A friend sent me an email linking to a site with 10 commandments for pets. One of the last passages said "We do not have to wait for Heaven, to be surrounded by hope, love, and joyfulness. It is here on earth and has four legs!" Just as I finished reading the message on my iphone Orange Kitty stood on his hind legs for a good head scratch. I was setting on the pool deck watching the Koi. When I opened the back door Rascal was waiting for me. As soon as I settled at my desk he tucked himself by my feet under my desk. He gently nipped me once as if asking for the heater. I told him no and he curled up and went to sleep. Yes my cats are sent from Heaven. One was abandoned to us and one adopted us.

Gifts!




The last couple days, for no particular reason I have been listening to news on TV and reading the news section of the newspaper. Those sources would have one believe things have never been worse. I suspect the media is partly responsible for the feeling of doom that seems to have descended on the country. Then Shirley sent me a collection of black and white pictures taken by government hired photographers from 1935 through 1939. Look at the face of the woman holding the baby. She has just sold the tires from her car. They have been living on frozen vegetables from the fields and birds the kids killed. I know there are some people in the USA living in very similar conditions but they have been destitute for a long time. Our hard times means we don't both drive our cars to a ball game and etc.

Click the picture for a larger view. This picture, along with many of the back stories are at the Farm Security Administration archives. It is a massive collection that is fairly hard to browse. But the pictures of our conditions then are worth a great deal of struggle to help understand why we have become what we are.

Since my experience of March 2008 I have been reading portions of the Bible every day on a programmed schedule. Some time back my schedule took me to Genesis. I read through the stories about Abraham, Isaac, Esau, and Jacob without much attention. Gradually though the story of Jacob cheating Esau out of his birth right began to really intrude on my thinking. Was the Bible (GOD) telling us it was OK to lie and cheat and steal? I mean Jacob bare face lied to his father. What kind of GOD have I accepted? Last night I went back to Genesis and reread it several times. Finally I discovered, truly God does hide messages in his book until we need them, a passage that showed that Esau did not value and in fact despised his birthright. He traded his birth right for a bowl of stew. Maybe God saw his heart and knew that Esau would never be able to forge the people that God was going to choose. I won't know until later but my disquiet has been eased.

I have fallen in a lazy stage again so I need to publish a to-do list so I can be held accountable:
1. Mow front yard.
2. Weed eat back yard.
3. Reorganize and clean shed.
4. Replace flashing in valley on back of house.
5. Catalog George Jones pieces so I can sell excess pieces.
6. Discard old magazines and crap books.
7. Make check list of stuff to pack for trip.
8. Buy men's items for Bingo Monday night.
9. Get haircut.
10. Complete updating contacts for motels and car rental in Oregon and Washington.
11. Print list of people to notify, in addition to automatic 10, about iphone entries to the "By bus or by cuss blog.

The Robertsons of Cement Book is on-line at http://lyn1937.tripod.com/cement/index.html.



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PINEAPPLE PIE OR PUDDING

1 lg package instant vanilla pudding mix.
1 can crushed pineapple undrained (I would think any kind of canned fruit or even watermelon cubed with the juice, I've only used pineapple)
1 small carton sour cream

Stir pudding mix and pineapple with juice together (by hand) and fold in the sour cream (I had everything well chilled first).

Pour into graham cracker crust (or baked) and refrigerate.

Have an extra box of pudding mix handy in case it turns out too runny, just add a little more till it's thick enough.

Thanks Hilda for this cool sounding recipe.


It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.
Thomas Jefferson

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I want to make a correction, actually I have already changed the previous text, about the person who sent me the recipe for Chow Chow. Darlene, a dear friend from grannies and an ex-Texan on detatched duty in a Yankee state sent me the recipe. Thank you Darlene. I wish I could blame the error on CRS but it was really from laziness. I know better than to rely on my memory.

I had been thinking of my senior brother in law on my wifes side for weeks. Her mother sent me a picture of him and my wife's senior sister.

Mike is one of the good guys of the earth. They have raised three wonderful sons. Mike was diagnosed with cancer of the liver. I pray for him every day. I guess the reason good people are afflicted is to test them and their family and the reason bad people are not is so that the sorry bastards are around longer as horrible examples. Before Mike got old like me I used him to visualize what I imagined Jesus looked like.

