I have always been a little bit impulsive, not so much with the big or major things in life but the little things.  Maybe that is just another way to say I am not self-disciplined enough or just don’t like to plan my leisure time.  I was fortunate because Sharyl shared that spontaneity.  Her illness forced a lot of changes; we had to plan a little bit and to have a lot more structure in our lives.  I think I forgot how fun it is to be impulsive.

The last time I was here I talked about starting to do things because I wanted to.  I think some of the impulsiveness is also returning.

Last Saturday evening I decided I would like to have Sunday lunch at BJ’s, not the one on the other side of town.  I wanted to go to BJ’s in Lewisville, Texas.  If Sharyl would have been here she probably would have looked at me like I was crazy and said “you wanta do what?”  She would have given it a moment’s thought and said, “Let me change clothes and get my purse.”

Many times the trip is more fun than the destination, thanks to GB and Deb, this time the destination was more fun than the trip. I may just go back to Lewisville for lunch or maybe dinner someday.

A few weeks ago while I was at the lake I started one of the boats. It just seemed like the thing to do at the time.  I didn’t bother to pull one little plug and drain the water out of the engine before I came home; after all I was going back in a couple days.

Before I left Lewisville I checked the weather forecast. I got a little bit nervous about what those freezing temperatures could do to my baby.  You guessed it, instead of I 35 north I took US 69/75 northeast for about three and a half hours.

Trust me on this one.  If you need to go from McKinney, TX to McAlester, OK don’t do it on Sunday afternoon. Almost everyone is in a hurry (it would be better if everyone was); traffic is bumper to bumper.  There are a lot of little towns and all those little towns have city police playing “cops and speeders”.  Caney, OK population 199 and not even visible from the highway had not one but two police cars on the highway, I guess they were keeping the citizens of Caney safe.

I spent about five minutes with the boat; found my way up to I 40; set the cruise at an appropriate speed and started the last two hours of my little Sunday drive.  I did dinner at a Subway in the convenience store; you know the one that is always at the next exit on the Interstate.

I am still planning (everything is not spontaneous) that little run I talked about a couple or three posts ago.  The weather has delayed that one.  I want to go north and take care of a couple of bucket list items.  I guess the Sunday drive (535 miles) provided a little training; kind of like getting ready to run a marathon, but I don’t run.

You probably guessed by now that I’m having one of those nights.   Can’t sleep so I might as well take out my frustration on this old keyboard.

I hope your Easter holiday is everything you want it to be. Please keep me in your prayers.

Good Night and God Bless.

Dave

Throughout life we all do a wide range of things for a variety of reasons.  Some of the common reasons are:  I had to, I needed to, I wanted to or maybe it just seemed like the thing to do at the time.  My experience with the last one is usually not good.  Interpreted it means “God I should have been smarter than that.”

The past year or so the only reason I have done anything is because I needed to. I’m not really talking about things like laundry, housecleaning, and flowerbeds, those will forever be “have to” or “need to” things.  My contact with the outside world has been limited and has only happened because I knew I needed to do some of those things.  Thanks to some very good friends and family members for initiating most of those events.  They have been enjoyable even if I did them because I needed to not because I wanted to.

Recently I have had the opportunity to spend time with some old friends and some new friends.  I initiated the contact and I did it because I wanted to, not because I needed to.  I enjoyed the time immensely; I hope my friends enjoyed my company. I didn’t really give it any thought at the time but later it occurred to me that I did those things because I wanted to.  I guess it is just part of the “getting better” process, I just hope it continues.

I know there will be bad days in the future but they are easier to deal with because the light at the end of the tunnel gets just a little brighter each day.

It has been about ten days since I’ve been here.  I still haven’t made that little run I talked about last time.  It is still on the agenda, life kind of got in the way; I’ll probably do it in the next couple weeks or so.

In addition to spending the quality time with friends, I have been in a real battle with my allergies.  I’m still not sure who is winning.  I didn’t have many allergy problems the last four years because I spent most of that time inside away from the elements; I think as I spend more time outside my resistance to those bad things will increase.

