We'll Manage Somehow...

Alice and I went down to the river after noon to walk through the Jeffersonville BBQ and Blues cookoff Festival. It's the second largest in Indiana now. I saw competitors there from Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee and Georgia. Now that I've learned how to cook amazin' BBQ ;), I wasn't inclined to pay $7 for a pulled pork sandwich or $10 for ribs. That seems a bit overpriced to me...
From there we decided to ride out to Leavenworth and eat at the Overlook Restaurant, probably the best view on the Ohio River. We both had the Chicken Cordon Bleu, which was very tasty and worth the 45-minute drive, and before we left town we stopped at Stephenson's General Store, which was very clean and had a lot to choose from, or at least to browse through...
She wanted ice cream, so we stopped at Culver's before we got back home. I'm trying not to eat sweets this month but I had to give myself a day off, okay, another day off, so I could order a Snicker's Concrete Mix-In.
We got back in time to catch Louisville's first College World Series game in "Omaha!" this year. Looks like Vanderbilt may hand them their first playoff loss...
The girls are worried we're not gonna know what to do with ourselves when the nest gets empty. That's assuming it's considered empty when Kelly goes to college in a couple of months. I'm inclined to think we'll manage somehow...

Busy Day in April

Busy day. Had my annual physical with Steve Havens at 2 this afternoon. Got the cleanest bill of health I've gotten in years. On the kidney disease mix-up, he said that if I die from kidney disease it'll be at least 35 years from now. I said at the age of 93, I ought to die from something anyway. He said, let me change that to 50 years. You're not gonna die from problems with your kidneys. And then he took any reference to my kidneys off my chart. My BP was 120/80. My blood work was clean on any possible colon problems. He said come back in six months if you want to, in a year if you don't want to...

After the annual physical, I went by the AT&T store. They've been running a TV ad for about a month with a family plan that includes 10 gigs of internet and unlimited text and talking, which is the same plan we signed for back in August for $85 a month more than they're advertising it for. I thought I'd be there all day trying to renegotiate the contract, but the sales rep changed it for me, shook my hand and sent me on my way, in about two minutes, with a plan that's $100 a month less than it was...
They might get my business again in 18 months (he didn't even extend the contract). Heck, I may even toss out the cable, and bundle TV, internet and the land line phone with them. I'll at least consider it...

Done at the AT&T store, I drove down the road to the Sears store to see if I could get new glasses and discovered their optometry department is going out of business. They were packing it up. So I drove back down Veterans to Bizer's, had my eyes checked there, picked out some new frames and ordered the new glasses. The pet store was in the same parking lot, so I bought some cat food. And since I was in the same neighborhood as the Krispy Kreme store, I got a half-dozen chocolate-glazed donuts.

After that I came home, picked up Kelly and met Alice at Culver's for dinner. I ordered the pot roast with mashed potatoes and cheese curds. Having tried everything on the menu now that I wanted to try, I can say the Cheddar Butterburger still rules, but the pot roast dinner was a pretty good second choice. I've been to or had food picked up from the new Culver's every week it's been open, and I've yet to have any ice cream from this location. Seems we always have some at home...

Maybe next week...

Torn Rotator Cuff Repair Surgery

Dick Zuberer met Alice and I at the hospital registration desk yesterday morning, walked us through the process of signing in, led us to the lab for tests, and accompanied us to the heart center where I had an EKG.
Then he went with us upstairs where I signed in for my torn rotator cuff surgery...
Bro. Russ was waiting there, and after I got led back to the room where they stripped me of my dignity, and everything else, they put me on a gurney, and allowed Alice and Russ to come into the room with me. He prayed for me and the surgeon, William Sligar, then they had to go back out to the waiting room and I was wheeled into surgery.
The anesthesiologist came running down the hall, the surgical team gathered, and shortly after being blasted in my hand by a hot coal, I was under...
I did come out of the surgery having a dream. Don't remember what about.
They wheeled me into a recovery room where I balled up in pain and started groaning and crying out. I could hear a woman at the other end of the room in the same fit of pain, so I then tried to suffer in silence as much as I could.
Don't remember much of how I got to my private room. Kelly came by to see me, Alice's mom Opal dropped by while I was eating supper, but whatever medication I was put on after the surgery kept me pretty groggy and pain-free.
Alice spent the night on a cot, and I called the nurses in about once an hour for help throughout the night. They weren't always prompt in coming. I was glad to get out of there and back home this morning. I spent most of the day asleep. At one point I realized I had dozed off with my chin on the computer keyboard. The pain has been worse in my shoulder today than at any point before the surgery, but I have a few prescriptions to help with that now.
The doctor came by this morning and told me the recovery time would be frustrating for me. My arm will be in a sling up to four weeks. Rehab after that will take up to another two months. It could be mid-February before the shoulder gets back to some normalcy. And I'm told it could take longer than that till it's completely pain-free. But we've taken the first few steps toward recovery, and hope it's all better soon...

