Shameless Baby Pictures

Let the spoilage commence!

(In my last post, I posted her name as "Peyton Rangel". We had explained the family tradition of the middle name "Virginia"--we're on the 6th generation of "Virginias"--to Rachel (that's Rachel Virginia...), but she was wavering on whether to use it or strike out in another direction. However, she was looking at Peyton and Peyton smiled...and, as Rachel told me, "OMG, it was GRAMMIE! I couldn't believe it, but it was Grammie! I knew right then it was "Peyton Virginia!” So I--as custodian of the family history--am DELIGHTED to report that the name is, indeed, Peyton Virginia Rangel.)

^^^^Naah, I really can’t stand her.

^^^^Neither can Grandma Marla (don’t my sister and I have such a strong family resemblance? ;) She looks like the Jones’s, I look like the Tarkingtons).

^^^^Great Grandpapa can’t stand her either….

^^^^I really like this one. When this picture was made (8/21/2010), Peyton was 14 hours old and Dad was 86 going on 87.

^^^^Uncle David

^^^^Grandpa Phil

^^^^She’s going to kill me for posting this, but I love this one. 2 pretty girls!

^^^^Ok, so the 8x10 of this one is going on my desk Monday morning.

^^^^Grandma Peggy takes a turn

^^^^…and Grandpa Orlando…

^^^^Peyton, there’s no place on earth as safe as Daddy’s arms. Good job, Patrick.

^^^^I dunno, maybe this one for my desk….

(P. S. Looking at those pictures of me: MY GOD, I've turned into my uncle!!! I look just like him! When the hair goes all the way white I WILL look just like him!!! When did THAT happen?!?!).

Ask about my grandbaby!

Ok, so she's my great-niece, but since I'll never get to have my own grandbaby and she's obviously cute as a button, I'm stealing her. I can be "Grampy" if I want to be.

Peyton Rangel

8 lbs 2 0z

8:02 pm

8/20/2010

San Antonio, Texas

Mother's birthday was August 6th. Another Leo to terrorize me. I wish Mom could have seen her.

Spoilage will begin immediately. It's my job and I plan to do it well.

Bad news; prayers/kharma for Cameron

It's kinda different when it's yours, right?

Many of y'all will remember me talking about my old partner and dear friend, George Goode, formerly of Little Rock, now of Springdale. George has a daughter, Melissa, with whom he moved in following the death of his wife. Melissa has two sons, Brandon (college) and Cameron (Senior in High School).

Last Saturday, Cameron and his buddies had been to the country home of one of the buddies' grandparents; they swam, tubed the river, etc. Typical stuff. No booze, no drugs. They were coming back on 412 from Siloam Springs to Springdale. They were on that big curve up the hill and to the left; like all teenagers, they were going too fast.

The buddies in front were in an Acura and easily handled the curve. Cameron, in his old pickup, apparently got off on the soft shoulder, overcorrected, and flipped his truck multiple times at high speed.

He was taken to Washington Regional Hospital where he remains. He has lung damage of unknown extent and is on a vent. No head injury of which anyone's aware. The bad part is the legs. Both are severely fractured; when he came in, the docs immediately considered amputating both at the hip. They are trying to save the legs; one had venous damage which was repaired surgically. Although the repair was successful, about 20% of the leg muscle necrotized and had to be removed. The other leg has compartment fractures and is still iffy at best. Both knees were twisted/ripped from sockets, the worst kind of knee injury.

If he walks again unaided on these legs it will be a minor miracle. (Docs told the family he'd never run again; they told him (gallows humor) that the only place Cameron ever ran was to the dinner table...like so many of us, Cameron's a big ol boy). He's receiving excellent medical care but could use all the prayers/kharma he can get (of course the family appreciates them as well).

Cameron McCall is his name, aged 17 years

My Mother Taught Me How to Brown Hamburger Meat

It’s so odd, when you’ve lost someone close to you, how they come to you in the strangest ways.

Mother liked her hamburger meat well done.  She didn’t want any hint of rawness getting in there.  So, when she fixed ANYTHING involving hamburger meat (frequent, since we were usually broke), she browned the heck out of it.  In fact, some of it was just this side of burnt.  She left the grease in, too; it cooked up into the meat.

When I became an adult (having listened to none of her efforts to teach me to cook), the one thing I could fix was “spaghetti gunk”.  I named it; it was basically Mother’s combo of hamburger meat, pasta (any kind), and sauce she made herself.  Mine, somehow, never turned out like hers, though.

I was home one time and asked her to show me how she made it (since I was going exactly by her recipe and it wasn’t working), and she did.  She stood there at the stove and almost burned the meat.  I was shocked; I’d been browning it till it was gray (all the pink gone). 

The next time I fixed “spaghetti gunk” at home, I did as she did---and mine turned out almost like hers.  Amazing!

>>o<<

My friend West lost his father a couple of weeks ago.  My friend Keith lost his step-mother this week.

Once the initial pain goes away, it’s so funny, the ten million small ways in which you see them.  Of course you remember the big things---but it’s the little things that get you.