You decide what is right

A college educated woman with a good job is severly injuried in an automobile accident and suffered severe brain damage. Shhe was in a coma for a spell and now needs someone to watch over her. She can no longer remember how to do her job, needs constant reminder of her childrens names (they are adults and live elsewhere) and is no more able to care for herself than an eight year old would be to take of their selves. She has had one date with a man who told her she can't wear makeup but asked her to marry him. What is the legal and proper solution to this problem?

A house without a Tub

I can't say if I've ever seen a house without a bathtub but in a few weeks I will own one. My tub cracked so I'm having to replace it. Instead I called bathfitters to install a new shower with seat as I never take a bath anyway. Eighteen months ago they replaced the garden tub with a huge shower (picture on a previous blog) and we love it. Until I get my new shower, I'll have to use the one in the master bathroom. I like it because it is big enough for me to run around in without getting wet.

Monday night rain

My rain gauge register 3.5 inches of rain last night through this morning. Now only if we could receive this much rain this often during the spring and summer we could have some productive vegatable gardens and I could keep my water ponds full. But more than likely our summers will be hot and dry as normal. It really is a pain, and expensive too, to water the gardens and trees during the growing season. I do have a rain barrell which helps but not enough to substitute for what mother nature can do.

lopsided win

Pikeville defeated Kimper 100-2 even after coach pulls first string 1 minute and 28 seconds into the game and forbid his team to play defense during the second half of the game. The administration is considering suspending the winning team for the remainder of the season for unsportsman like conduct. Below is my post in response. The administration should not punish the players for doing what they are supposed to do. It is up to the referees and the coaching staff to control the game. In many baseball and softball leagues there is a rule called the twelve run rule where if one team is behind by 12 or more runs after three innings the game is called and they lose. Such a rule could be instituted in basketball where at the end of the first half if one team is behind so many points then came is called and they lose. In a track match featured last week one runner collapsed just shy of the finish line and had to crawl the rest of the way and he was hailed as a hero for his determination to finish. Maybe the losing team should be hailed as heros for their willingness to continuing playing after being beaten so soundly. If the winning team could score 25 points in less than two minutes and the game is 40 minutes long then they might have been able to score over 200 points but only scored 100 so it seems they didn't run the score up at all. An alternative would be to keep the winning team off the court and let the other team have free reigh at the basket until they caught up. How embarrassing would that have been if they could not score enough to catch up playing no one! Next game, maybe they should spot the losing team 100 points and let them play, like hadicapping in bowling or golf, or allow Kimper to play offense and defense but confine Pikesville to their half the court. Or maybe change the scoring so Pikesville shots only count 1 and Kimpers three. Still, the score would have been 50 to 3. Better yet, why not just let the coachs choose sides that way Pikevilles players would be divided between two teams. Suspending the team for the season sounds like penalizing a pro boxer for knocking out his opponent in the first round by not allowing him to box again or not allowing the best student in class to continue school because they have a 4.0 average or maybe even the United States of America surrendering to Japan at the end of WWII because we had a superior weapon and we just didn't fight fair. + One thing is certain: whoever drew up the schedule and then wanting to punish the winning team will never be cited for superior intellect.

