Christmas, Family, Hallmark, holidays, Humor, Laughter, National Days, TV

Hallmark Holidays

March 30, 2022 Jeff Rab 21 Comments

It’s not right! Hallmark just makes up holidays to sell cards!

It’s like October 6. One one of my daughters posted on Facebook that it was National Transfer Money to Your Daughter Day. Parents everywhere were requested to transfer money to their daughter’s account.

Psft! That ain’t happening! Not unless I go to the bank and got them each a nice, shiny new penny.

Besides, transferring money to your children has been around for years!! It just goes by different names!

It’s called child rearing, shoe buying, food, clothing, shelter, prom, cars, Happy Birthday, shoe buying, Merry Christmas, Easter, college, just because I love you day, and of course, shoe buying.

The last “official” day of National Transfer Money to Your Daughter Day is called probating the will.

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children, Dancing, Family, grandchildren, Grandparents, Hope, inspiration, Jesus, Laughter, life, music, story, Time

A Graceful Dance

March 23, 2022 Jeff Rab 21 Comments

It was a Daddy Daughter Dance. Unfortunately for my son, he had to work out of town. Fortunately for me, I was the second-string back up for Grace, who is 6 years old, and in first grade.

The school dance was for elementary girls, grades one through six, at our local university Grand Ballroom. My only concern was that it was from 6 to 9 PM. Having two left feet and the coordination of a one-legged giraffe, how in the world could I fake dancing that long?! In the end, it didn’t matter.

What did matter was that my granddaughter had a good time. She was dressed in a light blue dress covered with tulle. (For the ladies, aren’t you impressed I know what “tulle” is, and for us guys, it’s said “tool”, but not spelled that way, so it’s not a skirt covered in crescent wrenches like I thought.)

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danger, dreams, Family, Fever, ghost, horror, illness

Fever Dream

March 17, 2022 Jeff Rab 6 Comments

Some of the grandsons were staying with us this weekend and one of them came down with a 103-degree temperature. It was the flu, type A.

I hate fever! It does strange things to me. Like a knife, fever brings an impending terror to my mind.

I’ve had the exact same fever dream I’ve had since childhood. It resurrects itself, poking bony fingers up from the cemetery of good health to snag and pull at all sense of well-being.

Fever brings a deep physical and emotional need to fall asleep, a relief really, instead of buried and shivering under mounds of blankets.

Yet once the eyes close and the mind drifts into never land, terror creeps out of the memory grave.

It’s the same. Always, the same.

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Blogging, Collections, Family, Hobbies, life

Too Many Hobbies

February 23, 2022 Jeff Rab 9 Comments

I have too many hobbies! Seriously.

Some people I know have no hobbies, zero, zilch. They eat, work, sleep, then rewash, repeat, day, after day, after day.

That’s seems boring!

Yet others are so interested in one thing, it’s all they can do. That’d drive me straight over the crazy cliff!

Still others, like me, (clear my throat and look side to side in case someone is staring), have so many interests, collections, activities, and hobbies, that they neither have, nor take, the time to do any of them really well.

Is that an existential hobby crisis?

I need counseling, at least a support group.

“Hi. My name is Jeff, and I’m a hobbyolic.”

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Family, ghost, ghost story, grandchildren, Grandparents, Humor, indians, story, tall tales, totem pole

Chief Katura

February 16, 2022 Jeff Rab 23 Comments

The little boogers were back in the woods behind our house. 7, 8 and 9 year old grandsons would never admit it, but their expressions said they almost got lost.

To implant a little raise the eyebrow caution in them, I whipped up a story of half-truth, ~~half-lie~~, ~~fabricated~~, ~~made up~~, ~~tall tale~~, umm, creative license story.

“Did y’all see any signs of Chief Katura in the woods?”

Like fishing for hungry perch with a worm, they snapped at the bait!

“Who’s that?”

“Chief Katura?”

I paused to look them in the eye for emphasis.

“Now, I’m not saying I believe it, but folks around here say Chief Katura was the bravest Caddo Indian to ever live! Even braver than Chief Nacogdoches, who the oldest town in Texas (where we live), is named after. A lot of folks around here say the spirit of Chief Katura still roams these woods looking for his bow and arrow.”

They didn’t just take the bait. They swallowed the hook!

I robbed some local fore from ghost stories from the town I grew up in and went on.

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beauty, Daughters, Family, fathers, Humor, life, love, Marriage, Weddings

The Longest Wedding Aisle, Ever

February 10, 2022 Jeff Rab 27 Comments

Walking my oldest daughter down her wedding aisle was excruciating!

Never mind the other 23,982 steps my Fitbit recorded that day. Most of the energy was used in the 25 to 30 steps walking down the aisle!

It’s a travesty, really.

I mean, who came up with the rule that the dad has to walk his bride-to-be daughter down the aisle anyway?

It’s not fair. It’s void of all decency of a civilized society! Continue reading The Longest Wedding Aisle, Ever →

Faith, Family, grace, heart, Hope, Jesus, life, prayer, priorities, Time, Truth, Work

Reprise

July 21, 2021 Jeff Rab 25 Comments

It’s tedious. Removing calcium deposits from pool tile at the water line.

Our pool’s never been cleaned, so three tiles at the water line had to be scraped and scrubbed.

Doing a 20 by 40 foot pool with a hand scraper is like an ant sized dental hygienist cleaning your teeth.

A pumice stone polishes off the remnants, but that hard crusty stuff, it only comes off with scrapes, scratches and scrubs.

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college, Family, food, Humor, Office, Pizza, Work

Careful What You Order

July 9, 2021 Jeff Rab 18 Comments

The purchasing agent at work, Lynn, scours sales ads for cheap coke deals, clips coupons and beats out other grocery shoppers for the first selection on canned soft drinks.

I don’t know this, but I suspect she’s probably a Black Friday beast shopper, the kind where two women wrestle in a store aisle over the last available Zappy Dappy Duck for kids.

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