Category Archives: Whimsies

That’s a Wrap

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imagesThe pastor at the church with which we are affiliated in Denver doesn’t have much of a sense of humor, I’m afraid. He’s pretty important, at least within our archdiocese. He’s a monsignor, and told us Sunday that he had been appointed by Pope Francis to be some kind of muckity muck for our archdiocese during the pope’s Year of Mercy. But he doesn’t seem to laugh much. To his credit, when he does laugh, it’s usually at himself.

Nevertheless, he started his homily Sunday (on which we celebrated Christ’s ascension into heaven) by saying that Jesus could have shortened his remarks to the apostles prior to his ascending to heaven by simply saying, “And that’s a wrap.”

I’m not sure why, but that tickled me.

That’s a wrap. I’m all finished with everything. I successfully did all the stuff my Father asked me to do. I came; I saw; I conquered.

And it wouldn’t have been a wrap at all if he hadn’t ascended into heaven, because that, like the rest of his human life, is a model for our own lives. We are born. We live a good life. We die. And through the grace of God, we go to heaven. At the end of the day, just as Jesus, we are only here for a short time. And though we feel as though we are in control of the world, the world belongs to God, and we are only in the world, not of the world. We are really of God.

We flew home from Chicago on Saturday after spending a few days with Bill’s mom. We knew the weather in Colorado was going to be iffy, but the plane left on time and we kept our fingers crossed.

A few hours later, the pilot came on the intercom with words to this effect: Good afternoon. This is your pilot speaking. The good news is that we are only 80 miles away from Denver. The bad news is that the airport is socked in with a severe thunderstorm and DIA is closed until the storm passes. So we are going to fly around Colorado until it reopens or they send us elsewhere. It’s going to be bumpy, so suck it up.

Seriously?

I began my usual panic.

What if the plane runs out of fuel? What if we run into one of the other planes that is flying around Colorado awaiting the reopening of the airport? What if the turbulence is so strong that one of the wings falls off? Does this mean I’m going to miss watching the Kentucky Derby?

Poor Bill has his hands full.

But behind us was a mother traveling with three children. One was a babe in arms who slept through the entire thing. The other two were maybe early elementary school, and found the whole thing to be very exciting rather than scary. Oh, to be a child again.

At some point they began to entertain themselves by singing, in rounds, a song that they must have learned at church or maybe from a Christian school.

Praise be the Lord, we sing hallelujah. Praise be the Lord, we sing hallelujah. Praise be the Lord, we sing hallelujah.

That was it. There might have been other words, but those were the only ones they sang, over and over and over.

At first I thought, “Oh no. They’re going to drive me crazy because I’m already stressed.”

But suddenly I realized what they were saying, and I realized it was a prayer, whether they knew that or not. So I began singing it quietly to myself.

Praise be the Lord, we sing hallelujah.

We made it down safely. The plane had enough fuel. The wings remained firmly attached. I didn’t see a single other plane.  I missed the Kentucky Derby, but so what. We lived.

He is risen and is back with his Father awaiting all of us.

Praise be the Lord, we sing hallelujah.

This post linked to the GRAND Social

Saturday Smile: Tee Martoonies

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The retirement community in which Wilma resides might be somewhat unique in that it has a pub. The pub was added a few years ago during an extensive expansion, presumably to try to attract younger retirees. From the looks of it, that attempt has been unsuccessful to date. From what I can tell, the average age of residents seems to be in the neighborhood of 80.

Having said this, I will tell you that Smitty’s Pub seems to have acquired a loyal clientele. Around 4 o’clock in the afternoon, just before their regular dinner hour of 4:30 or 5, 10 folks or so gather in the pub for a drink. The men drink beer; the women seem to prefer white Zinfandel. They gossip and talk politics and catch up on who is in the hospital.

Since the pub is only open two hours a day, they don’t bother to hire bartenders. Instead, they pull whoever isn’t acting busy from the kitchen whether or not they know a thing about tending bar.

Last night Bill suggested we go to the pub for a drink. We entered the pub and saw a frightened-looking girl tending bar who was hoping like hell I would order white zin. I decided to be kind and not order a martini. Instead I ordered a gin and tonic. She can’t screw that up, right? An ounce or so of gin poured over some ice, topped off with tonic water and finished with a squeeze of lime. Easy peazy. And Bill ordered a Heineken.

