School is done!

Well I finally got my grades in for the last semester of school. I got a "C" in Spanish, I was excited to say the least. In my other 5 classes I got "A"'s so my GPA is a 3.478, not bad if I do say so myself. I worked my butt off to get it there after leaving college the first time with a .009 GPA or something like that - regardless it was abysmal.

So I slept..er..went through the orientation to be a substitute teacher here today. They only pay $65.00 but hey, it's better than a poke in the eye, right. So I sat through that torture for about an hour and a half, then I went to the local Lion's Club and spoke as the guest speaker today. I presented a program on the Influenza Pandemic of 1918. It was the paper I presented last year at the student/faculty seminar I had to go to.

I didn't follow my paper to the letter, I spiced it up a bit and played up the local history a bit more because the audience was local people and they would be interested in that so that is what I did.

Not much else going on. I figure my next post I will relate the story of how I broke my ankle or perhaps one of my more colorful stories that begin with, "I had drank a few beers already..." well you get the idea.

~ Terhune

Almost there...

Well I took my Spanish II final today and I am not sure how I did but by God I gave it a shot. Took me an hour and 20 minutes to take the test and I went back twice over the test before turning it in. I figured after spending that long on it I either had the best grade I was going to get or it was a lost cause.

I hope you guys liked the pictures of the fire I posted. It was from a house about 3 miles out in the country. We got there around 10:45 am CST I think, fire was shooting out the side window and smoke was coming from the eaves. We hit it really hard and I thought we had it but it got into the attic and ran from there.

I think that if there had been a hydrant we could have tied into then the fire would have been out, but we ran our pumper dry and then had to shuttle water. One of the volunteer departments nearby came with two pumpers that only had like 1000 gallons total if that, not really sure but I know it wasn't a lot.

The really bad thing was that the house was one of those add on things where the house had been added onto and added on to over the existing structure and the fire got into the crawl spaces in the ceiling and from there it was all over. All-in-all a busy night considering they had a fire in town at the same time and there was only three of us out there to fight the fire in the country.

The good thing is that the house was empty and no one was hurt.

Anyway, I got 1 more paper to finish and some things to tie up for my one Methods class and then I am finished till the 14th when I have to practice my graduation walk and then graduation on the 15th. About damn time!

~ Terhune

Long Fire

Saturday night was fun..fun..fun..here are some pictures (and yes, that is sarcasm):











Hope you enjoy the pictures!

~ Terhune

Oh Yeah!!

Well I took my oral exam in Spanish II and I passed it with an 85% - I am freaking ecstatic!

Tomorrow morning I have to take my Senior Comprehensives, not to excited about that but I got to do it so what the hell. Thought about going to the local high school football game tonight but then decided against it as I do have the test in the morning and I need to have a calm atmosphere happening tonight.

Things just seem to be clicking along, now all I have to do is finish those papers and I am home free!!!

~ Terhune

Spanish, or pray for me so that I pass this freaking test!!

Today is another wonderful day full of cheer and happiness - ok, maybe not.

I have another oral exam in Spanish II. She gave us over 30 questions to learn in addition to coming up with the answers to the questions. She will ask the question in English and then we have to repeat it in Spanish. I worked on it till midnight last night and I think I shall do fairly well.

Spanish and I have a complicated and harsh relationship unfortunately.

I take my Senior Comprehensive tomorrow morning at 7:45 CST. Shouldn't be that big of a deal considering they let you bring a calculator. I have no clue how long it will take, but I am hoping for multiple choice, easy answers and coffee available at the door. Not that the last one will happen but a guy can dream can't he?

Three papers to go before the end of the semester. I will knock out two this weekend and start on the last one, which is actually just a rewrite of a previous paper I did for the class. Overall this semester has been interesting to say the least.

~ Terhune

The Plague

Yeah that's right the plague. I swear to all that is holy that my son has the plague. He coughs every night when he goes to bed and it's hard coughs, cough till you puke type coughs. His little eyes get kinda blue around the edges and his face goes a bit pale. It's his sinuses draining down the back of his throat which sucks, we got Nalex that the doctor perscribed for his cough but I think we are going to have to do something else if this continues.

