What is it about nice people that attract total idiots?Nice people are martyrs. Idiots are evangelists.

SOCK IT TO ME BABY!!!

Sunday, July 20, 2025

New pics

 Well, maybe not so new... most of the last couple of weeks it has been like today- right now at about 0830 it's 73F and 93% Humidity.  I take Misty to the barky park, but that's mainly 15 minutes of: two poops, running back and forth at anyone unfortunate enough to walk past barking at the top of her lungs, and staring at distant doggies going the other way.  Let me see what I do have in the bag...

These are from a week ago Thursday, last true day of vacation...


Humidity visibly hanging


What a tremendous job done patching the potholes.  See ya in another four months!





River's a bit scummy



Then came Friday morning...



New, big, ugly signage at the pitch

It was a lonely walk...

Varmint false alarm


First sign of life, guy riding around on a lawn mower

In honor of what used to be on sesame Street before it went full woke:  This walk is brought to you by the number 2

The days of raspberry breakfast are over

More varmintage at the Swamp...

...which is essentially slime-o-turf now

So our whole walk we saw the lawn guy, these two, a pair of fishermen and one walker with her face shoved into her phone.  One squirrel.  Not even a mosquito was out...

Misty even refused the river!


South Canal is dry

This clump of leaves fell out of a tree in the woods, right in front of Misty.  Made us both jump!



A few nights back, Laurie saw a raccoon family casing the neighbor's car.  Next night, Misty and I met this little guy...



And finally, we had to post this one on FB.  We had just ordered door dash, and every little sound was making Misty think the food was here!  Finally tired of being yelled at, she waited by the door...




Friday, July 18, 2025

M10 2.0.12

 



Horace Bellbottom:  What is the meaning of this?

Elvis:  Well, Debbie Doglady wanted us to do an encore presentation, lawyer Bellbottom, so I wanted to get yer stubborn hide around ta help out...

Nardole:  Then, what about me, sir?

E:  You an' Wayne are comic relief...

Wayne Newton: Hey, I'm a serious singer, not a comic!

E: Yer tellin' me!  But just because Lawyer Bellbottom got yer charges dropped from the last Beauty Contest...

HB:  Reduced, not dropped.  He still owes 24.79 hours of community service...

E: "Point seven nine"?

WN: 19 minutes.  I owe a day and 19 minutes.  Is it my fault one show ended early?

N: Well, the news reports said that your microphone DID start the fire...

WN: Well, who asked you?

HB:  GENtlemen!  If we must be forced into this debacle, might we get onto the new debuts?

E:  We might- 'ceptin' there weren't any!  Chris just shuffled the last countdown around.

HB:  Good, that shall make our endeavor much easer- and QUICKER.

WN:  I think that ship has sailed...

N:  Might I suggest we just each read the name of a song off until we are done?

WN: Well, who asked you?

E: Hey, you be nice to Noodle, you dipstick!  Bad enough you got the Beauty Contest banned...

N: Only in 187 countries.  I believe we could still do it from Bhutan...

HB:  True, but audio only.

WN: Kinda defeats the purpose...

E: Okay, so let's each read off a song, and we'll be through it in a minit...

N:  Sir, I already suggested...

E: Well, who asked you?

HB:  Actually, I have a better idea.  Gentlemen...

...the Everly Brothers will do the countdown as a song...

E:  Good grief, I can't see this'll be a good thing... but go ahead...


We must have been Out Of Our Minds

Under that pink, Pink Sky

When What I Wanted

was Just Around The Corner

but you sang Metal

just like it was Here To Stay

Still don't know, How Did This Go Wrong, Sister

guess I'll Stay On The Ground

with our Broken Hearts...


E:  That was gosh-awful...

Don Everly:  Wait, we have a second verse with the singers in it...

WN: This was your idea, Bellbottom?

HB:  Well, honestly, it seemed better in concept...

(Suddenly a voice from the shadows) Step aside, you idiots, and let me do this right...



E:  Oh, crap, Toni Tennille!  Who let her in?

TT:  Here, let me read this list:

Melissa Auf der Maur drops to 10 with Out Of Our Minds;

Real Estate falls to 9 with pink Sky;

Morgan Wallen and Tate McRae drop to 8 with What I Want; 

Beach Bunny up to 7 with Just Around The Corner;

The Beths up to 6 with Metal; Doobies at 5 with Here To Stay;

Up to 4 for for a band as real as we are, the Velvet Sundown and How Did This Go Wrong;

 E:  Lemme count the ways...

