Family turned away from airport lounge for wearing Minnie Mouse t-shirts

How and why did this story make the news?  From the headlines one would think that the lounge had a stupid discriminatory policy  or was just being plain  mean by denying a cute little girl access to a lounge her parents had already paid t enter.
  I'm sure the lounge didn't call the press and I doubt the press had reporters there waiting for a big story.  The whole problem is the lounge had a policy in place which is provided to all customers and this lady choose to ignore it assuming that she is the exception to the rule.
  What is really difficult is for the lounge to make a policy that clothing with offensive pictures or language is prohibited.  What one employee of the lounge would determine to be offensive would be okay with another and maybe what would be acceptable to the lounge would be offensive to a customer.  The lounge decided it best to prohibit all clothing with writing and/or pictures.  I know it is just Mickey and Minnie Mouse but Mickey has been banned in some countries because he doesn't wear pants.
  What the headlines should have stated was "Woman's children banned from airport lounge because the Mother neglected to read or decided not to follow lounge policy."  The truth is you are really not that special and the rules do apply to you.

Work postponed

I didn't get to mow last week as I was away at summer camp and couldn't mow until today because my mower was in the shop.  Of course, with all the rain today mowing is also out until tomorrow or Friday (I'll be in Hickory Thursday, I suppose).  My car is still in the shop.  The replacement part came in and has been installed but the check engine light still came on indicating one of the parts recently replaced is now not working.  Hopefully I'll get it back to my wife can go to the doctor and I can go see my mom.
  My wife got home from the beach on the 15th of June and I took it to the shop on the 16th.  I got the car back on Monday June 26th and had to take it back on June 30th I got it back the second time on July 14th and put it back in the shop July 16th.  It was in the shop until July 28th and I had to take it back on the 30th.  It like I'm borrowing my own car every two weeks to go to Hickory to see Mom. It's getting rather old.  My other car just received a recall notice and the way things are looking I may be without a vehicle.  At least I could drive my mower, if only it were legal.

Getting it back together

Yesterday, my first day back from camp, was a good one.  I went to the lawn mower repair shop, paid the charges and arranged for delivery then by the barbers for a haircut.  Met people at the church to help a widow move and afterwards went to the store and purchased a new phone and got it programmed.  I also took care of the financial situation.  Hopefully I'll get my car back Monday or Tuesday.

  It certainly will be good to get things back on track.  I will still be minus a TV set but it was a free one although a nice one so I don't feel like I lost monetarily and it was one I never watched (which was the reason I was moving it to begin with).

Finally made it back

  I dropped a TV set and broke it, then my check engine light came on in my car so I sent it to be fixed.  It was the computer system that needed replacing.  My rider mower kept throwing the belt off so I sent it to the shop.  Being the first of the month I had a lot of bills to settle up on and other financial problems to deal with  but I was off to summer camp for the week.
  The first day I was in a canoe which sank.  it was bad enough being drenched in stinky stagnant pond water and sucked into the thick murky bottom but I realized once I was out that I still had my phone with me.  It lasted another day before it gave up the ghost.  Three days later I broke my Kindle and it had to be disposed of.
  Yea, it feels really good to be back home and now I can start taking care of things.  I can now handle the financial problems, deal with the medical appointments, and get the mechanical problems
fixed.   I do have a lot of work to do to get my life back on track but at least now I have the time.
  The fun and games were great and the food was descent but the sleeping conditions were horrible.  I'm glad I finally had the camp experience but I don't think I will want to repeat it, especially at my age.

Good News/bad News

The good news is I got home safe from my resent trip to Hickory to visit Mom.  She is now almost totally blind and almost deaf so at 92 is quite a handful to get in and out of the car.  She didn't get to go home but I did get her out for lunch and to her hairdresser.
  After having my car in the shop for two weeks, I got it back in time to make the trip to Hickory but the check engine light came on for the third time in a month.
This time the news was bad.  It seems it is the computer system.  That makes me scary of my other car.  I have owned two Kia's and a Hyundai and in one Hyundai and one Kia the computer system went out soon after the vehicle reach 60000 miles and I have just turned over 60000 miles on my other car.  

The case for Christ

Today, being a Christian is not popular.  Once upon a time even non Christian showed respect to church going people and to the pastors of churches but in todays culture not even God gets respect and most people think of Christians as being delusional. But I find serving Christ to be the one thing that gives meaning to life and security to everyday living.  Without Christ I am nothing.

sears and Amazon

Amazon.com and Sears came to an agreement by which Amazon.com will begin selling Kenmore appliances.  I have done a lot of business with Sears during my lifetime  but mainly because they carried what I needed but Sears didn't always make doing business with them a pleasant experience.  I distinctly remember one time I purchased a small item but got the wrong one so I took it back to Sears.  I expected to give them the one I had and get the one I needed and go home.  My item was unopened and the two parts were the same price.  But no, Sears could not even handle the transaction at the register.  I had to go to the back of the store to customer service, stand in line fill out a form get a refund then go back to the department to make my new purchase.
  Not only lousy customer service but one never felt appreciated but did feel like they were paying more for an item than it was really worth.  Even so Sears was always a fun store to shop it because they had everything and they were everywhere.  But now I do most of my shopping at Amazon.com.  Shopping is easy, fast. accurate and returns are not problematic at all.    But still one has to be cautious.  Not everything on Amazon is cheaper.
  In fact this week I wanted a certain book and it was $29,00 to $31.00 on Amazon but from the publisher it was $12.99.  In many cases the prices are the same and if they are I'll buy from Amazon rather than the original supplier for two reasons.  First, buying most of my stuff from one place limits the number of places my personal information is and the second reason it is much easier to return things for credit, exchange or Refund through Amazon.  Convenience and confidence means a lot.
  One would think being able to see and handle merchandise before purchasing would have an advantage over ordering from an impersonal website, especially if there was a live person to ask questions  but the truth is, the live person doesn't always know what they are talking about and I have had to return just as big a percentage of items I've purchase in a store as I have things I bought online.  Comparison shopping is so much easier sand one is more likely to find the exact item that meets ones needs online.  I only shop at stores if I need it now or if it is a perishable item (can't see buying ice cream on line even if it does come with free one-day shipping).
 The funny thing about Sears is they began to really expand when they put their emphasis on their catalogue dales.  Roebuck sold his part of the company because he didn't think there was a future in catalogue sales.  Instead of printing and distributing catalogues it would have been so much easier to distribute a web address and Sears could have been the first Amazon.  They had the name recognition and the supply line to have been successful.  But knowing Sears, they would have made you go to a customer service counter and wait in line to make a return
   Not so many years ago Sears made the fateful decision to get out of catalogue stores and concentrate on their brick and mortar operations when the wiser thing to do was to which over to online sales.  But many times we get stuck in a rut and think that if we just refine business as usual we can reclaim our former glory when we need to be either changing with the times or become innovative and initiate those changes.  One has to in order to be successful.

Birth Order matters

The article says 2nd born children most likely to be delinquent.  maybe.  Another article describes traits that indicate intelligence and according to that I have to be stupid.  Not so either.  I suppose if you pick and choose your criteria you can make anything true or false depending on your agenda.

I would be a Democrat except for....