You know I have a computer habit; this blog is a bi-product of that habit.  The last anniversary/birthday/Fathers day gift Sharyl gave me (actually she forced me to go buy it) was an IPAD.  I tried to convince her I didn’t need it, I finally bought it just to make her happy.  I absolutely love the thing.  I had used it for a few months and had it set up like I wanted it.  I decided to Sync it with a computer just for backup and I read somewhere you should do that from time to time.  I tried to use one of my laptops.  It didn’t work; I lost everything I had on the IPAD.  It took a little while but I got it back like I wanted it.

After that experience I was reluctant to have the IPAD and that laptop in the same room. Until this week the IPAD was never connected to another computer.  I wanted to run some newer stuff. In order to do so I had to upgrade the operating system.  I had to connect it to a computer to do that upgrade.  I was as nervous as I was the first time I typed a C:\ on an old DOS computer.  It took me about four times as long as it should have but I now have the new system and I didn’t lose anything.

For you WordPress bloggers that read my stuff, if you haven’t tried it and you have an IPAD or IPhone, I think you will like the WordPress app, it makes managing your blog on the portable pretty easy. A word of caution; you may need to upgrade your operating system.

I quit smoking thirty years ago this month.  It was one of the hardest things I have done; I still remember details of the process. For the past three months I have been trying to quit taking the newspaper.  I think this is going to be more difficult than giving up the smokes.

I am kind of impulsive and never know when I will be gone for a few days. A pile of newspapers in the yard is an open invitation for the bad guys to come get some of this guy’s stuff.  I allowed my subscriptions to expire in December then I spent the next few weeks on the phone assuring the circulation department that I didn’t want the paper at any price; it wasn’t a money issue, I didn’t want them to throw a paper in my yard.  Problem solved; wrong.  Last week I got a letter from them. I opened it to see if I owed them money; it said something about complimentary papers.  I pitched it in the trash and forgot about it, until Sunday.  There in my drive was the Sunday Oklahoman and on Monday the Daily Oklahoman.  I called Monday and was assured delivery would stop.  I felt good (kind of like that last cigarette) Tuesday, no paper.  Apparently the Wednesday guy didn’t get the word, they assured me again today that delivery would stop.  I can’t wait to see the Thursday headlines.

Just a little look at what makes the old man’s world spin.

Easter is rapidly approaching, if I don’t make it back before the holiday, I hope you find a basket full of eggs and please remember the real reason we celebrate.

Thanks for riding along.  Please say a prayer for me.

Good Night and God Bless.

Dave

Those nights when sleep doesn’t happen have become less frequent, however for some unknown reason tonight is one of them. I usually find myself at the keyboard sharing my thoughts with you when I have one like this.  Tonight, that presents a bit of a problem because, I really don’t have a thought worth sharing.

I guess I will consider it a little test of my blogging skills.

Worst case, I pound the keyboard for an hour, read what I have written, toss it in the recycle bin and get some sleep.

Best case, I pound the keyboard for 30 minutes, read what I have written, think of a title, hit the publish button and get some sleep.

The past seven weeks or so have been a little bumpy.  No I’ll be truthful they have been extremely bumpy.  Those bumps were no surprise and I believe there will be bumps in the road from mid January until early March for the rest of my years.  I also believe the bumps will be less severe next year and even less severe the year after that, but it will never be smooth.

Sometime last summer and again in the fall I talked about three goals. Learning to enjoy the lake again was one of them.  It is different and always will be but I have learned to enjoy my time there and I am looking forward to the spring.

Included in my New Year post was some talk about reflecting and refocusing.  I am using some of that refocus effort to attack the other two goals, weight loss and improving the outside appearance of my home.

My weight is still much closer to what it was five weeks ago than what it was five years ago, but I think I am on the right track. My approach is, nine of these big blue pills for breakfast, fourteen little green ones for lunch and a handful of assorted sizes and colors for dinner.  Not really, I’m trying this new deal called diet and exercise.  I’m just eating a little smarter and getting more exercise, so far it is working, not as fast as I would like but it is working.

