Shirley Temple, along with Will Rogers were the mega-stars during the 1930s. They both brought a little bit of comfort to people during the Great Depression. Shirley died this week at the age of 85. She was a star both in her childhood and as an adult. Continue reading Here's To You Shirley…

I have been pretty melancholy for the last few weeks. I’m sure part of this is because of the isolation due to all this miserable weather we have been enduring.  Because of the sub-zero temperatures I have regrettably missed more of my soup kitchen sessions than I have made in the past month. I am beginning to seriously miss all the people I interact with there on a daily basis. The cabin fever is messing with my mind. The title of this post came from an early episode of Grey’s Anatomy that I just watched. As I mentioned before I … Continue reading Finding Our Tribe…

What About The Bible… ? (Chapter 1) I have been spending quite a bit of time lately thinking about the Bible and my experiences with it over the last decade or so. Around 2003 I decided to take up a serious study of theology and in particularly those around the words of Jesus. I naively thought I could get some clear directions for my spiritual life if I just understood why the Bible seems to mean so many different things to so many people. What I have discovered over this period of time awakened me. I did not get the … Continue reading The Thing Is…..

This picture has been on my desktop screen for some time now. I’m dreamin of Spring……. Continue reading Dreaming Of Spring…

Be it therefore enacted by the General Assembly, That no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship,place of ministry whatsoever…. Thomas Jefferson — An Act For Establishing Religious Freedom — 1786 From my study of Jefferson I think his separation of Church and State was more to keep the Church out of the State’s business than the other way around…. Continue reading Protecting The State…

First, Google cracked the code on Internet search. Then the company used its search platform to build the world’s largest online advertising business. Now, the Silicon Valley icon is turning its attention toward streamlining its business to focus on next-generation hardware and services, particularly in the mobile space. Judging by Google’s latest earnings report, the company’s core business remains robust, as the Cupertino, Calif.-based cash machine posted strong sales and profit growth on Thursday, sending its stock price surging more than 4% in after-hours trading to an all-time high for the second consecutive quarter. SOURCE:  Google Is Making Itself a … Continue reading Google Is Making Itself a Lot Leaner and Meaner..

Here we go again. Round number (I can’t even remember). They say it is snowing at about one inch per hour as I am writing this post and when it is published we are supposed to have up to a foot of snow on the ground! I can’t remember what it feels like to really be warm anymore. My desktop on my computer screen is of a wildflower meadow. It is the only thing that is keeping me sane right now. :) The generator is back on the front porch just in case the predicted ice happens to knock our … Continue reading Here We Go Again…..

We are so used to the things that the Red Cross does, that we sometimes just forget to praise them. But this time, in this flood, they outdid themselves feeding and housing and caring for as many as six hundred thousand. Lord, what a blessing an organization like that is.  I would rather have originated the Red Cross than have written the Constitution of the United States. Will Rogers June 19,1927 Sometimes it is hard to remember that the Red Cross has been around since before Will’s day. If this quote moves you a little bit please consider giving a … Continue reading The Things They Do….

Officials in Georgia are on the defensive, trying to explain why Atlanta was so ill-prepared for a snow storm that gridlocked highway traffic, leaving thousands of students stranded in schools and on buses, bringing out National Guardsmen and state troopers to help with rescue efforts. SOURCE: Who’s to Blame for the Atlanta Storm Chaos? – ABC News. I know that snow and ice are serious things for our neighbors to the south but those of us who live in northern States are rolling our eyes when we see the massive problems caused by 30 degree temps and a couple of … Continue reading A Little Inconvenience….

One thing I have gotten much better at in my retirement years is to savor the moment.  If I am enjoying something  I try to take the time to just sit back and thoroughly take in the experience. Some call this “Stop and smell the roses”. Over the years I have always enjoyed the HGTV Dream House that comes out about this time every year. I used to always make sure that I saw that show on TV.  Then about two or maybe three years ago something happened to turn me off on it. That is the time when the … Continue reading Savor The Moment….

At the same time, while many people mindlessly repeat the phrase, “We don’t make anything here anymore,” it’s simply not true. The fact is the United States remains the preeminent manufacturing power in the world, producing about 20 percent of the world’s manufactured goods in the United States, and a lot more outside the country. Though China produces almost as much as the United States does within its borders — also about 20 percent of the world’s goods — there is a big difference between what our two countries make. China is a world power in low-margin electronics assembly, textiles … Continue reading America unleashed…