I just heard that the Discovery Channel is having a "Pitchman" marathon Wednesday July 1 to commemorate Billy Mays. I really liked the guy with the big voice. I did not know he was so involved in charities and helping other people. I still believe the bump on his head had something to do with his death. I will certainly record every episode since I will be out with our junior daughter for coffee at Starbucks and then lunch at Turning Point. The last bit is part of my plot to get the whole Robertson clan involved with that rehab center.

I think I owe that young woman at the blood center an apology. She pissed me off so bad I went to the doctor and also started taking one 27 mg iron, from 88 mg ferrous sulfate, tablet a day. That is 150% of the daily requirement. I have now taken the iron tablets for 6 days and seem to have much more energy and am not quite so tired. Wouldn't it be ironic if all my napping and worthlessness was caused by low blood iron. All that pending forgiveness and tolerance aside I will not donate blood again at the blood center in Westchase Neighborhood Donor Center. I have had trouble there twice and like a cat I am not going to allow a third problem. I scheduled a donation for July 3 at 2:30 pm at Northwest Mall. It feels too good to donate life to quit because of a possibly stupid young woman.

We finally got a good, short but good, rain yesterday. The plants and the grass look rejuvenated. I am always amazed by the difference a half inch rain makes compared to the equivalent amount of city water. If I had put the equivalent amount of water through sprinklers yesterday the plants would look wilted today. They look perky?

I noticed, to my great surprise, that I was looking forward to the therapy session this morning As I walked into the place I noticed my back doesn't hurt as much as it did when I started. However, when I went to Costco after the therapy session I chickened out and used one of their electric carts. The store is so big and I did not know the exact location of my listed items that I could not envision walking the whole shopping trip. I am glad because I circled the frozen food cabinets many, many times trying to find "phillie cheese" sandwiches in boxes. Boss lady insisted they had the things and told me exactly where they were when she last bought them. I am sure she will go right to them when she goes shopping. I hate shopping for crap when I don't know exactly what they look like. She asked me to buy Cattleman chilli. Costco does not carry that brand. They do carry Cattle Drive chilli. Is that what she really wants or can I just not find the Cattleman?

The Robertsons of Cement Book is on-line at http://lyn1937.tripod.com/cement/index.html.



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CHOW CHOW

1 GAL. GREEN TOMATOES
6 ONIONS
1 TSP. MUSTARD
1 TSP. CLOVES
2 SWEET RED PEPPERS
2 1/2 CUPS SUGAR
1 SMALL HEAD CABBAGE
1 TSP. BLACK PEPPER
1 TSP. SPICES
2 SWEET GREEN PEPPERS
3 CUPS VINEGAR

GRIND TOMATOES, ONIONS AND CABBAGE. ADD 1/2 CUP SALT AND LET STAND OVER NIGHT. DRAIN AND PRESS OUT AL LIQUID POSSIBLE. ADD OTHER INGREDIENTS AND BRING TO A BOIL, REDUCE HEAT AND SIMMER FOR 2 HOURS. STIR FREQUENTLY. POUR INTO JARS AND SEAL

. PUT SPICES IN TO SUIT YOUR OWN PERSONAL TASTE. ALSO VINEGAR MAY NEED TO BE WEAKENED AND MORE SUGAR ADDED TO SUIT YOUR OWN TASTE. THE SPICES ARE PICKLING SPICES.

DON'T YOU WONDER WHERE THE NAME CHOW CHOW CAME FROM?

---

THIS RECIPE IS FROM MY HOME CHURCH COOK BOOK IN LUBBOCK TEXAS. OAKWOOD UNITED METHODIST CHURCH WOMENS SOCIETY OF CHRISTIAN SERVICE. THE BOOK IS FROM 1970.
Thanks DARLENE for sharing this wonderful Texas recipe. I spent hours watching my mother and her sisters making gallons of chow-chow (they called it pickalilly) and all manner of pickles.

It is always better to have no ideas than false ones; to believe nothing, than to believe what is wrong.
Thomas Jefferson

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Increasingly I am reminded that I am falling out of touch with contemporary America. Comcast was broadcasting "Borat" tonight. It received such buzz and so many awards I determined to watch it when it came to TV. The movie sucked! Jokes were not funny. The antisemiticism was even artificial. If I had paid to see this bag of horse shit I would be suing every one involved in making, marketing, or distributing the steaming heap for false advertising.

