Andrew's First Photo Spread

My son Andrew appears in this month's issue of "Automatic" in a story about working in the warehouse for Jamie Thomas and Black Box Distributing. Andrew has been out West for a little over two years pursuing a career in skateboarding. The article spotlights Andrew and three of his cohorts that work in the warehouse at Black Box in Vista California. Black Box is owned by renowned skateboarder Jamie Thomas whose Zero and Fallen lines are a national phenomena. Congrats Andrew!

Read "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd

A friend, whose judgment in books I've come to trust recommended this one and I in my turn do the same with those of you looking for wondrous story about the living of life. It is southern in its setting and sensibility, but strikingly universal in its message. As an English teacher constantly in search of novels that will engage my students and in turn teach the important issues and values, The Secret Life of Bees covers the geography of the American dilemma of race. Like To Kill a Mockingbird, this book is a coming of age story set in the 1960s south. Unlike, TKM, which opened the eyes of so many southerners to our true feelings about our "heritage", Kidd's story gives us African American characters that are not only admirable, but worthy of emulation. People we would loved to have known and loved. And all within the wonderful metaphor of the bee's world. Take a few days and read this one. You won't regret it.

Read More About the Book

Hurricane Dennis Makes a Visit

July 11, 2005
At Fannin's Cafe on Hwy 83 this morning our waitress summed up our experience."We got more wind and rain after it went ashore than before." Everything is getting back to normal. A few limbs blown down in the yard. Everyone, safe and sound.

Sunday 02:00 AM - drizzling rain and very little wind.
06:05 AM - drizzling rain and very little wind. The monotony contrasted with expectations. Beginning to think that the storm though reported is imaginary.
Sunday 08:30 AM

- Higher winds (note the 21 miles per hour on the picture above) and more emphatic rains. Reports suggest that the storm will make land fall near Gulf Breeze, rather than Mobile bay. A strange repeat of Ivan?
Sunday 10:44 AM
Our front yard from the porch.
The rain continues to fall. We are seeing winds of 30-35 miles per hour. The storm is aiming landfall between Pensacola, Florida and Mobile, Alabama. Last week on our way home from Mobile we transversed this area along the coast marveling at the power of Ivan just ten short months ago and here we go again!
Sunday 12:00 Noon
Rain is falling in buckets and the wind is clamoring. The house is groaning a little. Small tree limbs are falling beneath the syacamore in the front side yard. Power has held up well except for one momentary outage of the cable television and high speed internet. Not much to report. http://www.wmmb.com (Channel 13 in Panama City is streaming its coverage to the WWW)
Sunday 12:05 Noon
Check out the Hurricane Dennis photos on FLICKR that people are uploading as the storm happens.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/hurricanedennis/
Sunday 12:45 PM

Click on the picture and watch a short video of Hurricane Dennis's winds from my front porch.
Sunday 2:00 PM

As Dennis sits 30 minutes away from making landfall near Pensacola (about 100 miles from us) one of my cats waits out the storm in the wheel well of my truck.

Images taken in downtown Defuniak Springs during one of the pre-Dennis thunderstorms that swept through the area on Saturday.. Click on these thumnails to see larger images in my Flickr Photostream.

Saturday 8:30 PM - Waiting for Dennis to arrive, eyes and ears glued to TV, the radio, and the internet.
Saturday10:15 PM - drizzling rain and very little wind.