Absence and Fond Hearts, Part 2........

January 30, 1929 - November 11, 2003

Jack Dodgen

"You can't choose your family"

It's a quote usually used in jokes about dysfunctional families. In my case it's a blessing. I could not have chosen for myself anyone better than the father I was blessed by God to have. I was told not long ago by a friend, "You remind me of your father". It's the best compliment that I could hope to receive. I only hope that someday I can be the same kind of man to my boys that he was to me. He was my hero and I greatly miss him.

I don't have any more words to say, but I'll happily read your comments if you have them and you are willing to share them.

A Song and a Brownie Frosted with Memories

Amanda's first chorus event at Deer Creek was a music and dessert review. It's an idea that was new to me, but it was a pretty good one. I mean, who would argue with free dessert while being serenaded? There were 2 long tables loaded with all kinds of dessert from homemade to store bought and 2 risers set up for a high school choir and a middle school choir. It was pretty crowded there, in the lobby of the Alumni Hall, and Amanda's group was set up to the side in the shadows so my pictures didn't turn out very good. The singing was great though and really helped the desserts go down. As if dessert needed any help, sheeeesh. The high school groups sang songs by class period and then in a combined group, then the middle school sang some songs and then all sang combined. The middle school group is pretty big, I didn't do an official head count but I'd say there was around 40 girls and 1 boy in the choir. All in all it was a pretty nice evening. I moved around the room and tried to get a decent picture, but I didn't do very well.

The stupidest thing occurred to me at one point. Mom had not gone to a lot of the kids events in the last year or so because she couldn't see to drive at night. It occurred to me that if she were still here that she surely would have been there to see Amanda sing that night, and suddenly I had the sads in full force. What's stupid about it is if mom were still here she'd be living at home and I wouldn't be and the kids wouldn't be at Deer Creek in the first place for her to come and see anyway. But, I thought it and it made me sad and on we go. I'm sure that this won't be the only reminder from Deer Creek that tells me that I miss mom and dad. After all, I'm living in their house.

I started a facebook of my own a few days ago. I never had any interest on my own, but a niece invited me, and a lot of the extended family has a facebook, so I joined up. They have started a group called I HEART the Lazy J, to remember all things Granny and Papa Dodgen. Well, I don't just HEART the Lazy J, I own it. It's my home. But if you HEART the Lazy J, and you're reading this, then you probably know why I'm crying right now and you know what I wish was different out there right now. So many years of memories of coming in the back door, not as the master of the house but just as the son. I guess I still wish on some days that I'll open that door and hear dad call out Hellll-oooo from the other room, or see mom sitting at the table drinking tea and looking out at her birds. Still though, it's home, and if I have my way about it I'll not live anywhere else from now on. And to everyone that is a HEARTer of the Lazy J, that back door is still as open to you as it has been for going on 30 years now. If you are nearby, stop in, anytime. It's a lot different now, but it's a lot the same too. There's a balance there that I guess I'm still learning. It's both comforting and saddening at the same time to look at Tandy sit and watch the television while she works with her needle and thread. It's new, and yet it sometimes brings a flood of memories of another gal that used to do the same thing. I don't know how to explain it, you either get it or you don't.

Come by, we'll have dessert and sing a song, then maybe we'll remember those that have led the way before us. After all, they were the HEART of the Lazy J, and they are the reason we love it so much.

Half-Baked Alaskan

I hadn't seen my friend Chuck in years. In fact, I pretty much gave up on seeing him. The last time he was here was for work-related training and he said then that he had pretty much reached the end of the classes for his line of work and he wasn't sure when or if he would return. Then, a couple of months ago, a mutual friend asked for my new address and how to get there so that he could pass it on to an old friend that wanted to come visit. Chuck's habit in days past was to just show up out of the blue. Sometimes school would last just a few days, other times it would be for several weeks. One Sunday morning as I was getting ready to leave for church, I went out the garage to check on something and I almost ran into him as I walked out. He grinned and said, "Am I too late for church?" Good times, good times.

