Longtime Yukon Community Volunteer Darrell Burris Succumbs to Brain Disease

On a cool November day in 1934, in a small Oklahoma house with a dirt floor, Darrell Gene Burris began his journey, touching the lives of thousands. What day, exactly, that was, became a point of contention, because the doctor went on vacation and ultimately forgot the exact date.

“I remember,” his mother Ruby would tell him. “I was there.”

From that humble start, Darrell began a life filled with service to others, not only because it was his faith, but also part of his being. He helped his late father Gene Burris paint and wallpaper houses at a very young age. When his sister Paula (Burris) Casey and brother Randy Burris were born, he helped his mother shower them with love.

When he was just 17-years-old, he saw a tall, beautiful girl walking to school and asked if she wanted a ride. Despite him being a baseball and football star as well as a handsome high school teen, she told him “no.” Day after day he would ask until finally, she agreed to have a coke with him after school. Less than a year later, when Mary Lou Porter was just 15-years-old she and Darrell snuck off to get married.

For six months they kept their marriage a secret by continuing to live with their families and longing to be together. Her father was furious and threatened to annul the marriage when he discovered. Darrell fought to keep Mary Lou and they remained married for 35 years until one freezing day in 1987 when she was taken too soon from a tragic car accident on the Overholser Bridge on Highway 66 near Bethany. She was just 50-years-old.

Besides Darrell’s love for his wife Mary Lou, he loved his family and many friends. He enjoyed the service members he met during his basic training in the U.S. Army at Ft. Sill and spent time at Ft. Polk and Ft. Belvoir. Hoping to never see active duty he confessed to his commanding officer that he didn’t think he could ever kill another person because he was a Christian. While serving in the army, Darrell learned his trade of printing that would become one skill he would carry throughout the rest of his life.

Civilian life allowed Darrell to hone his printing skills by working at several companies including OPUBCO while always dreaming of owning his own shop. In 1979 in Oklahoma City he finally achieved his goal and opened Burris Printing. The company printed material for many clients including Braum’s Ice Cream & Dairy, the National Weather Service Training Center in Norman, Oklahoma, and Stucky’s Diamonds in Houston, Texas, just to mention a few.

When granddaughter Sarah Katheryn was born, Darrell and Mary Lou’s lives changed forever. After his wife’s death, it was his time with Sarah, he said, that saved him. “You’re going to have to learn how to use the dishwasher,” Darrell remembered Sarah telling him. At age 6, Sarah literally saved him when he accidentally caught his kitchen on fire while cooking as he watched a basketball game on TV. There were also the times Sarah tried to force him to eat his vegetables and she would later find them hidden in his napkin. Darrell struggled with diabetes and she would frequently find his freezer full of Nutty-Buddies and chocolate milk.

His Yukon home on Oak Street frequently became a favorite place for his granddaughter’s giggling teenage friends to hold their slumber parties and New Year’s sleepovers. To this day, a whole generation of Yukon graduates refers to him as “Papa.”

(Below is a video of the two talking one night in a rehab center where he stayed after he fell in 2017)

After retiring from printing, Darrell joined the team at Lowe’s in Yukon working part-time, promising all his customers a 10% discount. He enjoyed using his time away from Lowe’s at the Yukon Bowling Alley where he volunteered to teach over a hundred children in youth bowling classes.  Many of his students even went on to win tournaments. Darrell’s family and friends lost track of the number of perfect score-300 games he bowled.

Darrell joined his wife Mary Lou in Heaven on Wednesday, April 22, 2020, Earth Day. His granddaughter Sarah and his sister Paula lovingly held his hands until his final breath while playing his favorite Elvis songs at his assisted living center in Oklahoma City.

Those left behind are his sister, Paula (Burris) Casey and husband Mike Casey of Oklahoma City, brother Randy Burris and wife Vicki of Sautee Nacoochee, Georgia, son Michael Burris and wife Susan of Yukon, son Samuel Burris of Los Angelas, California, granddaughter Sarah Burris of Washington, D.C. as well as nephews Michael Siekel and wife Jeri of Oklahoma City, Scott Wallace and wife Jennifer of Southlake, Texas, nieces Jennifer Burris and Andee Allen of Georgia as well as great-nephews and nieces Lucas, Lilyan, Jacob, Brandon Kyle and Dee.

After succumbing to Lewy Body Dementia, Darrell agreed to donate his brain to the Boston University’s study with the Veterans Administration investigating how concussions can contribute to degenerative brain diseases.

