Worshiping Alone

My parents required that I attend both Sunday School and Church every Sunday including those Sundays when the family was on vacation until I graduated from high school...  Once I graduated my attendance on Sundays was sporadic at best and it was then that I realized I could have a personal and private relationship with God on my own and without being in a group of people who claimed to have the same faith as I had.

I quickly realized that these people did not have their own faith but the faith that their ministers and pastors told them to have...  think for them rather than encouraging them to think for themselves...  many of these worshipers have never read the entire Bible themselves but can quote scriptures to make whatever point they want to make...

These people did not have OPEN MINDS nor did they question what their ministers or pastors told them to think...  yet claimed to be very religious.

From this point on, I saw INSTITUTIONALIZED RELIGION as more of a problem than as an outlet of faith for the faithful.

I have read the BIBLE from cover to cover and while I was reading took notes and wrote down questions that I might have because of what I read.  When I pray, I recite THE LORD'S PRAYER and nothing more or nothing less.

I don't pray for peace
I don't pray for a cure for cancer
I don't pray to end racism

I recite THE LORD'S PRAYER so that God's Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven...  and, that is it...

ADDITIONALLY, I am convinced that my ENTIRE LIFE has been orchestrated and guided by GOD and that whoever I have become is the GIFT that God has given me.

I don't need church on Sunday to reinforce that BELIEF of mine and I don't need to be around other religious people who might think like me...  if this is what they want to do...  GOD, as he had previously stated will be there...

If you are by yourself, GOD will be there if that is what one wants.

The Great Smokey Mountains

When I finally see the signs for THE GREAT SMOKEY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK, I know that I am within hollering distance of home...  of course, that is just an expression so please don't understand me...


We pulled into our driveway (actually backed making it easier to unload) in exactly 6 hours and 40 minutes after leaving our Resort in South Myrtle Beach and that time includes stopping for gas and coffee and making two additional pit stops to change drivers.  And, my speed (on average) was only 5 miles above the speed limit...  although for a few minutes, I drove both faster and slower depending upon the situation...  I saw a dozen highway patrolmen (excuse me ladies) both in marked and unmarked vehicles all of which had stopped cars to give them tickets...  and, each time I saw one, I thought about "defunding police departments," and wish they would include these guys...   as I have paid more than my fair share of speeding tickets.

Going down to Myrtle Beach, our 2015 Venza got 26.8 mpg...  only 22.3 while down at the beach...  and, 26.1 coming back which I attribute to climbing the mountains of North Carolina and East TN as opposed to descending the mountains of both those States.

Two of our 3 cats greeted us once they recognized our voices but our Siamese has remained hidden as he gets his feeling's hurt whenever we leave for more than a day and typically stays out-of-our-sight or at least until bedtime as punishment...  but, once he gets over his feline feelings, he acts like we were never out of his sight.

Six and a half hours is not a long drive, but it is long enough to illustrate a subtle reminder to me as to how much I hate driving nowadays whether the road is full of "asshole drivers" or polite ones.  Driving for me has got to be a function of age now and all I really care about when I get behind the wheel is thinking I would feel a lot better if someone drove for me.

My father was just the opposite...  Once he was behind the wheel...  he was in charge and in control and did not stop driving until he was 87 after misjudging his turning radius requirements...  and, to the die he died, he could not understand how that happened.

IT IS NICE TO BE BACK HOME...

Final Thoughts of Myrtle Beach June 2020

AT 2:00 ON OUR LAST DAY HERE...  the umbrella and chairs were empty as the couple who had rented them at not yet returned from wherever they had gone...  but, their rental fee was still good until 4:00...

A black couple with an entourage of about 15 other pretty evenly divided between adults and children decided to lay down their towels and chairs directly in front of the empty chairs where if the renters had returned, there was not enough room for them to get into their seats.  The older couple managed to sit in the chairs as if they belonged to them.

