49 thoughts on “Rants! and Raves! 8-17-13”

  1. 🙂 Chas turns 83 today.
    He is still the strong handsome Burt Lancaster look alike that came here years ago (if he ever was). 😈

    I don’t know how long I’ve been on the World blog and here. I remember telling you about being Lions president in 2006, and some of you giving advice about our fiftieth anniversary reception in 2007. So, I must have been here eight or nine years. 😎

    I am thankful that I am still healthy for my age. I don’t have any identified ailments and no prescriptions. I take some vitamins on doctor’s recommendations. I still lift weights at the Y and push the lawnmower up and down the hill I call my yard.
    But it isn’t as easy as it used to be. I can tell that I’m slowing down. I don’t see as well as before, even with glasses. Print is much smaller than it used to be. And people talk in lower voices than before. Sometimes I can’t make out what they say. And then I can’t remember what it was.

    I love and appreciate all of you. But I haven’t made this blog a substitute social net. I still have my friends at Lions and SS class. But you are important to me and many of you are part of my prayer schedule. Sometimes, at other places, I may hear something or think of something and thing, “I ought to post that on the blog”. I was fearful of losing you until AJ agreed to open his blog. I still miss some of those who didn’t come along.

    None of us knows the future, but I’m ready for it. I have been blessed beyond measure, and more than I understand.
    It’s hard to understand that a guy like me could get the woman I did How someone as dumb as I get through the schools I attended. How some of the difficulties in my life turned out to my advantage. It hasn’t been easy by any means, many uncertain and hard times, especially in the late 1950’s & early 60’s; but it came out well and I’m thankful for it all.
    Paul said, “Know ye not that you shall judge angels?” (I Cor. 6:3) I hope to put in a good word for mine. He pulled me out of some tight and dangerous places. 🙂

    Speaking of birthdays, as I was:
    Two weeks from now, 8-31, is the first anniversary of this blog.
    I have to be at a Lions Big Apple Breakfast early in the morning, and a parking lot attendant in the afternoon, so some of you need to remember. Maybe Mumsee can make a cake.
    I will be busy that day, so save a crumb for me.

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  2. Happy 83rd Birthday Chas. I feel that I have known you a long time, since I lurked for about 8 years! Blessings on your new year and thanks for the above testimony.

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  3. 😦 Malaria season. Identified 9 cases in one day, all children, four very seriously ill.

    🙂 Thank God for the new testing methods. They used to only be able to confirm malaria through microscopic blood slides; now we have a tests that look something like a pregnancy test kit, with one bar appearing if the blood is negative and two if it is positive. and the medications to treat are very effective – another thank you for the discovery of Chinese wormwood (artemether), as there is increasing resistance to quinine.

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  5. Happy Birthday, Chas! Thank you for your moving testimony above. That’s getting printed out as soon as I’m done typing. 🙂

    Thank you for all your love, good humor, wisdom, sage advice…I could go on and on…that you give us here. And your prayers. I can’t forget that. I am more grateful than I could ever say.

    God bless you on your 83rd birthday and the whole year through.

    We love you too.

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  6. Thanks 6 Arrows. i’ve never been loved before. 😉
    Except my mother. Elvera always reminds me that my mother loved me.
    She did. And she was proud of me.
    She was proud when I made corporal.
    😆
    No. She really was.

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  7. “i’ve never been loved before.”

    Sounds like there’s a song in that. 😉

    I’d compose you a song for your birthday if I knew some way to get it to you. I don’t think I’d get it done in a day, and I wouldn’t know how to put in on YouTube so you could hear it, anyway. 😀

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  8. 🙂 Chas was born….thank you Lord !
    And I, too, will be printing out your post Chas…yep….I cried upon it’s reading….
    You are loved….you have become an important part of our lives….Paul even
    asks me every morning what you had to say on the blog….see…even a
    Clemson man loves you!! 🙂

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  13. 🙂 Chas

    🙂 Chas’ birthday

    🙂 Chas’ contributions to this blog

    🙂 AJ and everyone on here

    🙂 Son told me last night he is going to start dating again. He sounded happy.

