"Genua nunc flectantur omnia."
Since we returned from Austin my wife has had cataract surgery on her right eye. So she now has had the cataracts removed from both eyes. Her right eye has better long range vision while the left eye is slightly better for reading. In any case she is going to need a pair to read with. As our luck would have it she got her new Texas driver's license. She renewed before surgery so the license shows she needs to wear corrective lenses to drive. Unless she wants to wear neutral glasses while driving she will need to get her license revised. What a prime example of our luck. While she was having her vision corrected and cleared I got two pair of glasses. One is for driving and the other is a bifocal set for reading and computer work. I had had trifocals and swore that I would never again have trifocals. After a week with the two pair I can understand the logic of a pair ground for all three distances. I cannot see the TV clearly with my readers and I cannot see the computer with my drivers. I will adjust and never go back to the trifocal madness.
The bifocals are the ones in back The lenses in either pair are about half the width of my old pair and are so light I forget I have them on. My wife gave me a $100 gift card to Cinemark theaters. So told me that meant I was free to go whenever I wanted to whichever movie I wanted to see. So the first movie I attended was AVATAR. The story was trite, kind of a mixture of Indians versus European invaders morphed into New Age mysticism set in Mother Gaia formalism. Normally I despise such wooly-headed stupidity. The images and the imagining of the moon planet Pandora made the movie worth seeing. The humanoids of Pandora were so well created that I found myself identifying with them within minutes. The lead female Na'vi (Neytiri) exuded a strong intelligent sexuality equal to the best of Kathryn Hepburn or Lauren Bacall. I want to see the movie again just to enjoy the pictures. I noticed a lot of science fiction type movies being announced in the previews. So I subscribed to a weekly email from Cinemark to keep me updated. Some time back I downloaded to my iphone the audio book version of the book by Craig Ferguson "American on Purpose: The Improbable Adventures of an Unlikely Patriot". I finished listening to it using the "Bluetooth" headphones. I would give Sarah Palin's 'Going Rogue" a 1.5 and Craig's book an 8. Sometime I wish even the natural born American citizens had to take the same test as naturalized citizens. Craig Ferguson knows more about America than most native borns. Now I am taking a break to watch "Wild Hogs" and any football bowl game until Midnight. I will see you in 2010.
HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010 has to be better! Today's Story: "That's Everything!" By Bob Perks I remember watching an older couple as they walked through the local Salvation Army thrift store. I had just dropped off a bag of clothes and a few other items we no longer wanted. When I get the opportunity I stop by just to look through the old records, yes, I called them records. Not CD's, or MP3's, simply records, those round plastic things from ancient times that had music recorded on them. 33 1/3 and 45's to be exact. Yes, I even search through the 78's, too. Anyway, this couple moved slowly around me in search of items they had on a list they held tightly in hand. They didn't say much, but occasionally motioned to the other and held an item up next to the list. "No, that's not good," one would say and move on. My curiosity always gets the best of me, that is until I satisfy it by asking. "Can I help you find something?" I asked. They stopped, looked at me and said, "We're looking for old things that look new." It must have been a private joke, they laughed, I didn't. "Look, every new year in the past we tried to begin the year with new things. It was a goal to surround ourselves with things fresh and new so that we had new direction,new hopes and dreams for the year ahead," the man said. "How did that work out?" I asked. "It took a long time for us to learn and a great deal of debt, but we discovered it really got us nowhere," she said. "So, how does this fit in? I mean shopping at a thrift store? Are things bad financially?" "No, not at all. We discovered that things don't have to be expensive to be of great value. Even though it's old, it's new to someone who never saw it before." he said. "So, we search each year end for things of value to no one but mean the world to us." she added. "May I see your list?" I asked. It was an old tattered piece of paper with three words written on it. "This is it?" I asked. I flipped it over to see if there was something I was missing. "Yep! But don't ask if that is it. That's not just it, that's everything." she said. "What have you found so far?" I asked. He stretched out his hand and in it were two things. A small frame made out of Popsicle sticks and what appeared to be one knitted baby bootie. Not a pair. "We still need one more thing," he said. "Got it!" we heard off in the distance. "What did you find?" he shouted across the store. She walked slowly toward us holding something in the air. "Look, it's a flower vase. Well, it was one of those Ball canning jars that someone painted. It looks awful, but..."then in unison...."It's new to us!" They then headed to the checkout without saying another word. There you have it. Your New Year message for 2010. "What?" Oh, yes. You might want to know what the three words were on their list. It won't make much sense to you. I mean, you really need to see beyond it all. You must understand that this