THOUGHTS AT THREE A.M.

WHEN IS A GOOD TIME TO TAKE IRON PILLS?

This was the question when I followed a referrer back, and since I didn't see an answer anywhere, I thought I may as well stick my two cents worth in.

Man or woman, when you're pale, run down, lacking energy and tired or fatigued,this could be an indication that you are anemic. Women, of course, should be taking extra care during certain times of the month to replace the iron their bodies naturally expel,during their cycles. But, before you go popping pills, think. The Lord put certain foods on this earth for a reason. The pharmaceutical companies won't be happy with my saying this, but I have always firmly believed that all the nutrients we need can be found in the food we eat.Where the drug producers would like you to believe that we can't possibly get all we need from our food, I beg to differ. They just want to sell you  supplements. But a normal healthy individual shouldn't have to resort to such things. It is a waste of money. If you need more iron in your diet, then you should be eating organ meats at least twice a week. Liver, brains,kidneys, and sweetbreads all are rich in iron, as are lean meats, beets, raisins, spinach,brown beans, including red kidney beans. This is only a partial list,and there may be some foods on it that are not to your liking, such as liver. I can understand that. For years I disliked liver intensely. However, even though you may not care for beef liver, don't forget there are other ways to get this wonderful source of iron into you diet,and enjoy it. Ramaki is a delicious appetiser,and it is made with chicken livers! Also, don't forget that your tastes do change, roughly about every seven years, so you should try foods you didn't like in the past, from time to time, just to discover new delights! I have recently found I really like liver and onions just this way! What a shock! In addition, there may be some dishes that you tasted and didn't like, that were prepared wrong, and so, giving that food another chance, just in case this was your experience, just makes sense.

Naturally, if you have chronic health problems, then it is best to consult your doctor as to whether you can get the iron you need from your diet, or if you should take supplements. Just a caution here...try not to get carried away with the program, and spend so much time and money investing in pills that you forget to buy food!  All too often folks eat what they like, ...whatever tastes good, such as fast food, and then fill in where they are lacking with pills. Completely missing the point. Food was intended to nourish our bodies, not just please the taste buds!

So, when is it a good time to take iron pills? Maybe never!

OUI?

TANK JOHNSON'S BODYGUARD FOUND MURDERED,REALLY MAKES YOU WONDER!!

As most of you are probably aware, I am not much on sports. Ordinarily, this story would cause me to listen,sadly shake my head, and go on without a word.But I happen to know a guy named "Tank"; a real sweet guy who is big and strong and could have been an athlete,but was disillusioned in his youth because he was bigger than everyone else in his class, and needed someone to encourage him to work harder at sports, but since the coaches saw that he didn't move as fast as some others, and would need help reaching his potential, more often than not, he didn't make the team. Or if he did, he warmed the benches.Winning the game, the pride of the school, was more important than giving him a chance.So,his early failures colored his whole life, and now he is a day laborer, who admires football players from afar, and a wistful eye....and when I hear about football teams, around my neck of the woods, it's usually the Bears. So this story got my attention on several different levels. I haven't really heard much about the victim, other than his name was "Willy" something, sorry to say, and that he was "Tanks" bodyguard,and that he and his partner, in whatever they were into, got arrested just before the dirty deed was done.  My knee-jerk reaction was that it sounds as though the bodyguard needed a bodyguard! For whatever reason, it sounds to me that "Tank" and Willy were into some things they should not have been involved with,considering their status as a sports figure,and his "security force"! Which in turn, makes me question this whole premise of high profile sports to begin with. Wasn't the whole idea behind sports programs in schools at the start to teach children how to channel their aggressions,and control their hormonal urges in healthy ways? Then the notion caught on in collages, and then we went to national levels. Well, it seems to me the social experiment has failed. Even up to and including the idea that Physical Education was good for all, that too, is a bust.Our children don't look at Phys. Ed. as a way to be active and healthy. It's all about being the best of the best, the jocks who outshine everyone else, and the kids that could really use a good workout can't make the team. What is that? Then we graduate to high school and it's not about being healthy, it's about being the Star football player, so you can date the lead cheerleader, who also has to be the fittest and prettiest girl in school. Once again, the kids who would benefit the most by all that regular, intense running and jumping around are just sitting on the sidelines, missing out, because they didn't make the cut. So, by the time they get into collage, the BMOC and the  Pep Rally leaders and Cheerleaders have rather high opinions of themselves and have their sights set on positions of national importance, and are focusing on the possibility of becoming just like those players who stand out in the news for all to see, such as "Tank Johnson"! It doesn't end there, as we all know. Down through the last few decades there have been other athletes whose status has afforded them "breaks." They have run afoul of the law, and been so rich from their high paid gaming that they lived out this attitude that their behavior was acceptable because their talent made them above the law. Where will it all end? How long will our society allow this fanaticism of sports figures to continue? It doesn't make sense that men and women who spend their lives playing a game are more highly paid than people who labor every day in hard jobs,and then the law sides with the rich and famous,and punish to the fullest extent of the law, the hard working man.