    😦 Still sick from this nasty cold – although starting to get better

    🙂 Niece and family coming for a visit on Monday

    🙂 More progress on the siding

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  14. The lyrics can be found at YouTube, but I’ll copy and paste them here. (I think that’s alright, isn’t it? If not, AJ, you can take them down.)

    I have been unfaithful
    I have been unworthy
    I have been unrighteous
    And I have been unmerciful

    I have been unreachable
    I have been unteachable
    I have been unwilling
    And I have been undesirable

    And sometimes I have unwise
    I’ve been undone by what I’m unsure of
    But because of You
    And all that You went through
    I know that I have never been unloved

    I have been unbroken
    I have been unmended
    I have been uneasy
    And I’ve been unapproachable

    I’ve been unemotional
    I’ve been unexceptional
    I’ve been undecided
    And I have been unqualified

    Unaware
    I have been unfair
    I’ve been unfit for blessings from above
    But even I can see
    The sacrifice You made for me
    To show that I have never been unloved

    It’s because of You
    And all that You went through
    I know that I have never been unloved

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  15. 🙂 Chas. 🙂

    🙂 That there are improved tests and treatments for malaria; grateful for Christ’s missionaries/messengers who are uniquely equipped to serve those living in what we would consider rather primitive conditions.

    😦 This difficult season at The Nest.

    🙂 God is working out something through it all.

    🙂 Almost forgot. Saturday.

    😦 The state of the world & our nation. The heightened dangers our brothers and sisters are facing in the Mideast.

    😦 Still very difficult times where I work.

    🙂 God’s ever present provision for His people.

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  16. Mary is having a boy!
    We would be just as happy if it were a girl. 🙂
    Mary is our middle GD. The nurse who went to USC.
    She is due on 9 January.

    They have a new way of revealing the sex that I’ve never heard before.
    Seems they have a “what is it?”, or some such, party.
    The doctor knows, but he hasn’t told anyone but the baker.
    The baker bakes a cake and the center is dyed either pink or blue.
    No one else knows until the mother cuts the cake.
    It was blue.

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  18. January babies are supposed to be smart 😉

    …which made me think that September Babies are hard headed, which made me think, in less than a month I will have a 16 year old! 🙂 How did THAT happen so fast.

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  20. Yes! And the very FACT that she will have a driver’s license whether or not she has a car (which she will not be getting BTW) will cause my insurance to double.

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  21. Sweet 16. 🙂

    Amazing that we only had 1 car and somehow it worked — even after I started driving and using the car to get to babysitting jobs, etc., at night. We weren’t as dependent on cars back then I don’t think. If my car needs servicing now I always take it to the mechanic in town who provides ‘loaners’ for the day.

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  22. Happy birthday, Chas. 🙂

    🙂 We attended the 90th birthday party of fellow-jammer, Melba, yesterday. Most of the jam members were there to sing Happy Birthday to her. She was doing amazingly well for someone who was supposed to die in two or three days a couple of months ago. She is as feisty as ever, although she cannot see well and is in a wheel chair.

    😦 One of THOSE days. Toilet seat broke and hubby is trying to replace it. Stubborn bolt that he cannot get off. While he is working on it, I had the kitchen faucet arm break off in my hand. Neither of us could get the water shut off, so that had to be shut off further down the line. It was on the cold side, so that was good.

    😦 Missed the pro-life parade we meant to attend

    🙂 Fun quilt shop hop with my hubby. He enjoys the driving and checks out the shops with me.

    🙂 Fun time with two grandsons, one child at a time. Tomorrow a fiddle contest. Our granddaughter will join us and then come home with us for a few days. Summer is going way too fast!

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  23. For my husband: 🙂 Manchester United did well in their first game of the season.

    🙂 My husband is finding ways to cut costs: lowering insurance bills and voluntarily giving up DISH–and NBC broadcasted his first game of the season, which he was able to watch with a $10 antenna.

    🙂 I’m having fun making things: some crafty things for the fair next month, and books for gifts for people.

    🙂 I got my needed two-week break from editing work, and now a very small project. I don’t want anything big just yet.

