Wedding Celebration

Well, as most of you know my older brother Bob was scheduled to get married on the 27th here in Middle Tennessee. The day was beautiful and the whole family was in town. They had decided to have a small intimate affair with only the families present. It ended up being very nice with a total attendance of 19 which included both immediate families and a pastor. My younger sister Beth and her husband Jessie were the official photographers and the families set up and cleaned up for the reception so it really was just a family affair. They went to Chattanooga for a few days for the honeymoon and then plan to take a trip to somewhere more exotic when their schedules allow. I'm happy for them and think they will be happy together.

What a great way to culminate this year's Christmas season with all of their families together celebrating the beginning of Bob's and Penney's life together.

Christmas festivities

Well, every year my entire family (those that can anyway) converge on Woodbury for Christmas. This year was excellent with all of my immediate (including in-laws) family being present. For the past 12 years it has been a family of 13 (Dad, Mom, Bill (son 1), Bill's wife Sandy and son Matthew, Bob (son 2, single), Becky (daughter 1), Becky's husband Jim and 2 kids Rachel and Joshua, Me (son 3, single), and finally Beth (daughter 2) and her husband Jessie. Well, since Bob is getting married here in a day it will go to 14. We made the new stocking and rearranged the mantle to include a spot for Penny on all upcoming special events and occasions. So, from now on my immediate family is 14 persons.

Bill, Sandy and Matthew drove up from Dallas just before Christmas and brought with them a new addition to my family. I ended up getting a young Russian Blue cat for the new room-mate. I've always wanted to get an animal young enough that I had to name him so I decided upon an aviation hero of mine for his namesake. So the new roommate is named Brig. Gen. Robin Olds. General Olds has been a long time aviation hero of mine and even though the name is awkward for an animal I decided he would wear Gen. Olds' name with pride. I think most people are calling him the general or just general. Anyway, General Olds is tiny right now but eating well and seems to be adjusting to life here in Sparta. I think he is going to be a great addition to the family. I'll post pictures in the next day or two.

Today Big Nate came over and hooked up my new HD DVD player and got me squared away on technology for a little while. The picture is pretty awesome. I'm not sure I can see a huge difference in my up-convert DVD player with standard DVD and the HD DVD player with HD movie. I need to get the same movie in both formats and play them back to back to see if there is a significant difference. I'll report back on that as well when I get it accomplished.

A rough two days

It started Monday when I didn't drink enough. Over the course of the day I started to get slightly dehydrated. So during Monday night Bible study I started feeling the effects. By the time I got home I was shivering, had a fever and I knew that I had messed up. I drank a bunch of water before I climbed into bed. I also positioned a glass of water beside my bed. I went to sleep quickly and slept pretty well but when I woke up the next day I was still feeling the consequences of letting myself get dehydrated. My fever was almost gone but I stayed in bed all day long. Thankfully Tim and Daniel came by and got me some more water and Tim even made me some KoolAid. I stayed in bed all day yesterday and finally got out of bed this morning at 9am. I feel much better now but still have a slight headache and am still weak from the fever. It is amazing how my body responds to not getting enough water. Since this is about the 10th time I have done this to myself you would think I would finally learn and drink enough every day. So, let this be a lesson for anyone out there who is susceptible to urinary tract issues, drink plenty of water.

Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays

2 things happened today to bring this to the forefront of my mind. I was watching TV and scanned the channels and stumbled onto a science fiction show. I then stood up in my standing frame as the show was ending and a Christmas Parade started. Generally I would never watch this type show but since I was in my standing frame at this point with no remote control I couldn't just change channels without sitting back down in my wheelchair and rolling over to find the remote. And, being the lazy guy I am, elected to remain standing while I watched some lame parade coverage. The show was boring but what got my attention and made it ironic was that the entire show they were talking about the "Christmas parade" and this and that about "Santa Claus" and other Christmas items (the Christmas tree, Christmas decorations, etc.) but when they signed off, they wished everyone a (yup, you guessed it) "Happy Holidays". If it weren't so sad it would be funny. A Christmas parade for everyone but you can't say Merry Christmas to anybody.

