Nothing changes - most remains the same

I am reading a book on my Kindle from Amazon containing the writings of Abraham Lincoln.  What a treasure!  Most reads of that sort are treasures, if one appreciates that kind of history.  I like history going back that far, this, 140 years or so.  It is interesting to me to see how they thought and why.  It is for that reason that I say, Nothing changes - most remains the same. 

There is a lot that can be talked about in the read of what Abraham Lincoln, our 16th president said.  Certainly, I will not capture all of it - not nearly - in one blog (Perhaps we will do another or two of my thinking on the writings.).  One thing that Lincoln brought out with regard to some subject he was writing or speaking about was telling: most things done have good and bad; it is best to have more good than bad.  Wow.  Certainly none of us have the capacity, as much as we would like, to have all good in everything we do - but we can work to have as much good as possible. 

One interesting recap by the author was in a speech given just after being reelected president.  The was was on a wind down.  Things were still tough, though. From a speech made Nov. 10, 1864, Lincoln had these words:

"It has long been a grave question whether any government not too strong for the liberties of its people can be strong enough to maintain its existence in great emergencies.  On this point, the present rebellion (Civil War) brought our republic to a severe test, and the presidential election, occurring in regular course during the rebellion, added not a little to strain.... What has occurred in this case must ever occur in similar cases.  Human nature will not change."  He goes on to talk about the nature of mankind - weak and strong, silly and wise, bad and good.  I like the following: "So long as I have been here, I have not willingly planted a thorn in any man's bosom... it adds nothing to my satisfaction that any other man may be disappointed or pained by the result."  Wow.  "Honest Abe," they called him.

Admittedly, to me at least, things have changed, looking at our present seat of government.  Well, maybe this is a good lesson rather than "nothing ever changes."

(Quotes taken from The Writings of Abraham Lincoln, published Apr. 29, 2008, B&R Samizadat Express - editor not given.)

Well come back to more on Lincoln and his writings.  What a great read.

Time to do it again

I started like a house a fire. Then, I cooled like ice. Started, stopped. Now, it is time to start again. A chance to sort of get it off my chest. Certainly, a lot of water has gone under the bridge, so to speak. So, this offers me a chance to say it more, to cover other subjects. Sometimes they will be like what troubles chuck; sometimes it will just to be to comment for what it is worth. The reader - if read - can be the judge. So what brings all this on?

For one, reading. I have been doing a lot of reading. I got a Kindle from Amazon and have used it a lot to read history, which I love. Also, television has offered a lot to talk about, as well. And, so has life. So, there is plenty of fuel out there. Maybe I can treat it rightly and with appropriate respect.

 

 

My next blog will deal with what I found in reading the writings of Abraham Lincoln. Imagine that. Going back that far. I have found, or have renewed my knowledge, that President Lincoln was a pretty neat guy. I have found in the read he had a lot of good to say, and that saying ought to be thought of today. No, he did not have higher education as we think of it today, but he was educated - self taught would be the best way to put it. So, with that source I will have at least one - maybe more - blog on the Sayings of Abe Lincoln. I am convinced that had he not been murdered we would have a lot to talk about, and the world might have been a better place because of it.

 

 

Other blogs will speak to the both good and bad. There is plenty of both, obviously.

 

 

I will try to keep this blog up for some time. Certainly, there is enough to write about out there. Whether I can hold up to discuss my perception of it is another matter, fo sho.

Time to start again

Been out a while.  Coming back.

Knowledge and memory

Thought a lot lately about how I am able to recall knowledge, understanding that once stored, it really should be always there. But it is not. Somehow it relates to memory, ability to recall. Now, if I were a psychology major, I'd probably know more about this but I am not. So, this is just Chuck talking, ChuckOThoughts, that is. (Actually, I did take a little psychology classroom, but I don't remember much about it.)

Why is it that I cannot remember certain things that I know I once knew? Like names. Saw a fellow at breakfast (two in fact) who came up to me and I could not remember the name. One of them I worked with for at least four years at the local paper; the other I mixed with quite a bit but that was a few years ago. Yet... there are things I learned a long time ago, that I would classify as just knowledge, that I can still recall.

As a kid I learned, put to memory, the books of the Bible - all 66 of them (that is the protestant Bible, some call it. I can still repeat all the books from Genesis to Revelation. Imagine that. Fifty years ago, as a Navy air traffic controller trainee, I put to memory a saying to identify light beacons for pilots along a planned route or flight. There were ten, and then they would start over - When Undertaking Very Hard Routes Keep Directions By Good Methods. So, why can I remember all such as that and I cannot remember like a person's name? I don't know.

