This e-mail came in from Carol…
I took this picture on Tybee not far from the war chest. If you connect the sparkling dots it looks like dad.
This was my e-mail back…
I connected the dots. See attached…
(Based on this one from the sunset beach photo set.)
For several years, I’ve watched a rotating photo appear on Mac5 in the upper right corner. It was Dad waving as he floated away on a Perdido canal. I always thought it would be a nice way to remember him… and so it is.
Waves and ripples.
[Jeb’s Witness at DJC Sr Funeral the day after Easter 3-24-2008.]
Thank you all for coming today. Your presence here, at the Rosary, and over the past Easter weekend have meant so much to my Mom and our family.
My father always enjoyed a Richard Lopez sermon—short and to the point. In that spirit, I cut this in half.
My Dad did not raise me to correct a priest, so Father Paul, this isn’t a correction so much as a question. Father Paul told us all that we do not have to worry about my father making it to heaven. My brothers and sister were talking about that earlier, and I’m not saying we’re worried. There’s just a question.
It’s now 12:08. Exactly seventy-two hours ago, my brother and I were on the golf course with my Dad. He was handily out-driving, out-chipping, and out-putting both of us on a beautiful Good Friday. I tell you that because my brothers and sister are not sure that 72 hours is enough time for Dad to finish comparing notes with St. Peter at the pearly gates. If not, he’ll be in heaven soon enough.
It felt a little like homecoming weekend with Gramalie and Grandad returning to Tucker, Danny up for the weekend, and Nicole in for the day Saturday. And in a complex exchange, a hitch-hiking frog will travel from Florida to Georgia to Alabama.
Nicole, Kathy, and I went to watch Claire play soccer Saturday morning while Danny and Kelly slept in. Unfortunately Claire’s asthma kicked in early after several sprints up and down the field, so it was a short game for her.
Kathy and Nicole dressed up and headed out to cousin Andrew’s wedding shower. Danny and I converged over at Gramalie and Grandad’s with Ted to welcome them home and get their computing equipment updated. I brought the Flower Power iMac that Fionna passed down to Grandad. I had performed a brain transplant (hard disk) from the Blue iMac with a bad power supply. Ted brought over a memory upgrade for Mom’s laptop. And we all took a look at the HP desktop that Patsy sold them. It will be good to get Dad’s documents all migrated over to a “this century” computer. For example, he’ll go from a full 10 Gig hard disk to a spacious 250 Gig drive. He likes the “TV” on the HP, which is what he calls the flat panel monitor.
Ted copied all of the original FOPAB editions that he had scanned into PDFs onto Mom’s laptop. Dad spent some time opening those and reading them, which he thought was amazing.
I showed him the “history” files that I was loading into MediaWiki (like Wikipedia), and he read a few of those.
Saturday night, the six Stonegaters had a nice dinner together, and then played a round of Apples-To-Apples. Danny reported this was one of the more even rounds we had ever played, everyone getting a good share of wins. Once again I won overall (not sure why), so the group focused on who could come in second. Kelly took second place with much delight.
Nicole headed back home Saturday night, so she was unable to join us for a big breakfast at Killian Hall put on by the Knights of Columbus Sunday morning. We then headed over for church. We were asked to bring up the gifts… probably because we were all dressed up pretty nice, although I was out parking the car when we were selected. Beautiful sunny day and a fine homecoming weekend.
About the frog… Gramalie discovered a white tree frog hiding in a potted plant she brought up from Florida. Danny and I took the plant and frog home to figure out what to do with it. The frog had stayed crouched in the dirt all the way up from Florida to Tucker. But as soon as Danny stepped into our garage, he jumped out, through the VW’s open wheels, and climbed up to hide on the rear axle. Stout was very excited about all of this. Danny finally caught the frog. We put him in a plastic container, and Danny will take him down to Mobile where the weather is more Florida like. Gramalie has a picture of the frog. Perhaps she will post.
Kelly and Claire have about 20 different videos in various stages of production. They finished one up a couple of weekends ago and named it Miss America 2008. They asked me to upload it to YouTube. I do not necessarily recommend this video for adults… or future employers… but something funny happened.
