Dad

I never recall a time when my Dad has been so down, so long. There may have been ocassions when I was younger and he was dealing with some things but I didnt recognize it. In the past 35 years or so I just don't think there has been such a time.

He normally has a can do attitude and is willing and confident about taking on just about anything. (Often that confidence displayed itself in encouraging us, his children, to tackle just about anything. Cost me some skin and a good bit of sweat at times but I am glad for the little push he provided).

He keeps saying, "the worst thing is just not knowing". I heard him say that 4 or 5 times yesterday, to 3 or 4 different people. I hope we will find out conclusivly today for him. I am probably more content to just sit around not knowing for sure. (We are so selfish).

For him it will give him something to fight and some direction. We all need that to get going.

"Ghost Rider"

I wonder what the critics are saying about this movie. I seldom go to movies any more and rarely here the reviews. I'm sure this one gets pretty good marks for the special effects. Content is so so. There really wasn't much sex,if any at all. The violence was kind of tame. All and all it was kind of boring. Cage is not a good actor in my opinion. I ask myself what he has that I didn't use to have. Must be who you know, or something like that.

The movie gives the devil a lot of publicity. He tricks Johnny Blaze (A.K.A Nicholas Cage) into selling his soul for a really quite admirable reason, curing his Dad's cancer. After the devil cures the dad he kills him. (Seems like these are things God does rather than the devil). Johnny is then relegated to a life of chasing fame and fortune with help from the devil. Oh by the way he had to ditch his girl to kind of protect her from his devil calling. More good deeds done while in the devils service.

Johnny occasionally wonders if he might have a second chance. He is ever on the watch for a SIGN. One shows up in the person of his old ex-girlfriend and things really begin to heat up. Know what I mean? You do if you saw the movie.

The devils son shows up on the scene along with some "Fallen Angels". I remember the fallen angels but I need to read the Bible again because I missed the part about the devils son. Any way the son was going to kick the hell out of his dad, no I mean kick the devil out of Hell and kind of take over. ( I wonder which book that is in? Maybe in one of those books in the Catholic or the Mormon bibles). The devil calls in Johnny and he turns into the "Ghost Rider". That is the part of the special effects that kind of wakes you up, especially if the theater has the volume turned up real loud. As you might guess, after much whaling and gnashing of teeth, Johnny wins and defeats the devils son and the three fallen angels. The devil offers Johnny "Mercy and Grace" and is going to tear up the contract on his soul. Guess what Johnny does? He refuses the devils offer and from that day forward vowes to take on EVIL and the devil all on his own.

HMMM, I wonder if there will be a sequel?

While driving home from the movie and about the time my ears began to stop ringing it struck me that this was really pretty close to main stream religion today. The devil gets more publicity and "Air Time" than the Lord. It is the enemy this and the enemy that. You will sometimes hear "Jesus said" which sort of leads into the current event the church leader is more comfortable talking about. Jesus kind of takes the supporting role. Kind of like in this movie.

The enemy has the power unless the church goer can take it away from him. That's what Johnny was successful in doing I guess. There are a lot of ways to do that. Or so it seems to be taught by main stream religion. Prayer shawls, blankets or patches are effective if the proper procedures are followed. Saying "In the name of Jesus" about a hundred times may get results. Being positive, having a grin on your face from ear to ear is good. Being a member of a mega church seems to help. Listening to sermons about marriage, stewardship, raising children, work, work, work, do, do, do, and more work will absolutely get you ready to face the enemy. Walking to Emmaus or working a prison walk is good exercise. If your still not ready though you get a second chance.

Old Johnny got his second chance. He beat the devil. He won his soul. He won grace. He is out there whipping the tar out of the devil. That's like choosing the Lord, making Jesus your saviour, getting saved, asking the Lord into your heart and so on. Man has his part to do. His will to exercise. When man is ready he can choose to be saved. Give him a little control over his destiny. He is after all, more than Gods robot. He ate the forbidden fruit which made him Gods equal.

IN HIS DREAMS!!!!

I'm so very glad I don't need a second chance. I much prefer the bible that teaches "All who were ordained to believe, believed". and "All who the Father gives me will come to me and I will in no wise cast them out". God got it right the first time.

NO SECOND CHANCES REQUIRED!!!!

Hospitals

If you have ever had family in the hospital you will relate to my story. They are amazing places. I can’t quite grasp the amount of activity that goes on in a large hospital. There is non stop coming and going. Did you ever have an ant farm? Ants going every direction. Ants for all kinds of functions and activities. Ants on every level and in every tunnel. There are working ants, guard ants, nursery ants and the QUEEN ANT. There are nurses. Many nurses. All kinds of nurses with various names and titles. There is a charge nurse, technical nurses, therapy nurses and your NURSE.