Have we fallen so far that incompetence and stupidity are our standards for humor? No wonder George Carlin died. He knew the depths American comedy was plummeting into. Every movie Richard Pryor made was a doctoral dissertation by comparison. Get thee to a manure processing plant Hollywood.

I went to the doctor today with a laundry list of disconnected symptoms but especially a swollen, painful right foot. Doctor Fields listened patiently as I told him about the young woman determining I had low blood iron and what I suspected about her motive. I also told him about my swollen foot and brittle finger nails and the sensation of my eyes being foggy and the huge amount of sleeping lately and how I tire so easily and my recent weight gains. He examined me and found that I have, somehow, strained my ankle and thus have an infection. He gave me CEPHALEXIN 500 mgs to take 4 times a day. The things are huge. I am to see an optometrist before I leave on my bus trip. He also recommended cutting back the Centrum Silver vitamins to one a day. He told me to also eat more gelatin. He said that possibly my increased activity during therapy has just triggered hunger while not increasing my metabolism. He insist that I find a way to burn more calories.

Then we talked about my proposed trip to Israel in January 2010. This trip is becoming less likely because the pains in my back and hips are not being relieved by the physical therapy. We also talked about the safety aspect and he reminded me that soldiers are every where there and are carrying Uzis. He said he loved his trip to Israel years ago.

After several extended bus trips and my wife's gift to me of an iphone I am leaning toward making blog entries using the iphone. My problem is that when I post entries made from the phone while on the bus I will have no way to send out notifications. The blog I have maintained "shattered manor" since 2005 is hosted by Tripod and they have no mechanism for sending notification.

So I have been considering using a blog from Google (BlogPress) called "by bus or by cuss" in which I could post short entries and pictures from iphone. BlogPress allows me to name 10 people to automatically send notifications when I post an entry to the blog.

I am a huge fan of redundancy so I will post entries to "shattered manor" as well as "by bus or by cuss". I need to know who would like to receive notifications while I am on the buses. Leave a comment or email me if you want to be notified. First 10 will be selected.

The Robertsons of Cement Book is on-line at http://lyn1937.tripod.com/cement/index.html.






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Yesterday morning after the therapy session was over I would have had to consider that question carefully.


It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God.
Thomas Jefferson
Unless your neighbor wants your young child to sacrifice to one of his gods. I am sick to death of people who hold that any set of beliefs is deserving of equal treatment with mine. Any belief system that leads to abuse, death, or degradation of a human being is wrong and should be cast into the ashpit of history. Yep! Intolerant!

Webtvers email comments to Lyn1937 and I will paste into the comments. This Tripod comment form is not compatible with webtv.

Chilli

No she is not looking for Angels. We are having Dinner ar Chillis and
she is considering her choice.




http://lyn1937.com/

The days since my entry on July 19 have been some of the most exasperating days I can remember. Every project I have started has veered wildly off in impossible directions. I realized that my bus trip and Shakespeare play schedules are interfering with an event with my senior granddaughter. I found out yesterday that I am anemic. I could not donate blood because my iron was too low. I called my doctor and have an appointment Friday at 11 am. I don't know whether I have a problem or the idiot 'girl" that did the prep at the blood bank is totally incompetent.

I have had her twice in a row. Each time she tries to talk me into donating just red blood cells. She claims I have valuable blood since I am O negative. News to me Last time when I refused she found my blood pressure was too high. When I protested and asked to be tested by another employee my pressure was 137/68, ie good. This time low iron at 34 and the lowest they can take is 38. If my iron level is normal when I go to the doctor Friday I am going to do all in my power to have her removed from her position. I feel surrounded by boobs and twits.

I got out of my bed (recliner) with a swollen, extremely sore right foot. I don't know what I did but it has made me mad. I cannot seem to refocus my mind off the pain. Aching back, legs that feel like they belong on the Rock Lizards of Deneb. When I get a chance I am going to lodge a complaint against the designer of the human body 8^).

