My son the poet

he sent this to me and I was impressed.....


"Men are childish," a woman said one day.
"They laugh and get their fun in the most immature ways:
laughing at gas, gas and insulting people to their face.
It's sad. It's pathetic. It's a disgrace."
"I agree," said her friend at the table.
"I don't know when they will be able,
to not act in such ways.
We all know that will take many days."
"Now wait a minute!" The husband barged in.
"At least I don't talk about others and their sins,
behind their backs to those who don't need to know.
At least I fight for worth, some sort of honor bestowed,
unlike women, who pick petty ordeals,
to fight and scream about, biting at each other's heals."
"At least I'm not spying, listening to conversations,
that weren't meant for a man's contemplation."
"At least when I insult someone, it needs not be secret,
I'll say it to their face loud enough for all to hear it."
"Well, maybe that's the cause of wars,
All the men in charge using words as swords."
"Maybe," a little voice came from the door,
"it's somewhere in the middle that will stop the wars."
"Son, you don't understand quite yet.
There's no way, I bet."
"I think I know this world well enough,
Dad, you don't need to bee so tough,
and Mom, you don't need to hide,
all of your criticisms inside.
I may be younger than you,
I may not know as much as you do,
but I live in the same place,
and we're all in the same race.
It's a happy median of the two,
a little man for you, and woman for you.
Now, please, you listen to me,
because you don't do it every time I speak,
I am tired of your fighting,
your back-stabbing and spying,
your spitting in faces and fighting,"
They all stood in silence,
staring at the child who had given his sense.
The mother was crying softly,
and the father had so many tears he could barely see.
They came together and scooped up their son,
holding him in their arms, thankful for what he had done.
"I love you, Dad. I love you, Mom."
He'd at least stopped one war to come.
© Brady Mertens July 28, 2008
...I love you guys...

Fruit of the vine???

As you all may know, I have been dabbling in "country" wine making, similarly to the types of wine that your great grandmother may have made in her kitchen. My latest endeavor is to use the available fruit. I have about 4 gallons of Crabapple aging from the first batch, the pictures are of me working on the second crabapple batch and I have a third mixed crabapple, blackberry, strawberry, blueberry, that I just started on Friday. The green jug is a special cherry/pear batch H and B picked the cherries from a tree on the property line to the north and the pears were in the basket in the kitchen getting ready to go bad. Some of you may recognize my secondary fermentation vessel.....most of my receipts say to bottle and age for at least 6 months. Ill let you know, for now enjoy the pictures.

the monday jack: special double edition

As promised here are several great shots of Jack. he is rolling from his back to his front and growing like mad. He got a new toy today, a rolling doggy. the bark sounds like his (Jack's) farts, but the fam says its a bark. Note the sweet potatoes on the face, just after this was taken, he raspberried a mouthfull on Mom, and thought it was funny. Me too!!

Inspirational

So it happened that in the summer of 2005, just prior to my actual retirement and after “the boat that shall not be named” had left me and went on deployment, I was lucky enough to attend the High school youth conference in Steubenville O. One of the speakers I found very funny and highly inspiring at the same time. Chris Padgett is a convert to our church, as am I, and unlike me is very, very active in his faith. So active that he travels around the world (hey, he went to Guam) and ministers to Catholic Youth. My experience there was the beginning of the adventure that we are on today. Please visit his website at http://www.chris-padgett.com/main.html .

what happened to the week!?!

I was online today and realized that although we had taken pictures for the Monday Jack last week and even went as far as uploading them, I never actually posted them. Things have been a bit hectic this last two weeks, I worked 9 days of midnights and then turned around and to work training shift all week, this weekend I am working daylight shift at the plant and am short shifting out to work midnight this week. sounds like a lot of work, but it is only 8 hour shifts and...AND...its overtime, something that I didnt get in the navy. the latest on the licence class for me is "after December" whatever that means. the picture is of "the plant"

the monday jack

So, it’s not Monday again. Man is this hard to do unless on vaca.......... at any rate, we have had an eventful week, jack is teething which means bluck out of both ends and much slobbering. He is alternately really sweet and completely unbearable to be with. Hey that sounds like me when I was in the nav. I have been contemplating some different online content and feel much better. I started with a google search for other retired catholic goats here http://www.splendoroftruth.com/curtjester/ it is amazing how many of us have "little ones!" Loving it. Here is jack and later K will take some pics of B and I trying to get the new old car a new set of belts. Enjoy

one of the most inspiring

One of the men in my life that I have found most inspiring is my wife's uncle John Boll. He is a Priest and when we would go to reunion he would say Saturday mass such that those of us who slept in the yard in tents would not have to figure out how to get cleaned up for Sunday mass. I can clearly remember the fire in his eyes when he held up the consecrated host. At the time I was a generic protestant and I thought: I want some of that! Not realizing that my yearning was for Christ in his Eucharistic form. So, here is a recent picture of John in the creek. Who knows, when I picked Jack’s real name, perhaps he was the John that inspired me.......

the monday jack

Hello again, I know that its not monday and amazingly enough the picture was taken on Sunday. the excuse of the week is that the camera got uploaded to the laptop and it took me two days to figure out where the pictures were (lame, I know). K's side of the family has a killer (wicked?) reunion in early july every year and this was taken at the family farm near Wheelersburg, O. Also included some of the rest of the family, B playing with papaw and H doing her thing at fireworks on the fourth. The main "fun" thing that K remembers is playing in the creek, so this weeks pic is of her and Jack in the stream. I would like to know what they were so intent on. As for me, I am on the afternoon shift and didnt make it. I have always had a great time down there and perhaps I will get a chance next year.

steubenville youth confrence 2008

It was amazing and the Lord provides no accidents, only miracles. We, (H and I) originally weren’t going to get to go. We had the chance to participate in the events on Saturday afternoon and Sunday because of no show’s. Here is H with our group enjoying here “Hero” Bob Rice and Steve Angrisano (google him its cool).

the monday jack

well its not "monday" but here he is. I will also post some pictures of our visit to Steubenville this weekend. there were two spots for our group that were not taken so H and I got to go. we spent saturday for most of the day and sunday with the group. I was blessed and H was very impressed and is most eager to go back next year for the whole time. the picture of the week was after I got home from work. Jack had been a "little difficult" for mom and "somehow" I worked some " dad magic" and within a very short time he looked like this.