The Bethlehem Star Comment Follow Up

Today, I received a comment for my blog posting on January 28, which was about the astronomical events regarding the Messiah. Ken asked me a question, which unfortunately, I’m not going to be able to answer his question without adding more questions to the mix. Here is Ken’s comment and a link to that blog entry:

“Terry, I hope you can 'splain me something. In my Bible, it says the wise men came from the East. Also, it says there was a bright shining star in the East that proclaimed the birth of our Lord, Jesus. Now to the explanation, how did the wise men from the East follow a star in the East and arrive where God had pointed them?
My only guess is that due to oral history as practiced in those times, a bit of misinformation got added in. We must remember, that during the time of Jesus' birth, maybe 2 percent of the people were literate.”

http://ignoringthebarkingdogs.blogspot.com/2012/01/astronomical-events-regarding-messiah.html

Now, in answer to his question, the “supposed” Bethlehem star acts just like most stars. Most stars, with Pole stars being an exception, rise in the East due to the rotation of the Earth. So, the wise men, or Magi, would have seen that “star” rise in the East and they would have followed it in its travel toward the West.

Now, I’m going to add some information from the website of “The Star of Bethlehem,” which will be of interest in that it raises more questions. The list below is the characteristics of the Star of Bethlehem which are gleaned from the 2^nd chapter of Matthew.

“What was the Star?

We now know much about the Star.

1. It signified birth.
2. It signified kingship.
3. It had a connection with the Jewish nation.
4. It rose in the east, like other stars.
5. It appeared at a precise time.
6. Herod didn't know when it appeared.
7. It endured over time.
8. It was ahead of the Magi as they went south from Jerusalem to Bethlehem.
9. It stopped over Bethlehem.”

(Whoa!!! Did you catch those last two characteristics? Also, just to toss this into the mix, the video “The Star of Bethlehem” explains how all 9 of the characteristics above came to be true of the astronomical event.)

Even though the Magi followed the star from the East, possibly from Babylon, and then after meeting with Herod, they followed the star towards the South to Bethlehem and the star stopped over Bethlehem.

Now, Bethlehem is only 5 or 6 miles south of Jerusalem, so it is possible that while the star was over Bethlehem and appeared to have stopped, it wouldn’t be hard to “follow” the star for that short distance. Keep in mind, until I have more of an understanding of the phenomena, I am merely speculating here.

Now, are you ready for another question? The following is also from the 2^nd chapter of Matthew:

“¹⁰ And when they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.

¹¹ And they came into the house and saw the young child with Mary his mother; and they fell down and worshipped him; and opening their treasures they offered unto him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.

¹² And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way.”

I would like you to notice in verse 11 where it says “they came into the house and saw the young child.” There is no mention of a stable or manger, and it refers to “young child” and not “a baby.” There is speculation that the arrival of the Magi may have been months after his birth because Greek translations refer to Jesus at this time as a “toddler.”

Now, for clarification purposes, I should mention that my Bible translation of choice is the American Standard Version of 1901 because it is the closest literal translation of the original languages of the Bible’s authors. When attempting to clarify something in the ASV, I tend to go to the New American Standard Version and then the New International Version.

I spend a fair amount of time on the website “Bible Gateway,” where one can choose to read in numerous translations, including the American Standard Version. As far as I can tell, the ASV is only published by Star Bibles. I happened to get my copy at A&D Bookstore in Amarillo, Texas back a few years ago. A&D Bookstore is a Christian bookstore with tons of literature and aids for Bible studies for all ages. Love the place.

So, I must now apologize to Ken that I’m not able to fully answer his questions and that I may have even added more to his thoughts. Perhaps as I study more, I can better answer. Until then, I can only suggest going to “The Star of Bethlehem” website and read the headings listed under “How to Use this Site.”

http://bethlehemstar.net/

The text in those four major categories does a lot to explain more about the astronomical aspects of this whole story.  Also, I should note that the author provides a lot of footnotes. May it be that you enjoy your research as much as I am enjoying mine. 

A Plethora of Thoughts

That title means that there are a number of things I thought about writing, but none of them really fired up the brain synapses. So, call it a plethora or a hodge-podge or whatever, here it is.

I was looking at the statistics for the blog today and there was a spike in page views back on January 14. So, I just had to go check out what I wrote on that day. It was a posting with more pictures of the Sportsman’s Campground RV Park. Well, that told me that folks are interested in more scenic shots, especially of beautiful Colorado and less of religion and politics.

Well, sorry to disappoint any of you, but today just isn’t your day.

There was a news story out of Detroit today reporting that the federal government has upped the amount it is losing on the GM/Chrysler bailout. Sadly, the American citizens are getting it again, and I’m again glad that we have Fords. (There will be more on that one later.)

The “Occupy” movement is getting that as well. They were moved out of various parks in Oakland and D.C. Maybe those lazy bums will go look for a job now. (I doubt it.)

There was also a story today, perhaps not true, that the First Lady recently spent $50,000 on “unmentionables” at a highly trendy lingerie store. The White House denies such a story, but nothing would surprise me from a lady that wants to travel to their vacation destinations in her own plane instead of with her husband. (Hey, do you suppose the bloom is off the rose there?)

At church on Sunday, I went to inform the wife of one of our Elders that I had borrowed a video series of his that he had given me permission to watch. It is “The Last Days According to Jesus” with R.C. Sproul lecturing in it. It is about the supposed end times as spoken of by Jesus. So far, I’ve only watched three 30-minute episodes, so I don’t really have anything about it to report.

When I went to tell the Elder’s wife of my getting the series, she asked me if I didn’t have the video of The Star of Bethlehem. When I said yes, she informed to that it was ours to keep and that they had ordered a new copy for themselves. I was dumbfounded at their generosity. But now I will have the opportunity to share that fascinating video with others. Unlike “The Truth Project,” the video of “The Star of Bethlehem” is only about an hour long, but still riveting.

Jo went to the doctor today after making an appointment a while back to have the doctor check her out about her fainting spells. I wrote of the recent incident back a few days ago about both of us being sick. The doctor seems to think, based on her description of the events over her life, that she is just a fainter. However, because of our “advancing” age, he is electing to have her undergo an MRI on her brain, as well as an EEK. (Or, is that an EEG?)

It might be EEK, depending on the cost involved.

OK. Now that my brain has just about officially shut down for the evening, I guess I might force myself to share one photo with all of you. After all, you haven’t had an image of God’s beauty lately.

October 2011 trip to Canon City, Colorado.  This image taken on the Phanton Canyon drive.

