Monday, Monday ...

Personal: Weather was great this weekend (in Springfield). Celebrated L's birthday. We ate at Applebees and saw "Godspell" at New Salem theater then had cake at home. Returned a pair of jean shorts (too big) and need to return a t-shirt (too small). Bought a new dryer at Sears on Sunday because the old one is dying. L dried some clothes at her friend LH's house and we ate dinner there. It turns out that L is still trying to finish assignments for her Autism class (Tuesday night deadline). L chelated M all weekend. I leave tomorrow at 2:00 o'clock for Microchip Masters conference. No clothes for trip and no dryer! Called Mom and R in KC: Mom is getting new house and laundry help, D returns tomorrow, and R leaves Thursday. R's house is essentially sold but the paperwork lags and she needs to find a house in Austin. Mom said that Felicia called: Ima is in nursing care facility (temporary?) while Cecil is having tumor over stomach removed. Ben is a big help. I wrote out bills and need to mail same after I balance checkbook.
News: St Louis had two storms last week and much is without power. New York Cithy has power outages to. Springfield has some outages too. Crazy weather this summer. Mid East rages in Iraq and Lebanon (SNAFU).
Weather: Threatened to storm on Saturday night at New Salem. Sunday was nice.
Sports: KC Royals are back to their losing ways (0.347 season so far).
To Do: Prep for trip ... cleanup finances ... birthday card to Rox.

L's Birthday !!!

Personal: It's my wife L's birthday today. There's a "3" and a "5" in her age so she must be "35". I've bought gifts and reserved seats for a musical in the park I need to plan a dinner and a cake too. She's working at the church this morning. I need to cut grass and pay bills, then I'll help her stuff the bulletins. Called my sister Rox who is staying with my mother Helen in Kansas City til next week. All is well & Mom's arm is healing. R pried up a bathroom tile for his mother. Lila worked furiously on her "Autism" course to finish it yesterday.
News: Israel is sort-of invading Lebanon. Mostly a propaganda war. Iraq remains a five way pi**ing contest. Cubs is goint to buy Jewel.
Weather: Cool (front come through yesterday with rain).
Sports: KC has won two from LA Angels in KC. Not too shabby.
Today in history: Friday, July 22, 1988: Lila & I celecbrated her 35th birthday. She thinks the kids were out of town and I gave her a red and black swim suit, a fishing pole and a thimble shelf with doors. She said that I wasn't so irritating and such a comedian then.

Thursday - Two days till L's birthday

Weather: A freak storm swept through Springfield from the north at about 5:30 pm yesterday. There were 80 mph straight line winds and a tornado warning. Storm hit Cardinal's new stadium and did some damage. St. Louis then won the game.
Personal: I was at work when the sirens went off so a took a short trip to the basement. Lila is trying to write a paper for her ISU on-line class - its due Friday. I go home from KC on Monday night and stayed home Tuesday. Busy as all getout yesterday.
News: Israeli multi-front war continues. Christie Brinkley's hubby cheated (she's 52). Billy Joel is probably have a rough time working up much sympathy.
Sports: It's Boston's turn to beat up the Royals. KC is going to play at home for awhile - maybe this will help.

Dispatch No. 1 - Shawnee, KS

Personal News: Arrived in KC last night at 8:45. Don and Nancy were here and briefed me on Mom's status. Mom's physical therapy coordinator came by this am. Mom has done well today. Shopped at Penney's and Walmart.
Weather: Blistering hot
Sports: Royals have lost 3 to the Tigers. It's bleak.

Daily post

(No pic today)
News:
(International) Israeli conflict rages (Iran involved?) ...
(National) More reverberations from Novak's "Plame" story source ...
(Springfield) South Grand is being resurfaced
(My House) Lila & I are being very friendly & had had lunch together ... Mark is behaving well - even without pills!
(Work) Productive day for a change
Weather:
Rained last night .. very muggy and hot today
Sports:
KC (31/56) plays at Detroit (59/29) tonight. Could be a long weekend for KC.

Hump Day

News: Rove admitted to being source of exposing Plame ... 200 Indians dead from 7 bombs... Israel invading Gaza and Lebanon after attacks and kidnappings... 29 Iraqi deaths during Rumsfelt visit...
Weather: Some rain today...mid 80's
Sports: Italians beat French for World Cup (French guy head-butted Italina player) ... American league won All Stars game
Personal: Wife & I had a long talk last night ... we're getting along better today
Work: Performance is sluggish this week ... things are stacking up

My House

Hey! Look at me! I'm down here in the back yard inside the red box. I'm the guy waving up.

Channel 20 TV Station Cam-shot

Just for fun, here's a fresh cam shot from Channel 20 WICS-TV looking northwest toward downtown Springfield (IL) on our nice sunny day. The tall structure is the Hilton hotel.

Day "Whatever"

Personal: On Sunday, I fished at Sanchris lake for the first time in a couple of years. Caught & released some small bluegills. Not too hot. Nice afternoon. Saw the "Pirates of the Carribean" movie (finally) and watched the "Boys and girl from County Clare" DVD. Had a blind preacher at church. Didn't talk to Mom or Don. Ryan worked at Blockbuster. Mark got chelated. Lila & I ate at Xochimilco on Friday. Lila heard from Kevin over the weekend.
News: Shiites and Sunni's killing each other in turn. NYT still at war with Bush over the war. CWLP may buy power form windmills in the future.
Weather: Cool and comfortable - not swimming weather.
Sports: KC is starting to lose some games again. Maybe the magic is wearing off.

