Thank you

Well, it's back to the "old grind". Thanksgiving break is over and we're all back at our various jobs and performing our various obligations and displaying various attitudes and various emotions about said duties and schedules. It simply can't be helped.

The weather was trying its best to upstage the Thanksgiving Holiday last week. When we left mid-morning from here in north east Kansas, the sky was wet and very foggy. Temperatures burrowed down in the mid thirties. When we stepped out of the car in central Oklahoma, the temperature had rocketed to a record breaking high of 80 degrees! We were dressed for thirty degree weather in pants, sweaters, etc. Overnight the temperature plunged back down enough so that rain formed into icicles on the trees and roof edge.

My sis is the premiere host and went to great lengths to provide comfort and welcome to all of us, her guests. My family was privileged to stay in her son Tuker's room (thank you Tuk!). Jack slept in the top bunk of the bunk bed with me and thought that was the carnival worker's tattoo! (An awkward idiom, I know, but was trying to find a modern equivalent of the expression: "the cat's meow). He and Tuk played and played with Tuk's toys (again, thanks Tuk!) and they even let Leo pal around with them most of the time, which Leo thought was the barbers' scissors! (again, a failed attempt at renewing/ rejuvenating the idiom "the cat's meow")

Macy schooled me in basketball. A 35 year old man; reasonably in shape, moderately athletic; "taken to town" by a 12 year old girl. Pathetic. This is a visual representation of what I felt like.

Kali, the younger sister, teamed up with Macy to "hand out the beat downs" on the ole' half court to the rest of the cousins and uncles who dared entered their "pain school". Notice, none of the aunts signed off on a shipment of hurt and humiliation, just cousins and their spouses.

Of course there was food. Oh, the food. Like our own private Sirloin Stockade of culinary delights. Smoked turkey and smoked brisket; salads and beans and desserts oh my! Snacks and drinks and goodies, too.

I interacted (i.e. joked and ate) with all the usual suspects. They made the lengthy trip down from Kansas. I know we were all glad to be together, and my sis was glad they were able to make it. I was leading a game of Phase 10, when we took what came to be a permanent break. We played Apples to Apples, a fun, easy game. All in all, a wonderful fulfilling Holiday which makes us thankful for all we have.

Dusty has built himself something to be very proud of. His house was beautiful and functional, two of my favorite things. I like the wide open spaces he's designed into it, and the outdoorsy theme complemented it well. The 1st floor  affords a magnificent view overlooking the south pasture which falls away from the house, and the surrounding lay of the land. I'm told Dusty completed 90 percent of the work and he did a great job. The two of them together, Clarie and Dusty, work very hard and they are two intelligent, motivated individuals capable of accomplishing whatever they want. They've got a great family. They are giving and modest. I'm proud of them. They are my family.

Eager anticipation

Thanksgiving is less than one week away! My family is excited to be invited to my sister's in Oklahoma. We plan to stay a couple days and we're looking forward to some holiday memory making! I might even dig around in my closet to find some "seasonal apparel" like this one:

That would be stylish, I know, but I don't know if I can pull it off as well as this guy does. 

After a little bit of thinking, we've decided to go ahead and remove Jack from the Baldwin City Children's Choir. We decided it was just a little advanced for him and he clearly had grown to dislike it. We've noticed he already has made up his mind that he won't try another one. We hope he'll overcome this aversion and in the future be able to join in a choir a little more suited to his age. We can't forget that Jack had about two months or so of attending these meetings and rehearsals, so that's a good experience in and of itself. In a three year old's perspective, two months of weekly rehearsals is a long time!

Wasn't I just more than a little annoyed when I went to drain the tub this morning after my bath (yes, I still have yet to install everything necessary for the use of the shower, so sue me!) and it drained very slowly. Not only that it didn't sound the same. Instead of the familiar gurgle I've grown accustomed to hearing from the four inch vent pipe in the corner, I heard the toilet bubbling. The bath drain was venting up through the toilet. I don't know exactly what that means except my plumbing is not "breathing" correctly. This caused no small amount of frustration on my part, case in point this generic "expression of frustration" I found on google images:

We've experienced this problem before in the past and it required us to have the plumber come out and run the "snake" (sorry mom, it's this thing the plumber is using)

not one of these you can see by clicking on these words.
I expect we'll have to pay to have this done yet again. It's nearly a semi annual event. I guess I thought it would improve once I re-plumbed the bathroom, but I guess I should have known it's further out where the tree roots grow that's causing it.


