UK Weekend

When Josh was at UK, I started what has become a tradition (in 2010). I end up going to the first UK home game of the year. It’s become my birthday present each year since it’s always close to my birthday. The earlier games in the season are generally easier to get tickets to. Josh was able to swing tickets for me the years he was there. Last year, I was able to get Lower Level seats via Ticketmaster. This year, Josh’s former roommate (the recently married Bryant Clemons) got tickets for us. This year for the first time I ever remember, UK had two home games on two consecutive days to start the season. Bryant got us tickets for both games so we were set! Josh and Shelby would get there Friday and Jonathan and Cheyenne on Saturday, so we’d get to have our whole family together.

Donna and I left out Friday morning. The trip up was pretty uneventful. The one big change on the trip is the interchange for the Western Kentucky Parkway and the Pennyrile Parkway (well, now it’s called I-69). I don’t really know how to describe it other than to say it’s no longer a simple interchange and you should really pay attention when you get close to make sure you go the way you want to go. There was some road construction and New Circle Road was busy as usual, but we made it fine. I had found a new Towneplace Suites over in the Hamburg area that I decided to try. It was about 15 minutes from Rupp Arena and about 5 minutes from where we’d be going to church Sunday. I rented a two room suite so we’d enough room for Donna and I, Jonathan and Cheyenne and Josh (Shelby would be visiting with friends and her parents). The hotel was very nice but the suite only had one bathroom which concerned me a bit for getting ready Sunday morning. Josh and Shelby got there about 4:45 and we headed out to eat dinner. We went to one of my favorite places to eat – BDs Mongolian Grill. You fill up a bowl with as much stir fry stuff as it’ll hold. I usually go heavy on the meat, but there are vegetables and sauces you can add as well. You then take it to be grilled and take it back to your table. The server brings rice and tortillas to wrap your food in. I had a coupon for a free bowl for my birthday so it was even better. We got done eating and headed for the game.

Our hope was to park in our usual spot at Memorial Coliseum. When we got there, the lot was completely full and we didn’t know why. We ended up having to park over by the K-Lair, so it would be about a mile walk. Fortunately, the weather was fine for walking and a lot of the walk was through campus. I found out later that the Lady Kats had a game at Memorial that night as well. We managed to make it to Rupp Arena a few minutes before tipoff. Our seats were excellent. We settled in to enjoy the game against the Albany Great Danes. Kentucky played OK but you could tell they weren’t a cohesive unit yet. They won by 13. We stayed for the Star of the Game interview (Derek Willis) and for Coach Cal’s post game show and then headed back. Josh took Shelby to a friend’s house to spend the night and we went back to our hotel for the evening.

We got up the next morning to have the hotel breakfast. I was not impressed by the choices so I made a side trip to Krispy Kreme. Jonathan and Cheyenne had left early that morning and got to Lexington after noon. We decided to go to Canes for chicken tenders. Bryant met us there. We had a really enjoyable time catching up with him. We went back to the hotel to rest a bit. There was a Culver’s within walking distance of our hotel so we went out for ice cream later. I kept up with the UK Vandy game on WatchESPN (amazingly enough I couldn’t find it on any of the cable channels in the room). It was just as well, UK played pretty poorly. Jonathan, Cheyenne, Josh and I headed to Chick-Fil-A to eat and then to the game. We were able to park in our usual Memorial Coliseum spot this time. Kentucky played NJIT this time. They had beaten Michigan last year and were one of the top three point shooting teams in the NCAA last year. They jumped on top 16-10 in the first four minutes hitting just about every shot they took. UK came back and ended up by 8 at the half. UK played much better in the 2nd half and ended up winning by 30. We didn’t stay for the post game shows since the game started so late (8) so we went back to the hotel.

The next morning we got up and went to North Lexington church of Christ (sharing the bathroom to get ready didn’t end up being an issue like I feared). This is where Josh attended while he was at UK. It’s a special place to us; they took really good care of Josh while he was there. It was good to see many of our friends there – it had been two years since we last visited there. One of Josh’s buddies – Davey Moster – came down from Cincinnati to see us. His brother Jake is a current student at UK and attends there. After services and taking with several people, we decided to go to one of our eating institutions – Five Guys. We had a great time there and posed for our usual Five Guys photo. But alas, all good things had to end. We all had to head for home. Our trip home was uneventful and we got back in plenty of time to go to services at our home congregation.

We had a great trip as usual, I am already looking forward to next year.