Due to the COVID-19 crisis, services for Darrell will be held at a later date when his friends and family can all come together to remember his life.

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Bonaire Oceanview Rentals break in crime

MUST READ for any scuba diver traveling to Bonaire and renting a villa

We rented for 8 nights and arrived on time and were met by the property manager, Martin with Bonaire Oceanview Rentals. Martin was a very nice man that showed us around the house in the dark.

The following morning we noticed that the property wasn’t very clean – oven was dirty, floor was sticky and the bathroom shower needed deep cleaning of tile and grout. The refrigerator was dirty and still had old food from someone else that must have stayed there before us. I cleaned it myself rather than say anything so we would feel more comfortable for our week. We didn’t have access to a broom so I purchased one at the store, used it and left it for the owners. If I had this all to do over again, I would have requested a deep cleaning that morning or asked to be moved to a cleaner villa. But, I didn’t- my mistake because it got worse.

First, the items listed that this house DOES NOT provide are:

  • Rinse tank – none – there is a faucet to rinse the dive gear, not a rinse tank.
  • Dive locker – none – there is a close line outside to hang your dive gear.
  • Safe – none was ever shown to us and we never found one. Possibly there is one in the owner’s room but there wasn’t one in the areas we had access to on the lease.
  • Washer and dryer – yes there are both and we saw them once when the maid showed up to clean but our key to that building where they were located was not one that was provided to us and the maid locked it when she left that day.
  • Sandy beach – none but a sandy shallow area.
  • Espresso machine — There is a very nice Espresso machine in the kitchen but there are parts missing so it couldn’t be used. We looked everywhere for the items that would be needed to make it operational and they were not in the kitchen. We asked Martin the following day and he didn’t know where the parts were either.

Martin helped connect the t.v. the following day after check-in because it wasn’t working either. The Espresso machine appeared to be a very nice expensive machine so I guess its possible the owners didn’t want it used to avoid renters from breaking it. We did have a regular coffee maker which we used.

Note: the maid washes the towels and lays them all over the table and chairs to dry so they are stiff. Normally, towels are dried in a dryer and are softer. After they dried that day I folded them myself. We also noticed that a few towels had holes in them. Not that big of a deal but still – this is a property that is advertised as one that is more exclusive. I guess I expected the villa to be more like the pictures that are published and to be clean and have nicer towels that were soft.

In my opinion, this villa needs deep cleaning before it is rented again! As a rental we expected the oven, refrigerator and the silverware drawer to be cleaner. (It is cleaner now because I did it). I would also expect the maid to dry the towels and not lay them all over the tables and chairs and then leave it to us to fold them. I don’t mind doing some housework but not on VACATION when I’m paying someone to do it before I arrive.

Now, to the horrible part –

There are bars covering the windows, bars on the inside of the bedroom doors, an electronic gate at the driveway entrance, a gate that leads to the garden area, the rest of the main house and a gate at the ocean steps. We were advised at check-in to make sure the main electronic gate was left closed at all times which we did the entire time of our stay.

We didn’t feel comfortable locking the inside bars to the two bedroom doors while sleeping because we’d need a key quickly in case of a fire since bars covered all the windows. We also noticed there were cameras in a few places but we were not told they didn’t work until AFTER we had a break-in.

Yes, the ONE night that all 3 of us were gone for 2+ hours for dinner had an intruder that pried open the door to the bedrooms and took our electronics and made a mess of the rooms. The outside doors, the beach gate, the garden gate and the electronic gates were all locked when we left. We quickly realized it was a HUGE mistake staying at a place with no safe AND relying on the outside gates and beach gate being locked – it didn’t help in this instance keeping these thieves out of our rooms.

 

After the break-in with the door broken and unable to lock, I did not feel comfortable staying there so we left and cannot get a refund on the 3 nights were did not stay.

To make matters worse, Nicole with Bonaire Oceanview Rentals sent me an e-mail with this statement

“I can’t understand why you didn’t lock that door as otherwise nothing would have happened. The owner made arrangements to make the villa safe and you have just ignored them or maybe you forgot but still we can’t help it”

What? we didn’t lock the doors? YES WE DID LOCK THE DOOR! There is a very heavy, solid wooden door on the outside of the bedrooms. THESE DOORS were locked. They broke the wooden door to enter. They broke the locked door! I have pictures of that broken door.

