June 2004 Pictures
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June ushered in some of the worst storms in years. The clouds billowed and boiled and poured out their floods on us. | ||||
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After two days of saturating rain, the floodgates opened
and the rain came down harder than I can ever remember seeing. The
result was flooding everywhere. The ditches were not able to hold the
runoff and the water crept back up into our yard and spilled into the
backyard of our neighbor's house. It was 6 inches above their
foundation and flooded their kitchen, living room and parts of the master
bedroom. They had just moved in less than a week ago and did not get
flood insurance. We helped with what we could. Watch It!
In the second video, you can see our trash which floated down the ditch
from the north side of our property and ended up into our backyard. |
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Devin swam in our new pool. These are things I wish I could have done when I was his age, but alas it was not allowed. | ||||
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During the "tornado storm" a tornado touched down a couple
of miles from our house; we hid in the bathtubs with flashlights for an
hour. While a large part of the DFW metroplex was without power for
days, we were only down for a couple of hours. However, our cable was
out for 4 days. Yeah, yeah, whining about not having TV, but that's
not the problem; our internet is through our cable company. So, the first day, Wednesday, my employees and I went to the zoo! Angela had already planned to take the kids, so we met them out there. Pictured here are Stephen Merritt of AccelWarranty.com, me and Nick of Speedsoft.com. The next day, Thursday, I hooked my cell phone up to our network which has internet access. We had 5 people trying to work off of one cell phone. At 4:30 that day, my cell phone just mysteriously stopped working, and it was oddly warm, nay hot, to the touch. Fortunately, Sprint replaced it with a brand new one. And finally, Friday, I told everyone to just work at home. We got cable back late Saturday night, just in time to ruin a perfectly good excuse not to work on the weekend. Here are more pictures from the zoo. Bailey Cross and Caitlin. |
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An alligator with a pointy snout. When God was
creating the alligators, someone asked, "What's the point?" to which He
replied, "I'll show you the point." And we didn't hear from that someone
ever again.
This poor turtle had a run-in with a shark. This is oddly reminiscent of a turtle from last summer's Galveston trip and visit to Moody Gardens pictured in this link. |
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After attending a summer basketball camp, Devin won a game of Knockout at a Wednesday night church activity. He played against about 50 boys and they were almost all older and bigger than him. | ||||
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Nick and I built 6 new computers for a consulting client of ours. These are the new "micro computers." They take up about 1/4 - 1/3 of the space of a conventional computer and have all of the goodies and speed of their elders, not to mention being extremely quiet. | ||||
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We attended the opening day performance of The Promise at Glen Rose.
We spent the night nearby at "Windmill Farms" in a cozy cabin. This
place is a museum of windmills. The next day, the owners told us all
about how windmills work. Here Devin is shown how you stop and start a
windmill with the brake.
This is a picture of the stage during the show.
Before it started, we took a quick photo-op with one of the stars of the show. |
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After the show: sad Jesus...
happy Jesus. |
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We played miniature golf at the world's largest miniature
golf course. I know that's a contradiction, but they mean it has more
greens/holes than any other. And after that many holes of miniature
golf, we were the "world's most ready to leave a miniature golf course"
group.
Devin takes a break along the way. |
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The girls eat ice cream at a parlor on the square in
Granbury.
The boys checkout Devin's new rubber band gun. |
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Each year there is a homecoming celebration at Mt. Zion
Community Church in Cumby, Tx. Up the hill is where my dad was born
and across the street from that is where his mother, Mamaw to me, was born.
When I was younger, we attended the event every year, but I hadn't been back
for the homecoming in many years. My great Uncle Sam, Papaw's brother, (yes, Uncle Sam) still has a strong, wonderful singing voice and leads the congregation in singing. My dad took a few minutes to recognize the military veterans in attendance by having them stand. One of the personally interesting things to our family is that when dad was just a boy, he created two offering plates for the church from turned wood. He carved a dedication with his name and year on the undersides. They still use them today and still bear his inscriptions.
Uncle Sam is on the right. He defended the US in World War II as Army infantry. He fought in the Sicily and North Africa campaigns. He was wounded in North Africa. US tanks were advancing on friendly positions to get to the enemy. Uncle Sam lifted out of a foxhole to signal to the tanks where the US soldiers were located since he had seen more than a few men run over by friendly tanks. When he lifted up, a bomb struck nearby and he was hit by shrapnel. Uncle James, brother to Mamaw, also fought in World War II. He was part of an Army battalion that landed on D-Day at Omaha Beach. He never talks about those days. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to these men.
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Papaw is buried here in the Mt. Zion cemetery along with
many other of my relatives. Papaw passed away in 1980.
This is a picture of Uncle Sam, his wife Sue, and Mamaw who is now 92 on the right. |
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There's a running comment about Ginger being a lap dog. I thought she had finished growing, but I was wrong. | ||||
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Devin, Charles and Reagan Cross, and I got free tickets
from our friend Tony Fincannon to a NASCAR truck race at the Texas Motor
Speedway. It was a great guys night.
Skydivers came in with the US and Texas flags draped behind them just before the national anthem was sung. |
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We attended the Vaughan family reunion. The Vaughan's
are Mamaw Speed's relatives. Every year it's held at Lake Cypress
Springs near Mount Vernon in East Texas. Mom and Dad were kind enough
to let us stay with them in their travel trailer. Ginger came along and caught some z's in the car ride out there. |
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Here's a panoramic shot of where we stayed. | ||||
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Angela was feeling native.
Devin fishes "old school" with a stick and some string. He caught more sun fish than anyone else. |
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Devin shows off one of his many catches.
Caitlin got in on the action, too.
And Ronnie, my nephew, shows his rather large catch with the aid of a little trick photography. |
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Angela, whose deep desire is to be a CBS Survivor contestant, practices lighting a fire in the deluge we found ourselves in. She lit the fire with one match. So, if she was allowed one luxury item, would it be a match or an umbrella. | ||||
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Ginger suns herself in the lake. | ||||
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My cousins had a boat and jet ski, so we were all set.
Angela tried her hand (or feet) at wake-boarding.
Aw... |
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This little critter showed up at our dock. It was a really wonderful trip, even though I couldn't get good enough cell phone reception to get on the Internet to answer email. | ||||
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Caitlin tried to make Ginger a national POP dog. Have a cool summer. Try to stay in the shade. |