One thing I don't like about politics now a days is that instead of education and the information sharing that is so available with computers today, people seem to be driven further apart by their party labels.  Everything someone of the other party thinks is right is wrong and is destroying our country.  It should not be this way.  Politics has denigrated into the rich versus the poor, big business versus the workers and the religious right versus the non believing left.
  Democrats picture Republicans as being for big business and against the little people and as a bunch of closed minded religious nuts and Republicans picture Democrats as being anything goes,free spending, government program producing, child killing, alternative lifestyle loving socialists.
   I'm a Republican and I do believe our health care system needed fixing, the working man needs help, and we all should be able to live free and feel safe from oppression.   I also believe that if women want to be responsible for their own bodies than they should take care not to have babies they don't want to bring to term.  We should all know how babies are made.  But I don't believe abortion should be a criminal offense  but I don't believe it should be encouraged either.  I don't think homosexuality is an acceptable lifestyle anymore than I believe lying should be socially acceptable.
Lying isn't illegal except under certain circumstances (perjury) and sex isn't illegal (except with minors and as defined in rape statues) Just because I believe homosexuality is an unacceptable lifestyle doesn't not mean I an homophobic any more than my believing lying is unacceptable means I'm misanthropic.
   I do believe the rich are becoming richer and therefor should be paying a bigger share of this countries expenses.  The rich are making much of their money off the backs of the working poor and suppressing the non working poor and should help alieve this problem by investing more in the people
  But I cannot support a party that believes killing babies is acceptable and that homosexuals have the right to get married.  I accept God's law as superior to man's law.  A man does not have the right to lie in court even though our constitution guarantees us freedom of speech.  Homosexuals do not have the right to enter into a marriage even though they do  have the right not to be discriminated against.
One is not the same as the other.

Sponsored click bait

I once enjoyed my home page as a source for news.  One on computer I had MSN and on the other I had Yahoo.  But now it seems that half the articles on the home pages are "sponsored" sites, or in other words, that articles are nothing more than a series of short articles or pictures intended to bring you a long series of advertisements.  They will get you with headlines that read "What Justine Batmen looks like now is simple amazing"  When you open the site they have 27 pictures of various actresses and Justine Batmen will be number 24.  When you finally click through the whole thing you realize you have viewed a series of formerly hot women who are now just a bunch of old folks and you realize that your fantasy women is no longer desirable and you just wasted 15 minutes.
   I do my best to resist the temptation to click on these sites but once in a while a headline really gets my interest.  I had no idea what a teapot scandal was   so instead of click on the article I just searched the term "teapot scandal" and read an article that contained all I wanted to know without having to click the next page button.
  More often, I click on one of these sites because I read the headline but missed the word sponsored hidden by the white background or printed so small that it was difficult to see.
  As a result of these sponsored sites I seldom read my home page anymore and have gone back to watching the news on TV.  I always hated TV news.  They tantalized us with :This common product could be deadly to you and your family" and then promised to give you the details 7 hours from now, leaving you wondering if you are about to use a product that could kill you and then realizing the news comes on 4 hours after you go to bed because you have to get up at 3 am in order to be at work at 5 and won't be able to watch.
  At one time a person could just search his home page for the news article and find out now.  But it seems that in the present day one goes to his home page, finds an article "Common products that kill" click on it and find it is a sponsored site and the newest product in the 48 listed on the site was made unavailable in 1974.  All the while you will used and frustrated so you set your DVR up to record the local news and watch it the next morning while you are fixing your breakfast hoping that no one used that product the night before and you or someone you love won't be found dead in and hour or two.
    When cable TV first came out it was promoted as "Pay TV" but the big selling point was that there were no advertisements.  But now there are more ads on cable than there ever were on "free" TV.
 The same seems to be happening to  computers.  The more we depend on them then more companies try to get us to click on an ad.  We have to watch a 30 second clip before watching a news video nd many times the only difference between the news articles and the headlines is just one or two words.
  Another trick I see is the "Read more" button.  It reminds me of the "continued on page five tagline one finds on headline stores in newspapers.  Page five always turns out to be in section B of the paper which your wife or roommate is reading.  Oh please give me a break.
   It was a cardinal rule of newspapers to never put advertising on the front page.  Except for the Sunday edition and the Wednesday paper, people bought newspapers for the news.   The same is for our homepage.  It should be for the news and now for ads or sponsored sites.  Now, MSN won't even let a person comment on articles.  I guess that is because no matter what is discussed, people will soon resort to political statement and name calling, just like they did in the days when everyone had a CB radio.  The immaturity of the American mind is so unbelieveable.

long hard week

Monday and Tuesday were spent in working in the yard.  While needful and rewarding it was also hot and tiring.  Wednesday I walked the streets passing out tracts for the upcoming church event.  Thursday I went to Hickory to see Mom and then went to church and cleaned the front of the building to tidy things up for tonight's show.  Friday I dropped off my car for repair, mowed the grass and then picked up the food for our pastor's surprise birthday party.  Saturday I spent the morning helping someone move.
  The Anchormen were everything one could hope for and the church was packed out.  I believe it was a successful event for Jim's kids

Jim's kids and the Anchormen

 The Anchormen held a concert at Academy Street Baptist Church in Randleman last night, July 13, 2017.  The church was almost filled to capacity.
  The show was opened by Summit's Trace, a "Country Gospel" band.   The crowd was polite but it was obvious this style of music wasn't a popular choice.  It sounded very much like rock gospel because it had no beer, momma, trains, pick-up trucks, or broken hearts over girls or horses.  They only way I know it was country is because that what the band said it was.  The group even managed to insult the only female service member in attendance.
.  The Anchormen were the opposite.  The group were dressed in suits as opposed to Summit Traces casual  street clothes and they sang Southern Gospel.  The group was totally professional and thoroughly entertaining.   They delivered what the crowd came to hear.
  If you were there then you know who I am.  I was the only person in a suit and tie that wasn't an Anchorman.  Why, you may want to know, was I the only one who wore a suit?  The answer is simple.  I was in God's house and all that I did: printing and passing out mini flyers, painting the railing at the church, and sweeping the cobwebs off the front door just minutes before the first quests arrived was done with the idea of bring glory to my Lord and Savior.  I didn't see last night as only a
fundraiser event for Jim's kids but an opportunity to get a unchurched person into God's house.
  I fully recognize that almost everyone there came to be entertained and entertained we were.  But I saw an opportunity to bring glory to God's name.  We were in His house after all.  So if I am different from everyone else that is okay.  I exist not to please man but to honor God.  Now I am not saying that wearing a suit makes one any more or any less holy than another person .  It isn't about them.

The planet is doomed

Reading stories on my home page this morning and found an article on climate change.  The gest of the article is that we are warming up faster than anticipated.  The horrors the article points out is that by the end of the century Miami and Bangladesh will no longer exist and over half the world's population will have died from heat.  When the permafrost melts off the trapped carbon will accelerate global warming to such a degree that the world will most certainly become uninhabitable for humans.
  But, according to the article, this doesn't have to me.  If only we took the threat more serious and began doing things to prevent the increase in warming we will be able to prevent much of the tragedy,
  The article does mention that there have been 4 or 5 previous periods of time when the climate changed and life on earth was virtually eliminated.   All of these events were climate related except for the meteors that killed off the dinosaurs.  Man was a non influence in all of these events and they happened anyway.  We neither caused nor could we prevent climate change in the past and yet we are urged to believe we are the cause and the prevention method for the current one.  But there is something even more startling than that.  The author said we should pray for the cornfields.
  I suppose in a sub-conscious way he is acknowledging the possibility that there just might be a God.  But from the tone of the article man is in control even if we are out of control and we get to decide our future within the context of science and nature.  Well, the writer is not totally wrong.
  The end is coming and there is  nothing man can do about that but our future is up to us.  That non existent God the writer said to pray to does exist but the way to limit the affects of climate change is through prayer and not controlling carbon emissions.  Accepting Christ as our Lord will assure us that we will not be here when the end comes but will be safe with Jesus.
  Many people don't believe in climate change just as many people do not believe in Jesus but that makes neither any more or any less real.  Many people believe that man can solve our own problems and those many people are correct. but man cannot solve our problems through man but only through Christ.

