Give 'em hell, Steve!

Calling out Republican leaders in the House ...

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Family Gatherings

We just came back from a big family event. Today was Warden Williams' 80th Birthday Celebration (his b-day was actually June 1, but the party was delayed). My mom, Lynn Younger and Warden have been living together for more than 27 years. My mom always hoped they would marry, but Warden just wasn't interested in marrying again (he had two previous marriages). And we told my mom to not worry about it, since she had already been married three times and this live-in relationship was the best she has ever had. Why ruin a good thing.

Anyway, Warden is a great guy, a true gentleman, with tremendous character and he has touched many lives over the years as a teacher, father, friend and more. So my mom organized this big party and many family members and friends flew in from Tennessee and California, to celebrate with us. There were many heartfelt speeches and testimonials praising the guest of honor. And then Warden took the microphone and after thanking everyone and sharing some of his thoughts, he dropped a bombshell on us.

Turns out Warden and my mom got married in Mesa on May 1.

Shocked and pleased everyone. Tears all around. Wow!!!

I never thought my mom could keep a secret, but she did this time.

Congratulations to Warden and Lynn Williams. May you have many more happy years together.


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We have a new toy ... our GPS device

We've started a new hobby called Geocaching that combines hiking with Treasure Hunting using GPS devices. We hiked up into South Mountain on New Year's Day and found our first cache near a wash under a big rock slab. It was a good hike on a beautiful day and I got a kick out of spotting the cache first. We found another one today and looked for a second one, but the hike (in the rain) became too challenging for all of us and the dogs.

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What about us remains the same?

Crossposted by Only4Now at Facebook:


"For a couple of months now I have participated in the social networking of Facebook. Well,' participating' is a relative word and mine has consisted primarily of up-dating my "what are you doing?" status, posting a few photo's and looking at other people's profiles. It is fascinating to watch my own reactions to seeing the names of people from high school, and I wonder if others react in a similar fashion?

First I try to stimulate the memory to place a name with a face (tough to do when women don't use their maiden name!). If I can bring up an image of that person (30 years old, by the way), then the limbic memory kicks into gear to determine if there is any emotional connection to that person. Did I like that person? Were we friends? Did they like me? Were we nice to each other, mean, or indifferent? And finally, what might we have or have had in common that might warrant a connection in this stage of our lives. I guess, like most things, I take the whole thing too seriously.

What is really intriguing about this process, is that most of what I see on the profiles of my former friends, neighbors, and accidental cohorts, regards how they have changed since last we met. The marriages, the kids, the careers...all the stuff that I myself focused on in creating my profile. Certainly we highlight what defines us as we are now, and not how we were at 17. But that leaves much to the imagination about what in each one of us remains the same. Those things that made us nice to some and not so nice to others, do those things change as we get older?

It is an interesting experiment in which we are participating. It means different things to different people. I think for those of us who left our home towns shortly after graduating high school, it's a different kind of significance to hear from and reconnect to those you've neither seen nor heard from for 30 years. It definitely makes me a little homesick (yes, after 28 years living in three different states, and looking to move on once again, I still consider New York home, and I still get homesick). It also makes me sorry I didn't stay in better touch and get to know the people I shared so much time with, as they got to know and figure out themselves. It's nice to have that opportunity to do that now, and to perhaps discover, what in them remains the same."

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Back to blogging

Well, after obsessively blogging about the election, I needed a long break.
Unfortunately, a bout of pneumonia made the break longer than I would have liked. But I think I'm ready to get back to blogging, and I am going to try very hard to get back to more balance and not just focus on politics. Although, the politics never seems to get old and there is so much happening now ... the good, the bad, and the ugly ...
But I will get back to doing movie reviews, adding photos, talking about our travels, pets, sports, interests and, of course, life with teenagers.
If you are reading this ... I appreciate that you have visited this site, and I hope that you will consider leaving a comment or sending me an e-mail.
Let's have some fun!

Family Feud ... was one of my grandma's favorite shows!

Everyone always thinks their family is crazier than everyone else's. All families have their special characteristics and idiosyncrasies. I have some family members who are still in the dark ages. They are conducting all their political battles ... um, I'm sorry, I mean banter ... through e-mail. That is sooooo 1990s. Come on people, today we blog ... and some even Twitter.
So I have invited them over to this blog to add their two cents to my posts. If things start to get a little HOT around here you will know why. (I'm not sure who I am talking to. Does anyone read this blog?)
Anyway ...
Here is the question FOR MY FAMILY ONLY:

What would Grandma Pigg have thought of this election? Who would she have supported in the primaries and who would she support now? And why?

And let's stipulate that even though she would have been 98 years old that you can pick any version of Grandma Pigg that you want to talk about. What I mean by that is:

• I don't remember much about Grandma in the 1960s, but I sense that she supported the changes in the country regarding race relations, but also supported the government because she thought it was her patriotic duty. So I think the late 60s troubled her, because she was pained by the turmoil (King/Kennedy assassinations, race riots, war protesters) but she sympathized with those who were in pain. That is why we made ditty bags for soldiers and visited and helped poor families in south Phoenix.
• Grandma in the 1970s was a Democrat who watched All In The Family and Maude and other "controversial" shows. She was still very patriotic, but she was let down by the establishment (Nixon) and seemed to be closer to a "bleeding heart liberal." And didn't she support Jimmy Carter?
• But Grandma in the 1980s started becoming more of a reactionary to social issues. In the early part of the decade she struggled financially like the rest of America. I don't think she liked Reagan at the beginning. But by the late '80s she grew more conservative. Actually, she was like Barry Goldwater; as she got older she got more crotchety and would say whatever was on her mind. Sometimes that was quite shocking to us, because many of her opinions changed 180 degrees from the '70s. And there was some bigotry slipping into conversations.
• 1990s Grandma was obviously going through a lot of changes related to her age. I don't remember much of her political beliefs, but I think she liked Bill Clinton. But she also seemed to get even more conservative in some ways; she didn't have as much patience with people who were struggling or needed help that the government might have provided.

