Is that what he wanted to know?

Most of the day yesterday, I had been working on a story that I am trying to write. This writing project is way harder than any that I had ever taken on so far. I guess you could say that this torment is self inflicted. Mr. Sandman was late. My butt was in the chair but my head was in the make-believe world of my story that I am writing.

“Close it off and go to sleep! Tomorrow is trash day and I have to get breakfast ready by 7:30.” I told myself. Writer’s block and old man insomnia were double teaming me. I didn’t want to look at the door because there are other projects that could walk in too. It doesn’t help worrying about how Mr. Albertson wasn’t giving me enough hours to enable us to buy groceries with. I am always thinking of my dooms day prepping plans on top of that. 

When it gets late like this, and I can’t stop thinking about stuff, I think back to a time when a friend of mine and I would talk until 2:00 in the morning  on the Minyard parking lot after work. I was in high school at the time. I had very little education or understanding of the deep theological things he wanted to talk about. Thing is, it never kept me from having an opinion and I was more than happy to share my ignorance with anyone who would listen. Looking back, I think my friend knew only a little more than I did. We had lots to add to the other’s misconceptions on a variety of subjects that neither one of us actually understood.

Often, on a night like this I would check my phone, charging on the lamp stand to my left. For some reason I had the though that I shouldn’t do that. What’s the deal!?! I just want to check the temperature outside. I was a bit cold so I wanted to check the weather.

I clicked the button and shined that light so that I could find my glasses. “There they are.” I put them on as the light faded away. With my glasses on, I can focus better. I push the button and the screen shown very bright in my face. The blinding illumination of my phone was like the high beams of an on coming semi. The light slammed the back of my skull from the inside. “What is this?” The first thing I see is messages from friends in Face Book. “Oh man! I hadn’t heard from this guy in a long time. I had wondered how he was doing. What is his question? He wants to talk Transubstantiation at  about 11:30pm?”  I squinted at the clock across the room to see if it was 2:00 yet.

He said, “pondering: about 2 wks ago (4 the intellectual stimulation) i engaged a seminary friend on the possibility of transubstantiation in communion; to learn whether i could defend the idea. look at all the life forms on earth. look at pics of the 'local' universe.....if the lord can do that, transub is no big deal. since then, have taken communion (twice) assuming that transub was true....any thoughts?? (my friend--being a good baptist--freaked out.”

I responded, “Remembering our late night discussions on the Minyard parking lot back in the 70s, I'll have to get back with you on this tomorrow.” 

This morning I see that my old boss, a Catholic, was interested in what I might say as well. With great respect for him, I didn’t want to get this wrong.

What in the world is the doctrine of Transubstantiation? Is that what he wanted to know? I asked Mr. Google for a few websites with the answers I don’t have. If my friend wants to know about the doctrine, where it came from or what the Bible says about it, here is what I have found.

http://www.jesuswalk.com/lords-supper/history-real-presence.htm

http://www.gotquestions.org/transubstantiation.html

“Hold on Paw-Paw!” I told myself “What was he really asking?” Reading and rereading what he posed I zeroed in one this, “if the lord CAN do that.” 

If we are talking about the doctrine of the omnipotence of God, that is something totally different. 

Jeremiah 32:27(KJV)

“Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me?”

He can do anything He pleases. If the question is about what God can do, that is easy to answer. He made everything there is in all of its complexity. He could strip me down to my fruit of the looms and paint me bright pink with green freckles. I may question if that was of God but He could do that. It is fun to speculate about what all He can do. I can get really goofy on that but the thing is this. The only thing He cannot do is lie. 

Lazarus was dead 4 days and Jesus brought him back to life. Everyone was so freaked out that Jesus had to tell the folks there to unwrap the dude. What He can do is interesting. What is more important is knowing what He has done in the past and what He will do in the future.

PAST

1 Corinthians 15:1-6 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand,  by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,  and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,  and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep;

PRESENT

Romans 10:13 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

“Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

FUTURE

Revelation 20: 11-15 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

 Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds.  And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.  And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

Is this what he wanted to know?

