Lucky kids!

The other day, I went and posted the picture over to the left as my Wordless Wednesday submission.

That’s my daughter (on the left) and one of her friends at the famed Arkansas Skatium in Little Rock. Because of economic necessity, my daughter stays at a Methodist church here in Benton during the summer as my wife and I are both stuck at work all day and no one is home to watch the little nipper.

At any rate, the church hauled the kids up to the Skatium a couple of weeks ago. I was envious as hell, of course because it’s too damned hot around here this year. It’s been pushing 100 degrees regularly over the past couple of weeks and it seemed to me that going out ice skating would be a very good thing to do in all this miserable heat.

My kid had a good time and I got to leave the office for a few minutes and get a picture of her. That’s a pretty good day.

The following week, the church was supposed to take the kids out horseback riding. Because of the heat, however, they chose to stay inside and have snow cones instead. Good choice.

My traffic joke

Folks, commuting from Benton to Little Rock to work every day is rotten. The traffic is miserable, indeed. How bad is it? Let me tell you…

So I was driving to work down I-430 and I saw this fellow walking down the side of the road. Since the traffic was just crawling along, I was able to simply roll down my window and holler at him.

“Hey, man! You need a ride?”

“No, thanks,” he said. “I’m in a hurry.”

Heh, heh.

Wordless Wednesday – Escaping the Heat

Check out the other Wordless Wednesday participants or submit something of your own!

Yeah, this is Arkansas

One of the stories that's swept our beloved Natural State this week is one of an escaped pig that wound up in a swimming pool.

Curious? Of course you are! None other than the mighty Arkansas Democrat-Gazette covered the story and took a ton of pictures. Frankly, I’m grateful for the pig as his exploits gave us a break from the usual news of shootings and mayhem in Little Rock.

Last week, a truck full of pigs was heading to a sausage factory. The truck overturned and a bunch of pigs escaped. One 800-pound hog eluded the authorities for awhile and finally turned up in a swimming pool owned by one LeAnn Baldy.

Baldy lives in a neighborhood near the I-40/I-430 intersection close to Little Rock. The authorities apprehended the pig, but the rascal gave them a good chase for a few days at least. Good for him.

Here in Arkansas, it seems that critters are routinely ending up in swimming pool. I well remember an incident at a country club in Marianna, Ark., when I was five-years-old.

My parents had just taken jobs with the school district over there. Mom was a district psychologist and dad was the superintendent of curriculum. They got paid very well to go to work in that town and one of the perks of the job was that they were members of the country club there.

We were in the pool at the country club one day when someone pulled up in his pickup truck, opened the tailgate and tossed his Labrador retriever in the pool.

Now, the strange thing about that was that this was the mid-1970s and Marianna is in the Delta. In other words, those folks didn’t fully grasp the fact that the War Between the States had ended and the South lost. They didn’t allow blacks in that country club, but they laughed it up when someone threw a dog in the pool?

Thank God that struck me as odd way on back in 1974.

Years later, I still feel cheated

A few years ago, my wife and I took one of our cats to the vet.

The veterinarian gave us this card which was proof of our membership in Cats of the Revolution. I was excited, thinking that card would guarantee me an army of angry cats I could deploy against my hated enemies.

With such an army I could – dare I say it – rule the world. Yes, supporting the Revolution clearly meant I was on my way to violently grabbing some real power.

Sadly, I was wrong. I flipped over the card and read the Solemn Pledge that supporters of the Revolution are to take:

“I hereby swear that I shall uphold the tenets of the Revolution. I shall always keep my cat protected from the indignities of parasitic invasion. I shall bring said cat to the veterinarian regularly and will continue to do so all the days of our lives together.”

So I signed the pledge and stuck the card in my wallet. It’s stayed there over the past couple of years and I found it again today when I was fishing for something else.

I paid a visit to the Cats of the Revolution Internet site, played a game in which I helped a cat avoid parasites and couldn’t help but wonder about a couple of things. We have purchased flea collars for our cats and take them to the vet at least once a year.

But is that enough? Are we still active supporters of the Revolution? What do those cats hope to achieve through their Revolution? If I am a more effective proponent of that Revolution, will I still get the coveted army of cats to use against my enemies?

A more important question is this – why do I keep junk like that in my wallet, anyway? I really don’t have a good answer to that one.

Baby proof that house

Back when I was just a little The Hawg, I burned the heck out of myself on a furnace.

How? I was learning to walk and I pulled up on it. My mom tells me that was a scary event – almost as bad as the time I shut myself in a refrigerator when mom was cleaning it out.

Here’s the thing – infants and toddlers can get hurt easily. So, baby proofing a home is important, right? To protect the little critters, then, items such as baby gates and cabinet locks are important.

You can find out about such safety items and even take a look at a blog about child safety over at KidSafe. Pay that site a visit, huh?

Music Monday – Wall of Voodoo

Just the thing for a Monday morning. Enjoy!

Come join Music Monday and share your songs with us. One simple rule, leave ONLY the actual post link here. You can grab this code at LJL Please note these links are STRICTLY for Music Monday participants only. All others will be deleted without prejudice.

More proof that The Hawg is great

I had this great idea for Father’s Day this year.

My son is out of town visiting my wife’s family, but I figured I could still have a good time with my daughter and my wife on the holiday, right? I told them that it would be dandy fun if they took 30 minutes or so to simply tell me how great I am.

Strangely, they refused to do that. Oh well.

At least Windy over at Windmill on the Hill thinks I’m great and has presented me with the “Over the Top” award (great content over there and the layout absolutely puts my little blog to shame – click that link up there and go visit).

I appreciate the award, certainly. I’m terrible at passing these on, however. So, I’ll leave it at this – if you also think The Hawg is great and you own a blog, grab a copy of this award for your very own. Anyone who will acknowledge my greatness is obviously someone of taste and sophistication and deserves an award.