Wishing Carol a very Happy Birthday Today. It is not how old you are it is how you feel that counts. This photo taken by Bill and is one of his all time favorites of his wife.
The Best Wife Ever!
STOP
SOPA
and
PIPA
Two bills before Congress, known as the Protect IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House, would censor the Web and impose harmful regulations on American business. Millions of Internet users and entrepreneurs already oppose SOPA and PIPA.
Call your Congressman
http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/
and Senators today.
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
Welcome To 2012
UNTIL IT SNOWS
By Bob Perks
I love the quiet snow brings. My world is loud and busy.
Until it snows.
I love the pure, white satin finish snow brings. My world is dusty, dirty
and very dull since summer faded leaving me longing for rose
colored days and lilac scented nights. Its stays that way too long.
Until it snows.
I love the peace that snow brings. It makes me stop and think
about peaceful things. My world is not peaceful.
Until it snows.
I love the memories that snow brings. I see the joy of Christmas in
the falling flakes and hear the laughter of children in the piling up of
snow. My world needs joy and laughter more. It lacks so much.
Until it snows.
I love the contrast that snow brings. We get so spoiled with rainbows
and flowers. We are bombarded with images, and flashing, brilliant,
sparkling lights. Black, white, brown and gray limit us and force us to
find the beauty in simple things. My world is overwhelming.
Until it snows.
I love the “slow” that snow brings. Rushing here and going there
never really gets me anywhere. My life is hurried, rushed and moving
too fast through drive thru windows, passing lanes, speed check outs
and express, priority mail.
Until it snows.
Yes, I take so much for granted and lose myself in having too
many choices. In my wanting more of life, I find what I have to
be too much and not enough at the same time.
Until it snows.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bob’s signature story, “I Wish You Enough,” has been released by Thomas Nelson Publishers and features a collection of his stories based on the eight wishes expressed in the original story. His inspiring true stories are based on the people he meets in his travels. Bob’s unique perspective on life makes him “the philosopher of everyday moments.” For more information visit his website at: http://www.IWishYouEnough.com or email Bob your comments to: perksblog@hotmail.com
Today is the saddest Day of the year for the Pattersons. On this day 12 years ago Christopher left us at 16:30 at the age of 17, from injuries received from a terrible auto accident. Everyone misses him very much. This photo of Christopher at Christmas taken in 1994 with him holding his dog Spiegel (who left us at the age of 17 also on the Day before Father’s Day this year. This Christmas is a lot sadder with her gone also.
Christopher Lee Patterson and Spiegel
I think this picture below says it all!
Well I feel very special this Christmas since I get my own personal lights.
Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow
Christopher Hitchens died Thursday at the age of 62 at a Texas hospital.
”I’m a member of no (political) party. I have no ideology. I’m a rationalist. I do what I can in the international struggle between science and reason and the barbarism, superstition and stupidity that’s all around us.”
To those who urged Hitchens to embrace religion once he knew he was dying, he wrote: “Suppose there were groups of secularists at hospitals who went round the terminally ill and urged them to adopt atheism: ‘Don’t be a mug all your life. Make your last days the best ones.’ People might suppose this was in poor taste.”- USA TODAY
Eloquent and intemperate, bawdy and urbane, Hitchens was an acknowledged contrarian and contradiction – half-Christian, half-Jewish and fully nonbelieving; a native of England who settled in America; a former Trotskyite who backed the Iraq war and supported George W. Bush. But his passions remained constant and targets of his youth, from Henry Kissinger to Mother Teresa, remained hated.
Today marks the 70th Anniversary of the Japanese attacking the USA at Pearl Harbor. “A Day That Will Live In Infamey”
The attack on Pearl Harbor (called Hawaii Operation or Operation AI by the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters (Operation Z in planning and the Battle of Pearl Harbor) was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941 (December 8 in Japan). The attack was intended as a preventive action in order to keep the U.S. Pacific Fleet from interfering with military actions the Empire of Japan was planning in Southeast Asia against overseas territories of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States.
The base was attacked by 353 Japanese fighters, bombers and torpedo planes in two waves, launched from six aircraft carriers. All eight U.S. Navy battleships were damaged, with four being sunk. Of the eight damaged six were raised, repaired and returned to service later in the war.
