I don’t have to use a walker to pump my gas.

December 11, 2009 by · 2 Comments
Filed under: Deep South, Everyday, faith, humor, life 
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I have realized, lately, that I am, at best, a third cousin once removed from my own definition of self-awareness. I like to think I'm savvy and a smooth operator, most of the time, but I had a bit of a bitter pill to swallow yesterday, when, on my way back from Scooba (perish the thought!), I had to stop and get gas. This is hardly a new thing for me, but unlike my usual stop-and-gos at the Scooba Junction gas station, I had neglected to look at my gas gauge until I was in Brooksville, about twenty minutes north. I had no choice but to pull...

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The table of Christian Things.

November 11, 2009 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: Deep South, education, Everyday, faith, humor, life, theatre 
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On some mornings, as I’m entering the Town That Was, aka Scooba, I have a small (though at one time it was) visual delight, usually, to my right, just as I bump over the railroad tracks, situated all alone in front of what may very well be a defunct fire station. And this is what my small (though at one time it was) visual delight consists of:  a faded tent, no doubt purchased “as is,” from some desperate funeral home, I imagine. Beneath the tattered green fabric sits a cheap a la Fred’s-Giving-Away-the-Store-again! plastic table precariously atop four brittle fold-out legs. Adorning this table is a...

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I buried probably, like, a million birds as a child.

June 18, 2009 by · Leave a Comment
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I don't know of a southern household that doesn't own a pair of binoculars or have a jar of Blue Plate mayonnaise in the refrigerator. So, this is going to be a disappointing blog, in part, because my house has neither. Ok, well maybe a thimbleful is left of the mayonnaise. Ms. Frankie, the sweetest neighbor I had while growing up, God love her, thought it was because people really liked to look at the birds, that's why they all had binoculars...and that anything other than Blue Plate was sacrilege. She had a pair, herself, but they sat on the mantle after her husband died and...

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I know how to get a blame Diet Coke, thank you.

June 17, 2009 by · 3 Comments
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I'm trying to steer myself clear of Diet Coke. I'm not sure when I began to drink it, actually. Now, I can't get through a day without several. I don't even particularly like the taste of it, to be honest. I guess it's just "what I do" before I teach class, to get in the "zone," with today's youth. I think that's what I tell myself: it's caffeine; you'll need that. These students have never lived without computer access. Email was "old-hat" by the time they were born. You've got to keep up with them. Caffeine is your friend.  But, I rarely get the kick I need...

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Lazarus and his "Transferring to the Banana."

June 13, 2009 by · 3 Comments
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To be quite honest about it, we'd forgotten about him entirely. We did our civic duty, after Max had attacked him, this poor little kitten, in our backyard. At first, we thought he was dead. But, Amanda, who was the brave one, stepping forward and retrieving him from Max's jaws, saw that he was breathing...barely. Breathing enough, however, that he was more than agile and able enought to bite Amanda solidly on her finger. Not long after, she found herself in the emergency room, receiving a Tetanus shot.  You may recall that we were turned away from the Vet School at MSU, and abruptly sent to another Vet's...

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The Parable of the Good Alcoholic.

May 5, 2009 by · Leave a Comment
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I figure there are two ways to burn a bridge:  whiskey, and everything else. I admit it: There's something beautiful in a martini glass; something so achingly elegant in the way a champagne flute plays its score.  And I know it must be in my blood because I wasn't brought up to drink, it was never glorified, and certainly not encouraged, not in a Baptist household.  (At least the Jews in my family drank wine, but I didn't know them very well, and they always seemed to be committing suicide or losing a few children in Oklahoma or some such dramatic thing...

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