DGIF

Dear God, Help me get through the next 5 minutes and 2 seconds..... Dennis

Every now and then God throws you a bone. He threw me one 19 years ago in the form of Christine Lynne Boyer. Thanks God.

Suicide awareness walk helps, heals local family - WIS News 10 - Columbia, South Carolina |

I don't ever recall seeing this phrase before, but apparently it was a popular rallying cry for the British right before the start of World War II.  The Ministry of Information printed roughly 2.5 million of these posters as part of a campaign to keep morale high for the Brits under the threat of impending invasion.  It worked and with a little help from the good old USA, the rest is history.  I saw this slogan on a car in front of me as I was driving home yesterday, and I needed to see it because I was not calm.  In fact,  I was freaking out a little because in about three weeks I am going to do the Out Of the Darkness Walk to raise awareness for suicide prevention, and my own personal awareness of this subject was on the rise again.  I lost not one, but two brothers to suicide and quite frankly I'd rather be unaware of this fact if possible.  Ignorance is bliss. Well I was having one of those moments that come with any tragedy.  Sometimes you...

Classic line from a classic movie: Splash (1984).  In this particular scene, Walter Kornbluth (Eugene Levy) attempts to stop a military convoy chasing Allen Bauer (Tom Hanks) and the girl/fish Madison (Darryl Hannah) by standing in the road and raising his only good arm.  Walter is unsuccessful and ends up on the side of the road where he utters this famous expression of exasperation "What A Week I am Having!".   Well what a week I am having and I mean that in a good way.  I started out last Sunday, 9/11/2011, by driving home from my parents house in Wilmington, NC and already dreading the meeting I was to have on Monday afternoon at lunch.  I am on the committee for the Out of The Darkness Walk here in Columbia, SC and so far I haven't done jack s@*t.  Sorry for the curse word, but it is true.  I went to a few meetings missed a few more and all the time I knew what was going on---passive aggressive behavior at it's best.  The good folks at Wik...

I recently asked for donations for a suicide walk hoping to hit 2000 dollars in a month.  We hit 2500 dollars in 24 hours.  Holy cow.  You never know how good people really can be until you ask them.

    People often look at me funny when they offer me a cocktail or a beer and I decline.  You know they want to ask why, but their inner Miss Manners prevents them from asking.  If they do ask I often tell them the last time I got drunk I killed a man while camping.  They typically leave me alone the rest of the night.  Of course I am kidding, we were hiking when I killed him.  STOP----that too is a joke.  Nobody died at my hand, but the last time I did get drunk it was the evening before a funeral and unfortunately I knew the deceased really well.  It was my little brother Matthew and like his older brother Mark,  he took his own life. I got hammered the night before the service for Matt, attended the funeral with a hangover and still cry about it occasionally to this day.  The grief sneaks up on you at the worst moments and it takes all of your mental kung fu to beat it back.  Sometimes it wins, but that's ok---it only lasts ...

47 years old and I still cannot walk past a rope swing. Thank God for that!!

Sprint Makes me think about dumping Verizon....

     As I get older, I find myself getting more and more spiritual, and that is a good thing.  As a youngster, many moons ago, when something good would happen to me, I would attribute it all to luck.  Find a dollar on the street--how lucky is that!  Make a really long basketball shot---pure luck.  Score a great job, boy did he get lucky!  But there is more at play here than luck.  I truly believe with all my there there are times when God steps in and says "I've got this", and something really good happens to me or to someone in my circle of love.  Let me submit this recent example and if I am lying I am dying.  In fact, the reason I started this blog was to chronicle this stuff as it occurs and this one is a great place to start.            The date was July 1, 2011 and it was a Friday.  The Friday before the big three day holiday weekend with the fourth falling on Monday.  My wife, in her ...

Truck Pull 2011 - Dennis Gillan - Picasa Web Albums You might be a redneck.....

Truck Pull 2011 - Dennis Gillan - Picasa Web Albums

Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks?  I am now on the internet and from what I hear it's a series of tubes that connects our houses together.  In my day we called that indoor plumbing.  Anyway,  wish me luck as I hone my writing skillz (ok that was a joke there---I know it's spelled skils).  Objective:  one thoughtful and insightful post a week with the goal of selling some of my writings and becoming the most successful writer in all of Blythewood, SC.  Game on! DMG