In The News

Every morning, I awake around 7:30 am unless I have an early morning appointment; I give the cats a treat, take my thyroid pill, make enough coffee to fill a YETI cup, then sit on the couch to drink coffee and watch the news.  I watch FOX News, and yes it is biased, but it reports the news that the other networks have decided is not worthy of reporting because it makes the Liberals look bad...

And every morning unless there is some sort of urgency with the news, the same ole shit is reported over and over again:

• Crime & Violence in larger cities
• Biden blames something else for his problems
• Thousands of illegal immigrants cross border
• Democrats claim the economy is improving
• Food prices continue to rise
• Biden's approval rating continues to decrease
• Global respect for Biden continues to decrease
• Liberal protest supreme court ruling on abortion
• Liberals continue to attack Trump
• Another police officer is shot in the line of duty
• Fentanyl deaths are increasing
• COVID masking is again required

We are only two years (almost) into the Biden Administration and we have these kinds of problems flourishing in this country...  a country that once respected the rule of law, and the importance of fossil fuel but the need to gradually go GREEN, and respect honor, integrity, truth, and justice...

This is no longer the case...  and, it is rather unfortunate...

• I don't like guns but we have them and we need to control their use.
• I believe that a female (or whatever name she wants to go by) has the right to choose what to do with her body, but it is not the government's responsibility to finance that decision.
• I believe in strong internal law enforcement and a strong military to protect us against our enemies.
• I don't believe in illegal immigration under any circumstances.
• I don't believe in SOCIALISM nor do I believe in PURE CAPITALISM or the free market enterprise system that goes with it because the worker is at a disadvantage and can easily be manipulated.
• I don't believe in censorship of any kind.
• I believe that all progress should have gradually.
• I believe that we should do what we have to do to sustain positive economic growth.
• I believe the government should take care of its veterans, especially the disabled.
• I believe people should earn what they want or have rather than have it given to them.
• I believe that EVERYONE should pay a flat tax with no exemptions

BUT...  what the hell do I know about anything...  I am not wealthy...  I am not powerful...  I am not influential...  I am not an expert in anything not even in retirement as it manages me rather than me managing it...  I just know what I feel and what seems to be logical...  I don't think the liberals or the progressives or the democrats are being very logical right now...  I think they are being influenced by the 1% wealthy who have agendas that they do not want to share with everyone for fear of PUSHBACK...

Underwater Fish

 

Ending Global Poverty

Poverty entails more than the lack of income and productive resources to ensure sustainable livelihoods. Its manifestations include hunger and malnutrition, limited access to education and other basic services, social discrimination and exclusion, as well as the lack of participation in decision-making. In 2015, more than 736 million people lived below the international poverty line. 

Around 10 per cent of the world population (pre-pandemic) was living in extreme poverty and struggling to fulfil the most basic needs like health, education, and access to water and sanitation, to name a few. There were 122 women aged 25 to 34 living in poverty for every 100 men of the same age group, and more than 160 million children were at risk of continuing to live in extreme poverty by 2030.

Poverty facts and figures

• According to the most recent estimates, in 2015, 10 percent of the world’s population or 734 million people lived on less than $1.90 a day.
• Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa are expected to see the largest increases in extreme poverty, with an additional 32 million and 26 million people, respectively, living below the international poverty line as a result of the pandemic.
• The share of the world’s workers living in extreme poverty fell by half over the last decade: from 14.3 per cent in 2010 to 7.1 per cent in 2019.
• Even before COVID-19, baseline projections suggested that 6 per cent of the global population would still be living in extreme poverty in 2030, missing the target of ending poverty. The fallout from the pandemic threatens to push over 70 million people into extreme poverty.
• One out of five children live in extreme poverty, and the negative effects of poverty and deprivation in the early years have ramifications that can last a lifetime.
• In 2016, 55 per cent of the world’s population – about 4 billion people – did not benefit from any form of social protection.

