Well it’s time to get the garden ready

It’s the time of year to start getting the garden ready to plant.  I have to till it up real good since it has been disked to break up the clots.  Then after Easter, I’ll start planting.  We always plant a big garden so that we will have plenty for ourselves and also so we can give to those we know of that are having hard times because of the economy.  We have to look out for one another now that so many are affected with job layoffs and so many foreclosures around here.

Of course, we ask for nothing in return and in fact, a lot of the people we help come and help in the garden too.  Some of them have requested to plant some things that they like too so they can help others also.  It has sort of turned into a community garden with a lot of love put into it.  God blesses us every year with a great harvest and it’s good to help those in need no matter if they help in the garden or not.  Our whole nation needs to be looking out for each other more than we have in the past several years and maybe we won’t get in a mess like we’re in again any time soon.

I have a surprise for my wife

Easter will be coming soon and when the children were all still living at home, we always planned a ‘spring break’ vacation.  Since the children have moved out, we haven’t done that and she mentioned that she misses that the other day.  Well I have a surprise for her for ‘spring break’.  You can find some amazing prices for a cruise right now and I have found a great deal on a cruise for just the two of us.  It will be sort of a second honeymoon too since our anniversary isn’t very far away either.

I’m a smart man and I know that if I am going to make this as special for her as I hope it will be, then I better let her help pick out the cruise!!  Carnival cruise lines has some great cruises like to the Bahamas, or the Caribbean or even Hawaii but I think I’ll leave it all up to her as to which cruise we choose.  Besides, it’s going to be fun picking out the perfect ‘spring break’ with my wonderful wife.  She deserves so much better than I can give her but I thank God everyday that she chose to be my wife.  I am a lucky man and I know it.

My son already has a job when he gets out

With the economy as bad as it is, I was so afraid that my son would not have a job when he got out or be able to find a job.  Luckily the carnival that he was working for said that they would be glad to have him back.  Now I don’t have to worry that he will end up on the streets homeless.  So very many people that have never been homeless before are now looking at the possibility of becoming homeless or have become homeless because of losing their job and their home too.  Foreclosures are everywhere and it’s not looking like it will get any better anytime soon unfortunately.

President Obama is trying to find new ways to jump start the economy with stimulus packages and bail out packages for banks and major car manufacturers but what about us.  The stimulus package is supposed to help each state create new jobs to ease the unemployment.  I sure hope that it works that way too.  Everyone is suffering to some degree between gas prices raising and falling only to go right back up, groceries costing more and money being stretched farther than ever before and even attempting to stretch it farther than possible a lot of the time.

My son has learned so very much

It’s very hard to let your child fall.  A parents first reaction is to reach out and catch them but there are times when you have to let them fall.  Once they have fallen, a parents first reaction is to reach down and pick them up but sometimes the best thing is to let them get back up on their own.  I have a hard time trying to let my children learn a hard lesson that they have put themselves into but one thing I have also learned from these lessons my son has to learn, and that is that I have to let him learn them or he never will.  I have to let him learn the hard way and I can keep running to get him out of what ever mess he has gotten himself into anymore.

He has spent over 2 months in jail and will be getting out on the 23rd he told me today.  When he gets out, it’s on his own totally.  I did not pay for his bail, I did not pay for a lawyer, I did not pay to get his truck out so he walks out with the clothes on his back and whatever the wife of someone who is also in jail with him was able to get out of his truck.  That hurts me so much but he has to learn or he will end up in prison for a long, long time.  I can’t stand the thought of that and neither can he so hopefully, with the help of God, he has learned.

I have a hard time understanding this

Our world is so full of hate and I have a hard time understanding this.  People killing innocent people just because they lost their job or kids killing classmates in school because someone picked on them.  How can this be?  Why has it become so easy to take a gun and take someone else’s life?  Sure if someone is threatening to harm you or your family then you have to do what you have to do but these people are killing people that have done nothing to them.  Here’s an example of what I’m talking about that just occurred in Alabama.