I uploaded the video on Saturday night. I had to travel and left midday Sunday. I got an e-mail from Claire that their video had already been viewed 200 times and the count was climbing fast. (Many of their videos have only been viewed 30 or 40 times.) I just checked and, they have passed 2,500 views. It turns out that same Saturday night (none of us realized it) the Miss America 2008 pageant was broadcast. Guess what phrase has been getting searches on YouTube?
If you are a kid, tolerant adult, and not a future employer of my daughters, take a look: Miss America 2008. I do recommend Backwards Girl and the Cow Puzzle.
From the creators of PiZZaZZ ShortZ films… a video puzzle created on the new family iMac featuring a famous cow painting under X-Ray. Turn up the sound…
Cleaning out the armoire to make room from the new iMac. Found this photo tucked away in an envelope. Scanned it and put it in iPhoto. Now safely stored on 3 different hard drives.
Danny called Wednesday morning with bad news. Instead of being underway home for Thanksgiving, he had just been in an accident. Looking to buy gas for the trip, he crossed under a bridge between two access roads. Trying to see the gas price just ahead, he did not see the red light. He entered the intersection as an SUV came from the left. Both drivers veered to avoid each other, but the back wheel well of the SUV grabbed the front bumper, ripped it off, and spun Danny to the right.
The SUV was going about 40 mph and fortunately Danny, having just turned from a previous red light was only going about 20 mph. Any faster, and Danny could have been broadsided on the drivers side. So for that we’re thankful.
After managing a police report, dealing with the insurance company, and getting the Jeep towed, Danny hopped on a Greyhound bus. Nicole came in from Athens later that evening, so all of the family piled into the van and drove down to the airport (also a busport) and picked Danny up about 11:30 pm.
As we turned in about 12:30 a.m., I said to Kathy, “It’s good to have all the kids back in the nest.”
Archive still shot:
Kathy has joined the Keller Williams real estate team. She has risen to the top of her class and already has two listings. She is working hard but enjoying it. Jeb built her a website at www.fiveforksliving.com and helped her advertise on craigslist.
Danny went off for his junior year at Spring Hill College, departing in the Jeep Cherokee. He will be playing baseball and studying between pitches. He earned a good chunk of money over the summer guarding a pool that seemed to have no one at it more often than not.
Nicole is considering some changes – perhaps Peace Corps – perhaps teaching – perhaps both. Her car continues to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. (Dings, flats, busted radiator.) She and Carr (the drummer boy) drove in from Athens recently and cooked all of us dinner. It was a lot of fun, delicious, and Kathy enjoyed not having to worry about dinner for a night.
Kelly has started off her 10th grade year well including a good solid start for cross country. She is battling for a position on the Varsity. With her determination, I think she will make it. She and her film partner, Claire, have been making videos. We have posted two on YouTube that are quite entertaining. (See mac.fiveforks.com to view them.)
Claire has started off 7th grade working furiously to maintain her all A streak. She is already talking about getting into Notre Dame. She has long term plans. Claire continues to play soccer and is learning to deal with having to run fields that are now twice as large as last year. (Huff… puff.)
Jeb continues to help market the new combined company, Harland Clarke. They have a new logo, which is fun.
We were all saddened by Uncle Edward’s passing. We will all miss FOPAB’s first son and master historian.
Uncle Edward memories by Jeb:
Oldest:
I have a letter from Uncle Edward that he wrote me when I was born. I recently found it in my baby book, read it again, and scanned it. It is typed on the front and back of one page of onion skin paper. I have read it several times through my life.
Middle:
Helping illustrate and typeset (I owned a Mac) Uncle Edward’s self-published book, General Sherman’s Girlfriend, was a lot of fun and a great learning experience. I guess he managed to sneak me into the Library of Congress.
Last:
I was very honored to be in Uncle Edward’s company in this year’s B.S.R.C. golf tournament. His come-from-behind victory, beating his younger brothers and much younger nephews (and Uncle Jack!) was grander than anything Tiger Woods has ever done. He won with style and grace.
Two celebrations for Kelly’s 15th included a group of friends over at the house that included several girls with August birthdays. It was very loud and based on the few photos we got, a lot of fun.
A less quiet (but still noisy) celebration tonight included a trip out to Kelly’s favorite restaurant. See the Gallery.
