All posts by Fr Tom Tirman

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Happy 4th of July!

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Happy 4th of July everyone! I am so proud to be an American, and I thank God for all the wonderful blessings He has bestowed upon this great land! I would like to say that I spent it eating hot dogs and potato salad, but alas, I spent it instead working on my truck.

The good news is that 1) it starts, 2) it runs, 3) it now has a wooden Hicksville bumper on it, and 4) it also had an almost completed wooden bed to cover the holes in the metal one (and they are plenty). The bad news is that the new sending unit does not tell us how much gasoline is in it. It does however send gas to the motor….which as I understand things is really more important.
But I am not at all worried as I will not be taking this truck cross-country or anywhere near that long of a trip. We will use it to move limbs and stuff out of the lawn and to get mulch and stuff like that. I do get a lot of looks driving it, and was getting ready to let Amanda know that it appears to be a real “chick-magnet,” but I think I probably need to get the muffler fixed first before I make such a pronouncement. It probably is just loud.
But the cool part is that it is mine. The dog likes riding in it, and I feel far more manly in it than when I drive my Matrix. (I did change the Matrix’s horn to make it sound less like a bicycle horn). I still have a lot to do on it, but for now I will just take it slow. It is just fun to tinker a bit. I am happy for the opportunity.
Off to bed to the sound of fireworks! Goodnight my friends and God Bless!
Tommy+
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Missed a trip I wanted to be on…..

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Today I had to work, so I missed a trip put together by my father that I was invited to to go see my niece in Evansville. Amelia is the daughter of my sister Stephanie (Steph died in 2001) and I have not seen her in quite some time. BUT Steph and Scott, as well as my sister Anna, were able to make the trip yesterday.
I will say that the picture is NOT EVEN REMOTELY RECENT. Amelia is 16 now! But apparently everyone had a camera on their phone, but no one thought to take a picture. This is Amelia as a little kid! I am sure she has all her adult teeth and everything now!
But bothers me a great deal that I have not seen her, and of course that is my fault and not hers. I have been through the area a few times and always have visited my sister’s grave, yet it has always been spontaneous and not planned. I will not use that as an excuse, because it would be a poor one. But I will commit myself to doing a better job in the future. My nieces and nephews are great kids and I can do a better job. I love them all.
So I will take a look at when I can get to see them all. Two live in Virginia (Griff and Katie), two live in Utah (Kayla and Logan), and of course Amelia lives in Indiana. Maybe the next few months will find me doing a better job.
Goodnight my friends and God Bless!
Tommy+
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Truckin it……

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The old gas tank straps are off the truck, and it took forever. The bolts clearly held out through three steel-bit saw blades and their resistance took away the rest of the daylight we had to work with. I need to get this truck running, because if I don’t soon I might as well buy 4 blocks to put it up on in the drive. It is an eyesore when not running. (It is a blurry one when it is)

But we may not have time to take on such a project until the 4th. With services tomorrow and the kids heading out of town to visit their cousin, it will make a two-man job too much. But of course nothing says 4th of July like waking up early and working on your old Ford truck! It will be a proud day I am sure.
The hard parts however are done and we will get it up and going. It has been fun for me. I not only get to do this with my son, but there is often the absence of tangible things in my vocation, so it is great to have a project to work on that I can see……particularly when I get to work that project with my son!
Goodnight my friends and God Bless!
Tommy+
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July 1st…..YEE HA!

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Dear Lord, this post was up and then suddenly disappeared. But I will do my best to retype it as I remember.

