all swolled up and gone to stankin'

aside from all the normal but great "dad" things that my dad has done - like always letting me keep the change or embarrassing me to no end throughout high school - my dad is an entertainer. and not the piano-playing or professional kind, but the have-several-drinks-and-tell-funny-stories kind. but to truly appreciate any stories about my dad, you must be willing to imagine a thick southern accent whenever i am quoting him. and if you are willing to do that, i will share a few of his best quotes in a series of blog entries.
the first story about my dad isn't really about him as much as it is a story that he tells and that many of my friends now quote regularly. it goes back to the early 80s when my dad was on the city council in nashville, georgia - a very small (3-traffic-light, no movie theater) town in way south georgia. as a city councilman in a small town, he apparently often got phone calls about almost anything that wasn't right in nashville. so one night, around 9pm, the phone rang and my dad answered and the concerned citizen said "randy joe (because that's my dad's name), theys a dead dog that been runned over and is layin' up in my yard." and my dad, not sure how this concerned him said "well, what you want me to do about it?" and the citizen says "well, i want you to come and git it. it's done swolled up and gone to stankin'." and i'm sure that i don't do this story any justice by typing it out here, but i have to tell you, since hearing my dad tell this story, nothing in my world is ever just swollen - although sometimes things (an ankle, a river, etc) have "done swolled up" but haven't "gone to stankin" yet. and thanks to my dad, i can't help but smile every time i see a bloated animal carcass resting on the side of the highway.