Jason's Untimely Thoughts

Happy Thanksgiving Tiger Fans,

On Saturday, well, you know, Football!!! and such.  Mizzou hosts Texas A&M at 6:45 p.m.  When the Tigers win to move to 11-1, they’ll earn the right to play for the SEC Championship the following weekend. A win will also give Coach Pinkel victory number 101, putting him in a tie with some guy named Faurot for most all-time at Mizzou.

We’ll be tailgating early, potentially with a heater involved.  Definitely with some food involved, courtesy of Jim Yankee of Flat Branch Home Loans (and Hoss’s Market).  They’re conveniently located next door to a brewery, so there’s another reason to call Flat Branch for all your home loan needs.  Food will be served beginning around 3:00, the menu will include:  Smoked Pork Steak, Rotisserie Chicken, Au Gratin Potatoes, Green Beans, and Coleslaw.  So, if bringing something, a dessert or snack item is probably a good choice.  

Not bringing extra beer is also a good choice.  After beating the Aggies (whoop!), the number two goal of the tailgate is to empty ours and the Messers’ fridge of tailgate beer.

Go Tigers, and go in to the game early to support these seniors, they’ll become the first Tigers ever to take Faurot Field with 10 wins under their belt.

• Donovan Bonner
• Michael Brennan
• Justin Britt
• Brayden Burnett
• Jaleel Clark
• Max Copeland
• Tyler Davis
• Marvin Foster
• James Franklin
• E.J. Gaines
• Marcus Lucas
• Denzel Martin
• Kyle Peasel
• Randy Ponder
• Michael Sam
• L’Damian Washington
• Eric Waters
• Matt White
• Andrew Wilson

I went to Vegas two weeks ago.  I bet on the beakers to lose, naturally.  Even more naturally, that was their first Big XII-ish victory in three years or so.  screw ku.

Go TIGERS!!!!

Happy Game 6 of the World Series day, Tiger fans,

November is (almost) here, which means we’re down to the last two football home games.  

Boo.  Thankfully, after a disappointing season-opening loss to South Carolina, the Tigers got on track and have now won 7 games in a row to move to 7-1, ranked #10 in the polls, #9 in the BCS.  Shut up, that was too the order of things.  Yes it was.  Yes, it was.  Yes it was.  Shut up.  La la la la la, I can’t hear you. 

Gamecocks.

Anyway, football time is coming again.  On Saturday, our beloved Tigers take on the South Carolina Gamecocks.  Kickoff is scheduled for 6:00 pm.  The Tigers are 7-0 and SCar is not, so yay us, come on victory.  It should be nice all afternoon, so imagine I and some combination of kids will be out there all afternoon.  Kim & I will contribute chicken wings of some variety, so come when you will and bring what you will.  

Gamecocks.

Mizzou doesn’t really yet have a rival in the SEC.  Although, I’m pretty sure Florida became the first team to hate us somewhere around (exactly at) the time the entire stadium was doing the synchronized Gator Chomp thing to We Will Rock You.  (or We Will Mock You.  or We Will Mauk You.)  But maybe it could be the…

Gamecocks?

A stupid bird.  It kind of even rhymes with another stupid bird name. At least it’s a real creature, though, not a bird of the mythical shoe-wearing variety, but still.  I normally try to make a joke in here somewhere.  But, come on, 

Gamecocks?

Go Tigers, Beat um, South Carolina.  and on a side note, screw ku.  

6-0, 6-0, 6-0! Some very wise person predicted a 14-0 season this (every) year.  The same very wise person predicted a #14 ranking after Mizzou beat Georgia.  I now predict I’ll win the lottery one day this month (no point being too specific with that one, anytime this month will be fine).

This Saturday, our beloved Tigers take on the Florida Gators.  My first experience with Gator fan came years ago in a sports bar in San Antonio, where some, um, what’s the word, jackass ran around the bar incessantly chanting “It’s Great, to be, a Florida Gator!”  I have no idea who they were playing, who won, or why I was even there (so, who was Mizzou playing?), but I remember him clearly.  Good work, you guy.  (And please withhold your comments about the people in front of us at Faurot feeling the same about us, they secretly love us.  Saw one of them in Athens, even, who made sure to ask if I was going to call Georgia “cheaters”?)

