An Arkies Musings

It's time again for ABC Wednesday . If you aren't participating in ABC Wednesday , you are missing out on a lot of fun. This week the letter is G. G is for glass blowing. In January, Gina and I took a trip to Lincoln City, Oregon for a reunion of her siblings. One of the things that we did while we were there was to visit The Jennifer Sears Glass Art Studio . The glass blowing artists have some of their work on display in the studio. We met Kelly Howard, and she explained some of the process of producing these beautiful fish that are some of her signature pieces. One of the things that the studio offers is the chance to blow your own glass. You can make a Float, Fluted Bowl, Paperweight, Starfish, Heart or Jumbo Float. They supply everything you need and have expert artists help you. You can get up close and personal with the process of creating Art Glass. Friendly instructors guide you through a creative process that has been handed down from generation to generation th...

It's time again for ABC Wednesday . If you aren't participating in ABC Wednesday , you are missing out on a lot of fun. This week the letter is F. F is for folk music. I have always loved folk music. As a young kid in the 60's I grew up listening to Peter, Paul and Mary, The Kingston Trio, Trini Lopez, Judy Collins, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan and Arlo Guthrie. Some of the earliest records that I owned were by The Wedgwood who were a Christian folk group. I still love to listen to their music. It takes me back to my childhood. For those of you who have never heard The Wedgwood; here is the song, There's A Light, from their Country Church LP. Over the last couple of years, my favorite folk music group has been 3 Penny Acre. Their name comes from the fact that the price of the Louisiana Purchase was three cents an acre. 3 Penny Acre is Bayard Blain, Bernice Hembree, and Bryan Hembree. They are all wonderful musicians, vocalists and songwriters. There sound is acoustic...

My wife and I have been involved in our local Relay For Life since its inception in 2007. My wife is the chairperson and I am the online chair and the accounting chair. American Cancer Society volunteers hold more than 5,000 Relay For Life events in the United States. There are also Relay For Life events held in 19 countries around the world. One of those countries is Australia. One of the Australian Relay For Life stories that I recently came across was the story of Sharon Cohrs. Sharon and her husband are avid mountain climbers, and in 2007 they were preparing to climb Aconcagua, a 22,841 foot tall peak in South America, the highest mountain outside of Asia, when Sharon found a pea-sized lump in her left breast. After a biopsy and days of waiting, she learned she had breast cancer. “Instead of embarking on an amazing adventure with my husband doing what we love, I was undergoing surgery and chemotherapy treatment,” she says. Sharon had climbed several soaring mountains in the pa...

It's time again for ABC Wednesday . If you aren't participating in ABC Wednesday , you are missing out on a lot of fun. This week the letter is E. E is for epilepsy awareness. Epilepsy affects over 50 million people worldwide. That's more than multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy and Parkinson's disease combined. When I was a boy I suffered from a mild form of epilepsy. I had episodes called petit mals. A petit mal seizure is the term commonly given to a staring spell, most commonly called an "absence seizure." It is a brief (usually less than 15 seconds) disturbance of brain function due to abnormal electrical activity in the brain. I had no idea that other people did not experience them. I could feel them coming on and knew to sit down or hold on to something for a few seconds. MY SCHOOL PHOTO CIRCA 1967 The first time that my Mother witnessed one of my petit mals she was very scared. I guess that my eyes rolled back in my head. I k...

After a week of snow and record low temperatures, Saturday was an incredible day. With blue skies, sunshine, and a 60 degree temperature, It was a perfect day. My sister and her daughters are here visiting and we were able to spend the day with them. We spent the day in Hot Springs, Arkansas. In the morning we attended church at the Hot Springs Seventh-day Adventist Church. We spent the afternoon at Garvin Woodland Gardens. Even though it is too early in the year for anything to be in bloom, the gardens were still beautiful and it was a great place to spend the day outdoors. Although we have been to Garvin Woodland Gardens many times, today was the first time we were able to visit the Anthony Chapel that is located at the gardens. It is a very popular place to have a wedding, and is usually being used when we visit. It is a very beautiful chapel that gives you the feeling of worshiping outdoors. On our way back home the sun was going down and the sunset was breathtaking. I stop...

Today I received a phone call from my friend, Neal Scott. He let me know that his wife, Tillie, had passed away last night. A couple of years ago, in February 2009, I had received a call from Neal. At that time Tillie was recovering from heart surgery, and Neal had decided that he should move from the ends of the earth in eastern Oklahoma to a retirement community near Oklahoma City. He felt that they needed to be nearer their doctors, and emergency medical care. He had made arrangements for his son to come and help them move. When Neal called me that Thursday, there was a sense of urgency in his voice. He said, "I hate to ask you this, but I didn't know who else to ask. I feel strongly that I need to get Tillie to the retirement village this weekend. She has had a small stroke, and the doctors say you never know if there will be another one. My son won't be able to come for few weeks. Would you be able to help us move this weekend." I told Neal that we wou...

It's time again for ABC Wednesday . If you aren't participating in ABC Wednesday , you are missing out on a lot of fun. This week the letter is D. D is for Dam, as in the old stone dam right here in Mena. I like to hike back to this old stone dam that is not far from town. I first found the dam in August 2006 through Geocaching . There was a cache listed that was called The CCC DAM BOMBER TRAIL cache . I had a hard time figuring out how to get to this cache, and even though I made it I did everything wrong. I found an old cowpath through the brush that took me to the bottom of the dam on Ward Lake. I climbed the dam and bushwacked through the bottom of Ward Lake as it was dry. I found my way up the creek bed and eventually came to the bottom of the CCC Dam. I had to climb the dam to get to the cache. Once I made it to the dam, I realized that there was a trail, and I took it out to the road. GINA ON THE DAM The dam was built in the 1930's by the Civilian Conservation C...

Oh the weather outside is frightful, But the fire is so delightful, And since we've no place to go, Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! The forecast for Friday, February 4th was innocent enough. A few snow flurries early in the morning with accumulations from one half to one inch; High temperature 38 degrees. The forecasters missed just a little bit. In the Mena area snowfall totals ranged from 4 and a half to eight inches. We received a little more that five inches here at the house. My little shop truck had a hard time with the roads. I thought I wouldn't even be able to get out of my driveway, but after numerous attempts I finally made it. I went in to work, but didn't have a single customer all day. I took some photos of our old cars in the snow. After finishing the job that I had inside my shop building I decided to take off early. I took my nieces playing in the snow. We had a great time but Brooke, the standard poodle that we are dogsitting, had the be...