Certainly there are a lot of other things I remember, too, and frequently or perhaps infrequently apply. These are too numerous to mention. Knowing which direction to turn a nut off a bolt comes in handy occasionally. No need to go on. Surely I convey what I am trying to list.

I learned to ride a bike and swim as a children. Even though I have not done either for decades I have no doubt but what I could swim today and ride a bike. Not sure why that is, when I can't remember other things. Further, usually if I drive to some location before unknown, I can just about do it again anytime.

Perhaps being able to recall or do has to do with how I applied it - somehow, but I cannot explain it. That bothers me lately. Perhaps it should not. But it is just a thing I thought I would express thought about - ChuckOThoughts, that is all.

Preachers' finds

Preachers, because of what they do, are probably more into the Bible than most folks, with the understanding that some who never preached know a lot more about the Bible than those who preach as a vocation or avocation. That said, those who are into the Word find NEW things sometimes or realize more the possible importance of what is said. That is my point in this blog, which I call preachers' finds.

Reading Acts 7 about Steven, the one who was stoned for his believe in and proclamation about Jesus, I find the following interesting, leading up to his stoning: "But being full of the Holy Spirit, he (Steven) gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God; and he said, 'Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God" (Verses 55 and 56). Note: the writer reports what Steven saw and records Steven's statement about what he saw.

I pose the question, where is God? Lots of speculation on that, for sure. Based on that question, perhaps, sometimes I stand at night and gaze into the sky and wonder, where is God, where is heaven? Which star is he located on? Which? With what Steven said, maybe God is beyond all that we see and know that exists! Could that be? Could God, and the Son, be beyond all that exist so many light years from earth? Could it be that what is recorded about Steven and what he said go beyond everything we know?

One thing I have believed is that God as our creator made us with time and measurements, all for our benefit. But he created us and those with limits! We count time by years and increments thereof. We count mass by weight and size. All of it, the counting of it, has thus far gone beyond the limits of what we can see, know or understand. Even the greatest telescopes devised by man have not reached the end. Isn't that amazing? Well, maybe not. I believe there will come a time for us when time, weights and measures will be no more, and we will know as we are known.

I believe (this is my find) it is possible that God is on the other side of our sky, beyond what scientists are trying to determine as the point of the "big bang." I believe that Steven in his statement saw it and was giving us and those who would stone him a glimpse of it. Certainly, I cannot say for sure that his words convey what my mind is picturing; I have not been there. But at the moment, it is the best preachers' find that I have, and I wanted to share it with you.

One day, I believe I, and we, will have the answer to where God is. Certainly, in my view, Steven was telling the truth about what he saw. The stones had not yet been thrown that would make him hallucinate,

Measuring the application of charity

Reading Mere Christianity (C.S. Lewis) a second time through. First read was over 10 years ago. Figured I had forgotten too much, or maybe I am now more prepared to understand what he said about Christianity. One of many standouts is his discussion of charity, the act of helping others.

Lewis says we are to exhibit charity to those we don't even like. Humm. Guess he is right on that. Jesus said we were to love those who do not love us (paraphrased). Lewis admits how hard it is, but his point is that we can do better in the application, and the more we do so, the easier it is. We don't have to like the person to whom we give our charity, Lewis says. That is a problem, fo sho.

How does one come about liking people though. The writer offers good examples. Writing during and immediately after WW II, Lewis said the Germans did not like the Jews. They hated the Jews. And the more they persecuted the Jews, the more they hated them. In other words, it is like compounding (his word). The more you do it the more you do it. Lewis contends we can change hate to like (perhaps even love). That part is up to us. The converse to the Germans to the Jews is the more one likes a person the easier it is to like them.

A preacher friend of mine told me today of a recent time he was confronted by his neighbor because my friend allowed his dog to do his thing on the neighbor's trash can. When the confrontation started my friend was pretty neutral in like or dislike of his neighbor. They had had no relationship. But, said he, as we talked about Lewis' comments on like and dislike, the more his neighbor talked about his dog peeing on his trash can, the more he disliked her. (He still does not care much for his neighbor. He finds others reasons outside the dog incident to dislike his neighbor now. Well, that is what we are talking about! The more we dislike the more we dislike.

Based on the above, my view (and applicable to me and my friend) is that when we find ourselves disliking someone, we need to shift our thinking. Stop our dislike and convert it to like.

I found myself disliking a person recently. The more I disliked the more I found reason to dislike more. I decided, even before reading Lewis, that I must change my thinking. Already I feel better toward this person. Now maybe I can think in terms of charity.

That it the thought: measuring the application of charity.