Well it's been a long time, and this class was only a week long, but we were able to get together for a couple of visits while he was here. He came on Thursday evening the day before he flew out again. We had bratwurst and potato salad and Mountain Dew for dinner. I guess we've had that or something like it every time we get together. Then we spent the evening catching up on each other's lives. He's been to Iraq a couple of times, not to fight necessarily, but to help provide for and maintain the troops that did do the fighting. He went on a trip to Israel, (all of these adventures were with the guard reserves), and had some great stories of the holy land and some of the things that saw while he was there. He brought back some salt crystals from the Dead Sea. He said that the salt forms big crystals and sinks to the bottom and you can feel them with your feet, but even in only waist deep water you can't bend down far enough to pick one up with your hands. His kids, like mine, have grown up in the years since we've been together. He was shocked to see how big my 3 had grown. Each of them are now taller than he is, (although that's no great achievement, he's not very tall). He showed me the website of the church in Wasilla and some pictures of their youth group trip snowmobile riding and sledding. Time passed too quickly and soon we were saying I'll see you sometime down the road. I really hope to one day take a vacation to Alaska and visit him and his family there, fish for some salmon, or maybe do some other hunting, but definitely tour the mountains and glaciers with camera firmly in hand.

Some friends defy distance and time. Who knows when we'll meet again, I sure don't, but I'd bet when we do we'll pick up the conversation just like it was a day or two ago that we had seen each other and not months or years. Some other friends and us are talking about getting an RV and driving up to Alaska for a week or two. So far it's just talk, silly talk even. But who knows, sometimes talk turns into action and maybe one day we'll head North, way North.

Until then, Godspeed Chuck, take care....
I love ya brother....

11th Place Isn't Bad at All

Not when you haven't ever run on a team before. But Jeff improved from having never run to finishing in 11th position in his last meet this year. He was close to running in the district race the next week, but not quite, maybe he'll do that next year.

They started out back behind the school, about 10 different schools were there.

I saw Jeff in the middle of the pack and he saw me too and started to angle over towards me.

He looked right at me for that first 100 yards while he ran to the edge of the path in front of me.

Then he broke out in a crazy, ain't I somethin' grin as he passed by that I almost missed completely with the camera.

The next time I saw him was over a mile later and he wasn't quite as grinny as he was at the first pass.

But at the end, what was left of him was hustling towards the finish line in position for a medal.

Tired but well rewarded for his efforts, he got home in 11th place. Pretty cool. Deer Creek won the meet and finished with 6 runners in the top eleven in this race. Jeff learned what it means to be on a team and made some new friends. He had a couple of days off and then basketball practice started last week.

Go Antlers!

Just Another Day....

Today is Wednesday, Oct. 10, the 283rd day of 2007. There are 82 days left in the year.

On this date in the year:

1775 - General William Howe is named the interim commander in chief of the British army in America, replacing Lieutenant General Thomas Gage. He was permanently appointed to the post in April 1776

1780 - A powerful storm slams the islands of the West Indies, killing more than 20,000 people. Known as the Great Hurricane of 1780, it was the deadliest storm ever recorded

1795 - The United States mint hired its first two female employees

1813 - Composer Guiseppe Verdi was born in Le Roncole, Italy

1830 - Queen Isabella II is born, she died in 1904 and was queen of Spain from 1833-1868

1845 - the U.S. Naval Academy was established in Annapolis, Md.

1877 - the U.S. Army held a West Point funeral with full military honors for Lieutenant-Colonel George Armstrong Custer. Killed the previous year in Montana by Sioux and Cheyenne Indians at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, Custer's body had been returned to the East for burial on the grounds of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, where Custer had graduated in 1861-at the bottom of his class

1881 - Charles Darwin published "The Formation of Vegetable Mold Through the Action of Worms." (Let's not forget Darwin's stellar posthumous work as worm fodder, no book has been published on that to this date but certainly evolution cannot continue without a food source. Thank you, Chuck!!)

1886 - the tuxedo dinner jacket made its American debut at the autumn ball in Tuxedo Park, N.Y.

1900 - Actress Helen Hayes is born

1901 - Henry Ford drove one of his own vehicles in his first and last automobile race. Today Ford is the only automaker that can lay claim to victory in the Indy 500, Daytona 500, 24-Hours of LeMans and Daytona, 12 hours of Sebring, the Monte Carlo Rally, and the Baja 1000

1911 - Revolutionaries under Sun Yat-sen launched their overthrow of China's Manchu dynasty

1917 - Jazz musician Thelonious Monk is born

1935 - George Gershwin's opera "Porgy and Bess" opened on Broadway

1943 - Chiang Kai-shek took the oath of office as president of China

1949 - Country singer Tanya Tucker is born

1957 - Milwaukee Braves win World Series game 7 over the New York Yankees, 5-0

1964 - the 18th Summer Olympic Games opened in Tokyo, Japan

1969 - Green Bay quarterback Brett Favre is born

1970 - Fiji became independent after nearly a century of British rule

1973 - Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned his office pleading no contest to one count of federal income tax evasion

1979 - Wayne Gretzky played his first NHL game and scored the first of his NHL record assists for the visiting Edmonton Oilers against the Chicago Blackhawks

1985 - U.S. fighter jets forced an Egyptian plane carrying the hijackers of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro to land in Italy, where the gunmen were taken into custody

2002 - The House voted 296-133 to give President George W. Bush authority to use military force against Iraq. The Senate followed on the 11th

2004 - Superman actor Christopher Reeve died at 52, after becoming a paraplegic in a horse riding accident in May 1995

2006 - Google Inc. purchased YouTube Inc. for $1.65 billion in a stock deal

Aaaaaaaaaaand, finally, in 1967, 40 years, or 14,610 days ago.......

