Hi everyone, Just a little fun on a Saturday morning.

Creation through the eyes of a bumblebee, made by Google Gemini Write Anything feature

https://substack.com/profile/428397757-paul/note/c-245409205?r=7321tp&utm_source=notes-share-action&utm_medium=web

A Lifetime Of Firsts

When we have kids we expect their first year to be a year of "Firsts." We still have some firsts throughout the next few years, then the "firsts" become less frequent. We remember first days of school, first ballgames, or gymnastic events. This year I had one of those stunning, had to sit down for a second "firsts", when I got a text from the kids' mom when she told me our fourteen year old had his first kiss.

I remember a shocking first when I was in my thirties. I don't remember the exact circumstance but, it was the first time a teenager called me "sir." I remember standing there for a moment, probably with my mouth hanging open, I started to correct him, but reality set in and I realized, I was his elder and he was just doing what he was taught and was being respectful.

Today I had another weird first. It was kind of a reality check. Not completely, because even though I have children in kindergarten, first, second, and eighth grade, I also have a twenty four year old daughter, and a thirty one year old daughter. The reality is I also have grandchildren, and I accept the fact that I am old enough to have grandchildren.

Well, throughout this school year I have written a short story, and I've taken it to my second graders class once a month. I would leave off the ending, then over the course of the next month, their assignment would be to write an ending, and I would share mine. Today was my day to go to his class. It all started out normal, we were saying hi, they were telling me what had happened over the past month, then one of the kids said "Hey, you know what?" Naturally I said "What?" Then she said that shocking "first" "My grandmother has a crush on you." As you can imagine, by the time I got over my shock, I forgot to get her grandma's phone number.

Thanks for sharing another first in my life,

Paul

What If It's True?

The other day my alarm clock went off, and as I was waking up I felt a sharp pain on my foot. It wasn't inside like a cramp, it seemed to be outside. You automatically think spider when something like that happens. If you've ever seen pictures of Brown Recluse Spider bites, you know that is nothing to mess around with. After checking it out, I didn't find any fang marks, or anything that looked like I had been bitten. It did remind me of something I heard recently. I heard on a radio show that has trivia segments, that over the course of our lifetime we will swallow about eight spiders while we sleep. So, if you've ever woke up in the morning with a scratchy throat, or if it feels like there is something in your throat and you need a drink....maybe that was one.

Sturgis Rally Week

I have been writing a christmas program, so the first thing that came to mind for this title was "No room at the inn." This week in the Rapid City, Sturgis area there is no room at any of the inns. The motorcycle rally is the first week of August, but this is the second week you say. It's weird, it's like trying to calculate when Easter is going to be. You eventually just give up and look on the calendar. I guess the rally is the first week of August, but it has to start on the first Sat. This year Aug. 1 was on Sun. so it had to start on Aug. 7. Summertime is always crowded no matter where you live, especially if you live in a popular tourist area. We have Mt. Rushmore here, so tourism is big business here. To put it in perspective for you, Sturgis has about 6000 people, Rapid City is about 1/2 hour away, and it has about 80,000 people. The Rapid City Metro Area including Sturgis, towns in the Black Hills, and Ellsworth Air Force Base, has about 125,000 people.
I remember twenty years ago at the 50th anniversary of the rally, everyone here was surprised that 100,000 people were predicted to be here. This year I heard half a million people are predicted. A couple of days after that I heard 800,000 people. I don't see very much of it. I drive to work, drive home, go get the kids, and go home. Monday I suggested we drive around and check license plates to see how far people have come on their motorcycles. Brent, my 12 year old said he had already seen enough. They had seen probably 5000 motorcycles on Sunday. I had accused him of exaggerating but then he said they went with their mom through the state park where there is a large buffalo herd, and I figured that was probably pretty accurate.
As you can imagine, the hospital is fully staffed this week, especially since South Dakota doesn't have a helmet law. I never really thought about the retail stores. The cashier I had at Wal-Mart Saturday said he was working every day this week too. It can be frustrating, if you forget and don't allow yourself enough time to get to where you're going, but it can be fun watching the sights. So if you've never experienced the Sturgis Rally, or Daytona Bike Week, you need to check it out at least once.

Critter Watching

I've tried to develop a schedule for writing so maybe I'll be a little more frequent with my posts. I'm aware of how bizarre this post is going to appear, but noone has ever accused me of being very normal, so you decide. Here goes.
As of the first of April the kids and I moved from a second floor apartment to a ground floor apartment. Which means they can step right out of the sliding glass door to go play instead of having to go down the stairs and having to yell up to be let in, since it is a secure building.