Tomorrow I'm driving to Overland Park to attend the KanBikeWalk annual meeting and participate in the pre-meeting ride with "other interested individuals". I've not much idea what to expect. I hope to have an enjoyable ride with like-minded individuals, learn something from the meeting, hopefully I'll get to network a little bit with people in the industry. I'm interested in being an advocate for cycling. I think it's a good thing for the U.S. because of the health benefits, for one. If you haven't noticed the U.S. has alot of "trunk space", i.e.:

I'd like to see more education for vehicle drivers and cyclists alike apprising each group of the rights and responsibilities of sharing the road with bikes. I also like the idea of creating a nationwide network of bicycle routes. There's more, but I don't need to go political on anyone here. I try not to make riding my bike political, but rather just make it about enjoying the experience and making it safe so I won't get ran over!
 Anyway it should be a good experience I'm looking forward to.

The boys are both good and are a joy to be around. Leo is really finding his personality. I can't wait for him to play with his cousins down there in Ok. Jack is doing better sleeping all night in his own bed. He's taken to waking several times in the night and having me tuck him back in until I get up for the day when he moves into my spot in our bed. I think he just doesn't know when morning is and when I get up and he just comes in to see if I'm out of bed yet so he can take my spot. We're working on it and we'll get it worked out.

I hope everything with you is well and we pray blessings on all of you our friends and all our enemies as well.

I stayed pretty well busy this weekend, which is both good and bad news for Mare. The good news being that I wasn't there getting in her hair and adding to the mess and getting the boys into trouble. The bad news was that I wasn't there to give her a break from the boys and she had to field all their problems on her own.

Friday night I did my two speaking roles in the high school's musical production of  Little Shop of Horrors. Talk about a great musical, this one is it. There are so many good songs in it. That gal in the movie version who plays Audrey opposite Rick Moranis as Seymour gets me all choked up with their duet of "Suddenly Seymour". I left when my roles were over and went home to watch The Hurt Locker with Mare. It was pretty good. It didn't have much  memorable dialogue. I think it tried to have some memorable dialogue, but I don't remember any of it.

As far as war movies go, I know Hollywood succeeds in glamorizing war, even among their attempts at making it look terrible. I've never been to war. I'm glad for it. I've read some accounts of people who have and who have had time to think about some of the things they were commanded to do. Our armed forces are full of people. People are flawed. Innocent people get hurt and killed in war. Soldiers don't always limit their combative actions to other soldiers. Sometimes innocent people are recruited to get involved in war. Innocent children die in war and it's horrible to live with.

My old friend from high school, Matt Stange stopped by on Friday night right in the middle of the movie, along with his big brother Scott Barnhart. We were expecting him. Matt lives in Colorado now, out in Crested Butte. Scott had picked him up from the airport in K.C. and they'd attended the K.U. game in Lawrence before stopping by the house. Matt looks like he's from Colorado: he's got long hair and looks "rugged". Scott looked about the same and they're two birds of a feather. They didn't stay long, but we had a few laughs and then they went on.

I spent Saturday morning judging debate. Went home and ate lunch. Then, went to play practice for It's a Wonderful Life. Went home and ate supper. Then, went to perform my two speaking roles again in Lil' Shop, and stayed for the entire performance.

Sunday I had one more performance to give for the musical. I had fixed breakfast and had a good day with the family. I talked to my grandma Irene on the phone. It was a good weekend.

Well, what're ya' gonna do?

Today it looks just about like what we expect November to look like. It's become colder, more gray, and wet. I'm anticipating needing to break out the rain suit in the near future for the bike ride to and from school. The boys' days of playing outside may be hampered by a bit. That is, unless mom Broyles allows them a little more freedom in the "getting dirty" department.

Teaching school is still teaching school. Play rehearsal has begun for It's a Wonderful Life. We're planning our trip to Ada, Ok. to see my big sister's family for the Thanksgiving holiday. She's having her family from Kansas down to her new house and WE WERE INVITED! Miracles do happen. Just kidding. Of course we were invited. And we are genuinely thrilled to be going. We haven't been down to see them in years. Plus they have a brand new house to show off and break-in. We wouldn't miss it.