Cale and I are on a mission to get the yard (2 acres) back to his Maw Maw’s specifications, we aren’t ready for the “yard of the week” inspection committee but we have made some progress.  I think we are going to lose the old spec sheet on the flowerbeds and just do them in Monkey Grass or Bermuda or something.

We planted three trees this week and I have two to plant at the lake. The trees at home are to replace some we lost.  The ones for the lake are because Sharyl wanted some shade trees there. I bought some that are supposed to grow fast, I thought at my age slow growing trees were not a good idea.

My feet have been itching; I think a road trip may be in the works.  I had planned to return to West Virginia this spring, those plans have changed.  I think I will just go somewhere I’ve never been.  I will go by myself; I still have some stuff I need to figure out and I kind of like to do that out on the open road alone.  Maybe when I go I will find some interesting blog material.

As spring approaches, good people across America are gearing up for the annual “Relay For Life” fundraiser.  I encourage you to get involved in a very worthwhile event, either with your time or a monetary donation or both. Last year I attended the one in Tecumseh, Oklahoma, it was a very heart warming and refreshing experience.

Thanks for riding along; I still need and appreciate your prayers.

Good Night and God Bless.

Dave

On a warm Saturday afternoon back about the turn of the century, you remember Y2K, Sharyl and I were watching the McKinley Lawnmowers beat the dickens out of another opponent, unless that opponent was the team from Cleveland.  If they were playing Cleveland, it was a heck of a Recreational League soccer match. Contrary to popular belief, people are not just serious about football in Norman, Oklahoma; they are also some kind of serious about soccer.

That day was the last day of the recreational season. There were a bunch of guys running around with clipboards, watching soccer and taking notes.  Those guys coached the travel teams and were looking for next year’s talent.  At the conclusion of our match, two of them were standing within earshot comparing notes.  One of them asked the other “did you get number 23” (not sure if he was 23, but he always wore it if it was available); the other guy hesitated. The first guy then said “the little scrappy one” the response was “oh yeah, we can definitely use him.” Even if I didn’t hear the number, when he said the scrappy one, I knew he was talking about a kid named Conner.

There aren’t enough hours in a day or days in a week to play competitive soccer and competitive baseball.  The scrappy one and his brother said good-bye to the soccer fields and became even more serious about the game of baseball.

I am their Paw Paw and may be a little biased but they both became very good baseball players.  It didn’t just happen; they worked their butts off.  They studied the game and learned to do things the right way.

Cale was always easy to find; if he wasn’t pitching he was over on first base.  I saw Conner play every position on the field except first base.  He wasn’t the best at any of them but he was pretty good at all of them. You just needed to look for the scrappy kid playing wherever coach put him and doing so with the utmost confidence.

He studied and understood the game. He had strong opinions on everything from hitting style to game management.  He loved to share those opinions with anyone (including his head coach) especially if their opinion was different than his.  That willingness to share probably earned him more bench time than playing time.

I think pursuing those philosophical differences earned him some Junior Varsity time one summer.

High school summer ball is kind of fun and relaxed, more about development than about winning.  They had a new coach, the guy knew baseball but everything he knew about the kids was on the sheet of paper the high school coach had given him.  I think it was the first or second game, the scrappy one was playing second base, and whoever was pitching was getting shelled.  The coach went to the mound and called the centerfielder in to pitch; the kid took a couple steps back and obviously didn’t want any part of the bases loaded no one out situation.  A brief discussion took place; my man interrupted with five words “give me the damn ball.” The coach asked, “Do you pitch?” He said again “give me the damn ball”.  The coach obliged and the scrappy one got them out of the inning.  If his breaking pitch was working, he could be very effective, if not you better have someone warming up.

On a hot July Sunday evening in ’05 (I think) the Predator had just lost in the finals of one of those grueling double elimination tourneys. Most of the team and their families were gathered in the parking lot replaying the game.  With absolutely no fanfare, provocation or advance notice the scrappy one threw his trophy as high as he could and as it shattered in many pieces on the asphalt he very calmly said “no one wants to be second.”  It broke the tension and broke up the party and everyone got ready for the next game.

