bad days?

On Saturday I threw a hissy fit. It started as a dang bad day and I really have not had a kick the dog, flip the bird, cuss in public fit in a while. But like they say about riding a bike.....
    Early I went to the bank to deposit my check. Easy enough.  As usual I left my keys in my truck, hey this is Oklahoma City and I still trust the folks..But when I came out my doors were locked. I peeked in the windows and my keys were in the ignition. All Chevy's have a safety built in ...keys in: doors wont lock. Except Saturday.So with my trusty Iphone I look up lock smith. "As low as 19 dollars" So I called and what the ad meant was $35. I said ok they said 30 minutes. Waiting and hungry I walked across the street to Carl's Jr to get a hamburger. No one in the parking lot but a car pulled up. I am not in a hurry so I stay a second and hold the door let the couple in before me. Every one there knows these folks, take their order and shoot the bull. I wait. I look at the menu then the girl behind the register. A manager ask her" are you on break" she says yes. They all go back to talking and wont wait on me.I get mad and try to leave but try a locked door..No one will wait on me but all say "Wrong Door" so I leave without anyone trying to take my order...Then the locksmith comes up and charges me 50 for the once 19 dollar then 35.....Next I stop to buy a few things and my debit card is declined. Impossible I think I just deposited 700 dollars. The bank does not reflect this and is closed until Monday.....I wear my emotions on my sleeve. When I get mad...Well its easy to see. I am in my front yard cussing- i am very good at this, sorry mom-when a dang truck shows up with a roofing company's logo on the side...This poor dude is picking a poor time. Well I figure I might have slipped a few F Bombs to the computer I was talking to on the phone when I see the guy out of the roofing truck...Jody Madden. Friend is not enough of a word...more about that some other time.
   I haven't seen Jody in a year and a half and Carl was inside but some way they got me calmed down. I think food had alot to do with it.I really hated Jody, and Carl running into me while I was that mad. Me mad is not like Bill Cosby mad. I am not good to be around. So we went to Bruams for a burger and fries, and Carl gave me his ice cream.I was no longer the Hulk.
  Jody left, going back to Colorado, Carl ended up staying with my brother and his kids, so I chilled out.
The Oklahoma City Marathon started at 630 am and I met my sister in law and Carl to cheer my brother on. I had another friend running the race, a pretty little girl that I worked with for about 8 years, so I wanted to support her too.Oh..I am friends with her husband Kevin just so people who know me dont get the wrong idea....
   I guess my point is: what I thought was such a bad weekend at the start was really great. I got to watch my little skinny brother finish 3rd out of over 10,000 in the half marathon. His friend won the marathon. My buddy Sarah finished over 12 miles without training for it. These people inspire me.Then I got to spend all day long with Carl. We are addicted to NCIS so we watched alot of that on dvd. I went to visit my uncle Billy in the hospital but I am not gonna mention what most think until we get word.
    I started the weekend cussing at the phone , ended up hugging my boy in the front yard. All is well that ends well.
ps Carl going to his moms is the worst part of my week every week. Not because he doesn't deserve to be with her and need to be with her, it is because he has only been gone a few hours and I miss him. It is not real hard for me to get a little rowdy, or mad, or to find a little trouble on my own. It is hard when me and the boy are watching Gibbs and the crew solving crimes.

