This actually happened to me yesterday.  I go  into a store where I always shop to buy 2 specific items each costing $10.25 each.  The clerk/cashier looked distracted and said, "I'm sorry, I can't accept a credit card because our cash register is down."  I said, "Okay, I'll pay cash then."  She replied, "I can't accept that either because I don't know what the tax is." I told her, "Its 6%". She said, "My boss would get angry if I made the sale and didn't use the cash register." I started to write a check but figured, what's the use, even if I figured the amount and tax for her, she would be too frightened to accept the sale.  I walked out.  I doubt if she sold anything all day. I wonder how happy that made her boss. Talk about dumb!!!  She could have put the transaction on a scratch of paper and set it aside and all of this could be entered the next day after the computer was fixed. This person is probably a registered voter and goes and votes. Lord save us all from the super stupid people!!!

       I am convinced that part of my destiny and karma in life is to  meet and have dealings with some of the most stupid people on the face of the planet.  However, the redeeming thing is that along the way I also am privileged to meet and have dealings with some of the true giants of the human species.   Today I had such an experience.  My wife was having a reaction to some antibiotics that she was taking so I took her to the see our trusted family physician.   In the waiting room awaited a most pleasant surprise for me. You know how sometimes you come into a waiting room and everyone there is so self absorbed in the worship of their misery, etc. that they stone wall any attempt of conversation? I don't know about physically, but as personalities, some of them suffer from a 50 year personality retardation.  Today, a young man named "Casey ....." wheeled himself into the waiting room.  He entered into a conversation I was having regarding something I had bought on eBay. He not only entered into the conversation, before you know it he and I were happily exchanging tales while 8 people were privileged to overhead the non-stop dialog.  We discussed Rss feeds, Ebooks, Pdf files, recovering from computer crashes, and other such wonderfully geeky stuff. This man was more totally alive and full of a love for life and learning than anyone I had met in the last 10 years!  He couldn't have been much over 25 years old, but had been paralyzed from something like infantile paralysis since he was 2 years old !!!! For all of that he was more fully alive and participating in life than multiple thousands of persons his same age who could compete in the Olympics.  Remarkable!  He was now married to a beautiful and loving wife and they were both absorbed in their first child together. He earns a meager living doing medical transcription work from his home.  

      You know the old truism, "That which happens to you is minor importance. The thing of great importance is your reaction to situations." Casey, had elected to NOT waste the precious years of his life wallowing around in an unending pity party, but instead was making the best possible advantage of the resources available to him.  I truly salute him and am grateful that God has included him in His circuit of cheerful living.  I only hope that in the years to come others will have the joy of meeting and having conversation with such a remarkable man.  Thank you Casey for being the child of God that you have truly become.

As a teenage boy I was forced to learn how to play the piano.  At the time, I didn't like having to do it, but actually was enjoying it. Some songs actually seemed to speak to my spirit and inspire me. This song, The Lost Chord was one I could play and I used to just sing my heart out as I sang it while playing.  Recently I rediscovered the song and it was like the reunion with an old friend.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. To hear a gorgeous recording of it by Jerome Hines on Youtube just click on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZdYtx_LldQ . Below I present the words of the song for your total enjoyment.  Enjoy!

The Lost Chord

Seated one day at the organ,
I was weary and ill at ease,
And my fingers wandered idly
Over the noisy keys.

I know not what I was playing,
Or what I was dreaming then;
But I struck one chord of music,
Like the sound of a great Amen.

It flooded the crimson twilight,
Like the close of an angel's psalm,
And it lay on my fevered spirit
With a touch of infinite calm.

It quieted pain and sorrow,
Like love overcoming strife;
It seemed the harmonious echo
From our discordant life.

It linked all perplexèd meanings
Into one perfect peace,
And trembled away into silence
As if it were loth to cease.

I have sought, but I seek it vainly,
That one lost chord divine,
Which came from the soul of the organ,
And entered into mine.