About 2:20, the lifeguard came by and asked them to leave the chairs because they had been rented by another couple...  and, the black couple along with their entourage yelled obscenities out at the lifeguard (who happened to be black as well) for having the damn nerve to ask them to leave...  as if they were entitled to whatever they wanted to take over.

My wife and I were sitting right beside the action and for a while there thought that we might become the victims of black violence because the black couple and their entourage was getting pretty frigging mad at everything and everyone without range of their voices and bodies.

The lifeguard got on his walkie talkie and radioed for assistance...  and, as soon as the black couple realized what he had done, they left and took all their followers with them...

That is the first time in over 20 years that anything like that had happened at Myrtle Beach were we were that close to the action and could have been in a position to have been harmed...

THIS and THAT

Day 6 - at Myrtle Beach, SC

This is our last day at Myrtle Beach and the sun is out and strong with not a cloud in sight and the weather forecast yields a day with no rain in sight...  hot and humid...  with a slight wind to cool off the senses...

As I sit beside my floor-to-ceiling sliding door window, looking out at the Atlantic Ocean, I see calm waves slowing approaching the shore, fizzling out when they hit the shore...  and, I see a light blue sky from north to south and a far east horizon where the water and sky meet...   and, I see the lifeguard setting-up chairs along the line the tractor made as it scraped the surface of the ground...  and, I see early-bird vacationers who like to walk before the sun rises too high in the sky...

Inside my rented efficiency apartment, the air cools the air and the smell of heated coffee lingers in the living-kitchen room while FOX NEWS plays on and on behind me...  and, my wife who finally leaves the bed gets ready for her final day in the sun here at Myrtle which she has been visiting each summer for the last 50 years...

Our last supper here on the coast will be at either Chili's or Red Lobster and an early night will be claimed as we leave before sunrise the next day to beat the crowd on our drive back to TN...

All Creatures Great and Small

SOCIAL UNREST

This video clip aired 3 weeks ago...

Social Unrest:  is characterized by the general dissatisfaction of a group and the unconventional and sometimes violent ways people tend to show it. One example is rioting or when a large group of people behaves in a violent and uncontrolled way.

According to Wikipedia:
Civil disorder, also known as civil disturbance or civil unrest, is an activity arising from a mass act of civil disobedience (such as a demonstration, riot, or strike) in which the participants become hostile toward authority, and authorities incur difficulties in maintaining public safety and order, over the disorderly crowd.  It is, in any form, prejudicial to public law and order.

Social Unrest or Civil Disobedience whichever way you want to go, will cost Trump the election this year...   our economy and economic growth is not as important to us as social unrest is and has become...  unfortunately, this social unrest will result in a soon to take place RACE WAR...

TOURISM RANKINGS

Paris, France

Global Tourism Rankings

1. France
2. Spain
3. United States
4. China
5. Italy 
6. Turkey
7. Mexico
8. Germany
9. Thailand
10. United Kingdom

USA Tourism Rankings      

New York City, NY

1. New York City
2. Miami
3. Los Angeles
4. Orlando
5. San Francisco
6. Las Vegas
7. Honolulu
8. Washington DC
9. Chicago
10. Boston

Top Beaches - East Coast      

Nantucket, MA

1. Nantucket, MA
2. Block Island, RI
3. East Hampton, NY
4. Martha's Vineyard, MA
5. Cape May, NJ
6. Jekyll Island, GA
7. Myrtle Beach, SC
8. Provincetown, MA
9. Kiawah Island, SC
10. Miami Beach, FL

Day 5 -- at Myrtle Beach,. SC

As is usual for me, at least here at Myrtle Beach, I awake at 7:30 am and after visiting the bathroom, pour myself a cup of coffee (that was previously brewed the day before) and heat it up in the microwave for 90 seconds after which I pour in 2-3 spoonfuls of Fat Free Cappuccino Mix and sit down in a chair and drink it all before I do anything...  after my third cup of coffee, I start writing articles for my blogs and by 10:00 am I am ready to join my wife on the beach who typically arrives at our rented umbrella and chairs by 9:00 am or earlier...   