Just change the filter!

As an old air conditioning man, I know the importance of having a clean filter for the air to go through on the way to the cooling coil. That was one of the first things I learned in my training. So, why would I not do that? Why would I not make sure I had a clean filter on my A/C unit? Filters don't cost much. They are no trouble to replace. So, why?

Last night I decided on the way to bed to check the filter on my upstairs unit. After removing one screw on the outside panel, I was ready to pull the filter for a look see. I did. It was so dirty! If you cannot see through it, it is dirty. Believe me. Hard to imagine any air getting through it to the cooling coil. Probably explains why it was taking so long to cool down the bedroom. I changed the filter. Just happened to have a spare, clean one on the ready, right inside the air handler door. I am lucky. This error on my part could have led to big time problems. Let me explain - for my own benefit.

I have already said what a filter is for. But let's go further. An A/C system is designed to operate most efficiently with a proper amount of cold refrigerant circulating inside the cooling coil tubing with a proper amount of outside ambient air flowing over the coil at a predetermined flow rate. Change the air flow, and the system is out of kilter. Too little air and the refrigerant does not evaporate to a gas and it goes back to the compressor, where it is liable to blow valves, leading to a compressor failure. Does that make sense?

The other thing is if the unit is not operating efficiently, the electric bill soars, and that cost money. Real dollars.

Not only that, but with low air flow because of a dirty filter the temperature of the refrigerant drops so low that it causes the coil to freeze up to a block of ice, rendering any air flow impossible. BTW, refrigerant temperature in the coil is usually about 35 deg. F., just to give you an idea of what I am talking about.

The thermostat set point, say 75 to 78 deg. is a good point, keeping the coil temp just right, and, with a clean filter, the proper amount of cool air going into the living space at about 60 to 65 degrees. That all keeps the house cool.

The filter is a prime component for all to work right. Sure, there are other things that can go wrong, but the filter is probably the number one reason for high electric bills and failed equipment. Imagine that. (I ought to know.)

My advice to all who might read this is this: keep the filter clean. Change it at least monthly. Don't do what I did.

This is just a maintenance reminder, a really important one.

Diminishing returns

The idea of diminishing returns means to me that at a point in the increase of some work or production one hits a point where anything done more might indeed cause a loss -- in revenue, for example, or profits, another. I would liken it to you can only take a straight line so far before it has to bend and return from the direction from which it came. Well, those are my descriptions. They may not be true but they are mine. So much for definitions. Hope you get a feel for what I am talking about.

I was glad to hear that the Obama administration seemed recently in agreement with off-shore drilling. Wow! I long thought we ought to do that. Cost of gasoline coming from off our shores was getting too huge; anything to reduce that cost and decrease our country's reliance on others worked for me, I thought. Well, the other side, the protectors, raged about the idea. They had been raging for a long time, and here it was again. I thought, we are going to win this one over the protectors. Surely, all their hype about offshore pollution could not be right. We are smarter than allowing that - I thought.

Well, turns out, they were probably right and I was probably wrong. Imagine that. Last week a rig out in the gulf exploded, apparently killing 11, and driving the rest - close to 100 - to a need of being rescued at sea. The thing, the rig on a floating platform, then burned up and fell into the ocean. Humm. But what about the oil in the pipe coming from down under? They are not sure about that, yet. Smart? Maybe not.

Then I read today they had been drilling 30,000 ft into the earth's crust to get that precious stuff (black gold), and that from 5,000 feet below the floating platform that exploded! Turns out the rig was halted a couple years ago because of potential problems, and another company bough it and started the drill again. Included in the story was how critical things get the deeper one goes. This brings me to my point, my topic - diminishing returns.

Maybe we ought not be trying so hard so deep in the off-shore. Maybe we ought to be working more toward another sustainable energy use. Maybe, indeed, we are about the point of diminishing returns on oil exploration. Maybe we ought not be going off-shore to find what it takes to fuel our machines. Maybe.

It seems odd that when folks who wanted permission finally got it something so telling occurred. A big explosion speaks louder than words? Perhaps an indication of diminishing returns.

Yet, this is not the total answer. People have hit diminishing returns before and took corrective action to process and continued on. What would we have done had we quit with Apollo 13? Huh?

Our littleness

The volcano up in Iceland reminds me: how little we are compared to the greater part of it all. Twenty-four thousand miles around this planet, with billions and billions of people around the globe, and one "little" volcano disrupts the global economy because of a disruption of air travel - just one. Does that tell me something? You bet it does.