OUI?

SPIRITUAL WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES!!

"Spiritual wickedness in high places." It is one of those phrases I am so used to reading and hearing from the bible, warning of the end times, and frankly, I expected it to crop up,even from church members. Because even though we know Jesus is the son of God, and have been redeemed by his sacrifice, you don't really anticipate having it come back to you that brothers and sisters in the Lord will continue in sin. I mean, sure we all have our problems,and none of us are perfect...we are merely forgiven,through the blood of Jesus. But it is one thing to have a problem, and ask forgiveness. It is quite another to know when something is patently wrong, and then to go ahead and allow it, or endorse it anyway. Okay, there are some Grey areas. Some things aren't so obvious as others. We all know that some things are absolutely right, and some things are absolutely wrong. Agreed? Alright, so for those of us who are interested in where we will spend eternity,and even for onlookers who don't much care, but are watching what Christians do and don't do, isn't it up to us to keep an eye on what our church leaders are leading us into? Because I have to tell you that there is some literature coming out now days that is being espoused by some rather unsavory types, whom my unsaved friends are saying some very insightful things about, and I can't say that I disagree with them. Rick Warren was one that a buddy of mine said speaks in platitudes and cliche's...and what could I say?  He's right! Beyond that, I thought his book, "Purpose Driven Life" was sadly lacking in Biblical principle,and rather than being a tool to a victorious life, has the opposite effect, that of leading believers away from the Cross of Christ. Having been given the freedom of choosing whom to listen to, I used my free will from God to dismiss the purpose driven, for the spirit led.

Now, I am not saying that Rick Warren is wicked, but he does have a rather "High" place, lauded by all sorts, having written a best seller,particularly the world. And, as we all know, the world is hardly the best judge of whether one is delivering spiritual truth.

However, to my surprise, there are a number of other spiritual, or shall I say, in this instance, "religious" leaders who are looking to Mr. Warren's work as a viable alternative to the Bible....because it certainly does not point the way "To" the Bible,and a great many church members are following his lead,as their pastors have decided to go along with his ideas,and they will follow their pastors wherever they take them, unwilling to doubt, or question what is being told to them. I wonder why this is? Don't they know that when we come to the end, we are responsible for they way we went? You can't put it off on your pastor, saying that's what he told me. It's up to you to diligently seek the right way on your own.

OUI?

REFLECTING BACK ON MY FONDNESS FOR THE FRINGE!

"There is this funny thing I do. It's called Thinking?"

George Carlin                                                       

And with that phrase,George had me,because he sold the line with a look, at once bewildered and rather impatient that he has to explain this concept. I liked him long before I got saved, but even then his language was not the sort that I appreciated or would ordinarily tolerate in my presence. But, there is nothing ordinary about George Carlin. He truly is a thinker. A brilliant man,who also happens to be incredibly funny...and unbelievably earthy.But the beauty of his mind is such, that you can delete...or substitute certain fringe words, for more acceptable words,and his jokes are still funny. That puts him on a level far above comics like Andrew Dice Clay and others of his ilk that couldn't entertain anyone if they didn't have profanity,obscenity,rudeness and filth to shock his audiences with. With Carlin, you don't get posing on the latest rumor, you get insights into every day things. Take sports, for example. Now, I am not a big sports buff. Neither is Mr. Carlin, to hear him tell it. It's been years since I heard him do this bit, but I think I can recap what he has to say about sports, albeit,not as humorously. He takes the position that not all activities called sports are actually sports!