mark 16;16

All the commentary I have read assumes, as does most Christians, that the baptism is speaking of immersion by water but the verse does not specially say that.  I know the church has two ordinances, The Lord's Supper and Baptism  but those two things are meant to be testimonies and are not requirements for salvation.  What did Mark mean then when he said we must believe and be baptized?  This statement is written in such a way as to make baptism a requirement for salvation.  Scripture seems to make clear that baptism is not a requirement yet this verse states that it definitely is a requirement.
  Most commentators state that baptism is strongly recommended and that Jesus strongly suggested that we should get baptized. and those statement are all well and good but they do not say what this verse says.  This verse states that baptizing is a requirement.  It does not suggest anything.
  I think commentators fail to recognize the truth of this verse because they fail under the power of suggestion.  People have been interpreting this verse as to baptism referring to water baptizing and even in all their learning fail to realize that it is not.  They try so hard to make the bible fit what they believe by trying to explain away the seemingly contradiction between this verse and other scripture.    I do believe that one has to be baptized to order to be saved because the scripture says so as well as that fact demonstrated elsewhere but I do not think this requirement is water baptism but Spiritual baptism.  Jesus told the disciples to wait until the Holy Ghost comes upon them.  I think Paul makes it clear that when a person is saved that received the baptism of the Holy Spirit.  One must believe and be baptized (in the Holy Spirit).
  We cannot make scripture say what we want it to say but must let scripture interpret itself.  
 

Not for Men Only

 Some time back there was an article about saving money on shaving supplies.  I commented that coating my razor blade with baby oil after each use prolonged the blade and thereby saved me money.  Someone replied saying that could not be true but was a matter of lubrication only.  I didn't have an adequate response but I did know that without baby oil I used a blade for two weeks and using baby oil I used a blade for at least two months.  Was it just a matter of lubrication or does baby oil really extend the life of the blade?
   I have two identical razors so I laced a new blade in each.  One I packed in my travel kit and the other I put in my shower.  I purchased a 6.5 oz bottle of baby oil at the dollar store and a plastic soup holder and filled the soup holder with baby oil.  I used this razor before heading to the mountains and got a good shave and the next day I used the travel razor with the same results.  I did not use baby oil on the one in my travel kit.
   Three months later I shaved again with the razor from my travel kit and thought it would rip my face off.  A month later I coated it in baby oil and then shaved with it and while the shave was no rougher it wasn't any better either.  Meanwhile the razor I use every day is still giving me a smooth shave after 5 months.
  My conclusion is that coating a razor with baby oil extends the life of the blade.  Better yet is letting it soak in baby oil between uses.  

Granddaughter's visit.

  My wife's granddaughter visited us for nine days.  Her father is an atheist and she is a non-believer herself although she doesn't seem to mind calling upon the Lord's name when she wants to insert bad language into her sentences.  It was our hope to be an encouragement to her and to let her see how Christian people act and what an influence Christ can be in our lives.
   She had some good experiences here.  She saw the ocean for the first time, saw lots of forests (she's from Iowa) and discovered that chickens aren't born in nuggets.   She liked the zoo but not sitting around the house.  My wife had visited her in Iowa for a week and brought her back to NC when she returned home so it is hard for a grandmother to keep on the go for that period of time just to keep a teenager entertained.
  The granddaughter was nice enough but she seemed so negative, only ate hamburgers, chicken nuggets, pizza and candy and had an excuse for ever thing she didn't want to do like riding the miniature train at the Jamestown Park wasn't an option for her because she suffers from motion sickness.
  She's been back home less than a week, has never said thanks for the trip to her grand mother but sure didn't mind complaining that she only wants someone to love her.    Some one does.

Garen News June 24

June 23rd was my 13th wedding anniversary and I'm still in love with my wife.  She has suffered greatly over the last few years but that has only provided me with opportunities to show her how much I really care about her.
  Yes, I know this isn't about my love for my wife but about my garden.  I picked two cucumbers from my garden yesterday, my first two, and it was on my anniversary.  Don't think there is any correlation there; it just happened to occur on the same date.  So how is your garden doing and has all the rain be a good thing or bad thing for your garden?  

How will America end?

All great empires have come to an end and I doubt America is any different than any other dominate people in world history.  Assyria was crushed by a superior military force, Babylon fell when an enemy found a weakness in their defense system, and Alexander the Great's kingdom fell prey to the Romans when his kingdom was divided among his generals.  The Roman Empire fell because of its decadence
   The Roman Empire ruled the world for over three hundred years and at the time of it's collapse was still the greatest military power in the world.  The empire had come apart at the seems politically and society was collapsing in upon itself because of moral decay.  It was as if Rome was a fine piece of clothing that had been sewn together with cheap thread and as the fabric aged the cloth became brittle and the thread rotted and the piece of clothing just crumbled.
  It seems that there is a pattern to the growth, stability, and eventually collapse of each of the world's greatest empires and America fits that same pattern.  Will it be the Russians that take America down, the Chinese, ISIS. or some unknown force that has not come to the forefront yet?     In my opinion it will be none of these.  America will be toppled from within and not from some outside force.
  Our liberal immigration policies are allowing enough people into this country, some who want to change America, some who want to destroy it, and many others who just want to take advantage of us.  We seem to have forgotten what made this country great and has allowed the attitude of respect for the beliefs of others to disintegrate into embracing and accepting everyone as they are.  I think that we will lose our national identity     and no longer know what we believe in, becoming a nation of divided factions  each of which wants to live their lives after their own beliefs rather than living their lives for the benefit of the majority.  A house divided against itself cannot stand.

Garden News

 I already have my loaf of white bread and a jar of Dukes mayonnaise waiting in anticipation of that first ripe tomato.  I had a few of the salad tomatoes Monday with my New York Strip for lunch but I am so ready for that first bite of a tasty red tomato ripe from the garden.  That first celebrity looks to be around a pound in size, twice as big as average and it looks so delicious.  It is almost ripe now but I'll have to wait until Friday to eat it.  Today is my Moms 92nd birthday and judging from how she has been doing lately it is likely her last.
   I talked my two brothers into coming to celebrate it with me.  David ordered her a bouquet of flowers and I'll split the cost with him.  I baked her a strawberry cake (while she doesn't eat cake she will have it to share with family and friends).
  She loves tomatoes almost as much as I do so I planted three vines for her.  They are loaded with green ones but I doubt one will be ripe today.  I'm sure she will have a tomato or two when I go back in two weeks,

The lamb, faith and salvation

  Under Jewish law (the Old Testament0 the Jews brought a lamb each year to the priest to be sacrificed for their sins.  They were not saved by the lamb but by their faith in bringing the lamb.  Christ, who was symbolized by the lamb, died on the cross for our sins.  We are not saved because he died but are saved by faith in the sacrifice.
  Being good, attending church, believing in God, reading your bible, or praying doesn't save us but accepting what Christ did for us on the cross and deciding to live for Him does.
 I pray for each and every person who reads my blog and hope that if you have not already accepted Christ that you will do so.

News from the garden

  I have my biggest tomato turning red and one other tomato that is beginning to ripen.  I've picked a few small yellow tomatoes.  I'm not sure what kind but they are much bigger than cherry or grape tomatoes but about half the size of a roma.  I'm excited about my first tomato which I will eat later this week when it is fully ripe.  It is a celebrity but is much larger than average.  It is almost as big as a German Johnson. .  