To say that we were ignoring safety was an insult. The one item that was not locked was one set of the inside bars to one bedroom but the It is my opinion that the property manager and/or owner should have disclosed to us that there wasn’t a SAFE to lock up our items as they advertised, advise us to not leave without locking all the bars on the inside of the doors AND why didn’t they tell us the security cameras didn’t work?

It would also have been valuable knowledge to know that this area on the island is one that is frequently targeted by thieves with car and home break-ins. Knowing these things would have prevented the thieves from stealing our laptops, cameras, passports, earphones and book bag. Had their knowledge of these break-ins been shared at check-in we would have made sure when we left to take these items with us each time and we would have taken measures to avoid the loss and trauma that we have experienced during what should have been a pleasant family vacation.

I hope this post helps others select the right property, in the right location and with the right property management company and villa owner. I also hope that renters pick owners and property management companies that will refund the unused nights after a break-in when a door won’t lock.

Local police investigators told us these break-in’s happen all the time in this area because thieves know and watch visitors (mainly American’s) all the time after they check-in to these properties. We requested a refund for the 3 nights we didn’t stay.

We left the night of the break-in. Why would we want to stay in a place that was just robbed and the door wouldn’t lock? This is what was said by Nicole with the property management company in her e-mail after I requested a 3 night refund: Although the bedroom door could not lock it could close and we could have locked the bars and continued to stay there but we understand you didn’t feel safe.

The property management company has refused in numerous e-mails that they will not refund the 3 remaining nights we did not stay at the villa.

I’m not sure how brave other travelers are but I’m fairly certain most wouldn’t want to have their family continue to stay in a bedroom without a door that would lock even if the bars would lock. That night, I didn’t think that was the best option for our family and after hearing from the police about the break-ins I wanted to move to another place where they had security.

We moved and later requested a refund. There are some things that you can’t put a $$$ sign next to and that is your families safety after something horrible like this happens. I just wish the owner and the property management company would do the right thing and refund those 3 nights. We’ve lost approx $7,000 worth of electronics, my daughter’s passport, not to mention the 3 extra nights after we moved.

This review is not meant to be mean, I am stating everything that is factual. The owners and the property management company nor us were expecting a break-in. As another business owner, it makes more sense to us to do all that is possible to make clients feel comfortable, safe and secure during a vacation. My primary recommendation in all this is to hope the owners and property management company inform renters of the unsafe area in Belnam, inform the renters to always lock the bars, take all your valuables with you when you leave and hope for the best.

I also think it would be a good idea to inform renters that the security cameras don’t work, there isn’t a safe and other items that are advertised. I would also recommend they do what is right in this situation and that is to refund the 3 nights were did not stay in the villa. I truly believe most would agree we did the right thing by leaving when the door had been broken.

Amusingly enough, Nicolle said that we should have purchased travel insurance. Fun fact: we did. The insurance plan is the top of the line plan and doesn’t cover electronics or theft of electronics.

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What Lakeview Pet Hospital in Oklahoma City did to help our family cat

I don’t normally do reviews like this on my personal website, but this pet hospital deserves it.

I can’t say enough about Dr. Schmitt and her dedication to our family cat Max. It seemed like everything was going wrong and we were turning to a dark place but our family wanted to fight for him and she was ready to do it too.

She went the extra mile in ways I can’t even begin to explain. When he wouldn’t eat, she brought a can of tuna from home because he likes tuna juice on his food. When he had a seizure and I had a total freakout, she was there saying we could still save him.

The whole team was quite simply the sweetest most thoughtful people I’ve ever had look after my pets. Krista and Sarah were so gracious and caring about our multiple phone calls and requests to face time when we were out of town.

We will forever be in their debt for the care they bestowed on our family.

They are probably one of the best vets in Oklahoma City and if not they should be.

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spammers are welcome at aol.com aol emails

AOL allows spammers to run rampant on their server and they’ll report you if you complain too much

It all began several years ago when a listserv I’m on was infiltrated by someone from the outside. They stole all of the email addresses from the list and signed our emails up for random things. Most, if not all, of those things had an unsubscribe link on them and I could easily stop them from plaguing my inbox. Except for one.

An individual using an AOL email has been sending me propaganda emails to my GMail account for years. Every email I get I report as spam, but the emails still come. I keep reporting them — the emails keep coming. Finally, I reached out to the AOL Support twitter account and asked what I should do.

