Luke (Skywalker, not the Physician)

So, I branched out into potential movie tie-ins today. No, I paid no royalties. There will be no guest appearances in my strip (that I know of right now). Still, we shall see. Thinking of Clarity of Vision, I do slant it towards my team and work environment, but as you read it, feel free to translate the ideas into your work situations. It should usually still apply. Yes, even preachers.

We dropped by to see Dad in the hospital last night. The dude just wanted to have a chance to sit and read, so they let him have a room for the night. Since he was there anyway, they stuck a needle in his arm and called it macaroni. Sorry. I branched into potential music tie-ins for a second. He is on an antibiotic drip to try and clear up his arm infection so he can resume chemo. Please pray for a quick recovery.

Alison has been called to substitute teach all this week. That's great news, but still keep praying for a job for her. She finishes her masters on May 12.

I didn't run last night for 6-1/2 miles. Whew! I am tired just thinking about what I did not do. Maybe tonight, I can not run for 8 or so miles.

OK, silliness aside, let's end with a little prayer from Psalm 51:10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Sailing, Sailing Over the Ocean Blue

A co-worker leaves for a cruise this weekend, so I decided to give her a comic strip sendoff.

Thinking about a blog title for today made me think of the Let's Sail Away song by my friend, David Butler. The Rasberry Jam sang it several times back in college, as did the Brothers B. I believe that even Preacher Bro would approve of this one. I do remember the chorus, so I'll share that now.

Let's sail away from Almighty God above,
'cause if we give in now, He might smother us with love.
Don't surrender yet, or He'll give us all new life,
And wouldn't it be terrible without this hate and strife?

Why do we struggle against that when we know His Will surpasses anything we can imagine? We think we can handle things without Him. We neglect His Word, when we should be spending time listening to Him talking to us personally. We decide to sleep in on Sunday instead of worshiping with fellow believers. And yet, just as we wish for our kids, He desires that good and perfect Will for us, His children. I believe, Lord, help thou my unbelief.

Another Day, Another 58.2 Cents (or whatever a dollar is actually worth)

Today's cartoon is a bit edgy, I admit, but I will share it with you anyway.


Let's see. What about yesterday? A couple of things are worth sharing, and they are a good news, bad news situation. Which one do you want first? We will start with the bad and end on an up note. Unfortunately, Alison did not get the Casa Grande teaching position. However, she is now getting valuable practice in interviewing and developing sample lessons to sell herself. We know God will guide her where she should be, and I have certainly been in jobs where God said this is not for you. The good news is that, again, tests show my cancer has not returned.

Anything up for today? Nothing stands out in my mind, but we will see what God has in store. Think on Psalm 188:24 This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.

Do Not Despair

Despite what you may read into today's cartoon...
Do not despair. God is in control of all things. Yes, death may enter our lives. Some of us may lose jobs or be without one. We may have members of our family facing illness or cancer. We may have personal struggles that make us wonder if God really hears our cries. Remember that in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus reminds us that God even cares for the common sparrow, so He certainly loves us more than them.

It is easy for us to focus on the problems rather than The Solution, Jesus. Help me, Lord, to dwell on the blessings you grant me every day.

Phil 4:8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is fair, whatever is pure, whatever is acceptable, whatever is commendable, if there is anything of excellence and if there is anything praiseworthy-keep thinking about these things.

Excuse Me, Sir, Could You Step Out of Line?

OK, this did not really happen to me, but I did think of this cartoon when I flew to Neen's funeral. I was thinking about the whole 3 oz. of gel thing and I wondered about ways to carry it. Here you go.

I still have not seen Dad's head yet. That also means he hasn't seen mine, but not much has changed on my side. Maybe I'll get over there this weekend?

So, how many of you are watching the NBA Playoffs? Yeah, me neither.

I cannot believe that Jay has posted twice in one week. Dude, if you've got that much energy, you need to run more. Run, Jay, Run. I'll read about you while I eat this bag of Cheetos.

Channeling Marie Antoinette

It cannot be a good sign when you've got a preacher's blood boiling. Nor is it good when a future preacher starts quoting a comic strip that ended twenty years before he was born. Nor when a famous cubicle cartoonist has to take time out of his business day to respond to spurious accusations. All of that from yesterday's Clarity of Vision. Today's is less controversial and very punny, right?

I haven't seen Dad's shaved head yet, but it might look similar to how he wore it back in the 60s. I'll see if I can catch a photo so you non-PHX readers can perhaps guffaw or at least snicker.

Alison had an interview down in Casa Grande yesterday. She thought the interview portion went well, but she had a class that was not as attentive as they could have been. Still, I think it was good practice for her, and it's really in God's hands anyway.

