Tickled Pink

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Pink does not always have to relate to ones political beliefs or associations. (although you never will see me wearing a pink shirt!)

Pink is often the color of spring. A soft awakening of new life. Redbud trees flashing their pink profusion, mixed with the showing of frail light greens of nearby trees and bushes, is one of God's paintings of nature.

Blue Ridge Parkway

A week or two after the redbuds, the dogwoods are in full bloom. In our yard we love the pink dogwood showing off.

Again only God can reveal His creation with such glory.

As I ponder His everlasting love for us, and bring into focus the meaning of Easter, I can just wonder what the morning of Jesus's resurrection displayed? What did the two women see as they hurried to the tomb?

I venture to say it was more beautiful than this.

Easter morning at 6:50am 2012


TO GOD BE THE GLORY!

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Chocolate Eggs On Sauerkraut

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I've known folks that start a meal with dessert. It could have been that the person was afraid he'd miss out on that chocolate pie in the buffet line by the time he finished his fried chicken.

I have witnessed folks that don't let one food touch the other while on their plate. God forbid if one pea should roll over to touch the mashed potatoes and therefore become contaminated. Folks like that eat one food item at a time, including a separate dab of mustard. They chew and send the portion to one of the dozens of individual stomachs they think they have been blessed with. To them it is inconceivable to have all food enter one stomach and be mixed together.

Then there are folks who are very proper and only eat their individual courses in the proper sequence. Sitting erect, chewing every bite twenty-four times, with mouth closed. Folks like that make sure they are using the small fork for the salad, the smaller knife for––I don't know what. Of course, they never slurp their soup. They never cut more than tree bites and always switch the fork back to their right hand. They are the kind of folks that don't care for gravy, too messy.

Then there are the germ-o-phobes. They wash their hands, then right-off grab the doorknob to exit the bathroom. They shake hands with friends at the table, then use a wet-wipe to clean their hands. Settling in to partake of the meal, they scoot their chair closer to the table, touching some dried out chewing gum under the chair that a snotty nosed kid stuck there the night before. Then they proceed to inspect the water glass for greasy fingerprints and the empty coffee cup for leftover lipstick. They look at the forks and knife to see if some of yesterday's Eggs Benedict withstood the dishwasher.

While all this is going on, I usually come back to the table with seconds.

I'm seventy-two years old and haven't had a cold in years. Growing up, we ate whatever the Lord blessed us with that day. I've seen my mother use a little spittle on her finger to wipe a dried speck from the dinner plate. Germs and calories hadn't made it to the dictionary then.

Now there are eighteen Beissers, and all are aware of germs. At a family spread (bigger than any church picnic buffet), some start their meal with salad, some with cheese and bread, some with fruit, some with veggies and dip, and some with the stuff that really counts––wurst.

I order the best of the wurst from Usingers out of Wisconsin. Ah, we have some in our bunch that analyze the sausage and its ingredients. Some don't like the looks of the natural casings which show little things that were once connected to the circulatory system of the swine.

The men say little. All of us just want a straight path to the wurst.

  
Whether the delicacy is simmered or grilled,

The Beisser men are adventurous when it comes to food. We all like to cook and concoct. The fact is, none of us have yet been discovered. How would anyone know what sardines in buttermilk pancakes taste like if you have never tried them? How would anyone ever be pleasantly overjoyed if they have never tried liverwurst melted on apple fritters?

Trust me, you folks have to step out of your routine and live!

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UFOs in Bedford VA? Again?

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Just before the lawn got green, a family of unidentified flying objects landed in our front yard.

There were several smaller rings in the yard indicating a round vehicle had landed. Those green grass rings were about eight feet in diameter.

I figure these smaller vehicles were sent by the UFO's fleet commander to test and secure a spot for the command ship to land.

The command ship was much larger as you can see from the photo.

My question is, "Why did the landings cause the grass to grow faster and greener than the rest of the yard?"

What did they eliminate from their flying ships that made the grass grow like crazy?

I know what you're thinking. But why pick our front yard? Maybe the ship got too full of it and had to dump it? . . . It may be I'm too full of it right now.


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$640,000,000.00 A Ticket To The Nut House

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I'm absolutely astounded how the average folks talk about what they will do if they win the Mega Lottery.

Some said they will get them a new car.
Some said they will pay off their mortgage.
Some said they will buy them a yacht.
Some said they will go on a vacation.
Some said they may retire.

Does anybody have any idea how difficult it would be to deal with that kind of money?

First the Government will take half, that leaves $320 million cold cash.

Suppose the recipient stashes the rest of the winnings into Government treasury notes, (pretty secure), at just three percent return per year.

3% of $320 million is $9.6 million income per year.

Pay your taxes on that interest income, (30%), and you have left $6,720,000 clear spending money, each year, and never touch the $320 million in the bank.

You divide that clear spending money by 52 weeks, and you now have the task of figuring out what to do with all of  $129,231 per week. Week after week, after week. For the rest of your life.

You will have more friends than you ever want to have. And, they will drive you crazy.

People will try to steal, cheat, connive, deceive, swindle, snooker, defraud, trick, bamboozle you out of your money.

You will then hire money managers that will relieve you of all that clamor in your life. And before you know it, they also have their hand in your pocket.