I am almost finished with school, have I mentioned that yet?

I have to write a two-page paper for Health class, a five-page paper for my Civli War class and a seven-page paper for my African Lit class. The Health and Lit papers are due after Thanksgiving, the Civil War paper is due next Tuesday. I haven't even started it. How screwed am I?

One day perhaps I will learn the true meaning of procrastination...

~ Terhune

Music and other things

I like music, all kinds of music and tonight I was looking through some websites online while I should have been studying for my Civil War and Reconstruction exam tomorrow when I came across a song that I remembered hearing before but hadn't heard in a while.

Mad World - From the Donnie Darko Soundtrack

Its a remake of the Tears for Fears classic which I personally thought was better than the original. Then I realized that my wife had never seen Donnie Darko so I went to Netflix and added it to the top of my queue.

Speaking of music I also had to download the Korn remake of Word Up originally performed by Cameo. I think that Korn did an excellent job with this remake.

I have decided that next spring I will take a photography class that is offered here at the community college. I think it may be fun and I like to take pictures, not that you can tell by all the pictures on here but once I discover what my wife did with the camera I plan on shooting some things and seeing what I can produce.

I may even surprise myself, who knows.

The end is near...

Well here it is the 13th of November and I have less than a month of school left and then I graduate on the 15th of December.

Hell Yeah!!

God, it has been stressful though. I still have two term papers to write, one due on the 21st and then another due on the 29th. It's gonna be a stressful next couple of weeks that is for sure.

But anyway, how have you been?

That's great.

You know I feel that my blog should be more than just my ramblings, which I promise to try and keep under wraps at least par tof the time. I know that my consistency in writing on here is not that great.

Ok, it's abysmal but I try, doesn't that count for something?

So the big news is that I will hopefully graduate in December,basically a month away. The next big question that is plaguing our family is the really big question of moving.

We live in a small rural town at the moment that offers none of the cultural and educational events/things that I want to see and that I want my son to be involved in and exposed to. My wife feels the same way but she is hung up on wanting to stay in this state. Which really tends to limit our options on where we want to move to.

I have a plan though, it may not be a good one but its all I have right now so it will have to work. I am going ot send off to the various communities I like out side of the state and get information packets mailed to us. Then I am going to leave them strategically placed, just something to walk by and pick up in the course of your day while your walking through the house.

I think it might work to influence her at least a bit towards my way of thinking, it is worth a shot anyway!

~ Terhune

Dog eat dog world...or something..

Well its early morning and my wife and son are elaving to go to school. I put the dog outside this mrning around 6:30 and she barked for 30 minutes. Thats a problem. I keep expecting one of the neighbors to call the police or come up to me complaining.

I guess I am going to have to buy a barkless collar to put on her that shocks her when she barks, but I really hate to do that. Her barking is her way of communicating something is wrong or out of place. I will have to think about it some more, maybe talk to my nieghbors and see if she is bothering them. Oh well, its Monday.

~ Terhune

Long time, no see....

Well it's been a while since I was able to do any updating to this blog. I would like to say that I was just super busy but the truth of the matter is that I just got lazy. Hopefully that will now be changed as I should graduate from college in December and I should have plenty of time to work on this blog and do some of the things to it that I have been wanting to do for a long time.

Since my last post a lot of things have happened; we moved for the most part, one of my co-workers died in a sudden, shocking manner and that was traumatic, my son started kindergarten, and I got piled on by paper work to graduate. Sometimes I wonder if it is even worth it...ok, you're right it is!

~ Terhune

Official Ghost Rider Movie Teaser

This is the official teaser for the upcoming Ghost Rider movie. It was released on May 23rd, 2006. The website says that the movie will be out on Feb. 16, 2007. I can't wait for it! I like Nick Cage and Ghost Rider was always one of my favorite comic book characters growing up and from the trailer it looks like its pretty honest to the comic book. I'll just have to go to the movie and see how honest it really is, but I am looking forward to it! ~ Terhune http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/ghostrider/

Moving Day's are here again...

So I have been meaning to write for quite some time but I have been super busy moving. What am I moving you may ask?

