SoFF Day 2: Swim Meet

First dual swim meet of the season was Thursday with all three girls swimming, Maureen as head official and starter for the first half, and Guy as water boy.

This was the first regular meet with Cora and Janet in the same age group (15-18); Fiona is in the top of her age group (11-12). Time passes so quickly!

I remember...For Robin

The first time I saw you.

It was on that TV show;

You know the one

About those high school kids

From my parents' younger, happy days.

 

You were from another world,

An alien in that strange land;

Arriving in an egg-shaped ship

To challenge and subdue the gang.

 

An epic battle then ensued

Between the coolest dude and you.

But even though you froze the rest,

The Fonz's thumb was proved the best!

 

From that first encounter

You made me laugh;

And throughout the many intervening years

You skillfully brought more laughter,

Excitement, thoughtfulness, and even tears.

 

From the time I first saw you

When I was a child

You have made my life richer,

And now I feel the passing of the years.

 

For today they told me the news:

A light has gone out of the world!

 

Tears.

 

Booting up the new site

In connection with Maureen's major goal for this year, I thought it would be fun to set up a blog for her. To find out more about that, you can visit Maureen's blog, called "Team Maureen".

This resulted in me evaluating the current state of my public online presence, which, to be honest, needs work. Back last decade I experimented with a blog on Blogger, but really only posted a few things - it has been inactive for a couple years. I lurk on Facebook for the most part and don't do anything with Twitter at present. Last year, I created GuyMeador.com as a place to develop a professional presence; that site currently only has my resume, but it is a start.

Meta-Meador is another experiment, but one I hope takes root. Our personal blogs will be here and we will see where it goes.

Thank You Verizon

in ,
I've been doing a lot of video streaming to my iPad (). I do this over WiFi so I don't bump up against usage limits on Verizon's data plan. Well, I should say, I intend to only use WiFi for this.

Well, tonight I was watching This Week In Law () and received a pop-up message from Verizon indicating that I only had 50 MB remaining on my data plan! It turns out I forgot to switch on WiFi and switch off cell data when I came home today. If I had not received that pop-up, I would have owed a bunch more dough.

Lesson Learned!

Getting a Dell 3000cn working on Mac OS X Snow Leopard

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My mother has switched from a Windows PC to an iMac running OS X Snow Leopard. As a member of her IT support staff :) I'm helping her get it set up. One of the challenges is getting a few decade-old peripherals to work with this shiny new iMac. This post deals with the Dell 3000cn laser printer.

Here is the quick recipe that will result in functionality for color and black & white printing, albeit very slow printing.

1. Download and install Foomatic-RIP (http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/openprinting/macosxfoomatic#.C2.A0Foomatic-RIP_for_Mac_OS_X)

2. Download and install Ghostscript, also found at the link in step 1.

3. Download and install the PPD for the HP Color LaserJet 5000. You will find that at (http://www.openprinting.org/driver/pxlcolor).

That page has a drop down menu to select the driver you want to generate and download.
Choose "HP Color Laserjet 5000" and press "Generate PPD File."

Place the downloaded file in the following directory:
/Library/Printers/PPDs/Contents/Resources/en.lproj/ directory

4. In System Preferences | Print & Fax, press + (under Printers) to add a printer.

5. Select your Dell 3000cn printer as the printer.

6. In the "Print Using" drop down, choose "Select Printer Software..." which will provide a list of available drivers. Scroll down and select "HP Color Laserjet 5000 Foomatic/pxlcolor"

You can now print to the printer in color or black & white. It is abysmally slow, but is functional.

Thanks to the folks who posted to the following discussion thread on Sourceforge. I've simply consolidated information from that thread in a few succinct steps.
(http://sourceforge.net/projects/gimp-print/forums/forum/4359/topic/1183504)

Next peripherals for me to install are an Epson PicutreMate and HP Scanner.

Banks' Remarks at Daddy's Funeral

My brother, Banks, also spoke at Daddy's funeral. Here is his post from Facebook with his remarks...

BEGIN QUOTE

Thanks to all of you for your thoughts and prayers. Daddy was diagnosed with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis some time ago, so we all had plenty of time to say goodbye. Still miss him though, that's for sure. Daddy's in a great place now, and he certainly doesn't need oxygen tubes anymore! Here are my remarks from that day:

Guy Atkinson Meador, Jr.

Hello, everybody. It’s so nice to see everybody here. When you walk in you don’t really look over everybody, so this is my first chance to get a glance at everybody’s face. Thank ya’ll for being here, and thank you for indulging myself and my brother today as we share a few reflections.