Every plant and the lawns look like they are dying from lack of water. I have put the equivalent of 2 inches of rain on my lawns and plants. Yet the air is so hot and dry that one can almost see the water evaporating from the leaves. We are about 14 inches below normal for the year and have had no measurable rain in June. We had record high temperature today. Here at "shattered manor" (far from official) the temp in the shade by the pool was 105F.

The Robertsons of Cement Book is on-line at http://lyn1937.tripod.com/cement/index.html.


Most of the time I read emails that ask me to forward prayers to everyone then delete them. The one below spoke to me in ways the super sweet ones do not.


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Timmy was a little five year old boy that his Mom loved very much and, being a worrier, she was concerned about him walking to school when he started Kindergarten. She walked him to school the couple of days but when he came home one day, he told his mother that he did not want her walking him to school everyday. He wanted to be like the "big boys." He protested loudly, so she had an idea of how to handle it. She asked a neighbor, Mrs. Goodnest, if she would surreptitiously follow her son to school, at a distance behind him that he would not likely notice, but close enough to keep a watch on him. Mrs. Goodnest said that since she was up early with her toddler anyway, it would be a good way for them to get some exercise as well so she agreed.

The next school day, Mrs. Goodnest and her little girl, Marcy, set out following behind Timmy as he walked to school with another neighbor boy he knew. She did this for the whole week.

As the boys walked and chatted, kicking stones and twigs, the little friend of Timmy noticed that this same lady was following them as she seemed to do every day all week. Finally, he said to Timmy, "Have you noticed that lady following us all week? Do you know her?"

Timmy nonchalantly replied, "Yea, I know who she is."

The little friend said, "Well who is she?"

"That's just Shirley Goodnest" Timmy said.

"Shirley Goodnest? Who the heck is she and why is she following us?"

"Well," Timmy explained, "every night my Mom makes me say the 23rd Psalm with my prayers cuz she worries about me so much. And in it, the prayer psalm says, "Shirley Goodnest and Marcy shall follow me all the days of my life." So I guess I'll just have to get used to it.

From a collection jokes posted by my grannie friends at LAFFS.

It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of others: or their case may, by change of circumstances, become his own.
Thomas Jefferson

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It has been so hot outside that I spend my waking day light hours in the house soaking up the air conditioner. As my mother said "a idle mind soon wanders into confusion" I find myself pondering why our society chooses certain ancient rules and ignores others from the same sources. For example today's reading of the bible as scheduled by the IBS "read the bible in a year" program says "A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. But women will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety." This quote was from 1 timothy 2:11-15. As anyone can see that looks around America and most of the western world we long ago decided this instruction did not apply. We have a woman associate pastor. Many college professors are women. Many, not as many as there should be, are CEOs of major and minor corporations. Many women are bosses of men in the work place. Obviously we disagree with Paul. Even further disagreement is that we do not think childless women are unsaved just because they have no children. How do we justify the neglect of this instruction yet accept Paul's instructions against other activities. We, in our secular society, sure don't believe that all governments and rulers are authorized by God and thus must be obeyed without dissent.

Either all the commandments, instructions and laws promulgated in the new testament apply or none of them do. I am so confused that the same people who condemn homosexuality (ye shall not judge) support female leaders. I am confused that those who oppose abortion often support the death penalty. I am confused by those who claim to be Christians yet refuse to belief the Bible is true in all it's stories.

I heard you stir at that post modern secular heresy! I spent most of my adult life in scientific endeavors and learning. There were many, many things that were scientific nonsense when I graduated high school that are now main stays of our modern life. Electrons tunneling through non conductive material was ridiculous in 1959. Insulation that is glowing red hot but that can be held in one's bare hand—foolish fantasy!

I believe that we just do not know enough about how God did what God did to even be close to being able to say the bible is mythology. I don't know how God did what God did but I do know what my science and my mind tell me about how God did it. We should never give up studying the world with every bit of the brain power and science that God enabled. Those who attack things like evolution are simply trying to limit God to something they can understand. To liken God to a watch maker is such an insult that I am surprised God doesn't strike the whole crew with boils.

I think I am most troubled by what I perceive as an overly legalistic ways of viewing the New Testament. Once Christians fall into that trap we will be as doomed as the Jews. We must depend on God's grace in all things. God knows our heart.