Well to start with we moved my brother and his family out of thier house, but thier not totally out yet. They left some funriture and other things for when they return in September. Wouldn't really be a big deal except for the fact that my family and I are moving into the house so recently vacated by my brother and his family.

My wife has a week before school starts for her. My sone has 2 weeks before he starts school and I have 3 weeks to go before I start school again. There is a sink that needs to be fixed, at least 4 rooms to paint, shoe molding to put down in all the bedrooms, carpet to pull up and replace with something (either carpet or hardwood floor or linoleum (yuk) or something else entirely that my wife will come up with), a fence to put up and a seperate dog run to build so the dog doesn't poop everywhere.

Here's another thing, only one of the bedrooms has an actual light fixture in it. Aparently when the house was built everyone just used lamps so there is no light fixture's in the older part of the house - wierd. So we have to run some electrical wire and put in some cieling lights, will probably go with lighted ceiling fans though.

Today my wife and I started painting, I replaced a toilet that was cracked and we cleaned the kitchen, I hammered down some shoe molding, and generally just cleaned and moved all of the remaing stuff of my brothers into one room so that we could work on the rest of the house.

I just hope we can get it all done before the first of September because then we have to start working on the house that we currently live in so that it can be rented out.

It's gonna be a busy Fall!

~ Terhune

Genealogy

Well my latest obsession is Genealogy research. I think that it is important for myself and for my son and nieces and nephews.

I have the basic information that I can gather from my grandparents and some of the information that my third cousin has gathered so I think that I have a good start going on. I also decided to get whatever information I could about my wife's family as well.

I found an awesome place to research her father's side of the family here: Culpepper Connections.

Anyway, I have a meeting scheduled with the local Genealogical Society tomorrow night so I will be hitting the internet and updating whatever information I can before tomorrow - wish me luck!

~ Terhune

Since our last episode...

WOW!!

I can't believe it has been so long since my last post here. Seems like a lot has happened since that last post. Lets see if I can bring you up to speed.

The month of May finished with a whimper, or something, as I worked a lot of extra shifts for other people at work who had worked for me so that I could go to school last semester. My wife wrapped up her school year with the information that she was getting a new principal and the realization that the kids she is going to have this coming fall look to be in a category all on thier own.

June saw more of the same for me - work. My wife spent some time with our son at her mothers while I held the fort down. Nothing really major took place in June that I can recall right now, pretty boring actually.

July seems to be the month of months. I have been on vacation for a week and I don't go back to work until the 14th. My parents have traveled up to Ohio to my sister's house and then they are going to my cousins wedding - notice that we didn't get invited.

I am hopeful that the end of the month will see us moving into our new home. My brother is moving to Texarkana so we are moving into his families home and my parents are going to sell the home we are currently living in. At least I think that is the plan.

I have one more semester of school and I will have my Bachelor of Arts in History. I must say that I am excited. Next July we will be moving again I am sure as more people retire from teaching and the teaching field itself begins to open up more. I hope we can find something around Bentonville or Fayetteville.

My son will be 5 in Septemeber and starting KINDERGARTEN!!!!!!!

Where does the time go?

~ Terhune

Busy as a Beaver....

You know that old saying: Busy as a Beaver?

Well thats me now, not that I wasn't busy to begin with but now I feel like I am busier than before. I started a part time job on Monday at Acro Graphix. Basically we make signs, all kinds of signs.

THursday we are putting a full decal treatment on a profishing boat for someone. Should be interesting to say the least.

So far I have made some liscense plates, some signs for the prison and some large signs for an agricultural business. Its an interesting job so far.

We had a house fire on Sunday night. The call came in about 2:30 am and when we got there the house was already fully invovled. Fire was shooting out of every window. The cops that were there told us that there might be a crack user inside so once we got the flames knocked donw we sent a team into to do a quick search.

They didn't find anything but even if they had it would have been a body recovery since the house was fully invovled when we got there anyone who was trapped inside would have been dead from the smoke by the time we got there.

Anyway we made it back to the station around 6 am and I for one was bone tired. No one off duty shoed up so it was only the 7 of us on duty and the Chief who fought the fire. the Captain from "C" shift did show up but he had to cover Central Station just in case something else caught fire and he could drive the back up truck to it.