Boston

Well the Boston trip had unexpected, unwanted tragedy and drama added by some sick individual or group. Terror will never break the American people so I want to take a moment and do what terrorist don't want us to do. I want to talk about the great city of Boston and the great people of Boston.
    Boston the week of the marathon is like an Olympic village. I must have talked to people from over 40 countries, all of them so excited just to be in the city of Boston for the the marathon. For many they have worked years just to qualify. Many worked years to save the money to come in from various countries on the African continent. I spoke to others from Japan, the Netherlands, Australia... But to tell you the truth the people from right there in Boston were just about as foreign to us..Well that is stretching it a little but not much!
On this trip was me and Carl, my nephew Teel, and cousin Sandy out of Mississippi , my mom who planned the whole deal , and the reason we all went my brother Jason who ran the race.
   Sandy is not really a hick like the rest of us but she was born and raised in Oklahoma so you get the idea of our make up. Me and Jason grew up in a part of Texas that still had party lines when were were young. My graduating class was eight his around 20. My mom grew up in Thackerville Oklahoma, a town of a few hundred people until the Indians built the worlds 4th largest casino in a pasture by I 35. I am not kidding about that. Carl my boy lives in Jones Oklahoma when he is not staying with me, and Jones has two gas stations and one red light.Sandy grew up in Ponca City and I do not know much about it except it is in Oklahoma and is not Oklahoma City or Tulsa so most like she would be considered a small town girl by most. Why all this background? Well our version of the Beverly Hillbillies just hit Boston!
   We found the people of Boston to be great! It started with the cab driver who answered around 4,000 questions from us in the 10 minute cab drive from the airport to our hotel. His accent was worse than mine so when I asked he said he was from Boston. Then I asked no before that? Oh Jamaica! But he considers himself from Boston know. I like that. The line in the hotel was very long. When it was our turn,before the girl could get us checked in and tell us all her spill I asked a question a long time coming : How far are we from Cheers? I know this girl must have had a long day and she probably had that question thrown to her a million times but she acted as excited as I was...." Oh we are close " she said and not only gave us directions but pulled out a map and showed us how she would go. I was expecting " the cab driver will know". But this girl loved her town. We were starting to also.
  After putting our things away we all decided to walk to Cheers. As we were walking around like typical tourist looking at tall buildings and pointing at sights strange to us, a young police woman on a very large horse shines a big ole smile at me-in my boots, wranglers, and black Stetson- and says "You are not from Boston!" ..It was pretty funny. I kind of wanted to get frisked but was with the whole family...
  We did eat at Cheers. We bought stuff, and we took pictures, but I did not drink a beer but I am taking Cheers off of my Bucket list. I was there and I was not disappointed. Good enough. On the way back a construction worker gave me a " Hi Tex!" All the kids laughed. Back at the Hotel some kid about 3 years old shrieked so loud I jumped then asked very loud "Are you a real cowboy?" I started to put on my best John Travolta impression on and reply " That depends on what you think a real cowboy is" but I figured an Urban Cowboy reference would go over a three year old head....
     We split up the big ole group sometimes. Once me and my brother went walking down the streets of Boston. I thought to my self This is a long way from Plumb Creek. We took cheesy pictures of each other in front of Fenway Park.
    I had a roomate in the army that grew up around 50 miles from Boston. He has worked their most of his adult life. Vincent Pedone spent all day Sunday giving us a great tour of Boston with insights of a local. I got to meet his two boys he he met my family. We did all the history stuff that I love then he took us to a 250 year old tavern for lunch, and it was out of the world great! Hope I can repay him some day down here.
   So Sunday morning we all go to church. Jason googles a church and we take a cab. Remember where we are from. Like a scene out of a movie we walk into a full to the back, all black church...Just saying it was different. Man the singing was out of this world. Same songs not same delivery. Think of a song sang by Pat Boone. A good singer. Now listen to that same song by Ray Charles.. You get the point..If not listen to America the Beautiful by Ray Charles...Man that was great.
  I was wearing normal stuff for me. Wranglers, boots, and a pearl snap shirt. These people were dressed up! I sneezed once and three different people gave Kleenex. I asked my mom for a pen but a woman behind us shot one out first. Some man rushed over to loan my mom his bible.We were very welcomed. They gave us a ride back to the hotel in a van. I met a young girl: Senior at Harvard. Two young but very shy guys...Students at MIT that the van picked up every Sunday. Less than an hour after the bombs went off Monday the church texted my brother to see if we were all right and if we needed anything...
   I have been to NFL, NBA. and MLB games. I have been to hockey games and pro rodeo as well as Nascar. Marathons stand up to any sport on earth as far as energy and excitement, and make no mistake...there is no place like Boston..Complete stranger scream encouragement to complete strangers for hours.. I mean real screams real energy!!! I can not express what it was like to watch my brother compete in a world class event against the best runners on earth.. Well over 20,000 people ran and he came in 322. And he is 40 years old. Check one off of his bucket list..a big one
  Last thing. Six people , six schedules, airlines hotels ...My mom made it happen without a flaw. She has never been afraid to take charge. Why should she, she is good at it.
  I know its a sad time. I hurt for the 8 year old and the other victims. To dwell on that is to let the terrorist win
   