Inside that scrappy, fiercely competitive body was a heart of gold and as big as all outdoors.  He was very compassionate and always had a special place in that heart for those less fortunate.  Bullying was never an issue if he was around.  One semester he took a socially challenged, special needs kid to lunch one day each week.  It wasn’t a big deal to him; he didn’t talk about it or want any recognition.  He just knew a burger or some pizza with a friend was a big deal and it was just the right thing to do.

If you will allow me, I am going full circle and return to the McKinley Lawnmowers. John coached the Lawnmowers; I wish every kid that ever played soccer, baseball, the guitar, marbles or tiddly winks could play for someone like John.  He taught them to play soccer and to play it very well, he taught them to be humble when they won and to be gracious on those rare occasions when they lost.  He also taught them a lot about life. The way he did it they never knew they had been offered a lesson.  The Lawnmowers are now young men and scattered around the world doing a lot of different things but when the chips are down they are still a very tight knit group.  Thank you John.

I have passionately supported teams with names like Indians, Savages, Hornets, Sooners, Timber wolves, Trojans, Rangers and BJs to name a few. I will probably root for other teams in the future but I am sure my all-time favorite will remain the McKinley Lawnmowers.

To the scrappy one:  I love you, I miss you every day and the pain is still very intense.  Please give your Maw Maw a hug and tell her I love her and miss her.

Most of you were not personally acquainted with Conner, you only knew he was my grandson.  I just wanted to share some memories and give you a peek at what made this kid that called me Paw Paw so very special. Thanks for reading what I write, it helps, and please keep me in your prayers.

Good Night and God Bless

Dave

I have always believed in the power of prayer and regularly sent my thanks and requests forward.  The diagnosis of Sharyl’s illness changed the content and increased the seriousness and frequency of those prayers. At the top of the list was “please make this cancer thing go away”.  I believe god hears and answers all prayers and there is a reason for his answers. I also know, with a few exceptions, I didn’t get the answers I wanted.

I always asked god to give me the mental, physical, spiritual and emotional strength to care for Sharyl as long as she needed me.  The mental, spiritual and emotional things are certainly debatable but for eleven hundred seventy something consecutive days I was physically able to tend to her needs.  I know I lived in the same controlled environment we felt Sharyl needed, and I didn’t do anything stupid to aggravate a tricky back, but I will give all the credit to the man upstairs.  I will be forever grateful.

Maybe we each have an allotted number of sick or bad or whatever you want to call them days and god was gracious enough to advance me a bunch of good ones. I believe payback time has begun.

Last time we talked my Sciatic nerve was causing me to spend way too much time with a little yellow ball.  A few days ago my allergies or a sinus infection or something kicked in.  To use an old Rylie term “my nose wasn’t working”.  The two didn’t play well together, the sinus deal liked kicked back in the recliner, and the Sciatic nerve could only tolerate about ten minutes per hour in that position.

If I wasn’t reclined, I kept a Kleenex in my hand.  I guess I should say tissue, but growing up we never said do you have or do you need a tissue; we called the things Kleenex.  We always kept a box or two strategically placed around the house, Sharyl shopped for that sort of thing.  If I needed one I knew where to look.

When she got sick, shopping for that sort of thing became part of what I did.  We also increased the number to a couple or three boxes in each room of the house. After my first shopping trip I learned there is a difference in Kleenex, it wasn’t as simple as just grabbing some as I went down that isle.  Sharyl said in that certain voice “get the ones with lotion”. I also learned she preferred Puffs to Kleenex; I think that was because of box design.

On two different occasions this past week I needed Kleenex so I bought Puffs with lotion.  I still keep at least one box in each room, and truthfully I still use them for my eyes more than I do for my nose.

I’m sorry I guess I kind of drifted a little.  I believe I have about completed the first installment of the payback.  I haven’t seen that stupid tennis ball since Friday night and I have only used a half dozen or so Kleenex or I should say Puffs with lotion today.

Thanks for riding along, maybe one day soon I will have something interesting to share.

I still need and appreciate your prayers.

Good Night and God Bless.

