Turtles Run Away - Fast! a PSA on July 30th, 2025

Hello, folks! Greetings and salutations on another beautiful day above ground. 💖 We almost lost our little turtle today and it was wholly my fault, so I'll tell you about it.

she looks innocent here but she is much faster than you'd think! 

So, earlier, we had the turtle outside and were talking to some friends who I asked to watch Freedom for just a minute so I could run and fetch something; when I returned, this creature had scuttled off into some nearby tall grass and instantly disappeared on them, so when I got back, we were all looking for the turtle. 
There were (my) tears, garden tools were fetched and used, and once I came inside for a hair-tie (due to building heat), Terry found the turtle and told me when I got back outside. 

I realized that it was MY fault for not warning my friends about how super-quick the little turtle can and will disappear every time she reaches thick cover like that - it's in her DNA! I'd forgotten about the time I lost her like that, same situation with just me that time: I was walking her, she saw the tall grass and BLOOP! I spent thirty minutes searching for her that time.

So - the PSA is this: when you have a tiny little pet turtle and you take her for a walk, she WILL disappear like Houdini if she's able to get to the tall grass!

💜

I'm so grateful that we found her! 

Coming Together on Thursday, July 24th, 2025

Good morning, et cetera, dear Reader; greetings and salutations on another fine day above ground, for those of us fortunate enough to wake up again, that is. And, please know that I'm not being morbid by that, only realistically acknowledging the frailty of life. 
Here, have some classic American rock to start the day with:

First for today's devotion:

Psalm 112 NIV 

And today's Proverb:

Proverbs 24 NIV  

Here's a look at today's weather here:

It's a lovely forecast! Look, the high on next Thursday won't even reach 80F (at least, according to Google at the time of this post). 👍

Anyway, our friends who own the museum are happy with my grant-writing help thus far and are busy connecting us with others in the community to help get that homeless shelter off the ground, with our friends telling us yesterday that the city mayor is very interested in the initiative and, with Douglas being positioned where it is, there are all kinds of people who need the help (and I, for one, Republican or not, do not care what side of the border they come from - if a human being comes to me in need, that person will get help, full stop, no matter what any other human being says or thinks about it). And, by that, I mean real help: food, water, a safe place to sleep, that kind of thing: life sustaining, genuine assistance. "For I was thirsty and you gave Me a drink" - and yes, I *will* give Him a drink every single time the chance presents itself, so help me, God. But I digress. 
Anyway, it's heavy on our hearts to be used of God in this service to the ones the Lord Himself calls "the least of these". 
Just yesterday, one friend was telling me about another non-profit near his museum who is seeking to get the ball rolling on the shelter and we'll soon meet toward that end. 
My heart is filled with joy and hope as, other than be a soldier, doctor, or lawyer, creating a homeless shelter and serving those most in need is the top of my "worthy things to do in life" list and it looks like that one I may really get to actually do before I die.
How very fabulous if that's the case!

💜

Anyway, today, dear Reader, I pray for you, that God supply all of your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus, in Jesus' Name, amen. 

Mama, I'm Coming Home - Tuesday, July 22nd, 2025

Hello, dear Reader, and welcome (back?) on this somber day above ground, for you and I, that is. Beloved heavy metal singer Ozzy Osbourne has gone to be with the Lord today, this morning according to his family. 

May he rest in peace and may the Lord comfort all affected by his loss.

And, it bites me in the behind yet again that I spent so very many consecutive years ignoring all news, politics, et cetera and I'll give you a prime example of why and that's this poor little demonized guy right here:

According to Grok AI, Pepe Frog isn't just "that Internet Frog" I've thought of him as since first seeing him in about 2005, around the time of his creation. No, had I been paying attention, I would have known that Pepe got co-opted by alt-right maniacs, if Grok is to be believed. 
So, though the years of bliss for having nothing to do with current events were wonderful, they also crippled me in some unfortunate ways. I mean, am I supposed to research every innocent meme and picture I've been somewhat-familiar with for a couple of decades before posting them again to be sure they haven't suddenly become offensive? I mean, that could happen to anything couldn't it: next it'll be poor little Winnie the Pooh or some other innocuous little doodle whose intent was just to bring some smiles. 
I think that the people who sullied this frog suck for doing it. Why can't they make up their own damn cartoon and leave this one alone? 
But - again, according to the AI conversation here:

https://grok.com/share/bGVnYWN5_c7076295-95a5-44e4-9a92-248cc4dd9926

You can see the entire 'conversation' (for lack of a better term). 

Anyway, Gilda Radner said "It's always something". 
She was right.

💔

"Not that kind of pipe" - Sunday, July 20th, 2025

Hello there; greetings and salutations on another beautiful day above ground, dear Reader. 😎👍

First, from today's Pirate Wires newsletter, this hilarious - true - BASED item:

👆

But in all seriousness, I'm going to refill this bowl and empty coffee cup and, while I'm away from the keyboard, you go ahead and get your tinfoil hat on, because:

And, here's my conspiracy theory, full-stop:

those tunnels are for h*man tr*fficking. 
There, now you know.

Look, they already ruined drugs! We talked about this! Anyway, my point is: if they'll ruin DRUGS, can we put anything else past them?
Well? 

Is your hat on yet? 

They Ruined Drugs 🤬 July 18th, 2025

Hello (again?), dear Reader, and welcome - both to this obscure American blog, but also to yet another day of Life! 
Here is today's Proverb:

Proverbs 18 

So, who else remembers when, here in the U.S. at least, street drugs used to be far more fun and exponentially less dangerous than they've become these days? I do! And, it seems like it wasn't even all that long ago, either, but at this point, it has been a matter of some years already, and with hundreds of thousands of Americans who took that gamble and lost, I'm so grateful that President Trump passed the HALT Fentanyl act yesterday; may lives be saved as the direct result.

