Thoughts. Perspective. Ideas. Opinions. Rambings. Observations. Conversations. Questions.
This Saturday, I caught a Dave Matthews Band concert in Atlanta with a few good friends. This was not an ordinary concert. It was a benefit for the Piedmont Park Conservancy. There were supposedly 54,000 ticketed people in attendance. Press reports since have said their could have been as many as 96-110,000 there! The entire [...]
A few ago, I had the opportunity to hang out (briefly) with two old friends, Chris and Brad. The three of us went to high school together and were great friends. Unfortunately, as the world moves faster, we don’t see enough of each other. In fact, the last time we were all three together at [...]
Usually, by this time of the year, I am ready for fall and winter. I am pretty much a fall/winter guy. Sure, I enjoy the warm weather for a while. I enjoy taking the kids to the pool and all that, but generally, I’d rather be cool than hot. That has never been more true [...]
Andrew Robert Ryals was born this afternoon. He weighed 6 lbs, 10 oz and was 20″ long. My sister Ashley is doing fine and she and Bobby are, of course, thrilled. They did not find out the baby’s sex during the pregnancy, so that was a surprise to everyone as well. It was a great [...]
Yikes. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a random day off in the middle of the week. It really throws me off. Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful for the day off for sure, but it sure makes for an unusual work week. A lot of people take Monday and Tuesday off, while [...]
This Wednesday, our family gathered in Fort Smith, Arkansas to say goodbye to my great-grandfather, Raymond Rippy. Raymond Rippy was born in 1911 and had an amazing life. He lived through innumerable changes and landmark events in our nation’s history. He went from riding a horse to work to communicating with his daughter in California [...]
I recently took a trip to Arkansas. The trip was very brief. We flew out mid-morning on Tuesday and arrived back into Birmingham late Wednesday evening. Just a few quick oberservations: The pilot who flew us into Dallas/Fort Worth was amazing. When we landed, I hardly even knew we had touched the ground. Looking down [...]
We have this playset in our backyard that Taylor loves to play on, which is good, because it would not be cool to have bought it and then it just sit there. You can see it back in my Stormy Thursday post. Anyways, he likes to take things from me, run up there and make [...]
It’s no secret that I am a big fan of my iPod. In particular, I love the playlist options in iTunes. I have created tons of them and tend to listen to my music that way unless I want to hear a particular track. There are two musical groups that have been my favorites since [...]
My “fast” is over. Actually, I have been enjoying Dr. Pepper for a few days now. Overall, it was a success (well, so far). I didn’t drink any Dr. Pepper for thirty days, other than one time when my wonderful wife deceived me into taking a sip. The last several days, I have been drinking [...]