Time Machine week 25

Today, the Tardis seems to be flying correctly, and we slide in to May 22, 1969.  Today, Apollo 10 cruises to within 8.4 miles of the lunar surface, in prep for the upcoming lunar landing.  And apparently that was about all that occurred.

In addition to being mascot, Snoopy was also the name of the ascent module.

Welcome to this week's Time Machine, where we get to the bottom of Terry Cashman once and for all- and why; the Beatles roll to another victory; NO debuts on the Bottom's up (another benchmark established); and a six degrees that ropes in a connection between the Brady Bunch and the Beverly Hillbillies!  So set a spell... take your shoes off, y'all go back in time now, heah?

What do ya reckon it is?  Says, "Po- lice box" all over it!

So let's introduce ourselves to the panel for this week in 1969.  In addition to regulars WLS Chicago, CKLW Detroit, KGB San Diego, WMCA New York, WRKO Boston, WNHC New Haven, and semi-regulars WKMI Kalamazoo, KPOI Honolulu, and WSGN Birmingham, we throw in KREO Indeo CA, WIXZ Pittsburgh, and KGRC Hannibal, MO.  They collected 24 different tunes, including 6 number ones- and those included Henry Mancini's Romeo And Juliet (Detroit) and Good Morning Starshine by Oliver (New York).  And this week's race wasn't a close one- the number one tune had a 48-23 point lead and 7 number one votes!  This week's top 4:

CCR pulls in with 12 points and no #1 love with the national 24 with a bullet, Bad Moon Rising.

The Guess Who, who are making a habit of being on Time Machine somewhere, pull up at number three with 20 points and the #1 vote from Alabama with These Eyes, the week's national #5.

The runner up and national #2, with 23 points and the #1s of Honolulu and Pittsburgh, Mercy and Love Can Make You Happy.

And at #1... The Beatles with... stay tuned.

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And now- Bottoms Up!

There were 16 debuts this week, but only two of the songs did I know, one not by the artist in question, and the other I've heard but once- the Strawberry Alarm Clock version of Good Morning Starshine.  So it's a BU with no debut:

10- Blood, Sweat, and Tears with You've Made Me So Very Happy, at #31 after 13 weeks and a peak of #2.

9-  Andy Williams with a song I forgot to put in my recent "soundtrack" post under the category "misheard as a child", Happy Heart is at 33 after 8 weeks.

8- The Chairman of the Board, Frank Sinatra, peaked at 29 with My Way, and is headed back down at 36 after 13 weeks.

7- Five weeks into its run, One by Three Dog Night is at 39.

6- Desmond Dekker hits with the reggae-flavored The Israelites, at 41 after 3 weeks.

5- Perry Como's Seattle (which was used as the theme to Bobby Sherman's TV vehicle Here Come The Brides) is at 48 after seven weeks.

4- A song that tried to get in on the Shuffle Ten (but got bounced because the act was in it just 4 weeks ago), the Vogues are at the fourth spot with Earth Angel, which peaked at 30 for them and is now at 51 after seven weeks.  Bound and determined, weren't you?

3- Good Morning Starshine- the Oliver version, toast of NYC- is at 55 in its second week.

2- Junior Walker and the All-Stars are at #65 after 2 weeks with What Does It Take (To Win Your Love).

And the top bottom: (You girls who were teenyboppers back then will probably love THAT line)

Andy Kim with Baby I Love You, at 79 after 2 weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Our unknown song is a double dipper, by two different acts with the same lead singer.  The Buchanan Brothers, who were at #3 in both Indeo and Kalamazoo with Medicine Man (the #42 song this week), were led by one Dennis Minogue.  Do you know that name?  No, but you'll know the man behind it.  First, though, here are the Buchanan Brothers, who were neither Buchanans nor Brothers.