   I should be picking squash and cucumbers by the end of this week or the first of next week.  I have already picked about half of my blueberry crop and I picked a few blackberries last week albeit of the wild variety.  My domestic blackberries are beginning to turn red so it will be soon I get to pick those big juicy berries.  

Garden News

The tomato vines are full but some of the leaves are turning yellow from to much rain.  The jalapeno pepper plant has flowers as does the squash, cantaloupe, watermelon and squash plants.  My transplants that I am trying to establish with potatoes are still green.  My glads have begun to open and all my new plants are still living but the bee balm is struggling with all this water.
  My Easter lily bloomed and my tigers lilies are beginning to open.  The pickerel bloomed this week and my water lilies that I separated are growing and one has bloomed.  Overall my gardens looked really good so far.  My only disappointment so far has been my tulips.  I had two to bloom although I had about 8 put out shoots.   I even have some of my wildflowers putting out blooms now. 
  I have actually picked about four of the little yellow tomatoes.  I have had two peach trees and one cherry tree to die and some of my peach trees are bare but some of the first time bloomers are full of peaches albeit small.  Most of my apple trees have fruit although most of the trees have cedar rust.  I spray per directions which has helped some.  I picked some blueberries this week and had blueberry pancakes for breakfast Sunday.  Boy were they good.  My blackberries are setting fruit and my grape vines are full.  My lone pear is still hanging on.  My butterfly bush finally bloomed and my crepe myrtles are filling out.  The white one has a few blooms on it.
  The Japanese beetles made their presence know last week but I sprayed with liquid Sevin dust which drove them away.  I'll have to get some more and respray when the rain quits, if it ever does.
  A few years back we had a rainy spring like this and my tomato plants drowned like many other folks's did and what few tomatoes survived to maturity tasted horrible.  I believe I had one good tasting tomato that year out of thirty plants.  I hope I have better luck this year with so many beautiful tomato plants in full production.
   The frogs have been serenading me regularly.  I had separated some water Iris and placed a bunch in a bucket for a friend and when they didn't come and get the plants I decided to plant them in the creek bed to help keep me from hitting rocks when I mow and the bucket was full of newly hatched eggs.
  I haven't seen any sign of new goldfish but it is probably to soon as they just spawned a week or so ago.  I would like to transfer them over to the big pond if I can ever get rid of the carp that is in the larger pond.  I had nine die this spring when the pumps quit working for a few days.  I sold six last year.  I have many 40 fish left.  Great starter fish for new ponds to get the nitrogen cycle going.
  I can't mow today either because of the rain.  maybe this afternoon when I get back from my doctors appointment.  
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What to do about a life out of control

A young man meet a preacher and they talked for several hours.  The young man talked about how his life has spiraled out of control and he felt he was now at rock bottom.  The preacher, of course, told the man of Jesus.  The young man promised that he would go to church with the preacher and learn more of this Jesus but he never did.
  We all know that if your addiction is destroying your life that you can regain your direction by getting rid of the addiction.  It may feel like your life is out of control whether it be drugs and/or alcohol, relationship problems, bad financial decisions ,  deviate behavior, or some other thing that has control over you but realize that something has control of your decision making process that is causing the feeling of hopelessness.  You need to regain control but how?
   Addictions and deviate behavior makes you feel out of control and you are but something has control of your life.  It may seems like the solution is to regain control but instead one is urged to turn control over to another.  Instead of being controlled by destructive behavior let the Holy Spirit have control of your life.
   I know one will miss the party's and will lose many friends but for most people in this situation it is the party's and friends that are keeping them in the gutter.  It is almost impossible for a person  to decide to clean up their lives and be successful at it.  A drug addict that turns to prostitution to pay for her drugs vows that she is going to change while she is in jail but when she is released she finds that she has no where to go and so has to return to her former life, caught up in a spiral that she can't seem to get out of.
  Instead of taking the fun out of life, Christ returns your life to you and fills you with joy.  Unless you believe in and trust Christ it is something you just can't understand.  Just as I find it difficult to understand the lure of alcohol, and drugs, or the desire to hurt people, it may be hard to accept that Christ is real especially in this unbelieving world but the truth is He is real and He is alive and he will keep His promises.

Taking care of babies is easier

I went to see my Mom yesterday who is 2 weeks shy of her ninety-second birthday.  She is nearly blind, practically deaf,  and recovering from a recent bout of pneumonia.  Like little people she lacks bladder control  and has been left severely weaken by her resent bout with pneumonia.
  Unlike babies she either still believes she can do for herself or thinks she is helping when someone is rendering aid to her but more often than not she makes situations worse and much harder.  Believe me taking care of babies is easier.

If you were in an accident what car would most likely be involved?

According to Wikilender, 11.5 percent of BMW 4 Series models have reported accident damage, and another 7.0 percent were found to have damage that was either never reported to the insurance company or by a body shop doing repair work. With a total of 18.5 percent, the 4 Series is the most often damaged vehicle in America.
   #2 on this list is also a BMW and the next 8 are all luxury cars.  It would seem odd at first that cars built for luxury with all the latest gizmos for safety built in would be the most likely cars to be in an accident and not cars like Mustangs that are built for speed and purchased by younger drivers but if you were driv9ng on the interstate at the posted speed limit everyone would be passing you but if you were driving eight miles an hour over the posted speed limit, the cars most likely to pass you would be a BMW.  Seriously.
  I drive to and from Hickory on a regular basis and the cars whizzing by me are more likely an expensive car.  One of my favorite sayings is "they are smart enough to earn enough money to buy one but to stupid to drive one".  I make that statement about drivers of expensive cars because they are the people doing the most idiotic things on the roads.  I don't know if it is because they think the costly cars will protect them from harm or if they think they are special and thereby more privileged on the roadways   but drivers of expensive cars tend to be more pushy on the roadways and streets of America.

Garden News

  Excessive amounts of rain have affected the gardens with too much water causing some plants to show signs of drowning.  A few years back I lost most of my tomato plants because of drowning and what few tomatoes I had tasted awful.  The difference between then and now is that then I planted to tomatoes in the hard red clay and this years I planted them in a raised bed of store bought rich garden soil.  The plants have a better root system plus better draining soil. , Hopefully they will have much better taste when they ripen.
  Speaking of ripening, the yellow tear drop tomatoes have a couple that are now yellow.  In a couple of days they should be ready for the salad bowl.  They aren't the kind for that much anticipated first tomato sandwich of the year.  That, it seems, is  a couple weeks off.
  The wild blackberries are turning red but they are plenty small this year.  My domestic blackberries are smaller than normal but are still green so seem to have plenty of time to grow in size before ripening/  I picked a handful of blueberries from my bush.  I suppose my the weekend most should be ripe.  maybe fresh blueberry pancakes for Sunday breakfast?

Crippled hands

I know medical news is depressing especially when it is me that I'm blogging about.  My fingers are curling slowly and my hands are getting stiffer.  Some times I have to use both hands to lift a glass while others I have to be careful to insure a firm grip before picking an object up.  Typing is getting harder and writing clearly is all but impossible now.
  On the brighter side, my Mom is out of isolation.  She had pneumonia and Mercer and after release from the hospital was placed in isolation where she had a adverse reaction to the antibiotics and had to be taken off for 4 days.  Yesterday she was sent back to her regular room and next week, if nothing else happens, she can go to get her hair done.

