Jeremy Herndon Blog

It amazes me to find out that the very famous doll the they call Barbie is turning 53 years old today. My sisters were total Barbie fans and they always wanted me to play with them, which I totally refused to do even when my mother caved in from their nagging and bought a Ken doll to try and entice me into joining in with them. Even a promise of a G.I. Joe wouldn’t do the trick, silly girls.

Anyway-  Happy Birthday to Ms. Barbie!  Hope my sisters read this.

I’m so glad that we are in the part of the country that is having the extreme warm winter weather. Folks have been totally taking advantage of this warm weather by getting a lot of outside work done that generally doesn’t get started until the end of April. I am hoping that this weekend will be nice again so that I can get my tiller out and get at least one of the gardens tilled. The ground hasn’t been frozen in weeks so it is nice and moist and soft so that it should be a breeze to get tilled. I hope so because tilling is not one of my most favorite chores.

Our retired neighbor that lives across the street is starting to get to work on his backyard swimming pool, since it won’t be long until people are wanting to take a swim and cool off from the heat of the day. He was looking at new swimming pool liners to use this season as well as a new pool cover. I haven’t talked to him in a while to see if he was successful in finding all the pool supplies that he needs and if he needs any help with anything to get it ready. He is a really nice fellow and always extends an invitation to the neighbors to come and enjoy his pool, which we have done a few times a years since he had it built. It is a very nice pool that he takes much pride in and he certainly deserves it after working hard in the E.R. in town for so long. We are certainly blessed with good neighbors.

We had a surprise visitor at our Elks meeting last night. The State President, Tim Knotts, showed up unexpected and had us all pretty nervous upon his arrival. We kept the meeting short and sweet, allowed him plenty of time to stand up and talk about all the things that are going on in the state, all the places he has been and where he is planning on during the rest of his term.

After each meeting we all head downstairs for drinks, but Tim didn’t stick around for any social time, most likely because he had a 2 1/2 hour drive back home and the meeting didn’t end until almost 9pm. We are all curious as to why the surprise visit and are anxious to find out more and what we are up against.

Easter Gift Baskets have already appeared on the store’s shelves, right beside the clearance Valentine’s Day candy. I noticed that last weekend when I dropped into Wal-Mart to pick up a few things. I was walking past the seasonal section and realized that it was the perfect time to score some discount Valentine’s candy to take home and share with the family.

One of the things that I’ve tried to do in regards to holidays like Easter is to reuse and recycle a lot of the “trimmings.” For example, the plastic grass, the plastic eggs, and the baskets themselves can be reused over the years. Just the thought of buying one of those cellophane-wrapped baskets that are intended to be thrown away a week later, filling up the landfills makes me cringe.

That is one of the things that I really admire about my mother, and about my wife; they are so creative and thrifty with their talents to be able to reuse and re-purpose items in such a way that it never looks like they are being “cheap.” In fact, some of the things that they re-purpose have turned into well-loved family heirlooms that will be in the family for-ever. For example, several years ago my wife took an empty plastic cool-whip tub and covered it with batting and fabric and turned it into a beautiful basket that was an Easter Basket one year, but now holds our remote controls in the living room.

My sister was telling me about the horrible weather she and her household experienced yesterday. They apparently were right on the outskirts of some of the horrible tornadoes that were ripping through the country yesterday and last night. She told me that when they looked out their window there was hail the size of golf balls coming in torrents, bouncing up higher than their house after they hit the ground. She said that the noise they made when they hit her roof was the loudest noise she could ever remember hearing.

Her dogs were terrified, and she put leashes on all of them and tried to keep them together near the front door of the house. She said that was in case they had to vacate the house in a hurry. I was rather surprised to hear her say that because I thought that the advice for tornadoes is to try to stay as close to the center of the house as possible, like in a closet or bathroom.

But thankfully her house was not damaged, and her cars survived too. I am really grateful for that. I don’t know if I could have handled the situation any better than she did.