I will keep my remarks brief because for those of you who knew my dad in his church life well, you know that he didn’t like a very long service. And I remember sitting over there several Sundays in my youth and if a service was getting a little bit long, he’d stand right up and walk right out if he wanted to... and we don’t want anything like that here today, so I’m going to move it along.

If you can say such a thing, this is my favorite part of a funeral. The time when a family can get up and share some of the things that we think you need to know - about my Daddy in this case. I may not be able to visit with each one of you individually today but there are some things I think ya’ll need to know about him. And if you know it, you will relish and enjoy hearing some of these stories.

For any son, drawing a comparison with your dad is natural. But in my case me and my dad are a lot alike. Sometimes more alike than most father-son combinations. We’re both babies of our family. Probably a little bit spoiled - nah, I don’t think so, right Mamma? Not so much? We have a lot of other similarities. We both had “Guy Meador’s” for dads. And we both have sons that are going to help carry the Meador name on. And, we also made each other upset enough that we probably couldn’t both see straight at one another from time to time. But that hardheadedness was also tempered with a great love that was just as strong.

Daddy had four sisters: Norma, Doris, Ellen, and Beth. His mother, we called her “Big Mamma,” had to be relieved when her baby boy finally arrived. That was number five, and she knew they were going to keep going until they got a baby boy. Daddy was a wonderful blessing to his family from the beginning. I never met Papa, he was gone before I arrived, but I do know that Daddy was a lot like him, and he was like Big Mamma too. The Meador-Hudsbeth combination was combustable. And for those of you who knew my dad, you can attest to that. It was like a mountain fire meeting a lava flow. Or that unstoppable force meeting an immovable object. I would describe Daddy as hardheaded, impatient, passionate, caring, hardheaded, driven, and he had the heart of a teacher. Did I mention that he was hardheaded?

There’s a little Guy Meador in everybody in this family sitting over there, no question about it. Just ask my brother’s neighborhood association what a Guy Meador can do! And I must say that I don’t know of any defense attorneys who would exactly hi-five each other when they find out they’re up against my big sister. I promise you that. Daddy instilled in us that passion, that drive, and that hardheadedness and that gives us such an advantage in life in so many areas. That baseball coach that tried to drive us to be better, but in the process break us, never could break me. You know why? Because my Daddy was in me.

And that hardheadedness lead all the way up until my daddy was in the hospital in those final days. We didn’t leave his side. We said hello to each nurse and we made sure that they knew we were our daddy’s children, and that we were going to be there for him through to the end. We were able to preserver and do that and I give a lot of credit to my daddy’s hardheadedness and “stick-to-itiveness” that it happened that way.

Those weren’t the only things Daddy passed on to us. He passed on a love for the outdoors, fishing, sailing, hunting, his love of laughter, his care for God’s creation. He taught me, and my bother, and my sister all of those things throughout his life. Daddy always, since he was a young man, had a pack of beagles. Those of you who’ve known him for a long time know that ever since he was a very young man he always had a pack of beagles. Since my brother and sister were off to school when I was a little boy, those were some of my best friends; Jimmy and Tweed and High Ball and Low Ball and Peanut - they’re all family dogs.

Daddy would take that pack of beagles (and for those of you who hunted with him, ya’ll know what I’m talking about) into a stand of woods and Daddy would have hunters all around outside the block of woods. Daddy would do what they call “jump” a deer inside that thicket of woods and the dogs would trail the deer. They would sniff his scent and every time one of those beagles would catch that deer’s scent, he would sound off. All of them had different pitches, and it developed a chorus that I believe was one of the most beautiful sounds my Daddy ever heard. He shared that with his children. To this day, when I hear a pack of beagles, I stop, I listen, and I think of Daddy. That is such a wonderful gift that he shared with us. Other family dogs of particular note that I have written here include Jinx and Eva. Jinx towards the beginning of my Mamma and Daddy’s marriage, and Eva towards the end. They were good family dogs that deserved to be mentioned here.

He and my mom were born down the street from one another, a week apart from one another. They went to Foote Street School together, and they were high school sweethearts. That’s a long time to know somebody, isn’t it, Mamma? They were married for almost 54 years. And Mamma knew Daddy most of his 74. What a wonderful thing. I have to tell you that I’m very proud of my Mamma. Very proud. Because for my mom to stand by my Daddy and love him and to be the kind of Christian wife God wanted her to be and He called her to be, makes me so proud. She loved - and put up with - that fiery passion that was so much of my daddy while he was here on Earth (and I have a feeling that hasn’t stopped).

My brother, sister, and I were tempered with my mother’s love, and kindness, and wisdom, and understanding. I think that she and my daddy, if I may say so myself, did ok. We really appreciate everything you’ve done for our family, Mamma.