Jack has been attending the Baldwin City Childrens' Choir in, where else, Baldwin City, Kansas. However, he hasn't been enjoying it. He's the youngest student and the moves and expectations are advanced for even Jack's advanced stage. He's been assigned another older boy to drag him around where he's supposed to be and that doesn't make either of them happy. Lately, he's been quite against the idea of attending. Marian and I will think about whether to continue or not. We're not quitters, but Jack didn't choose to be involved in this, we did. We definitely don't wish for this to cause a lasting negative impression upon him. We're evaluating if we wish for him to continue, and why.

I'm performing a "read only" part in the upcoming school musical this weekend for three separate performances. I'll be "the voice" which is to sound "not unlike God's". I'll also be the voice of an interviewer on a radio. It's for The Little Shop of Horrors. It should be good. The set looks good.  It's become a bit of a tradition for me to make a cameo appearance in the fall school musical. I enjoy it.

Leo is displaying such a playful personality and just talk, talk, talking. Not alot of what he says we understand, but it won't be long until we do. The other day he was jumping up off both feet and landing square on his bottom. It looked like it would hurt. It would definitely hurt an adult, but it just made him roll with laughter, and Jack too. He kept it up as long as Jack laughed at him. Leo is starting to sing, too. Mare even mentioned having Leo's hair cut! Can you believe it?

Leo follows Jack around just like a little brother. They're really pretty good friends. They have their moments, afterall, they are brothers. We're proud of Jack for sleeping all night in his bed for at least two nights in order to be rewarded with chocolate milk in the morning. Don't misunderstand, Jack has been sleeping alone in his bed for, gosh this is probably inaccurate, but it seems like for close to a year. Lately, though, he's taken to rising several times during the night to come get me to tuck him back in. We were trying to get him to return to that original pattern.

Our boys are precious of course. We love them. We have a good family and we're blessed.

One last thought. It's chili weather, so go home and make some chili.

cb

Does this mean we'll pay later?

I presume everyone who may happen upon this blog and read it experienced the same golden, lovely weather as we did here in northeast Kansas. The mornings were clear and cold and gradually warmed up to an ideal 69-70 degrees. The sunlight was fantastic and it lit up all the gorgeous leaves still on trees; reflected off each water surface; and made the sky just this indescribably beautiful shade of wispy blue. A gentle breeze from the south kept a person from overheating and fall smells floated to a person's nose on it from unknown sources.

We tried to take advantage of the beautiful weather as much as we could. Saturday, I walked in the Ottawa Veteran's Day Parade on behalf of Franklin County United Way. I walked in front of our members and the participants in the member agencies, helping to hold the FCUW banner. We waited quite a bit longer on the side street to enter the parade than we actually spent walking in the parade. Mare said it was a good one.

She and the boys went to the parade along with her dad, mom, and brother. They all attended the parade and then we retired back to the house to eat frozen pizzas. They stayed for a bit of the afternoon, then they left. We had some good conversations and company. Mare had rearranged the living room, so it was set up differently and gave a good open floor place.

After they left and the boys were bathed and put to bed, we watched a movie.Jack woke us several times in the night. He's been in this habit lately. He wakes up and doesn't want to go on back to sleep. Instead, he comes and opens up our bedroom door and just stands there, until I escort him back to tuck him in. It makes for three grumpy, tired people in our house: Jack, Mare, and me!We're trying a few different things to get him to sleep through the night.

Sunday, I fixed breakfast and then spent about an hour running the mower over the bed of leaves in our yard. It was overdue for a mowing and the mower acted as a mulcher of sorts. It did well enough to make the yard look better.

Afterward, I made a couple repairs to Mare's Mossberg bicycle. We, then went for a short ride directly into the wind. After we turned around and were virtually pushed back by the strong wind, we stopped by our friends' house for a bit. We left there just as dusk was creeping over the land.

We're trying to take advantage of these last nice days, because very soon they'll be gone and replaced with icy and bitter cold.

We have great kids and we're truly blessed with good family. We love you.

The official, un-official end of fall

Yes, this last Sunday marked the Halloween holiday: the official, un-official end of the fall season. Fall is now obligated to take a step back and let Winter begin its warm-up (a decidedly poor choice of words, accuracy wise, for an activity for Winter to engage in to prepare for its big show). Now the pretty leaves on the trees have no remaining reason to stay on the tree. Very soon you can expect them to do the equivalent of a leaf hanging "base jump" down from the branches to join the others of their kind in a sort of homage to the Million Man March, only leaf style.