TT: Tennis at 3 with Sister; 

Matt Berry at 2 with Stay On The ground;

And Geowulf- who I'm being told won't allow her likeness to be used during this episode- remains #1 with Broken Hearts.


Now, where's that delicious hunk, Chris?

E:  Yew don't really think we'd get away with this if he was around, do ya?

WN:  But I'm here, baby!

TT: Well, who asked you?

Wednesday, July 16, 2025

Wednesday Bible Study: Eagles

 


(Appropriately enough, originally written on July 4th...)


In my recent morning Bible reading, I hit a verse that I've never been able to truly grasp until now...

Luk 17:34  I tell you, in that night there will be two in one bed. One will be taken and the other left. 

Luk 17:35  There will be two women grinding together. One will be taken and the other left.” 

Luk 17:37  And they said to him, “Where, Lord?” He said to them, “Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.” 


Which is easy enough  to understand, until you ask yourself, "How does that answer the question?  Perhaps that is why the ESV renders the word "vultures" so; but others more correctly do it this way:

Luk 17:37  And they answered and said to Him, Where, Lord? And He said to them, Wherever the body is, there the eagles will be gathered together. 


Which will make sense in a minute; but first you have to get past eagles eating carrion.  One sermon I looked into told me that the phrase isn't as much common sense (with vultures) as it is a reminder of the passage Jesus was thinking of in Job 39:

ob 39:27  Does the eagle mount up at your command and make his nest on high? 

Job 39:28  He lives and stays on the rock, on the crag of the rock and the strong place. 

Job 39:29  From there he seeks food, and his eyes see afar off. 

Job 39:30  And his young brood also sucks up blood; and where the dead are, there he is. 


So how does it answer my question?  First of all we have to think of the many ways an eagle is SYMBOLIC in the Bible.  It is used as a symbol of swiftness; the sureness of judgment; renewed strength; youth; and conquerors coming to do God's bidding.  But how does it apply here?

First, you have to think about why the question was asked.  Jesus had been asked about the last days, and had described what we know as the Rapture: One will be taken and the other left.  They were asking where these would be taken, and that we know the answer, too:


1Th 4:16  For the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ shall rise first. 

1Th 4:17  Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. And so we shall ever be with the Lord. 


Which means the "Body" (also mistranslated in the ESV and others as 'carcass') is Jesus Himself, and the eagles then are those who will gather around Him.  Now let's look again at the connected passage in Job:

39:27- The eagle will 'mount up' and make his nest "on high"- in other words, with Christ on the clouds of Heaven.

39:28- He dwells on the ROCK; Mat 16:18  And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.   Another often misinterpreted passage, where Peter comes from a word meaning "a piece of rock" and Rock from one meaning  "a MASS of rock".  More descriptive is this from Psalm 62:

Psa 62:1  To the choirmaster: according to Jeduthun. A Psalm of David. For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation. 

Psa 62:2  He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken. 


39:29- He has his eyes open to prophesy: and his eyes see afar off. 

Mat 13:16  (Jesus speaking to the Apostles)But blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear. 

Mat 13:17  For truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which you see, and have not seen them; and to hear what you hear, and have not heard them. 


Also v29:- they seek their food from then Rock:

Joh 6:35  And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes on Me shall never thirst. 


39:30- "sucking up" the blood of Jesus, for the Cross bought us salvation: 

Joh 6:53  So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.


So the Jews of the day, who had truly read the scriptures, and could connect what Jesus said to the passage in Job, were treated to a mini-retelling of the Gospel! If you were an expert in the Scripture, this verse alone would be more than enough explanation of Jesus as Christ:

Joh 3:9  Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” 

Joh 3:10  Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? 


For the Jews, who had rejected Him, these things are well-hidden;  for us, they are only hidden if you reject Him, or don't read your New Testament, for He says them clearly to us all as much as He hides them for the unbelieving.

Friday, July 11, 2025

M10 2.0.11

 


How about this?  I have time and inclination to do a music post but... no back-up story???  So I guess I'll kinda manufacture a couple of things to go with it.


#10 this week as last week, Beach Bunny's Just Around The Corner.  New at #9 is the Beths...



