A Post on the Subject of Lack of Diligence in Blogging

Howdy guys and girls!
Thanks for putting up with my posts (or lack thereof!!!!) - I'm not going to pull the "I've been so busy" card again, so you don't need to read a long apology. :D

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blog

noun. a place to release a monthly apology for not blogging regularly and little information besides

Example: "I guess it's time to do my annual blog post again. LOL"

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I think that home definition of blogging pretty much sums it up. As should this picture:

Because a picture of my car is appropriate for all occasions. :)

Basically, I haven't been up to much lately besides finishing up as much school as I can. It's my last year when it's done, so it would be nice to finish before 2014... :) Some of you have noticed that my blog has changed. Those of you who haven't don't notice very much. :D I changed it because I was interested in doing something new and fresh. I rather like the new minimalist theme. I would be interested in feedback (I've already gotten some), BUT.... it doesn't mean I'll re-style it. What would be the point in having a blog if you didn't like the design? Enough rambling about my blog design.

This is a picture I took of Leah at a lakeside job.

Thanks to +David McKinnon for generously letting me Mom borrow his camera that I took the above picture with. I borrowed the camera to make a comic short, but I still haven't gotten around to it. Anyhow, Mom really loves the camera so she has used it probably as much or more than I have. It's not a problem because I haven't needed it much anyway. I do have to finish the comic short eventually - we've had the camera for a few weeks now. :-O Many of the pictures here are from his camera.

Congratulations, Steven and Charity! (all the wedding pictures were taken with my point-and-shoot camera)

The happy couple!

Mark and Seth playin' nice Appalachian Mountain type music after.

We had a great time at Steven and Charity's wedding. The country theme was great, and the fact that I knew 90% of the people there made it even more great!

Thanks for the picture, Nathan!

Prior to the general consumption of food.

Hay rides! Boy, they sure looked like fun! :D

A nearby lake.

Some flowers overhanging the sidewalk a little distance from our house.

More flowers on a tree.

The hikers! :D

Beautiful clouds!

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.

Psalm 19:1

Walking :D

Ah, yes. The classic "middle of the road" picture. I love this type of perspective shots. It's a real cheap way to make something look impressive. (And risk getting run over) :D

And... a poorly designed graphic to finish off with a laugh. :D

Raise your hand if that's happened before. [Sheepishly raises hand] :D

 

Deadline Beat!

All is well. At least that's what it looks like.

Howdy y'all! I think I successfully beat the one-month deadline. Which, if you are curious about what that is, it does not exist. It is simply a personal deadline that I have to convince myself that I am a good steady blogger. Which, if you follow my blog at all, you have by now figured out that I am not. :D So now, in an effort to make up for lost posts, I am posting thousands of pictures on this post. Sit back and enjoy!

My buddy, Nathan Schoolfield, and me.

A junkyard he and I stopped at. I could have wandered through here all day.

A nice truck that was at the junkyard in Crossville.

A really nice truck that was at the quilt shop in Crossville.

Parking with the big shots. Grandpa and I parked right in between the two trucks.

A neat picture of Grandpa when he was in the U.S. Army.

Statue of Iwo Jima from the military museum.

Here, I ought to insert a short story that I was told by the veteran who ran the museum. During one of the World Wars (I can't remember which one) we ran out of space for prison camps in Europe, so we brought the German prisoners over here. One of the prison camps was right in Crossville. The way we treated the prisoners was extraordinary. They were fed four meals a day, allowed to leave the camp during the day, work a job in town and receive ample pay for it, and receive a pint of beer a day (even though Cumberland County was a dry county). I don't think that we should've given them beer, but we certainly treated them very well. Many of the soldiers married and settled in Tennessee. Most of them said that they were being treated better in American prison camps then they would have been in their own nation's fighting camps. Stories like this make me just as proud to be an American as the stories of our great war hero's deeds - men like Sergeant York and Douglas MacArthur. God bless America!

"Working" at the quilt shop... hahaha.