But the very best thing I was able to do today was to REMOVE all the leftover birthday cake from Ben’s birthday and take it to the trash. There is no longer anything here in the house that calls my name like that stupid cake. Sadly however, that is all I remember from the post!
But it was also a day that Ben and I spent together. Cindy is still on vacation. AND, Amanda, Steph, and Scott were all working. The job fell to me…..as it had all this week. My job is a bit harder with a 4 year old in tow, particularly now that he asks me something detailed about Star Wars or the Transformers every 4.3 seconds. I always am wrong in my response (after all, he is his mother’s son) but he asks me nonetheless. And I intended to get onto some work that I could not have him talk through when we got back home, but he had exhausted me, so we took that nap together…..though I am sure I may have fallen asleep first.
So it is July 1st. No more cakes, some cookouts, but nothing too dangerous. I am glad it is here. I was beginning to believe I was going to need cake rehab.
Goodnight my friends and God Bless!
Tommy+
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Happy Birthday Ben………

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Believe it or not, Ben is now FOUR! And until my phone is fixed I am counting on Steph for pictures, HOWEVER she always gets them up quicker to Facebook than I do! But who I am to complain? Pictures in this era are instantaneous. Pictures from my era were black and white and often hard to identify.

But there is no denying that this is our birthday boy. We took him for pizza and then to bowl (we live in Indiana where this is the law). It was a total blast, other than the pink ball for his picture. It was the lightest, but kind of reminded me of Barbie. But in all honesty, as time went on I began to use it as the heavier balls had either too small or too large of holes for my fingers. I would just palm the pink ball and roll…..it was not quite as manly an image as I wanted to project.
But Ben came home to cake and gifts and great time. The day had been a total adventure for him, and it was fun.
I will say however that it started out poorly. Ben woke up and refused to be four until someone gave him some cake. I told him it was not happening and then argued with him about that for close to an hour. We finally resolved it by offering to take him to pick out a gift with Scotty at the mall……but ONLY if he were four. Oddly enough he became so instantly. Problem solved.
So that’s the birthday report. It finishes a long line of Tirman birthdays, graduations, and cakes. It has been fun, and I am sorry to see them go. But I have a Biggest Loser competition to win, and the absence of all that cake it going to make it a lot easier!
Goodnight my friends and God Bless!
Tommy+
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Making it home…….

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Sadly, when Amanda returned home tonight from her trip to Belgium she had with her gifts of chocolate, but NO waffles. It was great to see her anyway. But I was really wanting a waffle. I don’t know for sure, but maybe Belgium Waffles are really like French Fries…….having nothing to do with the country.

But the big thing is that Amanda got home, and more importantly, in time for Ben’s birthday tomorrow. He will be FOUR and with international travel, coming home just a few hours before the big day is cutting it close.
But we are all exhausted and with the blessed event in our sights, I must just give in and call it a day. Today was day one of weaning off my medicine and so far so good. I am just hopeful everyday goes as well.
Off to bed I go……sans Belgium Waffles.
Goodnight my friends and God Bless!
Tommy+
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A request of a serious kind…..

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I am going to ask you this evening for your prayers. After over three years since my stroke, I finally came to the realization that the medicines I am taking are preventing me from losing weight….and in fact have been the reason I struggle with my weight.

This was confirmed today with my doctor, who is actually my NEW doctor, but the one who was the one to tell me I had the stroke. (My doctor then, his partner, was on vacation) But the bottom line was that I was 60 pounds lighter at the time, yet my activity level was the same. It is a glaring reality to me, yet the very idea of going off this medicine is frightening. I however, agreed with him…..we need to see if I can. After all, what’s the use of being sane if I die of a heart attack. I have been on this stuff for three years……we have no idea of what I will be like without it…other than thinner.
So please keep me in your prayers. To say I am not petrified about his would be an understatement…..but I begin to wean off the meds tomorrow. AND if all goes well I will be off ALL of them in 60 days….and thinner.
I personally believe it is worth the risk. I spoke to Amanda tonight from Belgium and she supports my decision. I have yet to reduce the does, yet it is already a hard road stress wise. Please keep us in your prayers. I intend to walk this road, and with God’s help I hope it is a good one!
Goodnight my friends and God Bless!
Tommy+
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Put a tiger in your tank………

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This is what happens when Scott and his girlfriend Lizzie take Ben to the zoo…..he comes back as a different species. Well, no really. When I asked Ben if he was a tiger now, he said “no.” But as he explained it, he was really some sort of “Tiger Luke Skywalker” who apparently is sometimes “the evil Luke.” Oh yes, the boy has some problems! Thank God however that he is cute.