Astronomical Events Regarding the Messiah

This entry will not include a great deal of explanations by me of the material that I have been studying. Let me remind you of my blog entry of January 15, wherein I wrote of a preview of a future blog entry. The link to that entry is below.

http://ignoringthebarkingdogs.blogspot.com/2012/01/preview-of-coming-blog-entry.html

In that entry, I provided a link to Rick Larson’s website about The Star of Bethlehem. At his website, much is explained as to what that star entailed, especially in there being nine different characteristics of that “star” and whether or not a star could perform in the night sky what that “star” was reported to have done.

I have now watched “The Star of Bethlehem” about 5 or 6 times. I usually watch videos, whether documentaries or religious ones, with the intent of looking for some statement of fact or reasoning for a theory that sticks out as being in error or without sufficient evidence to reasonably prove the theory.

So far, and I’m not finished with watching the video, I’ve not found anything that really sticks out as obviously false or fanciful. Since this video deals strongly with astronomical events in biblical times with the use of an astronomy software program called Starry Night, and that I’m not an astronomer, I may not be equipped with enough knowledge to prove or disprove the science.

However, I do know enough of the Bible and its references to signs and wonders and even to constellations and planetary bodies to know that there is some significant evidence that what statements that this video presents.

As for astronomical evidence, if there are any readers out there that are knowledgeable in astronomy, I really encourage you to purchase or rent this video and present your own ideas as to the video’s relevance and statements.

The Star of Bethlehem video presents, with the Starry Night software, the actions of the planet Jupiter, the star Regulas, and the moon and constellations to correspond with biblical prophecy and statements. However, it goes beyond just that correspondence.

The evidence in the video relates to both the beginning of Jesus’ life on earth and to his death with astronomical events. Those events include the “blood moon” referred to in prophecy prior to Jesus’ life and to which Peter was to later use to convince those in attendance at the Pentecost following the death of Jesus.

Rick Larson explains that the dragon in Revelation is not only Satan, as John in that book relates, but also the dragon is Herod in the flesh as waiting to devour the newborn baby King. Rick asked the question in the video that if anyone could explain the beast of the sea with the multiple horns and heads, to kindly e-mail him. I guess I ought to so that I could get an address to send Floyd Stanley’s book, “As a Lamb Slain” to help him with that explanation. At this late hour, my mind is a bit fuzzy, but the numbers of the horns and heads are in reference to the Herods and the Roman Emperors.

Before trying to explain all that, I really need to read Stanley’s book again so as to not make errors in his interpretations of the meanings of the writings of John in Revelation.

All I can say at this time is that the video is a powerful explanation as to events in the heavens that are foretold and coming true at the appropriate times during the life and death of Christ. So, until I can find some evidence or lack thereof to legitimately say that the video is untrue, I can only say that you might really find the video fascinating.

The 800 Pound Educational Gorilla

An east coast radio talk show host by the name of Neal Boortz has been discussing the 800 pound gorilla lately. He has put this gorilla into the context of being present in the voting booths of America. I am just about to say that I believe he is right.

Neal’s references are to the fact that the 800 pound gorilla is the American education system and that it manages to educate most of the people to the point of being just smart enough to be a “good” employee and “subjects of the state.” He is referring to the point at which a poorly educated individual walks into a voting booth without enough knowledge to adequately analyze the traits and characteristics of a political candidate to make a good choice.

I had a recent example of the horror of an education where one does not learn critical thinking, thus leading to following the propaganda of the media and the claims of the candidates themselves.

In a discussion with a co-worker, a lady only a few years younger than me, the subject of some previous employees of our same state agency having left to go to work for private companies. They are doing that because Oklahoma is trying to consolidate the IT departments of all the state agencies under one “Chief Information Officer,” or CIO.

Somehow in the discussion, she said that she did not like private industry. I told her that I think she needed to develop a love for the private industry. When she asked me why, I told her that it was the employees of private industry that paid her salary.

With a blank look in her eye, I explained that if all the government employees were to look at their W-2 forms and see the major difference between their gross pay and their contributions to the state income tax, they would see that there was no way that government employees could possibly contribute enough to the state to pay their own state salaries. If not for private industry employees, governments could not function at all.

Sadly, the sorry education system also contributes to managers and supervisors in the government system being woefully inadequate to do their jobs right. Having had decades of supervisory and management experience, I’ve looked at the “managers” of just the division of the state agency that I work in and they are not up to snuff.

Recently, a new “policy” was enacted to see how it would work, one that will lead to massive extra expenses for paper and printer toner to print those documents they feel they have to have. When I suggested an alternative, instead of a “Thanks, Terry, we’ll certainly consider that,” I saw an upper manager hurriedly go into our supervisor’s office and within 10 minutes we were having a meeting.

I was told in that meeting that “management” had already considered that as an option and it didn’t qualify as an option that one of the managers had decided needed to be accomplished. I then offered yet another option in that meeting, one that wouldn’t require any extra printing and I was summarily told that my idea wouldn’t work because they didn’t have the time to train the staff to do the option.

In reality, with the proper scanners in place, it would take about 10 minutes per employee (at the most) to train them in the actions to take and create a document that could be stored on the agency imaging system (something like microfiche, I think.)

At no time did any of management discuss the suggestions with me.  They were simply dismissed out-of-hand.

That last manager is also one that communicates with us (the employees) via e-mail in what is usually only a two sentence “edict” with absolutely no explanations as to why. When I question her about a detail, there is no critical thinking on her part and I usually just get another one sentence edict.

The upper manager that initiated the department meeting (but did not attend) KNOWS that I have enough management experience to surpass the experience of three of their managers in total, and very possibly, I may have more experience than she has. I’m getting the feeling from her recent actions that maybe she is intimidated by me.

I am thus at the stage of very seriously considering retiring from the state. I would imagine that my blood pressure would improve, however it still concerns me that our state agency is so full of inadequate managers. Just consider that the same condition may very well apply with every state agency, not only in Oklahoma, but everywhere else as well.

We apparently have poorly educated and poorly trained managers populating government. Is it any wonder that government does so poorly in performance and efficiency?

Until this nation can effectively address the woeful education systems, with a particular emphasis on doing away with the federal Education Department, we are unlikely to see a reversal in the trend in the educations of our children and grandchildren. Is it such a wonder that so many want to home-school their own children?

So far as I am concerned the only advantage to the federal Education Department is that it is a single source for the teacher’s unions to lobby instead of having to lobby 50 state education departments and countless local school boards. If we as citizens don’t take back power from useless government entities, we will suffer in the long run.