Anyway, Saturday, Tigers vs Florida.  Kickoff is scheduled for 11:21.  Tailgating will be had, but it’ll be in whatever fashion the attendees choose to contribute.  It’ll be set up before you get out of bed, I’ll hang out for a while, then Adelaide has a soccer game at 9:00, so will head to that (Go Argentina 12U!), back before kickoff sometime.

Kim is headed to California this weekend. She’ll be completing a 200-mile bike ride over the weekend, raising funds for the Young Survival Coalition.  YSC is “is the premier global organization dedicated to the critical issues unique to young women diagnosed with breast cancer.”  Should you be so inclined, read more about it and/or feel free to donate here.

Go Kim, 200-miles.  

Go Tigers, beat the Gators.  

and on a side note, screw ku.*

*back by popular demand

Thursday greetings Tiger Fans,

Mizzou wraps up non-conference play on Saturday against the Arkansas State Red Wolves, a powerhouse from Joneslkjaszzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Oh sorry, fell asleep from boredom thinking about the game. Kickoff is a 6:30 pm, if the game is not well in hand by 7:30, there will be grumblings everywhere.

I’ll be tailgating by 1:00 or so.  Come on out when you will.  Bryan and Val Ninichuck of Wingate Pest Control & Lawn Care fame are taking care of the bulk of the food this time, with Buckingham’s providing the stuff.  Sides or desserts or something still will be eaten, I’m sure.

Call Wingate for all your Pest Control and Lawn Care needs.  Like, say, you have a bunch of Red Wolves from Arkansas on your plastic grass.

Go Tigers.  

Holy Thursday, Tiger Fans.  It’s already Thursday, it seems, which means football!!! is almost here again.  Saturday the Tigers host the Rockets from Toledo University.  Kickoff is at 2:30 pm, tailgating will start mid-morning sometime, come out what you will.  We’ll have some food, but we have no idea what yet.  Bring what you will.

If you’re wondering what Rockets have to do with Toledo, it turns out the answer is “not much.”  From Toledo’s website, it seems Toledo played “then-powerful Carnegie Tech” in 1932, but had no nickname.  After a 32-12 loss, a Toledo student was asked by media members what to call his team.  “Skyrockets,” he said.

I think we all know that he really said, “huh?  what, I wasn’t listening.  Oh, whatever, dude, Skyrockets.  Clearly.  We just lost 32-12.”  He then took the sock out of his phonograph horn and put the latest Bessie Smith record back on at an inappropriate volume, later telling his chums how he pulled one over on a bunch of Carnegie Tech media elites.  And in later years he was all mad, saying, “um, I said Skyrockets, none of this ‘Rocket’ garbage!”

Anyway, football.  Tigers are 1-0, just needing to add a 4 to get to 14-0.  #math.  Toledo lost at Florida 24-6 last week, so will lose at Mizzou 48-12 in week two.  #moremath.  Go Tigers, go tailgate.

Jack had to write a letter in school this week about his chosen profession.  Here it is:

Download (PDF, 1005KB)

Dear Ms. Vogt,

The job I would be best at is photographer.  I would be good at this b-
ecause My mom was a photographer.  So I have the blood in me.  I have an Ipad
and a Iphone that I take a lot of pictu-
res with.  I have experience with this job
because I have taken hundreds of pictur-
es in the past.

Your freind,

Jack

Happy football, Tiger fans!  On Saturday, the Racers from Murray State University take on our beloved Tigers.  Kickoff is scheduled for 6:00 pm.  It’s going to be cold, so you should bundle up.

Like locusts, Murray State returns to Faurot Field after a 7-year absence  Or maybe they’re like an itch.  That film featured Marilyn Monroe, though, so I guess we’ll go with locusts.  Although last time we played them I’d just had my gall bladder removed, and the site of incision still itches, so perhaps they are itchy.  Anyway.

