Well, the United States continues to call me, which is concerning. Though not nearly as concerning as when Barack Obama was in office. <img hspace=10 vspace=10 align="right"
Susan left out before 5 am. She and some coworkers were going to Nashville to ride a train, stop at an Octoberfest — just have a good time. I think she was a bit anxious about going but her text messages through the morning sounds as if she's enjoying herself :)
I've been updating my Dropbox, Box.com, and Google Drive accounts with some blogging software, markdown editors, and stacks to serve local websites. I've also downloaded some old content from the days when I had a webspace on donationcoder and it'll be interesting to sift all of that over the coming weeks for contents I can integrate into my current offline blog. In particularly, I hope to learn or be reminded of various programming-related things I've learned over the past decade.
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Colony. Watching episode 8 now and minding some downloads/uploads. I've also been remembering dad, and missing him. Mom and Sharlyon are still in the Outer Banks, I presume. I think she's due to arrive home sometime tomorrow. And Emma is in for the weekend. She spent the night with Hannah, who was house-sitting last night for Brack and Isabelle. Now she's home, sprucing up. I imagine she's gonna spend time with Callum.
Interestingly, both girls have commented to me this morning that they're glad their mom took this trip today. I think they both see how hard she works, and her stress level, and are glad to see her do something for herself. Susan sent me a text about a museum they have in Nashville that she thought the two of us might enjoy sometime.
At 11:00 am, it's only 74° F and 43% humidity. If the weather holds, I may do an afternoon run. I ran 10K yesterday after work, but it was my first run in a full week, because it's been so hot.
Later...
I took a nap, finally, around 3:30 pm. Hannah, Austin, and Emma have gone out. Grant just got home from working at Sonic and has fallen asleep in Susan's chair.
In looking through some directories I've downloaded from old cloud backups, I found this newspaper clipping from 2011 when Emma and Emily placed/won a writing competition in school :)
A little over a week ago, dad had his fifth heavenly birthday. Everybody dies. I understand that. It's the natural order. But I sure do miss our Saturday morning coffees and chit-chat. I miss talking guns, family genealogy, computers, religion, and other things with him. Dad could converse intelligently on a wide array of topics. He was well-read but also just a smart man. I'm thankful that he didn't linger for a long period while suffering. I hope that his faith and medication gave him comfort during those last few days he was alive in March, 2018. Dad had a stroke on or near March 13, 2018, and was gone three days later. He loved to read science-fiction, and was always giving me a book he'd just finished. He also liked to piddle around in his shop, a little fifteen by thirty prefab on concrete pillars. He did some gunsmithing, some reloading. A year or two before he really got bad, I helped him repair the small deck attached to that building, and he was proud as a peacock when we finished. I wish I'd hugged him and told him I love him more often. 
Below is one of the last -- perhaps the very last -- pictures of dad with all of us. I wish I knew exactly when the picture was made. The old truck pictured here belonged to a long-time neighbor and farmer. Dad had it for many years, and it has now gone to our preacher, who uses it for him own farming. I can remember many a time using that truck to haul one of dad's riding lawn mowers to Russell Springs for repair. It was loud and proud.
We had white beans, cornbread, relish, onions, pork chops, country ham, fried potatoes, and boiled cabbage.
I contacted dad's first cousin Sheila Frech via FB Messenger to see if she'd be interested in having the actual photograph. She is indeed, and I'll mail it to her from work on Monday.
