Tawnya Maye

If you raised anywhere near Music City you know what fried bologna is....but do you remeber what it smells like?.



Recently Lauren and I traveled to see the fam, whom she had never met before mind you, for a week. We were really excited for the trip, seeing as how we had not left Wyoming since Christmas, it was time for a vacation. I had to work on Thursday and our plane left on Friday morning at 6 a.m.. I got home from a very boring twelve hour shift at the plant(and when I say boring I mean worse than watching golf and paint dry of and on for the entire day hoping that some excitement might come out of one or the other, but all you end up with is yellow paint on your finger tips from testing the dryness or doing the "Yes!" gesture with Tiger as he sinks a long putt.) Needless to say I had a long day. I got home and finished packing and tried my best to sleep, but to no avail. We were just too excited, the thought of getting to warmer weather and seeing my friends and family was too overwhelming for sleep to get involved. After hours of talking, procrastinating, and packing we made it up to Billings. After a quick Paulie Walnuts/Denny's breakfast we checked in 2 hours early and placed our fate in United Airlines hands.

The trouble begins: Denver International Airport

" We will be delayed for an hour due to mechanical problems with the aircraft."

Not exactly what you want to hear when you have a two hour flight to Nashville coming up.

To shorten a long story, We ended up missing our flight from Nashville to Charlotte and getting stranded. We were given food and lodging vouchers and sent on our merry way to wait 24 hours in Grand Ole Opry my friggin' ass Nashville on the next avalible flight. Well we were tired, hungry, and grumpy and no way in Hell did we want to waste a day of vacation in Nashville. So we called to see if we could get a rental car; Not old enough and no credit card.




(Enter Tawnya Maye stage left)

We decided to go Greyhound! Caught a cab from Music City Sheraton( very classy hotel ) to the ever so tactful Greyhound station. Bought two one way tickets to Knoxville,TN. Made one phone call to a very dependable person and made it to church on Sunday morning right on time!





"Girl, you know dees buses smell like FRIED BOLONGA!"
~ Random Big Black Dude on bus

Devil got your tongue?

Today was a strange day, but very normal. I woke to the frost bitten air of the Northwest, just like any other day, put on my muck boots and began my day. Drudging through the seemingly endless rows of slop, filling the feeders and checking the water troughs. Out of nowhere I was startled by a man who seemed to be very cold for being dressed so warm. He spoke with no emotion and very mono tone. "I have a message for you." He said with a stern look. "Take this letter to the master, but tell no one of my visit or you will have written your own death certificate." and with that being said the man climbed into his automobile and was gone. I was very stunned by the audacity of the man. That night it was hard to sleep, I just kept wondering what might happen if I told my wife. After all she was my wife, how would anyone know if I had told my own wife. But still the man's words haunted me. The following day I took the letter to the master and he was very grateful to accept it. He asked me who had given it to me. I thought for sure the master would have known where it came from. I held my tongue and said I found it with the other mail. He was very grateful and sent me home with a bushel of apples. He also gave me a raise and promotion to foreman. I called my wife with the news and told her we were going to be OK. When I got home she had a cake prepared and we celebrated in good fashion. Soon after we retired to bed and she asked me how I got the promotion. I told her about everything except the man who gave me the letter. She was puzzled a bit on how I came across the letter but didn't dwell on it too long before falling asleep.
The next day things seemed to be the best they had been in years, no trouble at work, no worries about money, no worries at all. But, when I got home my wife was in tears. I didn't know what to say, nor why she was crying. She just kept cursing me and calling me a liar. I was confused and hurt. Then she began to explain, the stable boy had seen me talking to a strange man and accepting something from him. He said it was a letter. I didn't know what to say... I apologized for withholding the truth and making excuses. We argued and exchanged hateful words, but then we realized one thing we loved each other. No matter what happens Love does prevail.

This blog is dedicated to a special person.
Never let the devil hold your tongue.

"Don't stop..believing, hold on to that feeling"
-Journey

Bay Window

Yesterday I had a glorious day of moving things into the Lovell house. LaWe(the future Mrs. LaPo) and I just moved from Powell and haven't got all of the boxes unpacked yet. After about four hours of rearraging furniture and getting things put away I zoned out and started a movie. Lauren made it home about 5 and we sat in the floor in front of the big window that overlooked the street and just played like little kids for about an hour. I can't remember the last time I have done that. We just sat there indian style playing paddy cake and slap games with no worries at all. We made something out of nothing.....not many people can do that. We are lucky.