Words to Cause Fear

Pardon me, but I must first say that I cannot watch President Obama give a speech. The man’s attitude when speaking seems to convey to me an overriding arrogance that the rest of us cannot “really understand” as much as he does. So, to give him the benefit of the doubt, I never watch his speeches but I do get the transcripts of his speeches so I can be better focused on the words.

The State of the Union speech last night was little more than a rehash of previous ones, with no definable “vision” for America, but just a long list of “I wants” from the President so he can best “rule” over us. The latest speech included an “I want” that instills fear in the heart of this conservative.

Let me first “copy and paste” a few paragraphs into the text here so that you, the reader, can see his words in full context. Should you go searching for your own transcript, these words were uttered about three-fourths of the way towards the end. The part below that is bolded and underlined are the key words.

“Some of this has to do with the corrosive influence of money in politics. So together, let's take some steps to fix that. Send me a bill that bans insider trading by Members of Congress, and I will sign it tomorrow. Let's limit any elected official from owning stocks in industries they impact. Let's make sure people who bundle campaign contributions for Congress can't lobby Congress, and vice versa - an idea that has bipartisan support, at least outside of Washington.

Some of what's broken has to do with the way Congress does its business these days. A simple majority is no longer enough to get anything - even routine business - passed through the Senate. Neither party has been blameless in these tactics. Now both parties should put an end to it. For starters, I ask the Senate to pass a rule that all judicial and public service nominations receive a simple up or down vote within 90 days.

The executive branch also needs to change. Too often, it's inefficient, outdated and remote. That's why I've asked this Congress to grant me the authority to consolidate the federal bureaucracy so that our Government is leaner, quicker, and more responsive to the needs of the American people.

Finally, none of these reforms can happen unless we also lower the temperature in this town. We need to end the notion that the two parties must be locked in a perpetual campaign of mutual destruction; that politics is about clinging to rigid ideologies instead of building consensus around common sense ideas.”

It is the bureaucracy that gives us Americans the most in the way of regulations. Congress and the president will create an agency and then turn over the “rule making” to that agency with nothing more than a “vision” of what they want that agency to become. Then, the bureaucrats begin to insert their own agendas or the agendas of those that “lobby” them.

Those regulations are then used to control the populace. There have been nightmare stories of folks buying land and digging a footing for a foundation, only to have rainfall fill that excavated portion for the footings and then the EPA to come along and designate it as a “wetland.” Thus, a citizen has purchased land but cannot use it towards his intended plan.

Even rules that have been in place for years are attacked by the environmentalists. One in particular is that a mud puddle in the vicinity of a saw mill is subject to EPA regulations, but one along a logging road has not been. Well, at least not for the last 35 years it hasn’t. However, now the environmentalists have petitioned the courts to force the EPA to treat a logging road mud puddle the same as that in a saw mill.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (otherwise known as the Ninth Circus Court of Appeal among those in the know) has ruled in favor of the environmentalists. Rather than provide a lot of detail regarding the case, I’ll give you a link instead.

http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/article/where-will-obama-side-mud-puddles/334836

Now, let me get back to Obama’s words in his speech. He is calling for the Congress to grant him powers that the Executive branch should not have, certainly not in a period of time when there are no real “national emergencies” such as a war or cataclysmic event.

His call for this power on the pretense of making things “leaner, quicker, and more responsive to the needs of the American people” is nothing more than a ploy to hide his real intentions.  If you doubt his intentions, ask the bondholders of GM and Chrysler how the auto industry “bailout” worked for them.

Given that Obama and the rest of the Democrats regularly engage in class warfare against anyone that they feel they need to regulate, it is imperative that the Congress ignore him completely in this matter, and they might even consider issuing him a reprimand for asking for broader powers.

With a President who regularly attacks “millionaires and billionaires” (which are now defined as anyone making over $250,000 a year), giving him more regulatory power over bureaucracies would harm Americans over the long haul. Consider the following.

Those of us in the RV’ing world would be appalled if the President were to come down and say that any RV over 18’ in length would be classified as a luxury RV and thus subject to higher taxes both at the purchasing end and in fuel costs for driving/towing said RV over 18’ in length. I mean, they are changing the meaning of millionaire, so why not change the status of RV’s?

As for me, I’ve already written to both of our state’s Senators in Washington and to our Representative in the House of Representatives. I highly suggest that everyone should write their representatives to express any concerns you might have with the President getting powers to which he is not entitled.

Oh, by the way, here is a link to the transcript which I read and copied.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/01/24/transcript-obamas-2012-state-union/

You know, I’d put a funny photo of Obama here, but he is no longer funny.

I KNEW There Was a Reason….

For us to get the model of Mobile Suites that we have.

I had a private message on the RV Dreams forums from a participant that commented there on my last blog entry instead of here at the blog itself. Since I’m not certain whether he wants his name known or not, I won’t mention it here.

Anyway, he told me that he was impressed than in my near passed out state that I actually had room in the bathroom to lie on the floor. Well, initially, that went right over my head as to why he might be making that observation. I simply answered that I was in the fetal position to some degree and that part of me was probably in the hallway.

Then a couple of hours later, it hit me. I forget that we have a side bathroom floor plan with the sink, commode, shower and linen closet all in a separate room on the door side of the coach. Then, I remembered another DRV Suites coach we saw this past weekend that had the split bathroom with the commode and small sink in the “commode closet” and the larger sink and shower actually in the bedroom area.

Our 38TKSB3 Mobile Suites bathroom area.

Well, I can guarantee that I couldn’t have lain on the floor in that “commode closet” after I had offered sacrifices to the Porcelain god. So, needless to say, I am even more pleased that Jo and I choose this floor plan.

The “split” commode closet area in a Mobile Suites PS3.

Maybe we can’t stop on the side of the road and use the bathroom without putting out the bedroom slide, but I can sure pass out in the bathroom if the need arises. (Is this kind of like a plan coming together?)

I also would like to mention that we recently completed another “modification” to our living quarters with the completion of a more permanent platform and steps to get into the coach instead of having to use the four-step RV steps. This will allow us to save some wear and tear on the RV steps themselves.

Since we don’t have any power tools anymore, we measured and had the pieced cut at Lowes’ prior to bring it all home. The only things I had to cut were the 4”X 4” legs since Lowes’ saw couldn’t cut anything that think. So, with our old-timey manual hand saw, I cut those out. Then Jo, our youngest son, Eric, and I put everything together. If I say so myself, I think we did a pretty decent job of constructing the thing.

