Saturday

Did the food basket project again. This time there were over 90 men involved. The best part for me was that Quinn came along. He was pretty mad I got him out of a warm bed at 5:10 am, but once the work started, he really got into it. His job was putting 4 cans of chicken noodle soup into each basket. He seems to enjoy assembly-line work, at least for an hour at a time. I remember the first time I realized the truth behind the angel myths: we humans are the angels whenever we do God's work. This is not only what Christmas is all about. It's what life is all about. So grateful I can plug into the good life whenever I want to!

I had the privilege of participating in a fantastic holiday tradition. This e-mail from my best man, Bob, explains it. Forget the malls. This is what the holidays are all about:

We successfully completed our 13th annual food basket project Sunday thanks to the hard work of the individuals seen here. A big thanks of course to the people who donated money and those who raised money for this worthwhile event. We also are thankful to Hy-Vee food stores for giving us 10% off on the entire order.......making possible 6 additional food baskets.

In all we bought, assembled and distributed 60 food baskets worth over $63.00 each to brothers and sisters who could use a little help. I received some beautiful few phone calls yesterday telling of grateful food basket recipients and, of course the emotional good feeling some people got by doing something for someone else. I think St. Francis put it best..........."for it is by giving that we receive".

Randy Lisboan was in town for a rare weekend visit. He came over for dinner and we talked about all his shenanigans in grade school. He did a lot more bad stuff in elementary school than I did. I waited until college. Jim Cunningham stopped by, too. He was with Randy when they shot their BB guns from the sewer. The rest of that story is classified.

This is the control unit Randy designed for a manufacturing line at Lennox in Marshalltown, IA. I think that stuff is so cool. Randy and I always shared a great pleasure in science and making things work.

Today was Quinn's last day of SummerCampFun. He had a jam-packed summer full of trips to the Omaha Zoo, Adventureland, the Science Center, endless swimming and roller skating. They even went to Maquoketa Caves State Park. Man, he definitely saw more of Iowa than I did this summer. When it was time to go, he wanted a photo with his friend, Jack. I asked him why he liked Jack so much. Quinn said, "He's cool, he has lots of Yu-gi-oh cards, everyone likes him and he's funny. He's the perfect friend." We'll miss you, Jack.

Bob threw a party for me and 15 or so other guys at his house. Cooked out, ate cake, hung out. What a guy. And I really mean that. If you have one friend like Bob in a lifetime, you're lucky. Thanks for sharing the good life with me, Bob!

This is an old one. My college friend, Perry Emge, drove out to the St Louis airport to see me on a stopover. Great to catch up with him, he'd just met his birth father and was very emotional. His e-mails have bounced lately, so, Perry, please e-mail me!

My friend since kindergarten, Marty Plummer, called me out of the blue. Our 25th high school reunion is coming up, so he and Jim Cunningham came over and gave my archives a workout. The photo of Jim was taken at the Ledges when he, I, Quinn and his son, Jackson, did a day trip to hike and cook out. The next one shows me and another childhood friend, Randy Lisbona, and his daughter. I called him on a stopover in Dallas and we spent the afternoon catching up. The last one is Jeff Payne. We got to know each other again in the last year. I told Marty I'd seen Jeff and Marty remembered breaking Jeff's leg in like the first football practice of the season. Jeff remembered it, too.

My old friend, Dave Elwell, is back from Iraq and I was thrilled to see him alive and well at the Farmer's Market.

Ran into Best Man No. 1 at my favorite cheese shop, Basil's. Rick and I haven't stayed close, but I've always liked his sensitive, artistic nature.

My old friend, Bill, moved back to Des Moines. Hadn't seen him for 8 years when we ran into each other. Here, we're at the Greek Food Festival.

The 2nd pic shows me with Jamie Hager, whom I had never met, but he looked so much like my old friend, Randy Hager, I just had to say hello. Turns out they're brothers. We exchanged e-mail addresses but all my messages bounced. Randy, write to me!

I love my job because of the people. Bob was one of the best and he just left for a terrific new job as an engineer. We'll miss you, Bob!

And then there's Dan. He makes my job more fun by providing a reliable daily dose of off-beat insight. You can count on it. It's guys like Dan that people sell pants to.

Quinn has made some great new friends in the neighborhood. Here he is with Shelby and KK. We love having them around and usually feed them root beer floats so they keep coming back.

Everyone has a friend like Tom. He says things and enjoys fun. He often goes places and likes to stand. I guess I'm just lucky to have such a friend.

This is a drawing I did one night when Tom was over. Tom found it while digging out crap for his website. It's a moment in time, a gestalt of furtive minstrels conniving to portray alacrity.

Got together with my best man, Bob, and about 20 of his buddies to celebrate how grateful we are to know him and have him in our lives. Bob's wife, Joni, arranged it all and picked up the tab for surf 'n' turf. Thanks, Joni!

9 of my best friends and I had a great boat outing today. It was one of the best days of my entire life. Great weather, fabulous food, terrific fellowship. It was an experience I would never want to miss. We rented a pontoon boat at Big Creek reservoir and cruised to Shit Beach, which we named due to the copious quantities of fecal matter found thereon. Probably heron or raccoon. But it didn't diminish our enjoyment one bit. We feasted on steaks and corn on the cob and enjoyed a perfect day together.

Here's one more. It was scanned from a Polaroid i-mode sticky pic. Bob M and me:

My best friend from high school, Tom Hudson, and I still keep in touch via e-mail and we get together a couple times a year. It's one of those unexplainable lifelong connections that's simply irreplaceable. What a gift. He's a cellist with a masters from Julliard. I'm very proud of him for actually making a career of music. I myself was cursed with a minor talent. It was enough to make me major in music but not enough to make a living at it. These 2 pics are from Christmas, 2000.

These pics were taken Aug 26, 2001. We went canoeing on the Raccoon River, which is a great way to get out away from civilization and get talked out. Tom is a master canoeist since he studied it for 10 days with Indian Canoe Shamans in the Boundary Waters. He could read the current like a book. He even knew how to hold the paddle. From what he told me, I think he has built like 20 canoes out of ancient cedar trees or something impressive like that. Each one has a personality and he wants to be buried in one, although he hasn't built the "perfect canoe" yet. It's a mystical thing with him. Anyway, Tom and I got caught up in every area, then there was a short time where we were quiet, no talking, no paddling, just nature's silence, which is not silence at all. I'm amazed how long I go listening only to my chatter. My daily rhythm doesn't provide much tranquility, so I love it when I make the time for it.

My other best friend, Walter Clark, is seen here paddling a canoe in June, 1998 in Wisconsin. We drove up to visit his family and he and I stole away for an afternoon. The pic of us together was taken outside The House on the Rock, a phantasmagorical concentration of arcana that boggles the mind and overwhelms the senses.

I ran into 3 people from my high school today at the Iowa State Fair. Stands to reason out of 100, 000 people I'd know somebody. They were Bruce Brubaker, Hoover High School 1977, Paula McDonald, Bruce's wife, 1978, and Debbie Helming Haas, 1979. Bruce is a concert pianist and is on the faculty at Julliard. I remember Paula played the viola or violin and she's now a graphic designer. Here, we ran into Bruce and Paula because we happened to be eating strawberry shortcake at the Agriculture building at the same time. Hm.....

This is a photo from our 20th reunion, taken in June, 1999 at Prairie Meadows Race Track and Casino. I saw people there I'd known since I was 5. That was 34 years ago. It was a blast. Growing up is fun.