The Marathon Man Comeback

I had run my first marathon right after I turned 50 in 2011 (has that already been four years ago?) and had planned to run another. With the problems with my aging parents, I had to skip 2012. Jonathan and I planned to run the St Judes again in 2013. However, a freak ice/snowstorm blanketed the south and forced it to be cancelled. So, we decided to line up one for 2014 a little earlier in the year. We settled on one in Southern Illinois at the end of October. I didn’t blog about that one because it was an epic fail for me. The course was really hilly, I went out way too fast (especially given the hills) and I ended up cramping up severely with a couple of miles ago. I limped my way to the finish with a much worse time than my first. Josh did complete his first marathon with Jonathan and I so that made it a good day.

I went searching for a marathon to run in 2015 that was a bit less hilly and within driving distance. I found the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon in November that proclaimed itself as “flat and fast”. That sounded good to us, so we signed up despite our bad memories of the city from April. I got us hotel rooms within a couple of blocks from the start and then settled in to start my training. My big changes in my training were I started six months in advance and I did more 20 mile runs than last time (five instead of two). I also increased my other weekly run distances (hills and regular runs) from week to week hoping to build my stamina. The training went really well except for one run in the middle of summer. I started out on a long run on a particularly humid Saturday morning. About 13 miles in, I completely ragged out. I had to lie down and rest and walk the last few miles back. Fortunately, a beautiful angel (my lovely wife) came walking up with a bottle of water. She knew I was late getting back and came looking for me. I managed to do one of my 20 miles runs while visiting Josh in Verona. The cooler and less humid weather there made that much easier. I also slowly acclimated to the humidity plus got a better read on how to hydrate. I started my taper with three weeks to go before the marathon. I ended up with my usual hypochondriac feelings the week before the race thinking every day I was taking ill, but I did not.

We headed out for the race on Friday. We stopped at our usual eating place in Effingham Illinois (Culvers). As we ate, Donna spotted my good friend Chuck Walter with his wife Tonya and son Ben. We laughed about the strangeness of meeting up in Effingham. Chuck was wrestling with a GPS he had purchased which default language was Greek. I tried to help but to no avail. They were heading for Wisconsin to attend a wedding. We finished lunch (and ice cream) and headed out for the remainder of the trip. We had no trouble finding the hotel (Hampton Inn Downtown Indianapolis). We checked in and I headed for the Expo Center to pick up Jonathan and my race packets (he wouldn’t be able to get there til later). Donna and I walked to the downtown mall and got dinner at Chick-Fil-A. Jonathan and Cheyenne arrived about 9:30 and I saw him before I went to bed.

I got up and felt OK except for a little soreness in my right hip which of course threw me into a panic. I had some Tylenol which seemed to help. I ate breakfast (toast, banana and yogurt) and Jonathan and Cheyenne met us and we headed for the starting line. The weather was overcast with temperatures in the low 40s with just a bit of wind. Those were perfect running conditions for me. Jonathan and wished each other luck and I kissed Donna and told her I’d see her at the finish line. I went to the bathroom one last time. I lined up with the five hour pace group. My goal time was 5:15 but I figured I’d stay with the five hour group for at least half the race then drop back to the 5:15 group if need be. The time for the race started and we headed off!

Things were packed at the start. The always present issue of walkers lining up in corrals they have no business in (corrals for runners) forced our group to have to wave in and out around them. Our pacer actually set a pace a bit faster than five hours but I held up fine. The guy doing the pacing was excellent. This was his 48th marathon. He told us he still got jitters before every race. The race broke off at about the seven mile marker with the half marathoners heading back with the rest of us going on out. True to their promises, the course was pretty flat. We kept our slightly faster than five hour pace up. We were able to even walk through the water stations and up the one real hill (at mile 16). We lost a few people from our group on the way but there were about four of us left when we reached the 18.6 mile mark. We were still three minutes ahead of the five hour pace. Our pacer cramped up at about the 22 mile mark and the couple of us that were left went on. I was still able to hold the pace I needed to finish in under five hours. He finally caught up to me at mile 24 and said he was ok. He told me he needed to finish right at five hours but that I should keep pushing to beat that pace. It was an amazing feeling to be able to keep running the last couple of miles and pass quite a few people. As I headed into the final stretch, I heard Donna’s voice call out and I saw her and that encouraged me for the last little bit. I was able to keep up the pace and I made it to the finish with a time of 4:56:47. That shattered my previous best by 35 minutes. I heard Jonathan’s voice calling to me. He’d finished in 3:13 which was easily a personal best for him as well.