The second thing that happened occurred when I got my daily mail. My church had the wisdom and thoughtfulness to send me a Holiday Wishes card. Not in one single place did the card mention Christmas or Christ or the true reason for the season but rather "wishes for the Holidays" and "Holiday Wishes". What a sad day when a church sends out holiday cards rather than Christmas cards. I'm sure somebody might get upset but I will have a little discussion with the staff tomorrow when I get to church. My prayer is that I keep the "holiday spirit" in check when I tell them what I think of their Holiday card.

Chile 2001

I was just completing my second year of doctoral studies at the University of Pittsburgh when I started planning a summer trip to Santiago, Chile. Between growing up in Pakistan and Taiwan and then serving in the US Air Force for 6.5 years I had managed to travel to 5 of the Earth’s continents. South America and Antarctica were the 2 that thus far I had not been privileged to visit. So, with that in mind I talked a friend of mine, Margaret, into making the trip to Santiago with me. Click on the pictures below to view a skyline picture of Santiago (left) and our hotel with the Andes in the background (right).

I left from Pittsburgh and she traveled from Baltimore and we met up in Miami, FL. In Miami we jumped on a plane together and flew the rest of the way down to Santiago. Even though July is Chile’s winter it was very pleasant and we were blessed with great weather the whole time we were there. We stayed in the Holiday Inn located in downtown Santiago and made day trips from there. Santiago is a very modern city with all of the conveniences and comforts of a modern city but with the charm and friendliness of a smaller rural town. The people are friendly and helpful and even with our limited Spanish ability we were able to travel around with relative ease. The hotel was accessible for the most part and the staff helped to make it work in the areas that weren’t completely wheelchair friendly.

On the second day we were there we decided to rent a car and drive to the foothills of the Andes to see the mountains. We were told by our concierge that the area designated had a small artists market and craft center and was conveniently located right at the foothills of the closest mountains just to the East of Santiago. It was a nice day trip and we enjoyed a nice lunch at a local restaurant. Santiago (Chile in general) has great food and of course I ate plenty. While there, we enjoyed humita, empanadas, sea bass, charquican (don’t ask), sopaipillas, and of course asado. We decided to keep the car for a couple of days and make a trip to the coast the following day.

Well, the day came early and we loaded up and headed towards Baron, Valparaiso and Vina del Mar on the Eastern coast. These three cities are located to the North and East of Santiago and basically encompass a six mile strip of land right on a beautiful bay. It was a great drive through some of Chile’s wine country and even eventually through the town of Casablanca. We stopped at one of the vineyards to have lunch and enjoy the beautiful scenery. Valparaiso and Vina del Mar are located right on the coast and are very mountainous and were difficult for me to navigate outside of the car. The hilly terrain made for some incredible vistas over the Pacific Ocean. The pictures show Valparaiso (below left) and Vina del Mar (below right)

The last couple of days in Chile we enjoyed a piano recital by a Chilean pianist, Alfredo Perl, and visited several museums and other famous sites of Santiago. We did a little shopping and basically played the tourist. I would recommend Chile as a travel destination for anybody looking to visit South America. The country is beautiful, the people are incredible, and its got plenty to keep you busy for a week or two.

Taiwan and Australia 2002

My family returned to Taiwan in 2002 to participate in the 50th Anniversary celebration held by Morrison Academy in Taichung, Taiwan. All five us us kids graduated from Morrison and 4 of us taught there at some point in our lives. My older brother Bill (2 years) and younger sister Beth (2 years) taught the longest at Morrison but my older sister Becky taught there for a year or two and I taught one semester (Spring 1985) of Bible and Algebra when I was right out of my undergraduate (MTSU) studies before attending pilot training.

