A TROUBLED TEAM...OR... A TROUBLESOME TEAM!!!!

MY GRANDSON ASHTON AND MY GRAND DAUGHTER ZARA!!! SHE ABSOLUTELY ADORES HER COUSIN, AND HE ABSOLUTELY ADORES HIS LAPTOP COMPUTER. WHEN SHE COMES TO NANNA AND PAW PAW'S HOUSE, SHE FOLLOWS ASH EVERYWHERE!!!

Getting old ain't for the weak.....

The above photo is of me and it is recent. I never thought I would live this long. I have done many things in my life which could only be called STUPID! I am paying for my past errant behavior by being in a constant state of pain. However, the sheer joy I experience by being in contact with my grand children seems to be what God has placed in my path to help me forget how bad I hurt all the time. 

An incomprehensible problem!!!

My buddy Jerry Pletcher and I discussed adding storm shelters to his various properties this afternoon. I suggested that he could use some shipping containers he already had and modify them to be used in case of tornadoes. All he would have to do is put them into a low area, add some heavy rip rap over them, shoot some gunnite aka concrete into the rip rap, cover with dirt.... You get the idea. Jerry has a lot of different properties, all open to the public. Last year, when Fun Valley Campground was opened, the very day it opened, we had tornadoes that night. I have this big mountain between our house and the direction most tornadoes travel from. However, I will be figuring on putting in our own shelter.

My Grandson's Imagination!!!

My grandson Ashton has a vivid imagination. I know that almost all children do, but he comes up with some of the most off the wall ideas. There are basically two routs to get home from his school. We can go thru town and across the railroad tracks, or we can go thru the country and across the railroad tracks. He has a place on the country route that he calls Ashton's swamp. I asked him if it had dinosaurs in it, he told me that it does have dinosaurs and that we needed to be careful driving thru Ashton's swamp. After you finish Ashton's swamp, you then are in Aurora's forest, and then Cheyenne's town. I could not live right now without my grand children. I have nineteen grand children and two great grand children. I am truly blessed.

We are in another drought!!!!

The above photo is from a few years ago. It is of Turner Falls during a flood stage at the falls. Right now, more water goes down the drain of our kitchen sink than runs over those falls. We desperately need some rain. I do not like it when the falls are in flood stage, and I do not like it when they are not doing anything but a trickle. Will Rogers once said, if a person does not like the weather in Oklahoma, just hang around for a few days and it will change. 

I AM OLDER THAN DIRT!!!

I have had several people refer to me as being old. Well, yes, I am. Here I am with my good friend Abe Lincoln. He is older. Hey, believe me, if it is on the internet it has to be true!!!

My grand parents on my mother's side.

This is my grand father, Virgil Lance. He began the process of teaching me how to play guitar when I was five. His only requirement was that I had to use his gift to praise the Lord. I have failed miserably.

This is my grand mother, Arty Mae (Shockley) Lance. She was the closest thing to a perfect human that I have ever met. She absolutely was the sweetest person I have ever met. She had the countenance of a baby.

I miss my grand parents terribly. I am tearing up as I write this. I am an old man now, in bad health, crippled with many instances of blunt trauma to my body. I only hope I can be as good a Paw Paw as my grand father was to me.