What's up?

Life’s been a little hectic lately but just as exciting as ever. I spent the week, last week, in Oak Ridge, Tennessee facilitating for the Department of Energy. They’re in the middle of a program for the last few years in which they are attempting to bring federal employees together from all of their facilities across the country to write procedures, which all employees can follow. And you thought you had an exciting week.

On Monday I drove to Reagan, left my car there and flew into Knoxville on US Air. My car wasn’t ready at the Enterprise desk so they ended up giving me a brand new minivan/4x4 thing that was actually fun to drive. It’s about a forty-minute drive from Knoxville to Oak Ridge with hardly any traffic even during rush hour. I stayed at the local Double Tree, which I’ve stayed at before (you know, the place that gives you a warm chocolate-chip cookie when you check in).The work at the DOE was one the boring side but the people from all over the country were nice and easy to work with.

While I was gone, Dani and Barbara were home with our Golden Retriever, Lady. They spent most of the days at the pool with friends and in the evenings my folks stopped by a to have dinner with them but the most exciting evening for them was when they had a sleep-over at my brother’s house. The highlight of the evening was when they sat down to watch the DVD of the Simple Life, season four. My brother Bill was an unwilling participant.

When I checking my flight prior to coming home on Friday I realized that my return flight came into Dulles instead of Reagan, I really should have paid closer attention. I think from now on I am going to purchase my flights directly from the carrier instead of going through Travelocity and such. Fortunately, Bill came to the rescue and picked me up at Dulles and drove me back to Reagan during Friday rush hour. He will surely get into heaven because of that.

A dear friend of ours from church passed away and his funeral service was held Saturday. His name was Francis Gipson, an African American in his 80’s. The reason I mentioned that he was an African American is because of the impact he had on so many people with his life stories. Francis was one of the first troops to land on the beaches in Normandy with his all black platoon. As he found himself lying in the sand while so many other soldiers around him were being killed he prayed this one little prayer that has stuck with me, Thank you Lord, Thank you Jesus, Thank you Jesus, Thank you Lord. Whenever I don’t know what to say in a prayer I go back to Francis’ prayer.

Mr. Gipson was also a college football player who, I am told, would have been drafted into the NFL if he was white, he was that good. Francis left a huge impact on all that he met whether it was shaking their hand or helping someone out. He also help to start the Men’s choir at church 16 years ago. Thee men’s choir sang at the funeral service and I was also honored to be asked to sing a solo, Amazing Grace. Francis started asking me to sing at his funeral about nine years ago, I kept telling him to take his time.

On Saturday night Barbara and I took Dani to Dulles after her dance recital so she could fly to Florida to see her mom for a day or so before she met her friend Marikaa as they set sail on their cruise to thee Bahamas! On Sunday Barbara and I headed back to Dulles so she could visit her mom in Florida for the week while Dani was gone. I am sick of Dulles. I got pictures from Dani’s phone on the ship and I am sure she is having a fantastic time.

Rehearsals for A Funny…Forum are going well. I’m having a great time working again with my friends John Hollinger and Steve Hayes but man, oh man; I have a heck of a lot to learn before this thing opens. I’m doing a lot of yelling in the show; I hope my voice holds out. The show is at the Riverside Dinner Theater in Fredericksburg and runs from the beginning of August through October. I’ll be doing most of the Thursday show plus Friday & Saturday nights and Sunday matinees.

Dani is coming back on Saturday in time for us to go to orientation at Shenandoah University on Monday and then we pick up Barbara on Monday night. That’s right, DULLES!

I promise I’ll post some graduation pictures and such coming up soon!