Scrappy's Thanksgiving

Yeah, it's me, and Daddy thought it would be nice of me to do a "things I'm thankful for" post.  This has been a rough year to be me.  I'm stuck on this water thing, I'm losing eyesight and hearing (the other day I stood in front of an open door waiting for Daddy to open it...), I slip and slide all over this new wood flooring, and trip over my own feet everywhere else.  Daddy has been so upset he couldn't give me my "best summer ever", but we done okay considering how bad we're both falling apart (ask Daddy about falling out of bed Tuesday morning...)  So we're gonna look back at some of my moments this year...

Here I am teaching Peanut how to beg for food...

It was nice enough to get some late december walks in...

Mommy and me on Christmas eve...

And here I am selecting the latest Beauty Contest winner!

This was some ice-cold water in January

Here I am, stuck again!  I'm thankful for a patient Daddy!

Early spring trip to the Green Hole

I still cut a handsome figure, if I say so...

Here's where Daddy was playing with some setting on his camera and caught me with my tongue out.  BTW, it was April Fools Day.

We saw a lot of deer this year!

Before I got so sick with this water thing, Daddy was letting me go off my leash for a few walks.  Not a good idea now, Daddy says.  He'd need a crane to get me out of the creek!

In May, the muskrats and groundhogs came out...

Oh, boy!  We saw deer at the pond!

On Happy Boofus Day, I got to go to Shoaff Park...

...and to Culvers!

I was really thankful for that!

By summer, it was really hot.  I was really thirsty all the time, and Daddy was so sad this day.  He was wondering how many more walks I had left.  But I'm still here!

Daddy said this was another Bunny Summer.  Groundhogs too, but I wasn't as interested, since I couldn't smell 'em so good.

Then we got that darn wood floor.  More like wood ice.

This was the morning daddy thought it was funny that I had dew on my nose...

And that night, we shot a video of a deer and her babies.  We saw one of them poop!

This is about the last toy I got.  I don't play much anymore, so I don't use 'em.

I don't go to the doggie park much anymore.  I'm getting too grumpy about doggies messing with my ears anymore.

This was from that night that these two deer kept following us around...

Daddy laughs, but I get so mad when my water holes are dry...

Wow, lookit 'em go!

It was such a beautiful fall...

So, yeah, I have my problems, but I have a lot to be thankful for... hey, food's here!  See ya later!

Wednesday Bible Study: Joseph part 2- the Five Guys Method

If you didn't check out Sunday's post first, go back and do it, and come back when you are ready for more.


All set?  Here we go.  I wanted to expand on what I learned from Joseph- about making God the center of thought and life, and coming to the point of total reliance.  I remembered in Ezekiel 14 that God used as an example of righteousness Noah, Job, and Daniel.  I threw in Abraham and David- and of course Joseph, so it really is six guys, but five PLUS Joseph- and sought out what set them apart.  And I put them down in what I thought was a random order to study- but nothing's ever random with God.  And it wasn't here, either.


I started with Job.  Now, you have to say Job was God-centered- he even did sacrifices in case his kids did some sin they hadn't considered!  He was on top of being God centered.  But he wasn't God-RELIANT- when the trouble started, he began whining about how unfair his treatment was, and God wasn't giving him a chance to tell HIS side.  Of course, the only reason he thought he had a side to explain was because he was relying on three friends that told him he MUST be the one at fault.  It was only when he HUMBLED himself- realizing that he didn't know what he was talking about, and God really didn't OWE him an explanation, that everything was restored to him- including the respect of his friends.

Food for thought:  He had had 10 kids with his wife at the beginning.  Then she crapped on him, telling him, "Curse God and die."  Afterwards, he had another 10 kids when all was restored.  Now did that first wife that turned on him pump out another 10 kids- or did God get him a "newer model"?  No answer here, just a thought...


Next up is Noah.  I was running some numbers last night, and I realize this a flight of fancy, but bear with. IF Mt Ararat, where he landed, was as tall as today- like 11,800 feet- and the rain covered it to a height of 22 1/2 feet above the top, and it rained for 40 days- how much rain had to fall?  Realizing that the mountains might have been smaller, and the "fountains of the deep" contributed to the water level, but- the record for rain in 1 hour by the books is 13.8 inches.  This would work out to 13 FEET in an hour... or some such.  Please don't go by this.  But whatever it was, it was a wild ride.  It would have been turbulent.  It would have been a completely new experience- rain had never fallen before.  They were sealed in BY God.  Despite the shoddy construction on the PBS special, no light from outside is getting inside a boat sealed BY GOD.  And, consider- there was never any mention of provisioning the ark with food- now was there?  So for one year and ten days, they were eight people on a boat sailing a sea the likes of which had never been seen, with no natural light, no food, a cargo hold full of animals that MUST NOT have been using the bathroom, as they weren't neck deep in it a year later...