She quickly poured Bill’s beer, and then began working on my gin and tonic. First she got out a martini glass. Then she got out a shaker. I was hoping she was making someone else’s drink. She poured a jigger of gin into the shaker and added a little tonic, closed it up and began shaking. She happily poured it into the martini glass and gave me my drink — gin and tonic, straight up!

Gin and tonic, ala Smitty’s Pub…….

image
Have a great weekend.

Friday Book Whimsy: The Nest

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searchA debut novel can be hit or miss. Gathering from the range of emotions generated by Amazon reviewers, The Nest, the debut novel by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney is a bit of both.

For the record, however, I liked the book very much.

The four Plumb siblings have counted on receiving the inheritance set up by their father to become theirs when the youngest turned 40. Mr. Plumb’s idea was to just leave his kids a bit of money to give them a boost at a time when they would most need it. He hadn’t counted on the mortgage market boom (and a wise money manager who reinvested the money just before the market plummeted) to turn the small inheritance into a sizable amount. But the Plumbs had certainly counted on it, and lived their lives accordingly. They weren’t worried, because they knew “the nest” would be coming to them soon.

And then one day, the eldest Plumb – Leo – makes an irresponsible decision that results in the need to use the nest to settle a lawsuit. The other siblings are furious and waiting for Leo to tell them how he is going to fix their problems.

The Plumbs are dysfunctional and selfish and BESIDE THEMSELVES with anger toward Leo. As it becomes apparent that Leo has not learned from his mistake, the tizzy into which they’ve worked themselves begins to flatten out, and the family begins to discover what is really important and the need for family and the importance of taking care of oneself.

The publishers describe the book as humorous, and I can’t quite concur with that assessment. While their dysfunction was somewhat comical, it didn’t generate anything in the way of laughs. But despite the characters’ dysfunction, I found them to be likable once they stopped feeling entitled.

I found The Nest to be a good enough read to make me look forward to the author’s next offering.

Here is a link to the book.

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Throw Back Thursday: Dusty Books

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Because we are in Chicago visiting Bill’s mother, I am giving you a TBT post from a year ago……

After publishing yesterday’s blog post, Bill and I got to talking about encyclopedias.

“Remember when people used to buy their encyclopedias from door-to-door salesmen?” Bill asked.

I certainly do. In fact, I would be willing to bet that the set of World Book Encyclopedias that lived on the bookshelf in our dining room in Columbus was purchased from just such a salesman by my mother. I wish I could ask her. (Kids, ask your parents questions NOW.) What I remember is that they were navy blue in color and were well-used. I’ll bet every one of the Gloor kids used our World Book Encyclopedia to do some sort of report for school. Each year Mom and Dad received a supplemental book that updated the facts based on what transpired the past year.

The original set looked like this…..

original world books

The annual updates looked like this…..

WorldBook

I wonder what happened to those encyclopedias. Likely, my mom (who was so NOT a hoarder) threw them away during one of their moves. Or they ended up in someone’s storage shed never again to be seen.

Thinking about our set of encyclopedias got me to recollecting just what else lived on that bookshelf and have subsequently been tossed.  Here’s a partial answer: Nancy Drew, girl detective; The Bobbsey Twins, boy and girl detectives; Trixie Belden, girl detective; and Cherry Ames, student nurse and detective. Is it any wonder that I am such a fan of mysteries to this day? Do any of those detectives ring a bell with other baby boomers?

Nancy DrewOf course, I’m sure many of you have heard of Nancy Drew. In fact, I’m pretty sure you can still purchase Nancy Drew mystery novels today; I think I’ve seen them at Costco. But just who was Cherry Ames?

She was the mystery-solving nurse who almost inspired my sister Bec to become a nurse (until she reached the post-Cherry-Ames-age-of-reason and realized she couldn’t stand the sight of blood and since most nurses don’t actually solve cherry ames setmurder mysteries, perhaps she should consider another occupation). What I remember about Cherry Ames is that she wore crisp white crackling nursing gowns and had a very cool nursing cap perched on top of her curly black hair. And when she went from “student nurse” to Cherry Ames“senior nurse” she got a black stripe. However, even envying that black stripe didn’t make me think I wanted to be a nurse. I throw up at the sight of throw-up.

And, by the way, why don’t nurses wear caps anymore?