The Outer Space Treaty, which prohibits the placing of weapons of mass destruction on the moon or elsewhere in space, entered into force

In 1967 there were approximately 3.7 million births in the US.
In 1967 the US population was approximately 179,323,175 people, 50.6 persons per square mile.
In 1967 in the US there were approximately 1,800,000 marriages and 479,000 divorces.
In 1967 in the US there were approximately 1,712,000 deaths (9.5 per 1000)

The top songs were:

To Sir with Love by Lulu
Windy by the Association
Somethin' Stupid by Nancy & Frank Sinatra
The Letter by the Box Tops
Happy Together by the Turtles
Daydream Believer by the Monkees
Ode to Billie Joe by Bobbie Gentry
Groovin' by Young Rascals
Light My Fire by the Doors
Hello Goodbye by the Beatles

Last but Oh, most certainly not least:

Craig Howard Dodgen, who is not a weapon of mass destruction and will therefore thankfully be allowed access to space and the moon if he so wishes, was born.

More than you wanted to know........

Fair Fireworks, It's Spectaculous!

I've only once or twice tried to take pictures of fireworks and they just haven't come out very good at all usually. I'm much better at taking pictures of roses that have just been rained on. And, while I'm thinking about it Annaleise, you are quite welcome. I'm glad you enjoyed it. It's pretty rare I think that you have enough available light to take pictures of fireworks, but when you are standing in the midway at the fair that is definitely not a problem. I think I still need some work on technique and some fine tuning but there are one or two shots here that show some of the colors that we saw Thursday night. The last one is a picture of the "big finish" and therefore has no detail due to the multiple simultaneous explosions. It's not a great picture, I just like saying, "multiple simultaneous explosions." Sounds like the guys on Mythbusters. Happy Birthday, Oklahoma!!

A (state) Fair Assessment of Tandiwork

Centennial day at the fair was Thursday the 13th and tickets were only 100 cents each. What a deal! Regular ticket prices were 8 dollars for adults so I saved almost 45 dollars on the entrance fee. Tandy entered two items in the fair this year, which was the other reason for going on opening day. As I understand it, we were far too excited to wait until the weekend to see how we fared at the fair.

Here is a picture of the whole gang, excluding the photographer of course, arriving at the fair. It was very crowded that night.
This is Jack and his girlfriend Mariah.

First stop was the arts and crafts building. Tandy was nervous and in a hurry to get there.

Jack's OSU blanket won 5th place! Doesn't that just beat all? Well, all but the top 4 places anyway. Not pictured is a crocheted OU blanket that placed 9th. Tandy was pleased with 5th place but disappointed that it didn't place higher. She says that she would like to make a blanket of several of the big 12 schools and put them in a book. She thinks the team colors of A&M and KU would make really nice blankets.
She was less hopeful about her tablecloth and was quite excited to see that it won 1st place. Now that really does beat all. Oh, except for best in show. For those of you that were there, this is the tablecloth that was on the guest table at our wedding. Not pictured is an extremely elaborate blanket with intricate details of an Indian (Native American) scene. It was easy to see why this blanket won best in show. What do you get when you enter stuff in the fair?
A blue ribbon and a yellow ribbon on this day. And a bit of excitement from the competition. If you make it by the fair this week, both items are in the arts and crafts building across from the live cooking show in the lefthand case along the wall. Check it out and tell all your friends, "I know who made that blanket/tablecloth." It'll be neat!!
What did I get at the fair this year? A cowlick and a corn dog. What else do you need?

I Picked a Flower for You Today.....

Whoever should happen to pass by today, this rose is for you.

Absence and Fond Hearts, Part 1....

April 19, 1929 - August 14, 2006

"Live a good life."
Bernice Dodgen

1. She believed in the promise.
2. She was faithful. That is to say, she was full of faith.
3. She was one of God's people.
4. She worked hard and was diligent.
5. She was bold.
6. She lived a good (Godly) life.

Most of my last words to her came from the bible. Emphasis is mine.




