A Touch of Color

Fall is here. The trees are beginning to put on their colors and the weather is getting cooler.

IN MEMORY. We made a quick, unexpected trip to Brandon, Mississippi, to celebrate the life of Darice's dad, Jerry Bowles, who passed away a week ago Sunday (the 5th).

We had known for a while that Jerry had been battling cancer, but he had recently been given 9-12 months to live. Upon learning this he decided to move to Athens to be close to Darice. Little did anyone suspect that he only had two weeks after the move.

I had met Jerry on a couple of occasions, most recently at Cameron's graduation. He really impressed me as someone who would go above and beyond to do something good for others. For example, back in May Jerry made it a special point to speak to each of the graduates even though he didn’t know any of them. It was a small group so this was easily done, but he took the time to do it.

I never knew Jerry when he had legs. Back in January 2000 Jerry happened upon an accident on the interstate where a man have been ejected from his vehicle after a tire blew out and was lying in the highway. He pulled over to help (not knowing the man was already dead) and was struck by a car as he was trying to get a flashlight out of his trunk. He woke up four weeks later having lost both legs at the knee and lucky to be alive. His attitude about this curve life threw his way was phenomenal.

Jerry always impressed me with his positive outlook and a business card he’d had printed up that we spotted on a table with pictures really sums that up. It read:

Part-Time Volunteer
FULL-TIME
Loyal friend, shoulder to lean on
Listener offering a little help now and then
Christian encouraging independence through love.
Jerry Bowles
One who believes life is worth living.

Darice, your dad was, no is, quite a fellow. I wish I’d had more of a chance to know him.

HARD OF HEARING. If you’ve ever been around someone who is hard of hearing then you know things can easily get comical when the person continually misunderstands what is being said.

Apple’s Siri is remarkable technology--making you phone a voice activated personal assistant--but I think “she” is hard of hearing. Vicki likes to use Siri more than I do so I got to see her in action more than normal on our trip to Mississippi and boy did she make us laugh. Sometimes Vicki would ask Siri to look something up on the Internet and she’s get the search request so wrong it was just hilarious. For example, we had stopped in Jackson, Tennessee, for supper and Vicki asked Siri if there was a Whataburger nearby. Siri responded that she didn’t know what that meant and added, “If you’d like, I can search the web for ‘Angry sex bees Quiznos Whataburger.”

To be fair, I think I was reading a list of nearby restaurants from my phone when Vicki asked Siri about a Whataburger (and I think “angry sex bees” was a misunderstanding of “Arby’s, Zaxby’s”), but she (he on Vicki’s phone) made us all laugh.

DID YOU WASH BEHIND YOUR EARS? Our equivalent of that question to the boys at bedtime is “Have you bruised you teeth?”

Vicki asked Ben about this the other night and he said he had. She wasn’t convinced so she pressed the point, several times. Each time Ben said he had until finally Vicki played the “lightning will strike” card. Again, Ben said he had brushed his teeth but this time thunder rumbled outside. Then he said something about kidding and headed off to the bathroom.

THINGS YOUR DENTIST SHOULDN’T HUM. Vicki had a dental appointment the other day and came back laughing at something that happened. Our dentist plays a light rock radio station in his office and as he was working on Vicki’s teeth he was absentmindedly humming along with the music. The song just so happened to be Exile’s 1978 hit “Kiss You All Over.” We are now getting a lot of milage out of picking out songs you wouldn’t want your dentist humming to you when you’re in the chair.

JAMBOREE. I’m backing up a couple of weekends for this last story. Every four years the Middle Tennessee Council has a jamboree. The boys and I went with the troop and had a great time. We estimate there were over 5000 people camping out and several thousand more came just for the day on Saturday (the 4th).

There was a lot to see and do on Saturday. The National guard had an impressive display of tanks, Humvees, and other equipment which included a mobile air traffic control center. There were also a lot of activities for the boy including a bridge building contest, archery, human battleship, and tug-of-war. The evening featured a show and concert starring the Mann Sisters, a duo of twin sisters from Florida.

The only bad thing about the weekend was the unusually cold weather when it had been perfect the whole week before. The highs and lows dipped a good 20° just for us and it got windy. We woke up to a light frost Sunday morning. To add insult to injury no one was allowed to have a campfire due to insurance regulations.

Joe