The Difference A Year Can Make

Just One Year Ago Bobby Was Pulling In Fish From A Boat On Lake Vermilion. Him And His Friend Matt Went Catfishing A Lot Last Summer. This Photo Was Just One Example Of His Catch. I Can Still Remember The First Time I Took Bobby Fishing. He Started Out The Same Way I Did. The Basics Of Learning To Be Smarter Than The Fish. A Cane Pole And A Bobber. It Didn't Take Him Very Long Before He Graduated To His Own Pole.
Reminiscing Is Something I Do Often. However That's Not The Reason For The Writing Of This Blog. My Reason Is Detailed At The Conclusion.
In A Previous Blog I Told How I Planted A Rose Of Sharon In Memory Of Bobby On His Birthday. We Have Had A Very Dry Summer This Year. I Watered His Bush Every Other Day. Today It Bloomed For The Very First Time. I Was Totally Shocked Because I Was More Concerned In Getting It Use To It's New Home. Blooming This Year Was The Last Thing I Expected. I Don't Need A Bloom To Remind Me Of My Son. However, Life Goes On. Bobby Was Full Of Life. This Bloom Represents The Life Bobby Had. The End Result As Sad As It Is Can't Be Ignored.
As In Every Good Book Has It's Ending. No Different Than Bobby's Life. It Came To An End Like Mine Will Some Day. I Have No Idea When That Will Be. I Do Hope However Something I Said Or Done Will Leave An Impression On Someone's Life. I Hope To Leave Memories For Someone To Reminisce Someday. That Bloom Brought A Smile To My Face. It Was The Last Thing I Expected. That's My Point. You May Think When You Awake Each Day It Will Be Like Any Other. Life Is Full Of Surprises.

They Were, I Am......

On August 17Th Of 1952 My Parents, Harvey & Shirley Were Married. Without These Two I Would Not Be In Existence. Today They Celebrate 59 Years Of Marriage.
Because Of This Union I Have Two Brothers And Two Sisters, One Deceased. Today I Congratulate You Both On This Milestone. I Hope You Have A Wonderful Day Of Celebration.

How's The Weather?

I Am At My Wits End. We Need Rain Here In The Midwest. We Got A Lot Of It In The Early Spring. My Complaint Is The Forecast. These Meteorologist Just Can't Seem To Get It Right.
I Know I Just Recently Blogged About Weather Predictions. I Have Not Conducted A Sale In Weeks. I Have Sat Out The Past Three Friday's. The First Friday Was Due To The Extreme Heat. The Most Recent Friday's Have Predicted Rain. No Rain. I Would Have No Complaint If It Rained. I Sit And Study The Weather Patterns, The Fronts, etc, Anything And Everything That Pertains To Friday.
It's Becoming A Struggle Trying To Stay Afloat Without Revenue. Gas Is Not Cheap These Days. I Have Reached The Point Where I Don't Know What To Do. Of Course It's Forecasted To Rain Again This Friday Too. Do I Believe The Forecast Or Do I Set Up In Spite Of His Prediction? It's A Royal Pain When It Rains On The Church Parking Lot. There Is So Much Involved In A Typical Sale Without Dealing With Rain. Once You Put Rain Into The Picture, Everything Changes.
I Find Myself Stressed Out The Moment They Put Rain In The Forecast. Today Is Only Monday For Crying Out Loud! A Lot Can Change Between Now And Friday.
In The Meantime I Pull My Hair Out Trying To Figure Out What To Do.
Why Does Life Have To Be This Complicated?

That's It!! I'm Mowing In The Dark Next Time

Once A Week I Mow Grass. The Grass I Mow Consist Of Three Different Properties. I Have No Problems With Two Of Them. The One I Dread The Most Is The Church. It Seems The Moment I Pull Into The Parking Lot Somebody Is Bound To Pull In Behind Me. Allow Me To Tell You I Am Some What A Well Known Figure Associated With This Church. I Can't Seem To Accomplish Getting The Mowing Done In Record Time. I Have People Interrupting My Mowing All The Time With Their Questions. It's Not That I'm Unwilling To Be Helpful, I Just Can't Seem To Get My Mowing Done.
The Only Solution Is To Mow After Dark. Nobody Would Expect That. Would They?

Help When You Can. Know When To Stop

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Help When You Can. Know When To Stop
by McGregor Miller on Monday, August 1, 2011 at 7:45am

I have $1,000.00 in the bank. It's not a lot but it's there in case something unexpected happens. My friend John's car broke down. He didn't ask to help but I knew he needed that car to get him to work every day. It was costly but it had to be done. What are friends for?