I’ll bet many of you – even baby boomers – haven’t heard of the Bobbsey Twins. The Bobbsey Twins books we owned Bobbsey Twinswere very old and literally coming apart at the seams. Again, I wish I could ask my mom, but I can only think that she brought them with her into the marriage. We had the full set, after all. In fact, almost all of the books about which I’m writing were old and had broken spines. Was my mother a mystery fan? The Bobbsey Twins, by the way, were two sets of boy-and-girl twins –siblings —  who, if not exactly solving mysteries, were at the very least involved in interesting adventures.

As for Trixie Belden, my recollection is that those books were a bit newer……

trixie belden

I think I’m the only one in my family who read Trixie Belden, and man, did I ever love her life! She lived in upstate New York and her best friend was a pretty rich girl with honey-colored hair, who was appropriately called Honey. I think of my gal Trixie whenever I read about the Catskills or the Hudson Valley. Before meeting Trixie, I didn’t know there was anything in New York besides NYC.

I wish with all my heart that I had kept these books to share with my grandchildren. Addie read a few of the Nancy Drew books that had belonged to my niece Maggie, but I’m not sure she was as excited about them as I. Nancy’s spiffy roadster and all……

I regret the passing of books such as these until I remember the wonderful books kids are reading today. Harry Potter, for example.

Thursday Thoughts: Wednesday Edition

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Travelers is Not Just an Insurance Company
This week is sort of Upside Down Week because we are, for all intents and purposes, still traveling. We got home Sunday afternoon from Arizona, took Monday to say hello to our Denver grandkids, and left bright and early Tuesday morning for the airport to fly to Chicago. Bill’s mom will turn 99 this July, and so we take opportunities to spend time with her when our schedules allow. So you have my weekly THURSDAY THOUGHTS post on Wednesday so that I could do a throw-back on Thursday. You know – TBT. At any rate, we return to Denver on Saturday and get a few weeks here until we return for one more week to the desert so that Bill can finish his dental work. Phew.

Which Way to the Bathroom?
I have mentioned before that no matter which direction we’re going, it takes us a bit to remember where everything is at this particular house. I think that phenomenon is worse in Denver because the house is bigger. Even the toilet paper is on the other side in our toilet, so in the middle of the night, I tiredly fumble for the toilet tissue on one side when it is actually on the other. As for food and other kitchen items, it’s nearly a lost cause. I’ll be fine in a week or so.

Grandkidpalooza, Part 2
We had to fit a lot of grandkid-time into a day-and-a-half before we left again for Chicago. Dave and Jll and the kids, along with Allen, stopped by Sunday night for hugs and catch-up time. Monday I picked up Mylee from school. Kaiya had stayed home because of a cold. I took Mylee home and gave Cole – who will turns 2 today – his present. I bought him some swimming paraphernalia, some bathtub toys, and some age-appropriate Legos. Mylee was very happy that Cole was willing to share the Legos as Legos are about her favorite thing after Play Doh. Cole cried when I left, which makes me happy and sad all at the same time.

cole birthday 2

Creepy Facebook
When Bill and I go to Chicago, one of our MUST-DOES is a trip (or two) to Bill’s favorite pizza place – Fox’s Pizza. There are three or four of them around the south side of Chicago and its suburbs, but the one we go to since his mother moved to Orland Park is called Fox’s Pizza on Wolf Road. The other day, I opened up Facebook, began scrolling down, and came across an ad for Fox’s Pizza on Wolf Road. So, not only do “they” know that we are going to Chicago, “they” also know where we plan on eating. I try not to think about it too much. Apple (bless its heart) worked so hard to avoid having to allow the government access to telephones, when the fact of the matter is they all know where we are at all times anyway.

Ciao!

On the Road With the Griswolds

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Well, I’m a-standin’ on a corner in Winslow, Arizona
Such a fine sight to see.
It’s a girl, my Lord, in a flat-bed Ford
Slowin’ down to take a look at me.
Come on, baby, don’t say maybe.
I gotta know if your sweet love is gonna save me.
We may lose and we may win, though we will never be here again
So open up I’m climbin’ in, so take it easy. – The Eagles

After a big day of festivities with my family in Flagstaff, Bill and I took off early Sunday morning for the second leg of the trip. I’m pretty sure we are the only people who could stretch out a drive from Phoenix to Denver into three days. Hey! We’re retired and have time to take it easy.

And speaking of Take It Easy, since we weren’t in a particular hurry, we decided to actually visit some of the things that lie between Phoenix and Denver that we always say we’re going to visit but never actually do. This, despite the fact that we have driven past them in the neighborhood of 800 times.  And the reason I referred to Take It Easy is because one of those areas was Winslow, Arizona – such a fine sight to see. And one simply can’t visit Winslow without getting one’s picture taken beside its one and only tourist attraction – a statue of a man with a guitar standing on the corner of Winslow, Arizona.