Now, Dennis Minogue was the son of a NYC Irish cop, who's partner was Joe Torre's father!  So Minogue was interested in Baseball as well, and played in 1960 for a couple of teams in Class D (approximate to our Rookie Leagues).  He had six games as a pitcher, for which no stats survived, but he did manage 4 hitless at bats.  So he went into music, and that same year was the leader of The Chevrons, on this tune:





This tune hit #87 on CB while not charting on Billboard, while the Buchanans made it to 22 in 1969.  Somewhere in between the two, Dennis Minogue had co-written the far bigger hit Sunday Will Never Be The Same, and since he was signed on at ABC as a promotions guy and didn't want to be seen promoing his own stuff, changed his name- to Terry Cashman, who has been on Time Machine twice recently for his classic solo Talkin' Baseball and his hit with Cashman and West, American City Suite.


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As you might have noticed, we have a lot of room for a six degrees victim, as our top four are numbers 1, 2, 5, and 24.  Our victim, in fact, was at number 3- the highest charting song with no love from the panel in our 25-week history!  And to get there, we have to check in with- the Beverly Hillbillies!  And this guest shot, on the episode Robin Hood Of Griffith Park:






The Peppermint Trolley Company were a bubblegum band built around brothers Jim and Danny Faragher, who later recorded as the Faragher Brothers.  The PTC had as their biggest record a song called Baby You Come Rolling Across My Mind, which peaked at 59 in 1968.  But they were known better as the group behind the original theme to The Brady Bunch.  Which brings us to Greg Brady aka Barry Williams, who in the years since annoying his sisters and boffing his TV mom, put together an oldies show called Barry Williams' Original Idols Live, which toured in 2007.  Among the acts that performed at least once on the Idols tour, the Archies, 1910 Fruitgum Company, the Ohio Express, Leif Garrett, Merrill Osmond, and four regular acts- the Bay City Rollers, Rex Smith, Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods, and our intended victims- the Cowsills, whose #3 this week, Hair, got no love from the panel.

The modern-day Cowsills- Susan is not pleased with the panel....

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And now, the Shuffle Ten:

The Steve Miller Band puts hit #3 onto the Shuffle Ten at #10, with a tune that was only released as a single in the UK, but got plenty of airplay- 1977's Serenade.

Gogi Grant enters the count at #9 with her 8-week number one from 1956, The Wayward Wind.

Another non-released tune that got tons of airplay comes in at #8- Donovan's 1966 Season Of The Witch.

Night Ranger  makes three straight rookies on the shuffle with the song at 7- their 1984 #5 Sister Christian.

Rosanne Cash makes her third appearance here, with a little help from dad Johnny- a song that didn't chart, but will move you like no other- 2003's September When It Comes.

Johnny: I plan to crawl outside these walls, close my eyes and see
And fall into the heart and arms of those who wait for me
I cannot move a mountain now, I can no longer run
I cannot be who I was then;
 in a way, I never was

Roseanne: Watch the clouds go sailing, I watch the clock and sun
Oh, I watch myself, depending on, September, when it comes

R: When the shadows lengthen and burn away the past
J: They will fly me, like an angel, to a place where I can rest
R:When this begins, I'll let you in,  Both: September, when it comes



ELO hits the ten for the fourth time with a track from Out Of The Blue's Concerto For A Rainy Day, Big Wheels from 1978.

Save it for a rainy day
For when the cold wind blows
Just to see how they run
I thought they'd know
I tried my best, all I could do
But somehow it was not enough for you.

Big wheels turning
Baby I know....


At number four, Bread claims its 3rd Shuffle Ten with their 1970 #4, Make It With You, which David Gates' mishearing mother told a local reporter was called Naked With You.

Bruce Hornsby and the Range hit #1 back in '86 with  The Way It Is.  Today, he makes 3 on the Ten.

Runner up this week, from 1982, Thomas Dolby's #5 She Blinded Me With Science.

And at #1?

Survey says...

...the Beatles with Get Back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They missed just two of the dozen panel charts, and were only lower than #2 on the ten they hit twice.

And, shuffle says....

...Heart and Dreamboat Annie!

I don't remember for sure if I have anything else by Ann and Nancy on the shuffle, but I have all three versions they did of THIS one!!!!!!!!!!!!!


