The things we discover and the shame we bear!

Today, I went to my Aunt Sandy’s funeral. Part of the funeral was a sermon delivered by the minister (preacher we call them). The message was that things you can buy in this lifetime are not important. Part of the message was if you feel like your life is messed up then clean up your act and turn it all over to God. Now, this minister must have been reading my mind, because I was sitting there feeling like I need to get my act together to be a good example to my kids and to be a better father for them. I need to get my kids into church. I was sitting there feeling like my life is a total mess. I have been for sometime feeling like things you can get in this life are not important. Maybe this is just my age showing, or maybe I am just now figuring out what life is about. Now sure at this point if I am figuring it out or not. Some things just don’t seem to be that important to me any more.

I came home today thinking I needed to go out and buy a large print bible. Reading the bible has been one of those things I said I would do someday. Feeling like if I wait to many more days that I might run out someday I thought now might be a good time to start. Now, these tired old eyes can’t see very well anymore, but I knew I had a bible on the counter in the family room. So since cash is not readily available I thought I would open the one I had up to see if I could read the print in it with my glasses on. Now, when you reveal something about your self-my sister calls it "outing yourself". So, I am "outing myself" here in front of God and everyone. I had asked for this bible for Christmas and my sister had bought it for me and given it to me one Christmas Eve. Much to my surprise and dismay it was given to me on December 24, 1990. Yes, almost 19 years ago, and I have opened it only maybe three or four times. This bible is brand new in the box. In most cases having something this old in this good of condition is a good thing. In this case it is shameful. It should show sings of use and wear, not look brand new. Shame on me!

Now, I can’t remember if I read any out of this or not, but there is a bookmark in it with the lion and lamb on it with a verse from Mathew 5:8,9 "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God". I have read some of the New Testament in a NIV bible a few years back. The bible she gave me is the King James Version, which at times is a little harder to read (it is the version that my church believes in).
I remember seeing my grandmother’s (Lula) bible and she had births, deaths, and her marriage information written in the bible. I had intended to write the information into the appropriate pages of the bible when I got married back in 1992. The page that lists the marriage information is blank. I will most likely leave it that way even though I was married for fifteen years. I will most likely leave the family tree page blank as well. The problem I had with the marriage was, I was married, the other person, I feel, was just playing around. I don’t feel that we had a real marriage. I will most likely write my son’s and daughters birth information on the birth page. Maybe I am just a sentimental old softy, but this seems like one of the lost traditions that need to be honored. For the last little while I feel like I have floundered around not sure of what I want to do with the rest of my life. I think it may be time to let God take the lead and figure out where I should end up. Who knows how things will end up for me. Hopefully, I have another twenty or so years to go. I would like to be around to see what kind of people my children end up to be. Hopefully I can help get them turned around and the will grow up to be good people. Maybe I will even be around to see my grandkids.

Had to do a double take

Sometimes I go out to CNN.COM to read up on world news. As I was looking through the headlines one read: "KOCO: Blizzard warning posted in Oklahoma". Yes, that is correct a blizzard warning. Now, I had to check this out on Weather.com and it is real. They are calling for quarter inch of ice, blowing and drifting snow, and near white out conditions. I believe I saw one place where places in Oklahoma are expecting up to a foot of snow. It was a nice balmy sixty degrees here today. I checked our forcast to see if we would be cooling off and NOPE we are not expected to. It was just really strange that we were sixty degrees and where you think it would be warmer it was icy and cold. I am hoping we don't get any of this as I am sick of winter weather.

Happy St. Patricks Day

Happy St. Patricks Day. If you are not wearing green consider yourself pinched!

Amateur or Professional

As part of my Ham Radio hobby I get a monthly magazine called "QST". The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) which I am a member of puts out this magazine. I saw this quote in the magazine and thought it was worth noting. Ham Radio operators are referred to as amateur radio operators.


The quote was: "Professionals built the Titanic, the ark was built by amateurs."


Makes you think doesn't it?

Twitter jitter fritter bitter

I thought I would share this. It is from page 6d of the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette Saturday March 7th, 2009. Click the photo to see it full sized.

Daylight Savings Time Begins

On Sunday March 8, 2009 at 2am daylight Savings time begins. Time to SPRING forward one hour. So basically in the spring we spring forward (move one hour ahead) and in the fall we fall back (move back one hour). If the current time is now 5:30pm under daylight savings time starting Sunday the time would be 6:30pm. The good news here is that we all get to sleep in an extra hour on Monday. That is assuming my body doest have me up at the normal time. The internal clock thing you know. The bad news is that in the fall we all loose that hour of sleep. You just knew I was going to drop the other shoe didn't you.

I personally am not a fan of daylight Savings time. I think it is down right stupid to have us mess with our clocks twice a year. I am sure it is hard to get kids to bed in the summertime when the sun is just going down at 10pm. The cry is that it is still daylight out. The other bad thing here is that the kids will now be waiting at the bus stop again in the dark until and those of us who have to go to work say around 7ish will be driving in in the dark.

I am not sure what propogated this change to daylight savings time. All I know is that Indiana for the first forty one years of my life didn't mess with the clocks. I was very glad to live in Indiana when we didn't. It did create problems for me as I knew people in other states that were on a different time. They are for the most part all on the same time now. Now, changing the clock is a minor incovenience, but why do it at all. I heard it has something to do with milking the cows and their schedule. This just sounds like a lot of bull to me. Indiana can thank its changing of the time to "My Man Mitch -- IE: Mitch Daniels". Well, he isn't my man Mitch. I didn't vote for him. I will let you decide if you like daylight savings time or not. Just remember to set your clocks ahead one hour before you go to sleep on Saturday night or on Sunday morning when you get up. Your choice.

Found on Ebay

Ebay is a wonderful thing. Ebay is an on-line (internet based) auction site. If you are looking for something most likely you will find it. With a little practice and digging around for prices of stuff, you should come up with an item at a discounted price. However, I have seen auctions on Ebay go for well more than the item could be bought for new. Items can be purchased from anywhere in the world from Ebay. I bought my son a watch that was shipped here from Hong Kong China. As a seller I am restricting bidding on my items to just the United States only. You can put items on a watch list and check back later to see what price that item might be selling for. Ebay also provides you with email reminders that the item is selling soon so that you can go out there an check on the item. There are hundreds of items for sale on Ebay.

I currently have five auctions on ebay ending sometime in the next week. I will be putting more out there in the weeks to come. I have been rounding up stuff that I am not actively using and attempting to sell it off on Ebay. The hope is that I can turn that money around and pay a bill with it.

Here is one of my current auctions click the link to be taken to the auction to see what this looks like:



Radio Shack Pro 2054 Mobile/Base Scanner


There are fee's involved in the sale of the items. Ebay charges an insertion fee and this fee depends on the number of photo's of the item you have and how much the starting asking price is. Then they charge a fee based on how much it sells for. Buyers can use a service called Paypal to pay for purchases. Paypal is basically a shield between the buyer and seller to hide bank account details. With paypal you can setup checking accounts and/or credit cards to use to pay for your auctions. Paypal also offers a credit account (someting similar to a credit card) to pay for purchases a well. As a seller I am accepting Paypal payments allowing people to pay with the methods listed above. There is, of course, a small fee for this. You can also print shipping lables, pay and print postage, and have the item picked up for delivery. I haven't sold anything on Ebay in a number of years so we will see how this goes. I will post an update later.


To begin shopping on ebay you can go to this website: http://www.ebay.com/