Not only was Noah God centered, he was God RELIANT- for everything, in a way we can't imagine.  He had the faith to RIDE IT OUT.

Next comes Daniel.  We know he was God-centered, because he refused the food that the King's men tried to feed him- and prospered.  But about reliance?  Check this part of the story on Nebuchadnezzar's dreams out, after the King says to kill any wise man who cannot tell Nebuchadnezzar his DREAM, as well as the interpretation:


Dan 2:15  He declared to Arioch, the king's captain, "Why is the decree of the king so urgent?" Then Arioch made the matter known to Daniel. 
Dan 2:16  And Daniel went in and requested the king to appoint him a time, that he might show the interpretation to the king. 
Dan 2:17  Then Daniel went to his house and made the matter known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions, 
Dan 2:18  and told them to seek mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that Daniel and his companions might not be destroyed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. 

See?  He took the STEP OF FAITH that God WOULD reveal to him the dream, before even God said He would; then goes back and prays for it.

Next comes Abraham.  One of the things that I never realized before the last year or so:  When Abraham took Isaac to Mount Moriah to sacrifice him, it wasn't that he was hoping God would relent.  It was that God had promised that the line of Abraham would run through Isaac, and that even if Abraham killed him, God would somehow raise him back to life- because he had made a promise.  Abraham was so God-centered that, after all the false starts he had made in not trusting God, this time he was going to RELY ON THE PROMISE OF GOD-  No matter what.  And that made all the difference.

Then comes David-  the man after God's own heart.  You can't get more God -centered than that.  But I want to point you to one signature incident.  After his sin with Bathsheba, God told him through the prophet that the son of adultery would die.  David wore sackcloth and ashes seven days, fasting and praying for the child's life- but, in the end, he died.  And David cleaned up, shaved, and got something to eat.  Which didn't make sense to the staff:

2Sa 12:21  Then his servants said to him, "What is this thing that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while he was alive; but when the child died, you arose and ate food." 
2Sa 12:22  He said, "While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, 'Who knows whether the LORD will be gracious to me, that the child may live?' 
2Sa 12:23  But now he is dead. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me." 

You see, David RELIED ON THE WILL OF GOD.   And accepted His will, for good or ill.

And that is what I learned- first that being God-centered and God-reliant are NOT the same thing.  And to get to that point of reliance, you have to do what the Five Guys did:

Humble yourself

Be willing to ride out the hard parts

Take a step of faith

Rely on God's promise to you

Trust God's will is for the best

And that is how you get to that level of reliance that gets you to do Joseph things- or, more accurately, to do God things in your own life.

Wait, what?

So last week on Time Machine, an intelligent blogger would have announced, "Since next week is Thanksgiving weekend and nobody will prolly read it Friday anyway, tune in for the next Time Machine in TWO WEEKS."  But since an intelligent blogger would have done a Roy Clark tribute on that post as well, you know we aren't talking about me.  So instead of a Friday TM, here's what you will get:

- Be here tomorrow for part two of the Joseph message;
-Be here Thanksgiving Day for Scrappy's Thanksgiving;
-Be here Friday or Saturday for an M10 update;
-and be here NEXT Friday for 1968 with the Strawberry Alarm Clock;

-But be here right NOW for a walk with Scrappy!

A bit nipply for this walk, IMHO...

...but not for Scrappy and his neverending obsession with water.

Right about here, he falls off the blacktop, scaring a nearby muskrat.  "Scritch! Splash!"

"Screw it, I'm getting up here.  I'll be safe from everything but tripping over my own feet."

Suddenly, a spur-of-the-moment trip down to the landing, where he STILL can't find safe egress to the river, lol!

Every time we come down here, we have to find a new way due to falling branches...

Some dude must be nighttime hunting in the lower parts along the river.  Had a sleeping bag in there and everything!  STILL not interested.

Coming home the back way to avoid the wind.

Actually a pretty view in the brief moment the sun was out...