Thinking back to 9-11 (does anybody remember that?) and how the tumbling of two New York towers almost brought the whole global to a stood still. And there was Rita and, oh, yes, Katrina! And Wall Street. The housing bubble bust! And on it goes. Each one demonstrating how little we (all of us) really are.

Back to Iceland. To me, a God follower, a Christian, it almost seemed like God coughing, saying, "Won't you folks listen?" Yes, I do believe that God put it all together. Certainly, that might lead us (me) to wonder why He did not do a better job? Could he not have made it so the earth did not belch from time to time? Sure He could have, I think, but I don't know what He was working with when he did it. Could have been that His "formula" required a corrective belch from time to time? Maybe so. I did hear recently with regard to an earthquake (Oh, I forgot that one!!!), how the movement caused some realignment is some expected constants we work with.

Anyway, if you think about it, you get my drift. We, each, are so minute that we don't even register in the larger view of things. Yet, we think we do! In our own little realm we are huge, but only in that. We think we do until we wind up camping out in the airport passenger boarding room because we can't get a flight out for days on days! Who woulda thought that jet engines could clog up with ash turned glass while flying so high and just shut down? We thought jets were so unfailable? "Faster than a......" (Remember Superman?) somehow has lost all significance.

Yep. Pretty small, we are. But, knowing that, we should think more about the bigger things, especially the "Big Guy" who put it all into motion. Especially, knowing, as I do and hope you do, that He cares for little old me, no matter how small a speck I am on the face of eternity.

What to accept?

I begin this write by reviewing my actions this morning. A strong interest in things biblical, I read a lot. Some of it does not fit my understanding - my "belief." Some of it - most, perhaps - does. I have been reading What's So Great about Christianity (btw, that is a statement and not a question) by Dinesh D'Souza, a book I have had in my library since October 2009. D'Souza writes, to me, a different sort of understanding/acceptance of Christianity. This morning, I decided I did not agree enough with his presentation and decided to put the book in the trash. Imagine that! (I will give you a clue later, why.)

My next act, shortly afterward, was to purchase online a book, a Bible commentary, written by authors with whom I thought I could agree more. A lot of them are from the "church of my belief." Some are not. But, the background offered about the book, a 700 page one, gave me the impression I might agree with all of it. Now, would I? Probably not. Still, I think I should read it, so I bought it.

BTW, isn't it that all books are commentaries? I think so, either on what the writer writes or what he writes about what someone else wrote. whether it is called a commentary or not does not matter, methinks.

Having bought the book, and now awaiting its arrival, The Transforming Word, I began to think, "Now, I have spent close to $80.00 to buy a book that I might not agree with. Would I put it in the trash, as well?" This led me to remove the first book from the trash can for it to go back in my library. Surely, everything in my library is not what I agreed with, I thought.

So, I say this to say, within certain limits it is ok not to agree with everything one reads. It is not ok to reject within limits even the consideration of what folks write that might not agree with how I see it. Now, I know that is perhaps shaky ground if one wants to stay the same. It is not shaky ground if one wants to at least consider what others say and either accept it or reject it based on logical and informed understandings. I fear we do ourselves harm not to at least know what others say or propose. By knowing we can at least argue our point better. Right? I think so.

My first response to throw the book in the trash was way off the mark. What I can do, and will for the benefit of anyone later who might look at the books in my library, is make a note in the front of the book summarizing my observations on the writing. I do that a lot. Seems a good thing to do.

This is my thought on readings, acceptance and non-acceptance of what is out there. I think I have taken the correct approach. Who knows, I might even go back and finish D'Souza's book - someday. So you'll know, I still cannot accept that I came from a fish to be a Christian. Does that matter, as long as one is a Christian? Not sure that it does. (shhhh!)

Things are getting worse

I am sure things are getting worse. I thought when all the talk of failure in everything money wise was talked about that surely appropriate guards would be put in place to keep it from happening. Well, I think things are worse now than they were at the beginning. Advertisements I see and hear on the television and radio tell me that the scam artists got out of the pen, that the gate has been opened wider.

This has a lot to do with health care costs. Just the other day I saw an advertisement that affects Medicare in a very negative way. Don't remember the product, but the advertisement went something like this: It used to be that Medicare only paid for four (of these) per month. Now, they pay for 200! Wow. The adv was to the effect, just call us, we can send you 200 a month, and Medicare will pay for it. Imagine that!

I watched just yesterday C-SPAN, which was covering a Senate committee looking into Medicare fraud, and I did not hear a thing about the situation of Medicare paying for 200 when they used to pay for just four. Yet, I wanted to scream through the television set, Hey, you guys! Watch a little TV and you will know why our costs are going through the roof.