Reading

 I like alot of things. Football, pizza and beer come to mind. I like the smell of leather, and opening doors for people who do not expect it. I like boxing and black and white movies. I like pretty girls, and girls that don't know they are. I like hound dogs and Chevy trucks and Elvis. Some times I like looking at an American flag and fireworks so much it makes me want to cry. I like beef jerky and Bugs Bunny. I like oil paintings and movie posters, and I like reading..Yea I said it, i'm out of the closet I like reading. Books. With no pictures.
    My moms sisters were teachers so I got books for Christmas. I got books for my birthday, but heck I didn't know everyone else were getting Tonka Trucks and playdough , I thought everyone got books so I loved them. And I read them. I read about dinosaurs and hero's. I read about monsters   and villains and trains then cowboys...
    I went to a very small school and to those that went to a big school ...I had a very big advantage....very individualized help and VERY above average teachers. By far the meanest teacher was Ms. Lightsey and no person smart or challenged, rich or poor risked her wrath...but she taught literature and I was hooked on westerns. Louis La'amour..best writer ever...sorry Moses, not counting you. She used to bust me reading my  westerns all the time but never busted my b... well never gave me grief over it.Once I was in the principals office and another teacher asked her why she didn't punish me for it... she said at least I was reading..God bless you Miss Lightsey...
    Back before most people had cable and no one had internet I had a good racket going. I showed movies at the theater so I read books while I worked.I got INFO Please Almanacs for Christmas every year so I came across semi smart ..I was..still am ..pretty good at trivia.
  Some way I did get into a good University...Baylor. I made friend with some very smart , high achieving people there. I made just some good friends there. But from Jonesboro Texas to Baylor one thing stands out... Reading.. If you can read you can learn to do anything..Well maybe not read a woman....But if you can read the sky is the limit.. Read comics. Read Sports Illustrated , read the Bible, read your newspaper. Read the note that girl just sent you! read read read..
      I drive a truck now...yea yea reading did me well :) But now I listen to books on cd because I work 10-12 hours a day. Books on cd are not quite the same, but hey it is still information.
   There is really nothing like the written word when it comes from a master....Pick up something paper and read it...Thomas

Smells

   When I was getting off work today it was on my mind to get a haircut, a task I ended up not doing. But before I ended up not getting my haircut I had a flashback of getting my haircut when I was young. Back then guys went to a barbershop, and barbershops had a very distinct smell. I think it was the stuff the barbers smacked on the back of our necks when they were done, but I don't know that for sure. One thing I do know is barbershops smelled the same in Gatesville Texas, Ft Benning Georgia, Ft Bragg NC and Ft Campbell KY. I guess when I got out of the army I found out pretty girls gave haircuts too so I didn't hit as many true barber shops as salons..I guess that is 25 years of wasted great smells because I never dated any girl that cut my hair.
   So I ended up thinking about smells. Kids are missing out nowdays with the whiteboards because I love the way blackboards and chalk smell. Erasers too I guess, but I wasn't talking about the big rubber erasers we had on the first day of school. I do not like the way hospitals smell but that never would stop me from holding hands with a nurse if the time was right. I do not mind the smell of gasoline if I am mowing the grass or filling up but really don't want that around if I am eating pie with my hands. Oh the smell of pie is good, even if I am filling up or mowing grass. To me the smell of cut grass is the smell of playing highschool football, the second favorite smell of my life. Speaking of that, a football has a very distinct smell, and i love it. The smell of a football puts me in a "guy" mode instantly. I do not miss the smell of the 70's and 80's hair spray but I do kinda miss the look. If a person reads alot books do have a smell.. Yea, I am a fan. Not so much of a wet dog. I do not like the smell of tires, or oil. I do like the smell of wood burning and sawdust. People that have never been to a western wear store are really missing out on a great aroma not to mention the sight of cowgirls walking away! Locker rooms stink but what I wouldn't give to be apart of one again. I hate the taste of coffee but love the way it tastes. I hate the smell of beer but....I like to smell a horse but not so much a stupid cow. I do like the smell of gunpowder and to a lesser extent bleach. the best smells....
  Well the best smells I know, not being food just because, are...When I am two stepping and a girls hair is right there and clean smelling...oh my
   To me the best smell in the world is walking in to a small movie theater and that fresh popcorn smell hitting me! It is me at 16, it is theGatesville drive-in, the best time of my life...