Hebrews 4

The Promise of Rest

1 Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. 2 For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. 3 For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said: “ So I swore in My wrath, ‘ They shall not enter My rest,’” although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. 4 For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”; 5 and again in this place: “They shall not enter My rest.”6 Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience, 7 again He designates a certain day, saying in David, “Today,” after such a long time, as it has been said: “ Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.”8 For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. 9 There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. 10 For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. 11 Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. 12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. 13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. 14 Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

I miss you mom.....enjoy your rest, you deserve it.

Roots and All

Friday afternoon Amanda reported to me that while she was outside playing in the considerably larger than normal creek, she heard a cracking noise and then this tree just fell over. I didn't make out which tree it was from her description, but it turns out that it was a large cottonwood. A very large and old cottonwood tree and perhaps the tallest one on the property. Now it's just the longest tree on the property. This tree was big when I was just a kid and I have no idea how old it is, but it was there for a long time. The wind storm that we had 3 years ago did some damage to it and that may have helped along it's downfall. But I suspect the main culprit was the 4 or 5 days of constant rushing water around the roots that made it fall. And that's exactly what it did, pulled the roots out of the ground and fell over. I have no idea how I'm going to get it cleaned up, but I'll definitely have to wait until the ground dries out. We haven't had any rain yet today, but the streak is still alive. I decided yesterday that I could get some mowing done before dark and after about 3 passes it began to sprinkle. That was about the same time that my mower stopped in its tracks, buried to the axles in the soft ground. I ran in to get some help thinking that I could rock it out or something like that, but this new zero turn I have weighs a lot more than my old mower. A lot. Then, of course, with all of us out there trying to move it the sprinkle became a downpour. Eventually I tied it to the car and pulled it while Jeff sat on it and backed it up and we got it unstuck leaving 2 pretty healthy ruts in the front yard, not to mention 2 fairly deep holes where the rear tires sunk into the ground. So it's official then, the consecutive streak of rainy days is neat and all, but for me the allure is gone, I'm prayin' for shine.

The blank area marked with the red square is not Moscow, but the portion of skyline that once was dominated by the cottonwood tree.
This is a picture of the roots the day it fell while the creek was still up. You can only see just the top portion of the roots there on the left of the picture.
This is a picture of the roots on Sunday afternoon. I am standing right next to them and they are a little over head high to me. That would make it a little over 6 feet wide at the root.
My guess of the source of the loud cracking noise would be limbs of this cedar tree being stripped off of it when the big boy fell. I'm actually standing on the tree near the roots in this picture and you can kind of get a sense of the length of the tree looking up the trunk in this picture.
Here is a picture of the trunk from the opposite direction. You can kind of judge the thickness of the trunk in this picture. It was a massive tree and all it took to bring it down was a little water. Having known this tree since I was 11 years old, it kind of feels like I've lost an old friend.

Craig

Yes, the Creek Is Up

17 days and counting.

It has been raining for 17 days today. Everyday. Just the other day I was commenting, to anyone willing to listen, that having lived here my entire life I could not remember this many days of rain in one spring. It rained the week before the wedding. It rained the week of the wedding. In fact the day before, and the day of the wedding, the rain was absolutely torrential. Monsoonish. Rain may roll off a duck's back, but the ducks were having a hard time keeping up with it. I mean, this was a real test of a duck's dri-back feathering system. Anyway, it's been raining ever since. And just days after I made that comment it was reported that we have broken a 100 year old record of number of consecutive days of rain. Amazing.

Last weekend the report was that it would stop by Saturday and turn hot. Hello summertime! But the next day? Rain. And the report was that it would probably rain off and on until mid-week. And the report now? Well one station said that July 4th will be hot and dry, and the other two said get out your waders. So far today its rained pretty steady, heavy rain, light rain, mist, repeat. Of course the creek is up and has been for several weeks now. But it is much more likely to overflow in the last few days. We had some trouble driving home the other day due to water on the roads.

Today was my day to lead the devotional at work. I said that I had given thought to reading about the flood, but since we still had 20 days of rain to go before we needed to worry I decided to read something else. All this water though, it sure makes me appreciate the power that God has. It's silly to compare this little bit of water to the Biblical flood, but it's still very impressive to me. Which would bring us to God's promise of course, I've seen a reminder or two lately of that promise. Richard and I saw the other day what I consider to be the most impressive rainbow I have ever seen. It was so low to the ground it looked like a halo on the earth. It was very compact, and the colors were brilliant. And if I was to describe a normal rainbow as "hollow", I would say that this one was full. As in, the purple on the bottom was so bright that it made it look like half of a ball rather than an arch. The picture just does not do it justice, but I didn't have the right filter attached to get the color.

