Drivin' The Lead Car

The full lyrics to the Star Spangled Banner.

noreply@blogger.com (James A. Morman) — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 15:30:00 +0000

O! say can you see by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming.
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner, O! long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Because you are my friend

noreply@blogger.com (James A. Morman) — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 15:47:00 +0000

Thanks for sending this James H.

1. When you are sad, I will help you get drunk and plot revenge against the sorry bastard who made you sad.
2. When you are blue, I will try to dislodge whatever is choking you.
3. When you smile, I will know you finally got laid.
4. When you are scared, I will rag on you about it every chance I get.
5. When you are worried, I will tell you horrible stories about how much worse it could be and to quit whining.
6. When you are confused, I will use little words.
7. When you are sick, stay the hell away from me until you are well again. I don't want whatever you have.
8. When you fall, I will point and laugh at your clumsy ass, and then think about helping your dumbass up.

This is my oath. I pledge it till the end.
Why, you may ask; because you are my friend!
Remember : A good friend will help you move. A really good friend will help you move a body. Let me know if I ever need to bring a shovel.

An open letter to my friends who own or work at funeral homes

noreply@blogger.com (James A. Morman) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 15:30:00 +0000

I want to address something that we hear all the time when we go to seminars or conventions. Everytime I attend one of these things that has to do with building your business, I keep hearing the same thing, "Do something that sets you apart from your competition!", or "Ask yourself what you do differently than your competitor". Everyone sits there like a bump on a log and barely a word is heard because honestly the vast majority of them don't know. Worse than that is the fact that the majority of them don't do anything different from their competitor and they know it.

There is a group of funeral directors who are serving their families and their communities better than their competitors. I know who they are. There's a list of them on the NFDA website. They are the recipients of the Pursuit of Excellence Award. They have shown their community as well as their peers that they are doing what it takes to set themselves apart, by providing unique programs, services to their families and developing themselves professionally. I know that if you asked any of them the standard seminar questions, they would not hesitate to answer them.

My wife and I can speak personally to what NFDA and the Pursuit of Excellence Award has done for our firm. We have received the award for the last five years. Every year I am amazed at the public awareness it generates for us. It motivates us to do more and provide even better care for our families. It has truly been a blessing for us.

You have the opportunity right now to make this the year you set yourself apart from the funeral homes that just sit in those seminars and never take action. Call NFDA 800-228-6332 or visit their website nfda.org

I can promise you two things. First, if you choose to take this next step in your funeral homes growth, I will personally help you if you have any questions or need any help. Secondly, I can promise that if you follow through with this, it will be a benefit and blessing to your firm, just as it has been for ours.

My darling Tabby

noreply@blogger.com (James A. Morman) — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 03:32:00 +0000

I just looked over the blog and it has been over two years since I bought my hp2710p It is the third laptop I have owned and has been the best one of all. I have upgraded the RAM and replaced the batteries which are routine maintenance as far as I am concerned. The biggest issue I have is the outer case has tons of cracks and today I dropped it while it was in my backpack and broke the latch on it. With the other two laptops I had, the deathnell for them had been hard drive issues and overheating problems. Neither of those are a problem for Tabby. The fans run almost exactly the same as they did the day I got it, which is unreal for a two year old laptop that has taken a beating like mine.

Of course by writing this, I will probably have a catastrophic hard drive failure in the next few days.

Taking the day off April 3, 2010

noreply@blogger.com (James A. Morman) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:26:00 +0000

http://www.ohioccw.org/200911224698/join-ofcc-leadership-at-the-sixth-annual-ofcc-fun-n-gun.html

Dry Cleaners

noreply@blogger.com (James A. Morman) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:33:00 +0000

Why haven't I heard of a dry cleaner that offers a discount if you bring their hangers or safety pins back? Is there something I am missing here? "Bring us 100 of our hangers in good condition and we will clean a suit for free". Sounds great to me.
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Sent using BlackBerry

Quote of the Week

noreply@blogger.com (James A. Morman) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 12:19:00 +0000

Thanks to Matilda for this one....Wifey and I are very happy things have worked out.