Bare naked platform and steps and diving platform for energetic and anxious to bark MinPin.

Initially, it looked like the above and was fine until Lady, our female MinPin decided that she needed to run out fast to see what TJ was barking at and bailed off of the side of the platform instead of down the steps. After a late night trip to the emergency vet service and paying $100, we decided we needed to make some more modifications. While it helps a lot, Lady still wants to climb the steps from an angle instead of straight up the steps. (Incidentally, after moping around for a few days and getting some pain pills, Lady is now just fine.)

After further modifications, we now have this, which limits Lady from doing any more 1 ½ gainers off the side.

Oh, and I guess I should add one more note to yesterday’s post about health issues. After the trip to the doctor on Friday, I’ve now added a daily pill for high blood pressure. (Is it the wife, the high-flying dog, or my co-workers at work?)

A picture of our two MinPins with Lady being the larger, black dog.

Perhaps Not for the Faint at Heart

CAUTION!!!!

Lurid details to follow….

….you’ve been warned.

I’ve not done anything in the way of reading blogs, reading or posting or forums, or writing on this blog since last Tuesday, January 17. The reason is because I have been sick, which of course, was enough to give it to Jo as well.

Last warning…..

…..details following.

At about midnight on the 17^th, I started out with vomiting and diarrhea, sometimes with both going at the same time. It is not fun to be sitting on the pot evacuating from one end and holding a trash receptacle in the hands evacuating the stomach.

I had no sense of time that evening, but Jo tells me that I was up about every 30 minutes from midnight until 5:00am accomplishing those “chores.” After 5:00am, it dropped to about every hour for a couple of hours. At one point in the early stages (no recollection as to second, third, or subsequent times) I became flushed, light headed and ended up lying down on the bathroom floor, feeling like I was going to pass out.

Wonderful wife that she is, Jo was there for me each time and when feeling the urge to pass out, I couldn’t speak but did manage to tap her arm with my hand to let her know that I was still with her. (That significance will be understood as we progress with this.)

Wednesday, I was absolutely out of it because I spent most of the day either asleep on the bed or the La-Z-Boy loveseat recliner. But, apparently I wasn’t done yet. Jo fixed me an egg for supper on Wednesday evening and I ate half of it and two little cubes of cheese. (Protein, you know.) Within an hour, that was also evacuated.

My first thoughts were that I had food poisoning and we even discussed the meat in the TV dinner I had for lunch the day before. Jo felt bad because she thought the meat in the dinner looked odd, but fixed it anyway.

Thursday, I felt better, enough that we took off in the afternoon to go to El Reno to follow up on some actions that we had started on Monday on our way back from seeing Alicia and Slade at Rolling Retreats in Elk City. They are friends and also the newest DRV dealers in Oklahoma. On our way back, we stopped at our favorite car dealership and test drove a couple of Ford F150’s with the thought of trading our Mercury Mariner in on one.

So, we went back to El Reno to do the trading. At the time, while I didn’t feel good, I had Jo doing the driving. She expressed the concern that she was beginning to feel bad as well, but thought she could drive back home with no problems. Such was not to be.

On our way across 39^th Expressway (old Route 66) in Oklahoma City, she suddenly pulled into a crossover lane of the 6 lane street and stopped. She simply said, “It’s coming,” and I knew what was about to happen. (More lurid details coming…..again, you’ve been warned.)

When Jo gets sick enough, she passes out, but unlike anyone I’ve ever seen. She goes stiff as a board, eyes wide open, and completely unresponsive. The first time this happened in my presence, I freaked out, even though she had warned me in advance. I’ve learned to not panic, check for any response (even checking for a pulse - normally not present due to a drop in her blood pressure as well), and simply talk to her to “come back to me.”

Usually, after such an “episode” she comes to with a diarrhea and vomiting event accompanying it. This time was no different.

When she stopped, because of a vehicle in front of her, she couldn’t get clear out of the left hand lane, thus blocking traffic in that lane. She did have the presence of mind to put the truck in park before passing out. I jumped out just as a young lady behind us started honking at us because we were blocking the lane.

I ran around the truck and was unable to open the door as it was still locked on her side. The window was down just enough for me to reach inside and unlock the door, so I did so and then just held Jo and talked her “to me.” Then, the young lady jumped from her car and came to assist me. It turns out she is a fourth year nursing student and she was invaluable, to a degree.

We are convinced that the young lady and the first responders all thought that Jo was having a seizure our perhaps a stroke. I applaud them greatly for their concerns, but the old man whose been married to Jo for 43 years should have some bearing on their actions. Think of it, no one else has lived with her as long or knows her as well, not even her parents (now passed on) or our kids.

Knowing Jo’s reactions to such events, I was hesitant to call 9-1-1 because this was not new to either of us. But, the young lady called anyway and soon the police, fire rescue, and an ambulance were on the scene. When they all found out Jo had had an angioplasty about 6 or 7 years ago, they insisted on taking her to the hospital.

Her hospital stay was only for a few hours in the ER, with her being upset that the nurses had to clean the results of diarrhea and vomiting off of her. She was given an IV which really made her freezing cold and even 6 warmed blankets gave her no relief from that. After about 4 hours, the doctors determined that they couldn’t really find a good reason to keep her and gave her the option to check herself out. She chose to go home to her electric blanket where she could control how warm she was.

While the doctor was surely concerned and really wanted her to stay in the hospital, even if only to alleviate their fears for her health (and perhaps cover any concern of negligence), Jo decided that the hospital didn’t need to “earn” about $1000, or whatever, for an overnight stay.

We went to our doctor on Friday, the 20^th, and he agreed that we probably both suffered from a stomach virus. We are now on the B-R-A-T diet (Bananas, Rice, Applesauce [Yuck], and dry Toast) and will go off of that tomorrow. The cruddy part is that I can’t have dairy products for a while, so I can have no ice cream or cheese. And, I’ve got some nice mild cheddar in the refrigerator.

Jo has set an appointment with the doctor so they can now explore the possibilities of any other possible health issues that could be causing her “events.”  However, since she has been this way since she was a small child, I’m not sure of what they can find, although I do have this little hope that there is a cause that could be addressed.  Her “episodes” still scare the crud out of me.

Meanwhile, we are just lounging around and doing practically nothing. We start back to work in the morning. The one saving (?) grace is that Jo was off this week with vacation time, so she was available to take care of the 65-year-old “baby.”

More on the “new to us” truck later, which has been “christened” with Jo’s episode, but cleaned up again.

