Memories of Dad

Props to Holly for inspiring me to tell some stories about my dad. This has not really been thought through very much, as I'm sitting in an Infiniti dealership waiting for them to program a key..(luxury dealerships have computers & Internet and free snacks) so, these are the stories I can think of on the fly, and maybe I'll add more later as they come to mind.

One time Dad and his friend Marion Hansel were at a Car swap meet, and they had some car parts laying on the ground for sale. Marion had a really nice Speedometer out of a mid 60's Corvette, and he was only asking $5 for it. A guy came by and looked it all over, inspected every inch, set it down and walked away. About an hour later he came back, did the same thing and then said, "wouldya take a dollar for it?" Marion told him no, and that 5 bucks was really cheap anyway for that part. Another hour passes and he comes back AGAIN, inspects the speedo like before, puts it back on the ground and says, "wouldya take $2 for it" at that moment, My Dad hops off the tailgate of the truck and procedes to stomp on the speedometer until it was broken beyond recognition. Then he turns to Marion and hands him $5 for it....... the guy's mouth dropped open and he walked away.... they laughed about that for years.

When I was in High School My dad repainted his Chevy truck in our garage, and it was beautiful, it basically was a show-car paint job on his work truck. We went to Dairy Queen one night to get some ice cream. We were sitting in the truck eating when an old couple in a Lincoln pulled up and parked next to us. The old man got out and kicked his door open right into the door of the truck, leaving a ding. My dad was sitting there in shock with the window down just staring... the guy didn't apologize or nothing.. Next thing I knew after they walked away, Dad gets out and stoops down under the truck for something. He was looking for a big glob of grease from underneath the truck. He finds a big 'ol glob of grease and grit, then he stands up and packs it tightly underneath the door handle of the old man's car... he got back in the truck, we backed up into the spot behind us and waited...... The old man's reaction was priceless...

When dad was in High School, he worked his tail off to buy a 2 year old Corvette. Back then Corvettes had T-Tops, which means that the roof was removable in two sections. Back in the day in Des Moines, it was cool to "Scoop the Loop" Which meant to cruise around downtown for hours looking to impress girls and drag racing with other guys...... One night he was "Scoopin' the Loop" when he pulled up next to a carload of cute girls... Dad dropped a cool 70's pick up line probably.. and just then a bird poops on his head as the ladies watch, then roared with laughter.... he went home in embarrassment.

At Christmas of 1983, I asked for a bicycle, and he got me that AND a Honda 70 three wheeler (back before they we banned) both of them were under the tree Christmas morning.

DAD RAN HIMSELF OVER WITH THE CAR. When I was really little, Dad had a T-Bucket with a huge, powerful racing engine. (Hilborn injected, 6-71 blown 350 Chevy) The car was NOT equipped with a wonderful safety feature called a "Neutral Safety Switch" Basically this feature disables the starter when the car is in gear, so you won't accidently start the motor and run into something. Well, as I said, this Hot Rod did not have that. Since it did NOT have Fenders, standing next to the car meant you were in the path of the rear tires.. (you can see where this is going) While standing outstide the car, with one hand he grabs the key to start it, and with the other grabs the gas pedal to give it some gas as he starts it up. The car comes to life, lunges forward, runs him over and drives into the garage, running into Willie Lewis' 31 chevy crunching the fender..... Dad and Willie rolled around on the ground for a minute writhing in pain, staggered to there feet, and realized that Dad was missing his shirt, and Willie was missing his pants, staning there in his tighty whiteys!!!! Dad found his T-Shirt later with a big tire mark on it, he had it hanging in the garage with pride for years.....

MORE LATER.

Evolution

Norman

I only lived there for a short 5 years or so, but my life was changed dramatically for the good. I found a wife, made the closest friends I've ever had, and learned alot about my black, selfish heart. I can easeily say that moving to Norman was one of those "forks in the road" in my life. After only 5 years from leaving Arizona, my life is miles away from where it would've been. Usually it takes a long time to see the different direction life has taken in result of the decisions we make, but in this short time life has changed exponentially....and I'm happy about it. I guess I could trace it back to a single decision of going to High Point back in '01... but wait, if I hadn't been at the ASU BSU, I wouldn't have known about High Point...so, I guess the point is moot.

I'm excited for what the future holds for Norman. Sometimes I wish I could be a part of it again, and if God leads that way, we'll go.

MORAL: Make good decisions. Even the little ones can change your life.

Expelled

PLEASE go to expelledthemovie.com and watch the trailer... I can't wait for this one to come out.

Miracles

For my class with William Dembski, renown as a leader in the intelligent design movement, we have been reading "Miracles" by C.S. Lewis. Up until today this has been a difficult and mostly academic read.

But today we started talking about if Miracles still happen. Well, of course I believe they still happen, but perhaps only intellectually. He showed a video that blew my socks off. It was an interview of a man in his sixties who experienced a miracle. AND, this happened here in DFW, not in the 3rd world like many stories of miracles

His story goes like this: His wife, daughter and granddaughter were driving down I-35 when his wife's heart stopped. The car crossed the median and hit a truck head on at 70 MPH. (They showed pics of the car, it was unrecognizable) The wife and the daughter were killed instantly, but the 3 year old grandbaby was flown to Fort Worth in critical condition. The man, Therman Scrivner (in case you want to google it) walked into the hospital and a nurse said that he shouldn't go in to the room because his granddaughter was very disfigured. He said to her, God IS going to heal her. In the interview he said that God didn't tell him as such, but he was standing on the promise of scripture. The doctors said it would be impossible for her to live. Here is a rundown of her injuries: Her knees were crushed, legs broken in two places, her face was unrecognizable, her brain had disconnected from her eyes and her spine, and she was bleeding from everywhere. Since her brain was disconnected, she was blind, and was on machines to breath.

Well, this man assured everyone that God was going to heal her 100%. He then proceeded to Pray and read scripture over her, and worship and praise God for the next ten hours.

To make a long story short, within 10 months she was completely healed with NO trace of the accident ever happening. The brought her on stage and she had NO Scarring on her face. Therman said that NO surgeries had been performed on her. "Not one knife has touched her..." he said.

The power of faith to heal.... Wow. I checked out his website, and yah, seems kinda wierd and charismatic, but I believe that this happened to this man. I'm not so sure about his "healing seminars" but it's intersting nonetheless.... Ever seen or heard of a Modern day miracle?

Here's the site:

http://www.tlsm.org/index.htm