Indy 500
What an incredible Indy 500 today! It was rain delayed a few hours but they got it done before deadline and along the way it was one of the most intense nail-biting races I’ve seen in years. Maybe it wasn’t really any better than previous races and my impression was just the result of a culmination of unrelated things in my life (or lack thereof). I think it was the race, though. The announcers were hootin’ and hollerin’, especially during the last 20 laps. Also, I think it’s the first time I ever saw a second-place driver so emotionally crushed that he actually broke down in tears, for quite a spell, on camera. I could understand. It was intense for me, too, and I only spent the race settin’ in my armchair watchin’ it on the TV, not jockeying at 215 m.p.h. at close quarters with a dozen other racers hell-bent on beating me.
I have more important and meaningful things to write about, including some pictures, but I don’t have enough time. Nevertheless, I felt compelled to post something, and a blurb about Indy is the only thing I can squeeze out of the little block of time available at the moment. Hopefully, before it gets to be several more months of nothing, I’ll get something more important and meaningful posted, including pictures.
John and Becky – A Love Story
John grew up outside of St. Louis, Missouri in a country schoolhouse his parents converted into a rural home. Becky grew up in Ottawa, Kansas, a small farming community southwest of Kansas City. John and Becky met each other in the summer of 1969. He had just graduated high school, she had just finished her first year of college. They were in Wichita with summer jobs working for the same company selling encyclopedias door to door. While plying their wares over the course of the summer, their traveling band of book peddlers set up shop in motels throughout Kansas, Colorado and Wyoming. By summer’s end they were in love but went their separate ways, he to Lawrence and she to Emporia, in pursuit of higher education. Love, however, prevailed and they got married in the summer of 1971. Becky left college and went to work so John could finish college, but then he tricked her by going to law school and she had to work three more years. In 1976 Becky became pregnant, John graduated from law school and passed the bar, they moved to Iola, Kansas, Stephen was born, and John won a hard-fought election to become County Attorney. He launched his legal career battling crime as a prosecuting attorney while also building a private practice. In 1979 Kimberly was born. In 1982 they moved back to Lawrence, taking the children with them. John hung out his shingle and Becky went back to work. The children grew up and moved to California. Becky finally retired from work in 2015. John took his shingle down in 2021 but continues to work some. Throughout it all, they remained madly in love, a condition that persists to this day.
Cold Enough to Freeze the…
February 20, 2025
Family Matters, Language, Life, News
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John Chappell
Thanksgiving and Christmas 2024 and New Year and Valentines Day 2025 have come and gone. We’ve been sick here in Kansas since a week or two into January. Not just the old rhinovirus (bad cold) but that godawful Norovirus and then type A flu although I avoided the flu so far but suspect rhinovirus has taken hold. I’m hitting it with lots of echinacea and zinc and we’ll see how it goes. I have a physical therapy session scheduled for Friday. It was prescribed ostensibly for lower back pain, but it’s actually bursitis in the right hip/leg. And then there’s the weather. We had a blizzard a couple weeks ago with near zero temps, and this week it’s snow again but less of it, but colder, not just near zero but below zero. As I’m writing this the device on my wrist says the temp is -2 with “feels like” of -13. Just going out to check the mailbox (empty!) was enough to numb my fingers, wearing gloves. Supposed to be colder tomorrow and Friday. Which reminds me… In answer to the question, “How cold was it?” our friends at GasKan explain the source of the answer, “It was cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey!” I’m afraid I have no pictures of brass monkeys, but may have some depicting examples of our new year so far. If I have the time and/or the energy, I’ll add a couple of them here, but I don’t have at the moment. For now, g’night, and watch out for them brass monkeys!