We remain on the beach until 4:00 pm usually getting in the water once or twice in the afternoon when it is low tide and the undercurrent is not so strong...  I no longer do any body surfing (because of my age and stability) although I continue to look at the approaching waves as if that is exactly what I am getting ready to do...

THIS MORNING...  my wife is sitting across from me on the couch and it is after 9:00 am because of the rain that is lightly pouring down in front of us...  after checking our email and probably surfing on Facebook for a while, she will no doubt spend the day shopping at the Malls...

So, 4 out of 5 days, we were able enjoy the reason we drove to Myrtle Beach in the first place and since we have one more day, it would appear that our percentage of good days will increase to 5 out of 6 or a little over 80%.  It would be better if it were 100% and 100% is what we have received for several years so 80% this year is not a bad "batting average."

Day 4 -- at Myrtle Beach, SC

So far...  (knock on wood as they say) we have had 4 uninterrupted days on the beach due to any actual rain falling, however, after 4:00 pm when LACK's Beach Service collects the rented chairs and umbrellas, it has rained a couple of time only to have the downpour to end after 20-30 minutes...  or, just enough to screw up our evening "out on the town," where my wife shops and I sit in the car reading FOX NEWS on my cell phone.

Tonight...  and, before it rained, I was sitting in the car while my wife went into Belks and noticed a black man with his pants down below his butt...  the female with him was dancing around completely oblivious to what was going on.   The pants caught my attention and while I watched him move around what I thought to be his vehicle, he pulled out his penis and began peeing on the car.  I could not tell if he just had to pee or if he was just being vindictive.

As he was shaking his penis, the female with him gave some kind of signal and he returned his device to inside his boxer shorts and pulled his pants up above his waist and walked away quickly.  No sooner than him walking away from the vehicle did a white mother and her daughter walked up to the car and got in...  within seconds, the pissed on vehicle drove away.

I made the assumption that neither saw me staring and was instantly worried that if they had, I might have put myself in harm's way...  ordinarily, witnessing something like this would not have bothered me but given this BLM movement moving around the country...  one has to be careful.

Early to Bed - Early to Rise

After a few days somewhere, a sort of comfortableness sets in and I find a new routine that is relatively accommodating at least for a few more days and such is the case here where I was in bed last night shortly after 9:00 pm and not because I was particularly tired but because I was bored and once in bed must have fallen asleep rather quickly because the next thing I remember was waking up and needing to pee.  As I got up from the bed, I noticed the clock on the table was recording 5:00 and I immediately assumed it was "am" not "pm" and after peeing laid in the bed for a few more minutes until I realized that I was "wide awake" and my body felt fully rested so I got up again, shut the door to block out the light since my wife was still sleeping and heated up some coffee that had been made last night. 

Years ago, I started making coffee the day before using coffee and filters of prepacked pouches of coffee and as soon as all the water had been drained from the tank, I unplugged the coffee pot so that the coffee would not "overcook," which is too bitter for my tastes.  When coffee is desired the next day, one does not have to wait to brew a pot of coffee, one simply pours a cups and heats it in the microwave for a minute and a half.  Until the pot has been emptied, all cups still taste freshly brewed...  at least to me.

So, since I was up early I decided to open the curtains and watch the sun rise since I was as far east as one could get without being in a boat on the water, but it was already light outside WITH NO SUN in sight since the sky was overcast which is often the case here at Myrtle Beach.  I also notice there were about half a dozen people already walking on the beach and immediately wonder what time they had awakened this morning and was that their norm or was it just because they could not sleep.

According to the charts, the sun did not rise here until 6:06 and if it had been visible I would have seen it because I was up and had the curtains parted at 5:58...  or at least that was the time on the kitchen clock.

INTERMISSION IV