Last Post for a while . . . .

Today marks 4 days until DKB and I get married. My youngest son and his wife & my best man and his wife get into town this afternoon. Tomorrow, DKB is running down to the Jackson (MS) airport to pick up my daughter, who is flying in from Portland, OR. So we're going to have a pretty full house and lots to do leading up to the big event. The weather this week is going to suck, but the forecast for the big day (Saturday, October 31st) currently states ZERO percent chance of rain and a high of 70. If that holds close to true, it will be a very nice day. Keeping my fingers crossed though.

We will be departing on Sunday (11/1) for a short honeymoon and most of the guests will be gone or going by then too. My oldest son is going to watch the pets for us. Anyway, I promise new post the second week of November. Until then, I'm going to be enjoying time with my new bride.

Everyone have a great day!

Nine More Days

DKB's mom made it in earlier this week and has been hard at it making floral arrangements for the wedding and reception. She's done a bunch of lovely table displays and she even made up the bridal bouquet. Everything looks gorgeous! My friend, Larry, who is going to officiate the wedding ceremony, made it into town yesterday for an overnight visit. He was able to spend some time with DKB and her mom and we also had a nice visit. Larry has had some turmoil in his own life lately and he told me that it was nice to get away from his home for a bit and just the enjoy the company of friends.

While the wedding (10/31/09) is coming together and things are going great guns there, this has been what is quite conceivably the most difficult week I have ever had at work in the 7 years I have been in my current position. Unforeseen tasks, personnel out sick and having to take over their tasks, and unexpected additional workloads has made this the week from Heck! And to make it worse, I'm so exhausted when I get off work, I feel like a lazy bum because I'm not doing more around the house to get ready for the wedding. Ahh, well, this too shall pass. During the next week the guests start arriving for the wedding and I hope things are a bit more settled (at least as far as work is concerned) by then.

Well, back to work. Everyone have a great day!

The Answer is 42

Now, you Sci-Fi fans out there will recognize the title as the answer to "The Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything" (from "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"). Unfortunately, knowing the ultimate answer does no one any good, since no one knows what the ulitimate question is. Anyway, thats a long way to go in order to relate that the past couple of days I have been pondering the twists and turns my life has taken up to this point and how I got to where I am now. While my life has been far from perfect, I am content with the journey I have taken. Are there things I wish had happened differently? Sure. But to change one aspect of my past would curve the path in a different direction, and who knows where I would be today. No, I'm content with the person I am and with the family I friends that are a part of my life. Again, they aren't perfect, but they did help shape who I am.

Eleven days. 11 days. XI days. Not many, no matter how you write. The final details are being taken care of and on the last Saturday of this month DKB and I will be wed. To be honest, with all the details and planning that have gone into this small wedding, we will both be glad to put the ceremony behind us and move on with our lives together. Even better, once we get past the upcoming holiday seasons, and can settle into a routine of some type.

Anyway, that's all for now. Everyone have a great day!!!

Two Weeks?! Holy Crap!

Hard to believe, but as of tomorrow (10/17/2009) there are only two weeks left until DKB and I are wed. While I am looking forward to the wedding, it has been a bit of a weird time for me and DKB has been very understanding. For those who don't know, my first wife died as the result of a fire in the field near our home (4 years ago). We had been married for 29 years when it happened. I never foresaw myself being in this situation. Statistically, women outlive men and when I married the first time I honestly believed I would never go through it again. Well, I guess that just goes to show that there is a lot of truth in the saying "Man plans and God Laughs". DKB is very understanding of my life and past history. My mother said it best when she told me (with DKB present) "You've been blessed with 2 good women". I agree with that. They are 2 very different women, but they are exactly the mate I needed at that point in my life.

Speaking of the wedding. I went out to the County Lake (where we are to have the ceremony) a couple of days ago and the pier on which we plan to hold the ceremony is almost completely under water. Only the hand rails (about 6 inches above the water) are visible. We've had a lot of rain, the first couple of weeks this month. The average for October (to this point) is 3.47 inches and so far we've had 7.58, more than double. The good news is is that there is only about a 20% chance of rain for the rest of the month, so hopefully things will dry out a bit and we'll be able to use the pier.