Today, being the first day of November in the year of our Lord 2010, I noticed the sun had taken a day off and let the clouds run the show for a change. The red stuff (possibly hummingbird food) in the thingy which indicates the temperature in degrees Fahrenheit, hovered right around the high fifties today and more or less heralded (yes thermometers are old school that way, they like to herald things like "It's now officially 57 degrees Fahrenheit on this day, the first day of November in the year of our Lord two thousand and ten Anno Domini, according to the Greenwich Mean Time of blah, blah, blah") that Fall had been bum rushed out of the way so that Fall's big bully brother, Winter, could show up, take Fall's football away from Fall and chase Fall away while Winter and all Winter's bigger, bully friends play their own game and not let pesky, cute little Fall play with them!This perhaps unfortunate turn of events notwithstanding, it was nevertheless a glorious weekend for Halloween.

Beginning with Thursday night (the weekend's official, un-official beginning) I worked my last evening on the chain crew for the varsity OHS Cyclones football team for the 2010 season. I operated the down box and had a pretty flawless game, if I do say so myself. This, despite the visitor's sideline official's (the guy in the stripes from whom I take my cues) best attempts to befuddle me with what he called his "Three simple rules: wait for my signal; wait for my signal; wait for my signal!" Several instances in the game we were clearly observing his second rule (or was it his first or third rule?) and he apparently "forgot to signal; forgot to signal; forgot to signal!" This caused a few awkward instances where we were late to arrive at the line of scrimmage and the other officials were yelling at him to get his chain crew together, and he was more or less yelling at us to get our chain crew together. Despite these minor glitches and a valiant effort on the Cyclones' part, alas their season ended with a loss one touchdown and a two point conversion away from a tie.

The Cyclones fared better than a regionally local high school boy who died that same Thursday night as a result of the injuries he received from playing football. I can't think of a more lousy thing to die for than a stupid game of football. I can tell you after moving along up and down the visitors' sidelines of these varsity football games, and sitting behind the home team crowds of our varsity, junior varsity, and freshman teams, (and even junior high a couple of times) there's few things I find more distasteful and angering than listening to some of these parents live vicariously through their sons' performances on the football field. The ugliness that comes out of these peoples' mouths and the priority they place on that game is enough to make me foster a profound dislike for the game as it appears in an organized manner under the banner of high school athletics. Some people in the United States would label me a communist for this next statement, but Mare and I plan to promote baseball, soccer, track and field, chess, debate, forensics, choir, band, Scrabble, Monopoly; just about anything over football. My knees have not been 100% right since my days of playing high school football. If Jack and Leo wish to play football we will not hesitate to support them, but we have a feeling their physique and brains will lend themselves better to success in these other pursuits.

Friday, the official, official start of the weekend, ended with a sigh. I rode back to town Friday evening from six to eight o'clock, after supper, to audition for the ACT Ottawa production of It's A Wonderful Life. I purposefully left the line labeled "role desired/trying out for:" blank, because I'm a team player and I'll fill whatever role they need. Secretly, in my heart of hearts I wished for (and dreaded)  to be cast as George Bailey, the lead role. It would have been a big deal for me to play that role. Alas, I was informed by the director they have another actor in mind for the lead role and I was to play George Bailey's competitor for Mary's affections, most likely.

Saturday, we all ate breakfast together and rode our bikes downtown to the Ottawa downtown business trick or treat parade. Quite a number of kids and parents showed up to converge on the downtown area and beg for sugary snacks; we were right in there with the thick of them. Jack wore his elephant costume and Leo wore his puppy dog costume (formerly Jack's; formerly Tuker's). I dressed as a middle aged English teacher and Mare dressed as my wife. People kept looking at our clothes and saying, "Thrift store! Keeping it real!" We just played along with it. At close to halfway through the appointed trick or treat time, Marian ditched us boys in order to go hang with the girls of Baldwin City Children's Choir in order to help distribute helium filled balloons bearing their logo, and to make rude "little people" comments in their funny helium voices. The boys and I stopped in the sunny Franklin county square in order to sample some of their booty, then made our way on down to city park to seek out the second most powerful kids' drug after sugar: adrenaline.