Preview of Coming Blog Entry

Well, it would be more accurate to describe it as a teaser than a preview. That is because I am still in the process of doing the research for it. It is related to the video “The Star of Bethlehem,” which is a video of about an hour in length, but packs in a powerful message.

The author and presenter of the video is a Christian, an attorney, and a law professor by the name of Rick Larson, whose search for the answers to the Star of Bethlehem ran a sort of convoluted path, including being derailed by his concern that his study was delving into the realm of Astrology instead of Astronomy. By the way, his website is at:

http://bethlehemstar.net/

Even if you don’t purchase and watch the video, what you can read at his site in the headings under “How to Use This Site” is meaningful enough. However, to do full justice to the research and his presentation, try to find “The Star of Bethlehem” in a library or some other source. Part of his research utilizes an astronomy software program called “Starry Night,” which can be used to look back in time to what the alignment of stars, moon, and planets were and their significance to the birth of Jesus Christ.

Oh, and yes, December 25 does have some significance. But, like Rick Larson, I don’t proclaim that date as the birthday of Jesus.

Below is Biblical evidence that the heavens, stars, and planets and their arrangements are spoken of early on. Keep in mind that the book of Job is “generally” considered to be one of the oldest books of the Bible and that it predates the covenant with Abraham.

Psalms 19: 1-4

¹ The heavens declare the glory of God;
   the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
² Day after day they pour forth speech;
   night after night they reveal knowledge.
³ They have no speech, they use no words;
   no sound is heard from them.
⁴ Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
   their words to the ends of the world.

Job 9: 9

⁹ He is the Maker of the Bear and Orion,
   the Pleiades and the constellations of the south.

Job 38: 31-32 (As God chastises Job)

³¹ “Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades?
   Can you loosen Orion’s belt?
³² Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons
   or lead out the Bear with its cubs?

Isaiah 40: 26

²⁶ Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens:
   Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one
   and calls forth each of them by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength,
   not one of them is missing.

Luke 21:25

²⁵ “There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea.

As a last comment, the video is interesting if one is not a Christian, but it is powerful if one is or wants to be a Christian.

Sportsman’s Campground - More Pictures

Let’s explore a bit more about the Sportsman’s Campground RV Park in this entry, and then later ones will touch on things to see in the immediate area of the park. While the RV Park is like many others, it does have some additional features, one of which I mentioned and that being the cabins.

However, there are also horseback trail rides that can be taken, and the starting point is right there at Sportsman’s. You’ll have to check with the website or call them directly to get the full details of those rides, but they seemed to be of interest, especially if you didn’t have a lot of other things to do or see.

This image is of the office for the stables that conduct the horseback trail rides. It goes by the name of Crazy Horse Outfitters (I think.)

This building is the central rec center/kitchen/showers/laundry room building. When we were there, this was where the pot luck supper was held. We had the misfortune of not really having a good RV in which Jo could cook, so we ended up buying something for a dessert when we happened to be in town the day before the supper. As it was, we were the ONLY ones that showed up with a store-bought food item.

Jo said that it would never happen again, and that she would find and keep something in our RV’s that could be cooked up as a home-made dish.

This next picture is of what is probably the absolutely smallest cabin in the park. Jo and I referred to it as the 2 X 4 cabin. The others are all larger, with one being a lot larger.

Looking from the north part of the campground, this looks back toward the entrance, with the office and general store being the building that is the furthest away and on the right. It is just beyond the playground equipment. That is also where the dumpsters are located, requiring the “campers” to carry their trash to that location.

Then there is the largest cabin, which is named the Rio Grande, and is located in the northern-most part of the park.

These next pictures will be various pictures taken in the park area. I won’t even bother to describe them. As you can see, there is quite a bit of maneuvering room throughout the campgrounds.

This last one is the only pull through site in the park, and as you can see, it is a large one. There was a bit of room at the front of the coach to park their tow vehicle, but for the most part, the owners of this Mobile Suites would park their pickup behind the coach. The owners were one of the couples that come to the Sportsman’s Campgrounds every year.

As for pictures of the inside of the clubhouse and cabins, I didn’t take any of those.  Most of the cabins were rented and I am more interested in nature and critters than I am the insides of buildings.

One other thing of note, one or all of the owners are involved with conservation efforts in this part of Colorado, especially in the Weminuche Wilderness area.  One evening while we were there on our vacation, a large number of vehicles and people started showing up and parking just about anywhere that they could and brought their lawn chairs into the campground.  We found out the next day that the owners host the annual “get-together” of the local conservation group.

Obviously, they are folks that appreciate the area in which they live and operate their business.  If you have a desire to get out away from towns but still have the modern hookups, Sportsman’s Campground is a good place to go.

Sportsman’s Campground - Pagosa Springs, CO

It has been ages ago, but I had mentioned that I ought to do a review or two of some National Forest Campgrounds and at least one RV Park. However, other things got in the way or sidetracked the idea so I never got it accomplished.

So, today I will write about the above campground, which is located roughly 18 miles northwest of Pagosa Springs in the Weminuche Wilderness area. We had a two week vacation there in August of 2009. Click on the link below for some pictures of different Rocky Mountain places and look for the ones labeled underneath as Weminuche Wilderness.

http://www.americaswonderlands.com/rocky_mountains_pictures.htm

As for the campground, it is situated within some Pine trees and is equipped for some pretty large RV’s. They also have a few cabins as well. At one time, the John Wayne movie “The Cowboys” was filmed in the area and their website has a picture of him with a couple of kids. I suspect that those kids are the current owners and operators of the campground. Here is their website link.

http://www.sportsmanscampground.com/

There are a total of 28 campsites, but four of them are permanently leased to individuals and are not available. This is a very popular resort campground where a large number of the folks come back year after year. When we were there, we were advised to go ahead and book our reservations for next year before we even left if we wanted to insure that there was a space for us. With that in mind, I strongly advise anyone interested to be sure and contact the campground well in advance.

From Pagosa Springs, one would turn off of Highway 160 at Piedra Road, also known as Co. Rd. 600, and follow it out of town and towards the northwest. For some reason, on Google maps, Co. Rd. 600 turns into Co. Rd. 631 just before the Piedra River crossing. Once past the Piedra River, the campgrounds are only a few more miles north and on the right at the second junction of Taylor Lane.

Upon our arrival and check-in, we were immediately invited to participate in a pot-luck supper scheduled for a few days later. Everyone we met that were owners or employees of the campgrounds, including the workkampers, were extremely friendly and helpful.