On a totally unrelated topic, I was daydreaming a bit of when I was a kid. During the summer, I would take my lawnmower around the neighborhood and cut yards to earn a bit of money. I had regular customers, whose lawns I cut every couple of weeks, but was usually able to pick the occasional additional customer when someone just didn't feel like cutting their yard. I would cut grass on Saturday mornings until 3 or 4 o'clock Saturday afternoon. After I had refilled my gas can, I would take the money I had left and head to downtown Starkville (to the United Grocery on Main Street) where I would select a stack of comics that I wanted to buy and set them by my feet and then spend an hour or so reading other comics from the rack that I wasn't buying (until the manager told me I had been there long enough). The comics I was buying were 12 cents each, so I could buy a lot more than you can now-a-days. I still enjoy reading comics, just don't get to do it as ofter as I used to.

Everyone have a great day!

Another week closer...

Hard to believe, but its less than 3 weeks (18 days as of today) until DKB and I are wed. I have to admit to some nervousness. No doubts, just a bit of anxiety about getting all the details done that have to wait until the last minute. Last minute supplies, flowers, cooking the food, housing guests, etc. Really will be glad once we get past the date and can settle into a more normal routine.

This past Saturday, DKB and I drove over to Winona, MS (about an hour away) so that she could meet my Best Man-to-be. He's a truck driver and had an overnight stop there. So we went to a local restaurant and sat, ate, and talked for about 3 hours. I'm happy to say that they like each other. Its important to me that my best friend like my best girl.

Got a few more things done on the house this weekend as we move towards the wedding date. Not everything will be done before the wedding, but its nice to see the progress that we have made. I look forward to the day when we can say that it is done.

Everyone have a great day!

Such a Lazy Bum

That's the way I feel. Its been nearly a month since my last post and there is really no good reason other than I've been doing other things. Some important, some not so much. On the not so much side, I've been watching a lot of football. I really enjoy football - High School, college and Pro. So, even if she didn't want to DKB is becoming very adept at matching cities & schools with their team names/mascots. Also on the not so much side, but I enjoy it, I've been reading a lot. I mentioned a while back I started reading the original Edgar Rice Burroughs Tarzan series. I just finished book 9 (Tarzan and the Golden Lion) of the 20 + that he wrote. I intersperse the Tarzan books with crime novels, Science Fiction and the like. On the important side, last Friday (10/2) DKB and I went to pick up my blood work and then went to apply for our marriage license. And yesterday I picked up the aforementioned license. Makes it a little more real, seeing our names on the paper with the "Official Seal of Mississippi" on it. We get married 25 days from today (on Oct. 31st). The invitations were sent and the replies received. Most of the food and decorations have been purchased and the preparations have been moving right along. 25 days - Wow. Seems like only yesterday we got engaged, instead of months ago.

I took off Thursday of last week to mow my 5+ acres of yard. We have had such rainy weather the last month or so that it had been over 4 weeks since I last mowed and it was getting tall. Thursday was the 4th straight day without rain and since rain was predicted for Friday and the weekend, I didn't figure on it getting any drier. So I mowed and only got stuck in the mud a few times and it turned out to be a good thing I did - because it rained a little on Friday, but a monsoon on Sunday. The weather is getting cooler though and I'm thinking that if we can put together a few more dry days in a row sometime this month I'll probably mow one more time before calling it a year.

After the 31st DKB will be changing her name and I want it known that the decision was hers. I would have been perfectly content if she had wanted to keep her maiden name. So Sometime after the wedding I guess I'll have to change the heading for my blog to EyeHeartDKW. There was a country song not too long ago by Dierks Bentley titled "My Last Name" and the last verse goes "So darlin' if you're wonderin' why I've got you here tonight; I wanna be your husband, I want you to be my wife; I ain't got much to give, but what I got means everything; Its my last name, oh, its my last name." I've said it before but I have been truly blessed in this life. I loved my first wife with all my heart and she, me. We were together over 29 years before I lost her 4 years ago. If not for that accident we would still be together, I have no doubt. But life goes on and after the darkness and heartache following that loss, I was again blessed when DKB came into my life. I can not now imagine my life without her. She brings me a happiness that I once thought was lost forever. I don't care what anyone else may think of me/her/us - We make each other happy and I hope we do so for the rest of our lives. Our opinions of each other are the only ones that matter. For more eloquent postings, please read DKB's Blog.

Everyone have a great day!!