I don't understand the guys not coming to off duty fires. I know we don't have to but I personally like some help when we have a big burner. And its really not for me, hell I can take it but from a safety standpoint its better to have more than 8 people at the fire so in case someone does go down or something does go wrong you have the men in reserve to go into action to fix whatever the problem might be.

I told one of the other guys that I wouldn't expect me to show up to anymore off duty fires since the other shifts couldn't see thier way to respond to our aid, but thats just me blowing off some steam. If they have anyting I will be there provided I am not out of town.

I think of my job as more than a job, its a calling like the priesthood. My job is about the community and protecting my neighbors. It's important.

On the school front I have good news, I have most of my grades in from this semester and so far I have all A's. I am still waiting for one class to post it's grades but I feel really confident about the final I took so I am expecting at least a B average.

My son graduates from pre-k on Thrusday. He is all excitied. A lot of the family is going to come and see it. I am taking off from work at 3:30 pm so that I can go. I am so proud of him its ridiculous. He has so much potential its scary at times. I just hope that I can support him and guide him to make good choices in his life and that he can learn from my mistakes.

If anything, life is an adventure!

~ Terhune

Three down, Three to go...

Well Three of my finals are done and gone and I am happy to say that I have 2 A's and a B. Not bad for a 30 yr old. My last three tests are African American History since 1865, Personal and Social Development and Career Development (Which I took last semester but she gave me an Incomplete because I never took the final). The only problem I am having is the fact that WebCT has crashed at my school and the last two classes are both WebCT classes!!

How am I supposed to take the online final if I can't get into the system? I know that the professor for Personal and Social Development has a hard copy of the final, she told me that today, but the Career development teacher does not.

Can you say moron! Who in their right mind is not going to have a hard copy of everything for their online course filed away in case of a computer crash?????

Other good news is that I applied for graduation today. Filled out the little form with my full name as it will appear on the diploma and gave my height and weight so that I can be fitted for my cap and gown correctly.

On the birthday side of things I purchased a few Playstation 2 games off of EBay that I have been wanting: Splinter Cell, Tiger Woods golf 2006, NCAA Football 2005, The Godfather, and Conflict: Vietnam. So far I have received NCAA Football 2005 in the mail and I plan on playing it all night tomorrow when I am at the firestation.

I would say all day, but we have a class we have to attend and I figure it will last till at least 5pm with a break for lunch, will probably start at 8am. Should make for a looooong boring day to say the least.

~ Terhune

It's My Birthday!!

It's my birthday!! Well I am 30 today which doesn't seem all that bad really. I know when I was a kid 30 was like old as dirt but your perspective changes as you get older.

I had a nice day. Got home from the fire station around 7 am, took a shower and got dressed for school. Took my kiddo to his daycare and then I drove the hour to my University. Arrived just in time for my first class, History of the Middle East, and it was a pretty interesting lecture about the Mamluke's and the Ottoman Empire.

After that class was over I went and turned in all of the work I had done for the bullshit class of Personal and Social Development. I also learned that the WebCT servers are still down, been down for like 2 weeks now. People need to take finals and such - HELLO!! I don't know why it is but the university I go to seems to be technologically challenged all of the time.

Waited around for a bit and talked to one of my classmates about her boyfriend issues and what not then waited for my other professor to show up for my second class - which he didn't. So I drove home and ate me some cold pizza for lunch, thought about mowing and then grabbed a book to read off of the shelf.

I fell asleep on the couch sometime while reading. I must have been more tired than I thought.

Woke up and went and got my son from his daycare. Then we all went over to my parents house where my brother and his family had come over and we grilled steaks and drank some beer and celebrated our birthday - my brother and I are twins.

My wife is now tucking our little guy into bed and I am reading over some notes and writing this up before I go shopping online!!! I have to spend that birthday money don't you know!

~ Terhune

The Stretch

Well today is the 19th of April. Five days until my 30th birthday. I am not sure how I feel about that except for the fact that I am glad to be having another birthday. It could be worse. I could be dead.

So I am in the last few weeks of the Spring Semester at college. and I have a crap load of stuff to do. Lets make a list shall we?