Poverty and the Sustainable Development Goals

Ending poverty in all its forms is the first of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The SDGs’ main reference to combatting poverty is made in target 1.A: “Ensure significant mobilization of resources from a variety of sources, including through enhanced development cooperation, in order to provide adequate and predictable means for developing countries, in particular least developed countries, to implement programmes and policies to end poverty in all its dimensions.”

The SDGs also aim to create sound policy frameworks at national and regional levels, based on pro-poor and gender-sensitive development strategies to ensure that by 2030 all men and women have equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to basic services, ownership and control over land and other forms of property, inheritance, natural resources, appropriate new technology and financial services, including microfinance.  READ MORE...

Buffalo

 

Global Hunger

UNITED NATIONS — The spike in food, fuel and fertilizer prices sparked by the war in Ukraine is threatening to push countries around the world into famine, bringing "global destabilization, starvation and mass migration on an unprecedented scale," a top U.N. official warned Wednesday.

David Beasley, head of the U.N. World Food Program, said its latest analysis shows that "a record 345 million acutely hungry people are marching to the brink of starvation" — a 25% increase from 276 million at the start of 2022 before Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. The number stood at 135 million before the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020.

"There's a real danger it will climb even higher in the months ahead," he said. "Even more worrying is that when this group is broken down, a staggering 50 million people in 45 countries are just one step away from famine."

Beasley spoke at a high-level U.N. meeting for the release of the latest report on global hunger by the World Food Program and four other U.N. agencies that paints a grim picture.

The report, "The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World," says world hunger rose in 2021, with around 2.3 billion people facing moderate or severe difficulty obtaining enough to eat. The number facing severe food insecurity increased to about 924 million.

The prevalence of "undernourishment" — when food consumption is insufficient to maintain an active and healthy life — is used to measure hunger, and it continued to rise in 2021. The report estimates that between 702 million and 828 million people faced hunger last year.  READ MORE...

Microwave

 

What Worries The Entire World

According to IPSOS.

the top global concerns are:

1. Covid-19 (33%), 
2. Poverty/social inequality (31%), 
3. Unemployment (29%), 
4. Financial/political corruption (27%), 
5. Crime and violence (26%).

Ipsos Group S.A. is a multinational market research and consulting firm with headquarters in Paris, France. The company was founded in 1975 by Didier Truchot, Chairman of the company, and has been publicly traded on the Paris Stock Exchange since July 1, 1999. Wikipedia

BUT,

According to Human Rights Careers,

the top global concerns are:

1. poverty
2. climate change
3. food insecurity
4. refugee rights
5. Covid 19

NOTE:  What are the most pressing issues in the world today? What will demand the most attention in the next 5, 10, and 20+ years? In this article, which frequently refers to the World Economic Forum’s 17th Edition of the Global Risks Report, we’ll highlight 20 current global issues we must address, including issues related to climate change, COVID-19, social rights, and more. While it’s hardly a comprehensive discussion, it’s a solid introduction to the kinds of concerns facing our world today.  To Read More About this, CLICK HERE...

According to the World Economic Forum 2022...

Here’s a look at the WEF’s Top 10 Global Risks by Severity:

1. Climate action failure
2. Extreme weather
3. Biodiversity loss
4. Social cohesion erosion
5. Livelihood crises
6. Infectious diseases
7. Human environmental damage
8. Natural resource crises
9. Debt crises
10. Geoeconomic confrontation

To read more about what the WEF thinks, CLICK HERE...

SIDEBAR:

The meeting (WEF) brings together some 3,000 paying members and selected participants – among whom are investors, business leaders, political leaders, economists, celebrities and journalists – for up to five days to discuss global issues across 500 sessions.

Now, I don't attend the WEF and will never attend the WEF, but there seems to be a disconnect between what our global leaders think is important and what our global citizens know is important...

Happy Dog

 

PROGRESS by John Rich

 

Remembering Economics

Dr. Peter Peacock was my Economics Professor in Grad School and while that name seems fitting for the classes he taught, I still remember a couple of his lessons...

The first lesson he taught me was that there was no such concept as a FREE LUNCH...  

