Too Cold? Not Cool.

See, we have this one conference room that is always so cold, almost to the point of discomfort if you wear short sleeves. So, that was the genesis of this cartoon. When I wrote it, there was Rocky music in my head. No, not the Eye of the Tiger song, that other one.

Did I tell you about cleaning the folk's pool the other day? Their neighbor has huge pine trees next door, so our recent high wind days brought a bunch of junk into their pool. Their skimmer was so full, it took forever to clear it by hand. And most of the top of the pool was covered, too. I took a photo with my phone, but when I tried to send it, it said, "I don't think so." That should tell you how bad it was.

I did not get a Kendall update, so I don't know how she is. I did not get a folk's update, but I presume they are en route to Tempe. There is probably at least one other update I did not get, but I don't know what that would be.

I had no hilarious epiphanies this morning. Is my funny bone broken? Are we hearing the bell tolling for Clarity of Vision? All I can say is, "No update."

Under New Management

When you see this sign in a store, you never know what it implies for the future. We had a small reorg here at work on Friday. So, now a peer has been promoted to be my new boss. No, it's all good. I wish him the best of luck and hope he will be as good a boss as he has been a co-worker.


Kendall is still sick. Poor little thing.

Thanks to Carey for handling all the activities dealing with Neen's passing while the folks are out of town. I know it has been a challenge. And this at the same time that one of her sons and his wife are moving in with her. In fact, this might be a good time to have Alison move in with her, also. Carey won't notice an extra plate at the table. I'll have to investigate this.

Neen Has Gone Home

(photo courtesy of Carey Mooring)
After years of waiting, God has called Neen, my final living grandparent, home to be with him this morning. By the way, we called her Neen because, when I was a baby, I would say "Ni ni ni..." She decided that I was calling her, so she became Nini, which was shortened to Neen as we grew up. She is now reunited with her husband, James, who went home in 1960. She is with all her family members, and all the saints before her. Can you imagine the joy and love we will be experiencing when Jesus tells His Father we are forgiven because we accepted him in life? Wow! And no more pain, no tears. No more getting old and frail.

Hearing of Neen's passing, Kathie reminded me of a time when her mother was here and Neen was with us and we went for a trip up into Scottsdale. The whole trip, they were commenting on people and short shorts and the backseat was filled with both of them saying, "Law. Can you believe this?" One of my strong memories was, every trip back to Cotton Valley, a bunch of us moving from Mamaw's house down to Neen's so she could play the piano and we would all sing hymns. I also remember her strong vibrato and full voice as she would sing, both at home and in church.

Neen, one day, we will be together forever with all our loved ones and especially with our Lord, for all eternity. I miss you and will grieve, but I know you are now happy again. I love you.

My Armoire is the Same Way

I heard Kendall is sick again. If you visited my blog last week, you know she was sick when she spent last Friday night with us. Poor little thing. It's hard to reason with a one-year-old about these types of things.

I am pleading the Fifth Amendment as to whether or not today's Clarity of Vision has anything to do with my work desk, my armoire at home, my nightstand. This was just created from my mind and nobody better dispute that. Speaking of Clarity of Vision... I came in yesterday morning inspired and penned three additional strips. Today...nothing. I thought of nothing funny last night, and nothing again this morning. Have I pulled from the well once too often already? We shall see, loyal fans.

No big plans for the weekend that I know of. Kathie and I might try to catch a movie, but that's tomorrow. I can't think about that today.

I should probably get to work. I do have a few tasks pending.

I'm Thinking Arbys

Today's cartoon begins with meaningful fodder for thought and then degenerates into a useless amalgram of cynicism and commercialism. Oh well.

So, the folks head east to TX today for some family visits. Ah, the life of retirees. What shall I do the next few days. Oh yeah. Work.

The life of Clarity of Vision has been extended now until at least 4/8/09. That does not mean it is a good thing. I simply means I will waste a few more minutes of your time slogging through the comic strip, or perhaps a few more seconds of your time if you see it is another comic from me and avoid it. Either way, I won't be ignored (to quote from Fatal Attraction).

Color Me Non-Partisan

I am not, nor do I consider myself, a political cartoonist. Actually, this one only came about because I wanted to tell everyone about RI calling a milkshake a cabinet. One thing led to another, and this is what came out. However, I am very sure I could not create an etymology-based cartoon every day. By the way, if you check out cabinet in Wikipedia, look up coffee milk also. It is not milk coffee, but is pretty tasty.



Nothing else new since yesterday. Lately, I have been working crazy Lindsay Ward-sized days. I just wish I got her crazy Lindsay Ward-sized pay ;)

I played with replacing my blog background last night, but have not decided where to go yet. You'll just have to stick with this until further notice.

Craig, good luck on your next turn as a semi-professional comedian. You are obviously braver and less mentally unstable than I thought.

College Boy, you have not posted in a while. How is my favorite singing group, Jesus and the Gospels, doing?

Neen, all I can do is rest in the knowledge that God will call you home in His timing. I love you and pray for His will in your situation.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Heeeeere's Randy

Today's Clarity of Vision comic strip made me think of Chapel at Howard Payne. Of course, we had to go to a chapel service every MWF at 10am. Luckily, they had a variety of events at these services. We had Tanya Tucker when she was 13 or 14 (whew! She was a pistol even at that age). Bill Russell, a basketball star, was there. Dave Loggins (Please Come to Boston). We also had internally led events. One of them was the annual show by the Rejex, a non-fraternity fraternity, with which I was loosely linked.