• Finish Historiography Paper


• Write a Paper for Personal and Social Development (Known as PSD from here on out)


• Do a take home test for PSD


• Answer the questions for Chapters 5-9 for PSD


• Study for the final in the Reformation Class


• Study for the final in the Middle Eastern History Class


• Study for the final in the African American History since 1865 Class


• Make up the work for the one class that I recieved an incomplete in last semester

Yep, that just about covers everything I have left to do this semester. I have a little mantra I keep repeating to myself:

I will not stress, I will not stress, I will finish everything, I will finish everything

Guess I better get started!

~ Terhune

Immigration and other things

Immigration seems to be the big topic up for discussion lately and I am still not sure exactly where I stand on it so lets see what we know and maybe some people will post some comments on it as well, just to flesh it out a bit.

Fact: The United States was founded on the blood, sweat and tears of immigrants.

Now I don't know how many of those immigrants where legal or illegal. I do know that my ancestors who came over here looking for religious freedom and political freedom came legally.

Fact: There are an estimated 11 million undocumented illegal aliens in the United States.

Now that is just crazy. I mean you hear about illegal immigrants but you never really think about how many there are. If there are 11 million undocumented illegal immigrants then how many documented illegal immigrants are there?

I think that the main concerns that I am seeing are border security and the burden being placed on the various federal and state governments in taking care of illegal immigrants.

Personally I am on the fence as to what is the right thing to do.

ON the one hand entering the United States is a violation of the law, not criminal law but a civil offense. According to NPR.org in January of this year illegally entering into the United States was made a felony. Anyway, on to my opinion.

I understand that illegal immigrants have come to this country looking for a better life and have willingly crossed the border in whatever manner in order to attain that better life. I know for a fact that some who have been deported back to their home countries have simply waited a few weeks and then recrossed the border.

So I say lets go with the McCain bill and let them become citizens, those who are already here. Let them pay the $2000 dollar fine and go through the process of becoming citizens but at the same time we need to keep track of them and make sure they follow through with the program.

Lets also increase our border security and control the flow of those people entering the country a bit better, hell a lot better. Our first line of defense for the United States starts at the border so lets make it work.

As of right now that's my opinion in a round about way, kind of generalized because I am still reading up on it and forming and reforming my opinion.

In other news, I got my transcript fixed today so that it accurately reflects my grade point average:

3.225

I think back to the time and money I wasted back in 1994 and I am sick to my stomach. I mean I have had to retake classes and work my butt off to get my GPA up from less than a 1.00. The good news is that I only have 15 hours left to go before I get my bachelors degree and I am so ready to have it.

I have been feeling rather overwhelmed lately and I know it is because the spring semester is coming to a close but I keep telling myself that I only have a few weeks left of school and then its summer time and I can relax until September.

Well, except for that other job I am picking up which will work me an additional 30+ hours a week. TO bad the minimum wage increase in Arkansas doesn't take effect until October, I could use that extra $1.06 an hour!

~ Terhune

Finding the time...

I know, I know I keep promising to put up pictures of my garden but it ain't doing well. I think the squirrels have eaten most of my tomato plants but, I got a plan to prevent that with my new crop!!

I was over reading at George R. R. Martin's Website today and I was reading his "Not a Blog" and I realized that he has the same questions for people who blog:

How do they find the time to do it everyday? Like Mr. Martin, I too am not known for my ability to keep up with a journal or diary or what have you. So what's the secret folks? How do you find time to write on your blog everyday?

In other exciting news I signed up for my last 15 hours of college so that I can complete my Bachelors in History. About time if I do say so myself. I am also now the Vice President of our Phi Alpha Theta (History Honors Society) on campus, not really sure what that will mean as far as responsibilities but what the heck.

My wife and I think that our son has the chicken pox. Took him to the doctor today and the Doctor was like, "Yeah, it could be chicken pox, but it could also be just insect bites from playing outside." The nurse that was in there said, "It's chicken pox."

So apparently he might have an a typical case of the chicken pox, the Doctor said to go ahead and send him to school so he's going to school tomorrow and we will continue to monitor and adjust.

