tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422406503322971630Fri, 30 Aug 2024 05:03:34 +0000Family-loobaPersonal-loobaPhilosophi-loobaBabalooba's BestCultural-loobaAnimal-loobaAthletic-loobaFood-a-loobaHattiesburg-a-loobaSpiritual-loobaLooba-visionMarital-loobaMedical-loobaNeurotic-loobaHallo-weena-loobaLingua-loobaMusical-loobaCinematic-loobaEnviro-loobaGenea-loobaGross-a-loobaEssays and observations about large and small topics that may interest, inspire, amuse or outrage you.http://bloggalooba.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Bill Herring)Blogger71125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422406503322971630.post-6563175752180789375Mon, 08 Feb 2010 02:49:00 +00002019-03-03T09:18:18.718-05:00Athletic-loobaFamily-loobaHattiesburg-a-loobaPersonal-loobaThe New Orleans Saints have won the Super Bowl and I feel my father's tender presence full inside my heart. I was 8 years old when the Saints played their first season in 1966. My father was 43, almost a decade younger than I am now. I remember how excited he was, for this put an NFL team just 100 miles down the road from Hattiesburg, in the city where he completed his medical school residencyhttp://bloggalooba.blogspot.com/2010/02/saints.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill Herring)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422406503322971630.post-7166104216107491373Sun, 27 Sep 2009 02:39:00 +00002019-03-03T09:18:32.259-05:00Personal-loobaIn the midst of Atlanta's historic rains of the past week, our downstairs guest bedroom "took some water", as the saying goes. It was in many ways a blessing. We've had some gutter problems since moving in five years ago. Several areas have some leaks at the joints, and the shingles don't overlap in a few spots, causing rain to drain across wood, risking rot. After the first round of http://bloggalooba.blogspot.com/2009/09/flood.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill Herring)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422406503322971630.post-3295646124808181657Tue, 25 Aug 2009 04:50:00 +00002019-03-03T09:19:21.615-05:00Cultural-loobaFamily-loobaNow that school has begun we are quickly settling into a typical weekday routine. By this stage of the game (Lincoln in 9th grade and Casey in 5th) the engine generally runs pretty smoothly, and today seemed no different until Casey yelled "I hate all this killing!" and stopped making her peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich to turn off the kitchen radio. I irritatingly told her to calm down and http://bloggalooba.blogspot.com/2009/08/when-horrific-no-longer-horrifies.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill Herring)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422406503322971630.post-1378204762463542591Wed, 12 Aug 2009 06:25:00 +00002019-03-03T09:20:02.557-05:00Family-loobaYesterday the kids started back to school. Will I ever get used to the school year starting in early August? Heck, yes! I'm very glad to return to a more predicable routine after three months of balancing my work obligations with the summer schedule. Casey was off to school early to be in the "safety patrol" where she gets the honor of wearing a sash-and-belt and opening car doors in the http://bloggalooba.blogspot.com/2009/08/blink.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill Herring)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422406503322971630.post-1597538954082000195Sat, 01 Aug 2009 16:49:00 +00002009-08-01T13:30:47.712-04:00Genea-looba(Note: This is a l-l-l-on-n-n-g-g-g post under a new category pertaining to my family genealogy.)I have recently come upon a trove of photographs and documents that relate to various limbs of my family tree. I am becoming increasingly fascinated by learning about my lineage in the process of going through these papers. I am finding many letters from the late 1800's and early 1900's, and I am http://bloggalooba.blogspot.com/2009/08/charles-paul-littlepage.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill Herring)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422406503322971630.post-4624148446977524076Thu, 04 Jun 2009 12:42:00 +00002019-03-03T09:22:44.450-05:00Enviro-loobaSince I try to be a "green" consumer I began using Palmolive "Eco" dishwasher detergent some months back -- I found it to be cheaper and more easily available than Seventh Generation. Unfortunately this turns out to be like saying water is cheaper and more available than gasoline when filling your tank -- while certainly true, this choice will destroy your engine in the process. And that's http://bloggalooba.blogspot.com/2009/06/palmolive-eco-dishwasher-detergent.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill Herring)5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422406503322971630.post-8427437342567258474Thu, 28 May 2009 01:25:00 +00002019-03-03T09:23:08.035-05:00Lingua-looba My recent post about rituals in my personal and family life started me thinking of the collection of words games I enjoy with my kids, primarily Casey these days. Here they are: (1) Sausage -- In this game one person asks the other a variety of questions and only one answer is allowable: "Sausage!" The goal is to get the person saying "sausage" to laugh within 60 seconds. I'm pretty good at http://bloggalooba.blogspot.com/2009/05/word-games.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill Herring)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422406503322971630.post-4422478189055666718Thu, 14 May 2009 15:05:00 +00002019-03-03T09:23:17.274-05:00Neurotic-loobaI was recently reflecting on the number of little rituals sprinkled throughout my life. Somewhere between superstitions and obsessive-compulsive traits, these behaviors are recurrent responses to particular situations. Rabbit, Rabbit -- At the first day of each month, the first person to say "rabbit, rabbit" wins. A quick web search reveals that this statement (along with numerous variations) http://bloggalooba.blogspot.com/2009/05/rituals.