It may be that death's bright angel
Will speak in that chord again,
It may be that only in Heav'n
I shall hear that grand Amen!

      THANK YOU!!!!!!! I checked today and found that since its origin this blog has received 22,507 hits!  You have no idea how much happiness this gives to this old man. A few years ago I had health issues resulting in stints being placed in my heart along with some major lumbar back surgery. Now, I am limited as to how I bend over, how much I pick up, etc. I have had to abandon things that I loved doing. No longer can I do yard work, or much of anything physical.  However, I am not in any kind of pain and am relatively comfortable...so long as I behave myself. When confronted with all this I knew that happiness comes not from events which confront you, but rather from how you react to them.  I elected to just settle into a happy sedentary lifestyle and not have any type of pity party. 

      On February 1, 2009 I started this blog and decided to call it Harry's Tidbits. I made an election to not allow viewer comments, because my prior experiences with blogs and forums is that they can leave you completely drained as you state and restate something you said adnauseum.  I spend probably 15-18 hours a week compiling worthwhile quotations, clean jokes, frugal tips, thoughts, links to valuable web sites, etc. It is my joy to do this.

      I will never meet nor know who you are who come to this blog, but am grateful for each of you. I will continue to work very hard on your behalf to provide you with daily postings of items that I hope will enrich your life in some way.
Again, thank you very much !!!!  My little beagle/terrier named Mossy2 thanks you as well.:-)

        In 1938 God fashioned my body in the womb of my mother with full knowledge of what it must endure throughout its sojourn.  I am now 72 and find that certain functions which could be relied upon to function perfectly now function as they will. All components have an expected serviceable lifetime.   Some are now being pushed for extra mileage.  As a result I experience discomfort, pain, annoyance and sometimes distress. I can choose to dwell on such things or can choose rather to think of my higher values.
       God has shed His Love into my heart along with wisdom, understanding, and clear reasoning. It has been my delight through the years to shed the light of His Love and understanding to all I encounter.  I desire to exude His love, mercy, and compassion to any I encounter whether they be human, bird, or even the smallest insect. So long as I am able to tender His mercy and compassion I wish to do so. If along the way I experience discomfort, pain, or annoyance in my own body, that is relatively of minor consequence.  My happiness is in being a bear of light and His Love, not in having a flawless body. My main prayer, as a light, is that He give me oil in my lamp to keep me burning. I trust Him to do so.
Harry Hebert

       For me shopping online is marvelous!   With ongoing back problems, I am unable to walk or stand for any length of time.   Recently my faithful little toaster oven died. I needed to replace it and knew just how tall, deep, and long it could be for my limited counter space. I also hoped that Black & Decker made one. We have had great success with their products and that's what I wanted.  I went online to Lowe's and Walmart. They each had a large selection and Walmart carried the Black & Decker brand. After browsing through a selection of 40 items, I found one that was exactly the right size plus it was a convection oven to boot.  Using Paypal, I purchased it and it was delivered to my home in exactly 5 working days. The freight was no more than I would have paid in car gas and depreciation.

       If I had gone to the store to browse the on shelf items, there would have been a choice of 4 or 5 brands and models at best to choose from. By shopping online, I was able to examine the detailed specifications along with customer reviews. Through the years I have bought computers, weed eaters and many such appliances with no bad experiences. The internet is a real boon to us senior citizens and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

        Intransigient is a word seldom heard yet it applies to many circumstances.  The definition of the word is: refusing to agree or compromise; uncompromising; inflexible. a person who refuses to agree or compromise, as in politics.
        Sometimes in a debate, one party just shuts up and refuses to respond further.  It is a big mistake to assume that they ceased discussion because they had somehow lost the argument. Often it is because they have become aware that the other party has a case of deep seated intransigence and that it is pointless to continue the discussion.
       Recently  on a blog, I entered into a discussion, and the major points that I made were either discounted, marginalized, or distorted. Additionally I was characterized as unfeeling and insensitive in my posture. I realized that I was totally wasting my time trying to uproot this chronic case of intransigence.   Oddly enough, though, I continued my rebuttals. Why? Because this was a public blog and everyone could read both sides.  By continuing to respond I was deliberately exposing the blatant intransigence of the other side. As they continued to rant on and on, they exposed themselves to be intransigient to any and all who had the ability to connect the dots.  Thus I won the debate by discontinuing to reply further.  Try this sometimes when you find yourself in such a situation.