Daddy wasn’t perfect, now, don’t get me wrong. He didn’t pretend to be. He made some mistakes, but who among us hasn’t? It gave him a chance to live a testimony. No, Daddy wasn’t perfect. But he was saved. And I genuinely believe every day he tried to lead a sanctified life.
Things that I’m going to pass on to my sons and hopefully they to theirs are what I’m going to wrap up with. Thank you for your indulgence.

One of the most cherished sayings that Daddy passed on to me and my brother and my sister and the rest of our family - think from his daddy - is “remember who you are.” Every time we were going out to the movies or something like that, before that door closed, I always heard him say, “remember who you are.” And I think that translates really well to us Christians too. Remember who you are. Remember you are your Heavenly Father’s son or daughter. What a wonderful lesson for our father to have taught us.

Like I said earlier, there’s a little Guy Meador in all our family - Sara Lee, Guy, myself, Sally, Ellen, Cora, Janet, Fiona, Dalton, Evan, and Cooper. And there’s a little of our Heavenly Father in all us Christians, so please don’t forget that.

One of the most unique and cherished traditions my family had is that when my daddy was walking through the woods - maybe it was on a hunt, maybe it was just out for a walk with his family - if we got separated and he needed to communicate with us (we didn’t have a cell phone, and rarely a radio) he would owl. I don’t know if ya’ll have ever heard him do it. But Daddy would owl out and you’d hear it for miles, and you knew where he was. You could respond back with an owl back to him and it was a wonderful way to communicate.

He did that while hunting, at sporting events - when I was on the playing field, when I did something good Daddy would let out an owl call and I didn’t have to guess who that was. I knew that my daddy was there in the stands cheering for me, and I knew I had done something good. I also know he did that once or twice at the Governor’s School graduation, right, Ellen? So she knew he was there for that too.

One very special time he did it was toward the end of his life in the hospital room. Some of the family was gathered around and Daddy was drifting off to sleep when all of a sudden he owled out strong and loud! We had hardly been able to hear him and communicate with him because he was so short of breath, but the people in the next room could hear him! Think about that. He was either just going to sleep and owling out, or maybe he was saying “Hey, here I come ya’ll. Get ready!”

To me that is one of the most special things in my life with him. I know that when it’s my turn to go to Heaven, and when I arrive, one of the things I imagine that might happen is that I may arrive in front of a big stand of woods, and Daddy is back out in those woods somewhere. My Heavenly Father may be back out there with him (I can just see them walking and talking together). And I might hear this owl calling me - such a beautiful thing to think of, because I know that would be heaven to Daddy. And do you know what I’m going to do? I’m going to answer him like this (LOUD OWL CALL). Thank you so much for listening.

Daddy's Obituary

Here is Daddy's obituary...

Guy (Buddy) Atkinson Meador, Jr. , age 74, died March 26, 2010 at Providence Hospital in Columbia. He was the son of the late Guy A. Meador, Sr. and Cora Hudspeth Meador of Chester.

A funeral service will be held 4:00 PM Monday, March 29, 2010 at First Baptist Church, Chester with Reverend Clay Waldrip officiating. Interment will be held in Evergreen Cemetery. The family will receive friends from 5:00 PM until 7:00 PM Sunday evening at Barron Funeral Home.

He was a graduate of Chester High School and the University of South Carolina. He did graduate study in YMCA Administration at Springfield (MA) College.

A deacon of the Baptist Church, he was active as a Sunday School teacher, choir member, and youth committee member at several Baptist churches in South Carolina.

His last membership was at First Baptist Church, Chester, where he originated "The Harbingers," a Christian initiative assisting men being released from prison. He was also a member of Campers on Mission of South Carolina.

He enjoyed hunting, fishing, sailing, and gardening with his family and friends. In his youth he was a corpsman in the Naval Reserve. He was a charter member of the Chester Fire District Commission, a school board member for two terms, and he was commissioned as a State Constable.

During his career he was a teacher and coach, recreation director, YMCA General Secretary, and special schools and curriculum development manager for State Technical and Comprehensive Education. In industry he held the positions of personnel manager, general manager, sales representative, and district sales manager. He retired from the State Correctional System where he was a case worker and recreational manager.

He is survived by his wife, Sally Banks Meador of the home; a daughter, Sara Lee Meador Drawdy, and her husband, Wes, of Greenville, SC; a son, Guy A. Meador III, and his wife, Maureen, of Suwanee, GA; a son, H. Banks Meador, and his wife, Kara, of Leesville, SC; eight grandchildren: Sally, Ellen, Cora, Janet, Fiona, Dalton, Evan, and Cooper; and a number of nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by three sisters, Norma Skeels, Doris Little, and Beth Hoyle. He is survived by a sister, Ellen Burnette of Charlotte, NC.

