Amazing Kevin Everett Video

It's hard to find humor in tragedy, but a television newscast found a way to do it.
The video didn't quite match the story on NFL player Kevin Everett, a Southeast Texan who suffered a terrible neck injury.
Enjoy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0KmjqabDUU

Timewaster Of The Week-Sept. 24

My brother-in-law passed this one on to me:

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/games/bloxorz

You use your arrow keys to move a block around and position it to go into a hole and move on to the next level.

It'll turn your brain into scrambed eggs in a hurry.

I've gotten to Level 18.

Good luck.

Today Is A Bad, Sad Day

We didn't want a dog. We thought it would be too much hassle.

I didn't want to clean - or step in - poop in the back yard. I didn't want to deal with fleas and worms. I didn't want things chewed up or holes dug. I didn't want to spend the money on food, vet and kennel.

But then this little puppy came along last spring.

Someone had abandoned him and his brother out in the country. Rescued by a woman who worked with my wife at a Beaumont pre-school, the little puppy was brought to school and won my wife's heart.

Sure, he chewed a little, cost us some money, jumped on the kids and pooped a lot, but he was a sweet little guy and a big part of our family. He loved to lie on our feet. He loved to race to the back of the yard and bark at God knows what.

And now he's gone.

Somehow, he escaped out of a hole in the fence. Either our dog, or our neighbor's dog, dug the hole, and he somehow got out of the neighbor's yard last night.

We frantically searched the neighborhood to no avail.

This morning, while taking my son, Curt, to school in Sour Lake, I saw something on the shoulder of State Highway 105. I quickly dismissed it, but on the way back, heading toward Beaumont, I decided just to check and rule it out.

My stomach dropped as I recognized his fuzzy little brown, white and black head. Whatever hit him surely caused violent, instantaneous death.

Calling the wife was hard, and trying to explain this to the kids will be harder, but it has to be done, sans the gory details. I also called the highway department, which hopefully will remove the mangled body before my wife and youngest son, Luke, head out to the elementary school to pick up Curt this afternoon.

With my dad's passing in January, our grief plate was already full, and now this.

But so go the ups, downs and cruelties of life. We'll probably get a new puppy, but not anytime soon. Jack will not easily be replaced.

Humberto's Hello

Thursday started off with me lying awake in bed at 4 a.m. and wondering when the heck Tropical Storm Humberto would hit.
Sure, it was raining outside and the wind chimes were tinkling, but it sure didn't sound like a big deal to me, other than the occasional crack of a breaking tree somewhere out there in the neighborhood.
Then the phones - cell and landline - started ringing, and I was told the Humberto was a hurricane, not a tropical storm, and that horrible things were happening to the south. Power was out at The Beaumont Enterprise.
In surprise moments such as this, it typically takes me a good 5 to 10 minutes of mindless twirling before I come up with a game plan.
Our home had power, Internet access, cable television, food, water and the ability to make hot coffee.
In other words, I had everything I needed to be a one-man newsroom, so that's what I did. Assistant Managing Editor Pete Churton and reporter Beth Gallaspy had one going in their home, too.
Soon, I was editing, posting and even writing for the website. I also helped coordinate the reporters out there, from Hamshire to High Island to Orange - all while sitting in my boxer shorts, drinking coffee and digging into a world-class omelet and homemade biscuits my wife had constructed to keep me going during the news frenzy.
I could have done that all day, but, alas, power was restored to The Enterprise, and I had to wash up and come to work.
It was an interesting way to cover what was an interesting storm, one that made history for its rapid development.
And it sure beat the heck out of working in Hurricane Rita's muggy aftermath.

Kindergarten Sunday School Class Toadie

I don't know what compelled me to do it.
I'd volunteered for kiddie Sunday school class duties before, but only because someone else was a no-show and a substitute was needed. And it was for the little guys with the attention spans of lovebugs.
So when the pastor's wife asked me to become a permanent Sunday school teacher for the kiddos, I couldn't refuse.
I went through all the training with the other teachers, some of whom said, "Thank God I didn't get the kindergartners."
Meanwhile, I was thinking, "Thank God I didn't get the junior high kids."
I'm no Bible expert, and I figured anything above second grade would be above my knowledge level, and I'd be drummed out and cast into a pit of chiggers or forced to sit around with a bunch of lepers and watch a Houston Astros game.
So I got the kindergartners. Mercifully, I was paired with experienced veteran whom I was told would do just about everything whether I liked it or not, leaving me the role of understudy, go-fer, toadie, apprentice, etc.
Which was just dandy with me.
A potential wrinkle in my new role was having my son, Curt, in the class. He has become quite uppity since he started school this year. I'm not sure what the problem is, but I'm starting to explore the possibility of military school in his near future.
My first class, Sept. 2, went well. The kids had fun, and no one to my knowledge did anything to warrant a check mark in God's report card.
Yesterday was a different story.
Curt was a pill from the moment he got up, so I knew it was going to be a long day.
Sunday school started out fine, but then Curt got disruptive, and I had to pull him out of class, which horrified some of the other kids, who didn't know he was my son. (I later made sure they knew I was his daddie.)
After a stern lecture, Sunday class continued without incident.
Until the art part.
The lead teacher rolled out a long sheet of paper and got out paints. The idea was to pain the bottom of the kids' little piggies and have them walk across the paper in some kind of "Walk With Jesus" gesture.
I waited at the other end of the paper, with paper towels and a bucket of water to swab off the paint.
My short end of the drumstick quickly turned into a mess. There was a lot of clapping and chanting involved in the production, and this got on Curt's nerves.
Then, out of nowhere, something horrible happened.
Curt stood up from his chair and hollered, "I HATE JESUS!" He said it several times before the other teacher and I corrected him.
I was helpless to do anything in a punishment sort of way, because kids and their painted feet were walking across the paper, and a heinous cleanup project would have ensued if I didn't keep up the washing.
I'm sure Curt didn't realize what he was saying, and the other teacher dismissed it as him just feeling his oats.
All I know is that this military school option is growing on me.

The White Stripes Rock!

Every now and then, I feel compelled to pass along a YouTube clip.

This one is of The White Strips, a killer two-member band that includes Jack White, one of the most gifted guitarists to come along in a very long time. The other member is the drummer, Meg, his ex-wife of all things. Together, they sound like a monster band somehow.

Jack White somehow manages to simultaneously channel Jimmy Page and Robert Plant as well as myriad old and new influences.

Check this out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fM2qhG8mA4

It's a revved-up Delta blues song with a wicked slide, and it takes crazy turns into punk rock.

I could listen to that all day.

Timewaster Of The Week-Sept. 4

This game is the tip of the iceberg in a great site chalk full o' magnificent timewasters:

http://www.gamerthegreat.com/GamerTheGreat/site/webgames.asp?op=playgame&gameid=24

It's an upgrade of the good ol' Asteroids game, and it's a real fun doozy.

I'll highlight some of the other games some other time.

Parents warning: Some of the games in there are pretty graphic, so make sure you check them out before you let a kid play them.