Ten people have been killed and several injured across two small towns of Samson and Geneva in Alabama after a shooting incident by a gunman. The victims include the gunman and the wife and child of a sheriff’s deputy.

The gunman started his killing spree in a gas station in Samson after 5 p.m. Eastern Time and his rampage ended 12 miles away at the Reliable Metal Products plant, a manufacturing plant in Geneva. According to a report by CNN from Alabama state Senator Harri Anne Smith, who represents Geneva County “he [the gunman] was shooting at just ordinary people going about their business”.

The gunman was identified as Michael McLendon, who once worked at the Reliable Metal Products plant. He took his life at the plant after an encounter with the police. The victims include six adults and a child. The investigators are not sure what caused this catastrophic event to take place. Samson and Geneva are two small rural towns with a population of less than 5000 in Alabama near the Florida border.

Life is precious.  No one knows why this person when on the shooting spree that took the life of a small child in the rampage this man when on.  Then he took the cowards way out and killed himself.  If his life was so terrible, why didn’t he just take his own life and let the innocent people live their lives?  No one can give an answer to that question unfortunately.  Maybe we need to teach our children just how precious life really is because somewhere along the line, that seems to be a lesson not enough people learned.

Michael Jackson

Well it seems that Michael Jackson is going on tour again.  I grew up listening to him on the radio and have always thought he was one of the great talents of our country.  It’s a shame he has had so many legal problems but none of them have been proven that he has done anything wrong.  Can you imagine having to live in seclusion most of your life?  I sure can’t.  I’m sure that has something to do with some of his off behaviors (as some call it) but everyone is different.

Michale Jackson is and always will be the ‘King of Pop’ as far as I’m concerned.  He is a musical genius and a master performer.  You bet I would love to see him live onstage just once and I just might have to do that if at all possible since he’s saying this is his ‘final curtain call’.

I have heard a change in my son

Well my son has been sending me letters from jail and I am beginning to really hear or read a difference in each and every letter.  He is finally starting to realize that he has gotten himself in this mess and he’s going to have to do what he has to do to get himself out of it.  He’s finally realizing that Mom and Dad can’t fix everything anymore.

It hurts me to have to teach him this lesson but if he doesn’t learn it now, he’s going to end up somewhere he really doesn’t want to be and somewhere I don’t want him to be either.  In all reality, he’s teaching himself a hard lesson.

On a less serious note

A friend of mine sent me this email and I have to admit, I laughed until I cried.  I thought it was the funniest thing I have ever read but the funniest part is it’s supposed to be a true story.  I don’t know if it is or not but I hope you enjoy it even half as much as I did. This is supposedly true and written by a guy who purchased his lovely wife a pocket Taser for their anniversary and submitted this:

Last weekend I saw something at Larry’s Pistol & Pawn Shop that sparked my interest. The occasion was our 15th anniversary and I was looking for a little something extra for my wife Julie. What I came across was a 100,000-volt, pocket/purse-sized taser. The effects of the taser were supposed to be short lived, with no long-term adverse affect on your assailant, allowing her adequate time to retreat to safety….?? WAY TOO COOL! Long story short, I bought the device and brought it home.

I loaded two AAA batteries in the darn thing and pushed the button. Nothing! I was disappointed. I learned, however, that if I pushed the button AND pressed it against a metal surface at the same time; I’d get the blue arc of electricity darting back and forth between the prongs. AWESOME!!! Unfortunately, I have yet to explain to Julie what that burn spot is on the face of her microwave.

Okay, so I was home alone with this new toy, thinking to myself that it couldn’t be all that bad with only two triple-A batteries, right? There I sat in my recliner, my cat Gracie looking on intently (trusting little soul) while I was reading the directions and thinking that I really needed to try this thing out on a flesh & blood moving target. I must admit I thought about zapping Gracie (for a fraction of a second) and thought better of it. She is such a sweet cat. But, if I was going to give this thing to my wife to protect herself against a mugger, I did want some assurance that it would work as advertised. Am I wrong?