That is it for 1969!  Tune in next week when we land in... 1976!

A walk and a heckler

So I'm sitting here trying to think what bits to add to make this a more interesting, challenging post.  Because actually, all I have is a short bit about me and the Boofus taking an afternoon walk.

(Suddenly, from the back of the room:  "Shut up and get to the walk!")

Okay, okay.  First thing, I never knew that robins used hearing to find worms.  But I sure got evidence of it today.  I watched this robin...

...peck the ground, and then turn his head side first towards the spot he pecked, to hear what his pecking had wrought:

"Knock knock!"  "Who's there?" "Dinner!"  "Dinner who?"  "No, dinner FOR who... bwah-hah-hah!"


The rest of the walk was normal (as it gets), and so I left my camera in its pouch, as I was almost out of battery.  I decided to walk along the north bank of Stony Run instead of crossing the bridge, thinking Scrappy would enjoy a new path.  As we crossed the trail, I saw (and Scrappy didn't) a guy walking his two dogs, down at the bridge.  Works for me, we'll miss them and avoid the getting leashes tangled, and butt-sniffing.  We hadn't went a few yards when the dogs (being walked unleashed), ran up to say hi, their master futilely calling "Come!" behind them.  Butts were sniffed, one dog jumped up on me to say hello (and then got tangled in Scrappy's leash), and then finally said, "Oh, I guess our dad's calling us!" and ran off.

And two steps after that, I saw this:

Casually munching it's way along north bank.  We cut across the conveniently mowed field, leaving her to graze, and eventually saunter into the brush.

Okay, there's the walk.  Sorry I didn't have anything else to throw in.

(Same voice from the back of the room:  "We're not!!!")

Man, tough crowd tonight!

The soundtrack of your life, Chris Martin!

Fellow blogger Robin was the first I ran into doing this idea- what songs make up the soundtrack to your life?  She has really made it a musical autobiography, and others I know have also done some form of the same thing.  I wondered what would go into mine today, and here is what I mused on.


It is hard to pick out specific songs-specific incidents for me as Robin is doing.  Some of the songs that really get to me (witness Jacob And Two Women on last week's Time Machine) have no connection to anything at all.  So the "pick songs that really get to you" thing doesn't apply here.  Sometimes a memory bubble just forms around a way I felt at one time I heard a song.  For example, Boston's Peace Of Mind always takes me back to a summer afternoon after I got the grass cut, listening to the radio and watching a thunderstorm roll in.  Another was an evening I was watching the sun go down, listening to an AM station from out of town barely coming in, playing John Stewart's Lost Her In The Sun as I slowly lost the station.

A rare quartet of songs have the ability to take me back as if I was hearing them for the first time, as if it was brand new.  Those four songs are two by the Four Seasons- Working My Way Back To You and Let's Hang On!- and two by the Beatles- Paperback Writer and Nowhere Man.  None of these have a specific memory tied to it (except after the fact.  One time at my old job, the floor supervisor and I were talking to our department head -a 26-year old, about ten years ago- and he mentioned the plant manager didn't have a point of view.  The floor boss and I immediately broke into, "Knows not where he's going to, isn't he a bit like you and me...".  Our boss said, "What the hell are you guys doing?" having no idea about the Beatles other than a vague idea that they sang and played with simple stone instruments.)

In my school days, every now and then a song would wrap itself around a certain girl.  For example, a crush I had as a freshman got tied into The Things We do For Love for no better reason than I developed the crush in like February or March, when we had no choice but to go "walking in the rain and the snow, when there's nowhere to go..."  Another got looped into Saved By Zero because the song was playing during a dream I had with her in it.  One of the first was a girl who became lodged in Top Of The World, because in my imagination she looked like I thought Karen Carpenter (whom I'd not seen yet) looked.  Would have been better advised to hook her to Sister Golden Hair, which I'm surprised I didn't.  Another girl would be surprised to know that she had Ian Matthews' Shake It attached to her- for no better reason than her and a friend were always speaking Spanish 101 Espanol together, and the line "She has a purse that was made in Mexico..."