I was able to grab some Gatorade and water and I sat down and rested for a few minutes and we headed back to our hotel. As I was getting ready to cross the street, I felt someone touch my arm. I looked and it was our pacer. I told him I had PRed and I thanked him profusely for his help in my getting that. He was genuinely happy for me. I rested at the hotel for a bit and kept up with Kentucky getting beat by Georgia (via my phone). Donna and I went out later to the mall and I got a pretzel and some chocolate chip cookies. Jonathan and I watched college football and then went to Jimmy Johns (for Donna and I) and Buffalo Wild Wings (for him) for food later that night. I went to bed still feeling great from my accomplishment. We had breakfast the next morning and checked out. We went to church at Stop 11 Road church of Christ (where my friend Charles Blair preaches). We then headed for home with Donna and stopping at a Culvers in Indianapolis for lunch and then the Culvers in Effingham for a snack. We made it back to Paducah in plenty of time for evening worship services at our home congregation (Central church of Christ).

The whole experience was excellent. We are planning to run this one again next year. My next planned race though will be the 2016 Iron Mom half marathon in May here in Paducah. Several of my cousins and my sister Melissa are planning on running it so we’ll have a mini family reunion that weekend. I have already made a note to sign up for the Indianapolis Marathon on January 1st though. It'll be tough for us to do better than this year, but that'll be our goal.

The Spiritual Sword Lectureships

Donna and I have received the Spiritual Sword publication for more years than I can remember. It’s an excellent publication always full of good articles by sound teachers of the church of Christ. It is a publication of the Getwell church of Christ in Memphis Tennessee. I have visited that congregation many times over the years whenever my family is in Memphis. I always thoroughly enjoy our visits there and I can heartily recommend it to anyone visiting the Memphis area.

They have an annual lectureship that covers several days. They have been doing this for several decades. Donna and I finally were able to go there for the lectureship two years ago. We totally enjoyed it. We were both taught and edified by the excellent speakers there. We were pleasantly surprised to see our friends Keith and Kathy Anderson there when we arrived. We decided that would strive to attend this lectureship each year. Last year though, we were derailed in going by the unfortunate shutdown of the plant where I worked. That very week, I spent multiple long days working to finalize that. This year, with my now being retired, Donna and I had nothing to get in our way of going.

We left after worship services on Sunday. The trip to Memphis was totally uneventful and we arrived at our hotel (Poplar Avenue Hampton Inn) about 4. We like to stay in this area because it’s only about a ten minute drive to Getwell plus we don’t have to venture out on I-240 to travel there. We noticed across the street that the McDonalds offered two Big Macs or two Fillet O’Fish sandwiches (mix and match) for five dollars so we decided to have that for supper. I went across the street and ordered. Per my recent experiences, it took over ten minutes to get our food but at least it was good and inexpensive. We headed to Getwell for the Congregation Singing at 6:30pm. The theme of this year’s lectureships was “Great Bible Portraits of the New Testament”. We heard two lessons on Peter and Paul which were excellent. We went back to our hotel and went to bed.

We got up the next morning and had breakfast and headed out for a full day of lessons. We saw eight speakers over the course of the day and they were all excellent. I even found some Krispy Kreme doughnuts between sessions. The Getwell congregation also provides and excellent lunch for the attendees. Donna and I enjoyed talking with the people who sat at our table. I did make the mistake of mentioning John Calipari though. As you are probably are aware, he is not thought of too highly in Memphis. Between the afternoon and evening sessions, we had a long enough gap to eat dinner with my brother Kevin and nephew Zach (who live in Memphis). We had a really good time with them.

Tuesday was another full day of lessons. Again, we really enjoyed them and had an excellent lunch. Randall Evans spoke on Mary, Martha and Lazarus. I’d had Randall in my teenage Bible class years ago. He did a great job but it sure makes me feel old to see him as an experienced Gospel preacher now. We also saw Ben Giselbach speak on Ananias and Sapphira. He’s spoken several times for us at Central and his brother Brett was our youth intern last summer. We grabbed dinner from Taco Bell and attended the evening sessions then came back to the hotel and went to bed.

