Look at all the happy creatures

Friday night walk- honest-to-Noah, four- count 'em, four- ground hogs had just disappeared into this bush.

Muskrat at the Alumni pond.

Scrappy searches for him.

In the right side of that hole, a baby 'skrat.

Raccoon on the hunt in the duck pond.

Thursday walk

Prepare for lift off!

Out front

Cat nesting in a pine tree.... believe it or not.

Next, on Saturday we start at Calf Day at the Cook Bison Ranch in Wolcottville.

The little girl in the blue just petted her first goat and said, "OOOOOOOOH..."

Laurie feeds the llama

Buffalo Bill

This was our ride.

Away we go!

Laurie feeds a bison- says, "Oh, eww, buffalo slobber," and wipes it on my arm.

This poor calf had hid behind mom at the wrong moment.  We called him "Poophead", among other things.

Laurie's highlight- she feeds Poophead.

After the tour, I said, "First you feed them, then they feed me"- and off we go for bison burgers.

Never even noticed the lake next to the ranch until we left.

Next it was the annual trip to Black Pines, the local rescued animal place.  Here, the bird is picking his nose at us.

Zilla the "elderly" Iguana.

They call this a "savannah cat." it is a second-generation cross between a Serval and a housecat.  Like a bulldog, the variant nose structure causes breathing problem, and they don't think he has a sense of smell.  He had to be adopted when he tried to eat the owner's Chihuahua.

Mustafa.

Three pumas.

At this point, one of the hosts got a text from a worker that he was stuck in their construction lift- apparently ran out of juice and was up in the basket.  The reply was, "So?"  I suggested we all go over and take pictures of him.

Grey Fox.

Trouble, the bear.

Best buds.

Kinkajou wakes up...
 

...and begins to dig...

...to steal an apple from Joey the cavy.

Siesta time at the petting section.

Dwarf horse scratches his butt on the fence.

Here come Harry and Nancy.

With nothing to feed the emu, Laurie has him peck her root beer.

Chimp in the outdoor enclosure.  Laurie says, "He has something in his mouth."

It's a spoon.

Yes, that pile of stuff is an ostrich.







THE END.

Sunday message- Dad and the whole armor

As you know, I was exposed to a lot of my father's warts.  But when you examine the man on Father's Day, what I am was not possible without him.

As I listened to the opener in a series on the Whole Armor of God, I began to think on this.  There are parts of that armor that must come from God, and parts that can only come from within yourself.  But those my Dad could give, HE GAVE.

Start out with the belt of truth.  My Dad may have been one of America's Storytellers, and every story may have had to included, "GD it Woody, you're right" being proclaimed by someone.  But I can never recall an occasion he lied.  And he made good and sure I didn't either.  Did he hide things he was ashamed of?  Sure, and I was good at tumbling onto them.  But in a way, that brings us to the breastplate of righteousness.  Whether it was from the things he taught directly, the things he hid in shame, or the belt to know the difference, he taught me there is a right and a wrong.  The saddest thing I have heard in jousts with atheists is their conception (at least for some of them) that there is no absolute good and evil.  Right and wrong is what society, what the family, what the individual makes it.

Hold your ears, this is Dad's story.  And to those atheists he would have said, "Oh, Bullshit."  And he taught me to as well.

He also provided me with my framework for the shield of faith.  First, he tried to teach me not to be afraid.  It was hard to do, because I was Mom's last baby and she tried to shield me not only from harm, but from Dad's attempts to teach me to deal with it.  And at 47 when I was born, it was hard for him to "kick against the goads."  Later, after Mom died, he only knew to teach me about fear by browbeating me about things I wasn't really afraid of to get me to not be afraid of whatever I was afraid of (but he didn't know about).  It was a poor method, it didn't work, but after having lost 15 years worth of teaching it to me, he really didn't know what to do.  And I was too young and stupid to do anything but react to his frustration.  But I see it now.

Second, he went to church.  Big deal, you say?  Consider this:  my parents were old-school Catholics, still trying to figure out why they'd want to change the mass from Latin to English.  For people like this, the evidence of their faith WAS going to church.  And it never diminished after Mom died; in fact, that aspect got stronger.  He rarely missed a Mass said for Mom, whether it be Saturday night or Tuesday Morning, whether it be a church full of worshippers, or a half dozen old people and me being called out of the crowd to be an altar boy because no one else bothered to show up.  There was NO DOUBT in his mind on the "question" of God.  And thus, there was never any doubt in mine.

The rest is up to God to judge.  The "shoes of the preparation of the gospel" was up to me- being a Catholic family, taught to get the Bible in doses at the Sunday service, we had no full Bible in the house until the one Dad's union gave to put on Mom's casket.  The "helmet of salvation" came through contact with others.  The "sword of the spirit" is a work in progress.  But one man made damn sure I had a shot at these things.  He would have rathered I did it the way he was taught, sure; he never talked about it much, because they weren't taught that way;  But make not the same mistake I've made for years- he helped make it happen.  Happy Father's day to you all.

Time Machine week 8

Today is June 13, 1972.  And when I looked up what happened today, I saw red- today was the day Hurricane Agnes was born.

"So what, you live in Indiana!"

I'll tell you so what.

I was ten years old, and the highlight of my life at the time was taking swimming lessons with my sister's kids at Jury Pool in New Haven.  And Agnes had just burrowed her way into upstate New York and Canada by the 22nd.

Still so what?  How about this:  she started blowing all that cold air down from Canada into Indiana.  How cold?  The high temp on the 21st was 84F.  On the next day, the 22nd, it was 64.  Then 64 again. Then on the 23rd, FIFTY-FRICKING-FIVE! Then on the next day, 60, before finally recovering to 77 on the 25th.  By then, we'd lost the second of the three week course, so they cancelled the rest.  That windy rhymes-with-witch cost me two weeks of precious pool time- virtually the only pool time I ever got.  So happy fricking birthday, Agnes.  I hope you were happy.