So, there I sat in a pair of shorts and a tank top with my reading glasses perched delicately on the bridge of my nose, directions in one hand, and taser in another. The directions said that a one-second burst would shock and disorient your assailant; a two-second burst was supposed to cause muscle spasms and a major loss of bodily control; a three-second burst would purportedly make your assailant flop on the ground like a fish out of water. Any burst longer than three seconds would be wasting the batteries. All the while I’m looking at this little device measuring about 5′ long, less than 3/4 inch in circumference; pretty cute really and (loaded with two itsy, bitsy triple-A batteries) thinking to myself, ‘no possible way!’

What happened next is almost beyond description, but I’ll do my best…? I’m sitting there alone, Gracie looking on with her head cocked to one side as to say, ‘ don’t do it dip$hit,’ reasoning that a one second burst from such a tiny little ole thing couldn’t hurt all that bad. I decided to give myself a one second burst just for heck of it. I touched the prongs to my naked thigh, pushed the button, and . . .

HOLY MOTHER OF GOD . . . WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION . . . WHAT THE HELL!!!

I’m pretty sure Jessie Ventura ran in through the side door, picked me up in the recliner, then body slammed us both on the carpet, over and over and over again. I vaguely recall waking up on my side in the fetal position, with tears in my eyes, body soaking wet, both nipples on fire, testicles nowhere to be found, with my left arm tucked under my body in the oddest position, and tingling in my legs?  The cat was making meowing sounds I had never heard before, clinging to a picture frame hanging above the fireplace, obviously in an attempt to avoid getting slammed by my body flopping all over the living room.

Note: If you ever feel compelled to ‘mug’ yourself with a taser, one note of caution: there is no such thing as a one second burst when you zap yourself! You will not let go of that thing until it is dislodged from your hand by a violent thrashing about on the floor. A three second burst would be considered conservative?

A minute or so later (I can’t be sure, as time was a relative thing at that point), I collected my wits (what little I had left), sat up and surveyed the landscape. My bent reading glasses were on the mantel of the fireplace. The recliner was upside down and about 8 feet or so from where it originally was. My triceps, right thigh and both nipples were still twitching. My face felt like it had been shot up with Novocain, and my bottom lip weighed 88 lbs. I had no control over the drooling. Apparently I $hit myself, but was too numb to know for sure and my sense of smell was gone.; I saw a faint smoke cloud above my head which I believe came from my hair. I’m still looking for my nut$ and I’m offering a significant reward for their safe return!!

P. S. My wife loved the gift, and now regularly threatens me with it!

Today is the day

Well the truck is gone now.  Today is the day that it had to be paid for or they keep it.  I don’t have $1300 to pay for getting his truck out.  Besides, it’s a 1991 and probably not worth that much to begin with.  He’s just going to have to figure out a way to get a job so he can earn the money to get another vehicle on his own.  The amazing thing is he’s not mad.  He’s beginning to realize that he is the one at fault here and no one else.  He did wrong and now it has cost him his truck.

Dear God I hope he finally realizes that he can’t walk in the middle of the street and be doing right.  Sure sometimes he’s on the right side of the street but then he manages to get back in the middle of the road again and before you know it, he’s on the wrong side of the street again if only for a moment or two.  Life doesn’t work that way and he’s got to learn everything the hard way unfortunately.

I have made my decision

I am not going to get the truck out of the tow yard.  If my son loses it, then he loses it.  He did this to himself and he has to realize that at some point in time, you are responsible for your own life.  I have helped him too much in the past I’m afraid and now he expects that every time he gets in a jam, Good Ol’ Dad will come to the rescue.  Well I can’t do that anymore.  I have to let him fall flat on his face and hope and pray he is man enough to learn to stand back up on his own.

My wife wants me to get it out but I can’t.  I understand her point of view which is “If he doesn’t have a car, then how can he get a job and get back and forth to work?”  I had a cousin that walked 15 miles one way to work everyday and supported his wife and two children only to have to walk back home 15 miles in the evening.  If he could do it, surely my son can too.  He has to want to, that’s all it is to it and he’s not going to want to as long as we keep giving and giving.  If we don’t quit giving, he’ll break us and never think a thing of it.