Memorials may be made to First Baptist Church, PO Box 518, Chester, SC 29706

In Memory Of Guy A. Meador, Jr - My Daddy

My father went to be with our Lord on March 26th, 2010. At the funeral on March 29th, my brother, Banks, and I each had the privilege of making a few remarks. Banks spoke from an outline with notecards, but I needed to write mine out. I do hope that one day we can have a transcript of Banks' most excellent remarks. Here are mine...


For Daddy - Remember Who You Are!

Daddy had a saying that is special to our family. He would inevitably say it to us anytime we were parting. It is so important to us that Sara, Banks, and I each tell it often to our children as well. He would tell us “Remember who you are.”

That phrase, “Remember who you are” is only four words, but it carries so much meaning on multiple levels.

It means “Remember that you are my child and I will always love you, no matter what.”

It means “Remember that you represent our family; the way you conduct yourself is a reflection on this family, so you’d better behave in a way that will make us proud.”

It means “Remember that you are a member of God’s family, he will always love you no matter what.”

It means “Remember that the way you conduct yourself is a reflection on God’s family, so act in a way that is honoring to God.”

Remember who you are.

Remember who Guy was…

Remember who Buddy was…

Remember who Daddy was…

Remember who Uncle Buddy was…

Remember who Pop was…

Daddy was a passionate man. He poured his passion into everything he did. We can all attest to that!

He was a tenderhearted man. If you were around him long enough you would see through the gruff exterior and get a glimpse of his tender-heartedness.

Daddy loved his grandchildren and was so very proud of them! He had such a special, fun relationship with each. The same can be said of his relationship with his nieces and nephews.

There was never any doubt where you stood with Daddy or what his opinion was on pretty much any topic. He knew exactly the right way to do so many things and didn’t mind instructing you in this to the smallest detail. And it is not that he just thought he knew so much – he really genuinely did.

If you asked his advice, he would shoot straight with you and most all of the time it would be the advice you needed to hear. I already miss being able to talk with Daddy and get his advice.

As children, we never had any doubt he loved us even when he was disciplining us. Even as we became adults were never in any doubt about his love for us, even if we would sometimes get into fiery debates about this or that.

We all know that Daddy loved a good argument. We have a saying in our family that kind of sums that up “You can argue with a fence post.” Another one synonymous with that is “You’r a Guy Meador.” Well, I have certainly inherited that from Daddy and so have Banks and Sara.

There is a verse in Proverbs that says “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”

Remember who you are.

Daddy taught me so much. He taught me…

· To be trustworthy and honest – The last spanking I ever received was for lying

· If something is worth doing, it is worth doing right

· He instilled in me a love of camping

· How to fish – tie a hook, Fly fishing

· How to hunt, use a firearm safely

· How to swim

· How to water-ski

· How to drive a boat & the rules of the waterways

· Respect for God’s creation – to leave it better than I found it

Remember who you are.

Daddy loved to tell stories and he was an excellent storyteller! These stories were not fabrications, but accounts of his experiences throughout his life and also of family history. These stories are woven into the fabric of my understanding of who Daddy was and who I am.

Whenever I am going through something in my life, often I will remember that it matches up with one of Daddy’s stories and it will help me to make the right decision. Now that I can’t talk with Daddy, I will be relying more on my memory of these stories.

Daddy invested in people outside his family– through coaching, hunting, involvement in church and community, to neighbors and friends. It has been a comfort to the family to hear from many of you who were positively impacted by him over the years

Daddy demonstrated how to care for family, especially in their later years. He showed us kids how to do it as he cared for his parents. Sara, Banks and I have remarked that we looked to his example as we care for our parents and pray that we are teaching our children in the same way.

Daddy was at peace with our Lord. Several years ago I had occasion to talk with Daddy about this. He identified a lot with King David. David and Daddy each were imperfect men, yet passionate men of deep feeling, conviction, and loyalty. The Bible records that David was a man after God’s own heart and I think in many ways, so was Daddy. I know that Daddy accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior and had a confidence of forgiveness of sins and of his salvation.

In his time in the hospital, he let us know in many ways that he was ready to be with our Lord. We got the sense that he was, as my mother said, “playing the video of his life.” He told Mama “54 years is good.” (My parents 54th anniversary is this June). He was sure to let the nurses know about his kids and grandkids and how proud he was of them.