Living on the ground floor, and the weather getting warmer, has already brought out of hiding some of the summertime critters. We have already had a few ear piercing events from the youngest member of the group. Well, the other day I was pondering where to go next in a story, and noticed an ant on the floor. It's a tile floor with the 1" ceramic tiles with grout. I watched this ant as he (he is the generic term, I didn't actually pick it up to check) walked on the tiles and grout. When he was walking on the grout it was like he was in a valley, it would be similar to us walking in a maze with high walls. I started wondering if they instinctively find their way, or if they leave a scent, because I didn't see breadcrumbs. He would start down one path turn around and go another, like he knew it was the wrong way. Through trial and error, he made it from one end of the room to the other and went into the opening he had come out of. Instinct? HMMM. Fascinating none the less. Or maybe I just need to get out more. Being the environmentally conscious person that I am, I got the bug spray and sprayed the spot where he disappeared. Sorry but, preventing the four year from freaking out at bugs and in turn giving me a heart attack wins out every time over eco-friendly. Okay, I agree it was a little too bizarre, but fun. Thanks for sharing the bizarre with me, Paul

Trying Not To Be A Grinch

Okay, so I decided to write a Christmas blog. I wasn't going to because I didn't want to reveal the grinch side of me. Don't get me wrong I love Christmas. I love giving my kids and grandkids gifts and watching their eyes light up when they get something totally unexpected. Umm underwear is expected. What frustrates me is, that Christmas has to be centered around money. I realize that is when the retailers do the bulk of their business. I have the radio on all night long at work. Do you know how hard it is to find a radio station that doesn't play 24 hours of Christmas music starting the day after Thanksgiving? By the time Christmas rolls around I just want to break the silent night with the loudest scream I can muster. Fortunately I found an oldies station that didn't inflict that torture. On Christmas eve however I did get to hear "The 12 Days of Christmas" by the Muppets, and by the Mackenzie Brothers, so that was fun. Got me back in the mood a little bit. Then, today I read a post from a blog I follow,"A Personal Tao Musings." I've quoted him in the past. Once again he has given me inspiration. He has written how I feel without venting and revealing Mr. Grinch. He started out by saying what we all know but seldom do, that is, we need to live life fully everyday. The whole blog was good, but he had the greatest statement toward the end of the post. He said he loves it when people say "What Would Jesus Do? Well, What would Jesus do if He saw the way we celebrate His Holiday?" I guess that is how I feel. I'm also aware that some people don't make it a "Religious" holiday but, we can all slow down and reflect on the things that are truly meaningful to us. Thanks for letting me vent, Paul

Abbreviations Instead Of Conversations

Long before texting and Twitter the military found it was easier and faster to abbreviate to get a message out. All of a sudden the civilian caught on to this, we call bands by their initials even though they have names, we eat at BK, and I just can't bring myself to say KFC, to me it will always be Kentucky Fried Chicken. But in the last few months I've been told I need to become a part of the new millinium. Well, I have decided to. In a post back in October we talked about kindness. I'd like to expand on that. Although in that post, kindness was more of a balanced lifestyle, and being respectfull. Here, I'd like to remind everyone that there are acts of kindness. I haven't heard the term for some time but remember when the term "Random Acts Of Kindness" was floating around? I'd like to suggest we modernize these acts and simply call them RAK's. As a matter of fact this would be a good time of year to practice these RAK's. Helping people out to their car with their packages, even not being crabby in all the madness would be nice, but use your imagination. What would really be nice, if you see someone perfoming a RAK, let them know, lets encourage one another. Tell them "Hey, nice RAK." Be encouraging but cautious, using abbreviations could get you in trouble some day.

Final Observation

1 more observation, see other weekly observations below.
You know it's hot in your apartment when the chocolate on back of your fudge striped cookies smears on your fingers and it is 1:20am and you haven't had the oven on or done any cooking since lunch. Better go, more observations start at 6:30 am

Observations From The Week

It is now after midnight Friday night, I was transitioning from day sleeping to night sleeping yesterday (Thursday). Sat down Thursday night about 10:30 to get out a Thursdays Child while it was still Thursday, laid on the floor to get my thoughts in order. Needless to say I woke up at 2 in the morning and went to bed. So here are some interesting observations from the week.
11 year old... Attitude, need I say more.
11 year old turns off attitude, turns on "big brother" to comfort "little sister."
3 year old "little sister" discovers when dad's patience with her is wearing thin, that is the optimum time to give dad a "Daddy...I Looove Yooouu."
Dad: Sighs, kisses, I love You too now get to sleep.
4 year old can he ever be serious? Oh yeah. When nooone is letting him talk. But for the most part goes with the flow, sees fun in everything especially tormenting "little sister."
But the weirdest so far for the week was:
5 year old says: "Dad have you ever thought of blowing someones head off with a rocket launcher?"
Dad: "No I can't say that I ever have"
5 year old: "Oh."
Dad: "What made you think of it?"
5 year old: "Oh, I don't know."
Dad: "Oh"
Where do they come up with this stuff?
Maybe we'll do a special edition of Thursdays Child for 5 year old.
Thanks for discovering with me, Paul

