Wheel of Fortune is in Arkansas and Willy thinks he needs to go down and audition. Well Willy went by the Possum Grit Grill and Cantina to see what Juanita thought about it. She was all for it.
In fact Juanita had her own game of Wheel of Fortune going on there at the Cantina.
Juanita had bottles of beverage sitting up on the bar and each one was covered in front by a letter turned over backwards. She was giving the two regulars to the Cantina a chance to win a beverage.
Well, Sammy Bob over in the back just kept holding up his brew and hollering "Big Money" - "Big Money" Juanita kept asking him to give her a letter and Sammy Bob hollered out " I would like to buy a bowel."
Well if you knew Sammy Bob like Willy knows Sammy Bob you would know that he has one bowel to many now.
Juanita - says no Sammy Bob. You have to spin the wheel. Well Sammy Bob took hold of the spokes on the car wheel set up on the table and gave it a spin. The pointer stopped on "bankrupt". No problem for Sammy Bob - he declared that a long time ago.
Next up was Billy Mack. - He hollered big money gave the wheel a spin - it came up on bottle of budwiser. Billy Mack immediately hollered "give me a bud light"
Juanita thought he was solving the puzzle and declared him the winner.
As a Winner she declared that he got $5, a chance to drive her daddy's four wheeler and a date with Juanita. Bill Mack immediately refused the prize unless he could eliminate the date part of it.
Guess he has no taste for fine women like Juanita. Or maybe he thinks the little wife back at the shack wouldn't like him going out with Juanita.
Well enough of that - Willy better hurry if he is going to get to those Wheel of Fortune auditions -- Better yet - Willy might just go to the deer Woods.
10-4 Willy
A couple of days ago, I mentioned that a tree service company dumped a pine tree on my parents' house.
Here are a few pictures showing the damage done. I won't add commentary as the photos speak for themselves.
ARTIST - FEIST
SONG - MY MOON MY MAN
So could you do this? I've decided that The Editor is gonna have to take me to an airport where they have one of these things. I've gotta try it.
Link: [HillBilly Brand]
Link: [Gone Mild]
Link: [Ironic Surrealism II]
Link: [The Ghost of Barry Goldwater]
That's right. Cliff Lee, a local boy, won the American League Cy Young Award today.
Yes, we're proud of Lee here in Benton, Ark. He played for the Benton Panthers (we've got a great baseball program here) and the Arkansas Razorbacks. He pitches for the Cleveland Indians now and is coming off a 22-3 season and a 2.54 ERA last season, and that was coming back to Major League Baseball after a season in the minor leagues.
Lee still calls Benton home, thus proving yet again that he's a quality individual.
If you want to read an excellent story about Lee, click right here and read this one that ran last week in the Saline County Voice.
As always, click right here to see some more of ill-conceived rambling.
Dustin Smith and his first-grade class at Woodrow Cummins Elementary School in Conway Arkansas is one of the finalists to win a $25,000 technology makeover through an eInstruction Video Competition.
Their entry titled "Click It" is based on the 1980's tune "Whip It"
This is a great video and if everyone will log in and vote they can win this contest.
Check it out by clicking here on eimakeover.com
Willy has voted - you should too!
10-4 Willy
Folks, I'm good and mad tonight.
Why? Because there's a pine tree lodged in my parents' house, that's why.
"What? A pine tree? What the hell?"
Yes, it seems a bunch here in Saline County, Ark., known as A to Z Tree Service went and dumped a damned tree on my parents' house today. My childhood home, then, may have to be torn down because of the extensive damage to it.
My parents are stunned, I'm mad and I'm looking down the barrel of 31 years of memories being tossed out the window. They bought that home here in Benton back in 1977, got it paid off about 10 years ago (give or take) and are now looking at the prospect of having to rebuild.
Well, there's a chance the home can be saved, but damn! The back half of the place is an absolute disaster. Thank God the saw-wielding maniacs that managed to hit my parents home with a tree are insured.
This A to Z bunch cut down down some pine trees at Casa de Hawg earlier this week. Oh, I was upset that they took a black walnut tree, a tree that my kids liked to climb and most of our bushes out in the process, but I suppose I was lucky. After all, my home wasn't crushed by a tree.
After mangling my yard, A to Z headed on over to mom and dad's place. My parents, see, were a bit wary of the huge pine trees in their yard because a storm dumped a branch on the house earlier this year and they had to have the roof replaced.