We got up Wednesday and attended the morning sessions. We had decided to leave after lunch so we could be back home for Wednesday night services at Central. Donna and I went around to say goodbye to several people we had befriended over the past several days. I gave our phone number and address to a young man who had made the excellent food all week and was also a Cardinals fan. He said his wife and he occasionally made it up to the Western Kentucky area and would look us up the next time they were up this way.

I would heartily recommend this lectureship. We learned quite a lot over the week as well as being edified both by the lessons and spending time with fellow Christians.

Pizza Hut and War Eagles

Ever since the UK football schedule was released, the big game everyone pointed to was with Auburn. It would be the first ESPN Thursday night game at Commonwealth Stadium ever. Auburn was ranked in the top ten at the year’s beginning, but lost a couple of games and seemed beatable by Kentucky. Jonathan had invited me to come over and watch the game at his apartment. I had hoped I would be at game 5 of the NLDS that evening but alas the Cubs ruined that plan for me. So, we made arrangements for Donna and I to go over there. I had seen a deal where you could get two pizzas at Pizza Hut for 6.99 plus get a large chocolate chip cookie for 5.99. So, we decided to go for that. I got online and set up the order to pick up on the way to his apartment.

I got there early but within a few minutes, I had the pizzas. We got to Jonathan’s and prepared to eat. The first issue I noticed is you couldn’t really tell the pizzas apart. I had ordered one Meat Lovers (my Pizza Hut favorite) and one with beef and bacon. I am used to the Meat Lover’s being so full of toppings that you couldn’t see the cheese or crust. This wasn’t the case. I had to look for the pepperoni to tell the difference. The beef and bacon was all beef and no bacon. The pizzas were OK, but not up the usual quality I’m used to there. I’d read that Pizza Hut had made changes to their pizzas but if that’s the case, they are a disappointment in my mind. The chocolate chip pizza was pretty bland – not too sweet at all. I probably won’t go back.

The game proved to be equally disappointing. Auburn gashed KY’s defense and jumped out to a 7-0 lead. Kentucky tied the game, then Auburn scored again. KY looked to be driving for a game tying touchdown but Patrick Towles threw an interception in the end zone. Auburn kicked two field goals and KY got one. With the score 20-10 and the half winding down, KY punted. Auburn drove into KY territory and narrowly missed a TD pass. They managed a long field goal on the last play of the half to make the score 23-10.

The second half was a bit better. KY got the score to 23-20. Auburn scored with about eight minutes to go in the game to make it 30-20 and things looked bleak. UK got a touchdown though and forced Auburn to punt with about 2 minutes to go but they were out of timeouts. They drove the ball to the Auburn 45 and had a 2nd and five. Unbelievably, they ran the ball and got two yards as the clock continued to move. Then, they tried a long incomplete pass and finally on 4th down and 3, got sacked – all the while Jonathan and I were yelling at the TV and the bizarre offensive play calls. Auburn ran out the clock and that was that.

You’d think about 40 years of these type games, I’d get used to this kind of thing. But, I guess I haven’t.

Retirement

I’ve known since I’ve started working at Martin Marietta in 1984 what the magical formula for being able to retire with a full pension was. It was when your age and company service added up to 85. So, my earliest retirement date would be August of 2015. That seemed a long way off for a young 22 year old computer programmer who didn’t even have a steady girlfriend at the time. But as life has a way of doing, time marched on. I ended up with a steady girlfriend who ultimately became my lovely wonderful wife. We had two wonderful sons who graduated high school and college and ended up with really good jobs (and consequently left us with an empty nest). Our plant went through several shutdown scares and finally in October of last year, shut down for good. A few of us retained our jobs. I had a really good arrangement. I was allowed to work from home several days a week plus actually work in a real office area where I could come and go as I pleased. I honestly planned on working at least through 2016. But the job started getting more and more stressful. As a lot of companies seem to do, there was the expectation of the same amount of work to be produced by a diminishing staff. I actually ended up doing quite a bit of work on two vacations in Wisconsin. I had to spend more and more time working from the office instead of home. The final straw was getting home after a particularly rough day and finding my blood pressure was 148 over 95! Right after I checked it, I get a call asking me to drop everything and take care of an issue. I became concerned that my health was going to get worse and worse.