Gifts that won't bust the budget

Thge headline was on an article on MS NBC this morning and the subtitle was "all gifts under $50.00" I suppose that seems inexpensive enough until one stasrts adding up everyonbe on ones shopping list. Wife, two brothers, three sons, mother, mother-in-law, and that's just my family. Most people have family much, much larger. That small group is already 8 people so that's $400.00. I suppose if you are one of the working families that is okay but that is way over budget for me and it was even when I was working. True, I did get a nice bonus in November when I worked but I am not working now. My November bonus was divided between our second vacation and Christmas but that is a past reality. I draw social security and next year when I can work again I will be limited to making $15,000.00 so there really will not be a budget for buying everyone gifts for Christmas. As always things continually need to be fixed--including me. I just spent $700.00 on car repairs and I'll need new tires somnetimr in 2012, I have a leaky pipe in my shower, and I need new hearing aids. That is just the present problems. Can't wait to see what 2012 will bring in new expenses. I worked hard to save money for retirement but unless the economy perks up soon, the shrinking value of investments will eat my savings up. I'll need to sell some land just to get back my losses from my retirement accounts. But that is all future and speculative. At the moment, one $50.00 gift is out of my budget. That doesn't mean I can't give though. I still do the yard work at the church, make the videos for the shut-ins, help make the scenary for the Chritmas play, and many other little things that need to be done. What I lack in money I more than make up in time and a serving spirit so I'm more than okay.

woodpecker walking

I suppose I never really thought about woodpeckers that much. I've always thought that they landed on a branch and sat there while pecking on a tree for insects but today I learned something . I watched this woodpecker walk up to a tree and then walk up the tree. I thought it was amazing. After all, the woodpecker has no hands; just two feet and it has to take one of them off the ground (or tree in this case ) to take the next step so he is supporting his whole body weight while parrallel to the ground and all on one foot. I thought that was really amazing. Animals are so much fun to watch.

Want to smell like Snooki?

0 No, I'm not asking. That was the headline of a MSN homepage article. I suppose it was more of an advertisement because if you click on the headline up comes a picture of Sissy Beiber holding a bottle of perfume with a pink top and a caption that reads "and like Beiber too" Honestly I thought to smell like Snooki all one had to have was alcohol breath. I know, that was mean. Sometimes the truth hurts.

suspended season

There is a story on the web about a basketball team that has been suspended from play whikle the eligibility of one player is questioned. I really don't think winning should be an issue at any level of sports except maybe professional. The truth is no matter how one stacks thing up at seasons ene the total number of wins and losses will be exactly the same. I think there are more importanbt thinbgs to ne gained from playing sports that ones won loss record. The first team I ever played baseball for, the Reds of the minor league in Hickory. NC ended the season with an 0-13 w-l record. I played left field or center field. I played on some much better teams in ther years to follow but I never played for a really good coach. If a coach had taken the time to teach me about the different types of batting stances, or how to steal a base, or how to back up plays or direct infeilders on cutoff plays, I would have been a much better player. Too many of the coaches felt it was their job just to decide who played and who didn't and to figure out how to win. When I coached a little league team I looked for ways to bring out the best in each player and to use their best featuresfor the betterment of the team. If a player was a fast runner but a pooe fielder and hitter, I was use them as substitute runners or base stealers. I do believe that parents, supportters and coaches place too much importance on winning. Like I said, when its all over, they all just break even.

First shower

Somnetime last year I had the shower in the master bedroom redone and posted a story about it on the blog. This week I took my first shower in the thing. Typically I use the one in the main bathroom because my wife and I have such different schudles and sleeping habits its just more covenient for us but the shower I use has developed a leak so I've been using the one in the master bedroom. The water heats up much faster, one doesn;t have that big tub to step into, one can wait until after they get into the shower to turn the water on and still have plenty of room without getting wet until the water warms up enough. It has a seat to sit in or prop ones feet on, safety bars to grab to help you up if you sit in the seat, a built in shampoo rack to store ones stuff in, and plenty of room to completelu dry off before even stepping out of the shower. Its kind of like having a gym locker open shower all by yourself. It was really nice.