The 50th celebration was fantastic with former students as well as faculty and staff from any and all years of Morrison history attending. I saw teachers from just about every decade of the schools existence. We got to Taiwan in early 1971 and the last Jones (actually a Courson – my sister’s son) graduated from Morrison in 2005. So, basically from 1971 through 2005 we had family either studying or teaching at Morrison Academy. Many of the Morrison family were present and it was incredible re-connecting with so many people from all of my years at Morrison. I can’t think of any greater upbringing than I was privileged to have living in Taichung and studying/learning at Morrison. It was great to fellowship with 10 of my classmates at the reunion (my class had about 26 that graduated) and we were able to spend some time catching up and filling in any time gaps for each other. Most of my classmates now live in the USA but there were a couple that now call Hong Kong and Taiwan home. Ruth, one of my classmates, adopted a couple of children from Taiwan so it was great for her to be able to show them their “home” country. It wasn't the first trip home for them but neat for the kids anyway.

After the reunion I traveled to Hong Kong for a few days and then met up with my brother Bob who had agreed to go with me on a trip to Australia. We had friends from Morrison who live in Australia who weren’t able to make the trip for the reunion so we decided to hop down and visit the Land of Oz and pay them a visit. We headed to Sydney and after a couple of days there we flew on over to Adelaide to see the Nicholls. We spent 4 great days in Adelaide seeing the local sights and catching up with the Nicholls ( Tim, Chris, and Amy) and their families. Tim was in my brother’s class, Chris was a year ahead of me, and Amy was in my younger sister’s class at Morrison. They all live in the Adelaide area and are all doing well. Chris has had some interesting experiences while serving as a journalist and has a book about his time defending a source’s privacy rights (In the Dark). One day we drove out to the wine country and visited some wineries. Two distinct regions are located near Adelaide (Clare Valley and Coonawarra). Both of these regions are similar to Napa Valley in that the weather is perfect for grape vines and they are located in beautiful fertile country. It really was a beautiful area with small wineries and shops scattered around the countryside.

After our stay in Adelaide we headed on the train (The Great Southern Railway’s “The Overland”) to Melbourne for a short visit. We stayed overnight in Melbourne and then boarded the ferry to Taz on our quest to see the infamous Tasmanian Devil. We took the overnight ferry the Spirit of Tasmania to Taz and had an uneventful day driving around looking for a genuine Tasmanian Devil. We also took the time to visit the sea horse museum and then headed back towards the city of Hobart to board the ferry for our return trip to Melbourne. After another day in Melbourne we headed back to the airport for our return trip home. We ended up going through New Zealand and then on directly to Los Angeles and then back to TN. It was a great trip but I was definitely ready to be back in the USA after almost a month spent in Asia and Australia.

Business Venture Fails

Some of you know that I have been working on a new business venture/money raising opportunity for the past few months. After several months of waiting for the participants to fully mature and then be trained I was able to launch the venture last week. While I would love to say it was a tremendous success the results were actually mixed. My partners and I were able to generate some good cash flow on the first day in business but while conducting a "money grab" operation for the business, my key partner, was photographed in a compromising position and is now facing some legal issues of his own.

As you can see from the photograph posted below (generously provided by Martha V) Cadbury was caught red handed (well red beaked) and will now have to answer some tough questions from law enforcement officers. Please wish my former partner luck with the court system and Judge Sammy B, and me luck with my next business venture. I'll let you know if I have success with it, all I can say right now is that it involves concrete, steel and foam.

Click on the picture to see the full details.

Wonderful Sunday

Today was a great day. I didn't really notice anything special about today until a few minutes ago and it just hit me how wonderful it is when one can gather together with tons of sisters and brothers and worship our Lord, who is "the author" and the "finisher of our Faith" (Hebrews 12:2 - paraphrased). This morning we had a good message on the Hope that Jesus brings with His arrival in the little town of Bethlehem so many years ago. Of course, we are reminded throughout Scripture that even before His arrival He gave us Hope through His prophesied and promised arrival.