"I befor E except after C, and E before N in chicken."
- Andy Griffith

Return

I have been gone for too long... the waiting and procrastinating is over.... the brother blog continues....

I moved some old blogs to this site so new followers can catch up on old affairs... I will try to blog often and keep you entertained.. Enjoy!


"Damn, it feels good to be a gangsta."

Friday, February 03, 2006

Scattered Thoughts
If one man could change the world would there be the need for government?.....if we were all in a state of mind what contry would we live in?...........The Holy Grail should be the quest for the divine in of oneself not for a cup, so stop digging History Channel.......Lauren, please hurry up and write your movie if I don't get to act soon I am going to hurl........If it takes three dollars to feed a starving child for a month why does it cost five to eat lunch at Mcdonalds?.........I love Bill O' Riley he is the greatest, he is the only person with the balls to challenge what is not morally right and he will let those D.C. retards know it in a hurry..........OK thats enough for today
-Scattered Thoughts
By: Grant Powers
posted by willgrapow at 1:25 PM 3 comments

Ramblin' Man
"Lord I was born a ramblin' man"............Over the past few years my life has changed directions so many times that my head should be spinning..but it's not and I don't know why...Last night I was sitting at work and heard(now this is back to back and I am not making this up)"Dixie on my mind"..."I sang Dixie"..and "Carolina on my mind". No bull..we have an pa system at the airport that plays country radio and that just freaked me out. It made me think about spring time in the south, bass fishing out on the lake, sitting down by the river with Preacher and James waiting on that big ole' river cat to get ahold of my hook. Playing in Ma Ma's big tree in the backyard after Sunday dinner and then going on a golf cart ride with Pa Pa. Nothing beats the memories of childhood, not even a good steak dinner, they are the ties that never falter and will always be there if you ever need to escape the tragic world of today...Sorry got a little side tracked...Chris, Chase, Chris R. and I took off last May on a great venture across the country in search of Cody, WY. None of us had ever even heard of this place until one week in April when Chris called and said "Hey you wanna go to Wyoming with me?" and we all agreed not knowing what was in store. I stayed thru July and decided that this was it, this was the place I wanted to live, this was the place I had seen in my dreams and now it was real. So I flew home packed my things and moved out west. And now here I am 20 years old and 2000 miles from home. Who in their right mind would do such a thing at that age? Me...and well all of our couragous soliders........."Tryin' to make a livin and doin the best that I can."
posted by willgrapow at 12:37 PM 0 comments
Thursday, February 02, 2006

"MY NAME IS LANCE AND I LIKE NUTS!!"

posted by willgrapow at 4:14 PM 0 comments

In Dream
I awoke to the sound of Hughey Lewis yesterday and I felt very refreshed and assured that today would be a great day. I got up as always and had my favorite cup of starbucks and put on my snow boots as the weather outside was terrible and I had a long walk ahead of me. As I finished my joe I climbed into my old jeep and started down the snowbanked road, it was only a short drive but it took me what seemed like hours to reach the field. I stepped out onto the snow covered field and strapped on my skis as I started my journey all I could think about was..."Don't need money"....."Don't need fame"...."Don't need no credit card to ride this train"....I trekked along the flowing hills of the meadow that seemed as an ocean frozen in time as the terraces ran along to the horizon making a beautiful seam of land and sky.It was nearly daylight and I had reached the halfway point of my journey at this stop there was a small cabin with a wood stove and livery which housed a fresh horse for the rest of the trip. I stopped only to warm up a bit, it must have been at least thirty below zero and the wind was gusting to a phenomenal forty-five knots. As I headed out of the barn I noticed that my stirrup had fallen off of my saddle, someone must have left it out in the weather, if it had been my personal saddle it would not have been so abused and misused. I unsaddled and began repairing the tattered old piece of tack.Just as I had the leather almost repaired, the old wrangler emerged from the corner of the barn, hungover and pissed off at the world. He looked at me with bloodshot eyes and said DON'T YOU TOUCH MY ....................................."That's the power of love". I got up and put on my clothes and went to work. phew what a dream.
posted by willgrapow at 3:41 PM 2 comments
Saturday, January 28, 2006

Wyoming Goes Homophobic
Well put another mark in the closed mind column for Wyoming as they ban the release of Brokeback Mountain with one exception, Laramie of course they had to as we all remember the "Matthew Shepard" story from a few years back......Jessi stop tickling me with Little Shamu.........A friend of mine went to see it last week and he said it was very graphic and hard to watch at some points, but overall he said that it was the basic love story only this time involving two men, Cowboys from county 9 in Wyoming. By the way I live in county 11 so they weren't that far from us. Well I just can't escape the controversial movie madness I move from the original filming location of "Deliverance" to the now made famous Big Horn mountains of Wyoming site of "Brokeback Mountain".................Let me hear ya squeal boy......weeeeee...weeeeee
posted by willgrapow at 11:51 PM 2 comments

