Wednesday, May 20

CHOICES

As members of the Human Race and whether we are Christian or not, and whether or not we have any spiritual beliefs in any religion or in an philosophy, we all believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that we all have FREE WILL and that we are empowered to make our own choices even if we refuse to take responsibility for those choices and instead try to blame someone else...

CHOICES...

We all makes choices...

Sometimes, we make good choices...

Sometimes, we make bad choices...

But, we all possess the FREE WILL to make CHOICES.

Throughout my entire life, my choices which at the time they were made were arrived at through careful analysis of the situation based upon the knowledge available to me at the time and were infused with all sorts of preconceived ideas that were in my head (right or wrong) based upon how I had previously responded to circumstances in which I had been confronted.



  1. My choice to go to College
  2. My choice to leave College
  3. My choice to get married
  4. My choice to enlist in the US Navy
  5. My choice to return to College
  6. My choice to accept work with a variety of employers
  7. My choice to relocate from NC to TN
  8. My choice to get a divorce
  9. My choice to get remarried
  10. My choice to pay off debts and save money
  11. My choice to work as a consultant on the side
  12. My choice to retire
My life simplified into 12 choices...

As a result of these choices,
  • I live in a modest home
  • I have a modest retirement income
  • I drive an inexpensive car
  • I only fly economy class
  • I have inexpensive vacations
  • I wear inexpensive clothes
  • I have very few friends
BUT...  these are MY CHOICES and I accept the RESPONSIBILITY for my choices and while I may dream/wish for more, I accept that this will never happen because of all the choices I have made.  People that are my friends either accept me for the choices I made or they do not, and if they do not then they are no longer my friends...

When I die, I will leave very little financial wealth behind me...  however, there will be sufficient funds to pay all the experiences for my wife until the age of 97 where when she dies she will leave very little financial wealth behind her...

Perhaps, she could have done better...  but, she also made the choice to accept only that which she had with me...  she then, is responsible for the choices she made...  right or wrong...  good or bad.

While this may seem like a foolish idea about which to write and share, it is a FACT OF LIFE that one day, you will be faced with the fact that you will have to accept the choices that you have made...  

ALL OF US WILL ONE DAY BE CONFRONTED WITH THIS REALITY...

What's Up Yawl?


FIRST TIME...

TODAY, was the first time that my wife and I had been inside a restaurant to eat since  February which have been about 3 months ago, give or take but have purchased numerous"take out" orders, but for some reason, "take out" orders do not seem to taste as good and eating the same food inside the restaurant. 


Of course, there is no scientific proof to support this claim...  LOL...



While we have many favorite restaurants in this area which includes Morristown, TN to Knoxville, TN, the one that we attend more often than not is PERKINS...  and, while my wife orders a variety of different meals, I always order the same meal over and over and over again, which is:  THE EVERYTHING OMELETTE WITH PANCAKE AND BREAKFAST POTATOES...


 typically, I will eat half the omelette and half the breakfast potatoes, taking home the other half as well as the 3 pancakes that are served with the meal to eat on the next 4 subsequent mornings...  I don't do this to save money although money is saved, I do this so I do not OVEREAT during any one meal.


It felt really good to go out to a restaurant and eat inside.  All the restaurant workers wore face masks and plastic gloves.  Every other table or booth was left vacant.  The paper menu were thrown away and each table, we observed while waiting for our food, was THOROUGHLY sanitized after whoever was eating there left.


We felt very safe!!!


AIN'T IT JUST A WONDERFUL MORNING???

GOOD MORNING EVERYONE

GOOD MORNING WATER

GOOD MORNING FLOWERS

GOOD MORNING WATER

GOOD MORNING ROCKS

GOOD MORNING TREE

GOOD MORNING WORLD

Tuesday, May 19

A Rainy Day

According to the WEATHER PERSON (trying to be politically correct here) for the East Tennessee Area, we should be expecting rain(off and on) for the rest of the week and maybe a few days longer if the 10-Day Forecasting is accurate.  Ordinarily, I would not be bothered by rain and would encourage its presence I am, during these months of Spring, Summer, and Fall, keenly aware of having to mow the damn grass and while our yard can be mowed in about an hour, it's a pain-in-the-ass to try and mow it in between bouts of rain without letting it properly dry out.

On the positive side of a week of rain, our above ground pool actually relishes the idea of rain because the rain's freshness dilutes the buildup of bad chemicals in the water like chlorine and the stuff that was used to winterize it last fall.  As long as the rain is falling gradually, I can still easily remove the excess water by putting the pool pump on WASTE and if I hookup the hose can also easily vacuum out of the pool any debris on its floor that has settled since the last time I vacuumed.

Yard and Pool Maintenance is relatively easy if one has the proper tools to complete each task...  in my case, I need only a hose, pole, and vacuum device as well as a riding lawn mower...

Personally, I like the rain...  I like the sounds it makes...  I like the relaxing peacefulness it creates...  and, I like how beautiful everything looks afterwards.

