Life in the Mind of a Modest Genius

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, POPOO!

I told you I was terrible at remembering birthdays.  I've been keeping an eye on the calendar trying to make sure I don't mess around and miss my sister's birthday (November 14th....November 14th....November 14th...) then Popoo's messes around and sneaks up on me.  I still would've have forgotten it if I didn't get a message from Auntie reminding me of it.

I've been making it a habit to keep the photo albums to the right to a fairly small number.  As certain ones get older, I remove them from the sidebar altogether.  Otherwise, that list of photo albums would span the entire sidebar.  Someday I may activate them all again just to make all of my photos available to everyone that's missed them.  Yeah, because I'm sure there are just a huge number of folks that can't wait to see my old photos.

Anyway, the one photo album that I've kept up there  for two years now has been Popoo's 90th Birthday Celebration.  It is my way to maintain an homage to my grandfather.  Subscribing to that old theory that folks should get their roses while they are still alive to smell them.  I know Popoo doesn't get on the internet that often if he does at all.  However, any and everyone that comes to my site can still see it and still see how much he is revered and loved.

In addition, it helps me remember that even after Popoo hit that milestone, he's still going strong.  I hear stories at work everyday about these folks that have parents in their 90s, 80s and seven some in their 70s that are struggling.  Some are in nursing homes, some are in hospices, some are on their last leg.  Here I am having a grandfather kicking it at 92 that is still jetting around town with a schedule more hectic than some folks half his age.  Like Auntie Ann told me, there's been plenty of times she'll go to KC and find he's hard to catch up with.  He's supposed to be taking it easy, but he's just too busy to do that.

It's gotten to the point now where I can't even imagine what it would be like to have Popoo around.  It's selfish to think so, but I really don't want to imagine it.  The one thing that should always remain constant is when I go down to Kansas City he and Grandma will always be at that same house in the Quindaro neighborhood.  I'm not ignorant enough to realistically think that would always be the the case, but it sure would be nice.  Even if he won't always be there, he'll always be with me.

Kansas City at Warp Speed

The last time I planned to make a quick trip to Kansas City to visit Mariah, things didn't work out quite the way I anticipated.  I ran into my normal weekend sickness brought on from eating the wrong food the previous evening.  That and the funding was lacking a little.  This time around, the stomach was fine but the funding was still an issue.  Nevertheless, I wasn't going to keep that from keeping my promise to go see my oldest.  It just meant that my visit would be a brief one.  Still, even a few hours with Mariah was worth it.

My road dude and I hit the trail early and arrived in KC around 11:37-ish.  There are few things better than seeing Mariah open that door with a huge smile on her face.  I couldn't wait to give her a hug and a big kiss.  It seemed like I hadn't seen her in forever when in reality it had only been a few months.  Just absorbing that moment of her glow was priceless.  It had me beaming before she cold even say a word.

We went to give the Dark Knight a much needed car wash while Mariah proceeded to fill me in with everything that had been going on with her.  None of it was trivial by any means.  It helped me to get a better understanding of what her current goals are and how she plans to reach them.  I couldn't help but be impressed with the strides she was making.  Not to mention how focused she was being with the direction she wants to go.  I have to make sure I can do whatever I can to help keep her on that track.

You KNOW the first stop on the list was Gates.  Although my budget was tight, I had already incorporated that trip in.  Afterall, we had to eat lunch.  I had been to Gates several times and that's the first time I ever noticed they don't have any time of kid's meal and/or menu.  G was wanting ribs so I had to get him some regular short-ends.  A plate I could usually finish myself.  He downed all but two without fail.  Mariah had their wings which I had always wanted to try but could never tear myself from getting due to the delactibility of their beef plates.  She seemed to enjoy them immensely so maybe I will deviate next time.  I certainly couldn't that trip because the beef sammich I got for myself had me more than full.

Obviously, the next stop was Popoo and Grandma's.  That's a necessity whenever I'm in KC.  It's also one of the few spots that I still know how to get to without having to mapquest it out.  I knew I would be catching them off guard and I didn't want to put Grandma out.  She always asks if we want anything to eat which is why I hit Gates first.  However, that didn't stop her from making some of her world famous sweet tea at the spur of the moment.  Best tea in the entire world.  I should have brought home a couple of jugs with me.