“Love is a temporary madness; it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of eternal passion. That is just being in love, which any fool can do. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Those that truly love have roots that grow towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossoms have fallen from their branches, they find that they are one tree and not two.” Louis de Bernieres from Captain Corelli’s Mandolin

Back to Work

noreply@blogger.com (James A. Morman) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 11:54:00 +0000

August is half over and has been a crazy month. This is my actual first full workday of the month! Spent the first full week on vacation and just got back from National Funeral Directors HQ in Wisconsin for a two day meeting. I know some of you are waiting for that BlackBerry Tour video and I will try to get it out yet this week.
I will admit that lately I have been using Twitter and Facebook more than the blog. It's just much easier for me with my lifestyle to update. So look me up there and there to see what I am up to. You will see how things get updated with my BB including GPS location with my tweets!!

Tron

noreply@blogger.com (James A. Morman) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 10:41:00 +0000

I used to have the Table-top arcade version of this when I was a kid. Rehashed movie coming out in 2010. Meh.

Tron - Legacy

Something for FloydWing

noreply@blogger.com (James A. Morman) — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 01:35:00 +0000

Relax dooooood.....
Much love to FSJ for this.

Sandblasting the church ceiling

noreply@blogger.com (James A. Morman) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 22:42:00 +0000

The antique tin tiles will be painted on sunday. There was a speaker on the ceiling they forgot to remove so I ran over to blast the paint that was under (above!) it.

Bb tour

noreply@blogger.com (James A. Morman) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:37:00 +0000

I will be posting frequently for you saga fans who are craving more info. I will get a video posted for you as well.
This phone ships with AC adapters for overseas travel, USB cable, AC charger, BB Desktop Manager software, AND a nice leather holster AND a 2 GB micro sd card. Yeah, wow is what I said too.

One downside: the usb cable is micro usb, not mini. Luckily for me last year I bought a BT headphone that is micro so I have an extra usb and AC cord.

I don't keep track of memory too much but this morning I did look and even with loading 3 programs to play with I have 103 mb free on the device memory.

One last thing, RIM has released the OS for this phone. Using the Desktop Manager software you can reload the OS on the phone minus anything you don't want to free up even more memory. Voice dialing would be my first choice.

One more last thing for you winmo users following this. If you are thinking about switching, think about how your email is delivered to you and begin to figure out how to do it with a BB. I was using hosted exchange server with 4smartphone.net. Fortunately, one click let me keep my current account and begin using the BB on their hosted BB Enterprise service. With them I can actually switch back and forth from winmo at will which is nice for me since the saga will be my backup.
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Sent using BlackBerry

BB Tour First Impressions

noreply@blogger.com (James A. Morman) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 23:01:00 +0000

READER NOTE: My reviews of BlackBerries are geared for people like me who have never used one before or WinMo users thinking of jumping ship. If you are an experienced BB user, this will bore you.

Well a day has passed using my new BlackBerry Tour and so far I haven’t missed using Windows Mobile.
What I have been doing is wearing a holster! I havent done that for quite a while. BB supplies a nice leather one with the phone and it does magical things! When you place the phone in the holster it shuts down the device automatically and when you remove it from the case, it turns the BB on. I know this is old news for BB users but for guys like me who have had to lock the keyboard or hit a button before and after pocketing/holstering, this is awesome.

Even better is that you can set notifications for calls and texts based on whether its in the holster or not. Also when you get an email or text and the phone is in the holster, when you remove it, the BB automatically goes to the message. No button pressing or navigation to get to the new text or email.

I remember when I got the first Motorola Q that came out. Someone back then described it as a “Graham Cracker with a keyboard”. The Tour size wise is wider than most phones I have used but is very good looking and very nice to handle.

The browser on the Tour is the best I have ever used on a phone. Quick, easy to navigate.

GPS is native and not locked down. Sat locks in less than 10 secs using either Google Maps or BB Maps.

I wont comment on battery life yet. Today was a light usage day for me and I have found that true battery life takes a week or so to determine on a new battery. I am currently at 50% at 8:45pm. Unplugged this morning at 7:30am.

Well I think if I have time and if you want, I will make a video for you showing navigation through the phone. If no one asks I wont bother.

IMG00006-20090715-1029.jpg

noreply@blogger.com (James A. Morman) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:47:00 +0000

Our church remodeling. Pic taken with the bb tour

Picked up a Crackberry!!

noreply@blogger.com (James A. Morman) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 02:23:00 +0000

Well after waterlogging two winmo devices last week I was relegated to a BB Pearl I bought used last year. Since I had the chance to upgrade to a new phone, I started doing some looking on the vzw website. The only thing on there that showed any interest to me was the HTC Ozone. The only reason I passed that up was the Smartphone OS and the D-Pad. Personally I prefer an optical mouse or trackball if I am using a device without a touchscreen. SO I started looking at the Blackberry line.