But late in the day the identity-confused tiger, his siblings and I met for dinner. Amanda often takes them out for dinner together when I am gone, mostly because Scotty loves seafood and I am allergic. So they go someplace they can get that. I however wanted to do that myself, sans the seafood of course…..so we went to Applebees (no shirt, no shoes, no service…..but tigers allowed) It was a great time too. I can see why she does it.
Now however, the countdown begins……we have just a little less than 48 hours to clean the house! No Tiger moms to motivate us here……Amanda is actually quite nice. But is she returns to the house in this condition, we are sure to see the Mommy Bear!
Goodnight my friends and God Bless!
Tommy+
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Hitting Home….

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It was pretty hard for me to read that Peter Falk had died. He also had Alzheimer’s like my mom, which made it even harder. Yes, I am a big fan of Columbo, and although that was my biggest Peter Falk admiration point, in my later years I was happy also to see him in one of my favorite movies…..”The Princess Bride.”

In all honesty, he most probably has been a non-intentional model for my life. He was all disheveled and seemingly unorganized. He never looked or acted like he knew what was going on. His character was disarming, and it allowed people around him to feel superior and then almost granted them permission to be careless, which they often did.
But his character comes from a school that I grew up in, the one where people never puff themselves up. They don’t talk about how wonderful they are, or how much they know, or all that they have accomplished, they just live life. It reminded me a lot of many of the veterans I have met from the great World Wars. Many are heroes (although ALL of them are in my book) and many have seen things that would shock the hardest man……yet none speak of the details. They instead focus upon looking ahead in life. Sacrifice has no purpose if it does not make a difference in the future. Ultimately it is not about what we have accomplished as much is it is about how what we have done will effect what lies ahead.
Anyway, perhaps that is a bit more in depth into a character than any soul should be, but it was something that shaped me.
Thanks Columbo for catching my attention…Lord knows not a lot did in those days.
And oh yes…..just one more thing…….
Goodnight my friends and God Bless!
Tommy+
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IHOPPIN IT……and pretty much solo……

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Well the house is once again pretty empty. I dropped Amanda off at the airport for a 5 day business trip to Belgium. Ben was asleep (a nap), Scott was at work, Cassie has headed back home to Missouri, and Steph was on her way out the door. If I wasn’t so good at talking to myself I would have been quite alone.

But after an hour Ben was up, and he and I were on our way to the Wal-Mart. He was quite put off too. He decided not to go with us to the airport, and seemed to communicate to his mom that he thought she was just going there and coming right back. Too bad for him that he was wrong. So he guilted her a bit on the phone and then as we were almost to the Wal-Mart he said, “Dad, why don’t we go to IHOP?” And we did.
Ben made up for his disappointment with eggs, pancakes, fruit, and hash browns (that he eats like they are fries). It is a good place for me to eat too as they have Egg Beaters on their diet menu. The picture was taken there and sent to his mom who got it while in between flights in Chicago. She was happy to get it, as Ben was all the food.
But the hard part is that he is wide awake, all jacked up from the meal, and I am home with him alone with a lot of work to do. Of course I have been here before and certainly can do all that I need to do in the morning when they are ALL asleep. In Latin the word for a Tirman child is “lazibuttes” or “lazibuttai” in the plural. All of them would sleep till noon if I didn’t make them get up. So tomorrow morning may be my best bet for uninterrupted work.
So I am off to scrub the syrup and whatever else is on Ben as he has been soaking in the tub the entire time I have been typing. Little boys can be a stinky lot, and I thought I would do this preemptive strike. He was however pretty sticky, so keep me in your prayers.
We have already survived over 8 hours! I may be old, but I intend to go the distance!!
Goodnight my friends and God Bless!
Tommy+