We reached 102F yesterday. It's too early for that. I did see a statistic that the Valley averages 296 sunny days per year, and 106 days at or above 100F. Luckily, we only have about 17 days above 110F (althought the last two years have had 32 and 22 days above 110F, respectively). You can see why I say it is too early for us to be facing that. Yeah, I know what you are saying. "But it's a dry heat." It's still hot. Maybe not HECK hot, but hot nonetheless.

Erin Go Bragh

That is Gaelic for Ireland forever. One of my teammates leaves next week for Ireland, so I decided to say goodbye with a cartoon.

I did not talk to Dad yesterday, so I do not know the status of his hair. Aren't I a loving son? How many of you check in with your parents to see how their hair is doing? However, since I did NOT check in, I suppose I am back in the same bucket as the rest of you.

We may have to rethink the Obama thing. The ceremony is scheduled to start at 7pm ( forgot when. I think May 13 or 14). Anyway, it is outside at Sun Devil stadium, so we will probably be sitting in the sun. The kicker is that we have to be in our seats by 5pm. And Ali and the graduates have to be there also, wearing their caps and gowns. It would be really cool to see the current president and all, but that sounds really uncomfortable. At 5pm, it will almost certainly be above 100F. I'll let you know what I/we decide.

Caleb, once Charlie Dickens joined our team, I knew I would be using his name in the cartoon. So, while I toyed with doing something about A Tale of Two Projects, this one was easily the better choice in my own opinion, which is of course what matters since it is my strip. To me, it is not dumbed down. Maybe you are actually learning something at college? Be sure and check back on the comments of a prior blog post to see the repartee (a conversation marked by the exchange of witty retorts) between Craig (my last college roommate) and myself. You might understand them, too.

What's Next? Peter Pan?

A new team member started at work yesterday named Charles Dickens. I actually knew himi over at US Airways. He goes by Charlie, but that wouldn't work for today's cartoon. And in case you are not familiar with corporate seating, the blue squares are cubicles.


One time, back at Motorola in the early 90s, I looked through the corporate phone listings to see who all worked for the company. Among the names I found was Gerald Ford, Betty Ford, and the name mentioned in today's title. That's right. There was a Peter Pan (in China).

My Own Flesh and Blood

Kyle, Lyndsay and the girls came over on Sat and again on Sun this weekend. I found out that Kyle had only looked at ONE of my comic strips. Lyndsay, loving daughter-in-law that she is, had read them all, but not my own son. How would that make you feel? He did read them (he says) while he was over, and said he liked a couple of them. Yeah, that's Kyle for you.

Here's another one for Kyle not to read.



By the way, it is supposed to reach 100F tomorrow. It is too early to have to deal with that already. We get plenty in the next few months. Someone at work said they may turn on their A/C for the first time this week. What?! We keep ours on all year. I like it cool in the house at night. Must be those hot flashes, huh?

You Want to Make Something Of It?

I was premature in saying Dad would not have hair by today. Stay tuned. For me, I have reached that bushy stage when my hair looks like a toupee. Maybe Dad will want to get a wig that looks like my hair, or maybe I should save my hair, glue it to a bald wig, and give it to him for free.

It is Alison's last day of student teaching. That also means we are nearing the end of her Master's classes. Yeah! No more proof-reading and editing. Well, soon.

Yeah, so, this did happen to me. It's fixed now, but my boss' boss set up a delivery of information to me, and the Purchasing system showed it would go to Ms. That got me to thinking about reasons to not get it fixed. I could get government grants if I set up a female owned business. I might get caught with a glass ceiling. Then, I found the one I thought was the funniest and created today's CoV.

Where's My Refund?

Hey. I e-filed my federal taxes. Why isn't my refund here yet? OK, so it is only enough to buy myself a meal at Taco Bell, but it is MY money. Let's go, Obama. Pull it out of that $212B and get it in the mail.

Prayer Request: Lyndsay's maternal grandfather has been diagnosed with congestive heart failure, so keep him and his family in your prayers. We went to see him last night at Banner Desert Hospital, and he is to be released sometime today, so that is good news. Gayle, cut back on the salt, and eat those fruits and veggies, OK?

Happy Tax Day

It's time again for the annual rite of truing up on our taxes with the government. That means tonight's newscast will include reporters at the post office and interviewing drivers as to why they waited. Some are probably like me. I had ours finished over a month ago, but was deciding about snail mail or e-filing. I also wanted to double-check with Kathie to see if I omitted anything. I finally got around to it this past weekend. I have never waited long enough that I had to drive to the post office at midnight.

No, it really was just happenstance that a comic about something being free showed up on April 15. I looked through my head for a tax-return-related strip, but nothing jumped out at me. Anyway, here you go.