To those who conspired over several decades to ruin drugs:
You suck, and thanks a lot (ironically, of course). 

Oh, well; sorry, but if the equation had been "So, take this and 50/50 you get high, 50/50 you die" I would have been like "OH, HELL NO" from day one and cannot understand how so many others sadly chose not to make that same - safest - choice, and paid with their lives for the mistake. It's so, so sad as well as deeply frustrating. There have been people who I've known and loved who went down that path, never to return.
Please don't make the wrong choice and join them, dear Reader.

Thank you for stopping by, dear Reader, and be blessed.

💜

About the Second Amendment on 7-17-2025

 Hello, dear Reader, and welcome (back?) to this (in every sense of the word) free, obscure American blog on a mild July afternoon in 2025. 

First things first, please:

If you are prone to, say, hating another person because that person, say, is a MAGA Republican (you know! 😉 for example) then, maybe, you know, don't read what I write? 😎👍 And, I say this as a former card-carrying Democrat (1979 - 2016). 
But I digress. 

What I'd like to point out is a well-known, irrefutable fact and that is this:
the 2nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution ends with the phrase:
 "...shall not be infringed". 
Does it not? 
If not, then what exactly are the ending words/ phrase?
Tell us, if you know.
No?

Ok.
So my point here is, the 2nd Amendment does not end with "but".

It doesn't say "maybe don't infringe".
No, the words - verbatim - are "SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED". 

Therefore, all gun control laws *are* unConstitutional. 

😂

Fight me. 
☝I jest! 

Pain Hurts on Wednesday, July 16th, 2025

 Hello, dear Reader, and welcome to this free (in every sense of the word) American blog, written by just another regular human being, much like yourself in many ways I'm sure.

It's like I taught a friend's young child years ago: 

Pain hurts.

Well, this body is over 50 years old and has been distracted by the normal rigamarole of the aches and pains that come with the territory. I did one load of laundry *yesterday, but woke up today with significant pain in my left shoulder (and, in fact, am still unable to lift it above my head). Fortunately, preliminary x-rays reveal osteoarthritis; blood tests ruled out a third cardiac event (which is fantastic!) 

But... "pain hurts". 
It's a deep, though very basic, lesson that I tried to share with a small child, many years ago, when he was interacting with a friend's large dog but in a way that needed to be gentler, so I told him that "pain hurts" in an attempt to help him understand the consequences of rougher behavior with others, including creatures. It may seem a laughably-obvious statement, and, maybe it is; but he seemed to get it, and today, facing some mild pain of my own, I'm reminded of the lesson, having it return to me today. Pain hurts.

And, I'm pretty sure that none of us is immune, are we?
That includes all kinds of pain: physical, yes, but psychological, emotional, et cetera. No matter what kind of pain you or I deal with, it has this in common: it hurts. 

Now that I'm home from the frozen, silent ER room, I'm about to get a second full glass of ice-water, unable to drink it fast enough right now. The shoulder hurts enough to plan for a warm shower at some point before bed tonight, for sure, and the attending physician called me in something topical (even though I told him that my pain's not over a 4, or 5 tops, so no Rx wanted or needed, not yet). 

I found this and - of course! - it had to be mine:

That's about it for now! I'm tired and my shoulder's killing me - thank you for stopping by and spending precious moments of your life here. 

Sweet Jesus on Monday, July 7th, 2025

Good morning, et cetera/ wherever you are, dear Reader, and welcome to this insignificant little American blog. You and I are so very, very fortunate, aren't we? Here we sit, breathing in and out: ALIVE. So many who saw yesterday did not live to see this day; and, I say that not to frighten you so much or bum you out, but to help (us all) hopefully be more aware of life's temporal, fragile nature. 

The sunrise was splendid, and for those few magical moments, Heaven peeked at us through the clouds, lighting them up in glowing, living shades of pinks, yellows, orange! And I was fortunate enough to see it with these very (grateful) eyes.

Today's Proverb was all about adultery (again) and, that's fine - feel free to read it yourself, it certainly won't harm you if you do - but the people affected by the catastrophic act of God flooding in Texas the other day, they weigh heavy on my heart and mind since hearing of those events. And, I remembered this perfect Gary Chapman song that, though he wrote and performed it in the 90's, just fits their sad, inexplicable situation eerily well. Here's the audio (video, technically) and the lyrics will follow. 
Please, if you pray, keep them in your prayers, and thank you so much.

Here it is:

There is a river runnin’ through this town

It carries the water

There isn’t any way to slow it down

Or make it stop

I was a baby when the big bridge fell

So I don’t remember

But I have listened to the stories well

And so I know

They were falling to the surface

They were calling to their God

And their cry was

Sweet Jesus, please won’t you catch us, save us

Sweet Jesus, please won’t you hear us crying

There was a family in a house that night

They were dreamin’ peaceful

They didn’t know the river’s risin’ might

It caught them all

An eighty-year-old man said he would save his child

And then he’d perish

He threw the baby through the ragin’ wild

To someone’s arms

They were falling to the surface

They were calling to their God

And their cry was

Sweet Jesus, please won’t you catch us, save us

Sweet Jesus, please won’t you hear us crying

There is a river runnin’ through my heart

It carries a burden

I’m tryin’ to find a way to tell it all

And make it stop

I am a sinner with a Savior’s love

I’m barely hangin’

And I am callin’ to my God above

To hear my cry

I am falling to the surface

I am calling to my God

And my cry is

Sweet Jesus, please won’t you catch me, save me

Sweet Jesus, please won’t you hear me crying

Sweet Jesus, please won’t you catch me, save me

Sweet Jesus, please won’t you hear me crying

(lyrics courtesy of Grok AI).

💖