Ariz. grandfather roughed up by police in Walmart

Pepper spray,gun shots and police brutality are becoming as much a part of the holiday season as Christmas cars, chia Pets and fruit cake. Most of the items people are pushing and shoving to get could be had online, from the convenience of their own homes and for about the same price, especially on electronic items which have a relatively low markup anyway. Many years ago I enjoyed Christmas shopping and looked forward to our once a year trip to the Eastland Mall in Charlotte to look at the huge Christmas tree and enjoy the sights and sounds of busy shoppers searching for that perfect gift. Nowadays I don't like the traffic, the pushing and shoving and the attitudes of both shoppers and clerks and the danger one puts themselves in by being among the large and unruly crowds. I think if you ask the grandfather in the story today he would have to admit that the money he tried to save on the CD wasn;t worth its final price, that he should not have subjected his grandson to such a mob mentaility, and that shoving the CD down his pants wasn't really such a good idea. And as far as the cop goes, he has a hard job dealing with angry people and charged with protecting people, enforcing the laws, and still expected to act like a gentleman at all times. It seems ironic that the very people who were pushing and shoving each other and yanking merchandise out of the hands of complete strangers to satisfy their own greed while totalling ignoring the rights of others would accuse the policeman of using excess force to arrest a resisting shoplifter.

I would rather read

Newspapers have an advantage over the internet in that you can actually read a story. It seems that more and more the internet is becoming a visual medium, forcing us to watch an advertisment before having to watch a video of the news story. Not many months ago the service provider would inform the user if the story was a video. Now, not so much. Videos are mixed in with regular stories and as often as not are not identified as such. It seems North State is the lastest to join this craze. I once visited the Dateline page as one was given the option of reading the story or watching the video. Now a story is broken down into ten to fifteen segment and one is forced to watch the same commercial over and over and no longer have the option to read the story. One commercial i hate is where the guy says he has diabetus. What the heck is diabetus? Why would a drug company do a commercial featuring a man mispronouncing an illness? Are they trying to make the man sound genuine or are they saying that all members of his ethnic group are ignorant? I know that I am probably in the majority in my complaint about the ads and video versus being able to actually read the story but I suppose if I am allowed to read the provider does get those ad dollars. Well, I'm keeping my dollar and going to buy a "news" paper with it.

Old News

I call this old news because I saw an article about Thanksgiving Day disasters and I had one about six years ago. Yea, it was our first Thanksgiving together and my wife had worked hard to make it special. Just as she had everything layed out in the kitchen the ceiling gave way and tons of water was dumped all over our apartment. Thankfully none of the food was ruinned but we did have to eat out that day: just not exactly what we had in mind for our first Thanksgiving. This year it will be just the two of us again but we live in a house, single story, so no change of a repeat disaster.

Snake at the pond

Northern Water Snake This snake has been living around my pond all summer. I tried to encourage it to find a new home by filling in its hiding place but apparently I failed in that endeavor. This morning I discovered it entangled in my pond netting. Not knowing what type of snake it was I called for help but even then the snake could not be freed without severly damaging my pond netting which would have left my fish vunerable to predators, like this snake. Many years ago I lost a $3,000.00 fish to a blue heron. I since have learned to build ponds that are harder for predators to get into and where the net rests higher above the pond. I'm glad the net prevented the snake from getting into the pond as it was certain to make a meal from my fish. It lived from eating tapoles and small frogs which are easier to catch than the fish are but thos creatures have vacated the premises due to cooler weather. I really hated to kill the snake but not knowing what kind it was and knowing that it would be cruel to let it starve to death I didn't have much choice but to kill it. I sent a picture off to an expert who ID'ed the snake as a northern water snake, which is what I suspected it to be. It is non-posinous but still a mean biter.

Homophopia and weight loss

Strange but two of my most popular posts are one homophopia and weight loss. I suppose maybe because they are issues we all struggle with. Extra weight can be conquered in one of two ways. Eating less or exercising more. Actually thats not necessarily true. One can actually eat more and lose weight but you'll just have to change what you are eating. Right, fruits and vegatables. I can't tell you how to react to gays and lesbians. Frankly I don't care what you are. I just like men to act like men and women to act like women. What you do behind closed doors is none of my business.