He told us of a dream he had several times. In the dream he and the family were swimming in a beautiful warm lake with grassy banks. We were happy and saying beautiful things to one another. Behind him were a lot of people he did not know, but were waiting for him. Daddy related this dream to us several times and took great comfort in this vision of heaven.

In the last hours of Daddy’s time here on earth he was sleeping comfortably and his bride and children were with him. We had a profoundly spiritual, peaceful time with Daddy, cheering him on to heaven. We prayed, sang hymns, talked with each other and also to Daddy. Sara remarked that we were indeed saying beautiful things to one another as in Daddy’s dream.

During all of this and even today, my mother, siblings and I are engulfed in a peace that passes all understanding – a peace that can only come from God. We have confidence that Daddy is in heaven and that we will see him again when we, too, reach that celestial shore. We know this because Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior and has reconciled us to our Heavenly Father.

Remember who you are.

Daddy was a child of God, an adopted son of our Heavenly Father through Jesus Christ, his son.

Remember who you are.

My family and I would ask each of you today to examine your self and answer the question– “Who are you?”

Do you have that peace that passes all understanding? Do you have a confidence in your eternal home like Daddy did? Jesus said “I am the way, the truth, and the light. No one comes to the Father except by me.” Are you forgiven by God for your sins? Have you accepted Christ as your Savior? If not, then don’t let today end without getting right with God.

And if you are a Christian, but find that your relationship to God through Christ is not what it should be, today re-dedicate yourself to our Lord and repair your relationship with him.

Doing these things would be a great testimony of the impact my father has had on you and would be a joy for our family.

There is a famous poem by Dilon Thomas with the lines:

“Go not gentle into that good night. Rage, Rage against the dying of the light.”

My mother, who, as you know is an English teacher, was inspired to re-write these lines in honor of Daddy:

“Go most gentle into that good night. Rise, rise to the brightening of God’s light!”

And just to remind you of what Daddy often said to us whenever we were parting

“Ya’ll take care of one another and remember who you are!”

For Mr. B

in
“MR B”

How does one take the measure of a man; to dare to sum up a life in a few words? Anything we can write or say will be but a tiny glimpse of the man that we remember and honor. Nonetheless, a life lived in such a way should be praised and celebrated among us here and now.

It is an understatement that Mr. B. positively impacted many lives.

Along with Mr. Frank Wright and Mr. Pete Nunnery, Mr. B would regularly take the Boy Scout Troop to Camp Palmetto in NC. At the camp there was a chapel way up the mountain, high above and separated from the other buildings. A path led up past the cabins and wound its way along the mountainside among the bushes and trees as it made its way up to the chapel.

The last section of that path had signposts in sequence with the words of the Scout Law: “A Scout is Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean, and Reverent.”

After the long climb to the chapel, we scouts were reminded by these words of how we should live our lives; reminded just before we were to enter the chapel for worship. These words were not just taught to us by rote or just posted along the pathway - they were lived out before us by Mr. B.

“Mr. B. was Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean, and Reverent.” He was these and more because he shared the love of Christ with everyone he encountered.

We would all do well if we could live our lives with such a Christ-like servant attitude as Mr. B. With a servant’s heart Mr. B surrendered his time and energy and was available for service to those around him. He has a special place in the heart of every youth (and once-upon-a-time youth) who ever spent time with him in such places as Sunday School or Scouts. He had a tremendous impact on our lives because he shared the love of Christ with us - and we love him for it!

In recent days, many of us have shared memories and thoughts of Mr. B.:

One says “…when I was born our families were next door neighbors until I was a year old. He told everyone he came across how I used to pee on his lap when he held me...it was a little embarrassing yet strangely endearing...he seemed so proud to tell it and enjoyed telling it. Oddly enough, that is such a fond memory of him.”

Another says “You just couldn't help it. He made you love him.”

And another “{I imagine} Mr. B up there getting his Angel Wings”

And another “I can still see him driving down the bypass in that Shell gas tank truck
waving to everybody!”

And another “I imagined him taking that first full breathe that he hasn't been able to in sooooo long.”

Mr. B. has finished that last long climb up life’s path to the highest chapel for worship. He has left us signposts along the way to remind us of how we should live our lives; those signposts are the memories we have of him; the lessons he taught us and the example of how he shared Christ’s love with us.


Facebook

In the past 3..4 weeks it seems that everyone around me asks "are you on facebook?" Well, I am now. Seems like a lot of responsibility having a Facebook page. I mean, that "What are you doing now?" question demands an answer. It must be updated if it does not accurately reflect what I'm doing now, right? (Oh, that reminds me, I need to update it to say that I'm writing in my blog)...