This license plate kinda gives you warm fuzzies... well, not quite. :D

A peacock at the Museum of Appalachia. I was half asleep when we stopped there and we stayed for only 15 minutes, so my pictures were few and indiscriminate. :)

At Cabela's in PA. I wish I had pictures of us in the shooting gallery. A few of us (myself included) hit every time. :D
Do we qualify as crack shots?

Congratulations Kurt and Heatherrose! As soon as we got back from TN, we had a wedding to attend! It's kind of bittersweet, because Kurt moved out of state when he married. :'(

This is something I saw on Google Plus - it's a brilliant idea! Sandwich bags that look like mold!

Loading hay onto a tractor-trailer truck with a friend. And that is not a tractor-trailer truck. The truck was not in the picture.

The cost of owning a car - expensive. I purchased the flanges for the catalytic converter and plan to try installing them this weekend or next Monday.

I now have plates - my car wasn't registered at the time of the picture.

Why is it that everywhere I go, people peel more stuff off of my car?

The following are exciting pictures from a local junkyard.

One of the guys who works for Dad has these initials and puts them on all his tools... apparently his cars too. LOL

Ain't that a beauty!

Moss-eaten magnificence.

The old dash. I thought it looked really neat.

This one is for you, Nathan. I couldn't go further back because of a fence.

How long has that grille been sitting there? A loooooong time, to say the least.

Older trucks.

More older trucks.

I think this bus has been sitting for a while too. :D

This truck isn't too bad looking.

...but I'll never do it. :D

Well.... that's all for tonight folks! I hope I haven't disappointed y'all. How many of you guys still check out my blog? I wouldn't be surprised if the answer was zero. :D

My New Set of Wheels!

There - I said it. I've never liked that expression, but I said it anyway. :D
Anyhow, as many of you have seen on Mom's blog, I now have a 1996 Subaru Legacy AWD 5-speed manual shift car with 103,000 miles on it. There's actually a little formula here. When we have a baby, I just publish the fact that we had a healthy boy or girl and refer y'all to Mom's blog for details. Correction: I refer all the girls to Mom's blog for details. When there are cars to discussed, Mom posts pictures and the simple fact that I have a car. Then refers y'all to my blog. Correction: She refers all the guys to my blog so that they can know the details. :D All this is nothing more than a feeble attempt at using up writing space. So, (for the guys) here are the current facts (I have yet to see what information the manual may contain):

• It's a Subaru Legacy
• 1996
• It has AWD (All-Wheel Drive)
• It has a 5-speed manual transmission (fun, but will take some learning)
• It has 103,000 miles on it
• I don't know the information on the engine or anything (I will explain why soon)

Seven o'clock this morning, we got out of bed and around eight o'clock, left McDonalds for the auction house. Eight o'clock is when the review time begins, ten o'clock is when the auction begins. In the end, I only had about 30 minutes to look over cars. I tried to pick the best ones that I thought I could bid on. Thirty minutes is not enough time to check out a vehicle you want to last a long time. I wrote down  what I would pay for each one (ballpark figures) and then rushed back to the building. I actually hadn't even seen this one before, when I noticed it was going up for auction soon. I walked over, looked at it as it was pulling in, and (accidentally) poked a hole with my finger in a hastily filled rust area. Oops. I didn't really think about buying  it until it was on the auction floor. Dad asked if I was interested and I said probably about $800 interested. Who would have guessed that I got it for that much! (plus fees, bringing it to $901.25, exactly $1.25 over the amount I had specifically saved for a car. Everything went so fast that Mom didn't even realize I'd just bought the car. (To tell the truth, I wonder if I even did, lol) Anyhow, a few signatures and a gazillion pictures later, we walked out to see my new car!
And the rest is pictures.... (At least when it's 10:30 at night)

At the auction.

Eating food.

Really my car now?!?

Yeah, I guess it is!

So, we auctioned off the van and rode home in my car... just kidding.

The car. :D

My helpful cleaning crew. :) Thank you, kids!

Too much excitement... G'night, y'all! :D