As we were setting up our RV (the 26’ Rockwood fifth wheel we had then), I was having difficulty remembering how to “deploy” the awning. The process had been demonstrated to us a couple of different times by the dealership, but since we had never used it, I couldn’t remember the process. There must be some kind of “signal” received by experienced RV’er because as one gentleman walked by, he stopped and asked if he could be of assistance.

With his help we had the awning out and figuring a way to anchor it from the wind. Our immediate neighbors were one of the workkamping couples and they had a campfire every night, and we were invited over every night. They were all a great group of people.

This was our first ever time of RV’ing when we had all the hookups. Our normal camping experience was boondocking in a National Forest campground. After this two week vacation to Sportsman’s, Jo was hooked on having the hookups. She really likes taking a shower every morning.

Anyway, the sites are fairly easy to back into, with only one that I remember that was a pull through. While there was not much in the way of barrier trees or shrubs between the RV sites, there was a fair amount of space between them. There is a clubhouse with laundry in the middle of the campgrounds. It also had showers and a kitchen as well as a pool table and other recreational material.

The staff was great and very friendly, and while Jo and I did book a reservation for the next year, that year was to be the one when we ordered and purchased our Mobile Suites. After paying for tags and taxes, we really didn’t have the money to go back in 2010. However, I suspect that at some time, we will try to get back up there for another 2 week vacation.

Now, let me share some photos with you. What I will do is first show pictures of our RV site at Sportsman’s and then tomorrow, I will show some more of the other areas of the campgrounds. In yet a later post, I will begin telling of all the places we went on that two week vacation.

With this picture, you can see the nose of the truck in the campsite to the left of our site and the buildings on the right of the site are a few of their cabins.

This is from a different angle, but with the one vehicle that was in the right of the other picture being gone.

This image is taken from further away and gives a view up the lane. Large RV’s would need to circle and come from the direction of beyond our RV site.

This one is from behind the RV, giving you an idea of the space between our site and the one next door where the workkampers were parked.

This one shows the opposite side of our site, showing the distance between it and the cabin next to us.

Last, but not least, imagine good friends, moonlight, and firelight…..

More enjoyment to come in later installments of our 2009 Pagosa Springs, Colorado vacation.

More Beauty to Share - Not My Own

Today will end up with a second post. The first was political and with the lack of morals, but this second one will be of paintings, not of my mother, but of other family members and others that were some of her painting students.

While she didn’t take much in the way of lessons from Mother, Jo’s mother, Elma, did do some painting. Most of her skills were with all forms of working with yarn and thread, in the way of Afghans, quilts, sweaters and much more. In a trip to Jo’s sister’s home in Colorado, I found a couple of paintings.

If you notice the signature, it is actually the cattle brand that Merle and Elma had on all of their cattle. The name given to the brand was “Quarter Circle Bar T.” You can certainly see that the name is definitely similar to the graphic.

The next few paintings were painted by Jo’s middle sister who lives in Tulsa. In honesty, with all of these, I can’t begin to say how long they took lessons from Mother. Nor do I have any ideas as to the reasons they chose the subjects of their paintings.

These first two are from Jo’s sister that lives in Colorado. This first painting is actually one done by both Jo and her sister in Tulsa.

The next one is one painted by the Tulsa sister.

The last two were at the Tulsa sister’s house and were painted by her.

Sometime in the future, there will be others to share. A few were done by various different students and given to Mother. Then later, I have quite a few done by Jo. She doesn’t think too much of what she did, but I did. I’ll be really proud to show those.

Another Government Evil

This is an example of a government agency gone wild with its regulations. The story tells it all.

A Fine for Not Using a Biofuel That Doesn’t Exist

By MATTHEW L. WALD

January 9, 2012

New York Times

WASHINGTON — When the companies that supply motor fuel close the books on 2011, they will pay about $6.8 million in penalties to the Treasury because they failed to mix a special type of biofuel into their gasoline and diesel as required by law.

But there was none to be had. Outside a handful of laboratories and workshops, the ingredient, cellulosic biofuel, does not exist.

In 2012, the oil companies expect to pay even higher penalties for failing to blend in the fuel, which is made from wood chips or the inedible parts of plants like corncobs. Refiners were required to blend 6.6 million gallons into gasoline and diesel in 2011 and face a quota of 8.65 million gallons this year.

“It belies logic,” Charles T. Drevna, the president of the National Petrochemicals and Refiners Association, said of the 2011 quota. And raising the quota for 2012 when there is no production makes even less sense, he said.

Penalizing the fuel suppliers demonstrates what happens when the federal government really, really wants something that technology is not ready to provide. In fact, while it may seem harsh that the Environmental Protection Agency is penalizing them for failing to do the impossible, the agency is being lenient by the standards of the law, the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act.

The law, aimed at reducing the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions, its reliance on oil imported from hostile places and the export of dollars to pay for it, includes provisions to increase the efficiency of vehicles as well as incorporate renewable energy sources into gasoline and diesel.

It requires the use of three alternative fuels: car and truck fuel made from cellulose, diesel fuel made from biomass and fuel made from biological materials but with a 50 percent reduction in greenhouse gases. Only the cellulosic fuel is commercially unavailable. As for meeting the quotas in the other categories, the refiners will not close their books until February and are not sure what will happen.

The goal set by the law for vehicle fuel from cellulose was 250 million gallons for 2011 and 500 million gallons for 2012. (These are small numbers relative to the American fuel market; the E.P.A. estimates that gasoline sales in 2012 will amount to about 135 billion gallons, and highway diesel, about 51 billion gallons.)

Even advocates of renewable fuel acknowledge that the refiners are at least partly correct in complaining about the penalties.

“From a taxpayer/consumer standpoint, it doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense that we would require blenders to pay fines or fees or whatever for stuff that literally isn’t available,” said Dennis V. McGinn, a retired vice admiral who serves on the American Council on Renewable Energy.

The standards for cellulosic fuel are part of an overall goal of having 36 billion gallons of biofuels incorporated annually by 2022. But substantial technical progress would be needed to meet that — and lately it has been hard to come by.

Michael J. McAdams, executive director of the Advanced Biofuels Association, said the state of the technology for turning biological material like wood chips or nonfood plants straight into hydrocarbons — instead of relying on conversion by nature over millions of years, which is how crude oil originates — was advancing but was not yet ready for commercial introduction.

Of the technologies that are being tried out, he added, “There are some that are closer to the beaker and some that are closer to the barrel.”