Anyway, a buddy of mine wanted he and I to take a Chapel and do 30 min of stand-up each. I was too chicken, especially to fill up half an hour. My humor is usually topic-specific, meaning I take off from wherever or whatever is happening at that moment and make light of it. The point is, ever since then, I have regretted my decision. Sink or swim, I should have tried. Hopefully, that has propelled me to try some things I might not have tried otherwise. What about you? Do you have any defining moments like that?

So, I decided to keep trying to find humorous ideas for my strips. We'll see, but I am up through 4/6/09 now.

Today's is called (at least in my own mind) Like Hannibal.

Clarity of Vision

The other day, I said Dad had a doctor's appointment to determine the strategy for dealing with his lymphoma. Well, I had the day wrong, but the concept right. So, he starts chemo some time in the next couple of weeks and then goes in about once every 3 weeks. So, keep him in your prayers. He will lose his hair, but I am not going to shave my head to show love and support. I don;t know if Mom will do that or not. Ha ha.

We went to Isabella's 3-year-old birthday party on Saturday. Actually, she is 3, not her party. We had a good time, and I did remember to take my camera. Last time I went over, I took my camera, but the battery was discharged. That was why I made sure to charge it this time. However, I did not remember to put in the battery after I charged it, so all photos are with Lyndsay's camera. We took just over 100.

I had a creative streak the other day and decided to play with a four-panel comic strip. I decided to call my strip Clarity of Vision because my job title is Clarity Product Manager. Clarity is the name of the tool we use for IT project tracking. Man, I crack myself up. Anyway, here are entries I created for 3/19, 3/20, and 3/23. We'll see how long this lasts. As of right now, I have strips ready through the end of next week.

Black and Tan

Sure. Black and Tan does bring St. Patrick's Day to mind (I think it is a drink with two kinds of beer, one dark and one tan colored). After all, 3/17 is a day for the Irish and a birthday for Isabella, who turns 3 years old. However, that's not what I'm talking about.

The black is Dad's B-cell lymphoma. He visits the oncologist tomorrow, so keep him in your prayers.

The tan is me playing in Photoshop with a sepia tone and a blur filter on this Zion, UT landscape.

Good News and Not-quite-so-good-but-not-bad News

Dad's medical work went uneventfully today, so that's good news. He will find out the biopsy results in a few days. So keep praying.

I found some old CDs in the garage and imported them into iTunes. Totals are now 11429 songs, 27.9 days, 113.49GB.

iPhoto totals are 14334 items, 1097 of Kendall and 2316 of Bella, 3733 in the last 12 months, 395 from Disneyland.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hair down to Neck down to Hands

We had another hair cut party at Kyle and Lyndsay's house today. Oh yes, it did look like Edward Scissorhands, except it was Phyllis Scissorhands.

I'd like to request some prayers. No, not for me. Dad and Rick both are having surgeries (biopsies?) related to their lymph nodes. So, please pray for them, for their surgeons, and for positive test results. Of course, by positive, I mean the tests have negative results with regards to cancer. Now, Kathie is starting to watch my neck for signs of swelling. I am NOT going to post photos of my neck, though. Oh yeah, Dad's surgery is Tuesday. Here is Mom and Dad from four years ago. Look, Dad still had a little color in his hair.

We spent all day yesterday helping at the Art for the Heart event at Dobson Academy, in memory of Chevy, a boy who died last year. So, we were there almost the whole time from noon until 9:20pm. It was a good feeling, though, to help for such a good cause.

Flagging Down a Fun Weekend

Let's take a look at our weekend. We started off Saturday morning at Tempe Beach Park walking a 5K for the American Heart Association Heart Walk. Here, the girls are getting ready for the walk - three Walkers and a Valenti. Notice Kathie's flag shirt, which ties in with the title of this post.

As you can see below, we had some recognizable characters walking along with us. Hmm. Is Kathie flirting with one of them? The Ghostbusters still look amazingly young considering their movies were made 20 years ago. One good thing about this was it calmed our fears of spirits on the walk, and, sure enough, I saw no one with spirits that day. Unless... what is Lyndsay drinking?

Here is a shot of the walkers along Town Lake in downtown Tempe. This is the final one mile stretch. The finish line is just below those buildings on the right side of the photo. I heard there were 18,000 of us at the event. I think about 17,000 of them were ahead of us due to a lengthy bathroom break in the middle of the walk. 

When we finished, they had a sign especially for us. And they cheered and said, "Way to go!" So, Lindsay Ward, have you ever gotten that kind of treatment? What do you mean, that wasn't only for us? Can you prove it? 

Sunday night, we went to see One Night with Queen, a Queen Tribute Band. I don't know Queen songs like I know The Beatles, but we had a great time. Only the lead singer of the group really acted as if he were the original person, but the band was still good. By the way, I had wondered how they would handle Bohemian Rhapsody with its complex harmonies. They played the first part where Freddie Mercury sings mostly alone, then left the stage during the harmonies in the middle section. A light show played on stage while we listened to a recording of Queen doing that section. They came back on stage during the head-banging section and performed the rest of the song live. Tricky, but effective. I hadn't taken a camera, so this as taken with Kathie's cell phone. I think this was taken during the song Killer Queen. Notice that Freddie had his own flag shirt. Well, he just wore the whole flag as a shirt.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.