Some songs get stuck in places.  Moonlight Feels Right drifts along a Georgia road on a trip with my brother's family; Pilot's Magic is with them again at Fawn Forest campground.  Maybe the most vivid was at Snow Lake, drifting through the channel into Lake James as Wishing You Were Here played on the eight track.

Some songs get the benefit of hearing through a child's not-quite understanding ears... that lends a special touch an adult can't explain to songs like Angel Of The Morning and Love Child.

One really solid block comes from the nights of my youth listening to the great Ron Gregory on WOWO.  A handful of songs always take me there:  Who Loves You; Evil Woman; S.O.S.; My Little Town; Bad Blood; Art Garfunkel's Breakaway.  Feelings... nothing more than feelings...

But in the end, there are a small select group of certain songs to go with certain events.  One of the most powerful is A Long December.  If you don't know this story, read it here. 


Another was when my baby niece died.  In between the funeral home and the church, the radio played the Guess Who's Share The Land.


Maybe I'll be there to shake your hand (Shake your hand)
Maybe I'll be there to share the land (Share the land)
That they'll be givin' away
When we all live together, together together

(Shake your hand, share the land)
You know I'll be standing by to help you if you worry
(Shake your hand, share the land)
Now more sadness, no more sorrow, and no more bad times
(Shake your hand, share the land)
Everyday comin' sunshine, everyday everybody laughin'
(Shake your hand, share the land)
Walkin' together by the river, walkin' together and laughin'
(Shake your hand, share the land)
Everybody singin' together, everybody singin' and laughin'
(Shake your hand, share the land)
Good times, good times, everybody walkin' by the river now
(Shake your hand, share the land)
Walkin', singin', talkin', smilin', laughin' diggin' each other
(Shake your hand, share the land)
Everybody happy together, I'll be there to worry you if you need-a me
(Shake your hand, share the land)
Call on me, call on me, call my name, I'll be runnin' to help you
(Shake your hand, share the land)
Everybody walkin' by the river now, everyday everybody laughin'
(Shake your hand, share the land)
Everybody singin' and talkin', smilin', laughin', diggin' each other


That is why somebody had better play this at my wake as I have instructed, or my ghost will RAIN HELL ON YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!


When my father passed, the Highwaymen had just released their second single- Desperadoes Waiting For A Train.  It was an idealised look at Dad for me- certainly nothing like our real life relationship- and one I desperately needed.


One day I looked up, and he's pushing 80
And there's brown tobacco stains all down his chin
To me he's one of the heroes of this country
So why is he all dressed up like them old men?
Drinkin' beer and playing Moon in 42

[All]
Like desperados waiting for a train
Like desperados waiting for a train

[Nelson]
The day before he died, I went to see him
I was grown, and he was almost gone
[Cash]
So we just closed our eyes and dreamed of supper kitchens
And sang another verse to that old song
[Jennings spoken]
Come on Jack, that son-of-a-gun's a-comin'.

[All]
Like desperados waiting for a train
Like desperados waiting for a train
Like desperados waiting for a train
Like desperados waiting for a train


And lastly, the one that had the most profound impact on me personally.  It was nearing the end (though we didn't know it at the time) of my marriage.  I had tried to feel like an adult, like I knew what I was doing.  It was easy to make myself believe it, especially with my wife being so willfully clueless about life.  But my base, my self concept, had been slowly eroding beneath me while I pretended not to notice.  Then one night as we lay in bed, I heard Radiohead's Creep for the first time:


When you were here before
Couldn't look you in the eye
You're just like an angel
Your skin makes me cry
You float like a feather
In a beautiful world
I wish I was special
You're so fucking special

But I'm a creep
I'm a weirdo
What the hell am I doing here?
I don't belong here....