As I was setting up the front yard sprinkler for the second time this week, in a possibly futile attempt to keep my azaleas alive, my mind wandered far away to a yesteryear when our parents took that final move to Texas in 1952, and where I would within 2 years find my future and present wife, and recalled the overheard talk of the old timer famers and ranchers in the grocery stores and hardware store of Markham, Texas about how dry it was and of them telling wild tales of loosing cattle and tractors in the cracks in the ground only to be topped by the next slow talking tobacco spitting leathery old man. When I had all the heat I could stand and was certain the water was not falling on the street I withdrew to my webbie room and aimed all 4 fans right at my desk. I spent the next few minutes placing weights on various piles of paper. Eventually the whirlwind was tamed and I began to Google for information about Texas drought. It turns out that, according to this amazing map that 1952 and 1952 were only mild drought years in the part of Texas where we lived. The year that I started high school saw that drought spread across the entire Midwest. Fortunately farming practices had changed since the 30s or we would have had another dust bowl. In my exploring I found a reference to Texas Parks about the drought. I have subscribed to Texas Parks and Wild Life (successor to Texas Parks) magazine since 1981 so I was curious about how they operated and presented data about the Texas drought of the 50s. What I read there and in other references presented by Google search is that we ain't in a drought yet but likely historians looking back at these years 50 years from now will decide we were in a severe drought. I know the last couple years in Houston sure remind me of the dry years when I rode the school bus from Markham to Tidehaven High School and we drove pas mile after mile of dead or dying cotton and maise. Nineteen fifty six was so dry the piss ants had to change their names due to lack of liquid.

The Texas Parks reference include clippings from two NEWSPAPERS detailing the parks board effort to construct parks just for Negros as part of the stupid separate but equal philosophy of race relations. Separate has never been equal. Any one who doubts that there has been some, not nearly enough but some, improvement needs to read these clipping.

Finally—Hey! Quit that sighing. I am almost done. Or in Texian I'm fixin to be done. I did not know that Texas ever officially experimented with weather modification. "In 1967, the Texas Legislature passed the Texas Weather Modification Act. The TNRCC is responsible for the weather modification program, which permits "cloud seeding" and promotes research and technology related to weather modification. On the local level, the Colorado River Municipal Water District in the Big Spring area has had this type of program for 25 years. The West Texas Weather Modification Association (WTWMA) has received a permit from TNRCC to begin a cloud seeding program in a seven-county area. WTWMA proposes to cover 5.2 million acres in the cloud seeding program at a cost of $300,000 to $400,000, or about 7 cents per acre.

TNRCC estimates that for every $1 dollar invested in cloud seeding, there is a $20 to $25 return in production of the land. TNRCC also found that, contrary to popular belief, cloud seeding tends to prevent flash floods and heavy rains by producing gentle rains over a long period of time.

In 1970, then Governor Preston Smith initiated a statewide cloud seeding program for three months. In July of that year, Texas suffered flooding, and the cloud seeding experiment was blamed. No data exist to back that claim, but the event left cloud seeding stigmatized. Some people go so far as to say it is equivalent to 'playing God'." I found this fascinating example of typical "pie in the sky" bureaucratic puffed- up thinking in "Window on State Government" by Susan Combs Texas State Comptroller of Public Accounts. Can you believe they actually spent money trying to make it rain on demand. Hell we cannot even predict tomorrows rainfall or temperature with any great accuracy.

A very good interactive site for displaying drought conditions around the USA is at national drought monitoring website.

Lastly I ran across a paragraph tht pretty much sums up the course of human existence.
"There's a survival process always that takes place. Those that survive, they live to tell the story. Those that don't, they go do something else. That's the way it works in our culture."

The Robertsons of Cement Book is on-line at http://lyn1937.tripod.com/cement/index.html.





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TOMATO PIE

This tomato pie is topped with a mayonnaise and Parmesan topping, along with some basil and seasonings.

Ingredients:
Pastry for a 1-crust 9-inch pie, unbaked
evaporated milk
4 cups sliced firm ripe tomatoes
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon dried leaf basil
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
1 large clove garlic, smashed and minced

Preparation:
Line pie plate with pastry; flute edges and brush shell with evaporated milk. Bake at 450° for 5 minutes. Fill the baked pie shell with sliced tomatoes and sprinkle with salt, pepper, and basil. Combine mayonnaise, Parmesan cheese, and minced garlic; spread over the layer of tomatoes. Bake at 350° for 35 to 45 minutes, or until tomatoes are cooked and pie is done.
This recipe can be found HERE.

