Well...It looks like I am going to live after all.  A young man may acquire a virus and at worse feel sort of yuck, but when a 71 year old man like me gets one, its sheer hell!! On Nov.20 I suddenly felt terrible with a running nose and weak feeling lungs.  I took some Claritin-D which helped stabalize the sinuses but that's about all.  I felt so badly that for the next 2 days I slept 15 hours each day. Finally the following Monday I saw my family physician.  He said that I did not have the flu, but a virus that was equally as bad. He gave prescribed 5 days worth of anti-viral medicine. That really knocked me out and for a week, I barely had enough energy to butter toast. Even in doing that I had to sit down. Then...the monitor on my desktop computer just totally died. Help!  I don't know about you, but when my computer is ill, I am ill. Fortunately, I had a desktop unit which was the clone of my desktop and for the last week have posted to this blog using it. I felt like saying, "Move over Job."  In the Bible Job experienced several calamities but forunately they happened incrementally as in my case. I thought maybe I had died and was in purgatory.
      I took advantage of the "free shipping" thing at Walmart online shopping and bought a new desktop monitor which was delivered to my door. Whew...I am going to live, but for a while I was beginning to wonder.

       Today I wrote a $7000 check to pay for a new roof on my house.  The $7000 didn't come easy. For the last 4 years I have bought store brand products at the grocery store, consolidated shopping trips, contented myself with last year's wardrobe, cooked at home and done many things to live frugally. Although I have my annuities, etc, I always like to keep at least $5000 in a money market to protect myself from contingencies. I had finally reached the sum of $7,113 and looking forward to building the account up to $10,000 (which for some of you might be chicken feed). My roof had been dropping pieces of shingles about the size of a playing card every time we had a hard rain. I knew that since it was about 25 years old, that there really were no options.  After inquiry with a reliable source I found a contractor who said they could do it all for $7000.  He didn't know that this was exactly the amount I could spend without borrowing some. However, I am rejoicing because 1) I was willing to face facts and actually do it. 2) I was able to find a trustworthy contractor. 3) I was able to pay for it. and most important, 4) The money was not spend on medical bills.

       We all have the innumerable expenses that come our way if we own a house and cars. It can be tires, auto repair, house air conditioner replacement, replacement of a refrigerator, etc. This year it was a roof. I noticed that in the Holy Bible  in the book of Job, Job has many terrible calamities befall  him...one after the other.  However, he was able to endure and remain steadfast in his faith, because they happened incrementally instead of all at once. In my case, this setback is not a cruel one, but most ordinary. I will begin to slowly rebuild my little contingency fund so as to be ready for the next contingency.  I am told that what happens to us matters little...its how we react that counts. I am pleased that I was guided to react in a pragmatic and faith filled manner.

        I've decided to add a new category to this blog simply called "Words".  Years ago I found that in order to benefit properly from some of the newscasts that I watched that I needed to learn the meaning of some of the words that cropped up from time to time.  If a pundit (someone who expresses many opinions) constantly used a word which was not in my vocabulary, I would write it down, look up the meaning, and started a log of such words. Since the spirit of this blog is to simply share what I have found with other people, I want to share these word definitions with you as well.  Probably tomorrow I will start.  It will be only 1 word per day.  Hopefully this will enhance your listening and comprehension skills as you try to stay abreast of the news.

        It remains true evermore that a giver is enriched even as he gives, often receiving value greater than the gift.  I started this blog after the first of the year in order to record my thoughts, and share them with everyone.  I developed a discipline of posting 1 or 2 things every day without fail.   So far, this blog averages 700-1000 hits a month which pleases me very much.   I am grateful to the ones who continue to visit it. 

         I spend considerable time each week gleaning famous quotes and am astonished with what I find.  Often I find to my surprise that some whom I regarded as mere jesters and clowns, had most profound thoughts worth repeating.  I was amazed to discover that Albert Einstein wasn't an atheist after all. The more time I spend in collecting quotes, the more I am enriched by the wisdom I find.  Sharing it with you is my chief delight.  It doesn't matter that I don't know, and will never know who you are.  A genuine giver truly "does not let his right hand know what his left hand is doing". To be such a one I strive to be. 

        I have found that on my backyard and patio I am supplying food and water for birds, squirrels, many raccoons, opossums, skunks, rabbits, one dog and one cat.  For the most part, they feed unnoticed and unproclaimed.   My reward comes when a raccoon that was a baby last year reappears with her brood of 5 baby raccoons to share with them a place of plenty they enjoyed as a youth. 

       If you are not a cheerful giver now, strive to become one.  Nothing will enrich your spirit more.

       Even a year before the last national election I was quite taken back by the absolute hatred that many had for George Bush.  The interesting thing is that it is possible that those in that posture had valid reasons for this overall mistrust and hatred.  However, the mean spirited manner in which they expressed themselves just turned me off and I automatically discounted anything that they had to say.  Never would they acknowledge that the man had ever done anything right.   I have just had a wake up call to the effect that I am dangerously close to imitating this poor behavior myself except I am constantly expressing my disdain and mistrust of Barrack Obama.  I don't want to be like that.