And I said to myself, "THAT is how I feel right now."  And with that self admission, my whole personality structure collapsed in one big smouldering heap.  It took me months to get my head anywhere close to straight, including a vacation week away from wife and kids.  Several dozen things had to come to a head, from my concept of how God sees things to what I really wanted out of life.  What I would settle for and what I wouldn't.  And one of those lines my wife crossed about three times too many- including the very day I tried to explain it to her- and from there it was just a matter of time.


So, Chris, nothing happy on the soundtrack?  Are you kidding?  ALL my music makes me happy.  But it doesn't have to tie to anything earth shattering.  Just moments in time.  Pauses between breaths.  Rolls between waves.  Or in instrumentals like A Summer Place, Kai Winding's More, or Love Is Blue, the soaring flight from one cloud to the next.  And that is my soundtrack.

Martin World News

ITEM:  Not quite world news but....

You have all by now heard my tale of woe about the stupid tally board I have to keep at work, and the fun ways I'm trying to overcome my aversion to it.  So I get this one little box each hour to put in explanations for why I am dropping farther and farther behind.  Sometimes fifty things happen at once, and there isn't enough room.  So I've cribbed a bogey man from my Aussie friends and just write "Bunyip attack."

And the other day, I took it to it's logical conclusion.  Presenting...

...the Bunyip Board!



ITEM:  Also not quite a MWN story, but I got an e-mail from Bobby G. the other day, informing me that there was a rumour going around, based on drone "evidence", that I really wasn't at Bixler Lake for my birthday after all...

...but causing problems in NYC!  I have to tell you that that picture is false, and I can prove it- anyone whose seen me knows I can only hit a clothes hamper with a dirty sock from 5 feet away 50% of the time, thus no one in their correct senses would let me anywhere near a performance longbow.  When asked about the concurrent rumour that that was Bob in green there, he said, "Only if it's Monday, before my coffee."



ITEM:  In the ocean off California, scientists have discovered the first known totally warm-blooded fish:

I don't know that this makes the Opah MWNewsworthy of itself, but the thumbnail headline caught my eye:

Flapping Opah Is World's First Warm-Blooded Fish


Which I of course read as "Flapping OPRAH..."

Neither will I, if the Enquirer is anywhere close to right...

You couldn't flap THAT into the air with Michelle Obama's wingspan!


ITEM: The animalpocolypse approaches, part one:

PORTSMOUTH, England, May 18 (UPI) -- A sextet of runaway horses were caught on camera saying "nay" to traffic laws and galloping down the wrong side of the A3 motorway in England.
Surrey Police said six horses escaped from a farm Thursday between London and Portsmouth and a motorist on the A3 in Surrey recorded dashcam footage of the equines fearlessly running against traffic on the road.

"I've never seen anything like that in my life -- not in 20 years of driving," Russell Clark, a witness who was commuting Thursday when the horses ran past his vehicle, told The Telegraph. "The horses were really running at full speed.


So apparently they were an American breed, and just got their sides of the road confused.

ITEM:  Animalpocolypse, part 2:

HONG KONG, May 11 (UPI) -- A wild boar fell through the ceiling of a children's clothing store in Hong Kong, leading to a four-hour standoff with police.
The female boar, which authorities said was likely a resident of nearby woods, apparently climbed a ladder at a mall in the Chai Wan neighborhood Sunday before falling through the ceiling of a children's clothing store and landing on the top of a display case.

The boar eventually jumped to the ground and ran around the store.



Almost but not quite a "when pigs fly" moment.


NORTH ADAMS, Mass., May 14 (UPI) -- A Massachusetts police department has a message for citizens: "Chasing bears through the woods drunk with a dull hatchet is strongly not advised."
The North Adams Police Department said in a Facebook post the incident "really did happen" Monday and "the hatchet man was taken into protective custody due to his incapacitation from the consumption of alcoholic beverage."

"The North Adams Police Department is urging everyone to NOT chase bears through the woods with a dull hatchet, drunk," the post said.

The post urged residents to steer clear of bears rather than "going all Davy Crockett chasing it through the woods drunk with a dull hatchet. It is just a bad idea and not going to end well."