Dave

In my last blog post I talked about enlarging my little world.

I started this one with a picture of a tennis ball. 

Those two things could create visions of me sitting court side at the Australian Open or hitting the clay courts on the French Riviera, or at the very least hitting a few balls in the Tuesday morning senior mixed doubles league at Slick Humphrey Park. 

All of the above would be false.

I have been using the thing to try to get a misbehaving Sciatic Nerve under control.  A few years ago a Physical Therapist explained the procedure to Sharyl. It works like this:  You lie in the floor and place the tennis ball under the upper hip/extreme lower back on the misbehaving side and move it around until you find the spot.  How do you know when you’ve found the spot?  Trust me you know, I think my neighbors know when I find the spot.  Just lie there and let the ball apply pressure for a few minutes; you won’t need a timer. I’m not there yet but I think it is getting better.

I probably should go ahead and see a doctor but old habits are hard to break, however for some reason I treat back pain with a little more respect than I did five years ago.  I also feel a little guilty complaining about a little Sciatic Nerve pain.

A few days ago in Morgantown West Virginia a young man’s dream faded.  For the past year Cale has experienced different levels of pain in his pitching arm, because of that pain he made the decision to leave the game.  He is back in Norman and will spend some time regrouping and looking at other options.  He is a sharp young man (I know I’m his Paw Paw) and I am confident he will successfully travel in a new direction, or to use a term I have beat to death over the years he’ll figure it out and be OK.

I made a quick trip to the lake this week. Sitting in the truck for two hours was not good for my back but I’ve never been accused of being real smart or doing what I should.

While there I learned a “lake neighbor” and very good friend had died a few weeks ago.  It was not unexpected but I was disappointed that I didn’t have an opportunity to pay my final respects.  He was in his mid eighties and had lived a full and interesting life.  He was a pipe liner and a rancher and very good at both.  About five years ago he and his wife took their forty-foot diesel pusher RV with Jeep in tow from Brooken, Oklahoma to Alaska.  I think they went to Fairbanks. That trip has always been on my bucket list, but I probably shouldn’t wait until I’m eighty.  Rest in Peace, Gene, I will miss you.   

I said I was going to write more about “now” and less about “then”, I’ve done that.  Maybe next time it will be about something more interesting than lying in the floor on a tennis ball.  Speaking of tennis balls, I need to find that thing it is time for another session.

Thanks for riding along and keep me in your prayers; I’ve come a long way but I still have a long way to go.

Good Night and God Bless

Dave 

We have all heard or used the title phrase; maybe upon learning that your next-door neighbor is your second grade teacher’s grandson, or maybe when you realize your new boss is the same Joe Smith you had the disagreement with at the little league ballpark last summer.

The small world I have on my mind tonight has nothing to do with second grade teachers or ballpark rhubarbs.  Although I have always enjoyed watching a good ballpark rhubarb and have even participated in a few.  I am thinking of the world I live in or “my world.”

In my opinion the size of the world isn’t nearly as important as the amount of happiness and comfort found in that world.

Sharyl and I shared a relatively small but comfortable world for many years.  We spent a lot of time with our family and at home together.  We were comfortable and happy; we enjoyed doing what we wanted to do and doing it our way.

Her illness forced a drastic reduction in the size of that world.  We were at home together almost constantly.  I started to say 24/7 but I think that is one of those overused buzzwords.  With a few exceptions we were only out of the house for medical reasons.

Frequent trips to Walgreen’s became a big part of my social life.  If they had such a thing I think I would have been considered for customer of the year.  I can’t say enough good things about the technicians and pharmacists. The techs were always friendly and compassionate, when the pharmacists heard my voice (I know it is easy to recognize) they would always look my way, smile and say hi and they were available 24/7 (yeah I know it’s overused).

I can’t say we were happy in that world, but with the support of family and friends, we were comfortable and did the best we could with the cards were dealt.

Sharyl made me promise not to become a hermit and to venture outside that little bitty world.  I promised but I had my fingers crossed, after all a small world is OK if you are happy.