Now that I think about it, Dr. Peacock was a conservative and was really taking a political stand in the classroom...  he was opposed to people using the word FREE because the word was misleading...   while the student got a free lunch, someone else had to pay for it, and more than likely it was the taxpayer through the collection of taxes...  but, the Democrats were trying to convince everyone that the lunch was FREE...

At the time, my parents were Democrats as I was but for some reason, I never saw the lesson as a political statement...  and, looking back, I am glad I didn't.

The second lesson was a little more difficult for me to swallow (excuse the pun) but it dealt with LAST CALL at a bar...  

It was Dr. Peacock's contention that when LAST CALL was announced and everyone purchased their last beer of the evening, the beer did not really have to be consumed.

My parents taught me that if you ordered food, you ate all you ordered... so that same logic should apply to drinking.

Therefore, you ordered it you drink it.

"No!" stated Dr. Peacock.  "You don't need to drink it.  You paid the money for it whether you drink it or not is up to you.  If you don't drink it, you don't save any money."

At first, it was a little difficult, going against my parent's philosophy but the more I thought about it, the more I understood that Dr. Peacock was correct in his assessment...

Maybe that is why he was a Dr. and I was a student.

Why Should I Care?

This is going to sound either sarcastic or egotistical or perhaps both...  but, why should I care about all the starving people in the world today since they are not in my country?  OR...  why should I care about all the poverty in the world today, since I have all the money that I need to take care of my wife and me?

I mean for Christ's sake, I live in the world's greatest country and those who are hungry or live in poverty DON'T LIVE HERE...

AND...  if they did live here, I probably would not want to do anything to help them out, because it is not my place to help out the rest of the world...  even if I am a Christian...  besides, I cannot possibly help everyone....

What you are asking is like...  what if we asked all the wealthy people in America, the millionaires and billionaires to help out all those people in America who were not wealthy and living on minimum wage and on the verge of poverty...

What do you think all those wealthy Americans might say???

GO SCREW YOURSELF...

We are who we are because of who we are and we don't think it is our place to take care of the rest of the world...  however, we don't mind sending our military overseas to have strangers and foreigners fight their wars...  but, that is a different story because wars actually help strengthen our economy....

Helping poverty and hunger does not really help our economy...  it drains our economy...

Statistically, poverty and hunger will always be around...  it's just part of life...

You're Not My Friend

 

Eating Dog Meat

Medan, Indonesia – For civil servant Silas Sihombing, the reasons for eating dog meat could not be much simpler.

“Today I’m eating dog because I’m hungry,” Sihombing told Al Jazeera in between mouthfuls of grilled dog meat at Lau Dimbo Simalem restaurant in Medan, North Sumatra.

“And look, it’s making me sweat. Dog will do that, the meat makes you feel hot.”

Dog meat restaurants are found all over Medan, where the Indigenous Batak people are known for their taste for the protein.

About 7 percent of Indonesians are estimated to eat dog meat, according to Dog Meat Free Indonesia, a group that campaigns against the dog meat trade.

Although 87 percent of Indonesia’s 270 million people are Muslim and view dog products as haram, or forbidden, in the same way as pork, about 9 percent of the population is Christian.  READ MORE...

Wind Up

 

NASCAR: Electrified Stock Car Racing

Electric motorsport is a category of motor sport that consists of the racing of electric powered vehicles for competition, either in all-electric series, or in open-series against vehicles with different power trains. Very early in the history of automobiles, electric cars held several performance records over internal combustion engine cars, such as land speed records, but fell behind in performance during the first decade of the 20th century. 

With the renaissance of electric vehicles during the early 21st century, notable electric-only racing series have been developed, for both cars and motorcycles, including for example, the FIA Formula E Championship. 

In other racing events, electric vehicles are competing alongside combustion engine vehicles, for example in the Isle of Man TT and the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, and in some cases winning outright.  SOURCE: Wikipedia

NASCAR hasn't hidden its intention to electrify stock car racing in the coming years, but it may happen sooner than expected.

Documents uncovered by the Kickin' the Tires website reveal potential plans to launch an electric support series next year.