IT'S A CONVENTION...


W O W...


Its Just a Little Windy Here...


Can You Bowl Like This?


Monday, May 18

AG Barr at work...


Economic Forecasting

According to a report from FOX NEWS this morning, our economy will not completely rebound from the COVID-19 Pandemic until the END OF 2021... that's almost 20 months from now...  much can happen during the next 20 months...  and, if it takes these next 20 months, many of our financial investments will become substantially damaged even when and after the economy does, in fact, rebound.

During my working career, I never much gave a rat's ass to whether investment increased or decreased as I was just concerned about my own salary and how much money I was able to save...  and, while that may seem very narrow minded on my behalf, the money I saved never made it into the stock market...   I based all my goals on non-interest bearing accounts which always meant that they would always do a little bit better than my predictions.

Now that I am taking money out of my accounts, I still do not plan for interest earned, but on a simple reduction of the funds and how long those funds will last.  Interest will only delay the inevitable...  that is to say, the depletion of the account.

Right now, those monies will pay our bills until both of us have reached the age of 97 regardless of the interest earned...  so, economic forecasting is of minimal concern to us and our livelihood.

ASSIGNING BLAME

Americans are a fickle group of people and perhaps their diversity makes the problem worse but no matter what happens, Americans want to blame someone other than themselves...



NO ONE WANTS TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR ACTIONS...  and, if they ever do take responsibility it is always down played as if it never really mattered; whereas, when they can blame someone else, it is the worst situation since slavery.  And, gender does not seem to play a big role in this behavior as it happens equally among males as well as females.

We are a PASS THE BUCK generation...  which, in my humble and not thoroughly vetted opinion actually means very little.  And, why do I downgrade myself?  Because, I am NOBODY...  or, what the Beatles wrote in their song, NOWHERE MAN...  opinions are only valid in this country when they come from people who are overly educated and WELL KNOWN or are in POWERFUL POSITIONS, otherwise we ignore them outright.

Clouds in a pool

Click on white triangle twice then click on [ ] in the lower right to enlarge to full screen...

On the road again...

Click twice on the white triangle then click on [ ] in the lower right to enlarge to a full screen...

Find the force hon... not the rhythms...


It's about rhythms...

Click on white triangle twice, the click on [ ] in lower right corner to enlarge to full screen...

Sunday, May 17

Sunday Evening

Perfect pool size but without a deck surrounding it...
I spent most of the morning cleaning out the pool on waste and then putting more water into it so reduce the levels chlorine...  it would appear that when we closed the pool up for the winter, we put in more chlorine than was necessary; however, when we had a water checked, it was perfect for the first time in over 10 years other than high chlorine levels which is relative inexpensive to adjust.  In the past, we have spent around $150 to get our pool balanced.  Not sure what we did this time but it worked.

The rest of the day was spent working on my various blogs:

  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • My Cancer Odyssey
  • A Bipolar Scorpion
  • Reflections:  White Scorpion
Tomorrow, I will be replacing some of the decking on our deck outside which is not bad since it has lasted over 10 years...  I would say of the 150+ boards, replacing about 20 of them is not bad after ten years of wear and tear and sunlight.  Although, we have made a point of staining the deck about every 3 years.

Right now, while I am composing this post, I am looking at a ROKU Aquarium Screen on our 50" Panasonic flat screen that is one of the free bonus features that comes with the ROKU device once it is purchased.  I believe it was about $50 but we get just about everything that Cable offers and for $10 and $5 each month we can subscribe to Netflix and Hulu and get everything that Cable Offers that we want to watch plus more and it is a hell of a lot cheaper

Shower With Me Hon...


Your Morning Coffee


Praying

In order to pray, one must first presuppose that there is someone to whom to pray and second one
must believe that one's prayers will be answered, otherwise praying is a waste-of-time...  of course, this is my opinion.

In my mind, I BELIEVE very strongly that there is a CREATOR whether that CREATOR has the name of God or Allah or Yahweh or HaShem or Shiva or Akal Murat...  it does not really matter to me because there is still a CREATOR.  And, the fact that there are so many names for this CREATOR does not mean that some beliefs are wrong while others are right...  it just means that OUR CREATOR gave different people what they needed at the time to believe in a CREATOR...  and most importantly, life after death exists in all beliefs even though the path getting to that life after death may be different...

Since this has been established...  even though it may not be completely accepted...  let/s move on to the topic of prayer.

HOW WE CURRENTLY PRAY IS WRONG...

Every time I attend a formal Church service on Sunday, I realize this and because we pray wrong in Church leaves me to believe that the leaders of the Church do not really understand or follow the teachings of the BIBLE..

In Christianity, Jesus told us that when we pray to HIS FATHER, do so this way:




And yet, all ministers, pastors, priests recite or ad lib their own prayers asking God to provide them will everything under the sun except for maybe repairs on the kitchen sink...  for me, this is wrong...  We should not ask for anything other than that HIS WILL BE DONE...