Watched the Chronicles of Narnia last night. It was a good movie, played pretty close to the book, but lets be honest. Movies are never as good as the book. Decided after watching the movie that I needed to reread the Narnia series so I went to the book shelf to grab the first one and surprise, surprise - it wasn't there.

The joy of being married to an elementary teacher, she's always taking our stuff to school to share with her kids and NOT bringing it back! Oh well, maybe one of her kids will read it and be amazed at the opportunities reading can provide for them. At least I can hope that.

~ Terhune

A Day Between

Well I left you all last time with a brief overview of Firefighter K's problem. Well we had our meeting and he agreed that what he had done was messed up and he wasn't making any excuses but that he had misunderstood the Captain when he had said he could go to the store....

RRRIIIIIIGGGGHHHHTTTTT....

We decided to give him the benefit of a doubt, but surely he has to realize that he is on probation for a year from his hire date. If things continue in the manner in which they are I truly don't know if in a year he will be kicking it with us here at the good ol' fire station.

I gave my speech on the Spanish Flu on Wednesday. My speech went very well and my professor said that the imagery I used in my powerpoint was very powerful and sometimes shocking.

"Hell yeah!!" I thought to myself as he said that. I didn't win the competition, all I got was a certificate saying I had participated, but winning wasn't the important part. I just wanted the experience. I plan on submitting some more papers in the future. I am also looking around for a good topic for an article to submit to one of the history magazines. We shall see.

I just got home from being at work for the last 48 hours and I am beat. Sitting at the station and waiting for the alarm to go off isn't hard it's just draining emotionally and physically for me. I am not sure why, maybe it is the anticipation.

I go back to work tomorrow and I have to work on the FEMA Fire Grant that my Department is working on, hopefully I can knock it out tomorrow and not have to worry about it anymore as the grass is starting to grow and I am sure that we will begin to send out letters to property owners in the city who refuse to maintain their property according to city ordinances.

Yes, that's right - I am one of the grass police. If your yard is wooly looking and you have trash and other debris sitting in the yard we will send you a letter and you will clean it up or you will go to court. I hate this time of year.

Today I hope to be able to get in my garden since its not raining. I have about 20 tomato plants that need to go in the ground, not to mention my cucumber plants and okra. I will get pictures of the garden today and should have them up tonight or Tuesday. Should be fun playing in the dirt. You all know how I like to get dirty!

~ Terhune

Cracking the Whip

Well today was the return to school, yes spring break is over!

So I got back my last two midterms today. I made a B on my Non-Western Civ midterm and an A on my History of the Middle East midterm. Tomorrow I take my last midterm at 2pm, which will mean I will have to miss my African American History since 1865 class but it can't be helped.

This next midterm is for the bullshit class I have to take that I feel is a total waste of my time and money but whatever. My dedication to the class is evident in the fact that my grade in there right now is a 73 without the midterm but I can't allow myself to not care. A higher grade equals a higher grape point after all.

Went and had lunch with the Fire Chief and his wife today, for those of you who don't know I am a Lieutenant at the local Fire Department. It was an interesting lunch to say the least. The Chief informed me that the new guy on my shift was a dumb ass yesterday and got written up and will more than likely be suspended for a shift.

Here's what happened:

The new guy, we will call him Firefighter K, asked the Driver, known as Driver B-Pimping, if they could take the fire truck over to the local grocery store....

Driver B-Pimping looked at Firefighter K for a second and shook his head, "No we can't take the truck out right now since it is raining and I don't want to have to wash the truck if we don't have to. The rain is supposed to slack up soon and besides my Mom said she would drop by later so if you want I am sure she will be more than willing to pick up something for you."

"What if I just took my own truck and just ran over there real quick?"

"No, you can't leave me here by myself that would be against our Rules and Regulations. My mother will be here in a bit, just chill." Driver B-Pimping said over his shoulder as he walked back to the dormitory area to watch some television.

He was just getting cozy in his bed when he heard a door slam and an engine start up, "What the...."

Driver B-Pimping looked out the back window in time to see Firefighter K driving away from the station and out onto the street. Quickly he went to the phone and called Central Fire Station.

"Central Fire Station this is Captain W."

"Hey Cap, this is Driver B-Pimping. Look Firefighter K just left the station to go to the store in his private vehicle after I told him not to."

