The blogging craze

Justin: The more I "blog", the more I can see where people lose themselves in it. The options in which one could voice one's opinions or share one's experiences are rapidly (rabidly?) blooming and prospering. Our page is simple in the scheme of things. It is a pre-constructed layout with blank spots to write words and to drop pictures, however even here I have options to add depth and interactivity. I can have comments posted by readers forwarded to a mobile number. I can create posts in word and email them to the site. I can add posts from MY PHONE, if I had a long enough traffic light to actually type out something... And those are still minial things. There is video blogging, which interests me. Not the web cam divas or machismos so much as the people with their iPhones who record and upload on the fly what they are doing. The options now are just amazing. Devices like the iPhone (dreams of which now haunt me - and my savings account) make such tasks not merely less daunting, but almost easy. I'm not saying that everything anyone says is important, let alone interesting enough to waste your time poring over, however I am all about the options and the ability to spread your whimsical nonsense to a planet of people at the push of a button is simply astounding.

Tooting the Horn of Another: Louie Keeling

Justin: So it seems that even during his years of retirement, my father has become a bit of a celebrity in some circles. Growing up I was always amazed at how many people knew my dad. Between being a news caster, being in the army, working at the flea market with my grandfather, heading the local chapter of the Jaycees, and working his 9 to 5 (usually 7 to 4 when we were young) for some 30 years, my dad got to know some folks. I think the most memorable time was when we were on a family outing to Big South Fork River and Recreation Area - some hour+ outside of Knoxville - and we ran into someone he knew while we were on a trail. We weren't surprised, really... mostly just amused.

I have always known my father to be very generous and willing to help anyone in need. He has rushed to the aid of victims all through out my life, be they victims of storms, vehicular accidents, or just of the hostilities of life in general. And now, in his retirement, my father has joined the Red Cross as a volunteer and has become a very valuable asset. So much so that I just discovered he won the Volunteer of the Month award for August.

No, he didn't tell me - I had to find out through other people. He's humble like that. Some (me) would say almost annoyingly so...

POWELL RESIDENT NAMED
RED CROSS VOLUNTEER OF THE MONTH
FOR AUGUST 2007

When Louie Keeling retired three years ago, he wanted nothing more than to help make an impact anywhere he could, giving his services to the community. While figuring out how to spend retirement, over 300 refugees from hurricane Katrina were sent to Knoxville.
Keeling responded immediately and spent the days following Katrina at the Knoxville Civic Coliseum, doing anything necessary to help. Not only did Keeling direct hundreds to the resources they needed, he observed something that would shape his retirement.
"I really saw how much of a difference (the Red Cross) makes, and the overwhelming show of support from (the Knoxville) community," said Keeling.
With his mind made, Keeling decided the Red Cross provided the opportunity for him to use his talents. Now the Red Cross is honoring Louie Keeling as August 2007 Volunteer of the Month.
Keeling typically responds to disasters, usually house fires, in the greater Knoxville area, but never hesitates to volunteer outside of the area. The Knoxville Area Chapter is now responsible for 16 counties, so Louie takes on some of the responsibility himself. He’ll quickly reassure he doesn’t hesitate to travel to outlying communities anytime, regardless of circumstance. During those calls, Keeling acts as an initial response for the Red Cross, assessing needs of victims. From there, Keeling acts quickly, providing basic needs first: food, clothing, temporary shelter, and other emergency needs.
Keeling’s favorite part of the process is witnessing these families, most of whom face the toughest challenge of their life, move from chaos to normalcy, while being there all along to help and make sure the recovery is successful. Its obvious Louie is anything but selfish. When driving home from local disasters, Louie admits he feels very humbled and blessed that the Red Cross helps make a difference when victims are usually at the lowest point of their lives.
In addition to local disasters, Louie responded to a few disasters of national scale with the Disaster Services Human Resources team. Louie’s first assignment was to Gibson County, TN immediately after the April 2, 2006 tornado killed 15 and destroyed an estimated 1,600 homes. The Knoxville Area Red Cross team arrived within 24 hours, and found tragedy soon after arrival.

Keeling described beautiful farmland and rolling pastures of Gibson County and the first family the DSHR team helped. He said the tornado literally scraped the earth, moving dirt and foundation from its original location. The team soon learned of three fatalities, and although very disheartened, the team had to continue. After the team helped and secured that initial family, they traveled from area to area, home to home, distributing food and water, comfort kits, clean-up kits, and offered anything they had, but usually the people really wanted someone to listen. And Keeling was glad to do just that.
Keeling felt the same when he responded to floods in Pennsylvania, two months after he returned from Gibson County. He acknowledged the disasters were very different, but the needs were very much alike. With the magnitude of both events, Keeling and the DSHR team had to act quickly and efficiently to reach as many victims as possible.
Now, Keeling has helped more victims than he ever thought possible. In both cases and on every call, Keeling drops any plans, forgets about himself and quickly does what is needed- help. Keeling is retired, but he may be rewarded for his work now more than ever.
Keeling says the award was a great surprise. He acknowledged other Red Cross volunteers that have volunteered for more years and been just as dedicated. Humility is just one of Keeling’s virtues.
A Knoxville native, Louie served in Vietnam, graduated from the University of Tennessee, and worked for Rohm and Haas, where he retired. Since then, Louie has served on the Red Cross Disaster Action Team to help victims from across the state of Tennessee and beyond. He lives in the Powell community with his wife Donna. They have two children, Justin and Kara, and two grandchildren, Hayden and Cooper.