There are so many of these kinds of advertisements. If not health care, something else. There is one advertising that the IRS has decided to be lenient with collections, and now they will take ten cents on the dollar. Just call us, we will fix it for you, the adv says. I can't imagine that, and I doubt seriously that the IRS is going to take less that what is rightfully owed. The poor people who owe and going to wind up paying huge sums for someone to say, but, but, it is not you, but, but, we can fix your problem in some way, which is not to say the the IRS is going to take ten cents on the dollar.

And, there are still the car dealers who advertise, no credit, bad credit, no problem! The cable new I watch that talks about all kinds of problems in our government has advertisements that follow, much like I have mentioned above at every news break. Imagine that.

This commentary just touches the helm of the garment if that much. It is much worse. I know it is.

So, have we gotten so big that nothing can stop the stealer's of our money? Maybe so. I do know that we must do something, but what?

Always wanted to be a star? Read on

(Pictures, clockwise: Mason doing the production work; Mason searching the trumpet sound; and studio view.)

Christmases are always (well usually) fun. Lots of good things happen. The best of all is being with family. And so was our Christmas this year. Not all of the family but lots over a five day period. Sometimes very special things happen without intent, of myself, at least.

At Valerie's for Christmas Eve and Day, Val suggested I record a Johnny Cash number, Rings of Fire. This was possible technically because grandson Mason has a recording studio in the home of Brad and Valerie. After touring the production process of Mason's, the idea of doing a recording was not such a stretch. I knew that most mess ups could be fixed! It was at that point of knowledge that I agreed to do Rings of Fire, and I am so glad I did. Here is a description of the process:

Val printed off the song words. I reviewed the words and the song came to my mind. I always liked Johnny Cash, most any recording he made. So, I thought, I can do that. I went to the studio with the rest of the family. Clema agreed to do the back up harmony on the chorus. Brad pulled his acoustical guitar and would do the lead. Mason, after getting recording mics ready, played bass guitar. Morgan played drums. And away we went.

It was NOT a straight through recording. I don't imagine any are. We practiced, ran through the song, with corrective prompts mostly from Brad - who is an excellent musician himself, but also from Val, who tutored on timing (which I never got down with much perfection). Part of the plan was to insert the trumpet part after we did the song. In place of the trumpet, Brad would mimic the trumpet part, and so it went.

After a few times through, sometimes stopping mid stream and restarting, we finally got through it. While it was not perfect, it was at such a stage we (I) was ready to call it quits. At that point, Brad and Mason went to the keyboard and selected "trumpet" and found the on key notes to replicate that part in the song. Mason took that and inserted it into the production. I made one recommendation, that we also put the trumpet at the end, which was done.

Anyway, the song came out pretty well. I was pleased. Brad pushed one of his buttons and burned a copy, and we left the recording room with a complete song recorded.

I told Val that she probably wanted this for my funeral. She laughed. No, she said. She had another song in mind for that. Oh, well. For a short while I was a star with my own recording.

If there is any brag on this it has to be the talent (and equipment) Mason has for doing that kind of recording. It is his dream, and I know he will be successful as time goes on. Also, the musical expertise of Brad, Mason, and Morgan! They have been doing music for a bunch of years. Just glad Val suggested it, and glad the family gave me a short period of stardom. That made Christmas more special, fo sho.

If you should want to hear it, email me and I can email it back to you. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

The art of writing - penmanship

For a lot of us, penmanship has been taken over by the computer keyboard. If I ever had it, it has gone the way of past forms of communication.

I have realized for sometime my inability to write distinctly. As a reported, six years ago, I had to be very careful in my taking notes. Oftentimes, I would get back to the news room and have to study real hard about what I had for notes. Sometimes, it was useless to try to figure it out. Fortunately, there were enough words I could make out to where I could kinda put the story together. That was six years ago. Now it is much worse.

Most things I do are on the computer. I write newsletters for the church and have no problem reading my write. Forms, even, have the capability to be filled out on the computer. No hand writing needed.

Recently, I was working with an organization where we in my club needed to fill out a signature change. Four people had to sign, print name, and put the date, plus social security number and date of birth. My, my! What a bunch of hen scratching. Nobody can write. No one has a knack of penmanship, I determined. Turned out the recipient had to email me to get me to fill in the blanks.

Additionally, I can't read right. ha. The lady who got the form asked me to send the first five digits of my SSN. I read it the last five digits, and that is what I sent. We (I) finally got it right. I had also to call a couple of other signatories to get clarification.