Running?-Running is not a sport, it is a way to get from one place to another really fast! Especially if your being chased.

Bicycling?-Bicycling is not a sport, it's just another form of running, only with a mechanical device to make you go even faster!

Swimming?-Swimming is not a sport, it's a way to keep from drowning! 

There's more to it, but the upshot is, for an activity to be considered a sport, there must be balls involved. And yet, he had things to say on that score too. Golf! What kind of a sportsman plays golf? You take a tiny ball, and hit it with a long stick,and then you walk after it....and then....you hit it again! Hey! You were lucky enough to find it the first time! Pick the ball up, put it in your pocket and go the heck home! Most other sports are just new ways of playing an old game.According to George, tennis is nothing new or even that classy...tennis is just table ping-pong played while standing on the table! His recounting of this bit is hysterically funny, while mine is just a lame retelling of it,and I remember it so imperfectly that I am sure that none of this was the slightest bit amusing to you. But that is not because I didn't use his vernacular,but because I am not George Carlin,with his timing, wit, and mugging that goes along with fresh-eyed take on ordinary things, that makes him an extraordinary entertainer. But, he's more than an entertainer, he is an artist. The buzz is, George is releasing a new book called:"3 X Carlin:An Orgy of George"!

Look for it. I plan to.

OUI?

BEETHOVEN'S THOUGHTS ON RELIGION?

How is one to know a man's thoughts on religion? It is difficult enough for a man to know his own thoughts on religion, but to know the man's thoughts on religion nearly two hundred years dead is at best a daunting task, and one not undertaken by any of the authors of any of my reference works, including my sets  of  encyclopedia's.

So, one must resort to following his own paper trail. His works, then, should speak for him. Of about 600 of Ludwig Van Beethoven's works that still survive,only two were clearly religious. The two masses that he wrote. Whether because he was asked, commissioned, or simply "moved" to write them, history is silent on his motives, but the fact that he wrote them tells us that he at least was aware of God, and at least twice reverenced his creator. At least, in part. I have heard these offerings,and frankly, I was not impressed. So from my own point of view, I prefer to consider his entire body of work. So much of what he wrote throughout his lifetime was so inspired, so beyond beautiful, that it is difficult to think that this man who started to go deaf at the age of thirty, and still continued on composing, was simply fulfilling a passion for music! As anyone who loves good music knows, such a composer is not merely putting notes on a page, just to be played to tickle the ears of the eventual listener,but is transcribing an inner voice,born of his mind and spirit, calling out to God. These are human outcries translated into a language that can be understood and appreciated for generations to come.

This, after all,I think was the man who wrote "The Pastoral" derived from one of his symphonies, which was featured in Walt Disney's Fantasia, to which Disney had the Pegasus fly! An experience so delightful that to this day gives me chills because it is so beautiful. This is the man who wrote "Moonlight Sonata", one of my all-time favorite pieces of music,which when played simply by one lone pianist, all by himself on one piano, even an upright spinet, is enough to take my breath away. But the sound of it played on a grand piano is enough to keep me weak for the entire time! I cannot imagine what it would do to me to hear it done by an orchestra!

So, given what we know of the man and his music, and how classical music buffs are still thrilling to his work today, and his works dedicated to God, I would say that he was definitely,at least for a portion of his life, in touch  with God. Whether or not that would translate into his being religious is something else again. Religion, as we have discussed on this site before,is not the same thing as being in tune with, in touch with, or an instrument of God. Religion is a system of rules and regulations, most of which are made up by men,and (barring the commandments) having nothing to do with God's will. Having read about the man, I doubt very much if he would have been considered a good church member. Having been exploited in his youth by his father as a child prodigy,and considered Boorish and  temperamental as an adult, I don't think he had much patience for the rules of man.

But, that's just my opinion. I could be wrong!

OUI?

HOW TO DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN MALE AND FEMALE BIRDS!!