According to the report, NASCAR will demonstrate a prototype electric racing car during the Clash at the L.A. Coliseum pre-season event in February, then follow it up with a six-race series "aligned with Cup Series" weekends.

The cars will be modified Cup Series cars with fully electric, all-wheel-drive powertrains rated near 1,000 horsepower, compared to the 670 hp V8s used in the conventional vehicles.  READ MORE...

Purple Fish

 

Decarbonizing Fossil Fuels

FROM CANADA

Philip Cross: De-carbonize production not consumption of fossil fuels

Philip Cross - Friday



On Monday the federal government initiated a consultation on whether to use a cap-and-trade or a carbon tax to reduce emissions from Canada’s oil and gas sector by 40 per cent by 2030 — eight years from now. The industry is being asked to slash emissions more than the 30 per cent national target by either paying more than the existing tax on carbon or by lowering its production, which hardly seems what the world needs as it faces a growing energy shortage.

The federal government’s singling-out the oil and gas sector for outsized emissions reductions may have a silver lining, however. There is growing recognition in the business sector, if not yet in government, that decarbonizing our fossil-fuel supplies is a cheaper and more efficient way to lower emissions than decarbonizing their consumption. The latter involves overhauling the trillions of dollars of capital stock invested in our existing “mines, oil and gas fields, thermal power stations, hydroelectric dams, pipeline networks, ports, refineries, iron and steel mills, aluminum smelters, fertilizer plants, railroads, multilane highways, airports, skyscraper-dominated downtowns, and extensive suburbia” in the words of environmental scientist Vaclav Smil.

Moreover, decarbonizing oil and gas will be necessary even in a net-zero future since some uses of fossil fuels cannot reasonably be expected to disappear (notably their widespread use as a raw material in manufacturing everything from clothing to plastics). This is why the International Energy Agency expects fossil fuel production to still be a substantial 24 million barrels a day in its net-zero scenario for 2050.

Lowering emissions from oil and gas production will be costly. Some reductions, such as eliminating methane, are relatively easy, which is why the government expects them to fall 75 per cent by 2030. Other reductions involving carbon capture and sequestration will require billions of dollars of investment to capture emissions and ship them by pipeline to be buried underground. More investment will also be needed if small modular nuclear reactors replace the natural gas currently being used to melt the bitumen of in situ oilsands operations.

The fact that decarbonizing fossil fuels rather than re-tooling our whole society to shift away from using fossil fuels would save trillions of dollars makes it attractive for governments to subsidize these efforts, either through direct grants or tax credits, as both the Alberta and federal governments proposed in their spring budgets.  READ MORE...

Ninja Bear

 

Sunday Morning

I drove down to my local convenience store to get me some cappuccino out of a machine but all the machines for that product were out of order and they have been out of order for over a month...  so, that tells me that a change is coming.

However,

While I was there, I noticed that the gasoline prices had dropped to $3.92 per gallon.  WHY?

President Biden has done nothing to bring prices down and the war in Ukraine is still going on...  so, what caused this reduction?

The last time I got gas it was $4.22 and that was about a week ago.

I had 3/4 of a tank left but I did not top off.

The intense heat and humidity have all but destroyed our summer garden this year.  I was able to have several meals of squash, zucchini, and bell peppers but I could have certainly eaten more.  Our biggest crop this year was the cucumbers which I suppose need lots of rain were so abundant that we gave several of them away to our neighbors...  assuming they liked cucumbers as much as we do.

I made some cucumber soup a few weeks ago that I froze and I got a container out last night to eat today.  I have cut up some pieces of ham in the container to see if that is a good combination or not.

Sunday is a day of calm.  No arguments...  no anger of any sort should take place on a Sunday.   It is a day for reflection and contemplation and maybe some planning...  retooling the mind to prepare for the coming week.

Being retired, it is sometimes easy to think that everyday is a Sunday and oftentimes I have missed Sunday because I was thinking it was just another day of the week.