While we were there, some Heinz 57 dog came wandering into Grandma's backyard.  She informed me he was the neighbor's dog which the neighbor allowed to run loose  With a portion of his chain still attached to his collar.  She assured he wouldn't bite so I proceeded to attempt to befriend him by petting the little fellas.  He looked nice enough, but the minute I got my hand close enough, he sure did nip me.  That's when Grandma abruptly changed her stance and told me he would bite.  I couldn't help but laugh at how she offered the news so nonchalantly as if she had warned me from the beginning that I shouldn't mess with him.

Popoo enlightened me with a discussion on how home remedies took the place of hospitals back in the day.  It all started as we were talking about how his health was doing.  It progressed into him explaining how folks in his days used various plants from various trees to create teas that would serve as substitutes for vaccinations.  Apparently they were so effective that medical doctors started imitating it in the form of medicine that hospitals could disseminate.  It's always great to get a personal history lesson from Popoo.  He even reminded me that he gave it to me for free as his trademark smile slowly emerged. 

The reason why my time with Mariah had to be short was because she had to work that afternoon.  She has a part-time job at Panera Bread at the Legends Mall there in Kansas City.  Dropping her off there was my first time ever seeing the epic mall and it was quite impressive.  It was designed as if they were trying to combine the concept of an outdoors outlet mall with a regular one.  The gorgeous weather and the Halloween atmosphere they had going on that day made for some nice photo ops. 

It may have been only three hours there, but we squeezed in a lot in that small timeframe. Enough time to knock out another photo album:  Mariah in KC.  Even though it was a quick visit, it was still enough for me to cherish the quality time I got to spend with Mariah.  So much so that I look forward to returning to KC again very soon. 

Ride the Maverick

The weather report said it was supposed to be 56 degrees and partly sunny.  The weather report lied.  I guess they could consider themselves mostly right since the sun was out for a bout an hour during the day Saturday.  That could technically constitute "partly".  However, it certainly wasn't the good football game-watching weather I anticipated.  Still, when Uncle Johnny mentioned he was going to Kent's game at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, I jumped at the opportunity to finally go see my "little" cousin Kent play at the college level.

G and I got there minutes before Uncle Johnny arrived only to discover there were no tickets waiting for us.  Kent was supposed to have tickets at the 'will call' window', but the lady informed us they had been signed for and taken by someone else?  I'm hoping it was just an oversight since I decided at the last minute that I was going.  At any rate, big props to Uncle Johnny who graciously offered to buy tickets for us instead.  We didn't have to worry about the game being sold out either as there were plenty of available seats to choose from.

For this to be a D-2 game, it was chock full of entertainment for us.  It started early on in the game.  The UNO Mavericks had to punt in an early series and the Central Missouri Mules (yes...that is their actual team name) came with the rush.  It looked like dude was going to get tackled, but he shook off a couple of opponents like he was a runningback.  He managed to get off a great punt in the middle of traffic with no problem at all.  Seeing a punter shrug off a defender like that was just funny to me.

I couldn't believe how big some of them boys were for that to be a D-2 game.  Our seats were a few yards behind the Mules (that name still cracks me up) bench where we could see the players up close and personal.  Some of them cats had the build of NFL players.  They easily stood over 6'6" and looked like men among boys.  It made me wonder why the Mules didn't utilize their tight end a little more because he clearly had a match-up advantage everytime he lined up.

I'm still trying to figure out exactly what the stadium deejay was thinking with his song selection.  Football games are supposed to have music that gets you pumped up throughout the game.  How does "Let It Be" by the Beatles do that?  I was trying to find a lighter so I could wave it in the air.  At least one of the songs they played was a cut that cousin BT made.  It's just too bad they only played the first 30 seconds of it instead of letting it play thru.

G made the observation that all the players with small numbers were the ones making the big plays.  Such as the three picks that the Mavericks got off the Mules.  All coming from a defensive back with a single digit.  Or the longest runs of the days coming from runningbacks in single numbers.  G even managed to call out a couple of intended receivers before the quarterback would eventually hit them with a pass.  His football IQ is getting to be pretty good for a 9-year-old.  Despite my best efforts, it's clear that his favorite sport will be football instead of basketball.