...IF you didn't fall into one of the many mole ruts.  I guess you could say we were on the proverbial mole hill!

Martin World News- who's dumber edition

Rarely have I seen a news site's front page so littered with head-shaking stupidity as today's Fox News.  And it really didn't even require political help!  let me show you what I mean...


CASE # 1- A touch of the hypochondriac idiot






This is actress Joey King.  Rather, this is her before she had to shave her hair for a part.  Then she takes a plane trip, and...


"Y’all I’m on a plane & this man next to me literally turned to me with his phone in my face & took a photo of me as if I wouldn’t notice & texted his wife ..."

Oh, so the guy is excited to be next to a celebrity, right?  Not quite.  Read this from the follow-up tweet Joey posted...


"I read his text over his shoulder it said “some bald chick next to me with Fckn cancer coughed and I don’t wanna catch it”.....um ya jokin?"

Uh, dude?  If common sense doesn't function in your locale, read this from the American Cancer Society"

"Cancer is NOT contagious. A healthy person cannot “catch” cancer from someone who has it. There is no evidence that close contact or things like sex, kissing, touching, sharing meals, or breathing the same air can spread cancer from one person to another."


See, you have nothing to worry about with cancer.  With your IQ, though, the part about sex, kissing, touching, etc., might be a bit dicey, too.  Better hang onto that wife...


Case #2- Um, isn't the job of marketing to get NEW business?

Victoria Secret's CMO, Ed Razek, apparently had a bit of a rough interview the other day with Vogue magazine.  Among other things, he claimed that nobody wants to look at "curvier" models, no one wants to hire curvier models, and nobody wants to watch a transsexual fashion show.  Now, I am not a fashion expert, but my preferred models don't look like Al Penwasser's roomates...

...nevertheless, he's free to opine however he chooses... but he MIGHT want to consider the opening he gave rival ThirdLove's CEO Heidi Zak to make him look bad... and how she MIGHT want to take out a full-page ad in the NYTimes to do it...


"I was appalled when I saw the demeaning comments about women your Chief Marketing Officer, Ed Razek, made to Vogue last week. As hard as it is to believe, he said the following: “We attempted to do a television special for plus-sizes [in 2000]. No one had any interest in it, still don’t.” “It’s like, why doesn’t your show do this? Shouldn’t you have transsexuals in the show? No. No, I don’t think we should. Well, why not? Because the show is a fantasy.”

" How in 2018 can the CMO of any public company — let alone one that claims to be for women — make such shocking, derogatory statements?

You market to men and sell a male fantasy to women. But at ThirdLove, we think beyond, as you said, a “42-minute entertainment special.” Your show may be a “fantasy” but we live in reality. Our reality is that women wear bras in real life as they go to work, breastfeed their children, play sports, care for ailing parents, and serve their country. 
Haven’t we moved beyond outdated ideas of femininity and gender roles? It’s time to stop telling women what makes them sexy — let us decide. "

You have to admire one thing about ThirdLove- at least they are smart enough to look outside their window to see what their customers are really like, and smart enough to put a woman in charge of selling women's clothes.


CASE #3- No, not THAT kinda bomb...

Meet Arthur Posey.  Arthur came to Willie's Chicken Shack in NOLA and got into an argument with staff there.  It got "heated", and apparently the angrier he gets, the dumber he gets...


According to the warrant, the restaurant’s manager said that a man later identified as Posey went into the restaurant and approached the food preparation area, then asked her what time the restaurant closed. She told the man she did not know when the restaurant closed, the manager told police. The manager stated the man, who wore a green hat, blue jacket and carried a white bag, then replied, “Y’all about to close right now because I’m going to get a bomb and blow this place up.”


However, when N'awlins Finest caught up to him a short time later...

Shortly after police were made aware of the bomb threat at the Canal Street restaurant, an officer confronted Posey inside a business in the next block, where the officer saw Posey enter.

Posey claimed to the officer he told a male employee he was going to “’blow the bathroom up,’ in reference to a bowel movement,” the warrant states. 

Obviously once he calms down, his "Bruce Banner" persona has a cuppa and figures out "best excuses out of this mess."  Me, I'm not seeing this on the "best excuses" list personally, but perhaps the restaurant across the street was Taco Bell.


CASE # 4- UK's NHS will have to work hard to top this one...


Have an upcoming surgery at the University of Colorado Hospital?  Better think twice...