Blown Away
Have you ever yelled into a fan while it was on? Makes a funny sound......If you have ever been to Cody, Wyoming you know that the wind blows constantly, well the other night it decided to just go nuts and cut loose gusting to over 55mph, I have the privlege of working outside in the armpit of hell The Cody Airport. I is built on the flattest part of the city and has nothing to slow down the wind, after 3 hours of standing in the unrelentless force I finally got to go home....on my way home is when I saw "it"...I saw a shadowy outline up ahead of me and I thought it was a deer so I slowed down. As I approaced I could see that it was not a deer but in fact a giant tumble weed...it had collected other weeds and sorts along its journey across the desert land and grown into a giant ball of tangled mess. I watched as it slowly moved to the shoulder and roll off as if it were the giant boulder from Raiders of the Lost Ark still in search of Indiana Jones.....I think of Kenny Loggins....."Highway to the Danger Zone!"
posted by willgrapow at 11:51 PM 0 comments

Rocky Mountain High
I went to Salt Lake City today just to go eat some sbarro pizza and get some cinnabons and while I was there I soaked up the atmosphere of the airport. I saw the usual guy missing his bag the woman running to get to her connecting flight The Griswold Family Vacationers and my personal favorite the guy who checked in too late and got bumped off his flight, this guy was especially entertaining he happened to be of the dark skin Arab India or what ever the hell else they are race and was spewing out his rage in some far eastern language which left the gate agent wondering if she should laugh or shoot him. I myself work at the airport in Cody and now that I know what goes on behind the scences I want to travel around to different airports to see how they operate. I will give you some traveling hints if you plan to fly soon: 1. Don't piss us off, we do get to handle your bags, 2. Don't piss us off, we get to say if you get to fly or not, 3. Don't piss us off, we know the pilots very well and if you want a smooth flight BE NICE!!, 4. Oh yeah by the way if you want your bags when you arrive at your final destination, DON'T CHECK THEM!!!!............Thank you for flying Skywest Airlines and enjoy your day in your arrival city.

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Nevermind
I need to retract an earlier blog, Wyoming goes homophobic, we have a brave soul who dared bring such controversy to our sweet little town. The owner of the theater in downtown Cody opened "Brokeback Mountain" last week with a shock to all I might add. I don't know how business is going for him but I did see a few people buying tickets Sunday. The local papers are already voicing their opinions towards the "act", why I don't know, in Monday's paper. Can't the man make a little money? All he is really doing is his job. While other local movie joints are stuck playing movies from last month, this man is giving something new. Well I don't know how much longer I can stand up for him because I myself am going to the feature on Saturday, not in support of homosexuality, but just to see if I been and seen any of the places portrayed in the film. Thank you for your time, Good Night