UNO represented pretty good at home for a while there.  They were giving Central Missouri's sorry quarterback fits as they went into halftime with the score tied 14-14.  Then the Mules came to life and started scoring at will in the second half.  They only made matters worse for UNO when they took out their scrub quarterback and put in in their Vick clone.  If he had been in the from the beginning, the score would have been much worse than what the 49-31 tally.  It made me wonder if the Mules were just toying with UNO by having their real starting quarterback sit out until the fourth quarter.

So how did Kent do?  Well for the entire two plays that we saw him in, he did pretty good.  I thought he would start and play most of the game.  He hardly got any tick at all.  BT said it could be because he was a situational player.  I was trying to figure out what situation that might be.  Second half during light rain only?  Not that I have room to talk though.  It was giving me flashbacks to my high school varsity basketball days when I only played during the waning minutes of a game.  At least Kent was competing on a collegiate level.

We knew our time at the game had come to an end once the rain started really coming down in the fourth quarter.  We tried to stick it out as long as we could thinking that it would eventually let up.  Unfortunately, it never happened.  G and I were fairly equipped for the showers with our weather-resistant jackets, but Uncle Johnny and BT weren't.  We ultimately decided it wasn't worth it to brave the elements any longer as soon as the Mules put the Vick clone in and he ran off a 60+yard touchdown.  Not before I was able to secure enough photos for the latest photo album: UNO vs. Central Mizzou though. 

HAPPY (belated) BIRTHDAY, G!!!

I should be ashamed of myself for getting this entry in late.  Not that he reads my blog anyway, but it's the though that counts.  Since I was out of town on G's actual birthday, the least I could have done was got the post in on time.  I probably would have been able to if it weren't for my laptop issues distracting me. 

Anyway, I did still call G to wish him a happy birthday on his birthday.  He was pretty nonchalant about the whole thing.  Pretty much like it's just another day for him.  In fact, he even commented that he couldn't figure out why everyone was deciding to call him because it was annoying.  His words, not mine.  He's definitely my son though in regards to not having a fondness for lengthy phone conversations.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I already got him an early birthday present by taking him to see "Where the Wild Things Are".  He was cracking me up because he pointed out the things that were different about the book.  I'm still not even sure where he read it since he doesn't have a copy.  Maybe I'll go ahead and pick up one for him to add to his collection.  Then I can also refresh myself with the classic as well.

I wish I could say that it seems surreal having a son who's a year away from being in the double digits.  I wish I could talk about how old that makes me feel.  Been there, done that.  It's safe to say that I'm past that phase now.  With my oldest being 18, that anti-euphoric feeling of getting older has become fairly commonplace.  Thankfully, having a son that's 9 and sill encountering all the new things that comes with his education of life helps to keep me young at heart.

H1N1 Zombie Outbreak

When G went to school Thursday morning, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.  He was in his normal high spirits and feeling fine.  Just as he was the evening before.  That's why it came as a surprise when his school called and said that he was running a fever of over 100 degrees and was complaining of a sore throat.  He was so hot when he got picked up that you could feel the heat from him THRU his jacket.

My first thought was to immediately have him go to to the ER if he was that hot.  That just sounded dangerous to me.  The problem was that the ER and the only walk-in clinic in Ames has were both overbooked with similar cases.  It seems that 130 students from G's school alone went home sick with the same symptoms.  130 out of 400+ some kids!  That means over 1/3 of the school all came down with the same thing at the same time?  That didn't sound right to me.  Until I read it in the paper the next day and it was confirmed. 

Fortunately, G's temp eventually came down and was stabilized.  The doctor was able to see him today and clarified that he only had the flu.  No H1N1.  He received some antibiotics along with instructions that he has to have more frequent nebulizer treatments for his asthma.  So near tragedy was averted for him, but what about all these other students?

I started thinking about a scene from "Zombieland".  Columbus mentioned that the zombie outbreak all started because of mad cow disease.  Mad cow progressed to mad person.  Then the symptoms started getting progressively worse to the point where the victims became zombies.  Many zombie movies have a similar rationale.  Some type of strand mutates, becomes extremely contagious and zombies are born.  That's when it occurred to me...

