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Auburn / Friday / friends / Samford — Comments Off
11
Jan 13

Your basic wonderful Friday

Do you have a high school senior? Are they interested in attending Samford University? Odds are I’ve called them in the last few days. I call a lot of students, all a part of our personalized, high touch philosophy.

Some students are very excited to hear from you. Some find this very awkward. A few have figured out they are enrolling elsewhere. “That’s great! Congratulations!” Some know they’ll be at SU next fall. “Wonderful!”

Some voicemails will let you talk all day long. I have a short list of things I like to share with voicemails. It takes about 40 seconds. Some will cut you off if you pause to breathe in or allow for writing down a phone number.

I can tell you this: In an age of text messages the art of covering the receiver so you can talk about the person on the phone is a dying art.

The best part, though, is talking to the excited student. Their enthusiasm is a little contagious. The second best part is the voicemail with the child doing the outgoing message. Those always crack me up.

So a lot of phone calls. Syllabus work. Other work. Emails, always the emails.

I stopped just in time to go to the gymnastics meet tonight. Auburn hosted Kentucky and perhaps should have won, but struggled on the bars and floor. The Wildcats took away the win 195.525-194.250. The guys behind us had never been to a meet before, so it was fun to hear them try to rationalize what they were seeing. The little girls always have a great time at gym meets, so it is fun to watch the kids dance and ooh and ahh.

They dropped Chick-fil-A cows from the rafters. I almost caught one, but the guy behind me — with a distinctive and unfair height advantage — got hit first. He earned a chocolate chip cookie for his efforts. I just missed a T-shirt thrown into the crowd. The Yankee was live-tweeting the meet for College and Magnolia.

We had dinner at Mellow Mushroom with a friend after the meet. We sat and talked the night away and it was all very wonderful. Walked outside near midnight in January in short sleeves and walked a block to the car. It nicely wrapped up a day which started with breakfast with a friend at the Barbecue House.

To ask for much more of anything would just look greedy.

collarbone / cycling / friends / Samford / site / Tuesday — Comments Off
9
Jan 13

Clever title to come

Hey, did you notice? I updated all the photo galleries! I changed the font on the blog! And I added new banners to the top and bottom of this page! There are 36 headers and footers now. Refresh to see them all!

I also changed the site’s links to a server side include system. And I’ve tinkered with some other ideas too. These are productive times.

Rode a few miles on the bike. Not very many because I am still sore. Maybe someone will say differently, but there is a difference in suffering and hurting on a bicycle. I don’t mind the legs and the lungs and the feet and the seat. But my neck — which is connected to my collarbone and shoulder — that hurts. It is something about the necessary posture of cycling and whatever related muscular problems I’m enjoying.

Can’t even stay on the bike long enough yet to suffer, a point of honor when it comes to a bicycle, so I take it easy. Which is a good thing since my fitness is presently lousy.

So I did a little work on a paper, I cleaned out an inbox and made a lot of recruiting phone calls, talking to high school students who are looking for their college. I get the chance to talk up Samford, our journalism and broadcast and public relations programs, the student media, the new MBA program and more. Lots of good fun.

Had a long dinner at an Irish place with a friend, we talked sports and the rodeo and cannons, which just capped off a fine day.

Good thing, since tomorrow will be a lot like it.

Also, Justified, Justified, Justified:

friends / photo / weekend — Comments Off
1
Dec 12

Just one thing

Our realtor, who is also our friend, held a memorial service for his mother today. She had been ill for some time, and was under hospice care in his home in her last days. We never had the opportunity to meet her — though we’d hoped to — but she sounded like a lovely lady.

Of the stories we heard today, stories which aren’t mine to tell, she sounded like a lovely lady who loved as earnestly as she could despite unfortunate and regrettable and horrible things that she experienced in her life.

Then her son, our friend, stood in front of this small little church that was packed full of his family and friends, said this was the song that he was singing to her when her body finally relaxed. It was, he said, meant to be an encouraging relief to her, but it had also become an encouraging message to him.

And then, in his amazing voice, he sang this moving hymn unaccompanied:

It was beautiful because he was beautiful because she was beautiful.

family / friends / iPhone / photo / Pie Day / Thursday — Comments Off
22
Nov 12

Happy Thanksgiving

“We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.” Playwright, novelist Thornton Wilder.

It was a treasure to cut up all of those delicious Fuji apples and sample the cinnamon sprinkled slices:

It was a treasure to pull it out of the oven, smell that delicious, cooked goodness and imagine eating it later this evening:

On this day of introspection, I’m thankful for my friends, my family, my lovely wife and all of our abundant blessings.

I’m also thankful for you. Thanks for coming by, and do come back soon. Happy Thanksgiving.

adventures / friends / photo / video — Comments Off
2
Nov 12

Hanging with the raptors

The venerable barn owl, or ghost owl, if you will. They will spook you in a barn if you aren’t ready for it, by the way:

Here’s a good look at a long-eared owl:

A red shouldered hawk in flight:

This Harris’s hawk was completing his first public flight. They live in the western deserts and are very social, working together — sometimes hopping on one another’s backs — to capture their prey. There is a hierarchy, much like bees and ants, about how they hunt, too. And they’re good for falconry, too:

And here’s Spirit, the bald eagle:

And a little video of these birds and more:

Check out the raptor center online.