I have checked the definition and I haven’t become a hermit.  My world is probably a little bigger than the years when Sharyl was sick but much smaller than our good years.  As I said earlier, the size of the world isn’t as important as the amount of happiness and comfort found in that world.  I guess by definition I am comfortable but I am not happy.

Even now I don’t like to admit it but I believe Sharyl was right, I wish I had a buck for every time I said “Sharyl was right” the last fifty years.  I know I need to make some changes, or at least my mind knows that, the heart is still reluctant to jump on the bandwagon.

I am going to drag the heart along and see if I can crack the blinds maybe even kick the walls out a bit; you know make my world bigger and see if there is some happiness.  I’m not sure I know how to do that.  I am sure I need to do it my way and the changes will probably be of the subtle variety.

I don’t go to Walgreen’s very often now so I need to find other social activities and people to fill that void.  I think I can do that.  I have never been a real “people person”, not the life of the party but I can hold my own and find some pleasure in most social environments.

This one may be difficult and may take some time but I need to do a better job of remembering the past instead of dwelling on it.  To do that I probably will need to adjust my writing style, more about now and less about then.  That may be a problem because as you know I kind of like to write and there isn’t much “now” to write about.  Maybe the urge to write will give me the incentive to go do something interesting.

I don’t know whom “they” consist of, but they say the first step in problem resolution is admitting there is a problem.  I have done that and at least have a little bit of a game plan in mind.  I’ll try to take that first step and see if it leads to a bigger and happier world.

So if you see an old man out and about looking kind of lost and confused and like he needs to talk to someone, approach with caution and help him by initiating some conversation.  That old man just might be me.

Please keep me in your prayers.

Good Night and God Bless.

Dave

Four years and a couple months ago Sharyl and I had our world turned upside down.  We suddenly and unexpectedly realized we were at war with this god-awful thing called cancer.

One year ago today that war ended, cancer won.  I know I have said it before and I probably will say it again.  Sometimes it seems like yesterday, sometimes it seems like a very long time ago.  The pain is still very intense and very real.

They say the first year is the hardest.  I don’t know who “they” are so I don’t know if they speak from experience or from the top of their heads. It seems logical that the first year would be the hardest and today wasn’t as difficult as one year ago.  Like a lot of other things, one size doesn’t fit all; each situation is unique.  I know I still love her dearly and miss her every day.

Our family is forty days away from the first anniversary of the devastating and tragic loss of Conner. I hope “they” are right and we do in fact have the worst behind us.  I know I don’t say much about Conner; I can’t, maybe someday.  I love you big guy; I miss you like crazy.  Take good care of your Maw Maw.

I needed to write tonight and I had something totally different in mind.  It didn’t work out and is now in the recycle bin.

I understand what I tried to say.  I hope you do.

Please consider a donation to the cancer research organization of your choice and if you don’t mind could you say a prayer for me.

Good Night and God Bless.

Dave

I know I was just here last night and I am back again.  This isn’t the “from the heart” stuff I referred to last night. In fact it is far from it.

If you remember a few weeks or probably months ago I talked about having car fever.  The reason for that fever belongs in the “from the heart stuff”, so I won’t go there tonight.  A few weeks ago I cured the fever the only way I know how.  I traded the Chrysler Pacifica that had served me well but no longer fit my game plan. My daily transportation is now a ’08 Chrysler Aspen (I’ve been a Dodge/Chrysler guy for many years); the Aspen is a full size SUV. I have had two incidents, since I started driving the thing, that are too funny not to share.

I have a locking mailbox; I keep the key on the ring with my car key.  A procedure I have used many times the past few years is to stop very close to the mailbox just like the mail carrier.  I then turn off the ignition remove the key, unlock the box, get my mail, lock the box, start the car and pull up the drive.  A simple process and the old fat guy doesn’t even have to get out of the car, unless he is careless and drops his keys.