What if that's really what H1N1 is?  A contagious plague that will turn the victims into zombie-like creatures.  They do have vaccinations out for it, but they keep running out.  What if the virus spreads faster than they can extinguish it then it continues to mutate?  Then it will eventually get to the point where it's uncontainable and the next thing you know, we're smack dab in the middle of a real-life Zombieland.

So even though G is okay, what if all these other kids (or at least the majority of them) all have H1N1?  It would be kind of messed up that the zombie strain hits the children population first though.  It does defy horror movie logic as those type of things usually start with animals or adults.  But the Bible does say something to the effect that a child shall lead them.  Maybe it is the modern version of God cleansing this planet of all the evils by wiping out the population via a zombie outbreak that is kicked off by the shorties?

Yes...I know...the 31 Days of Horror Marathon is apparently taking its toll...

O the Randomness

It still kills me how some people refuse to get all the way over to the side of the road (when there's nothing obstructing their path) when emergency vehicles come flying by.

If I pose a question to you on your status update on Facebook and you don't answer it, prepare to be un-friended.

Susan Atkins, one of the Manson murderers who killed actress Sharon Tate, finally died from cancer.  No "Pour Some for the Homies" entry for her.  That is definitely more of a "Good Riddance".  I hope she enjoys the lake.

Speaking of Tate, they FINALLY arrested director Roman Polanski for his rape of a 13-year-old girl over 30 years ago.  Better late than never I guess.  That's what he gets for going to Switzerland and thinking he'd be safe.

My question is why was he messing around with 13-year-old girls when he had somebody like Sharon Tate??

Phil Jackson stands like he's in immense pain. 

I'm really diggin' this Colorsplash app for the iPhone.  I thought I would be confined to only pics on the phone but turns out I can do it with any pic then send it anywhere I want.  I may have just found my new top favorite iPhone app.

I forgot I even had this photo of Dad and G. 

Exactly when did they start (and who did it) celebrating the graduation of every single grade?  They sure didn't have that when we were shorties.

But would you have wanted to have that then anyway?  Doesn't it cheapen the high school graduation experience when you've been doing it for every other grade on your way there?

I would have liked the Cowboys to lose the second game in their new home stadium just to be spiteful.  That and I don't care for Jerry Jones.  Something about him just rubs me the wrong way.

Brothas...unless you are Mr. T trying to hold on to the 80s, the mohawk looks stupid.  PLEASE let it go.  And you parents that are allowing your boys to get their hair cut like that thinking it's cute....think again.  That should be child abuse.

Note to Penn State fans:  the Darth Vader masks painted all white looks idiotic.  That's probably why you guys can't seem to beat Iowa.

Say what you want, but I'm still a fan of pleated pants.  I just like the way they look.

I've been looking forward to the MMS patch for the iPhone ever since I got it and now that I have it, I hardly even use it.  But at least it's there for when I want to though.

Isn't it pretty sad that Charlie Murphy has surpassed his brother Eddie as the funniest in the family? 

When the elevator opens, always wait a second to see if someone is going to be getting off before you go barging on.  That's just common courtesy.  Not to mention common sense.

'Nuff said.

Colorsplash Fun

Friday Night Norwalk Lights

G had been asking for some time to go to a "real" football game.  Ever since I took him to the Barnstormers Arena football game, he's wanted to see one played on a real field.  Taking him to a Chiefs game would have been ideal because I've never been to one either and always wanted to go.  Just can't afford those tickets right now.  The next option would have been Iowa State.  I still may do that, but I sure wasn't going to play $60 a ticket for seats on the grass which was all that was left for the in-state rivalry game today with the Hawkeyes. 

G was the one who proposed the idea of a high school football game.  He suggested the Little Cyclones at first.  I explained to him that I didn't know anything about their team so didn't know if it would be any good.  That's when he remembered that we had went to the Norwalk basketball games and wanted to see if they played football too.  Well of course they do, I just didn't know if they were worth the time either.  Still, he wanted to see my former high school play football so that's what we did.

We got lucky and ended up catching a Friday that they have a home game.  According to the schedule, their record was already 1-1 so I had no idea what to expect with them facing Grinnell.  I just knew that historically, Norwalk's football program hasn't been all that great.  It just wasn't our forte.  For some reason, other teams were were always bigger, faster, and/or stronger.  I didn't know if Grinnell would be the same story or not, but apparently Norwalk's coaching staff must not have known much about them either.