Skunk in the Church House

Skunk in the Church House

Resurrection Sunday! Did you know that there are those who will only come to church for Easter? We may not get an other chance to reach them with the gospel. I don’t know if it mattered but I wore a tie. I wore black slacks, red button up long sleeve shirt and a favorite tie. I don’t usually get this gussied up. We come to church for Jesus and not to dress for success. 

We were met at the door with a shocking surprise. A skunk got in the building somewhere and got a bit excited.  We smelt its exuberance coming from the vents, down the hall and whosoever came in got the same greeting from every direction.

We toughed it out. You know what? The Sunday school wing was warm! We were so glad! I don’t mean to sound gripy, but even in the summer the place is kept so cold that you could hear sleigh bells in August. 

Our Sunday school teacher was so impressed that I wore a tie that he took my picture. It was a good thing he did that when he did, I guess.  It wasn’t long before someone turned the thermostat back down to thirty degrees below brrr. Good thing that I brought my jacket. From then on, no one could tease me about my tie. 

Sunday service was great. Our music minister was in rare form. The song service was filled with great songs of praise. We sang songs that clearly contained the gospel message even more than usual. Sweet daughter interpreted one song in ASL. It was beautiful. Paster continued his series through the book of Romans. No one left without a clear presentation of the good news.

It was so great that we forgot about the skunk. No one noticed before the dismissal prayer that somebody forgot about taking up the offering as well. I guess someone wanted to be sure they get to the cafeteria way before the Methodists.

   

Terry

   

Kitty in the Wheel Well

Kitty in the Wheel Well

“What?” It’s time to get up. My sweet is up. I see the light from down the hall. “Breakfast… “ I shuffle down the hall toward the light and the sound of running water guided by the smell of fresh brewed coffee.

Standing behind the bar seats, I wait my turn at the sink and try to remember what day of the week this is.  I ask myself, “What day is this? Is it a trash day? Do I get breakfast ready by six or seven thirty? Did my sweet sleep well or did K-Dog keep her up? Where is that knuckle head? May as well feed him and get that out of the way.” One and one half scoops of kibbles for wee little doggie. I don’t care if he is a medium size dog, I like to call him a wee little doggie.

I am sure by now what day it is. Here comes my sweet with a good morning sugar smack. “Did you sleep well?” I asked. “Well, I did until about three when K-Dog had to go outside and then four when I had to let him back in.” “I’m sorry my sweet. The weather will warm up and I will sleep in the den soon. This way I will be the one to deal with that goofy dog.” Seeing him in his chair I shake my finger at him as a playful gesture of shame.

Next question I ask myself, “What was I to cook this morning?” Going for my first mug of wake me up I decide to make muffin sandwiches. Usually my sweet and I are quite content with cereal or oatmeal but if she has had a rough night with K-Dod I go ahead and cook something more. “What time is it?” Start too early we eat it cold. Start too late and we can get off schedule. “Better turn on the TV to see what’s going on in the world. Deborah Ferguson said something about Trump, don’t ask me what it was. Grant Johnston says that the weather will be fine today. Who is doing the traffic? I miss Samantha Davies.” 

Three frozen sausages in the frying pan. Fire on medium. Three muffins split on three paper towels. “Where did I put my coffee?” Three slices of cheese for the muffins and flip the sausages. Sweet daughter can’t handle the sausage if it is the least bit greasy so I get another paper towel to sop that up.

Three eggs, fried with yolk broken. Here comes my sweet! “What time is it Sweet? Am I still on schedule?” She answered, “How close are you to having it ready?” “I have to flip the eggs and it shouldn’t be long now.”

I go check the clock, “One minute to go. OH! Here comes sweet daughter,” “Good morning kid’o. Did you sleep well?” she answered “Yes.”  

Eggs in the muffins, sandwich it all together and wrap in the paper towels and serve. Sweet daughter gets her hot chocolate mix and coffee. 

Finally we are all at the table. “What time is it?” I ask myself. “We are on time. Maybe we are a wee bit late but not bad” After a prayer of thanks we start to eat. Sweetie asked “Did you take your pills?” “No. Here they go. Thank you for reminding me and thank you for keeping up with it for me.” 

Another wreck on I30. I’m glad that we don’t go that way. It is always a mess. The high way we go on is bad enough. Time for clean up. All rushing to get ready. Dishes in the machine. “Comb your hair.” 