A 73-year-old Colorado woman undergoes four hours of dialysis three days a week after she claims doctors erroneously removed both of her healthy kidneys six months ago. Linda Woolley, who is now on a transplant waiting list, claims doctors at the University of Colorado Hospital thought she had kidney cancer.

According to a FOX 31 investigation, a March 2018 biopsy report allegedly showed “no evidence of malignancy,” but two months later both of Woolley’s organs were removed.

Not only did the TV station's investigation find that there was no evidence of cancer 2 months before the operation, but also found no signs there was ever any cancer in a follow-up biopsy!  But did the U of C admit and apologize?  Well...

The hospital hasn't offered Linda an  apology or the Problem Solvers an explanation. Instead it won't even acknowledge Linda was a patient despite her willingness to sign a patient privacy release form.

In other words, they are playing full-court CYA in anticipation of the YUUUUGE settlement they'll be paying out here in a couple of years.  Perhaps the State of Colorado should have restricted the legalization of marijuana to locales OUTSIDE the U of CH.


CASE # 5- Proof that any political persuasion can have stupid people.

This time our idiot is Washington State football coach Mike Leach, who would be considered a genius if you put a fence around the football field and kept him inside.  This time, the pirate who has a wooden leg because he can't keep a foot out of his mouth somehow forgot that among his other duties, a Power Five conference coach is expected to be a positive with potential donors...

Washington State football coach Mike Leach’s tweet of a fake video of former President Barack Obama cost the school more than $1 million in donations, a school official said last week.

Donors altered future estate gifts after Leach tweeted and then defended the fake video in June, university President Kirk Schulz said. A school spokesperson later confirmed that number was around $1.6 million, the Seattle Times reported.

The edited video featured a doctored track that made Obama appear to make statements he didn’t actually make in a 2014 speech.


Leach deleted the original tweet after being blasted online. He then tweeted out the complete text of Obama’s speech the following day.

Mike, let me clue you into two things you forgot.  1- The donor thing.  2- You coach in the Pacific Northwest, home of the $15 an hour minimum wage.  MIGHT just want to keep your political leanings (and your lack of tact) to yourself.


CASE #6- Bill being Bill

Laurie's number one favorite human being, Bill Maher, had a few choice things to say when Comics legend Stan Lee passed away last week.

“The guy who created Spider-Man and the Hulk has died, and America is in mourning. Deep, deep mourning for a man who inspired millions to, I don’t know, watch a movie, I guess,” he wrote. “Someone on Reddit posted, “I'm so incredibly grateful I lived in a world that included Stan Lee.” Personally, I’m grateful I lived in a world that included oxygen and trees, but to each his own.”

Maher went on to chide comic book fans noting that, when he was young, it was understood that they were just for children and that people were supposed to grow up and move on to “big-boy books without the pictures.”

“But then twenty years or so ago, something happened – adults decided they didn’t have to give up kid stuff. And so they pretended comic books were actually sophisticated literature. And because America has over 4,500 colleges – which means we need more professors than we have smart people – some dumb people got to be professors by writing theses with titles like Otherness and Heterodoxy in the Silver Surfer,” Maher wrote. “And now when adults are forced to do grown-up things like buy auto insurance, they call it 'adulting,' and act like it’s some giant struggle.”

“I don’t think it’s a huge stretch to suggest that Donald Trump could only get elected in a country that thinks comic books are important.”


Unfortunately for the ultra-liberal Maher, he stepped on a few toes on his way to his cheap Trump joke that normally would have been on his side for the most part- the Comic creators themselves...

“Bill Maher dismissed an entire storytelling medium? Wow. He's so highbrow. His brow is so high, there's probably less room for a mind,” wrote Tom Taylor, bestselling writer of “Injustice: Gods Among Us” and “X-Men: Red.”


Newsflash: Bill Maher is still a dipshit.- Spider-Gwen creator Jason LaTour.

“I never speak on topics I know little or nothing about. Why? I never want to be the fool. In other words, I don’t wanna make a Bill Maher out of myself,” wrote Greg Capullo, an illustrator who has worked on “Batman,” “Spawn,” “X-Force” and more.


And thus, Maher becomes a historical footnote as the 3,123,787th word that can be interchangeably used for Ass.  Well, maybe not that high...

"Well, of course it isn't that high.  Laurie has been using the terms interchangeably for years..."