The Tour has been a device BB fans have been waiting for for quite a while and I just learned about it last week. My hosted exchange server 4smartphone.net has improved their Blackberry Enterprise services since I used them last year, which gave me another good reason to look at switching.

So over the next week I will be posting my impressions of this device. So far I have been impressed.

Something is coming...

noreply@blogger.com (James A. Morman) — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 23:22:00 +0000

New gadget arriving Tuesday!! If you follow my tweets you can probably guess.

God Hath Not Promised

noreply@blogger.com (James A. Morman) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 18:38:00 +0000

The first time I read this years ago, it brought a tear to my eye. Occasionally, it still does.

God hath not promised Skies always blue Flower -strewn pathways All our lives through God hath not promised Sun without rain Joy without sorrow Peace without pain But God hath promised Strength for the day Rest for the labor Light for the way Grace for the trials Help from above Unfailing sympathy Undying Love

Doom, Despair and agony on me!!

noreply@blogger.com (James A. Morman) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:23:00 +0000

(Does the title remind you of a show you watched as a kid?)

I have been in a pretty good mood lately given everything that has happened in the last week:
1. Broke my glasses
2. Waterlogged my phone.
3. Rolled over in bed and pulled a muscle in my neck that is still bothering me.
4. Got a huge bolt stuck in the tire of my car.
5. Found out the roof on the garage at Berlin Heights needs replaced.
6. Found out we have a bigger bat problem in Berlin Heights than I ever imagined.

I am not complaining, I am just amazed at how great I feel despite all of this.

Samsung Saga Update Available

noreply@blogger.com (James A. Morman) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 11:28:00 +0000

Go get it, if ya got one!
Click Here

Service al fresco

noreply@blogger.com (James A. Morman) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 02:19:00 +0000

We had talked about doing an outside service at our Berlin Heights location for about a year now. Today's service was for a 54 year old who had worked for one of the areas largest paving companies for over 30 years. The paving company decided to shut down today for the service. I talked to the President of the company and he actually was the one who suggested having it outside. I had a quick meeting with wifey and then the family and they thought it was a great idea. Since the weather was going to be perfect we setup chairs that night. I quickly setup our wireless mic and a couple speakers in the morning.
Things I learned from an outdoor service:
1. Even if it looks weird, figure out where the shade will be at service time and set the chairs there. We have a number of trees on our lawn.
2. Ask the minister to try to pause when semi's and bikes go past.
3. Check your lawn for holes that people could trip or twist an ankle in.
4. Check your chairs for bird crap in the morning.
5. Shut off your central air unit if it is nearby.

As far as I and wifey know we got only compliments. Tom Hinman, our 85 year old former owner made the comment that they did many services outside before air-conditioning was commonplace. Although he did point out that they had a third of the traffic back then going past the funeral home as we do now. He also does not remember it ever raining during a outdoor service.

Was it more work. Yes it was, but it was worth it. Unfortunately, we had two guys driving my hearse and limo for another funeral home, one was out sick, one was out of town, and the fifth was with visiting relatives. It was just one of those weird days like that.

All set

noreply@blogger.com (James A. Morman) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 20:22:00 +0000

Sent from my Windows Mobile® phone.

Next gadget

noreply@blogger.com (James A. Morman) — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 19:38:00 +0000

ME LIKEY FLIP SMARTPHONE!!

Click Here

Wifey Update

noreply@blogger.com (James A. Morman) — Sat, 30 May 2009 02:39:00 +0000

Well yesterday wifey got the radioactive iodine and other than the isolation she feels, she is doing well. She sits at the top of our steps and talks to us and gives orders. I borrowed a geiger counter from the fire dept. and it was quite interesting.
We appreciate all the emails, prayers, and help we have received.

I went on a field trip with Jessica today to a historic village/farm, and it totally set off my allergies. I am still sneezing and wiping my nose, so this post is shorter than I planned.

Quote of the Day

noreply@blogger.com (James A. Morman) — Thu, 28 May 2009 11:34:00 +0000

"The superior man, when resting in safety, does not forget that danger may come. When in a state of security he does not forget the possibility of ruin. When all is orderly, he does not forget that disorder may come. Thus his person is not endangered, and his States and all their clans are preserved." - Confucius

Monkeys about ready to lose her first tooth!

noreply@blogger.com (James A. Morman) — Wed, 27 May 2009 00:25:00 +0000

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