The Texas renewable fuels company KiOR, for example, has broken ground on a plant in Columbus, Miss., that plans to start turning Southern yellow pine chips into gasoline and diesel components in the fourth quarter of 2012 at an annual rate of 11 million gallons, although  Matthew Hargarten, a spokesman, said the quantity to be produced this year might be adjusted.

Mr. McGinn of the council on renewable energy, defends the overall energy statute. Even if the standards for 2011 and 2012 are not met, he said, “I am absolutely convinced from a national security perspective and an economic perspective that the renewable fuel standard, writ large, is the right thing to do.” With oil insecurity and climate change related to greenhouse gas emissions as worrisome as ever, advocates say, there is strong reason to press forward.

The oil industry does not agree.

Mr. Drevna of the refiners association argued that in contrast to 2007, when Congress passed the law, “all of a sudden we’re starting to find tremendous resources of our own, oil and natural gas, here in the United States, because of fracking,” referring to a drilling process that involves injecting chemicals and water into underground rock to release gas and oil.

What is more, the industry expects the 1,700-mile Keystone Pipeline, which would run from oil sands deposits in Canada to the Gulf Coast, to provide more fuel for refineries, he said.

But Cathy Milbourn, an E.P.A. spokeswoman, said that her agency still believed that the 8.65-million-gallon quota for cellulosic ethanol for 2012 was “reasonably attainable.” By setting a quota, she added, “we avoid a situation where real cellulosic biofuel production exceeds the mandated volume,” which would weaken demand.

The underlying problem is that Congress legislated changes that laboratories and factories have not succeeded in producing. This is not for want of trying, and efforts continue.

One possible early source is the energy company Poet, a large producer of ethanol from corn kernels. The company is doing early work now on a site in Emmetsburg, Iowa, that is supposed to produce up to 25 million gallons a year of fuel alcohol beginning in 2013 from corn cobs.

And Mascoma, a company partly owned by General Motors, announced last month that it would get up to $80 million from the Energy Department to help build a plant in Kinross, Mich., that is supposed to make fuel alcohol from wood waste. Valero Energy, the oil company, and the State of Michigan are also providing funds.

Yet other cellulosic fuel efforts have faltered. A year ago, after it was offered more than $150 million in government grants, Range Fuels closed a commercial factory in Soperton, Ga., where pine chips were to be turned into fuel alcohols, because it ran into technological problems.

Airlines have had marginally more success with renewable fuels, but mostly because they have been willing to pay huge sums for sample quantities. Alaska Airlines said recently it had paid $17 a gallon. Lufthansa plans to fly a Boeing 747 from Frankfurt to Dulles International Airport near Washington using 40 tons of a biofuel mix.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: January 10, 2012

An earlier version of this article referred imprecisely to targets for a plant being built in Mississippi by the renewable fuels company KiOR. When a company spokesman said that “timelines change,” he was referring to the amount of fuel that will be produced by the plant, not to the plant’s planned startup in the fourth quarter of 2012.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/10/business/energy-environment/companies-face-fines-for-not-using-unavailable-biofuel.html

It is a sad commentary that those that make up our government bureaucracies lack the common sense to adjust regulations for conditions. Or, is there an underlying desire on their part to punish people and maybe even pocket the fines they would impose?

It is nonsense like this that makes me believe that certain agencies of the federal government are closed down, starting with the EPA, the Energy Department and the Department of Education. At the very least, the EPA certainly needs to be completely reformed, but we still need to get rid of the other two as they are completely useless.

Unemployment Figures Explained and More

I am sure that this will not be everyone’s favorite topic, but with all the false information fed to us by the news media, I feel some kind of explanation is necessary to sort through the chaff.

First, let us start with an explanation of the various “stages” of unemployment. This information was garnered from Wikipedia.

Definitions of Unemployment Categories

The Bureau of Labor Statistics also calculates six alternate measures of unemployment, U1 through U6, that measure different aspects of unemployment:

• U1: Percentage of labor force unemployed 15 weeks or longer.
• U2: Percentage of labor force who lost jobs or completed temporary work.
• U3: Official unemployment rate per the International Labour Organization definition occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively looked for work within the past four weeks.
• U4: U3 + "discouraged workers", or those who have stopped looking for work because current economic conditions make them believe that no work is available for them.
• U5: U4 + other "marginally attached workers", or "loosely attached workers", or those who "would like" and are able to work, but have not looked for work recently.
• U6: U5 + Part time workers who want to work full time, but cannot due to economic reasons (underemployment).

Note: "Marginally attached workers" are added to the total labor force for unemployment rate calculation for U4, U5, and U6. The BLS revised the CPS in 1994 and among the changes the measure representing the official unemployment rate was renamed U3 instead of U5.

In the above, the U3 category is the category measured when they report the rate of unemployment. In fairness, this is the category used during all presidential administrations. When unemployment numbers in the U3 category are low, it is usually because of good economic times and the U4, U5, and U6 categories generally are low as well.

Keep in mind that since the government and the media report the U3 category, they are actually ignoring the “true” unemployment rate because the U3 is only reporting those that have filed for unemployment benefits and have been looking for the last 4 weeks. It ignores all of those discouraged workers, marginally attached workers and part time workers.

Thus, when the administration recently announced that unemployment was down to 8.5% it is a false accounting of the actual number of people who are unemployed or under-employed. Politically speaking, the Obama administration would like to point to 8.5% as a good number, the actual number of people in categories U3, U4, U5, and U6 are probably closer to about any number between 11% and 17%, depending on which categories one wants to cite.

Also, the recent number of 8.5% does not factor in the number of those that were seasonally employed for the Christmas shopping season. I fully expect the U3 number to increase soon once those seasonal employees once again apply for unemployment, if they are even allowed to apply.

Below are a number of link quotes from news stories and links to the full stories:

“The U.S. unemployment rate unexpectedly fell to 8.5 percent last month as job creation was more robust than expected, providing continued signs that the nation's labor market is improving gradually.

Growth in manufacturing jobs helped offset a loss in government positions, while wages edged higher and the length of the work week also lengthened a bit.

The unemployment rate — a hotly contested number because of the rise in potential workers who have quit looking for jobs — has fallen 0.6 percentage points since August.

However, an alternative measure of unemployment that counts discouraged workers also dropped sharply. The so-called U-6 number, more encompassing than the headline number the government publicizes, dropped to 15.2 percent from 15.6 percent in November.”

http://www.cnbc.com/id/45898349

While this story relates that 200,000 new jobs were created, it actually takes about 170,000 new jobs every month to keep up with the expanding population wanting to work.