Congratulations, dad. As always you deserve this recognition and much more. You have always been a hero to me and I strive to follow closely in your footsteps. How about next time you get an award, let a guy know a bit sooner, okay?

Yep, it's Autumn

Justin: There is something about Autumn that just fits me and I miss it when it's gone. I don't mind Winter or Spring, and the only thing about Summer that I can tolerate is that after it's gone Autumn will be here. But it's now here, and I'm loving every second of it. Cool weather, fewer mosquitoes, clearer days and nights, American Football with all that that entails, camping... (dreamy sigh) just everything. Stace and I spent yesterday morning volunteering for the Dilworth 8K Jubilee, directing traffic for the runners. Did I mention that I'm not a morning person? Stace got me up at a little after 6 and I think I said 4 words until 10:30. Unfortunately it didn't help that made I us late and we couldn't stop to get me a soda. I grunted at a couple of people whom I was introduced to and waved cars through and clapped as the runners raced by. But we all survived it and around 2:30 we packed the dogs in the car and went to our friend Sharon's house for DOGGIE PLAY TIME! Sharon has a puppy named Doobie and another friend of ours brought her dog, Mr. Oliver Binks, so we had a yard full of animals. Well, three dogs in the yard as Oscar wasn't having any of the rough housing if there was a warm lap to snuggle into. I took the camera and came away with a few shots that turned out. Trying to catch playing dogs makes you realize how important a very fast lens really is... I'll be shopping for an upgrade soon, I believe. We chatted, started a fire in the fire pit when it started getting late in the afternoon, ordered pizza and hung out until 9:30 or so when Porter started being a butthead and was barking at Kress, Sharon's fiancee, when he got home. Not sure what that was about, other then either a male/male problem or Porter felt he was protecting Doobie as Kress and Doobie were rough housing just a little. (shrug) Not sure, but we'll get him acclimated to Kress as he will be around for a while.
Anyway, here are a few from the afternoon.
Be safe.

What to do, What to do...

Justin: We have so many pictures of the wedding weekend... lol... And to think I considered doing the disposable camera deal.. HA! We are working on putting something together.. as they trickle in, we are piecing an album, of sorts, together. We'll get something going and either will create a Flickr account or just post em all here.

It should be soon as my family have not seen the whitewater pictures and I'm sure they'd love to.

Be safe.
JJ.

Tooting the Horn of Another: Lynn Paszkiewicz

Justin: This portion of the show is called "Tooting the Horn of Another" and highlights certain people in our lives who deserve a bit more recognition then they actually receive. This time I would like to introduce you to a good friend of ours, Lynn Paszkiewicz (pronounced "Pass-kah-witz" for you southerners). Besides being a full time loving mom and wife to our also good friends Afton and Chris, Lynn is a very talented wedding and special events photographer when she's not droling through her regular 9 to 5. That's a lot of hats! Lynn has shown me a lot about photography and her work has won her awards and recognition. She recently opened a site for her work, Studio P and you can see it here: http://www.studiopphoto.com/ . More then likely I will be blatantly stealing from her designs, so get used to the layout. :)

Stace and I were fortunate enough to have Lynn shoot our wedding last weekend. It was great to see her, Chris and big boy Afton again - too bad we didn't get to have as much time together as we would have liked. AND WE MADE HER WORK! What kind of friends are we?? Lynn is very involved with her clients and takes the time to make each shoot as unique as possible. A perfect example is this Event Card she created for us:

How cool is that?

Lynn is up for traveling anywhere so if you are looking for professional work from a creative artist, she is the photographer for you.

Lynn and Chris, I hope we can get together soon. It would be nice to stay more then the what, hour or so, that we have been getting the past couple of times? And please don't kill me for the picture - it was the most recent one of you I could find. :)

Be safe and thank you again.

WHOO HOO! We're Hitched!

Justin: What a wonderful time. This was proof positive that you can indeed pull off a very nice wedding with only six weeks of planning and preperation.
We noticed this sign out front on Saturday night, and yes, it is misspelled on both sides. Truly fitting for our little event, I think. My sister did not want me to go rafting on Friday due to all the mishaps that have occurred along the way. I told her "but what a good story it would be!" She looked at me and said "Justin, you can write a book about this wedding already. You don't need any more stories".
Well no matter how it all came about, the result was beautiful and memorable. It would have probably been more so if (sigh) the microphone had been turned on so that people past the second row could have heard us... I think Stace is including the vows in her Thank You letters as she was very proud of them.
By the way, to go along with the theme of mishaps, Stace and I have been sick since Sunday. She is currently in bed with some form of throat infection, so those "Thank You"s will be a little late getting out. Yes, she's been to the doctor and yes, she is taking her antibiotics, so she should be up and about in a day or so.
I will post a longer, more detailed description of the weekend along with some pictures either later today or tomorrow as I just wanted to get a quick note out saying THANK YOU for helping put this together. It was wonderful and we had an excellent time being with you all.