They each have different functions. They are seldom inactive. On rare occasions they sit at a computer and log their activities. (For billing purposes I suppose) They move into your room, take your blood pressure and temperature and move on. If you stand in the door to the room where you can see down the hall you will see them move into other rooms. You can imagine, pretty accurately I believe, what they are doing. They will say something like “How are you Mr. So & So or Mrs. Such & Such?” “How are you feeling?” “That’s good” or “I’m sorry”. They will hook you up, play 20 questions, fix your IV, fix your bed, and clean your room, among about 100 other things.

They want to know how much you ate, how much you drank and how much of it came out the other two openings when you were through with it. Pain level on a score of 1 to 10 is important to them. They ask that question a lot. It seems like people learn to answer in the upper two thirds if they want medication. Five doesn't get much response but seven or eight will get you a shot or a pill in about an hour.

I have decided that you don’t want to be sick when you go to the Hospital. It is much too busy and strenuous for sick people. There is no way to rest or relax with all the activities the nurses have to perform. Just about the time you go to sleep, here comes someone to give you something or hook you up to something. If you’re really sick and feeling lousy they schedule all kinds of tests. Nurses show up with wheel chairs to take you where you need to go. If you can't travel that way they just send two people to wheel your bed down to the bowels of the place, out of site of family and authorities, and prod, poke, measure, draw, x-ray, and scan. All kinds of other procedures, they sedate you for, and no one can remember what actually went on. You wake up and have more sore places and bruises than you remember, before they rolled you away.

I am simply amazed at how well every thing works. I can’t say enough good things about the nurses. They are run ragged by everyone, they are subjected to terrible acting people with all kinds of repulsive conditions and yet almost to a person they manage to respond positively and respectfully and with a seemingly genuine compassion for your condition. My hat is off to the Nurses and to hospitals.

Diversity

Consider the pickle.

Do you like pickles? Well that opens up a whole nother set of questions. Which pickle? Sour pickle? Sweet pickle? Dill pickle? Cucumber pickle? Little pickle? Big pickle?

You know, don't you, that there is the "Right Wing Pickle Packer Society" that has evolved into the driving force behind all new pickle ideas. This group was organized in the 1800's to plan, promote, and project Pickles image into the 20th century. It has been and probably always will be a secret society protecting the identity of its members.

The passion of the pickle and it's affect on pickle lovers and haters alike is so volatile that the organization could not survive if it did not maintain anonymity. Can you imagine what would have happened when pickles were first sliced? The uproar from the vertical slicers alone would have crushed the very creative essence from that forward thinking group. Much less the pressure exerted on Congress from the horizontal slicers. I can't even mention the steps taken, and won't utter a peep regarding the dastardly deeds committed by the dicer crowed. But you get my point.

I and I alone know their identity and their where abouts. This information has cost me dearly, however. I haven't slept more than eight hours a night since being made aware of this information. It was conferred on me by the RWPPS when they needed information only I could provide. Why, oh why was I the only one in the world who had that knowledge? Why?

It will go with me to my grave other than to share it with ONE of my children. Which one do I tell? Which one do I condemn to a life of Hell? Which one do I give the secrete of untold riches, but utter disparity? Fame and success that will poison even their best friends opinion of them, but cause them to be sought out by the heads of state of every kingdom in the world. I feel the weight of all time on me but I must make a decision in the next 30 years or so.

I will end this post, leaving you with two thoughts to ponder: If all products had the diversity of the pickle, where would we store it all? AND, have you had one of the New "Vlasic Tabasco Kosher Dill Spears" ?

RWPPS you have scored again!!!

(Picture courtesy of Pickle Hill Public Broadcasting)

Snowing

8:30 A.M. Sat. morning in Amarillo Texas.

This is great!!! We have been sitting around trying to come up with fun things to do. Carol suggested we get a sled and tie it on to the pick-up and pull Mason thru the "Hood". I told her I didn't think that would be too safe. He might get slung off and break his collar bone or something.
I suggested we bundle up and go for a bike ride. She didn't think the tires would roll too good. I suggested we tie a bike to the bumper and I could pull her around town.

We wont use this bike. It's the new

one. I wouldn't want to mess it up.

It was a pretty expensive bike and I might be able to ride it this Summer.

We can use this one. It's my old one and it won't matter too much if it gets messed up. It didn't cost too much. Besides I will be able to ride the other one this Summer.

This is the neighbor from across the street. She likes to shovel snow. She does a very good job. There are several old people living on our block and she shovels everyones sidewalks.