My mother used to say that Holbrook, Arizona,  a bit east of Winslow on I-40, looks like a town that had been hit by a nuclear bomb. I think she was a bit harsh. I’ve eaten a number of road meals in Holbrook, and while it isn’t Aspen, it certainly isn’t post-Apocalyptic.

Instead, I believe Winslow, Arizona, holds that honor. Unless there is some part of town that isn’t visible to the casual traveler, it looks like Dodge City, Kansas, during the era of Gunsmoke (non-baby-boomers, look it up) but not that nice. Boarded up windows. KFC is the nicest restaurant in town. It is simply beyond me to know why Jackson Brown and Glenn Frey chose that particular town in which to be standing on the corner.

Nevertheless, one must await one’s turn to be photographed. The flowers are apparently in honor of Frey, who passed away this past January…..

kris standing on corner

It wasn’t the only tourist attraction we saw that day. Our first stop, in fact, not too kris lunar space modelfar out of Flagstaff, was to Meteor Crater – the location of an actual meteor impact some 50,000 years ago. Bill saw the crater site some time ago when he rode Route 66 on his motorcycle. He has been adamant that it is something I should see. I wasn’t particularly excited about it, but, as always, he was right.

The crater is one mile in diameter, and is actually quite astounding. There is a fairly new visitors’ center that provides all sorts of information about meteors. Meteor Crater in Arizona was used in preparation for the initial moon landing back in 1969. You remember: One small step for man; one giant leap for mankind – a quote that’s always bothered me because it sort of doesn’t make sense.  Anyhoo, here  some photos of Bill and I being tourists….

kris meteor crater

bill simulated meteorite

Our last stop in our so-called largest ball of twine tour of Arizona and New Mexico was to Glorieta Pass. Glorieta Pass was the location of a decisive battle in the Civil War in which the Confederate Army attempted to capture much of the Rocky Mountain west. Fortunately, the 1st Colorado Infantry stepped in, and, using a tricky maneuver that involved sneaking into the Confederates’ camp and stealing all of their food and killing all of their horses, managing to secure a defeat that ended in growling stomachs and sore feet from walking. To be perfectly honest, we were unable to find the historical marker honoring the battle, but at the end of the day, our car was sitting someplace very close to where the battle took place, and the Sangre de Cristo mountains are beautiful. It counted, my friends. It counted.

I am determined to not simply drive past some of these interesting historical markers in the future, as we will be undertaking an I-80 trip this summer. I-80 has more than its share of balls of twine.

When Did She Get So Smart?

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On Friday, Bill and I left our Mesa home for the first leg of our trip back to Denver for the summer and fall. We made it as far as Flagstaff — a mere two hours or so from Phoenix — before we dropped anchor. It was not an unexpected stop. We had planned to watch our niece Jessie show off her stuff as she and her team presented her Capstone project.

jessie and capstone team

Jessie and her Capstone team.

You see, this little bit of a young woman who probably weighs 95 pounds soaking wet and looks no older than 16, is set to walk across the stage of Northern Arizona  University and receive her diploma in Environmental Engineering in a couple of weeks.

Whaaaaat? It was only yesterday that I changed her diapers, wasn’t it? That’s the way time flies.

The truth of the matter is that if any of us had given it any thought, we would have figured out when she was 3 that she would take an unexpected path, namely choosing a career in a field where men still dominate. Of all of Mom’s granddaughters, Jessika Kristine (who I’m proud to say is named after me and wears it well) might be the most like Mom. Small, but mighty. Doesn’t take a lot of crap from others and can give it right back. Pretty as can be and funny as hell. Like Mom.

Many years ago, back when Jess was maybe in elementary school, she accompanied her three aunties on a hike on Superstition Mountain. Both she and her sister Kacy were in a hiking club and Jess wanted to show us her stuff. She led the way and Bec, Jen, and I followed her like good soldiers. We had been hiking for maybe 15 or 20 minutes, when she turned to us and said sternly, “Now don’t wait until you’re tired to tell me you want to turn around because that will be way too late.” I believe that might have been the same hike when, after having opened several cattle gates for us, she said, “You guys could take a turn on opening these gates, you know.”

Aye aye, Captain. Those words could have been coming from Mom’s own mouth.