AMD

AMD is short for age related macular degeneration.  The good news is that some forms are treatable and even reversible.  When I received my first shot I was really encouraged because I showed a 70% improvement and the doctor was astounded by my bodies reaction.  Each subsequent shot brought improvement at an ever decreasing rate until a couple of months ago when I showed no improvement then a worsening , even with an increased dosage.
  Last month the doctor tried a different drug which slowed the decline and hopefully will began again the healing process.   If it doesn't there is still hope as there is a third drug and differing dosages that he can try.
  I have a machine that measures the condition in my good eye which will lead to earlier detection than can be had by use of the chart alone.  So far I've used the machine every day but I know that will not always be possible.
  When I began my shots it was a three year program and the doctor was hopeful I would not have to take all the normal amount of shots but now it looks like I may be taking shots for up to 7 years.
  The process is inconvenient but much better than being blind.  

Garden News

My garden is smaller than in years past but larger than last years.  I tried tomatoes in buckets last year with mixed success.  This year I made a raised garden on the north end of the house about 4 feet wide and 30 feet long.  I was able to plant 22 plants in the ground, one in a bucket and one in a small section with a rose bush. along with one green pepper.  All the tomato plants except one are large and healthy and I will soon be picking tomatoes.  I planted that space about a month ago.
  Two weeks ago I made another raised garden on the south end of the house about the same size and planted watermelon, cantaloupe, jalapeno pepper, squash and cucumbers.  That side gets sun all day so I had to mulch the area to keep the soil from drying out too fast and stressing the plants.  They are large enough now that they are beginning to spread.  The area where the tomatoes are gets sun early and the in the late afternoon while shady before noon and in the evening.  That seems to be a winning combination for the plants.
I picked some cherries for the first time this year and have apples and peaches on my trees and well as one pear on my new pear tree.  I'll get grapes, blueberries, and blackberries  from my plants this year too.
For color I planted wildflowers among my tomato plants and while many have grown I have had no flowers yet.
My trip to the zoo plant sell yielded me some nice additions to my yard.  I picked up a purple cone flower, a black eyed Susan, a couple of Milk Weed plants (also known as butterfly weed) and a Mexican petunia.  The Milk Weed plant is the only known plants( so I've been told) that attracts the famous Monarch butterfly.  I picked up two plants but have three growing   so I guess I'm lucky.  I sure hope I picked a good spot for them.  So far it seems I have.
 

Pond maintenance

It has been awhile since I've cleaned my little pond.  Well, actually, I've never cleaned it.  I have drained the water a few times, some intentionally and some not but I've never broken it down and cleaned it until yesterday.  I had not seem my fish in awhile except when the pump became clogged and the fish came to the surface gasping for air.  The algae had become too thick this year for the pump to handle the problem.

  in years past the small pond would run clear or almost clear even without a UV sterilizer but this year it just keep getting greener and greener.  I think I lost the battle late last year and the pond was getting green when I shut it down for the winter.

    I removed ninety percent of the Iris, scrubbed the scum from the sides of the liner cleaned the pump, and refilled with clean fresh water.   I added a declorinator and stress coat mix to the water and put my fish back in.  I began with 27 feeder goldfish and now have 27 rather large goldfish in varying colors of orange and white.  I have a couple that are solid orange and one that is solid white.

I broke off a large rhizome from my water lily (from the large pond) and cut it into 5 sections.  Each section is larger than the original plant.  I put two section in the small pond and three in the large pond.  Hopefully the lilies will spread and cover a lot of the surface area helping   keep the algae at bay.  Seventy percent of the surface should be covered by plants  and I've neglected to do that.

In the past I've used water hyacinth and water lettuce for coverage but by the time that stuff multiplied the water had already turned green.  Year before last I used UV sterilizers and that did a wonderful job but last year the sterilizers malfunctioned and with no surface cover and too many fish my ponds became too green to fast.

I'm giving a few of my goldfish to a friend, and if I can find homes for my carp, I'll put my goldfish in the big pond and stock the small pond with feeder fish.  I may have some fry soon as the goldfish, in appreciation for me cleaning their home, were swimming on the surface two by two singing "I'll soon have a baby for you."  Well, they were not actually singing but they were spawning.

Anyone need some fish?

 

Yahoo sold

  Yahoo has been sold to Verizon wireless.  I'm not sure if the rescent updates are related or not but I was locked out of many of my accounts and had to log back in.  It has been so long since I used a password I had forgotten them so I've been down awhile.

  I missed you too.

You've been cooking potatoes wrong your whole life

  How does the writer of this stupid article now how we cook our potatoes and why is the way someone else cooks them wrong?  I find these articles totally offensive. 

gospel of barnabas

  I was reading news articles and the comments different people make when I came across an unusual person so I clicked on their profile to learn a little more about them.  I noticed that they had posted

an idea that the gospel of Barnabas was proof that Jesus Christ was not the son of God and did not raise from the dead. 

  Barnabas was a disciple of Jesus and became Paul's partner for a year or so.  Paul was a young Pharisee at the time of the crucifixion and held the coats of the men who stoned Stephen. 

   The gospel of Barnabas is supposedly written by this discipline and the gospel claims that Paul was delusional, teaching falsehood about Christ. 
The writer of the gospel of Barnabas claims that Jesus was a prophet but never clamed to be the son of God.   Jesus never rose from the dead because he was never crucified.  It was Judas Iscariot that was arrested in his place.  According to the gospel of Barnabas the lineage of Jesus was Adam Abraham Ismael, Moses,  and then David.  If that were true then Jesus would have been just an ordinary man.

   Those who cite the gospel of Barnabas as proof that Jesus was not God apparently don't know history very well.  Judas was at the temple while Jesus was being tried and is recorded as having attempted to give the 30 pieces of silver back.  he is the credited author of the gospel of Judas which records in great detail the trial of Jesus.  He cannot be both the observer and the observed. 

  The lineage of Jesus, as with all Jews, is traced from Abraham, never from Adam,  Adam is the father of all men, Abraham is the father of the Jews.  Jews trace their lineage through Isaac, not Ismael. 

   Jesus di claim to be the son of God and says that He and the Father are one and the same. 

  But the biggest error in the gospel of bananas is a reference to Mohammed who was not even born until many years after the death of Paul and Barnabas.    

   Just because a manuscript is old does not mean it is truthful. 
FYI;  Mohammed was born in the Arab trading and pilgrimage city of Mecca, in the Arabian peninsula, between 570 and 580 AD.

Bullying snd Karma.

  Bullying is picking on someone because of what makes different than us.  Karma is that energy we give out coming back to us. 

   My wife has two sons,  T is the oldest and he has one daughter.  She was "chunky'.  She was a pretty girl but her father suffers from a medical problem that causes him to think and act different than most people and he has been habitually unemployed due to poor decision making.  I suppose being overweight and poor makes one an easy target for bullies. 
.   The other son, M also has a daughter who is skinny as a rail and her two front teeth are prominent.   She is now of the age when her classmates are beginning to bully her about her lack of weight and her larger than normal teeth. 
  Yea, it can be depressing to be picked on but I believe that if you ignore the bully or turn their taunt into something funny then the bully will be deprived of the pleasure derived from bullying.  For example if the bully says your big teeth makes you look like a rabbit just reply with something like "yes but they sure do make eating carrots easier". 
   Anyway the grandmother thought it might be a good idea to ask the older granddaughter for advise on how to deal with bullies.  The oldest granddaughter was delighted that the younger one was being picked on "because she used to pick on me about my weight".  So the skinny girl is getting picked on about her weight, or lack of it just as she used to pick on other about their weight.  I call that poetic justice.  I think people call that karma now. 
  The truth is, no one should pick on others but we have to accept the fact that it happens and we have to learn how to deal with it. 