No wonder the Bible says," The LOVE of money is the root of all evil."

If somebody hasn't killed you for your money yet, and you still have a brain left, you still have an extra stash of $320,000,000.00 in the bank.


I have never bought a lottery ticket in my life. Of course, none of the young whipper-snappers nowadays would ever listen to an old fogy like me. I'd say,"Put your five bucks a week you spend on the lottery into a retirement account for the next fifty years, add a little to it, and you'll retire as a millionaire."

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Blind And Still Going Nuts

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You surely have noticed when a person was born blind, they most often have a much keener sense in hearing, smell and touch.

I think of Stevie Wonder, Andrea Bocelli, Ronnie Millsap and Ray Charles, all sight impaired. 

Isn’t it great how God shows his care for you. If we should loose one of our senses, He will compensate by adding extra awareness to all our remaining senses.

Of all the things I’ve ever lost, I miss my mind the most. Thank God he made it all up in taste. Everything tastes good to me! I’m blessed to get around pretty good or else I’d be 300 pounds.

Our aging “Rag Muffin”, Sir Sebastien, Mr “S”, the 18 year old shitzu, Is practically blind; also almost deaf. But boy can he smell.

I laid the empty pizza box next to the wood stove to be burned. The next thing I heard was this battle of grunts, scratches, snorts and yelps.

With the few teeth he’s got left he tore into the box as if his life depended on it.

“Where is that pizza?” he snorted as he drooled. “Got to be in here! Gimme, gimme, NOW!”

We turned the light on. More shreds of the box! Finally, with the box flipped over, tongue hanging, breathing hard, he had to lay down exhausted, panting.

All this durn work and not a calorie to savor. “Kiss my butt,” he said, as he wondered off to get him a nap. 

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Here Today And Gone Tomorrow

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With Easter drawing near, I'm pondering, as I so often do, the purpose of life. Not that I'm depressed, or disappointed with life, but searching to understand the truth and its value.

I know the Truth and that the Truth has set me free. I know my value. Not the value of my assets, but the value of my life in God's kingdom.

So what is my purpose in life? As a Christian my purpose is to express to my fellow man the value God has entrusted to me. So how do I do that? Certainly not by ranting and raving, slamming fists and making arrogant boasts, but by showing, in my walk, the truth that set me free.

What is truth? Truth are not ethics. Ethics differ widely from a witchdoctor's in the jungle of Brazil to the stockbroker's in New York. Ethics are man made. They are constantly shifting. Situational. They follow contrived notions to suit the inherently wicked heart of man. Truth, however, is immutable. Truth, as revealed in the Word of God is constant. Truth exposes the sinful nature of man. It is ". . . living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." Hebrews 4:12.

So, how am I to walk in the truth that set me free? To emulate God. You say that is impossible. You are correct. I, on my own efforts can not achieve such. However, through being redeemed by Jesus, the son of God and His sacrifice on the cross, my sins have been forgiven, my sinful nature reconciled to God. I now can freely walk in His Light, His Spirit, in love for God and fellow man.

What is the fruit of the Spirit? The walk in truth? It is ". . . love, joy, peace, patients, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law." (or man made ethics.) Galatians 5:22-23.

Easter is not a holiday, such as bunnies and colored eggs. It is a celebration of Victory over death, hell and the grave. I didn't participate. Jesus did it all for us. The payment for our sins on the cruel cross, and the proof of His Majesty by raising from the dead, was the ultimate expression of God's love for us. For he created us with an everlasting soul. It is not God's wish that any of us should perish, but have eternal life with Him.


Why did I title this post "Here today and gone tomorrow"? I want you also to ponder. You are here today, where will you be tomorrow? You say, "Right here in front of this computer, I hope." You hope. What if tomorrow never comes? Where will you be then? Will you be tending the fires of Hell? Or will you depend on your ethics and become food for the worms?

Look at the picture below. We left our crabapple tree just before full bloom, expecting to enjoy it upon our return home. We were gone no more than 48 hours. It bloomed yesterday. Today the blooms are gone.

 

Not All Plumbing Is Indoors

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Carol and I have seen a variety of privies. Some just a circular bamboo fence. Some out of mud, or tin, or sod, or blocks, or curtains.

Most privies have no roof. You wouldn't want to linger anyway.

The next picture shows a typical setup. Iquitos, Peru.

Above are two public restrooms. Sheets of plastic and other stuff for privacy. The privies span a small stream. Since there is never any toilet paper in use, the evidence is quickly absorbed by the water's flow.

Here you see the same stream and the surrounding neighborhood. Some of the dwellings up the road have their own outhouses from which a 4inch plastic pipe slides the sewage into the same creek.

Kids do not play in the water, but chickens do a lot of scratching around.
You see that the government did install some poles, but electricity is very sporadic and no one can afford it anyway.

Since there are no cars or even bicycles in use, I assume the lady here is selling fish that came out of the same stream a bit downriver.

I have spoken to many Vietnam veterans, they describe similar scenarios in rural areas of that country.

I recently heard there are 50,000,000 poor people in our country, about 16 out of a 100. . . . GIVE ME A BREAK! Most folks don't know what poor is.


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