I have been walking in the pool twice a day for 40 minutes each time as a way of building up my legs and back muscles after having back surgery almost 7 weeks ago...  but, today, since it is Sunday, I considering giving my body a break...  allowing it to simply be as it is without trying to make it something that it isn't up to yet.

The good thing about walking in the pool is that I can walk unaided which is a confidence builder for when I am out of the pool and limp when I walk.  I am hoping that over time, the limp will go away.

I have thought about meditating on Sundays but I am not there yet...  One has to have a state-of-mind before one tries meditation...  without that state-of-mind, it will not be successful.

Still...  it is something about which to think.

Who Do You Believe?

Unless I am mistaken, there are only a few reputable media news outlets:  CNN, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and FOX...  the first four have a liberal bias to their reporting while the last one has a conservative bias to its reporting.

However, I have watched all FIVE over the years and I can personally attest to the fact that there is different news being reported on each of these stations and as my brother likes to point out that he sent an email to Bret Baier while he was on the air that his reporting was misleading and incorrect and Baier did not alter his reporting.

So, according to my brother, this reporter and FOX were dissiminating incorrect information to the public.

I have no way of knowing if what my brother was telling the truth or not, but his comments bear out the fact that reporters do not always report the truth but their version of the truth or the version that their employers want them to present.

FOX covers the border crisis along our southern border but the other networks do not or if they report it at all, they give it minimal air time hoping that most of their viewers may have missed it.

Why would any media news outlet, withhold information from the public?

It does not matter if the news is slanted to one side or the other...  the fact that information is being withheld is not just censorship but a form of a lie...

A cheating spouse withholds that information from their spouse...  are they lying?

If we cannot believe our sources of information then how are we supposed to make intelligent choices?

Maybe that is exactly what is intended here...

Consider Hydrogen

A hydrogen vehicle is a vehicle that uses hydrogen fuel for motive power. Hydrogen vehicles include hydrogen-fueled space rockets, as well as ships and aircraft. Power is generated by converting the chemical energy of hydrogen to mechanical energy, either by reacting hydrogen with oxygen in a fuel cell to power electric motors or, less commonly, by burning hydrogen in an internal combustion engine.

As of 2021, there are two models of hydrogen cars publicly available in select markets: the Toyota Mirai (2014–), which is the world's first mass-produced dedicated fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV), and the Hyundai Nexo (2018–). There are also fuel cell buses. Hydrogen aircraft are not expected to carry many passengers long haul before the 2030s at the earliest.

As of 2019, 98% of hydrogen is produced by steam methane reforming, which emits carbon dioxide.  It can be produced by electrolysis of water, or by thermochemical or pyrolytic means using renewable feedstocks, but the processes are currently expensive.  Various technologies are being developed that aim to deliver costs low enough, and quantities great enough, to compete with hydrogen production using natural gas.

The benefits of hydrogen technology are long range on a single refuelling. The drawbacks of hydrogen use are high carbon emissions when hydrogen is produced from natural gas, capital cost burden, low energy content per unit volume at ambient conditions, production and compression of hydrogen, the investment required to build refuelling infrastructure around the world to dispense hydrogen, and transportation of hydrogen.  SOURCE:  Wikipedia

Believing is the Easy Part

 

I believe in the God that is described in The Bible and I believe that a man named Jesus lived and was crucified as this has been corroborated by the Roman historian Josephus.  Where I differ from The Bible and most religious historian is the fact that I believe both God and Jesus were EXTRATERRESTRIALS...

Do I have any proof of this?

Not really...  other than Jesus saying  "...my kingdom is not of this world..."

That phrase alone does not prove anything really but then where exactly is the location of heaven that all born-again Christians are going to be living in after death?

Now that our Federal Government has admitted to their being UFOs and former President Trump has created a SPACE FORCE as part of our military, one can easily construe that there is more going on than just admitting there are UFOs...  and, it is entirely possible that some very special global people have already met with aliens.

But, I am drifting off topic...

Moses left us with the 10 Commandments and regardless of what you think of religion, the 10 Commandments are an excellent list of items to follow if one wants to live an HONORABLE life.