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TOMATO CASSEROLE

Tomato casserole recipe is scalloped tomatoes with butter and bread crumbs, along with stewed tomatoes and onion.
Ingredients:
2 cans (about 14.5 ounces each) stewed tomatoes
1 tablespoon finely minced onion or 1 teaspoon dried minced onion
1 1/2 cups soft bread crumbs
1/4 cup melted butter

Preparation:
Mix tomatoes with onion. combine bread crumbs with melted butter. Alternate layers of tomatoes and bread crumbs in a 1 1/2-quart casserole, ending with a generous crumb topping. Bake at 400° for about 20 minutes.

Serves 4.
This recipe and many more tomato recipes are HERE

 

Information is the currency of democracy.
Thomas Jefferson

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I am slowly becoming aware that my body will not tolerate more than 2 one hour therapy sessions. I woke early Monday (8am) and realized, when it took me 10 minutes to make my way from webbie room to the bathroom, resting every 4 or 5 steps, that I was not going to be capable of any of the therapy exercises. I did get in the pool late Monday to do the full set of aquatic exercises.

For almost a week I have been promising to get my bike, oil the chain, air up the tires, and in general prepare it for use again. I did find a local shop that sells a wide comfy seat for bicycles but the want $120. I didn't pay that much for the bike and since my longest proposed ride is 1.3 miles I decided to pass on the pricey butt bucket.


For those who want to follow my bus trip I have listed the cities the buses will pass through along with Greyhound's drug induced hallucination about the times of arrival at each stop and their wildly under estimated times of layover.
For a list of cities clickHERE.
I have made provisions for my observation that every hundred miles of travel adds 10 minutes to the schedule. In other words I expect my arrival time in Eugene to be 6 hours later than listed or midnight. Consequently I am not sure how to make provision for overnight stay that first night.


My distrust of Greyhound has forced me to make only tentative plans for driving into Washington to visit old home towns in the valley around Quincy. I may not even make the drive but I do think I will be able to take most of the first listed plan. I have in mind a future trip via Amtrak into this area so I am not stressing too much about this itinerary. For a list of the city outlining my proposed road trip click RIGHT HERE.

Tonight at our marriage counseling session I heard a tone in my wife's voice that I interpret as a slight hesitation about me taking the trip. I have been planning/visualizing this trip since last July. I would not be surprised to see all manner of complications arise at "shattered manor". But the bus tickets are bought and money accumulated from sales of various items.




I don't know how much progress we are making. There are still items I mention that sets her fireball into full bloom. She is extremely sensitive to any mention of the grandsons or our son. She is instantly defensive and assumes an aggressive posture every time. So I will, if I understand correctly, just put those subjects aside and keep my mouth shut. Until she sees the trap she has built for herself no one can open the trap.

Part of what I have heard and learned during the prior 6 sessions has driven me to reexamine myself through the old love letters I wrote her while I was "screwing up" at Southwest Texas State College in San Marcos. I cringe to read the things. I was lying in cold blood to her and if I remember correctly I was even convincing myself.

I don't remember what triggered the impassioned whine that I have changed and the change was forever. Several semesters after this letter I flunked out of college while not having changed one bit.Click the letter fragment for the whole one page letter. What a smuck I was/am.



The Robertsons of Cement Book is on-line at http://lyn1937.tripod.com/cement/index.html.






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In truth, politeness is artificial good humor, it covers the natural want of it, and ends by rendering habitual a substitute nearly equivalent to the real virtue.
Thomas Jefferson

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Sometimes being a man isolates me from real meaning. Sunday our younger daughter left the contemporary service after I answered her question about where our senior pastor was. He was holding a "healing" service in the Sanctuary. She returned shortly and replied that "Yes Allison had laid his hands on and prayed for her". Then on the way home she told me she was quitting smoking. I, being dense as usual, congratulated her and launched into a lecture about how much money she would save. Today before therapy I texted her and told her how proud I was of her for quitting. She replied that she wanted her baby healthy. All day I have pondered. Are we going to be grandparents again or is she trying? She and her mom are probably going to give me hell about this but I want them and the world to know how much the thought of another grandchild thrills me. Last therapy session I watched a beautiful young mother feeding her baby while she was waiting for her husband to finish therapy. How I miss the feel of holding a little baby. I am uncomfortable with kids from 12 to 18 because I have no common interest. I honestly feel like I did not have those years of experience. "Yeah, Yeah!" I can hear my wife say, "you had to work". Whatever happens I support her with all my heart and soul.