********************************************************************

So my first thought was, let's see how the Songs of Summer Race is going so far...

t10- Brother Down, Sam Roberts band
     -Forever Overdose, Amira Elfeky
9- Sister, Tennis
8- Broken Hearts, Geowulf
7- Set Me Free, Deradoorian
6- Blow In My Bag, Minus 5
5- Under The Aurora, Counting Crows
4- Here To Stay, Doobie Brothers
3- What I Want, Morgan Wallen/Tate McRae
2- Pink Sky, Real Estate
1- Out Of Our Minds, Melissa Auf der Maur

Our second debut this week at #8, welcome to the M10, the Velvet Sundown...








************************************************************

Much of the current M10 was on the SOS list above, with Pink Sky falling to 7, What I want to 6, Out Of Our Minds to 5; Sister climbing to 4, and Here To Stay to #2.

It's only July, but our current SOS leader would be 19th on the all time SOS list so far.  Here are the previous Songs of Summer...

2016- Tangerine, You'll Always Be Lonely
2017- Foster The People, Sit Next To Me
2018- Jayhawks, Backwards Women
2019- (The all-time leader) Agnes Obel, Riverside
2020- The Shacks, Smile Now Cry Later
2021- Counting Crows, Bobby And The Rat Kings
2022- Cannons, Bad Dream
2023- Bakar, Hell'N'Back
2024- Decemberists, Long White Veil

*********************************************
If you've been keeping track, you know we have 2 more songs in this week's M10.  Matt Berry moves up 4 to #3 with Stay On The Ground; and the new #1....





...Geowulf with Broken Hearts, making her/their 6th #1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know a lot of the songs I like are sort of obscure, and after my Morgan Wallen stats last week, I thought I'd show you just how obscure.  Here is this weeks M10, ranked by plays on Spotify...

10- My #1, Broken Hearts, at 47.1K
9- My #3, Stay On The Ground, at 73.2K
8- My #2, Here To Stay, with 93.8K
7- My #8, How Did This Go Wrong, with 131.1K
6- My #7, Pink Sky, with 220.8K
5- My #5, Out Of Our Minds, with 443.3K
4- My #9, Metal, with 731.4K
3- My #10, Just Around The Corner, with 740.3K
2- My #4, Sister, with 788.5K
1- And Morgan Wallen, my #6, with 112 BILLION, 573.9 

 Till next time...

Wednesday, July 9, 2025

Wednesday Bible study: the sins of Solomon, part 3

 


This is by far the saddest chapter of this story: Solomon has sought to learn madness and folly, and has hit rock bottom.  But that is, in truth, the light at the end of the tunnel.  In chapters 30 and 31 of Proverbs (which Solomon wrote), he uses five names that I never realized until studying the subject, were considered names he gave HIMSELF; let's look at those five names...

Pro 30:1  The words of Agur the son of Jakeh, even the prophecy: the man spake unto Ithiel, even unto Ithiel and Ucal...

Pro 31:1  The words of king Lemuel, the prophecy that his mother taught him.

Now, in  a moment, we'll dig into those names; but first, let these two passages finish their story....

Pro 30:2  Surely I am more like an animal than any man, and do not have the understanding of a man. 

Pro 30:3  I have not learned wisdom, nor the knowledge of the holy. 

Pro 30:4  Who has gone up to Heaven and has come down? Who has gathered the wind in His fists? Who has bound the waters in His garments? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is His name, and what is His Son's name? Surely you know. 


Pro 31:2  What, my son? And what, the son of my womb? And what, the son of my vows? 

Pro 31:3  Do not give your strength to women, nor your ways to that which destroys kings. 

Pro 31:4  It is not for kings, O Lemuel, not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes to lust for strong drink; 

Pro 31:5  lest they drink, and forget the law, and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted. 


These two passages bring up four things that were the result of his dive into madness and folly:  He was stupid; he had lost connection with God; he had lost his strength to the pursuit of sex; and had given in to alcoholism.  In short, he was no better than a skid row bum.

Ah, but the light.

Agur, the first name, means, "harvested".  He had gone as far as he could go on the road to ruin; God was to begin to draw good from him again.  Jakeh means, "obedient", which would be a major change in him.  Ithiel means, "God has arrived"; God was about to return to his life.  Ucal means, "devoured"; God was going to consume his sin and redeem him.  And Lemuel, best of all, means "(belonging) to God."  So how does he go from bum back to king?


Because when he hit bottom, he remembered who he was, and who God was.  You see, I told you at the beginning I learned the story in reverse, and what I learned came from two eerily similar verses in Ecclesiastes:

Ecc 1:15  What is crooked cannot be made straight; and that lacking cannot be numbered. 

Ecc 7:13  Consider the work of God; for who can make straight what He has made crooked? 