So she, along with three fellow engineering graduates, got up in front of 40 or so people and made their presentation on the feasibility of using paper pulp with a polymer as a substitution for clay in a particular landfill near Flagstaff. See? What did I tell you? She’s really smart. The funny thing was that nearly a quarter of the audience consisted of Jessie’s family. Oh, there were some of her professors who asked questions and will give her a grade, but for the most part it was just us, who know almost nothing about well, all of those things I mentioned above (except for Bill, who actually understood the entire presentation,or at least says he did). But, despite the fact that we are not engineers, we do know how to love each other and provide support. It was all we could do to refrain from giving her a standing ovation at the conclusion of the presentation. She deserved it, but it might have been just a tad too much.

Here is a photo of our family following the presentation (minus two who needed to leave before the photo was shot)….

capstone audience jess 4.29.16

Being a Gloor, Jessie well understood the need to follow such an activity with a meal and something with which to toast her. We all trekked to downtown Flagstaff where we went to Bigfoot Barbecue, a restaurant with one of the oddest locations I’ve ever seen. It was in the basement of a building housing other restaurants, but in order to reach it, you had to go downstairs and then walk through a clothing store. But the BBQ was quite yummy.

The only problem with the barbecue restaurant was, well, no martinis. Bec and I were trying to figure out a way to work a martini into our day. Jess kept assuring us we were going to go to this really cool coffee place later, and she kept mentioning drinking a whiskey and chai. My brother suggested ordering a gin and chai, and asking them to “hold” the chai. As it turned out, that was unnecessary. I should have had more confidence in my very smart niece, who knows more than simply about landfills. The place was awesome. Yes, there was coffee (and apparently chai), but there was a very cool bar that offered martinis as part of their beverage choices. Crisis averted.

Here are a couple of pictures of the family enjoying the After Capstone Festivities….

Gloor clan jess capstone 4.29.16

L-R, Bec, Bill, Jessie, Kris, Sami, and Dave.

jess dave capstone 4.29.16

Jessie and her proud dad.

Now I just want to wait for the day that she walks into a room full of burly offshore oil riggers and tells them she’s their new boss. Holy smokes! I put my money on Jess.

This post linked to the GRAND Social

Saturday Smile: Boris Karloff?

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The other day, Bill was messing around with his old Ford Escape (which serves as our second car while in AZ). He rolled down all of the windows in order to be able to hear something he wanted to hear when the engine was running. When he attempted rolling the windows back up, one of them — the back passenger window — refused to budge. He spent a long time trying to fix it, but finally gave up. Well, being Bill, he didn’t give up altogether; he only gave up until he can get a new part. He proceeded to order said part.

“Tell Mark and Maggie that I am having the part sent to their house,” he instructed me. As you will recall, we are heading back to Denver; however, we will return for one week late in May so that Bill can finish up his dental work here. And apparently fix his car.

I asked him the name of the company from which the part would come.

“Discount Auto Body Parts,” he told me.

Here is what my text said….Bill ordered something from Discount Body Parts. He had it sent to your house. Hope that’s okay.

It wasn’t until later that I noticed what my text said. The funny thing is, neither Mark nor Maggie said a word. Apparently Bill’s hobbies are so random and unpredictable that it didn’t surprise them a bit that he was busily re-creating Frankenstein’s monster in our back yard. Or maybe fiddling with organ transplants. You never know with Bill McLain.

bill in mask 2015 - Copy

Have a great weekend.

Thursday Thoughts

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Family Ties
Yesterday’s post about my parents generated quite a few comments, especially from some of my cousins. They spoke highly of my parents and indicated they were role models to them as they grew up. It pleased me to no end to read their comments, but I wasn’t surprised. For one thing, since my mother was the youngest of very many children, some of her nieces and nephews were actually the same age – or close to it – of my parents. And while I have talked about what good parents they were, I haven’t really mentioned how much fun they would be as friends. They loved to gather as family and they always had a good time. Lots of food. Lots of beer. Lots of laughing. I hope that someday when my nieces and nephews are asked about their old Aunt Kris, they will speak as highly of me as do my parents’ nieces and nephews. And their kids will say, “Really? Crabby Aunt Kris used to be fun?”