If your memories conflict with mine, please share your recollections.

Anyway, in the primaries I think the Grandma Pigg I loved and remember most fondly would have supported:

• (Republican) She would be torn about McCain because he is representing Arizona and was a POW, but I think she would think he is a jerk; and she would have hated Romney because ... ahem ... he is a Mormon; the wild card might have been Huckabee;
• (Democratic) and on the other side, she would have supported Joe Biden or Barack Obama; she would have liked Edwards' looks but hated his southern accent; and she probably would have hated Hillary Clinton for a variety of reasons.

So, who would get (a 1970s-1980s) Grandma Pigg's vote in 2008?

• Barack Obama.

I think she would have been thrilled and in tears to watch a man, a black man like Barack Obama giving a speech in front of 70,000+ plus people in Denver to accept the nomination of the Democratic Party for President. She would think back over the racial turmoil she saw throughout her life and she would be proud to see this man standing there, 45 years after MLKs "I have a dream" speech in Washington. And I think she would have despised George W. Bush and what he has done to her country. And she wouldn't have wanted to let a Republican like John McCain continue in that direction for another four years.

But hey, that's just my opinion. And I may be romanticizing her memory a bit. But I think she would have liked seeing this.

OK, Carrie, Jalia, Kenny, Tad, Lynn, and others ... what do you think? Leave your thoughts in the comments.
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Boiled My Brain

Well, I gave the family a bit of a scare this past weekend.
I woke up early Saturday morning and started doing yard work to get ready for a pool party and family gathering later in the day. Even though I started early, I'm sure the temp was near triple digits, and as the morning wore on it got much hotter and more humid. But I kept going. I did try to rest every so often and drink some water in the shade or inside the house. But I guess I didn't get enough fluids into my system.
Anyway, I finished up after several hours and as I got ready to take a cool shower I could tell that I overdid it. But I soon felt a little better, went grocery shoping and got ready to BBQ. But, the problem is I forgot to keep drinking water. After working over the hot grill preparing burgers and hot dogs we all sat down to eat and socialize. I started feeling like crap soon after that, and two hours later I still was hurting. Reluctantly, I had Sharyn take me to the hospital. That was Saturday night at about 8 p.m.
It looks like I didn't get full blown heatstroke, but I was dehydrated enough to stress out my body to near the breaking point. They pumped me full of fluids, reloaded my electrolytes, and ran some tests on my heart, lungs, kidneys, liver and other organs (all the results were good news). I started feeling good about 36 hours after I got there, and they let me go home at 4:30 p.m. Monday.
I learned a few things along the way.

• One, the staff at Chandler Regional Hospital is excellent! The nurses were very friendly, helpful and professional (a big shout out to Holly for her excellent care!). The doctors were great, and so was everyone else, from the meal delivery staff to the patient transport crews.
• Two, my family knows how to rally around each other. I experienced a tremendous amount of concern and love from everyone. Sharyn, Hannah and Ryan, mom, JoAnne, Carrie, they all came to my side. I also heard from Jay, Kenny, Maddy & Howard, Rich, Steven, and friends from work. I'm sorry they had to worry so much, but I am glad to know how much they care.
• Three, you would think I would know better after living in the desert my entire life, but you can never drink enough water when you are working in the summer heat. I got careless and it cost me. I think I'm done working in the yard this summer, let the damn weeds grow!
• Four, it is too damn hot here!

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Viva Las Vegas!

My beautiful and thoughtful wife spent a lot of time planning a big surprise trip for my birthday. Sharyn, Hannah, Ryan, and our friends Alex, Natalia and Katherine kept the secret from me for several months. On Friday, we left the house at 5:30 a.m. and by the time we met up with our friends I had figured out that we were on our way to Las Vegas!

We stayed at the Stratosphere, visited several other mega-hotels and casinos, gambled just a little tiny bit (and just broke even), shopped till we dropped, ate a ton, and caught a fantastic show at the Mirage.

You are probably familiar with Cirque du Soleil and they have a new show in Vegas called "Love" that celebrates the musical legacy of The Beatles in spectacular fashion. Go to the site and click on the preview for a look-see.

Anyway, thank you Sharyn, Hannah, Ryan, Alex, Natalia, Katherine, and Matt who watched the pets for us. It was a memorable and special birthday!

I love you, Sharyn.

Woulda, coulda, shoulda ...

For the second year in a row I made a New Year's resolution to start my own blog. Up until this point I have been a "lurker"; visiting many blogs on a regular basis but rarely, if ever, leaving comments. I've made a lot of excuses for not blogging (time commitement, who cares what I think, etc.). But hey, it's not rocket science, right? And I think there will be many benefits, including being able to share interesting stuff with friends and family, writing on a regular basis, and it's something my wife and I can do together. Yup, I've convinced her to join me in this endeavor. We don't know where this will go, but we are looking forward to the ride. Thanks for joining us.