My neighbor's house caught on fire and they were devastated. Their lives seemed hopeless now that everything in their life was destroyed in the fire. They needed immediate help before the insurance kicked in. With only the clothes on their back they were in desperate need for new ones. They were poor and could not afford a hotel room. Someone should help them. They can't help themselves.

My thousand dollars is no longer in the bank. As a matter of fact I'm living with a deficit.

I became distracted by other people's problems I found myself not able to pay all of my bills this month. I had to take out a small loan to get my bills caught up. The interest rate will eat away but it can't be helped. The money has to come from some place.

To make matters worse my friend was arrested for battery. He's got an attitude and is in desperate need for anger management. He needs bail money. If he doesn't get out of jail he will lose his job.

The United States had a massive bank account. Since we became the worlds humanitarian to help struggling nations for natural disaster relief. Unfortunately other countries are not as giving. Without their contribution to help we find the need to offer more assistance. If it were us needing the help we would appreciate other nations coming to our aid. I wonder how many actually would.

Our Country has decided to be the Top Cop. If a Country has a leader who does things that are not in the best interest of their country, it's the opinion of our country to remove him from power. We live in a democracy and this is the only life we know. However other country's know no other life than what they live. What right do we have to go in there and tell those people their leader is a mean person and we are going to find a better life for them?

This is no different than a Baptist telling a Jew he way of life is wrong.

Just because the man responsible for the 911 attacks fled to Afghanistan I see no reason in going to war in that country because he fled there. He becomes America's most wanted. You don't create havoc and destroy what took them years to build.

The wars in the east have lasted thousand of years. Who are we to intervene? Let nature takes it's course like it has for those thousands of years.

Our national debt is depleted. We don't have enough money to pay all the bills. Raise the Federal debt ceiling is the solution. That's until you find you will have to raise it again later on down the road. We knew this day would come.

If we spent the billions of dollars fighting all of these wars, and helping all of these helpless country's, ALONE, in time there would be no money for us. These billions of dollars should have been spent right here in the good ol USA!

Adequate healthcare for everybody. Jobs, jobs, jobs! Domestic oil! American made companies. Programs to help educate people for the workforce. A waitress going to college at night to further herself in life. If the United States were to invest more into ourselves we would get more.

We can't have these programs because we are spending your money to fight these wars.

The entire focus on this issue involves not having enough money to take care of ourselves. If we as a country focus more on our own welfare, worry less about others we would not be in the situation we are in today. I agree spending is the biggest issue. Let's start by getting our troops back home. The people from the east will continue to fight one another for as long as they breathe. I say we need to police less and help ourselves more. I believe the economy would be in better shape than what it is today. Today's action in my opinion just applied band aid on the problem. The problem will not just go away. We will revisit this situation again before the end of this year. We as people need to make noise in our dissatisfaction in being on all this foreign soil.

Just saying....my words.
Just call me mac.

Redneck Tuck

The Danville Dan's Were Having A "Redneck" Night At The Danville Stadium Last Night. The Danville Dan's Is A Collegiate Level Baseball Team That Is Situated In Danville Illinois.
The Above Photo Is Of My Brother Tuck. He Is A Part Time Stadium Announcer For The Danville Dan's. Last Night Was Redneck Night For The Evening. They Encouraged People To Dress Up Or Dress Down For The Occasion. Previously They Had A Hawaiian Night. This Time Tuck And Others Wore Shirts To Fit The Occasion.
It Ended Up Nobody Came To The Stadium, Redneck Style. Just Tuck. So There Sat Tuck In His Bib Overall's Hat With Braids, With Toilet Paper Sticking Out From His Behind. I Imagine The Majority Of Those In Attendance Had No Idea It Was Redneck Night. There Sat Tuck.
If You Know Tuck, Let Me Warn You How Shy He Is. Not!! Tuck Of Course Took The Non Compliance In Stride. He Must Have Been Stared At By Many Last Night. They May Have Wondered What He Looked Like Before He Dressed Up For The Ballgame.
Tuck Has A Great Sense Of Humor. He Knows I Would Never Laugh At Him, But Allowing Me To Laugh With Him Is Priceless!
You Made My Day Bro! The Years We Had Shared Through The Many Years Of Knowing One Another Would Give Me A Months Of Writing Blogs. Maybe Another One On A Different Day.
Yahoo, Mountain Dew?

