Good Morning All & Happy Friday!
Here we are at the end of October, 2022 already! Wow! Time flies, though it seems…
Happy Birthday wishes go to family friend and elementary teacher & runner extraordinaire Teresa in Brownsville TX; to family friend Shelby in Beaverton OR; and to friend and former business associate Marc in Seattle WA…all of whom celebrate their birthdays TODAY! Here’s to all of you on your special day of celebration!
And here’s to jazz singer extraordinaire Cleo Laine, who turns 95 today (I got to see her and her husband John Duckworth in concert in Spokane some years ago…truly one of very best events I ever attended…sensational, as a matter of fact…those two had so much talent!); to actress Julia Roberts, who is 55 today; to country singer/songwriter Brad Paisley, who turns 50 today; and to actor Joaquin Phoenix, who is 48 today. Happy Birthday to all of you!
Can you believe it?…a baby bison was born at a wildlife preserve in the United Kingdom within the past couple of days…the first time that’s happened in over 6,000 years!
Speaking of amazing things…here’s to the Cheney WA high school marching band, who recently won the Washington State “Festival of Bands” competition in Everett WA. According to band members, it took lots of practice together to achieve this honor, including one practice session lasting nine hours…now that’s dedication, wouldn’t you say?
Well, I just had to purchase a Powerball ticket the other day…the jackpot was up to a mere $700 million! That’s a mind-boggling sum of money, don’t you think? Needless to say…I only got one number in the drawing…better luck next time. They say the odds of winning this particular Powerball was 1 in 292.2 million. To put that in perspective, you have a 1 in 1 million chance of being hit by lightning; a 1 in 4.3 million chance of being attacked by a shark; a 1 in 35,074 chance of dying in a storm; and a 1 in 645,000 chance of being killed by a serial killer….wow! Given the odds, can anyone think of a better way to strike it rich???
I don’t know much about striking it rich, but I can say that having an estate plan (a will, a savings/investment plan, etc.) will help keep you out of the poor farm. However, guess what? Only one-third of adult Americans have an estate plan! 72% of adult women DO NOT have an estate plan and 59% of adult men DO NOT have an estate plan…OOPS! Financial problems are waiting to happen to those folks. Remember these sage words: “People don’t plan to fail…they fail to plan.” Based on the numbers, AMEN to that!
Election day is coming up soon…have you taken any time to consider what our vote will mean this time around? Well, I’ve come to the conclusion that the results of this particular election will be an indicator of where folks want our country to head for some time to come. No matter what your political party persuasion (and I must admit that I don’t have one anymore…I tend to subscribe to the school of thought that the least amount of government we can have is better for us in the long-run and the Republican Party has generally been better in supporting that theory than the Democrat Party. Although both parties these days seem to be “train wrecks.”). It seems as though we need a “common sense” party as an alternative. One that keeps government power in check; practices fiscal responsibility for the sake of future generations; ensures secure borders for our country with reasonable immigration laws that provide a pathway for citizenship for folks who seek to into our country legally (through a reasonable process); commits to supporting law enforcement and ensuring public safety; demonstrates common sense in moving our country away from fossil fuels to clean energy over a reasonable amount of time, while not causing undue economic hardship for our low to middle income citizens and their families; guards against getting our country involved in “foreign entanglements” that have no clear objective/end game; and works toward making our country economically & energy-wise self-sufficient (i.e. not relying on foreign governments for goods, services and energy). Right now, it doesn’t seem like we have people in office, generally speaking, that show much common sense in addressing the pressing problems/issues of our time. None of the present leaders of the Democrat nor Republican parties instill much confidence or inspiration. Why shouldn’t we demand a new generation of leaders? As it stands today, I’ll be voting primarily for Republican candidates for office, even though the choice they offer is less than appealing. However, the Republican Party seems to be more in keeping with my overall philosophy of how government should operate in service to the people. What do you think?
Here’s a couple interesting pieces of trivia that I found interesting…
The top speed at the world’s first real automobile race in 1895 was 15 miles per hour!