Yes, I dropped the things, I could see them lying beside the car but I was too close to the mailbox; the door wouldn’t open wide enough for an old fat guy to get out. There was just one option; simply get out on the other side. Some vehicles have a console that flips up or at least is not much taller than the seat, not this thing; it doesn’t flip and it isn’t short.  Even when I was young, flexible and 50 pounds lighter climbing over it would have been a challenge.  I made it without breaking anything (me or the car).  I now had the key but was still too close to open the door.  I had to crawl back over that console.  If any of the neighbors were watching they didn’t laugh loud enough for me to hear.

A couple evenings ago I stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few things.  When I came out it was raining. I just had two small bags so I jumped in the front seat and about half tossed the bags into the back, one of them turned over and the stuff was now between the seat and the right back door.  If I opened the back door from the outside the stuff would fall some of it would break, some of it would bruise. This one would be easy; I got out of the front and got in the left back. I closed the door because it was raining.  I retrieved the stuff and got it back in the bag. 

I also discovered the previous owner of my Chrysler had kids; no I didn’t find crayons or French fries.  You know those childproof locks; my back doors wouldn’t open.  I couldn’t get out.

I just thought crawling across that console was tough.  I think I would like to have video of the old fat guy getting between the seat backs and over that console to the front. I made it without breaking anything.  I deactivated the locks in the rain before I went in the house. This time it was dark and raining, I think my neighbors have enough sense to stay in out of the rain. I hope so anyway.

This afternoon it occurred to me that I could have reached in the front turned on the ignition and rolled down (we don’t really roll them down anymore do we?) a rear window and opened the door from the outside.  Oh well I guess I needed the exercise.

Just another example of why I need your prayers.

Good Night and God Bless.

Dave

I took a little unplanned break.  Since I did that goofy New Years Eve thing I have had no desire to approach the keyboard; I am not sure I could have written my name.  That is the good thing about blogging, no schedule and no pressure.

I am in a writing mood tonight and have two completely different things in mind; one “from deep within the heart” and one “right off the top of my head” kind.  I think I’ll go off the top of my head; I really need to corral my thoughts a little more on the other thing.

I stopped in the grocery store last week just to grab a loaf of bread.  Sharyl fed me enough wheat bread that I now prefer it to the white stuff.  My favorite brand is either the first one I see, or if I have time to squeeze them, I get the freshest one.  This time I got one that advertised 45 calories per slice.

I thought of Sharyl and how proud she would be that I am eating healthy.  I threw a couple slices in the toaster, I figured out how they reduced the calories, they made the slices thinner. The 20 oz. loaf has 26 slices; a normal 20 oz loaf has 22 slices.  That stuff didn’t make good toast or sandwiches; I think the birds were OK with it.

I don’t know if your town has these “share the road” signs.

My town is kind of a bicycle town.  I understand what share the road means and I am courteous to the two-wheelers and don’t have a problem sharing with them.  Some of the cyclists apparently think it means, “If I am on the road it belongs to me.”  I frequently encounter them on a narrow hilly 2 lane (my normal route to “town”).  I think we should all obey the same traffic rules, some of them don’t agree.  Example: I patiently follow the bike until it is safe to pass, shortly after I pass I stop at a stop sign, he passes me on the right, runs the stop sign, regains the lead and we get to start the process all over again.

Another pet peeve associated with the road is the large number of drivers that have forgotten a simple procedure they were taught and demonstrated prior to obtaining a license. It is amazing how many people turn left or right into the wrong lane.  It is real simple just turn into the same lane you are turning from, left to the inside, right to the outside.  It isn’t a “woman driver”, “old people” or “kid” thing; no gender or age bias on my part, just a petty gripe.

The last place I’ll go is age related.  Frequently I see an old couple with their shopping cart on one side of the aisle, the two of them on the other side, one of them has the 28oz size the other has the 42oz size.  They are oblivious to the world around them as they try to decide which size is right for them.  It really doesn’t  upset because they are blocking the aisle. It isn’t just the shopping cart, I frequently see an old couple walking together, sitting in a restaurant, or maybe one of them helping the other get in the car and the list goes on. I know it is another of the things I need to get past, it goes way beyond petty; I sometimes feel cheated and actually get mad because Sharyl and I didn’t have the opportunity to get old together.

Thanks for listening and say a prayer for me.

Good Night and God Bless.

Dave