Republicans and Trump going to far

Republicans in Texas have some questioning whether anyone but Christian whites and blacks can adopt children as long as they aren't an interracial couple.  If you are Jewish, Muslim,  or gay you may be out of luck.  I understand this is the way it once was except that if you were a certain religion then only couples of the same religion could adopt you.  What your birth mother but as her religious affiliation counted as your religion. 
  Trump is now questioning whether funding traditional black colleges is legal.  There should not be black colleges anymore than there should be white colleges.  Still, we all feel more comfortable around people who are like us and as long as we don't discriminate then it is perfectly okay to fund colleges that are predominately black. 
I grew up in the fifties and early sixties and while I really enjoyed the drug free environment and the Christian values that were shared by many I don't want to go back to an era when people were treated different because they were different.  Our differences should be celebrated rather than serve as fuel for discrimination. 
  I think Trump is wrong but I still wouldn't want Hillary in the White House. 

Blue Mist BBQ

The building that once hosted Blue Mist BBQ in Randleman has also been the place of a few other failed businesses is now being used as a church, as least on Wednesday nights.  I have not seen anyone there on Sundays yet.  Rumor has it that the building is being used by Mexicans.   I haven't heard what faith the new occupiers are but I wish them well. 

illegal daycare

A couple moved in across the street from me several years ago and when I first met them they explained that they had been run out of Asheboro because of the excess traffic caused by their
daycare center.  We live on a street with four houses so there really should not be much traffic but the traffic is so bad that sometimes I do not know who is in the neighborhood legitimately and who is up to no good.  It is not just the daycare center but one neighbor who runs a used care lot and parts department for his loud Mustang business and also from the other resident who raises livestock and does who knows what.
   I believe the illegal daycare has finally been closed but I just don't understand why the other neighbors are allowed to operate businesses that require their customers to come to their house.  What is the purpose of having zoning laws if the city can't or won't enforce them. 

Why Hillary lost

  Hillary Clinton just said she accepts responsibility for her lost election but and then goes on to list a few contributing factors liked Trump lies and Russian interference and mishandling of things by the FBI.  In other words she isn't accepting responsibility for anything. 
   I never took Trump seriously.  I believed he was running for President as a stunt for his businesses to increase brand recognition and I was sure he was trying to sabotage his election chances by his behavior.  ,I really did not want to vote for Donald Trump.  But the Democrats gave us Hillary. 
   To be honest had Hillary Clinton been the nominee in 2008 I would have voted for her over McCain.  McCain was an idiot.  Sure he was a hero but he was not Presidential material and most folks realized that.  He proved it when he decided to forgo a debate to rush back to Washington to help solve the financial crisis like a solution would not be found without him and if he was there then he could solve it in a few hours.  That move really made him look foolish. 
  Hillary had eight years to build herself up and prove that she was the person for the job and that America got it wrong in choosing Obama over her.  The election of 2016 was hers to lose.  But instead of proving herself capable she only succeeded in showing America she was incompetent and was not willing to admit she could have done things better.  I remember Obama wanting Bush to admit his mistakes as President and he had nothing to say,  If Hillary had admitted she could have handled the situation better then she could have been seen as human and honest but she denied any wrong doing thereby showing us that she was not only not willing to admit weaknesses but willing to lie about her competence.  Her attitude during the campaign was dismissive, especially towards Trump. and she showed America that she cared more about being President than she did about the truth and cared more about herself than she did anyone else. 
    The way she behaved was the fuel Trump needed to get elected because he was everything she was not.  There have been some great men hold that office like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Dwight David Eisenh0wer, John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and it was clear that
neither Hillary nor Donald could stand in that company.  To me it came down to electing one that was clearly insane versus one that was just mentally unstable.  I really hoped the parties would admit they made a mistake and asked for a do over to nominate viable candidates. 
  I really toyed with the idea of a write in candidate or the third party candidate because I could not see voting for either Trump or Hillary.  I wished there was an against button instead of just a for button.  My mind was not totally made up of how to vote until Miley Cyrus said she would leave the country if Trump won.  No, I'm not a Trump supporter but he has proven himself to be a much better President than one would have thought.  The truth is Trump did not beat Hillary; she beat herself. 

doctor day

I have an appointment to see a doctor at 10:15 this morning.  The doctor is one I saw on a regular basis before my VA disability was approved.  Nothing against the VA but I believe  I can get better care from her and be less expensive.  I'm not happen about the 10;15 appointment as I'm a diabetic and have to fast before going.  Not only am I hungry   by the time the appointment is over but I run the risk of my blood sugar dropping to an unsafe level.  Sometimes people making appointments just don't understand . 
   Some of the reasons I'm changing my care is that the VA has increase the length of time between appointments to once every seven months, has increased the doctor's patient load and decreased the amount of time he can spend with each patient.  It has been a year since my cholesterol and triglycerides have been tested and I'm still two months away from my appointment.  Doctors do not test from blood sugar and cholesterol levels in the same visit so it will be nine more months before my A1C will be tested again.  Since I'm new to taking insulin I would hope the doctor would monitor my usage more closely than that. 
   I can't change the VA policy but I can see a different doctor,  I know insurance companies have a lot of influence over the care that doctor's give and unfortunately I can't afford to pay for more frequent testing.  But at least going to a civilian doctor will lower my prescription cost.  That is a good thing but I still need to see the VA doctor for other things.  My tdap shop is $73.00 from a civilian doctor and free from the VA. 
  Which octor I see for which problem will all depend on the costs involved.  When I was younger I didn't have to concern myself with these problems.  Age has a way of changing things.

Whise money?

  The wife is a stay at home Mom or a woman with a lower paying job than the husband but he don't dare want to make financial decisions because it's our money.  it would be all over if he ever claimed "it's my money".  So why does this lady think her attitude is acceptable because she is a woman?  In a article entitled "What would you say to the much younger woman your husband is dating this woman said "  "I got hosed in our divorce since I didn't do a pre-nup and I make a good salary. So I hope she knows that all those fun shopping trips? Yeah, I'm the one who has been footing the bill." -- F.R.

AMD

  The doctor had to change the medication for my AMD as the type I have been taking has lost its effectiveness.  I may have to continue the injections for up to 8 years.  I thought 3 was bad enough.

Last of the Iris

 The first Iris (yellow orange) is the fourth and last  of the 10 new Iris to bloom.  I'll have to wait another year for the other six..  All the Iris I have posted pictures of are bearded Iris except for the 2nd and 3rd Iris in this post which are Louisiana Iris which grow in my water garden.   

Ever wonder why my blog is called Southgate News?

