My Jesus Shoes

Growing up in El Paso I wore flip-flops all the time. This was long before flip-flops were such a huge fashion statement. Due to the fact that, like most boys, I either tended to be extra rough on, and or lose items of this type of clothing, I can’t imagine my mom spent much more than a dollar for each pair of flip-flops.

A few years ago I was walking through Dillard’s when I saw a pair of Tommy Hilfiger flip-flops sitting on a sale table. They were originally $35.00, but marked down to $12.00. I’m not sure exactly why, but I decided to buy them.

So began my rekindled love affair with flip-flops.

For a while now my flip-flops have been showing signs of age. However, it wasn’t until the cruise that they began rubbing a blister between my toes. Sadly, I decided to retire my flip-flops and search for a new pair.

I tend to be rather picky about things like shoes and spent a few months looking. I didn’t look everyday, or even every week for that matter. It was just if I happened to find myself in a store where they happened to sell flip-flops I would take a look and see if anything caught my eye.

I had just about given up hope of finding a pair when I happened though that same Dillard’s and came across the perfect pair…on the sale table. There are no flashy colors, no zippy slogans, and no fancy stitching. They’re even a little jagged around the edges.

Melissa and Macy think they are ugly and can’t stand them. (A fact that makes wearing them all that much more fun!)

Looking down I said, “You know, if Jesus was here today I think that this is precisely the type of shoe he would wear. There’s even a fish on the bottom!"

"I guess it’s slipped your mind that Jesus hung out with a bunch of fishermen!”

My goal was to shame them into liking my shoes, but alas that hasn't worked...yet.

Maybe someday they’ll see the light, and embrace my Jesus shoes.

Now That's Farmin'!!!

I’ve got this neighbor who we’ll call Old McDonald.

Now, Old McDonald is quite a guy. As far as “Do-It-Your-Self-ers” go, he is the man. Old McDonald has lived here for over 30 years. I’ve only been here for the last 10 of those years, but that’s long enough to be quite amazed by the jobs he’s pulled off. To date, I’ve been a bystander as he installed his own sprinkler system, laid the wood floor in his house, tiled his front porch, and hung his own front door. However, in the 20 years before I got here there’s no telling what he did.

I like to think of myself as a fairly savvy, home project kind of guy. Thanks to my dad, I can fix more than my fair share of things around the house. However, it’s more than a little bit humbling to discuss home repairs with Old McDonald, because I know that inside he’s just laughing.

Old McDonald is also quite the farmer. In the back-40, which is really just a strip in the alley out behind his house, he’s always got something good growing. For the last couple of years it’s been tomatoes and peppers. And baby, these are some seriously good tomatoes and some seriously hot peppers. Old McDonald went out of town for a few weeks and told me I could have any tomatoes that turned red while he was gone, not many did, but the ones that did were very, very tasty. Every time I went anywhere I made a close inspection of each tomato in the garden.

Little did I know that Old McDonald was taking his farming to a new level.

It was after Old McDonald got home, and we were talking over the fence about the tomatoes, my new foundation repair and all kinds of stuff, when he was telling me about some problem one of his gutter downspouts was having due to all the rain we’ve had.

He was in mid-sentence as he gestured up to the gutter on the second floor above his garage. What we saw silenced him, raised my eyebrows, and made both of us smile.

“Went with corn this year did ya?” Was all I could think to say.

I don’t remember exactly who said what, but we each made several wisecracks about keeping the rabbits off, how hard it was to plant, and being a bitch to harvest.

Like the song says;

“…and on his house he had some corn, ee-i-ee-i-oh!”