We are almost getting late. Everyone is in the car. My sweet looked next door, “Look! Little kitty cat neighbor is in the wheel well of that truck over there.” “LET ME OUT!” hollered sweet daughter. “I have to say, ‘hi’ to little kitty cat neighbor.”

OK, Now we are late.

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http://whotoldyallthat.blogspot.com/p/lets-get-this-right.html 

With 3 Babies on Her Back

With 3 Babies on Her Back

While sitting down at breakfast we heard K-Dog in the back yard. He was going crazy barking at something. “Ok, I’ll go see what he’s barking at.” I opened the back door and headed his way. Oh! Brother!! “There is a mamma possum on the neighbor’s fence with three baby possums on her back!”  My sweet called back, “That means that there are four around here that we know about.”

Sweet daughter said that we should call Animal Control. I called them three years ago when the possums were real bad then. They haven’t come yet so why bother?

“Come on goofy dog! Let’s get back in the house.” The mamma possum stayed still while K-Dog was telling her off. When he looked away long enough she would take a step or two. Eventually she made her escape. “Come on! Let’s get in the house.” No use to letting my oatmeal get any colder. I hope that was the last we see of the possums this year. I don’t like possums. They are mean, scary and carry nasty diseases. If I got rabies while taking my meds, I may turn into some kind of mutant. 

The last time I saw a possum on my neighbor's fence I wanted to alert them but have not been able to yet. 

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Don’t fret! Just prep!

A Splash from the Past

A Splash from the Past

On a rainy evening, many years ago, I helped a lady out with her groceries only to find that she had locked the keys in her car. I offered to get a hanger from the back of the store to unlock her door with. In the men’s rest room, there were plenty of wire hangers available. I snatched one and ran back out to where she waited in the sprinkling rain with her cart full of her groceries neatly packed in plastic bags.

It took a while but I managed to get the door opened and I loaded her groceries into the back seat. If this happened to her it could happen again to an other customer so I turned to take the hanger back with me. She quickly snatched it from my hand and stuck it under her front seat of the car. “Now if this ever happens again, I’ll have one handy."

Later, the rain got a lot heavier. Water washed off all of the litter from the black top. A river, knee deep, flowed in front of the store taking the trash out to the street and into the storm drains. It became a real challenge to get carts through the river and up the hill to customer’s cars and back to the building. I tried to keep the floor mopped up from the puddles. My plastic poncho made even more puddles when I came in from every order. The floor mats were soaked to full capacity. I helped all of the customers I could at the same time mopping up from everyone who came in. My shoes were soaked and squished water out everywhere I walked. I didn’t even give it much thought. Customer service and safety was all I had on my mind. Any personal discomfort was just something to laugh off. 

Another woman had a big order for me to package in register five. Without a thought, I offered, “Paper or plastic?” To that I added, “How silly is that? It is raining like crazy. Plastic, right?” She got a bit angry with me, “Never offer me plastic! Plastic is NOT biodegradable! Paper IS! Always put mine in paper!” I reminded her of the storm outside and the heavy rain but she insisted on paper.

I filled her paper sacks like I normally would. She brought her car up to the store and I began to load her groceries. Although I didn’t have to go far to load her car it didn’t seem to make any difference. The paper sacks didn’t have a chance. “You are right! Paper is biodegradable.” Every one of her sacks had turned to mush from the sheets of rain. I managed to get them in her back seat before they all fell completely apart.

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http://whotoldyallthat.blogspot.com/2016/03/truck-driver-spots-train-hauling.html

Shake and Shine

Shake and Shine

Paw Paw Terry

Last night, K-Dog was barking at a bush. The grass was still wet from the rain but that didn’t stop him. We have had trouble with possums and it was up to me to do something about it. I snatched up my shake and shine and a large paddle that I made from s board that fell off of an old wood fence. Do you know what a shake and shine is? That is a flashlight that doesn’t work unless you give it a good shake. Sometimes it may still fade and go out.

Sweetie said that I should call it a flashlight that doesn’t work well. Any way, I was out there with K-Dog with my flashlight that doesn’t work very well and began looking for a possum in the bush. I shined my flashlight that doesn’t work very well all over the bush and found no sign of a possum. Sweet daughter said that I should call my flashlight that doesn’t work very well a black and red thing.