was all just a game for them. They could have picked out anything, anything at all. The real point here is that they had spent most of their lives believing that there was power in "things." They spent most of their lives believing that at the stroke of midnight as one year ended and a new one began, that life was going to change magically. They, like most of us, believed that we had to have a plan and we needed to sacrifice all of our waking hours and sometimes even our moral values to get ahead. Because that's what it's all about on New Year's Eve. Dump the old and start stealing time from the new. The truth is, as they had discovered, there really isn't anything different from one day to the next, one year to the next,accept for your attitude toward it and what you choose to do with it. Everything, including change, is there waiting to be discovered. So everything is old until you see it for the first time. There is only one thing constant, never changing and sure. That's what those three words were on that paper. "God Loves You!" As the woman said to me, "That's not just it, that's everything."Happy New Year! "I wish you enough!" Thank you Shirley for sending this just when I needed it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12/29: O Lord, give us the courage and faith to follow wherever you lead. Strengthen us when the way is hard. Amen. 12/30: Dear God, give us the grace to let go of any and every thing that keeps us from new life in Christ. Amen. 12/31: Giver of Life, help us to live each day to glorify you. Amen. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I had not realized just how blessed we are until I started driving the church van to bring these Santa Maria women and the residents of Turning Point and Independent Living to Terrace United Methodist Church. Please click on a PRAYER LIST for the women of Santa Maria and Bonita House for the week of December 24, 2009. Click the picture for comic strips on-line. 1.Two vultures board an airplane, each carrying two dead raccoons. The stewardess looks at them and says, "I'm sorry, gentlemen, only one carrion allowed per passenger." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Two boll weevils grew up in South Carolina. One went to Hollywood and became a famous actor. The other stayed behind in the cotton fields and never amounted to much. The second one, naturally, became known as the lesser of two weevils. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, but when they lit a fire in the craft, it sank, proving once again that you can't have your kayak and heat it, too. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. A three-legged dog walks into a saloon in the Old West. He slides up to the bar and announces: "I'm looking for the man who shot my paw." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. Did you hear about the Buddhist who refused Novocain during a root canal? He wanted to transcend dental medication. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. A group of chess enthusiasts checked into a hotel and were standing in the lobby discussing their recent tournament victories. After about an hour, the manager came out of the office and asked them to disperse. "But why?" they asked, as they moved off. "Because," he said, "I can't stand chess nuts boasting in an open foyer." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7. A woman has twins and gives them up for adoption. One of them goes to a family in Egypt and is named "Ahmal." The other goes to a family in Spain; they name him "Juan." Years later, Juan sends a picture of himself to his birth mother. Upon receiving the picture, she tells her husband that she wishes she also had a picture of Ahmal. Her husband responds, "They're twins! If you've seen Juan, you've seen Ahmal." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8. These friars were behind on their belfry payments, so they opened up a small florist shop to raise funds. Since everyone liked to buy flowers from the men of God, a rival florist across town thought the competition was unfair. He asked the good fathers to close down, but they would not. He went back and begged the friars to close. They ignored him. So, the rival florist hired Hugh MacTaggart, the roughest and most vicious thug in town to "persuade" them to close. Hugh beat up the friars and trashed their store, saying he'd be back if they didn't close up shop. Terrified, they did so, thereby proving that Hugh, and only Hugh, can prevent florist friars. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9. Mahatma Gandhi, as you know, walked barefoot most of the time, which produced an impressive set of calluses on his feet. He also ate very little, which made him rather frail and with his odd diet, he suffered from bad breath. This made him.... what? (Oh, man, this is so bad, its good) A super callused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10. And finally, there was the person who sent ten different puns to friends, with the hope that at least one of the puns would make them laugh. Unfortunately, no pun in ten did. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Blame Sammy for the laugh induced hernia Click HERE for more granny jokes. The Creator has not thought proper to mark those in the forehead who are of stuff to make good generals. We are first, therefore, to seek them blindfold, and then let them learn the trade at the expense of great losses. Thomas Jefferson Or as a beloved uncle once told me "The stupidity of our generals has killed more Americans than the brilliance of their generals."
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