    😦 Tomatoes and I aren’t getting along very well–and it’s bad enough that I really like tomatoes, but worse that the two young cooks in our family like to use tomato sauce in things they cook. (Each has a turn once a week.)

    🙂 My husband and I got a nice walk this week in a state park, and my first view of sandhill cranes (a family of them walking through the woods). He also did some painting a couple different days, after a summer of distractions that have kept him from it.

    🙂 My sister told me a few days ago that the past week was the best week she has experienced so far–she is coming to terms with the fact that she is no longer a wife but she is still a mother, and still has the calling to do that well.

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  24. 😦 I just learned two more homemade bottle bombs were found in our park this morning ….they are making them in small water bottles…it looks like someone just tosses their trash, so someone would come along and pick it up to throw it away….I am so utterly disgusted there are people like this who would intend to harm someone around the playground….looks like we will be placing cameras around the neighborhood…..

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  26. Kim, my 16-year-old doesn’t have a driver’s license at all. In fact, she hasn’t ever taken a driver’s training course. We’re waiting until she turns 18, when she won’t have to sign up for an expensive course, and of course, there won’t be any added insurance costs for the years 16-18, either. If it’s not absolutely necessary for BG to have a license, I would forego getting one until it is.

    Does BG have a permit? If so, will having a permit only, and not a license, when she turns 16 cause your rates to go up?

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  27. I was sooooo glad when my kids started driving. We had 2 vehicles at the time, but it saved me so much time when they could pick up milk on their way home from school instead of me having to drive to town to get some, or to pick them up. I guess that’s part of the difference when one lives quite a ways out of town. I was much more comfortable with my son driving than I was with my daughter. I gladly took him practicing, but I could NOT take my daughter. Hubby was the one who got that job. They both took driver’s education as that really lowers the insurance rates up here.

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  28. My mom taught me how to drive. There were some interesting moments during all of that. 😉 Like the night I asked her if I should hit the oncoming moving car or the parked car at the curb on our right. Honest 15-year-old question.

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  29. Some years ago I saw an article in our local paper (LOCAL PAPER, Donna!) 😉 about a driver’s training instructor who had recently retired. He was asked about some memorable moments he’d experienced in his line of work.

    I’m trying to remember the exact details, but one memory that stuck in his mind involved a student driver, too much vehicular speed, an exit ramp, and, if I remember right, a little airborne time! 😯 Or maybe time spent on two wheels…

    Anyway, the student driver was just about freaking out during that episode, but kept saying “Help me, Jesus! Help me, Jesus!” The car eventually (came down?) and never rolled or flipped or left the road, and the driver got the car stopped safely at the stop sign or traffic light at the end of the ramp, and no one was hurt.

    At which point, the driver sighed a huge sigh of relief and said “Thank you, Jesus!!”

    To which the instructor responded, “Jesus jumped out back at that last curve!”

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  31. Roscuro, I too am thankful for the Chinese treatment. I went home with malaria in 07 and the emergency room didn’t know what to do with me. But I had brought treatment with me and they finally said just take what your doctor in PNG gave you.

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  33. Getting a license is a rite of passage. Ot gets more and more complicated because she is living with her dad but I still have primary custody and I claim her on my taxes therefore I have to insure her.

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  36. Driver’s training is once a year here. We were going to have seven trainees but two opted out. One due to time conflicts and one due to us not thinking she was ready. If she can’t control a bike, probably better not try a car. When this stuff came up, we only ended up with two in training. For the best as I am not willing to spend fifty hours apiece in the passenger seat of five new drivers. Yet another blessing from this experience.

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  39. BG will take driver’s ed this semester which will lower my rates. It is USAA insurance now. The rates seem a little high when compared to what I was paying at Alfa.

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  40. 6 arrows, way to go (local newspaper!). And we’ve actually done that same story from time to time (it’s one of those features that can serve as what we call an ‘evergreen’ topic when we need it). Interviewing the testers at the DMV always leads to some fun stuff to write. 🙂

    We had drivers’ ed in high school (my mom started teaching me in the months before school started that year so I’d have a head-start). I guess they don’t teach it anymore out here, which is sad.