Jesus lived a flawless life and trying to live like he did offers many challenges and many of us fail to live up to his standards...  but, that does not mean we should not try...

Being a "good" person is not a bad way to live one's life.

What happens to us when we die?

We don't know...

But, many religious leaders speculate and I think that is wrong as some people believe their speculations and their speculations may prove to be just as wrong as they might prove to be right.  That's a 50/50 gamble and not good odds.

What I do know is this:  If time is eternal, that is to say forever, what's the point of living 80-100 years?

This seems completely illogical to me and rather pointless.

Why do we live at all?

Therefore, it would seem to me that our alien creators have something more in store for us after we die...  and, once we experience that, we will understand the purpose of our 80-100 year existence on earth.

The other issue that coincides with this is the size of our universe and the fact that there might be other parallel universes as well...

So, what's the point of the size?

Earth is insignificant in comparison to the entire universe...

So, does it really make sense that we are living here on earth as opposed to somewhere else?

Why was earth selected?

Who selected earth for us to live on?

These questions and there are more, make it increasingly more and more difficult to live like Jesus wanted us to live...

Being created is just the easy part.

Goat

 

Should Trump Be Prosecuted

Elaine Kamarck
Founding Director - Center for Effective Public Management
Senior Fellow - Governance Studies
EKamarck

After eight congressional hearings investigating the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol, one thing is clear: there is enough evidence to prosecute Donald Trump on a variety of charges. The committee has the option to refer cases to the Justice Department for prosecution, but such a step is not necessary. 

The Justice Department could decide to prosecute at any time, on whichever charges for which they find sufficient evidence. Already more than 800 people have been charged in connection with the January 6 events—although most have been charged with lesser crimes. So far only 50 have pleaded guilty to felony charges.

But all along, the issue has been not what the 10,000 people who came to Washington D.C. for the rally knew or even what the 2,000 people who made it inside the Capitol building knew. 

All along the issue has been what did the president know and what did he intend? Was this a rally that simply got out of control? Or was it the first attempt ever by an American president to stage a coup d’etat?

If it was an attempted coup, it was a pretty pathetic and incompetent one.

From the hearings, we now know that Trump did not even have the support of his own family and friends nor his handpicked White House staff. 

To pursue his plans, he had to rely on a close group of advisors known as “the clown show” led by Rudi Giuliani, a pillow manufacturer, and a dot-com millionaire—none of whom was in government and none of whom controlled the most important “assets” (guns, tanks, planes etc.) needed to take over a government. 

In contrast to most successful coups in history, Trump had no faction of the military, no faction of the National Guard, and no faction of the District of Colombia Metropolitan Police at his disposal.  READ MORE...

Classic Sunday Morning Newspaper Cartoons

 

Electrifying America's Roads

Within weeks of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the average price for a gallon of gasoline reached its highest point in American history—a range where it has largely remained as the economic isolation of one of the world’s largest petroleum exporters looks to persist for months, if not years.

Ninety-one percent of American households own a car, meaning that almost everyone will feel the sting of elevated fuel prices when they fill up their tanks for the foreseeable future. However, the roughly 2 million owners of electric vehicles (EVs) will be spared the pain at the pump.

An oil shock of the magnitude not seen since the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo has sent Google searches related to EVs surging by 300 percent in the last few months. Thirty-six percent of Americans now say they plan to buy or lease an EV or are seriously considering doing so. The time is ripe to electrify American roads.

Increasing the ownership and production of EVs presents a strategic opportunity to not only insulate the public from price spikes in oil, but also boost the clean manufacturing workforce and decarbonize the transportation sector—the largest source of CO2 emissions in the United States.  READ MORE...

Tennis Game

 

Second Age: Rings of Power

Actress Sophia Nomvete plays the dwarven Princess Disa of Khazad-Dum

"We wanted to find a huge, Tolkienian mega epic!"


That's how showrunner Patrick McKay described his mission for The Rings of Power - Amazon Prime's hotly anticipated Lord of the Rings TV spin-off, as he unveiled a new trailer and unseen footage at San Diego Comic-Con on Thursday.