My point is that all of us would have written much better before the days of the computer keyboard. And, with that, I just learned how come I am so bad at penmanship. I don't do it. I need to practice, perhaps standing at a chalk board and writing a hundred times I will write better.

Now, there is not much need for penmanship anymore, but it is something we need to keep doing pretty well. No telling when somebody might send a form that has to be completed in long hand. How about that!

Sure glad this puter has a spell checker, which is another subject.

A paradigm shift

A paradigm shift has to be made when all is not the same any more, for whatever reason.

I was thinking the other day of the paradigm shift required as one grows older and objectives can't be the same as they were when he was younger. Well, that is the paradigm shift I write about in this chuckothoughts. I am now 69, which causes need for thinking differently - about a lot of things - than I did 10, 20, or 30 years ago.

For example, I used to think a lot about trading cars (and buying trucks) and houses and such. Just sign on the line and pay for it in time. That was some time ago for sure. The last new thing I bought was a new truck. It was (and still is) a nice truck - a 2004 Chevrolet Silverado, with about 70,000 miles.

I financed that truck for five years. I bought a policy that paid it off if I died, so Clema would not be burdened with a payment. I was confident this was a good move. Well, it is about paid for - another four payments left. Clema will not be burdened with a payment on that truck we both call "Fred."

Now, just five years down the road, it is a bit different. If I traded it off for a new one and financed for five years, I am less sure I would be able to pay it off in my life time. Certainly, I am not in health to be able to buy insurance to pay it off. While I might make it another five years, if I don't, Clema gets saddled with a truck payment, unless there are funds somewhere else. So, this causes a paradigm shift. Not a good idea at this point to finance a new truck. Better off to look to a financial position where I can just buy one if I want one.

The other shift in thinking for me is in trying to get the house paid for, so Clema will not have that to pay for by herself. That means funds need to be more dedicated in the direction of reducing the mortgage. That is a paradigm shift, too, that comes to me later in life, one that I did not think much about before. Before, there was a life time to pay for a house. Now, that life time has to be shorter than it used to be.

My point: there does come a point in life where one needs to think differently than they did in a younger age. I am there! This is the point at which one stars drawing in rather than extending out, if I may put it that way. I now know more that that is a part of life.

I am comfortable with this change in priorities. There are a lot of things good about growing older. Being more realistic might indeed be one of them.

So, I am at a point of a needed paradigm shift. That is not bad. It just is.

How about health care?

Our nation is always divided on something. Now it is health care. Sometimes I think I have never heard it so mean between opponents to issues. Then I think of Civil Rights, Dr. Martin Luther King, the election of 2001, Watergate, of Vietnam, of Woodstock, of Dot Coms , Clinton's haircut. You name it. Every issue has sides, and the sides are usually fiercely opposing each other. What has been still is.

My hospital stay

As Rodney King said, "Why can't we just be friends" (wasn't it he?).

Lines have been drawn in the sand before. No need to wish they were not. There are times when the right (and I mean right) must just press on. Seek consensus, but when the day is done, do what is right, and move on.

We need changes. Too many people cannot get insurance. What is available is going out of sight on cost. Too many people with pre existing conditions have to pay way too much if they can get coverage at all. The Public Option will have to be there.

Hopefully, for me, this is the year.

It is not that I need change. I am pretty well off, thank you. But I am concerned about those who need help, and I don't look on that as a bad position. We must be concerned as a nation about those who have needs. Still.

So I am in hope that after all is said and done a bill can be advanced and the President will sign it.

We need more peace

We are living in a very unpeaceful world, I'd say. Too much anger out there, and sometimes it is mine. Thing is, peace is so much better than un-peace. That is what we need to know.

I brought a sermon recently on The Joy of Forgiveness. That topic came to me via a church bulletin I get from a friend. The meat of the topic was the great danger one does to their mental and physical bodies by not practicing more forgiveness. And, of course, being a church bulletin, it talks about the necessity of forgiveness as a follower of God, the great forgiver.

This is not to say that some things do not need correcting by offenders. They do. But our growing in hate and frustration does not solve anything. It only makes us feel bad. It might be that we cannot do anything about the offender, but we CAN do something about how we think about it, and that is where it gets into The Joy of Forgiveness.

We could name so many things that happen personally where this lesson is needed. The reader can likely reflect on his or her life and list a bunch, too.

The message is we can feel a lot better, we can enjoy life a lot more, we can live at peace a lot better by being more forgiving. We can actually enjoy life more if we would stop hating offenders so much. Who knows, if we acted better, and were more forgiving, the offenders might learn something. They might want to live like us. Who would want to live like us if we constantly are in turmoil? Makes sense to me.