I'm going to need to go get some gum after while. Sure hopes she gets mine shoveled before I go.

If she doesn't make it maybe I can get this boy to do it.

Changing the subject.
I read a little about Ted Kennedy this morning. The story I read was about he and another Democratic Senator attempting to work with the Soviet Union in 1983. The other Senator was Tunney. It seems Kennedy had the idea that they could team up with Russia and cast doubt about President Regan by portraying him as a "Warmonger" and the Soviet's as desiring to peaceably co-exist. They were going to get media to play this up and hurt Regan's chances for re-election. Needless to say it didn't work. The story is being looked into and when there is more evidence that it is true I will share that. Interesting isn't it.

Well time to hook up the bike. I'll also bring a report on that later.

Carol, OH CAROL!

PETA

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. What an organization. I always assumed they were an organization that would help animals in trouble. That they were an animals friend.
Think again. When asked to help feed and rescue the animals caught in the storms in Colorado they declined. They took the position that sense the animals were going to end up on someones plate anyway why should they help. Why should they help ease the animals suffering. Why indeed. Just another case of people with a cause that only serves there own selfish interests. They can play on peoples emotions to raise money for their so called concern over animal welfare but when it comes to parting with some of that money to really help ease the animals situation they show their true colors. The Governor of Colorado termed them a "Bunch of Losers" and then said, "don't give your money to PETA". I second that motion.

Retraction

I got a little carried away yest and expressed my opinion a little too strong. I do get very frustrated with the political rhetoric. Something is wrong when most people who run for this office are such poor leaders. I know I'm biased. But its more than that. I look at who the Democrats are bringing to the race and they just all so miss the mark. They might be OK to serve on a small town City Council but not to run this country. They are so Political. All they work for is to get on the opposite side of any issue. The republicans are not a lot better.

We have too much at stake in this Country today to be so partisan. We have troops in harms way and rather than try to make the right decisions they really are only concerned about pouring water and doubt on the other parties actions. Rather than do what it takes to win a war they are only worried about what position it takes for them to get re-elected. You would think that should reflect the so called Will of the People but don't make that mistake.
As a people we are soft in the belly, soft in the head. We want what we want and we want it now. If we can get it easy and quick it doesn't matter how we do it. If it gets hard and takes awhile we don't want to exert the effort. We will move on to something that is easy and quick.

It really is a long time to election day. Those who are serious about the state of affairs will probably be buying new televisions in the next few years. They will probably throw a brick through the one they currently have.

Presidential Campaign

I'm already ill and this thing is not even started yet. I wish these idiots could be held accountable for all the Hot Air they put out. They make a speech and then spend the next several weeks explaining that they really didn't mean what we heard them say. They see which way the wind blows and then twist and squirm and out right lie to try to seemingly have said what they perceive the wind whispered back. These are the candidates for the highest office in this land. Maybe even a sadder note is that these people are currently making laws and policies in the Senate and House or are other leaders elected to lead this land.

Stories

I am reading a Mark Twain book "Roughing It". I really like his style of writing. He tells lots of stories within the story in this book. The other night I was reading and began laughing. I laughed hard enough that I'm sure my neighbors next door heard and wondered what kind of party I was having. I laughed hard enough that I got tears in my eyes. He told a story that I was able to visualize the scene in my mind and it was just hilarious. I must have associated it with something in my past because I could feel and even hear the picture that was in my mind.
Some people have such a talent of story telling. Wish I did.
My Grand-dad Kizziar could tell stories. We would go to his house and my Dad would get him started by asking about old "So-in-So" or "What about such-in-such". He would tell stories then until we left. I wish I could remember them or that we would have recorded some of them.
"Roughing It" was Clemens 2nd book. I think he wrote 11. I have read 4 so far. Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, Pudd'nhead Wilson and now Roughing It.
I think I will try to find The Innocents Abroad next.

The Best

This has been the best Holiday time. I don't know why really other than it has just been very enjoyable.

It started with Thanksgiving at Tyler. The Cowboys game Mason and I went to was great and then the meal at Rudy's and Glenda's was really nice. It was just a very pleasant time.

Christmas was fun. Jocelyne surprised us by coming home from Austin. We had fun at Gruver. We were able to talk to Charlie a little about sovereign Grace. I had thought he had no interest in discussing what we believe and then found out that he is really searching and undecided about his faith. It was a lot of fun I thought at our house on Christmas day. Carol cooked a great meal and I enjoyed the fellowship with our (Grown-up Children) and watching Corbin play with the Nerf Gun he got for his present. We went bowling later in the day and that was fun.

Now it is New Years day 2007. I think it is going to be a great year.