Knowing that K-Dog must be aware of something out there I went along through the yard searching every bush with my black and red thing, flashlight that doesn’t work very well. I gave it a quick shake and away we went. OK, lets go in Dog. He still didn’t come in.

Until he is convinced or gets rained on, he won’t come in. I went out one more time with me phone. I used the flashlight app. It doesn’t require a good shake and I don’t have to call it, “my black and red thing, flashlight that doesn’t work very well.”

Skeptical Curmudgeon 

"Not you again!" It came back!

“Not you again!!”

Once again, K-Dog was barking at something out in the darkness. “What is it this time, Dog? What are you barking at now?” 

Walking carefully through the fresh mowed grass I was well aware that I could step in something that I rather not step in. I wished then that I had a flash light. “Hush Dog!!“  With squinted eyes and clever use of what light there was, I managed to see across the alley at a familiar outline. “Oh, It’s you again.” 

There on the neighbor’s fence I saw a nasty possum. It’s likely the one from the other night. I asked myself, “What are you going to do about that, Paw Paw?” I couldn’t shoot it. Too many things could go wrong if I did that. I shouldn’t chunk rocks at it for many of the same reasons. I couldn't reach it with my trusty hoe. We learned a couple of years ago that it is not worth the effort to call Animal Control. They won’t come. I will have to look for a possum nest in our yard in the morning. Possums are like huge rats with an extra helping of ugly. No telling what it could do to K-Dog if he decided to tangle with that nasty thing. Think of all of the diseases that critter carries!! Sure, they play dead but they don’t play dead for long. If you have one cornered and it sees that you aren’t buying that playing dead routine it would be a good idea to have the hospital on speed dial.

“You did good, K-Dog. Lets get back in the house.” He began running circles. He wanted to play. “It’s bed time Dude!” Around he comes again! “Run K-Dog! Go! Go! Go!” I hoped that I could tire him out before we went in. 

The possum made its escape while K-Dog ran and played. I hope that our little kitty cat neighbor is smart enough to stay away from it. This goofy dog may not be that smart. 

Are you a good person?

Baywatch

Baywatch

It is so nice that the weather has gotten warm enough that I can sleep in the den again. K-Dog can wake me when he wants out. My sweet gets a break that way.

We headed to bed after TV time. Everyone was tucked in. I got my fill of conspiracy videos earlier than usual. I was tired and ready to sleep. My usual comfy spot didn’t look welcoming enough so I went to another chair.

I turned out the lights looking forward to the nightly visit of the sand man. We could all rest easy. I saw K-Dog at his post looking out the bay window from atop the couch. Yes, you could say that he was on bay watch. He is ready for anything. Even a company of Storm Troopers can’t get by this dog. Lets just hope for a non eventful night. 

Sitting there with my favorite blanket. It’s a Disney sleeping bag that we bought many years ago for one of our daughters. Funny, she out grew it and now I use it. Little mermaid swimming a sea of pink while warming Paw Paw.  

I didn’t know quite what it was that kept waking me up. It wan’t K-Dog this time. At last I knocked out real good. I dreamed that I was a lumber jack because there was a loud saw off in the distance. Later, I was told that it was my snoring. 

My sweet woke me in the night. “Where is K-Dog? What’s going on?” She had been up thirty minutes. My snoring was so loud that I didn’t know the dog wanted out. “Terry! There is something out there.” I got up and found my shoes and staggered out into the back yard. K-Dog was out back, frantic over something he saw. Cautiously I approached a steep drop-off at the far back of the yard.

Yup, there is something on the neighbor’s fence across the alley but what is it? I hope it isn’t a possum. It is that time of year, you know. Those nasty things are bad news. Getting a closer look at the critter on the fence and I saw its beady little red eyes. That is a possum alright. Good thing K-Dog saw that.  Next trick is to keep that out of the yard. It looks like it is going for an other neighbor’s chickens. “Should I go and warn them or is it worth battling the language barrier at one o’clock in the morning?”

“Come on Dog. Lets get back in the house.” He did a good job. K-Dog is vigilant and I do appreciate that quality. He goes over board at times but he warns us of potential danger. 

If you can’t afford an electric surveillance system, get a good dog.