The reply I got instructed me to forward the emails to the abuse account. So I did. In fact, I forwarded all of them to illustrate the overwhelming amount of spam I’m getting from this American Online email address.

After a week of forwarding these emails to abuse@aol.com I reached out to the support Twitter again to ask for help. Not only did I not get any help — I didn’t get get a response. The spam emails on the Aol.com server simply keep coming.

So, the AOL Support account gave me another suggestion. It’s worth noting that every time I reach out they think I’m an AOL user trying to stop spam in my own email account. Instead, I’m another user on another email server and someone using their AOL.com server is spamming me using one of their accounts.

As you can see, I kept trying to explain to them that no matter what I do, the emails continue to come. No amount of spam reporting works. Plus, there’s the principle of the matter. Spam is a violation of AOL’s terms of service. Yet, when it is reported that someone is using their AOL.com email to spam people, those accounts aren’t shut down.

I kept following the @AOLSupport’s instructions and kept forwarding to spam@aol.com and tosgeneral@aol.com. Despite being spam and despite being a violation of TOS, they did nothing — until today.

Today my Gmail account got shut down because they received complaints I was spamming someone. Let’s see — who would I have been spamming? You guessed it — AOL. So, AOL considers me forwarded just a fraction of the emails I’m getting from THEIR spammer to be a spam violation and they’ll take action against ME, but they won’t take action against someone on their own server.

blocked from google after reporting spam

Now, I’m on the phone with Google support and I’m pretty sure he’s as flabbergasted as I am. How could you not be?

I reached out to the @AOLSupport twitter account asking for a Public Relations person to ask for comment but received no answer. I googled around but every time I try to go to the AOL corporate website it sends me to some Oath.com site, which gets me nowhere. So, if someone from American Online would care to comment please feel free to contact me in the comments below, since I have no access to my email.

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Women's March Photo by Sarah Burris

National Women’s March on Washington

Saturday was one of the most profound experiences of my life. It wasn’t merely the women that I met or the stories that they told me but more that so many women did whatever it took to travel to the nation’s capitol to make their voices heard.

You can read about some of the interviews I did by phone leading up to the march here.

For Susan McCool of Abilene, Texas, Election Day was a breaking point. The “almost 60”-year-old is one of very few Democrats in what she calls the ‘armpit of Texas.’ She told me by phone that her county was one of the top areas of the country that supported Trump.

Until this weekend, the most “activist” thing McCool had ever done was wear something special to a PTA meeting in protest of book bans — and once she proudly proclaimed at a Bunko meet-up that she was still a Democrat.

Raising two boys as a single mother left her little time and energy for activism, she said. Now, as a grandmother of an 11-year-old girl, she believes that speaking out is essential.

“I’ll be damned if my granddaughter has to go through any of that,” McCool said recalling what life was like when teachers couldn’t work if they were pregnant and women couldn’t serve in the church.

“I used Planned Parenthood then,” she said about the years she spent as a single mom. She had a hysterectomy but still wanted to make sure she was getting her annual exams. “I didn’t have the money nor could I take off, and they were open on Saturdays. So, if you did that, it was based on your income and I had a decent income, but I had two kids. So, I would volunteer back and work in there to pay for my annual exams.”

Read more of her story here.

Hope you enjoy the interviews!

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The importance of the every-day protest: Mike Pence being booed edition

On a Friday night, Vice President-Elect Mike Pence took a break from leading Donald Trump’s transition team and went to see the critically claimed and Tony Award-winning musical “Hamilton” on Broadway.

Apparently, when Pence entered the theatre for the show, he was booed by a lot of people, and the internet is loving it. Many people were shocked last week when Trump won the 2016 Presidential election, and they are not happy about Pence being in the White House either. The result is what happened in the video above.

You have to understand, Mike Pence is one of the least liked politicians in the country. In fact, his whole state hates him and was grateful to be rid of him. He caused far more harm than good that extended beyond hurting women, causing an HIV crisis and destroying the economy – all with his ideological governing. Since being elected as the VP, however, progressives have found little ways of reminding him that no one likes him.

This is one beautiful way. Neighborhoods in Northwest Washington are being flooded with pride flags and “Trust Women” signs and hopefully, his stay in Washington will continue to reveal that he’s not welcome.

For now, enjoy these boos.

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This Little Guy’s Name is Hollis and He Wants to be a Policeman

Hollis2Tonight, I joined with hundreds of my fellow Washington, DC activists, in attending the National Moment of Silence (for Michael Brown).  I made my way through the crowd annoying everyone with my “excuse me” and “pardon” as I photographed every sign and as many determined activists as I could.