Saturday, February 11, 2006

Give Me Your OPINION
Here is a recent article from the local paper please leave me your thoughts I need to hear some feedback on this one.
Spare us movies that push ‘social agenda' - By Richard Reeder
After much fanfare and debate “Brokeback Mountain” opened in Cody on Friday.The highly-acclaimed, controversial movie comes to town with questions about how it will play here.
I was on Sheridan Avenue about 6:30 p.m. Friday and saw a few people standing in line to buy tickets. After all the talk, I hope for manager Mack Frost's sake, the movie does well.But I have to say I won't be seeing it. Not because of any phobia, it just doesn't seem like my type of movie.I have nothing against love stories, as this has been categorized. I just like my love stories to end a certain way.I like when the guy involved is a troubled man who needs to beat his demons. And the woman is devoted to him and refuses to give up and enables his success.
So to that end, my wife and I saw “Walk the Line” on Friday night. Now that was my kind of movie.Johnny Cash was a rebel whose success fueled his insecurities and drove him to drug use. June Carter became the love of his life and he spent years trying to find a way to be with her.Ultimately his drug use pushed him to the brink of destruction as his career began to spiral to nothingness.But June's love helped him defeat his drug habit and his on-stage proposal at the end made it worth the wait.The bad boy cleans up and wins the girl. My wife smiles and says life imitates art. Guess that's why I can relate to it.And I know others have called it a cowboy movie, but Brokeback is not the cowboy movie I know.My mom took me to see John Wayne in “McClintock” when I was 3 and I have seen every Wayne movie since then at least twice. That became my standard for cowboy movies.Cowboy movies have a good guy, a bad guy and usually a girl thrown in somewhere.The bad guy terrorizes people, steals their land and cows, and basically takes charge of everything.Enter the hero. He rides in, battles the bad guy's gang and sets up a showdown.My cowboy movies end with a gunfight or a fist fight. The good guy wins, the bad guy disappears and everyone is happy again.I also get tired of hearing about a movie when people use it to push some personal or social agenda. I get to hear enough rhetoric on my job each day; I don't want it with my entertainment.That's why the last Tom Cruise movie I saw was “Mission Impossible.”I don't like how each Cruise interview or promotion turns into his soapbox for his Scientology beliefs and platform.And that's too bad since he was the star of one of my all-time favorite movies, “Top Gun.” Now there was an action movie with a little bit of what I like about love stories thrown in.I also enjoy true stories that mean something to me or people I have known in my life.I really love “Remember the Titans.” It's a sports movie, always a plus, but it tells the story of the changes I witnessed in the 1970s as segregation was being dismantled.Where I grew up, we didn't have any bussing issues. But I did have a friend who moved from Wichita, Kan., during high school.Larry was a couple of years older than me and started sixth grade in one school, but the next year he was put on a bus and sent to a school across town.Many of the things the movie showed happened in his schools as the two races had to mix and find a way to co-exist.Like the movie, he said the one thing they all had in common was a love of sports, so it was always a starting point for relations.Another sports movie playing now I want to see is “Glory Road.” It's the true story of the Texas Western team that won the 1966 NCAA title against Kentucky.That team changed the two powerhouse conferences of college basketball.While most conferences were recruiting black players, the SEC, which includes Kentucky, and the ACC were still whites-only. Kentucky's legendary coach Adolph Rupp was one of the leaders of the policy during those years.Kentucky's loss to a team with five black starters opened the door for black athletes in those conferences. The next year North Carolina's Dean Smith had three black players, a first for the ACC. The rest of the schools followed suit.So I wish Cody Theatre luck with “Brokeback Mountain.” Unfortunately, I just can't help him make it successful unless someone tells me the hero gets the girl.

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

"GET DOWN!!, SHUT UP!!"
I have been doing a lot of thinking lately and have dreamt quite a few blogs ,but it's one of those things that if you don't write it down then it will be gone for ever. So I decided to blog on some of the recent events..Hold your breathe you might lose it over some of these extreme G-files...Well my last couple of weeks consisted of phone battles and lots of drama with a couple of well renowned W-chippers and after a few days my phone finally stopped blowing up every two minutes...By the way KEITH DINGO YOU ROCK!!....Everyone needs a Keith Dingo to add to their collection, hey Lauren we could start a clothing line and action figure set, Keith Dingo the greatest kick yo ass somebitch that ever lived...I got promoted at Greenturf to office manager and get the privilege of running the Powell branch, so far I only have one new hire and we are currently hiring....Things are looking up for a change I finally have a little money and I even got cable, well I really don't have any money....Heading off to see the folks Sunday for a nice little trip to Disney....All is well and I have two more weeks before I head for the south to visit, So I guess that about does it....."And we did.."- Forrest Gump

Saturday, February 25, 2006

Nightmare
I had a horrible dream the other night while we were in Orlando. I will tell it the to the best of my recollection."Hey...Hey you!", Taleah, the security guard, shouted. I turned slowy to see her chasing a man into the street. As she caught up to him he stopped and gave up chase. I walked over to see what had happened as she interrogated the man. We were all standing in a field near a long irrigation ditch that seemed to run forever. As we stood there finding out what the man was running from I heard a small plane overhead, it was flying way to low in this area. There was not an airport around for miles. As we watched in horror the small prop plane tried to gain altitude but could not for the wind was too strong. We continued to watch helplessly as the aircraft began to capsize in the turbulence that the sky was producing. All at once the plane hit the ground landing upside down in the irrigation ditch about a mile from where we were standing.............I woke up(still in dream) standing near Taleah asking "Is that my Skywest plane?", with tears welling up in her eyes she let out a quiet "Yes.". In an instant I was in a small office watching a tape that was discovered among the charred wreckage. The camera captured the terrifying last few moments on boared the plane. As I watched the tape from beginning to end all I could think of was....I have to wake up...."Grant...Grant...are you ready to go to the airport?", Mom said.