“Enamored with the 200,000 number? Don't be - the reason why the market has basically yawned at this BLS data is that as Morgan Stanley's David Greenlaw reports, 42,000 of the 200,000 is basically a seasonal quirk, which will be given back next month, meaning the true adjusted number is 158,000, essentially right on top of the expectation.”

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/massive-beat-not-so-fast-morgan-stanley-warns-42000-jobs-due-seasonal-quirk

Want more?

Add these to the problems and consider the doctors and their employees being out of work.

Doctors Going Broke

By Parija Kavilanz

CNNMoney

January 6, 2012

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Doctors in America are harboring an embarrassing secret: Many of them are going broke.

http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/05/smallbusiness/doctors_broke/index.htm?hpt=hp_t3&hpt=hp_c1

Oh, and factor this in, which could be an entirely different blog post all by itself:

Then there is this bit of news, which will help add to the unemployment over the coming decade. The President’s plans for the military will reduce their numbers by 500,000, adding further to the unemployment figures.

The US Can No Longer Fight the World’s Battles

President plans to cut half a million troops and says US can't afford to wage two wars at once

Rupert Cornwell

Friday, 6 January 2012

The Independent (co.uk)

The mighty American military machine that has for so long secured the country's status as the world's only superpower will have to be drastically reduced, Barack Obama warned yesterday as he set out a radical but more modest new set of priorities for the Pentagon over the next decade.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/obama-the-us-can-no-longer-fight-the-worlds-battles-6285629.html

With the current level of military, the U.S. can be engaged in two wars at the same time. President Obama’s plan will reduce us to only being able to be engaged in one. God help us if two or more nations that “might” dislike us decide to attack us.

Now, with tongue in cheek, are there really ANY countries out there that would like to see the U.S. destroyed? I can name more than that with just those in the Middle East.

Ignoring The Barking Dogs’ One Year Statistics

The blog was begun on January 1, 2011 because of the urging of some RV Dreams forum participants and with the hope that forcing myself to write more just might cause me to do more with the book that I am writing.

While there have been no real advancements of the book, anyone who read the Christmas post got a wee taste of how I plan to do the book. While there will be pages with only photos on them, a lot will have comments by me as to what the photo means to me. So, maybe it would be better if I didn’t write any more pages for the book.

I am not the best of writers, and following the advice of others on blogs, my grammar is sort of a form of “Okie-ism,” if such a word existed. It is just down-home simple English but with some colloquialisms as well. Oh, and some big words. While I hope for the book to be more formal, it is my thought to keep it simple.

I have been told that the book might have more interest if I didn’t write it in the first person, but in third person instead. Their thought is that with it written in third person, the reader can insert themselves within the text of the book, and it kind of becomes their own. While that method of writing might be all fine and good, and a reasonable consideration, the purpose of the book is to share my photos and my thoughts about them and God’s beauty.

While the book isn’t really going anywhere, and neither are we since we are “static” full-timers, I found the statistics for the blog to be interesting. I did not set out to create a large following, or to make myself write every day, but I was also concerned that I would become like some other bloggers that might only write once every week or so, or even longer.

I finished 2011 with 168 posts, so it works out a bit less than once every two days that I submitted some thoughts to words and posted them. In addition, I tried to post a few pictures of my own, although most of my better ones have still not been posted. I’ve got to learn how to add watermarks to the photos so they can’t be stolen by others for their own use.

In addition, there have been 148 comments, although some of those have been comments by me in answer to the comments or questions of others. Some of those comments of others have led me to create blog posts in answer to or to refute the comments that were made. I love a good dialogue of ideas, but one has to know that I am pretty demanding that one’s comments be accurate, and some haven’t been accurate.

There have been 12, 191 page views, although in the beginning I didn’t know to set the blog parameters to not count my own views of the blog, so the actual number of page views are probably closer to around 11,000.

Top Ten Topics by Page Views

1. Akiane Kramarik Revisited 561 page views

2. The Colton Burpo Story and Perhaps Then Some 448 page views

3. Another RV Modification Made 393 page views

4. Awesome: It’s the End of the World 321 page views

5. EZE-Kleen Sewer System 258 page views

6. It’s Gone…and Just in Time for Disaster 208 page views

7. What Does the Bible Say? 182 page views

8. Using a Transmission with Tow/Haul 132 page views

9. The Pioneer Woman 103 page views

10. Walk With Me As I Age 102 page views

Huh, fancy that….very little in the way of political interest in the top 10. But, the sewer system and the joke entry of “Walk With Me As I Age” really surprise me to be in the top ten. I could say that some of you folks out there are weird, but then I’d have to admit to being weird myself. Oh, wait….I guess I am.

Now, how about the audience and their locations? That was extremely surprising to me to see the different countries that were represented by readers of the blog. Obviously, the most were located in the United States, but the other countries really amazed me. How did those folks get here?

Audience Statistics

United States 10,046

Canada 286

Russia 238

Germany 219

United Kingdom 170

Ukraine 142

Australia 80

France 78

Poland 54

Latvia 52

While it is not reflected in the above list, the viewers from another country really surprised me, and that was Iran. I don’t remember the number of viewers, but it would probably be between 25 and 50. Also, of the above list of numbers, 13 views were actually from today, January 1, 2012. While I’m not burning up the internet with a huge array of viewers and visitors, I’m still impressed that so many have found what I have to say to be interesting.

I just always thought I just ran off at the mouth a lot.

The following is not my own writing, but it was brought to my attention in worship services today. The story of the author is interesting in that she wrote something like 80 different hymns. However, I leave you with a poem of hers, hoping that it touches your lives.

Thank you all for having an interest in us. May God continue to bless you and I hope we can someday meet.

Another Year Is Dawning

Another year is dawning, dear Father, let it be
In working or in waiting, another year with Thee.
Another year of progress, another year of praise,
Another year of proving Thy presence all the days.

Another year of mercies, of faithfulness and grace,
Another year of gladness in the shining of Thy face;
Another year of leaning upon Thy loving breast;
Another year of trusting, of quiet, happy rest.

Another year of service, of witness for Thy love,
Another year of training for holier work above.
Another year is dawning, dear Father, let it be
On earth, or else in Heaven, another year for Thee.

Words: Fran­ces R. Hav­er­gal, 1874. She wrote these words as a po­em for her New Year’s greet­ing cards. The hymn was sub­se­quent­ly in­clud­ed in her Un­der the Sur­face, 1874, and Life Chords, 1880.

October 2011; Sunset on Lake o’ the Cherokees (Grand Lake), Oklahoma