Males of the wild kingdom are the more brightly colored, more flamboyantly feathered, than the females. This is true for all,as should be obvious if you pay attention,okay? It is the same thing for birds.Whether we are talking Cardinals or Cockatiels, the female is darker, and more drab,which makes sense, considering that in the wild the female has a protectively less ostentatious coloring than the male,so that she is harder to see as she sets on the nest, hatching eggs. The male Cockatiel has a brilliant bright yellow crest, and vivid grey, black and white patches on the rest of the body,with the yellow repeated usually on the breast and the tail. The female Cockatiels are fairly uniform in the greyness,and have little touches of yellow and white, grey and black, but it is all muted and soft in comparison to her male counterpart. And where the male will often have an entirely yellow head, other than the brilliant orange cheek patches, the female may have only one tiny shock of yellow on her head, and the orange cheek patches may be small, again, muted with grey, and all but non-existent.

However, when they are young hatchlings both male and female Cockatiels are grey, so it is in your best interest to get your bird from someone who knows how to sex them, if it matters to you what the gender of your bird is. By an large the rule of thumb is that females are shyer and less talkative than males, and the males are more adventuresome and affectionate,and louder,but as with any pet, they all have their own personalities,and can be a wonderful addition to any home that is fond of birds.

For more information, try going to www.birdtalkmagazine.com/ where they have full color pictures and lots of resources.

OUI?

A HARD-KNOCK LIFE?

Do you consider yourself to be having a hard knock life? ..Or, do you know someone who is? I am just wondering, because I have some friends who are going through some difficult situations right now,and they believe they are having a hard-knock life. So, when there is more month left at the end of the money, or they suspect the dog is diabetic, or they are having strange symptoms of their own...whatever the problem is, they ring me up and After a few normal, how are you doings?, and Oh, I've missed you too's, they launch into the monologue. So, whatever I am up to, I find my headset, and go about whatever it is, and let them talk, and listen intently, making proper response noises to assure them that I'm not falling asleep, or just bored out of my mind,and they tell me the whole story. I guess they just think that I am a really good listener,and life for me is grand, with no problems on my mind...and after all, who else is going to listen to them? And, since I am stuck here in this chair, what else have I got to do with my time...or I have teased them so many times about going into my blog with their radical stuff, they perhaps now think they are giving me material for todays post. Well, that's alright. If airing their problems to the one person who is not going to go and blab their business to others, and use their names to do it, makes them feel better, then what is the problem? Right? It does seem to help them to put things into perspective to make me their sounding board, and they know that once it is all out in the open, they will get a "there,there poor thing." Some questions as to what they have already done about the problem, and sounds of righteous indignation if they have been harmed by someone, or some new suggestions as to how they might seek further ways to proceed righting the wrong. They know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I am not going to tell them they were stupid to do thus and so, nor even indicate that whatever happened was all their own fault. Even if they say it was, I am not going to! They also know that if there is anything I can do to help, I will volunteer, so when they call, I know it won't be to ask me for something, unless they are totally desperate. When a situation such as that arises, I am the first one to chide them for not asking me! After all, I am not without connections. I have a phone,and a computer. I know resource people who know people. I have a son who drives cab,and can find out almost anything anyone needs to know about the area, or who can do what for who, at the drop of a hat! I can make a call and get almost anyone from point a to point b, with just my signature, quicker than most can just make a phone call for information. For example; I got a frantic phone call that three children were stranded at daycare, and there was no parent within 30 minutes driving time to pick them up, and the daycare would be closing in five minutes! The grandmother who was supposed to pick them up had a dead battery, and no one else to help her. I called the cab office, but Yon son was out of town,and couldn't do the trip,but at my request, he okayed the trip to be charged to him, and a cab picked the kids up and dropped them off to me, I signed for the trip and half an hour later, the father picked the kids up at my house, safe and warm, eating cookies at my dining room table. To this day, that dear grandmother doesn't believe me when I say it was no big deal...I was happy to do that for her. That is what friends and family do for one another...it is behavior of love.