Up Your Nose With A Rubber Hose!

I Use To Say That To Vent My Frustration. Today I Take Aim At Any And All Weather People. Included Are The So Called Meteorologist. How About Don't Pee On My Leg And Tell Me It's Raining.....
Ok, Let's Get To The Root Of My Problem. I Host An Outside Weekly Rummage Sale. I Depend On The Weather People To Do What They Are Trained To Do. I Don't Pay Attention To The Radio Stations Disk Jockey's Report Because It's Their Job To Read Whatever Is Put Under Their Nose. I Do However Expect A Certain Amount Of Professionalism From Those Who Went To School To Become A Meteorologist. All Of Their Fancy Equipment, Maps, Illustrations, Graphics, Are Useless If They Cannot Make A More Accurate Prediction. There Was A Time I Was Having A Sale When Out Of No Where Rain Began Pouring Down. It Was Not Predicted. The Weatherman Didn't Even Say,,,Oops!
I Have Cancelled Sales Because It Was Forecasted To Rain. Sometimes It Would Not Rain At All.
So You Think It's The Meteorologist I Am Attacking? Partly. I Guess One Of The Worse Situations Is When Somebody Approaches Me After It Did Not Rain. They Say, You know, It Did Not Rain. Yes I Know This. Your Point? You Could Have Set Up Because I Knew It Wasn't Going To Rain. Do You Think I Care If They Knew It Wasn't Going To Rain? I Rely On Trained People To Determine Whether It's Going To Rain. Certainly Not A Backyard Weather Predictor. If They Don't Get It Right My Frustration Is Pointed Toward Them.
Every Time I Sit A Week Out It Cost Me. The Sales Are What Bring Revenue In To Pay For Gas And Other Cost To Keep Me Going. Not Only Is It Frustrating, It's Very Costly When I Have To Cancel.
It Infuriates Me When Someone Rubs My Nose In It After It Does Not Rain On The Day I Cancel. Like, Hey I Told You So...
I Really Would Like To Have A Job With Cool Looking Graphics And Instruments Just To Tell You What The Weather Did Yesterday. Get Paid 60-70,000.00 A Year! That Would Be Fantastic!
Realistically I Would Prefer The Naysayers To Just Mind Their Own Business. I Seem To Get It From All Angles Throughout The Summer.
I Think From Now On When I Cancel A Sale Because Of Forecasted Rain, I Will Just Tell People I Didn't Feel Well. Maybe I Just Wanted The Day Off. I Don't Appreciate Being Proved Wrong When I Rely On Someone Who Is Suppose To Be Right!
I Have Been Playing The Rain Game For Years Now. The Bottom Line Is All Of That Stuff That Fills The Parking Lot Is Not Their Responsibility. It Takes Me 2 Hours To Set Up And 2 1/2 Hours To Shut Down. That Is 4 1/2 Hours Just Opening And Closing.
Starting Today I Refuse To Let Anybody Get Under My Skin When It Comes To My Decisions On Whether I Have A Sale Or Not. You Never Know, I May Decide To Have A Sale Just Once A Month. I May Decide To Have A Sale In The Middle Of The Night. Whatever I Decide Will Be My Decision And That's The Way It Is.

What's On Television?

I Can Remember Growing Up As A Young Child Watching A Black And White Television. This Was Before Cable Television. Our Outside Antenna Allowed Us To Watch 3-4 Television Stations. Back In The Day Whatever Was Being Broadcasted Was Delightful To Us Because We Were Thankful For The Technology.
Tonight I Was Looking Through The TV Guide Searching For Something Good To Watch. I Have More Than 100 Channels To Choose From And Could Not Find Anything Interesting To Watch. Can You Believe That?
Maybe We As A Society Need To Go Back To The Basics. If We Had Only Three Programs To Choose From We Would Select The Best One And Watch It Whether We Like It Or Not. Don't Get Me Wrong, I'm Not Complaining.
We Made It Better, Bigger And More Of It, Yet We Struggle To Find Just One Channel That Will Keep Our Interest. Is It Just Me?
The Solution, Watch Less Television. Read A Good Book. No Commercials....