  Southgate was a motel on what was then High Point Road in Greensboro, NC.    By the time I became acquainted with it  the motel wad fallen into a state of disrepair and served as a place of refuge of the chronic homeless and as a place of business for drug dealers and prostitutes. 
  Many years earlier I had attended a funeral in Raford, NC and read a copy of a local newspaper telling about the death of a young boy in a house fire and  that story not only was upsetting because an innocent child lost his life but also because the circumstances surrounding the fire as described in the paper didn't seem normal to me.  I really wanted to know more about how a mother could let her child die in a house fire and not suffer any ill effects herself so I started doing research which eventually let me to the Southgate Motel.  Because of this story I met many of the city's prostitutes and learned some of their stories. 
   It is true that many of these women are mentally ill but many were abused children.  Some were raped, constantly molested and some started on drugs when encouraged by a parent.  Common denominators are growing up in poor neighborhoods and having a strong rebellious personality.  A girl can be quiet and sweet as she can be but about the age of 12 or 13 their personality changes and they become more strong willed. 
  The truth is they only do sex to get money for drugs and hate the :johns" for taking advantage of them.  Between 1 and 2 percent of all high school girls will become involved in the sex trade at some point in their lives.  One such woman was the subject of my book and after much effort I finally got the truth of what happened that night the young boy died.  She referred to herself as the "Queen of Southgate"  and much of my effort to get to the truth centered around that motel.  I just adopted the name "Southgate News' as my blog title.

another asine article

5 Ways You're Drinking Water Wrong

By Grant Stoddard

A bird in the bush

A bird in the bush

  A bright red cardinal keeps hopping around on my front porch as if guarding his family from potential predators.  Momma bird is hard to see especially among the rose bushes but there she is setting on her nest bringing the next generation of cardinals into this world.  Who knows, one of those cardinals may one day be the pope. 

vegetable gardens

  I'm interested in what you are planting, if anything, for the 2017 growing season, especially vegetables   I've grown watermelons and cantaloupes successfully as well as the regularly grown vegetables but year to year success has been spotty.  One year everything drowned because of too much rain and several years I got very little because of the lack of rain.  Another year I had to replant because of a much later than  normal frost and  I have had crop failures due to it getting to hot to soon. 
  Last year I had a bountiful peach crop but all my peaches disappeared one night.  The cause remains a mystery.  I have some peaches this year but not abundantly like last years crop.  I netted my blueberries this year.  I had plenty in 2015 but last year they disappeared just like my peaches did. 
  But of everything I plant, tomatoes are my favorite/  I have not really had a good crop since I've lived here.  When I resided on Davis Country Road the land was old farm land with deep dark rich top soil and I harvested so much stuff from a 14 x 14 foot garden and I had it all from cucumbers to watermelons.  But things just don't grow in hard red clay. 
  Last year I tried beating the odds by planting in buckets but I don't think I did it right.  Just putting plants in buckets will cause the plants to get too much water the first good rain and drilling holes in the bottom of the bucket causes the water to drain out too fast.  I put plates underneath the buckets but that really didn't help all that much.  Still, I had a descent crop of tomatoes and peppers.
  I'm trying something different this year.  I fixed a place on the side of the house for a raised garden and filled it with garden soil four inches deep.  The space gets morning and evening sun but is shady
for a few hours in the afternoon.  So far the tomatoes and pepper plant seem to be growing well .  A few years back I did have success in a section near my present location.  The plants were tall with plenty of crop but the tomatoes had no flavor. The tomatoes seemed like they would never ripen but that seemed to be a common complaint among gardeners that year.     At least where I have the tomatoes this year makes watering them much easier plus weed control is much better. 
   I'm looking forward to that first tomato sandwich.  Except for one bell pepper plant, tomatoes is all I planted.  This hard red clay was hard on garden tillers and after the last one broke I decided that with the hard clay and the lousy weather, I would scale back my vegetable gardens a great deal.  As long as I get some tomatoes I'm happy.

New Patio

  This is the completion of one of my summer projects.  I originally built this patio when I moved into my house in 2009.  I used the concrete blocks, 12" squares. some red and some grey to make a pattern and filled the area between the blocks with cement.  I had to remove a couple of blocks when I enlarged my back porch and one was broken for some unremembered reason but the two biggest reasons for rebuilding it was first it was just a little too small and the most important reason was the cement grout has become broken and cracked over time and weeds has grown between the blocks.  Last year the weeds were so thick I actually had to mow my concrete patio. 
   Being sold grey the patio isn't as pretty as it was but being a solid slab means the weeds cannot grow.  Just the extra foot around the patio makes it more functional. 
  During the summer months I really need an umbrella or gazebo tent to make the patio comfortable enough to use in the heat of the day but in the evening the sun is blocked by the house so the patio is shaded.  I enlarged the back porch and purchased a patio set and gas grill to go on the back porch since my wife has trouble with stairs and steps so we don't use the patio now as much as we did in the past but I still wanted it to look good. 

Garden Time II

Vietnam era

The mid sixties brought protests to college campuses, integration to high schools,  hippies to the west, Woodstock to New York, and free love and illegal drugs to anyone who wanted it.  There isn't any event that changed America like Vietnam did and while the United States won every battle in fought during that war it lost the war itself and we lost tremendously at home too.  God was kicked out of the schools and drugs became front and center in the hearts and minds of many of the young.  We've been fighting that part of the war ever since and getting our butts kicked in the process. 
  Personally I never took part in the protests, , never partook of any of the drugs,  volunteered for two tours of duty in Vietnam, and got through school with my faith in God stronger than when I went in.  Still, the war had a profound effect on my life, and probably not all in a good way. 

Garden time, vegatable and flower

From top to bottom: White Iris, Black Iris, Orange Iris, Purple Iris, purple/yellow Iris, Purple Heart, Purple Ice, Lily of the Valley, Rock Garden with yellow Iris, Knockout Roses, Grape vines, Fruit trees with Cherry, peach and apple tree. 

Day off to a rough start

First, I awoke at 2 am and knew that I wasn't going back to sleep so I played on the computer and did my glucose test.  At 4 I fixed my breakfast; the usual with oatmeal and eggs and coffee.  I decided to add a few Rote tomatoes to my eggs and that is when things started to go wrong.  I dropped the bowl of tomatoes when putting them back into the fridge and took time to clean them up.  Meanwhile my eggs were overcooked and the oatmeal got dry.  I spilled a little coffee on the counter and had to clean that up too. 
  After I ate I realized I had not turned one of the stove burners off  so I did and since the pan was hot I decided to cool it off with cold water.  The cold water on a hot pan caused some steam which set off the fire alarms.  The security company called the fire department before calling me to cancel the alarm.  My poor wife has been woken up twice and it's only 4:45.  I sure hope the remainder of the day goes better.

Cash back credit cards and other freebies

I have to admit that I own a credit card.  Most folks are owned by their card but I am fortunate in that I have been able to pay mine off in full every month for the past 14 years.  I have a reward card that gives me points for using the card and I can cash those points in for cash.  I recently di that and received $387.00 back.  I know the credit card company has to hate me.
  For the majority of folks offering cash back is not a money making scheme for the consumer but a gimmick to get you to go into debt faster.  After all I can afford to give you 1% back if I charge you 18.9% interest plus late fees.  Some cards charge you just to carry them around.  What kind of deal is that? 

Dave Ramsey

I'm taking a Dave Ramsey financial course at church and he makes a lot of sense.  I remember the first thing I purchased on credit.  It was in the sixties before people had credit cards and I stopped in a men's clothing store in downtown Hickory, NC.  I was in need of a belt and I had a couple of dollars.  I found a really nice one but was shocked at how much it cost.  I didn't have the means to shop around and my pants were falling down.  When I told the clerk I didn't have enough money he asked me who my parents were.  When I told him he said "Just buy it on credit."  So I did.
   I stopped in every week and gave them some money.  It seemed like the payments on that belt lasted about as long as the belt did. 
  I've found that if you can afford to make credit card payments you can afford to pay cash.  You just have to save up first.  I know we really want it now but with patience you will get what you want and remain debt free.  Many credit cards carry 18 to 21 percent interest.  If you want a big screen TV that had been $1000.00 but find it on sale for $800.00 and use your credit card to purchase it you believe you made a good deal and saved yourself $200.00.  Unless you have the cash to pay that credit card off it full then you have made a bad deal.  If you make the minimum payment on that card each moth it will take about 7 years to pay for that TV and you will pay around twice the original cost.  Not such a good deal after all.   
  Dave Ramsey has lots of good ideas and not just about credit cards.  Some are about budgeting, saving, emergency funds, insurance, etc.  If you erver have the change to go through the course it is well worth the cost. 

