Tiger on Ryder Cup Team??

Ryder Cup Captain Corey Pavin raised a few
eyebrows this week when he said Tiger Woods was
NOT a shoe-in to be on this years team. The Ryder
Cup competition pits the worlds national teams against
each other. Today golfing great Jack Nicklaus came to
the aid of Woods when he said Pavin should be checked
with a brain scan if he decides to bypass Woods for this
years American team. The 70-year old Nicklaus has never
been an outspoken player in his career, but told reporters,
"If you're going to have a team made up of the best players
in your country, then Tiger should be at the top of the list."
Nicklaus admitted that Woods is going through some
personal problems with his rumored divorce from wife Elin,
but that has no bearing on his golf game. The team must be
assembled and ready to play by October, and now Pavin has been
scolded by one of the best for even thinking about omitting
Woods. Tiger returned to the game after taking time off after
his extra-marital affairs were made public. His play in the Masters
Tournament was creditable, but the following week he failed to
make the cut after the first round. Having said that, he is still the
best player in the country and probably the world. Corey Pavin
needs to get his priorities straight and decide what is best for
America.... and his Ryder Cup team.

1948 Chevrolet Cabover Truck

This is a 1948 Chevrolet cabover truck that has
been completely re-furbished by Texoma Harley-
Davidson in Sherman, Texas. When new this truck
had a 216 cubic inch 6-cylinder engine with a three
speed transmission. This particular truck had a stake bed
on it when discovered on the east coast of the United
States. One of the owners of Texoma HD bought the
truck and had it re-done for use by the dealership. It
now is powered by a 350 cubic inch Chevrolet V-8
engine and a four speed automatic transmission. The
unique thing is the engine is now mounted underneath
about where the cab ends and the bed begins. Originally
the front end tilted to offer access to the engine compartment.
You can see the air vents on the side for engine cooling. It does
have a radiator that is mounted in the conventional
position, but the hoses are extra long to connect with
the engine. The engine can be accessed thru a door in
the bed, which can also be tilted if serious access is needed.
There is also a trap door in the bed that conceals a trailer
hitch to pull a goose- neck trailer that the dealership
owns. The open bed is used to transport motorcycles
from one dealership to another (the owners have five
Harley-Davidson stores). The bike on the bed is a 1957
Harley Davidson Sportster, the first year for that particular
model. I have also included a photo of the inside of the
truck to show how pristine it is now compared to how it
looked when it was new in 1948. Also check out the air
conditioner...unheard of in 1948.

Truck Driving Rodeo

The North Texas Chapter of the American Truckers
Association held their regional championships in Fort
Worth today. The competition was held at the Fed Ex
terminal off of I-820 on the north side of town. There
was a lot of companies represented, but Wal-Mart had
nine drivers entered from the local competition. I retired
last October, but traveled down to check on my boys. Todays
competition was composed of a written test,..a physical
examination of the truck for defects & violations...and
the actual driving of the truck through an obstacle course.
I am proud to tell you that my friend Rick Pledger won
first place in the competition. Rick and I have been friends
since 2001 when he beat me out of the State Championship
on his way to the National Championship. This year Rick
still has to go to the state competition in Bryan, Texas
later this summer, but we are confident that is just a formality.
He wants that second national title to put himself in an elite
category among Wal-Mart drivers. Earlier in this blog I told
you about a friend of mine that was almost killed in a
motorcycle accident. That was Rick. Three broken vertebrae
in his neck and two more in his back. Doctors told us he was
within an inch of killing himself. The back still gives him trouble,
but today's First Place plaque will make the pain subside somewhat.

Denison, Texas ?????

Whenever I tell someone that I am from Denison
they usually confuse it with Denton....Denison is the
one with the GOOD football team..
Actually, Denison is a lot more than just a football
crazy town on the Red River. It was the first place
the Missouri-Kansas-Texas (MKT) Railroad came to
Texas. Denison became the railroad's main hub for
all of Texas, and some of the railroad big wigs decided
to call Denison home. The first public school in Texas
was started in Denison. The Marx Brothers were simply
musicians until a stop in Denison where Groucho bought a
wig and became the stooped over clown that everyone
remembers. Probably the most famous Denisonian is
Dwight David Eisenhower, the 34th President of the
United States. Ike was born in Denison October 14, 1890
but his family moved to Kansas when he was a young
boy. He will forever be remembered as the Supreme Commander of all Allied Forces in World War II, and the man who had to make the
important decision on the Normandy invasion. France lost all of it's
vineyards in the 1940's due to the war, and John Munson of Denison
transplanted some of his vines and donated them to France...thus saving the French wine industry. So when
you think you have to have a French wine with dinner,..just remember
it has a Denison connection. Denison is also
the hometown of actor John Hillerman, who is best known as
the sidekick of Tom Selleck in the television series Magnum, P.I.
Now days it is up to the high school football team to bring attention
to Denison...and they relish in that job. A perennial powerhouse that
goes to the post-season playoffs with the regularity of the sunrise.
The Yellow Jackets were State Champions in 1984-85 and returned
to the title game three times in the early 1990's only to come home
second best. 2008 saw them eliminated in the Regional round of the
playoffs and last year they made it to the Semi-Finals before bowing
out....BUT next year is always another season.. Sting 'Em Jackets !!

