Rayne turns 13; becomes 'technical teenager'.
My new buddy Rayne, the youngest son of an older (but not old) buddy of mine, turned thirteen yesterday with grand fanfare and partying. Some pictures follow; (click on them to make them larger).
Here's Rayne (in the middle, with the kickin' hair) blowing out candles.
Much food and ice cream was had by all.
A potential garroting was narrowly averted.
Here's a slideshow of the pictures I took:
Good times!
(If you want your own copies of the photos, grab this zip file.)
A tribute to my mother
As some of you may be aware, my mother, Carmon Ilene Smith, died at 4:15CDT on June 12, at the Northeast Mississippi Medical Center. She was 70.
For those of you who don't know, she had a long and progressive bout with illness, beginning with losing her sight while in the middle part of her life, to end-stage renal disease and kidney problems near the end of it. At the end, she'd been in the hospital for some time, but finally succumbed to an apparent infection that her already-weakened body could not fight off.
Mom was really an inspiration to me. She was an artist, and loved to paint -- I have much of her artwork hanging in my office right now -- but as she lost her sight, she never complained. She never complained about anything, even though I know that dialysis and all the other medical procedures she went through were tough on her emotionally and physically. I doubt I'll ever even half of her stamina, nor even a quarter of my dad's, who through it all, put his own affairs on hold to sit with her day after day after day.
I've been fortunate to be back home to be with her for several years before she died, and am proud to have been here to help my dad and brothers take care of her in her last months. I know she was happy to have me back home, because she told me so.
I'm grateful for the many kind thoughts, prayers, cards, gifts, food, and visits that our family received during this time. I got emails from friends of mine on the Internet that I have never met in person, but whose condolences were no less kind and heart-felt. We received many flowers and tributes, and hundreds of people came to her memorial. The Mississippi State Senate adjourned a session in her memory. At her funeral, we played a song that had been sung at both the funerals of her mother and father, my grandmother and grandfather. Words really can't express how kind everyone has been, and that's something I'll always remember.
There's so much I could say in this post but it is difficult to find the words. It is enough, I think, to simply say that I loved her and I know she loved me.
BOONEVILLE – Carmon Ilene Smith, 70, died Friday, June 12, 2009, at the North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo after an extended illness. She was a member of Little Brown Freewill Baptist Church.
Services will be at 11 a.m. Monday at the McMillan Funeral Home Chapel with Bro. Mike Fields officiating. Burial will be at Liberty Memorial Gardens.
She is survived by her husband of 51 years, Paul Jack Smith of Booneville; three sons, Jackie Smith (Mary) and Keith Smith, both of Booneville and Jerry Smith (Tammy) of Clinton; and five grandchildren, Carter Smith, Carmen Smith, Jonathan Smith, Jacob Smith and Samantha Smith.
She is preceded in death by her parents, Austin and Vera Price Holder; and one sister, Alene Harris.
Visitation will be from 5 to 9 p.m. today and will continue until service time on Monday.
Reference from the June 14 Obituary page of the Northeast Daily Journal
Moving toward conversation-consolidation-nirvana
Courtesy of Google Voice, I want to alert you to a new contact number for me that has just recently gone into service.
At long last, my Google Voice invite arrived, and I've reserved the Booneville, MS number (662) 596-1234. I would encourage you to modify your saved numbers for me in your phone to (662) 596-1234 if you wish, though my previous numbers will still work. Implementing the Google Voice number allows me to closely coordinate all my conversations, be they email or voice, business or personal.
There are a number of other advantages of using the (662) 596-1234 number. For those of you who are not familiar with Google Voice, it allows you to aggregate phone traffic for multiple phones to a single phone number. Calls to (662) 596-1234 actually ring simultaneously on both my work and cell phones (or on any other phones that I've temporarily designated). This allows me to choose which is the most convenient to answer given my location, and helps me avoid missing calls. Other advanced call routing options exist, which will also increase your chances of getting me on the phone. On this site's About and Contact pages, for instance, special clickable icons allow you to connect to me directly from the web.
I've changed my voice mail messages on my other lines to indicate that I would prefer that all voice mail messages now be left at the (662) 596-1234 number. Voice mail is automatically transcribed by Google and sent to me in by both email and text message, ensuring that I'm able to see and respond to your voice mail message in a timely fashion. Of course, email is always my preferred form of communication, but this transcription feature gives me the best of both worlds.
Welcome to the future of communication, and I look forward to talking with you!