things that change your life

   The early part of my life I grew up on military post in the '70s. On base there were many things to do. Swimming pools, places to learn arts and crafts, day centers where kids could shoot pool or play basket ball or foosball. To acess all these things a kid had to have a military dependent ID card, the only catch was a little dude had to be 10 years old to get one. When I was eight and nine years old I figured once I received my ID card I would be a man of the world. I did reach 10, much to the surprise of some, and the ID card did set me free! It changed my small world.
    In 1976 my dad informed me that we were moving off base, to the country. I had never lived anywhere except on an Army base except summers I spent on my grandpa's farm. To help me adapt he bought me cassette tapes of Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Tom T Hall. He told my mom to buy me some boots, but that is another story-think dingo boots not cowboy boots. So we drove on, and on. I remember rounding a corner and my parents informing us...that is it on the hill. So we went from a duplex on a crowed street on Ft Hood Texas to 7 acres in the middle of central Texas, 50 miles from the nearest Mcdonalds . That kind of change does alter your world. So did going from a class size of 20 people to my graduating class of 8.
    Has your mom ever warned you about running with the wrong crowd? Well that year 1976 she drug my butt to church in Gatesville. Our Sunday school class was Me and Larry, Jim Caldwell, Sheri Wright and Sheri Gordon, and Lou Langston, and if you don't know these people let me say this: among these I was the wrong crowd. Oh and every time I though I was done with church or Sunday school Sheri Gordon would bring Dyanna Adair and I was a regular again! That was church, three time a week. I went to Jonesboro highschool five times a week and you really cannot lose yourself in a class of eight or nine people. Through the years we had a person or two come  or go but me,along with Heather and Lisa ( these girls deserve the medal of honor for putting up with us) Wayne Wallace and Thomas Everett Hill who we called Tom Tom because face it a class this small can have only one Thomas. Mark Breeden who despite trying hard to be a screw up ended up graduating from Annapolis. Ricky Helms fought me very hard to graduate 8th in our class but I am pretty sure my 2 in geometry put me at the bottom of our class. I hope he dosent read this since he has had a long career in law enforcement and might slap me in the slammer! A guy that was there most of the time but moved on named Robert Henson showed me that you could be a highschool tough guy without being a highschool bully. And Carl Beechly I still cant talk about much but I always said if I had a boy he would be named Carl. I met all these great people the year I moved to the country and being around really good people rubs off on a guy.
    Most kids cant wait to get off work so they can go play. Me and Larry worked at the Town and Country Drive( still open called Last Drive in Picture show), so we never wanted off. And we never took off very often. The drive in was owned by Gene Palmer and run by his brother Don. If I was going to be caught in the Ground Hog Day dream I would just pick any day at the theatre and relive it day after day. Gene and Don and Cheryl treated all of idiots so good it really did change my life. Good times or bad they treated us good because that is their character. The Palmers did't have to try, or remember to treat people good they just did it. I think with out working for them I would be like that goober from Hell's Kitchen..I worked at the show until the day I joined the Army.
  Many other things have changed my life but I have to wake up at 4am so I guess those are tales for another time. Why am I writing this tonight. In about an hour and 15 minutes my little boy turns 13. At times in my life I have been mean. I have been bad. Been broke. I have had good times and pretty low times, but since March 15 2000 I have been a dad. It truly is the only thing I have every taken seriously. I have had two marriages and divorces and both times I can take the blame. But I do have a love story that will last forever.
  Happy birthday to my boy Carl Jordan Butler...eat cake!

what is important?