But I said all of that to say this. It has occurred to me that rarely, if ever have I done the same thing in reverse, with the possible exception of Yon son, or wifey-poo. When I have a problem, I don't call my friends and bend their ear for hours on end, telling them the whole sad story. If they happen to call, and I am having a bad time of it, or a bad day, or a problem of some sort, they will ask how I am, and if my answer is less than jubilant,they may or may not pick up on a tone in my voice that tells them something is wrong, but more often than not, I am able to swallow my difficulty,and listen to their problem. They are very vocal and forthcoming about the fact that they are not happy. They know that I understand that. They depend upon it. They depend upon me to cheer them up, to help them sort things out and focus on how to deal with the latest bit of ugliness that has raised it's head, because whatever it is, it will not overwhelm me. The truth is I have been blessed with the ability to stand back from the problem,and look at it from all angles,and come up with some sort of solution, or a less threatening viewpoint. Thanks be to God, because when I have a problem, that's who I go to. I can't handle many things on my own,but calling a friend on the phone is not my way. When I got a thousand dollar gas and light bill for one month three years ago, I sat down on the couch,and said, "Father, You've got to help me with this one!" I sat there for about an hour, I guess, while he poured through me perspectives and solutions. Exactly what I was going to have to do to deal with the situation, and come out of the mess this would put my finances in without our having to sell everything we owned and go without food. It was over a month later when my friends found out that we had started calling that very day, canceling cable television,the newspaper, the Swanns ice cream truck delivery, and returning books and magazines and canceling subscriptions,and memberships. And, yes, it was hard to do. No doubt about that. Yet, it was what was necessary to conserve what income we had to cover the basics of life, down to the bone. But we did it willingly, because the alternative was to try to hold on to all those extraneous frills and creature comforts that everybody likes, but nobody really needs. And, for what? To pay out good money that should go for the necessities of life, to maintain a lifestyle that one suddenly can no longer afford? Who cares if people are shocked that we no longer have cable t.v.? For a Status symbol? To have dozens of channels of television to watch, when four is far more than we can watch in a twenty-four hour period anyway? Who needs all those distractions, when there is so much to do just to keep a home going as it is? To have the luxury of a newspaper delivered, when they don't all get read anyway,and if I really want a paper, we can take a handful of change and walk to the corner and buy one.

Now, I would never tell my friends to do this. They prize their big screen t.v.'s and their cable,and I have seen for myself that they would rather go without food, and worry from month to month about paying overdue bills than do without their goodies. So be it. Everyone has the right to set their own priorities, just as I have mine. And, personally, I would rather rest easy, knowing my bills are paid and the groceries are bought, than to have the constant worry on my mind of how I am going to be able to scramble to cover this months utilities, pay the rent, or put food on the table, just so I can sit on the couch half the night and flip from channel to channel. And yes, I may have a few friends who have created for themselves a hard-knock life. They call, and they cry at me, and I try to console them, but they know all the while they are weeping on my shoulder there is another way to handle the short-falls in their lives. From one month to the next, one spends more money on pet food than she does for her own food. But she is not being extravagant. She is just feeding many, many pets. Birds, cats, dogs, fish,and Lord knows what else she has in that house,but she won't part with any of them. And, it continues.She gets a windfall, and she will go out and buy...another pet! So, when she calls and tells me that she has no food to eat, what can I do? I do what I have always done. Prayed for her, that one day she will come to herself and downsize the critter population,and pare things down to a reasonable, manageable group she can support without starving herself to feed! Another friend pays out almost her entire check on housing, and cable. Once again, no food to speak of in the house, but she has a respectable address, a "House Beautiful" home. She is always just one step ahead of the furniture rental places,and has had to resort to asking her boyfriend to make utility payments for her....she goes through boyfriends like a beaver through a board fence. Her children's beds and dressers have been repossessed twice,and she is forever losing her stove and refrigerator. If it wasn't so sad it would be laughable how shocked these two are that I don't have cable, and then have the nerve to stand and wonder why I have food in my freezer,and they don't have any in theirs! Don't get me wrong. I feel sorry for them, I really do. But where does this blind spot come from that makes people throw their money away on nonsense, while having nothing for the important stuff? Continually! It's one thing to get caught short on occasion, but to do it over and over again? Since when did the wants and needs become so mixed up and intertwined that people set themselves up for a hard life when it is completely unnecessary?

It has crossed my mind that perhaps my role as a friend would be better filled, were I to be more open about my problems, and what I have had to do to avoid their situations. However, it's not like I have made it a secret. I just have not shared my difficulties at the time they occurred. Later, after I have sorted them all out,and solved the problems, and they noticed that I, say, had to give up my "Y" membership, so I couldn't go swimming every day anymore, because I just couldn't afford to do that, and do laundry.

