My son idolizes Byron Grimes . . .

With all this muckity-muck out there about people hating Byron Grimes, I thought I should put in something about the fondness my 5-year-old son has for Byron. You may or may not know that Byron is a taxi driver for a local taxi service here in our area. Something about this profession struck a chord deep in my son's soul. (You see, Aidan has a deep love and knowledge of cars, a passion he has had since around 18 months of age.) Sometimes Aidan will be playing with his hot wheels cars here at home, particularly the taxi hot wheels car, and he'll call that playing, "Byron." Also anytime we pass a taxi around town he looks closely to see if it's Byron, whether it's the company Byron works for or not. At church, he gets so exctied when we see Byron as though he were the ice cream man or something. So to hate Byron is to tear down my child's idol. Please, people, think twice. Think twice.

Fall, friends, fire, and cows

It's been difficult to find a good Fall event to replace the days of Fall Retreats and Barn Dances from college days. But I gotta have a definitive Fall event to celebrate this time year. It's all so good, with the weather and the colors and all . . . a special event just seems necessary. I think the need was met this weekend when we "bonfire-ed" out in the country with a few of our neighbors. We were hosted by the parents of one of our neighbors who own property just east of Decatur (Argenta) complete with pastures, horses, cows, streams, etc. We had the time of our lives! We rode 4-wheelers and motor bikes all day, rode horses, studied cows from an uncomfortably close proximity (in my mind), threw walnuts in a creek, hiked through the woods, roasted hotdogs and marshmallows and just sat and stared at a fire. It was the best. Our 5-year-old took his first solo spin on a 4-wheeler, crashing into an electric fence only once. (Thankfully the juice was turned off for the afternoon.) I didn't really grow up very "country," but I seriously think I could really enjoy living out on a property like that. It was just so fun. It was like this giant adventure for our kids, and it was just nature . . . and a few all-terrain vehicles. So, fall, you've been officially celebrated by the Henry's!