Tomorrow is Tax Day

I have already sent in my taxes, both federal and state. I sent both in online this year. Alison has been doing that for a couple of years. Federal was free with my purchase of TurboTax. It cost $20 for them to handle the state. For those of you with no state tax, it would cost nothing extra, and you save $0.82 because there is no postage. Plus, if you get a refund, it should be in two weeks or so instead of six. OK, enough sales talk.

I burned the roof of my mouth on pizza last night. Don't you hate that? Now, I have this dull pain all the time. Still, isn't it amazing that God created us with a way for our body to heal itself after something like that? Or like a scab forming after a cut? Or new skin forming after a sunburn? What will our perfect, heavenly bodies be like?

At prior employers, we have had the conference rooms available for reserving online. Here, it is a mix of an electronic request and a manual reservation by an admin. That is what prompted today's CoV. It's not quite this extreme, but I had to jazz it up a bit to accentuate the punchline.

Post-Easter Blues

I read that many of us will feel a little tired today if we ate too much Easter candy yesterday. Luckily, that will not be a problem for me. No, I am not talking about me having eaten healthily yesterday. I am saying there is no such thing as too much candy.

I took my computer home for the weekend, but did not do very much actual work. Instead, I found five new Clarity of Vision ideas floating around where real thoughts should have been. That extends the publication season for another week. No comment from the peanut gallery on whether or not that is a good thing. BTW, did you know that peanut gallery reference started on Howdy Doody?

Easter's Here

Well, today we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ. We attended the early service so we could sing the traditional Easter hymns. Now listen to this. We arrived at 8:32 for an 8:30 service, and missed Christ Arose. That's my favorite. Next year, I will try to arrive at 8:28. Then, at the end of the sermon, they had a reenactment of the women and Apostles arriving at an empty grave. Kathie noted that in Heaven, her parents and Neen are celebrating with Jesus Himself. Needless to say, we both had tears in our eyes. It brought to mind the song Keith quoted at Neen's graveside, Finally Home.

When engulfed by the terror
Of tempestuous sea
Unknown waves before you roll
At the end of doubt and peril is eternity
Though fear and conflict seize your soul

But just think of stepping on shore
And finding it heaven
Of touching a hand and finding it God's
Of breathing new air and finding it celestial
Of waking up in glory and finding it home

When surrounded by the blackness
Of the darkest night
O how lonely death can be
At the end of this long tunnel
Is a shining light
For death is swallowed up in victory

But just think of stepping on shore
And finding it heaven
Of touching a hand and finding it God's
Of breathing new air and finding it celestial
Of waking up in glory and finding it home


By the way, Dad is feeling better today. He finally found a medicine to ease the nausea.

OK, let's move on to less emotional topics.

Aw, come on. I know we are in tight times, but at least get the baby some shoes she doesn't have to grow into.

Now, the annual ritual of stinking up a house so we can dye hard-boiled eggs for the youngsters. You can see Bella helping us with Kendall looking on.

We had plastic eggs with candy in them as well as the hard-boiled variety. So, we had an in-the-house Easter egg hunt with Bella and whoever was available. It started off with Kyle hiding them and Bella searching. Then he started hiding them by putting all of them on a single stool and telling her to go find them. It was obviously time to have someone else play with her. Lyndsay hid them by placing one on each adult's head. Yes, Isabella was able to find them. After others played, Bella took matters into her own hand. She started hiding them and having one of us search. We had to hide our eyes, then she would come get us and lead us to each one. It was cute.

Hippity Hop Hop, Easter's On It's Way

Before I get started, here is the view of Cotton Valley that Google Maps offers. The annotations are mine.

Easter is coming soon, my friends. It is so easy to get caught up in family activities, and Easter Egg hunts, and lose sight of why we celebrate it. Do not let that happen to you. Jesus was crucified on a Friday and rose again on a Sunday, for each of us. Praise the Lord for His love and sacrifice.

Wow! I sort of channeled Preacher Bro there for a second. I am back now for our regularly scheduled blog.

We head over to the granddaughters' house for tonight. Then Sunday, we'll spend some time with my folks. Hmm, maybe some time Saturday with my better half? We haven't been able to go to our traditional alone-time breakfast for a month or so.

Without further ado, here is today's Clarity of Vision.

For the Young Whippersnappers

Remember the old NBC tagline, "If you haven't seen it, it's new to you?" Well, there is a new channell on Cox Cable called retro Television or something like that. It shows old programs such as Quicy, Airwolf, It Takes a Thief. Kids, these may be new to you. OK, some look a little dated, but there's not always something new on you want to see, so check these out.

Speaking of old shows, that is (coincidentally) the theme of today's Clarity of Vision. Weird.


