How many?

Forty-two years ago, I got married to a young woman of eighteen years. Talk about your turning points! This morning, both of us said to one another "Happy Anniversary" and then, when she was ready, I took her to her job and dropped her off. It was like so many other days in that respect and yet, it was a milestone in both our lives. After all this time has passed; after all that we have experienced together here is the one important fact about our marriage ... we still LOVE one another, not as we did way back then but differently in so many ways. The day we professed our love for one another before all the world, God, in His infinite wisdom and might, made of us, ONE FLESH. We are still ONE this day. May it always be for eternity. Happy Anniversary my dear wife.

Please allow me to add the following words I wrote at some point in the past concerning LOVE. I wrote them at a time when I was trying to understand it.

Love is an emotional adhesive, bonding people to people, people to things, people to places. There is love of money, love of country, love of God, Brotherly love, marital love, parental love, self love, Christian love, love of life, etc. The list is endless.

One thing is for sure; "Love Binds" when it is genuine. To separate one from a thing which is loved, another person which is loved, or a place which is loved, temporarily or permanently, is not a simple act of separation, putting some distance between the two, leaving each one whole and complete. It is a traumatic event, emotionally violent, tearing away some portion of the one which loves, leaving behind a person less than whole, who will experience some degree of emotional pain.

Love is an unstable element of life. It gives pleasure when binding two objects together, but mutates into a source of emotional torture during or after separation. If love is directed toward another person, and it is not returned by that person; love can transform into the bitterest kind of hatred.

Love is seldom passive or uncommitted. It is either precisely focused or dormant, waiting for some stimuli to spur it into action. It seems to come from an inexhaustible source deep within an individual.

Love can be like a wild fire, all consuming, ravenous in its appetite. It leaves ashes behind when it goes, it doesn’t take all evidence of its presence with it, like rain that has been dried up by the sun.

I don’t believe in love at first sight. I believe in attraction and lust. Love does not exist without reason. Love is not blind, but it can be stupid, illogical and irrational. It sees but it excuses, accepts, covers up and pushes aside without prejudice.

Love can exist where one would least likely expect to find it and yet, it can be noticeably absent where one might expect it without exception. Love is an enigma, a conundrum; a force that defies understanding and comprehension. It cannot be pigeon-holed.

It is said that God is love. Allow me to ask you this; if God had not created all that he created, if there was no universe, no planet Earth, no human life, no you and me, would He still be viewed as love? By whom? If it was just He and the Angels and whatever other spiritual creatures that are with Him in this place we call heaven, would love even exist?

Agape Love, unconditional love; is it possible, does it exist? If it does exist; is it possible for a human being to exhibit it, demonstrate it, manifest it in, through and by their own abilities?

Why is it that some believe there is such a thin line between love and hate; sort of like being on one side or the other of a razor’s edge? Could true love really be that fickle?

God is love! Does anyone understand Him? I’ve yet to meet the person who does. I’ve also yet to meet the person who understands love. So...in my own circular way, perhaps I have just proved that God is Love.

New pill splitter needed

Do you know anything about “pill splitting?” I'm only supposing here, but I believe that plenty of seniors who are on lots of medications has come across this process before. It's a strange phenomenon and I'm trying to get to the bottom of one or two aspects of participating in the practice.

I'm starting to think that it might be the drug stores themselves that have the greatest objection to allowing it to take place without objections.

Here's how it goes … suppose you have been prescribed a medication for high blood pressure, such as myself. The doctor wants you to take one 80 mg pill each morning to control your high blood pressure. Let's say you are on a very meager fixed income, such as millions of seniors are who receive Social Security. You try to pinch your pennies any way you can. Let's say you become aware that you can purchase the same pills, only at twice the strength, for the same co-pay and it's not a generic brand. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with generic brands that I am aware of and the only difference is, they are less expensive.

You talk to your doctor about pill splitting. He KNOWS about it, don't be fooled. He says he will go along with it so long as the pills are split as accurately as possible to insure that you will be getting the proper dosage. Sounds good … right?

