What Ya Have to Do!

 What Ya Have to Do!

 

Patty’s driveway alarm kept going off. She would check it and see a spider waving its arms up in a cloud of mosquitoes, and then the spider would move off. She believes—and it seems highly likely—that the spider has discovered that if it can get the motion camera to go off with its light, that the mosquitoes swarm it. Instant meal! Now that is one smart spider! [Patty had to turn off the alerts so she could get some sleep! Danged smart spider!]

 

Jimmy and Sharon Dickerson just left. They had gone to his high school reunion for the Okla-Union folks. Three of Jim’s fellow students showed up, but about fifty were there in total. Small schools have small classes. It’s quite a contrast to what Petrolia had, but then, there were something like 44 students in our class in the eighth grade. The class was so big that they had to have us in the big music room/old gym. Sitting here trying to imagine corralling that many kids and keeping them quiet and interested. Remember that Mrs. McDonald read the book Exodus to us for part of her class. The French class in the high school let out just a bit after gym class let out for the others, so Mrs. McD let me borrow her book to get to read it all. Don’t think she read all the information about the Holocaust to the rest of them. And just as an aside—the movie was absolutely disappointing compared to the book. But that is not uncommon about movies and books.

 

My poor Thompson does not seem to have much energy today. Not sure if it is the heat or exactly what, but think cooking some liver in the morning might give him just a bit of a lift. Anyway, that is my next step. Whatever it takes to make my dogs feel good and stay healthy is pretty much what will be done. Sylvia is younger than Thompson and never has been as active. But she is sweet like he is—when she minds me!

 

Sharon was telling about her oldest son being a Boy Scout and how they went on a camping trip. The parents were told that they could provide everything except the meat. The leader was going to take care of that. When she went to take some home the next day, the boys were starved—in their estimation at least. Seems they were supposed to catch, kill, and cook their own chickens. The boys caught the chickens and played with them, but killing them, dressing them, and cooking them was a bit much. Understand completely, but wonder just how many folks still know how to do that sort of thing. Jim was telling that the old weeds we called “Devil’s Claw” were somehow medicinal if used in the right way. Plenty of things are like that—including the bark of willow branches. Sitting here thinking that the old woman will have to look up Devil’s Claws.

 

Sent eggs home with Sharon and Jimmy while we talked about the number of folks we know who don’t cook much any longer. Door Dash and those other services have made things pretty easy for anyone who lives in a larger city. Pretty sure places out in Clay County don’t have that kind of service, but still. If we shop closely at the stores, we can find microwavable meals. Those are pretty handy if a person does not want to plan all the parts of a meal. That stupid pandemic messed with a bunch of us. We want things as simple and quick as possible. United has what they call “Ready Meals.” They are a bit expensive, but they are just right for one person. When compared to a meal at Whataburger or someplace like IHOP, United’s meals are much healthier and convenient.

Saw something about collecting energy from outer space that may make it possible to completely do away with the use of fossil fuels. It seems almost like science fiction, but would that not be the most wonderful thing in the entire world of scientific discoveries! Wireless energy depositories would be the next solution to many of our problems. Imagine not having electric and telephone towers everywhere in sight! At the same time, we still are waiting breathlessly for signals from outer space while ignoring the fantastic creation right here in front of us. Ah, common sense really is not all that common.

 

God has given us so many blessings in life and in this land. Each of us finds reasons to get up in the morning and smile at anyone who we meet. Tomorrow many will be heading to church to sing and worship together with like minded folks. And some will sit and watch a service on their computer or just read the books of the Bible. However we approach God’s gifts, we can always be thankful to Him.

 

Rest well, my friends. You are loved.