Dirty Knees
12654409_10207398882149154_4459618242284937385_nAnd speaking of nephews, my great-nephew Austin made me laugh Tuesday night. Bill and I stopped by to watch a little bit of his baseball game because it was close to our house. He is 5, and whatever league he’s in (pee wee? Little League?) gives each child so many swings before they’re called out. It’s more than three, but fewer than 10. I wasn’t counting. At any rate, after four or five swings, Austin got a hit. A nice one that went straight down the middle of the field into the outfield. Now, if you’ve ever watched 5-year-olds play baseball, you know that if the ball makes it even a foot past second base, it theoretically could be a home run for all of the fielding the little ones are able to do. In this league, the player can only run one base. So off Austin went, towards first base. He made it too, of course, and in grand style. Because even though the ball was on the other side of the field while three or four of the kids were trying to pick it up, Austin did a perfect SLIDE INTO FIRST BASE. It’s all about getting your baseball pants dirty. Ask the big leaguers.

Pinterest and Me
If you peruse Pinterest, you know that every day Pinterest sends you “pins” in which it thinks you might be interested. Particularly, when you “pin” something, Pinterest then begins sending you pin after pin after pin related to whatever you originally pinned. If I pin a recipe for pot roast, I understand why Pinterest begins suggesting a variety of pot roast recipes. But I never fail to be amused at the items that Pinterest decides I like. For example, for reasons I can’t quite understand, Pinterest has decided that I like coconut cream pie, and as such, posts every recipe known to man for coconut cream pie. I, in fact, don’t like coconut cream pie. I recently started a folder in which I put low fiber food recipes since I am now limiting the amount of fiber I eat to attempt to prevent bowel obstructions. Pinterest has decided that I am interested in health food, and every day I wake up to find pins on vegetable smoothies and paleo meals and organic gardening. They encourage me to eat Brussel sprouts in every way imaginable, and particularly seem to be promoting blueberry anything. Nothing low fiber, I might add, since they undoubtedly think no one in their right mind would eat low fiber. They might be right.

Goodbye Arizona
We are mostly packed up and will leave for Denver tomorrow. First stop, Flagstaff, where we will watch our niece Jessie present her Capstone project, the last stop before graduation. We will leave Saturday morning for Denver and Rocky Mountain high snow….

Ciao!

Humble and Kind

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Hold the door, say please, say thank you/Don’t steal, don’t cheat, and don’t lie/I know you got mountains to climb but always stay humble and kind/When the dreams you’re dreamin’ come to you/When the work you put in is realized/Let yourself feel the pride but always stay humble and kind. – Sung by Tim McGraw, lyrics by Lori McKenna

Humble and Kind, a song off of country artist Tim McGraw’s newest album Damn Country Music, has been playing regularly on the country music station I prefer when I’m listening to the radio in my car. I want to say two things about this song: First, I literally can’t listen to the song without crying despite the fact that it isn’t a sad song; and second, every time I listen to it – EVERY SINGLE TIME – I think of my mom and dad.

Yesterday was Dad’s birthday. He would have been 90 years old. It was, by the way, also Shakespeare’s birthday (he would have been 452) and one of my good friends, Lynne Scates’ birthday (whose age, even if I knew it, would remain a secret. Suffice it to say, considerably less than 452.)

So yesterday morning, Jen sent me a text. Happy birthday to our dad today. I’ve been thinking about him all month. Send me a favorite memory or thought about Dad today. Mine is riding our bikes out to the cabin once or twice every summer.

ReinieI, of course, have lots of good memories of Dad, but my favorite will always be the one about which I have spoken here on this blog before – when I took baby Kaiya to visit him and despite the fact that she ALWAYS cried when others held her, she sat quietly on his lap staring intently at him while he whispered to her. I can’t even write those words without crying.

Anyway, back to Humble and Kind. Mom and Dad taught us lots of things. Mom taught us to cook. Dad taught Dave to bake. They taught us all to love family and football and good food and God, and demonstrated to us the importance of hard work.

But man, if I didn’t remember anything else that mom and dad taught us, I would not forget how they stressed us to be humble and kind.

You’re no better than anyone else, I remember my mother telling me any time she felt that I was getting a little too big for my britches. But she always added, And nobody else is better than you. Her point? We are all equal in the eyes of God.

Their rules were simple. Don’t steal, don’t cheat, and don’t lie. Just like the words of the song.

Here’s how Jen ended her text: We are the only four people on earth that had him for a dad. That was a blessing.

Indeed.

I would love reactions to this song, and any memories any of you might have of Mom and Dad. I know they read this blog and it would be a great birthday gift to Dad!

Here is Tim McGraw’s performance of the song. And I don’t feel so bad because Tim McGraw said he cried during every take.