The Japanese also sank or damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship, and one minelayer. 188 U.S. aircraft were destroyed; 2,402 Americans were killed and 1,282 wounded. The power station, shipyard, maintenance, and fuel and torpedo storage facilities, as well as the submarine piers and headquarters building (also home of the intelligence section) were not attacked.
Japanese losses were light: 29 aircraft and five midget submarines lost, and 65 servicemen killed or wounded. One Japanese sailor was captured.
Larry Munson 1922-2011
Athens, Ga. – Larry Munson, legendary voice of the Georgia Bulldogs for 42 years, died at his Athens home Sunday night of complications from pneumonia according to his son, Michael.
Today, University of Georgia President Michael F. Adams said, “Larry Munson exemplified the excellence that we believe is the symbol of all the University of Georgia does today. He was loved by thousands of alumni and friends, and was completely devoted to this university and all its athletic teams. He will be greatly missed by all of us.
Munson wrapped up a lifetime of sports broadcasting in the fall of 2008, most of which was spent with the Georgia Bulldogs from 1966 to 2008. His dramatic delivery, along with an unabashed partisanship for the Bulldogs, endeared him to generations of UGA fans.
The Georgia job, which Munson landed in 1966, was the latest and longest lasting in a career that has covered over 60 years. He has been duly honored by several organizations for his outstanding contributions to broadcasting.
Born Sept. 28, 1922, in Minneapolis, Munson is an alumnus of Moorehead State Teachers College in Moorehead, Minn. After World War II, he used his military discharge pay to enroll in broadcasters school back home in Minneapolis. He followed 10 weeks of training by landing an assignment to work at a small radio station in Devil’s Lake, N.D.
This job started a series of short-term jobs for Munson behind the microphone, the last of which took him to Cheyenne, Wyoming. He had gotten the job by recording an audition tape of a football game between Ohio State and Minnesota, replete with canned crowd noise and special effects.
During his time in Cheyenne, Munson befriended another young broadcaster who later gained national fame: Curt Gowdy, who was calling University of Wyoming football and basketball games at the time. When Gowdy left Cheyenne for a Double A baseball job in Oklahoma City, he recommended that Munson replace him. It was the break that Munson sought.
In 1949, when Gowdy joined Mel Allen on the New York Yankees radio crew, he again recommended Munson for the job inOklahoma City. Munson eventually spent three years broadcasting baseball there before making his next move.
He left Oklahoma City for Nashville, Tenn., in 1952, taking a job calling games for the Nashville Vols, a minor-league affiliate of several teams, including the New York Giants, Cincinnati and Minnesota. It was a career move that led him into other broadcasting directions. He served a stint as a Nashville disc jockey and also started what was believed to have been the first-ever TV show on fishing. Munson continued to host the fishing show long after he left Nashville for Georgia in the mid-1960s.
While in Nashville, Munson also made his second venture into collegiate athletics. He called Vanderbilt University football and basketball games over the powerful airwaves of AM station WSM.
But in 1966 Munson got his big break into major-league baseball when he landed a job calling Atlanta Braves baseball in their inaugural season. As the Braves’ first spring training began, he read a newspaper story about the departure of Georgia football announcer Ed Thilenius. He then made an inquiry to UGA athletics director Joel Eaves, whom he had known during his days at Vanderbilt. Eaves offered him the Georgia football job during that first phone call.
During his career as the Bulldogs¹ play-by-play man, Munson has held a variety of auxiliary jobs. He called games for the Georgia basketball program from 1987-96 and for the Atlanta Falconsfrom 1989-92. He has also hosted various sports talk shows on radio and TV.
In 1983, Munson was recognized by the Georgia General Assembly for his role in the Georgia championship football program. Fourteen years later the same legislative body, led by Governor Zell Miller, honored him with a proclamation celebrating his 50 years in broadcasting.
In 1994, Munson was inducted into the Georgia Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame, and in 2005, he won a similar induction into the State of Georgia Sports Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Hall of Fame on May 2, 2009.
Munson was also the 2003 recipient of the Chris Schenkel Award, given annually by the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame. The award recognizes broadcasters with long and distinguished careers in broadcasting college football, as well as their contributions to community service. He was also named winner of the 2008 Furman Bisher Award for Sports Media Excellence presented by the Atlanta Sports Council.
On Nov. 17, 2007, Munson was named a UGA “Honorary Football Letterman” and presented with a letterman’s plaque and jacket at the Georgia-Kentucky game.