Day Three

To the left a white 1996 Lumina that looks like my POS. Mine has 190K(+) on the odometer, no A/C, a cracked windshield, and a leaky head gasket so that the engine only cools intermitently. It still runs ok in town but overheats on the highway.

Used to have a 1998 dark blue Lumina but it eventually siezed up. We also now have a dark green 1999(?) Ford Windstar.

News: "FBI disrupts New York transportation plot". Some autistic child won a $43 million settlement for his MMR vaccination. Mark got a cavity filled by Dr. Ford this afternoon. Gregory Small is visiting and may spend the night. Ryan is working this evening till eight o'clock (Day One for him at Blockbuster). Updated my "Assets" spreadsheet. Mark is pretty well recovered from a yeast infection that started about two weeks ago after he took some antibiotics.
Weather: Cool & dry.
Sports: KC Royals won the first of three with Toronto Blue Jays yesterday.
Editorial: Translators keep plowing through old Iraqi records keep finding tantalizing tibits about possible terrorism and WMD links. Hope they eventually find something that the gov't. & the MSM can't shrug off. After all, 2500 men died for this cause.
Entertainment: New Pirates of the Carribean movie starts tonight so Lila and I may eat Mexican then see the movie.

Day Two

Well... I survived Day One, let's see how Day Two goes. Boy there are so many things to talk about. I think I need to get organized. For good or ill this blog will reflect my interests. First things first, I think I'll plan to do most of my data entry "off-line" and then cut-n-paste the text etc. to the blog posting. This gives me greater flexibility. I'll save this draft and finish it later...

Random musings:

• KC Royal won third in series with Minnesota in KC. (33%). In general they have a lousy record.
• Iraq has generated into a long term propaganda war with the Left firmly in the corner of the Islamists (“enemy of my enemy is my friend”). If the Islamists prevail in the war of wills and propaganda, it would serve the Left right if the mujadeens blew up the NorthEast (but the Left would just blame Midwestern values) .
• Kevin (Lila’ oldest boy) built some nice sturdy railings around our front steps this weekend. Everyone is very impressed. (It was also very hot work)
• Ryan Lila’s No. 2 son returned to his upstairs room for a stay of a month or two. He’s been in Bolivar, MO for a few months and will probably return in August.
• Lila’s sister Martha will be visiting us for a few days in August.
• My mom fell down last week and hurt her wrist and bruised her face last week. She’s 88 and very frail but otherwise healthy. I may stay with her for a few days in July.
• Our son Mark (with Aspergers Syndrome – “A/S”) is recovering from an apparent bout with yeast (common problem with kids on autiosm spectrum.)
• Work is ok – still have a job.
• Fishing: I tell everyone that I am a fisherman – but I rarely go fishing. Need to fix that at some point.
• Mrs. White & I need to steal away for a nice romantic interlude as some point if we can swing it. Home is just not the place for it. Neither of us have much energy and we can’t seem to coordinate the energy that we do have.
• My son Paul hasn't make it back to town since Feb. 1999.
• I owe a call and letters to Anne.

Here is what we look like (or at least used to look like):

Time out here ... I have tried several times to show a bitmap photo but it doesn't seem to work.

15:41: I was finally able to get a bitmap picture loaded but I still don't know why this one worked but others didn't. On well ...

• Ken Lay's death: Extremely ironic - he never served a day in prison on the one hand but he got the death penalty on the other hand. AND he's chilling while he waits for his NEXT trial (get it?).
• Read Ann Coulter today and she & I agree on Bush and national politics. REALLY smart gal - and tough!
• Israel: I don't believe that they really have inherent ownership of Palestine from God but the USA & Britain somehow gave them the land 1948-ish. If they oust the Jews then what happens. Does the intifada continue until the Islamics own the earth?
• What happens if the incredibly shrinking western Christian culture is overwhelmed by the joint efforts of Islam and Communism. Who wins then?

15:49: This is a little addictive. Need to get back to work soon. Another unhappy customer just called.

Day One

Never had a blog before. Never even read other folk's blogs. Not sure what the purpose of this is but I'll give it a go.

I was born at an early age somewhere in Kansas. Grew up in and around Kansas City Missouri & Kansas. Raised Roman Catholic but fell away as soon as I could (~17 years old). Stayed out of church until I was 44 (~27 year hiatus). Became a Lutheran (Missouri Synod) because my wife was one. Never regretted it . Not active in church politics - just write checks and help out where I can.

Received a degree in electrical Engineering in 1973. Went to Indiana for a short while then on to Illinois where I've been eve since.

Am pretty much a "cultural conservative" in my politics. Despised Bill Clinton for dishonoring the Oval Office and loved George Bush - until his views on immigration confused me. My parents came from south Missoui and were very staunch Democrats. Both worked for the Federal government.

I like fishing and I don't care for golf. I'll watch some baseball or football but not much basketball.