Journalists or Lynch Mob

It isn't very often I find political topics worth mentioning, because I feel like, God is in control, prophecy is going to be fulfilled, and as get closer and closer to the "end times" the world is suppose to become more wicked. That includes the United States. As we all vote our conscience we can see that happening. Having said that, I will post things I see that have to do with maintaining balance. I saw this article Saturday night and just had to share it in case you missed it. It has to do with Rush Limbaugh reporting a story about President Obama. Is Rush Limbaugh considered a journalist, or just someone who has a radio show and gives his opinion on things? I used to listen to Rush, and liked it when he stuck to the facts. When he tells what is happening in Washington, what all the political parties are doing, and how the various members of congress are voting, I found him to be pretty informative. Enough I felt to be able to make an informed decision on how I would vote. But, after listening to him for some time I got tired of hearing him constantly attack people. It seems like members of each party are always looking for the opportunity to hurt the other. Fortunately, sometimes it backfires on them. That's where the balance comes in. That's what the article is about. Click on the link and check it out. If you're a diehard Rush fan you won't find this near as funny as I did. Thanks, Paul
http://buzz.yahoo.com/buzzlog/93122

Spontaneous Human Combustion Declining

The other day I was listening to Zac Brown Band's The Foundation album. Even though I had listened to the album many times before, when the song "Highway 20 Ride" came on it made me wonder who he is talking to. It is obviously talking to a son or a daughter, and how he regrets having to drive a truck and hopes they don't end up hating him for it. Now we all know musicians are known for storytelling, or using their music to support their cause. That's great for the musically gifted. What about for those of us who have something to say but aren't musical? Blogging. The real question is what happened to bloggers before blogging? Spontaneous Human Combustion? Did the pressure of having so much to say just build up to the point that it was uncontrolable and explode. I haven't done the research but I would guess there were far fewer instances of musicians exploding than non-musicians. Granted there have always been diaries. When I was growing up that was mainly a girl thing. So, now the question is, has spontaneous human combustion affected mainly non-musical males? Then someone (probably a male) decided to change the name of diary writing to journaling. For me, that is still writing to myself and I just may as well just keep it in my head. I see now how big of a gamble that was, whew. A number of years ago I had the idea for Thursdays Child but couldn't find any way to get my information out. Then one day I was playing around with Google and decided to try blogging. Alot of things I read before I started blogging was to read other blogs and leave comments. Not only will that get your name out there but it can also be beneficial to others. You may have an idea about something, someone else hasn't thought of. Regretably there are those few who are always negative, or spammers. We can only hope we can avoid them. I have only been doing this since June but already I can feel the pressure decreasing. Everybody has an opinion, an idea, a recipe like the excellent food over at www.chibisrecipes.blogspot.com, or helpful medical info like over at www.fibromyalgia-journal.blogspot.com. Whatever yours is, if you've never been real successful in Vegas I wouldn't recomend gambling too much longer on that pressure building up in your head, let us hear what you have to say. Thanks for bearing with this, Paul

More Comparisons

Even though there are drastic differences in the various religions I'm currently on a search to find the similarities. One thing I ran across the other day was an article about "The Law of Cause and Effect." The Buddhist call this karma. In case you're wondering about the name, if you do a search for "The 12 natural laws of the universe," you'll find some interesting info. Some of which we'll touch on here. Having spent a considerable amount of time in different denominations of the christian church I've found them to vary from rigid to open minded regarding their faith. From pumped up and on fire, to apathetic. In the pentecostal denominations they have a saying, speaking something into your life, I haven't been able to find any Biblical basis for this saying. If anyone knows where I might find it please let me know. This is however what the "Law of Cause and Effect" means. Whatever we speak, however we act, will come back to us. If there isn't a biblical basis for it where did the christian church come up with it? From the Buddhist? You could say "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction." In Malachi it tells us that if we give our tithe we will be given in return. This is the same teaching as the "Law of Attraction." The two go together in situations other than money. If you are rude and nasty to people that is what you'll probably get in return. That does however go against other biblical teachings. But, along that same train of thought, if you want love, give love, if you want respect, respect others. Another way to put it is, you will reap what you sow, now that is in the Bible, maybe that's where they got it from. I'm finding it hard to understand why there is so much animosity between the religions, when we're similar in so many ways. We teach love each other, why is it so hard to live it? Let's keep searching for it, hopefully we'll find part of it, and maybe make a difference in our portion of the world. Thanks for searching with me, Paul

Test

This is a test, this is only a test, if this had been an actual blog topic it hopefully would have said something worth reading, but since I added a new gadget to my Google home page I had to test it out before I posted an actual blog. Thanks for bearing with me, Paul

Unwinding From the Chaos

Well Thursday has past, and with it, what should have been Thursdays Child. In South Dakota, the first week of August brings 100,000 or more motorcycles to the town of Sturgis. Sturgis, and Rapid City are at the foothills of the Black Hills. There are other bike weeks across the country but, Sturgis is the original. Next year will be the 70th anniversary. It seems like the past few years attendance has dropped off, although I haven't heard any official numbers yet. The Black Hills area, and even towns near by are affected by the major increase to their populations, most places naturally have special events for the week. A few places have concerts, the most popular being The Buffalo Chip Campground. The headline news this year was when Steven Tyler of Aerosmith fell off the stage and was taken to one of the hospitals. I work the overnight shift which usually allows me enough time to get Thursdays Child written, but this week, with the hours the bikers keep, that just wasn't possible. Having the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is like having family visit, you're happy to have them come but you're happy to have your routine back when it's time for them to go home. Hopefully we will be back to normal next week and Thursdays Child will be also. 'Til then, keep searching, Paul