    We had simulated thingy’s in the classroom (I always stalled the stick shift model, but later learned to drive the real thing) and then we went out a couple times a week for on-the-road training.

    I still remember how thrilled our instructor was when he discovered that the local cemetery would be the perfect place to take us. But the cemetery complained, I guess it violated the somber and serene atmosphere too much to have us teenagers all screeching the brakes and then piling in and out of the drivers’ seat as we spun around, passing by funerals and burials in process . … 🙄

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  41. Donna, “the cemetery complained” – Did the tombstones rise up in protest? 😆

    Jo, yes, there is a serious lack of knowledge about how to deal with malaria in North America, because it has been eradicated there for so long. One of my teammates was told a story of going back home and having repeated episodes of fever, chills, etc. She kept going to the doctor and saying, I’ve just come home from Africa, and they kept testing her for everything else and saying there is nothing wrong with you. When she finally got hold of a tropical disease specialist, they found she had one of the most deadly forms of malaria and they didn’t know how she had survived that long. It makes one want to take home a test and treatment just in case.

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  42. We always take home a treatment with us from here. I was told later that the tests showed that I didn’t have malaria. I wondered what kinds they tested for? I know that the artesenate worked. Funny part is that I was robbed last August when I lived in the church missions house. The police said that theives look for prescription drugs. I didn’t think that I had any, but then remembered the malaria treatment. Sure enough I found it out on my bed, but they hadn’t taken it.

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  43. We moved into our apartment this weekend. It’s not quite done yet, but the bedroom and bathroom are, so we made the move. I love it! 🙂

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  44. Kim, In 2008 after I was involved in an accident caused by someone insured by USAA, I remember reading a survey that showed them to be ranked number 1 in customer service of any company in the U.S. – that’s ANY company, not just insurance companies.

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  47. We were living in Hawai’i when our first son was nearing 16. Hawai’i doesn’t discriminate on insurance rates when you add a teenage driver, by law. You can get a permit at 15.5 and don’t have to take any classes.

    I called up our insurance company and the kind person asked, “will your child be driving in any other states besides Hawai’i?”

    We were moving to the mainland and I needed him to help me drive across the US. “Of course.”

    “Well, 49 states do not agree with Hawai’i, and he will need to take driver’s training.”

    We signed him up.

    A homeschooling friend and I did homeschool driver ed. Our insurance company sent a video for the boys to watch. We started, she got a phone call, and when she returned 1/2 hour later, both boys were staring, stunned, at the TV.

    “What happened?”

    Her son answered. “They all died.”

    The poor kid was so traumatized by the experience, he didn’t get a driver’s license–just kept renewing his learner’s permit.

    His father finally laid down the law as he entered his senior year at a military academy. The kid was licensed to drive a ship into any port in the world, but he was afraid of the car.

    “I’m not driving you to your first duty station. Get your license.”

    He did.

    He’s an intelligence officer, now. 🙂

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  48. Alright, I’ve been doing most of my ranting over on the prayer thread this weekend, so here are some raves:

    🙂 First Arrow’s vacation to visit an aunt, uncle and cousin who live in a state he’s never been in.

    🙂 Getting to share the ride with another uncle, his godfather.

    🙂 They surprised him with tickets to see his favorite pro football team play an exhibition game in the state where he’s spending the weekend.

    🙂 It was his first time ever attending an NFL game.

    🙂 Great visit this week with 2nd Arrow, who was home from Tuesday night through Thursday morning. All eight of us got to spend some special time together at home, reliving old memories, and making new ones.

    🙂 Adult children who walk with the Lord. A blessing beyond what I ever imagined.

    🙂 School starts tomorrow! Sixth Arrow was so excited to help me gather items yesterday that we would need, and when we finished, she wanted to start right then, and not wait until Monday. So we did a little bit. 😉 Who says we can’t homeschool on a Saturday night in the summer? 🙂

    🙂 😦 My baby is a kindergartener now. She loves being a big girl; I wish she’d stay little a little longer.

    🙂 The privilege to homeschool. Lord, may I never lose track of what a blessing that is.

    🙂 God is good all the time.

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