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill Herring)4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422406503322971630.post-50020646298343798Wed, 06 May 2009 13:37:00 +00002019-03-03T09:23:26.717-05:00Animal-loobaNeurotic-loobaPhilosophi-loobaI had a window open at my office yesterday to take advantage of the nice weather. Soon I noticed a fly at the window screen, trying to find a way out. I knew that in a few minutes I was going to close the window, trapping it between the glass and screen, which would surely mean its death. I'm not an absolutist in my respect for sentient beings. I do, after all, pay for quarterly pest control http://bloggalooba.blogspot.com/2009/05/fly.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill Herring)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422406503322971630.post-3862060784787073178Sat, 25 Apr 2009 01:14:00 +00002019-03-03T09:23:51.789-05:00Personal-loobaI just bought a dozen reading glasses from my local dollar store. Again. My need for reading glasses has emerged slowly but with increasing necessity over the last five years or so. I need the 2.50 magnification level to have any chance of reading a damn thing. For example, as an experiment I just removed my glasses and picked a random line from the new-age periodical "Aquarius" that just http://bloggalooba.blogspot.com/2009/04/glasses.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill Herring)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422406503322971630.post-2114106974255114698Thu, 23 Apr 2009 04:10:00 +00002019-03-03T09:24:05.613-05:00Babalooba's BestFamily-loobaPhilosophi-loobaSpiritual-loobaSince I titled my last post "Hat", I think I'll call this one "Shoe" since it touches the ground, which is the root word for "humility". Last week my daughter Casey had her 10th birthday celebration, delightedly hosting 10 similarly squealing girls at a local park pavilion which I had rented for the day. What turned out to be a valuable life lesson for me began when we arrived to set up the http://bloggalooba.blogspot.com/2009/04/shoe.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill Herring)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422406503322971630.post-6044168227455484830Thu, 16 Apr 2009 03:19:00 +00002019-03-03T09:24:18.244-05:00Personal-loobaPhilosophi-loobaLast week my business website vanished without a trace, taking my primary email account with it. The culmination of countless hours I've spent polishing my online presence to most brightly reflect my professional self was in one instant taken away without recourse or explanation, along with the email address that every current and potential client uses to reach me. I had to actively combat my http://bloggalooba.blogspot.com/2009/04/hat.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill Herring)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422406503322971630.post-991808210885107081Sat, 04 Apr 2009 19:33:00 +00002019-03-03T09:24:28.063-05:00Food-a-loobaSince I'm typing between delectable bites of my favorite sandwich, I thought I'd knock out a quick post extolling the virtue of Peanut Butter, Pickle and Potato Chip Sandwiches I don't remember exactly when I discovered this delightful combination of flavors and textures, but it goes back a long way. A quick search just now reveals that I'm not the only one who has stumbled on this seductive http://bloggalooba.blogspot.com/2009/04/peanut-butter-pickle-and-potato-chip.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill Herring)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422406503322971630.post-439040134018457442Tue, 17 Mar 2009 11:10:00 +00002019-03-03T09:26:01.495-05:00Family-loobaLast night I helped Casey, almost 10, construct a "leprechaun trap" for St. Patrick's Day. She designed a clever little box (covered in cotton balls to disguise it) on a string and we carefully set it up so that the string was held tautly in place by the weight of a small pile of coins and other shiny things so that the box would fall on the little creature and capture it when it tried to take http://bloggalooba.blogspot.com/2009/03/leprechaun-trap.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill Herring)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422406503322971630.post-5221228694049506823Tue, 27 Jan 2009 20:36:00 +00002019-03-03T09:28:14.570-05:00Family-loobaJust before bedtime last night Casey lost a tooth. As is her established ritual she placed it in the pocket of her special "tooth fairy pillow" and went to sleep. In the morning she found this letter along with a five dollar bill: Dear Casey:I’m so happy to get another one of your special teeth. I can tell it’s eaten a lot of yummy food and now its job is done. Do you know it’s been almosthttp://bloggalooba.blogspot.com/2009/01/tooth-fairy.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill Herring)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422406503322971630.post-8938363001105487634Mon, 12 Jan 2009 04:50:00 +00002019-03-03T09:29:04.654-05:00Personal-loobaTwo years after scraping Gina's car down the left side I figured it was time to make amends and have it repaired. So I decided to tool around Saturday to find an auto body shop for a price quote. I pulled into a run-down-looking automotive garage on Lawrenceville Highway to see if they could recommend anyone to do the work. Everyone poured out of the building, rubbing the car and chatting withhttp://bloggalooba.blogspot.com/2009/01/finding-howard.