Those Grinnell boys were pretty much having their way with the Warriors.  They were running over the Norwalk defense with ease.  Especially thru the left side of the line for some reason.  When they weren't doing that, they seemed to have pretty good luck with the passing game on short yardage as well.  Norwalk should consider themselves very fortunate the score was only 28-0.  As bad as that was, it could have been much worse.

G made a couple of astute observations during the game.  The first was when he asked why Norwalk was in the middle of nowhere.  He was basing that on the fact that as we sat in the football stadium (a word I use very loosely for that place), there looked like there was nothing around the place because it was so dark.  Well there are plenty of houses nearby, but technically, Norwalk does appear to be in a world all its own.  They often seem isolated from reality in both physicality and idealism.

As we watched the marching band perform at halftime, he made my favorite quote of the night:

"They should just call them a band because they don't do much marching.  They just do a lot of standing around."

I was rather surprised at that myself.  I would have thought with as far as that band had come since my days that there would be more to their performance.  They had slick newer uniforms yet didn't do much formation changes the whole time.  They didn't even make the "N" anytime during their on field presence.  That was a trademark of the marching band.  You do the "N" while doing the school song.  That's an epic fail for the marching band.  Not to mention that as I listened to them, I wondered if we sounded as bad while we performed as they did.  Lawd, I hope not.

G had the Barnstormers game in his mind the entire time.  He went in expecting to see the same level of play and excitement.  I had to explain to him that there was a huge experience gap between high school and semi-pro football.  Especially when the high school team is Norwalk.  But at least he finally got to see an actual football game played on a real-sized football field.  I'll eventually get him to an Iowa State game.  I just have to make sure it's against someone they stand a chance at beating.

Random Pic of the Day

The closest I'll ever get to that new "Twilight" movie that's getting ready to come out.  Oh who am I kidding...I'll most likely be seeing that one too...

Things to Be Grateful For

*First Day of School

You're probably wondering why the asterisk, huh?  The reason being that it wasn't technically G's first day of school.  Thursday was.  However, I wasn't able to take him to school that day.  His mother has relocated to Ames which is 30 minutes away.  In Chicago, that would just be considered a suburb with that kind of distance.  We're not in Chicago though.  I didn't have the means to take him that day, but Friday I did.  Therefore, as far as I'm concerned, Friday was his first day of school.

It started for me the night before.  I picked him up from his mother's house and he was chatty the entire time.  I always love to hear his voice no matter what he's talking about.  For some reason he kept asking me questions to things he already knew the answer to which I thought was rather odd.  So I flat out asked him why he was doing that.  His response...in his trademark soft, innocent voice...

"Well....I guess I just really feel like talking"

It's the little things like that that really make my day.  Even if some of the conversation is a little different.  Like him asking me if me and Auntie Ann are the same age.  I wasn't sure if that was supposed to be a compliment for Auntie Ann or an indictment on me.  I'm just going to chalk it up to the fact that, as he indicated himself, G was just trying to find things to talk about.

When it came time for bedtime, he didn't flinch at all.  I wasn't used to that.  I still remember when the other one was around and bedtime every night was a struggle.  Not when it is just G.  He went to bed with no hesitation whatsoever.  He even turned the light off, having no reservations about being in the dark by himself.  It caught me off guard.  I was sitting there wondering why he disappeared for so long and asked him what he was doing.  He reminded me that he was going to bed like I told him.  Life is good.

Come the actual day of school, I tried to calculate how long it would take to get there.  I had put in the address in my trusty iPhone Maps app, but I didn't use the correct beginning location.  I used just "Des Moines" as the starting location instead of "West Des Moines", where I currently reside.  So when it gave me a driving time of 41 minutes, it was about 15 minutes off.  So much for Ames just being 30 minutes away.  I kept telling his mother that that 30 minute theory was only from city limit to city limit. 

Still, he got to school in time.  That's just the type of skills I have when it comes to driving.  That and perfect planning when it came time to get us up early enough to get ready and depart.  I just wish I could drop him off every day.  As well as pick him up.  There's something about the look on his face in the morning and in the afternoon that helps to complete the perfect day.  At least I have this picture to remind me of that.