Mom Shares Terrifying Story About Alleged Encounter With Human Traffickers at IKEA

  The woman explains that she was with her two toddlers and her baby and her Mom at an IKEA store when two men followed them around the store for over an hour before she and her Mom made a trip to the restroom and then contacted IKEA security.  She believes she was the target of human traffickers. 
   The incident probably happened but I seriously doubt it had anything to do with human traffickers.  They may have been interested in kidnapping the baby or looking for the children to distract her or her mother so they could slip[ off with a purse or two. 
  If, in fact, they were traffickers in the sex trade they would not last long.  First of all, traffickers don't kidnap mothers with their children present in public places.  They prefer women who are young, venerable, and unattached.  Most traffic victims go willingly because they have no other place to go or find themselves in a situation that it is impossible to get themselves out of. 
  No, I think most likely one of the guys saw something he liked and just wanted to sneak a peek.

Extra Income

I'm retired and receive enough money to replace what I had earned when I worked/  However my wife suffered a brain aneurysm 3 years back so her income has dropped significantly.  Our income is enough to sustain us  but doesn't leave much room for extras.  I had written a book a few years back but it has all but stopped producing income and the articles I had published were one time deals.  I did write some for the local paper but those were free-bee articles. 
  I thought about taking a job but I really hate the thought of punching a time clock again.  Writing won't do it for several reasons:  I don't have the great American novel inside me and the competition is stiff for paying positions  and those would probably go to the younger crowd who are better trained and more ambitious. 
   I suppose I could generate revenue by putting ads on my blog but then I would have to get wildly popular and what I am expert at  isn't in big demand.  
   I guess I'll just suck it up and deal with it. 

The case for Christ

I changed churches a month or so ago and I'm really glad I did.  I am now attending Academy Street Baptist (yes, the church on the hill near the SECU and Thomas Tire.  The pastor is young (just 29.  he is the first pastor I've ever had that uses expository style preaching and he does it really well.  The church was once community church but is now a Baptist church.  It has everything needed to be a first class facility except a baptistery.  The congregation is mall and not as faithful to the church as what I'm used to but they are good people and rather friendly. 
  The music is traditional which I really like I would like for the church to grow, become more faithful while retaining that small church friendliness.  It just seems harder and harder to get people interested in church.  More and more the church and Christians are mocked and Christ is rejected.  It seems the more we need Christ, the less people care. 
  Our country is in grave danger from our enemies yet we open our borders and welcome them in with open arms, we approve and even encourage the acceptance of decadent life styles, think that killing unborn children is our right and just an effective method of birth control, and that the one thing that America needs most is not only rejected but made fun of. 
  The older I get and the more I learn about Jesus the more I am convinced that the country needs to turn to Christ.  If we don't I don't believe this country will survive as it is today. 

spring/summer projects

 Last year I built a privacy fence but really didn't want to put much money into it.  The reason for the fence is that when we are sitting at the dinner table and the neighbors are on their back porch we are looking at each other.  It is as if we are staring at them.  I made the fence by putting 4 x 4 posts into the ground 8 ft apart and then putting sheets of plastic lattice between the posts.  The idea worked great but over time the posts became wobbly and the lattice was too flexible so I decided to fix the problem. 
  I dug new holes, dropped the posts in the hole and filled the holes with concrete.  Then I nailed strips of 1 x 4 between the posts and then attached the plastic lattice to the 1 x 4 strips.  That keeps the posts upright and the lattice from flapping in the breeze. 
   Another project I wanted to do was rebuild my patio.  I built it originally using the concrete landscaping squares one gets at the big box hardware stores.  Some were red and the others just regular concrete gray.  The finished product looked really nice but over the years the concrete grouting dried and cracked allowing grass and weeds to grow between the blocks.  I also didn't get all the blocks perfectly straight so the patio had low and high spots making the table and chairs a little wobbly.  Seems I have problems with wobbly., 
  It was time to redo the patio and I also needed to make it just a little larger.  so I added a foot to each end changing the patio from a 10 x 10 to an 11 x 11.  This time I framed the area using 1 x 4's and filling in the area with 1520 lbs of concrete (19 80 lb bags).  Not only is the patio level, it is large enough to accommodate my table and chairs and there is not way weeds are going to be growing on my patio. 
  I was rather surprised by the weeds because I did use a weed barrier under the original patio but I suppose it must have deteriorated. 
  The only other project I wanted to do was to make a new vegetable garden space.  The summers are too dry around here and with a yard of red clay not being the best medium for growing stuff in my gardens have had mixed reviews.  Last years I tried growing my stuff in containers which worked better than a regular garden but had it's drawbacks too.  This years I built a raised garden on one side of the house and filled it full of good quality garden soil.  The area is small, maybe 4 feet by 30 feet
but it is big enough for a dozen tomato plants and a few pepper plants.  The area gets morning sun and evening sun and is shady during the middle of the day plus it is close to a water source so hopefully it is the perfect tomato garden spot. 
  Except for planting, my summer projects are done.  I am contemplating coating my patio with a thin coat of cement to make it smother but for now I'm not convinced that is necessary.  Maybe I can find time to go fishing this summer.  I don't have all the church projects to do no nor nearly as many projects around the house.
  I did have a peach tree to die but it looks like I will actually have a peach crop this year.  Mu apple trees are in bloom for the first time ever so I'm looking forward to that.  H
hopefully my cherry trees with have cherries this year.  I covered my blueberry bush with a netting as last year the berries disappeared when they ripened and I didn't get any for myself.  I am also looking forward to some fresh grapes and picking blackberries for the freezer.
  Yes, I'm really looking forward to a relaxing summer.    

Another classmate gone

  I graduated from the largest class that ever graduated from Hickory High School (officially known as Claremont Central) and am at the age when classmates passing away isn't that uncommon.  It seems ever three months I get an update on a classmate dying.  The latest one was a friend of mine.  We were not the best of friends.  I really only had one really close friend but we lost touch after we went off to college and he transferred to another school and then joined the Navy.  It seems no one knows what ever happened to him. 
  I had a secret crush on one girl who eventually married the guy that was always my rival for my position on the baseball team.  He became a big star for Lenoir-Rhyne College baseball.  He died a few years back and his widow has Altzimers.  It seems the people whom I was closed to are either dead or have not been heard from in many years.  I think that is strange. 
  Still, most of them had successful lives and long marriages to their first spouses, which speaks volumes about the different values we had growing up that generations since then.  I am just about the oldest member of my graduating class as I was born at that awkward stage where I would have had to start school at 5 in order to be with my age group.  In my junior and senior years of high school that age difference played to my advantage but that is a totally different story. 
 Even though I have only run into a couple of my old classmates throughout the years as I have never been to a reunion, I still miss them when they are gone.  Rest in peace dear friends.

Random acts of kindness

  I had just finished a visit home after "a" school and was heading to Charlotte to catch an Eastern flight to San Juan, Puerto Rico  for my first duty station.  Mom was driving but two girls in a car in front of us keep waving at me.  Made me feel good but I know it was my dress blues that they found attractive.   While boarding the plane, the stewardess that checked my ticket said she would come sit with me once the plane took off  and then the stewardess standing at the entrance to the second class section told me to have a seat in first class. 
  Never in my life have I ever been treated so kind, before or afterwards.  I was really sad when Eastern Airlines went out of business but it was the kindness of those ladies who gave comfort to a sailor leaving America for the first time.  It's been fifty years now but I still feel good when I think of them.