"He did what??"

And from there the story goes down hill.

So now I have to meet everyone up at Central Fire Station in the morning at 8am and stick my size 11 where the good Lord split Firefighter K. I am so looking forward to that. Why is it that when the city hires a moron I get to work with them???

I just hope there isn't a fire tonight cause I got school work to do and some sleep to catch up on.

Tomorrow should be a whole barrel of fun, ass-chewing in the morning, short presentation right after, midterm test at 2pm. Ah the joys of a hectic life!

~ Terhune

Busy Day

Got off at 7 am today, got home took a shower then went over to the parental units house and ate breakfast with them and my brother's son and daughter.

Went to church. The kids kept trying to lay down on me during the sermon so that they could sleep and I kept pushing them off of me and telling them to sit up. I just think that the age they are they should at least be able to sit up and appear to listen even if they really aren't.

Ate lunch over at my parents with the rest of the family. It was Taco Salad Day!! I asked who was coiming over since that meal seems to be the "go to meal" whenever company is expected.

Came home and started to work on finishing my Influenza paper. On rereading it this morning I realized that there were some typos and such so I fixed them. Then I sat on the couch for a bit and watched Sahara.Played with the cat while watching the movie, then amazingly I fell asleep.



Woke up and watched a rather disturbing 60 Minutes report called "Rewriting Science". It was an interesting little tidbit of journalism on global warming.

Went and grabbed me a bite to eat at Wndy's here in town and it was nasty. It doesn't take me five minutes to drive from Wendy's to my house so you would figure that the food woule still be hot. Well I guess I figured wrong on that since my cheeseburger and fries were cold. Ate it anyway.

Finished up my PowerPoint presentation for my Influenza speech, hopefully my professor will give the thumbs up signal tomorrow and I can concentrate on obsessing about actually giving the speech!

~ Terhune

Creative Starts and Stops

Well here I sit.

For years now I have contemplated writing a novel - who hasn't right? - but I always seem to have another idea, a better story, a more mysterious character....

Needless to say nothing ever gets done with the constant switching.

Now I have taken a sabbatical from all of my online gaming addictions. I decided on this course of action last week while looking around my house for some important documents for my son so that he could be registered for kindergarten and I realized that none of his paperwork was where it should have been.

The house is a mess, the yard is a mess, my organizational abilities have been lacking for like the past year and it all comes down to this:

I can't find a damn thing in my house that I need to find.

So something has to go, I have to make time to do the things that will benefit me in the long run and playing my online addictions is not one of them. I have to take control of my life before it spirals out of control- in other words before I go insane.

So I went to that bastion of consumerism - Wal-Mart - and I bought some posterboard and some new notebooks. Tomorrow when I get home from work I plan on putting a time schedule together so that I can do the things I want to do while the things I have to do are done before they need to be done so that everything is on time.

Today's list:

1. Today I will rewrite my speech on the Avian Flu for the final time in preparation for Wednesday's speech.

2. I will begin organizing my notes on my Aaron Burr paper.

3. I will organize my assignments for the annoyingly unimportant waste of time stab me in the eye because that would be better than taking this class course in Personal and Social Development before I grow so disgusted with the fact that I am actually paying for this class that I just walk away from it - which would not be a good thing.

I think that should be enough tasks for today. If I can get them all done then tomorrow I can write up a preliminary few pages on Burr and complete my powerpoint for the Avian Flu paper as well as completing 3 or 4 assignments for the BS class.

Time to get to work I guess.... Wish me luck!

~ Terhune

Spring Break

Well it's SPRING BREAK!!!

Not that I have been able to do anything real springy. Besides slacking off on my blogging, which I am making up for tonight, I have basically not been able to do anything that I wanted to do this week.

Yeah, sucks to be me.

I spent three of the days I am off at work, 24 hour shifts - remember I am a firefighter. That wasn't so bad, but it is physically and emotionally draining. I also do not sleep well at work. I think it is the sense of anticipation or something. All I know is that if my partner doesn't get rid of that TICKING alarm clock I am going to smash it into itty bitty pieces.

