Quote of the day

Jenn called me earlier on her way into town.

In mid sentence she stopped and said "I think the Blue's Brothers are walking towards me on the side of the road... " [ long pause ] "Oh, never mind.... It was just a couple of Jehovah's Witnesses".

Although I suspect it was a couple of the local boys from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and not, in fact, Jehovah's witnesses, the phone call still made my day.

Lost & Found.

I took a walk today instead of going to lunch.

On my return walk I stopped at the little coffee joint just down from the office to get a hot drink, and when I left to come back this way I noticed a cell phone laying in the road.

There were no vehicles in the immediate vicinity and no one on the street, so I grabbed the phone and pocketed it for the walk back to the office.

When I got back to my desk I tried the "Home" number in the contact list and got no answer, and was in the process of trying to determine who the phone belonged to and how to return it, when it rang... The number on the caller ID said "Mom". I let that call go to VoiceMail, waited a few minutes, and then called the Mom number from my own phone.

A girl named Alex picked up and said she was trying to call her phone from her Mom's phone because she couldn't figure out where she had put hers. She seemed pretty relieved when I told her I had found it and would be happy to return it to her.

Since I work at a large building downtown, it was no big deal to drop the phone in a padded envelope and leave it at the front desk with her name on it. I told her we were open till five, and that she could stop by and get it anytime. I put a note in the envelope saying

"Hey, I'm glad I found this and was able to get ahold of you... Happy New Year, -Eli"

Much to my surprise, the receptionist called me just a few minutes ago and asked me to come down to the desk.

When I got down there, she handed me back my envelope.



It has $15 in it.

I was just doing what I hope someone would do if they found my iPhone laying in the street. I know I've dropped it enough times that it's only a matter of time until I leave it laying somewhere.

Thanks for the gift Alex. It wasn't necessary, but Thank You and Happy New Year.

Dad's boots.

Silas turned one on Saturday.

We had a small get together at the house. Mostly family and really close friends just getting together to eat cake and ice cream. Although Ellie was excited for the birthday party, Silas doesn't quite "get it" yet.

He was just happy to have cake, and seemed to think it was weird that everyone crowded in the kitchen to watch him eat.

Anyhoo... Although Silas got waaaayyyy too much for Christmas, and his birthday get together was specifically advertised as "no gifts please"... He got some anyway...

One gift in particular though needs to be mentioned...

From his Great-Papaw Ruggles ( my Dad's dad ) Silas got a pair of black cowboy boots.

Here they are...



Some pretty snazzy kicks for a guy who can't even walk on his own yet... They're a little big for him, but at the rate he is growing he'll be running around in them in no time...

The boots themselves are a nice gift, but what makes these boots special is that Papaw Ruggles gave them to me, more than twenty-five years ago.

This is me, wearing them. I would guess myself to be between two and three in this photo.



After I outgrew the boots, Papaw made sure they got passed on to my brother. Then he made sure they got passed on to our cousins Kristopher and Matthew who each wore them until they wouldn't fit anymore.

I probably hadn't given the boots a second thought from the time I was two, until Silas pulled them out of the bag on Saturday, and here Papaw had re-claimed them when Matthew grew out of them and polished them up, and put them away, and waited until he had a great-grandson to pass them on to... And now, more than twenty five years after his daddy wore them Silas will be stomping around the house in them.

How cool is that.

Oh... in that photo of me I had just received a fancy new farm tractor to peddle around on. My brother and sister and I played on that tractor inside and out until we were all too big for it, and then it dissapeared.

Well... Here is a photo of Ellie playing on the tractor at Papaw's house when she was about a year-and-a-half old...



It won't be much longer and I suspect that Silas will be inheriting another one of Dad's old toys.

I just hope that we can take as good care of them as my my Papaw did, so that one of these days when I'm Papaw-Ruggles I can pass on to my Ellie & Silas's kids and grand-kids toys that belonged to their mom and dad when they were that age.

Jesus Junk

Dan Kimball's book, They Like Jesus but not the Church, has a great chapter on Jesus in pop culture, and even touches on Marko's oft posted topic of "Jesus Junk".

Was out Christmas shopping on Dec 23, and ran across a rack of these guys at Border's in Parkersburg.



I really wanted one, but Jenn wouldn't let me.

If you read the fine print you'll even see that he has "poseable arms, and gliding action!"




Oh... and the best bit.... Jesus is not recommended for children under three years.