Advent: My church is slightly off with our timing this year but we are celebrating Advent, for which I am very thankful. The meaning of the word Advent comes from the Latin words that mean "an arrival" or "to come to". Thus, we celebrate the arrival of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (both His birth as well as His second coming to judge and to rescue the world). In reality today is the 2nd Sunday of Advent but we celebrated the third Sunday and the lighting of the 3rd candle. The third candle for us represents Hope and that is why Bro JD preached on Hope today (usually they are represented as Peace, Love, Hope, and Joy in some meaningful order). Depending upon where I lived I have seen various order for the meaning of the 4 candles but they all tend to focus on Joy as the 4th candle to represent the Joy of Hope fulfilled through Christ. And, whatever order your church chooses, it's all good, since it all points to Christ and the Hope we have through and in Him. I hope, if you read this, you can pause and give thanks to your Savior for the gift He gave you (and me).

Property Plans

The picture above shows the 25 acre tract of land that is located on Millers Point Road here in Sparta. I plan to build a dome house (approximate location shown with white circle) as well as a large hanger/garage/barn right next to the house (shown with white rectangle). The house will only be about 1200 square feet but the hanger/garage will be pretty big. I'm thinking the garage building will be between 6,000 and 7,200 square feet with an inside height of 22 to 24 feet at its peak. I'm still getting bids for buildings and am still open to quonset style metal buildings as well as regular stick built/steel buildings.

The current problem I am having is finding qualified and timely dirt men. I thought I had some guys lined up over a month ago and they never showed despite numerous calls and promises that they would start work asap. Anyway, I gave up on them and am talking to a company out of Cookeville that is supposed to be fast and reliable. Hopefully they will give me a preliminary cost bid here in the next day or two so I can decide what to do. I am hoping to have them dig out the ponds, spread the dirt from the ponds around on the front of my property, and grade and prepare the driveway /runway that will run along the edge of the property. With that much work, I expect to pay a bunch to get it accomplished but need to get it done in order to proceed. I will probably have the garage built first and then move into the garage while I sell my house and then have the dome house built. I am hoping all of that can occur/happen over the next year. Keep checking back for progress (albeit it slow at times) on the housing plan.

Silver and Gold

The bible speaks about not putting up treasures here on earth (Mathew 6: 19-21) and even tells us to not worry about tomorrow too much (Matthew 6:25-34). Even with those warnings I think it is important to at least consider our responsibility to work and provide for our family and even for those who are less fortunate.

So, I try to set aside a bit each month so that when hard times come I will be somewhat prepared and at least financially won't be stressed and worried aobut making ends meet. Silver and gold have always been objects of desire for humans. I'm not sure why they have intrinsic value (I've heard because they are 1) attractive, 2) useful, and 3) require work/effort to achieve) but I have slowly purchased bits and pieces of each (gold and silver). One of my favorite objects (man made) are the US silver Eagle coins minted by the US mint. They were originally minted in 1986 and have been minted each year since. Many countries have similar 1 troy ounce coins (Canadian Maple Leafs, Australian Kookaburras, Mexican Libertads, and Chinese Pandas) and I have some of each in my silver stash at the bank. Here is the obverse and reverse of the beautifully designed American Silver Eagle.


My favorite gold coin is the Austrian Philharmonic. The coin includes symbols of musical instruments (violin, Cello, harp, horn, and others) on the reverse of the coin. I have several pieces to include Gold Maple Leafs from Canada, Gold Eagles and Buffalos from the USA, Gold Philharmonics from Austria and even a Gold Krugerrand from South Africa. Each of them are attractive in their own right but the Philharmonic and Buffalo stand out from the rest in my opinion. I have attached pictures of the Philharmonic and Buffalo for you to enjoy.