A friend of mine on X, on Healthy Faith Chat, told me that the key to Ecclesiastes was the oft-repeated phrase, "under the sun"; that Solomon was failing because he was limiting his search of wisdom to EARTHLY things.  I really didn't get that until now.  Solomon starts his search depending only on himself, and what he can see; only later does he realize he'll learn nothing of use that way, since true wisdom is from God.  More than that, Wisdom IS God- the Holy Spirit, as Solomon himself describes in Proverbs 8.  And the Spirit as wisdom has two attributes:

Pro 8:14  Counsel and sound wisdom are mine; I am understanding; I have strength. 

Solomon was working with the understanding, but ignoring the strength.  Much like Elijah, when he fled from Jezebel and became depressed was in the opposite direction...


1Ki 19:9  And he came there to a cave and stayed there. And behold, the Word of Jehovah came to him, and He said to him, What are you doing here, Elijah? 

1Ki 19:10  And he said, I have been very zealous for Jehovah the God of Hosts. For the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, thrown down Your altars, and have slain Your prophets with the sword. And I, I alone, am left. And they seek to take my life away. 

You see, Elijah had the power, but lacked knowledge...

1Ki 19:18  (God speaking) Yet I have left seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth which has not kissed him. 


But now, Solomon began to realize that one without the other does you no good; it leads to you either thinking you're all alone, or you can do it all alone.  So he finally returned to the source of power and knowledge, and God had arrived, and he belonged to God again.


But sadly, it was too late...

  Ecc 12:1  Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, “I have no pleasure in them”...


Ecc 12:6  ...before the silver cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern, 

Ecc 12:7  and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. 

 He found himself having to plead to his son Rehoboam, to learn the lessons Solomon himself should have learned, and tried vainly to turn him from the errors he could already forsee his son would make...

Pro 1:8  Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and forsake not your mother's teaching, 

Pro 1:9  for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck. 

Pro 1:10  My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. 

Pro 1:11  If they say, “Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood; let us ambush the innocent without reason; 

Pro 1:12  like Sheol let us swallow them alive, and whole, like those who go down to the pit; 

Pro 1:13  we shall find all precious goods, we shall fill our houses with plunder; 

Pro 1:14  throw in your lot among us; we will all have one purse”— 

Pro 1:15  my son, do not walk in the way with them; hold back your foot from their paths, 

Pro 1:16  for their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood. 


And thus, when Solomon passed on, and Rehoboam became king-

1Ki 12:8  But he abandoned the counsel that the old men gave him and took counsel with the young men who had grown up with him and stood before him. 

1Ki 12:9  And he said to them, “What do you advise that we answer this people who have said to me, ‘Lighten the yoke that your father put on us’?” 

1Ki 12:10  And the young men who had grown up with him said to him, “Thus shall you speak to this people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you lighten it for us,’ thus shall you say to them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father's thighs. 

1Ki 12:11  And now, whereas my father laid on you a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.’” 


And in listening to them, instead of his father- who had waited till Rehoboam was in his 30s to figure it out for himself- he destroyed his kingdom.

And thus we learn from Solomon a lesson that echoed my own life- "Learn it young, or there will be consequences, and you yourself won't be paying them."

With apologies to my children.

Tuesday, July 8, 2025

Pictures

 Okay, Imma haveta figure out just how many days I haven't posted yet... Okay, so basically two, but there was a little Bob's Bar action over the weekend...



First we had the 4th of July dance floor open.  On the 5th, Granma took the boys shopping whilst the men got serious...




...seriously something, anyway.


Bringing us to Monday, with an early walk...

Once again under the threat of rain- which waited until we got home to merely spit on us...

One of two tiny little guys...

Selling tees for some event


Tiger Lilies sleep in

We had one big round of rain last night- water's a bit up

Someone's fishing- time to go downstream


"It's up here, too!"

Moments later, my shoe was soaked

"Can I help it all that water came out with me?"

Good morning, Fort Wayne

Bunny




Road Bunny

Looking for a doggie that already left in the other direction

Then today, a little bit later...

A lot of work going on today- one unit getting re-floored, road getting patched, NIPSCO (gas) working up front

Bit of a humid haze


Sunlight= discers





Oreo and dad

Failed attempt to get two chipmunks

Taking a break, when...

What's that moving over there?

If I may use a line from our youth: "Grandfather, grandfather, a turtle, a turtle!"

Misty checks him out, engages in a little bob-and weave





I checked their schedule to see why they were here- nothing???

The little bunny again