Why Dogs Eat Dog Food

Meet Alaya. She Is A Miniature Yorkshire Terrier. She Weighs Only Three Pounds. For The Past Few Years She Looks Forward To Wednesday Nights. Wednesday Night We Play Euchre With Some Good Friends Of Ours. When These Friends Walk In Our Door Alaya Knows It's Wednesday. Every Wednesday We Always Have Pizza. This Is Why Alaya Loves This Night. We All Peel The Crust Off And Break It In Small Pieces For Alaya.
A Week Ago Yesterday We Decided To Break Our Routine And Order A New Sandwich Subway Had Been Advertizing. After Realizing It Would Not Be A Pizza Night Alaya Went Over To The Couch And Began Pouting. After Seeing This We Decided To Break Off Small Pieces Of Bread For Her. This Seemed To Satisfy Her And She Was Happy Once Again. After About 15 Minutes Into Our Meal I Noticed Something Was Not Right With Alaya. I Grabbed A Hold Of Her And We Inspected Her Mouth. On The Roof Of Her Mouth Was A Glob Of Dough From The Bread. Instead Of Swallowing, It Stuck To The Roof Of Her Mouth Which Was Cutting Off Her Air Supply. We Were Able To Remove It. It Scared Us And I Know It Scared Alaya Most. We Love Our Little Yorky And Would Not Want Anything To Ever Happen To Her.
This Is One Reason Vets Tell Us To Stick To Dog Food. It's Safe And Nutritious For Them. Alaya Brings Joy To Our Lives. We Love Her So Much.

How Hot Is Hot?

When I Was A Young Pup Growing Up On Franklin Street I Can Remember Some Very Hot Days. To Be Honest About It Though I Remember More Hot Nights Than Days. During The Day I Would Be Playing Baseball Or Riding My Bicycle Or Just Having Old Fashion Summer Fun. I Remember Once Complaining I Was Thirsty All The Time. I Asked My Mother Why. She Told Me It Was Hot And Our Bodies Need To Keep Plenty Of Water In It.
It Was One Hot Afternoon And It Seemed The Entire Neighborhood Was At Pappy's Gas Station Drinking An Ice Cold Pop. I Didn't Have Any Money And I Was Thirstier Than All Get Out. I Just Knew I Was About To Do Something I Did Not Want To Do. As I Stared At All The Guys Drinking The Tall Bottles Of Coke And RC I Sprouted Out The Door And Ran Home. Under My Mattress I Kept My Coin Collection. I Pushed Out A 1956 Roosevelt Dime. It's Value Then Was Not Very Much By Itself. However, By Removing It From My Collection Would Only Make It More Difficult From Having A Complete Series. I Knew Someday I Would Replace It. Even Though I Knew What I Was Doing Was Wrong, That Cold RC Cola Would Not Leave My Mind. A 56 Dime Was 90% Silver Which Meant It Was Valued More Than The Dimes Circulated Today. After That RC Became History I Wondered To Myself If It Was Really Worth It.
My Brothers And I Slept Upstairs And There Was No Air Conditioning. I Could Remember Sleeping As Close To The Window As Possible. The Fresh Aroma In The Morning Coming From Arnholt's Bakery Was Refreshing. One Morning I Opened My Eyes And There Sat Mrs Jacobs Swinging On Her Porch. I Wished Her A Good Morning Before Running Downstairs Where It Was Much Cooler.
I'm Not Into Keeping Temperature Records, So I Haven't A Clue If The Temps Were Cooler In The 1960's Than The Temps We Have Experiencing Into The New Century. Today We Have New Technology. We Now Have What They Refer To As The Heat Index. By Measuring The Humidity And The Temperature, It Gives You A Figure Of What It Really Feels Like. We Had The Same Thing Back Then, We Just Didn't Have A Name For It.
Bottom Line It Was Hot Back Then And It's Hot Today. However They Decide To Measure It The Result Will Be The Same. HOT!
After A Week Of Mid To High 90's, Pappy's Became A Regular Hangout. For Those Who Didn't Have Any Money, A Garden Hose Was Hooked Up In Back Ready To Spray. I Have Sprayed And Been Sprayed On The Hottest Days Of Summer Back Then. I Think My Very First Line Of Work Was When I Would Search For Empty Pop Bottles To Turn In For The 2 Cent Deposit. I Turned In 5 Bottles To Pappy's Which Will Earn Me 10 Cents. Pappy's Brother Willy Was Working. He Told Me He Was Waiting On Me. I Had My Hand Out For My Dime. He Placed That 1956 Dime In The Palm Of My Hand. He Said This 56 Should Pretty Much Fill Up The 1950's, Right? He Winked And Pinched My Ear As I Darted Out The Door With That Dime. The Crazy Thing About It Though Was I Wasn't That Thirsty After All.