City of Refuge

Bible Missionary Baptist Church runs a small childrens home for about a dozen kids called the City of Refuge. The church pastor was once an inmate in prison for selling drugs, mainly to kids. He got saved in prison and after he became pastor of this Rockwell, NC church he wanted to give back to kids the life he once took from them. You can find out more about the City of Refuge and the church by visiting their website at www.bible missionarybaptist.com. The deputation representatives for the home is Greg and Tana Savage. I strongly recommend listening to this man preach as you will receive a blessing like you have never experienced before. The children change from time to time so I can't guarentee that they will sing as sweet next time but they had voices of angels the last time I heard them. If you are a church member somewhere get them for your church. If you don't attend church anywhere, find you one, join and then get them for your church. Or you could look them up online, find out where they will be and go see them there. Then you can get them for your church. And Lordy, please give the man time to preach and not limit him to a schedule. You won't regret it.

Body Aches and good feelings

Last week I walked 53 and a half miles and only walked 1.5 miles the last day. The average walked per person in the USA is about 3 miles or 6,000 steps. For good health it is recommended that we try to walk 10,000 steps a day. My step count was 113,180. I log 8,000 to 12,000 steps from 6 to 7:30 am at the gym while the majority of the rest are logged at the church doing yard work as well as working in my own yard. During the cooler months I don't have as much yard work to do at home so I'm working to clear a half acre of overgrown field beside the church. I'm using a loper, a small hand saw. and a hoe. Sure, using a chain saw and one of those machines that eat threw tall grass and small trees would be much faster but I don't own either and can't afford to rent them as I don't have an income at the present time. All that waljking anf stooping and bending leaves my legs and back sore and tired which makes it difficult to get a good nights rest. I try to give my brain a good workout too and fortunately it doesn't get sore like the rest of me does. The funny thing is I'm the oldest person that attends our church except for Mrs Tickle who is 92 and only comes once a month or so. I know I'm retired and have the time to work around the church but I did the same job when I workedas I'm doing now. The only difference is I walk at the gym instead of on a job now. Honestly, I don't think the men that are twenty or thirty years my junior could keep up with me. I'm neither bragging or complainning: just telling the facts. In spite of being tired it is a good feeling to get a job done. I like the church to look nice. There isn't any way I can clear the whole lot by myself though because there are amny fallen trees scattered about and I don't have the equipment or money to handle that big of a load but I will clear what I can and next summer I can plant some pumpkins so I don't have to mow that area and I'll have something to sell to make money to donate to the church. That makes me feel good too.

Thank you Golden Coral

Each year around Veterans Day Golden Coral offers a free meal to our veteran service members. It is a nice gesture, especially for a Vietnam veteran, who is more often associated with drug use, disdain, and unemployed people holding signs on street corners begging for a handout than honorable service to our country. I know the sacrifice service members make, even without going to battle, and we should all take time to thank a service member, former and present , for their service to our country.

Here we go again

"Tiger Woods has epic collapse" reads the headlines of a Yahoo article on the latest golf tournament. It's been two years since this guy has been a contender in a golf match. If he won a game it won't mean he's back on track any more than the person to win the match is the next superstar. I've been tired of hearing about Tiger Woods for years. Can't sports writers write an article without mentioning his name?

Ashton quits Twitter

A rant about a football coach that wasn't well received byhis fans on Twitter has prompted Ashton K. to stop doing his own Tweeting. that's okay Ashton, I wouldn't ever read your crap anyway.

Happy Birthday

Today I officially became an old man, a senoir citizen if you will. I received many Happy Birthday wishes, a few cards, and spent a lovely day with my wife. For the past 3 months I've been on a walking campaign, logging just under 50 miles a week, about half of that at the gym starting at 6 am. Honestly, I haven't lost any weight but the walking must be doing me some good. I look better and younger in this years drivers lincense phot than I did six years ago. I saw some of my ex co-workers today for the first time in five months. They all remarked how much younger I looked now. I can tell my body is tighter so the weight loss can't be too much futher behind. Today, life was good.