In his armoury: a huge cast of comely elves, a rare female dwarf, the Hobbits' ancestors, a seriously impressive CGI city, a mystery menace, an entwife and a surprise Balrog.


The Rings of Power is the most expensive show ever made, at $1bn (£832m) for five seasons - and this is fans' best guide to how it will look, sound and feel.


But what everyone really wants to know is, can it compete with Peter Jackson's beloved Lord of the Rings film trilogy, the winner of 17 Oscars, benchmark for composers, and populariser of Second Breakfast?


Wisely, it's not trying - instead setting the action 4,000 years before the Hobbits Frodo and Sam journeyed through Middle Earth.


This is the Second Age, where the 20 Rings of Power are forged and the evil Sauron, Lord of Mordor, rises to assault the realms' hard-won peace.


The source material is Tolkien's appendix to the Lord of the Rings books. The core question: "How far into the darkness would you go to protect the things you care about the most?" says McKay's fellow showrunner JD Payne.  READ MORE...

Aquatic Fish

 

It's Saturday Night

 

When I was anywhere from 18 years old to 35+/-, I remember how important Saturday night was to me both as a single adult as well as a married adult..  It was a time to get together with friends, eat, and consume alcohol...  I was not so much into dancing or going to clubs, so the scene we created was in someone's home.

As children came along, there were still get together where we ate and drank alcohol but they were perhaps not as rowdy as they were when we were without children.

Friday nights were reserved for all male or all female nights where the males would play poker or end up at a local bar where we would "eyeball" all the females but remain with our pals.

Sundays were always reserved FOR NOTHING SPECIAL...  just kicking back and pretty much spending the day doing nothing...  there may be a football game to watch if it was the season but most of the time, it was just a do-nothing day...  Although, as we got older there was talk of going to church and being seen by the right people...

Somewhere around the age of 35 or maybe 40, life began to change.  For me, I quit smoking, quit drinking about 98% of the time, began exercising on a regular basis, cut out eating red meat, focusing instead on fish, chicken, beans, vegetables, and fruits.  It was also a time when I actually attended church rather than just thinking about it..

When I was living with my parents K-12, it was a requirement that we attend church services every Sunday which included Sunday School.  After the church service, our parents would always take us for ice cream regardless of the outside temperature....  I never thought of it as some sort of bribe.

So, when I started attending church again, none of the sermons provided me with any new information as I had already heard them all...  in fact, many people in our Sunday School class were amazed that I knew all the stories in the Bible so well..

At 60, my life changed again with the discovery of cancer and experiencing a heart attack...  What little wine I may have drank at Christmas and other holidays was forbidden by the Oncologist...  and, my activity level suddenly reduced as I realized that there were many things that I could no longer do at least with the speed I was doing them before.

BUT, what's all this got to do with Saturday nights?

My Saturday nights changed as well.  Seldom did my wife and I get together with friends for dinner and a game of cards...  I don't know if we did not think about it or if we were too tired to think about it...  or too lazy to get cleaned up for company.

At 74, our Saturday nights are like sundays and pretty much every other day of the week as both pretty much do very little other than the general housekeeping and maintenance that has to be done.

There is no talk of getting together with any of our friends for dinner and conversation...  this inaction is further compounded by the fact that some of the spouses of our friends are deceased.

COVID hit our area a couple of years ago 2019/2020 and we have been reluctant to be out in public unless we absolutely have to.  While most of the masks mandates have been lifted, there are still places where wearing masks are required.

So...  here I am...  sitting in my living room on a Saturday without the slightest desire to do anything than what I am currently doing which is writing and posting on my blogs.

I don't think about getting together with friends...  I don't think about getting together with family - however, most of my family lives in other states.

We used to have cable and of all the 150+ channels there was really nothing we wanted to watch...  We stopped cable and just acquired a WIFI provider and subscribed to HULU, Netflix, and Amazon Prime and believe it or not, but there is really nothing on those stations that I want to watch either other than the NEWS.

SATURDAY NIGHT IS A BIG BUST FOR ME...