And on top of that she is quitting smoking. Life is good!

I was so hot yesterday I waited until 9 pm to venture outside to water my potted plants and then to swim, and do my aquatic therapy. I stupidly turned the light in the pool on. Within 20 minutes my wife and I were being pelted with "June" bugs that were attracted by the light. They are completely harmless to humans but do extensive, in the larval stage, damage to lawns. In fact, I am quite fond of them and spent most of the remaining time in the pool rescuing the idiots from drowning. They have sharp little fingers that cause them to cling very tight. When I was searching for info for the bugs I discovered they are edible and were used by Indian medicine men. How cool is that? We can eat the bug that eats our lawns.

In today's therapy session David added two exercise with big balls and one with me pressed against a door trying to lift and tighten my pelvic girdle muscles. I still cannot isolate or identify the muscles they want me to tension. The exercises were so rigorous I actually looked forward to the 7 minute stationary bike session that ends each visit. I stopped at the pharmacy to pick up my medicines which reminded me that I must tell Dr. G to change me to generic drugs. I am taking 3 non-generic medicines. My drug bill is now $125 per month and my wife's is about the same.

My wife made me a cinnamon/sugar pizza for me. It was waiting for me when I got home. I ate every bit of it while I read the comics and solved the daily Sudoku puzzle. Then I settled into my recliner to let the sugar buzz pass and then nap. About 2 pm I went out back to treat, (chlorine removal) water for the Koi pond. It was so hot I filled the container and started the aerator pump and rushed back into the house. The high temps has caused high evaporation from their pond and our tap water with it's high Chlorine content is lethal to Koi. At 4 pm I went back outside with the intention of swimming and transferring the treated water to the pond. Too hot! The thermometer on the tree in the shade read 102 Fahrenheit. Needless to say I did not swim. I will wait until 10 or 11pm and leave the lights off.



The Robertsons of Cement Book is on-line at http://lyn1937.tripod.com/cement/index.html.

Out next marriage counseling session has been rescheduled to June 20 so I reread the assigned paper. After that I was browsing on-line comic strips. The Adam at Home strip reinforced what I had been told repeatedly before. Much of the time a woman just wants to talk and have her mate listen. The male tendency is to listen for the clue words and then start solving the proble. That, as I now understand, is actually insulting to the woman because she is most of the time fully qualified to solve her own problems. She just needs to talk it out to help her visualize the problem and solution. Women are wildly more verbal than men.







My Wind Chime store is not selling so I am cutting the prices in half. Buy now! Help CAMERON!

Click the picture for comic strips on-line.

Mix two small packages of Peach Jello with hot water only. Then add 1 can of Peach Pie Filling, 1 lg. can of crushed Pineapple, refrigerate overnight. then take 8 ounce. sour cream and 8 ounces. cream cheese,and1/3 cup of sugar, whip until sugar is thoroughly dissolved, spread on jello and chill until serving time.

For Thanksgiving and Christmas, I use the same recipe with Raspberry jello and Blueberry pie filling and Crushed Pineapple. Both are delicious.
This recipe will soon appear at Sammy's Good Eats website.

 

In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.
Thomas Jefferson

Webtvers email comments to Lyn1937 and I will paste into the comments. This Tripod comment form is not compatible with webtv.