Could it be, they have to see the angst with which I must give things up in order to understand that we sometimes have to make hard choices to keep our expenses at a reasonable level? Is it possible that they think it was easy to rid myself of all those fun things,and they are just wishing they were more like me? Do they really think I just don't care to call out for Pizza, or have lost all interest in having my nails done? I used to get compliments on my acrylic nails all the time. They were long, bright red, and shiny, perfect, with a white star in the dead center of each nail, and in the center of the star, a "diamond". Very pretty. Also, very silly. But from time to time, I think back upon all of those things I had to give up, and it takes a while for me to remember exactly what all those things were. Fresh flowers, all the time. Winter and summer. And, I sigh....These are the things I think about at Three a.m.

But then, don't we all.

OUI?

ONCE AGAIN, WHERE THE TERM" MRS. MURPHY" CAME FROM!

Years ago,there were two  things in common in every American home. In large cities or small towns,and even rural area's. One was the lack of indoor plumbing, and the other was intersecting fences in the back yard. Those two things, coupled with the fact that most folks did not openly discuss intimate details, even amongst  husbands and wives,made for a lot of euphemisms,which though thinly veiled the truth, served to keep ladies from having to suffer the embarrassment of speaking words to the man in their life, which she often blushed just to think of in her own mind. So, that when she set out on her mission to unburden herself, with her Sears catalog under her arm, when being given a questioning look, would say only, " I'm going to visit with Mrs.Murphy." Presumably, the neighbor she chatted with over the back fence. Had her husband been meddlesome, doubtless he would have been shocked to find out that every woman had this same Mrs.Murphy with whom she chatted, morning, noon, and night! Mrs. Murphy really got around, or had a huge, huge family that was quite far-flung!

Eventually, of course, there were just enough meddlesome, adventuresome husbands who went investigating to find out that the woman of whom their wife spoke was not named Mrs.Murphy, but Mrs.Olsen or Mrs. Goldberg; and so emboldened that he had been lied to, the next time followed his wife, only to discover that she was actually visiting the privy! Some had to actually fling the door open and shout AHA!...only to be confronted with the spectacle of their dainty wife seated there calmly tearing off pages from the catalog to understand the truth of it, but most got understanding without such a shameful instance, and slunk away, ready to allow the deception to go on unencumbered.

If you had to seek out this answer you must be one of the suspicious ones, so "AHA!" YOURSELF! Now shut the door!

Oh, and why Mrs.Murphy? This began during the time of the great potato  famine,when there was a dizzying number of Irish immigrants,and where I am certain there were an awful lot of Kelly's and O'Dells, the most popular name was Murphy! Furthermore, even when there was a huge influx of men with no jobs waiting for them, the daughters and wives of these Irishmen were not just willing and able, but anxious to take jobs in big houses as cooks, washerwomen and maids to feed their families...and it was not beneath Mrs.Murphy's dignity to take out the slop jars....see stew? BTW. I know this because I am descended from a long line of Murphy women myself. Daughter of Irish Kings. Heir to a couple of castles I shall never see, and dang proud of the fact that Murphy women were never too grand to put in an honest days work!

OUI?

WILD, WIERD, WEEK-END HOUSE PARTY, TURNS EVIL, TO GOOD!!

There was no actual planning involved. Not really. It just so happened that Yon son's wife was in town. Then her shut-down time occurred. And then Sherry was able to come and spend Sunday with us, and a party, of sorts, just... broke out! It was odd really: none of us here at the house had had enough sleep,between working and taking care of cooking and cleaning before folding in the middle and crashing for a two or three hour nap;and then getting back up to run a couple loads of laundry, putting a meal on the table and then crashing for another two hours before going back to work, by the time Sunday came around,and Sherry was expected to spend the afternoon and evening. we were all just a bit punchy. But we just couldn't postpone our get together again,because She's family,and she has been going without seeing a friendly face, or having a decent meal for a very long time, and we have been going without seeing her, and we all missed one another!

