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.

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."