My daughter called a little while ago. She said the creek was running pretty high today. She was out splashing around some and she said she heard a loud crack and a large tree near her just fell over. I don't know which one fell yet, but if it was by the creek it probably lost enough dirt from the water washing it away that it just couldn't stand anymore. Amazing what a little water can do. I'm hearing a lot of thunder right now, so I stepped out of my office to look out the window. It's raining, visibility is about 50 yards I'd say, and I just saw a duck go by with an umbrella and a pained look on his beak. I wonder if Lowe's is having a sale on gopher wood........




Stay dry,

Craig

PS. If it rains until the 4th that'll be 22 days and counting. Amazing.

What a Difference a Day Makes......

Last Saturday I left the house fairly early, (for me anyway) to go and help a friend work on his car. Tandy said she had an errand to run and wanted to go to Lowe's and look at some paint for the entry hall. I said great and maybe look at light fixtures too and see what you might like, then I went on about the day's business. Well, the car fix did take longer than I first thought, (I'm a little out of practice I guess), but when I got back home there was a lot more done in the entry hall done than I thought possible. Now, the house was built in 1973 and we moved in when it was 5 years old and that wallpaper had never changed. In fact, there was a big bright square spot where the mirror had been for years compared to the darker paper around it. I never gave it a thought. That's the way it always had been and I never had a problem with it. Until it became MY entry hall, then it occurred to me. That's some ugly wallpaper there. And the light fixture, I'm not sure I can describe it all that well, kind of a lantern shape with a gold colored glass that gave off poor light. Well, that's why there was no objection to Tandy's wishes and since it was cheap to do such a small area it has become our first finished decorating project with, I'm sure, many more to come. Now, I failed to take a picture before she began so I had to go looking through some old family pictures to get a "before" picture of the hallway. But you'll be able to see quite a difference. I took a picture of the light out on the front porch since it matched the entry fixture. Tandy did all of the work. She taped it off and painted 2 coats and then she helped me hang the quilt rack for the flag that used to hang in my living room. Then we ran off to Lowe's together and quickly agreed on a new light fiture that was well within budget and I installed that and there you have it. For those of you that know that entry hall well it will be a striking change, for those that don't.......Hopefully the pictures will be enough to tell the tale.

A christmas picture from a few years ago, you can make out the pattern around the mirror.

Some of mom's flowers here, a better look at the 34 year old wallpaper.

Here is the lamp that matches the old indoor fixture.

Here is the bright, new hallway from the dining room point of view, note the new light fixture much brighter than the old one.

And here is a picture of the hall from the living room.

The "Mini-Moon"

I think I remember mentioning it rained on our wedding night. Torrential rains in fact. Anyway the next day was perfect. We went to a bed and breakfast in Guthrie for the weekend. Tandy didn't know what I had planned even though she had tried to pry it out of me several times. I had teased her more than once telling her that I thought we'd just stay at home since the kids would not be there. She'd just laugh and say, "No".

So, on the trip that night she asked where we were going and I said, "Oh, you'll see". When we approached the exit to go home I slowed down and started to pull over. "Are we going home?" Tandy asked nervously. I just laughed and said, "No".

Aaron's Gate country inn is an extension of the Arcadian Inn in Edmond, and is located near Guthrie.

You get a private cottage all to yourself instead of a single room in a boarding house. Breakfast is in the fridge in a ready-to-make condition and we had a plate of strawberries and cream and chocolate waiting for us. It was great. Breakfast was just for the first morning and we stayed there 2 nights so that Saturday evening we went out to dinner and then into Guthrie to get some things for the next morning.

We went to a place called Woody's on highway 33 East of Guthrie for dinner. Tandy's employer, (and friend) Holly said it was really good so we went searching for it and boy was she right. Some of the best bbq I've ever had. We had a Woody's sampler platter and shared it. Steak, chicken, a rib, sausage, and a baked potato. We meant to ask for a menu to keep as a souvenir but we forgot, I guess we'll just have to go back again another day. Tandy had never been to Guthrie before so I showed her around town a little. Cottonwood creek was out of its banks (of course) after the rain from the day before. We stopped at the store and got snacks and stuff for breakfast and communion the next morning.

We had a really pretty sunset that night but I didn't get a very good picture of it. Unfortunately we had to leave our little paradise the next day and it was immediately back to the real world. We set up Elizabeth's bed and her closet that afternoon when we got home so that she would have a place to call her own. She and Amanda are sharing a room for the first time, and there are still adjustments being made, but so far so good.

We had a good time that weekend, played cards, watched a movie, ate strawberries and chocolate and, you know, did some other stuff too. A good start.......