I have done massive amounts of laundry, cleaned up the yard, cleaned out the dog's area, planted some of my vegetables (which I will get a picture of next week after my wife and son get back from their trip to Missouri) and watched two movies that we have from Netflix so that I can send them back.

It hasn't been a total loss, I guess I have been productive in some ways. I read about six books in the last four days which I really enjoyed. I am reading the Clive Cussler Dirk Pitt novels. I am really digging the adventure novels right now. I like the blend of science, history, romance and action. Its a nice break from my usual read of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Hell I have even picked up some mystery novels lately.

Next Wednesday is the Research Symposium at my university and I am slated to give my presentation at 9:30 am. Kinda nervous about this one, still have to make the powerpoint presentation but I am familiar with the topic, I have rewritten the paper eight times and I think it is fairly done and as good to go as it can be for this time frame.

I still have to finish my research on Aaron Burr for my historiography paper as well as take a midterm still and turn in some paperwork that I forgot to do earlier.

I need a vacation!!

~ Terhune

Crawfish

Well tonight was the local Knights of Columbus organizations Crawfish Boil. It was amazingly good. My father and I went and ate there, it started at five and lasted till eight. All you can eat and all you can drink, adult beverages were available if you wanted one...I had three.

So we are sitting there and eating.... and eating.... and eating. I ate two beer flats of crawfish, it was yummy and spicy and I just enjoyed it. Nothing beats a good crawfish boil.

In other news, I had my last mid-term today and next week is spring break. I think I did really good on the tests I took today. When I got home I worked in my garden, which I hope to take pictures of tomorrow and toss up here for your viewing pleasure.

I made my bean tripods today for the beans to grow on and I also figured out I am going to need another row at the very least so that I can plant everything. Hopefully I can knock that out tomorrow.

I missed my exercising today, which I really needed to do but I figure after drinking beer and eating massive amounts of crawfish the last thing I need to do is run on a treadmill. All in all it was a damn good day.

My son and I played outside for a bit before I went to the Crawfish boil and I played Pac-Man with him when I got home while my wife did some work on the computer. Yeah I would have to say that today was a good day.

As always I remain....

Respectfully Yours,

~ Terhune

Learning Patience

So I am the world’s worst person when it comes to being patient. I just don’t have any…..at all.

That being said, my wife and I went and bought the new Harry Potter movie tonight and watched it while my son was in the other room watching the Magic School Bus. Now the Magic School Bus is a really cool cartoon, that my 4 yr old son loves, that deals with their elementary class and their magical trips on this bus that can morph into any kind of vehicle/animal type combination.

The kids’ teacher takes them on field trips to space, under the water, inside the human body – all kinds of science stuff. Hell, my son can tell you what the water cycle is at 4 just from watching this show!

Anyway, tonight we are watching Harry Potter and it’s the end of the movie and everything’s getting wrapped up when my son comes into the room wanting another Magic School Bus movie turned on. What do I say:

“Son, you need to be more patient. Mommy and Daddy’s movie is almost over – just 5 more minutes”

Of course my wife elbows me in the side and snickers as I say this. She knows that I am as impatient as anything. Not to be outdone, my son responds to my statement. Without missing a beat he says:

“But Dad, I am trying to learn patience!”

Big exasperated sigh at the end for emphasis. I lost it. Started laughing, my wife started laughing and our son is looking at us like we are crazy so that makes it even funnier because he was so sincere.

Kids are amazing, and scary at the same time. Being a parent is probably the most frightening job/vocation/adventure that I can think of!!

As always I remain….

Respectfully yours,

~ Terhune

Dedication

Dedication is defined as the act of dedicating or the state of being dedicated by the American Heritage Dictionary.

Dedication to this Blog has been lacking.

I feel at times that I have no time for anything, much less my thoughts I want to write down and share with others. With all things that are considered important though you have to make time to do them.

I make time to be with my son and my wife. I make time to do my homework and study. I make time to work in the yard and my garden.

I have not made time for this Blog which is sad because I really like doing this.

That is about to change. I am going to set aside an hour a day after I exercise to sit down, collect my thoughts and write something, even if it is drivel.

I hope you all enjoy it!

Respectfully yours,

~ Terhune