Here's the rub … the prescription must be written up a certain way for the plan to work. The doctor must specify a month's supply of double strength pills and instruct the patient to take one half a pill each day by mouth. That done, you will end up with 60 pills and pay only one co-pay amount in two months. I believe the reason some drug stores (certain pharmacists) object to this practice is that for one month, they will not realize whatever profit they would have received if you stuck with the regular pills.

One pharmacist I proposed this plan to informed me that he was not going to be part of any scheme to swindle the drug companies out of their rightful profit.

I would bring your attention to another important fact if you want to try this yourself. A lot of pills are manufactured in odd shapes. They come in all shapes and colors, with specific identification symbols imprinted upon them. The pills I take and split are shaped like teardrops with the normally pointed end rounded off to something akin to an oval or ellipse.

I am not aware of any currently available pill splitter that will accommodate ALL types of pills, so their usefulness is limited.

Such a device is badly needed now and that fact will become more intense as newer pills are created and manufactured.

So, listen up all you inventor types out there. This is a project that might pay-off for you in the near future.

Splitting a hard, dense pill is a difficult undertaking with most tools I've tried so far. Right now, I use a small pair of pruning shears that is of the anvil/blade design. The pill MUST be held securely while the razor-sharp blade cleaves it in half. If not, those pill pieces will fly anywhere and everywhere, never to be found unless one looks under and behind or down through grates, air-duct covers, etc. Lost medications are dangerous to children and pets; any living creature that might find and consume it unknowingly. One is simply using a dim eye to judge where the precise middle of said pill is located. Fortunately, my pills are embossed with three letters on one side and the middle “V” is the perfect spot to line up the blade before squeezing the handles, holding both pieces of the halved pill between index finger and thumb of the hand not holding the pruner handle. It works well enough for me in this instance but it's a time consuming, tedious process.

Please help us feeble, old, shaky, senior pill splitters ASAP. I await your solution(s) to arrive on my store shelves.

One true religion

Why can't there be just one true religion and why does there have to be so many to choose from?

There may have been a time in the dim past when there was only ONE religion. That time would have been when the first human mind came up with the concept of there being a superior entity out there somewhere and they had a desire to make contact with it. That person's search for that entity became their religion.

Now, tackling the TRUE portion of that question gets a lot tougher. I believe that religion is so personal, each individual has their own specific religion. Their religion will vary or differ from some other individual's religion even if they have the same God as their focus for worship.

I know this is true. I have studied it for a long time. When you take a religion, let's say Christianity and break it down into tenets and doctrines, reducing them to statements of belief and posing each one to several individuals, you will discover disagreement concerning several or many of those statements.

The scriptures of the Christian Bible warn us not to lean upon our own understanding. Then again, it goes on to warn us about accepting the explanations and understanding of others also. There seems to be no end to the instructions found in the scriptures. Study to show yourself approved. That one has always caused me some confusion. Show myself approved by WHOM?

So Christians, needing to reach agreement with some other seekers, align themselves into denominational groups. Yet, if you look closely enough, you will find disagreements about something even within that select denominational group. Those differences and the continuing search for TRUTH is what keeps them digging through the word and discussing topics in Sunday School and Bible Study.

All these boards and forums you come across out here on the Internet are involved in that same activity. If it were not for disagreements and debate most of these boards would not exist. To myself, this whole area of activity is involved in one thing...searching for TRUTH. In my own views, what we are participating in is MISSION IMPOSSIBLE.

As human beings, we have this predisposed habit of thinking everything to death. Truth is so personal, it has become impossible for us to reach agreement. Jesus said "I am the truth!" How many of us can agree on what He meant by those words? Who Jesus IS as pertaining to our Christian religion is basic and essential. Isn't He what we base our salvation upon?

If you will just take a moment, step back and look around yourself, you will see that many Christians cannot agree on even that essential TRUTH. Some believers rely upon what Jesus taught, his words, his preaching, but they do not always agree about who He IS. Is He God? Is He the Son of God? Is He the Son of Man? Is He the Son of Mary? Is He the son of Joseph? Is He a created being? Is He an Angel? Is He a Man-God or a God-Man? Is He all man or is He all God? Did He really die? Was He actually resurrected? The questions never stop. If we Christians can't reach agreement about these matters, might I ask each of us...upon what are we basing the salvation that we claim to have? Just how secure are we in our faith?