Police said they are still working to determine what the man's planned "end game" was if he had caught up to the animal.


To the rest of the world:  I'm thinking maybe, depending on Davy's BAC and his relationship with his mother in law....


To Juli:  Wasn't Tony, was it?


ITEM:  A couple of nautical themed entries.  The first one involves a bit of not thinking ahead.  Police found an abandoned yacht on the side of the road in Norway, Wisconsin.  The Annie Mac, a 45-ft, $100,000 vessel, was left about halfway between Racine and Whitewater, police speculate, because its 12-ton payload was a bit much for the pickup truck they were trying to make of with it in.

The boat was unharmed, and got its first "exercise" in 3 years, as the owner is in Florida getting treated for Leukemia.


ITEM:  Nautical theme part two:  Remember hearing on the news a few weeks back about Sweden having a problem with Russian subs loitering in Swedish waters?  Well a group there has found a way to shoo the Russians off, given the Russian Government's recent delving into homophobia:

The Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society said "The Singing Sailor Underwater Defense System," a response to numerous reports of Russian submarines being spotted in Swedish areas of the Baltic Sea during the past year, features the neon image of a shirtless sailor gyrating his hips while "this way if you are gay" is transmitted through the water in Morse Code.

"Welcome to Sweden -- gay since 1944," the sign reads in English and Russian.

So the question I really don't need an answer to is- what happened in 1944 to bring Sweden out of the closet?


ITEM:  Finally, a question:  Do they have traffic ticket cameras in Utah?


RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, May 12 (UPI) -- A Saudi woman enlisted the help of her brother to drive her husband's vehicle through red lights to rack up $80,000 worth of fines on the night of his second wedding.
A YouTube video of the pickup truck going back and forth through a red light at a Saudi intersection went viral online and media in the country later reported the truck was being driven by the owner's brother-in-law.

The reports said the owner's wife was angry at her husband for taking a second wife, so she had her brother help her take the truck on the man's wedding night and the pair drove the vehicle through numerous red lights outfitted with traffic cameras to rack up a total $80,000 in fines.


In Ft Wayne, that would mean running the light 800 times!  That must have been a really fun night for ol' Mohammar the bro-in-law!

Sunday message at the lake

If you tuned into my Birthday post yesterday, you know I was sitting on a log saturday trying to unruffle the feathers of my relationship with God.  My reading that morning was from Hebrews 11, the "Hall of Fame of faith" chapter.  Here, the writer celebrates many of the Old Testament heroes of faith- Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, Moses as well as his parents.  And then, he mentions four figures from Judges that many may not be as familiar with- Gideon, Barak, Jephthah, and Samson.  Except for Samson and his "super-powers", many people might not know this set.  And I had a hard time trying to figure out why God was pointing them to me in order to get to my own problems.


Barak was a military leader, who defeated his foes under the guidance of the Prophetess Deborah.  His problem came when he refused to go into battle unless she came along- a choice that led Deborah to tell him he will lose the glory of the battle and a woman shall take it.  Which is what happened- when the time came, Barak routed the enemy, but it was the woman Jael who killed the enemy general Sisera in his sleep.

Gideon, aside from passing out Bibles at hotels, also became a military leader chosen by God.  But as the "least in his family" which was "least of his clan", he had self-assurance issues.  After basically asking God to perform three feats of divine power "to prove it was Him", Gideon crushed the enemy as well.

Jephthah was a castout from his own family because his father, er, begat him with a foreign woman.  He became a warrior of some renown, gathering "worthless men" (AKA others like himself) around him.  When the enemy attacked his hometown of Gilead, the townsfolk came crawling to him for help.  He agreed, at the price of being named town leader.  Before  the attack, he made a vow involving the sacrifice of whatever came from his tent to greet him first if the Lord would grant him victory.  The Lord did, and it was his young daughter that came out.  While the vow specifically said a "burnt offering", the language of the text indicates that, rather than killing her, he made her take a vow to be a perpetual virgin.  As she was his only child, this would snuff out his line as effectively as killing her.

