Category Archives: life

Best Grandfather A Boy Could Ask For

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Grandpa Nichols

My grandfather passed last week. He had a good life and went quietly at 94-years-of-age. I can only hope that I have such a long life and leave so many people with fond memories. Tomorrow is the funeral and I said I’d like to say a few words… but now that it’s crunch time I’m coming up empty. Lots of memories and fond thoughts, but nothing that really formats itself nicely into a memorial. I’m half tempted to just go from the hip and see what comes out; but I have a tendency to ramble and I’m not the only one speaking so I don’t want to ramble on. I need something short, sweet, and ideally, something that’ll make folks cry. Making folks cry at a funeral usually means you’ve hit your mark.

So I’ve come up with some of my most vivid memories surrounding him and admittedly this is a purely personal list. Now all I’ve got to do is weave this into something good.

  • Slingshots made out of tree branches and bicycle tire tubes
  • Fishing, catching fish, turtles, ducks, and even one time my cousin Jim
  • Taught me how to ride a bike and how to maintain that same bike and all the bikes that came afterward
  • Handy with a wrench or a hammer
  • Church going, honorable, honest, admirable
  • Corn and strawberries right out of the garden
  • Pipe smoke in the evening
  • Sleeping in his chair while the baseball game was on
  • Waking up with the sun

I’ll work on it a bit more and whatever I come up with I’ll post later.

Long Weekend Recap

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The weekend was long, this recap, not so much.

Kirra, who’s moved back with us, went away for the weekend. I don’t know what she did or where she went… does it really matter… probably not, hell, she’s 21. She can do what she wants.

Tasha and I didn’t do much. We went and saw Prince of Persia on Saturday. Not a great movie, but it was what it was, an action movie based on a video game. And I think for that it did what it set out to do pretty well. Lots of jumping around. Lots of sword fighting. Lots of CGI. It’s not going to win any awards, but I thought it captured the game nicely. I’d see the next one, if the make another.

Sunday, Tasha’s friend Jen came over and visited for a bit.

We had some leisure time and there’s nothing wrong with that.

Goodbye Grandpa

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NICHOLS, DONALD; age 94; of Altoona, FL; passed away peacefully May 26, 2010;

born in Conway, Arkansas, he raised his family in the Pontiac and Avon Township, MI area before moving to Florida.

Husband of the late Thelma; father of Therman (Judy), David, Shirley (Larry) Anderson and Glen (Judy) Nichols; cherished grandfather of eight and great grandfather of six; brother of the late Geneva Barnard and Vaughtie Nichols.

Mr. Nichols retired in 1972 from GM with 36 yrs. of service, a member of the First Baptist Church of Lady Lake, FL and former member of Rochester Hills Baptist Church.

He enjoyed gardening, bowling, fishing, family gatherings and his churches.

Funeral Service 2 p.m. Thursday at Rochester Hills Baptist Church, 3300 S. Livernois Rd., Rochester Hills with Visitation at the church 12:30 p.m. until time of service.

Memorial contributions to Cornerstone Hospice Foundation of Lake & Sumter County, 2445 Lane Park Road, Tavares, FL 32778 would be appreciated; arrangements entrusted to Pixley Funeral Home, Rochester. Please leave condolences at www.pixleyfuneralrochester.com

312-HP Camaro V6 ends short reign of entry-level Mustang

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You knew General Motors wouldn’t take the rampant boasting coming from Ford about its more powerful and efficient 2011 Mustang V6 lying down. The 2011 Chevrolet Camaro will boast a number of features that should help put the Bowtie’s six-pot back on top. Of primary importance is that the Camaro’s base V6 will now boast a total of 312 horsepower – beating out Ford’s offering by seven ponies. That should allow GM to resume bragging that it has the most powerful entry-level muscle car out there, even if the bump in grunt doesn’t make up for the fact that the Camaro weighs in at 282 pounds heavier than the Mustang.  However, there’s been no word as to what the new EPA fuel economy rating of the ’11 Camaro V6 model will be.

Chevy has said that there were no actual changes made to the Camaro’s V6 engine that resulted in a power increase. Rather, Chevy says the current 304-hp rating was conservative and a new SAE certification resulted in 312 hp. So that means anyone who bought a 2010 Camaro V6 shouldn’t feel shortchanged, as their engine is just as powerful as the 2011 model that will start production on June 7th. Chevy also says, that buyers will be able to pick up any trim level in Chevrolet’s new eye-searing Synergy Green – a color that was previously limited to the 1LT car. GM has also made the Camaro’s heads-up display standard equipment on all 2LT and 2SS models.

These the changes aren’t exactly earth shattering, but they should be enough to keep the Camaro near (or even at) the front of the muscle car pack for now.

BTW, here’s a pic of the car with it’s new gas cap and stripes.

At some point in the future I’ll actually take some good pictures of this car :)

Blog Stays at /log

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Remember when I said I was going to move the blog under the main page, I lied. Or rather, I changed my mind. I’m going to leave it right where it’s at /log. I mean, it’s a blog, it should be off on the side and the main page should be something flashy and cool. Now I just need to come up with something flashy and cool. Maybe I’ll even put up some more pages.

I’m a big fan of the way my posts get imported into Facebook with that giant RSS feed logo or my PSN card. Makes every update doubly annoying. Gotta figure out how that works/why it’s happening and make it stop. And I didn’t really do anything, but the twitter posts are getting imported once again.

My brother picked up a PS3, and unlike when he had a Xbox he’s online with it. I’m thinking I’ll be getting my football on… nope, not gonna happen. He doesn’t want to buy Madden 10, he’s going to wait for Madden 11 to come out next August. That’ll work nicely for me, in that Kevin and Jay have probably decided never to buy a Madden game again. Without them I won’t have the leverage I need to get Denis to buy next year’s game. Joel might be coerced in if everybody else was playing, but without them, it ain’t gonna happen. So all my football dreams are shattered. It’ll probably end up being me and my bro playing Madden come next year… I love it when a plan comes together.

Zachary is involved with a girl now, according to his Facebook page, I have no other details. Haven’t heard anything more about Tyler and his lady friend, beyond him wanting to borrow the car. Karin… yeah, I don’t know what she’s up to. Kirra is making noises about coming to stay with us, she’s saying end of April, but I’ll believe it when I see it. Rascal (Crooktail) is doing better, swelling is gone and he’s actually got some flick in his tail at this point, but it does have a nice crook in it about an inch-and-a-half from the base. I keep meaning to take a picture, but I’m lazy and forgetful.

Tasha and I have decided not to move. We’re going to stay put for another year. We’re in a nice enough place and the rent isn’t going up all that much. It’s mostly a financial decision, seems like the bills always roll in when you’re saving your pennies for something. We  don’t hate it here, we’d like a house, but Tasha is just getting regular paychecks again and we’re going to just sit tight for another year. As a plus, none of our friends will have to relearn where we live. I am toying with the idea of getting a second carport, it’s silly but I think the one next to us is available and that’d be almost like having a two car garage and as such my bike wouldn’t be nearly as crowded and I wouldn’t have to worry about the neighbors bumping my car.

That’s it for now.