust #$%& bankers.  "He who has the gold makes the rules", and the rules are 100% tilted in their favor.  Always!

Other Fun Facts:  I love history (college minor), and in particular aviation history.   For a while I was a docent at a Smithsonian-affiliated aviation museum.  I was also very active for nearly two decades with the Confederate Air Force, today known as the Commemorative Air Force.  I traveled the country on their behalf and had a great time, but what I did was extremely dangerous and about 8 years ago I figured I'd pushed my luck long enough and hung up my chocks.  

Pet Peeves:  People who throw cigarette butts on the pavement, people who make messes and leave it for someone else to clean up, f__ked-up renditions of the Star Spangled Banner, people who pull in front of me on the road and then just poke along, cops who get all bent out of shape when I do 54 in a 40....

Quote:  "Character means doing the right thing, even when no one is watching."  (author unknown)  Also: "Never give in, never give in, never; never; never; never - in nothing great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense." (Winston Churchill)

Righty or Lefty?  Righty, although I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous!

Siblings:  One, Todd.  Good guy, business partner, extremely competent, totally trustworthy.  He's 11 years younger than me (can you say "Oops"), so we were never close as kids.  Especially after the time I put him in the clothes dryer and gave him a couple of spins.  (Oh stop it!  You know you'd have loved to do the same thing to your kid bro/sis.  You just didn't think of it.)

Time you wake up:  Wake up around 5:30 (thanks to Luke the Wonder Dog), feet hit the floor about 6.

University attended:  Texas Tech University, class of '72.  Nine of the happiest years of my life!  (Kidding....I made it in 4.)

Veggies I dislike:  Pretty much all of them, especially those that have a color...yellow, green, red, orange...yuck! The blue ones aren't too bad.  And I do like jalapenos.  (When I was a kid to get my mother to quit bugging me I convinced her a jalapeno was a green vegetable.)  

What makes you run late?  Very few things.  I'm extremely punctual.

X-rays?  Sure.  For dental work, of course.  And on my head to see if I was "normal"....oh, and to check out my sinuses, and on my back, and on the typical assorted adolescent broken bones. 

Yum foods?  Steak!  Mexican!  Italian!  Banana pudding!  Pecan pie!  Ice cream!  (I'll stop there as this post is already waaaay too long.)

Zoo animal (favorite):   I'm not really into zoo's all that much, but I'd have to say it would probably be one of the birds of prey.  I find them fascinating.

OK, that's me.  Now as Jim (Suldog) challenged me, I'm challenging you to do one of these on yourself.  I think it's a pretty cool way to learn more about your blogging friends.  

Hope you enjoyed.  :)

S

The Versatile Blogger Award

Yesterday I was honored (and shocked) to learn that my friend Steve the Chubby Chatterbox nominated me for a Versatile Blogger Award.  To think that someone as creative and articulate as he would nominate lil 'ol me is quite humbling.  Thank you, Steve.  :)


According to nomination protocol I'm supposed to share 7 interesting things about myself ("interesting" being relative) and then pass on my nomination for the award to a few others I find deserving.  So without further adieu....


1.  I had a loving, stable childhood.  Two parents (no stand-ins), both very caring and ultra-ethical, only three public schools, culminating in a B.A. in BS from Texas Tech University.  My dad had an outrageous sense of humor, so on those occasions when I go totally bonkers just know I'm helpless....it's my dad's genes running amok inside me.  For 30-something years my brother and I have been partners building Park Place Custom Homes (.com if anyone cares).


2.  Politically I'm all over the map.  My conservative friends think I'm a card-carrying Socialist, while my liberal friends think I'm just to the right of Attila the Hun. So which is it?  Both, depending on the issue....with a heavy dose of cynicism mixed in.  I firmly believe our elected officials at all levels (and of BOTH parties) care about themselves first, those who bribe contribute to their re-election campaigns second, while We the People rank somewhere down there with the family pet....maybe even a notch below.


3.  I've had a life-long interest in aviation.  When I was 8 years old my parents asked me what I wanted for my birthday and I told them I wanted to have a party on the observation deck of Dallas' Love Field.  Back in the mid-80's I joined a WWII aviation heritage group then known as the Confederate Air Force.  We acquired, restored, and then flew our 130+/- aircraft at airshows all across the country.  I was a marshaller, leading a group of around 50 others who organized and ran the flight line at these shows.  I was the Ramp Boss at events from California to Maryland, Iowa to the very southern tip of Texas.  It was a very challenging (volunteer) job, basically run like a huge jigsaw puzzle based on aircraft size, turning radius, etc.  Over the years I worked closely with the US Navy Blue Angels, the USAF Thunderbirds, the RCAF Snowbirds, and the RAF Red Arrows.  That all came to an abrupt end when....


4.  ....I had several back-to-back detached retinas in my left eye which, long story short, left me with no peripheral vision on that side.  When you're literally working just a few feet from giant whirling propellers capable of turning you into sausage in the blink of an eye, situational awareness is critical.  With no peripheral vision on one side I decided it was time to hang it up.  I then studied and became a certified docent at a local aviation museum, but frankly I found it boring.


5.  I've attended both Citizen's Police and Fire Academies, giving me just enough knowledge of what they do to be dangerous. It was a blast, and very "hands-on".  I've also completed (for real) Aircraft Rescue And Fire Fighting (ARFF) training at Dallas' Love Field and DFW International Airport.  I was first to arrive at several airshow crashes, but the damage was catastrophic and there was little I could do when I arrived on scene.  Very sad.


6.  Back in 1992 I was invited to experience a "trap" (landing) and a "cat shot" (takeoff) on the USS Forrestal, a US Navy aircraft carrier operating in the Gulf of Mexico at the time.  It was a fun ride, lemme tell you!  Yes, that makes me a "tailhooker", no pun intended.  (Well...maybe a little.  ;) 


7.  I met my wife Kelly (aka "K") online, but not the way you might think.  I was reading an aviation blog and it said "for further info on this topic read XYZ@Journalspace.com", so I linked over.  JS said I had to have a membership to read there so I signed up.  Later while surfing JS I saw a photo of a weed on a blog, the blogger asking what it was and how do you control it, so I answered.  Later posts were also interesting so we began visiting.  Come to find out she was living far away at the time but was from near Ft. Worth, Texas (I'm from near Dallas).  More talk, then a meet, then....  :)  And to think if I had linked over to Journalspace just a few seconds earlier or later I probably would never have seen her weed photo and cry for help.  It was fate, I tell ya!


Are you bored to tears yet?  I thought so.  


Now please allow me to nominate a few other bloggers I find interesting:


Oddball Observations....Bruce writes about....well....oddball observations.  He's had an interesting life and has some interesting opinions, too.


Charleston Daily Photo....Joan shares some of the interesting sights and history of the Charleston, SC area.


Suldog....what can I say?  Jim is just not right!  In a good and humorous way, though.


Now y'all close your computers and get to work.  :)


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