And Samson you know; always in trouble over women, so confident in his God-given strength that he lost it, and had to beg for it back to defeat his enemies at the time of his death.

So there I was, watching the ants, asking God to show me something in these men I needed to know.  And He did; the difference of if/then.


Observe, in the preceding heroes of faith before them, it was God saying "If" and promising "then".  Abel lived by what God told Cain, If you do right, will you not be accepted?  Abel did right, and was accepted where Cain was not.  Enoch, according to the writer of Hebrews, pleased God; his "then" was to be taken bodily to his reward.  Noah was given the "if" to build; his reward was to repopulate the earth.   Abraham's if was to "Obey My word and walk in My ways;"  his then was to be the Father of Many Nations.  See the pattern?  When God gives the "if", He gives a then that affects not just us but the entire future!  But if WE ask the "if"?

Barak asked for Deborah to come along.  It was not enough for him to have God on his side, he needed the tangible presence of someone else, something he could see.  He still got a then, but it was a one-point-in-time then; and it was diminished for not trusting God to be there.

Gideon's self-esteem issues led him to a very common if;  "If you are God, prove it."  How many requirements to we put on God to do thus-and-so?  I know I do it way too much.  I require him to keep me from disaster, to heal all sick people, to eradicate evil, so that He will "make sense to me".  Gideon was still blessed- once he was convinced, he moved mountains.  But God severely tested him.  I really wonder if God would have made him trim his army to 300 men if Gideon hadn't doubted- if he hadn't asked the if.

Jephthah took me a while to figure out- which is funny, because he had the most obvious if then.  If God does thus and so, THEN I will act- and only then.  Do you find yourself asking that if, like I do?

So we have had one man who couldn't do it alone (even though God was with him) in Barak, one man who couldn't believe that God would want to use him because of low self-esteem in Gideon, one man who wouldn't act until he could have an effect on what OTHERS said about him in Jephthah, and one- Samson, so confident in his own God-given abilities, he forgot the "God-given" part.  And at his end, his if-then was, "remember me, and I will take vengeance."  God remembered, but the forfeit was his life.

Each of these men were faithful once God did the if they asked; but their rewards lasted 20, 30, 40 years at the most- if they lasted beyond the moment.  But the men who let God ask the if, they got rewards that stretch into eternity, far beyond their own physical lives.  And here I sit, as I said at the beginning of the birthday post, being envious, getting frustrated, asking God why does He allow blades to break, engineers to be overworked and sloppy, and why the heck He couldn't have said, "FIVE days you shall labor," so I could justly condemn my company for working us Saturdays?  I have been bombarding God with ifs.  But if I stop and look what the BIG heroes of faith got, I should be:

Doing right
Pleasing God
Building for Him
Obeying and walking in his way.


Then maybe I might just GET something better than a stupid boat.

Chris's birthday at Bixler

I have to work around boats I'll never be able to afford all day.  Frequent boredom punctuated by several rounds of three disasters back to back to back.  Struggling with tiredness and frustration.  So I demanded (sorta) my birthday off, to go sit by open water and deal with God and relax.  The result of the first part will be on Sunday's message.  The rest is here- me, myself and I at Bixler Lake in Kendallville.

In my favorite sittin' spot, just down from west beach.

There's a log that is perfect sitting height, and there I dealt with the God issues (again, tune in Sunday), accompanied by naught but an occasionally jumping fish, ubiquitous geese, and a handful of tiny flies zooming the water's edge.  Oh, and ants.  The log was evidently a major thruway for at least four species of ants.

Tiny little guy carrying white object twice his size.

Somewhat bigger fellow carrying a deceased winged bug bigger than himself.

After about 45 minutes, I decided to take a bit of a walk.  We had never walked far enough up the road in the campground to find the nature trail before, but I did this time.

View from the observation stand I didn't know they had!

God, what's with this jerk and selfies?

Then I found the trail entrance, and off I went.

Greeted by tons of ferns.

And purple flowers.  BTW, Support the Purple walk for Lupus today!