Mare met up with us after a bit and we stopped at sunny Franklin County courthouse square again, this time to enjoy a round of hot dogs being peddled by my neighbor Scott, who also dressed for the Halloween occasion as a whoopie-cushion.

After the dogs were down, we pedaled back home and the boys went down for a nap and I did too, for a short one, before returning back downtown for the ACT Ottawa year end awards show. I received a participation certificate for my roles as Judge Taylor and Nathan Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird; I also received a Certificate of Appreciation for my help with set construction on Star Spangled Girl. We watched a slide show of photos from the 2009-2010 season and I caught up a little with some people. I ate some popcorn and punch and enjoyed myself for an hour or so before retuning home again.

At close to 3:45 we left for Wellsville. Now, it's not usually like us to go to Wellsville. We just don't do that willy-nilly. We had a plan. At four o'clock Wellsville would be sponsoring a costume contest and, while we were there, Mare had arranged to distribute more balloons with her group. As it turns out, we weren't late (miracles occur in the strangest of places) and Leo won second prize in his age group for his costume. But, geeze, c'mon, Leo is so cute he could have won it dressed as Freddy Kruger, or Jason Vorhees, or that Leprechaun guy who's so surly. Jack and Leo had a ball seeing all the kids and adults dressed in costume, I enjoyed more comments about my wisdom of shopping for a costume at Goodwill, even though I was just dressed as me, and Marian, of course, enjoyed insulting people in a high pitched "little-people" helium voice which people just think is funny and never stop laughing long enough to listen to the deprecating comments she's making toward them (jk).

Saturday night, safely snug at home, and away from the angry hands of insulted Wellsvillians who felt betrayed at the thought of the son of an Ottawa mom who's there on behalf of a Baldwin City Children's Choir winning a costume contest in Wellsville, we watched most of a lousy Stephen King movie from the 80's and generally mentally prepared for Sunday.

Sunday, as it turns out, is the un-recognized, official beginning of the week. It's a great day to get up with your sons and make egg, cheese, and bacon biscuits. It's an even better day to eat those biscuits with strawberry preserves and mama. After we cleaned up the kitchen I switched the bike trailer to my bike and me and the boys pedaled to Wal-Mart on the south end of town and got enough supplies to fill my two collapsible, metal wire baskets. On the way back we found a pumpkin in the ditch and it fit into the trailer as well. Mare's mom was visiting when we arrived back home. We were expecting her, of course. They baked pumpkin seeds, carved pumpkins, and colored pictures. Then we had lunch and I had to take off after we put the boys down for a nap in order to go to a read through for the script. It was there, at the script read through, that I began to question my judgement of not including a bath on my list of activities I had already completed; I began to reek! I was so embarrassed, I just knew everyone could smell me, cause I could sure smell myself. And you know how badly a person can get to smelling, especially after riding their bike to Wal-Mart on the opposite end of town without a bath. As soon as I got home I immediately took a bath.

Interestingly enough, or not, despite being told I would not be playing the role of George Bailey, the lead role, that's primarily what I spent the two hours reading for at the call backs on Sunday. I sang a duet with no less than four potential Mary Baileys, and acted confused about the extreme change which had come over Violet's lifestyle when it was shown what life would be like if George Bailey wasn't born, with no less than four girls. Also quite funny, I was warned early on George's role would require a tender, affectionate kiss to the lead lady role no less than six times, and would I and Marian be okay with that? Sure, we were okay with that, we've seen the movie and know it's family friendly. Well, one of the girls trying out for the lead lady role is a former student of mine, just graduated last year. They asked her if she'd be comfortable kissing ME, Mr. Broyles, if she got the role as Mary Bailey, and she said NO! Can you imagine that poor girl's embarrassment had she done it?

Back at home Sunday night we lit the carved Jack-o-lanterns and Mare took the boys around to the four corner houses to trick or treat. We then sat on our front porch and watched Jack and Leo play in the front yard in their costumes and let Jack hand out fruit snacks o the occasional visitor. It had a been a pretty nice end to a busy weekend.

Monday came and it was the official, official start of the work week. Not much to be said there. I'm watching the ACT Ottawa page for the cast list.

God bless you all. God bless my enemies. We are rich. We are blessed.
cb