       My website is the culmination of a lifetime of study of the Bible and things related thereto.   I have labored long and hard to encapsulate my learning into articles in hopes that others might somehow be enriched thereby.  Likewise, my YouTube videos have the agenda of trying to help people think outside the box and become more compassionate.   God forbid if my rantings, criticisms, and jokes directed at belittling Obama so turn anyone off that they shy away from my website or videos.  If this were to happen, I would myself have undermined all of my years of effort while dragging myself down into the type of behavior I detest.

      Henceforth I resolve to express my contempt of unworkable ideas but not attack the messenger.  In the future I will more carefully screen any humor that I post to make certain that no person be the but of the jokes or comments.  I think that history has shown that socialism works poorly and I feel compelled to speak out against it.  In the future I will try to be more civil in my observations.  This will require more discipline, but I am not too old to change.

        I did it!  I did it! I remembered all the things to do on May 10th.  While for most it was Mother's Day, for me and my wife it was our 41st Anniversary.  Our daughter's birthday is May 11th.  (She was born 2 years after our marriage.)  Our little tradition is to exchange nice Anniversary Cards, and eat out somewhere special on our Anniversary.  By mid April of each year I start getting anxious about remembering these things in timely fashion.  I have sticky postem notes on the edge of my computer moniter reminding me to get a card, etc.   Then I put a note on my car windshield to 'don't forget'. 
        We decided to eat at the Olive Garden which has excellent food.  Its pricey, but the food is excellent.  We each dressed nicely for the occasion.  I was aghast as the total indifference of the men in the restaurant.  They wore their damn baseball caps at the table, had on faded t-shirts with advertisements on them, and wore tennis shoes and bluejeans with holes in the knees.   I must be getting old.  In my day, they wouldn't have been permitted in the restaurant dressed that sloppily.  Their wives and children might have been eating in McDonald's according to their attire.  Additionally, the children were totally undisciplined, demanding this and that and getting mad if they didn't get their way.   I wished that these sort of things didn't affect me in any way.  Mostly I hate that most of these people have no proper training in their own childhood.  By the standards I was raised with, most of the populace is downright 'tacky'.  Anyway, we had a pleasant evening and I spared my wife all of this angst.

          I have decided to add a new category to this blog entitled Quotes.  Starting tomorrow I hope to start posting in it.  Each quote will have about 5 quotes.  I have a selection of about 5,000 authors, actors, scientists, rulers, prophets, etc. Within their lifetime much they said was just normal dialogue, but every so often one would say something so striking and succinct that it stuck in people's mind and they became famous additionally for having said it. I know that you will find it to be a refreshing read.

        I am able to maintain fairly good health at my age due, in part, to a daily nap.  We keep one or more grandchildren about twice a week.  Although I enjoy their visit, at nap time I tend to get a little testy. For the most part the children try their doggonest to be quiet.  However, some of their toys are mindless.   There is one toy that says, " Hi baby..drop in a ball and see it roll."   This is followed by some carnival type tune which it plays over, and over, and over.  My annoyance at hearing this every 45 seconds rises and rises.  I have decided to buy some ear plugs.  Maybe they will help.  It is a fact that I disdain children's toys which have a voice.  Oddly enough these sounds carry all the way down a 25 foot hall and through a closed door. Ear plugs may save the day.
         My nightly patio visits by raccoons, opossums, and skunks continues and I am pleased at that I just hope that later in the year one of them arrives accompanied by a brood of young.  Baby skunks are very cute.   The smile that creeps across my face in watching these critters feed is worth every penny I spend for food.

       I finally worked out a "best time to call" with my son on the other side of the nation.  They are 2 hours behind our time in Louisiana.  I never wanted to call to visit when he was in the midst of a family time with his brood, just getting home from work, at work, or real busy.  We agreed on 5-6 A.M  their time which is 7-8 A.M my time.  This works well for both of us.  I like to call with no agenda whatsoever other than to just visit and chat.  It was fun.
       My health is holding up well and I am capable of doing all that interests me.  Fortunately I am most content with sedentary activities because I am limited to that anyway.  Staying abreast of the national news with all of its outrageous absurdities keeps me very much awake.  I don't know which is the more exasperating, the actions of our elected officials, or the mindless voters who send them back into office again and again. 
       This blog gives me an outlet to express myself without the need of necessarily blending into the flow of others' thoughts.  Sometimes I have to do hours of research to ascertain information.  It remains ever true that :"The credibility of a teacher remains only so long as the teacher remains a student."

      We've received news that another grandchild is expected towards the end of the year...so there is no retiring from grand-parenting.  We are hopeful with this news.  Otherwise there is little news in my little life. My health is good and stable and I am grateful for that.  I try to put at least 2 items on this blog every day, and that keeps me busy recalling all sorts of things.  Not allowing comments gives me much freedom.  In the past, I was active in several forums and even an administrator of one.  After typing something, I would need to restate it several different ways to smooth ruffled feelings.  No one would agree with my every comment, but at least I don't have to enterface with friction.   This leaves me free to compose more freely.