Rocky's Blog

I am so very sad. Our dog Priscilla died today. She was a handful to be sure. Those of you who know us know she was much like me. Inclined to massive mood swings in terribly short periods of time. She was staying with Robin while we are out of the country. Robin is one of a small group of people Priscilla trusted enough and loved enough to let close enough to bite. She died peacefully in her sleep beside Robin's bed. I'm glad that she and Robin became friends. Priscilla bit all her friends at least once. I wish she could bite me now. Au revoir lil' bit. I'll miss you lots . r

Brother Dan Cathey has left this earth. He will be sorely missed. The effect of his works is incalculable and will be evident in many lives for many years. We owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to Dan payable only by our continued effort to do like he did while we were blessed with his physical presence….Love. Dan knew how to love. No qualifying required. He loved like Jesus loves. He saw only God in everyone he met and the Christ in him connected with those he touched. I want to be more like brother Dan. I will miss him and am thankful to the God that embraces him now for knowing him. R

Neither Kimberly nor I speak French very well at all. We can both stumble, semi-communicative, through tasks like ordering a meal, saying hello and goodbye, grocery shopping, asking directions and never understanding the reply, and telling people we don't speak French.... things like that. As a result one of our most asked questions is "comment dit-on?' or how do you say...(insert English word)...in French?" We are always asking our American, Irish and French friends all of which speak at least two different languages ..."How do you say...? The weather here in the Loire Valley in the Summer of 2009 has been quite odd. Today is July 9 and the temperature is barely in the 70's with night-time temperatures in the 50s! And the wind!! The wind has been blowing around 30 mph constantly for several days making much of the landscaping work on the property even more interesting. So, Kimberly is talking about the windy weather with our friend Edward, the fifteen year o...

I am a music guy. So much of my life experience is about sound. (you'd think I'd listen better when Kimberly is talking to me) Anyway...one of my favorite sounds of all time is most often heard in France. It is the crackkkkling yet crissspy sound of the end of a freshly baked baguette breaking off into my mouth as I bite it.....warm. All by itself. Sans jam, butter, cheese or anything else for that matter...simply bread....at least for the first few bites anyway. The sound tells me that amazing taste of fresh baked awesomeness is to follow. It is then that I often remember my 'mon ami and keyboardist extraordinaire of the Carolina Opry..Ralph Geddes. You see...Ralph takes his own sweet time to eat a meal...no...not eat it...savor it. It matters not the entree nor appetizer....shrimp in garlic sauce followed by a succulent, perfectly cooked prime rib... or a salad in a plastic container and paper wrapped burger from Wendys...Ralph takes his time. I asked him once why this wa...

The paragliding flight off th top of an Alp with Jean-Pierre, my pilot, was ....AWESOME...man...it was scary but very cool. One thing that was very scary....we got all hooked up and Jean-Pierre explained to me that we were, on his command, to run toward the end of the jump platform as fast as I could until my feet left the ground. We took off and I was running but not fast enough. We started drifting left really hard and Jean-Pierre stopped us..."you're not running as fast as you can Rocky." he said... we stopped about 6 feet from the end... So we back up and punt....this time there was no way I wasn't running as hard as I could. He took a deep breath....exhaled...and said..."we go." I ran like a tiger was after me! I felt the paraglider fill up with air as we ran. We strted to drift again...I ran harder and could feel us straightening out...I knew the edge was coming anytime....more than a mile down on the first step...whoooooosh! We were airborn. Check out...