So, they figured a reliable tree service was what they needed. Now, A to Z claims they are skilled at removing dangerous and difficult trees. I suppose that claim is correct, so long as you don't mind a damn tree falling through your roof.
My parents are staying in a hotel tonight and I suppose they'll get down to the business of figuring out the extent of the damage in the morning. They'll probably be in that hotel for quite awhile, in fact. I'll post some pictures when I calm down and think to head over there with a camera.
A to Z, for some reason, still has a truck parked in my yard for some reason. I've resisted the urge to slash the tires.
Bastards.
Here's OMD with their big, fat hit, "Enola Gay." Enjoy!
Make sure to visit the other participants (or post something of your own) by clicking right here.
Also, make sure to click right here to help some kids in Conway, Ark., win a "high tech makeover" of their classroom. Watch the video, register and vote. They're winning with their Devo-inspired video now, so help put them over the top!
Folks, I got an e-mail earlier today from Chrissie Hsu.
She said that her client, the Smithsonian Channel, is working on a series called Aerial America. That series will air next year in high definition and will feature aerial views of every state in the Union.
What's the first state that will be covered in that series? Why, it's the beloved Natural State! Congratulations to the fine folks at the Smithsonian Channel for picking the amazingly scenic Arkansas as the first place to visit for the Aerial America series.
Evidently, people will notice if you howl about how much you love Arkansas. Yep, do that long enough and you'll get some attention.
At any rate, Ms. Hsu asked your friend, The Hawg, to take a look at the Arkansas blog for the series. Want to have a look, too? Click right here and head on over there. Let them know what you think, huh?
You can find out about the Aerial America series by clicking right here.
Ms. Hsu said she'd let me know when the show will be aired and have some clips available in the future. I'll post all of that right here at the All Arkie Army when I get it.
Cool stuff, indeed!
Oh, yes. The time has come once again to name some honorary captains of the All Arkie Army!
Honorary captains, of course, are just some bloggers that we like. We like them so much, in fact, that we at the All Arkie Army want to send them a dandy award.
Now, here's one of the best things about this award -- we don't ask the recipients to do anything but take their awards and enjoy them. That's right. We're not asking anyone to pass these things on to a dozen people or anything like that. This is a no-strings award and we do hope the recipients appreciate getting it.
So, who are these recipients? Why, Pam over at pamibe and Dadthedude over at, err, Dad - thedude.
Congratulations to them both! We hope y'all keep doing what y'all do and make sure to visit over here often.
The Army is always recruiting
If you're an Arkansan or have ties to the Natural State, why not join this Arkansas-centric blog? Post what you like, promote your own blog and work and hang out with some Arkies. Interested? Hit the "contact" link at the top of the page to send me an e-mail and request admission.
A reminder or two...
We're going to nominate honorary captains once a month and we hope all All Arkie Army members will help us out with that. Just look for a post from me opening nominations and submit some bloggers you like in the comments section.
Also, feel free to submit links to your blog here when you post an article. That will help boost your Alexa rating and Google rank. Link baiting from Army members is encouraged, see?
Oh, and click right here if you want to read my latest heart-wrenching tale of the failings of the Arkansas Razorbacks and the Benton Panthers.
Instead, his wife's frantic voice told him that their home was burning, and 6 hours later, it burned to the ground. This photo is all that remains of that home - dirt and a concrete sidewalk - and what the soldier saw when he arrived back in McRae four days later for an 8 day emergency leave.
The fire happened in April, and the soldier's wife and four boys moved into the new double-wide mobile home she finally managed to have delivered and set up two weeks ago. She ran into more than a few roadblocks while buying the home, and solved every problem she ran into - alone. Everything the family now has was donated to them, and though the new house is pretty barren, the soldier's wife is making it into a home. It's the home the soldier will return to in December or January.
With so much taking up our attention - the sinking economy, the election, the speculation about what will happen now, gas prices, food prices, job losses - it's easy to forget about our soldiers still in Iraq and Afghanistan still risking their lives for their country, and for you and I.
To every mother, wife, father, brother or sister of a soldier, I thank you for your sacrifice, and give my thanks to your soldier when you talk to him or her again.
Read more of my thanks to our soldiers at A Bumpy Path.