I got an email from 5 different people over the last 3 days talking about the price of things in 1909. Of course being the number geek that I am I went exploring and found a website that showed average salaries over the years. In 1909 the average salary for all workers was $022 per hour. In 2007 it was about $13.73 per hour. Based on those salaries a dozen eggs should be $8.70, sugar $2.29 per pound and coffee at $9.38 per pound. I seldom shop but I believe today's prices, across the board, are much lower in terms of hours of average labor per unit of item. As I suspected and have preached to all I meet our gasoline is too cheap. The true cost has to be hidden somewhere inside the national economy. Gasoline in 1909 was approximately $0.10 per gallon. Again based on hours of labor required to buy it in 1909 (0.455 hours) gasoline should be 0.455 X $13.73 or 9.38 per gallon. Economy of scale and massive production values have drastically reduced the real cost but not all of the difference between $9 and the $3 real cost now.

THE MIDNIGHT RIDE
In fact according to the web site all commodities are cheaper now than in deep past.

The web site http://www.measuringworth.com/uscompare/ presented some eye opening information about George Washington. I knew that he was highly appreciated and adored in his days as General of the Revolutionary army and then as president. Knowing his equivalent salary in current dollars makes very clear just how much the country valued him.

"George Washington was paid a salary of $25,000 a year from 1789 to 1797 as the first president of the United States. The current salary of the president has recently been doubled to $400,000, to go with a $50,000 expense account, a generous pension and several other benefits. Has the remuneration improved?

Making a comparison using the CPI for 1790 shows that $25,000 corresponds to over $585,000 today, so the recent raise means current presidents have an equal command over consumer goods as the Father of the Country.

When comparing Washington's salary to an unskilled worker, or the measure of average income, GDP per capita, then the comparable numbers are $11 and $24 million. Granted that would not put him in the ranks of the top 25 executives today that make over $200 million. It would, however, be many times more than any elected official in this country is paid today. Finally, to show the "economic power" of his wage, we see that his salary as a share of GDP would rank him equivalent to $1.8 billion."
The website also compare the cost of the Civil War with the War in Iraq. I was stunned by the, in current dollars, monetary cost of the Civil War. We would surrender before we spend that much on any war now.

OF PAUL FOR BEER

Below is a test of your musical memory. I will post the answer in the next blog

.Friday morning my regular physical therapist was off. He had gone fishing down the coast near where we grew up. The young woman who filled in for him had her own patients to handle so her attention was somewhat divided. I talked to her, thank God women know how to listen, about my problem with one exercise. No matter what I try I cannot determine if I am activating the muscle that will help strengthen my core. And I have no clue what core means but I am going with their words. David told me I should be pulling my navel back to my spine. I strain and choke and fart but I don't feel any muscle tighten. After talking to Katy I think I could do that exercise better standing up.
LED TO A WARMER
What she wants is what all guys, regardless of age or beer belly, do at the beach when they see a pretty girl. They suck in their gut. My tub is so large and lardy that the muscles are buried and I cannot feel them with my hand. I hurried home because my wife needed the car to ferry the grandsons from activity to activity. Baseball, swimming and now football taxi service is putting about 200 miles on the van each week.

I put in so much effort at the therapy session that I was ravenous. Yes RAVENOUS! Imagine a ravenous lower middle class American! So I stopped at Whataburger and bought two breakfast on a bun sandwiches, 2 whole jalapenos, and a large coffee

HEMISPHERE
I quietly sat at the dinning room table to eat breakfast and solve the word puzzles in the Chronicle. The Sudoku puzzles have become almost trivial so I have started on the Word Jumble. Sometimes a jumbled word is so close to a real word that I cannot rearrange the letters to make the target word. Sometimes I wake in the middle of the night with the word properly arranged. The subconscious mind works constantly.

Last night I got an email from an Emmaus buddy informing us that our date to serve at "House of Amos" is not June 13 but instead June 20. This is the third time our date for service there has been changed. Somebody is very unorganized and I think the problem lies with a member who seldom makes our 4th day meetings. I don't know if I can make the 20 th because of baseball tournaments. It really pisses me off when people cannot adhere to a schedule nor get the facts straight about a schedule. Burma Shave

The Robertsons of Cement Book is on-line at http://lyn1937.tripod.com/cement/index.html.




My Wind Chime store is not selling so I am cutting the prices in half. Buy now! Help CAMERON!

Click the picture for comic strips on-line.

Thank you TIRE MAN!

 

In every country and every age, the priest had been hostile to Liberty.
Thomas Jefferson

Webtvers email comments to Lyn1937 and I will paste into the comments. This Tripod comment form is not compatible with webtv.