Dad has his first round of chemo yesterday. He liked it so much that he is going in for more today. Perhaps that is an overstatement. Actually, they gave him a single drug yesterday and watched for allergic reactions. today is a mix of three additional drugs. Then, beginning in three weeks, they will slip him the full mixture all at once. If his hair falls out, instead of a wig, I recommend he get fake hair tatooed on his head. Maybe eyebrows and lashes, too. What do you think? I am not sure how he could replace his cowlick, though.

I haven't gotten copies of the photos yet. Carey has pictures of R.L.Turner, the high school we all attended. She has photos of two of the houses we lived in while in Farmer's Branch. We also drove by the Jr. High and Elementary (since renamed) that I attended. We attended the church where we grew up, too. It was a great service, and I saw some people I haven't seen in over 30 years. We all had to introduce ourselves, since we did look a little different.

Hindsight is 20/20

After creating one of my comic strips, I don't see it again until the day I send it. As such, I don't always review it as I should. On today's Clarity of Vision, I wrote the final panel with particular incidents in mind. Unfortunately, the full connection is not presented in the panel. It is actually around being laid off. Many companies walk you out immediately, and then ask that you come back in with a guard to clean out your desk. My idea for the comic was that you sneak in at night and take all your stuff. That is not obvious. Oh well, not every strip is hilarious. You are not paying anything for it anyway, so no complaining.


So, I saw aunts and uncles that I may never see again this side of Glory at the funeral. That was really fun. So many people have commented that they have found the same to be true for their lives. Sometimes, it takes a loss like this to bring scattered families together. We took a lot of pictures of the old hometown, and I should post some soon. We do not know what would ever take us back there, either. Anyway, my point is that I saw my cousin, Lewis. When did he get old? He's 10 months older than me. Maybe that's it. Also, remind me to tell you some of the nicknames the family could remember of people that grew up there. (Here's a hint. One of them was "Speedy.")

Carey is working on a family genealogy. So far, she has traced us all the way back to 1960. Whew! Slow down, girl. OK, maybe a little earlier than that in some family trees by 100 or 200 years. Interesting stuff, though.

Even Denise Should Get It

I think that even Denise should be able to find some humor in today's Clarity of Vision.

I had a bunch of stuff I was going to blog today, but I just now got around to posting, so now I do not remember any of my ideas. Maybe tomorrow.



I just found this shot of a cake by Ace of Cakes Duff Goldman. It is my camera. Kinda fun.

I'm Heeeeeere

Yup. I am back in the Valley of the Sun. Just in time, too. It was nice a cool in TX yesterday and I almost enjoyed it. Now, though, it should be up to 92 by tomorrow here in PHX.

I liked Pastor Keith's choice of slogans for Pahrump, NV. "Halfway Between Sin City and Death Valley."

What else do I want to tell you about? I don't know yet, but I need to do a little work right now anyway. More about the weekend will be coming soon. Stay tuned; same bat time, same bat channel. (Oh yeah, there was a bat in the PHX air terminal on Thursday)

Not Working From Home, Not Even At Home

Well, I am not working today. I am in Big D on my way to Neen's viewing tonight and funeral tomorrow. We did not get to bed until around 2am TX time. And yet, I still woke up at 5:45am PHX time. What is up with that?

Since we were stuck at the airport yesterday for 8 hrs or so, we played several games of Guillotine. Yeah, you know it. The game where you get ahead by getting a head. I never won. Carey and Dad seemed to own Mom and I. You can see where the bloodthirstiness of our family resides.

Time to Pack

Well, we head out in a little while to my Nini's funeral, so I should probably pack. I am doing a bit of laundry so I can pack the clothes I have chosen, and I need to get over to DMV to renew the Jeep, so I'll be brief. Why didn't I do it online? I tried, but on years when we must get an emissions test, you cannot complete the registration via the web, so I must go in.

I may or may not be able to post Clarity of Vision tomorrow. I cannot imagine how disappointed you must be, but dem's da berries.

I wrote this a couple of weeks ago. It has nothing to do with whether or not I feel older now that Neen has died. Nothing, I say.

Note to Kathie: I will miss you during the next 3 days and wish you could be there with us. After all, you've been in the family almost 33 years, so she was certainly your grandmother, too. I love you, dear.

A Somber Reunion

I am heading to Louisiana with siblings and parents to lay my grandmother to rest. Just as happened with my father-in-law earlier this year, it takes something like this to bring the family together. I am hoping and expecting that, just as it did with Mr. Hagle, this time allows us to remember all the good and fun things about Neen to mind. Unfortunately, with Kathie's teaching job, it is not easy for her to be able to take off without sufficient notice, so I will be traveling without her.

No particular person targeted here. No, of course not.