 Things you need to know before you buy an electric car

1. What is the expected life of the battery or batteries?
2. What is the replacement cost of the battery or batteries?
3. What will it cost per month to charge the vehicle at home?
         (Your monthly electric bill shows the charge based on the amount of watts, ohm, or volts used and shows the price per each. If you know how many watts of electricity is used per day, it would not be difficult to multiply this by 30 to find the watts per month, and therefore find out how much your electrical bill will increase.)
4. Will you only be transferring the cost of vehicle operation from the gas pump to your home electrical bill?
5. Will you need something other than a 110V outlet or will it require a 220V outlet?
6. Will you need to have an electrician upgrade your outlet in your garage?
7. If the vehicle needs only 4 hours to charge, and you get home at 7 P.M., will you need to stay awake until 11 P.M. and go outside and unplug the cord?
8. If you live in an apartment, will you need to crack open a window and run an electrical cord outside? Will your landlord allow you to do that? Will it leave your home open to burglary because of the cracked open window?
9. Will the amount of miles per charge allow for the innumerable side trips that you do dailiy on the way home from work or will you have to come straight home?
10.Will your employeer be expected to provide an electrical outlet for all employees? Will that cost be used to minimize future raises? How about places where hundreds of cars are on a large open lot? What do they do?
11. If you customarily leave your car in a parking lot when you take an air flight, will your car hold its charge until you get back or will you need to sit around for a few hours while it is charged up?

These are just a few questions I thought of. I'll bet you can think of others.

       Once there actually lived a man who was entitled Saint Nicholas.  He did in fact visit families and distribute gifts and possibly switches depending upon the behavior of a child during the year.  Many years later a fantasy poem was written entitled A Visit From St. Nicholas which became better known as 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. In 1823, Clement Clarke Moore said that he wrote the poem on that Christmas Eve. That was over 187 years ago. Since that time Hollywood has changed people's perception of the characters involved.

       In the poem, Santa Claus is an elf.   An elf is defined as a tiny fairy. Probably he was a little man about 2-3 feet tall at best in the poem. (He had a broad face and a little round belly, That shook, when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly.  He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,) Also his sleigh was a miniature one and the reindeer were tiny (When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer, With a little old driver, so lively and quick, I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.)   According to the poem, both sleigh and reindeer combined probably were no longer than 6 feet long or less.  A little elf might conceivably slide down a chimney, but a fat 250 pound man hardly could.  This has baffled children for decades.

      Then along comes Hollywood.  I have seen at least a half-dozen movies doing a take on the Santa Claus story always picturing a full grown man about 5''7"tall, obese, and weighing probably around 250 pounds. He is pictured as large enough to put a child on his knee.   The sleigh is shown as large enough to have 2 adults as passengers on the front seat, and the reindeer are shown as their actual size...not miniature. I have no clue where the red suit with white fur trim came from but Santa himself was an elf, the same size as his helpers (which also were not mentioned in the poem).  Also, someone decided that Santa lived at the North Pole and had a wife called Mrs. Claus.

      This is the way it happens. People rewrite a story, and remake it to be according to their liking.   In the movie The Ten Commandments the script writers have Moses overcoming the seductive powers of Pharaoh's wife who tries to attract him.  No such thing is recorded in the Bible, yet generations of people believe that the movie was a most accurate docudrama.  The New Testament books were written from 50-100 years after the dates of the actual occurrence of the events.  Its no small wonder that today many scholars wonder whether the written texts suffered from the interpolation and retelling of events which seems to occur to anything written.

       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.