Friday, September 23, 2016

Ranting & Raving

It's been some time since my last rant and rave, so I thought I'd do one tonight with the blog.  This is just me talking about stuff and some are just one sentence, some more in depth.  I don't expect everyone else to feel the same way, and while I may not feel the same way about some subjects as others, I hope it doesn't lose my readers on here.

Hey, I made a custom photo for this post.  It didn't take much.


So you may have noticed I haven't wrote much this month.  Part of the reason is because September isn't a great month for me.  This September hit me harder than most.  It has been 10 years since my dad passed away and it really has gotten me sad.  It makes me think about what I've done since then, and how things would have been different if he was still around.  Then I flip through the radio stations (and yes, I still listen to FM radio, I can't get into streaming radio), and Green Day's Wake Me Up When September Ends comes on and makes me sadder.  I remember working the night before and my uncle actually came to pick me up from work and that's when I knew something was up.  My dad was in and out of the hospital, but this time was different.  As we tried to sleep through the night at the hospital, in the morning, we got to see my dad one last time.  It was sad to say goodbye, and even harder talking about it now.  A few minutes later he was gone, and nothing else mattered.  I don't remember much else about that day other than calling work a short time later telling them I wouldn't be in.  I also remember I was just hired at a Walmart in Columbia and was set for orientation that week, but I stopped by to tell them I wouldn't be in, and I was going to pass on the job.  The rest of the week was a blur.

What made it worse that month was exactly two months earlier getting an email from a pastor's wife telling me that a good friend I had met at church camp had passed away.  This women that passed was a very nice woman and even though I only met her once, something about her just made me think of positives in life.  If I remember correctly, she was the pastor's sister, and was diagnosed with some sort of cancer, possibly breast cancer, and I thought she had beaten it, but it came back.  It was very aggressive, and within a couple months she was gone.  I still have an email she wrote me after the only time we met, and I still read it from time to time.

Those two reasons alone make me not much of a fan of September, or Fall in general, but it was weighing on my mind a lot this month.  I don't have a picture of my friend that passed, but I have plenty of my dad.  However, I decided to post a picture of some awards and trophies he won in his later years doing what he loved- garden tractor pulling.



As I was trying to find some pictures, I came across another picture that is somewhat timely as well.  Just this week I heard that the Isle of Capri casinos had been bought.  I don't go to casinos, but there is one in the next town over, and even though I would like them to add a movie theater and have more concerts or events, I think it does well.  Anyways, I hope the new owners don't change it too much.


Before the boat came in, this is a photo of the land where the casino currently sets.  In the background is the Katy bridge, which, don't get me started on, is still there.  This land though used to be a lot rougher, and I think at the time this was taken by my dad, it was when they built a new bridge to replace the terrible 70 year old narrow bridge over the Missouri River.  My dad took video of the implosion of that old bridge and I need to find it so I can post it some time.  I think I get my passion of videos and photos from him.  I would love to see how many great shots he's take with digital cameras, as this photo and most of his others were still shot on 35mm cameras or disposable ones.

So far not much ranting, so I might as well dive in there.  Sometimes I take a break from news.  Not because  I don't care, but I think if we get too involved with every story, it waters down opinions on every thing else.  At any rate sometimes you can't just skip stories because you don't like hearing about it, but sometimes you can bypass most the coverage to get just the essentials. I haven't been too invested in the Tulsa shooting this week or the riots in Charlotte, but then I heard something that made my ears perk up a bit.  I was listening to talk radio and they mentioned the shooting that started it all in Charlotte happened and a really nice hotel near or in downtown.  This caught my attention because I visited Charlotte once and I actually stayed at a Hilton downtown, so I had to check it out on Google Maps.  I quickly found out it wasn't at the Hilton, but it did happen at a hotel two blocks away.  The protesting and rioting was happening on the same streets I walked a decade ago.  Since I don't know many of the details, I'll refrain from commenting on that aspect, but I will say I hope everything gets better in Charlotte and everywhere.  I would like to visit Charlotte again some day, but I don't think I will anytime soon.  Not because of this, but this doesn't help.  I have a few other places I'd like to visit first.


This photo is just a random photo, I like to post on occasion.  I was preparing a speech for a FHA/HERO (now called FCCLA) regional meeting when I was the recreational leader.  Maybe this was when I was running for a Region 13 State Presidential candidate.  I ended up losing but I'm not bitter about it.

I have two more pictures to post, they are from a website I had that I just shut down last week.  It was a site dedicated to Mizzou, but it wasn't updated in two years, so I took what I wanted off the site and deleted it.  I was using the Weebly website for a few pages, but I shut them all down because I had no use for them.  If I want to make more sites I'll use Blogger or another site.  Here is what I wanted to show though.


I used this as the header for the page, which I thought was good at the time, but the players look too stretched now.  I posted game pictures and some other stuff on the page but it never too off.  I planned to write commentaries of the games and such, but only wrote about the 2012 Spring game and the players drafted into the 2012 draft.  It sat dormant for a couple years before I tried to bring it back later, but it didn't get far.  A couple months later, I started this blog.


Here is another image I used on the site.  I like it still, but I think I could have done better.   It was one of many ideas I've had that I never followed through on.  Oh well.  It was fun while it lasted.

So I guess not much ranting on this one, but I thought it would still be fun to show off something.  I really hope to go back to regular posting soon, but I have to get in the mood, and I need to find stuff I haven't posted yet.  I almost showed off stuff I just showed a couple weeks ago.  At least I know I have more stuff to show and will be showing it soon.  It's late and with that I guess I'll wrap it up.  Sorry if it was confusing to read, I was sidetracked the last 3 hours watching TV so it took forever to post.  At any rate, thanks for reading and have a good night.

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