BASEBALL: I am officially now a Texas Rangers Baseball Fan (thanks to my wife Jennifer)

Scott McCullar - Official Texas Rangers Baseball Fan

My wife Jennifer just gave me a belated birthday present that arrived in the mail moments ago. For the last four years, I’ve been watching the Texas Rangers games regularly with her on MLB tv (because the Cardinals games are “blacked out” here in Central Illinois from television viewing.) A couple of seasons ago I realized I knew the Rangers inside out and was following them closer than the Cardinals. Two years ago I converted over to being a Rangers fan because I couldn’t even tell you the Cardinals lineup any longer and I was cheering on the boys from Arlington. .

Last year, Jennifer had a hard talk with me and declared that I had converted over to being an official Rangers fan at the start of the last season. I told her early in June that the Rangers were going to the World Series and they did. She then bought me my first Rangers baseball cap last year. This season she got the powder blue one that I mentioned I loved. 

So, here I am. I’m a Texas Rangers convert now married to one of the biggest Ranger fans you’ll ever meet. It is official it seems. Go Rangers! I’ll see you at the ballpark this summer.

2020 Update

So, looks like I've gone about another nine months since I've lasted posted on my blog here at my website. Amazing how the world has changed in this span of time with COVID-19 hitting us and all the turmoil in the world. 2020 has been one heck of a challenging year. Since March, I've been working remotely from home in my studio and social distancing trying not to catch this disease... especially since I am in the high risk category with my asthma and Type 2 diabetes.

With social distancing, I've found that I do enjoy working from my home in my studio office where I feel things are more productive for me. Plus I can crank my music while I work. I hope that I can continue to work from home after the pandemic quarantine is over as I realize that I can fulfill all my duties from home without every having to step inside a cubicle again. We'll have to see.

As for what I've been up to? Well, I've been doing small renovations around the home with my wife Jennifer to spruce up things around here and make improvements. We still have much to do, but I am happy at the changes and fixes going on around here. One thing I've worked on during this quarantine is to organize and curate my comic book collection getting them out of deep storage and removing them from the white long boxes. I have a new system in which I am caring for the books and archiving them for easy access in a new system of bookshelves that no longer need the white long boxes. The process has allowed me the chance to re-read some classic comics and have them available at my fingertips instead of putting them into storage in a garage. More on this later.

I've also had lots of introspective time. I think I'm ready to come out of my hobbit hole and share some thoughts with future posts. Stay tuned.

My Home Remodel Pre-Visualization

We're not ready this year, but we hope to begin phase one of remodeling our home that was originally built in 1948 and based on prairie-style architecture. The home that we've named Lyndonhouse was built by a World War II veteran named Lyndon Long who passed away several years ago. I believe he was influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright to some degree and this is what attracted me to the home when I bought it in 2016 after my divorce when I finally wanted a place of my own. My wife Jennifer and I hope to add a bit of Japanese architectural influence to the home and also intend to introduce some Niwaki style Japanese garden landscaping.

This is a first draft pre-visualization done up in Adobe Photoshop of my home. We hope to add a bit of Japanese architectural influence and Niwaki influenced landscaping. The mailman walks through our yard each and every day to deliver the mail and then proceed over to the nextdoor neighbor's home. We're figuring to actually add a true pathway in the yard and maybe some stones. Still not sure about that. I do want to remove several bushes and replace one area with a giant church pew. And the other with a Japanese Red Maple. I also want to add a gingko tree... which is my favorite tree. The outside of the home is going to be reworked and painted differently to appear more Japanese home style rather than the dull battleship gray the home is currently pained.

That front fenced in area is actually a fenced in porch we already have that we've turned into a beer garden.

Anyway, this is a pre-visualization of the remodeling that we want to do to the exterior of the front of the house down the road.

Just Married

This blog post shares personal information about my life, marriage, and relationships. Be forewarned in case you want to skip over it. ;)

Most of my close friends and family are well aware of the topic that I write about next, but perhaps some of those who only marginally know me may not be aware of major life changes that have transpired over this past year.

