An Arkies Musings

I recently received a request from The Final Great Awakening to re-post an older post of mine titled Character Assassination. Re-reading the post made me realize how appropriate it is during the election season. I purposely do not talk about politics in this blog - there are plenty of blogs that are political in nature. No matter what your political views are I hope we can find some common ground on this issue. Here is the post as it ran on Sept 9,2009 Character assassination is an attempt to tarnish a person's reputation. It may involve exaggeration or manipulation of facts to present an untrue picture of the person. Such acts are often difficult to reverse or rectify, and the process is likened to a literal assassination. The damage can last a lifetime or, for historical figures, for many centuries after their death. In practice, character assassination may involve double speak, spreading of rumors, innuendo or deliberate misinformation on topics relating to the subject's...

I have always loved music, and I really enjoy finding new music that isn't well known. Becoming aware of an artist before they make it big is a lot of fun. Over the past couple of years I have discovered artists such as Helen Austin, Amber Rubarth, Seasick Steve, Adrina Thorpe and Pricilla Ahn. In the last few weeks I have discovered a singing sensation that really touches me. I find her voice to be amazing and her charisma and stage presence to be really one of a kind. I hope that you will enjoy her artistry as much as I do. I was recently able to video a couple of her performances. I present to you the next big singing sensation ---- Bekah.

This weekend we took a friend to the airport in Tulsa, Oklahoma. While we were in Tulsa we decided to go to the zoo. It was a perfect autumn day with lovely sunshine but not too hot. While we were walking along a shortcut we heard some loud munching and went to investigate. There we found the Rhino's eating the vegetation along the walkway. They were so close that we could have reached out and touched them. (But we didn't.) They seemed as intrigued with us as we were with them. I was surprised that the only thing between us was a small low fence. Our up close and personal encounter with the Rhino's was the highlight of our day. We enjoyed our day at the zoo a lot. As we watched all of the families there with there children it made us wish we were there with our grandchildren. Maybe sometime soon we will be able to spend a day with our grandchildren at the zoo!

Last Sunday morning were were awakened around 2:30 in the morning with the phone call we had been waiting for. We were expecting a call that said Cynda was in labor, but the call we got was David telling us that baby Elisabeth was here. Within 15 minutes we were on the road heading to Baton Rouge. 8 hours later we got to meet Elisabeth for the first time. When Rebekah was born three years ago the delivery was very fast. From the time the doctor broke the water until she was born was 20 minutes. The doctor went back to her office in the hospital and turned on the monitors - realized what was happening - and turned right around but wasn't able to get there in time. Around the hospital Rebekah was known as speedy baby. Rebekah is no longer the speediest baby. Elisabeth was even faster. Around two in the morning Cynda woke up to sharp labor pains. She told David that she thought it was time to go to the hospital. Before they could get to the van her water broke. Cynda knew th...