I just got off the phone with a friend arguing about what is important in a quarterback. Well this is my blog so I am saying I won. To me it is not about touchdowns, or stats or ratings but about leadership and winning. Winning when it counts. That s football one of my favorite things. I also love God, America, Texas, bar b q and beer. They all seem to be the top. The best. That's why I watch so many shows about high achievers and how they got there. But that is not what is on my mind.
  I remember a year or so when Apple's Steve Jobs, one of the most successful people on earth died, people close to him said he wished he had spent more time with his kids. Earlier today I watched a bio on Jimmy Johnson from the Dallas Cowboys fame and he regretted not spending time with his boys so when his mom died he discovered what was really important to him was his boys so he retired from a multi million dollar a year job to go fishing with his kids.And just now now I watched the bio on Tom Coughlin the NY Giants head coach and he was starting to fail until he reconnected to his family.
    I am a truck driver. I don't run Apple or the NY Giants or my beloved Dallas Cowboys. I do have a pretty dang good relationship with my boy. When I check my phone it is for his calls or messages not some cute thing I met . A great Saturday night is not something I will tell my buddies about Monday, but us watching a guy movie eating pizza and setting on the love seat in our living room. Sunday we go to church then usually to my moms to eat or sometimes the three of us out. Most Sundays we play catch with the football.Sometimes we go to a movie or Old Chicago where they know him as well as me. He asks me for a fish or a dog or a game almost every week end and usually does not get them but he dose not gripe. We talk about Corvette's and other things I cannot buy at this time.When it gets time to go we both get feeling funny. Sometimes Teri comes to get him and we stack all of his stuff by the door. Sometimes I drive him 25 miles back to his moms house in Jones. In that case we stop by 7-11 and grab a couple of diet Mt Dews. I dont drive fast and usually we dont listen to the radio. I love that drive and hate it .  Every week.
   After I drop off Carl I stop by Old Chicago on my way home. Almost every Sunday for 5 years. That hour or so is my worst hour of the week and the girls there know it and are good to me.
   I think I may be living a success story in reverse. I have the family thing down but the professional thing....To talk the truth I dont care.  I am not worried about next weeks check even though I should. I am not worried about the girl I would really really like to see during the week. I just hope I get Carl Friday instead of Saturday.

a different view

    I have aunt's and uncles, and my grand parents who are liberals so we just don't talk politics. This post is not about politics it is just about how we can see things a little different.
   I love football. I have always thought it has defined me even though I haven't played an organised game since 1983. I love pro, college and high school.. I am 47 years old and still have a football or two in my truck. Always. But my boy Carl who I love more than my life it's self choose's not to play. I don't care. It does not bother me one bit.I will never push him to to anything...
  On a different path here. I have a friend who is a bartender..Oh I know that is a shock! She is pretty and young and just graduated college.This very pretty girl got a job right off the bat in the business world but did not like so she quit the job.. I think well now better than spending 10 years living a life that sucks. A night or two ago we are talking about life and such and she asked why I chose the life I chose in the Army back then.I could have went to college like I did later attending Baylor University, or I could have went to the AirForce Marines or Navy but I joined the Army and she asked why. She asked and I answered without thinking " I wanted to be Rambo". It was honest, and I would not change the answer here a week later, but it was strait from the hip.Why bring this up?
     Today when I picked up my boy Carl we swung by my moms house to visit. Some way some how she mentioned to him he should join the AirForce. He very forcefully said if joined anything it would be the Army! I shut up but was so proud! My mom went over all the advantages the Air Force has but Carl was steadfast it is the Army or nothing..She is my mom.. She is right in all the advantages.. but. At one time in my life I was considered smart, I could have done any thing I wanted in the military..anything. But I wanted to be infantry. I wanted to fight if that is what my country needed. I wanted to be the one face to face with the Soviet me..That is my nature. Not what my mom wanted but who I am.
I have never pressed Carl to play  football. I have never pressed him to think one one or another, but today I  he showed me that deep down we are the same. I am not pretty, i am not wealthy, or the chosen few, but I am an American and when there is a threat I want to fight! Thats my nature.. I dont want to fight  for benefits or what ever I want to fight because I love what we have and some one has to. I will never be a poet, or an artist. I will always be an American. It looks like I passed that on..