I want to be a supporter

I have urged others to support herman Cain and now it seems there are allegations of inappropriate behaviour on his part. The latest and the first person to go public, is from a woman who claims she was touched inappropriately 15 years ago. She was asking Cain for help getting a new job. First, why was she booked into a motel and if it was necessary, why did let Mr. Cain booke the room? Secondly, she said they were in a car together. Why were they in a car alone? I think she got the story right but the details wrong. It sounds to me like she was the forward one and was trying to set mr. Cain up and he didn't fall for it. This is revenge time and even seeter because she had to wait fifteen years .

More U.S. residents living in poverty than previously thought

How's that hopey, changed thing working out for ya?

I don't like the new blogger but I am being forced to use it. I discovered eight or ten of my blogs that were never published. The ones I wrote on the old blog page were saved to draft but never published by blogger forcing me to go with the new format . To the reader of my blogs the page looks the same but it's totally different on my end.

Gang sets fire to newspaper office in Mexico

Gangs setting fire to newspaper offices sounds like the plot ofsome old westerns mad in the middle of last century depicting eventas that occurred or could have occurred in the old west in the late 19th and early twentieth centuries in the country.

more pain

Writing with crippled hands is hard enough. Now I have tendonitus in my right shoulder. ouch!

Electric roads

Instead on electric cars, wouldn't it be cheaper and safer to make electric roads. Sort of like bumper cars?

Brad Pitt? Really

When writers/ reporters/ people want to talk about good-looking sexy men it seems the ultimate is Brad Pitt. I once saw a movie with Robert Redford and Brad Pitt. Of course Brad Pitt was young and Redford was well past his prime. The truth is, Redford made Pitt look like an immature wannabe. Even in his seventies, Redfords good looks and charm outshone Pitts and it was obvious the youner man had a lot to learn from Mr. Redford.

I'm not sure even Redford could hold a candle to Paul Newman. All right ladies, who is the ultimate heart throb: Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Robert Redford, Paul Newman, or Frank Sinatra?

homophophia

it seems if a person does not whole heatedly embrace and support the gay/lesbian culture then they are labeled as some sort of hate mongering freaks. That just isn't so.

My mom is allergic to fish yet she has sat down with me at a seafood restaurant while I consumed a plate of fish. Just because she won't eat seafood doesn't make her a hater of people who eat seafood. By the same token, people who do not partake in the homosexual lifestyle are not necessarily haters of homosexuals. Calling people despicable names doesn't endear them to your point of view, but rather has the opposite affect of making them resistant to the message.

Economic gains lost

BOSTON (AP) — The economic downturn has erased the gains made by the black middle class over the last 30 years as the unemployment rate of blacks with a four-year college degree has skyrocketed, according to a new study by the National Urban League Policy Institute released Wednesday.

The study said that the unemployment rate for blacks with a four-year college degree has tripled from 1992 while overall black unemployment levels are nearing 1982 levels when it was close to 20 percent.


Still feel good about that hope/ change thing you can believe in now?

Why Obama Won

Most political analysis want us to believe that Obama won the electi0n because he was much better organized than the Republicans and that W opened the door for him to win. Others would have us believe that he won because of his message of hope and change and some would even suggest that he won because of the youth vote and or the black vote. Some even suggest he won because he was the best candidate and the color of his skin had nothing to do with his victory.

Some people were going to vote Democractic this year regardless of whom the candidate was just because they hated the Republicans handling of that office during the last eight years. Some voted for Obama because he wasn't a woman, some voted for him because he was black, and some voted for him because they thought he was the best candidate.

Many blacks voted for Obama just because he was Black (or wasn't white). Many whites voted for Obama because they are prejudiced against Blacks.

Wait a minute, you say. Why would a person vote for someone they believe to be inferior to themselves?

The reason: denial. If a liberal voted against Obama then he/she could be accused of being biased against Obama because of his skin color. Some people want so much to be preceived as being unbiased that they will discriminate against their own race. The reality is that being completely unbiased is just an illusion.