Welcome to Time Machine for this week, and I've got a new feature (probably a one-timer this week, called STRANGE NAMES.....  as well as all the other good stuff, so belt in, and we'll ascend above the eyewall and have some fun!

First off, I'd like to mention that this was the week Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway first teamed up on the pop charts with Where Is The Love.  And also the first week for a song that was a recent Battle Of The Bands (see previous TM's for info on that blog hop) contestant, Looking Glass and Brandy (You're A Fine Girl).

Next up, I'm gonna cheat a bit and jump to our "Never heard it before Time Machine" song.  This entry edges up into the top 40 this week, climbing from 43 to 39.  It is the last time that The Supremes Volume II (AKA post Diana Ross) top the #40 on Billboard, and it's called Automatically Sunshine:



One thing TM has taught me- I liked the Supremes a lot better AFTER Diana.


As I was looking at the bottom rungs of this week's chart, I saw three unusually named tunes, and I wondered what the stories were.  The highest of the three was at 67, on the way down from a peak of #60.  It was by MHOFer Tom Jones and was called The Young New Mexican Puppeteer.  This tune, I learned, was co-written by one Leon Carr, who besides being known for writing Eddie Holman's Hey There Lonely Girl, was also responsible for one of the most famous jingles of all time:

The second was called Pass The Peas, and was done by an outfit called the JBs, and was in its last week on the chart at #76.  I was a bit disappointed to learn that the JBs were the current backing band for James Brown, and with him also the composer, this instrumental was like many a James Brown song, just with a horn taking the place of his screaming.  


Number three was a tune called Men Of Learning, by the duo of Paul Vigrass and Gary Osborne.  They were an English act whose main claim to fame was as the writer of a song called Forever Autumn- the b-side of Men Of Learning, and more famously recorded in a beautiful version by the Moody Blues' Justin Hayward.  Osborne went on to write lyrics for the Elton John hits Blue Eyes, Part Time Love, and Little Jeannie. (BTW, the tune for Forever Autumn started out as a music jingle for a Lego ad.)  Vigrass, other than a short time replacing Tony Burrows as the voice of Edison Lighthouse, dropped off the face of the earth after 1974, according to one blog site.  I tried for 20 minutes to find a clip- but the only ones that had clips POSTED it as Men Of Learning, but was actually another song (not too bad) called Virginia.  No lyrics anywhere, either.


I know, I know, you wonder what kind of guessing game I have for you this week.  Get ready...

This week, we look at the tops of the charts around the US of A, and when last we met, the theme of this feature was "consensus".  This time, five of six stations I have charts for had different songs at the top- and all but one was in this week's top ten.  So here's the challenge:  I will list the six stations, you guess 1) which two have the same #1, and 2) which one has a non-top-ten national hit at the top of their charts.  The choices are:

KQV Pittsburgh
CKLW Detroit
KHJ Los Angeles
WDGY Minneapolis
and WLS and WCFL Chicago.

HINT:  The two Windy City stations do NOT have the two matching #1s.  Guess now, because the answers come fast!

Our top forty debuts, in addition to the Supremes, start with Bobby Womack and Woman's Gotta Have It, up a pair to the leadoff spot (AKA #40).  Two big jumpers come next- The Eagles' Take It Easy climbs 19 spots to #37; and The Cornelius Bros and Sister Rose (See, it rhymes that way) jump 23 notches to #36 with Too Late To Turn Back Now.  And this weeks' high debut is the Royal Dragoons' Amazing Grace, up 7 to #34. 

NEWSFLASH:  I have made a mistake!!!!!

"Note: one "awshit" wipes the board clean and you have to start all over again."

In juggling all those balls last week, I missed a top 40 debut- and it was a song I love!  Bill Withers' Lean On Me entered the 40 with a 14 spot jump to 36- and this week it nestles in at #21.  It is also the one #1 on one of those six stations- CKLW- not to be in the national top ten!  So there's the answer to one question....

Our You Peaked netted us only a pair of tunes:  Sly Stone's Smilin', which stopped at 25 and took a 38-spot plunge this week; and The Carpenters' It's Going To Take Some Time, which hit the wall at 17 last week.



And now, the top ten:

The Rolling Stones hold onto the #10 spot for a second week with Tumbling Dice.

Shooting into the top ten (taking the place of Look What You've Done For Me, down from 3 to 13) are the Fifth Dimension, going from 14 to 9 with (Last Night) I Didn't Get To Sleep At All.

Climbing from 12 to #8 (displacing Hot Rod Lincoln, who tumbles like dice from 9 to 15) is Neil Diamond with Song Sung Blue- who was #1 in LA and Minneapolis, which are your other winners!

Moving up a spot to #7 is Love Unlimited with Walking In The Rain With The One I Love- the #1 song in Pittsburgh.

The Staple Singers hold at 6 with I'll Take You There- the top dog on WLS.

Also holding is the Jackson Five with Little Bitty Pretty One at #5.

Climbing from 7 to 4 is Gallery with Nice To Be With You- the top dog on WCFL.

Sylvia's Mother climbs a spot to #3 for Dr Hook.

The Chi Lites slip out of the #1 spot to #2 with Oh Girl.  And that means that the #1 song- which is also 18 in its debut week at WCFL, 7 on WLS, also 7 (falling from #1) in Minneapolis, 13 on CKLW, 17 in Pittsburgh, and nowhere to be seen on the LA chart-

.....Sammy Davis, Jr, and The Candy Man!!!!!


That's it for this time, folks!  Stay warm and dry!