So, I sat down with Donna and we talked about my going ahead and retiring. She finally convinced there was no reason to stay. Our pension had been frozen several years ago, so I would not get any bigger pension by staying longer. The only possible pro was that I could withdraw from my 401k if need be penalty free if I waited til 2016 to leave. We only planned on doing that in a real crisis. We had the pension plus a good amount of other savings/investments – we’ve been following the Dave Ramsey plan and we’d been out of debt for years. I prayed about it for several days and made the decision to leave at the end of September and let my management know. Just about everyone seemed to understand my reasoning for leaving. I worked on knowledge transfer with the people who’d be taking over my work. I spent a LOT of time on the phone with our benefits service center. I found out there is a TON of paperwork you have to fill out to retire. In additional to getting my pension distribution set up, I had apply to get my pre-65 retiree health, vision, and dental plans – our company is very generous in providing these for us. After some back and forth and a lot of help from our Centrus Energy Benefits person, I got that done. There are also a good amount of things that have to be done before you leave the company (items that have to be confirmed and checked off). My co-workers had cake and ice-cream for me one day (a very nice gesture) and Donna and Cheyenne came to my office for that.

The day finally came and once I got the final paperwork filled out, I was ready to go. I said goodbye to everyone there. There were several people I’d known there for over 30 years. I would especially miss my fellow network admins Bill Griffin and Skip Hancock. I finally walked out the door and got in my car and left I called Donna to happily tell her “I am retired!”. It was a strange feeling. It’s still a strange feeling; it’s finally sinking in that I don’t have to go to work each morning. I still look at my cell phone or think I should go check my work email and then realize that I don’t have to do that anymore. A couple of days later we went to Longhorn Steakhouse and Krispy Kreme in Clarksville to celebrate.

The question I get the most is “What are you going to do now?”. I had a couple of work offers but I really didn’t want to jump into working again unless I had to. I’d hoped to spend a lot of October in St Louis, but the Cubs messed that up for me. We’re going to the Spiritual Sword Lectureship in Memphis later this month. I’m running a marathon in November plus going to see UK play in Lexington. Donna and I and the boys and Cheyenne and Shelby plan to go to Miami and Fort Lauderdale at the end of November. I’m hoping to make a trip to Glendale Arizona in January for the NFL Playoffs. I have all sorts of places I’ve always wanted to go to – Hershey Pennsylvania, Mount Rushmore and the Grand Canyon. But, the thing I want to do the most is be more involved at church than I have been. I’ve already started doing that. I’ve also agreed to become part of our eldership. I’ve made the excuse for years that I didn’t have the time but that certainly isn’t the case anymore.

The other question I get now is “How is retirement?”. I tell people “Great, but you should ask Donna what she thinks” (with a smile on my face). I’ve asked her a couple of times and she says she loves doing more things with me and having me around more. I’ve said it before and will say it forever I suppose – she’s the most wonderful woman in the world.

I Left My Heart in Ballard County (31 years ago)

Tuesday September 15th is the 31st anniversary of a day that set my life (happily) on a drastic change.

I was a fledgling programmer at what was called Martin Marietta then (now Centrus Energy) and living in an apartment in Forest Hills. I had gone over to my buddy Jeff Lawrence's trailer (known to this area as Dr. Jeff on WKYQ). He asked if I had plans for the next evening. I said no thinking we were going to have one of our regular marathon Trivial Pursuit matches. He says "Well, you've got a date". I was aghast. "I've set you up with someone I work with at Trader's Mart" (Trader's Mart is a long defunct want-ad kind of paper). He told me I had to go because I wouldn't be allowed to hang out at his place the next night so I reluctantly agreed.

The next day, I went with my friends Keith "Corky" Johnson and Jim Hill to Massac State Park. I sat on the bank of the Ohio River looking and thinking "What kind of idiot goes out with a girl he's never seen before?".

The hour approached and I headed out to meet her at Trader's Mart in my 1983 Trans-Am. All I knew is her name was Donna Woods and she'd be in a black Olds Cutlass.

I got there and the car was there. I watched the door open with apprehension. Out stepped the most beautiful brown haired brown-eyed girl I'd ever seen. I almost couldn't speak. I finally said "I'm Stuart, do you want to see my driver's license to prove it?". She actually laughed at my bad joke.

She wanted to go to McDonalds and eat so we did. She had a quarter pounder with cheese and I had a Big Mac. I saw some guys I knew and I think they were in shock when they saw me out with this beautiful girl.

She wanted to see Grandview USA at the Paducah Drive-In. I was glad to go there since I worked there for years each summer until I started working full-time at Martin Marietta. My boss Richard Phillips was at the ticket booth. I guess he was so shocked to see with such a pretty date that he let us in free. He also told me to go to the concession stand and get free drinks and popcorn. Donna told me later how impressed she was when I brought out drinks and a large brown bag full of buttered popcorn.

