Childe Roland To The Dark Tower Came.

LOL, this is what my kids looked like when they were still cute! Anyway, I was reading my sisters blog and decided to comment on my own recent readings. I have, after delving into the minds of numerous authors, settled on Stephen King as one of my all time favs. I know most people think of him as a psycho horror mutant but to anyone that has read a few of his books, most of them are not horrors, or even thrillers. Last year I read Insomnia, which was so so, but had some underlying references to his series The Dark Tower. I decided it was time to start a new series (I hadn't read a complete series since Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality), so I started book #1, The Gunslinger. I was soon taken in to a point of no return and was riding along with Roland and his friends in search of his dark tower. Book after book, I couldn't put them down. I still couldn't believe that King could write this Lord of the Ring-ish material. Maybe he grew tired of the horror tales? Quite to the contrary I found out. He started writing The Gunslinger in 1978, before Salems Lot and Carrie. The last of the series was finished on 2005. That pretty much spans his whole career. Every time he finished a #1 best-seller he would go back and start on Rolands next adventure. I am now reading a mixture of short stories that he wrote called Everything's Eventual. Even in this book only 2 of 9 stories would be considered scary. One of the 2 being 1408 which just recently was put on the big screen with Samuel Jackson and John Cusack. So in essence, I have become a big fan of Kings work, without ever actually reading a single horror novel. Although, The Green Mile was one of the best movies I've ever seen....hmmmm

The Latest Member

The newest member of our family. His name is Casper, or as we mainers say it... caspa'. We call him Caz' for short. Ain't he cute?! He's a love muffin', really likes attention.

The paper maker

Youngest boy "roughing it"

What a difference! I went from being the Chief of New Balance to a grunt at the mill, don't they know what I am capable of ? Does it matter ? lol, NO! I am still in awe at the size of machine R15. It's nothing you'll see in the shoe buisness. But, besides the $, the time off is also nice. I woke up this morning, made my wife coffee and saw her off to work. I then read the daily note from oldest boy that he leaves on the table every night before he goes to bed, telling us what he needs from us. Ugh! and I quote,"I have searched high+low for my Nike sweat pants. Do either of you know what happened to them? I need them very badly! Plz check your room, my things happen to fall in wierd places... P.s. If Dedra forgets, plz put my clothes in the dryer! TYVM!" Now I ask you, WHO does he think he is? And what's with the abbr ? Are we not worth spelling things out? I also wonder how his things end up in weird places. Hmmm, Well, I ended up putting his clothes in the WASHER (he obviously never even made it that far). I think I may start posting these daily notes where some of them are really funny! Especially when he is mad. I am terrible, but it's true. I remember one a few weeks back about Dedra wearing his socks. There were lots of terms like bullcrap!, stinkin' stupid!, and so forth. Ahh. the brother/sister love brings a tear to my eye:)

Last day at New Balance

Lol, I am trying to post a pic each time I blog...I have so many. This one is of my oldest boy with my nephew Seth during a power outage this past summer. It was pitch black at the time and thundering and lightning. We were worried about how we were gonna get the little one to sleep, guess oldest took care of that for us,lol. Moving along...I handed in my tools at NB today, quite a sad day it was. Everyone and I mean EVERYONE made a big deal out of it, including the plant manager who gave me a big hug. Boy they made it hard to leave. The human resource manager came down and game my wife a hard time last week. She asked her if she had talked me into staying? Now I ask you....who do you go to when HR harrasses you??? lol. I love them all there and I can tell you the pay may not be as good as the paper mills, but it's the best damn company I have ever worked for. The owners Jim and Anne Davis are DEVOTED to U.S. manufacturing, and they spoil their associates. They are giving 5 paid sick days this year, you believe that?? Maybe someday I will be back. Anyhow, I am taking my soul mate to see "I Am Legend" tonite. Will let you all know how it is. Will Rocks!! ...well...most of the time.