So....we do need more peace in our lives. Husband to wife, wife to husband, brother to sister, and vice a versa, friend to friend, and fellow man to fellow man. All kinds of relationships exist where this can be applied. And we don't want to forget employee to employer, to think of one more.

Want peace? Work at being more forgiving! Yes, that works.

On Summer travels Jul 31 - Aug 10

Summer time is usually a time for travels. When one has kids at home and they are out of school, it is time to hit the road. When one's kids are gone and summer comes, it is time to hit the road. Not a lot changes. Most people choose to travel in the summer time, and so did we.

Tennessee was on our plan this year for summer time. Why was that? Well, it was the time of my wife Clema's family reunion. One always wants to make family reunions, and when they happen, that is the time to travel.

We were happy to include our granddaughter Audrey out of San Antonio. Audrey had made a trip last year to Tennessee and found a lot of fun with cousins. She knew we were going, and she asked if she could go. Audrey, now 11, was ready to travel, and it was a joy to have her along.

Audrey's dad gave me a $100 to dole out to Audrey. At one point she asked me to just give her the $100 bill. No, I said. I will give it to you in $20 increments. She was happy with that, and she lasted the $100 for all of the trip, which was really about 10 days. She spent wisely, the first of which was in a Cracker Barrel for gifts for her brothers at home. I thought that was really good use of the money she could have spent anyway she wanted - under my watchful eye, of course.

We traveled over 3,000 miles and burned over 150 gallons of gasoline at about $2.50 per gallon. We stayed five nights in hotels at good rates, based on Clema's employment and employee rates. We stayed 3 nights with Clema's niece in McMinnville - her bed and breakfast, we call it. You can't beat a mountain top bed and breakfast of that kind.

This kind of travel is not to see things. It is to see people and renew acquaintances. That is what we did, mostly. In Dickson, we met with my aunt and uncle and had Tennessee catfish with them. We met with my deceased brother's wife and children and grandchild. Always, that is good. We also met with a 2nd cousin, the son and his family of my cousin who lives in Illinois. The second cousin preaches in Lebanon but we met up in Dickson for the Walnut Street Church of Christ homecoming and dinner on the ground (well, it was not really on the ground). Then we visited the family cemetery in north Dickson County.

From there we went to Smyrna, Tennessee to the CoC there and their evening singing. There is no singing like congregational singing with people who like to sing. So, that was a real plus. After that we joined our friends there and went out for a meal at O'Charlie's. Getting back to Nashville was where my GPS (from the previous post) came in handy.

On my birthday, August 5, we traveling to McMinnville and Harrison Ferry Mountain and Curtis Town. After a couple of big meals on Wednesday and Thursday, we attended the reunion, held at the Mt. Leo CofC. A good time by all, for sure. We did take in some sightseeing at High Rock (picture included). It was also good to have our daughter Valerie and her husband Brad, from Corpus Christi, join us in McMinnville for a couple of days.

Saturday through Monday we returned to Laredo. We stopped off in Houston to visit our daughter and family, then on to San Antonio to drop Audrey, and on home to Laredo.

A good trip, and it was good to get home.

HOW GREAT IS GPS!

I am on a trip in Tennessee - home country. Used to, I knew all the roads and how to get around. I still think that, but it is not like it used to be. Perhaps my thinking is not as sharp as it used to be. It is harder to find my way around.

I have always prided myself in being a good navigator. I know how to read maps. I am a good compass navigator - Boy Scouts honor, you know. But.... I do have a GPS on my Sprint cell phone, and I have found it pretty good in several places for finding direction. Maybe it is becoming a crutch that I must have. Maybe it should be more than a crutch.

Twice in two days I have let the Sprint GPS woman get me out of a bind. Well, it is not like I could not have gotten out of it, but I decided to put my confidence in the GPS woman - and it worked. My being where I am proves that.

The first time, coming into Nashville, I decided to let GPS get me to the Broadway Embassy. But I lost confidence right away because the GPS woman was not saying what I thought she should be saying. I shut her down to operated on my own instincts. Well, I got off down in a residential neighborhood. Frankly, I did not know where I was!

I plugged in the GPS while in the residential neighborhood, and I decided to let GPS do the directing. In no time, I was in front of Embassy on Broadway!

Then, last night I had gone over to meet friends about 20 miles from Nashville. We went to eat at an O Charlies, which was really right next to the Interstate I came in on. Well, on departing, I obviously took a wrong turn. I got on back roads and drove and drove but never found the Interstate. I could have by following the truck compass, but there was no road going that way. I did not have a map, either.