Toward the end, I walked by a family and overheard a tiny voice ask “Mommy am I going to get shot by the police?”

Everyone this is Hollis (who I photographed with Mom’s permission).  Hollis is in the first grade.  When he grows up he wants to be a policeman, but he doesn’t want to fight in the war because his grandpa fought in the war. And he doesn’t want to be a fireman because he doesn’t want to get burned.

How Hollis’s mom didn’t cry at his innocent question I’ll never know, because, truthfully, I almost did.

I have tried to stay level headed during the last several days and come to these rallies with an objective perspective only seeing the scene to capture and report it. But these moments bring down my wall of emotionless detachment. Sometimes there are no words, just sweet, innocent, smiling faces, and moms who live in fear. In that moment I saw both, and my heart wept.

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Hacktavist Group Anonymous Releases Dispatch Tapes After Michael Brown Shooting

There’s something to be said for transparency and with the hacktavist group Anonymous that is exactly what we get. After the Ferguson, Missouri shooting of unarmed teenager Michael Brown, people took the streets in protest and the local police responded with violence and threats. Activist hacker group Anonymous appeared right beside them threatening to make a whole lot of information public if the police didn’t back down, and they are making good on their threat.

Released now are the police dispatch tapes discussing Michael Brown’s shooting, there’s no audio for the first minute, discussion of the shooting begins after 11 minutes. The tech site Mashable has confirmed with the St. Louis Police:

“Reached over email, St. Louis Police spokesperson Brian Schellman tells Mashable, “We are aware of this and are currently investigating it.”

Details for the recording present MANY questions:

9:35: “Ferguson has a… uh… is asking for assistance with cloud… crowd control [intelligible] officer involved, can I send one? … They just told me they needed assistance with crowd control in Canfield Green”

10:53: “1190…. He said there’s just a large group.. the original call was a [intelligible] just occurred and now they have a large group gathering there and she doesn’t have anything further…”

(writer’s note: Why is the crowd control called in before the shooting was?)

11:16: “Hey we just got another call stating it was uhhh… and officer-involved in a shooting there at Canfield Green in [intelligible] I don’t know who called it was called into my desk…”

11:27: “Ok… 2190… be advised, this uh… information came from the news.. so… I don’t know…[mumble]”
“Absolutely can I have another car go to Canfield…”

11:54: “We’re just getting information from the news and we just called Ferguson back again and they don’t know anything about it… so…”

(um… seriously?)

Around the 19 minute mark there seems to be a lot of clarification about information coming out of Canfield “down there in Ferguson.”

21:53: “2190 – I’m getting a request here in from my desk that they are requesting more cars. Do you want me to send more of YOUR cars?”

22:18: “2190 can you advice uh.. you know um.. they are asking the other radios now… so…”

23:42: “I don’t know if they need you, stand by and let me double check Jennings supervisor is the one requesting more cars and they’re getting cars coming at the other precincts now.”
“2190 if you’re with the Jenning’s supervisor now can you advise him they’re sending tag cars now.. do you want to disregard any other cars on our precinct?”
“2190 that’s clear. And don’t start adding the tag cars [intelligible]”

25:00: “Ok 2190 in reference to the K-9 now, we’re getting information now that Ferguson is supposed to have their K-9 and he’s supposed to be on scene do you still want to request one of ours?”

26:19: “2190 be advised that TAG is not responding YES they will call back and advise if and when they are responding.”

(Writer Note: I’m continuing to listen and find these but I have to change location folks are leaving the office but MoJo’s piece quotes this part in between where I stopped and when they switched over to the riot channel (but their time stamps are off):
43:55: “Attention all cars, be advised that in reference to the call 2947 Canfield Drive, we are switching over to the riot channel at this time . . .”

 

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What Robin Williams Said He Hopes Heaven is Like Will Make You Cry

At the end of Robin Williams’s epic performance on James Lipton’s Inside The Actor’s Studio, Lipton asks Bernard Pivot’s infamous questionnaire.  The final question is “If heaven exists, what do you want to hear God say when you arrive at the gates?”  Here’s what Robin said:

The rest of the show is 1.5 hours of your life that you’ll be grateful you spent watching this. When I’m having a bad day I watch this and Robin made everything better. I wish he had something like that for himself to make him feel better.

 

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