As I told you seven years ago, you can impress your football neighbors by letting them know that Murray State’s all-time leading rusher is a gentleman named Don Clayton, from Malden, Missouri.  (Go Green Wave.)  Don was my high school football coach and had a brief stint with the Patriots before a knee injury ended his career.  This year one of Murray State’s best players is a receiver from St. Louis.  I assume he’s no good, though, because anyone who follows recruiting knows we always get every kid with talent from STL.

We’re in our same spot in Lot D.  I’ll be there early to set up, then back again by 1:00 or so, I’d imagine, so come out when you will.  My folks are bringing ribs, peaches, and watermelon from the Bootheel, so bring what you will to accompany that.  Napkins, for example.  (But seriously, please don’t bring napkins.)  Ribs, beer, and football, three things that are undeniably good for you.

2013, 14-0, Go Tigers, S-E-C, S-E-C, S-E-C!  and on a side note, screw ku.  

Chris Maupin and the Board/Staff of the Rocky Mountain Cancer Assistance are putting together another round of Everything Changes for this summer.  The brief version of Everything Changes is this:  good friend Lance Jungmeyer wrote and recorded the song Everything Changes after Sarah died, also as a way to deal with the recent loss of his father-in-law.   We played it at the funeral services.  Chris Maupin had a few ideas about the song.  The one that eventually took hold was turning into a musical charity event, with each band playing their version of the song as part of their set.    (For a longer version, here’s my post at the time.)

The third version of Everything Changes is set for July 26, 2013, at 7 p.m. at Casselman’s in Denver.  Rachel and The Kings, Mega Gem, Chemistry Club, and others are the featured entertainment.  You can see full details at the RMCA website here.    Tickets are available now.   Kim & I are going out for it, not sure if full family will accompany or just the two of us.  We look forward to the trip and seeing good friends, good bands, and hopefully you.

On a side note, Go Tigers,  and screw ku.

taken May 30, 1999

My grandmother Dimple Miller died early this morning.  She was 94 and like many of her generation, lived an incredible life.  Her last couple of years, last couple of months especially, haven’t been great, and the last few days it has been clear what was happening, but that doesn’t make anything easier.  For all of us, but especially for my mom and her brothers.

My memories of Grandma are random, as those things tend to be.  I remember her working at the meat counter at the grocery store.  I remember her always having an incredible amount of food ready to eat all the time.  I remember cakes and pies.  She always had something for us kids to play with, whether it was a jar full of buttons, an old organ that she surely got from Uncle Ron, or an actual toy.  Most of that stuff my kids then played with too.

I remember her teaching at Sunday School at the Bernie Church of Christ.  I remember her and lots of our family at that church singing the old hymns, with no piano or organ accompaniment, naturally, Church of Christ and all.  I remember walking out the front door of that church and running around.

I remember her (and my other grandma too) taking Meals on Wheels to the “old people,” around town, many of which I’m sure were younger than her.  I remember her garden and her gardening.  I remember her old pickup truck.  I remember going to Grandpa Zimmerman’s house with her.

I don’t remember her ever saying an unkind word about anyone.  I do, though, remember her saying once about a general situation, “she can’t help it she’s ugly, but she doesn’t have to leave the house.”  I’m not sure anything has ever surprised me more.

I remember lots of relatively random people telling me how great they think she is.

I watched an excellent documentary on George Harrison a while ago, titled All Things Must Pass.  In it, George’s wife said something to the effect of George wasn’t afraid of death, didn’t dread it, had lived his life to prepare for it.  The thing that makes this easier on me, and I know on Mom and her brothers too, is that I truly believe that about Grandma Dimple as well.  She lived through the Bernie Church of Christ, was a great, kind, generous, loving person, and was prepared and ready for this day.  I imagine there are any number of those old hymns being sung now.

Goodbye Grandma, tell Grandpa Lester hello.