This is a nice, well-kept trail system.  But, it loops a marsh, so...

There were lots of these little streams crossing the trail.  This was the biggest.

In the background, a pool in the woods...

...that went under the trail...

... and gurgled on down into the marsh.

The trail forked here- I took the upper trail...

It was pretty steep...

And at this point I was glad a) I took stick, and b) not Scrappy...

They did a great job of marking various things.

There was a second observation deck on the far side of the marsh.  I nice couple asked me if I'd taken any neat pictures.  I said mainly background, no wild animals...

...and seconds later, saw a turtle.

Not long after that, I saw two ladies and four swamp-covered dogs.  One of the dogs ran up to say hello.  The ladies asked me if I was hunting mushrooms.  Soon later I did my turnabout (having no desire to be on a road on the other side of the lake) and went back whence I came.  Along the way, I did see a mushroom hunter, dolled up in his camos and waders, and driving a minivan with little white mushrooms painted on it.  Of course, they looked more like little blunt arrows, and I wondered if he had "up and down" issues.  Anyway, he was parked next to a pond with geese and goslings...

 That was apparently fed by underground springs, as you could see two of them bubbling up...

I ate my lunch of champions (Cheddar and sour cream ruffles, ho hos, and cheese sticks) and went back down to the water.

Yes, it was COLD.

Now here came the first of "Chris's experiments with bugs".  The little black object on that bent blade of grass is a beetle.  He was trucking down the log when he hit a blade of grass lying on it.  He walked along this for a while, said, I don't like this, and walked back down to the log.  Turning around and going back, he then hit a second blade which took him to the one you see him on.  He went up and up until he was near the end, at which point his weight flipped him upside down.  This must have been a Coleopteran near-death experience, as he struggled and fought until he was far enough back down the blade to sit upright- and there he stayed.  Until after I left.  I even pushed the blade back down onto the log, he didn't budge.  Soon later a tick climbed up my leg to celebrate with me.  I declined his offer and returned to the beach.

After that, I got treated to an exhibition of Duke's fetching-in-the-water ability.

Oh, darn, missed a picture!  Before I left my sittin' place, a snake swam by...

Okay, back to the beach.  Next came experiment number two.  I watched as an inchworm tried to cross the sand, went up a hill, fell over on his side, kept going.  Not as co-ordinated lot as you might think with all those legs!  So I grabbed a nearby twig to see if he'd get on it.  He did.  And no more did he get started than I stuck his end in the sand and watched him climb up...

So he gets to the top, waves around wondering what to do next, and manages to turn himself around, headed back down.  At which point I reversed the stick and let him go through it all again.

After he got to the top, waved around, and headed back down a second time, I pulled the stick out and laid it on the sand.  He followed it to the other end, got off at last, fell over sideways (again!), and headed on down the line.


At this point, I see the first and only boaters of the day...

 ...and just then the sun came out!  I had seen it only twice for about 5 minutes all day (And yet chief meterologist cheap urologist Curtis Smith insists it was a "partly sunny" day.)

That was at my back.  At my front, though...

(Regarding the rain possibility, It rained on me from the moment I dropped Laurie off at work till I was about 3 miles out, and that last couple minutes it really came down.  After that, nary a drop till I was about 3 miles out of picking Laurie up, and that was so light it might have been confused for bug pee.)


Anyway, one last hike into the campground...

 ...where I went into the woods (had to pee yet again, after twice on the first hike and once upon returning), and ran into three or four deer.  Too much brush between us to get a pic...

...but on emerging I met up with this iridescent green bug and his buddy.


That pretty much concluded my stay... it was getting warm, and REALLY muggy, and I wanted to find the back way into town I missed on the way up.  As I motored down 1000E, I looked to my right at a field, where I saw a wild turkey so big, my first two thoughts were a) I wish this dumbass in the pickup wasn't behind me so I could stop and take a picture, and b) I wonder if there's a plate of mashed potatoes and dressing following him!  I had to content myself with filing the memory next to thatof the pheasant I saw in roughly the same place a few years back.