Bond,.... James Bond !!!!

Being a child of the 1950's I was enthralled
by the novels of Ian Fleming at an early age. I
would devote hours of school time to the
adventures of Mr Fleming's main character,
James Bond, a secret agent for the British Intelligence Service MI5. Bond was licensed to kill, and went by the code designation 007. In 1962 when the first Bond movie, 'Dr. No', came to town I was a senior in high school
but still wanted to see how Hollywood treated
the Fleming novel. Sean Connery was the perfect
James Bond for me. Ruggedly handsome, suave
with the ladies, and ruthless with the bad guys.
Connery would sign on to do six Bond movies over
the next nine years before deciding to "stretch his
talent in other directions". Australian George Lazenby
was signed on to do 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service'
in 1969 and he stumbled through the role compared
to Connery. Roger Moore, who is actually three years
older than Connery, was James Bond from 1973 thru
1985 and did seven Bond films. I never liked Roger
Moore as James Bond because he gave the character
an 'upper class' attitude that I disagreed with. I did like
the work of Timothy Dalton, who played James Bond
in two films in two years, but he was replaced by
Pierce Brosnan in 1995. Brosnan was the face of
Remington Steele on television and I never could make
the transition to James Bond for him. He was James
Bond in 'Goldeneye', 'Tomorrow Never Dies', and 'The World
Is Not Enough'. By 2006 the producers wanted a new face
for James Bond and an eighteen month search turned up
Daniel Craig. He is easily the best James Bond since Connery
introduced the character to film. Craig was born in Cheshire,
England so he does not have to fake the English accent.
His first movie job was in 1992 and by 2002 he co-starred in
'Road to Perdition' with Tom Hanks. His first movie as James
Bond was 'Casino Royale', and fans & critics alike were
impressed with his performance. His second Bond movie was
'Quantum of Solace' and again was impressive. The 23rd Bond
movie was suppose to be released in 2010, but due to economic
problems in Hollywood, it has been pushed back to 2011.

These James Bond actors have all been the main character in
a movie about James Bond. In 1954 Barry Nelson played James
Bond in a television episode of Casino Royale, and in 1967 David
Niven played the part of James Bond in a movie where he was
just a passing character and not the main item.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all mothers,
and let me speak for all sons when I say we
thank you for our lives.. I am a student of
history and I'll bet a lot of people don't know
how Mother's Day came to be.. During the
War Between the States (Civil War) it was
usually up to the women to comb the battlefields
and tend to the wounded. It was also primarily
a woman's job to prepare the dead for burial. In
1870 pacifist Julia Ward was an early advocate of
celebrating the work of Mothers. In 1910 Sonora
Smart Dodd thought up the idea of a national
holiday after hearing a church sermon commending
mothers. By 1912 Anna Jarvis copyrighted the phrase
"Mother's Day" in a tribute to the passing of her
mother. Just two years later President Woodrow
Wilson signed a proclamation making Mother's Day
a national holiday, coming on the second Sunday in
May each year. I lost my mother at a very early age
and have always been jealous of adults who still have a
mother. My wife is the mother of our family and she
knows that I will usually go all out to show her my love
and appreciation.. Again,.. Happy Mother's Day !!

A Rose Is A Rose....Is A Rose....Is A Rose

Earlier this week my wife's rose bush started to
bud flowers for the first time this year... The plant
is almost 20 years old and came with us when we
moved 18 years ago. For the past several years the
flowers have been red with streaks of yellow in them.
This year the blooms are all yellow.... making them
the 'Yellow Roses of Texas'. I did not know that rose
bushes were so hardy. We have had many freezes
over the years and some of our bushes and trees were
lost to the cold temperatures,...but not this rose bush.
My wife is one of those that could put nails in a bucket
of dirt and it would bloom. My grandmother was the very
same way, but not my mother. Poor thing ! If she bought
a plant in a store it was the kiss of death and it would be
dead within days. Indoors or outdoors, she never had
any luck with plants or flowers. The bride can pick some
plant from alongside the road and plant it when we get
home....Whalla!.. Flowers or vegetables!!! Back to the
rose bush,..I told you about the colors for the past few
years, but there have been some years that it simply
budded but never came to bloom. This year's yellow
blooms are out in force and it looks like we will have a
bunch more in the coming days...