Is there a God...the one and only LIVING God? Did you at some point in time reach out to Him in some unexplained way and touch Him? Did He react to your touch and respond in some way? I would ask "Do you know Him" but I don't want to tempt you to tell a lie. Who can KNOW God? What person has looked UPON Him? Here's the truth...you know as much about God as I do...no more...no less. For some reason unknown to any of us, He chose to reveal Himself to us in some vague unexplainable way and we KNOW that there is a living God.

Adult truths revealed

This entertaining post comes to you and myself via http://warmpuppies.com/
I only borrowed it to share with you.  I do not claim authorship or copy write values.
This site contains plenty of good reading.  It's what a personal blog should be and they love animals too.


Adult Truths *** or words of Wisdom!
1. I think part of a best friend’s job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.
2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you’re wrong.
3. I totally take back all those times I didn’t want to nap when I was younger.
4. There is great need for a sarcasm font.
5. How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?
6. Was learning cursive really necessary?
7. Map Quest really needs to start their directions on #5. I’m pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.
8. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.
9. I can’t remember the last time I wasn’t at least kind of tired.
10. Bad decisions make good stories.
11. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren’t going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.
12. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray? I don’t want to have to restart my collection…again.
13. I’m always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page technical report that I swear I did not make any changes to.
14. I keep some people’s phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.
15. I think the freezer deserves a light as well.
16. I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lite than Kay.
17. I wish Google Maps had an “Avoid Ghetto” routing option.
18. I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.
19. How many times is it appropriate to say “What?” before you just nod and smile because you still didn’t hear or understand a word they said?
20. I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars team up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers and sisters!
21. Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Jeans? Jeans never get dirty, and you can wear them forever…
22. Sometimes I’ll look down at my watch three consecutive times and still not know what time it is.
23. Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey; but I’d bet everyone can find and push the snooze button from 3-feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time, every time.
24. People who forward e-mail without deleting the tons of previous recipients should be shot and then tarred and feathered.
25. The first testicular guard, the “Cup,” was used in hockey in 1874 and the first helmet was used in 1974. That means it only took 100 years for men to realize that their brain is also important. Ladies quit laughing!

Involuntary detox saturday

If everyday was anything like yesterday (Saturday 2/9/2013) I'd be so thin I couldn't cast a shadow on a very bright day.

I can only theorize that my old body was so full of chemicals and/or drugs due to six weeks of being treated for a mystery bug that it had all it was going to take and decided to rid itself of anything that didn't belong in it.

There was no input to speak of, only elimination from the two main orifices involved in fuel handling.  I felt so bad, I didn't think of putting anything into my GOB hole. I would have needed to die just to get better.

Maureen made breakfast but the smell of bacon frying was repulsive and I normally love everything about bacon.  If I wasn't curled up in the fetal position on the couch, I was hunched over and sitting on the bathroom throne ... getting rid of toxic liquids.  I can only believe that my body didn't think that method was moving it out fast enough, SO ... it decided to use the elevator up to the input device and do some projectile vomiting until the gauge read EMPTY.

Maureen was working feverishly, trying to clean up the messes I was making as she applied a thick layer of compassion liberally over my whole body.  God Bless her heart.

The girls ran up to the store and picked up some Gatorade, a remedy my doctor recommended, and a few other items they thought I might want.  I've got two flavors of Jello in the fridge, both are delicious and feel so good going down to an empty stomach.

I laid around all day and evening, napping when I could and didn't feel like going to bed when it was bedtime, but I went and slept until around two this morning.  According to the old clock on computer room wall, it is now 3:44 am.  My innards are making some terrible gurgling noises now and then.  I hope that's not the rectal cannon loading up to fire another round into the thunder mug.

For now. I feel pretty good.  I hope it continues that way for the rest of the day.  I need a break from the whole process. 

Thanks for your concern and sending it in my direction, along with any prayers you may have handy.  I believe in prayer.  The next time you aren't feeling well, I will surely return the favor.

It's four o'clock and I'm signing off for now.