So, I am traveling down this highway and decided I was not getting anywhere. I turned on the Sprint Navigator, plugged in the hotel address (using a recent one, already there), and immediately, the GPS woman said, "Do a U-turn, and travel nine point six miles." I followed instructions. She put me back on the Interstate in nothing flat. And, she had me back at the hotel in a much shorter distance than I would have done, using my former knowledge.

Isn't technology Great! Just learning to trust is the hard thing. But I am becoming convinced that GPS has arrived for my travels, anyway. I am a believer!

GPS is not new. It is, though for the everyday person. I remember 50 years ago questioning a pilot on why he was taking so long to make his takeoff run. Turned out he was programming coordinates to get to where he was going. Asking him more, he said that the GPS would get him within 20 feet of his destination, a far away place, as I remember. So, GPS has come to me, and I know I am a late comer! But I am a user, never to deride that latest technology available to the automobile traveler.

Life is Good!

It must be the heat!

Well, it is sure hot here in South Texas. Heat, too much of it, can cause one just to be cranky. ha. Well, I will lay it to that. I do prefer to write happy stuff.... I do! But here is another perhaps complainy one.

I have always been amazed at how easy the scamers get away with stealing from people. It runs rampant. I think it even is a part of the economic melt down we have been going through. It is because of greediness. It is also caused because people will tend to fall for anything. I like the axiom if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

We ought to be better at avoiding being taken. We really ought.

Now to what is rubbing me wrong today.

I have been listing to C-SPAN radio on my truck XM radio, lately mostly because I wanted to stay in tune with the questioning of the Supreme Court nominee. But today that was all gone, and there was a House committee, I think it was, questioning a panel on how to tighten the rules to stop scamers (that is my take of the reason, because that is what I was hearing, and it is what got my blood boiling - thinking of heat and air conditioning).

Here is what I heard from a representative for the FTC (Federal Trade Commission, I think). Someone asked him how long it would take putting a rule out that could enforce stopping people from scaming? Answer: ABOUT TWO YEARS! Yep, and while we are waiting for a rule, the scammers get rich!

That is what angers me. Apparently we think we have to have too many rules. Otherwise, somehow, we are mistreating even the mistreaters! Now isn't that a kick?

Why can't we just say it is wrong to cheat? If you do what we think is cheating, you are going to cease and desist until we can get a judge somewhere to validate what it is you are doing. Seems to me right and wrong ought to be pretty easy to figure out. Now, why can't we do that.

Here is the rest of it: No one, not one mentioned what I am saying. What I heard for a good while was just people giving speeches, going this way and that way. This left me to believe no one, not anyone at the Federal level is earning his or her keep on this question. Why, it will take them two years at least to finish the panel that was supposed to (I think) come to some conclusion that would either cause action on laws as now writing or come up with one that will.

Cap and Trade/Energy Bill

Here I go again! Raising a red flag! This time it is because the House of Representatives slid a bill through that was proposed by the Administration that, as reported, will make huge economic changes, possibly to our detriment, in our lives.

Wish I knew more about the provisions of the bill. But what I am hearing, a lot from the Fox network - and maybe CNN is talking the same, is that this is going to cost us individually hugely. It worries me that it seems not much debate was made in the House. It worries me that such a huge bill would pass and not much be said about it. Frankly, I did not know anything about it until a friend of mine emailed me a couple of days ago all distraught.

I think we want energy looked at. I think we want to loose ourselves from the choke hold of foreign oil. I think we might should be concerned about global warming, although there seems to be quite a few who say the alarm is being rung too loudly. But I think non of us wants to pay for it; at least, we don't want to pay what we don't have. Isn't that a kick?

Fact is, many of us cannot afford to pay for it, from what I am hearing now. Maybe the Administration is taking too big a chew? I don't know, but I don't like what I hear. For example, houses have to be made 30 percent more energy efficient. And that does not just apply to new houses. It applies to us when we want to sell our house. Isn't that a kick?

Somebody needs to tell me what all that means. I do hope the Senate is more cautionary than I think the House was. I often complain about all the deliberation in the Senate as I watch on C-SPAN, but now I want them to slow it so that provisions can be debated to come with a solution that we all can live with. People, the Senate in this case, gotta also think about the people.

Maybe there is no easy solution, but all factors have to be weighed, and we must do what we have to in small enough steps that we can bring everybody along in their state of readiness.
I know here I stand the risk of talking where I do not know, but it is on my mind, for sure.

One thing more: The Obama administration sure seems to be coming out in mass change. Frankly, again, I am worried. We need to see what happens with one before we swing so rapidly into the other is my gut feeling.

There, I have raised my Red Flag. I feel better.