So, as sleep deprived as we were, and a little weary, we pulled together, and Yon son trimmed out a nice round steak, and chunked it up for pepper steak, and threw it in the crock pot in the morning. We straightened up the house,and by the time morning services were about to start...Yon son was crashing, but Wifey and I tuned in anyway, and set up our tape (audio) to tape the service. It was fabulous,however, as soon as it was over, I was crashing, so I went to nest, and she stayed up to play on the computer, until it was almost time for Sherry to be picked up,and then Yon and I were both duely called, and Wifey-poo went, revved up her Semi..(bob-tail) to go fetch her. That gave Yon and I time to pull ourselves together, dress and polish for our company. Well,It all began so grandly! As she came in there were hugs and kisses all around, and lots of catching up stories as we settled in with drinks and comfortable seating all round the oval kitchen table. I had managed to brush my hair, brush my teeth, scrub my face and neck, moisturize, and put on my eyebrows,and with my curling iron, I put two curls in my hair. Just as I finished up those two curls, I stopped,and caught Yon's eye. " I've got two curls done." said I, " What do you want to bet, Sherry catches me with just two curls?" It wasn't a minute later, Sherry came through the door! So, mixed in with all the hugging and kissing, there was a lot of laughter as well, because, let's face it, Yon cannot keep a funny to himself...and Sherry loves to "catch" me a little undone. But I was a sport about it, and went right on and finished the front and top of my hair, and did the sides,and let the back and the ends go hang, rather than spend another half-hour or more finishing up my hair.

Moving right along, Yon brought out his wonderful squash soup, with a flourish,and tho his little wife was dubious about even tasting it, we all encouraged her, and she ended up having two bowls of it! The rest of the pepper steak was added to the crock-pot,and we migrated into the dining room for the evening service,totally satisfied for the moment,so there was no need for any sort of snacks to munch while we waited for the services to start. Of course, by the time the realization set in that we were well over an hour too early for church, Wifey's laptop was brought out,and both computers were set up to play games. What a hoot! We played, we laughed, we talked, we all took turns and Sherry was just in her glory with all these wonderful new games to play, and she was just winning and winning! Now we were all drinking diet soda, but you never would have convinced anyone of that had they been listening in! There was such humor flying around that by the time we left the games behind and dug out our Bibles, we were still joking and laughing. Well, we got through circumspectly, although I'm not sure how, because once Sherry gets all giddy and silly, everything she says is hysterically funny! All I can say about our behavior during church was, I am glad that God has a sense of humor.But finally, when our guest preacher read the scriptural passage as the foundation of his message...after a brief interval of muttered grumblings that it wasn't Jimmy or Donnie preaching, we did settle down...no, I must be honest...I settled down and tried to listen and glean some knowledge and inspiration from the message. Strangely, he used the same passage that Donnie had used that morning, Acts, Chapter 1,beginning with the first word of the first verse. He was talking about Pentecost...the first infilling of the Holy Spirit,and how important it is for Christians to be filled with the Spirit, with which I heartily agree. Without the Holy Spirit, we can do nothing that pleases God. Un fortunately, this dear Brother was a little new, and a little nervous, and I am just glad that we were attending church in my dinning room and not in the Sanctuary, because my unruly little bunch was wound up like an eight day clock, and instantly tuned into the fact that this guy was not as focused and certain how to present his material, as Jimmy or Donnie would have been. For example, he had the back-up references, but he jumped around in his presentation so quickly, and so often, that Sherry and the kids got tickled. He mentioned this fellow who wrote this small book on the topic of the Holy ghost revival in Wales, and in the next breath, he was on the Azusa street revival. I could see where he was going with it, but Sherry and company were totally lost, saying " what has the revival in California got to do with Whales?" Well, it all went downhill from there. By the time the preacher made the altar call, I felt very blessed by the evenings service, but I suspect that the others in attendance were just glad to have the service draw to a close. Yet, Wifey did express interest in the free booklet offered, in how to receive the holy Spirit, so I dashed off an email to request it for the household, and then went off-line so we could have dinner. Everyone who wasn't still too full from the soup then enjoyed the pepper steak, and Yon son crashed for a two hour nap, and things settled back down to a dull roar. And about an hour later, it happened. Sherry had been kiting around, trying to help me out, since Yon had gone to bed, and all of a sudden, down she went. She has a nerve problem in her left leg, called Neuropathy, and it completely went out on her and let her down, and she hit the deck just between the dining room table,and my oxygen concentrator that sits next to my bedroom door. She hit hard, with a dull Thud,and Wifey and I instantly came to her side.Once she was able to regain her footing, and sit up in a chair, my original response of calling Yon son and having the kids take her to the hospital was shot down, but then when she moved back to her own seat, she started to fall again, and if it hadn't been for Wifey's quick reaction of grabbing her by the back of her shirt,and pulling her into the chair,while I sat helplessly in front of her chair, in my wheelchair,no doubt she would have landed on the floor again!