Fall Festival Chili Recipe

Cook in Crock Pot on low setting for 6 hours:

2 cans chili.

1 can water.

Add ingredients approximately every 15 minutes:

Sprinkle with pepper.

1 spoon yellow mustard.

1 can corn.

Swig of Pepsi, Coke or Dr. Pepper.

Pinch of brown sugar.

1 lb. fried ground beef.

Sprinkle paprika.

Sprinkle Himalayan Pink Salt.

A-1 Sauce.

Scoop of Real Bacon Bits.

Garlic salt.

Weber Original BBQ Sauce.

Dale’s Sauce.

Heinz 57.

Shredded cheese.

Montgomery Inn BBQ Sauce.

Worcestershire Sauce.

Country Bob’s Sauce.

2 cans tomato sauce.

Ingredients used in previous years that might be worth using again: sprinkle season salt, spoon of Hershey Syrup, margarine, Smoked Salt, maple syrup.

The World Celebrates Sin

Sat here yesterday thinking how this (former?) NBA bench player announced to the world that he’s living a sinful lifestyle, and the world celebrated. Tim Tebow, on the other hand, is vilified because he’s a Christian, gets cut by the Jets, and right now an NFL team won’t touch him, and I’m convinced it’s because of that. I know it’s not a lack of talent, ability or the will to win. He led the Broncos to the playoffs just a coupla years ago...

 

And yes, the liberal media and the architects of the homosexual agenda are masters of making us feel like we’re doing something wrong if we deny them their “rights.” They’ve attached their cause to civil rights, and the civil rights movement has embraced them. But we’re not talking about the color of someone’s skin, we’re talking about a perverse lifestyle they’ve chosen to live.

 

Would everyone feel the same if an alcoholic demanded “rights” because he feels the need to drink? Supposedly alcoholics are born with an inclination to drink. But you don’t see winos marching with signs that proclaim, “I’m a drunk and I’m proud.” Yes, it is sin, and the world celebrates...

 

We're expected (by the world) to tolerate it. But that's contrary to what we as Christians believe, IF we abide by what the Bible says. We don't have to tolerate sin. I know what I'm saying won't be appreciated by some people I care a great deal about. May even lose some Facebook friends. Know that I love you, but I felt it needed to be said, and nobody else seems to be saying it. Love the sinner, hate the sin, don't celebrate it...

Help Me Understand Humiliation

I'm trying to understand why people think humiliating others is funny. What does the person making fun of someone else gain from doing so? How does that make you a better person? I've had people make fun of me all my life because of my name, my dad's name. Why is that funny? I've had people make fun of me because of my favorite sports team, as if I have something to do with whether or not they win or lose. I've had people make fun of me because of my weight, because of my accent, because, well, just because...

I'm not talking about strangers. I'm talking about people I love, family members, people I consider to be friends, people at church. So when these things happen it hurts, a lot. And I don't even understand where it's coming from. And half the time I wonder if they realize what they're doing? Do they even think about what they say? Would they like it if someone did that to them? Isn't that what the Golden Rule requires of us? "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Isn't being kind, and loving each other, significant of being a Christian?

Am I alone in this? Does this happen to you too? Or are you the one making it happen? If so, please stop. We don't think you're funny. We don't like it, or you, when you do things like this. And we don't want to be around you anymore...

JWs Give Up on Me

The Jehovah's Witness I've been having Bible study with every week for the last 27 months just came by and broke up with me. They knew at the beginning everything about me as far as what I believe, and I told them up front I wasn't interested in becoming a JW. Last time they were here one of them asked me why I kept letting them come over to my house if I didn't believe what they were teaching. "I was hoping eventually y'all would get saved," I told him.
Seventeen members of the local Kingdom Hall came to study at my house over the last two years. Several times they left saying they'd have to research a subject and get back to me. They rarely got back to me on it. I told him this afternoon it had been my intent to keep the Bible verses in the context of what they were saying, and to keep them in line with what the Bible as a whole has to say. I don't believe it contradicts itself but you can take a verse out of context and build an entire religion on it.
We parted as friends and I believe the guy who came by every week, Keith (who always brought someone else with him) respects my viewpoint and knowledge of the Bible, but he also feels his time will be better spent elsewhere. I did take a few hours out of one of his afternoons every week, until they gave up on me today...