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill Herring)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422406503322971630.post-4979557741801878436Tue, 23 Dec 2008 21:09:00 +00002019-03-03T09:29:19.632-05:00Cultural-loobaFood-a-loobaI was at Starbucks recently and noticed a display for four different varieties of bagged coffee beans. Each sat on a shelf with a sign announcing its distinctive "personality": * Extraordinary and Enticing* Interesting and Complex* Familiar and Friendly* Adventurous and Assertive I thought "wow, I want friends like that......hell, I want to BE like that!" It's a great example of subtle http://bloggalooba.blogspot.com/2008/12/what-kind-of-coffee-are-you.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill Herring)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422406503322971630.post-736523380801454010Thu, 18 Dec 2008 02:02:00 +00002019-03-03T09:29:59.813-05:00Looba-visionArthur is running downhill. The long-running PBS children's show about the boy aardvark, his family and his many varied species of friends and neighbors is running out of credible or meaningful plots. Entire episodes are now being devoted to rummaging through Binky's back story, spelunking through the furthest reaches of Prunella's squalid heart or introducing some character I've never heard ofhttp://bloggalooba.blogspot.com/2008/12/arthur-jumps-shark.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill Herring)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422406503322971630.post-8786391302670316091Mon, 15 Dec 2008 05:40:00 +00002019-03-03T09:30:10.722-05:00Cultural-loobaOne of the joys of watching old movies or early television is noticing how conventional wisdom continues to evolve. We see examples of people who smoke with impunity, drive without the first thought of using even rudimentary seat belts and engage in other behaviors we now find so obvious as to almost deny logic. We can take pity on a time that embraced state-sponsored racism and didn't know thehttp://bloggalooba.blogspot.com/2008/12/i-cant-believe-people-used-to.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill Herring)3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422406503322971630.post-78165150683972651Thu, 04 Dec 2008 03:30:00 +00002009-04-24T22:56:25.062-04:00Athletic-loobaFamily-loobaLincoln was selected Most Valuable Player on his middle school footballteam this past week, earning his way onto the honorary DeKalb county all-star team. This is a very high honor for him and a testament to his dedication, focus, attitude, academic performance and familial support. In some ways it's an award the whole family shares much the same way we were all responsible several years back http://bloggalooba.blogspot.com/2008/12/double-all-county.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill Herring)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422406503322971630.post-8725916768657439080Mon, 24 Nov 2008 03:20:00 +00002019-03-03T09:31:14.300-05:00Family-loobaLingua-loobaI saw a television commercial recently that asked the question: "Do you know what game your child played in recess today?" The answer is that I generally do (that is, on the days when recess actually exists. This time-honored free-for-all is slowly but surely being phased out of elementary school. Another "No Child Left Behind" victory!) As a middle schooler Lincoln doesn't tell me about his http://bloggalooba.blogspot.com/2008/11/my-favorite-stories-begin-with-well.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill Herring)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422406503322971630.post-4676436066516872567Sat, 01 Nov 2008 04:51:00 +00002008-11-01T01:04:25.369-04:00Hallo-weena-loobaI previously posted pictures of my 2007 pumpkin display, so today I'm making it a yearly tradition by posting a picture of this year's ghoulish arrangement. I was thinking of all kinds of different scenarios to set up in the front yard when I happened to look at my gas grill and got the inspiration. The pumpkins were hard to cut, as thick as I've ever seen. Although it doesn't really fit in http://bloggalooba.blogspot.com/2008/11/2008-halloween-tableau.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill Herring)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422406503322971630.post-5110579017836366195Mon, 13 Oct 2008 00:23:00 +00002019-03-03T09:32:00.044-05:00Marital-loobaGina came home recently excited to report on a theory she heard from one of her co-workers: in every relationship there is a sad monkey and a happy monkey. The two people that make up a couple may have very similar temperaments but relative to each other one is more likely to be naturally happier and the other naturally sadder. The difference may be small but it's almost always there. Her http://bloggalooba.blogspot.com/2008/10/are-you-happy-orthe-sad-monkey.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill Herring)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422406503322971630.post-5888680130621962226Tue, 23 Sep 2008 00:59:00 +00002009-09-09T23:35:49.194-04:00Babalooba's BestBriarlake Elementary School hosted a "Pinwheels for Peace" presentation today in association with the annual International Day of Peace. Each student designed a personalized peace message and design which was turned into a sweet pinwheel. This morning they were all planted in front of the school.I had nothing to do with this project initially other than to announce it on the billboard. Howeverhttp://bloggalooba.blogspot.com/2008/09/pinwheels.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill Herring)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3422406503322971630.post-1222254282844173227Fri, 19 Sep 2008 03:27:00 +00002008-11-25T00:30:31.287-05:00Gross-a-loobaI started smelling it a week before I did anything to investigate. After the days of torrential rain we blessedly received in partial relief of the ongoing drought, a musty, moldy, mildewy smell started hanging in the air of the house. The kids began developing an uptick of sinus problems and I began wondering whether some rain had gotten into the crawl space below, perhaps from a clogged http://bloggalooba.blogspot.com/2008/09/crawl-space.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Bill Herring)0