The first transcontinental telegraph message was sent from California to President Abraham Lincoln in 1861. That was a game changer in communication during the Civil War. This event in 1861 was as earth shaking as the introduction of cell phones in our day, don’t you think?
I came across an interesting passage in an obituary that appeared in a recent issue of the “Cherokee Phoenix,” the tribal newspaper of the Cherokee Nation, of which I’m a proud member. It reads:
“Ahnawake (McKee) Mashunkashey journeyed on to meet the Lord on September 16, 2022…”
Isn’t that a wonderful way to describe a believer’s transition from life in this world to life eternal with our Creator?
Speaking of interesting things…
I came across another one of my 1960s trading cards the other day. This one is from the “Outer Limits” TV show of the early 1960s. It’s entitled “Destruction Of The Clay Man” and boy howdy, does the picture of The Clay Man on the front of the card look downright ugly! He looks like he needs an Estee Lauder skin treatment. The back of the card reads:
“The Clay man enters the scientist’s home but once more finds that the scientist is not there. He decides to await his creator’s arrival in the library. But the sound of police outside the house panics the Clay Man. He races through the laboratory. in his flight he overturns a lit Bunsen Burner and flames burst up all around him. The police stand by helplessly as the Clay Man melts into the flames.”
That’s the last card in this “Outer Limits” collection…does anyone else out there have an “Outer Limits” trading card collection? Might we get together sometime and compare notes?
Here’s a few thoughts for the day:
“The other day, someone at a store in our town read that a Methamphetamine lab had been found in an old farmhouse in the adjoining county and he asked me a rhetorical question, “Why didn’t we have a drug problem when you and I were growing up?”
I replied, “I had a drug problem when I was young: I was drug to church on Sunday morning. I was drug to church for weddings and funerals. I was drug to family reunions and community socials no matter the weather.
I was drug by my ears when I was disrespectful to adults. I was also drug to the woodshed when I disobeyed my parents, told a lie, brought home a bad report card, did not speak with respect, spoke ill of the teacher or the preacher, or if I didn’t put forth my best effort in everything that was asked of me.
I was drug to the kitchen sink to have my mouth washed out with soap if I uttered a profanity. I was drug out to pull weeds in mom’s garden and flower beds and cockleburs out of dad’s fields. I was drug to the homes of family, friends and neighbors to help out some poor soul who had no one to mow the yard, repair the clothesline, or chop some firewood, and, if my mother had ever known that I took a single dime as a tip for this kindness, she would have drug me back to the woodshed.
Those drugs are still in my veins and they affect my behavior in everything I do, say or think. They are stronger than cocaine, crack, or heroin; and, if today’s children had this kind of drug problem, America would be a better place.
God bless the parents who drugged us.”
—I found this piece in my dad’s keepsakes…evidently he received a copy of this letter to the editor from a friend. It was written by Randy & Melanie Bordelon
I recently finished reading “Facing The Mountain,” a terrific book about the sacrifices made by Japanese-Americans during World War II. Here are couple of quotes from the book that provide some profound food for thought:
“Naturally gratitude and thanksgiving filled our hearts. But we felt reverence and a special aloha for the buddies we would be leaving behind, their resting place on foreign soil marked with white crosses.”
—Conrad Tsukayama, member of the 442nd U.S. Army Battalion in World War II
“Most of all, I felt guilt for the transgression of mankind to do evil in the sight of God.”
—George Oiye, member of the 442nd U.S. Army Battalion in World War II
The last thought for the day comes from a song written by Frederick Martin Lehman entitled “The Love Of God”:
“Could we with ink the ocean fill…and were the skies of parchment made,
were every stalk on earth a quill…and every man a scribe by trade,
to write the love of God above…would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole…though stretched from sky to sky.
O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure…The saint’s and angels’ song!”
Here’s to a great Friday and lots of love and good wishes always!
Press on,
Papa ‘a (Dad, Uncle Mark, Mark, etc.)