Marshall Ramsey

Wednesday Free-For-All

Posted on September 26, 2012 by Marshall Ramsey

Good morning! What’s up? I know I am.

Posted in MRBA | 16 Comments

Pipsqueak

Posted on September 26, 2012 by Marshall Ramsey

Four pounds of fur, teeth and joy.

Right now, I’m watching an eight-week-old, four-pound puppy trying to drag a bigger-than-her shoe across the kitchen floor. It really is comical — but there’s not much about Pip that isn’t funny. She’s tiny, very dark and has white teeth like a vampire bat. She likes to attack my leg and has a God-given ability to turn just about anything into a toy. She has survived one incident with a closing door without a scratch. The good Lord knows we couldn’t handle any more dog drama after what we went through with Banjo.

Ah, Banjo. I’ve missed the big lug every day since he died.

Pip won’t replace him. And honestly, I’d never put that kind of pressure on her. But what she has done is remind me of a very important lesson:

Yes, I lost Banjo. But I found Pip. She is my little brown and black reminder that the living have to keep on living.

Posted in MRBA | 11 Comments

Manhunt

Posted on September 25, 2012 by Marshall Ramsey

Michael Dowda, a Parchman escapee, is lose, armed and dangerous. His odyssey reminds me of a time many years ago when I was a student at Bells Ferry Elementary School. It was a time when our school was locked down because of an escaped prisoner.

The prisoner was getting dental work done and overpowered the guard. He stole his gun and ran to the house behind the clinic. There, a man opened the door and the prisoner shot him in the face, killing him.

Our community promptly went into lockdown as the police began their manhunt.

If I had looked out the windows, I would have seen policemen guarding the school. When the buses finally did roll, we were followed home by patrol cars. Bloodhounds went down the road behind our house. The criminal, who stayed fairly close to where the murder occurred, tried to break into my dad’s gas station’s bathroom. And he was finally captured in a dumpster behind a local shoe store.

I think we held our breath for 24 hours.

I was probably eight. Yet, I remember it like yesterday. Hopefully Dowda will be recaptured soon — especially before anyone suffers the same fate as the man who was shot that fateful day in Marietta, Georgia.

UPDATE: Dowda has been captured in Macon, Georgia. Thankfully.

Posted in Blog, Writing | Leave a comment

Fit-to-Fat-to-Fit Blog: Pearls

Posted on September 25, 2012 by Marshall Ramsey

I didn’t have time to run this morning. But I did. I needed to get to my work. But I exercised instead. I really should’ve put my nose to the grindstone. I put in 3.33 miles anyway.

I wasn’t procrastinating (which I’m darn good at, I might add.) No, I knew my schedule today is insane. I just HAD to get my workout in. I needed the endorphins. I needed the time to wake up and clear my head. I needed the boost I get from running.

I stumbled through the woods and ran on the Natchez Trace Parkway for a few minutes (always dangerous when it is dark and still kind of dangerous when the sun is up). I came to a clearing and could see the whole southern part of the Ross Barnett Reservoir. There, along the dam, were streetlights blazing through the blanket of inky darkness. It looked like a string of brilliant pearls.

I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.

Posted in Fat-Fit-Fat | Leave a comment

Tuesday Free-For-All

Posted on September 25, 2012 by Marshall Ramsey

Good morning! Hope you have a great day. I’m having my cover of my book reshot today.

Posted in MRBA | 21 Comments

The neighborhood

Posted on September 25, 2012 by Marshall Ramsey

Sometimes I think the automatic garage door opener is a threat to a good neighborhood. You press a button, the door goes up, you drive in and then the door goes down. There’s no danger of you having to interact with anyone.

Saturday night, we had a block party. Our next-door neighbors cooked hot dogs; everyone else brought a dish. A football game was projected on a sheet on the side of a house and we sat outside and braved the mosquitoes. The new family down the street stopped by. The kids all ran around, played and had a good time.

It was Mississippi back before air conditioning drove us off the front porch.

Our street is in the same boat. We watch strange cars. We keep an eye out for each other’s home. Kids run in and out of the houses.

It’s the neighborhood.

It’s home.

Posted in Writing | 1 Comment

Learning from mistakes

Posted on September 24, 2012 by Marshall Ramsey

I saw an interesting tweet a few days ago that has been rattling around my head. It basically said that you shouldn’t give others advice until you work on your own problems. I guess on the surface that makes a lot of sense. You don’t want a doctor working on you who hasn’t finished medical school. But I’m not sure I totally agree with it. Why? Any wisdom I have came directly from me screwing up. And I think one of our greatest tasks is to help others. If I have to wait until I am perfect, I may never make it. There was only one perfect human. Everyone else is just fooling themselves.

In the past year, I’ve been angry. I’ve been depressed. I’ve had people not believe in me. I’ve lost my faith in certain people. I gained an unGodly amount of weight in a short time. And I lost it in an even quicker amount of time. I’ve had to reinvent myself on the fly. I’ve learned I had talents I didn’t know I had. Those talents are taking me new places. I’ve been on an incredible journey filled with screw-ups, mistakes, accidents and joy.

I’ve always joked if I became a motivational speaker, I’d be like Chris Farley’s Matt Foley. “I LIVE IN VAN DOWN BY THE RIVER!” I don’t have all the answers like most of the folks you see on TV selling their seven point plans. I don’t live a perfect life. I don’t have a perfect family. I don’t accomplish things in a linear fashion. But I have a great life. I have a great family. And occasionally I accomplish great things in a very haphazard way.

Quick, I’m going to bellyflop on the coffee table! CRASH!

So if I say something motivational, realize it was born out of one of my mistakes. It’s just me talking out loud so I don’t make it again. And again. And again. Because if you truly learn from your mistakes, then I’m well on my way to becoming Einstein.

Posted in Writing | 2 Comments

Fit-to-Fat-to-Fit Blog: Starting something new

Posted on September 24, 2012 by Marshall Ramsey

I gained a couple of pounds over the weekend. Why? Because I ate a lot of food I normally don’t eat. Hot dogs and chili were the main culprits. I know, I know — lash me with a tofu noodle. But I wanted to bring it up for a reason. It was the exception and not the norm. I’m back to my fairly strict diet starting today. And I’m adding back situps and pushups. I fell off the “core” wagon and I think that atrophy has led to some of my back problems I’m experiencing. My back muscles are tight, causing problems in my legs as well. Of course, it could be the hot dogs. But I doubt it.

I ran a comfortable 11-mile run Saturday. Today, I ran an uncomfortable 5.26 miles. It was uncomfortable because my legs were tight and I could feel my IT band in my left leg rubbing a little bit.

So starting tonight, I will start with 25 pushups and 25 sit-ups. I will then take 10 minutes to stretch. Tomorrow morning, I will makes sure I stretch again before I run (more than I currently stretch in the morning.)

Monday is a good day to start something new. It seems like the right time to reset my exercise routine. I never want the thief of boredom or the thief of wear injuries to steal my joy from exercise.

Posted in Fat-Fit-Fat | Leave a comment