On July 6th of this year, yours truly got married at the Chapel in the Woods at Elvis Presley's Graceland in my birthplace of Memphis, Tennessee where my parents and many family members still live. It was a very beautiful wedding, and despite rumors, we were not married by an Elvis impersonator.

My beautiful bride's name is Jennifer.

Just over a year ago, I unexpectedly met this wonderful woman who I married last month. We discovered immediately within our first few conversations with one another that we "had the spark". We get along great in our companionship, never run out of conversation, and enjoy being with each other. We're greatly in love with one another and it has been as if we were two lost souls who have been searching for one another our entire lives.

Jennifer is originally from Mansfield, Texas. My wife is vibrant, funny, loving, fun and brings such joy and laughter into to my life. She makes me very happy and has taught me the true meaning of unconditional love. I recognize now that I never truly ever experienced this before with anyone else. I never experienced what it was like to be in a happy and healthy relationship that wasn't all dysfunctional, struggling, sad, chaotic, drama-filled, or wrong in some way. Jennifer loves me for who I am. Love is reciprocated between us. I finally feel it in my heart that all is right and there is this great sense of appreciation of being in a stable relationship for the first time in my life.

Just a few weeks before meeting Jennifer, I confess that I had given up on any hope that I would ever meet "the one" after so many previous relationship failures that I had undergone. I figured I would die a divorced old man living his life like a tired and rejected hermit.

I had previously been divorced after a difficult 20+ year marriage that struggled and was often unhappy throughout our time together behind the scenes and ultimately failed. I finally accepted it was time to leave when I realized it couldn't be "fixed", we were disconnected, both unhappy, and not living an authentic life. Still, I sincerely appreciate the two wonderful children we brought into this world together. I do hope my ex-wife has found or will find the happiness she desires.

After the divorce, I met other women as I tried to pick up the pieces and matters only got worse for me. I had my heart broken a few more times -- especially over two other women that I was dating. Both weren't right for me. One, who I was in a long-term relationship with, used me, viciously deceived me, took thousands of dollars from me, and then cheated on me with another man that I discovered when I walked in on them. The other person I only briefly dated, as we were friends for several years beforehand and we agreed to gently part ways after giving dating a try. We both recognized that we weren't meant for one another as a couple and decided it best if we would just remain friends.

And I'm not proud of this next part of my life after those two relationships and before meeting Jennifer, but then there were the many other women through online dating that I dated briefly over an 18 month span that I just never felt any sort of connection, spark, or real love for any of them. I felt numb and going through the motions of online dating. I don't think they felt it either and there is no love lost there. I felt horrible and very alone during that period. I'm not proud or happy with that experience and this time of my life, but it was something that I went through that ultimately led me to loving and especially appreciating Jennifer even more.

For me, I just didn't think I'd ever find true love. I never thought I'd ever re-marry again after all that I went through. I just didn't think I could ever "get it right."

Life is funny. I admit here to my reader that in one of my private prayers to God just a summer a year ago, I told Him after all the relationship problems that I went through, that I surrendered when it came to the matter of finding that special someone to love who I desired to love me authentically in return. Like I said, getting remarried just a year ago seemed like the farthest thing from what would happen. I asked God to place in front of me what He intended for me... and a few weeks later I met Jennifer. (Thank you, again, God.)

And yes, Jennifer and I clicked immediately.

Just over a year later, yes, I am very happy and in love. I'm a newlywed. Jennifer has helped me in my healing process and has helped love all of my pain away from my past. I can now move forward and enjoy life. For the first time since my teenage years, I truly feel happy and content with life. I feel at home. All feels right now. I have finally found the person that "gets me" and fully understands me, loves me unconditionally, isn't trying to use me in someway, doesn't treat me as second best, and who I truly enjoy spending my time together with. There is no walking on eggshells around her or worrying about some sort of Jerry Springer-like bullshit drama to happen at anytime like I did with some previous women that I dated these last few years.

I share this personal information to let all those know I finally feel at ease. This is cathartic for me to share. We are enjoying life together and we look forwards all of our days ahead. After the difficult previous years of my life, I thank both God and thank Jennifer that she is now at my side as my wife.

I think we have what it takes "to get through this thing called life."