It is prefectly okay to choose our friends from among people we feel comfortable being with. What is not okay is to make decisions based on race , or sexual orientation, or college atttended, or any other arbitary factor to decide in favor of one person or another.

It that light, is was just as wrong to vote for Obama because he is black whether the voter was black and hoping to make history or whether the voter was white hoping to convince himself or others that they were not prejudiced.

Even though there faces would not be shown, how would jurors react? W

Why do people act this way?

Joe Paterno did was was legally required of him when he reported an alleged sexual assualt to his superior but failed to do anything beyond that. Failure on the part of his boses, himself, and the man who saw the assualt allowed the incident to go unpunished and other offences to occur.

Two men, MMA fighters, in town for a tournament, stop a robber who was robbing their motel. The robber claimed he needed to money to take care of his daughter. Modt of the commenters on the story were abusive of the two MMA fighters and many were supportive of the thief.

Thge thief used a gun in the commission of his crime.

I suppose the commenters failed to realize that using a weapon is threatning someones life and perhaps the motel clerk has children of his own to take care of. It really doesn't matter who has the sadder story, there is nevera justafiable excuse for robbing someone, especially at gunpoint.

The robbery was a stranger crime while the sexual assualt was commited by someone who was known to the ones in the know. Like all the sexual predators in the Catholic church that were protected by their superiors.

Perhaps the thinking is the reputation of the institution as a whole is far more important than the lives of the victims. It seems kind of funny that the defending of the robber because he wanted money for his daughter is the exact opposite way of thinking. In this case people are seeming to state that the rights of the victim (who they see as the hungry and needy little girl) far outweigh the rights of the institution (the motel).

Bruce Willis Makes Ashton Kutcher Cry

I did not watch the video because of the ad they try to make you watch and I also don't like to see a man cry. But from the headlines and brief discription of the story, it sounds like maybe Bruce Willis is still in love with Demi Moore.

Cher 'pissed off' at 'Dancing' judges

Chasity Bono cannot dance, isn't a celebrity, and isn't a real guy. I admire Cher for continuing to love and support Chasity (now called Chaz) but let's face the truth here about the judges comments. I doubt anything the judges said to or about Chasity had anything to do with who or what he is but were based soley on his dancing performaces. Sure Cher wanted Casity to win and he didn't so just leave it at that.

What, is she going to sue because her daughter

Happy Halloween

Since I have lived in NC I've never had a ghost or goblin come to my door for treats. I had a few when I lived in Texas. This year I didn't buy candy for the kids and that is the first time I haven't done so. The last time I went treat or treating myself I went as Casper the ghost and I thought I was too old to for that but my parents would not let me have a scary costume.

I went to one halloween party andf a couple of the celebrations Hickory used to have downtown with the bandfs and costum judging contests. We would get 5 tickets which we could exchange for drinks or candy and it was always crowded and a lot of fun, especially when the kids I hung out with won the dance contest to the song "Southstreet".

Belief in God makes us lazy?

In the new study, the researchers primed more than 350 engineering students with the idea of God or faith, for example, by having participants write a sentence using a list of words with spiritual connotations. Students then completed skill tests in which they had to make as many words as possible from a group of letters. When prompted with religious imagery or language beforehand, the students came up with fewer words, regardless of their religious background, than those who hadn't been primed with such imagery.

The researchers think the lack of effort in the "religious-primed" group could be dictated by a belief that fate is in God's hands. If the students believe that God controls their destiny, trying to be better isn't going to help them actually be better, resulting in less effort. This entire thought process seems to be unconscious, but just the presence of these God-conjuring words or images could alter beh



Maybe believing in God doesn't make us lazy but causes us not to use words we might otherwise use, say like profane words, or uncomfortable words.

On a more somber note, 90% of Americans believe in God but a much smaller percentage actually truts God with their life.