The whole date cost 5.00 (including gasoline). She even shared my frugality beliefs! I was enthralled...

The night went great and she even agreed to see me again.

The next morning as I was getting ready to go to church, my phone rang. The caller introduced himself as the "Ballard County Sheriff" and he needed to talk to me about an incident last night. The girl I had gone out with was from Ballard County. My main experiences with Ballard County were to go to the "Game Preserve" (as my Uncle James called it) to camp with my family and a visit to the "Green Palace" (which was really really Green) to watch Lone Oak play in a district basketball tournament. I remember all the kids there blew duck calls the whole game. Anyway, I thought "Oh man, she didn't make it home and now I am the last one to see her and the main suspect". It turned out that they had picked up a couple of guys I know as they came off the Wickliffe bridge and they wanted me to vouch for their identities.

For reasons I'll never understand, she kept going out with me. We've been married 29 years. She still laughs at my bad jokes. I've worked at "Martin Marietta" for over 30 years. We drove that black Olds Cutlass til it wouldn't run any more. I've lived in Ballard County for 27 years now. I still order a Big Mac when I go to McDonalds. And I couldn't be happier....

I Left My Heart in Ballard County (31 years ago)

Tuesday September 15th is the 31st anniversary of a day that set my life (happily) on a drastic change.

I was a fledgling programmer at what was called Martin Marietta then (now Centrus Energy) and living in an apartment in Forest Hills. I had gone over to my buddy Jeff Lawrence's trailer (known to this area as Dr. Jeff on WKYQ). He asked if I had plans for the next evening. I said no thinking we were going to have one of our regular marathon Trivial Pursuit matches. He says "Well, you've got a date". I was aghast. "I've set you up with someone I work with at Trader's Mart" (Trader's Mart is a long defunct want-ad kind of paper). He told me I had to go because I wouldn't be allowed to hang out at his place the next night so I reluctantly agreed.

The next day, I went with my friends Keith "Corky" Johnson and Jim Hill to Massac State Park. I sat on the bank of the Ohio River looking and thinking "What kind of idiot goes out with a girl he's never seen before?".

The hour approached and I headed out to meet her at Trader's Mart in my 1983 Trans-Am. All I knew is her name was Donna Woods and she'd be in a black Olds Cutlass.

I got there and the car was there. I watched the door open with apprehension. Out stepped the most beautiful brown haired brown-eyed girl I'd ever seen. I almost couldn't speak. I finally said "I'm Stuart, do you want to see my driver's license to prove it?". She actually laughed at my bad joke.

She wanted to go to McDonalds and eat so we did. She had a quarter pounder with cheese and I had a Big Mac. I saw some guys I knew and I think they were in shock when they saw me out with this beautiful girl.

She wanted to see Grandview USA at the Paducah Drive-In. I was glad to go there since I worked there for years each summer until I started working full-time at Martin Marietta. My boss Richard Phillips was at the ticket booth. I guess he was so shocked to see with such a pretty date that he let us in free. He also told me to go to the concession stand and get free drinks and popcorn. Donna told me later how impressed she was when I brought out drinks and a large brown bag full of buttered popcorn.

The whole date cost 5.00 (including gasoline). She even shared my frugality beliefs! I was enthralled...

The night went great and she even agreed to see me again.

The next morning as I was getting ready to go to church, my phone rang. The caller introduced himself as the "Ballard County Sheriff" and he needed to talk to me about an incident last night. The girl I had gone out with was from Ballard County. My main experiences with Ballard County were to go to the "Game Preserve" (as my Uncle James called it) to camp with my family and a visit to the "Green Palace" (which was really really Green) to watch Lone Oak play in a district basketball tournament. I remember all the kids there blew duck calls the whole game. Anyway, I thought "Oh man, she didn't make it home and now I am the last one to see her and the main suspect". It turned out that they had picked up a couple of guys I know as they came off the Wickliffe bridge and they wanted me to vouch for their identities.

For reasons I'll never understand, she kept going out with me. We've been married 29 years. She still laughs at my bad jokes. I've worked at "Martin Marietta" for over 30 years. We drove that black Olds Cutlass til it wouldn't run any more. I've lived in Ballard County for 27 years now. I still order a Big Mac when I go to McDonalds. And I couldn't be happier....