That brought the party to an abrupt end, as Yon was summarily called,and informed that they had to take Sherry to the hospital! Ever the gracious guest, as she was being hauled out the door with one of my kids on either side of her, Sherry assured me that she had had a wonderful time, and we must do it again, real soon! I know she was in a lot of pain, and her leg was obviously swelling by this time...which was one of the deciding factors of whether or not to send her to the hospital. Now to my mind, that is the height of  graciousness, to thank  your hostess for arranging a wonderful time,  just as your being hauled off the hospital; but it didn't end there. Once to the hospital,they all knew I would still be awake, hovering near the phone, waiting for news,and so they called me about an hour later, just to let me know that Sherry had just been taken down to x-ray,but that the doctor's theorized that she had just incurred a bad sprain. I breathed deeper knowing this, and from the tone of their voices I could tell that Sherry was being her ever cheerful and friendly self, and having been informed that they had already administered something for her pain, she could be counted upon to be joking and keeping the kids and the staff at the hospital totally entertained. As I watched the kids drive away with her earlier I had whispered a prayer for her, and them, and so as I hung up the phone, I followed that up with another prayer of thanks to the father,and a while later, the evenings events seemed to play back in my mind, and then I got"God chastises those he loves!" I  understood instantly what the Holy Spirit was telling me,and why. Up until that point, I had been feeling just awful about the fact that I had asked too much of my friend, in having her come out, when she should have been at home resting. Or, at the very least, allowing her to be up fetching ice for my cup,which was her idea, or to bring me something from the kitchen table...a Benadryl pill, which was my idea. With understanding comes an awe and a wonder at the Father's total care of us. He imparted that knowledge to me, not so that I would say anything to Sherry or the kids about it, but so that I wouldn't take on a guilt to the matter over which I had no control, thereby raising my blood pressure, or my worry factor. And, so that when I told this story, as he seemed to be impressing me that I should, by bringing it back to mind again and again, that I stress this point above all else. As Christians, we are not perfect. We all do things that are sometimes inappropriate, unwise, or foolish. We are all works in progress. But when we catch ourselves being un-Christlike, we have an advocate with the Father; Christ himself, to whom we can turn, and ask forgiveness, and then he can turn to the Father, and say, I died for her/him/them,and God is faithful and just to keep his promise to forgive us.

Oh yes. I think I can say without reservation that the Sunday night service will stand out in my mind for a very long time. I learned a lot, once again!

Blessed !...be the name of the Lord!

OUI?

HERE IT COMES AGAIN,HALLOWEEN, THE ELECTION, AND THE HOLIDAYS!

Thundering at us. like a herd of turtles! The television Ads! The heated up political spots,the candy and costume ads for trick or treat,and the beginnings of the Christmas toys and gifts, all rushing at us together, just at a time when we should be making serious decisions, we have an atmosphere artificially created to make us worry, stress, and vacillate on our choices! Even headache remedies are doing their part to confuse and irritate us, don't you think? See, myself, personally, I think that this "head-on" campaign was done just the way they planned it, and in my opinion, the whole thing was underhanded. You might even think they were ganging up on us, to make us rush to judgment,but don't let them do that to you!

The old saying goes, " Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their party!" I agree. But first, turn off your t.v.! Sit back, take a deep breath, and consider. Have things changed all that much about your party that now is the time to bail on them? I doubt it. People being who they are, everyone makes mistakes, and there are as many bad buys and  bad guys out there as there were before.

So, have fun on Halloween,and spend some time quietly considering whom you will vote for, and then look ahead to the holidays with optimism.Life is good,enjoy it while you have it!

OUI?